The Spanish Senate yesterday approved an initiative urging the government to intercede with the Venezuelan authorities to respect the fundamental rights of opponents in criminal proceedings against them. The motion was defended by Senators Iñaki Anasagasti and approved by 132 votes in favor (from the Popular Party, PNV and CiU), 114 against and one abstention, Efe said. Anasagasti insisted that the aim of this initiative is to defend human rights wherever they are violated, as in countries like Venezuela, with which Spain has a good relationship. Anasagasti recalled that judges and prosecutors in that country "routinely receive the order" to impose criminal charges against government policy objectives and that their victims are vilified in the media and arbitrarily detained while their rights are violated repeatedly.
Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo criticized recent arms purchases by President Chávez, while asking to recognize that the enemy is not Colombia but poverty in their own country, he told reporters. "Why is President Chávez arming himself?" asked Toledo after a meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. "Look how much money is being spent on weapons, and I mean for the region, with that money we could build hundreds of schools, hospitals and roads," he said. "If Chávez has oil revenue God bless him, but he would be well advised to remember the poor people in his country. The enemy, President Chávez, is not Colombia, it is the poverty that exists in Venezuela," he added. Toledo (2001-2006) accused Chavez of "swimming in oil profits, while Venezuelans are poor" and to be "pouring fuel on the fire" of the diplomatic tensions in the region with the purchase of weapons.
The constitution of the new National Police is causing a stir among career police officers in various agencies of municipal, state and national jurisdiction, as in the cases of forensic science (CICPC) and the Directorate of Intelligence Services and Police Prevention (Disip). In the case of the Disip, agency sources reveal that by presidential decree, through the Ministry of Interior and Justice, staffers with more than 15 years on the job have been notified of voluntary retirement at all hierarchies "because we have to eliminate the vestiges of the Fourth Republic." Starting this quarter, the reorganization of the Disip will only maintain competence in the areas of intelligence and counterintelligence, under the charge of officials incorporated into the agency in the past ten years, and who have been selected and sent to such activities as the G2 in Cuba.
Three police and five employees of the Central University of Venezuela were wounded Wednesday during fighting. The incident occurred after a march for labor demands that UCV employees made to the National Assembly and were repressed by members of the Public Order Brigade of Metropolitan Police. David Mendoza, a member of the Union of the UNA, said in a telephone interview with Globovisión that they had government permission to conduct the march, however, they were "detained at the corner of el Chorro". "On returning to the university to seek ideas for resolving the conflict, we were repressed by the Metropolitan Police," said Mendoza. One of the entrances to the Central University of Venezuela was closed and the group of police was waiting there in riot gear to meet the demonstration.
The Venezuelan government intervened yesterday in two sugar mills as a prelude to being expropriated, one from the Colombian capital, said Agriculture Minister Elias Jaua. "We are intervening for the expropriation of the central sugar mill of Táchira," Jaua told reporters. Referring to the Táchira mill, Jaua said: "We wanted to impose a blackmail, which was that if we do not allow the importation of sugar cane in Colombia (remember that this mill is from Colombian capital), they paralyze activities. The seizure of the sugar mill plant that was, according to the minister, "an indication that the government of President Chávez is willing to enforce the law." The other mill is in the state of Zulia, at the Colombian border. On these premises, Jaua said its owners decided to stop production because they were not allowed to sell sugar at the price they wanted.
The National Office of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela decided to "have confidence" in President Chávez, to appoint 20% of the delegates who will participate at the party congress. On 15 November, 2,352,545 PSUV militants will choose nearly a thousand representatives to take part in this special assembly, to begin on Nov. 21. "We have agreed that the figure of national delegates will be reserved for the President, so you can appoint people with of great revolutionary stock," said Jorge Rodriguez, national coordinator of the training organization. Rodriguez said the PSUV dome also will propose to the congress that Chávez leads the meeting.
Leave a comment