Analysis
Opinion
Venezuelan opposition plans to not-recognize elections results page 7
Ecuador: Challenging media dictatorships page 8
Friday, September 7, 2012 | Nº 125 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve
Venezuela has successful trial-run On Sunday, Venezuelans tested their electoral system in a trial-run for the upcoming presidential elections scheduled for October 7. The test was aimed at familiarizing voters with the electronic voting machines and the various identification procedures involved in the process. The event was heavily attended by voters at over one thousand sites nationwide, evidencing great expectations for the October elections. page 2
ENGLISH EDITION/The artillery of ideas
President Chavez rallies workers
Politics
Venezuela joins press organization The Latin American Federation of Journalists held its 11th Congress in Caracas. page 4 Politics
Opposition runs illegal ad In violation of electoral laws, the opposition campaign broadcast violent, sensationalist propaganda. page 5
Days after opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski used a demeaning obscenity to describe public workers in Venezuela, President Chavez held a mass meeting with thousands of employees of the oil industry, calling on them to continue building a system of social justice. Capriles has pledged to privatize key national industries if elected, and eliminate social programs. Chavez urged workers to accompany him and his socialist project for a new six-year term. Elections are October 7. page 3
Inflation down
Social Justice
Humanizing police force Citizen security from a leftist perspective, policing in Venezuela. page 6
Minister of Planning and Finance Jorge Giordani said Tuesday that the policies of the Chavez administration have allowed “the Venezuelan economy to grow more than expected and for inflation to fall below the average [of 20 to 22 percent] established in the national budget for 2012”. GDP growth for the second quarter of this year was 5.4 percent, compared to 2.5 percent for that period in 2011. The annualized inflation for August stood at 18.1 percent, lower than the amount established in the 2012 budget, which was 20 to 22 percent. Average inflation in Venezuela for the last 12 years under the Chavez government has been 22.2 percent, and at times as low as 12.4 percent. Under the previous governments of Carlos Andres Perez and Rafael Caldera, average inflation was 45.3 percent and 59.6 percent respectively, with highs of 80 percent inflation under the former and 103 percent under the latter. P/ EFE
INTERNATIONAL
Venezuela to help Colombian peace process Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos thanked the government of the Venezuela on Tuesday for its willingness to help with the peace process in his country. During a speech to the Colombian people, Santos said that an end is approaching in the country’s dark period of half a century of violence and civil war. Santos confirmed that his government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) signed an accord that defines the route toward initiating a dialogue to help seek a settlement that would allow an end to the armed conflict. The head of state confirmed that the document was the result of six months of preliminary meetings in Havana, Cuba, but clarified that it is not a final text, but rather, an outline of steps to follow. In his speech, Santos called for “patience and restraint” among Colombians if further attacks by the FARC occur, saying that the talks do not mean that the conflict is over. He also reiterated that his government would be accompanied in the process by Cuba and Norway, as well as Venezuela and Chile. On Wednesday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expressed his profound joy about the advancement of peace in Colombia. He reaffirmed his government’s commitment to aid the Colombian people in this process as necessary. “We want peace for Colombia and we will help them any way they need to ensure the violence ends”. Previously, President Chavez helped secure the release of several hostages held by the FARC, and he has played a key role in mediating talks between both parties.
2 Impact | . s Friday, September 7, 2012
The artillery of ideas
encounter a hold up with the authentication system. “For example, if there is some problem with the fingerprint of somebody, the system allows it to be captured again. Even if the person is missing their thumb, they can use the index finger of the same hand”, D’Amelio said.
SWIFT AND EFFICIENT
Venezuelan election simulation successful T/ COI P/ AFP
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enezuelan authorities reported a turnout of nearly 9 million people for the nation’s second election simulation that took place last Sunday in run up to the South American nation’s presidential contest to be held on October 7th. The trial was esteemed by Tibisay Lucena, President of the National Electoral Commission (CNE), to have been carried out with complete normalcy, meeting all expectations. “Today we achieved the answer that we we’re looking for, the effective mass opening of the voting centers, the response of the CNE in the face of contingencies and the fluid participation of the electorate”, Lucena said. The total turnout reached 10 percent of the country’s 18.9 million registered voters and close to five thousand voting machines were on hand in over one thou-
sand neighborhoods throughout Venezuela, offering the chance to vote for any and all community volunteers who wished to participate in the test. According to Lucena, the successful completion of the simulation was an important step in ensuring a speedy, efficient, and fully democratic voting process on October 7th. “The result of this electoral trial is good news for the country because this guarantees that on October 7th, the deployment of the electoral authorities will work to perfection”, the CNE president said. That means, Lucena said, that the functionality of Venezuela’s advanced electronic voting machines as well as the logistics involved in the assembly of poll workers and security personnel were all assured by Sunday’s rehearsal.
READY FOR OCTOBER Some fifty thousand voting machines will be utilized for
Venezuela’s presidential elections and will be on hand in more than 39,000 polling centers around the nation. Two hundred fifty thousand members of the country’s Bolivarian National Guard will also be present to ensure full security throughout the day. In addition to the armed forces, international observers from the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) have agreed to participate in the upcoming presidential contest. Lucena confirmed last week that technicians from Unasur had been in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas in the lead up to the simulation to accompany the electoral body “in the entire auditing process”. New to the process this year includes a heightened antifraud component, which verifies the identity of each voter through the electronic registration of thumbprints. The Integrated Authentication System (SAI) cross
references the prints of voters with a national database that includes photographs of those exercising their suffrage rights. “This system contrasts with that of [previous governments] in which some people wanted to vote more than once, when dead people voted, and when some citizens voted for other ones. Now this is completely impossible”, said Jorge Rodriguez, head of the Chavez campaign regarding the safeguards being implemented. While the government has made an effort to make sure that all registered voters have their thumbprints registered in the CNE database before election day, no one will be prevented from exercising their right in the case of missing information. A back up system will be employed which gives citizens the ability to still participate in the election via a completed and signed CNE form. “The electoral system is automatic and doesn’t allow for any kind of elements that will impede the right to vote and the security of citizens”, Rodriguez affirmed. Likewise, CNE co-director Tania D’Amelio commented that all electoral workers on hand will be able to provide assistance for people who may
Sunday’s trial yielded outstanding results in terms of the efficiency of the voting process, CNE officials reported. According to the commission, the average time to complete the five steps that make up the vote casting procedure is between one minute and 90 seconds. “I calculate one minute”, said Luis Pulido, a Caracas resident, regarding his voting time. “It’s fast because everything is very organized. This simulation makes the people feel calm”. For his part, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expressed his satisfaction with the results of the simulation during a phone call to state television on Sunday evening. “Today was a very successful day. We need to congratulate the National Electoral Commission, its workers and its president, the armed forces, and the Venezuelan people. Beyond the numbers and the figures, our electoral system, which is one of the best in the world, was put to the test”, Chavez said. The Venezuelan head of state also emphasized the diversity of the presidential race in which seven aspirants are contending. “There is not just one candidate here. If we were carrying out a plebiscite of Yes or No on October 7 and if we presented only the President of the Republic as the candidate, then there wouldn’t be an alternative. But it’s not like that. Here we are presenting more options. On October 7, all of Venezuela is in play with deep alternatives”, he stated. Additionally, the socialist leader made reference to the 2009 amendment to the nation’s constitution that allows for an incumbent president to seek indefinite re-election. “In Europe there is the possibility of re-election each time an individual can present the political forces that support them. Above all it’s the people who decide. That’s what having an alternative is all about the capacity and the possibility of alternation. It’s about what the people choose and want”, Chavez asserted.
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Chavez warns against privatization with opposition return
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by the Center for Economic Policy and Research (CEPR), revealed in 2009 that the private sector in Venezuela grew faster in the first 10 years of the current administration than did the public sector. During his speech last week, Chavez pointed out that while the nation’s opposition has proposed downsizing government employees, Venezuela, with 14.2 percent of its labor force working for the public sector, is far below nations such as France, Canada and Sweden - all of whom have more than 20 percent of its workers employed by the state.
PRIVATIZATION
T/ COI P/ Presidential Press
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enezuelan President Hugo Chavez called on members of his country’s working class to accelerate the construction of socialism during a campaign stop that saw the current head of state address a contingent of more than 8,000 oil and other industrial workers in the state of Vargas. “I’m asking and I’m insisting, because I have the principle to do so, that the working class carry out its role in the transition to socialism. I’m hoping that in the next 6 years we clear the hurdle of no return for our revolution”, Chavez said in reference to his bid for another term as the South American nation’s President. With only a month to go before Venezuelans head to the polls to choose their next head of state, Chavez has cast the elections as a defining moment for the movement that has maintained the progressive leader in power since 1999. A victory for the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) would mean a solidification of the redistributive policies of the Bolivarian Revolution led by
the current charismatic head of state while a defeat would mean a relapse into the free market principles that brought widespread poverty to the country in the 1980s and 1990s. On Friday, the incumbent candidate spoke to the importance that the working class plays in this struggle, citing the famous phrase of Rosa Luxembourg regarding a future society defined by either socialism or barbarism. “It’s a battle between the beast of capitalism and the human project - a socialist project that is the hope of the human species... Capitalism is the guarantee of barbarity and a real threat to human life on this planet”, the Venezuelan President said. Chavez first declared his intentions to create a “Socialism of the 21st Century” in 2005 and has since proposed a range of national policies that have democratized, with varying levels of success, the country’s economic relations. This includes promoting community-led cooperatives, nationalizing key industries, encouraging the growth of horizontal management structures, redistributing land to impoverished farmers, and
passing legislation that has increased the country’s minimum wage and has strengthened workers’ rights. Venezuela continues, however, to be a market-based society where capitalism exerts a good deal of influence over the day-to-day lives of workers and
frequent visits to local shopping malls represents a favorite hobby for many in the country. While conservative groups both inside and outside Venezuela have attempted to attack the Chavez government for an alleged move towards “Castro Communism”, a study released
Communities play greater role in housing construction T/ Ewan Robertson www.venezuelanalysis.com
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ver 96,850 houses have been built through Venezuela’s mass house construction program so far this year, of which almost 50% (48,263) have been built by local communities. Since the launch of the government’s Great Housing Mission Venezuela (GMVV) in April last year, 243,990 new houses have been built, amounting to 70% of the 2011 – 2012 goal of 350,000, said Nelson Rodriguez, a housing ministry official. The figure includes public, private and
community construction combined. The GMVV program is the Venezuelan government’s attempt to tackle the country’s long-term housing deficit, and aims to build up to 3 million new homes by 2019. Through initiatives such as the Integral Transformation of Habitat (TIH) and Substitution of Shanties for Houses (SUVI) programs, grassroots communities have been making a significant contribution to the GMVV. Last Thursday over 1,200 houses were handed over to families as part of the GMVV,
The two-term incumbent also criticized his conservative opponent in October’s contest, Henrique Capriles, warning that the candidate of the rightwing Democratic Roundtable (MUD) coalition would privatize Venezuelan industries and slash public spending on important benefit programs. “They are using the old thesis of a minimal and capitalist state. That means that the government needs to be axed so that it’s profitable and public spending is reduced”, he pointed out. If re-elected, the PSUV candidate declared that, in contrast to the opposition, he would “continue to increase public investment” and “strengthen the socialist economy”. In this sense, Chavez has highlighted that the Venezuelan government has invested more than $468 billion in social programs over the past 13 years, providing free health care, education, and work opportunities for the population.
including a complex of 60 houses in Carabobo state, designated a “New Community Space”. The complex was built through the TIH initiative, with local communal councils managing the project’s 6.9 million bolivar (US $1.6 million) budget. At a ceremony to handover the housing complex to families, Margaud Godoy, Vice-Minister of Communal Participation, praised the participation of socialist construction brigades in the project. “The labor of grassroots power in this construction work was essential and forms part of the greatest achievements of the [Bolivarian] revolution. This is the result of the organization of our productive forces”, she said.
4 Politics | . s Friday, September 7, 2012
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Venezuela joins regional press association Latin American youth show solidarity with Venezuela & Chavez T/ Paul Dobson
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T/ COI P/ Agencies
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he Latin American Federation of Journalists (FELAP) officially re-accepted Venezuela as a member of its 16-country organization last weekend during the convening of its 11th Congress in the city of Caracas. A declaration released by the FELAP declared Venezuela’s admittance a “recognition not only of Venezuelan journalists but also the deep economic, social, political and cultural changes that have been produced and promoted by the Bolivarian Revolution in Latin America and the Caribbean”. Venezuela had been expelled from the UNESCO affiliated organization in 2004 after members of its National Press Club (CNP) participated in an attempted coup d’etat against democratically elected president, Hugo Chavez, in 2002. For Communication Minister Andres Izarra, the admission of his country’s Platform of Journalists into the FELAP represents an opportunity for the press federation to take greater advantage of the kind of grassroots media organizations proliferating in Venezuela and around Latin America. “This process of popular democracies that has been going on in Latin America has given the FELAP new air and new force. It’s of great importance that the FELAP celebrate the journalists who have made history in the struggle for freedom
of expression and the struggle for the right to popular communication. It is this struggle that has been going on for years and that we are only now starting to see bear fruit”, Izarra said. In its declaration, made public on Sunday, the FELAP also called for an end to various manifestations of global terrorism including those forms originating in state repression, free-market economics, and the manipulation of mass media. The declaration drew special attention to the cases of Mexico, Honduras, Paraguay, and Colombia where journalists face increased danger due to “a perverse circle of crime and impunity” organized by mafias and aided by public officials. “There are massacres in Mexico, Honduras and Colombia. These are three countries where there is a permanent persecution, threatening, and killing of journalists”, FELAP President Juan Carlos Camano said, citing the more than 100 press members who have been murdered in Mexico in the past 12 years. National and transnational corporations came under additional fire by the group, which denounced “policies that, at the order of controlling interests, manipulate information and communication on a mass scale with the aim of creating the objective and subjective conditions for preserving the interests of the privileged sectors of society”. According to Nelson del Castillo, Secretary General of the federation, media communication should be carried out by
people, not the private sector that owns a majority of outlets. “The great problem that journalists face is that we hold a truth that is spread out while we’re facing a lie that is packaged and delivered very well”, the Secretary General said. To fight this, FELAP members resolved to strengthen regional unity and push for a progressive agenda in the multilateral organizations that have arisen in Latin America over the past decade including the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), and the Latin American and Caribbean Community of States (Celac). Del Castillo also called attention to the ample freedoms that exist in Venezuela and condemned contrary allegations emanating from private media outlets as hypocritical. “Those who say there is no freedom of expression in Venezuela don’t only lie but those who exercise their profession in an overwhelming and abusive way many times discredit their very journalistic ethics. They know that in Venezuela there is freedom of press and expression. If not, they wouldn’t be acting that way”. The FELAP was founded in 1976 and includes more than 80,000 affiliated journalists. Apart from the re-admittance of Venezuela, last weekend’s congress also saw the acceptance of the 105-year old Chilean press group, Journalist’s Circle, into the federation.
he First International Youth Meeting in Solidarity with Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolution was held in Caracas from August 22-27. It’s overall goal was “to support the reelection of Chavez” as delegate Rolando Cuellas from the Bolivian left wing party Movimiento al Socialismo expressed. “He is transforming Latin America, not just Venezuela. We are collecting ideas so that we can return to our countries to build our own revolutionary processes”. Joaquin Perez Suarez, from the Peron Youth of Argentina, who was one of the 1200 delegates attending the meeting from 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries, stated that “The Venezuelan revolution is a beacon on the road that we should walk to integrate the great land which Bolivar dreamed”. The delegates participated in workshops across 12 states, focusing on the role of young people in Culture, Work, Education, Economic and Social Rights, Productive Projects, Technology, Ecology, Communication, and Politics. Venezuelan Vice-Minister for Youth, Rander Peña, explained the importance of the activities, “Although we greatly value the affinity which exists with the Bolivarian project, we want everyone to see and to know what is happening here in Venezuela, that they see the conscientious people, full of hopes and dreams, those who have taken the reins of their future that they want to live”. Local event organizer Arnaldo Rondon highlighted that
“the political level was very high. Every day we had some great debates. In their countries the media say the youth here don’t support Chavez, but the reality is different”. He went on express his gratitude to the delegates: “they gave us strength and guarantees that the forces of the youth in Latin America are with us”. The final declaration of the delegates highlighted the fact that “Latin America has become one of the principal bastions in the anti-imperialist struggle”. “Venezuela has not only urged its youth to be protagonists, but has urged the youth of all of Latin America to be so”. The role of President Chavez in “the deep advances made in the areas of health, education, housing, employment, work conditions, cultural transformation, the recuperation of natural spaces and strategic companies, and the end of illiteracy” was also lauded. Amongst the concrete actions coming out of the meeting are the creation of a Continental School of Socio-Political Formation for Youth, a mass Twitter campaign on September 30 and the inclusion of a range of Latin American youth to be present as international observers at the presidential elections in October. On arriving home, the delegation of youth representatives from the nationalist Socialist Front party of Puerto Rico, returning from the youth meeting in Venezuela, were detained and interrogated by US Homeland Security forces, and had their luggage and laptops searched, and political tshirts and flags burned.
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Opposition runs illegal ad, violates regs T/ COI P/ Agencies
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n another twist to Venezuela’s 2012 presidential campaign, the political opposition knowingly ran an illegal campaign ad on national television. Depicting the violent death of a graduating college student, the controversial ad included the horrified screams of a working class, single mother. Shown repeatedly on media outlets the day of its release, the ad circumvented regulations set forth by the National Elections Council (CNE). Pulled from the airways because of its violent content, the ad was later used by opposition spokesmen to claim “censorship” by CNE authorities. The controversial ad titled, “Safety Has a Way Forward” was sponsored by right-wing party Voluntad Popular (Popular Will), a frequent recipient of US government funding. In the TV spot, a young, Afro-Venezuelan college student wearing what appears to be a public school uniform walks to the slum-based home of his single, working class mother. After a warm, cel-
ebratory embrace in which both are clearly pleased with his successful graduation, the young man steps outside and is gunned down by unknown assailants. His mother, watching from a kitchen window, screams a horrific “nooooo!” before dropping her morning cup of steaming coffee to the ground. The spot ends as the woman hugs her lifeless son in the
middle of the street, while dueling gangs fire at each another. A message appears promising “safety” if opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski wins the 2012 presidential election. Running unrestricted, and repeatedly on the day of its release, the ad reached millions of voters. Dozens of privately-owned media outlets, the same that often denounce
Opposition hackers attack Communist Party T/ Paul Dobson
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n yet another clear case of sabotage orchestrated by supporters of opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski, the websites of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) were hacked into on Sunday night and their contents destroyed. The hacking occurred around 5pm, only minutes after the voting centers closed following Sunday’s electoral simulation. A right wing political message
was displayed for anyone attempting to access the site. The web portal, www.pcvvenezuela.org, was hacked into using a server outside of Venezuela, while their youth movement JCV, www.jotaceve. org, and monthly newspaper, Tribuna Popular www.tribuna-popular.org were illegally hacked into from a server within Venezuela. The message left by the hacker on the 3 sites was a quote from Simon Bolívar, and the
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In response to the nowsuspended opposition ad, proChavez forces called on all parties to “respect the rules of the game” as Election Day approaches. According to Jorge Rodriguez, Chavez’s National
Campaign Coordinator, “the ad was pure necrophilia, aired at an hour of the day in which children are watching without parental supervision, violating our nation’s laws”. Promising to “stay alert” as the elections nears, Rodriguez affirmed that pro-Chavez forces “must insist on a political and electoral battle that is limited by a respect for legality, a respect for humanity, and a respect for life”. “The opposition”, he insisted, “are experts in terrorism, sadness and in death. The ad itself is an act of violence against the life”. Just weeks before Venezuela celebrates its October 7th presidential election, the country’s grassroots Bolivarian Circles called for pro-Chavez forces to be “on alert” as the opposition begins to implement what they called “pending plans for destabilization”. According to Jose Pereira, National Secretary of the Bolivarian Circles, “there are actions underway that seek to divert the peaceful (electoral) process”. “The efforts of the Bolivarian Circles”, he said, “have found that cash-filled briefcases are being used to finance the generation of confusion… organizing armed groups tasked with the implementation of violence”. “The opposition”, he added, “plan to call on voters to not recognize the election results”, later using “armed paramilitary forces” to destabilize the country. The Bolivarian Circles, one of the first community-based movements to organize in defense of the Bolivarian Revolution, played an important role in reversing the 2002 coup that briefly removed President Chavez from office.
phrase “After 14 years of lies and incomplete promises it’s time that Venezuela has a real change”. They also showed a music video entitled “Chavez, the thief of the people” and a final message saying “we´ll see each other on October 7”. The pages were, in the hacker’s own words, “expropriated”. This follows the hacking into of three government agency websites on the day of the tragic Amuay refinery explosion. The Cadivi (exchange control center), the National Observatory for Science, Technology and Innovation, and the Public Defense (ombudsman) websites were hacked into early in the morning on Saturday August 25.
The Communist Party is an independent political party, and recently celebrated 81 years in existence. It is a strong ally of Chavez´s Unified Socialist Party. Arnaldo Rondon, Political Secretary for the JCV for the state of Merida described the hacking as “childish”. He went on to compare the methods employed by the opposition today to those in the coup d’état of 2002: “They are not going to catch us with our pants down like in 2002. They want to shut us up, but they won’t be able to”. Opposition activists, faced by a dwindling percentage of the electorate and a crumbling political alliance, are increasingly resorting to violent acts.
public media “bias” in favor of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, jumped on the opportunity to run the ad before election authorities could intervene. The following day, CNE officials ordered the “immediate suspension” of the ad, stating it “purposefully affected the Venezuelan people’s mental health” just weeks before the October 7th presidential election. According to CNE President Tibisay Lucena, who announced the suspension, the opposition spot “is under investigation for what is clearly a violation of our Electoral Law”. Lucena explained that the “suspension” allows the ad’s producers “the opportunity to submit their arguments defending the content”, but that, in the meantime, “it will not be allowed to run on national airwaves”. According to Popular Will founder Leopoldo Lopez, currently the National Coordinator of the opposition presidential candidate’s campaign, his party made the ad “so as to portray a reality we want to change”. “The CNE uses Venezuelans’ mental health as an excuse”, Lopez affirmed, “since the precise aim of this ad was to give greater value to human life”. Calling the CNE decision “censorship”, Lopez suggested opposition forces need not follow “one-sided” rules that “are only respected on paper”.
“PURE NECROPHILIA”
6 Social Justice | . s Friday, September 7, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Citizen security from a leftist perspective international conference in Venezuela T/ Rachael Boothroyd P/ Agencies
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n the middle of the surrounding building complex, new police recruits are playing basketball on the right hand side of a large courtyard. To their left, there is a group of children playing amongst themselves with a football. Just above them, approximately 20 teenagers are walking along the balcony of one of the two-story buildings, about to enter a classroom to receive socio-political training and the chance to take part in a scheme that will provide them with a full-time job. It is hard to tell that this vibrant place was once a former prison, yet it is perhaps even more surprising to discover that this complex, where members of the community walk around freely and take part in the various workshops, is actually the headquarters of the government’s new National Experimental Security University (UNES); the training ground for the country’s new police recruits. Founded in 2009, the UNES was conceived of as a totally new way of training police officers and reforming policing methods. The proposal of the UNES in itself is incredible, but also somewhat daunting. The principal ideas behind the university are to recreate the police officer’s role from a community perspective and to transform policing methods so that officers work directly with organized communities. In short, to fundamentally transform the power relationship between the police and society. The university also focuses very strongly on the issue of crime prevention, financing investigations on issues related to delinquency, as well as on expanding police officers’ role in addressing the social causes of crime. Perhaps one of the most striking things about the university is just how many of the staff have backgrounds in leftist political organization, popular education or liberation theology as opposed to in policing or security. It is not so surprising then that this week, the UNES was the location for an event which would have been unthinkable
just 10 years ago; an international conference entitled, “The Left and Public Security Policy”. The conference was organized by the UNES as an opportunity for the international left to discuss policy relating to citizen security in the current historical conjuncture, at a time when progressive government’s are in power throughout the Latin American region. The theme of the conference was how the Latin American left should approach the topic of crime and policing in a post neo-liberal era, after an increase in violence over the past 30 years has given way to hard right rhetoric when discussing the issue of delinquency; which has traditionally been dealt with through “la mano dura” or strict measures Latin America. The conference was also an exploration of what possible policing policies could be implemented by leftist governments and an attempt to contribute to the debate on how to create “counter-hegemonic” security initiatives. “The fundamental objective is to debate what the meaning of a leftist policy in the field of citizen security actually is and how we can do that in practical terms”, said Antonio Gonza-
les Plessman, Vice-Dean of the university. The three day conference began on Monday and was attended by activists and academics from Brazil, Argentina, Honduras, Ecuador and Spain and was opened by Venezuelan Minister of Interior and Justice, Tareck El Aissami. Making reference to one of the government’s latest security missions, “Venezuela full of life”, an integrated project aimed at solving the issue of crime through expanding the country’s new National Bolivarian Police force into 7 states and increasing crime preven-
tion measures in conjunction with communities; El Aissami explained that the government had made the overhaul of the country’s policing system a priority in recent years. “It has been the unshakeable will of President Hugo Chavez, and his government, to radically transform the country’s police bodies as a first step in the search for a complete security policy which is able to guarantee peace for the country and the lives of our population, but without violating human rights”, he said. On the second day of presentations, Vice-Dean Plessman
commented that for him, the most interesting issues to have emerged from the conference were; the reduction of prison sentences in favor of rehabilitative programs or community service, the possibility of offering conflict-resolution alternatives to grassroots groups and organized communities, police reform and the legalization of drugs. “The war against drugs is an imperialist strategy which many of our governments repeat uncritically. Governments which have an anti-imperialist discourse and then end up repeating the same imperialist strategy. This is something we need to debate”, he said. One of the presentations by Argentinian politics academic, Marcelo Sain, stated that reforming policing methods should be central to any progressive political project, yet so far Venezuela was the only Latin American country to have taken on this monumental task in an institutionalized way. Other speakers included the Spanish academic, Amadeu Recasense, on leftist security policy, and Ecuadorean investigator, Fernando Carrion, on the political nature of policing. Speaking to Paulina Villasmil, an activist with a background in liberation theology who is currently working for UNES in Zulia, she discussed the strange convergence of leftist policy and activism, community organization and policing currently being constructed in Venezuela. “I was speaking to one of my old friends on the Spanish left the other day and when I said that I was working with the police she cried, ‘oh, but what are you doing? The police are bad!’... Maybe I’m still in the honeymoon period, but I don’t think this is a façade. I see a genuine attempt to transform the state in conjunction with community participation”, she said. This conference is surely not the first to have taken place on security from a leftist perspective, but Villasmil sums up why it is different; because it shows how organized communities and leftist ideas and praxis are slowly transforming the State in Venezuela.
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The artillery of ideas
zuela’s electronic voting system as one of the most reliable in the world. At the coming elections, the Union of South American Nations will amongst the 200 international observers. Any doubt about the impartiality of the CNE in organizing free elections is surely swept aside by the fact that earlier this year Venezuela’s main rightwing opposition coalition, the MUD, organized for it to conduct the right’s Presidential primaries. The MUD Executive Secretary described the CNE’s role in this selection as “an excellent
indication of the democratic institutions in the country”. It is not serious for the right-wing coalition to endorse the CNE as a legitimate electoral authority in February and denounce it in October. The truth is that any opposition attempt to cry fraud is really about covering up its own political failings. Polls carried out by the major companies indicate a clear win for Hugo Chavez, with leads of between 15-27% in each of the 8 major polls carried out in July. August’s polls give similar results.
statements”, said witness Benjamin Zembrano. The Globovision team were reportedly seeking information on how the farming unit is run, and became hostile when they were told to leave by workers. Canizales was the only employee to be injured in the shooting and is currently reported to be in a stable condition. Both the unit’s workers and the local community have united in condemning the news station following the attack. On Wednesday, the government’s agriculture and land ministry released an official communication strongly denouncing the attack against the workers. “We are expressing our most energetic rejection against this
criminal action, and our solidarity with all the workers at the social production enterprise in Valle Los Tacarigua”, the statement read. The statement also pointed out that it comes after a series of other events in which government supporters have been targeted by the opposition. Although Globovision is yet to confirm why the team of reporters attempted to enter the farm, the news corporation released a statement on its website yesterday confirming that a group of its workers had been “present” at the time of the attack. The channel claims that the incident took place after the team of reporters was “impeded in their work by presumed
local workers who attacked them with blunt objects”. According to the statement, Executive Vice-president of the news corporation, Maria Fernanda Flores, has taken a list of the names of those involved to Venezuela’s criminal investigation body, the Cicpc. The corporation has stated that it will cooperate with the authorities’ investigation into the incident. The event is the latest of a series of violent incidents to be linked to the news corporation, which was recently fined by Venezuela’s National Telecommunications Council (Conatel) for manipulating coverage of prison riots last year in order to foster “anxiety” amongst the general population.
T/ Francisco Dominguez
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ber 7 [would be] in order not to recognize the people’s will”. Whatever views are held of the Chavez government, its democratic mandate is without doubt. There is certainly no evidence from previous elections of fraud. This will be Venezuela’s 15th election since Chavez became President in 1999. All have been declared free and fair including by international bodies such as the EU and Organization of American State. Just last month, Jennifer McCoy, director at the Carter Center, described Vene-
Globovision cameraman investigated for gun attack T/ Rachael Boothroyd
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n official investigation has been launched into the shooting of a farm worker last week during an alleged confrontation with workers from the anti-government television station, Globovision. According to witnesses, Raul Canizales, 34, received a gunshot to the neck as he tried to stop the team of Globovision reporters from entering “Paula Correa”, a collective agricultural unit belonging
to a group of farmworkers in Aragua state. Reports from witnesses confirm that the aggressors were wearing clothes bearing the Globovision logo, while the man who fired the shot is presumed to be a cameraman for the station. “Some men arrived with cameras with the Globovision logo, they were wearing blue jeans, black caps and black shirts with the Globovision logo. They were pestering us with their cameras, they wanted to get
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Rejecting the results in the face of a Hugo Chavez victory would be totally consistent with the Venezuelan right-wing’s record of resorting to undemocratic means. Most well known is the short-lived coup against the democratically-elected Chavez government in 2002 which abolished democracy altogether until it was overturned by popular demonstrations. Soon after in 2003, they unleashed a 64-day oil industry lock-out that saw GDP collapse by a third with the declared aim of ousting President Chavez. They then claimed fraud at the 2004 recall referendum to decide if Hugo Chavez would continue as President, which he won 58% to 42%. The opposition promised to provide the evidence but eight years on they have yet to produce it. And faced with certain defeat, they decided to boycott the 2005 parliamentary elections to distract from their unpopularity, a move opposed by the Organization of American States. Since then opposition has sought to use the democratic process to remove Hugo Chavez. It has not rejected the CNE results that saw its presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski elected as a state governor, Chavez’s constitutional changes defeated in a referendum or the right-wing win dozens of governors, mayors and congress members. But faced with Hugo Chavez being elected for another six years, they now seem set to be resorting to old habits. Any such manoeuvres to undermine the real outcome need to be widely condemned. It is the right of the Venezuelan people to freely determine who their next President is. Their will must be upheld and respected.
Venezuelan opposition to not recognize Chavez victory enezuelans go to the polls on October 7th to elect their President. The main choice is between the incumbent Hugo Chavez and Henrique Capriles Radonski, a right-wing state governor with strong ties to the country’s elite. Yet with more than a month to go, sections of Venezuela’s right wing opposition coalition seem to have made up their mind about the outcome. With substantial poll leads for Hugo Chavez they appear to be preparing to decry the official results as a fraud. Ricardo Hausmann, a key Capriles economic adviser, recently said his campaign will announce their own results to the world before the official announcement is made by Venezuela’s independent National Electoral Council (CNE), the equivalent of Britain’s Electoral Commission. Their approach seems to be that unless the results go their way, the CNE’s official results will be rejected by the opposition. As Eleazar Diza Rangel, editor of Venezuela’s main national newspaper Ultimas Noticias broadly sympathetic to the antiChavez opposition - recently explained the purpose of attempts “to claim fraud at the coming presidential elections of Octo-
| Analysis
Friday, September 7, 2012 | Nº 125 | 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
Ecuador: Correa pushes free speech, challenges ‘media dictatorship’ T/ Federico Fuentes
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he decision by WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange to seek asylum in Ecuador’s London Embassy triggered an international media campaign that highlighted the “hypocrisy” of his decision to choose a country condemned for supposed attacks on press freedom. The campaign reached a fever pitch following Ecuador’s decision to grant the dissident journalist asylum on August 16. Commentators used the opportunity to stick the boot into both Ecuador and Assange. Peter Hartcher, the political editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, headlined his August 21 attack: “Hypocrisy ends hero’s freedom to preach”. Assange was previously a “principled and plucky champion of freedom of speech”, Hartcher said, but “the moment Assange decided to seek shelter in Ecuador ... he betrayed the principles he claimed to represent”. “Why? Because Ecuador, under its President of the last five years, Rafael Correa, has become one of the world’s leading oppressors of free speech”. This showed that “the cause of principle was just a flag of convenience for Assange. He is now just a sad and desperate fugitive”. However, as Correa has noted, the very fact that Assange has had to seek refuge in Ecuador shows up the claims of respect for free speech by so-called democratic western countries such as the United States, Britain and Australia. A closer look at the international media campaign against Ecuador shows has “free speech” is being used, again, as a smoke screen to protect powerful interests – in this case, a media dictatorship. Like the campaign against Assange, the corporate media campaign against Correa is driven by the threat the example of his government poses to the powerful.
Hartcher trotted out the same smears repeated ad nauseam – without the slightest attempt to investigate their veracity or explain the real circumstances surrounding the allegations. Hartcher accuses Correa of having shut down media outlets willing to criticize his government. Yet no radio station, television channel or newspaper has ever been closed by Correa for what they said. Some have had their broadcasting licences revoked because they refused to pay their licence fee or were operating outside their legally allotted frequency. Hartcher also refered to a libel suit pursued by Correa against a journalist and three executives from the El Universo newspaper, but makes no mention of what was at stake in the case. After years of constant media barrage accusing Correa of everything imaginable, the Ecuadorian President finally demanded last year a retraction and apology for an article that not only stated he was a “dictator”, but falsely accused him of ordering soldiers to indiscriminately fire upon innocent civilians in a hospital.
The article referred to events that occurred on September 30, 2010, and which at the time was widely denounced by governments across the region as a coup attempt against Correa. In the days leading up to the failed coup, various media outlets –including El Universo– had called on police officers to rebel against the government, with the hope that these actions could bring down the democratically elected President. When a police mutiny erupted on September 30, Correa was taken hostage by rebel police officers. In response, many poor Ecuadorians –who have benefited from the rise on social spending under Correa– marched to support the President they placed in office. Loyal soldiers finally broke into the hospital where Correa was being held hostage. Ecuador’s independent judiciary ruled the accusation that Correa –the victim of a coup plot– was in fact the culprit, was libelous. Under the guise of standing up for free speech, Hartcher defends the right of media outlets to illegally avoid license fees, and having no accountability for lies they disseminate.
As is often the case, such journalists use the banner of “free speech” to defend a media dictatorship. In this case, the domination of Ecuador’s media by the oligarchy, which is bent on monopolizing control of information for its own economic and political interests. On the other hand, Correa and the Ecuadorian people have not been afraid to challenge this media dictatorship. Far from restrict free speech, the Correa government has sought to extend it by democratizing the media. He explained in an interview with Assange on Russia Today, that his government’s media policy is not anti-free speech. Rather, it opposes media corporations that, through their monopoly on information, have tried to “destabilize our government to avoid any change in our region and lose the power that they have always flaunted”. “The private media are big business with lucrative aims”, Correa said. “They have always attacked governments who want to change, governments who seek justice and equity”. Such views were, in part, shared by the US embassy in Ecuador.
A US embassy cable from March 2009 released by WikiLeaks said there was some truth to Correa’s claim that “the Ecuadorian media play a political role, in this case the role of the opposition”. The reason was evident: “Many media outlet owners come from the elite business class that feels threatened by Correa’s reform agenda, and defend their own economic interests via their outlets”. Faced with this scenario, the Correa government, with the backing of its people, has sought to break this monopoly. One way has been through the establishment of a public TV channel and giving support to community-based media outlets. This has been done via granting them licences and providing them with necessary equipment. Another has been to democratize the existing media setup. In 2008, Ecuadorians voted overwhelmingly for a new constitution that, among other things, bans bank owners from having business interests in the media industry. Last year, voters approved changes to the constitution that prohibits media corporations from owning or having shares in business interests in other industries, thereby avoiding potential conflicts of interest in reporting news. It is these attempts to break the media dictatorship, democratize the right to information and ensure media corporations are not beyond the law, that explain the international media campaign to brand his government an “enemy of free speech”. Above freedom of information and speech, comes freedom to make as much money as possible, no matter what. That is why, just as the US hates Assange for releasing information they wanted to keep secret, media corporations hate Ecuador for challenging their right to control information.