During a rare news conference this week, Venezuela’s revolutionary socialist president reached for a Bible and read from St John’s gospel: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Some might have thought Nicolás Maduro was referring to the contested results of last Sunday’s election, when the government-friendly electoral authority declared him the winner without any supporting data. But the burly Russian-allied leader was instead speaking about a “violent, criminal, fascist counter-revolution”, which he said was organised by the US and funded by Colombian drug traffickers with the aim of toppling him. This, he claimed, was the truth about last weekend.
Turning to an army commander seated nearby, Maduro barked an order: “General-in-chief, even if you have to deploy another 1,000 troops, we’ll find these people . . . Even if it takes a month, I want them all in jail.” His ministers applauded enthusiastically.