Venezuela's President Calls for Early Parliamentary Elections

Caracas, Feb 2 (Prensa Latina) At a mass rally to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Bolivarian Revolution, President Nicolas Maduro has called to celebrate early Parliamentary elections as a way to curtail the US-backed coup and achieve peace and stability in Venezuela.

Maduro addressed a huge demonstration along Bolivar Avenue in downtown Caracas in his first open air speech since the failed assassination attempt last August on the same avenue.

Hundreds of thousands of supporters of the government came out to rally to defend democracy and the Maduro administration.

'If you want, we want,' the Head of State told the opposition while calling for national legislative elections, a task he assigned to the President of the Constituent Assembly, Diosdado Cabello.

Maduro emphasized his Government is determine to restore the legislative power and the legal, normal functions of Parliament whose opposition members are in contempt since 2016.

'Until when will they hurt the nation? It's enough of so much damage done to the Homeland!' The President stressed, urging the opposition to think on the consequences of their actions and inviting them to abandon interventionism.

'Stop shouting for war; stop calling for a foreign military intervention; stop backing a coup d'Etat that has already failed. It failed and you don't realize it. Revolution is governing here, and We will keep governing,' insisted Maduro.

The US administration called last weekend for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to condemn the Venezuelan government as a preamble for deepening political meddling and a military intervention, but 19 members of that body, out of 20, rejected Washington's maneuvering and called to respect Venezuela.

Most of the UN 191 members have recognized the Maduro administration as legitimate and a democratically elected government.

On efforts to restore peace and political order in the nation, the Head of State thanked the initiatives presented by the governments of Mexico, Uruguay and Bolivia to set up a negotiating table among all sides in an effort to secure democracy in Venezuela.

With regards to military defense of the nation, Maduro appealed to deepening the civil-military unity, and called on all the forces to take part in the military drills on the Bicentennial of Angostura, slated for February 10 through 15. 'They will be the most important in the nation's history', he pointed out.

He called on militiamen to join the Boliviarian National Armed Forces as regular soldiers or the Bolivarian National Guard as active members.