Over the past decade, Venezuela’s feminist movement has strengthened its international presence, particularly through the World March of Women. Alejandra Laprea, a longtime activist and one of two continental representatives on the March’s International Committee, has been at the forefront of these efforts. In this conversation, Laprea discusses the evolution of popular feminism, the challenges posed by the global conservative backlash, the economic blockade and its impact on women, and the urgent tasks ahead for feminists within the Bolivarian Revolution.
Cira Pascual Marquina: Let’s begin by talking about you, Alejandra. Where are you from, and when did you commit yourself to feminism?
Alejandra Laprea: I was born in Guayana, a mining state in the south of Venezuela, but I moved to Caracas about thirty years ago. Around that time, I became committed to popular feminism. That is the perspective from which I speak, understanding that popular feminism is not a finished product but an ongoing process of collective construction.
In the early 2010s, I was part of “La Araña Feminista,” a feminist collective network, and we had become increasingly concerned about the media blockade Venezuela was facing, even within international feminist circles. In a national meeting in 2011, we decided to internationalize our presence in order to break these communication barriers. We wanted to engage with other feminist organizations—our natural allies—to share what was really happening in the context of the Bolivarian Revolution. This was crucial, because even compañeras with whom we shared criteria struggled to understand the Venezuelan process.
That’s how our organization ended up at an international congress of the World March of Women in São Paulo; that was essentially our introduction to our feminist peers worldwide and the beginning of our active participation in that space. Our main objective was to connect our revolution with popular feminism around the world. We were not asking people to be for or against our revolution, which has many strengths but also shortcomings. Rather, we were asserting that we need neither tutelage nor a prescription from abroad. We do not need outsiders to dictate the correct line. What we need is sovereignty and, if possible, solidarity.
Venezuela has now been fully integrated into the Women’s March for ten years, and I serve as one of two continental representatives on the International Committee. This role is not just a recognition of my work but also an acknowledgment of what we are building here in Venezuela—our contributions to socialist feminism, to popular feminism, to internationalist feminism.
CPM: What is the situation of the feminist movement at the continental and national level?
AL: One of the key lessons we have learned through our participation in the March is that we are part of something larger—feminism manifests in diverse ways across the continent and the world, but our movements share many things, including the effects of crises on working women.
We lived through extraordinary years when the “Marea Verde” [Green Tide, a pro-abortion movement] swept Latin America, with different expressions such as the Me Too movement, the March 8 feminist strikes, and “El violador eres tú” [the wave of anti-patriarchal street performances that used the slogan “You Are the Rapist”].
We witnessed a powerful global feminist surge. However, the enemy was not defeated and reacted with force. Today, we are facing a backlash from patriarchal, capitalist, racist, and colonialist forces working in concert. In the Women’s March, we refer to this as a system of multiple oppressions—they operate simultaneously and reinforce one another.
There are different manifestations of this reaction. For example, Javier Milei in Argentina is aggressively dismantling hard-won rights. On a different scale, we see the emergence of fascist forces in Venezuela, while the negotiations and concessions forced by the blockade-induced crisis are putting some of our rights at risk.
CPM: There has been a rise of fundamentalist evangelical Christianity in Venezuela and beyond. How does it affect women?
AL: We are witnessing the global rise of religious fundamentalism. In Africa and the Arab world, this manifests as fundamentalist Islam, while in Latin America, there is a growing influence of Christian fundamentalist tendencies. Venezuela is no exception. Christian fundamentalism is on the rise here, and its primary target is women. These forces invoke the so-called traditional, heteronormative monogamous family—an idealized construct that never really existed—and blame societal problems on its supposed breakdown. These tendencies are gaining ground in every sphere of our society, and they are deeply troubling.
CPM: The global context of a capitalist crisis has economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Working-class women bear the brunt of the crisis worldwide. In Venezuela, the situation has been particularly painful due to the brutal impact of the imperialist blockade. How does this crisis, compounded by a global conservative backlash, affect working-class women here?
AL: In the World March of Women, we do not speak of a single crisis; we speak of multiple crises. Life is complex, and these crises manifest in different ways. We are experiencing a crisis of capitalism and an environmental crisis, but in Venezuela, we also face a crisis triggered by U.S.-led economic warfare.
It is well known that women bear the brunt of economic crises. However, as if that were not enough, the situation is compounded by a dominant narrative that implicitly or explicitly blames women’s rights for today’s crises. In moments of economic upheaval, conservative forces seize the opportunity to roll back hard-won advances, scapegoating women and demanding even greater sacrifices from them.
We saw this during the pandemic when everything came to a halt… except women’s work! Women had to redouble their efforts in caregiving at home, tend to patients in hospitals, manage community kitchens, and more. Despite this, the expectation remains that women should dedicate even more of their time to their families and communities.
CPM: This brings us to the challenges ahead. What are the major tasks for the feminist movement and the Bolivarian Revolution now?
AL: As I mentioned earlier, we are experiencing a moment of setbacks at the global, continental, and national levels. In Venezuela, the feminist movement must come together and build a common agenda—one that is truly collective and based on consensus, rather than a mere compilation of different perspectives.
We must also strengthen the integration of popular feminism with other revolutionary movements. One crucial question we should be asking ourselves is: Where is the anti-patriarchal commune? The anti-patriarchal commune was supposed to be embedded in the communal project, yet it remains an unresolved task. Another question is: What happened to campesino feminism? We need to renew our alliances and ensure that feminism is deeply woven into the fabric of the revolution.
At the institutional level, the feminist movement achieved significant victories. We have progressive laws, a women’s ministry, women’s ombuds offices, and special courts. However, these gains must translate into lived realities. Many of our laws lack proper regulations, making enforcement difficult.
Finally, we must challenge cultural narratives that paint feminists as angry women who hate men. Feminism is not about hating men; it is about dismantling patriarchal structures.
International spaces like the World March of Women, Vía Campesina, Friends of the Earth, and ALBA Movements prioritize education and debate. Their work is grounded in popular and feminist pedagogy. This means they do not promote top-down lecture series but instead foster collective knowledge-building and strategy development spaces.
Currently, the Women’s March focuses on four key areas: the defense of bodies and territories, autonomy over our bodies and common goods, peace and demilitarization, and feminist economics as a transformative project. We are standing strong as we regroup—the enemy knows it, and we know it too.
CPM: Let’s circle back to the beginning of the interview, when you identified yourself with popular feminism. What is popular feminism?
AL: Popular feminism emerges as an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, anti-racist, and anti-colonial movement deeply connected with the grassroots. Over time, we have come to realize that we cannot position ourselves solely in opposition—we must also offer proposals and alternatives. That’s why we speak of “Buen Vivir” [good living], about the commons, and about a feminist economy, which, among other things, highlights the importance of social reproduction.
These proposals do not come from universities, though academic contributions can be valuable. Instead, popular feminism arises from the accumulated knowledge, reflections, and experiences of grassroots organizations and student movements.
One of the most beautiful realizations is that many of the things we imagine or project for the future already exist in some form. For instance, in envisioning sustainable production models, we find countless campesinas across the continent implementing agroecology at small, midsize, and even large scales.
For us, popular feminism is both reflection and action. It recognizes that we are part of the pueblo and that, as such, we can generate knowledge and change. This knowledge is as valid as anything certified by a university. It may have an even greater impact because it is linked to collective reflection and real, on-the-ground practices. That is the feminism we are building.
As a Venezuelan committed to the revolution, I’m deeply invested in participation and popular feminism is in sync with this. Popular feminism is in a permanent process of collective debate and construction. We think about it and shape it together, and we invite others to contribute as well. In fact, popular feminism is not just a movement for women, it is a proposal for the working people of the world.
In short, as Chávez would say, quoting Angela Davis: “If the revolution is not feminist, it will not be revolutionary.” We are committed to a revolution for all.