Foreign Minister Oliver Blanco debuted at his first international summit with a speech that would have been signed by the absent Delcy Rodríguez, in the effort of the presidency supervised by Washington to return to the international space with the consequent lifting of the (few) sanctions that remain. Blanco has called for the "lifting of economic restrictions" and has celebrated his country's transition process as being "an opportunity for the region."
"Venezuela is an active part of this future. We are convinced that a more stable, more democratic and more prosperous Venezuela, fully integrated into international markets, will contribute to the development of all of Ibero-America. The process of democratic transformation promoted by the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, represents an opportunity not only for Venezuela, but also for our region. This Venezuela that is reborn can increase the opportunities for the entire region," Blanco described during his speech.
In his first week at the head of the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, Blanco met with Marco Rubio and attended the Madrid meeting, where he underpinned the three-phase plan (stabilization, recovery, reconciliation and democratic transition with free elections) devised by the Secretary of State. Blanco, who comes from the opposition camp, highlighted the Amnesty Law, the reform of the hate law, the unblocking of 38 information portals and cooperation with human rights organizations.
He also applauded the negotiations between Assemblies taking place in Caracas, whose first great achievement will be the imposition of a new Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) in mid-December.
"Economic asphyxiation"
Cuba charges against the US in the midst of the Trump Administration's strategy to seek change on the island. The Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, has used the stage of the XXX Ibero-American Summit to accuse the United States, as is customary, of its "economic asphyxiation."
"During the last ten months, the Cuban people have suffered the US economic blockade, the imposition of an energy siege equivalent to the naval blockade and the application of secondary sanctions to individuals or entities that establish commercial relations with Cuba," Rodríguez declared in a clear allusion to the Trump Administration: "The United States has taken its obsessive war and economic asphyxiation against Cuba to inhuman limits."
Rodríguez took the opportunity to thank those Ibero-American countries that voted in favor of the resolution approved by the UN General Assembly on October 28 against the US embargo. In his subsequent intervention, the Foreign Minister of Nicaragua, Valdrack Jaentschke, showed his support for Cuba, as did the Brazilian and Uruguayan envoy.
"We face a turbulent international context marked by unilateralism, the unviable imperialist attempt to impose peace through force, the proliferation of violations of International Law, Human Rights and the impact of climate change," argued the chancellor.
"In the face of arbitrariness and the abusive use of power, we must act in accordance with the founding principles of the community," he noted in another clear reference to the United States.
Washington took advantage of the success of its January 3 operation in Venezuela, which ended with the capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro, to prolong its maritime blockade against the island. The abrupt cutoff of Venezuelan oil, which for 25 years has supported Cuba economically, has deepened what was already an enormous systemic crisis, lengthening electrical blackouts and making transportation on the island difficult, in addition to sinking a failed economy a little further.
In parallel, the US State Department began secret negotiations with Raúl Castro's entourage, especially with his favorite grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, whom everyone on the island knows as the Crab. Neither President Miguel Díaz-Canel nor Castro's diplomats participated in these dialogues, which have not advanced. Trump has insisted that he will take advantage of the return to his country of ships deployed in the conflict with Iran to pressure his government.
Meanwhile, the revolutionary regime has increased repression even further and has skyrocketed the number of political prisoners, which rises to over 1,300. An enormous figure if compared to the second country on the list of human rights violations in the Americas, Venezuela, which with a population three times larger keeps more than 300 political prisoners in prison after orders from Washington to open the dungeons.
Rodríguez's position in the current revolutionary political scenario has been weakened by the incident that took place last week at the United Nations, which ended with the expulsion from the US of one of its diplomats, Richard Tur de la Concepción. The Cuban official tried to snatch the phone from an assistant to the US ambassador, Mike Waltz, when he was recording this kind of act of transnational repudiation, in addition to launching several slaps in the heart of the UN.
The attempt to revive revolutionary diplomacy, which Fidel Castro liked so much, ended without pain or glory, although Rodríguez took advantage of his intervention before leaders and Ibero-American counterparts to remember what was said 30 years ago by the great leader of Castroism.
