Maduro is leading a campaign against social networks and apps such as WhatsApp, which he says – is being used in the country to threaten military and police.
Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, accused WhatsApp of the American Meta of having handed over to the leaders of the majority opposition, Edmundo González Urrutia and María Corina Machado, “the entire database” of the Caribbean country, with personal information from the users of this instant messaging app.
“WhatsApp gave Venezuelan terrorists, to the devil this Machado demon, terrorist and murderous, fugitive from justice, and war criminal Edmundo González Urrutia and his commanders (…) the entire database of Venezuela, who you, your family, your friends, what you are talking about, what you don’t talk about, what you don’t talk about, what you share, what your tastes are, etc.,” Maduro said.
The ‘commanditos’ are structures of citizen organization that were formed during the electoral campaign of González Urrutia, leader of the main opposition coalition, the Unitary Democratic Platform (PUD).
Since last week, Maduro has been leading a campaign against social networks and apps such as WhatsApp, which – he says – is being used in the country to threaten military and police, as well as community leaders, so he repeatedly calls on the population to remove it, a process that Tuesday said must be “accelerated,” without showing messages to prove their accusations.
“We have to go to the point of liberating WhatsApp from our lives,” the president said in a meeting with young people, broadcast on the state channel VTV, during which he said that this application “is in the hands of technological imperialism, enemies of Venezuela and humanity.”
Maduro, who last Thursday ordered the circulation of the social network X for 10 days, insists on these complaints after the presidential elections of July 28, in which, according to the electoral body, he won, a result rejected by the majority opposition, which denounces “fraud,” and which generated multiple protests in the country, seen by the government as “criminal” and “terrorist” actions.
According to state sources, more than 2,400 people have been arrested since July 29 – some in demonstrations and others in police operations – while 25 people died in acts of violence attributed by the Government to the opposition, while anti-chavismo blames the State security forces, on the orders of superiors.
This article has been translated after first appearing in PanamaAmerica