Chavez Next Step To Quash Venezuela Strikers & Opposition

New law makes it a crime to march in protest against Chavez, or even write about it. Prison terms range from 5 to 10 years per protester.

Desperate and with only one in ten Venezuelans supporting it, the Chavez regime has unleashed a new "Ley de Seguridad de la Nacion" on the democratic opposition in Venezuela.

This "National Security Law" basically makes it a crime to be against Chavez: With dissidents being sent to prison camps for a minimum of 5 years and a maximum of 10 years.

Among the "crimes" punishable by harsh sentences of five-to-ten can be found such simple acts as as participating in a protest march near a security zone, and inviting others to such protest marches (the law's article 56).

Security zones can be any area that the Chavez regime says. Currently, there are 8 such security zones in Caracas alone, and 107 in the country. They cover airports, military bases, government buildings, even state-owned radio and TV stations.

And if a Venezuelan ever wanted to march on Miraflores, the presidential palace and also designated a "security zone", he better be a Chavez-supporter. Otherwise he is facing up to 10 years in jail.

Journalist covering protests would be deemed "instigators" and would also face stiff prison terms, a Chavez insider reported. This is a way to effectively silence critical opposition press coverage while still in theory allowing freedom of expression in Venezuela.

The same law, in its article 32, also allows the government to militarize companies, be it state-owned or private. In the case of private companies, such a militarization means that the basic human rights of the owners and the workers no longer apply. Owners are subject to what the local military boss says. And workers can not strike. If they are absent from the workplace, they will be termed military deserters and can be punished in a military tribunal for treason.

The democratic future of Venezuela and the hemisphere has moved to a whole new level. With a new oil-dictatorship right in Caribbean, the stability of the Americas is at stake now. And time is running out.

Oil workers, Chavez foes protest - Venezuelan leader insists opponents are elite minority *** Chavez's sympathizers, many in red berets like the one worn by the former paratrooper, staged a smaller march yesterday to rally support for the beleaguered president. Many were residents of the grim housing projects that cling to the mountains surrounding Caracas. Chavez, who swept to power in 1998 promising to end corruption and endemic poverty, has refused demands for a new election, saying the constitution bars him from calling a vote until August, when he will have completed half of his six-year term. He has sought to paint his opponents as an elite minority who object to his policies on behalf of the 80 percent of Venezuelans who are poor.

But Perez, who voted for Chavez before becoming increasingly alarmed by the president's leftist politics, said it was wrong to assume that all of the thousands of protesters were fighting to preserve their privileged status. ''Me, rich?'' he said with incredulity, gesturing to his worn tennis shoes and threadbare track pants. ''I make $150 a month if I'm lucky. I live in a working-class neighborhood. But that doesn't mean I want Venezuela to become like Cuba. There, everyone is poor.'' Chavez's opponents accuse him of trying to remake this conservative South American nation in the image of communist-run Cuba. They point to Chavez's close ties to President Fidel Castro of Cuba, his increasingly leftist rhetoric, and his creation of neighborhood watchdog groups modeled on Cuba's Committee for the Defense of the Revolution.

Chavez opponents accuse the groups - called Boliviariano Circles after the South American independence leader, Simon Bolivar - of inciting violence during protest rallies, including the bloody clashes in April that killed 19 people. Those deaths helped trigger an abortive 48-hour coup, after which Chavez resumed control. But the president's once sky-high popularity ratings have slumped to 25 percent, according to some newspaper surveys. Despite fears of more violence, the mood among anti-Chavez protesters yesterday was one of jubilation, with many participants equating their struggle with that of Eastern Europeans in the days before the fall of the Berlin Wall. ***

Quite true, cocopuff.

In fact, The government (Chavez) sent armored trucks into the Central Bank and basically looted it. Most of the cash money that they normally send out to bank branches have been loaded onto the trucks and sent to:
1) Miraflores. The presidential palace
2) Fuerte Tiuna. The main army garrison of Caracas.

In addition, they have asked Casa de la Moneda - the money printing plant - to start printing new money without a Central Bank approval or National Assembly (parliament) approval.

The person who can be quoted publicly as a contact and source for all of this is Andres Velasquez, congressman for the "Causa R" party and former Venezuelan presidential candidate. Another source that can verify this is a contact I have within the Central Bank. I have his name and email address, too.

It is 100% verifiable. And since I know it, other insiders know it too. The dollar gained yesterday, and the Bolivar lost in the Forex market.

-Shane

Chavez Prepares Government-Takeover Of Venezuela's TV Networks

original story here

Unable to silence media criticism of his administration's massive corruption and angry with press coverage of his country's general strike, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez is now planning to take control of privately-owned TV stations.

The scheme was announced by top Chavez minister, Felipe Perez Marti,

...speaking Friday to a small crowd of Chavez-supporters gathered in front of stateowned oil company PDVSA:
" - After the taking of PDVSA, the people will take control of the mass media," promised Perez Marti.

Mr Perez Marti, an economist, is the head of Venezuela's Planification Ministry. On previous occasions, he has publicly voiced support and admiration for the Cuban model of government, where only one TV station is allowed and where state censorship strictly controls public opinion. His predecessor in the post, former Planning Minister Jorge Giordani, goes one step further. Giordani is best known in Venezuela for having authored a college text that holds up North Korea as an example to follow.

Planning Minister Perez Marti promised that the government would only take control of TV stations who let the opposition speak, and that those journalists who abide by the official government line can still keep their jobs:
" - Mass media which does not transmit biased news and which transmit good news will survive. Those who betray the people's cause can not continue to transmit in Venezuela", he assured.

Government control of the press is already unsurpassed in Venezuela, where the Chavez government can - at any time, and with no prior notification - hijack all TV- and radio signals to broadcast its own messages.

So far this year, nearly one thousand such interruptions of regular programming have already taken place. Independent political parties and democratic opposition groups do not have this right, but are instead voluntarily given ample coverage by the country's privately owned TV stations. This coverage of opposition leaders has angered Hugo Chavez, who calls the TV stations biased.

Venezuela's mass media has been critical of Chavez and has served as an important brake on corruption and human rights abuses in the country. In Venezuela, all branches of government are controlled by one single party, the MVR or Movimiento Quinta Republica, whose is under the command of Hugo Chavez.

" - Ordinary Venezuelans now turn to the press, rather than going to court or complaining to politicans when their rights are violated," explains general Enrique Medina Gomez, former military attache to Washington and now a dissident who has joined with 134 other military officials to publicly oppose Hugo Chavez.
" - They know that they can not fight the government in a country where the president has packed the Supreme Court with his cronies, and where both the legislative and adminstrative branches are under the sole control of one man only."

December 21, 2002

-Shane

Media take sides in Venezuela crisis - Print, broadcast outlets against Chavez*** CARACAS, Venezuela -- In fractured Venezuela, the media has become the message. And on both sides of this country's divide, news has become a political battleground in the struggle to win the people's hearts and minds.***

HOSTILITY TOWARD MEDIA "President Chavez made public threats against individual journalists and media organizations," it said, citing what it called "numerous allegations of inappropriate government pressure against the media." Chavez has accused his political opponents, including opposition media owners, of waging a hostile campaign of "media terrorism" against him. Journalists have complained of verbal and physical attacks by government supporters. "Some observers assert that President Chavez's aggressive rhetoric in criticizing the media has contributed to a climate of intimidation and hostility toward the media that encourages such attacks," the report said.

CHAVEZ BLAMES MESSENGERS ***In a familiar refrain, the president still is blaming the messengers: the media. Harassment against Venezuelan journalists -- physical, judicial and via new laws -- has gotten so bad recently that press organizations are sounding alarms. ''There can be no press freedom in a country where journalists have to hide their IDs and media logos out of fear of reprisals,'' concluded an Inter American Press Association delegation. In a three-day visit, the delegation investigated complaints of increasingly violent attacks against the media by Chávez supporters egged on by Mr. Chávez's inflammatory rhetoric. IAPA surmised that Mr. Chávez will ''have to answer for any escalation into even more serious actions'' that many fear.***

February 2002- But Chavez refuses to reconsider his appointment of leftist economist Gaston Parra as PDVSA president and of five government loyalists to the seven-member board of directors. He insists PDVSA employees must conform to state oil policy, which centers on strict compliance with production quotas imposed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The policy aims to stabilize oil prices but has significantly reduced PDVSA's production and output capacity. "They have to follow government policy because it's a state company. It's that simple." Chavez told foreign reporters earlier this week. "Those who don't agree can leave."

March 2002 - In comments Sunday, the Venezuelan leader slammed what he called ``perverse, immoral, lying and ill-intentioned'' coverage of Venezuela by national and international media.

March 2002 - But until recent weeks, the skirmishes had been largely confined to newspaper editorial pages and Chavez's fiery speeches. Now, press advocates say, the president's incendiary verbal attacks have incited his followers to physical aggression against journalists. Angry hordes have shoved reporters and photographers covering presidential events, rocked and banged on television-station vehicles, and spewed epithets at reporters such as "traitors to the homeland" and "sell-outs."

"Some people feel legitimized (by Chavez) in lashing out at us physically and verbally," said Globovision television reporter Jose Vicente Antonetti, who has complained to the government's Human Rights Office. "He is instigating people by saying that Globovision does not report the truth, which is totally false." Reporters say the harassment is getting worse, with some saying that they have been followed, threatened and had their phones tapped. "One of the things they say is that my daughter is going to be the first death of this (Chavez) revolution," said Patricia Poleo, editor of the daily El Nuevo Pais.

At Chavez's radio show last Sunday, local newspapers reported that a Chavez supporter was videotaping journalists covering the event. When questioned, the videotaper ominously said the film was to identify the reporters to his colleagues. The previous week, the official government news agency Venpres issued a story denouncing three reporters who have been relentless in uncovering government corruption scandals, claiming they are "narco-journalists" in league with drug traffickers. Chavez later termed the story "a mistake."***

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