Speech delivered by Francisco Pérez Santana, Head of the Mission of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in St Vincent and the Grenadines. April 19th, 2018.
Firstly, I want to thank you for being with us today April 19th, 2018, as we commemorate two hundred and seven (208) years since the beginning of the road to Venezuelan independence.
Before I speak about the event of this day, I would like to congratulate the people of Cuba and our friend, Ambassador Vilma, because yesterday our brother and sister from Cuba elected their president in a very democratic and peaceful process.
The events of April 19th, 1810 are an important component in the Venezuelan independence process, since it has immediate precedent in the Creole council of 1809-1811, specifically two attempts of creating councils in Bolivia and then the Council of Quito, and particularly in Venezuela, it formally concludes with the patriot victory of Sucre in Ayacucho in 1824.
Our purpose today is to highlight and reveal some information that shows the events that are occurring at this time in our Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Therefore it is necessary to refer to some points about the events that recently occurred in our country:
The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has indicated in different spaces that Venezuelan democracy faces new threats and dangers.
These are actions that reveal an international conspiracy that seeks to generate destabilization and chaos and to promote foreign intervention that produces a “change of regime”, according to the design of the American doctrine.
It is clear that from the actions within the last year, the interests and strategic objectives of imperialism, the oligarchies of the continent, the right-wing governments and the local bourgeoisie converge with the massive support of large transnational information and communication corporations and political operators such as the Secretary General of the OAS, and the presidents of some countries like Colombia and the so-calledLima group.
The insurrectionary actions with multiform attacks developed during the five years of President Nicolás Maduro’s include: first– a strategy of political and diplomatic isolation of Venezuela, in particular, illegal actions promoted within the OAS, Mercosur the so-called Lima Group and other multilateral international organizations.
Second, blocking access to international credit by manipulating the country’s risk, closing financial sources and sabotaging the regular operations of the Republic by international banking.
Third, compromise in the oil market to reduce the price per barrel.
Fourth, powerful attacks on the domestic economy by altering and distorting the systems of production, distribution and consumption of essential goods such as food and medicines to deny access to the population, systematic speculative attacks on the currency and the price system, leading to an inflationary escalation.
Fifth, a brutal and relentless campaign of misinformation, false news and media aggression against the Government of Venezuela, its President and its social leadership, and more recently the mediatic show mounted in Colombia with some Venezuelan lawyers trying to prosecute President Nicolas Maduro with the participation of the National Assembly and the governments of Colombia, the United States and some others of the so-called Lima Group.
Sixth, the announced non-recognition of the presidential election even before the election. And the Trump treat on army intervention in our country, made last year.
These conspiratorial acts have entered into an accelerated phase during 2017 and the first part of 2018, with the purpose of preventing the presidential election on May 20th, 2018, which we will hold in the most transparent way and with all the guarantees established at the opposition- government meeting in the Dominican Republic.
With the support of the media, news agencies and misinformation strategies on social media, and the actions of the Venezuela extreme right-wing, we are presented to the world as a non-democratic country and failed state with a humanitarian crisis.
In this way, a narrative is imposed on the world that criminalizes Venezuela, triggers an alarm in world public opinion, and arouses the concern of international organizations, creating the false sense of the inevitability of an “intervention” to “restore” democracy and the rule of law in Venezuela.
As has been done in Libya, Iraq, just a few days ago in Syria, violent actions and criminals who commit them are shown to the world as “fighters for democracy and freedom” and the unfortunate consequences of these acts are blamed on the Venezuelan government.
Faced with this scenario, the Venezuelan people and their Revolutionary Government invoke international solidarity to dismantle the hoaxes against Venezuela, denounce this macabre operation of aggression and alert the world about the danger that looms over Venezuelan democracy.
So, today, 208 years after that historic action that marked the beginning of independence movements, the Bolivarian people, sons of Bolivar and Chavez, supporters of President Nicolas Maduro Moro, we declare ourselves in permanent alert and in permanent combat against terrorist and fascist actions that the Venezuelan and international right-wing are developing
As President Maduro has said, Venezuela’s triumph must be peace, but a peace that will never mean giving up the ideals and dreams of the Revolution, but a peace born of the final defeat of the violence and terrorism and of a sincere dialogue secured in the search for solutions to the problems of the country and mutual recognition between political factors, as well as electorally resolving the confrontation between political projects.
Venezuela is a sovereign, free and independent country and never accepts or will accept any kind of tutelage, intervention or interference in its internal affairs by any power or group of countries.
Venezuela will not surrender its revolution, whatever the size or magnitude of the aggression, and is determined to resist, fight and overcome whatever may arise.
Allow me to conclude with the words of our commander Chavez “Here we are the sons and daughters of Bolívar, 200 years later (…) soldiers and people, civilians and military united guaranteeing Venezuelan independence, never again will Venezuela be anyone’s colony, the time has come for us to achieve true sovereignty and independence, not only for Venezuela, because independence will only be complete if all our peoples reach it “.
