Venezuela Ep. 7: On Ascending a High Mountain w/ Cira Pascual Marquina and Chris Gilbert

In this conversation, episode 7 in our ongoing series on Venezuela, we're joined by Cira Pascual Marquina and Chris Gilbert for an on-the-ground assessment of how Venezuela is navigating the latest phase of US imperialism. Chris Gilbert is a professor at Venezuela's Bolivarian University and a writer based in Caracas. He's the author of Commune or Nothing! Venezuela's Communal Movement and its Socialist Project. Cira Pascual Marquina is a researcher and popular educator at El Panal commune in Venezuela. She's the author, along with Chris, of The Present as Struggle: Voices from the Bolivarian Revolution and co-host, also along with Chris, of the Marxist educational project Escuela de Cuadros.

The conversation opens by discussing the new oil agreement imposed on Venezuela by the US regime and examining how it compares to other oil agreements in Latin America, how it compares to past agreements under Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, and what the most problematic components of it are. We dicuss some of the other blows that Venezuela has experienced since January 3rd, including the shifts in Venezuela's relationship to US-aligned states such as Israel.

We then bring back the lens to discuss the larger picture in terms of the impacts of the US regime's interference in Venezuela and the Bolivarian revolution. We look at how the communes have responded to this interference, contextualizing the concessions within the broader assaults on Venezuelan sovereignty over the past several years. We also discuss the various allegations and rumors surrounding Delcy Rodriguez and her loyatly to Chavismo and why these narratives are harmful to the revolution.

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Further resources:

• Commune or Nothing! Venezuela's Communal Movement and its Socialist Project
• The Present as Struggle: Voices from the Bolivarian Revolution
• A Great Leap into Reality, by Chris Gilbert and Cira Pascual Marquina
• Imperialism-Induced Fault Lines, by Chris Gilbert and Cira Pascual Marquina
• Against Amnesia, by Chris Gilbert and Cira Pascual Marquina
• Communal Responses in the Aftermath of the Earthquake, by Cira Pascual Marquina and Chris Gilbert
• The Hour of the Furnaces, by Cira Pascual Marquina
• Defending Venezuela, by Chris Gilbert
• Hyper-Imperialism: A Dangerous Decadent New Stage
• On Ascending a High Mountain

Related episodes:

• Listen to our ongoing series on Venezuela
• Listen to our ongoing series on Cuba
• Listen to our ongoing series on Iran
• Listen to our ongoing series on China

Intermission music: "Don Samuel" by Ali Primera

Although the episodes in our series build on each other in certain ways, all of our series are designed so that each episode can be listened to as a standalone.

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