Nicolás Maduro will begin his second term in office tomorrow January 10 after having won the presidential elections with 67,84% in May 2018. Despite the rigor and transparency with which this democratic process was carried out, the US and its allies in Latin America and in Europe have insisted that the elections were illegitimate and as such have declared that they will not recognize his second term.
So far, most declarations that denounced the elections, like the one from the Lima Group, were clear to rule out a military intervention. However, after the attempted assassination of Maduro in August along with the revelations in December that the US government has been colluding with Colombian government to carry out a coup d’etat, many worry that a military intervention is possible.
The victories of far-right Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Ivan Duque in Colombia have also been key in creating favorable conditions for a possible intervention. Both have highly antagonistic attitudes towards Venezuela and Bolsonaro recently stated that he would be open to the US operating a military base on Brazilian soil (Colombia already is home to 7 US military bases).
In light of this worrying panorama, social movements and progressive governments across the world have voiced their support for Venezuela and its democratically elected president Nicolás Maduro.
In Latin America, dozens of social movements who are part of the platform Social Movements of ALBA, released statements expressing their solidarity with Venezuela in the face of imperialist aggression and reiterated the importance of the Bolivarian Revolution for Latin America and the people engaged in struggle. They also called attention to the ironic nature of the Lima Group, a group that is full of governments that perpetuate economic inequality, human rights violations and deny their citizens basic rights, but focus energy and resources on denouncing Venezuela and actively attacking it in order to appease the imperialist power of the US.
Many highlighted that the current crisis faced in Venezuela is in large part due to the economic siege waged against the nation by the US and the European Union whose sanctions have prevented it from buying basic supplies like medicine and food and have also caused them to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in economic transactions. These sanctions have had dire impacts on the Venezuelan people.
Around 600 intellectuals, academics, artists, social leaders, representatives of the religious sector, professores, deputies, ambassadors, lawyers, activists and peace loving people from across the world part of the Network of Intellectuals, Artists and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity released a statement calling for respect of the sovereignty of Venezuela.
They state “The United States and a group of governments obedient to the orders of the White House, have prepared to not recognize the legitimacy of the mandate of President Nicolás Maduro Moros beginning on January 10. In the face of these intentions we call on the people of the United States and the international community to no intervention and to recognize and respect the sovereign will of the Venezuelan people, that continue creating their own path, guided by the inalienable right to free self determination and independence.”
The full list of the signatories is available here.
Tomorrow, a new phase of the Bolivarian Revolution will begin. In the face of war-mongering threats and economic sanctions, the people of the world engaged in the struggle for a more just and equal society, stand firmly with the people of Venezuela and President Nicolás Maduro.