Venezuela & ALBA News 3.21.2025: Venezuela condemns sending Migrants to Salvadoran Prisons; More on July 28 Election Cyberattack; Venezuela’s economy

Cyberattack against the CNE [Venezuela’s electoral body] in the July 28 Presidential election required “a significant investment of money”  Cyberattacks to disrupt a country’s democratic elections where the US government knows its candidates cannot win through a free vote has become a new US coup attempt tool. It succeeded in Bolivia in 2019, but Venezuela has been able to fend off these US coup operations.A video on social media reveals that Venezuelan far-right politician María Corina Machado paid $50,000 to hackers to sabotage the transmission system of the National Electoral Council (CNE) and the CANTV network during the vote counting of the presidential elections of July 28, 2024. According to a video, the cyberattack let Machado make the CNE system dysfunctional for three hours, thus being able to display the infamous fake “voting records” that declared Edmundo González Urrutia as the winner. It was an intervention with a T2 system, which collapsed the network with many bots making simultaneous calls to CANTV.

Venezuela Condemns Latest Resumption of ‘Israeli’ Genocide Against Palestine “Venezuela denounces this ruthless aggression—condemned by the United Nations and the entire world—which reignites the war in Gaza after a ceasefire that lasted more than two months….This further deteriorates the existing humanitarian crisis and brutal siege against the Palestinian people, exposing the prolonged war crimes committed [by the Israeli settler colony] in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank since October 7, 2023. These barbaric acts occur with the complicity and cover-up of the US and its international allies.”

Declaration of the American Association of Jurists (AAJ) denouncing the application of law violating human rights against Venezuelan migrants by the Government of the United States The statement condemns the U.S. government’s application of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 against Venezuelan migrants, calling it a blatant violation of human rights and international public law. The statement emphasizes that this law, which had not been invoked since World War II, allows for the deportation of migrants without guaranteeing them due judicial or administrative process, subjecting them to degrading and dehumanizing treatment.

Orinoco Tribune: President Maduro Condemns US Transfer of Venezuelan Migrants to Salvadoran Prisons: ‘We Will Not Rest Until We Return Them to Their Homeland’ He announced that Venezuela will appeal to international organizations to condemn crimes against humanity committed against Venezuelan migrants deported from the US to El Salvador. Without any semblance of due process by US authorities, these migrants have been accused of being members of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang. “This is the greatest attack any country in Latin America and the Caribbean has ever suffered, and it is an attack on the entire people of Venezuela, because our migrants are not terrorists, they are not criminals, they are not murderers. Our migrants are good, hard-working, productive people.” Maduro reported that the Foreign Ministry issued a statement urging all Venezuelans to avoid traveling to the United States. 

Sputnik Mundo: A Genuine Manifestation of Resistance: Venezuela Relies on Grassroots Media Communication A necessary measure to defend a revolution from coup attempts and color revolutions by the imperial powers, who utilize their control of information through their omnipresent media, is to build a people’s media and a people’s social media. A revolution must propagate and make universal new tools of popular grassroots communication. Minister of Communication and Information, Freddy Ñáñez, emphasized the need to develop strategies to confront the media war and the information blackout that seeks to obscure the voices of communities, especially through the use of new technologies. “Social media is an attempt to rob us of our political capacity; it’s an attempt to flatten humanity’s cultural uniqueness and pigeonhole us into the extreme individuality of the algorithm.”  Jessica Pernia, director of the School for New Digital Communication at MIPPCI, stated that popular communication is, above all, an act of organization and resistance against the dominant information models controlled by large media and technology conglomerates. The Communal Think Tanks were born as a strategy for articulating and coordinating the communication forces of the grassroots community.

Mision Verdad: The Venezuelan economy after the US ends General License 41 for Chevron Domestic food production has grown considerably, reaching 97% supply and a boom in domestic brands and products whose supply chain is not affected by primary sanctions. These conditions did not exist in 2019, when the state’s strangulation impacted the entire economy… The Venezuelan state has built a new tax collection base. In 2020, the state collected the equivalent of $1.571 billion. By the end of 2024, that figure reached $12.119 billion. Clearly, the state’s budget base is less vulnerable to the decline in foreign currency revenue….Chevron puts $150- $200 million a month into the foreign exchange market, which will soon end.  Economist Luis Oliveros also stated that “we would once again have inflation of more than 100% by the end of 2025, and an exchange rate far below current levels.” Chevron currently produces an average of 230,000 barrels of oil per day (less than one quarter of total production) from Venezuela to the US, paid for at market prices.

Wall Street Journal (March 20): Trump Considers Extending Chevron License to Pump Oil in Venezuela The Trump administration is considering a plan to extend Chevron’s license to pump oil in Venezuela and impose financial penalties on other countries that do business with the South American nation, according to people familiar with the discussions. President Trump, during a Wednesday meeting at the White House with Chevron Chief Executive Mike Wirth and other oil-industry executives, expressed openness to reversing the administration’s recent decision to order the company to wind down its Venezuela operation next month, the people said. The president’s team—as part of any move to extend Chevron’s license—is weighing a plan to impose tariffs or other financial penalties on countries that buy oil from Venezuela… Chevron accounts for around a quarter of Venezuela’s total oil production and about a third of its oil exports, with part of the revenue earmarked to pay down billions of dollars in debt that the company is owed by Venezuela.

Documentary: Venezuelan Communes – Building Peoples Power Today, there are thousands of communes in Venezuela. Since the 1998 election of the late Hugo Chavez, the Bolivarian Revolution has fought to wrest control of Venezuela’s oil wealth and channel it into social housing, healthcare, education and poverty busting social projects. The Bolivarian Revolution has presided over an explosion of popular participatory democracy through an expanding network of communes and communal councils. Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have constructed a parallel system of communal democracy and production. This documentary interviews leading communal activists and showcases some of the concrete advances that have been won through this process. 

.

Cuba

Dissident Voice: The Healthcare System in Cuba – How a Tiny Island Defies U.S. Sanctions to Lead in Healthcare Unlike the profit-driven models, Cuba’s system prioritizes equitable access, public health education, and early intervention. It promotes health through education, preventing disease by managing habits, and ensuring comprehensive medical care. Some accomplishments of Cuban healthcare: AIDS: Cuba identified HIV in 1983 and quickly set up a system to track and treat it. By 2014, it eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis, a milestone the U.S. has yet to reach; COVID: Cuba developed two COVID vaccines, kept infections low, and even sent vaccines abroad; Alzheimer’s Research: Cuba developed a drug that may help reverse Alzheimer’s effects; 99% of Cuban children are vaccinated, and the country has a lower infant mortality rate than the U.S….The U.S. embargo restricts access to essential medicines, medical equipment, and scientific research. Even medical journals and online resources are blocked due to U.S. restrictions, forcing Cuban researchers to work under constraints that most Western physicians never encounter.

.

Frame-up Trial of Peru President Pedro Castillo

Roger Waters speaks out in opposition to Peruvian frame-up of deposed President Pedro Castillo (his first video here)

.

Nicaragua

Webinar video: Sarah Woodard: Nicaragua and Grassroots Organization Here is a webinar video of Sarah’s presentations on her tour. She explains Jubilee House Community/Center for Development in Central America’s internationalist work in support of Nicaraguan working people, and how it fits together with the overall work of the Sandinista Revolution. 

Resumen Latinoamericano: Nicaragua Ranks Highest in Gender Equity in the Americas In March 2025, during International Women’s Day, a delegation of solidarity activists traveled to Nicaragua  as the Power & Protagonism Brigade: Women in Nicaragua, to witness the progress made by women since the revolution. Key achievements in Gender Equity: 1. Nicaragua has implemented a 50/50 gender policy, ensuring equal gender representation in all levels of decision-making, from local councils to national government. Women now hold 60% of the seats in the National Assembly and 75% of ministerial and vice-ministerial positions. 3. Women’s Police Departments: Specialized units have been established to address gender-based violence, child abuse, and support women and children’s safety. 4.Free universal access to education and healthcare has been a cornerstone of Nicaragua’s efforts to empower women and reduce poverty. 5. Self-determination: Indigenous and Afro-descendants have communal title to lands making up nearly one-third of Nicaragua’s national territory. 

.

Events

March 22-29 (France) : Comment le Venezuela déplace la montagne film showing

March 29 (Minneapolis, online) Nostalgia for the Future documentary film showing, in person and online. About Venezuelan women in the grassroots movement of the Bolivarian revolution.

March 31: A better world is possible: Nicaragua achieves poverty reduction despite threats from the US  withJohn Perry; Becca Renk, Director of the JHC-CDCA’s health clinic, Coordinator of the Casa Benjamin Linder; Nick Hoskyns, Managing Director of ETICO and Executive Committee of NSCAG; Julie Lamin, Co-Chair, NSCAG Executive Committee

April 13, 3 pm ET Nicaragua webinar with Sarah Woodard: Building Sustainable Communities: Insights from Nicaragua  

May 18 webinar: Nicaraguan programs of maternal and child health, and a cross-national comparison, with Becca Renk, Magda Lanuza, and Jameela Alexander. Registration link coming soon.

.

Delegations to Cuba, Nicaragua:

Cuba

April 17-May 3: Puerto Rico Brigada Juan Ruiz Rivera to Cuba

April 24- May 3+ LA Hands off Cuba Committee:  Labor and Youth Delegation

April 26- May 3: The Nation: Havana and Trinidad

April 27-May 3/9: Building Relations with Cuban Labor May Day Delegation

April 27- May 10: Ernesto “Che” Guevara Volunteer Work Brigade

Different Brigades and Solidarity Trips to Cuba 

Witness for Peace delegations to Cuba 

Friendly Planet delegations to Cuba

Altruvistas tours to Cuba

Nicaragua 

Casa Ben Linder Email casabenjaminlinder@gmail.com to apply:

June 2025: Global Health: Family and Community Health in Nicaragua

July 2025: Solidarity in Action: Nicaragua’s Popular Revolution

November 2025: Salud & Solidaridad: Hands-On Healthcare in Nicaragua

.

This is also available at ChicagoALBASolidarity.org. If you have events to publicize, send them to venezuelaweekly@afgj.org or stansfieldsmith100@gmail.com.