Hands Off Venezuela

Some one hundred people gathered in front of the US embassy in Brussels last Friday. The immediate reason for this protest was the central role played by the US in the recent "civic bosses' coup" against the left government of Bolivia. The recent discovery of a new military plot in Venezuela to overthrow the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, was also the target of our anger. But more generally it was also an action in support of the revolutions in both countries.

The Hands Off Venezuela campaign in Brussels took the initiative ten days ago to organise a meeting on Bolivia, which was attended by thirty people. At the meeting a decision was taken to call for a protest in front of the US embassy together with other groups. A Belgian solidarity committee was launched. Apart from the many Latinos and left wing activists present, a whole group of twenty students from the French speaking university ULB was present. The day before a group of HOV activists had gone to the campus to distribute leaflets. To their surprise the leaflet was visible on the walls of different parts of the university!  A group of students had spontaneously taken the initiative to organize the propaganda. The local action committee in solidarity with "people without papers", which had just organized a mass demonstration, and the local branch of ATTAC were also involved.

The successful action ended with two militant speeches. Erik Demeester of the HOV campaign explained how the right-wing on Bolivia had tried to violently force through a coup. Temporarily the danger has receded but Evo Morales has proposed a new round of negotiations with the right wing opposition. The masses do not trust those negotiations and have reacted with mass mobilizations and have asked  for weapons to defend themselves against the violent attacks of the extreme right-wing militias. The oligarchy of Bolivia and Venezuela will never reconcile themselves with those left-wing governments. They will not rest and they will use every means at their disposal until the governments are overthrown.

Marcelo Estrada, member of the Bolivian MAS, spoke after Erik. Interestingly, he explained to the audience that the new negotiations are a trick used by the right wing to gain time and regroup its forces.  He said that the opposition was fascist and racist and that it was not afraid of perpetrating mass murders like that of the peasants in the department of Pando. He also criticized the Bolivian justice system for wanting to free the prefect of Pando whom he consider to be the brain behind the mass murder. His speech was interrupted – in a friendly way – with the slogan "El pueblo armado, jamas sera aplastado" (The armed people will never be crushed). At the end, Marcelo thanked everyone for their solidarity and for the successful action.

See more pictures at Picasa.