Russia and Venezuela signed an agreement yesterday in Caracas that "will expand and better planning" to their bilateral military exchanges, which have increased markedly in recent years. The "Statute of the Russian-Venezuelan intergovernmental commission for military technical cooperation" was signed after a meeting held by President Hugo Chávez and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin. "This expands and enhances planning and regularizes cooperation between states. It not so much a client-supplier relationship, but a more formal level of binational cooperation," Chávez said. "We have no plans to attack anyone, only to defend ourselves," Chavez explained, without commenting further on the agreement. The agreement will interaction between the two countries' armed forces, to include everything from the sale of arms to the execution of joint maneuvers utilizing technology. "Military cooperation will now have a permanent and binational body whose task is to provide continuity and consistency and will extend cooperation beyond the mere acquisition" of weapons, diplomatic sources said.
Colombia seized anti-tank weapons from the FARC that Venezuela had bought from a European country, said the Colombian Vice-President Francisco Santos, after President Álvaro Uribe said that the guerrilla rocket launchers were bought abroad. "In several operations in which we recovered arsenals of weapons from the FARC we have found powerful equipment, including antitank weapons that a European country sold to Venezuela and appeared in the hands of the FARC," the vice-president told Caracol radio, without mentioning the European nation in question. The Swedish government requested an explanation from Venezuela about over the seizure from FARC guerrillas of Swedish weapons that were sold to Caracas, said an adviser to the Swedish government. "It is confirmed that a small number of weapons produced in Sweden was found at a FARC camp. We demand an explanation from those responsible in the government of Venezuela to tell us how to explain that this equipment has been found in Colombia," said senior Swedish Trade Ministry official Jens Eriksson.
The foreign ministers of Spain, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, and Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, agreed on the express wishes of their governments to promote relations between the two countries, especially in economic matters. In two separate speeches at the opening of a Venezuelan-Spanish business forum at a hotel in Caracas, Moratinos said the Spanish government's desire to "shore up" the bilateral relationship through the current meeting, while Maduro was "very optimistic" regarding the development of new joint projects. " The Spanish minister said in his statement that Spain and its companies trust in "the Venezuela of the present and future" and spoke of his desire to maintain a "deep, sincere and respectful relationship" with the government of Hugo Chávez. The harmonious tone the ministers showed in their speeches today is expected to lead to the signing of several economic agreements, notably an agreement between the Spanish companies Iberdrola and Elecnor with PDVSA to build a combined-cycle power station in eastern Venezuela. Repsol will also sign several cooperation agreements with PDVSA, including another new contract to explore the Orinoco Belt.
National guilds did not hesitate to point out that the national government's intention of becoming the sole importer of food in the country is not only a threat to economic freedoms, but to consumers as well because it would monopolize the type of products that can enter the country. While the statement notes that the Minister of Agriculture and Land, Elías Jaua, leaves many questions about the scope of the measure, Jorge Botti, president of the Economic Commission of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, said that the decision could lead to greater market distortions. "If the government is going to be the sole importer of food with official U.S. dollars, then we are talking about a state monopoly that does not leave any margin for many companies." He recalled that the government is competing unfairly with the private sector to be able to purchase goods without the constraints of obtaining official foreign exchange that commercial businesses must withstand. "Any monopoly is bad, whether private or public. There is no longer room for doubt that the government wants to stand as the sole actor in the economy," he said.
The chamber that brings together the country's largest radio broadcasters criticized yesterday the government's announcements regarding the possible withdrawal of the broadcast licenses from 240 stations, which represents 40% of the country's total, and regarded the action as a violation of the Constitution and an attack on freedom of expression. The president of the Venezuelan Chamber of Broadcasting, Nelson Belfort, told the press that according to a survey the organization carried out, "two out of three people affected by the intrusion are rejecting the measure, which indicates that it is not the closure of radio stations, but a closure of the possibility to...choose which radio stations we want to listen to." In general, according to the survey, which did not reveal names, 83 percent of listeners reject the threats. The announcement of possible sanctions that could be imposed against a group of local radio stations is in the middle of the tensions generated by five procedures that Conatel instituted in the last six months against the news channel Globovisión, a strong critic of the government, which could lead to its closure.
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