Venezuela & ALBA Weekly Newsletter

Venezuela & ALBA News 3.8.2024: Venezuela Rejects Military Intervention in Haiti; Nicaragua Indicts Germany for Complicity in Genocide; Anniversary of Hugo Chavez’ Death; Two Sign-on Letters

Venezuelanalysis: Maduro Rejects Haiti Military Intervention at CELAC Summit President Maduro spoke out against efforts to subject Haiti to further military interventions during the VIII Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). “We do not agree with a disguised invasion of any sort..The solution is not another invasion…The solution is for Latin America and the Caribbean, to go and embrace [Haiti], accompany it, truly help it so that Haiti can take its own path and implement its own model.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres at the summit had called for support for the UN Security Council-authorized multinational intervention.

Despite Maduro’s protest, CELAC’s 100-point Declaration of Kingstown included text that called for the “prompt and effective implementation” of UN Security Council Resolution 2699. Another point of contention was CELAC’s statement on the genocide in Gaza being carried out by Israel. Ultimately only 24 of the 33 countries signed the statement that called for an immediate ceasefire.  During the debate, Maduro once again highlighted the sacrifice of Aaron Bushnell.

Casa Ben Linder (Becca Renk): We Won’t Go Back into Our Cages: Celebrating Women’s Day in Nicaragua “What were women’s spaces? The kitchen, taking care of kids, taking care of everyone else. We were supposed to just sit quietly in a corner.” Much has changed for women in Nicaragua since Rosibel first learned to read and write 30 years ago. From being ranked 90th in 2007, Nicaragua has jumped to rank 7th in the world for overall gender equity according to the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report 2023, closing the gender gap by 80% in 17 years. Today, thanks to free universal health care, sexual health education and access to free family planning, maternity rates in Nicaragua have now dropped to 2.38 per woman, and many women are choosing to space their babies five or even 10 years apart. With the installation of 181 public mother wait homes where rural women spend the last two weeks of their pregnancies, maternal mortality has dropped by 67.7% and child mortality by 58.6% in 17 years. This year, women make up 52% of new university enrollment, for a total of 93,714 women enrolled in their first year. (see also March 24 webinar below)

Venezuelanalysis: ‘Stop the Genocide!’ Venezuela Rallies in Solidarity with Palestine Venezuelan social movements united with millions worldwide in solidarity with Palestine, calling for an immediate halt to the US-backed Israeli military operations in Gaza. President Maduro recently paid tribute to the sacrifice made by US airman Aaron Bushnell, who self-immolated outside the Israeli embassy in Washington in protest over Israel’s genocidal campaign. The movement organizers denounced that “the Israeli government is planning a large-scale invasion of Rafah a week later, on March 9, the day before the start of Ramadan” and indicated that “today, the United States vetoed a UN resolution insisting that Israel immediately cease its wave of mass killings in Gaza”.

At International Court of Justice Nicaragua indicts Germany for complicity in genocide of Palestinians “Germany has provided political, financial, and military support to Israel with the knowledge at the time of authorization that the military equipment would be used in the commission of serious breaches of international law. The German Government has also cut off assistance to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which is the primary agency in charge of delivering aid to the Occupied Palestinian Territories…. Germany continues to disregard its obligations, and to actively facilitate violations of the rules of international law by Israel to the severe and immediate prejudice of the Palestinian people, particularly Gazans, and the international community.” Full document indicting Germany for complicity in genocide.

Mision Verdad: Venezuela Condemns International Criminal Court’s Politicization of Human Rights The Foreign Affairs Ministry called the ICC decision a weaponization of the mechanisms of the international criminal justice system for political purposes, based on politically motivated allegations of crimes against humanity that never took place in Venezuela. Vice President Delcy Rodríguez has repudiated this shameful attitude of the ICC against Venezuela, just when Palestine is being victim of true crimes against humanity, unprecedented in modern history, committed by the zionist State of Israel, with US and European backing. The ICC has remained silent about it.

TeleSur: Venezuela Rejects Judicial Colonialism of International Court President Maduro asserted that Venezuela “does not accept judicial colonialism from anyone, especially at a time when the entire humanity is questioning the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC)…All these organizations are exhausted and cornered. We are witnessing a genocide broadcasted live on social media, and what do they do? Nothing, they turn a blind eye. They are indirect accomplices to genocide.. With a decision, the ICJ could immediately stop the Israeli genocide. But what does it do? Nothing because the ICJ is in the hands of the United States, Europe, and transnational corporations.”.

Cuba’s Juventud Rebelde: From the White House a theater of cruelty for Gaza The US dropped 38,000 food packages, MRE [Meal Ready to Eat], on Gaza. “Anxious, desperate, children, women and men run through the sands trying to catch one of the bags of funds that will barely alleviate their hunger… MRE, each of those packages weighs just over a pound and a half. In Gaza, there are at least 2.3 million people in imminent danger, not only due to being indiscriminately targeted by weapons, but also due to the lack of food and drinking water…the famine, to which Israel opened the doors when it completely closed the fence that surrounds the Strip, and has barely allowed trucks with food and medicine to pass through… unfounded accusations [against the UN relief agency] led 16 countries of the civilized West to suspend their funding to UNRWA, taking away $450 million in humanitarian aid to the Palestinians…How long will we continue to allow this mockery, this theatrical farce of terrible consequences, from the United States’ greatest accomplice, and the horrendous crimes that Nazi-Zionist Israel has carried out day after day, for 75 years, against the Palestinian people?”

TeleSur: Venezuela Condemns President Biden’s Renewal of Executive Order Declaring Venezuela an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States “With this unnecessary, absurd, and hostile action, it is demonstrated that the declining leadership of the US is not capable of designing a coherent foreign policy that is not based on coercion, blackmail, or disrespect…The US is now a hostage to its own policies of aggression. The migratory crisis, which so many political operators express concern about, is nothing but a direct and immediate consequence of its coercive measures and blockades. On the other hand, one cannot expect anything else from a government that normalizes and trivializes genocide against the Palestinian people or that shows indifference to the progressive loss of civil rights of its minorities.”

Russia Today: Hugo Chávez, the Love That Can Only Be Repaid With Love One of the best portraits of Chávez is contained in this phrase by Fidel a few hours after the painful news: “Do you want to know who Hugo Chávez was? Look who mourns him and who celebrates his death.” The figure of Chávez is already a heroic part of the pantheon of giants of the Latin American continent, and there is no way to oust him from there. One of the most incredible things about him, in my opinion, was his incredible ability to remain a totally normal person on the highest platform of State power…Chávez demanded that his people read, educate themselves, learn, not be afraid of ideas, opening the doors for new opportunities for the education of people of all ages and from all social strata, who for centuries had been excluded from citizen life. He understood that this was the only way that his people would not be manipulated by the media or by politicians and thus he would be able to build a society different from the capitalist one.

Sign-on Letters:

Events

Delegations

Nicaragua Delegations Casa Ben Linder 2024 delegations: 

  • June 8-16: Global Health Intensive
  • July 9-21: Solidarity in Action: Celebrating 45 Years of Revolution in Nicaragua
  • November 8-17: Salud & Solidaridad: Hands-On Healthcare in Nicaragua

Cuba Delegations

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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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