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Joe Anybody Latin America Solidarity
Friday, 27 August 2010
Edward Ellis writes about Agricultural Production in Venezuela in 2010
Mood:
 chatty
Now Playing: Venezuela’s Agricultural Production Advances
Topic: Venezuela News
Venezuela’s Agricultural Production Advances 8.27.10
Over the past eleven years, Venezuela has seen an increase of 48% in agricultural lands under cultivation, the Minister for Land and Agriculture, Juan Carlos Loyo, reported last week. According to official statistics released by the Ministry, the number of hectares now being planted has reached nearly 2.4 million (5.9 million acres), up from 1.6 million (3.9 million acres) in 1998. Crops such as corn, rice, soybean, and coffee have also seen important production increases during the presidency of Hugo Chavez. Community-Based Farming Loyo made the announcements during an inspection of the Socialist Production Unit Indio Rangel in the state of Aragua, where 235 hectares of under-utilized land have been turned over to small farmers working collectively. The land that is now being worked by 80 small-scale farmers was previously under the domain of a private sugar cane hacienda, which according to the Venezuelan News Agency, had been abandoned for 6 years. Last year the hacienda land was handed over to the farmers, organized in nine community councils, and has been converted into a productive farm where staple crops such as corn and other vegetables are being planted. Loyo made a similar inspection last Friday in the state of Carabobo as part of a government follow-up plan being implemented in all the agricultural lands that have been redistributed in Venezuela’s Central Region since the passage of Presidential Decree 5,378. The decree established the preservation of 53,000 hectares of high quality farmlands in the Lake Valencia basin, close to the capital Caracas. “These are lands recovered by the Bolivarian Revolution,” Loyo said during the inspection of the Monte Sacro farm in Carabobo. “In this latifundio, a project is being developed… We came to inspect close to 170 hectares of white corn in very good condition”, he stated. According to the Land and Agriculture Ministry statistics, the production of white corn in Venezuela has increased by 132% in the past eleven years. Arepas, the single most important staple food in the Venezuelan diet, are made with the flour derived from white corn. Loyo said that winter cycle of 2010 would see an estimated production of 1.5 million tons of the crop, an increase of 3.5% from last year. Production Increase Soybean production, according to the ministry, has grown by 858% to 54,420 tons over the past decade. Rice production has risen by 84%, reaching nearly 1.3 million tons yearly while milk production has risen to 2.18 million tons, a 47% increase. Coffee has also seen an increase of 12% since 1998. Loyo attributes these advances to Venezuela’s Land Law, which serves to “strengthen national production in the countryside.” The Land and Agricultural Development Law, originally passed by presidential decree in 2001, implemented Venezuela’s new agrarian reform, creating the legal basis for the government to redistribute fallow and under-utilized farmlands to landless campesinos. Before the government of Hugo Chavez came to power in Venezuela, World Bank statistics had placed Venezuela as the country with the second worst land inequality in Latin America. A government agricultural census revealed that in 1998, 5% of the Venezuelan population owned 70% of the land. Over the past 6 years, more than 2.5 million hectares of land have been distributed to some 250,000 campesino families, according to government sources. Food Sovereignty An important part of the current agrarian reform lies in the premise of lowering the nation’s dependence on food imports and creating food sovereignty. Historically, Venezuela’s dependence on oil exports has created an underdeveloped agricultural sector, resulting in the importation of the vast majority of food products. According to Loyo, the strides being made in agricultural production have been significant, but more are needed. “The advances have been quantitative in agricultural terms, but it’s unquestionable that there is still much ground to cover and it’s for that reason that our work will continue…in all of our national territory, we will continue with special efforts to regularize land, rehabilitate agricultural routes, and ensure grant credits to our producers.”
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 4:43 PM
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
CUBA - New road put in - and the People's Power delegates
Mood:
 loud
Now Playing: Ya�, una delegada feliz
Topic: Cuba
http://ventanadecuba2.blogcip.cu/2010/08/16/yaima-una-delegada-feliz-2/ In Santa Maria del Rosario, a municipality Cotorro, everyone praises a young People's Power delegates elected by the decision of men and women of this picturesque town declared a World Heritage Site.
This is Yaima Valley Barrios, first lieutenant in the FAR, who is serving his first term as a delegate of the Council.
Concerned about the positions of their constituents on the critical situation of the streets in the area, laid out a plan to solve what seemed impossible until recently: repair them all.
With the support of all was given the task of preparing conditions for such an endeavor, they made what would be his rustic cylinder to flatten, got wagons, rakes ... After having everything at hand proceeded to a visit to the asphalt plant's UBEI east of Havana very close in Eight Ways. There he met his manager and learned from it that they have a plan consisting of delivery of asphalt for streets with potholes community effort, only that they had never requested.
Everything was fast and the neighbors repair all water leaks own efforts, collections were to rent the trucks, spilled the fun, with the participation of all in such a worthy task that seemed impossible, to repair its streets.
When talking to an old revolutionary of all, Jacinto Eduardo Ontiveros (Papi) tells us how in all meetings of the community that was a popular claim, finding that the passage of more than 30 years without doing anything about it, the streets were almost impassable.
The Milan teammate Michel Reyes, president of the Government in Cotorro, also joined in the place and commended the joint effort that kept the population in the constituency with his delegate.
Yaima happy. He says that this was their first experience with the community and would like to acknowledge the outstanding work of three of its voters who have cast ashore to help that effort and stay with quality work, Abel, Raul and Javier.
It only wish this young delegate success in his future work and in his thesis as a PhD in criminal sciences. 
 Publicado en Agosto 16th, 2010 por Borrego 
En Santa Maria del Rosario, municipio Cotorro, todos elogian a una joven delegada del Poder popular electa por la decisión de hombres y mujeres de este pintoresco pueblito declarado Patrimonio de La Humanidad. Se trata de Yaíma Valle Barrios, primer teniente de las FAR, quien cumple su primer mandato como delegada de este Consejo. Preocupada por los planteamientos de sus electores sobre la situación crítica de las calles de la circunscripción, se trazó un plan para dar solución a lo que hasta hace poco parecía imposible: repararlas todas. Con el apoyo de todos se dio a la tarea de preparar condiciones para tal empeño, fabricaron lo que seria su cilindro rústico para aplanar, consiguieron vagones, rastrillos… Luego de tener todo a mano procedió a realizar una visita a la planta de asfalto UBEI del este de La Habana muy próxima en las Ocho Vías. Allí se entrevistó con su administrador y supo por éste que ellos tienen un plan consistente en entrega de mezcla asfáltica para con esfuerzo comunitario bachear calles, sólo que nunca se lo habían solicitado. Todo fue rápido y entre los vecinos repararon todos los salideros de agua con esfuerzos propios, hicieron colectas para alquilar los camiones, se desbordó la alegría popular, con la participación de todos en tan digna tarea que parecía imposible, reparar sus calles. Al conversar con un viejo revolucionario del lugar, Jacinto Eduardo Ontivero (Papi) nos narraba cómo en todas las reuniones de la comunidad ese era un reclamo popular, al ver que al paso de más de 30 años sin hacer nada al respecto, las calles estaban casi intransitables. El compañero Michel Milán Reyes, presidente del Gobierno en el Cotorro, se personó en el lugar y felicitó el esfuerzo mancomunado que mantuvo la población de la circunscripción junto a su delegada. Yaíma está feliz. Nos comenta que ésta ha sido su primera experiencia con la comunidad y que quisiera reconocer el trabajo excepcional de tres de sus electores que han echado pie en tierra para ayudarla a tal empeño y que el trabajo quedara con calidad, Abel, Raúl y Javier. Solo le deseamos a esta joven delegada éxitos en sus futuras tareas y en su tesis como doctora en ciencias penales. 
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 10:28 AM
Updated: Tuesday, 24 August 2010 11:33 AM
Saturday, 14 August 2010
Monday, 9 August 2010
US Interference in Venezuela Keeps Growing (NED)
Mood:
chatty
Now Playing: NED - The National Endowment for Democracy
Topic: Venezuela News
US Interference in Venezuela Keeps Growing By Eva Golinger- Postcards from the Revolution, August 5th 2010 http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5552
Despite President Obama’s promise to President Chavez that his administration wouldn’t interfere in Venezuela’s internal affairs, the US-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is channeling millions into anti-Chavez groups.
Foreign intervention is not only executed through military force. The funding of “civil society” groups and media outlets to promote political agendas and influence the “hearts and minds” of the people is one of the more widely used mechanisms by the US government to achieve its strategic objetives.
In Venezuela, the US has been supporting anti-Chavez groups for over 8 years, including those that executed the coup d’etat against President Chavez in April 2002. Since then, the funding has increased substantially. A May 2010 report evaluating foreign assistance to political groups in Venezuela, commissioned by the National Endowment for Democracy, revealed that more than $40 million USD annually is channeled to anti-Chavez groups, the majority from US agencies.
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was created by congressional legislation on November 6, 1982. It’s mandate was anti-communist and anti-socialist and its first mission, ordered by President Ronald Reagan, was to support anti-Sandinista groups in Nicaragua in order to remove that government from power. NED reached its goal after 7 years and more than $1 billion in funding to build an anti-Sandinista political coalition that achieved power.
Today, NED’s annual budget, allocated under the Department of State, exceeds $132 million. NED operates in over 70 countries worldwide. Allen Weinstein, one of NED’s original founders, revealed once to the Washington Post, “What we do today was done clandestinely 25 years ago by the CIA…”
VENEZUELA
Venezuela stands out as the Latin American nation where NED has most invested funding in opposition groups during 2009, with $1,818,473 USD, more than double from the year before.
In a sinister attempt to censure the destination of funds in Venezuela, NED excluded a majority of names of Venezuelan groups receiving funding from its annual report. Nonetheless, other official documents, such as NED’s tax declarations and internal memos obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, have disclosed the names of those receiving its million dollar funding in Venezuela.
Of the more than $2.6 million USD given by NED to Venezuelan groups during 2008-2009, a majority of funds have gone to organizations relatively unknown in Venezuela. With the exception of some more known groups, such as CEDICE, Sumate, Consorcio Justicia and CESAP, the organizations receiving more than $2 million in funding appear to be mere façades and channels to distribute these millions to anti-Chavez groups.
Unknown entities such as the Center for Leadership Formation for Peace and Social Development received $39.954 (2008) and $39.955 (2009) to “strengthen the capacity of community leaders to participate in local democratic processes”.
For several years, the Civil Association Kapé Kapé, which no one knows in Venezuela, has received grants ranging from $45,000 (2008) to $56,875 (2009) to “empower indigenous communities and strengthen their knowledge of human rights, democracy and the international organizations and mechanisms available to protect them”. In a clear example of foreign interference, NED funds were used to “create a document detailing the human rights violations perpetrated against them and denounce them before international organizations”. In other words, the US funded efforts inside Venezuela to aid Venezuelans in denouncing their government before international entities.
FUNDING STUDENT MOVEMENTS
A large part of NED funds in Venezuela have been invested in “forming student movements” and “building democratic leadership amongst youth”, from a US perspective and with US values. This includes programs that “strengthen the leadership capabilities of students and youth and enhance their ability to interact effectively in their communities and promote democratic values”. Two jesuit organizations have been the channels for this funding, Huellas ($49,950 2008 and $50,000 2009) and the Gumilla Center Foundation ($63,000).
Others, such as the ‘Miguel Otero Silva’ Cultural Foundation ($51,500 2008 and $60.900 2009) and the unknown Judicial Proposal Association ($30,300 2008), have used NED funds to “conduct communications campaigns via local newspapers, radio stations, text messaging, and Internet, and distribute posters and flyers”.
In the last three years, an opposition student/youth movement has been created with funding from various US and European agencies. More than 32% of USAID funding, for example, has gone to “training youth and students in the use of innovative media technologies to spread political messages and campaigns”, such as on Twitter and Facebook.
FUNDING MEDIA AND JOURNALISTS
NED has also funded several media organizations in Venezuela, to aid in training journalists and designing political messages against the Venezuelan government. Two of those are the Institute for Press and Society (IPyS) and Espacio Publico (Public Space), which have gotten multimillion dollar funding from NED, USAID, and the Department of State during the past three years to “foster media freedom” in Venezuela.
What these organizations really do is promote anti-Chavez messages on television and in international press, as well as distort and manipulate facts and events in the country in order to negatively portray the Chavez administration.
The Washington Post recently published an article on USAID funding of media and journalists in Afghanistan (Post, Tuesday, August 3, 2010), an echo of what US agencies are doing in Venezuela. Yet such funding is clearly illegal and a violation of journalist ethics. Foreign government funding of “independent” journalists or media outlets is an act of mass deception, propaganda and a violation of sovereignty.
US funding of opposition groups and media inside Venezuela not only violates Venezuelan law, but also is an effort to feed an internal conflict and prop up political parties that long ago lost credibility. This type of subversion has become a business and source of primary income for political actors promoting US agenda abroad.
BAD DIPLOMACY
On Tuesday, statements made by designated US Ambassador to Venezuela, Larry Palmer, on Venezuelan affairs were leaked to the press. Palmer, not yet confirmed by the Senate, showed low signs of diplomacy by claiming democracy in Venezuela was “under threat” and that Venezuela’s armed forces had “low morale”, implying a lack of loyalty to the Chavez administration.
Palmer additionally stated he had “deep concerns” about “freedom of the press” and “freedom of expression” in Venezuela and mentioned the legal cases of several corrupt businessmen and a judge, which Palmer claimed were signs of “political persecution”.
Palmer questioned the credibility of Venezuela’s electoral system, leading up to September’s legislative elections, and said he would “closely monitor threats to human rights and fundamental freedoms”. He also stated the unfounded and unsubstantiated claims made by Colombia of “terrorist training camps” in Venezuela was a “serious” and real fact obligating Venezuela to respond.
Palmer affirmed he would “work closely to support civil society” groups in Venezuela, indicating an intention to continue US funding of the opposition, which the US consistently has referred to as “civil society”.
These statements are a clear example of interference in internal affairs in Venezuela and an obvious showing that Obama has no intention of following through on his promises.
View Palmer's statements here.
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 10:32 AM
The Revolution in crisis
Mood:
chatty
Now Playing: Benji Lewis reports back from his experiences as a journalist in Caracas, Venezuela
Topic: Venezuela Solidarity
Wed August 11th at 7:00 pm @ the Multnomah Friends Meetinghouse (4312 S.E. Stark Street) The Revolution in CrisisBenji Lewis reports back from his experiences as a journalist in Caracas, Venezuela.Conspiracies, tortures, murders, corruption and false divides have plagued the oil laden country of Venezuela and its people for decades. A backlash to the policies of the Washington Consensus turned the hand of a long, and often violently, suppressed revolutionary undertow into a mainstream political and social transformation led by Hugo Chavez. Benji Lewis will be offering analysis and helping to facilitate an open discussion on just what is taking place in Venezuela and throughout the southern Americas. The goods, the bads and the uglies are all to be brought to the table as we study a movement that has been on the verge of collapse from internal and external forces since its inception; yet - instead of collapsing - has managed to accomplish incredible aims in building a modern and just society.
Benji is an Iraq Veteran who publicly refused recall and redeployment orders and recently lived ten months in Venezuela working as a journalist. Benji plans to return to Venezuela to report from the frontlines of the accelerating hostility between US-backed Colombia and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
VIDEO DOCUMENTATION OF THIS EVENT IS NOW HERE:
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 12:05 AM
Updated: Tuesday, 24 August 2010 11:40 AM
Thursday, 5 August 2010
SOA Watch Activists Block Entrance of Military Base, Demand Withdrawal of U.S. Troops from Colombia
Mood:
loud
Now Playing: Protesting the US Military in Colombia 2010
Topic: Colombia Solidarity
 |
Protest at the Tolemaida Military Base in Colombia
SOA Watch Activists Block Entrance of Military Base, Demand Withdrawal of U.S. Troops from Colombia
Email and call the U.S. embassy in Colombia at 011-571-315-0811 to state your opposition to current U.S. policy towards Colombia and ask U.S. Ambassador William R. Brownfield to meet with the SOA Watch delegation.A group of nine SOA Watch activists is currently in Colombia to confront the escalation of U.S. policy in the region and to express solidarity with courageous Colombians working for peace and justice. On Tuesday, the group set up a vigil at the Tolemaida military base, where U.S. soldiers are stationed.  Yesterday, two busloads of 65 activists from Justicia y Paz, the Movement of Victims of State Crimes, the Mothers of Soacha (who are seeking justice for their children who were killed as part of the "false positive" scandal), SINALTRAINAL, and others arrived to join the 9-member SOA Watch delegation, who proceeded to block the entrance to the base. Activists held banners denouncing US intervention in Colombia as well as Iraq. Visit www.SOAW.org to watch a video of the protest at the military base.
Father Roy Bourgeois said of the action: "It's a great joy to be in Colombia speaking with Colombians, with one voice, against U.S. domination and militarization. Our delegation has been deeply moved by the strength and spirit of so many Colombians struggling for a just peace in Colombia." National and international press reporting on the protest: Latin American Herald Tibune, El Espectador (Colombia), La Jornada (Mexico), TeleSUR (Venezuela), Common Dreams (United States).  Later today the SOA Watch delegation will leave the area and travel to Bogotá, is the capital city of Colombia. Tomorrow, the group will go to the U.S. embassy in Bogotá. Amplify the voices for justice and peace in Colombia by contacting ambassador Brownsfield now. Call the U.S. embassy in Colombia at 011-571-315-0811 and send an email by clicking the link below. | 
The School of the Americas and Colombia
Colombia, with over 12,000 troops trained at the School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC), is the institute's largest customer.
SOA Watch has documented cases in which SOA graduates and instructors have been involved in massacres, the killing of striking workers, assassinations and torture. The report State Terrorism in Colombia cites 247 Colombian officers for human rights violations. Fully one half of those cited were SOA graduates. Some were even featured as SOA guest speakers or instructors or included in the "Hall of Fame" after their involvement in such crimes.
The FOR/ USOC report Military Assistance and Human Rights: Colombia, U.S. Accountability, and Global Implications continues to uncover the connections between SOA/ WHINSEC graduates and instructors with extrajudicial killings and other serious human rights violations in Colombia.
Human rights activists from Colombia will travel to the United States in November to join the Vigil to Close the SOA at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia. Join them and thousands of others as we speak out against SOA violence and change U.S. foreign policy.
Support the Resistance to U.S. Military Intervention
SOA Watch does not accept money from the U.S. government nor corporations. Support from our 68,000 members is what makes our work possible. Please make a contribution today.  | Stand up for justice at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia in November:
SOAW.org/take-action/november-vigil |
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 7:47 AM
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
The Youth of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela ...
Mood:
 energetic
Now Playing: Uribe - Chavez - USA - (this email was sent to me)
Topic: Venezuela News
The Youth of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) categorically supports the rupture of diplomatic relations with the genocidal government of Alvaro Uribe Velez
La Juventud del Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) respalda de forma categórica la ruptura de relaciones diplomáticas con el Gobierno Genocida de Álvaro Uribe Vélez
On Thursday July 22, 2010, was presented at the "Ministry of Colonies USA", an organization also known as the Organization of American States (OAS), a shameful, gruesome and infamous accusation against the Bolivarian Revolutionary Process by narco-paramilitary government of Alvaro Uribe Velez.
In fallacious arguments and desperate words, the Colombian representative Alfonzo Luis Hoyos, political corruption and paramilitary disabled, tried to materialize the guidelines emanated by American imperialism and international Zionism, in the most grotesque expression of anti-Bolivarian lackeys and interest. With the delivery of some faded photos, videos bad prints and maps downloaded from Google Earth tried to accuse our government of allowing the presence of fighters from the FARC on Venezuelan territory. All this with the silent support of outdated bureaucratic structure of the Organization of American States and the complacent smile right-wing governments in the region.
This crude measure, but loaded with deep content that violate the stability of Latin American revolutionary process, was answered with a complete breakdown in relations Commander of the Bolivarian Government of Hugo Chavez and the Venezuelan people, with the outgoing government of Number 82 list of most wanted drug dealer Yankee State Department
In the framework of the celebration of the two hundred twenty-seven (227) years of the birth of Father Simon Bolivar, and the commemoration of the Bicentennial of the Independence and Revolutions Nuestroamericanas, that the confrontation between the perjurer Francisco de Paula Santander and father Bolivar is reinforced within our people. It is the expression of the struggle of a people united against the attacks of the capitalist bourgeoisie, the same as four years ago in their expression of colonizers wiped out native populations, and two hundred years later, betrayed and betraying the dream of Latin American union.
It is no coincidence, that is just today, when we're two months after the elections are vital for radical consolidation of the Bolivarian Revolution, that these statements come into the ring cheats. The recent statements of the Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America, Arturo Valenzuela, against our country, the accusations of a minority of right-wing Chilean deputies, the capture of terrorists Peña Chávez Abarca and Lock in Venezuela, the onslaught of the Dome of the Catholic Church against the Bolivarian process, the presence of troops, ships and an aircraft carrier yankee on Costa Rican territory, the constant violation of our airspace by U.S. aircraft stationed at bases in Aruba and Curacao off the Venezuelan coast and the installation of seven U.S. bases in Colombia, constitute components of a coordinated assault against the Bolivarian Revolution.
While President Hugo Chávez Commander, to work and has demonstrated a willingness to work in the search for peace in Colombia, closer fraternal Nuestroamericana Union, Colombian and U.S. rights thunder their drums of war in a genocidal policy and fratricidal which are worth a few dollars more, than the life of our peoples.
In this sense, represents the current government of Colombia's thesis of a confrontation: its paramilitary weapons Zionist warmongering policy are now a stumbling block in the formation of the Patria Grande. This is why we, the revolutionary and revolutionaries of Youth United Socialist Party of Venezuela, we have the historic task to take the lead in the fight to defend the Bolivarian Revolution, the construction of socialism and the realization of the dream Bolivarian a United America, through raising awareness levels of people and our membership.
This is why we should remain alert and mobilized around the imperialist onslaught, channeled through the decadent government of Uribe. While they seek to end the war and the hope of freedom in the Bolivarian people, we respond as it did Neruda
"La unidad de nuestros pueblos
no es simple quimera de los hombres,
sino inexorable decreto del destino.”
Simón Bolívar
"the unity of our peoples is no simple fantasy of men,
but inexorable decree of fate."
Simón Bolívar
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 2:29 PM
Updated: Tuesday, 27 July 2010 2:35 PM
Sunday, 25 July 2010
Venezuela and threats from Columbia and (?) others
Mood:
 don't ask
Now Playing: Chavez issues warning and reads inside information
Topic: Venezuela Solidarity
By Eva Golinger
Caracas, Sunday, July 25, 2010 - After Venezuelan President Chavez revealed intelligence data yesterday during a national address indicating the imminence of an aggression against his government via Colombia with support from the United States, the country is on maximum alert. Today, the Venezuelan President suspended an important trip to Cuba to celebrate the July 26th anniversary of the Moncada Battle. Chavez was to meet with Fidel Castro, recently recuperated and active again in his nation's politics, and was scheduled to give the key address at the Moncada commemoration.
"After reviewing intelligence reports and other information all night, I have decided to suspend my trip to Cuba", declared Chavez on Sunday before tens of thousands of members from the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). "The possibility of an armed attack against Venezuela from Colombia is too high, and therefore I will remain in the country".
Chávez also warned the US government that in the event of a military attack against Venezuela from Colombia or elsewhere, all oil supply will be suspended. "Let the United States know, that if any aggression is waged against us, we will cut off all oil supply to them. Not a single drop of oil for the United States!"
Venezuela currently supplies more than 15% of US oil needs, but also has seven oil refineries in US territory and over 14,000 gas stations run by CITGO, a Venezuelan-owned company. In January, the US Geological Survey (USGS) determined that Venezuela has the largest recoverable oil reserves in the world, with over 500 billion barrels and counting.
On July 1, Costa Rica, a nation whose constitution prohibits the presence of any armed forces, agreed to allow 46 warships and 7000 US marines inside its territory. Last October, Colombia signed a 10-year agreement permitting the US to occupy seven military bases and all civilian installations as necessary within its territory.
US Air Force documents from May 2009 revealed the intention behind the occupation of Colombian bases was to combat "the constant threat...of anti-US governments in the region", as well as to conduct "full spectrum military operations" throughout South America (see below). By Eva Golinger
Caracas, July 24, 2010 – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denounced this Saturday US plans to attack his country and overthrow his government. During a ceremony celebrating the 227th birthday of Independence hero Simon Bolivar, Chavez read from a secret memo he had been sent from an unnamed source inside the United States.
“Old friend, I haven’t seen you in years. As I said to you in my three prior letters, the idea remains the generation of a conflict on your western border”, read Chavez from the secret missive.
“The latest events confirm all, or almost all, of what those here discussed as well as other information that I have obtained from above”, the letter continued.
“The preparation phase in the international community, with the help of Colombia, is in plain execution”, manifested the text, referring to last Thursday’s session in the Organization of American States (OAS), during which the Colombia government accused Venezuela of harboring “terrorists” and “terrorist training camps” and gave the Chavez government a “30-day ultimatum” to allow for international intervention.
The letter continued with more details, “I told you before that the events wouldn’t begin before the 26th, but for some reason they have moved forward several actions that were supposed to be executed afterward”.
“In the United States, the execution phase is accelerating, together with a contention force, as they call it, towards Costa Rica with the pretext of fighting drug trafficking”.
On July 1, the Costan Rican government authorized 46 US war ships and 7,000 marines into their maritime and land territory.
The true objective of this military mobilization, said the letter, is to “support military operations” against Venezuela.
ASSASSINATION AND OVERTHROW
“There is an agreement between Colombia and the US with two objectives: one is Mauricio and the other is the overthrow of the government”, revealed the document. President Chavez explained that “Mauricio” is a pseudynom used in these communications.
“The military operation is going to happen”, warned the text, “and those from the north will do it, but not directly in Caracas”.
“They will hunt ‘Mauricio’ down outside Caracas, this is very important, I repeat, this is very important”.
President Chavez revealed that he had received similar letters from the same source alerting him to dangerous threats. He received one right before the capture of more than 100 Colombian paramilitaries in the outskirts of Caracas that were part of an assassination plan against the Venezuelan head of state, and another in 2002, just days before the coup d’etat that briefly outsted him from power. “The letter warned of snipers and the coup”, explained Chavez, “and it was right, the information was true, but we were unable to act to prevent it”.
US MILITARY EXPANSION
This information comes on the heels of the decision last Thursday to break relations between Colombia and Venezuela, made by President Chavez after Colombia’s “show” in the OAS.
“Uribe is capable of anything”, warned Chavez, announcing that the country was on maximum altert and the borders were being reinforced.
Last October, Colombia and the US signed a military agreement permitting the US to occupy seven Colombian bases and to use all Colombian territory as needed to complete missions. One of the bases in the agreement, Palanquero, was cited in May 2009 US Air Force documents as necessary to “conduct full spectrum military operations” in South America and combat the threat of “anti-US governments” in the region.
Palanquero was also signaled as critical to the Pentagon’s Global Mobility Strategy, as outlined in the February 2009 White Paper: Air Mobility Command Global En Route Strategy, “USSOUTHCOM has identified Palanquero, Colombia (German Olano Airfield SKPQ), as a cooperative security location (CSL). From this location nearly half of the continent can be covered by a C-17 without refueling”.
The 2010 Pentagon budget included a $46 million USD request to improve the installations at Palanquero, in order to support the Command Combatant’s “Theater Posture Strategy” and “provide for a unique opportunity for full spectrum operations in a critical sub region of our hemisphere where security and stability is under constant threat from narcotics funded terrorist insurgencies, anti-US governments, endemic poverty and recurring natural disasters”.
The May 2009 Air Force document further added that Palanquero would be used to “increase our capacity to conduct Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), improve global reach…and expand expeditionary warfare capability”.
In February 2010, the US National Directorate of Intelligence (NDI) classified Venezuela as “Anti-US Leader” in the region in its annual threat assessment.
The US also maintains forward operation locations (small military bases) in Aruba and Curazao, just miles off the Venezuelan coast. In recent months, the Venezuelan government has denounced unauthorized incursions of drone planes and other military aircraft into Venezuelan territory, originating from the US bases.
These latest revelations evidence that a serious, and unjustified conflict is brewing fast against Venezuela, a country with a vibrant democracy and the largest oil reserves in the world.
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 2:32 PM
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
Buying Venezuela’s Press With U.S. Tax Dollars Jeremy Bigwood The U.S. State Department is secretly funneling millions of dollars to Latin American journalists, according to documents obtained in June under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The 20 documents released to this author—including grant proposals, awards, and quarterly reports—show that between 2007 and 2009, the State Department’s little-known Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor channeled at least $4 million to journalists in Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela through the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF), a Washington-based grant maker that has worked in Latin America since 1962. Thus far, only documents pertaining to Venezuela have been released. They reveal that the PADF, collaborating with Venezuelan NGOs associated with the country’s political opposition, has been supplied with at least $700,000 to give out journalism grants and sponsor journalism education programs. Until now, the State Department has hidden its role in funding the Venezuelan news media, one of the opposition’s most powerful weapons against President Hugo Chávez and his Bolivarian movement. The PADF, serving as an intermediary, effectively removed the government’s fingerprints from the money. Yet, as noted in a State Department document titled “Bureau/Program Specific Requirements,” the State Department’s own policies require that “all publications” funded by the department “acknowledge the support.” But the provision was simply waived for the PADF. “For the purposes of this award,” the requirements document adds, “ . . . the recipient is not required to publicly acknowledge the support of the U.S. Department of State.” Before 2007, the largest funder of U.S. “democracy promotion” activities in Venezuela was not the State Department but the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), together with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). But in 2005, these organizations’ underhanded funding was exposed by Venezuelan American attorney Eva Golinger in a series of articles, books, and lectures (disclosure: This author obtained many of the documents). After the USAID and NED covers were blown wide open—forcing USAID’s main intermediary, Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), a Maryland–based contractor, to close its office in Caracas—the U.S. government apparently sought new funding channels, one of which the PADF appears to have provided. Although the $700,000 allocated to the PADF, which is noted in the State Department’s requirements document, may not seem like a lot of money, the funds have been strategically used to buy off the best of Venezuela’s news media and recruit young journalists. This has been achieved by collaborating with opposition NGOs, many of which have a strong media focus. The requirements document is the only document that names any of these organizations—which was probably an oversight on the State Department’s part, since the recipients’ names and a lot of other information are excised in the rest of the documents. The requirements document names Espacio Público and Instituto Prensa y Sociedad, two leading organizations linked to the Venezuelan opposition, as recipients of “subgrants.” Neither organization makes clear its connection to the State Department. Espacio Público, according to its website, is a “non-profit, non-governmental civil association that is independent and autonomous of political parties, religious institutions, international organizations or any government” (emphasis added). Two of three images on the homepage are from anti-Chávez demonstrations. The other “subgrantee,” the Venezuelan chapter of Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPyS-Ve), is a Peru-based journalism organization that was started with funding from USAID, and that has continued to receive USAID money while launching a series of attacks on Chávez. It has explicitly opposed Chávez since 2000, when it falsely accused him of harboring Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori’s fugitive spymaster, Vladimiro Montesinos (Chávez’s own authorities later arrested Montesinos and extradited him to Peru). The documents detail a series of grants doled out to unnamed individual journalists. These include two kinds of grants “for innovative reporting and investigative reporting,” with the winning content disseminated online “and to selected independent media audiences.” While we don’t know who won these grants, we know that they were substantial. One of them consisted of 10 one-year grants of $25,000 each. For many journalists, especially in Latin America, $25,000 for a year is a high salary. The PADF also holds “2 competitions, one per year, for a total of $20,000 in funding awarded to at least 6 entries.” The PADF’s Venezuela program also supports journalism education, which is undertaken to produce investigative work “via innovative media technologies,” according to an “Action Memorandum” for a fiscal year 2007 grant. This grant includes “a series of trainings for local journalists focused on the basic and advanced skills of Internet-based reporting and investigative reporting,” according to the requirements document. The education program engages “a wide range of Venezuelan media organizations and news outlets, including 4 university partners,” where it aims “to establish one course per school on investigative reporting.” PADF proposes targeting not only universities in the capital city of Caracas, but also regional ones in “the Andes, Center East, Zulia and the Western region of the country.” In each region, “the local partners will sign agreements with academic institutions that teach social communications.” The revelations of U.S. funding of Venezuelan journalism comes on the heels of a report released in May by the center-right European think tank FRIDE, which found that since 2002 the United States has spent an estimated $3 million to $6 million every year “on small projects with political parties and NGOs” in Venezuela, with funds distributed through an alphabet soup of shifting and intertwined channels. (The report was removed from FRIDE’s website soon after it was publicized.) The PADF journalism program thus appears to be part of a much larger project of propping up the Venezuelan opposition. The Venezuelan journalists and students who benefited from the grants and education may not have known of the State Department funding. Nonetheless, covert foreign state support for ostensibly independent journalism violates basic principles of the profession’s integrity.* Look for an expanded version of this article in the September/October edition of NACLA Report on the Americas. *The word covert was added to this sentence on July 18. https://nacla.org/node/6663
Jeremy Bigwood is an investigative reporter whose work has appeared in American Journalism Review, The Village Voice, and several other publications. He covered Latin American conflicts from 1984 to 1994 as a photojournalist.
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 12:01 AM
Updated: Sunday, 25 July 2010 3:28 PM
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Venezuela Blog from 2006
Mood:
 chillin'
Now Playing: American Media activists reports from Latin America
Topic: Venezuela Solidarity
Here is a blog from an aquaintence of mine that I see is dated 2006 He is writing from Venezuela http://www.oirnos.blogspot.com/ I have been enjoing his writings, five years latter
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 8:06 AM
Updated: Monday, 19 July 2010 6:11 PM
Saturday, 10 July 2010
Cuban Caravan in Portland Oregon
Mood:
 lucky
Now Playing: Right 2 survive welcomes the bus to Cuba in Portland on 7.8.10
Topic: HUMAN RIGHTS
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 5:17 PM
Friday, 9 July 2010
US out of Latin America
Mood:
 blue
Now Playing: Costa Rica 40 us ships
Topic: Venezuela Solidarity
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 6:23 AM
Updated: Saturday, 10 July 2010 5:26 PM
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
Janet Napolitano and Salvadoran Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez today forged an agreement
Mood:
loud
Now Playing: El Salvador and US - Be Aware of the Spin of this collaberation
Topic: USA IMPERIALISM
Readout of Today's Meeting Between Secretary Napolitano and Minister MartinezRelease Date: June 23, 2010 For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary Department of Homeland Security
Contact: 202-282-8010 http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1277325381132.shtm Washington, D.C.—Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and Salvadoran Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez today forged an agreement between the United States and El Salvador that will strengthen the capabilities of both countries to share information about criminal nationals repatriated to El Salvador or to the United States—bolstering efforts to combat transnational crime and safeguard public safety. “The United States and El Salvador share a strong commitment to working together to protect the safety of our citizens,” said Secretary Napolitano. “Today’s agreement will help ensure that we are able to easily share information about criminals who may pose a threat to public safety in either of our nations.” “The signing of this letter is extremely important for El Salvador, as this will allow us to advance in the exchange of information of Salvadorans returnees with criminal records, critical to our homeland security,” said Minister Martinez. “We are pleased to have this kind of agreement with the United States, and which is indicative of the excellent bilateral relations between our countries.” During the meeting, Secretary Napolitano and Minister Martinez discussed the ongoing and vital collaboration between their two countries—and highlighted ways to further increase cooperation and information-sharing in the future.
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 8:46 AM
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Bmedia Collective Portland Oregon
Mood:
 bright
Now Playing: Bmedia Collective Portland Oregon Website is Recomended
Topic: Organizing-Activism-Info
Bmedia collective out of Portland Oregon is engaged and covering the Venezuela and Bolvarian Revolution. They have a website link here: http://bmediacollective.org/?page_id=16 
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 12:24 PM
Updated: Saturday, 5 June 2010 12:30 PM
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http://www.archive.org/details/BenjiLewisRevolutionInCrisis8.11.10PartOneOfTwo
Part 2
http://www.archive.org/details/BenjiLewisrevolutionInCrisis8.11.10Part2Of2