Hands Off Venezuela NJ Committee Forms: First Action Protest Sunday, Oct 12, New B, NJ

Editor’s Note: Recently a young Puerto Rican man who is politically active contacted this editor.  He had found on a New Brunswick street a “Hands off Venezuela” pin from when I handed them to participants in a human rights protest at the Fountain and George Street in New Brunswick.  There was a phone number on the pin, mine, and he called and said that he wants to get our communities engaged in preventing Trump’s attack on Venezuela.  So far the US has destroyed 5 fishing boats off the coast of Venezuela killing the crews and passengers under false pretense of opposing drug trafficking but with no evidence shown that the fishing boats were involved.  4000 US troops are now deployed in Puerto Rico poised to attack Venezuela and other Latin American and Caribbean nations and peoples, a US naval fleet of at least  nine warships, one submarine, and thousands of personnel are off the coast of Venezuela and the Venezuelan Maduro led government reports that US warplanes are flying dangerously close to Venezuelan air space.  There is no declaration of war from Congress but as of October 3, Trump has declared to Congress that the US is in a state of war with what he falsely has called “Venezuelan drug cartels”.  

The USA has also sent a full fleet of refuel planes to the Middle East and there is speculation that Israel and the US are getting ready to join together in an all out war on Iran.  The actions on Venezuela could be in coordination as the US has been complaining about Venezuelan relations with Iran, Russia and China.

The following is a call to action that this young gentleman is bringing to the floor.  After the statement is a collection of links to articles of statements in solidarity with Venezuela from Puerto Rican freedom fighters.

CALL TO FORMATION: NJ HANDS OFF VENEZUELA COMMITTEE

The people of Venezuela don’t need a warship in their face. They need education ,humanitarian aid and a lifting of the murderous US sanctions. For far too long it’s been the fearful vs the powerful.

By that I mean fearful drug lords scared of losing the little way of life they have and the powerful, still scared but equipped to take from anyone that gets in their way.  No nations have the drug trade under control and Venezuela has done much to reduce the trade.  It is Ecuador, with its current regime very closely linked to the Trump administration that is responsible for the preponderance of cocaine trafficking.  Ecuador is inviting the Trump administration to have a larger military presence there adding additional pressure on Venezuela.

The good people are just always caught in the crossfire. 

As a Puerto Rican man I am proud of the history of Puerto Rican struggle for liberation and against oppression.  We  do not condone the use of our beloved island as a base for these cancerous physical manifestations of big oil, other mineral extractors, big pharmaceuticals, and the like.  It must be up to the people of Puerto Rico, still a colony of the United States to exercise our sovereignty over our nation by asserting that our island is not a spring board to kill our Latin American sisters and brothers, in Venezuela and anywhere else.  Our island must not once again be degraded by arrogant occupation troops and ecological degradation – We will never forget or forgive the destruction of six decades of bombing Vieques as a testing ground for US warfare!

One thing I’ve learned about the world: the profit driven systems will grind the people down to benefit omnipresent and multinational corporate capital. So I have to keep voicing my opinions and concerns no matter how hopeless it seems to be. 

 In the Middle East right now, for oil, other natural resources and real estate the entire population of Palestinians in Gaza is being exterminated and removed.  

We Latinos too made that sacrifice in 1492 until present. I am tired of our people sacrificing for the benefit of billionaires from the north and we get nothing but misery, deprivation, humiliation and death in return.  I am tired of not being heard!

We need to build unity across all sectors of the Latin American community in the USA, united with all community forces that stand for justice against the attacks by ICE – sending Venezuelans to El Salvador’s death camp, blowing up Venezuelan fishing boats, using our beloved Puerto Rico as a launch pad for an attack on our own people while our Puerto Rican communities are once again suffering from the deprivation of arrogant occupation troops abusing us.

Our Sovereignty demands our right to determine the development and use of our Puerto Rican nation as well as our right as people to oppose being pushed into a war mobilization where we are expected to kill our own people based on false pretense to enable extraction of resources for profit of Latin America and pursuit of other imperialist war goals of the USA.

We are reviving the Hands Off Venezuela NJ Committee that was active in 2019 and sent buses to two Washington DC marches and also mobilized NJ activists to go to Washington DC to defend the Venezuelan Embassy which was seized by supporters of a failed US backed coup against Venezuela then. 

The first action will be an initial gathering to protest the US war with Venezuela at the Monument Square Park (Fountain at the corner of George Street and Livingston Avenue) in New Brunswick Sunday, October 12, 6:30 pm).  The focus will be on opposing US war on Venezuela and we welcome solidarity statements from all communities in struggle against genocide, war and the US war on home “against our own people.”

If you are interested in the protest or being on the Hands Off Venezuela NJ Committee  – please contact or fill out the form below”

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING ON OCTOBER 12 PROTEST AGAINST US WAR ON LATIN AMERICA OR OTHERWISE JOINING HANDS OFF VENEZUELA NJ COMMITTEE, PLEASE COMPLETE FORM:

ARTICLES AND STATEMENTS REGARDING PUERTO RICO, VENEZUELA AND US WAR ON LATIN AMERICA