English Edition Nº 40

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Noam Chomsky on Wikileaks and Washington’s “Profound Hatred” for democracy

Paul Craig Roberts on Wikileaks and the exposure of a US diplomacy based on “lies”

FRIDAY|December 3rd, 2010 |No. 39 |Bs. 1|CARACAS

ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas

Heavy rains displace thousands in Venezuela Venezuela in Wikileaks

Of the hundreds of US State Department cables published so far by Wikileaks, slightly more than a dozen originate from the US Embassy in Caracas. The documents provide insight into the extent of US operations in Venezuela; espionage against the government under the guise of diplomacy; the use of opposition leaders as “informants”; and the complete lack of evidence to substantiate any accusations against the Chavez administration regarding links to terrorism or nuclear ambitions.

Discussion of Venezuela’s democracy in NYC

President Chavez gave refuge to 26 families in the presidential palace this week, after downpours caused mass devastation nationwide The rainfall in November was the highest in 40 years, causing more than 70,000 families across the countries to lose their homes or property, and killing at least 25 people. The rains were strongest in the northern coastal regions of Miranda, Vargas, Falcon and the capital, Caracas. States of emergency were declared in these areas this week and schools were suspended until further notice. The government launched an emergency response team to set up shelter for displaced families and relocate others remaining in high risk areas. President Chavez, who took in 26 families from Caracas into the presidential palace, Miraflores, announced that all families will be provided new, permanent homes as soon as possible.

Integration

South American nations solidify democracy UNASUR met last Friday and agreed on a “democratic protocol” to reaffirm the region’s commitment to democracy.

Social Justice

Health Care a Right

Auditing is being conducted in private medical clinics to ensure the right to health services is guaranteed.

Social Justice

Radicalizing the Revolution

Farmers’ activists, indigenous, workers and students marched last week to support Chavez and demand “radicalization” of the Revolution.

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ALBA protests Global Green New Deal

he Ministerial Committee for the Defense of Nature of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - People’s Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) issued a multilateral statement to protest the Global Green New Deal, which attempts to broaden the capitalist use of natural resources.

Under the motto “Nature is Priceless”, the statement aims to prevent the Cancun Summit on Climate Change from committing the same mistakes made during the Copenhagen Summit, which ended in zero positive results.

The document, supported by Venezuela, urges accords that ensure developed nations act responsibly in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, without turning conservation into a business.

According to a Stern Review report on the Economics of Climate Change and another on the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, the Global Green New Deal fosters privatization and mercantilization of nature.

Convinced that “nature is our home, that it is priceless and not for sale”, the ALBA-TCP Com-

mittee for the Defense of Nature condemned the non-sustainable models of growth promoted by developed nations, in order to rescue balance and life on the planet.

Similarly, with the aim of guaranteeing human life, the Committee for the Defense of Nature called for the inclusion in the agenda of a referendum on climate change with the participation of people from around the world.

ALBA nations also requested the urgent adoption by the United Nations of a Declaration of the Universal Rights of Mother Earth.

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n December 4-5, 4-5 2010 2010, intellectuals from different countries will meet in New York City to discuss and debate Venezuela’s democracy. The conference will coincide with Venezuela’s chairmanship of the Movement of New or Restored Democracies of the United Nations.

The seminar, titled “Analysis of the Venezuelan Democratic Process”, will be held at the Millennium UN Plaza Hotel and will feature over 25 intellectuals from the US, Latin America and Europe who have studied the Venezuelan democratic process.

Amongst the speakers will be former deputy of the European Parliament Raul Morodo, Georgetown University professor Marc Chernick and Mexican intellectual Arturo Huerta (Autonomous University of Mexico). Recognized Venezuelan journalists and intellectuals such as Eleazar Díaz Rangel, sociologist Maryclen Stelling and economist Jose Felix Rivas will also join the debate.

The various presentations of the conference will be published in a book on the Venezuelan democratic experience, which will be distributed to government officials, legislators and members of social movements participating in the VII International Conference of New or Restored Democracies scheduled for 2011 in Caracas.

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IMPACT

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by Wikileaks include over a dozen dispatches from the US Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, evidencing espionage against the Chavez administration, use of opposition media and politicians as informants and insulting remarks about the country

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he Wikileaks release last Sunday, November 28, of over a quarter million US State Department cables obtained illegally has caused scandals worldwide over the methods, perspectives and dirty manuevering of US foreign policy. Almost no country or goverment is exempt from mention in the thousands of secret and classified documents, which are being released over a period of months in order to appreciate the quality of the information, while also subjecting Washington to a type of prolonged torture.

The first several hundred documents made public primarily originate from US embassies in Europe and the Middle East, as well as direct from the State Department and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton herself. But Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, classified as a “terrorist” and “enemy combatant” by the United States, has also released a select group of cables from US embassies in Latin America.

Approximately 14 documents so far have been published that were dispatched by the US Embassy in Caracas, though several other cables from different US embassies worldwide reference Venezuela and President Hugo Chavez frequently. Of the documents released, the majority refer to Washington’s obsession with Venezuela’s relations with two particular countries: Cuba and Iran.

ATTACKING HEALTHCARE, FOREIGN POLICY One document, the first published on Venezuela by Wikileaks,

criticizes Venezuela’s successful healthcare program, Barrio Adentro, by claiming it is “usurping funds from the public hospital system”. The cable, which was authored by former US Ambassador Patrick Duddy in December 2009, quotes only anti-Chavez sources, including a journalist from the opposition newspaper, El Universal, and several doctors working in private clinics and public hospitals.

There is no mention of the billions of dollars the Venezuelan government has pumped into the public hospital and healthcare system in order to not only renovate older facilities left in disarray by former governments, but also to create a new healthcare system, which the Embassy cable calls “parallel”, to guarantee free, universal care to all Venezuelans.

At the end of the cable, Duddy’s comments show either ignorance or an intentional distortion of fact, when he claims, “The quality of healthcare in Venezuela has declined as the GBRV (Goverment of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela) has shifted resources from the traditional medical system to “Barrio Adentro”. The hard evidence shows the contrary. For the first time in the nation’s history, all Venezuelans have access to quality, free healthcare, from the preventive care level, up to complex, high-tech treatments and interventions.

INFORMANTS AND SPIES The Embassy cables on Venezuela don’t just reveal a distortion of Venezuela’s reality, which is an attempt to portray the Chavez administration in a negative light, they also provide insight into who the US government sources are and how US diplomats operate as spies in the country.

One document, a scathing analysis of the alleged Cuban presence in Venezuela’s intelligence services and a host of other government institutions, would at first glance be alarming. The cable, cynically titled “Cuba/Venezuela Axis of Mischief: The View from Caracas”, was written by notorious former Ambassador William Brownfield in January 2006, and claims Cubans have penetrated almost every aspect of Venezuela’s government, culture and economy. It’s reminiscent of Cold

viding uranium to Iran to make bombs. But a later cable, written by the more steady-headed Charge D’Affairs John Caulfield in June 2009, contradicted Brownfield’s war-mongering attitude.

“Although rumors that Venezuela is providing Iran with Venezuelan produced uranium may help burnish the government’s revolutionary credentials, there seems to be little basis in reality to the claims... it is highly unlikely that Venezuela is providing Venezuelan uranium to third countries”.

War era fear-mongering about the “communist expansion” and “red scare” in the hemisphere.

This time, however, instead of the Russians, it’s the “Cubans are coming...they are everywhere”.

Be alarmed, be very alarmed.

Except that, when read in detail, it becomes clear that the sources behind this alleged “Cuban communist takeover” are actually high-profile opposition leaders, such as ex Governor and now fugitive from justice, Manuel Rosales, big business executives and journalists from anti-Chavez media.

Brownfield even writes in the cable statements such as “Anecdotal reporting suggests...”, “Less reliable reports indicate...” and “Unconfirmed sensitive reporting suggests...”, evidencing the weakness of the information provided, which was marked “Secret/No Foreign Distribution” and was sent to the Secretary of State, the National Security Council, the Pentagon’s Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), and a host of other US embassies and consulates ranging from Brasilia, La Paz, Lima, Managua, Quito, Buenos Aires, Santiago and Mexico, to Brussels, Lisbon, Madrid, Paris, London, Rome and The Hague.

Information that is unconfirmed, comes from exclusively biased sources (all anti-Chavez) and overall has no foundation in reality, is then used to craft US policy towards Venezuela.

The documents published by Wikileaks evidence that this dangerous scenario is repeated in US diplomacy around the world.

The Caracas documents also evidence how Embassy employees

violate their status as diplomats to engage in espionage against the Venezuelan government. In the “Cuban scare” cable, Brownfield reveals that the Department of Defense monitors flight activity from Cuba to Venezuela daily, and then Embassy personnel try to gauge the number of passengers coming of the planes: “Embassy officers have noted regular flights of Cubans - or Venezuelans returning from official visits to Cuba - at Caracas’ Maiquetia airport...Post cannot determine how many Cubans are on the flights...”

What Brownfield is most concerned about, apart from standing vigilance at the airport watching the planes come and go, is how the US could be affected by the Cuba-Venezuela relationship. “The impact of Cuban involvement in Venezuelan intelligence could impact US interests directly”, he claims, concerned about “the expertise that Cuban services could provide...about the activities of the USG”. More or less, Washington is worried their clandestine actions in Venezuela will be exposed as the Venezuelans improve their intelligence capacity.

In another document, titled “Explaining Venezuela’s coziness with Iran” Ambassador Brownfield invokes the “Iran scare” and comments, “Venezuela’s support for a country that has nuclear ambitions, supports terrorism and talks about wiping Israel off the map is of grave concern. It also alarms nations - such as France...

We can exploit this alarm”.

Brownfield remarks that Washington should not “dismiss the uranium rumors”, referring to allegations that Venezuela was pro-

PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN In 2008, the US Embassy in Caracas decided it was time to employ the heavy services of the Pentagon’s psychological operations team to bombard Venezuelans with pro-US propaganda, to counter, what an Embassy cable claimed in March 2008, “Chavez’s anti-americanism”.

“Embassy Caracas requests DOD (Department of Defense) support in the execution of its strategic communications plan. The goal for this program is to influence the information environment within Venezuela...DOD support would greatly enhance existing Embassy Public Diplomacy and pro-democracy activities”.

Infuencing the “information environment” in Venezuela with Pentagon support is clearly an outright violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty, which appears to be a common denominator in most of the Embassy cables published so far on Venezuela. The State Department’s 2011 budget includes a special multimillion-dollar fund for a “30-minute, 5-day a week program in Spanish in Venezuela” and the Pentagon’s includes a new program for “psychological operations” in the Southern Command (Latin America).

Some of the information in the cables can be verified by fact and corroborating evidence, while other data remains in the realm of rumors and bogus sources. What is clear is the that the documents reaffirm the increasing US aggression against Venezuela and its hostile foreign policy against the Chavez administration, including a willingness to use unsubstantiated rumors to make dangerous accusations.

T/ Eva Golinger

INTERVIEW

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Extract of an interview with Noam Chomsky by Amy Goodman

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my Goodman: What are your thoughts today? New York republican congress member Peter King says WikiLeaks should be declared a foreign terrorist organization.

Noam Chomsky: I think that is outlandish. We should understand that one of the major reasons for government secrecy is to protect the government from its own population. In the Pentagon Papers, for example, there was one volume that might have had a bearing on ongoing activities and Daniel Ellsberg withheld that.

That came out a little bit later. If you look at the papers themselves, there are things Americans should have known that others did not want them to know. And from what I’ve seen here, pretty much the same is true. In fact, the current leaks are primarily interesting because of what they tell us about how the diplomatic service works.

Amy Goodman: The documents’ revelations about Iran come just as the Iranian government has agreed to a new round of nuclear talks beginning next month. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the cables vindicate the Israeli position that Iran poses a nuclear threat.

Noam Chomsky: That essentially reinforces what I said before, that the main significance of the cables that are being released so far is what they tell us about Western leadership. So Hillary Clinton and Benjamin Netanyahu surely know of the careful polls of Arab public opinion. The Brookings Institute just a few months ago released extensive polls of what Arabs think about Iran. The results are rather striking. They show the Arab opinion holds that the major threat in the region is Israel -- that’s 80%.

The second major threat is the United States -- that’s 77%. Iran is listed as a threat by 10%.

Now, these are not small numbers. 80, 77, say the US and Israel are the major threat. 10% say Iran is the major threat. This may not be reported in the newspapers here, but it’s certainly familiar to the Israeli and US governments, and to the ambassadors. But there is not a word about it anywhere.

What that reveals is the profound hatred for democracy on the part of our political leadership and the Israeli political leadership. This seeps its way all through the diplomatic service.

When they talk about Arabs, they mean the Arab dictators, not the population, which is overwhelmingly opposed to the conclusions that the analysts here -- Clinton and the media -- have drawn. There’s also a minor problem, which is that we don’t know from the cables what the Arab leaders think and say. We know what was selected from the range of what they say. So there is a filtering process. We don’t know how much it distorts the information. The population does not matter, even if it’s overwhelmingly opposed to US policy.

There are similar things elsewhere, such as keeping to this region. One of the most interesting cables was a cable from the US ambassador in Israel to Hillary Clinton, which described the attack on Gaza, which we should call the US/Israeli attack on Gaza, in December 2008. It states correctly there had been a truce. It does not add that during the truce, Hamas scrupulously observed it according to the Israeli government, not a single rocket was fired. That’s an omission. But then comes a straight

lie: it says that in December 2008, Hamas renewed rocket firing and therefore Israel had to attack in self-defense. Now, the ambassador surely is aware that there must be somebody in the US Embassy who reads the Israeli press, in which case the embassy is surely aware that it is exactly the opposite: Hamas was calling for a renewal of the ceasefire. Israel considered the offer and rejected it, preferring to bomb rather than have security.

What the embassy reported is a gross falsification and a very significant one since it has to do the justification for the murderous attack, which means either the embassy hasn’t a clue to what is going on or else they’re lying outright.

Amy Goodman: I want to read for you now what Sarah Palin said about WikiLeaks. “First and foremost, what steps were taken to stop WikiLeaks’ director Julian Assange from distributing this highly-sensitive classified material, especially after he had already published material not once but twice in the previous months? Assange is not a journalist any more than the editor of the Al Qaeda’s new English-language magazine “Inspire,” is a journalist. He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands. His past posting of classified documents

revealed the identity of more than 100 Afghan sources to the Taliban. Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders?”

Noam Chomsky, your response?

Noam Chomsky: That’s pretty much what I would expect Sarah Palin to say. I don’t know how much she understands, but I think we should pay attention to what we learn from the leaks. Perhaps the most dramatic revelation, or mention, is the bitter hatred of democracy that is revealed both by the US Government – Hillary Clinton, others, and also by the diplomatic service.

To tell the world and to pretend to each other that the Arab world regards Iran as the major threat and wants the US to bomb Iran, is extremely revealing, when they know that approximately 80% of Arab opinion regards the US and Israel as the major threat, 10% regard Iran as the major threat, and a majority, 57%, think the region would be better off with Iranian nuclear weapons as a kind of deterrent.

How representative this is of what they say, we don’t know, because we do not know what the filtering is. But that’s a minor point.

But the major point is that the population is irrelevant. All that matters is the opinions of the dictators that we support. That is a very re-

vealing picture of the mentality of US political leadership. It does not matter with the Arabs believe.

Amy Goodman: Can you talk about the tea party movement in the US? Noam Chomsky: The Tea Party movement itself is, maybe 15% or 20% of the electorate. It’s relatively affluent, white, nativist. But what is much more important, I think, is the outrage. Over half the population says they more or less supported it, or support its message. What people are thinking is extremely interesting. I mean, overwhelmingly polls reveal that people are extremely bitter, angry, hostile, opposed to everything.

The primary cause undoubtedly is the economic disaster. It’s not just the financial catastrophe, it’s an economic disaster. I mean, in the manufacturing industry, for example, unemployment levels are at the level of the Great Depression.

And unlike the Great Depression, those jobs are not coming back.

Financial institutions have grown enormously in their share of corporate profits. It may be something like a third, or something like that today. At the same time, correspondingly, production has been exported.

It destroys the society here, but that’s not the concern of the ownership class and the managerial class. Their concern is profit. That is what drives the economy. People are extremely bitter about it, but don’t seem to understand it.

Amy Goodman: Noam, if you were President Obama’s top adviser, what would you tell him to do right now?

Noam Chomsky: I would tell him to do what FDR did when big business was opposed to him.

Help organize, stimulate public opposition and put through a serious populist program, which can be done. Stimulate the economy.

Don’t give away everything to financiers. Push through real health reform. If you’re worried about the deficit, pay attention to the fact that it is almost all attributable to military spending and this totally dysfunctional health program.

T/ Amy Goodman and Noam Chomsky

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POLITICS

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> ÀÊÀ> ÃÊ>vviVÌÊ6i iâÕi >]Ê} ÛiÀ i ÌÊÀië `à States of Emergency were imposed in several regions in Venezuela after heavy rains caused massive flooding and left thousands homeless throughout the South American nation.

The government has activated countrywide response teams to handle the natural disaster

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elentless torrential rains pounding the coastal areas of Venezuela over the past week have resulted in at least 25 deaths and have left thousands of residents homeless.

The heavy precipitations, adding to an already intense rainy season, have provoked an emergency situation in many areas of the country causing numerous landslides, floods, and collapsed houses.

In order to assist affected populations, the national government and the Venezuelan armed forces have created evacuation teams and temporary shelters, providing medical attention and meals for those forced to leave their homes.

In the Caracas military zone, Fuerte Tiuna, over 600 people have taken refuge.

Army General Abdon Pabon, reported on Sunday that military forces are on hand to “provide temporary housing, food, and anything needed to resolve the problems” caused by the rains.

Over 200 people have also taken temporary shelter in a national police university in the Caracas neighborhood of Catia.

According to the head of the national Bolivarian Police Force, Luis Fernandez, the homeless are being met with all possible services until a more adequate space can be established to receive them.

“Here in the university, all our staff are providing medi-

cal attention, food and recreation.

We’re collaborating together with the highest government authorities as to where we’re going to send the people that are here”, the police director informed on Sunday.

Until the displaced find a more stable situation, Fernandez said, the national police will be on hand to help those in need.

“We’re not going to abandon any community” he assured. “We’ll be on call to protect the lives of those affected, give them protection and medical support. We want people

to be received with the dignity that they deserve.”

The intense rains have also forced the government to embark on preventive evacuations of residents living in high risk areas.

“We prefer to have the people in safe shelters than in precarious homes that are considered to be at high risk”, said Jacqueline Faria, head of the Capital District Government.

According to Faria, the government is doing all it can to assist those residents who have been displaced by the natural catastrophe.

“We’re prepared”, she said. “The entire National Guard has been dispatched, providing assistance in different shelters. We’re in the streets detecting dangerous situations before there’s a fatal accident and we have vehicles available to look for those affected”.

Thus far, several thousand preventive evacuations have taken place in Caracas.

The state of Miranda, to the east of Caracas, and the Central-

Western state of Falcon have also been hit hard by the downpours.

Henrique Carpriles Radonski, opposition governor of Miranda state, has reported that 8 people had been killed and 6,000 others have been displaced.

More than 26% of the crops in the state have also been damaged by the rains and 38 schools in the region have been temporarily closed. On Tuesday, a state of emergency was declared in Miranda, the capital Caracas and the costal state of Vargas.

In the state of Falcon, where a state of emergency was declared on Monday, some 16,000 families have been affected, mostly in the beach town of Chichiriviche and Boca del Tocuyo.

In response to emergency, the national government has sent 40 tons of food, heavy vehicles and medical supplies to residents.

Vice President Elias Jaua, touring the regions on Friday, assured that the government of Hugo Chavez would also provide agricultural producers with the resources they need to recover damaged crops.

“Its not just about assisting them in a time of emergency”, the Vice President said of the victims of the disaster. “It’s also about helping them recover what they’ve lost”.

Jaua also informed that the proper steps will be taken to prevent any public health problems that could arise as a result of the heavy rains.

“The Health Ministry, by order of president Chavez, has dispatched a team to prevent epidemics in the state of Falcon and [Miranda]”, he said.

On Monday afternoon, President Chavez visited some of the sites in Caracas affected by the heavy rains and offered to shelter some of the displaced in the presidential palace, Miraflores. “There is space in my office and in several other rooms. The securty staff has extra rooms that can house several families and the palace kitchen could host at least 20 families as a temporary shelter”.

In response, the national parliament and other government institutions also offered to shelter those families who lost their homes in the rainstorms until more permanent solutions can be found.

T/ Edward Ellis P/ Presidential Press

INTEGRATION

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South American nations met last week in Guyana and agreed to enact a regional protocol rejecting any attempt to disrupt democratic and constitutional order amongst member nations

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trengthening regional unity and forging a new integrationist vision of Latin American independence were two of the main themes discussed by presidents and foreign ministers at the 4th international summit of Unasur held in Guyana last week.

Ecuadoran President, Rafael Correa, opened the meeting in the capital city of Georgetown, passing the regional bloc’s pro tempore presidency to his Guyanan counterpart, Bharrat Jagdeo.

After a moment of silence held in honor of the organization’s former Secretary General, Nestor Kirchner who passed away last October 17, President Correa spoke of the advances that the continent’s nations have seen with respect to unity and cooperation.

“The integration of Unasur is ours, it’s of the South…it goes beyond the commonplace and its principal objective is to achieve a more just and developed society.

We want a South American nation”, he said.

The union, founded in 2004, consists of all 12 South American countries, providing a space for dialogue and collaboration between member nations.

Eight of the block’s members have officially signed on to the organization’s charter while Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay and Uruguay are in the process of ratification.

DEMOCRATIC PROTOCOL REJECTS COUPS According to the agreement, signed by the foreign ministers of the twelve UNASUR nations, the regional integration bloc may respond to coup d’etats and other threats to constitutional democracy with economic sanctions, the closing of borders, and suspension of membership in the bloc.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the agreement was the continent’s answer to the United States government’s efforts to

halt the progressive changes underway in the region. “[The US] is trying to divide UNASUR, and our answer is this meeting which all member countries attended and we have approved a series of documents to strengthen integration”, Chavez said.

“UNASUR is achieving accord and union, in contrast to the Organization of American States, which is weakening”, Chavez added, referring to the longstanding hemispheric organization that some analysts consider to be dominated by the US. MEDIA DEMOCRATIZATION Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa, who ended his term in the rotating UNASUR presidency at Friday’s summit, recommended in a speech that member nations create more stringent laws to stop political destabilization efforts by private forprofit media outlets in the region.

Correa said the region’s largest private media constitutes “power without counter-power, without democratic legitimacy, defending not the common good, but particular interests”. He encouraged countries to “seek the appropriate legislation to combat the clear excesses of certain parts of the press and achieve a greater citizen control over that public service, which should be independent”.

The Prime Minister of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, who assumed the UNASUR presidency on Friday, said the “democratic protocol” adopted by the bloc should be

“applied without conditions”.

Referring to coup d’etats and other destabilization efforts, he said, “We must assure that this does not happen again in our region”.

Jagdeo said the fact that such a small and poor nation as Guyana can occupy the presidency of a regional integration bloc such as UNASUR “demonstrates the value of the organization, where nations and countries are treated with equality, without giving importance to whether they are rich or poor”.

“I see UNASUR as crucial to achieving our continental destiny... As a South American, I am proud and I have hope that we will have a better world”, said Jagdeo in a speech.

Jagdeo also said the bloc “must construct our economy through democratic institutions, making decisions to open our economies, reconstruct our social services, and promote common infrastructure”.

TOWARDS REGIONAL INTEGRATION Several heads of state, including outgoing Brazilian President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva, spoke about the achievements of UNASUR over the past two years in building trust and collaborative relationships among member states.

“In these years, we were able to do what many leaders tried to accomplish for decades and decades and were unable to do so”, Lula remarked. “We learned to respect each other. We learned to live side-by-side democratically

in diversity... now in Latin America we have more sovereignty and self-determination”.

Lula highlighted the recent revival of diplomatic and economic relations between Venezuela and Colombia following a bitter break in late July. “Nobody in this room could have imagined five months ago that the relationship between President [Juan Manuel] Santos of Colombia and President Chavez of Venezuela would be as harmonious as it is today”, he said.

The remark was followed by an enthusiastic standing ovation and a spontaneous handshake between Santos and Chavez in the middle of the conference hall.

Outside of the hall, President Chavez told the press: “Who, unless they are crazy, could suggest that we are interested in war? No, what we want is union, respecting our differences... I will repeat what Santos said in Caracas: We must not allow ourselves to be derailed, we must follow the track of friendship and respect, and the construction of unity between Colombia and Venezuela, and unity of South America”.

REGIONAL PROGRESS Lula also highlighted the failure of economic policies backed by the US and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the success of progressive, democratically-elected governments in creating progress in the region. “[The IMF] knew just how to resolve the Argentine crisis, they knew how

to resolve the crisis in Peru, Mexico, and Brazil, but when the crisis is their own, they do not know how to resolve it”, Lula said.

During the summit, the heads of state paid homage to the late Argentine ex-President Nestor Kirchner, who became one of the region’s first presidents to defy the IMF’s prescribed policy package. Kirchner was the Secretary General of UNASUR at the time of his death from a heart attack last month.

Current Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the late Kirchner’s wife, spoke of Mr. Kirchner’s leadership. “He led South America’s great battle to forge its own system of economic growth, giving us tools in the midst of crisis to be able to advance”, said Kirchner.

The UNASUR nations agreed to organize an extraordinary summit in the coming weeks in Mar de la Plata, Argentina in order to elect a new Secretary General.

The UNASUR member nations are Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The only nation whose parliament has yet to ratify the constitutive treaty of the integration bloc is Uruguay, which announced during Friday’s summit that it expects to hold a vote on the treaty in the coming days.

T/ Edward Ellis and James Suggett

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SOCIAL JUSTICE

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6i iâÕi >\ʺ i> Ì Ê >ÀiÊ ÃÊ>Ê, } Ì» Venezuela’s Public Defender´s Office, Institute for the Defense of People’s Access to Goods and Services (INDEPABIS), and Superintendent of Insurance Activity initiated a joint commission this month to audit and oversee privately owned health care and insurance providers.

A disputed aspect of the law is whether the private health care sector will eventually fade out and become fully government-managed.

National Assembly Legislator Tirso Silva told the state news agency AVN that the law does not have the intention of threatening the existence of the private health sector.

“What the law does seek, and what this situational room will enforce, is to put a stop to the risk of death among patients whose emergency care was not approved”, said Silva.

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ACCESSIBLE HEALTH CARE A PRIORITY Over the past seven years, the government has built an extensive network of free public health clinics located in both poor and middle class neighborhoods, parallel to already existing public and private health care institutions.

These clinics, which provide treatment to all patients who walk through the doors and distribute generic medicines free of charge, have made primary health care accessible to nearly 100% of the national population.

he measure is based on the concept that “health care is a right that is guaranteed by the constitution, and is a public service protected by the state, even when it is provided by the private sector”, according to Nahomi Figuera, the chief public defender for Venezuela’s capital city, Caracas.

The goal of the auditing is to guarantee that people who invest in private health insurance plans receive proper care at nonspeculative prices when needed, “without inconveniences or abuses”, Figuera said.

A 24-hour phone line and an email address were established for patients to file complaints

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and reports about their experiences with private insurance providers and clinics.

The three state institutions signed a formal inter-institutional cooperation agreement earlier this month and began with inspections of 40 clinics in metropolitan Caracas, Venezuela’s most populated urban area.

The commission consists of 14 public defenders, an unspecified

number of INDEPABIS inspectors, and a “situational room” dedicated to the issue and hosted by the Superintendent of Insurance Activity.

REGULATING PRIVATE CARE Figuera also explained that as the audits proceed, the commission would develop a protocol for medical treatment to be applied to pricaar service s vate health care providers.

The legal basis of the inspections is the Law on Insurance Activities, which was reformed by the National Assembly earlier this year. The law prohibits the delay of emergency medical care due to paperwork or other insurance-related matters, and places the burden of proof on insurance companies to justify any denial of care based on stringent guidelines.

the assistance of experts from the Chinese Academy of Space Technology.

The satellite is managed by the state-owned telecommunications company, CANTV, and it shares Uruguay’s orbit as the result of an agreement between the Venezuelan and Uruguayan governments.

Venezuela has used the satellite to expand public access to telecommunications, including a 20% increase in Internet connections over the past year, as well

as to enhance public medical services and promote Latin American integration.

Also, more than one thousand Venezuelans have studied satellite technology in higher education programs in China, India, Brazil, and France as the result of bilateral accords with those countries.

Public universities including the National Experimental University of the Armed Forces (UNEFA) and the Bolivarian University of Venezuela (UBV) have incorporated GIS workshops into their respective curriculums.

T/ Edward Ellis P/ Presidential Press

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enezuela’s Environment Ministry announced this week that it will create a registry of the country’s primary sources of air pollution using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology.

The function of the registry will be “to generate computerized maps that allow us to geographically locate the stationary sources of contaminative gasses that exist in the national territory in order to clarify our strategies for environmental supervision”, according to a press release by the Ministry.

In addition to recording the location and contaminative impact of facilities linked to the oil industry, the Ministry seeks to map out incinerators, cement factories, major manufacturers of sugar and metals, crematoriums, and garbage dump sites.

The Ministry said that in addition to making advancements in its use of satellite technology, it seeks to improve access to this technology by carrying out community-level educational workshops and by incorporating local democratic decision-making entities called communal councils into GIS projects.

BOLIVAR SATELLITE Venezuela took a technological step forward in the end of 2008 when it launched its first satellite, the “Simon Bolivar”, with

Over the past three years, Chinese and Venezuelan experts in conjunction with the Bolivarian Agency for Space Activity have been drawing up blueprints for the construction of a satellite factory in Venezuela scheduled tentatively for the year 2013.

These projects are based on the government’s policy of transitioning toward “technological sovereignty” and ending the nation’s dependence on advanced technologies produced outside of Venezuela and Latin America.

T/ Edward Ellis P/ Agencies

SOCIAL JUSTICE

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housands of Venezuelan campesinos, workers, students, and indigenous peoples from organized communities throughout the country marched on Caracas last week to push for “the democratic radicalization of the [Bolivarian] revolution”.

Mobilized by the Bolivar and Zamora Revolutionary Current (CRBZ), over 6,000 marchers from 16 of Venezuela’s 23 states denounced US imperialism, Venezuela’s national economic elite, and “bureaucratism” which, according to marchers, is “sabotaging socialism”.

“With President Chávez & for Socialism”, read many of the signs carried by marchers. “Against the [US] Empire & Its Internal Lackeys!” read others. “Against Bureaucratism, Incapacity, Corruption and Inefficiency!”, “For National Unity Around the Simón Bolívar National Project!” and “For the Democratic Radicalization of the Revolution!” read a number of the other banners, handmade placards, and statements written on the backs of now dated election campaign posters.

The future of the Bolivarian Revolution, according to CRBZ organizers, depends on both the Venezuelan people’s “unconditional support of President Chavez” and an immediate political offensive against the “bureaucratism, corruption, inefficiency and reformism” that are currently affecting the people’s ability to exercise political power as is outlined in President Chavez’s government plan, known as the Simon Bolivar National Project (2007 – 2013).

The Bolivar and Zamora Revolutionary Current (CRBZ) is an active political current within Venezuela’s United Socialist Party (PSUV) and is comprised of the Ezequiel Zamora National Campesino Front (FNCEZ), the Simon Bolivar National Communal Front (FNCSB), the Bolivarian Popular Workers’ Movement (MPBO) and the Simon Rodriguez Center for Political Education and Social Studies (CEFES).

IMPERIALISM, MEDIA AND BUREAUCRACY “Two major threats sift through our revolution: Imperialism and bureaucracy”, said Orlando Zambrano, national assemblyman

of any and all political proposals, none of this [election campaigns and initiatives] will be effective”.

The CRBZ is largely responsible for establishing Venezuela’s first communal city – the Ciudad Comunal Simon Bolivar (CCCSSB) – made up of 39 community councils, organized first into 10 communes, and later into the country’s pioneering communal city. Located in Apure state, the communal city encompasses roughly 115,000 hectares of land, or 46,500 acres. It is considered the country’s most concrete example of people’s power.

and spokesperson for the Ezequiel Zamora National Campesino Front (FNCEZ) – one of the founding organizations behind the CRBZ. “US imperialism and its internal lackeys have launched an offensive to put the brakes on the Bolivarian Revolution and to assassinate President Chavez”, Zambrano affirmed.

Zambrano went on to state that privately-owned Globovision media network is playing an active role in manipulating public opinion away from the revolution and its objectives. He accused Globovision’s owner, Guillermo Zuloaga, of serving “imperial interests” by speaking against the Venezuelan government and its democraticallyelected president during a rightwing foreign policy discussion held in Washington DC. Zuloaga, who fled Venezuela early this year to avoid facing money laundering and other charges, made national headlines last week after Chavez denounced his participation in a meeting titled “Danger in the Andes: Threats to Democracy, Human Rights and Inter-American Security”. During the meeting, organized by rightwing members of the US Congress and their allies in Latin America,

Zuloaga called Chavez’s Venezuela “a threat to the United States” and suggested that US intervention could become necessary.

In response to the meeting, the Venezuelan parliament held a special session last week ratifying its rejection of Washington’s “imperial intent”. In addition, President Chavez called on Venezuelan legislators to draw up a legal framework that would end what he called “Yankee financing” of Venezuela’s internal opposition.

With respect to bureaucracy and its affect on the Bolivarian Revolution, marchers affirmed their commitment “radicalizing the revolution” within each of their communities, but also demanded concrete steps be taken immediately by the National Assembly.

The five proposals submitted by the CRBZ to the national assembly on Thursday, titled “Lines of Action for Radicalization of the Bolivarian Process”, included: The establishment of a national commission to undertake a rigorous evaluation [audit] of mayoralties and governorships, guided by the principles outlined in the Simon Bolivar National Project.

The reestablishment of mobile governing cabinets as a true

space for discussion between the leader [Chavez] and people’s power (Communal Councils, Communes, Workers’ Councils, Students’ Councils, etc.).

The urgent passing of the people’s power laws currently being debated by the national assembly.

The elaboration of a strategic plan to renew and revamp the communes in place.

Renovate the National Political Education System for PSUV Cadre.

In a statement released on Thursday, the CRBZ publicized its active yet critical support for what Chavez recently titled “the Great Admirable Campaign” to secure his December 2012 re-election to the presidency. The statement affirmed: “We put ourselves at every disposition to accompany and execute the initiative [the Lines of Political Action for the Great Admirable Campaign]. However, if communication is not reestablished with the base [organized communities], if strength is not given to the column of cadres with leadership responsibilities, and while the protagonism or role of the people is held hostage by an enforced bureaucracy that depletes the transformative action

“REVOLUTIONARY CURRENTS” A week before the march took place, writers at Un Grano de Maiz, a leftist daily blog widely distributed amongst Chavistas, criticized the presence of “currents” within the Chavez camp.

Referring specifically to the CRBZ and its fight against bureaucracy, the bloggers called the organization a sector of the “petty bourgeoisie” that, according to the writers, “doesn’t understand class struggle…attacking phantom-like bureaucrats…throwing stones at the march towards socialist property”.

In response, the CRBZ published a written statement in which they wrote, “History has taught us that a vertical and monocultured thought readily dissolves in Gorbochav’s midday soup [in reference to the Soviet leader who led the capitalist transition in the USSR]”.

“We live in the interiors of communal cities, which have become spaces of synthesis [of the revolution], and we fraternally invite you to come and see for yourself”, concluded the CRBZ’s statement.

Writer Melquíades Iguaran defended the CRBZ, affirming that their “constructive criticism is vital for the advance of the revolution” and that he has “never seen ‘petty bourgeoisie’ that have sweated so much organizing the poor and oppressed”. For these reasons, he wrote, he also decided to attend last week’s march.

T/ Juan Reardon www.venezuelanalysis.com

FRIDAY|December 3rd, 2010 |No. 40|Bs. 1|CARACAS

ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas

A publication of the Fundacion Correo del Orinoco • Editor-in-Chief | Eva Golinger • Graphic Design | Alexander Uzcátegui, Jameson Jiménez • Press | Fundación Imprenta de la Cultura

OPINION

Wikileaks: a Government caught up in mendacity and lies T

he reaction to WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange tells us all we need to know about the total corruption of our “modern” world, which in fact is a throwback to the Dark Ages.

Some member of the United States government released to WikiLeaks the documents that are now controversial. The documents are controversial, because they are official US documents and show all too clearly that the US government is a duplicitous entity whose raison d’etre is to control every other government.

The media, not merely in the US but also throughout the English speaking world and Europe, has shown its hostility to WikiLeaks.

The reason is obvious. WikiLeaks reveals truth, while the media covers up for the US government and its puppet states.

Why would anyone with a lick of sense read the media when they can read original material from WikiLeaks? The average American reporter and editor must be very angry that his/her own cowardice is so clearly exposed by Julian Assange. The American media is a whore, whereas the courageous blood of warriors runs through WikiLeaks’ veins.

Just as American politicians want Bradley Manning executed because he revealed crimes of the US government, they want Julian Assange executed. In the past few days the more notorious of the zombies that sit in the US Congress have denounced Assange as a “traitor to America”. What total ignorance. Assange is an Australian, not an American citizen. To be a traitor to America, one has to be of US nationality. An Australian cannot be a traitor to America any more than an American can be a traitor to Australia. But don’t expect the morons who represent the lobbyists to know this much.

Mike Huckabee, the redneck baptist preacher who was governor of Arkansas and, to America’s already overwhelming shame, was third runner up to the Republican presidential nomination, has called for Assange’s execution. So here we have a “man of God” calling for the US government to murder an Australian citizen. And Americans wonder why the rest of the world hates their guts.

The material leaked from the US government to WikiLeaks shows that the US government is an extremely disreputable gang of gangsters. The US government was able to get British Prime Minister Brown to “fix” the official Chilcot Investigation into how former Prime Minister

Tony Blair manipulated and lied the British government into being mercenaries for the US invasion of Iraq. One of the “diplomatic” cables released has UK Defense Ministry official Jon Day promising the United States government that Prime Minister Brown’s government has “put measures in place to protect your interests”.

Other cables show the US government threatening Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero, ordering him to stop his criticisms of the Iraq war or else. I mean, really, how dare these foreign governments to think that they are sovereign.

Not only foreign governments are under the US thumb. So is Ama-

zon.com. Joe Lieberman from Connecticut, who is Israel’s most influential senator in the US Senate, delivered sufficiently credible threats to Amazon to cause the company to oust WikiLeaks content from their hosting service.

So there you have it. On the one hand the US government and the prostitute American media declare that there is nothing new in the hundreds of thousands of documents, yet on the other hand both pull out all stops to shut down WikiLeaks and its founder. Obviously, despite the US government’s denials, the documents are extremely damaging. The documents show that the US government is not what it pretends to be.

Assange is in hiding. He fears CIA and Mossad assassination, and to add to his troubles the government of Sweden has changed its mind, perhaps as a result of American persuasion and money, about sex charges that the Swedish government had previously dismissed for lack of credibility. If reports are correct, two women, who possibly could be CIA or Mossad assets, have brought sex charges against Assange. One claims that she was having consensual sexual intercourse with him, but that he didn’t stop when she asked him to when the condom broke.

Would a real government that had any integrity and commitment to truth try to blacken the name of the prime truth teller of our time on the basis of such flimsy charges? Obviously, Sweden has become another two-bit punk puppet government of the US. The US government has got away with telling lies for so long that it no longer hesitates to lie in the most blatant way.

WikiLeaks released a US classified document signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that explicitly orders US diplomats to spy on UN Security council officials and on the Secretary General of the United Nations.

The cable is now in the public record. No one challenges its authenticity. Yet, this week the Obama regime, precisely White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, declared that Hillary had never ordered or even asked US officials to spy on UN officials.

As Antiwar.com asked: Who do you believe, the printed word with Hillary’s signature or the White House?

Anyone who believes the US government about anything is the epitome of gullibility.

T/ Paul Craig Roberts