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Published on 10 January 2018 by teleSUR English
Venezuelan National Constituent Assembly member Tomas Lucena (R) was shot dead Wednesday afternoon. | Photo: Twitter @DrodriguezVen
Tomas Lucena, a legislator from Trujillo, was shot dead by armed assailants while driving his car in Trujillo's capital on Wednesday afternoon.
A member of Venezuela's National Constituent Assembly (ANC), 31-year-old Tomas Lucena, has been shot dead on the street by armed assailants in Valera, the capital of Trujillo.
The assassination was immediately denounced by ANC President Delcy Rodriguez on Twitter: "The people responsible for this terrible crime will be punished! Fly high, Tomas. Nothing will stop the Constituent Assembly and its defense of Venezuela."
She also expressed her sympathy for Lucena's surviving parents, wife, children and friends.
Mayra Linares, a local journalist, reported that Lucena was gunned down while driving his car at about 1pm. He was shot at least three times by assailants in an unmarked vehicle.
Henry Rangel Silva, Trujillo's governor, said Lucena was taken to hospital but died of his injuries. "We categorically condem the assassination of the young constituent from the Escuque municipality Tomas Lucena," he said.
Lucena, from the Escuque municipality, was formerly a youth leader from the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) in his community.
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Source: Postcards from the Revolution.
by Eva Golinger, 29 June 2011
The US government has been increasing aggressive actions against the Chavez administration in an attempt to isolate the major petroleum producing nation and aid in ousting the Venezuelan President
During a hearing last Friday, June 24, in the Foreign Relations Committee of the House of Representatives regarding “Sanctionable Activities in Venezuela”, democrats and republicans requested the Obama administration take more aggressive actions against the government of Hugo Chavez. The head of the Sub-Committee on Foreign Affairs for the Western Hemisphere, Connie Mack, a Florida Republican, branded the Venezuelan government “terrorist”, saying “it’s time to act to contain the dangerous influence of Hugo Chavez and his relations with Iran”.
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Published on 9 January 2018 by Venezuelaanalysis
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza shakes hands with his Portuguese counterpart, Augusto Santos Silva, following Monday’s meetings. (Twitter/JorgeArreaza)
Venezuelan and Portugal ratified 22 cooperation agreements following a series of high-profile bilateral meeting in Caracas on Monday. The talks were attended by the Portuguese minister of international business, foreign ministers from both countries, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, as well as other cabinet ministers.
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"We, the under-signed representatives of the sovereign people of the Caribbean, hereby declare that President Donald Trump of the United States of America is "Persona Non Grata" in our Caribbean region!
We further declare that as a "Persona Non Grata" President Donald Trump is NOT welcome in any territory of the Caribbean, and we hereby confirm that we - the Caribbean people - will petition our Governments, vehemently protest against any Trump visit, and engage in popular demonstrations designed to prevent President Donald Trump's entry into any portion of the sovereign territory of our Caribbean region.
As sons and daughters of the Caribbean, we hereby affirm that the continent of Africa is the revered Motherland of a sizable majority of our people and that the Republic of Haiti -- the seminal architect of the destruction of the system of chattel slavery that held our ancestors in bondage -- is the foundational cornerstone of our Caribbean Civilization, and we, therefore, consider that any insult or attack that is directed at the African continent or at the Republic of Haiti is intrinsically an insult and attack that is directed at us as well.
We further affirm that we Caribbean people -- in light of our history of experiencing, resisting, and surviving the most horrendous forms of enslavement and colonialism -- consciously regard ourselves as champions and defenders of the dignity and fundamental human rights of all Black or African people, and that we are guided by an over-arching and non-negotiable principle of zero tolerance of any manifestation of anti-Black or anti-African racism or discrimination.
We -- the sovereign people of the Caribbean-- hereby declare to the entire world that we vehemently and unreservedly denounce President Donald Trump and the evil and inhuman White supremacy value system that he represents"
ENDORSED AND SUPPORTED BY THE FOLLOWING ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS :
1. Clement Payne Movement of Barbados
2. Pan-African Coalition of Organizations (PACO)
3. Israel Lovell Foundation of Barbados.
4. Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration (CMPI)
5. Caribbean Chapter of the International Network in Defense of Humanity
6. Global Afrikan Congress
7. Caribbean Pan-African Network (CPAN)
8. Peoples Empowerment Party (Barbados)
9. Pan-African Federalist Movement--Caribbean Region Committee
9. International Committee of Black Peoples (Guadeloupe)
10. Jamaica/Cuba Friendship Association
11. Jamaica LANDS
12. SRDC Guadeloupe / Martinique Chapter
13. Ijahnya Christian (St. Kitts and Nevis)
14. Dorbrene O'Marde (Antigua and Barbuda)
15. NswtMwt Chenzira Davis Kahina (Ay Ay Virgin Islands-US)
16. Ivana Cardinale (Venezuela)
17. Emancipation Support Committee of Trinidad & Tobago
18. Organization for the Victory of the People (Guyana)
19. Gerald Perreira (Guyana)
20 Black Consciousness Movement of Guyana
21. Conscious Lyrics Foundation (St. Martin)
22. Myrtha Delsume (Haiti)
23 Anthony "Gabby" Carter (Barbados)
24. Cuban /Barbadian Friendship Association
25. Friends of Venezuela Solidarity Committee (Barbados)
26. Maxi Baldeo (Barbados)
27. Dr. Nancy Fergusson Jacobs (Barbados)
28. Ayo Moore (Barbados)
29. Haiti / Jamaica Society
30. Anthony Reid (Barbados)
31.Cheryl Hunte (Barbados)
32. Hamilton Lashley (former Barbados Minister of Government)
33. Erica Williams (Guyana)
34. Kilanji Bangarah (Namibia / Jamaica)
35. International Movement for Reparations (Martinique)
36. Alex Sujah Reiph (St Martin)
37. Thelma Gill-Barnett (Barbados)
38. Khafra Kambon (Trinidad and Tobago)
39. Margaret Harris (Barbados)
40. Jacqueline Jacqueray (Guadeloupe)
41. Garcin Malsa (Martinique)
42. National Committee for Reparations (Martinique)
43. Officers and Members of the Global Afrikan Congressuk (GACuk)
44. Jamaica Peace Council
45. Ingrid Blackwood (Jamaica)
46. Glenroy Watson (President, RMT's London Transport Regional Council / Jamaica)
47. Paul Works (Jamaica)
48. Abu Akil (United Kingdom / Jamaica)
49. Kwame Howell (Barbados)
50. Ian Marshall (Barbados)
51. Michael Heslop (Jamaica)
52. Andrea King (Barbados)
54. Cikiah Thomas (Canada / Jamaica)
55. Bobby Clarke (Barbados)
56. Trevor Prescod, Member of Parliament (Barbados)
57. David Denny (Barbados)
58. John Howell (Barbados)
59. Lalu Hanuman (Barbados / Guyana)
60. Onkphra Wells (Barbados)
61. Rahmat Jean-Pierre (Barbados)
62. Philip Springer (Barbados)
63. Cedric Jones (Guyana)
64. David Comissiong (Barbados)
65. Selrach Belfield (Guyana)
66. Kathy "Ife" Harris (Barbados)
67. Andrea Quintyne (Barbados)
68. Felipe Noguera (Trinidad & Tobago)
69. Suzanne Laurent (Martinique)
70. Line Hilgros Makeda Kandake (Guadeloupe)
71. Kerin Davis (Jamaica)
72. Delvina E. Bernard (Africentric Learning Institute, Nova Scotia, Canada)
73. Muhammad Nassar (Barbados)
74. Anthony Fraser (Guyana)
75. Troy Pontin (Guyana)
76. Nigel Cadogan (Barbados)
77. Ras Iral Jabari (Barbados)
78. Nicole Cage (Martinique)
79. Robert Romney (St Martin / Guadeloupe)
80. Anne Braithwaite (Guyana)
81. Icil Phillips (Barbados)
82. Marie Jose Ferjule (Martinique)
83. Errol Paul (Guyana)
84. Erskine Bayne (Barbados)
85. Robert Gibson (Barbados)
86. Alister Alexander (Barbados)
87. Mark Adamson (Barbados)
88. Junior Jervis (Guyana)
89. Lee Bing (Guyana)
90. Akram Sabree (Guyana)
91. Rudolph Solbiac (Martinique)
92. Stephane Eveillard (Haiti)
93. Suzy Sorel (Martinique)
94. Luciani Lanoir (Martinique)
95. Ras Bongo Wisely (St Lucia)
96. Caribbean Rastafari Organization
97. Dr. Rodney Worrell (Barbados)
98. David Bannister (Barbados)
99. Ismay Griffith (Barbados)
100. Edson Crawford (Barbados)
101. Guy M A Vala (Guadeloupe)
102. Urielle Guillaume
103. Laetitia Fernandez
104. Fraiderik Jean-Pierre
105. Vivi Romney (Guadeloupe)
106. Emmanel Fleurant (France)
107. Colette Galiby
108. Monique Ravenet
109. Djaka Apakoua
110. Laura De Lacaze
110. El B Gourdin
112. Joseph Jacques
113. Bella Nazaire (Martinique)
114. Jean-Claude Dorvil (Haiti / Canada)
115. Aisha Comissiong (Barbados)
116. Donai Lovell (Barbados)
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Published on 11 December 2017 by venezuelanalysis
Venezuela’s socialists have won a landslide victory in municipal elections Sunday, taking 21 out of 23 state capitals as well as the Caracas Capital District.
Puebla, Mexico, December 11, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela’s socialists scored an overwhelming victory in mayoral elections Sunday, taking over ninety percent of the country's municipalities.
President Nicolas Maduro’s United Venezuelan Socialist Party (PSUV), along with its allies, have secured victory in 308 of Venezuela’s 335 municipalities. According to preliminary results, the governing socialist party managed to take 21 out of the country’s 23 state capitals as well as the Caracas Capital District.
Meanwhile, the only state capitals to remain in opposition hands are Tachira’s San Cristobal and the Libertador municipality of Merida, which were won by the Movement Towards Socialism and Christian Democrat (COPEI) parties, respectively.
Limited grassroots victories, conflict with PSUV, CNE
With large opposition parties boycotting, grassroots movements to the left of the PSUV leadership decided to launch candidacies in several municipalities in a bid for greater diversity within the revolutionary process.
In Apure, Jose Maria "Chema" Romero from the Bolivar and Zamora Revolutionary Current won the Paez municipality in alliance with the ruling socialists. Thirty-eight-year-old Romero has pledged to institutionalize the power of communes and social movements in the municipality as well as promote a local productive economy.
Elsewhere, however, local movements launched their own challenges to PSUV candidates, sometimes viewed as an imposition by the party machine.
In one such case, local commune leader Augusto Espinoza defeated his PSUV rival to become the mayor of Sucre state’s Cajigal municipality.
Nonetheless, several grassroots Chavista candidacies have sparked conflict with Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE).
In Lara state, commune leader and Simon Planas candidate Angel Prado accused electoral authorities of refusing to recognise his victory. Despite his PPT party ticket securing over 57 percent of the Simon Planas vote, Prado said the CNE refused to acknowledge his candidacy and instead handed his votes to the PSUV. The CNE had previously blocked Prado's candidacy on the grounds that as a delegate to the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) he did not have the permission of the body to run.
Prado's El Maizal commune took to the streets Monday and has vowed to remain there until their candidate's victory is recognized.
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Published on 28 November 2017 by venezuelanalysis
Venezuela: Communal Activists Protest ANC to Demand Permission for Local Candidate
Communards accuse the National Constituent Assembly leadership of blocking the mayoral candidacy of commune leader Angel Prado.
Communards protest outside Venezuela’s National Constituent Assembly to demand permission for Angel Prado to run for mayor. Sign reads, “We make the revolution within the revolution.” (@ComunaElMaizal)
By Lucas Koerner
Caracas, November 28, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) –Nearly a thousand members of the El Maizal Commune in Lara state marched on Venezuela’s National Constituent Assembly (ANC) in Caracas Monday to demand the body authorize their candidate for local mayor.
The communards made the over five-hour trek to the capital to urge the body to give permission to local communal leader Angel Prado, who is an elected ANC delegate, so he can run for mayor of the Simon Planas municipality on December 10.
“We have come to peacefully protest because our rights are being violated,” explains El Maizal member Jose Peraza.
Prado has been tied up in a protracted bureaucratic dispute with Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), which has yet to register his candidacy despite the communal leader having the backing of four leftist political parties and over nine thousand signatures from local residents.
On November 24, the CNE informed Prado that he must have permission from the ANC leadership in order to launch his candidacy, though this instruction was reportedly communicated to the electoral authority’s state office a full 17 days prior.
Upon arriving at the headquarters of the National Constituent Assembly in downtown Caracas, the communards requested a meeting with ANC President Delcy Rodriguez. However, they were instead met by the ANC secretary who informed them that the request for permission must be issued in writing, despite Prado having already submitted the application on November 24.
Supporters of Prado have accused the CNE of attempting to block his candidacy in order to ensure the victory of the handpicked United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) candidate, Jean Ortiz.
They point out that the ANC leadership has never hesitated in giving permission to its delegates to run on PSUV tickets.
“The governor of Lara state is a delegate, the governor of Falcon is a delegate, and [defeated Anzoategui gubernatorial candidate] Aristobulo [Isturiz] is also a delegate, and they gave them permission to compete,” observes Peraza.
“Why don’t they give this permission to someone from the communes movement? … If Chavez said ‘commune or nothing’, why do they fear a communard participating in municipal elections?” he added, alluding to late President Hugo Chavez’s strong support for the communes as the vanguard of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution.
Having yet to receive a positive signal from the ANC, the communards marched on the assembly for a second straight day on Tuesday.
The communards have resolved to maintain pressure on the ANC until their demand is met.
Boycotted by the majority of opposition parties, the upcoming elections have opened spaces for grassroots movements and leftist parties within Chavismo to field their own challengers to PSUV candidates, who are sometimes viewed as "imposed” or hand-picked by party leaders.
Prado, for his part, has pledged to turn his municipality into a model for the institutionalization of communal power within existing local governance structures, which often stand in tension with the communes.
Comprised of 22 communal councils, the El Maizal Commune is one of the largest and most successful agricultural communes in the country. The commune has numerous communally owned and operated businesses and an annual yellow corn production that surpasses 4,000 metric tons.
Communards chant "Commune or nothing" outside of the ANC.
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Published on 15 September? 2017 by studentvoices.co.uk
Venezuela’s Constituent Assembly shines a beacon for real Democracy | Jay Sutherland
Look at the UK today, an increasingly right wing conservative minority government narrowly clenches onto to power due to an alliance with the DUP who got less than 1% of the overall vote. For Britain to be called a democracy would be laughable. If we look to Latin America and more specifically Venezuela we can see a real example of people powered democracy in the form of the Constituent Assembly election.
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Published on 4th Septmeber 2017 by venezuelanalysis.com
Published on 4 September 2017 on The Media on Venezuela: Double Standards and First Impressions
The Media on Venezuela: Double Standards and First Impressions
Ricardo Vaz systematically dissects the common fake news techniques used by the mainstream media in its reporting on Venezuela.
The lead-up to the Constituent Assembly elections was full of threats and refusals to recognise the results from the US and its subordinates near and far. After the vote took place, with over 8M voters participating, the mainstream media started behaving like the audience of “The Price is Right” (1). Any claim of a different turnout, invariably without any evidence, was thrown at the readers.
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International media outlets rushed to discredit the vote, sharing grossly misrepresentative accounts of the historic electoral process.
The U.S. newspaper Washington Post, for instance, wrote "the decision to hold the vote appeared set to prolong and deepen the suffering of the people of Venezuela" — despite assurances from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro that the purpose of the election was to ease economic and political conflicts with the opposition.
The Washington Post also insisted the nation’s 2.8 million state workers "risked losing their jobs if they did not vote."
The media outlet went even further, claiming the internal and democratic election represented "a direct challenge" to the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump after it demanded that the government cancel the vote.
It said Maduro "defiantly followed through Sunday with his pledge" to hold the election, "creating a critical new stage in a long-simmering crisis that could mint the Western Hemisphere’s newest dictatorship."
These inflammatory comments, however, do not acknowledge that the right to call a National Constituent Assembly is included in the country's Constitution and supported by several articles of its text. Indeed the absolute independence of the members of the Constituent Assembly to make changes to the Constitution is protected under these articles.
Germany's Deutsche Welle meanwhile said the election "will cement a socialist dictatorship" — ignoring the fact that Venezuelans have the right to call for a Constituent Assembly and that the new Constitution will need to be approved by the people.
The British media outlet BBC referenced the recent deaths during violent protests in Caracas, placing the full responsibility for the clashes between protesters and security forces.
But Venezuelan Armed Forces have denied these accusations. In a press conference Sunday, Minister of Defense Vladimir Padrino Lopez said that none of the injuries or deaths could be attributed to the Armed Forces. The article also ignores the eight members of the Armed Forces who were severely injured while protecting Venezuelans' right to vote.
The CNN, a longtime critic of the Venezuelan government, argued the Constituent Assembly was controlled by Maduro and that the "vote would give the president immense political power."
This statement fails to take into account that no other state institution may interfere in the new legislative body. Only the 545 officials elected by the citizens from different sectors of society can draft the new Constitution.
CNN also reported that Maduro would replace Venezuela's National Assembly — a situation that has never been stated in the decree to call for an open and direct vote.
Canada's Globe and Mail said "voters broadly boycotted" the election, ignoring the numerous of photos and videos of people lining up to vote at dawn and even wading through swamps to reach the voting centers. The article also does not include the countless reports of seniors and people with disabilities eagerly casting votes across the country.
"Caracas was largely shut down with deserted streets and polling stations were mostly empty, dealing a blow to the legitimacy of the vote," said the Globe and Mail without any evidence.
The Guardian joined the mainstream criticism, calling the election an action that will "seal the demise of the oil-rich nation’s democracy."
Again, the article failed to acknowledge the thousands of people who fought to earn the opportunity to be candidates in this historical event, including candidates from the LGBT community, student organizations and women and campesino groups.
Finally, the New York Times reported on the election with the headline: "As Venezuela Prepares to Vote, Some Fear an End to Democracy."
The article reported, "Maduro is pushing a radical plan to consolidate his leftist movement’s grip over the nation," forgetting that candidates are not voted for according to their political parties but through individual candidacies.
In one of the bluntest accusations, the newspaper argued Maduro "has refused to negotiate with street protesters," a claim that blatantly ignores Maduro's ongoing calls for peaceful dialogue and guidance from the Vatican.
It concludes by accusing the president of Venezuela of seeking an "unchecked authority not seen since the juntas that haunted Latin American countries in decades past," as Maduro and the Bolivarian Revolution have vowed to fight the same external interference that brought the U.S. backed dictatorships to the region in the 60s.