George Ciccarriello Maher, Drexel University, author of We Created Chávez: A People’s History of the Venezuelan Revolution
Miguel Tinker Salas, Latin American Studies, History, and Chicano/a Latino/a Studies at Pomona College, author of Venezuela: What Everyone Needs to Know and The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture, and Society in Venezuela
Todd Griffin, organizer with Black Lives Matter (LA) and participant in 2014 Black and Brown solidarity delegation to Venezuela
Jeanette Charles, educator and graduate student at the Bolivarian University of Venezuela with the Cátedra Libre Ãfrica
This week, the Venezuelan people presented over 5 million signatures to the US government protesting against President Obama’s executive order that declares Venezuela a “threat to national security.” According to the latest Hinterlaces Poll, 92% of all Venezuelans reject any form of US intervention and are organizing courageously to defend their sovereignty.
Over the last 15 years, Venezuelans have secured free education from preschool to undergraduate studies, free healthcare, and support for popular culture and media. Venezuela was declared free of illiteracy in 2005. The government has built more than 675,000 homes since 2010 and plans to build 400,000 more in 2015. In Venezuela, undocumented immigrants are guaranteed the same rights as citizens. Many Latin American countries are softening geopolitical borders.
Venezuela is also working to create a society free of discrimination with laws such as the Law on the Right of Women to a Life Free of Violence and the Law Against Racial Discrimination marking an anti-racist and anti-patriarchal shift in the country after 500 years of colonial repression and intervention.
FMI: [email protected] Sponsors: Scripps Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Intercollegiate Department of Africana Studies, Scripps Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Intercollegiate Feminist Center for Teaching, Research and Engagement
