#Interview | Nested in the working-class El Valle barrio in Caracas, the 5 de Marzo Commune is a project that explores new ways to empower an urban community. With a group of young people at the helm, including many university students, this commune has developed a feminist discourse that is often missing in other communal spaces.

Here, two spokespeople tell us about the challenges of commune-building in a large city. 👇

https://venezuelanalysis.com/interviews/15669

🎙Special #podcast episode! The Venezuelanalysis team picked some top stories from 2022 to take stock of Venezuela's current political+economic+social context. There was also time to single out some 2023 developments to keep an eye on.

Listen here: https://venezuelanalysis.com/audio/15670

Chris Gilbert takes a look into the creative ways communards operate in urban centers and how these projects intersect with the much-needed transformations required for a grassroots and socially integrated ecology.

"Recycling exists all around the world now, and the separation of waste has become a sort of global norm, with color-coded trash cans found in most major cities. However, the work here in this commune has more social substance and economic importance than the recycling operations (or, for that matter, most community gardens) of the Global North. A visitor can see how the communards here have adopted the globalized slogan, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” painting it on the commune’s walls. The connection to a worldwide movement is likely meaningful for these communards. However, it is important to recognize that these terms mean something more substantial in this commune. In the context of a Venezuelan commune—where reducing is imposed by the crisis and the blockade, reusing is a productive undertaking, and recycling an existential necessity—the slogan also goes hand in hand with new social relations."

https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/15671

🧵It's probably curtains for self-proclaimed Guaidó if even the corporate media are calling it. But the Associated Press will not waste a chance to print out an industrial dose of shameless propaganda. It's amazing just how naturalized these lies and biases are (thread)

https://twitter.com/venanalysis/status/1606349304003645442

#Opinion | Looking ahead to the new year, VA columnist Jessica Dos Santos takes stock of economic inequalities and the challenges for the Venezuelan people.

"Amidst all the economic contradictions, we don’t really know what should be celebrated, what is cause for concern, or when we should just lie down and weep. It is totally unclear that something good for the government, the business sector, trade relations, global geopolitics, will also translate into something positive for us down here.

I’m sure I’m not alone in wishing that negotiations go beyond the release of high-ranking relatives in exchange for US executives jailed in Venezuela, and move towards big objectives that we can all follow and identify with.

With all the uncertainty, we have learned to treasure small joys. For example, seeing our (Olympic gold medallist triple jumper) Yulimar Rojas tear everything in her path, or Venezuelan baseball players from the MLB coming back to play in the Venezuelan league playoffs after being authorized by the US Treasury Department."

https://venezuelanalysis.com/tales-resistance/15672

#News | Florida judge Robert Scola has rejected a motion to dismiss criminal charges against Venezuelan government envoy Alex Saab by ruling against claims to diplomatic immunity.

In his decision published Friday, the district magistrate argued that the United States' non-recognition of the Maduro government should disqualify Caracas' appointees' diplomatic status. In January 2019, the Trump administration supported opposition politician Juan Guaidó’s self-proclamation as “interim president.”

Scola reached his conclusions after evidentiary hearings on December 12 and 13 and oral arguments on December 20. The judge also sided with federal prosecutors who brought up alleged inconsistencies in the documents submitted by Saab's lawyers in recent months to back up his position as a special envoy.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15673

Venezuelan human rights organization Fundalatin recently announced the death of Gabriel Cisneros, a Venezuelan child who could not receive a liver transplant because Washington’s murderous sanctions continue to paralyze the state-funded program that covered these procedures.

Gabriel is sadly one more in a long list of victims of the US economic war. The Simón Bolívar Foundation is the social program of US-based Venezuelan oil subsidiary CITGO. It was created in 2006 by former President Hugo Chávez to help patients with rare cancers, especially children with leukemia, receive transplants and other life-saving treatments in hospitals abroad when these were not available in the country.

However, financial sanctions imposed in 2017 against Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, CITGO’s parent company, blocked the Venezuelan government from using the international financial system, thus impeding payments for kids' treatments. The situation was later compounded when Washington seized CITGO in early 2019 and put it under the control of the US-backed self-proclaimed “interim government” led by Juan Guaidó.

Meanwhile, deadly sanctions and opposition funding remain high on the US agenda. On December 19, the US Senate approved the 2023 spending bill which includes $50 million for "democracy programs” for Venezuela, upping from the $33 and $40 million allotted in previous years.

Read the full article 👇

https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/15674

In 2022, the Venezuelan government carried out strong international activity to continue challenging Washington’s blockade designed as part of the strategy to isolate the Caribbean country and overthrow President Nicolás Maduro.

Breaking this international exclusion required learning, developing and implementing an adequate methodology and intelligent work scheme that abandoned some of the traditional methods of diplomacy, in order to successfully grasp the new opportunities that surfaced last year when the isolation policy against Venezuela in the international arena began to crumble.

Some radical measures included reducing the role of the Foreign Affairs Ministry by appointing two low-profile ministers with modest political backgrounds: Félix Plasencia (August 2021 - May 2022) and Carlos Faría (incumbent) in order to centralize foreign policy issues amidst the country’s difficult times. Since early 2021, President Maduro alongside Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez have planned and executed international relations.

It is no secret that Venezuela's main foreign policy task right now is to fully reestablish relations with the United States. However, the Bolivarian government has reiterated that this can only be done on the basis of mutual respect and non-interference. In order to advance along this path, Venezuela has demanded the elimination of the 763 sanctions as well as 900 other measures that comprehend the 1,600 unilateral coercive measures imposed by Washington against the Venezuelan people.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/around-world-60-days/15675

PLOT TWIST! Self-proclaimed Juan Guaidó throws a hail mary. He pulls out all the stops: the pointless hand gestures, three Venezuela flags, a poorly lit portrait of Bolívar. It's a potpourri of sheer nonsense, but there's not much else going on, so let's have some fun! (thread)

https://twitter.com/venanalysis/status/1608649797011116038

#Breaking Opposition parties vote to end the self-proclaimed "interim government" led by Juan Guaidó after a very acrimonious Zoom session. A watershed moment in the history of made-up posts. Plenty of nonsense and backstabbing still to come, so stay tuned!

#News | The three largest Venezuelan opposition groups voted to eliminate the so-called “interim government.”

On Thursday, Democratic Action (AD), Justice First (PJ) and A New Era (UNT) followed through on their pledge to put an end to the bureaucratic apparatus led by self-proclaimed “Interim President” Juan Guaidó.

The decision was taken during a virtual session of the defunct, opposition-controlled National Assembly (AN) elected in December 2015. Though its term ended in January 2021, the main anti-government parties boycotted the December 2020 legislative elections and instead kept a largely ceremonial parallel parliament by unilaterally extending its mandate on a yearly basis.

Via a Zoom call, a project to reform the so-called “Transition Statute” garnered 72 votes in favor, 29 against and 8 abstentions.

The “Transition Statute” was the framework set up by the US-backed political formations to reject the Nicolás Maduro government’s authority as well as not recognize the 2018 presidential elections. It was the basis for Guaidó’s self-proclamation as “interim president” in January 2019.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15676

#Opinion | And so it ended. Not with a bang, but with a whimper. After all, it was made of cardboard.

It is very rare to have a political phenomenon beautifully encapsulated in a single moment or image. But in the case of (former) self-proclaimed “Interim President” Juan Guaidó, we got exactly that.

On November 22, 2021, the Obama knockoff politician was giving a press conference in a fancy-looking set, with plenty of flags and a little podium. As he trudged along his nonsense something magical happened: the presidential shield behind him fell to the floor. It was made of cardboard.

For all the absurdity that preceded and followed this episode, this will be Guaidó’s defining moment. Last week, his opposition allies finally had enough and decided to end the “interim government.”

https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/15677

#News | Brazil’s Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva was sworn into office Sunday as tens of thousands of supporters cheered his return to power and social movements celebrated the beginning of a new era for Brazil-Venezuela relations.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro warmly greeted Lula’s inauguration, saying on Twitter that it marked a step forward for regional integration efforts.

“I congratulate with joy the inauguration of our comrade [Lula] as President of Brazil. A new wave of liberation runs through the Patria Grande, opening paths for the geopolitical advancement of South American unity projects,” wrote the Venezuelan leader.

Mauro Vieira, Lula’s incoming foreign minister, confirmed last month that the return of da Silva to the presidency would also bring the restoration of diplomatic relations with Venezuela following years of strained relations with Lula’s predecessor.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15678

#News | The Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV) reported 17.73 percent economic growth during the first nine months of 2022 in comparison to the same period in 2021.

“With this result, there have been five consecutive trimesters of positive variations in most economic activities, reflecting the favorable performance of the national production, which began in the third quarter of 2021,” the bank said in a statement.

In a recent interview, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro praised the economic progress as the result of “the country's productive forces being unleashed in 2022” amidst efforts to leave behind the oil-rentier model.

“For the first time in more than 100 years, [this] is a growth of the non-oil economy that produces food, goods, services, and wealth, and that pays taxes. We are breaking records in tax collection for the year 2022,” Maduro said on Sunday.

Maduro added that Venezuela used to depend largely on food imports, but “today we produce 94 percent of the food that goes to Venezuelan homes. It is an agricultural miracle, the result of hundreds of rural producers' work.”

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15679

What's in store for Venezuela in 2023? Here are the top stories to pay attention to, including possible early presidential elections and more economic battles.

#News | Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro emphatically denounced a violent coup attempt against his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva after followers of former President Jair Bolsonaro attacked several buildings in the Brazilian capital on Sunday.

“We categorically reject the violence generated by Bolsonaro's neo-fascist groups that have assaulted the democratic institutions of Brazil,” read a statement issued by Maduro.

Demonstrators who falsely claim that Lula’s 2022 election was fraudulent descended on Brasilia and called on the Armed Forces to intervene and oust the democratically elected government, which took office on January 1. The right-wing mob, through the complicity of the capital’s security forces, invaded various government installations in Brasilia, including the Government Palace, the Supreme Court and the National Congress.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15680

#Opinion | Political analyst Clodovaldo Hernández offers a candid take on the Venezuelan government's policies and electoral prospects:

"The discourse of “more consumption equals more economic growth equals more social happiness” is, in structural terms, the enemy’s discourse. And in politics, those who lie with the enemy’s discourse will end up carrying its child (it does not matter if the creature comes out with good intentions).

This has good and bad consequences for Chavismo. The good part is that day-to-day conflicts are toned down. There is no longer a climate of permanent confrontation and turmoil that we witnessed for years. It ruined several holiday seasons and at its hottest peaks it nearly drove us to a civil war.

The bad part is that there is no clear difference between the basic programs of Chavismo and anti-Chavismo. And indifference tends to favor, according to my political analyst friends, to whoever represents “change,” even if the proposal is vague or false. If the government and the opposition offer the same prenoscription, people might lean towards the opposition, especially when it comes to governments that have spent a long time in power."

https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/15681