Betancourt’s speech, as it relates to Maryam Rajavi and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), will be the subject of this short series of articles. In this first piece, we will discuss Betancourt’s comments on her history with Maryam Rajavi and the MEK, as well as the November uprising. 

Betancourt began by welcoming the crowd, including Maryam Rajavi, noting that she recognized many from the Iranian Resistance’s continued fight against the regime. 

She then noted that women’s rights around the world are seeing a revolution right now, with more women (and men) coming forward to fight for gender equality. 

Betancourt said: “If we want to be doing something significant in this world I think that our best contribution is to support a regime change and what has become the epitome of the misogynistic regime and this is the regime of the mullahs.” 

She said that at the event, they were not simply celebrating women’s achievements and rights, but also that we are closer than ever before to regime change, which would mean the overthrow of the mullahs and the rule of Iran by Maryam Rajavi. 

The issue though, is that every time we get closer to that, the Regime will work to attack the Resistance in Maryam Rajavi, hoping to tarnish their reputations with outrageous lies to pretend that the Regime is best suited to running the country.  

Maryam Rajavi is best suited to run Iran and the mullahs know this. That’s why during the November uprising last year, led by Maryam Rajavi and the MEK, the Regime launched a brutal crackdown. 

Betancourt said: “I think there was a turning point in November last year when we saw the Iranian society becoming like a powder keg [because] the regime decided to triple the price of the fuel and its sparked a protest among the traditional supporters of the regime.” 

She advised that the Regime’s core base, including the unemployed, small farmers, and those living in the shantytowns, were protesting “in a very violent way” destroying regime-owned buildings or items and calling for regime change. 

She said: “They were not asking for putting the price at a lower level they were asking to topple and overthrow the mullahs’ regime [and replacing it with Maryam Rajavi and the MEK].”  

Of course, the Regime sent the Revolutionary Guards into murder 1,500 poor, unarmed, and hungry people who were demanding regime change 

The recent Iran protests were followed by another one in January, this time over the Regime shooting down a Ukrainian airliner and attended by the impoverished middle class, including students, professionals, intellectuals, small business owners, and the like. 

They came to the streets to chant against the regime and clearly state that they didn’t want the Shah back in power, but a true democracy.