STATEMENT
Vancouver, April 19, 2017.- The Front for the Defense of the Peoples Hugo Chávez - Southwest Chapter of Canada, congratulates the Venezuelan people and government in their celebration of the independence from Spain on April 19, 1810.
We celebrate together with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela the date that marked the beginning of the Venezuelan independence process from Caracas, with the emergence of a political movement that would initiate the "Revolution of 1810".
While the oligarchy and class society of that time favored the 300-year colonial and slave-holding under the reign of Ferdinand VII of Spain, the independence movement inspired by the Liberator Simon Bolivar conspired to obtain a true and authentic independence.
Only ten years after that memorable date, on April 19, 1820 the Liberator addressed his soldiers with these words that could be pronounced today: "Ten years of freedom are solemnized this day. Ten years dedicated to combats, heroic sacrifices ... Ten years that have freed from opprobrium, misfortune, chains, half the universe ... Humanity moaned for the ruin of its most beautiful portion: it was a slave and it is already free."
We feel all Venezuelans as we remember that this movement of independence by Bolivar has been taken up by Commander Hugo Chavez, who initiated the Bolivarian Revolution that inspires Latin America today. On the occasion of the celebration of the Bicentennial of April 19, 1810, Chavez said: "On April 19, 1810, the Great Fatherland was born, which today is more alive than ever."
We are very conscious and alert that, as in Bolivar's time, there are still oligarchs and class elements today that favor a return to the colonial era wanting to subject Venezuela under the domination and intervention of the current US empire whose government constantly threatens the construction of the Patria Grande.
The Front for the Defense of Peoples Hugo Chavez, which represents a large number of organizations and activists with roots in Latin America and the Caribbean but also Canadians or residents in Canada, sends our expression of solidarity to the Government of President Nicolás Maduro and all the Venezuelan people on this memorable date.
