No War on Venezuela: Call for Solidarity

 venezuela 1

Peoples and organizations in countries are calling: no war on Venezuela. There are calls for solidarity in countries. Imperialism’s subversive acts are also exposed in these statements. Following are a few reports from those solidarity calls:

International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity (ICP): We stand with Maduro and the Venezuelan people

The following statement [excerpt] was issued by the ICP:

We reject the coup attempt of the U.S. government against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The attempt ignores and violates the sovereign decision of the Venezuelan people who, in an absolute democratic and transparent election, in the presence of international observers, elected Nicolas Maduro as their legitimate President last May.

On January 22, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence sent a recorded message out that was broadcasted by 2,527 media outlets for three days in coordination with the shadowy Organization of American States (OAS) calling for subversion against Maduro’s government.

Before the eyes of the world, and in the most grotesque manner with the absence of opposition involvement, this new attack was openly done by the one, who pays and rules. They spoke and presented their new puppet they had prepared for the occasion, Juan Guaido, announcing him on the stage for the world to see.

The National Assembly, a body that represents no one, in contempt for the violation of the principles of the Constitution, responds directly to U.S. interests, and whose rotating presidency was held by Guaido [who was] named president of Venezuela out of thin air. It would be laughable if the facts were not so serious and the stability of the region was not put at high risk.

Donald Trump quickly gave recognition to Guaido through twitter, immediately followed by the vile secretary of the OAS Luis Almagro, the mafioso of Miami Marco Rubio and part of the cartel of Lima.

It did not take long to learn that Guaido, unknown until three days ago, was selected by USAID [U.S. Agency for International Development] and the U.S. intelligence agencies as the clown on duty to play such an embarrassing and usurping role. He says he will carry out a transitional government, to which the people, the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB), or any other institution did not respond.

Nicolas Maduro Moros holds the Presidency of the Republic and is the one who was elected by the overwhelming majority of the Venezuelan people with more than 67 percent of the votes. The so-called new president has sought refuge in an embassy, in other words, he is in foreign territory knowing that his actions are illegal and a crime against the Constitution.

The Bolivarian National Armed Force and the military high command are on alert and have reiterated their allegiance to Maduro.

Faced with imperial interference and the attempted coup d’état, the government of President Nicolas Maduro has broken diplomatic relations with the United States and has ordered personnel of the U.S. government to leave the country in 72 hours.

This is a dangerous new move against Venezuela and sets the stage to try and legitimize a military intervention.

We call on the friends of Cuba and Venezuela in the world, the men and women of goodwill, to support the legitimate President Nicolas Maduro, his government, and the people of Venezuela.

#VenezuelaIsNotAlone!

#WeAreMaduro

#TodosConMaduro

#NoPasarán!

International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity

Argentine League for Human Rights

Carioca Committee in Solidarity with Cuba

The statement was issued on January 23, 2019

Argentina’s Left Front

The Left Front in Argentina issued the following statement [excerpt]:

The Left Front repudiates the coup attempt in Venezuela, directly driven by U.S. imperialism and its lackeys in the Organization of American States (OAS). Juan Guaido’s self-proclamation as president of the republic was blessed by Donald Trump and his “agents” in Latin America: Jair Bolsonaro, Mauricio Macri, and Enrique Piñera, in what constitutes a direct violation of the country’s sovereignty.

They seek to hide this interventionism by invoking the defense of ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights’. But the U.S. government has always promoted military and political intervention. Coup conspiracies in Latin America have historically been orchestrated from Washington. The Latin American governments that have joined this interventionist and pro-coup crusade systematically violate rights and democratic freedoms in their own countries in order to pass austerity measures and sell out national assets, as demanded by the IMF and multinational corporations.

The president of Argentina, Mauricio Macri, is deepening a repressive policy, encouraging the expulsion of immigrants, lowering the minimum age, and providing impunity to police officers who commit murder.

The parliamentary bloc of the Frente Para la Victoria (FPV) favors the camp of “dialogue” promoted by the governments of Mexico and Uruguay, which amounts to a negotiated solution with U.S. imperialism.

The Left Front encourages Venezuelan workers to break into the scene as an independent force. The only alternative is to mobilize workers and the people against austerity and for expelling the pro-government bureaucracies from the unions, so that workers’ organizations can achieve political independence.

The working class must rule in Venezuela and give rise to a profound anti-capitalist reorganization of society that satisfies the pressing needs of the people.

We call on Latin American workers to mobilize together throughout the continent against this coup attempt, and to fight for a workers’ political alternative for Venezuela and for the socialist unity of Latin America.

‘Hands off Venezuela PDX’

On the cold, rainy evening of February 8, a new coalition, “Hands off Venezuela PDX,” gathered in Portland’s Terry Schrunk Plaza. Activists came from several groups including Veterans for Peace, the Portland Central America Solidarity Committee, Portland Jobs With Justice, Democratic Socialists of America, the International League of People’s Struggles and the Portland branch of Workers World Party.

The coalition was formed to get this demonstration supporting Bolivarian Venezuela.

After the speeches, demonstrators chanted anti-imperialist slogans and blocked traffic as they marched to the Federal Building, where they taped dozens of coalition statements to the doors.

In Austin, activists unite to support Venezuela

On February 2, a coalition of activists in Austin demonstrated their support for the Venezuelan people and the Bolivarian Revolution against the U.S.-backed right-wing coup now being attempted there.

Members of the Austin branch of Workers World Party were joined in solidarity with activists from the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Democratic Socialists of America, Communist Party USA, Austin Anti-War Coalition, EcoSocialists and several independents.

Many pedestrians inquired about how they could become involved.

Ecuador: ‘Yankee hands off Venezuela’

On February 8, the Ecuadorian Committee in Solidarity with the Peoples and Their Community Organizations demonstrated peacefully in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Thirty-two Ecuadorian social organizations signed a letter of solidarity with Bolivarian Venezuela.

The letter had been delivered the previous day by the committee to Ecuadorian Foreign Minister José Valencia. It was read aloud in the presence of a crowd of people carrying Venezuelan flags and placards with the image of Simon Bolivar.

The letter made it clear that the current President Lenin “Moreno does not represent the people of Ecuador” in his support of the current U.S. campaign against the Bolivarian nation of Venezuela. Illegal actions taken by the Moreno government against Venezuela were rejected.

U.S. Peace Council: ‘Stop the US-Led Coup Against Venezuela!’

The U.S. Peace Council issued the following statement on January 26 [excerpts]:

Petitions and condemnations are not enough! The U.S. peace movement must act decisively!

Once again, the bloody hand of U.S. imperialism is reaching out into Venezuela to complete the failed job of regime change that it started in 2002 against President Hugo Chavez. There is no doubt that another U.S.-led coup is underway to topple the democratically elected government of President Maduro in the hope of putting an end to the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela.

The illegal act by the U.S. government to recognize Juan Guaido as the “President of Venezuela” is not only in violation of international law and the United Nations Charter, but constitutes a direct attack on the Venezuelan people’s right to national sovereignty and self-determination.

We do not forget that the same tactic of creating a U.S.-fabricated “alternative government” was also used by the Obama administration, and especially by Hillary Clinton as the U.S. secretary of state, in an attempt to overthrow the legitimate government of President Bashar Assad in Syria.

The forced regime change operation in Venezuela is just another instance of the ongoing policy adopted by U.S. imperialism against the governments that have been resisting U.S. domination since the dismantling of the USSR: Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, North Korea. It is now being intensified by the exclusively corporate/military-controlled Trump administration. In addition, recent efforts by NATO to recruit Latin American countries, such as Colombia and Brazil, further threaten countries like Venezuela, which dare to assert their autonomy.

This criminal, decades-long, regime change policy is driven by both economic and strategic objectives. Venezuela has been in U.S. crosshairs, along with Iraq, Libya and Iran, for its large oil reserves. Venezuela is also the primary exporter of oil to the United States. U.S. control of these rapidly depleting oil reserves is key to U.S. imperialism’s domination of the global economy in the 21st century, especially in the face of emerging, powerful challenges from countries like China and Russia.

But an even more urgent motivation for U.S. imperialism to force regime change in Venezuela is to put an end to the anti-imperialist role Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution has played in Latin America.

Venezuela has been Cuba’s main supporter. Venezuela provided subsidized oil to numerous countries in the Caribbean — Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Belize and Nicaragua — that allowed those countries to finance education, reduce poverty and pay down debt. Venezuela also provided deeply discounted heating oil to impoverished families in 25 states throughout the U.S.

It is for all these reasons that the success of a U.S.-led coup in Venezuela would result in a disaster, not only for the people of Venezuela, but for all of Latin America and even the people of the United States. It could easily lead to a long civil war and possibly another U.S. military intervention, this time in Venezuela, especially since Trump, Bolton and Pompeo have consistently said that this option is on the table.

This would lead to displacement of hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of people.

The U.S. Peace Council strongly opposes U.S. imperialism’s criminal interference in the internal affairs of Venezuela and demands full respect for the will of the majority of the Venezuelan people who have freely elected Nicolas Maduro as their president.

We call upon the U.S. peace movement to not limit itself to just signing petitions and issuing statements of condemnation, as important as they are. While these methods are necessary and helpful in applying pressure on the U.S. Congress and the government, the history of U.S. imperialism has demonstrated that such appeals alone have not been effective enough to stop the crimes that are being committed by our government abroad in our name.

We need to organize broad mass protests in every corner of the country, against war, against foreign intervention and against violations of the U.N. Charter by the U.S. ruling class.

Many organizations in the U.S. and around the world have already issued calls for mass protests against the ongoing U.S. coup attempt in Venezuela.

Let us remember how we stopped the Vietnam War. Let us join hands again to demonstrate the immense power of the people who want peace and an end to imperialist interventions.

Venezuelan artists reject Coup

Venezuelan artists marched on Friday to commemorate popular singer and songwriter Ali Primera, as well as to reject the ongoing US-backed attempted coup.

The yearly “March of the Carnations” took place under the inescapable shadow of current events. The specter of a foreign invasion looms large over the country, with tensions building across the border over “humanitarian” aid.

“Art can play a crucial role in connecting the people and in this context speak to the dangers we currently face of a coup or foreign intervention,” singer and songwriter Ariana Moreno from Surconciente told. “Artists need to unite and take to the streets with a message of patriotism, humanism, socialism, and peace,” she added.

Sandino Primera, one of the sons of Ali Primera, explained that there is an artistic sector that is fully conscious of its role in pursuing a cultural revolution as well as the need to mobilize in current circumstances.

“The opposition has always looked for a coup, ever since 2002, since they called Chavez a dictator and never accepted electoral defeats,” Primera explained. “The difference is that their efforts have acquired a new level of intensity,” he added, while arguing that he does not see a foreign intervention as a likely scenario.

Ali Primera, a communist who passed away in 1985, is a significant figure in Venezuelan culture, with his songs becoming hymns of resistance against the neoliberal offensive of the 1980s and 1990s, before being embraced by the Bolivarian Revolution. Also ever present in both the man and his artistic works is an anti-imperialist message, none more so than in his song “America Latina Obrera” (“Worker Latin America”) which contains the slogan “Yankee Go Home.”

“Ali Primera is sorely missed as someone who identified with the people’s struggles and sang about them,” Moreno explained. “But nowadays we have many singers who look to him as a guide and try to fulfill this role,” she concluded.

For his part, Sandino Primera stressed that remembering Primera was not a matter of nostalgia. “His message is not anachronistic, it has a lot of sense still in today’s conditions and it’s coherent,” he said. “Ali remains at the vanguard of this movement for (cultural) independence that is a part of the struggle,” he went on to add.

During the march, artist and non-artists sang Primera’s songs all the way, with an overarching theme: Yankee Go Home!

Venezuelan feminist groups reject intervention

The coalition of feminist groups, known as La Araña Feminista, Alba Movements and other women, feminist and sexual diversity organizations in Venezuela issued a statement calling on international social movements and organizations to support peace and dialogue efforts to resolve the political situation in the country and reject calls for military coups and interventions against the Venezuelan government.

“At this moment, Venezuela and its people are in an anguishing situation, gravely threatened by an imminent imperial invasion and by the outbreak of internal violence with the terrible consequences of death and pain that wars bring,” the groups warned in their statement addressed to international progressive movements.

“The Venezuelan people have historically been lovers of peace, and within it we have fulfilled our commitment to building a just society, as embodied in our constitution. We are going through a transformational path with its own characteristics and popular protagonism, which however has been harassed in various ways, which has produced a sum of suffering in large majorities.”

The statement went on to say that such endorsements for an internal war or an external military intervention will not serve the people of Venezuela or solve the ongoing political conflicts. “A war or invasion of Venezuela would condemn its population to the sad fate that other peoples face.”

For the Venezuelan women leading those organizations, “the solution will come from dialogue and the commitment of all, all and all to peace, within the framework of necessary international respect for self-determination.”

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