In the spirit and memory of brother Hugo Chavez, we welcome you and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the struggling communities of the United States. Senor Presidente, the Latin South is the focal point of leadership, independence and anti-imperialism in the world today. For there, people are seeking solutions to poverty, climate change, social justice and unemployment in ways that are far from the ways of the center of empire.
Under Hugo Chavez, the vast oil wealth of the nation was put in the service of the struggling communities in the barrios of Caracas, providing homes, jobs, food relief, and educational opportunities.
Free education, by the way, for the vast majority of the people.
Those billions did not go to swell the coffers of imperial oil wealth in the U.S., but to the people.
That is the reason that U.S. imperial elite and corporate state media, and the repressive machinery of empire targeted Venezuela, Chavez, and now you sir, Senor Presidente Nicolas Maduro.
Here in the imperial center, schools are closing in cities with large Black and Latino children’s populations. The job rate is negligible and our communities are besieged by brutal cops who run through our neighborhoods like they’re in foreign countries. And the U.S leads the world in imprisonment.
We thank you for coming here, and hope your time here can help all of our communities.
In the warm, revolutionary spirit of Hugo Chavez Salud! Bienvedido mi amigo!
From imprisoned nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.