For the many health conscious tourists, Venezuela can’t be beat; indeed, one could drop ten pounds or more due to the massive foodshortages obviously caused by capitalist greed, food hoarding, incompetence of a few petty officials, speculation, and the bourgeois nature of some union members.
Go read the rest – you’ll want to book the earliest flight available. As they said in Burn After Reading, “Put him on a plane to Venezuela!”
Another Venezuelan journalist has been sentenced to four years in jail for “ofensa a funcionario público e injuria contra persona encargada de servicio público” offending a public functionary and injuring a person in charge of public service: Periodista venezolano condenado a casi 4 años de prisión
Che’s true story is not news to readers of this blog, but Dr Helen has a post recommending Humberto Fontova’s book,
Fontova interviews the few people who are still alive who interacted with Che and who tell the truth about him, unlike the sleazy Hollywood stars and the media who because of ignorance or anti-Americanism, have come to idolize a mass murderer.
Additionally, don’t miss The Cuba Archive’s report on Che Guevara’s Forgotten Victims (PDF file), which includes the Documented list of victims of Che in 1959.
Cuba’s communist government has deployed thousands of technical and military advisers to Venezuela to bolster the regime of leftist President Hugo Chavez, as that country faces energy shortages and increased repression against opposition political leaders.
A senior Cuban security official and former interior minister, Gen. Ramiro Valdez, arrived in Caracas, Venezuela, in February to take charge of a Cuban government mission that over the past several years has grown to an estimated 40,000 advisers and aid workers, including a large contingent of Cuban military personnel.
Ponder that number: forty thousand Cuban personnel. What do they do?
The advisers include intelligence and security officers, political advisers and medical personnel.
…
“There are indications that agents of the Cuban G-2 [military intelligence] are operating openly at all the main military installations, principally the Ministry of Defense, the strategic operations command, the joint chiefs of staff headquarters, command centers of the army, navy, air force and national guard, as well as the military intelligence directorate” and the internal security service, said retired Brig. Gen. Francisco Uson, who served as defense planning director and briefly held the post of finance minister in Mr. Chavez’s government.
In today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern,
Former governor of the state of Zulia, and opposition presidential candidate Oswaldo Alvarez Paz has been jailed in Venezuela for stating that the country has become a drug-trafficking hub.
Here’s the interview that got him in prison (in Spanish).
The Venezuelan Embassy in Washington sent this statement,
Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the U.S.
Statement
Judiciary in Venezuela is Independent
Case Against Oswaldo Alvarez Paz is Legal, not Political
In response to the distortions and inaccuracies in the U.S. media coverage around the recent detention of Venezuelan citizen Oswaldo Alvarez Paz, the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela would like to clarify the following points:
1) This case is a legal one, not a political one. Mr. Alvarez Paz’s detention comes as a consequence of a court’s granting of an arrest warrant for an alleged criminal act. The warrant was granted in accordance with provisions of the Organic Penal Process Code (Código Orgánico Procesal Penal, or COPP, in Spanish), specifically those outlined in Articles 296-A, 132 and 285.
2) Mr. Alvarez Paz was arrested and charged with the crimes of conspiracy, public incitement to delinquency and dissemination of false information.
3) Mr. Alvarez Paz enjoys all the constitutional rights, protections and guarantees granted to all Venezuelan citizens, including the right to a defense. In an interview after his detention, Mr. Alvarez Paz confirmed to the press that his legal rights have been maintained.
4) Today preliminary proceedings court no. 25 ruled that Mr. Alvarez Paz should remain detained during the investigation of this case due to fears of his possible flight from the country.
5) That this case is being openly discussed inside Venezuela serves as evidence of the freedom of expression that exists in the country.
While neither the Embassy nor the Executive Branch can explicitly comment on cases of this sort, it is important to clarify the legal nature of this case, stress that all of Mr. Alvarez Paz’s rights and guarantees are being fully respected, and leave clear the context and facts surrounding the case.
March 24, 2010
His lawyers are appealing the arrest. Alvarez has been accused of “solo conspiracy“, an oxymoron if there ever was one. A small group of demonstrators protested in front of the court building. Alvarez’s son Juan Carlos talked to the media during the protest.
The US Department of State expressed “serious concern” over the arrest.
A Venezuelan judge on Wednesday ordered a former state governor and critic of President Hugo Chavez to remain in custody without bail while facing charges of conspiracy, incitement and spreading false information.
The incorrect information, government prosecutors said, was an assertion by former Zulia state Gov. Oswaldo Alvarez Paz in a March 8 television program that Venezuela has become a drug-trafficking hub.
“Venezuela has converted into a center of operations that facilitates the business of drug trafficking,” Alvarez Paz said without directly accusing Chavez of being involved in illicit activity.
To many, including the U.S. State Department and several foreign counternarcotics agencies, Alvarez Paz’s allegation rings true. Increased seizures of drug shipments from Venezuela and detection of suspected drug flights from clandestine airstrips here point to a sharp increase in trafficking over the last decade.
In 2006, U.S. Embassy officials said the amount of cocaine moving through Venezuela had quintupled since 2001 to more than 250 tons a year. The flow represented an estimated one-quarter to one-third of the cocaine produced by Colombia.
Human Rights Watch and other rights groups decried Alvarez Paz’s arrest Tuesday at his Caracas home as an attack on freedom of expression. The former presidential candidate faces up to 16 years in jail if convicted.
The government began investigating Alvarez Paz last week after comments he made on “Hello, Citizen” a television program that tends to be anti-Chavez.
While being interviewed on the show aired March 8, Alvarez said: “Venezuela has turned into an operations center that facilitates the business of drug-trafficking.”
Such criticism is nothing new. The investigative arm of the U.S. Congress released a report last year that said Venezuela was fast becoming a major hub for cocaine trafficking in the Western Hemisphere.
Chavez slammed that report. Venezuela isn’t a major producer or consumer of drugs, Chavez pointed out. He said he was being blamed for drug-running simply because Venezuela is neighbor to the world’s largest producer of cocaine, Colombia, and an ideological enemy of the world’s largest consumer–the U.S.
Venezuela kicked the U.S. drug-fighting agency DEA out of the country several years ago and claims that it’s done a much better job of fighting the drug trade without it.
Alvarez Paz also claimed during the television show that the Chavez government has links to illegal, armed groups in Latin America.
Critics of Chavez have frequently claimed to have evidence showing that Chavez allows the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to use Venezuela as a safe haven from which to make camp and plan attacks on Colombian soil.
Chavez has publicly expressed sympathy for fallen FARC leaders, but has denied any links to the FARC or other outlaw groups.
First elected in 1998, Chavez, a self-proclaimed revolutionary Socialist, dismisses accusations that his administration trumps up criminal charges against political rivals as a way of silencing them.
He often responds by holding up a copy of the country’s Constitution, which he usually carries with him, and says his government is merely following the letter of the law.
Nonetheless, critics say an inordinate number of opposition leaders who might challenge Chavez’ rule have recently found themselves in trouble with the law.
Raul Baduel, a former defense minister-turned-Chavez-critic, was arrested on corruption charges last year and remains in prison awaiting trial. Baduel claims it was political.
Manuel Rosales, an opposition candidate who ran against Chavez in 2006, was also charged with corruption last year and has since fled to Peru. He denies the charges.
And Leopoldo Lopez, a young, well-respected former mayor of an opposition-dominated municipality in Caracas, has been denied from seeking political office due to an accusation of misuse of funds. He, too, denies the charges.
Manuel Villalba, a pro-Chavez lawmaker who filed the initial complaint against Alvarez Paz’ comments, rejected any notion that Alvarez Paz’ arrest was politically driven.
“There’s freedom of expression in Venezuela,” Villalba said. “But this can’t be confused with a license to stir up anxiety, instability and to rupture the peace of the people.”
It isn’t just political rivals that Chavez has been accused of silencing. He’s also closed dozens of television and radio stations that are critical of his rule. Earlier this month, he also indicated that controls need to be placed on the Internet, though he has since backed down from those comments.
BOLIVIA
If you can’t blind them with brilliance, baffle them with bullsh**t: Evo Morales says “Our grandfathers fought against the English empire and the Roman empire, too,
Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad started his tour of South America by accepting Lula’s invitation to Brazil, which was first scheduled for last May but was postponed after public outcry. Protestors were at the airport
Around 200 Iranian businessmen accompanied Ahmadinejad’s delegation, in a sign of their eagerness to tap opportunities in a continent that does not consider Tehran a pariah.
Lucia Newman, formerly of CNN, reports on the visit,
More links on the visit in the Brazil section below.
Well, Hugo Chávez claims he is now able to make the clouds abort by firing rays from a cannon housed at his presidential palace.
Yup, he’s actually bragging that he’s beaming rays to the clouds.
No, I’m not making up this s**t:
“Ha llovido mucho en estos días porque yo tengo un cañón en (el palacio presidencial de) Miraflores. Nube que se atraviesa, nube que le lanzo un rayo”, bromeó Chávez, en un acto de su partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV), transmitido por la televisión pública.
“Ahora llueve donde desde Miraflores decimos”, lanzó Chávez que días antes decretó la “guerra de las nubes”.
“A Valencia (Carabobo, norte) le estamos lanzando rayos para que nos venga el agua, en Bolívar (sureste) está lloviendo. En Guárico (centro) no ha llovido, vamos a tener que mandar un rayo” para allá, continuó.
Para lograrlo, Chávez utiliza un “equipo especial que tiene Fidel (Castro) allá (Cuba) para hacer llover de manera artificial”.
Es “como un aborto”, explicó el mandatario. Es “hacer abortar a las nubes”.
(my translation; if you use it please credit me and link to this post)
“It’s rained a lot these days because I have a cannon at (the presidential palace of) Miraflores. Any cloud that goes by, is a cloud I launch a ray to,” joked Chávez during a function of his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which was broadcast on public television.
“Now it rains where we decide at Miraflores,” Chávez asserted, after declaring “war on the clouds” days earlier.
At least that’s an improvement over war on Colombia, but I digress.
“In Valancia [state of Carabobo, north] we are launching rays so we get water, in Bolívar [southeast] it’s raining. It hasn’t rained in Guárico [center], we’ll have to beam a ray,” he continued.
To achieve this, Chávez is using some “special equipment that Fidel [Castro] has over there [Cuba] to make it rain artificially.”
It’s “like an abortion.” It’s “making the clouds abort.”
The Venezuelan National Assembly has authorized the first stage for a legal reform expanding the authorities’ powers to capture and use private conversations in legal proceedings.
The changes to the Penal Organic Processing Code (Código Orgánico Procesal Penal) include a statute ordering telecommunication companies to create “24/7″ units to process and deliver the State Attorney any information the State Attorney requests, in real time if so requested.
The Public Ministry will be able to use these private conversations, “whether they are in an area, through the telephone, or any other means.”
The measure comes in the wake of Chavez’s announcement that Venezuela will have its own BlackBerry. As far as confidentiality in communications goes, the Blackberry affords the best of all the options available in the country, but not for long.
Before it becomes law, the measure must be approved by a second review in congress, after which Chavez would sign it and it would become law once it’s published in the official government gazette…all of which are controlled by Chavez.
In the never-ending supply of eccentricity emanating from Hugo Chávez, now he’s banning soda, and at first glance it looks like he’s doing it just for the heck of it – but he isn’t:
Venezuela has banned the sale of the calorie-free Coke Zero, calling it harmful to people’s well-being.
“The product should be withdrawn from circulation to preserve the health of Venezuelans,” said Health Minister Jesus Mantilla.
Mr Mantilla did not say what the specific problem with Coke Zero was.
Coca-Cola said it would stop production of the drink in the country, but also added that Coke Zero contained no harmful products.
The Beeb then asks,
Anti-US motivations?
Well, whadda think? Coca Cola has long been used as a symbol of American imperialism by Marxists all over the world, and I have been reading and hearing anti-Coca Cola propaganda all my life. Doesn’t matter to them that many Coca Cola bottlers are locally-owned enterprises.
Noticias 24 reports that Coca-Cola Femsa, the world’s second-largest Coca Cola bottler, has been having problems with the Chávez regime for a while (my translation):
The company suffered through an extended and costly strike by former workers, which was solved in late 2008 after paralyzing its operations in the country, and also had a conflict with Chávez, who asked them to vacate some land the company owned in Caracas.
All this comes in the middle of a huge nationalization drive that involves the control of food sources in the country.
Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the state oil company, took control of an offshore oil platform in the Corocoro field operated by Exterran Holdings Inc., continuing a series of takeovers of oilfield service operations.
Houston-based Exterran rented the 33,000 barrel-a-day pumping platform to Venezuela at an “onerous” rate, PDVSA, as the state oil company is known, said today in an e-mailed statement. Having the platform in foreign hands limited PDVSA’s flexibility to increase production, the Venezuelan company said.
PDVSA, as the company is known, yesterday seized 19 Exterran gas compression facilities and offices under a month- old law meant to keep private companies from being able to cut Venezuelan oil output in case of conflict. Exterran said May 1 it may write off $97 million related to its Venezuela assets.
As you can see, it’s not just a whim.
Again,
It’s all about the anti-American propaganda. Coke Zero is absolutely harmless, and I for one will continue to enjoy it.
Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean.
