page 7 | Special Report:
page 8 | Opinion
Fabricio Ojeda: A journalist who became a Revolutionary Hero
How the case against Julian Assange & Wikileaks affects us all
Friday | February 10, 2012 | Nº 101 | Caracas
ALBA summit reinforces sovereignty Highlights of the XI Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) included the creation of a new economic zone in the region, the consolidation of a regional currency, decreasing US dollar dependence, and expressions of solidarity and support for nations threatened by foreign aggressions. ALBA also welcomed two new members, Saint Lucia and Suriname and opened the path for a third, Haiti, to join the political bloc. | page 2
ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas
Venezuela: Celebrating the path to revolution The nation commemorated the 20th anniversary since President Hugo Chavez appeared on the political scene and the road to Revolution began A massive civic-military parade was held to mark the occasion. Twenty years earlier, on February 4, 1992, a young Lieutenant Colonel led a military rebellion against the corrupt and murderous government of Carlos Andres Perez. Although the revolt failed, the incident propelled Hugo Chavez into the political limelight and awoke a collective desire for real change in the country. Years later, in 1998, Chavez won the presidency in a landslide victory and the Bolivarian Revolution formally began. The date was celebrated this year in the presence of heads of state from Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Haiti. | page 3
Politics
Venezuela ready for elections The National Electoral Council (CNE) is set for this year’s presidential & regional votes. | page 4 Integration
Haiti & ALBA The US is losing influence over the impoverished Caribbean nation.| page 5 Security
UN praises Venezuela’s disarmament Major programs to fight crime & violence are a priority.| page 6
Venezuelan cinema in DC
Venezuela to increase oil production to satisfy global demand
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n light of the rising oil demand worldwide soon to exceed 100 million barrels a day, Venezuela is increasing its production capacity to satisfy future market demands, revealed Petroleum and Mining Minister, Rafael Ramirez this week. The government expects to increase production from three million barrels per day to four million in 2014 and six million in 2019.
“We hold the world’s largest reserves. We are making necessary investments to have them available when the market needs them and to have our volume of petroleum accessible, while maintaining a fair balance”, Ramirez said. Ramirez also highlighted that, thanks to President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela has been able to set a fair price for its product. Currently, a
fair price is considered at or above $100 a barrel. “When the Revolution came to power (1998), oil prices were about $8 a barrel. Transnationals were trying to increase production to six million barrels. They did not care about global oil demand or prices, just selling high volumes”, he explained. Ramirez emphasized the significant role played by the
Venezuelan cinema is represented at the 2012 Ibero-American Film Showcase that is taking place from January 19 to February 23 in venues throughout Washington, DC. The Embassy of Venezuela in Washington, DC, will screen several films in its cultural space, the Bolivarian Hall, during the festival. These include the Venezuelan selections: Dudamel: Let the children play (2010), a documentary by Alberto Arvelo; Roman Chabaud’s Zamora, free land and men (2009); Luis Alberto Lamata’s Taita Boves (2010); and Water drums, an ancestral encounter (2009), a documentary by Clarissa Duque. The Bolivarian Hall is located at 2443 Massachusetts Ave. NW in Washington, DC. All screenings begin at 6:30 pm. The Cuban film Habanastation (2011), by Ian Padron, will also be screened at the Bolivarian Hall on February 17.
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). In 2004, the organization agreed to cut production and it has since remained stable. Thus, oil prices have also been stable and fair. The Oil Minister also announced that Venezula plans to send as much oil to China as it does to its traditionally largest buyer, the US, within the next three years. “We are going to sell China one million barrels a day by 2015”, he said.
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2 | Impact
NoÊ£ä£ÊU Friday, February 10, 2012
The artillery of ideas
ALBA: Building sovereignty & integration in Latin America The regional political bloc took a strong stance on issues of sovereignty, economy, defense and solidarity T/ COI P/ Presidential Press
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atin America took a further step towards integration last weekend when the presidents of eight countries met in Caracas to discuss regional unity and sign agreements upholding principles of cooperation and sovereignty in the face of persistent North American intervention. The 11th Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for Our America (ALBA) regional block, hosted by Venezuela, featured a series of meetings that addressed a range of topics as diverse as economic infrastructure and political solidarity to regional defense and a pact of non-interference in Syria. Prominent among the deliberations last weekend was the creation of a common economic zone to stimulate development in the region through commercial relations not bound by the US dollar nor the free market policies of the Washington Consensus. ALBA members agreed to create a bank, the ALBA Bank, funded with one percent of the international reserves of each country, to finance joint projects and build a new economy in the region based on solidarity and mutual benefit. The exact structure of this new financial mechanisms will be devised, officials reported, through future meetings of the alliance’s members while the use of the virtual currency, the SUCRE, first introduced in 2010 to facilitate transactions between ALBA nations, has the potential to play a greater role in the new economic relations. “We want a financial service not conditioned by profit but one that generates food sovereignty and technological independence. [We need to] exit from the
criteria of the World Trade Organization that has condemned us to the eternal production of raw materials”, said Amenothep Zambrano, ALBA Executive Secretary. AN ALTERNATIVE FOR THE AMERICAS ALBA was founded in 2004 to promote unity between Latin American and Caribbean states and build a new model of development not conditioned by the economic and political hegemony of foreign powers. First proposed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during a visit to Cuba, the alliance has grown over the years to include Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Ecuador, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as Antigua and Barbuda. Last weekend, the regional block approved the entrance of three new countries, Suriname, Saint Lucia, and Haiti as invited members bringing the total number of states officially taking part in ALBA to eleven. “While the imperialists are busy going against ALBA, we’re seeing that other nations want to join”, said Ralph Gonsalves, President of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
A major principle of the organization is to ensure equality in voice and representation, making sure that each member state has the right to raise concerns and express misgivings. “This group is very different from the United Nations and the Organization of American States”, commented Roosevelt Skerrit, President of the Commonwealth of Dominica. “Here we discuss practical themes that are put on the table and we search for solutions to our problems”, he asserted. HAITI, THE MALVINAS & CUBA Part of the problems taken up by the regional alliance last weekend dealt with the question of Haiti and the nation’s need for assistance in the wake of 2010’s earthquake and international attempts to prevent its government from receiving and administering aid. “We need to look for a thousand ways to cooperate much more with Haiti... to look for and create resources”, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said in reference to an ALBA-Haiti plan to assist the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country. A meeting of ALBA Foreign Min-
isters was set for the first week of March in Haiti to determine how more aid could reach and help the impoverished nation. Another issue discussed at length was the ongoing dispute between Argentina and Great Britain over the Falkland Islands, known in Spanish as the Malvinas Islands. As part of the agreements passed during the summit, the alliance resolved to support the Argentine government in its efforts to reclaim the islands occupied by the British since 1833. Part of this support includes denying access to Malvinas ships at the ports of ALBA member states. “Once again it’s evident that the Malvinas is a cause for all of Latin America and the Caribbean. That’s why Argentina isn’t alone. It’s Great Britain that’s alone”, said Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman speaking at the summit. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, taking stronger stance on the ongoing row, stressed the need to apply sanctions against England for its refusal to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the question of the Malvinas. “We have to move forward and talk
about sanctions against England for the case of the Malvinas... Enough of this double standard and asymmetry”, he said. “Why should only the wealthier, more powerful nations be the ones to sanction others?” he questioned, adding, “At minimum we could require their citizens to have visas to visit our countries”. Correa also proposed a boycott of ALBA members from the coming Organization of American States (OAS) Summit of the Americas to be held in Cartagena, Colombia in April in the event that Cuba is not invited to attend. “We need to take action. We must insist on the ending of the criminal blockade against the Cuban people and reject this preponderance of excluding Cuba from different international forums”, he said. “Cuba is a part of the Americas”. For his part, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expressed his support for Correa’s suggestion, commenting that “if Cuba is not invited to the Summit of the Americas, we will consider not attending out of pure dignity”. SYRIA, PUERTO RICO & A NEW DEFENSE COUNCIL As part of its policy of noninterference, the regional block also passed a resolution on Saturday denouncing any acts by foreign governments to destabilize Syria through the use of armed groups in the country. “The member countries of ALBA condemn the acts of armed violence that irregular groups supported by foreign powers have unleashed against the Syrian people”, President Chavez read from the declaration during the summit. A further declaration affirming the right of Puerto Rico to independence was also passed by the alliance’s members as was an agreement designed to discuss the possibilities of forming a defense council for the regional block. Bolivian President Evo Morales, a proponent of the new council, spoke of the need to “reconstruct a new military doctrine” that would place the region’s armed forces “at the service of the people and not imperialism”. ALBA members resolved to continue discussing the defense proposal through its Political Council comprised of the foreign ministers of each participating country.
NoÊ£ä£ÊU Friday, February 10, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Venezuela: Twenty years on the path of Revolution Venezuelans celebrated 20 years since Hugo Chavez first appeared on the political scene in the South American country and changed things forever T/ COI P/ Presidential Press
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ast Saturday, Venezuelans commemorated the 20th anniversary since the birth of the nation’s Bolivarian Revolution and the failed military rebellion against the presidency of Carlos Andres Perez in 1992 that gave birth to a new movement for social justice in the country. The date was marked by a civic-military parade in the capital of Caracas that saw the presence of the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, as well as other Latin American heads of state visiting the Caribbean country for the ALBA regional summit. “This parade is historic, Bolivarian, and revolutionary just like our people and our armed forces”, Chavez said during the act which saw the participation of more than twelve thousand soldiers and civilians.
THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA Proponents of Chavez administration cite the date of February 4, 1992 as the true beginning of the revolutionary movement that has changed the course of Venezuelan history and blazed a new path for Latin American unity and integration in the hemisphere. After a continual barrage of free market policies implemented by the Washington Consensus that sent prices skyrocketing and wages plummeting, it was 20 years ago last Saturday when then Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chavez led an unsuccessful military revolt against the government of Carlos Andres Perez.
Cited not only for widespread corruption and the exacerbation of social inequalities, the Perez administration had also been responsible for the brutal repression of a series of popular protests, known as the Caracazo, that broke out in major cities in Venezuela in February 1989. It is estimated that more than three thousand civilians were killed as a result of the government’s crack down on the civilians who had taken to the streets to protest the structural adjustment packages forced upon the nation by the International Monetary Fund. For Chavez, the massacre of the Caracazo and the betrayal perpetrated by the Venezuelan
Politics | 3 |
government against its people was further intensified by the unwillingness of the Perez administration to change its course and reverse its neoliberal policies. “For those who want to evaluate history objectively, after the Caracazo, the then president said that he was not going to change the economic plan and was going to continue with the freeing of prices, the freezing of miserable wages and the elimination of workers’ rights and benefits”, the head of state recalled on Saturday. Such a situation pushed forth the organizing of a new revolutionary movement that would break onto the international stage on February 4, 1992 when military leaders loyal to Chavez’s Bolivarian Movement would attempt to remove the discredited Perez from office. Although the rebellion coordinated by the Lieutenant Colonel was unsuccessful, Chavez’s willingness to take action against the Perez government won him the support of the majority of the population and led to his release from prison two years after he accepted responsibility for the military rebellion. In 1998, after building a political organization around his vision for change, Chavez would win the presidential elections and consolidate his plan to transform the OPEC member state from a lackey of foreign governments and financial institutions into an independent and sovereign nation which prioritizes social spending and regional integration.
“Here we are, 20 years later. There’s nothing else to do but refine our path and continue the march in honor of those who have given their lives for this Revolution today”, the socialist President declared last weekend. “We will not lower our arms nor rest our souls until we have definitively liberated our nation from backwardness and underdevelopment, until we have built in this land the socialism of a new era - socialism of the 21st century”, he defiantly declared. OPPOSITION CRITICISMS Responding to a statement released by members of the rightwing Venezuelan opposition who have criticized remarks made by the head of state describing the nation’s armed forces as “Chavista”, the South American President accused “the native oligarchy” of wanting “a military subordinated to imperialism”. “I will say it again, the armed forces are Chavista... and when I say Chavista, I’m using an expression from the people because the essence of Chavismo is the people”, he said. The conservative opposition also decried last Saturday’s military parade, claiming that the act was in some way a violation of the nation’s constitution. “Yesterday, I was laughing because I read a statement from the Venezuelan right-wing declaring that this parade is unconstitutional. That’s ridiculous. Where does it say that a military parade is unconstitutional? ... [The opposition] is lost without a map. All they have is hate”, Chavez said.
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4 | Politics
NoÊ£ä£ÊU Friday, February 10, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Venezuela’s Electoral Council prepares for 2012 elections Opposition primaries will take place this Sunday, February 12 to select a candidate to run against President Hugo Chavez next October 7 T/ COI P/ Agencies
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he Vice President of Venezuela’s National Electoral Commission (CNE), Sandra Oblitas, confirmed last Tuesday that more than 96 percent of the South American nation’s population over the age of 18 is registered to vote for local and national elections. The announcement was made during an interview with state television at which time Oblitas explained the advances made by the Venezuelan government to boost electoral participation and ensure that universal suffrage rights are respected. This has included streamlining the registration process and establishing over 1,300 fixed as well as mobile enrollment points throughout the country. Before President Hugo Chavez came to power in 1999, the CNE Vice President explained, the
amount of eligible voters not registered with the national commission was at 20.4 percent. “We’ve been able to diminish this gap to 5.26 percent and this allows us to put ourselves close to 96 percent of people registered”, she said. Oblitas informed that the number of registered voters at the close of 2011 was more than 18 million and that the goal for this year is to reach 20 million. To reach this goal, the Vice President of the electoral commission explained that members of the CNE will be carrying out house visits to register voters unable to enroll in the system for limited mobility, such as disabled populations and seniors.
With respect to the amount of polling places, the electoral official pointed out that the number of voting centers available to the population has grown from over eight thousand to over fourteen thousand since Hugo Chavez was elected president. PREPARING FOR MASS ELECTIONS This year, Venezuelans will go to the polls up to three times. Presidential primaries for the country’s conservative opposition are slated for February 12 while the presidential elections are set for October 7, followed by regional elections on December 16. Venezuela’s electoral system, one of the most advanced in the
OPPOSITION PRIMARIES Commenting on the process to be implemented for the primary elections to be held on February 12, Oblitas affirmed that the opposition coalition, Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), must accept the validity of the CNE’s work. Although some members of the MUD have attempted to discredit the national electoral board, Oblitas stated earlier this week that the majority of the opposition “recognizes the strength, technical capacity,
and operational condition of the entity in charge of elections”. The opposition coalition has publicly stated they will not use the fingerprinting machines or temporarily unremovable ink that are required in Venezuelan elections in order to prevent fraud. This decision could leave open the possibility of irregularities in their primary elections and future claims of fraudulent results. Opposition candidates have yet to public affirm they will respect the results of the October 7 presidential elections, no matter the outcome. Oblitas minimized the opposition claims. “There has been a channeling of democratic participation through our electoral system. The people have demonstrated that this is the way to resolve differences. That’s why when [the opposition] discredits the CNE, they are really attacking the democratic participation of the people”, she said. Oblitas mentioned that while the logistics of the primaries will be handled by the CNE, the announcement of results will be left to the leaders of the opposition. We will provide the vote totals to the electoral commission of the MUD so that they can disseminate the results and the elected candidates”, she explained. The winner of the opposition primaries will run against current Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who will be seeking his third consecutive 6-year term as head of state.
in the Western Plains and left hundreds, perhaps thousands of victims”, Santos said. In a personal conversation via telephone with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Tues-
day, President Santos formally thanked the Venezuelan government for the capture and said Buitrago, along with his brother, who was also recently captured, will be taken to Colombia this Thursday. On January 24, when the ONA celebrated its sixth anniversary, El Aissami remarked that Venezuelan police and military bodies had arrested 76 drug kingpins and members of different international drug trafficking organizations so far, not including Buitrago. These individuals have been handed over to the justice systems of the countries who had requested them, including Colombia, the United States, France, Italy and the Netherlands.
world, includes the use of an electronic registry accompanied by a paper record of votes cast, making the possibilities of fraud minimum. To vote, registered members of the population must present their government issued identity card and mark a fingerprint on a digital touchscreen. “Without a fingerprint or identity card, there’s no way to vote”, Oblitas said of the fraud prevention initiatives. This year’s elections will also see an increase in the CNE’s capacity with an additional twelve thousand voting machines being made available for polling stations around the country.
Venezuela arrested Colombia’s “Most Wanted” drug trafficker T/ AVN P/ Agencies
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fficers of the Venezuelan National Anti-Drug Office (ONA) arrested a prominent Colombian drug dealer, Nelson Orlando Buitrago Parada, aka “Caballo”, on Saturday. According to Venezuela’s Minister for Justice and Internal Affairs, Tareck El Aissami, Buitriago has been involved, together with his father and brother, “in several murders” and in “an important network
of narco-paramilitarism” operating in Colombia. El Aissami made the announcement on Monday during an interview with a local radio station. “We arrested another Colombian drug trafficker for whom INTERPOL had issued a red alert on Saturday night in Anzoategui state (eastern Venezuela), specifically in the town El Tigre”, the Minister said. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said Buitrago was one of the country’s “most
wanted paramilitary leaders” and is accused of murder, kidnapping, and drug trafficking. He was a leader with the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), an umbrella group for various right-wing paramilitary groups set up to fight Marxist guerrillas in the 1990s. Most blocs of the AUC have since demobilized but some have carried on and became heavily involved in drugtrafficking. “[Buitrago] played the leading role in one of the bloodiest wars
NoÊ£ä£ÊU Friday, February 10, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Integration | 5 |
ALBA and Haitian president Michel Martelly’s about-turn T/ Rachael Boothroyd P/ Presidential Press
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iven that one of the greatest priorities of the ALBA, Latin America’s regional integration bloc, is to counteract unequal terms of trade through fair and mutually-beneficial commerce, it is no small wonder that a country with an economy as historically dependent as Haiti’s would show more than a keen interest in joining. Indeed, Haitian President Michel Martelly’s attendance at the bloc’s 11th regional summit last week makes perfect diplomatic and economic sense for the earthquake-ravaged nation. Martelly’s participation in the summit may have provoked more than a twinge of incredulity. Coming to power in April 2011 in some of the most dubious elections that have ever been engineered in the US long history of “democracy promotion”, Martelly fit the bill for being the perfect puppet head of state. A staunch neo-liberal with strong ties to the US-backed Duvalier dictatorship, who had openly supported the 2004 coup against democratically elected leftist president, Jean Bertrand Aristide, Michel Martelly was a veritable godsend for the US. So perfect was the ex-kompa singer for the job, having had next to no political experience apart from an alleged stint in Duvalier’s former death squad, the “Tonton Macoutes”, that the US government went to special lengths to ensure that it was he who was selected by the Haitian populace in last year’s elections. Driven by the justifiable fear that Haitians might once again exercise their democratic rights in an undesirable fashion and vote for the country’s most popular leftwing party, Aristide’s Fanmi-Lavalas, which overthrew Duvalier in 1986, the Obama administration decided to uphold a 2009 ban which prevented the party from standing. When this meant that the primary elections didn’t even meet the minimal requirements for democratic elections, or that
the elections were boycotted, with a mere 23% of the electorate actually turning out to vote, the US government took it on the chin and pushed on ahead. When these primary elections were marred by ballot stuffing and widespread fraud, with only 0.6% separating the second and third candidates, the White House had the OAS directly intervene to ensure that it was Martelly, and not his rival, Jude Celestin, who would run in the presidential race. After having gone to all this effort to install the perfect president to act as a bulwark against progressive governments in the region, it must have been quite a slap in the face for the Obama administration to witness Martelly’s attendance at the ALBA summit last weekend. SHOCKING HAITI VS. REAL AID Before attending the inauguration of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Caracas last December, Martelly remarked that, “I think Haitians have come to know that cooperation with Venezuela is number one, the one with the most donations and assistance to Haiti”. Martelly is certainly not wrong. For Haitians, when faced with the choice between US “aid”, meaning effective occupation of the country and the strangulation of its economy, or the humanitarian help coming from Venezuela and Cuba, there is quite simply no contest. Even the UN’s special envoy to Haiti, Bill Clinton, admits that, in not so many words, US disaster aid to Haiti has been, quite simply, a disaster. Of every dollar donated from the US government in humanitarian aid, said Martelly last week, only one cent is arriving to the national government of Haiti. So where is the rest of the money going? Well mainly into the back pockets’ of US corporations and the US military. According to the Associated Press, of the $379 million donated to the Caribbean nation in the wake of January 2010, $150 million went
to US private and public NGOs while $125 went to the US army, with the latter receiving 40 cents out of every dollar donated. While Haitians are paying for the unwanted occupation of their country at the expense of reconstructing it, private US corporations have flocked to the Caribbean island quicker than you can say “shock doctrine”. Companies such as Development Alternatives and Fluor, following impressive operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, have been granted substantial contracts from US government agencies and the military in order to carry out security or construction work. But US skewed priorities don’t just end there. Out of the $54 million raised by Bush and Clinton for Haiti in 2010, $2 million has gone towards public reconstruction efforts and a gigantic $29 million towards building a luxury hotel. Conversely, in the midst of this US sponsored corporate free-for-all, the Venezuelan government has been constructing houses and refugee camps; sending thousands of tons of food and medical assistance, funding literacy campaigns, supplying agricultural support to increase national food production and building much needed electricity plants and medical diagnostic centres. Not only was Venezuela one of the first governments to respond to the crisis when the earthquake initially hit, but it also pledged more money than both the US government and the European Union in the aftermath of the catastrophe, as well as forgiving all of Haiti’s debt – an amount no less than $395 million. In addition to setting up emergency camps in Jacmel, Petit Goave, Grand Goave, and Legoane for over 25,000 people, the Venezuelan
government also built 3 power plants in Cap-Haitien, Gonaives and Port-au-Prince, which currently provide 1/5th of Haiti’s overall energy consumption. In a further stark contrast to the US government, which continues to subsidize its own farmers in order to allow them to dump masses of imported US rice on the Haitian economy, the Venezuelan and Cuban governments have been working on agricultural projects with Haitian rice farmers in the country’s Arbonite valley in an attempt to increase grain production. Furthermore, and despite Washington’s best attempts to sabotage the PetroCaribe project in Haiti, threatening to cut off the country’s aid in favor of the private oil companies doing business there, Venezuela currently provides virtually all of Haiti’s fuel consumption under preferential terms. While paying only 60% of the market value for the fuel up front, Haiti is able to pay the remainder to Venezuela in commodities such as rice and beans, a policy which has also helped to create jobs in Haiti, confirmed Martelly. According to the Haitian president, the Venezuelan oil organization has also built more than 4000 homes for Haitian families in a bid to provide a permanent solution to
the country’s desperate housing situation. HUMANITARIAN FOREIGN POLICY Whereas US foreign policy in Haiti has been centered around the development of US commercial interests abroad, Venezuela’s has been to prioritize human life and wellbeing over ideological differences with other governments. Still viewed as the basket case of the Caribbean, where the vestiges of colonialism continue to weigh down on countries’ political and economic structures like a lead weight, Haiti has perhaps been one of the most exploited and colonized nations of all time. But the country also has one of the most impressive traditions and historical legacies of radical popular struggle in the world; popular struggle which has consistently been put down by colonial powers, whether they be those of Napoleon, Wilson or Clinton. Within this context, bringing Haiti into the ALBA and out of the US backyard is the first time in history that Haiti has been offered the structural means to break its chains and move away from the northern giant which continues to stifle all popular initiative. Whether this will happen or not depends very much on which hand Martelly chooses to bite; his master’s, or the one that feeds him.
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6 | Security
NoÊ£ä£ÊU Friday, February 10, 2012
The artillery of ideas
UN praises Venezuela’s gun control and disarmament policies lion firearms held by civilians in the South American country. El Aissami mentioned last week that the government would not announce any “drastic measures” of prohibiting the possession of firearms outright due to the “cultural problem” of attitudes toward violence and firearms that first needs to be tackled. Nevertheless, he stated that the government’s security policies are ultimately aimed at the disarmament of the civilian population. President Chavez also his government would create a new security mission to complement the measures taken in this field during the previous two years, which together aim to tackle violent crime in Venezuela from a “comprehensive” perspective.
T/ Ewan Robertson www.venezuelanalysis.com P/ CO File
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nited Nations (UN) officials praised Venezuela’s gun control and disarmament efforts as the government proceeds with several policies aimed at countering violent crime and guaranteeing citizen security. Venezuelan government officials have also condemned photographs showing children posing with assault rifles that circulated on the Internet and have launched an investigation to find those responsible for the act. While applauding Venezuela’s efforts, William Godnick, coordinator of the UN Regional Center for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean said, “There are several disarmament commissions in different countries in the region, but none of them have the human and economic investment of Venezuela’s”. He made his comments while participating in an international conference on gun control and disarmament held in the Caracas last week, where Venezuela’s Presidential Commission for Gun Control and Disarmament shared experiences of firearm control policies with
other groups in order to further develop its strategies. “The Venezuelan government has made an impressive investment in this issue, proportionate to its needs”, stated Godnik. ADVANCING DISARMAMENT POLICIES The Presidential Commission was established last May 2011 by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to design, promote and implement public policies towards gun control and disarmament in a country where 78% of homicides are linked to the use of firearms. The Commission recently announced several initiatives toward this end, including a public awareness campaign launched this past Monday to tackle the “cultural problem” of violent crime and promote peaceful values in society. Signalling that public, private and social network media would participate in the campaign, Interior and Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami declared, “It [gun control] is an issue that doesn’t only concern the national government or democratic institutions of the state, it’s an issue of shared responsibility”. The cabinet member further called on the owners of private media outlets to cooperate with
the campaign, especially after having put such emphasis on the issue of criminal violence in Venezuela. “It’s time that you contribute with your outlets in the effort toward this model we’re building, committed to living together in peace”, he continued. Other measures announced by the Commission last week include tighter police firearms regulations, making the Ministry of Justice and Interior responsible for selling arms to the country’s security forces while shutting down commercial gun stores in Venezuela. “As of March, every last gun shop in Venezuela –and there are less than 80– should be closed. That is to say, the perverse chapter of the commercialization of firearms and munitions is over”, confirmed El Aissami. Venezuela has also seen progress in the confiscation and destruction of illegal firearms, with over 250,000 destroyed since 2003, and 177,000 destroyed by September in 2011 alone. A law for greater firearms control and disarmament is under debate in the country’s National Assembly, which has been formed since last year in consultation with organized communities. In Venezuela it is legal to own firearms with a permit, and authorities estimate there are 9 – 15 mil-
“LA PIEDRITA” Tareck El Assaimi also confirmed that an investigation had been launched to find those responsible for giving a group of children assault rifles, after photographs surfaced earlier this week showing a group named “La Piedrita” in the 23 Enero district in Caracas accompanying children who held the rifles and copies of the country’s constitution. The official expressed the Venezuelan government’s “categorical rejection” of the pictures, continuing, “it’s a condemnable, morally unacceptable act. Nothing is further from the values of our Bolivarian Revolution, which are of life, peace and solidarity...the whole country should condemn and reject this kind of activity”. President, Chavez also condemned the incident, while speculating that such attitudes promoting violence “are so counterrevolutionary that I assure you there is more than one CIA infiltrator in these [type of] groups”. The President, while approving another $16.8 million for the Presidential Commission on Disarmament, added “The arms we are giving to our children are laptops, schooling, health and recreation”. “We want a world of peace, of happiness, of love. We don’t incite violence...I call on the population to disarm”, he concluded.
Employment plan to start in Venezuelan jails
T/ AVN CO File
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enezuelan Minister of Prison Affairs, Iris Varela, announced that a program called “Llego La Chamba” (or Work Has Arrived, in Spanish) aimed at generating productive jobs for inmates in the country began Wednesday. Varela explained the new plan will include training workshops in the areas of carpentry, baking and agricultural production in order to provide inmates with employable skills. She also highlighted other initiatives developed in Venezuelan jails as a result of a diagnosis conducted about general problems among the imprisoned population, which concluded on December 2011. On the basis of that study, Varela explained a new program was recently started geared towards reducing procedural delays and legal problems with prisoners’ cases, which also involves the Ministry of Interior and Justice and the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. “We are addressing the situation in prisons very optimistically”, she added, also announcing another new plan focusing on repairing prison infrastructures with inmates as the working force. “It works to keep them working and fight idleness in prison centers. Right now, we are just starting to implement this program and already there are 695 inmates involved”, said Varela. “In each region, one prison center was chosen for the first phase, so as to initiate the program. For the second, third and fourth stages we will be gradually joining in other centers, according to the plan”, Minister Varela detailed.
NoÊ£ä£ÊU Friday, February 10, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Special Report | 7 |
Remembering journalist-turnedrevolutionary hero Fabricio Ojeda T/ COI P/ Agencies
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his week Venezuelans commemorated the life and legacy of assassinated revolutionary leader Fabricio Ojeda (1929-1966), President of the Patriotic Junta that brought an end to the dictatorial regime of Marcos Perez Jimenez (1952-1958). Widely popular for his role in defending the democratic rights of all Venezuelans, Ojeda was one of the first popular leaders to denounce the US-backed Fourth Republic (1958-1998), resigning from his seat in the National Assembly and making public his decision to join the armed struggle against “all that is putrid, all that is unjust, all that is not worthy of the new society we will build based on justice and liberties”. YOUNG FABRICIO Born on February 6, 1929, Fabricio Ojeda grew up in the small rural town of Bocono, state of Trujillo. According to Anayansi Jimenez, Ojeda’s partner at the time of his physical disappearance, the future revolutionary hero spent the greater part of his childhood immersed in the social injustice and poverty that was common in the Venezuela countryside prior to the Bolivarian Revolution. In a recent interview with Correo del Orinoco, Anayansi explained how rural life in Venezuela was “fertile terrain for the development of Ojeda’s political consciousness”. “In that environment and context, he came to understand the work ethic of the campesinos, their survival-based austerity, and the principal of solidarity that they live by”. From an early age, she continued, Fabricio’s “interest in understanding his surroundings was supplemented by an avid desire to read”. While still in high school, Ojeda spent a year teaching oil workers at the Creole Petroleum Corporation. In the oil fields, Anayansi explained, Ojeda “witnessed inequality and exclusion first-hand, but also met Jovito Villalba, Mario Iragorry, and Alirio Pelayo” founders of the Democratic Republic Union (URD), a grassroots political force engaged in the struggle for social, political, and economic justice. Fabricio Ojeda joined the URD at 17 years of age and, according to recently-released legal records, Venezuela’s previously-existing secret political police began following his movements from that point on. Three years into political activism, Ojeda suffered his first detention at the hands of national security intelligence officers. On August 23, 1952, while living and work-
ing in Maturin, Monagas state, Ojeda was held for questioning by officials known to be linked to the recently-installed dictatorship of Marcos Perez Jimenez. In 1955, Ojeda moved to Caracas and began studying journalism at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV). One year later, he was hired by daily El Nacional to cover the news coming out of Miraflores Presidencial Palace. Still an active member of the URD, Ojeda used his role as a reporter to help secretly organize the successful overthrow of Venezuela’s last known dictator. “We didn’t know it at the time”, explained his partner Anayansi, “but he was actually President of the clandestine Patriotic Junta while reporting from Miraflores”. Ojeda’s role in the civic-military uprising “only came to light on January 23, 1958 (the day Perez Jimenez fled the country), at which time he (Ojeda) had just turned 30 and was already a respected and victorious figure”, explained Anayansi. The popular victory, however, was soon co-opted by US-backed members of the “democratic” coalition, a move Ojeda denounced in both thought and action. REVOLUTIONARY LAWMAKER On January 20th, 1958, just three days before the Patriotic Junta successfully forced Perez Jimenez out of power, a handful of leaders from within the civicmilitary coalition held a secret meeting in New York in which they committed to excluding the leftist Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) from the country’s Fourth Republic (1958-1998) government. Commonly referred to as the ‘Pact of New York’, the anti-communist accord between Romulo Betancourt (Democratic Action, AD), Rafael Caldera (Social Christian Democrats, COPEI), and Jovita Villalba (URD) was facilitated by none other than Maurice Bergbaum, Chief Latin American Affairs Officer for the US State Department at the time. The agreement was later ratified at the private residence of COPEI’s Rafael Caldera, known as the ‘Pact of Punto Fijo’. Signed on October 31, 1958, the ‘pact’ required AD, COPEI, and URD to recognize the results of upcoming elections, form a national unity government, and, as was agreed upon earlier, exclude the Communist Party from the entire process. Just as Democratic Action was celebrating Romulo Betancourt’s 1958 presidential victory, Fabricio Ojeda was elected to represent the people of Caracas in the country’s National Congress. True to their elitist roots and hidden agenda, AD and COPEI soon began exclud-
ing the URD from the power-sharing accord and, three years later (1962), Ojeda’s party pulled its support for the US-backed government consolidating itself in Caracas. Making history in Venezuelan political life, Fabricio Ojeda formally resigned from Congress on June 30, 1962 and announced he was joining an armed guerrilla movement so as to secure “the profound changes needed in Venezuela to recover its status as a sovereign nation, recover the means of wealth now in the hands of foreign capital, and turn both these elements into instruments of collective social progress”. Inspired by the radical reforms being carried out by the Revolutionary Government in neighboring Cuba, Ojeda also affirmed that Venezuela was in need of “a profound change that liberates workers from their misery, ignorance, and exploitation; puts education, technology, and science at the service of the people; and ensures that working people have the permanent employment, social protection and safety nets required for their children’s well-being”. “Venezuela”, Ojeda concluded, “requires deep-rooted changes so that the democratic rights of the people not remain dead letters written into the law books, so that liberty exists and justice reigns; so that the rights to education, employment, health and the general well-being become true rights for the great majority of people and not the privilege of a scarce minority”. Three years into the Fourth Republic, Ojeda had already identified what would turn into four decades of bi-partisan power and privilege for the country’s political elites. COMMANDER OJEDA In October 1962, just months after his departure from “representative democracy”, Ojeda was captured by the Venezuelan Army and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Three
months later, on January 1, 1963, Ojeda and numerous other revolutionary leaders announced the formal launch of the Armed Forces for National Liberation (FALN), one of Venezuela’s most important guerrilla movements during the 1960’s and 70’s. On September 15, 1963, FALN guerrillas and allies within the country’s official armed forces helped Ojeda escape from prison. Soon after, Ojeda was made Commander of the National Liberation Front (FLN), one of many guerrilla cells belonging to the FALN, and in early 1966 was elected President of the FLN’s Executive Committee. As Commander of the FLN, Fabricio Ojeda is said to have played an important role in the founding of the Venezuelan Revolutionary Party (PRV), organizing many of its first consolidated political cells. Concerned with the inability to incorporate Venezuela’s Communist Party (PCV) into the guerrilla movement, Ojeda returned secretly to Caracas in a final, and failed, attempt to bring the PCV into the struggle for a new Venezuela. After two months in Caracas, Ojeda was captured on June 21, 1966 and, four days later, was found dead in a prison cell operated by the Intelligence Services of the Armed Forces (SIFA) with direct support from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). According to the official account, Venezuela’s most prominent revolutionary leader “committed suicide”. While Ojeda’s life and legacy were erased from public view throughout the Fourth Republic, his written works and struggle for social justice have been widely disseminated by the revolutionary government of President Hugo Chavez (1998 – present). Speaking to those gathered outside Miraflores Presidential Palace this January 23, President Chavez announced that a new investigation would be opened into the death Fabricio Ojeda, one of Venezuela’s most important modern revolutionary leaders.
Friday | February 10, 2012 | NÂş 101 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve
ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas
A publication of the Fundacion Correo del OrinocoĂŠUĂŠ `ÂˆĂŒÂœĂ€Â‡ÂˆÂ˜Â‡ …ˆivĂŠEva GolingerĂŠUĂŠ Ă€>ÂŤÂ…ÂˆVĂŠ iĂƒÂˆ}Â˜ĂŠArisabel Yaya SilvaĂŠUĂŠ*Ă€iĂƒĂƒĂŠFundaciĂłn Imprenta de la Cultura
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ast week’s Supreme Court hearing in the Julian Assange case has profound meaning for the preservation of basic freedoms in western democracies. It was Assange’s ďŹ nal appeal against his extradition to Sweden to face allegations of sexual misconduct that were originally dismissed by the chief prosecutor in Stockholm and constitute no crime in Britain. The consequences, if he loses, lie not in Sweden but in the shadows cast by the US descent into totalitarianism. In Sweden, he is at risk of being “temporarily surrenderedâ€? to the US where his life has been threatened and he is accused of “aiding the enemyâ€? with Bradley Manning, the young soldier accused of leaking evidence of US war crimes to WikiLeaks. The connections between Manning and Assange have been concocted by a secret grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, which allowed no defense counsel or witnesses, and by a system of plea-bargaining that ensures a 90 per cent conviction. It is reminiscent of a Soviet show trial. The determination of the Obama administration to crush Assange and the unfettered journalism represented by WikiLeaks is revealed in secret Australian government documents released under freedom of information which describe the US pursuit of WikiLeaks as “an unprecedented investigationâ€?. It is unprecedented because it subverts the First Amendment of the US constitution that explicitly protects truth-tellers. In 2008 Barack Obama said, “Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisalâ€?. Obama has since prosecuted
twice as many whistleblowers as all previous US presidents. With US courts demanding to see the worldwide accounts of Twitter, Google and Yahoo, the threat to Assange, an Australian, extends to any Internetuser anywhere. Washington’s enemy is not “terrorismâ€? but the principle of free speech and voices of conscience within its militarist state and those journalists brave enough to tell their stories. “How do you prosecute Julian Assange and not the New York Times?â€? a former administration ofďŹ cial told Reuters. The threat is well understood by the New York Times, which in 2010 published a selection of the WikiLeaks cables. The editor at the time, Bill Keller, boasted that he had sent the cables to the State Department for vetting. His obeisance extended to his denial that WikiLeaks
was a “partner� -- which it was -- and to personal attacks on Assange. The message to all journalists was clear: do your job as it should be done and you are traitors; do your job as we say you should and you are journalists. Much of the media’s depiction of Bradley Manning illuminates this. The world’s pre-eminent prisoner of conscience, Manning remained true to the Nuremberg principle that every soldier has the right to a “moral choice�. But according to the New York Times, he is weird or mad, a “geek�. In an “exclusive investigation�, the Guardian reported him as an “unstable� gay man, who got “out of control� and “wet himself� when he was “picked on�. Psychohearsay such as this serves to suppress the truth of the outrage Manning felt at the
wanton killing in Iraq, his moral heroism and the criminal complicity of his military superiors. “I prefer a painful truth over any blissful fantasyâ€?, he reportedly said. The treatment handed out to Assange is well-documented, though not the duplicitous and cowardly behaviour of his own government. Australia remains a colony in all but name. Australian intelligence agencies are, in effect, branches of the main ofďŹ ce in Washington. The Australian military has played a regular role as US mercenary. When prime minister Gough Whitlam tried to change this in 1975 and secure Australia’s partial independence, he was dismissed by a governor-general using archaic “reserve powersâ€? who was revealed to have intelligence connections. WikiLeaks has given Australians a rare glimpse of how
their country is run. In 2010, leaked US cables disclosed that key government ďŹ gures in the Labor Party coup that brought Julia Gillard to power were “protectedâ€? sources of the US embassy: what the CIA calls “assetsâ€?. Kevin Rudd, the prime minister she ousted, had displeased Washington by being disobedient, even suggesting that Australian troops withdraw from Afghanistan. In the wake of her portentous rise ascent to power, Gillard attacked WikiLeaks as “illegalâ€? and her attorneygeneral threatened to withdraw Assange’s passport. Yet the Australian Federal Police reported that Assange and WikiLeaks had broken no law. Freedom of information ďŹ les have since revealed that Australian diplomats have colluded with the US in its pursuit of Assange. This is not unusual. The government of John Howard ignored the rule of law and conspired with the US to keep David Hicks, an Australian citizen, in Guantanamo Bay, where he was tortured. Australia’s principal intelligence organization, ASIO, is allowed to imprison refugees indeďŹ nitely without explanation, prosecution or appeal. Every Australian citizen in grave difďŹ culty overseas is said to have the right to diplomatic support. The denial of this to Assange, bar the perfunctory, is an unreported scandal. Last September, Assange’s London lawyer, Gareth Peirce, wrote to the Australian government, warning that Assange’s “personal safety and security has become at risk in circumstances that have become highly politically chargedâ€?. Only when the Melbourne Age reported that she had received no response did a dissembling ofďŹ cial letter turn up. Last November, Peirce and I briefed the Australian Consul-General in London, Ken Pascoe. One of Britain’s most experienced human rights lawyers, Peirce told him she feared a unique miscarriage of justice if Assange was extradited and his own government remained silent. The silence remains.