00:00We now go live to Caracas with our special envoy Yunus Soner.
00:03Hello Yunus, what's the latest that you can tell us from Venezuela?
00:11Hello, good afternoon from Caracas, Venezuela. Today is a special day here in Venezuela. It's
00:18a holiday because it is the 241st anniversary of the birth of Simon Bolivar, the great liberator
00:26and founder of Venezuela. And of course for us here in Venezuela it is also a birthday. It's
00:34our 19th birthday and not by chance that it falls together with the great liberator's birthday here
00:42at the same date. So this day is a holiday, it's a free day for all employed people, but there is
00:50still important activities going on. First of all there is the plan republica, the republic plan
00:55that has been set in motion with the deployment today, with the ceremony today officially. And
01:03with this deployment according to official numbers 388,000 soldiers will take service
01:12all over the country to provide security to voters, to provide security to voting centers,
01:19to ballot boxes. They will guarantee peace and stability during the voting process. This is,
01:25for those who don't know it, a usual measure. This is always done here in Venezuela since years,
01:33so it is not a reflection of a certain instability, but a fundamental character of the election
01:41schedule. And we also participated in the press conference of the Minister of Defense, who said
01:48repeatedly how the armed forces, how the national Bolivarian armed forces of Venezuela are looking
01:55to this job of protecting the ballot boxes and providing security to the citizens while casting
02:02their votes. Meanwhile on the other side, the president of the National Election Council,
02:07Elvis Amoroso, made some statements. Amoroso said that he states a media campaign, an international
02:15Western media campaign, targeting Venezuela's electoral system, trying to discredit it. And
02:22Amoroso claimed that this campaign, this media campaign is, I quote, paid with money robbed
02:28from the Venezuelan state. Hereby Amoroso clearly refers to the sanctions and to frozen assets
02:35that Venezuela had abroad. So the government's plan is, the state's plan is functioning well.
02:41The soldiers are being deployed. The plan republica is in March. But we noticed that
02:48on Western media campaign, on Western media front, there is increasing attacks that come,
02:54of course, along with the opposition's rejection to sign an agreement with the other candidates,
03:03with the two of, two oppositional candidates refused to sign the agreement to recognize the
03:10announcement of the National Election Council once the election has finished. So there is on
03:16Venezuelan side stability, but we see increasing attacks on media front from the Western part of
03:23the world. Thank you, Juniors, for the latest information, as always.
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