The blockade of Venezuela in two historical times is exposed in Filven 2019
Within the framework of the XV International Book Fair of Venezuela (Filven) 2019, the People’s Power Ministry for Foreign Relations opened the exhibition “Crisis, blockade and interference against Venezuela in two historical times: 1900-1908 / 2015-2019”, in the central library of the Casa Amarilla “Antonio José de Sucre”, in the historic center of Caracas.
Historian María de Jesús Daza Bonnier, Coordinator of Disclosure and Documentary Support of the Department of Archive, Library and Dissemination of the Foreign Ministry, explained that the exhibition installed at the entrance of the library, which includes images and texts, is contextualized in two historical moments; the blockade on the Venezuelan coast during the government of Cipriano Castro, in 1902, and the economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed by the United States government from 2015 to the present.
She explained that in the first historical time it is shown what was the maritime blockade and the interference and aggression suffered by the country due to the Germany, England and Italy powers in 1902-1903, with the support of the United States; “Everything it meant for Venezuela from the point of view of the loss of resources, delivery of part of its sovereignty, the compulsory collection of debts that did not exist”.
She also said that in the coastal blockade, the nation had a direct conflict with the “New York & Bermúdez Company”, to which a concession was given for the exploitation of asphalt in a determined space and the transnational company took the entire Monagas state, including Lake Guanoco, the largest asphalt reservoir in the world, located southeast of Sucre state, which was not within the concession. She pointed out that with all that asphalt extracted illegally, a good part of the roads in Europe and the United States were paved. “The government of Cipriano Castro makes the claim and takes away the concession, and that was part of the cause for the maritime blockade”, she said.
Daza Bonnier contrasted that today the US blockade is of another type, “it is economic, commercial and financial, it is communicational, it is a fourth and fifth generation war, but the objective remains the same: the compulsive appropriation of our resources, both during the period of Cipriano Castro and today”.
The exhibition is open to the people from 10:00 in the morning to 5:30 in the afternoon, at Casa Amarilla, during the entire development of Filven 2019, which will close on November 17.