US Southern Command: The Empire on the Charge in Latin America This SOUTHCOM document is a preparation for war on Latin American sovereignty, and a preparation for war on Russia and China. It reasserts and updates the Monroe Doctrine that America is US private property and the US is ready to fight to keep it.
Friends of Socialist China: China and progressive Latin America share a project of solidarity Carlos Martinez addresses the accusations leveled at China as a new imperialist power in Latin America. He reviews US imperialism in Latin America in the postwar era, and compares that with China’s engagement with the region. In stark contrast with the US, “China has precisely zero military bases in Latin America and the Caribbean. It has sponsored no coups, waged no wars, imposed no sanctions, and engaged in no destabilization, economic coercion or propaganda.” Chinese loans and investment are carried out on the basis of equality, consensus and mutual benefit, and bear no relation to the notoriously predatory behavior of the IMF and the major Western lending institutions.
How you can help released Political Prisoner Ana Belen Montes Ana Belen Montes is currently on probation in Puerto Rico. At present she is still denied use of a computer, waiting on the US government to install a monitoring device. It is not clear that she has any source of income. If you would like to make a donation to help support her.
Venezuela
PeoplesDispatch: US renews “national emergency” against Venezuela, keeping brutal sanctions in place President Biden has renewed the Obama-era Executive Order 13692 against Venezuela, citing an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security. The measure has been used to impose an illegal sanctions regime targeting the socialist country, its people, and its economy.
Venezuelanalysis: Maduro Confirms No Early Elections, Hardens Stance Against US-European Union Demands “Our expectation is the same as always. We do not care what imperialism or the oligarchies think about the political, social, institutional, cultural, and economic life of Venezuela. It does not matter to us whether they make a statement or not, whether they acknowledge the result or not…We do not care what imperialism or the oligarchies think about the political, social, and economic life of Venezuela,” said Maduro.
Reuters: US not negotiating new Venezuela prisoner swap despite appeal, say US officials Declining to comment on the specifics of any ongoing case, a State Department spokesperson appeared to indicate that talks on a prisoner swap involving Saab might be possible after his trial ran its course. The spokesperson cautioned against any reporting that suggested a deal had been reached to secure the release of an American wrongfully detained in Venezuela, “or that there are active conversations about releasing a major U.S. criminal suspect who hasn’t even gone to trial.”
Ultima Noticias: President Maduro to China’s Communist Party: ‘The Times of the Empires Are Over’ President Maduro proposed “building a community with a common destiny” that restores world balance, referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s strategy of building an international environment on the basis of cooperation. “Let no one doubt that the time has come for the articulation of a new world, which we call multipolar,” Maduro added, addressing representatives of political parties from all around the world.
Orinoco Tribune: Diosdado Cabello Calls NGOs a Danger to Democracy PSUV Vice President Cabello called non-governmental organizations (NGOs) a danger to democracy. He highlighted the new Venezuelan law regulating the activities of NGOs and their international financing. The law is modeled on the US Foreign Agents Registration Act passed in 1938. “NGOs are a danger to the world, to democracy…They are not non-governmental organizations. They depend on a government, the government of the US, which gives them money.”
Nicaragua
TeleSur: On the Latest UN Human Rights Council Report on Nicaragua Practically all reports on Nicaragua by international human rights institutions and organizations fail to check information supporting false claims, omit facts inconvenient to their findings and claim a commitment to transparency while failing to engage adequately rival versions of events. They make highly selective use of sources and systematically avoid independent corroboration of accusations by seeking to verify accounts only with sources suffering from these self-same failings. This latest report for the UN Human Rights Council shares these irremediable defects.
PeoplesWorld: Tom Whitney’s review of Dan Kovalik’s Nicaragua: A History of U.S. Intervention & Resistance Kovalik states that the object with his book was to present “the realities of U.S. intervention [in Nicaragua,] past and present,” highlight Nicaraguans’ abilities to overcome U.S. “assaults,” and promote solidarity with Nicaraguans in their struggle for self-determination.
Cuba
Book review: How the Workers’ Parliaments Saved the Cuban Revolution: Reviving Socialism after the Collapse of the Soviet Union By Pedro Ross, former head the CTU union federation (Cuban Federation of Workers). During the 1990s economic crisis in Cuba, the country reinvigorated its workers’ parliaments (first introduced in the 1980s), strengthening workplace democracy with a renewed emphasis on workers as their own employees. For 45 days in early 1994 some 80,000 workplace parliaments engaged in intensive debate on what should change at every level from the workplace to the national economy.
Granma: Raul Castro says Cuba will always support Venezuela Raul stressed that we have also witnessed Nicolás Maduro’s leadership to continue Chávez’s work and his capacity to resist and overcome. He assured that “Cuba was and will be at the side of the Venezuelan people, at the side of Maduro and of the civic-military union of the Bolivarian and Chavista people.” He recalled that a few days after his departure, Fidel vehemently and painfully wrote in one of his Reflections, published in the Cuban press: “The best friend the Cuban people had throughout its history passed away.”
Events
Thursdays: WTF is Going on in Latin America & The Caribbean with Teri Mattson (or watch here or here)
March 18 — National March on Washington: Peace in Ukraine – Stop NATO
March 22-23: Cuban Ambassador Lianys Torres Rivera in Chicago
April 28-29: Burying 200 Years of the Monroe Doctrine
Delegations/Tours
April 4-13: Cuba Agroecology Tour
April 23 to May 7: NNOC-ICAP 2023 May Day Brigade
April 25-May 7: Building Relations with Cuban Labor: Celebrating Labor and May Day
April 27-May 6 Nicaragua delegation by Friends of the ATC
May 25- June 4: Lessons from Cuba: Exploring Art, Healthcare, Sustainability, Education
May 13-22 and June 19-26 delegations to Nicaragua
June 17-27 Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast Delegation with Friends of the ATC
June 26-July 6: Pastors for Peace Climate Change tour to Cuba
July 15-29 IFCO/ Pastors for Peace US-Cuba Friendshipment Caravan
July 21-30, Sept 8-17, December 1-10, Dec 8-17: Witness for Peace delegations to Cuba
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]
