The mother and relatives of Vladimir Padrino López asked him to be "on the side of the people" of Venezuela and to "put an end to the massacre"

Since the interim president of Venezuela and the leader of the opposition Tuesday Juan Guaidó announced the "final phase" of the Libertad operation to end the "usurpation" of power by Nicolás Maduro's chauvinist regime, all eyes were placed on Vladimir Padrino López, the Venezuelan Minister of Defense.

Many members of the Venezuelan armed forces They joined the uprising led by Guaidó and the opposition Leopoldo López, and hundreds have defected in recent months in which the political crisis in the South American country seems to have reached unsuspected levels. But the army remains faithful to the Maduro regime.

That is why, on the night of Tuesday, the family of Padrino López recorded a message to the Minister of Defense complaining that is placed "on the side of the people".

In the video, distributed on social networks and by Patilla, Six members of his family, including his mother, implore him to stop the mbadacre.

"Today & # 39; hui decide whether you stand on the side of the city or kill it. It will be your decision to go into history as a libertarian or tyrant", says a cousin of Padrino López.

"It will be the only thing you will take the day you leave." What will be your inheritance, my cousin?Will it be based on the promise that you once made to us to keep you as an institutional soldier at the service of the will of the vast majority of the population, or will it leave misery, vandalism and crime ?", continue in the message." Cousin, does not allow the genocide of our people"he adds.

Then a cousin of the Defense Minister speaks, who badures that "Today, the people are asking for freedom and it is now your turn, we hope you will do what the people will cry, freedom."

Finally, Padrino López's mother, Carmen Oneida López de Padrino, reads a letter: "Vladimir, son, you know how much I love you. I appeal to this beautiful human being that I saw growing up, to this wonderful, correct, dreamy and fighter boy"

"You haveLike other Venezuelans, they dreamed of a better country and you grew up in a project of which it is evident today that it failed.. We know how hard it must be to be in your place and what extremely complex that it will be the courage to take the side of the people "says the woman.

"But you my love can do it, What you have with what and you have a why. We talk to you because we never lose hope of seeing you take the right step. We pray for you and for all Venezuela. May God bless you and enlighten your efforts to achieve a free Venezuela, "he concludes.

Many versions have grown in the last months on the alleged enmity of Padrino López and the leader chaviste Nicolás Maduro, whose presidency is considered illegitimate by most members of the international community. In this regard, Guaidó, president of the National Assembly of Venezuela and proclaimed interim president of the country by this chamber, seeks to obtain the power to call free elections.

Padrino López was born in 1963 and He entered the Military Academy of Venezuela in 1984. During the coup attempt against President Hugo Chávez in 2002 He remained loyal to the government from his command at Fort Tiuna and therefore became a trusted personality of Chavez.

He became chief of the army staff under Chavez and, after his death and the rise of Maduro, became Minister of Defense in 2014.