by The People’s Minister of Information JR Valrey

International journalist, freedom fighter and Block Report correspondent Gerald Perriera speaks on world politics four years after the assassination of Qaddafi and two years after Chavez. We cover Libya, Eritrea, the Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, South Africa, Somalia, Venezuela, the FMLN, the Sandinistas, Mali, Niger, France, the U.S. and more.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez declares his nation’s support for Muammar Qaddafi and an independent Libya on Feb. 25, 2011, and implacable opposition to a Western invasion.

“Libya is a failed state,” Perriera observes, since Qaddafi’s Jamahiriya was destroyed, with several factions and many militias “all doing their own thing.” Some 3 million Libyans who supported Qaddafi now live in exile. Qaddafi’s son Saif was sentenced to death by one faction, but the militia holding him is not turning him over to them.

Libyans throughout the country demonstrated against Saif’s death sentence, Perreira reports. And on Sept. 4, thousands poured into streets to celebrate the anniversary of the Al Fateh revolution, the real revolution, in 1969.

In South America and the Caribbean, neoliberalism has failed, accomplishing nothing but to “widen the gap between the haves and have-nots,” Perreira notes, and in Venezuela and elsewhere, the people have “voted overwhelmingly for progressive or left-wing regimes and left of center regimes.” Those that still cling to the neoliberal, capitalist model may celebrate their independence, “but what independence,” Perreira asks, when the U.S., Britain and Canada are calling the shots.

The People’s Minister of Information JR Valrey is associate editor of the Bay View, author of “Block Reportin’” and “Unfinished Business: Block Reportin’ 2” and filmmaker of “Operation Small Axe” and “Block Reportin’ 101,” available, along with many more interviews, at www.blockreportradio.com. He can be reached at blockreportradio@gmail.com.