Mumia Abu-Jamal: Hi!
Group: Hello, Mumia.
Mumia Abu-Jamal: I’m ready when you are.
Group: We are! We’re ready!
Mumia Abu-Jamal: Hey, Venezuela, this is a stick up! It is time for all of us to say what we see right before us. An empire attacks a poor, weaker state and demands the lion’s share of its richest raw material, oil. Why is this not a stick up? Remember that old corny line from the movies, “Your money or your life?” Anybody old enough to remember that?
Group: Yes!
Mumia Abu-Jamal: Here, it’s “Give me your oil or else,” or even worse, perhaps, “This oil is ours and we want most of it.” Really? Honestly? Doesn’t that sound just like a straight up like a stick up?A burglering? And if that were not enough —
Automated message: This is a call from Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution, Mahanoy. This call is subject to recording and monitoring.
Mumia Abu-Jamal: The seizure of Venezuela’s President, Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores was, and is, a kidnapping. Think of this, okay? When have you heard of U.S. presidents taken prisoner, who have waged unfair and unjust wars on false and specious pretext and claims? We need [unclear] no further in the hellish wars in Iraq and Afghanistan where tens of thousands of people died under grotesque U.S. bombing campaigns. Remember weapons of mass destruction? Who got busted for that disaster? Maduro and his wife are not subject to American law. They should be returned home!
Group: Yaay! That’s right!
Mumia Abu-Jamal: Period. And the natural resources of Venezuela should remain in the hands of the people of Venezuela —
Group: That’s right!
Mumia Abu-Jamal: –and certainly not politicians, not the Americans. So, let’s make it happen. With love not fear, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
