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Michel Collon on how the world is changing and our role in it all
FRIDAY | March 11, 2011 | No. 55 | Bs 1 | C ARACAS
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Imperial anxieties: The crisis US policy faces in North Africa
ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas
ALBA nations call for peace in Libya
Put out that cigarrette!
Latin American nations issued a statement this week urging a peaceful solution to the crisis in Libya and rejecting foreign intervention
Venezuela celebrates women’s advances
In commemoration of 100 years since International Women’s Day was first declared, Venezuela hosted the World Conference of Grassroots Women Revolutionaries and held several marches and events throughout Caracas this week. Under the Chavez administration, important gains have been made for gender equality, but violence against women and an exploitative beauty culture still present challenges for the South American nation.
During a meeting of foreign ministers from member nations of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), express support was given to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s proposal last week for a commission of friendly nations to aid Libya to dialogue and peace. The countries rejected initiatives to increase aggression against Libya, primarily pushed by the US, NATO and European nations, and called on the world community to help the North African country end the violence and bloodshed.
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Economy
China aids Venezuela’s agricultural industry A joint Chinese-Venezuelan venture will increase food security in the country.
Politics
Sean Penn thanks Chavez Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn expressed gratitude for Venezuela’s aid to Haiti.
Social Justice
Labor leader released from jail Ruben Gonzalez was freed from confinment this week, a move seen as progress for workers’ rights.
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Venezuela strengthens community health system
he government of Venezuela is fostering a humanitarian medical system devoted to communities and particularly to disease prevention though the training of 24,000 students in the field of integral medicine, 8,500 of whom will graduate by the end of this year. Director of the Jose Maria Vargas Hospital in downtown Caracas, Francisco Hernandez, said the model of integral medicine promoted by the Chavez administration aims at providing physicians with a communitarian perspec-
tive to prevent disease and illness among poor people. “This is really a new system in which physicians are urged to have a communitybased vision, which has long been a deficit in our country”. Community Integral Medicine replaces the previous model of medicine practiced in the country, which excluded people who were not able to pay for treatments or medicines due to their high cost. Now, health care is free in Venezuela. “The progress achieved during the last few years in health care is very important. There is not sector
related to the field which has not achieved significant advances”. Karina Castro one of the 8,500 students of integral medicine who are expected to graduate this year, highlighted the training they have received for 6 years with the best doctors. This has allowed new physicians to treat their patients integrally from a humanitarian perspective. “We are working in every hospital, giving the best of us. We are being trained by the best doctors and will show our people that there are doctors here to take care of them”, Castro said.
enezuela l has h been b laudl d ed by the United Nations as a model nation in the implementation of antismoking policies. Earlier this month, the Venezuelan Ministry of Health decreed smoke-free areas throughout the country. The resolution bans smoking in public places and job sites, including on public transit. The public areas where smoking is now prohibited include clubs, restaurants and job sites, including corridors, elevators, cafeterias, lobbies, bathrooms, halls, and cafeterias. Nations such as Panama, Russia, Chile, Australia, Canada, among others, have sought to emulate Venezuelan anti-smoking initiatives. Those countries have been interested in reproducing the design on packs of cigarettes sold in Venezuela, on which words that promote smoking are restricted while warning signs are displayed to alert the population of the consequences of smoking. Anti-smoking policies in Venezuela have been previously implemented. Malls and some public areas were declared smoke-free zones last year.
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2 | Integration
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Venezuela celebrates women’s advances, but more efforts needed With banners, signs and traditional attire from around the world, a colorful march moved through the streets of Caracas last Tuesday in celebration of International Women’s Day
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he enthusiastic event formed part of a series of activities taking place in Venezuela since March 4th to commemorate the date which was first celebrated in Copenhagen, Denmark 100 years ago. Joining the march in Caracas were delegates from the 46 nations represented in a week long World Conference of Grassroots Women Revolutionaries. “We have to struggle together”, said Monique Diermissen, delegate from Germany during the march. “We have to find a way to fight in our everyday lives against the capitalist system which promotes the struggle of man against man while relegating women to a secondary role in the redefinition of the world”. ADVANCEMENTS UNDER CHAVEZ The women’s movement in Venezuela, although still not particularly strong, has achieved some notable gains since the ascendancy of Hugo Chavez to the presidency in 1999. The creation of the Women’s and Gender Equality Ministry in 2009 has been held up by many as one of those principal achievements.
The country has also enshrined the protection of the women’s rights in the republic’s constitution and has strengthened this protection under its Law on the Rights of Women to a Life Free from Violence. “Venezuela has become on of the most advanced countries with this legislation. Women were invisible as social beings and weren’t even considered for pubic offices”, said Women’s Minister Nancy Perez Sierra during a report to congress last month. Other major advancements include the requirement of political parties to ensure that 50 percent of their candidates for office be women and the creation of Banmujer, a development bank that provides micro credits to economically disadvantaged women. Celebrating its 10-year anniversary along with International
Women’s Day on Tuesday, members of Banmujer laid a wreath at the foot of the Simon Bolivar in downtown Caracas where the celebratory march began. Nora Castaneda, Founder and President of the bank, related the importance of the financial institution in helping to provide economic independence for impoverished women. “It is precisely for the women who can’t obtain loans from other banks due to their condition of poverty. Banmujer works with them so that they can be incorporated into the benefits of development…In 10 years, we’ve given more than 127 thousand microcredits and we’ve provided benefits for more than 300 thousand women”, Castañeda said. “There are still those who think that women are people of short
ideas and long hair, even though we’re demonstrating everyday that this isn’t true. But there’s still much work to be done. I don’t know how many years it will take but, there’s still much to do”, she remarked. FURTHER ADVANCEMENT NEEDED Indeed, although positive steps have been taken to advance women’s rights in Venezuela, the society, like much of Latin America, is still gripped by a machista status quo which many times stifles gender equality. Amnesty International has reported that a woman dies of gender violence every ten days in Caracas and that in 2008, over 100 thousand complaints of domestic violence were reported to authorities. Local organizations inform that only 1 out of 9 women who are
victimized by violence actually report it. This type of sexism is also highlighted by the country’s multi-billion dollar beauty industry that promotes the role of women as consumer merchandise for national and international business interests. The famous Miss Venezuela beauty contest, owned by one of the wealthiest corporations in Latin America, the Cisneros organization, has prided itself on selling a Euorpeanized image of the Venezuelan women to international audiences through pageants like Miss Universe. Such an emphasis on the superficial has created an extremely lucrative industry ripe with advertising kickbacks and promotional incentives for the Cisneros organization. In fact, Venezuela’s beauty obsession has become so widespread that it has made the nation the largest per capita consumer of cosmetics in the world as an entire onefifth of the average citizen’s income is spent on beauty products. Plastic surgery is also as common as dentist appointments and it is not unusual for wealthy parents to proudly buy their 15-year old daughters breast implants for “coming of age” birthday presents. “Now some people think, ‘My daughter’s turning 15, let’s give her breast enlargements.’ That’s horrible. It’s the ultimate degeneration”, President Chavez said in condemnation of the practice in 2007. T/ Edward Ellis P/ Agencies
Venezuela has highest gender equality in Latin America T
he policies of social inclusion implemented by the Venezuelan government over the last 12 years have allowed the country to achieve one the most positive gender equality indexes in the entire region: 0.5 –considering “0” as full equality and “1” as total inequality – said the Minister of Women’s Affairs and Gender Equality, Nancy Perez. During a television interview, Perez highlighted that interna-
tional gender equality indexes show how Venezuelan women have reached high levels of participation in all the spheres of the country. “Women have been playing roles in political, economic and social participation in the country. Now we have participation in all public levels. We can say that Venezuela stands out regarding women’s political par-
ticipation and incorporation”, she highlighted. Some of the policies created that have restored women’s role in Venezuelan society include the creation of the Ministry of Women Affairs, the Bank of Development for Women (Banmujer), the Organic Law for Women’s Right to a Violence-Free Life, the National Institution of Women, and programs like Mission Madres del
Barrio, which has offered Venezuelan women a more decent life. In Venezuela, 3 of the 5 branches are led by women. Tibisay Lucena leads the National Electoral Council, Luisa Estela Morales heads the Supreme Court of Justice, while Luisa Ortega Díaz is the Attorney General. Another woman, Cilia Flores, led the National Assembly until the end of 2010. Today, the parliament has
a woman, Blanca Eekhout, as its first vice-president. The Venezuelan achievements have been recognized by international organizations, including the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF), which is currently discussing Venezuela’s dynamic participation, and the United Nations. T/ AVN
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Integration
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Latin American nations pledge for peace in Libya M
ember states of the Latin American and Caribbean alliance, ALBA, pledged their support last Friday for a peace delegation to intercede in the insurrection currently playing out in the North African country of Libya. The announcement was made during a meeting of the regional trade alliance’s political council held in Caracas. In an official statement released last Friday, the integrationist block expressed its commitment to a peaceful solution in Libya and its support for a multilateral delegation to mediate between the warring factions. “The Political Council of the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America – People’s Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP), shares the global concern for the situation of conflict in Libya with its resulting loss of life and expresses its interest in the achievement of a peaceful and sovereign solution…without foreign interference, guaranteeing the territorial integrity of the country”, the declaration states. PEACE COMMISSION Earlier last week, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who visited Libya last October and
for peace, and the overcoming of the armed conflict that the world is unfortunately observing”, he informed.
signed various agreements with the government of Colonel Muamar Gaddafi, offered Venezuela to head up an international delegation in efforts to avoid further bloodshed in the country. “A big effort needs to be made and we can’t lose a day in forming a commission that goes as soon as possible to Libya”, Chavez said suggesting that former US Presi-
dent, Jimmy Carter, head up the peace delegation. “Carter could help. I believe he’s a man of goodwill”, the Venezuelan head of state said. In a letter to Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, the Libyan government has stated its acceptance of Chavez’s proposal, giving Venezuela the green light “to take the necessary measures to select the
members [of the delegation] and coordinate their participation in the dialogue”. Maduro explained on Friday that the South American nation’s intentions are strictly meant to avoid the loss of life and foster a dialogue between belligerent factions. “This peace initiative has as its central objective the support of the Libyan people, their search
AGAINST FOREIGN INTERFERENCE For its part, ALBA member states also articulated their unanimous opposition to intervention on the part of the United States in the Libyan conflict. According to its published statement, the regional alliance, “categorically rejects any intervention from NATO or any foreign power in Libya as well as any attempt to take advantage…of the tragic situation in order to justify a war of conquest of the energy and water resources which are the patrimony of the Libyan people”. ALBA was formed as a Venezuelan initiative in 2004 as a counterbalance to US economic and social hegemony in the Americas. Its member states include Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The organization’s 11th Presidential Summit is slated to take place in Caracas on April 3. T/ Edward Ellis P/ Presidential Press
Venezuela and Colombia continue mending ties Last Thursday, Venezuela and Colombia signed a total of thirteen new agreements focusing on economic cooperation, production and trade
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enezuelan President Hugo Chavez presided over the ceremony at the Miraflores Presidential Palace in the presence of the foreign ministers of both Venezuela and Colombia, Nicolas Maduro and Maria Angela Holguin, respectively. The meeting was also attended by trade ministers from Venezuela and Colombia, Edmee Betancourt and Sergio Diaz Granados, Venezuela’s Minister for Science, Technology and Middle Indus-
try, Ricardo Menendez, as well as the ambassador of Venezuela in Bogota, Ivan Rincon, and the Colombian ambassador in Caracas, Jose Fernando Bautista. At the meeting, Foreign Minister Holguin said Colombia’s border regions are dependent on economic agreements with Venezuela and as such, she expressed her optimism regarding the rapid progress made since the presidential meeting. “Only unity among us will save us from such crises”, President Chavez declared, refering to the diplomatic spat between both nations caused last year by former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s accusations that Venezuela was harboring terrorist groups. After the allegations, which were formally made before the Organization of American States
(OAS), Venezuela and Colombia broke ties. Relations were quickly mended once now President Juan Manuel Santos came to power. ADVANCES IN COMMERCE The Venezuelan President announced that the agreements signed on this occasion were based in four vital areas: production and development, trade, Colombian companies and business in Venezuela, and technical assistance and training. He urged the foreign ministers of Venezuela and Colombia, to expedite procedures for completing projects planned between the two nations. Amongst the thirteen agreements of cooperation are: innovation and training in the textile sector; implementation of joint actions in the acquisition
of materials for housing; strategic feasibility studies for new installations in Venezuela’s basic industries; creation of a joint venture to produce generic medi-
cines; commercial exchange, and trade, among others. T/ Agencies P/ Presidential Press
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4 | Economy
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China aids Venezuela to food sovereignty Strengthening Venezuela’s agricultural production and the nation’s capacity to supply both its domestic and international food markets has been the impetus behind the creation of a new mixed VenezuelanChinese company
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eilongjiang Beidahuang, an agricultural company that manages various state farms in China and specializes in technological and seed supply, will comprise the Asian component of the new business that will operate in Venezuelan territory. Venezuela’s Agriculture and Land Ministry will head up the Latin American side of the enterprise, which was solidified last Saturday when President Hugo Chavez met with company representatives and Chinese agricultural experts. “We cannot continue to depend only on oil”, Chavez said during the meeting. “That was the [economic] model that was imposed upon us by imperialism, the oildependent model. We have to produce our own food. First for self-sustenance and then to export even as far as China. That’s what were planning with this alliance”, he affirmed. The new joint venture has planned the supply of rice, corn and bean seeds from the Chinese firm as well as technological transfer that will be used to develop millions of acres of currently underutilized Venezuelan farmland. FERTILE FARMLANDS “We have very good, fertile land that isn’t being cultivated which could facilitate the production of food for around 500 million people”, Chavez explained. As part of the preparations for the agricultural initiative, Qian Baim, President of the Heilongjiang Beidahuang company submitted a report during Saturday’s meeting outlining the results of a Chinese delegation’s evaluation of Venezuelan farmlands in the states of Apure, Bolivar, Barinas, Anzoategui and Guarico.
“Venezuela has very fertile land, well suited for cultivation and the Venezuelan government has made agricultural production a priority. Our company has a lot of experience in the production of different crops. We have the technology and know-how that can be applied here and with our collaboration, Venezuela will be at the front of world agricultural development. [It] will be a producer and exporter of cereals to supply the people of the world”, President Baim said. The study carried out by the Chinese delegation focused on soil and water quality and was handed over to the Agriculture an Land Minister Juan Carlos Loyo who signed an Act of Commitment with the foreign firm to create the new joint venture. According to President Chavez, the new company will begin to plant rice in the Venezuelan state of Apure as early as June of this year. “This demonstrates the willingness that both parties have. We have to prepare the irrigation systems, canals, ponds and wells in order to reap two or three rice harvests in one year”, the Venezuelan head of state said. The formation of the joint company marks the second agreement signed between the Venezuelan
government and Heilongjiang Beidahuang this year. In January, the Chavez administration gave the go ahead to import soybeans and soybean oil from the Chinese company to ensure a three month supply of the commodities in its food reserves. “[Heilongjiang Beidahuang] is a company dedicated to food production. That’s why I’ve asked for their help in order to increase our country’s food reserves”, Chavez said. STRENGHTENING TIES This latest agreement with a Chinese forms part of the strengthening of ties between Venezuela and the Asian economic powerhouse. Indeed, Chinese–Venezuelan relations have been growing exponentially over recent years with trade between the two nations now reaching over $5 billion a year. In 2008, the Asian nation built and launched Venezuela’s first telecommunications satellite and last year, China approved a $20 billion loan to Venezuela, the largest in the country’s history. As part of its push to ensure food security in the face of rapidly rising prices, Venezuela has, in addition to China, reached out to its neighbor Colombia, signing a series of accords designed to ac-
celerate agricultural production. “We’re becoming integrated. Soon we’ll be importing twenty thousand cows from Colombia to strengthen our milk production”, announced President Chavez. DOMESTIC PRODUCTION In October of last year, the Venezuelan government also nationalized the Spain-based agricultural supply chain, Agroisleña, in a bid to make farming equipment, seeds and fertilizers more accessible to small farmers. Referred to as the Monsanto of Venezuela, Agroisleña exercised control over seventy percent of the distribution of staple crops such as corn and rice, as well as exerting a monopoly over the distribution of seeds. “Agroisleña was an apparatus that exploited the campesinos who ended up being dependent on the business for basic supplies such as pesticides… It bankrupted many small farmers”, said Elisa Osorio, leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, at the time of the nationalization. HELPING LOCAL FARMERS In February, the Chavez government launched a new social program, or mission, called Agro Venezuela, with the intent of re-in-
vigorating agricultural production in the country and breaking with a past dominated by fallow estates and transnational agro-businesses. The mission, currently collecting registry information on all producers who wish to participate in the program, has already begun to provide low interest loans, machinery, and technical assistance to farmers enrolled in the initiative. Yulitma Arroyo, a small producer from state of Lara is one such beneficiary. “We’ve received financing for twenty-three hectares of potatoes, coffee and vegetables”, she reported. Many producers who were adversely affected by torrential rains at the end of 2010, have also received government support. “[The Mission] has financed cacao and plantain production, which was lost as a consequence of the rains we had last year”, said Damasco Villamizar from the community of Barlovento in the state of Miranda. According to the government, more than 500 thousand producers who have registered for the program will benefit from government aid. T/ Edward Ellis P/ Presidential Press
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Radical pro-Chavez leader, “Commander Lina Ron” dies at 51
ne of the most well-known female faces of “chavismo” in Venezuela, Lina Ron, a prominent leader in the Bolivarian Revolution perceived as controversial for her radicalism and grassroots activism, died on Saturday morning of a heart attack, at the young age of 51. Ron, who described herself as the “most radical part of the revolution”, was the founder of Venezuelan Popular Unity (UPV), an anti-imperialist leftist revolutionary party. Ron grew up in extreme poverty and was one of fifteen children raised by her mother as a single parent. She was unable to complete her university studies in medicine due to economic reasons. Early in her life, Ron was a student leader and helped organize protests for informal workers. Throughout her adult life, Ron ran a cultural center, hosted alternative television programs, and was “one of the strongest activists in the electoral campaign for the re-election of President Hugo Chavez” in 2006. When the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) was formed in 2007, she was part of the original leadership. Many saw her election to the director-
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ate as a break from bureaucracy, as she was well known as a street activist who refused institutional positions. At that time, Ron had declared: “In this revolution, being Chavista is a way of life”. CONTROVERSIAL ACTIONS In 2008, Lina Ron and some of her hard-core followers, who called her the “Comandanta” occupied the Archbishop’s palace in Caracas in protest against their public postures against President Chavez and the Catholic Church’s open aggressiveness towards the government. In 2009, Ron was arrested and jailed for a short period after she and members of UPV tear gas bombed opposition news channel Globovision. Ron was one of Globovision’s staunchest critics, persistently calling on the government to shut the station down. At the time, President Hugo Chavez called on Ron to not engage in such violent acts. “These types of actions do damage to the socialist revolution, because they are counter-revolutionary”. As one of President Chavez’s biggest supporters, (as she herself declared “With Chavez everything, without Chavez, noth-
ing”), the Venezuelan head of state praised her at times, but also called her “uncontrollable” for her “violence”. But Ron was loved by those she devoted her life to, working in the streets with the homeless, drug addicts and the extremely poor to provide them with basic necessities, such as food and clothing. “Wherever I see injustice, I will fight to make it right”, said Ron once during a television interview. During the funeral services on Sunday, Chavez offered his condolences to Ron’s family and friends, declaring her “eternally alive...the highest tribute a revolutionary can receive... because women like Lina never die, Lina... you will always be alive in our battles and the victories of the people”. President Chavez coined Ron as a “Soldier of the People” and called on others to follow her example. The PSUV also released a statement saying, “Lina Ron was a woman...with extraordinary strength to face attacks and enemies of the revolution, but also deeply sensitive to the problems of people who are excluded, people with whom she identified and worked for”.
“In the PSUV we are convinced that... the loyalty of Lina Ron will be an important reference for those who continue struggling”, the statement concluded. T/ Tamara Pearson www.venezuelanalysis.com
Sean Penn thanks Venezuela’s Chavez for Haiti aid
ean Penn thanked Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Saturday for supporting the actor’s relief organization in Haiti, saying the aid has helped its humanitarian work in distributing medicines. “I could see with my own eyes the active participation of Venezuela in Haiti, and that of President Chavez, helping those people during a time in which they suffered unbelievable pain”, declared Penn during an interview on Telesur. Chavez met with Penn at the presidential palace and praised the actor’s efforts with his J/P Haitian Relief Organization, which was founded in response to the catastrophic 2010 earthquake in Haiti. As part of the aid, Venezuela donated medicines that Penn’s organization distributed to hospitals and clinics throughout Haiti. “Just at the moment when none
of those medicines were available in Haiti, Venezuela sent them”. The Oscar-winning actor noted that in addition to Venezuela’s financial help, his organization also receives funding from the US Army. Penn called that ironic, adding, “We hope that this kind of collaboration can be an example for future approaches to many other issues” in spite of the differences and limited diplomatic contacts between Venezuela and the US. Both nations have chilled relations and have been without ambassadors since December, after Venezuela formally rejected the White House’s nominee for envoy in a diplomatic dispute. Obama’s candidate, Larry Palmer, had made “meddling” statements about Venezuela’s internal affairs during his Senate confirmation hearing in August, rendering him, according
to President Chavez, “ineligible” for the job as ambassador in the South American nation. The US government revoked the visa of Venezuelan Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez in response while he was on Christmas holiday, leaving Venezuela without high-level diplomatic representation in Washington.
Sean Penn has met four times with Chavez in recent years. Chavez has praised the actor for his critical stance toward US foreign policy and his activism. The Venezuelan president said their meeting Saturday was productive in discussing “new plans and ideas”, including a potential movie plan in Venezuela.
“Sean is an activist of the struggles for the world’s oppressed peoples, and he’s leaving for Haiti right now”, Chavez said outside the presidential palace when they emerged from their meeting. “I won’t give away his plans and what we discussed, but you’ll find out soon”. “We talked about several new projects relating to housing, green technologies and other collaborations with Haiti”, commented Penn, expressing his admiration for President Chavez who “works so we can all have a better world”. “Little by little, the system that is best for our world will become clear”, he added. “Socialism can work from a humanitarian point of view”. T/ Agencies P/ Presidential Press
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6 | Social Justice
On Thursday, the Venezuelan Supreme Court overruled a decision by a lower court to jail union leader Ruben Gonzalez for seven years and six months for his role in a 2009 iron miner’s strike
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Venezuelan supreme court frees jailed union leader
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fter waiting 16 months for his trial, Gonzalez was convicted last week for incitement to commit a crime, violating a government safety zone, and obstructing the freedom to work. His actions during the strike allegedly led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages to equipment at the CVG Ferrominera Orinoco CA, a state-managed iron ore mining company. Supreme Court Judge Ninoska Beatriz Queipo Briceño ordered Gonzalez to be released on probation on the condition that he reports to a local courtroom every 15 days. Gonzalez spoke to the press following the ruling. “I am being given freedom with an appearance every 15 days. It is very good because I will be at home with my children and family, doing my job as a union leader; but I also disagree because they are not telling me what decision has been made with respect to the seven years and six months in jail”, he said. Local and national labor unions unanimously condemned Gonzalez’s conviction, calling it a violation of workers’ rights. Such agreement among unions is uncharacteristic of the Guayana region, which is a trove of aluminum, iron, coal, and other natural
resources and is known to be rife with heated and sometimes deadly union conflicts. However, unions diverged in their interpretations of Gonzalez’s case. Affiliates of the National Union of Workers (UNETE), which strongly supports the government led by President Hugo Chavez, said the prosecution of Gonzalez was the work of corrupt bureaucrats within the state mining company, CVG, who disagree with and wish to sabotage the Chavez government’s pro-labor policies. Jose Melendez is a union leader
at the state-owned steel company, SIDOR. He led the 17-month fight against the multi-national private management before the company was nationalized in 2008. While he supports the Chavez government, he says the workers themselves must be the key players in their struggles. “Thanks to the workers’ struggle, the class solidarity, and the determination of union organizations, worker councils, and prevention workers who announced a campaign for the freedom of our fellow union member Ruben
and against the ‘judicialization’ of conflicts, today the comrade is free”, said Melendez following Thursday’s ruling. Melendez said in a previous interview with the union current Marea Socialista that if Gonzalez had not been freed, he would have been a “political prisoner”. He also said a historically corrupt judicial system is at the core of the problem. “It has been left clear for all to see that we have a Judicial Branch that is strictly on the side of the exploiters, that makes decisions behind
workers’ backs, and violates our rights”, Melendez asserted. “Of course, we know that the Judicial Branch is a distinct thing from the Executive Branch; we are very clear about this”, Melendez added. OPPOSITION STANCE In contrast, opposition unions from both the right and left wing blamed the whole national government, alleging Chavez and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) are against workers’ rights. “The Chavez government has the clear purpose of intimidating the working class, unleashing police and judicial persecution against those union leaders who do not yield, who do not kneel down”, said Orlando Chirino of the ultra-left C-CURA union current. President Chavez says his administration has favored workers by raising the minimum wage more than previous governments, signing generous collective contracts in nationalized companies, and promoting worker control of workplaces. According to some critics, the Chavez administration favors pro-government labor unions by frequently ceding to their demands and including them at the negotiation table, but often isolates opposition unions by refusing to negotiate with them. Anti-Chavez unions supported the military coup that ousted Chavez for two days in 2002, and they played a major role in a general strike that had the stated intention of toppling Chávez in 2003. T/ Tamara Pearson www.venezuelanalysis.com
Venezuelan youngsters find safety in the ring T
raining in a community hall in Caracas under a roof of corrugated iron, nine-year-old Erick Villanueva pounds punchbags and fights even younger opponents than himself in preparation for the ring. At his debut fight, the boy stares out his rival in sporting rage, impressing an audience of hundreds at a makeshift outdoor boxing arena in a backstreet of the Venezuelan capital. Despite being larger, the other child timidly dodges Erick’s powerful punches.
Erick had no interest in boxing until his home in a Caracas shanty town was destroyed in storms that swept across Venezuela’s coastal areas and made nearly 140,000 people refugees across the nation late last year. He was evacuated to a shelter in a local stadium. There he found a boxing gym and fell in love with the sport, which is being promoted by a government initiative - “Olympic Street Boxing” - designed to pull in boys and girls from
the streets of one of the world’s most crime-ridden cities. Exuding pride as a local radio station interviews her son after he wins his first fight, Erick’s mother said she was apprehensive that her son might be hurt, but happy that his behaviour and academic performance had improved along with his boxing. “He was always a good kid... and he has improved a lot”, Lisett Marcani said, stroking her son’s hair. Young people from the slums are easily caught up in the
drugs and gangs that make the South American nation’s capital one of the world’s crime hotspots. President Hugo Chavez’s socialist government has poured money into sports projects, and the boxing initiative is intended to promote discipline and respect in a region that has produced boxers such as Panama’s Roberto “Hands of Stone” Duran, and Cuba’s Teofilo Stevenson. Though not a traditional boxing nation, Venezuela has produced some champion box-
ers, notably Edwin Valero who held the WBC lightweight title and was known for the image of Chavez on a Venezuelan flag tattooed on his chest. “The support of street boxing is in the national drug plan”, said Duarte Galvani, director of the National AntiDrug Office which is one of the initiative’s sponsors. “We hold events on the street so that kids see it and become motivated to join in the initiative”. T/ Reuters
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The world is changing and we have an important role to play A
fter the Latin Americans, came the Arabs. And tomorrow, the Africans? Why did Washington and Paris have to draw back in Tunisia and Egypt. How are they going to save the foundations of the neo-colonial system. And what is our role in seeing that the world truly transforms itself? For a long time the Empire seemed to be invincible. The United States could at will, using the most absurd pretexts, violate the United Nations Charter, impose cruel embargoes, bomb or occupy countries, assassinate heads of state, provoke civil wars, finance terrorists, organize coups d’état, arm Israel for its aggressions. It seemed the US could do anything it wanted and pessimism prevailed. How many times have I heard people say: “They are too strong, how can we get rid of these corrupt Arab regimes that are accomplices of Israel?” The response has come from below: the people are stronger than the tyrants. But we all feel that the struggle has not ended by only eliminating Ben Ali and Mubarak. It has just begun. To wrest real changes, those who are pulling the strings from behind must be neutralized. Hence it is vitally important to figure out the mechanisms of this system that produces tyrants, protects them and, when necessary, replaces them. And to understand why this Empire is weakening and how it will try to maintain its power at all costs. No Empire is eternal. Sooner or later, the arrogance of their crimes provokes general resistance. Sooner or later, the cost of ‘maintaining order’ is greater than the profits that these wars bring to the multinationals. Sooner or later, the investments in the military will be at the expense of other sectors of the economy, so that they will lose their international competitiveness. And the US is no exception to the rule. The rate of profit of their multinationals has decreased since 1965 and the indebtedness and speculation bubbles have only delayed and worsened the situation. Their share in the world economy dropped from 50% in 1945 to 30% in the 1960s. Today it
is around 20% and it will be about 10% in 20 years. No army can be stronger than its economy and the US is therefore increasingly less able to be the world’s policeman. Now the planet is becoming multipolar: there is a different balance between the US, Europe, Russia and, above all, the large countries of the South. China in particular has proved that to be independent is the best way to make progress. The US and Europe cannot impose their will as they used to do. Their neo-colonialism seems to be heading for an early demise. In fact, this US decline has been increasingly visible over the last decade. In 2000 the Internet bubble burst. In 2002, the Venezuelan population foiled the ‘made in the USA’ coup d’état and Hugo Chavez embarked on his great social reforms that led to peoples’ resistance all over Latin America. In 2003 Bush’s war machine bogged down in Iraq, as in Afghanistan. In 2006 Israel failed in Lebanon and in 2009 in Gaza. The defeats are mounting up. The wonderful revolt of the Tunisians and Egyptians has wrought miracles. We now hear the US extolling the ‘democratic transition’ while for decades they have been supplying tyrants with tanks, machine guns and training seminars in torture! But we must go into the roots of the situation. Rejoicing over the first steps must not mean overlooking the path that remains to be pursued. It is not only Ben Ali who plundered Tunisia, it was a whole class of profiteers. It was not only Mubarak who oppressed the Egyptians, it was the whole regime around him. And behind this regime, the US. What was important was not the marionette, but who was pulling the strings. Washington, like Paris, is only trying to replace the worn-out marionettes by other, more presentable ones. What the Tunisians, Egyptians and others want to resolve is not which ‘new’ leader will make new promises. Their question is rather “Will I have a real job with a real wage and a decent life for my family? Only recently Latin America was experiencing the same pov-
erty and the same despair. The enormous profits from oil, gas and other raw materials went to swell the coffers of Exxon and Shell while one Latino out of two lived below the poverty threshold, without being able to pay a doctor or a good school for the children. Everything started to change when Hugo Chavez nationalized oil, changed all the contracts with the multinationals, demanding that they pay taxes and that profits be shared. The following year $11.4 billion were paid into the State Treasury (for 20 years the figure was zero !) and this started the implementation of social programs: health care and school for everyone, doubling of the minimum wage, support for cooperatives and small businesses that create jobs. In Bolivia Evo Morales is doing the same thing. And the example is spreading. Will it reach the Mediterranean and the Middle East? When will there be an Arab Chavez or an Arab Evo? The courage of these masses of people who are rebelling deserves an organization and a leader who is honest and determined to see it through. Real political democracy is
impossible without social justice. In fact the two problems are intricately linked. No one sets up a dictatorship for pleasure or simple perversion. It is always to maintain the privileges of a small clique who grab all the wealth. The dictators are the employees of the multinationals. Five years ago, Védrine, former French minister of foreign affairs, had the gall to claim that Arab people were not ready for democracy. This theory remains dominant among a French elite who, more or less openly practice anti-Arab Islamophobia. In fact, it is France that is not ready for democracy. It is France who massacred the Tunisians in 1937 and 1952 and the Moroccans in 1945. It is France that has led a long and bloody war to stop the Algerians from exercising their legitimate right to sovereignty. It is France who, through a statement by their revisionist president, refused to recognize its crimes and pay its debts to the Arabs and the Africans. It is France who protected Ben Ali right up until he got on to the plane that took him away. It is France who has imposed and maintained the worst tyrants in Africa.
The current anti-Muslim racism kills two birds with one stone. First, in Europe, it divides the workers according to their origin, and while there is all this fantasizing about the burqa, the employers happily attack wages, the conditions of work and the pensions of all the workers, with veils or without. Instead of wondering “But who imposed these dictators on them?” By reversing the victim and the guilty one, the former is demonized. This is the fundamental debate and it depends on all of us to see that it is highlighted. Why the US, France & Co. – who have the word ‘democracy’ always on their lips –do not want real democracy? Because if the people can decide how to use their wealth and their work, then the privileges of the corrupt and the profiteers will be in great danger! To hide their refusal of democracy, the US and their allies agitate in the media about the ‘Islamist peril’. Do we see them alerting us and leading huge media campaigns about the Islamists who are submissive to them like the odious regime of Saudi Arabia? Do we hear them excusing themselves for having financed the Islamists of Bin Laden in order to overturn a leftwing Afghan government that had emancipated the women? Our world is changing very quickly. The decline of the US opens new prospects for the liberation of peoples. Great upheavals are likely. But what direction will they take? If they are to be positive, it depends on each of us circulating genuine information so the shameful stories of the past become known, so the secret strategies are unmasked. All this will help to establish a great debate, popular and international. What kind of economy, and model of social justice do people really need? The official information on this issue is catastrophic. So if the debate is to be started and spread about, each of us has an important role to play. Information is the key. T/ Michel Collon P/ Agencies
FRIDAY | March 11, 2011 | No. 55| Bs 1 | C ARACAS
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 The crisis for US policy in North Africa
Imperial anxieties A
n act of self-immolation in central Tunisia would normally matter very little to the intelligence and diplomatic corps in Washington. But Mohamed Bouazizi’s suicide before the Town Hall in Sidi Bouzid had an electric effect. It galvanised the people of Tunisia against their suave and ruthless leader, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who had been praised by the governments of France and the US, by the International Monetary Fund and by the bond markets. Only last year, the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report picked Tunisia as the leading country for investment in Africa. Neoliberal policies pleased everyone but the Tunisian working people, who took Bouazizi’s sacrifice as the spark to rise up and send Ben Ali into his Saudi exile. The immediate reaction in Washington was that this was a containable problem and that the small protests that broke out in support of Tunisians across the Arab world would not have any impact in their home countries. This was a premature judgment. Long-standing grievances among Egyptians pushed them on to the streets, most famously into Cairo’s Tahrir Square. It took them 2 weeks to pressure Hosni Mubarak to release the reins of government and go to his seaside villa in Sharm el-Sheikh. Mubarak did not leave easily. He was given a lease of life from the Saudi promises of financial support and from the arrival of the US envoy, Frank Wisner Jr. Mubarak and Wisner are old friends. When the latter was US Ambassador to Egypt between 1986 and 1991, Wisner coaxed his friend to provide diplomatic support for the US-led Gulf War against Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. During Wisner’s tenure, Mubarak cemented Egypt’s allegiance to the US and to the neoliberal path of economic development. A few days after his visit to a beleaguered Mubarak in January 2011, Wisner told a Munich conference that his friend needed to remain in power for the sake of stability and his own legacy. It was an obscene affront to the people in Tahrir Square. US policy in the Arab world is built on 3 pillars. The first is its reliance upon the region for oil, which must be allowed to flow freely into the car culture of Europe and the US. The second pillar is that its allies in the Arab world must stand firm with the US in its war on terror. The third, of course, is that the Arab allies had to tether their own
populations’ more radical ambitions vis-avis Israel. Egypt accepted a US annual bribe of $1.3 billion in order to honor its peace agreement with Israel, and this has allowed Israel to conduct its asymmetrical warfare against the Palestinians and the Lebanese. Wisner’s visit was not idiosyncratic. It was to put some stick about in the Arab world’s most important capital, Cairo. If Mubarak had to go, then Mubarak’s regime had to remain in place and the public outcry had to be silenced slowly. The Egyptian military, well funded by the US since 1979, came in to do the work. However, the military might not be as pliable as it seems. Which is why the State Department’s Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs Bill Burns and the National Security Council’s Senior Director David Lipton hastily travelled to Cairo. They needed to shore up people such as Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, the head of Egypt’s Higher Military Council. When the Tahrir Square protests began, Mubarak sent Tantawi to Washington to seek support for his regime and for anti-riot equipment. BAHRAIN PROTESTS Protests in Bahrain sent a shiver through the Washington establishment for two reasons. First, the archipelago on the eastern flank of the Arabian peninsula is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. It is just a few miles off the coast of Iran and is able to fully support the US adventures in Iraq. If the monarchy in Bahrain falls, there is every indication that a civilian government led by al-Wifaq National Islamic Society will ask the fleet to depart. Secondly, if the ruling family in Bahrain is toppled it might embolden protests in the other emirates and, then, certainly, in the lead emirate, Saudi Arabia. With Libya, the tenor is different. Gaddafi has been a loyal soldier in the US-led war on terror. He has also, over the past 20 years, brought his country in line with the neoliberal policies that wrought havoc a decade earlier in South America and the rest of
Africa. Egypt, Tunisia and Libya began to take their orders from IMF manuals in the late 1990s, and the current rebellions are as much anti-IMF riots as they are pro-democracy demonstrations. In early February 2011, the IMF said of Libya that it had followed its “ambitious reform agenda”, and the Fund encouraged Libya’s “strong macroeconomic performance and the progress on enhancing the role of the private sector”. The pain of these policies pushed the needle of distress beyond the bearable. ERRATIC GADDAFI What distinguishes Gaddafi from the emirs is that he is erratic and has a difficult history. An anti-imperialist Colonel in 1969, Qaddafi often returns to the rhetoric of his youth, but rarely the policies. It confuses people around the world. They think of him as the revolutionary Gaddafi, when in fact that is a posture that has long worn thin. Since 9/11, Gaddafi has been a loyal servant in the Global War on Terror and has been muscular in his propagation of the paranoia about the growth of Al Qaeda in the Sahel region of Africa. Any dissenter is tagged with the label of Salafi. Gaddafi’s radical past and erratic present have earned him few friends in Washington, even though he himself has been an unswerving ally of its policies over the past decade.
When the Bahraini emirs authorized their security forces to open fire in Manama, the US said that force must not be used. It was the polite language of diplomacy. With Libya, the tone is harsher. The slow US support for the uprising in Egypt, the cautious tone with Bahrain and Yemen, and the strident language against Libya are of a piece: the US is not driven by the popular upsurge but by its desire to control the events in north Africa and the Gulf to accord with its three pillars. Over the past decade, the countries of South America walked through the exit from the theatre of US hegemony. Galvanised by events in Venezuela and Bolivia as well as Argentina and Brazil, these countries are no longer in the reliable orbit of US policy. The Arab people seem now in search of just this exit. The struggle is on to see if they will be able to find it. The US and the remainder of its allies want to define these revolts in their image, with Donald Rumsfeld giving George W. Bush the credit and Obama’s cronies saying that all this is a result of his speech in Cairo. But these are feints. In Cairo, Obama said, “We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist”. During the Tahrir Square standoff, protesters chanted, “We have extended our hand, why have you clenched your fist?” - Vijay Prashad