Clíver Alcalá: 'Maduro is a' tyrant 'who knows that his own people want to kill him 
@DolarToday / Aug 24, 2018 @ 6:00 am


                   
                         



Clíver Alcalá, a soldier who accompanied Hugo Chávez since he founded a clandestine political movement within the army, in 1982, until his death, in 2013, affirms that Nicolás Maduro "is a tyrant" that every day has more difficulties to conserve the power. "He is surrounded by his own collaborators," says the retired general and former military deputy of Chávez. Clíver Alcalá's criticisms sound strong within Chavismo. Not only because it comes from the heart of that movement, but because of its rank within the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB): greater general in retirement condition.


In an interview with EL TIEMPO, Alcalá affirms that the FANB reproduces the widespread social unrest that exists in Venezuela against the Maduro regime, and that the president is so aware of this fact that he mistrusts the military institution.
 So it is, he says, that the troops and officers who participate in the events to which Maduro goes carry rifles without ammunition. And even the generals and admirals who meet with the President are subjected to humiliating reviews to corroborate that they will not attempt to attempt against him.
 The general strike called by the opposition for the economic package that came into force this Monday can put the Maduro regime against the wall? Undoubtedly, he puts Maduro against the wall. But there is also the risk of deepening the shortage problems that the Venezuelan people are experiencing.
These are difficult times for Venezuela due to the stubbornness of a criminal group.
We enter into a situation of definitions. Either the exit (of the Government) is achieved or they are installed.

What new details are known about the attack against Maduro? 

Many doubted that attack, because Maduro has lied to the country a lot. But everything indicates that the attack was real and has been taken advantage of by the Government to go against the military that it considers disloyal (between the detainees are General Alejandro Pérez Gámez and Colonel Pedro Javier Zambrano) and against people who want to eliminate politically, as the deputies Juan Requesens and Julio Borges. They are inventing charges against them.
 Does Maduro doubt the loyalty of the Venezuelan Armed Forces?
Is that the Armed Forces expresses the same discontent that exists in Venezuelan families. Right now Maduro is distrusting those anarchic groups that supported him, with some economic power, and the military structure. He is surrounded by his own collaborators and can not complain because that is not a government, but an organized crime group.

 Do you no longer trust your personal guard? 

No.
 Nor in the politicians who surround him.

Who do you speak exactly? 

Maduro already has a total distrust. It is known that even the prosecutor who replaced Luisa Ortega (Tarek William Saab) is looking for an embassy because nobody wants to ride on a platform with Maduro. They lost respect for him and his people.
What do you know about the perpetrators of the attack against Maduro?
I can not say anything about the perpetrators of the attack on August 4, but Venezuela is a country with metastasis, and there is so much discontent that it can generate desperate individual reactions from many people and groups.

Does that include people from the Armed Forces? 

Clear. It causes suspicion and surprise that also people close to Maduro were not in the gallery the day of the attack.
Diosdado Cabello (the powerful number two of the regime), who normally accompanies Maduro in all acts, was not on the platform on August 4. I know there is a power struggle between them, because they are internationally marked and have lost resources that in the past did not cost them much to steal. For that money they have entered into a dispute.

Are there many frictions between Maduro and Diosdado Cabello? 

 There are frictions between all of them. The country's ambassadors, embassy officials and military attachés have been uncollected for more than six months. You can not ask for loyalty to who you are not fulfilling. I have information that more than 70 percent of the deputies of the Constituent Assembly are not happy because they are already one year old, in October, and they have not done anything. There are tremendous differences between them.

 Could the internal difficulties of the Government lead to the fall of the regime? 

 With the situation so precarious, yes. In recent days the purchasing power, which had already dropped a lot, was lost by another 25 percent. For inflation (which according to the IMF will be one million percent this year) is that Maduro has made remove five zeros to the currency, but that will not solve anything. Gasoline will go up in price, there are blackouts every day in many cities, a great crime, and the shortage of food and medicine is getting worse. You said that this discomfort is expressed within the Armed Forces.

 Can the military end up propitiating Maduro's exit from power within the framework of the Constitution?

All the institutions in the country are destroyed, and from that destruction the Armed Forces do not escape, thanks to Maduro and Vladimir Padrino López (the defense minister). In Venezuela there are almost 2,000 generals, more general than colonels.
The pyramid is inverted and everyone mistrusts everyone.

We live in Venezuela in a constant social explosion that does not just explode because people are more aware of solving the issues of daily life. 

But at some point that nonconformity can be translated into a demand for change from the military's own institutionality? 

Is that the military leadership is part of the group of criminals who have set up an organized crime structure to control the State. That is why the solution in Venezuela does not pass through a man but through a restoration committee, with a period for reconstruction.
The magnitude of the damage in Venezuela is not for a man or a woman to solve, but a group of Venezuelans that represents society and in which all sectors, including the Armed Forces, converge.

A recent Analitic poll shows opposition politicians with very low image. If we add to this the division between the opposing forces, how then can they face Maduro? 

The great advantage of Maduro is the division of Venezuelans who repudiate him as a dictator. These divisions have been fostered by the Government itself and have handled them very well.
This is a government that does bad things very well.

Do you think that Maduro will continue to foment tensions with Colombia as an element to distract attention from internal problems? 

 Maduro is so irresponsible that he is capable of that. Although we are in the most critical moment of the Armed Forces, due to all the deterioration of its operational readiness, Maduro is capable of motivating a confrontation with Colombia, even if this is negative for the Venezuelan State. Maduro is so irresponsible that he is not interested in the country or its sovereignty. He is only interested in the wealth that he can plunder.

 Does the Armed Forces of Venezuela have the capacity to take military action against Colombia? 

The Armed Forces are so deteriorated that they do not have the operational capacity to undertake any mission. Maduro has so much distrust of the soldiers, the officers, the captains, that he does not even give them cartridges. In the parade on August 4 (in which the attack with explosive drones against the President took place) no one was carrying cartridges. The soldiers carried the ornament rifle. That's why they dispersed, because they have no capacity to react to an event like the one that happened. They are not allowed to have ammunition.

Did not they carry bullets in their rifles? 

There were three thousand soldiers with a rifle in the parade, but none had cartridges. Because of distrust.

 That's why, instead of protecting the President, they ran out? 

How will they protect it if they do not have cartridges? 

That's why the stampede happens. If there is a supposed attack, they have to run ...

 Is Maduro afraid that his own people will kill him? 

Yes. He is afraid that his own people will kill him. Maduro called a meeting with the generals (on Friday, August 10) to tell them that the attack was from Colombia and (Juan Manuel) Santos, and when they entered, the generals emptied their pockets, they touched the body to see if They had weapons, they took their phones. To the generals and admirals ...

How did you know that? 

 By generals who called me and told me. One said to me: "I have passed the worst moment of my life, police officers checked me to enter an act with the President". That is Maduro's level of distrust. And if you know that an attack may come from the military itself, 

why did you come to attribute that to Colombia and Santos? 

Because in the last events Santos made accusations against Maduro. Santos had three or four days left (in the presidency) and Maduro decided not to attack the new president (Iván Duque) and his political line, but the one who was leaving, as if to agree on something with President Duque.

What role does Diosdado Cabello play in these moments in Venezuela? 

There is a very strong struggle between four groups. The two main ones are Maduro, which controls the largest sources of government revenue; and Diosdado, which controls a large part of the military leadership. The other groups have less power. They are Tareck El Aissami (minister of Industries and vice president of the Economic Area) and that of the brothers Delcy and Jorge Rodríguez (she is the vice president and he is the minister of communication). Everyone has a lot of economic power. In the last five years they have looted 150,000 million dollars.

In what way is the conflict between these groups manifested? 

They only join when they are attacked from outside or have to face internal situations. But the struggle is very hard. For example, a few days ago a video was broadcast by the deputy Juan Requesens (accused of participating in the attack against Maduro), in which he appears detained in deplorable conditions (apparently drugged). The information I have is that this video was leaked by a general very close to Diosdado. Maduro requested an investigation, but General Gustavo González López (director of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service) told him no. Maduro is very weak.

What output do you anticipate for Venezuela? 

We have to converge the different Venezuelan sectors in a project of transition and change, both those of us who believe in social models and those who believe in capitalist models. Convergence is the only way to prevent further destruction of the nation and its sovereignty.

NOTA: Aporrea