Gustavo Petro Is The First Leftist President Elected In Colombia

Countercurrents | June 20, 2022

Gustavo Petro, a former rebel, has been elected Colombia’s first leftist president on Sunday. Petro’s triumph, in one of the most historically conservative countries on the continent, is a stunning example of widespread discontent that is shaking the status quo. It is a powerful rejection of the political establishment that has ruled the South American nation for two centuries.

Voters on Sunday also made history in electing the country’s first Black female vice president, Francia Márquez, an environmental activist, lawyer and former housekeeper who energized a large Afro-Colombian community that long felt forgotten by those in power.

“Today is a party for the people,” Petro said in a tweet Sunday night. “Let us celebrate the first popular victory. May the sufferings of many now be cushioned in the joy that today floods the hearts of the Homeland.”

Petro’s competitor Rodolfo Hernández swiftly accepted the results on Twitter.

Ecuadorians continue to resist as national strike enters second week

Defying the state of emergency, enduring brutal police and military repression, hundreds of thousands of Ecuadorians continue to remain on the streets against neoliberalism

Tanya Wadhwa

People’s Dispatch | June 21, 2022

Since June 13, hundreds of thousands of Ecuadorians have been mobilizing across the country as a part of an indefinite national strike against the right-wing government of President Guillermo Lasso and his regressive economic policies. Photo: Alexander Crespo

Since June 13, hundreds of thousands of Ecuadorians have been mobilizing across the country as a part of an indefinite national strike against the right-wing government of President Guillermo Lasso and his anti-people economic policies. The strike was called for by various Indigenous, peasant and social organizations, with a set of ten demands that address the most urgent needs of the majority of Ecuador’s population.

Who will be the next president of Colombia?

Senator Gustavo Petro of the left-wing Historic Pact coalition is running against businessman Rodolfo Hernández of the League of Anti-Corruption Governors movement for the presidency of Colombia in Sunday’s run-off vote

Tanya Wadhwa

People’s Dispatch | June 18, 2022

Gustavo Petro of the left-wing Historic Pact coalition is running against Rodolfo Hernández of the League of Anti-Corruption Governors movement for the presidency of Colombia in Sunday’s run-off. Photo: Archives

On Sunday, June 19, Colombians will return to the polls in the second round to elect the country’s new president and vice president for the period 2022-2026.

Senator Gustavo Petro and environmental activist Francia Márquez of the left-wing Historic Pact coalition are running against businessman Rodolfo Hernández and professor Marelen Castillo of the League of Anti-Corruption Governors movement for the presidency and vice presidency of Colombia, respectively. Petro and Márquez won the May 29 first round of elections with over 40% of the votes. Meanwhile, Hernández and Castillo followed them with over 28% of the votes.

The winners of Sunday’s run-off vote will replace conservative President Iván Duque and Vice President Marta Lucía Ramírez on August 7, who are leaving the office with a record 80% disapproval rating. Petro and Hernández are both considered anti-establishment candidates and have promised to respond to the demands manifested in street protests in the last four years.

Two giants twinned by history

Two giants who share a birth date and common ideals. Two men who both, in different times, dignified our country’s past to illuminate our present and future. Two heroes of the Revolution who are June children, Antonio Maceo Granjales and Ernesto “Che” Guevara de la Serna

Mailenys Oliva Ferrales

Granma | June 14, 2022

Photocomposition: Carlos M. Perdomo

Distances matter little – in time and kilometers – if two names remain eternal in the memory of a country, fused as the same reference of integrity and courage. Two giants that history has twinned beyond a shared birth date and common ideals. Two men who both, in different times, dignified our country’s past to illuminate our present and future. Two heroes of the Revolution who are June children, Antonio Maceo Granjales and Ernesto “Che” Guevara de la Serna.
In Santiago de Cuba the first was born. It was 1845 when the Maceo family baptized the boy who would become a renowned Mambí leader in Cuba’s wars of independence.

Venezuela to Hold Anti-NATO Summit on the Border With Colombia

teleSUR | June 04, 2022

The Colombian far-right US-backed narco-regime constantly threatens its neighbor Venezuela, with almost zero reporting in mainstream media. It has supported attempted invasions, cross-border attacks, and training camps for anti-Venezuela terrorists. | Photo: Twitter @BenjaminNorton

Venezuelan National Assembly member Julio Chávez said that, in such event, the aim is to confront the militarist campaign promoted by countries such as the United States and those of the European Union (EU), which has all mankind in suspense.

Venezuela will hold an anti-NATO summit in the state of Táchira, on the border with Colombia, in parallel to the Western military bloc’s event in Madrid, Spain. “Táchira will be the Latin American capital of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) counter-summit on June 28-29”, Venezuelan parliamentarian Julio Chávez told the Russian news agency Sputnik.

‘Mind blowing’ ancient settlements uncovered in the Amazon

The urban centres are the first to be discovered in the region, challenging archaeological dogma.

Freda Kreier

Nature | May 25, 2022

Researchers uncovered ancient urban centres on forested mounds in the Bolivian Amazon Basin.Credit: Roland Seitre/Nature Picture Library

Mysterious mounds in the southwest corner of the Amazon Basin were once the site of ancient urban settlements, scientists have discovered. Using a remote-sensing technology to map the terrain from the air, they found that, starting about 1,500 years ago, ancient Amazonians built and lived in densely populated centres, featuring 22-metre-tall earthen pyramids, that were encircled by kilometres of elevated roadways.

Venezuela Shows Solidarity in May 1st Celebrations in Cuba

teleSUR | April 30, 2022

The Cuban President, Miguel Díaz-Canel, recently issued a call under the slogan “Cuba lives and works!”, for the massive participation of the people this May 1st as a sign of unity and support to the work of equity and justice of the Revolution. Apr. 30, 2022. | Photo: @EmbacubaChina

A delegation of the Venezuelan Committee of International Solidarity and Struggle for Peace (COSI) will participate in the events for International Workers’ Day in Havana, Cuba, its president Gabriel Aguirre informed on Friday, 29 April.

According to Prensa Latina, the head of COSI said that this organization will ratify its support to the working class of the island in the face of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the U.S. government and intensified during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The world’s peoples can always count on Cuba to be present for just causes

Party First Secretary and President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez yesterday conversed with Latin American intellectual Atilio Boró in a radio interview, discussing Cuba’s creative resistance in the face of continuing U.S. attacks and imperialist threats around the world

Granma | April 25, 2022

Artwork by Ernesto Rancaño 

“We are not going to surrender, we are going to continue resisting, but with the concept of creative resistance, which is precisely the way in which we have faced COVID-19, that is, we resist, but with talent, effort and intelligence, we also grow; as we resist, we are capable of advancing.”

This observation was among those shared by Communist Party First Secretary and President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, in an interview with Latin American intellectual Atilio Borón, for the Argentine radio stations Madres de la Plaza de Mayo and the Universidad Nacional de Avellaneda, also broadcast on several community radio stations in Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador and elsewhere.

Venezuela commemorates 20th anniversary of the failed coup against Hugo Chávez

The failed coup was the first victory of the Venezuelan people against US imperialism in the 21st century. It marked the beginning of the resistance of Venezuelans against the US attacks, which continue to this day

Tanya Wadhwa

People’s Dispatch | April 16, 2022

On April 13, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans flooded the streets of Caracas to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the victory of the people and the defeat of the 2002 US-backed coup against president Hugo Chávez. Photo: PSUV/Twitter

April 13, 2022, marked 20 years since the people of Venezuela defeated the US-backed right-wing coup against the democratically elected socialist president Hugo Chávez in a record time of less than two days.

On Wednesday, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans flooded the streets of the capital Caracas to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the historic victory of the people against the imperialist coup. Multitudes of citizens, members of political organizations, social movements and trade unions gathered in various parts of Caracas and marched to the Miraflores presidential palace to pay tribute to the civic-military uprising that beat the coup, rescued Commander Chávez and reinstated constitutional order in the country.

The Venezuela Coup, 20 Years Later

Dan Beeton

Center for Economic and Policy Research | April 12, 2022

On April 11, 2002, Venezuela’s democratically elected government, headed by Hugo Chávez Frías, was ousted in a military coup d’etat. Then, dramatically, two days later, the coup was overturned by a mass mobilization of Venezuelans. They demanded the restoration of democracy and the return of a government that appeared to be making good on its commitment to redistribute Venezuela’s oil wealth to benefit the country’s most marginalized sectors. These events led to lasting ramifications not just for Venezuela, but for Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole, paving the way for a “pink tide” of progressive movements that took power democratically throughout the region. In many cases, similar power struggles ensued, pitting left-leaning governments supporting economic and social gains for the poor, the working class, and marginalized communities, against powerful factions of society seeking, generally, to maintain a status quo that has served to benefit mostly a small number of elites and foreign interests while exploiting and repressing the majority population.