Caracas.- Thousands of Chavistas marched this Monday in Caracas to commemorate the ‘Day of National Dignity’, a date named thus to remember the day Hugo Chávez (1999-2013) returned to the Presidency after being briefly deposed in April 2002 as a result of a coup d'état.
The march started from three points in the city and went through part of the center of the Venezuelan capital until reaching El Calvario, a park with more than ninety staircases on which the eyes of Chávez are painted, and which is located near the Miraflores presidential palace.
"I want to reminisce, I want to remember this day of happiness for Venezuela. I remember that April 11th, what led us to April 11th: fanatical extremism, once again, trying to destroy democracy in Venezuela, to seize political power and hand over our riches to foreign powers," said the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, upon receiving the march.
Confidence in Maduro's Return
On April 11, 2002, within the framework of a strike called by the business guild and widespread citizen protests, Chávez was removed from power for almost two days.
In that brief period, businessman Pedro Carmona assumed the Presidency, until military personnel and thousands of Chávez supporters, who took to the streets of Caracas and other cities demanding his reinstatement, achieved his return.
With their Venezuelan flags, the Chavistas also took the opportunity to once again demand the release of Nicolás Maduro, detained in the United States and accused of narcoterrorism offenses, after his capture by troops from that country in a military attack in Caracas.
«Today we are celebrating the day of the dignity of the people. The day that the people of Venezuela saved our eternal commander Hugo Rafael Chávez. In the same way, today we are going to vindicate the homeland again with the attitude of our president Nicolás Maduro who gave his freedom for this people and who remains firm,» said lawyer Raisa González, 51 years old, from the commune La Voz Revolucionaria de Nueva Cuba, to EFE.
González expressed confidence that Maduro will return to Venezuela.