Venezuelan Embassy in Qatar celebrates 124th anniversary of independence
The Venezuelan Embassy in Qatar marked the 124th anniversary of the nation's independence with a ceremonial reception held at the Sheraton Grand Doha Hotel.
Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela HE Carlos José Mata Figuero paid his gratitude to His Highness the Amir of the State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and government of Qatar for their solidarity and continued support for Venezuela's right to peace and self-determination.
Present on the occasion were HE Buthaina bint Ali Al Jabr Al Nuaimi, Minister of Social Development and Family; HE Mohammed bin Ali Bin Mohammed Al Mannai, Minister of Communications and information technology; He Ibrahim Yousif Abdullah Fakhro, Director of Department of protocol, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; He Jassim Mohammed Al-Asmakh, Directorof the Department of American Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; He Jean-Marie Francois, Ambassador of the Republic of Haiti to Qatar - Dean of the Group of Latin America and Caribbean countries in Qatar (Grulac); Ambassadors and distinguished guests.
He conveyed warm and fraternal greetings on behalf of the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, HE Nicolás Maduro Moros, Vice President HE Dr Delcy Rodríguez, and Foreign Minister HE Yván Gil.
The event commemorated Venezuela's historic declaration of independence on July 5, 1811, and paid tribute to the legacy of the country's liberator, Simón Bolívar.
The ambassador highlighted the enduring significance of July 5 as a patriotic day for Venezuelans, symbolizing unity, sovereignty, and peace.
He reflected on the historic events of 1811, when Venezuela's first Congress debated independence under pressure from the Patriotic Society, led by influential figures such as Francisco de Miranda and a young Simón Bolívar. Bolívar's pivotal speech in favor of independence ultimately helped pave the way for Venezuela to become the first Spanish-American colony to declare itself free.
He recalled the immense sacrifices made during the 11-year War of Independence, during which Venezuela lost nearly half of its population. Simón Bolívar, the Liberator, led military campaigns spanning over 6,500 kilometers—ten times the distance traveled by Hannibal, three times that of Napoleon, and twice as much as Alexander the Great—leaving behind a legacy of liberation rather than conquest.
The ambassador emphasized that Venezuela was born as a sovereign republic and continues to uphold the principles of democracy, equality, and peaceful coexistence with other nations.
He reiterated the country's longstanding position in defense of international law and sovereign equality.
Quoting President Maduro, the ambassador underscored that Venezuela remains 'irrevocably free and sovereign' despite enduring more than 1,000 unilateral coercive measures.
He noted that the Venezuelan people continue to resist modern forms of colonialism and economic pressure through resilience and national effort.
In a global context, the ambassador reiterated Venezuela's call for a Summit for Peace and Against War, an initiative proposed by President Maduro.
He urged international cooperation through multilateral platforms such as the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Gulf Cooperation Council, BRICS, and with key participation from the Global South, China, and Russia.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Qatar Tribune
18 hours ago
- Qatar Tribune
US universities still a valuable investment for Chinese families
Agencies Jason Lin of Xiamen surprised his mother this year by applying to 10 undergraduate schools in the United States and receiving a US$15,000 annual scholarship from Brandeis University near Boston. There, he intends to earn a master's degree in economics over the next five years. But to his mother, it's like he's venturing into the wild, compounding the anxiety parents often feel when their adult children leave the nest. She's afraid of 'instability' in the US. And Lin, 19, has concerns that even a traffic ticket could get him deported. But he weighed the pros and cons, laid it all on the table for his mother, and decided on Brandeis in time for the coming fall semester. Despite a sharp increase in US-China tensions this year, Chinese students such as Lin are still pursuing American higher education much as they have in the past, but they are being more selective than before, according to applicants and university officials. 'Basically, the thought of going to the States came to me when I was in ninth grade,' Lin explained. He expects more academic freedom in the US than in other countries and recalls the 'vibe' in New York when he visited as a tourist. Well-known schools, highly ranked programmes associated with the majors of students' choices, and flexible financial aid packages have become bigger if the university campus is located in a relatively safe American city, it gets bonus points in the selection process among Chinese applicants. 'The US does have the pre-eminent global research universities, for now at least,' said Rory Truex, an assistant professor with Princeton University's Department of Politics. 'And many students are willing to take the risks to get access to that opportunity.' Some public and private universities across the US are expecting the number of students from China during the 2025-2026 term to be comparable to enrolment figures over the past five years. The University of New Mexico, a public school specialising in STEM and health-related disciplines, has 89 Chinese students on campus and expects 20 more this autumn, putting the total higher than at the same time last year or in 2023, according to campus communications director Steven Carr. The university welcomed 21 new Chinese students last autumn, and 16 at the start of the 2023 academic nationals appreciate that the school has affordable tuition; offers scholarships for undergraduates and graduate students; and features hands-on learning opportunities in graduate programmes, Carr said. He said the campus can sometimes offer 'resources tailored to international students'. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in May that the United States would start 'aggressively' revoking visas issued to Chinese students and would 'enhance scrutiny' of new applications. The administration of US President Donald Trump was on track after its first 100 days to deport about half a million people this year, according to the Migration Policy Institute think tank. Singapore has been tipped to attract more Chinese students due to perceived instability in the US. In June, Trump announced that the US would indeed allow Chinese students into American universities, as part of a wider deal with China. However, many students and their parents were already on high alert over reports of students being denied visas, being detained at immigration checkpoints, or being shown hostility in America amid bilateral spats over trade and competing geopolitical ambitions. A pivotal moment came in May, when the Department of Homeland Security took steps to restrict the entry of new international students and considered revoking existing visas for current Harvard students, citing national security. But a federal judge blocked the government's move to bar foreign students and scholars from entering the US to study or work at Harvard, and the Ivy League school made that clear on its website. The University of California, San Francisco, admitted eight students from abroad for the upcoming academic year to its nationally ranked pharmacy graduate school, and five were Chinese nationals. One more was admitted from China but could not get a US visa. Last year, just four out of the School of Pharmacy's 127 students were from other countries. Applications from China, a perennial chief source of applicants, have shown no sign of slowing, said the school's admissions director, Joel Gonzalez. 'For the most part … when you look at the number of international students, probably the majority of them are going to be from China,' Gonzales said at his office in a tower of classrooms and university-run medical wards up the hill from San Francisco's Golden Gate Park and a city bus ride from Chinatown. Reasons for their applications 'could be the diversity of San Francisco versus somewhere in the [US] Midwest that might not be as inviting to a student in China', he said. 'And we're the top-ranked programme in California, so I can't help but think that those variables come into play.'It was another well-ranked programme, Human Computer Interaction, that drew Zhou Yubo to the University of Michigan for his graduate studies in August. Now he is just waiting to see whether he gets the necessary student visa, having already waited more than six weeks. The 22-year-old, with a tech-related undergraduate degree and two previous stays in the US, said he believed the campus in Ann Arbor would be 'a good place to study hard', due to what he sees as a lack of entertainment options compared with other university towns. Personal careers are now more important to US-bound Chinese students than visa issues or geopolitical pressures, said Perry Link, a comparative literature-Chinese professor at the University of California, Riverside. 'The graduate students, who are mostly in STEM fields, are interested in joining the international quest to advance scientific learning in universities or companies in the US,' Link said. 'Undergraduates are usually full-tuition-paying students from wealthy or fairly wealthy backgrounds in China,' he said. 'A lot of them study business or accounting and are looking for careers in the US or in family-affiliated firms back in China. They like to position themselves to do well in both systems – Chinese and American.' Another Ivy League school, Cornell University, has similarly found little change this year from last, despite some Chinese students having a little trouble getting visas, said Wendy Wolford, vice-provost for international affairs. Cornell lets students without visas start their studies at one of Cornell's three 'top' partner schools in other countries, she said. The California State University campus in the inland college town of Chico counts Chinese nationals as 3.5 per cent of the international student body, public relations director Andrew Staples said. The relatively small, crime-free city of 101,000 people is a selling point, he added. Students from second- and third-tier Chinese cities may go for the state school's relatively low tuition and living costs, compared with schools in bigger American urban areas, Staples said. 'Chico's setting as a university town offers an accessible and immersive American college experience that appeals to students and families alike,' he said.
Qatar Tribune
a day ago
- Qatar Tribune
Al Khulaifi meets under secretary of State for Africa at UK Foreign Office
Minister of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs HE Dr Mohammed bin Abdulaziz bin Saleh Al Khulaifi met on Friday with Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Africa at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, HE Lord Collins of Highbury. During the meeting, they reviewed cooperation relations between the two countries and means to support and enhance them. They also discussed the latest regional and international developments, particularly in the African continent.
Al Jazeera
3 days ago
- Al Jazeera
Deported Venezuelan man files abuse complaint against the US government
A Venezuelan man deported from the United States has issued a complaint against the administration of President Donald Trump, saying he was wrongfully sent to a Salvadoran prison where he suffered beatings and other forms of abuse. Thursday's complaint is the first of its kind from one of the more than 250 Venezuelan men sent in March to the Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT), a maximum-security prison in El Salvador known for human rights abuses. In filing a complaint against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), 27-year-old barber Neiyerver Adrian Leon Rengel has taken a first step towards suing the Trump administration. He and his lawyers from the Democracy Defenders Fund are seeking $1.3m in damages for alleged abuse. Rengel claims the Trump administration falsely accused him of being a gang member in order to circumvent his right to due process and swiftly deport him. 'For more than four months, Rengel languished in El Salvador – which is not his country of origin and a place where he has no ties – where he suffered physical, verbal and psychological abuse,' the complaint said. President Trump campaigned for a second term on the promise that he would implement a policy of mass deportation, and in March, the Republican leader invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify the rapid expulsions of alleged gang members. That law, however, had been invoked only three times prior in US history – and only during times of war. Critics accused Trump of overstepping his constitutional authority by leveraging the law to advance his domestic platform, while trampling on the rights of immigrants. Trump, however, argued that the law was necessary to stem what he described as an 'invasion' of criminals into the US. Rengel was arrested on March 13 as part of that deportation sweep under the Alien Enemies Act. According to his complaint, immigration agents nabbed him in the car park outside his apartment in Irving, Texas, and accused him of being a member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua based on his tattoos. Rengel was in the process of seeking legal status. He had entered the US in June 2023 after successfully receiving an appointment through the CBP One app, which was, at the time, the official portal for asylum claims and other immigration processing at the US-Mexico border. He had an appointment before an immigration judge scheduled for 2028. But according to his complaint, his life was upended when he was arrested and sent to an immigration detention facility. There, he said, members of the DHS falsely indicated he would be returned to his native Venezuela. Instead, he was placed on a deportation flight to El Salvador. Cameras filmed the 250-plus Venezuelan men being disembarked and bussed to the CECOT prison, where their heads were shaved and they were forced to march, handcuffed and heads bowed, into cells. The facility is designed to hold up to 40,000 people. The Trump administration reportedly paid nearly $6m to El Salvador to imprison the deported men. Once inside the CECOT prison, Rengel alleges that he was struck with beaten – sometimes with batons, sometimes with bare fists – including at least one occasion where he was moved to an area where the prison had no cameras. Earlier this month, Rengel was part of a prisoner exchange that saw all of the deported Venezuelan men released from CECOT and sent back to their home country, in exchange for the freedom of alleged political detainees and 10 Americans imprisoned in Venezuela. Rengel has since remained with his mother, 'terrified' of the prospect of returning to the US, according to his lawyers. His complaint was made in compliance with the Federal Tort Claims Act, which sets a pathway for lawsuits against the federal government. It gives the government a maximum of six months to respond to the allegations before a suit can be filed. Already, the Trump administration released a statement signalling it plans to fight Rengel's claims. It doubled down on its accusation that Rengel was a gang member. 'President Trump and [DHS] Secretary [Kristi] Noem will not allow foreign terrorist enemies to operate in our country and endanger Americans,' the Department of Homeland Security told The Associated Press news agency. 'We hear far too much about gang members and criminals' false sob stories and not enough about their victims.' The Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act to expedite deportations has been the subject of numerous legal challenges. US District Court Judge James Boasberg had ordered the deportation flights in March to return to the US and has since indicated that the Trump administration may be in contempt of court for failing to do so. In June, Boasberg further ruled that the deported Venezuelan men must be given the opportunity to challenge their removals in US courts. His decision indicated that there was 'significant evidence' that many of the men were languishing 'in a foreign prison on flimsy, even frivolous, accusations'.
