Analysis
Opinion
The judicial coup advances against Venezuela Page.7
International Crisis Group Shows bias on Venezuelan elections Page 8
Friday, May 24, 2013 | Nº 159 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve
Anti-Crime initiatives advance
ENGLISH EDITION/The artillery of ideas
President Maduro takes Government to the streets
To achieve a reduction in lawlessness and violent acts, the Venezuelan government has begun implementing the Safe Homeland Plan, which employs members of the nation’s armed forces in high crime areas. A deployment of 12,000 members of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces “with a new concept of defense for the people” was launched on Monday in the states of Zulia, Lara and Carabobo. Page. 3 Social Justice
Celebrating biodiversity The Venezuelan government promotes eco-socialism and environmental conservation. Page. 4
A nation of peace
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has launched his presidential term on a strong grassroots platform with the promotion of a “government in the streets”. The new South American head of state, who narrowly won last month’s elections after President Hugo Chavez’s untimely death, has been traveling the nation meeting with local activists, workers and community groups in order to promote greater domestic production and enhance local control over national resources. Page. 2
Venezuela responds with dignity to US aggression and interference. Page. 4
Venezuelans “well nourished”
Politics
Analysis
Overcoming machismo
Young men in Ecuador are breaking sexist stereotypes. Page. 6
T/ AVN
The president of Venezuela’s National Institute of Statistics, Elias Eljuri, said that 95% of citizens eat three meals a day, according to a national study of family budgets carried out by his organization in cooperation with the Central Bank, the University of the Andes, and the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana. Eljuri said that Venezuela has undoubtedly seen greater access to basic foods among families. He explained that minimum wage plus the food benefits received by workers is greater than the amount needed for the basic food basket. The monthly minimum wage is 2,047 bolivars, plus 1,100 bolivars in food benefits, and thus a two-
income home would bring in over 7,000 bolivars per month. Venezuela has seen broadened access to food for all sectors of
society in recent years. Currently, 94.3% of high-income families report eating three to four meals per day, along with 94.9% of middle-income families and 93.7% of low-income families.
INTERNATIONAL
Venezuela taking steps to restore US diplomatic ties T/ Agencies Venezuela’s recent designation of an acting head of its diplomatic mission in the United States shows the OPEC nation’s desire to restore full diplomatic relations, the foreign minister said in an interview broadcast on Sunday. Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said the move to name legislator Calixto Ortega as charge d’affaires in Washington could be a prelude to restoring ambassadors. “This is a message for US politicians so they understand Venezuela’s desire to normalize relations”, he said. “Why? Because the United States remains our top trade partner”. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has in recent months said he wants better ties with Washington as long as the relationship is respectful. But he has also accused the US of seeking to destabilize the country. Last month, he slammed the US for “vulgar” meddling after the State Department said it had not decided if it would recognize his presidency and supported opposition calls for a vote recount after the April 14th election. He won that vote, triggered by President Hugo Chavez’s death, by 1.5 percentage points. In 2008, Chavez expelled US Ambassador Patrick Duddy from Caracas in a dispute over Washington’s involvement in violent protests in Bolivia. In 2010, he blocked Washington’s nomination of diplomat Larry Palmer as ambassador in protest of Palmer’s comments that the Chavez government had ties with Colombian terrorists, amongst other accusations. The State Department responded by revoking the visa of Venezuela’s ambassador.
2 Impact | . s Friday, May 24, 2013
The artillery of ideas
to 14,000 (34,200 acres) in the coming years. Other productive steps taken on Saturday include the transfer of five government-run enterprises to the state authorities of Barinas and the allocation of 13 million bolivars ($2.06 million) to increase rice and corn production on two thousand hectares (4,400 acres) of arable land dedicated to the staples. The move was made, according to President Maduro, “so that the productive forces are expanded to the countryside”. An additional five million bolivars was approved for a fishery project that will create a feed plant for fish raised in Barinas, the head of state informed.
FIGHTING DESTABILIZATION
Maduro’s “Government in the Streets” heads to Tachira and Barinas T/ COI P/ Presidential Press
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enezuelan President Nicolas Maduro visited the western states of Tachira and Barinas last weekend as part of his administration’s bolstering of grassroots democratic initiatives and a fostering of the nation’s “Street Government”. In a series of meetings with activists, workers, and government officials, the head of state approved a number of new projects intended to stimulate economic growth, promote greater domestic production, and enhance local control over national resources. “I have come to make good on my word. I said that I would come to install a Street Government and here I am”, Maduro said upon arriving in the Andean state last Friday. The visit saw the Venezuelan President meet with business sectors as well as government workers to propel forward “an economic revolution” in the South American country. During his inspection of The Glory Agro-Industrial Complex in Tachira on Saturday afternoon, Maduro called for greater investment in domestic endeavors that, through efficient operation, can fund social programs while at the same time provide for the necessities of the Venezuelan people. The head of state was accompanied by members of his
executive cabinet and the Coordinator of Venezuela’s Western Development Region, Isis Ochoa, who explained that a strategic map outlining local economic growth in the area was being drafted to boost the capacity of specific localities. “We’re going to begin with this map that will orient us because one of our great challenges is planning” the development of each of Venezuela’s regions, Ochoa said during the encounter.
DEVELOPMENT PLANS FOR BARINAS During his “Bolivarian Dialogue” with activists and workers in the plains state of Barinas, home to the late Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan head of state approved more than 70 projects to fortify economic
growth and development in the agricultural region. Prominent among the plans are eight new housing projects that form part of the country’s Mission Housing Venezuela, a large-scale social program created by the Chavez government in 2011. The projects will be financed with 767 million bolivars ($121 million) of government funds that have been allocated to the construction of 510 homes, benefiting more than one thousand residents of the state. The strengthening of agricultural production and food security also received heightened attention during last weekend’s democratic dialogue. In efforts to boost agricultural output, the President approved 155 million bolivars ($24.6 million) to enhance Barinas’ agrar-
ian road infrastructure and provide greater access to isolated plots in the countryside. The new roads will be the result of a collaborative effort between the Land Ministry and the Ministry for Ground Transport as well as the state oil company Pdvsa, and the community councils of the region. It will be “a cooperative effort of with which we’re going to tackle the problem of transportation”, Maduro informed. Further agricultural initiatives announced by the Venezuelan President include the public financing of a new poultry complex that, with a capacity of 6.5 million animals, will contribute 14.3 million kilograms (31 million pounds) of chicken meat for the domestic market. Similarly, Maduro assigned a governmental team to address production in the Ezequiel Zamora Sugar Mill in the state of Barinas, which has suffered setbacks in the processing of sugar cane in recent weeks. During an inspection of the processing plant, Land and Agriculture Minister Ivan Gil reported the uncovering of “a series of problems that can only be solved together” with the workers of the mill and governmental agencies. The plant, one of the most modern in South America, currently receives sugar cane from four thousand hectares (9,300 acres) of land and is slated to increase this amount
While working with the different representatives of the public enterprises and community groups, President Maduro spoke of the continued challenges facing the socialist movement built by his predecessor Hugo Chavez. At the forefront of these challenges have been the attempts by extremist elements of the Venezuelan right-wing to destabilize the country through violent protest and what the head of state referred to as “infiltration” of socialist ranks. To combat the destabilization, the former Foreign Minister and Vice President of the Chavez government called and for greater economic growth and for progressive activists to rally behind the candidates of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) in the nation’s coming regional elections on July 14th. “We know where [the attacks] are coming from. That’s why this grassroots work has to be a political offensive, work that consolidates people’s power and is part of the popular and collective management of Venezuela’s Bolivarian and Chavista Revolution. It is a concept that we must build in reality”, he said. Maduro, who has consistently called for dialogue and non-violence in the resolution of political conflicts in the country, reiterated his desire for peace but was firm in his unwillingness to see violence go unpunished. The remarks were directed towards the perpetrators of violent protests against the socialist government in mid-April that resulted in the death of at least nine Venezuelans. “Peace is one thing but it’s another thing to be taken as being weak and allowing [the rightwing] to be continue with impunity. There can be no impunity with fascists”, the Venezuelan head of state affirmed.
. s Friday, May 24, 2013 | Security
The artillery of ideas
T/ COI P/ Presidential Press
A
s part of his administration’s commitment to fighting crime, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro met with high ranking government officials in Caracas last Monday to discuss national strategies aimed at improving public safety for the residents of the South American nation. The encounter was attended by leading members of the government’s security corps as well as political actors belonging to the Great Patriotic Pole coalition that represents grassroots organizations loyal to the nation’s Bolivarian Revolution. During the meeting, President Maduro called on the government and local residents to expand the work left by his predecessor Hugo Chavez in building a community-focused police force in Venezuela. “We have to carry out a revolution in policing and continue what was initiated by our Comandante Hugo Chavez. In the short term we must achieve high levels of operational capacity and the capacity to protect the people, the capacity to investigate, the capacity to prevent and to provide quick answers”, Maduro said. The head of state described the creation of what he called “territories of peace” that will focus on tackling crime in
Venezuelan government moves forward with anti-crime initiatives
designated areas where illicit activity registers the highest levels. According to government officials, the lion share of crime in the Caribbean nation is concentrated in 79 municipalities across the country. To achieve a reduction in lawlessness and violent acts, the government has begun implementing the Safe Homeland Plan, which employs members
of the nation’s armed forces in high crime areas. A deployment of 12,000 members of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces “with a new concept of defense for the people” was launched on Monday in the states of Zulia, Lara and Carabobo, President Maduro affirmed. Additional officers belonging to the nations scientific police, Cicpc, as well as the country’s
T
he establishment of two “special economic zones” (SEZs) in Tachira is expected to generate approximately 24,000 jobs, and encourage new investment in the state. Last Friday, President Nicolas Maduro approved the establishment of SEZs near La Fria and Ureña-San Antonio, Tachira. “We will bring productive capital under special conditions [to Tachira]”, he told the Venezuelan News Agency (AVN). According to Maduro, both the government and private sector will invest in the SEZs. Minister for industry Ricardo Menendez, and Tachira governor Jose Gregorio Vielma Mora will oversee the initiatives. Maduro also stated that the ALBA/Mercosur Bicenten-
nial fund would be used to partially finance the zones. While stating that foreign investment is welcome in the SEZs, the President emphasized that the objective of the zones are primarily to create conditions that are “advantageous” for the local economy. Over the next two years around 6000 jobs are expected to be generated in La Fria and 18,000 in Ureña-San Antonio, according to Miriam Febres, a member of the team administering the zones. Speaking to Venezuelan public television, VTV, Febres stated that the jobs will mostly be in local industries including vegetable processing, scrap reclamation and plastic production. The numbers also include indirect jobs, which the government predicts will be created in local communities. Febres also stated that the SEZs would be exempt
from the goods and services tax (IVA) and the profits tax (ISLR). “We must create jobs...and one way to do that is by developing these economic zones”, Febres told VTV. According to Febres, initiatives like the SEZs are “especially” important “in states like Tachira, where we have strategically located industrial areas because we are at the gates of the Andean countries”. Mora has also stated that the zones may reduce smuggling in the region.
Caracas was made earlier this month.
PEACE AND LIFE
intelligence agency, SEBIN, will accompany the security push. “We are sure that Carabobo will, in a short time, become the state with the best security indices in the country. That is our commitment”, said William Barrientos, the head of the armed forces Strategic Operational Command. A similar assignation of security forces in the capital of
The nation’s Movement for Peace and Life, a program proposed by Maduro during his candidacy for the office of president in April, will also play an essential role in combating violence in urban areas. The aim of the movement is to enlist cultural groups in anti-crime campaigns by making art, music and sports available for at-risk youth and as well creating public spaces for the exercise of constructive activities. According to the head of state, public safety can only be achieved through the implementation of a two-prong strategy that brings state security forces together with social organizations. “On one hand it’s building the capacity of the state to protect the people where they work and live, and on the other hand it’s building peace from the inside with social movements, the people and the citizenry to declare territories of peace throughout the country”, Maduro said. “We are working towards the construction of a safe nation and you can be sure that we’re going to obtain it. We’re going to construct a safe homeland through hard work”, the Venezuelan President added.
“If we ...generate a stable economy in the area, we will minimize smuggling”, Mora stated. The SEZs were first announced by Maduro on April 25th, when the President met with business leaders in Zulia state. Publicly urging the private sector to cooperate more with the government in the “development of the productive forces and the country’s economy”, Maduro offered a suite of policy proposals aimed at stimulating business. Along with the SEZs, Maduro also announced a new fund intended to make foreign
currency more accessible for Venezuelans, and stated that his finance minister Nelson Merentes would engage in a series of meetings with business leaders to hear their concerns. Last Wednesday, Merentes met with representatives of more than 400 companies. According to Venezuelanalysis.com, the meeting focused on issues related to foreign exchange. “We are in a transition process towards building a socialist economic model that merits the promotion of a special plan of a productive economic revolution, and that includes the participation of different sectors”, Maduro said. This week Merentes continued to meet with businesses, while minister for trade Alejandro Fleming also restarted talks with the automotive industry. On Tuesday, Fleming stated that the objective of the talks is to find ways to increase productivity and the “overall strengthening” of the sector.
Special economic zones to provide 24,000 jobs in Tachira T/ Ryan Mallett-Outtrim P/ Presidential Press
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4 Social Justice | . s Friday, May 24, 2013
The artillery of ideas
Venezuela celebrates biodiversity and promotes eco-socialism
To achieve this goal, the Environment Ministry began implementing 74 projects to prevent the extinction of endangered species in Venezuela, according to data provided by
National Biodiversity Director Jesus Manzanilla. The conservation of native species is one of the government’s priorities with regard to the environment, along with four other
lines of action: information management, strategic areas for conservation, control of the trade in exotic species and the release of endangered turtles. The development of these strategic lines will merit an annual investment of 140 million bolivars ($22.2 million) to safeguard protected areas and the species that inhabit them. Manzanilla said the funds will be used for improvements to existing infrastructure, community tourism programs, and scientific stations. The United Nations recognized the need to preserve biodiversity – the variety of plant and animal species in their environment – in 1992. It designated 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity. Data from Venezuela’s Environment Ministry indicates that about 100,000 species found in the country are in danger of extinction, including freshwater and marine tortoises and alligators. Many tortoises were released through government conservation programs in 2012. In one particular case, over 480,000 Arrau turtles have been released since 1999. These actions are part of the ongoing Simon Bolivar National Plan, which focuses on conservation management to help endangered species and ecosystems that are threatened by human actions.
Over the same period - since the June 28, 2009 military overthrow of elected president Manuel Zelaya of Honduras Times contributors have never used such terms to describe Micheletti, who presided over the coup regime after Zelaya’s removal, or Porfirio Lobo, who succeeded him. Instead, the paper has variously described them in its news coverage as “interim”, “de facto”, and “new”. Porfirio Lobo assumed the presidency after winning an election held under Micheletti’s coup government. The elections were marked by repression and censorship, and international monitors, like the Carter Center, boycotted them. Since the coup, Honduras’s military and police have routinely killed civilians. Over the past 14 years, Venezuela has had 16 elections or referenda deemed free and fair by leading international authorities. Jimmy Carter praised Venezuela’s elections, among the 92 the Carter Center has monitored, as having “a very wonderful voting system”. He concluded that “the
election process in Venezuela is the best in the world”. While some human rights groups have criticized the Chavez government, Venezuela has had no pattern of state security forces murdering civilians, as is the case in Honduras. Whatever one thinks of the democratic credentials of Chavez’s presidency - and we recognize that reasonable people can disagree about it there is nothing in the record, when compared with that of his Honduran counterparts,
to warrant the discrepancies in the Times’s coverage of the two governments. We urge you to examine this disparity in coverage and language use, particularly as it may appear to your readers to track all too closely the US government’s positions regarding the Honduran government (which it supports) and the Venezuelan government (which it opposes) - precisely the syndrome you describe and warn against in your column.
T/ AVN P/ Agencies
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or the third year in a row, Venezuela joined the celebration of International Biological Diversity Day on May 22, this time with a day-long forum on biodiversity and eco-socialism at the Simon Bolivar University in Caracas. Venezuela is among the top 10 countries in the world with the largest variety of animals, plants and ecosystems, and is the first to develop a national strategy around biodiversity. This strategy is set out in the Second National Socialist Plan for the period 2013- 2019 under an objective entitled “Ensure Environmental Policy for Conservation”. In the morning forum, various actors involved in species preservation initiatives gathered with officials from the Ministry of the Environment to share their ideas and experiences in a discussion designed to benefit researchers and all those concerned with the issue.
In 2010, Venezuela organized its first National Congress on Biodiversity to define strategies that contribute to decreasing the rate of loss of biological diversity.
New York Times accused of treating Latin political leaders differently T/ Roy Greenslade
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ere’s a story that the New York Times has yet to carry. A petition, signed by 23 leading US academics, authors and film-makers, has been launched which urges the paper’s “public editor” to examine the Times’s inconsistent coverage of two Latin American countries. They argue that there are disparities between its largely negative reporting on Venezuela during the presidency of Hugo Chavez (who died in March) and its less critical reporting on Honduras under its successive leaders, Roberto Micheletti and Porfirio Lobo. Among the petition’s signatories are more than a dozen experts on Latin America and the media plus Noam Chomsky and Ed Herman, and the film directors Oliver Stone and Michael Moore. Here’s the full script of the petition…
Dear Margaret Sullivan, In a recent column, you observed: Although individual words and phrases may not amount to very much in the great flow produced each day, language matters. When news organisations accept the government’s way of speaking, they seem to accept the government’s way of thinking. In The Times, these decisions carry even more weight. In light of this comment we encourage you to compare the New York Times’ characterisation of the leadership of the late Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and that of Roberto Micheletti and Porfirio Lobo in Honduras. In the past four years, the Times has referred to Chavez as an “autocrat”, “despot”, “authoritarian ruler” and a “caudillo” in its news coverage. When opinion pieces are included, the Times has published at least 15 separate articles employing such language, depicting Chavez as a “dictator” or “strongman”.
. s Friday, May 24, 2013 | Politics
The artillery of ideas
5
Statement of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela “We are a nation of peace, President Obama” T/ Foreign Ministry of Venezuela
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protest to you because I will not allow the government and the rights of Venezuela to be insulted or disregarded. In defending them against Spain, a great part of our population has disappeared and the remaining part longs to deserve the same fate. It is the same for Venezuela to fight against Spain or against the entire world, if the whole world offends it. - Letter of protest from Simon Bolivar to Mr. Irvine, Agent of the US Government. Angostura, October 7, 1818. The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela rejects with all the force of its Bolivarian dignity the statements made by the President of the United States, Barack Obama, in Mexico City on May 3, 2013. Once again, President Obama attacks the legitimate government of Venezuela which was elected on April 14th through a transparent electoral process, whose results were recognized by electoral accompaniers coming from the whole continent and other countries of the world, including the Electoral Mission of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) as well as by all the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean and other continents. By making statements such as “the people of Venezuela deserve to determine their own destiny free from the kinds of practices that the entire hemisphere generally has moved away from”, President Obama seems to ignore that during 14 years of Bolivarian Government, we the Venezuelan people have adopted an electoral system that stems from a constitutional recognition of the importance of this issue through the creation of a new branch, the Electoral Branch, whose governing body is the National Electoral Council (CNE). President Obama, please inform yourself. The CNE has been able to overcome the terrible practices that used to violate people’s will, and that the US supported in order to have governments docile to its mandates. This was attained by establishing an automated voting system in which a voter casts his or her vote through a voting machine that tallies the votes at the end of the process and transmits the results to the CNE counting center. Additionally, a series of audits are carried out before, during and after the electoral process, to guarantee the accuracy of the data shown by the respective ballots. Similarly, you, President Obama, state that “there are reports indi-
cating that basic principles of human rights, democracy, press freedom and freedom of assembly are not observed in Venezuela”. Although we are no longer surprised by such unfounded statements, we are obliged to respond with what the rest of the hemisphere already knows, which is that human rights are totally and absolutely respected in Venezuela, since the moment Commander Hugo Chavez assumed leadership of the Venezuelan State and proposed the composition of a new constitution possesses the most advanced catalog of human rights in the whole region. Since then, we have created several institutions to ensure respect for and greater access to human rights and new public policies that today allow all people living in this dignified country to have more and better guarantees regarding access to civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, as well as to the collective rights of our peoples. President Obama, the people of Venezuela fully exercise many rights and freedoms that US society is still a long way from reaching. Finally, it is a source of outrage for the Venezuelan people, and especially the families of those who died on April 15,
2013, that you would falsely claim that “the entire hemisphere has been watching the violence, the protests, the attacks on the opposition”. Certainly, and despite the self-censorship of the media’s large “information” corporations against Venezuela, the hemisphere witnessed how the losing candidate of the opposition and his call to hate and violence in the streets caused the political assassinations of nine compatriots, Bolivarian leaders, pro-Chavez people committed to the revolution led today by President Nicolas Maduro, under the doctrine given to us by the eternal Commander of the Bolivarian Revolution, Hugo Chávez. Added to the violent record of these opposition groups are several more acts, namely the storming of several health centers in the presence of Cuban doctors as an act of xenophobia, the burning of public buildings and properties and offices of democratic political organizations, among other acts of vandalism. For you and your government, these occurrences were not a source of concern. This is the nature of two-faced imperialist morals. As for the rest, what the whole hemisphere and all of humanity watch in
horror are the events at the illegal prison of Guantanamo where torture and other cruel treatment degrading to human beings has been practiced for more than a decade. This is one of the most shameful chapters of human history. The noble of the world are shocked by the manner in which you have failed in your promise made in 2008 and 2012 to shut down that prison which is an embarrassment to the people of the United States, a great people. President Obama, the government of President Nicolas Maduro, inheritor of the ideals of Commander Chavez and the National Plan for the 2013-2019 period, has the historical goal of achieving peace on the planet as the only way to save the human race. We are a nation of peace that works arduously alongside our Latin American and Caribbean brothers in order to achieve the true unity of our peoples, in order to be free and sovereign and consolidate ourselves as a zone of peace. Your false, harsh and interventionist statements do not help to improve bilateral relations between the US and Venezuela; on the contrary, they drive them toward further deterioration, which only confirms to the world the policy of aggression that you and your government maintain against our nation. President Obama, your statements promote the emergence of a Pinochet in Venezuela. You must assume your responsibility before history; as for us, we will assume ours, which is to defend peace and independence in the homeland of Bolivar. We alert all the independent governments of the world, the peoples and their political and social organizations to the US government’s plan to provoke the so-called “dogs of war” in Venezuela in order to justify an imperialist intervention. May our friends around the world know that we, as descendants of our Liberator Simon Bolivar and Commander Hugo Chavez, are ready to defend our right to be free against any form of imperial domination. We call all friends of the Venezuelan cause to display the most active solidarity with our people. Today, just as Bolivar said in 1818, we repeat “fortunately, a handful of free people have often been known to defeat powerful empires”. Compatriots, let us take up the sling of David to face this new aggression by Goliath.
6 Interview | . s Friday, May 24, 2013
The artillery of ideas
Young Men Break with machista stereotypes in Ecuador T/ Leisa Sanchez - IPS P/ Agencies
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t the age of 20, Damian Valencia speaks knowledgeably about every aspect of gender equality. He is a member of Cascos Rosa, a young people’s initiative working for cultural change against machismo and violence against women in Ecuador. “We seek and promote gender equality and equal rights and opportunities for men and women”, said Valencia, one of the founders of the network of young people –originally all men– united against machismo, whose members call themselves Cascos Rosa (Pink Helmets). The group was formed in 2010 by teenagers and young adults who had received awareness raising training on gender equality, violence and ways of expressing masculinity from the Ecuadorean chapter of Accion Ciudadana por la Democracia y el Desarrollo (ACDemocracia – Citizens’ Action for Democracy and Development) and the Coalition against Trafficking in Women and Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean. Valencia said that gender equity “is such a huge problem that it affects everyone”. He acknowledged that “an improvement can be seen” in the country, but added that “even so, we are still living in a patriarchal society”. Belonging to Cascos Rosa has had a major impact on his life, he said. At home there was “a machista scheme of things” in which the men “did not wash clothes or do the ironing, did not cook or wash dishes, and expected everything to be done for them. “Now we all share the same jobs at home, no one is above anyone else, and we have the same rights and opportunities”, he said. The network promotes a new mentality for combating gender violence and the consumption of prostitution and pornography. Their pink helmets and Tshirts “break the stereotype that only women wear pink; that boy babies are dressed in blue and girls in pink”,
said Valencia, the network’s spokesman. Cascos Rosa originally had 33 members who emerged from the first workshops held in educational centres, and now has 140. So far 900 teenagers and young people have received training. At first, only young men were included, but as of this year women have joined the ranks. The network members replicate their knowledge by giving talks in schools and conducting awareness raising activities at gatherings that draw young people, like music festivals. The work of the Cascos Rosa has spread from Quito to four other municipalities in the northern province of Pichincha, where the local government supports the project. They wear pink T-shirts at their talks, meetings and other activities, in order to create an impact and practise what they preach. Carolina Felix, who runs workshops for the network, told IPS that it is an ongoing effort, because deep-seated change is not achieved in a 12-hour training session. “That is not enough to modify behaviours and attitudes, let alone reality”,
she said. But she added that the workshops do spark reflection, interest, questions and new practices among young people. “We do not impose a way of thinking. We encourage the construction of a society based on equality, human rights and equity. The goal is to create spaces where men do not have power over women, where they express their emotions, and where women also understand that we have rights, freedoms and responsibilities, just as men do”, Felix said. The aim, as well as shaping character and educating youngsters, is to encourage leadership traits and to make each young person a multiplier agent of their knowledge and experience, at home as well as at educational centers. What happened in Valencia’s home shows that this can be done. In this middle-class family of three children, where the parents are shopkeepers, “everyone has changed, especially my father, who now washes the dishes and sometimes does the ironing. My mother is happier and calmer because her burden is lighter”, Valencia said. “A definite change is taking place”, said Felix, describing
the impact on the new generation taking up the baton for gender equity. “They are not afraid of showing themselves as they are, and neither do they say, ‘poor women, such victims!’ because it is an issue both men and women have to work on”.
VIOLENCE: THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG The Transition Commission set up by the government to determine the public institutions that will guarantee equality between women and men recognizes the need to “promote cultural transformations” to eradicate inequality and discrimination. The priority, according to Alexandra Ocles, who chairs the commission, is to transform “cultural patterns involving values, customs, practices, the social imaginary, habits, sexist stereotypes, representations and symbols to do with sexual diversity and the traditional roles that society assigns to women and men”. Gender violence is one of the most serious problems, according to the National Survey on Family Relationships and Gender-Based Violence against Women, the first of its kind to
be carried out in this country of 14.5 million people. The survey, carried out in 2011, found that 60.6 percent of the women interviewed had suffered some type of gender violence: physical, psychological, sexual or financial. Psychological or emotional violence was the most frequently cited, by 53.9 percent of the respondents, followed by physical violence (38 percent), financial or property violence – the removal or retention of property or economic resources belonging to the victim – (35.3 percent) and sexual violence (25.7 percent). “Ninety percent of married or cohabiting women (in the sample) who had experienced violence were not separated from their partners. Some 52.5 percent of them said that couples must overcome their difficulties and stay together, and 46.5 percent said their problems were not so serious”, says the study, carried out by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC). The debate on gender-based violence emerged into the public arena in the late 1980s. The first special police units providing services for women and families were introduced in 1994, and one year later the law on violence against women and the family came into force. In 2007, the National Plan for the Eradication of GenderBased Violence against children, adolescents and women was launched, which includes in its aims “changing discriminatory social and cultural patterns”. The constitution approved in 2008 mandated the integration of a gender perspective into all public projects and established institutional guarantees for women’s human rights. In recent years there have been advances, including provision of comprehensive services in the justice system, campaigns against machismo and gender violence, and a strategy to mainstream a gender perspective in higher education. Progress has also been made in women’s participation in the different branches of government: the proportion of women in the judiciary climbed from six percent in 2006 to 43 percent in 2011; in the executive branch their participation rose from 14 to 33 percent in the same period; and in the legislature the share increased from 25 to 34 percent. Left-leaning President Rafael Correa has declared that achieving gender equity is one of the priorities of his government.
. s Friday, May 24, 2013 | Analysis
The artillery of ideas
The judicial coup advances
T/ Luis Britto Garcia
1.
Barack Obama thinks it’s within his authority to affirm that, “the people of Venezuela are able to determine their own destiny free from the kinds of practices that the entire hemisphere generally has moved away from” and thus not recognize the electoral triumph of Nicolas Maduro. Meanwhile, the losing candidate – Henrique Capriles Radonski – submits papers to the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) demanding the April 14th election be nullified while affirming to the press that, “if these judges don’t want to respond, international options are to come”. Capriles’ conduct is proof that he respects neither the National Elections Council (CNE) nor the nation’s highest judicial body. The same people who back Capriles backed Pedro Carmona Estanga in the failed 2002 coup and its vitiation of the Constitution. What better place for them than the judicial entities financed by the United States? 2. In effect, no judicial bodies are more sponsored by the US than the Organization of American States’ (OAS) InterAmerican Court and Human Rights Commission (IACHR), which receives 54% of its budget from the northern power. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa recently denounced that 96.5% of the Inter-American Commis-
sion’s finances are maintained by two countries (US, Canada, and non-governmental organizations within them) that have not yet signed the American Convention on Human Rights – freeing them of its jurisdiction. 3. He who pays the musicians gets to choose the music, and the IACHR dances to the rhythm of its patrons. As though running behind its owner Obama, on May 10th the Inter-American Commission called on Venezuela to “urgently adopt all necessary measures to guarantee the rights to life and integrity, as well as political rights, the right to assembly, and the rights to freedom of association and freedom of expression in this context”. Anyone who doubts the IACHR’s bias should take into account that only six cases pertaining to Venezuela were even considered during the entire bloody period of 1969-1998, a period in which Venezuelans suffered concentration camps and massacres such as those at Cantaura, Yumare and the Caracazo. Of these six cases, one was even brought to the commission by none other than knownterrorist Luis Posada Carriles. In contrast, between 1999 and 2011 the commission processed 63 cases against Venezuela. The Inter-American Court hasn’t done any better. Between 1981 and 1998 it took on one single case regarding Venezuela, the massacre at El Amparo. In
c o nt r a s t , du r i n g the 19992011 period it ruled on 13 Venezuela-related cases, processing another 11. In total, 23 cases against our country. Meanwhile, neither the IACHR nor the court took any action after the failed coup of April 11, 2002. 4. The bitter truth about bias directed against us is worth remembering. In its 2011 Annual Report, submitted to the United Nations’ for the Universal Periodic Review, the IACHR issued accusations against Venezuela in 233 paragraphs. In 205 of them it discussed cases that were still being processed within Venezuela, of no concern to external jurisdiction until internal mechanisms are exhausted. In 225 of the paragraphs it failed to specify things by name, date, place, or any other indispensible data needed for accusations to be admitted in normal courts. In 182 cases it opined on supposed future events that “might” occur. The vast majority of its findings were based on media reports that no dignified tribunal would accept as evidence. The IACHR even went as far as to veto laws that are still pending legislative approval, laws which depend exclusively on sovereign popular will, not on an office found somewhere in Washington. Basing its conclusions on this body of forged
accusations, the court included Venezuela in its list of “Category IV” countries with grave Human Rights problems alongside Cuba, Honduras, and Haiti. 5. The tribunal of the pharisees is known by its rulings. On January 10, 2012 I wrote that at the insistence of terrorist Thor Halvorssen, “the Inter-American Court contradicted the Venezuelan ruling that disqualified this corrupt politician from running for office. As such, the court might also try disqualifying the winner of the 2012 election, or issuing a ruling on who actually won”. A year later, we now find ourselves precisely in that situation. The opposition wants international tribunals financed by the United States, and not our people, to decide who governs in Venezuela. 6. What kind of success might this reckless demand have? Judicially, none. Article 1 of the OAS Charter states that nations join the convention in order “to achieve an order of peace and justice, to promote their solidarity, to strengthen their collaboration, and to defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and their independence”. As such, no court linked to the OAS can rule against the independence and sovereignty of a member state. In the event that the court tries doing just that, the July 15, 2003 decision of our TSJ’s Constitutional Chamber already declared that rulings by
7
foreign judicial bodies are not applicable in Venezuela if and when they violate our Constitution. 7. Also worth noting is that the IACHR and the Inter-American Court can’t even consider taking on such an opposition request since Article 46 of the American Convention on Human Rights stipulates that: 1. Admission by the Commission of a petition or communication lodged in accordance with Articles 44 or 45 shall be subject to the following requirements: a. that the remedies under domestic law have been pursued and exhausted in accordance with generally recognized principles of international law. On May 10, 2012, our National Assembly agreed upon a rejection of Inter-American meddling. An unexplainable and inexcusable delay, however, left this decision unreported to the court until September 6 – almost four months later. The court only accepts responses to its rulings for a year after any given decision. If it hadn’t been for the saboteur delay, we’d already be free of this nightmare. But, according to constitutional lawyer Jose Vicente Haro, who spoke to La Verdad daily on April 27, 2013, “the path of contestation is a long one. A definitive ruling could take another year to be delivered”. Once that date arrives – September 6th, 2013 – we will be entirely free of the pharisees’ authority. Hopefully that’s the way it goes. 8. Justice is blind, as is prejudice. The Inter-American Court is considering RCTV’s complaint relating to the non-renewal of its broadcasting license, Allan Brewer Carias’ attempts to delegitimize the Venezuelan justice system, and the recently-announced demand by loser candidate Capriles that he wants the 2013 presidential elections nullified. This is nothing less than a triple offensive aimed at discrediting the executive, judicial, and electoral branches of the Venezuelan government. Our own agency tasked with defending us, Venezuela’s State Agency for Human Rights before International Entities, often takes four months to pay its staff, which in other cases can’t participate in court hearings for lack of travel expenses. President Nicolas Maduro recently published a Twitter message affirming, “the questioned and discredited IACHR lashes out once again at Venezuela’s people and democracy. Once again we reject and repudiate it”. For this repudiation to work, we must endow our defenders with the means necessary to do so. Grave judicial battles are brewing, and we mustn’t face them unarmed.
La artillería del pensamiento
Friday, May 24, 2013 | Nº 159 | 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 - Audra Ramones
International Crisis Group against Venezuela T/ Mark Weisbrot
T
he International Crisis Group (ICG) sells itself as “working to prevent conflict worldwide” but there is one country where their mission looks more like promoting rather than preventing conflict. Their report on Venezuela was released this week. There is a lot wrong with this report – most of it reads like a statement from the Venezuelan political opposition, rather than a neutral third-party observer. But the most ugly and pernicious thing is the report’s insistence that “the validity of the election result [in Venezuela] needs to be clarified” and that a “full and transparent audit result” is necessary, or else the government’s “rule will increasingly come to be seen by many as an imposition, with unpredictable, possibly violent consequences”. These statements strongly imply that the Venezuelan government is to blame if the opposition returns to violence, as it has in the past, in its ongoing refusal to accept the results of a democratic election. For the governments of Latin America, and almost all of
the world, there is no doubt about the “validity of the election result”. It is really only the Venezuelan opposition and the United States government that has questioned it. The International Crisis Group has a $20 million dollar annual budget, about half of which comes from the United States and allied governments who share the State Department’s political agenda, with additional contributions from big oil companies including BP and Shell. So in some ways it is not surprising that it would take the position of the US government, even when the US government is, as in this case, completely isolated in the world. However, the ICG does not always do this in other countries, so this report stands out as a particularly disgraceful blot on their record. The report is so heinously one-sided that it does not even mention the results of the audit that took place on April 14th, the day of the election. In Venezuela, voters express their preference by pressing a computer touch-screen, which then prints out a paper receipt of their vote. The voter then checks to make sure that the
receipt was the same as her choice, and deposits the paper receipt in a sealed box. When the polls closed, a random sample of 53 percent of all the machines (20,825 out of 39,303) was chosen, and a manual tally was made of the paper receipts. This “hot audit” was done on site, in the presence of the observers from both campaigns, as well as witnesses from the community. There were no reports from witnesses or election officials on site of any discrepancies between the machine totals and the hand count. Nor has the Capriles campaign alleged that any such discrepancies occurred. What does this fact that ICG left out of its report mean? It means that the probability of getting this audit result, on April 14th, if in fact Capriles had won the vote, is less than one in 25 thousand trillion. Which means that a “full and transparent audit result” has already occurred, but the ICG – without saying why, in its 16-page report with 77 footnotes, doesn’t seem to think it means very much. Nonetheless, the National Electoral Council, at the request of the Capriles campaign,
is auditing another 12,000 of the remaining 16,000 ballot boxes in the same way. But the opposition decided to boycott this audit, after it first agreed to it. The ICG adopts the opposition spin on these post-electoral events, implying that it is the government that is reneging on its commitment by not doing the “100 percent audit” that the opposition wanted. This part of the report is particularly laughable: Multilateral organizations, such as the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the Organization of American States (OAS), and regional powers, such as Brazil, need to make clear that they will not tolerate further destruction of the rule of law and democratic values. Perhaps ICG doesn’t know it, but UNASUR and Brazil have already made it very clear that “they will not tolerate further destruction of the rule of law and democratic values.” It’s just that their idea of the rule of law and democratic values is different from that of the ICG and its government sponsors: it includes respect for the results of democratic elections. That is why all of the presidents of UNASUR coun-
tries met in Lima on April 18th after the election and why most of them flew to Venezuela the next day to attend President Maduro’s inauguration. Lula da Silva said, in rejecting the US government’s attempt to de-legitimize the Venezuelan election, “Americans should take care of their own business a little and let us decide our own destiny”. And on May 9th, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff made a similar statement, while standing next to President Maduro of Venezuela: President Dilma Rousseff stated on May 9th that South America must reaffirm its ‘capacity to resolve its own problems’. And, without naming other countries, she condemned ‘hegemonic pretensions’ and ‘foreign interference’. For UNASUR and its biggest member country, Brazil, the threat in this case to the rule of law and democratic values is coming from the US government and its allies, not from the Venezuelan government. It’s really shameful to see the ICG promote political conflict by trying to de-legitimize election results that everyone else can see are valid.