Analysis
Opinion
Chavez names civilian successor to ensure unity page 7
Chavez, he appeared page 8
Friday, December 14, 2012 | Nº 139 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve
Regional Elections Sunday
ENGLISH EDITION/The artillery of ideas
Venezuelans to elect governors as Chavez recovers from complex surgery
Economy
New Metro Cable Car Inaugurated President Chavez returned to Cuba Monday in order to undergo a fourth surgical intervention for cancer he has suffered in his pelvic zone since June 2011. The Venezuelan President came out of the surgery successfully and is now undergoing a lengthy and difficult recovery, just as his nation heads to the polls Sunday to elect governors in the country’s 23 states. For Chavez’s party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), winning the majority of states is critical to ensure stability and unity of the Bolivarian Revolution. Page 2
South American Solidarity
Social Justice
Education Advances for Indigenous Textbooks and materials to be printed in indigenous languages. page 5 Interview
Venezuela at Doha Claudia Salerno talks climate change and market economy. page 6
President Chavez in complex recovery T/ Agencies
Venezuelans prepare to return to the ballot this Sunday to elect governors in 23 states across the nation. With President Hugo Chavez in recovery after surgery for cancer in Cuba, candidates from his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) are hoping to sweep the elections, taking back states won by opposition parties four years ago. The National Electoral Council (CNE) is expecting a large voter turnout. page 3
The innovative transport will ease commutes for those in poorer, harder to reach areas. page 4
INTERNATIONAL
South American presidents have expressed their well wishes for President Hugo Chavez’s health and his quick recovery in this difficult time, said a statement from the Union of South American Nations (Unasur). Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa traveled to Havana on Monday to visit the Venezuelan leader. “We come to give him an embrace in the name of the Ecuadorean people”, Correa said upon arriving in Havana. The statement by Unasur also mentions the words of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, who in a public event prayed for Chavez’s health and expressed her hope that he would recover soon. “We Argentines are here in good faith wishing for your quick recovery”, Fernandez said, speaking at the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires in an event to commemorate Human Rights Day. Bolivian President Evo Morales said he was upset by the news of Chavez’s health, and insisted that he would soon recuperate and continue to struggle to defend Latin America’s resources. “Commander Chavez’s struggle is not just that of Latin America, but a global one” Morales said.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is in delicate condition after his latest surgery for cancer, the government said on Wednesday. In an address to the nation the day after Chavez’s sixhour operation in Cuba, Vice President Nicolas Maduro urged Venezuelans to unite in prayer for the 58-year-old President and keep faith he would return soon. “Yesterday’s operation was complex, difficult and delicate, so the post-operation process will also be a complex and tough process”, Maduro said, flanked by ministers who flew in to Caracas overnight after accompanying Chavez in Cuba. A close ally, Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa, sought to put a more positive spin on the news, telling reporters in Quito that Chavez was doing all right. “He is fine, even though the surgery was complex”, Correa said, but he added that the future was not certain. “If the gravity of his illness meant he could not continue to lead Venezuela, the revolutions must continue, in Venezuela, in Ecuador, in Argentina, in Bolivia”. Maduro, whom Chavez has named as a preferred successor should he be incapacitated, urged Venezuelans to stay hopeful. Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said in a statement that Venezuelans should view Chavez’s situation like that of an ill relative and have faith that he will return. “If he doesn’t, our people should be ready to understand. It would be irresponsible to hide the delicate nature of the moment we are currently living”, he wrote. The President is due to start a new, 6-year term on January 10 after his October re-election.
2 Impact | . s Friday, December 14, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Chavez recovers in Cuba amidst outpouring of solidarity T/ COI P/ Presidential Press
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enezuelan President Hugo Chavez departed for Cuba in the early hours of Monday morning after announcing a recurrence of the cancer that first appeared in the socialist head of state in June 2011. “Given the circumstances that we’re confronting, I’m going once again to Havana full of optimism. We’re warriors of life, full of light, faith in Christ as well as in ourselves so that we may continue fighting and overcoming”, Chavez said before boarding his plane that left Simon Bolivar International Airport at 1:45am. The Venezuelan President informed the nation of his health status on Saturday evening during a televised meeting with his executive cabinet. Since explaining his condition, a wave of domestic and international solidarity has made itself felt in support of the recently re-elected leader. Prayer sessions were held in all the major Venezuelan public squares all week where hundreds of thousands appealed to God to provide the 58 year-old President with the re-
siliency to overcome this new health challenge. Slogans such as “Comandante Chavez, we love you and we’re with you” decorated hand made signs in the different Plaza Bolivars around the nation on Sunday. “It affected me emotionally and left an impact”, said Luis Murray, a Chavez supporter from Caracas. “But it also made me realize something: If we have already spent 14 years in this process of revolutionary change... then we must be prepared for anything and demonstrate that we believe in the idea that we’re working for”. Messages of solidarity have also poured in from governments all over Latin America and the world. “In the name of the Bolivian people, we want to express our solidarity, admiration, respect and caring for our brother President [Chavez]. We are telling you that we are and always will be with the Venezuelan people and it’s President”, wrote Bolivian head of state Evo Morales. Similar messages have been received from Ecuador, Mexico, and Chile. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez asked the people
of the Southern Cone nation to pray for the Venezuelan head of state during a televised message on Saturday evening. During her speech, Fernandez referred to Chavez as someone “who has always supported us” and she called on Argentines to ask God “to improve the health of dear Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez”. Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa flew to Havana, Cuba on Monday to see Chavez before his surgery was set to begin. In declarations to the press, Correa said the Venezuelan President was “optimistic” and ready to take on this new challenge. Correa also called Chavez a “historic President” and a “great leader of our times”. Social Networks have also been abuzz with wishes for Chavez’s quick recovery. Slogans such as “Now more than ever with Chavez” and “Good vibes for Chavez” and “Peoples of the world are with Chavez” have flooded Twitter and Facebook since Saturday.
TRUST IN THE PEOPLE Before departing on Monday morning, the socialist leader
affirmed his faith in the maturity and capacity of the Venezuelan people to maintain the security and peace of the nation during his absence. “I am completely confident in the people who have demonstrated on various occasions the capacity to confront conspiracies and destabilizing movements that have come from outside and inside the country”, he said. In speaking to the military high command, the head of the South American country said that he was “completely sure... that the homeland would be safe” during his time in Cuba. On Sunday afternoon, Chavez swore in the nation’s new Admiral in Chief and Minister of Defense, Diego Molero who had been announced as the head of the nation’s military in October. “Of all the people of the homeland, it is the job of the soldiers to make sure that this free country is never again humiliated as it had been for so many years”, Chavez said of 20th century Venezuela during the swearing in ceremony. The President’s stay in Havana is for what he called an “absolutely necessary” surgery and his absence from Venezuela was granted unanimously by the nation’s congress during a special session, also held on Sunday. A timetable for his return has not been established although the recently reelected President is scheduled to be sworn in for a third term as Venezuelan President on January 10, 2013. In the event that Chavez is unable to continue with his duties as head of state, the Vice President will be sworn in as head of state to complete the current term. After January 10, 2013, the presidency will be passed to the president of the country’s congress, the National Assembly, with new elections to be convened within 30 days. On Saturday, Chavez raised the possibility of stepping down in which case he expressed his desire to see Nicolas Maduro, current Vice President, elected as the nation’s new President. “My firm, absolute and irrevocable opinion is that in the scenario that new presidential elections need be held, you should vote for Nicolas Maduro as president of the republic”, Chavez, as head of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), told his followers on Saturday evening. Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader, has been
Chavez’s Foreign Minister since 2006. Before that he was president of the National Assembly, and earlier, an elected lawmaker of the same legislative body. The Venezuelan opposition, for it’s part, has rejected calls to name Maduro what they themselves have termed “a successor”. “Let this be clear: In Venezuela there is no succession”, said opposition leader Henrique Capriles last weekend. The opposition has also been critical of what they esteem to be a lack of details regarding Chavez’s exact health status, claims that the ruling socialists have rejected. “It’s a tremendous manipulation to say that Chavez hasn’t spoken clearly [of his condition]”, said Diosdado Cabello, President of the Venezuelan congress on Sunday. Many government supporters have also expressed their incredulity over some statements made by political leaders of the right who have articulated their desire for a Chavez recovery. Solidarity comments aside, members of the PSUV appealed to the country to be on alert and called for unity and discipline during the coming weeks. “A message for the people: patience, wisdom, and faith. Don’t fall into the trap of provocations”, Cabello said of potential destabilization efforts by the Venezuelan right.
OPERATION SUCCESSFUL On Tuesday, Venezuela’s Minister of Communication and Information, Ernesto Villegas, informed that President Chavez had undergone the surgical intervention as planned in the morning. By that evening, as Venezuelans were anxious for news of their President’s status, Vice President Nicolas Maduro gave an emotional speech from the presidential palace broadcast on live national television. “The President’s operation has concluded and he is now in post-operative recovery, which could take several days. The necessary exams will be done on him during this period as he recovers. The surgery was long, more than 6 hours, and complicated. There were moments of tension”, he explained. Maduro thanked the strong outpouring of solidarity and messages of support, showing unconditional love towards the popular Chavez. “Thanks to the immense signs of love and support, this operation was able to conclude successfully”, he stated.
. s Friday, December 14, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Venezuelans prepare for regional elections this Sunday T/ COI P/ Agencies
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lectoral activity in the 23 states that comprise Venezuela came to an end on Thursday as the nation prepares to head to the polls for the second time in little over two months. Up for grabs this Sunday will be all the Governorships in the republic. For the candidates of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the momentum is clearly on their side as the progressive aspirants are riding on the convincing victory of Hugo Chavez in the nation’s presidential elections on October 7. While it is unclear how recent news of re-emergent cancer in the socialist President will affect the election results, the 23 PSUV candidates feel confident that their party has a strong chance for victory in every race. One of the most closely watched races is in the central
state of Miranda where former Vice President of Venezuela, Elias Jaua, is running against defeated presidential candidate for the opposition and current incumbent Governor Henrique Capriles. Miranda is the second most populous state in Venezuela and a socialist victory against
the most visible leader of the nation’s opposition would be a severe blow to the country’s rightwing Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) coalition. Polls have shown the race as tightening with some surveys giving the advantage to the former Vice President of the Chavez administration.
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aking it’s place as a full member in South America’s most important commercial alliance, Venezuela participated last Friday in the 44th Summit of Heads of State of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) held in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia. The meeting of presidents focused on a range of issues including the trade policy requirements necessary for Venezuela’s continued incorporation into the organization and the increase of the manufacturing capacity of member nations. Rafael Ramirez, Venezuela’s Oil Minister, represented the Caribbean country in the meeting alongside Brazilian head of state Dilma Rousseff, and presidents Jose Mujica and Cristina Fernandez of Uruguay and Argentina respectively. Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, and Peru were also
represented at the summit as invited nations. Venezuela was first granted membership into Mercosur in July after Paraguay was temporarily expelled from the bloc following the impeachment of its former president Fernando Lugo. The conservative Paraguayan congress, which has been accused of implementing an “institutional coup” against Lugo, had blocked the admittance of Venezuela to the alliance for 6 years prior to July. With the suspension of Paraguay from Mercosur for its violation of the democratic principles of the organization, the door was opened for Venezuela to enter as a full member of the group. Venezuela’s admittance, according to a declaration released at the close of Friday’s summit, will “strengthen the strategic positioning of the bloc on a global level as a space for social, political, energy, agricultural, and productive inte-
gration from Patagonia to the Caribbean”. The declaration also highlighted the deeply democratic nature of Venezuelan society and congratulated the country for the success of its presidential elections last October. For the only Caribbean country that belongs to the group, the focus has now shifted to adjusting its tariff policies to accommodate the regulations of the trade alliance. Venezuela will be given until April 5 to implement 28 percent of the organization’s tariff requirements with further undefined adjustments tak-
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More than 17.4 million Venezuelans are registered to vote and the country’s National
Electoral Commission (CNE) has affirmed that all the necessary steps have been taken to make sure that this Sunday’s contest is carried out with the kind of efficiency and order that has characterized elections in recent years. “All of the technical, logistic and operational elements are ready”, said Carlos Quintero, Technical Director of the CNE after an audit of the nation’s voting machines earlier this week. According to Quintero, .5 percent of the more than 36,000 voting machines that will be in use on Sunday were tested by the electoral commission and verified by members of the different political parties participating in the contest. CNE officials have confirmed that more than 84,000 workers will be on hand to facilitate the voting process in over ten thousand polling places while 344 back-up points will be installed to transmit election results in the case of a technical problem at any of the stations. “In order to guarantee that everything is in order, we will continue to do tests from the contingency and voting centers to ensure the effective functioning of the elements involved in the transmission of data”, Quintero assured on Sunday.
ing place until 2016 at which time the nation should be in complete compliance with the bloc’s uniform tax policy. The OPEC member state will also begin to participate in Mercosur’s Structural Convergence Fund (Focem), which is designed to finance development projects in the organization’s affiliate nations. Venezuela’s contribution to the fund, which has been established to reduce disparities between members, has not yet been determined. During her speech at the summit, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff welcomed
Venezuela as the bloc’s newest member and highlighted the need to convert Mercosur into a “supplier of manufacturing”. Focusing on the need to maintain social policies designed to reduce inequality, Rousseff emphasized the potential of the organization to increase exports that go beyond energy and food items. According to the Brazilian President, Mercosur “has to integrate itself more and more through commerce, through productive chains, and through an improvement of its competitiveness”. With the inclusion of Venezuela, the trade bloc now encompasses more than 275 million people and boasts a combined GDP of $3.3 trillion, the fifth largest economy in the world. “The continued presence of the global [economic] crisis shows us once again the importance of our integration. It’s something that will make each one of us stronger and better prepared to confront turbulence in the international market”, Dilma stated on Friday.
Key to Jaua’s platform has been the linking of national social programs with the needs of the local population of Miranda. “The people of Miranda have only been given poor treatment and have been neglected by the loser of October’s presidential elections [Henrique Capriles]. That’s why on December 16 we, the Bolivarians, are going to arrive at the Governorship of the state of Miranda and we’re going to strengthen the projects of the working class sectors”, Jaua said during a campaign rally at the end of November. Other states where the PSUV feels that it has an advantage over incumbent opposition members include Bolivar, Carabobo, Lara, Miranda, Tachira and Zulia.
ELECTORAL INFRASTRUCTURE READY
Venezuela advances incorporation in Mercosur trade alliance T/ COI
| Politics
4 Economy | . s Friday, December 14, 2012
The artillery of ideas
New cable car in Mariche inaugurated: 93,000 people to Benefit
T/ Paul Dobson P/ Agencies
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ne the same day that Chavez flew to Cuba,, and hock in the midst of the shock that gripped the nation att the e eeded news of his urgently needed o of on surgery, the inauguration yet another major public projo owed ect of the government showed u to ues that the revolution continues advance, and will continue to be committed to improving the quality of life of the poorest sectors of society regardless of the state of the President’s health. The first stretch of a major new cable car system was inaugurated by Vice President Maduro in the Mariche sector of metropolitan Caracas, located within the state of Miranda. It is estimated the new transport system will benefit some 93,000 men, women, and children. The cable car, which has taken one year to build, and has cost over $380 million, is comprised of two sections: an express line, which was inaugurated this week that connects the principal station of Mariche with the Caracas Metro-link station of Palo Verde; and a parallel local line, to be inaugurated next year, connecting the same two stations but with three stops in
etween (Guaicoco, La Doloribetween ta, La Dolorita Bloques). Speaking at the inauguration, President of the Caracas Metro, which oversees and links to the cable car systems, Haiman El Troudi, explained, “One year after we formally started this work, today we are inaugurating it”. The express line of the cable car underwent successful security tests last November. Vice President Maduro told an emotional crowd, clearly still feeling great sorrow at the news of the President’s health, that “this was a dream of the President”. “These are the resources of the people, which have been recuperated by President Chavez, to be able to attend to the poorest people”. The neighborhoods of Mariche and La Dolorita, which set to most benefit from
the cable car, are made up of 90% type E and D in the socioeconomic stratum (A being the most wealthiest, E the least). It is estimated that 90% do not own their own vehicle. This is just the latest in a series of mass public transport systems that are being constructed all over the country. As Venezuela recently explained in the United Nations COP18 summit addressing global warming, mass public transport is one of the many ways in which the South American nation is trying to reduce carbon emissions and take care of the environment. Such systems are also directed at the poorest sectors of overcrowded cities, to people who maybe cannot afford a car and have to travel through steep uphill, weaving roads and stairwells to arrive to their homes. Such cable cars
will have particular benefit for the elderly, pregnant women, and commuters. The new express line of the Mariche cable car has a total of 144 cabins, with a capacity of eight persons per cabin, and with an overall capacity to transport 3,000 people per hour. The local line when finished will have 158 cabins, of equal capacity. The opening ceremony was also presided over by the Minister for Land Transport, Juan García Toussaint, and United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) candidate for the position of Miranda Governor this upcoming Sunday, Elias Jaua. This public project will greatly benefit some of the poorest people in metropolitan Caracas, who previously spent up to three hours travelling by road, taking two separate buses, to get to the Caracas Metro station of Palo
Verde. With the new cable car, transit time will be just 17minutes on the express route and 25 minutes on the local route, having a very real affect on the day-to-day lives of the people who live in the sector.Vice President Maduro highlighted the link between the nationalization of the country’s resources, particularly oil wealth, and the real changes in people’s living standards. “Here we can talk about the recuperation of the petrol sovereignty, the recuperation of sovereignty to manage Venezuelan public resources, which have been administered by the President. For this reason, in each and every cabin of the Cable Car, we can see the resources of all Venezuelans”. The project has stimulated over 200 direct jobs, and 250 indirect ones. It, as all public projects must by law, has given employment preferences to workers from the sector that will directly benefit from the project, and includes the technological transfer to allow the local population and organized communities to participate in the construction and maintenance of the project. Maduro went on to explain that this “is a product of the labor of Venezuelan workers, because each tower, each space, each cable was put up by a humble, local worker”. The Caracas Metro website highlights that, with respect to the new cable car systems, that “each new public project, as much in its design as its execution, is the product of the interaction with the organized communities through Communal Councils, which have converted the infrastructural works of the Chavez government into catalysts for the explosion of People’s Power, one of the basic proposals of socialism”. El Troudi went on to announce that there are similar cable cars planned for the Caracas regions of Antimano and Petare South, both of which are very poor sectors of the capital, which were previously ignored and abandoned by the neoliberal governments previous to Chavez. The funding for these upcoming cable cars was approved by Chavez four months ago, and their construction is due to begin shortly. All of the Caracas cable car networks are incorporated into the Caracas Metro network, and hence have the same solitary price: 1,50bsf ($0.38) for any one-way journey. These sectors of Caracas provide Chavez with some of his most fervent support, and have seen their quality of life great enhanced by socialist policies in the past 14 years.
. s Friday, December 14, 2012
The artillery of ideas
T/ Paul Dobson P/ Agencies
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tarting in January 2013, the Ministry for Education in Venezuela will print educational textbooks and materials used in the school system not just in Spanish, but also in indigenous languages. The resources will be for use in areas with high indigenous populations, signaling a further step towards the full inclusion of the indigenous population into the revolutionary process that is transforming the nation. “With the support of the Ministry for Indigenous Peoples we are working on the translation of school texts into original languages”, explained Education Minister Maryann Hanson. “In January 2013 we will be giving out the first translated books in the yakuana, wayuu and pemon languages”. The first texts to be completed will be for primary and secondary schools. While firmly respecting the cultural education that indigenous communities give to their own youth, it has been the firm policy of the Chavez administration to grant them full access to the complete public educational system the rest of the country benefits from. United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) candidate in the state of Amazonas for the upcoming governor elections on December 16, and ex Minister for Indigenous Peoples, Nicia Maldonaldo, stressed the importance of inclusion for indigenous peoples. “It is fundamentally our agenda to advance towards an educational system that allows the strengthening of the Indo-American cosmology, for the harmonious development of our peoples. This is why the national government makes a permanent effort to guarantee the participation and inclusion of indigenous peoples”. In similar news this week, University Education Minister Yadira Cordova, inspected the ongoing construction of the first ever Amazon University, which is currently being built in the Picatonal sector of the Venezuelan Amazonian capital of Puerto Ayacucho. The first stage of the university is set to be inaugurated between January and March of next year and will attend to over 12,000 students. Currently in construction are the student residences, laboratories, classrooms, the reception, and some administrative areas. The university
Educational advances for indigenous peoples
will, apart from the standard university population, house the university level education program Mission Sucre for. Its construction is estimated to cost a total of $56 million. Minister Cordova explained that the university was being built “within the concept of
inclusion that the Chavez administration promotes, which contemplates the inclusion for the first time of our peoples who were excluded for many years, as well as students who are the product of solidarity exchanges with other peoples of the world”.
| Social Justice
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As the indigenous communities celebrated these advances in the educational sector, the entire nation commemorated December 8 as National Day of Guaicaipuro and of the Chiefs of Resistance. This occasion was in remembrance of Chief Guaicaipuro, an indigenous
warrior and General who led the indigenous peoples to victory alongside the forces of independence hero, Simon Bolivar, during the war of independence against the Spanish colonialists. The indigenous communities have long been excluded from national politics and were for many decades treated as third class citizens, or savages. However the current administration has granted many benefits to these communities, culturally, economically, educationally, and politically. Some of these initiatives include the creation of the Ministry for Indigenous Peoples and the Indigenous Peoples National Assembly, aimed at bringing them, as equals, into the debates which shape the nation. Currently, Venezuela has 51 indigenous communities, and in the 2011 National Census, 725,128 indigenous people were registered, mainly in the eastern States of Bolivar, Monagas, and the Delta Amacuro, as well as Amazon State to the south, and in the Guajira sector of Zulia State, on the Colombian border. The biggest indigenous population is the Wayuu tribe, who make up 58% of the total indigenous population of the country. After them come the Waraos community who make up 7%, the Kariña community 5%, Pemon community 4%, Jivis community 3%, Cumanagotos 3%, Añu 3%, Piaroa 3%, Chaima 2%, Yupka 2% and the Yanomami 1%.
Palestine’s UN bid and backed it during Israel’s recent “Pillar of Cloud” military assault on the country. In 2006, the Venezuelan government froze relations with Israel in protest of the war against Lebannon and withdrew its diplomatic staff from the Middle Eastern state. In
2008, the Chavez administration formerly expelled Israeli diplomats from Venezuela, protesting attacks on Gaza and the Palestinian people. President Chavez has been very outspoken in favor of a Palestinian state and against Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Venezuela eliminates entrance visas for Palestinians T/ Ewan Robertson www.venezuelanalysis.com P/ Agencies
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enezuela has abolished entrance visas for Palestinian visitors among a set of new agreements with the Middle Eastern country. Venezuela has became the first country to eliminate visas for Palestinians carrying civilian or diplomatic passports as part of talks this week in Caracas between representatives of the two countries. Venezuela also agreed to build a new hospital in Palestinian territory and entered into new accords in the areas of health, education and tourism.
“We’re sending the world a very important message, because from Caracas a new stage is beginning for Palestine”, said the Palestinian foreign minister, Riad-Al-Maliki. Al-Maliki forms part of an official Palestinian delegation visiting Venezuela this week. The delegation is seeking to strengthen relations between the two countries following Palestine’s successful bid to have its diplomatic status upgraded to ‘non-observer member state’ by the United Nations General Assembly last Thursday. Venezuela is the first country to be visited by a delegation from the new Palestinian entity, after the Chavez government showed strong support for
6 Interview | . s Friday, December 14, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Venezuela’s Doha Climate delegate talks: “Rich countries profit from pollution” T/ Democracy Now P/ Agencies
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he following is an interview conducted by US journalist Amy Goodman from Democracy Now, with Venezuelan Vice Minister for Foreign Affaris and Chief Climate Negotiator, Claudia Salerno and Heherson Alvarez, climate delegate from the Philippines Amy Goodman: Claudia Salerno, you are the chief climate negotiator for Venezuela here. You are famous for, three years ago in Copenhagen, hitting your fists against the table to get attention, to be recognized, and bloodying your hand. Talk about what’s happening today, and take it back to three years ago in Copenhagen, why you were so distressed. Claudia Salerno: I said that I strongly consider that the things that we are living and facing now in this process in 2012 are the consequence of what happened exactly three years ago. Three years ago, one state actually said they were going to take the lead to transform the whole system and the whole regime of climate change, because it didn’t fit them. So, one single country— Amy Goodman: That country? Claudia Salerno: Being the United States, the only country that is not party to the Kyoto Protocol, because it didn’t fit them. They needed to destroy the whole thing to try to accommodate the regime to what would be nice for their economies, their argument being always not which countries are going to do what, but which economies. This is an economic negotiation. The first thing that countries need to understand when they want to succeed in this process is to understand that this is not an environmental process. This is a process that is going to have impact in economics, so that is why it is so difficult for developed countries that are doing well economically, or even doing bad, to make the necessary changes in their economics.
Amy Goodman: What is happening now? What are the key issues that aren’t being addressed? And is there going to be an agreement at the end of today or tomorrow? Clearly, the talks are going later than was planned. Claudia Salerno: I think in the previous two years, we already learned that presidents do always the best to try to have an agreement and a clapping situation. They were even saying last year that decisions were making by ovation and not by consensus. So we know that some kind of deal is going to be produced. The question now is, what kind of deal? The main issue for developing countries is ensuring a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol— now, having the text in our hands since this morning, our main concern is that we are going to have an unmeaningful second commitment period, an empty one. Amy Goodman: Which means? Claudia Salerno: Which means that the commitments that are there are not sufficient to keep the temperatures stopping from escalating. So we are actually heading towards an area of 4 or 6 degrees of temperature, even when in
Cancun we agreed on a global goal and a global target for everybody to reach, at the most, two degrees. Amy Goodman: Talk about the significance. Two degrees is what people were aiming for, which is 3.8 degrees Fahrenheit, and the World Bank came out with a report that said we could be leading to a 4 to 6 degree increased temperature world by the end of the century, which is 7.4 degrees—is 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit. The issue of markets, Claudia Salerno? Claudia Salerno: The issue of markets is the worst part of this whole package. What we have seen lately is this tendency of actually trying to convert and to transform what it was created in Kyoto at the beginning as a way to help developed countries to achieve their commitments. Now it became actually mechanisms to take profit of a certain kind of pollution that is profitable for developed countries. So what they consider now a business that is interesting is actually to keep a climate regime that will allow them—that’s what they are intending, the whole two weeks—that will allow them actually to make trading of whatever is called rights to pollute. So what we are seeing
with a lot of concern is this capacity that they want to create of mechanisms that will allow them to buy the right to pollute to a certain level and then to exchange, among them, their rights to contaminate the land. Amy Goodman: Venezuela is perhaps the largest oil producer in the world. You’re a member of OPEC. Claudia Salerno: Yes, we are. And we are also—we have been recognized by OPEC last year as having the largest proven reserves in the world. And that creates for us a huge responsibility. But I have to say that even with those large numbers and large quantities of exportation, our country only represents 0.48 percent of the total emissions in the world, because Venezuela is also an Amazonian country, so we do have more than 50 million hectares of virgin forests that we are—and they will remain untouched for us, so we are extremely green country with a very old tradition of ecology and very respectful approach towards the environment. Amy Goodman: Your assessment, both of yours, in 30 seconds of the role of the United States here right now, beginning with Heherson Alvarez.
Heherson Alvarez: Well, the United States, on electing a president like Obama, gave some signs that attention would be given to climate change. But that was not done. There were some big problems, so they said, about their economy, and Obama attended to priorities. But, of late, he said that he’s going to situate one of the three pillars of his forthcoming administration, situate that he’s going to provide for a safe world, referring to climate change management policy for the American generation, for American people. We’re awaiting that signal. And we’re also hopeful that there are signs from the business community to band together in the manner of a foundation, addressing problems of climate change, for we have many setbacks. The intervention methods alone that is being defined, and no matter how clearly, by the organized community of the world, led by the United Nations, is insufficient. The bureaucracy is too slow. There is too much debate. And even when the science is clear, the science is not being applied with determination. Amy Goodman: And Claudia Salerno? Claudia Salerno: I will be very quick. I think that negotiators here from the US delegation seem not to be aware of the Obama statement when he took power after the elections. He actually mentioned climate change after the Sandy hurricane, and it seems like there is a gap between the promises made by the president and the kind of behaviors that his delegates are acting out here. Amy Goodman: Well, I want to thank you both for being with us. We’ve been speaking with Heherson Alvarez, climate delegate from the Philippines and member of the Philippines Presidential Climate Change Commission, and Claudia Salerno, Venezuela’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs for North America and special presidential envoy for climate change here in Doha.
. s Friday, December 14, 2012
The artillery of ideas
Chavez names civilian heir for sake of unity T/ Humberto Marquez P/ Presidential Press
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icolas Maduro, the Venezuelan Vice President and Foreign Minister, has been announced by President Hugo Chavez as his political successor. Many analysts view this as a specific call for party unity, and a preference for a civilian over a former military leader. For the first time the 58-yearold Chavez, who had his fourth surgery for cancer this week in Cuba, has designated a political successor, 20 years after he first came to public attention by leading a military uprising. Since then he has spent 14 years as President, and a year-and-ahalf fighting cancer. “It’s a nomination that make sense”, analyst Jose Vicente Carrasquero, a professor of postgraduate political science courses at the Simon Bolivar University in Caracas, told IPS. “Maduro understands Chavez and he has a great deal of experience; he was president of the legislature, then foreign minister for six
years, and now he is the Vice President”. “Chavez is choosing a civilian to leave in his place, distancing himself from the perception that his government is militaristic, a criticism that would have been made if he had named one of his supporters from within the armed forces”, he said. Another political science professor, Gabriel Reyes, told IPS that Chavez’s entourage and the leadership of his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) are made up of several groups that are divided basically into two main sectors, civilian and military. Among the retired members of the military, the most notable figure is Diosdado Cabello, who was a lieutenant in 1992 and second-in-command to Chavez, then commander of a parachute battalion, in his failed attempted coup. At present Cabello is Vice President of the PSUV and president of the legislature. When Chavez made his announcement to the country that his cancer had recurred and he would be having another op-
eration in Cuba, he appeared on television flanked by Cabello and Maduro, a powerful symbol of unity, according to his supporters. Chavez “must have calculated that, as they are both in positions of power, they would counterbalance each other”, Reyes said. The 49-year-old Maduro was a young activist in the now defunct leftwing group Liga Socialista. He worked as a bus driver for the Caracas Metro, where he was a trade unionist, and later joined the movement created by Chavez to take part in the 1998 elections, in which the President first came to power. Maduro also formed part of the 1999 constituent assembly that rewrote the country’s constitution; he presided the legislature; and in 2006 he was appointed Foreign Minister, a post he retained when Chavez designated him Vice President two months ago (in Venezuela the Vice President is appointed, not elected). “If something happens that incapacitates me, Nicolas Ma-
duro should not only serve out the period (2007-2013) as the constitution requires, but my firm opinion…irrevocable, absolute, total, is that in that scenario, which would require new presidential elections, you should elect Nicolas Maduro as President of Venezuela”. “I ask this of you from my heart”, Chávez said on national radio and television broadcasts on Saturday, December 8. Chavez was reelected on October 7 with 55 percent of the vote, for a six-year term that starts January 10. Henrique Capriles, who lost the elections with 44 percent of the vote, said along with most opposition leaders that new elections would be called soon if Chavez did not beat his illness. “It should be quite clear that there is no succession in Venezuela. This is not Cuba, nor is it a monarchy where a king designates the next king. No, in Venezuela when a person steps down from a position, the last word always belongs to the people”, Capriles said. Under the constitution, if the president elect cannot take office for any reason, new elections are to be called within 30 days of the start of the new term. In the meantime, the acting head of state will be the president of the single-chamber legislature, at present Cabello. If an incumbent president dies or is incapacitated within the first four years of his or her
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term, new elections must also be called. In this case it is the Vice President who becomes acting President until the ballot takes place, as he or she also does if the presidency becomes vacant in the last two years of the six-year term. The constitution gives the following reasons for the presidency becoming vacant: death, resignation, dismissal by a decision of the Supreme Court, physical or mental incapacity certified by a medical board designated by the Supreme Court and approved by the legislature, desertion declared by the legislature, or revocation of mandate by a popular vote. So far, parliament has only been called on to give its formal permission for Chavez to leave his post, and the country, for more than five days, for health reasons. President Chavez’s health crisis, the countdown to the January inaugural ceremony and the announcement of his political heir have come on top of the upcoming elections for 23 state governors and regional legislatures, on Sunday December 16. Until now, analysts and pollsters assumed that Chavista candidates would win in the majority of districts, continuing the October PSUV victory, while the opposition vote would decline. “But earlier surveys become irrelevant with the appearance of this new unforeseeable element. It will have an impact”, Luis Vicente Leon, head of the polling firm Datanalisis, told IPS. According to Leon, “voter turnout may be higher. The President’s sympathizers may come out to vote in greater numbers if they perceive the revolution to be in danger, while the opposition, still in mourning because they thought Chavez was going to govern for another six years, will see their aspirations and hopes revived”. Expressions of support for Chavez as well as good wishes for his health are already pouring in. On Sunday December 9, the PSUV organized rallies in the main squares of cities and towns to pray for their leader. The presidents of neighboring countries have also sent messages of solidarity. The Defense Minister, admiral Diego Molero, sent a communiqué to Chavez saying that the armed forces “are loyal to his person, to the revolution and to the people. During his absence the soldiers will defend the socialist homeland with their lives”.
Friday, December 14, 2012 | Nº 139 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve
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Opinion
Chavez T/ Eva Golinger
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he first time I met Hugo Chavez was at the United Nations in New York in January 2003. He asked me my name, as if we were chatting between friends just getting to know each other. When I told him “Eva”, he responded “Eva, really?”1 “Yes, Eva”, I said. “My brother is named Adan”, he said, adding, “My mother wanted me to be a girl so that she could call me Eva, and look, I appeared!” He smiled and laughed with that laugh of his, so pure and sincere it’s contagious to all those near. He appeared. Chavez, who even underestimated himself. This man appeared, larger than life, with an immense heart full of his people, pueblo, beating with homeland, patria. A human being appeared, with a great capacity to persist and stand defiantly in the face of the most powerful obstacles. Hugo Chavez dreamed the impossible and achieved it. He
assumed responsibility for the grandiose and difficult tasks that remained undone from the time of independence, those that Simon Bolivar couldn’t attain due to the adverse forces against him. Chavez fulfilled those goals, turning them into reality. The Bolivarian Revolution, the recovery of Venezuelan dignity, social justice, the visibility and power of the people, Latin American integration, national and regional sovereignty, true independence, the realization of the dream of the Patria Grande, and much, much more. These are Chavez’s achievements, the man who appeared just like that. There are millions of people around the world who are inspired by Hugo Chavez. Chavez raises his voice without trembling before the most powerful, he says the truth – what others are afraid of saying –, he kneels before no one, he walks with firm dignity, head held high, with the people, el pueblo, guiding him and a dream of a prosperous, just and fulfilled
nation. Chavez has given us the collective strength to fight inequality, injustice, to build nations and to believe that a better world isn’t just a dream, it’s an achievable reality. Chavez, a man who could spend time in the company of the world’s richest and most powerful, prefers to be with those most in need, feeling their pain, embracing them and finding ways to improve their lives. Chavez once told us a story, or told it many times as he often does. He was driving in his motorcade, out in the Venezuelan plains, los llanos, on those long roads that seem to continue infinitely. A dog suddenly appeared at the side of the road, limping with a wounded leg. Chavez ordered the motorcade to stop and went out to get the dog. He hugged the wounded animal, saying it had to be taken to the vet. “How can we leave it here alone and wounded”, he asked. “It’s a being, it’s a life, it needs to be cared for”, he said, demonstrating his sensitivity. “How can we call ourselves social-
ists without the lives of others mattering? We need to love, we need to care for all, including animals, which are innocent beings. We can turn our backs on no one”, he recalled. When he told that story I cried. I cried because of my love for animals and the widespread mistreatment they suffer, and how necessary it was for someone like him, Chavez, to say something like that to awaken consciousness about the need to care for those who share our planet. But I also cried because Chavez confirmed something in that moment that I already knew, something I felt in my heart, but was unsure of in my mind. Chavez confirmed his simplicity, his sensitivity and his capacity to love. He confirmed he is a man whose heart feels pain when he sees a wounded animal. A man who not only feels, but acts. That’s who he is. When Chavez assumed the presidency of Venezuela, the country was limping. He had seen its wounds and knew that he had to do all he could to help.
He took Venezuela into his arms, embracing it closely, soothing and seeking how to make it better. He gave everything he had in him - his sweat, soul, strength, energy, intelligence and love – to change Venezuela with dignity, growth, sovereignty, and nation-building. He looked after it day and night, never leaving it alone. He found its beauty, its strength, its potential and its greatness. He helped it to grow strong, beautiful, visible and happy. He led its rebirth and filled its pulse with force and passion, with people’s power and a dignified homeland. Chavez has given everything he has and asked for nothing in return. Today, Venezuela grows and flourishes, thanks to his commitment and vision, thanks to his dedication and determination, thanks to his love. Thank goodness you appeared, Chavez. 1 “Adán y Eva” in Spanish is “Adam and Eve” in English.