Venezuelanalysis' Ricardo Vaz examines how MSM obscures the human impact of the US sanctions.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/15551

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro celebrated the triumph of the Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez ticket from the leftist Historic Pact in Colombia’s presidential runoff election Sunday.

The election was mostly dominated by social issues that gained prominence after a massive social uprising against rising inequality in 2021 shook the country’s political establishment. As is common in Colombian politics, the specter of Venezuela was also repeatedly raised.

Martha Lía Grajales Pineda, a Colombian activist living in Venezuela and a member of Surgentes human rights collective, considers that Petro’s victory "will allow Colombia to stop being the bastion in the region to destabilize progressive or uncomfortable governments.”

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15552

Venezuelan grassroots collectives held a large-scale march on Tuesday to defend housing rights.

The mobilization was driven by the Pobladores platform, which brings together tenants, janitors, building occupiers, pioneer encampments and a number of other grassroots groups that organize around the self-managed construction of housing.

“This is an autonomous march to take back the initiative, to re-establish dialogue with the government,” Juan Carlos Rodríguez, Pobladores spokesman, told Venezuelanalysis.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15553

In Part I of this three-part interview, Indorca workers told us about their fight to keep the former bosses from dismantling the factory and regaining control of the plant. In Part II we learned about the obstacles that worker-run factories face in a capitalist society and about Indorcas’ collective education initiatives.

Here in Part III the workers tell us about the impact of the US-led sanctions, while explaining their strategies to overcome obstacles.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/interviews/15554

Venezuela celebrates the 201st anniversary of the anti-colonial Battle of Carabobo.

Fought on June 24, 1821, Simón Bolívar and the patriotic army defeated the Spanish troops sealing the country's independence.

Bolívar went on to lead the South American liberation campaign.

The government of Venezuela welcomed a second high-level US delegation that included Bogotá-based Ambassador James Story and US envoy on hostage affairs Roger Carstens, President Nicolás Maduro confirmed Monday.

Although US officials tried to characterize the visit as being driven by the Biden administration’s efforts to see a handful of US citizens released from Venezuelan custody, the Venezuelan president was explicit that the meeting was a follow-up to previous bilateral talks in Caracas in March. The delegation was met by ranking Chavista politician and National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez on Monday evening.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15555

In 2012 Venezuela’s progressive Labor Law was about to be passed in the National Assembly. Since the law was set to amplify workers’ rights in a number of areas, this put the country’s capitalist class on alert. Factory owners began to sabotage production and shut down plants. This process, which put workers and owners in open conflict, affected the whole country, but was especially fierce in the industries of Guayana in Bolívar state.

After many long battles, workers in some factories got control of the plants as mandated by the Labor Law’s article 149. Here we hear the stories of the Equipetrol and Calderys factories in Puerto Ordaz (Bolívar State). The people who kept the factories running tell us about their struggle for worker control and about the hurdles that they had to overcome to keep the plants operative during the blockade, while explaining the need for import substitution.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/interviews/15556

Michelle Bachelet, United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights, recognized Venezuela’s advances to improve the judicial system while criticizing an alleged lack of judicial independence.

For its part, Caracas welcomed Bachelet’s acknowledgment of the advances to improve its judicial and prison system but took exception to the report's “imbalanced” assessment of the overall human rights situation by downplaying the severity of the US sanctions program levied against the Caribbean nation.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15557

The Venezuelan National Assembly approved legislation establishing “Special Economic Zones” (SEZ) in the Caribbean country.

The 35-article bill is the latest effort by the Maduro administration to attract foreign investment to drive economic recovery as the country remains targeted by wide-reaching US sanctions.

PSUV deputy Oliver Rivas told Venezuelanalysis that the SEZs should not be seen as the “ultimate step” towards socialism but rather as a “resistance strategy” in the face of US-promoted economic aggression.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15558

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez rejected Chilean Foreign Minister Antonia Urrejola’s questioning of the legitimacy of the Nicolás Maduro government, labeling her a stooge of Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General Luis Almagro.

“Foreign Minister [Urrejola], as a good employee of [Almagro], attacks the Bolivarian Revolution instead of addressing the urgent issues of violence in Chile, its economy and a government that is rapidly failing!” said Rodríguez in response, referring to Boric’s declining approval ratings.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15559

On Sunday, July 3, the women and men of El Panal Commune in the working-class barrio of 23 de Enero in Caracas woke up to the music of Alí Primera, Ska-P, and Calle 13. The barrio was buzzing with activity as the communards prepared eight voting centers – one for each of the eight communal councils that make up this commune. Each communal council was due to elect 13 spokespeople in areas such as finances, communal economy, education, services, and security and defense.

On the eve of the elections, the people of El Panal – with support from the Alexis Vive Patriotic Force, which is one of the engines behind the commune – organized a festive procession to mobilize the community. Drums, whistles, and rattles sounded throughout the commune’s massive apartment blocks and self-constructed homes. These elections were a step towards consolidating self-government in the community, which in itself is cause for celebration.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/images/15560

Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced the arrest of 13 people for their alleged involvement in the kidnapping and murder of longtime revolutionary activist Carlos Lanz after a two-year investigation.

During a press conference on Wednesday, Saab recalled that an exhaustive probe was set in motion immediately after Lanz's disappearance on August 8, 2020, in Maracay, Aragua state. The attorney general explained that a multidisciplinary team was appointed to find Lanz and clarify the facts.

A guerilla fighter in the 1960s and 1970s, Carlos Lanz was a key figure in Venezuela’s decades-long struggle against US-backed neoliberal governments and became an important advisor to President Hugo Chávez following the 1998 electoral victory.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15561

VA columnist Jessica Dos Santos looks at the "unpredictable" 2024 Venezuelan presidential elections in this edition of "Tales of Resistance."

https://venezuelanalysis.com/tales-resistance/15562

#ChávezVive Brand new podcast episode just out of the oven, as we go over Venezuelan revolutionary leader Hugo Chávez, his legacy, and the transition towards socialism. 🇻🇪🎙

Subscribe and listen: https://patreon.com/posts/68881921

Troubled agrochemical company Monómeros, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned Pequiven, could return to Venezuelan control, Colombian President-elect Gustavo Petro told local radio Tuesday.

The Colombia-based agrochemical producer is considered Venezuela’s second most important foreign-held asset. It came under the control of Venezuela’s hardline opposition in May 2019 alongside a number of other foreign assets following the recognition of Juan Guaidó as “interim president” by Washington and its allies as part of efforts to oust the Nicolás Maduro government.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15563

According to inside sources cited by Argus Media and Bloomberg, Chevron is proposing to Caracas a reduction of the Venezuelan state’s stake in joint ventures. By owning a majority of shares, Chevron would possibly avoid the Treasury sanctions that ban dealings with entities where PDVSA or other state entities hold a 50 percent or larger stake.

However, Venezuela’s 2001 Hydrocarbon Law, created under the Hugo Chávez government, requires majority ownership for PDVSA and sets a 51 percent minimum state stake in all joint ventures with foreign partners.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15566

Venezuelan public sector trade unions rallied on Tuesday to demand higher salaries and respect for labor rights.

The march in central Caracas took aim at a directive issued by the country’s National Budget Office (ONAPRE), a body belonging to the finance ministry that establishes budgets for state institutions.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15567

Venezuela entered a profound economic crisis beginning in 2014. There are many heated debates about its origins and causes. Among the most recent contributions to these debates is Malfred Gerig, a young researcher who has written extensively about economic and political issues. His soon-to-be-published book La Larga Depresión Venezolana [The Long Venezuelan Depression], pinpoints the origins of the crisis in a closing cycle of capital accumulation that was based on oil exports.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/interviews/15565

The Venezuelan National Assembly unanimously condemned recent comments by former US National Security Advisor John Bolton where he boasted about his involvement in coup plots against the government of Nicolás Maduro.

In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Bolton claimed he “helped plan coups d’etat” and when pressed for an example, pointed to his chapter on Venezuela in his book The Room Where It Happened.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15568

Venezuelan athlete Yulimar Rojas was unstoppable once again as she became the first woman to win three successive triple jump gold medals at the World Championships (WCH).

On Monday, the 26-year-old took the gold medal in the women’s triple jump final at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Rojas opened the contest with a modest 14.60m mark and immediately sealed the victory in her second attempt with an impressive 15.47m jump, the sixth-best mark in her career.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15570

"The meeting between the Pobladoras Movement and President Nicolás Maduro made crystal clear the urgent need for street mobilization, for unifying the organized pueblo, and the extraordinary importance of popular critique."

A recent Pobladoras rally left several achievements and lessons. Reinaldo Iturriza breaks it down.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/politics-commons/15571