25 Years of the Bolivarian Revolution – (February 2, 1999 – February 2, 2024)
Kwame Nkrumah
“The increase in our number in this short space of time is open testimony to the indomitable and irresistible surge of our peoples for independence. It is also a token of the revolutionary speed of world events in the latter half of this century. In the task, which is before us of unifying our continent, we must fall in with that pace or be left behind. The task cannot be attached in the tempo of any other age than our own. To fall behind the unprecedented momentum of actions and events in our time will be to court failure and our own undoing.”
Inaugural Ceremony, OAU, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 1963
Hugo Chavez
“The imperialists see extremists everywhere. It’s not that we are extremists. It’s that the world is waking up. It’s waking up all over and people are standing up.”
United Nations General Assembly, 20 September 2006
Hugo Chavez
“As Chomsky says here clearly and in depth, the American empire is doing all it can do to consolidate its system of domination. And we cannot allow them to do that. We cannot allow world dictatorship to be consolidated.”
United Nations General Assembly, 20 September 2006
The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (GC) and its women’s wing, the All-African Women’s Revolutionary Union (GC) February 2, 2024, congratulates the United Socialist Party of Venezuela/PSUV, President Nicolas Maduro, and the heroic Venezuelan people for fighting for and accomplishing 25 years of socialist independence and solidarity with other liberation movements and peoples. We have long followed, and admired, Venezuela’s exercise in genuine democracy with the triumphant 1998 election of President Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias against overwhelming opposition from imperialism. We celebrate him as the first, Indigenous and African president of Venezuela.
From the very beginning, President Chavez was targeted by US imperialism. We watched with concern and celebrated the reversal and defeat of the US-financed coup d’etat against him in February 2002. There has been a constant barrage of attacks on the PSUV and the people of Venezuela from the first inkling of a socialist revolution up to and including today. But the masses of Venezuelans, like our siblings of the Palestinian Revolution, have kept their dignity, and their willingness to wage a constant struggle to be free of Capitalism, Imperialism, Neo-liberalism, Neo-colonialism, and Zionism. Through all of this Venezuela has made sterling contributions to the people of Grand Colombia, defending, and advancing worker’s and women’s rights and the recognition and inclusion of the Afro-Venezuela communities and Indigenous peoples. The Bolivarian Revolution has bolstered unity with Cuba and Fidel Castro, with Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Lula De Silva in Brazil, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, and the leaders of progressive Caribbean states.
Inside Venezuela, we have witnessed the growth and development of numerous “Missions” to expand and consolidate health care, housing, food, and land distribution, etc. for the people. We salute the PSUV efforts to recognize and advance the development of ONADECAFRO (Consejo Nacional para el Desarrollo de las Comunidades Afrodescendientes de Venezuela) which was formed in 2012. Also, the creation of the International Anti-Imperialist Cumbe of African and Afro-Descendent People in 2019. As well as the Afrodescendant Group of the National Institute of Women (INAMUJER).
We have also championed Venezuela’s role in the creation and expansion of the ALBA Alliance and CELAC, which has replaced the U.S. controlled Organization of American States and the declaration of South and Central America and the Caribbean as a “Zone of Peace.” We are eternally grateful of the visionary leadership of President Maduro in guiding Venezuela’s support for South Africa’s ICJ Genocide Case Against Israel.
We salute these achievements and salute the people of Venezuela, their Party, the PSUV, President Maduro, and the Bolivarian Revolution. ¡Hasta la victoria siempre!
In Revolutionary Unity & Struggle,
Imhotep Ashanti (Representative)
All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (GC)