With some pomp, the dictator shared on his social networks this Sunday night (12) photos of the meeting he had in Venezuela with João Vicente Goulart, son of the president, deposed by the 1964 military coup.
Jango’s heir went to (10), after elections considered fraudulent, representing the João Goulart Institute, which he presides over. The project entered into a partnership with the Venezuelan Instituto Simón Bolívar for cooperation.
“I received an emotional letter that highlights the brotherhood, solidarity and words of support from the Goulart family”, says Maduro, who shared photos of the text, signed by Maria Thereza Goulart, Jango’s widow.
In the letter, she says that there are numerous points of convergence between the Bolivarian Revolution, as Hugo Chávez’s (1954-2013) project is called, and the ideas her husband had.
Maduro published in his official accounts, in recent days, records of meetings he had with the few important international figures who came to his inauguration in the last week.
The . The PT and the MST (Landless Rural Workers Movement), allies of Chavismo, .
In the report, João Vicente says that the institute named after his father was founded 20 years ago to rescue Jango’s ideas and that they coincide with “the political process initiated by President Chávez”.
“[Existem] many convergences in the construction of a more participatory and nationalist State. Agrarian reform, State control of strategic companies in the electrical, steel, oil, medical and educational sectors.”
Anti-Chavistas and even some Chavistas point out that Nicolás Maduro, Chávez’s heir who took power in 2013, broke with many of his godfather’s ideas. Under Maduro, the largely militarized regime became autocratized and promoted different waves of repression.
When questioned, João Vicente says via text message that he is “not aware of the reason for these arrests to which they were detained”. And he continues: “But there are other democracies in the ‘free world’ that support so-called democratic regimes, which deploy tons of missiles and bombs, killing more than 40,000 innocent people in Gaza.”
The respected NGO Foro Penal estimates that there are currently 1,700 political prisoners in Venezuela, with 83 of them detained in the first 12 days of January alone.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) recently stated that Caracas uses terrorist practices to silence and persecute opponents. The International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, investigates human rights violations in the country to understand whether they constitute crimes against humanity.
João Vicente states that he spoke with Maduro about “the imprisonment of our wealth by large multinational conglomerates, which since colonization, have subjected Latin American people to serving them as raw materials, for the well-being of international capitalism”.
by the then PPL (Partido Pátria Livre), later incorporated into the PC do B, and obtained just over 30 thousand votes, placing last in the electoral race.
Graduated in philosophy from PUC in Rio Grande do Sul, he lived in exile for 15 years, starting from childhood, due to the coup that removed his father from the Presidency of the Republic. In the 1980s, he was a state deputy in Rio Grande do Sul.
Maduro’s escalation of repression has even made governments of a more moderate tone raise their criticism. Last week, the government of Gustavo Petro, in Colombia, repeatedly called on Caracas to respect human rights.
On Saturday, breaking months of silence, asking for respect for the right to protest and calling for the regime and opposition to sit at the table to negotiate.
