Chavistas celebrating Indigenous resistance day in Venezuela on Saturday, October 12, 2024. Photo: Con el Mazo Dando.
During the great Indigenous and Afro-descendant march commemorating the Day of Indigenous Resistance in Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro said in an interview that there is nothing to celebrate this October 12th and recalled that the greatest genocide in the history of humanity has been ongoing since 1492.
“Fascism is the heir and direct expression of colonialism,” said the president during the march. “Today’s fascism is the heir of the worst in the history of humanity. We are the heirs of the most noble and beautiful resistance: the heirs of Guaicaipuro, which represents our dignity. We are the revolutionaries of yesterday and today so that the empires are respected.”
He reflected that “now, they do not dare to say that they celebrate the day of the race. Now, they say that it is the day of Hispanic heritage and that we are Hispanics. We are the America of resistance. Make no mistake, we are the America of Abya Yala.”
President Maduro acknowledged Hugo Chávez for being the main promoter of the Indigenous cause in Venezuela. Chávez pushed for its recognition and respect in both the Constitution and the country’s laws.
President Maduro called for the establishment of an institute to recuperate all the native Indigenous languages and for the consolidation of housing, healthcare, and education plans in Indigenous communities. He also called for the consolidation of the organization of Indigenous youth in the communities and of the Indigenous militia.
President Maduro concluded his speech by saying that the 532-year-long resistance is united with the resistance of the peoples of Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria, who today resist the same colonizing powers. “Let us prepare to continue being the vanguard of just causes,” he stated.
Jorge Rodríguez: Spain is once again attacking our honor
Minutes before the interview with President Maduro, Deputy Jorge Rodríguez showed photos of posters that are currently on display in several cities in Spain, in which the brutal process of colonization of American lands is celebrated, and the conquistadores are recognized as heroes.
Rodríguez criticized the posters that display the phrase “1492, neither genocidal nor slave owners, they were heroes and saints” and said that with this statement, Spanish conservatives are “again attacking our honor, our pride, our full life.”
These posters were published by the Catholic Association of Propagandists, an ultraconservative Spanish religious organization that was once an ally of Franco’s dictatorship.
Regarding Columbus and the European colonizers, the president said that “before their arrival, over 100 million people lived in these lands with advanced cultures, advanced civilizations… in less than 50 years after their arrival, these ‘saints’ had exterminated 90% of the population of these lands,” constituting “the greatest genocide that the history of humanity has ever known.”
He said that this affront would be equivalent to “Germany claiming today that Hitler was not a genocidal maniac, he was a saint. They [Spain] dare to celebrate such a crime.”
Deputy Rodríguez dismantled the arguments that the colonizers brought us civilization and language, explaining that before their invasion in 1492, there were about 1,200 languages in these lands. “We speak Spanish, but we speak it better than they do. The best linguists, the best writer, Gabriel García Márquez, the best poet, Pablo Neruda,” said Rodríguez, comparing Latin American talent with that of Spain.
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Before concluding, he once again criticized the institution of the Spanish monarchy, which represents an anachronistic institution in today’s diverse world. “You have to be an idiot to continue believing that one person has the right to govern just because of their blood,” he added.
Cabello: no one was discovered here, it was just the beginning of a genocide
“They didn’t discover anyone here,” said the vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, during the march this Saturday. “Some people who were lost on a boat arrived here, and they assumed it was a discovery. Still, the truth is, that was the beginning of a genocide.”
In his opinion, the Spanish empire came to the American continent to exterminate the native population, impose its ideology, and steal the resources of the Indigenous people. He made an analogy with the situation that the country is going through while facing the imperial system led by the United States. However, very optimistically, he said that it will be defeated just as the country defeated the Spanish crown during the independence war 200 years ago.
Cabello also said that “those groups in Spain that support Zionism and the massacre against the Palestinian people are the same ones who are saying that nothing happened here in America, that those who came here are saints, that they are heroes, martyrs,” he said.
“532 years later, it is a source of pride to belong to these lands where Indigenous peoples have been the protagonists of their history of anti-imperialist struggle,” said Cabello. “Therefore, marching alongside them on this day serves to fill us with ancestral wisdom and the strength to continue fighting against any enemy.”
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
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