Bolivarian Government honors memory of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba

“On behalf of the Bolivarian Government, we express our message of solidarity and friendship with the Congolese people on the occasion of the anniversary of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, an independence and anti-colonial leader who left a deep mark on all of Africa and on the peoples of the world. Their struggle was not in vain: the Congo proclaimed its independence on July 1, 1960, with Lumumba as Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” he wrote.

The People's Power Minister for Foreign Affairs added that “however, Lumumba was assassinated on January 17, 1961 in a coordinated plan between the U.S. and Belgian governments, which used Congolese accomplices and a Belgian execution squad to carry it out. Lumumba is remembered as a national hero and an icon of anti-colonial and anti-imperialist resistance around the world.”