Today We Must Decide the Fate of Our America

Representatives of social movements, popular movements and progressive forces from 85 countries from all continents, meet in Venezuela not only demonstrating their solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution, but they will also discuss a roadmap with concrete actions of a global plan to confront the advance of imperialism and fascism.

“Those of us who are here today defending Venezuela know the risks but we don’t expect a bed of roses, we are aware of why we have to be supportive and do so from here… and if we have to fight, I have brought a pair of boots and an extra pair of boots to give away,” said Claudia de la Cruz, a Dominican who lives in the United States, who was not afraid to say why the peoples are defending Maduro and the Bolivarian Revolution today.

Claudia, who is part of the Popular Education Project, a Social Movement in the heart of the empire, was one of the speakers at the press conference with national and international media, as a prelude to a meeting of solidarity with Venezuela against imperialism, as part of the process of construction of the International Assembly of Peoples (AIP) that will take place in Caracas from February 24 to 27.

Joao Pedro Stedile, of the national leadership of the Landless Rural Workers Movement of Brazil (MST), one of the promoters of this initiative of worldwide articulation of popular struggles, told Venezuelans to not give importance to what Trump is saying out there, his time is already ending. You elected Maduro for six years, and the people of the United States are going to take Trump out of power next year.

“That’s why we’re going to resist, let’s go ahead, that the cause of the people is always victorious despite the blockade and the force of arms. They have the weapons but they don’t have the people,” said the prominent social activist.

Representing the progressive European forces, Marga Ferré of Izquierda Unida (Spain), pointed out that “regardless of what some governments that are submissive to the United States say, the peoples of Europe do not want a military intervention in Venezuela; and these days we will be reaffirming that each nation has the right to govern itself as it wishes.

She emphasized “for those who believe that democracy is to impose their will, or that because they have more weapons they can impose their will, they are wrong and that is why we will continue to work for internationalism among peoples, and that is why we are here”.

If any continent appreciates the value of solidarity and internationalism, it is the peoples of Africa. Vindicating the struggles and their commitment to just causes in other parts of the world,

Cosmas Musumali of the Socialist Party of Zambia said that “internationalism is not an act of charity, it is an extension of our struggles across borders. Our common enemy, which is capitalism and imperialism, does not operate in an unrestricted space, for that which is the struggle of the Venezuelan people today is also our struggle”.

The African leader emphasized that “it is unacceptable that international authorities think that the sovereignty of a country does not belong to its people, and it is unacceptable that they want to ignore the will of the Venezuelan people, its constitution and its institutions.

As part of the AIP’s own initiative, in the last few days 150 young people from 40 countries are in Venezuela as part of the “Che Guevara” Internationalist Brigade, in dialogue, coexisting with the Bolivarian and Chavista people, and making their modest contribution; but above all, prepared to share and support in practical terms in these complex moments in which Venezuela is surrounded and threatened.

Rodrigo Suñe, from the organization Levante Popular da Juventude of Brazil, illustrated that “these days allowed us to know the truth that Venezuela is living and the great lies that the media war spreads (…) with these experiences we take with us the commitment to establish debates in our countries and create extensive spaces for people who do not want war and who know what is at stake today in Venezuela”.

In the midst of the context of aggression, of media war, of an international staging to impose tension on the border and on the domestic level situations that may justify a military intervention in Venezuela, the solidarity of the peoples of the world is here side by side, because the fate of this sister nation and of the Bolivarian Revolution determines not only the fate of Our America, but also the preservation of the current order as well as international political and diplomatic norms.

Communication Team of the International Assembly of Peoples

Translation by Internationalist 360°