Venezuela & ALBA News 4.14.2023: 21 Years after the Victory over the US coup against Chavismo; Five Years since the beginning of the failed Nicaragua coup

Venezuela
Ultima Noticias: Maduro: Today we celebrate 21 years of the great victory of the Revolution
“the people in the streets by millions, in union with the military forces of the Homeland, came out to face the coup d’état that was intended to be carried out in Venezuela.” Maduro stressed that the Venezuelan people wrote one of the most glorious pages in the entire history of more than 200 years of the Republic of Venezuela. “They would take reprisals and sanctions against our country (,,,) I tell the gringo spokesperson “f– off” because Venezuela is respected.”

Venezuelanalysis: Venezuela Deepens Trade, Technological Ties with Allies Russia and China Venezuela and Russia are set to launch a new shipping route, deepening trade ties between the two countries. “We calculated that trade could be somewhere in the range of $300 million per month, this is without oil,” Frolenko told Sputnik. Venezuela is also seeking to expand its technological ties with Russia and China after being invited to take part in their joint International Lunar Research Station project. Efforts by the US and the European Union to economically, politically, and diplomatically isolate Venezuela have largely failed, with it re-establishing relations with a number of states in the region while strengthening ties with longstanding allies such as Russia and China.

Sputnik: Turkiye in Venezuela: A Sanctioned Partnership Turkiye-Venezuela relations shifted into top gear in 2017-18, with net trade increasing by 466% from 2019; Turkish imports from Caracas expanding by 523% since 2017; and Venezuelan imports from Ankara up 860% over the same time period. In 2018, it was estimated that  69% of the basic CLAP products originated from Turkiye. Turkish investments in Venezuela shooting up to $761 million in 2021.The heavily sanctioned Caracas government was forced to take dramatic steps to attract foreign investment, driving monthly wages down to $5, preventing trade union organizing, gifting juicy tax breaks, allowing widespread dollarization and marking out special economic zones to create mouth-watering conditions for foreign investors.

US Sanctions Against the Venezuelan Oil Industry: A Timeline An infographic of US actions against Venezuela’s oil industry, from 2017 to today.

Venezuelanalysis: CITGO: A Multi-Billion Dollar US Heist? Washington and Venezuela’s opposition have imperiled the US-based subsidiary of Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA. Bondholders and corporations are ready to seize CITGO shares as compensation for defaulted bonds or international arbitration awards. See which corporations will benefit from the scam.

Jacobin: Documents Show How the US Government Used Social Media to Intervene in Venezuela The government developed a program focused on using Facebook to assist the Venezuelan opposition in municipal elections in 2013 and legislative elections in 2015. The National Democratic Institute (NDI) claimed credit for the opposition’s success, writing that their strategy “ultimately played an important role in their resounding victory in the 2015 election.” The NDI organized this “two-year effort” to train MUD members to use social media in its campaign against the PSUV as detailed in the grant they received from the NED.

 

Nicaragua
Covert Action: The United Nations is Being Used by the U.S. in its Propaganda War Against Nicaragua
While the US pays little regard to the human rights of many of its own citizens, it manifests intense interest in those of countries that it regards as its enemies. The UN Human Rights Council released a new report focusing almost entirely on the human rights of the perpetrators of what became a violent coup attempt, rather than on the rights of the huge numbers of ordinary Nicaraguans who suffered the consequences of their violence. The report calls for additional sanctions in one of its recommendations. In doing so, it ignores the UN Human Rights Council’s own assessments of sanctions issued without its authority..

Monthly Review (John Perry, Dan Kovalik): Five years ago in Nicaragua: a coup attempt begins Five years ago, Nicaragua was subject to a violent attempted coup that lasted from April through July, 2018. In the first of four articles, we look at how it was planned and how it started. Nicaragua’s relatively loose regulation of local nonprofits at that time enabled the U.S. to pour as much as $200 million into opposition media, NGOs and “human rights” bodies. By April 19, the scene was set for greater violence as “students” suddenly had access to hundreds of homemade mortar guns, deployed at roadblocks (“tranques”) made by ripping up paving stones. On that day, the first of 22 police officers was killed.

 

Cuba
MorningStar: How Socialism was Saved in Cuba (book review)
A key element of Cuba’s response to the economic disaster of the early 1990s, a “special period in time of peace,” was to reinvigorate 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.

Middle East Monitor: ‘We will never negotiate under pressure’, ex-Cuba envoy to US says  Israel’s siege of Gaza bears stark semblances to the 64-year-old US blockade of Cuba says Jose Ramon Cabañas Rodriguez. “We denounce the pressure and daily violence inflicted on the Palestinian people. The systematic denial of their basic rights is not an abstract matter. So why is Israel not classified on the list of terrorist states?..What they call embargo and we call blockade is a comprehensive system of not only legal decisions but also political, economic, security and military decisions…”For his [Obama] administration, it was a question of do we go about regime change by blockade and military force or through the friendly hug.”

 

Events
Thursdays: WTF is Going on in Latin America & The Caribbean with Teri Mattson (or watch here or here)
April 18: Los Angeles  – Meet Representatives from Cuban Embassy
April 27: Labour Friends of Latin America: End Sanctions on Venezuela; US Out of Latin America
April 28-29: Burying 200 Years of the Monroe Doctrine

 

Delegations/Tours
May 25- June 4: Lessons from Cuba: Exploring Art, Healthcare, Sustainability, Education
June 19-26 delegation 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
Fall/winter 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]

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