Posted on 04/14/2003 7:52:48 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Left turn: 'Revolution' hits Venezuela's oil culture - PDVSA beachhead for Chavez's vision *** CARACAS, VENEZUELA - At the gleaming offices of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the country's state-owned oil giant, a corporate revolution is under way. Nine-to-fivers have come to think of themselves as patriots. Senior managers now eat at the same cafeteria tables as secretaries. And former soldiers have left the battlefield for the boardroom. After PDVSA workers walked off the job last December in a bid to force Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez from office, the fiery populist hitched his social revolution to the $110 billion business: He purged the company's ranks and installed his own people. What was widely regarded as a world-class energy company before the strike has a new philosophy: to help the poor. And a new corporate culture is gradually taking shape, injected with the president's particular brand of leftist ideology.***
I appreciate your work on this subject. Even Fox doesn't cover this as much as it warrants IMO.
What has me most upset is how much the people were against this criminal before he broke the strike. It seems that if we had found a way to re-arm the police, he could have been overthrown--at least before he imported all the goons from other socialist dictatorships.
I'm probably over simplifying, but it seemed like a small amount of help would have made all the difference and that now it's a much bigger deal.
"The only government that has this position is President Chavez's -- not in Peru, not in Ecuador," said the commander, who called the recent bombing "clear support" for the FARC. One afternoon late last month, on the highway south from Tibu, a small FARC patrol appeared out of a narrow creek to stop traffic. They torched four trucks before shrinking back into the jungle, leaving the asphalt a singed, sticky mess. Now, an army patrol was here, standing in the shadows of the burned trucks. Asked how the guerrillas carried out the attack and escaped in broad daylight, a corporal waved his hand. "They went that way," he said. "Toward Venezuela."
But according to Chavez, that was just bombing targets which occurred on his side of the border after a paramilitary "invasion" of Venezuelan territory. On the other hand, the Venezuela's ambassador to Colombia said, the bombings targeted Colombian paramilitaries who he claimed attacked a Venezuelan National Guard post.
Can they at least get their stories right? Nevertheless, they claim to observe international laws.
Bump.
Terrorism: "Exchangeable prisoners are in Venezuela" - A testimony of FARC presence in Venezuela*** They were very clear when they said that it was easier for them to move through the Venezuelan territory than through the Colombian one. When I asked them if they were not afraid of the Venezuelan Army, they answered: "With those people there is no problem." So, they wanted to go to Venezuela because they felt safer on that side of the frontier than on this one, since the Colombian Army -in respect of the Venezuelan sovereignty- does not cross the border. Once, a guerrilla told me that he had returned in December from training in Venezuelan territory. In view of my surprise, he said: "The front has camps on that side of the border. Besides, the commander and his group remain there."
Then, I dared to make another question: How far are we from the camp in the Venezuelan territory? "About 40 or 70 days, depending on the circumstances," he answered. So, it is deep inside that country, I said. "Yes, well inward," he said. When we spoke about famous exchangeable prisoners (political, military, police and governmental dignitaries that have been kidnapped and that, according to the guerrilla, could be exchanged by FARC captives), one of the guerrilla told me: "You should be grateful for not being one of those exchangeable people, because if you were, we would have taken you with them already." And where are they? I asked. "On that side of the frontier."***
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