Caracas, June 5, 2023 (OrinocoTribune.com)—Last Thursday, Orinoco Tribune conducted an interview with the Chairman of the African People Socialist Party (APSP), Omali Yeshitela, and APSP Director Akilé Anai about the status of the current intimidation judicial attack against the party and the Uhuru Movement. From Venezuela, we see this attack as another example of the US’s characteristic repression that smothers the rights of not only the US black community but also all oppressed people throughout the Global South in a clear attempt to break solidarity bonds between anticolonial, anti-imperialist, and ultimately anticapitalist forces around the world.
The interview was performed by Orinoco Tribune staff journalists Lee Artz and Kelley Zhou as a follow-up of a previous interview conducted in February when charges were not yet filed against the “Uhuru 3”: Chairman Omali Yeshitela, African People’s Solidarity Committee Chairwoman Penny Hess, and Jesse Neville, Chair of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement. US courts have since dropped the charges against Akilé Anai, who had initially been targeted, changing the indictments from against the “Uhuru 4” to currently only the three aforementioned members.
“I was greeted by an armored vehicle and military forces dressed in camouflage and flight jackets who were carrying military assault weapons. Mounted on the armored truck were laser sighting devices with lights hitting my chest, indicating a capacity to kill me,” Chairman Yeshitela explained, detailing the abusive exercise of force displayed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) when his house was raided almost a year ago.
Chronicling the beginning of his fight against anti-black segregation and racism, which eventually led to the creation of the APSP and the Uhuru movement back in the ’60s, Yeshitela explained that he and his comrades initially thought that demonstrations would show “what was happening, politicians and authorities would get it straight. But when we demonstrated to show them what was happening, they put us in jail. It was through this process that we were forced to understand that it was not ignorance, but it was systemic,” in reference to the racism they were dealing with.
“As a consequence of becoming subjects of colonialism and slaves in the US, we were forcibly dispossessed of our freedom, power, and dignity,” Yeshitela summarized. “In this country and throughout the world, that’s a totally different position than those that are working to reform, trying to make the system comfortable, and trying to find a way where a system reborn through genocide, slavery, and colonialism can be redeemed. We are clear that the existing racist system cannot be redeemed. It is inherently exploitative, wreaking havoc, death, and destruction throughout the world.”
Yeshitela then was asked why Venezuela is also under attack, referencing APSP’s struggle on an international scale. He clearly connected it to the US internal oppression, responding with the following:
The US and other colonial powers want to negate the independence of Venezuela—a Venezuela that feeds, clothes, and houses itself in opposition to corporations and US sanctions. I know the Venezuelan government hasn’t said this but I’m convinced that the US killed Hugo Chavez just as they killed Lumumba, Kwame Toure, and Nkruma. None were characterized as murder. The whole struggle against colonialism, against the colonial mode of production, unleashed a desperate, frenzied attack on us by the US government trying to keep history from happening, trying to go back to the past: pre-Hugo Chavez, pre-Malcolm, pre-Black Panther Party, pre-revolutionary struggle… This is not a contest between the US government and the APSP. It’s a battle between the US and African people in this country and globally. They want to frame it like it has something to do with us and the Russians, but what they really want is black people back on the backseats of the buses. They want black people back in the fields not being paid, and being wiped out without any kind of complaint.
On the allegations about a “Russian connection” as the excuse for the attacks against them, Yeshitela said that the “Russian agent” accusation is “crazy, and anybody can see that. History knows better than that. It’s a charge used against others before us: Paul Robeson and W.E.B DuBois, who co-founded the NAACP, were attacked on those same charges. One charge is a conspiracy, claiming we’re working with the Russians. We were Russian agents, according to them, and we conspired with Russians to embarrass the US,” suggesting that the real embarrassment are the atrocities the US commits against its own people.
FBI Indicts US Black Activists on Speech Crimes, International Day of Action Set for May 27 (+Uhuru)
In addition to the video that you can watch above, we provide below an edited transcript of the interview with Chairman Omali Yeshitela and Director Akilé Anai. The HandsOffUhuru campaign is currently active, requiring both monetary support and also support in the form of actions of anti-imperialist forces, not only in the US, but all over the world.
OT: We know that the FBI raided the offices of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) in both Missouri and Florida last July, charging the APSP with “sowing discord among citizens, spreading pro-Russian propaganda, and interfering with US elections.” Could you describe the raids for our readers?
Omali Yeshitela: First, I want to express our appreciation of the solidarity with the struggle that’s being expressed through our ability to speak with Orinoco Tribune today. This helps us break out of the encirclement that has been imposed on us by the chief hegemon of the colonial powers of the world.
On the predawn morning of July 29th, I and my wife, who is Deputy Chair of our party, were at home in the most impoverished sector of North St Louis, where the majority of the African people reside. Out of the dark came this sound that at first we couldn’t make out because it was it was so unexpected. Over a loudspeaker, a voice demanded that the inhabitants of the house come out with hands up and with our hands empty. It was the FBI, and with this demand out of the night there were explosions going off around the house and in the back stairwell were flashbang grenades.
I asked my wife to wait and let me go down first while she called people to let them know we were under attack. Outside, I was greeted by an armored vehicle and military forces dressed in camouflage and flight jackets who were carrying military assault weapons. Mounted on the armored truck were laser sighting devices with lights hitting my chest, indicating a capacity to kill me. My wife follows me out, and when she opens the door, she’s greeted by a drone that almost hits her in the head going up the stairwell. Our neighborhood block is cordoned off by military forces, the St Louis Police Department, as well as the FBI.
I am quickly zip-tied behind my back and my wife’s [hands are] handcuffed behind her. Explosions are still going off around the house and in my house. I’m asking, “What is this?” The FBI said that some indictments would be happening later that day on a Russian national and that my name was involved, and because of that, they were exercising a military search warrant, a violent search warrant. They entered my house, they broke doors and windows. Although I didn’t know it at the moment, they were also attacking an office we have on the south side of St Louis where the majority of white people live. Comrades their work in support of the struggle of our people for reparations and to provide the white community with information and call for solidarity with the struggle of black people to be free and for reparations. That office was attacked using battering rams to knock down doors and arrest two whites who were put in handcuffs and held at gunpoint. On the same side of town, the FBI also went to the home of two other white comrades, [who were] handcuffed by armed guards. In each place they stole laptops, they stole phones, they stole anything that had to do with electronic communications.
At the same time, in another time zone, they attacked our Uhuru house in St. Petersburg, Florida. They used battering rams, knocked down doors, and invaded our radio station and temporarily took it off the air. The agents also stole archives from 50 years of archive material of the black struggle. Then they went to the home of Akilé Anai, part of our party’s leadership. The local police knocked on her door and told her to come outside because someone was breaking into her car. When she went to her car, FBI agents came from behind vans, accosted her, and took her cell phone. They also broke into another APSP house in St. Petersburg and shut down African community neighborhoods, while they were attacking in the name of serving a search warrant. Even if there was legitimate charges, they could have simply knocked on our doors. Instead, they launched a military-style attack. They broke into our homes, stole laptops, other devices, and stole other materials. In total, something like $40,000 worth of damage has been done to our homes and offices in two states and seven locations.
OT: The African People’s Socialist Party has been around for 50 years, but has not often directly faced this kind of extreme attack by police and federal agents. Perhaps you could provide a brief history of APSP and its relationship with the Uhuru Movement?
Omali Yeshitela: It’s really important to understand that the African People’s Socialist Party came out of the experience of black people in this country fighting for things like voting rights, the right not to be killed by random white people or the police, and other campaigns for freedom, rights, and dignity. This is our history. I was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee that was engaged in primarily what they characterized as a civil rights war. That gave rise to us and our party. It was not something by Lenin or Marx but came from the conditions that we were living in, trying to deal with, and based on what American democracy was supposed to be. I organized throughout Florida just for the right for black people to vote. I faced lynch mobs in Madison, Florida and in Alachua County. Forget trying to get black people the right to vote… We’ve taken on other issues like black people framed up by the police.
In the process of fighting and resisting, doing this we learned a lot. Initially, we thought that the problem was that the people who lived in St. Petersburg were just ignorant of the conditions that black people were confronting. We thought if we demonstrated to show what was happening, politicians and authorities would get it straight. But, when we demonstrated to show them what was happening, they put us in jail. It was through this process that we were forced to understand that it was not ignorance, but it was systemic. Conditions were imposed on us. We learned that it was not enough just to keep protesting. We realized we actually had to fight to get some control over our lives. We determined we needed an organization and that ultimately became the African People’s Socialist Party.
As a party, we did a lot of work as civil rights people. We organized throughout the country to get other people like us, other groups like us, to form the APSP to move beyond just protests but [also to] look at how we could win control over our lives and conditions, how we can actually capture and exercise power. The African People’s Socialist Party said the party is the best instrument for being able to do this.
The Uhuru Movement actually preceded the APSP. “Uhuru” is Swahili for freedom. The term Uhuru was born out of black people’s fight in Kenya against the British Empire. Uhuru was adopted by us and black people here, and in other places around the world by those inspired by the struggle for freedom. In 1968, we launched the Burning Spear newspaper as a tool to bring like-minded people together, and also used it for ideological communication.
In 1972, we created the African People’s Socialist Party. In 1976, we organized Uhuru—the African People’s Solidarity Committee—a group of white supporters among the colonizers. These are supporters who unite with the struggle of African people colonized in this country, fighting for freedom and liberation. Uhuru has been active in the white community “behind enemy lines.” They organize support for the struggle of black people to be free. Not to be integrated, but to be free. Uhuru also initiated other formations such as the African National Women’s Organization and the International People’s Democratic Movement.
US Police State Attack on the African People’s Socialist Party (Uhuru Movement)
OT: Would you describe some of the community work and actions you have organized and participated in around the US?
Akilé Anai: Lee and Kelley, I also want to express my appreciation for the opportunity to talk with Orinoco Tribune about the APSP and Uhuru, organizations that have profound histories. In the context of the attacks that have been made on us, our activities provide the foundation for understanding why we were attacked. The APSP and Uhuru have a variety of different programs, campaigns, and institutions that have fought to put power in the hands of African people in this country and throughout the world. This is different from the politics of integration, assimilation, or any kind of welfare or charity program.
Chairman Yeshitela set out to complete the work of Marcus Garvey whose movement raged in the 1920s. The fight then was for self-determination, for our people to be able to chart our own course, to be able to feed, clothe, and house ourselves, and to have real economic and political power. As a consequence of becoming subjects of colonialism and slaves in the US, we were forcibly dispossessed of our freedom, power, and dignity. In this country and throughout the world, that’s a totally different position than those that are working to reform, trying to make the system comfortable, and trying to find a way where a system born through genocide, slavery, and colonialism can be redeemed. We are clear that the existing racist system cannot be redeemed. It is inherently exploitative, wreaking havoc, death, and destruction throughout the world. What we have to do is build institutions that can contend with the colonial powers that dominate. We want to negate the influence and relevance of the colonizer all together.
This is why we initiated in 1968 the Burning Spear newspaper, which was part of the process to unite the struggle and has subsequently served as the vehicle that challenges the narrative of the colonial ruling class and its bourgeois commercial media. The Burning Spear is our platform to articulate our own stories, our own ideology, and our theory. In this country, we have institutions and organizations that also exist throughout the world. We’re building capacity in Africa, in Europe, and in the Caribbean. These institutions range from furniture stores to Uhuru Foods & Pies to produce food security in our community. The Uhuru Solidarity Committees also fight for reparations from the white community to turn over resources that support the African liberation struggle. These institutions are also born from a world process of demanding reparations to African people.
As Chairman Yeshitela mentioned, we help lead mass organizations such as the International People’s Democratic Movement (IPDM), which in the 1990s was a part of the struggle to defend the democratic rights of black people. It is a mass organization to help prevent people from being pushed out of political life (such as what happened with the defeat of the black revolution in the 1960s). It aims to be a vehicle that pulls people towards all-African development and empowerment projects, using the skills of doctors, engineers, agriculturalists, and other skills we possess that are [usually] used to benefit the colonizers. IPDM was founded to retrieve these skills for the uplifting of our community and the overall anti-colonial struggle. We have many other projects and campaigns, especially in St. Louis in the last several years since the murder of Mike Brown in Ferguson. APSP joined the African resistance as certain demands that we hadn’t seen since the 1960s Black Power movement. We now have multiple political organizations, as well as the Uhuru-organized Gary Brooks Community Garden and an African nation market.
Omali Yeshitela: I want to piggyback on that because part of what we have to do here is prick the memory of people. There are many people born within the last 15, 20, 30 years, born into situations which appear to have always been like this. But the reality is that we’re living in a situation where we see colonialism everywhere. But we should remember the 1955 Bandung Conference in Indonesia, followed by other anti-colonial conferences in 1962-66, and the Tri-continental Conference in Havana, Cuba where peoples from all around the world weren’t talking about civil rights. They were talking about ending colonialism; everybody around the world was fighting against colonialism. The colonialists conducted a massive war against us, assassinating and killing people who were fighting for freedom whether it was in the Congo, in Ghana, or in the US. Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Fred Hampton, and many others were killed. That’s what we saw, and despite that, in the process of building the APSP, our objective was to complete that revolution for self-determination, to defeat colonialism so that people have control of our own future and the future of our children.
The process that we are dealing with now has a history of some 600 years. This is a process that even gave birth to what we call Venezuela now. Part of the whole colonial expansion that came out of Europe that built the modern capitalist economy and united the whole world into a single economy that we characterize as a colonial mode of production that Marx called primitive accumulation of capital. He talked about how it turned Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black skins. He talked about what it meant in this land that we live in now, what happened to East India, how China was turned into a country of drug addicts by England in 1841-42 Opium War. All these captured resources gave rise to the world system. We also have the emergence of assassination, mass imprisonment, and global sanctions.
Why is Venezuela under attack? The US and other colonial powers want to negate the independence of Venezuela—a Venezuela that feeds, clothes, and houses [itself] in opposition to corporations and US sanctions. I know the Venezuelan government hasn’t said this but I’m convinced that the US killed Hugo Chavez just as they killed Lumumba, Kwame Toure, and Nkruma—none were characterized as murder. The whole struggle against colonialism, against the colonial mode of production, unleashed a desperate, frenzied attack on us by the US government trying to keep history from happening, trying to go back to the past: pre-Hugo Chavez, pre-Malcolm, pre-Black Panther Party, pre-revolutionary struggle. They want to go back so black people are back on the back of the bus again. But we’re not going back. They can have flashbang grenades, they can attack with armored vehicles, but we are not going backwards any more than the people in Venezuela are going to go back, the people in Cuba are not going to go back. The people in Palestine are going to continue to move forward because the future belongs to the oppressed peoples of the world. That is where progress is being made in human history. Those struggles against oppression sounds like Grenada’s revolutionary leader Maurice Bishop’s “Forward ever, backward never!” By the way, the APSP worked with Bishop and the New Jewel Movement.
This is not a contest between the US government and the APSP. It’s a battle between the US and African people in this country and globally. They want to frame it like its something to do with us and the Russians, but what they really want is black people back on backseats of the buses, they want black people back in the fields not being paid, and being wiped out without any kind of complaint.
OT: Akilé talked about the Civil Rights Movement as resistance, almost revolutionary. So repression came down as capitalism and its government was knocked back. Legally and illegally, the capitalist regime lashed out. It appears now that US power is dissipating rapidly. They were defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan. It doesn’t look good for them in the Ukraine. Meanwhile, China is now the leading economic and political power in the world so the US globally seems to be on a decline. Could this be part of why the authorities have targeted the Uhuru Movement? If we understand that the US will not willingly tolerate any challenge to its global economic and political, the same explanation may apply domestically. So when APSP and Uhuru reject assimilation, accommodation, and negotiation, you threaten the dominant ideology, practices, and colonial system. Could this be part of the explanation of why the FBI and other agencies have attacked Uhuru now?
Omali Yeshitela: Yes, it is one of the explanations. It’s one of the reasons, there’s no doubt about that. History shows the emergence of a social system based on colonialism which didn’t just start recently. We can refer to the 1960s, where we see some similarities. Revolution was the main trend in the world. So the US and the other colonial powers pushed back and were able to stall organized resistance for a long period using assassinations, mass murder, terror. The police murdered Fred Hampton in 1969 and arrested the Black Panther 21 on conspiracy charges in New York City. Of course, at the time, the Soviet Union was challenging the validity of capitalism ideologically and politically throughout the world. In fact, the US society was fracturing. People talk about January 6, but remember in 1960s, two Kennedys were murdered, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were murdered. US capitalism couldn’t win the ideological or political battles, so it initiated military assaults, killing people throughout the US and around the world.
Some politicians and corporate leaders thought China would be dormant and passive so it was ready to be exploited. But China has grown and risen economically and politically. So now China is a contending force. Russia is a contending force. At this point, the whole capitalist system faces instability, in large part because colonized people around the world are fighting like hell. And now politicians have to deal with people in this country too. We’ve got a country that’s fracturing, and it’s not just us! White people are climbing the walls, defecating on desks in the US Capitol, chasing the vice president down the hall talking about hanging him. It’s a major crisis: the entire system could implode. So we, as the APSP and Uhuru, are factors because we continue to fight for the rights of black people.
This is not a contest between the US government and the APSP. It’s a battle between the US and African people in this country and globally. They want to frame it like it’s something to do with us and the Russians, but what they really want is black people back on backseats of the buses, they want black people back in the fields not being paid and being wiped out without any kind of complaint. What do we do? What’s their complaints against us? They said we participated in an election in 2017—that’s supposed to be legal. They said we had a different opinion on what they’re doing in Ukraine—that’s supposed to be legal. They said that we circulated petitions to take the US before the United Nations to address genocide—petitioning is legal. What the FBI claims is illegal is we weren’t doing it for black Americans, but doing it on behalf of the Russians. They are trying to use that as a cover to further the war against black people and other colonized peoples around the world. They want to go back in history, but nobody’s going backwards. We’re not going anywhere!
OT: It seems like legality is largely defined by white supremacy, loosely connected to actual laws. Would you explain the current status of the charges against the Uhuru 3 and who has been arrested? What are the actual indictments?
Omari Yeshitela: The whole case is phony. Akilé Anai was the fourth person originally indicted, but they quickly decided to remove her name from the charges. So there’s three others of us who are part of the APSP and Uhuru Movement. The fissures are fissures appearing in their case. Their case is bogus, the whole thing is bogus. They had Akilé picked up in the same net, but they said well, let’s drop that one. Now they’re targeting me, and actually, I’m the key target of the entire attack because of my history and what I’ve created, and the fact that I’ve led this movement for a long period of time. But it’s bogus, and that’s why we see Penny Hess, who was the chairwoman of the African People’s Solidarity Committee and a young man, Jesse Neville, who is chair of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement. Both of these are white people who work in the white community and are responsible under our leadership for presiding over an organization that leads white supporters in some 140-odd cities. In this country, working for reparations and working for black power are white people.
One of the things that makes what they’re doing problematic too is because we’ve broken that contradiction of using white people against the rest of us. Politicians, corporations, the media don’t have an absolute monopoly now on the opinions and worldview of the white population. So we are the ones who have been charged; you mentioned earlier, with being Russian agents—which is crazy, and anybody can see that. History knows better than that. It’s a charge used against others before us: Paul Robeson and W.E.B DuBois, who co-founded the NAACP, were attacked on those same charges. One charge is conspiracy, claiming we’re working with the Russians. We were Russian agents, according to them, and we conspired with Russians to embarrass the US. The whites who defecated on the desk of Nancy Pelosi weren’t working for the Russians to embarrass the US; killing Mike Brown didn’t embarrass the United States; all the murders that we regularly see of black people in this country—none of that embarrasses the US. We, the APSP and Uhuru are the ones who threaten the US. It’s an extraordinary narrative that they’ve created, seated on a platform of unreasonable issues. It cannot prevail. It won’t prevail in court, even with the most rabid backwards system that we might be contending [with]. And, it certainly it won’t prevail with the people in this country and around the world.
OT: I’ve been looking for a Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting assessment of how the media is framing this indictment. It is predictable that commercial media will trumpet the FBI’s claims. I wondered if either of you would like to comment on how the commercial media is framing the indictment? Are they making a big deal out of the Russian connection or Uhuru activities? Are there other things that the media are using to try to convince the American public? Maybe then you could offer with some actions or ideas for supporters and defenders of the APSP and Uhuru?
Akilé Anai: We know the six corporations control most of the media in this country and have major influence around the world. They all are pushing the state’s narrative. They are part of this whole state in the attacks being made on our movement. They are not just bystanders trying to tell the story. As they are telling their story, they’re cooperating, they are complicit with these attacks, and of course they’re hoping to influence people enough to accept this misinformation garbage. The APSP has this whole profound history that we’ve only touched on very briefly here. Most people don’t have knowledge of our work and activities. That’s also partly why they’re trying—especially in Florida—to do everything to prevent people from having access to information: banning books, interfering with teaching, and generally interfering with access to truth. Meanwhile, across the country, yes, the media are running the same narrative. Media have also tried to isolate the story by not discussing it or avoiding the implications by marginalizing us as unpopular.
What we’re seeing is the violation of the basic democratic principles of freedom of speech. If they were to be successful in jailing the APSP chairman and neutralizing this movement, they would be taking away everyone’s right to freedom of speech. Once they take it away, they don’t give it back. This is what’s under assault. The media are not spending hours talking about this, but we’re forcing our way into the media and forcing this into the mainstream. Relationships and platforms such as Orinoco Tribune and organizing a mass campaign pulls together forces all around the world and can win support and demand the government to drop the charges.
On May 27, we held an international day of action in over 20 locations throughout the world: in Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and throughout the US. Whether they were by themselves in front of a theater holding a sign or [at] a large demonstration at a US embassy, they were demanding, “Drop the charges against the Uhuru 3.” These are creative and dynamic ways this people’s movement has gone to the streets, because we understand that our whole legal strategy is connected to our political strategy. This is a war that’s going to be won on the ground, bringing masses of people into this and winning the court of public opinion, which is going to be the influential factor in whatever happens in the courtroom.
Every time an African is killed in this country, they are the first ones on the scene with the police trying to get straight how and why we deserve to die. That’s what we’re looking at. It’s the same media that’s perpetuating the lies about the war in Ukraine and in Russia. It’s the same media that is even trying to pretend as if the as if the US government proxy war is on the winning side. It’s the same media that people are relying on for truth and information. That’s how our experience has been, but this is why what we’re doing right here with Orinoco and forces like yourself and just all of the other supportive media entities out there that have covered this campaign and continue to do that; express[ing] their support has been extremely important. We call on people to support this campaign, join this campaign, and donate to the legal defense fund. You can go to our website HandsOffUhuru for more information and ways in which you can support our defense.
I recall that it took popular action by masses of Venezuelans to prevent the US-orchestrated coup against Hugo Chávez. The people determined the outcome and freed Chávez. What’s really important for us, all of us, is to clarify this fundamental question. This is not a struggle between the United States government and African People’s Socialist Party. It’s a struggle between the US government and African people generally. What we represent is an attack on all those ills, all those problems, and all those contradictions. I tell everyone that freedom has always been illegal for black people. We did not come to America looking for a better way of life, and ever since being in this country, we’ve been fighting for some iteration of what we call “free.” That’s been historically the case. So many people talk about how they came to America for a better way of life, and many of them who came got a better way of life in part because of the enslavement of African people who lost a better way of life.
OT: I’ve often thought that the masthead for Orinoco Tribune should include the Chávez quote, “The truth is subversive.” It’s something that seems to be lacking in commercial media accounts as well as the fabricated FBI indictments against APSP and Uhuru. This seems to be primarily a question of free speech… So how can the average citizen make sense of this?
Omali Yeshitela: This is a critical point because the FBI claimed in their press conference that our party has weaponized free speech. But free speech was the first thing that they put in the Constitution. The founders were proud to use free speech as a weapon against despotism. Since then, in every instance, free speech has always been one of the first things to come under attack.
OT: This has been informative and inspiring to hear how APSP and Uhuru has been fighting for black people’s rights not only in the US, but in Africa, the Caribbean, and all over the world. Thank you both for taking the time to speak with us. We’ve asked you many questions but are there any other comments you would like to share?
Akilé Anai: Chairman Yeshitela presented a speech in Spain in 2007, which demonstrates APSP’s long-standing critique of US domestic and foreign policy and provides evidence of our independence. In court, we intend to put the US state on trial, exposing the whole system, the whole history, and all of the contradictions in this case. We didn’t do anything wrong. We don’t have anything requiring an apology. I really encourage people to look at Omali Yeshitela’s presentation at Oxford in England in 2019, where he spoke in favor of a closer African Union. He begins by expressing solidarity with the people of Venezuela, which was under attack by the US. He emphasized that the African people’s struggle is not isolated from everything else happening throughout the world. The speech—which will be used as evidence in trial—sums up who we are and what we believe.
Orinoco Tribune Special by Lee Artz and Kelley Zhou
OT/BLA/JRE/KZ
