EMERGENCY RALLIES TO DEFEND PRESIDENT MADURO AND THE BOLIVARIAN REVOLUTION

Today President Donald Trump recognized the leader of the illegally constituted National Assembly of Venezuela as the president of the country, despite him having zero electoral legitimacy and having never even participated in any election for the post. This declaration by the U.S. is designed to continue to lay the groundwork to legitimize a range of disruptive and destabilizing activities ranging from sanctions to armed coups. This is an extremely dangerous development.

Emergency rallies have been organized in multiple cities around the country to protest the attempted coup in Venezuela, the recognition of that coup by the governments of the U.S., Canada, and others, and to defend President Nicolás Maduro and the Bolivarian Revolution. We urge supporters to attend rallies where they can, and to organize rallies (and let us know so we can add them to the list below) where none have yet been organized.

Current list of announced demonstration:

WASHINGTON, D.C, WEDNESDAY, Jan. 23: 6:30 p.m. EST at the Venezuelan Embassy, 1099 30th St. NW (Foggy Bottom Orange/Blue Lines, 30 buses and circulator)

WASHINGTON, D.C., THURSDAY, Jan. 24: 1:00 p.m. EST at the White House.

LOS ANGELES, THURSDAY, Jan. 24: 6:00 pm at CNN HQ, 6430 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles.

ALBUQUERQUE, THURSDAY, Jan. 24: 5-6:30 p.m. at UNM Bookstore, Central Ave & Cornell Dr SE.

SAN FRANCISCO, FRIDAY, Jan. 25: 5:00 p.m. PST at 24th and Mission, San Francisco.

BOSTON, FRIDAY, Jan. 25: 5:30–6:30 PM EST, Copley Square, 560 Boylston St.

BOISE, ID, FRIDAY, Jan. 25: 5:00 p.m. at Boise City Hall

PENSACOLA, FLORIDA, FRIDAY, Jan. 25: 11–1 PM CST, 700 S. Palafox St.

SEATTLE, WA, FRIDAY, Jan. 25: 7-8:30 p.m., Pike St. & Broadway (819 E. Pike St.)

ATLANTA, FRIDAY, Jan. 25: 4:30–6 PM CST, Five Points, downtown

NEW YORK CITY, SATURDAY, Jan. 26: Noon, Cuban Mission to the United Nations, 38th St. & Lexington Ave.

NEW YORK CITY, SATURDAY, Jan. 26: 2-4 p.m. at Union Square Park

MIAMI, SATURDAY, Jan. 26: 1 p.m. – 3 p.m. EST, 9405 NW 41st St, Doral, FL

WASHINGTON, D.C., SATURDAY, Jan. 26: 1–3 PM EST, The White House

CHICAGO, TUESDAY, Jan. 29: 5:30–7:30 PM CST, Federal Center and Plaza, 219 S. Dearborn St.

LOS ANGELES, SATURDAY, FEB. 2: 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. PST, McArthur Park – North Side

RALEIGH, N.C., SATURDAY, FEB. 2: 1 PM – 3 PM, Halifax Mall – 16 W. Jones St, Raleigh, NC 27601

Venezuelans were in the streets the morning of Jan. 23 in a massive show of support for President Nicolás Maduro and the program of the pro-working class Bolivarian Revolution. They expressed determination to push back the latest counterrevolutionary attack emanating from Washington.

Chavista forces routed a short-lived rebellion by members of the National Guard on Jan. 21. According to venezuelaanalysis.com, several dozen right-wing residents then erected burning street barricades and torched symbols of the Bolivarian government. The hand grenade pictured in the hand of a protester once again points to incitement by the U.S. and its regime-change agents in Latin America.

The U.S. has openly declared its intention to undo the gains made for the poorest and most oppressed Venezuelans by the Bolivarian process — up to and including direct military intervention.

On Jan. 22, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence appealed directly to Venezuelans in a video message with Spanish subtitles. He declared that the U.S. is with the opposition and called on people to come out in the streets against Maduro’s government. In a further escalation, on Jan. 23, President Donald Trump recognized opposition figure Juan Guaido as the interim president of Venezuela. The governments of Canada, Colombia and Brazil quickly followed.

Any bloodshed or destruction is on the hands of Pence, President Donald Trump, the Pentagon and their oil-hungry corporate backers.

No war for oil!

Workers and oppressed peoples in the U.S. have no interest in another war for oil, this time waged in Latin America. A recent documentary, Venezuela: The Shadow Agenda, explains that the U.S. goal has nothing to do with spreading “democracy.” The democracy that Pence espouses is for the rich, the corporations and banks, not for the workers, the poor, Indigenous or Black Venezuelans.

We remember how the U.S. engineered the Sept. 11, 1973, coup in Chile against the democratically elected socialist Salvador Allende. The brutal Pinochet dictatorship followed.

On Jan. 10, Bolivarian Venezuela inaugurated its president, Nicolás Maduro, for a second term. It was a victory that Maduro, formerly a leader of the bus drivers’ union, took office. Venezuelans have had to overcome multifaceted imperialist attacks aimed at destroying the pro-socialist, internationalist project begun by Hugo Chávez, which continues the struggle for independence and liberation envisioned by Simón Bolívar.

Years of U.S.-imposed economic sanctions, guarimbas (violent street protests) and unceasing media lies, combined with falling oil prices, have failed to defeat the Maduro presidency. This makes the U.S. suggestions of a military option much more ominous.

In the days leading up to Maduro’s inauguration on Jan. 8, Resumen Latinoamericano shared video of U.S. helicopter gunships landing at a military base in Panama. Panama’s President Juan Carlos Varela met with the U.S. Southern Command in Florida on Jan. 5. This was a clear threat to Venezuela. Right-wing regimes in Colombia and Brazil, loyal to their masters in Washington, also present a clear and present danger.

The U.S. war against Bolivarian Venezuela isn’t new. In the April 2002 coup attempt against President Hugo Chávez — captured by a visiting Irish film crew in “The Revolution Will Not be Televised” — Washington showed its hand with fake newscasts and statements of support for the coup-makers.

And on March 9, 2015, President Barack Obama issued an executive order declaring Venezuela a threat to U.S national security. This action became the basis for further sanctions, causing more hardships for the Venezuelan people.

Now is the time for all opponents of war, racism and economic exploitation to take action to demand: U.S. hands off Venezuela!

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Lxs venezolanos se lanzaron a las calles la mañana del 23 de enero  en una muestra masiva de apoyo al presidente Nicolás Maduro y el programa de la Revolución Boliviarana que beneficia a la clase trabajadora. Expresaron su determinación de hacer retroceder el último ataque contrarrevolucionario emanando de Washington.

Fuerzas chavistas derrotaron una rebelión de corta duración por parte de miembros de la guardia nacional el 21 de Enero. Según venezuelaanalysis.com, varias docenas de residentes derechistas luego erigieron barricadas en la calle y quemaron símbolos del gobierno bolivariano. La granada de mano fotografiada en manos de un manifestante una vez más apunta a la incitación de los Estados Unidos y sus agentes de cambio de régimen en Latinoamérica.

Estados Unidos ha declarado abiertamente sus intenciones de deshacer  los avances logrados por el proceso bolivariano para el pueblo venezolano más pobre y oprimido—incluyendo hasta la intervención militar directa.

El 22 de enero, el vice presidente Mike Pence se dirigió a lxs venezolanos en un video con subtítulos en español. Declaró que Estados Unidos está con la oposición y pidió que la gente saliera a las calles en contra del gobierno del presidente Maduro. En una escalada de hostilidad, el 23 de Enero el presidente Donald Trump reconoció al líder de la oposición  Juan Guaidó como el presidente interino de Venezuela. Rápidamente, los gobiernos de Canadá, Colombia y Brasil siguieron el ejemplo.

Cualquier destrucción o derramamiento de sangre estará en las manos de Pence, el presidente Donald Trump, el Pentágono y sus partidarios corporativos hambrientos de petróleo.

¡Ninguna guerra por petróleo!

Lxs trabajadores y el pueblo oprimido en los EUA no tienen ningún interés en otra guerra por petróleo, esta vez librada en América Latina. Un reciente documental, ‘Venezuela: La oscura causa’, explica que el objetivo de los EUA no tiene nada que ver con la propagación de la “democracia”. La democracia que defiende Pence es para los ricos, las corporaciones y los bancos, no para lxs trabajadores, lxs pobres, lxs indígenas o lxs venezolanxs negrxs.

Recordamos cómo EUA diseñó el golpe de estado del 11 de septiembre de 1973 en Chile contra el socialista democráticamente elegido Salvador Allende. Le siguió la brutal dictadura de Pinochet.

El 10 de enero, Venezuela Bolivariana inauguró a su presidente, Nicolás Maduro, por un segundo término. Fue una victoria el que Maduro, ex dirigente del sindicato de conductores de autobuses, asumiera el cargo. Lxs venezolanxs han tenido que sobrevivir ataques imperialistas multifacéticos dirigidos a destruir el proyecto pro-socialista e internacionalista comenzado por Hugo Chávez que continúa la lucha por la independencia y la liberación prevista por Simón Bolívar.

Los años de sanciones económicas impuestas por Estados Unidos, las guarimbas, y las mentiras incesantes en los medios de comunicación, combinadas con la caída del precio del petróleo, no han logrado derrotar la presidencia de Maduro. Esto hace que las propuestas de una opción militar por Estados Unidos sean mucho más siniestras.

En los días antes de la inauguración de Maduro, el 8 de enero,  Resumen Latinoamericano compartió un video de helicópteros de combate estadounidenses aterrizando en una base militar en Panamá. El presidente de Panamá Juan Carlos Varela, se reunió con el Comando Sur de los Estados Unidos en Florida el 5 de enero. Esto fue una clara amenaza contra Venezuela. Los regímenes de derecha en Colombia y Brasil, leales a sus amos en Washington, también presentan un peligro claro e inminente.

La guerra de los Estados Unidos contra Venezuela Bolivariana no es nada nuevo. En el intento de golpe de estado de abril del 2002 contra el presidente Hugo Chávez – capturado por un equipo de filmación irlandés visitante en “La revolución no será televisada” – Washington mostró su mano con noticias falsas y declaraciones de apoyo a los golpistas.

Y el 9 de marzo del 2015, el presidente  Barack Obama emitió una orden ejecutiva declarando a Venezuela una amenaza para la seguridad nacional de los EUA. Esta acción se convirtió en la base para nuevas sanciones, causando más dificultades para el pueblo venezolano.

Ahora es el momento para que todxs lxs opositores a la guerra, el racismo y la explotación económica tomen medidas y exijan: Estados Unidos: ¡Fuera de Venezuela!

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We have been asked by several “camaradas” outside Venezuela to send a video or have a radio interview about current events connected to the latest Coup attempt promoted by Trump’s regime.

We decided to post a video with this idea in order to avoid repetition and to broaden the reach of the message. We try in this video to cover the most recent events and offer our perspective about it, putting aside other analysis like those related to economic issues, relations with Colombia and Brazil, and other relevant matters that also deserve consideration.

We hope you enjoy it:

Part 1

Part 2

If you like it, feel free to share it and use it for whatever reason you consider important and for defending democracy, the almost 10 million Venezuelans that voted last May 20 in the presidential elections and for preserving the Bolivarian Revolution.

Reposted from:

Thoughts About Current Events in Venezuela (Video)

On Jan. 19, for the third year in a row, thousands turned out for the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., and in cities across the U.S. The past year saw an enormous upsurge in the visibility of women’s and gender-oppressed people’s struggles against systemic abuse and violence. Internally, the Women’s March movement also faced a racist backlash against a feminist movement that includes Black, Latinx, Native, Arab and Asian women, as well as representation for transgender women.

The tone and politics of the events varied greatly from place to place and contingent to contingent. The official leaders of the Washington march emphasized electoral politics almost exclusively. But many women, trans, gender-nonconforming and other gender-oppressed people fought for a more radical agenda embracing the struggle against rape and sexual violence, for reproductive rights and economic equality, and against racism, imperialism and the capitalist system.

Here are reports from a few of the events:

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Boston

In Boston, Seattle and several other cities, Indigenous women formed their own contingents, often focusing on raising awareness about Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls & Two-Spirits and were featured as speakers.  

Mahtowin Munro, co-leader of United American Indians of New England, opened the Boston Women’s March.

Unfortunately, in some other marches, Indigenous women were not included in planning and felt marginalized. Ensuring that Indigenous women are intrinsic parts of Women’s Marches is still an important challenge for organizers in all too many places.

Baltimore

This year, an estimated 1,000 people came out. There was a rally outside City Hall with speakers, including community activists and elected officials. After the rally, demonstrators marched through downtown Baltimore to denounce violence against women, also raising demands such as reproductive justice and representation for women. The march ended at War Memorial Plaza where there were more speakers.

San Diego

The San Diego Women’s March stepped off around noon with Kumeyaay Nation womyn leading the way while holding a banner that read: “You Are on Kumeyaay Land.”  They were followed by the Aztec Sun Dancers, a group of Latinx youth who are a staple at progressive San Diego events.

In all, a crowd of about 10,000, represented by Black, Latinx, Indigenous/Native, Asian, LGBTQ2S people and mostly womyn, marched down San Diego’s Harbor Drive with chants of “My body, my choice!” and “Immigrants yes, wall no!”

With reports by M. Tiahui, Emma Rose and Zola Fish

Millions around the world were outraged by the scene of white teenagers wearing “Make America Great Again” caps harassing Native elder Nathan Phillips (Omaha Nation) as he was drumming and singing. It was captured on video after the Indigenous People’s March in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 19. Among other things, the racists circled around him and did “tomahawk chop” moves, mocked him and chanted “Build that wall!” referring to Donald Trump’s anti-migrant obsession that has furloughed federal workers and cut off government services for over a month.

These would-be Hitler Youth are students at Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky, an institution with a history of racist outrages and priest sex abuse scandals. They came to Washington to attend an annual right-wing rally against women’s reproductive rights, the so-called March for Life, held on the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

Now, a racist backlash has set in, attempting to paint the Indigenous elder as the provocateur and the MAGA teens as victims of “fake news.” The charge is led by the white supremacist in chief, whose White House press secretary told reporters, “We’ve reached out and voiced our support” to the Covington students.

For an eyewitness account of the incident by a participant in the Indigenous People’s March, read “Staring Down the Smug Face of American Violence.”

Here’s my personal reaction to what happened.

As a Native woman watching the video of Lekshi (Uncle) Nathan Phillips, I felt proud. I knew that Lekshi is not only an elder who deserves to be respected. He is a warrior and has lived an activist’s life.

I knew my beloved Lekshi was a water protector to the very end of the Standing Rock anti-pipeline uprising and that he participated in many other struggles to defend our people. He was a Vietnam era veteran of the Marines, though he did not get shipped to Vietnam. But he is a warrior for his people. I felt proud watching him sing and drum in the face of those Covington kids mocking his song.

Lekshi Phillips was taken from his family when he was a child, growing up without his nation around him. He turned to alcohol, but then he also became sober nearly 40 years ago. He lost his beloved wife a few years back to cancer. His life is like so many Indigenous lives, full of the pain caused by racism, and also full of love for his people. He worked for many years to help Native youth and make things better for them.

In Native political prisoner Leonard Peltier’s statement of support, released Jan. 22, he tells us that the song that Nathan Phillips sang in order to defuse the situation in Washington is a Northern Cheyenne song that has been used for decades as an American Indian Movement (AIM) honoring song. It is an old Cheyenne song that was later used in memory of Raymond Yellow Thunder, an Oglala elder who was murdered by whites in Gordon, Neb.

The kind of taunting and disrespect seen in the video is not new to Indigenous peoples. We are disrespected on a daily basis. In all too many areas, we have cans and other items hurled at us from the windows of passing vehicles. We are taunted by offensive costumes at Halloween, stereotypical roles in the media, and the use of sacred Native imagery and racist mascots for sports teams. We are taunted with erasure. This disrespect is a key part of settler colonialism and capitalism.

The march that Lekshi Phillips participated in celebrated Indigenous solidarity, part of a effort to remind the U.S. government that we are still here. This march and the issues it raised were largely ignored by mainstream media such as CNN. They silence us. Think about how rarely you hear an Indigenous person actually speaking about our issues on television. So why does the bourgeois press make this the big news out of Indian Country that they decide to notice, when there is so much going on in Native communities?

News agencies need to hire more Native journalists who could cover our stories from our perspective — like our missing and murdered Indigenous sisters and the fight to free our Brother Leonard Peltier, who has been wrongly imprisoned for 44 years now. But now they will devote countless hours to featuring the “brave” young men from Covington Catholic who somehow were “assaulted” by an elder with a hand drum, smearing Nathan Phillips while continuing to silence Indigenous voices and issues.

The Catholic Church is also in this up to its ears. It is the same church that converted millions of Indigenous people at the point of a sword. They ran the missions in California that enslaved Native peoples, even making a saint out of Junípero Serra. Their priests and nuns ran many of the residential schools across North America where thousands of Indigenous children were abused and beaten for speaking their languages. The Catholic Church sent known pedophile priests to parishes on reservations, not caring what happened to our children. It is the same church that has refused to rescind its racist Doctrine of Discovery.

Some people have suggested that the Covington bigots be punished by doing community service at a reservation. Personally, I do not think Indigenous people are a teaching moment for white people. It’s not a punishment to do community service at a reservation. Nor should it be our job to teach them to have respect for other humans.

El Gobierno Revolucionario de la República de Cuba condena y rechaza enérgicamente el intento de imponer, a través de un golpe de estado, un gobierno títere al servicio de los Estados Unidos en la República Bolivariana de Venezuela, y expresa su invariable solidaridad con el Gobierno del presidente constitucional Nicolás Maduro Moros.

Los verdaderos objetivos de las acciones contra Venezuela son controlar los vastos recursos de esa hermana nación y destruir el valor de su ejemplo, como proceso emancipador y de defensa de la dignidad e independencia de Nuestra América.

Como expresara el presidente Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez: «La soberanía de nuestros pueblos se dirime hoy en la actitud ante Venezuela. Respaldar el legítimo derecho de la hermana nación a definir su destino es defender la dignidad de todos».

No deben olvidarse otros intentos como el golpe militar del 2002 y el golpe petrolero del 2003, la agresiva Orden Ejecutiva de los Estados Unidos que califica a Venezuela como «una amenaza inusual y extraordinaria a la seguridad nacional y a la política exterior» de la superpotencia, las medidas coercitivas unilaterales, el llamado a un golpe militar contra el Gobierno constitucional de Venezuela, la advertencia del Presidente de los Estados Unidos de utilizar «una posible opción militar» y el intento de magnicidio el pasado 4 de agosto contra el Presidente Maduro.

Los actos de un grupo de países y el vergonzoso papel de la OEA constituyen un nuevo y desesperado intento por aplicar una fracasada política de cambio de régimen, que no se ha podido imponer debido a la inquebrantable resistencia del pueblo venezolano y su voluntad de defender la soberanía nacional.

La Habana, 23 de enero de 2019