In 2018, at the height of the economic crisis in Venezuela through crippling sanctions, Kellogg’s announced the overnight closure of their Maracay factory with hundreds of redundancies – and massive knock on effects in the local community.

The workers refused to accept the closure and, with government assistance, restarted the factory. It is still running eight years later, employing hundreds of people. Not only has it expanded production it now uses 100% Venezuelan raw materials – not only local maize and sugar, but packaging also.

The head of the trade union council in the factory ins now fulfilling the role of Managing Director.

This is how governments should deal with the whims of multinational capital, rather than allowing invaluable plant and equipment to go to scrap. If the Grangemouth refinery had been treated this way, when Ratcliffe decided he could make more profit in the Netherlands, then Scotland and the UK would not be facing potential jet fuel shortages now.

I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did my visit there.

This visit was of course before I was taken ill. I am extremely grateful to the Venezuelan medics who saved my life, and to all those many people who have been so kind in helping me. I should say that everything, from the qualifications of the medical staff to the facilities and the hospital services, has been really good. Again the stories of this country as a failed state so vividly and consistently painted by the West are shown to be a complete lie.

I today 20 April had the pacemaker checked out and it is performing properly, operating at 21% (which I think means that one in five of my heartbeats is pacemaker triggered). The wound is also healing well, but doctors advise the internal healing takes longer and they are keeping me a few more days to make sure everything is OK before I fly back to Scotland.

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As I end my second Venezuelan visit, we have now spent substantially more on this than we raised and I am personally out of pocket. There is still quite a lot of video footage and the editing process is stalled for lack of funds. Please help if you are able – Our GoFundMe link for the Venezuelan operation is here:

This is the same crowdfunding account we used for Lebanon so discount the first £35,000 raised as it was spent in Lebanon.

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