Mock election successful Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), the body which oversees all elections in the country, is gearing up for this October’s presidential vote. This week, simulated elections were held in different cities nationwide with the participation of international observers in order to guarantee transparency and confidence in the voter process. New fingerprint machines were successfully tested to act against fraud and ensure voters’ rights are protected. page 3
Politics
Advancing industrial development President Chavez inaugurated new factories this week to propel domestic production. page 4
International
Venezuela rejects US terror report Washington’s hypocrisy shines in this year’s report on terrorism. page 5
Interview
Lessons for the left Activist Lee Brown talks Venezuela and the Sao Paulo Forum. page 6
Analysis
Opinion
The latest Human Rights Watch distortions about Venezuela page 7
Perfecting the method of “Color Revolutions”page 8
Friday, August 10, 2012 | Nº 121 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve
ENGLISH EDITION/The artillery of ideas
Chavez campaign takes big lead over opposition
Despite rumors and false reports, including a shocker by US veteran journalist Dan Rather, which morbidly –and untruthfully– attempted to predict Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s death two months ago, the incumbent chief of state is campaigning strong in caravans nationwide. Drawing thousands at all of his events, Chavez has revived revolutionary passion in the streets of Venezuela. The latest polls show him with a solid 20+ point lead over opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski. page 2
Gold for gold Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez bestowed the Order of the Liberators on the country’s Olympic fencing champion, Ruben Limardo, and presented him with a solid gold replica of the sword of South American liberator Simon Bolivar. “It’s an honor for me to decorate, in the name of all the Venezuelan people, our Olympic champion Ruben Limardo with the Order of the Liberators of Venezuela”, said Chavez at a public ceremony. Limardo won Venezuela’s first gold Olympic medal in 44 years at the London Games. “I really feel very proud to be Venezuelan. This medal is worth 20 years of work, of sacrifice and effort”, said the 26-year-old sportsman. “I must acknowledge that this is due to the support that President Chavez has given to sports and, truthfully, one must be grateful for this because it was possible for me thanks to him”, Limardo emphasized.
INTERNATIONAL
Venezuela inflation slows T/ Reuters
Venezuela’s annual inflation slowed for a seventh straight month in July, coming in below 20 percent for the first time in years. Finance Minister Jorge Giordani on Tuesday said annual inflation to July was 19.4 percent, below the 20 to 22 percent forecast in the socialist government’s budget for this year. “We have broken, punctured, the 20 percent threshold. This is good news regarding this complex, difficult, historical problem”, Giordani told a news conference. Monthly inflation slowed to 1.0 percent in July, he said, lower than the 1.4 percent recorded the previous month and well under the 2.7 percent rate of July 2011. It was the first time the OPEC nation’s annualized rate had fallen below 20 percent since 2008. Venezuela recorded the highest annual inflation in the Americas last year, at 27.6 percent, and most economists had predicted it would be higher during 2012 because of a pre-election spending spree by Chavez’s socialist government. His administration, however, has had some success combating rises with new price controls in some basic areas, including food and health, that were put in place at the end of last year. Chavez, who has a doubledigit lead in most opinion polls ahead of the election, regularly reminds Venezuelans that high prices have dogged the nation for several decades. Venezuela’s average annual inflation rate over the last 25 years has been well over 30 percent, with a peak of 103 percent in 1996 during the administration of Rafael Caldera.
2 Impact | . s Friday, August 10, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Chavez continues on campaign trial, warns of opposition plans to privatize oil T/ COI P/ Presidential Press
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enezuelan presidential candidate Hugo Chavez made a series of campaign stops last weekend, bringing his message of further economic development and greater social services to the residents of Caracas and the central states of Yaracuy and Carabobo. On Saturday, the two time incumbent president led a caravan through the working class neighborhood of Antimano in the nation’s capital where a sea of supporters spilled into the streets to demonstrate their backing of the “Candidate of the Homeland”. “Antimano and its surroundings is so full of patriotism that we’re going to win here with 90 percent [of the vote] if not more on October 7”, Chavez said at the campaign rally following the caravan. During his speech, the head of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) spoke of the success of his government’s social policies and the international accords he has signed
with allied nations around Latin America and the world. As a case in point, Chavez highlighted the benefits that the Cuban-Venezuelan medical program Barrio Adentro has brought to the people of the South American nation by making health care free and accessible to all residents. Founded in 2003, Mission Barrio Adentro has expanded Venezuela’s national health care system by employing more than 30,000 Cuban medical professionals throughout the nation in clinics and hospitals equipped with high technology diagnostic and surgical equipment. In the sector of Antimano alone, the mission has established 42 doctor’s offices, 2 rehabilitation centers and a dental clinic with capacity to treat 12 patients at a time. Cuba has also assisted Venezuela by sending agricultural experts to work with small farmers in their efforts to develop the nation’s tremendous agrarian potential. Venezuela, in turn, has increased its oil exports to the
resource-starved Caribbean island, a consequence of the US embargo. “We send Cuba a determined number of barrels of oil and they, the Republic of Cuba, pay Venezuela every last cent of what they owe us with, among other things, Mission Barrio Adentro”, Chavez said on Saturday. While he addressed the crowd in Antimano. the leader of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution accused the nation’s right wing opposition of wanting to privatize the state oil company Pdvsa and thereby eliminate social programs like Barrio Adentro. The return of Venezuela’s former oligarchy to the management of Pdvsa, Chavez said, would be tantamount to handing over the nation’s greatest natural resource to the “oil technocracy” of the past in order “to rob the people of what belongs to the people”. According to all major polls in Venezuela, Chavez currently maintains a considerable lead over his conservative rival, Henrique Capriles of the op-
position coalition for October’s elections.
MORE SERVICES FOR THE CITY Chavez took advantage of his time in the populous urban sector of Antimano to update residents on a number of government projects in the works for the area of Western Caracas. These include improved public transportation, crime reduction initiatives and a boost in public housing. Antimano, like many working class districts that skirt the capital, is home to a number of shantytowns built into the hillsides of the surrounding mountains. These barrios have traditionally suffered from a lack of services owing to their difficult access and precarious infrastructure. In order to remedy this problem, the Chavez government has begun to build cable car systems that connect the residents of the hillside shanties with the city’s lower center areas. Such Metrocable stations have already been successfully completed in the neighborhood of San Agustin, cutting down
on travel time and increasing work opportunities for residents of the barrios. On Saturday, Chavez announced plans to build a new cable car system to accommodate the inhabitants of Antimano. The latest Metrocable “would pass through these barrios [and link] various subway stations, at least five”, he informed. The socialist President also mentioned government plans to build a massive residential complex, called Mamera City, as part of his administration’s ambitious social program Mission Housing Venezuela. The mega-project would encompass some 854 acres of land and oversee the construction of 10,000 homes, similar to that of the larger Caribia City, a largescale housing initiative taking form on the northern outskirts of Caracas. “I want the families who are living in shacks in high risk areas to go and live with dignity and without fear just as every Venezuelan family should do”, the socialist leader said. With respect to law enforcement initiatives, Chavez highlighted the 42 percent drop in crime that has occurred in Antimano since the National Bolivarian Police - the government’s premier security program - has begun operating in the sector. While the statistics are encouraging, the Venezuelan President pointed out that the prevalence of violence in urban areas “is a grave, cultural problem”, and that much more needs to be done to combat crime in the capital. “Boys and girls, leave behind this road [of violence] and come with us to improve our nation... Leave this road which doesn’t lead to anything good”, Chavez appealed to Venezuelan youth during his speech. On Sunday, the former lieutenant colonel stayed on the campaign trail, passing through the Central-West state of Yaracuy where it is reported by national pollster IVAD that the presidential hopeful holds more than a 43 point lead over his competitor. His election caravan then travelled on Monday through the Central state of Carabobo where Chavez rallied his supporters in the city of Valencia, Venezuela’s third largest metropolis. “This isn’t about electoral campaigns of the past which were for the bourgeoisie. We’re constantly in the streets and there’s a passion running through the various places that we’ve visited”, the incumbent candidate said.
. s Friday, August 10, 2012
The artillery of ideas
| Politics
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Venezuela: Mock elections carried out without hang-ups Opposition candidate breaks electoral rules T/ Paul Dobson P/ AFP
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he National Electoral Council (CNE) was forced to act this week in an ongoing battle to make sure that candidates adhere to the electoral laws that set the norms of fair play in their campaigns for the upcoming presidential elections in October. At the center of the struggle lies a baseball cap, which is frequently adorned by opposition candidate Henry Capriles Radonski when on campaign events. The baseball cap is styled in the colors of the national flag: red, yellow and blue with 8 stars. The CNE has made it overtly clear on numerous occasions that the use of patriotic symbols by either candidate, which includes the flag and its colors, is prohibited in electoral campaigns. Capriles responded defiantly to the CNE this week, by stating that he would continue to use the hat despite the possibility of a fine of up to 630,000 bolivars ($146,500). The CNE this week gave him his “second and final warning”. The baseball cap adorned by Capriles has become a symbol far beyond its worth, and has even been had a song dedicated to it by Colombian pop singer Aniceto Molina entitled “I won’t lose my cap”. A similar cap is now being raffled off by the opposition campaign to make money from its “newfound status as a fashion symbol”. Capriles’ defiance over his unwillingness to abide by the rules on such a small matter has raised fears yet again over the intentions of the opposition alliance to recognize
the results of the October 7th elections. This past week, CNE President Tibisay Lucena reminded candidates that the CNE has been “observing the campaigns with concern” and stated that “both campaigns have had in the last weeks, especially the last week, publicity materials which have been in violation of the law”. In the majority of these cases, she went on to say, these pieces have been correctly “withdrawn”. Speaking to both candidates, she reminded them that each campaign can only use, by law, up to three minutes per day of publicity on any particular TV channel. She also reminded candidates that the use of children or adolescents in campaign publicity is prohibited. This week administrative proceedings were also opened against 2 TV stations and 2 national newspapers for continued violations of this law. Ramon Aveledo, spokesman for the opposition alliance, announced that Capriles would continue to use patriotic symbols when attending campaign events, and called the need to adhere to campaigning norms as “absurd”. While on campaign in the industrial central city of Valencia, President Chavez called for respect for the CNE. “If the arbitrator says: Mr. Chavez, that blue jacket isn’t within the rules, I could protest, but I’d take off the jacket”. He went to declare, “This spoiled attitude of challenging the arbitrator, which amounts to challenging the Constitution and the laws, unmasks even more so the dangerous character of the opposition candidate”.
T/ COI P/ Héctor Lozano-CO File
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n a process that was marked by efficiency, professionalism and complete normalcy, Venezuela’s National Electoral Commission (CNE) successfully completed its first rehearsal of October’s presidential elections last Sunday. The mock elections were held in 55 voting centers around the nation and were esteemed by electoral official Socorro Hernandez as having “worked perfectly, just as expected”. “All of our reports indicate that the test worked perfectly. All of the factors involved were present, we were able to verify the presence of all the poll workers at the stipulated time, and the opening of the voting centers at 8am without any problem”, Hernandez said. The trial run was intended to verify the correct articulation of the high-tech voting machines used in Venezuela, the identification process at the polls, and the waiting times of each voter. Instead of using the registered political parties for the ballot, the CNE chose to present a sports theme, replacing presidential candidates and organizations with 25 different Olympic events.
This follows a tradition of using neutral entities such as baseball teams in trials as to maintain a non-partisan character and protect the intentionality of participating voters. More than 30,000 operatives of Venezuela’s electoral security contingent, Plan Republic, were also on hand, accompanying over 1200 officials from the nation’s Attorney General’s Office in order to guarantee the legality and peaceful carrying out of the test.
NEW SECURITY INITIATIVE This year, the electoral authority is incorporating a new anti-fraud Integrated Authentication System (SAI) that will entail corroborating the thumbprint of each voter with a national database to ensure the singularity of each ballot. The measure has added an additional step, and in some cases two, to the voting process, creating a greater need for trial runs to ensure the orderly execution of logistics on election day. On Sunday, CNE officials reported that, despite the additional security step, the average elapsed time for participants to pass through the different stages of the ballot casting process was about 1 minute.
“Voting was very easy because there are people to orient you and the logistics were very good”, said Richard Aguada, a 27-year old participant in the trial from Caracas. Marcos Sanchez, 68, also expressed his contentment with the process and easy-to-use nature of the voting machines. “The new system isn’t complicated. Actually, it demonstrates the technological development of the country”, the volunteer said. The celerity of the test for voters is a good sign for election officials but is, at least partly due to the smaller turnout of residents for the exercise. “This was a small scale pilot where only 226,293 registered voters could participate at the 55 active polling places. Everything indicates, however, that the normal number of volunteer voters turned out for this type of test”, Hernandez said. The CNE official informed that while Sunday’s exercise was a smaller version of October’s contest, another mock election will take place on August 26 and will include all of the 2,000 voting centers established around the country set up to accommodate the country’s entire electorate of nearly 19 million people.
4 Politics | . s Friday, August 10, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Chavez inaugurates window factory, pushes ahead industrial development
the visit to the Guacara III’s facilities. When Chavez first won Venezuela’s presidential election in 1998, poverty, illiteracy, and malnutrition were all trademarks of the OPEC member’s rigid class society. Since that time, however, the Bolivarian Revolution has been able to cut poverty in half, wipe out illiteracy and
reduce child malnutrition to near negligible numbers. Yet, in order to see greater economic growth, Chavez recognized on Monday the role that the private sector must play and he urged the Venezuelan business community to collaborate with government agencies in finding productive solutions for the nation.
As such, his administration has begun to create of a series of working groups that aim to establish “strategic alliances [with private firms] that will continue raising national production and convert Venezuela into a powerful player”. Meanwhile, publicly-owned firms continue to move forward in the country. This advance was highlighted on Monday by the increased output of the staterun factory Industrias Diana, which manufactures cooking oil and other essential food products in the Carabobo capital of Valencia. According to Food Minister Carlos Osorio, the plant, which employs 471 workers, is currently in the process of augmenting its productive capacity to one thousand tons of oil per day by the second trimester of 2013. “We already have the equipment and we’re training personnel to get to one thousand tons daily”, the Minister informed during Monday’s transmission. This contrasts sharply with the three tons produced daily in 2008 before the company was nationalized by the Chavez administration. Osorio reported that, with respect to the complete gamut of food commodities produced in Industrias Diana, the state operated factory is now functioning with 167 percent more output than it did before being brought into the public sector. “These products are being directed towards satisfying the nutritional needs of all Venezuelans”, the Food Minister affirmed.
Nearly all of the pollsters seem to be showing a common projection: a 15-25 point advantage for the socialist project of Chavez over the neoliberal project of Capriles. Yet, this week, Venezuelan public television program ‘Cayendo y Corriendo’ disclosed and questioned the results of US pollster, ‘Hart/McInturff’, which were published in the conservative Venezuelan magazine Zeta. This poll supposedly shows that Capriles at 48% and Chavez 45%. The magazine states, under the headline “Chavez starts to decline in an accelerated manner”, that if the current trend continues, Capriles will win in October with 51% while Chavez will get a mere 32%. The same report, from their base in the US, stated that the other pollsters
“don’t correspond to the reality”. It didn’t say why. Oscar Figuera, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV), is highly critical of the polls. He and the collective leadership of the pro-Chavez PCV have called on supporters to not believe polls and to concentrate on the campaign. “The majority of media and some political parties are giving too much importance to polls”, stated Figuera. He called on supporters to ignore polls and to take “to the streets, to the neighborhoods, to the workplaces, to win the vote for President Chavez”. Figuera called the polls “not objective”: every pollster has its own political interests, and independence is a myth, he said. Pollster Hart/McIn-
turff, who suggests a Capriles victory, is run by Peter Hart and Bill McInturff, who have previously been contracted by major economic and political interests in the US including, Wall Street Journal, NBC, Jay Rockefeller, Hubert Humphrey, Fannie Mae, Coca Cola and IBM. Furthermore, their numbers were publicized in a magazine owned by Rafael Poleo, who once called for President Chavez to be assassinated ‘Mussolini-style’. Venezuela is also a hugely polarized country. If the sample were taken amongst citizens in a poor area, unsurprisingly it will ‘show’ a Chavez victory. Were it taken in the rich area of Caracas, it would ‘show’ the opposite. Any result the pollster wishes to ‘project’ can be ‘shown’.
T/ COI P/ Presidential Press
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n an event that saw Venezuela increase its industrial capacity and move forward with its public housing program, President Hugo Chavez inaugurated a window factory in the state of Carabobo last Monday that will have the capacity to produce 860,000 units per year. The new plant, called Guacara III, forms part of the state owned Petrochemical Corporation of Venezuela (Petrocasa) and will direct the bulk of its production to the Chavez administration’s large-scale public program, Mission Housing Venezuela, which seeks to build 3 million new homes in the country by 2019. Monday’s inauguration was broadcast on state and private television and represents part of the socialist government’s push to increase industrial activity in the states that comprise the North Central region of Venezuela. That push, the head of state said on Monday, will be further aided by Venezuela’s recent entrance, as a full member, into the Mercosur trade bloc. “What great potential there is that has yet to be tapped! This factory is part of the potential that is waking up and
turning this region of the country into a great industrial, scientific, and technological pole. It is one of the strongest in, not only South America, but Central America, the Caribbean and the American continent”, Chavez declared. Such notions are not mere fantasy, the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela told his viewers during
“A certain victory”? Don’t trust the polls... T/ Paul Dobson
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ouldn’t it be great if we could see into the future? Well that is what the pollsters are trying to do: predict the next President of the Venezuela, and with him the direction of the country for the next 6 years. Comando Venezuela and Comando Carabobo, the campaign centers for candidates Capriles and Chavez, have 8 weeks of campaigning left, and as both sides try to measure the success of their cam-
paigns so far, pollsters have been thrust into the heat of the propaganda war. ICS, IVAD, Datanalysis, Varianzas, VOP, Hinterlaces, GIS XXI, Consultores 21, Predigmatica: firms which measure public opinion have been turned into household names. They are flaunted with exuberance by each candidate, depending on whom they show to be winning. Barely a day goes by without their names and poll results in the national press, which is repeated religiously in the international media.
. s Friday, August 10, 2012
The artillery of ideas
T/ COI
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Venezuela denounces US hypocrisy in terror report
enezuela responded firmly to another US report criticizing it for “not cooperating fully” in Washington’s endless “War on Terror”. Responding specifically to last week’s publication of the US State Department’s “2011 Country Reports on Terrorism”, the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the report both “false and defamatory” and demanded the US end its harboring of right-wing terrorists in Southern Florida. Published on July 31st and formally titled “Country Reports on Terrorism 2011”, this year’s State Department antiterrorism report openned with a “strategic assessment” of how the assassination of Osama bin Laden made 2011 “a landmark year” for the US War on Terror. Celebrating the killing of numerous other anti-US militants, the report described their being “removed from the battlefield” as “successes” attributed “to global counterterrorism cooperation”. Expressing gratitude to faithful US allies such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, the Department of State lashed out at governments that oppose US wars abroad and the use of selective assassinations, military interventions, and financial and military subversion around the world. In the case of Venezuela, the US report accussed the socialist Latin American republic of “not cooperating fully with US antiterrorism efforts”. As was the case in previous reports, the 2011 assessment issued a set of baseless claims aimed at discrediting the Bolivarian Revolution and efforts, by the Venezuelan people and government, to consolidate a more just, multi-polar world. In the case of Venezuela-Colombia relations, for example, the report recognized that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had followed through on a commitment to “not permit the presence of illegal armed groups in Venezuelan territory”. The report minimized these efforts, however, by noting that in 2011 the State Department designated “four senior Venezuelan officials as acting for or on behalf of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in direct support of the group’s narcotics and arms trafficking activities”. The report went on to mention that Venezuela “captured and returned” members of the FARC and Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN), but lamented these were only “lower-level” members of both organizations. In a more troubling paragraph, the US report affirmed that “Venezuela maintained its economic, financial, and diplomatic cooperation with Iran” and added that “on May 23, the US Department of State re-imposed sanctions against the Venezuela Military Industries Company under the Iran, North
| International
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distorted opinion of the policies of other countries”. Affirming that these annual reports “have no validity because they contain no verified information,” the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry also said that the reports “are obviously political instruments for defamation”. While the US applies its “War on Terror” wherever and whenever it sees fit, Venezuela noted that “it is precisely the government of that country and its double morality which has been widely denounced by Venezuela at the United Nations for giving shelter and protection to recognized international terrorists, as is the case with Luis Posada Carriles, sought by Venezuelan justice for his role in placing a bomb on flight 455 of a Cuban airliner, which cost the lives of 73 people in 1976; and the case of Raul Diaz Peña, a terrorist sentenced under Venezuelan law for having placed explosives in the diplomatic missions of Spain and Colombia in Caracas in 2003”. “Both”, according to the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, “are protected by the hypocritical anti-terrorist policy of the US government”. In closing, the Venezuelan government said it “considers the publication of this defamatory document an unfriendly act and rejects it in its totality, while reiterating its complaint against the United States for continuing to allow its territory to serve as a refuge for international terrorists sought by Venezuelan justice”.
MIAMI VICE
Korea, and Syria Non-Proliferation Act because of credible information that it had transferred to or acquired from Iran, North Korea, or Syria, equipment and technology listed on multilateral export control lists”. Unable to elaborate on the “credible information” that led to the US sanctions, the report went on to cite other “credible reports that Hizbollah sympathizers and supporters engaged in fundraising and support activity in Venezuela”. While the report jumped eagerly on “credible information” and “reports” to attack the Venezuelan government, when it came to the recent passing by Venezuela of “a series of counterterrorist financing regulations affecting insurance companies, securities brokerages, notaries, public registration offices, and operators of casinos, bingo
halls, and slot machines” now required “to adopt measures to assess money laundering and terrorist financing risks and to implement more rigorous controls for high-risk customers, the State Department reported only that “there is no information available regarding the enforcement of the new regulations”.
VENEZUELA RESPONDS Two days after the publication of the 2011 US terror report, Venezuela’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a public rejection of the document, calling its content both “false and defamatory”. Noting that the US government “has no moral ground on which to make pronouncements” related to terrorism, the Venezuelan government added that such “unilateral and interventionist reports” express “a tendentious and
In a telling example of US hypocracy in the so-called “War on Terror”, convicted Venezuelan terrorist Raul Diaz Peña was recently allowed to enter the United States and request political asylum in Southern Florida. Sentenced to nine years and four months in prison for his role in the 2003 bombings of Spanish and Colombian embassies in Caracas, Diaz Peña fled the country in 2010 while on a provisional release program. Welcomed by right-wing congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, he joined admitted terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and other violent anti-communist extremists based in Miami. In addition to congressional support, the Venezuelan fugitive recently secured the political cover provided by an Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Iachr) decision late last month. In it, the Iachr determined that the Venezuelan government “violated the human rights” of Diaz Peña and should pay him some US$ 15,000 to compensate him for said violation. The absurdity of the Iachr decision, along with a historical track record of bias against popular democratic governments in the region, led the Venezuelan government to pull from the court late last month.
6 Interview | . s Friday, August 10, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Interview with british activist Lee Brown:
Lessons for the left from Sao Paulo
T/ Rachael Boothroyd P/ Agencies
–Y
ou recently went to the Sao Paulo Forum, what was that like as an experience? –The forum was really inspiring and also an opportunity to meet with and hear from people who are making a real difference in the world, people who are in the process of transforming their countries through very progressive alternatives to neoliberalism in very difficult circumstances internationally, with the US right on their doorstep. The title of the conference was “the people of the world against neoliberalism and for peace” and this is very relevant today. Countries at the forum were very concerned with creating alternatives to neoliberalism, but also with how the US might respond to the crisis, not just through more privatizations but through increasing their military agenda. As we recently saw in Paraguay, the US is capable of engineering regime change in Latin America. So that was
a big part of the conference as well. –What do you think the left in Europe can learn from the forum? –In terms of what’s going on in Europe, the discussions on building an alternative to neoliberalism can provide lessons that progressive movements in Europe can really learn from. Latin American people had 30 years of neoliberalism, and also decades of military dictatorships before that, and yet they still managed to create leaderships which have constructed an alternative and built progressive societies. We have to be very humble and learn from this, and for me, that was the most inspiring part of the forum. Another important aspect to come out of the conference for me is the idea that the state has a key role to play in the economy, because in Europe that idea was killed off by Thatcher and more internationally by Reagan – we have been led to believe that the market is the answer to all of our problems. The common theme in Latin America at the moment, however, is
the fact that the state is playing a much greater role. This is particularly relevant in Europe, where we are talking about how to get out of the crisis. The real issue there is that governments need to be stimulating the economy and so we need to be looking at Latin America and their arguments for involving the state in the economy, and not just for social reasons but economic ones too. –Were there any organizational lessons from the forum? –There are a lot of stereotypes surrounding Latin America, but what was very clear from the forum and from being in Venezuela is that the process there reaches out to all sectors of society, so young people, indigenous people, afro-descendents and women; are all seen as part of the alliance for changing society and I think there are a lot of lessons that we can learn there in terms of the need to reach out to broad sectors of society and provide answers to all of the problems people are facing – racism, for instance, which is a rising problem in
Europe at the moment as the far right seeks to scapegoat for the crisis. There was also a huge presence of young people at the conference, which is very interesting, and from my experiences in Venezuela it seems that an overwhelming proportion of young people are supportive of the revolutionary process, which is totally different from the image we are presented with in the media. Maybe half the PSUV activists seemed to be under 30 and it was mainly young people who were heading activities like staffing campaign stalls for Chavez etc. Also, anyone visiting Venezuela for the first time will be struck by the central role that women of all ages are playing in the revolution, which is totally inspiring. This was also reflected in the conference, where they had the first forum of women. For instance, in the final declaration they stated that the move towards socialism can only be realized by fundamentally transforming the social role of women, which I think is totally correct and very progressive.
–Having spent the past month n Venezuela, what are your thoughts on the upcoming presidential elections? –I think the most important things that we have to communicate is just how positive the atmosphere is in Venezuela at moment, how loved Chavez is, and that he is likely to win the elections by a considerable margin. That is the product of a number of things; the economy is going well, there is huge investment in social projects, the housing mission is going well, and there are also new social missions for older people, all of which are really helping both the economy and fulfilling peoples’ social needs. So I think the opposition have a very difficult task ahead of them if they are thinking of winning the election! It’s very clear from polls and the large campaign mobilizations that things are going very well in Venezuela at the moment – they’ve recovered from the economic crisis by stimulating the economy, unlike Europe. I saw a lot of improvements, especially in Caracas, since I last went - public spaces being reclaimed for the public, many more parks, lots of children playing, for instance, on Sabana Grande Boulevard where there are clowns – all of which is a very positive thing in terms of ensuring that the city works for the population and that people feel safe using their social spaces. I actually met with the CNE (National Electoral Council) while I was there, which was really inspiring. We went to see the voting machines and how the process works, so if there are allegations of fraud the opposition won’t be able to provide any evidence of it because the system is so thorough. Another thing I found totally inspiring was all of the stalls across the country, in tube stations and little towns in the middle of the Andes, to encourage people to register to vote and ensure that people are on the register. For instance, the CNE in Merida have people assigned to travel for literally hours to towns such as Los Nevados, which is 4-5 hours away, in order to ensure that every single person is on the electoral register. I think that shows just how deep the levels of political participation are in Venezuela.
. s Friday, August 10, 2012
The artillery of ideas
The latest howlers from Human Rights Watch on Venezuela P
DISMISSING VENEZUELA’S PRINT MEDIA The report includes a very dumb attempt to dismiss the importance of print media in Venezuela. Apparently realizing that its claims of “censorship” and “intimidation” are especially feeble in the case of
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mently oppose land reform. The impunity enjoyed by the gunmen and their wealthy bosses contradicts HRW’s relentless depiction of the judiciary and police as being under the thumb of Chavez. It is disgraceful that these crimes and their implications would be ignored.
IMAGINARY PURITY OF VENEZUELA’S FOREIGN FUNDED NGOS
T/ Joe Emersberger P/ Agencies redictably, election season in Venezuela has come with yet another voluminous report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) that mostly rehashes the debunked claims of its 2008 report. Over a hundred scholars, including Noam Chomsky, signed a letter to HRW protesting the shoddiness of that 2008 report. HRW’s response to that letter was underwhelming. HRW bowed out of the debate after the devastating reply to its response. One need not even wade through that debate (though everyone should) to know that HRW is ridiculously biased against the Chavez government. Ken Roth, HRW’s executive director, very recently used his Twitter account to call Venezuela and a few other ALBA bloc countries (specifically Bolivia and Ecuador) “the most abusive” in Latin America. If Ken Roth is familiar with his own organization’s reports about Colombia then he should know that his remark borders on ludicrous. US officials privately estimated 257,089 people murdered by right wing death squads in Colombia and that 34 indigenous groups have been pushed to near extinction (i.e. genocide). I sent an email to HRW asking them if they now rank countries by “abuse” levels and if they could explain Roth’s criteria. I don’t expect a reply. It takes petitions signed by scholars with stature to get any response from HRW about its work on Venezuela. Nevertheless, HRW has padded its Venezuela reports with complaints that the Chavez government doesn’t respond to criticism. I picked out three things from the 2012 report that are indicative of its quality.
| Analysis
the print media, HRW resorts to stating that: “...,only a limited number of Venezuela’s more than 27 million people read them. In 2009, the most recent year for which we were able to obtain data, Últimas Noticias, the newspaper with greatest circulation, printed 260,000 copies per day. The circulation of the most critical papers was even smaller: El Nacional printed 120,000 copies per day; El Universal, 110,000; and Tal Cual, 40,000” The circulation of the four newspapers mentioned divided by Venezuela’s population indeed works out to a mere 2%.
However, the circulation of the four top newspapers in the USA divided by the total US population works out to even less - 1.7%. Does 1.7% represent the impact of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, and the LA Times on the US reading public as HRW’s logic suggests? According to a recent study by Pew Research, 30% of US citizens read print newspapers - vastly more than 1.7%. That’s partly because the circulation of all newspapers, other than the top four, adds up significantly, but another obvious reason is that people in households typically share the
same copy of a newspaper. Does that not happen in the households of HRW officials?
HUNDREDS OF PEASANT MURDERS IGNORED HRW’s 2012 report goes back as far as 1998 to cite cases of political violence and impunity. It insinuates that the Chavez government is responsible for the impunity the perpetrators have enjoyed. However, the worst political violence in the country since 2001 has victimized hundreds of peasant activists murdered by hired gunmen. The crimes strongly implicate wealthy landowners who vehe-
HRW makes the laughable claim that, despite receiving US funding, there is “no credible evidence that the independence and integrity” of any Venezuelan human rights NGOs has been compromised. The head of Sumate, one of HRW’s favorite Venezuelan NGOs (and also the US government’s) signed the infamous Carmona Decree which abolished all democratic institutions in Venezuela after a short lived coup in 2002.That fact alone makes a bad joke of HRW’s words. While HRW can’t see signing off on dictatorship as evidence of compromised integrity that comes with foreign funds, it regards Chavez government funding of community media as dangerous: “Today the majority of community radio stations rely on the Chavez government for funding and have an editorial line that is favorable to the government”. It appears, from the abject quality of HRW’s latest report, that it was written by people anticipating that it will be accepted at face value by the corporate media. Hopefully more people will start taking into account HRW’s proven bias when reading or citing its work.
Sean Penn joins Chavez on campaign in Venezuela T/ Reuters P/ Presidential Press
U
S actor Sean Penn joined President Hugo Chavez at an election rally in Venezuela on Sunday, bringing a dash of Hollywood to the campaign as he rode with him atop a truck past cheering supporters. Penn is a friend of Chavez, who hopes to win a new sixyear term on October 7. The campaign has turned into the toughest fight of the President’s political career.
“Thank you very much for visiting us again, dear friend”, Chavez said after introducing Penn to the big crowd in the central city of Valencia. “We’re all Americans, from the north, the center, the south. Long live the American continent!” Penn, in a white shirt and sunglasses and accompanied by Argentine producer Fernando Sulichin, waved from the stage, fist-bumped and hugged Chavez, but did not address the rally. The Oscar-winning actor, screenwriter and director is
well-known for his political and social activism. He was a vocal critic of the administration of former US President George W. Bush, and was involved in humanitarian efforts following Haiti’s earthquake and Hurricane Katrina. Last year, Penn worked for the release of two US hikers who were arrested in Iran,
flying to Venezuela to ask Chavez to intervene on their behalf with Iran’s leader. Most polls in South America’s top oil exporter give Chavez a double-digit lead ahead of the vote. He says he is completely cured after three cancer operations in the last year, although few details have been released about the 58-year-old’s condition.
Friday, August 10, 2012 | Nº 121 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve
INTERNATIONAL
! PUBLICATION OF THE &UNDACION #ORREO DEL /RINOCO s Editor-in-Chief %VA 'OLINGER s Graphic Design Pablo Valduciel L. - Aimara Aguilera
Opinion
Perfecting the method of
“Color Revolutions” Western leaders slip back into childhood In 1985, a social scientist, Gene Sharp, published a study commissioned by NATO on Making Europe Unconquerable. He pointed out that ultimately a government only exists because people agree to obey it. The USSR could never control Western Europe if people refused to obey Communist governments
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T/ Thierry Meyssan
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few years later, in 1989, Sharp was tasked by the CIA with conducting the practical application of his theoretical research in China. The United States wanted to topple Deng Xiaoping in favor of Zhao Ziyang. The intention was to stage a coup with a veneer of legitimacy by organizing street protests, in much the same way as the CIA had given a popular facade to the overthrow of Mohammed Mossadegh by hiring Tehran demonstrators (Operation Ajax, 1953). The difference here is that Gene Sharp had to rely on a mix of pro-Zhao and pro-US youth to make the coup look like a revolution. But Deng had Sharp arrested in Tiananmen Square and expelled from the country. The coup failed, but not before the CIA spurred the youth groups into a vain attack to discredit Deng through the crackdown that followed. The failure of the operation was attributed to the difficulties of mobilizing young activists in the desired direction. Ever since the work of French sociologist Gustave
coups. After a few successes in Russia and the Baltics, it was in 1998 that Gene Sharp perfected the method of “color revolutions” with the overthrow of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. After President Hugo Chavez foiled a coup in Venezuela on the basis of an investigation revealing the role and methods of Gene Sharp, the latter suspended the activities of Sharp’s Albert Einstein Institute, which served as a cover for his strategies, and went on to create new structures (Canvas in Belgrade, the Academy of Change in London, Vienna and Doha). We saw them at work the world over, especially in Lebanon (Cedar Revolution), Iran (Green Revolution), Tunisia (Jasmine Revolution) and Egypt (Lotus Revolution). The principle is simple: exacerbate all underlying frustrations, blame the political apparatus for all the problems, manipulate the youth according to the Freudian “patricidal” scenario, organize a coup, and then propagandize that the government was brought down by the “street.”
A strange anomaly can be detected with regard to Syria. The CIA did not locate groups of young Syrians willing to chant this slogan in the streets of Damascus and Aleppo KELKEL, Kyrgyzstan
Le Bon in the late nineteenth century, we know that adults behave like children when they are in the throes of collective emotion. They become susceptible, even if for just a critical fleeting moment, to the suggestions of a leader-of-men who for them embodies a father figure. In 1990, Sharp got close to Colonel Reuven Gal, then chief psychologist of the Israeli Army (he later became deputy national security adviser to Ariel Sharon and now
OBORONA, Russia
runs operations designed to manipulate young Israeli non-Jews). Combining the discoveries of Le Bon and Sigmund Freud, Gal reached the conclusion that it was also possible to exploit the “Oedipus complex” in adolescents and steer a crowd of young people to oppose a head of state, as a symbolic father figure. On this basis, Sharp and Gal set up training programs for young activists with the objective of organizing
International public opinion easily swallowed these stage settings: first, because of a confusion between a crowd and the people. Thus, the “Lotus Revolution” actually boiled down to a show on Tahrir Square in Cairo, mobilizing a crowd of tens of thousands, while the near totality of the Egyptian people abstained from taking part in the event; and second, because there is a lack of clarity with regard to the word “revolution”. A genuine revolution entails an upheaval in social structures that takes place over
several years, while a “color revolution” is a regime change that occurs within weeks. The other term for a forced change of leadership without social transformation is a “coup d’état”. In Egypt, for example, it is clearly not the people who pushed Hosni Mubarak to resign, but US Ambassador Frank Wisner who gave him the order. The slogan of the “color revolutions” harks back to an infantile perspective; What matters is to overthrow the head of state without consideration of the consequences--“Don’t worry about your future, Washington will take care of everything for you.” By the time people wake up, it’s too late; the government has been usurped by individuals not of their choosing. At the outset though, there are cries of “Down with Shevardnadze!” Or “Ben Ali, get out!” The latest version was launched at the third conference of “Friends” of Syria (Paris, July 6): “Bashar must go!” A strange anomaly can be detected with regard to Syria. The CIA did not locate groups of young Syrians willing to chant this slogan in the streets of Damascus and Aleppo. So it is Barack Obama, François Hollande, David Cameron and Angela Merkel themselves who repeat the slogan in chorus from their respective foreign offices. Washington and its allies are trying out the methods of Gene Sharp on the “international community”. It is a risky bet to imagine that foreign ministries can be as easy to manipulate as youth groups! At the moment, the result is simply ridiculous: the leaders of the colonial powers have been stomping their feet like angry, frustrated children over a desired object that the Russian and Chinese adults won’t let them have while ceaselessly wailing “Bashar must go!” Thierry Meyssan is founder and chairman of Voltaire Network and the Axis for Peace Conference. Professor of International Relations at the Centre for Strategic Studies in Damascus.