The National Assembly (AN) approved this Tuesday in its ordinary session a draft agreement that commemorates the National Day of Afro-Venezuelans.
The Parliament agreed to decree this date “as a constitutive historical and cultural legacy of Venezuela,” as well as “in representation of the heroism and patriotic feeling of the indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples, who resisted and fought with honor and courage in the struggles and revolutionary deeds that They started the independence process.
For this reason, together with the Afro-Venezuelan people and social movements, he commemorated the Day of Afro-Venezuelanity, with the “purpose of defending, protecting and keeping alive the ideologies and national values of freedom, independence, equality, justice and peace,” as part of the legacy history of José Leonardo Chirino, the Great Cacique Guaicaipuro, the Liberator Simón Bolívar and President Hugo Chávez, refers to part of the agreement.
The AN agreed to continue “strengthening policies, plans and programs aimed at combating and eradicating racism, xenophobia and any act of discrimination”, developing training plans and programs aimed at recognizing, teaching and learning the thought and legacy of José Leonardo Chirino
Day of the Afro-Venezuelanity
Since 2005, every May 10, the Day of Afro-Venezuelanity is celebrated to pay tribute to the libertarian deed led by the zambo José Leonardo Chirino in 1795 in the Sierra de Coro.
That day, May 10, 1795, from a farm called Macanillas a revolt was concentrated where a group of united blacks and mulattoes declared themselves in revolt, proclaimed the freedom of the slaves and the abolition of the alcabalas.
After the fact, Chirino was arrested, sentenced to death and transferred to Caracas, where he is being executed.
The celebration of Afro-Venezuelan Day has its starting point in 2004, when President Hugo Chávez created the Presidential Commission against Racial Discrimination.
A year later, in 2005, activists who fight for the recognition of African culture and history in Venezuela proposed May 10 as a day to commemorate Afro-Venezuelans, a project that was promoted by the then president of the National Assembly, Nicolás Maduro. .
