English Edition Nº 48

Pg. g 7 | Special p Report p

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Venezuela: the headlines you missed in 2010

Andrew Cockburn on the Pentagon’s efforts to classify China as a “threat” to US security

FRIDAY | January 21, 2011 | No. 48| Bs 1 | CARACAS

ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas

President Chavez calls for dialogue with opposition Fighting crime with humanity Caracas has been classified as one of the most violent and dangerous cities in the world and the Venezuelan government is doing its best to change this reality by getting guns off the streets, working with local communities to solve social problems and through the creation of a new national police force with humane values, free of corruption and repressive tactics. The National Bolivarian Police force will grow exponentially during 2011, affirmed government officials this week, citing major successes in reducing crime during the force’s first year of operation.

During his annual speech to the nation, the Venezuelan chief extended an olive branch to his opponents Despite opposition calls for international intervention to undermine the Chavez administration, the Venezuelan President reached out to his detractors during his annual “memory and accountability” speech given on Saturday, calling on them to join efforts for development and progress in the country.

Chavez asked for both opposition and socialist lawmakers to dialogue in the National Assembly and debate ideas, in order to create a more inclusive and open environment.

Politics

Opposition involved in arson Authorities disclosed that investigations into last week’s burning of a government building confirm opposition involvement.

International

Ecuador & Venezuela advance cooperation The two South American nations are now using a new currency, the Sucre, for trade and commerce.

Social Justice

Successes in aiding homeless, drug addicts The Negra Hipolita Mission celebrated 5 years of helping “people in need”.

MetroCable celebrates 1-year anniversary

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Coca-Cola workers on strike in Venezuela

ast week workers initiated an indefinite strike in a bottling and distribution plant of Coca-Cola Femsa in the Venezuean state of Carabobo. Workers are demanding a fair collective agreement, pay raises, food tickets and an on site cafeteria.

The 1,230 workers began the strike last Friday. According to Alexander Cedeno, president of the disciplinary tribunal of the plant, the workers haven’t had a collective agreement since June 2010.

Cedeno said the company had increased prices of beverages four-

fold, but had not increased workers’ wages. Workers at the plant earn 78 bolivars per day (US $18) and are asking for an increase of 45 bolivars (US $10.46 ).

Venezuela’s Labor Ministry authorized the strike and Marcela Maspero, leader of the National Union of Workers (Unete), also said the strike was legal, as workers had complied with all the steps required to initiate a strike, established in the Work Law. She also said Unete supported the workers. The company said in a press release that it had offered a wage in-

crease above the 2010 inflation and that it was concerned about the “25 million” people in the country (Venezuela’s population is 29 million) being able to buy the product.

Coca-Cola Femsa Venezuela said it would “continue working with authorities in the Labor Ministry to reach an agreement”.

In 2008 nearly 5,000 former CocaCola workers blockaded bottling facilities to demand compensation after they were laid off. Coca-Cola Femsa is currently the largest bottler of Coca-Cola in Latin America.

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enezuela’s innovative MetroCable system celebrated its first anniversary this Thursday with a record of more than one million people transported.

This unconventional transport system, the first one in the country, was built by the Chavez administration in order to provide creative solutions to Caracas’ unusual geography and attend to poor communities ignored by prior governments.

The urban cable transport system transports more than 3 thousand people daily who live in hard to reach neighborhoods situated on Caracas’ mountainous regions. In just nine minutes, the MetroCable goes from the top of the hillside to the subway.

The project also focuses on building interactive public spaces for the communities serviced, including exhibition halls, galleries, tourist lookout points, recreational centers, event rooms and health clinics.

On the occasion of its oneyear anniversary, the Caracas Metro company and communal councils from the San Agustin community, where the MetroCable is located, organized activities from January 20-30 including sports tournaments and cultural events.

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2 | Impact

NoÊ{nÊUÊFriday, January 21, 2011

The artillery of ideas

Chavez calls for dialogue with opposition my, provoked numerous protests from the country’s conservative student movement and other opposition actors.

“This law has a lot of strengths and a lot of weaknesses... it deserves to be widely discussed”, Chavez said at the time, requesting that a commission be set up to debate the reform across the country.

Reaching across the aisle to opposition lawmakers last Saturday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expressed his willingness to work with new conservative lawmakers and called for dialogue during his annual address to the nation’s legislative body, the National Assembly

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dopting a conciliatory tone, President Chavez spoke of his disposition to abdicate the special powers granted to him by the outgoing assembly last December, which permits the head of state to rule by decree for a period of up to 18 months.

“I will dissolve them”, he said of the powers granted to him through the country’s Enabling Law. “I have no problem [doing that]. I’m going to work harder and faster”, he affirmed, stating his administration could issue all necessary decrees to respond to the nation’s emergency situation

by May 2011, instead of the original 18-month period authorized.

The decree power, in accordance with the Venezuelan constitution, was approved at the end of last year to streamline relief efforts for victims of the torrential rains that have left more than 130,000 residents displaced in the country and severely affected agricultural production and infrastructure.

Under the Enabling Law, the Executive has the right to enact legislation within the scope approved by the parliamentary body without subjecting the individual decrees to further debate in the legislature. Nonetheless, the National Assembly continues to legislate within its authority as usual while an Enabling Law is in place. The law does not affect the legislature’s powers.

Members of the nation’s conservative opposition have accused the President and his supporters in the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) of passing the Law in order to override the authority of new opposition representatives who took their posts on January 5, although the Enabling Law does not impact or limit legislative powers.

The previous assembly, dominated by PSUV members as a result of an opposition boycott of congressional elections in 2005, have maintained that the measure was taken to deal strictly with the national emergency provoked by the rains.

Instead of utilizing the powers for the full 18 months as stipulated by the Law, Chavez agreed on Saturday to consider relinquishing his decree authority by May 2011 “so that nobody feels limited”.

“I’m willing to ask the National Assembly to revoke the extended time period of this [Enabling] law. We will create the laws we need to confront the emergency in the next 4 or 5 months”, he affirmed.

NATIONAL DIALOGUE During his speech, President Chavez also called for an end to the political hostility that has divided the country over the past ten years, offering an olive branch to an opposition that has employed acts of violence and economic sabotage to overthrow the elected leader.

“Members of the opposition: you believe that I am truly a demon with whom you cannot speak. And we [the PSUV] believe that you are demons with whom we cannot speak. Let’s put aside the demons and celebrate ideas, debate, and what is human”, he implored.

In 2002, the Venezuelan opposition orchestrated a bloody coup d’etat that left at least 17

people dead and hundreds more wounded. Later that same year, a prolonged oil industry lockout was employed by the business community in efforts to oust the popular leader from office. Many of those who spearheaded the coup and subsequent destabilization attempts were elected on the opposition ticket to the legislature and now sit in parliament.

Chavez and his supporters have responded to the illegal and anti-democratic tactics of the opposition by deepening the social programs and redistributive policies characteristic of their “Bolivarian Revolution”.

Although his political rhetoric has not been want of acrimony over the years, in a gesture of reconciliation in 2007, the Venezuelan President went as far as to grant amnesty for those involved in the planning and execution of the 2002 coup, which enabled those individuals to return to political life and win office in various regional and municipal governments and in the National Assembly.

GESTURES OF CONCILIATION A similar demonstration of Chavez’s willingness to compromise was exhibited earlier this month when he vetoed a controversial reform to the nation’s Education Law passed by the National Assembly.

The reform, which set new standards for university autono-

OPPOSITION REJECTION Members of the Venezuelan opposition have responded to the President’s call for further debate on Saturday as incredulously, accusing Chavez of playing “political games” to disguise the failures of the current government.

“The President of the Republic has once again bamboozled the Venezuelan people”, said Ramon Aveledo, head of the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) who accuses the Chavez administration of not meeting its goals with respect to housing construction and security.

According to opposition representative Edgar Zambrano, Saturday’s speech was “a message that doesn’t say anything. It doesn’t leave the bubble where everything is marvelous and that everything works and is positive”.

In addition to calling for dialogue, Chavez highlighted during his address the major gains that his government has made in poverty and unemployment reduction over the past 12 years as well as the vast increases that have been made in educational funding. He also outlined technological gains, including a 300% increase in Internet and computer usage due to his government’s policies that have included the installation of free computer and Internet access centers - called Infocenters - nationwide and the distribution of thousands of free laptops for school children.

Making reference to a brief meeting he had with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during Dilma Rousseff’s inauguration in Brazil, President Chavez also expressed his willingness to improve diplomatic ties with the United States and to maintain “good relations with the entire world”.

T/ Edward Ellis and Eva Golinger P/ Presidential Press

NoÊ{nÊUÊFriday, January 21, 2011

The artillery of ideas

International

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Venezuela and Ecuador Consolidate Bilateral Agreements, SUCRE Currency System with free Internet and computer usage - to Ecuador. This will involve Venezuelans training Ecuadorians, and mutual development of scientific and technical knowledge.

Another agreement involves a similar exchange of experiences, knowledge, and technology in both traditional and Western medicine.

Finally, the ministers and the President also discussed creating a joint investment fund for economic projects that mutually benefit Ecuador and Venezuela.

The two governments evaluate the progress of the agreements every three months.

According to Patiño, overall trade between the two countries reached US$1 billion in 2010, an amount he estimates will be exceeded this year.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro met on Monday with the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister, Ricardo Patiño, to evaluate the progress of their country’s bilateral agreements. Among the ambitious goals set during the meeting was an increase in the use of the sucre, a regional currency being used in trade between the two countries

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his month, according to Radio Mundial, Venezuela bought palm oil from Ecuador using the sucre. The first use of the sucre involved Venezuela selling Ecuador 15,000 tons of rice, for which Venezuela paid 1.89 million sucres (1.25 sucres to the dollar).

The sucre gets its name from the Spanish initials for Sistema Único de Compensación Regional, or Unified System for Regional Compensation, and is also named after Antonio Jose de Sucre, a Latin American independence leader who fought alongside Simon Bolivar.

DOLLAR INDEPENDENCE The sucre is a regional currency used in commercial exchanges between members of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA) – instead of the US dollar – in order to decrease dependence on

the dollar. It is presently a virtual currency but the long-term plan is to turn it into a hard currency.

Paying for goods with the sucre avoids the transaction costs incurred when using dollars on the international market and encourages a more stable trading system that is less influenced by global economic conditions.

“The development of the SUCRE from July [last year] to December has advanced at a moderate, but positive pace. Over 40 million [US] dollars in value was exchanged [between Venezuela and Ecuador], that is, over 38 million sucres, which represents an important

overall percentage of trade during that time”. said Patiño.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Maduro explained that the July to December trading served to “remove any doubts”, and that the aim is to eventually conduct all trade between the two countries using the sucre. For this year, the aim is “at least 50% of commercial binational trade”, he announced.

“This unified system of compensation of payments is a completely logical idea, and it’s been scientifically demonstrated that it is important, positive, and convenient for our countries”, Patiño added.

BILATERAL AGREEMENTS The foreign ministers and the Venezuela President also discussed their advancement on forty projects they are jointly developing, which can be categorized into six areas of cooperation: social sovereignty, energy sovereignty, security and defense sovereignty, productive sovereignty, financial and commercial sovereignty, and knowledge sovereignty.

Many of the agreements are centered on technology and knowledge exchange. One agreement includes taking Venezuela’s “Infocentros” – public centers

SOLIDARITY Maduro also thanked the Ecuadorian minister for the help and expressions of solidarity his country shared with Venezuela following the intense flooding towards the end of last year.

Ecuador sent Venezuela food and medicine on four occasions during December.

According to AVN, the most recent donation from Ecuador was on December 21st, when Ecuador sent 13 tons of medicine, water purifiers, and non-perishable food kits for those displaced by the rains.

T/ Tamara Pearson www.venezuelanalysis.com

Venezuela, Turkey advance energy and cooperation accords V

enezuelan authorities and a high-level Turkish delegation agreed to endorse cooperation accords in the energy field, informed Venezuela’s Minister of Energy and Oil, Rafael Ramirez.

Ramirez made the announcement on Wednesday during a meeting he held with Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz to consolidate and advance different cooperation agreements in energy and housing matters, amongst others.

The Republic of Turkey is highly industrialized and has a strategic geopolitical location between Europe and Asia, so Ramirez expressed there is a possibility to cooperate in the whole chain of the energy sector.

He announced that Turkish oil companies may develop production work in the Orinoco Oil Belt by creating joint ventures with the Venezuelan government. Teams from the two nations are already working to identify opportunities

in at least two of the blocs that contain certified oil reserves. The Orinoco Belt, located in southeastern Venezuela, contains the world’s largest oil reserves, the majority of which have yet to be exploited.

HOUSING DEVELOPMENT During their meeting in Caracas, Ramirez and Yildiz talked about refining Venezuelan oil in Turkey and the supply of products to dynamize Turkey’s economy.

The two officials also discussed the issue of infrastructure development in the Orinoco region and the possibility of Turkish investment in housing development in Venezuela.

Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz expressed his contentment with the meeting held with Venezuela’s Ramirez.

“Venezuela is a great oil producer and we need that energy.

So, we can do business together,

broadly, and we have held very fruitful meetings”, he exclaimed.

Yildiz commented that Turkey will move forward with cooperation in housing matters immediately to support Venezuela after the situation caused by heavy rains in 2010, which left over 130,000 Venezuelans homeless.

In matters of housing construction, Turkey rates second behind China.

T/ Venezuelan News Agency

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4 | Politics

NoÊ{nÊUÊFriday, January 21, 2011

The artillery of ideas

Venezuela: Arrests Made in Arson of Government Building, Opposition Involvement Arson caused blackout in six Venezuelan states

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he Venezuelan police have apprehended nine people in connection with the torching of a government office in the western state of Zulia earlier this month and have issued arrest warrants for four others believed to be behind the criminal act that left in ashes the regional headquarters of the National Land Institute (INTI).

Among those still being sought is Carlos Javier Benavides, president of Zulia’s landowners association and activist in the opposition political party A New Era (UNT).

The fire took place in the early morning of January 8th when the INTI office in the town of Santa Barbara was set ablaze, devastating some 70 percent of the agency’s infrastructure and destroying important documents relating to land tenancy in the state.

INTI, the government agency in charge of carrying out Venezuela’s land reform policies, had spearheaded government plans to expropriate 47 massive unproductive estates in and around the state of Zulia in recent weeks.

The order to expropriate the landholdings, known as latifundios, was announced by President Hugo Chavez in December in order to provide land and work opportunities for impoverished small farmers displaced by recent torrential rains.

The torching of the INTI office occurred just days after the announcement, raising suspicion

of opposition and landowner involvement in the arson.

OPPOSITION INVOLVEMENT Interior and Justice Minister, Tarek El Aissami, confirmed this suspicion on Sunday, declaring that criminal investigations of the fire had led to an arrest warrant being issued for the opposition activist Benavides.

“We have collected evidence that links [Carlos Benavides] to the planning of the terrorist act.

For this reason the Public Attorney’s Office has solicited, and the corresponding tribunal has emitted, an arrest warrant”, El Aissami informed.

Among the opposition activists already detained for the crime are Carlos Soto, also described to be a leader of the party A New Era (UNT) and businessman Jose Urdaneta.

According to El Aissami, Soto and Urdaneta “formed part of a group of people that delivered a portion of the payment for the criminal and terrorist act”.

Landowners and opposition groups have rejected the government’s investigation, calling it politicized and without merit.

Manuel Cipriano, head of the national landowners’ association FEDENAGA, said that the accusations against opposition activists come as “no surprise”.

“We [landowners] are least interested in carry out a crime like this

because we knew that it would be blamed on us”, Cipriano said.

Venezuelan Vice President, Elias Jaua, defended the investigations, however, reiterating the forensic transparency and the political motivation of the crime.

“The motivation of those who burned the INTI headquarters is political. It’s not that the investigation is being politicized. It’s a political act of sabotage and terrorism”, Jaua said on Tuesday.

INTI AN OPPOSITION TARGET Since the passage of the Land Law by President Hugo Chavez in 2001, INTI has worked with small farmers throughout the country to redistribute unproductive latifundios.

This mandate has put it on the front lines of the battle raging over land tenancy in Venezuela for the past ten years.

In 2002, INTI official Jose Huerta was shot in the state of Zulia while another employee, William Prado, was murdered in the state of Guarico last August.

Former INTI worker and leader of land occupations, Nelson Lopez, was also murdered in the state of Yaracuy in February of 2009.

Many of the attacks against government officials have come in the form of contracted killers – thugs paid to carry out the crimes of wealthy landowners in efforts to intimidate farmers from reclaiming unproductive lands.

The masterminds of these crimes, known in Spanish as “autores intelectuales” or intellectual authors, are rarely prosecuted due to the power and influence they continue to wield at the local level.

With the detention and successful prosecution of those behind the arson in Zulia, however, that trend may be ending.

“We’re going to deepen the investigation and arrest the people that haven’t been apprehended”, El Aissami said of the fire. “Justice will be done. We can’t return to the past when impunity reigned”, he declared.

The state of Zulia, one of Venezuela’s largest and most powerful, is governed primarily by the opposition UNT party. Previous governor and mayor Manuel Rosales, who ruled for over 20 years in various positions in the state, fled Venezuela in 2009 after charges of severe corruption were levied against him and an arrest warrant had been issued. Current governor Pablo Perez, while from the same party, has taken a more moderate position. Differing from others in his party, who refused to even acknowledge a crime had been committed, Perez called for a thorough investigation and for the “full extent of the law” to be employed against those responsible.

T/ Edward Ellis P/ Agencies

n yet another case of arson in Venezuela, a fire deliberately set in the fields around electrical substation Acarigua, in the central state of Portuguesa, caused a blackout that affected six states in the country’s central western region.

Director of Operations and Commercialization of Venezuela’s national electrical company Corpoelec, Pedro Torrealba, explained that temperatures raised due to the arson caused the expansion of transmission line 115 and the collapse of one thousand megawatts of electricity.

“Unscrupulous hands set fire to weeds surrounding the substation, on private lands.

This caused high temperatures, which expanded the conductors of transmission lines”, Torrealba said.

Torrealba announced that investigations are underway by local and national authorities and the power supply should be normalized entirely by the end of this week.

The Corpoelec Director also urged that customers, community councils and the public in general inform authorities and local security about any irregular situation they may observe.

In accordance with reports from Corpoelec, the central western states of Barinas, Zulia, Apure, Tachira, Trujillo and Portuguesa were the most affected areas. Thousands were without power for days.

T/ Venezuelan News Agency P/ Agencies

NoÊ{nÊUÊFriday, January 21, 2011

The artillery of ideas

Security

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Venezuela: Reducing Violent Crime with Humane Policing BUILDING SUCCESSES Given the success of the PNB in the capital, the government plans to increase the number of officers on the streets by 12,500 over 2011 and expand the areas where the force is deployed to the states of Tachira, Carabobo, Zulia, Lara, Aragua, Miranda and Anzoategui.

Vice President Elias Jaua announced last Sunday the Venezuelan government’s intentions to restructure the nation’s police force in a move designed to reduce violent crime in the country and improve public security throughout the national territory

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he announcement came during a special program broadcast by the state run television station, VTV, where Vice President Jaua and Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro outlined the need to break away from a vision of security historically rife with corruption and malfeasance.

“We’re dismantling a perverse police structure where there were torturers linked to human trafficking and mafias. [We’re doing this] in order to create a new, humanistic police force with new ethics”, Jaua said.

COMMUNITY POLICING In 2010, the Chavez government created the National Bolivarian Police (PNB) force as an answer to the high indexes of violent crime that have plagued the country.

The PNB incorporates a community based approach to crime fighting and prevention, working with neighborhood organizations and subjecting aspiring cadets to a rigorous training process that includes higher education classes at the new National Experimental Security University (UNES).

During its first year of existence, the force has been active in the areas in and surrounding the capital city of Caracas where it has registered dramatic decreases in crime.

According to official numbers, the PNB has reduced overall crime by 57% in the municipality of Sucre, one of the roughest areas of the capital where it has been most present.

Homicides have been reduced by 44% in the municipality, while theft has declined by 66% and cases associated with gender violence have diminished by 64%.

ZERO REPRESSION “The National Police bases its action on humane treatment and respect for human rights”, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said during the graduation ceremony of more than a thousand new officers in December.

Such ethics, Vice President Jaua commented on Sunday, are in stark contrast to the security measures adopted by previous governments that have used terror to convert neighborhoods into “ghettos, harassed by police forces where they carry out combat and aerial strikes”, he said.

“This is something that a democratic government like that of President Chavez is not going to do”, he affirmed.

Also speaking on Sunday, Inte-

rior and Justice Minister, Tarek El Aissami, announced government plans to embark on a national gun control program in order to “regulate the ownership of arms and ammunition”.

El Aissami expressed the need to clamp down on a illegal weapons in the country as well as fight against the glorification of crime and violence as promoted by the private media.

“It’s not possible to conceive of a plan of regulation and control of arms and ammunition without disarming these anti-values.

How can a youth or adolescent or anybody who gains access to a weapon take the life of another human being?” he reflected.

According to both Minister El Aissami and Vice President Jaua, in addition to strengthening police efforts, the government needs to continue expanding its social programs, such as the educational, health, and sports and recreation “missions”, in order to promote a greater sense of community and foster “a culture of peace” in the country.

T/ Edward Ellis P/ Agencies

Venezuela increases citizen education to fight against violence I

mproving the training of police officers and citizens’ education are key elements towards making progress in the fight against violence and to create a “culture of peace”, proclaimed Venezuelan Interior and Justice Minister Tarek El Aissami on Sunday, while he informed about the new plans designed by the Bolivarian Government to reduce crime and homicide rates in the country.

The Venezuelan Minister pointed out that in addition to the importance of security programs, it is necessary “to get rid of antivalues and strengthen our integral and spiritual education towards a life model that respects human beings”.

To achieve such goals, the Chavez administration is advancing in the education of citizens as the best way to eradicate violence, through educational programs and the creation of the National Experimental Security University (UNES).

Likewise, El Aissami underscored

that the media have a significant role to play in this issue and humane feelings and values of humanity and solidarity must be rescued.

“It’s not possible to design an arms and ammo regulation and control plan without disarming antivalues first”, said El Aissami during a press conference held in the Interior and Justice Ministry.

INCREASE OF OPERATIVE CAPACITY El Aissami announced that his office is designing a plan to strengthen the operative capacity of public security entities. The schedule, strategy and the number of officers from the Citizen Security Bicentenary Plan (Dibise) and the Bolivarian National Police (PNB) who will be involved in this new initiative will be made public over the next few days.

In addition, he informed that this year, 500 investigative agents trained in 2010 will receive their

the Capital District of Caracas. Seventy-eight percent of the nation’s crime is focused in these regions.

diploma and new officers will be trained to continue reinforcing the Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigation Police Force (CICPC).

“We will keep equipping all the police departments, the CICPC, public security bodies and the Armed Forces”, he explained.

Likewise, he recalled that in regions with higher crime rates, where Dibise was deployed, criminality has been reduced.

“We have not just stopped the increase of homicides, but we have also reduced them, perhaps a slight reduction, but it shows that it was the right decision and that this is a key policy which will bring us closer to a culture of peace”, he confirmed.

The states where Dibise has been deployed are Zulia, Tachira, Carabobo, Lara, Miranda, Aragua, Barinas, Bolivar, Anzoategui and

DISARMAMENT SQUARE El Aissami also referred to the new “plan disarmament square”, which consists of getting arms and ammunition out of communities, while additionally “disarming” antivalues.

“The first area of disarmament consists of regulating the possession of weapons and ammunitions”, he explained.

Then, he continued, “We must disarm the violence of society’s antivalues”. El Aissami pointed out that all the experiences and theories related to disarmament, involve a social and ethical component of creating a “new society”, with citizens focused on communal living and caring for one another.

T/ CO P/ Agencies

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6 | Social Justice

NoÊ{nÊUÊFriday, January 21, 2011

The artillery of ideas

Venezuela Marks Five Years of “Mission Negra Hipolita” Focused on drug rehabilitation and finding homes for the homeless, this program is an important component of the Chavez administration’s policies aimed at social justice and poverty reduction

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enezuela celebrated five years of the “Negra Hipolita Mission” this week, the Bolivarian Revolution’s social program aimed at caring for those Venezuelans in the most extreme situations of critical poverty. The homeless, and those addicted to drugs, are some of the Mission’s principal beneficiaries.

After five years in operation, the Mission currently operates 26 “Centers of Social Inclusion” in which, during 2010 over 3,390 people were treated by the Mission’s System of Attention for Citizens Living on the Streets.

Providing 24-hour a day access to professional care for 1,200 people at any given time, these Centers attend to “socially excluded” persons identified by the Negra Hipolita Brigades – multidisciplinary teams of trained health and welfare specialists who work with local communities and legal authorities to identify “people in need”.

In addition to the Mission’s treatment centers, an additional 46 “Negra Hipolita Tents” are currently distributed throughout the country. There, information is provided to the general public on the Mission’s goals, objectives and services available. The Mission also operates a free hotline through which those in need or those looking to aid friends and family can call and access the Mission’s services.

Radio Mundial reported that

in 2010 the Mission organized 20 artistic groups made up of 300 people living at “Centers of Social Inclusion” and that 90% of all Venezuelans currently cared for by the Mission are involved in some sort of sports and recreation. In addition, all beneficiaries have accessed some degree of capacity building services (literacy programs, job training, social reinsertion and productive work) after becoming incorporated into the program.

CELEBRATING FIVE YEARS OF HUMANITY To mark the five-year anniversary of the Mission, a concert was organized last Friday entitled, “Culture as an Expression of Inclusion”.

Held in the Caracas neighborhood of Catia, performers came entirely from the Mission’s patient-organized artistic groups.

During 2011, three additional Centers of Social Inclusion are to be built by April (with capacity for 240 people in recovery) while the na-

tional government is soon expected to create a “National Fund for SocioProduction” with the objective of financing the Mission’s economically productive projects. Also, in conjunction with Venezuela’s National Statistics Institute, the Mission plans to conduct a national census of all those who are currently homeless.

The Mission uses a three-phased approach to social reinsertion: 1) Identifying and conducting an initial assessment of the medical, psychiatric and social condition of each “excluded” citizen, identifying the possible need for “rehabilitation”; 2) Providing an all-in rehabilitation process (food, clothes, shelter as well as medical care, job training, support groups, etc.); and 3) Guaranteeing a therapeutic process of accompaniment in which the newly integrated citizen can re-connect to the Mission as they develop themselves as healthy members of society.

Negra Hipolita was an AfroVenezuelan slave owned by the family of Simon Bolivar. Due to his own mother’s illness, Bolivar was breastfed by Hipolita and is said to have held great esteem for her as a result of the care and attention she provided to him as a young, rebellious child. In 1825, in a letter written to his sister Maria Antonia, he refers to “our mother Hipolita” and insists that she be cared for by the Bolivar family.

T/ Juan Reardon www.venezuelanalysis.com

Enabling Act Will Protect Human Rights of Venezuelans V

enezuelan President Hugo Chavez reiterated this week that the controversial Enabling Law approved in December by parliament is necessary to guarantee the human rights of those Venezuelans affected by the torrential rains that caused a national emergency at the end of 2010 and left over 130,000 homeless.

On Tuesday, the Venezuela head of state enacted a decree to guarantee the construction of humane shelters and refuges for those awaiting new homes after the heavy rains of 2010 that left them displaced. The decree was one of many that will be issued under the Enabling Law. Chavez has assured that the law, which gives the Executive Branch legislative

powers, will not be used for anything other than issues relating to infrastructure, housing, economy and social policies, as they relate

to the national emergency. “Let me work because I am working for the people”, President Chavez asked of the opposition. He reit-

erated he would not give up his duty to legislate to deal with the emergency, “because we have the responsibility to provide peace to children, young people, the elderly and pregnant women, for whom we will continue working tirelessly”.

Chavez also remarked that the decrees enacted by means of the Enabling Law would be widely debated and consulted with those affected, so they can decide their futures and be involved in the process.

Concerning the shelters disposed for those affected by the rains, Chavez recalled that these must be decent places. “Our obligation is to transform the shelters into decent places, into places of

social justice, with rights and quality of life, and not just survival spaces to pass time”, he said.

The Enabling Act was approved by the Venezuelan National Assembly for an 18-month period, which caused critics to claim Chavez was trying to install a dictatorship in the country. During his annual address on Saturday, President Chavez appealed to his detractors and said he would be willing to reduce the Enabling Law to five months, which, he explained, should be enough time to enact policies to respond to the emergency situation caused by the rains.

T/ Venezuelan News Agency P/ Presidential Press

NoÊ{nÊUÊFriday, January 21, 2011

The artillery of ideas

Special Report

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Venezuela: The Headlines You Missed in 2010 BICENTENNIAL YEAR KICKS OFF On April 19, 2010, Venezuela kicked off a year-long celebration of its bicentennial anniversary as an independent nation. The celebration will conclude on July 5, 2011, 200 years to the day that Venezuela formally declared its independence from the Kingdom of Spain.

DEMOCRACY KEEPS GROWING On September 26, over 11 million Venezuelans turned out to vote in the country’s legislative elections, a historic 66% showing that highlighted the continued consolidation of Venezuela’s system of participatory democracy.

Since President Hugo Chavez was first elected in 1998, Venezuela has held 16 local, regional and national elections, including a 1999 plebiscite on the country’s new constitution and a historic 2004 recall referendum. Additionally, once marginalized groups – such as women, Afro-descendents and indigenous tribes – now enjoy expanded constitutional rights.

Of Venezuela’s five branches of government, four were led by women until the end 2010.

The expansion of the country’s democratic institutions and citizen participation were reflected in the 2010 Latinobarometro report, a public opinion survey of 18 countries in Central and South America.

According to the report, 84 percent of Venezuelans support democracy – the highest proportion in the region and an increase from the 64 percent that supported it in 1997.

Additionally, the report showed that satisfaction with democracy in Venezuela has increased during President Chavez’s government.

In 1997 and 1998 satisfaction stood at 35 percent, rising to an average of 48 percent between 2000 and 2010 (in 2010 it reached 49 percent), third in the region behind only Uruguay (62 percent) and Costa Rica (53 percent), and above the regional average of 35 percent.

Fifty-three percent of Venezuelans approved of President Chavez’s government from 20022010, putting it fourth in the region behind Argentina, Colombia and Chile and tied with Brazil.

POVERTY AND INEQUALITY DECREASE The strengthening of Venezuela’s democracy has benefited not only from expanded political rights, but also a heightened emphasis on eco-

nomic and social rights.

A report issued by the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in October 2010 found that poverty in Venezuela dropped by 44 percent between 1998 and 2008, the single biggest decrease in the region. Additionally, in the same period Venezuela saw a 17.9-percent decrease in economic inequality, a rate five times that of its regional neighbors.

Venezuela’s continuing social advances led to a 10-spot jump on the UN’s Human Development Index from 1998-2008, as more Venezuelans have gained access to health, education and food. According to Venezuela’s National Institute of Statistics, $330 billion has been directed to social programs over the last 11 years – representing 66 percent of total tax revenues in the country.

That spending has gone to programs like Barrio Adentro, an innovative health initiative that places doctors and medical clinics in lowincome communities. It also funds programs like Mision Milagro – Miracle Mission – which in 2010 reached a significant milestone by having offered one million free eye surgeries to Venezuelans and citizens of other countries.

CABLE CAR GETS MOMA RECOGNITION A distinct part of the Caracas landscape was recognized in an important art exhibit this year – a cable car.

In the “Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures of Social En-

gagement” at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) the Metro Cable San Agustin – a cable car line connecting poor mountainside communities to downtown Caracas – was highlighted as one of eleven architectural projects on five continents that “respond to localized needs in underserved communities”.

The Metro Cable, which stretches high above Caracas, was first proposed in 2003, gained government support in 2006, started construction in 2007 and opened for service in January 2010. In its first year of operation it carried over 975,000 passengers. It runs from Parque Central in downtown Caracas up one of the mountains that ring the city’s valley, serving four stops, including the uppermost terminus, San Agustin.

The Metro Cable is a small part of an expanding network of services and connections being provided to isolated or underserved communities in Caracas and throughout Venezuela. Since 2003, a number of social programs launched by the government of President Chavez have brought much-needed medical services and educational facilities into neighborhoods that had never had them.

PRESIDENT CHAVEZ JOINS TWITTER In April 2010, President Chavez jumped into the world of social networking and joined Twitter.

Within two weeks, he was the most followed Venezuelan on the network – his username is @ chavezcandanga — In November 2010, he celebrated his one-

winning filmmaker Oliver Stone released his newest documentary, “South of the Border.”

The documentary follows the presidents of Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Ecuador, and Cuba as it analyzes the dramatic political, economic and social changes that have taken place in Latin America over the last decade. It also seeks to counter the misrepresentations by the media on those countries and their leaders.

In an interview with Democracy Now!, Stone explained what motivated him to make the documentary. “Chávez was sort of a natural, because he was such a demonized, polarizing figure. But when I met him, he was not at all what I thought, you know, what we made him out to be. So I went on from talking to Hugo. He suggested, you know, ‘Go talk to other people in the region. You know, don’t believe me necessarily’”.

“So we went around, and we talked to seven other presidents in six countries. And we got this amazing unity in saying…these guys are changing the way Latin America is, and we don’t know this story in America”, said Stone.

millionth follower, making him the third most followed head of state in the world (after President Barack Obama and the Office of the Prime Minister in the United Kingdom) and the single most popular elected leader using the service in Latin America.

In July 2010, Twitter co-founder Dom Sagolla recognized Chavez’s use of the service, noting at a conference that he was likely the only head of state doing their own tweeting. “There are a lot of presidents who use Twitter, but the case of Venezuela is unusual”. Recognizing the power of Twitter, as a direct means of communication, President Chavez has assigned a number of aides to follow up on citizen requests and concerns.

The use of online social networks mirrors a dramatic growth in access to the Internet in Venezuela. Since 2000, the number of Venezuelans with access to the Internet has grown from 800,000 to over 7.5 million. In 2000, only three percent of the Venezuelan people were online; in 2009, that number stood at 27 percent.

The Venezuelan government has moved aggressively to make access to the Internet free and universal. In recent years, 668 Infocenters – community-based Internet access points – have been founded, and $10 million was set aside to build 200 more in 2010.

The Infocenters were awarded a UNESCO prize in December 2010.

GAINS CONTINUE IN FIGHT AGAINST DRUGS Over the course of 2010, the Venezuelan government continued making gains in the fight against drug production and trafficking. During the year, various security agencies seized 63 tons of illegal drugs, bringing to 584 tons the total amount seized during the 11-year period since President Chavez took office.

Also in 2010, 12,627 people were arrested on drug charges, 17 drug kingpins wanted by Interpol were captured. Two of those kingpins were handed over to the U.S.’s Drug Enforcement Agency, while others were deported to the countries of their nationality or where they were wanted for international crimes.

During 2010 Venezuela continued cooperating in the fight against drug trafficking through 59 agreements with 38 different countries, including Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Portugal.

OLIVER STONE GOES “SOUTH OF THE BORDER” In July 2010, Academy Award-

T/ Venezuelan Embassy Press Office P/ Agencies

FRIDAY | January 21, 2011 | No. 48| Bs 1 | C ARACAS

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 Stealth Escalation

Pentagon Ecstatic Over New Chinese “Threat” O

nce upon a time, as the 1964 defense appropriations bill was making its way through congress, there came a somber moment when it looked as if the US Navy might actually receive a lesser increase in its appropriation than its hated Air Force rival. Then, just when all seemed dark, a Soviet November class nuclear attack submarine surfaced a few miles off San Francisco Bay. Instantly, the situation on the battlefield was reversed, as press and congress urged emergency budgetary measures to ward off the looming threat of the Red Navy. Queried at a Pentagon press conference as to the convenient coincidence of the sub’s appearance, the chief navy flack simply smiled and said “I don’t know; we just got lucky I guess”.

For much of the 1990s, luck deserted our military industrial complex.

Its formerly reliable Soviet partners ceased to play their part, leaving the Pentagon to scour the world for a “peer or near peer competitor”.

There were hopes, always futile, for a reconstituted USSR, or perhaps an emergent China (always popular on the right in those days) which was followed by the putative menace of regional competitors, (Iran, Iraq, North Korea) combining against the US. Help finally came from the CIA’s former Jihadi ally Osama bin Ladin, whose 9/11 attack sufficiently traumatized society to allow the Pentagon to spend any money it wanted on anything it wanted, relevant to the task at hand or not. Even so, old hands yearned for the days when a military spend-up could be justified by whatever the other guy was up to, especially with ominous talk circulating in Washington about restraining (not cutting of course) the defense budget.

Now, just like that long-ago Soviet sub captain, the Chinese have stepped up to the plate.

Our Asian friends have suddenly offered a titillating peek from an airfield in Chengdu at their newest

warplane, described as a radar-evading “stealth” fighter like our own F-22.

The reaction from some quarters has been predictably enthusiastic.

“From what we can see, I conclude that this aircraft does have great potential to be superior in some respects to the American F-22, and could be decisively superior to the F-35”, claims Richard Fisher, a senior fellow on Asian military affairs at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, a Washingtonbased security think tank.

Other denizens of the militaryindustrial complex have pushed hyperbole further, with predictions that the plane — though it looks enormous in the photographs — may be pretty much invisible to radar.

“You can tell it has some serious stealth technology”, proclaims one former Navy pilot now in the defense investment business quoted

by Fox News. “My F-18 looks like an 18-wheeler on radar. That thing might not even show up”.

Arriving in Beijing shortly after the news broke, US Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has added his own voice of concern. “We knew

they were working on the stealth aircraft”, he said. “What we’ve seen is that they may be are somewhat further ahead in the development of that aircraft than our intelligence had earlier predicted”.

To those with fond memories of the Cold War, when it seemed that the arms race was a two-nation affair, things are moving in a familiar pattern. Reading Aviation Week & Space Technology in those days left you with your heart in your mouth, as it regularly broadcast the news that Soviet techno-military ingenuity was on the point, again, of overwhelming our own puny and underfunded efforts. “The Soviet Union is producing and fielding inventory aircraft with major performance improvements at twice the US aircraft production rate”, ran one typical jeremiad in June 1982.

“The NATO technological lead is decreasing”.

It was never true. Soviet warplanes always suffered from a fundamental deficiency of “short legs” — insufficient range — due to heavier airframes -- retarded (deficient metalworking technology) -- and shorter-lived engines (ditto), not to mention myriad other deficiencies.

Whenever actual examples of some highly touted Soviet warplane arrived on public view in the West, the reality invariably fell far short of the advance billing. When the MiG-25 Foxbat, once promoted in Aviation Week and elsewhere as a wonder plane that could fly vast distances at 3 1/2 times the speed of sound, was inconveniently delivered by a defecting pilot to Japan in 1976, it turned out to have one-third the advertised range and engines that melted well short of the advertised speed.

Anyone speculating that the Chinese turn out a better product should know that their efforts to rip off the Russians by copying Russian engines have produced only engines that make the Russians look good, forcing them to rely on the original product, deficient as that may be.

One characteristic of Soviet military aviation culture that the Chinese may indeed be emulating was deference to US technological fashion. Thus, just as the US Air Force was concluding that the “swingwing” technology of the 1960s F-111 bomber had been a technological misstep, the Soviets produced

their own even more unwieldy Su24. Other bad ideas — especially in the field of electronics — were also regularly and dutifully duplicated on the other side of the Iron Curtain. (An official in the CIA’s Office of Strategic Analysis swore to me in the 1980s that the entire contents of Aviation Week were transmitted in encrypted form from the Soviet Embassy in Washington to Moscow as soon as it appeared on Monday mornings.)

If the Chinese have indeed invested the necessarily vast sums that an F-22 lookalike program would require, those disposed to fear the Middle Kingdom need only rejoice. The F-22s now in service with the US Air Force cost at least $355 million each (the total cost is probably higher); it is doubtful whether the F-22 can achieve “supercruise” — the ability to fly faster than the speed of sound without afterburners, once touted as a distinguishing feature — for more than a few minutes. Most tellingly, its vaunted stealth performance has proved sadly disappointing. Although it is indeed less visible (though never actually invisible) to tracking radars such as that carried on other fighters or air defense missiles, longer wavelength search radars can detect its presence at considerable distances. In 1999, the Serbs used radar defenses to down one F-117 Stealth fighter and severely damage another.

Unfortunately, while some may applaud a Chinese initiative to spend the money that Wal-Mart sends them on a weapon of dubious utility, we too may end up paying a price, as the “threat” of China’s J-20 is invoked to justify further increases in our own obscenely bloated defense budget.

Andrew Cockburn Andrew Cockburn published The Threat in 1983, the only accurate assessment of Soviet military potential in the 20 years before the fall of the Soviet Union.