Venezuela Foreign Minister Ivan Gil: “Elimination of unilateral extraterritorial coercive economic measures as a means of political and economic compulsion” statement on behalf of the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations “Unilateral coercive measures, including those applied as tools for political or economic and financial compulsion against any country, in particular, but not exclusively, against developing countries, are illegal. They represent a clear violation, among others, of the very tenets enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, of the most basic norms of international law…Today, unilateral coercive measures are applied against over 30 nations worldwide… directly affecting the daily lives of over a third of humanity… Reserve currencies are used as weapons, sovereign property is arbitrarily blocked or even confiscated. As a result, any country that is more or less dependent on Western markets, technology and financial assistance, and which may also have reserves in Western jurisdictions, is prone to facing the risk of a complete loss of its assets.” He ends with six proposals.
Special Communique of the “Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations” demanding the Removal of Cuba from the Unilateral List of Countries that Allegedly Sponsor Terrorism 1. The Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations unequivocally rejects the political manipulation of the fight against terrorism, including through the issuance of these arbitrary, illegitimate and unilateral lists accusing States of alleged support for terrorism; a practice that is totally incompatible with the Charter of the United Nations and international law as a whole. 4. The Member States of the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations further notes that the inclusion of the Republic of Cuba on that list has significantly reinforced the negative effects of the criminal and illegal economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed against the Cuban people by the government of the United States of America, including enormous difficulties in carrying out financial and commercial operations and serious damages to the subsistence and integrity of the Cuban population.
Orinoco Tribune (Nino Pagliccia): US Bets on a Losing Candidate To Be Able To Claim Venezuelan Elections Illegitimate There is a sense of ominous anticipation of interference from the US government who has been intent on destroying the Bolivarian Revolution by forcefully removing President Maduro with total disregard of Venezuela’s sovereignty. Diosdado Cabello, vice president of the ruling PSUV, suggested that the extreme rightwing opposition party will most likely not accept the election results if Maduro wins, and will claim electoral fraud, emboldened by Washington support. The likely losing opposition member to make such a claim is Maria Corina Machado who appears to be the only chosen political contender by the US administration despite the fact that she is legally barred from holding any government post for 15 years. Machado is currently campaigning for her handpicked replacement candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, while she is provocatively stating that she will be the president of Venezuela.
Peoples Dispatch: Venezuela is prepared to defend itself against fraud allegations and right-wing attacks ahead of July elections, says Foreign Minister Ivan Gil “We have been the victim of a wide range of attacks whose objective is to break our revolutionary unity. Imperialism has not been able to succeed because the people themselves created the basis of Venezuelan democracy…In 2019, they came up with the fake government of Juan Guaidó, together with measures aimed at attacking the stability of the economy. The grassroots cohesion of the Venezuelan people enabled them to withstand attacks that have continued nonstop, including various assassination attempts on the life of President Nicolas Maduro…Today, under the constriction of U.S. sanctions, we have found that the only way to mobilize is to tell the truth and depend on the wisdom of the people. The imperialists are targeting us with a strong media war. The U.S. promotes their allies — the small right-wing opposition who hope to regain a share of Venezuela’s oil. They have no shame in supporting sanctions and being puppets of the imperialists. They have no popular support…To counter this coercive environment, President Nicolas Maduro has gone to the streets, house to house, to the whole socialist country, sharing the enormous suffering caused by sanctions and making sure the enemy is identified.”
Orinoco Tribune: Venezuela Firmly Condemns Theft of CITGO by Washington and Far-Right Opposition Venezuela firmly condemned the continued dispossession of CITGO by the US government in conjunction with Venezuelan far-right politicians belonging to the Unitary Platform (PUD), which is running in the upcoming presidential elections on July 28. CITGO’s illegal board, appointed by the Venezuelan far-right opposition in collusion with the White House, began receiving offers to buy CITGO, which has the seventh-largest oil refining capacity on US soil. CITGO belongs to Venezuela’s publicly owned oil company, PDVSA, and, thus, to all Venezuelans. Since the launching of Juan Guaidó’s failed “interim government” in 2019, the Venezuelan government lost control of this important asset abroad.
Venezuelanalysis: Venezuela Announces Investments from BRICS Countries, Invites Bloc to Accompany July 28 Election President Maduro announced the country had secured investments from numerous countries from the BRICS bloc, opening the potential for new markets for Venezuelan goods. Foreign Minister Gil expressed Venezuela’s interest in becoming the second Latin American country to join BRICS, which Russia supports. The opposition’s campaign suffered a serious blow with the imminent loss of Venezuela’s most important foreign asset, CITGO, as a US-court-mandated sale advanced further. The US-backed hardline opposition has exercised control over CITGO since 2019 and the change of ownership for state-owned CITGO is widely perceived as falling on its shoulders.
Carlos Ron: Reflecting on President Putin’s Six Tenets: A Venezuelan Perspective President Putin’s tenets are a necessary call to action so that we can abandon the destructive path set out by the collective West and we can guarantee a dignified life to most of the world’s population… The story of many of the nations of the Global South has been the story of struggle against imperialism and colonization. Our societies have had to fight repeatedly to preserve their identities from the different attempts at establishing foreign values and narratives…The decision-making process in the new order must be careful to protect the original UN principles. They are there to ensure that every nation has a say, and that every nation will also be held accountable, no matter how powerful they are. The new multipolar world is here, if humanity is going to survive, if we are going to continue having a planet where to live, we must continue taking decisive actions to guarantee the new order.
Nicaragua’s Laureano Ortega: We see with great optimism the strengthening of this new multilateral world order Laureano Ortega is the Special Representative of the President of Nicaragua for Affairs with Russia, at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. “The birth of the new world order has awakened with greater force, the strengthening of the new blocs, such as the BRICS, such as the Eurasian Economic Union, which have been strengthening; the Strategic Alliance between Russia and China, with Iran also there strengthening its capacities, and the Latin American countries that play a fundamental role in the development of the new work model….We are making large investments in infrastructure in our country with the sister People’s Republic of China.”
“We are first of all with Russia in this great battle that they are waging against fascism in Ukraine; we have supported that Joint Declaration of China and Brazil, as a viable measure to contribute to a peaceful, political solution to this situation that is regrettable due to the number of deaths it causes. But we see as the main obstacle the US and its European allies, who are financing, fomenting, and promoting hatred there in Ukraine, financing, fomenting and promoting death… So long as they do not give up on that objective of ending Russia, and then they go after China, and then all the countries that have a different ideology, have their own model, we have to be firm, firm with Russia, because we know that the victory of Russia is certain. It is the victory of the world. ”
Granma: NGOs made in USA, anti-Cuban projects and the long arm of the CIA We must be clear that those who make up these platforms and other anti-Cuban projects are not fighters for “freedom”, nor enlightened beings moved by sublime ideas; behind them are thousands of laboratories, study centers, think tanks paid by the US Government to achieve a political change that favors them in Cuba. The money is distributed among the International Republican Institute (IRI), the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), the American Center for International Labor Solidarity of the American Federation of Labor Unions-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and the Chamber of Commerce’s Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE). On May 26, 2016, Open Society Foundations hosted the Cuba Posible Ideas Lab at its New York headquarters. The New York event, funded by the Ford Foundation and Open Society, was about “Cuba’s current challenges”; the same Open Society of George Soros, the billionaire of color revolutions and soft coups.
Millions of dollars are destined to the different structures created inside and outside the Island, organizations and projects such as: Diario de Cuba, Cibercuba, People in Need (PIN), Article 19 and the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH). Many of these funds, essentially coming from the USAID or NED, have their origin in the CIA, and reach the USAID through private intermediaries such as the Smith Richardson Foundation, the John M. Olin Foundation or the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.
Another of the organizations financed with these assets is the El Toque project, known in Cuba not only for its disinformation campaigns and manipulation of reality, but, above all, for the “dedicated work” carried out to influence exchange rates, favoring the depreciation of the national currency against the US dollar, and contributing to inflation in Cuba.
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Donate
Chicago ALBA Solidarity: $6,000 Matching Fund to fulfill Code Pink project to raise $55,000 to send Milk for Cuba’s Children Code Pink and Carlos Lazo, founder of Puentes de Amor, are raising $55,000 to send milk to Cuba for hospitalized children. They are close to fulfilling their goal, now at $49,000. We are having a $6,000 matching fund to help raise the rest so the milk can be sent.
Global Health Partners: Help us to send cardiac pacemakers to Cubans who need them to survive. And act to stop the U.S. government’s economic siege of Cuba So far, the US-European campaign has raised $80,000 of the $150,000 goal in three weeks.
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Events
June 23: Nicaragua Webinar: An Arrow in the Quiver of Empire: Weaponizing Human Rights with Alfred de Zayas authored The Human Rights Industry. and John Perry
June 23 Los Angeles: Cuba Labor Delegation Report back
June 24 Protest & Petition Delivery at the U.S. Mission to the UN in NYC: Defend Venezuela’s Sovereignty Alliance for Global Justice and Venezuela Solidarity Network will host a demonstration in front of the U.S. Mission to deliver a petition signed by hundreds of organizations and individuals demanding respect for Venezuela’s sovereignty and the international protection of President Maduro.
June 25: Venezuela’s Successful Resistance to the US Blockade and Regime Change Carlos Ron, Venezuela’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for North America, and Yosmer Arellan, Academic Collaborator of UN Special Rapporteur on the Impact of Unilateral Coercive Measures Alena Douha.
July 6-7 No to NATO, Yes to Peace! NATO 2024 Counter-Summit
July 8: Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition monthly zoom meetings: second Monday of the month 2:30 PM ET. Email NicaraguaSolidarityCoalition@gmail.com in advance to access.
July 7 & 14 Webinars: ‘Venezuela Chooses: What is at Stake in the Coming Elections?’ July 7: Joe Emersberger, Maria Paez Victor, Williams Camacaro, Francisco Dominguez. July 14: Diego Sequera, Steve Ellner, Ben Norton, Alan MacLeod
July 10: Forum on Nicaraguan co-ops and the success of a project that addresses the unrecognised work of rural women in co-ops. Nicaraguan co-ops form an important part of the social economy that generates 40% of the country’s wealth and employs 90% of the workforce. But, particularly in rural areas, the role of women in generating this wealth is often unrecognised and unremunerated. The positive impact of the partnership of co-ops and Etico that addresses this marginalisation will be discussed. This Forum also celebrates the life of Florentina Perez, using her example to exemplify the role women play in production, community, solidarity & Revolution. To register send an email to Helen on campaigns@nicaraguasc.org.uk
July 14-17 Protest at the Republican National Convention. Join contingents against the US blockades and economic warfare on Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua
August 19-22 Protest at the Democratic National Convention. Join contingents against the US blockades and economic warfare on Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua
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Delegations to Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua
1. Venezuela July 21-31 Join us in Venezuela during its presidential elections to witness, experience and learn about popular democracy in action and celebrate 22 years of the Bolivarian Revolution since the attempted coup against President Hugo Chávez.
2. Cuba Delegations
Witness for Peace delegations to Cuba
Friendly Planet delegations to Cuba
3. Nicaragua Delegations Casa Ben Linder 2024 delegations
Email casabenjaminlinder@gmail.com to apply:
November 8-17 2024: Salud & Solidaridad: Hands-On Healthcare in Nicaragua
February 2025: The Bird Brigade: Birding in Solentiname Arquipelago
March 2025: Power & Protagonism: Women in Nicaragua
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