América Latina

According to this narrative, support for the opposition is overwhelming, and the only possible way supporters of the government could win is through fraud. That way, if the vote does not go according to Washington’s wishes, yet another effort to remove Maduro from power by force can be initiated on the basis of the supposed illegitimacy of the results.

We reject this cynical, self-serving logic. Since the process of change called the Bolivarian Revolution began under President Hugo Chávez, Venezuela has held over 30 elections that have been conducted professionally and impartially. The electoral system includes multiple layers of fraud protection, including an extensive auditing process where representatives of all candidates are involved.

For years, this system was recognized as fair and democratic by all outside institutions. What changed was that after the 2018 election of Maduro, the Trump administration made a clear decision to discredit the elections and withdraw recognition of Venezuela’s legitimate government so as to overthrow it.

The Venezuelan people have suffered greatly from all this. The crushing weight of U.S.-imposed sanctions caused misery across the entire population and was designed to create an explosive situation that would result in the unconstitutional removal of the government. A study by the Center for Economic Policy and Research found that these cruel sanctions have cost the lives of over 40,000 Venezuelans.

Washington failed in their political aim of instigating regime change. The economy is now in a period of recovery. Instead of turning a new page, the U.S. government has returned to using false election fraud narratives to create their desired crisis. We demand respect for Venezuela’s independence and the sovereign right of the Venezuelan people to elect their own leaders without outside interference.

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/5243214

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/5242797

Ismael Mayo Zambada García, el legendario líder del cártel de Sinaloa, ha sido detenido este jueves en El Paso, Texas. La detención del emblemático narcotraficante, quien no había pisado una cárcel en décadas de vida criminal y cuya cabeza tenía una recompensa de 15 millones de dólares, se produjo en un aeropuerto privado de la ciudad fronteriza. La aprehensión fue adelantada por el semanario Zeta de Tijuana y confirmada por dos fuentes del operativo a la agencia Reuters. Las autoridades también tienen en custodia a Joaquín Guzmán López, uno de los hijos de Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán.

The charges raised against every one of the more than 40 countries sanctioned by the U.S. government are usually the same template. Venezuela is no exception.

The targeted government in countries facing U.S. sanctions attack is first declared guilty by U.S. corporate media, and the whole U.S. political establishment joins in demonizing the leadership as guilty of criminal, anti-democratic or corrupt actions. The claim, endlessly repeated, is that imposed sanctions are only targeting criminal individuals and enterprises. But this is a total fraud. The blockade is designed to throw the entire economy into shock.

The media line repeats endlessly that the economic dislocation, wild inflation, shortages of essential products are caused by leaders who are corrupt, inept and paid-off. Slanderous terms declaring elected leaders to be autocrats, dictators, are used repeatedly in each news article.

It takes intense new levels of mobilization of the entire people to resist an orchestrated U.S. take-down or régime change operation. It takes even more to build a force capable of mobilizing the population in the midst of scarcity. The need is to both survive and to thrive.

This is the challenge that [the Bolivarian Republic of] Venezuela has undertaken with great determination and revolutionary fervor.

Nearly every person we spoke to saw the Palestinian struggle as their own. Palestinian flags can be seen everywhere, hanging alongside FSLN flags. We noticed many parallels between the two liberation movements, including but not limited to the rôle of armed struggle, the religious foundation of the revolutions and the honoring of martyrs. Because of their shared fight against [neo]imperialism, the people of Nicaragua have an intuitive understanding of the Palestinian struggle and the necessary means for national liberation.

Delegations such as our own are determined to return back to the belly of the beast and dispel the propaganda and myths about Nicaragua that are fed to us by the CIA/U.S. State Department. Through conversations with working people, we learned that our primary task as revolutionary anti-imperialists in the [neo]imperial core is to actively wage a struggle to lift the deadly U.S. sanctions on Nicaragua and demand a complete cessation of [neo]imperialist policies in the Western Hemisphere.

Connecting directly with migrant diasporas, who understand that forced migration is a product of [neo]imperialist military interventions and economic sanctions, is also an avenue to mobilize against the U.S. war machine.

The success of the Sandinista victory is a source of education and inspiration for our struggle in the [neo]imperialist United States. Major literacy campaigns in Nicaragua bolstered support for the revolution, teaching us that we should be involved in meeting the material needs of our community members.

We understand that education and raising class consciousness is fundamental to an anti-imperialist struggle. We must genuinely build trust and love the people, cultivating a culture of care that counters the individualism and opportunism that capitalism instills.

We want to thank the Nicaraguan people and the FSLN for welcoming us into your beautiful nation. We will continue to uplift the successes of the Sandinista revolutionary struggle, which is a model for those fighting for the liberation of all peoples from [neo]imperialism.

CIUDAD DE MÉXICO (Sputnik) — Una nueva marcha de unas 2.000 personas migrantes latinoamericanas y caribeñas marchan este martes 23 de julio por las carreteras del estado mexicano de Chiapas (sureste), a pocos kilómetros de la frontera con Guatemala, confirmó a Sputnik uno de los organizadores.

"Es un número bastante grande, estimamos que son unas 2.000 personas, con mujeres y niños menores de diez años, adultos mayores y algunas personas con discapacidad de movilidad", dijo vía telefónica un activista desde la ruta de unos 30 kilómetros entre la ciudad de Tapachula y Huehuetán, estado de Chiapas.

Delcy Rodríguez destacó que el Programa de Recuperación Económica, creado por el presidente Nicolás Maduro, ha dado resultados positivos.

La vicepresidenta de Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, resaltó que la nación sudamericana haya alcanzado producir el 96 por ciento de los alimentos que consume, a través de una publicación hecha en su cuenta de la red social X.

La alta funcionaria destacó que esta cifra se logró por primera vez en la historia de esa nación; “garantizando pleno abastecimiento para nuestro pueblo”.

In 2023, representatives of Washington and Caracas agreed in Doha, under the auspices of the Qatari government, to advance in the recomposition of their relations based on the lifting of the U.S. unilateral coercive measures and the resumption of Maduro’s dialogue with the extremist sector of the opposition. Although some progress was made, after the ratification of the disqualification of María Corina Machado, the U.S. State Department and Treasury reimposed the sanctions, alleging non-compliance by the Venezuelan side with the Barbados Agreements, a version that Caracas rejects.

On July 2, after reflecting for two months on a new U.S. proposal for a direct dialogue, Maduro accepted, exhibiting a strategic attitude, not an urgent need. A day later, negotiations were resumed, with the opposition marginalized from the dialogue table. The waning hegemony of the U.S. in the world is based on and has as its basis and purpose the domination of fossil energy.

With the largest oil reserves in the world (the fourth largest in gas and gold, the sixth largest in diamonds, the eighth largest in iron and ample water, coal and biodiversity resources), Venezuela is currently negotiating from a position of strength with the energy factor as a means of pressure (without forgetting, of course, the poisonous and artful strategies of the U.S. in the cases of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya and the Minsk Agreements on Ukraine with Russia).

However, what reasons would Washington have for negotiating with a president who is about to lose the elections on July 28? Having overcome at this stage the multiform war, the toxic polarization of covert operations, hyperinflation in the economy and with an agro-industry that is now supplying 98% of the food to consumers, Chavism has accumulated institutional strength from deep Venezuela, and the forthcoming entry of the country into the BRICS will insert it into the new international order in the making. Hence the geopolitical importance of the elections.

"necesitaré una más grande para estos fascistas..."

Este viernes, protesta pacífica contra la extracción de cobre en Valle del Tambo, Arequipa, aprobada por el Gobierno de Boluarte.

Organizaciones, agricultores y pobladores de Valle del Tambo, en el sur de Perú, se movilizarán este viernes contra el proyecto minero Tía María, aprobado por el Gobierno de Dina Boluarte pese a denuncias de que generará negativos impactos medioambientales.

Navarro y Meza recalcaron días atrás que no están en contra del desarrollo industrial, pero rechazan el proyecto Tía María debido al riesgo de contaminación del agua, el suelo y el aire, fundamentalmente.

De acuerdo con la ONG CooperAcción, la empresa, Southern Copper, ha utilizado a autoridades y medios de prensa aliados para criminalizar a quienes encabezan las protestas.

Venezuela President Maduro: "The United States has filled the whole world with war and misery in the name of a false freedom... Here, neither the gringos nor US Southern Command will ever govern again. In Venezuela, we Venezuelans are in charge... Oligarchs: Tremble!"

Durante 2024, se han realizado al menos 15 desalojos, principalmente en el norte de Guatemala, a petición de terratenientes en fincas donde poblaciones indígenas han vivido de forma histórica durante cientos de años, según Pascual.

“Llegué a mis 25 años y hasta esta edad mi papá dijo ‘perdóname,’” cuenta Julio. “Yo estaba en la universidad, estaba estudiando comunicación, me regalaron una beca y él me dijo, ‘Perdonáme por todo lo que hice, por todo el daño psicológico, físico, mental.’ Y lo perdoné.”

Julio tiene un hermano menor por parte de padre que es gay y una hermana trans por parte de madre. Está orgulloso de que sus luchas hayan allanado el camino para la aceptación de sus hermanos por parte de la familia.

“Cuando mi papá se dio cuenta, aceptó a mi hermano menor, lo ama y lo quiere y lo respecta mucho, tiene su pareja”, dice Julio. “Lo perdoné porque al final es mi padre y considero que sí, que los padres quieren lo mejor para uno, pero también considero que nosotros tenemos el derecho de elegir y ellos tienen el deber de respetar.”

Julio es un activista, y sus luchas y triunfos personales están intrínsecamente ligados a los de su comunidad en general y a los de su país.

“Hoy en día me he convertido en hombre gay público, defensor de los derechos de la comunidad LGBTQ+ que ha marcado la historia que ha recorrido tanto este país y de tantas experiencias vividas que por eso hoy me empeño a seguir apoyando, acompañando y dirigiendo mi diversidad sexual en Nicaragua. Me siento muy seguro de quién soy, de quién quiero ser. Pero también me siento seguro porque en Nicaragua existe un marco legal que protege a las personas; vos podés pasear por las calles y no te discriminan por tu orientación sexual. Todos somos Nicaragua”.

Latin American comrades, who is this person and why haven't we heard more from him? He sounds extremely based.