March 2009 Archives

All, but All Venezuelans are potential targets of Chavista "justice" if they are perceived as being an obstacle to the purposes of the revolution or if they can be used to send a message to a given sector of the population (scapegoats). Examples abound, but here are just two:

The first is the case of Eligio Cedeño, who, at one time, was a businessman close to the President. No one knows when or why he fell from the regime's grace. What is known is that he has been yet another of Chávez's prisoners since January 13, 2007. Cedeño has been in prison for two years accused of alleged irregularities involving official dollars granted to the Microstar consortium. According to his lawyers, Cedeño's personal freedom and his right to effective protection under the law have been violated and, in depriving him of his freedom, injury has been done to his physical safety, psychological wellbeing, and moral integrity. The fact of the matter is that, even if there were valid grounds for charging him, according to the Criminal Code, Cedeño is entitled to his freedom until his case has been tried. Even so, he continues in prison and has not yet been brought to trial.

"We will not enter into this debate, this war of insults. This is so childish that we are not going to answer it," said the US Secretary of State in an interview that was recorded in her office in Washington on the eve of her recent trip to Mexico.

Clinton said that the US has obviously many problems with President Hugo Chávez and the way he is abusing Venezuelan people. "The way he treats his neighbor countries; his attitude in domestic and foreign policy that, in our view, is not in the best interest of anybody," she said.

Clinton recalled that "democracy is more than elections," referring to the argument used by the Venezuelan government when critics question its democratic record. Venezuelan authorities usually say that there have been 11 elections and referenda in the South American country in a decade.

For as much as his friends and supporters, both college professors and baseball stars, assured us that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was a model democrat, his actions in the wake of the recent referendum victory seem to be exceeding even the worst nightmares of his many critics. Rather than being an "I told so" moment, several opposition leaders are facing the imminent prospect of arrest and imprisonment, inaugurating a whole new generation of political prisoners of this seemingly appealing revolution.

The most shocking news came on Thursday, March 19, as Chief Prosecutor Katiuska Plaza announced an arrest warrant for the Mayor of Maracaibo Manuel Rosales under invented corruption charges. Days earlier, Chávez threatened to jail other opposition elected officials in Zulia, such as Pablo Pérez, and in Carabobo, with Governor Henrique Salas Feo. There are serious fears of arrest for the current Mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, as well as the former Mayor of Chacao, Leopoldo López, both of whom presented motions before the Inter-American Court on Human Rights next week (Lopez himself was present in Washington for an emotional and dramatic hearing).

The message is clear: the Chávez government believes it has won impunity to act above the law, paid for with political capital won by majority vote.

Moises Naim has an interesting piece in Foreign Policy about the competing alliances being built by Brazil and Venezuela, and considers which axis the new government of El Salvador will lean toward.  Many of these points echo what Robert Amsterdam argued in his recent Huffington Post piece.

While the axis countries build their anti-Yankee alliance and try to implement what the Venezuelan president calls "21st-century socialism," the Brazilian government is successfully developing a very different geopolitical project: ensuring Brazil's presence at the table when the world's most important decisions are negotiated. Brazil has thus become an indispensable voice in the debates concerning the rules governing international trade, energy, the environment, and the redesign of the international financial system.

So, while Hugo Chávez spends his time and oil revenues trying to influence countries such as Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Paraguay, da Silva hangs out with leaders in India, South Africa, and Europe.

The surprising news that the opposition Mayor of Maracaibo Manuel Rosales, a former presidential contender against Hugo Chávez, might be arrested and thrown in jail by the authorities on a raft of amusingly baseless corruption accusations, shouldn't really come as a surprise at all.  The chavista drumbeat to throw more political prisoners into the clink has been growing over the past month since the referendum election, and especially in response to the government's efforts to wipe out the Law on Decentralization, which would allow the regime seize control of several major export ports in Zulia and Carabobo, depriving the opposition of any ability to govern over their local economy.

As it is often said, you can tell a lot about a government not by the public policies they seek to put in place, or the decisions they make in the administration of public affairs, but rather how they handle those citizens within their own society who disagree with them.  In Venezuela, we have numerous examples of open criminal conduct to attack dissidents.

Today the Prosecutor asked that former Presidential candidate, Governor of Zulia State and current Mayor of the city of Maracaibo Manuel Rosales be jailed for corruption.  Whether Rosales is guilty or not of corruption, I have no idea. However, the case is laughable as Chavez' hatchet Comptroller Russian "The Ruffian" determined in his characteristic partial way that Rosales could not justify the origin of the funds of all of the assets that he swore he had in his obligatory yearly declaration of assets to Ruffian's office.

Yeah, Rosales was not only corrupt but also so stupid, so as to add assets over the years in his yearly declaration that he obtained via graft.

The Ortega government says the subject is not open to discussion, "not even with historians," insisting that Nicaraguans and the world "forget about the elections," and accuses the US of "taking bread from the poor."

The third item was clearly meant for domestic consumption but made it to the international news, via Venezuela's Noticias 24 (my translation): Ortega calls the US "cheapskate" over aid to fight drug trafficking: During a speech for 254 officers of the National Police, Ortega stated that last year the National Police had seized $370 millions' worth of drugs originating from Colombia and destined to the US, plus 12,000 weapons. Remarking that the US only provides Nicaragua with $1.4 million to fight drug traffic, Ortega requested that the US send Nicaragua half of the $370 million.

As if.

But that's not what has Nicaragua's neighbors worried: Ortega announced that the country is open to all and any tourist visitors from any country, without requiring visas. Costa Rica is concerned that international trafficking groups can now move people to other countries like Costa Rica and the US. Inside Costa Rica mentions Chinese and Russians, but readers of this blog know that Iranians are already heading to Nicaragua.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says his country and Russia have formed a joint company to work together on oil projects.

Chavez called the formation of a Russian-Venezuelan energy company an important step. He said it will "open operations not only in Venezuela, but also throughout the world."

Chavez said during a televised Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that officials had signed a document in Vienna, Austria, two days earlier agreeing to set up the mixed company.

It will be made up of a consortium of Russian companies and Venezuela's state-run oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA. The new company will be involved in extracting heavy crude in Venezuela's largely untapped Orinoco River basin.

The governors have said they will resist the takeover of ports and airports, but it is not clear what they can do. Salas Feo has appealed to the supreme court, which has a record of siding with the national government.

Pablo Pérez, the governor of the western border state of Zulia, called a news conference in which he declared himself ready to go to jail if necessary, to defend the rights of the state's inhabitants.

''If they want to jail me for defending Zulia, let them come and get me,'' Pérez said.

However, pro-Chávez legislator Carlos Escarrá, a constitutional lawyer, said the legal reform that restored federal control over ports and airports was irreversible.

''We can't have ports and airports in the hands of governors who have given concessions to the private sector,'' he told viewers of the government TV channel, VTV. Moreover, ``from the geopolitical point of view, these are the points of entry and exit between Venezuela and the [outside world].''

Just three years ago the smart money was on a sea change in Latin American politics. A dozen countries had held presidential elections, and in contest after contest, politicians and parties on the left came out on top, with Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez beating the drum of Bolivarian revolution. The results seemed to signal the end of the Washington Consensus and a decade's worth of gringo-sponsored free-market reforms in the hemisphere. Now, in the face of an economic downturn one might expect a further turn to leftist populism. But an exclusive Poder/NEWSWEEK/ Zogby survey suggests that at least among Latin Americans between the ages of 18 and 29, the opposite is true. For all the lather over capitalism run amok, 63 percent of young Latin Americans surveyed believe that free trade is not just good but "benefits all people." What's more, the young Latin Americans say the leaders best-suited to guide their countries into the future are people like Barack Obama, who achieved a 91 percent favorability rating among those surveyed, and Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a onetime leftist who has generally toed the free-market line since taking office in 2003. By contrast, they said those worst-suited to guide their country were people like Chávez acolyte Evo Morales of Bolivia and Chávez himself, who was considered by three-quarters of those polled to be "a dictator" or "a dictator in the making."

Despite the well worn campaign slogan, so far Washington's new foreign policy under President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seems to embody a blend of both continuity and change, depending on the situation. By and large we have seen a reactionary series of policies, as the new president has been thrust into a game with the cards already dealt. However, with the visit to Washington on Saturday March 14 of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva -- the first Latin American head of state to be received by Obama at the White House -- a fresh hand is being dealt, giving the president a chance to define his administration and mark a clear departure from the policies of the past.

For years Latin America has been waiting for its day in the sun as a privileged partner of the United States; to be treated fairly, with respect, and joined in action toward the fulfillment of mutual goals for the Western Hemisphere. With the visit of Brazil, now graduated to the status of a true regional and global power, the administration should seek to support and enhance its role of responsibility, proving to the skeptics that we don't need or want a unipolar hemisphere, but rather a multi-lateral and institutional framework for stable and prosperous relations.

There are many compelling reasons for Obama to seek a close relationship with Brazil and establish a new partnership, one that would bring immediate benefits to both parties (while carrying very low risk and political costs). Despite being diplomatically stretched thin by Mideast conflicts, Brazil is a sure bet that Obama should not pass up.

Click here to continue reading.

Part of the US problem in Latin America has always been its refusal to listen seriously to Latin leaders. Obama should of course be open to all who want his ear, but it is not realistic to imagine that he can develop close ties with them all. Instead, he should informally pick one whom he likes and trusts, and use that person as an unofficial tutor and senior advisor on all matters Latin American.

Who would this be? The obvious choice is Lula da Silva of Brazil, who comes closest to being a continental leader. But Brazil is a major emerging power with its own strategic interests, so he might not be Obama's best choice. Michelle Bachelet of Chile or Oscar Arias of Costa Rica would be better. Both are skilled politicians who also have great moral authority. They are independent-minded enough to have won wide respect across Latin America, but also believe that the US can play a highly constructive role there if it changes its approach.

Inspired by socialist President Hugo Chavez, a father and daughter are hoping to launch a line of action figures from Venezuela's history to counter the popularity of "imperialist" American superheroes like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

Joyce Parra and her father, Angel, have drafted drawings for action figures they call "Venezuela's Heroes," including independence icons Simon Bolivar and Francisco de Miranda, as well as Antonio Jose de Sucre, a general who helped Bolivar free Venezuela from Spanish rule.

"The idea isn't to get rich," Joyce Parra, 26, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "What we want to do is make them available for the children whose parents cannot afford to purchase such toys."

Angel Parra, a 58-year-old painter and self-described socialist, and his daughter traveled to China and struck a deal with a manufacturer for the prototype of the Miranda action figure. But the Parras say they need financing for the full line of at least 20 figures they envision, and they're hoping for help from Chavez.

Chavez attacks important businessmen
By Castro Ocando, El Nuevo Herald

As though following a cookbook of recipes to establish and consolidate a communist system, the interventions in private properties by Venezuelan government are worsening, imposing the creation of production quotas, and sharpening the class wars by attacking the most important businessmen and bankers of Venezuela with unusual force.

The expropriation and intervention this week of a dozen farms and agricultural production centers, many of them property of two of the most powerful business families of this petro nation, marks the beginning of a new phase of state intervention just when the government is about to face the worst economic crisis in a decade.

The Extreme Prescription

The "star" of the texts considered to be anti-Jewish, titled "How to support Palestine against the artificial state of israel [sic]" appeared on the website Aporrea.org this past 20th of January. Its author is Emilio Silva, a frequent contributor to the website who identifies himself as an "academic worker of the UBV (Universidad Bolivariana de Venezuela) and a member of the faculty of the UBV."

What Silva proposes in that piece is a sort of handbook to "arouse and mobilize the Venezuelan people" starting with a "Leninist question: What to do? "

The following is an exclusive English translation of a column published recently in El Universal:

Endogenous Judeophobia

It is not only a matter of acts of vandalism: the Jewish community denounces that the content of official media is creating a climate of antisemitism never before seen in the country.

By Oscar Medina

The profanation of the Mariperez synagogue was declared to be a burglary committed by agents and ex-officers of the police, but the motivation for the messages left is still unknown.

First, as always occurs, is the Word. To assert, for example, things like: "The world has enough for everyone, but some minorities, the descendants of those that crucified Christ, took the world's riches for themselves." There is something evil in these words. More so if it is said at a Christmas celebration, even more if it is said at a public ceremony, and much more so if it comes from the mouth of the President of a nation. The quotation is from Hugo Chavez, the year 2005.

While Raúl Castro had announced when he came to power almost exactly a year ago that he planned to restructure the government, this is the first time so many government officials had been replaced at once.

Recent Cuban news point to stresses between the Fidel and Raúl factions. According to Chilean newspaper La Tercera's editor Cristián Bofill, the brothers don't agree on Cuba's foreign policy. During Michelle Bachelet's visit to Havana last month, Granma, the official organ of the Cuban Communist party, published an article by Fidel stating that Chile should grant Bolivia access to the Pacific. Bachelet was displeased, but Pérez Roque insisted that there would be no retraction over Fidel's article, even when Fidel is a retired head of state.

Venezuela and Uruguay are also interested in nuclear power but have a long way to go. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has sought nuclear cooperation from Brazil, France, Iran, and Russia, but few suppliers appear to be biting, perhaps because Venezuela's plans are not well defined. Meanwhile, Uruguay, which gets virtually all its electricity from hydropower, has mentioned nuclear power as a future option, but national laws banning nuclear energy would need to be overturned. Moreover, its withdrawal of plans for a natural gas plant in 2005 because of the cost ($200 million) and time of construction (26 months) suggests that a nuclear power reactor, which costs upward of $6 billion and takes at least four to five years to construct, may not be in the cards.

"His name is confrontation, and there are not many tricks left in that bag," said Riordan Roett of the Latin America program at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.

"We will likely see more aggressive behavior as we head into mid-year with no bounce in oil prices."

Chavez said on Thursday night his government took over a timber farm run by Irish paper company Smurfit Kappa (SKG.I) and earlier this week he also threatened to take over Venezuela's top food producer, Empresas Polar.

Eligio Cedeño has now spent more than two years in prison without a conviction, in violation of local and international law, defense lawyers say

CARACAS, March 3, 2009 - In a human rights case that has received increasing international attention and condemnation, defense lawyers for Eligio Cedeño have accused the Venezuelan government of violating the law by keeping the defendant imprisoned beyond the established two-year limit on preventative detention, abandoning any plausible pretext of due process or fair treatment.

"We are witnessing an indefensible and egregious violation of Cedeño's rights by the authorities," said Robert Amsterdam, one of the international defense lawyers on the case. "The law is unambiguous with regard to imprisonment without conviction, and the state's refusal to comply with the law reveals two facts: that the prosecutors haven't been able to prove an innocent man guilty, and that Eligio Cedeño is now considered a political prisoner, given this exceptional treatment."

This weekend the Miami Herald published an abridged translation of an article about Eligio Cedeño from their sister Spanish language publication, El Nuevo Herald.  Below is the full translation of the extensive story and interview, which includes much information left out of the Herald.

Venezuelan Businessman Prisoner of Chavez

Eligio Cedeño, the banker who has been detained in a cell in Venezuela for two years on charges of tax fraud, has launched an international campaign to be recognized as a political prisoner of the regime of president Hugo Chavez.

The campaign is under the leadership of attorney Robert Amsterdam, famous for his defense of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, ex president of the Russian petroleum firm YUKOS-Group, who is currently serving a sentence in Siberia and is considered to be the most prominent political prisoner of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Eligio Cedeño has now spent more than two years in prison without a conviction, in violation of local and international law, defense lawyers say

CARACAS, March 1, 2009 - In a human rights case that has received increasing international attention and condemnation, defense lawyers for Eligio Cedeño have accused the Venezuelan government of violating the law by keeping the defendant imprisoned beyond the established two-year limit on preventative detention, abandoning any plausible pretext of due process or fair treatment.

"We are witnessing an indefensible and egregious violation of Cedeño's rights by the authorities," said Robert Amsterdam, one of the international defense lawyers on the case. "The law is unambiguous with regard to imprisonment without conviction, and the state's refusal to comply with the law reveals two facts: that the prosecutors haven't been able to prove an innocent man guilty, and that Eligio Cedeño is now considered a political prisoner, given this exceptional treatment."