by
Peter Lackowski
Most of
today our delegation was getting to and then attending the rally and
the speech by Maduro at the end of the march. Our visit coincided
with the conference about housing, so we “internationals” were
taken to bleachers set up very close to the main stage. They did not
want us to actually march because they are being super cautious about
us not getting into any problems that could be used who knows who,
the US government or the corporate media.
Thus I
have little to report about the competing marches, except hearsay.
William went to Altamira where they did not march, just made
speeches. Guaido was not there. Just 3000 people, a very weak
showing. William had no figures, but Chavistas turned out far, far
more people he said.
Guaido’s
tricks have made him look like an incompetent fool, even to his own
people, but no one expects the USA to back off. What will they do
next?
The
determination and spirit of the people today made it clear that they
won’t give in. Maduro spoke a lot about rectification and lessons
learned, but the sound system was literally deafening from our seats
and it was impossible for me to understand in Spanish or to hear the
translation in the earphones. I will try to find the text of his
remarks.
We have
been treated like celebrities by everyone. This in contrast to what
happened when William went to Altamira along with a journalist
working with a Japanese TV crew. The Altamira crowd made nasty
comments about them because they thought they were Chinese, i.e.,.
friendly toward Maduro. There really are two different Venezuelas.
A
personal note: There was a very long musical program while we waited
for marchers to get to us and Maduro to speak. There were many songs
by Ali Primera, and since I am familiar with most of them I kept
tearing up, they express so well the class consciousness of these
brave people, their compassion, bravery, pride in their revolutionary
tradition, their often expressed determination never to accept the
old system that treated them as though they were less than human. Ali
Primera had a big role in creating that consciousness, and his
picture is on murals all over the city (except Altamira) along with
Bolivar and Chavez.
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