Silke Stockle
On November 19, solidarity groups from all over Germany that support the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela gathered in Berlin's Humboldt University. The meeting discussed building a solidarity movement able to prevent a bloody coup like the one that occurred in Chile in 1973.
German solidarity groups began to understand the importance of more intense solidarity work after the defeated coup in 2002, which was aimed at destroying the Bolivarian revolution and possibly assassinating President Hugo Chavez. Seventy representatives of solidarity groups came to the meeting, which was initiated by Network Venezuela, a solidarity network formed in Berlin in 2003. "Our aim is to create an organisational and politically powerful alliance", Mario Berrios, one of the initiators, said, according to the November 21 Junge Welt. She described the first joint meeting of representatives from different cities as a success.
Three main decisions were made at the meeting:
- To use the network's website to coordinate solidarity work (< http://www.netzwerk-A HREF="mailto:venezuela.de"><venezuela.de>).
- To strengthen education about Venezuela in German trade unions.
- To establish direct contacts with the base of the Bolivarian revolution.
"This networking is necessary because the Venezuelan diplomatic apparatus is still filled with enemies of the [revolutionary] process, especially the Venezuelan embassies", Berrios said. Opponents of the revolution have previously observed German solidarity with Venezuela's revolutionary process. Venezuelan opposition newspaper La Voz reported in June 2004 that a meeting in Frankfurt was "part of a billion dollar campaign" of the "Chavez regime", where a "few communists" let government representatives speak "to publicise lies about the supposed gains of the revolution".
On November 19, 150 people attended a public meeting with the Venezuelan ambassador, Blancanieve Portocarrero, organised by Network Venezuela. It featured the release of the first German translation of the Venezuelan constitution and a film about the International Youth Festival in Caracas in August 2005.
From Green Left Weekly, November 30, 2005.
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