Venezuela
Vijay Prashad, Manolo De Los Santos: The illegal blockade of Venezuela and the Anti-Blockade Law We spoke to William Castillo, vice minister of anti-blockade policies, about the passage of an anti-blockade law. The sanctions policy is “increasing the suffocation of the people.” The United States and EU sanctions policy has two faces: direct sanctions against firms and people who trade with the Venezuelan government, and indirect sanctions that penalize those who do business with those who violate the direct sanctions. This latter has produced what is known as “overcompliance,” and it is a “kind of blackmail.” The anti-blockade law is “temporary,” and it seeks to shield those who do business with Venezuela from the United States and EU sanctions. “The anti-blockade law essentially aims to activate all the productive forces in the country—both public and private—to revive the economy. It is nonsense and demagogic to say that we have turned toward a privatization policy,” Castillo said, “when we are giving all sectors the capacity to break the blockade.”
Orinoco Tribune: Real Humanitarian Aid! Venezuela Receives Tons of Medical Supplies from China
Peoples Dispatch: Agro-ecology project links peasant production to urban communes in Venezuela
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on ‘The Communist Manifesto’
Orinoco Tribune: Maduro to UN Human Rights Council: US Sanctions ‘Flagrantly Violate International Law’ President Maduro reiteratedVenezuela does not accept “the interference or intervention of any inquisitorial mechanism against our homeland that pretends to use the just cause of human rights as a political tool for a change of government by force in our country.”
TeleSur: President Maduro Rejects EU Sanctions Renewal Against Venezuela “The EU stuck to Donald Trump’s tail and automatically continues with its cruel, ruthless and failed policy against Venezuela. It is a cruel and failed policy, with clear overtones of frustrated colonialism. … it is a shameful, outrageous and sad role that the European Union plays against the noble people of Venezuela.” President Maduro has highlighted that EU officials maintain “an arrogant and supremacist attitude” towards Venezuela, following the instructions of the U.S. government.
Cuba
Chicago City Council Resolution: Call for end to U.S. embargo against Cuban trade and travel
Other City and Labor Councils resolutions against the US Blockade
Granma: Cuba scales up industrial production of candidate vaccines
Granma: Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez at UN Human Rights Council “Today we have four anti- COVID candidate vaccines in different phases of clinical trials, thanks to the development of Cuban science and the selfless work of our scientists. We expect to immunize the entire Cuban population this year….Inequalities, hunger and discrimination are growing exponentially, in a world already burdened by an unjust and undemocratic international order and by the implementation of ruthless neoliberal policies that impact the most vulnerable with even greater force, making their most basic rights impossible dreams.” He recalled that ten of the richest nations in the West are monopolizing means to fight the disease, purchasing 95% of the anti- COVID vaccines produced on the planet, according to data provided by the World Health Organization in January.
Ecuador
Marc Weisbrot: Opinion: Ecuador’s democracy should not be derailed by false claims of election fraud
Progressive International: Ecuador’s Democracy is Under Attack
Nicaragua
Documentary: Nicaragua, Guerra Contra el Pueblo (in Spanish) Es un estremecedor relato que narra el fallido intento de Golpe de Estado en contra del Pueblo nicaragüense entre abril y julio del año pasado. Con entrevistas con las víctimas y testigos de la violencia golpista, de los crímenes y las torturas de grupos terroristas vestidos de “sociedad civil”.
Recent and Upcoming Webinars
video: Ecuador’s Presidential Election: Will the Left Win? Fidel Narvaez, former diplomat at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London; Joe Emersberger (political analyst);Pablo Navarrete (Alborada co-editor) and Rachael Boothroyd (Alborada contributing editor)
video: Recent Latin American Elections Repudiate US-backed Neoliberalism, with Alex Main of CEPR
February 28: Building Food Sovereignty in Nicaragua with Erika Takeo and Rita Jill Clark-Gollub
March 5: End Sanctions on Venezuela Now! Maria Paez Victor, Alison Bodine, Nino Pagliccia
March 8: Women’s Voices from Central America Hear from women from El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, countries heavily impacted by US foreign policy
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