On behalf of the Bolivarian Government of Venezuela, the Minister for People’s Power for Foreign Affairs, Jorge Arreaza, urged on Thursday to reflect on how to take decisive actions to eradicate racism, an institution of the industrial liberal capitalism, which insists on maintaining the necessary conditions for the proliferation of multiple forms of discriminations.
“We welcome the establishment of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent so that governments can confront the disastrous consequences of colonialism and the transatlantic trafficking in slaves,” said the Venezuelan diplomat in his statement at the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) special meeting on “Reimagining Equality: Eliminating racism, xenophobia and discrimination for all in the decade of action for the SDGs.”
In the same vein, Arreaza condemned those ideologies and leaderships that take advantage of divisions with political purposes at the expense of human pain, as well as the unilateral coercive measures against the wellbeing and peace of the peoples.
“Venezuela condemns the political use of migration and economic blockades as one of the most sophisticated and cruel practices of modern discrimination, affecting millions of Venezuelans and over a third of humanity.”
Likewise, he expressed Venezuela’s will to move forward with the Sustainable Development Goals and to put an end to the isolating rhetoric harming the multilateral system to the detriment of human rights mechanisms and exacerbating racial and national divisions.
At the virtual special meeting, the Venezuelan foreign minister said that in the face of the critical scenarios of uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine, “the United Nations is called to increasingly exercise its leadership to favor a fairer distribution system, so that it won’t be another expression of discrimination, exclusion and the geopolitical game of the most powerful.”
Arreaza remarked that the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action should lead to concrete actions and should not be limited to be a reminder, and called for coordinating the fight for the reparations of all social movements struggling against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and other racial-related forms of intolerance.
The Venezuelan foreign minister reaffirmed the will and commitment of the Venezuelan people and Government to moving forward with practical actions and public policies on the path of an inclusive society, without any form of discrimination, in a democratic, equitable, solidarity-based, inclusive, international order.