MESSAGE TO THE BOLIVARIAN PEOPLE

We, the participants at the XII Encounter of the Network of Intellectuals, Artists and Social Movements “In Defense of Humanity”, have come to Caracas at this crucial moment to attest to our unconditional solidarity with the Bolivarian government and the people in their battle against the attacks of the local oligarchy and the Empire.

Faithful to its so many-times demonstrated democratic tradition, in December of 2015 the Bolivarian Revolution faced an electoral process in conditions of foreign interventionism, political subversion, the active presence of paramilitarism, psychological coercion, besieged by the national and international media and an economic war aggravated by the global crisis and the induced collapse of oil prices.  The population went to the urns after the Empire had issued a decree that described Venezuela as an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security of the United States”. There have been few times in history that elections, which supposedly express the free will of citizens, have been held under such pressures.

Now the overthrow of the government of President Nicolás Maduro Moros, legitimately elected by the people, is being forged along with the annihilation of the noble project of independence, emancipation and justice undertaken by Commander Hugo Chávez Frías, inspired by the ideals of the Liberator Simón Bolívar.

For the first time, Revolutionary Venezuela applied the distribution of oil revenues as majority goods and, in the face of adversities and more serious obstacles it has undertaken to maintain social policies for the benefit of the poor.  It has undertaken very complex tasks to solve the nation’s problems and it has managed to preserve peace and stability.  It is working on bringing together patriotic and Bolivarian forces under the civic-military union consistent with the libertarian history of the nation. It also continues to be immersed in a determined struggle against corruption and bureaucracy, for the strengthening of the communes and the acknowledgement of the rights of indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants.

The Social Missions have become a universal example of how much can be done by the majorities when wealth is distributed in solidarity on the basis of the humanist concepts characterizing the thinking and practice of Commander Chávez.

             We, the members of the Network of Intellectuals, Artists and Social Movements “In Defense of Humanity”, demand the immediate repeal of the infamous decree by the US government against Venezuela, an example of hope.  We repudiate reactionary harassment and censorship to silence the proud voice of Telesur. We reject laws such as the rightly named “law of criminal amnesia” or “self-pardon” for those who, with their seditious actions, caused and are still causing death and pain for many Venezuelan families, something that would be equal to legalized impunity. 

              We salute the Congress of the Homeland as an exceptional opportunity to forge the unity of all Venezuelans who love their nation and do not accept the return to a past of injustice, inequality and disgrace.  We shall never forget, just as the heroic Bolivarian people will never forget, the last song Commander Chávez sang in public to his “Patria querida”[Beloved Homeland].

You may always count on us and on the loyalty of honorable persons everywhere on this planet who won’t be fooled by the lies of the media machinery at the service of the reactionaries.  You are not alone: you will never be alone.

              “¡Viviremos y Venceremos!” [We Shall Live and We Shall Triumph!]

Caracas, 11 April 2016