00:00In Venezuela, the National Council for Sovereignty and Peace continues to gain support.
00:05Cultural workers, artists, and intellectuals have come together to show that culture is also one of the country's most powerful weapons.
00:13Our correspondent, Andrea Romero, tells us more.
00:16At a meeting to join the National Council for Sovereignty and Peace, intellectuals, cultural workers, and artists from around the country
00:25have reaffirmed their fundamental role in building peace from the strength of Venezuelan cultural diversity, in the face of external threats.
00:36A people without culture does not exist.
00:38That is why culture is the foundation and identity of peoples, and the culture of this country, is threatened not just now.
00:44With the United States Empire, but also by the British Empire and the Spanish Empire, which were the first to occupy these territories.
01:00The origin and foundation of national identity are inseparable.
01:06Those present agree that defending the nation requires valuing and celebrating its roots.
01:10We have our roots, it is very rich.
01:16We have African descendants, we have Spaniards, we have indigenous people, and we have a rich and varied Venezuelan tradition.
01:22And well, it is colorful, what more than colorful.
01:25Defending our country with our dances, our music, with our cultural expressions,
01:29which is the wonderful thing we have for the national defense of our country, Venezuela.
01:32The cultural scene has a lot to say at this moment, in this context, not only because of the call, but because we artists, even when we are in an orchestra.
01:57Many of us don't think the same way, but the musical discourse in the case of music will always sound beautiful because there is a baton,
02:04so that baton is the social context, the social agreement that gives us a wonderful constitution that we have here.
02:10Everyone is called, everyone is welcome, everyone has space even to build the homeland.
02:14In the formation of that awareness, reading and critical thinking become vital.
02:23We believe that our fundamental contribution to the defense of Venezuela's sovereignty and peace comes through the tool of reading,
02:31to expand awareness, to open political debate, to promote critical and decolonial thinking,
02:36which is so important for one to learn and understand, and thus be able to defend and fight.
02:40Because what we do not know, we cannot defend.
02:46Then books in this case are part of and constitute a fundamental tool for the defense of sovereignty and peace.
02:54The combination of identity, tradition, and knowledge, results in a call to action.
03:02For cultural activist Judith Valencia, defending the territory and history requires constant preparation.
03:07We have to defend our territory, we have to defend our history, we have to defend our constituent process,
03:16which is an insurgent process in these times.
03:18We must want peace, but to have peace we must prepare for war, not the war of bombing, but the war of culture.
03:28Con convinced that sovereignty is a cultural act, these intellectuals and cultural figures have sealed their commitment
03:40to the National Council for Sovereignty and Peace.
03:42The cultural movement joins the other active forces in the country in defending its right to self-determination and to live in peace.
03:49From Caracas, in the Cámara of José Luis Briceño, para Telesur, Andrea Romero.
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