Statement of the Venezuela Solidarity Committee

Boston, May 8, 2017.- Street protests continue in Venezuela with the goal of ousting socialist President Maduro. At the same time huge pro-government rallies support Maduro and the Bolivarian revolution. Some of the protests have resulted in violence and the situation has reached crisis proportions. With the difficult economic situation improving in recent months, the opposition decided to take to the streets. The US mainstream media mostly reports one side of the story, that of the right wing opposition.

The US has a long history of interfering in Latin American politics, both covertly and by military force. The Trump administration wants regime change in Venezuela as any form of socialism must be defeated, consequently the administration is backing the powerful Venezuelan opposition. The Venezuela Solidarity Committee in Boston is calling on the people in the US to oppose any form of imperialist intervention. The Venezuelan people have the right to work out their differences and decide themselves the future of their country.
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By Alison Bodine

Almost two decades ago, the people of Venezuela chose to change their history and build a country along a different path then that dictated by the U.S. government. They elected President Hugo Chávez and began the Bolivarian revolution, a powerful process of social and political transformation that continues to make great gains in the lives of poor and oppressed people in Venezuela.
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By Alison Bodine

2017 is the 19th year of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. For nearly two decades this revolution, which began with the election of Comandante Hugo Chávez in 1998, has been making tremendous gains for poor, working and oppressed people in Venezuela. Including massive improvements in education, healthcare and housing. The fact is, in Venezuela today more people are living just and dignified lives.
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Americans have been trained by decades of Cold War propaganda to look for any confirmation that ‘socialism means poverty.’ But in the case of Venezuela and other states not governed by the free market, this cliche simply doesn’t ring true.

By Caleb T. Maupin | July 12, 2016

WASHINGTON — (ANALYSIS) The political and economic crisis facing Venezuela is being endlessly pointed to as proof of the superiority of the free market.

Images and portrayals of Venezuelans rioting in the streets over high food costs, empty grocery stores, medicine shortages, and overflowing garbage bins are the headlines, and the reporting points to socialism as the cause.
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by Lisa Sullivan

For 32 years I have called Venezuela home. Its mountains have given me beauty, its barrios have given me music, its struggles have given me purpose, and its people have given me love.

Its Bolivarian Revolution gave me hope. How could I not feel hope when most of my neighbors -ages 2 to 70, were studying, right in our little potato-growing town in the mountains of western Venezuela. How could I not be hopeful when 18 neighbor families received new homes to replace their unhealthy, crowded living spaces?
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by Carlos Aznarez

(Originally published in Spanish at “Resúmen Latinoamericano”, Argentina. 24 June 2016. Translated by VSC.)

It has been a long time, ever since those years when Cuba was still participating in the OAS, that we had not heard words so clear and emphatic as those spoken these days by Bolivarian Chancellor Delcy Rodríguez. It was a real hurricane of fresh air blowing in that tribune, which has always officiated as a tentacle of US foreign policy in Latin America.
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Honorable Secretary-General:

We, the undersigned organizations and individuals from the United States and Canada, are deeply concerned by your intervention in Venezuela on behalf of the opposition United Democratic Roundtable (MUD) and its allies in Washington as well as your relentless attacks on the administration of President Nicolás Maduro. Venezuela is at a crossroads, facing both an economic crisis and political polarization. Far from helping Venezuela move toward a peaceful and cooperative resolution of these challenges, your intercessions over the past year have served to exacerbate the conflict. We urge you to avoid further partisanship and play a more constructive and impartial role in promoting peace and dialogue. For an example of such an approach one only need look to the mediation efforts of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), which has the backing of UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon.

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