The Black people in Venezuela overwhelmingly support Maduro's government since it is the ideological continuity of Hugo Chavez.
In our lands where our ancestors have walked, where some of the nation’s greatest leaders have lived, we have enormous wealth: water, gold, oil and other minerals. Today, the opposition wants to take these away from us. They want to steal our wealth. We stand before the world and affirm before President Maduro, that we will defend the homeland of Simón Bolívar and Chávez, the revolutionary process and achieve supreme happiness as Comandante Chávez always advocated.
We believe that working with youth will achieve everything that Comandante Chávez hoped for: freedom for the Venezuelan people, the Americas and the world. We are putting in our grain of salt, following the legacy of our Comandante Chávez, working with Afro-Venezuelan communities, working with the most impoverished in history to challenge an empire that wants to take over the whole world. We want to achieve what Comandante Chávez advocated for, support the world from our trenches and achieve socialism so all people are treated equally and that no one group of people or leaders are the only ones who have benefits in any nation.
Q: You’ve referred to the current political context and the strong attacks by the opposition against the Venezuelan people. How do you see the Afro-Venezuelan people’s contribution to defend the Revolutionary process?
A: As an organization, we are committed to fulfilling the Homeland Plan created by Chávez. He left us very specific tasks to carry out a socialist process not an an imperialist one. We are committed to supporting President Maduro and his administration. [The government] has been tainted by attacks ranging from the economic war to the media war. The opposition wants to eliminate the revolutionary process anyway possible not only here in Venezuela but in all of Latin America and the Caribbean. The right has waged attacks against the region and we see this in Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador for example. It is a grave situation. We as an organization raise our voice to denounce the US empire and we demand that they stop the attacks against the revolutionary government of Maduro and Chávez. We are convinced that socialism is the only way to live well and develop our communities.
Q: Speaking to the Bolivarian process, what has the Afro-Venezuelan movement in Acevedo and by extension, Barlovento been able to achieve in Revolution?
A: Over the years, we have done a lot. The principal achievement was that Chávez visibilized us. Before, we were invisibilized. In the process, we created the Law Against Racial Discrimination, the National Institute Against Racial Discrimination (INCODIR) and CONADECAFRO that fight in defense of our rights.
On a local level, we have built cumbes* and organize activities in Afro-Venezuelan communities. We have brought to light the struggles of our martyrs and our ancestors that were invisibilized by the Venezuelan right wing, who wouldn’t say why our leaders like Guillermo Ribas, Miguel Geróimo Guacamaya and Andresote among others were killed.
Chávez advocated for the happiness of our people and Afro-Venezuelans which is something we strive for today. But, the right attacks us and not only Afro-Venezuelans, but also the indigenous as well as the sex and gender diverse community. It isn’t in the right wing’s favor that Venezuelans live freely. They prefer us enslaved and under their thumb.
It is also important to mention that in Revolution President Chávez helped communities in New York by donating oil resources. Maduro’s government continues this tradition so people can survive the cold winters. Many people went without heating and President Chávez through an agreement with Black organizations gave them oil so they could have access to heating. This way people do not have to worry about their immediate needs and can organize.
These are achievements that the empire doesn’t want to name because it exposes the work they must do in Afro-descendant communities. They need to support the most impoverished. President Chávez used to say, it’s not that communities don’t want heating. It is because they do not have access because of the taxes empire imposes and the communities’ limited acquisitive power. As an act of solidarity, Chávez did this kind of work not only for the communities in New York but around the world.
“We Will Defend the Revolutionary Process”: Afro-Venezuelan Youth and Today's Struggle for Freedom