Ultima Noticias: Diosdado Cabello: People Organized in Peace Squads to be Ready for Future Right-wing Election Violence Cabello assured that every time there are elections the opposition disguises itself and repeats the same attack pattern, “as well as the same results,” he added. “We must preserve peace and the unity of the revolutionary force; the leadership of the PSUV must be on the streets 24 hours a day because peace must be preserved and we will do that through the communities.” He affirmed that there are 1.5 million political cadres deployed throughout the country. “We are mobilized and we are going to stay mobilized in the street, with social intelligence we are going to neutralize any attack that reaches the communities.” President Maduro added that he had ordered the activation of the Peace Squads, with more than four million militiamen nationwide to guarantee the civic-military union. His words came after statements by former Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma. “I have given the order to immediately activate all the Peace Squads, with more than four million leaders of the country’s squads activated in the Special Anti-Coup Plan to guarantee tranquility and peace.” Maduro recalled the 2001 coup attempt against President Hugo Chávez, and protests in 2014, 2017, and 2019, when the opposition caused much violence and killing. Ledezma had said that civil protests must be established with the support of military sectors and assured talks were going on with military cadres. The Attorney General’s Office has issued a warrant for Ledezma’s arrest.
MROnline: How U.S. Sanctions Are a Tool of War: The Case of Venezuela The U.S.-imposed sanctions caused the government’s revenue to shrink to a mere 1% of what it had been before the sanctions—in other words, a 99% decrease. A 2023 government report estimates that “since 2015, Venezuela lost on average $40 billion per year” while the production of the state oil company PDVSA—the source of most of the country’s social spending—fell by 87% from January 2015 to June 2020 as a result of the U.S. blockade.” Although the country experienced a slight recovery 2021-2022, the income of the latter year represents only 10% of what Venezuela received in the year when the economic aggression began. “Venezuela’s deep deterioration in health, nutrition, and food security indicators occurred alongside the largest economic collapse outside of wartime since 1950,” with a 31% increase in mortality the year after the sanctions were imposed. By March 2020, former UN Special Rapporteur Alfred de Zayas estimated that 100,000 Venezuelans had died as a result of the sanctions.
Al Mayadeen: How the US continues to orchestrate chaos in Haiti Haiti, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, has an estimated large portion of the country, including almost 80% of the capital Port-au-Prince, directly under gang control, leaving economic life crippled amid a rise in murders, kidnappings, and sexual violence. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged for the deployment of a “robust use of force” through a multinational mission allegedly to restore law and order to the “nightmarish” situation as he put it. People took to the streets and social media to oppose that, considering that gang warfare was less of an issue than foreign intervention, which the nation fought to end.
TeleSur: Venezuela Increases Oil Production Amid US Sanctions OPEC highlighted that Venezuelan oil production increased by 10.65% between February and August of this year. In that period, the state company PDVSA registered an average increase of 78,000 barrels per day. Between January and August, the average daily production went from 732,000 to 810,000 barrels. PDVSA confirmed that it is producing 100% of the gasoline consumed in the country.
Sputnik News: BRICS Expansion ‘Main Catalyst’ of New World Order Marked by ‘End of Petrodollar’ Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia are joining BRICS. Integration of new members into BRICS will strengthen the push for a new world order, marked by the end of the petrodollar’s yoke. Adding Saudi Arabia and the UAE will change the balance of power in the world, the beginning of the end of the petrodollar. The current expansion decision is “a clear signal to the United States and the Western bloc as a whole that globalization does not rely only on the US ‘soft power’ and dollar dominance, as there will be at least two opposing blocs of countries, namely, the ‘Global North’ and the ‘Global South.’” BRICS now represents 31.7% of global output, home to 43% of the planet’s population, and carries out 18% of international trade. BRICS countries control 87% of the world’s oil reserves, 25% of the gas reserves, and contribute 40% of the world’s energy.
Peace House: Elliott Abrams and the People of Central America: Never Forget! Abrams’ entire career in government has been guided by his apparent belief that the killing, torture, and misery of any number of Latin Americans (and others) is justified in the name of protecting the “security’ of the US. This is the essence of the so-called National Security Doctrine employed by all of the violent military dictatorships of Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s. It was and remains very much a central part of the thinking of many in the U.S. government, such as Abrams. Contact your Senator to oppose his nomination.
Sign on Letters to Elected Officials
Code Pink: Tell Congress to Cease Hostility Toward Venezuela Sign on to a litter to Biden and Harris, and your Senators and Congressperson asking them to oppose more sanctions on Venezuela.
One million signatures for Cuba! demanding Biden take Cuba off the State Sponsors of Terrorism List Not only is there no basis for putting Cuba on this US list, but it worsens the 60 year US blockade on Cuba by making it harder for Cuba to buy food, medicine, fuel, etc on the international market.
Events
Thursdays: WTF is Going on in Latin America & The Caribbean with Teri Mattson (or watch here or here)
September 5: Nicaragua: Truth Versus Lies Organized by the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Action Group. John Perry; Abigail Espinoza Muñoz, active FSLN member, former councillor in Masaya; Roger McKenzie, International Editor, Morning Star.
September 24: Next Nicaragua Webinar on the Nicaraguan community policing model. 3 PM Eastern time. Mark your calendars! More information coming soon.
Delegations/Tours
Sept 8-17, Sept 29-Oct 8, December 1-10, Dec 8-17: Witness for Peace delegations to Cuba
November 20-29: Bolivia, Food Sovereignty, Popular Democracy & Indigenous Resistance
Casa Ben Linder delegations to Nicaragua in October, January, and Februar
(January: Rights of Indigenous and Afro-Descendant Peoples in Caribbean Coast Autonomous Regions)
If you have events to publicize or find helpful articles for readers on the ALBA countries, please send them to [email protected], or you can post them on Facebook here: Venezuela; Nicaragua; Bolivia; Latin America in general (here or here) Or send them to [email protected]
