English Edition N° 83

page 7 | Analysis

page 8 | Opinion

Venezuela demands US government extradite terrorist & torturer Posada Carriles

Ten years of the US war on terror, what happened to the anti-war movement?

Friday | September 30, 2011 | Nº 83 | Caracas

An urgent plea for peace Venezuelan President Chavez’s speech before the United Nations General Assembly was read this week

by Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, as the Venezuelan head of state continued to recover from his last round of chemotherapy in Caracas.

The powerful declaration called urgently for an end to the “barbaric” and “crazy” wars executed by the US and its allies in the Middle East and Africa. Chavez also reiterated his support for an independent Palestinian state and called for the UN to be completely transformed to ensure true democracy and equality amongst states. pages 2-3

ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas

A vigorous President Chavez disproves media rumors about his health, plays ball Unfounded rumors claiming the Venezuelan President was hospitalized and experiencing severe health problems were discounted by the head of state during an exercise session in the presence of reporters Thursday

Security

Venezuela advances prison reforms A plan to humanize the penitentiary system is moving forward. | page 4

International media began spreading rumors and outright lies about the Venezuelan President’s health from the time he first underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his pelvic region in June this year. After Chavez completed his fourth and final chemotherapy session last week and resumed his path to full recovery, media began disseminating wild propaganda claiming the treatment “hadn’t worked” and Chavez’s health was deteriorating. Despite numerous live telephone interventions given by the President on television this past week, the rumors wouldn’t cease. So, he put them to rest by publicly playing a game of catch with some of his staff. | More information below

Venezuela & Guyana resolve peacefully

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uyana and Venezuela’s Foreign Ministers will meet Friday in Trinidad and Tobago to seek resolution to a recent territorial dispute. President Chavez announced the meeting during a press briefing Thursday. The Venezuelan President also affirmed that a representative of the United Nations assigned to the dispute, Norman Girvan, will be present at the meeting in Port of Spain. Girvan was appointed the UN Good Officer in 2010 to assist Guyana and Venezuela in the search for a practical settlement of the controversy that emerged originally during Britain’s colonization of Guyana’s and its claim to allegedly Venezuelan territory.

The Guyana Foreign Ministry said their government values its relationship with Venezuela and wishes to resolve the dispute through diplomatic channels. This week, antiChavez groups attempted to exaggerate the conflict and provoke further tension between the neighbor nations.

“We resolve our conflicts through peaceful means”, assured Chavez. “We will not be provoked by those with bad intentions”.

Integration

Iran and Venezuela strengthen ties Housing, technology, and agriculture are areas of bilateral cooperation. | page 5 Social Justice

Ten years of women’s economy Venezuela’s Women’s Bank, Banmujer, has helped thousands of women build their futures. | page 6

Chavez: Media involved in morbid, sick campaign

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ensions built Wednesday evening as the Miami-based publication, El Nuevo Herald, published a front page story claiming President Hugo Chavez had been hospitalized for kidney failure and was rapidly deteriorating. The report was based on anonymous sources and quotes from alleged individuals close to the Venezuelan government and “witnesses” to the hospitalization.

Behind the Herald’s campaign has been former US Ambassador Roger Noreiga, a self-proclaimed “anti-communist” who served in both Bush administrations and was schooled in Latin American policy by the likes of John Negroponte and Otto Reich, part of the US team responsible for conducting dirty wars in Central America in the 1980s.

Noriega also provided exten-

sive support for the April 2002 coup d’etat against President Chavez, when he was US Ambassador to the Organization of American States.

Noriega has falsely claimed for months that President Chavez’s health is failing and that he has less than a 50% chance of survival. But each allegation has been disproven

by Chavez himself, who has consistently informed on the positive progress of his health after a “baseball-sized” cance-

rous tumor was removed from his body in June. Since then, he has undergone 4 successful sessions of chemotherapy and says the cancer is “gone” fom his body. “I had cancer, but now I do not”.

On Thursday, Chavez affirmed he had the best proof that his recovery is advancing fine.

"I'm here; this is my answer", he told reporters at the presidential palace, raising his arms and gesturing at his body. "I am my own answer".

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2 | Impact

NoÊnÎÊUÊFriday, September 30, 2011

The artillery of ideas

An urgent call for peace: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s speech before the United Nations September 27, 2011

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address these words to the United Nations General Assembly, to this great forum where all the peoples of the earth are represented, to express Venezuela’s truths and to reassert our inalienable commitment to justice and equality, that is to say, to peace.

Peace, peace, peace… We do not look for the peace of the cemetery, as Kant said ironically, but a peace based on the most zealous respect for international law. Unfortunately, the UN, throughout its history, instead of adding and multiplying efforts in favor of peace among nations, has ended up supporting, sometimes through its actions and other times by omission, the most ruthless injustices.

We should always remember that “saving future generations from the scourge of war” is mentioned in the Preamble of the Charter of the United Nations – but it’s just dead letter. From 1945 on, wars have done nothing but inexorably increase and multiply. We see, once again, Libya destroyed and bloodstained by the will of the powerful.

I call on the governments of the world to reflect: Since September 11th, 2001, a new and unprecedented imperialist war has begun, a permanent war, in perpetuity.

We have to look directly at the terrifying reality of the world we live in. It is necessary to ask a series of questions on the basis of the risks and threats we face: Why is the United States the only country that fills the planet with military bases? What does it allocate such a staggering budget for increasing its military power? Why has it unleashed so many wars, violating the sovereignty of other nations which have the same rights to their own fates? How can international law be enforced against the United States’ insensible aspiration to military hegemony of the world in order to ensure control over energy sources to sustain their predatory and consumer model? Why does the UN do nothing to stop Washington? If we

answer these questions sincerely we would understand that the empire has awarded itself the role of judge of the world, without being granted this responsibility by anyone, and, therefore, imperialist war threatens us all.

Washington knows that a multipolar world is already an irreversible reality. Its strategy consists of stopping, at any price, the sustained rise of a group of emerging countries, by negotiating great interests with its partners and followers in order to guide multipolarity along the path the empire wants. What is more, the goal is to reconfigure the world so it is based on US military hegemony.

Humanity is facing the very real threat of a permanent war.

The empire is ready to create the political conditions for triggering a war anywhere, and the case of Libya is proof. Within the imperial view of the world, Clausewitz’s axiom is being reversed: politics are the continuation of war by other means.

What is behind this new Armageddon? The absolute power of the military-financial leadership that is destroying the world in order to accumulate even more profits; a militaryfinancial power that is subordinated, de facto, to an increasingly larger group of States. Keep in mind that war is capital’s modus operandi: war ruins the majority and makes only a few wealthier.

Right now, there is a very serious threat to global peace. A new cycle of colonial wars, which started in Libya, have the sinister objective of reviving the capitalist global system which is going through a structural crisis today. There are no limits to its consumerist and destructive voracity. The case of Libya should alert us to the attempt to implement a new imperial kind of colonialism, that of military interventionism backed by the antidemocratic organs of the United Nations and justified on the basis of prefabricated media lies.

Humanity is on the brink of an unimaginable catastrophe.

The world is marching inexorably towards the most devastating ecocide. Global warming and its frightening consequences are announcing this, but world perspective on the ecosystem, which resembles the ideology of the conquistadors Cortes and Pizarro, as the influential French thinker Edgar Morin rightly pointed out, leads to continuously degrading and destroying. Energy and food crises are sharpening, but capitalism continues to trespass all limits with impunity.

Given such a meager outlook, the great US scientist Linus Pauling, awarded the Nobel Prize on two occasions, continues enlightening our path: “I believe that there is a greater power in the world than the evil power of military force, of nuclear bombs -- there is the power of good, of morality, of humanitarianism.

I believe in the power of the human spirit”. Let us mobilize all the power of the human spirit.

It is time now. It is imperative that we unleash a great political counter-offensive in order to prevent the powers of darkness from finding justifications for going to war, from unleashing a widespread global war through which they attempt to save western capital.

Venezuela calls for the establishment of a broad alliance for peace and against war, with the supreme aim of avoiding war at all costs. Warmongers, and especially the military-financial leadership that sponsor and lead them, must be defeated.

Let’s build the balance of the universe foreseen by the Liberator, Simon Bolívar – the balance that, according to his words, cannot be found within war; the balance that is born out of peace.

Remember that Venezuela, alongside the member countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), was actively advocating for a peaceful and negotiated solution to the Libyan conflict. That is also what the African Union tried. However, in the end, the logic of war decreed by the UN Security Council and put into practice by NATO, the armed wing of the US empire, was imposed. And, the logic of war is spearheaded by corporate mass media, do not forget.

Remember that the “Libyan Case” was brought before the Security Council on the basis of an intense propaganda campaign by western mass media, who lied about the alleged bombing of innocent civilians by the Libyan Air Force, not to mention the grotesque media manipulation of Tripoli’s Green Square.

This premeditated bunch of lies was used to justify irresponsible and hasty decisions by the Security Council, which paved the way for NATO’s military regime change policy in Libya.

It is worthwhile to ask: What has the no-fly zone established

by Security Council resolution 1973 become? How could NATO perform more than 20,000 mis-

sions against the Libyan people if there was a no-fly zone? After the Libyan Air Force was completely annihilated, the continued “humanitarian” bombings show that the West, through NATO, intend to impose their interests in North Africa, turning Libya into a colonial protectorate.

How can we say that an arms embargo was imposed on Libya when it was NATO itself that introduced thousands of heavy weapons to support a violent upheaval against that country’s legitimate government?

The embargo was, of course, meant to prevent the Libyan government from defending its sovereignty.

This demonstrates, once again, the cruel logic of international relations, where the law only applies to the weak. What is the real reason for this military intervention? Recolonizing Libya in order to capture its wealth.

Everything else is related to this goal. “Nobody colonizes innocently”, as the great Martinican poet Aime Cesaire said, quite rightly, in his extraordinary essay called “Discours sur le colonialisme”.

By the way: the Residence of the Venezuelan Ambassador in Tripoli was invaded and looted, and the UN did nothing, remaining ignominiously silent.

We call for the immediate cessation of bombing operations in Libyan territory. Similarly, we will continue calling for respect for international law in the case of this sister nation. We will not remain silent in light of the evil intention of destroying the basis of its sense and reason. Therefore, we ask this Assembly: Why is the Libyan seat in the UN granted to the “national transition council”, while the admission of Palestine is blocked by ignoring, not only its lawful aspiration, but also the existing will of the majority of the General Assembly? Venezuela hereby ratifies its unconditional solidarity with the Palestinian people and its total support for the Palestinian natioArticle continued on page 3

NoÊnÎÊUÊFriday, September 30, 2011

The artillery of ideas nal cause, which naturally includes the immediate admission of Palestine as a full member state within the United Nations.

And the same imperialist pattern is being repeated regarding Syria. If some permanent members of the Security Council had not taken the firm stance that was missing in the case of Libya, it would have authorized shooting missiles and bombs at Syria.

It is intolerable that the powerful of this world intend to claim for themselves the right to order legitimate and sovereign governments’ rulers to step down.

This was the case in Libya, and they want to do the same in Syria. Such are the existing asymmetries in the international setting and such are the abuses against the weakest nations.

It is not for us to bring forward a conclusive judgment about the national situation in Syria.

First, because of the inherent complexity of any national reality and, second, because only the Syrian people can solve their problems and decide their fate in light of the people’s right to self-determination, which is an inalienable right in all respects.

If we direct our eyes to the Horn of Africa we will witness a heartbreaking example of the UN’s historical failure. Most serious news agencies report that 29,000 children under the age of 5 have died in the last three months.

The great journalist Frida Modak, in her article, “To Die in Somalia”, reveals all the misery there, which is worse than that ravaging the rest of the vast region of the Horn of Africa, and which undermines the role of large international organizations, such as the UN. She writes: “What is needed to face this situation is $400 million, not to solve the problem, but just to address the emergency that Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia are going through. According to all sources, the next two months will be crucial to prevent more than 12 million people from dying, and the worst situation is in Somalia”.

This reality could not be more atrocious, especially if, at the same time, we ask ourselves how much is being spent to destroy Libya. This is the answer of US congressman Dennis Kucinich, who said: “This new war will cost us $500 million during its first week alone. Obviously, we do not have financial resour-

ces for that and we will end up cutting off other important domestic programs’ funding”.

According to Kucinich himself, with the amount spent during the first three weeks in Northern Africa to massacre the Libyan people, much could have been done to help the entire region of the Horn of Africa, saving tens of thousands of lives.

The reasons behind the criminal military engagement in Libya are not humanitarian at all: they are based on the Malthusian notion that “there are just too many people in the world” and they have to be eliminated by generating more hunger, destruction and uncertainty, and creating – at the same time –more financial profits. In this regard, it is frankly regrettable that in the opening address of the 66th General Assembly of the UN, an immediate appeal to solve humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa was not made, while instead we were assured that “the time has come to act” on Syria.

As of 2010, 19 UN General Assembly votes confirm the universal will demanding that the United States stop the economic and trade blockade against Cuba. Since all sensible international arguments have been exhausted, we have no choice but to believe that such cruel actions against the Cuban Revolution result from imperial arrogance in view of the dignity and courage shown by the unsubmissive Cuban people in their sovereign decision to determine their own fate and fight for their happiness.

From Venezuela, we believe it is time to demand of the US not only an immediate and unconditional end to the criminal blockade imposed against the Cuban

people, but also the release of the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters held hostage in the prisons of the US Empire for the sole reason of seeking to prevent the illegal actions of terrorist groups against Cuba, under the protection of the US government.

Mr. President of the General Assembly and distinguished representatives of the peoples of the world, we want to reiterate that it is impossible to ignore the crisis of the UN. Before this same General Assembly we expressed, back in 2005, that the UN model had been exhausted.

Back then, we also expressed the urgent need for it to be rebuilt.

Up until now, nothing has been done. The political will of the powerful has prevailed. Certainly, the UN, in its current functioning, docilely serves their interests. For us, it is obvious that the UN is not improving, nor will it improve from the inside. If the Secretary General, along with the President of the International Criminal Court, take part in an act of war, as in the case of Libya, nothing can be expected from the current structure of this organization and there is no longer time for reform. The UN does not accept any reform whatsoever; the illness at its core is deadly.

It is unbearable that there is a Security Council that turns its back, whenever it wants to, on the clamor of the majority of nations by deliberately failing to acknowledge the will of the General Assembly. If the Security Council is some sort of club with privileged members, what can the General Assembly do?

Where is its room for manoeuver, when Security Council members violate international law?

Impact

Paraphrasing Bolivar when he spoke of nascent US imperialism in 1818, we have had enough of the weak following the law while the strong commit abuses. It cannot be us, the peoples of the South, who respect international law while the North violates it, destroying and plundering us.

If we do not make a commitment, once and for all, to rebuilding the United Nations, this organization will lose its remaining credibility. Its crisis of legitimacy will be accelerated until it finally implodes. In fact, that is what happened to its immediate predecessor: the League of Nations.

A crucial first step in rebuilding the United Nations would be to eliminate the category of permanent members and veto power within the Security Council. Likewise, the decisionmaking power of the General Assembly must be maximized democratically. We also demand an immediate, in-depth revision of the UN Charter with the aim of drafting a new Charter.

PEOPLES OF THE WORLD: The future of a multipolar world, in peace, resides in us, in the organization of the majority of the people on earth to defend ourselves against the new colonialism, in order to achieve a balance in the universe that is capable of neutralizing imperialism and arrogance.

This broad, generous, respectful, and inclusive call is addressed to all the peoples of the world, but especially to the emerging powers of the South, which must assume, with courage, the role that they are called on to play immediately.

From Latin America and the Caribbean, powerful and dynamic regional alliances have emerged, seeking to shape a regional democratic space, respectful of differences and eager to emphasize solidarity and cooperation in order to foster the ties that bind us and settle what keeps us apart politically. And this new regionalism allows for diversity and respects the various rhythms of nation. Thus, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) advances as an avant-garde experiment of progressive and anti-imperialist governments, seeking ways to break the prevailing international order and strengthening the capacity of

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3| the people to face, together, the reigning powers. But this does not prevent its members from making an enthusiastic push for the consolidation of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), a political bloc that federates the 12 sovereign States of South America with the purpose of grouping them under what the Liberator Simon Bolivar called “a Nation of Republics”.

Furthermore, the 33 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are currently preparing to take the historic step of establishing a great regional entity that joins us all, without exclusions, where we can together design the policies that will ensure our wellbeing, our independence, and our sovereignty, on the basis of equality, solidarity, and complementarity. Caracas, the capital of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is proud to host, next December 2 and 3, the Summit of Heads of State and Government that will establish, definitively, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

The people of Venezuela place our hopes on a broad alliance among the regional organizations of the South, such as the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), CARICOM (the Caribbean Community), SICA (the System of Central American Integration), the African Union, ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) or ECO (the Economic Coordination Organization), and especially the cross-regional organizations among emerging powers, such as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), which should become a pole of influence in coordination with the peoples of the South.

I want to conclude by remembering words of the great Venezuelan singer, Ali Primera. In one of his songs he asks us: "What is man’s struggle to achieve peace?

And what peace, if they want to leave the world just as it is?” Today more than ever before, the worst crime against peace is to leave the world as it is. If we leave the world as it is, the present and future will be determined by perpetual war. On the contrary, to quote Ali Primera again, achieving peace involves radically reversing all that impedes humanity from being humane.

Hugo Chavez President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

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4 | Security

NoÊnÎÊUÊFriday September 30 2011

The artillery of ideas

Venezuela: plan to reform and humanize prisons advances Moving ahead with prison reform at the national level, the Venezuela government announced the launching of a new plan to clamp down on corruption, fight privatization and guarantee the speedy delivery of justice in the South American country T/ COI P/ Agencies

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he announcement of the new “Plan Penitentiary” was made by members of the nation’s Supreme Court, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ministry for Penitentiary Services during a joint forum held at the National Institute of Feminine Orientation detention center in the state of Miranda.

“Starting today, we are initiating a historic process in accordance with the new governmental paradigm established in our constitution. [It is] an authentic transformation of the penitentiary system and we will be working to together to put an end to judicial delays”, said Ninoska Queipo, Director of the Supreme Court’s Penal Division.

According to officials, the new legal initiative will begin by dispatching 500 professionals from distinct disciplines in prisons throughout the national territory from October 1 to October 15 to investigate sentencing practices and examine the problems associated with the timely administration of justice in the country.

Such procedural hang-ups, government officials assert, are one of the major reasons for prison overcrowding in the country and represent a major obstacle for the government’s goal of humanizing the nation’s penitentiary system.

During the forum on Saturday, Venezuela’s Prosecutor General Luisa Ortega Diaz spoke of the myriad of complications born of bureaucratic setbacks

and urged the different branches of government to work together to increase the efficiency of the courts.

“Procedural delays generate impunity and cause the collapse of our penitentiary centers.

That’s why we need to take advantage of this forum in order to make a call to those members of the justice system to join forces and put an end to this situation”, Diaz asserted.

To further advance the nation’s prison reform initiatives, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has approved an additional 139 million bolivars ($32.3 million) to be spent on the new plan, bringing the total spent on dignifying the penitentiary system to nearly 500 million bolivars ($116 million) in the past 6 months.

AGAINST CORRUPTION & PRIVATIZATION Last Friday, Minister of Penitentiary Services, Iris Varela, spoke out against the illicit practice of charging defendants with legal fees in violation of the

constitutional right to free judicial access.

“Unfortunately, the vices of capitalism have created a number of mafias that charge for the services given to those detained, those with the least amount of resources”, she said.

Varela affirmed her intention as minister to fight against this exploitation and to ensure the rule of law in the courts and prisons.

“Only a revolutionary government can guarantee justice free of charge. This is consecrated in the constitution. Judicial services carry no fees. Justice is free and we’re here to guarantee it”, she said.

Vice President Elias Jaua, also present for the forum, articulated the Chavez government’s commitment to maintain access to court services equal for all, regardless of social class, and “to end the business of exploiting prisoners”.

“The jails have been converted into a huge business for the mafias. You are not commodities and you must not pay to

breathe or to receive your right to due process”, Jaua told the inmates on Saturday.

PRISONER’S RIGHTS Over the past few months, the Venezuelan government has been accelerating its plans to revamp the nation’s out-dated penitentiary system in the wake of an uprising that shook the Rodeo Prison in the state of Miranda.

Inheriting an abandoned and dilapidated prison infrastructure from earlier governments, the Chavez administration has attempted to humanize conditions in the country’s detention facilities by introducing educational and recreational programs for inmates.

But overcrowding and corruption have remained a problem, prompting the government to create the Ministry for Penitentiary Services in July in order to directly address the issues affecting the prison population, families of inmates, and those working in the legal system.

On Friday, Vice President Jaua reminded prisoners that although they may have been convicted of a crime, they still possess certain inalienable rights that must be respected regardless of their status as inmates.

“To be incarcerated cannot mean the negation of life. It cannot be the death of human beings and you have the commitment of the President of the Republic Hugo Chavez on this”, Jaua said, reminding those present that the government’s goal is to “transform the conditions of a society based on exclusion”.

NEW FORENSIC POLICE In a related development last week, Venezuelan Vice Minister for Citizen Security Nestor Reverol announced the restructuring of the nation’s forensic police, known as the CICPC (initials in Spanish).

During an interview on the program Contragolpe broadcast on state television, Reverol explained a series of studies currently being carried out by the national government “so that in 2012 we’ll have a new CICPC”.

The 6 studies under way include the evaluation of the police’s methods and legal mandate as well as an analysis of training techniques so that the organization “can one again become a scientific investigative police force”, the Vice Minister said.

Provoked by the misconduct of certain officers and individuals, Reverol revealed the government’s intentions to “shake up the CICPC” with the studies, all of which are being carried out by trained security experts with aim of strengthening the nation’s crime fighting infrastructure.

“These experts are going to put together a report with a series of recommendations in no more than 5 months that will allow us to have a set of actions that we can follow and that may be adopted as structural policies with respect to citizen security”, he said.

The re-composition of the CICPC follows on other government measures designed to enhance security in the country including the creation of a new National Bolivarian Police force and the disbandment of the notoriously corrupt Metropolitan Police in the capital of Caracas.

NoÊnÎÊUÊFriday September 30 2011

The artillery of ideas

Integration

Venezuela and Iran deepen cooperation in housing, food security T/ COI P/ Agencies

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uilding upon several years of bilateral efforts to increase the social and economic wellbeing of their peoples, Venezuelan and Iranian officials met in Caracas last weekend to plan new investments in affordable housing and food production The mixed commissions worked out the details of plans to expand cement production at the Cerro Azul factory, which was built following a bilateral accord in 2006, and to construct new factories to produce cement, galvanized steel, and other construction materials.

Iran also agreed to construct 7,000 new homes in Venezuela’s new Ciudad Caribia, a “socialist city” that is being built by the government in conjunction with private sector partners. The city currently houses 600 residents, and is designed to facilitate communal organization and a cooperative economy.

To boost food production in Venezuela, Iranian companies agreed to team up with the Venezuelan government to construct an “integral agricultural center,” which incorporates food cultivation, processing, and research under one administrative roof. The deal will include the transfer of intellectual property and technological capabilities in the areas of animal husbandry, irrigation, soil management, and seed genetics, according to the Venezuelan state news agency.

Two additional accords that were signed last weekend guarantee the training and equipping of Venezuelan factories in advanced techniques for processing milk and corn flour, which the government considers essential food items that must be guaranteed as a human right to all citizens.

Venezuela and Iran will also channel their expertise in petroleum-derivative products toward satisfying food packaging needs by building a manufacturing complex to produce plastic food containers for domestic distribution.

RESPONDING TO SOCIAL NEEDS These accords form an integral part of Venezuela’s response to a recurrent housing deficit and periodic food shortages. According to Venezuela’s Vice President for Productive Economy, Ricardo Menendez, Iran’s pledge to build 7,000 homes brought the total number of houses completed or under construction to 34,000 since the launch of a national housing plan earlier this year.

“We hope that between the months of January and March of 2012 the three modules of the plastics complex will be finished, which will permit us to satisfy the food sector’s needs in terms of packaging containers”, said Menendez, who is also Minister for Science, Technology, and Medium Industry.

The imbalances in the housing and food sectors resulted partially from the private sector’s failure to satisfy the growing demand driven by a massive reduction in poverty and increases in employment and income between 2004-2008. To make matters worse, torrential rains in late 2010 left 130,000 people homeless and living in tempo-

rary government housing, and destroyed an estimated 65,000 hectares (160,000 acres) of productive farmland.

In response to these problems, the government launched longterm plans to guarantee housing and food security to the population, as required by the national constitution. It increased the state’s share of food production, processing, distribution, and marketing; redistributed land to small farmers; expanded the amount of essential foods subject to price controls; and empowered local communal councils to enforce these price controls.

The government also intervened in the three largest multinational cement companies in 2008, accusing them of exporting and hoarding cement at a time of rising domestic demand in order to drive up prices. It also purchased construction equipment, and launched a massive new plan to construct two million homes over the next seven years.

INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCES FOR PEACE & HAPPINESS Key to these efforts has been Venezuela’s growing network

of international alliances which connect the Caribbean country to nearly every region of the world through the exchange of Venezuela’s oil for needed services in agriculture, construction, mining, commerce, finance, hydrocarbons, military, electricity, and other sectors.

President Hugo Chavez has dubbed this network a “multipolar world” aimed at countering the "unipolar" world dominated by the United States.

Foreign Relations Minister Nicolas Maduro said last weekend’s meetings with Iran were aimed at creating “peace and happiness” for the peoples of both nations.

“While the criminal imperialist elites have declared war against Muslim peoples over the past 10 years, we in the Bolivarian Revolution, led by President Chavez, declare our love for the culture of Muslim peoples, for their entire history, and we declare our eternal brotherhood”, Maduro proclaimed.

The Iranians responded in kind, leading a group prayer for Chavez’s successful recuperation from cancer. Chavez recei-

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5| ved his fourth round of chemotherapy in Cuba last week.

Iranian Trade Minister Mahdi Ghazanfari said on Friday that Iran and Venezuela are set to expand industrial and trade cooperation. “Given the high level of bilateral political relations, it is expected that the degree of commercial ties be higher than the current level”, he said.

In a further sign of Iran’s deepening ties with South America, the Iranian government recently stated that it may consider joining the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR), a customs union and free trade bloc established on the southern cone.

US OPPOSITION The United States government has persistently berated and sought to undermine the growing relationship between Venezuela and Iran, two of its main international opponents.

In particular, the US opposes Venezuela’s recognition of the legitimacy of Iran’s peaceful nuclear energy program. Last May, the US imposed formal economic sanctions on Venezuela for continuing to trade with Iran in violation of the US Iran Sanctions Act. Nonetheless, Venezuela reached out to the Iranian government to successfully negotiating the release of US citizens Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer last week. Venezuelan officials said they believed the two men were wrongfully detained for espionage when they were hiking along the Iraq-Iran border.

Last weekend’s meetings marked the 7th round of accords between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Chavez government. According to the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, the Iranian delegation included representatives from thirty Iranian businesses, in addition to officials from the Iranian Foreign Relations Ministry, Trade Ministry, and the Iranian Ambassador. The Venezuelan participants included officials from the Foreign Relations Ministry, Agriculture and Land Ministry, Food Ministry, Housing Ministry, and stateowned companies.

A visit by the Iranian president, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, to Caracas last weekend was postponed until an undetermined later date.

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6 | Social Justice

NoÊnÎÊUÊFriday September 30 2011

The artillery of ideas

BANMUJER: fighting the feminization of poverty T/ COI P/ Agencies

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ne of Venezuela’s most important public institutions created to assist impoverished women through micro-credit lending celebrated its 10-year anniversary last week.

Banmujer first came into existence on September 21, 2001 as government run bank with the specific purpose of funding socio-productive business initiatives for women in particularly dire economic conditions. Since that time, the women’s bank has granted more than 138 thousand micro-credits, benefiting over 300,000 families in the country, Banmujer President Nora Castañeda said in an interview last week. “Poverty has a woman’s face. This is even more evident when you look at the statistics that indicate 70 percent of world’s poor are women”, Castañeda said.

According to the bank’s president, the institution is currently active in 335 municipalities around the Caribbean country and 90 percent of Banmujer’s clients are women.

Since it’s founding, more than 20,000 jobs have been created through the bank’s initiatives while in 2011 alone, the funding institution has provided more than 6,000 micro-loans to groups and individuals for productive projects.

Much of the assistance is not confined

to money, the official pointed out, but rather includes a holistic program of training and assistance to help ensure the success of a particular project.

“The Women’s Bank isn’t just about granting micro-credits. It’s also about granting free, non-financial services such as education and training, technical assistance, as well as guidance before, during and after the approval of the credit. The overall objective is to guarantee women can pay the credit and carry out

their project”, Castañeda affirmed.

With respect to the role of women in society, the public servant corrected a commonly held misconception in Venezuela that associates the fight for women’s rights with advocating for female supremacy.

“Housework should be done by both the man and the woman, just like community and socio-productive work. We’re not trying to substitute men. What we want is a more democratic society where men

Youth contributing to government policy T/ COI

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enezuelan Youth Minister Maripili Hernandez received a series of policy proposals from students and young adults in the state of Vargas last weekend as part of the national government’s move to strengthen youth participation in the political and social future of the Caribbean country.

The proposals focused on how the government might better address the specific needs of young residents and were delivered as part of the recently created Youth Ministry’s program “Building the Young Homeland”. Among the 12 principal propositions submitted by the Vargas youth, the creation of an organization to carry out cultural and recreational activities figured prominently in discussions as well as the founding of a public accounting office geared towards monitoring governmental projects.

Strengthening of alternative media also played a major role in last week’s forum as did the need for increased emphasis on environmental campaigns.

Over the past month, Hernandez has been traveling around the country, meeting with youth groups and collecting ideas on how to shape the work of the ministry created by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in March.

Last Sunday’s forum marked the 23rd and final meeting to be held at the state level, leaving only the participation of Caracas left to complete the process of surveying the entire national territory.

Once the nation’s regions and districts have had the opportunity to contribute proposals, the ministry will then submit the ideas as part of a legislative debate in Venezuela’s congress, the National Assembly.

A major component of the legislation to come in front of the Assembly, the mi-

nister pointed out, will be to find ways to incorporate youth into Venezuela’s growing workforce. “57% of unemployed youth are without work after their first job. This demonstrates that the problem of incorporation of youth into national development lies in viewing of them as inexperienced”, Hernandez said.

CHAVEZ APPLAUDS EFFORTS For his part, President Chavez congratulated them on their participation in politics as well as their commitment to the Venezuela’s future.

“We need to build the homeland of youth in coordination with the national government”, the socialist leader declared during a phone call to the forum.

“Muchachos, you are socialist revolutionaries and you need to free yourselves from the perversion of capitalism that continues to threaten the world with poverty and misery”, he said. Still

and women live in conditions of equality”, she said.

As for political will, Castañeda praised the efforts of the Chavez government to prioritize the issue of economic empowerment as a way to combat the feminization of poverty.

“The national government has been facilitating the organization of the people to be sovereign and protagonistic through the development of economic activity…

Women have gained a lot with this revolution and that’s why we’re working for the elections in 2012 so that Chavez stays in power”, she declared.

STIMULATING PRODUCTION Marcos Parra, Coordinator of Banmujer’s Urban and Semi-Urban Agricultural program informed last Monday that the women’s financial institution has funded more than 1,200 projects designed to increase food production and sovereignty in Venezuela.

Historically, about 22 percent of Banmujer’s projects have been destined towards the South American nation’s agricultural sector. Parra informed that many of the credits have been approved for the cultivation of crops in the areas surrounding large metropolitan centers such as Caracas.

Vegetables such as spring onions, cilantro and lettuce comprise the bulk of community production while in some areas, small scale animal husbandry has also been funded.

The bank has also been providing a stimulus for the government’s initiative “Productive Lawns” to encourage residents to take advantage of small urban spaces of 100 to 500 square meters for local agricultural production and consumption.

recovering from his 4th cycle of chemotherapy, the Venezuelan President urged young activists to fight for greater employment and educational opportunities, “not to serve the bourgeoisie nor to maintain the exploitation of man over man” but rather to strengthen the country’s socialist revolution.

With respect to the his health, Chavez reported on his continued progress and gave details of his final chemotherapy treatment which he described as “very heavy”.

He also commented on the 2012 presidential elections and called on the Venezuelan people to defeat the country’s right-wing opposition whom he referred to as “desperate wannabes“ unable to follow through on their campaign promises.

“Don’t be fooled by pretty words, faces with makeovers, new names, or formulas created in a laboratory. Our path must be that of a peaceful and democratic revolution based on equality”, Chavez said.

NoÊnÎÊUÊFriday September 30 2011

The artillery of ideas

Analysis

Venezuela urges extradition of terrorist Posada Carriles from US T/ COI P/ Agencies

O

n Monday, the Venezuelan Ministry of Public Affairs issued an additional request for the capture of known terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.

While Venezuelan authorities are still waiting for the United States to act on a 2005 extradition request to try Carriles for his involvement in the 1976 downing of a commercial airliner, killing all 73 people on board, this week’s request comes after Venezuelan prosecutors uncovered his role in, “acts of torture, violation of international laws, illegal detention and physical abuse of prisoners” during his time at the now defunct Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP).

Posada Carriles, DISIP’s Chief of Operations during one of the most violent periods of anti-communist repression, currently resides in Miami, Florida.

The new charges against Posada Carriles are the result of ongoing investigations into crimes that occurred during the 1960’s, 70’s, and 80’s by so-called “democratic” governments that held power for 40 years. All close allies of Washington, the bi-party alliance of Democratic Action (AD) and Christian Democrats (COPEI) is said to have authored thousands of kidnappings, tortures, and disappearances of leftist activists in the decades preceding the electoral victory of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

POSADA’S TERROR REIGN In a press release issued Monday, Venezuela’s Ministry of Public Affairs explained that investigators recently uncovered the case of two women – Brenda Hernandez Esquivel and Marlene del Valle Esquivel – who claim to have suffered “torture, abuse, and illegal detention” at the hands of “Commissioner Basilio”, the known alias of Luis Posada Carriles while at DISIP. According to the two women, on June 3, 1973 a group of state security agents disguised as “employees of the electricity company” arrived at their home

in Maracay, state of Aragua. The agents knocked at the door until Jose Sanchez Romero, a friend of the two women, unknowingly opened the door to hostile security forces sent by Posada Carriles to search the home for “subversive elements”.

After opening the door, Romero was shot and killed by the unidentified agents.

Fearing for their lives, the two women, three children, and three other men in the home – Luis Eduardo Cools, Francisco Hernandez Cruz and Jose Acosta Garcia – attempted to “turn themselves in peacefully” by waving a white bandana.

The DISIP forces responded by opening fire on the home.

After some time, the two women, three children and Jose Acosta Garcia walked out of the house with their hands in the air, at which time agents gunned down Acosta Garcia.

The women report that agents then threw the children on the floor and physically assaulted them before taking everyone to a clandestine detention center somewhere in the vicinity.

Brenda, eight months pregnant at the time, was taken to a holding cell for common criminals

while Marlene del Valle was held in a neighboring unit. The following day the women and children were released, at which point they returned to home and found the slain body of Luis Eduardo Cools.

A day later both women were again picked up by state security forces and formally taken to DISIP headquarters in Maracay for questioning. There they met Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, referred to by fellow officers as “Commissioner Basilio”. Noticing Brenda was pregnant, Posada Carriles is said to have told his officers, “the seed must be finished off”, authorizing his men to kick Hernandez repeatedly in the abdomen.

After killing her unborn child, security forces made several unsuccessful attempts to drown and kill Brenda.

In the case of Marlene del Valle, Posada Carriles is said to have used a lit cigarette to burn her and her child (six months old at the time) in an attempt to extract information from del Valle on the whereabouts of “subversive elements”. After del Valle insisted she had no information, Carriles chocked the infant, used a revolver to simu-

late shooting both del Valle and the young child, and pretended to pull the trigger suggesting he would soon kill both.

The two women claim they were then transferred to DISIP headquarters in Caracas where they suffered further torture, abuse, and interrogations before being released.

During recent investigations into the illegal conduct of state agencies before the democratic revolution led by President Chavez, both women told public prosecutors that they had withheld this information until now for “fear of reprisals against themselves and their loved ones”, In an interview this week with Ciudad CCS, Brenda Hernandez Esquivel said that she and Marlene del Valle, “hold no expectations” as to the possible extradition to Venezuela of Posada Carriles. However, she said, the Public Ministry’s request serves to call attention to “the type of murderer the (US) Empire protects”.

THE TERRORIST Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles (1928 - ) began his use of torture and violence as a member of Cuba’s security

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7| forces during the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista (1952-1958).

After Fidel Castro’s revolutionary army overthrew Batista on January 1, 1959, Carriles and others fled to the United States where they received direct support to try to prevent the revolutionary government from consolidating political, social, and economic reforms on the island.

From 1967 to 1974 Posada Carriles served as Chief of Operations at the Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP), a shady security agency feared for its use of violent tactics in supposed “anti-communist” operations against progressive and leftist Venezuelans inspired by the Cuban Revolution.

In 1976, frustrated by Cuba’s increasingly successful social transformations, Posada Carriles and admitted terrorist Orlando Bosch (1926-2011) orchestrated the bombing of Cubana de Aviacion Flight 455. On October 6, the plane was blown up in midair, killing all 73 people on board.

A week later, Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch, and two others were detained for their involvement in the bombing. In 1983, after eight years in prison, Carriles escaped and fled the country soon after.

After participating in a series of other international incidents, including a failed attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro in Panama, Carriles snuck into the United States in 2005 at which time the Venezuelan government formally requested his detention and extradition so that he finally stand trial for the 1976 bombing.

Instead of acting on the Venezuelan request, US authorities detained Carriles on immigration and perjury charges, ignoring his links to international terrorism. After a Texas court found him innocent of said charges, he was allowed to return home to Miami, Florida.

Last year Francisco Chavez Abarca, a Salvadorian terrorist responsible for a series of hotel bombings in Cuba during the 1990’s, was caught trying to enter Venezuela. Abarca admitted to having orders to disrupt the country’s National Assembly elections and that Luis Posada Carriles was behind the operation. Apart from “provoking riots” and “political assassination” to disrupt elections, Abarca said plans had been developed to bomb oil tankers traveling between Venezuela and Cuba.

ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas

Friday | September 30, 2011 | Nº 83 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve

A publication of the Fundacion Correo del OrinocoÊUÊ ` Ì À ivÊEva GolingerÊUÊ À>« VÊ ià } ÊAlexander Uzcátegui, Jameson JiménezÊUÊ*ÀiÃÃÊFundación Imprenta de la Cultura

10 Years On

The state of the US anti-war movement T/ C.G. Estabrook

T

en years after the US invaded Afghanistan, the anti-war movement in the United States looks remarkably similar to what it was in 1972 – ten years after the US invaded South Vietnam. In each case, more than two-thirds of the US public oppose the war, but the press and ‘educated opinion’ – hence the ideological institutions, notably the universities – support it. Our rulers’ task, in cases 40 years apart, is therefore to make sure that democracy is ineffective.

The US ascendency is in fact more effective at doing that now than they were then: they learned something from the earlier experience. (See, e.g., Michael Crozier et al., The Crisis of Democracy [1975] – the crisis being that allowing democracy in the US would interfere with elite plans.) But they also learned that the US public will not allow things like the carpet-bombing in Vietnam: note the secrecy (from the US public of course – they’re not secret from Afghans, Pakistanis, Somalis, Yemenis et al.) of Obama’s drone attacks.

There are other differences.

The wars are very different: Vietnam was not important to the US except as a demonstration war – an illustration that countries are not to be allowed to develop independently, without coordinating their economies with US control. (And the US established the point by killing four million Asians, despite those who claim the US lost in Vietnam: its complete war aims were not achieved, but the important point was made clear to all – look at the South Eastern Asian economies today.)

Afghanistan (“Pipelinistan,” as Pepe Escobar says) is much more important to the US elite than Vietnam ever was. It’s the keystone of the region that the US State Department in 1945 said contained “the world’s greatest material prize” – Mideast oil. Today the US government is threatening, invading, and occupying countries from North Africa to the Indian subcontinent, and from Central Asia to the Horn of Africa – a vast circle with a 2,000mile radius – the Greater Middle East. (The US military calls it “Central Command”.) Control and not just access to those energy resources is what the US government demands. The US, in fact, imports very little oil from the Mideast, but control gives the US government an unparalleled advantage over its oil-hungry rivals in Europe and Asia. We’re killing people in the Mideast and North Africa because China needs oil, and our government wants to control where they get it. The US government says that we’re conducting these vastly expensive wars to stop terrorism and protect civilians; but it’s obvious that, instead, we’re killing civilians and creating terrorists.

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Finally, the US is a very different country today. In 1972 it was a wealthy and prosperous society, with a self-confident middle class. Forty years of neoliberal counter-attack to “the Sixties” have seen wages and standards of living stagnate or decline, even before the crisis of 2007/8 – out of which the rich 1% prospered and the 99% declined even further.

And in these circumstances, the US population is subject to the greatest propaganda mani-

pulation in history, because of the failure of US propaganda in the 1970s, when 70% of people saw the Vietnam war as “fundamentally wrong and immoral”, not “a mistake”. In his My Struggle (1925/6), “Adolph Hitler suggested that the Germans lost the First World War because they could not match Anglo-American propaganda achievements, and he vowed that next time Germany would be ready. It had a big impact on future developments” [Noam Chomsky].

Barack Obama wrote in The Audacity of Hope that “the greatest casualty of that [Vietnam] war was the bond of trust between the US people and their government”. (Paul Street, who quotes the remark, comments, “as if the deaths of millions of Indochinese and 58,000 US GIs were secondary and as if popular US skepticism towards the designs of Washington’s foreign policy establishment isn’t

a sign of democratic health”.)

Obama sees his job accurately as to restore that “trust between the US people and their government” in regard to his war-making as well as his exploitative economic policy – although his account of the war is a lie.

The first task of the US antiwar movement in 2011 is to overcome its co-option by the Democrats in the elections of 2006 and 2008, and dispel the propaganda fog of the Obama administration. Obama’s killing in the Mideast and Africa is more widespread, efficient, and brutal than Bush’s ever was, but the policy remains what it has been for more than a generation. The anti-war movement must make that clear to the people of the United States – and that it’s being done in our name.

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