Black Agenda Radio - 06.04.18

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: The United States government has been trying to overthrow the government of Venezuela for most of this century. But the ruling socialist party keeps getting elected by the people, in ballots that international observers have repeated said are among the free-est and fairest in the world. Venezuelans last month voted to keep president Nicholas Maduro in office. The Black Alliance for Peace sent human rights activist Efia Nwangaza to observe the election, and we’ll present her full report.

Dictators have come and gone in Africa, but only one of them, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, has been in power for 32 years. Museveni was Ronald Reagan’s favorite African strongman, and Museveni’s military has been a tool of U.S. policy in Africa, ever since. The Ugandan army has wreaked havoc among its neighbors, destabilizing Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and intervening in South Sudan’s civil war. Last month, a coalition of Pan Africanist organizations came together with a campaign to expose the Ugandan regime as a menace to Africa. It’s called Stop Museveni. Milton Allimadi, the publisher of New York-based Black Star News, and a native of Uganda, explains.

The U.S. corporate media, acting like mimicks of the U.S. government, has been slandering Venezuela ever since newly elected president Hugo Chavez declared that his country would stop taking orders from Washington, back in 1998. The United States has been trying to overthrow his government ever since. Over the last 20 years, Venezuela has held more elections than any other nation in the hemisphere, possibly the world – all of them certified by global observers as free and fair. But the U.S. corporate media continues to claim that the socialist party government of the current president, Nicholas Maduro, is illegitimate. The Black Alliance for Peace sent an observer, veteran human rights activist Efia Nwangaza, to the latest election in Venezuela, last month. She reported back on a call-in program, last week, hosted by Black Agenda Report’s Margaret Kimberley, who is also part of the Black Alliance for Peace.