Minneapolis solidarity with Ecuador

On Sunday, November 7, the Minneapolis/St. Paul chapter of Hands Off Venezuela participated in an event at the Walker Community Church in Minneapolis focusing on the attempted coup in Ecuador.  

The event was organized by Hands Off Honduras and had several speakers, including John Peterson, National Secretary of the HOV campaign, and Marcial Castro, a local activist with the Hands Off Honduras coalition.  Around 40 people attended the event, which also featured Silvia Ontaneda, Consul of Ecuador to Minnesota.

Silvia introduced the event, giving a broad historical overview of Ecuador's political history, which is one interspersed with repeated coups in the interest of US imperialism.  This is a pattern all too familiar in the region.  She explained the details of the coup attempt, e.g. the way that the police officers were misled and lied to about reforms instituted by the Correa government, and the heroic resistance of the masses to yet another ousting of a democratically elected president.

John's presentation focused on a history of the revolutionary process in Venezuela, connecting this to the general process of revolution across Latin America.  He explained the reasons why US imperialism views the revolutionary movement in Latin America, in its various stages of development in different countries, as a mortal threat to its power in the region and the world, but also how the masses have shown a heroic willingness to fight back against these coups.