Petrocaribe solidifies regional unity The 18 member countries of the Petrocaribe energy alliance met last Saturday in Managua, Nicaragua to discuss anti-poverty measures, educational initiatives and a strengthening of Latin America and Caribbean integration. The VIII Petrocaribe Summit was attended by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro who spoke of the need to expand the work of the trade bloc to include greater human development through the enhancement of social services. Page 3
Analysis
Opinion
NATO sets its sights on Colombia page 7
Bolivian plane & sovereignty grounded by US page 8
Friday, July 5, 2013 | Nº 165 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve
ENGLISH EDITION/The artillery of ideas
Venezuela and Russia Strengthen Relations Venezuela Has Secure Airport T/ AVN
Politics
US Spied on Chavez in Rome NSA documents revealed by Edward Snowden show a secret operation against Hugo Chávez in Italy. Page 4 Politics
Maduro sympathetic to Snowden The Venezuelan President said he would consider the asylum petition from the whistleblower. Page 5 Social Justice
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro traveled to Russia earlier this week to participate in the second Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) where he proposed the creation of a joint investment fund and greater collaboration in research between member nations. The Venezuelan head of state also met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin last Tuesday, signing five new agreements that will further energy and commercial cooperation between the allied nations. During his time in Moscow, Maduro oversaw the inauguration of a street dedicated to late President Hugo Chavez in the Moscow city center. Pgs.2-3
10 Years of literacy Venezuela’s flagship education program, Mission Robinson celebrates 10 years of success. Page 6
INTERNATIONAL
Venezuela’s unemployment rate at 7.8% in May T/ AVN According to the latest monthly report by Venezuela’s National Institute of Statistics (INE), the country’s unemployment rate for May 2013 stood at 7.8%. INE President Elias Eljuri said in a press release that the latest unemployment figures were lower than in the two previous years; it stood at 7.9% in May 2012 and 8.4% in May 2011.
Eljuri said that formal sector employment for the month of May equaled 60.3%, a 14 percentage point increase compared to the same period in 1999, when formal sector employment accounted for just 46.3% of the labor force. The monthly report states that, compared to May 2012, the number of unemployed persons has been reduced by 32,917 workers. Of that total, 19,516 are adults between the ages 45 and 64, and another 11,494 are between the ages of 25 and 44. And overwhelming 92.2% of the new jobs created in the last year are in the formal sector, report states.
Correspondingly, informal sector jobs have lowered over time, Eljuri said. In 1999, when the Bolivarian Revolution began, 53.7% of the labor force was engaged in informal employment, while today, the rate has fallen to 39.7%. “It is the fact that Venezuela’s economy was not only capable of absorbing the total economically active population that joined the workforce between 1999 and 2013, but also, it also absorbed part of the population that was previously unemployed, to reach 4,058,000 people incorporated during that period”, Eljuri said.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) granted Venezuela the highest rating in Latin America for airport security during a recent inspection by the group’s Coordinated Validation Mission, announced the Venezuelan Air and Water Transportation Minister Herbert Garcia Plaza. In a press release, Minister Garcia Plaza said that Venezuela obtained 94 points, which demonstrates the quality of the services offered at the country’s airports. He added that the ICAO also carries out supervision work in compliance with the specified norms. “We feel proud and are certain that the services offered and their inspection guarantees security at airports for all”, the minister said at the inauguration of an Aeronautics Doctors Licensing Unit at Maiquetia International Airport outside Caracas. “The Bolivarian government is very concerned with and involved with improving the infrastructure at airports”, Garcia Plaza added.
2 Impact | . s Friday, July 5, 2013
The artillery of ideas
Maduro attends gas conference in Russia, promotes research and collective financing T/ COI P/ Presidential Press
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enezuelan President Nicolas Maduro traveled to Russia earlier this week to participate in the second Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) where he proposed the creation of a joint investment fund and greater collaboration in research between member nations. “[This is] a great moment to consolidate the Forum as a great organization of countries that export gas”, Maduro said upon touching down in Moscow on Monday morning. “Russia is a brother nation to Venezuela and of the great homeland that is Latin America and the Caribbean”, he added. The visit marks the Venezuelan head of state’s first official trip to Moscow since being elected president in April. During his address on Monday afternoon, the socialist leader called for the creation of a collective fund or bank to provide greater funding for natural gas projects. “It’s not only about the possibility of building a natural gas bank, but also that our public businesses and the most powerful businesses in our countries can be incorporated in order to increase investment in projects that will move each country forward”, Maduro stated. The head of Venezuela’s United Socialist Party (PSUV), also urged the establishment of a collaborative research organization to increase knowledge exchanges between GECF countries. “We are bold enough to insist on the necessity to construct a common research institute for technology and training which can be used to share experiences and to grow the field of gas production as well as in commercialization”, he declared. The GECF was formed in 2011 with the purpose of promoting sustainable and efficient development of natural gas between member nations. Other states belonging to the organization include Iran, Iraq, Bolivia, Algeria, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Oman,
Nigeria, Qatar, and Trinidad and Tobago. The 13 heads of state of each member nation were present for the meeting, which focused on reducing production costs through technological advancement. As a whole, the members of the GECF produce 62 percent of the entire world market of the energy source. Venezuela’s reserves of the hydrocarbon are estimated at 196 trillion cubic feet, with the majority of the oil-related resource being found in the eastern part of the country.
RUSSIA TAKES ISSUE WITH EU Russian President, Vladimir Putin took advantage of the gathering to advocate against the liberalization of natural gas in the European Union and
the restructuring of prices under the region’s Third Energy Package. “Solidarity between the countries that export gas is taking on a crucial importance. It’s more efficient to counteract the unjust pressures and defend the interests of the producers and suppliers of natural gas to markets abroad if we do it together”, the Russian president said. “We believe that it is very important that, in this sensitive market, rules of the game be established that are foreseen and comprehensible”, he added. The statement comes at a time when Moscow faces challenges in the natural gas market as liquefied gas as well as shale gas pose threats to the long term contracts signed be-
tween the EU and the Russian company Gazprom. With the rise in competition, the pipelines that currently supply the lion share of the European market have come under threat, something that Putin called dangerous to global energy security. Those who defend the policies of liberalization and price flexibility “don’t understand that to abandon the fundamental principle of the long term contracts doesn’t only mean a blow to the gas producers but it will also bring significant costs. In the final analysis, this will undermine the energy security of the buyers”, the Russian president affirmed. While differing opinions were offered by other member states, a declaration was drafted and signed at the end of the summit which resolved to “[u]phold the fundamental role of long-term gas supply contracts in financing large-scale gas projects... and in providing mutually acceptable solutions for security of demand and supply”. The document also commits affiliated nations to strengthen coordination and “to promote gas as a driver for environmentally friendly economic growth and social development”.
MEETING OF ALLIES As part of both leaders’ work agendas, Putin and Maduro, accompanied by various min-
isters from both Venezuela and Russia, met on Tuesday to discuss bilateral relations between the allied nations. “Russia can count on the Homeland of Bolivar”, Maduro told his Russian counterpart, who he described as a “great friend of [former Venezuelan President Hugo] Chavez, of Venezuela and Latin America”. The South American leader additionally met with representatives of the Russian Duma including Alexander Zhukov, First Vice President of the legislative body, to exchange ideas regarding the role that the congresses of both countries play in strengthening international ties. A floral offering was then laid at the foot of the Unknown Soldier monument in Red Square in honor of those who gave their lives in the fight against fascism in Europe during WWII. Maduro also expressed his gratitude to the Russian government for its gesture of naming a Moscow street after the late Hugo Chavez. “I want to thank you for the expression of solidarity and love that we received from Russia during President Chavez’s sickness and his lamentable passing”, he said. Hugo Chavez Street is approximately 170 meters long and skirts a park with a small square in the Northeast of the Russian capital.
. s Friday, July 5, 2013 | Integration
The artillery of ideas
VIII Petrocaribe Summit emphasizes anti-poverty initiatives, creation of special economic zone
ple would be better off”, said Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of Dominica. Daniel Ortega, President of the conference’s host country, echoed the sentiments of Skerrit and the other heads of state present for the meeting. “Hugo Chavez is here today with us because this VIII Summit of Petrocaribe was inspired by him and we must make sure that we continue the battle... with the same Christian strength that he characterized”, the Nicaraguan President said.
During the gathering, Petrocaribe adherents also expressed their solidarity with Cuba and rejected the re-appearance of the Caribbean island on a list disseminated by the US government that indicates what it perceives to be countries that support terrorism. “Even though the United States doesn’t listen to the voices of the immense majority of the people of this planet, we cannot go back. We have to continue with this battle”, President Ortega said of the constant attack on Cuba. Saturday’s encounter ended with the signing of an 8-point declaration that included the approval of a “Special Economic Zone” in order to “strengthen, consolidate and make dynamic the integration of Petrocaribe”. Member states further agreed to enhance air transportation between the alliance’s nations and to maintain the supply of fertilizers via the Venezuelan state petro-chemical company Pequiven. An additional resolution obliges member nations to hold a meeting of Commerce and Economy Ministers to evaluate innovative ways “to consolidate regional economic independence”. The final agreement of the organization designated Dominica to host the IX Petrocaribe Summit in 2014.
ed in Venezuela, Maduro said, receiving some $21 billion in Russian investment, allowing the South American nation to take its place as the country with the fifth largest gas reserves in the world. “Venezuela is going to be a world power with respect to natural gas... Russia and Venezuela are uniting our knowledge base and this relationship will be for the good of the global economy”, the Venezuelan head of state underscored. Apart from the energy agreements, Putin and Maduro discussed other bilateral
projects including joint work on Mission Housing Venezuela, the social program that has constructed more than 300,000 new homes for lowincome residents. According to President Putin, Russian firms working in Venezuela will deliver six thousand apartments in 2014. “We will always be grateful for the presence of Russian companies and will continue to invite them so that they participate in this great project Mission Housing Venezuela”, Maduro said.
T/ COI P/ Presidential Press
T
he 18 member countries of the Petrocaribe energy alliance met last Saturday in Managua, Nicaragua to discuss anti-poverty measures, educational initiatives and a strengthening of Latin America and Caribbean integration. The VIII Petrocaribe Summit was attended by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro who spoke of the need to expand the work of the trade bloc to include greater human development through the enhancement of social services. “We need to understand that Petrocaribe, in addition to being an economic zone, should be turned into a zone free from poverty”, the Venezuelan head of state said. Specifically, Maduro prioritized the boosting of literacy and health care programs in member states. “We are proposing a special plan that the Petrocaribe countries should finance so that we can achieve the miracle of zones
free from illiteracy and the expansion of quantitative and qualitative development related to education... This is vital”, the former union leader underscored. Petrocaribe was founded in 2005 and provides oil and petroleum-based products at discounted rates to participating nations. Venezuela currently supplies some 115,000 barrels of oil to alliance members daily and, in some cases, is reimbursed through the acquisition of food products or other goods imported from affiliated countries.
The bloc, which satisfies some 40 percent of its partners’ energy demands, is the product of the integrationist policies of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who succumbed to cancer in March. Honoring the late socialist President and his determination to build a new movement of unity in Latin America and the Caribbean was a key theme of the summit. “If all the leaders of the world had the same vision and compassion that Hugo Chavez had, our hemisphere and our peo-
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Venezuela and Russia sign 5 new agreements, strengthen energy cooperation T/ COI P/ Presidential Press
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enezuelan President Nicolas Maduro met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin last Tuesday, signing five new agreements that will further energy and commercial cooperation between the allied nations. The encounter was held as part of Maduro’s visit to Moscow for the Gas Exporting Countries Forum that saw the gathering of 13 heads of state from around the world to discuss natural gas production and distribution. Chief among the accords inked on Tuesday is the formation of a mixed RussianVenezuelan company that will explore and exploit natural gas located under Caribbean waters in reserves that belong to the South American nation.
The deal was made between Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA, and the Russian company Rosnef, with Rafael Ramirez and Igor Sechin singing the accord in their capacity as president for the respective energy firms. Another pact was penned between Russia’s Gazprom Bank to facilitate greater financing to the Petro Zamora oil company, a joint enterprise founded in 2012 that is currently exploiting sections of Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt. “We are advancing in the area of energy. That’s to say, gas and oil and the supply of equipment to the oil sector”, President Maduro affirmed. A further accord was signed that will see the development of thermoelectric power stations in the South American nation with the assistance of the Russian company RAO UES.
A GROWING RELATIONSHIP With this latest round of cooperation, the number of bilateral agreements signed between Caracas and Moscow now reaches 240. The majority of the pacts have come as a result of the diplomatic work of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who during his 14 years as head of state, sought to diversify his country’s economic relations. President Putin highlighted the fact that trade between the two nations now surpasses $2 billion annually. Venezuelan-Russian companies also account for a daily production of 206,000 barrels of oil extracted from the Caribbean nation. President Maduro commented on Tuesday that within 3 or 4 years, that number should reach a million. Similar cooperation in the area of natural gas has result-
4 Politics | . s Friday, July 5, 2013
The artillery of ideas
Source: NSA spied on Chavez in Rome
T/ Gianni Cipriani – Globalist Syndication P/ Agencies
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he DataGate? It began in Rome when the National Security Agency (NSA) spied on the visit of Hugo Chavez. In May 2006, US secret services organized a massive espionage operation against the Venezuelan President. The Italian capital was intercepted for a week. The DataGate began in Rome in May 2006, when George Bush ordered half the city to be intercepted by the NSA, which wanted to know every detail of Hugo Chavez’s visit to Italy. First Rome; later, the G-20 in 2009, with more refined techniques and technologies. Edward Snowden has revealed that the G-20 in 2009 was characterized by a complete system of espionage of the conversations of entire delegations and leaders attending the summit, through the installation of spyware in Internet cafes, and the capillary control of a Blackberry system used by the invited guests, among other acts. What is not yet known – and what Globalist is able to inform, thanks to a qualified source which had a direct role in the story – is that the G-20’s vast spying operation in Italy had a real testing ground, a massive NSA action which resulted in a huge leap in quality that would permit the intelligence agency
to become Big Brother on the global scale which we are now discussing today. Let’s go back to May 2006, when Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, visited Italy for the second time. Chavez was in a position of confrontation with the United States, and in particular with George Bush, whom several months later (in September) he would call a devil who had left behind a scent of sulfur. Several years before, the United States had supported a failed coup against the Venezuelan president, and one of the CIA agents implicated in the plot had been later designated to the CIA base in Rome. Coincidences. During those days, the NSA carried out an unprecedented signal intelligence (SIGNIT) operation of electronic espionage which marked the beginning of a new stage in its ability of control and infiltration. May 7, 2006: In a quiet area of the Ciampino airport, a plane lands transporting certain “invisible” people, with no name or identity. The procedure is the same that would later be revealed to the public in stunning presentation, and which was standard procedure: top secret level, with the least number of possible tracks. The occupants of the aircraft were part of an elite team of the NSA. Upon arriving to Ciampino they were taken directly to a wing of the US Embasy on the
Via Veneto street, where they remained confined in isolation for the duration of the mission: no hotels, no contact with the outside world, not even with the Embassy staff. After the mission, they were taken on the same route in reverse to Ciampino. The team carried latestgeneration equipment (we’re talking about 2006), capable of interacting with and guiding a satellite system and interacting with spy planes. May 9, 2006: Two spy planes begin to fly over the skies of the capital, directly controlled by the NSA. They remain in flight over Rome 24 hours a day to avoid missing even a minute of supervision. May 10, 2006: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrives in Rome as part of a trip across Europe. In Rome, the most important meeting is scheduled for the morning of the 11th: a visit with Pope Benedict XVI.
Also on the agenda is a visit and private interview with the president of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Fausto Bertinotti. Chavez goes directly to a hotel on Via Veneto, which lies just a few tens of meters from the team that arrived in the capital to spy on him. But it’s just a detail: the technology would have also guaranteed monitoring from a distance of kilometers. The NSA operation begins in all of the following ways. It brings all radio frequencies under its control (including those of Italians), and also gains control of the internet in a similar way, in accordance with the possibilities of the time, as described by Snowden for China: through input nodes in communication networks providing access to the communications of hundreds of thousands of people without having to hack into each computer, in addition to telephones.
During the entire duration of his trip, Hugo Chavez is electronically stalked thanks to two instruments of extraordinary importance for the SIGNIT: radio bombardment and listening capacities from a great distance. In other words, only with the use of satellites and spy planes was the NSA capable of eavesdropping on Chavez’s conversations, including those carried out in private and closed places and, of course, open places. There was no need to install microphones in the rooms or to send a spy with a microphone on his or her ankle. Everything circulated through powerful satellite technologies. Obviously overpriced. Furthermore, when the Venezuelan President moved from one place to another, or when he was somewhere in which radio waves caused interferences, making it difficult to hear his conversations, the NSA was able to activate an emergency device which knocked out all radio wavelengths and frequencies within 500-600 meters. In practice, while the device was activated, remotes for television sets and doors ceased functioning, the telephone lines were interrupted, and the radio devices were reduced to silence. This lasted not for hours, but for a few tens of seconds. Nothing that couldn’t be confused with normal malfunctioning, which therefore generated no suspicions. But it gave the NSA the necessary time to “clean” the signal. The Chavez operation cost a fortune, but it was an explicit order from George Bush himself, who viewed the Venezuelan President as one of his principal enemies, of whom he wanted to know all the details: his strategies, and who were his international contacts and references. After Chavez’s departure, the two spy planes migrated to other skies. The NSA team remained at the Embassy one more day before being secretly returned to Ciampino; the NSA high command, which had following the operation from the control room (the same way that Obama had followed the death of Osama Bin Laden, and as we see in the movies), began to analyze the information. What was the result of the operation? We’ll find this information in a later episode. For now, we can be sure of one thing: the Chavez operation was a test. Without it, there wouldn’t have been the G-20 operation, and who knows how many more. It was 2006. Since then, they have not halted.
. s Friday, July 5, 2013 | Politics
The artillery of ideas
President Maduro: Venezuela ready to help Snowden, but final decision with people
Venezuelan universities march for and against strike T/ Sascha Bercovitch P/ Agencies
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n Sunday in Caracas, university students, professors, and employees carried out separate marches in favor of and against the current strikes being held in ten universities throughout Venezuela. Initiated in May by professors demanding salary increases, the strikes have left approximately 15% of the country’s 2.5 million university students without classes. Though the Table for Negotiation of the Collective Bargaining of the University Sector reached an agreement of increases ranging from 105% to 147% for university administrators, professors, and workers two weeks ago, the opposition supporting Federation of University Professors Associations
of Venezuela (FAPUB) claimed to be “completely unaware” of the agreement, and said its protests would continue. A mostly opposition march left from Plaza Venezuela to Avenue Victoria, near the Central University of Venezuela (UCV). Citizens expressed their support for “something more than a salary”, according to the president of the Association of Professors of the Simon Bolívar University Rafael Alvarez. “We’re defending the Venezuelan university that we know, in which we educate ourselves and work, in which we defend our autonomy, the plurality of thought and academic freedom” which don’t currently exist, he said. Several leaders of Venezuela’s political opposition appeared at the march supporting the strike, including
MORALES PLANE DOWNED
world” when asked whether he would grant asylum to the whistleblower. The US has voided Snowden’s passport, making it difficult to leave the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport. “We should not think about how Snowden would escape Moscow airport but to analyze what information this young person provided. That is much more important than to think about how he will escape his current place of stay. If in the next days this person leaves the airport by plane or by boat or however, this is not so impor-
tant”, the Venezuelan leader remarked. Snowden has captivated the world’s press after leaking data on the NSA’s mass surveillance program in May. “He has raised a red flag in time, revealing that the US elite have mechanisms which they intend to use in order to spy on the world”, said Maduro. He added that some of the things which Snowden revealed seemed like “science fiction” at first. “Now we have to think what other things there might be that could affect the peace of the people...We have to really think what other secrets - from John Kerry or Joe Biden - this young man keeps. Secrets of an empire that is morally and ethically in a decline”. Snowden arrived in Moscow from Hong Kong on June 23, traveling on special documents given to him by the Ecuadorian government as his US passport was voided. However, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said on Monday that any help granted to Snowden had been a mistake and that no more aid would be given to him. He stressed that
former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles and head of the party Voluntad Popular Leopoldo Lopez. Meanwhile, starting at Morelos Plaza, citizens against the university strikes marched to the Plaza Diego Ibarra in the center of Caracas “in defense of education”, as one banner read. “They have another agenda … “[Their interests] are completely unrelated to the interests of teachers”, general coordinator of the Federation of University Workers of Venezuela, Carlos Lopez said, in reference to the connection between university professors on strike and the political opposition. Various government ministers expressed their support for the march against the strikes, including Vice-Minister of Youth Hanthony Coello, who maintained that a significant portion of the country’s GDP was devoted to education. “In other parts of the world, many are fighting for free education”, he added, “but here we have it”.
No incidents of violence were reported at either march, prompting President Nicolas Maduro to state from Nicaragua via his Twitter account on Sunday that “peace was triumphant today”. “To those who came overwhelmingly to defend the free
and open university education that we have, I express my commitment to continuing its development. And to those from the right who have closed the classrooms of 15% of the enrollment of 2.5 million students, I ask that you reflect, and return to classes”, he wrote.
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countries. This is why we say that we share what this young man says and that protecting Snowden will protect peace”, Maduro said. Earlier NSA leaker Edward Snowden was reported to have sought asylum in 21 countries, aiming to gain protection against US prosecutors. When questioned whether Caracas has received an application from Snowden, Maduro said that he has “no official communication that says Snowden applied for asylum in Venezuela”. He added that Venezuela “must await the reaction of the
the Ecuadorian consul in London acted outside their authority when they issued the travel documents to Snowden.
On Tuesday afternoon the presidential aircraft carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales was forced to make an emergency landing in Vienna, Austria after Portugal, France, Spain and Italy denied the plane authorization to fly over their airspace. The incident occurred after the US pressured European nations to impide the Bolivian leader’s flight based on suspicion that Edward Snowden was on board. Earlier, President Morales had expressed sympathy for Snowden and indicated he would consider granting him political asylum if requested. The incident provoked outrage from Latin American nations, which called for an emergency summit of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). For his part, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said early Wednesday morning that the decision by European countries to restrict Morales’ flight amounts to “dangerous, disproportionate and unacceptable aggression”. “I ratify all our solidarity with Evo and from Venezuela with dignity we respond to this dangerous, disproportionate and unacceptable aggression”, he wrote via his twitter account, @NicolasMaduro.
T/ RT aracas is ready to help NSA leaker Edward Snowden, but will “leave the decision to the people” when considering his request for asylum, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has told RT Spanish in an interview. “I think we should do something for him and I will leave this decision to the people. We either help him or we close the door and forget about him. We really believe in world peace and world balance. We are not afraid of any kind of empires. I don’t know how many people can hear me in this studio, but there is no empire that can intimidate us”, Maduro said. “This young man has to be protected by the international community. He did with dignity to tell the world that there are mechanisms that are intended to control information and spy on the world”, Maduro added. “If Snowden stays alone, he will be destroyed. But what kind of crimes did he commit? What kind of bombs did he explode or what kind of missiles did he launch? He tries to fight against controlling weak
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6 Social Justice | . s Friday, July 5, 2013
The artillery of ideas
Ten years on: Venezuela’s education missions are “building a better world” T/ Ryan Mallett-Outtrim P/ Agencies
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fter ten years, almost two million Venezuelans have been provided with free literacy classes, and thousands of adult students have been given a second chance to undertake primary and secondary education through the government’s missions. On 1 July, Venezuela commemorated the tenth anniversary of the founding of the first education mission, Robinson. The mission has taught approximately 1,756,250 Venezuelans to read and write since its inception. The government has largely credited its declared achievement of becoming a “territory free of illiteracy” in 2005 to its education missions. Currently, around 246,607 students are studying with Mission Robinson or one of associated programs. They are taught by a workforce of 33,757 volunteers, according to the Venezuelan News Agency, AVN. Venezuela’s education missions are crucial for “building a better world”, affirmed educator Carmen Camacho. “The missions help people in many ways right now”, she told Correo del Orinoco International. Camacho works in Mission Ribas, another education mission. While Robinson provides
THE RESPONSIBILITY TO EDUCATE
basic literacy and Robinson II offers remedial primary level education, Ribas holds high school level classes for adults across the country. “It’s a thing we need to do...to try to help people and support them”, Camacho said. Camacho also urged more young people to “get involved” in the education missions, including Robinson and Ribas. We have a responsibility as young people...this isn’t for us, this is for our children”, she said.
TEN YEARS ON The work of Mission Robinson was praised by Vice
President Jorge Arreaza, who tweeted, “Ten years of our Mission Robinson today. Thanks to commanders [Hugo] Chavez and Fidel [Castro], millions have emerged from the obscurity of illiteracy”. Launched in July 2003, Mission Robinson uses a methodology developed in Cuba. With the slogan, “yo si puedo” (yes I can), the system involves the use of not only educational institutions, but also social organizations and the wider community to encourage literacy. The second and third stages of the education process, Robinson II and Ribas were launched
120,000 Venezuelans with disabilities certified for accreditation and benefits T/ Sascha Berkovitch www.venezuelanalysis.com
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pproximately 120,000 Venezuelans with disabilities have been certified for accreditation and corresponding socioeconomic benefits, National Council for Persons with Disabilities (Conapdis) President Edgar Araujo announced yesterday during the Gobierno de Calle, or Street Government, held in Portuguesa state. In the announcement, which occurred during a meeting of persons with disabilities in Acarigua-Araure, Araujo also indicated plans of a “massive effort” raise the number of certifications in
people who were previously “excluded definitively from the education system in our country”. “[The graduates] are people who were educated in the classrooms of Mission Robinson. They never had the possibility to learn to read and write. Thanks to the missions of our revolution they have the possibility to be protagonists of this process”, Ortegano stated.
July. The effort will include psychologists, therapists, and other professionals to attend to nuclear families through the Disability and Family Program. In specifying disabilities and allowing for access to education and other social programs, “the certification is like an identity card for us”, Araujo said. To that extent, Conapdis has made the certification a central goal to its agenda for the Street Government program, which has taken place in several states since April. In order to respond to complaints voiced during the Portuguesa’s Street Government, Araujo indicated that there
would be an increased focus on building care and comprehensive training centers. He added that with its entrance of 40,000 people with disabilities into the labor force, “Portuguesa stands out as one of the leading states”. The certification effort aims to comply with past government initiatives, which include the 2007 Law for People with Disabilities, which mandates that at least 5% of employees in private and public institutions be of reduced mobility, and the 2008 Mission Gregorio Hernandez, which is aimed at diagnosing and treating disabilities in underdeveloped areas.
later in 2003. According to AVN, approximately 789,436 students have graduated from Robinson II; many of which have proceeded to undertake high school level education with Ribas, and engaged in the reading circles provided under Robinson III.
“YO SI PUEDO” Just days before the anniversary of Robinson’s founding, on June 28, 1,632 students graduated from Ribas during a ceremony in Caracas. The president of Mission Ribas, Orlando Ortegano described the event as part of the “historic activity” of providing educational opportunities to
“I really enjoy my job. I mean, I chose it. Why? Because I feel better helping people...to change the world”, Camacho said from Merida. “Mission Ribas is a really good option to help and support people”, she said, stating that the program should be supported by all revolutionaries. “We all have a responsibility”, said Camacho. Most of Camacho’s students are in their 30’s or 40’s, and missed out on completing school due to poverty, she explained. “[Students are] 45-50 years old sometimes”, she said. However, Camacho also stated that there are some problems that the missions still need to overcome, ranging from corruption to conditions for staff. “We have a real problem with some educators...to work in places far from the city. [Also,] the pay is not good”, she said. The solution [is to] pay better...[but also] to explain the real messages of the revolution”, she said. “There [are] always problems. The point is you need to change things bit by bit”, Camacho concluded.
. s Friday, July 5, 2013 | Analysis
The artillery of ideas
Trouble Brewing in South America
NATO sets Its sights on Colombia T/ Dave Feldman
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n June 25, Colombian Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon and the Deputy Secretary-General of NATO, Alexander Vershbow, signed an Agreement on the Security of Information. The news comes a little more than a month after the Colombian Air Force began to participate in training exercises with NATO planes in Canada, and three weeks after President Juan Manuel Santos first announced his administration’s intention to seek increased cooperation with the military alliance, with an eye towards eventually becoming a full member. Santos’s words elicited strong condemnation from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)— with whom the Colombian government is currently engaged in peace talks—and the heads of state of Latin American countries such as Bolivia and Nicaragua, who have pointed out the incompatibility of NATO’s aggressive bombing campaigns with the efforts made by the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) to promote peace in the region. While Colombia is unable to join NATO due to its geographical location, the agreement portends future collaboration in matters of security, and facilitates the participation of Colombia in a number of NATO activities. Although the idea might strike some as bizarre, this is actually a rather logical development when one considers the contemporary geopolitical situation in the region. Looming large is Washington’s intense militarization of Colombia—a bastion of rightwing forces in an increasingly left-leaning region—as well as Bogota’s recent signing of free trade agreements with both the United States and the European Union. Moreover, the death of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez— and the subsequent challenges that this poses for the Bolivarian Revolution and indeed the stability of the ALBA bloc as a whole—must also be taken into account.
THE HIDDEN FIST OF THE MARKET As a member of UNASUR, it is highly unlikely that Colombia would have approached NATO to ask for protection, considering that any hostility it might
currently face from neighboring countries is precisely due to its close relationship with the US. Furthermore, while Colombian soldiers have already served in Afghanistan under the NATO flag, their contribution is negligible in the grand scheme of things. Rather, the logic behind the agreement lies in its potential usefulness to transnational capital. Free trade and economic liberalism have been inextricably linked with militarization and imperial exploits for well over a century, and lest liberals turn sour on the concept of perpetual war, today’s poster boy for neoliberal globalization, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, reminds us that “the hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist”. Indeed, the possibility of increasing cooperation between NATO and Colombia was initially broached in 2006, the same year that negotiations for the US-Colombia free trade agreement began. Neoliberalism began to make headway in Colombia during the 1990s, and accordingly, defense and security spending in the country shot up from $423 million in 1992 to more than $2.2 billion by only 1998. Under the guise of combating narcotrafficking and subsequently “terrorism”, the United States has since channelled well over
ten billion dollars to its Andean ally via Plan Colombia and its successor the Patriot Plan. The former focused resources on the “transformation” and “modernization” of Colombia’s armed and police forces to combat guerrilla forces and maintain control over strategic territories, while the goals of the latter included gaining control of Colombian territory and increasing access to neighbouring countries. This involved the deployment of roughly fifteen thousand soldiers to the Ecuadoran and Venezuelan border regions, and led to a flaring of regional tension in the wake of an attack by the Colombian armed forces on a FARC camp in Ecuadoran territory in 2008, with the National Court of Justice of Ecuador eventually even issuing an arrest warrant for Santos, head of the Armed Forces at the time. It appears, then, that the discourse surrounding “security” refers to nothing more than ensuring a stable investment climate for transnational corporations. In Colombia, this is a euphemism for the displacement of nearly five million people and the intimidation and massacring of union leaders, activists, and indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities by paramilitary and military units in order to carry out extractive
activities, plant cash crops, and maintain the prevailing unequal power relations that have only deepened and been institutionalized by the recent free trade agreements.
THE EU JOINS THE FOLD Beyond its role in Colombia proper, the US has long used the country to gain a foothold from which it can militarize the rest of the continent. The ALBA bloc, however, has forced a partial retreat, as evidenced by the transfer to Colombia of personnel and equipment formerly stationed at the Manta base in Ecuador after Rafael Correa refused to renew its lease in 2009. Yet the NATO affair also demonstrates the increasingly imperialist role of Global Europe in the region, and particularly in Colombia, which has by far the institutional framework most friendly to transnational capital. Prior to its signing of free trade agreements with Colombia and Peru, the EU had already become the principal source of foreign direct investment in the Andean Community of Nations (CAN). Although Washington has long considered the region its “backyard”, Europe’s more proactive role in South America has not led to tension with the US because contemporary imperialism should not be conceptualized as rival national
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bourgeoisies in competition with each other as much as the hegemonic expansion of the ruling transnational class and the imposition of its neoliberal agenda in all aspects of life and all corners of the world. While it has grown to encompass elites from all over the globe, this transnational class remains largely North Atlantic in character, and its consolidation has coincided with that of the European Union and NATO.
NATO DOCTRINE IN SOUTH AMERICA The governments of the ALBA bloc are by no means immune from legitimate criticism, but much of the member states’ demonstrable success in reducing social inequality is due to their resistance, in one form or another, to the onslaught of transnational capital and neoliberalism. Bogota has gone against the grain in this respect, and Colombian society has suffered the consequences accordingly. Stronger ties with NATO do not bode well, if only because it would provide even more support to the Colombian Armed Forces. Both the Colombian military and NATO are notorious for their atrocious human rights records, yet Santos’s administration is attempting to convince the FARC to turn in their weapons while effectively ignoring their central demand for more access to land, handing it over instead to transnational corporations. Moving beyond domestic issues, a NATO foothold in South America can only lead to destabilization of the entire region. At this point, we can only speculate as to what exactly this stabilization will look like. Wikileaks cables have demonstrated the lengths that Washington went to in an attempt to undermine the Chavez administration through the funding of propaganda campaigns and opposition groups, and the previously discussed raid on a FARC camp in Ecuadoran territory in 2008 set a dangerous precedent for the use of Colombia as a base to carry out military incursions in the region. In view of the new Strategic Concept adopted by NATO at its 2010 Lisbon Summit, as well as the organization’s belligerent actions in North Africa and the Middle East, we can only hope that the ghost of Monroe does not come back to haunt the region in the form of the NATO doctrine: open up to transnational capital and interests, or we will bomb you to smithereens.
La artillería del pensamiento
Friday, July 5, 2013 | Nº 165 | 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
Opinion The Empire Strikes Out
Bolivian plane (and sovereignty) grounded by US T/ Ken Klippenstein
O
n Tuesday, the Bolivian presidential plane was forced to land due, in the New York Times’ words, to “suspicions that Mr. Snowden was aboard”. As the Bolivian Defense Minister has pointed out, this “is a violation of the conventions and agreements of international air transportation”. The plane originally intended to land in Lisbon, Portugal for refueling; however, it was denied permission to land, forcing it to instead refuel in Vienna, Austria. Austrian officials have since confirmed that Snowden was not on board. The United States was almost certainly behind this maneuver, unless you believe that Portugal acted independently—unlikely given that Snowden is leaking only US data, some of which showed that the US has been spying on Europe extensively. Obama, assuming the annoyingly unflappable, measured persona he always does when addressing embarrassments to his administration, said that he’s “not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year old hacker”. Not scramble them—just force them to land. His earlier claim that he’s “following all the appropriate legal channels…to make sure that rule of law is observed” in apprehending Snowden is a statement that now reads like sarcasm. John Kerry’s lecturing admonition that “it’s important to uphold the rule of law and respect the relationship between two nations”, directed at Russia for its refusal to extradite Snowden, is similarly laughable. Somewhat more surprising is the cowardice of European officials, namely those of Portugal and France (France also disallowed the Bolivian presidential plane from flying through their airspace). Just days after Snowden’s revelation that the US had bugged European Union diplomatic missions in both Washington, D.C. and the United Nations, EU leaders seemed furious. French President Francois Hollande asserted, “We cannot accept this kind of behav-
ior between partners and allies”. This kind of indignation is limited, of course, to words and not actions: the French Finance Minister yesterday said that Snowden’s asylum request to France is “not an issue”; and now, of course, Hollande’s administration denies a plane passage based on the possibility that it was carrying the very whistleblower who informed them of the “kind of behavior” to which Hollande expressed dismay. The German Chancellor’s Spokesman said of the spying scandal, “we are no longer in the Cold War”. Her remarks can be assumed to be no more sincere than those of Obama, Hollande, et al. Yet the sentiment she’s expressing is held quite seriously by the German people. During the Cold War, Germany was split between
two superpowers: the US and USSR. East Germany belonged to the Soviets, whereas West Germany was allied with NATO. During this time, Germans were heavily surveilled by both sides. Regarding empires, the currency on which their political economies function is control. Whether or not a particular state is an ally of an empire is irrelevant; control will still be exercised over them. What empires will not under any circumstance tolerate is independence, which brings us to Bolivia. The Bolivian Vice President put it well when he characterized the grounding of the Bolivian presidential plane as an “act of imperial arrogance”. Once again, imperial empires derive their power from control—economic, military and otherwise—over other
countries. As Snowden’s list of countries that have not yet rejected his asylum bid dwindles, we see which countries are not truly satellites to US power. One of these is Bolivia. Whether or not Snowden was on the plane may not have even been relevant to US officials. The grounding of the Bolivian presidential plane signifies a power even more awesome than the ability to capture whistleblowers: the ability to capture even potentially wayward heads of state—of which Bolivian President Morales is one, for merely considering Snowden’s asylum request. The same dynamic is at work when Latinos in Arizona are systematically stopped, searched and asked for their passports. The authorities don’t particularly care about illegal immigration (it offers cheap, non-union la-
bor and is therefore favorable to big business); what they care about is that Latinos know who’s in charge. This concept may seem nebulous to the privileged, but those inhabiting the less privileged levels of society are thoroughly familiar with the dynamic to which I’m referring. Totalitarian states like the US depend, as the root word suggests, on total control. When someone like Morales even intimates that he’ll consider Snowden’s request for asylum, this diminishes the totality of US power. And so he, like a Black man being racially profiled and searched for possession, will be grounded and searched for possession of a certain whistleblower. Ken Klippenstein lives in Madison, Wisconsin, USA, where he co-edits the left issues journal, whiterosereader.org