page 7 | Analysis:
page 8 | Opinion
US-sponsored crimes in Colombia face international justice
An insider scoop on the latest Bilderberg meeting
Friday | June 8, 2012 | Nº 112 | Caracas
Venezuela cracks down on crime
ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas
Chavez to launch re-election bid, despite rumors Saving sea turtles
The South American nation has made major advances in the war against narcotrafficking with the arrest of Colombian kingpin Diego Perez Henao, known as “Diego Rastrojo”, one of the most wanted narco-terrorists in South America. Over the past 6 years, Venezuelan authorities have been able to arrest 78 major drug smugglers and have confiscated thousands of tons of drugs coming from Colombia. Recent initiatives to reform prisons in Venezuela have also begun. | page 2 Politics
Venezuela is a happy country Surveys show Venezuela as the happiest nation in South America. | page 3
President Hugo Chavez is set to register his presidential candidacy for the upcoming October 7 elections this Monday, June 11. Rumors have speculated about his health and some media have claimed he wouldn’t make it to the elections, therefore choosing a successor. Yet the Venezuelan President, headstrong to beat his greatest obstacle –cancer– has confirmed he will personally enroll his candidacy at the National Elections Council and make public his government plan for the next six years. [Continued below]
Venezuela’s Embassy in Washington joined with the Inter-American Convention for the Protection and Conservation of Sea Turtles (IAC), and the US Fish and Wildlife Service to celebrate World Sea Turtle Day on Monday. Edis Solorzano, director for fauna at the Venezuelan Environment Ministry’s Office of Biological Diversity joined via video conference from Caracas to discuss programs to preserve sea turtles developed in the Paria Peninsula and other coastal and island regions of Venezuela. In Macuro, an isolated population that can be accessed only by sea, “we have liberated almost 3,000 Leatherback sea turtles”, she said. In Isla de Aves, an important nesting area for Green sea turtles in the Caribbean, over 1,000 nests have been registered, 2,000 turtles have been freed and about 575,500 hatchlings born from 2001 to 2011.
Integration
Advancing relations with Belarus President Chavez met with Belarus Deputy Prime Minister this week in Caracas. | page 4 Sports
Big gains for Venezuela in sports Johan Santana pitched a no-hitter for the mets and the Vinotinto may go to the world cup. | page 5
“A sea of people” to accompany Chavez’s re-election registry T/ COI
V
enezuela President Hugo Chavez plans to register in person with election authorities next week and make his re-election bid official, his campaign chief said Wednesday. “I am certain that an immense sea of people will mobilize...for
the inscription of President Chavez”, said campaign head Jorge Rodriguez during a televised press conference. Mr. Chavez, 57 years old, is slated to visit Venezuela’s National Electoral Council on June 11, the deadline to register, Mr. Rodriguez said. The incumbent’s opponent in the Oct. 7 vote, Henrique Capriles Ra-
donski, is scheduled to formalize his candidacy a day earlier. Chavez carries a solid double digit lead over Capriles Radonski according to the latest polls conducted by a spectrum of polling companies. While the current Venezuelan President has yet to begin his campaign, and his opponent has been on the streets for several months, recent surveys show Chavez with a minimum 54% of the vote and a 60%+ approval rating. Capriles Radonski’s numbers have yet to reach 30%.
The event Monday will be a major kick-off for President Chavez’s re-election campaign, since the Venezuelan head of state has been recovering from cancer treatment that began one year ago and has held few public events during that time. Speculations and rumors about his health abound, and foreign and opposition interests have banked on Chavez opting out of the presidential race, though he has verbally reaffirmed his candidacy for several months. On June 11, that candidacy will be formalized.
|
2 | Impact
NoÊ££ÓÊU Friday, June 8, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Venezuela busts major Colombian drug lord, moves forward with prison reforms T/ COI P/ Agencies
V
enezuelan authorities announced last Sunday the capture of Colombian kingpin Diego Perez Henao, known as “Diego Rastrojo”, one of the most wanted narco-terrorists in South America and leader of the criminal gang, the “Rastrojos”. According to Venezuelan Justice Minister, Tareck El Aissami, the arrest “is one of the most significant in the history of Venezuela with respect to the fight against drug mafias and organized crime dedicated to drug trafficking”. “Rastrojo was at the leader of important drug traffickers in the Colombian states of Narino and Cauca. He is responsible for hundreds of victims, murders, extortion and has an extensive criminal record”, El Aissami said. The announcement of Perez’s capture comes as the Venezuelan government steps up its anti-drug initiatives and clamps down on Colombian narco-terrorists taking refuge inside its territory. Over the past 6 years, Venezuelan authorities have been able to arrest 78 major drug smugglers including Hector Parada, known as “Martin Plains” who has been accused of ordering the death of more than three thousand people in the eastern plains of Colombia. The capture of Parada in February of this year follows the arrest in 2010 of Colombians Carlos “Beto” Renteria and Maximiliano Bonilla, aka the “Valenciano” in November 2011. With the apprehension of Diego Perez, Venezuela has made another important advance in the fight against the narcotraffickers who exports tons of cocaine annually to the United Sates and Europe. As part of the Rastrojos paramilitary army in Colombia, Perez is also alleged to com-
mand more than 800 right-wing mercenaries. During a phone call made to Venezuelan state television, Minister El Aissami reported that the drug lord’s arrest was made possible through a joint operation by Colombian Police and the Venezuelan National Anti-Drug Agency (ONA). Information provided by two Colombian citizens was key in uncovering Perez on a rice farm in the Venezuelan plains state of Barinas posing as the foreman of the estate. Authorities have informed that a $5 million reward offered by the United States will be given to the informants for their cooperation in the police efforts that led to the arrest. An additional 1.2 million pesos ($655,000) will be handed over by the Colombian government. “This is one of the most important blows that has been given to organized crime and narco-trafficking in general... Venezuela is demonstrating it’s operational abilities, the strength and deployment of its democratic institutions, the unbreakable values of its armed forces and the values of its public police forces”, El Aissami said on Sunday. Although not a major producer of illicit substances, Venezuela has been plagued by drug trafficking as the result of its proximity to Colombia - the world’s largest producer of cocaine. Recent collaboration between the neighboring nations through bilateral security agreements has led, however, to greater coordination in the fight against organized crime and the drug trade. Upon learning of the apprehension of Perez last weekend, Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos praised the security forces of both nations, calling the arrest of the drug lord as a “great capture”. “Congratulations to our police and the [Venezuelan] ONA”,
Santos wrote via his Twitter account. HUMANIZING PRISONS In addition to moving forward with the fight against drugs and narco-trafficking, Venezuela has been undergoing a prison reform process that is transforming the nation’s neglected and overcrowded penitentiaries into rehabilitation centers focused on the promotion of human rights. Minister of Penitentiary Services, Iris Varela, informed last Sunday that one of the main prongs of the reform process is the elimination of criminal mafias who for decades have ruled the country’s prison system. During the program Jose Vicente Hoy, broadcast by the channel Televen, Varela gave details of an official report filed
by the ministry regarding an uprising that took place in the La Planta prison in Eastern Caracas last month. The minister informed that government officials have seized 125 firearms, more than 64,000 munitions of different calibers, and 27 explosives during a 2 week sweep of the facilities. “All of this is part of a great mafia that launders a lot of money and has the participation of civilians and military personnel”, Varela said during the interview. The Minister disclosed that members of the government are certain to uncover even more arms, given the fact that 40 percent of the prison remains to be searched. “We’re expecting to find more”, the high official said. Varela was also emphatic in the assertion that the weapons found were not smuggled into the penitentiary during the time that current President Hugo Chavez has held office. “These arms did not come into the prisons from 1999 to the present. They came in much earlier”, she said. The conf lict in La Planta prison began at the end of April when an escape attempt led to a violent standoff be-
tween inmates and prison security that lasted for more than 4 weeks. The incident was peacefully resolved through government intervention that led to the closure of the prison and the transfer of all inmates to other correctional facilities. On Sunday Varela upheld the government’s plan to change the paradigm of Venezuela’s penitentiary system by creating national and regional Situation Rooms to address penal issues as well as the installation of 40 high tech surveillance centers to improve security inside the jails. 24 new prisons are also slated to be built in Venezuela in the coming years to lessen the current burden of overcrowding and provide improved conditions to the incarcerated. While admitting to not having yet solved all the problems associated with Venezuela’s antiquated prison system, Minister Varela defended the changes being put into effect by the current Bolivarian government of Hugo Chavez that strives “to make justice more just”. “It is with the Bolivarian Revolution that the rights of those in prison are being recognized”, she asserted.
NoÊ££ÓÊU Friday, June 8, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Venezuela happiest country in South America
T/ Rachael Boothroyd P/ Agencies
T
he University of Columbia’s “Earth Institute” has released the results of its first happiness report, which highlight Venezuela as the happiest country in South America and the second happiest country in the region after Costa Rica. Presented at the United Nation’s “Meeting on Happiness” in April, the study is based on data collected from a series of international “happiness” reports, including a 2011 poll by Gallup that asks citizens to evaluate their life satisfaction on a scale of 1-10. As well as topping the list of countries in South America, Venezuelan’s happiness index also fairs particularly well in comparison to happiness levels across the globe. Although Venezuela came 19th out of the 156 countries surveyed, all other countries featured in the happiest twenty are found in the developed world, with the exception of Costa Rica. Venezuela also ranked just one place below the United Kingdom, which came 18th in the overall study.
Whilst beating some of its Latin American neighbours, such as Mexico and Brazil, Venezuela also topped many European countries such as France, Spain, Italy and Germany. US ally Colombia, usually praised as a model of development in Latin America, also ranked surprisingly low in the study, coming in 41st place overall. The report is consistent with the findings of other polls, including the last Gallup poll in 2011, which placed Venezuela in joint 5th place with Finland in terms of citizen happiness out of 124 countries. Venezuelans also regularly rate themselves as being “happy”, with Latin America’s Latinobarometro reporting in 2010 that 84% of Venezuelans are “satisfied” with their lives and 84% of citizens classifying themselves as “happy” or “very happy” in the latest GISXXI poll from inside the country. SOCIAL INVESTMENT According to the authors of the report, the social factors most affecting happiness levels are community, governance, work, income, values and religion. Although the report finds
a correlation between levels of income and happiness, it also found that growth in wealth does not necessarily translate to a growth in happiness. The report cites the United States as evidence of this, where the happiness of the top quintile of the population has not risen,
Politics | 3 |
despite great increases in their personal wealth over the past few decades. On the other hand, the report finds that happiness in terms of income is generally relative to perceived equality, suggesting that happiness may be greater in countries with a fairer distribution of wealth. While this perhaps explains why Venezuela ranks so highly in the report as the most equal country in Latin America, the Venezuelan government has also commented that levels of happiness in the country are related to the government’s high levels of social investment. “Social inclusion is extremely important because lots of Venezuelans who didn’t have the opportunity to study, or the opportunity to access health care or technology, are now enjoying these opportunities”, said President of Venezuela’s National Statistics Institution, Elias Eljuri, speaking about the report on state television channel VTV. Eljuri went on to detail that in the past 13 years, the government has invested about 61% of its total revenue in programs aimed at citizen wellbeing; including increased funding to all sectors of the country’s education and health systems and to a variety of cultural and sports projects. This figure represents almost a 25% increase in social investment from previous governments, with the percentage of national revenue dedicated
to social welfare between 1986 and 1998 averaging 36.2%. According to Eljuri, the report demonstrates that what is most important for the happiness of a country is not the “size of its economy”, but rather how the country’s wealth is distributed. He also contrasted the Venezuelan government’s response to the 2008 financial crisis and its decision to keep investing in social welfare with the austerity policies currently being implemented in the West. “Venezuela’s economy also went downhill in 2009-2010, nonetheless, as a result of the government’s massive social investment and a policy which prioritizes social wellbeing, where the human being has always come first… all this allowed us… to maintain poverty levels and a level of unemployment which fluctuated around 8%”, he said. In terms of community and governance, the Venezuelan state press has also cited the happiness report’s results as further proof of the government’s successful initiatives in increasing citizen political participation, highlighting a 2009 Latinobarometro poll that indicates support for democracy had increased in Venezuela under President Chavez and is now the highest in the region. The poll also ranked Venezuela third after Costa Rica and Uruguay for how positively citizen’s viewed their country’s democracy.
ALBA countries to withdraw from Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance T/ AVN
T
his week, an agreement to publicly withdraw from the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance was signed by foreign affairs ministers of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA), including Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The information was released by Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño during the 42nd OAS General Assembly held in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Patiño said: “Our [ALBA] countries have made the decision to drop what is droppable, what doesn’t work anymore, like the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, which was supposedly created to defend the countries of the region before an extra-continental military threat, which never happened”.
“The only time when the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance was really important was in the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands in the 80’s, when an extra-continental power attacked a country of our continent, but it didn’t work. In fact, one of the countries of the continent supported that extra-continental power”, recalled Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca. Meanwhile, Patiño explained that “our countries have made this decision to denounce the treaty based on its article 25. This is a decision to begin cleaning up the dead leaves of the Organization of American States (OAS) from a number of useless mechanisms”. The ministers agreed that the OAS must be reformed so it can be at the service of the people, and not just an organism that supports the interests of a power.
|
4 | Integration
NoÊ££ÓÊU Friday, June 8, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Venezuela and Belarus revitalize relations T/ COI P/ Presidential Press
V
enezuelan President Hugo Chavez met with Belarus Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Shemashko last Saturday during an encounter that addressed a number of bilateral projects and confirmed the visit of the European nation’s head of state, Alexander Lukashenko, to Caracas on June 26. “I am very grateful to President Chavez”, Shemashko said in a joint press conference after the meeting. “As a soldier and warrior, he has given us some very positive and important indications”. Other than preparing the grounds for Lukashenko’s visit, the purpose of the encounter, the two leaders commented, was to review and rekindle a series of accords signed between the allied government dealing mainly with joint industrial development and energy projects. Specifically, Chavez mentioned a number of factories being built in the Venezuelan plains state of Barinas with the aid of Belarusian technology. “The truck and tractor factory is already producing in Barinas”, Chavez said of one
of the projects. “Soon we’ll be inaugurating a factory for construction materials... and a clay block factory that will be used for construction”, the socialist head of state explained. Other initiatives include the distribution of natural gas to neighborhoods in the capital of Caracas and the erection of a thermoelectric plant in Bari-
nas that will have the capacity to generate some 600 Megawatts of power. During the press conference, Chavez drew attention to the sovereign policies of Belarus and Venezuela, calling both nations an example of “walking on our own feet”. “While the capitalist model sinks, here we are. We have
Venezuela, Cuba & Argentina offer development assistance to Haiti T/ Ewan Robertson
V
enezuela, Cuba and Argentina have signed new agreements to support Haiti’s development, including agricultural projects and building a new hospital on the Caribbean island. One accord with Argentina and Venezuela involves boosting Haiti’s agricultural sector, which imports nearly 80% of its main food staple, rice. Another agreement commits Venezuela and Cuba to
build a new hospital in the capital zone of Corail, where the prime ministers’ office sat before the January 2010 earthquake. The project will cost around $78 million and will equip the hospital with the latest technology. The agreements were signed last Wednesday in a meeting between the Haitian prime minister Laurent Lamothe and delegations from the other countries. Lamothe commented that “the signing of new coopera-
tion agreements confirms the vital importance of southsouth relations”. The four countries also agreed to form a joint body to administer Venezuela’s Petrocaribe program in Haiti, which supplies the island with oil at a preferential rate. The body will administer Petrocaribe funds to construct shelters, invest in educational institutions, and provide 300 scholarships to young people from low income backgrounds.
all kinds of problems but we’re moving forward and our project is advancing”, the ex-lieutenant colonel said. The Venezuelan President pointed out that while Europe continues to suffer through an economic crisis, GDP growth in Belarus reached 5.6 percent in 2011 while unemployment continues to decline.
Haiti launched a new social program last Sunday with $13 million generated from Petrocaribe to provide poor mothers with stipends to help cover basic living costs. Lamothe stressed the importance of Venezuelan and Cuban assistance for the reconstruction of Haiti. He especially thanked the presence of the Cuban medical brigade over the previous thirteen years and the facilitators of the “Yes I can” Cuban literacy program. LINGERING PROBLEMS Haiti faces huge development challenges after the earthquake in January 2010 killed over 300,000 people and left two million displaced, on an island with a population of 10 million. Currently
For his part, the Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister pledged his nation’s support so that “Venezuela is able to achieve the 6 percent economic growth forecasted for 2012”. The topic of greater cooperation with respect to oil and housing construction in Venezuela were also addressed during the meeting, the leaders confirmed. “We’ve been reviewing this with Belarus’ energy minister. It’s about having primary production in Venezuela and the commercial aspects of oil and its derivatives take place in Belarus. There are other projects also in the works including, most importantly, that of housing”, Chavez said. With respect to Venezuela’s coming elections on October 7, Chavez stressed the importance of maintaining the course of the South American nation’s Bolivarian Revolution, which has broken with the free-market policies of previous administrations. “It’s about two models. It’s between the bourgeois, privatizing model that broke Venezuela into a thousand pieces over the history of the 20th century and the socialist project which is profoundly democratic and humanistic”, he said.
400,000 people still live in improvised camps. Moreover the nation suffers from a cholera epidemic that has claimed over 7,000 lives and is expected to sharpen as the rainy season begins, reports the Pan American Health Organisation . Along with other countries in the region such as Brazil, Argentina and Cuba, Venezuela has been a key support to Haiti in its reconstruction efforts. Through the ALBA alliance and Petrocaribe, Venezuela has been building power plants on the island and has dedicated funds to the housing, infrastructure, agricultural, health and education sectors. Venezuela also wrote off $400 million of Haitian debt in June 2010.
NoÊ££ÓÊU Friday, June 8, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Sports & Science | 5 |
Venezuela to launch second satellite this year
T/ AVN
T
he Venezuelan government will launch its second satellite, the Francisco de Miranda satellite, by late 2012, according to the country’s Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Jorge Arreaza. At a press conference Thursday in Caracas, Arreaza said that the launch will require an investment of $140 million, and that funds to put it the satellite into orbit will be provided by the National Development Fund (FONDEDN). He said that the new satellite is being built in China together with Venezuelan personnel of the Bolivarian Agency of Space Activities. “Hopefully, we will be able to launch it this year. It’s a satellite of remote perception and terrestrial observation”, he said. The new satellite will be used to help plan projects in safety, defense, agriculture, health and urban development throughout the country, the minister detailed. The Simon Bolivar satellite, Venezuela’s first, was launched in October 2008, and has since been used to transmit information and boost phone and internet access, particularly in remote rural areas. The Simon Bolivar satellite is integrated into the National Telephone Company’s network of terrestrial telecommunications and contributes to the development of social programs including tele-education and tele-medicine, as well as telephone communications, computing, and projects of the Venezuelan Foundation for Seismologic Research (FUNVISIS).
Santana deals no-hitter to cards, Vinotinto ties Uruguay T/ COI P/ Agencies
I
n an important week for Venezuelan athletes and sports, big leaguer Johan Santana threw a no-hit, no-run ballgame against the St. Louis Cardinals last Friday marking the first time in the 51-year history of the New York Mets that the feat has been accomplished. The native of Tovar, Merida, in Western Venezuela, hurled 133 pitches through 9 frames, surrendering 5 walks, striking out 8 and sealing his place in New York Mets’ history. “This is very, very special, and I know it means a lot to New York”, the southpaw said after the game. For Santana, the no-hitter comes as a major confidence boost as the left-hander underwent shoulder surgery in September 2010 and has been fighting to return to his earlier form that led to two Cy Young awards as the league’s best pitcher in 2004 and 2006. Mets’ skipper Terry Collins praised the 33 year-old for his resilience during the after game press conference. “I think that’s what the whole thing’s about. To do what he had to do, to have this
surgery done and have people say, ‘He’s not coming back, his career’s over’... What’s got him to this level is what he showed you tonight. He trusts himself. He trusts his ability. He never gives up, never gives in”, Collins said. Santana, who has mastered a nasty change-up pitch that has baffled hitters for more than a decade, struck out the Cardinal’s third baseman David Freese on the same pitch to end the game and secure the no-hitter. Freese was last year’s National League Championship and World Series MVP for the reigning MLB champ Cardinals.
On the season, Santana now possess a 3-2 record on the season with a 2.38 ERA. “If we go back to Spring Training ... there were a lot of question marks. ‘Could he be the same pitcher he used to be?’ I don’t know. And I still don’t know. But one thing I can tell you is that every time I go out there, I’ll compete. ... That’s what I do”, Santana said of his season and his career last Friday night. MAGGLIO RETIRES Detroit Tiger, Magglio Ordonez, bid farewell to his teammates last Sunday during a pregame ceremony held at
Comerica Park that marked the end to the Venezuelan’s outstanding 15-year career. “It’s hard to retire. I’m going to miss baseball always, but this time was going to come”, the 38-year old said during the ceremony. Ordonez, from the city of Coro in Northern Venezuela, came up with the White Sox in 1997 and suffered an ankle injury during last year’s American League Championship series that effectively ended his career. On Saturday, fans held signs reading “We Love You Magglio” and “Thanks for the Great Career”. “When you’re talking about a true pro and a professional, you’re talking about Magglio Ordonez”, said Tigers President and General Manager Dave Dombrowski on Sunday. The outfielder ends his time in the big leagues with a career .309 batting average, 294 home runs and 1,236 RBIs in 1,848 games. In 2007, Ordonez won the American League batting championship with a batting average of .363. A STEP CLOSER TO THE WORLD CUP Venezuela’s national soccer team, known as the Vinotinto, took a further step towards securing its first ever qualification for the World Cup with a 1-1 tie against Uruguay last Saturday. Venezuela’s Salomon Rondon tied the match at minute 84, guaranteeing the draw for the Caribbean nation in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo. “I think the result was fair. This shows the improvement of Venezuelan football. Congratulations to them”, said Uruguay coach Oscar Washington Tabarez. The result means that Venezuela’s national selection continues to compete with the continent’s best teams following a surprise victory last Fall over Argentina, a victory over Bolivia and a tie with Colombia. With the stalemate, the Vinotinto, now occupy the 4th slot in the World Cup Qualifiers for the South American Region with 8 points. The team’s next qualifying match will be against Chile on June 9 in the Venezuelan city of Puerto La Cruz.
|
6 | Culture
NoÊ££ÓÊU Friday, June 8, 2012
The artillery of ideas ties. Music was not taught as a “training session” but as a way of life. Young people were made to feel they had joined a sort of family that would support and encourage them to reach higher standards. Abreu believes in the young people and says, “Culture for the poor cannot be poor culture”. Children learn to work as a team and to have self-discipline. Egotistic individualism is not encouraged, but creativity and personal development are. The heart of the music program is acceptance and support: the child who wants to join is accepted unconditionally without any filtering or auditions. The instruments that are provided are not kept in the school, but entrusted to the child to take home and care for. One ten-year-old boy admitted that he had to have his cello right next to his bed in his humble bedroom because he could not sleep without it.
Bringing Mozart to the masses: Venezuela’s music revolution T/ Maria Paez Victor
A
s a sociologist, I often roamed the dirt tracks of the poor sections of my hometown Caracas, and it seemed to me that from the open windows, I would always hear someone singing or strumming the Venezuelan four-string guitar, el cuatro, or see some fellow un-selfconsciously walking by whistling or singing. Later on, reading the memoirs of an English officer of Simon Bolivar’s British Legion who fought for the Venezuelan Independence Revolution, I was struck by his observation that at the bivouacs after the day’s march, as the men sat around the campfires, they created music. “Most of the natives are musicians and singers”, he wrote. Today, 200 years later, the officer’s observation is solidly backed by the achievements of the extraordinary Venezuelan music program, El Sistema, which now has 300 centers, 310,000 students, and 500 or-
chestras in the country. Its hallmark is the excellence of its musicians, foremost of whom is Gustavo Dudamel, undoubtedly the world’s most exciting classical music conductor. El Sistema is a remarkable music and antipoverty program that was created in 1975 by Maestro Jose Antonio Abreu, who was determined to improve social justice through the balm of music. He started out with only 11 young musicians who shared his vision to give the poor and marginalized access to music education. Over 70 percent of the students in El Sistema come from poor families. A typical student in El Sistema comes from a barrio, a very poor neighborhood. He or she attends a nucleus after school, taught by an older student of El Sistema at no charge and on an instrument supplied for free. There are groups for preschoolers, school-age children, and teenagers. Participants learn how to play an instrument and how to perform in an orchestra. The
child’s family is important to the success of El Sistema and is considered part of the program. Children progress through the program to higher standards, including the National Simon Bolivar Orchestra, which plays all over the world. In 1975 oil-rich Venezuela was a goose that laid golden eggs for the upper classes. From 1935–1998, this petroleum-rich country had a poverty level of 60 percent, with almost one-third of the population suffering from extreme poverty. The majority of the people were thus excluded from the benefits of oil riches; that exclusion was economic, political, and also cultural. The arts were seen as the reserve of only the wealthy, with the poor excluded from museums, galleries, theaters, and music performances. Classical music was especially seen as the purview of the privileged. Maestro Abreu struggled for the necessary backing from successive governments, never obtaining from them the recog-
nition and funds that his program deserved. It is a wonder, however, that even under those circumstances, his program and musicians survived. CHAVEZ’S SUPPORT That all changed with the election of President Hugo Chavez. Today there is a happy convergence between the values of El Sistema and those of the Chavez government, including the antipoverty programs Chavez inspired. In 13 years, they have reduced poverty to 27.8 percent and extreme poverty to 7.3 percent, an astounding achievement for any developing country. El Sistema now receives 90 percent of its funding from the Venezuelan government. The opposition to President Chavez has bitterly attacked El Sistema because of this government support, even though the positive results of the program are beyond question. Maestro Abreu organized his program into a series of centers, or nuclei, in different locali-
RIGHT TO ART El Sistema also includes choirs, and one choir in particular has stunned the musical world: it is composed of children who are deaf, blind, or otherwise disabled. They participate with their hands, wearing white gloves, as they signal the words of the songs. World-famous opera singer Placido Domingo was so moved watching this choir for the first time that tears rolled down his cheeks. Abreu believes that “the most holy of human rights is the right to art”. His student, Gustavo Dudamel, former conductor of the Simon Bolivar Orchestra, now conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. He is now disseminating the idea that music is a human right in the world of classical music, where he is a major player. Dudamel is also promoting El Sistema in Los Angeles. In an orchestra, as in a family, fellow students are supporters, not rivals. The idea of music as an inherent human right constitutes a cultural revolution that may very well save the future of classical music itself. El Sistema has renewed music education by bringing in the talents and enthusiasm of those who had been excluded. It has brought a fresh wind to the musty halls where elites had wanted to keep classical music prisoner. And it all started in Venezuela, where revolution is a very good thing.
NoÊ££ÓÊU Friday, June 8, 2012
The artillery of ideas
T/ Dan Kovalik P/ Agencies
T
his week, international human rights group went to The Hague to request that key Colombian officials be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for their participation in what has come to be known as the “false positive” (in Spanish, “falsos positivos”) scandal. As the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) explains in its press release and extensive report, this scandal involved the extra-judicial killing of 3,345 civilians, during the period 20022008, by the official Colombian military which then passed these victims off falsely as guerillas killed in combat. The FIDH emphasized that this was done with the knowledge and even urging of “army officials at the highest level” which actually gave incentives to army personnel for such killings. The FIDH’s report, aptly entitled, “Colombia: The war measured in liters of blood – “False Positives”, crimes against humanity: the impunity of the most responsible”, explains how this incentive program worked, and, indeed, continues to work in Colombia: “The testimony of some of the implicated members in the cases of false positives refer to the pressures placed upon them from members of the National Military in regards to operational results. ‘Colonel Ramirez told us that every commandant in each battalion had to report one death per month and the Second Section had to report 3 bodies a month. The colonel also stated ‘at this time the war is being measured by liters of blood, and a commanding officer that fails to provide body results every month will be appropriately sanctioned, which will in turn reflect on his overall record.’ On another occasion early in 2008, when Colonel Juan Carlos Barrera Jurado took command of the brigade, he went as far as to tell all the commanding officers that ‘the battalion that failed to provide bodies or engage in combat after 90 days will subject that commanding officer to discharge for negligence and operational incapacity’”.
Analysis | 7 |
US-sponsored crimes in Colombia referred to International Criminal Court
However, as the high command of the Colombian military very well knew, these body counts ended up being attained through the path of least resistance -- that is, by the military’s killing civilians in lieu of actually engaging in battles with the guerillas themselves. Here is a chilling account of how the military achieved its quota of bodies: “Between December 2007 and August 2008, at least 16 young men disappeared under strange circumstances from the municipality of Soacha (Cundinamarca). Some of these men had informed their families that they had been offered a job offer in Santander; others just never returned home. All of them were reported dead after having allegedly died in combat as soldiers for the Francisco de Paula Santander Batallion and the Movil 15 Brigade, both of which are entities within the Second Division of the National Military. ... The bodies of these young men unexplainably appeared 700 kilometers from Soacha, buried without a name, in a
common grave site in Ocana (North of Santander), and falsely reported by the military as delinquents, paramilitaries, and/or guerrillas killed in combat. Once these claims gained widespread notoriety, families from all over the country began to share similar stories of the disappearance and death of their loved ones, many of which revealed similar circumstances”. Again, while this report focuses on events during the 2002-2008 period, the report makes it clear that this phenomenon is not a thing of the past. Thus, the FIDH explains, “it is important to note that in its most recent annual study of the human rights crisis in Colombia (2011 study), the Office of the Human Rights Commission observed that the practice of these extrajudicial executions have not been totally eradicated: that is, these violations continue to occur in Arauca, Bogota, Cauca, and Cesar”. The most salient aspect of the “false positive” scandal for the US, however, is what is not
explained in this report -- that is, that the Colombian military has been encouraging the high body count in order to justify continued military aid from the United States which has given that military around $8 billion, and counting, since 2000 to wage its counter-insurgency war. In other words, it is the United States which is truly behind the “body count syndrome” at the heart of the “false positive scandal”. And, it cannot be said that the US has somehow been encouraging body counts unwittingly, for it has been very aware of this phenomenon for many years. Thus, the US has been aware that the Colombian military has been engaged in such “crimes against humanity”, as the foregoing report describes them, since well before even 2000. As an illuminating account by Michael Evans at The National Security Archives explains, classified US documents show that “[t]he CIA and senior US diplomats were aware as early as 1994 that USbacked Colombian security forces engaged in ‘death squad
tactics’, cooperated with drugrunning paramilitary groups, and encouraged a ‘body count syndrome...’” Yet, despite this long-standing knowledge of such crimes, the US not only continued, but indeed massively increased its military aid to Colombia under the 2000 program known as Plan Colombia -- a program of military aid which continues to this day and which continues to incentivize the murder of civilians. Under the very same logic which led to the ICC conviction of former Liberian leader Charles Taylor for “aiding and abetting” the “proxy armies” which committed atrocities in Sierra Leone, the US officials behind Plan Colombian should be held liable for the “false positive” scandal in Colombia. Indeed, it is the US paymasters in Washington DC who are truly the intellectual authors of the “false positive” scandal. Yet, they sadly will never be prosecuted because (1) the US has never signed on to the ICC due to the very fear of being held accountable for such crimes; and (2) the US massive military might prevents any police action which could result in US officials being brought to justice. Maybe most sadly, because of the utter failure of our media to even cover such issues, the responsible US officials will never even be convicted in the court of public opinion -- at least not in this country. Finally, while the US justifies its crimes in Colombia on its alleged desire to eradicate drugs, there are two irrefutable truths about this: (1) since the US began its “war on drugs” in Colombia, there has been no decrease in cocaine exported from that country to the US; and (2) as The Guardian of London just reported, the entire Western financial system has itself become addicted to the drug trade, is being propped up by it with billions of dollars of capital and Western governments are doing nothing to police this. Therefore, while innocents die in countries like Colombia, Mexico and Honduras by the thousands in our so-called “war on drugs”, the Western banks are allowed to profit from drugs. I can think of no greater injustice.
Friday | June 8, 2012 | Nº 112 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve
ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas
A publication of the Fundacion Correo del OrinocoÊUÊ ` Ì À ivÊEva GolingerÊUÊ À>« VÊ ià } ÊAimara AguileraÊUÊ*ÀiÃÃÊFundación Imprenta de la Cultura
Bilderberg 2012: Mitt Romney and Bill Gates were there /ÉÊ >À iÊ- i Ì / iÊ Õ>À` >
W
hat a Bilderberg it’s been. Big names, big money, big decisions, big crowds. Somewhere around 800 activists outside the gates (up from about a dozen in 2009), and inside? Well, here’s what we learned. A MITT ROMNEY ATTENDANCE? Four eyewitnesses on the hotel staff told me Willard Mitt Romney was here at Bilderberg 2012. My four eyewitnesses place him inside. That’s one more than Woodward and Bernstein used. Romney’s office initially refused to confirm or deny his attendance as Bilderberg is “not public”. They later said it was not him. So, was he being crowned, or singing for his supper? Will Mitt Romney follow in the august footsteps of Clinton, Cameron and Blair to have attended Bilderberg and then shortly become leader? Four years ago, Senator Obama shook off his press detail and nipped (many think) into Bilderberg. This exact same hotel. Did Romney have to get down on one knee in front of David Rockefeller? This sounds flippant, but it’s a serious question: has Bilderberg switched allegiance? Are they going to toss away Obama after just one term? I put this question to author and Bilderberg expert Webster Tarpley. Is Wall Street going to throw its chips in with Romney? “I think there’s a frisson that’s gone through the ruling class against Obama”, he says. The leak we had from the flirty hotel staffer corroborated this. “They don’t seem to like Obama very much”, he said. Tarpley’s conclusion is this: “They want Romney and Mitch Daniels, who will run together as moderate rightists”. Governor Daniels of Indiana was on the official list. THE OFFICIAL LIST IS NONSENSE The Washington Post saw Bill Gates come in. And I’ve got three eyewitnesses from inside who confirmed he was here. You won’t see the names Mitt Romney or Bill Gates on the officially released Final List of Participants because, well, the list is a nonsense. It’s nothing like a complete list of people who attend Bil-
derberg. It’s a smokescreen, a bit of spin. So can we all, please, stop repeating it as gospel? THE SYRIAN WAR IS ON Attending Bilderberg 2012 as an ‘international’ participant was Bassma Kodmani. So who is Bassma Kodmani? The answer to that question is also the answer to the question: what the hell is happening in Syria? This is where it gets interesting (and worrying) for Bilderberg followers. Kodmani was at Bilderberg in 2008, the last time it was here in Chantilly. She is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations – its parent group, the Council on Foreign Relations, is a sort of über lobby group, a couple of rungs down from Bilderberg, but still hugely powerful. There’s a lot of CFR/Bilderberg crossover. Honorary chairman of both is David Rockefeller; co-chairman of the CFR is Robert Rubin (he was here); and on
the CFR’s board of directors are Fouad Ajami and Henry Kravis, both at Bilderberg 2012. Bassma Kodmani is also the executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative. This body, set up in 2004 by the CFR, is helping to steer “a comprehensive process” of “democratic reform” in the region. In 2005, the Syrian National Council came into being. Bassma Kodmani was a founding member, and is on the executive committee. Kodmani is one of the SNC’s two spokespeople, alongside Radwan Ziadeh (who has a flawless Washington pedigree – look him up). According to its website, the SNC is a non profit public policy research organization register in the District of Colombia and headquartered in Washington DC. I asked Tarpley about Kodmani. He doesn’t mince words. “She’s a Nato agent, a destabilizer, a color revolution queen. The fact that Kodmani was there is a scary one for Syria”, says Tarpley. To those gathered outside, at least, it looks increasingly like, at this year’s
Bilderberg, the war of regime change got signed off. In the airport lobby, on the way home from Bilderberg, I looked up at a TV monitor to see Bilderberg attendee and CFR board member Fouad Ajami talking about how Syria is about to become another Libya. That sound you can hear? It’s all those juicy defense contracts being scratched out around Chantilly. Fuel the jets and open the champagne, boys. We’re going in. OCCUPY BILDERBERG A statement of support from Occupy London was read out at Occupy Bilderberg. A symbol of Anglo-American unity, like Bilderberg itself. The statement protested against the rise of an undemocratic “technocracy” – a “network of cronies” in which financial “experts”, largely from the international banking community, who have been appointed rather than elected, are handed the reins of government. So here you’ve got the liberal left protest movement, with its anti-corruption and pro-transparency agenda, finding common ground with US libertarians and an anti-Obama, anti-fascist, prounion New Deal American like Webster Tarpley. As Tarpley says: “Bilderberg creates a singularity, where a lot of seemingly disparate things come together”. That applies not just to the people inside – megabank money and government – outside the security cordon you’ve got Occupy Bilderberg rubbing shoulders with US veterans, German students who’ve flown over for the event, truckers from Michigan, Orthodox Jews, Ron Paul supporters, anarcho-syndicalists, academics and grandmothers. Why? In the words of the statement from Occupy London: “the profound denial of a participatory, direct democracy which the Bilderberg Conference represents”. INTERNET ID There was speculation before the conference that on the Bilderberg agenda this year would be how to implement a unique EU internet ID. Who would be pushing that through? Step up Neelie Kroes, EU commissioner for digital agenda. Presumably Eric Schmidt (Google) and Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn) would have been sharing podium-space with Bill Gates at that session. That’s if there was one, of course. Hopefully I will see you all again in 2013. You can email me at bilderberg2013@yahoo.co.uk – if we had 800 this year, I think we could be having ourselves a party. The Bilderburgers are on me.