Pg. g 7 | Analysis y
Pg. g 8 | Opinion p
An interesting take on why Washington dislikes venezuelan president Hugo Chavez
Venezue supreme court justice Fernando Venezuelan Vegas eexplains the case of judge Afiuni
FRIDAY | January 7th, 2011 | No. 46| Bs 1 | CARACAS
ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas
Legislature of the people
New film on Dudamel
With a 40% opposition and 60% pro-Chavez composition, Venezuela’s new National Assembly took office this week Promising to turn the national parliament into a “people’s legislature” the pro-Chavez United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) occupied its majority role in the new National Assembly during the aperture on Wednesday. PSUV Representatives were elected by a clear majority to head the Assembly’s key positions, while opposition forces unsuccessfully tried to nominate a convicted felon to the Vice Presidency of the legislative body. With a 40% minority, the opposition coalition will be unable to pass or repeal laws, but can make a lot of noise.
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Brazil’s new president Dilma Rousseff took office last Saturday, becoming Brazil’s first woman president. The former leftist guerrilla fighter was imprisoned and tortured in the 1970s during the dictatorship and later became a respected politician. She has pledged to fight poverty and misery and keep Brazil on the path to development, progress and regional integration.
Politics
Housing solutions continue The Venezuelan government is advancing in resolving the nation’s housing crisis by providing new homes for those in need.
Economy
Recovering from recession in 2011 Analysts predict an economic upturn for Venezuela during 2011, despite currency adjustments and inflation.
Social Justice
Q&A on new laws Find out more about Venezuela’s new Law of Telecommunications.
A
Chavez vetos higher education bill, calls for debate
fter a series of protests erupted in universities nationwide in response to a new Law of University Education passed in late December by the Venezuelan legislature, President Hugo Chavez exercised his veto power. On Tuesday evening during a live television transmission, the Venezuelan head of state announced he would veto the bill, calling for a national debate to discuss the pros and cons of the proposed legislation. There are some very positive, good things in this law”, said President Chavez, “but there
are other issues that need clarification, or just seem wrong”, he added, referring to a change from the term “professor” to “academic worker”. One of the main issues protested by those opposed to the law, who were primarily opposition students, deans and professors, was the alleged threat to university “autonomy”. “We will defend university autonomy forever”, proclaimed Chavez. “Those who say this law ends such autonomy are wrong”. The Constitution passed during his government is the first to even
recognize university autonomy, added Chavez, reminding the public that in prior administrations, “university campuses were raided by government authorities frequently”, as they sought to repress dissent. Never once has the Chavez government raided a university, despite pockets of violent protests by oppostion groups that have occurred over the past few years. Chavez called for students, professors, politicians and community activists to hold debates nationwide over the next few months to propose changes to the law.
enezuelan filmmaker Alberto Arvelo’s newest documentary, Dudamel: Let the Children Play, was recently showcased in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, where it was loudly applauded by the audience. Recognized musician Ruben Blades said that the documentary was an “explosion of feelings and hope”, while Academy Award-winner Helen Hunt stated it was “a piece that all children and young people in the world must see”. The Venezuelan premiere is set for April 2011. Dudamel: Let the Children Play features conductor and director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Gustavo Dudamel, who tells of his dream of becoming a recognized musician. In this 25-minute-long film Arvelo documents the artistic and social impact of El Sistema, a program created by Venezuelan maestro Jose Antonio Abreu and strongly supported by the current Venezuelan government. The documentary includes several international artists such as musical legend Quincy Jones, composer John Williams, conductors Simon Rattle and Daniel Baremboin, and maestro José Antonio Abreu, the founder of El Sistema. The film is narrated by recognized Venezuelan actor and Golden Globe recent nominee Edgar Ramirez.
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2 | Impact
NoÊ{ÈÊUÊFriday, January 7th, 2011
The artillery of ideas
A people’s assembly Venezuela’s new National Assembly took office on Wednesday, promising interesting debates between the 40% opposition minority coalition and the 60% pro-Chavez majority
A
ccording to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, 2011 will be the year of “popular victory” in the country’s legislative body, the National Assembly. The comment came as the 165-seat Assembly, dominated by Chavez supporters for the past 5 years owing to an opposition boycott of elections in 2005, undergoes significant changes as a result of electoral contests held last September. “Certainly, one of the greatest battlegrounds of 2011 will be the National Assembly”, Chavez reiterated on Wednesday as the new legislative body took office. Although the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and their allies in the Communist Party (PCV) will maintain their clear majority with 98 seats, the new Assembly – installed on January 5th – also contains 67 opposition representatives belonging to the conservative Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) coalition and the former Chavez-aligned Homeland for All (PPT) party.
PSUV DOMINATES LEADERSHIP With the change in the Assembly’s composition has come a change in the camera’s leadership. Fernando Soto Rojas of the PSUV is the new legislative president, replacing Cilia Flores, while Aristobulo Istuiriz and Blanca Eekhout, also of the PSUV, replaced Dario Vivas and Marelis Perez as first and second vice presidents. They were elected by a clear majority on Wednesday. In spelling out the challenges of the new Assembly, Soto Rojas, a leftist guerrilla fighter from the 1960s, said that the legislative body’s most important goal will be achieving greater grassroots participation through what he referred to as “el pueblo legislador” or “the legislature of the people”. In order to achieve this “legislating in the streets”, Rojas explained during a recent interview that it will
be necessary for congressional representatives to incorporate grassroots neighborhood organizations, known as communal councils, in meaningful legislative debates. “The representatives will meet and debate with the people in the 40,000 communal councils and other diverse forms of popular organization we have. This is something very new”, Rojas stated. Communal councils were legally established in Venezuela in 2006 to encourage political participation on the local level. Open to all residents, these new community organizations have the constitutional power to solicit funds for local projects and initiatives directly from the national government. But direct community participation in the legislative processes and the drafting of laws would be a new initiative, Rojas explained. “The debate process with respect to laws has generally been held between groups of specialists. Now, it’s about having that debate with the people who are advancing in their political engagement. These aren’t the same communities from 21 years ago. There has been a political process which is being expressed in diverse levels of organization”. OPEN DEBATES As an ex-Marxist guerilla from the 1960s, the new president of the National Assembly has also called for congressional representatives to work without pay in order to facilitate the transition
from a “bourgeois legislature” to a “people’s legislature”. “Some day we’re going to have to change our names from congressmen to servants of the people” the 77-year old representative from the state of Falcon said. “We should work without salaries. We should work ad honorem as was the case with my [guerrilla] unit”, he said. Although Soto does not believe that the conservative opposition possesses an alternative program that can successfully compete with the socialists and Chavez, he has expressed his party’s willingness to engage in a democratic debate with the new congressmen. “The Venezuelan opposition will have the National Assembly doors open to discuss ideas”, he assured. This includes ceding chair positions of certain legislative commissions to opposition members. “They will have their representation”, Rojas stated. OPPOSITION SHOW Members of the opposition, on the other hand, have been less forthcoming in their willingness to work with the PSUV. Leader of the opposition party PPT, Gustavo Hernandez, although recognizing Soto Rojas as an “honest Venezuelan” and “a fighter all his life”, expressed his party’s unwillingness to support his ascendancy to the National Assembly’s presidency due to the “sectarian manner” in which he was selected. During the same interview, Hernandez, decried the political po-
larization that has recently beset Venezuela which has “impeded us from distinguishing between good and bad leaders, between the honest and dishonest, between those who work and those who do not, and between the competent and the incompetent”. As the National Assembly began its first session on Wednesday, both opposition and PSUV supporters held rallies in Caracas. “We’re the representatives of the people, we’re the majority”, declared the ever-smiling Maria Corina Machado, elected in the wealthiest part of metropolitan Caracas and backed by corporate and international campaign funding. Machado, founder of the US-funded group Sumate, which attempted to recall President Chavez’s mandate in 2004, comes from one of Venezuela’s wealthiest families and attended fancy boarding schools in Europe and the US throughout most of her childhood. In 2005, Machado was received by George W. Bush in the White House in a showing of support for her efforts to oust President Chavez. But Machado wasn’t smiling as a majority in parliament voted for the PSUV candidates to lead the legislature. Despite opposition claims of being a “majority”, they are in fact a minority. The opposition coalition MUD represents 13 different political parties in the National Assembly and they don’t always agree. Representatives Alfonso Mar-
quina from the UNT conservative party and Richard Blanco from the Alianza Bravo Pueblo party, both backed with funding from US and other foreign agencies, proposed Jose Sanchez (alias “Mazuco”) as their candidate to the Vice Presidency of the Assembly on Wednesday. Sanchez was elected on the UNT platform in the state of Zulia while he was on trial as an accomplice to homicide. He was convicted in late December and sentenced to 19 years in prison, rendering his elected office null and void. Although none of the representatives from the opposition coalition voiced public objection to Sanchez’s nomination, their facial expressions couldn’t go unnoticed. Machado looked particularly bothered with the nomination of a convicted murderer to lead the opposition’s slate in parliament, especially knowing he wouldn’t be elected to the position. OPPOSITION MAINTAINS US TIES On Wednesday, the US State Department confirmed that a group of “anti-Chavez lawmakers” would visit Washington next week. Spokesman Philip Crowley didn’t confirm whether the opposition representatives would meet with US officials, but he did reiterate the “continuing support” for “Venezuelan civil society...[and] free market enterprise”. Crowley added, “We decry the increasingly autocratic trends in Venezuela”. Enrique Marquez, Vice President of the right-wing party UNT and incoming lawmaker, confirmed the Washington trip on Thursday. “We will meet with Organization of American States Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza next week” along with others, he said in a radio interview. “We will not rest until the final judicial and political consequences are taken and the people realize this is an abusive government”, he announced. The Venezuelan opposition has close relations with the US Republican party, which just assumed a majority in the House of Representatives. Chairwoman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, has pledged to “take action” against President Hugo Chavez this year. T/ Edward Ellis and Eva Golinger P/ Agencies
NoÊ{ÈÊUÊFriday, January 7th, 2011
The artillery of ideas
International
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Brazil’s new President pledges to end poverty Dilma Rousseff, the first woman president of the South American giant, pledged to “not rest” until extreme poverty and misery is ended in her country. Rousseff, a former leftist activist who was tortured and imprisoned during the 1970s dictatorship, will also work towards strengthening regional integration
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n a historic event that saw the first woman ever to assume Brazil’s highest political office, Dilma Rousseff was sworn in as the new President of South America’s largest country last Saturday amidst hopes for further prosperity and a spirit of international goodwill. The 63 year-old economist and ex-guerilla is following in the footsteps of her political predecessor, Luiz Ignacio “Lula” Da Silva, who after two terms as President and head of Brazil’s Workers’ Party (PT) has left office with an unprecedented 87 percent public approval rating. “Today is the first time that the presidential sash is being passed from a man to a woman. I feel immensely honored”, Rousseff said during her swearing-in ceremony.
ENDING POVERTY Brazil’s new President promised on Saturday to continue Lula’s legacy by putting an end to extreme poverty, revamping the country’s public health and educational systems, and furthering her nation’s rapid economic and social development. “We live in a period of growth”, she said during her inaugural speech. “Millions of jobs are being created, dependence on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has ceased, and we’ve rescued millions of Brazilians from misery and desolation. But we must be ambitious. We must want more”, she affirmed. Rousseff, who has been described by her colleagues as a “workaholic”, won Brazil’s presidential elections last October with 56 million votes.
FORMER POLITICAL PRISONER In the 1960s, she participated in the resistance movement against Brazil’s then military dictatorship and was a member of the armed guerrilla group, Palmares Revolutionary Armed Vanguard. From 1970 to 1972 she was imprisoned and tortured by the dictatorship. Now an economist, the former Presidential Chief of Staff of Lula’s government paid tribute on Saturday to those who lost their lives fighting against the repression of the military dictatorship that ruled the country from 1964-1985. “I lost a part of my youth fighting for a more just country. I do not regret it nor do I hold any grudges…Many of my generation fell in the struggle and are unable to be here today to share the joy of this moment. I pay homage to them”, she exclaimed. Considered to be a pragmatic and efficient leader, Rousseff has prioritized the fight against poverty and pledged to not rest “while there are Brazilians without food on their table and poor children left on their own”. “Social mobility increased during Lula’s government but a shameful poverty still exists”, she said in recognition of her predecessor’s success in cutting poverty and her determination to build upon those gains.
MORE GENDER BALANCE Nine women will form essential members of Rousseff’s new cabinet including Miriam Belchior who will head up the Planning Ministry, one of Brazil’s most important governmental posts. Accompanied by a womanonly security escort on Saturday, the new President said she came to power “to open doors so that many other women also, in the future, can be presidents and so that all Brazilian women feel proud to be women”. LATIN AMERICAN INTEGRATION With respect to international relations, the new President has also pledged to follow Lula’s foreign policy and strengthen Latin American relations through the trade block Mercosur and the Union of South American Nations, UNASUR. “Brazil repeats, with vehemence and conviction, our decision to associate our social, economic, and political development with rest of our continent”, she declared. “We can transform our region into an essential part of a multi-polar world, giving more and more consistency to Mercosur and Unasur”. On the economic front, a new president of Brazil’s Central Bank, Alexandre Tombini, has been appointed to carry out
Rousseff’s stricter fiscal policy to control the nation’s modestly increasing inflation and make for a more competitive exchange rate. FAREWELL TO LULA For many, Rousseff’s inauguration was both a joyous and solemn affair as the nation and the world bid farewell from office to one of the most respected Latin American leaders in recent history. Lula Da Silva, the 65 year-old metal worker who never made it past 4th grade, will be remembered for his success in expanding economic growth, furthering Latin American integration and reducing poverty. During the former union leader’s term in office, the Brazilian middle class grew by 29 million while another 20 million people where pulled above the poverty line. The salaries of low-income earners also rose six times faster than those of high-wage earners, contributing to a significant decline in the country’s inequality. Rousseff referred to her predecessor and political mentor as “the greatest popular leader” that Brazil has ever seen, while Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called his close ally of the past 8 years “colossal”.
“He is not leaving, nor will he ever leave from the hearts of those of us who love him. He will never leave the pages of South American history”, Chavez remarked. The Venezuelan head of state, who held a brief meeting with Rousseff after the inauguration, praised his former counterpart for his integrationist initiatives and his independence-oriented agenda. “He didn’t only allow Brazil to walk on its own two feet, but he also advanced the possibilities of this Brazil of the South, leaving behind the need to look towards or depend on the north… Thanks to Lula’s and Dilma’s new Brazil, South America is grand”, he stated. For his part, Lula has made clear that he will not step down from public life but rather, after a lengthy vacation, will continue to work in the field of international development. “The fact that I’m leaving the presidency doesn’t mean I’m leaving politics”, Lula said on Saturday. “I have a lot of things to do for my country, I have a lot to do for the world. I want to bring the successful experiences of Brazil to Africa and all of Latin America”. T/ Edward Ellis P/ Presidential Press
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4 | Politics
NoÊ{ÈÊUÊFriday, January 7th, 2011
The artillery of ideas
Venezuela: housing solutions continue The Chavez administration is following through on promises to provide homes for the thousands displaced by the torrential rains in late 2010
“H
ousing, housing, and more housing”, was the emphatic message of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last week as he announced his government’s top priority for 2011 during a ceremony which saw the delivery of eighty new apartments to families in the central state of Miranda. The apartments were handed over to residents affected by torrential rains that have ravaged the nation, leaving some forty people dead and displacing more than 100 thousand. Another one hundred homes were delivered via satelite to families in the western state of Zulia. “I’m putting all my energy into this”, Chavez said during the ceremony held last Thursday. “All the families that were displaced are going to have a new home. We’re going to solve the problem of families without housing”, he affirmed. For residents of the recently inaugurated apartment buildings
in the neighborhood of Felipe Acosta, their new living arrangements are a godsend. “This is a blessing that God and our President have bestowed upon us”, said Brigida Duran, one of the beneficiaries of the new apartments. “We live in an area that has been falling apart for 14 years and has been inhabitable”, Brigida recalled. “We’ve never had any housing benefits until now, when the President granted us this blessing”. SOLVING THE CRISIS Since the onset of the rains in December, the national government has responded to the crisis
by delivering homes to more than 2,000 families. “Up until now, we’ve provided 2,380 living units”, President Chavez said. “At the same time, we continue to finish and build homes. We will continue this rhythm, delivering them every week. While we are finishing the construction of new homes, we will be beginning others or finding the land [necessary to build them]”. The government’s focus on housing began with the national emergency but is planned to extend beyond the victims of the rains in order to solve the housing shortage that predates the natural disaster.
Officials currently place the national housing deficit at 1.5 million. Government plans to address this problem include working with foreign firms from Iran, Belarus, and China to construct low-cost, high quality homes for those in need. There are also plans to erect “a great city” of forty thousand new housing units in the military zone of Fort Tiuna in the capital of Caracas. Another 7,000 apartments will be built in the state of Carabobo, the Venezuelan head of state reported. BATTLING HOUSING FRAUD In addition to accelerating home construction, the Chavez
administration has also taken the offensive against widespread real estate abuses, which have cheated many first-time homebuyers from obtaining properties they have legally purchased. Widespread speculation on the part of private construction firms has been yet another problem that the government has confronted in its attempt to reform the housing sector. “The real cost of these apartments is 184 thousand bolivars (US $43,000) and the private construction firms want to charge people 500 thousand (US $116,000),” Chavez said of the new apartments delivered on Thursday. According to the Venezuelan President, the current housing problem facing the nation is the result of an inherited neglect on the part of past governments that, embracing a neoliberal economic ideology, limited access to affordable housing for the majority of the population. As such, a new paradigm must be adopted to effectively deal with social problems such as housing. “Capitalism will not provide a solution to the housing problem. Only in socialism will we be able to resolve this drama”, Chavez proclaimed. T/ Edward Ellis P/ Presidential Press
Chavez-Clinton suprise meeting reduces tensions Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talked about Caracas’ rejection of Washington’s proposed ambassador to Venezuela when the two chatted briefly Saturday after the inauguration of Dilma Rousseff as President of Brazil
“W
ise people correct their mistakes”, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when the two spoke briefly last weekend in Brazil about Caracas’ rejection of Washington’s proposed ambassador to Venezuela,
according to an unnamed Venezuelan official. Chavez also told Clinton, according to the same official, that he has no plans to break off relations with the United States. “It was a pleasant, unforeseen encounter”, the official said. The Venezuelan government rejected the appointment of Larry Palmer as Washington’s ambassador to Caracas after the diplomat told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the morale of the Venezuelan military was low and called for a probe into the alleged presence of Colombian rebels in Venezuela. Palmer also questioned Venezuela’s democracy and the state of press freedom in the South American nation. The Venezuelan government perceived Palmer’s statements as “unfitting for a diplomat”, making him “ineligible” for the job.
The State Department threatened Venezuela with “consequences” for rejecting Palmer, although Venezuela’s decision was firmly rooted in international law and principles of sovereignty that clearly give the host nation the authority to reject or accept
a foreign diplomat. No foreign dignatary can ever be “imposed” by one nation upon another. Nonetheless, the State Department responded on December 29 by quietly revoking the visa of Venezuela’s Ambassador to the US, Bernardo Alvarez, while he
was out of the country on holiday, thereby preventing his return. After the brief exchange of words in the Brazilian capital, Washington left open the possibility that it would name a substitute for Palmer, despite initially insisting that Palmer was the only candidate for the position. Palmer’s nomination became null and void upon the close of the 111th Congress at the end of 2010, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Monday. President Barack Obama’s administration “will evaluate” whether to propose a new nominee, Crowley said. President Chavez said on Tuesday evening that he felt the encounter with Clinton, though suprising, was a “good sign”. T/ CO P/ Agencies
Economy
NoÊ{ÈÊUÊFriday, January 7th, 2011
The artillery of ideas
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Venezuela adjusts exchange rate, reports positive 2011 economic projections
HALTING CAPITAL FLIGHT In 2003, the government established currency controls and an exchange rate of 2.15 bolivars per dollar to stop capital flight and to control inflation following an economically devastating, management-led general strike. In January 2010, a dual exchange rate was introduced. It consisted of a preferential rate of 2.6 bolivars per dollar for essential goods and services such as food, health care, education, the acquisition of machinery for manufacturing, and the payment of public debts; and a rate of 4.3 bolivars per dollar for non-essential items. The two exchange rate adjustments over the past 12 months were intended to diversify Venezuela’s economy, which is dominated by the oil sector and dependent on imports. The new measures are expected to stimulate domestic production by making imports more expensive and facilitating investments through the simplification of transactions and legal regulation of the financial system. The adjustments also increase government revenue and bond yields at a time when the government has pledged to maintain its high spending on social programs
40 ,1
Quarterly GDP at steady prices
36
35 30
Percentage change over the same period years 2003-2010
25
9 -0, 4
-1,
6 -4,
5 -5,
8 -5,
-5,
-10
2
-6,
5
-5
6
-2,
0
2,0
3,2 0,5
4,1
7,3
8,5 5,0
9,4
9,4
8,7
5
8,6
7,6
8,8
,2 11 ,4
10
,1
,3
11
10
,1 13
8,0
10
12
12
15
,0
,9
15
,7
20
-15 The estimated economic recovery in 2011, productive investment and production sector
-20 -25
,7
he Venezuelan government eliminated the preferential exchange rate of 2.6 bolivars per dollar on January 1 following a report by the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) that projected 2% growth and reductions in inflation and unemployment in 2011 as Venezuela emerges from recession. The bolivar will now be traded at a single rate of 4.3 bolivars per dollar. Foreign currency bonds will continue to be traded in the Foreign Currency Transactions System (SITME), where their value is allowed to float to a maximum of 5.3 bolivars per dollar. Planning and Finance Minister Jorge Giordani said the adjustment “will allow a simplification in the management of transactions. We have no doubt that this decision will have a series of consequences for the national economy and investments over the course of 2011 and 2012, however, these effects will allow us to fulfill our economic goals”.
-26
T
-30 I
II III IV 2003
I
II III IV 2004
I
II III IV 2005
I
II III IV 2006
I
II III IV
I
2007
II III IV 2008
I
II III IV 2009
I
II III IV 2010
Source: Banco Central de Venezuela
such as health care, housing, food access, and education and has taken control of approximately 30% of the banking sector in order to direct investments toward domestic production. On Friday, BCV President Nelson Merentes said the potential upward pressure on inflation caused by the exchange rate adjustment will be offset by increased domestic production and the distribution of essential goods and services at regulated prices by state-owned companies, as well as a potential increase in the supply of government-issued dollars to importers aimed at taming the informal dollar market where the bolivar is worth half its official value. President Hugo Chavez issued a stern warning to money launderers and price speculators in his weekly opinion column on Sunday, saying the government will take a harder line against them in 2011. Last year, the government nationalized – with indemnity – large tracts of fertile land left idle by estate owners, dozens of companies accused of speculating on food prices, and a swath of banks that did not comply with legally mandated quotas for productive sector investments. Motivated by the devastation wrought by the world economic
crisis, the National Assembly also passed a comprehensive reform of the financial sector in 2010, including a Framework Law for the Financial System and reforms to the BCV Law, Insurance law, Stock Market Law, and Banking Institutions Law. The reforms established the principle that “well-being is a fundamental human right and the economy should be at the service of this”. They strengthened the role of the government in regulating liquidity in the banking sector, moderating inflation, assuring the flow of government-issued dollars to importers, stabilizing the foreign currency bond market, and stimulating the supply of credit to the national productive sector. ECONOMIC OUTLOOK The exchange rate adjustment came shortly after the BCV released its year-end report on the Venezuelan economy. After shrinking by 3.3% in 2009, Venezuela’s Gross Domestic Product shrank by 1.9% in 2010, the BCV reported. This included a 2.2% decline in the oil sector driven by a drop in the extraction of crude, and a 1.8% decline in the non-oil sector. Telecommunications, government services, and personal services grew by 7.8%, 2.6%, and .9%
respectively over the year, while the main areas of decline were construction (-7.2%), commerce (-6.3%), and manufacturing (-4.2%). Internal demand decreased by 1.7% over the year as overall remunerations grew by 27.4% in the private sector and 9.9% in the public sector, the BCV reported. Annual accumulated inflation was 26.9%, marking only a slight change from 2009, according to the BCV. The government also reported a current account surplus of $13.9 billion, or 7.3% of the GDP, the result of an increase in oil export revenue and a decrease of 1% in overall imports in 2010. Natural disasters greatly affected the economy over the past two years. At the end of 2009, Venezuela was hit by a severe drought that triggered a nation-wide electricity shortage. At the end of 2010, the Caribbean nation was hit by torrential rains that caused flooding and landslides in 40% of the national territory. Minister Giordani was quick to note that the rate of GDP decline slowed over the course of 2010, marking -5.2% in the first quarter, -1.9% in the second quarter, and close to zero percent in the third quarter. It is expected to show positive growth in the fourth quarter.
“This shows a tendency that we have no doubt is going to continue in 2011”, said Giordani in a press conference last Friday, highlighting that Venezuela experienced record growth for 22 consecutive quarters between 2003 and 2008. The BCV, the Planning and Finance Ministry, and the National Statistics Institute (INE) coincided in a projection of 2% growth for the year 2011. They also project a decline of between 1% and 3% in the annual inflation rate and a decrease in unemployment from the current 7.7% to below 7% in 2011. “Venezuela is going out from the economic crisis. Next year the economy will grow and indicators will recover”, affirmed INE Director Elias Eljuri. SOCIAL INDICATORS While the recession that was sparked by the world financial meltdown in 2008 caused increased unemployment and poverty in many industrialized countries, Venezuela’s employment rate remained relatively steady at between 7% and 8%, and the poverty rate remained steady at around 26%. Meanwhile, Venezuela’s Human Development Index, which measures health, income, and education, increased steadily through this year, finishing 2010 at .787 compared to .732 in 2000 – the sixth best among Latin American and Caribbean countries, according to the United Nations Development Program. Planning Minister Jorge Giordani said this was the result of a total of $330 billion in social investment over the ten years of the Chavez presidency – social spending that did not abate during the recent recession despite calls for “fiscal austerity” by free trade proponents. The policies of the current government contrast in many ways with the neo-liberal policies enacted by Venezuela’s two former ruling parties during the 1980s and 1990s, which brought an increase in poverty from 10% of the population in 1978 to 86% of the population in 1996 while monetary deregulation led to a 103% inflation rate in 1996. T/ James Suggett www.venezuelanalysis.com
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6 | Social Justice
NoÊ{ÈÊUÊFriday, January 7th, 2011
The artillery of ideas
Venezuela: Q&A
Law of Telecommunications 5 Questions 5 Answers 1. What changed in the reformed Law of Telecommunications? One major change is the declaration of telecommunications as a public service and interest, instead of a “general interest”, as was stipulated in the original law. The concept of “public interest” is distinct from neoliberal and mercantile interests and emphasizes the State’s duty to guarantee full access for all Venezuelans to telecommunications services. The law also establishes the possibility of returning telecommunications assets or concessions back to the State in the event of the expiration of legal title. The reformed legislation also reduces the time period of broadcasting licenses (television and radio) from 22 to 15 years, with the option to renew. 2. Why was the reform necessary? In Venezuela, the impact of previous neoliberal policies opened the telecommunications sector, along with other social-economic industries in the country, to privatization, concentration of property and private monopolies in the hands of media owners. Some companies came to believe they were untouchable, permanent owners of broadcasting licenses, with rights above
United Kingdom, the law states: “Typically, licenses are given for an initial period of 5, 10 or 15 years, with the option to renew after paying additional fees”. Similar regulations exist in other countries throughout Europe and Latin America.
and beyond those of the public and their own audiences. The reformed law excludes the assignment or inheritance of broadcasting concessions, and reduces their length of duration. Democracy, and not “mediacracy”, is promoted by the reformed law in the use of the broadcasting spectrum. 3. Does the Venezuelan State want to own all private media? Those who make such claims are detached from the reality of media
in the country. The private sector in Venezuela has accumulated 90 newspapers, 700 commercial radio stations, more than 70% of television channels and their audiences encompass more than 60% of Venezuelans. None of those media have been bothered or harassed by the State, so long as they have followed laws and regulations. 4. What are international standards with respect to broadcasting concessions?
In Argentina, for example, the National Law of Broadcasting establishes the licensing of broadcasting concessions to media operators for 15 years, the same length of time established in the reformed Venezuelan Law of Telecommunications. In Spain, the General Law of Telecommunications specifies, “concessions will be given for a period ending on the 31st of December of the fifth year of validity, renewable for five-year increments”. In the
5. Why has the Venezuelan rightwing reacted so vehemently to the reformed law? Any regulation proposed by the Bolivarian Government in the area of media and telecommunications has been used by the right-wing to claim alleged violations of freedom of expression. This discourse is then repeated and recycled by international corporate media that have been conducting a campaign of demonization against Venezuela, attempting to present the country as a “failed state” and President Hugo Chavez as a dictator. Reporters without Borders, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, CNN and other interested political and media actors have and continue to lead this campaign. In the face of these lies and distortions, there is no other remedy except to find and create new mechanisms to make our true reality known. T/ Minci P/ Agencies
Development of Venezuelan productive sector expected in 2011 E
conomic and productive growth in Venezuela is expected in 2011, “thanks to the construction and creation of diverse industrial complexes promoted by the national Government”, Vice President for Productive Economy, Ricardo Menendez announced this week. “There is a very significant development in our productive sector due to direct efforts made by our revolutionary government that are based on projects launched to diversify and expand national industries”, he commented. For example, Menendez informed that the government will began developing companies to produce household appliances. “President Hugo Chavez announced in March that the coun-
try will start with the construction of an industrial complex jointly with the Chinese company Haier (…) This joint venture will allow for the production of household appliances in the country and, of course, it will also lead to a reduction in the price of the products”, he stressed. NEW COMPANIES The healthcare industry will also increase production through the creation of a corporation in charge of supplying hospitals, clinics and other medical facilities. “We are on our way to developing a pharmaceutical and medical supply company jointly with Cuba, which will allow us to address a fundamental area of the population and increase the national pro-
duction of medicines and medical equipment”, he assured. Moreover, Menendez praised the progress achieved, in less than a year, by two national cellular phone companies, Orinoquia and
Vetelca, and the consolidation of the joint productive and developmental work between the government and the private sector. “We are also experiencing achievements in technology.
In May of last year, President Chavez inaugurated the Orinoquia Company, which is already planning an expansion; that is to say, it will increase its production line. We also have the example of the company Vetelca, additionally making cellular telephones, which will also expand its production line during the first trimester of 2011. Recently, we signed the first agreement between a private company and public entity to produce vehicles”, he announced. “This is a thriving and growing country in terms of development”, emphasized Vice President Menendez. T/ AVN P/ Agencies
NoÊ{ÈÊUÊFriday, January 7th, 2011
The artillery of ideas
Analysis
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Why Washington hates Chavez I
n late November 2010, Venezuela was hammered by torrential rains and flooding that left 35 people dead and roughly 130,000 homeless. If George Bush had been president, instead of Hugo Chavez, the displaced people would have been shunted off at gunpoint to makeshift prison camps--like the Superdome--as they were following Hurricane Katrina. But that’s not the way that Chavez works. The Venezuelan President quickly requested an “Enabling Law” to gave him emergency powers to provide aid and housing to flood victims. Chavez then cleared out the presidential palace and turned it into living quarters for 60 people, which is the equivalent of turning the White House into a homeless shelter. The disaster victims are now being fed and taken care of by the state until they can get back on their feet and return to work. The details of Chavez’s efforts have been largely omitted in the US media where he is regularly demonized as a “leftist strongman” or a dictator. The media refuses to acknowledge that Chavez has narrowed the income gap, eliminated illiteracy, provided health care for all Venezuelans, reduced inequality, and raised living standards. While Bush and Obama were expanding their foreign wars and pushing through tax cuts for the rich, Chavez was busy improving the lives of the poor and needy while fending off the latest wave of US aggression. Washington despises Chavez because he is unwilling to hand over Venezuela’s vast resources to corporate elites and bankers. That’s why the Bush administration tried to depose Chavez in a failed coup attempt in 2002, and that’s why the smooth-talking Obama continues to launch covert attacks on Chavez today. Washington wants regime change so it can install a puppet who will hand over Venezuela’s reserves to big oil while making life hell for working people. Recently released documents from Wikileaks show the Obama administration has stepped up its meddling in Venezuela’s internal affairs. “In a secret document authored by current Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western
Hemisphere Affairs, Craig Kelly, and sent by the US Embassy in Santiago in June 2007 to the Secretary of State, CIA and Southern Command of the Pentagon, along with a series of other US embassies in the region, Kelly proposed ‘six main areas of action for the US government (USG) to limit Chavez’s influence’ and ‘reassert US leadership in the region’. “Kelly classifies President Hugo Chavez as an ‘enemy’ in his report: ‘Know the enemy: We have to better understand how Chavez thinks and what he intends... To effectively counter the threat he represents, we need to know better his objectives and how he intends to pursue them. This requires better intelligence in all of our countries’. Further on in the memo, Kelly confesses that President Chavez is a ‘formidable foe’, but, he adds, ‘he certainly can be taken’”. (“Wikileaks: Documents Confirm US Plans Against Venezuela”, Eva Golinger,) The State Department cables show Washington has been funding anti-Chavez groups in Venezuela through non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that pretend to be working for civil liberties, human rights or democracy promotion. These groups hide behind a facade of legitimacy, but
their real purpose is to topple the democratically elected Chavez government. Obama supports this type of subversion just as enthusiastically as did Bush. The only difference is the Obama team is more discreet. Here’s another clip from Golinger with some of the details on the money-trail: “In Venezuela, the US has been supporting anti-Chavez groups for over 8 years, including those that executed the coup d’etat against President Chavez in April 2002. Since then, the funding has increased substantially. A May 2010 report evaluating foreign assistance to political groups in Venezuela, commissioned by the National Endowment for Democracy, revealed that more than $40 million USD annually is channeled to anti-Chavez groups, the majority from US agencies”. “Allen Weinstein, one of NED’s original founders, revealed once to the Washington Post, ‘What we do today was done clandestinely 25 years ago by the CIA’”. (America’s Covert “Civil Society Operations”: US Interference in Venezuela Keeps Growing”, Eva Golinger, Global Research) Last week, the Obama administration revoked the visa of Venezuela’s ambassador to Washington in retaliation for Chávez’s
rejection of nominee Larry Palmer as American ambassador in Caracas. Palmer has been openly critical of Chavez saying there were clear ties between members of the Chavez administration and leftist guerrillas in neighboring Colombia. It’s a roundabout way of accusing Chavez of terrorism. BANKING FOR THE PEOPLE Chavez is also using his influence to reform the financial sector. Here’s an excerpt from an article titled “Venezuelan National Assembly Passes Law Making Banking a “Public Service”: “Venezuela’s National Assembly approved new legislation that defines banking as an industry ‘of public service’, requiring banks in Venezuela to contribute more to social programs, housing construction efforts, and other social needs while making government intervention easier when banks fail to comply with national priorities”. So why isn’t Obama doing the same thing? Is he too afraid of real change or is he just Wall Street’s lackey? Naturally, opposition leaders are calling the new laws “an attack on economic liberty”, but that’s pure baloney. Chavez is merely protecting the public from the predatory practices of bloodthirsty bankers.
Most Americans wish that Obama would do the same thing. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Chavez has threatened to expropriate large banks in the past if they don’t increase loans to small-business owners and prospective home buyers, this time he is increasing the pressure publicly to show his concern for the lack of sufficient housing for Venezuela’s 28 million people”. Venezuela suffers from a massive housing shortage that’s gotten much worse because of the flooding. Tens of thousands of people need shelter now, which is why Chavez is putting pressure on the banks to lend a hand. Of course, the banks don’t want to help so they’ve slipped into crybaby mode. But Chavez has shrugged off their whining and put them “on notice”. In fact, he issued this terse warning: “Any bank that slips up…I’m going to expropriate it, whether it’s Banco Provincial, or Banesco or Banco Nacional de Credito”. Bravo, Hugo. In Chavez’s Venezuela the basic needs of ordinary working people take precedent over the profiteering of cutthroat banksters. Is it any wonder why Washington hates him? T/ Mike Whitney P/ Presidential Press
FRIDAY | January 7th, 2011 | No. 46| 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
A few facts about recent venezuelan laws and the case of judge Afiuni S
ome of my friends in the US have had some concerns about recent events in Venezuela. From here in Venezuela, however, it seems there may be some misinformation, something common, of course, in mass media. The Venezuelan National Assembly that ended office on January 5, 2011, approved various laws to strengthen the revolutionary process. Of course the Assembly is entitled to do this because law making is its mandate until the end of the constitutional period. One of the most recent laws gives extraordinary faculties to the President to create laws by decree on certain matters defined in the same decree that qualifies him to do so, for a fixed time. The right to convey extraordinary faculties, an “Enabling Act”, is established in Article 203 of our Constitution and also appeared in previous constitutions, and has been widely used by congresses and presidents before Chavez took office in 1999. This most recent authorization of an Enabling Act was approved by the National Assembly because there is a lot of work to be done to respond to the emergency situation caused by the heavy rains in 2010, such as building housing for the families affected by floods. These efforts could meet with serious difficulties in a new National Assembly, which just took office, in which a belligerent putchist opposition, though it cannot prevent new laws from being approved (out of 165 seats, PSUV has 97 and the opposition has 67), can indeed dramatically delay enactment just by dragging out debates. So nothing illegal or against our Constitution has occurred, since these options are established in it and these attributions have been used in the past by the same people that now complain. JUDICIAL CORRUPTION Another concern that has arisen is the matter of Judge Lour-
des Afiuni, who has claimed to be innocent and a political prisoner of President Chavez. Afiuni was judging a financier named Eligio Cedeño who was involved in several corruption cases. The latest charge was that he and an accomplice deceived CADIVI, our office of currency control, by ostensibly buying computers for almost US $30 million but bringing only empty containers to the country. The financier’s accomplice was arrested in Panama more than a year and half ago, and after being turned over to the authorities of Venezuela confessed the whole scheme. His lawyers delayed the trial with legal maneuvers, until about six months ago, when Judge Afiuni herself walked Mr. Cedeño out of the courtroom and escorted him with two other employees of her court to the internal parking lot for judges, where Cedeño boar-
ded a motorcycle that was let in to the lot by Afiuni’s instruction. Then Afiuni returned to the courtroom to write the ruling with the decision to liberate Cedeño and afterwards she sat down and said loud and clear that she would sit where she was to wait for the suspension letter to arrive from her superiors. The usual legal practice is that whenever an inmate is freed by ruling of a judge, he is taken back to prison where he waits for the arrival of the release order signed by the judge, something that usually happens in a matter of one or two hours. This was violated by Afiuni to be sure Cedeño would get away. The judge, suspected of felony, was suspended to investigate further but nobody ever got sanctioned because in cases of bribery people released simply take off to another country to enjoy the
money stashed in some bank account of a family member, like to Miami, USA, for example. This explains the approach of Afiuni, but this time things worked out differently because she was arrested and held to trial for bribery. Two reflections: First, regarding the Enabling Act: In Venezuela we have a very healthy democracy. It is a revolutionary democracy, not Swedish or North American. It is not a representative democracy but it a developing participatory democracy. We have popular elections more than once a year; we voted for our constitution; we had a recall referendum against the President; we have judicial rulings regarding the results of elections and nobody has complained so far. We are building popular power to give participatory substance to our revolution. We are intervening against big monopo-
listic property and turning it into social property. We have a Bolivarian Revolution that we also call socialist, and all this is being done with civil liberties, a free press, and a multiparty system preserved. We battle every day against a fierce and undemocratic opposition that is backed up by powerful capitalist countries, starting with the USA. Yet we manage to keep proceeding on a democratic path. But, also again, we remind people abroad that we are not Swedish or English. Secondly, I have to say that I find it strange for people abroad concerned with justice and Venezuelan progress, to defend people like Judge Afiuni. I think she deserves to have the same treatment as any other citizen who is judged for similar reasons and is under custody because a serious and probable flight risk exists. Afiuni already has privileges, including being in a fairly comfortable cell with TV and a laptop (and Twitter), plus she enjoys visits at times no other inmate is allowed. Since Afiuni knows the judicial position she is in, she keeps on playing the card of being a political prisoner, which of course she is not. We have no news of Afiuni being a political partisan of any group or defender of any ideology. Simply, Afiuni was a judge who received a payoff for the release of Cedeño and now is eager to part the country and enjoy the money. If we had had a violent revolution we could fight corruption with violent means, but since our revolution follows a democratic and peaceful path, we can only put the felons in jail. To forego that option would be to forego law, on the one hand, and open the door to further violations on the other. - Fernando Vegas Torrealba Fernando Vegas Torrealba is a Venezuelan Supreme Court Justice.