Bulletin volume 5, issue 1 - jan - maRCH 2017
Bolivarian Government of Venezuela
Ministry of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs office of the Deputy Minister for Africa
Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Kenya concurrent to Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Somalia
Permanent Mission of Venezuela to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat).
CONTENT 1) Editorial 2) Matrix trends of imperialist intervention against Venezuela 3) Is the Constituent Assembly the solution in Venezuela? 4) Hugo Chavez; An African Youth Perspective 5) Hands off Venezuela ! 6)The siege is planned from the corporations 7) Recognizing Commander Hugo Chávez
CHAVEZ
We Are All
8) Flying high the flag of decolonization at the United Nations 9)Venezuela has a high Human Development Index 10)Venezuela joins the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. 11) Venezuela: A world example in housing. 12) Emancipatory communication or colonized homelands ’
CHARGÉ D'AFFAIRES: Jose Gregorio Avila, ATTACHÉ: Keyla Castillo Solano COLLABORATORS: Milka Aweyo Daniel Mwangi Antony Onyango
CONTACT INFORMATION: UN Crescent, Opposite Diplomatic Police, Gigiri, Nairobi Kenya P. O. Box 2437- 00621, Tel: (+254 - 20) 712 06 . 48 / 712 06 . 49 email: bulletinvenekenia@gmail.com Website: kenia.embajada.gob.ve Twitter: @EmbassyVenezK
‘ EDITORIAL
.....From that time, in 1998, various national and international actors initiated various plans of destabilization and discrediting to stop the positive social impact of our revolution in the world.
Receive the quarterly newsletter for the period Jan-Feb-March-April 2017. These months mark the fourth anniversary of this editorial project of the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the Republic of Kenya.
smear campaigns against Venezuela. These are intended to discredit the Bolivarian revolutionary process. There are people who get angry because today we are not, as we used to be in the past, a country subject to the dictates of powerful nations, because we are no longer, like yesterday, ruled from large economic corporations, or conditioned by the policies of multilateral bodies. This communication task for us is of the first order, it is strategic and it is a patriotic task.
Since 2013, the Embassy of Venezuela in Kenya thought of this communication task as essential to spread part of the various achievements of the Venezuelan Revolution. Presenting advances in matters of health, education and in the conquest of individual and collective political and economic rights is our duty. It is an inescapable task.
The idea is disseminating the successes and achievements that our Bolivarian Revolution is conquering despite the many problems we face and that we know we must address and resolve to ensure prosperity and justice. Our people have sufficient moral strength to rise and overcome this adverse situation of today. Our President has invoked the National Constituent Assembly for the peace of our Homeland.
With the arrival to power of President Hugo Chávez in December 1998 a voice of hope arose to demonstrate that a change of course was possible for the benefit of the popular majority who had always been abandoned and excluded. From Venezuela arose a popular option distinct from the neoliberal project since this meant a violation of the inalienable rights of people. Some economic sectors tried to stop this popular option led by President Chávez. This fuelled a damaging campaign to our national sovereignty and our political transformation process. From that time, in 1998, various national and international actors initiated various plans of destabilization and discrediting to stop the positive social impact of our revolution in the world.
In this regard, promoting the ideals of our revolution as an alternative before the hundreds of problems that overwhelm humanity is a vital, a fundamental task. Our newsletter has already been four years at this task. This work started by Ambassador Jhony Balza Arismendi is continued at this Embassy with the mandate of President Hugo Chavez: ´´No one can stop the victorious march of the Homeland of Simón Bolívar´´
In these times these media campaigns are being repeated against the government of President Maduro, trying to ignore the rights of the majority who lawfully in April 2013 decided to elect him as president to carry out the transformation plans to ensure social and inclusive policies. Various national and international media corporations have increased
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Matrix trends of imperialist intervention against Venezuela
planned end. These operations play a key role in the media matrices with which the CMFC achieves several objectives of a psychic nature, that is, certain psychological properties in the behavior of the people, or to be more precise, certain forms of expression of the personality of each one. These media matrices - as they function, both in the operations of power in each phase of the plan (conditioning, preparatory and executing), as well as the operations of appeasement or retreat once the objectives have been reached - could be grouped for study in two Fields or dimensions of power.
By Ernesto Wong Maestre
The Military-Financial - Communications Complex of the United States (CMFC, Spanish initials) as I have called it in my articles of the last three years, continues to act more strongly against the Venezuelan Revolution (Bolivarian and Chavista by nature) with a three-dimensional strategy, that has also been applied to people from countries like Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Paraguay, Ukraine, Colombia, Libya, Syria, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, among others. The consequences are varied mainly due to the plan implemented by the CMFC, according to the character of the government in power and the type of prevailing political-social system to deepen its hegemony or at least its dominion.
I) Information Matrices, Speaking Acts and Objectives
It is noteworthy that where there are revolutionary processes under development, the CMFC's capabilities are limited to reach its imperial goals and objectives, such as "regime change", which violates public international law, with its mere discursive formulation by their spokesmen, because this powerful multistructure tries to reduce the margins of independence, the levels of selfdetermination and the standards of freedom and sovereignty of the nations on which it tries to impose its neocolonial model. To dominate or try to control each of these governments, the CMFC or "Deep State" prepares a plan of objectives and strategies, with its set of operational tactical operations interlaced in three dimensions, as will be seen later, to achieve the 2
In the particular case of Venezuela, media matrices could be grouped into two dimensions interconnected by various relationships and links. Some aimed at diminishing, hindering or neutralizing the potential and power of the Venezuelan State in its different forms of existence or expression. Others aimed at strengthening the destabilizing system (potential or in operation) of the CMFC, which include: a) opposition structures created publicly by the Creole parasitic oligarchy, b) structures for covert operations and / or " False flag" generators of the so-called "false positives" and c) clandestine structures of Colombian mercenaries and paramilitaries and others of different nationalities, prepared to when the order of the empire is issued to execute terrorist actions to seize power or create conditions for an air invasion or over land of the Southern Command of the USA that has more than thirty military bases in Latin American countries
with capitalist governments, surrendered and given to the empire, yielding the sovereignty and the independence of its nations.
and editorial references to the concepts of Bolivarian, Bolivarianism, Chavism, Socialism, and names like Chรกvez, Bolivar or Zamora, or any other patriotic symbol, since in the hybrid war, the battle is also of symbols;
These matrices are fixed in the public opinion through newspaper chains, web pages, social networks, direct messages by cell phone or electronic mail, and by comments in opinion spaces in blogs or web pages.
f) By linking the "peaceful" demonstrators killed to repressive actions by elite police force, SEBIN and CICPC (who have acted lawfully and with utmost care of armed bands), the aim is to confuse national and global public opinion and also to strengthen the social sector, loyal to the bourgeoisie, the feelings of hatred towards the public institutions of security, justifying with it the murders and crimes committed against those bodies.
Matrices and information strategies aimed at reducing Venezuela's potential: a) In Venezuela there is a "crisis" (economic, "humanitarian" and political) that affects "increasingly" the region. This matrix seeks to justify the anti-Venezuelan measures of the OAS, is to legitimize and stimulate the declarations and actions of risk insurers and induces lack effect governments to break or cool diplomatic relations with Venezuela, and create more conditions for military intervention;
g) The "dictatorial government of Maduro" fails to follow the dialogue backed by the Vatican. This political sophistry is aimed both at strengthening the image of the "oppressor" who deserves to be removed from power by force and in diminishing the role of Pope Francis in the peaceful solution that would collapse the coup plan that is foreseen by the Military-Financial - Communications Complex of the United States (CMFC.)
b) The PSUV participates in armed violence against opposition demonstrations. This matrix tries to delegitimize the party of government as a legitimate political actor, since it is the party with the largest number of voters in the country;
The reality is that the revolutionary government has acted for more than seventeen years with the most exemplary democracy that has been known in Venezuela because otherwise the majority of the population would support the opposition demonstrators and the President would not have convened the Constituent. If there was no participatory and proactive democracy in Venezuela as a model for many countries in the world, the CMFC would not be forced to incorporate so many lies in its pronouncements to set up opinion matrices against the Venezuelan revolutionary process focused on socialism and in order to illegally empower their Creole lackeys.
c) The violence unleashed in Venezuela is carried out by the "groups of armed-chavistas". With this fallacious assertion, it is a question of creating confusion around those responsible for the deaths of demonstrators who are executed through counterrevolutionary "covert operations", and for that reason, to lose the social base to the government; d) There are corrupt or drug-related authorities and institutions that will be sanctioned by the United States. By threatening with illegal sanctions or reprisals, first of all the organs and members of the Bolivarian National Police and Guard, the FANB and the judiciary, and secondly, "those individually responsible" for "criminal repression "with sanctions" of the Venezuelan people and their institutions "and by the" international community", seeks to eliminate all obstacles to effective implementation of actions aimed at reaching power by de facto;
Matrixes and information strategies focused on reinforcing the potential of the destabilizing system (CMFC and allies or lackeys): a) By presenting repeatedly to the National Assembly that is controlled by the opposition majority as a "victim of the Executive Power and the High Court of Justice" is intended to victimize that power in contempt and delegitimize the rest of the
e) With a view to further strengthening the perception and meaning of the symbols of imperial hegemony, its information media omit from reports, speeches, commentaries by social networks 3
b) With the permanent informational imbalance and over-dimensioning of what the "peaceful" opposition does and omission of the achievements of the Government and the mobilizations of the people, it seeks to create the conditions to announce - in the case and its conditions - the recognition of the belligerence of another parallel government, the CNT type (national transitional council), as it was done in Libya, Ukraine or Syria; c) Similarly, with the promotion and publicity by all private media of the "peaceful" manifestations of the opposition, the MilitaryFinancial - Communications Complex of the United States (CMFC) seeks to continue the destabilizing work and reinforce the legitimate power of a future Venezuelan CNT; d) Pressuring the Government to make "prompt" elections, the CMFC seeks to counteract the government's strong defense and reduce the time necessary for economic recovery and pre-election psychological sanitation;
h) The government undermines democratic institutions and practices and gives "flagrant violations" of human rights, are statements that try to reinforce the usual postulate of justification of the need for "regime change";
e) With the reiterated lie of granting a large majority within the region to the group of only eleven Latin American governments pronounced in the OAS to summon a debate no more to sanctions against Venezuela, they are intended to construct arguments for the isolationist escalation but which are lacking in real support given the ephemeral political advantages enjoyed by the bourgeois governments to maintain themselves in power;
i) There is no mention of the "separation of powers" in Venezuela which is one of the necessary conditions in the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, but it is also a sufficient condition in the model of bourgeois representative democracy established in the Charter of the OAS, which seeks to create confusion, delegitimize the Bolivarian state and strengthen the position of his battle pawn, the secretary general of the OAS.
f) The sustained appearances of betting on the non-violence of "unarmed" manifestations in the statements of the imperial spokesmen vanish before the reality itself and by the effective denunciations of the social movements in the system of public means and by the social networks; g) The Government "criminally represses" the "peaceful democratic" activity as two matrices designed to cause confusion, to reduce levels of belief in the correctness of the revolutionary government and to try to raise credibility in opposition, but it does not succeed either in view of the obvious reality, made effective by the public media; 4
II) Instrumentation of matrices in transversal processes
It is necessary to identify the logical thread of these both informative and misinformative media matrices that have been converted into true and recurrent sophisms. The cognitive and ideological foundations of those who direct, design and implement global media campaigns, supported by powerful laboratories with the highest technology and financial resources, must be understood in order to face them with greater success. In each of these countries, the MilitaryFinancial - Communications Complex of the United States (CMFC) acts with various combinations of the three dimensions (military-financial-communicational), with different levels of depth and with various tools. Each of these dimensions and subdimensions seek to advance, achieving intermediate objectives before achieving the desired goal. In the case of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Ecuador: the "change of regime", as noted above. To other governments the CMFC sets for itself other goals because its political regimes are still compatible with the neocolonial policy of extracting their wealth of resources, both physical and human, expressed in raw materials, exportable products, surplus value, capital, theft of talents, consultancies, global franchises, which will deform the nuclear family to convert it into a corporate family.
power circles, conditioned by the ultraconservative ideological current and political theories, especially Almond, Lipset, Eckstein, Huntington, Fukuyama or Nye, and to achieve "regime change" without military invasion – just as the empire did for more than a century and would be willing to continue doing so - and at the lowest possible cost and without concern for "collateral damage" (a) the political culture of society, (b) economic and financial processes, (c) the legitimacy of authorities and institutions, (d) the public management effectiveness of production and services, (e) beliefs in the authority model, (f) social mobility, (g) the institutionalization process, and (h) social participation, because around these eight dimensions the actions undertaken by the CMFC could destabilize a political system or regime. The media matrices with their immediate objectives, presented in the first part, are evidences of the destabilizing intentions against Venezuela.
To achieve "regime change," the CMFC triggers a number of cross-cutting processes of social impact with three characteristics interconnected with the whole of each dimension: violence, subsistence and false or insufficient information that sometimes have a powerful influence on the two large very significant processes of any nation immersed in development processes: education and work. Through the control or incidence in these processes, the CMFC manages to condition from the preparation of the professionals with beliefs and values of utilitarian and ultra individualistic nature to workers with behaviors loyal to the class that exploits them or related to ambition, greed and selfishness. Political stability and personality in sight. Let us briefly look at these three transversal processes of social impact, as for pragmatic or
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Such affectations can be achieved in some social sectors more than in others because of the human dialectic, that is to say, the development of the contradictions proper to the human being, namely, between the natural and the social, between the unconscious and the conscious, and between The objective and the subjective, which are permanently affecting some of the structural units that shape the human personality (**), as it is a) the motivational intensity with its mobilization function, b) the expectation with its orientation role, c ) The affective state with its supportive function, d) the cognitive state with its formation of the knowledge of reality, e) the metacognitive that forms the concept of itself and f) the implementing instrument with its implementing function expressed in certain operations, actions and abilities.
with the calls for violent demonstrations of the opposition will reveal the close articulation of objectives-strategies-means-actions that the various actors have to the order of the CMFC.
Violence, belief and expectation .- The
violence generated by terrorism, vandalism, sabotage, negligence, strikes, demonstrations and illegal and antisocial behavior, is aimed at affecting social interaction, that significant "world of social life" For the stability of a nation, with a view to achieving desired levels of destabilization in any or several of the eight dimensions of political stability mentioned above, by affecting beliefs in authorities and their security plans, strengthening the role of Its violent operators, the reduction of the levels of expectations to create frustrations and to deconstruct the system of participation and social protagonism.
Subsistence, beliefs and behavior.- The
involvement of human subsistence through financial tools (union of industrial, commercial, services and banking) causes in some people psychic and psychological trauma in that other world of personal subjectivity aimed at eroding beliefs Social relations shared by peoples who are hopeful on the popular path and in another type of non-representative democracy. Beliefs that constitute, on the one hand, the basis of the values and these of the citizens' or particularly electoral attitudes and behaviors or behaviors, and on the other, the affective, cognitive and metacognitive psychic bases of the personalities that in the end are the ones that With their praxis, make it possible for social processes in each of the eight dimensions to lead to desired political stability.
Of course, between the contradictions and the structural units there is a synchronic and diachronic dialectic that in a true revolutionary process is expressed intensely in the individualism-collectivism conflict given in the various fields of politics and economy, increased from and by the means of private communication where, from the director, manager, producer and screenwriter (with their individualism increased on the collectivism, they create virtual realities or make dominant the pseudoconcretion) to cameramen, musicians and to a lesser extent the photographers (who generally end up inserted in that dynamism and accepting loyalty to the bourgeoisie as useful).
Communication, beliefs and values. -
Let us look at some ideas to make operational the three broad multidimensional strategies that have applied the the MilitaryFinancial - Communications Complex of the United States (CMFC) more intensively and comprehensively since the last two decades, aimed at fomenting violence, affecting subsistence and strengthening beliefs through communications (internet, cable TV and social networks) to reproduce anti-values and strengthen patterns of unpatriotic and anti-government behavior. If a brief study of what US channels are programmed for their cable broadcasts in the previous days and coinciding
For this reason and only through the communicative process, the personalities of the subjects in conflict are conditioned to one or another type of and interpretation of reality that is determinant in the formation of beliefs. Through the media and communication tools, accessed by social sectors that manage to capture their attention, the CMFC - based on their studies of the so-called Bigdata - manipulate information that psychically self-regulate, enable, support and stabilize behaviors and behaviors of opponents in their different levels (from the scathing critic in a queue of the bank or the supermarket to 6
destabilization of the present political system would at the same time be the greater stabilization of the system of imperial domination over the Nation.
the burning of a hospital and ways of manifesting that over the years are giving rise to a typical conservative, neurotic and aggressive personality, altering cultural patterns typical of each nation, in the case of Venezuela, of being Venezuelan.
The potential of a State bases its bases on internal and external factors, such as the identification of the young population with its government, the nature of its socio-political and economic system, available resources, alliances and external relations, the potential of the external adversary, The international correlation of forces, among others. As a result, it was a good idea to review the matrices and information strategies that the CMFC seeks to impose as patterns of interpretation, both to reduce Venezuela's potential and to reinforce the potential of the destabilizing system of the CMFC and its allies. Internal and external lackeys.
III) Limitations of the empire and informative matrices
As for the Military-Financial - Communications Complex of the United States (CMFC) today, it is to capture the attention of the "great masses" who, since the 1970s, have burst in with more organized force in the political life of nations (***), above all Of the Latin American, Asian and African countries, the activity of this imperial complex has had to focus - unlike the 50, 60 and 70 - in the use of the ways of the "mass communication", of social violence Rather than confining to the violence of commando groups, and manipulating information, both truthful and false, as well as some unsuccessful work of recruiting young people through payments for public opposition actions or journalistic work risky anti-regime , Mercenaries for covert operations and officials from "shadow" operations, which also results in the organizational level of security of the victim State, and N their specialties of intelligence and counterintelligence.
In the background of everything is a conflict on the axis of power and the potential of actors to achieve their goals. Some are directed to return to the exploiting past of the people and the nation in alliance with the empire and others with a popular majority engaged in defending the people and their wealth to further revolutionary social transformations. Given the level of globalization of the life of each nation, the structural crisis of the imperialist system of domination, the existence of other powers and agencies of the new integration, with foreign policies diametrically opposed to those of the imperialist countries, and The needs of the people and their desire for independence, it is increasingly imperative to integrate the other integrationist organizations of the powers that are ready to share, to cooperate, to exchange services, to invest and to trade in conditions of equality and mutual benefit, in all areas of life.
The masked instructions are already public. Therefore, the three-dimensional strategy of the CMFC can be studied and explained, and then understood and properly interpreted, based on the actions of this complex and its networks of actions and operations, as well as on the own speeches of its political leaders Or spokespersons. Although it is always necessary to carefully investigate possible covert operations such as "false flag operations", "false positives", "third actor" or other type of maneuver aimed at creating the so-called "social swarm" or a fierce "fight dog's".
(*) Political scientist, Internationalist, Editor, Mgs Social Sciences, Member of Jury of Master Thesis at IAEDEN and at IAEDPG, Professor of the School of International Studies at FACES-UCV. Networks: @ProfeWong www.profewong.blogspot.com, Email: wongmaestre@gmail.com.
From the most recent speeches of legislators and secretaries or spokesmen of the United States executive, referring to Venezuela, the matrices were extracted and their meanings were inferred from them, always based on the aforementioned theoretical presuppositions and that in this Conflict of antagonistic classes, the conjuncture should be interpreted as a zero-sum game in which the possible
(**) Rogelio BermĂşdez and Marisela RodrĂguez. Psychology of Scientific Thought (2004) .- Editorial People and Education, Havana. (***) Castro, Fidel.- Central Report to the First Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba. 1975. Political Publisher, Havana. www.barometrolatinoamericano.blogspot.co.ke
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Is the Constituent Assembly the solution in Venezuela? By Jesús A. Rondón,
‘....The opposition has based its propaganda inside and outside of Venezuela, in the fact that we are in a deep crisis and that the only way is to leave the Bolivarian Government and consequently to put an epitaph to the Bolivarian Revolution.’ On the eve of 1st May, 2017, President Maduro announced the convocation of a Constituent Assembly, which at that moment was called Communal. From that moment the various political factors and the Venezuelan society are analyzing this proposal, details of which are not yet all are revealed. So only a first approximation at this moment is possible to the answer of the question asked. In the first instance, it is necessary to affirm that the convoking of a Constituent Assembly is constitutionally valid, since it is an initiative of the person who exercises the responsibility of President of the Bolivarian Republic in accordance with what is established in Article 348 of our Carta Magna; so discussing a possible legal challenge is foolish. And even more foolish to argue about assumptions, such as how Chavez had formulated the constitutional proposal today.
way is to leave the Bolivarian Government and consequently to put an epitaph to the Bolivarian Revolution. President Maduro with this call recognizes tacitly the crisis, which does not have the correlation of forces to push back more opposition in the political field and expands the base of actors that can be part of the resolution of the Venezuelan crisis. In Venezuela the mechanisms of conciliation of elites broke with Chávez and with Maduro most of the bridges have been broken even before they begin (it is enough to evaluate the history of the "dialogue" in the last year). I believe that the National Constituent Assembly is another opportunity for the Venezuelan people to discuss, revise and improve our "social contract" (just as Juan Jacobo Rousseau called it). That is, the Constitution that is the basis of the Republic. An opportunity that is aspired to transcend in some way the political actors who have represented the conflicting factors of power. As a result, opposition leaders will inevitably declare their proposals explicitly and reveal what class interests they respond to.
President Maduro, in promoting the National Constituent Assembly, takes the political initiative and places the opposition on a level playing field, in the sense that it is, what it has hitherto declared is that "this government must be withdrawn," without proposing a country project; and with that argument has been cohesive and mobilized to the point of assuming as a way not formally accepted by all factors, armed insurrection, as denounced by President Maduro and other spokesmen of the Bolivarian Government as Vladimir Padrino Lopez. The opposition has based its propaganda inside and outside of Venezuela, in the fact that we are in a deep crisis and that the only 8
“
President Maduro announced that the organized sectors of Venezuelan society will have an important role in this initiative, to date there are no more details, but this situation disadvantages the opposition and his discourse / practice of liberal democracy (which does not surpass representation and exacerbates individuation) and benefits Chavismo that despite the cooptation and bureaucracy of the organizations that gravitate around it, has a strength based on a common identity and levels of coordination acceptable for this conjuncture that allows discussion, agreements and mobilization.
.....I believe that the National Constituent Assembly is another opportunity for the Venezuelan people to discuss, revise and improve our "social contract" (just as Juan Jacobo Rousseau called it). That is, the Constitution that is the basis of the Republic. An opportunity that is aspired to transcend in some way the political actors who have represented the conicting factors of power.
�
The factors that influence the Bolivarian Revolution have taken the initiative in the political field and the opposition has few alternatives, sadly one is violence, "terrorism" or more recently it has been called armed insurrection. However, in the economic field the opposition is moving forward and the National Constituent Assembly is not in my opinion a formula for Chavismo to advance in the short term, as is the cultural and communication field, for these are other strategies. Not unveiled for now...
Today all organizations, guilds, associations, groups, social organizations, unions, must propose to have representation in the National Constituent Assembly, overcoming the bureaucracy partisan to contribute to a social debate that will mark the future. If it is not possible to have representation, debates should be generated to make proposals and promote them. There is experience in this last one because the constituent process of 1998 proved of great strength.
Sociologist. @jxrondon Jesusalbertorondon@gmail.com
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Vision of Kenyan youth
HUGO CHĂ VEZ: AN AFRICAN YOUTH PERSPECTIVE
By Mr. Lewis Maghanga Student University of Nairobi
Hugo Chavez is undoubtedly one of the most exceptional figures of our time. In modern world history, there hardly exists men of almost infallible instinct, strong character, determined leadership and uncompromising will; yet these are but some of the characteristics that formed the personality of the Eternal Commander of the Bolivarian Revolution. But just who, according to the people of Africa in general and the youth of Africa in particular is Hugo Chavez? For the most part, it is needless to mention that the people of Africa, Latin America and most of Asia find themselves entangled in a global economic and political system that puts them at the periphery of the world order. The people of the Global South find themselves as the recipients of a faulty trade system that requires them to be mere producers of cheap labor and raw materials and consumers of already manufactured goods from the developed countries. The people of the South find themselves, in a pitiless fashion, at the mercy of international financial institutions that dictate the direction their economies are to take, with total disregard to the wishes of the people. The people of the South, no doubt the majority of the world's population, find themselves dominated by giant trusts, monopoly combines and multinational corporations from the countries of the North, and most of their resources plundered for mere profit. In a nutshell, the people of the developing world experience poverty and want in a world where, given the chance, they would eliminate scarcity forever. This 'chance', however, is never voluntarily given; it is demanded and taken. It is grabbed by the
people whenever their very existence is threatened by a select few. It is taken by the toiling masses of any country, particularly when the difficulty of their existence has reached a point of unbearable torment. It is grabbed whenever the future of the people depends on it. It is taken when there is no way out other than to take it. The strength and vitality of the Bolivarian Revolution, led by Hugo Chavez, is that the people of Venezuela have taken that chance. The people of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, since the onset of the Bolivarian Revolution, have embarked upon a path of equitable distribution of resources for all. The people of Venezuela have ensured that all the resources of their country, both human and material, are used for collective benefit of the people as a whole and for the development of the people as individuals working for the betterment of future generations. The Bolivarian Revolution has ensured that the means of production of the economy of Venezuela, the forces of production, are firmly in the hands of the very people who participate in the 10
process of production. With admirable courage and daring determination, the people of Venezuela have set precedence for the rest of the developing world of a system that works to achieve the freedom of each as the necessary condition for the freedom of all. For the youthful population of Africa, therefore, Hugo Chavez is the representation of the desire of the billions of oppressed people throughout the world to break away from the yoke of imperialist domination. Further, Hugo Chavez and the people of Venezuela represent the action of the toiling masses of the world in their quest for a more just and equitable society and for a political and economic system in which the welfare of the working population is considered of paramount importance. But perhaps the most important image that Hugo Chavez portrays to the youth of Africa is that of the enlightened and awoken man and woman of the Global South, sufficiently conscious of their path towards the revolution and determined in their will to break the hegemony of the imperialist countries and achieve self- determination for the developing world. In his efforts geared towards consolidating the gains of the Bolivarian Revolution, Chavez demonstrated that with iron will and an unwavering goal, no efforts whatsoever would prevail in trying to roll back the wheels of history. The direction that the people decide to take must always prevail, and the peoples' power would persist even in the face imperial and neocolonial aggression by the oligarchs and the international monopoly capitalists. In this sense, the people of Venezuela have served as a prime example to the rest of the developing world. The practical tasks that faced the people of Venezuela, that necessarily required a group of
determined men and women, led by Hugo Chavez, to stand at the head of the nation and solve the basic questions besetting the people, still prevail throughout much of the developing world, and also urgently need to be fulfilled in order to put the people of the South on the path of prosperity and progress. The examples of struggle and success of Chavez and the rest of the leadership of the Bolivarian Revolution are therefore vital to the revolutionaries of Africa and the South, as they offer inspiration and important lessons on the path of liberation for the whole of mankind. In its practical sense, thus, the Bolivarian Revolution is extremely significant to the Global South in the sense that it serves as a 'shock brigade' to the proletarian revolution of the developing world that is yet, though not far, to come. Therefore, the African Proletarian Revolution, yet to occur as part of the international proletarian revolution, will derive its inspiration and support from the steadfastness and resolve of the people of Venezuela as they consolidate their gains through the Bolivarian Revolution. This is the prism through which the people of Africa in general and the youth of Africa in particular view the Bolivarian Revolution and the contribution of Hugo Chavez in the future of the world. 11
Hands off Venezuela! Trevor G Brown May 21, 2017
The Charter of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly's 91st plenary meeting in December 1981, under Article 36/103 titled 'Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention and Interference in the Internal Affairs of States' is very explicit in its language and tone: “No State or group of states has the right to intervene in any form or for any reason whatsoever in the internal and external affairs of other states.” Article F is even more precise, “The duty of a State is to refrain from the promotion, encouragement, or support, direct or indirect, of rebellious or secessionist activities within other states, under any pretext whatsoever, or any action which seeks to disrupt the unity or undermine or subvert, the political order of other states.” The question, therefore, that we need to ask ourselves is how can the United States of America flagrantly disregard the statues of this august institution and ascribe unto themselves much greater powers than that of the 192-member country institution which the UN represents, in piloting a Bill within its Senate recently of US$20 million in support of a ostensible “Venezuelan Humanitarian Assistance and Defense of Democratic Governance Act”. The Bill, which had bipartisan support, was piloted by both Republican Senator Marco Rubio (Fla) and Democrat Ben Cardin (MD) respectively, with the support of Republican hawk John McCain, Dick Durbin, John Comyn, and Democrats Bob Mendez, Bill Nelson, Tim Kaine, and Chris Van Hollen, is broken down in two parts. The first US$10 million will be to provide “humanitarian assistance”, while the second part is
for “democracy promotion”, where US$500,000 is designed “to carry out activities with the Organization of American States (OAS) to ensure credible international observation that contributes to free, fair and transparent democratic electoral processes in Venezuela”, while the remaining US$9.5 million, is to carry out the activities directly through non-governmental organisations to “defend internationally recognised human rights, support the efforts of independent media outlets, facilitate open and uncensored access to the Internet, and to combat corruption”. Other noteworthy aspects of the Bill deal with strengthening the Caribbean Energy Security Initiative (CESI), which was first mooted by former Secretary of State John Kerry just before former President Barack Obama visited Jamaica two years ago. He saw it as a way of combating the influence of the Bolivarian Republic as regional power among our energy-dependent Caribbean nations. More sinister were their fears of the Russian oil company Rosneft's dealings with Venezuelan state-owned entity Petroleos de Venezuela, SA (PDVSA), which currently amounts to between US$4 - US$5 of debt, where a default on the Venezuelan side would open up the possibilities for control of PDVSA subsidiary CITGO Petroleum Corporation, that currently controls critical energy infrastructure in 19 states in the United States. The authors of the Bill also saw it fit to draw the attention of US President Donald Trump into the fray by prodding him to “take all necessary four steps to prevent Rosneft from gaining control of five critical United States interstate energy infrastructure”. 12
If anyone was fooled by the sophistry and double-speak in the content of the US senators' bipartisan Bill the real intentions were as clear as the emperor without clothes when White House National Security Adviser H R McMaster held a high-level meeting with Julio Borges, leader of the Venezuela Opposition-led National Assembly who, according to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, “talked about the need for the Government to adhere to the Venezuelan constitution, release political prisoners, respect the National Assembly, and hold free and democratic elections”. Why then is the necessity for this escalation of an interventionist and scorched-earth approach to resolving the conflict in our sister country by the USA with the support of the most rabid right-wing elements within the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) Opposition coalition, which so far has resulted in 40 individuals being killed, over 400 wounded, and infrastructural and property damages estimated to run into millions of dollars in the beleaguered oil-dependent economy. CONSTITUTION OF THE BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA
This is against a background in which:
1.) No other country in the Western world have held more free and democratic elections than the Bolivarian Republic since Hugo Chávez became president in 1998, which elicited the comment from former US President Jimmy Carter that elections in Venezuela represent the best (fairest) in the world (including his own country) when, as part of international election observer teams, and in particular the Carter Centre, observed the democratic proceedings in our sister nation. 2.) Some 17 of the more moderate Opposition parties have sat down to discuss with the
Government the 'nuts and bolts' of a National Constituent Assembly announced by President Nicholas Maduro on May 1, 2017, where ironically in 2013 the MUD coalition, along with the other Opposition parties, in a joint statement, strongly advocated for the same constituent assembly which they saw as a necessity in order “to change a regime that has lost legitimacy”. 3.) That a recent poll taken by polling organisation Hinterlaces in Venezuela showed that 65 per cent of the citizens agreed that presidential elections should be held when its constitutionally due in 2018, despite calls from the Opposition to have an early vote. 4.) That 61 per cent of the population also believed those involved in protest violence should face jail time. 5.) Pope Francis's recent call for a return to dialogue between the Government and the Opposition as a way of dealing with the conflict has been roundly criticised by Henry Capriles, leader of the Opposition MUD coalition. 6.) Repeated calls by the Government for peaceful dialogue and negotiations with the Opposition, as a basis for reducing and ending the conflict, have been rebuffed, with the more radical elements of the Opposition resorting to violence in an effort to oust President Maduro. Peace is an indispensable path to progress for all peoples and the opposite rings equally true. The events in our sister country over the past month or so give us cause and reason to reflect on whether history is about to repeat itself in our region, which has been declared a 'Zone of Peace' by the Community of Latin America and Caribbean States (CELAC), courtesy of a modern-day version of the Monroe Doctrine. Venezuela, like Chile, democratically elected left-leaning regimes that campaigned on a platform of transforming their society through State control of vital resources, which would be used to improve the general welfare of the masses of their people. In the case of Chile, whose president was Salvador Allende, it was the copper mine resources which were the largest then in the world — and a key element in the development of strategic industries in
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the world — while Venezuela, with its then President Hugo Chavez, sat on by far the largest reserves of oil in the world, where even at production levels of three million barrels output per day is conservatively estimated to last at least another 285 years. In both Chile and Venezuela, also, the key areas of the economy such as finance, banking, manufacturing, distribution, and the media were still, for the most part, firmly in the hands the private sector that were hostile to the progressive governments of the day. Both leaders were true to their words and election promises, where they both nationalised these key natural resources to use for the betterment of their people. However, both countries, by taking such a course of action, severely disrupted the earnings of US multinational corporations Anaconda and Kennecott, in respect of Chile and Exxon, Mobil; and Connoco Phillips in the case of Venezuela. This and other actions, which any progressive government would take to strengthen its hand, incurred the wrath of US administrations at that time, which prided themselves on US exceptionalism across the world. Additionally, in the case of Chavez, he used the enormous oil wealth at his disposal to transform the lives of not only the working people and the poor in Venezuela, but to challenge the hegemony of the USA in our Americas by being a major player in the building of institutions such as Operation Milagro, PetroCaribe, Telesur, Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA), CELAC, with the countries in the region being the beneficiaries. The campaigns, therefore, to restore the status quo by any means necessary began in earnest vis a vis the USA and these respective states, namely Chile and Venezuela.
disinformation and economic warfare — much like what is currently being experienced by Maduro — that resulted in his removal in a coup in 2002. The celebration in Washington for his ousting was short-lived as the Venezuelan working people, along with patriotic elements within the military, restored him to his rightful place as head of State a mere 24 hours after the coup. In Jamaica there is a saying that you should 'tek sleep an mark death', and the distinct parallels between the situation in Chile then and Venezuela now requires us to take more than a passing interest. What would also be uppermost in the minds of the Opposition and their US masters is the fact that of the 19 elections that the Venezuelan people have faced since the advent of Hugo Chavez Frias in 1998, whether it be for local, regional, national, or constitutional reasons, the Opposition has only being successful in two. The US Senate bipartisan Bill, therefore, should be seen as bare-faced attempt by the US to up the ante in its undeclared war against the sovereign and democratically elected Government and people of Venezuela, totally unfazed by the levels of death, destruction, and chaos that has so far been visited on the society, which to them is seen considered as mere 'collateral damage' in the desperate push for regime change — as was the case in Iraq and Libya, to name a few countries of recent memory. Regrettably, this indecent push was bolstered and given some kind of' legitimacy by the former US President Barack Obama, designating Venezuela “a threat to the national security of the USA” since 2015.
Allende died in 1973, while defending himself in a coup, which was organised by right-wing elements within the military with the support of the US Administration. The subsequent reign of terror and death that was unleashed on the civilian population by military junta led by General Augusto Pinochet marked a new low in the cruelty of man to his fellow human being. Chavez died in March 2013, but not before his Administration was subjected to a campaign of
As part of progressive humanity we say hands off Venezuela! 14
Look at yourself The humanitarian, democracy and media concerns that the both Democrat and Republican senators have enunciated would be better served if the spotlight were trained on mainland USA, where independent senator and losing candidate for Democratic party presidential nomination in 2016, Bernie Sanders, laments in his revealing book Our Revolution “in a country with US$88 trillion in wealth... 19.7 per cent of American children are living in poverty, which gives the United States the distinction of having the highest child poverty rate of almost any major country on earth... The number of homeless children in our public schools has doubled now, numbering 1.4 million homeless kids drifting from school to school, as their parents try to find temporary housing in which to live”. This is what he had to say about the US soldiers who had put their lives on the line in defending USA's imperial interest abroad: “We must end the travesty of veteran's homelessness, while significant gains have been made over the past six years, the fact that on any given night there are some 50,000 homeless veterans on the streets is a national disgrace.” The further lack of 'humanitarian' concerns in the 'land of the free and the home of the brave' is also reflected in this damning expose which Our Revolution zeroed in on: “In America today, 43.1 million people are living in poverty — 13.5 per cent of our entire population, while in 2015 police officers killed at least 102 unarmed, black people, five times the rate at which they killed unarmed whites.” In relation to democracy in the USA, this is what Senator Sanders had to say: “As many as six million Americans, largely poor and minority, who have served their time in jail, were not able to vote in the 2016 elections. This has nothing to do with criminal justice; it is a partisan political decision, when people do their time, their rights as citizens in a democratic society should be reinstated.”
In addition, the disenfranchisement of millions of voters during the last presidential elections due to “skulduggery” on the part of both Republican and Democrat parties alike is routinely accepted as part and parcel of the imperfections of US democracy at work. Finally, in relation to the media, this is what he had to say: “No sane person denies that the media plays an enormously important role in shaping public consciousness and determining political outcomes. The current media situation in America, where a handful of giant corporations control the flow of information, is a very serious threat to our democracy.”
Senator Sanders continued: “In 1983, the largest 50 corporations controlled 90 per cent of the media, today as a result of massive mergers and takeovers, six corporation control 90 per cent of what we see, hear and read.” He ended with a quote from A J Liebing in 1960, which is applicable then as it is now: “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own the press.” My simple advice to the current US Administration is this: Charity begins at home. scribe.brown@gmail. com www.jamaicaobserver.com
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The siege is planned from the corporations The last institution to do so was the United States Senate with a resolution "urging the release of political prisoners and holding free elections," in addition to its support for the decision of the OAS Secretary General, Luis Almagro, to try again to apply for the aforementioned Democratic Charter. It is not surprising that the main promoter of this resolution is the Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, who is financed by large energy corporations such as the Exelon Group and the Carlyle Group, or that among the other senators who support it are Bob Menendez and Marco Rubio, The arms and conservative lobby associated with major banks such as Bank of America and industries like Lockeed Martin and Koch Industries. The concatenation of pronouncements, declarations and communiquĂŠs coming from American agencies and political actors against the country, is exactly with a series of tours of Almagro in which it is located under the more rancid wing of the American foreign policy, whose relation is direct with these large companies with economic and financial interests in Venezuela. But this harmonious and articulate compass of movements is not limited to Almagro, but to the rest of the United States' allies in the region that warm the climate and make efforts for the implementation of the Democratic Charter against Venezuela. A visit to the American Business Institute (ABI) in which he said that in Venezuela it is "necessary that there be elections for the country to move from an authoritarian regime to a democracy," a euphemism used to give it a veneer of neutrality to its well-known belligerent position against the nation.
It is because the ABI has in its board of directors executives of the aforementioned Carlyle Group, and has received money from Exxon Mobil, apart from being a tank of thought known to have been the place from which left part of the government team of George Bush, son. So much so that his statement was made with Eric Fansworth, director of the Council of the Americas, founded by David Rockefeller and made up of energy corporations such as Chevron, Conoco Phillips and big banks like Goldman Sachs and UBS. And in the context of the conversation "The future of Venezuela" described as "a discussion on ways to restore democracy in the country, from the United States and other countries in the region." Forms that in this case are what they seek is to position the OAS as an interlocutor in the country and to move from the scenario to the table of dialogue of the UNASUR on which they have little influence, using the Democratic Charter and Almagro as their main political assets . This shows how foreign policy against Venezuela is part of a transnational agenda, which makes politicians and institutions fight for it as if they were beating a piĂąata while waiting for one of those chavismo to come out of power. Or how the interventionist instrument called "Carta DemocrĂĄtica" (Democratic chatter) is on sale and has already been bought by the same corporations that have been sworn to Venezuela since 1998. Almagro and its allies in the region are mere intermediaries. www.misionverdad.com
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Julian Assange’s Letter to Venezuela
Recognizing Commander Hugo Chávez Dear friends in the Network of Intellectuals, Artists and Social Movements for Humanity meeting in Caracas, In the book of Proverbs, it says, “A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense.” “Through knowledge its rooms are filled with all sorts of precious riches and valuables.” Yet there is more to it. The next verse says, “The wise are mightier than the strong.” Knowledge is power.
I have the great honor of addressing you on the anniversary of the death of a man who fought long and hard against imperialism, neo-colonialism and other forms of oppression of the peoples, especially in Latin America. [Former Venezuelan president Hugo] Chavez played the most important role on the global stage, with his tireless efforts to continue down the path of regional integration and cooperation and build a multi-polar world.
Julian Assange, the founder of Wiki Leaks, highlighted the role of Commander Hugo Chavez in building a multipolar world, despite the constant attacks by the US government on the governments of Left of Latin America.
He denounced injustices as he saw them and in 2001 was the only leader to denounce the killings by the US of innocent civilians in Afghanistan, noting, “You cannot fight terrorism with terrorism”. A little over six months later, the US supported a coup against him that was defeated when hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets, many of them with the constitution in hand.
"Chavez played the most important role on the global stage with his tireless efforts to continue advancing regional integration and cooperation and building a multipolar world," Assange said in a letter to the Network of Intellectuals, Artists and Social Movements for Humanity, who are meeting in Caracas. He sent the letter in honor of the commemoration of the 4 years of the sowing of Commander Chavez. In it he expresses his admiration for the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution.
Like all of us, he was not free from sin, but his virtues shook the world. As director of WikiLeaks, we have shed light on the secrets of the powerful, and have built a different and powerful library; a library that contains information regarding how our world and its institutions really function; a library that contains information that for centuries was solely in the hands of the elites and that now – not without facing risk and persecution – we have democratized and put at the disposition of the people, regardless of political orientation or creed.
It is for everyone, so that society as a whole opens their eyes and, with irrefutable information at hand, confronts the powerful and come to their own conclusions, without the filter of the media, regarding political events and decisions that affect their lives. 17
The objective of WikiLeaks, of seeking truth in the name of humanity, is today more important than ever, an objective we continue to seek despite the high price we pay for it.
The cost, in my case, has been high. I have been legally persecuted and detained for almost seven years, without any charges having been laid against me. This persecution has been extended to my family, my children, to those I have not been able to see during this period of time. The United Nations, as well as numerous human rights organizations and personalities at the global level, have called on Sweden and the United Kingdom to respect their international obligations, to respect and recognize the sovereignty of the state of Ecuador and to, therefore, recognize my asylum and stop blocking the exercise of this human right. It is inconceivable that, in the 21st century, the imperialist attitudes of the United Kingdom and Sweden could lead them to ignore, with complete impunity, a sovereign act by an independent country, Ecuador. I remind those present that Ecuador has paid and continues to pay a high price for granting me asylum to protect me from political persecution for having exposed the secrets of the empire. The British police have attacked its Embassy in London, which even today continues to be subjected to unprecedented levels of surveillance. Denying safe passage so that I can go to Latin America is an act of pure imperialism by countries that occupy high posts in the United Nations and that, nevertheless, refuse to recognize and enable the exercise of a universal right. They do so with total impunity while mocking the sovereignty of a country of the South and the entire region of Latin America, which unanimously supports my asylum.
This constitutes a great insult to the dignity of our peoples and the very system of the United Nations. To have done this over many years demonstrates the deterioration and grave backwards steps that have occurred in terms of the international system of protection of human rights for all. Not to speak of my country, Australia, another servant of imperialist interests, that in seven years has not once pleaded my case and, moreover, has sought to criminalize me to ensure I cannot return home. Both Sweden and the United Kingdom have completely ignored a firm resolution from the highest authorities on the issue of arbitrary detention, who after closely analyzing my case determined that my detention was arbitrary and illegal and that I should be immediately allowed to leave and be compensated. But despite all this, the empire has not been able to silence me. I am free simply because I am free to express myself. And I have this freedom thanks to the courage of Ecuador and other states, among them Venezuela, that have united to support me. My struggle could become a success story for freedom of expression and human rights. As such, granting safe passage would be an act of justice and dignity for the region. We remain faithful to our promise to publish the truth without fear or negotiating under the table. We will continue to strive to fulfill our commitment to truth and social justice. The liberation of the peoples depends on the liberation of the minds of the peoples. For this, we need peaceful revolutionary efforts, like those of WikiLeaks, to flourish around the world. That is why we need to halt the persecution of WikiLeaks and its people. Let us do this together, today. Tomorrow may be too late. www.greenleft.org.au
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Flying high the flag of decolonization at the United Nations With 18 votes, Venezuela assumes forthe second consecutive year the presidency of the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United Nations, better known as C24, which is the body responsible for examining the situation with regard to the implementation of the declaration on thegranting of Independence to colonial countries and people. On Tuesday 21st February,2017 , with the presence of the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, Venezuela was reelected by more than 64% of the votes from the members of the Committee to continue in leading this work. Rafael Ramírez, Permanent Representative of Venezuela to the United Nations expressed his appreciation to the members of the Committee, who again entrusted the Venezuelan delegation to conduct the noble work of that body. "I am certainly convinced that as I exercise my responsibilities, I will count on the full support and cooperation of all the members of this Committee, as well as other relevant actors," said the Venezuelan diplomat.
In addition, Ramirez called for the work in favor of decolonization to continue, since it is still an unfinished process, which currently commits 17 non-autonomous territories. In spite of these efforts, the process of decolonization remains incomplete. ‘‘As we approach the third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism, we must continue our struggle to find appropriate means for the immediate and full implementation of the Declaration through dialogue and cooperation with the administering Powers, States involved in sovereignty and territorial disputes,including the deployment of at least one visiting mission in 2017.’’ Ramirez referred to the past of the Great liberator of Venezuela saying 200 years ago when Simon Bolivar was imposed on the Spanish empire to achieve independence. "Our Liberator (Simón Bolívar) did not only liberate Venezuela but also liberated 5 other countries, this triumph we obtained is also part of the legacy of Commander Chavez," said Ramirez. www.mre.gob.ve 19
Venezuela has a high Human Development Index The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) released a report that places Venezuela as one of the countries with a high Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI is a scientific indicator applied by UNDP to measure advances in life expectancy, literacy and the quality of life of the population. The total HDI measurement is determined by a band between zero and one. The closer to one, the higher the HDI of the country being evaluated . In the report, Venezuela stands out with a score of 0.767 over Brazil (0.754), Peru (0.740) and Colombia (0.727). UNDP warns in the report that in spite of the general progress made in the Human Development Index in general during the last 25 years, extreme poverty and exclusion persist in Latin America, mainly due to the unequal distribution of income. The report warns of the role of women, who continue to be poorer in general terms, partly because of unpaid work that undermines their professional and personal development.
It also warns about the deepening of inequalities against the indigenous population, that on average receive less years of education. The report highlights the need to target universal policies to reduce human\ development deficits among the excluded. It directly recommends promoting inclusive growth, with an emphasis on women and mobilizing resources to meet human development priorities. "Investments focused on human development priorities can deliver low-cost but high-quality services and infrastructure for disadvantaged and marginalized groups", the report said. Venezuela has maintained a policy of protection of the social rights of the people, despite the destabilizing plans of the national right, in alliance with its international agents, which includes the launching of an economic war (characterized by hoarding, surcharges and contraband food and medicine); an international financial blockade (blocking accounts for the importation of inputs and priority items, partisan use of Country Risk); and fallacies to sow doubt around the solvency of Venezuela in the payment of its international commitments. www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve
Venezuela joins the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The president of Venezuela, Nicolรกs Maduro, on the 23rd March, 2017 informed the public that Venezuela has joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which has more than 70 member countries."Venezuela today officially entered as a full member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank founded by the People's Republic of China," he said this during the inauguration ceremony of the Venezuelan Power Expo 2017 in Caracas. Maduro stressed that with the country's entry into this bank, Venezuela will have access to financing and technical support for the development of projects in the nation. "Our commissions of work for various routes have been negotiating and working with the People's Republic of China on this entry and this will mean access to financial investment, engineering for development projects for the future Venezuela that
merits a large contingent of financial resources to have infrastructure, public services and roads" he said. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank was established in 2014 by Chinese President Xi Jinping in an attempt to gain afoot hold in the global financial order, which is dominated by imperial forces, in order to meet part of the financing needs of infrastructure projects in the countries of the continent. In addition to Venezuela, 12countries also joined the Bank: Peru, Afghanistan, Armenia, Fiji, Hong Kong, Timor-Leste, Belgium, Canada, Ethiopia, Hungary, Ireland and Sudan. 20
www.avn.info.ve
Venezuela: A world example in housing. Referring to the report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Leilani Farha, Valero praised that the same report warns of the dangers of housingcommodification and its negative impact on the enjoyment of human rights. "The rapporteur, Farha, has also stressed that a huge amount of world capital has been invested in housing, with mercantilist criteria, and as a means to accumulate wealth in the hands of a few," said the ambassador. Valero said that the right to adequate housing is, in Venezuela, a fundamental human right, with a constitutional rank, which has become a priority policy of the State. "In Venezuela, ambitious programs are being implemented, such as the ‘Great Program Housing Venezuela’. In the last six years we have built 1 million 500 thousand free homes for the popular sectors at solidarity prices. Millions of homes, in a country that today has approximately 30 million inhabitants. These figures are a record in the world”. At the end of his address he quoted President Nicolás Maduro's words: "Everyone has the right to adequate, safe, comfortable, hygienic housing with essential basic services that include a habitat that humanises family, neighborhood and community relations”. "This presidential statement is now a reality in Bolivarian Venezuela”, concluded the Venezuelan ambassador. (Venezuela Mission to UN Geneva). www.mppre.gov.ve 21
‘ Emancipatory communication or colonized homelands ’
Declaration of the XV meeting of the Network in defense of Humanity imaginaries with contents and senses related to the dominant ideology, also uses cybernetic, and graphics to manipulate and control the consciences in a massive way.
The Network of Intellectuals, Artists and Social Movements in defense of Humanity expresses its solidarity with the people and government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, at a time when the sponsors of war and media terrorism against Venezuela, Cuba and the countries of the ALBA, intensify, renewed, their interference, destabilizing and coup attempt, as part of the imperial policy of "regime change" in countries considered hostile by Washington's war diplomacy. With the new technologies of information and communication, without our realizing it, millions of citizens are being watched, spied on, monitored and signed by Orwellian states that carry out mass clandestine surveillance, in alliance with military security apparatuses and corporations Giants of the web. But, in a parallel and complementary way, when the era of the so-called "post truth" (or the art of flagrant lie) breaks through, another war takes place in the symbolic space and in the cultural and ideological is fought by the poster of the hegemonic means against the peoples of Our America. Both processes are promoted by the United States, its European accomplices and the fascist government of Israel, through a criminal and militarized capitalism. In recent times, Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and other countries in the region have been the main targets of a media terrorism that, in order to impose collective
It is foreseeable that irregular and asymmetric wars, take on new strength and deepen. As is well known, current wars are also waged in the media field in the form of irregular conflicts. The Pentagon attaches great importance to the ideological struggle in the field of information and to the role of the mass media as a strategic and political weapon and also as a source of exorbitant profits for the owners of oligopolies. Beyond what happens in reality, the battle for narrative, as it is called by the military counterinsurgents, is key in the making of a certain perception of the population and the world audiences. While pushing for full spectrum warfare in several Latin American countries, the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are intensifying their open and clandestine actions against constitutional and legitimate governments. Continuously, the libretos of the coup d'etat of US invoice in Venezuela exhibit successive phases of intoxication, disinformation and distortion through mass media under monopoly control. This is combined with unilateral and extraterritorial psychological coercion measures and extensive seditious and violent action, articulated with digital networks (large web corporations), political parties and leaders of the international right, NGOs, foundations, denominational sects, crime Organized and paramilitary, factual powers and transnational economic groups, and the interference of regional organizations such as the Organization of American States (OAS). In short: the means converted into ideological weapons of war. The intensification of war and interventionism against the Bolivarian revolution and other ALBA countries, now with the largest military budget in history, responds to Pentagon directives on 22
asymmetric enemies and unconventional, irregular or fourth-generation wars, which are not circumscribed To the rules established by international codes and evade border restrictions of States, including through the use of paramilitary groups, death squads and mercenary organizations operating under the facade of private security companies.
the hoarding and induced shortage of necessities, in particular food and medicine, and sabotage against electricity, which Add rumors about water pollution.
"Full spectrum dominance" encompasses a policy in which the military, the economic, the media, and the cultural have common goals. Since the spectrum is geographic, spatial, social and cultural, to impose domination requires the manufacture of consent; To establish in the so-called civil society certain symbols and "common" meanings, which by repeated means are incorporated into the collective imagination in an uncritical way and introduce, as unique, the vision of the world of hegemonic power. This implies the formation and manipulation of a "public opinion" legitimating the model of imperial domination.
The populations of the ALBA countries, and in particular those of Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, have been the target of constant campaigns of disinformation intoxication through messages and images aimed at stripping them of all political and ideological references that do not respond to logic Empire. In turn, since the triumph of the revolution in 1959, Cuba has been the target to destabilize by different communication experiments that includes from the manipulations of the AP and UPI agencies in the invasion of Playa Girón and radio and television Martí in the time of Reagan and Bush Sr., to the horizontal, illegal and secret Internet communications network ZunZuneo, inscribed in the parameters of the unconventional war, in its variable of cyber warfare.
Through an intense international media siege, in the manufacture of the consensus double standards are handled and a simplistic and Manichean presentation of reality is made: the causes, the context, the memory and the history of the struggle of the Venezuelan people are eliminated by Justice and national sovereignty. The meanings, interpretations, images and narrative of the mass media, with their myths, half truths, lies and misrepresentations, are key to the manipulation of the population's emotions.
As was pointed out in the framework of the XV Meeting of the Network in Defense of Humanity titled "Emancipatory communication or colonized homelands", in that enslavement of the meaning and values that found the culture of the peoples of Our America, "the principal Objective (of the United States) is to annihilate the hope of an alternative way to the dictatorship of the capital and its well-known destruction of the life and the planet ".
In turn, the social construction of fear, through media terrorism for the control of society, rests on a system of indoctrination, whose purpose is to colonize thought, imposed with opinion matrices directed against an enemy to stigmatize and a process To destabilize and plunge into chaos.
Hence revolutionary processes such as the Cuban, Venezuelan, Bolivian, and Ecuadorian are subjected to bitter and immoral propaganda campaigns with the support of right-wing political corpses such as Felipe Calderón, Álvaro Uribe and Mariana Aylwin, and their organic intellectuals Mario Vargas Llosa, Jorge G. Castañeda and Enrique Krauze, now with the support of OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, aimed not only at discrediting political models and their leaders, but
Based on the distortion of the parameters of journalistic ethics, through the production of "news" - making lies appear as truths - it is possible to generate great campaigns of media excitement and a climate of psychological destabilization factious, while at the same time fomenting a hatred Classist and racist, through an economic war that fuels the anger of the middle sectors of the population with 23
also at the disintegration of both societies and their economic bases.
We support the people of Mexico in the proposal to continue the construction of the wall on the southern border and to criminalize Mexicans and other migrants from Our America as the scapegoat of the new republican government.
Faced with these attacks of the ultrareactionary right and its sponsors in Washington, members of the Network in Defense of Humanity have met in Caracas to discuss freely and horizontally about the need to develop new creative media, with new Semantic content and renewed ways of transmitting them, with the aim of breaking the media coverage disinformation that attempts to stifle the revolutionary spirit and the desire to deepen the radical, counter-hegemonic change that takes place in both societies.
We call on the United States government to declassify all the information of the media wars against governments and revolutionary processes of Our America, like the one that takes place against Venezuela. We demand the repeal of the Executive Order declaring Venezuela an unusual and extraordinary threat to US security. Likewise, we reject the infamous and false accusations against the Executive Vice President of Venezuela Tareck El Aisami.
Our Network promotes the transparency of States, the protection of the personal data of citizens and highlights the key importance of digital sovereignty. We recognize those who have revealed the secrets of the empire and informed about the magnitude of global espionage.
In short, it is a matter of producing a real and participatory emancipatory communication, starting with an initiative that, in order to be fruitful, must be translated into a local, continental and planetary strategy, which, through the sum of efforts, talents and creative capacities, The revolutionary reason of the peoples of the south against the media dictatorship of capital.
The publication and democratization of information is decisive for the sovereignty of the people, so we speak for a system of protection of informants and we advocate the release of Julian Assange, director of WikiLeaks, and the cessation of the persecution of Edward Snowden.
www.albatv.org March 7, 201
We condemn the occupation of the territory of Haiti by MINUSTAH, silenced by the media, as an imperialist offensive against our peoples. We demand that the right to self-determination of the Haitian people be respected and that adequate reparation and justice processes be initiated; In particular, for the crime of introducing cholera. We also support the just claim for reparations for the genocide of slavery in America.
For the good
of the Latin American people
24
CHAVEZ
We Are All