Monthly Archives: October 2010

Oct
29
2010
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VenEconomy: An Attempt at Terrorizing or a Result of Uncontrolled Crime?

This article was originally posted by The Latin American Tribune

At VenEconomy’s seminar “Venezuela 2010- 2012?” held this Wednesday, October 27, several questions were raised: Are Venezuelans aware of the dangers currently facing Venezuelan democracy? Are politicians prepared to accept the challenge of defending democracy? and Is society in general aware of the responsibilities that this entire situation puts on its shoulders?

Unfortunately, the almost unanimous perception of the participants was no. 

Summing up why there was no such awareness of the risks facing the country, former Ambassador to the United Nations Diego Arria said that people “continue to view the country’s situation in the context of an election year calendar, when it is clear that they are on the brink of turning us into a communist society.”

In Diego Arria’s opinion, the fundamental issue for confronting this grave crisis of the country’s democratic institutions is “national reunification.” It is necessary to “rebuild consensus looking forward to the future, not looking back to the past, learning from the mistakes of our country’s experience.” It is a matter of building bridges so that the unity is the country’s unity.

This reunification of the democratic sectors would include the Church, the political parties, whether or not they are part of the Coalition for Democratic Unity, businessmen, trade unions and workers, academe and students, and civil and neighborhood organizations; in other words, society as a whole.

Unfortunately, no one has understood this self-evident truth better than the government, and for that reason its strategy is to divide.

Given this situation, the kidnapping of and subsequent attack on Fedecámaras directors Noel Álvarez, Luis Enrique Villegas, Ernesto Villasmil, and Albis Muñoz give cause for particular concern.

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Oct
29
2010
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VenEconomy: Venezuela in Permanent Mourning

This article was originally posted by The Latin American Tribune

President Hugo Chávez has decreed national mourning for the death of Néstor Kirchner, the former president of the Argentine Republic, secretary general of Unasur, and, as the decree says, “his brother and comrade, his route companion.” And the purpose of this national mourning is apparently to “meditate in sorrow on the work of this immense American.”

The communiqué sings the praises of Néstor Kirchner because it was as a result of the “clear leadership, unbreakable courage, and determination of this faithful heir of the great Juan Domingo Perón that Argentina rose from the ashes to which neoliberal capitalism wanted to reduce it to once again find the place that was always reserved for it in the field of free and independent nations.”

Regardless of whether this national mourning was appropriate or not, its declaration gives food for thought.

First of all, it would have been commendable had the Chávez administration extended similar courtesies upon the death of Luis Herrera Campins (2007) and Rafael Caldera (2009), two former Venezuelan presidents who died during Chávez’s terms in office and who have earned many more credits in the struggle for the democracy and freedom of the peoples of America than Kirchner.

Not only that, thousands of Venezuelan families would also have liked to hear during the President’s constant marathon broadcasts even the slightest word of condolence for the loss of their loved ones at the hands of criminals. According to the report “A decade of impunity in Venezuela (1998-2009)” by the Venezuelan Violence Observatory (OVV), more than 120,000 Venezuelan have fallen victims to crime and Chávez has been heard to say little, not to say nothing, by way of regret for the useless loss of those lives.

Another thought that comes to mind is that this contempt for everything that does not fit in with the revolutionary context has led Chávez to want to rewrite the history not only of Venezuela but of other nations as well.

Just as today he turns a dictator such as Perón into the “great Juan Domingo Perón,” so has he tried to erase Venezuela’s historical roots and great leaders of democracy from its collective memory. That is why he has renamed squares, parks, avenues, and freeways to remove the names of the country’s leaders, as he did with Rómulo Betancourt Park, which today carries the name of Francisco de Miranda.

In short, sadly “the State has ceased to serve constitutional freedoms and guarantees in order to serve a totalitarian ideology,” as former Ambassador Diego Arria put it this Wednesday at VenEconomy’s seminar “Venezuela 2010-2012?”

 
Oct
28
2010
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Washington Must Take a Stronger Stand on Russia-Venezuela Nuclear Deal

This article was originally posted by The Huffington Post

When Russia recently signed a deal to supply Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez with nuclear reactors, the silence from Washington was deafening. The Obama administration was probably concerned that strong U.S. opposition to the deal could undermine cooperation with Moscow on several important fronts, and that it could give the adversarial President Chavez a propaganda windfall. These concerns are not without merit, but they are also not an excuse for inaction.

Over the past few years, Russia has shown that it may be more interested in making money than in controlling weapons proliferation.

Moscow delivered the fuel for Iran’s Bushehr reactor last August, two months after the United Nations Security Council passed a fourth round of sanctions against Tehran for its nuclear noncompliance and suspicions of possible nuclear military activities. Indeed, despite its increasing cooperation with the United States on tightening UN Security Council sanctions against Iran, Russia ultimately proved unwilling to use Bushehr as leverage for bringing Iran into line with Security Council demands.

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