Common Dreams: Hundreds of Legal Experts Push Biden to Drop ‘Punitive and Deadly’ Sanctions “Hundreds of millions of civilians around the world suffer—and hundreds of thousands have died—even in times of ostensible peace under the broad economic sanctions imposed unilaterally and illegally by the United States.” Including “notable cases such as Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela.” The statement calls on the US government in particular “to comply with international law by ending the use of broad, unilateral coercive measures that extensively harm civilian populations…The evidence that these measures can cause severe, widespread civilian harm, including death, is overwhelming.” Full letter here
Francisco Dominguez: Venezuela – It Was a US-Led Coup All Along “No Venezuelan party that alleges to have 40% more votes than President Maduro (as the opposition claims) would hesitate to present the evidence to the National Electoral Council (CNE).” The unprecedented level of fake messaging coordination by the world corporate media, even when the target is Venezuela, was exceedingly well-coordinated that for months bombarded Venezuelans 24/7 with disinformation. Bombardment which grew in intensity in the few days before the election.
Venezuela has been subjected to a new type of coup d’etat which involved a monstrous corporate media campaign, an intoxicating social network campaign of hatred, a wave of terrorist attacks aimed at causing chaos and targeting the country’s electric system, a gigantic and sustained cybernetic attack of the CNE, aimed at preventing any result issued by the CNE, to be followed by a nasty wave of wanton violence, all coherent components of the coup d’etat. If it could be done to Venezuela, it could be done to anybody.
TeleSur: Joaquin Perez, the Deputy Ambassador of Venezuela to the UN: Since July 28, Venezuela has been the victim of over 30 million cyberattacks per minute which affect all government websites. Over 106 State Institutions Targeted. The cyberattack is part of a political destabilization operation which was initially aimed at creating an information blackout on election day, thereby generating uncertainty about the vote. Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said that the delay in the electoral records by the National Electoral Council was due to a cyber attack that blocked the transmission process. Independent cyber researcher Kenny Ossa presented data from a report by the US-based company NetScout that confirms what Venezuelan authorities said. “Between July 28 and 29, Venezuela experienced one of the largest cyberattacks in the history of the Internet. There was an oversaturated traffic of between 685Gbs and 700Gbs towards our country.”
President Maduro Bans Elon Musk’s X for Ten Days Since before July 28, Musk has not stopped threatening the Venezuelan government with using his economic and technological power to “restore freedom.” The Starlink and Tesla owner bragged that he himself will come to put Maduro behind bars. Maduro challenged him and offered the Poliedro de Caracas as the stage. What the Venezuelan government is asking for is the same as what other countries have asked of technology corporations. That the social network X takes charge of the perverse phenomena that derive from it and affect the Venezuelan population. The telecommunications emporiums and the companies that manage social networks now function as true states: with inherent laws and rules, without regard for external regulations; with punitive systems, police and prisons of their own; relaxed morals and unbridled ambition.
The National Lawyers Guild Disputes Carter Center Statements on 2024 Venezuelan Presidential Elections The National Lawyers Guild disputes repeated Carter Center press statements regarding the July 28 presidential elections in Venezuela. The Center issued a public statement less than 24 hours after the closing of the polls calling on the Venezuelan government to immediately publish the election results for each polling station across the country. As lawyers and scholars, we know that efforts like election monitoring must be done with care and caution, both of which the Carter Center has failed to exhibit.
The Center’s Chief Executive Officer, Paige Alexander, worked for USAID for over 15 years, now called “the new CIA.” She also sits on the southeast chapter board of the widely discredited Anti-Defamation League. Jennie K. Lincoln, the Center’s senior advisor on Latin America and the Caribbean, is a former consultant with the Organization of American States, from which Venezuela withdrew in 2017 after repeated OAS attempts to undermine Venezuelan democracy and foment instability.
TeleSur: Venezuela’s Electoral Council: UN Preliminary Report on the Elections is Filled with Lies and Contradictions The National Electoral Council (CNE) condemned the “Preliminary Report” of the United Nations Panel of Experts on the Venezuelan presidential elections. “The report is illegal and contrary to the UN principles, violating the terms of reference agreed upon with this Constitutional Power, and, above all, filled with lies and contradictions.” According to point 4 of the terms agreed upon: ‘The Panel is not an observation mission and, therefore, will not issue any public statement or judgment on the process and/or the outcome of the elections.’ This UN experts panel not only betrayed what was agreed upon, but violated the rules established by the UN itself, as ‘unlike UN election observation missions, which require a specific mandate from the Security Council or the General Assembly… electoral expert panels do not issue public statements evaluating the overall conduct of an electoral process or its results.’ Among the lies attempted in the fraudulent ‘Report,’ the following stand out: In Point 6, they claim that there were ‘last-minute changes to polling stations.’ This is absolutely false, and no case or complaint was presented to support this lie. In Point 9, they attempt to cast doubt on the terrorist cyberattack suffered by the CNE platform starting on the night of July 28 and continuing to this day… In the agreement with the CNE, the UN panel was not authorized to conduct audits on supposed records that have no legal standing. The panel engaged in an illegal act by validating alleged records from unofficial sources.
Alejandra Garcia: Fidel is Fidel (August 13, 98th anniversary of his birth) Colombian writer Gabriel García Marquez said, “Fidel goes and looks for problems wherever they are. He quit smoking to have the moral authority to fight smoking. He likes to prepare cooking recipes with a kind of scientific passion. He keeps himself in excellent physical condition with several hours of daily gymnastics and frequent swimming. Invincible patience. Iron discipline…People on the streets call him: Fidel. They surround him without risk, they call him by his first name, they argue with him, they contradict him, they complain to him. It is then that one discovers the unusual human being he is and that the brightness of his own image does not let us see. This is the Fidel Castro I think I know: A man of austere habits and insatiable illusions, of cautious words and subdued manners and incapable of conceiving any idea that is not colossal.” The Cuban journalist Katiuska Blanco, the most thorough biographer of Fidel: “I can tell you that Fidel is the most generous man, the most simple and humble person one can imagine. If Fidel were here with us this afternoon, he would ask the simplest of workers anything, because he always considers that he has many things to learn from the humblest.”
Raúl Castro, laid his remains in the monolith of the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, Santiago de Cuba, in December 2016, and said: “Fidel was the one who taught us that, yes, we can resist, survive and develop without renouncing the principles or the conquests of socialism, that Cuba can be a medical power, that we can help the world, that we can be proud of our achievements. Words are not enough. Fidel is Fidel.”
California AFL-CIO: Remove Cuba from U.S. List of State Sponsors of Terrorism More than 700 delegates representing 2.3 million workers in nearly 2,000 union locals gathered for the state AFL-CIO convention on July 16. Delegates unanimously passed a resolution opposing Washington’s inclusion of Cuba in its notorious list of “State Sponsors of Terrorism” (SSOT). The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), and the California Conference of Machinists, had passed similar resolutions recently. Full resolution in article.
,
Events:
August 19-22 Protest at the Democratic National Convention. Join contingents against the US blockades and economic warfare on Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua Contact Stansfieldsmith100@gmail.com
August 21: End the US Blockade of Cuba. Take Cuba off the State Sponsors of Terrorism list Congressperson Barbara Lee; Carlos Lazo, others
August 25: Defending Venezuela against another Coup Attempt Diego Sequera, Francisco Domínguez, Arnold August, Alison Bodine, Jesús Rodríguez-Espinoza, others .
.
Delegations to Cuba, Nicaragua:
Cuba Delegations
December 1-9: National Single Payer: Invitation To Join Our Delegation To Cuba
Witness for Peace delegations to Cuba
Friendly Planet delegations to Cuba
Nicaragua Delegations Casa Ben Linder 2024
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
.
This is also available at ChicagoALBASolidarity.org. If you have events to publicize or find helpful articles for readers on the ALBA countries you can post them on Facebook here: Venezuela; Nicaragua; Bolivia; Latin America in general (here or here) Or send them to venezuelaweekly@afgj.org or stansfieldsmith100@gmail.com.
Chicago ALBA Solidarity 