Venezuela Hoy

Information of this blog

2006-08-16T12:44:00.000+02:00

We have stopped posting on this blog. The information continues on www.targets.org, an independent news site on international devellopments, where it has a special dossier.

Venezuela to Build New Refinery in Ecuador

2006-06-14T10:53:00.000+02:00

By: Venezuelanalysis.com
Caracas, Venezuela, May 31, 2006—In a series of agreements signed between Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez and Ecuador’s President Alfredo Palacio, yesterday, Venezuela agreed to help Ecuador construct a new refinery and to expand an existing one, among other energy-related issues. The deal is expected to provide additional earnings to Ecuador of over $360 million per year for the refining of 100,000 barrels of Ecuadoran crude per day. Chavez was in Ecuador’s capital Quito to sign the agreements, following his visit to Bolivia.

Another part of the agreement would provide Ecuador with Venezuelan liquefied gas. Chavez, during a press conference in Quito, suggested that Venezuela would sell the gas directly to the Ecuadoran government, which would then market it, allowing consumers to save up to 20% of the cost by cutting out middlemen.

Chavez promised that these agreements would mark a new beginning in relations between the two countries. “These seven months that remain in the government of my friend President Palacio, we will use to construct a solid new floor, of political, social, technical, scientific, and energy relations,” said Chavez.

Ecuador’s President Palacio responded, “Thanks to the Venezuelan people and thanks to President Chavez, the hydrocarbon policy and petrol history of Ecuador will change.”During his press conference, Chavez predicted that Ecuador would be attacked, just as Bolivia has been attacked for the nationalization of its natural resources. While Bolivia recently announced the nationalization of its natural gas fields, Ecuador recently annulled a contract with Occidental Petroleum. “Allow me to congratulate you, President, for the decisions you have been taking to recover the strategic management of the natural resources of Ecuador,” said Chavez. The U.S. recently suspended negotiation of a Free Trade Agreement with Ecuador in response to Ecuador’s decision to suspend the Occidental Petroleum contract.

Student Riots Continue in Western Venezuela, Government Blames Provocateurs

2006-06-14T10:49:00.000+02:00

By: Michael Fox - Venezuelanalysis.com
Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - Classes at the University of the Andes (ULA) were suspended again yesterday, as disturbances and protests continued in Merida for the fourth straight business day. In response to the violence, various government representatives announced that behind the disturbances is a conspiracy to “destabilize” the country.

The “disturbances” come as a result of last Wednesday’s Venezuelan Supreme Court decision postponing ULA student elections, which were scheduled to be held on May 31st. In its decision, the court declared that the elections would have to be postponed because there existed “rational doubts about the competence” of the University Center Federation’s ability to administer its own elections.
The Venezuelan alternative media website, Aporrea.org, reported yesterday afternoon that, “a small group of hooded individuals were throwing rocks, bottles, and other objects at a line of anti-riot Police.”

Meanwhile, the Venezuelan daily, El Mundo, reported last Friday, that various other Universities have joined in the protests, and are calling for a national demonstration tomorrow and a student march across the country. Ricardo Sánchez, general secretary of the Federation of University Centers of the Central University of Venezuela, announced yesterday that all of the Universities in Caracas would be meeting to coordinate actions in support of the ULA students.

While last week’s events are still unclear, government sources report that 26 Venezuelan National Guard and Police were wounded in the violence, many from gunshots. One officer is still in critical condition, and another testified to have just narrowly escaped a rape attempt. According to most reports, 10 students were wounded. El Mundo reported last Friday that the leader of the Somos Uno Movement from the Central University of Venezuela, Inti Rodriguez, declared that their were also a dozen students wounded at University protests in both the Venezuelan states of Tachira and Lara.
“Conspiracy of Violence”

Venezuelan Vice-President José Vicente Rangel, yesterday, condemned the existence of “preparations to generate situations of violence in the streets.”

“You can’t explain this situation only by the decision of the competent jurisdictional organism to post-pone ULA elections. This decision has nothing to do with the National Executive or the authorities from the state of Mérida,” he said. “The supposed University raid served also as a pretext to accentuate the violence.” In a press release, Rangel added, “there also exists the intention to unleash action in Caracas during the next OPEC meeting [this Thursday], with the goal of projecting to the world an image of chaos in Venezuela.”

Yesterday, the Minister of Interior and Justice, Jesse Chacón, and members of the National Assembly also denounced the student violence in Merida, and announced what they viewed as proof of a conspiracy to destabilize the country.

“These are acts of violence and sources of urban terrorism that have been unraveling by the student sector over the last hours and you should observe that all of the events connect to one another, they are interrelated and lead us to a conspiracy plan,” said National Assembly Representative, Tarek El Aissami, yesterday.

Aissami singled out the group Movimiento 13 de Marzo (March 13 Movement) and its student leader Nixon Moreno, as being behind the violence and disturbances. He accompanied his declarations with videotapes from 2004 of the March 13 Movement, which he declared contained “proof of the conviction” of the current events.

“Political Assassination”

Moreno, who was a Presidential candidate in the ULA’s postponed elections responded by accusing the state of trying to “politically assassinate” him.

“We are dealing with a dark laboratory, overseen by the Ministry of Interior and Justice (Jesse Chacón) in order to politically assassinate me,” he said yesterday. Moreno added that due to the repression of the National Guard, 25 students were left wounded.

The Venezuelan daily, El Universal, reported yesterday that Moreno, “informed that the students would continue their protests this week in response to the violation of the autonomous university, expressed, in his criteria, in the ruling of the TSJ that suspended the student elections, and in the National Guard ‘raid’ on the University.”

Moreno, who has been a ULA student for the past 10 years and is a former Student President of the ULA, blames last week’s violence, not on the students, but on the Venezuelan National Guard.
According to VTV, the Minister of Interior and Justice, Jesse Chacón, has categorically denied that the National Guard and police forces raided the ULA.

Rumors have surfaced over the possibility that last week’s violence could have been instigated by paramilitaries acting as students. The website, Rebelion.org, reported last Thursday that “a group of organized mercenaries, acting and looking more like Colombian paramilitaries than students, burst in to the Center of the Humanities Faculty, well armed with high-caliber pistols and machine guns, faces covered with ski masks… with radios of the latest technology… and dispersed throughout Merida in strategic locations, in small groups, all armed, and interconnected through the radio system.”

Astrid Balsa, an ULA student, studying languages, doesn’t buy it. “People exaggerate a lot, but there are some things that are true. I don’t believe that there are paramilitaries,” she said, “but not everyone involved in the disturbances are students. Some are hooligans, and some are teenagers from the nearby schools who just want to cause trouble.”

Balsa said that classes and activities at the ULA have been suspended since last Wednesday, and that the disturbances have caused fear and long lines across the city of Merida.
"No one is in agreement with the disturbances," Balsa continued. "It's all a question of power, regardless on who's side you are on... the problem is that the University is a reflection of what is happening in the country."

Supreme Court Decision

Last Wednesday’s Supreme Court decision to postpone the elections was as a result of an injunction presented to the court by hundreds of ULA students including the current president of the Federation de University Centers of ULA, Jehyson Jose Guzman Araque.

“We asked the Supreme Court to review the elections, to make sure that everything was legal,” said Frella Alvarez, a fourth year ULA student studying Spanish literature. “At the University, there are rules that exist, but they may or may not be enforced… the University authority hasn’t been prepared to ensure that the rules are followed.”

According to Jan Ullrich, a German exchange student studying this year at ULA, these rules outlaw re-elections, include two-year term limits, and mandate that candidates must pass at least two classes a semester.

"The rules are there to ensure that these positions are for students, who are studying... not for professional politicians," said Ullrich. "Guzman has been at the University for 10 years. One of the other guys, for 15."

According to Ullrich, that the elections were postponed until February, 2007, when new candidates would have to be named, because none of the current candidates are eligible to run for office, because they do not qualify under the rules.

Mario Bonucci, ULA Director, criticized the TSJ decision last week, declaring that the ULA electoral commission has always been in charge of elections and that the current student president, Guzman, was elected, ratified and established under the same rules and structure that are now in place.“Of course, I shall call for peace, prudence and reflection. The University is the center where we debate with ideas not violence,” Bonucci added in response to last Wednesday’s violence, “That’s why I’m making this call for calm, tranquility and that we utilize the channels at our disposition in this democratic system.”

Venezuela-Guyana territorial dispute adjourned

2006-05-26T11:42:00.000+02:00

The resumption of talks regarding a controversial border issue between Guyana and Venezuela was suspended, even though the Foreign Affairs minister of both countries committed to meet as soon as possible, Efe reported.

The chargé d'affaires of the Venezuelan Embassy in Guyana, Fernando Rincón, ensured that the issue was suspended because of the busy agendas of Guyana and Venezuela Foreign Affairs ministers Rudy Insanally and Alí Rodríguez, respectively.

In March Insanally and the Venezuelan Foreign Affairs vice-minister for Latin America and the Caribbean Pável Rondón agreed to hold a meeting between Guyana facilitator Ralph Ram Karran and his Venezuelan counterpart Héctor Azócar, together with official delegate Oliver Jackman, a representative of the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The UN believes efforts to find a solution to this controversy should not last more than two years.

Venezuela is claiming the mineral- and forest-rich region on the riverside of Esequibo river, comprising two thirds of Guyana 215,000 square kilometers.

Guyana defends an arbitral award of 1899 setting the border between Guyana and Venezuela. But in the last few decades, Venezuela has been blocking Guyana efforts to find oil in the region.
The bilateral agenda also includes meetings for cultural cooperation and enhancement of transportation between the two countries.

Venezuela to initial pact on Spanish patrol boats

2006-05-26T11:40:00.000+02:00

Venezuelan Navy vice admiral Armando Laguna Laguna on Friday is to initial in Spain an agreement with representatives of Navantia for the construction of the first of eight patrol boats Venezuela agreed to purchase from Spain in November 2005.

Venezuelan ambassador in Madrid retired general Arévalo Méndez in a phone conversation confirmed Laguna Laguna's visit to Spain, adding that the agreement would be signed in Cadiz, where Navantia headquarters are based.
"On Friday (May 25) directors of Navantia and the Navy General Command are to sign the agreement to construct the first out of eight oceanic and coast patrol boats Venezuela is to buy from Spain," Méndez explained.

Under the agreement, Méndez said, the first boat should be completed and operational by August 2008, while the last will be built in Puerto Cabello (Carabobo state), where the Venezuelan shipyard Dianca is based.

"Under the agreement, Navantia undertakes to build the last patrol boat in Venezuela, which involves technological transfer and will allow us to teach and train personnel in Dianca not only for repairs and maintenance, but also to build boats," Méndez ensured.

The agreement with Navantia has been estimated at over USD 1.6 billion.

Mercosur ratifies Venezuela's full membership

2006-05-26T11:32:00.000+02:00

People's Daily, May 25 2006

The Common Market of the South (Mercosur) ratified the full membership of Venezuela, the Argentine Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

Representatives of Mercosur's four member countries, Argentine, Brazil, Uruguay,and Paraguay, signed Venezuela's Membership Protocol on Tuesday night at the San Martin Palace, which hosts Argentina's Foreign Ministry.

Argentina is the bloc's acting leader, a role which rotates every six months.
The member countries agreed on a timetable for Venezuela to adopt Mercosur's common tariffs and respect free trade within the bloc.

The timetable states that between 2010 and 2014 Venezuela will join the free trade area already in operation between the other four members.

The five countries pledged to promote integration across the region and fight poverty and social exclusion through solidarity and cooperation, the statement said.

The protocol will have to be ratified by Mercosur's presidents at a summit, slated for July 20-21 in the Argentine city of Cordoba, before it will be sent for ratification to the countries' respective legislatures.

Source: Xinhua

Venezuela's Chavez willing to follow Supreme Court's order in seeking reelection

2006-05-26T11:30:00.000+02:00

People's Daily, May 25 2006

Venezuelen President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday that under Venezuela's constitution, he did not have to leave office to be reelected to the presidency, but he would do so if ordered by the country's supreme court.

"If the Supreme Court of Justice decides that I must leave office in order to be reelected, I will follow their ruling," he said.

He added that he would go to the streets to achieve his aim of being reelected with 10 million votes, out of a total of 13 million eligible Venezuelan citizens.

Chavez said he hoped that the "dirty strategy" of the December elections, whose results the opposition said they did not trust, would not be repeated.

"We will base our actions on theirs. The question should be directed to the nation: 'do the people agree with the president being a candidate indefinitely'," he said.

Chavez has said on different occasions that if the opposition withdrew from the campaign he would replace the ballot paper with a referendum paper, asking citizens if they were happy to keep him in power until 2031.

According to Venezuela's constitution, the presidency can only be held for two terms. If Chavez wins a second term in office he will have to step down in 2014.

Chavez first took power in 1998, and was reelected in 2000 after amending the constitution.
Source: Xinhua

Venezuela to Renegotiate Mining Agreements

2006-05-26T11:27:00.000+02:00

Venezuela to Renegotiate All Mining Agreements to Give State 'Total Control' of Industry

CARACAS, Venezuela Wednesday May 24, 2006 (AP) -- Venezuela will renegotiate all mining agreements with domestic and foreign companies to give the state "total control" of the industry, a government official announced Wednesday.

In a statement, Mining Minister Victor Alvarez said "government control of these areas is of crucial strategic interest" to the administration of President Hugo Chavez.

"We will intensify the review of all contracts and concessions ... so the state can assume total control" under a forthcoming law that will be drafted by Venezuela's National Assembly, Alvarez added.

Lawmakers allied with Chavez hold all 167 seats in the assembly, guaranteeing approval of the proposed law.

Studies completed by the mining ministry show that 71.1 percent of the 760 mining projects in this mineral-rich South American country are considered large mining holdings, many of them controlled by private companies from Venezuela, Russia, Canada and Holland, Alvarez said.
"Over the years, holders of these areas, have done absolutely nothing," he said.

Chavez, a nationalist who believes in strong state intervention in the economy, has warned that companies that control mines considered to be idle will lose their place in the mining industry.

Venezuela May Spend $4.74 Bln on Colombia Pipelines

2006-05-26T11:25:00.000+02:00

May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, is studying investing up to $4.74 billion to build two oil pipelines across neighboring Colombia to the Pacific coast, cutting the time it needs to ship crude to Asia.

The two pipelines, one for crude oil and the other for refined products, would cut across southern Colombia to the port of Tumaco, Jorge Luis Sanchez, who heads Venezuela's state natural gas company, said at an energy conference today in Caracas. The crude oil pipeline would have capacity of 400,000 barrels a day, while the products pipeline would be able to transport as much as 250,000 barrels a day.

"We're in the stage of visualizing these projects,'' Ivan Orellana, a board member at state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, said in an interview outside the conference. "We're in the very early phases.''

Venezuela is seeking to shorten the time needed to ship oil to Asia. Most supertankers can't pass through the Panama Canal, sending them around South America to reach China and other Asian countries after loading at Atlantic coast ports.

"A pipeline to the Pacific is the only way where selling oil to China would make any economic sense,'' said James Williams, an analyst with WTRG Energy Economics in London, Arkansas.

Venezuela now sends about two-thirds of its oil exports to the U.S. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is attempting to reduce his country's dependence on the U.S.

Venezuela produces about 2.6 million barrels a day, of which 2.1 million is exported.

To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Wilson in Caracas at pewilson@bloomberg.net.

Venezuela seeks stake in Orinoco projects

2006-05-26T11:20:00.000+02:00

CARACAS, Venezuela Wed May 24, 2006 - Venezuela seeks up to a 60 percent stake in four heavy oil projects in the Orinoco River basin where it is partnered with companies like Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips, a state oil company official said Wednesday.

"We are willing to go to 60 percent," said Eulogio del Pino, a director at Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, who oversees contracts with foreign oil companies.

PDVSA currently holds minority stakes ranging from 30 percent to 49.9 percent in partnerships upgrading heavy oil with BP PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips, France's Total SA and Norway's Statoil ASA.

The government said earlier that it planned to eventually take a controlling stake in those operations but had not specified how much control it sought.

The Orinoco projects develop what Venezuela says are some of the largest untapped oil reserves in the world.

President Hugo Chavez's administration has sought a larger share of profits from the industry amid surging oil prices.

It has already taken as much as 80 percent control of other oil fields across the country that were previously run by private companies under contract.

Also Wednesday, a government official said Venezuela will renegotiate all mining agreements with domestic and foreign companies to give the state "total control" of the industry.

Mining Minister Victor Alvarez said in a statement "government control of these areas is of crucial strategic interest" to the administration of President Hugo Chavez.

Lawmakers allied with Chavez hold all 167 seats in the assembly, guaranteeing approval of the proposed law.

Studies by the mining ministry show that 71.1 percent of the 760 mining projects in this mineral-rich South American country are considered large mining holdings, many of them controlled by private companies from Venezuela, Russia, Canada and Holland, Alvarez said.

"Over the years, holders of these areas, have done absolutely nothing," he said.
Chavez, who believes in strong state intervention in the economy, has warned that companies that control mines considered to be idle will lose their place in the mining industry.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060524/ap_on_bi_ge/venezuela_oil_2

Vietnam-Venezuela relations continue upturn

2006-05-26T11:17:00.000+02:00

Nhan Dan, May 26 2006 - Vietnam and Venezuela have signed an agreement on visa requirement exemption for holders of diplomatic and official passports.
The agreement was reached during a two-day Vietnam visit by Venezuelan Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Alcides Rondon Rivero, beginning on May 24.

The Vice Minister also took part in the official inauguration ceremony of the Venezuelan Embassy in Hanoi. Vietnam and Venezuela have also agreed on setting up a mechanism for political dialogue between the two foreign ministries.

At the reception ceremony in Hanoi on May 25, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan expressed his hope that the two sides would strengthen exchange and carry out co-ordinated activities in the United Nation (UN), the Non-aligned Movement and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to protect developing countries' interests.

During his visit from May 24-25, Mr Alcides had various working sessions with Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien, Vice Minister Nguyen Phu Binh of Foreign Affairs, Chairman Vu Mao and other ranking officials of the National Assembly Committee for External Affairs, representatives of the Industry Ministry and the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations.

During the meetings, the Venezuelan and Vietnamese officials discussed measures to further boost the multi-faceted relations between the two countries, with a special focus on bilateral co-operation on trade and commerce.

Vice Minister Alcides expressed his appreciation of the renovation achievements that Vietnam has made over the years and conveyed congratulations to the Vietnamese Government and Party leaders for the great success of the recent 10th national party congress. (VNA)

Venezuela Wants NAM To Take Global Security Seriously

2006-05-26T11:13:00.000+02:00

By P. Vijian

PUTRAJAYA, May 26 (Bernama) -- Oil-rich Venezuela wants the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to discuss issues on security, which is a pressing problem, when the organisation's foreign ministers meet early next week.

Venezuela's Charge d'Affairs to Malaysia Manuel Antonio Guzman Hernandez said his government was committed to world peace and willing to work with any nation to promote stability, either at the domestic or international level.

"In security issues, the principle contribution to the world peace is to say no to blackmail (to terrorists) and at the same time avoid contribution to terrorism forces.

"Venezuela has maintained great respect and concern with regards to the general views and opinions of those countries affected by international terrorism," he told Bernama here Friday.

He said the Venezuelan delegation would bring up security matters when they meet their counterparts at the Non-Aligned Movement Coordinating Bureau (NAM-CoB) Ministerial Meeting at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC) which starts tomorrow.

Asked how Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter, could help economically-backward NAM members, Hernandez said the South American nation under the leadership of President Hugo Chavez had it own policy to assist poor economies.

"With the crisis of petroleum high prices, Venezuela has maintained favourable conditions in relation to the affairs of countries facing high level of poverty," he added.He said Chavez was even ready to help needy people in the United States who were suffering due to rising oil prices which had breached the US$70 mark recently.

Last year, Chavez pledged to help ordinary Americans pay their hefty energy bills during winter and again this winter the leftist leader has offered to help Europeans pay their bills.

Venezuela produces about three million barrels of crude oil daily and exports nearly 75 per cent of its output.

Hernandez added that oil price was unlikely to come down and urged the world to make rational usage of this non-recyclable fuel and at the same time seek alternative resources.

-- BERNAMA

Russia ready to deliver Su jets to Venezuela - defense minister

2006-05-26T11:11:00.000+02:00

ST. PETERSBURG. May 26 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia is ready to deliver multipurpose Su jet fighters to Venezuela, and there are no restrictions on such deliveries, Russian Vice Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said.
"There are no international restrictions on the delivery of arms to Venezuela. I mean conventional arms," Ivanov told journalists on Friday in St. Petersburg.

Venezuela sees natural gas shortage ending in 2009

2006-05-26T11:08:00.000+02:00

By PETER WILSON Bloomberg News - May 25 2006

Venezuela, which has South America's largest natural-gas reserves, expects a domestic shortage of the fuel to end in 2009, the state oil company said.

The current shortage is between 800 million cubic feet a day to 1 billion cubic feet a day, Felix Rodriguez, vice president of Petroleos de Venezuela SA's natural-gas unit, told reporters Thursday at an energy conference in Caracas. Output is now 6.3 billion cubic feet a day, much of which is reinjected into oil fields to push crude to the surface.

"We will have a surplus in 2009, when offshore natural gas starts coming into the market," said Rodriguez. Production may rise to 500 million cubic feet a day this year.

Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, has focused on developing its oil industry ahead of its natural-gas reserves. The current natural-gas shortage has resulted in cutbacks in oil and petrochemical production.

The country has the world's eighth-largest natural gas reserves at about 150 trillion cubic feet.
Petróleos de Venezuela, the state oil company, is also in talks with private oil companies to take shares in their natural gas operations to expand output. The Caracas-based company has reached agreements to take shares in natural-gas operations run by Repsol YPF SA and Canada's Petrofalcon Corp.

Venezuela lawmakers blast video game

2006-05-26T11:05:00.000+02:00

CARACAS, Venezuela May 25, 2006 (AP) -- A U.S. company's video game simulating an invasion of Venezuela is supposed to hit the shelves next year, but it's already raising the ire of lawmakers loyal to President Hugo Chavez.
Chavez supporters in Venezuela's National Assembly suspect the makers of "Mercenaries 2: World in Flames" are doing Washington's bidding by drumming up support among Americans for an eventual move to overthrow Chavez.

"I think the U.S. government knows how to prepare campaigns of psychological terror so they can make things happen later," Congressman Ismael Garcia said, citing the video game developed by Los Angeles-based Pandemic Studios.

Pandemic describes "Mercenaries 2" as "an explosive open-world action game" in which "a power-hungry tyrant messes with Venezuela's oil supply, sparking an invasion that turns the country into a war zone." The company says players take on the role of well-armed mercenaries.

Chris Norris, a publicist for Pandemic in Los Angeles, said the game wasn't intended to make a political statement about Chavez, though designers "always want to have a rip from the headlines."

"Although a conflict doesn't necessarily have to be happening, it's realistic enough to believe that it could eventually happen," Norris said.

Lawmaker Gabriela Ramirez said "Mercenaries 2" gives a false vision of Chavez as a tyrant and Venezuela as being on the verge of chaos. She said the game could be banned under a proposed law aimed at protecting Venezuelan children from violent video games.

In the U.S., "it sends a message to Americans: You have a danger next door, here in Latin America, and action must be taken," she said. "It's a justification for an imperialist aggression."

U.S. officials have repeatedly denied planning an attack on Venezuela, though President Bush said he is concerned about "an erosion of democracy" here -- an accusation Chavez has called blatantly false.

Venezuela Dismisses Bush’s Concerns about Venezuelan Democracy

2006-05-26T10:59:00.000+02:00

By: Pablo Navarrete - Venezuelanalysis.com

Caracas, Venezuela, May 23, 2006 - Reacting to comments made by U.S. President George Bush on Monday that expressed concern about, "the erosion of democracy" in Venezuela and Bolivia, Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez accused Bush on Tuesday of "demolishing" his own country's democracy.

"Democracy and the fundamental principles of that country, which were held up by Abraham Lincoln among others, are being demolished," said Chávez in reference to a domestic spying program which has been largely criticized in the U.S. for violating civil liberties, according to the AP.

"We'll have to tell the U.S. president that we are very worried because his imperialist, war-mongering government is dangerously eroding the possibility of peace and life on this planet," Chávez added. For Chávez, in the same way that the twentieth century was called the North American century, the twenty-first century will go down as the "the century which put an end to the North American empire."

Bush's remarks were also criticized by other high-level politicians in both Venezuela and the U.S. Venezuelan National Assembly President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday, "Today Bush, cynically, tries to make a judgment on Venezuela democracy. We ask [U.S.] opinion, 60 percent of whom reject his government, where is democracy being eroded: in a government which invades, bombs, and assassinates, or here [in Venezuela]?"

In the U.S., Democratic Congressman Donald M. Payne said on Tuesday that the Bush administration had adopted "a totally flawed position" regarding Chávez. Payne, who serves on the House of Representatives International Relations Committee and its Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, said the two countries "definitely need to have a dialogue."

This latest exchange between the two countries' leaders comes at a time when U.S.-Venezuela relations have been steadily deteriorating. Last week, the Bush administration declared a ban on arms sales from the U.S. to Venezuela, because Venezuela was allegedly "not cooperating fully" in the "war on terrorism." Venezuela is the only country on the U.S. list of countries that is not cooperating fully with terrorism that is not also on their list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

The arms sale ban affects U.S. sales and licensing for the export of defense articles and services to Venezuela, including the transfer of defense items, said Darla Jordan, a State Department spokeswoman, according to the AP. In 2005, Venezuela spent $34 million on military equipment in the U.S., mostly for spare parts for C-130 cargo planes.

Bush decries 'erosion of democracy' in Venezuela, Bolivia

2006-05-26T10:43:00.000+02:00

CHICAGO Mon May 22 2006 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush said he was concerned about an "erosion of democracy" in Venezuela and Bolivia, which in recent months have adopted policies which many in Washington view as unfavorable toward US interests.

Asked here about the two Latin American countries' seemingly adverse policies towards Washington, Bush did not directly answer the question, but vowed to continue to foster positive policies in Latin America.

"I am going to continue to remind our hemisphere that respect for property rights and human rights is essential for all countries in order for there to be prosperity and peace," the US president said at a national meeting of restaurateurs, where he spoke about developments in Iraq.

"I'm going to remind our allies and friends in the neighborhood that the United States of America stands for justice; that when we see poverty, we care about it, and we do something about it," Bush said.

And in what appeared to be an oblique reference to reports that Venezuela played a supporting role in presidential elections last December in Bolivia, Bush cautioned against "meddling."

"I'm going to remind our people that meddling in other elections to achieve a short-term objective is not in the interests of the neighborhood," Bush said.Washington in the past has accused Venezuela of using its oil money to bolster the candidacy of leftist Evo Morales, who won Bolivia's December election by a landslide.

The US president added that he believes the free market system provides the best solution for poverty and other ills that afflict the region.

"I will continue to remind people that trade is the best way to help people be lifted from poverty," Bush said.

"We can spend money, and we do in the neighborhood, but the best way for there to be growth is to encourage commerce and trade and prosperity through the marketplace," he said.

He continued: "I'm going to remind people that the United States stands against corruption at all levels of government," adding, "the United States expects the same from other countries in the neighborhood."

Bolivia, Venezuela and Cuba to sign eight cooperation agreements

2006-05-26T10:24:00.000+02:00

Granma International, Mat 26 2006

LA PAZ, May 24 — Eight cooperation agreements covering a variety of areas that will strengthen the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) are to be signed during a meeting between Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela.

Bolivian presidential spokesman Alex Contreras said the agreements are to be signed next Friday, PL reported.

Contreras said that part of the agreements already negotiated deal with cooperation in the fields of education and health, Cuban strengths now being shared with Bolivia and Venezuela.

Agreements will also be signed between La Paz and Caracas for joint development projects between the state-run hydrocarbon enterprises of both nations.

By virtue of those agreements, as well as three asphalt factories, natural gas production plants will be established, which will make it possible, Contreras said, for Bolivia to stop being simply a gas vendor and begin to export derivatives.
An agreement will also be signed for the establishment of a bi-national enterprise, Minera de Sur (Minersur), which according to Walter Villarroel, minister of mining, will develop projects in a number of regions.

Villarroel left open the possibility that Minersur would operate in the giant iron mine in Mutún, near the border with Brazil, where the government is putting out to tender internationally the establishment of an iron and steel industry.

Hugo Salvatierra, minister of rural and agricultural development, noted the importance of an agreement for $100 million in credit that Venezuela will provide a support fund for small producers, which will be decisive to the agricultural sector.

Other agreements will facilitate the establishment of centers for the legal industrialization of the coca leaf and the development of agribusiness projects for coffee, tea and soy, he added.

Bolivia, Venezuela initial comprehensive oil agreement

2006-05-26T10:08:00.000+02:00

Venezuela and Bolivia are to execute Friday an ambitious oil bill within the framework of the Peoples' Trade Treaty (TCP) bolstered by the two nations along with Cuba to counter the US Free Trade Agreement.
Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela will enter into an array of agreements, including an instrument to develop the oil business, during an unprecedented ceremony in the coca town of Chapare.
Amidst unusual movement of police agents, only comparable to the times of social unrest, coca trade unions anticipate a rally of 50,000 growers, according to estimates of presidential spokesman Alex Contreras.
Chávez announced last Wednesday in Caracas that he and Morales were to execute over 20 cooperation agreements and letters of intent.

Venezuela-Bolivia to Hookup in Sports

2006-05-24T23:23:00.000+02:00

Caracas, May 23 (Prensa Latina) Venezuela and Bolivia will sign a sports cooperation agreement for plans and projects of mutual benefit in the fields of sports and physical culture, announced Venezuelan Sports Vice Minister Eduardo Alvarez Tuesday.
Alvarez said the signing will take place at the May 26 meeting in La Paz, the Bolivian capital, between Presidents Hugo Chavez Frias (Venezuela) and Bolivia´s Evo Morales.
He said that beginning in June, Venezuela will give Bolivia support for mass participation in physical education, sports competitions, high performance and community sports activities.
Also, it will help Bolivia with sports medicine, training of sports coaches, and service updating.
The cooperation agreement also covers using the Venezuelan experience in sports such as volleyball, judo, soccer, and triathlon.

Venezuela to Foster African Culture

2006-05-24T23:09:00.000+02:00

Caracas, May 23 (Prensa Latina) Venezuela will open cultural agencies in four African countries, aimed at boosting traditions and customs in that continent, official sources reported Tuesday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Reinaldo Bolivar said this will be a pilot program to be implemented in Ethiopia, South Africa, Senegal and Algeria.
These agencies will be responsible for broadcasting national culture in that region through exhibitions, concerts and other artistic expressions.
The program includes a tour of well-known local musician Francisco Pacheco, founder of the traditional group "Un Solo Pueblo," to perform in Africa and sending a delegation to the 3rd Black Arts Festival, to be held in Senegal next year.
According to the official, at the beginning of the Bolivarian Revolution the Latin American nation only had diplomatic ties with seven countries, and in only 15 months President Hugo Chavez' government has established links with 42 nations.

Venezuela Readies to Enter MERCOSUR

2006-05-24T23:02:00.000+02:00

Caracas, May 24 (Prensa Latina) Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said his country is intensely preparing its entry to the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), main mechanism of integration in South America.
"We will enter MERCOSUR, but we have to reduce import taxes to zero. We will assume that challenge and should increase productivity," stated Chavez in an act on the occasion of Social Oil and Gas Districts.
The aim of these demarcations is to develop regions where different hydrocarbon companies are located, to create others of social production and support economic boosts in those localities.
The project is part of the so-called policy "Siembra Petrolera" implemented by the Bolivarian government.
Chavez reiterated in the meeting that the South American nation is making efforts to enter with great impact the MERCOSUR, an alliance destined to a fruitful "trade zone and a world power."
Venezuela, fifth oil exporter worldwide, was accepted as a "state in process of adhesion" in Montevideo, Uruguay, on December 9.
This time, the leaders agreed to a commission to fix a chronogram in a six-month period, for Caracas to adopt different rules.

Venezuela Leaves G-3

2006-05-24T22:31:00.000+02:00

Caracas, May 23 (Prensa Latina) Venezuela denounced Tuesday the Group of Three (G-3), of which is member along with Mexico and Colombia, for having a neoliberal view that puts commercial interest above the peoples.
The local Foreign Ministry issued a release ratifying the withdrawal of this South American nation from the trade alliance and stressing that its integration purpose is based on complementary, cooperation and solidarity ties.
Sunday, President Hugo Chavez confirmed that Caracas decided to leave the G-3 to focus on its entry into the Common Market of the South as a full member. On his visit to Rome, first stop of an international tour, the statesman said his country prioritizes the Latin American integration above any other treaty.

Minister: Venez-OPEC Meet Important

2006-05-23T11:15:00.000+02:00

Caracas, May 22 (Prensa Latina) Venezuelan Minister of Energy Rafael Ramirez highlighted the importance of the 141st special meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to be held in Caracas June 1.
Ramirez told journalists that OPEC countries’ representatives will arrive in Caracas on May 30, as Venezuelan authorities have organized a seminar on “Oil Sovereignty” for heads of delegations and the media.
Closed-door debates on current production quotas, a fair price policy and support for the world´s energy demands have also been scheduled.
The official presiding over the meeting, in his condition as OPEC Secretary General, is expected to give a press conference at the end of the meeting.
In Ramirez’ opinion, the coming gathering is “a golden opportunity to assess and make decisions on the oil market’s future,” as current geopolitical tension mark crude prices.

The State Department’s Mock Indignation Gives a Bad Name to U.S. Diplomacy

2006-05-23T11:11:00.000+02:00

By: Council on Hemispheric Affairs

Saturday, May 20, 2006 - Following the announcement by the State Department that it was imposing an arms sale sanction against Venezuela, a Chávez advisor infuriated Washington when he responded with an apparently retaliatory announcement that Caracas would consider selling its American-made F-16’s to Iran.

The proposed sale irritated U.S. policymakers, whose initial imposition of the embargo was rationalized by the vague, if not totally contrived, accusations involving Hugo Chávez’s friendship with the leaders of U.S. classified rogue states of Cuba and Iran. Caracas’ threat of selling off the F-16 is somewhat logical, as the U.S. earlier had denied Venezuela the parts necessary to maintain its fleet of 21 F-16’s, rendering those aircraft – which are in need of upgrading and repair –little better than scrap metal.

In a certain sense, Washington’s new round of bluster can be properly seen as merely part of an ongoing war of words and spleen against Caracas, in which Chávez more than holds his own, much to the joy of the average Latin American. Venezuela and the U.S. have exchanged countless salvos of sharp rhetoric at each other, with Chávez describing the U.S. as a “pig” whose appointment at the slaughterhouse is imminent, and Secretary of State Rice portraying the Chávez administration as unconstructive and as being “a negative force in the region.”

Venezuela’s gonzo response to the new U.S. embargo fits into the milieu of bounteous hot air that has become increasingly typical between the two countries, though it has not yet ended up with the CIA ultimately being called in to settle matters.

Bringing in GoebbelsThere is some reason to believe, however, that the State Department actually does have a plan, and that these verbal jabs on Washington’s part have a calculated purpose, as they seem to represent a concerted attempt to undermine the legitimacy of Chávez’s constitutional government.

This effort already has included backing a failed coup against him in April 2002 – which has resulted in unremitting hostility ever since. It is also worth commenting that Chávez’s own reaction has been only slightly less confrontational. The big difference is that Chavez is being the playful, irascible, confounding and confrontational wunderkind that he always has been. As for the State Department, with Secretary Condoleezza Rice as its author, its Venezuela policy continues to be bovine, hypocritically cynical and grossly unprofessional in promoting a heavy handed policy against Venezuela, as much based on inventions and gross exaggeration as on facts.

This strategy, after it condemns all other peaceful options and decides to turn to a CIA deployment or negotiates an agreement with a contract killer to eliminate Chávez in order to safeguard the U.S.’ oil supply from the regime, would cost Washington dearly. Taking the high road that should strike a responsive chord with most Latin Americans, the Venezuelan leader observed that the United States “tramples on small and weak nations.”

Yet at this point, Chávez neither has threatened nor halted supplies of oil to the United States. Nor did he seem particularly distressed by the sanctions. An official Venezuelan foreign ministry communiqué was issued stating that the U.S. accusation was “despicable” and was “based on a futile campaign to discredit and isolate Venezuela, to destabilize its democratic government and prepare the political conditions for attack.”

One can only hope that somewhere in the Bush administration, a concentration of fast disappearing wisdom remains, and that it can bring to a halt to the State Department’s precarious – if not suicidal – descent into reckless arrogance and sprawling self-indulgence. As of now, the administration’s game plan is primitively simple and grossly offensive.

Inspired by Nazi-era propaganda czar, Joseph Goebbels, the model is to keep on relentlessly denouncing Chávez as a “dictator” until the public begins to automatically accept the connections between the word and the man. Of course, standing in the way of the administration’s success in convincingly making its case is the fact that Chávez’s political movement has won twice the number of highly attended elections than President Bush has, and by consistently far larger majorities—around 60 percent better. Furthermore, the TV networks are overwhelmingly dominated by the Chávez-hating middle-class opposition, and the same is true for the print media.

To describe today’s Venezuela as a dictatorship is an unmitigated lie, and despite the adamant pleas of Rice and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, it is subscribed to only by a questionable sector of the U.S. media, led by Washington Post columnist Jackson Diehl and the extraordinary science fiction editorial page of the Wall Street Journal.

This analysis was prepared by COHA Staff
May 18, 2006
The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, founded in 1975, is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt research and information organization. It has been described on the Senate floor as being “one of the nation’s most respected bodies of scholars and policy makers.” For more information, please see our web page at www.coha.org; or contact our Washington offices by phone (202) 223-4975, fax (202) 223-4979, or email coha@coha.org.

Original source / relevant link: Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA)

Venezuela Considers Selling Oil in Euros

2006-05-23T11:09:00.000+02:00

By: Michael Fox - Venezuelanalysis.com

Caracas, Venezuela, May 18, 2006—Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez declared on Tuesday that Venezuela would consider putting the sale of its oil in Euros. His comments come after Iran had announced that it too is contemplating switching to the European currency.

“That was an interesting proposal made by the president of Iran,” Chavez told Channel 4 News in London. “We are also free to choose between the dollar and the euro. I think that the European Union has made a great contribution with the Euro.”

“In a way, what the President of Iran is saying… is recognizing the power of Europe, that they have succeed in the integration and have a single currency that competes with the dollar, and Venezuela can consider that, too, we are free to do that,” Chavez added.

According to the BBC, Iran announced earlier this month that they supported the creation of an “oil exchange that traded solely in Euros”. Experts have warned that such a conversion to the European currency could trigger central banks to convert their dollar reserves to euros, thus potentially worsening the already declining US currency.

Although the International Herald Tribune reported yesterday that the US dollar has rebounded this week from its recent lows against the Euro, it still stands at about $1.28 per Euro. The value of the Euro has grown substantially against the dollar since the two currencies were equal, just before the beginning of the US invasion of Iraq.

Already last year, Venezuela made a number of financial moves towards the European currency. In October, 2005, the Financial Times reported that Venezuela had “transferred a large portion of its $30.4 billion of foreign reserves out of US Treasuries and into banks and other financial instruments in Europe, seemingly for political reasons.”

Last December, The Central Bank of Venezuela approved the use of Euros in some financial transactions in what it called, an attempt to “promote the diversification of the economic relations and international finance of the nation.”

The conversion to Euros has been a controversial international issue because of the possible effect it could have on the US currency and international markets. In November of 2000, Iraq switched its oil exchange to Euros, even before most Europeans where using the new currency. Many critics of US foreign policy have pointed to this conversion as a possible impetuous for the US invasion of Iraq a few short years later.

Possibly making the connection, President Chavez, at a speech in London on Sunday, declared that the price of oil would soar to over $100 a barrel if the United States were to declare war on Iran. Even before Iran’s recent announcements on possible Euro conversion, the Bush Administration had been exerting increasing pressure on the oil-rich nation over the development of its nuclear program. The Venezuelan government has publicly declared itself in support of Iran’s peaceful nuclear energy program and opposed to any military action against the middle-eastern country.

Venezuela’s First Quarter GDP Jumps 9.4% Over Last Year

2006-05-23T11:07:00.000+02:00

By: Venezuelanalysis.com

Caracas, Venezuela, May 17, 2006 — First quarter GDP in Venezuela was 9.4% higher than the same time last year, according to numbers released yesterday by Venezuela’s Central Bank.
The growth was driven by a 10.9% increase in the non petroleum sector. According to the figures, growth was 4% in the public sector and 11% in the private sector, and oil income decreased by 0.2%.

In a release the bank said that there was across the board growth in non-oil activity, led by 9.4% growth in the manufacturing industry, 21% growth in construction, and 28.1% growth in communications. It credits the growth of these sectors to increased consumer demand and investment, which was 23.9% of GDP, partially caused by falling interest rates.

In 2002 and 2003, an attempted coup and an oil industry shut down caused the economy to shrink 8.9% and 7.7%, respectively. Since then Venezuela has seen a strong recovery, aided, in part, by strong oil prices and generous government spending. Currently, first quarter oil related GDP is seven percent less than it was in 2001, the year before the political crisis, non oil GDP is up 19%, and overall GDP is up 13%.

Particularly notable is the recovery of the mining sector, which, after shrinking by 35% in the first quarter of 2002 and 2003, has grown by 19% since 2001; general government services, which had been steadily decreasing since at l997, rose steadily even during the political crises to be 34% higher than in Q1 2001; and repair commerce and services, which rose by 33% since Q1 2001.

Venezuela’s strong growth in recent years stands in stark contrast to most of Latin America, which grew only 3% from 2000 to 2005, and only 11% in the 20 years before, as compared to 80% in the preceding 20 years, according to a paper by the DC based Center for Economic and Policy Research.

The World According to Chávez

2006-05-23T11:03:00.000+02:00

By: Jonathan Steele and Duncan Campbell - The Guardian

Friday, May 19, 2006 - Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's socialist president, remembers "with great affection" the day he went to see Queen Elizabeth II in 2001. "There's something I'll never forget. When I got out of the car at the entrance to the palace, I spotted a coin lying on the ground and picked it up, and saw it had her face on one side. So I took the coin," he says. Once inside, he presented the Queen with his official gift, a glass model of waterfalls and forests in Venezuela and a multi-coloured bird. Then he took out the coin and handed it to her. "She kept it," he laughs, as he recounts the story in an interview with the Guardian yesterday, sitting beneath a portrait of 19th-century South American would-be liberator, Simón Bolívar - he ordered his staff to put up the picture - in his suite at London's Savoy hotel.

Chávez is in Britain at the invitation of London mayor Ken Livingstone and has been greeted rapturously by his supporters - from the Latin American diaspora to the British left, excited about a 21st-century success story. But his reception in most of the media here has been hostile, from wild accusations that he supports terrorism to suggestions that he is a despot who has done nothing to reduce poverty in spite of his claims.

We meet Chávez on day two of his whistlestop visit. He is of mixed race, thick-set, neatly turned out in suit and tie and with a fierce handshake. He touches your arm and knee as he speaks. On stage, Chávez is entertaining, like a stand-up comedian, and very physical: he mimes the way people cringe away from him in horror when they first meet this terrifying dictator. But in person he is thoughtful and concentrates carefully on the details. On this visit he failed to drop in on his old friend the Queen. "But I'd like to take the opportunity through your paper to greet her and congratulate her on her 80th birthday." Referring to his great ally, Cuba's president, Fidel Castro, he says: "She and Fidel are more or less the same age." The Queen and Castro have never met, so would he be the intermediary who could bring them together? "The two boys and the girl," he grins. "She is so young. I saw her on TV and she looks so fresh."

If it is something of a surprise to hear Chávez, a self-confessed socialist revolutionary and former army officer from a poor family, talking with such affection about Britain's hereditary head of state, it is rather less of a shock to hear his views on the Bush administration. In his seven years in power, the man who has twice been elected president has become one of the most popular leaders in Latin America precisely because of his outspoken criticism of what he always calls "the empire". His unabashed opposition to US foreign policy, and the pressure it has produced from Washington, tap into the deep vein of suspicion and resentment that two centuries of US invasions, coups, and economic domination have aroused in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Four years ago, Chávez himself survived a coup by dissident generals, backed by opposition media tycoons and many in Venezuela's upper class. US officials knew of the plot in advance and Washington welcomed his arrest and apparent overthrow. But the mutiny collapsed two days later when hundreds of thousands streamed out of the poor areas of Caracas, calling for his release in a huge display of "people power". And it is no surprise that he is popular with the poor: using Venezuela's oil revenues - the country has the world's sixth largest oil reserves - Chávez has funded extensive anti-poverty programmes in his own country, a literacy drive, health clinics in slum districts, aid to single mothers, free treatment to HIV/Aids sufferers, special tuition for early school-leavers, and evening classes for adults.

Last year, he even started offering this largesse to poor communities abroad. Through Citgo, the chain of petrol pumps that Venezuela owns in the United States, he cocked a snook at Washington by linking up with community leaders in several American cities and supplying cheap heating oil. At meetings yesterday with British trade union leaders and London's mayor, he was exploring options for doing the same in poor communities in Britain.

"We are very much encouraged by the success this has had with poor families in the US," he says. "We think it is important to be consistent with what you say and what you do, given the increase in world poverty as a result of the savagery of capitalism around the world and the high price of oil and fuel. In Britain we have investments in two small refineries and we have offices all around Europe. Our deputy minister for foreign affairs was expelled from the US just because she was encouraging this programme in the US."

But it is in South America where Chávez has most support. His hero is the great - if ultimately unsuccessful - Latin American, Simón Bolívar: Chávez wants to realise the Bolivarian dream of continental integration and independence. He has already had his country renamed the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, a decision ratified by the electorate in a referendum.

But Venezuela is unique in Latin America in being blessed with such vast amounts of oil. Even sympathetic analysts of Chávez's pro-poor policies wonder whether they really amount to a model for the rest of the continent. Surely Venezuela is an exception, with no direct lessons to offer its regional neighbours?

Chávez takes issue with that. Countries with natural resources have to take control of them, he says; narrow ruling elites and foreign investors have exploited them for too long, making super-profits for themselves. The Venezuelan governments which were in charge during the last era of high world oil prices in the 1970s wasted much of the revenue on patronage, corruption, macro-economic mismanagement and boom-bust spending. Washington's hostility to Chávez began when Venezuela's president sought to take control of his country's oil industry and stopped it being privatised. He thoroughly applauds Bolivia's new president Evo Morales for nationalising Bolivia's gas fields.
This week, Chávez has been presented in much of the British media as if he were some kind of dictator, and unelected. But as he points out, he has held and won eight elections, all certified by outside observers as free and fair. In contrast to countries such as Italy, where Silvio Berlusconi controlled the major TV channels, the opposition in Venezuela has three TV stations that criticise Chávez constantly and furiously. "It's the first time that a government, after seven and a half years of power, has a popularity rating of close to 70%," he says.

Some supporters suggest that the Venezuelan president's government is classic top-down paternalism, heavily dependent on the energy, charm and goodwill of the president himself. Chávez denies this. "Our participatory democracy is getting more solid every day," he says. "We have urban land committees, health committees, environmental committees, groups running savings banks, as well as elected local councils. Never in our history has Venezuela had such autonomous powers as we have today. It is different from the former neo-liberal model."

The United States is as concerned by this as much as by Venezuela's economic policies. "The empire is very preoccupied and the pawns of the the empire are very preoccupied that this model is so strong and enjoys so much support, with a reduction in poverty [and] the inclusion of people in education; illiteracy has been wiped out and we are now building a health care system that is open to all. You have to remember that in 1996 inflation was 100%. Now unemployment is in single digits, after reaching nearly 20%," he says. It is because Venezuela is implementing an alternative which is successful, he adds, that "they are orchestrating these attacks. Washington has said that I am a modern-day Hitler. Last week, a spokesman in the White House referring to the latest report in the war on terrorism said that Venezuela is supporting terrorism." He sees the allegations of terrorism as bewildering, part of the US smear campaign against him.

The charge that Chávez has allowed inequalities to widen seems particularly far off target. There are no independent statistics to back up Chávez's claim that the percentage of people below the poverty line has dropped from 50% to 37%, but the wave of social spending in poor areas suggests he must be right about the broad trend. Britain's Department for International Development has declined to fund several attempts by independent British social scientists to research Venezuela's poverty reduction schemes; it has left it to the Inter-American Development Bank, an agency still dominated by the neo-liberal Washington consensus.

But Venezuela has pioneered the effort to implement an alternative economic and social model that rejects the US belief in privatisation, cuts in government welfare spending and free trade. A decade of economic disaster throughout Latin America in the 1990s has given him huge support in the region, inspiring other leaders to try to follow suit.

Beyond Latin America, Chávez has forged good working relations with the world's major oil and gas exporters. After London, he leaves for Algeria and Libya. Some critics have accused him of cosying up to the military regime in Burma. "That is the first time I have heard about Burma - they say I support Bin Laden or ETA, but never Burma. But ... if you say so. Many things are said about me, so many things both inside and outside the country. This is a well-orchestrated, worldwide campaign. Now what is the purpose of this campaign? Simón Rodriguez, Bolívar's tutor, used to say 200 years ago - the idea is to destroy the model and by doing so you prevent it from becoming contagious."

At an enthusiastic rally in London's Camden Centre on Sunday afternoon, Chávez delighted the crowd during his marathon three-and-a-half-hour speech by taking the same metaphor further. A few years ago, few people dared to call themselves socialists, he says. Now it is different. "We have to marshal our ideas for a better world. We have to infect people. Let's have a badge, saying, 'I'm a socialist. I will infect you'."

Chávez's critics have also made their voices heard. An anti-Chávez website, www.vcrisis.com, has also been running lengthy attacks on the visit, accusing him of human rights abuses, of locking up political opponents, and making a weapon out of la lista (the list) of the several million people who signed petitions calling for a referendum to recall him from power in 2004. They claim signatories suffer discrimination now. There has also been some dissent from people who support what he is trying to achieve. Nicaragua-born Bianca Jagger, for instance, criticised Chávez for supporting the Sandinista leader, Daniel Ortega, even though Ortega has made what she sees as an unholy alliance with the rightwing in his country in this autumn's elections.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch publish allegations against the Venezuelan government on their websites. HRW's director general José Miguel Vivanco criticised the media laws introduced last year as having "flouted international principles that protect free expression". The two organisations have also accused the government of attempting to muzzle criticism by threatening opponents with prosecution. Amnesty highlights alleged brutality by the security forces over decades, which Chávez has not ended. But neither organisation singles Venezuela out as having a particularly bad record globally.

But back to Britain: why did he really not meet up with Tony Blair? Was it because the British government's relations with Chávez took a nose-dive after the failed coup attempt when London reacted in solidarity with the Bush administration, according to British academics who specialise in Latin American politics? Or was it it also because of Blair's attack on Chávez in parliament in February? Chávez denies any snub. Referring to his calls on the Queen and Blair last time, he says, "The big capitalist press is trying to minimise the importance of this visit. I didn't come here to visit them. There's nothing negative. This is not an official visit." And anyway, there were few heads of state in the world he could ask to see at such short notice - he had only a fortnight to arrange the trip. What about Castro? "I was coming back from Africa in my Airbus once. I rang him [Fidel] and said I'd be in Havana in four hours' time. He said, 'Where are you?' I explained I was in the air. 'Only you and Bush would ring people from their planes!' he told me. I was quite offended."

Just before we leave he tells us, "I have an obsession with reading." Asked what is on his bedside table at the moment, an aide goes out and returns with Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. "I read it all the time. It is my companion. It is a monument to human beings," says Chávez.
And a final word? "As Rousseau said, between the poor and the rich, liberty is oppressive," he says. "Only law can liberate".

Original source / relevant link: The Guardian

Venezuela Considers U.S. Weapons Ban Sale Prelude to Further Aggression

2006-05-23T11:00:00.000+02:00

By: Gregory Wilpert – Venezuelanalysis.com

Caracas, Venezuela, May 16, 2006—Reacting to yesterday’s announcement that the U.S. would no longer sell weapons to Venezuela because Venezuela is “not cooperating fully” in the “war on terrorism,” numerous Venezuelan government officials, starting with President Chavez, reacted to the announcement with indifference and derision. “If it's true that the empire is taking sanctions against us, firstly it's a confirmation of imperial abuse, of imperial desperation (and) secondly we will take no notice. It is an impotent empire,” said Chavez to the BBC while in London yesterday.

Venezuela is the only country on the list of countries that is not cooperating fully, but that is not on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism. The consequence of being only on this list, according to the State Department, “U.S. sales and licenses for the export of defense articles and services to Venezuela, including the re-transfer of defense articles, will not be permitted.”

The U.S. has made several efforts to block arms sales of military equipment to Venezuela by third countries, such as Spain and Brazil. According to the U.S., the Brazilian planes and Spanish patrol boats that Venezuela wants include U.S.-made parts, which gives the U.S. the right to veto the sales. In effect, the recent decision would appear to make official the existing policy of preventing arms sales to Venezuela.

The reason for the move, according to State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack, is that the Bush administration is concerned about the, “relationship they've built up [with] states like Iran and Cuba, state sponsors of terror, the intelligence-sharing relationship, which has made it very difficult for the United States to work on anti-terrorism efforts with them.”

Several Venezuelan officials, though, dismissed the move. Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez said that placing Venezuela on this list was “cynical,” considering that the U.S. has not cooperated at all with Venezuela’s extradition request for Luis Posada Carriles, who Venezuela considers to be a terrorist because he is accused of a 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people.

An official Foreign Relations Ministry communiqué stated that the U.S. State Department’s “despicable” accusations, “are based on a futile campaign to discredit and isolate Venezuela, to destabilize its democratic government and prepare the political conditions for an attack.”

The communiqué speculated about the reasons for the Bush administration’s move, saying that if Venezuela was being punished for not supporting U.S. “genocide” in Iraq or for opposing U.S. efforts to block Iran’s development of peaceful nuclear technology, then Venezuela is proud that it will never, “give itself … to demands of this nature.”

The statement went on to say that the real reason the U.S. does not want to sell arms to Venezuela is that it wants to prevent Venezuela from being able to defend itself.

According to the AP, State Department statistics show that in 2005 Venezuela spent $34 million on arms purchases in the U.S., of which $30 million were for spare parts for C-130 cargo planes.

Venezuela has repeatedly complained that the U.S. has violated its sales agreement for the F-16 fighter planes it has, which the Bush administration has refused to service. Chavez suggested a year ago that perhaps Venezuela would sell the F-16s to China or Cuba. These, though, declined having an interest in them. Yesterday, in an interview with AP, General Alberto Müller Rojas, who is a close military advisor to Chavez, suggested that perhaps the planes could be sold to Iran.

Over half of Venezuela’s aircraft and almost all of its navy ships are U.S. made. Stopping the sales of military equipment to Venezuela would almost certainly also mean a gradual lack of spare parts for these.

Despite this, Venezuela’s Vice-President, José Vicente Rangel, dismissed the ban, saying, “Venezuela is not interested in buying military equipment from the United States. If [Venezuela] wants to, it will sovereignly buy them from any other country.”

Also, Rangel pointed out that the same day that the U.S. said Venezuela was not cooperating fully in the war on terrorism because of its supposed support for Colombian leftist rebel groups, among other things, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe praised the good relations with Venezuela.

The director of the Washington, DC based Center for Economic and Policy Research, Mark Weisbrot, told Venezuela’s state news agency ABN is a new stage in a long standing strategy to discredit the Chavez government. Also, according to Weisbrot, the measure is hypocritical because the U.S. has not collaborated with Venezuela in any of its emblematic cases.

Venezuela’s Minister of Defense, Orlando Maniglia, also responded to Washington’s announcement, saying that the Bush administration is being “incoherent,” banning the sales of military equipment that is precisely designed for the fight against terrorism, such as for the patrol of its borders. Venezuela has repeatedly stated that the purchase of Brazilian planes and the Spanish patrol boats that the U.S. has blocked are needed to improve Venezuela’s ability to control its boarder.
Maniglia went on to say that he was tired of asking for parts for Venezuela’s aging F-16 fighter planes and that he would start looking elsewhere to purchase the parts. Maniglia reiterated that the U.S. has a contractual obligation to sell Venezuela the replacement parts.

State Department Looking for a Fight in which it Might get a Black Eye

2006-05-23T10:58:00.000+02:00

By: Council on Hemispheric Affairs

Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - In yet another blow to the credibility of one of its annually released “certification” reports on the performance of other nations on some broad social or political issue – this time on the degree of cooperation in the anti-terrorism struggle – the State Department in its 2006 compilation included Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, and accused Venezuela of a high degree of non-cooperation. The decades-old and always sketchy evidence involving the Castro regime in alleged terrorist activity has been used to buttress Washington’s crusade against Havana. As for the spurious nature of its case against Chávez, this has caused a number of area specialists to dismiss Washington’s claims as disgraceful inventions that are totally devoid of substance or integrity.

A Masterpiece of Science FictionSeveral years ago, the State Department sent up to the hill a preliminary draft of a report whose compilers had failed to accuse Castro of any terrorist act, because there were no grounds for such a claim. As a result, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and other members of the Miami delegation became so incensed that the report was hurriedly sent back to the State Department where officials dutifully, if retroactively, redrafted the piece, working in some anti-Castro boilerplate. The State Department’s action on Venezuela the other week was compiled in the same spirit. Yesterday, the State Department announced new sanctions on Venezuela, justified by purported terrorist links to Caracas, alleged by U.S. officials. The sanctions, which forbid sales of U.S. military weapons or technology to Caracas, are meant at best to be a symbolic gesture aimed at further escalating Secretary Condi Rice’s attempt to spearhead the Bush administration’s malice-driven onslaught against Chávez.

The justification for the sanctions – Venezuela’s putative links to terrorism – is an absolute canard, and is in keeping with the U.S. policy of not seeing conventional diplomacy as a suitable tool to deal with Chávez. Rather than seeking constructive solutions to what would appear to be reconcilable differences, the Bush administration has chosen to engage in a campaign of dirty tricks against Caracas, seeking to undermine the constitutionally-elected Chávez government, which clearly represents a majority of the population, but nevertheless has been repeatedly referred to by the White House as a dictatorship. These stratagems have ranged from backing a failed coup aimed at overthrowing Chávez in 2002, to accusing him, without any, or on only flimsy evidence, of various offenses. The present document, and Washington’s other annual reports, are archly political, rather than remotely authoritative in their contents, and are best characterized by the spin they give to showing that Washington is objectively tough on its perceived enemies, while in fact it is going easy on its friends.

There are the Bad and the Super BadOne may recall the administration’s slamming of Colombian president Ernesto Samper, whose attitude towards drug trafficking was no more congenial than was the case with high Mexican officials. But the punishment was far from even handed, with Washington canceling Samper’s U.S. travel visa, while Mexico’s punitive penalties were waived.

The U.S. congress has created separate annual certification processes for the right to practice religion, human rights, terrorism, and drug trafficking. With the exception of the one pertaining to religion, all of the certification procedures have been debauched by the administration, making them meet political desiderata as viewed from Washington. They are truly not worth the paper that they are written on.

The Bush administration must be condemned for its chronic habit of twisting information and manipulating facts to achieve its ideological goals. As the situation in Iraq, as well as its own almost daily excesses, have shown, the Bush administration seems prepared to go to any length to carry out its extremist agenda. In doing so, it undermines its already shattered credibility, because, after a while, its contrived versions begin to exact a heavy toll in terms of other countries’ growing lack of trust in them.

Washington’s sanctions ultimately will prove to be no great inconvenience to Chávez’s Venezuela, but it will further uphold the U.S. to ridicule. For the average Latin American, Chávez will be further lionized as being the man who dared to stand up to the gringos in Washington. Moreover, Caracas has no outstanding orders of American weaponry on its docket, nor was it considering placing an order. Secondly, in recent years there has been a diminishment of U.S. weaponry sales to Latin American armed forces, due to their long delivery time and their relatively high price and complex technology. Finally, Washington would do well to keep in mind that four out of every five barrels of Venezuelan petroleum goes to the U.S. market.

This analysis was prepared by the COHA Staff

Original source / relevant link: Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA)

Venezuela to Build Two New Thermoelectric Plants

2006-05-23T10:56:00.000+02:00

By: Michael Fox - Venezuelanalysis.com

Caracas, Venezuela, May 16, 2006 —Last Friday, Venezuela announced the construction of two new thermoelectric plants, which it hopes to have in operation by the end of 2007.
According to a press release from the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, the plants will be located in the states of Falcon and Anzoátegui. In the latter, the Alberto Lovera plant will be constructed next to the Puerto La Cruz oil refinery, where it will supply the refinery with a third of its energy production. The rest will go to local energy consumption in Anzoátegui and part of Sucre state.

“In the conception of the plans of the Corporation, not only were the internal needs of the company evaluated, but also the needs of the sectors where it operates. That is why, instead of supporting the instillation of a 100 megawatt plant, we added the needs of the community and that’s why we constructed a 300 megawatt plant,” said Alejandro Granado PDVSA Vice-president of Refining, while describing the plans for the Alberto Lovera plant.

The Falcon state, Josefa Camejo plant, will be located on the land of the Paraguaná Refining Center (CRP), and like Alberto Lovera, a sizeable portion of its estimated 450 megawatt energy production will also go to meeting the needs of its sister refinery.

While the state electric company, CADAFE, will be constructing the plants, the land and the resources for their creation have come from PDVSA through various sources such as the National Development Fund (Fonden) and the Fund for the Social and Economic Development of the Country (Fondespa). Total estimated costs for both plants are approximately $450 million.

According to PDVSA, Alberto Lovera will utilize natural gas as its primary energy source and diesel as an alternative. Approximately 70% of the energy in Venezuela is generated through hydroelectric power from the Caroní river and the rest is from thermoelectricity- mostly from natural gas.

Nervis Villalobos, Vice-minister of Energy and President of CADAFE declared that the Alberto Lovera construction will begin immediately, “They are already going ahead with the preparation of the terrain and soon will begin the civil works, the units have already been bought and will be in Venezuelan ports before the end of 2006.” According to Villalobos, Venezuela has invested $2 billion in the thermoelectric and hydroelectric energy sector, in recent years. On top of these plants, two more are currently being built, one in Guárico and another in Anzoátegui. Venezuelan energy demand is currently growing at 7% per year.

Chávez and Venezuela Deserve the Support of All Who Believe In Social Justice and Democracy

2006-05-23T10:53:00.000+02:00

By: Ken Livingstone - The Guardian

Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela will today become the second head of state - after the Queen - to be welcomed to London's City Hall. When it comes to the social transformation taking place in Venezuela, the political qualifications often necessary in our imperfect world can be set aside. It is crystal clear on which side right and justice lies.

For many years people have demanded that social progress and democracy go hand in hand, and that is exactly what is now taking place in Venezuela. It therefore deserves the unequivocal support of not only every supporter of social progress but every genuine believer in democracy in the world. Venezuela is a state of huge oil wealth that was hitherto scarcely used to benefit the population. Now, for the first time in a country of over 25 million people, a functioning health service is being built. Seventeen million people have been given access to free healthcare for the first time in their lives. Illiteracy has been eliminated. Fifteen million people have been given access to food, medicines and other essential products at affordable prices. A quarter of a million eye operations have been financed to rescue people from blindness. These are extraordinary practical achievements.

Little wonder, then, that Chávez and his supporters have won 10 elections in eight years. These victories were achieved despite a private media largely controlled by opponents of the government. Yet Chávez's visit has been met with absurd claims from rightwing activists that he is some kind of dictator. The opponents of democracy are those who orchestrated a coup against Chávez, captured on film in the extraordinary documentary The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.

It is a film that literally changes lives. By chance, a TV crew was in the presidential palace when the military coup of April 2002 against Chávez took place. It captured minute by minute the events that unfolded. Anti-Chávez gunmen, in league with the coup organisers, opened fire on a pro-Chávez demonstration. As guns are commonplace in Venezuela, some in the crowd returned fire.

US television stations manipulated these images by editing out the gunfire aimed at the pro- Chávez crowd to claim that anti-Chavez demonstrators had been attacked. A million people took to the streets of Caracas to demand Chávez's release. The moment when the army deserted the coup leaders and went over to support the demonstrators is shown on film. It is a sign of how little David Cameron's Conservative party has changed that London Tories are boycotting today's meeting with Chávez.

This contrasts, of course, with the Tories' longstanding feting of the murdering torturer General Augusto Pinochet. To justify their position they ludicrously compare Chávez to Stalin. Sometimes it is necessary to choose the lesser of two evils.

Britain fought with Stalin against Hitler. But with Chávez the choice is not difficult at all. He is both carrying out a progressive programme and doing so through the mandate of the ballot box. George Bush's refusal to respect the choices of the Venezuelan people shows that his administration has no real interest in promoting democracy at all. Not since the 1973 coup that brought Pinochet to power have people faced a clearer or more important international choice.

In Venezuela millions are struggling to take their country out of poverty. They are doing so by means that are among the most democratic in the world. Both are inspiring. Today Venezuela is being opposed largely on the basis of lies. We have to make sure Venezuelans have to face nothing worse. It is the duty of all people who support progress, justice and democracy to stand with Venezuela.

Ken Livingstone is the mayor of London mayor@london.gov.uk

Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited

Original source / relevant link: The Guardian

International Energy Agency Increases Venezuela’s Oil Production Estimates, Maybe

2006-05-23T10:49:00.000+02:00

By: Michael Fox & Gregory Wilpert - Venezuelanalysis.com

Monday, May 15, 2006 - Last week, the Venezuelan Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Rafael Ramirez, declared that the International Energy Agency (IEA) has recognized that Venezuela is extracting over 3.0 million barrels of oil per day. This revised figure would be a tremendous coup for the Venezuelan government, which has been maintaining that production is at 3.3. million, not the 2.6 million barrels per day that the opposition and international oil analysts have claimed. While a special section of the IEA’s March 2006 report indeed indicates that in 2005 oil production was close to 3.1 million barrels per day (mbpd) in 2005, all recent IEA monthly reports still indicate a crude production of only 2.6 to 2.7 mbpd. The reason for the lack of consistency in the reporting appears to have its roots in what types of oil are counted and what are not.

Ramirez, in an interview with Union Radio last week, stated that the 3.3 million barrel statistic includes 600,000 barrels of extra-heavy crude a day currently being extracted from the Orinoco Oil Belt, which had not been previously included. According to Union Radio, Ramirez added that the Orinoco oil production, combined with the previous production of 2.6 million equals the officially stated figure of 3.3 mbpd.

There are several different types of crude or derivatives, such as condensates, natural gas liquid, synthetic crude, and Orimulsión. Venezuela’s official statistics generally include all of these, while oil analysts’ reports often do not. Part of the confusion about whether or not to include these comes from the fact that Venezuela has in the past few years been steadily increasing its production of non-conventional crude. For example, while Venezuela produced only 125,000 barrels of synthetic crude per day in 2001, it is now producing over 500,000 barrels per day (according to the IEA). In the middle of this transition was the opposition promoted oil industry shutdown, which temporarily ground all oil production to a halt in early 2003. When production was re-started again in mid 2003, opposition leaders pointed to the lower conventional crude production and argued that Venezuela was producing far less oil after the shutdown than it did before.

Venezuela’s Orinoco Oil Belt reserves, where the extra-heavy crude is turned into synthetic crude for easier transport, have also not been counted as part of its total proven oil reserves, which OPEC currently officially estimates at 80 billion barrels. If included, Venezuela would have 315 billion barrels of oil, the largest reserves of any country in the world. Increasingly, as the price of oil is reaching new highs, it has become much more profitable to extract the extra-heavy crude than it used to be and to turn it into synthetic crude. As extra-heavy crude production becomes more profitable, it makes more sense to consider this type of production a competitor to regular crudes and thus part of Venezuela’s total oil reserves and of total oil production.

“Now, here, there existed doubts before with respect to our numbers because the International Energy Agency had not recognized the crude from the [Orinoco] Belt, as conventional crude, and in fact it’s not conventional crude, but the report from the International Energy Association… the last report from march… certifies that the production from the belt is petroleum production and from here on out the reports from the International Agency are going to reflect our level of production as 3.3 million.” Ramirez told Union Radio.

According to the March IEA report, “This Report will henceforward include Orinoco heavy crude production in its estimates of Venezuelan monthly crude supply… It is hoped this will bring the Report more in line with standard industry practice and contribute to oil market transparency.”

As a result, on March 24, the Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA, issued a press release entitled, Secondary Sources Recognize Total Recuperation of the Venezuela Petroleum Industry, which reads:
“The total recuperation of the Venezuelan petroleum industry is recognized by international organizations from the world energy sector, like the International Energy Agency (IEA), secondary source that admits, for the first time, that the national production is in excess of 3 million barrels daily, and also includes in its totals the volumes of crude extracted from the Orinoco Petroleum Belt.”
However, the May IEA Oil Market Report, released this past week, still only reflects crude production of 2.6 mpbd, which, according to the report, also includes Orinoco oil production.

According to the May report, Venezuelan target crude production, based on Venezuela’s OPEC production quota, is set at 3.22 mbpd, of which the reports says Venezuela is only producing 2.63 million barrels (including Orinoco production). The IEA reiterates this when the May report clearly states, “Venezuela, Indonesia, Iran and Nigeria are currently unable to match target output levels.” However, according to OPEC’s last annual figures, in its 2004 Statistical Bulletin, Venezuela produced 3.1 mbpd in 2004, just 100,000 barrels short of its OPEC quota.

In a phone interview on Friday, with Lawrence Eagles, head of the IEA Division for Oil Industry and Markets, Mr. Eagles confirmed that the IEA numbers presented on Friday in their May report are their most up to date figures and that there is no other information that may have been passed on to the Minister. “We publish all our numbers,” he said.

While Eagles could not comment on Ramirez’ remarks, he said that to his knowledge, Venezuela is currently producing 2.9 million barrels per day (2.6 mbpd of crude, plus another 300,000 bpd in “non-conventional” oil production). He added that he realizes that “there is a discrepancy with the figures that are published by Venezuela. We have spoken with them, and we are open to meeting.”
Venezuela’s total petroleum production, according to the IEA, is the sum of total crude production plus other “non-conventional” outputs such as Orimulsion and natural gas liquids (NGL), which in Venezuela, can account for a sizeable amount of oil production. (currently over 300,000 barrels per day). For the IEA, this month, this means the difference between producing 2.6 mbpd and 2.9 million.
Ramirez’s declaration about Venezuelan IEA production estimates come just days after renewed criticism from the opposition, such as ex-PDVSA President Luis Giusti, with regard to Venezuela’s decision to raise taxes on oil companies operating in the country, and of the direction of the Venezuelan oil industry.

President Chavez announced last Sunday on his weekly television show, Alo Presidente, that he would be initiating a new “extraction” tax on oil companies operating in Venezuela, as well as increasing income taxes for the foreign companies along the Orinoco Belt.

In an interview with Venezuela’s Union Radio earlier this week, Giusti declared that this would be a “hard hit” for the companies along the Orinoco Belt and it is thanks to those associations and transnational corporations that Venezuela has developed its oil industry along the Orinoco Petroleum Belt.

“What we are seeing is that in Venezuela, the outlook for increases in the future, are starting to go up in smoke and what we see is rather a petroleum industry in contraction, that the day the prices change, the situation is going to be evident once and for all for everyone,” he continued.

“Venezuela is in a situation that will probably remain hidden and will go unnoticed due to the elevated prices that permit high government earnings, but Venezuela is in an extremely delicate situation in terms of petroleum. PDVSA has lost 1.8 million barrels per day of capacity, from a business that when this government took charge produced 3.4 million barrels per day- it has become a business that produces 1.5 million barrels a day,” said Giusti.

He added that the current productive capacity of PDVSA remains hidden because of the transnational corporations that are producing at least 1.1 million barrels of crude per day.
As if in response, during his Union Radio interview on Wednesday, Minister Ramirez declared, “The statistic that we are producing 1.5 million barrels is absurd. If we run the numbers of the income, the contributions to the weekly finances that we do, anyone can deduce the 3.3.”

Nevertheless, not even PDVSA believes that all of the 3.3 million barrels are being produced without the support of foreign companies. That is, PDVSA’s own reports, such as its just issued quarterly magazine, Siembra Petrolera (“Sowing the Oil”), states that transnationals, via joint ventures produce 1.1 million barrels per day, of which about 500,000 are conventional crude and about 600,000 are non-conventional crude, which is turned into synthetic crude. PDVSA’s own production (without joint ventures) are thus at 2.2 million, according to PDVSA.

On April 1st a new law went in to affect mandating that all foreign oil companies form joint ventures with PDVSA in order to continue operating in Venezuela. PDVSA has an average participation of 63% in the joint ventures of conventional crude. The Venezuelan National Assembly recommended last Thursday that the state acquire majority shares in the Orinoco Oil Belt joint ventures too.

See also:
Venezuela Takes Over Two Foreign Operated Oil Fields
Venezuela Increases Taxes on Oil Companies in Orinoco Oil Belt

Hugo Chávez Addresses Mass Rally Organised by Hands Off Venezuela

2006-05-23T10:46:00.000+02:00

By: Hands Off Venezuela

Sunday, May 14, 2006 - Last night at the Arena cultural centre in Vienna, President Chavez spoke to an audience of 5,000 enthusiastic young people in a mass meeting organised by Hands off Venezuela and Cuba, the Austrian section of the HOV international solidarity campaign that is now active in more than 30 countries. The meeting was a spectacular success. It was the biggest public meeting held by the Left in Vienna for as long as most people can remember. Peter Kreisky, the son of the former Chancellor of Austria, Bruno Kreisky, said he could not remember anything like this for 30 years.

The rally, which was called to coincide with the EU Summit on Latin America, was set to start at 6.30pm. But because of unforeseen difficulties, the President was delayed for several hours and the rally finally began at 10 pm. Since many people had already started queuing at 5pm, this meant a very long wait! Nevertheless, the mood was vibrant and good humoured throughout, and the crowd passed the time chanting, singing and waving a sea of red banners.

The capacity of the meeting hall in the Arena is about 800, but at the last moment the management decided to impose a maximum of 400 on grounds of safety. The organisers, with the help of the Casa Militar (the Presidential security team) had already fixed up a big screen outside in the spacious courtyard, so that many more people could watch the proceedings outside.

In the event, everything had to be changed. As time passed, more and more people kept arriving. The hall was filled before the doors were opened and hundreds of people – overwhelmingly youth – poured into the courtyard. The organisers began to calculate numbers – a thousand, two thousand, three thousand. Soon the place was full, literally to the rooftops. Even the police estimated 3,000. In fact there were at least 5,000 in the precinct, and several hundreds more who could not get in and had to stay on the street.

It was fortunate that the start of the meeting was delayed because all the arrangements had to be scrapped. The tribune was moved outside on a balcony facing the courtyard and a sound system was hastily rigged up by the staff of the Arena, who were very helpful.

There was a nervous moment at the start because the word was put out that the President would not attend the meeting. It was true that, because of a very hectic agenda at the Summit, it was extremely difficult for him to come to the meeting, but the day before he had told the organisers; “I know about this meeting and will do everything in my power to be there.” And he kept his word. At about a quarter to ten the presidential car swept into the precinct and Chavez stepped onto the platform amidst a storm of applause.

On the platform there were many prominent figures in the Bolivarian Movement. Nicolas Maduro, the President of the National Assembly, Juan Barreto, the mayor of Caracas, as well as the Minister of Planning, Jorge Giordani and Eva Gollinger, the author of The Chavez Code. Ruben Linares, one of the national co-ordinators of the UNT, was also present, as was the Cuban ambassador and a group of 20 Cubans from the embassy and the Instituto Cubano de Amistad de los Pueblos.

A number of high-ranking officials of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) were also present. The meeting was chaired by a young shop steward and member of HOV, Axel Magnus.

Apart from Chavez, there were only two speakers: Aleida Guevara, the daughter of Che Guevara, and Alan Woods, founder of the international Hands Off Venezuela campaign, who sat on either side of the President. Aleida opened the meeting with an impassioned speech, in which she recalled the heroic struggle of her father and which she urged the youth to continue. She laid particular emphasis on the campaign to free the five Cubans illegally being held in US prisons.

For the benefit of the many Latin Americans in the audience, Alan Woods addressed the meeting in Spanish. He started his speech, which was interrupted by frequent and enthusiastic applause, by remarking: “And they say there is apathy among the youth! Welcome, apathetic youngsters! (laughter and applause). The youth are not apathetic! The youth need a cause that is worthy of them, a banner, a vision and a dream!” He went on to quote the (in)famous statement by Francis Fukuyama that history has ended: “History has not ended. This is history. They are making history in Venezuela. And you are making history.”

Alan continued: “There are many meetings in Vienna right now. But there is no meeting like this one. We have not come here just to talk and then go home and forget about things. This meeting must be the launching pad for organising a great movement of solidarity in every country in Europe.” He appealed to all present to join HOV. To judge from the response of those present, this appeal did not fall on deaf ears.

Alan was followed by Emanuel Tomaselli, the national organiser of HOV (Austria) who briefly introduced President Chavez. He said: “Life is a struggle and today we have won a battle. On the one hand, it was very difficult to assure the presence of President Chavez at this meeting. On the other hand, it was very easy, because we always knew that he would prefer to be here with the revolutionary youth than to dine with the Presidents who are fooling their own peoples.”

When President Chavez approached the podium he was greeted with deafening applause and a sea of waving red flags and chanting, He spoke for about two hours, and his main theme was the need to fight against imperialism and capitalism that are destroying the planet and placing the human race in danger. He quoted the words of Rosa Luxemburg: “The choice before humanity is socialism or barbarism.” And he added; “When Rosa Luxemburg made this statement, she was speaking of a relatively distant future. But now the situation of the world is so bad that the threat to the human race is not in the future, but now.”

He went on: “When I was a kid of 15 we had May 1968, the Beatles, John Lennon and the war in Vietnam. We looked to the future and we thought that by the year 2000, the world would be a different place, a better place. But the years have passed and instead of improving things have got much worse. What has happened? They have stolen my future. Imperialism and capitalism have stolen my future. And now that I am in my fifties, I am convinced that people of my generation must spend every day, every hour, every minute of our lives fighting for a better world – a world free from poverty, inequality and injustice. That world is called socialism! I believe that only the youth have the necessary enthusiasm, the passion, the fire, to make the revolution. Let us unite to save the world. Together we can succeed!”

The President’s speech was received with wild applause and the cheering and chanting went on for a long time, as he took a red flag from one of the audience and waved it in the air. Then, quite spontaneously, the crowd started to sing the Internationale. It was an emotional end to an emotional occasion. It was past midnight and for hours later groups of people were still standing in the precinct, discussing the ideas of socialism and revolution in a way that has not been seen here for many years.

This is an abridged version of the article. For the full article, see: Hugo Chavez Addresses Mass Rally

Chávez Is a Threat Because He Offers the Alternative of a Decent Society

2006-05-23T10:39:00.000+02:00

By: John Pilger - The Guardian

Saturday, May 13, 2006 - I have spent the past three weeks filming in the hillside barrios of Caracas, in streets and breeze-block houses that defy gravity and torrential rain and emerge at night like fireflies in the fog. Caracas is said to be one of the world's toughest cities, yet I have known no fear; the poorest have welcomed my colleagues and me with a warmth characteristic of ordinary Venezuelans but also with the unmistakable confidence of a people who know that change is possible and who, in their everyday lives, are reclaiming noble concepts long emptied of their meaning in the west: "reform", "popular democracy", "equity", "social justice" and, yes, "freedom".

The other night, in a room bare except for a single fluorescent tube, I heard these words spoken by the likes of Ana Lucia Fernandez, aged 86, Celedonia Oviedo, aged 74, and Mavis Mendez, aged 95. A mere 33-year-old, Sonia Alvarez, had come with her two young children. Until about a year ago, none of them could read and write; now they are studying mathematics. For the first time in its modern era, Venezuela has almost 100% literacy.

This achievement is due to a national programme, called Mision Robinson, designed for adults and teenagers previously denied an education because of poverty. Mision Ribas is giving everyone a secondary school education, called a bachillerato. (The names Robinson and Ribas refer to Venezuelan independence leaders from the 19th century.) Named, like much else here, after the great liberator Simon Bolivar, "Bolivarian", or people's, universities have opened, introducing, as one parent told me, "treasures of the mind, history and music and art, we barely knew existed". Under Hugo Chávez, Venezuela is the first major oil producer to use its oil revenue to liberate the poor.
Mavis Mendez has seen, in her 95 years, a parade of governments preside over the theft of tens of billions of dollars in oil spoils, much of it flown to Miami, together with the steepest descent into poverty ever known in Latin America; from 18% in 1980 to 65% in 1995, three years before Chávez was elected. "We didn't matter in a human sense," she said. "We lived and died without real education and running water, and food we couldn't afford. When we fell ill, the weakest died. In the east of the city, where the mansions are, we were invisible, or we were feared. Now I can read and write my name, and so much more; and whatever the rich and their media say, we have planted the seeds of true democracy, and I am full of joy that I have lived to witness it."

Latin American governments often give their regimes a new sense of legitimacy by holding a constituent assembly that drafts a new constitution. When he was elected in 1998, Chávez used this brilliantly to decentralise, to give the impoverished grassroots power they had never known and to begin to dismantle a corrupt political superstructure as a prerequisite to changing the direction of the economy. His setting-up of misions as a means of bypassing saboteurs in the old, corrupt bureaucracy was typical of the extraordinary political and social imagination that is changing Venezuela peacefully. This is his "Bolivarian revolution", which, at this stage, is not dissimilar to the post-war European social democracies.

Chávez, a former army major, was anxious to prove he was not yet another military "strongman". He promised that his every move would be subject to the will of the people. In his first year as president in 1999, he held an unprecedented number of votes: a referendum on whether or not people wanted a new constituent assembly; elections for the assembly; a second referendum ratifying the new constitution - 71% of the people approved each of the 396 articles that gave Mavis and Celedonia and Ana Lucia, and their children and grandchildren, unheard-of freedoms, such as Article 123, which for the first time recognised the human rights of mixed-race and black people, of whom Chávez is one. "The indigenous peoples," it says, "have the right to maintain their own economic practices, based on reciprocity, solidarity and exchange ... and to define their priorities ... " The little red book of the Venezuelan constitution became a bestseller on the streets. Nora Hernandez, a community worker in Petare barrio, took me to her local state-run supermarket, which is funded entirely by oil revenue and where prices are up to half those in the commercial chains. Proudly, she showed me articles of the constitution written on the backs of soap-powder packets. "We can never go back," she said.

In La Vega barrio, I listened to a nurse, Mariella Machado, a big round black woman of 45 with a wonderfully wicked laugh, stand and speak at an urban land council on subjects ranging from homelessness to the Iraq war. That day, they were launching Mision Madres de Barrio, a programme aimed specifically at poverty among single mothers. Under the constitution, women have the right to be paid as carers, and can borrow from a special women's bank. From next month, the poorest housewives will get about £120 a month. It is not surprising that Chávez has now won eight elections and referendums in eight years, each time increasing his majority, a world record. He is the most popular head of state in the western hemisphere, probably in the world. That is why he survived, amazingly, a Washington-backed coup in 2002. Mariella and Celedonia and Nora and hundreds of thousands of others came down from the barrios and demanded that the army remain loyal. "The people rescued me," Chávez told me. "They did it with all the media against me, preventing even the basic facts of what had happened. For popular democracy in heroic action, I suggest you need look no further."

The venomous attacks on Chávez, who arrives in London tomorrow, have begun and resemble uncannily those of the privately owned Venezuelan television and press, which called for the elected government to be overthrown. Fact-deprived attacks on Chávez in the Times and the Financial Times this week, each with that peculiar malice reserved for true dissenters from Thatcher's and Blair's one true way, follow a travesty of journalism on Channel 4 News last month, which effectively accused the Venezuelan president of plotting to make nuclear weapons with Iran, an absurd fantasy. The reporter sneered at policies to eradicate poverty and presented Chávez as a sinister buffoon, while Donald Rumsfeld was allowed to liken him to Hitler, unchallenged. In contrast, Tony Blair, a patrician with no equivalent democratic record, having been elected by a fifth of those eligible to vote and having caused the violent death of tens of thousands of Iraqis, is allowed to continue spinning his truly absurd political survival tale.

Chávez is, of course, a threat, especially to the United States. Like the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, who based their revolution on the English co-operative moment, and the moderate Allende in Chile, he offers the threat of an alternative way of developing a decent society: in other words, the threat of a good example in a continent where the majority of humanity has long suffered a Washington-designed peonage. In the US media in the 1980s, the "threat" of tiny Nicaragua was seriously debated until it was crushed. Venezuela is clearly being "softened up" for something similar. A US army publication, Doctrine for Asymmetric War against Venezuela, describes Chávez and the Bolivarian revolution as the "largest threat since the Soviet Union and Communism". When I said to Chávez that the US historically had had its way in Latin America, he replied: "Yes, and my assassination would come as no surprise. But the empire is in trouble, and the people of Venezuela will resist an attack. We ask only for the support of all true democrats."

John Pilger's new book, Freedom Next Time, is published next month by Bantam Press www.johnpilger.com

Original source / relevant link: The Guardian

Venezuela Proposes Discounted Heating Oil to Low-Income Europeans

2006-05-23T10:36:00.000+02:00

By: Venezuelanalysis.com

Caracas, Venezuela, May 15, 2006 — Yesterday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez proposed providing a low cost heating oil program to low income Europeans. The proposal comes after Venezuelan subsidiary Citgo provided a well received heating oil subsidy to hundreds of thousands of households across six states in the US.

“I want to modestly offer help to the poorest people who in winter, don’t have resources for heating [their houses],” Chávez, accompanied by Bolivian President Evo Morales and Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage, told a group of European and Latin American socialist organizations. He said the program would be an expansion of the US program, but did not offer details of how such a program would work.

The heating oil programs to the global north appear to be part of a long term Chávez strategy of developing links between low income and progressive people across the globe. “We have to unite all possible movements, otherwise the world is not going to change," Chávez was quoted in All Headline News as saying at the talk.

Chávez said the program would rely on the involvement of progressive European groups “You Europeans can help us greatly. Your European social networks can make sure the support arrives where it should,” he said.

At the opening of the discounted program in Delaware, the Venezuelan ambassador to the US, Bernardo Alvarez, said that the program was applying Bolivarian value to its oil sales in the United States. “What we are doing here in Delaware, reaching out to help low-income people, is consistent with what our Venezuelan government is trying to do at home with social programs that have taught 1.5 million adults to read and given access to health care to more than 10 million Venezuelans. The poor of Venezuela has the same face of the poor in the rest of the world; our goal at home and abroad is to improve the lives of people who have historically been left behind,” said Alvarez last February.

The program in the US was started in response to a request by a group of US senators to 10 major oil companies to donate a portion of their profits to help the poor in the wake of record oil prices. Citgo alone responded, and the move was criticized as political and meddling in US energy policy by some Republican politicians, but warmly received by communities who received the discounted heating oil. At least one city, Chicago, turned down Citgo’s offer of discounted fuel.

The discounted heating oil program met with controversy in Venezuela, with critics saying the money could be better spent among the poor in this country, and proponents supporting the idea of helping the poor regardless of nationality.

Chávez - With Amigo Ken - Gets a Hero's Welcome in London

2006-05-23T10:33:00.000+02:00

By: Duncan Campbell and Jonathan Steele - The Guardian

Monday, May 15, 2006 - He has been called a terrorist by Washington but for three and a half hours yesterday in London he could do no wrong. An adoring audience of British left-wingers and the Latin American diaspora cheered, clapped, sang and laughed as Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez denounced President Bush and capitalism and praised Ken Livingstone and the Pope.

The Camden centre in north London is usually home to trade fairs, conferences and school exams, but yesterday it throbbed with calls for a new world order.

"We love you," shouted a woman at the 800-strong gathering, which President Chávez had been invited to attend by London's mayor. "We love you very much," responded the president in unexpected English. To applause, he told them: "I was remembering my English classes in school. I remember very much my English classes - 'Do you want a coffee? Do you want a glass of milk'?"

During his marathon address, with occasional pauses to ask his "amigo" Ken whether his time was up, he managed to refer to everyone from George Bernard Shaw to Rosa Luxemburg, Pythagoras to Thomas Jefferson, CLR James to his mother. Reminding his audience it was mother's day in Venezuela and that his speech was going out live on his weekly programme, he even managed to send a message to his mum.

"Sometimes I'm a terrorist according to Washington or a guy who does military coups," said President Chávez, in front of a backdrop of his country's red, blue and yellow flag. "But all we did was participate in a revolutionary movement, which is what we are doing now." He went through a history of revolution in Latin America and described how his hero, Simon Bolivar, had visited London in 1810.
He said: "I am a Catholic and a Christian and a very committed Christian and I was talking to the Pope about the struggle against poverty - I call it Christ's cause." Then he was talking about the first time he had met Fidel Castro.

He won applause from a large contingent of banner-bearing women when he said that one of the features of capitalism is that it excludes and exploits women.

On the platform with him were many leading figures of the left. He pointed out Tariq Ali, and made him show the crowd a satirical poster he had portraying Chávez, Castro and Bolivia's president, Evo Morales, as the Pirates of the Caribbean. He attacked the administration in Washington as "the greatest threat to this planet ... Imagine they launch this attack on Iran. They've got it planned. If the US attack Iran, people in England who drive cars will have to park them. Oil will be $100 a barrel."

The man who survived a coup in 2002 - "planned in the Pentagon and the White House" - told the audience to huge applause: "I know there are plans to kill me. It doesn't matter. It won't stop me."
Last time he visited England, he had tea with the Queen and met Tony Blair but there was no mention of the prime minister yesterday although he has referred to him in the past as a "pawn of imperialism." But he did repeatedly say: "We are socialists. We are building it; it comes from our soul; it has to be imbued with humanism. If you can't love, you can't be a socialist."

In the audience was Bianca Jagger who said she had come to "listen and learn ... I'm Nicaraguan so I am interested in the politics of Latin America and I have one or two questions I would like to ask him." She said it was important for people in Europe to understand the motivations of President Chávez and President Morales with regard to their energy supplies. "You need to understand the history of the oil companies in Latin America," she said. "They left a terrible environmental disaster behind them and they have never been accountable for it."

The Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, who was on the platform, said: "I am very interested in what they are doing in Venezuela in terms of lessening the gap between rich and poor. Maybe the British government could learn something from that. Blair and the government should recognise which way the wind is blowing in Latin America."

Bob Neill, Leader of the London Assembly Conservatives, will be meeting a delegation of Venezuelan dissidents at City Hall today. Mr Neill said: "They will be able to relay first-hand experiences of violence and oppression in Venezuela."

President Chávez had arrived in London from a summit in Vienna of leaders from the EU and Latin America and Caribbean nations. This week he will be going to Algeria and Libya. In Vienna, he had said: "The final hours of empire have arrived. Now we have to say to the empire 'We are not afraid of you, you are a paper tiger'." He suggested the US was as doomed as a pig on its way to the slaughterhouse. He also wanted to provide cheap heating oil for poor Europeans. "I want to humbly offer support to the poorest people who do not have resources for central heating in winter and make sure that support arrives."

Original source: The Guardian

Chavez Advocates Socialism to European Summit

2006-05-23T10:30:00.000+02:00

By: Stephen Castle - The Independent

Sunday, May 14, 2006 - The Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez, yesterday paved the way for a politically-explosive visit to London this weekend as lambasted Tony Blair's brand of free market economics and said Europe should note the rise of socialism in Latin America.

Mr Chavez's rhetoric put him centre stage at a summit in Vienna as he claimed that "neoliberalism has begun its decline and has come to an end" and that "a new era has begun in Latin America."

The comments raised the temperature following the decision by Bolivia's new President Evo Morales - who is an ally of Mr Chavez - to nationalise his county's oil and gas. Venezuela is increasing taxes on foreign investors in its massive energy sector.

At an EU-Latin America summit attended by Mr Blair, the Venezuelan president argued: "There is a big ideological confrontation in the region, some defend the big project of Washington that has smashed our people. We want a profound change, a new socialism and we are going to debate: do we want socialist or capitalism? We say socialism."

He said Mr Morales was a descendent of the Incas, "oppressed people who are rising", adding: "They are rising with peace not weapons. Europe should listen to that".

Mr Blair responded by urging the two Latin American nations not to act irresponsibly. He argued: "What countries do in their energy policy when they are energy producers like Bolivia and Venezuela matters enormously to all of us. My only plea is that people exercise the power they have got in this regard responsibly for the whole of the international community." Mr Chavez will be in London tomorrow but, unlike on his last visit to the capital when he met Mr Blair and had an audience with the Queen, he has not requested meetings with ministers. Instead he will attend a speaking event with the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone.

The stance taken by Mr Chavez and Mr Morales provoked criticism both from European and Latin American leaders in Vienna amid fears that it would destabilise global energy markets pushing up prices. The Austrian Chancellor, Wolfgang Schüssel, said that nations had to answer the question whether they wanted open markets and foreign direct investment or not, adding that experience showed that "open market societies are better in their performance than closed, restricted structures."

The Mexican President Vicente Fox said that the populism in Latin America is "one of the big obstacles to growth and development", offering people "false" hopes of escaping poverty.
And the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that, "we are a Europe against populist tendencies."

Behind the scenes diplomats were working to try to defuse the crisis over energy in Latin Amercia, where European firms including British Gas, British Petroleum and Spain's Repsol have massive investments.

Representations over the nationalisation led to Mr Morales sending a conciliatory letter to Spain's foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos. Mr Morales's rhetoric has also alarmed Brazil, which has a massive stake in the Bolivian energy market. On Thursday the Bolivian president claimed that Brazil's state-controlled oil company Petrobras had acted illegally. The Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said: "We are perplexed by what (he said). If you want to interpret 'profoundly perplexed' with a term like 'indignation,' that would not be far from the truth."

Meanwhile Venezuela has upset some neighbours by criticising countries that have signed trade deals with the US. Mr Chavez has held up plans for EU-Andean trade talks by saying it will quit the South American group in protest.

Mr Blair held talks with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the Brazilian president, Luiz In‡cio Lula da Silva, in an effort to break the deadlock on stalled global trade negotiations. Mr Blair canvassed the idea of holding a special meeting of world leaders to try to end the blockage, Downing Street said.

Original Source: The Independent

Venezuelan Officials Consider State of Emergency in Táchira

2006-05-23T10:28:00.000+02:00

By: Simone Baribeau - Venezuelanalysis.com

Caracas, Venezuela, May, 12, 2006—The Venezuelan National Assembly’s Committee of Interior Politics is preparing to approve a report recommending that a state of emergency be declared in Táchira due to rampant unsolved kidnappings in the region, reports the Venezuelan daily El Universal.
The porous Colombian border region has long been regarded as a lawless zone, where women, drugs, and gasoline are trafficked, with little intervention, between the two countries.

The lack of control in the area has lead to a resolution rate of only 5% of the 800 kidnapping cases in the boarder state, according to the report. It was based on the findings of Ilian Medina, the public defender, and members of the National Aseembly’s Human Rights and Constitutional Guarantees staff, according to El Universal. Medina told the daily that the kidnapping “investigations in the [Venezuelan investigative police] have been slowed by blackmail and improper charges” and lack of sufficient lawyers to prosecute the cases. Kidnappers killed 58 people in the first two months this year, he said.

In order to address the problem of kidnappings, the report recommends that Táchira be declared in a state of emergency, the militarization of the state with the army, and the intervention of regional security organizations, reports El Universal. The Venezuelan daily says the report also recommends meetings with community groups such as journalists, churches, farmers, merchants, students, business leaders, and taxi drivers.

The report comes after last week’s meeting where, according to the pro-government Diario Vea, Táchira regional authorities and others met to discuss the problem of insecurity in the state. The Táchira legislature had previously asked Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to declare a state of emergency for the region. The crime and violence, the legislative body said, were caused by “Plan Colombia,” a US backed plan to fight drug trafficking and the guerrillas in the region, and also by the “apparent” demobilization of Colombian paramilitary forces.

Luis Tascón, a National Assembly Deputy from Táchira, told Diario Vea that about 50 Venezuelans, mostly ranchers and business people, are currently being held kidnapped. Most of them were captured in Táchira, he said, and appear to have taken to Colombia.

Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia to inaugurate joint trade fair

2006-05-23T10:23:00.000+02:00

Havana, May 17 2006 - CUBAN, Venezuelan and Bolivian companies are to participate in the 1st International Fair of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) and the People’s Trade Agreement (TCP), set for May 25 and 26 in the Bolivian city of La Paz.
The Ministry of Production and Small Businesses in Bolivia, which is organizing the event, said that it would serve for the exchange of information on supply and demand possibilities in the three countries and the potentiality of productive sectors, particularly for micro- and small businesspeople.
According to Prensa Latina, participation is expected by 25 Bolivian companies and an as yet unknown number of Cuban and Venezuelan ones, said Gustavo Barbery, Bolivian deputy minister of trade and exports.
The fair is framed in the integration agreements covered by the ALBA and the TCP, signed on April 28 in Havana by Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia, Fidel Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.

Venezuela's Chávez on Private Visit to Britain

2006-05-22T12:03:00.000+02:00

By: Richard Beeston and Tom Baldwin - The Times

Thursday, May 11, 2006 - HUGO CHÁVEZ, the President of Venezuela and one of Tony Blair’s most vocal critics abroad, arrives in London this weekend on a whirlwind visit during which he will be fêted by Ken Livingstone, Labour MPs and the TUC but will avoid contact with the Prime Minister and his Government.
The diplomatic snub will be delivered at the end of a three-nation tour of Europe by the soldier turned politician who denounced Mr Blair as “the main ally of Hitler” for his support of President Bush.
Officials at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said yesterday that Señor Chávez was on a private visit, similar to other world leaders who come to London for shopping trips or medical treatment.
The difference this time, however, is that the Venezuelan head of state will hardly be keeping a low profile as he attends an exhausting round of public engagements, many of them only a short distance from Downing Street.

On Sunday Señor Chávez is due to address supporters in Westminster. On Monday he meets the TUC, gives a press conference at City Hall with the Mayor and visits MPs at the House of Commons. On Tuesday he opens a museum and makes a speech in Whitehall.

Venezuelan officials said that the trip had been made at the request of Señor Chávez to thank his supporters in Britain, many of them on the Left of the Labour Party. This visit is certainly in contrast to his first, in 2001, when he was welcomed by Mr Blair, dined with John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, and had an audience with the Queen.

Relations soured over Britain’s involvement in Iraq and London’s growing criticism of Señor Chávez, who has used Venezuela’s oil wealth to push a left-wing movement across Latin America that he has nicknamed the “axis of good”.

In 2002 Denis MacShane, then a junior Foreign Office minister, compared Señor Chávez to Mussolini, and described him as a “ranting, populist demagogue”.

In February this year Mr Blair advised the President to “abide by the rules of the international community”. The next day Señor Chávez demanded that Britain return the Falkland Islands to Argentina and stop behaving as an imperialist power. “Tony Blair, you have no moral right to tell anyone to respect international laws, as you have shown no respect for them, aligning yourself with ‘Mr Danger’ [President Bush] and trampling on the people of Iraq,” he said. “Do you think we still live in the times of the British Empire or colonialism?” Any repeat of his claims in London may embarrass the Prime Minister but will be cheered by the President’s supporters, who regard his global movement as a challenge to the policies of the Bush Administration.

“There are many areas where we can benefit from the Venezuelan experience — including energy and environmental policies, democratic participation and, of course, his Government’s remarkable achievements in eliminating illiteracy, widening access to education and extending free healthcare to the majority of the population for the first time,” Mr Livingstone said.

Colin Burgon, MP for Elmet and chairman of Labour Friends of Venezuela, said that Señor Chávez had an important message to deliver in Britain and that the Prime Minister was wrong to criticise him.
“When one considers that Hugo Chávez won an electoral majority in 2002, survived an attempted coup thanks to massive public protests and was the resounding winner of a referendum on his administration in 2004, the implied accusation seems inaccurate,” he said.

“Our party should support the mobilisation of wide-reaching free healthcare and education schemes aimed at the reversal of decades of social inequality in South and Central America. It is time that the UK re-engaged with Latin America and offered moral support to regimes intent on social justice and redistribution of wealth.”

THE TIMETABLE

MAY 14
4pm Speaks to supporters at Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Westminster

MAY 15
9am Meets TUC leaders at Congress House. Address to supporters 11am Meets Ken Livingstone at City Hall 1pm Joint press conference at City Hall 4pm Meets MPs at House of Commons

MAY 16
4pm Speech at Banqueting House, Whitehall. Media interviews. Departs

BUSH PROVOCATIONS AGAINST VENEZUELA

2006-05-22T10:42:00.000+02:00

Military threat and striking out blindly

BY NIDIA DIAZ —Granma International staff writer—

SINCE last April 4, the fundamentalist administration of George W. Bush has been provocatively hanging about in Caribbean waters with 6,500 soldiers, several aircraft carriers, an impressive number of F-16 fighter planes and a couple of nuclear submarines in tow, according to the Pentagon’s own statement, with the objective of "confront unconventional threats such as drug and human trafficking."

The U.S. military maneuvers in the Caribbean are a sham of something that could eventually evolve into an armed aggression against the Bolivarian Revolution and terrifying actions against those nations of the continent that are participating in – or expressing a desire to do so – the process of cooperative integration advancing on the continent or that are questioning the political-economic-social model imposed on the region from Washington.

If this is not the case, then why are charges against revolutionary Venezuela accompanying those exercises of force? Why did the State Department, in subliminal agreement with the Department of Defense, accuse the Andean country of being the "the key transit point" for drug trafficking originating in Colombia?

Why in its doctrine of asymmetric warfare, did the U.S. Army Institute of Strategic Studies describe President Hugo Chávez and his Bolivarian process as the most serious and dangerous threat since the Soviet Union and communism?

Why did U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confide in a public fit of sincerity that Venezuela is the Republican administration’s principal concern in Latin America?

Similar terms can be read in documents or statements intentionally announced by the CIA and the Pentagon along the lines of "for its undermining of democracy and attempting to destabilize the region," Venezuela is to be added to the list of nations that the empire will attack first and foremost at the hour of unleashing a "preventive" strike, which is part of the new National Security Strategy document presented by George W. Bush on March 16.

And if anyone does have any doubts as to all that, just a few days ago, on April 28, in a mixture of cynicism and immorality the Secretariat headed by Ms. Rice accused Venezuela of having virtually ceased "its cooperation in the world war on terrorism." This would be like saying that the person refusing to extradite the terrorist Posada Carriles is Chávez and not Bush.

The report, invoking the old doctrine of whoever is not with me is against me, warned that "President Hugo Chávez has strengthened collaboration with state sponsors of terrorism," in a new and more serious attempt to fuel a growing matrix of opinion that would provide the U.S. with a "justification" to launch an assault on the Bolivarian Revolution.

It should not be overlooked that just a few days ago, one of the warships participating in the Caribbean military maneuvers landed military troops on the island of Aruba, only 15 miles from the Venezuelan coast.

Likewise, an article published on April 25 in Colombia’s El Tiempo quoted investigative journalist Eva Golinger confirming that the USS Virginia nuclear submarine was patrolling in the vicinity of the Venezuelan coast on an "espionage mission in support of the war on terrorism."

The article also noted that John Negroponte, the U.S. National Intelligence director admitted in an interview with Time magazine that U.S. intelligence agencies are increasing their presence and work in places where they have not been recently, and where things have been allowed to slip since the end of the Cold War, especially in Latin America and Africa.

The USS Virginia, added Golinger, is equipped with four torpedo launchers, Tomahawk missiles and a storage space for special forces’ equipment and vehicles. It also has sufficient space to accommodate a large number of troops conducting special operations.

Impotent given successive failures in its attempts to destroy the Bolivarian Revolution—oil strike, fascist coup, discrediting media campaign, recall referendum, regional and legislative elections—the resource always at hand – military aggression – has resurfaced.

Faced with that possibility, Vice Admiral Armando Laguna has announced that the Venezuelan Marines are to begin what they have called the "Patriotic Naval Integral Defense Operation" in which 13,500 troops will participate, 3,500 of which as civilian members of rescue teams, the new military Reserve and the Territorial Guards.

In addition to fortifying the capacity of the Armed Forces, the objective of the operation is to consolidate civic-military unity and to enlist the reserve in the overall defense of the nation, explained the high official.

Equally, just a few days ago, alluding to the U.S. maneuvers, Army General Commander Raúl Isaías Baduel emphasized that the Andean country was sufficiently prepared to repel any threat or aggression.

The National Armed Forces (FAN) is assessing the potential dangers hovering over the country’s security, Baduel stated in the capital of Guárico state, San Juan de Los Morros, where he was an invited guest for the visit of Papal Nuncio Giacinto Berlocco, according to a PL report.

So that nobody would be taken by surprise, he also noted that the FAN is constantly following any act that could indicate a treat to national territory and has evaluated possible scenarios against Venezuelan security.

The U.S. government is caught in a trap. Its vocation of interference does not allow it to maintain respectful relations with Venezuela and its desperation at being unable to find a social base for its destabilizing activities in that country, has left it blindly striking out, thus running the risk of prompting the response of a nation that has already started taking control of its own destiny.

Chavez: World Confident on Bolivarian Revolution

2006-05-22T09:37:00.000+02:00

Caracas, May 21 (Prensa Latina) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on tour throughout some European and African countries appreciated that the world is ever more confident on the Bolivarian Revolution.
The president visiting Italy, Austria, venue of the summit "Latin America-European Union", the United Kingdom, Algeria and Libya, remarked that after the collapse of the Soviet Union and socialism in the European east, capitalism headed by the US has plunged the world into a deep atmosphere of hatred, tragedy, desolation and death.
"Neoliberalism has privatized everything, even life," he said and called to fight the capitalist alternative to prioritize the human being with all its basic rights. Socialism can allow the creation of a society of equal and free women and men, he stressed.
During the opening of a mother and child institution in the eastern state of Delta Amacuro, the Venezuelan president called to develop preventive medicine, one of the priorities of social programs encouraged by his government.
Chavez provided detailed information on the Venezuelan health program Barrio Adentro intending to strengthen primary assistance services and build a public health system capable of covering the most excluded population.

Venez to Host Regional Pesticide Meeting

2006-05-22T09:16:00.000+02:00

Caracas, May 19 (Prensa Latina) Venezuela will host from May 22-23 a regional meeting to reduce the use of pesticides in the Andean region.
Red de Accion en Plaguicidas and its Alternatives for Latin America (RAP-AL) and the Venezuelan branch (RAPAL-VE) convened a seminar to inform the public opinion on what has been done on affair.
The goal is to create awareness on the existence, use, storage and effects of persistent organic pollutants and other pesticides.
RAP-AL and RAPAL-VE wish to establish coordination mechanisms to implement the Stockholm Convention to stop the use and emission of toxic substances.

Venezuela, Paraguay Close Deals

2006-05-22T09:08:00.000+02:00

Caracas, May 18 (Prensa Latina) Negotiations among Venezuelan and Paraguayan businesspeople are winding up Thursday with the clinching of various trade agreements for shoes, food, textiles, detergents and plastics.
Business people from both nations have been meeting in Caracas all week to boost bilateral economic relations that contribute 40 million dollars to their economies.
Alejandro Uzcategui, leader of the Venezuelan mission, said the event enabled the inauguration of a cargo flight, to transport products between Venezuela and Paraguay, as well as the generation of jobs and steps toward South American consolidation and integration.
Venezuela has been encouraging these encounters as part of the Bolivarian government´s policies toward regional integration.
To date, it has met with Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Chile, China, France, the US, Italy and Russia.

Washington May Soon Try to Pin the Venezuelan Uranium Tail on the Iranian Nuclear Donkey

2006-05-11T11:46:00.000+02:00

By: Larry Birns and Michael Lettieri - COHA

Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - Washington is no stranger to flimsy pretexts when it comes to justifying its ill-conceived, and at times illicit, Latin American initiatives. The contra epoch, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban missile crisis, Ollie North, former U.S. ambassador John Negroponte’s skullduggery in Honduras, and countless acts of chicanery aimed at Havana, Santiago, Grenada and Guatemala come to mind. A spate of articles tying Hugo Chávez to Iran’s covert nuclear program suggests that Washington may now be finding it increasingly difficult to resist further calumniating Venezuela by working to forge a new weapon for its anti-Caracas jihad. The only problem is that the basis for such a charge would be a complete concoction, more worthy to be put to work in Iraq, where anything goes, than in Latin America. Such a scenario would intimate that ties exist between alleged Venezuelan uranium supplies and the Iranian nuclear program. In other words, Caracas would be presented as a terrorist nation, illicitly involved in trafficking bootleg uranium to the pariah Iranian regime in exchange for nuclear devices and maybe other considerations.

The Plot
In the fall of 2005, Venezuelan officials began to explore the possibility of acquiring nuclear reactor technology from either Argentina or Brazil, both of which have nuclear energy programs and facilities for peaceful use. This maneuver provoked a predictably prickly response from the State Department, which made no effort to disguise the fact that it would not be amused if this transaction would be carried out. While no agreement was ever reached or shipments made, Caracas already had established close political ties with Tehran, which became yet another reason why the White House was suspicious of Chávez’s ultimate intent. Iran’s decision to resume enrichment of uranium this year, which has now provoked an international uproar, also brought new scrutiny to the purported burgeoning relationship between that nation and Venezuela. At the U.N., Caracas helped fuel such suspicions, as Venezuela was one of only a handful of member nations that expressed support for Iran’s resumption of peaceful nuclear activity which would effectively not be under the U.N.’s supervision.

The wide-ranging, if somewhat vague, cooperation agreements between Iran and Venezuela were repeatedly reiterated by Washington sources to suggest that more malignant factors might be at play. The most popular rumor had Caracas sending its uranium to Iran in exchange for nuclear technology, with the most radical version beginning with accusations that Caracas was seeking to obtain weaponry from Tehran. Some went so far as to suggest that nuclear devices already had been clandestinely transported to Venezuela on chartered oil tankers. Further speculative intrigue came about after the expulsion of the New Tribes missionaries from the Amazonas region in February, as stampeding rumors began to circulate that the evangelical group was somehow involved in uranium exploration activities in the state of Bolívar and that the missionaries’ airstrip was facilitating such anti-Chávez operations. The allegations, which included purported links to the CIA, were heatedly denied by the group.

Much to do about Nothing
Yet all of these theories concerning some diabolic plot linking Iran to Hugo Chávez have been entirely based on a handful of anemic charges coming from several former Chávez officials, who, at best, merely quote each other, but fail to advance the core of their charge or provide minimum evidence that Venezuela somehow has been complicit with Iran when it came to supplying uranium to the latter. In turn, their diaphanous allegations are now being picked up by kindred rightwing sources domiciled in the U.S. who write enraged op-eds in Rev. Moon’s Washington Times (“Showdown with Chávez”) or get like-minded congressional colleagues to make rabid speeches from the floor of congress accusing Chávez of striving to hatch a nuclear plot with Tehran or some other threatening complot.

While the rumors sometimes involve an alleged Israeli intelligence report which speaks of covert uranium mining in Venezuela, the so-called findings have never been seen, let alone validated. In fact, while Venezuela may possess some yet to be established uranium deposits, there is no evidence that these have been located, let alone worked. Venezuelan officials have vehemently denied charges that the country is facilitating the enrichment of uranium by the Iranians, and even the State Department has minimized such suggestions, noting that while it is “aware of reports of possible Iranian exploitation of Venezuelan uranium,” it does not see any “commercial uranium activities in Venezuela.” Furthermore, the speculated ties overlook the fact that Iran does not particularly need to import uranium all the way from Venezuela for its projects, as it has ample supplies of its own.

All of this likely matters little to the Bush administration, which is likely feeling increased pressure from its own policy hardliners to take an anti-Chávez stand. The recent Bolivian gas nationalization has been cited by extra conservative pundits, whose knowledge of Latin America is barely enough for them to cite Venezuela’s capital city as evidence of the pernicious spread of Chavista influence. They also derisively point to the lack of any U.S. response to this challenge. Such militancy on their part, combined with Washington’s growing tension with Iran, may make the time ripe for some form of diplomatic or even a retaliatory response to allegations of Venezuela’s special relationship with Tehran and other manifestations of anti-U.S. behavior. Such a step by Washington would be entirely predicated on rumors, inventions, and conjecture – a script, at this point at least, entirely based on phony or no evidence – like the spurious yellowcake of Niger which provided the basis for U.S. intervention in Iraq. By conceivably tying Chávez into the Iranian crisis, the Bush administration possibly could be laying the groundwork for its own dirty tricks campaign. Yet the world would be well-advised to be wary of such machinations: mysterious vials, contrived satellite images, or fuzzy photographs are now beginning to be employed for tendentiously-pursued, if illusory, ends by a brigade of Chávez-bashers serving under a variety of self-serving ideological gods.

This analysis was prepared by COHA Director Larry Birns and Research Fellow Michael Lettieri
May 9, 2006
The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, founded in 1975, is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt research and information organization. It has been described on the Senate floor as being “one of the nation’s most respected bodies of scholars and policy makers.” For more information, please see our web page at www.coha.org; or contact our Washington offices by phone (202) 223-4975, fax (202) 223-4979, or email coha@coha.org.
Original source / relevant link: Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA)

Venezuela’s Weekend Warriors

2006-05-11T11:35:00.000+02:00

By: Alexander Holland - Venezuelanalysis.com

Monday, May 08, 2006 - There is a stereotypical image of a guerrilla training camp in Latin America. It is a base in remote mountains or jungle. In this base, idealistic civilians do target practice with machine guns and hide from government forces. The government is the enemy of this camp and the guerrillas train to overthrow it.

In Venezuela today there are dozens of guerilla training camps. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers go to them. They are not training to destroy the government. They are training to defend it. They are called the Military Reserves. They are one of the most controversial policies of a government famous for controversial policies.

One of these camps is located in the middle of one of Caracas’s most famous barrios, or slums, called 23 d’enero. It is a strange sight inside a former military museum, built in the style of an old Spanish castle. This fairy tale fort is on top of a hill overlooking slums and tower blocks.
When the volunteers inside this base are asked why they are there, they all give the same answer. From the 16 year old girl to the 60 year old man they say, “I am here to defend the country.”

Invasion
Who are the Reserves supposed to defend Venezuela against? For President Hugo Chavez there is only one answer. In January 2006 Chavez said, “The only war possible for us would be the one that we are obliged to make against an invasion by North American imperialism.”

The Americans have robustly denied this claim. The U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, William Brownfield has said, “The United States has never invaded, is not invading at this moment, and will never invade Venezuela. Period.” However Brownfield’s soothing words are often at odds with the US State Department and the Pentagon.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently said Chavez is, “like Hitler.” His counterpart, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Venezuela is, “the biggest problem,” for democracy in the western hemisphere. Rice went on to say a, “united front” was needed to isolate Venezuela.

The desire in Washington for regime change in Venezuela is not normally questioned. Most people who play down the possibility of a U.S. invasion point to how American military force is tied down in Iraq. This situation could obviously change with a U.S. troop withdrawal.

In the next few years, when more U.S. forces become available, the debate over a possible invasion of Venezuela could become less academic. The Chavez government does not want to wait until the U.S. is ready to attack before preparing its defense. To this end it is building up the Military Reserves.

War for the 21st Century
Alberto Garrido is a Venezuelan Military analyst and commentator for the opposition newspaper El Universal. Garrido says the Chavez government is investing in the Reserves as the best means to deter a US attack on Venezuela.

Trying to resist potential aggressors like the U.S. with regular armed forces is pointless, says Garrido. Trained, motivated civilians, with small arms who can hide in the population are the best way to counter the vast military power of the U.S.

The Reserves themselves are not an invention of the current government. Made up of civilian volunteers, the previous Reserves were supposed to act as replacement manpower for the navy, army, and air force in case of losses from a war.

The second in command of today’s Military Reserves is General Mario Arvalaez Rengifo. Arvalaez said in the past the Reserves were not a serious organization. Until 1998 there were only about 15,000 Reservists on paper and less in reality.

This changed with Chavez. More funding was provided for the Reserves and an effort was made to expand them. In 2005 their structure and training changed as part of a general military reform. The Reserves were no longer to act as a support to the other armed forces. They became their own force under a single command.
Civilians who volunteer for the Reserves train every weekend for 6 months. They learn about basic military and guerrilla theory. They also take courses on human rights and military law.

Other training includes how to operate as a unit and as individuals, as well as a period when they specialize in a certain type of weapon such as a sniper rifle. A small part of the training includes firing assault rifles and military exercise with live ammunition.

Those who pass this training become part of the active Reserve. They form units in their local areas. The Reservists practice there to become familiar with the environment from a tactical point of view.

1 Million under Arms
By 2003, 15,000 people had gone through this training and the Reserves had doubled in number to 30,000. More have followed them. According to Arvalaez there are currently 100,000 people in the Reserves. Another 90,000 are now in training and should join in a few months.

In speeches Chavez has said there should eventually be 1 million to 2 million in the Reserves. Some have speculated that with forces this large the Reserves might not be purely defensive.

Arvalaez stressed the Venezuelan constitution does not allow for the Reserves to be used for anything else than defense of national territory. The General also pointed out that Venezuela has good relations with both its neighbors. Even if these points were ignored Venezuela threatening others with its Reserves looks unlikely.
Even with 2 million Reservists, Venezuela would be foolish to attack Brazil or Colombia. The experience, training and firepower of the two largest and most professional militaries in the region could not easily be overcome with sheer numbers.

National defense is the main task of the Reserves but it is not there only task, said Arvalaez. Once they have finished their training, “About 80% of the work of the Reserves is social, and 20% military,” said Arvalaez.
The General said, “We’re not only talking about war here, but about social inclusion. About deepening the sense of patriotism in the people.” The Reservists help assist with the popular social missions, almost like community volunteers.

The logic goes that by doing this they will gain the support of these communities. In a time of war the Reservists would depend on the sympathy of the people to operate successfully, said Arvalaez.
This all relates to the Chavez government’s promotion of a “Civil-Military union.” This is supposed to be a two-way relationship between the military and the civilian population. Civilians help the military with national defense and the military helps civilians with national development.

Defending Who?
Critics of the Reserves, such as opposition newspaper editor Teodoro Petkoff, have said that the Reserves have a more sinister purpose than development. Petkoff says they are a cover for fanatical Chavez supporters to control the population.

A former Marxist guerrilla himself, Petkoff highlights how the Reserves are under the command of the President. Petkoff says this means they act as his personal guard and are meant to put down protest.
Garrido says this reaction to the Reserves is hysterical. There are, “some people in the opposition who are so willing to see bad things that they are blind to the reality,” said Garrido. The anti-Chavez military analyst said, “The reserves are not there to kill the opposition.”

The Reserves might fight against the military if it tried to do a coup against Chavez, said Garrido. However the military analyst thinks it is very unlikely the army would try a coup as it is largely loyal to the government. Garrido stressed the Reserves more than anything, “are part of the government’s external defense strategy.”

Loyalty
The Commander of the Reserves in 23 d’enero is Lieutenant Colonel Pablo Cabarga Mota. The commander responds to claims the Reserves are the armed part of the pro-Chavez parties by saying it impossible to know who the Reservists support.

Mota said nobody is allowed to demonstrate a political position in the Reserves, “Not for government parties or the opposition. It’s forbidden. People aren’t asked who they vote for.”

They have to, “swear in front of the flag and God, to protect the constitution and the institutions it sets down,” said Mota. The Reservist make this oath, “to the constitution, Not one man,” said the Commander.
Mota claimed in this way it is not much different from the Venezuelan regular army. Both are ultimately under the authority of the President. The head of state gives orders to these forces through the generals commanding them.

It is up to those generals, soldiers, and Reservists to decide if the orders they are receiving break their oath to the constitution and should be obeyed or not.

Motivation
Despite there being no politics allowed in the Reserves, Mota believes the vast majority of those who volunteer support the process of change in Venezuela. Mota said this was because the volunteers are almost entirely from the barrios.

In these very poor areas the welfare schemes of the government have been very popular. Because so many of the people who volunteer for the Reserves are from the poorest sections of society some have said that the main reason they take part is for money.

Those learning to be Reservists get about $7 for each full day of training they do. This is the same as one day of the minimum wage. The people doing Reserves training in 23 d’enero denied they were doing it for the money.

Carla Bandes, a street vendor, said she could make more money working at her stall, “and be near my children while I was doing it.” She was not doing it for the money she said, “I’m doing it because I believe in it.”
The other Reservists around her agreed. In his late 60’s, former army sergeant Longobaldo Velasquez said he could be spending his weekends playing with his grandchildren instead of training to fight a guerrilla war. Velasquez said it was important for his grandchildren’s future that he volunteer for them.

During his lifetime, the Americans had gone to Chile and Nicarauga to destroy democracy, Velasquez said. The Venezuelan said, “I don’t want that to happen here. I want my grandchildren to grow up free with opportunities. That’s why I’m willing to defend my country.”
Despite his age, Velasquez still felt he had something to offer. Every Venezuelan, “from the young to the old, has capabilities. If they invade we will resist with all the capabilities we have, with guns, bombs, machetes, our hands – everything.”

Prepared To Kill
Some of the other Reservists were less enthusiastic than Velasquez about the idea of killing. Electrician, Leomar Salazar said, “I am not willing to kill someone. I would look for a way to neutralise the enemy without taking their life. Our mission is to preserve life, even the enemy’s.”

That some Reservists have an aversion to killing would not make the Reserves as a whole useless as a deterrent, Mota believes. The Commander admitted their training was not as thorough as it might be at the School of the Americas, the U.S.-run military academy that has trained Latin American officers.
Mota said the School of the Americas made people into soulless killing machines. Instead of this, the Reservists are taught, “to love the heroes of the war of independence and to want to fight like them. We aren’t filling them with hate,” said Mota.

The Second in Command of the Reserves said, “People say Venezuelans would not be able to resist the U.S. because we are not Muslims. Courage and determination don’t only belong to Muslims. If we are tested we will show them.”

Only time will tell if the Reserves are an effective deterrent to those considering invading Venezuela. For the moment it is certain that they will remain one of the most controversial parts of the Venezuelan process and maybe one of its most vital.

Associated Press Falsely Portrays Chavez as Seeking 25-Year Term

2006-05-11T11:30:00.000+02:00

By: Justin Delacour - Latin America News Review

Monday, May 08, 2006 - A little scrutiny of a recent Associated Press report about Venezuela provides a lesson in how the English-language press often gets the story wrong. Take the first sentence: "President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that Venezuelan voters should have the chance to decide whether he should govern the country for the next 25 years.

"No, such a referendum would not be about "whether he should govern the country for the next 25 years." A referendum would be about whether Chavez would be permitted to run every six years and --in the event that he were to continue winning elections-- serve multiple presidential terms. The AP report's opening sentence makes it sound as if such a referendum would do away with elections in Venezuela, as if its intent would be to grant Chavez a new 25-year term in office! The website of The Calgary Sun even titles the wire report "Chavez seeking 25-year term"!!

This is obviously an extremely poor piece of reporting. Chavez made it clear that, if the opposition committed to participating in the upcoming presidential election, he would not convoke a referendum to end presidential term limits. He explained that the intent of his threat to convoke such a referendum was not to perpetuate himself in power but rather to defend the Bolivarian Revolution.Fortunately, Agence France Press (AFP) got the story right.

The opening sentence of AFP's Spanish-language report reads, "Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez claimed Saturday that, if the opposition decides not to run candidates in the December presidential election, he could decree a referendum to permit his reelection for multiple terms until 2031.

"So the choice for the opposition is simple. If they don't want a referendum that would end presidential term limits, they shouldn't pull out of the upcoming presidential election. As far as I'm concerned, the threat of a referendum is a perfectly reasonable (and democratic) way to dissuade the opposition from trying to delegitimize Venezuela's electoral process.

When Venezuela's opposition knows it's going to lose an election, it has a tendency to try to delegitimize the electoral process. Instead of facing up to the fact that it is unpopular, the business-led opposition tries to shift the blame for its electoral misfortunes to the National Electoral Council (CNE). The opposition claims that the CNE could commit "fraud" and that the vote might not be secret. Opposition conspiracy theories of this nature are legion. Never mind that there have been international observers on hand that have testified to the fairness of Venezuela's elections.

Never mind that even the opposition's own polls show that Chavez is much more popular than they are.In other words, many members of the opposition aren't really interested in trying to win elections because they know that they lack popular support. Many in the opposition prefer, instead, to try to create the impression internationally that Venezuela's electoral process is illegitimate.One has to understand that, given the combination of the opposition's economic interests and political incompetence, it is very desperate.

Since it is unable to attract popular support domestically, the opposition resorts to attempts to draw more U.S. hostility toward Chavez in hopes that such hostility might somehow weaken or destroy his presidency. Electoral boycotts are part and parcel of this strategy. The opposition wants to create the (false) impression internationally that Venezuela is another Ukraine and that Chavez wins elections by "fraud," etc. etc.

That's what Chavez is up against.OAS General Secretary Jose Miguel Insulza effectively summed up the problem that Chavez faces when he said the following about the opposition's boycott of legislative elections last December:
"We had a problem with the Venezuelan opposition, which assured us that they would not withdraw from the [electoral] process if certain conditions were met. These were met and, despite this, they withdrew."Insulza continued, "if the path of abstention is chosen, then one cannot complain that the entire parliament is in the hands of one's political adversary."

Original source / relevant link: Latin America News Review

Venezuela, Venue of Afro American Culture

2006-05-11T11:15:00.000+02:00

Caracas, May 10 (Prensa Latina) Sacred drums will again sound in Venezuela thanks to the 3rd International Festival of Afro American Traditions (FITA) to be held in Caracas June 22-25, organizers announced Wednesday.
According to FITA spokesperson Pablo Villamizar, groups and experts from Brazil, Cuba, the US, Haiti, Jamaica, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago and the host nation will participate this year.
Villamizar referred to the program of activities mainly constituted by concerts, varied spectacles, master classes and workshops on percussion, dance and singing.
Participants in this third edition, expected to be held in the state of Aragua, western Caracas, will also enjoy prediction consultations and drum sessions among other attractions.
Singers, percussionists, artists, experts and priests of the African and Caribbean traditions from twelve countries will converge in this international festival that once more bets on cultural traditions.

Venezuela Supports Michelle Bachelet

2006-05-11T11:07:00.001+02:00

Caracas, May 10 (Prensa Latina) Venezuelan Vice president Jose Vicente Rangel supported on Wednesday Chilean president Michelle Bachelet´s declarations that "there is no need to demonize Latin American countries with governments that try to eradicate inequality."
The Chilean head of State made that statement on Wednesday in a press conference, during an official visit to Spain.
In a communique, Rangel called relevant Bachelet´s statement, and said "it was a declaration that showed solid political and ethical principles of this extraordinary woman, a reflex of her experience as a social and democratic fighter."
In the Venezuelan vice president´s opinion, to include progressive movements in the cold-war concept and demonize them reveals political backwardness and clumsiness of the prevailing factors to face up to the compelling need of social changes.
"I think Bachelet gave a lesson to many politicians and leaders that act thoughtlessly or at the service of sordid interests." The clean and honorable declaration is a guideline for Latin America," the text concluded.

Venezuela to Increase Oil Export to Asia

2006-05-11T11:07:00.000+02:00

Caracas, May 10 (Prensa Latina) Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) wants to diversify and increase the volume of crude oil and by-products to the Asian market up to 30 percent, for the year 2012, as announced Wednesday here.
A report by PDVSA said the supply will be made by means of a PVDSA branch called PDV Marina, which has already signed an understanding memorandum with Chinese enterprise CNUOC.
PDVSA directives said Chinese cooperation is indispensable for the shipping development of Venezuela.
PDVSA representatives visited China to sign agreements on construction of 18 ships to improve distribution and maritime transport of Venezuelan crude oil and by-products.
The agreements include technology transference to train personnel, evaluate construction of shipyards in Venezuela and the possibility to create a joint venture.
Venezuela will purchase 42 ships for oil transport between 2006 and 2012, and PDV Marina director Asdrubal Chavez said that the Venezuelan government considers Chinese investments for naval development indispensable for construction projects and ship repairs.

Venezuela Revitalizes Indigenous Culture

2006-05-11T11:06:00.000+02:00

Caracas, May 10 (Prensa Latina) Venezuelan experts and officials supported by the UN Children´s Fund (UNICEF) will meet in Maracaibo on Thursday to revitalize the "Anu" culture and language.
Indigenous communitarian promoters, teachers and other officials of the Education Ministry and the Venezuelan Central and Zuli universities will converge at this important meeting.
The preservation and recovery of the "Anu" culture and language are part of the great national efforts in the field of Bilingual and Intercultural Education.
This process of revitalization includes the development of actions to contribute with the linguistic training of professionals and the creation of didactic aids and methods to be used at classrooms.
Thus, the process becomes perfect opportunity to open new spaces for the interchange among the communitarian factors, main promoters of the initiative.

Venez Analyzes Southern Gas Project

2006-05-11T11:03:00.000+02:00

Caracas, May 10 (Prensa Latina) Technicians of nations engaged in the South Gas Project will meet in Caracas June 5-7 to foster that integration proposal, according to an official source.
A communiqué by State-run Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) oil firm said the meeting will follow talks between Brazilian and Venezuelan Energy Ministers Silas Rondeau and Rafael Ramirez, respectively.
Rondeau and Ramirez examined bilateral joint projects involving PDVSA and Brasil´s PETROBRAS, as part of PETROSUR, the Mariscal de Sucre (off-coast gas) program, and the certification and assessment of reserves at the Carabobo field on the Orinoco oil strip.
Ethanol fuel and lubricant production, sea trade and the future Jose Abreu de Lima refinery in the Brazilian locality of Pernambuco were also evaluated.
PDVSA and PETROBRAS extended deadlines for four memorandums of understanding to bilaterally accomplish their goals.
The huge gas pipeline is a project promoted by the presidents of Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia.

Italy, Chavez Calls to Fight Poverty

2006-05-11T11:00:00.000+02:00

Roma, May 10 (Prensa Latina) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias Wednesday called to fight poverty and exclusion in the Italian Deputies Camera.
Similarly, the dignitary called to extend cooperation fields between both countries and to strengthen the existing ones.
Chavez Wednesday started in Italy a tour taking him to Vienna to participate in the 4th Summit of the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean starting Thursday in the Austrian capital, and to Great Britain, Libya, Algeria and Bolivia.
The Bolivarian president will be received by Pope Benedict the 16th in the Vatican in their very first meeting and Chavez´ third visit to the Papal headquarters.
According to the Venezuelan ambassador, the fight against poverty and exclusion and the social programs encouraged by his government will be permanent issues of the meetings´ agenda.

The Axis of Gas

2006-05-10T08:37:00.000+02:00

By: Pepe Escobar - Asia Times

Friday, May 05, 2006, SAO PAULO - Move over the "axis of evil". The time is ripe for the "axis of gas". Meet the Gran Gasoduto del Sur (the Great Gas Pipeline of the South) - the South American entry into Pipelineistan, soon to join networks from Siberia to both Europe and Asia as well as the American-inspired Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. In terms of political will applied by the new axis of Caracas, Brasilia and Buenos Aires, the pipeline is already a done deal.
At a recent summit meeting at a Sao Paulo hotel, presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Nestor Kirchner of Argentina further progressed to consolidate the giant gas pipeline following "strategic lines of cooperation, integration and South American unity", in the words of Chavez. All remaining South American presidents would be presented in August with definitive viability studies as well as alternatives for financing, he added.
The pipeline - with a daily capacity of 150 billion cubic meters - will snake from Puerto Ordaz in eastern Venezuela to Buenos Aires in Argentina. The main trunk line is estimated to be 6,603 kilometers - and the total length may peak at 9,283 km. The estimated cost is a staggering US$23 billion. The first phase - to Manaus, in the Amazon rain forest - would be ready by 2010. The last phase of the project would be finished by 2017.
Chavez is more than aware that "a global energy crisis is approaching. We in South America, what are we going to do? We can't have nuclear power, otherwise they [the US] will bomb us."
He praised Brazil's biodiesel - green fuel - efforts. But the best answer for now, in his view, is gas; the formation of a South American energy grid - much as Iran, India and China are working for the emergence of an Asian energy grid. "Our energy equilibrium is here. We're not going to be vulnerable any more."
For the controversial Venezuelan president, the project is more than a pipeline; it means "hope for many people" as it also targets the key objective of "the fight against poverty and exclusion". The project could possibly generate more than 1 million jobs.
Chavez bills ambitious projects such as the mega pipeline as "the only way towards our independence". It's the same approach regarding the bilingual, pan-South American TV network Telesur (financed by the governments of Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay and Cuba); the proposed Petrosur (a pan-South American oil company); and the proposed common South American Bank, evidently divorced from International Monetary Fund/World Bank policies enshrined by the dreaded "Washington consensus". He's confident "there will be a flood" of investment in the pipeline, private and international.
Venezuela and Iran
Chavez's stormy relationship with the Bush administration is obvious in much of what he says. For instance, he "never had any doubt" about the Iranian leadership's assurances they only have a civilian nuclear program, he said.
"The US and Europe, they both have nuclear plants," he said. "Brazil does too. Why cannot Iran or any other country? The American government was searching for an excuse, and is now preparing the ground for an intervention. [Venezuela] is in favor of a dialogue of civilizations."
Chavez's take is corroborated by recent revelations by General Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff of former secretary of state Colin Powell. In May 2003, just after President George W Bush had pronounced "mission accomplished" in Iraq, the Iranian leadership asked the Swiss ambassador to Tehran to convey to Washington a request for talks.
Tehran would answer all American questions on its nuclear program; then sanctions could be lifted and normal relations established.
According to Wilkerson, his boss was in favor. But Vice President Dick Cheney wasn't. Cheney and the neo-conservatives, said Wilkerson, then forced the State Department to ignore the Swiss ambassador and the Iranian request, and started to build up the demonization of Iran.
Meanwhile, Chavez said, Venezuela was at the heart of the South American mega pipeline from the beginning. "Then came Lula [da Silva]. We started to talk about it, and started to exchange information with Petrobras [the Brazilian oil and gas giant]. We wanted a strategic project of exploration. Not even we Venezuelans knew about our reserves."
Officially, Venezuela holds gas reserves of 151 trillion cubic feet (compared to the US's 189 trillion cubic feet); that means almost 50% of the reserves of the whole continent, 80% of South America's reserves and, the president stressed, "5% of the reserves of the whole world".
The gas will be sold in South America "very cheaply", as Chavez confirms that Petroleos de Venezuela, SA or PDVSA, the Venezuelan oil and gas giant, is part of the pipeline project. "If Venezuela was only moved by an economic-financial interest, I wouldn't be here; I would be in Washington," he said.
He delights in quoting Venezuela's oil reserves - "313 billion barrels" - adding that the days when the country "was an American oil colony" are over. Venezuela, he said, was "currently producing 3 billion cubic feet of gas a day". But it is not exporting anything, at least not yet. "The first exports will be to South America," then to friendly countries like China and India.
China was a preferential client of Venezuela's oil, and the same would apply for gas, he said. "We are going to build a network going to Colombia, Equator and Chile, and a commission will inform Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam and even France," he said. "The project will be sustainable till the end of this century."
The gas may be even sold in the end to the US, but for a much higher price, Chavez said. "[This] does not mean that we have a conflict with the American people. Our conflict is with "El Jefe [the boss, a reference to Bush] who wants to take over the riches of all the world."
The pipeline project is gaining ground amid a complex political context in South America pitting two opposing trade and integration models. Venezuela has just entered Mercosur, the South American trade bloc led by Brazil and Argentina; technical discussions take place next month before full incorporation. This move implied Venezuela's exit from the Andean Community of Nations, another trade bloc including Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru.
After the failure of the American-led Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) summit in Mar del Plata, Argentina, "the US started to strike mini-FTAAs in Central America or the Caribbean", Chavez explained. As far as he's concerned, an Andean community does not exist. He sees Venezuela's exit "as a divorce. The two [Mercosur and the Andean Community] are incompatible. If a country in the Mercosur strikes a free trade agreement with the US, it has to leave. They are like water and oil."
In the end, the pipeline reveals itself in Chavez's mind to be just one among myriad development projects - not only for Venezuela but for the whole of Latin America.

Venezuela Increases Taxes on Oil Companies in Orinoco Oil Belt

2006-05-10T08:33:00.000+02:00

By: Michael Fox –Venezuelanalysis.com

Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - On his weekly television show Alo Presidente, on Sunday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced a new "extraction" tax of at least 33% for all oil companies operating in Venezuela. Chavez said the tax could create over $1 billion in new revenue.
According to the Venezuelan daily El Universal, the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum will introduce a reform to the hydrocarbons law to the National Assembly today. The change will ensure that at least one-third the value of every barrel stays in the hands of the Venezuelan state. As such, the tax is nearly identical to a royalty.
For some companies, the change will be minimal. El Universal reported that for PDVSA’s own production, they will continue to charge the royalty of 30%, plus the extraction tax, will make the total tax 33%. For now, the newly formed joint venture operations with Venezuela’s PDVSA will be exempt from the new tax, as they are already paying 33% in royalties. While, the associations in the Orinoco belt will have to pay 16% in the new tax, on top of the 17% royalty they currently pay, to equal 33%. It was reported that the additional revenue from this extraction tax could equal $1.34 billion in its first year alone- if petroleum prices remain at their present value.
Other tax hikes are in the planning stages for natural gas companies and for the oil companies operating along the Orinoco River, which is believed to have extra-heavy crude reserves of up to 235 billion barrels. Among the companies that operate along the Orinoco belt are the North American ExxonMobil and Chevron, which currently pay 34% in income taxes. Chavez announced that they are going to increase that “to 50%, but in order to do so we need to modify the Hydrocarbon Law.”
“In the Hydrocarbon Law, that we approved, one has to remember that we were infiltrated, there still was the old PDVSA when we approved it. They were able to get in to the law and that’s how it was approved that the companies of the Orinoco belt pay income taxes not at 50%, but at 30% or 34%, we are going to modify this law.” Chavez said on Sunday.
Although the timeline for this modification appears to be still undefined, it was reported that such a tax increase could generate additional revenue of $785 million annually.
Chavez first raised the royalty two years ago on the Orinoco belt companies. The royalty increase from 1% to 16% led to $1.28 billion in revenue last year.
Chavez said on Sunday that new taxes are a result of the fact that with oil prices at record highs, oil companies operating in Venezuela are making "a lot of money."
The large revenues that Venezuela is receiving from its petroleum reserves have helped it to fund various social programs both in Venezuela and abroad, such as the popular social programs known as “missions,” and the discounted heating oil program for North Americans in situations of poverty. Last year, 180,000 North Americans benefited from low-priced heating oil supported by CITGO subsidiary of PDVSA.
These new taxes come just days after the latest South-American energy summit and almost a week after Bolivia nationalized its oil and gas reserves, a move which Chavez has applauded.

President Chavez's Speech to the 6th World Social Forum - Americas

2006-05-08T08:58:00.000+02:00

Friday, May 05, 2006

By: Hugo Chávez Frías

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, Constitutional President Of The Bolivarian Republic Of Venezuela

Forum for the People’s Anti-Imperialist Struggle, VI World Social Forum

Poliedro, Caracas, Friday, January 27, 2006

President of the Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez: Every time that I come to a very special event like this one, special because, first of all, these are events are overflowing with passion; I always come with the desire, the intention and commitment to reflect on issues and ideas. And there lies the perpetual dilemma— passion vs. reason— but both are necessary. I never know where to begin speaking in events as beautiful as this; I always cover the ideas that flow from the grand emotion, like that which I feel tonight in this gathering of the World Social Forum and in this anti imperialist event. I will begin.

Good evening to all. I greet and welcome you…
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: Is that the Frente Miranda? Good, I want to greet everyone of you collectively and individually and welcome our illustrious guests that came from the four cardinal points of the world to this Caracas, to this Venezuela, to this South America.
Welcome! Welcome to this homeland and consider it your own, sisters and brothers of the world.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: I want to greet the social organizations that are visiting us, that have a presence in this Forum: La Agencia Latinoamericana de Información; Articulación Feminista Marco Sur; Alianza Social Continental; Asamblea de los Pueblos del Caribe, APAC; Comité para la Anulación de la Deuda del Tercer Mundo; Confederación Internacional de Organizaciones Sindicales Libres; Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales; Congreso Laboral Canadiense; Confederación Mundial del Trabajo; Coalición Internacional para el Hábitat; Convergencia de los Movimientos de los Pueblos de las Américas; Consejo Nacional Indígena del Ecuador; Congreso Nacional Indígena de México; Consejo Mundial de Iglesias; Coordinación del Foro el Otro Davos; Coordinadora de Centrales Sindicales del Cono Sur; Encuentros Hemisféricos contra el ALCA; Frente Continental de Organizaciones Comunitarias; Federación Mundial de Juventudes Democráticas; Federación Democrática Internacional de las Mujeres; Green Peace; Consejo Internacional de Educación de Adultos; Red Global de Organizaciones Comerciales Justas; Foro Internacional en Globalización; Instituto Pablo Freire; Instituto Brasileño de Análisis Socioeconómico; Servicio de Prensa Internacional; Jubileo Sur; Movimiento de los Trabajadores Sin Tierra; Centro Norte Sur; Organización Continental de Estudiantes Latinoamericanos y Caribeños; Organización Regional Interamericana de Trabajadores; Osfami Internacional; Plataforma Interamericana de Derechos Humanos; Democracia y Desarrollo; Red Latinoamericana de Mujeres Transformando la Economía; Agricultores, Campesinos, Sociedades y Mundialización; Red Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Mujeres Negras; Red Transformadora; Redes de Socioeconomía Solidaria; Observatorio Social; Instituto Transnacional Red del Tercer Mundo; Foro Mundial de Redes de la Sociedad Civil; Unión Internacional de Estudiantes; Vía Campesina; Asociación Mundial de Radios Comunitarias; Marcha Mundial de Mujeres; Comunicación Alternativa; Asamblea de los Pueblos del Caribe; Asociación Latinoamericana de Educación Radiofónica; Intérpretes y Traductores Voluntarios; Campaña Continental Contra el ALCA y contra el TLC; Cáritas; Central Unitaria de Trabajadores del Brasil, CUT; Coalición Internacional para el Hábitat; Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo y la Solidaridad; Comité de Defensa de la Humanidad; Conferencia Nacional sobre Desarrollo Social; Congreso Permanente de Unidad Sindical de los Trabajadores de América Latina; Consejo de Educación de Adultos de América Latina; Consejo Internacional de Educación de Adultos; Diálogo Sur-Sur; Federación Democrática Internacional de Mujeres; Federación Internacional de Derechos Humanos; Federación Mundial de Juventudes Democráticas; Foro Mundial de las Alternativas; Foro Social Caribeño; Frente Continental de Organizaciones Comunitarias; Fundación de Acción, Estudios y Participación Social; Global Exchange; Grito de los Excluidos y las Excluidas; Coalición Internacional del Hábitat; Movimiento por la Paz, la Soberanía y la Solidaridad entre los Pueblos; Observatorio Euro Latinoamericano sobre el Desarrollo Democrático y Social; Organización Continental Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Estudiantes; Organización Regional Interamericana de Trabajadores; Red por la Democratización Global; Toronto Social Forum; Red Latinoamericana Mujeres Transformando la Economía; Educación Popular entre Mujeres; Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas y Afrocaribeñas.

And many other social organizations that fight for a different world, a better world, a peaceful and just world, which is not only possible, but is necessary, a world that we are obligated to build. Right Now! Now! Not tomorrow, we will not leave for tomorrow what we can do well today.

I want to specifically greet many friends, comrades, and companeros who are here. Abel Prieto, Cuban Minister of Culture, is with us; Kamil Chambers, Haitian activist, is representing the heroic people of Haiti; Walden Bello of the Philippines; Samir Amin; long time friends and activists who are examples to us all: Ignacio Ramonet, Ricardo Alarcon, Blanca Chancoso, Juan Ferrer, Richard Gott, Cindy Sheehan— for you a kiss, valiant woman and heroic mother; Beverly King, Aleida Guevara, friend and compañera; Marcelo Barros, Bernard Cassen, and many others—To you all I extend a greeting, an embrace and all my affection.

Welcome, then, to this event that will no doubt mark history. And welcome to Caracas. Caracas, like all cities of our America and the world, has its history, right? Its history. Caracas has been the scene in recent centuries of often resounding and horrifying events of various magnitude that have helped to mark the people’s struggles for liberation.

Caracas! Here Simón Bolívar was born and here remain the ashes of the Father Liberator, that great man of our America, who one day realized that, like Christ, he would not in his lifetime be able to see or hear, or feel the concretion of the dream, of the utopia. Bolívar said, among so many notable phrases demonstrating his love, his sacrifice and his anguish, he said: “The grand day of South America still has not arrived…” Bolívar said this shortly before his death in 1830.

Here in Caracas Francisco de Miranda was born, universal Venezuelan, infinite Caraqueño. Francisco de Miranda.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: Francisco de Miranda is an unparalleled individual. Miranda went to battle, sword in hand, in the three great revolutions of his time. First he fought in the U.S. War of Independence fighting together with the people of the United States, alongside Washington, Madison etc., and there he was in all glory in Pensacola, Florida and the Bahamas.

In a few years he appeared over in Moscow, as a Russian Colonel, and there in the court of Grand Catalina.
A few years later he appeared on horseback, sword in hand, commander of the northern army of the French Revolution, crying out: “Liberty, equality, fraternity!”
Napoleon Bonaparte said of Miranda: “He is a Quixote without the madness,” Marshal of Revolutionary France.

And later, exactly 200 years ago, already nearly 60 years old, already with white hair, Miranda came crossing the seas and waters of the Caribbean, with three boats, a tricolor flag, and a project: the liberation of Latin America, South America, and the Caribbean; and their integration into a singular grand southern republic.

On February 2, 1806 Miranda left New York with the expedition that was the precursor to the Independence Revolution of not only Venezuela but also South America. It was Miranda who invented the name Colombia and Miranda who called for the union of South America.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: In addition, inspired by the profound roots of South America, by the “Incanato”, taking inspiration- I repeat- from the great Inca civilization that once existed here and that is now rising once again, from the shores of Lake Titicaca, from Tiwanaku, Cuzco. We saw them over there recently, the Incas rising once again, along with the Aymara, Quechua, Aztecs, Caribs, and Mayas: fulfilling the prophesy of Tupac Katari who was murdered by the Spanish empire. Tupac Katari he said: “Today I will die, but some day I will return by the millions,” Tupac Katari has returned and has become millions, Tupac Amaru has returned and has become millions.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: It seems like it was an extraordinarily positive idea to hold part of The World Social Forum, in its VI edition, Mali, -- I regret that I couldn’t attend this last week. Samir Amin and Bernard Cassen told me it was a total success. They were there, in Africa.
Viva Africa!
Audience: Viva!

President Chávez: We carry Africa inside us, Africa is part of us, Latin Caribbean America cannot be understood without Africa and the sacrifice of Africa and the grandeur of Africa, brother continent, brother people.

The Forum now here in Caracas will again be held in Pakistan in coming months as it had to be postponed due to the terrible earthquake and the tragedy Pakistani people have experienced. Asia, Africa, Latin America.
Here we are again, once again, a new offensive has been unleashed by the peoples of Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia, against global imperialism, call it whatever they will.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: It seems to me that what the WSF organizers, and all the movements making up the forum and promoting it are doing, and will continue doing, is absolutely necessary. I am completely sure they will continue. I said this at some meeting last year in Asia, I don’t know where, in some meetings with some compañeros; and here in Latin America I have said it too:
Think of how the liberation processes in recent centuries have been attempted, I mean, they were launched in a staggered manner, at different times and in different places, they could not work together, they were isolated from one another, they could not communicate or connect with each other.

Two hundred years ago in these lands of America, a popular offensive was launched and it attempted to forge the path to what Simón Bolívar called “the equilibrium of the universe.”
Simón Bolívar was a great visionary, as Francisco Pibidal says, a precursor of anti-imperialism, because even as early as 1826, Bolívar sensed the threat of North America against us and sent up an alert, and tried to convince his compañeros to form a Southern union, a great political body in South America and in the Caribbean, we recall that Bolívar–and it is written- was even planning for the independence of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Haiti, because he said that Gran Colombia could not be complete or have meaning without the Caribbean.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: So, 200 years ago, those peoples, the grandparents of our grandparents understood, and took some important steps. They defeated the Spanish empire that had been here for 300 years, but Bolívar warned in that prophetic phrase, that says it all: “The United States of America appears to be destined by providence to plague America with misery in the name of liberty…”
In another letter he said: “There is a very large and powerful nation, very hostile and capable of anything...” that was in 1825 or 1826. Bolívar was ahead of his time.

Now, in the beginning of the 19th century, strong liberating currents were unleashed in Latin America and the Caribbean, and leaders emerged of such magnitude as San Martín, Bolívar, O’Higgins, Abreu and Lima, Manuela Sáenz, Juana Ramírez, Josefa Camejo, José Gervasio Artigas. Now, obviously those movements in South America, in the Caribbean, had no relation or connection to any movement in Africa, much less in Asia, they were separate worlds, that was the other side of the world, the movements here failed, and today in Latin America and the Caribbean, we are living the consequences of that failure. Bolívar summed it up saying: “We have sewn the sea. Jesus Christ, Don Quixote and me: the three great fools of history...”

Then a century passed, and certainly there were struggles in Latin America during the 20th century from early on. Anti imperialist movements, Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, two true symbols of “Latin Americanism”, of the unredeemed force of those who resist empires, launched revolutionary movements, here, for example. Juan Carlos Prestes must also be remembered, the horseman of hope...
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: and Sandino.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: Farabundo Martí.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: Of course, I am going to ask you all, just like the Barros brothers requested, to stand and lift your voices for a minute of shouts and “vivas” for Schafik Handal. Viva Schafik Handal!
Audience: Viva! [Cheering and ovation]

President Chávez: Viva Farabundo Martí!
Audience: Viva!

President Chávez: Viva Schafik! Brother! You are with us in this battle!
Audience: Cheering y Applause

President Chávez: Salvadorian brother take your blue sombrero/
I sing to you of the green that is the color of your cornfields/
Not the green of the berets of the tropical murderers/
Those who went to Vietnam to burn the rice paddies/
And who want to walk through these towns as if they were their stockyards.
Come on! Salvadoran!
Come on! there are no small birds!
Come on! that, once airborne!
Come on! cease to fly!
Viva Schafik!
Audience: Viva! Applause

President Chávez: You know something? I met Schafik for the first time in San Salvador. We went just after being released from jail, and a strange thing happened; well, in truth it was not strange, but it seemed strange, the leftists of Latin America looked on us with trepidation, they kicked us out of the assembly. They had their reasons: “A colonel who led a military coup. A caudillo.” And think of media campaign against us, which was launched the very same day: Tuesday February 4, 1992. That media campaign still has not ended, and will not end, but as we have thus far defeated the campaigns of the national and international oligarch and imperialism, we will continue to defeat it.

Well, but Schafik rose above all that and invited me to a Forum, which that year was in San Salvador, the Sao Paulo Forum. There we were, and I remember that by majority decision by the Forum organizers, I was not allowed to address the Assembly. I told them: That’s fine; I didn’t come here to talk to the assembly. I came to see what this is all about, to learn, to learn out about movements, political parties, and leaders, to listen to speeches, to take good notes, to learn to integrate myself. We have gone through a long process here forming a national, Bolivarian, Revolutionary movement within the national army. It took exactly 17 years. It took us 17 years to form this Bolivarian Movement in the bosom of the Armed Forces that later emerged to unite with the Venezuelan people, already in rebellion February 4, 1992.

Later Schafik had the delicacy, the firmness, the courage, the spirit to approach me, we had not met personally, and he invited me to the table the he had coordinated, and offered excuses for the debate that resulted from my surprise appearance in the Assembly.
And later we were together all day, at the table, and later to present conclusions, and that night we talked again, and since then we have been great friends and I learned to love, respect and admire that great compañero, that great compañero.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: And years later, Schafik was always either here or Schafik on the telephone, always in solidarity: during the coup he came here and told me: “Chávez, if you lack a soldier I am here, give me a rifle if you are lacking...”
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: And later I saw him in La Paz, he was happy, like all of us, looking at the Indian, at Evo, Tupac Katari who has arrived, multiplied a million times.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: We were happy, overjoyed, I was on the balcony with Evo watching the military parade, and in the Audience, I saw him, unmistakably, and I said: Evo, there is Schafik! and we sent for him; and he came up on the balcony and I hugged him. He was fine. Then we saw Tomas Borges, and I said, tell him to come up too and they both came up to the balcony. The balcony was tiny, but they came up one by one. Nohelí Pocaterra, Nohelí is over there, I called her to come up too, and Nohelí Pocaterra came up. Happy, Happy; and I said to Schafik—because more than once I have run into him and invited him to come along with me; just like Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque who has a permanent seat on my airplane, wherever I find him, I pick him up.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: Well, I said look Schafik lets go to the Forum together, and he told me that he would go to El Salvador first.
I am never going to forget because he said to me: “No Hugo…” well, first he said yes, that he would come with me directly to Caracas, and Tomas Borges too, they had planned to come to the Forum, and I said, well let’s go.
In the end, due to time factors, I had to stay there the next day to sign with Evo a group of cooperation agreements to help Bolivia, to assist Bolivia, the Bolivian people, our brothers of Bolivia and our brother Evo.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: One of the conventions that we already signed and we are poised to begin fulfilling now, has to do with all the fuel that Bolivia is importing. This is one of the realities of our colonial economies: Bolivia, which has so much energy, has to import fuel; just like Ecuador, Blanca. Ecuador exports crude petroleum and imports fuel. See, Colonialism!
So, I insist that what has been reinitiated in Latin America is the same process that Bolívar, San Martín, O’Higgins, and Artigas left pending: Independence...
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: Full independence.
So, with Evo we signed, among others this conventions: we are going to supply all the fuel that they need, that they import, and they are not going to pay us with currency, because they don’t have any, Bolivia has been robbed for centuries. So they are going to pay the equivalent, in what? In soy.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: In chicken, beef, and all they produce there. This was one of the conventions we signed. The other was the Literacy Plan that we will carry out with Cuba, Cuba and Venezuela with Bolivia, a Literacy Plan…
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: And we have offered, between Fidel and me, that is, between Cuba and Venezuela, 5,000 grants from Cuba and 5,000 from here; 10,000 grants for Bolivian youth to study in universities and technical schools…
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: So, that is why I had to stay. After they invited me to the San Andrés University, there in La Paz, Schafik told me,” No, Chávez, Its better if I go to El Salvador, take care of a few things there, meet up with some compañeros who are going to come with me, and we’ll see you in Caracas, in the anti-imperialist act.” Well, here is Schafik, he is with us at the anti-imperialist act. Viva Schafik!
Audience: Viva!

President Chávez: Ok, I was talking then about time and space, since these are two vital variables that must be considered when planning or activating any strategy: time and space.
In the 20th century, I said, certainly there were revolutionary movements, right from the start. The last men on horseback rode with Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, Pedro Perez Delgado, Juan Carlos Prestes -- it was the last charge of the cavalry.
And then the revolutionary movements of the 60’s swept the continent, from North America to the Southern Cone. Symbolic heroes of those times, Ernesto Guevara, “Che” Guevara, who today also lives on with us, and Fidel Castro...
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: And Schafik Handal and how many others over the length and breadth of the continent, here in Venezuela, Colombia, South America, Central America.
But in the 60’s, the independence movements were unleashed with force, revolutionary movements in Africa, and Asia, that had a very strong impact on the whole world. Just like in the 19th century, when Simón Bolívar and his most progressive and loyal compañeros convoked and made possible the Congress of Panama, which was an ephemeral window or door that opened toward integration, unity and liberation.

Likewise in the 20th century a window or door opened even farther in Asia and in Africa, 50 years ago, when leaders met for the Bandung Summit, in Indonesia. Leaders of the world wide, universal workshop put forth that project: Nehru, Nasser, Sukarno— and they promoted it from positions of power.
Take note— from positions of power, of government—just like Bolívar tried to do here in these latitudes during the 19th century. From positions of government they called for unity, but they could do no more, neither could they in the 20th century.

They scattered, pathways opened, and the people fell back into despair, many movements lowered their flags, others took the road of sacrifice, others remained firm like an invincible rock in the middle of the sea with a flag raised high, like the Cuban people and Fidel Castro –their leader-and his leadership and his people.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: But we must keep in mind how they isolate Cuba, and how all the governments of this continent, some more than others, turned their backs on Cuba, fearing the empire.
Now here comes the 21st century, or I should say the 21st century has arrived. I propose that we draw strength from the centuries, that we draw on talent, that we draw on the love deep within us— love, like you made us feel today with your invocation, brother.

There is a phrase that I have head heard Fidel Castro use several times: “strategic talent,” the perfect strategy that is missing, the perfect strategy. We must draw all this and much more from the depths of our souls, our very fibers, our muscles, nerves, minds, and spirits so that in this 21st century we can unite the movements the people of Latin America, the Caribbean, North America, Asia and Africa especially into one struggle. Then we will change the course of history in this 21st century, we will change the course of history.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: I believe it is possible, and everyday I am more convinced of it. The year 2005 has ended, many things happened in 2005, but it is over. And just think, here in Latin America on November 4th and 5th, Mr. Danger, the very one, in person, went to Mar del Plata: he had a celebration planned, pressuring, blackmailing, and using all the dirty war tactics typical of this empire... and especially this empire, this empire that we face is the most perverse, murderous, genocidal, and immoral that this planet has known in 100 centuries. There has never been a more perverse empire than this one, and cynical, this is a cynical empire!
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: Because the Roman Empire admitted to being an empire, but Mr. Danger talks of democracy, he talks of human rights; the Roman Empire didn't talk about human rights, it was an empire; and the empire of Alexander the Great had nothing to do with human rights, it was an empire.
Ah, but no! this one, this one talks of human rights, and now we have just been informed that they want to include Venezuela on their annual list of countries that support terrorism
Audience: Booing

President Chávez: Mister Danger talks about Human Rights while imprisoning our five Cuban compatriot heroes, violating all the laws and principals of law. Mister Danger talks of human rights while in Guantánamo people are tortured and people disappear in secret CIA jails in Europe and around the world.
Look at how the cynical government says that it fights against terrorism while protecting two of the worst terrorists in the history of the world, Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosh (who has been protected for a long time), both were police chiefs here. Here they murdered, tortured, kidnapped— and there, they are protected…
Audience: Booing

President Chávez: And throughout the world… We just discovered a case, another case of espionage here. But we say to the empire of Mr. Danger, that with all their maneuvers, with all the power they have, and money and technology, etc., they are not going to beat us, they are not going to beat us…
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: I warn the government of the U.S. that the next time that we detect U.S. military or civil personnel, especial U.S. military personnel trying to obtain information from our Armed Forces, we are going to throw them in jail...
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: Now, listen, I mentioned the year 2005, so that we can see how and where we are positioned, those of us who strongly state that, yes, it is possible to change the world, and to illustrate that every day there are more reasons to be optimistic and to work with more determination for the promotion of social movements, the articulation of social movements, to retake the position of a great international anti-imperialist front to do battle throughout the world, the battle must global...
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: We have to link up all our causes, unity, unity, unity, movements united respecting diversity, respecting the autonomy, no one is planning to impose anything on anyone, only coordination, unity, because if we don’t work together we will never triumph not even if we fight for 500 years, only united can we do it, uniting our moral and intellectual forces, our ideas, our diversity, out physical strength, our social movements, our political movements, our local governments.

A World Forum of Local Powers was held here, as a part of the overall Forum: mayors of half the world, governors, national governments, respecting the differences of each country and of each government.
And I remember last year, in the Gigantinho, I told my compañeros and brothers of Brazil, I talked to them about Lula and told them that he is a great man and that they have to work with Lula and support Lula. Everything is a process, we go step at a time. Likewise they have to support Evo and all the warriors…
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: That is, nobody can ask me to do the same as Fidel does, the circumstances are different; like Lula cannot be asked to do the same as Chávez; or Evo cannot be asked to do the same as Lula; or Kirchner cannot be asked to do the same as Fidel or Chávez, each has their own circumstances, but we walk the same path, in the same direction and that’s what is important…
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: That is what we have to recognize; we move along the same path.
Look, the empire is very intelligent, the empire knows what it is doing, well, it doesn’t always know what it is doing, but in this case it does. Take note, intellectuals of diverse origin and the media, have spent two years promoting the divisive idea that although the left is gaining ground in Latin America, several lefts exist: Fidel and Chávez are the crazies— and now they include Evo too; and others, like Lula, Lagos, Tabaré and Kirchner are “statesmen”; but Chávez and Fidel are crazy, the “crazy left.” Fine, call us what they will, but we are going to give the right the greatest defeat ever on this continent, which will be remembered for 500,000 years.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: "Well, what I was telling you was that at the end of 2005 Mr. Danger went to Mar del Plata with everything sewn up, or so he thought, everything had been coldly calculated, thought Mr. Danger, but it all fell apart because despite all the pressure they exerted, as I told the Social Summit in Mar del Plata and I told the media, that whoever wants to know where the Free Trade Area of the Americas is, go and find it in Mar del Plata. That's where it's buried!
Audience: Ovation

President Chávez: "Whoever wants to see it, go and look for it there. Take a shovel, a digger, whatever..."
So, look how much we have advanced. I remember that in the Canada Summit in Québec, Venezuela was alone against the FTAA; because Cuba, Cuba was excluded from these meetings, very “democratic”, right? [laughs] Very democratically they excluded Cuba. Which is a point of reflection that I always mention to the Presidents and people of Latin America. The day will come. I am sure the day will come when the governments of Latin America have reached such a level of unity that we will not accept imposition such as this.

Because the exclusion of Cuba is simply an imposition by the empire, that’s all.
But I remember a comment made to me by Khadafi once, there in Trípoli. A meeting in Europe had been called and the countries of Africa were invited, but someone there in Europe complained about the inclusion of Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe. So a group of African heads of state stood up and said: “If Mugabe is not going, neither are we. If Mugabe is not going, there is no meeting.”
Audience: Ovation

President Chávez: I believe that day will come, Alarcón, in honor of the unity of our peoples and the greatness of the Cuban people, I believe the day will come–we are heading towards it— in which there will be a much higher level of conscience, of unity, to defend our dignity as a collective, as a people, because were are all one community, the people of Latin American, the people of the Caribbean.

Now, in addition to the defeat of ALCA, there in Mar del Plata where we presented a united front, they could not, despite seven hours of debate, of face to face battle, they could not bring to their knees five presidents: Kirchner, Lula, Tabaré, Nicanor Duarte and this servant: Mercosur plus Venezuela, we aligned ourselves and said no to the attempt to impose into the document the obligation to again begin discussing what is inconsiderable, what is impossible: the FTAA! The imperialist and colonialist proposal of the U.S. government.

Instead, we are firmly moving forward toward integration, toward a new level of integration in Latin America and the Caribbean. The ALBA (Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas) is already a reality: Cuba and Venezuela. Between Cuba and Venezuela we have succeeded in consolidating a mechanism of integration, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas: ALBA!
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: I have to be in Havana in a few hours. Probably before you all return, Alarcón, Abel. In a few hours I have to be in Havana to continue giving form and strength to the integration and to the “Axis of Evil”, like some call us.

Some in South America have called us the “Chakal Group” (Chávez-Kirchner-Lula) “Cha-K-L”. “Chakal Group”.
We are taking many steps toward integration, true integration, not just one of words. One of these steps is a gas pipeline, a mega gas pipeline to supply the development of South America, to support the energy needs of the South American countries, a gas pipeline nearly 8 thousand kilometers long, from the Caribbean coast of Venezuela to Río de La Plata, to supply Venezuelan gas to the South, to all of South America, because Venezuela has one of the largest gas reserves in the world, and Venezuela has the largest petroleum reserve of any country in the world, that is the fundamental reason for the desperation of Mister Danger.

They want our oil and our gas, they've had it for 100 years, now we have recovered it and this oil is for the development of our people and of the poorest countries of the continent. Venezuela will never again be a colony of the United States of America -- never again...
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: Ok, I want to insist, I wand to insist, Abel, Ignacio, Blanca, Juana, Cindy, Aleida, Marcelo, Bernard Cassen and everyone of you, I want to insist that there are reasons that we are optimistic, there are reasons, things are happening that five years ago could not have happened, including a movement on the rise within the U.S. that every day gains strength, conscience and unity.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: Remember Cindy, who began alone in a tent there in Texas. In front of the ranch of Mister Danger she pitched her tent, a tent of hope, of morality.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: How do you say esperanza in English? Hope. Is that right? Hope, hope. Mrs. Hope. How do you say señora in English?... I love you too, Cindy!
Just a few hours ago I was watching some statements by… you know who? Harry Belafonte. Harry Belafonte, who visited us a few weeks ago and Belafonte…, spent a few days here along with Danny Glover of the TransAfrica Forum, and they saw and felt what is going on here. Belafonte said it on Aló President, and later upon his departure, he reconfirmed it to me. He said: “President, another time is coming, I am going to dedicate what is left of my life to this new movement.”
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: And I hope that Harry Belafonte has many years remaining. Well, I have seen now an interview he gave to CNN in which they had asked him why he said a great truth here. He said that the worst terrorist in the world is named Mr. Bush. It’s true, he is the worst terrorist in the word. Now they are proving it.
I think that finally distinct movements are rising in the U.S. We have to remember the tragedy of Katrina and the national movement of indignation that emerged upon seeing millions of citizens abandoned by their government, left to their own luck, especially the poor, the black, the Latinos. Well, everyone.
Audience: Booing

President Chávez: Viva the people of the U.S.!
Audience: Viva!

President Chávez: We count on you, compañeros, we count on you.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: This must be clear, Carlos Marx said it, I read it recently in a book by our friend the Hungarian philosopher István Mészáros, we must save the world, the people can save this world, but essential to this formula to save the world are the people of the U.S., the conscience of the U.S. people, the resurrection of the U.S. people.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: United with the people of the Caribbean, the people of Latin America, the people of Asia, Africa and Europe.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: Ok, so, there are many reasons to be optimistic now, entering 2006, entering the 21st century, and in this splendid scenario that has filled Caracas with magic, with indescribable beauty, with the fervent passion of youth and of distinct and diverse tendencies of our world.

I think that the importance of this Forum is growing. Because the Social Forum is the result of the battles in Seattle, in Cancún, the battles against the World Trade Organizations, against the FTAA, against neoliberal globalization. There the Forum was born, of the fever of these battles.

It would be painful if in this moment, six years later, five years after, we tallied the score and found that we are on the defensive or we are in retreat. No, the global tally of these last five years, including the latest triumph of the Bolivian people, and that which is occurring in Africa, and including this forum and its extreme success, we must come to the conclusion— we, who fight for a different and better world, we who have lifted the flags of revolution, we are on the offensive. Those who defend injustice and inequality, they are in retreat.
Audience: Ovation

President Chávez: It is our turn, it is our turn to design a formula of unity, of offense, of victory. It will be a long road but, I repeat, there are sufficient elements with which to devise, with strategic talent, the perfect strategy for the coming years, the union of our people, of all the tendencies of indigenous, workers, campesinos, intellectuals, professionals, women, students, all the ecological tendencies, all those who fight for real human rights, those who fight for justice, equality, dignity. All of us must unite; join together in a victorious offensive against the empire.

Here in Venezuela, you all know, we are carrying forth a unique experience. A unique experience that has modestly contributed to the cause of all the transforming social movements, heading toward this new world, distinct, possible, and necessary: the Bolivarian Revolution.

This afternoon we held a graduation ceremony for a group of compatriots. Just think, through the pilot project of Mission Robinson II we handed out sixth grade, primary education diplomas to a group of Venezuelans who just two years ago couldn’t read or write, and in two and a half years— thanks to the aid of the Cuban Revolution, to their experience, to their people, to their methods, --these people learned to read and write and afterward began primary education which they completed in two years, and now they are beginning secondary school. And like one of them, who has five children, said today: “Well, I could not finish primary education before, my children already are in high school. Now I just finished primary study, if my kids are not careful, I will graduate before they do.”
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: I tell this story to share just one of the innumerable personal experiences resulting from the Bolivarian Revolution’s advancements in education, in health, in the fight against misery, against poverty, in the transformation of the economic model of the 20th Century, in the promotion of a new society of equals, where no one is excluded, in the promotion of a new political model: revolutionary democracy, participatory and protagonistic democracy, where the people are the essence and the fundamental actor in the political battle, instead of an elite that represents the “people,” representative democracy always ends up being democracy of the elites and therefore a false democracy. The only democracy that we believe in is the people’s democracy, participatory and protagonistic, charged by popular force, by popular will...
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: For this, in these years we have had to resist distinct aggressions of the empire, because imperialism first begins extending its hand, the “honey moon”: imperialism, the criolla oligarchy linked to the empire starts out, I repeat, offering its hand, – That’s what happened to me- one day I was at the White House, I was in several meetings In the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the WTO; the first year of my mandate: splendid dinners, the empire courting me.

Later, when they realized that this servant, servant of all of you, did not go there to sell out nor to betray the heroic people of Venezuela, nor to add myself to the long list of traitors—then the offensive against us began, the imperialist aggressions that culminated in the coup of April 11, 2002. You all know through documents that have been made public that the coup was part of the plan, the strategy of the U.S., the imperialist strategy, the preventative war: to eliminate any threat—they say, according to their own classifications of what constitutes a threat— before it takes form.

They launched against us the aggression, the coup, the terrorism, as part of a plan to first take control of Venezuela and the petro of Venezuela, and then after having assured Venezuelan oil, go to Iraq, for Iraq’s oil— which turned out to be the next year. But, so that we realize, and believe me this doesn’t imply any underestimation of the empire, no, the empire is very powerful, but it is not invincible, that empire… just like the FTAA is buried in Mar del Plata… in this century we will burry the U.S. empire. Be sure of it!
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: This century we will bury it. Remember that the empire, with all its power, clashed against reality here, against the people, against the patriotic Armed Forces, the patriotic people, here they will fail and in Iraq also. It is not that they are failing in Iraq, it is that they have already failed in Iraq, they have failed in Iraq. And despite that, blindly, not recognizing defeat, they continue sacrificing hundreds and thousands of U.S. youth, and in addition continue massacring thousands of innocent Iraqi boys, girls, women and men.
From here, from this anti-imperialist Forum, we demand that the U.S. government cease aggression against the people of Iraq.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: The genocide in Iraq.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: Withdraw the troops... look, I am going to tell you all something, the days of the Katirna tragedy, finally, after I don’t know how many days, Mister Danger sent troops to New Orleans, and I saw on television, like we have seen the faces of U.S. soldiers in the streets of Bagdad or Faluya: looks of fear; that is, a combination of fear with aggression. How different is the face of a U.S. soldier pulling a child out of floodwaters to save her life. That is what the U.S. troops should be dedicated to! To attacking the poverty and misery growing in that country. Every day there are more poor people in the U.S., every day there is more misery in the U.S.— 40 million poor, every day increasing, and not only in the U.S.,

Just think how much they could achieve— which is why I said that in order to save the world we are lacking the participation of the people of the U.S.—Imagine, a government in the U.S…that would declare world peace! Imagine a U.S. government that would recall all its troops and submarines and atomic weapons dispersed around the planet. Imagine it! Imagine the 400 thousand million dollars that they invest every year in military spending used instead for education, healthcare, producing medicines, producing food…
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: If Cuba and Venezuela –with all our limitations-- were able in a year and a half to teach 1.5 million people in Venezuela to read and write and declare our country “ Illiteracy Free Territory,” just imagine what we could do if the governments, starting with the U.S. and the governments of the most powerful countries on earth, joined together in a universal campaign, but a real one, with real resources not with just scraps, and with all the scientific advances and technologies they have to fight against the terrible phenomenon of misery: poverty, illness, hunger.

Now, while we wait for this to happen, which we believe one day will happen, and this will depend especially on the people of the U.S., on the awaking of the giant that must be sleeping in the souls of those people, the awakening of the giant within U.S. territory, to unite with best causes and the best struggles for equality and liberty.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: Meanwhile we will advance in that direction as much as we can.
I commented about the spirit of being on the offensive that must inundate the world, and how the Bolivarian Revolution has modestly made contributions and is willing to contribute whatever possible towards this, respecting of course the autonomy of the social movements, of the activist tendencies. Last year in Porto Alegre when they told me that the organizers of the Forum had proposed and had decided to come to Caracas this January, immediately offered the service of our government and our people are willing to cooperate with the World Social Forum, respecting in an almost sacred way the autonomy of the social movements that are represented here. But at the same time I dare say, like I did last year in the Gigantinho, and we talked about it later in smaller groups, with Ignacio, with Bernard we talked… Look, the World Social Forum is extremely important to all that I have mentioned, in the worldwide offensive of social, political movements of governments and parliaments, etc., and it would be a tragedy, in my opinion, to allow the World Social Forum to become a simple festival, to become a yearly folkloric encounter...
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: A folkloric, tourist encounter, that would be terrible, because we would just be wasting time and we are not here to waste time. For this I continue encouraging the leaders of all the movements represented here, I continue encouraging them to agree to a united work plan, a united, universal plan of action, to impel these battles in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, I believe it is vital for the future of the world. Look, Karl Marx coined the phrase: “Socialism or death...”
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: Rosa Luxemburg said it too: “Socialism or death...”
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: Fidel Castro said it and continues to say it, but he first said it in the 60’s, and you all say it, and Che Guevara said it in the 60’s.
That is, for more than a century this phrase has traveled all around the world, they have tried to stamp it out, they have tried to bury the socialist project, but we would have to reply “those you have killed, enjoy good health.” They enjoy good health.

"But what I was going to tell you is that I believe that when Marx coined that phrase, he was very clear about what he was saying, and so was Rosa Luxemburg; but when they said it, I believe that they had the luxury of thinking about in future centuries, like Bolívar also thought about future centuries. Here in Angostura he once said: “Flying through the coming ages, my imagination is fixed on future centuries…” When Fidel began to talk about socialism or death, in the 60’s, surely he too was talking about the coming century—that is, the one that has arrived— I think they saw a margin of time for action. But equally, I believe that our margin for action has narrowed, that we haven't much time; I believe that we do not have the luxury to talk about future centuries; I believe – this may sound a little dramatic, but I believe it to be true – that we have reached the century in which the dilemma, a dilemma recognized by scientists and thinkers, will be resolved.

Recently reading Chomsky, I fell into this drama again. Chomsky is a thinker, a philosopher, a philosopher who has profoundly studied the human species, and this biologist, this philosopher, said that perhaps the human species was just an error of nature, he said that a species exits for about 100 thousand years on average, then they tend to disappear; he said that in history there has never been a species similar to the human species that has the vocation of self-extermination, he said that cockroaches and leeches have a sense of self- preservation millions of times more developed than our human species.

Bertrand Russell also said – he's a somber figure but he on our same path -, Russell says that one day, one day world peace will return, that for millions of years there have been worms and butterflies, fish and lizards, and there was peace on the planet until the human species appeared and the peace ended. And Russell said that perhaps one day, when the human species disappears, the peace of the butterflies will return… "It's hard to believe, isn't it? Doesn't one resist believing it? It's Hobbes, Thomas Hobbes, the Leviathan: man's wolf-man. I, as a man, deny it, resist it, I prefer to believe in Christ the Redeemer, in mankind, in the hope of mankind, I prefer to and I cling to, faith, and the humanism of the human species.

But there are sufficient reasons for doubt.
Now I believe that we are in the defining century, I believe that in this century it will be defined or decided whether the human species will survive or if the peace of the butterflies of Bertrand Russell will return, that’s what I believe.
My grandmother, my “old” mother, told me that her Indian grandmother used to tell her that the world would end in 2000.
I used to say, “But Grandma, how can the world end? If it is God’s world, it cannot end,” and she used to say: “I don’t believe it will end either, but they say so, it’s ancient prophecy.”

I repeat compañeros, compañeras; I think that time is short, I think that there is not much space to maneuver in, I think that there will be nothing beyond the 21st century if we do not change the world’s course in this 21st century, I think that the phrase of Karl Marx is today more valid and dramatic than ever, there is hardly any time left: socialism or death, but real death— of the entire human species and of life on planet earth, because capitalism is destroying the planet, capitalism is destroying life on earth, capitalism is destroying the ecological equilibrium of the planet. The poles are melting, the seas are heating up, the continents are sinking, forests and jungles are being destroyed, rivers and lakes are drying up; the destructive development of the capitalist model is putting an end to life on earth. I believe it’s now or never.

Remember Fidel’s expression, a while ago Fidel said in a document: “Tomorrow may be too late.” For this reason, I call on the World Social Forum, with all my respect for its autonomy, that I do not dispute nor will I ever dispute; but equally, I know that you all respect our autonomy to say what we think, and I think that from the Forum we must push very hard in the direction, in the formation of a grand worldwide anti-imperialist, alternative movement, that will engage the entire world and that has the capacity to connect, grow, and fight. I also think that we have begun taking steps in this direction. I think that we are moving away from the risk that we talked about in Porto Alegre, of the folklorization of the Forum, of a Forum that discusses and debates, but never arrives at conclusions.

It would seem strange to me, to say the least, if it is decided to be that way, but even if so, so be it, but we are not here to waste time. I insist in that, we are not here to waste time, we are talking about saving life on the planet, we are talking about saving the human species, changing the course of history, changing the world.
From here we have once again raised the banner of socialism to travel the new paths of the 21st century. The construction of a solid, authentically socialist movement on the planet.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: A new and fresh socialism here in Latin America. I believe that socialism, like Mariátegui said, must have a strong indigenous component,
Indigenous socialism, for example. We are not talking about copying models, I believe that copying models was one of the great errors of the socialist attempts of the 20th century, following the handbook. No, with this autonomy, with this diversity, with this force originating from every community, from our people. It was Galeano who said, I read it just recently, Galeano said:
“There is nothing less alien in these lands than socialism.” Because our indigenous, the native people of this continent, lived in socialism, and they live on, they have survived, devastated by development and capitalism, nevertheless they have persevered in many countries, our original people have preserved their socialist roots. And these socialist roots, these socialists seeds that they have conserved in many areas of our America are going to be so useful–Blanca Chancoso, Nohelí Pocaterra.

How useful they are going to be to us to promote the new socialism, our socialism, indo- American; I, a Christian like I am, I also believe that Christ and the authentic Christian tendencies have much to contribute to the socialist project of the 21st century in Latin America.
Audience: Applause

President Chávez: The true and authentic anti-imperialist Christianity. Christ was an anti-imperialist, he fought for the poor, for equality, I believe that our socialism, that which we are designing, inventing, promoting, is very Bolivarian, has much of Simón Rodríguez, utopian socialism; it has a lot of Abreu and Lima, the pernambucano; it has a lot of Mariátegui, much of Che, it has much of Fidel, much of Zapata, much of Pancho Villa, of Zamora; our own socialism that has to continue being invented. But this is the way, we haven’t the slightest doubt.

Finally, I congratulate everyone for the tremendous success of the Forum and I am sure that it will end a success on Sunday. A great impact, the Venezuelan people have been touched by it. You know? Above all by means of Cannel 8, Venezolana de Televisión, which is transmitting events here and there; ViveTV, Telesur, much has been transmitted by Telesur to various parts of the world, community media has been transmitting, collecting distinct expressions, our people are receiving men and women of the best causes in the world, showering them with faith, showering them with love, showering them with hope.

Thank you in the name of the Bolivarian people of Venezuela, and I repeat emphatically and passionately, from here at the World Social Forum, Thank you to the Landless Movement and all the movements represented here for the invitation.
Socialism or death!
Homeland…!
Audience: …or death!
President Chávez: We will prevail!
Audience: We will prevail!
President Chávez: A Bolivarian and Revolutionary hug to my sisters and brothers of Venezuela and the world.
Thank you very much.

Translated by Dawn Gable

Home Construction Benefits Venezuelans

2006-05-08T08:40:00.000+02:00

Caracas, May 5 (Prensa Latina) The Venezuelan government is seeking to design a financial structure for construction, including 110,000 homes this year, Finance Minister Nelson Merentes confirmed Friday.
"We strongly believe that if private and public sectors objectively come together, the economy will grow more and we will be able to reach corresponding solutions for our people," Merentes stated.
The Venezuelan minister asserted that his government counts on more than 3.5 billion dollars for the announced construction plan and expressed the commitment of his sector to analyze the financial design and models presented by the enterprises.
Referring to criticism of government policies, the official highlighted they are setting a new model, the socialism of the 21st century, which is already, at its emergence, showing positive results, and pointed to the reduction of unemployment and inflation rates as clear examples of Venezuela´s economic recovery.

The Story That Cries Out to be Told to the American People

2006-05-07T07:13:00.000+02:00

By: José Pertierra

Friday, Apr 21, 2006 - The Montreal Convention's Article 7 gives the US no discretion. It must either extradite or prosecute Posada Carriles for 73 counts of first degree murder in relation to the downing of the airliner. Deporting him to a third country is not an option and neither is releasing him to the community. The story of CU-455 cries out to be told to the American people. If the American people hear the true story of how those 73 people were murdered in cold blood by terrorists whom the United States prefers to shelter rather than prosecute, they'll not stand for it.
Three days ago in Miami, Luis Posada Carriles' accomplice in the downing of the Cuban passenger plane that was blown out of the sky with 73 innocent people on board on October 6, 1976 was interviewed by Juan Manuel Cao of Channel 41 in Miami. His name is Orlando Bosch.
I read you verbatim excerpts from the television interview
Juan Manuel Cao: Did you down that plane in 1976?
Orlando Bosch: If I tell you that I was involved, I will be inculpating myself . . . . and if I tell you that did not participate in that action, you would say that I am lying. I am therefore not going to answer one thing or the other.
Juan Manuel Cao: In that action 76 persons were killed (the correct figure is 73, including a pregnant passenger)?
Orlando Bosch: No chico, in a war such as us Cubans who love liberty wage against the tyrant, you have to down planes, you have to sink ships, you have to be prepared to attack anything that is within your reach.
Juan Manuel Cao: But don't you feel a little bit for those who were killed there, for their families?
Orlando Bosch: . . . Who was on board that plane? Four members of the Communist Party, five north Koreans, five Guyanese, (JP: there were really 11 Guyanese passengers) . . . concho chico, four member of the Communist Party chico!!! Who was there? Our enemies . . .
Juan Manuel Cao: And the fencers? The young people on board?
Orlando Bosch: I was in Caracas. I saw the young girls on television. There were six of them. After the end of the competition, the leader of the six dedicated their triumph to the tyrant etc etc. She gave a speech filled with praise for the tyrant. We had already agreed in Santo Domingo, that every one who comes from Cuba to glorify the tyrant had to run the same risks as those men and women that fight alongside the tyranny.
Juan Manuel Cao: If you ran into the family members who were killed in that plane, wouldn't you think it difficult . . . ?
Orlando Bosch: No, because in the end those who were there had to know that they were cooperating with the tyranny in Cuba.
Bosch's answers to those five questions give us a glimpse into the mind of the kind of terrorist that the United States government harbors and protects in Miami: terrorists that for the last forty-seven years have waged a bloody and ruthless war against the Cuban people.
What happened to Cubana de Aviación 455 almost thirty years ago is no secret. We need simply examine the CIA's own declassified cables. At the time, this was the worst act of aviation terrorism in history, and the first time that a civilian airliner was blown up by terrorists.
More than three months before CU-455 was blown out of the sky over Barbados on that sunny Wednesday afternoon of October 6, 1976, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) informed Washington that a Cuban exile extremist group planned to place a bomb on a Cubana de Aviación flight.
The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research reported to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that a CIA source had overheard Luis Posada Carriles say less than a month prior to the bombing that "we are going hit a Cuban airliner."
Neither Washington nor the CIA alerted Cuban authorities to the terrorist threat against their planes.
The bombing was carried out by Luis Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch, Hernán Ricardo and Freddy Lugo. Final preparations for the terrorist act began with the arrival of Orlando Bosch in Caracas on September 8, 1976. Bosch is a Cuban-born terrorist who was the acknowledged leader of an organization called Coordinación de Organizaciones Revolucionarias Unidas (CORU).
According to the FBI, CORU was an umbrella group of Cuban exile organizations that was formed to "plan, finance and carry out terrorist operations and attacks against Cuba." (FBI cable dated June 29, 1976).
When Bosch arrived in Caracas on the 8th of September of that year, Posada Carriles was there to greet and make available to him his right hand man: trusted confidante Hernán Ricardo, who has admitted under oath to be a CIA operative. In 1976, Ricardo was also an employee of Luis Posada Carriles at a private intelligence firm that the latter founded and ran in Caracas: Investigaciones Comerciales e Industriales (ICI). Ricardo says that Posada Carriles introduced him to Orlando Bosch at the ICI offices in Caracas.
To help him with the special operation that Bosch and Posada planned for him, Ricardo in turn recruited Freddy Lugo. A Venezuelan citizen, Lugo has also admitted under oath to be a CIA operative.
We know that the foursome of Posada, Bosch, Ricardo and Lugo met together at least four times to plan the downing of the plan.
At the meetings, the terrorists agreed upon the coded words they would use to describe the success of the operation. The plane would be known as the "bus", and the passengers would be called the "dogs." "The rest is up to you," Posada told Lugo and Ricardo.
The C-4 explosives were carried on board the aircraft by Ricardo and Lugo in a tube of toothpaste and in a camera.
Freddy Lugo and Hernán Ricardo boarded the CU-455 flight in Trinidad at 12:15 PM bound for Barbados. Ricardo traveled under a forged passport using a false name. They sat in the middle of the plane. During the flight, they placed the C-4 explosives in two separate places in the plane: the rear bathroom and underneath the seat belonging to Freddy Lugo. Lugo and Ricardo got off the plane during its brief stopover at Seawell Airport in Barbados. They later admitted under oath that they had each received special training in explosives from the CIA.
Aboard CU-455 were 73 persons. 57 of the passengers were Cubans. 11 of them were Guyanese medical students in Cuba. The remaining five passengers were Koreans. Those on board averaged only 30 years of age.
Traveling with the group were 24 members of the Cuban fencing team, many of them teen-agers, fresh from gold medal victories at the Youth Fencing Championship in Caracas. They proudly wore their gold medals on board the aircraft. One of the young fencers, Nancy Uranga, was only twenty-three years old and pregnant. She wasn't supposed to be on board. That spot on the fencing team belonged to a pretty little twelve-year old fencer, unusually tall for her age, named María González. María had planned to participate in the Caribbean Games, and was on the tarmac at Havana's José Martí Airport ready to board the plane that would take the team to the Games, when one of her coaches gave her the bad news that international amateur rules prevented twelve year olds from competing. María reportedly was devastated, and she went to her home in Havana's neighborhood called La Víbora, and cried for three days, refusing to watch the games on Cuban television because it hurt her so much not to be there. Nancy Uranga was summoned to the Airport and took María's place on the ill fated trip to the Caribbean Games.
The fencing team was a roaring success at the Games. They won gold, silver and bronze medals. They were to return home on October 6, 1976. The athletes proudly wore their medals dangling over their clothes, as they boarded the aircraft. Cubana de Aviación 455 stopped first in Trinidad at 11:03 AM, and then touched down again in Barbados at 12:25 PM.
Nine minutes after take-off from Barbados, the bombs exploded and the plane caught fire. The passengers on board then lived the most horrifying ten minutes of their lives, as the plane turned into a scorching coffin.
The cockpit voice-recorder captured the last terrifying moments of the flight at 1:24 PM: "Seawell! Seawell! CU-455 Seawell. . . ! We have an explosion on board. . . . . We have a fire on board." The pilot, Wilfredo Pérez (affectionately known as "Felo"), asked Seawell Airport for permission to return and land, but the plane and its passengers were already doomed. As the plane approached the shore, it was rapidly losing altitude and control. "Hit the water, Felo, Hit the Water," said the co-pilot. Rather than crashing into the white sands of the beach called Paradise and killing the beachgoers, Felo courageously banked the plane toward the water where it crashed in a ball of fire one mile north of Deep Water Bay.
Pieces of bodies were slowly recovered from the sea. Most of them too grotesquely disfigured to be identified by their family members. There were no survivors.
After deplaning, Lugo and Ricardo hurriedly left Seawell Airport in Barbados and checked into a local hotel under assumed names.
From the hotel, Hernán Ricardo called his bosses in Venezuela: Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles. Unable to find Posada at his desk, he left a message with Posada's secretary. He then called Caracas again and asked a mutual friend, Marinés Vega, to deliver the following message to Posada: "We are in a desperate situation, the bus was fully loaded with dogs . . . they should send someone I can recognize . . . I will be waiting in a soda fountain near the embassy just in case something happens and I need to ask for asylum there."
Ricardo was able to communicate with Bosch who allegedly said to him: "my friend we have a problem here in Caracas. An aircraft is never blown up in midair . . .", implying that the plan had been for the bomb to explode while the plane was on the ground before take-off.
Sensing how hot things were getting for them in Barbados, Lugo and Ricardo boarded a return flight to Trinidad on British West Indies Airlines that very evening. On the flight, Ricardo said to his buddy: "Damn it, Lugo, I'm desperate and feel like crying. I had never killed anyone before."
In Port of Spain, the terrorists checked into the Holiday Inn with false identities and made more desperate calls to Caracas, trying to reach Posada Carriles.
Their nervous demeanor at the airport and at the hotel, as well as their conversations in the taxis they took in Barbados and later in Trinidad, led the police to zero in on them as the primary suspects in the bombing. They were arrested and interrogated by detectives from the Trinidad police department.
Both confessed to Commissioner Dannis Ramdwar who took their written depositions. Lugo and Ricardo each admitted to being CIA operatives. Ricardo described in detail how he could detonate C-4 explosives and pointed to a pencil on Ramdwar's desk that was similar to the timer he used to detonate the explosive on board the plane. Ricardo also told the police in Trinidad that he worked for Luis Posada Carriles. He told Ramdwar that the head of CORU was Orlando Bosch and drew for the police an organizational chart of CORU and said that the terrorist organization was also known as Condor.
Upon hearing of the confessions of Lugo and Ricardo, the police in Caracas moved in and arrested Posada and Bosch. They also obtained a warrant and searched the offices of Posada Carriles where they confiscated weapons and sophisticated electronic monitoring equipment. The police also found a schedule of Cubana flights in Posada's Caracas office.
In one of the very first reports on the October 6, 1976, downing of Cubana Flight 455, the FBI Venezuelan bureau cables that a confidential source has identified Luis Posada and Orlando Bosch as responsible for the bombing. "The source all but admitted that Posada and Bosch had engineered the bombing of the airline," according to the report.
During the television interview three days ago in Miami, Bosch talked about an agreement reached between terrorists in Santo Domingo in June of 1976.
The FBI itself tells us about that secret agreement. According to an FBI report, Orlando Bosch, Luis Posada Carriles and other terrorists formed an umbrella terrorist organization called CORU at a meeting in the Dominican Republic. The FBI report details how at that meeting in the Dominican Republic, CORU planned a series of bombing attacks against Cuban entities, as well as the murder of Communists in the Western Hemisphere. On page 6, the report relates in great detail how Orlando Bosch was met in Caracas on September 8, 1976, by Luis Posada and other anti-Castro exiles and a deal was struck as to what kind of activities he could organize on Venezuelan soil.
After the arrests of Lugo, Ricardo, Bosch and Posada, Trinidad, Barbados, Guyana and Cuba ceded jurisdiction over the downing of the passenger plane to Venezuela, and all four were prosecuted in Caracas for murder.
Prosecuting terrorists has a price. The Judge who issued the initial arrest warrants for the four terrorists, Delia Estava Moreno, received several death threats and attempts at blackmail as reprisals for her conduct. As a result, she was forced to recuse herself. The presiding judge of the military court, Retired General Elio Garcia Barrios, also received death threats and in 1983, his son and chauffeur were murdered during a Mafia-style hit intended to even the score and intimidate those who dared legally prosecute the murderers.
Eventually, Lugo and Ricardo were convicted, but before the Court could reach a verdict regarding his case, Luis Posada Carriles escaped from the prison at San Juan de los Moros in the State of Guárico where he had been confined after two unsuccessful escape attempts.
Posada escaped with the help of at least $50,000 from a right wing extremist group in Miami.
Fifteen days after his escape from jail, Posada was smuggled out of Venezuela bound for Aruba on a shrimp boat. He spent a week in Aruba and was then flown by private plane to Costa Rica and then San Salvador. He immediately started working alongside Felix Rodriguez, a high ranking CIA member, at the Ilopango Airbase. Posada's job in San Salvador was to supply the Nicaraguan Contras with arms and supplies obtained through the sale of narcotics. This Operation became a scandal known as Iran-Contra. Felix Rodriguez was the CIA's point man in Central America for the Iran-Contra scandal, hired for the job by an old friend from the CIA Donald Gregg who was Vice-President Bush's National Security Advisor. According to Anna Louise Bardach who interviewed Posada while she was a reporter for the New York Times, "Posada noted with a certain pride that George Bush had headed the CIA from November 1975 to January 1977" -- a period that covered some of the most violent crimes committed by Cuban exiles and Operation Condor: including the Letelier assassination and the downing of the passenger plane.
Posada spent the next several years in Central America working for the security services of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. But in the early 90s he turned his attention once again to Cuba which was struggle to jump start a tourist industry in order to offset a dramatic economic downturn after the demise of the Soviet Bloc. From his lair in Central America he recruited Salvadoran and Guatemalan mercenaries to smuggle explosives to Cuba, and in 1997 bombs began to blow in the finest hotels and restaurants of Havana -- killing an Italian tourist named Fabio DiCelmo and wounding several others.
Cuba learned that the campaign of terror against its tourist industry was being financed by Miami exile organizations and orchestrated by Luis Posada Carriles in Central America. Faced with the FBI's refusal to reign in the terrorists in Miami, Cuba sent some very brave men to penetrate these terrorist organizations and gather information with the purpose of asking President Clinton to intervene and order the Feds to arrest the terrorists.
After gathering enough evidence to determine the source of the terror campaign, on May 1, 1998 Fidel Castro sent a personal emissary to Washington with a handwritten message to President Clinton: the emissary was none other than Nobel Prize for Literature Gabriel García Márquez. President Clinton was out of town for several days in California, and after waiting him out at the Hotel Washington for several days, García Márquez finally met with White House Chief of Staff Mac McLarty and gave him the letter. García Márquez recounts McLarty's reaction to the letter and quotes McLarty as saying to him: "We have enemies in common: terrorists".
In the wake of the Garcia Marquez visit, the U.S. sent an FBI team to Cuba a month later to discuss collaboration with Cuba on a "War On Terror". Cuba handed over to the FBI tapes of 14 telephone conversations of Luis Posada Carriles with details on the series of bombs that had exploded in Cuba in the 90s. Cuba also gave the FBI Luis Posada Carriles' addresses in El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Panama. Also tapes of conversations with Central American detainees in Cuba who admitted Posada is their boss. All together, Cuba turned over 60 sets of documents with information about 40 terrorists based in Miami, including their addresses, and evidence of their ties to terror.
Cuba then waited . . . and waited . . . and waited. Cuba waited to the FBI to start arresting terrorists. But instead the FBI arrested on September 12, 1998, the men now known as the Cuban Five: the men who had come to Miami to penetrate the Miami exile terrorist organizations.
According to El Nuevo Herald, the first persons that were notified of the arrests of the Cuban Five were Cong. Lincoln Diaz Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami.
The Five were charged with 62 counts of violating federal laws. Their arrests illustrates Washington's double standard when it comes to its so-called war on terror: a war that the U.S. government chooses to fight a la carte, distinguishing between terrorists it likes and those it doesn't.
The Five were placed in solitary confinement for the next 17 months, until the start of their trial. They were convicted of several charges and received the maximum sentences possible. Gerardo Hernandez received a double life sentence and Antonio Guerrero and Ramon Labañino on life sentence each. Fernando Gonzalez and René Gonzalez, got 19 and 15 years respectively.
They were sent to maximum security prisons across this country, and two of them have been denied visits from their wives for the past seven years in violation of U.S. laws and international law.
On August 9, 2005, a 3 judge panel of the Court of Appeals published a 93 page decision that reversed the convictions and sentences, ruling that the Five did not receive a fair trial in Miami and acknowledging evidence produced by the defense at trial that revealed terrorist actions by Miami exile groups against Cuba. The Court of Appeals even cited in a footnote the role of Luis Posada Carriles and correctly referred to him as a terrorist. The tree-judge panel found that "a perfect storm" of prejudice prevented the Cuban Five from having a fair trial in Miami.
The Bush Administration, through its Solicitor General, made a formal appeal to all 12 judges of the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, and out of apparent deference to the unusual request from the Department of Justice the Court of Appeals nullified the three-judge panel decision and agreed to hear the case en banc.
Attorney Leonard Weinglass who represents Antonio Guerrero said recently: "The Five were not prosecuted because they violated American law, but because their work exposed those who were. By infiltrating the terror network that is allowed to exist in Florida they demonstrated the hypocrisy of America's claimed opposition to terrorism."
As the Five were being prosecuted in Miami, the campaign of terror against Cuba continued. In November 2000, Posada Carriles was arrested in Panama along with three accomplices before they could carry out the plan to blow up an auditorium filled with students at the University of Panamá where Cuban President Fidel Castro was to speak. The four were convicted by a Panamanian Court, but on August 26, 2004, in one of her last acts as President, Mireya Moscoso pardons them in violation of Panamanian law. The three accomplices, all Cuban-Americans, go to Miami to be welcomed home. Posada Carriles who is neither a U.S. citizen nor a lawful permanent resident, goes underground in Honduras and begins to scheme a plan to go to the home of terrorism: Miami.
In March of 2005 he shows up in Miami and applies for asylum. For weeks he lives openly in that city, even going shopping at the mall. Before he is detained by anyone, Venezuela requests his preventive detention for the purpose of extraditing him to Venezuela to stand trial for 73 counts of first degree murder relating to the downing of the passenger plane in 1976.
Rather than exercising an extradition detainer on him, the Department of Homeland Security instead did nothing. It wasn't until Posada called a bizarre press conference in Miami on May 16, 2005 where he openly boasted that the DHS wasn't even looking for him, that government officials felt they had no choice but to detain him. He was detained immediately after the press conference and gingerly escorted in a golf cart with no handcuffs to a waiting helicopter.
Posada was charged with illegal entry into the United States and thus began the legal charade designed to divert attention from the extradition request that remains unattended by the Department of Justice.
As relief from deportation, Posada first claimed he was still a permanent resident of the U.S. In the alternative, he asked for asylum and protection from removal under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). Although it is true that he had been a permanent resident in the 60s, Posada long ago abandoned that status. After all, he has spent the last almost forty years living and killing abroad. Because of his long curriculum of terror, as a matter of law he does not qualify for asylum. That left him only with the possibility CAT relief.
It was then that we witnessed one of the sorriest episodes of legal maneuvering ever by Department of Homeland Security attorneys. Those handling the immigration matter of Posada Carriles at the Immigration Court in El Paso, Texas set the table for Posada to win CAT relief.
Posada called only one witness in his immigration case. A so-called expert on Venezuela who testified that in his expert opinion, Posada would be tortured if returned to Caracas. The witness testified that Venezuela tortures prisoners and that Posada would be surely tortured if sent back. That witness was none other than Joaquín Chaffardet, friend, business partner and lawyer of Luis Posada Carriles in Venezuela. Chaffardet had also been Posada's boss at the DISIP in the early 1970s, a man that Posada has been close to for the past forty years. The DHS never even cross-examined this guy! Its attorney never even raised the possibility that Chaffardet was not an objective, disinterested witness -- but instead was biased in favor of his friend, partner and client. Other than Chaffardet's questionable testimony, no other evidence in support of the theory that Posada would be tortured in Venezuela was presented.
DHS' tactic worked. Immigration Judge William Abbott credited Chaffardet's testimony as credible and found a "clear probability" that Posada would be tortured if returned to Venezuela. Judge Abbott ordered his removal from the United States, but not to Venezuela or Cuba because he would be tortured there. DHS declined to appeal the decision, and began a quest to find a third country that would take him. A few months earlier the DHS had appealed an Immigration Judge's decision to grant CAT relief to two Venezuelan officers. In that appeal, the same DHS attorney who litigated the Posada case argued that there is no evidence that Venezuela tortures prisoners. Now in the Posada case, DHS took a decidedly different position. Why? You figure it out.
More than six months have passed since the immigration decision. Since it has thus far refused to slap an extradition detainer on him (as Venezuela has requested numerous times), the U.S. government has to either release Posada or declare him a threat to the community. In a letter to Posada dated March 22, 2006, DHS decided to continue to detain him on immigration charges. The letter told Posada that he has a "long history of criminal activity and violence in which innocent civilians were killed." His release from detention concludes ICE in its letter to Posada, "would pose a danger to both the community and the national security of the United States."
In support of its interim decision to continue to detain him, ICE cites Venezuela's pending extradition case against Posada and the fact that Posada fled from a Venezuelan prison while his trial for the downing of a passenger plane in 1976 was pending. "Your past also includes your escape from a Venezuelan prison which was accomplished after several attempts utilizing threats of force, explosives and subterfuge," says ICE in its Decision.
ICE goes on to cite Posada's own statements to link him to the "planning and coordination of a series of hotel and restaurant bombings that occurred in Cuba . . . in 1997." These bombings resulted in the murder of an Italian tourist and the wounding of several others. ICE also cites Posada's conviction in Panama for "crimes against national security," in reference to his attempt to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro in 2000 with C- 4 explosives as President Castro was to speak to an auditorium with full of students.
So finally the US government recognizes that Posada is a bad guy! Without actually saying the dreaded word, the letter from ICE virtually calls him a terrorist. The law forced the United States to make this admission. Although it's clear that Washington doesn't want to extradite him to Venezuela, it is not prudent to release him. The only way that he can continue to be detained without an extradition detainer is with a government finding that he is a danger to the community.
But the extradition case is not going to go away. It's there, very much alive. Unless Posada has a heart attack and dies in prison, the law is eventually going to force the US government to proceed with the extradition case. A lot of people think that Judge Abbott's finding that Posada may not be deported to Venezuela is a ruling on Venezuela's extradition request. That is not the case. Extradition rulings trump immigration decisions.
Moreover, even if Secretary of State Rice decides in her discretion not to extradite Posada, the treaties and conventions signed by the US government in the past obligate this country to prosecute him for downing of the plane in the United States -- where noooooooooooo prisoners are ever tortured: right?
Listen to the language of the Montreal Convention on Civil Aviation.
"Article 7
"The Contracting State in the territory of which the alleged offender is found shall, if it does not extradite him, be obliged, without exception whatsoever and whether or not the offence was committed in its territory, to submit the case to its competent authorities for the purpose of prosecution. Those authorities shall take their decision in the same manner as in the case of any ordinary offence of a serious nature under the law of that State."
The Montreal Convention's Article 7 gives the US no discretion. It must either extradite or prosecute Posada Carriles for 73 counts of first degree murder in relation to the downing of the airliner. Deporting him to a third country is not an option and neither is releasing him to the community.
The story of CU-455 cries out to be told to the American people. If the American people hear the true story of how those 73 people were murdered in cold blood by terrorists whom the United States prefers to shelter rather than prosecute, they'll not stand for it.
Few people in this country know that Orlando Bosch was released from immigration custody by President George Bush Sr. in 1990, and that he now sits on the dais whenever President Bush Jr. delivers speeches in Miami. Bosch's lawyer, who happens to be Fulgencio Batista's grandson, was appointed four years ago by Jeb Bush to Florida's Supreme Court.
The fate of the Cuban Five is in the hands of 12 judges, but the judges must be put under the microscope of public opinion. Despite your best efforts, Americans still don't know who the Five are or why they went to Miami. It's important that you continue to make sure that their story is told: that the U.S. prosecutes and condemns anti-terrorists, yet shelters and protects terrorists.
It's up to the American people to put a stop to impunity, and it's up to you to make sure the American people learn the truth about these cases and this government.
It's up to you to bring the truth to the American people about Cuba and about Venezuela.
The US government conducts a hypocritical war on terror, while it shelters and rewards the terrorists it prefers. Washington lectures other governments about human rights, while it blockades Cuba, using hunger as a foreign policy tool, in order to try and starve 11 million people into submission.
We cannot sit idly by while the U.S. government blockades and invades countries that have never attacked it, tortures prisoners and takes their pictures as if the victims were curiosity pieces rather than human beings, as it spies on Americans without a warrant, and tramples the civil rights of its citizens with a law whose authors dared title "Patriotic."
In 2002, Washington helped organize a failed coup against a democratically elected government in Venezuela in order to prop up a typical puppet government in Caracas. Thanks to the Venezuelan people, the coup failed and President Chávez was restored to office.
The blockade against Cuba didn't work and neither did the coup in Venezuela. Cuba and Venezuela are now stronger than ever.
The Bush Administration's policies at home and abroad have woken a sleeping and silent giant throughout this continent. And, yes: America is one continent and not two as some U.S. textbooks would have us believe.
We are in the midst of a new social movement that is shaking this continent to its core. On the 30th anniversary of Operation Condor's bloodiest year, we are witness that the people Latin America have taken back their countries from the grip of terror. Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Brazil, Chile and Bolivia have governments that respond to the needs of their own people, rather than to the interests of US corporations. Other countries in will soon join them. This is an election year in America. The people of Latin America are taking back their governments.
It's high time that the people of the United States did the same.
*José Pertierra is an attorney, practicing in Washington, D.C. He represents the Venezuelan government in the case of Luis Posada Carriles.

Fidel Ordered Chávez's "Rescue"

2006-05-07T07:11:00.000+02:00

By: Ignacio Ramonet

In the book "Fidel Castro, a two-voiced biography," published by the Debate Publishing House, the Cuban president told Ignacio Ramonet information not previously released about the events of April 2002 in Venezuela.
Castro states that he phoned Miraflores Palace before Chávez surrendered and told him: "Don't kill yourself, Hugo. Don't do like Allende, who was a man alone. You have most of the Army on your side. Don't quit, don't resign."
Later, Fidel directed Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, to fly to Caracas in one of two planes to pick up Chávez and fly him to safety.
Castro contacted "a general who sided with [Chávez]" to tell him that the world knew the president had not resigned and to ask the general to send troops to rescue the president.
Fidel Castro, who delivers so many speeches, has granted very few interviews. Only four long conversations with him have been published in the past 50 years. The fifth such interview, with the editor of Le Monde Diplomatique, Ignacio Ramonet, has become the book "Fidel Castro, a two-voiced biography," a summary of the life and thoughts of the Cuban chief of state, distilled from 100 hours of conversation. The first interview was held in late January 2003; the final one, in December 2005.
Published in these pages is an excerpt from the interview in which Castro talks about the Venezuelan conflict that occurred on April 11, 2002. As the Comandante says, he will remain in office "as long as the National Assembly, in the name of the Cuba people, wishes." The book, soon to appear, is published by the Debate Publishing House.
Progreso Weekly is pleased to translate and reproduce excerpts from the interview, published in Koeyú Latinoamericano.
Ignacio Ramonet (IR):You have said you feel a great admiration for Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela.
Fidel Castro (FC):Well, yes. There we have another Indian, Hugo Chávez, a new Indian who is, as he himself says, "an Indian mixture," mestizo, with a little white, he says. But you look at Chávez and you see an autochthonous son of Venezuela, the son of a Venezuela that itself is a mixture. But he has all those noble features and an exceptional, truly exceptional talent.
I make it a point to listen to his speeches. He feels proud of his humble origin, of his mixed ethnic background, which has a little of everything, mainly of those who were autochthonous people or slaves brought from Africa, with a mixture of Indian origin. That's the impression. Maybe he has some white genes, and that's not bad. The combination always is good, it enriches humanity, the combination of the so-called ethnic backgrounds.
IR: Have you followed closely the evolution of the situation in Venezuela, particularly the attempts to destabilize President Chávez?
FC: Yes, we have followed events with great attention. Chávez visited us after being released from prison before the 1998 elections. He was very brave, because he was much reproached for traveling to Cuba. He came here and we talked. We discovered an educated, intelligent man, very progressive, an authentic Bolivarian. Later he won the elections several times. He changed the Constitution. He had the formidable support of the people, of the humblest people. His adversaries have tried to asphyxiate him economically.
In the 40 famous years of "democracy" that preceded Chávez, I estimate that about $200 billion fled from the country. Venezuela could be more industrialized than Sweden and enjoy Sweden's levels of education, if in truth there had been a distributive democracy, if those mechanisms had worked, if there had been some truth and credibility in all that demagoguery and all that publicity.
From the time that Chávez took office until currency controls were established in January 2003, I estimate that about $30 billion flew out of the country -- capital flight. So, as we maintain, all those phenomena make the order of things unsustainable in our hemisphere.
IR: On April 11, 2002, there was a coup d'état against Chávez in Caracas. Did you follow those events.
FC: When we learned that the demonstration by the opposition had changed direction and was nearing Miraflores [Palace], that there were provocations, shootings, victims, and that some high officials had mutinied and come out publicly against the president, that the presidential guard had withdrawn and that the army was on its way to arrest him, I phoned Chávez because I knew that he was defenseless and that he was a man of principle, and said to him: "Don't kill yourself, Hugo! Don't do like Allende! Allende was a man alone, he didn't have a single soldier on his side. You have a large part of the army. Don't quit! Don't resign!"
IR: You were encouraging him to resist, gun in hand?
FC: No, on the contrary. That's what Allende did, and he paid heroically with his life. Chávez had three alternatives: To hunker down in Miraflores and resist to death; to call on the people to rebel and unleash a civil war; or to surrender without resigning, without quitting. We recommended the third choice, which was what he also had decided to do. Because history teaches us that every popular leader overthrown in those circumstances, if he's not killed the people claim him, and sooner or later he returns to power.
IR: At that moment, did you try to help Chávez somehow?
FC: Well, we could act only by using the resources of diplomacy. In the middle of the night we summoned all the ambassadors accredited to Havana and we proposed to them that they accompany Felipe [Pérez Roque], our Foreign Minister, to Caracas to rescue Chávez, the legitimate president of Venezuela. We proposed sending two planes to bring him here, in case the putschists decided to send him into exile.
Chávez had been imprisoned by the military putschists and his whereabouts were unknown. The television repeatedly reported the news of his "resignation" to demobilize his supporters, the people. But at one point, they allow Chávez to make a phone call and he manages to talk to his daughter, María Gabriela. And he tells her that he has not quit, that he has not resigned. That he is "a president under arrest." And he asks her to spread that news.
The daughter then has the bold idea to phone me and she informs me. She confirms to me that her father has not resigned. We then decided to assume the defense of the Venezuelan democracy, since we had proof that countries like the United States and Spain -- the government of José María Aznar -- who talk so much about democracy and criticize Cuba so much, were backing the coup d'état.
We asked María Gabriela to repeat it and recorded the conversation she had with Randy Alonso, the moderator of the Cuban TV program "Mesa Redonda" [Round Table], which had great international repercussion. In addition, we summoned the entire foreign news media accredited to Cuba -- by then it must have been 4 o'clock in the morning -- we informed them and played them the testimony of Chávez's daughter. CNN broadcast it at once and the news spread like a flash of gunpowder throughout Venezuela.
IR: And what was the consequence of that?
FC: Well, that was heard by the military people faithful to Chávez, who had been deceived by the lie about a resignation, and then there is a contact with a general who is on Chávez's side. I talk to him on the phone. I confirm to him personally that what the daughter said is true and that the entire world knows Chávez has not resigned.
I talk with him a long time. He informs me about the military situation, about which high-ranking officers are siding with Chávez and which are not. I understand that nothing is lost, because the best units of the Armed Forces, the most combative, the best trained, were in favor of Chávez. I tell that officer that the most urgent task is to find out where Chávez is being detained and to send loyal forces there to rescue him.
He then asks me to talk to his superior officer and turns me over to him. I repeat what Chávez's daughter has said, and stress that he continues to be the constitutional president. I remind him of the necessary loyalty, I talk to him about Bolívar and the history of Venezuela. And that high-ranking officer, in a gesture of patriotism and fidelity to the Constitution, asserts to me that, if it's true that Chávez has not resigned, he continues to be faithful to the president under arrest.
IR: But even at that moment nobody knows where Chávez is, true?
FC: Meanwhile, Chávez has been taken to the island of La Orchila. He is incommunicado. The Archbishop of Caracas goes to see him and counsels him to resign. "To avoid a civil war," he says. He commits humanitarian blackmail. He asks [Chávez] to write a letter saying he is resigning.
Chávez doesn't know what's happening in Caracas or the rest of the country. They've already tried to execute him, but the men in the firing squad have refused and threatened to mutiny. Many of the soldiers who guard Chávez are ready to defend him and to prevent his assassination. Chávez tries to gain time with the bishop. He writes drafts of a statement. He fears that once he finishes the letter, [his captors] will arrange to eliminate him. He has no intention of resigning. He declares that they'll have to kill him first. And that there will be no constitutional solution then.
IR: Meanwhile, was it still your intention to send planes to rescue him and take him into exile?
FC: No, after that conversation with the Venezuelan generals, we changed plans. We shelved Felipe's proposition to travel with the ambassadors to Caracas. What's more, shortly thereafter we hear a rumor that the putschists are proposing to expel Chávez to Cuba. And we immediately announce that if they send Chávez here, we shall send him back to Venezuela on the first available plane.
IR: How does Chávez return to power?
FC: Well, at one point we again get in contact with the first general with whom I had spoken and he informs me that they've located Chávez, that he's on the island of La Orchila. We talk about the best way to rescue him. With great respect, I recommend three basic steps: discretion, efficacy and overwhelming force. The parachutists from the base at Maracay, the best unit of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, who are faithful to Chávez, carry out the rescue.
Meanwhile, in Caracas, the people have mobilized, asking for Chávez's return. The presidential guard has reoccupied Miraflores [Palace] and also demands the president's return. It expels the putschists from the palace. Pedro Carmona, president of the management association and very temporary President-usurper of Venezuela, is almost arrested right there at the palace.
Finally, at dawn on April 14, 2002, rescued by the faithful soldiers, Chávez arrives in Miraflores amid a popular apotheosis. I almost did not sleep the two days of the Caracas coup, but it was worthwhile for me to see how a people, and also patriotic soldiers, defended the law. The tragedy of Chile in 1973 was not repeated.
IR: Chávez is a representative of the progressive armed forces, but in Europe and Latin America many progressives reproach him precisely because he is a military man. What opinion do you have about that apparent contradiction between progressiveness and the military?
FC: Look, in Venezuela we have an army playing an important role in the Bolivarian revolution. And Omar Torrijos, in Panama, was an example of a soldier with conscience. Juan Velasco Alvarado, in Peru, also carried out some notable acts of progress. Let's not forget, for example, that among the Brazilians, Luis Carlos Prestes was an officer who led a march in 1924-26 almost like the march led by Mao Zedong in 1934-35.
Jorge Amado wrote about the march of Luis Carlos Prestes in a beautiful story, "The Gentleman of Hope," one of his magnificent novels. I had an opportunity to read them all, and that march was something impressive. It lasted more than two and a half years, covering enormous territories in his country, and he never suffered defeat.
In other words, there were prowesses that came from the military. Let's say, I'm going to cite a Mexican military man, Lázaro Cárdenas, a general of the Mexican Revolution, who nationalized petroleum. He is very prominent, carries out agrarian reform and gains the support of the people. When one talks about affairs in Mexico, one mustn't forget the roles played by personalities like Lázaro Cárdenas. And Lázaro Cárdenas originated in the military.
One mustn't forget that the first people in Latin America to rise up in the 20th Century, in the 1950s, were a group of youths who rebelled, young Guatemalan officers, who gathered around Jacobo Arbenz and participated in revolutionary activities. Well, you can't say that's a general phenomenon but there are several cases of progressive military men.
In Argentina, Perón also came from military origins. You need to see the moment when he emerges. In 1943, he was appointed Minister of Labor and drafted such good laws that when he was taken to prison the people rescued him -- and he was a military chief. There was also a civilian who had influence over the military men, he studied in Italy, where Perón also had lived; he was Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, and they were popular leaders.
Perón was an embassy attaché. He worked in Rome in the 1930s during the Mussolini period and was impressed by some of the forms and methods of mass mobilization he witnessed. There was influence, including in some processes, but in those cases where I mention that influence, Gaitán and Perón used it in a positive sense, because the truth is that Perón carried out social reform.
Perón commits, let us say, a mistake. He offends the Argentine oligarchy, humiliates it, strips it of its symbolic theater and some symbolic institutions. He worked with the nation's reserves and resources and improved the living conditions of the workers. And the workers were very grateful, and Perón became an idol of the workers.
Original source / relevant link: Progreso Weekly

Venezuela’s Súmate Primaries: Fowl Cries for Democracy

2006-05-07T07:06:00.000+02:00

By: Simone Baribeau - Venezuelanalysis.com

Many Venezuelans, opposition and Chavistas alike, have given up on December’s presidential elections as a done deal. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s approval ratings are among the highest in Latin America, and the Venezuelan opposition, after a coup attempt it failed to distance itself from, is disorganized, fractured, and largely discredited. And while much of the middle class may still hate Chávez, they’re far more likely to be hating him taking advantage of the economic boom—say, in a new car heading for lunch at the mega shopping mall Sambil—than on their way to a protest, as would have been the case a few years ago.
So, Súmate, the self-styled election watchdog, partially funded by the US, seems to be alone in the abyss of opposition apathy, a sole Chicken Little yelling “The elections are coming! The elections are coming!” to anyone who cares to listen.
But the latest poll, released in March by Consultores 21, pitting Chavez one on one against potential opposition candidates, doesn’t necessarily foretell the opposition’s doom. At first glance, the results look none too good for the opposition: the top contender, Julio Borges of Primero Justicia, would lose to Chavez 38 to 62 percent if he were the only opposition candidate, according to the daily El Nacional. But this poll was released eight months before the elections. And while Borges is not exactly an unknown in the country—he’s the head of a dominant opposition party—he certainly doesn’t have Chavez’s air time. Unlike Chavez, he has neither a five hour show every Sunday, nor advertisements plastered through the country saying “With Borges, we all govern” or “With Borges, only one government.” His face is not on Caracas ambulances; government trucks don’t park on the side of the road blasting music singing his praises.
In short, despite some touring and campaign speeches, neither he, nor any of the other opposition candidates have started their advertising campaigns. And the same can’t be said of Chavez, at least not with a straight face. Which means, beyond the normal problems of ousting an incumbent, opposition candidates are going to have four months to compete with years worth of government campaigns.
But Borges has gotten the support of more than a third of the country with comparatively minimal campaigning. Not a bad start.
The Consultores 21 poll, however, measures Borges running against Chavez on his own, instead of in a slate of opposition candidates. Many more candidates have already declared their intention to run, and polls, unsurprisingly, show that multiple opposition candidates will have a greater effect splitting the opposition vote, rather than siphoning votes away from Chavez. However, these are early polls, in past elections with Chavez, without primaries, a single one of his contenders has garnered in excess of 90 percent of the non-Chavez vote.
If the country isn't to risk turning back the clock to the Caldera administration, where the president won with 30 percent of the vote, or the US in 2000 with a small independent candidate likely swinging the election, Venezuela needs to find a way to ensure the candidate favored by the majority of the people wins the upcoming election. But the question isn’t just whether it needs to be done, but how to do it.
To solve this problem, Súmate has proposed primaries. Primaries, it, of course, will run and monitor. Primaries that will be entirely privatized, outside of the realm of influence of the Venezuelan electoral council (CNE), or any other elected institution. María Corina Machado, one of the leaders of Súmate, dismissed CNE control over the process, saying the Constitution gives the group the right to carry out such activities, if they allow the CNE to play a consulting role. “We believe the CNE has enough work right now with the changes they are going through, and trying to gain people’s confidence, because of this we’ve undertaken this project,” she graciously told El Nacional.
The problem with Súmate’s solution of doing it themselves isn’t so much that Corina Machado applauded the 2002 coup which dissolved the National Assembly, Supreme Court, and constitution, and briefly put in power the head of the Venezuelan Chamber of Commerce as President. While this calls into question the group’s commitment to democracy, in this country there are no coup free options for governors: after all, Chavez and many members of his party led the very different 1992 coup against the Perez Administration.
The problem isn’t even that Súmate is openly taking money from the U.S. through the fully congressionally funded National Endowment for Democracy. Though many in the country argue that Venezuela should be able to hold elections without US influence, honest organizations have taken NED money before, and not acted treasonously in the process. Taking this money complicates matters though—Súmate leaders currently stand charged with “conspiring to overthrow the republican form of government,” in part for using NED money to create what the Attorney General views as a parallel Electoral Council. The charges, currently ridiculous on their face, get harder to refute if Súmate holds primary elections without the CNE’s go-ahead.
The critical problem, however, is that Súmate has shown itself to be woefully dishonest when dealing with election results. Súmate run primaries do more than just privatize a government function—they turn it over to a group that has time and again cried “foul” in the wake of electoral results they don’t like, even after multiple groups of international observers pronounce them clean. Súmate has historically decided on an outcome, and then refused to acknowledge reality if that outcome doesn’t come to pass.
In the most well-known example of this, Súmate continually called into question the results of the 2003 recall referendum, which, according to the OAS, Carter Center, and Venezuelan government, Chávez won by 18 percentage points. After initially rejecting out of hand the results, they then asked two US based economists to perform an econometric analysis to dispute the results. The economists did indeed find fraud—but the results of their analysis were insanely improbable. They concluded that the CNE had rigged two thirds of its voting centers, and picked, at random, about a tenth of the remaining clean voting centers to do a manual count of the votes. However, this manual count of supposedly clean machines matched the election results that Súmate claimed as fraudulent, while logically, if there were fraud, it should have match the results of the clean election. The likelihood of the discrepancy, according to a study by the DC based Center for Economic and Policy Research, was less than one in 28 billion trillion. Súmate, however, has yet to acknowledge the validity of the results.
The group also promoted the boycott of last December’s parliamentary election, even after the CNE conceded to the vast majority of opposition demands. Likewise, the group decided to call the primary elections just before the National Assembly was appointing new board members to the CNE, another concession to Súmate and opposition groups.
In announcing primaries and relegating the CNE to a consultative role even before the new appointments, Súmate didn’t even bother with the façade of waiting for its demands to be fulfilled before rejecting the outcome. Its rejection was pre-emptive.
Súmate’s perpetual dishonesty makes it the worst group imaginable to run the primaries. Not only will it ensure that Súmate’s predetermined candidate get chosen, will of the people not withstanding. The group will also have a record—which they say they will destroy after the outcome of the election is agreed upon by the candidates—of how everyone voted. This can only make the mistrust of Venezuelans in the voting system worse. Already Súmate has done considerable damage; one of the biggest causes of voter mistrust is the so-called “Tascon list”, the list of citizens who signed a petition against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez which was published on pro-Chavez National Assembly member Luis Tascon’s website, after having been published on Súmate’s. Today, people speak of the government published list, which resulted in unfair firings, but rarely mention that it was Súmate that first made the list public.
So, a Súmate led primary risks losing both further trust in the voting system (which would perhaps work in the group’s advantage) and a credible right wing opposition candidate.
Opposition and government supporter alike should listen to left leaning opposition candidate Teodoro Petkoff when he says that a single candidate is necessary, but Súmate led primaries aren’t necessarily the way to pick one.
Or, Venezuela could go a step further. Its revolutionary government could take a revolutionary view of voting. Presidential elections without primaries or run-offs can skew election results so that candidates a relatively small number of people support can get into office. Unenforced campaign laws can allow a party favored by either the private or government media to gain an unfair advantage against other candidates. Both concentrate power in the hands of people who don’t necessarily reflect the popular will.
One potential solution, which would make Venezuela the envy of every Green Party member in the US, would be for the South American country to follow Australia’s example and implement instant run-off voting. Another would be for the country to create and enforce campaign finance and advertising laws which ensure that candidate receive equal air time, instead of assuming the airtime of the right wing media for opposition ads will somehow cancel out the airtime the government stations uses for government ads. After all, both the right wing opposition and the government represent entrenched power, and any kind of independent left leaning opposition would find itself at a huge disadvantage electorally.
Chávez, of course, overcame these disadvantages without systematic change. The previous administration was so bad that Chávez lifted himself up from obscurity with a failed coup attempted and the words “for now” their objectives were not achieved, which burned themselves into the popular consciousness and enabled him to overcome decades of Punto Fijoism in a single election.
But with the economy booming, social missions addressing poverty, and the right to protest in full swing, Chávez seems to be doing a good job, so a surprise rise to power despite the system is unlikely. But the situation that existed before Chávez’s election shouldn’t be necessary for a radical change in administration. And MVR has enough control to change the voting system into something better.
Electoral structures are among the hardest systems to change; generally those in power don’t like to mess with the structures that brought them there. MVR has, until now, treated Venezuela’s traditional institutions with considerable skepticism and brought through many changes; there’s always a chance they will do the same with this one. One thing’s a sure bet though. With Súmate in charge of a primary, you can bet their Chicken Little cries will change from “The election is coming!” to “The election is rigged!” before they’ll lose fairly.

SUMATE: You? No! We, Yes!

2006-05-07T07:03:00.000+02:00

By: Charlie Hardy - Narcosphere

Venezuela has an AGO (anti-governmental organization) known internationally, SUMATE. SUMATE pretends to be an electoral watchdog, overseeing Venezuelan elections. But it has also been the self-designated keystone in the effort to oust President Hugo Chávez from the presidency. The word “suma” in Spanish means to add and the word “súmate” is something of an order that you should add. In the practical order, however, it has meant that SUMATE itself does the adding and then informs the public of the results. The problem is that whether SUMATE adds papayas, mangos or bananas, the results are always the same: Chávez must go.
In February 2003, less than ten months after the failed coup against Chávez, SUMATE collected millions of signatures. If you enter their offices, you can see neatly bound books covering several walls. When you look inside the books, you discover they not only contain signatures, but the lengthy documents people were invited to sign. If those signing the papers had actually read the printing on the pages they were signing, it would have taken years to gather those millions of signatures.On that occasion citizens were asked to sign for a variety of initiatives ranging from calling for a presidential referendum (before it was legally time to do so) to giving a round of applause to the petroleum workers who had sabotaged the Venezuelan oil industry and caused the loss of billions of dollars to the nation. SUMATE truly didn’t know what it wanted other than millions of signatures and so they asked people who didn’t like the Chávez government to simply sign, sign, sign. And they did -- to no avail.The next year, for some strange reason, SUMATE accepted money from the U.S. government. It was a piddling sum according to SUMATE. The National Endowment for Democracy (the NED) only approved $53,400 for them. They say that they really didn’t need the money. After all, if they already had thousands of volunteers to do the collecting and thousands of computers to do the tallying, what was $53,400 more in their coffers? (By 2004, SUMATE’s expenses were almost a million dollars according to their financial report.) In time, Narco News reporter Jeremy Bigwood and Eva Golinger let the news out and Venezuelans began to ask if it was a benevolent deed on the part of the U.S. or if one country was meddling in the affairs of another.President George W. Bush didn’t think so. He invited Maria Corina Machado, SUMATE’s leader and principal spokesperson to the Oval Office for photographs together. Condoleezza Rice met with her also. These were honors that not even the Venezuelan ambassador to the U.S. had been granted. Not bad for a woman who was being accused of treason within her own country. Now we come to April 2006. As of the present moment, four men have announced that they plan to be candidates in the December elections. However, the consensus is that if there is more than one candidate, there will be no possibility of beating President Chávez. The question is: how to decide who the one candidate will be?No problem. Venezuela has the answer: SUMATE! After screaming daily since 2002 about the composition and work of the National Electoral Commission, SUMATE has announced that primary elections are the answer to the question and SUMATE has self-appointed itself as being in charge of the process. If any contemporary dictionary were looking for current descriptions of the words “hypocrisy” or “ridiculous,” SUMATE would be perfect for the task. SUMATE seems to be following the example of another Venezuelan sideshow, Queremos Eligir (We want to elect). After repeated elections in Venezuela, its leader, Elias Santana, still shouts, “We want to elect.” But who ever elected Elias? And who elected Maria Corina and her SUMATE team to rule the elector process? One of the candidates, senior citizen Teodoro Petkoff, refuses to say that primaries are the only was to decide the single candidate to oppose Chávez. I don’t blame him. SUMATE appears to be a clone of the Primera Justicia party, which boasts it only has young and beautiful people in its ranks. It also has a higher percentage of members who speak perfect English than would be true of Teodoro’s friends. Teodoro, I wouldn’t trust SUMATE if I were you. One thing about SUMATE that seems to be clear at this moment is that they do not lack money. Monday they sponsored a half page ad in El Universal proclaiming that, “The woman is the greatest miracle of nature.” I’ll go along with that. I just wonder where they got the 9,780,000 bolivares (about $4,550.00) to pay for the ad. Yes, SUMATE is a fascinating and also strange organization supposedly supporting democracy through elections. But during the December 2005 elections for the Venezuelan congress, SUMATE asked those opposed to the Chávez government to not participate in the elections. Instead they were urged to go to church that Sunday morning. Now they are asking those supporting the government to not vote in SUMATE’s primaries and are searching for ways to assure that they can’t. Their next action will probably be to recommend that these citizens go to church that day instead of voting. Not a bad idea. SUMATE could use all the prayers it can get. More than the blessing of George W. Bush’s smile and money, SUMATE needs a true miracle to make it a credible organization.

Other essays by Charles Hardy can be found on his personal blog Cowboyincaracas.com . You may write him at cowboyincaracas@yahoo.com.

Land Dispute Between English Company and Venezuelan Government Resolved

2006-05-07T06:59:00.000+02:00

By: Venezuelanalysis.com

Caracas, Venezuela, April 3, 2006—Last week, England’s Agroflora agreed to sell one of its ten ranches to the Venezuelan government and cede another in an accord which ended a months long battle between the company and state, reports the AP.
According to the wire service, Omar Benitez, a lawyer for Agroflora, said that the government will pay the company $4.2 million for the 50 square mile El Charcote ranch and also receive the 166 square mile San Pablo Paeno ranch.
The combined market value of the farms is at least $11 million, according to Reuters.
“Agroflora wins because it feels it is making a contribution that will benefit the country and allow it to continue conducting business in Venezuela,” said Agroflora president Diana Dos Santos.
Venezuelan officials also spoke favorably of the deal. According to the AP, Elias Jaua, Venezuela’s Land Minister, said the agreement showed that the state and private sector could reach a “friendly accord” amid land reform efforts.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez also praised the handover on his weekly television show “Alo Presidente”. “We are recuperating land for Venezuelans, who have started to be owners of their land and are recovering their dignity.”
However, relations between Vestey Group, the parent company of Agroflora, and the Venezuelan government have not always been so cordial. When the government threatened to take over the El Charcote ranch last year, saying that the land was partially idle and that there were problems with its title documents, billionaire Lord Vestey, the owner of the group, stood outside a cocktail party for Venezuela’s new ambassador to London saying that Venezuela had “done a Zimbabwe,” according to England’s Daily Telegraph. Zimbabwe’s controversial land confiscation program is widely seen as a failure do to squatters’ lack of training and resources.
The company had also taken the case to international arbitration, according to Reuters. A spokesperson told the news agency that the deal requires the government to guarantee the company productivity certificates and title deeds for its other farms. In turn, the company will eventually drop its suit.
Richard Vivas, the Director of Venezuela’s National Land Insitute said they were still investigating the title deeds to other ranches. "They donated the San Pablo Paeno farm and we are paying for the El Charcote land and repairs, and we will keep examining the title deeds of other Agroflora farms in Venezuela," he said.
According to the Venezuelan government’s ABN, Agroflora also signed an agreement with the Venezuelan Ministry of Agriculture and Land to work towards transferring agricultural and livestock technology. “Agroflora has a lot to teach [so that Venezuela can achieve] a better quality of meat and livestock weight and has advanced a whole process of adaptation of foreign species,” said Donald Lamont, Britain's ambassador to Venezuela.
The former San Pablo Paeno ranch, now an endogenous development nucleus, will be used as a research ranch for students, professors, and researchers, Agriculture and Land Minister, Elías Jaua said on “Aló Presidente.” Also involved in the project is the Technological Institute of Mantecal, which offers free programs to its 420 enrolled students. Endogenous development nuclei are special areas the Venezuelan government designates because of their potential for economic development based on the resources that already exist in the area, but which receive some limited government start-up support.
Chávez also said that the community where the ranch was located should be involved in the development of the José Cornelio Muñoz fund, according to the Venezuelan government’s ABN. “The intention of this fund is to form part of a cooperative, now that the work of agriculture is a consideration of new socialism,” said Chávez on Aló Presidente. “The [government’s free health program] needs to come here too. We have to make a city so that the people who work in the fund live here, that there are schools and health services,” he said.
The Venezuelan land reform program has been criticized for not protecting private property, which is a constitutional right in Venezuela. The government has repeatedly said that lands which are in use and for which owners hold legal titles will not be subject to seizure.
However, conflicts between landowners and peasants squatting on disputed land have erupted regularly and paramilitaries working on behalf of landowners have murdered 164 peasant leaders in recent years, according to the Ezequiel Zamora National Campesino Front.

Venezuela Makes Deal with Spanish Landowners

2006-05-07T06:58:00.000+02:00

By: Michael Fox - Venezuelanalysis.com

Caracas, Venezuela, May 4, 2006—Venezuela agreed on Tuesday to pay 6.8 Billion Bolivares ($3.16 million) in indemnization to 12 Spanish agricultural producers in exchange for their estates in the Venezuelan state of Yaracuy. Total lands equal 1,154 hectares, which President Chavez has assured is fertile and will be distributed to “poor campesinos.”
Discussions on Tuesday’s agreement began in December of last year, between the Venezuelan National Land Institute (INTI) and the Spanish Embassy. INTI President, Richard Vivas, announced that it would take approximately 20 days for the payments to be made.
The purchase of the lands comes after nearly a year of complaints, on the part of the Spaniards, of increasing land invasions. According to the Ezequiel Zamora National Campesino Front (CANEZ), conflicts between landowners and invading campesinos have been numerous lately, leading to the murder of 164 campesino leaders in recent years at the hands of paramilitaries working on behalf of landowners.
According to Vivas, “These lands belonged to African-American groups who in 1732 fought on this property against the colonial system. 200 years later, Gómez handed the land over to a communal society from the Veroes municipality. By right this 20,400 hectare extension, belonged to them. That is why we are now recuperating this land.”
“These lands were originally communal,” continued Vivas, “and theses producers bought shares on the land, and that is what we are now recognizing and paying.” Vivas verified that the payments also cover the cost of the additional property on the lands such as the homes, sheds and plantations.
In the name of the Venezuelan Agrarian Law, the Venezuelan government is currently carrying out a campaign against unproductive land holdings larger than 5,000 hectares. Tuesday’s land purchase was for various plots between 20 and 235 hectares in size.
According to Vivas, the government has declared 1.5 million hectares “idle and of state origin” since last year. As of last month, Venezuela had paid 20 Billion Bolivares in indemnizations to agricultural producers, including England’s Vestey Group, which last month agreed to sell one of its ranches, and cede another to Venezuela.*
According to the Spanish news outlet, Terra, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero directly with news on the agreement, “because the European press and the political right had had a field day over this issue saying that the ‘tyrant’ Chavez was invading land and taking it from the Spaniards.” “They even utilized this to accuse Zapatero of supporting a dictatorship- not mine,” added Chavez.
In response to Tuesday’s accord, Spanish ambassador to Venezuela, Raúl Morodo declared, “we have achieved a satisfactory agreement, and we have resolved a problem with legal and historical difficulties. We arrived to the most reasonable, quick and efficient way of solving the problem- that is the indemnization. At no point did this case alter the excellent relation between both countries.”
While relations remain “excellent” between Venezuela and the European nation, the same cannot be said for all of South America. According to yesterday’s La Jornada, “The Spanish government today summoned the head of Bolivian affairs in Madrid, Alvaro del Pozo, to express to him their “most profound worries for the means in which the President of your country, Evo Morales, nationalized the gas and petroleum, and for the consequences for bilateral relations.”
Bolivia’s nationalization of its hydrocarbons a few short days ago has sent shockwaves around the world. President Chavez has supported Morales’ nationalization decision, commenting that Bolivia “knows what it is doing” and “Morales is president of a free and sovereign country.”

Venezuela and Peru Withdraw Respective Ambassadors

2006-05-07T06:54:00.000+02:00

By: Venezuelanalysis.com

Caracas, Venezuela, mayo 4, 2006—Peruvian-Venezuelan relations turned sour as the countries pulled their respective ambassadors in the wake of what Peru views as interference of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in its internal affairs.
“I deplore and condemn this meddling; I don’t have anything to do with president Chávez,” Ollanta Humala, the candidate for president who Chávez has repeatedly expressed his support for, told the Caracas daily El Nacional.
The most recent rift came after Venezuela announced its withdrawal from the Andean Community, saying Peru and Colombia’s Free Trade Agreements with the US had killed the group.
Peruvian presidential candidate, and former president, Alan Garcia, criticized the move, calling Chávez “shameless” and a “brat.”
Chávez quickly retorted that should Garcia win the election, Venezuela would withdraw its ambassador to Peru, calling the candidate “corrupt” and a “bandit,” and cheered Humala’s run for office.
Peru immediately removed its ambassador from Venezuela, though current Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, who, not immune to Chávez’s name calling, was called a “crocodiles from the same water hole” as Garcia, said he did not believe this signaled a rupture in diplomatic relations between the countries.
Fernando de la Flor, Peru’s ambassador to the Organization of American States, criticized Chávez’s comments to the international body. “My delegation denounces the inapropriate, to the point of being censurable, intrusion of Persident Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, in matters which are the exclusive province of Peru, as is the election, democratic and free, of its national political authorities,” he said, according to the AFP.
Venezuela responded by withdrawing its ambassador to Peru. The National Assembly, which after an opposition withdrawal from December’s elections is entirely controlled by the ruling party and its allies, has since passed a unanimous resolution approving Chávez’s conduct in the matter. Peru’s upcoming election has been a source of contention between the two countries for months, as Hugo Chavez dubbed one candidate, who is no longer in contention, “the candidate of the oligarchy.” At the time, Peru briefly withdrew its ambassador and released a statement asking that “that the Venezuelan government respects the Peruvian electoral process.” Chávez did not back down from his comments, and reiterated his support for Humula.

Inflation and Unemployment fall, Minimum Wage Rises in Venezuela

2006-05-07T06:53:00.000+02:00

By: Venezuelanalysis.com

Venezuela’s economic boom has continued into the first part of 2006, with consumer inflation and unemployment down, and a 10 percent minimum wage hike.
Consumer inflation, which in Venezuela is measured in Caracas, was 0.6 percent in April, less than half that of the same month last year, and down from last month according to number released yesterday from Venezuela’s Central Bank.
The drop is due mostly to the small increase in the price of goods subject to price controls, which halved since last month, said a press release from the Bank. Non price-controlled goods fell from 0.8 to 0.7 percent. April’s inflation rate brings inflation for the first trimester of the year to 2 percent, the lowest since 1988.
March unemployment fell to 10.1 percent, from 13.5 percent in March last year, according to a statement released by the National Institute of Statistics INE. Unemployment has been steadily falling through the year, from a high of 12,9 percent in January. According to the release, the President of the INE, Elías Elijuri, said that unemployment may fall to 7.0 percent by the end of the year. Already, unemployment numbers are reaching lows not seen in many years. Generally, however, employment rates rise in December, as the Christmas bonuses of many employees, which are equivalent to several months pay, give the economy a boost.
The 10.1 percent unemployment rate represents 1.2 million unemployed people. April unemployment figures have yet to be released.
Last Friday, the president’s office put through a series of decrees increasing wages. The first announced a minimum wage hike of 10 percent, to go into effect this September. This will bring the minimum wage up to Bs 512,325 monthly, around $200. According to americaeconomia.com, Chavez has increased minimum wage 20 to 30 percent a year since 2000. While self-employed individuals will not be affected by the change, public and private sector employees, including urban, rural, domestic, and office workers will be, regardless of the number of employees their employer employs. The salaries of public school teachers will also be increased 40 percent in the coming year, 30 percent in May, and an additional 10 percent in October. This will affect approximately 460,000 active and retired teachers.

Venezuela Urges U.S. to Reconsider Release of Terrorism Suspects

2006-05-07T06:49:00.000+02:00

By: Simone Baribeau - Venezuelanalysis.com

Caracas, Venezuela, May 6, 2006—Thursday, the Venezuelan embassy in Caracas condemned the U.S.’s release of two Venezuelan officers accused of bombings in the South American nation and urged the U.S. to reconsider its decision and either prosecute them for the bombings or extradite them.
“Venezuela once again calls upon the United States Government not to shelter their terrorists of choice. All terrorists are criminals and ought to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” the embassy said in a statement.
The two officers stand accused of the bombings of the Colombian and Spanish consulates in February 2003. The bombings, wounded at least four people, and, according to the International Herald Tribune, destroyed two of the Colombian consulate’s four floors, twisting the steel entry gate and blasted a hole in the wall of the Spanish consulate. The Spanish embassy is located in a residential area.
The bombings appeared to be aimed at inciting further political instability in a country that was in the midst of an oil industry shutdown meant to topple Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Chávez had previously spoken out against Spain and Colombia for criticizing the arrest of a union leader who had been involved in the oil industry shutdown and the failure of Venezuela to effectively fight the guerilla group FARC, respectively.
Renewed talks with the opposition were due to begin the day after the bombings, and, at the time, the climate the embassy bombings had caused was widely viewed as likely to make talks more difficult. “These cowardly acts of violence not only have produced human suffering, but also make more difficult the search for a peaceful, democratic, electoral solution to the problems faced by the people of Venezuela,” the U.S. embassy said in a 2003 statement.
The United States had also asked Venezuela to investigate the attacks. “The U.S. Embassy … calls on the appropriate Venezuelan authorities to conduct a thorough investigation to determine who perpetrated these attacks” the U.S. embassy said.
However, the U.S. has not been willing to extradite two men suspected in the bombings to Venezuela. Lieutenant José Antonio Colina and Lieutenant Germán Rodolfo Varela, the two suspects, were arrested in the U.S. on immigration charges, and spent years in detention. Last Friday, they were released from detention, under the supervision of the Immigration Customs and Enforcement Agency. According to their lawyers, the conditions of their release require that they speak to immigration officials once a week by phone, and meet with them once a month.
Upon hearing of their release, Chávez criticized the U.S. move, saying the U.S. had paid and manipulated them into committing the attacks.
Jose Pertierra, the lawyer representing the Venezuelan government in the case, told the AP that the two were not yet in the clear, but that a U.S. federal district court still must consider the extradition demands, or try them in the U.S.
This is the latest in a series of extradition requests between the two countries that have not yet been granted. In this case, and one involving Luis Posada Carriles, suspected of bombing a Cuban airliner that killed over 70 people, U.S. officials have said that there is evidence the suspects will be tortured after being returned to Venezuela, which relieves them from their extradition obligations. The most recent State Department Report on Human Rights said, “Although the law prohibits such practices, NGOs, media, and opposition groups accused security forces of continuing to torture and abuse detainees. Abuse most commonly consisted of beatings during arrest or interrogation, but there also were incidents in which the security forces used near-suffocation and other forms of torture.”
The report noted that the Venezuelan government had not authorized independent investigations, and that family members of General Felipe Rodriguez, also accused in the embassy bombings, had said he “was subjected to sensory deprivation and psychological torture” and was sent to a civilian prison despite a court order that he be sent to a military prison.
According to human rights groups, the U.S. has a policy of extraordinary rendition—deportation to countries known for torture—of terrorist suspects. In some cases, it appears that the suspects are tortured in U.S. custody.In late March, less than a week after the U.S. had refused a request to extradite Posada Carriles, Venezuela refused to extradite Mateo Holguin Ovalle, a Dominican wanted by the U.S. for drug trafficking, on the grounds that the U.S. could not guarantee his sentence would be shorter than 30 years, which is the maximum sentence in Venezuela.

Venezuela Tourism Taking off

2006-05-07T06:35:00.000+02:00

Caracas, May 5 (Prensa Latina) Gonzalo Capriles, director of the industry program IBERPYME from the Latin American Economic System, said tourism is currently a strategy for Venezuela's social and economic development.
Capriles talked to Prensa Latina at the end of the Latin American Meeting of Tourism, Infrastructure and Services, held for two days in this capital under the slogan "Building Tourism."
The executive highlighted Venezuela's potential with a basic infrastructure, which needs support, training and orientation of this sector's businesspeople.
"This is an important sector darkened by development and oil incomes, but it is a strategy to generate hard currency income, jobs, and use sustainable natural beauty," he said.
Capriles highlighted possibilities of financial cooperation among local public and private sectors, technical assistance and consultancies to foster Venezuela as a destination of worldwide importance.

Venezuela Protecting Environment

2006-05-07T06:32:00.000+02:00

Caracas, Apr 4 (Prensa Latina) The Venezuela Environment Ministry proposed a plan of 20 million dollars to protect the Caroni river basin, which produces 75 percent of the national electric energy supply.
Around 86 percent of the area is under regime of Special Administration, including the Canaima National Park, with natural monuments, forests, dams and areas of border safety, the ministry said.
The Integral Management Program includes support of the indigenous community, control and environmental recovery to minimize the direct and indirect impact of the hydroelectric facilities.
With that objective was created an inter-institutional commission that includes Ministries, armed forces, city halls, indigenous and non-indigenous communities, among others to organize the project.
The ministry added that financing is being discussed between the Venezuelan Government and the Inter American Development Bank, which will finance more than half of the project for five years.

Venezuela Oil Profits for Venezuela

2006-05-07T06:28:00.000+02:00

Caracas, Apr 3 (Prensa Latina) The creation of new companies to replace oil agreements guarantees Venezuela´s sovereignty over its hydrocarbon resources, Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez stated Monday.
Interviewed on the Venezolana de Television program "En Confianza", Ramirez ratified Friday the constitution of 30 joint companies instead of 32 service agreements signed during the so-called oil opening started last century, which are basically considered covert privatization.
He explained that unlike the old days with the State only getting a cut of 33% per barrel, the new rules give Venezuela 80%.
Only the Italian company ENI-Dacion and French TOTAL did not accept changes and both were out of the possibility to set up as joint companies, said the minister.
He indicated the Venezuelan state has 60 percent of the companys´ shares and the final calculation leaves the country with an 80 percent minimum of each oil barrel.

Chavez: 50 a Barrel for Oil is Fair

2006-05-07T06:24:00.000+02:00

London, Apr 3 (Prensa Latina) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said fixing the price of a barrel of oil at 50 dollars is fair, according to statements for the BBC and quoted Monday by Great Britain’s The Guardian daily.
Venezuela has “the world´s largest hydrocarbon reserves,” enough for about 200 years, the president added.
A long-term agreement at that price will allow Caracas to count its crude oil deposits, both heavy and extra-heavy, as part of its official hydrocarbon reserves, thus adding 235 billion barrels to the country´s active supplies.
The price mentioned by Chavez is 15 dollars below the current one, which reached a record high of 70.85 dollars a barrel in August last year, the source read.
Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez told the BBC Caracas plans to ask the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to officially recognize a rise in its reserves.
That way, stocks would amount to 315 billion barrels of oil, thus surpassing those of Saudi Arabia, the world´s current leader with 262 billion barrels.

SouthAm Summit for Integration

2006-05-07T06:20:00.000+02:00

Buenos Aires, May 5 (Prensa Latina) Presidents from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela renewed their commitment to integration, convinced that only by uniting can Latin America face challenges of the new international order.
Nestor Kirchner, Evo Morales, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Hugo Chavez put an end Thursday to a wave of rumors on Bolivia"s decision to nationalize hydrocarbons and, in contrast, agreed on a common position in multilateral forums.
The four statesmen met in Puerto Iguazu to analyze the impact of the energy association in the historic step announced Monday by the indigenous Bolivian president.
The four-way encounter in that northern Argentinean capital was organized against the clock at the request of Lula, a day after La Paz decided transfer to the State all energy resources formerly in the hands of large transnational companies.
The southern leaders cleared up all kind of speculations spread by the press after Bolivia"s sovereign decision and urged for even more and better integration among their respective peoples.
Termed as historic by Chavez, the South American Summit guaranteed that Bolivia supply gas to Buenos Aires and Brasilia, important for both nations at a price that, in each case, will be defined bilaterally.

ABBV Summit Declaration Released

2006-05-07T06:17:00.000+02:00

Buenos Aires, May 5 (Prensa Latina) The presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela agreed Thursday that energy integration is fundamental for regional harmony and to benefit their peoples.
Presidents Nestor Kirchner, Evo Morales, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Hugo Chavez signed a “Joint Declaration by the Summit of Presidents at Puerto Iguazu,” the venue of the meeting in Mision Province, Argentina.
The text follows:
“The presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela, meeting in Puerto Iguazu, emphasized that energy integration is an essential element for regional integration and for benefit of their peoples.
"In this context, the presidents concur on the need to preserve and guarantee the supply of gas to permit equitable development in both producing and consuming countries.
“In the same way, they stressed that discussion over gas prices should take place in a rational and equitable framework that is viable for enterprises. In this spirit they agreed to delve deeply in bilateral dialogues to resolve pending questions.
“They expressed their willingness to work to strengthen MERCOSUR and consolidate South American integration. In this sense, they ratified their decision to advance the Southern Gas Pipeline Project.
“The Heads of State concur on the importance of unity of the region and in dialogue with other countries and regions, and in this context they value the MERCOSUR-European dialogue.
“In conclusion, the presidents agreed to promote joint investments to favor the integral development of Bolivia.”

SouthAm Summit on Bolivian Energy

2006-05-07T06:14:00.000+02:00

Buenos Aires, May 4 (Prensa Latina) Presidents from Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela are meeting Thursday in the northern province of Misiones with their Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales, to analyze implications of the nationalization of hydrocarbons by the latter.
Nestor Kirchner, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Hugo Chavez and Morales will talk in Puerto Iguazu about its effects on energy integration.
The aim of this South American summit is to examine the Decree and its repercussion in the Southern Cone energy integration, taking into account that Argentina and Brazil obtain gas from Bolivian.
The four-way encounter in that northern Argentinean capital was organized against the clock, a day after the Bolivian country decided transfer to the State all energy resources formerly in the hands of large transnational companies.
The decree issued by the La Paz government provoked particular concern in the oil companies who have strong economic interests in Bolivia, like the Spanish firm Repsol-YPF and Brazilian Petrobras.

Evo and Chavez to Integrate Energy

2006-05-07T06:09:00.000+02:00

La Paz, May 3 (Prensa Latina) Bolivia and Venezuela's presidents Evo Morales and Hugo Chavez, respectively, announced the signing of bilateral integration agreements as part of a strategic alliance of their state companies for oil and gas exploration and industrialization projects.
The two South American presidents made their remarks during a closed-door meeting at Bolivia's government headquarters late on Wednesday, but they refrained from comment on the possible coordination for their Thursday meeting with the presidents of Argentina and Brazil.
Chavez, who arrived on an unexpected and brief visit to Bolivia, said that he will visit La Paz again on May 18, to establish a strategic alliance between the Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and Bolivian Fiscal Oilfields (YPFB).
The Venezuelan leader said that both companies will make joint oil explorations to increase Bolivia's gas and oil reserves and install a plant to separate natural gas solids for industrial purposes.
After saying his country is willing to cooperate with Bolivia according to its possibilities, Chavez ratified his support of the hydrocarbons nationalization.
Meanwhile, Morales confirmed Chavez´ next visit to his country, in which agreements on gas industrialization and trade will be signed. The Bolivian leader also expressed satisfaction for the courtesy visit of whom he called a brother and comrade.

660 Venez Athletes to CenAm Games

2006-05-07T06:07:00.000+02:00

Caracas, May 4 (Prensa Latina) The Olympic Committee of Venezuela announced it is sending a 660-strong delegation to the 20th Central American and Caribbean Games, which will be one of the most numerous in the regional July 15-30 competition.
The Organizing Committee said 5,690 athletes and 2,580 referees have officially registered in the event, to be hosted by the Colombian cities of Cartagena, Barranquilla and Bogota, as main venues, and Santo Domingo and Mexico, as co-hosts.
Venezuela made its debut at this tournament in Panama 1938, when it won three gold medals. Ever since, it has amassed 344 gold medals in 16 appearances; its highest gold medal tally (108) in 2002.

Venezuela and Peru Are Tit for Tat

2006-05-07T06:04:00.000+02:00

Caracas, May 4 (Prensa Latina) The Venezuelan administration of President Hugo Chavez reacted to the recent contretemps attempting to involve that nation in the Peruvian presidential election by withdrawing its Ambassador to Lima Cruz Manuel Martinez.
“We do not understand why some sectors in Peru need to involve Venezuela and its president in the evaluation of the candidates,” Cruz Manuel Martinez told TELESUR TV, adding that Peruvian media seek to portray the Venezuelan administration as the worst in the world.
The most recent pejorative remarks by Social Democratic candidate Alan Garcia, were considered disrespectful toward Chavez, and the president responded by saying President Alejandro Toledo and Garcia were "crocodiles from the same water hole," and Lima decided to recall its Ambassador to Caracas Carlos Urrutia.
The Venezuelan ambassador said he hopes his recall does not lead to a formal breaking-off of diplomatic relations.