Venezuela and Colombia: building the “Patria

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Social
occial Justice
Justice
Venezuela celebrates five years as a territory
“Free of Illiteracy” thanks to a Cuban-developed literacy
program that has taught Venezuelans to read and write
FRIDAY|November 5th, 2010 |No. 36 |Bs. 1|CARACAS
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Opinion
pinion
Alexander Cockburn from Counterpunch
analyzes the outcome of Tuesday’s legislative elections
in the United States
ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas
Venezuela and Colombia:
building the “Patria Grande”
V
Venezuela’s
l’
Chocolate Revolution
President Hugo Chavez
inaugurated a new chocolate
factory in Miranda this
week as part of the country’s
investment and rejuvenation
of the cacao industry.
Venezuela has the finest cocoa
bean in the world, though the
nation’s chocolate industry
was long ago abandoned
by prior oil-obssesed
governments. Chavez aims to
increase national production
of the cocoa bean in order to
generate jobs and diversify
the country’s oil-focused
economy. Venezuela plans to
export its fine chocolate in the
near future.
Despite political differences, the governments of Venezuela and Colombia
are rebuilding ties and strengthening relations to benefit their citizens.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos made his first official visit to Venezuela this week as part of an ongoing effort to
reestablish relations with the Chavez administration after previous Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s policies led
the two nations to the brink of war in July. The two heads of state met in Caracas at the presidential palace
and signed several agreements to advance commercial relations and strengthen border security.
V
Analysis
Dilma’s victory
in Brazil
The largest nation in South
America has just elected its
first woman president, Dilma
Rousseff.
Economy
Venezuela nationalizes
more industries
Steel and housing
development companies were
nationalized this week by
President Chavez.
“Mission Smile”
is changing faces
A Venezuelan government
program providing free
dental care and dentures to
citizens has a positive impact.
Chavez on Twitter:
1 million strong
2
T
School of Human Rights opens in Venezuela
he first School of Human
Rights in Venezuela opened
its doors on Saturday in Caracas to complement the academic
training and research of various
professionals in the field of promotion and defense of human
rights with a critical and progressive approach.
During the opening ceremony,
National Public Defender Gabriela Ramirez said the initiative
is aimed at strengthening the
academic training of the general
public through an initial offering
of free professional courses.
Ramirez explained that the
School of Human Rights is an institution created by the Office of
the Ombudsman to promote, encourage and advance education,
and training in Human Rights
and academic research.
The National Public Defender
further noted that this new area
of academic training in the field
of Human Rights would break
with the elitist view that some
specialists in the field have been
promoting inside and outside
the country. “Now we’re talking
about human rights for all, not
about privilege”, she added.
Next year, three new certificate
courses will be offered: Human
Rights, Human Rights of Children and Adolescents, and Human Rights of Women.
The holder of the office of human rights in the country added
that the higher-level academic
offerings of the school would be
expanded gradually, including
educational activities involving
ombudsmen in other countries
throughout the Americas.
For more information on graduate courses, the School of Human
Rights can be reached at +58-212
5053162 or [email protected]
enezuela’s President Hugo
Chavez has exceeded one
million followers on Twitter,
making him the most followed
Venezuelan on the social networking service.
“Good morning world! I
want to thank all my followers. We’ve exceeded one million! Wow! We’re going to
keep on winning!” he tweeted
on Monday from his account,
@chavezcandanga.
Since joining Twitter in April
2010, Chavez has used the service to interact more directly
with the Venezuelan people,
tasking aides with responding to
requests for assistance made via
his account. In July, Twitter cofounder Dom Sagolla recognized
Chavez’s use of the service, noting at a conference that he was
likely the only head of state doing his own tweeting. “There
are a lot of presidents who use
Twitter, but the case of Venezuela is unusual”. Since President
Chavez joined Twitter, penetration of the service amongst Internet users jumped 4.8 percent,
putting Venezuela third on the
list of countries with the highest
number of Twitter users.
On a global scale, Chavez
has the third highest number of followers of heads of
state, trailing only US President Barack Obama and the
Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom.
2
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| No 36 • Friday, November 5th, 2010
IMPACT
The artillery of ideas
Venezuela and Colombia: Relations back on track
I
n a strengthening of bilateral
relations between neighboring countries, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez received his
Colombian counterpart, Juan
Manuel Santos, in the capital Caracas on Tuesday to sign a series
of new accords and evaluate the
progress of relations between the
two nations.
The meeting comes as a followup to an earlier encounter held
between the heads of state in the
Colombian city of Santa Marta
last August after the newly inaugurated Santos expressed his will
to repair relations with the Venezuelan government of President
Chavez.
Relations between the two
countries were severely damaged last July when Santos’ predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, accused
the Chavez administration of
harboring left-wing Colombian
guerillas within its territory.
Uribe also called on international institutions, such as the UN
Security Council and the Organization of American States
(OAS), to intervene in Venezuelan affairs in order to substantiate his claims.
The allegations where never
proven and Venezuela reacted
by suspending all diplomatic ties
with Colombia.
REAFFIRMING TIES
With the arrival of Santos to the
presidency, relations have begun
to improve as the two nations
have agreed to put the past behind them, reestablish dialogue
and begin working again on issues of common interest.
“I think this process is going
well”, Santos said upon arriving
in Caracas. “We’ve come here to
continue a process that we began
in August and to say that from
our side, we have only friendship
and respect for the Venezuelan
people”.
The meeting between the two
presidents in Caracas resulted
in the signing of a series of new
accords to stimulate economic
cooperation, collaborate in the
fight against drugs, and promote
tourism.
A bi-national economic committee was created between both
states to focus on “planning actions to consolidate productive
alliances” in strategic industries
such as textiles, agriculture, automotives, housing, and energy.
Similar commissions have
been established to analyze
methods of increasing tourism
between the two countries and
strengthening cooperation and
coordination in the fight against
drug trafficking.
C
Colombia’s Santos praised restoration
of relations with Venezuela
olombia’s President Juan
Manuel Santos was delighted about the restoration
of ties between Colombia and
Venezuela and he expressed his
desire to strengthen and deepen
bilateral relations.
The statement was made by
the Colombian President on
Tuesday after he was welcomed
by his Venezuelan counterpart,
Hugo Chavez, at Miraflores
Presidential Palace in Caracas.
Santos took the opportunity
to recall the non-aggression
pact signed with Venezuela in
1939 by his great-uncle, former
Colombian President Eduardo
Santos. The text stipulated that
differences between the two nations should be solved diplomatically.
“I would like to ratify that
accord between Venezuela and
Colombia now, 71 years later.
Our two countries have to work
together and it is our duty because our people will benefit”,
the Colombian President said.
This is the second encounter
between Chavez and Santos,
after a meeting held last August
10th in Santa Marta, Colombia. At
that meeting, the two presidents
made a significant step to restore
relations and arranged a series of
actions to advance trade and cooperation between both countries.
Part of these actions included
setting up five task forces between Venezuela and Colombia
to tackle issues of debt and commercial relations, economic cooperation, border control, immigration and safety.
“We want the commissions to
have a concrete and successful
result”, stressed President Santos,
and he expressed to the Venezu-
elan people the friendship and
respect of Colombians.
“We both gained our independence 200 years ago and we
have had differences, but our
destinies are the same. For that
reason, we have to work together, 200 years later, to free us all
from oppression, poverty and
inequality. If we fight together,
we will achieve our goals successfully”, Santos proclaimed
from Miraflores Presidential
Palace in Caracas.
Similarly, the Colombian
President emphasized the
strength of each Latin American country, “and if we work
together, we will be a real power. Therefore, it is so important
for us to pursue integration and
cooperation with Venezuela”.
The two presidents met on
Tuesday with the aim of discussing several issues of bilateral
interest and to review the progress of the actions undertaken to
reinforce trade and cooperation
between both countries.
T/ Venezuelan News
Agency
CONSOLIDATING RELATIONS
President Chavez, speaking
at a press conference held after
the meeting, referred to the new
agreements as the first step towards consolidating stronger relations with Colombia.
“This first group of accords that
have reestablished the programs
of cooperation that have always
worked well…make up part of
a first floor upon which to build
a powerful system of relations
based on mutual respect, trust,
good faith and shared interests”,
he stated.
In order to oversee the progress of the agreements and to
strengthen the new relations, the
two presidents announced that
they would also carry out similar
meetings on a three-month basis.
“We’ve decided to meet every
three months to follow up not
only on what has been signed today, but also on many other initiatives that we’ve discussed”, Santos explained. “These initiatives
still need to mature but we have
important projects that we’re going to carry out because these relations have begun very well and
we’ve decided to not let them be
derailed”, he affirmed.
In addition to the new accords,
attention has also been focused
on the evaluation of 5 working
commissions previously established between the two nations
to concentrate on issues of commerce, border security and infrastructure.
The commissions, headed up
by Venezuela’s Foreign Minister
Nicolas Maduro and his Colombian counterpart Maria Holguin,
have carried out a series of meetings, the last of which taking
place in the border city of Cucuta
in early October.
One of the results of the commissions’ work has been the payment of over $336 million USD in
debt owed to Colombian exporters by Venezuela’s foreign exchange commission, CADIVI.
T/ Edward Ellis
P/ Presidential Press
ANALYSIS
The artillery of ideas
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No 36 • Friday, November 5th, 2010 |
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Dilma’s victory in Brazil:
“Restore Sanity” beats “Keep Fear Alive”
L
ike the rally led by Jon Stewart
and Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central that brought hundreds
of thousands of people into the
streets of Washington, DC on Saturday, Brazil’s election on Sunday
was a contest of “Restore Sanity”
versus “Keep Fear Alive”.
Dilma Rousseff of the governing
Worker’s Party coasted to victory
against the opposition candidate
Jose Serra, with a comfortable
margin of 56 – 44 percent. It was a
bitter and ugly campaign marked
by allegations of corruption and
malfeasance on both sides, and
ended with Serra’s wife calling
Dilma a “baby-killer”.
Religious groups and leaders
mobilized for the Serra campaign
and accused Dilma of wanting to
legalize abortion, ban religious
symbols, being “anti-Christian”,
and a “terrorist” for her resistance
to the military dictatorship during
the late 1960s. The whole campaign was all too reminiscent of
Republican strategies in the United States, going back to the rise
of the religious right in the 1980s,
through the “Swift Boat” politics
and Karl Rove’s “Weapons of
Mass Distraction” of recent years.
Serra even had a right-wing
foreign policy strategy that
prompted one critic to label him
“Serra Palin”. His campaign
threatened to alienate Brazil from
most of its neighbors by accusing the Bolivian government of
being “complicit” in drug trafficking and Venezuela of “sheltering” the FARC (the main guerrilla
group) in Colombia. He attacked
Lula for his refusal – along with
most of the rest of South America
– to recognize the government of
Honduras. The Honduran government was “elected” following
a military coup last year, under
conditions of censorship and human rights abuses such that only
the United States and a handful
of mostly right-wing allies recognized it as “free and fair”.
But in the end, sanity triumphed
over fear, as voters proved to be
more convinced by the substantial improvements in their well
being during the Lula years.
It is perhaps not surprising that
Serra, an economist, would try to
find a way to avoid the most important economic issues that affect
the lives of the majority of Brazilians. The economy has performed
much better during the Lula years
than during the eight years of Serra’s party (the Social Democratic
Party of Brazil [PSDB]): per capita
income grew by 23 percent from
2002-2010, as opposed to just 3.5
percent for 1994-2002. Measured
unemployment is now at a record
low of 6.2 percent.
Perhaps even more importantly,
the majority of Brazilians had some
substantial gains: the minimum
wage, adjusted for inflation, grew
by about 65 percent during Lula’s
presidency. This is more than three
times the increase during the prior
eight years (i.e. the presidency of
Fernando Henrique Cardoso, of
Serra’s party). This affects not only
minimum-wage workers, but also
tens of millions of others whose income is tied to the minimum wage.
In addition, the government
has expanded the Bolsa Familia
program, which provides small
cash grants to poor families, with
school attendance and health immunizations required. The program has been successful in re-
ducing illiteracy, and now reaches
about 13 million families. More
than 19 million people have been
brought across the poverty line
since 2003. And a new program of
subsidies to home ownership has
benefited hundreds of thousands
of families, with millions likely to
take part as it expands.
Although this brand of Republican campaign strategy was effective
for most of the last four decades in
the United States, it hasn’t performed all that well as an export.
The Brazilian electorate tired quickly of the mud-slinging, and swing
voters wanted to know what Serra
would do for them that would be
better than what the Workers’ Party
had done. When he couldn’t tell
them, he lost their votes.
On the down side, the mudslinging and “Republican strategy” prevented the campaign
from addressing some of the vital
issues of Brazil’s future. Brazil’s
financial elite, which dominates
the central bank, has an influence on economic policy that is
at least as bad – and as powerful – as that of Wall Street in the
United States. This is one reason
why Brazil, even under Lula, has
had for many years the highest or
near-highest real interest rates in
the world. Brazil’s growth performance has still not been on a
par with the other BRIC countries
(Russia, India, China), and the
country will have to move away
from some of the neoliberal policies of previous governments in
order to achieve its potential.
Capital formation during the
Lula years was not much different
from during the Cardoso years,
and was relatively low compared
to many developing countries.
Public investment was even lower,
although it has recently begun to
accelerate. The country will need
a development strategy, and one
that establishes new patterns of
investment and consumption that
advance the interests of the majority of Brazilians – some 50 million
of whom remain in poverty.
The election has enormous implications for the Western Hemisphere, where the Obama State
Department has continued with
barely a stutter the Bush admin-
istration’s strategy of “rollback”
against the unprecedented independence that the left governments of South America have
won over the last decade. A defeat
of the Workers’ Party would have
been a big victory for them.
It also has implications for the
rest of the world. In May, Brazil
and Turkey broke new ground in
the world of international diplomacy, by negotiating a nuclear
fuel swap arrangement for Iran,
in an attempt to resolve the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program.
The State Department was probably more upset about this than
anything that Brazil had done
in the region, including Lula’s
strong and consistent support for
the Chavéz government in Venezuela. Serra had also attacked
the Iran deal during his campaign. Outside of Washington,
the results of this election will be
greeted as good news.
T/ Mark Weisbrot
Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the
Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington, D.C. He is
also president of Just Foreign Policy.
4
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| No 36 • Friday, November 5th, 2010
ECONOMY
The artillery of ideas
Venezuela: Chocolate Revolution
As part of the
recuperation of
national industries,
the Chavez
administration is
investing in chocolate
production and
promoting local
development of the
world’s best cacao.
During his Sunday
television program,
President Chavez also
announced several
nationalizations and
inaugurated a new
milk processing plant
C
elebrating the high quality
of Venezuelan cacao and its
great potential as an export crop
for the country, President Hugo
Chavez inaugurated a new
chocolate factory in the state
of Miranda last Sunday during
his weekly television broadcast,
“Alo, Presidente”.
Chavez referred to the cacao,
which has been grown in the
coastal region for centuries, as
being “the best in the world” and
announced that it will soon be
decreed as a National Strategic
Product by the government.
“We’re talking about a strategic
product for national production
and for our new international
economic policy”, the Venezuelan head of state said, explaining
the export potential of cacao to
ally countries in Europe and the
Middle East.
CACAO IN VENEZUELA
During the colonial period, cacao was one of the most desired
agricultural products of the European market grown in Venezuela for consumption by wealthy
elites.
Large slave populations were
brought from the Caribbean to
the central coastal region to cultivate the trees, which produce the
cocoa pods, the basis for the production of chocolate.
Many slaves rebelled against
the brutality of the cacao plantations, fleeing from the inhumanity of bondage and forming free
communities in the region now
known as Barlovento in the state
of Miranda.
The fugitive slaves used the
name “Cimarrones”, also the
name given to the chocolate factory inaugurated by President
Chavez on Sunday.
After independence, falling
prices and the oil boom in Venezuela led to a decline in the crop’s
economic importance as agricultural workers began to migrate to
urban centers in search for a better quality of life.
Many Afro-descendent communities, however, have remained in
the region and continue to grow
high quality cacao, whose national and international economic
potential the Chavez government
is attempting to develop.
Over the past eleven years,
national production of cacao
per hectare has grown by 30%,
Chavez said on Sunday, thanks
to the policies of the current
government that has provided
credits to small producers and
has stimulated the local manufacture of chocolate through the
creation of various processing
plants.
Venezuela currently produces
20 thousand tons of cacao a year,
a number which the Venezeulan
President is focused on increasing.
“If we produce today 20 thousand tons of cacao a year, we can
reach some 100 thousand tons
[annually] in the next ten years”,
he said.
In order to achieve this goal,
President Chavez requested a
study be carried out by Vice President Elias Jaua and recommended
the government identify and recover all abandoned plantations
that exist in the region.
Funds from Venezuela’s Central Bank, amounting to 126 million bolivars ($29.3 million USD)
will also be transferred to the nation’s Agricultural Bank for the
disbursement of credits to small
producers as part of the country’s
National Cacao Plan.
NATIONALIZATIONS
During his weekly television
broadcast, President Chavez also
announced the expropriation of a
steel manufacturing company and
a series of residential development projects in various regions of
the country as part of the government’s renewed efforts to tackle
the nation’s housing shortage.
Siderurgica del Turbio (Sidetur) was one of the largest producers of iron girders used for
construction projects in Venezuela, occupying some 40% of the
total market.
According to Jose Kahn, Minister of Mining and Basic Industries, the decision to nationalize
the company is fundamental to
ensuring the further development
of the construction industry.
“It must be taken into account
that iron is a strategic resource”,
Kahn said on Sunday. “This is not
just any company. This is a business that has to guarantee products for housing, infrastructure
and roadways in our country”.
As part of the nationalization,
the government has guaranteed
the rights of all workers currently employed by Sidetur and
expressed its commitment to improve conditions on the job.
In terms of the housing projects, the Venezuelan head of state
signed an order to expropriate 6
urban developments in the states
of Yaracuy, Miranda, Carabobo,
and Miranda.
Another eight projects will be
occupied by the government in
the states of Miranda, Carabobo
and Anzoategui, and the capital
Caracas, in order to accelerate
their completion.
The reason for the government
interventions, President Chavez
declared, was the overcharging of
home-buyers and the violation, on
numerous occasions, of Venezuelan law by the private contractors
involved in the construction.
The Venezuelan President guaranteed that all payments previously made by the home-buyers
affected will be honored and that
they will be ensured the delivery
of their homes once completed.
MILK PROCESSING
Via satellite, the Venezuelan
head of state also inaugurated a
publicly-owned milk processing
plant in the state of Portugesa
during his broadcast on Sunday.
The Los Gabanes plant, the result of an 8.5 million bolivar ($1.97
million USD) investment by the
government, will have the capacity to produce 14 thousand liters
of milk daily, benefiting some five
thousand children in 14 schools
located in the municipality.
Thirty-one people have been
employed by the facility, which
has been the recipient of Iranian
technology based on an agreement
signed between Venezuela and the
Persian nation that has already resulted in the construction of nine
similar plants in the country.
The workers of the “social
property” business are members
of the area’s community councils – grassroots neighborhood
organizations – and will actively
participate in the management
and decision-making processes of
the plant.
“We need to realize that every
day the people have more power…” Chavez exclaimed. “This is
not the property of a little group.
It’s property of the workers and
the people”.
T/ Edward Ellis
P/ Presidential Press
ECONOMY
The artillery of ideas
5
No 36 • Friday, November 5th, 2010 |
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Venezuelan Steel Company
and Housing Developments Nationalized
O
n
Sunday,
Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez announced the expropriation of
Siderurgica del Turbio (Sidetur),
a major producer of steel used in
the construction of homes, bridges and other infrastructure and
public works.
The President also confirmed
government interventions in six
large housing developments currently under construction, eight
others that are ready for residents
to move in, and increased government oversight in an additional 19
privately-run housing projects.
Chavez announced the expropriations during his weekly-televised address to the nation, “Alo
Presidente”.
“NOT JUST ANY COMPANY”
Sidetur manages 40% of Venezuela’s steel rod production and
is accused by the government of
speculating with prices of construction materials. The firm produces a number of steel-based
construction materials (rebar,
bar, beam, angle and flat), and
manages six plants in Venezuela
along with 15 collection and recycling centers for scrap metals
nationwide.
According to the company’s
website, Sidetur has an annual
production capacity of 835,000
tons, enough to build an estimated 160,000 homes.
“This is not just any company”,
proclaimed Venezuela’s Minister
of Mining and Basic Industries
Jose Khan. “This is a company
that must serve to guarantee inputs for housing, infrastructure,
and roads”, he added.
Khan also declared the expropriation a “historic decision”.
“In 1985, a decree emerged
where the exploitation of iron was
established as a strategic interest
and in line with that, in 2008 the
nationalization of Sidor was undertaken and today we carry out
another step that strengthens that
goal”, he added.
All of Sidetur’s assets and facilities are included in the expropriation decree.
In a statement published on
Monday, Sidetur’s Executive
Board expressed its opposition to
the expropriation as well as plans
to prevent it from moving for-
“We’ve been waiting a while
for this to happen. It is part of securing dignity for us workers. We
have finally removed the heel, the
boot of the bosses”, stated Tirso
Garcia, steelworker at Sidetur’s
plant in Antimano, Caracas.
ward. “There are no objective justifications for the expropriation
of our firm, and we will use all
legal mechanisms to oppose the
government’s decision… Sidetur
is a socially responsible company
that respects the law and fulfills
its objectives”, the company affirmed.
The company went on to ask
the government “to consider the
impact this measure will have on
infrastructure and construction
plans as well as the impact on the
workers and their families”.
Elias Bessis, President of Venezuela’s largest business federation (Fedecamaras) in the centralVenezuelan state of Lara, called
the expropriation “alarming... I
don’t even want to know how
things will look when they [the
state] control all of the country’s
rebar production”, he claimed.
Rebar, short for reinforcing bar,
is also known as reinforcing or reinforcement steel. It is commonly
used as a tensioning device in reinforced concrete structures helping to hold concrete in compression, and is made of unfinished
tempered steel.
But President Chavez complained about the the profit margins the company was making
because of the massive price increase between the amount for
which Sidetur buys the steel from
state-owned Sidur.
“Go and see how much they
by the steel from us for and how
much the sell the reinforced steel
bars for”, he said.
WORKER SUPPORT
Alejandro Alvarez, a steelworker at Sidetur’s plant in the state
of Bolivar, expressed his support
for the expropriation on Monday
during an interview with the state
television channel, Venezolana de
Television (VTV).
According to Alvarez, the measure will have a positive impact on
the country’s development since it
will complement other publiclyowned firms in the basic industries, including Siderurgica del
Orinoco (Sidor), Industria Venezolana de Aluminio (Venalum), and
Aluminio del Caroni (Alcasa).
Carlos de Oliveira, President of
the state-owned Siderurgica del
Orinoco (Sidor), which is Venezuela’s largest steel producer and
was nationalized in 2009, also
claimed that the expropriation of
Sidetur leaves 87% of rebar production in the hands of the Venezuelan government.
“Today we feel strengthened
by the decision [to nationalize
Sidetur], a decision which is neither accidental nor isolated. This
decision is taken in a context in
which the President has taken the
problem of housing personally”,
affirmed Oliveria.
Rada Gumuluch, President of
the Venezuelan Aluminum Industry (Venalum), explained that
Sidetur’s nationalization is part
of government efforts to create a
national construction industry to
better serve what he called “the
public good”.
“The integration of the two
iron-steel and aluminum industries is strategic for the country
and for the construction of socialism…To guarantee socialism, the
means of production must be at
the service of the people”, stated
Gumuluch on Monday.
Sidetur’s expropriation was
discussed on VTV within the
context of Plan Guayana Socialista 2019 – launched by Chavez in
2009 – in which the national government seeks to play a majority
role in the aluminum, iron, and
steel industries.
A key component of Plan Guayana Socialista is to establish worker control of production, which
according to Gumuluch strengthens and democratizes these basic
industries. “This conglomerate
of industries [steel, iron, aluminum] will respond to the people’s
needs. We are moving towards a
social, collective, indirect form of
property. The state will administer the industry, but the workers
are the fundamental actors, in association with society”, affirmed
Gumuluch.
HOUSING FOR THE PEOPLE
“Private interests - the speculators - they don’t want us to mass
produce housing for the people.
They operate on the capitalist notion of supply and demand. The
less housing available, the higher
the demand, and higher earnings
for them”, explained Chavez during his Sunday program.
The interventions in the housing
sector announced over the weekend include the full expropriation
and culmination of six housing
construction projects, four of which
are found near the nation’s capital;
the temporary occupation of eight
housing projects (temporary because they are ready to be handed
over to residents); and close supervision by government agencies of
another 19 housing developments.
The private housing construction projects that were expropriated were involved in major scams
affecting thousands of Venezuelan families. Perspective buyers
were trapped into paying huge
deposits and investments for
future homes that in most cases
were never built, despite the fact
that the private companies keep
raising interest rates and monthly
payments for the housing units.
“To all the families who have paid
into these projects, the government
guarantees your deposits and your
apartments, we will not allow you to
become victims of the bourgeoisie.
We are returning them [the apartments] to their rightful owners”,
stated Chavez as he announced the
housing-related interventions on
Sunday. Public housing has been in
Venezuelan news recently, as heavy
rains last month left hundreds of
Venezuelan families dependent on
government shelters. Also, President Chavez signed agreements
with Russia, Iran, Belarus and Portugal to build or buy roughly 35,000
homes during his October eightnation diplomatic tour.
T/ Juan Reardon
and Steven Mather
6
|
| No 36• Friday, November 5th, 2010
SOCIAL JUSTICE
The artillery of ideas
“Mission Smile”
Providing free dental care to Venezuelans
Almost 100,000
Venezuelans have
received free dental
care and dentures
under the specialized
government healthcare
program, “Mission
Smile”
G
overnment sources report
that “Mission Smile” has
provided over 96,000 adults with
dental care, including 34,600 with
dentures, since the creation of the
free healthcare program in 2006.
The Minister for Health, Eugenia Sader, said the program includes both partial and complete
dentures, which are supplied
from six different specialized clinics around the country, as well as
through mobile visits carried out
by the Superintendency of Banks
(Sudeban). The dentures are primarily for people from the poorest sectors of the country who
traditionally have had no access
to dental care.
“Mission Smile helps recover
the self-esteem of our patients
and the Venezuelan people. This
is quality free dental attention the
revolutionary government offers
to our people in order to guarantee health and hygiene”, said
M
Sader at one of Sudeban’s denture
distribution events last week.
The Superintendent of Banks,
Edgar Hernandez, explained that
normally such dentures would
cost 1,500 bolivars ($348 USD) in
the private sector. Other reports
quote a price of 2,500 bolivars
($581 USD) for a full denture.
The state run Venezuelan News
Agency interviewed 63-year old
Iraida Cedeño, who now has one
of the mission supplied dentures.
“I went for about fifteen years
without teeth, to the point where
I’d forgotten what it was like to
chew. I swallowed food whole
and it wasn’t good for my digestive system. Now I know that this
definitely helps my health and
it makes me attractive again”,
Cedeño said.
Cedeño found out about the
dental mission through her com-
munal council. “I was afraid, I’d
gone a long time without anything
in my mouth and I got used to eating and talking like that, but then I
got excited about it and now I feel
extremely happy... and can smile
all the time”, she exclaimed.
The mission does not discriminate according to country of origin.
AVN talked to another woman,
Julia Manjarrez, also 63 years old
and Colombian. She said she had
been using an upper denture that
was “so deteriorated that instead
of helping me chew, it hurt me”.
After her initial assessment
in September, it took less than a
month to provide her with new
upper and lower dentures.
“When I first heard about
Mission Smile appointments I
couldn’t go because I was visiting
[family] in Colombia, but knowing that here in Venezuela I could
get free, lovely dentures of high
quality was hope for me and I feel
very happy and thankful to these
missions for providing me with
the same rights as Venezuelan
citizens”, Manjarrez professed.
Mission Smile began in June
2006 when a group of dentists
from the western state of Tachira
presented a proposal to President Hugo Chavez for a project
that would largely benefit elderly
from the poorest sectors in the
country and provide them with
dental prostheses. The President
approved the project almost immediately.
Venezuelans can also receive
free basic dental care, such as
cleaning and fillings, through the
second stage of the health mission Barrio Adentro.
T/ Tamara Pearson
www.venezuelanalysis.com
Satellite manufacturing plant ready by 2012
inister of Science, Technology and Intermediate Industries, Ricardo Menendez, announced this week that as a result
of the transfer of technology, expertise and industrialization between Venezuela and China, the
first manufacturing plant of small
satellites is expected to initiate
operations in the central Venezuelan state of Carabobo by 2012.
The Minister explained, during
an interview broadcast on Venezuelan state television, that these
satellites will serve to observe
Venezuelan territory, including phenomena such as climate
change, soil decertification processes, status of drainage basins,
and changes of cultivation and
vegetation patterns in order to
contribute to the detection of illegal plantations.
He also revealed that another
factory of this type would be installed in Filas de Mariche (east of
Caracas). This plant will manufacture receiving antennas specifically designed to operate with
the Simon Bolivar Satellite, Venezuela’s first satellite launched
two years ago.
The first unit of these antennas
will be manufactured by production committees from community
councils in neighboring areas,
so that people from low income
communities can participate in
the manufacturing process with
assistance, training and guidelines from the Ministry.
Executive Director of the Bolivarian Agency for Space Activities (ABAE), Francisco Varela, expressed that this project has been
possible thanks to the training of
human talent in China, not only
with specialized advice but also
through academic studies.
Valera informed that the project was designed so that Venezuela could enter the field of space
research. The Venezuelan Space
Center (CEV) allowed the creation of ABAE, which is responsible for implementing national
spacial policies.
Two years after its launch into
orbit, the Simon Bolivar Satellite
has considerably contributed to
the democratization of the use
and access of Information and
Communication Technologies.
This represents a valuable tool to
transform Venezuela’s communication systems into decisive factors for social welfare.
T/ Venezuelan News Agency
SOCIAL JUSTICE
The artillery of ideas
7
No 36 • Friday, November 5th, 2010 | |
Venezuela: Territory free of illiteracy
“Few people had access to
books with the salary that they
had”, he explained. “Today
you can find Venezuelan books
very cheap and we also have a
great diversity of themes and
genres”.
Examples of the titles being
published en masse and distributed freely include Miguel Cervante’s Don Quijote and Victor
Hugo’s Les Miserables, as well
as works by the poet Miguel
Hernández.
Extensive collections of both
fiction and nonfiction that explore
Venezuelan history and culture
are also being made available
through popular book fairs and
the government run Libreria del
Sur bookstore.
Last week, Venezuela
celebrated the
5-year anniversary
of the United
Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural
Organization’s
declaration that the
plague of illiteracy
has been successfully
eradicated in the
South American nation
I
n 2005, UNESCO affirmed that
more than 95 percent of the
Venezuelan population is literate,
qualifying the country for the title
of “Territory Free of Illiteracy”.
The free government program,
Mission Robinson, is largely responsible for the success, teaching more than 1.5 million people
to read and write in the first two
years of its existence.
“This achievement is not something small”, said Marisol Calzadilla, President of the government
foundation responsible for implementing Mission Robinson.
“For Venezuela it’s something
very important and not only because it’s recognized by the world
but rather for our development as
a country and the development
of our people. The consciousness
that the people have today, what
is happening all over the country,
the level of participation in the
construction of popular power,
is a product of education. The
people have taken control over
their lives through knowledge”,
Calzadilla said.
Robinson was initiated by the
government of Hugo Chavez in
2003 as part of an educational
reform strategy using the proven
literacy training methods created
in Cuba called “Yes, I can” (Yo si
puedo).
Rosa Gonzalez, a 53-year old
graduate of the program, expressed her satisfaction with the
government’s policy during an
act celebrating the 7th anniversary of the mission last week.
“For so long, I had been unable to know a marvellous world,
the world of literature”, she exclaimed.
Nearly 2.3 million Venezuelans
have now benefited from Mission
Robinson which boasts over 38
thousand teachers, known as facilitators, and is divided into two
phases – literacy training and primary education.
A third phase is currently being developed for the creation of
reading circles, mainly for elderly
graduates of the program.
A POLICY OF INCLUSION
Over the past 7 years, the mission has focused much of its attention on reaching out to geographically isolated and historically
excluded members of the population including indigenous groups
and Afro-descendents.
The physically challenged and
people who suffer from substance
dependency have also been brought
into the program and according to
official numbers, Mission Robinson
is now present in 24 prisons, benefiting nearly 1,000 inmates.
Brizeida Quiñones, a government official working for the
mission in the state of Bolivar,
explained the goal of the educational policy.
“The principal aim [of the mission] is to assist the population
excluded from the formal educational system, offering a holistic
and quality education for everyone at all times and in all spaces
at the national and international
level, converting people into protagonists of their own learning
and development through training that sparks liberating processes”, Quiñones said.
Robinson’s success in Venezuela has carried it across borders
to countries such as Bolivia and
Nicaragua where the program
has been implemented through
agreements signed between
member states of the Bolivarian
Alliance for the People of Our
America (ALBA).
BOOKS FOR THE PEOPLE
Alongside the rise in the number of Venezuelans now able to
read has been a concerted effort
on the part of the government to
increase access to books.
The Ministry of Culture reports
that 80 million new publications
have hit the streets since 2003,
providing the reading population
with books that are either distributed freely or at very low costs.
“We have been thinking about
the readers and we’ve been accompanying them”, said Miguel
Marquez, President of one of the
ministry’s publication foundations, which has spearheaded the
supply of new low-priced books
across the country.
According to Marquez, books
in Venezuela were “almost like
jewels” until recently.
BEYOND LITERACY
With the problem of illiteracy
now tackled in Venezuela, the
Chavez government has turned
its attention to providing basic
education to all of its citizens.
According to Brizeida Quiñones, the country must go beyond
literacy training and achieve primary education for all.
“The struggle for literacy is
also a struggle for [primary education]. We’re not just going to
sit with the declaration [of Venezuela] as an illiteracy-free territory. We need to work on ‘Yes,
I can’ and ‘Yes, I Can Continue’
where the fundamental purpose
is to reach the basic level of sixth
grade and prepare citizens for
life”, Quiñones affirmed.
Providing work opportunities
for students of the educational
program has also been a strategy
of Mission Robinson.
Under the scheme Robinson
Social-Productive,
graduated
members of the program have the
opportunity to apply for government funding for economically
productive projects aimed at advancing the communities where
they are implemented.
Groups of five to ten students
have the possibility of presenting
proposals that value economic
cooperation over competition.
The mission has thus far financed a total of 796 such projects
in the areas of agriculture, fishing,
handicrafts, construction, textiles
and tourism.
T/ Edward Ellis
P/ Agencies
FRIDAY|November 5th, 2010 |No. 36|Bs. 1|CARACAS
ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas
A publication of the Fundacion Correo del Orinoco
Editor-in-Chief | Eva Golinger • Graphic Design | Arturo Cazal, Pablo Valduciel L., Alexander Uzcátegui, Jameson Jiménez • Press | Fundación Imprenta de la Cultura
OPINION
T
United States: The clueless
he US people have spoken,
but it’s impossible to decode
their incoherent message. Drunk
with their capture of the House of
Representatives, the Republicans
thunder that the verdict of ballot
boxes from Maine to Hawaii is
clarion-clear: the ultimate evil in
the US is government, specifically government as led by President Barack Obama. But when
exit pollsters questioned voters
on their way to those same ballot
boxes, as to who should take the
blame for the country’s economic
problems, 35 percent said Wall
Street, 30 percent said Bush and
23 percent Obama. The US people
want a government that mustn’t
govern, a budget that must simultaneously balance and create jobs,
cut spending across the board and
leave the Defense budget intact.
Collectively, the election makes
clear, they haven’t a clue which
way to march.
Has the Tea Party changed the
political map? Scarcely so. In
concrete terms, it ensured that a
significant portion of the political
map didn’t change at all. Unlike
the House, the US Senate will stay
in Democratic hands, albeit with
only a tiny edge. One could make
a sound case that the Democrats
invented the Tea Party out of
whole cloth. If it wasn’t for Tea
Party lady, Christine O’Donnell,
the Republicans would be counting victory in Delaware. But the
sometime-Satanist ensured the
surprise victory of a dreary Democratic unknown, Chris Coons.
No single Democrat was targeted more fiercely by Republicans
than Harry Reid of Nevada, the
Democratic Senate majority leader. His was the symbolic scalp
they craved. Right wing millions
poured into the state, backing Tea
Party Republican Sharron Angle.
Tuesday evening one could sense
Republicans holding their breaths, ready to blare their joy at the
victory for Angle suggested by
many polls.
Around midnight east coast
time it became clear that Angle
had gone down, victim of the political suicide she actually committed several days ago, dint of one
of the most racist, anti-Hispanic
campaign ads in many years. It
had escaped the attention of that
supposedly consummate Republican political strategist Karl Rove –
born in Sparks, Nevada - that the
Hispanic vote in Nevada is not
insignificant. Hispanics went for
Reid by a factor of about 75 percent
and he slid through to victory.
It should be added that the
powerful corporate and labor
interests in the state of Nevada,
most notably in the gambling and
entertainment and construction
sector, were all aghast at the possibility that economically stricken
Nevada might cease to have its
cause promoted in Washington,
DC by the most powerful man in
the US Senate, and instead have
as their tribune a racist dingbat
with zero political clout. If ever
there was a need for the fix to be
in, and seasoned fixers available
to face the task, it was surely in
Nevada. But that said, Angle and
the Tea Party may have engineered defeat all on their own.
Just over half of the 17,000 respondents to a national exit poll
said that their votes in House
races had nothing to do with the
Tea Party, pro or con. The other
half was split, pro and con. Over
60 percent said the all-important
issue is jobs; 87 percent said they
are worried about economic conditions. Between government laying out money to create jobs and
government slashing expenditures to reduce the deficit there’s
also pretty much an even split.
Is there anything new in all
this? Of course not. Republicans
always campaign on homely
pledges – economically illiterate
– to balance the government’s books the same way as their household budgets. Pressed, as many
triumphant Republicans were
last night, as to exactly where
they would start cutting the federal budget to achieve this end,
they invariably slid into the programmatic shadows, with hoarse
ranting about freezes and “across
the board” budgetary carnage,
except for military spending.
As California governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger, now even more
unpopular than the man he ousted, demonstrated, it’s easier to
terminate in a movie script than
in a legislature. The incoming California governor, Jerry Brown,
demonstrated, that even if you
spend more of your money than
any other candidate in US political history, around $150 million
(as did his opponent, Meg Whitman) you still need to treat your
maid right if you want to win.
The second craziest victory
speech of the evening came from a
Tea Party man, Rand Paul, now the
Republican senator from Kentucky. “We’re enslaved by debt”, he
screamed at his cheering supporters and followed this by savage
diatribes about any constructive
role for government. Now it’s
possible that Paul, inflamed with
libertarian principle, could actually try to filibuster the next vote
in the US Senate to authorize an
increase in the US national debt.
As awed commentators swiftly
noted, he could plunge the United
States into default, bring economic
devastation to the world.
On the other hand, the history
of the Republican Party is suppo-
sed crazies, like Ronald Reagan
who campaigned against the deficit in 1980, coming to heel and
plunging the United States into a
vast new ocean of red ink, courtesy of his tax cuts. It’s what drives the Tea Partiers crazy. They
do know one basic truth - that to
govern is to betray and they are
in line for betrayal. The craziest
speech? The visibly psychotic Republican gubernatorial candidate
in New York, Carl Paladino, soundly thrashed by Andrew Cuomo,
swinging a red baseball bat with
the transparent desire to dashing
it into Cuomo’s skull.
The landscape has changed. The
Republican swing in the House
was as dramatic as in 1994, after
two years of Bill Clinton. Democrats who entered Congress on
Obama’s coattails have now been
ousted. What lies ahead is a war
of maneuver, between the White
House and the Republican leadership. Obama has been weakened
-- deservedly so, because a large
part of Tuesday’s disaster for his
party can be laid at his door. He
laid down no convincing political
theme, mounted no effective offense, relied on a team of advisors of
dubious competence, which had
run out of steam. He himself tried
to run for and against an effective
role for government, made the
same childish equations of domestic and federal budgets, sent
out mixed messages, lost the confidence of the young and of a vital
slice of the independents.
All the same, after two years,
the polls show Obama is no more
unpopular than was Clinton in
1994. By 1996 Clinton had outmaneuvered the Republican leadership and won reelection in 1996.
Today the economic situation is far
worse than it was in 1994. No effective political and economic strategy for recovery is on the cards in
the current atmosphere. As always,
these days in the US, our last best
friend will be gridlock.
Alexander Cockburn
Counterpunch.org