September 2009 Archives

From the Correo del Caroní we have the following, discussing Social Watch's annual report:

The research coordinator of the Venezuelan Education-Action Program for Human Rights (Provea) foresees a continuation of the trend toward the criminalization of protest. "In 2008 some 1,763 demonstrations were monitored throughout the country, of which 83 were repressed, impeded or otherwise hampered by the security agencies of the state, at least 89 demonstrators were subjected to criminal prosecution for their involvement in the protests and 3 people were killed by police during demonstrations.

Following is a translation of the communiqué that the National College of Journalists (CNP) and the National Press Workers' Union (SNTP) submitted to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission requesting an OAS visit to the country to acknowledge the political prisoner situation in Venezuela. The original is available here.

The National Association of Journalists (CNP) and the National Press Workers' Union (SNTP), deeply concerned about the climate of intolerance, absence of social dialogue and the criminalization of dissent and public protest that in recent weeks has increased throughout the country, call the public's attention to the following:

It is alarming and unacceptable that despite the fact that the right to demonstrate is a guarantee established in the constitution, the number of citizens detained or under court monitoring for their participation in protests directly related to the defense of rights of citizenship, social and labor rights, already exceeds 2,200.

So why have the students been so successful in getting under Chávez's skin? How have they been so effective in breaking through the noise of the sometimes repetitive and cacophonous complaints of the relatively unorganized opposition? The answer, at least in part, is because they have honed in specifically on the government's weakest and most vulnerable points - the myths of progressive policies and social inclusion. And they have done so in a way that the clumsy and faux-pas prone opposition has often been missing.

Read the full version at The Huffington Post

In a new article published by the political scientist Javier Corrales in Washington Quarterly, it is argued that Chávez has created an intimidating illusion of strong social programs, which in many minds seem to trump all other concerns or abuses of citizens' rights. Few other countries in the region can stand up for human rights in Venezuela, Corrales writes, because "they fear that picking a fight with the patron-saint of the poor will enervate radical left-wingers at home, potentially destabilizing their governments. Chávez has crafted a coalition of the silent, even among those he annoys, and that is not a trivial victory."

The La Esperanza neighborhood of Antímano, where the Mission Barrio Adentro once operated, is now rife with debris and abandoned animals. The structure was built without foundations and gave way more and more with each rainfall. The Cuban doctors are gone and the neighborhood debates what to do with the structure. "So much money lost," neighborhood resident Mirian Castro says sadly. Source: El Nacional

The number of students nationwide who have joined the hunger strike demanding the release of political prisoners has risen to 160 since last Thursday. In Caracas, at the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS), there are already 78 students on strike. According to Niomar Oropeza, a reporter for El Observerador, the roster of striking students is as follows: 8 in San Cristóbal, 2 in Nueva Esparta, 6 in Mérida, 10 in Maracaibo, 25 in Valencia, 14 in Aragua and 12 in Anzoátegui.

A delegation of the Association of University Rectors visited students on hunger strike at the OAS headquarters in Caracas this afternoon. The rector of the Andres Bello Catholic University, Father Luis Ugalde supported students who are on hunger strike and recommended the government allow the visit of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. "We came to support the students because they are fighting for a fundamental human right," he said. "I would recommend the government to recognize the constitutional right to protest, without criminalizing dissent. Secondly, I would authorize American Commission on Human Rights to come to Venezuela, because we know that they cannot come without a permit from government and this is also a fundamental right between civilized and democratic nations in Latin America."

This accounting mirage could end up costing the country dear. The future of Venezuelans is being mortgaged. According to the Central Bank, Venezuela's public foreign debt amounted to $48.3 billion as at June 30. With the new issue, that figure would go up to $51.3 billion, equivalent to Bs.F.110.3 billion at the Bs.F.2.15:$ exchange rate. That is equivalent to 63% of fiscal spending for 2009 and 30% of GDP. However, if account is taken of the current value of the competitive parity, which would be around Bs.F.5:$, the debt would shoot up to Bs.F.256.5 billion or 150% of this year's current spending and 30% of GDP. What is more, bearing in mind that this debt would be paid in 2019 and 2024, when, obviously, the bolivar will have been devalued several times, the debt will be much greater.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi have joined forces to urge the world to redefine "terrorism".

After a summit last weekend for African and South American leaders on the Venezuelan island of Margarita, the two leaders signed a document rejecting attempts to link terrorism to "the legitimate struggle of the people for liberty and self-determination".

While emphasising the importance of attacking terrorism "in all its forms, including state terrorism", the controversial duo called for an international conference to establish a new definition for the concept of terrorism.

"Freedom, freedom," hundreds of people chanted who were congregated on Monday afternoon in front of the headquarters, where about fifty students remained on hunger strike.

Student leaders agreed to continue the protest to demand the presence of representatives from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), under the OAS, in order for them to analyze the situation of human rights.

This text is from a translation of Casto Ocando's article in El Nuevo Herald, posted to Eligio Cedeño's official website.

"One of the objectives that the strike successful achieved was the release of Rivas, but we will maintain the protest until we achieve a visit from an IACHR delegation to the country," said the student Miguel Pizarro of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV, in Spanish).

Facing the OAS delegation in Caracas, 31 students are on hunger strike. There are another 20 in the city of Valencia. They are calling for the Human Rights Commission of the OAS to visit Venezuela and recognise the political prisoners of the government of Hugo Chávez. Source: Diario El Impulso

Student leader Julio César Rivas arrived at OAS headquarters directly from the Yare prison after receiving conditional parole. After greeting his colleagues, who have been on hunger strike for five days to protest his arrest, the university expressed its gratitude to the student movement and everyone who supported him while he was imprisoned in the Yare prison. In his view, his arrest was "planned to scare people ... it makes people scared to see that people with power use it to intimidate the weak," he said, and announced that he was joining the strike. Subsequently, a radio and television broadcaster kept him from going live on open signal. At that time RCTV Internacional Globovision continued transmitting images courtesy of Globovisión in order for Rivas to be able to conclude his thoughts. Rivas must report to the court every 30 days. To Gonzalo Himiob, Rivas' attorney, the decision is the result of "peaceful protest" which the students began, and until yesterday totaled 50 young people across the country. But being just one of the goals of the demonstration, Himiob explained that the hunger strike "will not give up," and will continue to demand freedom for political prisoners and a visit by officials of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights.

To paraphrase Bill Clinton, it depends on what the meaning of the word "help" is. To wit:

Friday:

"Iran is helping us with geophysical aerial probes and geochemical analyses," Rodolfo Sanz, Venezuela's minister of basic industries and mining, told reporters outside a meeting of Latin American and African leaders in Porlamar, Venezuela.

"We could have important reserves of uranium," Mr. Sanz said, adding that preliminary tests "indicate the existence of uranium in western parts of the country and in Santa Elena de Uairén," near the border with Brazil. He also rejected any suggestion that Venezuela might be involved in helping supply uranium for Iran's nuclear program.

Kudos once again to Jeremy Morgan of the Latin American Herald Tribune for going the extra mile, this time giving us a street-level view on gun violence to accompany the forthcoming proposal from the Venezuelan National Assembly to limit the number of bullets an individual can buy. Apparently, the point of this law is an attempt to curb gun violence. Read the nitty gritty details here and tell me that this doesn't sound eerily like a certain Chris Rock routine.........

Iván Simonovis and Lázaro Forero together with Leocenis García, Eligio Cedeño and Juan Guevara decided to declare themselves on hunger strike. The wife of Lázaro Forero, Yajaira Castro, said they decided to join the students fasting outside the headquarters of the OAS to support the request that members of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights visit Venezuela to monitor government actions against political dissent and verify that "political prisoners exist here." Castro demonstrated on behalf of relatives of inmates out of concern for their health. "They are not prepared for such action, but they wish to show their support for the heroic action of the dozens of students who are on hunger strike here in Caracas and Valencia." Yesterday, the initial group of students from the Universidad de Oriente (UDO) which began the fast on Thursday, added five more from the University Bicentennial of Aragua, and from Simón Bolívar in Caracas. Between Thursday, Friday and Saturday 18 universities have joined. In addition to the accessions, the protest added to the support of various civil and political organizations, and individuals.

Venezuela's Political Prisoners Join Student Hunger Strike

Eligio Cedeño and others join in solidarity to protest political persecution and request intervention from the Organization of American States

CARACAS - September 28, 2009 - A public hunger strike being held by some 34 students on the steps of the Caracas office of the Organization of American States (OAS) was joined by six more people on Sunday night, as the political prisoners Iván Simonovis, Lázaro Forero, Juan Guevara, Gustavo Azócar, Leocenis García, and Eligio Cedeño published a statement announcing their solidarity.

So seriously that shows promoting the use of drugs are banned. Most recently, that includes "Family Guy", apparently. From the AP:

Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami says the program should be pulled from the airwaves because it promotes the use of marijuana.

El Aissami was outraged by a recent episode in which the show's characters started a campaign to legalize marijuana.

He said Thursday that cable networks that broadcast "Family Guy" would be fined by Venezuela's telecommunications regulator if they refuse to dump the program.

Presumably it was the following clip that was the problem (and you gotta love the Ben Stein smackdown that Stewie slips in there):

Domingo Felipe Maza Zavala, former head of the BCV had the following to say (quotes taken from Noticias 2001 and El Carabobeño):

"Only a few measures are needed to revive the economy."

"In this last quarter of the year, imports have to rise for seasonal reasons, because demand rises and there is no foreign exchange for this, or it is at a price such as that provided by the parallel market, which is discharged into the economy through inflation."

"The foreign exchange market is as distorted as the government, or government-owned companies such as PDVSA, which has to go to the parallel market to obtain more bolivars for their dollars.

The weekly newspaper Informe has defined the psychological battle the government is waging against the opposition in the following four terms:

Confusion: the generation of multiple threats and smokescreens launched to hide the true purpose behind official actions. Every day a new announcement or insult is introduced through several official spokesmen. 

The "confusion" seeks to diffuse the various opposition efforts, not to eliminate them entirely but to dilute their ability to response to threats or announcements such that it can never be done as a whole and would therefore take time to organize a strong resistance movement.

Twelve students from the University of the East decided, with cushions in hand, to refuse to eat and stay in the OAS headquarters in Caracas to reject the jailing of student Julio César Rivas and other citizens who face prosecution for their political beliefs. The Venezuelan Penal Forum together with families of prisoners demand the presence of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to recognize the anomalies of the case. Source: El Universal

The Venezuelan Penal Forum, relatives and legal representatives of political prisoners presented themselves yesterday at the office of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Caracas to once again request the presence in the country of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in order to recognize "the situation of abuses and illegalities in the cases of people arrested, charged and prosecuted for their political position." On this occasion, the third in which an organization requires the presence of the IACHR, attorney Alfredo Romero explained that alternative reasons are now included for requesting the visit. The IACHR has noted that the Venezuelan government has not consented its visit to the country; nevertheless, they propose that a particular person, foreign and impartial, come to Venezuela and write a report on the matter. Romero explained that the request is in the hands of an OAS representative who received them. "We were well received and we know that this will be forwarded to the Commission." He added that Venezuela is in an "emergency situation, where attacks against dissenting citizens are rising, jails are readjusting themselves for the purpose of housing political prisoners, there is an urgent situation which Venezuelans and the world, regardless of political positions, must be made aware of."

Nima Gerami of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has an opinion entitled "Dangerous Liaisons" in The New Republic accessible here that details the Venezuela-Iran relationship and is absolutely worth reading in its entirety. For our purposes on this blog at the moment I would simply like to draw attention to two passages in particular. Here's the first:

After a two-day trip to Iran early this month, Chávez promised to begin sending Iran 20,000 barrels of gasoline a day to help the country skirt U.S.-led sanctions in exchange for Iranian "machinery and technology." Venezuelan and Iranian media have interpreted "technology" to mean Iranian nuclear know-how. France, which last year expressed willingness to help Venezuela develop civilian nuclear power, felt the need to caution Venezuela against nuclear cooperation with Iran, which is under international sanctions for failing to halt its uranium enrichment program.

Below is our translation of an open letter from the political prisoner Iván Simonovis, who was one of the comisarios who got wrapped up in the 11-A events, to Isaías Rodríguez, the former Attorney General and current Ambassador to Spain. Simonovis's letter is powerful, emotional, and very personal. Mention is also made of the case of Eligio Cedeño.

September 16, 2009
Your "Excellency"
Isaías Rodríguez
Ambassador of the "Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela" before the Kingdom of Spain
Your Office

My name is Iván Simonovis. You already know me. Thanks to the false accusation that your "Excellency" and his team of judicial terrorist formulated against me, they have held me in a dungeon for five years, and upon completing a circus which they called a trial (which is unprecedented in Venezuela), I was condemned to 30 years in prison without any type of privileges, after three years and 225 hearings.

My intention in writing these words that follow is that they arrive in the hands of newspapers in Spain, so that the Spanish people will be aware of how unworthy the person is whom Venezuela has sent as Ambassador before His Majesty.

The statues in the city once again were the main characters. This time, the "anonymous" protest intended to exalt all those people currently in detention or exile, allegedly for political motives. The faces of the figures representing the heroes of the homeland and other important figures in the region, located in different areas of Valencia, were replaced on Monday by the photographs of Julio César Rivas, Richard Blanco, "Maraco" (José Dacre), Nixon Moreno, among others, along with huge banners with the phrase: "The new heroes of democracy. " Source: Notitarde

The upper echelons of the Brazilian government accused President Chávez of "orchestrating" the plan for the return of Manuel Zelaya to Tegucigalpa, who has taken refuge at the Brazilian Embassy. Advisers to Brazilian President Lula da Silva and the Foreign Ministry consulted by the newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo, pointed out that the "infrastructure, logistics and guidance to search specifically for the Brazilian embassy" for Zelaya's clandestine return was prepared by Chávez. The advisers handle the information from which Chávez urged Zelaya to seek refuge specifically at the Brazilian Embassy because it was a "safer" place since President Lula "is leading the push to let power be returned to Zelaya." It is estimated that a hundred people, including relatives and friends of Zelaya, are within the Brazilian embassy. On Wednesday, the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies approved the dispatch of a parliamentary mission to Honduras, made by congressmen allied base and the opposition, who agree that the issue should be handled delicately.

Kudos to the editors of VenEconomy for boiling down last week's Clarines incident into its essential points in the Latin American Herald Tribune:

Sadly, it seems that once again we have a case of a state-run company not investing to keep their equipment up to date, in good working order, cutting corners and generally being inefficient and creating an unsafe work place, mainly because these companies are being run based on political criteria and not managerial ones. PDVSA is another case in point. Former oil manager, Ramón Cornieles, states that during the last six years there have been 156 registered accidents in the national refineries, with 42 deaths, and 138 workers injured, 50 fires and explosions, a number of unscheduled stops in operation in a number of plants, oil pipelines bursting, oil tankers colliding, damage to oil wells, and a series of oil spills.

Sara Miller Llana and Andrew Downie articulate an important observation in yesterday's Christian Science Monitor:

After the Honduran military ousted President Manuel Zelaya on June 28, Mr. Chávez loudly condemned the US for a lukewarm response and said he would send his own forces to Central America to boost his ally if need be.

But when Mr. Zelaya returned to Tegucigalpa after three months in exile on Monday, he conspicuously turned to Brazil for help, not Venezuela. As police fired tear gas at Zelaya supporters on Tuesday, he was holed up in Brazil's embassy, not Venezuela's.

We now know the answer to my question last week following China's $16 billion pledge for the Orinoco: which country will Hugo award that final development contract to? Reuters reported last night that the answer apparently is France, which takes the total investment in the Orinoco up to a grand total of $61 billion, above the $30-50 billion originally forecasted. Anyone surprised?

* * *

Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez has declared an oil price floor of $80 a barrel for PDVSA's budget planning. As Dow Jones reported yesterday:

The Chávez government will require cable TV to transmit channels and messages. The National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel) will publish in the Official Gazette the rule which shall govern cable TV service, which includes the transmission of presidential channels and official messages. It also notes that station operators must also include their programming in national channels that have 10% of viewers requesting the programming and they may not transmit advertising. The agency will consider national audiovisual production services those whose reception and dissemination of images and sounds are more than 70% rendered in Venezuela, and therefore will be governed by national laws.

Por Weil - diario Tal Cual

:

A Venezuelan delegation headed by the metropolitan councilor Freddy Guevara, and composed of representatives of the National College of Journalists, the National Press Workers' Union, We Are Radio and the Venezuelan Penal Forum, protested Monday afternoon at Parlasur in Montevideo, Uruguay against the veto of the discussion of human rights violations in Venezuela. Freddy Guevara, Gonzalo Himiob, Marcos Ruiz (the Ultimas Noticias journalist who was assaulted), Rafael Cadavieco (We Are Radio) and Silvia Alegrett of the National College of Journalists protested the decision of the board of Mercosur to ignore the issue. After several minutes, they were pushed offsite by members of the Parliament's security. Source: Noticiero Digital

A memo from the chairman of the Parliament of the Southern Common Market (Parlasur), Juan José Domínguez, was sufficient for the parliament's Committee for Citizenship and Human Rights to refuse to receive a delegation of Venezuelan citizens who sought to raise awareness of democratic freedoms in the country. The Venezuelan delegation was composed of the metropolitan councilor Freddy Guevara and Marcos Ruiz of the National Union of Press Workers; Silvia Alegrett of the National College of Journalists; Rafael Cadavieco and Andreína Márquez of We Are Radio and the lawyer Gonzalo Himiob from the Venezuelan Penal Forum. The group intended to present a report concerning the alleged violation of human rights in Venezuela and invite the Commission to visit Caracas to corroborate the veracity of their findings.

Thank you Yahoo!

Here's the embed:

Here's the original url.

Catch it before it gets taken down (because you know it will).

The collision of sports with politics has always fascinated me, so I of course read with not a little bit of attentiveness the NY Times' recent account of how Colorado Rockies catcher Yorvit Torrealba coped with the kidnapping of his son (Photo: AP). 

In actuality, the story is only partly about Torrealba. It's also about what makes Venezuelan baseball players in the United States unique, and even more than that about how kidnapping for ransom is a signal that there is something very wrong with a society's foundations. For those of you thinking I might be taking things a tad out of proportion, may I point you to what is referred to in the business as the nut graf - basically the answer to the question of, "why is this article being written?" - which in this case comes later than is customary, eight paragraphs into the article:

I'm going to put up my own observations of Jimmy Carter's interview on Latin America later this week. For now, I'm just giving a straight translation of the interview the 39th POTUS gave to El Tiempo of Colombia, published over the weekend (original link here):

"Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter laments the course Hugo Chávez has taken in Venezuela"

• In an exclusive interview with El Tiempo, he says that President Chávez is diverting Venezuela towards authoritarianism.
• About Álvaro Uribe, the Nobel Peace Prize winner said informing the region of the military bases beforehand would have been better, but he recognizes the effective stewardship by the Colombian head of state.

A few days before his 85th birthday, James Earl Carter, better known as Jimmy Carter, continues generating headlines. Besides being president of the United States between 1977 and 1981 and winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, the former governor of Georgia, his home state, and former peanut farmer, maintains a pace of activities that is the envy of younger people.

I've got a lot more to say about the whole Unasur mess, and I promise I'm getting there, but for the time being I will simply point you to the recent comments (which as always I have dutifully translated below) of Diego Arria, former Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations and more recently special adviser to former Secretary General Kofi Annan:

"Everything that the regime of Hugo Chávez has done has been to dismantle international institutions. The first one he dismantled was the Andean Group. He then did away with the G3 - Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela - which was significant in its representation of three complementary economies; he did away with the presidential summits that sought to integrate the region and he is doing away with Unasur because what happened there was a provocation for Colombia to leave the organization."

Nubia Castillo, the mother of detained student leader Julio César Rivas, requested that President Chávez "measure his actions because democracy is based on diversity of thought". Similarly, she called on Venezuelan society to take to the streets, mainly to mothers of all the children in the country "because today it was my son who was jailed for thinking differently, but tomorrow it could be the son of someone else." The mother of the student leader said that since his arrival in the country on Thursday 17 September, she has still been denied access to see her son, and that only lawyers have been able to meet with him.

The New York Times's photojournalism blog, "Lens", has among its current offerings a photo excerpt of "Capitolio", a new photography book on Venezuela by Christopher Anderson. Between the Times' blurb, the photo excerpts, the promo materials and the always enlightening comments that inevitably accompany any mainstream media coverage of Venezuela, I'm not sure how much more of value I can add to this so I will merely shut up and encourage you to click through at the very least to look at some rather compelling photography.

I find it curious that the Korea Times is the only place I can find running this, but that's neither here nor there; former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda has called on regional leaders to confront President Chávez over his weapons purchases, his stifling of dissent, his support of the FARC, among other acts that have gradually built up over time.

Before any of you Hugo cheerleaders go changing channels, what actually is most compelling about Castañeda's argument comes in the second half, in particular where Señor Canciller considers a possible tactical course (this is a lengthy but necessary excerpt, so prepare yourself):

Aside from protecting Colombian business interests, [Uribe] seeks to amend his Colombia's constitution so that he can run for a third term in office ― exactly what Chavez has done in Venezuela, and what his allies in Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina (indirectly), and Nicaragua have all sought.

Lula da Silva:

"Venezuela is a country with huge amounts of oil and natural gas, and
Chavez was the victim of a coup, so it's normal that he is getting prepared."

"Everyone knows Brazil is a peaceful nation, but we need to be able to

show our teeth if anyone wants to mess with us."

Hillary Clinton:

"They outpace all other countries in South America and certainly raise the question as to whether there is going to be an arms race in the region."

"Venezuela should be putting in place in procedures and practices to ensure that the weapons they buy are not diverted to insurgent groups or illegal organizations like drug trafficking gangs and other criminal cartels."

Between the 11 September gas find announcement with Repsol, Russia's $20 billion investment and China's $16 billion bid, it's tempting to get starry-eyed at all these big-ticket events coming out of the Orinoco. Oil economist Rafael Quiroz and energy consultant Nelson Hernández tell IPS that there's much more to this than meets the eye:

As Quiroz pointed out, more than 90 percent of the country's reserves - the second largest in the Americas, after the United States' - do not contain free gas, but gas associated with oil, which means it cannot be tapped without pumping the oil. Because this is an expensive undertaking that calls for substantial investment, the gas is not actually accessible at present.

Ok kids, here's the topic: Primo Hugo's so-called "40 Economic Measures" to bolster Venezuela's economy.

Do NOT be fooled: this is not an economics story. What this is, make no mistake, is yet another demonstration of how Primo Hugo can command the news cycle no matter what he does (or in this case, doesn't do).

Let's take a look at the non-details, shall we?

Vicente Brito, ex-president of Fedecámaras (the Venezuelan Federation of Chambers and Associations of Commerce and Production), has quite a bit to say about the state of business in Venezuela. Following are his statements to Diario del Pueblo Región:

"In the nearly 11 years of revolutionary government, Venezuelans have repeatedly seen how the Chávez administration has expropriated or occupied farms, businesses and buildings, among others."

"The socialist agricultural production model imposed by the government, which ignores private property rights and supports legalistic arguments with the abuse of power, has led our fields to abandonment and the decline of production in corn, sorghum, soybeans, rice, sugarcane, coffee, meat and milk. Today we are a country without sovereignty, and we import more than 50% of our food that this year will amount to about US$8 billion in agricultural and livestock products that we were once able to produce in our own country."

Rocío San Miguel explains in Tal Cual "The Ricochet Effect" across a number of circumstances: weapons purchases, new technology dependencies, Unasur and international travel restrictions. Her observation about Unasur I found most compelling:

In his affront to Uribe, Chávez is so clumsy that he has made international obligations that will prove difficult to own up to inside Venezuela.

Now he has to explain it to his partners in UNASUR. He has to say how much and in what defence systems he invests and the terms and scope of military cooperation he seeks with other countries. Moreover, by way of retaliation, Chávez insists on torpedoing trade between both countries in a way so fierce that it not only affects a big business but also the average Colombian who travels by foot - working in Venezuela - humble people who at this moment are the subject of rules that will prevent them from making transfers to their relatives in Colombia. More than a matter of immense humanitarian consequences - that the government doesn't give a damn about - this will have the important ricochet effect in the reelection of Uribe. Five million Colombians in Venezuela will want to punish Chávez and they will be able to - most of them will be eligible to vote, if not all, as well as their families in Colombia - support Uribe for that reason alone.

As of yesterday morning, anyone passing through Cuatro Bocas, Tres Vias o anywhere else in the municipality of Mara in the state of Zulia will not be able to refill their gas tank. The Ministry of Energy and Petroleum ordered distribution of fuel only for vehicles on official business, leaving out private cars, trucks and transport vehicles. The measure attempts to alleviate fuel smuggling. Tanker trucks are no exception and although they supply 70 percent of the population of Mara with water, can not buy gasoline for their daily deliveries. Source: Diario La Verdad

The third Venezuelan on the Foreign Ministry's waiting list and the sixth pursued by the Chávez government on Peruvian soil: Óscar Pérez, the political leader and member of the national leadership of Alianza Bravo Pueblo (ABP) is in Alan García's country seeking territorial asylum. His lawyer in Peru, Ángel Delgado Silva, who is also a city councilman for Lima, made the information official yesterday. "We have presented a request to the Peruvian Foreign Ministry asking for territorial asylum on behalf of Venezuelan citizen Óscar Pérez Torres " he said. The Pérez joins the former governor of Aragua, Didalco Bolivar and the student leader, Nixon Moreno, both residing in Peru pending diplomatic resolution. Other asylum grantees include the former mayor of Maracaibo, Manuel Rosales, the union leader Carlos Ortega, and former governor of Yaracuy, Eduardo Lapi.

Andrés Cañizález, reviewing government tactics in newspaper advertising as a means to pressure media, namely El Sol, El Diario Mayor, La Prensa de Barinas, La Noticia de Barinas, and El Correo del Caroní, reminds us of the following in today's El Universal:

The allocation of government advertising is a central issue in the right to be informed. In practice, when a government does not place ads in media outlets because of their critical stance, what it is actually pursuing is a silencing of view points that are uncomfortable for the government, thus perverting the possibility that public funds - and recall that the notices are paid for with the money of all citizens - promote pluralism and a diversity of voices in the arena of debate.

Eight dead and more than 100 people injured from inhaling chlorine gas - this is the tally provided by the governor of Anzoátegui state, Tarek William Saab, from the incident that occurred in the town of Aguas Calientes in the Bruzual municipality. The tragedy occurred at approximately 9 p.m. yesterday, when a truck carrying about 19 cylinders of chlorine gas collided with another vehicle, fracturing two of the cylinders and affecting local residents. Source: Diario El Norte

In the past seven years some 2,000 citizens of the political opposition have been subjected to legal proceedings in Venezuela for various crimes, of which 40 remain in detention. At a news conference, a group of lawyers from the Venezuelan Penal Forum denounced the fact that between 2002 and 2009 authorities opened court proceedings against tomes 2,000 opponents of the government and protestors, some of whom have been arrested after protesting labor claims. Alfredo Romero, member of the Venezuelan Penal Forum, said that according to records maintained by the organization, 305 politial opponents and protesters have been jailed, of whom 40 are still in detention. Romero said that of the 40 detainees there is a portion still awaiting sentencing.

To those of you in the business whom I've had this discussion with before, here's a prime example of how Bloomberg blows away the competition. Let's look at the breaking news of China's $16 billion investment in Venezuela's oil fields, just off the presses. Actually, don't look at Bloomberg first. Look first at Dow Jones, AFP, Reuters, the AP and the BBC.

Got that? NOW look at Bloomberg.

See what I mean? Do I need to explain this any further? 

Who doesn't love a good compare and contrast?

 I do, which is why after last week's Hugo-Silvio tale of the tape, I couldn't resist drawing attention to this one for good measure.

Ekho Moskvy's Yulia Latynina actually takes it a step further in today's Moscow Times, claiming that Hugo indeed "dreams" of being Vladimir.

Let's examine the argument first. In order of presentation:

First came Morgenthau; then came our endorsement; then came the Washington Post; now, the Economist has joined the chorus: the U.S. State Department ignores Hugo Chávez's manoeuvrings at the peril of the entire region:

Mr Chávez is determined to play in the big leagues. His avowed calculation is that by helping to stir up trouble for America in many places simultaneously, he can bring about the collapse of "the empire". The regimes he is so assiduously cultivating are, by this account, the nucleus of a new world order. Although this seems far-fetched perhaps the world should start to take him a little more seriously.

To her credit, Hillary Clinton did finally publicly address the issue, sort of, briefly, at a press conference yesterday. But something tells me that the State Department isn't going to give this its due until it's too late.

Natives of more than 80 indigenous communities in the Gran Sabana marched through the streets of Santa Elena de Uairén in the state of Bolívar to demand justice and security in response to the wave of violence that has killed at least four people in recent months. Source: Diario Correo del Caroní

Hillary Clinton is on the record regarding Venezuela's recent $2.2 billion credit line with Russia to purchase weapons during a joint press conference with Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez. "They outpace all other countries in South America and certainly raise the question as to whether there is going to be an arms race in the region," Clinton said about Venezuela's arms deals. Venezuela "should be putting in place in procedures and practices to ensure that the weapons they buy are not diverted to insurgent groups or illegal organizations like drug trafficking gangs and other criminal cartels." Vazquez voiced concern that an arms race in South America would divert funds from badly needed development in poor countries. "We should devote our energies and resources to fight against the real scourges of our societies ... such as drug trafficking and terrorism," he said. "Instead of spending it in weapons, spending it in housing, good housing for our people, and to further deepen investment, especially in the field of education."

The Municipality of Jesús Enrique Lossada gridlocked yesterday for more than eight hours due to protests by its inhabitants. More than 300 areas affected by insecurity and lack of water shut down the main streets of the municipality. The mayor, who led the protest, demanded that the Ministries of Environment, Interior and Justicia resolve the serious situation facing the community. Source: Diario El Regional del Zulia

The U.S. showed is concerned about President Chávez's announcement to increase Venezuela's arsenal of weapons and buy more material from Russia, said the State Department today. "We are concerned about the desire expressed by Venezuela to increase its arsenal of weapons, which we believe is a serious challenge to stability in Latin America," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly in his daily briefing. He also requested "that have very clear protocols and safeguards to ensure that such weapons are not diverted to any irregular or illegal organization." The new purchases include 92 T-72 tanks and an antiaircraft system with an undisclosed number "reactive" rockets. As for the nuclear plan, Kelly reiterated the U.S. government's concern over the possible transfer of technology between Venezuela and Iran, a country with which G7 nations are negotiating to halt its uranium enrichment program.

Different groups in the communications sector urged citizens on Sunday to march today to the headquarters of the Public Ministry to demand information from the state of the investigations into the attacks last month on 12 journalists from Cadena Capriles by supporters of President Chávez. The president of the National College of Journalists, William Echeverría, said that a new document will be delivered to prosecutor no. 52 for the Caracas Metropolitan Area, Rolando José Villamizar, which denounces the attacks against journalists and requests an update on the legal status of the judicial process.

This is a couple months old but only recently brought to my attention. Can we all just put aside political beliefs for a moment and consider this on its face: How can anyone possibly take seriously any president, right-wing or left-wing, who actively flogs the precise article of clothing that captures an infant's excrement? Am I missing something or should the head of state not be above such shameless infomercial-worthy promotionalism?

THE PRESIDENT IS HAWKING DIAPERS.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

Mayor Giovani Alvarez, of Coloncito in the state of Táchira and most importantly a member of the opposition Christian Democratic (Copei) party, was assassinated over the weekend. Coincidentally or not, Copei is also the party of Táchira governor César Pérez Vivas, whom President Chávez has recently threatened with impeachment.

Expect to hear more soon about the massive offshore natural gas find that is being explored in partnership with Spain's Repsol and Italy's Eni. The FT has a decent first-hit summary of it here, but if you ask me, the FT buried the longer-term lede on this. In particular, pay close attention to the final paragraph:

Spain is torn between its desire to support democracy in Latin America and its need for good relations with oil producers such as Venezuela. "Chávez is very smart because he keeps on hugging you despite the fact that you may not want to hug him," said José Ignacio Torreblanca, senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Kudos to Andres Oppenheimer for focusing on an issue that lays all too nakedly a trend for which there really is no justification: escalating expenditures on defence, which according to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies has grown 91 percent over the past five years in the region.

There's much in here to wring our hands about, and which tack one takes really depends on whether you want to focus on the factual or the probable.

I'm still familiarising myself with this blog that the Americas Quarterly is running, but I really like the recent entry from Ruxandra Guidi on the politicisation of the Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC). In particular, this passage should be enough to warrant your attention:

IVIC is the main scientific and research hub of Venezuela, founded in 1959 as an autonomous institution. Its mission, among others, was to nurture new and young Venezuelan talent and advance global scientific inquiry in fields like ecology, biophysics, genetics, immunology, microbiology, and others. One of the many well-known and charismatic researchers working there was my mother's boss, Reinaldo DiPolo, an expert on neurophysiology and winner of the National Prize in Natural Sciences of Venezuela.

Well, it depends on what you want to believe. But since data collection is always the trickiest part of the drug business, let's just review what we have to work with, following a recent outreach effort from Venezuela anti-drug czar Nestor Reverol (Photo courtesy of the LAHT).

Numerous media outlets are reporting the following basic data:

• 44 tonnes of drugs have seized so far this year in Venezuela, which includes 20.6 tonnes of cocaine and 23.4 tonnes of marijuana.
• The Venezuelan government has successfully dismantled 19 cocaine factories this year.
• Nearly 4,500 people have been detained in connection with this year's drugs activity.

By Rayma, Diario El Universal:

Never mind the Obama-Chávez high five. Of all the reactions that Robert Morgenthau's recent speech has caused, this Washington Post editorial is the one that most catches my eye, and in particular these sentences:

Mr. Morgenthau's report was brushed off by the State Department, which is deeply invested in the Chávez-is-no-threat theory. State "will look into" Mr. Morgenthau's allegations, spokesman Ian Kelly said Wednesday.

I understand the no-threat stance here, though I don't agree with it in this case. Actually, it brings to mind an old anecdote about Lyndon Baines Johnson when he was first campaigning for the office of U.S. Senator from Texas...

Protesters gathered in the Caracas neighborhood of Altamira and outside the headquarters of the Public Ministry, where they demonstrated against the use of the institution as a political tool. Similar marches were held in Barquisimeto and Valencia, where they protested the arrest of student leader Julio César Rivas. Source: Diario El Nacional

The case of student leader Julio César Rivas, indicted as a result of clashes between protesters and police during a protest march, will be presented to the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) for violations of due process, announced one of his lawyers on Thursday. The decision of the court to initiate a judgment on Rivas, who was charged on six crimes, including "incitement of civil war'' and "instigating the disobedience of laws,'' drew criticism from opponents who accuse the Chávez administration of prosecuting its critics. Rivas, 22, was sent to prison in El Rodeo I, on the outskirts of the capital, which houses prisoners accused of common crimes such as kidnapping, murder and drug trafficking. Alfredo Romero, Rivas' defender, told the AP that the Rivas case will be reported to the IACHR for "violations''of the Constitution and human rights that the authorities committed by holding Rivas "incommunicado for 15 hours,'' after being arrested Sept. 7 in the central city of Valencia.

Due to lack of water, the residents of Los Cerritos in the state of Aragua launched a protest that with each passing moment caused tempers to flare up and the presence of "riot" police squads made them finally explode. The battle was foreseen long ahead of time. Tear gas affected the large as well as the small. "We have almost a month without water," nevertheless the police, without considering that there were elderly and children in the crowd, launched bombs, but we will not be silent, one woman said through tears. Source: Diario El Clarín

El Mundo of Spain profiles three Venezuelan exiles: Gisela Parra, a former judge (pictured at right - Photo credit to Jorge Barreno of El Mundo), Bernardo Jurado, a Venezuelan Naval Captain and a banker named Luis Prieto. Well worth the read here. I would translate more but I'm kind of on the run at the moment so to give you an idea of what we're dealing with here, check out Judge Parra:

"People liked me, because I was never political, was a representative of the citizens who had the courage to face all the things that were violated. That does not suit [the Chávez administration] at all. They invented false accusations. They did not allow me the right to a defense, I was taken to court without even having been declared in the public prosecutor's office. They placed me under arrest, I was humiliated, assaulted and detained as they had done to so many people. So I went in search of freedom. "

One cannot speak freely by telephone in Venezuela. Nor can one send compromising text messages by mobile phone. The Chávez government just legalized wiretapping and interception without a warrant to monitor calls of Venezuelans, especially those made to the media. This new government regulation, contained in an act to reform the Criminal Procedure Code, was adopted by the National Assembly on 25 August and published yesterday appeared in Gazette No. 5930. Among the articles, no. 309 is highlighted, which authorizes the Public Ministry to obtain call records of any citizen without a prior court order and requires companies in the telecommunications, banking and finance sectors to "hold permanent units 24 hours a day, seven days a week to process and deliver the record and location of every citizen." Also featured in the reform act is the Article 297-A which states that "every individual who, through dissemination of false information by any print, radio, television, telephone, email or written pamphlet, causes panic in the community or puts it in distress, shall be punished with imprisonment from two to five years."

The Manhattan District Attorney, who has a longstanding interest in money laundering and other such savory subjects as applicable in the Latin American canon, is making headlines with a speech delivered at the Brookings Institute, from which a Wall Street Journal oped has been adapted. The entire oped is worth reading but for those of you not immediately versed in the nuances of this alliance, and for those of you who truck in denial, how about we leave the deductive portion of this to Mr. Morgenthau's office and just boil this down to the essential, unavoidable facts? In chronological order:

• In 2006, Venezuela, Cuba and Syria were the only nations to vote against a U.N. Atomic Energy Agency resolution to report Iran to the Security Council over its failures to abide U.N. sanctions to curtail its nuclear program.
• In April 2008, Iran and Venezuela signed a Memorandum of Understanding pledging full military support and cooperation. United Press International reported in August that Iranian military advisers have been embedded with Venezuelan troops.

While not nearly as wide-ranging as the World Bank's Doing Business Report, the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report is still not flattering for Venezuela. Of the 134 countries surveyed, Venezuela now ranks 113, down from 105 last year.

As always, I find the relative rankings more interesting than the rankings themselves, so let's have a look:

Pakistan, a nation that is a hair trigger away from turning into a war zone, is ranked 101, same as last year, and 12 spots ahead of Venezuela.

Latin American nations that are less competitive than Venezuela: Nicaragua, Bolivia and Paraguay.

Colombia, whom Hugo is threatening to freeze trade relations with, is ranked 69.

Argentine Journalist Hugo Alconada has a new book out, "The Secrets of the Valise", which investigates the Argentine-Venezuelan cover up of the $800,000 in cash that authorities seized from Guido Antonini Wilson in August of 2007, allegedly meant to help finance then-candidate Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's presidential campaign.

Whether or not the book will see the light of day in Venezuela is apparently still an open question, but Alconada spoke at length with El Universal recently. Following is a translation of the interview originally published in Spanish here.

As with the Oliver Stone video just posted, some things hardly need added comment. I will let the quotes stand on their own. In fact, I couldn't even begin to parse the logic behind these if I tried. As told to Reuters:

"I have no reason to call him (Obama) the devil, and I hope that I am right,"

"With Obama we can talk, we are almost from the same generation, one can't deny that Obama is different (from Bush). He's intelligent, he has good intentions and we have to help him."

"In Venezuela, no television channel has been closed despite the fact that in many cases the television channels supported a coup d'etat,"

"I'm entirely dedicated to building a real democratic model in Venezuela. As Abraham Lincoln said, what is democracy? It is not the system by which a rich minority exploits the people. It is government by the people and for the people."

Surely this will not be the last of the Hugo-Oliver show, so I will merely let the video do the talking for now:

Damian Prat of the Correo del Caroní newspaper, inspired by a recent cartoon lampooning Oliver Stone's vision of Venezuela, has come up with a plot for a full-length feature science fiction movie about Venezuela. In it, he suggests, we would be treated to a fantastical world where none of the following exist:

1. Escalating crime
2. Daily electricity blackouts throughout the country
3. Weapons build-up
4. Continuing threats and closure of media outlets
5. Tear gas use by authorities against protesters, also known as "Gas del bueno" 
6. A rise in agricultural imports owing to the breakdown of the country's ability to feed itself
7. Dependence on the United States as an oil consumer
8. The ruin of industry in Guayana
9. No diversity of the country's export base
10. Disobeying popular will by hijacking the jurisdiction of the capital's mayoralty
11. Disobeying popular will, part 2 - hijacking state gubernatorial jurisdiction in states such as Zulia, Carabobo, Miranda and Táchira
12. Undermining labor rights
13. All that is missing, from transparent governance in legislating laws, to the state's role as protector of industry to much much more.

El Nacional has raised some interesting points of comparison between the Venezuelan president and the Italian prime minister (Photo - Reuters):

Political developments in both the Americas and in Europe seem to bring closer these two neopopulist or if you will, postmodernist, leaders who have constructed their hegemony atop the decline of formal democracy. The one and the other have launched their cavalries against traditional parties, their parliamentary alliances and networks of corruption persisting in both the judiciary and as well as in business with the state.

For more than three hours officials of the Explosives Division of the Disip and the Cicpc had surrounded the entrances to Martin Avenue, where the publishers of various media outlets are located, to deactivate two suitcases with explosive material that were placed in a window box of the building, presumably in the early morning hours of Tuesday. Source: Diario La Región.

The march of August 22 in Caracas against the Education Act continues generating criminal measures against some of the protesters that day. This time the target was the Carabobo student Julio César Rivas, age 22, student at the Alexander von Humboldt University of Valencia and national coordinator of the group United Venezuela Youth, who was arrested Monday at his residence in El Trigal. Lawyers Alfredo Romero, Gonzalo Himiob and Tamara Suju awaited swearing in, but such action must wait until today when the hearing takes place. The president of the Humboldt FCU in Carabobo, Iván Uzcátegui, said Monday that armed officials presented themselves at the home of Rivas and pu the student under arrest. The national prosecutor no. 20, Daniel Guédez, asked the 37th court to detain the student for allegedly resisting arrest, generic weapon abuse, incitement of civil war, incitement of crime, damage to public property and conspiracy. With the arrest of Rivas there are 15 people imprisoned for exercising their right to protest or be involved in demonstrations against government policies.

President Hugo Chávez walked the red carpet with film director Oliver Stone to attend the premiere of the documentary South of the Border at the Venice Film Festival. With tight security, Chávez threw flowers to the crowd that received him and praised the American filmmaker, author of the piece, as he continues his tour to Belarus.

Minister of Public Works and Housing, Diosdado Cabello, said that in addition to the sixth administrative proceeding Conatel opened against Globovision, "we are asking the prosecutor to open criminal proceedings to establish criminal liability" for text messages that are transmitted on the news channel. "We are not cornering anyone, what we are trying to do is enforce the law." He warned that "war is war and we'll see who has more ammunition, we will confront the law before us." Asked about whether Globovision could be closed as a result of the six administrative proceedings currently against it, he said, "it depends on what the proceeding says". At 4:50 pm on Tuesday at Conatel headquarters, Minister Cabello referred to the list of 29 stations that would be subject to proceedings for revocation of the grant. "Those proceedings continue, we told them that there are 240 stations, I did not know that some opposition sectors thought it had stalled," and added that each station has its own file and is comprehensively reviewed.

Here's the single quote that draws my attention from Colleen Barry's report for the Huffington Post on the Venice Film Festival premiere of Oliver Stone's new Latin Left love letter, "South of the Border" (Photo: Katherine Thomson/Huffington Post):

Stone said he didn't see it necessary to present the opposition's case in his film.

"A dark side? There's a dark side to everything. Why do you seek out the dark side when the guy is doing good things?" Stone asked. "He is a democrat and there is opposition to him, and he's not perfect. But he is doing tremendous things for Venezuela and the region."

Mauricio Funes, the recently-elected President of El Salvador from the ex-guerrilla-turned-socialist FMLN party had the following to say an interview with Veja magazine of Brazil:

The leftists coming to power in Latin America must "open the borders and encourage integration, even with the United States."

"The big question of today's left is no longer simply forging a government that is popular, democratic and overturns the distribution of income."

"To make social justice viable requires adopting a model that bets on growth and macroeconomic stability."

By Bismarck - diario La Prensa (Nicaragua):

Venezuela will begin exporting 20,000 barrels of gasoline to Iran next month as the nations strengthen bilateral cooperation. Chávez said Iran will pay about $800 million a year for the gasoline. Iran produces 60 percent of its domestic gasoline demand and imports the remaining 40 percent, according to Iran's Press TV. Despite having large oil reserves, Iran lacks the refining capacity to cover all of its internal gasoline consumption. The leaders of the two nations said on Saturday that they will cooperate on a range of issues, including nuclear power. Venezuela also announced a new agreement with Iran for a joint geological study in Venezuela's Andean belt, the state-run ABN news agency said. Chávez highlighted bilateral projects already under way, including the construction of ethanol plants in Venezuela and gas exploration in Iran by Venezuela's state-run oil company.

If anyone has a valid counterargument to Andres Oppenheimer's take on why Alvaro Uribe should refrain from seeking a third consecutive term, I'm all ears. But I think his closing opinion pretty much says everything that needs to be said:

My opinion: A third consecutive term would be bad for Uribe, bad for Colombia, and bad for Latin America.

Bad for Uribe, because instead of leaving office as a hero, he will end up badly, much like former Argentine President Carlos S. Menem, Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori and others who bent the laws to run for third terms.

Bad for Colombia, because it would turn it into a Mickey Mouse democracy, where an almighty maximum leader would generate a popular reaction that sooner or later would move the political pendulum in the opposite direction.

And it would be bad for Latin America, because it would be a big blow for pro-democracy forces. It would allow Chávez and his fellow autocrats to say, ``Why do you attack us if our adversaries do the same thing?''

So, please, President Uribe, turn yourself into a champion of democracy, and drop this foolish idea. It's bound to destroy you -- and your country.

The LA Times reports on exiled Venezuelan oil workers contributing to Colombia's energy output.

Of all the coverage of Friday's global march against President Chávez, the AP has come up with the best photos so far, hosted at the AP and NPR.

Latest developments on Venezuela's persecution of opposition media: Venezuelan Minister of Public Works and Housing Diosdado Cabello, who apparently also has resumed the responsibility of media outlet closures, announced that 29 more radio stations will be shutdown and also that the government will add a sixth administrative proceeding against Globovisión.

Last but not least, the discussion over who should replace the late Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts is opening a wider conversation about Hugo Chávez's charitable proceeds to Citizens Energy Corp., a nonprofit founded by the deceased senator's nephew, former Massachusetts congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II, touched upon briefly in the Washington Post and covered at length by the Boston Globe.

Taken today at the New York site for the Global Protest Against Chávez, coordinated by No Más Chávez:

Jens Gluesing of Der Spiegel has a lengthy write-up today whose English translation tops out at nearly 2,400 words entitled, "The Oil Messiah" on what is essentially Hugo's cult of personality. Gluesing begins and ends with the imprisonment of General Raul Baduel, former defence minister and commander in chief of the Army, and discusses pretty much everything else of note in between. The passage that most struck me concerns the plight of the 23 de Enero parish, a community with a long history of political awareness (their website is here) that today is made up of 40 collectives each geared toward advancing a particular cause.

Before I go to Gluesing's passage, however, I first just want to make sure we're clear on what sort of barrio 23 de Enero is. Actually, better yet, I'll let NACLA do the talking. Here are some excerpts from a recent profile NACLA published about the community (which by the way happens to feature some good photos of the area), dated July 28, 2009, discussing the Colectivo Alexis Vive, an artists' collective:

Gerardo Fernández has the following to say in today's El Universal about the administration's bid to classify protest as a crime of civil rebellion:

To the regime, demonstrations and protests constitute the crime of civil rebellion. This is a clear sign of weakness. It is obvious that the only way the regime has of maintaining power is by force and by repressing its citizens, and not by the popular support they know they lost. The majority of Venezuelans oppose the regime and its repression of dissent and its unsuccessful attempt to intimidate and terrorize citizens. The prosecutor and some judges are tools of the regime, which further demonstrates the flagrant manner by which it violates the separation, autonomy and independence of the organs of power.

Residents of Terraza County in Guatire closed the main roads in protest of the death of a 4-year old child who was kidnapped on Tuesday and yesterday reappeared lifeless and with signs of torture. Area residents indicated that no one hears their demands for more surveillance. They do not want the Municipal Police of Zamora and will continues protesting until the murder is solved. In the neighborhood 10 people have been murdered this year, public transport suspended service because of the frequent robberies that drivers faced and on weekends there are constant clashes between gangs for control of the drug market, according neighbors complain. Source: El Universal

A new electrical failure on Thursday struck eleven states and the Capital, causing chaos in auto traffic because the traffic lights were not in service, forcing the closure of Caracas Metro stations. The president of the National Electricity Corporation (Corpoelec), Hipólito Izquierdo, said the power outage was caused by a failure of "two main machines of the plant at Josefa Joaquina Sánchez in Tacoa. "Later, 15 minutes into the recovery process, we had another incident, which was also felt in the capital region and in several states," he said. In Caracas the blackout occurred at 1:15 pm. The failure affected the transmission lines that supply 40% of energy in the capital. The states of Vargas, Miranda, Aragua, Trujillo, Barinas, Lara, Guárico, Portuguesa, Mérida and Táchira were also affected. Exactly one month ago, on 3 August, was a "disruption of the central-west system," authorities said, leaving much of the capital and six other regions without light. During 2008 Venezuela suffered three major outages, two due to "high demand" and another because of an "improper adjustment to the protection system" that left much of the country without power. The president of the Caracas Metro, Victor Hugo Matute, said the system was stopped while awaiting the restoration of electric service, which was finally occurred just after 4:30 pm. Hundreds of passengers who were trapped at stations during the outage were evacuated. The situation caused chaos throughout the city, since those who left work to return to their homes stepped out on to the streets to find overcrowded buses or pay higher than normal taxi fares.

Whether he meant to or not, the Christian Science Monitor's Matthew Clark has responded to my previous challenge for a pop-culture theme to match Hugo's current 11-nation trip, Johnny Lee's classic, "Looking for Love":

A group of workers in the state-owned electric company ENELVEN declared themselves in "permanent conflict" while marching from the generating plant at Ramón Laguna to the Plaza de la Bandera in the state of Zulia to demand discussion of a collective agreement and redress of their labor grievances.

The Brazilian Senate issued a declaration of censure against President Chávez in protest of the measures that the Venezuelan leader adopted in relation to private media. The Upper House leader, José Sarney, passed a symbolic vote against Chavez for the "attacks" against "press freedom", according to a previously approved judgment by the Foreign Relations Committee. According to "information from newspapers, Chávez orchestrated invasions of the last television station (RCTV) that was not co-opted or closed," said Senator Flexa Ribeiro, of the Social Democracy Party of Brazil (PSDB). With that attitude, continued Ribeiro, Chávez made "clear his intent to deprive Venezuelans of unbiased information from one of the basic principles of democracy, freedom of press." Last month, the Venezuelan government did not renew the licenses of more than 30 media outlets.

"To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the need for thought." -- Henri Poincaré

As previously mentioned, I went on holiday for a couple weeks in mid-August and as is inevitable, that's when all the good stuff happens. And as I sit here catching up on what happened, going through a stack of actual hard-copy subscriptions of mine (yes, there remain a few), I came across the following passage in the Aug 8-14 edition of the Economist:

"Every community built around an idea, a principle or an aim (from fox-hunting enthusiasts to Freudian psychotherapists) will always face hard arguments about where the boundaries of that community lie, and how far the meaning of its founding axioms can be stretched. But one of the hallmarks of a civilised and tolerant society is that arguments within freely constituted groups, religious or otherwise, unfold peacefully. And if those disputes lead to splits and new groups, that too must be a peaceful process, free of violence or coercion."

Of course this was written in an article that had absolutely nothing at all to do with Chavismo, anti-Chavismo or anything Venezuelan, or American for that matter. But it could have, could it not? Care to guess what the article was about?

An update to our previous post on this - according to the latest from the No Más Chávez website, tomorrow's demonstrations are scheduled to start at noon local time except where noted. Some selected cities are as follows, with a much more thorough listing as well as coordination contact info on the website itself:

Barcelona:                 Plaza Sant Jaume (7pm)

Bogota:                     Carrera 7 en calles 127, 100, 72, Parq Nacional y Av Jimenez con 7ª (NB There are a LOT of sites throughout Colombia)

Buenos Aires:            Plaza San Martin, Calle Esmeralda y Santa Fe (2pm)

Caracas:                   Parque Cristal (NB There are a LOT of sites throughout Venezuela)

There's been a lot of action lately surrounding the oil situation in Venezuela which I've been racing to keep up with since coming back from a two-week vacation in the middle of August. Where to begin?

How about with this story from the FT last weekend, detailing the cold feet that some 19 parastatals and private sector companies are having on the auction for development rights to the Carabobo oil blocks in the Orinoco belt, a project estimated to require some $30-50bn of capital. At the top of the list of concerns is fear of losing money, whether due to stiff financial terms or state expropriation, neither of which should come as a surprise to anyone with even half an ear to the ground. In particular, the initial refusal of Venezuela to allow investors the right to take contractual disputes to international arbitration should be especially worrying.

My question, which is the same question I've always had regarding any other country with a patchy history of honoring oil development contracts (Read: Russia), is this: How many times do you get the rug pulled out from underneath you before you just don't even try anymore?

Answer, from an anonymous representative in Caracas of one of the state oil companies bidding:

Isn't this really the core issue at the moment for the education law that Venezuela's parliament secretly passed? Yes, I know, there are other questions too, but admitting to mistakes is the meta-question that seems to constantly haunt policy and behaviour not just in Venezuela but the region at large.

Anyway Jeremy Morgan of the Latin American Herald Tribune has a lengthy but very worthwhile rundown published on Sunday of the most recent events surrounding this debate. I would excerpt some of it here, but frankly I would have to quote the entire thing, sort of like the uselessness of highlighting an entire chapter of a book. So, when you have a few minutes, seriously, go here and read.

By the way, to anyone from the LAHT reading this, may I impose upon you some user feedback: can you please start putting the publishing date somewhere on the actual article page? Thanks.

How does one keep artistic appreciation separate from political consonance?

This is the question I find myself asking after reading the LA Times' take on Oliver Stone's forthcoming "South of the Border", which apparently features the director "warmly embracing Hugo Chávez, nibbling coca leaves with Evo Morales and gently teasing Cristina Elizabeth Fernández de Kirchner about how many pairs of shoes she owns."

I've actually always been a fan of Oliver Stone movies. The opening scene of Any Given Sunday, the debate between James Woods' character and the American diplomatic attaché in Salvador and of course the masterpiece that is Gordon Gekko have earned Stone a spot in the pantheon, to my opinion. And yet, one of the things that simultaneously makes it so easy to separate appreciating his art from taking him seriously as a person are statements such as the following on meeting the Venezuelan president, also from the LA Times piece:

A group of members of the Women's National Front appeared at the gates of the Attorney General's Office to reject the statements of Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz on public demonstrations. Dinora Figuera, spokeswoman for the group, said that the protests are enshrined in Article 68 of the Constitution and that the Attorney General places herself in the margins of the law when she threatens to imprison those who speak out. They called attention to the Report from Provea which indicates that 2,200 people are currently in criminal proceedings after participating in public demonstrations. Source: La Voz

Additional coverage by the Latin American Herald Tribune can be found here.

Previous coverage here.

The constitutional lawyer and former constituent, Hermann Escarrá, rejected outright the statements of the Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz, who said last week that she would prosecute for civil rebellion anyone seeking to destabilize government institutions, which applies to those who have taken to the streets recently to protest against the government. In this regard, he listed a series of legal arguments to contradict Ortega Díaz, whom he said is "confused". First, he argued that the fundamental right to protest is enshrined in the constitution and international covenants, and is above any alleged act of rebellion. "This confusion is made in response to a higher constitutional standard hierarchy, which is the right of peaceful assembly and protest. Not does it appear in the current constitution, but also in the earlier version of 1961, and in Articles 21 of the Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 6 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights Pact of San José," he said.

From Noticiero Digital:

Next Friday, September 4, Latin American citizens in cities around the world from Bogotá to Tokyo will coordinate a peaceful demonstration to reject the imposition of the regime that President Chávez wants to expand and implement throughout Latin America. Latin Americans have seen country by country how President Chávez has directly interfered in internal affairs, such as with the use of petrodollars to purchase popular will in other countries in order to facilitate their allegiance in international bodies, such as the restriction of freedoms and the persecution of dissidents, such as the dependence of economic and other integration agreements on the mood of Mr. Chávez. In addition, the march will protest the funding of groups by the Chavista movement and in the name of Bolívar for the purpose of destabilizing legitimately elected governments as well as the war-mongering actions of President Chávez, especially in the case of Colombia.

On Facebook, the group organizing to this end appears to be No Más Chávez, whose sign up sheet is entitled "Marcha Mundial Contra Chavez el 4 de Septiembre." There is also a Twitter account accessible here.

Another from Tal Cual: Andrés Cañizález discusses in rather sobering terms what the past month in Venezuela has shown us about the role of information in a democracy:

We said that this August has been a clear example of a return to the model of yesteryear. Not only is it that all laws passed by the National Assembly are in themselves a huge setback when compared with what is written in the constitution, which in itself is very serious; but equally or more disturbing than what has been written in the new legislation is the manner in which it was reached. That is, we have a problem with the new laws, as much for their content as well as for their form.

For those of you wondering why tend to I link to and discuss more Venezuela commentary coming from outside of the country, the reality is that on the pro-Chávez side, we already know what the arguments and attitude is, and from the anti-Chávez side, you can only call him a dictator so many times before it becomes rather boring, frankly.

So when someone brings to my attention a missive from in-country that aims above those discourses, I perk up. In today's edition of Tal Cual, there is an opinion article entitled, "Problemas de la unidad" addressing the "too many cooks" problem that frequently befalls opposition political movements. The entire piece is worth reading, but as is my custom, I will translate to English the portions I find most compelling:

It is easy to divide a party...the difficult part is to construct a new one.

Experienced organizers are needed, directors in all the instances and collective will. It is good that there are leaders in the opposition, many, but the chavista nightmare has shown us the negative role of a leader who believes himself to be supreme, above everyone else, and over there, under militance, "the people" as mere affiliates of a project.

...political parties are essential and should rescue popular confidence; they are necessary to organize people and are important for making a unified effort. The challenges of 2010 are already on the table and it is only possible to be successful with absolute unity of purpose, which begins in the parties and one's own internal life.

In Altamira, family members of Caracas prefect Richard Blanco and eleven other employees of the Metropolitan Mayor's Office who have been detained since Friday, unfurled a banner demanding freedom for their loved ones. In Chacao, the Popular Network Movement and members of the Venezuelan Penal Forum, together with relatives of political prisoners rejected "judicial repression". Source: El Universal

Going out while carrying a banner, block streets to complain about the lack of water, the poor condition of a school, the nonpayment of wages or to express disagreement with an authority has subjected 2,220 Venezuelans to a criminal procedure process that can last 9 years. The complaint was filed by Marino Alvarado, coordinator of the Venezuelan Program of Education-Action in Human Rights (Provea), who rejected the threat of Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz to prosecute all those who "disturb the public peace." In noting that these figures were obtained from the Public Ministry, unions and the media, Alvarado said of Ortega, "The attorney general generates a situation of political risk, because when you lock the doors of democracy to critical sectors this creates favorable conditions for those who always seek violence. To impede those who seek a manner to express themselves is the perfect excuse for violence," he warned. He also said that the stance the chief of the Public Prosecutor is taking is contrary to the constitution, which advocates a "participatory" democracy. Alvarado also recalled that in 2007 alone, the prosecution started criminal investigations against 120 college students for participating in protests against ending the concession to Radio Caracas Television.