In a message broadcast on Twitter, the Venezuelan president assured that this great step of brotherhood marked the union in Latin America.

It is the Bolivar-Marti Agreement, signed by commanders Hugo Chavez (1954-2013) and Fidel Castro (1926-2016), which represents ‘the ultimate demonstration that it is possible to build a better world,’ Maduro said on the digital platform.

On October 30, 2000, the Comprehensive Collaboration Agreement between Cuba and Venezuela was signed in Caracas, a rapprochement through which various agreements and exchange projects arose in areas such as health, education, sports, culture and production.

As part of this alliance, more than 1,400 exchange projects have been signed so far, with emphasis on health services, drug supplies, counseling and human resources training in educational, sports, cultural and productive programs.

(Granma)

With the presence of Adam Chávez, Venezuelan ambassador to Cuba; Omar González, president of the Cuban chapter of REDH; Alpidio Alonso, Minister of Culture; Abel Prieto, director of the Martí Program Office; and Pedro Calzadilla, general coordinator of the REDH – who presented the document – the Cuban chapter of the Network joined the international effort to denounce the U.S. blockade and brutal campaign against the homeland of Bolivar, adding its members’ signatures and voices.

“Throughout the country’s history, no Venezuelan government has sent its armed forces to attack anyone, except to free our brothers from the first colonialist invasion,” reads the document that makes explicit with solid arguments that Venezuela is not a threat to anyone, and has never intended to dominate or exploit any people.

The letter demands “an end to this brutal aggression against the homeland,” and that “existing mechanisms for the protection of the Venezuelan people be activated, to ensure that the full right of all its inhabitants to human development and life is guaranteed,” a position with which Cuban intellectuals concur.

Omar González reaffirmed, in the name of the Cuban chapter, their solidarity with Venezuela, for which Adam Chávez expressed gratitude, recalling the role of Fidel and Chávez in establishing the organization.

“Venezuela is today the front line against the fascist wave,” said Abel Prieto, who added that the Network has the urgent task of articulating the efforts for change of all honorable people around the world – who are the majority.

Alpidio Alonso stated that this call is the opportunity we have today to serve. “Every day we must ask ourselves what else we can do to serve Venezuela,” he said and recalled that what happens in that country is also our problem, since the fascist counteroffensive involves us all. “We are called upon to act. It is imperative that everyone knows the truth, so that good and love prevail,” he insisted.

In his heartfelt comments, Villegas conveyed greetings from President Nicolás Maduro to the signatories, while saluting President Miguel Díaz-Canel and the Party. Aware that intellectuals and artists are the vanguard of the people’s sensibility, he said, “There is nothing strange about them being the first to the line of combat, when they are summoned.”

“Only an insensitive person could be indifferent to what the planet is experiencing. The Venezuelan cause, like that of revolutionary Cuba, is the cause of humanity,” he concluded.

(Granma)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly rejects its invocation under the pretext of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela being a threat to peace and security in the hemisphere, when in reality, the interventionist Monroe Doctrine implemented by the United States, hostility toward Venezuela, and the use of this treaty for such ends, that endanger the region’s peace and security.

Once again, the discredited Organization of American States was the vehicle for this outrage, in which an honorable group of nations openly opposed the decision.

Invoking the IRAT, which the United States used to justify military interventions and aggression in the region, causing so much pain and death to Latin Americans and Caribbeans, is a deliberate attempt to provoke a situation that could lead to the use of force to overthrow the legitimate government of President Nicolás Maduro Moros, in flagrant violation of the principles of international law and the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.

By rejecting this decision, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls upon the governments and peoples of Our America and the world to resolutely oppose this measure that pretends to justify, via an artificial legal framework, intervention in the internal affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which is unacceptable.

Havana, September13, 2019

“Cuban workers in these provinces, representing the entire country, will sign to reaffirm our support for the Venezuelan government and people, in the face of aggression from the United States,” said Consuelo Baeza Martín, a member of the Federation of Cuban Workers (CTC) Secretariat, speaking with Granma.”At workplaces and schools, we will reiterate once again our solidarity and our support for this sister country,” she added. The effort was undertaken to add Cuba´s voice to a letter sent by the Venezuelan people to Secretary General of the United Nations António Guterres, requesting that he enforce international law and demand and end of U.S. aggression.Beginning last August 10, to date, more than ten million Venezuelans have signed the letter rejecting U.S. interference and the unilateral actions of President Donald Trump. The activities have generated support within the international community.

(Granma)

This argument, which not even the hateful John Bolton believes, is the media message they are attempting to impose, along with the supposed support of some 50 countries, and the “legitimacy” of an imposter like Juan Guaidó, who applauds the attack on his own people.

The plan is not new. The blockade of Cuba has been in place for more than 60 years. First, the sanctions were “against Castro” – they said – while clarifying that they did not intend to affect the Cuban population. The word “affect” is misused, because what has been attempted is starvation, but the verb “to surrender” is not used in our country.

Cuba has never believed these lies, or those disguised as carrots. Fidel, a loyal follower of Martí’s ideas, understood well the entrails of the beast.

The sanctions, the total blockade, suspension of purchases of our products, persecution around the world to sanction those who trade with Cuba, threats and even armed intervention, terrorist attacks of all kinds, financing of mercenaries within the country, radio and TV broadcasts directed toward our territory, among other hostile actions, ran into a wall of dignity and resistance.

Many of them, with new names and more money, are still used in the 21st century.

To subjugate Cuba, Washington called upon misguided Europeans, who eventually bowed down and imposed a so-called “common position” to make the blockade even more cruel.

It is no accident that U.S. governments have made economic and financial sanctions their main weapon before resorting to war, invasions, and bombings. And it is no coincidence that peoples resist, overcome, and never lower their flags.

In the case of Venezuela, as with Cuba and Nicaragua, the U.S. has used as a front for their policy the discredited Organization of American States, which after the failures, on orders from Washington, has formed the so-called Lima Group, in which representatives of some governments parrot the notion that the sanctions are not directed against the people, but against Maduro.

IN CONTEXT:

Once the U.S. blockade of Venezuela was formalized on August 5, via an Executive Order issued by President Donald Trump, the anti-Chavista media and political representatives launched a whitewashing campaign.

The assets which the measure mainly affects (the Citgo oil company) are not owned by the government, but by the state. And this means that, ultimately, they belong to the nation. To all Venezuelans.

Citgo and other properties in the United States do not “belong” to the government, although it is responsible for their administration and management.

But the story line of presenting the sanctions to the public, in this way, serves two objectives: removing Venezuelan society as a whole as the main victim of the recently declared blockade, while concealing the theft of assets that belong to all Venezuelans, valued at more than 20 billion dollars.

The Executive Order is causing a major disruption of economic and commercial relations with the Venezuelan state internationally, prohibiting any type of transaction for the import of basic goods to the country.

The desired consequences are clear: the undermining of Venezuela’s social protection system; the progressive dismantling of public services; and greater economic discomfort due to shortages and high costs of essential items like food and medicine.

But these obstacles and the impact on the population have been growing for years, under a cumulative logic … In this sense, the only feature that differentiates the scope of this Executive Order, from past efforts, is the legal seal given the economic, commercial, and financial blockade, begun in 2015.

(Granma)

Greeted with shouts of “Cuba sí, Yankees no” and “Fidel, Fidel, what does Fidel have that the imperialists can’t get to him?” Díaz-Canel began his remarks to representatives of the more than 124 political parties and left movements present. His first words were for Comandante Hugo Chávez Frías, “Cuba’s best friend, son of the Americas who turns 65 today in eternity,” who Fidel loved as a son and placed next to Bolívar and Martí in the battle for the Greater Homeland.

He continued with a profound speech, full of symbolism, denouncing the innumerable malicious actions taken by neoliberal powers. But even this evil is dwarfed – Díaz-Canel insisted – when Our America meets, that is, the diverse, plural, and supportive world of progressive partisan leaders of Latin American and Caribbean, social activists who decided in the dark 1990s to build this unitary organization of the left, today alive and active.

A speech in which the Cuban head of state constantly evoked the ideas of Bolívar and Martí, from whom, he stated, Fidel and Chavez nourished the ideology of our revolutions, adding “Unity and integration were their great obsessions and must also be ours.”

“I know that these are also the obsessions of the Sao Paulo Forum, born of the need for unity and articulation of political parties and popular movements of the left in our region, to confront imperialism and the neoliberal right,” he said.

Díaz-Canel’s words turned again and again to history and its coincidences; to the transcendence of how much has been done in pursuit of integration and unity among our peoples; to the urgent need to further strengthen what unites us within our diversity.

“The São Paulo Forum summons us during an extremely challenging July and here we are, to accompany the heroic Venezuelan resistance and demand an end to the brutal siege that has been imposed on the country. Venezuela is today the anti-imperialist struggle’s primary trench,” he stated, and the audience applauded.

Called upon to play a more leading role in today’s complex political situation, the Sao Paulo Forum faces great challenges, and has much to learn and do for the benefit of our peoples. Because precisely to give hope – recalled the Cuban President – the group was founded by Fidel and Lula, as a valuable instrument for concerted action within diversity.

“Let us not forget for a moment that we are in besieged Caracas,” he said, reaffirming before the world Cuba’s support and solidarity with “legitimate President Nicolás Maduro Moros and the military-civic union that has defeated the worst plans of the enemy so many times.” This is support for the ideals of a people, their fortitude as a nation of Our America.

Imperialism proposes that we betray Venezuela, showing shameless cynicism they resort to blackmail, he said.

“Ignorant of history and the Cuban Revolution’s foreign policy principles, they propose to negotiate a possible reconciliation with us, in exchange for abandoning the course chosen and defended by our people. They suggest betraying friends, throwing 60 years of dignity into the trash bin.

“No, imperialist gentlemen, we do not understand each other,” he insisted.

There could be no better tribute to Chavez than this meeting, where unity was palpable, the great legacy that our heroes bequeathed to us.

The challenge of this event – Díaz-Canel noted – is to finally make a reality of this beautiful alliance of forces. Our America and its people need this; the left of the world demands it.

VENEZUELA IS NOT ALONE

The call for unity was also present in the words of President Maduro, who insisted that unity must become the word of order for our peoples, because only united will we have the strength to win our definitive independence.

With similar emphasis, he denounced the media campaign against Venezuela and its government, recalling that the Bolivarian Revolution emerged as an autochthonous response to the crisis of the imperialist model that had been imposed on the country.

Constant lies and manipulations are wielded against our people – he said – but the people of Venezuela are a courageous people with a democratic culture, with rebel values.

He called for continuous efforts to consolidate unity of the left, which can allow for a great movement for the unification of popular forces.

“Thank you for coming to Venezuela to defend the truth,” he told those present.

Whatever they do, whatever they say, the Bolivarian Revolution will continue to stand firm, Maduro insisted.

What better culmination to close the event, called upon to set the course for the Sao Paulo Forum, a mechanism of integration and struggle for our peoples, and why not, our hopes.

(Granma)

During the fraternal conversation, evident were the excellent relations of friendship shared by the two peoples, parties, and governments. Also addressed were preparations underway for the XXV Annual Meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum, to be held in Caracas, this coming July.

Raúl reiterated Cuba’s support for the Venezuelan people and government, for constitutional President Nicolás Maduro Moros and the cívic–military union in this sister nation.

For his part, Diosdado Cabello expressed Venezuela’s support of Cuba in the face of moves by the United Sates to tighten the blockade, and reiterated his country’s gratitude for the humanitarian work done my Cuban collaborators there.

Now, the deputy is surprised that, as a result of negotiations with the opposition and the Bolivarian government’s goodwill, President Maduro has agreed to early elections for the National Assembly.

The poorly advised, improvised figure, anxious to play a leading role and make money, has faithfully followed orders from the U.S. government and won the support of the worse elements in Trump’s neo-fascist retinue, including Pompeo, Bolton, Rubio, Abrams, and Mike Pence.

Guaidó doesn’t want elections because he knows he’s lost. And the time will soon come for him to answer to the people of his country, and be held accountable before the law for attempting to usurp a position to which he has no right; for proposing a foreign military intervention; encouraging an economic war that has already left children dead, as a result of the blockade of food, medicine, and other vital resources; and for taking possession of diplomatic offices abroad in violation of international laws and conventions.

Doesn’t Guaidó know that he is legally responsible for the violations he has committed? Or does he think that Venezuela is a failed state with no laws or bodies to enforce them?

Guaidó wants Maduro to leave the Presidency and hand it over to him. He wants the 6,190,612 votes cast for the legitimate President in 2018, recognized by international authorities, to be given to him for his “noble” efforts to destabilize the country, even though U.S. sanctions have caused hunger and a military intervention could have incalculable consequences.

Juan Guaidó does not want elections, and moreover expresses himself with a vulgarity indicative of his frustration, describing President Maduro as “increasingly disjointed,” dismissing early legislative elections outright.

It remains to be seen what opinion of early elections his U.S. masters may have, those who have repeatedly called for “restoring democracy” and were sorely disappointed by the self-proclamation show.

“I want the concept of homeland to have a greater scope, that on referring to our country we are referring to the great America that our small homelands make up.”

It was very clear that the visionary Fidel was thinking and planning to build that great homeland, a dream frustrated over a hundred years of colonialism and an annexed Republic.

The founding of ALBA, in December 2004, was undoubtedly one of the greatest expressions of unity and solidarity in Latin American and Caribbean history.

ALBA is an institution as inspiring as it is necessary, and represents a unique legacy, which must be taken care of, strengthened and defended. To renounce unity in these times is the worst act that individuals and governments can commit, as it would be to play into the hands of the imperialist forces that threaten, attack, and want to reconquer us by applying colonialist recipes like the Monroe Doctrine.

That moment when two of the most outstanding men of the 20th and 21st centuries, Fidel and Chávez, signed in Cuba the declaration that founded ALBA, on December 14, 2004, soon began to bear fruit.

Five years later, on October 19, 2009, Fidel wrote in one of his reflections: “ALBA, created by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Cuba, inspired by the ideas of Bolívar and Martí, as an unprecedented example of revolutionary solidarity, has shown how much can be achieved in just five years of peaceful cooperation.”

Thus emerged the medical missions of hundreds of thousands of Cuban doctors who have offered their valuable services in the most remote geographical spaces of Latin America, the Caribbean, and also Africa and Asia.

The Ecuadorian, Nicaraguan and other peoples will forever remember those Cuban specialists who undertook genetic studies to then embark on the major battle to rehabilitate disabled persons, or improve the quality of life of hundreds of thousands of children of the world’s most deprived

Before the impressive progress of plans and programs in health, education, culture, sport and others, Fidel, during the Latin American School of Medicine’s first graduation ceremony, on August 20, 2005, expressed: “However, everything that I have said so far pales in comparison with the colossal movement that is being promoted by Venezuela and Cuba to train doctors ready to march in the front line of the Bolivarian dawn. Thanks to this, and as part of the Barrio Adentro Mission devised by President Hugo Chávez, 22,043 Venezuelan undergraduates have now embarked on their pre-med studies in the 7,898 Barrio Adentro surgeries, in close cooperation with the Venezuelan Ministries of Higher Education and Public Health. On October 3, they will begin their first year studies in Medicine. In only ten years time, 40,000 will be graduating.”

As of September 2018, the Miracle Mission had carried out 5,600,000 eye operations in 37 countries.

Through the Cuban Yo sí puedo (Yes, I Can) literacy program, up until February 2019, more than 10 million people in 32 countries had been taught to read and write, and three nations have already been declared free of illiteracy.

ALBA, despite ups and downs, is the heart of unity and solidarity among our peoples, and as such we must defend and consolidate it.

MAIN ACHIEVEMENTS:

- High level of political coordination in regional and multilateral organizations, in defense of the principles of international law, the postulates of the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, and mutual solidarity.

- Three countries of Our America were declared “Territories Free of Illiteracy”: Venezuela (2005), Bolivia (2008) and Nicaragua (2009).

- The Miracle Mission has returned eyesight, free of charge, to more than five million people. Additionally, it has offered more than 27 million ophthalmological consultations, and provided more than 41 million pairs of glasses.

- The Miracle Mission has privileged mainly low-income people who never received medical attention for their ophthalmological conditions.

- As part of the Genetic and Psychosocial Clinical Study of People with Disabilities, more than one million people in six countries have been identified as in need of support. More than two million consultations have been carried out, and more than 1 million technical aids such as prosthetics provided.

- The Genetic and Psychosocial Clinical Study of People with Disabilities, as a program, has also helped integrate patients into society, without discrimination, while promoting their individual potential.

- More than 2,000 young people from Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa are being trained as community doctors, with a profound social vocation and high level of scientific, technical, ethical and humanistic education, at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM), with campuses in Cuba and Venezuela.

- Four editions of the ALBA Games were held, with the participation of more than 10,000 athletes from 31 nations.

- As a consequence of the earthquake of January 12, 2010, in Haiti, ALBA-TCP member countries approved an action plan and contributed to the reconstruction and promotion of the development of this sister Caribbean nation, in the fields of health, finance, energy, agriculture and food sovereignty, education, construction, security, transport and logistics.

- The organization has proposed the construction and consolidation of a Space for Interdependence, Sovereignty and Economic Solidarity through the People’s Trade Agreement, the SUCRE currency, and the Bank of ALBA.

ALBA staunchly condemns the United States’ genocidal economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba.

Meanwhile, Qasim Al-Kazim’s dream of being a footballer was cut short when he lost one of his legs to a terrorist attack by the Islamic State. However, he survived and enjoyed the ultimate thrill when he was taken to Moscow, where he inaugurated, with the first kick of the ball, a soccer match between Russian teams Spartak and Ufa.

These are two examples of victims of the same killer: terrorism. Be it fundamentalist groups as in Iraq, or the wars and sanctions applied by the U.S. government, which should be judged as state terrorism.

Knowing that hundreds of thousands of children are affected every day by the wars or economic sanctions imposed by Washington against countries whose governments are not compatible with the model it wants to implement, is perhaps the most moving result of the latest actions by those who govern in the White House.

Here, in the 21st century, Venezuela, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan – countries with energy resources or representing strategic points in U.S. geopolitics – are destabilized or see attempts to conquer them. Their infrastructure is destroyed and their economies strangled with cruel financial sanctions, as part of the imperialist plan to dominate the world.

Troops and sophisticated weapons have been sent to Afghanistan in search of the Taliban, who continue to dominate part of the vast country, one of the poorest on the planet. Besides massacring its president, Libya has been turned into a failed state, and even today nobody has control over it. Its oil brought with it foreign conquerors who are already enjoying it.

In Yemen, where according to the UN, 80% of the 24 million inhabitants need urgent aid, the number of children killed increased from 900 to more than 1,500 between last year and now. Meanwhile, Syria is fighting against two enemies: the terrorism of the Islamic State, and that applied by the Pentagon with its air strikes, which kill children, women and the elderly, while illegally maintaining more than a thousand troops in that country. Venezuela, coveted for its oil and other riches, has become the main focus of international attention, after the U.S. President and his team of hawks, alongside the miserable OAS, and certain governments of the region pledged their support for a coup plan.

The death last week of Geovanny, aged just six years old, moved the Bolivarian nation and the international community. Another 26 Venezuelan children are waiting in Europe for PDVSA’s funds to be unfrozen, after being sent there by the revolutionary government to save their lives. They now endure the uncertainty that they could end up like Geovanny.

The U.S. people, who also have children – many of whom die in school shootings or are sent to war – must be moved on hearing about cases like these, and those of many others who die because of the weapons and sanctions of their government.

(Granma)