Portside

1. Union Center: National Strike in Uruguay If US Invades Venezuela
2. On the “Broad Left” in Russia
3. Interview: Indigenous of French Guiana
4. UK Letter: Labour, Corbyn, and Antisemitism
5. Comrade Percy Ngonyama
6. Hunger Striking for Peace in Turkey
7. Greece: Back On Track After 10 Years
8. Chronicle of a Red-Hot Haiti
9. Win in India: Farmers' Front Forces Promise of Reforms

Uruguay: Central Union Will Strike If US Invades Venezuela

Radio del Sur

Read the original from Aporrea (Caracas) here

Translated by Portside

The press, propaganda and national relations secretary of the PIT-CNT (the main and only Uruguayan trade union center), Gabriel Molina, told Radio Uruguay that "faced with the real possibility that on Saturday, February 23, there will be a direct US military invasion of Venezuela, the workers' center will immediately carry out a strike mobilization." He stressed that it would be, in effect, "a call for peace." 

On Thursday, February 21, the Representative Board of the trade union center met to analyze the situation in Venezuela. Essentially, the PIT-CNT rejected the "interventionist" policy of the United States and its allies.

The workers' center demanded that the "interventionist" governments end their plans of military aggression, and questioned the "illegally self-proclaimed president in charge of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó." 

At the same time, The workers' center endorsed the "Montevideo Mechanism" [a multinational call for dialogue] as a way out of the "critical" situation in Venezuela. Molina stressed the need for "immediate dialogue. The generation of conditions for direct contact between the actors, is prioritized - the negotiation and presentation of results, and the international enrollment, implementation and materialization of the accords."

The workers' center expresses that: "military intervention, which has been considered viable by the president of the United States, Donald Trump, by the secretary general of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, and by Guaidó, would imply serious consequences for all the peoples of the region, including the Uruguayan." 

Molina warns that this will "present a major offensive to end hard-won rights and apply neoliberal policies that have caused so many miseries."

The United States has threatened the use of force against Venezuela to force the entry of alleged humanitarian aid. The Venezuelan government says that this aid is a "show", by means of which it intends to militarily intervene in the country. The government of President Nicolás Maduro also points out that by international law, the regular channels to process any humanitarian technical assistance are the United Nations (UN). 

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