On Monday, January 13, President Nicolás Maduro presented the “Post Mortem” Decoration of the Victorious Saber of the Battle of Carabobo to the family of Dr. Isaías Rodríguez. To the former prosecutor and former vice-president of the Bolivarian nation.
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00:00Those who ruled and were inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah were led by the lack of humanity
00:20and mercy and the ambition that was ruling the inhabitants, and that's why he tried
00:33to save Sodom and Gomorrah.
00:35Abraham I, the founder, and God told him, look for fifty honest people in Sodom and
00:48Gomorrah, and he couldn't find them.
00:53So God punished them and sent fire and sulfur to heal the evil land, and it was part of
01:11a biblical time, Sodom and Gomorrah.
01:15I mean to the wealth of spirit and values, solidarity and sensibility, and the indignity
01:27that refer to Che Guevara.
01:31So when you face something unfair, classic crimes committed against the Palestinian people
01:39today, and I say this because we are honoring a man of high ideals, deep and clear philosophy,
01:52which could be known as a poet, but he truly was a human, a humanist, and our generation
02:04listened from Isaias Rodriguez in the Aragua, Carabobo fields and in the central regions
02:13of the country, a man with great traits, a lawyer brilliant, that was not driven by injustice
02:30and money, a man that was capable of defending in an enthusiastic and passionate way and
02:42offer his life for the defense of the cause of the people, particularly the working class.
02:48It was known his capacity.
02:53We young fighters of the movements, alternative movements that faced the neoliberal regime
03:03and the crisis caused by a colony country, we were the fourth colonial republic.
03:16We were always looking for a little bit of light, Professor Elias El Yuri.
03:24I'm glad to see Elias El Yuri with that shine and strength.
03:31I bless for him, Commander Picure.
03:41He knows a lot.
03:48You should talk with him.
03:49He has a lot of knowledge.
03:56During the 70s, 60s, for the young people of the 70s, they were our light, Fernando
04:05Soto Rojas, Jesus Martinez, as well as Douglas Bravo, Julio Escalona, but in the end of the
04:2180s, when neoliberalism was imposed in the first years of the 90s, the Soviet Union collapsed
04:30and a unipolar world was imposed, and the colonizer offensive, neoliberal offensive
04:38with the World Bank, there was a light shining.
04:44Elvis, you knew him before me, and that light was called Isaias Rodriguez.
04:56He walked among unions, he talked in unions assembly, and he wrote words to defend with
05:07strong arguments the cause of the working rights.
05:15In a happy day, our commander, Chavez, told us, we're going to create a work team there
05:25in the old office of the old mall Dos Caminos that doesn't exist today.
05:31And when we saw the list, we arrived for the creation of a work team to boost the formation
05:40of the Fifth Republic Movement that opened the new historic times of the 21st century
05:45to Venezuela, Isaias Rodriguez.
05:50I recall him like it was just right now.
05:54We were there with Commander Isarra, Tarek William Saab, and several.
06:02And Isaias arrived, he was happy, smiling, and ready to add his experience.
06:19Isaias took me, Isaias was 20 years older than me, and we knew the legend that he came
06:33to support Commander Chavez and by then was an adventure to look by the electoral path
06:42a revolution, peaceful revolution to democratize and transform Venezuela and achieve its new
06:49independence from the old colonial model of the Fourth Republic.
06:57We were walking that road.
06:59He in a natural way was a professor.
07:07He was always ready to teach lessons about everyday facts.
07:14He was a professor of everyday issues, every topic, but he was not a teacher that only
07:24talked, but he also listened, which is the most important thing, because in listening
07:31is the key to be able to teach, because if you don't know to listen and how to learn,
07:38you won't be able to teach, no matter how wise or intelligent you are.
07:45We knew him during those days when everything was dreams and excitement.
07:54He was along with Commander Chavez during his campaign in 1998, and Commander Chavez
08:04forced him to be a senator.
08:08He didn't like those power positions.
08:13He was already a founder, along with the young people of the 60s, along with Prito Figueroa,
08:21with the electoral movement of the people.
08:23He talked to me about that electoral movement of the people when he met such Nicolás Maduro,
08:31who was my father.
08:33He was a generation that was looking for ways for Venezuela during the 60s, with Prito Figueroa
08:39at the forefront.
08:40They were acquiring experience from the fights of those times.
08:51He became a senator.
08:53The people of Aragua elected him with a voting record that was unprecedented in the state
09:01of Aragua.
09:02We have never reached such voting records.
09:08He was a member of the Tactic National Commander CTN of the movement Fifth Republic.
09:18I remember an opportunity I had that Commander Chavez summoned us in La Viñeta residence
09:27when I was president-elect to an early breakfast, seven in the morning.
09:34I remember in a small kitchen there in La Viñeta residence, Chavez Isaias and me were
09:43talking.
09:46Chavez was warning us.
09:50I was appointed deputy in Caracas in the parish of Vallegoche.
09:58In the Fifth Republic movement, I was appointed head of the parliamentary group.
10:05It was called parliamentary fraction by then.
10:07I don't like that name.
10:08It reminds me of the Fourth Republic.
10:14President Isaias was appointed head of senators, and Chavez summoned us to alert us.
10:25He told us, your goal, Isaias and Nicolas, is to close the corruption in this Congress
10:42and open the door for a successful constituent Congress and a successful assembly without
10:51manipulation, without coup d'etats.
10:59Then Chavez told him before me, Isaias, it was duty of the political party of the elected
11:10president to be the head of the Senate.
11:19And the head of the Senate was the president of the Congress as well.
11:30The chamber of deputies had a president, the Senate has another president, but the head
11:37of the Congress was the president of the Senate, then was elected by the opposition
11:47a young man from the country club Baruca, elected by Maracaibo, called Enrique Caplirez
11:52Chavez.
11:55It rings a bell for you, isn't it?
11:59Chavez told him, Isaias, I want you to be the president of the Senate.
12:08I've never told this.
12:13I want you to be the president of the Senate, Isaias.
12:17I don't know if his children know about this.
12:20I want you to be the president of the Senate so that you be president of the Congress and
12:29you become the person to inaugurate me as president of the Republic on January 2, 1999.
12:40So Isaias started sweating.
12:45After that meeting, we were summoned to a meeting of the tactical national command,
12:52and there Isaias didn't say a word of what Chavez said.
13:01I defended him like a general attorney was there, and there was a debate between those
13:09who had the control of the CTN and imposed another person as president of the Senate.
13:25Isaias remained silent with his modesty and calmed.
13:37From the point of view of the historic trajectory of what happened after, I would say Jose Vicente
13:42Rangel was not something despicable for the analysis of what's happening after in history.
13:55He was a senator.
14:05Isaias was upset about it by then.
14:10The maneuver was achieved, and what happened?
14:16National constituent assembly was held, and Isaias Rodríguez was a candidate and also
14:26elected again with high voting records in the list of constituents.
14:34He was elected by the National Constituent Assembly as first vice president of that historic
14:40and sovereign national assembly that founded the Republic again.
14:49Then several months of work, consultation, and debate arrived.
14:58Those youngsters that we were with aspirations and dreams, we had in Isaias our advisor,
15:12our leader.
15:16In several times, Isaias saved this constitution from conspiracy, and in several occasions
15:32as well he saved the fundamental text of the chapters that guarantee the social and working
15:39rights of the Venezuelan people from the neoliberal maneuvers.
15:49Of those that today have passed physically and others have died in morals, those who
16:01intended to disrupt the path of the constitutional text and poison it with neoliberalism and
16:10privatization, it was Isaias the one that in essential meetings saved the working class,
16:21the unions and the people in general, and granted their rights they have in their constitution
16:30today.
16:31Their right to work, to public health, free public health, public education, each one
16:40of the social and working rights that encompasses this constitution and were attacked and intended
16:51to be poisoned by those who refused to comply with the command of Chavez to ratify Isaias
17:00as president of the Senate.
17:02It was Isaias as several speakers have said, it is Dr. Rodriguez.
17:14In his words after the National Assembly, he was the first president of the National
17:25Assembly appointed by Commander Chavez according to this constitution.
17:32To us that was a joy because as usual when there's a new elect government there are rallies.
17:51This still happens but it's not as usual as in our time.
18:03There are conspiracies, youngsters may not know what this is, at least start to express
18:17and we said please God save us from this.
18:22Do you remember the status?
18:27We were praying to God to save us from those times and in this moment the revolution was
18:38taking its first steps and as the song of Pacheco says, popular culture has several
18:45friends but deceivers are among them.
18:54Revolution had a lot of friends but also at that time a lot of deceivers.
19:02He was executive vice president during the year 2000 which was a year when the first
19:17elections and institutions of the newly founded Assembly of the Fifth Republic was created.
19:30When the election of the new powers was established and it was talked about the new prosecutor's
19:35office, the name that rised strongly at that moment was Isaias Rodriguez.
19:47I know it because we left those times and it was a very difficult decision for him and
19:54also for our commander Hugo Chavez because he had infinite trust and absolute trust on
20:06him.
20:07He knew that whenever Isaias was, he was a man of loyalty and he would never betray him
20:20no matter what happened because he was a man with a humanist ideals, true humanism.
20:37In the end he was elected by the new National Assembly of which several deputies here present
20:46were part.
20:49Deputy Nicolás Maduro, Cilia Flores, Tarek Willian, Elvis Amoroso, Calista Ortega as
20:58well, Pedro Guerreño, Iris Varela as well, Deputy Jorge Marquez.
21:19And he was the head of the prosecutor's office.
21:26He was ready to face any of the challenges of life and for what I have seen in social
21:36media today, examples of solidarity with the families and our mediation from the people
21:48towards Isaias.
21:49I also have seen poison from fascists who don't forget the great and historic achievements
22:00of Isaias in April 12 at noon, nor the drug trafficking oligarchy forgives him that has
22:12carried out a campaign against him, nor the fascist far right that were defeated yesterday
22:20and today, though they are going to be defeated always, that fascism that is criminal.
22:35It was April 12, the coup d'etat and the ambush was accomplished.
22:44A group of traitors, political traitors, that were part of Chavismo and a group of military
22:56officials that were recruited by the CIA and the Department of State acted and they
23:08believed that they were done.
23:15There's always the same formula because it's the same enemy, bastards who fight the Venezuelan
23:23people.
23:24They believed that they were done with it and history was happening again.
23:36Those same, the same people who acted to avoid the appointment of Isaias as senator and president
23:43of the Congress, the same people who regretted the appointment of Isaias as defender of the
23:58rights of the people, our defender from those insane people of then, the same who acted
24:10to attack the vice presidency of the republic and regretted because an honorable man reached
24:18that position, were, during that April 12, saying that Chavez was causing bloodshed and
24:34as traitors, destinies, all of the traitors of that time, were destroyed.
24:49And as a great swordsman, Isaias appeared as a bright light to ignite the light that
25:02rescued commander Chavez during April 12 and 13 and recovered the constitution without
25:10shooting a bullet.
25:13He was clever, intelligent.
25:17It was the attorney general that in the midst of the coup d'etat appeared and received those
25:26called him, called him to support the coup d'etat, save yourself, Isaias, they told him.
25:35This is over.
25:43This is over, Isaias, and he answered, okay, I'm going to call on a press release, send
25:54all media, and the stupid act of Federico Ravel sent Globovisión, RCTV, and all media
26:06arrived, and they said, Isaias Rodríguez, a great symbol of the prosecutor's office,
26:22is going to accuse Chavez, is going to destroy him.
26:28He had to use maneuvers and deceive the deceivers to ignite the light and the flame.
26:41We were in a neighborhood in the eastern of Caracas, in a neighborhood of humble people.
26:51They tried to kill us, a group of commanders tried to destroy us, but God saved us and
27:05provided us refuge in a house of those humble people.
27:12Early, the deputy, Tarek William Saab, was captured by force.
27:26They tried to kill him, but the people saved him.
27:33Freddy Reynaldo was looked for alive or dead, as well as Estado Cabello, but they never
27:43found him until he appeared with his three-collared band as president in functions to rescue our
27:58commander Chavez.
27:59They couldn't, and they will not be able, nor yesterday, not today, not ever.
28:07And Isaias arrived.
28:09We had a small TV, black and white, with a code track.
28:29We saw him there in a small TV with a code track.
28:40Press release of Dr. Isaias Rodriguez, General Attorney of the Republic.
28:49In my heart, me and Celia, we had the certainty that the press release of Isaias was going
29:00to be very important.
29:06And he started talking, calm as usual, and immediately he said, Commander Chavez was
29:17visited.
29:22It's been confirmed that he is legally kidnapped.
29:28Hugo Chavez is still president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and must be released
29:34immediately.
29:43That day, the immortal Isaias that today is passed since when our life was born and is
29:53going to accompany us forever.
29:56We live with him glorious times, and we need to say to him, Isaias, thank you for so much.
30:06Everything you provided for your homeland, for your people, for us, your children, thank
30:13you for so much.
30:19You are passing with the three colors and the eight stars, and you have the sword of
30:25the Bolivar.
30:27And from our heart, we say, Isaias is alive, and the fight continues, Isaias is alive.
30:42And what if we keep a minute of silence, Christians, to pray for him?
30:57I ask for you to say goodbye from this honor from the government and the state are important
31:10to say goodbye as he deserves with a minute of applause from those who say to him, mission
31:19accomplished, Isaias Rodriguez, fly high, the fight continues, and the victory is ours.
31:26Thank you, Isaias.
31:27We love you.
32:10We are listening to the words of the Constitutional President of Venezuela.