“Soldier People” – Report from Venezuela
The following essay was written by Vladimir Castillo, the International Affairs Coordinator of the Ministry of Communes of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. In it, Castillo lays out the anti-imperialist nature of the Venezuelan military and its strategic involvement in the Bolivarian Revolution. The essay was originally published by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and is translated here by the Fight Back! staff.
The Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) directly descends from the people's armies of Simón Bolívar, the army of Liberators; from our indigenous warriors; from the liberating hosts of José Leonardo Chirino; and from the humble but conscious montoneras of Ezequiel Zamora. Our soldiers are of the people and our officers are of the people. Our Supreme Comandante [Hugo Chávez Frías] is the greatest example of this historic occurrence. Emerging from the depths of the homeland, from its humblest people, he knew how to embody the hopes and needs of the people and he knew how to exemplify tenacity, honesty, and he gave his life to make better the lives of our entire Nation, of Our America, of the helpless and needy across the world. He gave his life to make the ideals of Bolívar, Robinson and Zamora a reality. And without a doubt this obligates, drives and gives strength to an entire country, and above all to its people in uniform.
Commitment
Our FANB – the dignified and brave heir of this entire history – is setting an example for the world by its lucidity, courage and respect for the people, and at the same time maintaining and deepening its Bolivarian and Chavista nature. By creating military doctrine according to these ideas, it is able to defeat the bravado of the “paper tiger” and its sad puppies (the Lima Cartel and Europe, with the important exception of Greece, Italy, Serbia, Belarus and Russia). It organizes itself with the methods of people's struggle, victoriously demonstrated by the people and leadership of Vietnam. Becoming more and more People – Armed Forces, Armed Forces – People.
War
The white world – western Europe and its toxic emanations of the United States, Canada, Australia, the invaders, thieves of the land and resources, murderers of worlds, languages, cultures and many human beings – are imposing a war on us with a diversity of fronts: communicational, psychological, economic, diplomatic. They use a diversity of doctrines and theories: of “legitimate defense,” of “strategic intelligence,” of “rogue states,” of “the right to protect,” of “chaos,” of “failed states,” etc. All of these aggressions are converted, in one way or another, into terrorist acts against the civil population of our nation. The financial blockade (and now as well of goods and services), the theft of our accounts and assets are evil acts that violate all international conventions, diplomatic norms, and the norms of the financial system, the World Trade Organization. They also violate the established law in their own states, the Charter of the United Nations, the Vienna Convention... I stopped counting. Each and every one of these violations are converted into acts of terrorism and human harm, affecting the children, elderly, men and women of a country, without distinction of class, religion, age or political position.
Since they have failed to achieve their objective with this assault, they are now saying and acting that they intend to escalate to more violent, physical and direct attacks, through the financing of paramilitary groups, mercenary groups, of terrorists recruited from the criminal lumpen and the worst gangs of murderers in Colombia, Honduras and El Salvador. They have suggested the possibility of “importing” reactionary extremists from the Middle East. All of their “options” are criminal and obviously seek the death of innocent people.
The intent of sedition
The Venezuelan right wing, and the right wing in general, have always had their greatest ally when they have managed to separate the soldiers from the people, when officers come from oligarchic and wealthy families and are therefore the lackeys and servant of the empire. In Venezuela, historically, the people have provided the vast majority of officers, mainly from the middle classes, and not to mention the soldiers and lower-rank officers and even more our Bolivarian Militia. But what is most important is that they have taken up social consciousness – Comandante Chávez sowed consciousness in all the outposts and components of the FANB. They have tried to buy these patriots and have encountered a wall. Today, the very few that have betrayed us are found suffering the fate of every traitor to the homeland: despised by the people and their former comrades, made into rags in the dustbin of history, hated and discarded by those that convinced them to betray. They were not worth much, and now they are worth nothing.
Loyal forever
Venezuelan soldiers, Bolivarian and Chavista, are offering an exceptional example to the future generations of patriots across Our America and the world. Their struggle for sovereignty, for our second and definitive independence, their commitment to the people that they come from, their respect for our Constitution and the decisions emanating from the depths of the homeland. Their commitment with the ideas of Bolívar, Robinson, Zamora and Chávez. Their struggle against imperialism and neo-colonialism, their struggle for a multipolar world with social justice, providing for all and always respecting the rights of our Mother Earth. Their capacity to integrate with base organizations and our organized reality, the communes and communal councils and above all their loyalty to the Bolivarian project and to our Constitutional President Nicolás Maduro. For this and more, the FANB has and will have the full respect and admiration of the noble and fighting people, and all free peoples in the world, and together we will continue to make more solid and perfect our civic-military union.
Loyal Forever! Traitors Never!