Latin America and Palestine

Resumen Latinoamericano: Latin America Is Leading the Way in Standing Up to Israel Colombia President Petro: ““It’s called genocide, and it’s done to remove the Palestinian people from Gaza and appropriate it. The head of the government that commits this genocide is a criminal against humanity. His allies cannot speak of democracy.” Chile’s Boric, ““Nothing justifies the barbarity in Gaza. Nothing.” Brazil’s Lula: “This isn’t a war; it’s a genocide.”

Sympathy for the Palestinian cause in Latin America can be explained by two fundamental reasons: a historical sympathy for oppressed and colonized peoples, along with Israel’s own history in the region as a proxy for US interests. Israel has supported a laundry list of the worst names in recent Latin American history, including Rafael Trujillo, Augusto Pinochet, Luis García Meza, Efraín Ríos Montt, Anastasio Somoza, and Jorge Rafael Videla.

Ultima Noticias: Venezuela Rejects Israel’s Position Against Latin American Countries Opposing Genocide Venezuela rejected the statements by the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, who attacked different nations in Latin America and the Caribbean, for their position in the conflict with Gaza. Herzog, asked for “decency and respect” from Latin American countries critical of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.Venezuela responded, “The Venezuelan government joins the demonstrations of numerous Latin American countries, who have called for an immediate ceasefire, and have condemned the Nazi extermination policy that Israel applies against the Palestinian people. In that sense, we will keep our voice loud, denouncing barbarism and promoting actions to guarantee compliance with United Nations resolutions in favor of the creation of a Free Palestinian State.”

Ultima Noticias: Venezuela condemns calls for extermination against Palestinians “The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela repudiates all manifestations of hatred and calls for the extermination of the Palestinian people, which have been accompanying the Israeli genocidal campaign, inspired by the Nazi doctrine, against the people of Gaza, especially the recent statement made by Minister Amichai Eliyahu, who in addition to threatening the use of nuclear weapons, has called for the annihilation of all those who wave the sacred flag of the State of Palestine.

The systematic murders against the civilian and defenseless population, organized by Israel in Gaza, must stop immediately, humanitarian aid circulate without any restrictions to the affected areas and the independence of Palestine must be guaranteed by all international bodies and organizations, such as It has recently been mandated by the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization.

Al Mayadeen: Venezuelan Foreign Minister Gil: What is happening in Gaza is Nazi-style genocide Foreign Minister Yvan Gil stressed that what is happening in Gaza is a Nazi-style genocide; “the pictures and testimonies arriving on a daily basis from the Gaza Strip show the war crimes committed by Israel. This barbarism must stop immediately, and the perpetrators of these crimes must be prosecuted.” President Maduro stated that Israel’s bombing of mosques, hospitals, churches, and inhabited residential buildings compare to the practices of the Nazi fascist Adolf Hitler.

 

Venezuela and Esequibo

US is Using Guyana to Seize Essequibo from Venezuela
TeleSur: Venezuela Was Deprived of a Significant Extension of Its Territory VP Delcy Rodriguez: We were born with that territory; even, in the formation as Captaincy General that territory was part of Venezuela, it is Venezuela, and in our independence consolidated that territory. “Then, a territory very rich in minerals, mainly gold. As soon as the British Crown was informed of the immense natural resources in gold by explorers… the British Crown set itself the objective of appropriating that territory, a territory that never belonged to it… “Guyana (at the time of its independence) inherited that territory, but it inherited it illegally, it is inheriting something that has been stolen; they never, neither the United Kingdom nor Guyana have ever had titles over the territory, something that Venezuela has been able to demonstrate: its titles, its rights, everything that was the possession of that territory.”

Orinoco Tribune: Venezuela’s VP Rodríguez at The Hague: Guyana has Shown its True Colors as an Aggressor State Guyana requested the International Court of Justice (ICJ)  confirm the validity of the border drawn by the 1899 Paris tribunal, where Britain gave the territory of  Essequibo to Guyana without the agreement of Venezuela. Vice President Delcy Rodríguez stated this before the ICJ in The Hague, that Guyana has become an aggressor state that de facto occupies a territory that does not belong to it.

She warned that the government of Guyana reproduces the imperial and colonialist arrogance of the UK and the US.  The VP also clarified that Venezuela’s participation in this public hearing does not imply recognition of that Court in relation to the Essequibo dispute, mentioning that the 1966 Geneva Agreement does not recognize the ICJ jurisdiction in this controversy. The agreement also stipulates that any peaceful resolution mechanism chosen to resolve the dispute should be result from a mutual understanding.

Orinoco Tribune: US Escalates Essequibo Dispute by Militarizing Guyana The government of Guyana is trying to militarize the country with the help of the US. This escalation serves the interests of oil company ExxonMobil which intends to appropriate the oil and gas resources of the Essequibo region disputed between Venezuela and Guyana. Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez responded to Guyanese President Irfaan Ali, “The war-mongering employee of ExxonMobil has threatened Venezuela. President Nicolás Maduro has been very clear: Do not provoke Venezuela. We are not afraid of your imperial masters, from whom you inherited gross arrogance. Mr. Irfaan has already passed sentence against Venezuela, and now he intends to intimidate our people with his military chiefs of the US Southern Command.”

Orinoco Tribune: ExxonMobil Extracting Oil from Disputed Venezuelan Waters ExxonMobil began extracting oil in waters that have yet to be delimited between Venezuela and Guyana. Payara is the third-largest producing oil field in the area, with a maximum capacity of 620,000 barrels per day. This would make Guyana one of the world’s leading oil producers and a major driver of production growth for ExxonMobil. Venezuela responded, “Venezuela has presented evidence of this illegal action in documentary form and repeatedly communicated to the Guyanese government and the Caribbean community [CARICOM], that such actions are becoming the greatest source of destabilization in the region, undermining the legitimate interests of the Venezuelan people.” Venezuela states these areas are still in dispute whether they  legitimately belong to Venezuela.

Ultima Noticias: Maduro: “The new Argentine government brings a colonial project” President Maduro said on the election of Argentina president Javier Milei represents “From Venezuela we will always tell the truth, we respect the vote of the Argentine people. They wanted to give themselves that government. Well, you decided. But we are not going to remain silent because the arrival of a right-wing extremist with a colonial project and kneeling to the North American empire is a tremendous threat.” He stressed that his government warns of  “the emergence of extreme right-wing centers that seek to impose themselves to recolonize Latin America and impose extremist models. In Venezuela they have not happened nor will they happen. We will continue to be a free and Bolivarian land.”

 

Cuba

Peoples Dispatch: International tribunal finds US blockade of Cuba in violation of international law “Comrades, my first words are for the Palestinian people that suffer a true genocide by Israel with the complicity of the North American government, the same one that has blockaded us for more than 60 years.” With these words Homero Acosta, the secretary of Cuba’s National Assembly and member of Cuba’s State Council kicked off the sessions of the International Tribunal Against the Blockade of Cuba, highlighting the inextricable connection between the assault on the Palestinian people and the Cuban people: US imperialism.

Results of the International Tribunal in Brussels on Cuba Tribunal Judges included German International Law expert Norman Peach, member of the Democratic Jurists Society and professor; Dimitris Kaltsonis, member,Lawyers College of Portugal; Ricardo Joao Duarte, National Lawyers Guild President Suzanne Adely; writer and journalist Daniela Dahn; International Law specialist Simone Dioguiardi.

Al Mayadeen: President Diaz-Canel led march of 100,000 in Havana rally ‘Long live Palestinian people’s struggle’ President Diaz-Canel led a popular march of thousands of Cubans along the central Malecon street to support for the Palestinian cause and condemn the crimes of the Israeli occupation. Invited by the Cuban Young Communist League, participants chanted slogans in support of the Palestinian people. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla took part in the march, as well as the Secretary-General of the Workers’ Central Union of Cuba Ulises Guilarte, and the Palestinian Ambassador to Cuba Akram Samhan.

Granma: For Palestine, Cuba in solidarity mode Cuba, which has never stopped supporting the Palestinian cause, is in every corner of its geography an expression of support for that people who, since last October 7, have been experiencing a true holocaust due to the genocidal aggression of the Zionist Government of Israel, which It has already cost almost 14,000 victims. That is the reason why the new generations of Cubans, convened by the Union of Young Communists, will march en masse tomorrow in Havana, in order to promote solidarity and humanism for Palestine. The organization has invited youth and the people in general to join in this show of support and commitment for “peace, children and life.” In Cienfuegos, thousands of people left no space to fill in Martí Park, in front of the Provincial Committee of the Union of Young Communists, where they demanded an end to the massacre in Gaza.

 

Bolivia

Sputnik News: Bolivia President Arce; West No Longer Center of World Economy, Asia-Pacific Is “Emerging” economies, particularly those in the BRICS grouping, would maintain economic growth rates of at least 4% in 2023 and 2024. President Arce explained,  “This [the economic growth] makes it clear that their economies are growing faster than those of the so-called advanced economies. These differences in economic projections are explained by the fact that the bloc of hegemons comprising the US and Europe is no longer the center of the world economy, giving way to the bloc of Asia-Pacific countries.”

 

Nicaragua

Daniel Ortega’s address on the anniversary of the Somocista killing of Comandante Carlos Fonseca: “The battle that humanity is waging today is a battle of Life or Death, for all of humanity” On the one hand there are the peoples in favor of peace, even in Israel, in Israel the people have marched, crying out for peace; of course, with pain too, because Israel has had victims of what is the sinister plan they [US and Israel] have launched, a sinister plan for war that the empires have launched.

And the one responsible for this macabre plan, the one who is at the forefront of this criminal plan, is US imperialism, it is the US ruling class, it is the major US corporations, the arms manufacturers in the United States who are doing huge business, and they care little about the blood that is being spilled.

We share the pain of the families who have suffered losses in Israel, but one ends up wondering whether it might not be the imperialist plan given the weakness they have in the war in Ukraine, given their involvement in that war in Ukraine.

The fact that the countries that call themselves civilized and democratic continue to fuel this brutal, bestial war of the State of Israel, of the government of Israel, which is no more than the government of the United States, is simply part of a strategy: because it was in theirs interest to open another front where they could join in, where all the forces that are also involved in Ukraine could work together.

Prensa Latina: Over 80 percent of Nicaraguans backs Ortega’s administration 80.6% of Nicaraguans backs Ortega’s administration, M&R Consultores’ poll unfolded on Wednesday.According to a public opinion study corresponding to the 3Q 2023, 89.4 % of the polled assured that the Executive guarantees them hope, while 10.2% expressed the opposite.

 

Events

One Million Signatures to Take Cuba off the US List of State Sponsors of Terror Sign on now if you haven’t done so. Cuba is on the US list, Israel is not.

December 3: Nicaraguan Migration: Myths and Reality

December 6: Venezuela: US Attacks, Media Distortions, Global Solidarity

November 27: Hugo Chávez, Spark for 21st century socialism & Latin American liberation

November 29: Venezuela: 1999 Constituent Assembly Resistance, Achievements and Lessons

January 27, 2024: Latin America conference in London 18th annual conference in solidarity with Latin American progressive movements.

 

Upcoming Delegations to Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela

Casa Ben Linder 2024 delegations:
January 20-February 1:  Advances & Autonomy Brigade: Rights of Indigenous & Afro-Descendant Peoples on Nicaragua’s Caribbean Coast
February 10-19: The Bird Brigade: Birding in Solentiname Arquipelago
March 2-10: Sindicatos & Solidaridad: Labor Movements in Nicaragua
9-21 July 9-21: Solidarity in Action: Celebrating 45 Years of Revolution in Nicaragua

April 25- May 8: Celebrating Labor and May Day in Cuba 

Cuba April 27 – May 11 Che Guevara Work Brigade

Cuba: Upcoming delegations and trips to Cuba

June 14-23 Witness for Peace delegation to Cuba

April 9-19: Venezuela: Celebrating Popular Sovereignty and Power

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