[News] Venezuelan Social Movements Take to the Streets to Oppose U.S. Aggression

[Anti-Imperialist News]

*Venezuelan Social Movements Take to the Streets to Oppose U.S. 
Aggression *

Mar 13th 2015, by Lucas Koerner

"A lot of balls and ovaries there are here to defend this land. Yankees 
of shit." An anti-imperialist refrain inspired by a popular Chávez 
slogan. (Credit: Lucas Koerner/venezuelanalysis.com)

Caracas, March 13, 2015 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan social 
movements converged in Plaza Venezuela in the center of the capital on 
Thursday to manifest their firm rejection of the latest round of U.S. 
sanctions.

On Monday, President Obama issued an executive order sanctioning seven 
top officials of the Venezuelan government as well as declaring the 
Bolivarian nation an "unusual and extraordinary national security 
threat," <http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11256> a step that could pave 
the way for possible economic sanctions 
<http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11261>.

This latest move by the U.S. administration has been roundly condemend 
by a host of nations <http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11259> and 
regional bodies, including Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, UNASUR, 
CELAC, and most recently China and Russia.

Among the movements assembled in the center of Caracas on Thursday were 
various collectives such as the Pioneers Encampament, 
government-affiliated social missions such as the Great Housing Mission 
and Barrio Tricolor, as well as a plethora of people representing their 
neighborhood communal councils.

Chanting "Yankee go home" and "Venezuela respects itself", thousands of 
Venezuelans of all ages filled the streets with their characteristic red 
shirts, exhibiting national pride and indignation in response to the 
White House’s announcements.

"We are here to defend the motherland left to us by Chávez, Bolívar, 
Zamora, and all of our heroes and heroines, because we've also had many 
heroines, many barefooted women who defended this country. We're 
following in the same legacy as all of them," Lies Guzmán of the 
Socialist Environmental Workers' Front told Venezuelanalysis.

"We are steeled, knee to the ground, for anything that happens, with the 
women in the vanguard, prepared on all fronts, including the diplomatic, 
military, and guerrilla fronts if necessary."

In his executive order, President Obama expressed concern for alleged 
human rights violations in Venezuela.

Olenia Quintana, 32, of the Pioneers Encampment collective challenged 
what she perceives to be a clear double standard underlying the U.S 
president's accusations.

"If you're talking about human rights, the first thing that Obama needs 
to do in his country is revise all of the laws. [The United States] is 
the only country [in the hemisphere] with the death penalty. Here there 
is no death penalty."

This critique has been repeated on numerous occasions by President 
Nicolas Maduro who has denounced the U.S. government's human rights 
record vis-a-vis its own people.

On Monday, the Venezuelan leader called on Obama to defend the rights of 
U.S. citizens, including "Black people killed in U.S. cities every day, 
the thousands of people who don't have a place to sleep and die of cold 
on the streets of New York, Boston, or Chicago, and those detained in 
Guantánamo."

Despite general indignation, Venezuelans attending yesterday’s rally 
were keen to distinguish between the actions of the U.S. government and 
its people.

"The message to the people of the United States is that they should rise 
up," declared José Zegarra, 36, a construction worker and general 
coordinator of the Revolutionary Hugo Chávez Workers' Front.

"In the United States, there are many dignified people who know that 
their government has regrettably interfered in the affairs of other 
countries, believing itself the world policeman. But the average North 
American person isn't any kind of world policeman, but a person who has 
to work to eat, work to pay the mortgage, work to pay the heat and 
everything else."

Guzmán echoed this sentiment, underscoring the need for social and 
political transformation in the U.S.

"[The U.S. people] must organize and make the necessary changes in their 
country, which is a noble but subdued country, whose people are much 
more subdued than our own [people]."

------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Source URL (retrieved on /14/03/2015 - 10:55am/):* 
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11268
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