VENEZUELA – Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino has promised the country’s army will maintain “absolute loyalty” to the government of Nicolas Maduro following an election in which he was declared victorious. “We ratify our absolute loyalty to citizen Nicolás Maduro Moros,” Padrino said on Tuesday during a broadcast by state television, where he was flanked by the top brass of the military and the police.

Padrino’s statement on Tuesday followed a letter from opposition leaders Edmundo Gonzalez and Maria Corina Machado earlier this week, calling on the armed forces to “stand at the side of the people”. The call by the opposition leaders was interpreted by the government as a call for defection, prompting a criminal probe against them. “Fear is not going to paralyze us, we are going to overcome it as we have done until now and we will not leave the streets,” Machado said in an audio message posted on social media on Tuesday. (Aljazeera)…[+]