Caracas Chronicles

The North Korean State (what other kind is there?) News Agency says:

National Seminar on Juche Idea Held in Venezuela

Pyongyang, November 1 (KCNA) — A national seminar on the Juche idea and the Songun politics took place in Venezuela on October 17 on the occasion of the 64th birthday of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

Omar Lopez, chairman of the Venezuelan National Society for the Study of the Juche Idea, explained the essence of the Juche idea founded by President Kim Il Sung, saying that the idea is fully displaying its vitality in the Venezuelan people’s efforts for building socialism.

Diego Antonio Rivero, chairman of the Venezuela-Korea Friendship and Solidarity Association, said that Kim Il Sung was the great leader of the Korean people and the world people as he led the socialist revolution and construction in Korea to victory and devoted himself to the cause of global independence. That is why the progressive people are still highly praising his immortal exploits, he added.

A professor of Bolivar University stressed that all the achievements made by the Korean people are a brilliant fruition of the Songun politics pursued by General Secretary Kim Jong Il. The cause of the Korean people facing down imperialism gives strength and courage to the world revolutionary peoples including the Venezuelan people and it has become a model of anti-imperialist struggle, he stressed.

A message of greetings to Kim Jong Il was adopted at the seminar.

Hat tip: SG

Update: In the comments section, GTAC adds:

This is not really a fringe group, even if they are small in numbers.

The Venezuelan far left splintered during the Guerrilla experience in the 60’s-70’s because of many tactical and strategic disagreements. The monolithic PCV, which was pro-USSR (a country which did not support guerrilla warfare by the late 60s), was then divided in a number of factions: pro-PRC, pro-Albania, pro-Cuba, Eurocommunist, School of Frankfurt types, and so forth.

Of course, there had to be a pro-Juche idea faction. This group was led by, among others, former guerrilla and philosophy professor Jose Rafael Nuñez Tenorio, who in 1969 published a book called “Bolivar y la Guerra revolucionaria”, basically creating the final blend of the Bolivar-as-antiimperialist-guerrilla-leader trope (already stated by Cuba and Juan Bosch in the Dominican Republic), stating that liberal democracy was in fact a dictatorship which had to be violently toppled, just as the Spanish Colonial power needed to be defeated. As the guerrilla failed, he was among the advocates of an alliance between civilians and ideologically oriented leftist members of the military.

This could mean nothing, unless you take into account that Núñez was founder of the Vth Republic Movement, a member of its National Tactical Command, and one of the men inside the board of the Chávez’ 1998 presidential campaign: he gave an interview with Duno and Mieres to El Nacional’s revista PRIMICIA, which exposed the mid-to-long term plans of a potential Chávez presidency: the dismantling of congress and the Judicial power through the constituyente; the penetration and eventual dissolution of the Armed Forces, Central Bank, and the de-technocratization of PDVSA.

As member of the MVR, he was posthumously elected as Senator for Caracas in 1998, unable to serve as a congressman because of his death in October. During his funeral, which I attended as a curious UCV student and which was held at the Patio Cubierto del Rectorado, the late professor Núñez’ coffin was draped with… a North Korean flag!