Maduro says he would react worse than Turkey in the event of a coup in Venezuela.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said that the purge carried out by his Turkish counterpart, Tayyip Erdogan, against rivals after a failed coup attempt would seem like child's play compared to the action he would take if the opposition tried something similar in his country; "Did you see what happened in Turkey?" he asked; "Erdogan will seem like a baby compared to what the Bolivarian revolution will do if the right wing crosses the line with a coup," he added.
Reuters Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said that the purge carried out by his Turkish counterpart, Tayyip Erdogan, against rivals after a failed coup attempt would seem like child's play compared to the action he would take if the opposition tried something similar in his country.
"Did you see what happened in Turkey?" Maduro asked at a televised event on Thursday night. "Erdogan will look like a baby compared to what the Bolivarian revolution will do if the right wing crosses the line with a coup."
Following a failed military coup in July, Erdogan's government detained, suspended, or placed under investigation more than 60 people, including military personnel, police officers, civil servants, and members of the judiciary.
Ever since Maduro's mentor, the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, survived an opposition-backed coup attempt in 2002, the revolution he named after the Latin American liberator Simón Bolívar has attributed to its opponents the intention of seizing power by force.
Maduro's popularity is plummeting amid falling oil prices and economic mismanagement that have plunged one of the Americas' richest countries into a deep recession, triggering shortages of basic goods such as rice and medicine.
The opposition is planning a large demonstration in Caracas on September 1st to demand a recall referendum aimed at shortening Maduro's six-year term, which ends in 2019.