English Edition Nº 107

page 7 | Analysis:

page 8 | Opinion

Fidel Castro on what Obama knows

Hugo Chavez and the presidency in 2012

Friday | May 4, 2012 | Nº 107 | Caracas

ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas

Venezuelans celebrate advances in labor rights Helping women in need Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez approved an additional $54 million for a program aimed at providing stipends and job assistance to single mothers living in extreme poverty.

The program, Mothers of the Barrio, has helped thousands of women out of precarious situations and assisted them in job training and education in order to move out of poverty.

Mothers of the Barrio forms part of a series of programs directed at poverty reduction in the South American nation. Since 1999, extreme poverty has been slashed by 50%. | page 4

As workers protest poor conditions in developed nations, in Venezuela, tens of thousands marched on May Day to support a new labor law protecting workers’ rights The streets of Caracas were flooded by workers from across the nation on May 1st, International Workers Day, who came to express their support and approval for a new labor bill signed into law by President Hugo Chavez the night before. The new law provides ample salary and benefits protection and increases fully compensated maternity leave to 20 weeks, with 6 weeks paid pre-natal leave as well. The law protects new parents from job dismissal for a two year period after the birth of a child and extends these benefits to parents of adopted children.

Chavez also raised the minimum wage 32% making it the highest in Latin America.| pages 2-3

Politics

Inter-American Court no more The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has a biased stance towards Venezuela. | page 3

Biking Caracas Venezuela’s capital is transforming into a biker-friendly town. | page 5 Security

Venezuela to host international law school The Ibero-American Institute of Higher Judicial Studies will launch in 2014. | page 6

Poll: Chavez to win elections with 66% of votes T/ AVN

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enezuela’s President Hugo Chavez will win the October 7 presidential elections with 66% of the vote, based on the projection of a 31.5% voter gap favoring the President, according to a poll conducted by the Center for Polling and Interpretation of Statistical Data 50.1 (Cmide 50.1) from April 9-15 throughout the country.

The poll was based on 1,300 interviews with citizens over 18. The opposition candidate, Henrique Capriles Radonski, would garner 25.8% against Chavez’s 57.3%, of the vote while 16.9% of the respondents said they didn’t know or didn’t answer. The gap favoring Chavez reached 31.5%.

In response to the question, “Do you believe that Henrique Capriles will win the October 7 elections

against Hugo Chavez?” 70.7% said that they don’t think so, while 17.7% said “yes,” and 11.6% didn’t know or didn’t answer. The gap against Henrique Capriles reached 53%.

To the question “Who do you think would guarantee the country’s peace and stability as President of Venezuela?” Chavez received 72.8% and Capriles 18.7%, while 8.5% didn’t know or didn’t answer. The gap favoring

Supporting public media Venezuela continues strengthening the National Public Media System, as well as the network of community and alternative media in order to guarantee ample sources of information, remarked Communication and Information Minister Andres Izarra.

During an event inaugurating the new studios of public radio station YVKE Mundial on Monday in Caracas, Izarra said the policies implemented by the Chavez administration to foster communication have made it a critical part of the nation’s revolutionary process.

“Thanks to President Chavez’s support, we are here today opening new spaces and providing equipment to this radio station, which was dismantled when our government began. Today, this media outlet is renewed so that the people’s voice can be clearly heard”, he said.

During the past ten years, different media outlets have been supported to improve their facilities and invest in technological equipment.

Chavez over the right-wing candidate reached 54.1%.

Meanwhile, 73.5% of those polled said that they approve of the job performance of President Chavez (calling it “very good,” “good” or “regular”), 18.2% had a negative opinion, and 2.3% didn’t know or didn’t answer, for a gap of 61.3% favoring the Venezuelan President.

Per the survery, 39% of those who said they would vote for Capriles are not confident that he will in fact win the presidential elections.

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2 | Impact

The artillery of ideas

NoÊ£äÇÊU Friday, May 4, 2012

President Chavez signs into law Venezuela’s new revolutionary labor bill T/ COI P/ Presidential Press n a televised act held in the Presidential Palace of Miraflores last Monday, Venezuelan head of state Hugo Chavez put his signature to a new labor law for the South American nation, guaranteeing a package of reforms including a reduced work week and greater maternity leave for workers.

The much anticipated event saw the finalization of an 8-year process of democratic debate and discussion over the legislation which included the participation of thousands of workers’ councils, legal advisors and industry experts.

“I am fortunate to be able to count on the people, the entire nation, the working class and millions of Venezuelans who with each passing day are more conscious of the moments that we are living in”, Chavez said on Monday.

The new labor law was the product of more than 19,000 proposals resulting from over 1,800 popular worker assemblies set up around the country.

A special executive commission, headed by Foreign Minister and Vice President for Political Affairs, Nicolas Maduro, was charged with receiving the proposals and producing the final draft of the bill signed into law by presidential decree earlier this week.

“From the point of view of its conception and philosophy, this is a law that is different from all the laws that have been created in the 20th century which had arisen from the struggles of workers and the intentions on the part of the bourgeois state to weaken these struggles with disingenuous concessions”, Maduro said.

According to the text of the law, work should be conceptualized under new parameters inline with the building of a new social and economic paradigm in Venezuela.

“In a socialist society in construction, work should be free

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from exploitation. It should be a process that is creative, conscious, participatory, planned, liberating... based in solidarity, cooperation and relations of equality between women and men”, the legislation stipulates.

EXPANDING BENEFITS Venezuela’s new labor law features a series of advances for workers’ rights including greater severance benefits, the payment of damages in the case of unjustified firings, an end to subcontracting as a way to dodge labor regulations, and the reduction in the length of the work week from 44 to 40 hours.

Also prominent in the legislation is the mandating of 6 weeks of paid prenatal care for women and 20 weeks of 100% paid postnatal maternity leave. This benefit also applies to women who adopt children.

Per the law, both fathers and mothers will be protected from dismissal from any employment for the first two years after a child’s birth.

In addition to providing greater time at home and encouraging breastfeeding, it is hoped by many in the feminist community who contributed to the drafting this section of the law that the new measures will help stimulate more coresponsibility with respect to the rearing of children in the country.

“We hope that fathers will utilize the free time that they have now to be with their children”, said Alba Carosio, member of the Feminist Spider coalition comprised of 45 organizations around Venezuela.

For President Hugo Chavez, the strides being made in workers’ rights and the democratic process that underpinned the drafting of the law are both indicative of the progressive character of the current government.

“I’m sure that with these new victories, you, the nation’s workers are going to put even more of your spirit into the construction of the new path, the path

towards socialism”, Chavez said during the signing.

The former lieutenant colonel also made a call to private business owners to play their part in promoting social justice by contributing their fair share to the well-being of the workforce.

“More than sacrifices, these are efforts to increase the generation of national wealth and later to achieve the fair redistribution of that wealth”, Chavez said.

With the phrase “Social Justice!” written next to his signature, the Venezuelan President informed that a new legal mechanism, tied to the executive branch and ratified by the Supreme Court, will be devised to ensure compliance with the law.

Private businesses will have one year to adjust to the new changes demanded by the law, Chavez explained.

WORKER SUPPORT Before the signing of the legislation, a number of groups took

to the streets of Caracas last weekend to voice their support for the measure and to encourage the socialist government of Hugo Chavez to sign the bill into law.

On Saturday, a caravan of small farmers from all over the nation rode through the capital, displaying their backing for the legislation, which gives agricultural workers new legal rights.

“The new law allows [agr icu lt u ra l] producers to enroll in Social Security, achieving what we have argued for a long time.

Comandante [Chavez], now we are here to defend this law”, said Jose Zambrano, a farmer activist from the state of Carabobo.

Braulio Alvarez, congressman from the state of Yaracuy and a member of the presidential commission that drafted the law praised the efforts of the socialist government to push the reforms through and change the nature of labor in the country.

“When we talk about putting in motion the entire economic apparatus of the country, we’re talking about the generation of productive jobs that are being created with the vision of the new model that the country is building. Here we have consciousness, organization and a complete proposal for development”, Alvarez said during the caravan last weekend.

Various unions including the Bolivarian Confederation of Socialist Workers also expressed their support for the new law in the run-up to its passage while a massive rally of tens of thousands of trade unions and organizations took place in Caracas on Tuesday to back the measure and celebrate International Workers’ Day.

The artillery of ideas

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May Day celebrations demonstrate worker support for Venezuela’s Chavez, new labor law T/ COI P/ Presidential Press undreds of thousands of government supporters turned the streets of Caracas red last Tuesday as workers, students, and the elderly from all over the country descended on the capital to celebrate International Workers’ Day. With a march that began at Francisco Miranda Park in the east of Caracas and ended at O’Leary Square, participants danced to the rhythms of salsa and traditional Venezuelan music while listening to the voices of workers, trade unionists and government functionaries alike.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wrote about the march from his Twitter account: “Tremendous march, compadre! Let nobody get it wrong about our people and our workers! Long live our national independence!”

The event was made more festive this year than in previous May Day celebrations owing to two recent developments that have translated into greater benefits and well-being for the Caribbean American nation’s working class.

The first of those occurrences was the declaration in April of a 32 percent rise in the country’s minimum wage, bringing the lowest monthly rate for workers to 2,047 bolivars ($476), the highest in Latin America.

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The second major development was the signing last Monday of Venezuela’s new labor law

by President Hugo Chavez.

The new codification of workers’ rights provides a series of enhanced benefits including long-awaited severance pay, lengthened maternity and paternity leave, and the prohibition of subcontracting.

The law was the product of thousands of grassroots assem-

blies and workers’ councils that contributed proposals to the drafting of a bill that restores the benefits taken away in 1997 by the neoliberal government of former president Rafael Caldera.

Jose Gabeza, an electrical worker present for the march, spoke of the significance of the new legislation for his trade.

“We’d like to congratulate President Chavez for the passage of the new labor law which

has been important for us electrical workers in particular.

There used to be 4,000 of us subcontracted workers and now with the new law, we’re going to become a formal part of the electrical industry. This is going to help not only our families and our country but all of Latin America”, Gabeza said.

Gabriela de Santiago, a sixmonth pregnant woman participating in the activities on Tues-

day echoed Gabeza’s enthusiasm for the new law.

“I wanted to get involved in the celebration to support the labor law because as part of the benefits will be an increase in postnatal maternity leave which will give me greater time to nurse my child”, de Santiago said.

Another significant message of Tuesday’s demonstration was the unwavering support exhibited by the nation’s workers for President Hugo Chavez as he undergoes cancer treatment in Cuba and prepares for elections on October 7.

“This is only possible in revolution, with Chavez as president”, said Carlos Castro, a marcher on Tuesday, in reference to the new labor law and the rise in minimum wage.

A recent poll released by the Center for Statistical Data Measurement and Interpretation (Cemide) places Chavez’s support at more than 31 points higher than his closest presidential rival, opposition candidate Capriles Radonski.

“To all the world we are saying that our people are mobilized around the leadership of President Chavez and we are committed to the construction of socialism”, said Venezuelan Oil and Mining Minister, Rafael Ramirez at the rally.

Venezuela to withdraw from biased Inter-American Court of Human Rights T/ COI enezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that Venezuela would be withdrawing from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Iachr), an autonomous entity within the Organization of American States (OAS) and Inter-American system.

Speaking live on public radio and television Monday, Chavez declared, “How long are we going to sit under a Damocles’ sword?

The IACHR is a tool that the United States uses against us”.

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The announcement came shortly after the Venezuelan head of state revealed he would be convening the nation’s Council of State, a constitutionally-mandated organ of government to oversee and analyze important decisions affecting the country. “The first thing I request [of the new state council] is a rapid study and recommendations so that Venezuela can withdraw immediately from the sadly celebrated Inter-American Court of Human Rights”, he said.

Chavez explained that this decision would allow Venezuela to continue advancing with sov-

ereignty, “We’re an independent country,” he said.

He argued that the first country to break international human rights laws is the United States, yet it uses the court to attack Venezuela. The United States is not a member of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights despite the fact that it’s referring body, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, is based in Washington.

Chavez also announced that award-winning writer and constitutional scholar Luis Britto Garcia and veteran investiga-

tive journalist Jose Vicente Rangel would form part of the state council. He asked the council to write a “well sustained report to send to the governments of the world and regional organizations such as Celac, ALBA and Unasur” explaining Venezuela’s reason for withdrawal.

The Iachr has served as a bastion for claims by anti-Chavez groups against the Venezuelan government, in an attempt to portray the Chavez administration as a human rights violator.

In 2002 during a brief coup d’etat against President Chavez, the

Iachr openly backed the coup leaders and pledged support for their “dictatorship”.

Venezuela has made major advances in human rights during the past decade, including providing ample guarantees in the areas of healthcare, education, nutrition, culture, freedom of expression, voting, women’s rights, indigenous people’s rights and freedom of association and participation for all citizens. This progress has been applauded by the United Nations and other international organizations.

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4 | Social Justice

The artillery of ideas

NoÊ£äÇÊU Friday, May 4, 2012

Venezuelan government boosts economic assistance to needy mothers

T/ COI P/ Agencies n a move designed to provide further assistance to Venezuelans living in economically precarious conditions, President Hugo Chavez approved last weekend the disbursement of 234 million bolivars ($54.4 million) in new financial benefits to women living in extreme poverty.

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The measure was announced on Saturday during a phone call to a state television program celebrating the 2nd anniversary since the launch of the Venezuelan president’s Twitter account, @chavezcandanga.

“This is a measure of support while [the women] overcome critical poverty that many mothers are still dealing with”, Chavez said during the call.

According to the head of state, the stipends will benefit some 100,000 women belonging to the government program Mission Mothers of the Barrio, an assistance program founded in 2006 to provide impoverished women with access to income generating activities.

Some of the assistance provided by the state program takes the form of low-credit loans for

Venezuela’s Housing Mission on track for 2012 target T/ Ewan Robertson www.venezuelanalysis.com s part of the Venezuelan government’s mass house construction program, 41,863 houses have been built so far this year equating to 21% of the 2012 aim of 200,000 new houses, according to the latest report from the government’s housing body.

Housing minister Ricardo Molina confirmed that with the new figures, 188,851 houses have been built since the Great Housing Mission (GMVV) launched in 2011, 53% of the combined 2011 – 2012 goal of 350,000 new homes.

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The housing body’s national coordinator Rafael Ramirez explained last month that while over 26,000 houses were completed in the first three months of 2012, 253,000 are currently under construction, and that the government expects to meet its 2012 construction target. The housing body including ministers of housing, defense, environment, industry, and communes.

In March President Hugo Chavez approved another 21 billion bolivars ($4.9 billion) to support housing projects for the 2013-2014 period. “We’re going to have 416,729 housing

units in construction”, said Ramirez.

April’s housing body report came as the Venezuelan government handed over 2,351 new houses to families across Venezuela yesterday. Families pay for the houses through government subsidized loans based on family income.

“Thanks to socialism and the [Bolivarian] Revolution, these families will sleep under a dignified roof as our people deserve”, said Interior and Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami at a handover ceremony in western Tachira state.

Of the 41,863 houses built so far this year, 30% were built by

the creation of socially productive economic units including small scale agricultural projects and community-based businesses.

As an example of these projects, just last week more than 12 million bolivars ($2.79 million) were provided to women in the plains state of Barinas for agrarian and manufacturing programs.

“The women of Barinas will continue to get involved in the agricultural development of the nation in order to work with dignity and without neglecting their families”, said the Minister for Women’s Affairs and Gender Equality, Nancy Perez, who was present for the funding disbursement.

Jenifer Mendoza, spokesperson for one of the beneficiary organizations, the Socio-Productive Unit Las Vencedoras, expressed her organization’s willingness to work with the government to contribute to greater agricultural production for the nation.

“Our commitment is to continue to utilize the richness of the soil in the Venezuelan

the private sector and 70% by the public sector.

Housing minister Molina highlighted that 61% of public sector housing had been built with the involvement of communities and grassroots organizations, and lauded “the organized people working hand in hand with the revolutionary [state] institutions, developing the strategy outlined by ...

Chavez”.

The GMVV was launched in May 2011 with the aim of resolving Venezuela’s long term shortage of good quality affordable housing.

The program aims to build 3 million new homes by 2019, after a nationwide registration carried out from May to October last year revealed that 3.7 million heads of families in Venezuela lack their own home or require improvements to their housing.

plains. Thanks to the funding programs the government is providing for women, we can do that”, Mendoza said.

HELP FOR THOSE IN NEED The new assistance announced by Chavez last Saturday would provide 80 percent of the country’s minimum wage of 2,047 bolivars ($476) monthly to women in a situation of critical need.

The stipends, the socialist leader informed, will further strengthen the Mothers of the Barrio assistance program but will only be necessary for a diminishing number of women.

“Many of the women [belonging to the program] have stopped receiving this assistance because they now have productive projects and are receiving credits”, the Venezuelan President said, making note of the temporary character of the allowance.

The head of state informed that the new benefit will be funded by the profits of the publiclyowned Bank of Venezuela which was bought-out by the Chavez administration in May 2009.

While the funding forms part of the Venezuelan government’s fight against extreme poverty in the country - something that has already been reduced by more than half over 12 years - the initiative also follows on a series of other policy initiatives designed to address women’s issues in the country.

Apart from the Mothers of the Barrio Mission, the government has also introduced the Women’s Ministry, a Women’s Bank (Banmujer), and late last year the program Children of Venezuela which also provides resources to mothers in difficult economic conditions.

The government has additionally, through the Health Ministry, been building and renovating maternity hospitals and wards throughout the nation.

“We’ve been repaying an historic social debt as much as we can while accelerating our possibilities and creating instruments for development”, Chavez said on Saturday.

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Venezuelan government promotes “car-free” Caracas T/ Rachael Boothroyd P/ Agencies enezuelan citizens took to the streets of Caracas last week as part of the government’s “Caracas Free Wheeling” campaign, a plan aimed at reducing the unnecessary use of cars and promoting a healthier lifestyle for residents of the nation’s capital.

With a slogan of “Turn off the car and get active”, the campaign involves the closing of roads across the city from 7am to 3pm every Sunday so that cyclists, runners and skaters can have free rein over the capital - without worrying about Caracas’ infamously hectic traffic.

So far the Venezuelan government has spent over 30 million bolivars ($6.976 million) as part of an initiative to take back areas of the capital city for its citizens, with “Caracas Free Wheeling” as the latest project launched. Open

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air gyms and children’s parks have also been built across sectors of Caracas.

Jorge Rodriguez, the Mayor of Caracas, said the project’s

goal is to create spaces of “enjoyment and recreation” in the capital, and to “re-create a different city to that rushed metropolis which is full of cars”.

“Caracas is different if you travel it by bicycle, walking in the city is wonderful. There are spaces which have been recovered by the revolution for the en-

joyment of all Caracas residents and visitors”, he added.

Venezuelan families turned out in droves last Sunday to take advantage of the closed roads, either bringing their own bicycles or borrowing one of the 200 government bicycles made available through a joint manufacturing project with Iran.

“We want to promote the use of bicycles and skates, to encourage people to walk freely in the streets”, said Manuel Valera from the Urban Guerrilla Cycling collective, who praised the initiative.

“You get to know Caracas in a totally different way and you fall in love with it”, he added.

The government hopes to keep progressively increasing the amount of “car-free areas” throughout the city, eventually bringing the total amount of routes to 17.5 kilometers. Another cycle path was opened Sunday, giving Caracas residents the option of three different routes spanning a distance of 8km.

The real Colombia scandal: When bedding prostitutes is worse than crimes against humanity Get caught with a hooker in your hotel room and it’s a firing offence; get caught desecrating the corpses of dead Afghans and – nothing T/ Finian Cunningham evelations from Colombia that up to 21 Secret Service agents and military officers, including five Special Forces, were entertaining prostitutes in their hotel rooms overnight while supposedly on security duty ahead of US President Obama’s arrival for the Americas Summit in April, have resulted in swift retribution from superiors.

As news of the scandal broke, all 21 American individuals were immediately recalled to US headquarters and had their security clearances cancelled. So far, six secret service agents are out of their jobs.

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In this US election year, more sackings or “retirements” can be expected soon as the White House tries to limit the political damage from the president’s security detail, known as “jump teams”, being seen to be more occupied with jumping on prostitutes than would-be assassins.

“We demand that all of our employees adhere to the highest professional and ethical standards and are committed to a full review of this matter”, the Secret Service said in a statement.

Meanwhile, revelations from Afghanistan show yet more depraved behaviour by US military in that war-torn country. In the latest scandal, photographs published by the Los Angeles Times depict US paratroopers gloating over dead Afghan militants by holding up limbs of their dismembered corpses.

The barbaric images have prompted condemnations from President Obama and Defense

Secretary Leon Panetta. “This does not represent who we are”, asserted Panetta. He promised a full investigation and that those involved would be held to account.

Panetta’s promises of investigation and justice over the latest sickening violation of international law and morality by US forces in Afghanistan can be dismissed as disingenuous platitudes. The truth is that, unlike the Colombian hooker affair, there will be no immediate retribution against US personnel.

There will be no credible investigation. There will be no security clearances cancelled. No sackings.

Recall the incidents of US military urinating on Afghan corpses, hacking off body parts as war trophies, or being photographed humiliating prisoners in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, with mock executions and torture.

Recall, too, the track record of Washington’s response to these

and countless other atrocities and violations by US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq to realize that the latest obscenity will be shunted down the memory hole or, at best, spun out in some inconsequential tribunal.

How many days passed before the Pentagon reluctantly moved to bring charges against Sergeant Robert Bales over the coldblooded slaughter of 17 Afghans civilians, including women and children, in March?

The violation of corpses in Afghanistan by US military personnel is not some perverse, atypical act of a few individuals.

The crime is an integral part of a much bigger systematic crime: the violation of an entire population by the US ruling elite, headed up by the likes of Obama and Panetta.

Jumping on prostitutes in Colombia – some of them believed to be underage girls – by Secret Service agents and US military

officers is an offense to moral decency and an embarrassing scandal of indiscipline. It is also misconduct deserving sacking, according to Pentagon employment rules.

But in the eyes of the media tabloids, a CIA sex scandal is always front page news in comparison to the broader issue of crimes against humanity. Ask yourself: how does it comparewith desecrating dead Afghans and the many other atrocities committed by the American military in recent years including the rape and murder of children?

The rapid response for retribution in the Colombian hooker scandal from White House and Pentagon chiefs compared with the hackneyed platitudes and inaction over systematic war crimes does not just reflect a distasteful, distorted concern for public relations. It points to the perverse and criminal depth of the US ruling class.

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6 | Security

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Venezuela to host Institute of Higher Judicial Studies T/ COI P/ Agencies ver the weekend Venezuela’s democratic institutions received a new show of international support after judicial authorities from across the Americas and Iberian Peninsula selected the socialist democracy to host the Ibero-American Institute of Higher Judicial Studies. The decision, made in Buenos Aires during last week’s XVI Ibero-American Judicial Summit, flies in the face of recent opposition attempts to discredit the Venezuelan judiciary.

According to a press statement released by Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ), the countries tasked with elaborating the goals, objectives and reach of Ibero-American Institute of Higher Judicial Studies voted unanimously to support Venezuela’s offer to host the new institute. The group, coordinated

by Venezuela, included Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

Once the working group passed the Venezuelan proposal, it then went on to the summit plenary where it also received unanimous support.

The innovative institute is “of great importance”, explained the TSJ statement, “because it is within this entity that the judges of the future will be trained, thus strengthening all IberianAmerican judicial systems and the quality of services as they relate to the administration of justice”.

While the international institute is to be headquartered in Caracas, the TSJ statement also explained that internet-based technologies would be applied so that distance learning can be used for the initial stages of professional development.

Each country’s judicial authorities will select prospective candidates for the institute’s programs, all of whom will study both online and in Venezuela.

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VOTE OF CONFIDENCE Speaking to reporters, Supreme Court President Luisa Estella Morales explained, “Venezuela has now taken on, with full responsibility, the educational development of Ibero-America’s judges and is prepared to be doing so within a two-year period”.

Representing Venezuela at the summit were Supreme Court President Luisa Estella Morales, First Vice-President of the Higher Judiciary Omar Mora, and Director of the National Magistrates School Arcadio Delgado.

According to Morales. Venezuela was selected to host the institute because “it’s the only country in the world that has courts specialized in administering justice related to violence against women, violence against children, and against adolescents” as well as “a separate commission which studies the judiciary’s advances in these areas”.

In addition, Morales said, “in recent years the entirety of our country’s courts has been systematized and now meets all of the internationally-established standards with respect to applying justice”.

The Venezuelan initiative, approved by all those present at the XVI Iberian-American Judicial Summit, also received a special mention for the work undertaken; something Morales said “is really uncommon at these summits”.

According to its website, the Ibero-American Judicial Summit “is an organization that supports the cooperation and coordination of the judiciaries of the twenty three countries that comprise the Latin American Community of Nations”.

US-BACKED LAWLESSNESS While Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution continues its advance

in the administration of social, political, and economic justice, progress has not come without permanent attacks from the country’s anti-Chavez minority and their allies abroad. In the most recent example of attempts to discredit the Venezuelan government, right-wing media spent most of last week reproducing unsubstantiated claims by former Supreme Court Magistrate Eladio Aponte.

Aponte, who fled justice to Miami, was dismissed from the Venezuelan judiciary late last month after an inquiry regarding his links to jailed drug trafficker Walid Makled uncovered numerous illegalities. Of the numerous accusations against him, Aponte allegedly received a monthly sum of $US70,000 to protect Makled’s interests and, more specifically, granted the international drug kingpin false identification cards which al-

lowed him to move freely about the country.

Aponte received support from the US government, which flew him from Costa Rica to Miami on a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) airplane, after a fugitive Venezuelan banker, Eligio Cedeño, helped him flee justice from Venezuela to the Central American nation.

Positioning himself with the anti-Chavez community in Southern Florida, Aponte made a series of unsubstantiated claims linking the Venezuelan government to international drug trafficking.

According to Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, Aponte “sold his soul to the devil” long ago. The fact that he was deposed as a judge for his drug links and brought up on charges “demonstrates that there are laws in Venezuela” and that “no one is protected by narco gangs”, added Maduro.

Maduro also denounced the US role in the case, accusing the DEA of “protecting this man accused of links to drug trafficking mafias and turning him into a spokesman against Venezuela”.

Aponte’s claims against the Venezuelan judiciary are not the first to make international headlines. Since the beginning of Venezuela’s transition towards socialism, US-backed entities such as the Organization of American States (OAS) and Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (Iachr) have repeatedly attacked Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution.

In response to some of the most recent attacks on Venezuela, President Chavez on Monday instructed his Council of State to “begin an accelerated study on the elaboration of recommendations for the immediate withdrawal of Venezuela from the sadly infamous IACHR”.

Referring specifically to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which openly supports a number of opposition politicians and their disregard for the country’s courts, Chavez affirmed that “an independent nation” such as Venezuela has no need to participate in “a mechanism use against us by the United States”.

The Iachr expressed support for the April 2002 coup d’etat against Chavez and backed the briefly installed dictatorship, evidencing its clear bias against the Venezuelan government.

The artillery of ideas T/ Fidel Castro P/ Agencies he most demolishing article I have seen nowadays about Latin America was written

by Renan Vega Cantor, full professor at the National Pedagogical University of Bogota, which was published three days ago by the website ‘Rebelion’ under the title “Ecos de la Cumbre de las Americas” (Echoes of the Summit of the Americas).

It is a brief article and I should make no summary. Those who specialize on the subject can look it up at the aforementioned website.

I have referred more than once to the infamous agreement that the United States imposed on Latin American and Caribbean countries when the OAS was founded at the foreign ministers meeting held in the city of Bogota on April, 1948. Just by sheer coincidence, I happened to be there on that date, helping to organize the celebration of a Latin American students’ congress whose main goal was to struggle against the European colonies and the bloody tyrannies imposed by the United States in this hemisphere.

One of the most brilliant political leaders in Colombia, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, who had managed to unite, with ever growing strength, the most progressive sectors in Colombia that opposed the US miscreation, had offered his support to the celebration of the students’ congress. No one doubted he would win during the upcoming elections, but he was treacherously murdered. His death led to a rebellion that has kept alive for more than half a century.

Social struggles have been taking place throughout millennia, since human beings, by resorting to wars, were able to take hold of a surplus production to satisfy the essential needs of life.

As is known, the years of physical slavery, the most brutal form of exploitation, went on in some countries until a little more than a century ago, as it happened in our own homeland during the final stages of the Spanish colonial domination.

Even in the United States, the enslavement of African descendants continued until the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.

That brutal form of slavery was abolished there hardly thirty

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NoÊ£äÇÊU Friday, May 4, 2012

Analysis | 7 |

The oligarchs will never return to rule Venezuela

What Obama knows

years before it was abolished in Cuba.

Martin Luther King dreamed about the equality of black Americans until almost 44 years ago, when he was vilely murdered on April, 1968.

The accelerated development of science and technology has been a sign of our times. Whether we are aware of it or not, this is what will mark the future of humanity. This is an entirely new era. What prevails in every corner of this globalized world is the real struggle of our species for its own survival.

As for now, all Latin American nations, particularly our own, will be affected by the process that is taking place in Venezuela, the home country of the Liberator of the Americas.

I barely need to reiterate what you already know: the close links that exist between our people and the people of Venezuela and Hugo Chavez, the promoter of the Bolivarian Revolution and the United Socialist Party he founded.

One of the first actions promoted by the Bolivarian Revolution was the medical coopera-

President Obama knows this only too well and has talked about it with some of his visitors.

He candidly told one of them: “The problem is that the United States sends soldiers while Cuba, however, sends doctors” tion with Cuba. This is an area where our country has achieved a special prestige, which has been recognized today in international public opinion.

Thousands of health centers equipped with state-of-the-art technology manufactured by the world’s top industry have been founded by the Bolivarian government to provide medical assistance to its people. Chavez, for his part, did not choose to go to expensive private clinics to care for his own health. He trusted it to the same medical services he was offering to his people.

Besides, our doctors have devoted part of their time to the training of Venezuelan doctors in classrooms that have been properly equipped by the Venezuelan government. The people of Venezuela, regardless of their personal incomes, began to receive the specialized services offered by our doctors. Venezuela is now among nations with the best medical care in the world and their health standards have obviously begun to improve.

President Obama knows this only too well and has talked about it with some of his visitors. He candidly told one of them: “The problem is that the United States sends soldiers while Cuba, however, sends doctors”.

Chavez, a leader who has not had a minute of rest in the last twelve years and had an iron constitution, was, however, affected by an unexpected illness that was discovered and treated by the same specialized staff that usually assisted him. It was not easy to persuade him of the need to pay maximum attention to his own health. Since that moment, with exemplary

behavior, he has rigorously followed the treatment prescribed without neglecting his duties as Head of State and leader of his country.

I would dare to describe his attitude as heroic and disciplined. Not even for a single minute does he forget about his obligations; at times he does that to the point of exhaustion. I can attest to that because I have not ceased to be in touch and exchange with him. He has not stopped to devote his fertile intelligence to the study and analysis of the problems of his country. He finds the vile remarks and slanders of the spokespersons of the oligarchy and the empire to be amusing. I never heard him utter any insult or vile remarks when referring to his enemies. That is not his kind of language.

The enemy knows the features of his character and is multiplying its efforts with the purpose of slandering and attacking President Chavez. I, for one, do not hesitate in stating my modest opinion –which emanates from more than half a century of struggle- that the oligarchy will never again be able to govern that country.

That is the reason why the US government’s decision to promote the overthrow of the Bolivarian government under such circumstances becomes a source of concern.

Besides, to insist on a slanderous campaign stating that among the top leadership of the Venezuelan government there is a desperate quarrel to assume command of the revolutionary government if the President is not able to overcome his illness, is tantamount to building a gross lie.

Quite to the contrary, I have seen the closest unity among the leaders of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution.

Under such circumstances, any mistake made by Obama could provoke rivers of blood in Venezuela. Venezuelan blood is also Ecuadorian, Brazilian, Argentine, Bolivian, Chilean, Uruguayan, Central American, Dominican and Cuban blood.

It is necessary to bear in mind this reality when analyzing the political situation in Venezuela.

Is it now understood why the international workers’ anthem is a call to change the world by doing away with the bourgeois empire?

Friday | May 4, 2012 | Nº 107 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve

ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas

A publication of the Fundacion Correo del OrinocoÊUÊ ` Ì À ivÊEva GolingerÊUÊ À>« VÊ ià } ÊArisabel Yaya SilvaÊUÊ*ÀiÃÃÊFundación Imprenta de la Cultura

Chavez in 2012 fter 12 years in office, Chavez remains overwhelmingly favored for reelection in October. Given the alternative, most Venezuelans have a clear choice.

Poll numbers predict a sweep. IVAD has United Socialist Party of Venezuela’s (PSUV) Chavez leading the opposition umbrella group Democratic Unity Table’s (MUD) Henrique Capriles Radonski by a 57.6% to 26.6% margin.

Venezuela’s 21st Century Group of Social Investigation, a progressive think tank, predicts a similar result.

MUD officials supported the aborted 2002 two-day coup. Closely linked to Washington, democracy’s abhorred. It won’t be tolerated under a regime they control. Nor will Bolivarian populism.

The Washington Post called Capriles “a charismatic campaigner with a loyal following”. It said he promises to “rebuild democratic institutions”. Maybe April 2002 is his template.

The New York Times said he’s “the fresh-faced governor of Miranda, one of the country’s most populous states, which includes” much of Caracas.

Ignoring his fascist agenda, The Times also claimed he’s “a political moderate”. It suggested a “bruising and tight election campaign”. It quoted him saying Chavez “believes he is God. He thinks he can’t lose, and that’s very good for us”.

Primary results showed he won handily by 33 percentage points over Zulia state governor Pablo Perez in the opposition race.

Calling himself a social democrat, the Economist said he takes “a gradualist approach to restoring confiscated property, undoing currency controls and abolishing unconstitutional laws”.

In 2002, he was Baruta’s mayor, a wealthy municipality within the Caracas metropolitan area. He defended the coup.

He joined fascist gangs attacking the Cuban embassy. It was located in his former district. He violated international and Venezuelan law helping seize power. He never faced charges. Now he wants to be president. Imagine law, order, and justice if he’s elected.

He and other MUD officials represent wealth and power. Venezuelans want true democracy. Under Chavez, they’ve gotten it since 1999. They’re not likely to give it back.

On March 30, Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) made it official.

It set October 7 for the presidential elec-

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tion. On December 16, regional elections for state governors will follow.

Since registrations opened last year, 1,123,945 new voters joined the roles.

As of last October, nearly 18.2 million Venezuelans are eligible to vote. Chavez is running for the third time. He committed to recognize the results as announced.

Capriles stopped short of pledging to accept the results, saying only that “everything I’ve achieved in politics, I’ve achieved through the vote”. Not quite.

He participated actively in the 2002 coup.

Elections weren’t in sight or planned.

The will of the people thwarted by power grab politics. Expect little change of heart this year.

April marked the 10th anniversary of Washington’s coup attempt. Demonstrations, debates, exhibits, and workshops commemorated it. Plotters aimed to destroy Bolivarianism. Venezuelans had other ideas. Two days of mass protests reversed it.

April 13th’s “Day of National Dignity” and others following commemorated it. Thousands turned out supportively.

Chavez addressed them from the presidential palace (Miraflores) “people’s balcony”.

He said “(w)e demonstrated that a united people will never be defeated. Due to that, I beg you not only to maintain unity but to strengthen it, with our debates and criticisms, but unity and above all, more unity”.

Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro recalled Capriles’ coup plot complicity.

He said what happened marked the day that “fascism and the Venezuelan right showed its true face”.

Commemorations ran through April 19. They included a Revolutionary Youth Day and Great Patriotic Pole (GPP) national conference.

Chavez announced creation of an “Anti-Coup Command”. He was warned of a possible conspiracy against his government. Washington never stopped plotting to remove him. As long as he’s President, he’s vulnerable.

His health also remains an issue. He had three cancer operations and multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Back in Cuba for more, he called home to dispel rumors of his demise. Days of silence had people wondering.

On state television, he said “I think we will have to become accustomed to live with these rumors...because they are part of the laboratories of psychological war, of dirty war”.

Following the reoccurrence of cancer in February, Chavez had radiation treatment. Since mid-April, he’s received the treatment in Cuba.

Chavez said he’s doing well, still “recovering”. His “health exams have come out well”. Though radiation therapy isn’t easy, he’s able to “carry out (his) tasks as President”.

Recovering from cancer isn’t easy. Reoccurrence can follow remission. Chemotherapy and radiation have short and longer-term side effects. How severe depends on the type of cancer and how it’s treated.

Mark Twain once called reports of his death greatly exaggerated. The same holds for Chavez. He’s alive, recovering, and expected to win a third term in October. The stakes are high - Bolivarianism or fascism.

For most Venezuelans, it’s an easy choice. As long as Chavez stays active in politics, they’ll vote to keep him there.

Choosing a new PSUV leader can come later.