VA columnist Jessica Dos Santos contrasts grassroots-led and top-down participatory processes in the context of the Bolivarian Revolution.

"Maybe the mechanisms used to set up grassroots structures should also be left to the people themselves. After all, communities have a lot more ingenuity and capacity for mobilization than the ads shown endlessly through official channels.

In fact, soon enough there will be a renovation of party structures at the parish, municipal and regional levels in the run-up to the 2024 presidential elections. We should praise the intention to renew the party leadership, but it can only work if the people can get, and feel, directly involved."

https://venezuelanalysis.com/tales-resistance/15615

Venezuela welcomed the resumption of peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group, calling it another step forward for regional stabilization.

On September 13, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accepted Petro’s request to resume Caracas’ years-long role as guarantor state of the peace negotiations and agreements with the ELN. Maduro pledged “absolute support” to help its neighbor country de-escalate the almost 60-year-old conflict, which has reportedly killed at least 450,000 people.

Inspired by the Cuban revolution, the ELN was founded in 1964 by students, union leaders, and rebel Catholic priests and grew to become a 4,000 men guerrilla army with strongholds on Colombia’s Pacific coast as well as along the 2,200-kilometer border with Venezuela.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15616

The Biden administration is reportedly considering handing a broader sanctions waiver to US oil corporation Chevron.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Washington could allow the energy giant to resume drilling and selling crude from its joint ventures with Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.

If confirmed, the license would represent the first major step taken by the Democrat White House to revert its predecessor’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Venezuela.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15617

"The Venezuelan state has different spheres of action, from the local to the national, and certain class interests may enter into contradiction with communal initiatives at the regional level. At the end of the day, we are talking about a struggle between the old and new model. Such a struggle will emerge in any revolution.

However, it’s also worth highlighting that the Bolivarian Process has long been characterized by the transformative power of its creative tensions. In fact, creative tensions are at the very origin of the Chavista project, and I would even dare to say that they are the root of the communal model. As such, many of the contradictions that emerge should not be interpreted as a limit or a barrier, but as a spark."

A candid exchange with Hernán Vargas, Venezuelan Vice-minister of Communal Economy 👇

https://venezuelanalysis.com/interviews/15612

A landslide caused by torrential rains swept through Las Tejerías town, in Aragua state, central Venezuela, leaving over 20 people dead and more than 50 missing.

The tragedy occurred Saturday night when a downpour started dragging mud, large tree trunks, branches, and rocks from the surrounding mountains blocking roads and destroying homes, businesses, farmland, and a slaughterhouse. The small agro-industrial town is located some 67 kilometers from Caracas.

Speaking on national television from the disaster scene on Sunday, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez emphasized that military and rescue teams had been quickly deployed in the affected areas to search for survivors and people trapped under mud and rocks. At least 22 bodies had been found by Sunday.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15618

Venezuelan opposition figure Juan Guaidó suffered a strong rebuke after 19 countries voted Thursday to oust ​​his representation at the Organization of American States (OAS) during the regional organization’s 52nd General Assembly held in Lima, Peru.

The vote marks a dramatic shift in support from governments in the region for Guaidó, who once claimed to be the legitimate president of Venezuela and secured the backing of Washington and several of its allies in the hemisphere after declaring himself president at a demonstration in Caracas in January 2019.

Guaidó has increasingly found himself out of favor among Venezuelans themselves. During a recent tour in the country, the former lawmaker was met with hostile crowds, with one woman tearing away his shirt before he was able to board his vehicle. Meanwhile, at another stop, his car was pelted with eggs. Venezuelans have strongly criticized the opposition figure for his support for the US-led sanctions regime that has crippled the country’s economy and led to shortages of key goods.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15619

Venezuela’s US-based oil subsidiary CITGO is closer to being seized by creditors after a circuit judge set a share auction process in motion.

On Tuesday, Delaware District court judge Leonard P. Stark laid down a schedule and guidelines for a “competitive and robust bidding process” for PDV Holding shares, according to documents seen by Venezuelanalysis. PDV Holding is CITGO’s parent company. The order likewise hires banking firm Evercore as an adviser in the operation.

The legal proceedings stem from Canadian miner Crystallex’s efforts to collect a US $1.4 billion international arbitration award granted by the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in 2016. A reported $970 million are outstanding. Crystallex sought compensation for the 2008 nationalization of Las Cristinas gold mine in eastern Venezuela.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15620

Recently, Venezuelan Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami condemned the Biden administration’s “irrational” and “senseless” continuation of the Trump sanctions program against Caracas and other oil-producing countries.

“The imposition of sanctions, blockades, and aggressions by the West [the US and its allies] against main oil-producing countries are part of the senseless and irrational measures that have caused an imbalance in energy markets,” stated El Aissami during the OPEC+ countries 33rd meeting last week in Vienna, Austria.

The Venezuelan official went on to praise OPEC's “transcendental” decision to slash production by 2 million barrels beginning in November to shore up prices. The production cuts have raised fears of higher fuel prices in the US, which would hurt Democrat prospects in November’s midterm elections as well as the energy war against Russia.

The market instability in turn has led to renewed discussions within the White House around easing sanctions against Venezuela.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15621

"When you visit communes, you realize that in the midst of all the problems that we face as a country, communards are building something. They are facing contradictions and many do have critical positions in the face of that which they consider political deviations, but their focus is to build an alternative model in the political and economic spheres. They are committed to the future and understand that the political-declarative can’t be the center of what they do.

I think that the commune is a place from which the recomposition of Chavismo can take shape. The crisis has generated the conditions: the state has no resources, private capital has never invested in viable economic solutions for the people, and many of those who kept the country going during these hard years are committed to the communal path."

Venezuela’s Vice-minister of Communal Economy talks about grassroots economic circuits and the challenges faced by Venezuelan communes.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/interviews/15622

The United States expelled hundreds of Venezuelans to Mexico over the weekend as a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy took effect, throwing thousands of migrants into disarray.

The new policy, announced Wednesday, allows US authorities to expel Venezuelan migrants under Title 42 authority, a Trump-era policy implemented at the beginning of the pandemic that allows the United States to keep migrants from seeking asylum at the border in the name of limiting the spread of COVID-19.

The immediate rollout of the new measures caused havoc at the US-Mexico border, with migrants already in US territory expelled into Mexico with little more than a sheet of paper indicating the details of the new policy. A group of Venezuelan migrants in Matamoros opted to stage a protest at the international bridge, leading to the temporary shutdown of the crossing. The new policy has reportedly already led to the break up of families.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15623

🧵🗞The New York Times heard that we had labeled Reuters the most dishonest outlet when it came to Venezuela coverage and, full of outrage, decided to set record straight. And bravo to them for reasserting their disgusting “journalism” credentials.

Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/venanalysis/status/1582249419604230145

✍ #Opinion | "Times have changed, the world, and in particular, Latin America and the Caribbean, are evolving positively towards the construction of a different international system and that has weakened Washington's hegemony. In the region, the loss of prestige of the Organization of American States (OAS) is evident, while at the same time the Lima Group has disappeared, reducing the weight of the United States' policies against Venezuela.

This situation seems to have reached an almost terminal stage at the recent 52nd General Assembly of the OAS, held in Peru from October 5 to 7. At this gathering, where Venezuela did not participate due to having withdrawn from the organization in 2019, an event occurred that is surely indicative of the final death throes of Juan Guaidó as a political actor manufactured by the United States."

https://venezuelanalysis.com/around-world-60-days/15624

🗞️ #News | The destruction in El Castaño (Aragua state) occurred only a week after several landslides swept away the neighboring town of Las Tejerías, leaving over 50 people dead and another 50 missing.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said that recent catastrophes result from “climate change” as “capitalism continues to destroy the planet.” He recalled that revolutionary leaders Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro repeatedly warned about capitalism's consequences for the environment and urged the world to change the system.

Maduro announced a special economic fund for victims “to finance the integral recovery directly and without intermediaries.” He likewise informed that 450 apartments are currently in construction and will be delivered to affected families in three months.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15625

🇻🇪 #Infographic | On October 20, 2012, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez held a televised cabinet session. The three-hour-plus broadcast, known as “Strike at the Helm” (“Golpe de Timón”) would become one of Chavismo's major landmarks.

One of Chávez’s key criticisms in Strike at the Helm took aim at state-led initiatives without a broader effort to change social relations in the territory. His premonition that socialist islands end up swallowed by the capitalist sea would prove true under Venezuela's economic crisis worsened by US sanctions.

Read more in our latest infographic! (You can download it too): https://venezuelanalysis.com/images/15628

Go to our Instagram post to share/save!

🗣 #Interview | El Panal [The Beehive] declared itself a commune in 2006, three years before Hugo Chávez began to talk about the communal project. The commune is in Caracas' working-class 23 de Enero barrio that has extraordinary political, educational, and economic muscle. The commune was built by the Alexis Vive Patriotic Force, a collective with a long trajectory of grassroots work in the barrio.

This three-part series highlights El Panal’s history, its economic operations, and the ways it has worked to overcome the impact of the US blockade.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/interviews/15629

🗞 #News | According to multiple reports, three major opposition parties (Democratic Action, Justice First and A New Era) will withdraw their backing for the US-endorsed experiment led by former lawmaker Juan Guaidó.

An opposition delegation allegedly expressed its position in meetings with US officials this week in Washington DC. The Financial Times quoted a “senior” opposition figure speaking of plans to “redesign everything without Guaidó as interim president."

For his part, Guaidó downplayed the “opinions” of high-ranking opposition figures, claiming he retained support from the White House and vowing to stay on until the next presidential election.

The US has been trying to force the Nicolás Maduro government to reenter into talks with the rightwing sectors as a precondition for any changes to its wide-reaching sanctions policy. Since 2017, the US Treasury Department has levied a string of measures against the Venezuelan economy, including an oil embargo, in an attempt to trigger regime change.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15630

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