Numa Molina is a Venezuelan Jesuit priest, theologian, journalist, and political commentator whose public life brings together Christian faith, liberation theology, anti-imperialism, and commitment to the Bolivarian Revolution. He was a friend of Pope Francis, Father Miguel d’Escoto, and President Hugo Chávez, and remains a friend of President Nicolás Maduro and of Cuba and Nicaragua. For Molina, politics and theology are inseparable from solidarity with the poor and the struggle for sovereignty; as he has said, “We must live with the poor, as the poor, and from the perspective of the poor” (venezuelanalysis.com).
The Bolivarian Revolution faces enormous difficulties as a result of the sanctions, economic warfare, and direct intervention waged by successive American administrations against the Venezuelan people. Venezuelan sovereignty has been severely compromised by U.S. efforts to impose political outcomes from abroad, culminating in the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. Now, in the aftermath of that attack on national sovereignty and the catastrophic earthquake of June 24, Venezuela appears to be entering a new era marked by immense political, economic, social, and humanitarian challenges.
Numa Molina’s upcoming webinar will cut through the noise on these fast-moving events, distinguishing truth from falsehood as the Bolivarian project—across Venezuela and beyond—navigates this harsh new reality.
The New York Times recently criticized the Trump administration in an article titled “With $8 Billion in Venezuelan Oil Money, U.S. Gives $300 Million in Quake Aid.”
It’s important to remember that, in addition to the more than $8 billion in oil, the New York Times should also consider the stolen gold and the more than $25 billion belonging to the Venezuelan people, which are frozen in international banks. This is compounded by the theft of the Venezuelan company CITGO, valued at more than $20 billion, and these are just some of the major Venezuelan state assets that have been looted abroad.
Finally, the New York Times should consider the more than $700 billion that Venezuela has lost since Obama’s infamous 2015 executive order, which declared Venezuela an “unusual and extraordinary threat.”
All those substantial economic resources are needed at this critical moment in Venezuela to confront the greatest natural disaster in the more than 200-year history of the Republic of Venezuela.
In the face of this catastrophe, hundreds of children have been orphaned, and hundreds of children and adults have suffered amputations of their arms or legs.
The people of Venezuela do not need handouts; Venezuela needs what belongs to it returned, and the sanctions and unilateral coercive measures imposed by U.S. imperialism lifted.