Staff (2021-12-19). Venezuela and Belarus Sign Bilateral Agreements in Strategic Areas. orinocotribune.com This Friday, December 17, the governments of Venezuela and Belarus signed several agreements at the closing event of the Eighth Meeting of the Venezuela-Belarus high level mixed commission, in order to consolidate strategies for the benefit of both nations and for strengthening cooperation relations. At the Simón Bolivar room of the Miraflores Palace, the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, stressed that Venezuela "is taking a successful step in the right direction, with the pace, speed and intensity that is needed," by signing agreements that will allow the development of different sectors of the national ec…

_____ (2021-12-19). U.S. Police Unions Starting to Ask: Why Does the ACLU 'Defend the Indefensible'? strategic-culture.org With the introduction of ACLU Watch, more people can better understand that a robust police presence is not the true source of America's crime problem, Robert Bridge writes. | Law enforcement officials have begun a watch beat of sorts against the American Civil Liberties Union, whose support of justice reform has translated into more criminals roaming the streets as police officers lose their jobs. | A number of liberal activists, armed with the most altruistic intentions, of course, are busy remaking America into a liberal bastion of utopian thinking, where the Cultural Marxists have put down the stakes on their…

Andreína Chávez Alava (2021-12-19). Venezuela: Oil Output Continues Upward Swing as Iran Calls for Greater Cooperation. venezuelanalysis.com Oil revenues will reportedly fund 61 percent of Venezuela's 2022 budget following a recent hike in crude production and exports.

Staff (2021-12-19). Venezuela Has Carried Out Largest Drug Seizure in 10 Years. orinocotribune.com This Saturday, December 18, Venezuelan National Anti-Drug Superintendent, Richard López Vargas, highlighted that Venezuela has seized 51 tons of illicit drugs so far in 2021, the highest amount in the last 10 years. | "A significant quantity, 51 tons, were seized in 5,334 procedures by law enforcement agencies," he informed. "The last time this figure was superceded was in 2011; which means that today represents the largest seizure in the last 10 years." The superintendent explained this during the first edition of the 2021 Citizen Security Expo, which is being held in the Military Circle, Los Próceres, in Caraca…

Marco Teruggi (2021-12-19). Venezuela: What Country Will it Be? orinocotribune.com By Marco Teruggi — Dec 8, 2021 | The economic and financial catastrophe that relentlessly devastated the Venezuelan population during the last few years seems to be easing, while the government of Nicolás Maduro encourages the return of the old entrepreneurial forms of accumulation. Harassed by the imperial powers, the recent elections revealed a decrease in the hard core of the Chavista hardliners and at the same time revealed the fragmentation of the opposition. From Caracas, a chronicle brimming with questions, about the country that mocks forecasts and closed conclusions. | "This was the richest country,…

Eric Zuesse (2021-12-18). The Dangerous Ignorance of Germany's New Foreign Minister. moderndiplomacy.eu Germany's new Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock came into office on December 8th without her knowing that America's stationing missiles in Ukraine on Russia's border, and only a 7-minute flying distance away from Moscow, would be even more unacceptable to Moscow than, in 1962, would have been, to Washington, the Soviet Union's stationing missiles in Cuba, …

Chris Hedges (2021-12-18). Hedges: The Execution of Julian Assange. orinocotribune.com By Chris Hedges — Dec 13, 2021 | He committed empire's greatest sin. He exposed it as a criminal enterprise. He documented its lies, callous disregard for human life, rampant corruption and innumerable war crimes. And empires always kill those who inflict deep and serious wounds. | Let us name Julian Assange's executioners. Joe Biden. Boris Johnson. Scott Morrison. Theresa May. Lenin Moreno. Donald Trump. Barack Obama. Mike Pompeo. Hillary Clinton. Lord Chief Justice Ian Burnett and Justice Timothy Victor Holroyde. Crown Prosecutors James Lewis, Clair Dobbin and Joel Smith. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser.

Editor (2021-12-18). Britain's legacy of brutal slavery in Barbados. mronline.org Yes, the British Empire is indeed one colony smaller as Barbados formally declared itself independent of its colonial rulers after 400 years yesterday in a big ole fancy ceremony attended by all kinds of dignitaries.

Emily Mangiaracina (2021-12-18). Big Pharma, Gates, Fauci, UK Officials Accused of Crimes against Humanity in Complaint to International court. globalresearch.ca Activists are charging UK officials and the world's most powerful health figures with genocide, citing a range of statistics on the effects of COVID "vaccines" and policies. | . |

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Jesús Rodríguez-Espinoza (2021-12-18). Massive Blackout Affects Caracas and Several Regions of Venezuela, Labeled as New Attack — Service Restored 100%. orinocotribune.com Caracas, December 17, 2021 ( Several parishes in Caracas, as well as various parts of the states of Zulia, Mérida, Carabobo, Miranda, Lara, Aragua, Apure, Anzoátegui, Vargas, Bolívar, Nueva Esparta, Barinas, Trujillo, Sucre, Táchira, Falcón, Yaracuy, and Portuguesa were affected by the blackout. | The b…

Philip Weiss (2021-12-18). Israel pushes U.S. into 'aggressive posture toward Iran that could spiral into war' — but mainstream press is indifferent. mronline.org Trump says, Netanyahu was 'willing to fight Iran to the last American soldier.' That ought to be big news, as Israel's defense minister gets unrivaled access in D.C. to threaten war and block the U.S. path to a new Iran deal.

José Manuel Blanco Diaz (2021-12-18). Venezuela's Appeal to the UN about Refugees (+ Vuelta a la Patria). orinocotribune.com With the ratification of the Vuelta la Patria repatriation program as an effective measure to guarantee the safe return of refugees, the government of Venezuela urged the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to support the program which has already aided in the return of thousands of Venezuelan nationals from various countries. | Héctor Constant Rosales, Venezuelan representative to the UN and other international organizations based in Geneva, Switzerland, raised his concerns about the politicization of the migration issue during a high-level…

scorinoco (2021-12-18). Only One Chávez and Only One Salvador. orinocotribune.com By Sergio Rodríguez Gelfenstein — Dec 15, 2021 | From Venezuela to Chile, from Caldera to Boric | The current situation in Chile seems to me more and more strikingly similar to that of the early 90's in Venezuela. At that time, here—just as in Chile today—30 years of post-dictatorship were being experienced. Both countries—at the time—were presented as a "model of democracy to follow" and "example for the world" based on the "success" of the two-party representative democracy system in which the economy was put at the service of a minority of the population. | "It is not thirty pesos,…

Jessica Dos Santos (2021-12-18). Tales of Resistance: Guaidó's Pie. orinocotribune.com By Jessica Dos Santos — Dec 14, 2021 | Venezuela Analysis columnist Jessica Dos Santos takes aim at self-proclaimed Juan Guaidó's antics and how his "circus" goes on. | A few days ago I was out grocery shopping when I heard a man tell his friend that Venezuela was the only country in the world with two presidents but where everything was still screwed up. | This has become a running joke among Venezuelans. However, some three years ago, when Juan Guaidó proclaimed himself "

Chris Hedges (2021-12-18). Hedges: The Execution of Julian Assange. orinocotribune.com By Chris Hedges — Dec 13, 2021 | He committed empire's greatest sin. He exposed it as a criminal enterprise. He documented its lies, callous disregard for human life, rampant corruption and innumerable war crimes. And empires always kill those who inflict deep and serious wounds. | Let us name Julian Assange's executioners. Joe Biden. Boris Johnson. Scott Morrison. Theresa May. Lenin Moreno. Donald Trump. Barack Obama. Mike Pompeo. Hillary Clinton. Lord Chief Justice Ian Burnett and Justice Timothy Victor Holroyde. Crown Prosecutors James Lewis, Clair Dobbin and Joel Smith. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser.

Eric Zuesse (2021-12-18). The Dangerous Ignorance of Germany's New Foreign Minister. moderndiplomacy.eu Germany's new Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock came into office on December 8th without her knowing that America's stationing missiles in Ukraine on Russia's border, and only a 7-minute flying distance away from Moscow, would be even more unacceptable to Moscow than, in 1962, would have been, to Washington, the Soviet Union's stationing missiles in Cuba, …

Jesús Rodríguez-Espinoza (2021-12-18). Massive Blackout Affects Caracas and Several Regions of Venezuela, Labeled as New Attack — Service Restored 100%. orinocotribune.com Caracas, December 17, 2021 ( Several parishes in Caracas, as well as various parts of the states of Zulia, Mérida, Carabobo, Miranda, Lara, Aragua, Apure, Anzoátegui, Vargas, Bolívar, Nueva Esparta, Barinas, Trujillo, Sucre, Táchira, Falcón, Yaracuy, and Portuguesa were affected by the blackout. | The b…

Philip Weiss (2021-12-18). Israel pushes U.S. into 'aggressive posture toward Iran that could spiral into war' — but mainstream press is indifferent. mronline.org Trump says, Netanyahu was 'willing to fight Iran to the last American soldier.' That ought to be big news, as Israel's defense minister gets unrivaled access in D.C. to threaten war and block the U.S. path to a new Iran deal.

_____ (2021-12-17). Why We Must Defend Julian Assange. popularresistance.org December 10 is International Human Rights Day. It is always a sham holiday for the United States, which locks up its own people at rates exceeding those of every other country, and routinely makes war against the rest of the world. In 2021 the date was treated as even more of a mockery than in the past. Joe Biden convened a bizarre democracy summit, wherein he declared other nations good or bad based on whether they go along with the dictates of the U.S. empire. Although it was in London where the U.S. behaved in a particularly shameful manner, working with the United Kingdom to secure the right to extradite Juli…

_____ (2021-12-17). They Won't Ever Find Us Because Our Love Is Bound To The Rocks. popularresistance.org At the US State Department's Summit for Democracy (9—10 December), US President Joe Biden announced a range of initiatives to 'bolster democracy and defend human rights globally'. These measures are to be funded by $424.4 million from the United States. This money will go towards the same institutions that have — for the past sixty years — intervened to undermine the sovereignty of democratic processes from Iran (1953) and Guatemala (1954) to Honduras (2009) and Bolivia (2019). The US focuses on falsely portraying governments that are unwilling to accept US leadership as corrupt — as was w…

Rainer Shea (2021-12-17). Terror, Destabilization, Genocide: India's Imperialist Proxy Role. orinocotribune.com By Rainer Shea — Dec 10, 2021 | As the U.S. empire has continued intensifying its hybrid asymmetrical warfare against China, and has caused the world to divide between the U.S. and Sino blocs, I've been

Internationalist 360 ∞ (2021-12-17). Democratic Production and Self-Organized Labor: How the Che Guevara Commune Confronts the Crisis. libya360.wordpress.com Cira Pascual Marquina and Chris Gilbert Part I: Highland Resistance: How the Che Guevara Commune Confronts the Crisis First-hand accounts of the impact of the US sanctions on a coffee and cocoa growing commune in the Venezuelan Andes. The Che Guevara Commune lies on the fertile hillsides that rise up from the shores of Lake…

Josh Mayfield (2021-12-17). Activists speak out in Louisiana as support for ICE detainee hunger strike grows. liberationnews.org On Dec. 13, activists gathered in Monroe and Jena, Louisiana to hold press conferences at both the Richwood and LaSalle detention facilities to protest abusive conditions.

Chris Walker (2021-12-17). FDA Lifts Rules on Abortion Pill, Permanently Allowing Medication to Be Mailed. truthout.org The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is lifting restrictions it has previously placed on abortion medication, permanently ending rules that required pills for the procedure to be obtained in person. | The change in policy will allow abortion medication to be mailed to those who want it instead, which reproductive rights activists have

Staff (2021-12-17). "We Must See Action": Police Killings Continue as George Floyd Justice in Policing Act Languishes. democracynow.org The county of Williamson, Texas, has announced a settlement of $5 million in the wrongful death of Javier Ambler II in 2019. The 40-year-old Black man died after being repeatedly tased by police during a traffic stop. Police bodycam footage showed Ambler telling officers, "I have congestive heart failure," and "I can't breathe," as they continued to tase him. This comes as the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act languishes in Congress and activists urgently demand lawmakers to vote to stop the nationwide police killings of people of color. "We must see action," says Benjamin Crump, attorney for Ambler's family.

Peoples Dispatch (2021-12-17). 141 million suffering from food shortages in Arab world: FAO report. peoplesdispatch.org Out of the 420 million total population in the region, 69 million are currently severely malnourished due to extreme food scarcity, war-related famines and COVID-19, with Yemen and Somalia the worst-affected…

WSWS (2021-12-17). Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa. wsws.org Continuing strike wave of French transport workers over pay and conditions joined by waste collection workers and extracurricular school staff; national one-day strike across Italy against government's budget joined by teachers demanding more resources; strike by teachers across 100 Iranian cities over pay and conditions attacked by police; municipal and health workers strike in Free State, South Africa over pay and conditions…

_____ (2021-12-17). Tel Aviv Insists on a Radical Solution to Iran's Nuclear Program. journal-neo.org On December 10, at the annual Israeli-American Council (IAC) National Summit in Miami, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with senior US functionaries about a radical solution to Iran's nuclear program. He warned his American counterpart Lloyd Austin, and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that he had ordered the Israel Defense Forces or the …

Prof. Louis René Beres (2021-12-17). Existential Perils From Iran: Israel's Options in Law and Strategy. moderndiplomacy.eu Abstract: Eleventh-hour diplomacy notwithstanding, few tangible barriers remain in the way of an Iranian nuclear capability. If Israel should decide that it no longer maintains any reasonable self-defense alternative to launching selective military attacks against Iranian hard targets, those preemptive strikes would need to be justified in both strategic andlegal terms. In this article, Professor …

_____ (2021-12-17). 20th ALBA-TCP Summit Declaration. popularresistance.org The Heads of State and Government and the Heads of Delegations of the countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America — Peoples' Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), meet in Havana, Cuba, on December 14, 2021 to commemorate the 17th Anniversary of the Alliance. In signing this Declaration, we renew our commitment to strengthen this mechanism of political coordination based on the principles of solidarity, social justice, cooperation and economic complementarity, a result of the political will of its founders, the Commanders Fidel Castro Ruz and Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías.

W. T. Whitney Jr. (2021-12-17). Cuba derrota al COVID-19 con aprendizaje, ciencia y unidad. peoplesworld.org La educación es fundamental para el socialismo cubano. La dedicación del gobierno revolucionario al conocimiento científico y la atención médica para todos se manifiesta ahora mientras los cubanos enfrentan la pandemia de COVID-19. Estados Unidos no tiene tanta suerte. Los cubanos han realizado con entusiasmo el enmascaramiento, el distanciamiento social, las pruebas y la cuarentena. …

Staff (2021-12-17). COVID-19: Los países de bajos ingresos han administrado la mitad de dosis totales que las dosis de refuerzo administradas en las naciones ricas. cubadebate.cu Un año desde que se administraron las primeras vacunas COVID-19, muchas partes del mundo permanecen peligrosamente desprotegidas. La propagación de la variante Omicron del coronavirus ha significado que muchos países están intensificando sus campañas de refuerzo. El aumento ha sido tan rápido que el análisis de Sky News ha encontrado que el número de dosis de refuerzo administradas por persona en los países ricos es el doble del número total de todas las dosis de la vacuna COVID administradas en los países de bajos ingresos.

teleSUR (2021-12-17). Attack on The Electric System Prompts Blackout In Venezuela. telesurenglish.net Venezuela's Public Infrastructure and Services Vice Minister Nestor Reverol denounced that the Guri electrical complex was attacked in the early hours of Friday. | RELATED: | "We are at the forefront of actions to restore service. We ask for support from the Venezuelan people to overcome this vile and criminal attack, "he said, adding that the experience of the workers of the National Electric System (SEN) will allow to recov…