June 2009 Archives

Alvaro Vargas Llosa, writing in the New York Times under the headline, "The Winner in Honduras: Chávez":

In pushing the limits of democracy by trying to force a constitutional change that would permit his re-election, [Zelaya] set a trap for the military. The military fell for it, turning an unpopular president who was nearing the end of his term into an international cause célèbre.

Although the coup has popular support in Honduras, it has also allowed Mr. Chávez, who is leading the international response, to claim the moral high ground. The coup leaders, who were trying to prevent Mr. Chávez from bringing Honduras into his fold, may end up giving him more strength in the region.

Roberto Micheletti, the president appointed by the Honduran Congress to replace the deposed Manuel Zelaya, on Sunday night warned Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez that Honduras will not sit still if it is interfered with. "If this happens, making a democratic determination of having to go to war would be an extreme abuse of power," Zelaya said in televised statements, adding that he does not accept threats from "this gentleman." Micheletti said that "we understand that some battalions are preparing to come here," while the Honduran army continues to carry out its "investigation". "I don't want anyone to dare doing that to our armed forces, who are ready to defend the territory," he said.

President Chávez yesterday cautioned the military coup plotters in Honduras that something better not happen to the Venezuelan ambassador in Tegucigalpa or the Venezuelan embassy. Chávez has said that it would be "a declaration of war" and that Venezuela might be forced to send troops. "The FANB has already been put on alert," he said. "The military junta there would be entering a de facto state of war. We would have to take action, including military action. I could not do nothing knowing that they are attacking our ambassador." "You have to give a lesson to these guerrillas, these coup plotters," he said. President Chávez said that "they will overthrow" any president sworn in to replace Manuel Zelaya, who was taken out of the country on Sunday by the military, the day he was going to inquire about the possibility of running for reelection. "If Micheletti (Roberto Micheletti, president of the Congress of Honduras), or Peleletti or Gafetti or Goriletti are sworn in, they will be toppled. They will be toppled, I say," Chávez said in a televised speech.

WLTV Noticias 23 in Miami on Friday featured this segment with Attorney Gonzalo Himiob on the recent release of a new white paper on Venezuela's political prisoners (in Spanish).

U.S. Mayors issue a resolution supporting Ledezma. The Conference of Mayors of the United States, through a communique, expressed its "unequivocal condemnation of the undermining of democratic governance and the principle of administrations, governments and freely and independently elected officials in Venezuela, as well as the intimidation and prosecution of freely elected officers, governments and administrations. The text further expresses that the resolution will be presented to the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, the U.S. Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, and the U.S. State Department, and to official representatives of the Government of Venezuela in the United States. Mayor Antonio Ledezma (ABP), continuing his visit to New York, had a private meeting with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg before participating in the Summit "Creating Employment and Developing the Work Foce," held yesterday at Columbia University. Ledezma came to the United States on Sunday, where he has developed a strong agenda for making the case that "President Chávez sells Venezuela as a wonder of the world (.. .), when the reality shows us that the situation is almost as bad as what is happening in Iran," said Mayor Bloomberg in a press release.

As told to Carmen Muñoz:

Madrid - Attorney of magnates in distress, such as former Yukos chairman now in prison in Siberia, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Robert Amsterdam confesses he was a pro-Chávez "activist" until President Chávez "radicalized when he began to lose power" in 2002. For fifteen years, the Canadian lawyer has defended economic causes and human rights in Latin America. In late 2008, Amsterdam joined the defense of Eligio Cedeño, the Venezuelan banker detained since February 8, 2007 at the headquarters of the DISIP (political police) in Caracas. His defenders argue that since he is being treated as a political prisoner - accused of supporting opposition leaders such as trade unionist Carlos Ortega - the event has acquired an international dimension. From humble origins, Cedeño became a successful banker until he had to sell Banpro and Bolivar Bank, ABC of Spain was told by Emilio Berrizbeitia, Cedeño's Venezuelan counsel. The banker-prisoner "was involved in an computer import plan in order to obtain foreign exchange," according to his defense, in an investigation open since 2003. Once arrested, he was accused of "diversion of financial resources." Among the "grotesque procedural irregularities," Berrizbeitia lambasted Cedeño's permanent pretrial detention "without being judged, convicted or charged." Robert Amsterdam presented a white paper in Spain yesterday entitled, "Justice vs Bolivarian rule of law", in which he one of three authors and which denounces the "abuses" of the Justice Ministry. Eligio Cedeno is presented in the paper as a "classic case" that shows "how the regime acts in order to its opponents."

- What is your next step in the case of Eligio Cedeño?
- In the coming weeks we intend to take the Cedeño case and the Chávez regime before international courts.

- In Spain, for example?
- We are going to do it step by step. We are working on a case, but not necessarily in Spain. The corruption of the Chávez regime is so extreme that this could be brought not only before international tribunals, but also national courts.

- Why do you consider him a political prisoner?
- This is in the spotlight not for economic or legal reasons. The irregularities in this case are so extraordinary, going two years and four months without trial, as well as the two-year extension of pretrial detention.

- Did he commit a crime as a banker?
- No. There was a trial, it became clear he was going to be released, but the judge was removed from the case at the last minute.

- It is said that he supported the opposition to the government of Hugo Chávez.
- He knew them and when they had problems and were in prison, he was helping their families. In addition, the new ambassador to Spain, Isaías Rodríguez, when he was attorney general of Venezuela, was very annoyed with Cedeño. For the Attorney General to incarcerate Eligio Cedeño was a matter of honor.

"In Venezuela we suffer from an outlaw government, neodictatorial," said Mayor Antonio Ledezma of Caracas during a speech at the New York think tank Council of the Americas, which was attended by U.S. investors and entrepreneurs. He said he wanted to "restore the democracy that we have been robbed of," while stressing that his aim was to draw the attention of the international community to what is happening in Venezuela. He also noted that the situation in Venezuela is a "true nightmare" and that what happens there is a "threat" to the country itself and the rest of the continent. Ledezma met this week with the secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), Chilean José Miguel Insulza, and requested his support because he believes the multilateral agency's actions must be "preventive." Antonio Ledezma won the mayoral election of Caracas on November 23, 2008 and was sworn in on January 7, but was unable to take charge of his office due to limitations imposed by the National Assembly. The office's powers have been curtailed by government measures, including the appointment of a municipal government head who oversees his office.

White Paper Exposes Pattern of Judicial Abuses in Venezuela; Complaint Filed Before ICJ on Behalf of Cedeño

MADRID, JUNE 25, 2009 - A groundbreaking White Paper documenting the case of Venezuelan political prisoner Eligio Cedeño was released today by his legal defense team. "Bolivarian Rule of Lawlessness" details the campaign of persecution against Mr. Cedeño and outlines the determined effort of President Hugo Chávez's government to subvert the judiciary and use the courts as political instruments against opponents. The debut of this report coincides with the filing of a complaint before the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) requesting intercession and censure of judicial officials involved in the unlawful campaign against Cedeño.

"There is an increasing evidence that the Government has been unable to contain dissent through dialogue and resorted to the police and repression to do so." The somewhat heated words of the former guerrilla leader of the Venezuelan Revolution Party (PRV), Douglas Bravo, came minutes after troops of the Aragua police and the Military Intelligence Directorate (DIM), detained him yesterday, without specifying any reason. "Four of us were traveling to Falcón, where a forum was being held. When we were near Cagua, the state police stopped us and surrounded us," said Bravo, who has as of late gone public with criticisms and disagreements with the Chávez government. Without any court order, Bravo, who also represents the Humanist People's Front, explained that he had to wait for two hours until the DIM appeared and told them it was simply "routine". "This is a violation of human rights and democratic freedoms. There is a persecution of dissidents. Anyone who has a critical view is immediately harassed," he said.

The following is an English translation of an article from the Spanish newspaper ABC:

"For the Venezuelan prosecutor, imprisoning Cedeño was a point of honor"

The Canadian lawyer wants to sue the Venezuelan government before international courts, "not necessarily in Spain," and also present to them the case of the banker Cedeño

CARMEN MUÑOZ

Updated Wednesday, 24-06-09 at 00:15

As a lawyer for magnates in trouble, as is the case of the former president of Yukos held prisoner in Siberia, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Robert Amsterdam confesses that he was a pro-Chávez "activist" up until the Venezuelan president "became radicalized when he began to lose power" in 2002. Over the past 15 years, the Canadian lawyer has defended business and human rights cases in Ibero-America.

• Nippon Export and Investment Insurance or Nexi, is also considering ending coverage for projects in Venezuela, the person said. The agency insures most Japanese holdings in Venezuela. The company has been holding internal meetings to determine its insurance coverage policy for Japanese investments in Venezuela. See Friday's posting for a related development.

• The head of investor relations at Toyo Engineering, confirmed that Venezuela has been behind in payments for a 60 billion-yen ($631 million) contract to build a fertilizer plant. The accord was signed in 2007.

• Planned Japanese investments in Venezuela include $10 billion in liquefied natural gas projects, $8 billion in petrochemicals and $1.5 billion for the refineries. Mitsubishi, Mitsui & Co. and Itochu Corp. are among the partners designing two liquefied natural gas plants where Japanese investment may reach $10 billion. 

• Mitsubishi also has an agreement to finance upgrading the Puerto La Cruz refinery.

• In 2007, JBIC led a group including Mitsui and Marubeni Corp. that loaned PDVSA $3.5 billion to be paid in cash, crude oil or petroleum products over 15 years.

• Although the price of the Venezuelan oil basket is 33.5 percent higher than in 2007, Pdvsa's revenues from oil exports in 2008 were barely enough to meet its burdensome structure of costs and expenses, which hit a record USD 112.88 billion in the 2008 fiscal year, 31.5 percent higher than in 2007.

• Despite the efforts announced by the oil giant to cut the costs related to the purchases of oil, particularly from foreign subsidiaries, such costs soared 40 percent to USD 39.5 billion in 2008, compared to the previous year.

• In 2008, operating expenses climbed 49 percent to USD 22.38 billion, while exploration expenditures grew 143 percent to USD 375 million.

• The value of the parent company's purchases of crude oil from foreign providers skyrocketed 122.5 percent to USD 15.81 billion in 2008.

• Cost of production per barrel climbed slowly since 2004 and in 2007-2008 it recorded a sudden increase of 44 percent, reaching USD 7.10 per barrel of oil equivalent, natural gas and liquefied natural gas.

Following on last week's announcement of the Venezuelan government's plan to take a 49% stake in the Dominican Republic's only petroleum refinery, the president of the DR's National Business Council, Lisandro Macarrulla, said the transaction in itself doesn't concern them and that it could even be advisable for the nation, "although what does worry them is the partner which the Dominican government has chosen in this occasion."

Photo: CERTV

La Mesa de la Unidad requested a national emergency declaration to allow the federal council to convene and the implementation of a consensus plan from all sectors of the country. A spokesperson of Monday's meeting was the president of Un Nuevo Tiempo, Omar Barboza, who outlined the proposals. "There are two; first, declare a national emergency on the issue of national security council and immediately convene the federal government in order to execute as quickly as possible an integrated implementation plan." The second proposal concerns prevention, with the implementation of a plan for disarming the population to ensure the destruction of seized weapons. In the view of the opposition, the government assumes an "ostrich policy of not facing the facts" because of the tendency of the government's public safety plans to "change when changing the Minister of Interior and in 10 years there have been 10 ministers," said Barboza.

Eligio Cedeño's defense attorney rejected on Friday allegations of "diversion of financial resources" made by the public prosecutor. Counsel Emilio Berrizbeitia stated that "the public prosecutor, and the deputies Daniel Medina, William Guerrero and Ana Isabel Hernandez are trying to cover up their lapses. Upon requesting a delay of the measure, that is, that Eligio Cedeño should be freed, the prosecution has realized its error and trying to block out the sunlight with one finger by belatedly introducing this new charge." Berrizbeitia added that they appealed the decision analyzing it, as they had appealed the judge's decision to declare their objection inadmissible.

The prosecution submitted an indictment against entrepreneurs Eligio Cedeño and Gustavo Arraíz as part of the continuing legal process surrounging the alleged irregularities in the use of foreign currency granted by Cadivi to the Microstar Consortium, an investigation that began in 2003. National prosecutors William Guerrero and Ana Isabel Hernández, as well as Daniel Medina, the official who oversees corruption, banking, insurance and capital markets, accused Cedeño of the crime of embezzlement as stipulated in the General Law on Banks and Other Financial Institutions. Gustavo Arraíz was accused as an accomplice. In the action, prosecutors requested the indictment be admitted and the evidence provided by the Public Ministry. They also requested to maintain the deprivation of liberty and security of goods belonging to Cedeño and Arraíz, issued in due course. It was also decided that the prosecution should once again issue the formal complaint for the alleged act of embezzlement. The prosecution this month asked Court 39° in the metropolitan area of Caracas, in which the indictment was assigned, to extend the deprivation of liberty for Cedeño and Arraíz handed down in 2007. This order was approved.

• Debts to suppliers were recorded as $7.56 billion at the end of 2008 in the latest audited results, but the bill is nearly half the $13.8 billion originally reported to Congress earlier in the year.

• The company's profits recorded in the latest audited results sit at $9.4 billion, down from $12 billion in the previous year-end report. The company also states the income tax paid last year was $4.28 billion, 44% less than reported in the February figures.

• PdVSA now says it deposited $12 billion into the Fonden development fund, President Hugo Chavez's favored spending vehicle, and reduced direct allocations to social programs to $2.3 billion last year. This conflicts with previous figures that put PdVSA's Fonden funding in 2008 at no more than $5.5 billion, due to the oil price decline.

• The issue of how much oil Venezuela produces is a heated debate among Chavez's supporters, who say it's three million barrels a day, and detractors who claim its one million barrels less.

Canadian international lawyer Robert Amsterdam was received on June 17th by the President of the Brazilian Senate, Sen. José Sarney, to whom he explained the plight of political prisoners in Venezuela, and in particular the case of Eligio Cedeño, a Venezuelan banker who has been languishing in a Caracas jail for more than two years without trial, and who has recently been committed to another two years incarceration.

"Brazil is a highly respected regional leader and shining democratic model which many Latin Americans look up to," said Amsterdam. "When it comes to these aberrant violations of human rights and imprisonment of political prisoners in Venezuela, no friend, ally, or partner can afford to remain silent."

The following is a translation of an article about Eligio Cedeño and Robert Amsterdam published in the French newspaper L'Express.

'The prisoners of Chavez'
L'Express, June 18, 2009

In the hope of educating the international community about the fact that political prisoners exist in the Venezuela of Hugo Chávez, the former putchist colonel who became president, a group of Venezuelan and international lawyers are ready to launch their campaign on the subject. Their white paper, coming out later this June, focuses on the symbolic case of Eligio Cedeño, 44-year-old banker close to the opposition, imprisoned for 2 years and 4 months. They emphasize the fact that, at the beginning of 2009, the judges called a halt to his trial at the moment when it became all too clear that there was a lack of evidence against him. His trial was adjourned sine die. Even though the banker's time in prison is well past the legal period of provisional detention, he is still behind bars. "The system of justice is used for purposes of political persecution ", denounce the authors of the white paper, including Robert Amsterdam. The latter is none other than the Canadian business lawyer who, since 2003, has defended the former president of Russian oil group Yukos, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, imprisoned in Siberia. According to the team of Robert Amsterdam, nearly 50 supporters of the opposition are being wrongfully imprisoned in Venezuela.

"This it will be an agreement between two States, that is to say, that does not matter if Hugo Chavez leaves the government, it is an agreement that will be made signed properly, and what it is agreed to properly it will be fulfilled and it is not truth that the national sovereignty is in game"

Conatel ordered new administrative sanctions against Globovisión and asked the Public Prosecutor to determine whether or not there is criminal liability against the channel. Counsel Ana Cristina Núñez explained that "Globovisión's grant is in play again." This would be the fourth procedure in recent months "apart from the three procedures that are open, of which two are ready for decision." This procedure is apparently based on Article 171 of the Telecommunications Act, which establishes where the revocation of a media communication grant if the medium was used to assist in the commission of a crime. Alberto Federico Ravell, general director of Globovision, said that there is no legal base to close the channel and the government therefore decided to go after the partners. Ravell reminded officials what happened to the former president Alberto Fujimori and that there are international human rights conventions. To the judges and prosecutors, he asked them to think hard about what they are doing and to consult their consciences. In his view, it is clear that is not an issue of law or the judiciary, but politics and the government made the decision to remove "this nuisance and that stone in the shoe that is Globovisión especially when they are denouncing cases of presumed corruption, such as those of Diosdado Cabello, Rangel Avalos among others," he said.

Julián Isaías Rodríguez is quite the character. A former Vice President and Attorney General, he was in charge of the public prosecutor's office right when a number of politically sensitive cases came under his supervision, including the murder of prosecutor Danilo Anderson, which is now regarded as one of the most critically botched cases of witness bribery, executive pressure, and political control over the courts that seemingly changed Venezuela's legal system irrevocably. Perhaps not surprisingly given the well worn antics of this government, last week Isaías Rodríguez was nominated as the new Ambassador to Spain.

An article by the columnist Tamara Sujú published on Noticiero Digital takes the ambassadorial assignment of Rodríguez as a starting point to explain the peculiar process at work inside the Venezuelan government, in which some of the most incompetent members of the bureaucracy are promoted to the heights of representative responsibility. Sujú suggests that Spain should be made aware of some of the less flattering details of Rodríguez's career, which included the jailing of innocent citizens, alleged torture of witnesses, and the mounting of show trials against the Guevara brothers, Patricia Poleo, Nelson Mezherane, Añez Núñez and Salvador Rom, among others. Sujú also notes that it was Rodríguez who called the illegal jailing of Eligio Cedeño a "point of honor."

Not one to hold her tongue, Sujú goes on to declare that this "shadowy figure" of the revolution appears to have been awarded a prize for having carried out the orders of the executive to persecute and imprison his compatriots, and that he will go down in history for his conduct and participation in the mounting of false cases against the innocent.

It's a very powerful piece, but one doubts that such details about Rodríguez's career will be recognized by the Spanish public, or even more importantly, whether or not the Venezuelan diplomatic mission is seeking this kind of confrontation anyways....

A communiqué of the Supreme Court noted that the state "can not be subject to foreign courts" without a valid order, expressed clearly and unequivocal. The text says that, "It strengthens Venezuela's immunity from foreign courts," and that "it is incorrect to say that Venezuelan judicial power does not have sovereign power to decide disputes over contracts in the public interest signed by the Republic or that it submits such disputes to foreign courts." The Supreme Court refers to the four judgments 97/09, 1.942/03 1.541/08 and 1.939/08, to assert that "the state is absolutely sovereign, and therefore cannot subject itself to foreign courts as long as there is no a valid order, specifically and unambiguously written to settle their disputes in foreign courts." The sentences show that in the case of arbitrations involving investment or the approval of any other mechanism that assumes the submission to an international court - such as the International Criminal Court, Ciddh, subregional courts, centers of arbitration, conciliation, among others - "its validity and effectiveness require not only the expression of will of the President of the Republic, but also a law that approves the treaty on the part of the National Assembly. "

A lot of announcements came out last week regarding PDVSA's finances. Some recent highlights:

S&P cut PDVSA's credit rating from BB- to B+, four levels below investment grade, citing lower oil prices than a year earlier, large unpaid taxes owed to the government and uncertainty about its willingness to meet contractual obligations with its suppliers.

Further examination of PDVSA's book revealed an estimated $2 billion income tax backlog.

At the end of 2008, PDVSA had unrestrained cash of $4.5 billion, and debt service requirements of $6.6 billion over the coming 12 months.

Debts to its suppliers more than doubled last year from $3.1 billion at the end of 2007 to $7.56 billion at the end of 2008.

Meanwhile, its net income also doubled to $9.4 billion over the same period.

Following up Andres Oppenheimer's call to arms against UNASUR's plan for the "creation of mechanisms to defend citizens and legitimately elected governments against abuses by the press," US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley has called on governments in the Americas to uphold freedom of expression in accordance with the OAS charter:

"There are a number of countries recently that have taken aggressive actions to intimidate, threaten, attack press. Venezuela's one of them, but it's certainly not the only one."

National prosecutor 61, Jesús Capote, and prosecutors 4 and 7 of Anzoátegui, Oswaldo Salazar Freites and Marietta, respectively, were commissioned to investigate the violent events that occurred on Saturday in El Tigre, where an opposition political activist was shot dead and three others were injured. The shooting occurred on Saturday afternoon in front of the Polisosir command, where 31-year old university student Jonathan José Rivas was killed by a gunshot to the chest. In the same location, Jorge Alfredo Báez Rivero (43), was injured by a shot in the groin region and the former mayor of El Tigre, Ernesto Paraqueima (36), was beaten in the frontal region and right arm. Yesterday, opposition party leaders, led by former Mayor Ernesto Paraqueima (Podemos) and Gustavo Marcano (Primero Justicia) accused President Hugo Chávez, the governor Tarek William Saab and the mayor of El Tigre, Carlos Hernandez, for the events.

Andres Oppenheimer reminds us of yet another reason to be skeptical of the effectiveness of regional multilateral development initiatives. Apart from the ongoing degradation of the OAS we referred to last week, we are now compelled to draw our attention to UNASUR, the 12-nation answer to the question : What do you get when you add Mercosur and the Andean Community? As Oppenheimer tells it:

"Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, a disciple of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, said that when he takes over as president of the 12-nation Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) in July he will propose creation of a regional body to defend governments against critics in the media.

I'm not kidding. In what would be seen as a bizarre attack on basic freedoms in most modern democracies, Correa's May 28 statement called for "creation of mechanisms to defend citizens and legitimately elected governments against abuses by the press." The proposal was immediately backed by Venezuela and Bolivia, whose presidents routinely refer to any criticism in the press as "media terrorism."

Nobody has protested this idea just yet, which is the main reason Oppenheimer has issued a call to arms. I agree that this is a worrying prospect, but there are a couple things to keep in mind. For starters, we've seen similarly scary survey results of the American public when it comes to how little the public at large values press freedom. The American Journalism Review in 2004 found four out of 10 Americans think the press actually has too much freedom - and this is just the most immediately handy link I can find. There have been plenty others over the years - Latinobarómetro I know has covered this - if you dig further.

So the first question we have to ask is this: regardless of what one thinks of Latin America's Axis of Evo (Bolivia-Venezuela-Ecuador), is the bigger concern here the reticence coming from the region's leadership or the indifference coming from the public at large?

Second question: regardless of the answer to the first question, how much does UNASUR really matter in the broader comings and goings of hemispheric relations? Let's review for a moment what just else this new body has done of note. Really, one thing only: launched the Bank of the South, Hugo Chavez's brainchild for creating a South American alternative lender of last resort so that the region can reduce its dependence on the IMF, the IADB, or the World Bank, depending on which day of the week it is. How does it measure up? Well, it launched last month (a year behind schedule) with $7 billion (down from varying levels of previous estimates, one of which had Venezuela contributing $15 billion from its central bank reserves). Meanwhile, the World Bank's total 2008 assets were $233 billion while the IMF's were somewhere north of $300 billion and the IADB had around $70 billion in total assets as of the end of 2007.

Clearly, this institution has yet to get its legs. This is not an excuse to sit easy - press muzzling anywhere is a cause for concern and if nothing is done to nip this development in the bud it will likely get worse. But keeping the bigger picture in mind will increase the chances of getting this right on the first try.

"Venezuelans use a particularly lewd version of Spanish packed with references to male and female reproductive organs, genital lice and sexual orientation, and Chavez -- apparently deliberately -- does not seek a more dignified presidential tone."

Caracas Chronicles has served a terrific blog post narrating a meeting with one of Venezuela's well known, but anonymous in this case, television pundits who shared his frustrations of the self-limitations that the opposition media has placed on itself, on democracy, and its framing of a solution to the political crisis under Chávez. A very interesting and very controversial discussion which we agree with for the most part.

"Convéncete," he says, "the way the private media operates in this country is incompatible with the exercise of democracy. Chávez knows that, by attacking it, he makes it certain that the opposition will reflexively align itself with the private media. So he has every incentive in making the opposition line up behind a media system that makes democracy impossible. It's win-win for the guy. For the umpteenth time, he's playing us."

Settling back out of rant mode, he seems to remember that this was supposed to be a business meeting, of a sort, and comes back to my pitch.

"But seriously, the thing you want to do with your blog," he says, "it's viable. You could do it without too much money. And it will reach a few thousand people, a smallish but influential elite that wants to, needs to, look beyond the tiny little horizons the escuálido media serves up to them. And that, in itself definitely makes it worth doing, because like you say, those people don't have a place to turn to online."

The government reported yesterday that it took over the transport operations of US crude producer Exterran in an offshore field off the east coast of the country, one more step in the massive nationalization of companies that provide services to PDVSA. The energy minister and president of PDVSA, Rafael Ramirez said on the eve that the State did not take all the oil services, but only those that are core to the business and who were considered "monopolíticas in private hands, the international press reported. PDVSA assumed control of a vessel operated by Exterran as a temporary storage facility for crude Corocoro field, having recently expropriated an electric generating plant and gas compression for the same firm.

Mary Anastasia O'Grady breaks down how the OAS is becoming an apologist mouthpiece for the Latin Left. Meanwhile, Caracas-based Cedice Libertad managed to pull off its 25th anniversary celebration without a hitch for the most part.

"It's no surprise that no one has been able to peg blame on any one factor, since Venezuela's violence problem derives from a number of sources -- from an ill-equipped police department to a dysfunctional justice system. And as the Chávez administration has pushed the legal limits of democracy, undermining institutions along the way, cascading impunity has spread through the system. Rule through ill example has helped push what was always a high murder rate through the roof."

This Sunday, the minister of People's Power for Health, Jesús Mantilla, confirmed the existence of 12 cases of H1N1 virus in the country, after the addition of seven new infections in Colombia, Panama, France and the United States. The declaration was transmitted through a special advance on Venezolana de Television. Mantilla said that of the 329 samples taken, 12 came back positive, 10 are under study and 307 came back negative. He said that the new confirmed cases had been in contact with infected people outside the country and therefore recommended that the Venezuelan people to maintain an exercise of citizenship by avoiding foreign travel, as the virus is present in several countries. He added that the influence of new cases presented very mild symptoms of the disease and the health status of the 12 infected is completely stable.

"There are only two huge sources of heavy crude in the world -- the Canadian tar sands and Venezuela's Orinoco. It's much cheaper to develop from the Venezuelan Orinoco because of the technical conditions; the Canadian tar sands have to be mined...what has made Venezuela's Orinoco expensive to develop is the policies and the politics."