Day 2 of International People’s Assembly for Sovereignty and Peace of Our Americas
Caracas, Venezuela – On December 10, thousands of delegates from over 50 countries gathered into the Venezuelan military club for the second day of the International People’s Assembly for Sovereignty and Peace of Our Americas.
The theme of unity was still present throughout the second day of the conference.
Hundreds of delegates conversed with each other throughout the club before the start of the event. The U.S. delegation brought out a banner reading “No war on Venezuela campaign! Stop the wars at home and abroad!” Hundreds of people gathered around the banner, including dozens of members of Pescadores y Acuicultores de la Patria. They chanted “Viva Venezuela! Viva Maduro! Viva Chavez!” It was a powerful display of unity between the people of the U.S., the Venezuelan people and the people of the world, standing in solidarity against U.S. imperialism.
Right before the assembly began, the U.S. delegation and several Venezuelan activists led a march around the perimeter of the assembly space. They chanted “El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!” “Es del río, es del mar! Palestina liberar!” and “Alerta, alerta, alerta que camina! La Espada de Bolívar por América Latina!” Around 100 people joined in chanting with the delegation.
To begin the assembly, there was a music performance that had all the international delegates dancing on the stage. The singer chanted “Paz! Paz! Paz! No guerra!”
The first panel of the assembly discussed Bolivarianism versus Monroeism. Rander Pena, the Venezuelan vice minister for Latin American affairs, discussed the dialectical relationship between Monroeism and Bolivarianism. He discussed how Monroeism tries to establish peace through force; it is a project that seeks to eradicate the self-determination of Latin American nations for the benefit of U.S. imperialism. This is contrary to Bolivarianism, which he described as a light for the people of Latin America, to create the bases of peace on the foundations of unity and justice.
Fermin Jorge Hernandez Martinez, a professor at the University of Havana in Cuba, spoke about the close connections between Cuba and Venezuela. He analyzed the current conditions of the United States, stating that Trump was a symptom of a dying U.S. imperialism. Trump is a reflection of internal changes taking place within the United States to adjust to its new, weakening position – this change also expressing itself through the country’s international relations, relations of open violence and domination of the global countries. He ended his speech by quoting Che Guevara, “The duty of a revolutionary is to make the revolution. The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall”
The panel finished with Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez. She began stating that the people of Venezuela will remain steadfast, that the attacks by the United States will not scare them.
After this panel, there were speakers who talked about the similar struggles of the people of Venezuela and the people of Palestine against U.S. imperialism and Zionism. They ended their speeches with proposals to further unite the struggle of the Palestinians with not just the Venezuelan struggle for liberation but the whole world as well.
The foreign minister of Venezuela, Yvan Gil, spoke afterwards. He denounced the U.S. military’s war threats towards Venezuela and called out the U.S.’s attempts at psychological warfare with the people to weaken their will. He emphasized that Venezuela will continue to defend human dignity, workers’ rights, the rights of indigenous peoples and the democratic rights of all. Gil stated that in response to the Monroe Doctrine must be the Bolivarian Doctrine, “the doctrine of the people, the doctrine of sovereignty.”
To conclude, Gil once again thanked the international delegates for coming to the conference and stated the goal of the Venezuelan people: to triumph and to win.