News Blast Venezuela 23.10.09

The financial difficulties facing the government urged the National Assembly to approve, surprisingly after the first debate, an amendment to the law governing the Banco Central de Venezuela. The changes will allow the BCV to "expand its securities holdings for the exercise of policies under its jurisdiction, and if the securities are denominated in foreign currency their possession by the BCV will constitute a foreign currency asset which upon liquidation or expiration will become part of the reserves." The document was introduced and adopted at the first debate just a day before the period to receive supply orders of Petrobonds 2014, 2015 and 2016 from non-traditional investors expired. Another change is related to the appropriate level of international reserves calculated biannually instead of annually as before. In addition, Venezuela's development fund, Fonden, is now authorized to transfer foreign exchange to the BCV when necessary.

Inmates of the Capital City Rodeo II prison in the city of Guatire in Miranda state kidnapped prisons ombudsman Douglas José Camero Montañez yesterday morning as a measure to avoid a requisition that would activate a thousand National Guard officers. The inmates, apparently surprised by the sudden presence of the soldiers, communicated via telephone with their families between 4 am and 6 am, when the action was supposedly meant to begin, taking Camero hostage, and initiating an exchange of gunfire that last for half an hour. Camero told reporters by telephone that "more than an ombudsman, I am a defender of life, I do not agree with this abuse and I am sure that before using force, all avenues of dialogue should be exhausted." As part of their resistance to the requisition, they stated that their needs have not been met, among them, procedural delays, lack of transportation, respect for human rights of inmates and visits, and excessive violence by National Guard officials."

National Assembly deputies approved a law to prohibit video games and war-related toys yesterday afternoon, in which article 14 stipulates that anyone who imports, manufactures, sells, rents or distributes violent video games or toy weapons will be punished with imprisonment of 3 to 5 years. Furthermore, any medium that promotes the purchase or use of such games will be punishable by fines from 2,000 to 4,000 UT. Violent video games inclue those that are usable on personal computers, arcade systems, game consoles, handheld devices or mobile phones and other electronic or telematic devices. The measure also applies to toys that are replicas of weapons or promote violence.

A member of the union Unidad Matancera, José Luis Alcocer, reported that the temporary cessation schedule of Venezuelan steelmaker to ration its remaining electricity will take away from Sidor's productivity and damage the company's machinery. "Last week at the steel plant the slabs and billets stopped, the justification is alleged maintenance plans, but we know its to ration electricity, from 6 pm to 11 pm, it's five hours, but to activate the start of a production line takes 3 to 5 hours, two shifts and impacts productivity." Alcocer stressed that the situation affects labour liabilities, because maintaining the workforce with a paralyzed line will influence fiscal management. He said workshops were held to discuss the issue of labour liabilities, but "ultimately the president offered a socialist president of Chinese background, but the Chinese are not socialists, they do not give away their money, lend assets, the government has not offered protection and resources do not cover all that is necessary that is delayed."