Why imperialism is obsolete in Latin America

[Judi Lynn]

Published: 00:00, Nov 30,2020

IN SEPTEMBER 2018, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro visited China, where he met with China’s president Xi Jinping and signed a series of important agreements on trade and culture. Towards the end of his stay, Maduro said that the two countries had built ‘a relationship of mutual benefit, of shared gain.’

Among these agreements was one that highlights the depth of the collaboration: this was for China to participate with the Great Venezuela Housing Mission to build more than 13,000 homes in the El Valle parish in Caracas. The focus of the international media has been on the oil trade between China and Venezuela, and in the aid from China to Venezuela; but the connections go deeper, into the social life of the people who are struggling to emerge from deprivation.

When I recently asked Jorge Arreaza, Venezuela’s foreign minister, about the relationship between his country and China, he mentioned these thousands of homes. It was the well-being of the Venezuelan people that held his interest, not merely the grand themes of oil and industry. China has invested and lent billions of dollars to Venezuela, which has been a necessary infusion of capital for a range of developments. China, Arreaza told me, ‘has been important in guaranteeing Venezuela’s sovereignty as United States aggressions have increased over the years.’

Pandemic solidarity

IN MARCH, the Chinese government sent two shipments of essential equipment to assist the Venezuelan authorities in tackling the pandemic. These were followed by subsequent shipments of test kits and ventilators, medicines and protective equipment.

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