Maduro orders Venezuela military forces to ‘oil the guns’ and prepare for war

By Florantonia Singer

On the first day of his third term, Nicolás Maduro has warned that he is preparing an armed offensive with Cuba and Nicaragua in response to alleged foreign interventions. “We are preparing ourselves together with Cuba and Nicaragua and together with our older brothers in the world so that if one day we have to take up arms and defend the right to peace and sovereignty, we will fight in an armed struggle and win again.”

Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro

“We are not lukewarm leaders, we are the Bolivarian revolution,” he said during the closing of the second meeting of the World Festival of the Antifascist International, whose international delegates filled the seats of many representatives of democratic countries that turned their backs on him during the swearing-in ceremony.

The Chavista leader thus responded to the request made this Saturday by former Colombian presidents Álvaro Uribe and Iván Duque to undertake an international military intervention in Venezuela that would lead to a transition to democracy. “Coward, you come to the front of the troops. I’ll wait for you on the battlefield,” said Maduro, extending his insults against Uribe. He added that he had ordered his military forces to “oil the guns.”

January 10 has become a turning point in the Venezuelan conflict. Maduro was sworn in for a third six-year term without presenting evidence of having won. On the contrary, the opposition has evidence of the victory of Edmundo González Urrutia by a wide margin of votes. The heir of the Bolivarian revolution is going through a new crisis of legitimacy that puts the stability of his government at risk.

Chavismo has become radicalized, cornered by the ghosts of conspiracy and betrayal. This past Saturday, another act of reaffirmation of loyalty was played out by the National Armed Forces. On national radio and television, proclamations of support from each unit chief were read out, interspersed with images of huge formations of uniformed personnel, equipment and vehicles deployed in a show of force. Maduro has said that he is being subjected to a psychological war by his enemies, to which the government is responding with this display of military propaganda.

At the same time, arrests of political leaders have continued. More than 75 arrests have taken place in the first days of 2025, according to the NGO Foro Penal. The government has criminalized the opposition, accusing it of planning terrorist actions. At the end of last year the parliament, controlled by Maduro, also approved the Simón Bolívar Law, which hands down severe prison sentences, fines, perpetual political disqualification and even promotes the sale of assets of those who the government considers to be pushing messages against national security and the interests of the nation.
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Credit: El Pais