Bolivia, August 1, 2024.- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Plurinational State of Bolivia strongly condemns the coup attempts against President Nicolás Maduro and the plans to replace the will of the Venezuelan people democratically expressed last Sunday, July 28.
Read the full communiqué here
Managua, July 29, 2024: “In full revolutionary brotherhood, from this blessed and always free Nicaragua, we send our warmest embrace, welcoming the great victory that this heroic people gives to the Eternal Commander on his birthday”, said Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his Vice President Rosario Murillo in a letter, after the presidential electoral victory of Nicolás Maduro, this July 28.
Read the letter here
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, July 29, 2024.- The people and government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines congratulate the Venezuelan People who exercised their free will and voice in the recently held elections, reaffirming once again their commitment to democracy.
We also congratulate President Nicolas Maduro Moros on his victory and re-election to the Presidency of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for a third term.
Read the full Communiqué
Caracas, July 24, 2024.- As part of the 2nd Meeting for a World Social Alternative: From Bolívar to Chávez, a panel titled “Alternative for the World’s balance” was held, where prominent analysts discussed the evolution of current geopolitics and the growing multipolarity.
Researcher Georgette Kuri, a member of the Network in Defense of Humanity, shared her insights on the importance of consolidating identities and overcoming common challenges in Latin America and the Global South.
During her speech, she emphasized the need to build a social agenda that allows for the articulation of historical experiences of struggle and advances toward new political paradigms.
Kuri stressed that the challenge of the 21st century lies in recognizing the potential of the peoples. She stated that this process, which begins with forums and debates, aims to lay the groundwork for significant change in how politics is conducted in the region.
In this context, she highlighted the case of Venezuela, a country that, according to Kuri, stands as a reference point in the search for alternatives to the traditional hegemonic model.
“The socialism of the 21st century, as it has been called, is not merely a political term; it encompasses a comprehensive vision that promotes profound transformations in society.”
Sergio Rodríguez Gelfenstein, an international analyst, pointed out that “the first conflict” lies in our perception of a multipolar world and the decline of the United States as a hegemonic power.
The creation of a bipolar world system had benefited Washington until the mortgage crisis of 2008-2009. At that time, Russia began to regain its status as a global power, and China had already asserted its economic influence, he explained.
The year 2012 marked a turning point in this new configuration. The reelection of Vladimir Putin in Russia coincided with the election of a new leader in China, both key players in a historical and political process that defined the post-World War II era, during which imperialism had delineated the opposition between these countries.
“In contrast, Russia and China, after their respective recovery processes, began to establish trade relations that in 2010 barely reached 10 billion dollars, but which were projected to exceed 200 billion by 2020,” he explained.
Rodríguez Gelfenstein emphasized that this bilateral dialogue fostered the proposal for a new world order centered on a vast Eurasian space, which could balance the dominance held by the United States in the North Atlantic since the end of World War II.
In consequence, the United States, through the eastward expansion of NATO, attempted to prevent the consolidation of this new alliance, reigniting a geopolitical rivalry similar to the one experienced during the Cold War, where each power seeks to protect its sphere of influence.
Additionally, Ramón Grosfoguel, a sociologist and decolonial thinker, provided his perspective on the role of imperial elites in this context.
Grosfoguel warned that “we cannot underestimate the imperial elites,” arguing that despite their apparent decline, they possess “new ideas and dystopian projects” that threaten life on the planet.
He emphasized that these elites, particularly the financial capital that gathers annually in Davos, are working on what they call “the new reset,” which reveals that “they have a project that we must understand and combat.”
Caracas, July 24, 2024.- On the second day of the 2nd Meeting for a World Social Alternative, organized by the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) and the Simón Bolívar Institute (ISB) at the Bolivar Theater of Caracas, recognized experts participated on the 5th Panel “Alternative for economic justice,” contributing to reflection and consensus-building on this matter to consolidate a unified stance of social movements and progressive governments in the region, aimed at confronting and ultimately overcoming the imperialist hegemony of the global north.
The panel included Paula Giménez (News from Latin America and the Caribbean), Andreína Tarazón (Center for Advanced Studies on Development and Emerging Economies), Yosmer Arellán (Advisory Team of the ALBA-TCP Secretariat), Jorge Coronado Marroquín (Latin American Network for Economic and Social Justice), and Carlos Vega (Hostosiano National Independence Movement of Puerto Rico), moderated by Guillermo Barreto, an executive member of the ISB.
In a brief intervention, Jorge Arreaza, ALBA-TCP executive secretary, informed that it was President Nicolás Maduro who generated the idea to advance the initiative for a World Social Alternative and shared the greeting sent to the event by the Venezuelan leader: “The triumph of Venezuela will be the triumph of the unionist, independentist project, of a future for our beloved Homeland and for Great Homeland, Our America. It will be the victory of an alternative model to savage capitalism, neoliberalism, dependency, and destruction; the victory of an alternative model created by the intelligence and power of a people, that is Venezuela.”
Paula Giménez from Argentina commented on her collaboration with a team in publishing a book that explains how the COVID-19 pandemic was managed by imperialism as a political event to send healthy humanity back to their homes and impose a new era of digitalization. They present this in their work as a new phase in the capitalist system, characterized by the advancement of digitalization, which brings greater voracity, exploitation, and worsening living conditions under a freedom appearance.
“We believe we are going to digital platforms to enjoy and entertain ourselves, thinking that consumption on social networks brings greater freedom when in reality it brings greater exploitation because it is not just about working hours; rather, the time spent on digital platforms is generating wealth for the new financial and technological aristocracy,” she explained, emphasizing that this represents an “expansion of levels of exploitation.”
She affirmed that there are alternatives to capitalism, and there are possibilities to propose another model that places the human being at the core. In this regard, the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela with 21st Century Socialism serves as a successful example.
The unequal distribution of wealth in the world
Andreína Tarazón from Venezuela presented economic figures predicting that inequality will persist in a global context. “We do not have— for example—equal conditions in access to the distribution of global wealth, which is evident in access to technology that could relieve poverty and extreme poverty,” she stated, highlighting significant challenges for progressivism.
She affirmed that the right to development is a fundamental banner for Venezuela, which, as an energy power, faces the challenge of increasing its oil and gas production, conceived under the banner of environmental sustainability. She spoke about the strengthening of new power blocs, such as BRICS, which presents “a huge opportunity to influence decision-making and where the world is headed,” as well as China’s Belt and Road Initiative aimed at providing the world with new opportunities for commercial interconnection.
Yosmer Arellán, also an executive at the Central Bank of Venezuela, presented two proposals: to create the Center for Economic Thought of the World Social Alternative and to establish an economic fund to allocate resources.
He indicated that what is done with unilateral coercive measures, wrongly called sanctions, is a form of warfare through a suffocating, Machiavellian, and ruthless mechanism, using as weapons the hegemony of currency, trade, payment systems, financing, and creating dependency, such as with oil in the Venezuelan case. He demonstrated through slides the impact of these measures, showing a loss of $228,773 billion over 8.3 years. He celebrated that with the implementation of an alternative model, there is a real recovery of the economy, reflected in the lowest inflation rates in the last 20 years and sufficient supply from national production.
Jorge Coronado, a sociologist from Costa Rica specializing in Political Economy, emphasized that economic justice should be a central theme in the debate among the left and progressivism in the region. He explained that the imposed neoliberal system has dismantled national economies and “turned us into producers and exporters of agricultural commodities and raw materials to benefit large multinational corporations.” He also discussed tax fraud, which causes Latin American countries to lose $423 billion annually due to tax evasion, resulting in the continent remaining the most unequal in the world.
“Social movements are taking on the challenge of economic justice and social justice, and it is important to link what we do from social movements and alternative think tanks with the actions of progressive governments and the left. It is imperative that we develop a higher level of political dialogue in Latin America regarding proposals.” He also suggested placing the issue of wealth taxation on the discussion agenda for Latin America.
Carlos Vega stated that the failure of the capitalist economic model in his country is a reflection of the failure of the global capitalist model: “Puerto Rico declared bankruptcy in 2016; its external debt is unsustainable and cannot be paid.” He identified that it is the colonial government that has incurred these obligations, and in that year, former president of the United States, Barack Obama, established a Fiscal Control Board for the island, composed of seven people appointed by him. This board imposed brutal neoliberal austerity measures on the people, who suffer from privatized healthcare, efforts to eliminate public education, and have experienced a massive migration of five million compatriots. “Living in the belly of the beast, they are discriminated by the racist society” of the United States.
“There can be no peace without national sovereignty, and our country lacks that sovereignty to make its own decisions… The freedom of Puerto Rico must be a task for all Latin America. The U.S. extracts immense wealth from our archipelago that does not return to improve the quality of life for our compatriots,” he denounced.
Caracas, July 24, 2024.- The discussions and proposals continued on Wednesday, July 24, during the second Meeting for a World Social Alternative, taking place at Bolivar Theater of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela.
Lawyer Claudia Rocca, president of the American Association of Jurists from Argentina, opened the panel “Alternative for justice in politics,” a topic that caught the attention of some international delegates attending this event organized by the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) and the Simón Bolívar Institute (ISB).
Rocca expressed that the justice sought by the peoples is one that guarantees equality, as well as the defense and sovereignty of nations. “Without sovereignty, it is not possible to obtain any rights—political, social, or cultural,” she emphasized, as well as she said that it is important to promote integration with other peoples and create new independent judicial powers.
On the other hand, Karina Olivo, a member of the Popular Party of Chile, asserted that the judiciary in each nation must free itself from its role of disciplining divergent thoughts and transformative processes in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Her proposal is for social organizations and progressive regional blocs to promote the transformation of political justice—one that defends human rights and not the powers and governments of the far right.
Laila Tajeldine, a Venezuelan lawyer and representative of the Free Alex Saab Movement, stated that it is indeed possible, with the strength of the peoples, to liberate citizens who have been victims of corrupt judicial systems. “Only a judicial revolution can overthrow lawfare (legal warfare),” she emphasized.
Quoting the commander of the Bolivarian Revolution, Hugo Chávez, Tajeldine stated that it is essential to drive a transformation of political justice. “Judicial action in countries like Argentina, with (Javier) Milei, hinders the peoples and also threatens Venezuela and other nations in the region,” she denounced.
Finally, Nidia Díaz from the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (El Salvador) considered that currently not only is the struggle on social media relevant, but also the judicial struggle.
“All peoples must prepare for this fight; we must get ready for this historical journey,” Díaz emphasized, who also urged to defeat the imperial strategy that interferes with judicial powers and alters historical narratives.
Díaz denounced that in El Salvador and other countries there is a phenomenon called “judicial hitmen,” against which a battle must also be waged.
Caracas, July 24, 2024.- Regarding the 2nd Meeting for a World Social Alternative: From Bolívar to Chávez, a panel on the Alternative for unalterable peace took place this Wednesday.
Socorro Gomes, from the Brazilian Center for Solidarity with the People and Struggle for Peace, emphasized the aspiration of peoples around the world to live in peace and stated that this is only possible when they are free and masters of their own destiny.
She highlighted that there are currently significant threats to peace, being imperialist intervention the greatest one, especially from the United States, “which, although in decline, is heavily armed and has over 800 military bases around the world,” putting life on the planet and the fate of free peoples at risk.
She also specified that “peace is not possible in an oppressed people,” while applauding the initiatives of organized peoples to strengthen peace, especially the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), as it is a “great instrument for the peace of the peoples seeking an alternative.”
Moreover, Elisa Salvador from the Angolan League of Friendship and Solidarity with the Peoples stated that “to have peace, we must have tranquility, and many of us in other countries, primarily in Africa, live in misery, we live with hunger, we live with wars; therefore, it is not possible to talk about peace.”
In this regard, she emphasized that to achieve peace, it is necessary “to have goodwill from our leaders, from our rulers, from institutions; only by uniting in this way, we could achieve it.”
David Denny, representative of the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration, began his participation by expressing his “solidarity with the Government and the people of Venezuela” regarding the upcoming electoral process. “For us, this is a very important day; Venezuela is a sister nation that has always stood by the poor peoples of the Caribbean region… we wish the best for July 28 and hope to see the victory of the people.”
He indicated that “we are in the midst of an ideological, economic, political, and military war. We must unite our forces to defend our region from U.S. imperialism,” urging to “work together, build unity in the region, and continue the struggle for reparations.”
The Peace Council from the United States was represented by Bahman Azad, who pointed out that “the balance of power on a global scale has begun to shift, and we are facing many dangers and brutal, criminal negative reactions against peoples and progressive forces… We are witnessing the crimes against humanity that the Zionist state of Israel is committing against Palestine.”
In this regard, he emphasized the power of the unity of peoples to achieve peace and specified that “imperialism is not just a matter of politics; it is a system.”
Finally, Carolus Wimmer from the International Solidarity Committee and the struggle for peace extended his solidarity to the leftist movements in the United States and those who “fight against that unjust, imperialist system.”
Wimmer stated that to build a future, it is necessary to review history and work towards self-determination, “for Bolívar, peace was not pacifism or tranquility; for Bolívar, peace was justice, independence, freedom.”
He also invited the peoples not to “lower their guard,” as that is what the enemy expects in order to attack.
Caracas, July 23, 2024.- To continue with the 2ndMeeting for a World Social Alternative, Iñaki Gil, representative of the Network in Defense of Humanity, emphasized the need to organize the peoples to confront capitalism.
He specified that any initiative for the organization of the peoples is incompatible with capitalism and further explained that it must be accompanied byself-management and expansion or it is destined to fail.
In this regard, he pointed out that self-managementalso implies self-determination, stating, “I am determining how I must act; I am determiningmyself.”
He indicated that the right to self-determination is the same for both the leaders of the United States and a girl from Palestine who has been bombed along with her entire family, asserting that they are not “talkingabout bourgeois and socialist rights.”
Furthermore, Rodolfo Carrizo from the Center of Ex-Combatants of the Malvinas Islands specified thatArgentina must currently decide between being a homeland or a colony; as with the signing of the presidential decree known as 7023, it opens the doors to foreign ownership and to large concentratedgroups in the capitalist economy. He also warnedthat this facilitates the appropriation of natural resources by the Empire.
He also said that the “Malvinas is a case of colonialism; currently, it hosts the most importantmilitary base that NATO has in the SouthernHemisphere.”
Additionally, Hindu Anderi from the Platform of Solidarity with the Palestinian Cause began his intervention by referencing the upcoming Venezuelanelectoral process on July 28, stating that “we are notonly going to reelect President Nicolás Maduro; weare going to reelect a revolutionary process.”
In this regard, he specified that by voting forcandidate Nicolás Maduro, the people will be votingagainst fascism and Zionism, while emphasizing the need to put a stop to this evil that is present everywhere. “We see it even when we want to launch investment campaigns and how difficult itbecomes for us because it is a great octopus thathas taken hold of the global economy.”
Anderi highlighted the struggle that the VenezuelanNational Assembly is undertaking to combat fascismwith the second discussion of a legal instrument thatpunishes this evil.
He also questioned why the situation in Gaza is labeled as a war and not for what it truly is, a genocide against the Palestinian people.
During his speech, he proposed strengthening aninternational platform of solidarity with the Palestinianpeople, which should be “respectful of the autonomies and the characteristics of eachorganization, but where we can converge organizations to strengthen the work for Palestine,” he concluded.
Caracas, July 23, 2024 – At the 2nd Meeting for a World Social Alternative in Caracas, representatives from different organizations around the world shared their perspectives on the fight for the rights of historically oppressed and displaced communities during the panel: “Alternative for Peoples’ Rights and Reparations.”
The meeting, convened by the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America- People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) and the Simon Bolivar Institute (ISB), aimed to promote unity and agree on an agenda to protect the region against imperial attacks.
Amzat Boukari, member of the Pan-African League UMOJA, emphasized the importance of Pan-Africanism as an anti-capitalist movement.
“In our vision, we oppose the exploitation of man by man,” he said, urging the search for a socialism based on the indigenous values of solidarity and unity among African peoples.
Julieta Paredes, from Bolivia, addressed the need for a communal feminism that rescues the memory of peoples. “Women are half of a people, half of the solutions, half of the hopes,” she stated, emphasizing the importance of epistemic decolonization and the recognition of history in the struggle for gender rights.
Paredes also highlighted the resistance process of indigenous peoples, which dates back to over 500 years of historical accumulation of struggles and defense of their territories.
Cikiah Thomas, from the Global African Congress, provided insight on the lasting effects of slavery, stating that “the United Nations recognized that slavery and the slave trade are crimes against humanity that do not prescribe.” This statement resonates with the need for reparations and historical justice.
Finally, Justine Teba, co-founder of the Red Nation organization, emphasized the fundamental role of people’s organization in the creation of new ideas. “We (the indigenous peoples) are the political alternative in the United States,” she expressed, while also denouncing the colonial context that continues to affect indigenous communities in that country.
Caracas, July 23, 2024.- The Executive Secretary of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), Jorge Arreaza, said this Tuesday that the call for the 2nd Meeting for a World Social Alternative is “fundamental for us to determine what to do concretely,” as he affirmed that social movements have clarity and consensus in the diagnosis, “in who the enemy is, what their characteristics are, and in what phase they are.”
“I believe that the great challenge, the great task, is what we do together to overcome it” – the common enemy – highlighted in the Plenary session “World Social Alternative and current challenges” of the event, taking place in the “Simon Bolivar” Hall at the Bolivar Theater in Caracas, until this Wednesday, July 24.
The ALBA-TCP speaker indicated that “our peoples are in resistance, but how do we move from this to the offensive phase?” therefore, he insisted on the call to achieve common agreements or minimum consensus and for the revolutionary governments in power in some of the countries of the Alliance to guide their policies in a consensual direction, in these assemblies of the World Social Alternative, with social movements and peoples of the world, along with small parties in resistance in countries hegemonically dominated by capital and bourgeois liberal democracy.
Arreaza summarized that the purpose is to generate a definitive document in which “we all feel identified, a tool of struggle that identifies us, to generate a common program of minimum agreements that allows us, from using it as a flag, as a shield against the bullets of repression, to implementing public policies in our countries, municipalities, communes.”
“We cannot stand just waiting for the empire to fall,” he reflected.
Digital Warriors
The journalist and intellectual Atilio Borón, from the Network in Defense of Humanity in Argentina, raised the need to “become digital warriors”; otherwise, the task of coordinating and organizing social movements opposing imperialism worldwide will be almost impossible.
He said that a more active attitude is required and “we must believe that we can and should be producers of news. This is fundamental, because we are in a communication war and we have to be warriors, we cannot just be news consumers.”
Borón pointed out that in order to resist and reverse the situation, a common strategy must be developed, “which we must build and this forum is one of the fundamental spaces to build it.”
Vijay Prashad, director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research and representative of the International Assembly of Peoples, which brings together more than 200 political and popular movements from around the world, urged to believe in socialism because it is the only salvation for the planet and to create representation for people who are oppressed by international capital or multinational bourgeoisie, such as peasants.
“We have to be social in order to build something better than what we already have today,” he exhorted, while diagnosing that the global North has become hyperimperialist and an example, 75% of weapons are in the hands of NATO countries (North Atlantic Treaty Organization); and “that’s why they don’t want to build bridges (of dialogue, conciliation, peace), they only know how to destroy them.”
The People’s Power Minister for Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, Yván Gil, identified the two threats and challenges that social movements have faced for centuries; first, colonialism in its various forms and now neocolonialism, which is not only the cause of all the state of deterioration, disaster, and inequities, but today presents itself as a new even more powerful threat, with a greater hunger for plunder.
“Imperialism is the second major element. It is what motivated the emergence of the Bolivarian Revolution, which is anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist, an element that unites us and gives us a sense of struggle to all working classes in the world (peasants, students, workers),” he pointed out.
He emphasized that from Venezuela, Commander Hugo Chávez made the proposal for the construction of 21st Century Socialism as an alternative to confront these two great threats “that we have on the horizon, which are the origins of all the evils we suffer in our nations.”
