Cardinal Baltazar Porras A Venezuelan cardinal has called on state security forces to exercise civil disobedience when given orders to use lethal force against citizens.
“State security agencies exist not to take care of the government but to take care of the citizens,” said Cardinal Baltazar Porras, at a press conference last week.
“Therefore, every order that is given that goes against the lives of the citizenry is an order to kill, it is an order which there is no duty to carry out nor heed, because civil disobedience is also a fundamental right,” the cardinal stressed.
Cdl. Porras, who serves as archbishop of Merida and apostolic administrator of Caracas, stressed the disobeying of unjust orders is both a right and a duty for members of the security forces.
Since Nicolas Maduro succeeded Hugo Chávez as president of Venezuela in 2013, the country has been marred by violence and social upheaval.
Under the socialist government, the country has seen hyperinflation and severe shortages of food, medicine, and other necessities, and millions have emigrated.
Amid the protests that have taken place throughout the country, dozens of people have been killed by security forces.
Cardinal Porras stressed that “it’s a citizen’s right, a right in any democracy to be able to hold demonstrations and to say what [you think] will solve the problems”.