Venezuela & ALBA Weekly Newsletter

Venezuela & ALBA News: Growing US-NATO Military Presence in Latin America

UnitedWorldInt.com: Laura Richardson: A modern Athena – NATO in Latin America With a clear militaristic orientation since the arrival of the Biden admin, US policy towards the region has been dominated by the Pentagon and specifically the Southern Command led by General Laura Richardson. She is the main executor of the White House’s decisions in the region. The State Department has been forced to play a secondary role, ceding its traditional “diplomatic” function to practices of militarization of politics. In 2024, this trend is deepening. Richardson has focused on those countries governed by far-right administrations subordinated to the US. However, in all her visits, she points out the danger posed by “Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, which – encouraged by the support of China and Russia – further destabilize the hemisphere and threaten democratic governance.”

Mision Verdad: Washington Escalates Pressure Against Venezuela on the Essequibo Front This article lists a series of provocative acts by the US in 2024. Venezuela has objected to the militarization of the disputed region, which includes the installation of US military and CIA spy bases -12 secret CIA bases and 14 SOUTHCOM bases. The US has at least 80 of its 800 foreign military bases in Latin America.

Venezuela

Mision Verdad: President Maduro’s Milestones on the International Stage In the international context, Maduro’s efforts have focused on two fundamental objectives: to demonstrate the country’s unity in the campaign of international condemnation against the aggressions imposed on it, especially the actions of maximum pressure from the United States and its satellites, and to strengthen the path towards consolidating Venezuela as an energy power. In relation to these objectives, significant progress has been made. The Lima Group  not only failed in their main objective but also had negative consequences for regional cooperation as a whole. The dissolution of the Lima Group, driven by changes in the governments of its member countries, unquestionably reflects the failure of its isolation strategy. Meanwhile, President Maduro has built closer relations with China, Russia, Iran, Turkey, and the BRICS group, consolidating Venezuela as an independent strategic actor in the group of nations emerging as part of the new multipolar order in the making.

TeleSur: Venezuela Cancels the Invitation to EU Presidential Election Observation Mission The National Electoral Council (CNE) canceled the invitation to the European Union (EU) to send an observation mission for the July 28 presidential election. “The Electoral authority revokes and annuls the invitation it extended to the EU to participate through an oversight mission,” CNE President Elvis Amoroso said shortly after the Parliament President Jorge Rodriguez requested the annulment. The CNE made this decision taking into account the “incalculable property damage that has been caused to the people by the [US and EU] sanctions, affecting the health of children and the elderly.” Besides preventing Venezuelans’ access to medicines, food, and education, EU sanctions make it impossible to acquire raw materials and inputs that are necessary for national production. “From the CNE we demand that the EU proceed with the total lifting of the unilateral coercive and genocidal sanctions imposed on our people and cease its hostile position against Venezuela.” The sanctions caused a loss of $125 billion that the Bolivarian nation could have been used for social investment. The CNE president said that it would be “immoral” to allow the participation of the EU “knowing its neocolonialist and interventionist practices against Venezuela.”

TeleSur: President Maduro criticized US silence in the face of Israel’s Netanyahu atrocities “Netanyahu is our era’s Herod. And what does the United States say? And what does Europe say? They are silent. A genocidal silence… This is one of the most terrible genocides that humanity has experienced since Hitler’s time…The mobilizations in favor of peace for the Palestinian people developed in Spain have been impressive…Europe has a tremendous task: defeat the far-right and fascism, which are emerging in a very dangerous way and threatening European society.”

The Communists: Iran-Venezuela cooperation: another blow to imperialist economic warfare  Iran has shipped many desperately needed fuel tankers to Venezuela in open defiance of US military threats, aided in the rebuilding of its oil industry,  and an Iranian supermarket chain is now operating in Venezuela, selling a mixture of local Venezuelan and imported Iranian products. Iran has paid a heavy price for its international solidarity, not only facing crushing US sanctions and an unprecedented media demonisation campaign…Venezuela has been helped by the fact that control of foreign policy in Iran lies with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the so-called ‘hardliners’ grouped around the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, who exhibit a much stronger anti-imperialist consciousness compared with the more pro-western ‘reformists’ who tend towards Gorbachev-style appeasement politics. President Maduro has repeatedly praised the Iranian revolution and directly compared it with the Bolivarian revolutionary process, in the sense that both have not only effectively liberated their peoples from imperialist interference, but actively seek to help others throw off their chains as well.

Bolivia

Internationalist360: Division Within the MAS Exposes Bolivia to the Threat of Imperialist Victory The dispute that has led the MAS to an imminent abyss is the product of different sectors of the social movements. Evo is portrayed as representing the radical wing of MAS and Arce as the reformist wing. What will be evident to many is a shift in leadership from the pole of social movements of coca farmers to those of the suburban areas, that is, from Cochabamba to Alto. By “radical” they refer to the sector that is already in open opposition and using treacherous accusations against the government and against the so-called “reformist” sector that expresses itself more publicly in President Arce. Neither are radical in the ideological sense, nor are the others reformist in the political sense….The MAS division was consolidated after unsuccessful attempts at international efforts to prevent this from happening. The São Pablo Forum tried to mediate without luck; while the Puebla Group carried out reserved efforts but which did not advance beyond good intentions, frustrated by the confrontational action of the protagonists of the schism… It would be a great myopia not to see the action of imperialism through fifth-columns and infiltrators influencing and fueling these divisions. It is obvious to establish that if the division of the MAS takes place, the great winner will be US imperialism. See also Mision Verdad: Bolivia’s Plurinational Project at the Crossroads 

Nicaragua

FAIR (John Perry): When Nicaragua Took Germany to Court, Media Put Nicaragua in the Dock The corporate media increased its attacks on Nicaragua after the country took Germany to the International Court of Justice. Corporate media had been gifted their criticisms by a report published at the end of February by the UN Human Rights Council. A “group of human rights experts on Nicaragua” (the “GHREN”) had produced its second report on the country. Its first, last year, had accused Nicaragua’s government of crimes against humanity. The GHREN’s leader, German lawyer Jan-Michael Simon, had indeed likened the current Sandinista government to the Nazis. Establishment media, seemingly distracted by the “hypocrisy” of Nicaragua challenging a country whose “legitimacy as a democratic state is unassailable,” mostly failed to notice that its legal efforts were therefore at least partially successful: It forced Germany to back down from its unstinting support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and alerted German politicians to the fact that they are at risk of being held accountable under international law if they transfer any further war weapons.

Cuba

Liberation News: U.S. activists deliver $60,000 in medical aid to Cuban children with cancer US-based activists with the Hatuey Project, with IFCO/Pastors for Peace, delivered desperately needed cancer medications, supplies and equipment to two children’s hospitals in Cuba, defying the US blockade. Despite providing free, high quality healthcare to its people, Cuba’s access to such life-saving medications is severely restricted due to the decades-long economic blockade that the US has imposed on the island. The blockade not only inhibits the medicine itself from reaching Cuba, but also the raw materials and the science and technology for Cuba to produce these medicines themselves.

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Events

Delegations to Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua

  1. AFGJ Delegation to Venezuela July 21-31 Join us in Venezuela during its presidential elections to witness, experience and learn about popular democracy in action and celebrate 22 years of the Bolivarian Revolution since the attempted coup against President Hugo Chávez.
  2. Cuba Delegations
  1. Nicaragua Delegations Casa Ben Linder 2024 delegations
  • Email [email protected] to apply:
    • November 8-17 2024: Salud & Solidaridad: Hands-On Healthcare in Nicaragua  
    • February 2025: The Bird Brigade: Birding in Solentiname Arquipelago 
    • March 2025: Power & Protagonism: Women in Nicaragua 

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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