Tag Archives: Human rights

Oct
7
2011
Posted by
admin
Comments

In Case You Missed It… Articles Roundup Week of 10/7/11

In this week’s roundup… As Venezuela’s economy and infrastructure continue to crumble, President Hugo Chávez insists on furthering his failed economic policies and expropriations; inflation spikes as Venezuelan merchants struggle to turn profits; the remains of former President Carlos Andrés Perez are finally buried at home; Chávez turns a blind eye to accusations of government complicity in the drug trade; and six in 10 Venezuelans say that the president should not be reelected next year.                                                                                                                               

Chavez: Houses on Caribbean islands will be seized, The Associated Press

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced Thursday that his government will expropriate homes on the Caribbean resort islands of Los Roques, saying the structures were built on plots bought in shadowy business deals.

Venezuela’s infrastructure falling apart, The Economist 

ENSURING that the engines stay properly attached to the fuselage is, one might think, a fairly fundamental part of maintaining a passenger aircraft.

FACTBOX-Key political risks to watch in Venezuela, Reuters

Speculation about President Hugo Chavez’s health after cancer treatment, falling oil output that could slow economic recovery and rising passions ahead of next year’s presidential election are the main risks to watch in Venezuela.

Venezuela’s new political battlefield: Twitter, The Associated Press via The Washington Times

Over months, Venezuelan TV soap opera writer Leonardo Padron built a Twitter following of about 250,000 people by posting more than a dozen messages a day, many of them skewering President Hugo Chavez.

 

All that’s gold doesn’t glitter, CNN (By Fareed Zakaria)

What do Hugo Chavez and Glenn Beck have in common? The socialist/populist president of Venezuela and the right-wing talk show host often have strange ideas – just not the same ones.

The struggle to balance inflation and shortages in Venezuela, Christian Science Monitor            

A recent El Universal has an article talking about how hard it is for local producers in Venezuela to sell regulated products at a profit, which leads to shortages.

Venezuelans rally as body of ex-leader returns, AFP

Thousands of supporters of former Venezuelan president Carlos Andres Perez rallied in the capital after the return of his body from the United States following a long legal battle.

Six out of 10 people think that Chávez should not be reelected, El Universal

They would like the Venezuelan Head of State to complete his term in 2012.The positive assessment of President Hugo Chávez’s administration reached 58.9% in September, a 10% increase compared to July, according to Venezuelan polling company Datanálisis.

By the planeload: Hugo Chávez seems unperturbed by claims of official complicity in crime, The Economist

OPPONENTS of Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chávez, are eagerly awaiting the trial of Walid Makled, a businessman extradited from Colombia five months ago.

 
Sep
2
2011
Posted by
editor
Comments

In Case You Missed It… Articles Roundup Week of 9/2/11

In this week’s roundup… President Hugo Chávez’s expropriations continue to raise the ire of multinationals, resulting in more international arbitration claims against Venezuela; pro-Chávez officials are reportedly setting up camp in Panama; $29 million goes unaccounted for in the government’s “petty-cash” fund; and Venezuelan authorities are once again pressed by human rights groups to protect freedoms.

Venezuela: when multinationals sue, The Financial Times

There’s nothing Hugo Chávez likes more than to shake his fist at the private sector. Nationalizing businesses is one of his favorite pastimes, with his Queen-of-Hearts-like cry of “expropriate it!” dreaded in boardrooms across Venezuela. But it has its consequences.

Chavez says he’s doing great, but the Venezuelan economy isn’t, Foreign Policy
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez says he feels “great” after another dose of chemotherapy for his as-yet-unspecified cancer. If only the Venezuelan economy was in as good shape as Chávez says he is in. In fact, his vaunted “21st Century Socialism” bears an uncanny resemblance to the garden-variety 20th century kind: replete with widespread inefficiencies, declining production, and rampant shortages.

Chavez Says Venezuela to Move Against Land Holdings of Ireland’s Smurfit, Bloomberg
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez orders the removal of Irish cardboard maker Smurfit Kappa Group Plc (SKG) from all its farm land in an agricultural state as he deepens a push to seize large land holdings from private owners. Shares declined.

Are pro-Chávez Venezuelans setting up a ‘Plan B’ in Panama?, Christian Science Monitor

With Hugo Chávez’s status uncertain, some Chávistas are looking to relocate to Panama. It’s another chance for Panama to gain from other countries’ crises, as it has for more than a century.

Is $29 billion missing from Hugo Chavez’s Fonden development fund?, The Christian Science Monitor

An Excel spreadsheet of projects financed by Fonden – the “development” fund that President Hugo Chávez created and uses as his sort of petty cash fund for immediate needs goes public to show a $29 billion discrepancy.

HRW: Venezuela should protect rights activist, The Associated Press

A human rights group demanded Monday that President Hugo Chávez’s government provide protection for an activist who had to flee Venezuela after being threatened for alleging human rights abuses in prisons.

Venezuelan gov’t is urged to respect free media, El Universal
The Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), urged Venezuelan authorities to take the relevant actions to ensure free operation of media and respect for critical or dissenting expressions, in accordance with international treaties on human rights, to which Venezuela is a party.

 
Aug
19
2011
Posted by
editor
Comments

ICYMI: Medieval Policies

Medieval Policies – Another Step Forward From Hugo Chávez

The Economist - August 18, 2011

Eight years after Hugo Chávez’s socialist government imposed strict price controls on basic goods, Venezuela has the world’s highest inflation rate to show for the effort. By mid-2011, food prices in Caracas, the capital, were almost nine times higher than when the controls were introduced, according to the Central Bank; wages had risen by 40% less. Last year consumer prices increased by 27%—compared with an average in Latin America of 6%—and they are still rising. With a presidential election due next year, something had to be done. So President Chávez has used legislative powers granted him by the last parliament to decree a Fair Prices and Costs Law, which in effect makes inflation illegal.

According to the decree’s preamble, it is the “flagrant abuses of monopoly power in many sectors of the economy” that have led to “constant price rises for no other reason than the…exploitation of the people”. So the state will now set “fair prices” across the whole economy (only banks are exempted) by determining the cost structure of every type of business. The government says the bureaucracy required to do this will be ready by November. Businesses deemed to be charging “unfair” prices will be fined or temporarily shut down.

The private sector, already hemmed in by many controls, is predictably angry. But there are critics on the left too. Heinz Dieterich, a Mexican-German academic who until recently was a prominent supporter of Mr Chávez, called the law the product of “hallucinations”. The medieval notion of the “just price” (associated with St Thomas Aquinas) was a “phantasmagoric projection like God or the Holy Spirit”, Mr Dieterich wrote.

To read the rest of the article click here.