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The president of Venezuela Nicholas Maduro announced on Monday night, live on television during his weekly show 'With Maduro +', the decision to bring Christmas forward to October 1st.
Christmas celebrations brought forward to October in Venezuela
The decision to bring forward the holidays would be a move to try to recover consensus and convey to the people moments of joy and lightheartedness after the disputed presidential elections, followed by protests violently repressed and resulting in the arrest of over 1.700 people and 24 deaths.
“It's September and the scent of Christmas is already in the air. For this reason, this year, in homage to you, as a form of gratitude towards you, I will bring forward Christmas to the first of October. Christmas is coming on October 1st! For everyone, Christmas has arrived, with peace, happiness and safety!”. These are the words of Nicolás Maduro during the broadcast on Globevision.
The announcement of the advance start of the Christmas holidays was made a few hours after a Venezuelan court issued, at the request of the Prosecutor's Office, a arrest warrant against former opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González.
Christmas also brought forward in past years
The decision taken by the president Maduro This is nothing new. In 2020, the Christmas holidays began on October 15, and in 2021, on October 4.
The protests after the results of the last elections
Maduro has ruled Venezuela in an authoritarian manner since 2013 and has been re-elected on July 29. The result at the polls, however, did not convince either the opposition, led by Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, or the population. The protests triggered protests and violent clashes.
The accusation is that of having rigged the elections, for this reason it was requested to publish the voting records. However, the national election agency stated that a hacker attack had corrupted the data, so it is not possible to view the results.
