BRISBANE — The Brisbane annual consultation of the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network (AVSN) was held on October 18, with the theme "516 years of popular resistance in Latin America". Thirty-five people attended.
Sessions were addressed by Nelson Davila, Venezuela's charge d'affaires in Australia; Rafael Pacheco on the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front's prospects in El Salvador's 2009; and Ovideo Orellana on the work of the National Revolutionary Unity of Guatemala.
Davila foreshadowed a major exchange in 2010 of delegations of Australian Aborigines and indigenous Venezuelans, with the aim of developing links between indigenous people of both countries. Another session reported on the tour to launch the new book Voices from Venezuela: Behind the Bolivarian Revolution, plans for the November 20-30 AVSN solidarity brigade to Venezuela, and proposals for a Cuba and Venezuela solidarity rally on November 21 at 4.30pm in Brisbane Square.
Plans for 2009 were discussed and include public forums with local participants in the solidarity brigade, and events to mark the anniversary of the April, 2002, failed coup against President Hugo Chavez and Venezuelan Independence Day in early July.