While the far-right attacks in Venezuela backed by imperialist forces may have died down, the threat the opposition poses still is very present. Despite this, Venezuelan people will continue to push forward with the Bolivarian Revolution.
The following is a translation of the 7 August, 2024 episode of AfroDescendientes En Acción on La Radio Del Sur in Venezuela, hosted by Jesús Chucho García, current Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Benin and founder of the AfroVenezuelan Network and the AfroLatinAmerican Strategic Alliance. Translation by Clau O’Brien Moscoso.
Radio del Sur presents Afro Descendants in Action. To learn about the history and struggles of Africans and their descendants, in Venezuela and Our Americas.
Afro Descendants in Action through Radio del Sur broadcasting from Cotonou, Benin, Africa. Your servant - Jesús Chucho García. Afro Descendants in Action is a program to communicate to the African diaspora, the Afro-Venezuelan threads, Afro-descendants in South America with the Caribbean and now from Africa.
We all know the situation we (Venezuelans) are going through. Alexis Machado (show producer) informs us from Caracas that since Sunday there has been a calm, a tense calm, since President Maduro proceeded to restore security, to arrest those who have interrupted the peace of Venezuelans following the elections on July 28. It was the radical sectors of the opposition - those who burned the young (Orlando) Figuera and eighteen more Africans in Plaza Altamira, the famous operation La Salida, which was implemented by Primero Justicia (opposition party) headed by Leopoldo López.
Anyway, they really are the devil. Sympathy for the Devil and Sympathy for the Liberal is precisely what the radical sector of the opposition has had. Two of its leaders were summoned today (Aug 7) to the superior court to give statements and just as in previous days they practically called for an uprising of the armed forces. That has not been seen in another country. Even in England, where the Rolling Stones are from, there's practically a civil war going on in the major cities right now, right?
Elon Musk was the one who planned the macabre attack on the cyber networks, the CNE Internet network on the 28th so that this entire climate of violence that has practically generated the radical opposition would occur. He was the one who even made fake news that a migrant from Africa had assaulted some girls and then the extreme right took to the streets, right? It was violating all the rules of the state of England and the Minister of the Interior had to go out, well, to counterattack those who are practically causing disorder outside the law. England is following its laws and now there are more than six hundred detainees. But now they (international media) say that Maduro is a dictator and that he is persecuting those who attacked the most humble in Venezuela. But in England, they are taking them (those involved in far right pogroms in England) to jail. England is doing the same thing because the order is being subverted. In our specific case, there are powers through which differences can be channeled. That is why Edmundo and all the parties have been called (in front of the Supreme Court). Well, let's go to the laws, for that we have the powers already established by the Venezuelan people from the constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela promoted by President Chávez.
So that's why we say that these people's luck is already running out. We already know who the devil is and that's why they told me that these people have sympathy for the devil. But let’s add to that, as the poet Jorge Luis Borges from Argentina himself said, the coup against Chavez in 2002 is a circular crime. Afterwards, they started in the same way - ignoring the subsequent elections that were held and the most terrible thing was all the violence that occurred between 2017 and 2018. And calling for a blockade, which is what María Corina's group is doing again - they will call for a blockade, which of course will not affect them. María Corina's three children are in the United States, the eldest has just graduated from a postgraduate degree and a postgraduate degree in the United States is at least worth sixty thousand dollars.
So the rest, the poor people who were given $150 so that they can destroy property that belongs to all Venezuelans, so that they can cause disorders - they already have them caught. Look at the English channel, look for the information. Everything is practically going back to a civil war and how they are proceeding, even those who lend themselves to continue agitating. That is why we invite you to see that. So they can follow their laws to restore order, and we can’t?
The Venezuelan people are indestructible, sovereign, and anti-imperialist. I felt sorry for the others (countries in OAS) last week when I think his name was Javert in Victor Hugo's novel, Les Miserables, the one who always chased someone who supposedly stole a piece of bread, right? So, this is Almagro, the miserable one in the OAS, when he convened the OAS council to condemn the Venezuelan elections.
Well, Javert or Luis Almagro - you could see the clear disappointment and sadness on his face when he couldn't get the votes to condemn Venezuela. First of all, there are two errors there. The first mistake is that in 2019 we left the OAS; that is, there is no reason to condemn it, because we are not part of the OAS. And secondly, Almagro says, in the end after the failure when he did not get enough votes, that he was personally going to take President Maduro to the International Criminal Court. We are truly experiencing an extraordinary surrealism never seen in history.
And some of these countries are in a difficult situation, for example, like Ecuador. Ecuador is also practically asking for military intervention. Guatemala - they also practically declared it as an election that was fraudulent and then they even had to support it. I even wrote an article because I interviewed some Garífunas in Guatemala who saw the intervention of the OAS and now that same president of Guatemala voted in favor of the OAS intervening in Venezuela, but they did not succeed.
At the international level as well - CARICOM, which are the Caribbean countries, unanimously said no to Venezuela's intervention; that it is the Venezuelan people who decide their destiny. I was following when the OAS voted to condemn Venezuela, of course one of those who condemned Venezuela was the representative of the United States in the OAS. But it was when it culminated - that meeting of the OAS council ended quite late - they interviewed the representative of the United States in the OAS and he said that Edmundo González got more votes than Maduro, but that the United States did not declare Edmundo González as president.
The next day Antony Blinken, Secretary of State, comes out saying that the United States supports the OAS. Then, the next day, Blinken said that the United States supports Edmundo as president. But after that, the issues in the Middle East began to explode - from Israel, where Iran begins to attack, the Houthis begin to attack, and Palestine began against Israel. So, Biden says that Iran must be responded to in an irrational way. Anthony Blinken then comes out saying, so that you can see how things move internationally, that the United States still does not recognize Edmundo as president. These are the contradictions of the geopolitical world, and that is why El Radio Del Sur makes an effort to clarify to people, especially southern countries, what is really happening. And within that we reaffirm our sovereignty.
Disorder cannot continue in Venezuela. And those who caused it have to report to the court of justice. As Edmundo González and everyone else has to do. The others have already been putting him in prison. That's nothing out of this world.
The constitutional power will be respected. And the truth is that the racist, criminal extreme right tried to confuse the people. Even as the bourgeoisie has always done, making the Venezuelan people cannon fodder, they have done so during all these twenty-five years that the Bolivarian process initiated by our leader Hugo Chávez. And that with all the force President Maduro has also chosen to be harsh. It can't happen here, because it happened in 2017.
Unfortunately, the Afro groups in defense of the process could not, because there we could have played an essential and fundamental role, especially the claim of the nineteen Afro descendants who were burned in 2017, and the person who burned young Orlando Figueuera is still on the loose. But hey, we are precisely in that fight and as Afro-descendants in action we continue to defend our sovereignty from Africa, from Latin America, from the Caribbean. We are the people of the south, we are the revolutionary people, we are the people of African descent who managed to build this country.
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