Venezuela & ALBA Weekly 1.24.2020 Nicaragua Advances: 13th Anniversary of Daniel Ortega’s Leadership: Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia

Nicaragua

Chuck Kaufman: Poll Shows Nicaraguans Have Consigned the Coup to the Dustbin of History The latest poll covering the last quarter of 2019, shows that less than two years after the failed coup attempt of April-July, 2018, the Sandinista government, led by President Daniel Ortega is more popular than ever and all but a tiny minority of Nicaraguans reject the violent tactics and street blockades used by the US-supported opposition. In the face of these poll numbers it is hard to maintain any credibility for the opposition and corporate media narrative that says Ortega is a dictator, the police are repressing the people, and that Nicaragua is collapsing into a failed state.

Orinoco Tribune: Nicaragua Has Built 130 Thousand New Houses in 12 Years In 2020, four housing fairs will be held jointly with private companies, in addition the construction plan of 50 thousand new houses for the next 5 years in Nicaragua will begin.

COHA: Nicaragua, Empire and Resistance The version in the US, repeated by human rights organizations and private media from Managua to Washington, describes an almost complete “dictatorship” that, when faced with citizen protesters, responded with waves of violent repression aimed primarily at students and journalists, leaving hundreds of peaceful protesters dead.This article seeks to disprove that tale about events in Nicaragua in 2018, which, although meticulously constructed, is a fabrication made a priori by the National Endowment for Democracy’s regime change laboratory, along with other U.S. institutions.

NicaNotes: The Revolution has transformed the lives of Nicaragua’s Caribbean peoples One of the historical achievements in this period is that the Ortega administration has managed to unite the Pacific with the Caribbean after years of isolation, incorporating into national development abandoned indigenous communities faced with the structural poverty of centuries, a historical social debt. This Sandinista government has invested more resources for development and infrastructure in the Caribbean than any other, $1.1217 billion 2007-19, compared to $202 million from 1990-2007.

NicaNotes: Nicaragua’s message to the UN Climate Change Conference Ten countries account for 72% of the total world emissions. Nicaragua has gone from 25% renewable energy in 2007 to 62% in 2018, while electricity coverage has expanded from 54% of households in 2007 to 95% in 2018. Social advances include the reduction of maternal mortality rate from 92.8 per hundred thousand in 2007 to 34.1 today, and the reduction of infant mortality rate from 29 to 12 per thousand children born. Chronic malnutrition in schools was reduced by 66%. General poverty was reduced from 47.9% to 24.9%, and extreme poverty from 17.3% to 6.9%.

Venezuela

Redfish: Venezuela, Defending the Revolution It’s been one year since Juan Guaido’s failed US-backed coup in Venezuela. Hear from the Venezuelan People’s Militia, who tired of US meddling are prepared to defend their country from any and all imperial threats.

Caracas Encuentro Mundial contra el Imperialismo: “For Life, Sovereignty and Peace” the World Anti-Imperialist Meeting Begins Diosdado Cabello, PSUV First Vice President,  highlighted the importance of solidarity among the countries resisting US hegemony and also among the peoples resisting neoliberalism. In that spirit he made a special mention of General Qassem Soleimani, which was followed by a standing ovation by more than 250 delegates from 51 countries. The Cuban representative Victor Gaude, called on the people to unite and defend Venezuela, because this nation decides today the sovereignty and dignity of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Grayzone: Twitter, Facebook, Google censor anti-war content and suspend Iranian, Venezuelan, Syrian accounts By Ben Norton: As the US escalates its regime change wars, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are suspending accounts and censoring content that conflicts with Washington’s pro-war propaganda. These increasingly authoritarian crackdowns show more and more how Big Tech corporations act as an arm of the US government and its foreign policy.

TeleSur: New Venezuela National Assembly opposition to Investigate US Funding to Guaido USAID has provided $467 million since 2017 and Juan Guaidó has received $180 million of that since January 2019.The president of the National Assembly, Luis Parra, announced the creation of a commission to investigate the financing of USAID to the right-wing opposition sectors led by Juan Guaido. A request will be sent to the United States asking that country’s authorities to investigate the funds given by USAID because “we don’t know where that money went.”

OrinocoTribune: Venezuela-Iran Will Sign New Agreements for Medicine, Production, Food, Energy and Health  Arreaza said that Venezuela has learned a lot from Iran to “develop our economy, to circumvent the blockade” imposed by the US. “The aggressions against Tehran, what they have done is to strengthen our relations in favor of the peoples, of multilateralism. No state has the morals to sanction Iran,” he said, and confirmed that “Venezuela and Iran are committed to peace in the face of US aggressions.” “Countries that are attacked, that assume the defense of their peoples, who stand up to imperialism, are subject to media, psychological campaigns to distort their reality as Syria, Iran, Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela.”

Cuba

Cuba Business Report Interview with Cuban Ambassador José Ramón Cabañas “People come to Cuba to share and learn on how we tackle climate change, to know why we are resilient in the face of natural disasters, how we can afford to provide free and good quality health care and education to our population, how we build a society without violence, without opioid crisis. Cuban universities respond daily to foreign exchange initiatives, cultural fests welcome artists from many countries and vice versa…We still have American companies doing business in Cuba and we have others coming forward with new proposals. American businessmen know how meaningful Cuba could be for their ventures, from Agriculture and communications to Civil Aviation and sea trade….American people and authorities realized at that time that the blockade against Cuba and the policy of isolation failed. That sentiment is still present among most of Americans and Cuban Americans.”

Bolivia

Mintpress News: As Bolivia Elections Near, US-Backed Interim Gov’t Mobilizes Military, Arrests Opposition Leaders The Añez administration has begun a mass privatization program aimed at conducting a fire sale of the country’s considerable natural resources. Since November it has been at war with the press, launching a crackdown on all media hostile to it, closing down multiple TV stations, with critical journalists disappearing or being found dead in suspicious circumstances. It has also set up new SWAT-like secret police battalions aimed at suppressing what is calls subversive voices, both domestic and foreign. Earlier this month, a team from the U.S.-funded group USAID arrived in the country to advise the government on how to operate the upcoming election

Back issues of Venezuela-ALBA Weekly in 2018-2019 are here

Delegations

Program of the 15th May Day International Brigade of Voluntary Work and Solidarity with Cuba, April 27- May 10

Events

Venezuela Embassy Protectors January 18-28 Tour on East Coast  The four Embassy Protectors facing federal charges will be on tour  to speak about the action, the charges they are facing and what is happening in Venezuela. They have a pretrial hearing on January 29 and their trial begins on February 11 in Washington, DC at the Federal Courthouse at 333 Constitution Ave., NW. Supporters are encouraged to attend. Donations to support their legal defense will be requested.

The United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) conference. NYC. February 21-23

Join the International Days of Action against Sanctions and Economic War March 13-15

Second National Conference for the Normalization of US-Cuba Relations, NYC March 21-22

                              

Sites to Follow Venezuela, Bolivia:

Friends of Evo’s Bolivia

Stand with Venezuela

Orinoco Tribune

Venezuela Solidarity New York

End Venezuela Sanctions

TeleSur: Live from the South  (daily news report on the Latin America struggle)

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