Posted on 04/14/2002 4:01:40 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
LINKS to Hugo Chavez's "government" June 2001 - March 2002
I'm keeping track of Hugoland formally known as Venezuela. Please LINK any stories or add what you wish to this thread. The above LINK takes you to past articles posted before the new FR format. Below I'll add what I've catalogued since that LINK no longer could take posts.
(March 1, 2002)-- Venezuela's strongman faces widespread calls to step down
By Phil Gunson | Special to The Christian Science Monitor
[Full Text] CARACAS, VENEZUELA - The man who won Venezuelan hearts three years ago as a strongman who could deliver a better life to the masses is now facing them in the streets.
More than 20,000 people turned out this week calling for the resignation of President Hugo Chávez, while some 2,000 supporters marched in a rival demonstration of support. The demonstrations come after months of building discontent with a president who has managed to alienate the labor class, the media, business groups, the church, political parties, and the military.
Four military leaders have publicly called for his resignation.
In November, Chávez introduced 49 "revolutionary" decrees. The package of laws - affecting everything from land rights and fisheries to the oil industry - unified virtually the whole of organized society in a nationwide business and labor stoppage that paralyzed the country on Dec. 10.
The protests this week have a note of irony, because they started out as a commemoration called by President Chávez. In his eyes, Feb. 27 is a milestone of his so-called revolution - "the date on which the people awoke" in 1989. That is when thousands of rioters and looters took to the streets in protest of an IMF-backed austerity plan, in which the government hiked gas prices.
In what became known as the caracazo, or noisy protest, thousands of rioters and looters were met by Venezuelan military forces, and hundreds were killed. Three years later, Chávez and his military co-conspirators failed in an attempt to overthrow the government responsible for the massacre, that of President Carlos Andres Perez. Chávez was jailed for two years.
"But the elements that brought about the caracazo are still present in Venezuela," says lawyer Liliana Ortega, who for 13 years has led the fight for justice on behalf of the victims' relatives. "Poverty, corruption, impunity ... some of them are perhaps even more deeply ingrained than before."
Chávez's supporters consist of an inchoate mass of street traders, the unemployed, and those whom the old system had marginalized. This, to Chávez, is el pueblo - the people.
"But we are 'the people' too," protests teacher Luis Leonet. "We're not oligarchs like he says. The oligarchs are people like Chávez, people with power."
On Wednesday, Leonet joined a march led by the main labor confederation, the CTV, to protest what unions say is a series of antilabor measures, including one of the 49 decrees dealing with public-sector workers.
Chávez won't talk to the CTV, whose leaders, he says, are corrupt and illegitimate. So he refuses to negotiate the annual renewal of collective contracts with the confederation, holding up deals on pay and conditions for hundreds of thousands of union members like Leonet.
Across town on Wednesday, a progovernment march sought to demonstrate that the president's popularity was as high as ever.
"For the popular classes, Chávez is an idol," says marcher Pedro Gutierrez.
Pollster Luis Vicente Leon, of the Datanalisis organization, warns that marches are no measure of relative popularity. "There is a lot of discontent among ... the really poor," Leon says, adding that so far the protests are mainly among the middle class.
But the middle class can be a dangerous enemy. It includes the bulk of the armed forces, and the management of the state oil company, PDVSA.
This month, four uniformed officers, ranging from a National Guard captain to a rear-admiral and an Air Force general, called on the president to resign, while repudiating the idea of a military coup of Chávez, himself a former Army lieutenant-colonel.
But senior "institutionalist" officers "are under severe pressure from lower ranks frustrated at the lack of impact" that these acts have had, a source close to military dissidents says. In other words, a coup cannot be ruled out, although the United States publicly denounces the idea.
Meanwhile, the president's imposition of a new board of directors on PDVSA this week sparked a virtual uprising by the company's senior management. In an unprecedented public statement, managers said the government was pushing the company "to the verge of operational and financial collapse" by imposing political, rather than commercial, criteria.
The political opposition remains relatively weak and divided. But in the view of many analysts, a president who offends both the military and the oil industry is asking for trouble. In the bars and restaurants of Caracas, the debate is no longer over whether Chávez will finish his term, which has nearly five years to run. It is when and how he will go - and what comes next. [End]
Between now and August, Chavez and his closest collaborators will have completed an elaborate blueprint for vote fraud on an unprecedented scale. In short, Hugo Chavez is planning to steal the next election. But for that, he needs time to put the whole plan in place.
"Hugo Chavez is buying time. Right now, Hugo Chavez needs between three and four more months. That is the time it will take him to finalize his plans for vote fraud", says Army General Nestor Gonzalez Gonzalez, a former Chavez-loyalist who is now part of the Militares Democraticos resistance movement which is calling for free and democratic elections as soon as possible.
The Chavez plan for stealing Venezuela's next election is long and complex. But here it is, in all its detail.
To pull it off, Chavez simply needs enough time to put his preparations in place. If an election is held in Q1 or Q2 of 2003, it will be too soon. Q3 will be OK for him, as will any later date.
Constitutional vote cancelled because more time was needed for fraud preparations
Strictly adhering to the rules of the Venezuelan Constitutition for calling a referendum, the opposition and the electoral authorities - known by its Spanish initials CNE - had scheduled a vote for February 2. Chavez, doing everything in his power, was determined to stop it: From having his supporters shoot at the opposition, then sabotaging the electoral commission, not offering funding or army protection, an even ordering an unconstitutional decision in the Supreme Court -- a ruling which the head of the Supreme Court's electoral court called "a travesty" and "purely political". Supreme Court judge Alberto Martini Urdaneta publicly called for the Chavez-ordered ruling to be overturned, pointing out not just clear political bias, but also that the ruling violated basic rights guaranteed by the Constitution, and that it suspended the rights of the citizens to participate in free and democratic elections.[1]
To gain time, Chavez publicly declared that the current board of directors of the electoral commission, the CNE, "is not even qualified to oversee the vote of the ugliest cat on the corner," and that no election - says he - can go forward until all its members are replaced.[2]
"This is troubling," says an international diplomat, "since the same board, with the same people, was qualified to oversee all the previous elections; those called by Chavez himself when he wanted to. But now their replacements are suddenly needed."
Chavez party deputees, a majority on the selection committee, have an absolute veto in picking the new members of the CNE board. They have announced that it will take them months to reach the decision, and that possibly the new board will not be installed until April 2003.
This will give Chavez some of the time he needs to intimidate the opposition into either not campaigning in the next election, or else at least campaigning a lot less. The death threats have already started, and so have the deaths. In a show of state sponsored violence, Chavez has armed organized groups of supporters who, led by locally elected party officials, attack pro-democracy activists. Amateur video abound of small groups of violent Chavez supporters shooting at much larger groups of opposition marchers, causing dozens of dead and hundreds of wounded in the last year.
If this is not enough to keep the opposition at home, money is. The opposition, a ragtag movement of volunteer grassroots groups, has no powerful source of funding. They are up against the the well-financed MVR party, backed with four years of oil billions and not observing the rules for campaign financing. Chavez, treating state coffers as a private piggy-bank, draws indiscriminately on governments funds for party use and for his own political campaigning.[3]
Following in the footsteps of Milosevic and Fujimori
The steps taken by the Chavez administration to foil the will of the voters follow similar attempts by Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic and Peru's Alberto Fujimori in recent years. Chavez is aiming for just a little over half the vote. To make that happen, he is not afraid of shooting at opposition voters, issuing false ID cards, buying votes for cash, salting the electoral registry, and putting his own party faithful in charge of the whole process -- and that's just the beginning.
The voters' rolls, known in Venezuela as REP (Registro Electoral Permanente), are in the hands of General Ramon Guillermo Santeliz, a fanatical Chavez loyalist who only takes orders from Hugo Chavez himself. At the electoral council (CNE), his right hand collaborator, Romelia Chaviel, is in charge of administration, and the accounts for transport, publicity, and food, all vital items needed in any election. Likewise, other key
Chavez placements are firmly in charge of the remaining departments at the CNE: Leonardo Lazo, Alexis Ramos, Marcos Mendez. Nothing substantial can happen without these individuals authorizing it. If Chavez does not want a vote to be held, these are the people who will stop it ... by sabotage, if necessary.[4]
Ramon Guillermo Santeliz is the key for having Chavez pull off his vote fraud. Because with a die-hard loyalist in charge of the REP, even the dead can vote; a fact not lost on top Chavez party members Diosdado Cabello and Ramon Rodriguez Chacin. Together, they developed a plan for issuing tens of thousands of false ID cards, enabling the holders to vote as many as seven times in each election. As top investigative journalist Nelson Bocaranda discovered, the country's main ID-card issuing office - Onidex in El Silencio, downtown Caracas - has been working night shifts to issue false ID's to Chavez supporters.[5] Cross-checking with the CNE database of registered voters, names of deceased Venezuelans are used for these new cedulas, issued in bulk with up to seven per each Chavez voter.
The false ID's became so widespread that Onidex ran out of dead people to use. They had to use names of ordinary Venezuelans, picking those not yet registered to vote. These "living ghosts" were then registered with the CNE, in the tens of thousands. In some cases, the real owner of the identity later registered to vote -- only to find that someone had registered using his name and ID card number, but in a different city and state. Hundreds of such cases have been documented by Venezuelan newspapers, and thousands more made public in local Internet forums.
But being found out does not deter the co-author of the plan, Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, himself a seasoned user of false identities. He had to resign as Chavez's Interior and Justice Minister in mid-2002 after a scandal where his alter ego, fake ID-card # 4.125.249 in the name of Rafael Montenegro, was discovered as the owner of a large bank account with ties to crime.[6] Conveniently, under Rodriguez Chacin's watch as minister of Justice, the law regulating use of ID-cards, the Ley de Identificación y Extranjería, was changed: It is no longer a crime to use fake ID!
Legal ID's are also issued, but only to Chavez supporters. Why? Again, so they can vote. In December, Diosdado Cabello announced a government plan for issuing more than 3 million ID cards during the first six months of 2003. Onidex goes into schools and poor neighborhoods, looking for new Chavez voters who have no cedula yet. During socalled 'mega mercados' organized for the poor by Chavez loyalists in the military, one-stop Onidex booths issue on the spot ID cards to the Chavistas. In contrast, in middle class neigborhoods, opposition voters must typically wait between 6 and 8 months before their 'cedulas' are ready.
If election authorities were seriously interested in a clean election, at a minimum, a clean REP is needed. For that to work, a new ID card system must be put in place before the election authorities can trust who is who, and who has the right to vote. Former interior minister Luis Miquelena tried to do just that, but was forced out by powerful MVR party interests. Venezuelans still remember his plan for new unforgeable 'cedulas'. The contract was first signed with Korean company Hyundai, but amidst allegations of fraud, Miquelena brought in the United Nations to manage it (PNUD sectional office, Caracas). However, not even the United Nations could do anything against powerful party bosses eager to keep the broken ID-card system in place.[7]
To further weaken the opposition, Venezuelans abroad are virtually barred from voting. In the face of economic hardship at home, an estimated 900,000 Venezuelans have already left their country. This Venezuelan diaspora is solidly anti-Chavez, and to prevent them from voting, Chavez-dominated embassies and consulates have not allowed voter registration to go forward smoothly.[8] Unable to register, the abstention rate will be 95% among Venezuelans resident abroad, depriving the pro-democracy opposition of more than eight hundred thousand votes in its favor.
In the interior of Venezuela, Chavez just buys his support outright. During the last 18 months, party organizer Elias Jaua spent the equivalent of $23 million on payments to government rally participants, and according to MVR Tactical Command, a similar budget will be made available for the "mobilizing of voters" during the next election.[9] On January 23, when all of Venezuela was out of gasoline, six thousand government-owned busses were used to transport paid Chavez supporters to Caracas for a pro-Chavez show of support. Including Caracas-based participants, the event gathered 103,000 people (at a cost of up to Bolivares 180,000, approximately $100, for those arriving from the states of Nueva Esparta and Tachira.) As poverty has increased markedly under Chavez's economic mismanagement, formerly apolitical segments of the population are motivated to trade their votes and political support for the cash provided by Tactical Command.
Heavy control of public opinion, clampdown on opposition
To further solidify control, Chavez made sure that in the next election campaign, only his own message dominates. His media strategy is to ignore both reality and opinion polls, and instead to constantly claim that he and his party has the backing of the vast majority of Venezuela. This strategy, especially pronounced since mid-2002, is being stepped up further. It will allow him to claim victory with a straight face when the results of his Q3 or post-Q3 rigged election announces that he won with just over half of the votes.
Chavez's main tool for control of the airwaves is to simply hijack them and then broadcast his own message on all TV and radio stations. Incredibly, this is legal in Venezuela, where the custom is known as 'cadenas'. This is Spanish for chaining up all media outlets to one single message: The booming voice of el comandante. Previous governments used this right very sparsely, usually limiting themselves to State-of-the-Union type broadcasts. But Chavez, taking a cue from Cuba's Fidel Castro, has made heavy use of the airwaves and the private broadcasters' primetime. Throughout all of 2002, such presidential programming happened weekly and bi-weekly.
Human Rights Watch criticized this as government abuse, condemning the way that the Chavez government "openly interfered with private television programming by forcing private media stations to transmit government-supplied broadcasts."[10] In response, Chavez merely stepped up this abuse: For all of 2003, Venezuelans have been treated to these rambling multicasts daily, sometimes even twice daily.[11]
Realizing that he can not be on TV and radio 24 hours a day, Chavez has taken steps to firmly control what is being broadcast the rest of the time. The new Content Law strictly regulates what the press can and can not say, and criticism of government officials will be punished with swift and permanent closure of TV stations and newspapers.[12] The accompanying National Security Law furthermore makes it a crime to participate in a protest march or even write about one, punishable with between five and ten years in jail.[13]
While the Content Law is being put in place to shut down the independent voices of privately-owned media outlets, millions are being invested in a revamp of state-owned TV channel 8, VTV Venezolana de Television.[14] This taxpayer-funded channel, which is run by Chavez party members and which a recent independent study[15] found to be violently pro-Chavez, is even getting a new logo at the same time that the competing private channels are being silenced.[16]
Chavez has a history of disregard for democracy
While this is the first time that a vote is being so blatantly rigged in Venezuela, it is not the first time the Chavez has resorted to playing loose and fast with democracy. Disregarding fair play, the Chavez administration has long been known for writing new "revolutionary" rules whenever it wanted to favor itself: In the 1999 election for a Constitutional Assembly, Chavez supporters got just 56% of the votes cast, yet somehow ended up with all but 3 of the 150 winning candidates. The opposition, a full 44% of the electorate at the time, had to see itself represented by just 2% of the elected seats.[17]
Bending the rules to fit his own version of history is Chavez's way to disguise that fact that he never won by a "landslide". Of the 24 million Venezuelans, less than 4 million ever voted for him. In the five elections where Chavez participated, he never got more than thirty-five percent of the eligible votes.[18] Today, having lost even that precaurious support base, the Chavez party machine is having to go to even further lengths to maintain its hold on power. So now only fraud is left.
Abroad, Chavez - with help from the Cuban-financed Prensa Latina propaganda agency - has stepped up the intensity of an international press campaign with two purposes: To portray himself as a democrat, and to discredit everyone else. One aspect that particularly troubles Chavez is the way that all opinion polls demonstrate, for the world to see, how low his suppport really is among the voters. If the opinion polls keep reporting the truth, few will believe a doctored vote result giving him more than 50 percent. So in preparation for this, Chavez is already starting to call the opinion polls "terrorist lies". On TV, he cites an exit poll from Ecuador which didn't predit the Guiterrez win. In print, his spin-doctors lash out at what they call "simulated polls", using personal attacks on the owners of the largest, oldest and most respected Venezuelan polling companies.[19] Another favorite argument is that since the poor do not have phones, and since many polls are conducted by phone, the polls don't count the support for Chavez among the poor. This argument doesn't explain the heavy cell phone ownership in the slums, nor does it explain why door-to-door polls and polls in the street consistently reach the same results as phone polls: That if given the choice to vote today, less than 1 in 5 Venezuelans would vote for Chavez.
Chavez's continued loss of popular support is the reason for both the latest round of heavy-handed laws and the meticulously orchestrated vote fraud planned for the third quarter of 2003. But this planned fraud and the dictatorial nature of Hugo Chavez has lost him many of his closest supporters. And some of them are now speaking out against him in public, despite being labelled "fascists" and "terrorists" in Chavez's daily broadcast railings against these former allies who now joined the democratic opposition.
"Chavez is drunk on power," says Luis Miquelena, previously an Interior and Justice Minister in the Chavez government and the man who Chavez himself considers his political mentor.[20] To Miquelena, it is now all too clear that "Chavez is not fit to govern in a democracy."
This statement is echoed by Militares Democraticos leader Enrique Medina Gomez, who as Chavez's military attache to Washington D.C. got to know the Chavez regime from the inside and is familiar with its undemocratic nature.
" There is nothing democratic about Hugo Chavez. He is a dictator, and he is deadly serious when he says that he will rule until 2021. To make sure that this happens, he is preparing a massive vote fraud. If given a few more months, he will succeed. August is clearly too late. By then, democracy will be lost in Venezuela." [End]
REFERENCES:
1."Presidente de la Sala Electoral critica decisión sobre el referéndum", Globovision, Caracas, 28 Jan 2003
2.Official transcript, Hugo Chavez 'Aló Presidente' N°128, Petare, 24 Nov 2002
3."Organización civil denunció al Presidente por supuesto peculado de uso", Globovision, Caracas, 30 Jan 2003
4."Factores de Poder", El Nuevo Pais, p.3, Caracas, 8 Jan 2003
5.Nelson Bocaranda: "Trampas en la Onidex: 7 cédulas por chavista", in Denuncias, MilitaresDemocraticos.com, 25 Dec 2002
6."Más indicios sobre doble indentidad de Rodríguez Chacín", by Juan Francisco Alonso, El Universal, Caracas, 15 Jun 2002
7.Press Club Caracas: Lucy Gómez interview w/ Luis Miquilena, Hotel Tamanaco, Caracas, Dec 2002
8."Denuncian anomalías en base de datos electoral", El Universal, Section 1, Page 7, 29 Jan 2003
9.Source: Comando Tactico de la Revolucion, MVR, 10 Jan 2003
10."Human Rights Developments in Venezuela", HRW World Report 2003. Human Rights Watch, New York
11."Venezuela: Media Freedom Threatened", Human Rights Watch, Press Release, 25 Jan 2003
12.Proyecto de Ley Sobre La Responsibiliad Social en Radio y Television, Asamblea Nacional, 23 Jan 2003
13.Ley Orgánica de Seguridad de la Nación, Gaceta Oficial, República Bolivariana de Venezuela, 18 Dec 2002
14.Channel 8, VTV commercial, 8:52 PM Jan 29 2003
15.Blanca Santos: "Canal 8 signado por la ausencia de pluralismo y libertad", eud.com, 23 Jan 2003
16."VTV perdió producción nacional" by Mariveni Rodriguez, El Universal, Caracas. 23 Jan 2003
17.Source: CNE, Consejo Nacional Electoral, 1999 results
18."Myth Unmasked: Chavez Never Won By 'Landslide'" by Johan Freitas, Militares Democraticos research unit, 17 Jan 2003
19."Can You Believe Venezuela's Pollsters?" by Justin Delacour, Narco News, 22 Jan 2003
20."Chávez se emborrachó con el poder" by Jose Valles, Revista Cambio, Bogota, Colombia, 16 Dec 2002
The three men were later found to have IRA links and are on trial for allegedly helping train the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the country's largest insurgent group. Surrounded by heavy security, Rodríguez, 25, testified wearing a bulletproof vest after being transported from prison in Villavicencio, where he is serving a four-year sentence. Rodríguez, the ex-chauffeur for FARC commander Jorge Briceño described three men whose names he could not confirm who he claimed to have seen in the former demilitarized zone starting on Feb. 5, 2001.***
Meanwhile, a melee between opposition sympathizers and municipal police under the command of a ruling party mayor erupted outside a building in Caracas where a petition backing early elections is stored. No injuries were reported. Dozens of opposition supporters pledged to secure the building through the night and accused police of attempting a raid. "We are going to stay here all night to safeguard the signatures," said Geraldo Blyde, a member of the Justice First opposition party. ***
In the centre of Caracas I meet Edgar Paredes, manager of the state oil company PDVSA. I asked him why the oil workers downed tools.
"The problem is that Venezuela is in a crisis. Four years ago the Venezuelans voted for Chávez because he promised to fight poverty and corruption. But things became only worse. That's why the oil workers of PDVSA joined the strike, which started in December last year. And that's the current situation."
But what motivated the oil company to throw in its lot with the opposition?
"PDVSA is a professional company, but Chávez has other ideas. He thinks this company has to be managed not with professional criteria, but with political ones. So, he named a board of managers with political friends, without managing experience. The people of PDVSA realised this was a danger for the future of the company and therefore for the country. And that's why the oil workers started their protest, which is still going on."
Sabotage
Addressing a recent rally of his supporters, Mr Chávez insulted people like Mr Paredes. "They planned the sabotage of the oil sector to lead the economy to chaos", he said. The President knows full well that his fate depends on oil. Whoever controls PDVSA, controls the country. That's why Mr Chávez is doing his utmost to bring oil production back to normal: 3 million barrels a day. "The oil platforms are working again," he says, "I can tell you that production went back to more that one million barrels a day".
The oil strike has become the symbol of the opposition against President Chávez. First because oil is so strategic, but also because Mr Chávez's new policy in PDVSA was a perfect example of what he has been doing with the rest of Venezuelan society: giving it a complete overhaul or what he calls "a revolution" in order to fight poverty and corruption.
A state in a state
To understand the intent of this policy, I went to the ministry of energy and mining, which has taken control of PDVSA since the strike began. I asked engineer Danilo Garcia what the president is doing with the oil company.
"I used to call PDVSA the Vatican, because it was a state in a state. They ruled the country. But that has changed with a new act, presented by Mr Chávez. In order to control everything in the oil company the government appointed its own people to management to be sure that government policy is carried out. That was important to improve the state, instead of the company. Because PDVSA spends 80 percent of her revenues in investment in the same company. And the country cannot afford that. There is so much poverty here, and it is not necessary in this mineral-rich country. That has to stop. And therefore we have to change economic policy. I am sure that if we lift the poor out of their poverty, the economy will become productive, something PDVSA is not at the moment."
Corruption
TV commercials on state television applaud the new policy of Hugo Chávez. For years oil dollars disappeared into the pockets of corrupt politicians. "This way the people lose the oil revenues, with huge consequences for health care, education, sports and social programmes. So, let's save PDVSA! The restructuring continues!"
Though the president's intentions may be good, he only managed to win over the poor. Since the beginning of his mandate in 1999, he has lost the support of the business community, labour unions, the church, the press, and of course the opposition parties. According to analyst Ramon Escovar the problem was not so much his plans, but rather the way he carried them out.
"Mr Chávez has made many mistakes, but the most prominent of his mistakes is that he doesn't recognize the multiform nature of democracy. Democracy is a multiform system with a variety of opinions and motivations, but Mr Chávez only has one purpose in mind: revolution. Mr Chávez was elected to preside over a democratic government, not to rule a revolutionary system."
"We have to find a political and democratic solution, but any such solution would have to involve the president's resignation. But we must try to minimize the trauma for him, and we can do this is by organizing a referendum or by calling a general assembly meeting to adopt a new constitution and create a new political framework. But of course in Latin America, it's impossible to face a crisis as big as in Venezuela without the participation of the military. I'm not advocating a coup d'etat, but we need army support for a political solution created by civilians."
Will the president go?
If one asks anybody from the opposition if a future with Mr Chávez is an option, everybody will answer no. They see only one possible solution: that the president steps down.
But Mr Chávez, ignoring a two-month strike, is convinced he has the support of the majority of the people. While his country falls apart and its economy goes to pieces, he dismisses the striking oil workers and looks for ways to recover oil production. For the opposition there is only one way left: a referendum about the president's position, and early elections.
But Mr Chávez's supporters have no intention of letting their leader go. The strike was a complete washout, they shout in the streets. Violent confrontations between supporters and opponents of the president have made it clear that the Venezuelans are unable to solve the problems by themselves. International efforts to bring the two sides together have been stepped up in recent weeks. Nobel peace prizewinner Jimmy Carter presented a blueprint for peace to the so-called group of friends, which has been meeting in Caracas. These six countries, which include the United States and Brazil, are conducting negotiations between the opposition and the government. Observers say international pressure is essential to break the stalemate.
In front of PDVSA head office in the capital Caracas, striking oil workers gather every day to protest. Many worked here for decades. Now they have been dismissed by the new management for joining the strike. But they are determined to continue, because they are sure that one day Mr Chávez will lose the battle. [End]
Opposition leaders agreed to lift the strike in all areas except oil last week. "There is no rehiring. They are not just fired, they must be indicted," Chavez said Sunday, calling on the attorney general and judges to administer justice. "Punishment for those responsible for all the damage they have done to PDVSA and the country!"
Chavez said Venezuela's penal code allows for jail terms of up to five years for those convicted of damaging strategic installations such as ports, oil pipelines and refineries. He said many striking workers had not only abandoned their posts but also sabotaged oil operations. Dissident executives from PDVSA deny sabotage charges. They say replacement workers hired by the government lack qualifications and are incompetent, hence delays in restarting the industry. ***
The ambush is but one example of Mr. Chavez's attempts to suppress free speech. On Thursday, his administration began "administrative procedures" against media outlets for airing reports unflattering to the government. And his rhetoric has been alarming: "The world should not be surprised if we start closing TV stations in Venezuela shortly," he said in late January. "This is a country at war." Also, journalists have reportedly received verbatim transcripts of their cell-phone conversations with opposition members.
Venezuela's neighbors are rightly concerned about escalating unrest, since car bombings in recent weeks in Colombia's Arauca region, which borders Venezuela, killed 12 persons and injured more than two dozen others. Colombian Defense Minister Martha Lucia Ramirez signalled Colombia's frustration with Venezuela's tacit refuge of militants: "The Colombian guerrilla has unfortunately been moving with certain freedom on this border [with Venezuela] and we know of kidnapped people taken...to the Venezuelan side and later they've been brought back here." Another Latin American diplomat said Venezuela is "a fount of instability" for the region. "I don't see how this situation can be sustainable until the end of the year, and, seeing that, the Venezuelan people are arming themselves," he said. "Chavez empowers these people." ***
I have become very disappointed with the poor amount and sometimes unjust coverage given to the TRUE current Venezuelan political and economic crisis, as well as the slanted view presented in the American media regarding this extremely important matter. In the next few paragraphs, I will present some facts that I hope will give a different view of what is generally presented in American newspapers and broadcasts. I dearly hope that this will give a clearer sense of what is truly happening in Venezuela and shed some light on the indescribable damage that President Hugo Chavez has caused on the country's people and institutions. Please verify all these facts with the U.S. Embassy in Caracas and with your colleagues so that the truth will come to light and the American and Western countries will be informed of the intense repression and extreme fear currently lived by most Venezuelans. It is of the utmost importance that people know of this and take action, so that repressive, authoritarian regimes do not continue to spread in Latin America. This is a particularly pressing issue given the desperation currently lived by most Venezuelans for the fear that they will fall hostage to a repressive, communist, and authoritarian regime for which they did not vote and the indescribable cost to the country resulting from the current month-old strike, which is estimated at more than $50 million per day in foregone oil sales alone. The people are holding this strike, sacrificing short term sales at an incredible personal cost, in hopes that the current regime does not take away their long term dreams of raising their children in a free, democratic country with ample opportunities for all.
Note: In order to simply present the facts and let your respected, serious media draw insightful analysis and logical conclusions, I will use brief bullet points (albeit each one could easily fill an entire chapter of a book.)
1) Establishment of the so-called "Bolivarian Circles" by the government with the sole purpose of causing terror in the cities to lower the morale of the opposition and incite them to emigrate. These groups are being funded with government money and are also provided with arms purchased by the state. Moreover, these terrorist groups allegedly receive training from Cuba. This is all being organized by Freddy Bernal, a close Chavez ally and mayor of Caracas's Libertador District.
2) Lack of free speech and persecution of prominent businessmen, politicians, and reporters as evidenced by the fact that their telephone lines are intervened and they are followed by the Military Police. Also, many of these people were subject to house raids by the Government (specific examples include a former Minister of the Exterior, a former high ranking Army General (Gen. Manuel Rosendo), and many other officers who recently defected from the army.) Moreover, these people constantly receive threats of kidnapping and murder not only for themselves but also for their families.
3) Strong links by Chavez to several regimes considered by Western States to promote terrorism and/or deny citizens of basic human rights. The most notorious of these people include:
a) Fidel Castro: He is Chavez's strongest advocate and closest advisor, and a large beneficiary of Venezuelan oil. In a deal that strongly favours Cuba, Chavez is exchanging oil for services provided by Cuba. These include military strategic and tactical advice, sport coaching, and medical training. In addition, many people claim that as many as 4,000 Cubans are infiltrated in Venezuela - even in the military - to provide the Venezuelan government with Soviet-style intelligentsia and advice. In addition, even Castro himself admitted that "the Cuban revolution cannot survive if Chavez's 'Bolivarian Revolution' fails." Chavez's admiration for Castro is indisputable. The danger lies in the fact that Chavez is pushing his own personal agenda to establish a communist regime in Venezuela so that the country that he is representing can live like Cuba in a "Sea of Happiness" (the way Chavez described Cuba during one of his speeches at a university on that Island) even though the vast majority of Venezuelans don't support that type of system.
b) FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia): Venezuelan General Gonzalez Gonzalez, who recently defected from the Venezuelan Army, challenged Chavez on April 10th to deny that these groups, which are considered by the Bush Administration to be terrorists, do not operate in Venezuelan territory. There is strong evidence, including videos released by Venezuelan TV station Globovision, to support these claims. Moreover, Chavez has admitted dealing with FARC and ELN (Colombia's second largest guerrilla group) behind that country's back. The alleged link between the Chavez's Administration and the Colombian guerrillas is General Rodriguez Chacin, Chavez's former Interior and Justice Minister (Secretary) and a citizen who is currently holding multiple identities to carry on with his corruption deals.
c) Saddam Hussein: Chavez was the first head of state to pay an official visit to the leader of a country belonging to what Bush called "the axis of evil." In addition, Freddy Bernal was spotted in Iraq in April. Moreover, the pilot of the presidential plane, who recently defected from the army and is seeking asylum in the U.S., presented evidence of intelligence exchanges between the two leaders.
d) Vladimiro Montesinos: Alberto Fujimori's right hand was found hiding in Venezuela after Peru's government mounted a covert operation to find him and bring him to justice for committing very serious crimes, including crimes against humanity. Many people believe that Chavez provided Montesinos with logistical support to enter Venezuela and remain there illegally.
4) Constant threats to the public made through his weekly "Alo Presidente" radio broadcast. These programs, officially intended to inform Venezuelans of new policies, is actually used by Chavez to intimidate and harass. In them, Chavez tells people that those who revolt against him will see the full force of the Military's arms, face a myriad of problems, and be subject to intense pressure from the (people's) government. It was in one of these programs, for instance, that he removed several PDVSA's top executives after they threatened to organize a national strike in April 2002 (which they did and eventually lead to the April 11 events.) In addition, Chavez constantly says in these programs that he will rule Venezuela until 2021. More importantly, though, he gives explicit approval to his followers to literally fight the street battle -with their lives if necessary - against the "oligarchs" (the term he uses for people against his "Bolivarian Revolution") by using terror.
5) Diplomatic clashes with the U.S. This has been building up since Chavez first came to power, given his radical, left-wing and authoritarian ideals. However, two events heavily strained their relationship even further. The first occurred in December of 1999 when Chavez returned an American ship full of supplies and humanitarian aid to help in the State of Vargas, which had just experienced mudslides that left more than 20,000 dead and scores more homeless. The second diplomatic impasse occurred after Chavez heavily criticized the U.S. in one of his "Alo Presidente" programs for America's response in Afghanistan after the September 11 terrorist attacks. The U.S. has been very quiet about the turmoil in Venezuela. However, if the U.S. does go to war with Iraq, wouldn't it want to have a steady, close supplier of oil? Without a doubt, the managers at PDVSA have a Western mindset. This is precisely the reason why they are holding the oil strike: to preserve the meritocracy and efficiency of the company. It is Chavez, with his own political agenda, that is trying to distance PDVSA from the U.S. (There are reports alleging that he is trying to sell U.S.-based and PDVSA-owned CITGO to Nigeria).
6) Lack of check and balances in the government: this is a result of most of the public powers and institutions being elected by Chavez at his will. These include the Supreme Court judges (Tribunal Supremo de Justicia), the Secretary of Justice (Fiscal General), People's Defense Attorney (Defensor del Pueblo), and members of Congress (Asamblea Nacional). Moreover, when government officials speak out against the Administration for reporting undeniably unethical, patently wrong, or lavishly corrupt behaviour, they are quickly replaced and are subject to a national campaign to tarnish their reputations. Specific examples of the lack of sovereign institutions include:
a) The nonexistent investigations by the Fiscalia General regarding the deaths of more than 15 people that were peacefully protesting on April 11, 2002 against the Government. This is appalling considering that there is clear footage of the deaths and the gunmen, who were shooting indiscriminately upon the unarmed crowd from a bridge called "Puente Llaguno" near the Presidential Palace. After the gunmen were identified, they were detained but soon released for "lack of evidence." As if this injustice were not enough, members of the "Bolivarian Circles" recently attacked (physically!) Mr. Mohamed Merhi, the father of one of the victims, for holding a hunger strike in front of the Supreme Court to protest the tardiness of the investigations.
b) A similar event occurred on December 6, 2002 at Plaza Altamira, which has become the meeting point for the opposition. During a peaceful protest to show support for more than 140 members of the military who have been at this square for more than two months in "civil disobedience", an identified Portuguese citizen (whose first name is Joao) and follower of Chavez shot at point-blank upon the unarmed crowd. Even though this happened in front of thousands of people, the investigations by the Fiscalia General are stalled.
c) The double standard by Chavez in the way in which he treats the Supreme Court Justices. The members of the Judicial Power were chosen by the current Government, but some of them have upset the Government recently for voting against Chavez. In particular, the Supreme Court found late last year that, in fact, no coup had occurred in April. After issuing their finding, Chavez started a national campaign to investigate the credentials of the Justices that had voted in this way. In a democracy, it would be clear if a Justice possessed the necessary education and certificates to hold such an important job. It would be unthinkable to have people with forged documents holding these posts. Moreover, shouldn't it be necessary to investigate the credentials of ALL the Justices, not just the ones of those who voted against Chavez?
d) The Government's unconstitutional takeover of the Policia Metropolitana from Alfredo Peña, who is the Mayor of a large section of Caracas called "Alcaldia Mayor". This police force constitutionally falls under the jurisdiction of the Mayor but because they protect opposition marches, Chavez took them over with the military. It's as if Clinton had taken over the New York Police Department from Giuliani for belonging to a different political party. As unimaginable as this sounds, exactly this happened in Venezuela. After the Supreme Court held this takeover to be unconstitutional, Chavez slowly returned the police force to Peña but without the high-caliber arms! Legally, Chavez is accepting the independence of powers, but in reality he is not.
7) Unclear elections after his initial sweeping victory. The many elections since December 1999 have used the services of INDRA, a Spanish company. Moreover, the CNE (Centro Nacional Electoral), the organization that oversees elections, was appointed by Chavez himself. In addition, Luis Miquilena, who until recently was the Minister of the Interior and is Chavez's former political mentor, admitted receiving illegal funds from a large Spanish bank to finance Chavez's elections.
8) Corruption, irresponsible spending, and lack of managerial capabilities of many government officials. While Chavez heavily emphasized the rooting out of corruption in his campaigns and the increase of efficiency in government, his administration has done the exact opposite, perhaps to a degree never experienced before in Venezuela. There are two noteworthy cases.
a) Plan Bolivar 2000, a social plan that utilized military personnel to run markets, paint schools, and build roads. However, it is widely known that top military brass took vast sums of money to their personal accounts and never faced a trial because the Secretary of Justice is aligned with the government.
(b) Purchase of a new, unnecessary presidential airplane that cost the nation more than U.S. $65 million while 80% of the population lives in poverty. The pilot of this plane who recently defected from the Army has told of many instances where the country's planes and other assets are used for personal trips by the Government's friends and family. In addition, many security breaches occur during such trips (e.g. people with loaded guns are allowed to board the plane and unqualified personnel are allowed to operate it).
9) Dubious approval of the new Constitution. Some people claim that the new Constitution, which was written during 1999 by the Chavez government and subject to a national referendum, was modified after the people cast their votes to approve it. In other words, the Constitution that is currently in place was not the one that was approved by popular vote. Regardless of that, the current constitution contains Article 350, which allows citizens to stage civil disobedience against the Government for issues of national importance. It is precisely this article, which was drafted by Chavez to justify his coup in 1992, that the members of the opposition are invoking. Now that his own constitution is being used against him, he is rallying to amend it in order to "perfect it."
10) Unprofessional leadership and corruption of the armed forces. This has been Chavez's action that has probably taken the highest toll on society because in Latin America, it is necessary for a President to have the support of the Armed Forces; else she or he runs the risk of a coup d'etat. During Chavez's tenure, he has promoted an unjustifiably high number of his former Military Academy classmates to posts, regardless of their possession of managerial or technical skills for the job. Some of these institutions include PDVSA, SENIAT (the tax-collection agency), and others. Moreover, constant salary increases for the military and accelerated promotions are commonplace nowadays. Responsible, traditional officers have been forced out for voicing their opposition to Chavez's promotion policies and close links to the Colombian guerrilla (while knowing that doing so would alienate their military careers forever). At the moment, many institutional officers, who strongly believe in the force as a disciplined, apolitical body whose purpose is to protect the country and its citizens, have defected to show their disapproval of the Army's decaying institutionalism and increasing political involvement.
11) Persecution and harassment of media reporters and staff. This is done through the "Bolivarian Circles" by order of Freddy Bernal. These groups go in motorcycles and loot, burn, and physically attack anything or anyone associated with the media groups, which have continually showed concern for the government's increasingly autocratic behavior. This repression was clear on the night of April 12, when Chavez came back to power, and the media was cornered in a storm of bullets and flying bottles.
12) Signs of the use of indiscriminate force against the opposition. During the April 11 civilian opposition march, which drew more than 500,000 people in Caracas alone, a reporter caught footage of armed men (who were members of Bernal's "Bolivarian Circles") firing their semi-automatic handguns upon protesting civilians. This resulted in the confirmed death of 15 people and a hundred of injured more. In addition, the National Guard recently physically and psychologically tortured crew members of the Ship "Pilin Leon", a gasoline cargo vessel that joined the oil strike.
13) Use of state funds to draw support to Chavez's cause. Chavez's core followers, who are generally members of the poor class, are given hundreds of thousands of bolivares (approx. 1500 Bs/US dollar), food, drinks, and clothing to show up at government-sponsored marches and speeches. The opposition, on the other hand, shows up spontaneously and is constantly physically attacked by these followers. Moreover, the government frequently categorizes opposition-sponsored marches as illegal for lacking the necessary permits. It is important to note that opposition marches have drawn in many occasions more than one million people in Caracas alone even while the Government has implemented all possible tactics to sabotage them (e.g. blocking main highways with sixteen-wheeler trucks, hiring taxicabs to drive empty around Caracas to show "busy" streets, declaring several areas in Caracas as "Security Zones" effectively blocking free access to them, etc.)
I hope that the aforementioned reasons will be persuasive enough to draw your attention to investigate these pressing matters immediately. The people of Venezuela deserve a fair coverage of this crisis as they are living in constant terror and intolerable oppression. If left untouched, I fear that Chavez's regime would consolidate itself even further, and perhaps form a stronger alliance with Cuba and Iraq, which would destabilize the region even further. This would wreck havoc the previous conciliatory efforts by Western civilized states to promote long-term sustainable economic development, social equity, justice under the law, the respect of human rights for all, and the establishment of democratic systems in the region.
"When they came for the Jews, I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. When they came for the Catholics, I did not speak out because I was not a Catholic. When they came for the Protestants, there was no one left to speak out for me." - (Words of a Protestant minister who lived in Germany during the days of the Third Reich. Holocaust Museum, Washington, D.C.)
Sincerely,
Rafael Echeverría G. Practicing Attorney
Professor of International Private Law
Universidad Rafael Urdaneta
reglaw@netuno.net.ve
For the United States, which relies heavily on oil imported from Venezuela, problems loom. Even if thousands of holdout oil workers return to their jobs, it will be months before oil output returns to normal. With war in the Middle East on the horizon, threatening to cut off oil supplies from the Arab world, Washington needs to keep oil flowing from the world's fifth-largest producer. But now that President Chavez has been strengthened by the failure of the strike, supplies of oil to the United States cannot be taken for granted.
The president announced that a commission appointed by him and the Central Bank will decide who can buy dollars to import products. Most of Venezuela's food and 60 percent of the raw materials and supplies needed for its industries are imported.
Leaders of the opposition believe that President Chavez will use the new controls to silence the press, which relies on imported newsprint, and take revenge on companies that joined the strike. In a televised speech, the president openly threatened, "Not one dollar for coup-mongers." According to The New York Times, Mr. Chavez also promised retribution for his enemies. "The coup-mongering, fascist opposition had their turn with the bat and they have struck out three times. Now it's our turn to bat." He went on to announce that this will be the "year of the revolutionary offensive," and speaking in the third person, added: "Chavez is still here, tougher and stronger than ever."
President Chavez has ordered investigations into all four national private TV networks, and many regional TV and radio stations and is also seeking a new law to regulate the media. In a recent speech, Mr. Chavez said that the new media law will protect young people from abuse by the media, which, he charged "trample the truth ... sow terror and fear and create ghosts for our children." He is also demanding a guarantee of "balanced media coverage" before agreeing to the opposition's petition for a recall election. The opposition claims that it has gathered 4 million signatures in support of a referendum on the president's continuance in office, more than twice the number required under the constitution. The strike was called to back the demand for early elections.
The influence of the United States, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal and Spain, the group of nations known as the "Friends of Venezuela" that has been trying to mediate between the government and the opposition, is of crucial importance if the most enduring democracy in South America is to be saved from Hugo Chavez' stated intention to follow the Cuban model in shaping Venezuela. [End]
The opposition called on the government Monday to choose between two options proposed by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who is assisting the talks. One option is for a constitutional amendment to shorten Chavez's rule and call early elections. The other is for a binding referendum on Chavez's rule on Aug. 19, midway through his current term which is due to last until early 2007. The government did not reject the options outright but did say it had no interest in shortening Chavez's term.
Maduro said that before any elections could be held, the country's National Assembly must first appoint a new electoral body to oversee such a poll. The existing National Electoral Council has been disqualified after the Supreme Court upheld a government complaint accusing it of political bias. To trigger a binding recall referendum on Chavez, the opposition needs the signatures of 20 percent of Venezuela's nearly 12 million voters. The government says this process will have to be carried out under the supervision of the new electoral authority, which, along with the Supreme Court, will also have to rule on whether the referendum can in fact be held on Aug 19.***
Throughout his presidency Chavez has battled PdVSA's management, trying to destroy the autonomy that many say was the secret to the company's much-vaunted efficiency. Before the strike Chavez's efforts to wrest control of PdVSA had failed. But when oil company executives threw their weight behind the opposition strike in December, they miscalculated badly. Two months later, thousands of PdVSA's top managers have been fired and Chavez is firmly in control. It remains to be seen if the new, inexperienced managers can bring back production to normal levels.
Either way, the United States faces a difficult choice. Does it place support for democracy above or below its need to secure oil supplies? While Washington may not like Chavez, he has pledged to continue to supply the United States with oil. It was in the name of democracy -- and to prevent what it feared was the spread of Cuban-inspired communism -- that the Reagan administration became deeply involved in Central America in the 1980s. But the world has moved on since the Cold War. Now the White House is fighting a new enemy: terrorism. Meanwhile, no one in Washington seems to be paying much attention to the spread of left-wing ideas -- not to mention anti-Americanism -- in its own back yard.***
But their failure also reflects the changing nature of U.S. involvement in Latin America. When they first called for the strike, opposition coordinators expected that the Bush administration would intervene on their behalf. This assumption was not without reason. Chavez has routinely turned his back on the United States, befriending Fidel Castro, meeting with Iranian and Libyan leaders and -- supported by the poorest elements of Venezuelan society -- enacting populist, anti-business reforms that fly in the face of American economic values. ***
Chavez, a populist former paratrooper locked in a bitter struggle with foes of his self-styled "revolution," said the government planned to subsidize basic food items such as rice, beef and milk that are covered by the new price controls. "We're preparing subsidies. Why? To sell the goods whose prices we are setting even more cheaply, for the poor ... We'll subsidize as much as money allows," Chavez told cheering supporters at a youth rally (in La Victoria).
Thousands of anti-government demonstrators later packed an eastern Caracas avenue for a series of concerts in support of the opposition campaign for elections to oust Chavez, who is resisting their demands he go to the ballot box. ***
By Wednesday morning, Gutiérrez, who led a botched coup attempt in 2000, was pledging strong cooperation with the United States on a variety of issues, including a bitter dispute over $200 million that foreign oil companies operating in Ecuador claim is owed to them. ''The president of Ecuador wants to become the best friend and the best ally of the United States in the permanent and implacable fight against drug trafficking, terrorism, reducing poverty and strengthening democracy,'' Gutiérrez said.
U.S. officials said the welcome given Gutiérrez reflects their growing concern about turmoil in Latin America and their wish that Gutiérrez does not follow in the troublesome footsteps of another former army officer, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, whose rule is plunging his country into civil conflict. ''He's gotten a great showing,'' a senior State Department official said, speaking of the Gutiérrez visit. ``I frankly think it's because people are concerned about Latin America.''
Analysts said wariness in Washington about Gutiérrez, his coup-plotting past and his leftist campaign rhetoric has lifted as U.S. officials see his economic approach and such corruption-fighting proposals as one to put all state contracts on the Internet. ''Washington wants to see this man succeed,'' said Steve Johnson, a Latin America policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in the capital. Ecuador has struggled with instability. When Gutiérrez came to office Jan. 15, after winning a surprisingly strong popular vote, he became the sixth president since 1996. [End]
''Nobody in the world should be surprised if in Venezuela, within a short time, we start closing down television stations,'' Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez told a roaring crowd at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on Jan. 26. ``No freedom is unlimited.''
Arguing that there is a ''media tyranny'' in Venezuela, Chávez is moving against Venezuela's independent media on five fronts, in an effort to dismantle the last major challenge to his avowed intentions to stay in power until the year 2021. His five-pronged strategy:***
University Rector Giuseppe Gianetto told Union Radio that 18-year-old Ricardo Sanchez, an international studies major, was kidnapped by agents as he left an opposition youth protest in Caracas on Wednesday. Sanchez was blindfolded, beaten and burned with an object before agents released him early Thursday in a Caracas slum, Gianetto said. Sanchez was under the protective custody of university attorneys who were filing a complaint with the attorney general's office.
"This kind of vile and cowardly torture hasn't been seen in this country for a long time," said Gianetto. "Not even youths can use their constitutional rights to go out and protest peacefully."
"There wasn't any detention of any student," the Interior Ministry official said in a telephone interview.[End]
''Nobody in the world should be surprised if in Venezuela, within a short period of time, we start shutting down television stations,'' Mr. Chávez crowed at the World Social Forum in January. ``No freedom is unlimited.'' True to his threats, Mr. Chávez ordered investigations of five private television stations -- Globovisión, Radio Caracas Television, Televén, Venevisión and Televisora Regional del Táchira. He accuses them of violating bans on broadcasting ''propaganda aimed at subverting public order'' and of airing statements that ''disrespect the legitimate institutions and authorities,'' among other sins.***
They were searching for a supposed cache of mortar shells that leftist guerrillas purportedly planned to use in an assassination attempt against President Alvaro Uribe, whose airplane was to arrive at the airport this morning. The plane would have passed less than 400 yards above the neighborhood. Around 5:30 a.m., shortly after the authorities entered the last of six homes searched, a powerful bomb exploded, destroying the building, damaging 15 nearby residences and shaking the neighborhood. Television video showed bloody people staggering from flattened homes. A prosecutor accompanying the raid and nine police agents, including the regional secret-police chief, were killed. Three of the dead were children.***
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