Venezuela: Defend and deepen the Bolivarian Revolution with an armed and mobilised people
By Marea Socialista, translation by International Viewpoint
July 28, 2010 – Following the provocations of the Colombian regime, which threatens an armed intervention on Venezuelan territory under the false pretext that the latter was sheltering FARC guerrilla bases, President Hugo Chavez has decided to suspend all diplomatic relations with Colombia. It is clear that once again the Colombian regime is acting as a perfect satellite of the United States which is moreover currently dramatically increasing militarist manoeuvres and tensions all around the globe. We publish below a statement by the Venezuelan revolutionary Marxist organisation Marea Socialista, with which the Fourth International has fraternal relations.
The provocation from Uribe and the drugs traffickers who dominate the Colombian regime stretches to a limit of extreme tension relations between Colombia and Bolivarian Venezuela. The right, the oligarchy and the Venezuelan pro-Yankees present the attitude of President Chavez as an electoral manoeuvre or a problem exploited by the government out of propaganda concerns and chauvinism.
However, it is a demonstrated fact that in recent months there have been a succession of US troop movements and Mossad and CIA special operations at the international level which cannot be interpreted as isolated events. There is the deployment of significant military forces in the Middle East to threaten Iran; the attack on the humanitarian flotilla for Gaza by Israeli forces and the desire to subject still further the Palestinian people. There is the situation in Afghanistan, the growing tension against North Korea.
It would be naive to believe that all these operations are not interlinked. It amounts to a global strategy, which is in key with the reactivation and manoeuvres of the US Fourth Fleet in the Caribbean, with the seven Colombian military bases which the US army can use when it needs to, with the authorisation granted to 46 warships and 13,000 marines to station themselves in Costa Rica; the reinforcement of the Aruba and Curaçao bases; the authorisation to reinstall themselves in Panama, the landing of troops in Haiti...
Uribe renders his final service to his imperialist masters
After having failed to get himself re-elected, Colombian president Uribe is rendering his final service to his Yankee masters. He is provoking a situation of tension and confrontation against the government of President Hugo Chavez which could end in a serious incident, capable of setting the whole region ablaze.
Whether Uribe’s muscular gesticulations represent gratuitous bravado or a real provocation, the task of the revolutionary people is to prepare for the worst of scenarios. We, “Marea Socialiste”, a current of activists in the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela), think that it is impossible to maintain this precarious peace with proposals such as those formulated by the Brazilian president Lula.
“The government of Brazil will propose to the governments of Colombia and Venezuela that they collaborate in the surveillance of their common border so as to give a definitive solution to their conflicts”, said Marco Aurelio Garcia, the foreign affairs adviser to the Brazilian president, yesterday.
We reject categorically this position. One cannot allow the fascist military of the Uribe regime to control Venezuelan territory. That would be a clear violation of sovereignty and would amount to falling with tied feet into the trap set by imperialism and Uribe. It would moreover amount to accepting that his lie is true.
To defend the process: deepen the revolution
The secretary general of the OAS (Organization of American States), the pro-imperialist Insulza, has had the audacity to claim in public statements that our continent had not experienced war in the past 100 years, apart from minor confrontations such as those between Ecuador and Peru or between El Salvador and Honduras. However, he has cynically “forgotten” the Malvinas War which, beyond the Argentine dictatorship, was an attempt to do away with one the last colonial enclaves, more than 400 years old.
This war, launched by bloodthirsty and cowardly generals, teaches us precisely “in negative” what it is necessary to do so as not to lose a revolutionary process.
Measures to mobilise the whole revolutionary people to defend our process
At the military level
Mobilise, drive and accelerate the allocation of arms so as to accomplish the revolutionary order of arming the people. Equip all the combatant bodies (militias) in the workplaces, the countryside, the universities, the neighbourhoods. Beyond the acceleration of their training, fulfil the order from President Chavez given in May2009 which stipulates that arms be stored in the places of work, study and neighbourhoods so as to be immediately used if necessary. In all the combatant bodies the strictest military discipline should prevail coupled with the broadest liberty of discussion concerning the political measures necessary to take so as to defeat the Yankee-Colombian aggression if it happens.
At the economic level
We salute the proposal of President Chavez to no longer supply oil to the United States in case of aggression. However, we think that this measure is insufficient to confront the crisis-ridden but still very mighty power of the Yankees. We propose the following supplementary measures:
Immediate confiscation of all Yankee and Colombian capital goods and multinational enterprises present in Venezuela. In particular those linked to the latest contracts and mixed enterprise concessions granted in the Orinoco Belt. Place all these confiscated enterprises under the control of the workers (oil, industrial, financial or commercial).
Institute workers’ control in the oil and petrochemical industry once and for all to put an end to its bureaucratic management, in the image of what is done in the electrical and food industries and so on. This measure is fundamental so as to maintain functioning, increase production and foil the counter revolutionary nuclei and sabotage in these enterprises.
Install a state monopoly of foreign trade, for food, medicaments, and all that which is necessary so as to establish an industry truly autonomous of imperialism.
Cancel all public debts to the imperialist banks. .
In the media
Banning of all news coming from the imperialist media on the evolution of the aggression if it happens. Seizure of media not respecting this ban or favouring the imperialist aggressors by their reporting. Handing over of these media to revolutionary social organisations such as the National Union of Workers (UNT), trade unions, workers’ councils and so on.
At the international level
Demand the solidarity of all the peoples and governments of Latin America and the world so that they act against aggression. Call for an immediate international mobilisation from the beginning of the aggression.
Stalin Pérez, Gonzalo Gómez, Andrea Pacheco, Alexander Marín, Juan García, Zuleika Matamoros, Igor Alcalá, Gustavo Martínez, Luisana Melo, Lucero Benítez, Norman Bolcan, Ismael Hernández, Osman Cañizales, Christian Pereira, Jesús Vargas, Efrén Méndez, William Porras, Alí Verenzuela, Lilian Sanguino, Raúl Román, Vicente Osorio, Alexis Peña, Alexis Guerrero, Wilmer Aguilar, Roberto López, Rubén Linares, Vilma Vivas, Franklin Zambrano, Jesús Borges, Nieves Tamaroni, José Melendez, Elio Sayago, Daniel Rodríguez, José Tatá
[Marea Socialista is a grouping of revolutionary left militants within the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).]
Organising the People of Columbia
One thing which appears to be missing from the companer@s statement is an explicit reference to appealing to the Columbian people to unite with their Venezuelan sisters and brothers in stopping the Columbian ruling class. A call for a joint peace and anti-war conference on the Columbian and Venezuelan border, with popular and progressive individuals and organisations, combined with an anti-war concert featuring musicans from all parts of our America, would go a long way in under cutting Uribe's geo-political ploy.
And perhaps this could lead to a joint Venezuelan and Columbian Bolivarian movement to have a peoples' Bolivarian alliance, thereby cutting the room to manoeuvre politcally of the Columbian oligarqy.
After all, wasn't it Simon Bolivar who had a vision of Gran Columbia, an integrated political entity, something which the various ruling classes throughout our America have been unable to achieve; more unfinished business for the working masses to put on their democratic agenda.
Prensa Latina: Venezuela to Rebuild Relations with Colombia
Marea Socialist's statement is wild, ultraleftist posturing. Stalin and his friends pretend they are more revolutionary then Hugo Chavez, raising such hysterical demands as:
"Immediate confiscation of all Yankee and Colombian capital goods and multinational enterprises present in Venezuela.
------------------
"Cancel all public debts to the imperialist banks."
Actually, Chavez is doing what he can, as are people like Correa and others, trying to REDUCE tensions between Venezuela and Colombia, while Stalin and his friends want to ratchet the tension UP, at least on a rhetorical level.
Marea Socialista's war against Lula is in the same vein as its pretense at being more revolutionary then Hugo Chavez. Lula and Chavez are getting along and increasing their cooperation, while Stalin and his friends would like to break it up.
Walter Lippmann
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews'
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Venezuela to Rebuild Relations with Colombia
Escrito por Yllen Riquelme
domingo, 08 de agosto de 2010
08 de agosto de 2010, 11:17
Caracas, Aug 8 (Prensa Latina) Venezuela considers the assumption of Juan Manuel Santos to the presidency of Colombia an opportunity to rebuild bilateral relations damaged by the hostility of the outgoing administration of Alvaro Uribe.
The expectations are related to its desire to overcome the present crisis and to the signs sent by the new occupant of Narino Palace, who in his inauguration reiterated his wish to maintain an atmosphere of peace and understanding with neighboring countries.
A few hours after the speech of the new Colombian President, President Higo Chavez extended his hand and asked him to help overcome the bilateral conflict.
Chavez said in Zulia during an election rally that he had instructed Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro to transmit an invitation to President Santos, but if he were unable to visit Venezuela over the next three or four days, Chavez would be willing to go to Colombia for a meeting.
Chavez broke ties last month with Uribe's administration after they accused him at the Organization of American States (OAS) of protecting Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and abetting terrorism.
Since then tensions grew, and even military aggression from Colombian seemed possible, spurred on by the traditional US tendency of interference in the region.
However, the inauguration of Santos is seen by Caracas as the beginning of the path to re-establishing links made necessary by historical and geographical realities (they share more than 200 kilometers of common borders).
Chavez said that in order to build the great country of the South, he is willing to turn the page and look to the future.
Just hours after the end of Uribe's administration, new winds are blowing regarding bilateral relations, although many questions remain unanswered.
Santos' speech has clear messages of reconciliation, although it continues to be marred by the presence in Colombia of seven U.S. military bases, which Venezuela considers a threat to its sovereignty and to regional stability.
No less worrisome is the appointment of Gabriel Silva, Uribe's last Minister of Defense, as ambassador to Washington.
Silva has been one of the most aggressive against Caracas and one of the authors of the campaign alleging the presence of guerrilla camps on Venezuelan soil.
Some analysts think Santos is caught in a dilemma: to heed the interests of those in his country seeking to recover the over six billion dollar trade balance achieved in binational trade, or continue to serve as the launching pad of the United States in its efforts to colonize Venezuelaâ�Ös oil and stop the example of its revolution.
Faced with this scenario, Chavez warned that the rapprochement is conditional on respect for sovereignty and an end to the crusades to discredit his administration.
"Respect is what we demand. Respect for the Venezuelan people, respect for the Bolivarian Revolution, respect for Venezuelaâ�Ös sovereignty and for the dignity of this land of Bolivar", he said.
In any case, the first steps to improving ties between Colombia and Venezuela seem to have been taken, and it remains to be seen how far Santos is prepared to go, and how far Washington is willing to allow him.
sus/as/yrc/wmr
Modificado el ( domingo, 08 de agosto de 2010 )
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Brazil, Venezuela Enhance Cooperation
Escrito por Ileana Ferrer Fonte
viernes, 06 de agosto de 2010
06 de agosto de 2010, 09:26Caracas, Aug 6 (Prensa Latina) Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrives in Caracas on Friday to hold talks with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in their customary binational quarterly meeting, aimed at boosting joint economic and social development projects.
In their previous meeting, held in Brasilia early April, both statesmen signed over 20 accords to strengthen cooperation in energy, housing, culture, tourism and food and agriculture, among others.
The two presidents will assess progress on integration and perspectives for greater collaboration in the social field, along with the implementation of agreements.
Lula's visit, also aimed at fostering regional unity, will coincide with a visit by Nestor Kirchner, general secretary of the Union of South American Nations. Kirchner arrived in this country on Thursday to analyze the Colombian-Venezuelan conflict.
The dispute between the two countries worsened after Bogota accused the neighboring nation of the alleged presence in this country of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army, leading Venezuela to break off diplomatic relations with Colombia.
A rally convened by the Venezuelan socialists in this capital in favor of peace and in defense of national sovereignty is being held in parallel with Lula's official visit.
After their meetings in Caracas, the Brazilian president and the UNASUR general secretary are expected to travel to Colombia to attend Juan Manuel Santos' inauguration.
hr/rab/iff/ap
Modificado el ( viernes, 06 de agosto de 2010 )
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Chavez confirms Tuesday summit with Colombia's new president
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrives at Simon Bolivar's tomb in Caracas July
24, 2010. (Xinhua/Reuters File Photo)
CARACAS, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez confirmed Sunday he will travel to Bogota Tuesday to meet his new Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel Santos in a bid to mend the bilateral ties.
The president said in a TV program that top on the summit's agenda would be restoring bilateral relations.
Venezuela severed diplomatic relations with Colombia on July 22 after Bogota accused Caracas of harboring Colombian rebel groups on its soil and took the case to international organizations. But the two sides moved toward restoring relations as Santos was sworn in as Colombia's new president Saturday.
Chavez said he and Santos will also discuss bilateral trade, transport, agriculture, drugs, trafficking and Colombian rebel groups.
As a sign of goodwill, the president sent his foreign minister Nicolas Maduro to attend Santos' inauguration ceremony and directed him to arrange a bilateral summit.
Chavez also watched live TV broadcast of Sunday's talks between Maudro, Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin and Secretary-General of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) Nestor Kirchner.
During that meeting, the two foreign ministers agreed on the date and location of the upcoming Chavez-Santos summit.
Chavez also said he appreciated Kirchner's mediating role in the Venezuela-Colombia feud.
Fidel brushes aside any remote chance of Colombia attacking Vene
Now that Venezuela and Colombia have opened a new page
in their relationship, Marea Socialista's ultraleftist
posturing can be seen in its fullest absurdity. Chavez
and Fidel want to lower tensions in the region while
Marea Socialista want to intensify them.
Walter Lippmann
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
http://en.mercopress.com/2010/08/11/santos-chavez-admits-differences-bu…
MERCO PRESS
Wednesday, August 11th 2010 - 05:57 UTC
http://en.mercopress.com/2010/08/11/fidel-brushes-aside-any-remote-chan…
Fidel brushes aside any remote chance of Colombia attacking Venezuela
Former Cuban President Fidel Castro dismissed the possibility of a Colombian attack on Venezuela, and said he felt positive about Colombia's future under the leadership of newly sworn-in President Juan Manuel Santos.
Fidel statements were made Monday before the Santos/Chavez meeting in Santa Marta.
Referring to the recent diplomatic crisis between the neighbouring nations, the leader of the Cuban revolution brushed off the threat of war between the two countries.
“There is not even the remotest possibility that Colombia will attack Venezuela. Firstly, because it is not in its interests, secondly because it can't, thirdly because it doesn't want to and fourthly because it knows that the consequences would be disastrous,” he declared.
Castro also commented on Santos, who was inaugurated on Saturday.
“I don't have any criticism of the new president of Colombia. I listened to the inauguration speech, in full, word for word. It lasted one hour and ten minutes. I saw him there with his family and his kids. I like the future that awaits Colombia,” the 83-year-old stated in an interview in Havana, broadcast by Venezuelan state television station Telesur.
After falling ill in 2006, Castro temporarily handed the presidency of Cuba to his brother Raul, and the arrangement was made permanent in February 2008. Fidel retains the roles of first secretary of the governing Communist Party and deputy in the Cuban national assembly.
Venezuela has expressed concerns that the U.S. will invade via Colombia. The Bolivarian revolution nation suspended ties with Colombia in 2009 after Colombia signed a military agreement granting access to seven Colombian military bases. Chavez claims the pact undermines regional sovereignty.
Colombia-Venezuela relations deteriorated further in late July after Colombia alleged that Venezuela was harbouring left-wing guerrillas. The allegations led Chavez to break ties with Colombia.
Speaking about the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Fidel Castro stated that while he agreed with the aspirations of deceased revolutionary and FARC leader, Manuel Marulanda, he never supported their practice of holding prisoners.
Castro said armed conflicts are resolved more by politics and morale than by the military force of any army.
No guerrilla groups are allowed in Venezuela
Venezuelan News Agency AVN / August 10, 2010
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez hopes the restored relations with Colombia will be carried on the basis of respect and communication, additionally he reaffirmed that he will not permit any connection to be made between his administration and insurgence, drug trafficking or terrorist groups.
"The Venezuelan Government, which I lead, does not permit, nor will it permit, the presence of guerrilla, terrorist groups or drug trafficking activity in our territory. That who affirms so is guilty of slander;" he said, after the meeting with his Colombian counterpart, Juan Manuel Santos, in Santa Marta, Colombia, where they resumed the relations between the two nations.
The political, economic and diplomatic ties between Venezuela and Colombia were cut last July due to denunciations by the Government of Colombian Álvaro Uribe based on false evidence and supported by the US Government.
Chávez ratified that several times he has ordered surveillance on the border and no insurgent camps were found.
"We have patrolled many times those places and we did not find any guerrilla camp," he argued.
Wild and Wooly Wally 's Weird Words
It took me several attempts to read and understand Wally Lippman's diatribe against the companer@s of Marea Socialista. The gist of it seems to be that, like all social liberals, Wally does't like plain and clear plans for revolutionary actions, such as those presented in case of an attack on Venezuela by the US backed government of Uribe and Santos.
Perhaps Wally should have a chat with the octogenarian in Havana about nationalising US capital assets; I am sure that Wally would have no trouble convincing Fidel of the errors of his ways.
What Wally and his ilk can't seem to get through their weird and wooly heads is that a socialist revolution means expropriating the exploiting classes, and eliminating them as a social and political force. In the case of Venezuela, that means that the assets of imperialism, including the assets of sub-imerialist corporations like those from Brasil, will get nationalised under workers control, whether his social liberal buddy Lula likes it or not.
It is clear that Comrade Stalin understands the dynamics of the Venezuelan revolution much more clearly than does Wally, given Lippman's hysterical and wild accusations with not a thread of political analysis or logic behind them.
Translation by International Viewpoint
I am very happy when LINKS republishes translations by International Viewpoint, but please do remember to credit IV as the source.
Thanks Duncan
Thanks for drawing that to our attention. It was sent to us by somebody in Marea Socialista, and they did not make us aware of the source of the translation.
PL: Venezuelan Socialists Greet Colombian Minister's Visit
(Stalin and his friends, at home and internationally,
aren't expected to join in the welcoming ceremonies.)
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Venezuelan Socialists Greet Colombian Minister's Visit
Caracas, Aug 17 (Prensa latina) ) The board of the Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV)greeted on Monday the forthcoming visit of the Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin, who will arrive in this capital to strengthen relations between the two nations.
The recent meeting in Santa Marta, Colombia, of the presidents of both countries ended the bilateral dispute exacerbated by the provocations of the former president of Columbia, Alvaro Uribe.
Holguín will arrive in Caracas on Friday and, along with her counterpart Nicolas Maduro, will install the working committees which will support this new stage of mutual ties.
Navarro, leader of the largest political Venezuelan organization, celebrated the presence of the President of the Congress of Columbia, Armando Benedetti, in search of new communication mechanisms to deepen the process of detente and reconciliation.
Speaking to the press, Navarro reiterated that the PSUV rejects the presence of guerrilla groups in the country regardless of political orientation or source, a position that coincides with the position of the current government.
He also stated the Socialists support the pronouncements of the Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, who has said that Colombia must open the way for a political discussion which would put an end to the civil war of more than half a century.
Venezuela and Colombia reestablished diplomatic relations on August 10 after the meeting of Chavez and the newly inaugurated president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, who agreed to design a program of rapprochement and cooperation covering areas such as defense, trade, energy, social investment and development in border areas.
sus/as/ycf/ap