Analysis
Opinion
Opposition candidate Capriles tied to foreign interests & violence page 7
Insight into Venezuela’s elections machines page 8
Friday, October 5, 2012 | Nº 129 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve
Venezuela in space Venezuela made history last Friday night when the South American nation launched its second satellite into orbit from the People’s Republic of China. The new satellite will be used for a multiplicity of scientific and planning work that officials say will aid Venezuela in developing strategic areas including cataloging its natural resources, strengthening security, and increasing agriculture production. page 5
ENGLISH EDITION/The artillery of ideas
Venezuela ready to elect next president
Politics
Opposition turns violent Calls for street violence & chaos are increasing from opposition spokespersons. page 3
Venezuela’s armored voting system Millions of Venezuelans will take to the polls this Sunday, October 7, to elect their president for the next six years. Incumbent Hugo Chavez has been leading by doubledigit margins, though contender Henrique Capriles Radonski, an upper-class conversative, has garnered substantial support from those dissatisfied with the current government. The nation is ready to celebrate another electoral process, with over 75% of the electorate expected to participate. Tensions are high and excitement is in the air as the world awaits this historic decision of the Venezuelan people. page 2
Brits support Chavez Electronic elections machines are set for Sunday’s vote, together with observers. page 4 Social Justice
Caracas youth orchestra conquers Europe The Caracas Symphony Youth Orchestra received glowing praise during a recent tour page 6
A statement by the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign oon the forthcoming Presidential election has received uunprecedented support from sectors across British society. The statement was signed by 60 parliamentarians from five parties, as well as trade unionists, academics, artists, members of the legal profession and NGO campaigners. Signatories to the statement expressed their firm support for the expansion of democracy in Venezuela that has seen the country have “more elections than nearly anywhere else in the world, all certified free and fair by respected international bodies”. The statement pays tribute to the “flowering of social programs that have delivered free healthcare for millions, eradicated illiteracy and lifted millions out of poverty” and applauds the record numbers of registered voters “up from 11 million in 1998 to 19 million today”. In the face of threats that the Venezuelan opposition will refuse to accept the election results, the statement calls for the outcome of the election to be respected. The signatories state their belief that “it is for the Venezuelan people alone to choose their next government, free from any external intervention”
INTERNATIONAL
Opposition legislator says to vote for Chavez T/ AVN Congressman William Ojeda, expelled from opposition political party Un Nuevo Tiempo (A New Time) after warning about the risks of the right-wing’s neoliberal government plan, called on the Venezuelan population to vote in favor of socialist presidential candidate Hugo Chavez during Sunday’s elections. In a press conference Wednesday, Ojeda said that after urging for a nationwide debate given his “concern in the face of a possible austerity package, meaning a series of measures of orthodox tendencies with neoliberal application” in the program of conservative candidate Henrique Capriles, he has now decided to support candidate Hugo Chavez. The lawmaker stressed that he made a call to debate “with no offense meant and with hope for openmindedness. But, far from listening to our respectful call to debate, what answer did we receive? The greatest representations of hatred, malice, confrontation, hostility, virulence. For that reason our concerns have increased”. Ojeda said that he thinks Hugo Chavez “is the only one who may ensure institutional stability in the country” and affirmed that he backs public policies aimed at social justice and aiding those in need, as well as the social administration implemented by the current government led by President Chavez. According to William Ojeda, Venezuela “will make headway towards reconciliation and I think President Chavez has the (needed) characteristics to bolster this new stage”. Ojeda was previously one of Chavez’s most adamant critics.
2 Impact | . s Friday, October 5, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Chavez maintains lead over rival as Venezuela prepares for “avalanche of votes” T/ COI P/ Presidential Press
with votes and ideas”, the socialist candidate affirmed. Pledges for peace notwithstanding, many in government circles fear the possibility of opposition destabilization in the event of another electoral loss. To stymie this threat, PSUV leaders are working to mobilize record numbers of voters to ensure a landslide victory, thereby tempering the right’s ability to claim manipulation.
“They are planning to not recognize the results, to cry fraud, and cause problems in the streets. That’s why I’m saying that the best vaccine against violence is to generate an avalanche of votes”, Chavez asserted. According to a recent poll released by the Venezuelan firm, Datanalisis, Hugo Chavez continues to enjoy a double-digit lead over his conservative opponent, Henrique Capriles.
This contradicts recent international and domestic Venezuelan news outlets that have attempted to cast the race as tightening in the final days of the campaign. The polling firm informed that its latest survey gives Chavez 55.9 percent of the country’s support in comparison with the 34.1 percent held by Capriles. For his part, the candidate of the right-wing Democratic Roundtable (MUD) coalition closed his campaign in Caracas last Sunday with a rally held in the capital’s Bolivar Avenue. During an interview on the private television station Televen on Sunday, Chavez urged members of the Capriles camp and the nation’s conservatives to cast their ballot for the PSUV, as such a vote would be a far greater guarantee peace. For the extremist elements of the right, the socialist President reiterated his faith that democracy will trump any conflict as he renewed his call for the privileged members of Venezuelan society to join his project to construct a more just society. “I have this as a personal challenge: convince the upper middle classes to help us build a new country”, he said.
witnesses from Venezuela’s different political parties have been accredited and will be present at the polling places to monitor the process. More than three thousand national volunteers will also be on hand to observe the elections as will 245 international invitees, the CNE has disclosed. Security will be guaranteed by some 329,000 members of the nation’s armed forces who form part of Venezuela’s election day public safety operation known as Plan Republic. According to Defense Minister Henry Rangel, the experience that the nation’s military possesses with respect to electoral processes has assisted in the efficient and effective deployment of security personnel for this Sunday’s contest. In the case of any potential problems, Rangel assured that Plan Republic officials have
all the necessary information, tools, and support to handle the situation. “We have been plugged-in to our intelligence system which allows us to detect and cut-off threats to the electoral process. We have put together a logistic system for the deployment and successful execution of the operation and we have assembled all of our contingency plans to guarantee the peace, calm and public order”, the defense minister said. Yesterday, all official campaign activity came to a mandatory end in accordance with CNE regulations while the dissemination of new polling information had been proscribed since Monday. The electoral authority has reported that these norms, designed to maintain the integrity and tranquility of the voting
process, will be carried out to the letter of the law. “Once the campaign is closed, there can be no advertising of any kind that alludes to the electoral campaign. Nor can there be ads from any of the candidates in any kind of social media”, Lucena stated. While the CNE President has expressed her willingness to sanction any violations of electoral regulations, she also expressed her certainty that Sunday’s vote will be a “democratic party” and that the experience and maturity of the Venezuelan electorate as well as the authorities will ensure a problem free day. “On October 7, we’re going to have a beautiful and perfect electoral process because we are all going to vote with confidence in the Electoral Commission”, Lucena affirmed.
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s the campaigns of both Venezuelan presidential candidates came to a close this week, incumbent Hugo Chavez continues to hold a significant lead over his conservative rival Henrique Capriles. Despite the advantage, the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) urged his supporters during a series of campaign stops to continue to mobilize party members in order to “win by the greatest margin of votes possible”. Of the South American nation’s 19 million eligible voters, the Chavez camp has set as its goal the obtainment of 10 million ballots, which would be considered, the current President has stated on numerous occasions, a “perfect victory”. While in his native city of Sabaneta on Monday, the incumbent warned residents that the election of a right-wing government led by the Venezuelan opposition would mean the end of the country’s social programs and a leap back in time to 30 years ago. “There is a desperate bourgeoisie with its [neoliberal plans] to hand over our new oil
industry to the local elites and the imperialists. There’s only one week left and the bourgeoisie doesn’t know what awaits them”, the candidate exclaimed. Chavez also called on youth to take a central role in voter turnout efforts and appealed to all Venezuelans to carry out their civil duty without conflict or violence. “It is not with violence that we are going to fight. No. It’s
Venezuela’s electoral authority ready for Sunday’s contest T/ COI
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s millions of Venezuelans prepare to head to the polls this Sunday to elect the South American nation’s president, the country’s National Electoral Commission (CNE) is making its final arrangements to ensure a swift, safe and fraud-free voting process. More than 39,000 electronic voting machines have already been deployed around the nation and will be available to nearly 19 million registered voters at more than 13,000 polling places, CNE President Tibisay Lucena reported earlier this week.
A random audit of 200 machines was carried out last weekend with complete success, Lucena confirmed. “The Venezuelan electoral system and all of its components are protected physically, logically, and even spiritually. All the guarantees of the electoral process are being made. We will be able to go and vote with confidence because the Electoral Commission can guarantee that the results this October 7 will be the sovereign expression of the Venezuelan people which, at the end of the day, are who decide the destiny of this country”, she said. The CNE head commented that more than 96,000 electoral
. s Friday, October 5, 2012
The artillery of ideas
T/ COI P/ Agencies
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ith just days to go before Venezuelans celebrate another free and democratic election, a privatelyowned newspaper with national distribution published a radical call for violence if right-wing candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski fails to win next Sunday’s presidential election. Written by anti-Chavez youth activist Yon Goicoechea, the opinion piece warned of “horrendous” consequences if anything gets in the way of “what is now common knowledge – that Henrique is set to win the election”. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, as well as others in his socialist coalition, have made repeated calls for all parties to “peacefully” respect the results of this Sunday’s election. Titled “Fraud is Not Free”, Goicoechea’s article claimed “the opposition will take to the streets if its will is not respected” and warned, “what takes place that night (October 7) is to be a military decision which, if taken mistakenly, will result in a massacre”. Ignoring the entirety of respected polls that give Chavez a minimum 10-point lead against Capriles, Goicoechea insists the opposition candidate is “set to win” and warns, “the result will be horrendous” if “the CNE (National Electoral Council) commits fraud”. “Within minutes”, he continued, “the streets of Caracas will fill with people celebrating Chavez’s triumph. On the other side of town, Capriles will give a press conference calling Venezuelans to take the streets. In a matter of hours, in every city across the country, two human masses will form, radicalized, and in opposition to each other. October 7 will be a great challenge for the Venezuelan Armed Forces because security will be seriously compromised”. “God only knows how many days, weeks, or months the people will be in the streets”, he added, threatening who he called “the red (pro-Chavez) generals” who “must decide if they will massacre us and spend the rest of their lives in prison, or recognize the results”. Yon Goicoechea, co-founder of the right-wing “Venezuelan Student Movement”, played an active role in the campaign against constitutional reforms proposed by President Chavez in 2007. The following year, Goicoechea was given
Opposition calls for violence if results favor chavez
a $500,000 “Milton Friedman Prize” from the US-based Cato Institute, a right-wing think tank that frequently published studies criticizing President Chavez. The student activist has also received substantial funding and aid from other US agencies, including Usaid, National Endowment for Democracy and Freedom House. Responding to Goicoechea’s calls for radical street protests as the country prepares for another successful democratic election, members of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and others denounced what they called his blatant “disregard for public institutions” and “incitement to violence”. PSUV lawmakers also called on opposition candidate Henrique Capriles to “distance himself from such messages, or risk being an accomplice to what has been said”. According to socialist lawmaker and President of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Youth Federation Carlos Sierra, who spoke to reporters last week outside the Ministry of Public Affairs, Goicoechea’s article
“fails to recognize the authority of a public institution – the National Electoral Council” and “incites both violence and terrorism”. Submitting a formal complaint against Goicoechea that asks the Public Affairs Ministry to investigate, Sierra contrasted the opposition’s messaging with the “socialist youth” that support President Chavez and “want nothing but peace for Venezuela”. “Whether the President wins or loses, what we want is peace and not calls for violence”, he said. Speaking on behalf of the Great Patriotic Pole, the mass pro-Chavez grassroots coalition of political parties, social movements, and others united behind the socialist candidate, Amanda Montesinos called the violent message disseminated by national opposition daily El Universal “clear evidence of a dark, twisted plan against the Venezuelan people”. “Capriles and his campaign are behind this plan”, she said, “and they are looking to send their followers into the streets and thus provoke a massacre”.
Serra agreed with Montesino, affirming that “Capriles must distance himself from such messages, or risk being an accomplice to what has been said…Those in the opposition who have a conscience must separate themselves from these commentaries filled with nothing but ill intentions”.
Yon Goicoechea, co-founder of the right-wing “Venezuelan Student Movement”, played an active role in the campaign against constitutional reforms proposed by President Chavez in 2007 Speaking on Venezuelan National Radio over the weekend, host Adal Hernandez affirmed that Goicoechea’s piece “is part of a campaign of psychological warfare aimed at producing abstention within our (pro-Chavez) ranks”. “However”, he affirmed, “the opposition again fails to un-
| Politics
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derstand that this is the same nation of people who made history by reversing their shortlived (2002) coup”.
LEADERS RESPOND Speaking at a campaign rally on Saturday, Venezuelan Vice President Elias Jaua called on “violent groups within the opposition” to “renounce their radical attitudes and join the democratic electoral process underway, heading to the polls and voting in total normality this October 7”. Referring to recent opposition comments against the CNE, Jaua explained that “these are manifestations of a right-wing that knows it will be defeated by the passion and consciousness of a people who have awoken”. “They (the opposition) have every right to express themselves and dissent from the will of the Venezuelan majority”, he said, “but they don’t have the right to not recognize its will”. “Venezuela doesn’t deserve to be taken into a scenario of violence similar to what we’ve seen in Libya and Syria”, he affirmed. President Chavez, who spoke to reporters alongside Jaua, added that the opposition “should prepare itself for defeat, because it is clear to everyone that they are going to lose”. Chavez also explained that he had spoken to Jose Vicente Rangel, one of Venezuela’s most widely-respected investigative journalists and former Vice President, asking him “to reach out to contacts in the political world so as to ensure sectors in the opposition do some reflecting”. Referring to possible postelection violence, Chavez told reporters, “a few members of the opposition have publicly stated that they won’t back any craziness”. “I extend my hand to those that understand that we must learn to co-exist”, he said. “We, the majority, must live in co-existence with the minority, respecting each other…so as to live in peace and democracy”. “Hopefully,” he said, “a truly democratic opposition will develop after the election”. Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski did not respond to questions regarding Goicoechea’s calls to violence, nor would he confirm publicly he commitment to recognize the results of Sunday’s elections, regardless of the winner.
4 Politics | . s Friday,y, October 5,, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Venezuela’s voting system is “armored” for presidential vote
Electrical sabotage for political gain T/ Paul Dobson P/ Agencies
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he National Electrical Commission (Corpoelec) made numerous denouncements this week, citing infrastructural sabotage as the cause of the failures in the electrical supply experienced around the capital Caracas, as well as a “clear act of sabotage” in Falcon state, where a bar was thrown against high tension cables to cause a short circuiting in the system. Two suspects are being held, stated Argenis Chavez, President of Corpoelec. Ely Santiago, a sub-commissioner at Corpoelec, also denounced that problems at the Anauco A8 sub-plant, which supplies roughly 1,500 users in some of the poorest regions of Caracas were caused by the fact that “we found that an underground cable network had been cut, and this resulted in the wearing out of the cables which, for 3 days now, have caused problems for these communities”. Just days afterwards, at the sub-station Magallanes de Catia, which supplies poor shanty town sectors of Caracas, the National Commissioner of Corpoelec, Jesus Graterol, reported yet more sabotage, which had caused further power cuts. “Strange elements are in the process of being investigated”, he stated. “It’s very probable that this was sabotage, this is a substation which isn’t overloaded, it’s not oversaturated, it’s a substation which is very well attended, it’s in perfect condition, and in such a strange manner
we have seen this problem arise where there has been objects and elements detected which, from outside, have disrupted this substation and its services”. Commissioner Graterol went on to denounce previous cases of sabotage in the Tablazo substation in Lara state, where, he claims, some screws were removed from the 14kv towers, with the aim of creating a domino effect to knock out them all out. “All of the workers at Corpoelec are in a state of high alert, we are defending the National Electrical Corporation which is here to serve the Venezuelan people”, he warned. “We are also interacting with social networks, communal councils, and the Technical Roundtables for Energy, so as to defend ourselves against such terrorist acts, which are aimed against the installations of Corpoelec, electrical substations and distribution lines, as well as against our workers”. The opposition candidate for president, Henrique Capriles Radonski has repeatedly used the issue of power cuts in his speeches in the last week, blaming Chavez, and threatening that Chavez will “pay for it” at the election box. He has appealed to the business class, by reminding people how much stock, food, and machinery they lose or have damaged as a result of the irregularities in the electrical system. He has also used them to paint the image of an inefficient government. “In my government”, he states, “there won’t be power cuts”.
Capriles has also tried to convince voters that Chavez has forgotten the real problems of his people in order to focus on grand projects such as the newly launched satellite. President Chavez spoke clearly about the political motives behind such sabotage during an event this week: “The police have caught red handed some people sabotaging the electrical grid”. “They (opposition activists) are running desperate, knocking out the electrical cables to generate power cuts and afterwards say that it is Chavez, that it’s the governments fault”. Speaking about the most recent acts of sabotage, Energy Minister Hector Navarro highlighted both the expense to the nation of repairing high tension cables and the amount of work needed to repair them, and he made guarantees to the nation about the power supply and capacity. Denouncing further acts of sabotage in Barlovento and Ocumare del Tuy, he went on to state outrightly that “right now we have proof of sabotage” which will be passed to the judicial authorities, including, he stated, photos of the cut cables and of the damaged gates where entry was forced. He stated that there are people who “have another game in play”, and who are “looking to irritate the people and create the sensation that we are in a chaotic process, to achieve other objectives before, during, and after the [presidential] elections”. This week the initiations of ‘Plan Republic’, the military control operation for electoral periods, were seen, as soldiers were stationed at infrastructural points of key national interest, such as water supply centers, power plants, telecommunication towers, and the schools which will be used as voting centers.
T/ Ewan Robertson www.venezuelanalysis.com
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enezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) undertook its final test of voting machines yesterday as part of preparations in the lead up to the presidential vote on Sunday, when incumbent President Hugo Chavez will stand against right-wing opponent Henrique Capriles Radonski. Six hundred voters representing each of Venezuela’s 24 regional states were brought to a large CNE warehouse in the central Miranda state for the test yesterday. While the participants voted on the 200 randomly selected machines, CNE technicians, representatives of the presidential candidates, and the electoral accompaniment mission from the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) were able to assess the functioning of the voting system. The audit was also used to test the functioning of the electronic transmission of voting information to the CNE’s central totalling system. CNE president Tibisay Lucena confirmed that the test had been a success. “All of the technical tests have been successful. In this audit we verified that the electoral system functions perfectly, without problems and that the results that we give on October 7 will be the perfect reflection of Venezuelans’ will”. One of the participants in the test, Ruben Gomez, from Sucre state, congratulated
the CNE on their work, stating, “We confirm with our own eyes that the [voting] process is trustworthy and exact, therefore my recommendation to citizens is that they go out and vote, because your vote is going to count for whom you choose”. Lucena also confirmed that the CNE would not announce results of the elections on October 7 until after every voting center has closed, and that the trend of totalled votes is irreversible toward one candidate. Publication of voting intention surveys is prohibited during the week before the election. Nearly all major Venezuelan polling companies gave Hugo Chavez a double-digit lead in their last polls, with the closest gap between Chavez and Capriles found by private firm Datanalisis, at 10 percentage points. Tibisay Lucena described Venezuela’s electoral system as fully prepared for voting on Sunday. “In all its components the Venezuelan electoral system is armored; physically, logically and even spiritually”, she confirmed. Venezuela’s Integrated Authentication System (SAI) voting system is completely automated. It can be activated by thumbprint recognition, with voters using touchscreen technology to vote and also receiving a paper receipt to confirm their choice. Former US President Jimmy Carter recently described Venezuela’s voting system as “the best in the world”.
. s Friday, October 5, 2012
The artillery of ideas
| Science & Technology
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Venezuela launches new satellite, takes further step towards technological independence OPPOSITION RIDICULES LAUNCH
T/ COI P/ Presidential Press
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enezuela made history last Friday at 11:42 pm when the South American nation launched its second satellite into orbit from the People’s Republic of China. “This is part of the scientific and technological development of the nation to satisfy our necessities”, said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of the launch on Friday night. The $67.8 million Satellite Miranda is the second vessel to be sent into space by Venezuela with the assistance of China in the past four years. The first craft, Satellite Bolivar, was launched in 2008 and is used primarily for telecommunications purposes by the Venezuelan government. The new sputnik, as different from its predecessor, will be used for a multiplicity of scientific and planning work that officials say will aid Venezuela in developing strategic areas including cataloging its natural resources, strengthening security, and increasing agriculture production.
With a capacity to register 350 high and medium resolution images a day, Miranda will be able to capture photographs of objects as small as 2.5 meters and will provide invaluable data for researchers, commented Romina Acevedo, head of Bolivarian Agency for Space Activity (ABAE). “The management of natural resources will be greatly benefited by the images obtained from Miranda. We’re going to improve our planning processes and decision making”, Acevedo said. Agriculture will also see a major boost from the information gathered by the satellite, according to the Vice Minister for Work and Science, Jose Berroteran. “The images can be obtained with software that will allow us to superimpose different wavelengths. This image processing will provide us with soil maps as well as maps which outline the potential of land and vegetation. With this, we’ll be able to establish land registries at the municipal and state levels”, the vice minister informed. Population movements, environmental conservation, as
well as maritime and seismological monitoring are some of the other areas that will see increased study and planning as a result of the new satellite. “This part of the future. We’re entering the future and a new history”, President Chavez said of the advance on Friday.
ACHIEVING TECHNOLOGICAL INDEPENDENCE The launching of Venezuela’s second satellite is a major step forward in loosening the hegemony that the United States has exercised over the hemisphere with respect to space technology over the past 50 years. The Venezuelan Remote Sensing Satellite (VRSS-1) vessel is only the second of its kind to be sent into orbit in Latin America after Chile’s launching of a similar scientific craft in 2011. For the first months of operation, Satellite Miranda will be controlled from China as a crew of 54 Venezuelan technicians finish their training in the Asian country and prepare to work out of a new base station in state of Guarico as well as in the capital Caracas.
“Is there anyone here that thinks that with a bourgeois government Venezuela would have 2 satellites”, asked President Chavez rhetorically during a campaign rally on Saturday. Speaking in the city of Guarenas, the socialist head of state praised the accords that have been signed between his government and China which have advanced Venezuelan technology, including knowledge transfer and the building of new manufacturing facilities in the Caribbean nation. “In a short time we will be inaugurating a satellite factory in Venezuela in order to launch our own satellites”, he asserted. For Vice Minister Berroteran, Friday’s landmark is significant in that it represents a further step towards Venezuelan technological autonomy and the training of experts who will spearhead greater innovation in the country. “Our objective is to have our own technology and to have independence. It’s the only way that we’ll be able to move towards sustainable development that is not dependent on imported technology”, he explained.
Members of Venezuela’s rightwing opposition have criticized the launch of the satellite calling it a waste of resources and calling for more money to be spent on arms for the nation’s police. Running mate of presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, Leopoldo Lopez, mocked the event during a press conference last week, repeating a statement made by his campaign partner that “the government wants to launch another satellite into space. Could it be to look for the other one that’s lost?” “It looks to me like a ‘short circuit’ to launch a satellite when our hospitals are falling apart”, Lopez declared to the press. On Friday, Science and Technology Minister Arreaza rebuffed these proclamations, commenting that they demonstrate the opposition’s “lack of knowledge” on how the satellite is intended to meet the needs of the Venezuelan people. Arreaza referred to the democratic access to the images produced by the orbiter that will bring greater information to all social classes in the country. “Every organization including universities and the private sector will soon be able to make a request to benefit from this tool. This satellite is for everyone”, he declared. In the spirit of continental unity, the Science Minister also informed that the data registered by Miranda, which has the capacity to cover an area ranging from Mexico to Argentina, could be utilized by other countries in Latin America when needed. This includes working through multilateral institutions such as the Bolivarian Alliance for Our America (ALBA) and the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) to determine how Venezuela’s new technology can serve to benefit the entire continent. “If we analyze the foreign policy of our country, we can conclude that while we haven’t yet presented the idea to Unasur or ALBA, we know that if there is an emergency situation, we will provide images to other countries as they need”, Arreaza said.
6 Social Justice | . s Friday, October 5, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Caracas youth orchestra conquers Europe T/ Humberto Marquez – IPS P/ Agencies
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enezuela’s youth orchestras have gotten used to wild applause and standing ovations in Europe. But this time the warm reception was not for the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, the most visible face of the National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras of Venezuela (Fesnojiv), a network of youth and children’s orchestras that has put instruments and music scores in the hands of 400,000 children and young people. The concert held in Vienna’s Konzerthaus on Thursday September 27 before an audience of 1,800 people featured the less experienced Caracas Youth Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra, whose 170 members are between the ages of 14 and 25, is about to complete a tour that has taken it to Ravello, Italy; Prague, Czech Republic; St. Petersburg, Russia; Ghent, Belgium; and the Austrian capital. The last stop is the Beethovenfest in Bonn. “This audience that has gone crazy here has always been very demanding, shaped over decades by a repertoire like the one we present and which can be a challenge for any orchestra”, Dietrich Paredes, the orchestra’s 29-yearold conductor who was previously first violin, or concertmaster, told reporters in the dressing room in Vienna.
On Thursday, every piece was wildly applauded, like Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Francesca di Rimini, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10, Bacchanale by Camille Saint-Saens, Johann Strauss I’s Radetzky March, Klaus Wunderlich’s Tico Tico and Leonard Bernstein’s Mambo. The spectators applaud and applaud until even the most reluctant are on their feet, and the youngsters in the orchestra pull off their yellow, blue and red jackets – the colors of the Venezuelan flag – and toss them to the audience, in what has become a tradition.
“The public is fascinated because these marvellous interpretations by people who are so young are a gift to the heart”, said Karl Schagerl, representing the Konzerthaus. “And for us, as a musical city and a musical country, it is important for the world of politics to see how important the music of these orchestras is for society”. For over three decades, Fesnojiv, known in Venezuela simply as “the system”, has been one of this South American country’s outstanding achievements. Hundreds of thousands of children, adolescents and young adults have received a musical
education in 90 preschool, 130 children’s, 288 youth and over 30 professional orchestras throughout Venezuela. The system also has choirs – the Simon Bolivar National Youth Choir was performing in the United States while the Caracas Youth Symphony Orchestra toured Europe – guitarmaking workshops, orchestras in prisons, a conservatory, and thousands of music teachers dispersed around the country. From this nursery for young talent emerge musicians like Carlos Vargas, a percussionist who was named to the leadership of the youth orchestra and who stressed “the way these European audiences, for whom we play European music, have received us”. Paredes’ explanation is that “the Caracas orchestra has a unique character that makes all the difference. For these very grown-up audiences, who are used to performances by orchestras made up of top-quality professionals, it’s something different to see an orchestra of young people who have such a particular sense of rhythm, strength, style and energy”. Vargas told IPS “for us it is an honor and a pleasure to be on these stages, but it is also a challenge, because this is where so many leading composers and orchestras have worked and performed”. Europe, he said, “has always had youth orchestras, but as a program to train their musicians. We see it as a way of life”. Andres Rivas, 22, a concertmaster who is now a budding conductor, said his new responsibility was “first and foremost a privilege in a world where orchestras seek experienced conductors. That is
why my wish is to direct this orchestra in the best theaters, and for the orchestra to get better and better”. “We also want to continue transmitting our knowledge to the children, to the kids of the coming generations. We already have the future: this is it”, Rivas told IPS. They said the system did not favor the Venezuelan capital at the expense of the regions. When the Caracas youth orchestra goes on international tours – like the current European tour or previous ones in China, South Korea, Norway, Portugal or Colombia – they invite musicians from youth orchestras in the provinces. When the members of the youth orchestras talk about their experience, they invariably underscore the work of and the example set by their maestro, musician and economist Jose Antonio Abreu, who founded the system in 1975 after inviting a dozen youngsters to start practicing in a basement parking lot. Year after year, Abreu has led the initiative – which won Spain’s prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts in 2008 – raising funds, creating new projects, accompanying the youngsters on many of their trips, and helping other countries replicate the system. Fortunately for the system, it has remained on the margins of the political polarization in Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez, in power since 1999, is set to win another term on October 7, according to the polls. Since the system was created, it has had the support of every administration. In the last year, it received 127 million dollars in public funds.
Chavez inspects first able train test run T/ AVN P/ Presidential Press
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n Saturday Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez inspected the first testing of the Bolivarian Cable Train of Petare, in Caracas, which will be officially opened on December 19 to transport around 60,000 people per day. The Cable Train is an unconventional transport system known as automated people mover (APM). It travels on overhead railways which are pulled by a steel cable, meaning it does not have engines nor drivers.
In a first phase, the new system will start using two out of five stations, called April 19th and July 5th. Then, it will be extended to Petare II, July 24th, and Waraira Repano for a total distance of 2.1 kilometers. The system will be connected to Line 5 of the Caracas subway system and the train of Guarenas and Guatire cities, on the edge of Venezuela’s capital city. The project means an investment of $ 300 million and will benefit 120,000 people who live in barrios near Caracas.
. s Friday, October 5, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Capriles with the mask off: Imperialist ties & cold calls T/ Rachael Boothroyd P/ Agencies
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ith the elections just a few days away, and a leaked document confirming what activists on the ground already knew - that the opposition coalition intends to saddle Venezuela with a neo-liberal economic program worthy of Angela Merkel’s highest seal of approval - any pretensions that opposition candidate Henrique Capriles may have had to a “center-left” program have been well and truly disposed. The opposition has a plan to contest the results of this Sunday’s elections and to cry fraud and their campaign is currently circulating leaflets telling their supporters to “stay out in the streets after voting” to minimize the possibility of a fraud being committed by a “deceitful and criminal” government. Additionally, their spokespeople are refusing to confirm that they will accept the electoral results. Furthermore, this week numerous stories have emerged in the national press which link Capriles to a possible plan in Washington to destabilize the electoral process in Venezuela. Whilst Chavez supporters have been on the street, singing, chanting, staging theater acts in public spaces, rapping, driving vans decked out in revolutionary memorabilia and blasting out everything from campaign songs to Calle 13 and Silvio Rodriguez, the opposition’s street presence has been close to zero. They have no songs, no shared traditions or stories, no consciousness. They do not form part of a continuous historic struggle, even if they do turn-out en mass on a given day to attend a rally for Capriles, Embarking on a campaign when you have little unifying ideology, and have to hide the ideology which you actually do have, can lead to some questionable tactics to gain votes, including a few weeks back when the opposition decided to put up signs on little businesses in Caracas warning them that they could be expropriated by the government. Or earlier this week when it emerged that phone company Telmex, belonging to Mexican millionaire, Carlos Slim, who was once tipped to buy the now nationalized Venezuelan communications company CANTV, had been phoning tens of thousands of Venezuelan homes in the early hours of the morning to tell them to vote for Capriles as Chavez’ death is imminent, or imitating Chavez’ voice in an alleged piece of political propaganda for the President during calls in the middle of the night. Of course, support for the “youthful” contender goes much further
north than Mexico, and it is no secret that the Obama administration has set aside $20 million to donate to the opposition’s campaign, or that Angela Merkel specifically asked other European governments to begin actively supporting the Venezuelan opposition earlier this year. Nor is it a secret that the Bush administration supported the 2002 coup protagonists. So it should come as no great shock that, earlier this week, journalist Jean Cleaux Duvergel reported a series of unusual happenings at the US embassy in Caracas, including the arrival of Richard Nazario, a former Venezuelan Colonel implicated in the 2002 coup currently living in the United States, and the embassy’s apparent purchase of armored vehicles and other items in bulk, such as canned food, bottled water and mattresses. Duvergel’s article also details a series of meetings between representatives from the US embassy and spokespeople from political parties such as Capriles’ Primero Justicia, Un
Nuevo Tiempo and Accion Democratica, as well as with officials from rightwing news station Globovision and food production company, POLAR - both of which are involved in consistent efforts to destabilize the Chavez government. Capriles also has his followers in Europe. In an interesting interview with the UK’s The Telegraph this week, Capriles revealed that he would review the expropriation of the UK’s Vestey Group in Venezuela. The property consists of ranches dedicated to the commercial production of beef which belonged to Lord Vestey, the wealthiest man in England, and were expropriated by the Chavez government last year in an attempt to ensure Venezuela’s food sovereignty. It is quite clear that Capriles cannot be on Vestey’s side and simultaneously stand by the poor farmers who have worked his land, reared his cattle and who before the arrival of the Chavez government, had no access to sanitation, healthcare, education, or even electricity. The Venezuelan exploited classes
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know that it is either Vestey who wins on Sunday, or they do. However, if the international business community and its representatives in Washington are taking such an interest in this week’s elections, it is precisely because the ramifications of the outcome span much wider than Venezuela. Aside from the material improvements which have benefited so many Venezuelans over the past 14 years, free health and education, subsidized food, access to cultural events and recreational and sporting services, the Venezuelan revolution has quite simply rejuvenated and invigorated the international left and placed the issue of socialism back on the table, and particularly the relationship between socialism and democracy. In Latin America, once dominated by ruthless military regimes and consistently brow-beaten by neoliberalism, Bolivian and Nicaraguan farmers now enjoy small-scale loans from the Bank of the ALBA, free of the economic dependency that is produced and reproduced through the free market, and countries like Haiti can receive reduced petrol through initiatives such as PETROCARIBE. Venezuela has demonstrated that, if capitalism has taken a hold of all of these spheres, then the struggle against capitalism must be the struggle for socialism, and that it must be equally multi-dimensional. We have to wrest these spaces back from capitalism and fill them with out own values through participatory democracy, community media, and the promotion of a culture that celebrates diversity and refuses to commodify human beings. Far from the struggle in Europe, where ordinary people are currently trying to resist one of the greatest onslaughts against the working class in decades, Venezuela is building an alternative through this creative process, which entails consciously practicing socialism in all spheres of life every day, so hopefully it can become the unconscious practice of tomorrow. Equally, the Venezuelan process has also changed the concept of revolution. The people may have already taken power, but the real revolution is to now change the economic system which permeates every aspect of society - to revolutionize the fabric of society by making these mini-revolutions every day. “You don’t fight fire with fire,” said Black Panther leader, Fred Hampton, “You fight fire with water. We’re gonna fight racism with solidarity. We’re gonna fight capitalism with socialism. Socialism is the people”. Venezuela is fighting capitalism with socialism, with new cultures and praxis and mental decolonization, that is why international capital and its Venezuelan lapdog Capriles are so scared of these elections. It is also the reason why masses of international observers, activists and leftists will be on the edge of their seats on Sunday, anxious to hear the words that mean this process can continue: “Venezuela’s Chavez takes elections in landslide victory”.
Friday, October 5, 2012 | Nº 129 | 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
T/ Foundation for Democratic Advancement
D
uring their audit of the automated Venezuelan federal electoral system, FDA auditors became concerned about the secrecy of voting and the potential for tampering with the automated election results. The FDA asked Smartmatic, the manufacturer of the automated voting machines used in Venezuela, about the secrecy of the ballot and the integrity of vote totals. Specifically, how do your machines maintain the anonymity of the electronic ballots? Smartmatic’s voting technology guarantees vote secrecy at all times. Registered votes are stored randomly in the voting machine’s memory, making it impossible to reconstruct the voting sequence. Prior to storing, votes are also encrypted, so that only certified systems can decrypt, extract and use (that is, totalize) the information stored in each machine. It is technically impossible to reconstruct the sequence. How high is the risk of voters being identified with their cast ballots? There is absolutely no risk. First of all, the voting machine stores no information whatsoever about the identity of voters. In other words, the record layout of registered votes does not include any personal identification of whoever has voted. Thus, the only way to theoretically link any given vote record with a person would have to rely on information which, in short, isn’t there. In order to know the choice(s) made by any given voter, these two conditions involving the time factor should be met: There should be an exact registry of the order in which every vote was cast in a given voting machine. Additionally, there should also be an exact registry of the order in which every voter used the machine. Regarding the first condition, no voting machines used in Venezuela keeps any time or sequence record of the votes whatsoever. Regarding the second condition, we know that the manual voting logs used in Venezuela do not register the time when
Opinion
Insight into Venezuela’s automated voting machines the elector voted, hence making them useless to reconstruct a sequence of the voting process. Moreover, fingerprint readers are used to validate and identify the voters when they enter the assigned voting station, but such fingerprint readers don’t keep a time/date registry of the voters, either. Even if it were possible to somehow have the sequence in which the voters entered the polling station, one would need the voting machine to register the order in which the votes were cast, so both sequences could be matched and the choices cast by each voter determined. To prevent the reconstruction of the sequence, the Smartmatic system used in Venezuela employs techniques that make said reconstruction impossible from both software and physical standpoints. At the software level, the date/time data related to the creation/modification/access to the votes is handled in a nonsequential way, modifying the attributes of the Master File Table. At the physical level, every time a file with information
about the vote is saved into memory, a “random noise” is generated. That makes it impossible to reconstruct the exact creation order of the files, even with “data recovery” tools. In fact, if one compares the contents of the internal memory vs. the external one, they will have the same votes but their physical sequence will be different. With these measures in place, it’s not feasible to know the voting sequence registry in the machines. Voters can be sure about the secrecy and the confidentiality of their choices. How do these risks compare to a paper-ballot system? A paper-ballot system, at least the one used in Venezuela before automation, did not have the capability to protect voter confidentiality. In Venezuela, votes could be easily traced back to voters, as each paperballot had a unique number that could be linked to the voter. Also, prior to counting ballots were stored in cardboard boxes, vulnerable to human manipulation or damage during storage.” The FDA followed up with Smartmatic about the safe-
guards to protect the integrity of vote totals. “The key used to encrypt and decrypt the information in the voting machine is unique per voting machine. In order to have access to it you require an trusted application, for an application to be trusted it must be compiled with a master key that is generated by the input or partial keys produced by each political party and the CNE. The compilation process uses an special application (whose patent is being introduced by Smartmatic) that is audited by the political parties and the CNE; this application combines the partial keys in a secure manner and produces the trusted application. The application used to decrypt the information stored within the voting machine is only generated if there is a reported mismatch in the several audits that the system undergoes, including the 53% sample audit that verifies the exactitude of the printed vote receipts against the results reported by the machine –who are both printed in paper with copies for each party and transmitted
over secure lines to the national tabulation center. As of now, the audits have been completely accurate so there has been no requests to produce the decryption application. In short the answer is no, neither the Government, nor the CNE and even less Smartmatic have the capability to decrypt the information stored in the voting machines without the concourse of all political parties”. According to the Smartmatic response, vote total tampering is prevented by the encryption of votes, so that only certified systems can decrypt, extract and use (that is, totalize) the information stored in each machine. In addition, there are 14 different audits on the Venezuelan automated machines and observers of the audits. Further, vote totals recorded in machines are crosschecked with vouchers. This process is subject to observation by political representatives, and tally sheets are signed by electors and witnesses. From the 2012 FDA Electoral Fairness Report on Venezuela: Every aspect of the Venezuelan automated ballot system via computers is subject to 14 audits, including software and closing vote totals. After voting, the voting machine issues a voucher to the elector that s/he deposits in a box. The results recorded on the voting machines are crosschecked with the vouchers. Voters who use voting machines have their fingers stained with a dye that sticks to the skin and cannot be removed by any product for a period of time. Venezuelan automated ballot system subject to observation by political representatives. Political representatives are permitted to ink their fingers and test different soluble substances to verify reliability of ink used in elections. At polling stations, the Electoral Board allows the local presence of electors and electoral witnesses with no limitation other than the local physical capacity and security of the election. Political organizations, groups of electors, candidates or the candidates on their own initiative and indigenous communities and organizations have the right to have witnesses to the electoral bodies’ subordinates.