January 22, 2014 (TSR) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced on Monday that consolidating a process of national pacification is one of the top priorities of his revolutionary government in 2014.
“There are nine areas of work that we have taken up in the government, I have proposed them in the national leadership of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela [PSUV], which will give me a set of documents to perfect those aims. One is the pacification of Venezuela,” he said during a press conference in the state of Anzoategui after a party meeting.
Maduro stressed that all communities should be free of violence and that Venezuela’s communes must be constructed as spaces of peace, harmony, brotherhood and respect for life.
He insisted on the need to broaden public space throughout Venezuela, indicating that places like parks and boulevards should provide families with opportunities to spend time together in tranquility.
Meanwhile, he said there should be “clear and progressive” advances in the national plan for disarmament and the control of guns and ammunition, the objective of which is to stop criminal gangs and help their members reincorporate into work, school, and sports.
The president spoke about the role of the family in instilling positive values in children and young people, such as respect for other citizens and peace.
“We have to move toward a great process of pacification of Venezuela, compadres, and that is what he have shared in the national leadership of the PSUV. A great process of pacification, to build peace from within, to begin establishing territories of peace,” he said.
The “Bolivar-Chavez Battle Units” will be incorporated into the National Pacification Plan, he indicated, “as a vital factor” in the “great national effort to pacify Venezuela.”
The National Pacification Plan began as a proposal by President Maduro to reduce violence and promote the values of respect, tolerance and peace.
It also involves strengthening the Bolivarian National Police and National Guard in order to “augment their capacity for deployment and vigilance in the country.”
“We’re going to strengthen the police forces,” Maduro said. “The police will be vigilant and offer protection. Have no doubt, compadres, we’re on the right path. On the one hand we have the path of peace. All who want to move toward peace, come and get involved. On the other hand, those who wants to keep their guns and keep using them to rob and kill, they will be faced head on by us. With the law in our hand, we guarantee the right to life of all Venezuelans.”
