“We are facing a cyber-fascist and criminal coup attempt,” President Maduro said at the start of the main event celebrating the 87th anniversary of the creation of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) on Sunday, August 4, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense.

“An imperialist coup d’état, with fascist characteristics, filled with hatred against institutions,” added the president, and praised the exemplary conduct displayed by the GNB when it took to the streets to defend the people and their right to peace.

President Maduro explained that he called the coup attempt “cyber-fascist” “because we are experiencing cyberattacks from all social media platforms to fill Venezuela with hatred and divide it.” As for the fascist label, he said that “its main characteristics are hatred, violence, irrationality, and it is criminal because it is being carried out by a significant group of criminals trained abroad, paid and brought here to attack hospitals, schools, universities, and police stations.”

The president also expressed his condolences to the families of the two GNB agents killed in the violence that occurred after the far-right refused to recognize the results of the presidential election announced by the CNE in the early hours of July 29.

In his opening remarks, President Maduro congratulated the GNB “because you have been and you are the backbone of peace and the defense of the constitutional rights of the people.”

The Venezuelan president said that we are going through a time when the struggle is for peace. “To say peace is to say future, to say peace is to say the right to independence, to self-determination,” he said. He referred to what he said on June 24 at the Carabobo Field on the occasion of the anniversary of the Battle of Carabobo. “This baton of command that I have in my hands will remain in the hands of patriots; this baton of command will never fall into the hands of traitors, oligarchs, fascists, never, I swear to you,” said the commander-in-chief of the Bolivarian National Armed Force at that time.​

He added that it was President Hugo Chávez who gave constitutional status to the GNB and gave it a Bolivarian character. “It was no longer just going to be the National Guard, but the National Guard of Bolívar, for Bolívar, with Bolívar. A National Guard at the service of a people, of a country,” he said.

​Medals for the wounded

During the ceremony, the president awarded medals to several GNB service-people who were injured during the violence carried out by hooded individuals, allegedly members of the violent cells organized by Vente Venezuela, the political party headed by María Corina Machado.

​One of those who received a medal was Sergeant Major Anderson José Duque Lucena, assigned to Detachment 122 GNB-Lara. Interviewed by Últimas Noticias, he said that his group went on Monday, July 29 to contain a violent protest in the vicinity of the GNB-Carora where about 300 individuals attacked them with fireworks, blunt objects and stones, among other things. “I have a fracture in my right ankle and complicated polytrauma in my right shoulder,” he said.

First Sergeant Carlos Olivero Machado, assigned to the 43rd District Capital Command, also recounted how he was injured. “We were injured while defending kilometer zero of the Pan-American Caracas-Los Teques highway. I have a wound in my fibula and a fracture,” he said.

At the GNB anniversary event, several GNB officials were promoted, including Ministers Ramón Velásquez Araguayan (Transport) and Jorge Eliezer Márquez Monsalve (Electric Energy).

Republished from midwesternmarx.com via Orinoco Tribune with thanks