Edition Nº 124

Analysis

Opinion

Sabotage in Venezuela: Explosions, bridges, and power cuts page 7

Colombia on the verge of peace pagee 8

Friday, August 31, 2012 | Nº 124 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve

The “Socializing City” This year, the Venezuelan government will present the concept of its new socialist cities at the International Architecture Biennale in Italy.

Venezuela’s contribution to this international celebration of architecture will focus on the Chavez administration’s “great housing mission”, which aims to build 3 million “dignified” houses before 2017 with the help of organized communities. The exposé will be called “The socializing city vs. the alienating city” and will be presented by national architect and artist Domenico Silvestro. page 5

ENGLISH EDITION/The artillery of ideas

Chavez government aids victims of Amuay tragedy

Politics

Opposition uses tragedy for political gain The opposition is exploiting the refinery tragedy to place blame on Chavez & win votes. page 3 Politics

Opposition candidate plans to cut social services If elected, Henrique Capriles would cut or privatize Chavez’s flagship social programs. page 4

After last Sunday’s oil refinery explosion that caused the deaths of more than 40 and injured around 80 Venezuelans in Amuay, the largest oil production camp in the nation, the Chavez administration has been tirelessly attending to victims and survivors. The fire caused by the gas explosion was finally extinguished after more than 3 days of battle.

President Chavez created a special multi-million dollar fund to aid victims and guaranteed new homes for those who lost their houses in the fire. pages 2-4

Venezuela investigates tribal deaths

Social Justice

Cultural diversity celebrated

Venezuelan communities gathered for a national conference celebrating cultural richness. page 6

P/ EFE P/ EFFE EF E

Venezuela’s public prosecutor on Wednesday said they are investigating an alleged massacre of indigenous people in the Amazon rainforest, after a tribal group told the government that a village of 80 natives was attacked in July from a helicopter.

In a statement, the government said it had received word of the alleged attack by a group representing the Yanomami tribe, an indigenous people native to southern Venezuela.

The area, along the country’s long, remote border with Brazil, has a history of violent clashes between natives, gold prospectors, and other would-be developers in the resource rich region.

A spokeswoman at the public prosecutor’s office said the government could not yet confirm the attack nor how many people may have been killed.

INTERNATIONAL Carter Center: Venezuelan elections historically fair Jennifer McCoy of the Atlanta-based Carter Center said in an interview with Infobae Latinoamerica that her organization’s observer missions to Venezuela have found the country’s electoral system safe and trustworthy.

“There is a system of preelectoral auditing to audit the software, hardware, and voting machines where political parties are able to say whether those audits are alright and are working correctly”, McCoy said.

She also stressed the role of post-electoral audits in Venezuela, which “are done to see if the official electronic results coincide with the vote counting. They have done the counting and they have never had any significant discrepancy between the paper receipts and the electronic votes”.

McCoy, who is the head of the Carter Center’s Americas Program, said that her organization will be present during Venezuela’s presidential elections this October 7 as an “informal observer”.

“We decided we want to have a more informal role in observing the political developments so we can carry out interviews with political actors and national observers to see how they view the electoral process in Venezuela”, she explained.

The journalist who interviewed McCoy suggested results might be very close, leaving room for contention, to which she argued that in her experience Venezuela’s electoral system is safe.

McCoy rejected the possibility of fraud, saying that the electoral process has many guarantees. She indicated that the system is trustworthy all the way from the registration of candidates to the voting itself.

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The artillery of ideas

Fire finally out: President Chavez declares 3 days of mourning in wake of deadly refinery explosion T/ COI P/ Presidential Press

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ragedy struck Venezuela last Saturday when the OPEC nation’s largest refinery was rocked by an explosion that took the lives of at least 41 people and injured more than 80.

The blast occurred in the early mourning hours at the Amuay facility in the state of Falcon and has been attributed by preliminary investigations to a gas leak in the complex.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez declared 3 days of national morning as a result of the catastrophe, which saw 18 members of the country’s national guard lose their lives as well as at least 15 civilians.

Six unidentified bodies had also been discovered in the wake of the blast.

“From the our deepest patriotic feelings comes the expression of our regret to the families of the victims ... Equally, and assuming the full responsibility for this fateful event, we’ve mobilized everything necessary for the care and attention to those who resulted injured or have been affected by this unexpected occurrence”, Chavez wrote in an official declaration released on Saturday.

Government officials have reported that 209 homes in the area surrounding the refinery as well as eleven local business were affected by the explosion while 13 families have been relocated to temporary housing at a naval base in the city of Punto Fijo.

Falcon Governor, Sella Lugo, called for community activists in the area to join in the relief efforts to ensure that those victimized by the accident are provided with the highest level of services in the face of the disaster.

“We’re working with a great deal of solidarity, with grassroots power to move forward from this incident which will be addressed at the municipal, regional and national government levels”, Lugo said.

The governor said that 219 homes have already been identified to act as temporary relief for residents and a number of Cuban and Venezuelan medical professionals have been at work assisting the injured.

Six hundred members of Venezuela’s armed forces have also been deployed in the area to guarantee security for the population, informed the nation’s Defense Minister Henry Rangel.

Dozens of firefighters were on hand to battle the fire, which continued to burn days after the initial explosion and was complicated by what Venezuelan Vice President described as “an erratic wind”.

“Only the people can save the people with the support of President Chavez. We have seen this today in middle of the pain and sadness of the people”, Jaua said of the cleanup efforts on Sunday.

The fire was finally extinguished by early Tuesday morning.

This is not the first time that the Chavez government has had to confront national emergencies.

In 1999, landsides in the coastal state of Vargas resulted in the death of tens of thousands while at the end of 2010,

torrential rains took the lives of a dozen and caused thousands of low-income residents to be displaced.

The latter resulted in the launching of a large-scale social program focused on constructing millions of homes for those living in the substandard housing that fill the shantytowns of major cities.

“We are responsible for our actions and as a consequence, just as on other occasions, we will give shelter, attention, and backing in all that needs to be done to provide tranquility for

those affected”, the Venezuelan President wrote on Saturday.

According to Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez, domestic supply of gasoline will not be affected

by Saturday’s accident.

Ramirez told state television that the explosion occurred in block 23 of the complex’s supply zone, meaning that “the entire area of processing did not suffer any damage”.

Oil exports will also continue as normal, he assured.

Amuay forms part of Venezuela’s Paraguana Refining Comlpex, one of the largest in

the world with a production capacity of some 955 thousand barrels per day.

The facility belongs to the state-run oil company Pdvsa and Saturday’s explosion represents the worst such accident to take place since the company’s founding in 1975.

Jesus Longo, Manager of the complex, rejected claims launched by the nation’s conservative opposition seeking to blame the events on a lack of maintenance at the refinery.

Longo pointed out that national government has invested more than $6 billion in Paraguana’s operations over the past 3 years.

“We have a very rigorous maintenance program: preventative, routine, and general. In this way, we have a process of production stops in the plant for maintenance and the recovery of the functionality of the units”, the refinery’s manager said.

While Minister Ramirez cited a gas leak in Amuay’s storage area as the cause of the blast, President Chavez ordered an exhaustive investigation into the incident to guarantee the exact origins of the explosion.

“I’ve ordered a thorough investigation into what happened... it will be necessary to determined the causes, effects, and actions to take. Inside this tragedy, we’re investigating and discovering the truth while assisting the victims”, he said.

Since news of the disaster broke, members of the international community have been quick to express their solidarity with Venezuela and the victims of the explosion.

The Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) released a statement on Sunday declaring the organization’s “conviction that the Venezuelan people will overcome the effects of this tragedy in order to continue its efforts towards integration and unity”.

On Monday, President Chavez visited the refinery where he called for courage and strength from the nation and all those affected by the blast.

“The Venezuelan homeland is alive today more than ever in every woman, man and soldier”, he stated.

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must have occurred; evidence of a certain incapacity or inefficiency”.

The Venezuelan opposition often claims that the removal of numerous Pdvsa employees, mostly management, fired for having deliberately halted production during the 2002-2003 oil industry sabotage, is the reason for all problems in the country’s oil industry.

An AFP story on the fire cited Diego Gonzalez, President of the Center for Energy Orientation, who criticized Pdvsa-backed “social programs”, suggesting the Amuay incident is the result of Pdvsa “having other interests – obeying government mandates, which is now what prevails”.

Other international media produced similar reports. Basing its piece on unofficial reports and sources, Reuters wrote that such “problems have spurred accusations of inept management by the government of President Hugo Chavez”, while the Christian Science Monitor titled its story, “Venezuelan oil blast evidence of deteriorating infrastructure”.

Opposition jumps on national tragedy T/ COI P/ Presidential Press

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n the aftermath of this weekend’s tragic oil refinery explosion, the Venezuelan opposition and its allies in the private media issued a series of baseless claims aimed at fomenting fears and winning over voters.

With just five weeks to go before the country holds presidential elections on October 7, opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski and others in his US-backed coalition used allied media to accuse the Chavez government of “negligence”, vaguely promising a future “free of such incidents”.

With the exact cause of the leak, explosion, and resulting fire yet unknown, and with over 40 fatal victims, many question the opposition’s use of the tragic incident.

FUELING THE FIRE On Saturday, August 25, a gas-based explosion rocked the Western Venezuelan state of Falcon, killing 41 people and leaving an additional 80 wounded. The tragic incident occurred at the country’s largest oil refinery, Amuay, operated by publicly-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa).

Hours after the explosion, and with clean-up efforts in full effect, national authorities including Executive Vice President Elias Jaua and Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez arrived on the scene to provide direct support.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez described the accident as “sad and painful”, adding that the victims’ suffering “felt like a dagger in our hearts”. He also decreed a “three-day period of national mourning” and called for a “full investigation” into the cause of the incident.

With just five weeks before Venezuela holds another election, and with President Hugo Chavez widely expected to defeat his US-backed conservative rival, the country’s opposition tried using the tragic incident to influence a mourning populace.

One of the first opposition spokesmen to voice his opinion was Leopoldo Lopez, National Coordinator of the Capriles campaign. Barred from holding public office for having illegally accessed thousands of dollars in donations while working at Pdvsa in the 1990’s, Lopez used his Twitter account to allege that “poor and irresponsible management has made PDVSA

one of the worst companies in the world”.

Anti-Chavez lawmaker Maria Corina Machado joined Lopez in the issuing of baseless claims, guessing the incident was caused by a lack of “maintenance and adequate procedures”.

On Saturday, right-wing daily El Universal and others in the private media disseminated a Capriles statement expressing “support” for the victims of Amuay. Stating things such as “today, more than ever, Falcon (state) needs all of us Venezuelans” and “we’ve shown that, together, we can overcome”, Capriles was consistent with his campaign strategy of vaguely promising “solutions” without directly attacking the Chavez administration.

Meanwhile, Lopez claimed the incident “is the direct result of negligence”. Failing to provide any facts, figures, or documentation to back his claims, he told reporters the incident “was an accident caused by a practice of carelessness”.

Speaking in the context of this year’s election, Lopez said, “change is needed in order to guarantee not only the safety of the oil industry, but the safety of the entire nation”.

”We are the voice of hope”, he said, “and in the very near future we will guarantee that these types of accidents not occur”.

On Monday, Capriles held a press conference in which he said “those killed (at Amuay) are our little angels in the sky – watching over us to ensure a situation like this never happens again in our Venezuela”.

POLITICIZING THE FLAMES Apart from the electoral positioning of Capriles and his followers, the tragic incident was also used by the antiChavez minority to question Pdvsa’s current role in the Venezuelan economy. While President Chavez firmly insists oil production must benefit the country’s poor majority, longtime advocates of privatization insist on Pdvsa’s “de-politicization”.

According to Rafael Quiroz, a professor at opposition stronghold Central University of Venezuela (UCV), “there is no doubt whatsoever that some sort of mismanagement took place, at least as it relates to industrial security”. Quoted by Venezuelan daily El Carabobeño, Quiroz insisted “a human or technical failure

INDEPENDENTS SPEAK OUT On Saturday, Venezuela’s national organization of independent journalists, the Journalists’ Platform, issued a communiqué lamenting the terrible loss of life at Amuay and calling for responsible reporting when it comes to such events.

Reproduced by numerous public media outlets, but absent across the private sector, the group’s statement affirmed its members “share in the pain felt across the nation” and “express the most profound sentiment of solidarity with the families of those killed”.

The organization called on “all colleagues in the public, private, alternative, and community media to strengthen our spirit of solidarity, respect, and comprehension” and affirmed that journalists have the “responsibility to both avoid and condemn all speculation and sensationalism which can result in an unnecessary climate of tension and angst”.

“Committed as we are to informing the public about this terrible incident”, the document read, the Journalists’ Platform called for “an ethical journalism that waits for the results of investigations so as to clarify uncertainties, thus avoiding the distortion of reality and the distribution of false information which do not contribute to uncovering the truth”.

4 Politics | . s Friday, August 31, 2012

The artillery of ideas

who lost family members and those moved into temporary shelters.

Forty-one people, mostly members of the national guard and their family, were killed in the explosion while some 500 homes had been damaged by the incident.

Venezuela’s Attorney General, Luisa Ortega, informed during a press conference on Monday that a group of 50 officials from her office have been assigned to the Amuay case to determine the causes of the explosion last weekend.

While an apparent gas leak has been blamed, Ortega highlighted the inability to speculate on the origins of the accident without first embarking on a thorough examination of the evidence.

To this end the Attorney General assured that the team of investigators working on the investigation is comprised of the most professional and highly trained experts in the country.

“The group is made up of 2 national attorneys, 3 directors and a group of experts including anthropologists, dentists, forensic professional, specialists in areas of victim assistance, and criminal experts”, the Attorney General said.

Ortega reiterated the commitment of the national government to clear up the genesis of the incident and she encouraged all citizens to not hesitate in coming forward with any requests for assistance.

“The doors of the Attorney General’s Office are open to receive complaints and to provide help as well as answers... the institutions of the state are at the service of the people to resolve the problems of all Venezuelans”, she asserted.

In order to respond to the “crisis” caused by a potential decrease in the global demand for oil, the opposition says that it would take “concrete steps to decrease, in the medium and long term, the heavy load of goods and services” provided by the current government in a bid to reduce its social spending budget and in turn the public deficit.

Other steps to decrease the government budget for social spending would include the decentralization of the provision of social services to municipal governments, who the MUD argues would make services “more efficient”.

The government’s social missions, including the Barrio Adentro health program and the children’s educational centers knows as “Simoncitos”, would also be transferred over to municipal governments. Health and education missions, including the maintenance of school

and hospital infrastructure and the provision of food, would be opened up to “private initiative”.

Charges for some of these services would also be implemented in a “controlled” manner, an action that the opposition argues would allow the new government to reduce the financial burden on the state.

This process of decentralization would reverse actions carried out by the Chavez government to put the administration of services under the control of central government. The government argues that it has done this in order to minimize the possibility of corruption and to ensure that access to health and education is universal, regardless of geographical location or local government politics.

Other areas that would be affected by the opposition’s proposed cutbacks are food, housing and transport. The

document states that a governing MUD administration would put an end to current government subsidies on housing built as part of the Great Housing Mission, although those already receiving the subsidized housing benefit would not be affected by the measures.

Subsidized food sold through the government´s MERCAL scheme would be provided and delivered by private companies, while funding available to communal councils for the construction and renovation of housing would also be “gradually reduced”.

Current government policies, such as universal access to social security, would be rolled back. Social security for old age pensioners, currently pegged to the national minimum wage and tending to increase each year, would be frozen from 2013.

Chavez government creates relief funding following disaster

T/ COI P/ Presidential Press

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enezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in the northern state of Falcon last Sunday where he announced a series of assistance measures to be taken for those

affected by the explosion in the Paraguana Refining Complex last Saturday.

As part of the relief efforts, the socialist President declared the creation of a 100 million bolivar ($23.3 million) special fund to address the contingencies of residents

Venezuelan opposition plans to roll back public services T/ Rachael Boothroyd

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n internal document has been leaked to Venezuelan press revealing the economic policy of the opposition coalition, known as MUD, should they win the presidential elections in October. The plan includes the deregulation of banks, opening up the economy to private investment and the reduction of state funding for public services and communal council projects.

MUD candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski is standing against two-time incumbent President Hugo Chavez, with voting set for October 7.

Referring to the current global financial crisis, the

MUD document states that it would be unable to maintain the current social spending levels of the Chavez administration and predicts a decrease in the demand for oil from countries such as China and the USA – Venezuela’s largest trading partner.

The opposition document states that based on current spending levels, the government’s public sector deficit as a proportion of GDP (gross domestic product) will be 8% in 2013. The document classifies this figure as potentially dangerous in the event of a global economic downturn and states that the MUD would aim to reduce this figure to 3-4%.

INVESTIGATIONS TO BE EXHAUSTIVE

“I want all the widows of the members of the National Guard and the workers who fell in this tragedy to receive a life-long pension and I want their children to receive scholarships to study”, Chavez said.

The new fund will also provide relief for homeowners and local businesses affected by the blast that took place in the storage facilities of the Amuay refinery section of the Paraguana complex.

Upon arriving in Falcon, the Venezuelan President met with the family members of the deceased and attended a ceremony where he decorated, post-mortem, members of the National Guard who lost their lives in the blast.

“In this moment of deep pain in both the individual and the collective, there arises our national spirit, our souls, and our national collective capacity to confront the difficulties that we have to face”, he declared.

On Monday, the Venezuelan head of state visited the Dr. Rafael Calles Sierra hospital where many of the victims of the accident have been receiving treatment.

Visually moved by the human cost of the tragedy, Chavez applauded the efforts of the medical staff and the community members who have mobilized to provide care for those injured.

“In the middle of a tragedy there is an army of young people fighting with life”, the Venezuelan President said.

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The “Socializing City Vs. the Alienating City”: Taking the Venezuelan example to Italy T & P/ Rachael Boothroyd

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his year, the Venezuelan government will present the concept of its new socialist cities at the International Architecture Biennale in Italy, which is due to be held from August 29 to November 25. The architectural exposition, which will be hosted in the cultural hub of Venice, was founded in 1980 as a way of promoting the development of urban spaces across the globe.

In a joint effort between the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Relations, the Venezuelan government’s contribution to this international celebration of architecture will focus on the Chavez administration’s “great housing mission”, which aims to build 3 million “dignified” houses before 2017 with the help of organized communities. The exposé will be called “The socializing city vs. the alienating city” and will be presented by national architect and artist Domenico Silvestro.

According to Silvestro, the presentation is aimed at exploring the “home” as the nucleus of social transformation, the urban reality of Venezuela in the 21st century and the solutions that the Venezuelan government has used to solve the housing problem in Venezuela.

The artist has used sketches and paintings in an attempt to depict the lived experiences of the government’s new housing mission, as well as audiovisual testimonies from families who have already received their houses as part of the scheme. These testimonies also feature recordings from families who helped to build the houses, in an attempt to explore the individual and collective experience of constructing your own home and then later living in it.

“The piece will depict the solutions that the State has been implementing to resolve the housing deficit in the poorest and most vulnerable areas of society. It’s a pre-

sentation which explores the human and essential dream of having a dignified home”, said Silvestro.

The Venezuelan presentation has been celebrated as an examination of the social and human component of architecture which brings it to life, yet it is also an exposé which asks questions and poses solutions; it reflects the ongoing creation of a new kind of socially inclusive architecture, both in construction and design, that is currently being promoted by the Venezuelan government.

INSIDE THE SOCIALIZING CITY So what is it exactly that makes Venezuela’s new communal cities a socializing experience? How different are they to the barrios in the country’s cities, which are all too often described as dens of inequity, violence and poverty by the Western press, with little respect for the inhabitants who live there and in fact, built them?

It is true that for decades Venezuela’s barrios have been sites of social, economic and cultural exclusion; yet it is undeniable that the houses and communities which welcome you at Caracas airport and span all the way into the city have a certain charm.

The millions of brightly colored homes built haphazardly on top of one another, with absolutely no regard for the rules of town planning or even gravity, are a vibrant testament to human resilience and creativity. It is unsurprising that they have been described as symbols of anti-capitalism, and there is certainly something subversive in their asymmetrical and unregulated design.

The buzz of barrio life on the ground can be felt right up in the hilltops, sometimes a 25 minute jeep ride away, and there is always music, usually salsa, being played. The mountain air is a surprising and refreshing change from the smog which engulfs the center of Caracas, and some people even raise chickens in their makeshift courtyards.

It is the same atmosphere inside. The design of the houses, which traverse numerous levels and are a labyrinth of stairs and building blocks, means that you have to pass the entrances to numerous homes before you reach your own. This set-up promotes a certain kind of cooperation and interaction inside the home; community meetings and politics become topics which are discussed on door-

steps as you make your way to your front door.

Yet it is less easy to construct this experience outside on the street. The lack of infrastructure, communal spaces, and the very real, albeit exaggerated, violence in the barrio, are all elements which impede the construction of communal life.

Walking around Venezuela’s new socialist city Caribia in the evening time, the barrio feels as if it were a million miles away. For a start, children are still out playing in the street or in the various communal spaces at 7 o’clock at night, even though it is dark. There are both stairs and ramps for disabled access, communal squares which are lit up at night and there is no garbage in the street. People are watering the grass and trees and there is a well-attended communal meeting on the local economy and transport being held in the community primary school.

“Here, we all work together to keep the city looking nice, on the other hand in the barrio, you’re just looking after yourself, making sure that your house looks nice, and maybe your neighbor can’t do that because they have less income than you... there was more poverty there”, said Francis Yanis,

20, a worker in the local state-run bakery.

This response, along with wide eyed astonishment, was typical of the answers received when residents were asked; “so, is Caribia really different from where you used to live?”

“There is a huge difference! Look, we used to live in a huge barrio, the kids didn’t have plazas, they didn’t have anywhere to play or entertain themselves. Here they have parks and plazas, or there is the sports yard”, commented Jose Villa Suda Cari.

“Here you can walk around and there is always someone about. You interact with all the people, it’s more social, you get me?” he continued.

Jose has been living in Caribia for a year now and his sentiments appear to be shared by the wider community.

Local kids, including Jesus Lugo, 10, also seemed to agree.

“It’s just better”, he said, “we have parks here”. “We’re safer”, added his friend, Evenso Villa, also 10.

In a conversation with Consuela “Tita” Manzanilla, 35, and Eddy “La Negra” Mata, 33, she said in Caribia there are currently 4 communal councils in operation, and they are hoping to form a commune. Consuela believed that life in the new city had allowed residents to build a true expression of communal self-government.

“We’re organized, because there are projects. For instance, the President said we were going to build a city and develop community projects, and that’s what we are doing”, she said.

Eddy, on the other hand, noted that the workers building the houses were laboring “night and day”, to get them finished, “because they are working for the Revolution”, added Consuela.

It might be difficult for Silvestro to capture these sentiments in the Venezuelan exposé in Venice, or even to describe them to a European audience, but it is understandable why he wants to try. As Consuela said, “it’s a model, a good example”.

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Caracas hosts national conference on Venezuelan cultural diversity

abandonment”, said musical composer Isber Salazar from the state of Nueva Sparta. “So many people were losing the true roots of their culture and

identity and this is an opportunity to strengthen popular Venezuelan culture”.

For Vidal Colmenares, a composer of traditional music from the Venezuelan plains, the fact that Caracas’ main theater is hosting a conference on local customs and musical expressions is evidence of how the government of President Hugo Chavez is encouraging the growth of the country’s unique cultural achievements.

“Twenty years ago, this theater was closed to us. Now we feel protected because our work is being recognized and we’ve learned that we’re important Venezuelan citizens”, Colmenares said.

Since its beginning in 1999, the Chavez administration has invested heavily in preserving Venezuelan popular culture by providing greater funding to the arts and mandating local music programming in radio transmissions.

“The people are the ones who make and have the wisdom.

What we do is support the work of the creators”, said Culture Minister Pedro Calzadilla during the opening ceremony of the summit.

“This is our history and our memory”, Calzadilla asserted.

The 7th Conference of Cultural Diversity will continue through this weekend and will present the conclusions of the event’s numerous conferences and workshops on Sunday.

the Ministry is an “institution that has oriented clear policies towards this sector”.

Furthermore, he went on to refer to the communications strategy of the government, which includes an increasing use of social networking, such as Twitter and Facebook, to “create a consciousness in youth of today about the benefits of the social missions and the economic policies regarding the student sector”.

The ongoing opening of the university sector to the average young person has further enabled many young people to have free access to university education. The development and expansion of new mass universities which are free of charge have helped revolutionize and socialize the university sector. One example is the redeveloped UNEFA, which was previously a private military university, and is now an open, public, and free university run in military-civil partnership with an increasing student

population, new universities centers across the national territory, and excellent teaching standards.

Regarding young workers, social missions which have been launched since 2010, such as Mission “Work and Knowledge”, which provides apprentice-type training and direct placement into jobs, have facilitated opportunities to increase their skill base and find jobs for many who do not wish to continue their education after high school.

The yearly increase in the minimum wage, coupled with the new progressive Labor Law, continue to improve working conditions for all, but specifically young workers who are often more inclined to, or forced to start with, less skilled jobs at minimum wage.

These young workers previously risked having their working rights violated, especially regarding social security payments, permanent contraction and working conditions.

T/ COI P/ Agencies

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lose to 2,000 representatives of communities from all over Venezuela arrived in Caracas last Monday to participate in the country’s 7th National Cultural Diversity Conference.

The summit, which had as its main meeting space the Teresa Carreno Theater in the capital, took up a range of topics including indigenous rights, land demarcation, the fight against discrimination, and the promotion of popular art and music.

“The discussion has been enriched by many representatives of indigenous communities because for many of them, the concept of geographic space has a connotation different from that of other inhabitants of the country”, said Venezuelan Vice Minister of Identity and Cultural Diversity Benito Irady regarding the question of native land claims raised at the conference.

Irady pointed out that the event, in bringing together a variety of different ethnic groups, has presented an important opportunity to “reflect on certain forms of discrimination” that still persist in the country.

Venezuela, like many Caribbean and South American nations, is highly diversified in terms of its racial makeup, yet discrimination does continue to exist in many social and economic sectors.

While prejudice may not be as extreme as it is in many northern countries, a constant debate around how to work towards a more pluri-cultural concept of what nationhood means has been a fundamental point of conversation among indigenous and afro-descendant groups.

To this end, the conference addressed a 16-point agenda that included the re-thinking of geographic boundaries, political divisions, human rights, and cultural patrimony.

“We’re heading towards the need to deepen the debate around the word culture which will allow us to understand the universe as a concept where university professionals and practitioners of oral traditions coexist”, Irady said on Monday.

The week-long meeting has also taken up a series of important issues facing popular Venezuelan cultural expressions including the preservation and

promotion of autochthonous art and traditions.

“This conference is proof of the growth that we’ve experienced after so many years of

Venezuelan youth have “a majority inclination towards Chavez” T/ Paul Dobson

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he Venezuelan youth have directly benefited from specific government policies orientated towards their needs, which have resulted in a majority of the youth of the country supporting the incumbent candidate, Hugo Chavez, in the upcoming Presidential elections. This was how political analysis Nicmer Evans explained the role of the youth in the electoral conundrum in comments made this week.

Speaking on the program Between Journalists, which is transmitted on the private network TeleVen, the young Nicmer Evans explained that the levels of young people supporting the governmental project are increasing, citing July´s poll from Datin Corp,

which indicated that 67% of youth in Venezuela support the socialist project of Chavez.

Evans compared current government youth policy to the year 2010, which was blighted with power cuts after the worst drought in nearly 100 years devastated the hydro-electric national power supply, supplying 70% of electrical consumption. He explained that levels of young citizens supporting Chavez in 2010 were “very low”.

Since this year, elaborated Evans, youth support for Chavez has increased: “The alerts were sounded (in 2010), and the government understood these alerts very well, and capitalized with fresh policies”.

Evans highlighted the creation of the Ministry for Youth, established by President Chavez in March 2011, as a key factor, as

The artillery of ideas

T/ Paul Dobson

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Venezuela: Explosions, bridges, and power cuts

t’s been a tough few weeks for all Venezuelans. First, a major bridge collapsed, which was the primary link between the east and the west of the country. Torrential rains have bought mud slides, flooding, and river banks have burst.

Finally, in the early hours of Saturday morning, there was the explosion at the largest refinery in the world, in Amuay, killing around 41 people and injuring many more.

One of the resultant consequences of these tragedies is that the electoral ‘pre-run’ scheduled for August 26 has had to be postponed and rescheduled for September 2.

Electoral ‘pre-runs’ are used by the National Electoral Council (CNE) to check the technology, equipment, and procedures of the election in advance in a real-life situation. This would have been the second pre-run, the first successfully completed one month ago. They ensure that there are no logistical, technological, or operational problems on the actual day, and that the democratic process runs smoothly. They further demonstrate the clarity of the electoral process, and they anticipate and counter any claims of fraud, while proving to the world that the Venezuelan electoral process is one of the most secure, modern, and democratic, as the Carter Center recently correctly described.

The suspension is out of respect to those who have lost their lives, and because the resources needed, such as military personnel, for the ‘pre-run’ are currently occupied elsewhere.

However, is there a darker link between the Amuay explosion and this setback to the democratic process?

Some may say that the suspension of this electoral ‘pre-run’ was caused by the disaster of Amuay. However it is also possible to reverse this equation, and say that the end result, the suspension of the electoral ‘pre- run’ provoked the actions that bought about the explosion.

Consider what happens when there is a power cut, an explosion, or a bridge collapses in Venezuela: the government is blamed. It is, of course, responsible for keeping the bridges up, for keeping the electricity running, and for maintaining the safety of the refineries. Events that show ‘negligence’ could turn votes. Currently, the Venezuelan opposition candidate needs about 4 million votes to be changed in his favor to have any chance of winning the presidential elections on October 7. So, who ben-

efits politically from such tragic events as Amuay? Is it the government or the opposition?

What’s more, apart from benefitting from such events themselves, the resultant consequences must be considered.

In a genuine democracy (such as in Venezuela), the democratic expression of the people does not benefit the minority, it is the majority that serves to gain from an electoral process which is free and fair. Due to policies that help the majority poor classes, the pro-Chavez coalition is the majority, and the opposition Capriles coalition the minority. Thus, a genuinely free and fair democratic expression can only benefit, and be in the interests of, the Chavez coalition, and to the detriment, and against the interests of, the opposition coalition. By logic, it is in the interests of the opposition coalition that the electoral process isn’t as smooth or democratic as it could be.

So, who benefits from the delay of the electoral ‘pre-run’, the candidate who is currently leading the polls or he who is currently trailing?

The US backed opposition is already using Amuay for political gains. Globovision is quoting ‘sources’ who claim to

have noticed neglect and deterioration of the structure over the years, putting the responsibility clearly at Chavez’s door. It’s possible. But it’s not the only possibility.

One explanation for Amuay is that it was just a tragic accident. Yet nothing happens for chance in this world, Newton proved that.

Is it a coincidence that the day before a vital electoral ‘pre-run’, a massively improbable event occurs with ramifications large enough to disrupt the electoral process? Is it coincidence that it happens just one month before the most fiercely fought elections for nearly two decades? Is it coincidence when, due to the burning out of electrical components, there are power cuts in opposition controlled states? Is it coincidence that Venezuela this electoral year has seen nearly 10 violent attacks or kidnappings on diplomatic staff based here, while in the previous 10 years there had been just one such case?

For many who sit in their comfortable chairs watching soap operas, politically motivated sabotage seem more like a Bond storyline than reality. But this doesn’t mean to say that it doesn’t happen. A supervisor looks the other way,

| Polítics

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a maintenance worker lets a screw fall out, a technician decides to be sick that day, and later on we see a large amount paid into their bank account.

All of these examples are sabotage, as they are done in full consciousness of their resultant consequences.

Fact: the US government is desperate to remove Chavez.

Fact: the US military is overstretched. Fact: the US has relied on internal opposition, which counts on full US support, to oust Chavez. Fact: the local opposition is failing.

According to the pollsters, Capriles is trailing by about 20% of the vote, and even some of his own alliance are starting to turn against him. Fact: the US has a dirty history here in South America. From Nicaragua to Paraguay to Cuba, the CIA does infiltrate, set off bombs, assassinate, and cause chaos to achieve US politicoeconomic aims for the region.

There are a few suspicious details. The explosion happened (conveniently) at 1:15AM, when it was dark, and much easier for people to do things without being seen. Also, we know that the explosion started in the warehouse, not right in front of the guard post, or the work stations of the staff, but down, in-between the stock, in the warehouse.

Furthermore, as Chavez himself has stated, in the world’s largest refinery, with thousands of highly trained specialist staff, both civilian and military, which functions nonstop for the 24 hours of day and night, a gas leak (which would have had to run for various days to build up enough strength to claim 40 lives) could not have gone unnoticed. It is highly unlikely.

In his weekly blog, opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski ominously states that “nothing will stop our march to progress”.

“Nothing”, he writes. Does that include democracy? Would democratically losing on October 7 stop him? According to him, no, as “nothing” will stop him.

Does that include the rule of law? Does that include decency and respect for human life?

Well, we can’t do more than speculate, and be aware and alert to all possibilities. But remember my words the next time you read about a prison riot, a power failure, or some other form of ‘negligence’.

Regarding Amuay, Chavez has initiated a full investigation into events, which won’t be completed until the site has been secured, and has mentioned that there are certain aspects or hypotheses that he can’t make public.

Maybe all of this is just paranoia, or maybe not…

Friday, August 31, 2012 | Nº 124 | 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 Time for Obama to earn his Nobel Prize

Peace talks begin in Colombia T/ Daniel Kovalik

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ccording to Colombia’s El Tiempo, 75% of Colombians want a dialogue between the Colombian government and the guerrillas. And, this stands to reason, for Colombia has been devastated by over 50 years of armed conflict which has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians (between 50 and 250 thousand of whom were “disappeared”); left over 5 million persons internally displaced (the largest IDP population in the world); and given a pretext for the Colombian government, with the aid of its paramilitary allies, to wipe out progressive organizations, including trade unions, working for social change. On a grander scale, the Colombian conflict has provided a convenient pretext for US military intervention in that country and the entire region and has been the biggest hurdle to the dream of Latin American integration.

It is therefore welcome and monumental news that the Colombian government yesterday confirmed rumors that it has signed an agreement with the largest guerilla group, the FARC, to commence peace talks, and that it shall include the ELN guerillas in this peace process as well.

Experience has shown that such peace talks are fragile.

Colombia has gone through a number of peace processes, but they have all ended badly thus far. The most notable failed peace process took place in the 1980’s when the FARC agreed to end the armed insurgency in return for being able to participate in Colombian political life through the Patriotic Union party (UP). In a great act of treachery, the Colombian military and paramilitary death squads responded to this deal by murdering around 5,000 UP leaders and activists, and the FARC commenced hostilities anew.

Meanwhile, as The Miami Herald reports this morning, both sides of the conflict have made it clear that they will not cease armed conflict during the

peace talks; on the contrary, battles between the guerillas and the Colombian military and police have increased in recent months. More troubling, the main non-violent group calling for peace talks – the Patriotic March – has been increasingly vilified by the Colombian government (quite untruthfully) as FARC supporters, and a number of Patriotic March leaders have been threatened, jailed, killed or disappeared with increasing frequency. And, just as these peace talks have commenced, and as such attacks against peace activists have escalated, the Colombian government has cut in half the support for the beneficiaries of its government protection program – a program which purports to protect peace and social activists from these very attacks. In short, there are many reasons to be very cautious in our optimism for these talks.

At the same time, there are reasons for hope. For its part, the FARC took an important step in the direction of peace earlier this year by renouncing its long-time practice of kidnapping (a tactic of raising money through ransom). As for the Colombian government, President Santos has exhibited much more openness to peace talks than his predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, and has been much more moderate in his rhetoric about the guerillas and about the Colombian non-violent left as well. Santos has even begun a land reform program which purports to give back land to Colombians (particularly those of the indigenous and AfroColombian community) whose

land was seized unlawfully during the conflict. While it remains to be seen how successful this program will be, and while the program itself has inspired paramilitary groups to violently attack those standing to take back land that the paramilitaries wrongfully seized during the conflict, the overture is an important one for the guerillas whose primary demand over the decades has been meaningful land reform. Finally, the accelerated growth of the peace movement in Colombia, most notably through the establishment of the Patriotic March, will add critical support to these talks.

As usual, the important wild card is the United States – the financial backer of the Colombian military and the author of Colombia’s anti-insurgency program beginning in 1962. The only way

that the peace process will be successful is for the US to support the process, or, at the very least, get out of the way to allow it to go forward and prosper. So far, the US has shown no willingness to support peace in Colombia, instead opting to exploit the conflict to retain its last military beachhead in the Latin American region – a region which, much to the chagrin of the US, is increasingly radicalizing and turning leftward. A key factor in the peace process, then, is a strong movement of citizens in the US who will support peaceful actors, such as the Patriotic March, in Colombia, and put political pressure on the US government to allow peace to flourish in Colombia.

This is a momentous opportunity for President Obama to finally earn his Nobel Peace Prize (3 years after the fact) and we must encourage him to seize upon this opportunity.

As a final note, the Cuban government must again be applauded for playing its positive role in this process. As it has in the past, Cuba hosted the initial talks which led to the commencement of this peace process, and, along with Norway, will continue to host such talks throughout the process.

This tiny island, much vilified by our government, continues to play its positive role in our hemisphere for peace, regional stability and public health.

The shamefulness of the United States’ continued blockade of that country grows each day as Cuba outshines the US in terms of its contributions to the world.

Daniel Kovalik is a labor and human rights attorney living in Pittsburgh and teaches International Human Rights Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.