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U.S. Peace Movement to Send Delegation to Venezuela

U.S. Peace Movement to Send Delegation to Venezuela

Yesterday, February 27, 2019, a press conference was held at the United Nations press room in New York City to announce that leaders of the U.S. peace movement will be going to Venezuela to speak with government and civic groups about what is really happening in that country and how we can add our voices to stop any coup attempts or moves towards war. A number of United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) people will be on the trip, which has been organized by UNAC affiliate, the U.S. Peace Council.

Four members of the 13 person peace delegation spoke at the UN press conference including:

  • Joe Lombardo, Co-Coordinator of the United National Antiwar Coalition

  • Ajamu Baraka, National Organizer, Black Alliance for Peace

  • Bahman Azad, Organizational Secretary of the U.S. Peace Council

  • Sara Flounders, Co-Director of the International Action Center

Besides speaking about their trip, the participants urged support for the national rally in Washington, D.C., on March 30 when NATO will be coming to the US Capital to celebrate their 70th anniversary. The newest NATO partner and the first in Latin America is the country of Colombia, which has been acting as a U.S. proxy in the region to intervene into the affairs of Venezuela. Information on the March 30 action can be found here: http://no2nato2019.org.

If you would like to help finance the trip to Venezuela, please make a donation to the United National Antiwar Coalition here: https://www.unacpeace.org/donate.html. All money that is donated to UNAC between now and March 9, when the delegation leaves for Venezuela, will go to support the delegation.

Statement released by UNAC

Cuban Statement on U.S. Intervention in Venezuela

Cuban Statement on U.S. Intervention in Venezuela

The Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Cuba condemns the escalation of pressures and actions by the U.S. government in preparation for a military adventure under the guise of a “humanitarian intervention” in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and calls on the international community to mobilize in order to prevent its consummation.

Between February 6 and 10 of 2019, several military transport aircraft have flown to the Rafael Miranda Airport in Puerto Rico, the San Isidro Air Base in the Dominican Republic, and other strategically located Caribbean Islands, most certainly without the knowledge of the governments of those nations. These flights took off from U.S. military facilities where Special Operation Troops and U.S. Marine Corps units operate. These units have been used for covert operations, even against leaders of other countries.

Media and political circles—including within the U.S.—have revealed that extremist figures of the government with a long history of actions and slander aimed at causing or instigating wars, such as John Bolton, U.S. National Security Advisor; and Mauricio Claver-Carone, Director of the National Security Council’s Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, counting on the connivance of Marco Rubio, Senator of the anti-Cuban mafia in Florida, designed, directly and thoroughly organized, and funded, from their posts in Washington, the attempted coup d’etat in Venezuela by means of the illegal self-proclamation of a President.

They are the same individuals who, either personally or through the State Department, have been exerting brutal pressures on numerous governments to force them to support the arbitrary call for new Presidential elections in Venezuela, while promoting recognition for the usurper who barely won 97,000 votes as a parliamentarian, against the more than 6 million Venezuelans who elected Constitutional President Nicolás Maduro Moros last May.

After the resistance mounted by the Bolivarian and Chavista people against the coup, evidenced by the mass demonstrations in support of President Maduro, and the loyalty of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces, the U.S. government has intensified its international political and media campaign, and strengthened unilateral economic coercive measures against Venezuela, among them the freezing of Venezuelan funds in third countries banks, worth billions of dollars, and the theft of this sister nation’s oil revenue, causing serious humanitarian damage and harsh deprivation to its people.

In addition to this cruel and unjustifiable plunder, the U.S. intends to fabricate a humanitarian pretext in order to launch a military attack on Venezuela and, by resorting to intimidation, pressure, and force, is seeking to introduce into this sovereign nation’s territory alleged humanitarian aid—which is one thousand times inferior as compared to the economic damages provoked by the siege imposed by Washington.

The usurper and self-proclaimed “President” shamelessly announced his disposition to call for a U.S. military intervention under the pretext of receiving the aforementioned humanitarian aid, and has described the sovereign and honorable rejection of that maneuver as a crime against humanity.

High-ranking U.S. officials have been arrogantly and blatantly reminding us all, day after day, that when it comes to Venezuela, “all options are on the table, including military action.”

In the process of fabricating pretexts, the U.S .government has resorted to deception and slanders, presenting a draft resolution at the UN Security Council which, cynically and hypocritically expresses deep concern for the human rights and humanitarian situation, the recent attempts to block the delivery of humanitarian aid, the millions of Venezuelan refugees and migrants, the excessive use of force against peaceful protesters, the breakdown of regional peace and security in Venezuela, and calls for taking the necessary steps.

It is obvious that the United States is paving the way to forcibly establish a humanitarian corridor under international supervision, invoke the obligation to protect civilians and take all necessary steps.

It is worth recalling that similar behaviors and pretexts were used to by the U.S. during the prelude to wars it launched against Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Libya, which resulted in tremendous human losses and caused enormous suffering.

The U.S. government attempts to remove the biggest obstacle—the Bolivarian and Chavista Revolution—to imperialist domination of Our America and deprive the Venezuelan people of the largest certified oil reserves on the planet and numerous strategic natural resources.

It is impossible to forget the sad and painful history of U.S. military interventions perpetrated more than once in Mexico, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Honduras, and most recently Grenada and Panama.

As was warned by Army General Raúl Castro Ruz on July 14, 2017, “The aggression and coup violence against Venezuela harm all of Our America and only benefit the interests of those set on dividing us in order to exercise their control over our peoples, unconcerned about causing conflicts of incalculable consequences in this region, like those we are seeing in different parts of the world.”

History will severely judge a new imperialist military intervention in the region and the complicity of those who might irresponsibly support it.

What is at stake today in Venezuela is the sovereignty and dignity of Latin America and the Caribbean and the peoples of the South. Equally at stake is the survival of the rule of International Law and the UN Charter. What is being defined today is whether the legitimacy of a government emanates from the express and sovereign will of its people, or from the recognition of foreign powers.

The Revolutionary Government calls for an international mobilization in defense of peace in Venezuela and the region, based on the principles established in the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, which was adopted by heads of state and government of CELAC in 2014.

It likewise welcomes and supports the Montevideo Mechanism, an initiative promoted by Mexico, Uruguay, the Caribbean Commonwealth (CARICOM), and Bolivia, which seeks to preserve peace in Venezuela based on the principles of non-interference in the internal affairs of states, legal equality of states, and the peaceful resolution of conflicts, as stated in its recent declaration.

It welcomes the positive consideration given to this initiative by President Maduro Moros and the international community, and expresses its concern given the U.S. government’s categorical rejection of the dialogue initiatives promoted by several countries, including this one.

The Revolutionary Government reiterates its firm and unwavering solidarity with Constitutional President Nicolás Maduro Moros, the Bolivarian Chavista Revolution and the civic and military unity of its people, and calls upon all peoples and governments of the world to defend peace and mount a joint opposition, over and above political or ideological differences, to a new imperialist military intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean, which will damage the independence, sovereignty and interests of all peoples from the Rio Bravo to Patagonia.

Havana, February 12, 2019

Photo credit: Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

Nicolás Maduro: An Open Letter to the People of the United States

Nicolás Maduro: An Open Letter to the People of the United States

By Nicolás Maduro

February 7, 2019 

If I know anything, it is about peoples, such as you, I am a man of the people. I was born and raised in a poor neighborhood of Caracas. I forged myself in the heat of popular and union struggles in a Venezuela submerged in exclusion and inequality. I am not a tycoon, I am a worker of reason and heart, today I have the great privilege of presiding over the new Venezuela, rooted in a model of inclusive development and social equality, which was forged by Commander Hugo Chávez since 1998 inspired by the Bolivarian legacy.

We live today a historical trance. There are days that will define the future of our countries between war and peace. Your national representatives of Washington want to bring to their borders the same hatred that they planted in Vietnam. They want to invade and intervene in Venezuela - they say, as they said then - in the name of democracy and freedom. But it's not like that. The history of the usurpation of power in Venezuela is as false as the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It is a false case, but it can have dramatic consequences for our entire region.

Venezuela is a country that, by virtue of its 1999 Constitution, has broadly expanded the participatory and protagonist democracy of the people, and that is unprecedented today, as one of the countries with the largest number of electoral processes in its last 20 years. You might not like our ideology or our appearance, but we exist and we are millions.

I address these words to the people of the United States of America to warn of the gravity and danger that intend some sectors in the White House to invade Venezuela with unpredictable consequences for my country and for the entire American region. President Donald Trump also intends to disturb noble dialogue initiatives promoted by Uruguay and Mexico with the support of CARICOM for a peaceful solution and dialogue in favor of Venezuela. We know that for the good of Venezuela we have to sit down and talk because to refuse to dialogue is to choose strength as a way. Keep in mind the words of John F. Kennedy: "Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate". Are those who do not want to dialogue afraid of the truth?

The political intolerance towards the Venezuelan Bolivarian model and the desires for our immense oil resources, minerals, and other great riches, has prompted an international coalition headed by the US government to commit the serious insanity of militarily attacking Venezuela under the false excuse of a non-existent humanitarian crisis.

The people of Venezuela have suffered painfully social wounds caused by a criminal commercial and financial blockade, which has been aggravated by the dispossession and robbery of our financial resources and assets in countries aligned with this demented onslaught.

And yet, thanks to a new system of social protection, of direct attention to the most vulnerable sectors, we proudly continue to be a country with high human development index and lower inequality in the Americas.

The American people must know that this complex multiform aggression is carried out with total impunity and in clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations, which expressly outlaws the threat or use of force, among other principles and purposes for the sake of peace and the friendly relations between the Nations.

We want to continue being business partners of the people of the United States, as we have been throughout our history. Their politicians in Washington, on the other hand, are willing to send their sons and daughters to die in an absurd war, instead of respecting the sacred right of the Venezuelan people to self-determination and safeguarding their sovereignty.

Like you, people of the United States, we Venezuelans are patriots. And we shall defend our homeland with all the pieces of our soul. Today Venezuela is united in a single clamor: we demand the cessation of the aggression that seeks to suffocate our economy and socially suffocate our people, as well as the cessation of the serious and dangerous threats of military intervention against Venezuela. We appeal to the good soul of the American society, a victim of its own leaders, to join our call for peace, let us be all one people against warmongering and war.

Long live the peoples of America!

Nicolás Maduro
President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Photo credit: AFP

U.S. Peace Council Rejects Intervention into Venezuela

U.S. Peace Council Rejects Intervention into Venezuela

Reject Interference and Threats Against the Re-elected Government of Venezuela!

Socorro Gomes
President of the World Peace Council
January 8, 2019

The democratic and progressive forces follow and denounce the endless sequence of statements, sanctions and other offensive measures against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. This time, in line with the imperialist agenda dictated by the United States for Latin America and the Caribbean, with the exception of Mexico under a new government, the countries that make up the Lima Group have again charged against Venezuela and, consequently, against its people, its sovereignty and democracy, declaring that they will not recognize the legitimacy of the government of the reelected President Nicolás Maduro, to be inaugurated on January 10.

In its contempt for the democratic and legitimate electoral process, as recognized by international observers, the Lima Group, in its statement of January 4, dared to demand the President re-elected by the Venezuelan people not to begin his new term. Such arrogance is unacceptable, especially in a region that has long suffered from the direct foreign interference commanded by the USA, where people have always had to fight hard for democracy.

Regime change operations, in various forms, are nothing more than coups d’état that trample over the citizens’ civil and political rights and the nations’ sovereignty, preventing regional stability and relations of respect, cooperation and friendship that will consolidate a just and sovereign peace. Even more outrageous is that they are promoted precisely under the pretext of protecting democracy. The Bolivarian government has a history of popular consultation practices that confirm its legitimacy and are unprecedented in those countries whose governments pretend to be the police of democracy in the continent – starting with the governments of Colombia, Peru and Brazil after the 2016 coup d’état.

The World Peace Council has reiterated its solidarity with the Venezuelan people in confronting foreign interference conducted whether through the Lima Group or the Organization of American States, but always coordinated by the bosses of the reactionary and putschist forces, the United States. The defense of Venezuela’s sovereignty is essential to ensuring peace on the continent and strengthening the bonds of respect and friendship among its peoples.

We join all peace-loving and freedom-loving forces in the irreducible support for the Venezuelan people’s struggle for their democracy and for overcoming sovereignly the serious political and economic crisis, which is inflated through a heavy media, economic and political war, causing instability, seeking to instigate polarization in the country. We are certain that the resistant Venezuelan people will overcome this threat, but we remain vigilant, mobilized in denunciation and in solidarity with their struggle!

All respect for the sovereignty of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela!

No to the interference of the Lima Group!

In defense of Peace among the Latin American and Caribbean nations!

Photo credit: Reuters

The Caracas Declaration

The Caracas Declaration

Between March 5 and March 7, hundreds of representatives from trade unions, grassroots peoples' organizations, youth organizations, Indigenous and African descendant organizations, women’s groups and political parties from over 100 nations gathered in Caracas, Venezuela, to express solidarity with the Venezuelan people and to support their right to self-determination and the integrity of their political process. The Black Alliance for Peace attended, represented by Ajamu Baraka, BAP’s National Organizer.

The “Caracas Declaration” was one of the products of that gathering.

 

Caracas Declaration: On the 5th anniversary of the Death of Hugo Chavez

We, citizens from distinct countries, social movements and organizations, political parties, women, youths, workers, creators and intellectuals, peasants, and religious leaders, gathered here in Caracas on the 5, 6 and 7th March 2018, reaffirm our solidarity and militant support of the Venezuelan people, the Bolivarian Revolution and its popular government, which is headed by Nicolas Maduro Moros.

We energetically reject the grave escalation of aggressions against Venezuela’s democracy and
sovereignty by the war-like government of Donald Trump, global corporate powers, and the
American imperialist military-industrial apparatus, which looks to overthrow the legitimate
government of Venezuela, destroy the project of Bolivarian democracy and expropriate the natural resources of the Venezuelan nation.

We denounce that this operation against Venezuela forms part of a global strategy of neo-
colonialization in Latin America and the Caribbean which seeks to impose a new era of servitude and looting through the resurrection of the shameful Monroe Doctrine, a plan which has already begun in numerous countries across the continent.

We reject the threat of Donald Trump of a potential military intervention in Venezuela and we alert that such declarations by him are not mere charlatanism. The military option against the Bolivarian Revolution forms part of the strategic and geopolitical doctrine of the U.S. for the 21st Century. The world must know that a military aggression against Venezuela would provoke a crisis in the region of historic dimensions and uncountable and unpredictable human, economic, and ecological impact.

We warn imperialism and their elites lackeys that play this game: the peoples of Latin America, the Caribbean and the world will never allow that Venezuela be touched by the ambitions of the American military boot! If, in their crazy obsession, the hawks of Washington dare attack Venezuela, the homeland of Simon Bolívar, as it was more than 200 years ago, will again be the tomb of an empire.

We denounce the blatant pressure of U.S. imperialism on the region's governments to involve them in political, diplomatic, and even military operations against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

With these actions, they seek to destroy regional integration and bring about the de-facto abolition of the principle of the founding charter of the Community of Latin America and Caribbean States, which declares the region as a zone of peace.

We reject the shameful and historical opposed attitude of governments in the region that have caved in to Washington’s politics through the creation of illegal and spurious organisms such as the so-called Group of Lima. The shameful regional elites who today lead the plundering of their peoples, hand over their sovereignty to the transnational corporations, and increase poverty, inequality and violate human rights, lack any moral and political authority to question Venezuelan democracy.

We reject the unilateral and illegal sanctions of the US Government and the European Union against the Venezuelan people, which seek to destroy its economy and break their democratic will.

Blockades and sanctions are crimes against humanity carried out by the international capitalist
system, and are severely hurting the Venezuelan people by sabotaging their productive, commercial and financial processes, preventing access to food, medicines and essential goods.

We reject the perverse U.S. sabotage of the process of dialogue developed in the Dominican
Republic and reiterate that only the absolute respect for the sovereignty of Venezuela, non-
interference in their internal affairs, sincere dialogue and electoral processes based on Venezuelan legislation can define the path to recover the political coexistence between Venezuelans. In this regard, we welcome the call for presidential, regional legislators and councilor elections for May 20, a result of a political agreement with a sector of the Venezuelan opposition.

In these absolutely constitutional and legitimate elections, the Venezuelan people in a transparent and sovereign way will decide the course of their homeland. We alert the peoples of the world to the counterproductive intentions of international governments and organizations that are directly involved in the war against Venezuela to not recognize the results of the elections on May 20, and accelerate attacks after what - no doubt - will be a real democratic expression of the Venezuelan people.

We welcome and support the declaration of the presidential summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America ALBA-TCP that categorically rejects the exclusion of Venezuela from the next Summit of the Americas, to be held in the city of Lima, Peru. Similarly, we support all diplomatic and political actions that governments, countries and peoples take to defend plurality and political diversity in the continent and to safeguard the sovereignty and self-determination of peoples.

We recognize the heroic resistance of the people of Venezuela when confronted by the ravages of economic aggression, the financial blockade and all the forms of sabotage that Venezuela is
suffering from, and support the economic, financial, political and diplomatic strategy that the
Bolivarian Government and President Nicolas Maduro are carrying out to overcome the problems and construct the humanist model of Bolivarian socialism.

We are committed to continue the battle for the truth, peace and the sovereignty of Venezuela, to expand the ties of friendship, solidarity and revolutionary commitment to the Venezuelan people.

The peoples of the world, the consciousness of all those who struggle for the just cause of mankind, accompanies at this time and always the Bolivarian revolution, its leadership and its people. We are convinced that Venezuela will be able to – through dialogue, respect for the Constitution, and the indefatigable democratic will of his people—overcome the problems that besets it, and that the Bolivarian revolution will remain a beacon of hope for the peoples of the world who search for a worthy and just destination for humanity.

In commemoration of the fifth anniversary of the physical passing of Commander Hugo Chávez,
historical leader of the Venezuelan people, from Caracas we say to the world: Venezuela is not
alone, we are all with her!

We are all Venezuela!
We will win! Caracas, March 7, 2018