Over 120,000 expected to attend the XVI World Youth Festival in Caracas

ABN reports: Over 120,000 youngsters from 133 countries are expected to be present at the XVI World Youth and Students Festival to take place in Venezuela from August 9-15.

During his weekly Alo Presidente #229, President Hugo Chavez said that around 458 youth and student organizations will be coming to Caracas to discuss issues pertinent to the present and the future of nations.

At least 11,000 delegates from the Americas will be present at the festival in order to debate issues related to the destruction of the environment, neo-liberal policies and their consequences, solidarity and support for suffering nations, aggression by part of US imperialism, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and its colonialist pretenses, as well as the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) and its integrationist purpose.

• On August 5 and 6, the IV International Pre-Festival Gathering will take place in Caracas. Delegates are expected to arrive on August 7, while the opening ceremony is scheduled to take place on August 8.
  
• August 9 will be the first day of discussions up until August 15, the last day of the Festival.

In addition, on August 13 and 14, the Anti Imperialist Tribunal is expected to meet, holding four debate sessions on denounces made by people against imperialism, as well as denounces against embargo, threats, aggressions, capitalist exploitation as a system of oppression and solutions to these problems.

During the festival there will be different solidarity days for each continent. A concert for peace will take place on August 14, to honor the people who came together and defeated Nazism and Fascism during World War II.

The closing events will be dedicated completely to the Venezuelan people, commemorating the bicentennial anniversary of Simon Bolivar’s Swearing on the Sacred Mount, as well as the Venezuelan people’s triumph in the August 15, 2004 presidential referendum.