Edition Nº 93

page 7 | Social Justice

page 8 | Opinion

Venezuela’s community television goes international via ALBA TV

A union is born: Latin America in revolution

Friday | December 9, 2011 | Nº 93 | Caracas

Venezuela & Brazil advance ties Preceding the groundbreaking historical summit that formed the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the presidents of Brazil and Venezuela held a bilateral meeting in Caracas to review and expand cooperation accords. The meeting marked President Dilma Rousseff’s first official visit to Venezuela after assuming office in January 2010.

Dilma is Brazil’s first female head of state and a former guerrilla fighter who was both tortured during the Brazilian dictatorship and survived a battle with cancer.

Both presidents vowed to continue strengthening a powerful relationship that brings together two of the region’s most important economies. | page 4

ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas

History is made: Latin America and the Caribbean unite as a solid regional bloc

33 nations have come together to create the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, without the presence of the United States or Canada The historic event took place in Caracas, Venezuela, on December 2-3 and counted on the presence of heads of state and representatives from all 33 nations comprising the Latin American and Caribbean region. Despite political differences, the states were able to agree on the creation of the hemisphere’s first regional multilateral organization that doesn’t include the US and Canada. The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) promises to become a powerful voice in world affairs and an important platform for regional trade, commerce and cooperation. | page 2-3

Integration

Haiti thanks Venezuelan aid Venezuela is the #1 contributor helping to bring Haiti out of poverty. | page 4 Integration

Venezuela celebrates 13 years of revolution The Bolivarian Revolution has transformed Venezuela and advanced people’s power. | page 5 SIntegration

CELAC condemns blockade against Cuba The new regional group also emphasized indigenous traditions and migrant’s rights. | page 6

ALBA promotes policies to save the planet

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t the United Nations climate change summit in Durban, South Africa, delegates from the eight member states of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) have advocated for a second period of emissions reductions commitments under the Kyoto Protocol in order to lower global temperatures.

Member states of ALBA denounced the fact that the

Durban documents offer industrialized countries flexible commitments for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“ALBA warns that there are holes and problems in the UN climate document circulating in South Africa and that it allows developed countries to emissions reductions promises that are unverifiable”, reported Telesur.

Just five countries are responsible for more than half of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions which cause global warming, while a group of ten countries are responsible for two-thirds of global emissions.

China, the United States, India, Russia and Japan were the top emitters, followed by Brazil, Germany, Canada, Mexico and Iran.

In most cases, these are carbon dioxide emissions linked to the massive demand for energy.

Heavy rainfall affecting Venezuela

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ore than 10,000 homes in the northwestern state of Zulia were affected by rains this week, Hernan Bracho, regional director of Civil Protection (CP), said on Thursday.

Despite the damage caused by the rainfall, the region is not in as bad of an emergency situation, as the capital, Caracas, and the states of Miranda, Vargas and Merida have experienced since Tuesday.

On Wednesday, classes were suspended in these regions so authorities could attend to those most affected by the rains and ensure the safety of students. Thousands were evacuated from their homes and there were at least two deaths as of Thursday, caused by f looding and transit accidents.

Last year, Venezuela had severe rainstorms in November and December, causing over 130,000 people to lose their homes. Since then, the Chavez administration has been ensuring new homes for those displaced under a government program entitled “Grand Mission Housing Venezuela”. As of the end of November, 100,000 new homes had been built and provided to those affected by last year’s rainfall.

While renewable energies have been on the rise, but they still represent only a tiny fraction of global energy use.

African farmers have also advocated for food sovereignty as a means of cooling down the planet.

The decisions from Durban must be adopted by this year’s conference (known as COP-17), with strategies for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change beyond the year 2012.

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2 | Impact

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The artillery of ideas

Celac: New latin american & caribbean organization is launched

The heads of state of more than 30 countries from around Latin America and the Caribbean arrived in Caracas last Friday for a historic two day summit that saw the birth of a new hemispheric alliance that excludes both the United States and Canada T/ COI P/ Presidential Press

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pearheaded by Venezuela, The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) unites 33 sovereign nations in the Western Hemisphere under the banner of regional cooperation and integration and will act, according to critics of US influence in the region, as a new counterbalance to the Washington-dominated Organization of American States (OAS).

"The Celac advances the process of political, economic, social and cultural integration, creating a measured balance between the unity and diversity of our people.

This mechanism of regional integration should be the ideal space for our rich cultural diversity and at the same time serve to re-

affirm our Latin American and Caribbean identities, our common history and our common struggle for freedom and justice", reads the Caracas Declaration, one of more than a dozen documents produced by the summit.

The newly formed alliance was originally planned to be launched on July 5 in honor of Venezuela's bicentennial independence celebrations but was rescheduled for December 2 in light of President Hugo Chavez's recovery from the cancer detected in his pelvic area in June.

A healthy and invigorated Chavez performed the duties of host for the event that began with a concert from Venezuela's Youth Orchestra led by the world renowned conductor Gustavo Dudamel in Caracas' Teresa Carreno Theater.

Mexico's Felipe Calderon gave the inaugural speech of the encounter, stressing the need for greater collaboration between nations in order to further an agenda of peace, equality and economic growth.

"I am convinced that this is the time and the decade of Latin America. For this reason we need to push forward with integration, not only in willingness and in desire but also the kind that will bear fruit and allow us to advance towards prosperity, greater

incomes, and development for our people... The more integrated we are, the more we will share our growth and prosperity", the Mexican President said.

A DREAM OF INDEPENDENCE Building on independence hero and Venezuelan native Simon Bolivar's dream of regional unity, the CELAC is the descendent of earlier alliances including the Rio Group, founded in 1986, and the Summit on Latin American and Caribbean Unity held in Cancun, Mexico in February 2010.

Hugo Chavez, who has modeled his political movement on the example of Bolivar, has been a consistent advocate for regional integration throughout his presidency, prioritizing his country's participation in multilateral organizations such as the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) and the Common Market of the South (Mercosur).

Celac is the greatest expression of this desire to promote a unified Latin America and Caribbean, achieve social development and solidify regional autonomy free from foreign interference.

Making note that the founding summit of the new organization coincided with the 186th anniversary of the Monroe

Doctrine, Chavez called for an end to US intervention in Latin America, insisting on a relationship based on mutual respect and independence.

"We hope that one day the United States changes and that in that great territory there blossoms a real democracy with respect for the sovereignty and independence of other nations.

This is what we want and what we are looking for - respect, equality and real freedom", the Venezuelan head of state affirmed at the inauguration.

CONCRETE ACTIONS Apart from the Caracas Declaration, a series of other agreements were produced from the two-day meeting that focused on upholding democracy, nonviolent conflict resolution, and regional collaboration.

A plan of action which addresses the international financial crisis, multilateral cooperation, energy, infrastructure and telecommunications, as well as the fight against poverty was signed by the member states and sets the CELAC agenda for the coming years.

Among some of the advances, the plan commits to "promote a redesign of international financial institutions based on the necessary growth in power of

the voice and vote of the developing countries in accordance with the principles of equality and solidarity which will permit the democratization of decision making processes".

The plan also stipulates the establishment of a working group "to elaborate a proposal for the development of preferential tariffs in Latin America and the Caribbean" as well as "promote the active participation of civil society, especially social movements and organizations, as fundamental parts of the process of social inclusion and regional integration".

Additionally, a series of 18 declarations and statements addressing issues of importance including drug trafficking, solidarity with Haiti, food security and the blockade against Cuba were produced by the summit.

With respect to illicit substances, the Celac approved a resolution demanding that developed nations, "where there exists the majority of the demand for drugs", take significant steps to reduce consumption and recognize the efforts being made by Latin American and Caribbean countries to combat organized crime.

The question of the United States' 50 year old blockade against the island nation of Cuba was also considered, prompting the alliance to express its "emphatic rejection of the coercive and unilateral economic measures" applied by Washington to sovereign countries for political reasons.

The member states declared their protest against the government of the United Sates and demanded that Washington comply with the multiple resolutions approved by the United Nations General Assembly "to put an end to the economic and commercial blockade against Cuba which is contrary to International Law and is causing innumerable damages against the well-being of the Cuban people".

With the closure of the summit in Caracas on Saturday evening, Chile now assumes the presidency of the new organization and will host CELAC's next meeting in the capital of Santiago in 2013.

"The time of Latin America and the Caribbean has arrived... We will work with unity and hope to fulfill the job that corresponds to us", said Chilean President Sebastian Pinera.

NoÊ ÎÊUÊFriday, December 9, 2011

The artillery of ideas T/ COI P/ Presidential Press

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n addition to the outpouring of regional solidarity shown during the founding summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) last weekend, the 30 heads of state who attended the summit suggested a variety of policies for the new bloc in the areas of finance, economic development, media reform, respect for ideological diversity, and regional defense.

“In spite of our differences, we are here to debate and give shape to the course of true integration, and to solve our problems”, declared Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who convened and moderated the summit.

FINANCIAL REFORM Nearly all heads of state pointed to the urgency of working together to find a solution to the world economic crisis and to protect the region from the financial turmoil of other parts of the world.

“Celac is being born amidst a very grave crisis. We should create more effective and decisive mechanisms that help us to protect ourselves from this crisis that has come from outside”, declared Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. “Intra-regional commerce should be one of our priorities”.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos agreed. He noted that Latin America “has everything that the world is asking for; we have energy, water, and an enormous potential for production”.

“Inter-regional trade is minimal compared to the potential we have”, Santos continued.

“We now know that investments do not have to come from Europe; we know that we have the capacity to innovate, invest, and create if we play the game together”.

Leonel Fernandez, President of the Dominican Republic, warned against the political and economic manipulation and power wielded by international financial institutions in the Caribbean, and said a new financial system is necessary in order to prevent any more “market-based coups”.

Drawing attention to China’s increased investment in Latin America in recent years, President Jose Mujica of Uruguay called for strong measures to assure

Integration

Latin american presidents speak their minds at Celac summit that foreign investment benefits the peoples of Latin America.

“We should not be embarrassed by being producers of raw materials; we should be embarrassed by not applying proper criteria for the exploitation of our own wealth”, Mujica affirmed.

The official Plan of Action 2012 that grew out of the summit calls on the nations in the bloc to “prevent crises of systematic risk in the interior of the region, as well as the impacts outside of the region; the mitigation of the adverse affects [of such crises], and solid interregional fiscal and monetary policies that prevent contagion”.

“Strengthen the regional and sub regional financial mechanisms and recognize the advances of bi-national and regional systems of payment and compensation, credit and financing”, the Plan of Action 2012 states. The document also suggests a customs union for the region.

DEVELOPMENT WITH SOCIAL JUSTICE With a population of 580 million and a combined Gross Domestic Product of more than five trillion dollars, the 33 countries that make up Celac account for approximately 8.5% of the world population and 8% of the world’s GDP, according to the Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac).

Still, 174 million people live in poverty in the region – a rate of more than 30% - and severe inequality persists.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff praised the countries in the region for pulling 40 million people out of poverty, but said much more needs to be done, and social inclusion must be the principal objective – to “achieve an integration that transforms our region with the potentialities that we have here now”.

“In Latin America we want an integration that is not of the kind that benefits only some countries”, Rousseff said. In allusion to the European Union, in which rich economies are imposing austerity measures upon debt-afflicted ones, Rousseff added: “I am talking about a new paradigm in which the most developed economies in

our region cannot absorb, subordinate, or impose decisions upon their neighbors as we are seeing happen in blocs that until now were called civilized”.

PRIVATE MEDIA SUBVERTING DEMOCRACY “Now that our countries are managed by democratic governments, [media] accuse us of being dictators”, said Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa during his intervention at the summit.

Correa accused large-scale privately-owned media outlets across the continent of subverting democracy in the name of freedom of expression.

Using an audio-visual presentation, Correa explained that eight wealthy families control all major news outlets in Ecuador. The President alleged that these outlets have fired 50 journalists for supporting his government.

Correa, who has been accused of violating freedom of expression due to his support for a new communications law in Ecuador, proposed a common communications law for the region that prohibits intimidation of journalists and prior restraint in media outlets and establishes norms of journalistic responsibility.

The Ecuadoran leader’s concerns about the media were echoed by other presidents whose countries, like Ecuador, are members of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), which has most directly confronted the United States free trade agenda in the hemisphere.

Among them was Bolivian President Evo Morales, who

stated: “It is time for states and governments to develop our own media that tell the truth”.

COMMON DEFENSE STRATEGY President Morales also highlighted the vast natural resources in the region that are now under the administration of sovereign governments, and said a common strategy is necessary to defend these resources against the United States government.

“We cannot permit US military bases in our territories”, Morales said. He added that the Celac bloc should work to “create new doctrines for our armed forces... it is important to prepare ourselves to defend against any imperial aggression against our countries”.

Another ALBA president, Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, supported Morales’ position by stating that Latin America and the Caribbean are “fighting against an economic, military, and political tyranny exercised by empires”.

“With the creation of Celac we are demonstrating that Latin America and the Caribbean is no longer that region that welcomed foreign soldiers into its territory to invade nations in our region”, Ortega affirmed.

UNITING SUB-REGIONAL INTEGRATION BLOCS While the question of Celac’s relationship to existing integration blocs has not been fully discussed or resolved, President Ortega made an explicit call to adapt these existing blocs into Celac’s over-arching structure.

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3| “I am sure that if we select all of the positive elements that have allowed us to establish these subregional processes of integration, and we adapt them to this regional process, we will convert CELAC into a powerful force and we will be in a better position to battle with the tyranny of global capitalism”, said Ortega, who was re-elected with more than 60% of the popular vote last month.

The ALBA bloc was formed in 2004 as an alternative to the USimposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, and it has functioned as a humanitarian organization through which Venezuela provides free eye surgery, housing, and low-cost investments and loans to member countries in the bloc. ALBA countries have also begun to trade goods and services in a new regional currency called the Sucre.

Another regional bloc led by Venezuela, Petrocaribe, has distributed 178 million barrels of crude oil since 2005 and financed hundreds of electricity and food production projects throughout its nearly 20 members states.

The Union of South American Nations (Unasur), in little more than two years of existence, has established a regional council of defense ministers to prevent armed conflict and fight drug trafficking; laid the foundation for the Bank of the South to replace international lending institutions; and made plans for $15 billion in joint infrastructure projects.

UNITY IN DIVERSITY Cuban President Raul Castro called CELAC “our most precious piece of work”, and urged the region’s leaders to “respect diversity, resolve differences, and cooperate for the good of our peoples and work in solidarity with one another”.

“We do not have homogeneous ideologies, and we do not coincide in political visions; that is our reality”, said Castro. As a step forward, the Cuban leader said, “We should aspire to declare ourselves, not too long from now, a territory of peace that is free from foreign militaries”.

Referring to Haiti, Castro said, “We should make more substantial contributions to its reconstruction and development, with deep respect for its sovereignty...

Cuba, under the brutal blockade, lacking in everything, is willing to share what we have with those who need it”.

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4 | Integration

T/ COI P/ Presidential Press

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enezuelan President Hugo Chavez received his Brazilian counterpart Dilma Rousseff in the capital of Caracas last Thursday for an encounter that saw the signing of 11 new bilateral accords in areas ranging from science and technology to housing and energy.

The meeting was Rousseff's first official visit to Venezuela since being sworn in as Brazilian President on January 1 and took place before the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) summit began in Caracas on Friday afternoon.

"Brazil and Venezuela are on a new level of buildng a different kind of integration, an integration that is productive and that carries economic growth for the people. It's not a process of exploitation of one country over another", Rousseff said the two nations' growing relationship on Thursday.

Key among the pacts signed last week was the commitment on behalf of Venezuela's stateowned airline, Conviasa, to acquire 20 new planes from the Brazilian company Embraer as well as the collaboration of Brazil's Central Bank, the

NoÊ ÎÊUÊFriday, December 9, 2011

Brazil and Venezuela: South american giants tighten ties

Caixa, in Venezuela's massive new public housing initiative.

With respect to energy, both governments agreed to form a mixed company between a subsidiary of the Venezuelan state oil company Pdvsa and the Brazilian company Odebrecht as well as work to boost the capacity of Venezuela's current electricity output. During their meeting, the two heads of state also revised the progress of an earlier agricultural accord

that has led to the cultivation more than 7,000 hectares (17,000 acres) of land in the central Venezuelan state of Anzoategui.

Via satellite, Chavez and Rousseff were introduced to the advances made by the Socialist Agrarian Project "Jose Ignacio Abreu e Lima" which has received training and support for soy cultivation by the company Odebrecht.

"To date, we have an agroindustrial complex made up

Haiti’s President says aid from Venezuela having big impact T/ Ian James

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aitian President Michel Martelly says aid and fuel shipments from Venezuela are having a big impact in the Caribbean country as it attempts to recover from the devastation of its 2010 earthquake.

President Hugo Chavez’s government is providing nearly all the fuel that Haiti consumes under preferential terms, including long-term loans and direct shipping that cuts costs. Martelly said power plants installed

by Venezuela after the earthquake supply roughly one-fifth of Haiti’s electricity and that Venezuela is also providing key financial support for rice farming and other programs.

“The cooperation with Venezuela is the most important in Haiti right now in terms of

The artillery of ideas

impact, direct impact”, Martelly said in an interview Saturday night after a summit of Latin American and Caribbean leaders.

“We are grateful to President Chavez for helping us from the bottom of his heart”, Martelly said.

Chavez has made helping Haiti a priority since the magnitude-7 earthquake in January 2010 that reduced much of Port-au-Prince to rubble. His government sent thousands of tons of food aid in the aftermath of the quake, and also set up several camps to temporarily house thousands of displaced Haitians.

Well before the quake, Haiti had already been a major beneficiary of Venezuela’s Petrocaribe program, which supplies fuel to Caribbean and Central American countries and allows

them to pay part of the bill in goods such as rice and beans rather than cash.

Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said last week that the program now covers 43 percent of the fuel needs of member nations in Petrocaribe, shipping an average of 95,000 barrels of fuel a day at substantial savings to 16 countries.

In Haiti’s case, Petrocaribe also provides money to support social programs, including government projects that are building housing and providing food to poor families, Martelly said during a speech at the summit on Saturday.

Martelly said a 30-megawatt power plant and two other 15megawatt plants installed by Venezuela now “represent a good 20 percent of our total consumption”.

of silos that have the capacity for 10,000 tons each. Thanks to the integration of both countries, we're utilizing advanced technology for the storing and reception of legumes", said Venezuela's Vice Minister for Rural Development Danixce Aponte from the state of Anzoategui.

Impressed by the progress of the agricultural center, Rousseff referred to the initiative as "an example of the what we can

do together", citing Venezuela's potential as an international agricultural producer.

"Venezuela will be transformed into one of the providers of seeds for the world and this is one of the characteristics of South American countries in terms of agriculture", the native of Belo Horizonte said.

For President Chavez, the gains made in Anzoategui as well as others made by collaborative projects with Brazil are the direct result of the integrationist policies that have existed between the two countries since the 8-year presidency of Rousseff's predecessor, Lula da Silva "Without a doubt, we've accomplished a million things in this decade. In the next one, we have a million things more to do and we'll do it!" Chavez exclaimed.

Officials report that commercial activity between Brazil and Venezuela in the first 10 months of 2011 has grown by more than 20 percent in relation to the same period last year.

Between January and October, Brazilian imports to Venezuela reached $3.5 billion, a 14 percent increase, while exports from the OPEC member to South America's largest economy reached $1 billion, a 48.2 percent increase.

“With such rich support, we can bring some very important change to Haiti”, Martelly said.

Venezuela pledged $1.3 billion in recovery aid following the earthquake, the largest amount among 58 donors, according to the UN Office of the Special Envoy for Haiti. Chavez’s government also said last year that it was forgiving $395 million in debt through Petrocaribe. Venezuela provides aid without many of the conditions imposed by the US and other donors, Martelly said.

Martelly explained that in addition to rebuilding infrastructure destroyed by the quake, his top priorities also include attracting investment and jobs, and he said that Venezuela is playing a role by helping increase rice farming in Haiti’s Artibonite Valley.

“In that program there is a deal where you repay the amount owed with the rice, so this is good for us. Because the main thing for us is to create jobs,” Martelly said. “This is one aspect of what Petrocaribe brings to Haitians.”

During the meeting, Chavez pledged to strengthen the Petrocaribe program and denied opponents’ accusations that it represents a costly giveaway for his government, saying it makes sense for Venezuela to offer low-interest, flexible loans to its Caribbean neighbors.

“For us, it’s a responsibility”, Chavez said.

Martelly, who met Chavez for the first time, said he felt a personal connection to the Venezuelan leader and thanked him for his support. During his speech, he gushed to Chavez: “The people of Haiti love you with all their hearts”.

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The artillery of ideas

Integration

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5| comprised of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil.

"Venezuela must join Mercosur. If we don't do it, we are a group of idiots and anti-patriotic Americans", Mujica said during a meeting with Chavez earlier this year.

Venezuela is currently in the process of full incorporation into the regional trade alliance, lacking only the approval of its membership by the Paraguayan parliament.

Bilateral meetings advance latin american integration T/ COI P/ Presidential Press

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aking advantage of the presence of presidents from all over the hemisphere in Caracas, Venezuela head of state Hugo Chavez held a series of secondary meetings last Saturday with allies from Uruguay, Bolivia, Panama, Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua as part of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) founding summit.

Chief among the meetings was Chavez's exchange with

his Uruguayan counterpart, Jose "Pepe" Mujica, at the headquarters of Venezuela's Military Academy which yielded a range of strategic bilateral accords in areas of energy, industry, and food security.

A commitment to study the possibility of developing commercial agreements with respect to the sale of cereal crops and poultry figured prominently in the discussions as did the Chavez administration's willingness to purchase 100,000 tons of rice and wheat as well as

5,000 tons of chicken and pasta from Montevideo in 2012.

With Venezuela's Ministers of Food, Intermediary Industry, and Science and Technology in attendance for the meeting, the two presidents also signed a pact "to establish the basis for the construction of a Strategic Alliance of Glass companies (Alenvidrio)", reports the Venezuelan News Agency (AVN).

The alliance, the agency goes on, is meant to be "an association built on solidarity that links public property and co-

Venezuela celebrates 13th anniversary of Bolivarian Revolution T/ Agencies

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enezuela experienced one of the most transcendental changes in its contemporary history on December 6, 1998, the day Hugo Chavez was first elected President with 56.24 percent of the popular vote.

On February 2, 1999, President Chavez assumed office and addressed the Venezuelan people for the first time in his inaugural speech from Caracas.

“Today, February 2, 1999, the time for the people of Venezuela has arrived! Today, February 2, the time of the resurrection of Simon Bolivar’s land has

arrived… Let’s celebrate the birth of a free Venezuela, the Bolivarian Venezuela that we have always dreamed of”, said the newly elected President.

Chavez inherited a country with a fiscal deficit of 7.4 percent and one of the lowest oil prices in the history of the republic: $7.70 per barrel. It was the time of the anti-OPEC thesis, the so-called Washington Consensus, and neocolonialist policies.

CHAVEZ 1ST PRESIDENT OF THE MILLENNIUM Once assuming office, President Chavez began to fight for his people. On July 30th, 2000, the

results of his first election were re-legitimized through national elections under a new constitution known as Mega-Elections.

He was re-elected with 59.76 percent, becoming the first head of state of the millennium.

As of that moment, a process of transition was initiated to leave behind the neoliberal model established in the country over the last 40 years (19581998) and open a path for a new revolutionary and socialist model based on the principles of solidarity, justice and equality.

POVERTY REDUCED Part of the legacy of prior governments was Venezuela’s

llectivist companies into a common platform for economies of scale in the glass industry".

STRENGTHENING TIES Relations between Uruguay and Venezuela have been growing steadily in recent years, especially since the election of Jose Mujica to the presidency in March of 2010.

Over the past year and a half, the Montevideo-Caracas axis has seen the signing of dozens of accords that have focused mainly on energy, agriculture and manufacturing.

A former guerilla fighter and prisoner during his country's military dictatorship in the 1970s, Mujica has also been an important advocate of Venezuela's full membership in the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) trade block

high poverty rate: when President Chavez took office, about 55 percent of Venezuelans lived in poverty and 40 percent in extreme poverty. Annual inflation had reached over 100 percent during the 1990s.

After 13 years of arduous work, President Chavez has set an example for the region by reducing poverty by over 50%. Additionally, the country jumped 10 spots in the ranking of the UN Index of Human Development. Beyond the social achievements, the Bolivarian Revolution has empowered the Venezuelan people to be principal actors in their country’s transformation.

Other notable achievements under the Venezuelan Revolution are the creation of new universities, economic growth and diversification, universal healthcare and food sovereig-

CUBA, BOLIVIA, ECUADOR Earlier on Saturday, the Venezuelan head of state also met with Cuban President Raul Castro and received a wall hanging marking the 55th anniversary since the landing of the yacht The Granma on the coast of the Caribbean island - an event that would eventually lead to the overthrow of the dictator Fulgencio Bastita.

Chavez then held a series of discussion with Ecuadoran and Bolivian heads of state Rafael Correa and Evo Morales, addressing issues of shared interest and revising projects designed to boost the region's social and economic development.

In all, the socialist leader hailed the success of the meetings and the Celac summit as watershed events contributing to the creation of "a great geopolitical block in a multipolar world".

"Celac has been born! 200 years of struggle have passed and now we have to give life to these advances", Chavez said.

nty, all of which have paved the way for a greatly improved standard of living.

SOVEREIGNTY Furthermore, under the government of President Chavez, Venezuela has become a free nation in terms of its political decisions.

A concrete example is the creation in December 2011 of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), which Venezuela helped found to provide the region its own voice, as well as to strengthen unity amongst regional nations.

After 13 years in office and several victorious reelections, the latest polls indicate that President Chavez currently has around 60 percent of popular support. He plans to run again for president in October 2012.

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6 | Integration

NoÊ ÎÊUÊFriday, December 9, 2011

Three documents approved unanimously by Celac T/ COI P/ Presidential Press

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e include three of the eighteen statements approved by all 33 member nations of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) below.

SPECIAL COMMUNIQUÉ ON THE NEED TO BRING AN END TO THE ECONOMIC, COMMERCIAL, AND FINANCIAL BLOCKADE OF CUBA

BY THE UNITED STATES 1.The Heads of State of Latin America and the Caribbean, gathered in Caracas, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, on December 3, 2011, within the framework of the Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), express their most forceful rejection of the coercive and unilateral economic measures applied for political motives against sovereign countries; measures that affect the well-being of their peoples and which are designed specifically to impede these peoples’ right to choose, based on their own free will, their own political, economic, and social systems. As such, CELAC’s Heads of State:

2.Reiterate their most forceful condemnation of the application of laws and measures contrary to International Law, such as the (US) Helms-Burton Act and its extraterritorial effects, and exhort the Government of the United States of America to put an end to this law’s application.

3.Call upon the Government of the United States of America, in accordance with successive resolutions passed by the General Assembly of the United Nations and in response to reiterated requests made by the countries of Latin American and the Caribbean, to bring an end to the economic, commercial, and financial blockade that it continues to impose on Cuba against International Law, causing substantial and unjustifiable harm to the well-being of the Cuban people as well as to the peace and coexistence among American nations.

SPECIAL COMMUNIQUÉ ON THE STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS OF MIGRANT PEOPLES 1. The Heads of State of Latin America and the Caribbean, gathered in Caracas, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, on December 3, 2011, within

the framework of the Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac): 2. Proudly salute the results of their Regional Meeting on the Protection of Migrant Peoples, held June 27 and 28, 2011, in Lima, Peru.

3. Reaffirm their concern regarding the state of vulnerability faced by migrant peoples and their families given the violations of Human Rights and the lack of basic protections, and call on States to increase national, bi-national, and regional efforts aimed at continuing the advance towards strengthening an all-encompassing economic and social development in our region free of all factors of expulsion that encourage international migration, resulting in a migration based on free will.

4. Take note of the Agreements reached during the Ministerial Meeting on Migrants’ Security and Transnational Organized Crime held in Mexico City, Mexico, on October 8, 2010, and urge the participants’ authorities to continue advancing toward the fulfillment of said agreements.

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5. Underscore the need to carry out coordinated actions among the Governments of Latin America and the Caribbean to face, combat, and apply rigorous sanctions against, in line with international conventions on the matter and in accordance with national legislations, the illegal trafficking of migrants as well as the illegal trafficking of migrant peoples within their countries of origin, transit, or destination. The Heads of State also recognize the need to develop and reformulate strategies as well as regional and bi-national actions that serve to promote programs of protection and assistance to migrant peoples in their societies of origin, transit, and destination.

6. Express their rejection of the criminalization of migrants.

In this respect, they remind everyone of the decided commitment to combat the racism and xenophobia that migrants and their families may be subjected to, promoting instead the demand made by migrants that their capacities as political, economic, cultural, and scientific actors be recognized as fundamental for the pushing forward of development and integration processes within the society of origin, transit, and destination.

7. Reiterate, as a result, their firm backing of all national and regional efforts that allow the challenges posed by migration to be faced with an integral perspective, based on the

principles of tolerance, solidarity, complementarity, gender equality, justice, social inclusion and social equity, with an emphasis on the full respect of the Human Rights of migrants and their families, reiterating the responsibility that each country must assume within the migratory process, including countries of origin, transit, and destination.

8. Recognize that the axis of migratory policies are migrants themselves, the promotion of safe migrations, effective and permanent regulation mechanisms in destination countries, and policies that strengthen their integration with special safeguards for collective groups with the greatest levels of vulnerability.

9. Reaffirm the importance of defending a positive agenda when addressing the issue of migration and recognize the specificity of Latin America and Caribbean migration. The Heads of State also highlight their recognition of the benefits of multiculturalism as a contribution made by migrants to countries of origin and destination, calling for both the propitiation and intensification of programs that generate synergies between migration and development.

10. Manifest their concern about the impact that the international economic and financial crisis will have on the socialeconomic situation, worsening precarious working conditions, and the employment of migrant workers and their families.

SPECIAL COMMUNIQUÉ ON ANCESTRAL AND ABORIGINAL COCA, A NATURAL HERITAGE OF BOLIVIA AND PERU The Heads of State of Latin America and the Caribbean, gathered in Caracas, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, on December 3, 2011, within the framework of the Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac): Reaffirm the commitment to support cultural and ancestral practices of original peoples within the Human Rights framework and the Fundamental Rights of Indigenous Peoples. As such, The Heads of State recognize that the traditional use of the chewed (akulliku) coca leaf is an ancestral cultural manifestation of the peoples of Bolivia and Peru that should be respected by the international community.

NoÊ ÎÊUÊFriday, December 9, 2011

The artillery of ideas

Alba TV: Community television goes international T/ Rich Potter P/ Agencies

I

n July of 2009, when Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a military coup. journalists and film crews from around the world descended on Tegucigalpa to cover the dramatic aftermath. Among them were two reporters from a fledgling Venezuela-based collective called Alba TV. Thanks to funding from the Venezuelan government, Alba’s journalists spent a month in Honduras, compiling footage that they would later edit into a documentary about the people’s resistance to the illegal takeover.

Pablo Kunich, Alba´s director, made the trip to Honduras. A year or so later, Kunich ran into a European documentary filmmaker he had met during his stay. She told him that her documentary had shown in multiple festivals and picked up several awards. He congratulated her.

Then he asked if the film had shown in Honduras. It had not.

Alba’s documentary, on the other hand, won no prizes and was never even submitted to any festivals, but it has shown multiple times in Honduras and throughout Latin America in discussion-oriented screenings known

as “cinema forums” [cineforos].

As Kunich explains, the primary concern had always been to employ the documentary as a tool for building a unified resistance in Honduras and generating solidarity across the hemisphere.

For Kunich, the anecdote illustrates Alba TV’s guiding motivation, which is to provide a multifaceted communicative platform for strengthening progressive social movements throughout the Western hemisphere. Alba TV began in December of 2006, during the “First International Congress of Communication Towards Socialism”, which took place in Caracas and was sponsored by ViVe (a Venezuelan public television network dedicated to fostering popular power) in conjunction with several Ve-

nezuelan community television stations. Towards the end of that congress, Kunich, along with a small group of young people, feared that it would end up being just another in a steady stream of meetings that produced high minded declarations but seemingly little in the way of concrete action. In order to break with the pattern, they committed to creating a television channel that would transmit content produced by and for social activists across the Americas. They decided to name the channel after the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), and Alba TV was born.

The project began with two general goals. One was to create and strengthen community television stations across the

Social Justice

Americas. Alba TV’s work in this regard is organized along three strategic axes: instruction, production, and networking. In other words, Alba TV seeks to enable activists, workers, and members of marginalized communities to express themselves using video. It then tries to sustain these new producers by providing guidance and other resources. Alba TV also provides a platform for distributing their work internationally so that they can teach, learn from, and better coordinate their activities with members of social movements from elsewhere in the region.

Much more than showcasing grassroots, progressive documentaries, Alba TV seeks to facilitate a hemispheric dialogue around issues of social justice and participatory organization.

Alba TV’s other goal is to create an international community television channel “that can be downloaded by every community television station, social movement or specific community”. Despite interest and assistance from the Venezuelan government, however, the execution of this vision has proven to be no easy task.

Early support for the project came from Venezuela’s Ministry of Communication and Information, which in 2007 offered to provide Alba TV with a channel on Venezuela’s Simon Bolivar satellite (aka VENESAT-1). The satellite did not launch, however, until late in 2008, and only now is Cantv, Venezuela’s state-owned telecommunications company, beginning to role out a subscrip-

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7| tion TV service that utilizes the satellite. Though the offer for Alba TV to be included remains on the table, no concrete steps have been taken and Alba TV is not expected to be included when the service officially launches this year.

For the moment, Alba TV’s principal platform is its website (www.albatv.org), which hosts Spanish language news, analysis, and training materials, a calendar of cultural activities, an archive of Alba TV’s radio show, “From Below” ["Desde Abajo"], and information related to various campaigns in which Alba TV has participated, such as those protesting the coup in Honduras and the installation of US military bases on Colombian territory. Most importantly, the site’s “community channel” features video submitted from community television channels and collectives from across the continent and beyond.

While Alba TV’s distribution network continues to mature, the collective maintains its focus on providing instruction and support to community television stations and progressive organizations throughout the continent. In 2008 Alba TV hosted a video production workshop with participants from Argentina, Uruguay, and Peru who went on to complete a one week “internship” at CatiaTve. In 2009 the workshop grew to include 16 participants from social movements in Nicaragua, Colombia, Argentina, and Brasil who spent three weeks training together in Caracas before splitting up to spend a final week at one of five different community television stations located throughout Venezuela.

Although Alba TV is beginning to consolidate its operations, it has hardly begun to achieve the goal set forth in 2006. As one current staff member puts it, “Alba TV is still just a vision. I could tell you that we’re going to do this and that, that we’re going to have a satellite signal, but who knows if it will happen?” Despite this realistic attitude, the vision remains very much intact. Kunich is adamant that Alba TV is not simply about empowering people by providing an outlet for activist correspondents to report on their local struggles and achievements.

Rather, the goal is to enable social movements across the Americas to communicate with each other through a democratic reorganization of the media space.

Friday | December 9, 2011 | Nº 93 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve www.correodelorinoc oc co.gob.ve

ENGLISH ENGL N ISH EDITION EDIT D ION The artillery of ideas

A publication of the Fundacion Correo del Orinoco OrinocoÊUÊ ` Ì À ivÊEva UÊ ` Ì À ivÊEva Golinger GolingerÊUÊ À>« VÊ ià } ÊJameson r UÊ À>« VÊ ià } ÊJameson Jiménez JiménezÊUÊ*ÀiÃÃÊFundación z UÊ*ÀiÃÃÊFundación Impren Imprenta enttaa dde en e la Cultura

A union is born: Latin America in revolution ÞÊ Û>Ê }iÀ

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hile much of the world is in crisis and protests are erupting throughout Europe and the United States, Latin American and Caribbean nations are building consensus, advancing social justice and increasing positive cooperation in the region. Social, political and economic transformations have been taking place through democratic processes in countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil throughout the past decade, leading to a massive reduction in poverty and income disparity in the region, and a substantial increase in social services, quality of life and direct participation in political process.

One of the major initiatives of progressive Latin American governments this century has been the creation of new regional organizations that promote integration, cooperation and solidarity amongst neighboring nations. Cuba and Venezuela began this process in 2004 with the founding of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), that now includes Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Dominica, St. Vincent’s and the Grenadines and Antigua and Barbuda. ALBA was initially launched in response to the US government’s failed attempt to impose its Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) throughout the region. Today ALBA is a thriving multilateral organization with member nations that share similar political visions for their countries and for the region, and includes numerous cooperation agreements in economic, social and cultural areas.

The fundamental basis of trade amongst ALBA nations is solidarity and mutual benefit. There is no competition, exploitation or attempt to dominate amongst ALBA states. ALBA even counts

on its own currency, the SUCRE, which allows for trade between member nations without dependence on the US dollar.

In 2008, the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) was formally established as a regional body representing South American states. While ALBA is much more consolidated as a unified political voice, Unasur represents a diversity of political positions, economic models and visions for the region. But Unasur members share the common goal of working towards regional unity and guaranteeing the resolution of conflicts through peaceful and diplomatic means.

Unasur has already played a key role in peacefully resolving disputes in Bolivia, particularly during an attempted coup against the government of Evo Morales in 2008, and has also successfully moderated a severe conflict between Colombia and Venezuela, leading to the reestablishment of relations in 2010.

Two hundred years ago, South American Independence hero Simon Bolivar, a native of Venezuela, dreamed of building regional unity and creating a “Patria Grande” (Grand Homeland) in Latin America. After achieving independence for Venezuela,

Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia, and fighting colonialists in several Caribbean nations, Bolivar attempted to turn this dream of Latin American unity into reality. His efforts were sabotaged by powerful interests opposing the creation of a solid regional bloc, and eventually, with the aid of the United States, Bolivar was ousted from his rule in Venezuela and died isolated in Colombia several years later. Meanwhile, the US government had proceeded to implement its Monroe Doctrine, a decree first declared by President James Monroe in 1823 to ensure US domination and control over the newly-freed nations in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Nearly two hundred years of invasions, interventions, aggressions, coup d’etats and hostilities led by the US government against Latin American nations shadowed the 19th and 20th centuries. By the end of the 20th century, Washington had suc-

cessfully imposed governments in every Latin American and Caribbean nation that were subordinate to its agenda, with the exception of Cuba. The Monroe Doctrine had been achieved, and the US felt confident in its control over its “backyard”.

The unexpected turn at the beginning of the 21st century in Venezuela, formerly one of Washington’s most stable and subservient partners, came as a shock to the US. Hugo Chavez had been elected President and a Revolution had begun.

A coup d’etat attempt in 2002 failed to subvert the advancement of the Bolivarian Revolution and the spread of revolutionary fever throughout the region. Soon Bolivia followed, then Nicaragua and Ecuador.

Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay elected socialist presidents, two of them former guerrilla fighters. Major changes began to occur throughout the region as the peoples of this vast, diverse and rich continent assumed power and made their voices heard.

Social transformations in Venezuela that gave voice to people’s power became exemplary for others in the region, as did President Chavez’s defiance of US imperialism. A powerful sentiment of Latin American sovereignty and independence grew stronger, even reaching those with governments aligned with US interests and multinational control.

On December 2-3, 2011, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) was born and the overwhelming force of a continent nearly 600 million strong, achieved a 200-year dream of unity. The 33 member nations of Celac all agree on the unquestionable necessity to build a regional organization that represents their interests, and that excludes the overbearing presence of the US and Canada. While Celac will take time to consolidate, the exceptional commitment evidenced by the 33 states present at its launching in Caracas, Venezuela, cannot be underestimated.

Celac will have to overcome attempts to sabotage and neutralize its expansion and endurance, and the threats against it and intents to divide member nations will be numerous and frequent.

But the resistance of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean who have resumed this path of unity and independence after nearly two hundred years of imperialist aggression, demonstrates the powerful force that has led this region to become an inspiration for those seeking social justice and true freedom around the world.