Colombia’s FARC rebels reiterated on Monday their support for Venezuela’s president-elect, Nicolas Maduro, while criticizing the defeated opposition candidate as “a clown.”
The FARC said Maduro’s victory in Sunday’s election “guaranteed the continued construction of socialism and equality on the continent,” while simultaneously taking a shot at defeated opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.
“They have tried to portray him as [independence hero Simon] Bolivar, insulting…the memory of the liberator, they wrap him in the national tricolor, the one they have always trampled, and the clown does not [look good in it]…and in desperation they try to dress him up as Chavista,” the FARC statement said.
The rebels said Maduro’s triumph enabled a continuation of former President Hugo Chavez’s policies.
“Nicolas, you will be an example for the Latin Americans in deepening the Bolivarian Revolution and the construction of socialism, the dream of the eternal commander [Chavez].”
In late March, Capriles said he would “expel” the FARC and Colombia’s smaller ELN rebel group from Venezuelan territory if elected president. Meanwhile, Maduro’s predecessor Chavez was often accused of tolerating and even helping the rebels on the Venezuelan side of the border.
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Maduro won the election with 50.6% of the votes. Capriles, however, said he did not accept the outcome, and has asked Venezuela’s electoral board (CNE) to perform a manual re-count.
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As of Monday, the Colombian government has not yet congratulated Maduro on the victory.