Mujeres en la Minga

A new episode in the escalating attempt to destabilize democracy and the Bolivarian Revolution has been taking place in this month of February.  Actions undertaken by internal and international opposition forces provide increasing evidence of a strategy that combines old and new forms of violence, that is attempting to create a situation of war against the people, that we, Latin American women, denounce and repudiate.

• We denounce economic violence, which is constantly employed through speculation, the hoarding of basic products in order to create shortages, rumors intended to create panic, the attacks and boycotts against public goods and services.  All this leads to a change in the conditions and quality of life for women and families, who are forced to resolve day by day their survival in the midst of adversity, a task which involves more work and emotional wear and tear.

• We denounce the political and social violence imposed through destabilizing and dirty political action such as we have seen in the last few days, along with systematic attacks on democratic institutions and decisions of a country that has, like no other in these times, has promoted and respected popular sovereignty as expressed in 19 elections.  To this we must add an open attack on people’s organizations, harassed by direct violence, by media attempts to criminalise them, and by defaming rumors.

• We denounce media violence, which knows no limits in its infamous task of disinformation, lying and forging untruthful accounts of facts, in order to present to the world false images of a society divided into two opposing groups, or even of a society rebelling against an illegitimate government, even though the reality indicates a people and a government constantly harassed by destabilizing activities on the part of national and international elites and powers.  This violence on the part of the media has an adverse effect on the rights and dignity of the Bolivarian people as well as the right of all peoples of the world to access information that is both true and based on trustworthy sources.

• We denounce the armed violence that we have seen in these days from paramilitary groups whose actions have already resulted in six deaths and many wounded.  We sound an alarm at the extreme danger of this kind of violence, which in order to create a scenario of conflict and chaos does not hesitate to employ death and terror to justify intervention.

• We denounce imperialist violence, which has resorted to unceasing interventionist maneuvers, employing the whole range of dirty tricks in their desire to put an end to the Bolivarian Revolution, and to alternative processes of integration and efforts to recover and increase real political, economic and cultural control in Venezuela and in the region.

We call on all women in the region and in the world to undertake as of today a permanent campaign to denounce these violent actions, their impact on the lives of the women and the people of Venezuela, to accompany our sisters who are committed to the struggle to defend the democratic and sovereign path of the Bolivarian Revolution, and of unconditional support for the alternative of PEACE sustained by the government and the people of Venezuela.

We call on all of you to commemorate the legacy and the presence of Hugo Chávez, whose engagement with feminism is now recalled in the celebration of International Women’s Day.

We take on as our own the slogan of our Bolivarian sisters:

FOR THE MOTHERLAND, FOR PEACE, AND FOR LIFE

World Women’s March –Latin America

Red Latinoamericana Mujeres Transformando la Economía –REMTE

 To sign on, write to:

communication@marchemondiale.org

remte2@fedaeps.org