English Edition Nº 80

Pg. P g. 7 | Sociall JJustice ustice

Pg. g 8 | Op Opinion pinion

The venezuelan government is investing in women’s health services with a humanized approach

Wikileaks: private venezuelan media and US embassy collaborate against the Chavez government

FRIDAY | September 9, 2011 | No. 80 | Bs 1 | CARACAS

ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas

Communal police to Fight crime in Venezuela

Supporters Rally for Chavez’s Health

Struggling against the plague of crime and violence, the Venezuelan government has created a new, humane police force to make streets safer

Telesurr speaks truth on Libya

The new National Bolivarian Police Force (PNB) is training young officers to take a community-based approach to policing, and to always respect human rights. Since the PNB began operations over a year ago, crime has been reduced by half in areas where the new officers are policing. Now the PNB are taking their mandate nationwide to fight against one of Venezuela’s biggest challenges, violent crime.

Through different initiatives that don’t just focus on traditional crime-fighting, the PNB is working with communities to ensure safety for all. | page 2

The Latin American television network, Telesur, has been one of the sole media outlets reporting on Libya on the ground since the beginning of the conflict in February.

Telesur’s reporters have attempted to broadcast all sides of the story, and not just anti-Gaddafi, proNATO propaganda as other international media have done. According to the Telesur Libya correspondants, nearly 50,000 have been killed since the beginning of the war and NATO operations are primarily responsible. | page 3

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Politics

Changing Guns into Homes A disarmament policy is transforming arms into dignified living spaces. | page 4

Politics

State sponsors discount school supplies Venezuela’s focus on quality education includes ensuring kids have supplies.| page 5

Social Justice

Free communal vacation plans for children Community organization and positive values are part of fun and recreation. | page 6

Poll: president Hugo Chavez’s approval ratings at 59%

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ccording to a study measuring the Venezuelan political situation in August, conducted by pollster Social Research Group Siglo XXI (GIS XXI), if presidential elections were held today, 57% of the population would vote for Hugo Chavez.

The study also revealed that 59.3% of the population assessed Chavez’s presidency as “very good”.

The survey director, Jesse Chacon, detailed in a press conference that 22% of Venezuelans would vote for an opposition candidate, while 10% would favor the opposition depending on the candidate.

He said that people between the ages of 18 and 29 expressed the most support for Chavez, with 57.7%.

Chacon explained that since February 2010, when Chavez’s popularity dropped to 36.7%, he has gained 20 percentage points.

“This is one of Chavez’s highest approval ratings since the elections of 2006”, he pointed out.

As for the performance of the opposition, 50% of the population considered it “poor-very poor”, 28% valued it as “regular” and 17% believe it is “good-very good”.

”The opposition has a dilemma because there are many different political currents and interests within their coalition, so it will be difficult to see one particular political plan emerge from them”, emphasized Chacon.

Regarding the economic situation, “85% of Venezuelans think the state should regulate prices and punish abuses for unjustified increases”.

“That is the mission of Government regulation of market prices: Level the wage-price ratio”, recalled Chacon.

resident id t Hugo H Ch Chavez thanked the gesture of the Venezuelan people who gathered at the presidential palace, Miraflores, on Wednesday to express solidarity and pray for his speedy recovery.

“Many thanks for this bath of love. You (the people) know that Miraflores is our home, your home”, said Chavez during a telephone broadcast on public television.

Hundreds of people wrote messages on banners expressing good wishes for the Venezuelan leader.

He said that this latest showing of support coincided with his physical rehabilitation hour (5pm) as part of his “treatment following chemotherapy”. “I am exercising”, he said, “while I hear you all outside the palace”.

The Venezuelan President also revealed he currently has a small condition in his throat being treated by medical caregivers. The chemotherapy has left him vulnerable to common illnesses, such as simple colds and the flu.

Last Friday, Chavez successfully completed his third cycle of chemotherapy at the Hospital Militar “Carlos Arvelo” in Caracas.

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2 | Impact

NoÊnäÊUÊFriday, September 9, 2011

The artillery of ideas

Battling crime and violence: new police force strengthens security Insecurity and crime have been cited as key problems affecting Venezuela. The Chavez administration is fighting back and has taken several major steps towards ending the plague of violent crime, including creating a new special police force to secure the nation’s streets

The responsibility for greater security in the country, therefore, lies not only with President Chavez but rather with both the national and state governments, Minister El Aissami asserted on Tuesday.

The minister pointed out during his address that many of the states displaying some of the highest indices of criminal activity, such as Zulia and Miranda, are in fact under the control of opposition governors who have failed to recognize their own inability to improve public safety.

“There are governors who, having the power and the force to confront the problem of violence are, in their incompetence and inability, making excuses with respect to a topic that is so important such as security”, he said.

According to El Aissami, opposition governors “have failed in their local management” and he accused the country’s right-wing of denying the positive results yielded by the national government’s police reform initiatives.

“There has been a campaign unleashed with respect to public safety. But these people refuse to recognize that there has never been so much work on the topic of security and with such seriousness as there has been in the last few years”.

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he Venezuelan government continues to strengthen security measures in the capital through the growth of its National Bolivarian Police (PNB) force.

This week, 2,500 new police officers hit the streets of Caracas as part of this effort.

The officers are the latest graduates of the PNB’s National Security University, a holistic training center founded in 2009 with the explicit intention of revamping the nation’s model of law enforcement by placing greater emphasis on human rights and community work.

“This is a police force subordinate to the people. A police force that accompanies the communities in their development. It’s not to attack the people nor to protect the interests of the bourgeoisie that used to govern here and that created an atrocious model of violations of human rights that will never happen again”, said Tareck El Aissami, Minister of Justice and Internal Relations during the graduation ceremony on Tuesday.

With the addition of the new officers, the number of police now patrolling the streets of Caracas has reached a total of six thousand, meeting international standards of 3.6 law enforcement agents for every one thousand inhabitants.

COMMUNITY POLICING The latest graduates will be deployed in the sectors of La Vega, Antimano, and Sucre where they will work with grassroots community councils and other neighborhood organizations to implement strategies of prevention through workshops and educational forums.

Currently, the PNB is working with some 21 thousand impoverished children in the capital, carrying out a variety of athletic and cultural programs that emphasize a positive alternative to criminal activity.

During the graduation ceremony on Tuesday, the Dean of the National Security University, Soraya El Achkar, also pointed out the importance that women are playing in the new crime fighting organization, representing 22 percent of the PNB’s newest members.

“This profession is not essentially masculine”, Achkar proclaimed.

Another important element of the new corps is the system of accountability that has been devised to stamp out corruption within the officers’ ranks.

Appearing on the television program Toda Venezuela, PNB Director Fernandez described some of the results of the internal police supervision methods that have sustained the integrity and credibility of the agency.

“We’ve expelled 100 officers from the PNB since the force came into existence. That’s to say, there’s a rigid system of investigation [into corruption]. There are strict internal mechanisms that allow us

to supervise our police and permit us to maintain a permanent refinement”, Fernandez said.

With the graduation of this latest class of cadets on Tuesday, a new group of 11,500 students from all over the country will begin their training for the PNB on September 15.

“The State is committed to the topic of security and for this reason we’re emphasizing the training of officers”, the Director informed.

“Before, we had police that had no training”, he recalled.

SECURITY AT THE STATE LEVEL Much of the criticism of President Chavez emanating from the conservative Venezuelan opposition has focused on the problem of security in the country.

Although the Chavez administration has been working to create a national security policy that coordinates police duties at both the state and federal level, many of the law enforcement agencies operating in the country are doing so under the orders of local governments.

NEW POLICE CENTER Concurrent with the graduation of the new officers, the Venezuelan government inaugurated a Center for Security Coordination in the neighborhood of Antimano on Tuesday.

With an inversion of 12.3 million bolivars ($2.8 million), the new center will be accompanied by the deployment of 537 officers in the area, PNB Director Fernandez informed while guiding a tour of the facility.

The headquarters will also serve as a hub for community forums and debates around security questions with the goal of fomenting greater participation of neighborhood residents in order to promote crime prevention initiatives.

T/ COI P/ Agencies

NoÊnäÊUÊFriday, September 9, 2011

The artillery of ideas

Special Report

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Telesur journalists speak truth on Libya T

his week Telesur welcomed home a news team just back from covering NATO’s war on Libya from that nation’s capital, Tripoli. On arrival at Venezuela’s Maiquetia International Airport, the journalists denounced the ongoing “fabrication of lies” by mainstream media outlets and accused the international press of “producing the arguments needed for a continuation of the war”.

The Libyan people “have been invaded by destruction, war, suffering and death, when the solution to the conflict could have been secured by peaceful means”, affirmed Telesur journalist Rolando Segura, who spent the last four months in Libya alongside cameraman Henry Pillajo.

Segura and Pillajo are among the handful of independent journalists who covered largely underreported stories that include: NATO’s bombing of civilian targets; the indiscriminate killing of black migrant workers by rebel forces; the million strong ‘Green March’ held across Libya demanding reconciliation between the government and opposition forces; the rebel takeover and silencing of Libya’s public broadcasting channels; and the fabricated takeover of Tripoli’s Green Plaza late last month – filmed in Qatar and disseminated by international mainstream media outlets, the video successfully secured recognition of the NATO-backed National Transition Council (CNT) as the “new government in Libya” and convinced many Libyan embassy staff abroad to defect.

After an August 8-9 NATO missile strike killed 85 civilians, 33 of which were children, Telesur’s Segura interviewed Abu Mimiar, brother of one of those killed. Mimiar asked the Telesur reporter if the killing of his brother, a rural farmer, “is the protection of civilians they (NATO) talk about? Or is it that those of us who care for and support Gaddafi don’t deserve protection?”

50,000 KILLED IN LIBYAN WAR According to Segura, who spoke Tuesday at a forum in Caracas organized by Correo del Orinoco, “there is talk of an estimated 1,800 killed by NATO bombs and, as a result of the entire conflict, something like 50,000 dead in total – persons who were massacred as a result of this invasion, this aggression, against Libya”.

disseminated by the mainstream media and opposition forces received almost immediate recognition as the “new government” in Libya.

The bombings, as well as advances made by NATO-backed rebel forces, “were made possible by the lies of the mass media that reproduced an editorial line without any questioning at all”, affirmed Segura.

Segura’s blog [http://rolandotelesur.blogspot.com/], in Spanish, has been one of the only independent sources of news, analysis, and images in the aftermath of NATO bombings across Libya.

The Telesur crew left Libya late last week, traveling 36 hours by boat from the Libyan coast to Malta, an island just south of Sicily, Italy. The two crowded in a boat fit for 12 alongside 50 other passengers, all of whom sought refuge from war-torn Tripoli.

Since 19 March this year, the United States and its NATO allies have launched over 20,000 sorties over Libya, carrying out an estimated 9,000 air strikes. This past Sunday alone, NATO carried out 52 aerial attacks.

Damage to the country’s highly developed infrastructure – including its oil industry, water supply networks, food storage facilities, communications installations, and public health system – has resulted in growing shortages of food, water, and medicine.

TELESUR VS. NEW FORMAT FOR WAR Speaking to a crowd gathered on Monday, Venezuelan

Minister of Communication and Information Andres Izarra praised Telesur’s role in Libya and said “US imperialism” had “sown together a new format for imperial aggression” by using “the hegemonic international media” to demonize governments opposed to US foreign policy.

This new “format,” he said, involves “instigating revolutions of color, revolutions of spring” in countries in which imperialism claims “civil liberties are restricted”. Demonization is followed by international media campaigns to topple anti-US governments and, if necessary, direct military intervention follows.

According to Izarra, this new method for attacking sovereign nations has “already had a partial victory in Libya” and “at this moment is a serious threat to Syria”.

Izarra praised Telesur reporters in Tripoli, who showed “a city that was going about living its normal, daily life” as international press attempted to portray “a dictator, Gaddafi, massacring his own people” in order to justify NATO’s war.

Jordan Rodriguez, Telesur´s reporter in Tripoli at the start of NATO bombings, told the press that NATO is currently the only force responsible for “bombings that are taking place in Libya” and blamed the international

force for “killing innocent civilians, women and children”.

Rodriguez pointed out that while NATO bombs continue to hit populated urban centers, “we watch as the large networks like CNN and the BBC report on the precision of NATO bombs” instead of the impact these bombs have on the Libyan people’s daily life.

According to Rodriguez, Telesur has “shown another other side of the conflict”.

“When we (Telesur) spoke to Libyans from rural and other areas, many showed a great deal of appreciation for Moammar Gaddafi. We are talking about the poorest country in all of the Maghreb, before the arrival of the Revolution. The proof is in the statistics, in the hospitals that look like high tech clinics, eightlane highways, the highest quality education”, he said.

Rodriguez accused the US and NATO allies of instigating, arming and training the rebel forces. He said that when speaking to anti-Gaddafi rebels on the ground, “all they said is that they wanted ‘Gaddafi to go,’ giving no argumentation”.

Gaddafi was forced into hiding after NATO-backed opposition forces seized on weeks of airstrikes in Tripoli, capturing government offices and the presidential palace. Footage of the socalled “Fall of Tripoli” was widely

VOICE OF TRUTH According to Telesur President Patricia Villegas the Caracas-based Latin American news outlet plans to keep staff in Libya indefinitely as NATO steps up efforts to destroy support for Gaddafi and maintain the pro-Western “transitional government”.

According to Villegas, the station’s overall objective “has always been” to provide a “voice to the victims of conflict,” as was the case during the 2009 military coup in Honduras, the attempted ouster of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa in 2010, the popular uprising against former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and most recently, the NATO bombing of Libya.

“We didn’t arrive (in Libya) alongside the invaders”, affirmed Villegas. “We didn’t arrive with the bullets…Other media outlets did. Other media outlets are riding in the rebels’ cars; others are protected by private security companies. This is not the journalistic practice of Telesur. We have told this story since it first began”, she said.

“Regardless of whether or not the leader (Gaddafi) is ‘correct,’ we have been witness to exceptional acts of aggression by NATO; of NATO bombs not only attacking military but also civilian targets”, she affirmed.

CHAVEZ PRAISES TELESUR Over the weekend Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez praised Telesur’s coverage of the war on Libya, stressing the importance of breaking apart the media blockade imposed by “US Empire” and its allies in international and local media networks.

“I want us to award the Telesur correspondents with an honor, the highest honor given by the Republic. Those people are the ones telling the truth”. said Chavez.

“Our recognition and admiration goes out to Telesur and its correspondents in Libya…What courage!” he said.

T/ COI

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4 | Politics

A new Venezuelan state policy to battle crime and violence is using disarmament as a method of building hope

NoÊnäÊUÊFriday, September 9, 2011

The artillery of ideas

Transforming guns into homes

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n Thursday the Venezuelan government destroyed over 50,000 confiscated guns, doubling the total amount of arms seized and destroyed so far this year. The melting down of these weapons is expected to produce some 60 tons of iron which will be used in numerous public housing projects currently being built nationwide.

Speaking in front of the iron smelting facilities at the publiclyowned Siderurgica del Turbio (Sidetur) in Barquisimeto, state of Lara, Venezuelan Minister of Justice and the Interior Tareck El Aissami explained that recent efforts to capture and melt down weapons placed Venezuela “number one in all of Latin America when it comes to these special measures aimed at the destruction of guns”.

“These policies are geared towards the generating and deepening of consciousness so as to consolidate peace in Venezuela”, affirmed El Aissami.

According to official statistics, 94% of homicides in Venezuela last year were caused by gun violence, the result of which El Ais-

The Union of South American Nations (Unasur) is further consolidating its organization and mandate through the creation of new entities focused on regional autonomy in defense and economics

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outh American defense ministers met on Tuesday in Caracas to advance the organization and authority of the Unasur Council of Defense. At the meeting, Venezuela’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nicolas Maduro additionally announced that the cooperation agreement to create the Bank of the South will enter into force in the coming months.

“There are solid signs indicating that the agreement to create the Bank of the South will enter into force this year, in addition to the Council of Defense of Unasur”, Maduro said.

sami said were many decades in which guns and other harmful weapons “were thought of as commodities, to be bought and sold openly on the market”.

Just last month, the Venezuelan people began the first of numerous public debates on the pro-

posed Law of Firearms Control and Disarmament drafted by the country’s National Assembly, a legal tool designed to help bring gun violence under control.

Included in the 51,765 weapons destroyed on Thursday were several dozen automatic weapons

confiscated from prisoners earlier this year after the deadly prison siege of El Rodeo I and II was brought to an end.

In total, 117,545 weapons have been seized and destroyed by the Venezuelan government this year.

According to the country’s De-

South American nations create defense council, Bank of the South Maduro, who attended the Second International Seminar of the South American Council of Defense held in Caracas, said that a meeting will take place in the coming months, and “could be definitive for the South American energy agreements. That’s big news for the present and future of the continent”, said the highranking official.

Maduro also highlighted that “the powerful bloc of nations”, Unasur, now has a Ministerial Energy Council, whose aim is to draft an agreement which will become the energy axis to guarantee “energy stability and security” for the region for the next 100 years.

The Unasur Economic and Finance Council was recently installed in Buenos Aires, Argentina last month, “with key proposals to build a South American monetary

and trade system”, Maduro said.

“Debates on that issue are ongoing and there are diverse perspectives, but we are sure that sooner or later the presidents [of Unasur member countries] will deliver a

report and make decisions on this vital issue which also affects the world economy”, he explained.

Unasur has also a social development council to address health and education issues, Maduro recalled.

partment of Arms and Explosives (DAEX), some 251,607 arms have been destroyed since the year 2003.

INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION Representatives of the Organization of American States (OAS), the United Nations (UN), and the Bolivarian Alternative for the People of Our America (ALBA) attended Thursday’s event.

Alfredo Roberto Miser, Coordinator of the United Nations offices in Venezuela, told reporters that, “the massive destruction of weapons in Venezuela demonstrates a concrete willingness to bring an end to the violence that affects the country.”

“It’s an effective way to demonstrate that something is being done” with respect to gun violence, said Miser.

In addition, he affirmed, “what’s beautiful is not only the destruction of weapons, but the fact that the resulting materials become the iron needed to produce rebar, metal construction materials and other goods to improve quality of life” in Venezuela.

The 60 tons of iron expected from the melting down of these confiscated weapons is to be directed to the national government’s efforts to build some 150,000 homes by the end of the year.

T/ Juan Reardon www.venezuelanalysis.com

LAND OF PEACE The Defense Council was established to ensure South America remains a territory of peace, where regional conflicts can be resoved through diplomacy and non-invasive methods. In the past few years, Unasur nations have successfully mediated conflicts between Venezuela and Colombia, Ecuador and Colombia, as well as aided in impeding coup d’etat attempts in Bolivia and Ecuador.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro announced that soon Unasur member countries would sign a declaration of regional peace, rejecting the use of force and military power against governments or peoples in South America.

Unasur is a regional bloc formally created on May 23, 2008, in Brasilia, Brazil, to foster political, social, economic, cultural, environmental and infrastructure integration among member states. It is comprised of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Guyana, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Surinam, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.

NoÊnäÊUÊFriday, September 9, 2011

The artillery of ideas

Politics

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Venezuela: government offers discount school supplies to help families Education is a priority for the Chavez administration, and making sure kids have all their needs met is part of that goal

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ith the goal of providing big savings on academic supplies and clothing for students as they prepare to return to the classroom this month, the Venezuelan government launched its Bicentennial Scholastic Fair last weekend in 20 different states around the country.

The fair, a temporary government-run market, is offering savings of up to 60 percent to parents on key educational materials and will continue until September 11, officials reported on Saturday.

“We’re estimating providing services to 140,000 students from preschool to university level because we have all the scholastic materials that are needed in each educational center”, said Vice Minister for Interior Commerce, Yajaira Briceno, during one of the markets established in the state of Bolivar.

The government has invested 50 million bolivars ($11.6 million) in the fairs with the objective of benefiting as many Venezuelan families as possible before the end of the week.

“Today the Ministry of Commerce, together with other public institutions, has made it a goal to carry out this program and we hope to reach a million people who will benefit at the national level”, Briceno said.

Basic items such as notebooks, pencils, pens, scissors, crayons, folders and other supplies form the bulk of the discounted items alongside school uniforms, backpacks, and shoes and sneakers.

For Juanita Palacios, resident of San Juan Los Morros in the state of Guarico, the government’s fair represents a major advantage over what she would otherwise be able to afford for her two children.

“In a private bookstore, with the money that I brought today, I would only have been able to buy a couple of notebooks and some pencils. But thanks to the Revolution, today I was able to get all that my children need in order to return to class”, Palacios affirmed.

STIMULATING NATIONAL PRODUCTION A major aspect of the government’s fair has been the inclusion of 125 small businesses and cooperatives working to produce the goods being offered.

By cutting out the middleman and distributing items directly to the people, the domestic industries are able to offer prices much lower than those inflated by the speculation commonly found in Venezuelan commercial chains.

These businesses, most of which have been financed with credits for the state’s Bicentennial Fund for development, have aided in the visualization of “a new model of production”, Science and Technology Minister Ricardo Menendez affirmed.

On hand for the opening of the Scholastic Fair in Caracas last weekend, Menendez highlighted Venezuela’s recent economic growth, pointing out a jump from –3.4 percent to 1.4 percent in the manufacturing sector for the first semester of this year.

Another important contributor to improving access to school supplies, Menendez said, has been the state-owned paper factor Invepal which has produced 7 million free notebooks for children this year.

Invepal was born in 2005 when the national government in collaboration with workers of the bankrupted paper firm Venepal assumed control of the company’s plants in one of the first experiences of worker comanagement to occur during the Chavez administration.

Since then, the industry has continued to produce scholastic and stationary materials in its three factories in the states of Carabobo and Aragua.

AFFORDABLE TEXTBOOKS On Saturday, Education Minister Maryann Hanson reminded residents not to purchase textbooks for grade school students in light of a recent government measure to provide more than 3 million students with reading materials at reduced costs.

Through an investment of 194 million bolivars ($45 million), the Chavez administration has taken the responsibility of providing each grade-schooler with a set of 4 textbooks that cover the subjects of Natural Science, Social Science, Mathematics, as well as Literature and Language “Parents and guardians shouldn’t look for the scholastic

texts because the ministry is printing 12 million books by order of Comandante Chavez that will be distributed to all school establishments”, the minister declared.

The savings to parents will be between 100 and 200 bolivars ($23 and $46) for each book.

“It’s important to point out that this demonstrates the policies of President Chavez with respect to social inclusion and the kind of learning system that the revolutionary government has conceived. This is only possible in Revolution”, Hanson said.

MORE LAPTOPS FOR STUDENTS Apart from the Scholastic Fairs taking place around the country, the government also announced last weekend the delivery of 900,000 new mini-laptop computers to students from 2nd to 4th grade.

The laptops form part of the Chavez administration’s Canaima educational program which seeks to integrate multi-media technology with classroom learning by providing free computers to young students in public schools throughout the country.

The program, named after a National Park in the state of Bolivar, was first launched in 2009 through an agreement with Por-

tugal and with this new shipment of laptops the total of units delivered will reach nearly 1.8 million.

The computers come equipped with educational software related to fundamental subjects such as history, language, math and science.

NOT JUST A SCHOOL MARKET Although the sale of supplies has been the focus of this week’s fair and educational events, the bizarre is also providing access to affordable food items through the government-run distributor PDVAL as well as other low cost books from the state publishing house, El Perro y La Rana.

Cultural performances and live music as well as voter registration stations for parents have also comprised part of the activities.

“We came not only to buy notebooks”, informed Anibal Santana in Guarico “but also to take advantage of the sale of food, the recreational activities and everything that is being organized by the authorities for the benefit of the children. It’s like a party before the beginning of classes”, he said.

T/ COI P/ Presidential Press

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6 | Social Justice

NoÊnäÊUÊFriday, September 9, 2011

The artillery of ideas

Community vacation plan benefits nearly 1 million venezuelan children Government sponsored vacation camps for children are providing well-rounded, integral and interactive experiences for the nation’s youngest generation

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ore than 800 thousand Venezuelan children throughout the country have benefited this summer from a government program that provides youngsters with free recreational, athletic and artistic activities.

The project, known as Venezuela’s “Community Vacation Plan”, was first started in 2009 with the intention of providing children with an opportunity to engage in socially productive workshops and fieldtrips during their time off from school.

Carried out by the National Institute on the Rights of Children and Adolescents (IDENA), a part of the Ministry of Communes, the vacation plan has set as its goal the participation of 1 million children by its close on September 18.

During an interview with state television last week, IDENA President Litbell Diaz explained that while exposing Venezuelan youth to the nation’s rich history via tours and excursions, a fundamental part of the program

has been the teaching of positive values and cooperation through games, sports and the arts.

Thousands of young adults from ages 18 – 24 have been working with the project that has also employed the assistance of various government ministries and more than 6,000 grassroots community councils to make it the success it has become.

GOOD LIVING “The Vacation Plan can’t be seen as an isolated event. It forms part of the larger National Recreation and Good Living Plan which brings together all the institutions of the state to guarantee offerings of cultural,

athletic, and creative projects in order to provide holistic attention to children and youth”, Diaz said during the interview last week.

As a part of its commitment to imparting socially and environmentally responsible ethics, the Venezuelan state energy company Corpoelec staged a play for participants of the program in the capital on August 29 to teach the benefits of energy conservation.

“Through music and humor, we were able to show how the character of Ms. Squanderer misuses electricity and appliances. In this way, the smallest children learn that the wasting of energy has negative consequences for the planet. They then

take this knowledge to their homes and make better use of their electric devices”, said Liliana Araguren, coordinator of the event.

The idea for the vacation plan first grew out of the government’s Children of the Barrio Mission which seeks to defend the rights of impoverished youth living in precarious social conditions.

As such, the right to recreation will continue for Venezuelan children even after the close of this year’s vacation season, Diaz assured.

“The plan doesn’t end here. All the spaces that have been used will be kept active during the entire year with a permanent recreational and cultural agenda”, she said.

For Luis Quiroz, a 12 year old from Caracas, the time spent in the project has been nothing but a positive experience.

“This is my second year in the plan and it’s been cool. And the snacks that the ladies from the community council make are really good”, he said.

Darwin Lopez, one of the young adults working with the program, highlighted the importance that the government initiative possesses for at-risk children.

“My greatest desire and motivation is that the children have the opportunity to do something different during the day. I love spending time with them and giving them the tools they need to develop preventative strategies in order to live a healthy lifestyle”, he said.

Lopez also pointed out the significance of the no cost structure of the project which provides a vacation alternative for low income families.

“This recreational plan helps a lot of children have a good time and it also helps parents who can’t pay for a vacation package –most of which exceed the means of the family. I’m helping out my community and this makes me feel good”, the Caracas resident stated.

T/ COI P/ Agencies

Indigenous US activist Peltier wins rights prize L

eonard Peltier, an indigenous rights activist jailed in the United States for decades, has received the first Mario Benedetti Foundation international human rights prize, the group said Monday.

The group called Peltier, a Native American activist convicted in 1977 for the murder of two US FBI agents, the longest serving political prisoner in the Americas.

The case stemmed from a shootout at a reservation in the US state of South Dakota.

“Leonard Peltier, who on September 12, 2011 will turn 67, has spent more than half his life in prison. He is a symbol of resistance to repressive state policies by the United States, where

there are people in jail for ethnic, racial, ideological and religious reasons”, a foundation statement said.

Ricardo Elena, a member of the foundation’s honorary board, said Peltier’s case “is one that is repeated over and over: violation (of rights); persecution, eviction, invasion and expropriation of the indigenous people from the time it was ‘discovered’ until now”.

“It did not just happen in the United States; it is happening in southern South America with the (indigenous) Mapuche people, and with indigenous people in North America”, he stressed.

Peltier, whose family is indigenous Chippewa and Lakota, fled to Canada after the shooting

and was later extradited. He was convicted in part based on the testimony of a woman, Myrtle Poor Bear, who claimed she was his girlfriend and witnessed the shootings. Poor Bear however admitted later she was pressured to make the testimony, but a judge blocked her testimony.

Elena took a swipe at the United States saying it “likes to think it is the seat of democracy, but it has political prisoners just like a dictatorship might have”.

The Mario Benedetti Foundation was set up to support human rights and cultural causes in synch with the work of the Uruguayan writer who died in 2009.

T&P/ Agencies

NoÊnäÊUÊFriday, September 9, 2011

The artillery of ideas

Social Justice | 7 |

Venezuela: focus on free, public, humanized women’s healthcare The Venezuelan government has ensured universal, quality healthcare, free of charge to the population since the Bolivarian Revolution began a decade ago.

Women’s health services are a priority of new institutions

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his Sunday the Venezuelan Health Minister, Eugenia Sader, affirmed that the Chavez administration would build over 1,200 public healthcare projects throughout the county in an attempt to expand the existing national health service.

Sader made the announcement during the inauguration of a new high-tech maternity and pediatric department in the Angulo Rivas hospital, Anzoategui state. Built as part of the government’s “Baby Jesus Mission”, which focuses on the health of pregnant women and newborn babies, the hospital has an emergency room, as well as 12 specialist incubators, and cost around 9.5 million Bolivars (US$ 2.2 million) to construct.

“The President [Hugo Chavez] inaugurated 42 diagnostic centers in June, 10 new Barrio Adentro II clinics in August, and for September we have another 15”, said Sader, who remarked earlier this month that within the next two to three years private clinics should no longer be needed in Venezuela.

According to the health minister, not only does the government aim to provide a free and universal health service, but also a “dignified environment, advanced equipment and specialized personnel” who are committed to treating patients with “love and human care”.

“That’s the difference between capitalist medicine and socialist medicine: love, and free medical attention, the power to provide cutting edge technology to all of our newborns”, said Sader.

Projects funded by the government will include renovations and extensions of existing clinics, the creation of more diagnostic and Barrio

Adentro centers, and the construction of at least 24 new hospitals.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has just completed his third round of chemotherapy in Venezuela, previously approved massive investments in the healthcare service earlier in June.

HEALTH AND PEOPLE’S POWER One of the beneficiaries of the government’s plans is the El Espinal clinic in Nueva Esparta, which will be expanded so as to offer new medical services to the population, including dental care.

Sader classified the decision to expand the center as a government response to popular demand, since community councils in the area, working in conjunction with proChavez mayors, directly petitioned the government for the expansion in January of this year.

“The people demanded this extension of the clinic and it was needed. We couldn’t keep paying the high costs at the private clinics and President Chavez listened to us”, said Carlos Alejandro Villarroel, a resident in the area.

Community councils are also to assume an active role in the expansion of the clinic and will

collaborate directly in construction work, which is expected to be completed by early 2012.

“From my point of view, it’s really important that the communal councils are the ones responsible for the construction work, because this shows that the power lies with the people”, stated resident Jose Gregorio Rivas.

4 YEARS OF HUMANIZED BIRTHS Statistics also revealed this week by Venezuela’s flagship Jose Maria Benítez hospital confirmed that 168 pregnant women had successfully and naturally given birth at the center over the past 4 years. The hospital promotes a natural and surgery-free approach to giving birth and is the only center in Venezuela where expectant mothers can opt to have their baby in a birthing pool free of charge.

Inaugurated four years ago due to the efforts of pioneering obstetrician Haydee Pacheco and prenatal facilitator Sumire Vivas, the hospital has since been recognized by the United Nations Children’s Fund for its important work.

Based around the concept of “humanized” birthing practices,

the hospital rejects conventional medical methods which “violate” women during the labor process; such as unnecessary caesarean sections, suturing, or requiring expectant mothers to fast or shave. Instead, patients are encouraged to share their birthing experience with their partners and family, as well as to give birth from a natural vertical position as opposed to lying down.

No drugs are used and babies are not separated from their mothers following the birth. In this way, new mothers are placed at the center of the birthing experience, as opposed to being “passive” within the process.

“Giving birth was a pleasure, I didn’t need stitches, an enema, anaesthetic or Pitocin (a drug used to induce labor), I breastfed my son immediately afterwards, and I was also treated with care and understanding”, said Daniela Linares, a patient at the clinic who had been advised to have a caesarean by her previous obstetrician.

Vivas explained that the main characteristic of a humanized birth is not the equipment on hand, but the attitude of the obstetrician towards the patient.

“Doctors who have already graduated, and who have spent a certain amount of time carrying out conventional obstetrics, won’t do it differently until they understand the philosophy of the humanized birth and they change... The most advisable thing to do is to train medical students with a vision of the humanized birth from the very beginning”.

According to Vivas, there are currently a number of medical students from different Venezuelan universities being trained at the hospital as part of their university studies.

“They fall in love with humanized birth, they fight for women’s rights in the labor wards and they get frustrated when they see that the doctors are treating the women who are giving birth in a violent way”, said Vivas.

In addition to extensive investment in the country’s national health services, the Venezuelan government also approved the creation of a National Cancer Institute late last month.

T/ Rachael Boothroyd www.venezuelanalysis.com

FRIDAY | September 9, 2011 | No. 80 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

T

he US ambassador to Venezuela, Patrick Duddy, met with Venezuelan private media companies El Nacional, Globovision, and Venevision, to discuss their political content, while El Nacional asked the US Embassy for funding, according to cables written by the US Embassy in Caracas and published by Wikileaks.

Duddy met with the 2002 coup supporting channel, Globovision, and private newspaper El Nacional on February 17 and 19, 2010, and documented the meeting in a cable classified as secret and titled, “Globovision Owners Acknowledge Defeat: El Nacional on the Ropes?”

El Nacional director Miguel Henrique Otero told the Embassy the paper had allegedly lost “advertising revenue from companies that had either been nationalized or been threatened by the [Venezuelan government]” and asked “the Ambassador whether the US could provide [it with financial] assistance”. The newspaper said it was reaching “the end of its financial rope” and predicted that it could be out of business

by April of that year (2010).

Otero said El Universal had also lost advertising revenues, “over 14%, with the recent nationalization of Exito [supermarket chain]”.

The US Embassy cable relayed the request to the State Department: “To keep El Nacional alive, Miguel Henrique Otero asked the Ambassador whether the Embassy knew of services of private financing they could approach outside the country, or failing that, if the USG [US government] could be persuaded to help”.

El Nacional currently still circulates on a daily basis.

Globovision representative, Guillermo Zuloaga, alleged that Venezuelan government officials had pressured them to “tone down Globovision’s strongly anti-Chavez orientation” and talked about “buying time” until the National Assembly elections (which took place in September 2010), claiming, “If Chavez wins, we are all gone”. The pro-Chavez party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, did win a majority in those elections, and Globovision remains fully on air.

According to lawyer and journalist Eva Golinger, Globovision has a special agreement to transmit the program “La Voz de

Wikileaks: cables reveal US embassy works with Venezuelan private media America” (The Voice of America), which is financed and supervised by the US State Department.

“Its objective is to promote proUS propaganda in Latin America.

For 2011, the US congress approved a multimillion-dollar budget in order to broadcast a thirty minute program five days a week in Venezuela, supposedly to counteract anti-US propaganda by the Venezuelan government”, Golinger said.

Another US Embassy cable, written and released on the same dates, classified confidential and titled, “Venevision Seeks ‘Balance’ in News Coverage”, related a meeting between Ambassador Duddy and the largest private media conglomerate in Venezuela, the Cisneros Group, which owns free to air television station Venevision, as well as phone company Digitel, several news websites, radio stations, the Miss Venezuela pageant, and Coca-Cola FEMSA Venezuela. Duddy alleged in the cable that “some in the opposition” claim Venevision has made

“backroom agreements” with the government to water down its criticisms and “avoid retaliation”.

However, as the cable details, during the meeting between the US embassy and the Cisneros Group, which took place at Venevision headquarters on February 10, 2010, the television channel denied any government deal or self-censorship.

Carlos Bardasano, representing Venevision, said, according to the cable, that due to “the highly polarized atmosphere in the country, Venevision strives for objective and neutral news coverage”.

“He said the station’s coverage tends to be approximately 60% opposition and 40% pro-government by content, with the ultimate goal of achieving a 50/50 balance”.

In the cable the Ambassador is not impressed with Venevision’s “objective” stance. “The Ambassador reminded Venevision executives that should Globovision be closed, Venevision would have to carry the banner of freedom of expression”.

MEDIA POWER AND INFLUENCE Eleazar Diaz Rangel, editor of widest circulating private newspaper in Venezuela, Ultimas Noticias, said at a forum in New York last year, “What’s not published in Venezuela is what media owners don’t want published”. He also said no one had ever offered any evidence of nws not being published in Venezuela because of government pressure.

According to Diaz Rangel, in Venezuela, “there are currently between 90 and 100 newspapers, of which 80 percent side with the political opposition...and of AM radio stations, at least 400 broadcast the content of outlets that have assumed a role of leading the [political] opposition.”

Further, according to research

by Mark Weisbrot and Tara Ruttenberg of Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), as of September 2010, Venezuelan state TV channels had just a 5.4% audience share. Of the other 94.6% of the audience, 61.4% watched privately owned televi-

sion channels, and 33.1% watched paid TV. Coordinator of the Global Media Observatory in Venezuela, Maryclen Stelling, revealed, “Venezuelan media outlets have stopped publishing information and have instead dedicated themselves to producing their own realities”, adding that it was possible to talk about the creation of “media political parties” in Venezuela.

At the end of last year, after the above cables were written, the Venezuelan National Assembly modified its media social responsibility law. The main changes consisted of including Internet news services as media, and requiring the broadcast of at least 50% nationally produced television during prime time.

In general, Venezuela’s media laws are similar to those of most countries, and media can broadcast what it likes, as long as it does not incite hate, criminal activity, war propaganda, homicide, or the disobeying of constitutional authority.

- Tamara Pearson Tamara Pearson writes for www.venezuelanalysis.com