Socialist dictator of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro declared over the weekend that his regional far-left coalition ALBA-TCP — a notoriously anti-U.S. and anti-Israel group — would one day hold a summit in a “free Jerusalem.”
The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America — People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), sometimes simply referred to as “ALBA,” is a far-left trade bloc founded in Havana, Cuba, in December 2004 by late dictators Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro. The group expanded over the past two decades, inviting other regional leftist-led Latin American regimes and governments into its fold, such as Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Dominica, among others.
The group held its latest gathering hosted by Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, on Saturday, December 14 to mark the 20th anniversary of the bloc. The event saw the Venezuelan socialist dictator receive Cuba’s figurehead-President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Nicaraguan communist dictator Daniel Ortega, Bolivia’s socialist President Luis Arce, and other far-left heads of state and representatives. Representatives from the Palestine Authority also participated in the event.
During the summit, ALBA member-states passed a special declaration proclaiming “Palestine” as a “brother country” of the group and once again condemning Israel for its “genocide” in Gaza, by which it meant the ongoing war against the genocidal jihadist terrorists of Hamas. Maduro celebrated the approval of the declaration by proclaiming that ALBA will one day host a summit “with the Palestinian people” in a “free Jerusalem” that, according to him, will be in “the hands of the peoples and not of the imperialist, warmongering and Nazi elites.”
The socialist dictator repeated his assertion on Sunday in a post made on his official Telegram account — the socialist regime’s new main social media platform after Maduro banned Twitter in August — shortly after holding a meeting with Riyad al-Maliki, special envoy of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who met with Maduro on the sidelines of the event.
“I had a pleasant meeting with Riyad al-Maliki, special envoy of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, to whom I reiterated the support and solidarity of Venezuela and the ALBA-TCP member countries with the Palestinian people. The day will come when we will hold a summit in free Jerusalem,” Maduro’s message read.
According to Venezuelan state media, al-Maliki claimed that Venezuela has taken a “courageous stance” by refusing to establish diplomatic relations with Israel “as long as the occupation continues.” Late socialist dictator Hugo Chávez unilaterally severed Venezuela’s ties with Israel in January 2009 and replaced them with by establishing diplomatic ties with the Palestine Authority in April 2009.
“These actions, based on international law and moral clarity, send a strong message to the world: justice and accountability are non-negotiable,” Al-Maliki said.
Venezuelan state media further asserted that the Maduro regime would maintain “unbreakable support” to the Palestine cause against the “atrocities” of the “Nazi regime” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Concluye cumbre @ALBATCP, cumbre de hermanos a la que ni una sola vez hemos faltado, como no faltaremos jamás a todo cuanto atañe a la integración americana. Por Bolívar, Martí, Fidel, Chávez y todos los que batallaron por ella. Por nuestros pueblos, que la necesitan y merecen. pic.twitter.com/kdx40BLniO
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) December 15, 2024
The ALBA bloc also marked the occasion to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the “first hug” between late Cuban mass murderer Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez in December 14, 1994 — which, ALBA claimed in its latest official declaration, was an encounter “that marked the course of contemporary history in Latin America and the Caribbean” and allowed Chávez to “fulfill his dream” of meeting Castro, praised by the far-left bloc as a “fundamental figure of dignity and resistance for the entire Latin American and Caribbean continent.”
In addition to condemning Israel for its “terrorist actions” in Gaza, ALBA’s declaration contains a barrage of far-left demands such as calling for the lifting of sanctions on the Maduro, Castro, and Ortega regimes; the removal of Cuba from the United States’ list of States Sponsors of Terrorism (SST) and the lifting of the U.S. “embargo” on the island-nation, calls for Puerto Rico to detach itself from the United States and become its own country; and demands for “reparations and compensation for colonialism.”
The far-left bloc also ratified its “unwavering commitment to the defense of democratic values” despite the fact that the event’s host, Nicolás Maduro, held a fraudulent presidential election in late July that he claims he “won” and unleashed a brutal persecution campaign against dissidents and protesters of his fraudulent results.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
