Mission Florentino


Mission Florentino was a Bolivarian mission organized by the government of Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez, to coordinate the populace to vote "No" in the Venezuelan recall referendum of 2004 to keep him in office. The organizational centers of the Mission were named Comando Maisanta, as the ideological central headquarters for those who wished to keep Chávez as the President of Venezuela for the remainder of his presidential term.

Mission

The mission's name was inspired from a poem by Alberto Arvelo Torrealba entitled "Florentino y el Diablo " in which a singer, Florentino, is tempted by the Devil to join him. Chávez claimed that reading the poem reminded him of the political situation in Venezuela at the time and encouraged his supporters to follow the example of Florentino fighting the Devil. The name of the "Comandos" came from the Caudillo Pedro Pérez Delgado, great-grandfather of Chávez and nicknamed "Maisanta", who fought as a guerrilla fighter against Juan Vicente Gómez for control of the country during the early years of the 20th century.
In June 2004, Chávez announced that the campaign conducted by the Mission Florentino for the referendum would bear the name of the Battle of Santa Inés.

Members and positions