FMLN and Via Campesina Back Constituent Assembly in Venezuela

Caracas, July 24, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Two prominent grassroots organizations have voiced support for National Constituent Assembly (ANC) elections in Venezuela amid mounting international pressure for Caracas to withdraw the initiative.

During its national conference over the weekend, El Salvador’s governing left-wing party, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), rejected external intervention aimed at derailing the Maduro government’s effort to overhaul the country’s constitution. 

“We reject and condemn the interference underway in Venezuela,” declared FMLN International Relations Secretary Nidia Diaz.

“We are proposing dialogue as the only solution and we support the Constituent Assembly as a principle of self-determination, and we stand in solidarity,” she added.

The declaration was echoed by the international peasant organization Via Campesina, which likewise expressed its support for the Maduro government in the face of what it termed an “escalation of external aggression”. 

“Let all social and popular movements of the world show their solidarity in the defense of our [Bolivarian] revolution, denouncing what is happening in Venezuela,” the organization said in a statement released during its seventh conference.

In recent days, several leftist regional governments, including Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Cuba, have given their backing to Venezuela in the lead up the ANC. Caracas has also received support last week from the annual MERCOSUR People’s Summit, in which 80 grassroots organizations called for the regional trade bloc to reverse Venezuela’s suspension effective late last year. 

Set for July 30, the constituent assembly elections have been met with a litany of threats from Washington as well as several European countries, including Spain and Italy.

Last week, the Trump administration threatened “strong and swift economic actions” if the elections go ahead.