April 2009 Archives

The Washington Post published a very strongly worded editorial today criticizing the Administration of Barack Obama for not taking an aggressive approach on Venezuela, and ignoring the human rights and democracy issues at stake with Hugo Chavez's conduct - especially in light of Peru granting asylum to Manuel Rosales.

It is reasonable to ask how the Obama administration is reacting to this major new campaign against what remains of Venezuela's democracy, especially given the president's friendly handshake with Mr. Chávez at the Summit of the Americas two weeks ago. The answer: It isn't. The administration has maintained a deliberate silence about the persecution of the elected politicians, a dissident former defense minister and a leading journalist. Meanwhile, the State Department is lauding what it calls the "positive development" in U.S.-Venezuelan relations: Mr. Chávez's offer to exchange ambassadors. "We buy a lot of their oil," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week. "Let's see if we can begin to turn that relationship."

Former Finance Minister Nelson Merentes is slated to be named president of Venezuela's Central Bank after the National Assembly ratified his nomination by President Hugo Chavez.

Merentes, a member of the ruling party, is mainly remembered for his idea of investing in and selling structured notes made up of sovereign debt from other South American countries when he was finance minister between 2004 to 2007.

Merentes, a mathematician, will replace Gaston Parra Luzardo, who died on December 15. Similar to Parra Luzardo, the new head of the central bank is seen as strong supporter of Chavez's economic policies.

Venezuela has recalled its ambassador in Lima to protest Peru's decision to grant political asylum to a prominent opponent of President Hugo Chavez.

Venezuela's foreign ministry says Peru should have arrested and extradited Manuel Rosales rather than granting asylum to the Venezuelan opposition leader facing corruption allegations in his homeland.

The ministry said in a statement issued on Monday that Peru's decision "constitutes a mockery of international law."

It stated Venezuela was recalling its ambassador in Lima and evaluating its diplomatic relations with Peru.

The following is an exclusive translation of an important article from El Nuevo Herald.  The experience of Yuri López, who lost her job and had to flew the country due to threats to her and her family, prove that the state's persecution of Eligio Cedeño is politically motivated.

Judge Denounces Dark World of Chavista Justice

By Casto Ocando, El Nuevo Herald

When the Venezuelan judge Yuri López received a case in 2007 which involved a presumed enemy of the government of President Hugo Chavez, she never anticipated that her decision to defend judicial autonomy would obligate her to hastily leave the country to guarantee her security and that of her family.

Halfway through last year, the State Department provided an expedited approval for her asylum case for political reasons, and the judge, who was appointed to the Fifth Control Tribunal of the Metropolitan Area of Caracas, moved to Miami. In an interview with El Nuevo Herald, López revealed for the first time a first-hand testimony which provides a rare glimpse through a window into the dark world of chavista justice.

"The Venezuelan justice system is an anarchy, and operates on the fringes of the constitution and the law," said López. "It's just what Chávez says, there's no independence of judges nor judicial officials in the country."

It was kind of fun to see the Venezuelan President pass a copy of Eduardo Galeano's leftist classic "Open Veins of Latin America" to Barack Obama.  It is certainly a book everybody around here at this blog has read and enjoyed ... some 13 years ago.  What is more funny is to hear everyone complain about the accuracy of the book - which is nearly poetic and emotive more than quantitative.  Galeano himself is said to acknowledged that the material is outdated and inapplicable in today's world, while Alvaro Vargas Llosa, unapologetically libertarian, really got a bit angry about this title shooting up the bestseller list at Amazon.com (some have called Hugo the new Oprah, with the touch of gold on book sales).

Here's his reaction in the New Republic:

A decade ago, I and the other two co-authors of the "Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot" devoted a chapter to refuting the historical and ideological fallacies contained in Galeano's tract, which we called the "idiot's bible." Everything that has happened in the Western Hemisphere since the book appeared in 1971 has belied Galeano's arguments and predictions. But I guess Chavez has given it the kiss of life and, since people are asking, here I go again.

Things have been pretty busy around here lately ... I'm grateful for everybody's patience with us while we clear some other projects.  I had meant to post Eugene Robinson's article from WaPo yesterday, but didn't have time.  Now, before I could do anything about it, somebody (a Pentagon official, actually) has already written an interesting letter to the editor about the whole thing.

In his April 21 op-ed column, "When Slapped, Slap Back," Eugene Robinson revealed a dangerous ignorance about Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez that is common among those on the left, including our new president.

While opining that President Obama should have been a little less chummy with Mr. Chávez at the recent Summit of the Americas, Mr. Robinson concluded that "any idea that Chávez is some sort of threat to the United States is absurd."

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slashed its growth forecast for the Andean countries in 2009, particularly for exporters of primary products. The IMF further predicted "a serious contraction in Venezuela," according to its latest report, released on Wednesday.

According to the IMF's World Economic Outlook, all the countries of the Andean Group will grow in 2009 less than forecasted in its previous study, six months ago. In some cases, such as that of Venezuela, the economy will contract this year.

Interpol has issued an arrest warrant for Venezuelan opposition leader Manuel Rosales, who faces corruption charges in his country but fled to Peru to seek asylum, police today stated.

Canadian junior miner Gold Reserve recently stated that it may file an arbitration suit against Venezuela under a bilateral investment treaty for blocking development of a gold mine in the OPEC nation.

Gold Reserve claimed a May 2008 government decision to revoke a permit for construction at the Brisas gold and copper project led it to alert Venezuela to the existence of a dispute under two investment protection treaties.

"If the dispute is not settled amicably, the company may file for international arbitration," Gold Reserve said, lamenting a "lack of meaningful dialogue" on the issue.

The Brisas sits next door to the Las Cristinas project. Combined they contain over 20 million ounces of gold, but the site has been entangled in legal disputes for decades and has not been developed.

Peru's foreign minister has stated that embattled Venezuelan opposition leader Manuel Rosales is in Peru but has not requested political asylum.

Rosales is a political opponent of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He is being prosecuted on corruption charges in Venezuela, and a political ally says Rosales plans to seek asylum abroad.

Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde earlier told CNN en Espanol that Rosales is in Peru under tourist status.

The Peruvian foreign minister said Tuesday he does not know the date Rosales entered the country, and said he has not requested asylum.

President Hugo Chavez stated Sunday that Venezuela has acquired Russian-made surface-to-air missiles and announced the creation of an elite military unit trained to use the new weapons. 

Chavez said the missiles are for self-defense and denied that Venezuela poses a military threat to other countries.

"We don't want wars with anyone, but we're obligated to equip ourselves and have a military that is increasingly dedicated to the country," Chavez said at a military parade in Caracas.

The self-guided, portable missiles weighing about 42 pounds reach approximately 19,500 feet, Venezuela's state-run ABN news agency reported.

"They have great power in the mountains, hills or coasts to stop any attempted aerial aggression against our country," Chavez said. "One man or woman can operate and carry it."

Today at the inauguration of the Fifth Summit of the Americas hosted by Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was confronted by a full-page announcement published in the national newspaper Trinidad Express signed by nine prominent human rights groups, calling upon all Summit delegates to directly confront Mr. Chavez on numerous human rights violations.

The announcement states that President Chavez has manipulated the criminal justice system to bring politically motivated charges against 45 different individuals, violating their basic human rights as guaranteed by local and international law. 

Hugo Chavez's administration has instructed the Foreign Exchange Administration Commission (Cadivi) to restrict allocation of foreign currency for various purposes, as in the fourth quarter last year imports exceeded by USD 3.72 billion the inflow of foreign currency from oil sales, amidst declining oil prices.

The statistics, published by Cadivi -the agency responsible for distributing US dollars at the official exchange rate- showed that in the first two months this year, the amount allocated to importers, including the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI) agreement totalled USD 3.39 billion, a 32 percent fall compared to USD 5 billion in the same period of 2008.

This suggests that the government is set to further restrict authorizations of US dollars for purchases abroad. 

The following article by Robert Amsterdam was published last night on Foreign Policy, arguing some of the possible motivations behind Hugo Chavez's sudden crackdown and jailing of numerous opposition members, swelling the ranks of political prisoners within months of having won the referendum.

Is Chávez using the memory of an attempted coup to shore up his flagging support?

By Robert Amsterdam

On April 11, 2002, a loose group of labor and business leaders attempted a coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. The coup, which lasted only 47 hours, resulted in some 20 deaths, a two-day vacuum of power, and a moral hangover that is still being felt today.

In fact, if it were up to Chávez, Venezuelans would never stop feeling it. Scarcely a week goes by without the president making some reference to the events. On the seventh anniversary this past weekend, he proclaimed, "There is nothing similar in 100 years of history of this planet to what happened here in Venezuela on April 13th, 2002," referring to the countercoup by loyalist officers that brought him back to the Miraflores Palace as the beginning of "the socialist and anti-imperialist revolution in Venezuela."

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez yesterday accused local television channels of making "open calls to subversion," warning them that his government controlled transmission frequencies.

"They need to remember...the signal belongs to the state. They are not the owners of the signal, the radio spectrum. They own equipment, antennas, but nothing more," Chavez said. "They have started a campaign of defamation," he said during a news conference in Caracas with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

It was the latest in a series of taut exchanges between the leftist leader and the media. Chavez has previously blamed the media for being complicit in a 2002 coup attempt, in which he was briefly removed from power.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stated that his country would have "no problem" taking any of the remaining 240 Guantanamo detainees after they are released from the U.S. military prison. However, it is unlikely that the United States, which has notably strained relations with Chavez, would send any of the remaining Guantanamo detainees to Venezuela.

Chavez has frequently criticized the detention center in Cuba, but the socialist leader has also praised President Barack Obama's recent pledge to close the facility within a year.

In an interview with Arabic-language Al-Jazeera news network, Chavez urged Obama to free the remaining detainees and return the facility to Cuba. When asked, Chavez said his government would have no objections to taking any of the remaining detainees.

"We would have no problem in receiving a human being," he told Al-Jazeera, which is based in Qatar, during the interview. The remarks were later additionally released by Venezuela's Information Ministry. 

Chavez and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, have agreed to bring forward the starting date of the long-planned increased Venezuelan oil exports to the East Asian nation.

Apart from advancing the date of stepped up exports, however, Chavez's visit to China last week did not achieve any new break-throughs for Venezuela, which remains cash-strapped due to high social expenditures and the worldwide decline in oil prices over the past year.

"I proposed that, given the global situation, we study the possibility and we agreed to move up the target [date] set in the strategic accord for 2013," Chavez said, adding that the extra shipments will begin in 2010.

During his visit, Chavez and Hu also held talks on the investment needed from China to reach the long-planned target of 1 million b/d, as well as the launch of a joint venture for oil transport, and construction of a Venezuelan refinery in China.

Chavez will today meet Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to discuss bilateral economic ties.

China, Venezuela and France's Total SA are in advanced negotiations on a complex three-way multibillion dollar oil production and refining venture, people close to the negotiations said today.

Three days before the Fifth Summit of the Americas, scheduled for April 17-19, a group of Latin American and Caribbean leaders led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will meet in Caracas to discuss alternative paths for regional trade and cooperation.

On those very days, 380 kilometres west of Trinidad in Cumana, Venezuela, Chavez will also host a heads of state meeting of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, known by its Spanish initials as ALBA.

ALBA was formed in 2004 under Venezuelan leadership as an alternative initiative to the stalled US-endorsed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). ALBA member countries include Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Chavez, an outspoken critic of the United States and the FTAA, recently confirmed that the ALBA meeting will be held on April 14-15. 

Opponents of President Hugo Chavez say a series of moves by the socialist leader's allies, including targeted corruption probes and laws shifting power away from opposition-held offices, symbolize a power-grab by Chavez at a time when he may be feeling emboldened by a referendum win allowing indefinite re-election.

Chavez has recently denied involvement in corruption cases being pressed against top opposition leaders but insists many are "criminals" and "mafiosos" who should face justice. "Let the bourgeoisie squeal, but there has to be justice," Chavez has stated in retort.

The most recent case of limiting the power of an opposition figure came two days ago, when the pro-Chavez National Assembly weakened Caracas' newly elected mayor by removing offices including city hall and eliminating most of his responsibilities for city services. Authority will instead be transferred to an official appointed by Chavez to oversee Venezuela's capital.

Mayor Antonio Ledezma, who had previously replaced a Chavez ally, plans to challenge the law that has usurped his powers through a referendum.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is today in China, where he is hoping to secure more oil deals to reduce his country's economic dependence on the United States. Chavez traveled to Beijing from Japan late Tuesday on his sixth visit to China.

Chavez says his two-day visit to Beijing this week is part of the creation of a "new world order." The frequent U.S. critic, who met with China's president and Communist Party leader Hu Jintao earlier today, told reporters that power in the world was shifting from America to nations such as Iran, Japan and China.

Venezuela and Japan have created a $4 billion investment fund, according to a statement made today from OPEC, as it searches for new sources of financing to fill a budget gap caused by a massive tumble in oil prices. 

The government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has borrowed more than $8 billion from China in recent months through bilateral agreements in which Venezuela would pay back loans with supplies of crude oil and fuel.

A communications ministry statement published today noted that the investment fund would be part of a larger package of investment in oil, petrochemicals and liquid natural gas production.

Chavez, fresh off a recently completed a visit to Tokyo, said he wants to supply Japan "in the future" with 1 million barrels of oil per day -- approximately one third of the nation's current oil production, according to official figures. Chavez furthermore has stated that projects his country has signed with Japan would be worth $33.5 billion dollars in investment for Venezuela. The Venezuelan President added that he plans to additionally sign a $4 billion investment deal in China this week.

Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, which bankrolls Chavez's social programs that help keep his regime popular, has struggled to pay billions of dollars in debts to service companies after oil prices fell more than $100 per barrel in six months.

Hugo Chavez and Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso today agreed to cooperate on oil and gas developments in the Latin American nation, according to a Japanese statement regarding a number of accords signed between the two nations. Chavez is attempting to secure funds for energy projects after a 65 per cent decline in oil prices forced him to cut government spending in March. Last week, it was through a meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. That trip resulted in a Venezuelan initiative to develop Iran's oil fields. Today, he will travel to China after concluding the two-day visit to Japan.

Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA is in discussions with Mitsubishi Corp. and Itochu Corp. regarding loans of $750 million each to upgrade its Puerto la Cruz and El Palito refineries, Venezuela's Information Ministry added in an e-mailed statement. Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) however today denied it had approved a $1.5 billion credit line for Venezuela to finance the expansion of two refineries. "The loan framework has not been set," an official at JBIC told Reuters, declining to be identified. The official said JBIC had no plans to meet the Venezuelan delegation, including President Hugo Chavez and Venezuelan energy minister Rafael Ramirez. Japan will invest in the South American country's Junin 11 oil block, Chavez stated yesterday, according to another statement from the Venezuelan Information Ministry. It was added that PDVSA, as the Venezuelan state oil company is known, signed a memoranda of understanding with Mitsubishi, Itochu, Marubeni Corp. and Mitsui & Co. regarding their possible participation in the Mariscal Sucre natural-gas project.