Venezuela & ALBA News 5.28.2021 Biden Keeps Trump Inhumane Policy on Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua; Alex Saab

Venezuela

MercoPress: Biden picks for Western Hemisphere career diplomat who favors sanctions against Venezuela  Biden’s candidate for the office of Undersecretary of the State Department for the Western Hemisphere, Brian A. Nichols, has said sanctions against the Nicolás Maduro regime must continue. Nichols also said that “the extensive efforts of Russia, China, Iran, Turkey and others to avoid sanctions are deeply concerning. We, who want to see democracy in Venezuela, must aggressively challenge those actions and work to ensure that the proceeds of criminal activities do not return to the regime.”

CNR: African Union Day Celebration: Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab calls on African leaders to resist oppression Venezuela’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the African Union, Ambassador Alex Saab in a statement on the occasion of the celebration said it is a day of liberation from foreign control and oppression and is worth celebrating. “On May 25, 2021, we celebrate the liberation of a continent and peoples oppressed by imperialism and the West’s insatiable thirst for conquest. This ferocious quest for imperialist domination has led to the enslavement of Africa for centuries. Colonization has attempted to destroy African civilizations, cultures and traditions, has denied its history and humanity, has plundered its wealth and resources. But today we celebrate the resistance against this oppression, we admire the resilience of a people and a continent.”

Resumen Latinoamericano: US Trying to Extradite Venezuelan Diplomat Alex Saab for the ‘Crime’ of Securing Food for the Hungry The case of Alex Saab raises dangerous precedents in terms of extraterritorial judicial abuse, violation of diplomatic status, and even the use of torture to extract false confessions. That the US can engineer the arrest of a diplomat – someone who has immunity by international law even in the time of war – is a dangerous precedent. That the arrest was extraterritorial is worse; and especially so because Saab is an ambassador to the African Union. This harkens back to the flagrantly illegal and inhumane US practice of extraordinary rendition, which was used to populate the Guantánamo torture chambers.

Orinoco Tribune: March of Solidarity with Palestine in Caracas Venezuela delivered to the UN a statement in support of Palestine, stating that both ”the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the PSUV express their strong rejection and condemnation against the acts of extermination carried out by military troops of Israel, executed by the government of Israel, since May 10, through hundreds of indiscriminate bombings against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. These acts of aggression caused the death of 277 Palestinians, including 70 children and 40 women, and left 8,500 wounded and immeasurable damage to Palestinian infrastructure.” The statement also condemned the ”criminal policy of Zionism, based on an ideology of racial segregation, extermination, colonization, house demolition and the expulsion of all Palestinian citizens from their territories, since the year 1948 with the aim to annex all land belonging to Palestinians, which constitutes a clear violation of international law, as well as all UN resolutions and mandates on Palestine.”

Orinoco Tribune: Venezuela to Start New Vaccination Phase with 1.3 Million Doses from China President Maduro, announced that 1.3 million new COVID-19 vaccines have arrived in the country from China, which would help to accelerate mass vaccination in the country.

A new phase of vaccination will start this week, with the aim to get 70% of the population vaccinated by the end of August. “This week, a new phase of vaccination starts in the country; 1,300,000 new vaccines arrived in Venezuelans from China. More vaccines are arriving this week, and even more doses are yet to come.”

 

Nicaragua

Peoples Dispatch: Nicaragua’s inspiring response to COVID-19 In a recent study conducted by the University of Oxford and the World Health Organization, socialist Nicaragua was placed number nine on a list of the ten safest countries to visit during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nicaragua is the only country within Latin America to appear on that list. As of Sunday May 22, the country had 7,193 confirmed cases and only 185 deaths.

TortillaConSal: NPR’s dishonest coverage of Nicaragua and Covid-19 NPR’s coverage of Nicaragua repeatedly bears out the fact that mainstream communications media in the US and Europe make little or no effort to give a true and fair account of the country’s reality. Their reports consistently omit facts that might invalidate their coverage and they also fail to corroborate much of the information they do include.

Global Research: Targeting Nicaragua: How Billionaire Foundations Fund NGOs to Advance US Foreign Policy Goals US foreign policy is increasingly promoted by billionaire funded foundations.  The neoliberal era has created individuals with incredible wealth and through “philanthropy”, they flex their influence and feel good at the same time. While these philanthropists can be liberal on some issues, they universally support U.S. foreign policy and the “free market”.  A look at how these NGOs fund anti-Nicaragua propaganda.

Cuba

Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Cuba rejects New US slander regarding cooperation to end terrorism The Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejects in the most categorical terms the determination made by the U.S. State Department that Cuba does not fully cooperate with U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, reported May 25, 2021 in the U.S. Federal Register. How can the State Department explain the unfounded and fallacious singling out of our country with respect to the issue of terrorism; how can it justify maintaining the 243 unilateral coercive measures adopted by the Trump administration, which include increased financial persecution and other measures of an extraterritorial nature?

Oxfam Report: The Right to Live without a Blockade The impact of US sanctions on the Cuban population and women’s lives. Right to Live without a Blockade reveals the impact of nearly six decades of sanctions imposed by successive US governments on the Cuban population. It focuses on the human dimensions, presenting testimonies that illustrate the consequences of the blockade on the daily lives of those in Cuba, women in particular. The report also includes historical data and information on the measures applied.

Webinars and Delegations

Witness for Peace delegations to Cuba

documentary: Nicaragua Against Empire

May 28: Panel on Alternative Media, Coordination, Cooperation  – Orinoco Tribune 2½ Anniversary  Ben Norton (The GrayZone), Camila Escalante (KawsachunNews), Jesus Rodriguez Espinosa (Orinoco Tribune)

May 30: Car caravans in the US against US Blockade of Cuba

May 30: Car caravans in Canada against US Blockade of Cuba 

June 2: Venezuela: End Sanctions, Give Back the Gold Fravia Márquez, adviser to the Vice-Presidency of the National Assembly of Venezuela; Mark Weisbrot, co author of Economic Sanctions as Collective Punishment: The Case of Venezuela; Colin Burgon, Labour Friends of Progressive Latin America; Francisco Dominguez, Venezuela Solidarity Campaign

June 10: The US Regime Change Agenda: Hypocrisy and Double Standards with Francisco Dominguez (Venezuela Solidarity Campaign, UK), Teri Mattson (Code Pink), John Perry (Nicaragua)

June 13: Remembering Ramsey Clark

 

To follow Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador daily:

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