Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Activists occupy Venezuelan embassy in Australia

ANNCOL | 17.01.2003 16:55 | Venezuela | Globalisation | World

With today's peaceful occupation of the Venezuelan Embassy, solidarity activists intended to highlight the repeated coup attempts in Venezuela and the US-sponsored civil war in neighbouring Colombia. Activists expressed their support for the elected government of Venezuela and the formation of a new clandestine government of Colombia

14.01.2003 (By Luis Ernesto, ANNCOL Canberra) Internationalist activists, members of the Bolivarian Movement for the New Colombia in Australia, peacefully entered today in the embassy of Venezuela, located in 7 Culga Circuit O' Malley, in the capital city of Australia.

The 'solidarity' visit as the political activists, who took the diplomatic seat called it, was a surprise for the staff present at the embassy, which immediately informed the ambassador Leonel Vivas about what was occurring.

Members of the Bolivarian Movement affirmed that their act of solidarity was absolutely peaceful, that they did not carry any type of weapons and claimed that they were not terrorists, but that they were using their legitimate right to speak out about the problems that Venezuela and Colombia are facing.

The activists told ANNCOL that they consider it is time to begin a wave of international mobilisations in solidarity with the Venezuelan people, with the legitimate and democratic government of President Hugo Chavez. At the same time they condemned the strikes that are affecting their neighbouring country and classified the strikes as a conspiracy to destabilise the Bolivarian countries.

They also mentioned the Bolivarian Circles-movement of Venezuela to whom they expressed their unconditional support in the struggle to transform the home country of the Liberator Simon Bolivar into an example of his ideals, which defeated the Spanish colonialism, and liberated Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

They emphasised the fact that for the Bolivarian Circles of Venezuela, it is a patriotic duty to defend the government of Hugo Chavez until the last drop of blood falls. The activists referred to Chavez as the 'delegate' of the Venezuelan people's Liberator who with his spade and white horse defended his mandate of social justice and democracy.

Bradcrumbs from the Yankees

The activists claimed that the US intervention in Venezuela, Colombia and in the rest of the Bolivarian nations, is supported by the oligarchic, pro-imperialist Creoles who do not want to lose their privileges but pretend to perpetuate their power by receiving the “breadcrumbs that the Yankees throw to them from the table”.

Finally, they announced that they would leave the embassy as they entered, without violence and respecting the civil employees of the delegation, but that everything was conditional in speaking personally with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to give him their support and to leave a letter of solidarity in the hands of the ambassador Leonel Vivas.

Another one of the points exposed by the members of the Bolivarian Movement for the New Colombia, with seat in Australia, in the "Operation Respect for Venezuela", was related to the civil war that Colombia is confronting and to the proposal of the guerrilla insurgency to create a clandestine government, with a platform of reconstruction and national reconciliation, for the political solution of the serious conflicts that the country is facing.

New clandestine government in Colombia

They considered that the invitation to all Colombians who yearn for a mother country with development and peace, in which its people is able to work for the conformation of a national, pluralist, patriotic and democratic government, under the command of the Bolivarian Movement for the New Colombia that Alfonso Cano leads, is not only a practical solution to the armed conflict, but also it is an attainable goal with a great political direction, to which they are all committed and willing to support.

Colombia is in a war in which the Yankees and the Creole oligarchies have implemented nothing else but an uncertain and destabilised future. But this situation creates the opportunity for the Latin-American peoples to get up on their feet and construct a socialist continent without frontiers and totally independent from the US Imperialism, the activists said.

The ‘Operation Respect for Venezuela’ was under direction and co-ordination of various internationalist activists; among them are Gladis Almario, from the Colombian Solidarity Committee and Elizabeth Vega, activist for the peace of Colombia and Venezuela.

These Bolivarian activists affirmed to ANNCOL, that the new clandestine government in Colombia proposed by the Colombian people and supported by insurgent forces, has 10 points of demands that can be briefly mentioned:

1. That the military doctrine and of National Defence of the State have Bolivarian principles. The Liberator (Simon Bolivar) said, "The destiny of the army is to protect the citizens not to turn their weapons against its own people “.

2. Democratic national participation in the decisions that compromise the future of the society.

3. Freedom of speech in the media and an independent Electoral Branch.

4. Development and economic modernisation with social justice.

5. 50% of the National budget must be invested in the social wellbeing, 10% to be invested in scientific investigations.

6. Those who have greater wealth must pay higher taxes so that the redistribution of incomes can be effective.

7. Agrarian policies that democratise the credit, the technical assistance and the trade.

8. The exploitation of natural resources like the petroleum, gas, coal, gold, nickel, and emeralds among others must be for the benefit of the country.

9. International relations with all the countries of the world under the principle of mutual benefit and respect for the auto-determination of the people.

10. Solution to the phenomenon of production, commercialisation and consumption of narcotics and hallucinogens.

Finally, activists affirmed to the ANNCOL correspondent that in the act of solidarity with Venezuela and Colombia, both Bolivarian countries men, women and children were present among other activists and leaders of left wing Australian organizations such as the Socialist Alliance, the Democratic Socialist Party and candidates for the NSW parliament in the elections anticipated for the month of March.

ANNCOL
- Homepage: http://www.anncol.com

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

Puzzling

17.01.2003 17:06

So the activists occupied the Venezuelan embassy in solidarity with the Venezuelan government. Why?! Don't they know that the government is the embassy staff's employer?

Why didn't they occupy the US embassy in solidarity with Venezuela?

Dan


clarification

19.01.2003 00:39

For the sake of honesty, this article should have been mentioned that the "Bolivarian Movement for a New Colombia" is the clandestine political movement set up by the FARC guerrilla group a few years ago.
The agenda of the new government they propose was put forward by this group, not by "the Colombian people", although the Colombian people may well support it.
The FARC are not the only insurgent force in Colombia, and therefore a new government led by their political wing (however "plural") might not be to the liking of the ELN, EPL etc, who have their own differing programmes.
FARC and the Chavez regime do have things in common: their militarism, authoritarianism and left nationalist, reformist politics. It is questionable, to say the least, whether they represent an answer to the devastation which capitalism has wreaked on Colombia, Venezuela (and many other other countries). In these countries there are other people and groups trying to go beyond old style leftism and populism which have traditionally recuperated hopes for social change in Latin America.

punkero


Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech