Unusual Events in Venezuela
By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, February 21, 2026
I reported on our first day as a U.S. peace delegation to Venezuela here.
The second day began and ended with music, the closing being a musical expelling of the Monroe Doctrine from the world. All is revealed below for your viewing pleasure.
Would you like to hear a group of Venezuelans express their solidarity with the people of the United States by shouting “F— ICE”?
Here you go:
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If you want to return the favor, post in the comments videos of yourselves supporting peace with Venezuela and the un-kidnapping of the president and of the first lady / former leader of the parliament.
We gathered at the Simon Bolivar Institute on Saturday morning in Caracas, to learn about their work, hear from people from other parts of the world, and speak about the world of peace activism in the United States.
We began, however, with music:
Representatives of various organizations spoke, visiting from the United States, Brazil, Colombia, etc.:
We saw more of Caracas, including the grave of Hugo Chavez. There are three images everywhere in Caracas: Bolivar, Chavez, and Maduro. They are in professionally-made images and graffiti of all variety.
Bolivar is the 200-year-old founding father, as we would say in the United States, only without the slavery, racism, imperialism, etc.
Chavez is FDR, as we’d say in the United States — that rarest of rarities, a leader under whose watch the poor benefitted instead of the rich.
Maduro is both the man who continued Chavez’s work and the kidnapped president stolen from the country by the same government that recently invaded Minneapolis.
The people we meet with are seeking justice for Venezuela, but are also very focused on helping Cuba and Palestine.
Justice includes ending the sanctions / blockade, which many consider the cruelest injury in the history of Venezuela.
We visited a commune. These are largely self-governed neighborhoods of thousands of people with apparently a high level of participation in political decision making. Pre-Chavez, the neighborhood we visited was abandoned, lacking basic public services, and extremely poor. It’s still poor, though that shows more in the buildings than in the clothes, cars, motorcycles, etc. We visited businesses that operate for the commune, outside of the wider market. We met people gathered at local soccer fields and simply on chairs in the narrow streets. Some of the larger residential buildings were taken over in the 1950s, but the commonly understood struggle against the rich and powerful goes back 200 years.
We took part — in the commune — in a lively theatrical / musical / dance / ceremonial explusion of the Monroe Doctrine. Children took part in chasing the Monroe Doctrine away, while I suspect many children in my hometown (and James Monroe’s) of Charlottesville, Va., couldn’t tell you what the Monroe Doctrine is.
Watch the Monroe Doctrine — and the Donroe Doctrine too — meet it’s bitter end only 203 years too late:
No Somos Colonia:
An interview from the day before in Plaza Bolivar:
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