Ministry of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs Weekly Newsletter / April 30th 2021 TOPIC OF THE WEEK Housing in Venezuela: 10 years of delivering Of interest almost one thousand homes per day • Of the total number of homes delivered by the GMVV until 2020, 418,310 were With an average of more than 40 houses and apart- One of the main lines of participation of the peo- destined for migrants, 82% of them ments delivered every hour, the Great Venezuela ple in the GMVV is self-construction. By 2021, ac- of Colombian origin. Housing Mission (GMVV for its initials in Spanish) cording to the Minister for Housing and Habitat, will celebrate its tenth anniversary in April. There Ildemaro Villarroel, 70% of the houses are built us- • Also through the GMVV, more than are more than 3,550,000 families, almost 30,000 ing this method. 1,100,000 urban land titles have been per month, served through this social program. Bypassing the Unilateral Coercive Measures and the delivered, spaces that had been In 2011, during the GMVV launch ceremony, seizure of Venezuelan assets abroad with the com- converted into merchandise, inaccessible President Hugo Chávez explained that this plan plicity of sectors of the national right, the GMVV is for the vulnerable population. must entirely change lives, play a key role in the heading towards the goal of delivering 5 million transformation of national geography and, in turn, homes by 2025. • In addition, more than 1,498,000 articulate the effort of organized popular power. “We have defended the state of the Great Mis- homes have been refurbished, with Thus, the GMVV began a labour that joined the sions. They could not destroy the Great Venezuela the support of the Gran Misión efforts of State institutions and companies with Housing Mission,” declared the President of the Barrio Nuevo Barrio Tricolor. social organizations, in which various sectors were Republic, Nicolás Maduro. linked to guarantee aspects such as land, financing and construction materials and supplies. last year, the government of the Khomas region in This program is framed within the principles estab- Fact Namibia requested advice from Venezuela to repli- lished in the National Constitution, approved by The Executive Director of the UN-Habitat program, cate this social program. the Venezuelan people during the Bolivarian Revo- Maimunah Mohd Sharif, defined GMVV as an exam- lution, which recognizes housing as a human right. ple for Latin America and the Caribbean. In Africa, Photo: Archive / Press PresidentiAl IN THIS EDITION DIPLOMACY HUMANITY ON THE MOVE BEATS OF OUR PEOPLE • In defense of Mother Earth • Equitable treatment • High work and talent • Bolivia-Venezuela relations • Parliamentary ties UNBLOCK HEROIC ROOTS • On course to Runasur • The blockade • Miguel de Buría • Depoliticizing migration to health and Mandela VENEZUELA IN IMAGES CAPSULE OF IDEAS UNCOVERING FAKE NEWS • Venezuelan Brigade • “... The workers must reject ...” • NYT Slander Campaign April 30th 2021 / Page 2 DIPLOMACY NEWS BRIEF In defense of Mother Earth In the event Reencounter with Mother Earth held movement to change the world model and build a in Bolivia, Venezuela proposed setting a roadmap real green economy. from the peoples of the South, to push for an agen- Thus he supports a call for a General Assembly On course to Runasur da to revert climate change, at November’s Climate of the United Nations to take decisions and to Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Summit in Glasgow. act according to the Paris Agreement and cli - Venezuela participated in the first meeting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro stated that mate change. of the technical commission towards the those set of actions must be promoted from the From the South we “advocate for the construction constitution of Runasur, an articulation plat- Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America of a new model of society, based on the rights of form for the indigenous and social move- (Alba-TCP), calling for diplomatic and communica- Mother Earth and the rights of the peoples,” Presi- ments of South America. tion initiatives. dent Maduro manifested. Bolivian leader Evo Morales, as the promotor of The idea, he affirmed, is to build a great pressure Photo: MPPRE Runasur, called for the consolidation of a mul- tinational America “to guarantee the liberation Bolivia and Venezuela strengthen bilateral relations of the next generations.” At the Reencounter with Mother Earth, event that Venezuela was represented by Lídice Altuve, was held in la Paz, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister, Vice President of the Simón Bolívar Institute for Jorge Arreaza, met with the President of Bolivia, Peace and Solidarity between Peoples, along Luis Arce, where they covered issues such as bi- with other organizations of the country. Photo: MPPRE lateral relations and the Bolivian leadership in the fight against climate change. At the encounter Minister Arreaza proposed the in- Parliamentary ties clusion of the Rights of Mother Earth in the United The President of the National Assembly, Jorge Nations Charter. Rodríguez, held an online meeting with his Arreaza also met with former President and indige- counterpart from China’s Popular National nous leader Evo Morales in Cochabamba and went Assembly, Li Zhanshu. They evaluated the over themes such as nature conservancy and the future constitution of the Venezuela-China boost of regional integration from the Alba-TCP. friendship group, the strengthening of bilater- Photo: MPPRE al relations and the rejection of the economic VENEZUELA IN IMAGES blockade against Venezuela Depoliticizing migration Venezuela’s Vice Minister for Multilateral Affairs, Daniela Rodríguez, participated in a virtual meeting held by Eclac and the International Migration Organization to revise compliance of agreements. She warned that while the use Venezuelan Brigade members cooperate of the migratory phenomena to try to justify in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines changes in government and interventions car- ries on, the Global Compact for Migration wont Communities in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, group trained to deal with natural disasters. Their be fulfilled. Rodriguez ratified Venezuela’s com- affected by the eruption of the La Soufrière volca- work is part of the humanitarian aid plan activated promise for a secure and ordered migration no, are receiving assistance from the Simón Bolívar by Alba-TCP. with an inclusive approach. Humanitarian Task Force, a Venezuelan rescue Photo: MPPRE Year 1 / Number 6 April 30th 2021 / Page 3 UNBLOCK HUMANITY ON THE MOVE The blockade to health (I) Between 2010 and 2014, at the Children’s Cardiological Hospital in Caracas, 1,000 opera- Venezuela demands an equal and tions were performed annually on girls and boys from dozens of countries. By the end of 2020, merely 162 were made, due to the impact of equitable treatment for migrants the Unilateral Coercive Measures (UCM) on the Whether by voluntary decision or forced situation, Venezuelan health system. those who migrate to Venezuela are welcomed by Keys: Just as the numbers of surgical procedures were incorporating them into all public policies of the reduced by five times, hemodynamic equipment - country, in order to fully guarantee their human • Venezuela is a host country which would serve to care for 500 infants with con- rights in conditions of equality and respect. From for millions of vulnerable migrants, genital heart disease - also stopped being repaired that perspective of equity, the Venezuelan State joins who left their country of origin due to the economic blockade. The UCM and the initiatives such as the Global Compact for Migration. in search of better living conditions. illegal withholding retention of resources have af- “Migrants have settled by millions and have de- fected most of the public medical services, all of veloped a prosperous life in Venezuela, especially • More than 9,500,000 migrants which are provided free of charge by the State. they have done so in recent decades,” said Foreign live in our country, about The damage, as recognized by the UN Special Minister Jorge Arreaza. 6,000,000 of them Rapporteur on the negative impact of the UCM on Even in the midst of the brutal economic block- from Colombia. the enjoyment of Human Rights, Alena Douhan, ade it faces, our country maintains inclusive social has a direct expression in limitations on access to policies. By 2020, for example, 418 thousand 310 This view, Venezuela reaffirms its commitment to medicines. This includes an escalation in prices foreign citizens lived in homes built by the Great the objectives of the Global Compact for Migra- from as far back as 2015, when a medical drug sold Venezuelan Housing Program (GMVV for its ini- tion, whose regional progress was evaluated at a by a transnational in Venezuela would already cost tials in Spanish). That is more than 12% of the total meeting held this week in Bolivia. 45% more than that same product offered by the number of homes delivered. Photo: Archive / courtesy same company in Colombia. In 2018, 600 million dollars were pledged towards the purchase of 274 million units of medical drugs CAPSULES OF IDEAS but the freeze on economic resources by the financial services company Euroclear, made it im- “The workers must resolutely reject any solidarity with a bourgeois possible to pay for them in full. newspaper. And they must always, always, always remember that At the same time, the acquisition of hemoderiva- tives meant to assist 5,859 people was also pre- the bourgeois newspaper (whatever its tone) is an instrument vented. The transfer of 1,171,829 euros was blocked of struggle motivated by ideas and interest contrary to them. three times. In addition, Quimbiotec, the most important com- Everything that is published is influenced by one idea: that of serving pany in the production of blood products in the the dominant class, and which is ineluctably translated into a fact: country, cannot acquire supplies because of the blockade, which places health as one of its main that of combating the laboring class”.