Venezuela
Venezuelanalysis: Sanctions, Making Venezuela Scream: A Conversation with Alexander Main The sanctions have been very harmful. They have contributed enormously to Venezuela’s economic decline, and have contributed to extreme human suffering. Venezuela doesn’t have the resources – namely the necessary foreign exchange that it would normally obtain through the sale of oil products – that it needs to import all the food and medicine required by the population. That means that essential goods became more scarce, more difficult to access for ordinary people, and when they are available at all they become very, very expensive.
Ultima Noticias: Venezuela denounces international silence on the massacre in Colombia
President Maduro “When we see how they are murdered, raped young women and denied the right to education is when one says that Venezuela must be defended,…More than 45 young people have been assassinated, more than 600 disappeared are registered in Colombia. I want to convey all the solidarity with the youth of Colombia who are fighting in the streets for their right to education and health…What is the International Community doing in the face of the massacre that Colombia is experiencing? What do the organizations for the defense of human rights do?”
TeleSur: Maduro Willing to Meet All Opposition If EU and Norway Present Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced Wednesday that he would be willing to meet with “with all the opposition” to seek a negotiated solution to the crisis in Venezuela, under the supervision of the European Union, Norway, and the Contact Group, made up of various European and Latin American countries.
Ultima Noticias: Foreign Minister Arreaza criticizes the complicit attitude of the US and the EU in Israel genocide Arreaza criticized the US and the European Union in the face of Israel’s criminal actions, while wondering: Where is the United Nations? “Barbarians and inhumans! Let’s stop the genocide! Where is the #UN? The US and the EU create the models, police and courts of the world, impose sanctions, invade countries. But in the face of criminal actions of Israel, do not react ”.
Orinoco Tribune: US Extradition of Alex Saab is Illegal & Unfounded: Lawyers & Legal Experts Over the course of the past year, Saab’s case has made waves on the African continent and in Venezuela, where social media campaigns and demonstrations have demanded his release. The Economic Community of West African States, also known as ECOWAS, ruled against Cape Verde’s detention and as recently as March 2021 asked for his immediate release. High-profile lawyer Baltasar Garzón, who also assisted in Assange’s defense, worked with Saab’s legal team. None of these efforts have been enough to sway the US extradition demand, or to prevent Cape Verde from buckling under US pressure.
Peoples Dispatch: Dollarization in Venezuela causes a boom in imported goods stores The private sector sidesteps blockade and replaces the State in supplying goods. Bodegas offered imported goods in middle-class areas, while so-called bachaqueros – people who sold smuggled goods for three times their original prices – crowded the streets. In 2020, around 61% of the transactions in Venezuela were in dollars. For the economist Luís Salas, a series of economic measures adopted by the government helped prioritize the imports in detriment of stimulating national production. The CLAP program aids 6 million Venezuelan families through community organizing.
Nicaragua
Kawsachun News: Nicaragua: “We Are Not Anyone’s Colony” Nicaragua’s Sandinista government is calling out blatant U.S. interference as the country prepares to hold its presidential election in six months. The U.S. is preparing economic sanctions in an attempt to generate hunger as a weapon against the elected government as previous regime change efforts have been unsuccessful. The Reinforcing Nicaragua’s Adherence to Conditions for Electoral Reform (RENACER) Act, introduced in March, would require the U.S. government to increase sanctions on Managua. Full Daniel Ortega speech
Cuba
Granma: Cuba calls for the immediate end of the Israeli aggression against Palestine The Ministry of Foreign Relations emphasizes that this aggression constitutes another flagrant serious violation of the United Nations Charter, international law and international humanitarian law by Israel and evidence the continuity of its practices of colonization and occupation of Arab and Palestinian lands, which enjoy impunity and the complicity of the US government, which has prevented any action on the part of the UN Security Council.
Global Health Partners: Syringes for Cuba campaign Saving Lives Campaign and Global Health Partners fundraising to aid Cuba, which has a shortage of 20 million syringes vital to the goal of vaccinating the entire Cuban population against Covid. Please show your solidarity now with a country that has done so much for the health of its own people, and for struggling communities around the world. Over the past year alone, Cuba has sent 3,700 health workers, in 52 international medical brigades, to 39 countries overwhelmed by the pandemic. Cuba’s international medical brigades have treated patients and saved lives for the past 15 years in 53 countries confronting natural disasters and serious epidemics, such as the Ebola crisis in West Africa.
Webinars and Delegations
Witness for Peace delegations to Cuba
Code Pink webinar video: Viviremos: Venezuela vs. Hybrid War – Book Tour Vijay Prashad; Manolo De Los Santos, Claudia De la Cruz Co-Executive Directors of The People’s Forum; Anya Parampil, The Grayzone; George Ciccariello-Maher; Carlos Ron is the president of the Simon Bolivar Institute for Peace and Solidarity Among Peoples and serves in the Bolivarian government as the Vice-minister of Foreign Affairs for North America.
May 22: African Liberation in the Americas: A Webinar on Haiti, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela
May 23 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)
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
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