CELARG held a forum “Bolivar vs. Monroe” after US aggression against Venezuela

Published at: 13/01/2026 10:30 AM

The Center for Latin American Studies Rómulo Gallegos (CELARG) held the forum "Bolivar vs. Monroe”, an urgent meeting in the face of the recent military aggression of the United States against Venezuela, which resulted in the kidnapping of the President of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro and the first female combatant, Cilia Flores.

During the activity, the president of CELARG, Pedro Calzadilla, stressed that from this space “ intellectual movements, artists, writers and social organizations that militate the field of ideas demand that they return the legitimate president of our Republic (Nicolás Maduro) and we denounce the aggression against our sovereignty, our independence that has occurred in the past few days”.

“They have to release the President and they have in us, they are going to have a permanent voice in us that will insist and acclaim for that,” he said.

Calzadilla emphasized that the institution, together with various movements of artists and intellectuals, requires respect for the figure of the legitimate president and his immediate release.

In this regard, historian Lionel Muñoz warned that “no head of state who lacks a nuclear battleship is safe in his country after what happened on January 3 in Venezuela.”

Likewise, the Guatemalan writer, Rafael Cuevas Molin, stressed that “Venezuela was the first to receive this blow that they are probably planning for anywhere else in Latin America where there are processes that are not satisfactory to them or that they see as an obstacle to their intentions.”

The speakers also agreed that international law has no effect after this action, which they described as a sign of “necropolitics” and a direct attack on regional sovereignty. In addition, they agreed that recent threats against Cuba, Colombia and Mexico demonstrate that Venezuela is only the first objective of a continental plunder plan.

In view of this, the participants reaffirmed their commitment to the self-determination of peoples. Latin American unity was presented as the only possible way to overcome interventionism and protect the independence of nations in the face of imperial pretensions of total control.

Mazo News Team