In the first of five videos, the man identifies his group as “a coalition among soldiers, policemen, and civilians seeking balance and opposing this transitory criminal government. We do not belong to any political party; we are nationalists, patriots, and institutionalists.â€
Univisión notes that, in his message following the incident, Maduro claims that Pérez was once the pilot for Miguel RodrÃguez Torres, a former Venezuelan justice minister who has turned on the regime. Maduro’s government has tied RodrÃguez Torres to the CIA and floated conspiracies linking him with Western pro-democracy interests.
In his statement Tuesday night, Maduro made clear that he believed the helicopter incident was a “terrorist†attack conducted by an unnamed coalition of anti-socialist forces seeking to take down his government. “Behind all of this is the plan, the activation of a generalized violence to make life impossible for Venezuelans,†he alleged, urging the public to vote in favor of his plan to draft a new constitution that would greatly expand executive power, “to gather up these terrorist groups.â€