English Edition N° 87

page 7 | Social Justice

page 8 | Opinion

Classmates, not inmates: Reforming & humanizing prisons in Venezuela

Charlie Hardy on the seeds of destruction & discontent in the United States & Europe

Friday | October 28, 2011 | Nº 87 | Caracas

Another victory for South American unity Argentina reelected President Cristina Fernandez this past Sunday in an overwhelming victory that left her closest competitor nearly 40 points behind.

Her reelection signals and reaffirms the rising tide of the left in Latin America and further strengthens South American integration and cooperation. In addition to thanking her supporters, Fernandez expressed gratitude to regional heads of state, include Venezuela’s President Chavez, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Rafael Correa of Ecuador, for their support and political consistency. | page 2

ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas

President Chavez: Neither NATO nor cancer will stop this democratic revolution The Venezuelan President condemned the “barbaric” actions against Libya and reinforced the importance of regional integration as a shield of defense On Wednesday, President Hugo Chavez met with Maria Emma Mejia, Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), at the presidential palace in Caracas. During declarations to the press, Chavez called on countries in the region to further consolidate the South American integration bloc to safeguard member nations from foreign aggression. The Venezuelan head of state referred to the war in Libya and subsequent assassination of the African nation’s president, Muammar al-Gaddafi, last week as “a sinister and barbaric act”. |[Continued Below]

Politics

Corporate media group attacks Venezuela, again The Inter-American Press Association has lashed out against Venezuela for press freedoms. | page 3 Integration

Tourism boosted in Venezuela Venezuela’s International Tourism Convention promised more investment in cultural exchange. | page 4 Economy

2012 Budget to Increase social spending, jobs Venezuela’s 2012 proposed budget will focus on national production & services. | page 5

UNASUR is a shield against barbarism V enezuelan President Hugo Chavez reaffirmed the need to continue advancing and consolidating regional integration through cooperation mechanisms such as UNASUR, in order to counter external threats and aggression. “The existence of UNASUR has become essential. It is our shield against barbarism, our protection from the US Fourth Fleet [the US Pentagon’s military for-

ce in Latin American and the Caribbean, activated in 2008]”.

Chavez also compared the events in Libya to “the genocide that occurred here against our indigenous people when Spaniards arrived [500 years ago].

But today, their actions are even worse because they [the foreign aggressors] have planes and bombs. A scientific-technical advance at barbarism’s disposal. I would never have imagi-

ned something like this happening in my lifetime, but we are witnessing it and some are even applauding this atrocity”.

When asked whether Venezuela would break relations with Libya, President Chavez responded, “As far as we are concerned, Libya does not have a government right now. So, what government would we break relations with? Libya is under the control of nobody”.

Millions benefit from social programs A

ccording to the results of the 4th Annual National Survey of Family Finances, over 22 million Venezuelans have benefited from the social programs implemented by the government since 2003, accounting for 72 percent of homes throughout the country.

In 2003, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez began a group of projects called “social missions” in education, food, culture, health and other areas to attend to pressing social needs.

An analysis of the results shows that, between 2008 and 2009, 13.5 million Venezuelans said they had utilized the health missions; 6.7 said they had used food-subsidy missions and 1.8 million had used the education programs.

The study, conducted jointly by the Central Bank of Venezuela, National Institute of Statistics, University of the Andes and the Guayana Corporation of Venezuela, concluded the social missions favor the great majority of Venezuelans and particularly sectors with the least resources.

The Venezuelan head of state also referred to opposition factions in Venezuela who continue plans to destabilize the country.

“We have some crazy people thinking here in Venezuela that Chavez will end just like Gaddafi, and that NATO will come to “save us”. What madness! This democratic revolution will not be brought down by them”.

“This is a people’s government. This is a people’s revolution”, he affirmed. “We are the majority”.

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2 | Impact

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Venezuela: Argentine election results a new victory for South American unity Cristina Fernandez was reelected President of Argentina in a sweeping, historic victory marking the solidity of the Latin American left T/ COI P/ Agencies new victory for the project of the South American Union” was how the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela described the momentous re-election of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner on Sunday, in a formal communique released by the Venezuelan Foreign Relations Ministry.

“For the peoples and governments of Latin America, the continuity of this political leadership is of fundamental importance; it is right to affirm that [Fernandez’s] continuance at the head of the country’s destiny strengthens the hope for a future of dignity and sovereignty for the whole region”, the statement affirmed.

“On this day of widespread jubilation, President Hugo Chavez reiterates the willingness and commitment of the Bolivarian Revolution to continue working together with the just, free, and sovereign nation of Argentina in the consolidation of the Grand Homeland”, said the communique.

Chavez also called Fernandez on the telephone to confirm an upcoming bilateral meeting in November “to continue advancing and consolidating the existing strategic alliance between the two countries”, and “to consolidate the tendency toward union and independence that has re-emerged in South America”, according to the Foreign Relations Ministry.

The integration of the South American continent based on the values of social justice, regional solidarity, and respect for national sovereignty is a major agenda item shared by the governments of Venezuela, Argentina, and many of their regional allies such as Brazil, Bolivia,

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and Ecuador – and strongly opposed by the United States.

Venezuela and Argentina have also built a strong bilateral relationship that consists of dozens of accords in the areas of energy production, food security, transportation infrastructure, and finance.

The national directorate of the majority United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) hailed Fernandez’s “decisive triumph”, calling it a vindication of popular support for the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), a new political integration effort launched in 2008 with the goal of gradually uniting the array of international organizations and trade accords that already exist on the continent.

“The policy of unity for our America is going to continue with the impetus that Cristina’s marvelous triumph has now given to it”, said national PSUV leader Hector Navarro in a press conference in Caracas.

secretary general of the Community of Andean Nations (CAN), Adalid Contreras, who expressed hope that the coming period may strengthen ties among the CAN and other existing sub-regional groupings, and eventually produce a continental bloc.

UNASUR Secretary General Maria Emma Mejia wrote in a missive to Fernandez that, “For UNASUR, and overall for myself, the result of the presidential elections in the Republic of Argentina constitutes an extraordinary event that deserves the congratulations of all members of the Grand South American Homeland”.

“With your new government, the region has become stronger and is filled with hope for the integration that you and the [former Argentine] President Nestor Kirchner have driven forward with such decisiveness”, wrote Mejia, who is also the former Colombian foreign relations minister.

RESPONSE FROM REGIONAL BLOCS Fernandez also received congratulatory remarks from the

FERNANDEZ: CALL TO UNITY President-elect Fernandez responded to this outpouring

of regional support in her acceptance speech on Sunday, referring to many of the region’s heads of state by their first name as a sign of their close diplomatic relationships: “I am grateful for the support from our fraternal friends in the region, Dilma Rosseff, from our partner Hugo Chavez, from our partner Pepe Mujica, from Sebastián Piñera, Juan Manuel, from Lugo, and the rest of our partners that surely will call, like Evo and Rafael, with whom we have worked together so much for this region, South America”.

She also recognized the efforts of youth activists, workers, scientists, teachers, professionals, and businesspeople that supported her, affirming, “a country is not constructed by its leaders”.

“I want to call all Argentines to national unity, undistracted by useless confrontations”, Fernandez proclaimed, “to continue growing, continue generating more jobs, more industrialization, more value added, more science and technology.

More than we have done, we need more schools, more roads, more hospitals, but it can’t be done alone, we need the collaboration and understanding of all Argentines”, she added.

TRIBUTE TO THE LATE NESTOR KIRCHNER With tears in her eyes, Fernandez attributed her success as president partly to the precedent set by her late husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, during his term as president between 2003 and 2007. Kirchner served as secretary general of UNASUR from May 2010 until his death on October 27, 2010.

A missive from the Venezuela Foreign Relations Ministry said Kirchner was the person “who planted the seed, the idea of the grand union”, referring to UNASUR, of which Kirchner was a strong proponent from the beginning.

Kirchner presided over Argentina’s swift recovery from a deep recession that caused 21% unemployment, decimated a fifth of the GDP, and pushed

the majority of Argentines into poverty between 1998 and 2002 as the result of neoliberal economic reforms.

Most notably, Kirchner defied the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by defaulting on Argentina’s debt rather than subordinating the country to conditions that favored foreign creditors, such as high interest rates, further privatization of the economy, cuts in social spending, and an overvalued exchange rate.

Contradicting mainstream economists’ pessimistic predictions, Argentina recuperated to its pre-recession level of GDP within three years, and Kirchner’s social policies helped 11 million people – more than a quarter of the national population – emerge from poverty.

FERNANDEZ’S VICTORY: A SUCCESSFUL ECONOMY Argentina’s continued economic growth over the past four years was a major factor in Fernandez’s victory. Fernandez drastically increased spending on public works and social programs, implementing a per-child cash transfer that has impacted 3.5 million people and a pension increase for 6.8 million retirees.

This helped to lower income inequality, decrease poverty by two-thirds, and achieve a record level of employment.

Fernandez’s Front for Victory (FPV) coalition enjoyed support from a broad spectrum of unions, business associations, human rights groups, and youth organizations. In addition to the presidency, the FPV won 19 out of 21 governorships and the majority of both chambers of Congress, allowing Fernandez’s bloc to meet quorum without opposition presence.

Fernandez was the first woman ever to be re-elected president of Argentina. With 53.9% of the vote in the first round, she also set the record for the highest percentage of the popular vote in any election since the return of democracy to Argentina following the US-backed military dictatorship that ruled between 1976 and 1983.

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Politics

Corporate media press group attacks Venezuela T/ COI P/ Agencies orporate media networks and their owners in the Americas issued fresh attacks against Venezuela last week during a meeting of the US-based Inter-American Press Association (IAPA). As part of its 67th General Assembly, held in Lima, Peru, the private press association decried the expanding role of public media in Venezuela and denounced increased scrutiny by Venezuela’s National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL) in cases where news networks violated the country’s Law of Social Responsibility on Radio and Television.

Based in Miami, Florida, the IAPA claims to represent some 1,300 private news firms across the Western Hemisphere.

Though the organization often speaks on behalf of “freedom of the press”, the bulk of its criticisms have been directed at popular governments in the region who have worked to diversify their country’s media spectrum.

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PUBLIC MEDIA: “A DANGEROUS WEAPON” Having recently concluded their annual meeting (October 14-18), the Miami-based Inter American Press Association (IAPA) declared, “attempts to silence the independent press in the region have continued to become more and more intense throughout 2011”. By “independent”, the IAPA means non-public, or private, corporate-owned media.

Forced to recognize “the most serious danger for journalists is physical violence, crime, and the impunity surrounding such acts”, citing the murder this year of numerous journalists in Mexico, Honduras, and Brazil, the corporate media association went on to affirm that “intolerant and authoritarian governments try to reach the same goal of muting the media” by using “illegal pressures through court battles, arbitrary arrests, verbal attacks, restrictive laws or simple manipulation of government advertising”.

According to a UN report released on Monday, 13 journalists have been killed in Mexico this year alone. Forty-two reporters have been killed in Mexico in the past five years, most of which are assumed to be the victims of a US-backed drug war intensified by Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

Equating the death of journalists with the growth of publiclycontrolled media in the Americas, the IAPA last week accused numerous democratically-elected governments in the region, including Venezuela, Ecuador, and Argentina, of constructing “a parallel network of state-owned and government-supporting media that mount campaigns to discredit independent (corporate) media”.

Publicly-owned television, radio, and internet news media “are expanding without limit”, decried the media owners´ association.

While the IAPA admitted that “access to information is a key point for transparency of government agencies, as well as for the proper performance of journalists and the media” it failed to note that the Venezuela government won a 2011 United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) award for expanding

free internet access to the Venezuelan people through government-funded Infocentros.

According to Internet World Stats, nearly 37.7% of Venezuelans have access to the Internet, a slightly larger percentage than, for example, Mexico’s 30.7%.

And while critics often accuse the Venezuelan government of censoring Internet-based information, a recent report by OpenNet, a joint initiative between Harvard Law School and Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto, found that no such censorship exists.

IAPA: TARGET VENEZUELA According to the Washington Post’s Jackson Diehl, who attended the Lima summit, IAPA President Gonzalo Marroquin told those gathered that privately-owned media in the region are now involved “in a war between authoritarianism and democracy”.

In US Embassy cables released by the whistleblower website Wikileaks, former US Ambassador to Venezuela Patrick Duddy met with representatives of corporate opposition media Globovision, El Nacional, and the Cisneros Group in February 2010. During one of these meetings El Nacional staff expres-

sed their frustration with losses in “advertising revenue from companies that had either been nationalized or been threatened by the [Venezuelan government]”. To counter such losses, El Nacional representatives 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”.

As part of the IAPA summit held last week, opposition weekly Sexto Poder (Sixth Power) and daily Globovision were highlighted as victims of the Chavez government.

In the case of Sexto Poder, sanctioned for publishing a front-page cartoon depicting high-ranking female public officials as cabaret dancers in a show orchestrated by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the IAPA report accused the Venezuelan government of “encroachment on the right of all Venezuelans to be informed”.

A day after Sexto Poder ran the cabaret depiction and a corresponding article, numerous women’s rights movements held demonstrations calling for the application of Venezuela’s Law on Social Responsibility in the Media, which prohibits the

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3| publication of hateful, slanderous, discriminatory and false information.

In response, Caracas-based Judge Denisse Bocanegra signed a temporary suspension of the paper’s distribution so that investigators could determine if Sexto Poder had broken the law.

The same judge later reauthorized the publication of the weekly on the condition that its editors cease to publish material that “constitutes an offense or insult against the reputation, decorum of any representative of the Public Powers with the objective of exposing them to disdain or public hatred”.

Another case used to exemplify the government assault on “independent” media was the opening of legal proceedings against Globovision for its coverage of the 2011 El Rodeo prison riot.

After four months investigating the case, last week Venezuela’s National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL) imposed a US$2.16 million (Bs. 9.3 million) fine on Globovision for violating articles 27 and 29 of the country’s Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television.

The public commission found that the news firm deliberately sought to create a situation of uncertainty and anxiety as authorities worked to negotiate and end to the prison uprising.

Evidence cited by CONATEL included the repeated use of footage depicting distraught prisoners’ mothers, the excessive use of statements encouraging families to protest outside the prison, and edited footage of government spokespersons that included sounds of gunfire which were not originally there.

IAPA President Gonzalo Marroquin blasted the sanction against Globovision, calling it a “dictatorial measure” and “a new act of aggression against the independent press of Venezuela”.

During a November 2010 forum held at Capitol Hill (Congress) in Washington DC titled “Danger in the Andes: Threats to Democracy, Human Rights, and Inter-American Security” Globovision President Guillermo Zuloaga called on Washington to take action against the “threat” posed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He was joined at the DC summit by then IAPA President Alejandro Aguirre.

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4 | Integration

Colombia and Venezuela strengthen bilateral relations T/ COI P/ Agencies enezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro alongside other members of the nation’s cabinet met with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos last Monday in Bogota where a series of agreements were signed enhancing cooperation in areas of trade, energy and security.

The meeting was also attended

by Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin and marked a follow-up to recent encounters that have strengthened bilateral relations between the two South American neighbors.

“This work session has been very beneficial in order to continue on this path which we need to build everyday. There are people who don’t like the fact that [Colombia and Venezuela] have strong relations, but we both want to have them”, Minister Maduro said.

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Prominent among the discussions was the extension for 90 days of a preferential tariff

arrangement in the wake of Venezuela’s formal departure from the Andean Community

International tourism in Venezuela promoting cultural exchange T/ COI P/ Agencies epresentatives of 11 countries from around Latin America and the world made their way to the Caribbean island of Margarita last weekend to promote travel and cultural exchange through their participation in Venezuela’s 6th annual International Tourism Convention (FITVEN).

The event, the most important showcase for tourism in Venezuela, was inaugurated last Saturday at the state-run Venetur hotel in the city of Porlamar and included the presence of representatives from Colombia, Curaçao, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Spain, Argentina, Cuba, Brazil and Indonesia.

Key to the proceedings this year was the strengthening of

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tourist bonds between Latin American nations with the intent of promoting not only typical vacation deals but also enhancing cultural understanding.

“Beyond commercializing tourist packages, one of the principal objectives of the convention is for the countries of our America to get to know each other through our traditions and culture”, said Felix Sosa, representative of Ecuador.

Luis Andrade, President of the Association of Caribbean states referred to the event as “very productive” in convening regional solidarity with respect to tourism.

“The intention is to project the great Caribbean as a region with a lot of potential, interac-

tion and challenges. Convening this meeting has been a demonstration of the clarity of objectives that the Venezuelan government has in its aspirations to strengthen the b r o t h e rh o o d between the countries of this territory”, he said.

VENEZUELA: A TOURISM GEM Apart from building southsouth relations, an important aspect of FITVEN was also the promotion of Venezuela as an international tourist destination.

Although it is blessed with an impressive diversity of natural treasures including crystalline beaches, dense jungles, expansive savannas and imposing mountains, Venezuela has tra-

of Nations (CAN) regional trade block earlier this year.

“We agreed to extend the preferences while we continue to negotiate an agreement. I believe the negotiations are going well and we hope to have the accord ready this year”, said Colombian Trade Minister Sergio Diaz-Granados.

The extension, intended to help repair commercial activity between the countries after a cooling of relations during the presidency of former Colombian head of state Alvaro Uribe, is similar to the agreement reached between the Venezuelan and Peruvian governments earlier this month.

Last year, the news agency EFE reports, commercial activity between Venezuela and Colombia accounted for $1.68 billion - a 63 percent decrease in comparison with 2009 which saw trade reach $4.61 billion.

Another important topic of dialogue on Monday, according to government representatives, was the supply of gasoline to Colombia and a plan to construct an oil pipeline from the Orinoco River basin to the Pacific coast, providing greater international market access for Venezuelan crude.

“The pipeline will go from the Orinoco to Tumaco. We’re going to cover 3,000 kilometers until reaching the South American Pacific. It’s a project of great magnitude for South American energy”, Maduro stated.

Foreign Minster Holguin explained that the proposal will include the potential creation of a joint Venezuelan-Colombian firm to construct the pipeline.

In terms of security initiatives, both nations agreed to continue to work together in the fight against drug-trafficking by initiating trimestral meetings in the Venezuelan border state of Tachira, set to begin in January.

A meeting between President Santos and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez is scheduled to take place in November with the aim of reviewing the progress of the bi-national work commissions established by the two nations in August, 2010.

“In our South American region, we’re working together to move forward and to build a future based on stability, peace, and shared socio-economic development”, Maduro affirmed after the meeting on Monday.

ditionally ranked lower on the list of most-visited tourist destinations in the Americas.

Much of this has had to do with the nation’s historic reliance on oil revenues and its consequential neglect of an adequate tourist infrastructure.

But this trend has been changing as the Chavez administration attempts to beef up its tourist services and publicize Venezuela as one of South America’s most beautiful destinations.

“We all know that Margarita is an international tourist destination and thanks to this, we want to create a platform to promote other regions such as the Andes, the [Venezuelan] plains, and the region of the Orinoco river”, said Tourism Minister Alejandro Fleming during the convention last weekend.

cond only to the United States in terms of visits to Colombia.

“This year, we’ve seen a growth rate of 18 percent and we are estimating some 240,000 visitors from Venezuela by the end of 2011. This is something that really pleases us due to the offers that we are providing which are diverse and available for all types of budgets”, Rodriguez said.

According to Jose Perez, President of the Cultural Fund of the Bolivarian Alliance for Our America (ALBA), exchanges between the island nation of Cuba and Venezuela have also been growing steadily over recent years.

Perez pointed out that Cuba has registered a 17 percent increase in Venezuelans visiting the island, representing “around 20,000 people so far this year”.

Apart from the strictly leisurely aspects of international travel, Cuba has also been offering its experience to assist Venezuela in the strengthening of its own tourist sector, the ALBA representative commented.

COLOMBIA & CUBA Humberto J. Rodriguez, representative of the state-owned Colombian tourist agency Proexport, reported that in 2010, some 190,000 Venezuelans visited his country, placing Venezuela se-

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Economy

Venezuela: 2012 budget to stimulate jobs, production & social services T/ COI P/ Agencies griculture, Infrastructure, and Energy are just some of the main governmental sectors that will see a boost in funding next year according to Venezuela’s proposed 2012 budget revealed last week by Finance and Planning Minister Jorge Giordani.

The budget bill, presented to the National Assembly last Thursday, calls for an increase in spending from the 204 billion bolivars ($47.4 billion) calculated for 2011 to nearly 300 billion bolivars ($69.7 billion) for the coming year.

The reason for this increase, the legislation articulates, is to stimulate economic growth through expansionary spending based on the injection of public funds into socio-productive sectors and government programs.

“The budget foresees a series of actions intended to minimize and neutralize the possible negative impacts of the volatile international economic situation including the worsening debt crisis in the Eurozone and a possible growth slow down in the major international economic blocks”, the proposal reads.

Predicting a five percent growth in Venezuela’s GDP for next year, the bill places emphasis on the strengthening of national industries as well as continued investment in the government’s housing, agriculture, and employment programs.

Although the price of Venezuelan crude currently hovers around $100 per barrel, the 2012 budget proposal is calculated on a $50 barrel international price a precautionary policy intended to protect the economy from any sudden income shifts as a result of a tumultuous international scenario.

“If the financial contributions become superior to those estimated, there will be a continuation in the strategy of using funds to finance socio-productive plans”, the bill states.

Oil revenues are estimated to account for 22.8 percent, or 67.8

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billion bolivars [$15.7 billion] of the OPEC member state’s total income in 2012. 55.4 percent will originate from non-oil sectors while internal taxes will make up the remaining 21.8 percent of the budget.

Congressman Jesus Faria, Vice President of the National Assembly’s Development and Finance Commission, pointed out that the 22.8 percent of the nation’s income resulting from hydrocarbon exports is a significant drop from earlier budgets and an indicator of the nation’s growing productive sector.

During an interview on the state television program “Dando y Dando” Faria praised the 2012 proposal for its renewal of the government’s commitment to improving the quality of life for Venezuelan residents.

“It will have a very favorable social impact, maintaining in the long term what has been written in Plan Simon Bolivar 2007-2013...One objective of these policies is to contribute to

a reduction in serious social problems such as poverty, malnutrition, and unemployment - areas in which we have had advances”, the lawmaker from the capital Caracas affirmed.

Much of the state’s social spending has been sustained through the government’s National Development Fund (FONDEN), an agency that Faria defended last week in the face of opposition criticisms questioning the body’s integrity.

“Without these funds, the country would have fallen into a deep crisis during the electrical problems of 2010 and the affects of the world economic crisis of 2009... [The opposition] refuses to recognize the enormous advances that have been made in socio-productive areas due to the utilization of these resources”, he said.

Over the past decade, the Venezuelan government has invested more than $400 billion in a vast array of social programs ranging from health care and

education to food security and grass roots democracy.

In the past three years, annual social investment has averaged $60 billion.

TRANSPORTATION One of the sectors to see a significant increase in funding according to the 2012 budget proposal will be the Ministry of Communication and Transportation.

Roughly 1.8 percent of the entire budget - more than 5 billion bolivars ($1.1 billion) - will be allocated to improving the nation’s highway and railway infrastructure as well as further developing other transportation initiatives around the country.

Much of the investment will take place in road construction and repair including the erection of temporary and permanent bridges as well as emergency escape routes and improving drainage systems to combat problems associated with torrential rains.

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5| Mass transit systems such as the Caracas Metro will also benefit from the new financial plan which stipulates the allocation of 1.1 billion bolivars ($255 million) to subway systems.

This includes the expansion of Lines 2 and 5 of the Caracas metro and the construction of a second subway line in the city of Valencia.

In terms of railway development, projects intended to integrate regional territories being carried out by the State Railroad Institute will see an increase in financing while 912 million bolivars ($212 million) will be provided for the maintenance and modernization of the Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia.

ELECTRICITY AND AGRICULTURE As with transportation, a strengthening of the Ministry of Electric Energy will also be an important part of 2012’s budget plan.

More than 7 billion bolivars ($1.6 billion) are being proposed to fortify the nation’s power infrastructure through increased energy generation, distribution and commercialization.

Projects such as the construction of the hydroelectric station Manuel Pia in the state of Bolivar and the installation of power substations in the state of Zulia will benefit from the new budget as will the renovation of parts of Venezuela’s most important power source, the Guri Damn.

Likewise, improving food security and increasing agricultural production will continue to be a priority of the Chavez administration as the Ministry of Land and Agriculture will be the recipient of nearly 3 billion bolivars ($697 million).

Much of this financing will be used to advance the government’s social program Mission AgroVenezuela, founded earlier this year to stimulate production and provide incentives to small farmers to cultivate previously underutilized lands.

The new injection of funds, the budget highlights, will be used primarily to finance agrarian roads, irrigation systems, soil studies, and promote national seed production. Machinery and storage warehouses will also see an increase in funding as will the state’s agrarian lending institutions which provide low-interest loans to thousands of small farmers throughout the country.

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6 | Social Justice

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Venezuelan university seeks to pass on traditional ways

dents concentrate on deepening their knowledge and understanding of their own cultures. They are given homework during holiday periods - tasks including interviewing their village elders about mythology and record their answers for posterity.

T/ Sarah Grainger t’s an early start for students at Venezuela’s Indigenous University. Rising from their hammocks at dawn, they bathe in the River Tauca that runs through the 2,000 hectare (5,000 acre) rainforest campus in southern Venezuela. Then there is time for breakfast and an hour of personal study before heading to class. It takes about half an hour to walk, barefoot, to the classroom block from their different dormitories which are spread throughout the campus.

The 100 or so students, who are all in their late teens or early twenties, live in groups according to their ethnicity with the exception of the female students.

As there are just five women, they all live together. Once in class, students receive lessons in indigenous rights, language and mythology and in the afternoons they get the chance to put practical skills to the test, herding buffalo and tending vegetable plots.

The Indigenous University is far removed from its counterparts in Venezuela’s cities.

But that is because it has been constructed by and for indigenous communities. “This place is very important to me because it’s as if I were in my community”, says Yadumenedu, 19, who tried to study at a mainstream college in the nearby city of Ciudad Bolivar, but did not like it.

Several different communities are represented and living on campus is a chance for students from different ethnic groups to mix for the first time. Organizers hope that eventually every one of Venezuela’s 30 indigenous groups will send pupils to the university.

The admissions policy is very different from that of other institutions. Students are usually put forward by their respective communities as candidates and are expected to return to their village after three or four years of study, ready to lead their people.

Instead of reading subjects like medicine or engineering, stu-

OFFICIAL RECOGNITION The university has survived so far on grants from non-governmental organizations.

It has saved money by inviting lecturers from other institutions to give their free time to teaching at the campus. But the university’s founders have also been pushing for government to provide funds.

“Definitely if we’re going to succeed, it demands the political and financial support of the government”, says Professor Julio Avalos, one of the university’s non-indigenous lecturers.

“All areas of government could help to bring more indigenous students here or to set up other bases of the university in other regions of the country so students don’t have to travel so far”.

In fact, the process of gaining official recognition is almost finished. The university is waiting for a presidential decree to be issued, declaring them a legitimate center of higher education. “(The President) has instructed us to incorporate this house of study into the country’s university network”, the minister for Indigenous Peoples, Nicia Maldonado, said recently.

With the future of the institution secured, teachers will be able to concentrate on training the next generation of indigenous leaders to preserve and strengthen their unique cultures.

agricultural sector has been underdeveloped by large landowners for more than a century.

Through the illegal appropriation of public areas, wealthy cattle ranchers and real-estate speculators assumed the role of de facto owners of vast amounts of potentially productive farmlands otherwise used to meet the consumption and nutritional needs of the population.

These estates, known as latifundios, proliferated in the Venezuelan countryside under the watch of previous neo-liberal governments that promoted the importation of food products over the stimulation of domestic production. To break with this

model of underdevelopment, the Chavez government has been busy rescuing immense tracts of unproductive land from the families of the nation’s ruling elite and redistributing them to producers working in different assortments of farming collectives.

Technical assistance, machinery, training and market access have accompanied these reforms as the current government attempts to “sow the oil” or invest oil revenues back into the nation’s agricultural sector.

The new round of credits provided by this year by Mission AgroVenezuela, reaching over 4.8 billion bolivars ($1.1 billion), have followed this policy trend.

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Long ignored by the country’s Spanish-speaking majority, Venezuela’s indigenous communities, including the Yekwana, Pemon and Yanomami, saw their numbers dwindle after Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 16th Century. Their environment and way of life have since been threatened by gold and diamond mining and oil extraction. They now make up just 2% of Venezuela’s population.

LIVING HISTORY There have been some recent strides forward. When he first came to power in 1999, President Hugo Chavez changed the cons-

titution to recognize indigenous languages alongside Spanish as official languages of the nation.

But decades of external interference means many indigenous peoples fear their traditions are being lost. The University wants to buck that trend.

It was set up several years ago by an indigenous rights organization comprised of members of the communities and Jesuit priests who had worked with indigenous peoples for many years. The location is as much a mid-point between indigenous communities as it is possible to reach. Still many of the students travel for several days to reach the campus at the start of every term.

Venezuela: sowing the oil T/ COI n a move designed to fortify the nation’s food security and employment opportunities for small farmers, the Venezuelan government announced last week the successful granting of more than 105,000 small loans to agricultural producers in the period of the past 8 months.

The credits, provided by the publicly owned Socialist Agrarian Development Fund (FONDAS) and the Venezuelan Agri-

I

cultural Bank (BAV) have been disbursed to cultivate vegetables and raise livestock on over 775,000 hectares of previously underutilized land.

Over 170,000 farmers have benefited from the credits which have come under the auspices of the government’s new agrarian social program, Mission AgroVenezuela.

Inaugurated by President Hugo Chavez in January of this year, Mission AgroVenezuela has been become the

government’s latest policy measure intended to stimulate agricultural production and reduce the Caribbean nation’s reliance of food imports.

The mission follows on similar initiatives implemented by the Chavez government over the past 10 years including the passage of the Land Law in 2001 which legalizes the expropriation of fallow and illegitimately held estates. As an economy that depends on more than half of its revenue from oil exports, the Venezuelan

The artillery of ideas

NoÊnÇÊUÊFriday, October 28, 2011

Classmates not inmates: prison reform in Venezuela

T/ COI P/ Agencies n the southwestern Venezuelan state of Merida, prison staff and inmates at the Penitentiary of the Andean Region have begun to see the results of recent prison humanization efforts. In a collaborative effort between prison authorities and the Bolivarian University of Venezuela (UBV), college-level education is now being offered at the prison – and not just to inmates. A unique example of ongoing humanization efforts in the country, all members of the “prison community” (prisoners, guards, teaching staff, etc.) have been invited to take on university-level studies.

“It occurred to us that the university’s presence here should respond to the needs of the entire community”, said Carmen Davila, a grade school teacher at the penal institution who now studies alongside inmates as a student of Social Communication.

According to Jesus Ramirez, a prisoner who has now served 5 of a 6-year sentence, the chance to begin a university degree while serving time “is an important opportunity for us inmates to prepare for, and confront, the challenges we will face on the outside”.

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REVOLUTIONARY OPPORTUNITIES The arrival of the UBV to the Penitentiary of the Andean Re-

gion is part of renewed efforts

by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his government to “humanize” the country’s historically flawed criminal justice system.

Earlier this year, a riot at neighboring prisons outside of Caracas left dozens of inmates killed and wounded.

The incident brought widespread attention to the issue of inadequate prison conditions in the country, including overcrowding caused by long delays in the sentencing and release of prisoners, and the absence of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution within prison walls.

Responding to the situation, in July of this year President Chavez named socialist lawmaker Iris Varela head of the newly-created Ministry of Penitentiary Services, telling reporters that his government sought to address “a very large debt that we have with the penitentiary system”, adding that existing prison conditions in Venezuela represent “a stain on our government”.

While Chavez recognized the need to do more, his government has already implemented a series of pilot programs that incorporate music, culture, sports, and education into humanization efforts for the thousands of Venezuelans currently caught up in the country’s flawed prison system.

On September 24, 2011 the Venezuelan President directed 139 million bolivars (US $32 million) to prison “humanization” budgets for the rest of 2011. This was in addition to some 400 million bolivars (US $93 million) already approved for this year.

In a recent interview, Minister Varela told the press that Venezuela’s inflated prison population is “the result of a system of social exclusion”.

“They are the most excluded of the excluded”, explained Varela.

“Many of them had no family, no school, no jobs, nothing at all; so they violated the norms of a system that had excluded them anyway”, she said.

The Minister concluded by stating the Venezuelan people and government “are immersed in a struggle to create a socialist society, a society that will provide inmates opportunities and inclusion so as to not return them to this hypocritical society that we inherited from past governments”.

EDUCATING TOWARDS RELEASE Of the numerous policies being implemented to overcome social exclusion towards convicts, the Ministry of Penitentiary Services recently launched a novel program that offers a reduction in prison terms for inmates who accept education opportunities offered in their prisons. A strictly voluntary

Social Justice

program, the ‘Two-for-One Initiative’ offers a two-day reduction in a prisoner’s sentence for each day he or she spends in the classroom.

As a result of the new program, over half of the prison population at the Penitentiary of the Andean Region is now enrolled in one of several educational social missions offered by the Venezuelan government.

Out of a population of 1,389 inmates, 333 inmates are engaged in grammar school education through the Ribas Mission, 306 are involved in secondary school training through the Sucre Mission, close to 200 are acquiring musical skills through the National Prison Orchestra Program, and 27 are now registered with the UBV for university-level studies.

At a recent meeting between prison staff, inmates, and UBVMerida representatives, a discussion took place on the dynamics of prison-based college education. During the meeting, UBV liaison to the prison Edwin Chirinos Duque described one the challenge posed to the “Revolution’s University”.

“There are those out there watching our university with ill-intentions”, he explained, “hoping we will fail to provide the quality education we set out to offer”.

“Our enemies will never recognize our efforts, and we could care less about their recognition. We are here to educate and organize for the well-being of the collective, to dignify and humanize education in Venezuela”, he said.

Chirinos Duque emphasized that those at the prison who have opted to join the UBV “are now part of the 320,000 students that make up the Bolivarian University nationwide, part of the second-largest university in the country”.

The UBV, founded in 2003, is a publicly-financed institution that offers tuition-free undergraduate and graduate opportunities to students nationwide.

The university has over 300 campuses across the country and has graduated some 144,000 students to date.

Rogelio Lopez, Academic Coordinator for Social Communication at UBV-Merida, reiterated the UBV’s intentions to provide the prison community with “the highest-quality education available”.

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7| “While the daily reality on the inside (of prison) is nothing like the outside, the UBV is committed to graduating only those students who have had their right to study fully, entirely respected”, he said, assuring the newly-registered students the UBV would provide, quality professors, tutors, and the pertinent didactic materials, among other things.

The UBV’s BA in Social Communication, now being offered to the entire “prison community” (staff and prisoners), includes courses such as: History of Communication; Investigation, Interpretation, and Quality Journalism; The Use of Discourse in the Press; Communication, Information, and Social Movements; Independent Media; The Preparation and Publication of Print Media; Radio; Photography; Documentary Cinema, and etc.

Plans are underway, for example, to host a UBV course in Radio Communication using the prison radio station (100.3 FM), named “Voices of Liberty: Where Inmates Voice Their Freedom of Expression”.

“If I wasn’t here at this meeting”, said UBV student inmate Jesus Ramirez, “I’d be at band practice with the prison orchestra”.

Proud of his role within the orchestra, Ramirez brags that he is “the only double bass in the entire region” and says his favorite songs to play are, “the President’s (Chavez) favorite, Frenesi (by Mexican composer Alberto Dominguez Borras) and a number of songs by our (Venezuelan) popular musician Ali Primera”.

Carmen Davila, one of several teachers responsible for providing grammar school education to the prison population, was also at the meeting.

Speaking on behalf her prison staff colleagues enrolled in the UBV program, Davila described numerous aspects of the changing landscape in Venezuelan prisons.

Besides basic prison conditions, including food, water and health care services, she mentioned highlighting education and culture as a means to changing opinions within the prison community.

“For example”, she concluded, “we don’t see them as inmates when we’re together; but as classmates”.

ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas

Friday | October 28, 2011 | Nº 87 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve

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i VÀ>Ì VÊ,iÛ ÕÌ °ÊÜÜÜ° V ÜL Þ V>À>V>ðV ° henever I have asked someone in Venezuela if spring comes before or after summer, some answer “before” and others “after”. Almost all add that they really are not sure. Two young men responded correctly that it comes before summer, and then added, “because that is when the leaves fall off the trees”. Another said it came after summer because that is when the trees begin to blossom.

“Spring” is not an important word in Venezuela. Here we have the wet season and the dry season.

I’ve never been to the Far East, Near East, or Middle East, so I don’t know what the people in these areas think about the seasons of the year. What I do feel here is that, in more ways than one, the “Arab Spring” idea is a US-European one, full of US-European concepts and wrapped with designer luggage that the whole world is expected to see as beautiful. It is an excellent example of US and European citizens believing that the whole world thinks in the same way they do—and their way of thinking is not only the only way, but the correct way.

Almost half a century ago the Roman Catholic bishop, Fulton J. Sheen, made constant reference to the people who lived beneath the 30th Parallel. His job was to raise money for an organization called, “The Propagation of the Faith”. But his emphasis was to make people conscious of the poverty that existed south of the 30th Parallel.

Today I think it would be well to reflect again on the people who live beneath the 30th Parallel—not so much because of the poverty that continues to exist here but because of the different ways of thinking that are present. Everyone does not think in the same terms that US and European citizens think.

Looking at the globe, I find it interesting that there is also another dividing line of importance. It is the 30th Meridian.

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The “Arab Spring:” US and Europe’s fall and winter

I’ve never been east of that Meridian. As I mentioned, I don’t know if Eastern cultures refer to spring. But I am aware of the fact that if one goes east of the 30th Meridian one is confronted with cultures very different from the western way of thinking.

In other words, I see the US and Europe boxed in culturally above the 30th Parallel and west of the 30th Meridian. And I also see them reacting as though they were mad dogs trapped in a corner. With their own economic and social problems, their only reaction to their surrounding environment is to attack viciously those they see as threatening their space.

There is an incredible lack of world understanding in the western-northern hemisphere.

I was in the US during the tenth

anniversary of September 11, 2001. When I would ask friends if they could name another historic event that happened on a September 11, none could. But on September 11, 1973, the US government, Henry Kissinger, and President Nixon, were supporting the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Chile and putting in power the dictator, Augusto Pinochet. Did any of my friends ever hear of Victor Jara, the Chilean singer whose hands were crushed so that he could never play the guitar again, and who after being tortured was executed and had his body thrown into a street? No. I use Jara as only one example of what happened as a result of September 11, 1973, sponsored by the US, but hardly known to US citizens.

A Venezuelan friend showed me some statistics on the Internet that said over 60,000 civilians had died in Iraq since the US started its invasion there.

He pointed out that amounted to the same number of deaths as happened in the Twin Towers every four months for the past six years. But there was no minute silence for them.

A couple of friends, on different occasions said, “That’s war”, but neither recognized the US started the war. One said that war was part of the nature of human beings. My Venezuela friend reacted by saying, “That’s not part of my human nature. I have no desire to invade other countries to impose my ideas.

And if the US ever comes to my country and kills members of my family and my friends, do not just say to me, ‘That’s war’. We

are talking about human beings being needlessly murdered”.

Somehow, I don’t think that type of reasoning is entering the minds of people in the US and Europe. One friend said he felt proud when he saw an Iraqi showing a finger with indelible ink on it and saying that he had voted for the first time in his life.

Maybe that Iraqi was happy. But I firmly believe that there are millions in the world who do not share his happiness at what the US and Europe have inflicted on other parts of the world.

I do not believe that an Iraqi who had a child, husband or wife, mother, father, sister, brother, or other relative or friend killed by US troops, would have the same attitude. Nor do I expect a parent of a dead child to be overjoyed when Halliburton or some other foreign contractor builds a new school in their neighborhood.

And now Muammar Gaddafi has been assassinated. The western media and politicians are celebrating the event. Their cameras are able to show people rejoicing around the world and especially in Libya. I could be wrong, but I believe there are many more around the world, and even in Libya, who are looking askance at what the NATO forces have done—bombing innocent people for “humanitarian” reasons in order to achieve their goals. There are people who are not on the streets, quietly pondering what has been done.

It has been said that the failings we see in others are generally a reflection of what is present within ourselves. As the western powers criticize the dictatorships in other countries, it would be well that they look within themselves. There they might be able to see what much of the world sees in them.

What the Western powers do not seem to realize, is that they have planted the seeds of their own destruction. Seeds of discontent with US-European behavior have been planted around the world—below the 30th Parallel and east of the 30th Meridian. Spring is the time for planting. It is now spring in the southern hemisphere. But it is autumn in the north. I could be wrong, but I think a long winter is on its way there.