Venezuelanalysis

[UPDATE] The Venezuelan government and the Unitary Platform went on to sign a second, four-point joint accord titled “Partial Agreement for the Protection of the Nation’s Vital Interests.” The text reiterates Venezuela’s claim over the Essequibo Strip and a rejection of recent actions by neighboring Guyana in granting oil exploration licenses in the disputed area’s territorial waters. The two sides likewise vowed to “defend the assets and property” of Citgo, a US-based subsidiary of state oil company PDVSA. Valued at US $10-13 billion, Citgo is set to undergo a court-mandated auction of shares to satisfy a number of international arbitration awards. Former self-proclaimed “Interim President” Juan Guaidó and his associates have drawn severe criticism for jeopardizing the country’s most prized foreign asset. https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/venezuelan-government-opposition-dialogue/

🔴#BreakingNews | The Nicolás Maduro government and the US-backed Venezuelan opposition signed an agreement laying out conditions for upcoming presidential elections. With mediation from Norway, the two parties met in Barbados on Tuesday, resuming talks that had been suspended for nearly a year. The signed agreement saw the two parties agree to hold the presidential vote in the latter half of 2024. Other electoral conditions set out include the update of the electoral registry, the implementation of presently existing audits and the invitation of international observation missions from organizations including the African Union, the European Union and the Carter Center. Furthermore, the two sides pledged to recognize the results, and that all actors should have full electoral guarantees. They also agreed that each party should be free to choose its candidate. However, the wording did not state that politicians currently barred from political office would have their bans lifted. https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/venezuelan-government-opposition-dialogue/

On October 4th, Venezuela’s Attorney General, Tarek William Saab, announced a warrant for the arrest of Juan Guaidó on charges including treason, false representation and corruption stemming from his time as head of the US-appointed “interim government” of Venezuela. Guaidó is alleged to have exploited state resources to fund his parallel administration, resulting in the potential loss of a staggering $19 billion in public assets. Taking to social media from the safety of his Miami home, he claimed in response that “this is how the dictatorship’s machine for promoting lies works”. Unfortunately for him, the US’ own court documents prove that this charge was factually based. Guaidó, in fact, did preside over the loss of at least $19 billion in state holdings through his management of Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned PDVSA. How did this happen? How did a man, powerless within his own country, lose its largest overseas asset? “All that was privatised”, said then-president Hugo Chávez of the telecommunications giant CANTV, “let it be nationalised”. Thus began the 2007 nationalisation wave that took control of mining, oil, and agricultural operations for the people of Venezuela. This move represented an important step in the Bolivarian Revolution’s promise of wealth redistribution and of changing Latin America’s peripheral role as raw material supplier to companies in the Global North. https://venezuelanalysis.com/opinion/guaido-citgo-and-the-19b-hole/

Washington’s sanctions relief has been exclusively directed at helping US and European companies to recoup unpaid debt from Caracas while the blockade against the Caribbean nation remains intact. However, Bloomberg reported that Washington and Caracas have been engaged in talks since last year in Doha, Qatar, and the US government might be willing to lift some oil and banking sanctions against Venezuela. This could allegedly allow the Venezuelan government to reengage with financial institutions and recover around $3 billion frozen in accounts in Europe. https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/venezuela-oil-output-recedes-as-caracas-renews-us-sanctions-relief-talks/

Chris Gilbert is a Marxist scholar committed to the revolutionary process in Venezuela, who teaches at the Bolivarian University in Caracas. His new book, Commune or Nothing! Venezuela’s Communal Movement and Its Socialist Project, just released by Monthly Review Press, is an engaging account of the country’s old-yet-new experiment in building a free, diverse, and humanly-rich society that is not bound by capitalist exchange-value production. https://venezuelanalysis.com/interviews/the-commune-is-a-comprehensive-reworking-of-social-relations-a-conversation-with-chris-gilbert/

📢 Our book on sanctions is available now! "A War Without Bombs" aims to provide the tools to understand (and collectively revert) the devastating impact of the blockade on the people of Venezuela. You can download it as a PDF here: https://venezuelanalysis.com/opinion/a-war-without-bombs/

Venezuelanalysis is a Venezuela-based outlet but this week we'll be taking our talents to the US east coast to present our brand new book "A War Without Bombs". The first event is co-organized w/ Code Pink in Washington DC this Wednesday (Oct 11). And then on Saturday (Oct 14) we'll be at the People's Forum in NY. See images for details

In his weekly TV program, President Nicolás Maduro condemned the genocide committed by Israel against Palestine, especially the bombing and blockade of the Gaza Strip. He called for peace and pledged to send humanitarian help to the Palestinian people.

Venezuelan social movements organized under the banner of the Palestine Solidarity Platform defended the Palestinian people’s right to resist colonialism and occupation following an offensive action Saturday carried out against Israel by Hamas and other armed elements of the Palestinian resistance movement. “From the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the members of different social organizations, that are joined together in the Palestine Solidarity Platform, raise our voice in support of the resistance of its brave, noble, and native people who today, as always, fight for their liberation,” read a statement by the umbrella organization. Naming Israel an “Apartheid regime which subjugates the Palestinian people in a much more cruel way than what was experienced in South Africa,” the communique pinned the blame for the outbreak of further violence on Israel’s flaunting of international law and the political, legal, and economic support of the United States toward Tel Aviv. https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/venezuelan-social-movements-back-palestinians-right-to-resist/

In Part III of our "Campesino Resistance" series, we delve into PROINPA’s educational initiatives and the impact of US sanctions on production and life. "Sovereignty is about a country being able to determine its future without foreign intervention. US Imperialism is determined to destroy our revolution because Chávez tried to make Venezuela both independent and socialist. In this beautiful highland, we are determined to make sure that Chávez’s dream doesn’t disappear. Our contribution here is working hard so that we are sovereign in terms of seeds. In doing so, we are also showing that sovereignty is not a chimera: sovereignty is what we are building now at PROINPA!" https://venezuelanalysis.com/interviews/education-science-and-sovereignty-proinpa-vs-the-us-blockade-part-iii/

The Venezuelan opposition has confirmed the use of manual voting for the primary election scheduled for October 22, rejecting the automated process offered by the National Electoral Council (CNE). In a communique released on Monday, the opposition’s National Primary Commission (CNP) argued that on June 5 they requested a meeting with the country’s electoral authorities to define the technical assistance for the primary race but ten days later several CNE board members resigned their posts and the talks never continued. As a result, the commission carried on with self-organizing the vote. Following the resignation of the electoral authorities on June 15, Venezuela’s National Assembly (AN) began the long process of drawing selections from a list of 104 candidates. The new CNE board was finally announced on August 24 charged with the task to oversee the 2024 presidential election. https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/venezuelan-opposition-insists-on-manual-voting-for-primary-election/

Venezuelan Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez commended the “bravery” of the Puebla Group for its efforts to confront aggressions and unilateral sanctions against her country by the US and allied right-wing governments in the region. The Puebla Group, founded in 2019 as a space to unite progressive parties and leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean, held its 9th Gathering in its namesake city in Mexico on Saturday and Sunday. The official slogan was “Moving forward in unity.” More than 200 representatives from 18 countries, including numerous former presidents such as Ecuador’s Rafael Correa and Bolivia’s Evo Morales, discussed multilateralism, the climate change crisis, and regional unity in the face of an emerging multipolar global order. https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/venezuelan-vp-celebrates-puebla-group-bravery-at-progressive-blocs-9th-gathering-in-mexico/