Social Justice
Opinion
A corn festival celebrates “ancestral food” in Caracas page 7
Who is Henrique Capriles Radonski? page 8
Friday, September 28, 2012 | Nº 128 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve
Republican threats United States presidential and vice-presidential candidates for the Republican party have vowed to get “tough on Chavez” if elected in November. Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan have lashed out against Venezuela’s democraticallyelected President, calling him a “dictator” and pledging to take a more hostile stance against Venezuela. The republican candidates also said they would increase efforts to force a “transition” in Cuba. page 2
ENGLISH EDITION/The artillery of ideas
Chavez prepares for “knock out” victory on October 7
Politics
Opposition courts foreigners Anti-Chavez groups met with diplomats in Venezuela to discuss “plans”. page 3 Economy
Strengthing ties with China As the presidential campaign in Venezuela nears its closure in the final days before the elections, both candidates have increased their street presence and promises to the people. Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski continues to falsely present himself as a proponent of social programs, though his own government plan prioritizes privatization and elimination of current programs. Chavez, still leading the polls in the double digits, has pledged to achieve a “perfect victory” over his contender, in what he says will be a “knock out”. page 2
Triple crown Cabrera Venezuela and China furthered accords for housing and mining. page 4 Social Justice
Free drug rehab center Mission Negra Hipolita provides free drug treatment centers to help people off the streets. page 6
P/ AFP
Venezuelan baseball player Miguel Cabrera is neari ring his goal of becoming the first Triple Crown winnner in the Major Leagues since Carl Yaztrzemski in 1967. Cabrera, third baseman for the Detroit Tigers, leads the American League in batting average, with .331. He is followed by Mike Trout of the Angels and Joe Mauer of the Twins, both of whom are at .323. In home runs, Cabrera is second only to Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers, 43 to 42. However, Hamilton told the Associated Press on Tuesday that he hopes Cabrera wins the Triple crown, saying: “I’m excited about it. As a fan of the game, I enjoy watching other guys succeed in what they do”. Cabrera also leads the American League in RBIs, with 133, followed by Hamilton’s 123. Cabrera has just eight more games to play this season, during which he will attempt to achieve the Triple Crown, win the distinction of American League MVP, and help bring his team to the post-season.
INTERNATIONAL
Hinterlaces: Chavez wins in all scenarios T/ AVN According to Hinterlaces’ latest poll, socialist candidate Hugo Chavez would win the presidential election next October 7 by a margin higher than 10 percent of the votes. The poll data was explained Wednesday by the director of Hinterlaces, Oscar Schemel. He explained that in the best case scenario Chavez wins with a gap between 14 and 16 percent over conservative hopeful Henrique Capriles. The other likely result is a victory with margin between 10 and 12 percent. “We don’t have any scenario for Capriles to win”, Schemel said during a press conference to release results of the latest survey conducted by Hinterlaces. Schemel stated the best case scenario for Chavez depends on capacity to mobilize voters more satisfied with president’s administration and young people, among those who have greater voting intention. The survey details that 50 percent of the population identifies with Chavez’s ideals and 34 percent with the right-wing candidate. On the other hand, 51 percent considers that the current President has the best projects and ideas to solve country’s problems. The poll also found that 65 percent of Venezuelans have a positive opinion of President Chavez’s administration. For Schemel, this is a strong indicator since “the positive assessment of management has coincided historically with actual levels of voting”. Finally, the survey pointed out that 60 percent of Venezuelans consider that the current head of state provides adequate responses to resolve issues affecting those with less resources.
2 Impact | . s Friday, September 28, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Chavez’s bolivarian hurricane sweeps through the Venezuelan Andes
T/ COI P/ Presidential Press
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enezuelan presidential candidate Hugo Chavez took his campaign message to the Andes last weekend when he rallied supporters and spoke of the importance of youth involvement in the political movement that has reshaped the South American nation over the past 14 years. The tour began on Friday in the city of Merida, home to Venezuela’s second largest university and regarded as the country’s tourist hub for its spectacular landscapes and the 16,0000 feet high Bolivar Peak. “Long live the youth, long live the students, long live socialism”, the head of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) exclaimed after being received by more than 100,000 supporters in the city’s main avenue. “Merida has become overflown with the spirit of the homeland and on October 7 the people of Merida are going to demonstrate yet again what they’re made of”, Chavez said regarding
the presidential elections a little more than a week away. During his address, the leftist leader expressed his overwhelming confidence in a victory in October’s contest but also warned his followers of complacency as the race comes to a close. “It’s already written that Chavez is going to win, but it’s not over yet. We’re going to win but we need to build and solidify this great victory. To do that, it’s essential that we increase our reach street by street, house by house... until the furthest farming communities in the mountains”, he said. To verify the mobilization efforts, the head of state called upon a member of the crowd to report on local get out the vote organization. Patricia Acosta, a party activist from the small town of San Rafael de Tabay, spoke of the advances being made in rural areas surrounding Merida and the need for solidarity as the election approaches. “We’re all working towards this great victory on October
7... We need to consolidate Bolivarian socialism. Each one of us has benefited from the different missions that comrade Chavez has created. We need to work together because that’s what socialism is”, Acosta said. The PSUV member recounted the various educational, health care, and seniors’ programs that her community has enjoyed as a product of the Chavez administration’s redistributive policies. These programs, the Venezuelan President said, would be dismantled in the event of an opposition victory. “Do you think that a bourgeois government would maintain [the free university program] Mission Sucre”, the head of state asked the crowd rhetorically. “Do you know how many Venezuelan youth have been able to receive a university education thanks to Mission Sucre which has arrived at the local level? More than half a million people have been incorporated in the program... Do you know how many universities have
been created? Twenty-two new universities have been created by the Bolivarian Revolution and there are five more ready for this year... On a global level, Venezuela occupies fifth place in terms of university matriculation”, he asserted. While addressing the crowd, Chavez reiterated another key aspect of his campaign message as he linked his conservative challenger, Henrique Capriles, to Venezuela’s past governments of neoliberalism, subservience and class conflict. “Venezuelan was drowned in a swamp of misery, poverty, insecurity, inequality and hunger... We had a country that wasn’t free but rather subordinated to imperialism... We’ve pulled Venezuela out of the swamp where the homeland was drowning and now we have a country that everyday is stronger and greater”, the twotime incumbent declared. Following his visit to Merida, Chavez travelled north on Saturday to the city of Valera in the state of Trujillo where he was received by throngs of
red-clad backers clamoring for a glimpse of the presidential candidate. “I’m very happy to be in Trujillo again and now for the great victory on October 7. The people of Trujillo will demonstrate one more time what it is capable of, it will demonstrate again its soul and its Bolivarian and revolutionary spirit”, he said. Chavez was introduced by Iroshima Vasquez, a 19-year old member of the PSUV youth contingent who expressed his excitement in casting his first ever vote for the socialist candidate. “The first vote of the youth of Trujillo will be for Chavez. This youth loves you and is full of fervor because Chavez is the people and is life”, Vasquez said. For his part, the Venezuelan President praised the young activists who have been working to build on the social and economic model that his administration has been constructing for more than a decade. “The Venezuelan youth have made an important contribution to these first stages of the revolution. They need to take the reins in the 21st century in order to deepen the socialist revolution and accelerate the transition from the perverse, savage and inhumane capitalism”, Chavez said. While in Trujillo, the PSUV head also touched on some of the industrial advances that have been made in the Andean state including the nationalization of a glass factory and the creation of large scale slaughterhouse that has the capacity to receive 600 heads of cattle per day. The entrance of Venezuela as a full member of the Mercosur trade bloc will additionally benefit the mountain state, the Venezuelan President informed, as the region serves as an important link between Western Venezuela, Colombia and Lake Maracaibo. “We’ve created the conditions for this new cycle to be great for Trujillo and for all of Venezuela”, Chavez said of his plans for the region. “These are great projects for the great future that Trujillo has after our great victory on October 7”, he added.
. s Friday, September 28, 2012
The artillery of ideas
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Opposition discusses “plans” with foreign diplomats T/ COI P/ Agencies ver the weekend, investigative journalist Jose Vicente Rangel warned of backroom opposition attempts to prevent another election win for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Citing a private meeting between members of opposition coalition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) and Caracasbased diplomats from the United States and Spain, among others, Rangel warned of ongoing efforts to “convince” the international community that anti-Chavez candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski “is set to win the October 7th election”. Inflating expectations in the press, Rangel explained, MUD strategists intend to carry out the recently-uncovered “Rapid Reaction Plan”, a violent post-election strategy made public late last week by Chavez Campaign Coordinator Jorge Rodriguez. Speaking to viewers on Sunday during his weekly television program Jose Vicente Hoy, former Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel warned of suspicious opposition positioning in the final weeks of the 2012 presidential campaign. Referring specifically to a September 12 meeting held at the private residence of opposition gubernatorial candidate Richard Mardo, Rangel explained
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how “representatives of the Venezuelan opposition tried convincing foreign diplomats that Capriles is set to win the October 7 election, even if only by a small margin”. According to the investigate journalist, “special guests” at the private meeting included Paolo Serpi, Antonio PerezHernandez, and Luis Raygada Souza-Ferreira, the Caracasbased Ambassadors of Italy, Spain, and Peru, respectively. James Derham, the top US diplomat in Venezuela, as well as Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s highest authority in country, also attended the luncheon. Brazil’s Ambassador in Caracas, Jose Antonio Marcondes de Carvalho, turned down the invitation. In addition to Richard Mardo, the MUD’s candidate for Governor of Aragua State, those representing the Venezuelan opposition at the meeting were Luis Miquilena, an open supporter of the 2002 coup d’ etat against President Chavez, Marcel Granier, Managing Director of radical opposition media network Radio Caracas de Televisión (RCTV), and Carlos Bardasano, member of private media giant Venevisión’s Board of Directors. According to Rangel, Mardo used the backroom meeting to express his “total lack of confidence in the National Elections
Council (CNE)” and promise those present that he and “his people” are “prepared to take to the streets, using both motorcyclists and civilian groups to combat the Chavistas”. What was “most surprising” about the meeting, Rangel said, was how “some of those in attendance cautiously requested further information while others made worrying affirmations and expressed their firm, radical positions”. Private news media including opposition dailies El Universal and Noticias 24 also reported on the meeting, stating that Mardo and the others simply had gathered “to analyze Venezuela’s electoral situation”.
“RAPID REACTION PLAN” In addition to the troubling talks between foreign diplomats and the MUD, National Coordinator for the Chavez Campaign Jorge Rodriguez recently denounced what he called “irresponsible right-wing extremists within the (opposition’s) Campaign” who have developed and circulated a document that details plans to cause political unrest in the aftermath of next month’s presidential election. Titled the “Rapid Reaction Plan”, the document is said to have been prepared by Alejandro Plaz, former Director of Sumate, the US-financed NGO tasked with
fomenting a greater opposition presence in Venezuelan politics. In the context of next month’s vote, “the authors of the Rapid Reaction Plan discuss criteria for selecting key sites to be taken over”, Rodriguez explained. These sites include “national and regional freeways, major avenues, emblematic plazas, Governors’ and Mayors’ offices, strategic non-civilian points – meaning military installations – news media offices, ports, and airports”. “What do ports and airports have to do with voting centers?” he asked. “What do military installations have to do with an election booth, with an electoral contest?” Warning the Venezuelan people to “watch out” for possible opposition violence, Rodriguez added, “this plan describes nothing more than a desperate minority looking to react to a pending Chavez victory”.
MAJORITY WITH CHAVEZ Consistent with polls reflecting a double-digit lead for President Chavez, but surprising to many in Venezuela’s anti-Chavez minority, Rodriguez also made public an email written by opposition lawmaker Julio Borges in which the Capriles ally affirmed “the majority of people are with the ruling candidate
(Chavez), and this is something that can’t be denied”. Not just any politician, Borges is the National Coordinator of Capriles’ Primero Justicia (PJ) Party. Sent to Miami-based, antiChavez blogger Eric Ekvall, who suggested to Borges that the opposition should “claim fraud” after the October election, the email includes Borges telling Ekvall that, in Venezuela, “claims of fraud are simply an urban myth – elections are won through the vote”. “Henrique (Capriles) is struggling against a tide that doesn’t allow itself be penetrated”, Borges wrote. In response to the message’s content, Borges denied having “any contact at all” with Ekvall and claimed the email address cited by Rodriguez (julioaborges@gmail.com) is “an account that doesn’t exist, and never has”. Investigative journalist Mario Silva, on the other hand, followed up on Borges’ denials by showing two different articles written by the right-wing lawmaker and published in Venezuelan dailies El Universal (23 April 2008) and Ultimas Noticias (19 July 2009). Both pieces, analyses that advocate an end to the Chavez administration, were signed by Borges and included his aforementioned email address.
4 Economy | . s Friday, September 28, 2012
The artillery of ideas
China and Venezuela further collaboration in housing, mining
New propane plant fights speculation through community organization T/ COI
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T/ COI P/ Presidential Press
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enezuela and China took another step forward in strengthening their bilateral relations last week when the two countries signed a series of new accords in Caracas. Three pacts were signed on Friday that address issues including housing, oil and mining with an emphasis on the extraction of gold and copper in the southern Venezuelan state of Bolivar. “This is a high caliber project with heavy structural weight for the economic and social development of the country”, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said upon finalizing the agreements last week. The deal was struck between the Chavez administration and the state-owned Chinese conglomerate Citic Group, which has already been working in concert with the Venezuelan government on a range of development projects including the extraction of crude from the country’s Orinoco Belt. During a signing ceremony in the presidential palace of Miraflores, President Chavez explained that the new cooperation would permit for joint
mineral extraction in the Las Cristinas zone of Bolivar state, which represents “one of the largest reserves of gold...in the world”. According the Venezuelan Oil and Mining Minister, Rafael Ramirez, the new pacts include the creation of a mining map of the South American country of identify the precise quantity and location of the nation’s mineral deposits. “We’re going to establish a database and we’re going to train 400 professionals to be custodians of this information”, Ramirez said. Another agreement was inked last week Thursday that commits the Citic Group to assist in raising cement production in a key plant in the Andean state of Trujillo. Government officials have reported that the goal of the contract is to elevate production from 750 thousand tons per year to 1.2 million. “We’re almost doubling the capacity of the plant. This is a project that we’re going to complete over 16 months and is costing an investment of $239.76 million. It is part of a series of investments that President Hugo Chavez is making in order to increase the production of cement in the country”, sad Ricardo Me-
nendez, Minister of Science, Technology, and Industry. The majority of the cement is needed to fuel a housing construction boom that has been spurred in Venezuela as result of a massive government program that seeks to build 3 million new homes by 2019. Citic Group currently has agreements with the Venezuelan government to construct 33 thousand homes in the Caribbean nation after having already built 24,000 living units over the past 18 months. “Citic has become, through the People’s Republic of China, one of the biggest partners to reach the goal [of 3 million homes] established by Mission Housing Venezuela”, Minister Ramirez said on Friday. President of the conglomerate, Chang Zhenming, expressed his satisfaction for the new deals, stating that they are “going to facilitate and assist in the economic development of Venezuela... With the construction of homes we’re amplifying our cooperation with the Venezuelan government. We are admirers of the path that Venezuela has under the direction of Hugo Chavez in social, economic, and political areas”.
enezuelan Oil and Mining Minister, Rafael Ramirez, was on hand last Monday to inaugurate a propane distribution plant in the state of Miranda that will be put to use for domestic purposes by the residents of the city of Charallave. The new plant belongs to the gas branch of the state oil company, Pdvsa, and represents part of the Chavez administration’s policy of ensuring affordable energy resources for the population at large. According to Ramirez, the distribution center is one of 59 such fill stations already operating in Venezuela that account for 87 percent of propane distribution in the country. “Since 2008, we’ve installed 59 gas filling plants and in them, we are dispatching 36 thousand barrels a day which allows us to attend to 5,173,000 families and distribute 210,000 tanks daily”, the minister said. The new center, located about 30 miles south of the capital Caracas, will be providing five thousand tanks to some 70,000 families in the state of Miranda, just outside the capital of Caracas. Twenty-three million bolivars have been invested in the construction of the new center, Ramirez informed. The cabinet member also remarked that a major aspect of the propane distribution initiative involves working with organized community members to guarantee the affordability and timely arrival of propane to people’s homes. This means liaising with grassroots community councils who have assumed control of 50 of Pdvsa’s 59 distribution centers. “Thanks to these supply centers, we have the capacity to distribute 50,000 of the 210,000 tanks that are needed to meet the demand of the
national market”, Ramirez informed. Working directly with the community has also cut down on the amount of price speculation that has occurred in the propane market as private middlemen take advantage of cheap government prices. Pdvsa propane costs residents 3.7 bolivars for a 10 kilo tank. This contrasts sharply with the price demanded from private distributors that could reach well beyond three times as much. “When we took control of the [gas] sector in 2008, we found that distribution was subject to speculation. We’re still fighting this, but now with direct distribution in the hands of the people and the community councils, we’ve been able to make sure that the gas arrives at a fair price to the population”, Ramirez said
PDVSA FOR THE PEOPLE The supply of domestic gas to residents is representative of the changes that Venezuela’s largest company has undergone since President Hugo Chavez signed the nation’s new Hydrocarbons Law in 2001, restructuring the firm and focusing resources on the needs of the country’s population. Following attempts to overthrow Chavez by the country’s oil elite in 2002 and 2003, Pdvsa has become a major instrument in the funding of the Venezuelan government’s social programs and the reorientation of the nation’s vast natural wealth. During Monday’s inauguration, Ramirez commented that the new propane plant is a further example of how the state oil company has prioritized the needs of the Venezuelan people. “The old Pdvsa didn’t guarantee sufficient gas for the internal market but rather exported it because of its high economic value on the market”, he stated.
. s Friday, September 28, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Republicans vow to halt “policy of appeasement” in Venezuela T/ Rachael Boothroyd P/ Agencies
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epublican nominee for Vice-President of the US, Paul Ryan, has vowed that a Romney administration would get “tough on Castro, tough on Chavez” and to end what he described as a “policy of appeasement” applied by the Obama administration towards both Cuba and Venezuela. Ryan made the comments from the Versailles Restaurant in Miami, Florida last Saturday, where he was accompanied by staunch members of the anti-Castro lobby, including Republican Representative, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Ros-Lehtinen is a member of the Cuban-American Lobby and the Congressional Cuban Democracy Caucus; organizations which claim to be aimed at speeding up Cuba’s “transition to democracy”. “In a Mitt Romney administration, we will not keep practicing this policy of appeasement, we will be tough on this brutal dictator (Castro). All it has done is reward more despotism... We will help those pro-democracy groups. We will be tough on Castro, tough on Chavez. And it’s because we know that’s the right policy for our country”, said Ryan.
The nominee had reportedly travelled to Florida in a bid to win over the majority Latino vote two months ahead of the US elections. Florida is currently thought to be a “swing state” and could prove a determining vote for the overall election results. Results of a recent voter intention poll in the state carried out by NBC news show that Obama currently has a 5% lead over Romney, with a voting intention of 49% to 44%. ‘I learned from these friends, from Mario (Diaz-Balart), from Lincoln (Diaz-Balart), from Ileana (Ros-Lehtinen),
just how brutal the Castro regime is, just how this president’s policy of appeasement is not working. They’ve given me a great education, lots of us in Congress, about how we need to clamp down on the Castro regime”, said Ryan. According to Ros-Lehtinen, Ryan is now a “loyal friend” to those who campaign on Cuba-related political issues. Ryan’s statements have caused some Democrats to accuse him of hypocrisy after he appears to have dramatically changed his stance on CubaUS relations. Prior to 2007, the Republican had called for “free
Study: Venezuela’s Chavez 4th most popular President in the Americas T/ Ewan Robertson www.venezuelanalysis.com
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enezuelan President Hugo Chavez is the 4th most popular president in the Americas, according to a new study of presidential approval ratings in the region. The study, by Mexican polling firm Consulta Mitofsky, gives President Chavez a “high” approval rating of 64%, gaining 6 percentage points since the firm’s last study and jumping up the table of presidential popularity levels. The findings come less than two weeks before Chavez seeks
re-election on October 7 against right-wing opponent Henrique Capriles Radonski. According to the study, which measured the approval ratings of 20 leaders in the Americas by compiling public opinion polls from their respective countries, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa is the most popular president in the Americas with an “outstanding” approval rating of 80%. “Rafael Correa repeats his first place with 80% (a point less than his previous evaluation), maintaining the approval with which his presidency began almost five years ago”, the ‘Ap-
proval of Leaders: America and the World’ report stated. He is followed by Maurico Funes of El Salvador and Guatemalan President Otto Perez, on 72% and 69% respectively. Chavez and Correa are joined at the top of the popularity table by other presidents considered left or center left, with Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff in 5th with 62% approval, and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega in 7th place with a popularity of 59%. Meanwhile, two months ahead of his re-election bid against Republican rival Mitt Romney, US President Barack Obama placed 10th in the study,
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trade” between all nations, which included voting to lift the trade embargo on Cuba. “To paraphrase President Clinton, it takes real brass to vote three times against economic sanctions on the Cuban regime and then come to Little Havana and ask Cuban-Americans for their vote”, said Giancarlo Sopo, a Cuban-American supporter who told the Florida Sun Sentinel that he would vote for Obama. “It’s one thing to have a genuine disagreement with someone on a policy. It’s something else to change your position from one day to the next just to pander in order to win votes”, added Sopo. Recently leaked footage of a meeting between Romney and party donors also showed the presidential hopeful lambasting Obama for believing that “his magnetism and his charm, and his persuasiveness is so compelling that he can sit down with people like Putin and Chavez and Ahmadinejad, and that they’ll find that we’re such wonderful people that they’ll go on with us, and they’ll stop doing bad things”. The leaked recording also shows Romney referring to Iranian President Ahmadinejad as a “crazed fanatic” and
Iranian mullahs as “crazy people”. He also commented that, in his view, the Palestinian people have “no interest whatsoever in establishing peace”. With the presidential elections now drawing near, the Republican party is beginning to increasingly outline its prospective domestic and foreign policy, which Romney has said would be principally based on an attempt to implement a neo-liberal “Reagan economic zone” in Latin America and other regions, such as the Middle East. The Republican presidential candidate has been outspoken in his criticism of the “antiAmerican” views purported by the governments of Venezuela, Cuba and Iran and has described them as one of the biggest threats to the United States today. Earlier in July, Romney branded the Venezuelan government as a “threat to national security” and accused the country’s President, Hugo Chavez, of “spreading dictatorships and tyranny throughout Latin America”. The Republican National Committee also circulated a video of Obama shaking hands with Chavez at the OAS “Summit of the Americas” in Trinidad and Tobago 2009 at the same time. Romney has often claimed that the leader of Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution has links to “terrorist” organizations such as Hezbollah and has access to weapons that could “harm the US”. He has never presented any evidence in support of these accusations.
receiving a “medium” approval rating of 49%. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was classed on a “very low” popularity of 37%, putting him down in 16th place. The study highlights a northsouth divide, with South American presidents enjoying an average approval of 50%, against 44% for leaders from the North of the hemisphere. Many rightist presidents have dropped in popularity since the earlier 2012 study by Consulta Mitofsky, and find themselves on the bottom half of the table. Colombian President Juan Manual Santos still figures on the top half of the table with 54% approval, yet has dropped 13 percentage points and has lost his “high” approval rating. Furthermore, Mexico’s Felipe Calderon placed 11th
(46%), while Paraguayan President Federico Franco and Chilean President Sebastian Piñera share 17th place with 36%. Franco was came to power through an “institutional coup” in June by the Paraguayan Senate, and is less popular than deposed leftist President Fernando Lugo, who had 44% popularity in August 2011. However, the findings aren’t all good news for South America’s “pink tide” governments, with 12th, 13th, and 14th places going to Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez (43%), Bolivia’s Evo Morales (41%) and Peru’s Ollanta Humala (40%) respectively. The last places in the poll are occupied by the presidents of Honduras and Costa Rica, with approval ratings of 14% and 13%.
6 Social Justice | . s Friday, September 28, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Venezuela inaugurates therapeutic center for drug rehabilitation T/ Paul Dobson P/ Agencies
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he Chavez administration social program Negra Hipolita, overseen by the Ministry for Communes and Social Protection, and the local Caracas government, inaugurated the 33rd Therapeutic Socialist Community center this week to attend to citizens who are living on the streets due to drug addictions. The Therapeutic Socialist Community centers form part of the National Program of Treatment for Addictions, and are built to attend, in a holistic manner, to the most excluded citizens in society who suffer from drug addictions. They are live-in centers, which provide 24-hour support, medically, physiologically, socially, and with the aim of reintegrating the person into a productive, responsible, position in society, and represent the policies of the government of Hugo Chavez that aim to include every citizen as an equal in the new society. The latest Therapeutic Community center, “Cacique Caracara”, which is in the San Bernandino neighborhood of Caracas, initially has a capacity for 30 citizens, but this will be doubled in February 2013, when they finish the second part of its construction. There are 7 similar sites currently in construction in Caracas. Chief of Government in Caracas, Jacqueline Faria, explained that “these Socialist Therapeutic centers are for resolving the problem of drugs, which still
keeps citizens on the streets”. She went on to explain that the newly opened Community center has cost 9 million bolivars ($2.1 million), and will have another $2.1 million invested in it before February. Minister for Communes and Social Protection, Isis Ochoa, explained the importance of the government’s policies for the poor: “A treatment like the one here would cost around 90,000 bolivars ($21,000) per month in a private center, and here it is totally free”. Ochoa went on to explain that the center employs 41 highly trained staff, who are “committed to the attention of the most needy”. Amongst the staff there are psychologists, psychiatrists, general medical practitioners,
Four more ‘El Sistema’ orchestras to be launched in England T/ Agencies P/ Agencies
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n Harmony-Sistema England has announced the launch of four additional youth orchestra projects in some of England’s most deprived areas. The new orchestras will be launched in Gateshead, Leeds, Nottingham and Telford & Wrekin will be jointly funded by the Department for Education and the Arts Council Eng-
land from September 2012 to March 2015. Julian Lloyd Webber, the founder of the In Harmony program and Chairman of the In Harmony-Sistema England, said: “In Harmony is now moving onwards, upwards and outwards with another four inspirational projects! I am confident that the organizations that we have selected will embrace the spirit of El Sistema and will work tirelessly to bring positive
social workers, and emergency staff for the detoxification hospital. The center has a prevention center, an emergency room, a family orientation center, and an educational wing, which offers workshops to the community about drug prevention. Ochoa explained, “Any citizen who is in a situation of risk, and who needs to implement a policy of prevention to make sure they aren’t forced onto the streets, can come to this center”. Francis Martinez, director of the center in Caracas, added that, “In the center we will give preventative talks to improve the lifestyles and reduce the risk factor for those who practice the consumption of drugs. If the problem of drugs persists in an individual, the person
change to the children and their communities”. The original El Sistema scheme has transformed the lives of millions of children in Venezuela. There are currently 125 youth orchestras and 31 symphony orchestras in Venezuela. Over 400,000 Venezuelan children attend El Sistema music schools across the country. It is estimated that between 70 – 90% of these children come from low income families. In recent years, El Sistema has been rolled out to over 25 countries internationally, including in the United Kingdom.
will pass to the next level where they will come to stay here to receive attention”. Mission Negra Hipolita, which now has 33 such centers spread over the national territory, is oriented to providing attention to those most in need, most excluded, most vulnerable, and most forgotten by previous right wing governments: those who live on the streets. Ochoa stated, “We have put in place the goal for 2012 of having a bed capacity for 3,150 citizens, plus their families”, and that “we hope to discharge 1200 citizens from these facilities this year”. The Socialist Therapeutic Community “Cacique Caracara” is the latest advancement in this Mission. It follows on from the modernization of the center
“Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda” earlier this month, in the east of Caracas, and the opening of a similar center in Porlamar, Margarita, last month. The “Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda” center was remodeled with a new nursing ward, general medicine unit, physiotherapy, and dentistry units, to increase its capacity of attention to 100 patients, with 145 employees, with a new investment of 7,606,553 bolivars ($1.8 million). Member of Mission Negra Hipolita, and ex-drug user, Julio Liendo, stated at the opening of the “Cacique Caracara” community his person experience: “I was an addict for 23 years, seven of which I was living in the streets. I was rescued by the Mission Negra Hipolita, I accepted their help, and I went to a rehabilitation center, and this is my 5th year drug free”. Antonio Guerra, who has also benefitted from the Mission, proclaimed that “the Mission Negra Hipolita is a true miracle of the Revolution”. Such humanitarian ideals as these, which form the essence of the social programs of the Chavez Government, are under threat by opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski, who has a history of closing such programs in the state of Miranda, where he was previously governor. Capriles has also said he would privatize these programs if he wins the elections in October. Vice President of Social affairs, Yadira Cordova, talked about the reinsertion of those who benefit from the centers into society: “These citizens who are brought into the protective system now have the chance to re-take their productive lives, which starts from these centers that prepare them for this responsibility. This is what the revolution does for our citizens. This is the difference with previous governments, with what capitalism has done”. done .
. s Friday, September 28, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Corn celebrated as “ancestral food” in Latin American festival in Caracas
T/ Rachael Boothroyd P/ Minci
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epresentatives from countries across Latin America came together in Caracas last weekend in the third “People of the Corn” festival to be held in Venezuela. The event is a chance to celebrate Latin America’s common heritage relating to the consumption of the grain and to share experiences and cooking techniques. Visitors to the festival were able to enjoy a selection of different corn-based foods, including Peruvian style “chicha” drinks made from corn and Mexican tamales, as well as different music and cultural activities from a range of countries. The festival was held in Los Caobos park in Caracas and was inaugurated by Vice-President Elias Jaua, who reported that the Chavez government had managed to increase production of the everyday food staple through policies aimed at promoting national agriculture. According to the minister, Venezuela managed to produce 900 ton of corn in 2012 and increased the production of white corn by 12%. “We have a corn harvest to celebrate, once again we have increased the production of corn... One of the principal reasons for this increase are the 10 processing plants that we have set up across the national territory”, said the Vice-President.
Jaua also pointed out that in the 10 years before Chavez came to power, Venezuela witnessed a decrease of 25% in the national production of corn. The minister attributed this reduction to the poor use of land and its concentration in the hands of a few large landholders known as latifundistas. Since 2002 the government has attempted to break-up these great landholdings and has invested over $20 billion in creating sustainable agricultural projects.
“The cultivation of corn was practically disappearing... Never before have the peasant workers been recognized or respected”, he said. Corn is intrinsically linked to Latin America’s indigenous culture and is thought to have been consumed on the continent for over 2500 years. The grain is used to make a variety of dishes, including tortillas, a form of cornbread called arepas, which are widely consumed in Venezuela, and cachapas, a sweet corn pancake.
| Social Justice
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Over 12 countries from across the continent attended last weekend’s event, including Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, Guatemala, Cuba and El Salvador. While the Brazilian stall handed out pieces of the cornmeal “polenta”, Bolivian delegates shared national recipes such as “chuño”, a lamb stew dish originating from La Paz which uses grains of corn. Part of the corn festival was also dedicated to the discussion of agricultural policy on the production of the grain, with
Venezuela presenting “Food Crisis: The Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA)” and other talks on issues surrounding food sovereignty. Speaking on the future of the government’s agricultural policy, Vice President of Food Production for the Agriculture and Land Ministry, Yvan Gil, commented that one of the Chavez administration’s main goals in the next 6 years is to eliminate the latifundio through a “process of organization, agroecological planning relating to the use of land, and creating a rural land registry system that guarantees fair and consistent access to land”. Gil also commented that the government had the support of the country’s peasant workers, who had signed up in their hundreds of thousands to support the productive model outlined by Hugo Chavez’s government following the launch of mission “AgroVenezuela” in January 2011. At the end of the event, many visitors commented that the festival had been a success, and also a rare opportunity to try different dishes from across Latin America. “I really liked the Venezuelan “hallaca”, I’ll leave happy now that I’ve tried it”, said Yohana Rodríguez Arteaga, one of the delegates from Bolivia. “People of the Corn” is just one of many events and projects being developed by the Chavez government which is aimed at increasing regional cohesion and cooperation based on the celebration of shared Latin American culture and history.
ing the right time to plant crops to reduce loss. “Regarding urban planning, we will work with the Great Housing Mission of Venezuela – a program by the government to solve the housing shortage and guarantee the right to dignified housing – to make urban
plans that are based on favorable conditions in terms of services”, Varela said. Images from the Miranda Satellite will be used to help ensure that planning happens in a manner that reduces the country’s vulnerability to landslides and earthquakes.
Venezuelan satellite launches Friday T/ AVN P/ Agencies
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enezuela’s second satellite, named Miranda, is set to be launched from China at 11:42 Caracas time on Friday, according to Bolivarian Space Agency manager Francisco Varela. “The Miranda Satellite is coupled with the launcher that will allow it to be sent into space, Varela said, speaking from China in an interview on Venezolana de Television. He said that group of Venezuelan professionals has been assembled to monitor the satellite from the Captain Manu-
el Rios Aerospace Center in El Sombrero in Venezuela’s western plains state of Guárico. Varela said that the team is conducting its last tests, and “we can say to the Venezuelan people that we are happily awaiting this Friday when we will have the Miranda Satellite in space”. The terrestrial observation satellite will focus on the needs of the population, particularly with regard to urban planning, agriculture, security and defense, and locating natural resources. Varela explained that the satellite will benefit Venezuelan farmers by monitoring floods and droughts, and by predict-
Friday, September 28, 2012 | Nº 128 | 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
Who is Henrique Capriles Radonski? T/ Jody McIntyre - The New Internationalist
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he presidential elections are a truly national event in Venezuela. There are rallies to attend, public statements and press releases by the candidates, mini-newspapers containing plans for the next six years of government… and everyone has an opinion. The posters are the easiest to spot. On every street corner, two faces are prevalent: Hugo Chavez, and his main opponent, Henrique Capriles Radonski. Chavez, corazon de mi patria. Heart of my country. Capriles, hay un camino. There is a way. Where this way will lead us, exactly, we are not told. With just two weeks to go until voting takes place, the candidate who tops the polls is difficult to miss. Hugo Chavez is a largerthan-life character, and has become well-known for his statements denouncing, imperialism, capitalism and US foreign policy. The man who famously called George W Bush ‘Mr Danger’ for his murderous policies of invasion in Afghanistan and Iraq looks to be on course for yet another election victory on October 7, but what about Capriles? The Roundtable of Democratic Unity [MUD] coalition he represents is looking far from united; just two weeks ago, four organizations withdrew their support for the opposition candidate after leaked documents revealed the neoliberal agenda of his economic policies. But what are his main campaign policies, and how has he gone about communicating them to the Venezuelan people? Does he have the potential to cause an upset? According to articles in mainstream Western media, Capriles is a ‘centerleft progressive’, and indeed, this seems to be the way he is attempting to present himself to voters. Instead of attacking the Misiones (missions) introduced by the Chavez government to tackle healthcare and education, Capriles has recognized the immense popularity they enjoy with the millions of ordinary Venezuelan people who run them at a local level and benefit from them. So Capriles has decided that, if elected, he will keep the Misiones in place. If only he were telling the truth. On August 23, an internal MUD document
was leaked to the Venezuelan media, revealing his economic plans. The Mercal Misiones, government-subsidized supermarkets offering families basic foods for a fraction of their usual price, are among the targets; food subsidies would be decreased by 60 per cent over the next three years. The Gran Mision Vivienda, which aims to build two million houses and also funds poorer sections of society to build their own housing, is to be ended. I have been extremely impressed by the fast and efficient Metro service around Caracas, on which, as a disabled person, I can travel for free – as can my brother, as someone helping me. Under Capriles, however, subsidized travel will be taken out of service, and standard prices will be increased by 5 per cent every four months in several cities. Even before the leaked documents, it may have been difficult for voters to believe claims that he would keep in place Misiones which would never have ex-
isted without the actions of the Chavez government he is so intent on attacking. A march of hundreds of thousands which took place on Saturday in the capital, Caracas, and was dubbed ‘Misiones con Chavez’ in support of his reelection bid, seems to be a case in point. Similarly large mobilizations have taken place in the cities of Merida and Trujillo in recent days, attracting numbers that the opposition simply cannot. Rather than policies, however, it seems to be Chavez’s personality that Capriles really dislikes, so perhaps we should analyze the latter’s own background in order to understand where he is coming from. In 2002, during the coup which ousted Chavez from power for a grand total of two days, Capriles was serving as mayor of Baruta, a Caracas municipality. On April 12, the Baruta police arrested the Minister of the Interior, Ramon Rodriguez Chacin. On the same day, Capriles was part of a crowd in Baruta that at-
tacked the Cuban embassy, cutting off water and electricity, destroying vehicles parked outside and refusing to allow the Cuban ambassador to leave. Chavez has often been criticized for his ties with the Cuban government, which has resulted in such ‘atrocities’ as thousands of Cuban doctors providing free healthcare for the poorest sections of Venezuelan society through the Mision Barrio Adentro. Of course, attacking the embassy of any country is illegal under international law, but Capriles refused to accept responsibility, claiming that he helped to prevent further violence. He is on video climbing the Cuban embassy wall with a ladder and illegally entering the premises to search for members of Chavez’s government, in clear violation of Cuban sovereignty and international law. However, after a lengthy investigation and more than one arrest, he was cleared of all charges under a government amnesty issued by President Chavez in December 2007. It doesn’t add up to a record to be proud of. Nevertheless, Capriles is determined to get his message out. Hugo Chavez may have Comando Carabobo, his campaign command and proposal for the next six years of the Bolivarian Revolution, but Capriles has his Comando Venezuela, and he seems unwilling to give up without a fight. Indeed, that is what many are now concerned about: as the April 2002 coup and the oil bosses’ strike in December of that year show, the opposition is not averse to using extra-constitutional methods to achieve its objectives. As an electoral victory for the opposition becomes increasingly unlikely – a recent survey of opinion polls from August and the first week of September gave Chavez an average of 51 per cent support, but Capriles only 35 per cent – there are worries that the opposition may decide to refuse to accept the results of the election. In a speech delivered in Caracas last week, however, Capriles claimed that he was still confident of his chances. ”...and we are going to see the victory of Comando Carabo- err... Comando Venezuela!” It was a slip of the tongue, but perhaps, for once, Capriles was closer to the truth than he would like to admit.