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Published 22 June 2017 by Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!
On Saturday 18 June 2017 the Revolutionary Communist Group and Rock Around The Blockade organised a picket of BBC Broadcasting House in central London to denounce its mendacious coverage of the struggle for socialism in Venezuela.
Having picketed The Guardian for the same reason in May, the RCG and RATB targeted the BBC because this unashamed mouthpiece for imperialism spreads blatant lies about the Bolivarian Revolution in order to justify ongoing attempts at a fascistic counter-revolution.
Curiously enough, even if Venezuelan Presidents Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro have always been presented as 'ruthless dictators' by the BBC, the British media have usually taken little interest in the indisputable progress brought about by the Boliarian Revolution. However, seizing on the renewed counter-revolutionary efforts of the Mesa de Unidad Democrática (MUD), the opposition's coalition, the British media have suddenly remembered Venezuela’s existence.
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Published 22 June 2017 by Venezuelanalysis.com
The United States failed Wednesday to persuade the Organisation of American States to condemn Venezuela’s government, amid growing speculation of a new round of unilateral sanctions.
On the final day of OAS talks in Cancun, Mexico, the US pressed for a formal declaration condemning President Nicolas Maduro’s handling of his country’s political and economic crisis. The proposal was strongly backed by US allies including the host country Mexico.
"Mexico's position on Venezuela is a position that will not waver, it's a position that says representative democracy is the only form of government acceptable in the Western Hemisphere," Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said, according to Reuters.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez responded by labeling Mexico and other US allies as “lapdogs of imperialism”.
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Published 5 June 2017 by venezuelanalysis
Venezuelan Man Burned Alive Dies as Death Toll Tops 73
Caracas, June 5, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) – A Venezuelan man burned alive by opposition protesters has died of his injuries as anti-government unrest claimed two more lives over the weekend.
Afro-Venezuelan Orlando Figuera died in the hospital on Saturday evening after suffering six knife wounds as well as first and second-degree burns on 54 percent of his body.
On May 20, the 21-year-old was passing through the opposition stronghold of Chacao when he was accused of being a government supporter by masked protesters, who brutally beat him before dousing him in gasoline and setting him on fire.
The death was made by public by the national ombudsman, Tarek William Saab, who called for the “maximum sentence against the lynchers”.
“Orlando Figuera, beaten, stabbed, and burned alive by “protesters”, is the symbol of hate crimes in Venezuela,” the top human rights official declared via Twitter.
In an interview with state broadcaster VTV, Figuera’s mother, Ines Esparragoza blamed opposition leaders for the murder.
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Published on 19 May 2017 by teleSUR
A coalition of Colombian and international human rights groups called on the International Criminal Court on Thursday to investigate 14 former and current Chiquita executives and employees who had direct involvement in facilitating crimes against humanity by funding right-wing paramilitary organizations in Colombia between 1997 and 2004 in the midst of Colombia's bloody internal conflict.
The petition was presented by the International Human Rights Clinic of Harvard Law School, the International Federation for Human Rights, and the Colectivo de Abogados José Alvear Restrepo, a Colombian human rights organization.The human rights coalition asked the ICC that the Chiquita executives be investigated and held accountable individually for “crimes against humanity.”
“The executives who oversaw the funding of paramilitaries should not be able to sit comfortably in their houses in the United States as if they did nothing wrong,” said a member of the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado, which submitted a letter to the ICC about how the paramilitary violence personally affected them. “Families across Colombia have been waiting for accountability for too long.”
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Published on 18 May 2017 by Venezuelanalysis
A maternity hospital was attacked in Venezuela's Miranda state Wednesday as the death count in ongoing violent anti-government protests ascends to 53.
Three newborns and one pregnant woman in labor were evacuated from the Carrizal Maternity Hospital after the facility was besieged for two consecutive days by opposition demonstrators.
According to hospital’s director, Doctor Natalia Martinho, smoke was entering the hospital from the barricades of burning rubble erected just 50 meters from the building by protesters, endangering the health of patients on the fourth floor.
The barricades reportedly prevented doctors, specialists, and all but two of the hospital’s twelve nurses from arriving for their shifts, leaving Martinho on duty for 36 hours alongside two residents.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has confirmed that a 27-year-old pregnant woman from Aragua currently in labor was evacuated along with three newborns “who could not receive their treatment for 36 hours due to the terrorist groups of the opposition”.
The attack comes as violent opposition protests demanding early presidential elections enter their seventh week.
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Published on 12 May 2017 by venezuelanalysis
Around 100 people were allegedly trapped in Venezuela’s embassy in Madrid Thursday by far right protesters.
The protesters have been accused of chanting “Franco, Franco!” while protesting outside an embassy event on violence in Venezuela. A close supporter of Adolf Hitler, Francisco Franco ruled Spain as a military dictator for over three decades until his death in 1975. The protesters also carried signs demanding freedom for Venezuela’s jailed right-wing opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez.
However, the protesters themselves have denied the allegations, claiming they were shouting "narco". The protest was in response to an event hosted by the embassy to discuss right-wing violence in Venezuela. The event included representatives from the NGO Victims of Guarimba, a group that provides support to Venezuelans injured by guarimbas. “Guarimba” is a term used in Venezuela to refer to violent right-wing protests and roadblocks. More than 40 people died in 2014, when the guarimbas took over the streets of Venezuela as part of a campaign to force President Nicolas Maduro from office. The guarimbas struck again last month, when they began another campaign of political violence, which has so far left 44 people dead.
According to forum attendee and coordinator of the left-wing party Izquierda Unida, Daniel Moreno, the protesters were aggressive and threatening.
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Published 3 May 2017 by venezuelanalysis
Caracas, May 3, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Four people were killed and over a dozen wounded Tuesday as a result of the Venezuelan opposition’s “National Barricade” that saw anti-government demonstrators block roads throughout the country.
Organized by the right-wing opposition coalition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), the national day of action was a response to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s announcement Monday convening a constituent assembly to redraft the country’s constitution.
The move has been denounced as a “fraud” and a “coup” by MUD spokespeople despite the proposal being previously endorsed by top opposition leaders, including Freddy Guevara, Leopoldo Lopez, and Maria Corina Machado.
In spite of the MUD’s calls for “civil disobedience”, Tuesday’s mobilizations once again gave way to deadly violence.
Two people were killed and 10 wounded in a bus accident in Carabobo state Tuesday evening when the vehicle flipped over “trying to avoid barricades,” confirmedNational Civil Protection Director Jorge Galindo.
One of the victims has been identified as Ana Rodriguez (42), though the other person killed remains unidentified.
The accident occurred when the bus swerved to avoid an anti-government barricade. (@AndrewsAbreu and @CristopherB)
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Published 28 April 2017 by revolutionarycommunist.org
Opposition violence wreaks death and destruction in renewed coup attempt
Venezuela’s bourgeois opposition has once again taken to the streets in violent scenes of chaos and destruction with the aim of toppling President Maduro and the United Socialist Party (PSUV) government. Since 4 April several of its marches have ended with gangs of right-wing thugs setting up burning barricades and attacking public housing projects, hospitals, schools, health centres, transport systems and government offices. To date at least 31 people have been killed. The imperialist media and privately-owned Venezuelan press dishonestly portray these masked groups as ‘pro-democracy’ protesters facing down repression from the government; inevitably, they completely censor the mass mobilisations by working class supporters of the Bolivarian government. These lies, disseminated across the globe, are designed to provide the ideological framework for what is in reality a coordinated attempt at a right-wing coup.
The protests began after Venezuela’s Supreme Court temporarily assumed the functions of the country’s legislative body, the National Assembly, which is controlled by opposition forces. It had found the National Assembly in contempt of court for allowing three opposition politicians who have been suspended while they are investigated on charges of electoral fraud, to take their seats (see ‘The Venezuelan Supreme Court and the MUD Coalition’s persistent rejection of legality’). The move by the Supreme Court, although completely constitutional, was controversial and was rescinded within days at the request of President Maduro. However, the right-wing ‘Democratic Unity Movement’ (MUD) coalition seized its chance, accusing the court and the government of an attack on democracy. Just days before the Supreme Court decision, opposition leader Henrique Capriles, a viciously reactionary two-time presidential candidate and current governor of Miranda state, was banned from holding political office for 15 years for breaking contracting laws and improperly managing fundraising donations. This was the ammunition needed for the opposition to instigate violent street protests, demanding foreign intervention to force a change of government.
A history of opposition sabotage, coups and violence
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Published on 25 April 2017 venezuelanalysis
Caracas, April 25, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Four people were killed across Venezuela Monday in the latest round of violent anti-government protests convened by the opposition.
Protesters took to the streets to block roads and highways throughout the South American country in a “great national sit-in” organized by the right-wing opposition coalition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD).
According to National Assembly Vice-President and hard-right Popular Will party leader Freddy Guevara, the goals of the mobilization were to “unmask the true face of the dictatorship” and “create ungovernability”. The opposition coalition called on its supporters to take to the streets indefinitely at the beginning of April in a bid to force early presidential elections among other demands.
While turnout was significantly smaller than previous mobilizations last week, the day was punctuated by deadly violence.
Two dead, three wounded by sniper fire in Merida
According to National Ombudsman Tarek William Saab, two Merida state government workers were killed and three more wounded when a pro-government rally reportedly came under sniper fire from a nearby apartment complex in the southwestern Andean state.
Jesus Leonardo Sulbaran, 42, was shot in the head and died Monday afternoon, while Luis Alberto Marquez died of a gunshot wound to the occipital lobe at 1:30am Tuesday morning. Merida public transit worker and University of Los Andes student Daniel Infante was also shot in the head during the rally and is currently in critical condition.