Caracas, Venezuela – In a meeting chaired by Francisco Torrealba, past president of the Venezuela Transport Workers Union, and current deputy of the National Assembly, international trade unionists heard updates from Venezuelan leaders.

Longtime Bolivarian Revolution leader Eduardo Piñate shared an assessment of the situation in Venezuela post-January 3 with the group during a meeting in early March. As he mentioned the many fronts that U.S. imperialism is intervening in, including China, the Middle East, Russia/Ukraine, and Latin America and the Caribbean, Piñate then spoke to Venezuela’s place in the international scene. Piñate stated, “With the world’s largest oil reserves, the top ten largest reserves of natural gas, rare earth minerals, biodiversity, and fresh water, we have resources for trade and development. But since we are pursuing an alternative model, one with a revolutionary direction, we are a threat to the United States’ system of capitalism. This is why they attacked us on January 3.”

Piñate continued “But I want to make clear a number of political victories. One: President Maduro and Cilia Flores are alive; two, the U.S. could not occupy our national territory; three, there are no internal forces, no base for fascist reactionaries and no rallies anywhere in the country celebrated the bombing, in fact the people been in the streets constantly since the attack; four, we had a successful constitution transition to an acting president and swore in a new National Assembly as our laws dictate. All of this has allowed us to maintain our political direction. We had tactical flexibility in the moment that meant we did not lose power despite our leader being kidnapped.” He added, “I have trust and confidence in the revolutionary direction we have, of Chavez, of Maduro, of heroic resistance of the last ten plus years, we are not a colony of the gringos.”

After two years as minister of People’s Power in the Social Process of Labor, Piñate will continue in his other role as part of the executive secretariat of the president of United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). Appointed as new minister is Carlos Alexis Castillo who brings years of legal and judicial experience in labor law.

During the subsequent meeting on March 20, PSUV Vice President of Foreign Relations Tania Dias laid bare the harsh reality of the early hours of January 3. With over 15,000 military personnel and scores of naval and aircraft on their shores, the plan to actualize the threat took place. “The cruel, barbarous regime of Donald Trump told us to negotiate or they’ll bomb the entire city in ten minutes,” she said. “One does not negotiate with kidnappers like this,” Diaz added. “While they kidnapped my close, personal friends, we are in strong, capable hands with Delcy as acting president.”

Diaz continued with an assessment of the current political situation and the failure of the U.S. to create regime change: “The power isn't just with the executive, nor the National Assembly; real democratic power is with the people. We have thousands of comunas, PSUV elected committees in nearly all the streets of the country. Popular militias coordinated with our army, the union. This is the vision of Comandante Chavez, carried further by President Maduro, and deepening the revolution.”

“This is why all the attempts at psychological warfare like false media narratives, misinformation aimed at sowing division and undermining our confidence have failed: the people have political power here,” Diaz emphasized.

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