Posted on 03 January 2012 by Zari Sundiata "Afro- Venezuela" film strating -up Mood: chatty Now Playing: Support POCO’s Afro-Venezuelan Film Project! Topic: Venezuela Solidarity
At a time when the North Atlantic empires are on the decline, it is an exciting and hopeful time in Latin America! Now, for the first time, millions of Venezuelans have access to education, job training, housing, land, clean water, and health care.
Africans in Venezuela, Indigenous peoples, and women are gaining power and rights, while a high-profile land reform campaign is sweeping the nation, giving poor farmers access to land and opportunities. However, despite their overwhelming contribution to the everyday life and culture of Venezuela, African communities in Venezuela continue to face racial and economic divisions that prevail from the days of colonization.
Racism against Africans in Venezuela continues to perpetuate historically rooted class divisions and contributes to a lack of political participation in decisions that mostly affect them. Despite a legacy of centuries of colonialism, Africans in Venezuela are conquering new political spaces in government institutions while communities organize themselves from the bottom up to make sure guarantees are met.
The film will highlight:
The history of slavery, racism, and economic inequality in Venezuela.
The 3-day San Juan Festival to celebrate African heritage in the coastal area of Curiepe, Barlovento.
Insiders view of government-sponsored health, education, and literacy programs aimed towards eradicating poverty in coastal communities.
Venezuelan hip-hop groups which are intersecting with social justice to create new voices of youth leadership in barrios in Caracas and elsewhere.
A comparison of conventional cacao plantations with organic agricultural cooperatives that are creating endogenous (“from within and below”) development in African communities in Venezuela.
Talks with government representatives about the economic, social, and political integration of Venezuela, the rest of Latin America, and countries of the African continent.
Your contributions to this endeavor will provide the necessary equipment to produce a high quality, grass-roots documentary that will be available to the people for free. These items include:
$10: ex-producer credit and DVD copy with bonus features
$25: ex-producer credit, access to daily journal (blog), autographed script (from all of us of course), and DVD copy with bonus features
$50: ex-producer credit, access to daily journal (blog), autographed script (from all of us course), DVD copy with bonus features, and Special Gift from Venezuela.
Contributions will be accepted through May 31, 2012.
This documentary will destroy the popular myths that revolution is not possible. It will proffer real self-determination and democracy aided by the government, not dominated by the government. The struggles of Africans in Venezuela and their resistance links African and oppressed people all over the world. It provides a clear example of how elevating all segments of society can be the harbinger of a more just world.
This is YOUR movie and YOUR project, so let’s make it happen.
Videos I have relating to South America Mood: chatty Now Playing: Joe Anybodyy - Videos - Caracas Venezuela - Solidarity -PCASC Topic: Venezuela Solidarity
I have a PCASC - Latin America Solidarity VIDEO PAGE
2 PCASC Activists head to Caracas Venezuela May 29 2011 Mood: bright Now Playing: USA activist head to Caracas - speaking against the US sanctions Topic: Venezuela Solidarity
Two of my fellow Central America Solidarity co-activists from Portland [PCASC] are flying to Caracas as I write this on Sunday.
They are to be on the stage in Caracas by the palace, for a big demonstration against the US sanctions being imposed, due to Venezuela providing oil to Iran against the US telling them not to.
(Question: Ha?! were do we get off telling other countries what to do?) (Answerer: - "we don't and in this case Hugo laughs in our face")
They flew out w/ a days notice w/ an interpreter, as US delegates, to speak about this serious ugly stuff, they will be back in a few days.
Chavez uses the countries oil and the money to help social causes and the imperialist / capitalist cant stand it.
More than 250,000 US citizens in 25 states have benefited to date from the Venezuelan government’s subsidized heating oil program. That not only means free heating oil to poor US families, but he taxes and then directs oil profits to his own country and the peoples programs.
Hugo Chavez has used Venezuela's oil wealth to invest heavily in improving the wellbeing of its people.
Currently, more than 60% of oil industry profits are directed toward social programs in Venezuela, including free healthcare, education, job training, community media, grassroots organizations and subsidized food and housing.
None of this will be mentioned in US mainstream press. Not on CNN, ABC, KGW, FOUX, or any of the corporate stations that are parroting for the US war machine.
Just for the heck of it here is the link to Eva Golinger who spoke in Portland a few weeks a go, our PCASC group brought her to the US to share her wealth of information.
I find her information regarding US intervention to be really fascinating to listen to.
If anyone gets a chance to see "South of the Border" by Oliver Stone, its a pretty good new "hollywood" movie recently released on Hugo and the USA, exposing that whole "Chavez is a dictator thing" http://youtu.be/KHQrqDcecXw (3 min video I made in Caracas)
Chavez plans on giving 350,000 laptops to school kids Mood: happy Now Playing: Venezuelan Government Begins Distribution of 350,000 Laptop Computers to School Children Topic: Venezuela Solidarity
Venezuelan Government Begins Distribution of 350,000 Laptop Computers to School Children
Nov 17th 2010 , by Juan Reardon – Venezuelanalysis.com
Mérida, November 17th 2010 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan government this week distributed the first of an additional 350,000 portable laptop computers to be provided to public elementary school children by the end of the year.
In the Caracas neighborhood of El Paraíso on Tuesday, Minister of Education Jennifer Gil, presided over the ceremony in which 109 Canaima computers were handed to first and second grade students at Mario Briceño Iragorry Elementary.
“The Canaima Plan is a milestone and a technological innovation. It allows us to keep deepening our integral and massive education system that does not involve just students, but the entire family environment, parents, representatives and teachers,” stated Gil at the event.
According to Gil, the Venezuelan government has invested BsF 700 million (US$163 million) this year in the acquisition from Portugal of the kid-friendly Canaima laptop computers, 228,000 of which have already been distributed this year. The goal for 2010 is to distribute a total of 525,000 Canaima computers.
During his weekly televised address to the nation on Sunday, President Hugo Chávez announced that all public schoolchildren are to be secured a portable computer, school uniforms, and books.
In reference to an educational program available on the laptops that portrays Venezuela’s liberation hero Simón Bolivar, Chávez said that, “it is much better [that the children] watch these historical and cultural programs than the narco-soap operas filled with anti-values and the destruction of society.”
“Only in socialism is it possible to make real the rights of children, the rights of the people, to an improved quality of education and standard of living,” affirmed Gil.
The Canaima Program began in mid-2009 as part of an oil trading agreement between Venezuela and Portugal. The laptop computers run on the open source operating system Linux, and the educational programs and software included in them is designed by Venezuelan engineers at the Ministry of Education and the National Center for Information Technology (CNTI).
While in Portugal last month, Chávez announced the purchase of an additional 1.5 million Canaima computers as well as plans to install a Canaima production plant in Venezuela.
Chavez Wants a Break from U.S. Meddling. Can You Blame Him? Mood: cool Now Playing: A repost from Venezuela Analysis article by Mike Whitney Topic: Venezuela Solidarity
Most people know that Iran, Russia and Venezuela all have vast oil reserves. And, they also know that Hugo Chavez, Vladimir Putin and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are on Washington's “enemies list.” So, why is it so hard for them to connect the dots? Can't they see that the media only demonizes the leaders that stand in the way of the corporate agenda? If Iran’s biggest export was pistachios (rather than oil), no one in America would have ever heard of Ahmadinejad. Instead, every time poor guy makes the slightest miscue, his face is splashed across the front pages of US newspapers.
Chavez doesn’t have horns any more than Ahmadinejad has a pointy tail. It’s just propaganda cooked up by the media.
Israel has been itching for a fight with Iran for a decade. Everyone knows this. Still, “Joe Sixpack” still thinks that Iran is the “bad guy,” and that the Mullahs are secretly building atomic bombs so they can go to war with a country that has over 200 nuclear weapons. This is ridiculous. Iran’s not suicidal.
Of course, when the case is presented like this, people can see how crazy it really is. But then--half an hour later--they flip on the TV and hear the same lies over and over again and start to think that there's some truth to it.
Edward L. Bernays figured it out a long time ago. In his book titled “Propaganda” Bernays argued that elites need to manage public perceptions to keep the masses in line. Here’s the opening passage from the book:
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized.” (Edward Bernays. Propaganda Liveright, 1928; Ig Publishing, 2004)
There you have it---lying is policy. Bernays believed that “engineering consent” was a better way to control behavior than violence. It's easy to see how his theories eventually evolved into an entire industry--public relations.
Propaganda drowns out the truth; that’s how it works. It’s a way of saturating everything indiscriminately with the same lie over and over again. It’s ideological carpet-bombing. People know this, but they can’t resist. Eventually, the seed-thought takes root and grows wrapping its tentacles around the cortex leaving its victim mumbling the same mendacious gibberish that was broadcast just a half-hour earlier on the evening news.
The face of modern democracy is mostly public relations. Many people doubt that Presidents Obama or Bush have/had any real power at all. Would a two-year rookie senator with a background in community organizing really have been chosen to decide the fate of the world’s biggest empire? Would a man with Bush’s obvious limitations really be the one pulling the levers on issues of war and peace? It’s doubtful, but the farce goes on to preserve the illusion of “democracy.” The real power operates behind a curtain. The rest is public relations.
So, what do we really know about Iran that isn’t just PR-hype and lies?
What we know is that Iran poses no threat to the United States or Israel. None. The atomic watchdog agency, the IAEA, has said repeatedly that there’s “no evidence” that Iran has a nuclear weapons program or that Iran has diverted any of its low-enriched uranium to illicit activities. Iran is merely pursuing the peaceful use of nuclear energy to develop power plants which is explicitly approved under the terms of the NPT. In other words, Iran has kept its end of the bargain, whereas it antagonists (Israel and the US) have not.
So, should Iran cave in and allow itself to be bullied by the US and Israel or should it fight for its rights under the terms of the treaty?
Israel and the US know they don’t have a leg to stand. They know that Iran has been playing by the rules. That’s why they’ve concocted this ridiculous smear campaign against Ahmadinejad. That’s why we never read about “treaty obligations” or “compliance” in the media, just spurious accusations that Ahmadinejad is a religious fanatic, or Ahmadinejad is a anti-Semite, or Ahmadinejad wants to “wipe out” Israel or some other such nonsense. It’s all an attempt to divert attention from the fact that Iran sits on an ocean of oil and that Israel wants to expand its regional power. The rest is propaganda.
The same is true of Chavez. Chavez was the first world leader to offer to send food, medicine and doctors to the victims of Katrina. But no one heard about it, because it wasn’t reported in the US media. Bush rejected Chavez’s offer because Bush had other things in mind for the people of New Orleans. He wanted to test out his Nazi theories on martial law by cutting off vital supplies, and issuing “shoot to kill” orders for anyone suspected of looting. He wanted to herd thousands of poor, black people who lost their homes into the Superdome at gunpoint where they could live for nearly a week in squalid, prison-camp conditions, completely cutoff from the outside world.
Would the people have suffered as much if Chavez was in charge? Don't bet on it.
Life has improved dramatically for ordinary working people under Chavez. According to economist Mark Weisbrot:
“The UN Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) found that Venezuela had reduced inequality by more than any other country in Latin America from 2002-2008, ending up with the most equal income distribution in the region.” ("The Venezuelan Economy: Media Sources Get it Wrong, Again")
Washington hates Chavez because he’s raised living standards for the poor and because he won’t bow to the giant corporations. That’s why he’s pilloried in the media, because his socialist model of democracy doesn’t jibe with America’s smash-n-grab style of capitalism. Chavez has enacted land and oil industry reform, improved education and provided universal health care. He’s introduced job training, subsidies to single mothers, drug prevention programs, and assistance for recovering addicts. Illiteracy has been wiped out.
Chavez’s policies have reduced ignorance, poverty, and injustice. The list goes on and on. Venezuelans are more engaged in the political process than ever before. That scares Washington. US elites don’t want well-informed people participating in the political process. They believe that task should be left to the venal politicians chosen by corporate bosses and top-hat banksters. That’s why Chavez has to go. He’s given people hope for a better life.
Chavez’s social vision is at odds with the prevailing American/corporate view that allows Wall Street speculators to blow up the financial system without fear of reprisal, that permits big oil companies to despoil entire regions of the country and not be held accountable, and that allows lying politicians to drag the nation to a war with utter impunity. Chavez does not share that view nor does Ahmadinejad or Putin.
All three leaders would like nothing more than to get a break from America’s incessant meddling and belligerence. They don’t hate America and they are not our enemies. But they would like a little breather from the coups, the financial contagion, the kidnappings, the stolen elections, the propaganda, and the endless killing. Can you blame ‘em?
Couple tried to sell nuclear arms to FBI - who was acting like Venezuela officials Mood: mischievious Now Playing: Renmember the WMD (USA) lie ...? Well what does this article remind you of Topic: Venezuela Solidarity
Lets just say ....
... the US (FBI) pretended to be Venezuela officials that end up catching 2 American.???
... All I can say is AMERICA looks dirty becasue they are the only players in this and they all are dirty!!!
(Fake Venezuela guys trying to buy Nukes) What The Fuck ???) (then a cought red handed / guilty US scientists and wife involvement)
So its all CRAP originating from the US and once again the headlines try to smear (innocent) Venezuela ~joe
This reeks of WMD retroic and propaganda that is
anti Chaves anti Latin America
USA / FBI --> "GET THE HELL OUT OF LATIN AMERICA "
Couple tried to sell nuclear arms secrets to Venezuela: US
WASHINGTON — A US scientist and his wife who worked at the leading nuclear research site were arrested Friday and charged with trying to sell secrets to help Venezuela start a nuclear weapons program, US officials said.
The pair, both US citizens, "have been indicted on charges of communicating classified nuclear weapons data to a person they believed to be a Venezuelan government official and conspiring to participate in the development of an atomic weapon for Venezuela," the US Justice Department said in a statement.
The defendants, Pedro Mascheroni, 75, and Marjorie Roxby Mascheroni, 67, had both worked as contractors at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the southwestern state of New Mexico, and could face life in prison if convicted on all charges.
They had sought 793,000 dollars in payment for the restricted and classified data which they believed they had provided to a Venezuelan contact, but who was actually an undercover FBI agent.
The Justice Department was quick to acknowledge that the indictment does not allege any wrongdoing by the Venezuelan government or anyone acting on its behalf, and also said no one currently working at Los Alamos was charged or accused of wrongdoing.
But the revelations could still sharpen relations between the United States and Venezuela, whose firebrand leftist President Hugo Chavez is a vocal critic of Washington.
FBI agents arrested Mascheroni -- a naturalized US citizen from Argentina -- and his US-born wife early Friday.
According to the statement, among the 22 indictments, the defendants are charged with "communicating 'restricted data' to an individual with the intent to injure the United States and secure an advantage to a foreign nation," conspiring to participate in development of an atomic weapon, concealing US records, and several counts of making false statements.
The department revealed a series of startling details about the couple's plans to pass the nuclear secrets to Venezuela, beginning in March 2008 when the husband had conversations with the undercover agent.
During the talks, Pedro Mascheroni "allegedly said he could help Venezuela develop a nuclear bomb within 10 years and that, under his program, Venezuela would use a secret, underground nuclear reactor to produce and enrich plutonium, and an open, above-ground reactor to produce nuclear energy," according to the Justice Department.
Pedro Mascheroni is a physicist who worked at Los Alamos from 1979 to 1988, while his wife worked there between 1981 and this year, the Justice Department said. Both held security clearances that allowed them access to certain classified information.
"The conduct alleged in this indictment is serious and should serve as a warning to anyone who would consider compromising our nation's nuclear secrets for profit," Assistant Attorney General David Kris said.
In talks with the undercover agent, Mascheroni allegedly asked about obtaining Venezuelan citizenship, and described how he expected to be paid.
In July 2008, the undercover agent gave Mascheroni 12 questions purportedly from Venezuelan military officers and scientists, and months later Mascheroni delivered at the post office box being used as a dead drop location a disk with a 132-page document on it laying out his plan for a nuclear weapons development program.
Nearly one year later Mascheroni received another list of questions from the "Venezuelan officials" and 20,000 dollars in cash as a first payment. "On his way to pick up these materials, he allegedly told his wife he was doing this work for the money and was not an American anymore," the indictment said.
One month later Mascheroni took a disk to the dead drop location that contained a 39-page document answering the questions -- and allegedly included "Restricted Data" related to nuclear weapons.
The couple later lied about their involvement when FBI agents questioned them about the classified information delivered to the undercover agent.
The indictment "contains allegations only and that every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty," the statement said.
Chavez needs to win 2/3 majority in upcoming 2010 elections Mood: energetic Now Playing: Venezuela Assembly 2010 -too close to call ? Topic: Venezuela Solidarity
September 7, 2010
Venezuela Assembly
2010 Elections Too Close to Call
Greg Wilpert:
Chavez remains popular but people frustrated with some around him
PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in New York City. Now joining us is Gregory Wilpert, author of the book Changing Venezuela by Taking Power. Thanks for joining us, Gregory.
GREGORY WILPERT, AUTHOR, EDITOR OF VENEZUELANALYSIS: Thanks for having me.
JAY: So there's elections coming up in Venezuela, September 26, for the National Assembly. Tell us who controls the National Assembly now in Venezuela and what's at stake in these elections.
WILPERT: Well, right now the National Assembly is entirely controlled by Chávez supporters. That's because the last elections, 2005, the opposition boycotted those elections, arguing that there were not going to be fair elections, even though the Carter Center and the Organization of American States urged the opposition to participate and, at the end, ratified that they were free and fair elections.
JAY: So right now, in terms of the polling, what's expected in this election?
WILPERT: Well, it's very different difficult to say, because polls in Venezuela tend to be divided, depending on the political affiliation of the pollsters. And it's very difficult to find neutral polls. So opposition polls tend to say that the opposition is going to win; pro-Chávez polls tend to say that Chávez is going to win. My guess is that it's going to be a very close call, it's going to be a very close election, because there's—on the one hand, Chávez is still a very popular individual, but he's not on the ballot, and there's a lot of problems in Venezuela right now with the recent recession Venezuela's coming out of and with the discovery of a corruption scandal. So there's some dissatisfaction. And so my guess is that a lot of people who would normally vote for Chávez, instead of voting for the opposition, because nobody—still the opposition is extremely unpopular, instead of voting for Chávez, they're going to abstain. And so that could make it a very close call.
JAY: So the people that might abstain are people that voted for Chávez in the past, and their main critique being what? That things have not happened quickly enough? There hasn't been enough changes? I mean, one of the critiques will be is that Chávez controlled the National Assembly and the national government, so there wasn't opposition to passing any legislation. So people are saying, well, then, why hasn't there been more successes?
WILPERT: Yes, that's certainly the case. I mean, one thing to consider, of course, is that Chávez has been in office for 11 years now, and that is a very long time for somebody to maintain the high levels of popularity that Chávez has maintained. And so there's a certain amount of fatigue that has set in with the people, especially—not necessarily with Chávez, but with the people around Chávez, and with the recurrence of certain problems, especially this corruption scandal that I mentioned earlier. And there was also another problem was the electricity rationing. Venezuela had experienced a drought, a very severe drought last year, and had to ration electricity because all of its electricity comes from one—practically all of it comes from one hydroelectric dam. And so those are a lot of problems to have accumulated, and particularly in an election year.
JAY: Well, one of the complaints the opposition's made is that that should have been foreseen, the electricity problem. How legitimate a critique was that?
WILPERT: It's partly legitimate, partly not, because it's impossible to really foresee a drought. And we're talking about a drought in which it didn't rain for an entire rainy season. Now, that's very unusual, which is probably traceable, actually, to global warming. So in that sense it might have been foreseeable, but it was not something that has ever happened in Venezuela before, as far as I know. And so—but on the other hand, there's certainly a lack—there was a lack of investment in the electrical sector, and so more could have been done to at least partially avoid this problem.
JAY: And the real litmus test for a lot of people, I think, from the outside, at any rate (of course, nobody from the outside's going to be voting), is life in the barrios. And to what extent has that really improved? And has it improved more quickly? Because what you read, at least in the Western press, is that in some of Chávez's base of support there's some question of abstention, there's some pulling back. How true is what we're reading in the newspapers here?
WILPERT: There's definitely some dissatisfaction. But on the other hand, there have been a lot of improvements for people living in the barrios. I mean, right now, Venezuela—actually, when Chávez got elected, Venezuela was one of the most unequal countries, according to economic analysis, and one of the most unequal countries of Latin America. Now it is the most egalitarian country in Latin America—that is, excepting Cuba, perhaps.
JAY: Measure—how are you measuring that?
WILPERT: Measured by the GINI coefficient, which measures inequality. Unemployment is lower than ever, poverty is lower than average, even though Venezuela's going through a recession. And the reason that it's managed to maintain poverty at a very low level and unemployment at a relatively low level despite a recession is that social programs are still in effect, and social programs have made a big difference in people's lives, whether they're educational programs, community health care, subsidies for single mothers, things like that. They've really made a big difference in people's lives. But that's something that was initiated already four years ago. So people have short memories, and there's other problems that are accumulating, such as electricity and the corruption.
JAY: It was only four years ago the opposition seemed to be in chaos. One could barely imagine them mounting an election campaign. Now they're back, vying for perhaps winning control of the National Assembly. What happened in the last four years that the opposition was able to reorganize to such an extent?
WILPERT: It's the problems that are on the Chavista side that are giving the opposition an opportunity. There's nothing really new that the opposition has done. I mean, they've created a new umbrella organization, but they're still very internally divided and they still don't have a unified program and they still don't have a unified leadership. So it's really more the opportunity that they're being presented with than anything that they've done.
JAY: One of the things that seemed to spark the opposition again was the closing down of some of what was called opposition media. What is your take on all of that?
WILPERT: The whole issue of freedom of the press is really something that has caught on in the international media and international observers of Venezuela. But within Venezuela itself, I don't think that really is a story that has really caught on within Venezuela, because everybody knows that you pick up or look at the headlines of any newspaper stands and you see incredible diversity of opinions. You flip the TV dial on and you can also hear all kinds of voices from the opposition or from Chávez supporters. So there's still an incredible diversity of opinions. And so that's why this whole accusation of Chávez clamping down on freedom of speech doesn't really ring true for most Venezuelans, I think.
JAY: But there was a serious protest movement, was there not, with the closing down of a couple of the television stations. They said they were being closed on technicalities. But—I mean, I don't know the truth of it, but I know there was quite a movement within the opposition ranks. It seemed to re-energize the opposition, which had been quite deflated.
WILPERT: Well, actually, there was one television station that did not have its license renewed, mainly because its license expired and it was a key participant in the 2002 coup attempt. And, yes, there was a big movement that the opposition managed to mobilize, particularly around students and the youth, to oppose that. But I think to some extent Chávez supporters have countered that by organizing their own youth movement and their own student supporters to counter that. And also, that movement became a bit discredited, I think, once it came out how much the US government has been funding opposition groups, particularly student groups, through the National Endowment for Democracy and so on in Venezuela. They've really last lost a lot of relevance, I think, in the meantime.
JAY: So if in fact the abstentions are enough to shift the balance of power in the National Assembly to the opposition forces, what's the significance of that?
WILPERT: Well, what most people don't realize is that the National Assembly is a very important body in Venezuela. Actually, it's more powerful than the US Congress, if you consider that it appoints an independent attorney general, it appoints electoral council, which is independent, and it appoints the Supreme Court, which is independent. So it has a lot more power than the US Congress, which doesn't get to appoint all of these positions. Plus a lot of laws need to be passed with a two-thirds majority, laws that are particularly important that are derived from the Constitution. So if Chávez loses his two-thirds majority, that means that the Bolivarian Revolution will definitely [inaudible] because it will not be able to pass all of the laws that it still plans on passing. So that's a serious problem. If it were to lose its absolute majority, which I think is actually very unlikely—but if it loses its absolute majority, that could cause serious problems.
JAY: Thanks for joining us.
WILPERT: Sure.
JAY: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
End of Transcript
DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.
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 Crisis
Benji 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.
Southj Of The Border movie plays in Portland Oregon on 7.30.10 Mood: celebratory Now Playing: Hugo Chavez in Oliver Stones new movie "South Of The Border" Topic: Venezuela Solidarity
Venezuela and threats from Columbia and (?) others Mood: don't ask Now Playing: Chavez issues warning and reads inside information Topic: Venezuela Solidarity
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).
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.
If you come to Venezuela with glistening eyes, expecting to see the revolution of a romantic and passionate novel, don’t be disappointed when the complexities of reality burst your bubble. While revolution does withhold a sense of romanticism, it’s also full of human error and the grit of everyday life in a society – a nation – undertaking the difficult and tumultuous process of total transformation.
Nothing is perfect here, in the country sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves. But everything is fascinating and intriguing, and the changes from past to present become more visible and tangible every day.
Venezuela Speaks Book Review Mood: incredulous Now Playing: Venezuela Speaks! Voices from the Grassroots, By Carlos Martinez, Michael Fox, and JoJo Farrell ( Topic: Venezuela Solidarity
There are many different ways that the corporate media continues to misrepresent the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. Many critics of this biased media coverage have directly challenged the demonization of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, but very few critics, if any, have exposed the media’s virtual erasure of the vibrant and growing participatory democracy in Venezuela. Alas, the new book entitled Venezuela Speaks! Voices from the Grassroots(PM Press, 2010) offers a powerful correction to this misrepresentation by spotlighting a wide range of people and movements that are actively governing themselves with official governmental structures created since the 1998 election of President Chavez, and the growing non-governmental social movements that have existed for several decades.
Venezuela Speaks embodies this non-hierarchical philosophy by presenting the voices of the people themselves in interviews from practically every sector of society, including community organizers, educators, journalists, cultural workers, farmers, women, students, and Indigenous & Afro-Venezuelans. Co-authors Carlos Martinez, Michael Fox, and JoJo Farrell argue persuasively that this untold story of democracy from the bottom-up is key to understanding the complexity of the present-day political situation in Venezuela. They write that “by failing to see beyond Chavez and the government’s anti-neoliberal policies, one of the most significant political dynamics in Venezuela has gone ignored and underappreciated—the dynamic between a government that has committed itself to a discourse of grassroots political participation, and the response of ordinary Venezuelans to this call, often in ways that go beyond the expectations of the government, occasionally even challenging it.”
Authors Martinez, Fox, and Farrell explain that “the idea of participatory democracy, as opposed to representative democracy has been a pillar of Chavez’s political movement since his successful run for office in 1998.” The most well-known example of participatory democracy in Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution is the system of communal councils, which have “provided Venezuelans with a legal mechanism to locally organize themselves into democratic structures of between 200-400 families, with the greater goal of determining the way that government funds get used for development and infrastructure projects in their communities.”
However, the authors argue that the community councils are just the “tip of the iceberg of the construction of popular power in Venezuela. Over the course of the Bolivarian Revolution, Venezuelans have created cooperatives; taken over factories; occupied urban and rural lands; launched community radio and television stations; built centers for culture and popular education; participated in creating national legislation and found numerous other ways of bringing the government’s discourse of popular power into reality. Many of these actions have been motivated by the words of President Chavez or have been facilitated by government initiatives. Meanwhile, many people behind these actions continue to pressure the government in order to survive or succeed.”
While the revolution has opened up new possibilities for popular participation, many of the participants interviewed explain how they are actively pressuring the governmental bureaucracy to follow through on the revolution’s goals. Looking at this tension between social movements and the state, the authors write that “while much of the blame has been attributed to corrupt or right-wing elements still functioning within the government’s bureaucracy, many social movements also argue that an overly ‘institutionalized’ approach to revolutionary change has not taken their independent initiatives sufficiently into account.” Indeed, “many social movements recognize the reality that although government leadership may have changed, radical transformation will often still demand confrontation with those in political power.”
The authors recognize the interviewees “conflict and frustration” with the government, but they argue that “rather than let their criticisms of Venezuela’s political process fill us with disillusionment, these testimonies should provide us with inspiration in knowing that so many people are actively engaged in constructing their new society, regardless of setbacks.” This point is clearly the dominant theme throughout the book, with the authors boldly asserting that “beyond the social programs, economic projects, and anti-neoliberal policies promoted by the national government, truly profound change will only come from the active debate and dialogue between organized peoples and the government. It is this debate and dialogue that has set Venezuela apart from many national liberation struggles of the past, and if Venezuela is to succeed where others have failed, then it must continue to strengthen this relationship.”
Yanahir Reyes Joins Book Tour
Marking the release of Venezuela Speaks, co-authors Michael Fox and Carlos Martinez are joining photographer Sylvia Leindecker on a book tour around the US. The tour began in San Francisco’s Mission District on January 14 and on the East Coast on January 20, in Arlington, Virginia.
For the East Coast segment, they will also be joined by Yanahir Reyes, who works with Women’s First Steps Civil Association and is the founder of Millennium Women’s Word, a feminist radio program broadcasted on a community radio station in her neighborhood of Caricuao. The 28-year old Reyes is featured in Venezuela Speaks, as part of the chapter focusing on women and sexual diversity movements. Her powerful account is just one of the many interviews featured, but it shows the complexity of how the Bolivarian Revolution has impacted women’s liberation.
Reyes explains that her earliest feminist consciousness came from home, as she saw that her father, a former member of a leftist guerrilla movement, “could go out and do whatever he wanted. He was freer, while my mother stayed at home, taking care of us—the girls—ironing, washing, scrubbing, and cleaning the house.” After discovering that he was having an extra-marital affair, she saw her father as “a coward, a chauvinist,” who “had the power to dominate the situation.” According to Reyes, this type of sexual inequality is compounded by the poverty because “housing is very hard to come by in Caracas and sadly some women are forced to remain in demeaning situations because of it…I want to have my own apartment, alone. I want to travel, to do a lot of things without depending on a man.”
Reyes talks about her involvement in the local ludoteca, which serves as an educational, family, and community center that is flexible and “responds to the needs of the people…the ludotecas are different from traditional schools, because they can take place anywhere in a community…under a mango tree, a room in a barrio, on a closed-off street. The ludoteca isn’t managed by the teacher or an institution, it’s managed by the people. Mothers and fathers participate in the space,” and it “has the objective of strengthening the emotional bonds within the family and using play as a means of education—but an education for transformation.”
Along with working towards a healthy family, the ludoteca has been an important tool for women’s education. As mothers brought their children in, they would gradually become more involved with their children’s education by volunteering at the ludoteca. Reyes explains that “the women were not trained in workshops or anything like that. They began by observing what [co-worker] Milda and I did. But when the women began to participate as volunteers, they started learning children’s songs, how to play the children’s games, how to work with pregnant women. It wasn’t about us teaching the mothers. They learned through practice.” Even further, “the school pushes the community to organize, to solve serious human rights issues, like the right to water, education, security, recreation, nutrition, and other necessities. The ludoteca functions as a safe space, preventing the violence generated by the nature of survival and the vicious cycle of patriarchy and capitalism.”
Illustrating the Bolivarian Revolution’s contradictions and tensions, their ludoteca had trouble getting financial support from the government’s Ministry of Education, which Reyes attributes to The Ministry’s “conservative and bourgeois education policies.” However, “we were able to receive support from Fundayacucho, which is a foundation under the Ministry of Education. These are the contradictions we have in the government. The people inside Fundayacucho understand this project, but the people working directly in the Ministry don’t.”
Reyes concludes her interview by arguing that the Bolivarian Revolution has opened doors for women, but “our concern goes beyond the language of gender inclusion and the political participation of women. The larger struggle is to change the culture.” Reyes cites several important government initiatives for women, including the National Women’s Institute and the 2007 Law on the Right of Women to a Life Free of Violence, which “actually examined the different forms of violence established by patriarchy and machismo as a cultural and ideological system. The creation of The Ministry of Women and Gender Equality in March of 2009 was another very significant step. But I have to say that the bureaucracy swallows good intentions. I think it is a mistake to keep strengthening the institutions. The communities are ready to make the changes. The struggle continues to be the divide between institutions and popular power.”
Interview with Venezuela Speaks! co-author Carlos Martinez:
Police in Venezuela pictured with SICK chain - CLAW weapon Mood: accident prone Now Playing: What is this all about - Right wingers are going NUTS! about this? Topic: Venezuela Solidarity
I don't speak Spanish so this is hard for me to grasp, as to what is going on.
El mandatario venezolano Hugo Chávez dijo este viernes que es falso que la Guardia Nacional Bolivariana utiliza el garrampiño, también llamado ‘garra de hierro’, en contra de manifestantes. Chávez criticó estos señalamientos, pues dice que se repiten en el mundo y él termina siendo para mucha gente “un tirano sanguinario”.
Criticó que “un periódico de estos de la oligarquía” y una televisora, presentaran una foto de un Guardia portando un instrumento y dijeran “fíjense lo que está usando Chávez, un instrumento para la tortura, tiene ganchos”, indicó.
El mandatario explicó que “es un aparatico que tienen los Guardias para halar con una cadena, desde lejos, los cauchos que queman en las calles”.
“Ah no, pero estos dicen que es para torturar”, criticó el mandatario.
Chávez destacó que el garrampiño “no es para golpear a nadie, pero entonces viene toda la infamia, toda la prensa de los ricos, la televisión, la radio”.
Criticó que esta ‘infamia’ se transmita en el mundo pues afecta su imagen, aunque al final dijo que esto no le importa.
“Entonces, eso lo repiten en el mundo y mucha gente cree que es verdad, que nosotros usamos ganchos para clavárselos en la espalda a personas indefensas. Termino siendo, para mucha gente en este planeta, un tirano sanguinario”, dijo al tiempo que señaló: “¿qué importa? No me importa nada, lo que me importa es la patria de Bolívar”.
That has this picture - which is suppose to be a Venezuelan police with a sick *** weapon ...looking at protesters
I used the above text in my web translater I get the follow
(Translation is printed in Blue Text)
The Venezuelan Hugo Chavez said Friday that it is untrue that the National Guard Bolivariana uses the garrampiño, also called claw iron , against demonstrators. Chavez criticized these accusations, says that are repeated in the world, and he ends up being for many people a tyrant bloodthirsty .
Criticized the fact that a newspaper of these oligarchy and a television, submit a photo of a Guard wearing an instrument and say look what you are using Chavez, an instrument for torture, has hooks , said.
The agent explained that it is a aparatico that have the guards to pull with a chain, from afar, rubbers to burn in the streets .
Ah no, but they say it is for torturing , criticized the trustee.
Chavez stressed that the garrampiño is not to beat anybody, but then comes all the infamy, all the press of the rich, television, radio .
Criticized the fact that this shame is transmitted in the world because it affects your image, while at the end said that this does not care.
Then, that was repeated in the world and many people believe that it is true, that we use hooks for clavárselos on the back to defenseless people. Finish remains, for many people in this planet, a tyrant bloodthirsty , said at the time that stated: So what? I don't care nothing, what i care is the homeland of Bolivar .
WTF
I stand to learn and understand before I judge, I need more facts &
information ...as I stand in solidarity with my Latin Brothers & Sisters.
chatty
bright
happy
cool
mischievious
energetic
celebratory
don't ask
chillin'
blue
incredulous
There are many different ways that the corporate media continues to misrepresent the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. Many critics of this biased media coverage have directly challenged the demonization of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, but very few critics, if any, have exposed the media’s virtual erasure of the vibrant and growing participatory democracy in Venezuela. Alas, the new book entitled 
accident prone
http://www.archive.org/details/BenjiLewisRevolutionInCrisis8.11.10PartOneOfTwo
Part 2
http://www.archive.org/details/BenjiLewisrevolutionInCrisis8.11.10Part2Of2