VENEZUELA ANTHOLOGY #7

Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology

https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2024/09/omni-venezuela-anthology-6-september-15.html

(#3, 9-9-20; #4)

http://omnicenter.org/donate/

#1, http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2019/05/venezuela-newsletter-1-from-omni-center.html
#2, 7-16-20  https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2020/07/omni-venezuela-newsletter-2.html
#3, 9-9-20  https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2020/09/omni-venezuela-newsletter-3-compiled-by.html       #3 reaches back to 2018.
#4, 2-14-21    p. 70
#5, 8-27-24  https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/2151229136087998997/3753817779419620546
#6

#7

CONTENTS VENEZUELA #5
US WAR AGAINST VENEZUELA
De La Cruz, et al.  Viviremos: Venezuela vs. Hybrid War.
Ensberger and Podur.  Extraordinary Threat: The U.S. Empire, the Media, and 20 Years of Coup Attempts in Venezuela.
“Biden Extends U.S. Campaign to Crush Venezuela.”(5 articles).Alan MacLeod.  “…US Plans for War and Terror against Venezuela.”
Dan Beeton.  “The Venezuelan Coup, 20 Years Later.”
Ryan Swan.  “Venezuela Seeks Investigation [of war crimes] by ICC.”
“Alex Saab Is Being Tortured….”
Ricardo Vaz.  US Meddling in Elections.
Jonathan Ng.  “The US Is…Strangling Venezuela.”
UN Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan Reports on US v. Human Rights in Venezuela.
Douhan.  “Call for Sanctions Relief.”
Andreina Chavez Alava.  “UN Expert…Impact of U.S.-led Sanctions against Venezuela.”
Ana Perdigon.  “U.S. Seditious Policy against Venezuela.”
Lucas Koerner. “U.S. Empire’s Fixation with Chavismo.”
Ricardo Vaz.  Extraditing Venezuelan Envoy to US.
“U.S…Using Guaido to Rob Venezuela.”
Cira Pasqual Marquina.  Venezuela’s Communal Past.
Emersberger and Podur.  Myth of Venezuela’s Prosperous and Democratic Past.

“The Blockade against Venezuela…Deadly Impact of Sanctions.”
Emersberger.  Alex Saab Case.
Caitlin Johnstone.  US History of Interfering with Elections.

SUPPORT OF VENEZUELA
Legacy of Hugo Chavez Lives On.  (2 articles)
Leonardo Flores.  “Five Reasons the Left Won in Venezuela.”
Vargas and Sonja.  Venezuela’s Insurrectionist and Communal Past.
Mision Verdad.  FAO Food Report on Venezuela Is Positive.
Ben Norton.  “Venezuela’s Economy Will Grow. . .in 2022.”
Ociel Lopez.  “Venezuela and the New Latin Left.”
Morning Star.  “…Maduro’s Successful Socialist…Strategy.”
Cira Pascual Marquine.  “Radical Land Reform…”
Federico Fuentes.  “’Commune or Nothing’….”
Dakotah Lily.  “…Ecosocialism in an Oil-Rich State.”
Jovanni.  “…DemilitarizedU on Venezuelan Elections.”

CONTENTS VENEZUELA #6

CONTENTS VENEZUELA #7 CONTENTS OF ANTHOLOGIES #1 THROUGH #6

END CONTENTS OF VENEZUELA ANTHOLOGIES #1 through #7

OMNI

VENEZUELA ANTHOLOGY #6

September 15, 2024

Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology

(#2, 7-16-20; #3, 9-9-20; #4, 2-14-21; #5, 8-27-24)

http://omnicenter.org/donate/

CONTENTS OF VENEZUELA ANTHOLOGY #6

VENEZUELA’S STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE
US-LED WAR vs. VENEZUELA
US Anti-Democratic Meddling in Venezuelan Elections.
Alan MacLeod.  US Meddling in Venezuelan Elections.
Margaret Kimberley and Ajamu Baraka.  “Venezuela Is a Democracy.”
Peoples Dispatch.  Despite of or Because of Attacks on Its Electoral System, and even coup attempts, people around the world express solidarity with Venezuela.
Ed Newman.  Alba Movements from 25 Countries Support Venezuela.
Vijay Prashad.  Eye-witness Report from Caracas of the Election Declares Maduro’s Election fair and decisive, despite right-wing claims of fraud.
Roger Harris and Peter Bolton.  Corporate Media Normalizes US Interference in Other Nations.
People’s Dispatch. US Defenders of Venezuelan Bolivarian Society Gathered Outside NYT Building.
Fernando Giuliani Analyzes the Violent Hatred That Justifies Assassination and Foreign Intervention.
Misión Verdad.  Cyber Warfare against Venezuelan elections.
Roger Harris.  July 28 Election Most Broadly About Bolivarian Revolution and US Regime Changes by Violence and Sanctions.
SANCTIONS
Roger Harris.  “US Reimposed Illegal and Inhumane Oil Sanctions on Venezuela.”
Celina della Croce.  “If the U.S. can’t win [regime changes] with tanks and guns, it hopes that a campaign to suffocate the people” will.
Anya Parampil. (Book).  Corporate Coup: Venezuela and the End of Empire.
Codepink: Tell Biden to Unfreeze Venezuela’s Funds.
US Confiscates Venezuela’s Presidential Jet.
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF VENEZUELA’S STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE
Thierry Deronne (Part I).  “Communication by and for the People.”
Andreina Chavez Alava.  “Venezuela: Gov’t to launch China-backed anti-poverty program.” 
Ramón Grosfoguel (Part I).  “Venezuela’s Decolonial Alternative.”
Sources of Venezuela Anthologies #5 and #6.

Contents of Venezuela Anthology #5.

SUPPORT OF VENEZUELA, VENEZUELAN ACHIEVEMENTS

TEXTS OF #6    (17 articles and one book, #5 31 articles and 2 books, total of 51 texts  in #5 + #6)

US WAR ON VENEZUELA

US WAR OF TERROR BY SANCTIONS = COUNTLESS HARRASSMENTS

VENEZUELA AN ELECTORAL DEMOCRACY DESPITE US MEDDLING
“Venezuela: As US Leaders Call Fraud, US Observers
Endorse Results.”  Consortium News (7-30-24). 
Western media appeared as eager as the U.S. government to undermine the July 28 presidential elections in Venezuela and agitate for political strife, writes Alan MacLeod. Read here…   By Alan MacLeod.   Originally published in MintPress News.

Much to the chagrin of the U.S. government, socialist candidate Nicolas Maduro won a third successive term in office on Sunday, convincingly beating his U.S.-backed opponents, Edmundo Gonzalez and Maria Corina Machado, by seven points.

Almost immediately after the results were announced, [US] officials began decrying the elections as a farce. “We commend [the Venezuelan people’s] courage and commitment to democracy in the face of repression,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a speech on Sunday evening, adding:  “We have serious concerns that the result announced does not affect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people. It is critical that every vote be counted fairly and transparently. That election officials immediately share information with the opposition and independent observers without delay, and that electoral authorities publish the detailed tabulation of votes. The international community is watching this very closely, and will respond accordingly.”

Senator Marco Rubio, a longtime Venezuela hawk, went further, stating, “Everybody knows massive voter turnout like the one today in Venezuela would result in a massive loss by Maduro. The ONLY way he wins is with massive fraud.”   MORE

“Don’t believe the hype: Venezuela is a democracy.”

Margaret Kimberley.  Mronline.org (8-3-24).  Ajamu Baraka, Black Agenda Report editor and columnist, discusses observing the recent elections in Venezuela and why the U.S. still seeks to undermine that democracy.

By Margaret Kimberley, Ajamu Baraka (Posted Aug 02, 2024).  

Originally published: Black Agenda Report  on July 31, 2024 (more by Black Agenda Report).   Democracy, Empire, Inequality, State RepressionAmericas, United States, VenezuelaInterview, NewswireUnited Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Venezuela Election 2024, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro

Margaret Kimberley: Ajamu Baraka is a Black Agenda Report editor and columnist. He is joining us from Caracas, Venezuela, where he was an observer in the recently held national elections. We will discuss what he observed, the meaning of the results, and the ongoing attempts from the U.S.-backed right wing to destabilize the elected government. Good morning, Ajamu, and thank you. 
Ajamu Baraka: It’s a pleasure to be here and to have this opportunity to discuss what’s unfolding here in Venezuela. 
MK: Tell us about your role as an election observer. How did that come about?

AB: Well, it’s a combination of factors. One is, that this makes my third experience observing elections here. And then as well, I’ve done this here and in other places around the world, or for quite some time. Secondly, though, the invitation was extended to the Black Alliance for Peace, to join the more than 800 international observers to come in and to lend their eyes and ears to this process.

The rationale was that I think the Venezuelan authorities understood that, despite the fact that this election process in Venezuela is one of the cleanest in the world, one of the most effective and efficient, then there was a strong possibility that if the opposition did not win, then they were going to cry fraud. And so they wanted to have a variety of different eyes on this process. So we were accepted. So my role basically, here is partly as a journalist with the Black Agenda Report, and also politically with the Black Alliance for Peace.

MK: The election was held on July 28. We’re talking two days later, and President Maduro’s party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, in Spanish the PSUV, did win a majority of votes with this process that you have described as being transparent and internationally recognized. But no sooner were these results announced than the U.S. government, not surprisingly, said that the results were questionable, and there were allegations of fraud. And of course, the opposition did not accept being defeated. Talk to us about events since the election results were announced.

AB: Well, what we saw unfold was the playbook that the U.S. has, when it comes to events in this region and really around the world, that when there’s an attempt to have internal democratic processes, where the possibility of forces that may not be in alignment with the U.S. come into power, and there is an attempt on the part of the U.S. and the Western European allies to undermine those processes. And that’s exactly what has occurred here in this country.

I think the world was forewarned that the possibility of violence erupting if the opposition didn’t win, was something that had to be dealt with, and acknowledged. But even before we talk about that, I wanted to just briefly share with the people who are reading this interview, that the process will determine how people actually vote here in this country. On the day of the election, we had an opportunity to move around primarily around Caracas and right outside, to view the process of various voting spaces and voting precincts, and what we saw was the process in place.

They have a pretty robust process to make sure that results cannot be manipulated by any force. For example, the first thing that a voter has to do when they get ready to vote is present their ID, but then it has to be verified through a biometric process. When they are identified they are given a slip of paper. And then they are able to cast their vote electronically and to have a paper ballot to verify the fact that they in fact, have voted. And that is to ensure that there that the electronic count and the paper ballot count correspond.

And then during the election process, the day of the vote, the government engages in audits really before the voting takes place, but during the day of the voting, and afterward, 54% of the machines are randomly selected for audit, all of this is clearly observed by opposition forces. Opposition forces are allowed to be in the voting spaces to observe the process and to be present when they begin the process of recording the votes at the end of the day. So it’s very difficult to manipulate this process. And that’s why when Secretary of State Antony Blinken talked about some counter data that they have, we want to hear what that data is because I didn’t observe too many gringo elements out there, engaging in interviews with voters to get a sense of what was really unfolding.

Now we know that, for example, in this country, it is not legal to engage in these exit polls because of how they can be used. So we suspect that this statement by Blinken is part of the process of providing a narrative that would justify the violence that the opposition is now starting up in the country. And again, this is part of how the U.S. operates as an anti-democratic force. That basically the only concern is maintaining the ability to manipulate and control processes in various countries. Venezuela is a key country that they feel compelled to try to control because of the role it plays in our region. So we have observed a process that was clean, and efficient. We didn’t see any irregularities. And so again, whatever information that the opposition has, along with their masters in the U.S., that information needs to be revealed.

MK: I think we also need to talk about the role that the corporate media plays in amplifying what the state says. I’m looking at the New York Times right now and it says, “Venezuela’s authoritarian leader was declared the winner of the country’s tumultuous presidential election. The vote was riddled with irregularities and citizens were angrily protesting the government’s actions at voting centers, even as the results were announced.” Talk to us about The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other news organizations in the country and how they work with the state against governments that are declared enemies or adversaries.

AB: Well, you know that’s part of the process. That’s the role that they play. These are not journalistic outlets, these are propagandists posing as journalists, they have an ideological mission, and their mission is to support and prop up the interests of the U.S. and Western capital. So an experiment like Venezuela is a very threatening one. So, undermining that process is their number one objective, and the way you attempt to undermine that process is to attempt to de-legitimize it in the eyes of the popular forces not only inside the country but globally. . . . MORE

World Support of the July 28 Election

Ed Newman.  “ALBA Movements: Neither cohabitation nor transition! Venezuela has decided!”   Editor.  mronline.org (8-20-24).     Originally published:Radio Havana Cuba, edited  on August 16, 2024 by Ed Newman (more by Radio Havana Cuba, edited)  |  (Posted Aug 19, 2024).    Movements, StrategyAmericas, VenezuelaNewswireALBA Movements, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro

On Friday, ALBA Movements, an organization bringing together grassroots movements from 25 countries in the Americas, issued a statement rejecting the claims made by the presidents of Colombia and Brazil, who proposed the formation of a cohabitation government in Venezuela, where President Nicolas Maduro was re-elected in the July 28 elections.   Below is the statement from ALBA Movements. . . . MORE

“Venezuela is a marvelous country in motion: The Thirty-Second Newsletter (2024).”  Mronline.org (8-10-24).

By Vijay Prashad (Posted Aug 09, 2024).  Venezuela’s opposition yet again cries fraud in the 28 July presidential but fails to provide evidence. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Chavistas, their frustrations grounded in the understanding that the US-hybrid war is the root of the crisis, take to the streets and chant no volverán: they [the oligarchy] will not return.

Originally published:Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research  on August 8, 2024 (more by Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research).    Democracy, Movements, State Repression, StrategyAmericas, VenezuelaNewswireTricontinental Newsletter

Dear friends,
Greetings from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. I have been in Caracas, Venezuela, for the past two weeks, before and after the presidential election on 28 July. In the run-up to the election, two things became clear to me. First, the Chavistas (supporters of Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian project that is now led by President Nicolás Maduro) have the enormous advantage of an organised mass base. Second, knowing that the odds were not in their favour, the opposition, led by far-right María Corina Machado and the U.S. government, were already signalling defeat before the election even took place by alleging that it would be fraudulent. Since at least the 2004 recall referendum, when the opposition tried to remove Chávez from office, it has become a right-wing cliché that the electoral system in Venezuela is no longer fair.

Just after midnight on election night, July 28 (Chávez’s seventieth birth anniversary), the National Electoral Council (CNE) announced that, with 80% of the votes counted, there was an irreversible trend: Maduro had won re-election. . . .  MORE

Corporate Media Complicit in US Interference in Other Countries’ Affairs

“Media Coverage of Venezuela’s Election Normalizes US Interference” By Roger D. Harris and Peter Bolton, Popular Resistance. 8-11-24.  Corporate media’s coverage of Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election is akin to an investigation of a homicide that is focused not with identifying the murderer but with an unpaid parking ticket of the victim. Likewise, the media has shifted the narrative into the minutia of electoral procedures, ignoring the much larger issue of US interference in the internal affairs of another sovereign county. Nowhere in the corporate media is there even an inkling that US-imposed regime-change activities in Venezuela or elsewhere might violate some basic principles.  -more-
 
New York Times and other US Mainstream Media Complicit with US Government and Right -Wing Governments and Groups Meddling with Venezuelan Internal Affairs

US-Based Activists Mobilize To Say Hands Off Venezuela!

By People’s Dispatch. Popular Resistance.org (8-11-24).  On August 9, as a part of an international call to action issued by ALBA Movimientos, the Simon Bolivar Institute, the Assembly of Caribbean Peoples, and the International Peoples’ Assembly to support Venezuela against US and mainstream media support for the attempted coup against President Nicolas Maduro, dozens of activists gathered in front of the New York Times building in New York City. The newspaper is notorious for backing undemocratic coups in Venezuela. Since the election of Maduro, the New York Times has joined the US government and right-wing governments across Latin America in… -More-

“Hate: A key strategy of the Venezuelan opposition.”   mronline.org (9-27-20).

Psychologist Fernando Giuliani analyses | more…  

Fascism, Ideology, Imperialism, StrategyVenezuelaNewswireHate

Journalist Jimmy Lopez Morillo, alongside psychologist Fernando Giuliani and sociologist Mariadela Villanueva, discussed the “hate” element in the Venezuelan opposition discourse and practice,the retaliatory feelings of those who wish to annihilate the Bolivarian Revolution, which have been overheating during the pandemic.  In a video recently released on social media, an anonymous performer sings a song expressly justifying the assassination of Venezuela’s legitimate and constitutional president, Nicolas Maduro, by the White House’s Donald Trump.  The musical garbage also sings about the prospect of killing other leaders of the Bolivarian Revolution, with a message aiming to convince listeners that with the extermination of Chavismo, all the evils suffered by our besieged homeland would disappear overnight.

The distribution of this type of grotesque production is not a coincidence, especially in the context of Washington’s escalation in genocidal threats, which happens in collusion with the greasy governments of Ivan Duque and Jair Bolsonaro in Colombia and Brazil, respectively, as well as those at the forefront of the most extreme sectors of the Venezuelan opposition.   The intention is to prepare the ground in the media, and especially psychologically, so that people internalise the idea that foreign intervention would be the best thing that could happen to the country and to the bulk of the population in the current circumstances.

In the lyrics of the aforementioned “song,” there is an intrinsic element that has been around with significant intensity in the last two decades and which has intensified in recent weeks: hatred became a tool used by the opposition in its efforts to regain the power and privileges which it lost upon the arrival of Hugo Chavez. . . .   MORE

“Venezuelans To Vote On Continuing The Bolivarian Revolution” By Roger D. Harris, Popular Resistance.  The future of Venezuela’s 25-year-old socialist movement will be decided in the upcoming July 28 election. Venezuelans will go to the polls knowing that a vote for incumbent President Nicolás Maduro means no relief from US unilateral coercive measures. These so-called “sanctions” have been central to Washington’s regime-change campaign explicitly designed to asphyxiate the Venezuelan economy and turn the people against their government; what Venezuelanalysis calls “a war without bombs.” Venezuela, with some 930 unilateral coercive measures imposed on it by the US… -more-

“Cyber warfare is at the center of the new coup attempt against Venezuela.”  Editor.  mronline.org (8-7-24). 

By Misión Verdad (Posted Aug 06, 2024).  Originally published:MintPress News  on August 3, 2024 (more by MintPress News).   Empire, Inequality, Internet, WarAmericas, United States, VenezuelaNewswire2024 Coup, Cyberattack, Election 2024, National Electoral Council (CNE), Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro

Attacks on the Venezuelan electoral system have reached the terrain of cyberwarfare, according to the complaints made by President Nicolás Maduro, the authorities of the National Electoral Council (CNE), and the Attorney General’s Office (MP).

The president of the CNE, Elvis Amoroso, issued a second electoral bulletin on August 2 at noon, where he also reported that there are still signs of massive computer attacks from different parts of the world against the CNE and the Venezuelan state-owned telecommunications companies, which has delayed the transmission of the voting minutes and the announcement of electoral results.   These cyberattacks have been accompanied by the burning of CNE offices in various states and centers for the transmission and reception of computations, causing damage to the electoral infrastructure.  Investigations are ongoing and will be broadened after President Maduro introduced an electoral contentions appeal before the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ).

However, with the information available up to now, it is possible to tie up loose ends regarding the depth and dimension of this aspect of the hybrid war against Venezuela in the context of a new regime change operation.

Epicenter of cyberattacks

According to the graphs and data published by computer expert Kenny Ossa on July 29, Venezuela was one of the countries that suffered the highest number of cyberattacks in the world. . . .  MORE

US SANCTIONS

“China Rejects US-Led Auction of Venezuelan Company CITGO.”     Editor.  mronline.org (6-22-24).

‘We oppose illegal U.S. unilateral sanctions and far-reaching jurisdiction against Venezuela,’ Diplomat Lin stated. On Tuesday, China strongly condemned the seizure of CITGO Petroleum Corporation by U.S. authorities, calling the move a flagrant violation of international law. “The forced sale constitutes a new episode of the multifaceted aggression carried out by United States institutions against […]  Originally published: teleSUR  on June 19, 2024 (more by teleSUR)  |  (Posted Jun 21, 2024).   Empire, Imperialism, Inequality, State RepressionAmericas, Asia, China, United States, VenezuelaNewswireCITGO.

‘We oppose illegal U.S. unilateral sanctions and far-reaching jurisdiction against Venezuela,’ Diplomat Lin stated.  On Tuesday, China strongly condemned the seizure of CITGO Petroleum Corporation by U.S. authorities, calling the move a flagrant violation of international law.   “The forced sale constitutes a new episode of the multifaceted aggression carried out by United States institutions against Venezuela,” Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian stated, urging Washington to lift the unilateral coercive sanctions imposed on Venezuela, since they threaten the stability and development of that nation.

“China firmly upholds the United Nations Charter and the basic norms governing international relations. We oppose illegal U.S. unilateral sanctions and far-reaching jurisdiction against Venezuela.”   MORE

“US Reimposes Illegal And Inhumane Oil Sanctions On Venezuela” By Roger D. Harris, Popular Resistance. April 20, 2024-more-

The New York Times Runs Cover.
A minute after midnight on April 18, the US reimposed coercive economic measures designed to cripple Venezuela’s oil industry. Later that day, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a new sanctions bill on Nicaragua. Meanwhile, Cuba protested the US’s six-decade blockade as talks resumed between the two countries on migration.

At a time of challenged US dollar hegemony and questioning of the neoliberal order, the three countries striving to build socialist societies in the Americas pose a “threat of a good example.”

Also on April 18,  Biden announced new sanctions on Iran. Globally, Washington has imposed sanctions on some forty countries. Because these unilateral coercive measures are a form of collective punishment, they are considered illegal under international law.  Even the US Congressional Research Service recognizes sanctions have “failed” to achieve their regime-change goals. Yet the empire’s perverse response is to do more of the same rather than reverse course. “Once they are imposed, they become politically impossible to lift without getting something in return,” observed The New York Times.  The empire’s “newspaper of record” bewailed that Uncle Sam had “no choice” but to reign more misery on the people of Venezuela even though sanctions do not achieve their purported purpose. . . .   MORE

“How U.S. Sanctions Are a Tool of War: The Case of Venezuela.”  Celina della Croce.  Mronline.org (8-19-23).     The U.S. sanctions imposed on Venezuela are by no means an isolated case, though they are some of the most severe. If the U.S. can’t win with tanks and guns, it hopes that a campaign to suffocate the people will expedite regime change.

. . .In a single year, 40,000 people in Venezuela, like Francisco, died as a result of the U.S. sanctions that have devastated the country’s ability to import medicines and export key goods such as oil, paralyzing the economy and stunting the country’s ability to meet the basic needs of the population. The same year, another 300,000 people were at risk of dying because they were not able to access essential medicines for diabetes, cancer, HIV, kidney disease, and other treatable conditions for more than a year. Many have left the country in search of accessible medicine, while many others have died, as Alexis Bolívar of Rompiendo la Norma reported in the case of those with HIV/AIDS, the brunt of which have been disproportionately borne by the LGBTQ+ community.

The timeline that I have heard over and over again—from people of all political persuasions including family members of patients, the wheelchair attendant who spoke to me about the breaking-down elevators with missing doors, and members of communes across the country—coincides with the years that the United States ramped up its maximum pressure campaign against Venezuela under Donald Trump, allegedly propelled by a concern for human rights over the country’s democracy and electoral process. But not only has this rhetoric proved, again and again, to be false­­—Trump himself dispelled the myth, declaring in June 2023: “When I left [office], Venezuela was ready to collapse. We would have taken it over. We would have gotten all that oil. It would have been right next door.” This declaration echoed a statement made by his secretary of state Mike Pompeo four years earlier that “We always wish things could go faster.… The circle is tightening, the humanitarian crisis is increasing by the hour.… You can see the increasing pain and suffering that the Venezuelan people are suffering from.”

Based on a bilateral study of thirty-six other oil-producing countries, economist and opposition supporter Francisco Rodriguez found that, beginning with Trump’s 2017 blanket sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector, “the collapse in Venezuela’s oil production is of a dimension seen only when armies blow up oil fields,” explaining that “the only country that suffered a change in trend similar to Venezuela in that period was Yemen, whose oil fields were the target of a Saudi bombing campaign at the time. . . .”    MORE

ANYA PARAMPIL.  CORPORATE COUP:  Venezuela and the End of US Empire.  2024.Publisher’s description:  “The Spectacular Failure of a Coup in Venezuela Heralds the End of American Empire.”

 “Boots on ground, credible, essential reading”—Roger Waters
“Progressive and great journalism”—Oliver Stone
“Epitomizes the best in the American tradition of politically committed investigative reporting, hearkening back to the times of Upton Sinclair”—Francisco Rodríguez
Corporate Coup looks at the attempted overthrow of the elected government of Venezuela, an intervention which, despite open backing by the United States, failed spectacularly.

In January of 2019, the Trump Administration recognized a little-known opposition lawmaker named Juan Guaidó as President of Venezuela. While Washington’s history of coups in Latin America is well-documented, this step was unprecedented: Never before had the United States offered legal recognition to a new government before an actual change in leadership had taken place.

Within months it became clear that the attempt at regime change had fallen flat: all Venezuelan territory, government ministries, and the country’s military remained under the control of President Nicolás Maduro. While US officials, notably Trump’s Venezuela Envoy Elliott Abrams, boasted that roughly 54 countries had followed Washington’s lead in recognizing Guaidó’s authority, the vast majority of United Nations member states rejected the attempted coup. Four years on, Venezuela’s government is firmly in place and Guaidó is nowhere to be seen.

In this fast-paced story, investigative reporter Anya Parampil provides a narrative history of the Chavista revolution and offers character sketches of the figures who took over its leadership after Hugo Chávez’s death in 2014. She shows how Guaidó’s shadow regime consisted of individuals with deep connections to transnational corporations that sought to overturn the revolution and exploit Venezuela’s resources. In particular she uncovers their plot to steal Citgo Petroleum, the country’s most valuable international asset. Corporate Coup exposes the hidden personalities and interests driving US policy on Venezuela, revealing that while the recognition of Guaidó failed at changing reality on the ground in Caracas, it succeeded in facilitating the unprecedented looting of the country’s extensive foreign reserves.

This gripping story from Venezuela shines light on the grim, shadowy character of a US foreign policy that tramples on democratic norms around the globe. And it points to a dramatic consequence of such policy: the rise of a new, multipolar world heralding the end of US empire.

“Communication by and for the People: A conversation with Thierry Deronne (Part I).”  mronline.org (1-19-24).  A documentary filmmaker and teacher Thierry Deronne tells the story of Venezuela’s groundbreaking community media movement.

Interviewed by Cira Pascual Marquina (Posted Jan 18, 2024)

Originally published:Venezuelananlysis  on January 5, 2024 (more by Venezuelananlysis).   Culture, Education, Movements, StrategyAmericas, VenezuelaInterview, NewswireThierry Deronne

Thierry Deronne is a Belgian-born filmmaker who has long accompanied working-class and campesino struggles in Latin America. In the mid-1990s in Venezuela, he fostered popular media and educational projects, and later played a key role in the community television movement during the Bolivarian Revolution. Deronne is currently a professor at the National University of the Arts [Unearte]. His most recent documentary is Nostálgicas del futuro, a film about working-class feminism in Venezuela.

In Part One of this two-part interview, Deronne talks about the philosophy driving the community media movement earlier this century and the different experiments in communication that went along with it. In Part Two, Deronne will discuss the future of popular communication, and specifically his current project: the Escuela Popular de Cine y Teatro Hugo Chávez [Hugo Chávez Popular Cinema and Theater School]. . . .  MORE

CODEPINK:  “Tell Biden Unfreeze Venezuela’s funds!  12-5-23

Dear President Biden,

We are writing to express our deep concern about the Venezuelan funds still frozen by U.S sanctions, funds that are intended for humanitarian purposes. A year ago, a humanitarian agreement was reached between the Venezuelan government and the opposition, promising to use these funds for much-needed programs in health, education, food security, and electricity, all under the administration of the United Nations. Regrettably, these funds have not yet been released.

We are appalled by this unfortunate reality, as the withheld funds are derived from the assets that belong to the Venezuelan people. We request your immediate action in releasing the funds designated for these critical humanitarian aid programs.  

We strongly believe that misguided U.S. policies are not only hurting the Venezuelan people but have created the crisis of migration from Venezuela. Unjustly punishing a nation for political differences is counterproductive and unethical.

We, therefore, call on your administration to take a lead role in rectifying these wrongs by not only releasing the frozen funds unconditionally but also lifting all sanctions imposed on Venezuela. 

According to Francisco Rodriguez, around half the Venezuelan economy’s contraction since 2012 can be attributed to U.S.-led sanctions. Living standards deteriorated sharply after the Trump administration cut off Venezuela’s oil industry from international financial markets in 2017. The recession in the country deepened when Washington further restricted Venezuela’s access to oil markets and transferred control of the government’s foreign assets to the opposition in 2019. 

We urge you to implement policies that form positive relationships across Latin America and the Caribbean. From migration, the war on drugs, poverty and the environment — we only stand to benefit from a policy that is based on peace, cooperation, and respect.

Sincerely, CODEPINK

 “Venezuela: Gov’t to launch China-backed anti-poverty program.”  Editor.  mronline.org (9-24-23).     The Social Equality and Happiness Mission will adapt the Chinese experience to the Caribbean country’s reality to alleviate poverty and inequality.  
Originally published: Venezuelanalysis.com  on September 21, 2023 by Andreína Chávez Alava (more by Venezuelanalysis.com).    (Posted Sep 23, 2023).

Culture, Health, Human Rights, StrategyAmericas, Asia, Caribbean, China, VenezuelaNewswireChina’s International Poverty Reduction Center, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), International Labor Organization (ILO), President Nicolas Maduro, Social Equality and Happiness Mission, Venezuela’s special economic zones (SEZs)

The Venezuelan government has announced a new social program focused on fighting poverty and inequality, which will be supported by China’s International Poverty Reduction Center.

On Monday, during his weekly TV program, President Nicolás Maduro said that the “Social Equality and Happiness Mission” was “almost ready” to be launched and its main purpose is to “optimize the fight against inequality, against poverty and to build a more harmonious country.”  MORE

colonialism and imperialism.

“Venezuela, the decolonial alternative: A conversation with Ramón Grosfoguel (Part I).”  Interviewed by Cira Pascual Marquina.  Mronline.org (8-15-23).      A distinguished author from the decolonial tradition discusses the relationship between colonialism and imperialism.

Originally published:Venezuelanalysis.com  on August 4, 2023 (more by Venezuelanalysis.com).    Culture, Imperialism, Movements, State RepressionAmericas, VenezuelaInterview, NewswireBolivarian Project, Neoliberalism, Part 1, Ramón Grosfoguel

Ramón Grosfoguel is a Puerto Rican intellectual recognized for his work on the decolonization of knowledge and power. In this exclusive interview, Grosfoguel talks about the living links between the colonial and the neocolonial systems, the problematic legacy of the colonial past in Venezuela’s present, and U.S. imperialism’s neocolonialism in relation to Venezuela.

Cira Pascual Marquina: As a country besieged by imperialism, one of the pending tasks in Venezuela is to understand what you call the “coloniality of power.” What is the coloniality of power and its relationship with Eurocentrism?

Ramón Grosfoguel: The European colonial project is about economic expansion, but it also has a civilizatory dimension. At one point, when the colonial epicenter was Europe, when it was expanding at a world scale, the colonialists not only extracted wealth from the colonies, but they also destroyed the civilizations they encountered and imposed their own. In other words, when we talk about colonial powers, we are talking about the multiple power structures that were put in place during European colonial expansion.

How did they do it? They imposed Christendom as a cosmology and as a religion by force. Racial domination was also applied wherever they went, and they brought structures of political authority through their colonial administration. This included top-down hierarchies, military domination, and Christian patriarchy.

The colonialists enforced the international division of labor that favors the center and divides the periphery. They did all this violently, imposing various forms of forced labor in the periphery, and exercising direct control over the market with economic, political, and military mechanisms.

In my work, I identify sixteen hierarchies of power that were exported by European colonialists. Wherever they arrived, Europeans brought colonial structures of domination that had an important epistemological component. And precisely that’s where Eurocentrism comes into the picture.

The colonial project imposed its own structures of knowledge that were centered in Europe and were undeniably Eurocentric.   . . .   MORE  click on title

“Venezuela Denounces U.S. ‘piracy’ after presidential jet confiscated.”  Editor.  mronline.org (9-7-24).

The Venezuelan government said the seizure was “not an isolated action” and that it reserved the right to take legal action in response.  
Originally published:Venezuelananlysis  on September 3, 2024 by José Luis Granados Ceja (more by Venezuelananlysis)  |  (Posted Sep 06, 2024).  Inequality, State Repression, StrategyAmericas, United States, VenezuelaNewswire. 
Venezuela accused Washington of “piracy” after a jet used by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was reportedly seized in the Dominican Republic and transferred to Florida.  On Monday, the U.S. government confiscated the Dassault Falcon 900EX used by Maduro on official trips, on the grounds that its purchase violates a Trump-era Executive Order that bars U.S. persons from business transactions with Venezuelan government representatives.  The Maduro government reacted by condemning “recurring criminal practices” from the U.S. . . . .  MORE
[See OMNI anthologies on meddling.]

SOURCES FOR VENEZUELA ANTHLOGIES #5 AND #6
This list provides significant evidence of the one-sidedness of US mainstream media reporting on US (constructed) enemies.  I had to go all around the world to find these publications, since presumably many could not find publication in US media.

About Face: Veterans against War

Black Agenda Report

Caitlin Johnstone

CEPR

CodePink

Consortium News

Corporate Coup (book)

Covert Action Magazine

Extra!

Extraordinary Threat (book)

MintPress News

Morning Star

Mronline.org

Multipolarista

Newswire

Orinoco Tribune

People’s Dispatch

Popular Resistance

Radio Havana Cuba

teleSUR

Tricontinental

UN Report on San ctions

Venezuelananlysis

Viviremos: Venezuela vs. Hybrid War (book)

(Popular Resistance and mronline.org transmitted many of the articles in Nos. 5 and 6.)

CONTENTS VENEZUELA #5

US WAR AGAINST VENEZUELA
De La Cruz, et al.  Viviremos: Venezuela vs. Hybrid War.
Ensberger and Podur.  Extraordinary Threat: The U.S. Empire, the Media, and 20 Years of Coup Attempts in Venezuela.
“Biden Extends U.S. Campaign to Crush Venezuela.”(5 articles).Alan MacLeod.  “…US Plans for War and Terror against Venezuela.”
Dan Beeton.  “The Venezuelan Coup, 20 Years Later.”
Ryan Swan.  “Venezuela Seeks Investigation [of war crimes] by ICC.”
“Alex Saab Is Being Tortured….”
Ricardo Vaz.  US Meddling in Elections.
Jonathan Ng.  “The US Is…Strangling Venezuela.”
UN Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan Reports on US v. Human Rights in Venezuela.
Douhan.  “Call for Sanctions Relief.”
Andreina Chavez Alava.  “UN Expert…Impact of U.S.-led Sanctions against Venezuela.”
Ana Perdigon.  “U.S. Seditious Policy against Venezuela.”
Lucas Koerner. “U.S. Empire’s Fixation with Chavismo.”
Ricardo Vaz.  Extraditing Venezuelan Envoy to US.
“U.S…Using Guaido to Rob Venezuela.”
Cira Pasqual Marquina.  Venezuela’s Communal Past.
Emersberger and Podur.  Myth of Venezuela’s Prosperous and Democratic Past.

“The Blockade against Venezuela…Deadly Impact of Sanctions.”
Emersberger.  Alex Saab Case.
Caitlin Johnstone.  US History of Interfering with Elections.

SUPPORT OF VENEZUELA

Legacy of Hugo Chavez Lives On.  (2 articles)
Leonardo Flores.  “Five Reasons the Left Won in Venezuela.”
Vargas and Sonja.  Venezuela’s Insurrectionist and Communal Past.
Mision Verdad.  FAO Food Report on Venezuela Is Positive.
Ben Norton.  “Venezuela’s Economy Will Grow. . .in 2022.”
Ociel Lopez.  “Venezuela and the New Latin Left.”
Morning Star.  “…Maduro’s Successful Socialist…Strategy.”
Cira Pascual Marquine.  “Radical Land Reform…”
Federico Fuentes.  “’Commune or Nothing’….”
Dakotah Lily.  “…Ecosocialism in an Oil-Rich State.”
Jovanni.  “…DemilitarizedU on Venezuelan Elections.”

END VENEZUELA ANTHOLOGY #6