Accessibility links

Breaking News

Maduro: Venezuela Coup Bid Would Meet Tougher Reaction Than Turkey's


Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a visit to an industrial sawmill in Chaguaramas, Venezuela, Aug. 18, 2016. (Miraflores Palace/Handout)
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a visit to an industrial sawmill in Chaguaramas, Venezuela, Aug. 18, 2016. (Miraflores Palace/Handout)

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said the purge by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan meted out on rivals after a failed coup would look like child's play compared with the action he would take if opposition tried something similar in the OPEC nation.

"Did you see what happened in Turkey?" said Maduro, in a televised public event on Thursday evening. "Erdogan will seem like a nursing baby compared to what the Bolivarian revolution will do if the right wing steps over the line with a coup."

After an abortive military coup in July, Erdogan's government detained, suspended or placed under investigation more than 60,000 people in the military, judiciary, civil service and education.

Ever since Maduro's mentor, the late President Hugo Chavez survived an opposition-backed coup attempt in 2002, the revolution he named after Latin American liberator Simon Bolivar has tarred opponents as intent on retaking power by force.

Maduro is facing plunging popularity as low oil prices and economic mismanagement have dragged one of the wealthiest countries in the Americas into a deep recession, triggering shortages of basics like food and medicines.

The opposition plans a big march in Caracas on Sept. 1 to demand a recall referendum aimed at cutting short Maduro's six-year term, due to end in 2019.

  • 16x9 Image

    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

XS
SM
MD
LG