EXCLUSIVE: Opposition Leader Says the Real Coup in Venezuela Is Maduro’s Power Grab

Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro is attempting to stage a coup by imposing a new, to-be-written constitution on a nation in which there is no functional divide between civilian and military rule, a Venezuelan opposition spokesman told Breitbart News.

“Its a totalitarian regime, so the government has infiltrated all parts of civic and public life in Venezuela—from religion to how many newspapers you can buy in a supermarket to the prices of toothpaste to the medicines that you can sell in a pharmacy and how much they should cost,” Enrique Altimari, a London representative for Primero Justicia who rose in the party ranks organizing student opposition rallies during the wave of anti-socialist protests in 2014, explained in a phone interview Thursday.

“So the worst part of it is that the government has total power and they just want more and more power forever, they want to extend that. The power is not there to serve justice or look for ideas like development, but it is just there to be used by the government to create wealth for themselves.”

The opposition organized a referendum Sunday in which 98 percent of Venezuelan citizens participating voted against the government, a move that the socialist government has rejected as an attempt to illegitimately overthrow them. Maduro has repeatedly accused a variety of domestic and international actors—from military opponents to U.S. President Donald Trump to former Vice President Joe Biden—of attempting to stage coups d’etat against him. The Venezuelan government has not produced any verifiable evidence to support these claims.

“A coup d’etat is when you go against the constitutional order of a country. What the opposition wants is for the military to keep their constitutional role, to keep their legal role that follows international conventions and human rights,” Altimari explained. “That means don’t follow illegal orders, and that cannot be conceived of as a coup d’etat. What is a coup d’etat is what Maduro has been doing with all the powers of the country and [his] systematic violations of human rights. That is the coup.”

Altimari emphasized that the opposition “expects of the military only what the Constitution says.”

The Venezuelan military has used violence against peaceful protesters throughout Maduro’s tenure since he assumed the presidency following late dictator Hugo Chávez’s death in 2013. During this latest round of protests, which have continued daily since March, Venezuelan media have recorded incidents of soldiers killing protesters by hitting them in the head with tear gas canisters, injuring them with rubber bullets, and—in one particularly gruesome incident—driving armored tanks into a crowd.

Altimari explained that the military presents a two-fold threat to the Venezuelan people: the aforementioned violent one, and their stranglehold on the Venezuelan economy. “The military is in charge of the main businesses in Venezuela, from rice fields to companies that make auto parts,” he explained. “It’s a pyramid system just like in Cuba, where the military is in charge of everything that comes into the country and everything that is produced in the country—of all of the economy.”

Echoing Altimari’s comments about the Cuban military, the Trump administration recently sanctioned Cuban businesses run by the military, imposing sanctions meant to target businesses that are not legitimate private institutions. Altimari would welcome a similar approach in Venezuela.

“Sanctions against the military are very important because first of all, they are in charge of the government, of the regime, but second, they are the ones who commit the worst human rights violations that you can imagine—killing protesters like I said but also torture, persecution of leaders of the opposition and organized civil society.”

Altimari also noted that the military is deeply involved in drug trafficking. Reports have indicated that the U.S. government and other international entities have found evidence to believe that Diosdado Cabello, the National Assembly minority leader who serves as a top Maduro henchman, is the head of the military-run cocaine trafficking outlet the Cartel de los Soles.

Not all soldiers can participate in such lucrative trade, however, and Altimari notes that the opposition believes many “at the grassroots” oppose the government. The government, in turn, “gives prizes and awards to soldiers that kill protesters and send them to the best resorts in Cuba,” he claims. “This is a scheme of incentives that is completely twisted.”

Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation facilitated the interview as well as Altimari’s visit to Washington. The organization held a protest this week before Congress branded “No Che Noche,” meant to raise awareness for the dire political and humanitarian situations in Venezuela and Cuba.

Quotes have been edited for grammar and clarity.