The article was originally published on the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) website. It has been translated by Fight Back! staff.

They are fighting against a socialism that does not exist. They are fighting against an anti-utopia that does not relate to anyone. They imagine a world without families, without order, without markets, without freedom. The right-wing liberals of the world invented a ghost, they draped on the label of socialism and now they find it everywhere, among all, and every time they look at Venezuela. Enough with this.

Because this socialism against which they struggle is not the one that our inclusive democracy exists in, full of people that live in the 21st century. Our socialism is particular, popular and profoundly Latin American. As we clearly said during the UN General Assembly last September: Ours is an autonomous project of democratic revolution, of social assertion, it is a model and a path of our own, based in our own history and culture.

And clearly, our democracy is distinct because it was neither founded by nor for the elite, as the liberal democracies of Europe and the United States were. We rebelled against this model and that is why, 20 years ago, we proposed our own democracy, founded in the sovereign heart of the Venezuelan people.

What happened is that, at the end of the 20th century – when Latin America exited the period of dictatorship imposed by the United States – they tried, with their idea of liberal democracy, to wrap us in a gift package, some Trojan Horse, with all of the values of their own concept of modernity. But we want to say to them that here in Latin America we also have an identity and values, and we want to involve our own values before all others in our democracy. Not just those values of capital and the individual. But also those of solidarity and community. For us, the homeland is the latter.

We learned our lesson – well, it happened to us for centuries. Over time, by adding to our own culture with that from afar, the Latin American elite and their liberal modes tried to permanently re-found Europe in the heart of América. Destroying step-by-step everything that seemed different. Elites for whom the “other” – the native and the black – were more monkey than human.

We fervently believe in our own Latin American democracy, because in Venezuela we believe in and adhere to three fundamentals as essential and necessary: First, we hold elections systematically, regularly and peacefully. Over the past 20 years we have held 25 elections, each one observed by national and international institutions and political figures. Some we have won overwhelmingly, others we have lost. Second, in Venezuela the citizens – by mechanisms of direct democracy, fundamentally the neighborhood organizations and political parties – have access and control over public resources. And third, in Venezuela the people rule, not the elite. Before me Chávez governed, a soldier descended from blacks and natives who became the father of the homeland. For six years now, Venezuela has been governed by a modest trade unionist and bus driver. In Venezuela it is the people who govern, because it was their Constituent Assembly that conceived and wrote their constitution.

We are not nor do we want to become a model of democracy. We are, instead, a democracy defined and defended by its people, who gather in a daily effort against lies and false claims – an imperfect democracy, working every day for everyone and to be more just.

#Venezuela #Socialism #UnitedSocialistPartyOfVenezuela #NicolásMaduro #Venezula #Americas

It is no coincidence that the opposition’s stunning reversal happened during Rex Tillerson’s tour of Latin America. In the past few days, the Secretary of State has made it clearer than ever that the U.S. is building an alliance of reaction (the so-called ‘Lima Group’) to destroy the Bolivarian Revolution and socialist Cuba. He even said that the U.S. would support a military coup in Venezuela, despite such an action going against U.S. and international law.

The U.S. monopoly capitalist class has long been frustrated by the freedom struggle of the Latin American peoples, led by the governments of Cuba and Venezuela. With the Trump administration, their imperialist dream of whipping Latin America back into shape are being carried out.

Off the coast line of Venezuela, U.S. naval ships and ExxonMobil exploration vehicles – Exxon paid off the government of Guyana to allow them to illegally explore for oil on Venezuelan territory – circle like vultures to prey on the Bolivarian republic. Tillerson, the former CEO of Exxon, is not even pretending to act like the interests of his former employer and the U.S. government are separate.

All of this is happening in the midst of the worst economic crisis Venezuela has seen in decades. The imperialist blockade has meant that food, medicine and other necessary goods are not allowed into the country. At the same time, the Colombian government, a puppet of the U.S. State Department, has hinted that it will use the flow of Venezuelan migrants coming into the country seeking economic security as justification for military action.

The Venezuelan people, suffering under the weight of these attacks, are being punished for their belief that they can be free in the hemisphere that is supposed to belong to the U.S. ruling class.

Presidential elections are set for April 22. Nicolás Maduro will be the candidate of the United Socialist Party, the Somos Venezuela Movement, and a number of other political parties. The Communist Party is currently undergoing a process of deciding whether or not they will endorse his candidacy. The opposition, divided beyond repair and more politically isolated than ever, has yet to nominate a candidate. There is a real possibility that no candidate will be put forward by them, which would only confirm what seems obvious at this point: the U.S. ruling class will no longer rely on the reactionaries to beat the Bolivarian Revolution by electoral means.

These are dark days for a bright light in our hemisphere. We must fight the Trump administration, which seems set on a course for military intervention in Latin America. All progressive forces in the U.S. need to stand united behind the Bolivarian Revolution and its leadership in the days to come.

#Venezuela #UnitedSocialistPartyOfVenezuela #NicolásMaduro #DemocraticUnityRoundtable #Americas

Jacksonville, FL – In the latest move by the U.S. to topple the progressive, democratic Venezuelan government, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced on March 3 that President Barack Obama was considering economic sanctions on Venezuela. Schultz, who represents a district in south Florida and who chairs the Democratic National Committee, made the disturbing announcement on the heels of a proposed Venezuela sanctions bill introduced and sponsored by Florida's two senators, Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson.

Other U.S. representatives joined Schultz in calling for economic sanctions on Venezuela, including Miami Republicans Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Under pressure from the far right of the Republican Party of Florida, which includes sections of the large anti-Castro Cuban exile community in Miami, Governor Rick Scott joined calls for Obama to impose sanctions on the South American country.

According to Schultz, the proposed sanctions considered by Obama would target many individuals in the Venezuelan government. Senators Rubio and Nelson's bill would restrict individuals in the Venezuelan government and many leaders of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) from traveling to the U.S., freeze assets in U.S. and U.S.-allied banks and treasuries, and restrict access to credit markets.

Sanctions are latest move by Washington to topple Venezuela's progressive government

These sanctions represent the latest episode in the U.S. government's long campaign to topple the democratically elected government of Venezuela and stop the Bolivarian revolutionary process. In 2002, U.S. and Venezuelan business elites supported a military coup against then-President Hugo Chavez, who was returned to power within 47 hours by a mass uprising of working people. Less than a year later, rich Venezuelan oligarchs linked to the oil industry halted petroleum production in order to force Chavez from office. The oil bosses locked out the oil workers and threatened violence. Despite support from the U.S., their plot failed due to the continued popularity of the Venezuelan government among the majority of people. Even now, Wikileaks documents show far-reaching connections between the CIA and the right-wing opposition leaders, like Leopoldo Lopez, and instigator of protests and street violence.

Additionally, the U.S. government spends an incredible amount of money funding the far-right opposition groups protesting President Nicolas Maduro's government today. Estimates by the Center for Economic and Policy Research found $90 million reaching these groups since 2000. In 2014 alone, the U..S Congress passed a budget containing $5 million in funding for the Venezuelan opposition. While the Obama administration funds the right-wing opposition in Venezuela, they also signed $8.7 billion in cuts to food stamps into law, highlighting how imperialist meddling also hurts the U.S. working class.

‘Targeted sanctions’ actually target poor and working people

Although the politicians calling for sanctions emphasize that they are against individuals, rather than the entire country, the brutal history of U.S. ‘targeted sanctions’ makes clear that the Venezuelan people will suffer from these measures.

In 2001, then-President George W. Bush signed the deceptively named Zimbabwe Democracy and Economy Recovery Act (ZDERA) to punish the progressive government of Zimbabwe for its land reform program. These sanctions legally targeted only 113 individuals in the government and 70 entities, but the individuals included important government officials and huge state-owned enterprises vital to Zimbabwe's economy. For instance, the individual restrictions on Minister of Finance Herbert Murerwa's access to international credit indirectly limited the entire elected government of Zimbabwe, leaving the state unable to pay public workers their full salaries and pensions.

In order to meet their obligations to workers and African farmers who received land in the redistribution, Zimbabwe was forced to print money. This led to staggering hyperinflation and a shortage of necessary goods like food and AIDS medication. The U.S., UK, and the EU imperialists caused the entire crisis through their ‘targeted sanctions’, and then criticized Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe.

The U.S. placed more comprehensive sanctions on the Republic of Iraq under President Saddam Hussein throughout the 1990s. They pushed and enforced the punishing sanctions through the United Nations. The U.S. claimed the sanctions were in response to Hussein and the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, but the world knows it was so the U.S. could attempt to dominate the Middle East and seize Iraq’s oil fields.

Like in Zimbabwe, the real victims of U.S. sanctions on Iraq were ordinary working people. A groundbreaking study by the Food and Agriculture Organization in 1995 found that the UN sanctions on Iraq caused the deaths of more than 567,000 Iraqi children, by restricting access to food, medicine and critical infrastructure. Other studies since then have placed the child death toll alone closer to 1 million.

Obama's consideration of sanctions on Venezuela echoes the sick policy justifications of the former Democrat President, Bill Clinton. U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Madeleine Albright, appointed by Clinton, infamously attempted to justify the horrifying deaths of Iraqi children by saying, “We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it? We think the price is worth it.” When it comes to economically devastating the people of Iraq, Zimbabwe or Venezuela, both the Republicans the Democrats see eye-to-eye.

Sanctions on Venezuela will hurt working families in the U.S.

It is likely that such sanctions on Venezuela would prevent Maduro's government from continuing the legacy of Chavez, one in which poor and working families in the U.S. receive free and reduced price oil. Starting in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina, the Venezuelan government partnered with CITGO to provide free heating oil to more than 100,000 families in the U.S. According to CITGO, more than 252 American Indian communities and at least 245 homeless shelters also received this aid. To this day, the program continues, but the sanctions considered by Obama threaten this important economic aid for working families.

With more and more people opposing the 54-year long U.S. embargo against Cuba, Obama will likely encounter large resistance to sanctions on Venezuela from progressives across the U.S. Nevertheless, the danger of sanctions remains high for both working people in the U.S., who benefit from the solidarity of the Venezuelan government, and the entire people of Venezuela. It will take a nationwide movement of progressives committed to ending U.S. imperialism and supporting the Bolivarian revolutionary process to stop history from repeating itself.

#JacksonvilleFL #Venezuela #sanctions #UnitedSocialistPartyOfVenezuela #NicolásMaduro #Americas

In the two days since Maduro's victory, the Venezuelan right-wing opposition has attacked supporters of the Bolivarian Revolution and resorted to violence to oust the democratically elected president. These confrontations left seven people dead and more than 60 people injured. Armed bands of opposition forces, angry at their defeat in the election, attacked Venezuelans who gathered to celebrate the victory of Maduro in several states. These dangerous attacks are part of a deliberate attempt by the U.S.-supported opposition to destabilize the revolutionary Venezuelan government.

Lacking any commitment to democracy in Venezuela, opposition gangs firebombed the United Socialist Party of Venezuela's (PSUV) party headquarters in Anzoategui and Tachira while people worked inside, April 16. Elsewhere, upper class students led deadly confrontations with Venezuelan security forces. According to Russia Today, these opposition mobs attacked a government-run clinic in a central Venezuelan state.

Maduro denounced the opposition's violent tactics in the harshest terms. He vowed to protect the will of the Venezuelan people, saying, “I will fight fascism and those who attack democracy with a firm hand. If they want to topple me, they can come get me.”

In the recent special presidential election, Maduro defeated opposition candidate Henrique Caprilles by a margin of 50.8% to 49.0%. Maduro, a member of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), succeeded the late President Hugo Chavez, who died just months after also defeating Caprilles in the 2012 election.

Maduro won by a narrow margin of about 270,000 votes. Despite the National Electoral Council (CNE) and at least 100 international observers affirming that the election was fair, Caprilles and the opposition are demanding a full recount. Venezuela's election process is consistently rated by international observers, including former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, as one of the most democratic in the world.

Caprilles' demand for a recount follows in a sinister tradition of U.S.-backed counter-revolutions in socialist and anti-imperialist countries. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) works closely with the rich and wealthy elites in these countries to delegitimize democratic elections and violate the will of the people. In 2002, the U.S.-backed a coup d'état in Venezuela that temporarily removed then-President Chavez from power. The workers of Venezuela and progressive elements in the military battled these U.S. puppets in the streets and eventually restored Chavez to power. A similar CIA-backed destabilization attempt took place in Iran in 2009, with the so-called “Green Revolution.”

This most recent election marks the second time that the people of Venezuela rejected Caprilles' anti-worker, pro-corporate agenda at the ballot box. Caprilles currently serves as the face of the wealthy Venezuelan opposition. The corporate elites who funded Caprilles' campaign lost much of their wealth and power because of the Bolivarian Revolution led by Chavez. They fear Maduro's presidency will continue the trend towards a more just society.

Maduro indicated that the threat of a coup would open the opportunity to radicalize the Bolivarian Revolution. Even after the privately owned media and major corporations conspired to overthrow him in 2002, Chavez stopped short of outlawing or arresting most opposition leaders. This latest wave of counter-revolutionary violence may open the opportunity for Maduro and the Venezuelan people to break the power of the rich oligarchs once and for all.

Revolutionaries and progressives in the U.S. have an obligation to the Venezuelan people to oppose intervention by their own government in the conflict. Venezuela has a right to national self-determination and progressives in the U.S should support the ongoing national democratic process under the leadership of President Maduro. We should demand, “U.S. hands off Venezuela! U.S. hands off Latin America! Victory to the Bolivarian Revolution!”

#Venezuela #UnitedSocialistPartyOfVenezuela #NicholasMaduro #PSUV #Americas

Maduro was Vice President under Chavez. He took over Presidential duties after December 8, 2012, when Chavez was hospitalized in Cuba for cancer treatment. Since Chavez was never sworn in after defeating Capriles in the October 2012 Presidential election, the Venezuelan constitution mandates that the country hold another election.

The new election presents an opportunity for the people of Venezuela to re-affirm their commitment to the national democratic Bolivarian Revolution through the ballot box. Until his death, Chavez was the most vocal and visible voice in Venezuela. Acting President Maduro is expected by most observers to win. By electing Chavez's endorsed successor, the Venezuelan people will voice their continued support for the anti-imperialist, pro-socialist path of their country.

Since he won the Presidency in 1999, Chavez and his party ran in 16 elections, 15 of which they won handily. During Chavez's Presidency, Venezuela reduced unemployment by more than 50%, cut poverty from 42.8% to 26.5% between 1999 and 2011, and completely eliminated illiteracy. Chavez oversaw the passing of pro-worker laws in 2012 that reduced the workday, increased maternity leave for women, and banned many exploitative labor practices. The Venezuelan government also made public education available to all citizens and increased social programs for the poor. Maduro hopes to continue and deepen these progressive policies.

For many years Maduro was a bus driver for the Caracas Metro system and a trade union organizer. In the 1980s, he helped organize the bus drivers in the capital despite a company-wide ban on unions. As a member of the Socialist League and a founding member of the Fifth Republic Movement – the predecessor to the PSUV – he worked closely with Chavez since his election in 1999.

For seven years, Maduro was Venezuela's Minister of Foreign Affairs and well experienced to lead Venezuela. He is critical of US domination and exploitation of Latin America, and strongly supports the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA), which Chavez founded as a counter-weight to the US-controlled Organization of American States (OAS). Maduro worked with Argentina to resolve a 2010 border conflict between Venezuela and Colombia. Additionally, he followed in Chavez's tradition of international solidarity with his vocal support for the sovereign government of Libya during the US/NATO bombing war of 2011.

Chavez endorsed Maduro as his successor because of his working class roots and his dedication to the Bolivarian Revolution. Speaking to Maduro's succession on December 9, 2012, Chavez said, “My firm opinion, as clear as the full moon — irrevocable, absolute, total — is...that you elect Nicolas Maduro as president.” Chavez continued, “He is one of the young leaders with the greatest ability to continue, if I cannot.”

Both candidates are now campaigning for the election next month.

#Venezuela #HugoChavez #UnitedSocialistPartyOfVenezuela #NicholasMaduro #VenezuelanElections #HenriqueCapriles #Americas

The referendum, which easily passed by 55 to 45 percent, with 99% reporting, will allow Venezuela's current president, Hugo Chavez Frias, to be a candidate in the 2012 presidential elections.

“Those who voted 'yes' today voted for socialism, for revolution,” Chavez declared, in a victory speech from what he dubbed the ‘people's balcony’ of the Presidential Palace, where tens of thousands of red-clad supporters gathered.

“This soldier is now a pre-candidate for the 2012 presidential elections,” Chavez stated. He says 'pre-candidate' since the United Socialist Party of Venezuela requires that all candidates be elected in a democratic primary from the grassroots. Chavez, of humble beginnings, has a military background and first became a household name after he led an uprising against the corrupt government of Carlos Andres Perez in 1992.

Venezuela's opposition parties and candidates, closely allied with U.S. business interests, unanimously accepted the loss. In many of the 15 electoral process that have occurred under the ten years of Chavez's administration, opposition leaders attempted to destabilize the country after a vote, refusing to recognize the results. This time around, right-wing domestic and international media were unable to question the result, as Venezuela's electoral system has gained worldwide recognition in recent years. The election was considered ‘free and fair’ by the over 1200 electoral observers present during the process.

President Chavez read a letter during his speech from his closest ally, former president of Cuba Fidel Castro.

Fidel Castro wrote, “Congratulations to you and the Venezuelan people for this victory, whose importance cannot be measured.” President Chavez responded, “This victory is also yours Fidel, a victory for Cuba and for all the nations of our America.”

#Venezuela #HugoChavez #UnitedSocialistPartyOfVenezuela #Americas