Exclusive interview with Vice-president of Venezuela Delcy Rodriguez
The vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, granted an exclusive interview to our multiplatform. teleSUR
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00:00 (dramatic music)
00:02 - I will welcome the Executive Vice President of Venezuela,
00:09 Delsi Rodriguez, here with us in the studio.
00:10 Garago, Venezuela, it's a pleasure to have you, Delsi.
00:13 - Thank you for having me.
00:14 - What is the message and what could be summarized
00:17 for the workforce and for the Venezuelans
00:19 who listened to the President yesterday
00:21 in a six-hour speech and who have, of course,
00:24 the salary and the economic income
00:26 as the main focus of their concerns?
00:29 - Look, I did not hesitate to say that the message
00:33 to the nation given yesterday by President Nicolás Maduro
00:36 was an extraordinary message because, as he explained,
00:40 we are coming from a turning point here, the year 2023,
00:44 between a previous year in which we were recovering
00:47 economically after the pandemic
00:50 in the framework of the most terrible criminal blockade
00:54 that our republic has ever experienced.
00:57 Never before had we known what an economic,
00:59 financial, and commercial blockade was,
01:02 and in that framework, our nation has been rising its head,
01:05 and the year 2023 was undoubtedly a year of progress
01:09 in economic development, a progress in political
01:11 and social stability of Venezuela,
01:15 and I believe that one of the fundamental pillars
01:17 has been the national union, the spaces that were provided
01:21 to express the national unity, and from that national unity,
01:25 which we witnessed in the overwhelming rejection
01:28 of the people against the criminal sanctions
01:31 that we also saw in this national union
01:35 expressed in the defense of the historical rights
01:38 of our nation over our eastern Guayana,
01:43 and over this national union,
01:45 President Maduro stands before the country.
01:49 He speaks to the country with respect,
01:51 with reality, with support, with basis.
01:54 He speaks with hope that means for the future,
01:57 and from there, he launches for the next seven years
01:59 some lines of transportation,
02:01 the seven lines of transformation,
02:03 but one of the important announcements
02:05 made by the president has to do with the income of workers
02:07 because the first victims of this criminal blockade
02:10 have been our workers.
02:13 All Venezuelan workers,
02:18 when the hardest asphyxiation took place,
02:21 when they removed, restricted, and suppressed 99%
02:26 of the foreign currency income of this country,
02:30 this meant leaving Venezuela with nothing,
02:32 absolutely nothing,
02:34 a country that had an annual income of $65 billion,
02:38 $56 billion.
02:40 I remember we reached the year 2020 with $740 million,
02:47 and the year that passed was a year of progress,
02:50 but as the president has said, we still have a long way to go.
02:55 But what we have achieved has been with our own effort
02:59 within the framework of the blockade
03:01 because we have to say it in this way,
03:04 the sanctions persist,
03:05 the blockade of our financial resources persists.
03:09 More than $22 billion,
03:11 which include the 32 tons of gold
03:14 that are confiscated in the Bank of the United Kingdom.
03:18 This reality persists and has not changed,
03:21 but within the framework of this reality,
03:23 the people have been able to assume a position
03:27 not of tears or defeat,
03:30 but a position where each one has added his or her sacrifice,
03:34 where each one has added his commitment,
03:37 his or her commitment with the country.
03:40 And in the area of the remuneration of the income
03:44 for workers, which was where the social wound hit the most,
03:48 especially within the most vulnerable ones.
03:52 Well, last year, as the president said,
03:54 we came out with a bold formula.
03:57 The president presented it to the workers of our country,
04:00 and he said, "We are going with a process of indexation,"
04:05 which means that the increase given to the workers
04:09 and the income does not lose value.
04:14 That the $70 that the president approved last year,
04:20 $40 for the basket ticket
04:22 and $30 for the economic war bonus,
04:25 would be maintained in the course of the year 2023.
04:29 And this was also accompanied by an inflation control policy
04:32 where we sought to reduce inflation
04:34 and that the citizens would not have to face
04:39 the situation of going to a market
04:44 and the prices would change permanently.
04:46 And this policy was accompanied by an exchange stability.
04:52 Some really important numbers.
04:54 Last year was the most stable year
04:56 for the increase of the dollar.
05:00 If we compare it since the creation
05:03 of the exchange market in 2019,
05:05 you will realize that the variation in that year
05:09 was 7,188%, and last year it was 205%.
05:15 -Miss Rolando speaks of stability.
05:18 -Of stability.
05:19 And that stability also translates
05:21 into price stability.
05:23 And always, always, yesterday, the president showed
05:27 it is important to compare, because while in Venezuela,
05:32 while the working class was able to buy
05:34 and the working class president, President Nicolás Maduro,
05:37 is always looking for ways to protect and support the workers,
05:41 to support his class,
05:43 because he does not come from the oligarchies.
05:45 Maduro has worked all his life.
05:48 He is not like Caprillo,
05:50 who lives with silk bath in his hands,
05:52 because he has not worked all his life.
05:54 We should ask, we should survey the Venezuelan people
05:57 if they know where Caprillo has worked,
05:59 because it is one of the most frightening mysteries
06:02 of science we have.
06:03 Where has Caprillo worked?
06:05 When has he ever worked?
06:07 The president is different.
06:08 He is a working class president
06:10 who comes from the working class.
06:12 And that is the importance, that the workers know
06:14 who is in Miraflores is a worker,
06:16 because from that anguish that the workers live
06:19 is the anguish that has accompanied the president
06:21 in these terrible years of economic war.
06:24 -You mentioned most vulnerable sectors,
06:26 and that is where I refer to,
06:27 because it covers this income that is to be increased.
06:31 In general, for workers in 2024 to set for such a retreat,
06:35 for example, Vice President?
06:38 -I'm going to that.
06:39 First, I was explaining 2023 as a formula.
06:46 You know, it's a bold formula.
06:49 In the middle of economic war, we live in an economic genocide,
06:53 because what they have dropped on Venezuela
06:55 is not just anything in the Venezuelan economy.
06:59 They have dropped bombs and bombs,
07:01 and we have demonstrated it with numbers,
07:03 even in the public services,
07:04 how the vital infrastructure of Venezuela has been impacted
07:08 in comparison to the bombs that fell on Germany
07:12 during the Second World War,
07:14 even superior to the number of bombs
07:16 that have fallen on the city.
07:18 Explosives that were dropped in the Second World War,
07:21 a really shocking thing.
07:24 That is why we have no doubt that this is an economic genocide
07:27 and it's affected the most vulnerable,
07:29 and the President has always sought this formula
07:32 that has worked because the end of the year arrived,
07:35 November arrived, December arrived,
07:37 and the worker had this bonus in his pocket.
07:41 The worker had his economic war bonus in the pocket,
07:44 adding to another income
07:47 that in total gives a fairly comprehensive income,
07:50 and they had fixed money that was not losing value,
07:53 neither impacted by inflation
07:56 nor impacted by the exchange rate in formula.
08:00 So, this formula that he announced yesterday,
08:04 the President said, "We are going to maintain it,"
08:06 and informed that as of February 1st,
08:09 we were going to increase it up to $40 and $60
08:14 for the economic war bonus,
08:17 a very important increase considering that it is indexed.
08:22 We are maintaining the formula,
08:24 which we are permanently monitoring
08:27 because what is in our interest?
08:31 That when the worker is going to acquire goods and services,
08:35 that money he has as a product of his work,
08:38 of his effort, is not lost
08:41 and has the value to acquire goods and services.
08:44 And he took it to an amount like,
08:47 I was listening yesterday to one of the interviews on BTV,
08:51 one of the people in the square saying,
08:55 he said, "We know Maduro is making a great effort,
08:59 because the blockade is still maintained as sanctions.
09:02 Venezuela's income in foreign currency liquid,
09:05 well, the doors to the international financial markets
09:07 are closed, our financial resources are blocked,
09:10 our gold is blocked, the special drawing rights
09:13 in the International Monetary Fund are blocked,
09:16 and what we have had to give to the workers
09:19 has been with Venezuela's own effort,
09:21 public sector, private sector,
09:24 national union, national unity.
09:28 We have had to put divergencies of all kinds
09:31 and express ourselves in order to come out successful,
09:34 victorious, and follow this path
09:36 that the President has called us,
09:39 well, to go towards the Venezuelan power.
09:43 Now, this income, the income of the Venezuelan power,
09:46 the income of the minimum index integral income for workers,
09:50 no worker will receive less than $100,
09:53 the equivalent of $100.
09:55 The equivalent, the minimum index income for retirees
09:59 is now $70, because it represents 70%
10:02 of the minimum index income.
10:05 And for pensioners, who are already more than 5,500,000
10:08 pensioners, Venezuela has, and it must be said,
10:11 absolutely financed people by the Venezuelan income,
10:15 by the Venezuelan state, because in some way,
10:19 the blockade disturbed the economic blockade,
10:21 disturbed the labor relations.
10:24 Now, those pensioners are already going now,
10:26 those pensioners are already going to reach equivalent $25,
10:31 and together with policies, bonuses,
10:33 social protection of homeland, they will exceed $30.
10:39 So, we don't want to be like Malaysians and say,
10:41 "Well, see how you can manage this.
10:44 See how you manage."
10:46 You have to stop your car and go and see how you manage.
10:51 We are going to raise transportation fee,
10:53 go and see how you manage.
10:56 So, there is where you really see, well,
11:01 what a worker class president is,
11:05 concerned about the workers of the country,
11:07 concerned about the most vulnerable in the country,
11:10 because before the blockade, the Bolivarian socialism model
11:14 had been internationally recognized
11:16 by the United Nations system
11:18 in the achievement of the Millennium Goals,
11:22 recognition in its food policies,
11:24 recognition in one of the highest
11:26 human development indexes.
11:28 The model works, and they attacked it
11:31 with the economic war.
11:34 Above all, something you already mentioned,
11:36 China, within this model, the public and private sectors,
11:39 on behalf of its front states,
11:41 would undergo a policy governed precisely from that state
11:44 to be able to integrate everyone.
11:46 We have not renounced the state.
11:48 The Venezuelan government has a presence
11:49 in the vital affairs of the republic,
11:51 as it should be, always seeking balance,
11:56 seeking to add growth and development with equality.
12:00 That is what it's about,
12:01 not leaving citizens at the mercy
12:03 of the financial speculation.
12:06 It's not about leaving people more vulnerable.
12:10 It's not about leaving homeless mothers
12:12 without the right to count on the state, with no one.
12:18 In the month of October, 2023,
12:21 the President launched the great Venezuela Women Mission,
12:26 precisely to attend to the needs,
12:29 because we know that the economic blockade
12:31 has cost wounds, social wounds,
12:34 but there is a state reinventing itself.
12:38 What country, and the President said it yesterday,
12:41 what country distributes 130 million food combos in a year
12:46 and takes them to the people's homes?
12:48 -I'm going from 86% import for this combo,
12:52 for this basic food basket, to 97 domestic production.
12:56 -That is right, of self-sufficiency,
12:58 of food sovereignty, of food security,
13:01 which was always a concern of Commander Chavez.
13:05 Yesterday, the President told him,
13:07 "Commander Chavez, we are complying.
13:10 Commander Chavez, your anguish," as the Liberator said,
13:13 "my anguish will live in the future,
13:16 and we will solve that anguish in the future."
13:20 And that is what we'll see later, after seven years,
13:23 the seven transformations,
13:26 in the seven years of the future of Venezuela.
13:29 But without a doubt, we can say that the year 2023
13:32 was a year of progress, of difficulties.
13:35 It wasn't easy, because the greatest difficulty
13:37 was to recover, to rebuild, from the ashes,
13:42 our social model of social justice,
13:45 equity, and social equality.
13:49 -One can speak of a Venezuelan model,
13:51 just as one can speak of a Chinese economic model, as well.
13:55 -Yes, we have our model.
13:56 As the Chinese say, socialism with Chinese peculiarities.
14:01 Chavez called the socialism of the 21st century,
14:06 our socialism.
14:08 We have our model.
14:09 We have our model, which historically contrasts
14:12 with Monroism in all its edges,
14:15 because it helps the most vulnerable.
14:17 We must be there, and that is the call
14:20 we are doing to all authorities, to Venezuelan state,
14:23 locals, regionals, nationals, to be there
14:27 in the catacombs of the people,
14:29 sharing their anguish, solving them.
14:32 Because we know that the blockade --
14:34 Look, when you study the blockade in numbers,
14:37 no country has endured what Venezuela has endured.
14:40 And I say this with propriety from the economic point of view,
14:45 because during the COVID-19 pandemic in the year 2020,
14:48 2021, the largest economies in the world crunched.
14:53 And what they were suffering was 5% of what the government
14:59 of the United States and its Western allies
15:01 applied to Venezuela,
15:03 because the blockade against Venezuela was absolute.
15:06 It was swift, fast.
15:08 And in less than five years,
15:09 they accumulated more than 900 unilateral coercive measures,
15:14 sanctions directed to the state.
15:17 Look at the political ideological concept
15:19 of shrinking the state, sanctioning ministries,
15:23 productive sector, the industry, the financial sector,
15:27 to asphyxiate, suffocate the Venezuelan economy.
15:30 And where is the Venezuelan people?
15:33 Entrepreneuring, leadering, as in the year 2023,
15:39 as is already projecting, a closing gross domestic product
15:43 growth rate of more than 5%.
15:46 This year, we are committed, all sectors, the national union,
15:49 the private productive sectors, the public productive sectors,
15:53 the Venezuelan people, workers,
15:56 we are committed to exceed 8% growth
15:59 in the gross domestic product projected for year 2024.
16:03 Even modest figures are being made compared
16:06 to what has been projected by the International Monetary Fund,
16:12 which has to do with the leadership of Venezuela
16:14 compared to the South American countries.
16:17 Will the year 2024 is projected to be even better?
16:21 And what does this mean, a project that is better?
16:25 That every income of the Venezuelan state
16:28 is going to go precisely to the vital income of workers,
16:31 to the integral income of workers,
16:33 calling yourself active workers.
16:36 We do not forget about anyone.
16:39 When we see the neoliberal packages
16:41 they intend to apply, for example, in Argentina,
16:45 where they eliminate the social ministries,
16:48 where they take away medicines from pensioners, from retirees,
16:53 you say, is it worth it?
16:56 It is worth following this march.
16:59 It is worth following the struggle
17:00 for the Venezuelan model, Bolivarian socialism.
17:03 It is worth it because it is with the people
17:05 and that's the relevance of it,
17:07 which yesterday President Nicolás Maduro
17:09 also mentioned of consolidating the people's powers government.
17:13 And what's next? What's left to do?
17:15 What are the 17s?
17:17 We're going to talk about all of that,
17:19 Vice President, after a break,
17:20 in this special interview with Telesur.
17:23 We're back in Telesur with this special interview
17:32 with Executive Vice President Dacia Rodriguez.
17:35 We're talking about what 2023 was for Venezuela,
17:39 but also about all these years in which the impact
17:42 of the falling gross massive product
17:44 due to unilateral sanctions against the country
17:46 was felt in the pockets of Venezuelans
17:49 and also in economic production,
17:51 including, of course, oil production.
17:53 Let's talk about that aspect, Vice President,
17:55 which is very important.
17:58 A thunderous number given yesterday
18:00 by President Nicolás Maduro.
18:02 Why?
18:04 Because what happened with the blockade of the oil industry?
18:09 Between 2015 and 2021,
18:12 Venezuelans stopped producing the amount
18:15 almost by a few barrels of 4,000 million barrels,
18:19 equivalent to an average prices at the moment to $323 billion
18:25 that the oil industry lost.
18:28 Now, every dollar from the oil industry
18:32 has a growth in other sectors of the Venezuelan economy.
18:36 That is why the President calls us to diversify our oil income,
18:41 not only so that we are not dependent exclusively
18:44 on oil income because of what we have experienced in the blockade,
18:48 but so that we can strengthen other sectors
18:50 of the national economy in its 18 engines,
18:54 which have ample capacities, ample virtues of development,
18:57 of generating foreign currency income for the country,
19:00 income in general, direct employment, indirect employment.
19:04 Now, what happened with the Gross Domestic Product?
19:07 Since that blow to the heart of the Venezuelan economy,
19:10 we lost $642 billion.
19:16 What country?
19:17 But let the economists come out.
19:20 They like to talk so much, don't they,
19:22 the economists of the right wing
19:24 who try to disguise the neoliberal model,
19:26 which is impossible to sustain in order to give
19:28 and provide happiness to the people.
19:31 Let them explain.
19:32 Let them come out and say which country at this moment
19:36 has had an external shock like the one they caused to Venezuela
19:41 with the criminal blockade,
19:43 what it means for an economy to lose $642 billion
19:48 in all its sectors, not only in the oil sector,
19:52 but also in the non-oil sector, in manufacturing,
19:54 industry, trade, in all its areas, in construction.
19:59 In other words, the impact that this has on the Venezuelan
20:03 economy can only be explained by what has been called abroad
20:08 like the Venezuelan miracle.
20:13 There is not only one explanation.
20:15 There's only one, national unity, the national unity.
20:20 All sectors of the Venezuelan people committed.
20:23 And I said, I always point it out before the business sectors
20:26 in front of the private sector, the effort they have to make
20:29 in relation to the private sectors of the region.
20:32 For example, if we compare a Venezuelan businessman
20:35 with a Brazilian or a Colombian one,
20:37 the Venezuelan businessman does not have the same possibilities
20:42 of acquiring abroad to pay for raw materials and capital goods.
20:47 Why?
20:48 Because there is a financial blockade against Venezuela.
20:51 And it's not only against President Maduro
20:53 or his ministers.
20:54 No, that is against the whole country.
20:57 A businessman does not have the international financial
21:00 channels to pay through the SWIFT,
21:04 the international financial messaging,
21:06 to pay and buy abroad.
21:10 That is where the blockade begins.
21:12 Already against the private sector,
21:13 private businessmen, then we can talk about the public sector.
21:17 A businessman in Colombia, a businessman in Brazil,
21:20 takes his currency, pays from his account,
21:22 and so from his house he paid.
21:25 Our businessmen do not have that possibility.
21:27 And that is why we must recognize that Venezuela,
21:30 in all its national sectors, has reinvented itself.
21:34 It has looked for ways.
21:36 It has looked for the formula.
21:38 And look at the relevance of breaking with the oil
21:41 rentier model, isn't it?
21:43 How the private sector participates
21:46 in the national economy life, participates
21:48 in the foreign exchange market with its foreign currency,
21:52 participates in importing capital goods, raw material
21:56 to increase production.
21:58 As the President pointed out, we have been--
22:01 and this is the permanent dialogue
22:03 we have with all sectors.
22:05 As is the case with the industrial sector,
22:06 we have been recovering idle capacity
22:09 in the Venezuelan industries, which were completely
22:13 stopped by the criminal blockade.
22:15 Venezuela has been recovering that idle capacity.
22:19 And there is also a great potential and great capacity
22:23 to grow even more.
22:25 That is why we have been accompanying this
22:28 with a financing policy.
22:31 The President of the Republic explained it yesterday,
22:33 how we have recovered in relation to financing,
22:36 in relation to the year 2022, a recovery of the 94%,
22:42 great recovery.
22:44 To finance what?
22:45 The productive sectors, so that the productive projects
22:49 of agribusiness, fishing, entrepreneurs
22:54 could have a productive channeling through financing.
22:58 In the case of entrepreneurship, the F for financing.
23:02 The agricultural stock market was also created.
23:06 The agricultural stock exchange was
23:08 created, which had an important impact on the growth.
23:12 And the numbers we have seen, how the GDP grew in fishing,
23:15 aquaculture, agri-livestock, agro-industry sector,
23:18 a very important growth.
23:20 Because it had been accompanied by financing policies.
23:23 And the agricultural stock exchange
23:25 has had a truly barbaric growth.
23:27 It started with 39, the equivalent of $39 million
23:30 in 2023, and ended up financing to be precise, $518 million,
23:37 an increase of 500%.
23:40 So that's why I say Venezuela has reinvented itself.
23:44 We have all reinvented ourselves,
23:46 rejecting the criminal blockade against Venezuela.
23:49 And through national unity, we insist
23:52 on demanding that all sanctions against Venezuela
23:54 must be repealed.
23:56 It is a right of the Venezuelan people.
23:58 It is not a gift.
24:00 And those extremists of the stateless right wing,
24:03 of the Venezuelan right wing, who
24:05 asked for sanctions against Venezuela,
24:08 who asked for a blockade against the Venezuelan people,
24:11 they have to pay.
24:11 There has to be justice.
24:13 Because they created this situation
24:15 that sought to destroy our model of inclusion,
24:18 a model based on the speech of our father liberator
24:21 in Angostura, of social justice, social equity,
24:25 of social inclusion, social equality.
24:28 Well, they looked for that.
24:29 Venezuela reinvented itself.
24:31 And here it is, looking for a path to consolidate.
24:34 And this is the path we have to follow in the year 2024.
24:37 We see it with a lot of hope, with a lot
24:39 of hope for that future.
24:41 From 2024 to 2030, the '70s are proposed,
24:45 seven transformations for the economic process,
24:47 for the political and social process of consolidation
24:50 of the country.
24:51 Why seven transformations, Delcy?
24:53 And these seven years, which this process is also
24:55 looking at, and what the president announced yesterday,
24:59 will also be speaking of a new moment, of new governments
25:02 over the country.
25:03 Let's talk in both keys.
25:07 There are seven years for hope.
25:10 When you analyze each of the seven T's,
25:14 as the president called them, the seven transformations,
25:17 we are going to transform Venezuela in a positive way.
25:20 Venezuela in a positive way.
25:22 The national identity in a positive way.
25:25 Let's analyze it.
25:27 The first transformation, the economic transformation,
25:29 the road we have already walked.
25:33 Never again shall we depend exclusively on oil income.
25:38 This does not mean that we are not
25:40 going to devote ourselves to the growth of the oil industry.
25:43 Of course we are.
25:44 Venezuela has a right.
25:46 It is the first oil reserve in the world,
25:48 one of the largest gas reserves in the planet.
25:53 Natural resources of the largest in the world,
25:55 Venezuela has the right to exploit them.
25:58 But let's not return to a past where
26:01 we were dependent on that, because we placed ourselves
26:04 in the arbitration site.
26:09 And that was going to the heart of the Venezuelan economy.
26:11 That's the oil industry.
26:13 Well, we have started.
26:14 We have initiated a diversification process
26:17 where the private sector also contributes to the economy.
26:20 Where the private sector are not only benefiting from oil income,
26:24 but also contributing to their own capital
26:26 to develop the countryside, timber industry,
26:29 to develop the pharmaceutical industry, the 18 engines
26:34 economy that make Venezuela the guarantor
26:36 of an immense potentiality.
26:38 That is why Venezuela is a power,
26:40 as stated in the plan of the homeland.
26:43 And there is life of transformation,
26:44 the first T, the economic transformation,
26:48 consolidating this path of a diversified economy
26:51 in order to diversify our exports.
26:53 Last year, Venezuela became, for example,
26:57 the second largest shrimp exporting countries to France.
27:01 And that was done how?
27:03 With national effort.
27:05 The private sector accompanied by the policies integrated
27:08 in an economic recovery plan.
27:12 Tariff policies, tariff freeze policies, in a port regime,
27:17 in a regime that definitely seeks.
27:20 And this is one of the laws that is pending for this year,
27:23 2024, the diversification and promotion
27:26 of non-oil exports.
27:29 Well, that is the way.
27:30 It's one of the T's.
27:32 The economic transformation.
27:34 The second transformation, independence in all areas,
27:38 in all areas.
27:40 The president was talking yesterday
27:42 about education, science, technology,
27:45 political and economic independence,
27:47 all areas of independence.
27:49 And we see this because one of the most affected sectors,
27:52 in addition to our workers, was the public services,
27:56 which are services for a whole country.
27:59 They have been hard hit.
28:01 A part of this has been due to the technological dependence
28:04 with the water pumping systems, for example.
28:08 Practically one of the countries that supplies water by pumping
28:11 instead of making it anti-gravitational.
28:15 It is designed to depend on European and US technology.
28:20 The same with the electrical system, designed to depend.
28:25 And there came the electrical sabotage,
28:27 the attack on utilities.
28:30 And who in the world gave us support
28:33 or supplied us with spare parts?
28:35 Europe said no.
28:37 United States said no.
28:39 And they chased that all over the planet.
28:40 If we wanted to take a nut from Germany, they said no.
28:45 They chased us, as they did with medicines during the pandemic.
28:48 So scientific, technological independence in education
28:52 is fundamental.
28:54 Political independence is fundamental.
28:56 And it is also one of the other Ts,
28:59 which is political transformation.
29:01 That Venezuela goes to a new spirituality.
29:06 That never again, never again shall there
29:09 be political factors that call for the invasion of Venezuela.
29:14 The call for the overthrow of the government elected
29:16 by the people of Venezuela.
29:18 The call for the assassination of authorities in the country
29:21 and a blockade and call for the suffering of our people,
29:24 because they said so.
29:26 They said that this was collateral damage.
29:28 Never again.
29:33 This, the political transformation,
29:35 must meet a new spirituality of politics
29:38 at the service of the national majorities,
29:40 of politics inspired in values, ethics,
29:45 with morals based on the respect, tolerance, harmony,
29:50 and non-hatred.
29:51 We have lived moments of great hatred in this country,
29:54 when in 2014 or 2017, there were violent Guarimbas.
29:59 Venezuelans were burned alive.
30:03 Well, this political transformation,
30:05 which is in some ways, has been taking place
30:10 when definitely dethroned from the parliament in the year
30:14 2020, the most extremist, stateless, and surrendering
30:18 cell that the Venezuelan has in its entire history.
30:23 It has led to a process of recovery
30:25 of the political relationship, of the political factors
30:30 of the society, a form of understanding.
30:33 This transformation is destined to take place.
30:36 What I say is that independence and political transformation
30:39 are completely linked.
30:41 The third transformation has to do with consolidating peace,
30:45 because when we have tranquility,
30:47 many times we forget the times we have gone through.
30:51 And the policies of the Quadrants of Peace,
30:53 how we can consolidate peace, citizen security,
30:57 from a perspective of protocols, of respect for human rights,
31:02 we can see what is happening in El Salvador.
31:04 We can see what is happening in Ecuador.
31:06 Yesterday, the President, with humility, modesty,
31:09 offered to President Novoa not to make the mistake
31:13 of handing over their sovereignty and security
31:17 to those who are the main causes of insecurity in the region.
31:22 The DEA, for example, is a disruptive factor
31:25 because it is penetrated there with the big drug cartels.
31:30 Then you are going to call the US Southern Command
31:33 to come and solve the problem of citizen security in Ecuador.
31:39 A good example of this is Plan Colombia.
31:44 What Plan Colombia has meant for Colombia.
31:47 Colombia managed to reduce cocaine production,
31:49 coca production.
31:52 No, it increased it by billions of dollars,
31:55 more than $15 billion in Plan Colombia,
31:59 with the security agents of the US,
32:01 and they became the great producer.
32:03 They became the greatest producer of cocaine in the world.
32:06 That is being transformed right now.
32:09 What the President here did was a modest offer
32:12 he made to President Novoa to say,
32:14 "Do not make this great mistake of giving up sovereignty."
32:18 And we have very clear policies here with the peace quadrants
32:22 of how we have been rescuing prisons,
32:25 penitentiaries that have been taken over by criminal gangs.
32:29 Many times, these criminal gangs
32:31 are instrumentalized against Ecuador.
32:35 They are instrumentalized to destabilize countries,
32:38 together with drug trafficking.
32:41 And here, well, the security policy
32:43 is respectful of human rights,
32:46 but firm in the application of security policies
32:49 that allow the control of phenomena such as criminal gangs,
32:53 of phenomena such as the presence of drug trafficking cartels,
32:57 and how these factors combine
32:59 even to threaten political independence.
33:02 That is why all these Ts are completely linked.
33:06 Another point that has to do with this T of transformation
33:09 is preserving our territorial integrity.
33:12 And here, the Venezuelan people, on December 3rd, were firm.
33:17 They spoke loudly to the world,
33:19 that world that wanted to stop
33:20 the consultative referendum in Venezuela.
33:23 They had no choice but to say, "What do the people say?"
33:27 And the people spoke loud and clear and said,
33:30 "We are never going to renounce
33:33 to our legitimate historical rights,
33:36 of which we are the holders of the Guayana Ezequiel.
33:40 And there is a law on the creation
33:43 of the state of the Guayana Ezequiel,
33:46 early approved in the first discussion
33:50 in the law of the National Assembly,
33:52 with a set of policies that led to the rescue,
33:54 the recovery of the Guayana Ezequiel,
33:56 and the defense of our territorial sea
33:58 and the sea that's pending to be delimited."
34:01 And the resources present there, of course.
34:04 Well, then there is a fourth transformation, the fourth T,
34:07 which is to reinvent ourselves,
34:09 to recover our model of social protection,
34:11 humanist protection.
34:15 Yesterday, the President spoke about the launching
34:18 of a very important mission of social justice and equality.
34:23 Just social justice and equality.
34:26 There, the Venezuelan state, the Venezuelan people,
34:29 will be attending to the most vulnerable,
34:31 to the most attacked by the economic war
34:33 and the criminal blockade.
34:35 This is the way to preserve our model, by reinventing it,
34:38 but never renouncing it.
34:40 Not even with the worst blockade our country has ever experienced,
34:49 which no other country could have withstood,
34:52 have we said, "Let us give up.
34:54 Let us throw the towel.
34:56 Let us surrender to the arms of Millet
34:58 and destroy the state on the country."
35:01 We are going to reinforce, we are
35:03 going to reinvent ourselves precisely for the renewal
35:06 of our humanist model.
35:08 Then the fifth transformation is political.
35:10 We are talking about a new spirituality
35:13 based on values, on the Bolivarian ethic,
35:16 Bolivarian morality that allows for a harmonious coexistence
35:19 with all factors and political sectors
35:21 in the defense of our country.
35:24 Then there is the ecological transformation.
35:28 We are living not even in a time of climate change.
35:30 As the Secretary General of the United Nations has said,
35:34 we are now entering the era of a serious climate crisis.
35:38 There is a climate emergency, said by the Secretary
35:42 General of the UN.
35:43 There is a climate emergency, and we should all
35:48 be concerned.
35:49 And that is why Venezuela has denounced
35:52 the abusive presence of these transnationals by Guyana
35:56 in a sea pending delimitation due to the ecological damage
36:00 being caused in the sea, of which Venezuela is the owner.
36:04 It is the owner.
36:05 But they are destroying it.
36:07 And who are going to be harmed?
36:09 The small island states of the Caribbean,
36:11 our Caribbean neighbors.
36:14 Here the call is for all of us to act,
36:17 the international community to act,
36:21 but not in a non-hypocritical way, where
36:24 those who have already destroyed the planet
36:26 with their expensive capitalist, environmentally predatory
36:29 model, now they say, ah, no, the responsibility is shared.
36:34 Let us all surrender.
36:35 No, the responsibility is differentiated
36:38 on the north in relation to the south, which
36:42 has been harmed by the developmentalist north
36:46 with the predatory model on the south.
36:48 And there the plan is very clear.
36:50 President Nicolás Maduro presented a plan.
36:53 We went to Brazil for the preservation
36:57 of the Amazon basin with concrete proposals.
37:00 Zero deforestation, zero, because many times people
37:04 try to apply prices on life.
37:07 Well, you can deforest 15%.
37:09 You can deforest 20%.
37:11 No, zero was the voice of President Maduro.
37:15 Zero deforestation for us to preserve
37:17 the lungs of the planet, for us to have an impact on the oceans,
37:23 which are the ones that allow the exchange between oxygen
37:27 and CO2 emissions.
37:29 In other words, we're talking about a dimension--
37:32 it's hard to say--
37:33 but that already puts at risk the very preservation
37:40 of human species.
37:41 We're not talking about anything.
37:43 We are talking about preserving human species.
37:46 And well, Venezuela's proposal in that international arena
37:49 have been very clear, firm, how to move forward
37:53 without trampling on the people of the south,
37:55 of how to move forward with preserving the rights of nature.
37:59 And the last transformation is geopolitics.
38:02 Venezuela, within the framework of the large homeland,
38:05 it's rings--
38:07 Latin America, the Caribbean, South America--
38:10 which is to set roots on the Bolivarian model
38:14 of integration, of union of the countries.
38:18 It is the only way for Latin America.
38:21 We're talking about a Venezuela that
38:22 will be at the head of this continent
38:24 with so much projected economic worth by 2024,
38:28 and will also lead a policy of this continent in terms
38:31 of what it has proposed.
38:32 That's a transformation of international government land.
38:35 Our proposal has been very clear.
38:42 It is very Latin America and the Caribbean.
38:47 Our proposal is that this growth is for all of us,
38:53 for all of us to go with our potentialities
38:55 and make compensations for the great potentialities.
38:59 Venezuela, which is in this continent,
39:04 has and knows that Latin America and the Caribbean
39:07 is the power for the world.
39:10 If you study region by region, you
39:12 know what it represents, not only in our region,
39:15 but Venezuela for the world, for its wealth, for its reserves,
39:19 but also for its conception of the world and of life,
39:24 its conception of the world and life,
39:27 in a world where in this year, 2024,
39:29 we pray, God, that it's not like this,
39:32 but it's a world that is going to face
39:34 great challenges against peace and international stability.
39:37 We are seeing it from the first days of January,
39:40 what the genocide in Palestine has meant,
39:42 how Zionism and its allies are trying
39:47 to internationalize this conflict.
39:50 And this conflict is going to affect the whole world.
39:54 That is why Venezuela is not only for its wealth,
39:57 for its great reserves of power.