Orinoco Tribune Celebrates 6th Anniversary With Anti-Imperialist Groups in Spain

Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—Within the context of Orinoco Tribune’s sixth anniversary, editor and founder Jesús Rodríguez-Espinoza participated in two activities organized by anti-imperialist organizations from Barcelona, Spain.

The first event was organized on Saturday, November 30, by the Yes to Peace NO to NATO Platform in Catalonia led by Patrizia Manzo, a respected anti-imperialist organizer from Barcelona and supporter of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution.

Sharing the stage with Dana Nidal from the Masar Badil organization and Claudio Martini from Brazil’s Workers’ Cause Party, Rodríguez-Espinoza updated the audience about Venezuela’s current economic and political situation, highlighting the economic recovery despite the US blockade and the unquestionable victory of President Nicolás Maduro in the July 28 presidential election.

The editor of Orinoco Tribune made clear that despite some criticism that he might have over the leadership of the Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE) and how it has handled some controversial decisions, there is no debating the victory of Chavismo in the presidential election.

Masar Badil’s Nidal discussed the atrocities committed by the Zionist occupation known as Israel following the Al-Aqsa Flood operation and how the Palestinians have the right to defend themselves using all the means at their disposal, including armed struggle.

Nidal also reminded the audience of the tireless work carried out by Samidoun in defending the rights of thousands of Palestinians unjustly imprisoned in Israeli detention centers with no respect for their most basic human rights. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Resistance’s only means of negotiation are what the “West” calls hostages, thus highlighting the double standard of the imperial powers towards the Palestinian struggle.

On the Brazil front, Martini explained how the Brazilian right has dismantled the achievements reached during Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s previous presidency. He highlighted that Lula’s conciliatory nature has limited a real change of paradigms in Brazil and might hinder the support of the Workers Party’s (PT) base for his government and his capacity to counter US hegemonic pressures.

Many analysts cite those imperial pressures as the reason behind Lula’s controversial decision to veto Venezuela’s entrance to the BRICS as an associate member during the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, in October.

Martini added that important White House advisors, such as Mark Feierstein, “predicted” this move by the Brazilian president long before the Venezuelan elections.

The second activity Rodríguez-Espinoza participated in was a workshop organized on Sunday, December 1, by Casal Cuba Barcelona and its leader Melani Barbero. In the workshop, those in attendance, which included a representative of the Venezuelan Consulate in Barcelona, Sebastian Araujo, discussed the threats of independent anti-imperialist communication projects like Orinoco Tribune.

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Educational proposals were drawn up during the workshop, including a tentative virtual workshop to train people in Barcelona on organizational and logistical skills to launch communication endeavors that fight imperialism and support the just causes of the Global South.

In the workshop, the participants also discussed the bourgeois democracy and the position of Chavista Venezuela, which still follows this formula when many think that it should once and for all embrace more Marxist-Leninist values such as the dictatorship of the proletariat, especially after almost 25 years in power.

On Saturday, the day before the conference, all the organizations and the speakers participated in a massive march on the International Day of Solidarity with Palestine. The activity served to energize not only those in attendance but also the people of Barcelona and defend the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to oppose the Zionist occupation and genocide in West Asia.