José "Pepe" Mujica defended the repression in Venezuela: "Do not stand in front of the tanks"

The former president of Uruguay, José Alberto "Pepe" Mujica, considered on Wednesday that "Do not put yourself in front of the tanks" After a journalist asked him his opinion on the brutal crackdown by the Venezuelan regime against Tuesday's protests.

"What do you think of the tanks that crush people?", Is interviewed the Uruguayan journalist Leonardo Sarro. Monte Carlo Radio this Wednesday during an act for Labor Day in Montevideo.

(The moment when tanks overwhelm protesters)

"That there is no need to stand in front of the tanks, is the cynical answer of the former president between 2010 and 2015 of the Frente Amplio. "It's outrageous"He added once that the reporter had asked him if he had nothing more to say.

The reporter then asked if Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was who, apparently from Mujica, had given the order to use the tanks.

"If you go out in the street, you expose yourself … The one driving the tanks is …"said the Uruguayan politician, former member of the National Liberation Movement-Tupamaros and close to the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

In the same conference before the press, Mujica also noted that the situation in Venezuela was "complex" and that a "rational solution" had to be sought. Consulted on the position that must have Uruguay before the situation, said that "in the mouth shut do not enter the flies" and that his country "was in motion".

On Tuesday, the acting president said by the National Assembly of Venezuela and leader of the opposition, Juan Guaidó, announced the beginning of the "final phase" of the Libertad operation aimed at putting an end to the "usurpation" of power by the chaviste Nicolás Maduro, elected president last year in elections accused of lack of legitimacy and amid an unprecedented political and economic crisis in the country.

With Guaidó, he is also the leader of the opposition Leopoldo López and many members of the armed forces who rejected Chavismo tried in vain to take the air base of La Carlota in Caracas.then the situation led to a mbadive demonstration against the Venezuelan regime.

Then forces loyal to Maduro cracked down hard and threw their armor against the protesters, causing at least one death and hundreds of injuries.