Minister Villegas: The more they stigmatize Venezuela, the more strength we will have to vindicate our Venezuelanism

Published at: 11/08/2025 09:10 AM

The Minister of Popular Power for Culture, Ernesto Villegas, reaffirmed this Sunday the commitment of the Bolivarian Government to the defense of the identity and cultural diversity of Venezuela, in order to reflect on cultural challenges in the current global context, characterized by the influence of neoliberalism and individualism.

“The more they stigmatize Venezuela, the more they persecute it, the more they try to turn it into an object of dishonor, we have much more strength to vindicate Venezuelanity,” he said during his participation in the program Building Utopia, broadcast on Radio YVKE Mundial.

In that regard, he warned of international campaigns that seek to undermine the Venezuelan gentility.

“One of the needs we have, particularly in Venezuela, now that the Venezuelan people are being challenged, when we try to turn Venezuela into a bad word, an object of persecution, xenophobia, in addition to associating the name of our country with terrible things that happen to humanity, blaming Venezuelans with evils that are typical of societies where they are or are not Venezuelans, we need to reaffirm ourselves in our identity, in our roots, developing reasons to shield and solidify pride in being Venezuelan,” he said.

He reiterated that “beyond the differences and contradictions in the political order and the difficulties derived from the blockade and persecution against our country, Venezuela continues to radiate cultural dynamics.”

On the other hand, Villegas thanked President Nicolás Maduro for supporting the various initiatives to support the country's cultivators and cultures, including the launch of the Great Living Venezuela Mission, My Beloved Homeland, and the nomination of various files to UNESCO to be elevated to World Cultural Heritage, such as the Venezuelan arepa and Hallaca.

In addition, he added that it is important to value management in times of resistance, putting before us a human sense of the sensitive avant-garde of society, which are artists, cultivators, creators, “above all, to return to the Venezuelan, to our cultural identity, the importance it deserves in the face of those dissolving forces that seek rather to turn Venezuela into a bad word,” he said.

MINCULTURA/Mazo News Team