Caracas, February 25, 2023 (Press Mincomunas) – The Venezuelan School of Planning, in La Rinconada, Caracas, was the venue for the 3rd National Congress of the Afro-Venezuelan Social Movement, in homage to the Maroon Major Aristobulo Isturiz, to promote the Afro-Venezuelan thinking of the country and its communal organization.
The Congress, which began on the past 24th of this month and will end this Sunday 26th, is led by the Minister for Culture, Ernesto Villegas, along with the Vice Minister of Communes and Social Movements, Fernando Rodríguez; the Vice Minister of the System of Communal Formation and Social Movements (and rector of the Bolivarian University of Communes), Richard Delgado, and the Deputy of the National Assembly Gabriela Peña, who conducted an analysis and debate on the various topics related to the Political Philosophies of the Afro-Venezuelan National Cumbe.
The Deputy Minister of Communes and Social Movements stated, during his speech, that the Ministry of Communes has been accompanying and advising the Afro-Venezuelan Movement: “since the beginning of this Congress in 2022, which was deployed to the communities promoting participation with the different State entities such as the CNE. Thanks to the beginning of this Congress, we have traced a route with the different popular social organizations of the Afro-Venezuelan Movement to encourage the production and organizational processes of election and renewal of the spokespersons of the Communal Councils and to strengthen these communities in the territory.”
The ministerial authority also informed that the Ministry articulated and trained with the Landless Movement of Brazil, “a popular movement that has developed in the territory in the last 20 years and has demonstrated strengths in productive and organizational matters, to comply with our strategic plan to strengthen the Afro-descendant communities.”
In this sense, the rector of the UBC stressed that power, in all its expression, has been a fundamental issue for human existence and life throughout the history of civilizations. “In the whole historical theme and conjuncture, Professor Aristobulo told us something that has to do with the essence of this struggle as a people and has been the power (…), in the culture, there is the power of domination against the dominated, and before that, there is the emancipation as liberating and collective power that reflected in the struggles of the People’s Power as a constitutional element”.
Within the commitments reached in the Vice-Ministry of Communal and Social Formation and the UBC, Delgado informed that in matters of education and training: “there is a task in agreement with the different programs and training processes, as well as the development of diploma courses jointly organized and coordinated by the Movement and jointly certified. It allowed us to advance in the project of the National Training Program for Afro-Venezuelanity, to reach all that has to do with the effort of creation and collective organization that the Movement has had around the Afro-Venezuelan thought.”
For her part, Congresswoman Gabriela Peña thanked the activity for honoring Professor Isturiz. She recalled that the Maroon Major celebrated two years ago the 7th anniversary of the Jovenes del Barrio Mission. “He used to say that coincidences do not exist, that there are causalities,” she added.
