Venezuela’s socialist regime held a nationwide militia enlistment campaign over the weekend calling for citizens to sign up to confront the “threats” of the United States’ ongoing efforts to combat drug cartels in international waters in the Caribbean Sea.
While the regime’s state propaganda arms claim that the recruitment campaign was an “overwhelming success,” such that the campaign will be extended for an additional weekend due to the alleged mass influx of people, international outlets and local independent media reported that the campaign was a resounding failure marked by extremely low turnout and barren enlistment spots all across the country.
Socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro claimed, without evidence, last week that the United States seeks to “invade” Venezuela and oust him from power. Maduro, actively wanted by the United States on multiple narco-terrorism charges, levied the accusations in response to President Donald Trump’s efforts to combat drug trafficking in the region and curb the flow of drugs entering the United States.
Maduro launched a bizarre campaign to “prepare” Venezuela against the purported “invasion” after the United States deployed three Aegis guided-missile destroyers and reportedly “about 4,000 sailors and Marines” to fight against local drug trafficking organizations.
Maduro recently claimed that his regime would deploy 4.5 million members of the Venezuelan militia across the country in response to the United States’ “threats.” Last week, the dictator announced a weekend-long “national enlistment” program in some of the country’s main plazas and military headquarters to recruit Venezuelans, ordering them to “defend the homeland” against the purported threats of “U.S. imperialism.”
The socialist regime deployed a widespread media campaign for enlistment events across state and social media. Some of the propaganda pieces featured artificial intelligence-generated videos of historic Venezuelan figures calling for citizens to enlist, while others featured representatives from regime entities urging others to join and “honor the legacy” of late dictator Hugo Chávez and stand against the “colonialist” United States.
In contrast, footage published by outlets and local opposition parties show that, despite the regime’s official propaganda, the campaign attracted very little participation from local citizens, leading to barren recruitment spots without the presence of militiamen or volunteers.
Vente Venezuela, the country’s only mainstream center-right party, reported that in Chávez’s birthplace — the town of Sabaneta, Barinas — a plaza named after the late dictator was completely barren, denouncing the campaign as a farce.
“Not even in the plaza named after Hugo Chávez in his native Sabaneta did they manage to get the people to come out for this new farce called by the regime,” the party wrote on social media. “No one is with them; they are alone. Their end is inevitable.”
On Monday morning, the socialist regime published an audio recording of Maduro claiming that the weekend enlistment campaign was “wonderful” and that, due to the alleged “massive” turnout, the event will be extended for an additional two days on August 29 and 30.
“On Saturday and Sunday, we saw how the world marveled at the display of patriotism by ordinary men and women of all ages, who enlisted en masse to defend their land, their families, and their homeland,” Maduro said.
“The enlistment centers that were set up were overwhelmed by the massive turnout on Saturday and Sunday throughout the country, from north to south, east to west. Truly impressive and very moving,” he continued.
The United States has long accused Maduro of being a leading member of the Cartel of the Suns, an international drug trafficking operation run by high ranking members of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and the Venezuelan military. In July, the United States identified the Cartel of the Suns as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity due to years of activity flooding the United States with cocaine.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced this month that the United States doubled its reward for information that can lead to the arrest and/or conviction of Venezuela’s socialist dictator Maduro from $25 to $50 million.
The United States also maintains separate bounties on information that can lead to the arrest and/or conviction of other suspected heads of the Venezuelan drug cartel, such as Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here
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