Venezuela-ALBA Weekly 3.13.2020 US Sanctions: a Human Rights Crime against Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, Iran...

Monthly Review (Lauren Smith): The US-imposed economic sanctions—the big heist Sanctions impact one-third of humanity in 39 countries. Economic sanctions not only cause untold death and devastation to a given country by denying it access to U.S.-dominated markets—which restricts its ability to generate wealth, stabilize its currency against price fluctuations and provide critical services and resources for its people—but economic sanctions also serve to justify and conceal theft, through asset freezes and seizures, at a rate only previously accomplished through invasion and occupation. The victims of economic sanctions are easy to identify because they are visible—there are dead bodies and malnourished children, with stunted growth and development, in once-thriving communities. They constitute the underemployed and working-class and are predominately people of color.

Venezuela

Venezuela Foreign Ministry warns international community about new US offensive Jorge Arreaza warned about the naval blockade they have started to ponder against Venezuela. “A naval blockade is acknowledged by the United Nations as one of the forms of use of force. However, it has been proposed in the Oval Office, the Department of Defense, and the Department of State; it has been proposed during visits of Latin American presidents to the United States” he said referring to the meetings held by president Donald Trump with his Colombian and Brazilian counterparts Iván Duque and Jari Bolsonaro in recent days.

Code Pink webinar: Teri Mattson interviews Carlos Ron of Foreign Ministry A wide conversation including: the US Maximum Pressure Campaign against Venezuela, Monroe Doctrine 2.0, US Unilateral Sanctions, a threatening Naval Blockade and the difference in public and private healthcare systems fighting CoronaVirus.

DefendEmbassyProtectors.org: Embassy Protectors Await Next Hearing On April 24 The Embassy Protectors’ hearing on February 28 was brief. The government prosecutors reached out to the Protectors’ lawyers early in the week to negotiate a resolution. As of the 28th, the details of that resolution had not been completed so the judge scheduled another hearing on March 6. That hearing has now been postponed until late April or early May. A definitive date has not been set yet. We will make an announcement when it is known.

Venezuelanalysis: Venezuela: Nearly 50,000 Voting Machines Burnt in Terrorist Attack An unknown militant rightwing group has claimed responsibility for a blaze which destroyed 99 percent of Venezuela’s electoral machines on Saturday. Seven masked men calling themselves the Venezuelan Patriotic Front stated that the attack formed part of “Operation Sodom,” a reference to the biblical tale of the city destroyed by “divine judgement” on the Jordan River.Another hard-right militant opposition group called the T-Shirt Soldiers endorsed the Patriotic Front’s actions and claimed they “were not finished.” The T-Shirt Soldiers claimed responsibility for the August 2018 C4-carrying drone assassination attempt against President Maduro.

Cuba

Dissident Voice (Stansfield Smith): A Case Study of Corporate Media Disinformation: Manufacturing the Enemy: The Media War Against Cuba Some alternative media have exposed the US government and its corporate media fake news reporting on Russian “election interference,” on Venezuela, the war on Syria, China’s Xinjiang and Hong Kong, Nicaragua, Palestine, among others. One of the longest running media disinformation campaigns has been directed at Cuba. Over the 60 years of the Cuban revolution, the corporate media has implanted in us a negative image of Cuba through their distortions of the country’s political and economic system, their discounting the revolution’s achievements, and their denial of the impact the blockade and US terrorism have had on the country. The media has been especially effective in not addressing the endless complex problems a developing nation faces once it has decided to establish its genuine sovereignty while trying to survive the relentless hostility of the world’s superpower.

ResumenLatinoamericano: Farewell to Most US-Cuba Charter Flights US companies that provided charter service to Cuban airports stopped flying to the island, with the exception of Havana, this evening in compliance with a ban from the US government. Now nine provincial Cuban airports will no longer be receiving charter flights from US territory, with the exception of Havana. It is one more tightening of the blockade that the White House has applied to Cuba.

Nicaragua

The Grayzone: US House rams through Nicaragua regime-change bill with zero opposition Not one member of the House of Representatives spoke up against a bipartisan bill sponsored by hardliners that ramps up US economic warfare and regime-change measures against Nicaragua’s elected government.

Nicaragua and the struggle against US imperialism in Latin America – an interview with Daniel Kovalik I think the Sandinistas are stronger now than they ever were. It is very clear to me and to most Nicaraguans that the crisis of the Summer 2018 was not brought about by alleged police brutality but in fact brought about by a very concerted, very manipulative, very violent, right wing campaign against not only the government but the Sandinista movement itself and this orchestrated campaign was funded by the United States.

Delegations:

Sanctions Kill! – Food Sovereignty Delegation to Venezuela April 12-21, 2020

Code Pink Delegations to Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba

Cuba: 15th May Day International Brigade of Voluntary Work & Solidarity, April 27- May 10

Canadian Che Guevara Voluntary Work Brigade to Cuba, April 27-May 10

Building Relations with Cuban Labor April 28 – May 3 or April 28th – May 8

Human Rights Delegation to Honduras, May 7-17

Apply for Summer 2020 Pastors for Peace Cuba Caravan

Events:

Code Pink: Sanctions Kill: International Days of Action

Locations for Sanctions Kill: International Days of Actions of Action against Sanctions and

Economic War March 13-15