Tucson, AZ – On Wednesday November 17, former union bus driver and current president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, spoke to over 500 international solidarity activists from over 70 countries.

“Venezuela has been giving an intense battle against the aggression, siege, and lies from U.S. imperialism and its direct allies from the right on this continent and around the world,” Maduro stated. Maduro also lambasted the “cowardly left, the new indirect allies of U.S. imperialism who hide behind their masks of progressivism threaten our noble peoples who have been fighting.” Adding to the many achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution, Maduro said, “In Venezuela, we have advanced a real democracy that is direct and communal, with millions of men and women participating in the Communal Councils that every day is carrying out decisions and actions of the government and local self-government.”

The session concluded with Adán Chávez, Vice President of International Affairs for the United Venezuelan Socialist Party (PSUV). Chávez, the brother of deceased revolutionary President Hugo Chávez, expressed his appreciation and gratitude for the hundreds of international electoral observers in the country for the upcoming November 21 elections.

Venezuela has had an astounding 29 elections in the past 21 years, thanks in large part to the National Electoral Council, which Adán Chávez accounted for as one of the major achievements of the new constitution. These elections are expecting more than 20 million voters to participate in the vote to pick 335 mayors, 23 governors and more. He asked the electoral observers and solidarity activists to help Venezuela by transmitting the truth to the world in order to as a “counter-offensive to the media who has been sowing lies.” To rousing cheers and revolutionary salutes, Chávez said the Bolivarian Revolution “continues on the road to peace and our Bolivarian socialism.”

#TucsonAZ #Venezuela #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #NicolásMaduro #UnitedSocialistPartyPSUV

Fight Back! is circulating the following statement by Nicolas Maduro Moros, president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) stands in solidarity with the people of Venezuela and their leadership against U.S. military threats and economic blockade. The FRSO is preparing to participate in the Global Platform of Workers Against Imperialism this October 28, 29 and 30. To the Peoples of the World

Brothers and Sisters:

I greet you affectionately on the occasion of informing you about the recent actions undertaken by Venezuela to confront and overcome the illegal blockade that the government of the United States of America has been imposing against my country since almost twenty years ago, with special radicalism during the last five years, causing serious effects on the normal performance of the Venezuelan economy, with subsequent impact on the population's well-being.

In this regard, I want to inform you about the approval of a very important legislation that has been named ‘Anti-Blockade Law for National Development and the Guarantee of the Rights of the Venezuelan People': which is focused on defending the patrimony sovereignty and dignity of our Homeland as well as our people's right to peace, development and well-being.

It is a necessary legal response from the Venezuelan State, in perfect harmony with International Law, that will allow for the creation of mechanisms to improve the nation's income and generate rational and adequate incentives, under flexible controls, to stimulate internal economic activity and carry out productive alliances, through foreign investment, that favor national development.

At the same time, in the political area, I am honored to reiterate that in face of the external aggression that the Unilateral Coercive Measures posed by the United States against Venezuela, our banner is and will continue to be, strengthening and deepening our democracy.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, preparations for our legislative elections on December 6, continue with firm pace, where the population will massively concur to fulfill the constitutional mandate of electing a new national parliament.

In this election, whose conditions were agreed to with broad sectors of the democratic opposition of my country, over 90% of the organizations registered before the National Electoral Council will participate, for a total of 107 political parties -98 of them in opposition­ and over 14,000 candidates who will compete to obtain one of the 277 parliamentary seats.

The result of this electoral race will undoubtedly grant more strength to our nation and to our people, who have resisted foreign aggression with dignity and firmness and despite all, maintains its spirit of love and solidarity.

Comrades, having updated you on these two elements of the real situation in Venezuela, allow me to share with you some information of interest, to broaden the range of your knowledge on the general context that explains the current reality of my country.

Since 2014, the United States has approved a law and 7 decrees or executive orders, as well as 300 administrative measures, which together make up a sophisticated policy of multiform aggression against Venezuela.

In five years, the blockade succeeded in cutting off financing to Venezuela, preventing it from accessing the required currency to acquire food, medicine, spare parts, and essential raw materials for economic activity. During that period, Venezuela experienced the sharpest fall in its external income in all of its history, close to 99%.

The United States has decreed a ban on the commercialization of Venezuelan hydrocarbons, its main export product and source of fiscal income. In this context, since the beginning of the new coronavirus pandemic, on different opportunities the United States has publicly boasted having assaulted ships bringing Venezuela the required products to produce gasoline and supply the internal fuel market, aggravating even more the economic situation.

Invoking this illegal regulation, the United States has confiscated money and assets from POVSA, the Venezuelan State oil company, including several refineries on U.S. soil, whose worth exceeds 40 billion dollars.

These legal instruments are the arm that applies a cruel blockade against the Venezuelan people, which Alfred de Zayas, an independent United Nations expert on Human Rights, describes unequivocally as “crimes against humanity.”

In this regard, in an investigation from the Center for Economic and Policy Research of the United States on the blockade on Venezuela, the American economist Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to the United Nations Organization on the Sustainable Development Goals, determined that the blockade against Venezuela is responsible for at least 40,000 deaths in my country, for which the sanctions must be considered as a “collective punishment of the Venezuelan people.”

In a surprising official statement on January 2018, the U.S. State Department admitted its illegal intentions:

“The pressure campaign against Venezuela is working. The financial sanctions that we have imposed have forced the Government to begin to default, both in its sovereign debt as well as that of PDVSA, its oil company. And what we are seeing (...) is a total economic collapse in Venezuela. Therefore, our policy works, our strategy works and we will maintain it.”

This is a confession of an international crime, an act of economic savagery, a crime against humanity, with the only purpose of hurting my country and the people of Venezuela.

The illegal application of Unilateral Coercive Measures, called with the euphemism of “sanctions”, is a policy repeatedly rejected by the United Nations General Assembly, contrary to International Law and a violation of the United Nations Charter.

For all the above mentioned, last February 13, Venezuela went to the International Criminal Court to denounce those who, from the United States, have committed these atrocious crimes against humanity. I am confident that sooner than later, international justice will look upon Venezuela with objectivity and will see the great damage that the United States has produced on a pacific, loving and hard-working people.

I want to express my gratitude for the consideration that you have had in reviewing the content of this letter, which I hope has been useful in order to keep you correctly informed on the real situation of Venezuela, and at the same time I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your permanent solidarity towards Venezuela. Together we shall overcome!

Sincerely,

Nicolas Maduro Moros President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

#Venezuela #PeoplesStruggles #NicolásMaduro #Americas

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the International League of Peoples’ Struggle – US chapter.

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle – US chapter (ILPS US) expresses our deep and genuine solidarity with the people of Venezuela and their government under duly-elected President Nicolas Maduro. We absolutely reject the war mongering of the Donald Trump administration, including the fabricated charges of drug trafficking against President Maduro, the deployment of the U.S. Navy to Venezuela under the flimsy guise of fighting drug trafficking, and the continuing economic sanctions in an attempt to destroy the Venezuelan economy and destabilize the government.

To blindly follow Trump’s statements without question is an outright denial of facts and history. One only has to look at Trump’s own personal history of blatant lies (most recently with his handling of the entire COVID 19 pandemic) to uncover his tactics of creating his own truth for the sake of consolidating more power for his family and crony dynasty. It is the same type of lies the US has used in its long history of military intervention and imperialist violation of the sovereignty of other nations — deposing democratically elected leaders across Latin America, Africa, Middle East, Asia and Europe.

We recognize Maduro and the Venezuelan people’s desires for fraternal relationships, cooperation, exchange and respect as true signs of international solidarity. We applaud Venezuela’s response to the COVID 19 pandemic which supports workers and their families by guaranteeing workers’ wages and banning lay-offs.

The ILPS US CC commits ourselves to exposing and opposing imperialism, its neoliberal policies and its neo-fascist leaders, and we demand the US government focus instead on providing for the dire needs of the vast majority of the working class families and impoverished people within the US. We call for the lifting of US sanctions against Venezuela along with those against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, China, Iran, Cuba, Palestine and elsewhere, which only serve to strangle and deprive the people of much needed medical supplies and other basic necessities for their survival. The world is in crisis, which needs international solidarity and a concerted effort to not only fight COVID 19 but also to bring an end to the deeper pandemic of imperialism and build towards the genuine solution to the crisis—a socialist future!

#UnitedStates #AntiwarMovement #OppressedNationalities #Venezuela #US #Americas #Healthcare #PeoplesStruggles #ChicanoLatino #InternationalLeagueOfPeoplesStruggle #Socialism #NicolásMaduro #DonaldTrump

Lucha y Resiste está promoviendo una declaración del Presidente de Venezuela Nicolás Maduro al pueblo de los Estados Unidos. El administracion del Trump esta subiendo el nivel de atentados a derrotar el Presidente Maduro y La Revolucion Bolivariana por poniendo cargas de narco-terrorismo al Maduro y otros en el gobierno. El administración del Trump también publicó un plan a alterar el gobierno Venezolano para permitir la oposición de los elites que toman más poder. Eso es a preparar un otro atentado del golpe del estado por los EEUU en apoyo de los no elegidos bobolongos. La semana pasada el Presidente Trump ordenó un grave augmentacion de los barcos de la Armada patrullando en el área del Caribe cera a Venezuela como una provocación. Al Pueblo de los Estados Unidos de América:

Desde hace semanas, el mundo está paralizado, intentando controlar una pandemia que sin duda es el desafío más grande que hemos enfrentado juntos como sociedad y comunidad internacional. Al igual que para el pueblo de Estados Unidos, confrontarla es nuestra prioridad.

Afortunadamente, en Venezuela hemos contado con algunas ventajas. Tomamos medidas muy tempranas de aislamiento y el despistaje ampliado, apoyándonos en nuestro sistema público y gratuito de salud, que cuenta con médicos de familia alrededor de todo el país. Contamos también con la invalorable organización comunitaria para ayudar a elevar la conciencia social y brindar apoyo a los más vulnerables. Igualmente, la solidaridad de Cuba, China, Rusia y el apoyo de la Organización Mundial de la Salud, nos ha permitido obtener insumos médicos necesarios, a pesar de las sanciones ilegales de Donald Trump.

Al expresarles mi solidaridad ante este importante desafío histórico y nuestra consternación y dolor por las consecuencias de la pandemia en EEUU, me veo obligado a también alertarles que, mientras el mundo se enfoca en atender la emergencia del COVID-19, el gobierno de Trump, instrumentalizando una vez más las instituciones para alcanzar sus objetivos electorales y basándose en infamias bajo pretexto de la lucha contra las drogas, ha ordenado el despliegue militar más grande de Estados Unidos hacia nuestra región en 30 años, con el fin de amenazar a Venezuela y de llevar a nuestra región a un conflicto bélico costoso, sangriento y de duración indefinida.

Como antecedente a esta maniobra falaz, el pasado 26 de marzo, William Barr, un Fiscal General de cuestionable independencia (quien recomendó la invasión de 1989 a Panamá contra Noriega y ayudó a encubrir las irregularidades del escándalo Irán-Contra), presentó, sin mostrar prueba alguna, acusaciones de narcotráfico hacia los Estados Unidos contra mí y contra altos funcionarios del Estado venezolano, a pesar de que la información del propio Departamento de Defensa demuestra que Venezuela no es un país de tránsito primario de drogas hacia los Estados Unidos, como sí lo son países aliados de Washington como Colombia u Honduras.

Es claro, que la administración Trump construye una cortina de humo para ocultar el improvisado y errático manejo de la pandemia en Estados Unidos. Desde un principio Donald Trump le restó importancia y la negó, tal como ha hecho con el cambio climático. Hoy la crisis se agrava simplemente porque, pese a contar con recursos, no está dispuesto a transformar el sistema de salud en uno que priorice el cuidado pleno de la población y no el lucro de ganancias de la medicina privada, las compañías de seguros y las farmacéuticas.

Nosotros en Venezuela no queremos un conflicto armado en nuestra región. Queremos relaciones fraternales, de cooperación, de intercambio y de respeto.

No podemos aceptar amenazas bélicas, ni bloqueos, ni tampoco la intención de instalar un tutelaje internacional que viola nuestra soberanía y desconoce los avances del último año en el diálogo político sincero entre el gobierno y gran parte de la oposición venezolana, que desea soluciones políticas, y no guerras por petróleo.

Por todo lo anterior, hago un llamado al pueblo de los Estados Unidos para que ponga freno a esta locura, para que responsabilice a sus gobernantes y los obligue a enfocar su atención y sus recursos en la atención urgente de la pandemia. Pido, junto al cese de las amenazas militares, el fin de las sanciones ilegales y el bloqueo que restringe el acceso a insumos humanitarios, tan necesarios hoy en el país. Les pido, con el corazón en la mano, que no permitan que su país se vea arrastrado, una vez más, a otro conflicto interminable, otro Vietnam u otro Irak, pero esta vez más cerca de casa.

No somos tan diferentes, como nos quieren hacer creer con infamias. Somos pueblos buscando una sociedad más justa, libre y compasiva. No dejemos que los intereses particulares de minorías cegadas por ambición nos separen. Nosotros, como dijo una vez nuestro líder Hugo Chávez, compartimos el mismo sueño. El sueño de Martin Luther King es también el sueño de Venezuela y de su gobierno revolucionario. Los invito a luchar juntos por hacer realidad ese sueño.

No a la guerra de Estados Unidos contra Venezuela No más sanciones criminales Queremos Paz

#Venezuela #Socialism #PeoplesStruggles #PSUV #USA #NicolásMaduro #Trump #Americas

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to the people of the US. The Trump administration is escalating attempts to bring down President Maduro and the Bolivarian Revolution, making bogus charges against Maduro and other officials. The Trump administration also published a plan that would radically alter the Venezuelan government's branches of power. This is to prepare for yet another coup attempt by the U.S. in support of unelected scoundrels. This past week President Trump ordered a serious increase of US Naval ships patrolling Caribbean waters near Venezuela as a provocation.

Caracas, April 3, 2020

To the People of the United States of America:

For weeks now, the world stands still, trying to control a pandemic that, without any doubt, is the greatest challenge we have faced together as a society and as an international community. Our priority is confronting it, as is the priority of the people of the United States.

Fortunately, in Venezuela, we have been able to count on some advantages. We took very early measures of social distancing and amplified testing, relying on our free and public healthcare system that counts doctors throughout the country with what we call family. We also rely on the invaluable community-based organizations to help raise social awareness and support the most vulnerable sectors. The solidarity of Cuba, China, and Russia, and the support of the World Health Organization has likewise allowed us to obtain necessary medical supplies despite Donald Trump's illegal sanctions.

In expressing my solidarity to you in this important historic challenge, as well as our consternation and grief for the consequences of the pandemic in the U.S., I also have the obligation to make you aware that as the world focuses on dealing with the COVID-19 emergency, the Trump Administration, once again instrumentalizing institutions in order to fulfill electoral objectives, and based on infamies under the pretext of the War on Drugs, has ordered the largest U.S. military deployment in our region in the last 30 years, with the purpose of threatening Venezuela and bringing to our region a costly, bloody, military conflict of indefinite duration.

In the runup to this fallacious maneuver, last March 26, William Barr, an Attorney General of questionable independence (who recommended the 1989 invasion of Panama against Noriega and helped cover up the irregularities of the Iran-Contra scandal) filed, without showing any evidence whatsoever, accusations of drug trafficking towards the United States against myself and against senior Venezuelan State officials, even though data from the Department of Defense itself show that, unlike Colombia and Honduras, two of Washington's allied countries, Venezuela is not a primary transit country towards the United States.

It is clear that the Trump Administration is creating a smokescreen to cloud the improvised and erratic handling of the pandemic in the United States. The most optimistic forecast shows that close to 240,000 souls will be lost in the United States. From the beginning, Donald Trump downplayed and even denied it, the same way he has done with climate change. Today, the crisis in the United States aggravates simply because, despite having the resources, he is not willing to transform the healthcare system to prioritize full care for the population instead of profit-based private medicine, insurance companies and pharmaceutical industry.

Wein Venezuela do not want an armed conflict in our region. We want brotherly relations of cooperation, exchange and respect.

We canot accept war threats, nor blockades, nor can we accept the intention of installing an international tutelage that violates our sovereignty and disavows the progress made in the last year in the sincere political dialogue between the government and a large part of the Venezuelan opposition that wants political solutions and not oil wars.

Based on the foregoing, I call upon the people of the United States to stop this madness, to hold your officials accountable and to force them to focus their attention and their resources on urgently addressing the pandemic. I also ask, together with the end to military threats, the end to the illegal sanctions and blockade that restrict the access of humanitarian goods that are so necessary for the country today. I wholeheartedly ask you not to allow your country to be dragged once again into another unending conflict, another Viet Nam, another Iraq, but this time, closer to home.

The peoples of the United States and Venezuela are not as different as their lies intend us to believe. We are peoples seeking a more just, free, and compassionate society. Let us not let the particular interests of minorities blinded by ambition set us apart. We, as our leader Hugo Chavez once said, share the same dream. The dream of Martin Luther King is also the dream of Venezuela and its revolutionary government. I invite you to struggle together in order to make that dream come true.

No to a United States war against Venezuela.

No more criminal sanctions.

We want peace.

#Caracas #Venezuela #Socialism #PeoplesStruggles #PSUV #USA #NicolásMaduro #Trump #Americas

Minneapolis, MN – Over 40 people gathered March 1 to hear Brad Sigal and Sarah Martin talk about their experience at the third World Anti-Imperialist Congress in Venezuela. This Congress was attended by over 1500 delegates from 73 countries in January, included a delegation from Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO). The delegates were able to bring their organizational and individual experience to Caracas to work with each other on resisting imperialism.

Since Nicolás Maduro was elected president, the U.S. has ratcheted up sanctions, currency manipulation, and backed coup attempts to destabilize Venezuela. The Bolivarian Revolution stands strong against all attempts by the U.S. to stand in the way of progress towards a more just and equitable society.

Maduro, a former union bus driver, shared that the Washington Post recently asked him what the key was to surviving the Juan Guaidó coup attempt. He responded: “Don’t ask me, ask the people who went in the streets to defend their revolution.”

One of the most devastating weapons of U.S. imperialism are the sanctions levied against the Venezuelan people. A study of sanctions by the Sanctions Kill campaign found that it has led to the deaths of over 40,000 Venezuelans by restricting food, medicine and medicinal equipment. On top of this, the sanctions create day-to-day inconveniences when parts are not available to repair infrastructure.

Venezuelans had three asks for those in the United States: organize people against U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, organize against sanctions, and convince the U.S. government to let Venezuela be.

Sarah Martin addressed the group saying, “We live in the belly of the beast, it is our responsibility to understand and take action.” Sigal and Martin called to build support for the revolutionary socialist movement in Venezuela, President Maduro, and the socialist movement in the United States.

#MinneapolisMN #Venezuela #PeoplesStruggles #frso #NicolásMaduro #Americas

Caracas, Venezuela – On the final day of the World Anti Imperialist Congress, January 24, Venezuelan President Nicólas Maduro spoke to the hundreds of international delegates from over fifty countries. A delegation from Freedom Road Socialist Organization is participating in the Congress.

With a Syrian professor and member of Ba’ath Party at his side, Maduro began with a story of a visit he had alongside Hugo Chavez to Syria when thousands of Syrians surrounded his vehicle in Damascus and lifted the car in celebration of a brave anti-imperialist leader. Maduro followed this with a declaration of solidarity to the Syrians for surviving an imperialist intervention.

After a brief comment on the vicious brutality of the capitalist system, Maduro stated: “It is here that we are the vanguard of a model of socialism, of anti-imperialism that will transform the world for humanity.” He followed with a quote in reference to the decline of U.S. Imperialism: “Mao Zedong called US Imperialism a paper tiger.” And that “we will build the new world that is coming.”

Mentioning the recent massive demonstration of millions of Iraqis in the streets of Baghdad, Maduro shamed the human rights organizations of the world for not caring about the lives of Iraqis for the last seventeen years of US Imperialist murder, terrorism and bombings. “All of my support to Iraq, all of our support to Iraq! All of Venezuela stands with Iraq!” he added.

Maduro, a former union bus driver, shared that the Washington Post recently asked him what the key was to surviving the Juan Guaidó coup attempt. He responded: “Don’t ask me, ask the people who went in the streets to defend their revolution.” He said the U.S. has spent tens of millions of dollars but could not break the spirit of the Venezuelan people in a revolutionary process.

“I know the US well. I used to drive a bus from Boston to New York, to Philadelphia, to Washington DC. I am not anti-American. I am anti-imperialist. We are anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist, anti-racist,” Maduro expressed in a statement of solidarity to the working people of the US.

The meeting finished with a surprise presentation from the Communist Party of Russia who presented the Order of Lenin to President Maduro. “We all have Lenin in our hearts. This is a commitment. A revolutionary commitment to build socialism in the 21st century” said as they shook hands.

At the conclusion of the Congress, the working groups of delegates presented their resolutions containing many statements of solidarity and their plans of international collaboration against imperialism.

#CaracasVenezuela #Caracas #International #AntiwarMovement #Venezuela #US #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #Socialism #NicolásMaduro #BolivarianRevolution #DonaldTrump #WorldAntiImperialistCongress

Caracas, Venezuela – On January 23, thousands marched in Caracas and listened to a fiery speech from President Maduro to mark two important historic events. In 1958, mass movements joined with patriotic forces in the military to bring down the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jímenez. This was the model of civic-military unity that President Hugo Chávez used in his vision of a Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. Unfortunately for Venezuelans, the fall of the Jímenez dictatorship was a short-lived victory. The betrayal of this victory ushered in 40 years of violent repression of communists and other dissidents and disastrous economic policies like import substitution and neoliberal privatizations of important public services. By 1989, the massive poverty created by neoliberal policies led to an urban rebellion of workers and the poor, which led to a vicious police crackdown that killed over 3000 people. Three years later, paratrooper commander Hugo Chávez led a military uprising that ultimately failed but created a lasting popularity in the minds of millions of Venezuelans.

Also, On January 23 one year ago, the largely unknown National Assembly member Juan Guaidó, with full support and coordination from billionaire President Trump and the U.S. government, declared himself the new president of Venezuela. Like the U.S.-sponsored coup attempt against Hugo Chávez in 2002, it was the masses of working people and campesinos who rescued their leader and saved their revolution from the oligarchs in the opposition.

From the historic balcony of the Miraflores Presidential Palace, former union bus driver President Nicólas Maduro recounted the past year of coup attempts and mocked the political circus of the opposition to the crowd of supporters of the Bolivarian Revolution. “Did they win?” he asked the crowd. “No!” they roared. “Did their actions serve the people?” “No!” “Are they more divided?” “Si!” “Are they powerless?” “Si!” went the exchange between Maduro and the crowd of the various sectors of social movements.

Maduro continued with his plan to create dialogue between the government and the right-wing opposition by inviting international partners like UN General Secretary Antonio Gutierrez to observe this year’s National Assembly election. “We want everybody to participate in this coming National Assembly election so that we can crush the opposition and leave no doubt!” boomed Maduro to a thunderous approval.

At many points during his speech Maduro addressed the hundreds of international delegates from the World Anti-Imperialist Congress in attendance as he declared the firm position of anti-imperialism of the Bolivarian Revolution.

#CaracasVenezuela #Caracas #AntiwarMovement #Venezuela #US #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #Socialism #NicolásMaduro #BolivarianRevolution #DonaldTrump #JuanGuaidó

Chicago, IL – On Monday September 16, the leaders of several opposition parties arrived at the Foreign Ministry in downtown Caracas to participate in the Roundtable of National Dialogue organized by the elected government of Nicolás Maduro. The Roundtable was established in the aftermath of the fascist violence in 2017, which was a response to the Supreme Court's decision to strip the National Assembly of its powers after its refusal to adhere to the country's constitution.

On the first day of the meeting, representatives from the government and the opposition parties announced six agreements that had been reached as prerequisites to the coming discussions. The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and its allied parties will have their delegates retake their seats in the National Assembly, a prerequisite to the body returning to its legislative duties. The opposition parties also agreed to work to end U.S. sanctions, to support the exchange of Venezuelan oil for food and medicine, and to support Venezuelan sovereignty over the Esequiba region currently in dispute with Guyana. In return, the government agreed to the selection of new leaders for the National Electoral Council (CNE) and to permit the opening of release trials for imprisoned opposition figures.

This is a significant development. Since the end of the fascist violence over two years ago, the opposition had embraced the leadership of far-right parties such as Popular Will, whose leaders Leopoldo López and Juan Guaidó advocated the violent overthrow of the elected government of Nicolás Maduro. At the time, all of the opposition parties belonged to a single coalition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD).

A split began to emerge in the opposition camp though, as it became obvious that the embrace of violence only led to the opposition's isolation from the Venezuelan people. Beginning in the summer of 2017, Popular Will's leaders called on all parties of the MUD to boycott upcoming elections. Several small parties broke ranks and fielded candidates, and in 2018 a handful of parties backed opposition figure Henri Falcón to run against Maduro in the presidential elections. It was when Juan Guaidó's campaign to overthrow Maduro began in January 2019 that the opposition coalition formally collapsed. Several parties refused to participate in a political movement whose only stated goal seemed to be seizing power through a U.S. invasion.

Of the dozen opposition parties, four are participating in the Roundtable of National Dialogue – Progressive Advance, the Movement to Socialism, Solutions and the Movement for Change. While it is unclear if more plan to join, the announcement of today's agreements marks a huge blow to the U.S. campaign against the Maduro government. The beginning of dialogue demonstrates Guaidó's isolation and irrelevance from Venezuelan reality.

It also reveals the failure of U.S. sabotage and sanctions. Far from breaking the unity between the Venezuelan people and the Maduro government, it has strengthened them, to the point where it is now becoming clear to opposition parties that the only way they will continue to exist into the future is if they join the revolution in rejecting U.S. imperialism.

#ChicagoIL #OppressedNationalities #Venezuela #US #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #ChicanoLatino #Socialism #NicolásMaduro #BolivarianRevolution #DonaldTrump #RoundtableOfNationalDialogue

Caracas, Venezuela – The closing event of the 25th Foro de Sao Paulo (Sal Paulo Forum) on July 28 began with a speech by Monica Valente, the Executive Secretary of the Foro de Sao Paulo and the International Secretary of the Workers Party of Brazil. The next speaker was Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, leading up to a spirited speech by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The event honored the 65th birthday of President Hugo Chavez, who died in 2013. The speakers referenced his ideas and leadership in making the Bolivarian revolution possible. During a video display of the life of Hugo Chavez, women and men in the crowd were openly weeping while others simultaneously cheered.

Delegations to the Foro de Sao Paulo committed in the final declaration to act together in solidarity with Venezuela, Latin America and other countries of the world against U.S. aggression. Among the 1200 audience members were Foro de Sao Paulo members and leaders of socialist, communist and revolutionary parties from every Latin American country, most of Central America and the Caribbean, as well as Mexico.

Delegations from other countries included the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ambassador to Venezuela, Palestinians from various groups, the grandson of Nelson Mandela from South Africa, representatives of movements and left parties of Europe including the Basque Country and Ireland, as well as Canadian international solidarity activists and, from the U.S., the Venezuelan Embassy protectors, and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization delegation.

After President Maduro took the stage, smiling, waving and pumping his fist in the air, the crowd chanted, “Alerta! Alerta! Alerta que camina, la espada de Bolivar por America Latina! (Alert! Alert, Alert! Bolivar's sword is marching through Latin America!)”

Upon finishing greetings and saluting all the participants, Maduro praised the Puerto Rican independence movement, saying “Adelante Puerto Rico! Que viva Puerto Rico libre!” (Forward Puerto Rico! Long live free Puerto Rico!”

President Maduro then spoke about Colombia saying, “We are waiting here for Ivan Marquez and Jesus Santrich of the FARC. They are welcome here in Venezuela, at the Foro de Sao Paulo, or whenever they want to come, because they are the leaders of the peace in Colombia.” The two FARC leaders are being threatened with prosecutions by the Colombian government, despite the peace process, and are now on the run, rumored to be in the mountains.

The audience rose in a standing ovation. Maduro explained how, despite signing a peace accord, the leaders of unions, peasant groups, and FARC members continue being killed by the death squads of the Colombian government. He then called to and waved at a woman waving a FARC flag, ex-political prisoner Liliana Obando.

President Maduro then spoke of an international campaign targeting him that is “brutal, manipulating, lying, and opposed to our political process.” He joked about those attacking him, by labeling him a ‘dictator.’

Maduro said, “This does not offend me. For sure, we are now considering the dictatorship of the proletariat, the dictatorship of the proletariat of Karl Marx...the dictatorship of the anti-imperialist workers.”

President Maduro finished by saluting the Foro of Sao Paolo. He called for the unity between the movements and parties of Latin America. He praised the important leadership and vision of President Chavez, the falsely imprisoned President Lula of Brazil, and Cuba’s Fidel Castro. Lula and Castro were the original founders of the Foro de Sao Paulo.

#CaracasVenezuela #Caracas #AntiwarMovement #OppressedNationalities #Venezuela #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #ChicanoLatino #Socialism #NicolásMaduro #SaoPaoloForum

Minneapolis, MN – 30 people held signs reading “Hands off Venezuela” and a big banner saying “No coup – no sanctions – no war – hands off Venezuela” on a bridge from Loring Park to the Walker Sculpture Garden over Interstate 94 in Minneapolis during rush hour, May 30. Ten lanes of traffic filled with rush hour traffic traveled underneath. The protesters heard hundreds of honks of agreement that the U.S. shouldn’t intervene in Venezuela.

Afterwards protesters gathered to hear from Tracy Molm, a member of the MN Anti-War Committee, to hear an update from Venezuela, “Today we were seen by thousands of people in Minneapolis, standing up to U.S. imperialist aims on Venezuela. Trump and Bolton continue to attempt to destabilize and force inhumane sanctions on Venezuela. My trip there last month showed me the strength of people standing together and fighting for a better world – as the Venezuelan people and government try to forge ahead in their aims towards a country that is focused on people’s needs like housing, food and education. While next door to Venezuela, the U.S. is destabilizing the Peace Process in Colombia. Ex-combatants who put down their arms to pursue a peaceful end to conflict are now being executed, and this is happening to further U.S. imperialist interests and control in the region. We need to continue to stand up and fight back against U.S. intervention, war and sanctions in Latin America! Continue to stand against the U.S. media narrative demonizing the Maduro government in Venezuela.”

The bannering was organized by the MN Anti-War Committee and endorsed by the MN Cuba Committee and Women Against Military Madness.

#MinneapolisMN #International #AntiwarMovement #OppressedNationalities #Venezuela #US #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #ChicanoLatino #AntiWarCommittee #Socialism #NicolásMaduro #DonaldTrump #HandsOffVenezuela

Chicago, IL – On May 20, a massive rally filled downtown Caracas as Venezuela’s revolutionary movement marked one year since Nicolás Maduro was elected to a second term as president. The celebration comes just three weeks after Juan Guaidó, the Trump-appointed leader of the Venezuelan far right, launched a failed military coup against Maduro.

Since that foolish day, events in Venezuela have accelerated. The opposition lies defeated, and the revolutionary movement advances, millions strong, to with the aim of socialism.

The collapse of the counter-revolution

On April 30, Juan Guaidó declared the “final stage of Operation Liberty.” He called on his supporters to take to the streets and for the military to defect to him and storm the presidential palace. Guaidó made this demand at dawn. By noon, he and his cohort were running to hide in an embassy as the few hundred armed protesters who came to his call were being dispersed, and 80 of the 100 soldiers who defected to his side were surrendering to police. At the same time that this spectacle of malcontent unfolded outside La Carlota airbase in eastern Caracas, over 50,000 workers and “pueblo humilde” encircled the presidential palace, standing guard to defend their revolution with their own lives.

In the days since the crescendo of Guaidó’s ‘Operation Liberty,’ the extent of his defeat has become known. His whereabouts remain unknown, since he was refused entry at the Chilean and Spanish embassies. He is wanted by the police for armed insurrection and treason. The handful of defected soldiers who managed to escape to Colombia are now being told by that country’s government to either seek employment or leave – they cannot sit around pretending they are about to overthrow a neighboring state. Manuel Figuera, the head of the state security service and the highest-level defector to Guaidó, was immediately dismissed and is expected to be found in Colombia as well.

Guaidó’s co-conspirators in the National Assembly are in similar dire straits. On May 7, they were stripped of parliamentary immunity and the attorney general opened cases against all seven of them for “betrayal of the homeland, conspiracy, attempt at insurrection, civil rebellion, conspiracy to commit a crime, usurpation of their elected duties, public instigation to disobedience, and hate crimes.” All have fled the country or are in hiding, except for Guaidó’s second-in-command, the vice president of Democratic Action (AD), Edgar Zambrano, who was arrested while attempting to flee with thousands of U.S. dollars and several weapons.

Guaidó’s stunt also led to the collapse of the opposition camp, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD). COPEI, one of the founding parties of the coalition, published an open letter signed by 350 opposition politicians and figures that condemned Guaidó and his support for an invasion of their own country. While they refused to support Maduro and continue to demand his removal from power, the signatories acknowledged that the armed attacks on the government were not a winning strategy.

In a surprise to everyone in Venezuela, Maria Corina Machado – the most prominent opposition figure besides López and Guaidó, someone who openly embraces their bourgeois lifestyle and cannot hide their contempt for the poor – publicly broke with the U.S. narrative and said that “Maduro is not a dictator.” She then went on to say that the opposition’s tactics have failed to dislodge the revolution, nor prevent it from spreading beyond Venezuela, and that the only option left is U.S. military intervention.

When one of the opposition’s top figures believes that they no longer have the popular support to defeat the government, by any avenue, this can only be understood as the opposition admitting that they have been soundly defeated within Venezuela.

At one time, the opposition could call on hundreds of thousands of people – mainly students, professionals and lumpen elements – to take to the streets at their call. Now, after embracing the fascist violence of the Popular Will Party and following the direction of its leaders Leopoldo López and Juan Guaidó, the opposition is socially ostracized, politically illegitimate, and is in open revolt with itself. No wonder then, that the remnants of Guaidó’s conspiracy are rumored to be considering Maduro’s long-offered invitation to peace talks.

“The New Beginning” of the revolution

On the other side of Venezuelan society, we find the Bolivarian revolutionary movement more organized than ever before, and more determined to seize the future.

Just one day after the April 30 coup attempt, hundreds of thousands of workers marched through Caracas in commemoration of May Day. Speaking at the rally at the end of the march, to thunderous applause, was President Maduro. He thanked the workers for standing behind their government against all of the attacks of imperialism in recent years, but he went on to say that it was not enough. Maduro compared the revolutionary movement to a boxer – with one fist, it defends the gains of the process from all threats foreign and domestic, but with the other it must attack, advancing decisively towards socialism. He admitted that errors have been made, making an open self-criticism before all those assembled, and called on the masses to raise up their criticisms of the revolutionary government, to bring forward their own proposals in order to rectify errors, and to ensure that the Bolivarian movement continues to advance. “Let us go on to great changes, to a great renovation, a great rectification that is urgently needed within the revolution,” he declared to chants and cheers. “Towards the New Beginning, always together with the people.”

The events of the “great rectification” over the next two weeks reflect the unprecedented level of organization of the revolutionary movement. Three nationwide gatherings took place simultaneously: the reopening of the Fourth Congress of the United Socialist Party (PSUV), the Bolivarian People’s Congress and the gathering of Bolivarian governors and mayors.

The PSUV Fourth Congress, held in several sessions across the country, brought together delegates from roughly 13,000 Bolívar-Chávez Battle Units (the basic party unit of the PSUV) and 32,000 Local Supplies and Production Committees (the revolutionary committees tasked with distributing free food to families in need). Over 800 proposals were submitted through the sessions, many of them with overlapping ideas. Among them, according to PSUV Bulletin #153, was: ideological training for all public functionaries, employees of state-owned companies and police officers; “the elimination of the ideology of colonialism” in the education system; and the direct involvement of the Party in establishing new “social property enterprises” focused on food production in every municipality within the next six months. The most discussed proposal, however, had to do with the need to establish the new state – the communal state. “The slogan ‘commune or nothing’ must be made reality,” the bulletin declared, “strengthening the communal organization's ability for economic and productive control.”

The Bolivarian People’s Congress took place on a similar scale to the PSUV, that is to say, staggering. The Congress was established by Maduro to bring together the social formations of the revolution: the communal councils, the communes and the social movements. Its sessions held across the country brought together representatives from all of them – from 47,896 communal councils, 3094 communes and 56 social movements. From this wide net across Venezuelan society, the Congress collected over 21,000 proposals from the masses. Like the sessions of the PSUV Congress, the single-largest number of proposals called for the revolutionary transformation of the state – the creation of the communal state that has been the goal of the Bolivarian movement for years.

At one of the assemblies of the Congress, Education Minister Aristóbulo Istúriz stressed the need for the government and the mass movements to work as one to deepen the revolutionary process. “Here we ratify our loyalty and certainty in the building of the future,” Istúriz declared. “It is not with the escuálidos, nor with the imperialists, but with the people that we solve our problems, it is with the Bolivarian Revolution that we deepen the construction of socialism.”

The second fist strikes

Time moves fast in Venezuela. It had been moving fast since Maduro was elected in 2013, and it has been moving even faster since Guaidó began his charade in January. Despite the opposition falling flat on their face, again and again, U.S. imperialism has not stepped back from its commitment to crushing the revolutionary movement. Now it knows that, when it makes its final move to bring down the Bolivarian Revolution, it will face a nation of 30 million people as firm as steel, united behind their militias, their armed forces, their mass organizations and their party.

An organized people cannot be defeated – America’s ruling class learned this lesson very well in Vietnam, but it seems that Venezuela must offer it a reminder of this historic truth.

#ChicagoIL #Venezuela #PeoplesStruggles #NicolásMaduro #JuanGuaidó #Americas

Fight Back! interviews noted anti-war activist Sarah Martin, of the Minnesota-based Women Against Military Madness. Martin traveled to Venezuela on a solidarity delegation organized by the U.S. Peace Council, March 11-18. Fight Back!: The corporate media says Venezuela’s government, headed by President Maduro and the national democratic Bolivarian Revolution, has little popular support. What were your impressions?

Sarah Martin: This is one of the many lies told by the media, who once again are spewing the U.S. administration’s propaganda for a U.S.-orchestrated coup. Maduro is a democratically elected president. He received 67% of the vote in an election in an electoral system that is internationally recognized as one of the world’s freest, fairest, most open and secure.

The majority of the people of the country, including members of the government and Maduro, are black or brown and come from the working class and the poor. Maduro was a bus driver This is Maduro and the Bolivarian movement’s base. Whereas, the opposition is largely white and represents the elite.

When we arrived, the country was in the midst of a blackout caused by a U.S. cyberattack on the electrical system. This was supposed to cause great chaos and unrest resulting in the people rising up against the Maduro government. Instead, Venezuelans understood this was a coup attempt and they resisted and pulled together. The government distributed food and water and kept the buses running, There was no looting and the streets were calm. Venezuelans knew this was another imperialist challenge to their revolution and government and understood the importance of resisting and being unified.

They also understand that even though this attack failed, there will be more, and they must be prepared. To protect against a right-wing opposition attack on the president, unions, community, students, housing and women’s groups have set up an occupation outside the presidential palace.. Thousands of people are taking part.

On Saturday, March 16, the government called for an anti-imperialist pro-Bolivarian march. 1000,000-plus people came; as far as the eye could see in both direction a sea of red. These kinds of demonstrations have been held every week since Guaido self-declared himself president. In contrast, the opposition rally and march was very small. Clearly, the U.S. coup effort is failing and the political future of Juan Guaido, the self-declared puppet for Trump, is fading.

Fight Back!: What kind of damage have the U.S. sanctions, along with the economic sabotage of Venezuela’s elite, done to the economy, and how have these attacks affected the livelihood of the country’s working people?

Martin: The sanctions and economic attacks on Venezuela are worse than those on Cuba or Iran. They are criminal and a form of warfare. United Nations Human Rights Council said just a few days ago, that the International Criminal Court should investigate economic sanctions by the U.S. against Venezuela as a possible crime against humanity. And every day the noose is tightened. Factories have left the country. Goods were hoarded, prices were hiked exorbitantly and subsidized basic goods were smuggled out of the country. Business owners openly broke the country's labor laws, engaging in mass layoffs and shuttering plants without any warning. As the economy spiraled into crisis, the working class and the poor were made to feel great pain. Essential medicines are in a very dangerous short supply. The country could build its own drug labs but can’t because materials needed to build them can’t be imported. It’s difficult to import food. Government services and programs have been at risk because its accounts from oil sales are frozen in foreign banks.

Over the last five years, Venezuelan per capita income has dropped by 40%. Hyperinflation cut down on people’s ability to buy anything. This has actually stabilized recently. Furthermore, the country has lost billions of dollars in oil sales.

Fight Back!: What are the accomplishments of Venezuela’s government?

Martin: Since 1999 when Chavez first came to power, 50% of poverty has been eliminated and extreme poverty has disappeared. A Cuban-style health care system has been built with clinics on every few blocks. The Ministry of Urban Agriculture was created, which funds food and livestock production throughout the county. It is projected that by the end of 2019, 25% of the country’s food will be grown in this way. Illiteracy has been eradicated. Universities are free. Since 2016, 2.5 million units of low-income housing has been built.

While in Bolivia, Maduro rode a gondola which connected two mountain communities. Inspired by the idea, he has installed gondolas in many mountainside ‘shantytowns’ in cities around the country. Now people in these communities are a part of the city in all ways.

The Maduro’s administration has provided more than 4.8 million computers, over 100 million technology textbooks to students across the country, and more than 20,000 schools have received new computer equipment. Venezuela ranks sixth in the world in terms of enrollment in primary education and has increased its coverage of secondary education to 73% of the population There have also been gains in civil rights of historically oppressed sectors of Venezuelan society, like women, Afro-Indigenous people and the LGBTQ community.

In spite of the draconian sanctions, not one hospital or university has closed. The government’s CLAP program, a community food distribution system, provides a box of essential food, including corn, wheat, dried milk, to 6 million families every month at a minimal cost. In fact, the government has not cut back on any social program.

There is no question there has been a shift in power in Venezuela. The working class is advancing, while the bosses are in retreat. Venezuela has some of the most progressive labor laws in the world.

With the support of Maduro, workers have taken over shuttered plants and either turned them over to the government or to their community.

Fight Back!: Please tell us about the meeting with President Maduro.

Martin: We met with him, and his wife and son for 90 minutes. He explained the three parts of the U.S. attack on the electrical system causing the blackout. First was a U.S. cyber-attack on the brain of the electrical system. There is evidence it emanated from Houston, the home of the company that provided infrastructure for the grid, and Chicago. There was an electromagnetic attack on the power lines. Substations were attacked.

Technicians worked around the clock and by the time we meet with President Maduro, almost all power had been restored.

He said that for the last 200 years there has been a struggle between Simon Bolivar and the Monroe doctrine – between independence and sovereignty on one hand and colonialism on the other. And today it is a struggle between socialism and capitalism for the future of humanity.

He wants to keep talking to the U.S. but will not give up Venezuelan independence and sovereignty. He has offered to talk to Trump. His foreign minister met with [U.S. Secretary of State] Bolton but nothing was settled.

President Maduro closed the U.S. embassy in Caracas because it had become a dangerous place, actively working to instigate a coup, including U.S. diplomats offering bribes to generals to defect.

He has been to the U.S. and talked about going to Little Italy, Chinatown and liking Jimi Hendrix. He almost signed with the LA Dodgers. He was very pleased to hear about the Hands off Venezuela demonstration in Washington on March 30. When he heard the bus drivers in Boston endorsed the march and would be driving a bus to it, He said he would like to drive that bus to the march. We told him a Hands off Venezuela demonstration was happening in Minneapolis at the same time and he tweeted it out to his millions of followers.

This is a historic, important and critical time for not only Venezuela but the world. We must mobilize against U.S. sanctions, war threats and the attack on Venezuela’s sovereignty.

#CaracasVenezuela #AntiwarMovement #Venezuela #PeoplesStruggles #NicolásMaduro #Americas

Caracas, Venezuela – En el primero de mayo, día del trabajador, en el centro de la ciudad, 400,000 trabajadores acudieron a las calles por dos razones: para honrar su día, el Día Internacional de los Trabajadores; y para celebrar la derrota del intento de golpe de Estado contra su presidente electo Nicolás Maduro.

La energía fue increíble en lo que solo se puede describir como una manifestación de victoria, ya que la clase trabajadora ha derrotado todos los ataques infligidos contra ella por el imperialismo en los últimos 20 años. Los trabajadores marcharon en sus uniformes de trabajo, detrás de las banderas de sus sindicatos socialistas: mineros, trabajadores petroleros, trabajadores del cemento, maestros y todos los demás sectores de la economía. Mientras marchaban, cantaron junto a “Bella Ciao” y otras canciones revolucionarias tocando desde el escenario principal, al pie de una colina fuera del palacio presidencial.

Marchando al lado de los sindicatos estaban las milicias bolivarianas, que descendían sobre la ciudad desde todos los rincones del país. En Venezuela, el proceso revolucionario es impulsado por una alianza estratégica, la “unión cívico-militar”, bajo el liderazgo de los partidos revolucionarios del país. Esta unión es orgánica y viva, y está ahí para que todos la vean. Muchos de los miembros de la milicia son trabajadores y marchan con orgullo en sus uniformes de color canela. Son la segunda línea de defensa de la nación, y no puedo imaginar que cualquier ejército en el mundo pueda romper su espíritu.

El único orador en la manifestación fue el Presidente Maduro, el “Presidente Obrero”, el presidente de los Trabajadores, y todo el público se mantuvo firme en cada una de sus palabras. Habló de la oposición por lo que son: cobardes y criminales, cuyas únicas propuestas políticas para el pueblo venezolano son la violencia y el terrorismo. Cuando Maduro notificó a la multitud que el soldado al que le disparó la oposición estaba finalmente estable en el hospital, toda la avenida estalló en aplausos.

El presidente trabajador habló sobre los desafíos que enfrenta el movimiento revolucionario y que, si bien el imperialismo estadounidense ha sufrido una gran derrota con el colapso de la oposición liderada por Guaido, no se detendrán y la patria debe permanecer vigilante. También habló abiertamente sobre los errores que el gobierno ha cometido, e incluso leyó las críticas que había recibido de la gente común sobre las debilidades en su trabajo. En un acto de autocrítica, declaró su acuerdo con la crítica. En respuesta, Maduro pidió un gran Congreso de los Pueblos Bolivarianos este fin de semana, para que el gobierno tome en cuenta todas las propuestas de las organizaciones sociales y los sindicatos y cree un nuevo plan más radical para trazar el camino del país hacia adelante.

Maduro explicó que su lucha es como la de un boxeador: con un puño, defienden la patria de todas las amenazas externas y con el otro puño lleva su revolución a nuevas etapas. Cerró su discurso con el canto del movimiento bolivariano: “¡Leales siempre, traidores nunca!” (Siempre leal, nunca traidores). Y mientras la multitud gritaba de nuevo “Traidores nunca”. 400,000 puños se dispararon al aire. Ganarán.

#CaracasVenezuela #Caracas #AntiwarMovement #OppressedNationalities #Venezuela #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #PSUV #Socialism #NicolásMaduro

Caracas, Venezuela – On May 1, May Day, in the heart of downtown, 400,000 workers poured into the streets for two reasons: to honor their day, International Workers Day; and to celebrate the defeat of the coup attempt against their elected president Nicolas Maduro.

The energy was incredible in what can only be described as a victory rally, as the working class has defeated every attack inflicted against it by imperialism in the past 20 years. Workers marched in their work uniforms, behind the banners of their socialist unions – miners, oil workers, cement workers, teachers and all other sectors of the economy. As they marched, they sang along to “ Bella Ciao” and other revolutionary songs playing from the main stage, at the bottom of a hill outside of the presidential palace.

Marching side-by-side with the unions were the Bolivarian militias, descending on the city from all corners of the country. In Venezuela, the revolutionary process is driven by a strategic alliance, the “civic-military union,” under the leadership of the revolutionary parties of the country. This union is organic and living, and is there for all to see. Many of the militia members are workers themselves, and march with pride in their crisp tan uniforms. They are the nation's second line of defense, and I cannot imagine that any army in the world can break their spirit.

The only speaker at the rally was President Maduro – the “Presidente Obrero,” the Worker President – and the entire crowd hung on his every word. He spoke of the opposition for what they are: cowards and criminals, whose only policy proposals for the Venezuelan people are violence and terrorism. When Maduro notified the crowd that the soldier who was shot by the opposition was finally stable in the hospital, the entire avenue broke out in applause.

The Worker President talked about the challenges the revolutionary movement is facing, and that while U.S. imperialism has suffered a major defeat with the collapse of the Guaido-led opposition, they will not stop and the homeland must remain vigilant. He also spoke openly about the errors the government has made, and even read criticisms he had received from ordinary folks about weaknesses in his work. In an act of self-criticism, he declared his agreement with the criticism. In response, Maduro called for a great Congress of the Bolivarian Peoples this weekend, for the government to take in all of the proposals of the social organizations and trade unions and create a new, more radical plan to chart the country's path forward.

Maduro explained that their struggle is like that of a boxer – with one fist, they defend the homeland from all external threats, and with the other fist they drive forward their revolution to new stages. He closed his speech with the chant of the Bolivarian movement – “Leales siempre, traidores nunca!” (Always loyal, never traitors). And as the crowd shouted back “Traidores nunca.” 400,000 fists shot up into the air. They will win.

#CaracasVenezuela #Labor #Venezuela #MayDay #PeoplesStruggles #NicolásMaduro #Americas

Minneapolis, MN – On March 27, 80 people filled 4200 Cedar to witness a report on the conditions in Venezuela delivered by Sarah Martin. Martin, a longtime peace activist and member of Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), joined members of organizations such as International Action Center, Veterans for Peace, Canadian Peace Council, and United National Antiwar Coalition as part of an international peace delegation organized by the U.S. Peace Council and Black Alliance for Peace. The delegation's stated intention was to bring a message of solidarity to the Venezuelan people, to witness firsthand the effects of the United States’ political and economic war on the country, and to see the ways that the Venezuelan people resist the constant onslaught.

The Trump government's continued aggression towards Venezuela has intensified in recent months – beginning with John Bolton's declaration that Venezuela is a tyrannical state and culminating in the U.S.'s recent efforts to materially support the right-wing opposition led by Juan Guaido.

Martin explained that the stage for the current situation in Venezuela was set over 20 years ago. “This latest chapter to destabilize Venezuela and bring it under U.S. domination has been going on since 1998, when Hugo Chavez was swept into power in landslide election after decades of struggle by progressive movements,” Martin said, “They threw out a regime which only benefited the rich, leaving the vast majority of Venezuelans in abject poverty.”

The delegation arrived in Venezuela in the midst of the electrical blackout that was caused by a U.S.-engineered attack, and witnessed firsthand the collective strength of the Bolivarian process and the Venezuelan people's faith in their movement. “It became very obvious that Maduro and the government were in charge,” remarked Martin, “Whereas it was very obvious that Guaido is not in charge of anything – and even worse, wraps himself in U.S. intervention, even calling for a military intervention. [President Nicolas] Maduro is clearly on the rise, and Guaido is fading into oblivion.”

Martin detailed the incredible improvements made to the lives of the working people of Venezuela, with gains in healthcare, education, housing and food security exemplifying the progressive nature of the Bolivarian Revolution. Historically oppressed sectors of Venezuelan society such as women, Indigenous and Afro-Venezuelans, and the LGBT community have seen historic gains in civil rights under the system.

“The level of political understanding and commitment among the people is deep and happens in many ways and places,” Martin said. Witnessing the ways that the Venezuelan people engaged with their government – the weekly solidarity marches, engagement with popular media and even a people's occupation around the presidential palace to protect President Maduro from foreign attack – the delegation was able to see firsthand the grassroots popular support behind the Maduro government and the Bolivarian revolution.

The delegation met with President Maduro and his family on March 15. “He talked about history of Venezuela’s relationship with U.S.,” recalled Martin. “Maduro stated, ‘For 200 years it has been a struggle between Bolivar and Monroe, and now between the two systems, capitalism and socialism, for future of humanity.’” Martin informed President Maduro of the protest in support of Venezuela's sovereignty organized by the Anti-War Committee (AWC) in Minneapolis; Maduro later published a video on Twitter in which he stood with the delegation in a video saluting the work of anti-war activists in Minnesota.

The event was opposed by a group of local Venezuelan expats as part of a series of actions called Operación Libertad en Minnesota. According to their Facebook event page, Operación Libertad en Minnesota was organized to assert that the Venezuelan expats in Minnesota “recognize the National Assembly as the only legitimate organ in office and Juan Guaido as Acting President of Venezuela.” Martin displayed patience and determination despite the yelling and posturing by the pro-Guaido and pro-intervention disruptors.

Martin concluded the presentation by emphasizing that the people's movements in the U.S. need to continue to mobilize in solidarity with the Venezuelan masses. Stating “Their struggle is our struggle, and we must mobilize. Only when the people are in motion will we be able to put a brake on imperialism, and it must be stopped in Venezuela. President Maduro is right. The future of humanity depends on it. It’s all hands on deck!”

The March 27 event was organized by Women Against Military Madness and the Anti-War Committee.

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #OppressedNationalities #Venezuela #US #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #WomenAgainstMilitaryMadness #Socialism #NicolásMaduro #UnitedNationalAntiwarCoalitionUNAC #DonaldTrump

Chicago, IL – On March 20, president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro visited Jipana, a large automated warehouse in the state of Miranda. Built with the cooperation of Chinese experts, Jipana – made up of five warehouses across Venezuela – has the capacity to store and distribute 100% of the antibiotic, hypoglycemic, hypertensive and analgesic needs for the tens of thousands of free community clinics that make up Mission Barrio Adentro, as well as all of the anti-malarial, anti-retroviral, anti-parasitic and contraceptive needs of the Mission's nationwide ambulance service.

While at the warehouse, Maduro called for the launching of the “Pharmaceutical Engine,” a plan of production and distribution “to guarantee that U.S. imperialism cannot have an impact on our medicine, on the health of the Venezuelan people.” He appointed Dr. Henry Ventura, the director of the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Cuba, to head the Engine, and tasked him with preparing an import substitution plan for the active ingredients that Venezuela has had to buy from abroad in order to produce the medicine its people need.

While the Maduro government has long-planned to build a sovereign pharmaceutical industry, the need for such a goal was made even more clear last month, when the Trump administration withheld $5 billion in U.S. loans that were to be used by Venezuela to purchase active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Maduro also called on ministers Tareck El Aissami and Aristóbulo Istúriz to form a workteam to establish a fixed pricing system for pharmaceutical goods, backed by direct subsidies to the poorest Venezuelans. “A tremendous effort is being made so that free quality health care reaches the workers, and the people in general,” he added.

Maduro made sure to point out the international alliance that gives Venezuela the ability to build health sovereignty. “We have a deep alliance with our comrades in the Republic of Cuba, with the Cuban health missions, an alliance with China, Russia, India and now with the World Health Organization.”

#Venezuela #PeoplesStruggles #NicolásMaduro #Americas

Minneapolis, MN – On March 17, 50 people filled Mayday Books to hear Sean Orr, a Latin America solidarity activist, trade unionist, and member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), speak about the current crisis facing Venezuela. In a presentation entitled, “The U.S. Orchestrated Coup in Venezuela: A Marxist Perspective,” Orr highlighted the leading role of the United States in the destabilization of Venezuela as well as its efforts to foment regime change.

The United States has attempted to interfere in the political and economic development of Venezuela in a major way since oil was discovered in the country in the 1920s. After the election of Hugo Chavez as president of Venezuela in 1998, the U.S. has periodically intensified the hostile measures taken against the Venezuelan people.

The most recent manifestation of this aggression began when John Bolton, President Trump's national security advisor, named Venezuela as a target for destabilization, along with Cuba and Nicaragua. This hostility continued with Trump's recognition of the reactionary Juan Guaido as the interim ‘president’ of Venezuela, the imposition of additional economic sanctions, material support for the political opposition, and a coordinated attack that left the country without electrical power for nearly a week.

Orr explained that prerevolutionary Venezuela was plagued by economic and social inequality, and that the economy was oriented to serve U.S. imperial interests. “It's not hard to understand why the Venezuelan masses rose up and rallied behind Hugo Chavez in 1998,” explained Orr, “They demanded a government that worked for them, not one that tried to appease them while working for foreign interests.”

Elaborating further, Orr explained that after the Venezuelan economy was reoriented to meet the people’s needs under Chavez, both the capitalist classes of the United States and in Venezuela consistently engaged in destabilization efforts in an attempt to undermine the national democratic Bolivarian Revolution. From the coup attempt against Chavez in 2002, to the price fixing by private enterprises, Venezuela's political and economic wellbeing was under constant attack.

Orr detailed how the constant subversion of Venezuelan democracy continued after the death of Hugo Chavez and intensified after the election of Nicolas Maduro in 2013, stating, “The bourgeois opposition went on the offensive against Maduro from day one. It must be understood that the Maduro government has not known a single day of peace.”

In speaking of how Bolivarian Revolution continues to resist the efforts of the U.S. and the Venezuelan opposition, Orr said, “For the past 20 years, the country has been led by a mass movement, a national liberation movement, committed to sovereignty and independence from imperialism. The dogged commitment of the Venezuelan people to their own interests must be a great source of frustration for the bankers of Wall Street.”

Orr continued to emphasize that the society that is being built in Venezuela – one that meets the people’s needs and prioritizes the working class – continues to grow towards the establishment of socialism, with the development of workers’ communes and the Constituent Congress of the Working Class. It is precisely this development that draws the ire of the United States.

Orr said that the U.S. intends to, “make the Venezuelan masses suffer for their willingness to stand tall, for their courage in the face of everything, and for the hope they give to peoples across the world, including right here in the United States, struggling to shake the monopoly capitalists off of our back and bring about a new world.”

Sean Orr is the main Venezuela correspondent for Fight Back!, a trade unionist, and a member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization. The March 17 event was organized by Freedom Road Socialist Organization – Twin Cities.

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #Labor #OppressedNationalities #Venezuela #US #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #Socialism #NicolásMaduro #DonaldTrump #HandsOffVenezuela #SeanOrr

Caracas, Venezuela – The U.S. Peace Council delegation to Venezuelan met with President Maduro for several hours at the Presidential Palace, March 15. President Maduro told the anti-war organizers that the U.S. attack on the electrical system was delivered three ways: a cyber-attack to the main brain of the system which was made in Houston, electromagnetically, and with explosions at two other stations. The system is now almost fully up again.

Maduro described the history of resistance to foreign domination beginning with Bolívar and the anti-colonial fight for independence against Spain and the U.S. Monroe Doctrine, saying that for 200 years it has been a struggle between Bolívar and the Monroe doctrine, and that today It is the battle between socialism and capitalism for the future of humanity. When told there was a “Hands Off Venezuela” demonstration going on in Minneapolis in front of Senator Klobuchar’s office at the same time delegates were meeting with him, he tweeted it.

After the meeting, the U.S. Peace Council delegation attended the rally at one of the occupations that are supporting and protecting the Presidential Palace. Unions, grass roots groups and the United Socialist Party Venezuela are organizing the occupations. The delegation was asked to speak and was welcomed with cheers and chants.

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Caracas, Venezuela – A U.S. Peace Council Delegation of 13 people representing anti-war organizations from the United States and Canada arrived in Venezuela this week on a solidarity mission with the Venezuelan people and the Maduro government at a time of unprecedented attacks by the U.S. The latest is a cyber-attack and sabotage of the entire electrical system, which resulted in a total blackout of the country with the aim of provoking the people to rise up against their government. Despite the hardships of no electricity and water, this attack failed as people rallied around their government and the gains of the Bolivarian revolution. As of Wednesday, March 13, 75% of the power has been restored and by Monday it will be fully restored.

#CaracasVenezuela #Caracas #AntiwarMovement #Venezuela #PeoplesStruggles #NicolásMaduro #Americas