English Edition Nº 37

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FRIDAY|November 12, 2010 |No. 37 |Bs. 1|CARACAS

ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas

Venezuelan Government cracks down on real estate fraud

New Amazon species discovered

Thousands of Venezuelans have been affected by real estate scams that have left homebuyers displaced, disgruntled and in severe debt

Venezuela and Cuba celebrate cooperation

A decades-old financial scam to trick eager homebuyers into handing over their savings for a future home has finally been put to an end. The Chavez government has expropriated several private companies responsible for stealing millions of dollars from innocent Venezuelans seeking to buy residential property. The companies violated laws by demanding illegal deposits, raising prices post-contract, bullying homebuyers and even selling the same property to several customers.

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President Hugo Chavez was in Cuba this week for the 10th anniversary of an agreement signed to consolidate and advance cooperation between Venezuela and Cuba. The accord has brought major results for both nations, aiding Cuba’s energy and consumer needs, while helping Venezuela to eradicate illiteracy, guarantee universal, free healthcare and make important strides in industry, technology and agricultural production.

Analysis

US increases clandestine ops US agencies are escalating secret programs to destabilize the Chavez government.

Economy

Nationalizations create jobs A textile industry, Silka, was nationalized this week after more than a decade of abandonment.

Workers struggle for protective Labor Laws Venezuelan workers marched on the National Assembly this week to demand labor laws be approved before the year ends.

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Venezuela advances in drug war

oving forward in the fight against narco-trafficking and the illicit drug trade, Venezuela’s National Anti-Narcotics Office (ONA) reported earlier this week that the nation’s security forces have successfully impounded nearly 56 tons of illicit substances in 2010.

The list of drugs seized include 33,304 tons of marijuana, 22,148 tons of cocaine, 28,792 kilos of heroin, 158,821 kilos of crack and another 61,735 kilos of cocaine paste called bazuco.

In addition to the confiscations, the ONA reports that over

10,000 people have been arrested for drug trafficking so far this year.

The progress that has marked the fight against narco-trafficking in Venezuela is largely a result of the government’s Anti-Drug Plan 2009–2013, which incorporates a range of strategies to combat both the sale and the use of illicit substances.

The plan, based on community involvement and education, represents a focus different from that of previous government’s, whose anti-drug efforts were dominated by foreign interests.

In 2005, the Venezuelan government expelled the US Drug Enforcement Agency from the country for meddling in the nation’s internal affairs.

Although drug seizures have increased in Venezuela since the DEA’s forced departure, Washington has placed the South American nation on a drug blacklist, accusing the country of not participating with international drug enforcement efforts.

Venezuelan officials have dismissed the allegations, calling them politically motivated and without a factual basis.

ore than 1,200 species have been discovered in the Amazon over the past decade, including giant snakes, colorful frogs and tiger-striped tarantulas. The new species include 637 plants, 257 fish, 216 amphibians, 55 reptiles, 16 birds and 39 mammals, confirming that the Amazon is one of the most diverse places on Earth.

Among the findings are the first new species of anaconda identified since 1936, a frog with a ‘burst of flames’ on its head, a parrot with a bald head, a pink river dolphin, a bright red blind catfish and a tiger-striped tarantula.

Sarah Hutchison, World Wildlife Fund forest program manager for Brazil, said all the species were at risk of deforestation.

She pointed out that in the last 50 years humankind has caused the destruction of at least 17% of the Amazon rainforest, an area twice the size of Spain.

“The rate of discovery of new species is astounding – and does not even include insect groups where the discoveries are almost too many to count. This report shows the incredible diversity of life in the Amazon, and we need urgent and immediate action if it is to survive”, she said.

Venezuela shares a large portion of the Amazon in its southern territory.

T/ Louise Gray

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IMPACT

The artillery of ideas

Venezuela: government crackdown on real estate fraud program of expropriation and occupation of worksites that includes the seizure of all machinery and an order on behalf of the Attorney General’s office to prevent the owners of the construction firms from leaving the country until the specific cases are settled.

“Its very important to keep in mind that this [response] is possible because we have a government independent from the established economic powers”, Jaua said of the state’s new measures.

“President Chavez owes nothing to the real estate firms, bankers or the business community.

None of them have financed any of his electoral campaigns. This is the big difference between this government and former governments”, he recalled.

Thousands of Venezuelans have been victims of housing fraud by private corporations preying on firsttime homebuyers, overcharging for deposits and downpayments, selling the same property to numerous, unsuspecting customers, and raising rates post-contract for properties never built

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n efforts to confront the widespread real estate fraud which has plagued private sector home construction for years, the Venezuelan government convened a special assembly last weekend to devise protective measures for citizens cheated by the construction companies and developers that dominate the country’s housing market.

The assembly was presided over by Vice President Elias Jaua and included the participation of various government ministers as well as ordinary citizens scammed by the illegal business practices of private sector real estate firms.

Held at the headquarters of the nation’s consumer protection agency, Indepabis, the meeting came on the heels of President Hugo Chavez’s announcement last week that the government would expropriate six urban developments, occupy and oversee the completion of another eight, and implement protective measures for homebuyers in nineteen other incomplete housing projects.

The government’s decision, designed to ensure the delivery of homes paid for by the clients of dubious private contractors, has been supported by the many homebuyers who have been waiting for years for their housing units to be completed.

“We hope that the government’s measures quicken the bureaucratic steps of the construction company so that the apartments can be given to us in as short a time as possible”, said Clairet Alvarez, a home buyer from the state of Carabobo who has been waiting three years to be able to move into her new apartment.

RAMPANT FRAUD Although there is no official figure for the number of Venezuelans who have been victimized by real estate scams, Indepabis reports that there are “thousands” of known cases where mainly middle class homebuyers have been subjected to unscrupulous business practices involving property sales and purchases.

During a special program broadcast on the state television channel, Venezolana de Television (VTV), numerous citizens presented testimony specifying how private construction firms have been swindling citizens out of their savings through a variety of methods.

One of the most common practices employed by the companies has been the indefinite postponement of home construction followed by an increase in the down payment demanded by contractors, allegedly based on what the companies attribute to the country’s yearly inflation rate.

Dersia Alvarez, a homebuyer from Caracas, explained how she was subjected to a fabricated price increase by one firm.

“After paying for the initial down payment, I contacted the company…because the project had been paralyzed for a year and we hadn’t seen any movement on the part of the machinery. The contractor always gave me the same line; that the project would soon get started again but

it never did…It was at that time that they told me I had to sign a new contract because over the past two years there had been an adjustment for inflation”.

Although Venezuela’s yearly inflation rate has averaged 26% over the past five years, the practice of boosting prices according to the Consumer Price Index for incomplete work is illegal.

Another tactic described by the testimony of victims has been the sale of the same incomplete home to more than one client.

During her testimony on the program last Sunday, homebuyer Mayeling Barrios displayed a document gathered by herself and her neighbors revealing that the same apartment, which had never been constructed, had been sold to as many as five potential owners.

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE As an outcome of the special assembly held last weekend to attend to the surge in complaints lodged by private citizens, the government has devised a threepronged strategy to assist those who have been victimized by real estate scams.

The first step, as outlined by Vice President Jaua, will entail a rebate given to those owners who are already living in completed homes but have been overcharged by contractors.

“These people will continue being the legitimate owners of their homes and only have to enter into

For these projects, the government has embarked on a program of expropriation and occupation of worksites that includes the seizure of all machinery and an order on behalf of the Attorney General’s office a program of re-negotiation of the price they paid”, Jaua explained.

Apartment units that have been constructed, but have yet to be handed over to their owners, will also be considered as part of this first group.

According to the Vice President, these units may be delivered to homebuyers by President Chavez in as soon as eight days.

The second step will be devoted to homes in construction that have been expropriated by the government.

A state fund will be created to accelerate completion of the housing units in order to deliver them to their owners as soon as possible.

Finally, the third step will involve the most delayed housing projects, which have yet to begin construction.

For these projects, the government has embarked on a

FURTHER HOUSING INITIATIVES In addition to the three steps to be taken by the government to address home buyers’ complaints, President Hugo Chavez informed last Sunday that the government would create a special office in the presidential palace of Miraflores to deal directly with cases of real estate fraud.

“I have asked my Chief of Staff, Francisco Ameliach, to create a situational room so that information, ideas, complaints, and proposals come to me faster in order to support those affected by fraud from all vantage points”, he announced.

The Venezuelan head of state also described the creation of a new aid program to support victims of property scams.

“For those families that have problems, we’ll give them credits and open a grace period so that they can recover. All of this we can and will do in order to obtain justice”, he affirmed.

Additionally, Chavez announced that the government would invest a further $1.5 billion USD in the housing sector for 2011, above and beyond the projected national budget of $204 billion.

“We’re always thinking about the national interest and I’ve assigned $1.5 billion USD, which we already have…for the housing sector, including the middle class, just for 2011”, he declared.

T/ Edward Ellis

ANALYSIS

The artillery of ideas

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Washington increases clandestine ops against Venezuela Millions of dollars are being channeled to opposition groups in Venezuela via USAID, while the Pentagon has established a new PSYOP program directed at Venezuela, including a “5-day a week television program in Spanish broadcast in Venezuela” during 2011

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he 2010 annual report of the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI), a division of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), regarding its operations in Venezuela, evidences that at least $9.29 million USD was invested this year in efforts to “support US foreign policy objectives…and promote democracy” in the South American nation. This amount represents an increase of almost $2 million over last year’s $7.45 million distributed through this office to fund anti-Chávez political activities in the country.

The OTI is a department of USAID dedicated to “supporting US foreign policy objectives by helping local partners advance democracy in priority countries in crisis. OTI works on the ground to provide, fast, flexible short-term assistance targeted at key political transition and stabilization needs”.

Although OTI is traditionally used as a “short-term” strategy to filter millions of dollars in liquid funds to political groups and activities that promote US agenda in strategically important nations, the case of Venezuela has been different.

OTI opened its office in 2002, right after the failed coup d’etat against President Hugo Chavez - backed

by Washington - and has remained ever since. The OTI in Venezuela is the longest standing office of this type in USAID’s history.

OTI’S CLANDESTINE OPS In a confidencial memo dated January 22, 2002, Russell Porter, head of OTI, revealed how and why USAID set up shop in Venezuela. “OTI was asked to consider a program in Venezuela by the State Department’s Office of Andean Affairs on January 4…OTI was asked if it could offer programs and as-

sistance in order to strengthen the democratic elements that are under increasing fire from the Chavez government”.

Porter visited Venezuela on January 18, 2002 and then commented, “For democracy to have any chance of being preserved, immediate support is needed for independent media and the civil society sector…One of the large weaknesses in Venezuela is the lack of a vibrant civil society…

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has a $900,000 program in Venezuela that works with NDI, IRI and the Solidarity Center to strengthen political parties and the Unions…This program is useful, but not nearly sufficient. It is not flexible enough, nor does it work with enough new or non-traditional groups. It also lacks a media component”.

Since then OTI has been present in Venezuela, channeling millions of dollars each year to feed the political conflict in the country. According to the 2010 annual report, OTI is now operating “out of the US Embassy and is part of a larger US diplomatic effort to promote democracy in Venezuela”.

The principal investment of the $9.29 million in US taxpayer dollars in 2010 went to the opposition’s campaign for the legislative elections, held last September 26 in Venezuela. “USAID works with several implementing partners drawn from the spectrum of civil society…offering technical assistance to political parties…and supporting efforts to strengthen civil society”.

In Venezuela, it’s widely known that the term “civil society” refers to the anti-Chavez opposition.

SECRET FLOW OF FUNDS Despite revealing its overall budget, the actual flow of funds from USAID/OTI to groups in Venezuela remains secret. When OTI opened its offices in 2002, it contracted a private US company, Development Alternatives Inc (DAI), one of the State Department’s largest contractors worldwide. DAI ran an office out of El Rosal – the Wall Street of Caracas – distributing millions of dollars annually in “small grants of no more than $100,000” to hundreds of mainly unknown Venezuelan “organizations”.

From 2002 to 2010, more than 600 of these “small grants” were channeled out of DAI’s office to anti-Chavez groups, journalists and private, opposition media campaigns.

In December 2009, DAI began to have severe problems with its operations in Afghanistan, when five of its employees were killed by alleged Taliban militants during an attack on their office December 15 in Gardez. Just days earlier, another DAI “employee”, Alan Gross, had been detained in Cuba and accused of subversion for illegally distributing advanced satellite equipment to dissidents.

When an article written by this author titled “CIA Agents killed in Afghanistan worked for company active in Venezuela, Cuba”, published December 30, 2009

on the web, evidenced the link between DAI’s operations in Afghanistan, Cuba and Venezuela, and their suspicious nature, the CEO of DAI, Jim Boomgard, was alarmed. Days later, he attempted to coerce me into a private meeting in Washington to “discuss” my article. When I refused, he threatened me by claiming that my writing was “placing all DAI employees worldwide in danger”. In other words, if anything happened to DAI employees, I would be personalIy responsible.

But Boomgard, who claimed little knowledge of his company’s operations in Venezuela, understood that what DAI was doing in Venezuela was nowhere near as important (to his company) as what DAI was doing in Afghanistan and other countries in conflict. Weeks later, DAI abruptly closed its office in Caracas.

Nonetheless, OTI continues its operations in Venezuela, and although it has other US “partners” managing a portion of its annual multimillion-dollar budget, such as IRI, NDI, Freedom House and the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF), there is zero transparency regarding funding to Venezuelan groups.

A report published in May 2010 by the Spanish think tank FRIDE assessing “democracy assistance” to Venezuela revealed that a significant part of the more than $50 million annually in political funding from international agencies to antiChavez groups in Venezuela was entering illicitly. According to the report, in order to avoid Venezuela’s strict “currency control laws”, US and European agencies bring the monies in dollars or euros into the country and then change them on the black market to increase value. This method also avoids leaving a financial record or trace of the funds coming in to illegally finance political activities.

If DAI is no longer operating in Venezuela and distributing “small grants” to Venezuelan groups, then how are USAID’s multimillion-dollar funds reaching their recipients? According to USAID, they now operate from the US Embassy. Is the US Embassy illegally dishing out funds directly to Venezuelans?

OTI’s 2010 report also reveals the agency’s ongoing intentions to continue supporting and funding Venezuelan counterparts. In the section marked “Upcoming

Events”, OTI makes clear where energies will be directed, “December 2012 – Presidential elections”.

PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS USAID isn’t the only US agency intervening in Venezuela’s affairs. In the Pentagon’s 2011 budget, a new request for a “psychological operations program” for the Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), which coordinates all US military missions in Latin America, is included. Specifically, the request refers to the establishment of a “PSYOP voice program for USSOUTHCOM”.

PYSOP are, “planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups and individuals. The execution of PSYOP includes conducting research on various foreign audiences; developing, producing and disseminating products to influence these audiences; and conducting evaluations to determine the effectiveness of the PSYOP activities. These activities may include the management of various websites and monitoring print and electronic media”.

Or, as the 2011 request indicates, running a radio or audio program into a foreign nation to promote US agenda.

USSOUTHCOM’s new PSYOP program in Latin America will complement a new State Department initiative run out of the Board of Broadcasting Governors (BBG), which manages US propaganda worldwide. BBG’s whopping 2011 budget of $768.8 million includes “a 30-minute, five-day-a-week VOA [Voice of America] Spanish television program for Venezuela”.

This increase in PSYOP and proUS propaganda directed at Venezuela evidences an escalation in US aggression towards the region.

And the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) is still running a special intelligence “mission” on Venezuela and Cuba, set up in 2006. Only four of these country-specific “mission management teams” exist: Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan/Pakistan, and Venezuela/Cuba. These “missions” receive an important part of DNI’s $80 billion annual budget and operate in complete secrecy.

T/ Eva Golinger

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economy

The artillery of ideas

Nationalizations reactivate abandoned industries, create jobs Adding to a string of recent government interventions intended to democratize key economic sectors and increase domestic productivity, Venezuelan Vice President Elias Jaua announced last weekend the nationalization of an abandoned textile factory in the state of Miranda

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he factory, owned by the company Silka, was deserted seventeen years ago by its owners as part of what Jaua attributed to the “policies of neoliberalism” that scarred Venezuela’s social development for a majority of the 1990s.

“The textile sector was one of the most affected by neoliberalism”, he said on Saturday, referring to the free trade measures forced upon Latin American nations by institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“The floodgates were opened to imports, tariffs were eliminated, and what was once the textile sector was ruined by capitalism”, the Vice President affirmed.

When the Silka plant was shut in 1993, 171 workers were left unemployed and without benefits, sparking a struggle by the plant’s ex-employees for the payment of a more than seven million bolivars ($1.6 million USD) debt owed to them by the company’s previous employers.

“After the boss unfortunately closed the plant, he took with him all the machinery and left the workers in the street – workers who for 20 years dedicated their life to helping him get rich”, Jaua imputed.

According to the Vice President, the debt – which had been conditioned on the sale of the factory property – will now be covered by the government as it installs a new cotton manufacturing operation in the old facility.

The government’s new enterprise, Jaua explained, will be run by the socialist company Orinoco

Cotton as a “communal business” between “the workers, the government and the people”.

The ex-workers of the Silka plant, who had been seeking nationalization for years, welcomed the government’s decision to intervene and reestablish textile production.

Alfredo Solorzano, one of the labor leaders involved in the nearly two-decade struggle, expressed the former Silka employees’ conviction to help get the new initiative off the ground.

“Our co-workers who have experience in the management of the factory will be the instructors and will come to help the youth of this region learn the trade in order to demonstrate that socialism is about productivity, work, and happiness. Now, the workers of this textile plant will work for the social good”, Solorzano proclaimed.

NATIONALIZATIONS CAUSE A STIR Over the past month, seven private companies and a series of housing projects have been nationalized by the Chavez government, provoking a series of reactions from the Venezuelan business class and their international colleagues.

The news agency EFE reports that this year alone, the Venezuelan government has nationalized over 200 businesses while during

ten years of Chavez’s presidency, a total of 762 private firms and estates have been expropriated and handed over to laborers and small farmers working in collaboration with the government.

Recently, a World Bank report entitled Doing Business 2011: Making a Difference for Entrepreneurs, cited Venezuela as having the worst business climate in Latin America.

This comes despite the billions of dollars allocated by the Chavez administration in the form of micro-credits and start-up capital for small-scale cooperatives, community groups and agricultural producers.

Noel Alvarez, head of the Venezuelan chamber of commerce, FEDECAMARAS, responsible for carrying out a violent coup d’etat against the Chavez government

in 2002, described the business climate as a “permanent state of siege” owing to the recent increase in expropriations.

Both Vice President Jaua and the Science, Technology, and Intermediary Industries Minister, Ricardo Menendez, have defended the nationalizations on the grounds of heightened productivity and strengthened protection for workers rights.

“There has been a permanent manipulation of what nationalization means”, Menendez said, pointing out the success that the state telecommunications company, CANTV, has had since it came under government control in 2007. “[The private sector] arrogantly says that things left in the hands of the state don’t work… Since nationalization, [CANTV has] grown by more than 65%”, he affirmed.

JUST COMPENSATION According to Venezuelan law, any expropriation of a private business must be accompanied by full compensation to the owners of that business, making the nationalizations tantamount to forced buyouts as opposed to confiscations.

As with the case of Silka, many of the nationalizations have come at the behest of labor unions and workers themselves.

During a visit to the stateowned Lacteos Los Andes milk processing plant on Friday, Vice President Jaua affirmed that the government respects private property and that the Chavez administration is only concerned with democratizing strategic industries necessary for the nation’s development.

“There is no intention to nationalize the entire private sector, only where there are monopolies and oligopolies”, he clarified.

As evidence of the effectiveness of the government’s nationalizations, Jaua reported a 50% increase in milk production at the processing plant since the facility was taken under government and worker control in 2008.

“In all the country’s supermarkets, the only pasteurized milk that can be found is that of Lacteos Los Andes because it’s the only one that is being produced on a large scale and at a fair price”, the Vice President said, with reference to the private sector’s aversion to milk production.

Until recently, Venezuela has faced temporary milk shortages as private companies have refused to supply the market at prices mandated by the national government.

Favoring profit over the needs of the community, many dairy producers have destined their milk production to secondary dairy products in order to subvert the price controls aimed at ensuring the availability of certain basic food products for the nation’s population.

TRANSPORTE ASER Continuing with the theme of nationalizations, Jaua also announced during his visit to the milk processing plant the expropriation of the transportation company, Transporte Aser, which will be integrated in the functions of the dairy facility.

“Last Thursday, President Chavez signed the decree so that Transporte Aser will become property of the nation”, he affirmed.

T/ Edward Ellis P/ Agencies

integration

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Cuba and Venezuela commemorate 10th anniversary of bilateral cooperation The Cuban and Venezuelan governments commemorated the 10th anniversary of the beginning of their bilateral cooperation during a working visit by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to the Caribbean island over the weekend

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n October 30, 2000, during Chavez’s second year in office, the two countries signed the “Integral Agreement for Collaboration” in Caracas. It marked the beginning of an anti-imperialist alliance and a form of exchange that was presented as an alternative to the US-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

Through the accord, Venezuela began shipping 53,000 barrels per day of its principal export, oil, to fuel-starved Cuba in exchange for human services worth the approximate market value of the oil.

In subsequent years, tens of thousands of Cuban doctors, dentists, optometrists, physical therapists, nurses, and other health care workers staffed free clinics in thousands of Venezuela’s poorest neighborhoods. Cuba also provided vaccines, treatment for illnesses such as heart disease, anemia, asthma, HIV and AIDS,

and began training Venezuelan doctors in a program called “Integral Community Medicine”.

Also through the accord, Cuban agronomists worked with Venezuelan officials to modernize Venezuela’s sugar industry, and Cuban specialists provided on-site training in agroecology, organic fertilizer production, irrigation, sustainable forestry, and the promotion of agricultural cooperatives.

Cuban literacy trainers assisted Venezuela’s national drive to eradicate illiteracy, a goal that was achieved in 2005 according to the United Nations. In addition, Cuban physical education experts worked to integrate athletics into Venezuela’s public health and public education systems.

Bilateral relations between Cuba and Venezuela have expanded over the years to include state-controlled economic development projects in the areas of oil refining, electricity production,

tourism, mining, light and heavy industries, and railway systems.

In 2004, Venezuela and Cuba created a bloc called the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) that is based on the Cuba-Venezuela model of cooperation and now also includes Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

EXTRAORDINARY SOCIAL GAINS In an interview broadcast on Venezuelan and Cuban television on Sunday, President Chavez said this system of integration was “unprecedented in Latin America and the world”.

He said bilateral cooperation with Cuba has helped his oildependent nation boost its longneglected agricultural sector, diversify industries, and strengthen anti-poverty programs.

“The Cuban people have made a great contribution to the Bolivarian

Revolution”, said Chavez, referring to his government’s program, which is named after Simon Bolivar, a Latin American independence hero. “Both nations have benefited from this relationship, respecting the particularities of our respective systems...both revolutions will continue to be consolidated and to mutually support each other”, exclaimed Chavez.

The President boasted about Venezuela’s reduction of poverty, malnutrition, infant mortality, and economic inequality, and its increase in educational enrollment from primary school through university during his ten-year administration.

He noted that these achievements are recognized by the United Nations and said they are steps toward “21st Century Socialism”. “We have become the cradle of a new world”, said the Venezuelan President.

US AGGRESSION Chavez emphasized the role of

the US government in impeding this process by supporting a military coup organized by the Venezuelan opposition in April 2002 and by maintaining its blockade against Cuba despite repeated unanimous votes in the United Nations to end the blockade. “Cuba and Venezuela have united to break the chains of backwardness, and we have helped Cuba to minimize the impact of the blockade imposed by the United States”, Chavez said. “That is why the [US] empire attacked and continues to attack Cuba so much, they are trying to put out the flame”, declared the Venezuelan head of state. The Venezuelan opposition has strongly criticized the Chavez administration’s cooperation with Cuba. In September, opposition candidates for the Venezuelan National Assembly centered their campaign platforms on ominous warnings that Venezuela was on the road toward a “Castro-communist dictatorship”.

Major opposition media outlets regularly state that the increased role of the Venezuelan government in industries such as oil, food, construction, and electricity stifles economic growth and violates the constitutional right to own private property. The administration has responded by asserting that the government is defending the right of Venezuela’s poor to participation in private property ownership by guaranteeing access to basic goods and services.

T/ James Suggett www.venezuelanalysis.com

Venezuela, Saudi Arabia: two OPEC giants strengthen relations A

n increase in energy cooperation was the final conclusion reached during meetings held between Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro and Saudi Arabian Oil and Mineral Resources Minister Ali Ibrahim Al Naimi this week in Riad.

The member nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided to strengthen relations between their two state-run oil companies, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and Saudi Arabia’s Aramco.

Venezuela and Saudi Arabia own the world’s largest proven oil reserves.

Among the themes discussed by the high-level government representatives were future investment possibilities for Saudi companies in Venezuela.

Maduro and Al Naimi shared the same opinion regarding the role played by OPEC to stabilize oil prices, after the world financial crisis in 2009, and they both insisted on the importance of multilateral organizations func-

tioning properly in order to secure a balance of global power.

Likewise, both ministers assured that the stabilization of oil prices and production was a result of the political will of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

Bilateral cooperation between these two countries also includes agriculture, industry, infrastructure, and transfer of key technologies.

T/ Venezuelan News Agency

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SOCIAL JUSTICE

The artillery of ideas

Venezuelan workers urge new Labor Laws Thousands of Venezuelan workers descended on the country’s legislative house, the National Assembly, on Tuesday to push for a new labor law that increases rights in the work place

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he confederation of labor unions, the National Union of Workers (UNT), is demanding the law be passed in the parliamentary body before opposition parties have the chance to debate the legislation when the new National Assembly takes office in January 2011. Opposition candidates won 40% of the legislature during elections held last September 26th.

The workers, who had arrived to the rally with union banners from each corner of Venezuela, marched to the National Assembly from central Caracas, chanting slogans demanding an end to capitalism and calling for worker control in state industries.

The demonstration made its way up through downtown Caracas until it arrived at the corner of the National Assembly building, where the leadership of UNT handed over a letter to legislators containing the main components of the proposed law.

The document will also be presented to the office of Venezuelan Vice President, Elias Jaua.

LINGERING LEGISLATION The law was first presented to the National Assembly seven years ago and still has yet to be debated and approved.

The proposed legislation demands better salaries for workers and full contractual benefits for all workers throughout the length of employment.

Besides better pay and conditions, the legislation also seeks to put exploitative bosses in courts so they are accountable for their actions against employees. Prison sentences could even apply in some circumstances.

The law is designed to make sure that the Ministry of Labor is more efficient in the implementation of government policy towards labor unions.

UNT leader Marcela Maspero underlined what was at stake, not only for Venezuelan working

people, but also for the Bolivarian Revolution.

“So that we are successful in the 2012 [presidential elections], so that the revolutionary process is strengthened and we defeat the fraudulent capitalists, we have to make progress with workers’ control, workers’ democracy and finally defeat the bureaucracy that is blocking the advance of the process”.

Despite modest gains for socialist forms of economic organization, the Venezuela economy is still largely, approximately 75%, privately owned.

Maspero added, “We must advance further towards the building of a socialist model that must be expressed not only in the sovereignty of the people, through the equal distribution of wealth and the elimination of exploitation, but also in the eradication of internal bureaucracy in business”.

OPPOSITION PRESSURE Workers fear that in January, when parties from the opposition coalition take their seats in the National Assembly, they will seek to water down the legislation, even though they don’t have enough seats to block it entirely.

The right-wing bloc has made a big issue out of public ownership of the means of production.

The main organization that leads the opposition coalition, Primero Justicia, is an extreme right-wing party that places strict private ownership and control of business as a central part of its ideology and policies.

The opposition coalition is also linked to FEDECAMARAS, the powerful business lobby that played a central role in the April 2002 coup that violently - but temporarily – ousted Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez from power.

Senior UNT official Pedro Eusse pressed home the point.

“The furthest advances of the Revolution at the moment guarantee the right to participatory democracy on the part of workers in workplaces, applying the principal of workers’ control over the processes of production, administration, distribution and trade of good and services. This fundamentally exists in companies that are already socially [publicly] owned”.

Regarding privately owned firms, Eusse said that while Venezuela was in “revolutionary transition” away from capitalism and towards socialism, they had to “gain, little by little, more control, and capacity for control, so that all economic activity is subordinated to the needs of the people”.

For that reason, he argued for the establishment of “Socialist

Workers’ Councils” as part of the proposed labor law.

Carlos Prieto, a grassroots demonstrator, explained the urgency of passing the new law but also pointed out that resistance to this law hasn’t come from the opposition, but rather from within the government.

“We have waited seven years while the National Assembly has been practically 100% in the hands of the Revolution. We don’t know why we have had to wait seven years”.

He went on to blame the “bureaucracy”, or large elements of those working in the state who aren’t really socialists or revolutionaries.

“They block laws and oppose radical change. They are corrupt and seek the continuation of the capitalist system. We must defeat them or they will defeat the Revolution”.

A representative of security guard workers present at Tuesday’s march, Tulio Paredes, added his view, “Our section of workers, from private security, has been suffering for more than 40 years, and despite having knocked on the doors of different government departments, we haven’t been able to solve anything. And since we are a primary arm in the security of property and the security of the country, we need bet-

ter attention from the Ministry of Labor”.

RADICALIZATION Following September’s legislative elections, demands from the grassroots of the Bolivarian movement to push forward socialist transformations in Venezuela have become increasingly vocal.

Inside Chavez’s governing party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), some members have been arguing for a leftwing current to counter the corrupt and bureaucratic elements within the Bolivarian movement who are causing damage to the process.

Former Trade Minister Eduardo Saman has been a key figure in arguing for a “radical current” within the PSUV to ensure “the process” remains on a revolutionary path.

In declarations to the press, Saman remarked, “What we have to do is defend and recover the true essence of the principals of the PSUV and of the Bolivarian Revolution, such as the struggle against capitalist exploitation. A [radical] current within the party would serve to block diversions from that objective”.

T/ Steven Mather P/ Agencies

CULTURE

The artillery of ideas

7

No 37 • Friday, November 12, 2010 | |

Literary Revolution

International Book Fair begins in Venezuela this week their books are sold at very accessible prices, including special “mass distribution” copies available new for under one dollar.

The sixth edition of the annual International Book Fair (FILVEN) was inaugurated in Caracas this week, offering thousands of world-renowned books at affordable prices for all Venezuelans

V

enezuela’s International Book Fair (FILVEN) is known as the nation’s most important annual cultural event. The two-week literary festival, running this year from November 12-21, brings together authors from across the globe to present literary works and dialogue with Venezuelan writers and readers. Tens of thousands of books from all areas of literature are also available to the public at affordable prices. Access to FILVEN is free and the event is hosted in a public park.

Previous book fairs held in Venezuela were private events with paid admission, and the costs of the books offered were rarely accessible to the majority of Venezuelans. The Chavez administration has made literature and access to literary sources and education a priority.

The sixth annual International Book Fair will offer more than 300 hours of artistic and literary activities in five different venues, 117 stands with books from national and international publishing housing, a special Comic Book Hall and will also host the First Meeting of Young Writers

and Intellectuals from member nations of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA).

Three countries will be guests of honor at this year’s FILVEN: Argentina, Colombia and Mexico, and each will have a dedicated space in the main Bicentennial Tent where presentations, conferences and discussions will take place with authors and representatives from these nations.

ART EXHIBITS This year’s Book Fair will also premiere an exhibit dedicated to the celebration of Venezuela’s 200 years of independence. “This exhibit, named ‘Venezuela, free,

insurgent and sovereign’ will be shown at the Book Fair as well as in the Center for National History, the National Archives and the Bolivarian Museum”, explained Christhian Valles, president of Venezuela’s National Book Center.

Also, for the first time in the country’s history, a special section of FILVEN will be dedicated to the I Comic Book Hall, where visitors can interact with comic book artists from Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela, and see their artwork, hear their talks and have the opportunity to experience their creations in real time.

“It’s an event with a lot of interaction. There will be lectures, talks, comic book exhibits and

visitors will be involved in presenting ideas. This hall forms part of a new strategy of the Culture Ministry, oriented towards attracting readers. Comics are a very attractive literary element”, pointed out Valles.

Last year’s International Book Fair received nearly 100,000 visits, but organizers expect this year will see even more. Over 40,000 books were sold at FILVEN 2009, and with even lower prices on some state-subsidized editions out this year, numbers are expected to surpass 50,000 books sold.

State publishing houses Monte Avila Editors and “Perro y la Rana” are releasing 115 new titles at the event this year. Most of

YOUNG WRITERS Thirty-five authors from ALBA-member countries will participate in the First Meeting of Young Writers and Intellectuals that will take place at Venezuela’s National Experimental University for the Arts during the last three days of the Book Fair.

The event, coordinated by Venezuela’s National Book Center (CENAL) and the Cultural Center “Dulce Maria Loynaz” in Havana, Cuba, will bring together young authors from Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba, Nicaragua and Honduras.

“The activity will try to strengthen the creation and visualization of a space for exchange and debate to foster a better understanding between our peoples and nations.

It will also provide a platform for reflection and permanent communication amongst creative youth, in order to build strategies to confront global challenges from the point of view of young writers and intellectuals from our Americas”, explained Valles.

The young authors will debate topics including, literary creativity and alternative media, aesthetics and creation, new languages, old traditions, imperial hegemony vs. alternatives in resistance, identities in globalization, and social and cultural change.

T/ Eva Golinger

Venezuela stands out at the World Travel Market in London V

enezuela opened a stand at the World Travel Market, one of the most important international travel trade fairs, on Monday. The stand was inaugurated

by Venezuela’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Samuel Moncada, who declared during the opening event that tourism “is a priority for the future” and a potential driver of “prosperity for all Venezuelans”.

The stand was manned by a team from the Ministry of Tourism in Venezuela working along side ten private Venezuelan tour

companies including Cacao Travel Group, Alborada Venezuela and Natura Raid.

Dominique Jacquin from Natura Raid, a company specialising in eco-tourism, commented, “Venezuela has incredible variety. It has four ecosystems, rivers, mountains, plains, jungle, beaches and islands. We believe that it is very important to respect the environment but also the indigenous communities where we work. All our work is carried out in agreement with indigenous communities and the local com-

munity councils. We give work to more than 50 families and we also make a point of working with local cooperatives to give something back to the local economy”.

Mr. Jacquin also added that the Venezuelan government is making infrastructure and service industries a priority, which will further strengthen Venezuela’s potential to be one of the top tourist destinations in the Americas.

With a well-positioned stand and plenty of rum and chocolate to go around, there were over 600 enquiries from businesses, jour-

nalists and students. There was also live music from Venezuelan musicians, Jose Chebeto Requena, who played the guitar, and Cristobal Soto, who played the harp bringing a taste of Venezuelan culture to the event.

The Venezuelan Minister for Tourism, Alejandro Flemming, will also attend the trade fair to meet with a variety of business leaders, media and other Tourism Ministers.

T/ Press Unit of the Venezuelan Embassy in London

FRIDAY|November 12, 2010 |No. 37|Bs. 1|CARACAS

ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas

A publication of the Fundacion Correo del Orinoco Editor-in-Chief | Eva Golinger • Graphic Design | Alexander Uzcátegui, Jameson Jiménez • Press | Fundación Imprenta de la Cultura

OPINION

Right-Wing extremists set to take control of House Foreign Affairs I

n the early years of the past decade, two hard-line Cold Warriors, closely associated with radical Cuban exile groups in Florida, occupied strategic positions in the US foreign policy machine. Otto Reich, former head of the Reagan administration’s covert propaganda operations in Central America, and Roger Noriega, co-author of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, took turns running the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs and held other influential administration posts such as ambassador to the OAS and White House Special Envoy to the Western Hemisphere.

During their years of tenure in the George W. Bush administration, they led a zealous crusade against left-leaning governments in the region and, among other things, actively supported a short-lived coup d’etat against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2002 and a successful coup against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti in 2004.

Now, as a result of the US legislative elections, another duo of a similar ilk is poised to re-set the legislative agenda on Latin America in the House of Representatives. Cuban-American representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is expected to replace Howard Berman as chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and eternally tanned Congressman Cornelius McGillicuddy IV -- otherwise known as Connie Mack -- is slated to take the reins of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere.

The Washington Post’s Jackson Diehl has celebrated the ascension of these two South Florida legislators, heralding Ros-Lehtinen as a “champion of Cuban human rights” and stating triumphantly that “one big un-American loser” of the US legislative elections will

be Cuban president “Raul Castro”. To see whether there is in fact cause to celebrate, let’s have a closer look at the track records of our two protagonists.

Let’s start with human rights “champion” Ros-Lehtinen who, as her web page biography explains, was “forced to flee with [her] family from the oppressive communist regime of Fidel Castro”. On certain issues – such as gay rights and immigration reform – she comes across as fairly levelheaded. But when it comes to Latin America, she rarely fails to take a precipitous dive into the deep end.

She is a staunch opponent of any relaxation of sanctions against Cuba, as are a number of her Cuban-American and cold warrior colleagues. But her deep hostility towards the Latin American Left has led her to take much more disturbing positions, including the defense of terrorists and coup d’etats.

• In July 1990, Ros-Lehtinen “lobbied hard” in favor of the release of rightwing Cuban Orlando Bosch, a convicted terrorist responsible for dozens of bombings

including the 1976 bombing of an airliner that killed 76 civilians. In a reversal of prior policy, the Justice Department released Bosch in Miami, where he remains free to this day.

• In April 2002, as a coup was unfolding in Venezuela, she referred to Air Force Colonel Pedro Soto, who had been among the first officers to call for a coup against the democratically-elected government of Hugo Chavez, as a “great patriot”.

Colonel Soto remains exiled in Miami.

• In 2005, Ros-Lehtinen lobbied on behalf of another Cuban terrorist – Luis Posada Carriles – who was imprisoned in Panama for his role in a plot to kill Fidel Castro. Carriles, who is also believed to have been the mastermind of the 1976 airliner bombing, was released by the Panamanian government and is now living free in Miami.

• In 2006, she openly called for the assassination of Fidel Castro in an interview. Her exact words: “I welcome the opportunity of having anyone assassinate Fidel Castro”.

Connie Mack is relatively young and has only been in office since 2005. Consequently, he has had less time to cozy up to terrorists and coup regimes. However, he has made impressive efforts to prove his extreme right-wing credentials. He has focused in particular on the grave “threat Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez poses to the US and our allies in the region”.

• In March 2008, Mack and RosLehtinen introduced House Resolution 1049 calling on the US government “to add Venezuela to the list of states which sponsor terrorism”.

• Mack engaged in an intense campaign to support the Honduran coup regime, starting with a July 2009 resolution condemning the recently ousted democratic president Manuel Zelaya for having “trampled” his country’s constitution. He went on to write a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging her not to accept Zelaya’s return to power and then led a Congressional delegation to Honduras.

• In October of 2009 Mack introduced another resolution calling for Venezuela to be placed on the state sponsor of terrorism list and this time collected the co-sponsorship of 37 other Congressional members.

Unfortunately for the rest of the world, Mack and Ros-Lehtinen’s extremism isn’t limited to this hemisphere. Both have warm relations with Israel’s right wing and are among Congress’ most strident hawks on Iran. Unsurprisingly, therefore, they have depicted the deepening of relations between Iran and various Latin American countries – in particular Venezuela – as a threat to “our critical security interests”.

The real question, of course, is whether having these right-wing extremists heading up the Foreign

Affairs Committee and Western Hemisphere Subcommittee will necessarily set US policy towards Latin America on a more aggressive course. Without a doubt, RosLehtinen and Mack will use their new powers as committee chairs to hold an increased number of Congressional hearings that target Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador and other left-leaning countries. They will make certain that legislation that aims to ease travel restrictions to Cuba is stopped dead in its tracks. They are also likely to promote resolutions and legislation that seek to impose sanctions and interventionist measures against these countries to punish them.

However, though moves such as these may make a lot of noise, more extreme legislative proposals will surely run into the brick wall of the Democratically-controlled Senate and, failing that, President Obama’s veto. Or will they?

Democratic leaders may have more nuanced rhetoric when it comes to relations with the rest of the region, but they have often stood idly by while the Obama administration has carried out aggressive, unilateralist policies reminiscent of the Bush era.

The danger therefore, more than the direct threat posed by Ros-Lehtinen or Mack, may be the fact that their noisy rhetoric and zany capers will provide additional cover for both the administration and moderate Democrats to plow ahead with a hemispheric agenda that merely recycles the failed policies of the past administration.

The South Florida pair will play an important role in keeping US relations with Latin America as poisoned as ever.

Alexander Main Alexander Main is a policy analyst at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.