The Episcopal Conference of Venezuela (CEV) today refused the political use of Christmas.
“The Christmas is a celebration of universal character. The manner and time of its celebration are the responsibility of the ecclesiastical authority. This type of solemnity should not be used for marketing or political purposes”, says the CEV in a dispatch published on the social network Instagram.
This Monday, during his weekly television program, Nicolás Maduro announced that he would bring forward the start of Christmas celebrations to October 1 “in tribute” and “gratitude” to the Venezuelan “working people”.
“It’s September and it smells like Christmas, it smells like Christmas. And that is why I read this year, in honor of you, in gratitude to you, I will legislate that Christmas will be brought forward to October 1st,” said the President.
“September is approaching and, thanks to the fact that we end the month of August with good economic prospects, we can say, and I have already said: it smells like Christmas”, he said, thanking his compatriots for the efforts made in the face of the “fascist” attacks.
It is not the first time that Maduro has brought Christmas forward to October and intensified during this period at the end of December the distribution of aid and food bags in the neighborhoods, through the so-called Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP).
Nicolas Maduro’s inauguration is scheduled for after Christmas and New Year, for January 10.
Venezuela, a country that has a significant community of Portuguese and Portuguese descendants, held presidential elections on July 28, after which the National Electoral Council (CNE) awarded the victory to Maduro with just over 51% of the votes, while the opposition claims that its candidate, the old diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, obtained almost 70% of the votes.
The Venezuelan opposition and several countries in the international community have denounced electoral fraud and demanded that the voting minutes be presented for independent verification, which the CNE says is unrealizable due to the fact of a “cyber attack” of which he was hypothetically the target.
The election results have been contested in the streets, with demonstrations repressed by security forces, with the registration of about two thousand arrests and more than two dozen fatalities.