Nicolás Maduro approves the creation of the First Antifascist International Speaking before the more than 1,200 participants who came to the international event from almost 100 countries, the president denounced that “The battlefield is no longer economic, today the battlefield is the field of social networks, which in Venezuela played and continue to play the decisive and determining role in confronting the population, inciting hatred, violence and fascism…Today in Venezuela a decisive battle is taking place and I ask the social, political, intellectual, artistic and creative movements of the world, I ask the entire world, to understand the reasons for our struggle and I ask for the support, accompaniment and solidarity of all the anti-fascist, anti-colonialist, anti-imperialist and democratic movements of the world for the battle that Venezuela is waging.”
Ultimas Noticias: President Maduro at the closing of the Congress Against Fascism in Caracas “On the 51st anniversary of the coup against Allende, Venezuela is the epicenter of the fight against colonialism, fascism, and the currents that have derived from these.” In his opinion, the 1,200 delegates from various countries participating represent “a good starting point for advancing what should be a great international movement against imperialism that articulates forces for a new world, for peace, democracy, and humanity…Venezuela is the epicenter of the multiform aggression of the American empire. There are conflict zones in the world, but the aggression that is most prepared today to try to change the geopolitical process in the region and try to influence the process of emergence of the new world is Venezuela.”
Ultimas Noticias: Maduro says Venezuela still faces a very dangerous criminal fascist outbreak Maduro denounced the UN General Secretary António Guterres, who only repeats the story of the US State Department and Venezuelan fascism. “But no one comes out to defend the victims, the relatives of those who were killed [in the rightwing post-election violence], the people who were killed returning from their daily activities, no one comes out to make the pain of these families visible… “But the UN Secretary General’s spokesperson is not defending Cirila [one killed the end of July], he is defending the person who killed her; because he says that those who killed and burned must be released. How far does hypocrisy and complicity with fascism go in Venezuela?”
Orinoco Tribune (Stansfield Smith): The US Attempted Coup in Venezuela Uses New Cyber Tools, but Cannot Break the Chavista Wall The attempted coup bears much in common with recent US coup attempts in Nicaragua (2018), Bolivia (2019) and Venezuela (2013, 2014, 2017, 2019) US coup attempts now use new tools. First, the US crushes a country with sanctions and economic blockades. Second, corporate media and social media now play a coup-making role like Pentagon-trained generals did in the past. Third, the US relies on cyberwarfare to incapacitate its opponents. Like Venezuela today, in Bolivia in 2019 a cyberattack of the electoral system’s computers disrupted the vote count, preventing the authentic results being issued. Fourth, having created the conditions for opposition leaders to assert that the Maduro government stole the election, they then called people to protest and create chaos or guarimbas. Fifth, US coup attempts count on funding NGOs to carry out “regime change.” Besides the CIA-controlled USAID, NED, NDI, and IRI, NGOs receive millions from Open Society Foundations, Ford Foundation, and others. But Chavista Venezuela had its own weapons to defeat this five-pronged US coup attempt.
Venezuelanalysis: US-Backed Former Presidential Candidate Edmundo González Flees Venezuela The absence of González inside the country makes the opposition’s goal of seating the former candidate in the presidency virtually impossible. Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez confirmed that Edmundo Gonzalez first took refuge in Spain’s Embassy in Caracas before being granted safe passage by the government in order to exit the country. So, the US coup attempt fizzles out.
United World International: How the Venezuelan economy recovered despite sanctions The US economic war resulted in a hyperinflation that exceeded 300,000% in February 2019 and also reduced the size of the national income to only 1%. Faced with this, President Nicolás Maduro launched an economic recovery program in 2018. This includes a macroeconomic stabilization process to combat hyperinflation, which we have already come out of in the first stage. In June ‘24, inflation was reported 1%, the lowest number for decades. We are currently in a period where the exchange rate has been stable throughout this year. The Bolivar’s value against the dollar has changed only 2% this year. These are concrete results of our economic policy. In 2009, 2010, 2011, when we had the highest income, the highest salary in Latin America. From then till today, we went from about $380 a month to the minimum wage of $3 a month, $3.80. So, wages fell to 1% of the high income we had before. There is still a long way to go in this regard, but today all workers have an income mechanism of over $100 per person. We remember that one of the main aspects of the aggression that Venezuela is subjected to in the economic sphere is against our money. Especially regarding paper money. In the early years of the aggression, they stole large amounts of paper money. We offset this by the increase in electronic transactions.
Internationalist 360: Venezuelan official Willian Rodriguez: “A New Period of the Revolution Must Begin” Whoever reads the unilateral coercive measures will find a declaration of war on Venezuela. The US is very clear that they can seize any property in Venezuela, that they can freeze accounts, that they can expropriate ships, that they can imprison anyone they want. Only a country at war can do that. [Before Obama’s declaration of Venezuela as a threat to national security] the Revolution invested $580 billion in its first decade to close the gap between inequality and poverty. Literacy campaigns were carried out, health programs created, numerous universities founded…[Russia, China, Iran] have helped a lot, not only with their veto power in the UN, but also with their staff…[The workers]are the new heroes and heroines of this country. Because the salary is one of the lowest salaries and one of the debts of the Venezuelan revolution [is] for failing to restore the purchasing power that we had in the face of unilateral coercive measures. This is a major debt, and every self-respecting revolutionary must know that we have failed here.… there must be a new change in the exercise of power. We have an extremely large bureaucratic apparatus. We have twice or three times as many civil servants as Brazil, a country with almost ten times the population of Venezuela. We have a model in which everything has been centralized and there is almost no room for debate and criticism.
Resumen Latinoamericano: One Hour of US Blockade Causes Cuba over $575,683 in Damages This represents an approximate damage of more than $421 million a month, more than $13.8 million a day, and more than $575,683 in damages for each hour of blockade. Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, presented the updated report on the damages caused by the most comprehensive embargo in history, who argued that, if the blockade had not existed, it is estimated that Cuba’s GDP could have grown by around 8% in 2023. – If the blockade were to cease for eight hours, Cuba would be able to acquire the toys and teaching aids for all the children’s circles in the country ($4,500,000).
Daniel Ortega Speech September 2: 45th Anniversary of the Founding of the Nicaraguan Army “We can never forget, we can never forget the blood spilled throughout history. We cannot forget the Heroes and Martyrs”Peace meaning well-being for the poorest. Never in the history of our country has it been possible to bring education to so many Families, for free. [in 1979] out of every 100 Nicaraguans, only 40 could read or write; the other 60% were slave labor, for the capitalists, for the landowners, for the exploiters serving the Imperialists. We have a Health System that is truly extraordinary, a Health System where Hospitals have been multiplying even in the most remote areas… the Country had been growing in its economy, increasing wages, multiplying employment, but only because we are a Dignified People and we do not kneel before the Imperialists of the Earth. Before Christ, before God, we do kneel… In our Latin America we are facing an onslaught by the North American Empire, wanting to overthrow governments, simply because they do not submit to them, and we see how they have acted and continue to act against the Sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. They simply say that they do not recognize the person the Venezuelan Electoral System and the Venezuelan Judiciary have already defined as the winner of those Elections, and they insist on saying that the winner is another person. I want to tell the People of Honduras, President Xiomara, that we are with them, that we are in Solidarity with the Honduran People, we are in Solidarity both with the Honduran People and we are in solidarity with Xiomara’s government, and it is clear there that they want to destroy that Government, and they want to smear the Honduran Army…the production of drugs occurs because there is a market in the United States. If there were no market, those who produce drugs would simply stop producing them.
Events
September 22-24: Resisting the USA’s Military Empire World Beyond War conference
September 23: Viva la Solidaridad! Stand with Latin America’s Left In-person public event in Liverpool, UK, with guests from Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia & across Latin America
October 14: Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition monthly zoom meeting, 2:30 PM ET. Email NicaraguaSolidarityCoalition@gmail.com in advance to request Zoom access.
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Delegations to Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua:
Bolivia
Jan 25 – Feb 3, 2025: Bolivia, 20 Years of Popular Democracy and Indigenous Self-Determination
Cuba
November 10-22: Cuban Culture, Ecology, and Resilience
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 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
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