Caracas, January 27, 2023 (Press Mincomunas) – Fulfilling the instruction of President Nicolas Maduro to promote the development and attention to Afro-descendant communities, the Vice Minister of Communes and Social Movements, Fernando Rodriguez, visited this Friday the Francisco de Miranda Commune in the Mango de Ocoita community, Acevedo municipality, Miranda state.
The Vice Minister learned about the productive experiences of communal management, accompanied by the Coordinator of the Landless Movement (MST) of Brazil, Simone Magalhaes, and the general directors of Social Movements, Carmen Navas and Mayerlin Colmenares of International Agreements.
During the tour, the Vice Minister emphasized that “today, together with the (MST), we learned about the productive and organizational experience of this Afro-descendant community, the nucleus of one of the first Cumbes forged in Venezuela, in resistance to slavery.”
He also informed that the Mango de Ocoita community has six Communal Councils, who are developing an action plan to be developed jointly with Movimiento Sin Tierra (Landless Movement) to strengthen and empower the Afro-descendant communities.
For her part, Simone Magalhaes emphasized that “the organization has 39 years of existence and fought from the experiences of the Afro-Brazilians, of the peasants who resisted since the time of slavery in defense of the right to have land and produce, (…) until today we are resisting in Brazil and defending not only the right to land but also the right to live in real and effective democracy, which means the right to production, education, culture, sports and everything that enables us to live with dignity”.
The spokeswoman of the Afro-productive organization, Consuelo Roldan, stated that “we have the potential, we have fertile lands, with these elements we are favored to follow the sustainability that our country deserves at this moment, with union and organization we can achieve the subsistence of all the communities that are suffering the blockade.”
