Special program on the day after of Nicolas Maduro's inauguration on January 10, 2025.
Category
đź—ž
NewsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to our special program Venezuela Decides 2025 in the framework of the beginning
00:17of a new mandate of President Nicolás Maduro. I'm your host Alejandra GarcĂa and I invite
00:22you to stay with us for all the details on this event of great significance not just
00:26for Venezuela but also for Latin America and the Global South.
00:56A new mandate opens and with it a project that aims to transform the state into a democratic
01:22one of the people for the people and with the people. Let's listen to the statements
01:27of President Nicolás Maduro on the matter as he urged for a constitutional reform.
01:35I call on all sectors, economic, political, ideological, cultural and social of the country
01:42to hold a great day of inclusive and united dialogue so that we can move forward together
01:47a great constitutional reform that will further democratize Venezuela.
01:51And to go deep into the relevance of this event I'm joined once again by Chris Gilbert,
02:01Professor of Political Studies at the Bolivarian University of Venezuela. Hello and welcome
02:06Professor. Thank you for joining us once again.
02:09Happy to be here.
02:11The constitution, the current constitution of Venezuela is turning 25 years. Why is a
02:18reform called on this moment of the Bolivarian revolution? And let's also mention that on
02:22our first special program we discussed about the importance that the government is giving
02:27to the communal spaces of the base of the society. Do you believe that this reform could
02:32be a step towards that direction?
02:35For sure. In fact, Nicolás Maduro, President Maduro said that that would be one of the
02:38important components of the reform. I mean, in a general sense, I think it's always important
02:43to update constitutions. In fact, I come originally from a country that has a very old constitution
02:49and that's highly problematic because no one really understands it. In fact, there's a
02:53huge business of constitutional law that has to explain the constitution to people and
02:58interpret it. So it ceases to be a document that's useful for people.
03:03And so the Bolivarian constitution is 25 years old, but surely along the way one faces new
03:08challenges. I think one of the important challenges that's been faced we can see actually in
03:13this recent electoral conjuncture. Basically, what we saw was a lot of interference from
03:17the United States. They support a candidate. In the first place, they twist the arm of
03:23the people with sanctions, which is quite a lot like war. It's quite analogous with
03:27actually carrying out a war against the people of Venezuela, saying we're going to go on
03:30twisting your arm until you vote for the person we like. And then another challenge
03:35is simply the old problems of the state, corruption, things like that. In fact, a big
03:40achievement of the revolution in the last couple of years was the fight against corruption
03:45and specifically the neutralizing of Tariq al-Assami's corruption. So you can see how
03:50constitutional reform and specifically a constitutional reform that puts emphasis on popular
03:55power, more democracy, more socialism could be used to solve those two problems to make
04:00a more democratic country and the communes might be an important instrument in doing that.
04:05And in this sense, what would this reform mean for the people, for the Venezuelan people,
04:10for the common people?
04:11Well, I think that what it should mean is more power for the people, more democracy
04:15for the people. I think that many people have an ambiguous idea of the state. If you ask
04:23someone on the street, on the one hand, everyone wants the state to solve their problems. On
04:27the other hand, everyone has complaints about the state. And that actually corresponds to
04:31ideas in political philosophy. I mean, liberal philosophy has traditionally been against
04:36the state. And then you have the other side of the coin, Hegel, maybe the greatest political
04:41philosopher or greatest philosopher, European philosopher of modernity, saying the state
04:45was a realization of the ethical idea. So basically, the state is a highly contradictory
04:50phenomenon in capitalism. And I think the basic solution, which was proposed by Chavez,
04:58in part through the Hungarian philosopher István Mazaros, was to end the alienated
05:04state. And that sounds like fancy words, or end alienated institutionality. But everyone
05:08knows that institutions everywhere in the world, especially in the capitalist world,
05:12institutions end up being separated from the people. People no longer control them.
05:16So the solution is to bring those institutions under popular control. And there's a long
05:22history of that in the Bolivarian process. From even before the community councils,
05:26there were Mesas TĂ©cnicas de Agua, and then the community councils, and then the communes.
05:31So there are all these instances of popular power that have actually been very successful
05:36when they've been employed. In fact, recently, we've seen three consultations in the communes.
05:41And those consultations, people can vote on problems. They propose those problems. You
05:45know, that's one important thing. Because one problem with formal bourgeois democracy,
05:50representative democracy, is that people get to vote for things that they don't like.
05:54They usually have two options they don't like. And in these consultations, people can actually
05:59propose ideas. And their ideas get incorporated in the process. So I think there's been a hugely
06:05successful project of popular democracy, of going to the bases to solve problems. So that's why it's
06:12such a wise idea to go further into that, in that direction, with the upcoming constitutional reform.
06:18In his inauguration speech, the President Nicolás Maduro referred to the necessity that the country
06:24has of building a self-sustainable economic model. How can it be possible to fulfill from
06:31the communes? Well, actually, sustainability is an important option. Two things, you know,
06:37sustainability and diversity. Because the Venezuelan economy, for the last 100 years,
06:42has been dominated by petroleum. Essentially, the International Division of Labor and Capitalism
06:48determines that if your country sits upon huge petroleum reserves, that will be your role,
06:53exclusively, in the world economy. So that's been a huge problem in Venezuela for the past 100 years,
06:59is the increasing or the long-standing dependence on petroleum. And then, of course, sustainability,
07:04too, is another global issue. We've seen 1.5 degrees Celsius warming in this last year,
07:10which is a huge problem, perhaps one of the hugest problems facing humanity.
07:15So the communes actually offer an important possibility to overcome, to solve those two
07:20problems. In the case of diversifying the economy, one thing is communes mean planning.
07:27People can plan, decide how their production will go. In capitalism, people have to produce
07:31what's profitable. And here, profit means petroleum. But in a controlled economy,
07:37in a planned economy, like the communal one, you can decide what you're going to produce. And that
07:41can focus on humanly useful goods. In fact, everywhere in the world, especially in the
07:45Global South, there's a need to achieve food sovereignty. And the communes have made
07:51important steps in that direction, but they could go further. Precisely. These efforts of the
07:57Bolivarian government are resumed in the Seventh Transformation Plan. Let's see what it is about.
08:06In this regard, the first line of transformation focuses on the economy, seeking to modernize all
08:12the methods and techniques for the creation of national wealth that can lead to the
08:17consolidation of economy diversification to create a new export model. The second line
08:26of transformation is aimed at achieving full independence to update and expand the Bolivarian
08:33doctrine in its political, scientific, cultural, educational, and technological dimensions.
08:40The third transformation seeks peace, security, and territorial integrity to enhance the model
08:46of citizen coexistence, guarantee justice, protect human rights, and the safeguard of
08:53social and territorial peace, including the defense and development of the Guayana Ezequiel.
09:01The fourth transformation focuses on the social sector. It seeks to totally modify the
09:08humanist protection model to accelerate the recovery of the welfare state, as well as its
09:15mission and great missions, and to strengthen the values of the Venezuelan socialism.
09:24In turn, the fifth transformation addresses the political aspect, which was included because it
09:30was considered essential to consolidate direct democracy with a republican ethic.
09:38Likewise, the sixth transformation aims to fight the climate crisis, raise awareness,
09:44and protect people from environmental threats, as well as the Amazon and the natural reserve
09:50of capitalism. The seventh and last transformation proposes the integration and leadership of
09:58Venezuela in the new world order. Therefore, it seeks to rebuild Latin America and Caribbean
10:04integration and to strengthen the Brits, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
10:12The seventh transformation project was developed by all the social and economic sectors of the
10:18country, with a detailed agenda for each one of the transformations achieved through debates,
10:24analysis, and proposals.
10:26As we could see, climate change was a special mention in the seventh transformation plan,
10:30and in this regard I wanted to ask you, what initiatives of the indigenous communities can
10:36be multiplied and serve as an inspiration for the country to tackle, precisely in this effort,
10:42to tackle climate change? That's a very good question, especially in our context where
10:47there are important indigenous, there's an important indigenous population in Venezuela,
10:51and when you say it can be multiplied, that's also an important aspect of it, too.
10:56I recently had the chance to visit some indigenous communities in Amazonas state,
11:01and one fascinating thing visiting Pirola people is that when you ask them about socialism,
11:06they say, we live in socialism. They, and that's actually scientifically very correct, because
11:12if socialism means prioritizing use values, control of your own economy,
11:17democracy, they actually do live in socialism. Typically, though, they ask for support from
11:22the state, and they look for, they want to actually, something that we would call
11:27increasing productive forces, increasing their productive capacity. Some of them have recently
11:31received solar panels, which is very useful in their context. So, one thing, they are extremely,
11:37for example, Pirola people are extremely, they live in extremely sustainable fashion.
11:41The production is a, it's totally integrated in their lives, and they plan their, what they're
11:48going to do, but there's an, there is an issue about, about multiplication, because when you,
11:53certain, certain techniques that they use could, if they were multiplied, they would not actually
11:57be environmental. For example, they use slash and burn agriculture. So, if we had 26 million
12:01people practicing slash and burning agriculture, there would be, there would be, there would be
12:06use slash and burn agriculture. So, if we had 26 million people practicing slash and burning
12:10agriculture, that wouldn't be so successful. But the most important legacy of the indigenous,
12:16or legacy is not the right way of putting, the most important thing we can learn from indigenous
12:20people is precisely the socialist aspect of what they do, because they do plan, they actually
12:27prioritize use values in what they do, and that can be multiplied. So, that's actually the important
12:33legacy that should be replicated in a socialist project. You mentioned the consultative process
12:40that Venezuela has been taking, it has been taking place in Venezuela for the past years.
12:45What importance do you give to this process of popular consultations regarding their
12:52self-sufficient, their self-determination of what funds they need, to what aspects,
12:59like, what's the importance of this? Well, the consultation is an important thing. As I was saying,
13:03it's a little bit like, I was, a Chinese practice, developed a practice called the mass line.
13:08It was developed under Maoism, and Xi Jinping has revived under, under Xi Jinping's presidency,
13:12it's been revived, and that's a form of consultation. You go to the people and you
13:16collect their ideas, and the consultations do that. The other thing that's important about
13:21the consultations is they represent a validation of the commune. So, communes exist, but often in a
13:26community there will be different degrees of participation, and when the government decides
13:30to do a consultation process, that's a way of saying the commune exists, and people begin to
13:35participate more fully. So, the commune becomes more real in that sense. I do think that while
13:40the constant consultations are extremely important, and they're, they are useful for allocating
13:44resources, and they incentivize participation in the communes, it's also important to realize that
13:49the communes actually do represent something much more ambitious, and one, one way of thinking about
13:54that is that in any political process, any process of revolutionary change, you need to have
14:01places where people who can experience a new sociality, they can experience a solidarious
14:05way of being, because in the capitalist world we live, that's precisely what's negated. So,
14:10I think the communes provide a kind of school, a kind of nucleus where people can develop that
14:16praxis in which they will evolve as more revolutionary communities and people, as
14:22more revolutionary individuals. We are on the first day of the new mandate of President Nicolás
14:27Maduro, and the people are still on the streets enjoying, celebrating this moment. Do you think
14:33that this is also as well for all the strategy that the government has been applying to provide
14:41of more authenticity, of more self-dependence of the communes, of the people, of the base of the society?
14:48Absolutely. I believe we live in a very exciting moment in Venezuela. Certainly, we've been through
14:53difficult times. I mean, initially through the sanctions, and there has been a process of recovery.
14:58It's still a long way to go. But, and then, I think the most important thing that's happened,
15:03even in the past two years, is that while a big achievement of Maduro's government has been
15:10overcoming the sanctions, facing the sanctions, I think in the last two years the most important
15:14achievement is the attempt to recover the socialist project, and to do that precisely by
15:19going once more to the people. I think that's the, that's one of the most important legacies of
15:24Chávez. You know, Chávez realized that faced with imperialism, the only real power or the only
15:32real way to confront imperialism is going to the people with more democracy and more socialism.
15:36Communes or nothing, he said. Exactly. And nothing. What do we have in nothing? I mean, that's actually
15:42a profound statement. The statement actually is an echo of one of BolĂvar's slogans. There's a little
15:48known slogan of BolĂvar, in which BolĂvar said, independencia o nada, independence or nothing.
15:52So, in a sense, coming to nothing is also an anti-imperialist slogan. I think it's also,
15:57you could say, faced with the nothing of climatic destruction, of environmental session. That's
16:02another thing that's on the other side of nothing. So, when one affirms communes, one is affirming
16:06life in the face of the destructive capitalist tendencies, but one's also affirming the nation,
16:12the people, faced with imperialism. The government is also trying to improve or
16:19revindicate the minorities of the countries, the farmers, the women, also the indigenous communities.
16:26Why is there a need of putting the people at the center of the country's political
16:32participation and political decision-making? Sure. One important thing about that is that
16:37quite often people think of the working class, unfortunately, because of Eurocentric tendencies,
16:42even because of errors that the left made. They often imagine a white man in our overalls,
16:46and that's actually not the real nature of the working class. The real working class
16:51is often indigenous people, peasants, that's an important part of the working class, women,
16:56gender diverse people, that's also the working class. And the other thing that's extremely
17:00important is that capitalism always tries to divide the working class. In recent years,
17:04there have been these interesting conceptions like racialized capitalism or patriarchal capitalism,
17:09and those terms, what they indicate is the way capitalism always tries to divide the working
17:13class. It always seeks to pit one sector against another, and so there's always a need
17:20in any revolutionary process to take the most oppressed sector and give it extra support
17:26as a way of overcoming those divisions that are induced among the people. So that's one
17:31important thing, that's a way of incorporating all sectors into a unified project, only by giving,
17:36only through equity, only by giving increased support to those who have historically been
17:40oppressed. Thank you very much, Professor Chris, for joining us once more and debating on these
17:46remarkable events that are taking place in Venezuela. As the president said, Venezuela is
17:51making history. Thank you for being part of this analysis. Thank you. It's absolutely correct that
17:56we live in an extremely important historical moment, and I think there's a lot of hope in
18:00Venezuela. I certainly have a lot of hope, and I think that we can look to the future with a great
18:05deal of ambition and confidence. Thank you. And now we're going to take a short break, but don't go
18:11away. In a few moments, we'll be joined by another special guest to keep analyzing on this paramount
18:17event for the Venezuelan people. Now some images of how the celebrations are going in the capital
18:22of Caracas.
18:53Welcome back to Venezuela Decides 2025 Presidential Inauguration. The Bolivarian
19:21process has been driven by two key pillars. Let's begin saying this. One aimed at empowering
19:26the people's power within the country, and the other focused on establishing cooperative
19:31mechanisms and alliances with progressive governments and the global south. Let's see
19:36the following material on this topic. In this regard, Venezuela and China signed 31 new agreements
19:44to increase bilateral cooperation to the highest level. Ten of these agreements will address
19:50priority areas such as economy, geology, technology transfer in the areas of health,
19:57mining, housing, electric power and telecommunications. Eighteen other agreements
20:03focus on strategy areas that both nations intend to expand, such as politics, economy, trade,
20:10education, science and technology, aerospace and communication. In this strategic line,
20:16Venezuela and Russia have signed over 340 agreements covering areas such as energy, tourism,
20:24industry, agriculture and technological cooperation. This figure reflects the depth
20:30and dynamics of relations between the two countries. Caracas and Moscow propose to
20:35create new payment models in the national currency robo-bolivar as new funding sources.
20:42In Latin America, trade between Venezuela and Colombia increased by almost 800 percent
20:48since the re-establishment of bilateral relations. From January 2023 to August 2024,
20:55binational trade continues to grow, and it has a rate of 56 percent in the first eight months
21:02of the year 2024, and the figures could exceed one billion dollars. Regarding regional unity,
21:10the ALBA-TCP member countries approved in Caracas a special declaration on the occasion of the 20th
21:16anniversary of the integration mechanism. President Nicolás Maduro highlighted in the document the
21:22ratification of the commitment to defend the proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean
21:28as a zone of peace, which, 10 years after its approval at the second CELAC summit in Havana,
21:35in January 2014, remains in full force and effect. In the international sphere,
21:41President Nicolás Maduro has stressed the importance of consolidating Venezuela's
21:46defiant accession to the BRICS, emphasizing that the Great South-South Homeland is being reborn,
21:52and its admission as a partner of the integration mechanism could be considered a first step.
21:58Regarding the strengthening of the energy sector, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
22:04Countries, OPEC, highlights Venezuela's historical commitment and its actions to
22:09preserve the stability of the oil market. Nations such as Algeria, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait,
22:16Iran and Saudi Arabia deepened their agendas with Caracas and strengthened their air force
22:23for the production of hydrocarbons.
22:27And in this context, we invite to our studio Sam Magill, member of the revolutionary communist
22:32group from Great Britain. Thank you very much for joining us today.
22:36Thank you for welcoming us here.
22:38We could see in the past few days that Venezuela is not alone. Despite the intentions of the far
22:44right and all the emporiums and the mainstream medias trying to isolate Venezuela from the rest
22:50of the world, all the opposite has happened. Not just the Venezuelan people took to the streets,
22:55but also millions of sympathizers traveled to Venezuela to accompany President Nicolás
23:02Maduro in his swearing-in ceremony. There were also official delegations from some countries that
23:07we just mentioned in the material. In your opinion, what's the importance of this international
23:12support, not just by official delegations, but also from people that is very attentive
23:19of what is happening in Venezuela?
23:21Yeah, I think it has been absolutely crucial that in these recent months, since September,
23:27with the opening of the anti-fascist meetings, the reunions, the Internacional,
23:35the youth and students meeting that happened in November, the parliamentary sessions that
23:41happened, and now with this anti-fascist festival that has happened over the days of the inauguration
23:47of Maduro, thousands of young people, thousands of people from over 100 different countries
23:56have come to Venezuela, and they've come to Venezuela to see the reality of Venezuela.
24:01Some people that I've spoke to didn't know very much about Venezuela before, and they're here to
24:05learn, and it is so inspiring that they are learning so many things about the reality of Venezuela,
24:11about some of the really progressive policies and programs that Venezuela has implemented,
24:18that the Bolivarian revolution has implemented. We visited comunas, we visited women's
24:24organizations, we were in the streets with thousands of Venezuelans. All of this is really
24:29important because those people will then go back to their countries, and they will tell people what
24:35the reality is, what Venezuela's reality is. So when they are encountering people in their
24:41movements, or people on the streets, or their media saying, oh Venezuela is a dictatorship,
24:46there's no democracy, the people don't support Maduro, they have seen with their own eyes the
24:52truth, so they can challenge that. And of course, the people who have come back to Venezuela
24:58and to participate in these congresses, it also helps to strengthen the relationship,
25:04strengthen the relationships between so many different countries. It's been fantastic to be
25:09in the congress on Thursday and today, and see the multitude of different flags that are there,
25:17you know. Not only Latin America, obviously it's very important to have the Latin America
25:22regional representation, however also the flags from the Caribbean, also the flags from the African
25:30Sahel states. We met comrades from Niger, comrades from Burkina Faso, comrades from Mali,
25:36and this is also a really important pole that is developing, this new anti-imperialist pole that
25:41is developing in West Africa with the alliance of Sahel states. It's really important that this is
25:47recognized, and the solidarity, and the trade, and the connections are already developing between
25:53Venezuela and the countries of ALBA, and this new anti-imperialist pole in West Africa.
26:00And of course, you know, the participation from people from Britain, from the US, from Canada,
26:07the very countries that are sanctioning Venezuela, the very countries that are driving the imperialist
26:14agenda to try and destabilize Venezuela, to try and overthrow Nicolas Maduro, to try and get rid
26:21and crush the Bolivarian revolution. It's very important that the people who are in solidarity
26:27with Venezuela, from these imperialist countries, from these heartlands, can attend Venezuela and go
26:33back and build solidarity, and you know, really fight from inside the stomach of the monster,
26:39as we call it. Despite the attempts of the far right of calling for violence, of this misinformation
26:45campaign that Venezuela has been a target of, the people, nothing prevents the people from
26:50taking the streets and become this ceremony into a great joy event of people, of popular
26:59unity, of music and dancing. And I want to know your personal experience, and how did you
27:06live these past days, feeling all these emotions? I mean, for me, the focus has to be yesterday.
27:14We were on the streets of Caracas. We were outside Miraflores Palace. It was full. I mean,
27:21there were 30,000 people that I've been told, maybe even more, from Caracas who were there
27:27in the streets. We were able to walk around. We were interviewing ordinary Venezuelans who were
27:33there to support their president, who were there to support their Bolivarian revolutionary process.
27:39And the energy was just amazing. And it really is important that we, you know, as people from
27:47Britain, from the US, from these countries, as I mentioned, that are driving the agenda against
27:52Venezuela, that we document the people on the streets, and that we show it in our social media,
27:58that we show the people when we get back to our countries. Because if you look at the pages of
28:03The Guardian, this is the British newspaper that calls itself the world's leading liberal voice.
28:11They are full of lies about Venezuela, lies and manipulation. For example, there was an article
28:17a few days ago saying that Corina Machado had been kidnapped, allies say. They're always very
28:24careful to, you know, quote people. But, you know, the headline takeaway is that she's been kidnapped.
28:30Of course, this came out as false news. The next day, the article about the inauguration
28:37was that it was sparsely attended. They're talking about, you know, the diplomatic attendance at the
28:44National Assembly, which actually, by the way, there were many diplomats from many different
28:48countries there, including the presidents of Nicaragua and Cuba. But they were talking just
28:54about the National Assembly. They did not say a single word about the 30,000 people in the streets
28:59who also took the oath. And we were there with them. We took the oath alongside Maduro.
29:05And people were singing, people were dancing. And everybody who we were speaking to was telling us,
29:11yes, Maduro is my president. I voted for Maduro. My vote must be respected. I support Maduro because
29:20because of what he's doing with the communes. He's giving us participatory and protagonistic
29:25democracy. I support Maduro because due to the great housing mission of Venezuela that has
29:31provided more than 5 million units of social housing, I have a house. I support Venezuela
29:37because, you know, every week I'm getting, I'm able to access food. You know, we are receiving
29:44the clap bags several times a month. You know, people were telling us their experience as women,
29:51their experience as children. There were children on the streets shouting,
29:54vamos, Nico. I said, why do you support Nicolas Maduro? And they're saying, he's my president.
30:00Because of him, you know, I have a future in my education. I can go to university if I want to.
30:06So I think it's really important to be on the streets with people, to share that sense of
30:13participation, to share that sense that this movement does not belong to one person,
30:19does not belong to Nicolas Maduro. And he's the first person that says that.
30:23He's saying that this is the people's revolutionary process. This is the people's
30:28Bolivarian revolutionary movement. And the National Assembly, the swearing-in that happened yesterday
30:35belongs to the Chavista people. And yesterday, Caracas belonged to the Chavista people.
30:41And although I wasn't there, I've seen the photographs of people mobilizing on the streets
30:47in all of the cities around Venezuela. This wasn't just about Caracas. There were hundreds
30:53of thousands of people on the streets of Venezuela yesterday supporting the inauguration of Nicolas
30:58Maduro. And so when papers like The Guardian say, you know, that Maduro has lost the streets
31:06or that the inauguration was sparsely populated, they are making those people invisible.
31:12They are ignoring huge sections of Venezuelan society like they don't mean anything to the
31:18media, the media in our country. So it's important for us to fight the media war against Venezuela.
31:25This is our, you know, number one focus. And we regularly have protests outside of The Guardian.
31:31We're having one on the 15th in London this month, in a few days' time, because we have
31:38to challenge their lies. You know, we know the lies of the right-wing media. But the problem is
31:44is that The Guardian poses as a left voice. It poses as a liberal voice. And so it creates so
31:52much confusion amongst the people, you know, people who consider themselves as left or consider
31:58themselves as, you know, socially conscientious. It creates all this confusion. So this is why we
32:04have to challenge these newspapers, these media outlets, and we have to fight the media war.
32:10It is part of fighting the blockade against Venezuela. It's fighting the media war.
32:14Precisely. Progressive movements are seeing this inauguration as a defeat for the U.S.
32:20intentions and its allies' intentions, including the U.K., to interfere in the internal affairs
32:25of Venezuela. Today Venezuela is standing as an independent nation. However, the U.S.
32:32insists on applying unilateral sanctions. Precisely yesterday they announced a couple of
32:39more sanctions that are joined to a huge list of over 900 unilateral sanctions. In your opinion,
32:48what are the real interests behind these persistent attempts against the democratic path of Venezuela?
32:56Yeah. And if we talk about sanctions, we have to talk about the British sanctions against
33:01Venezuela. They have also sanctioned 15 people, and this adds to a list of now 51 people who were
33:09sanctioned by the British government. But more than that, they continue to steal the gold of
33:15Venezuela. You know, there is $1.4 billion worth of gold, like, hidden, stolen, hoarded in the
33:23coffers of the Bank of England, and they have refused to give back that gold. And, you know,
33:30they are working hand-in-glove with the U.S. and with the European Union to implement these
33:36sanctions against Venezuela. It is part of a strategy that we have seen since the coup against
33:41Chile, Allende in Chile, and obviously, you know, throughout the history of the Cuban Revolution,
33:48sanctions, economic war, this all comprises a blockade, and this blockade, it is designed to
33:55make the economy scream. And they did it in Chile. They have been doing it in Cuba. They are
34:01doing it in Venezuela. And I think it is about a couple of, I think the intentions behind it is a
34:08couple of things. Obviously, there is the oil of Venezuela. And yes, Venezuela has a lot of oil,
34:14and the U.S. wants it. Trump even said himself, if he had, you know, if he was in power, if he had,
34:19you know, if he, and if Biden didn't come, didn't, you know, take the presidency in the U.S.,
34:25we would have already got Venezuela's gold. I mean, that's what he said, yeah.
34:30Sorry, Venezuela's oil. That's what he said. They were after the oil.
34:34And however, I think it runs deeper than that, because I think Venezuela is a threat of a good
34:40example. Yes, it is an extraordinary and unusual threat, a threat of a good example, a threat
34:46that a different world can be built, a different world can be possible. And, you know, they are
34:52implementing socialist policies that are uplifting people who have been excluded for decades and
34:59decades and decades. And, you know, the Bolivarian Revolution, the 25 years that it has existed,
35:04there are so many examples of how the poor people, the working class people, the women,
35:11the children, health care, education, all of these things become seen as human rights.
35:17And that is made possible by this, by the Bolivarian Revolution and this threat of,
35:23you know, a good example. And the other aspect is that Venezuela is playing a role
35:29as a leading anti-imperialist force in Latin America. You know, we have the designation of
35:35Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela as the troika of tyranny, you know, and this was, you know, a few
35:42years ago under the Trump administration. And clearly Biden has continued with this. And Britain
35:47and the EU, they are marching in lockstep with this analysis. And why are they the troika of tyranny?
35:54They are the troika of tyranny to the US because they pose this anti-imperialist threat against
35:59the US hegemony of, you know, and imperialist power. They pose a threat against, you know,
36:07British imperialism, against EU imperialism. And because, you know, they are mobilising with
36:13the Global South, they are organising South-South trade, they are organising, you know, systems like
36:21CELAC, like ALBA, which are built on mutual support, mutual development, on principles of
36:30supporting their region to, you know, organise the infrastructure in a different way,
36:37to develop trade in a different way, so that the focus of this project becomes, you know,
36:45the, it becomes people instead of profit. And this is what they are, you know, this is what
36:53they are fighting against. Thank you very much, Sam, for joining us today. Thank you. We are very
37:00pleased to have you here and also to analyse on all these events, so paramount, not just for the
37:06region, as you mentioned, but also for the world and also for the left of the world. And as you
37:11mentioned, that was, Venezuela has become the epicentre of the struggle of the left movement
37:16worldwide. And thank you very much for your remarks. Thank you for inviting me. Thank you.
37:23We were joined by Sam McGill, a member of the Revolutionary Communist Group of Great Britain.
37:29And with that, we conclude with this special programme, Venezuela Decides 2025,
37:36marking the start of a new era for the Bolivarian revolution, with President Maduro
37:41leading the way. This new era that promises greater transformations, political consensus
37:47and peace achieved by the people, for the people and with the people.
37:52I'm your host, Alejandra Garcia. Thank you for watching.
38:06Transcribed by https://otter.ai