President Maduro: Venezuela wages a battle for the independence and dignity of Latin America and the Caribbean

“We are aware of the role that we have to play, we are playing it and have the absolute certainty that you, brothers of the peoples of Latin America, have a Revolution that will be able to resist and advance along the paths of anti-imperialist victory”. This was expressed by the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, at the Miraflores Palace, greeting the participants from 20 countries who attended the first Latin American Meeting of Local Governments and Participatory Democracy held at the Yellow House. “I hope you have seen the real Venezuela, the one of peace, the one of a people that does not surrender, that has said no, to the empire that daily attacks against our country with all its power through social networks, and with illegal sanctions, to prevent Venezuela from selling and collecting its products abroad. It does it to justify a military aggression against Venezuela”. “Venezuela is the most persecuted and blocked country on the planet Earth, we are pursued by bank accounts, we can not buy or sell anything in the world and they boast of the damage they do to the country”, he explained. He emphasized that it has never been seen before in history that a country to be blocked to prevent it from legally buying medicines and food, as is happening with Venezuela. “We are victims of an aggression, but we are resisting, and more than victims we are warriors of the future and going from warriors to victorious”, he said. He stressed that “in Venezuela the battle for independence, dignity and the right to the future of Latin America and the Caribbean is being waged (…) The US empire has a 100-year domination system, is it that we are going to to leave 300 more years of dominion to the North American empire?, is that we are going to let them reconquer Latin America and the Caribbean?”. “We say from Venezuela: yes, it is possible, we can be free, sovereign and absolutely independent from the imperial dominations and Westerners, yes we can walk with our own feet!”. He added that Mexico is also being attacked by the imperialist government of the United States; Mexico that bears the imprint of Zapata, by Lázaro Cárdenas. “I tell the president of Mexico, President López Obrador, yes, you can! Do not leave Mexico! The aggression of the Donald Trump government against Mexico is an aggression against all of Latin America and the Caribbean, and that is how we understand it”. Comandante Chávez created a political strategy of power with the people The head of state explained that the Communal Councils are the basis of the new Social State of Justice and Law, contained in the 1999 Constitution. “That was a process that connected the profound feelings of change of our people. He converted the constituent proposal into the hope of the people. Only the powers of the people are capable of making great historical changes in a society. Almost 80% of the Venezuelan population participates in some way in a Communal Council, the self-government of the community”. “In the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary and we are going to celebrate it in style on December 15 of this year, everything began”, recalled the National President. “Venezuela is barely in the initial stage of building a new and powerful political model of protagonist and participatory elva, we have barely taken the first steps!” He warned. He added that this constituent tradition comes from our liberating fathers and mothers, who formed constituents on the basis of a unique constitution. “I saw him, we saw him, many of us here today, we saw him, the Commander Chávez, very close. He designed a political strategy to take power and build a new power. What a vision Commander Chavez had! He took it from Bolívar and developed a strategy that he baptized as the popular constituent process, a process of awakening, of proposals, of a process that would chain a force that would convene a Constituent Assembly”. “What vision Commander Chavez had in that model that he baptized as the constituent process. A strategy of power that showed to be oportune to reality. It turned it into a popular force and into the hope of the people”. President Maduro explained that “only the forces of the people are capable of achieving great advances. We managed to organize almost 33 thousand communal councils. These have to do with the daily life of the community. You know what I’m talking about because you have to deal with these issues every day”. “We are fiercely resisting because they will not be able to deal with us, they could not, nor will the imperialist masters from the north”, he said. “They talk about the Maduro regime, that this is a regime that I set up because I have an obsession with power, I have never been moved by any ego of power, personal ambition” (…) “If there is a regime here, it is the constitutional regime, the people’s regime, Maduro is transitory, I will be here until the vote of the people decides, until democracy and the revolutionary forces determine it”. In the activity that took place at the Miraflores Palace, the People’s Power Minister for Foreign Relations, Jorge Arreaza, praised the strengthening of a new social body made up of the protagonists of the local government, which constitute the level closest to the community. At the Latin American Meeting of Local Government and Participatory Democracy attended a hundred mayors, governors, councilors and progressive leaders who talked about their experiences to give more power to the people.