President Chavez has given a warm welcome to the new Spanish Ambassador to Venezuela, Damaso de Lario when the latter presented his credentials at Miraflores. Chavez is quoted as saying, " welcome to your home" to the new Ambassador. De Lario has told the President that he will work intensely to increase the multiple links that unite Venezuela and Spain. The dialogue between the two men is reported as being cordial and warm and according to one newspaper reporter, Chavez expressed t he hope that Zapatero Rodriguez will win Spain's general election on March 9. The President also received credentials from the new ambassadors of Mexico, Ecuador, China, Switzerland, Japan, Poland, Greece and Canada.
Speaking about the serious problem of public insecurity, President Chavez says each citizen must do their bit to help solve the problem of insecurity, adding that the topic is very complex because it touches on the culture of violence in Venezuela. The President made the comments on receiving a law draft for police reform at a council of ministers. Interior & Justice (MIJ) Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chavez has highlighted the socialist character of the draft, maintaining that it is based on the principles and values of the Bolivarian Constitution. A special national committee for police reform worked over a nine- months period to study and diagnose the problem in the 1 26 police forces of Venezuela.
After meeting Argentinean Planning Minister, Julio De Vido, President Chavez insists that Venezuela urgently needs to build a food reserve in the short term. Venezuela, for its part, has offered the Argentineans energy aid in exchange. There are two principal lines in current bilateral relations, the President points out, one is the energy crisis and the other is the food crisis. "Our two countries complement each other perfectly to confront and solve difficulties in both fields." The government proposes to build factories of Argentinean agricultural machinery in Venezuela, while at the same time speeding up plans to exploit the Ayacucho natural gas field and a gas reclassification plant to supply Argentina. Among the Argentinean visitors were representatives from that country's meat, agricultural, milk, oil and bakery chambers. The Argentineans have promised to supply 1,000 tonnes of meat a month starting immediately.
The Presidents of Brazil and France have announced full support for the humanitarian agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Shying from backing President Chavez' mediation in the process, both Presidents have made a commitment to get Venezuela and Colombia talking again. French President Nicholas Sarkozy insists that he wants to see Colombian-French citizen and presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt set free. The declaration came after a meeting between the two presidents in French Guyana where strategic alliances were reviewed.
President of the Venezuelan foodstuffs chamber (Cavidea), Pablo Baraybar argues that price controls should have a short lifespan. "Price controls cannot last five years, especially when there is no way that prices can adjust to costs ... it then becomes a price freeze." Last year, Cavidea warned that the new measures to control prices would increase shortages and inflation and made a series of proposals that fell on deaf ears. Baraybar says current critical shortages are the result of price controls, international prices of raw materials, new demands for food imports and an incorrect application of anti-hoarding policies. In the last four months, Baraybar maintains, members of the chamber have seen a 2% drop in private imports which he blames on a fall in profits and difficulties in acquiring raw materials. If import controls are lifted in six months, he says, companies could have all the necessary raw materials.
Confederation of Chambers of Industry (Conindustria) president, Eduardo Gomez Sigala is another opposition businessman who has come out criticizing government policies regarding the productive sector. Gomez Sigala says imports has become big business in detriment to local production and slams the government's strategy of substituting production through the industrial parks in Venezuela with importation. Venezuela is a country that lives on imports, the businessman states, and he says he cannot understand how a government can look to the future without producing domestically. Gomez Sigala seems to ignore the fact that President Chavez has been opening production plants in agriculture and industry as part of a policy to produce domestically. The Conindustria president's contradictory statement is wrapped up by the line that the government should plan ahead, just like industry does.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
President Chavez has given a warm welcome to the new Spanish Ambassador to Venezuela.
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming the phrase "¿Por qué no te callas?" didn't come up in conversation.
Interior & Justice (MIJ) Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chavez has highlighted the socialist character of the draft, maintaining that it is based on the principles and values of the Bolivarian Constitution.
That's nice. But it really won't be 'socialist' at all if at least some police power isn't handed over directly to the consejos comunales at the neighborhood level.
The Argentineans have promised to supply 1,000 tonnes of meat a month starting immediately.
I thought this stuff was already decided-on a year or two ago. Why are they making these decisions only now, when the food crisis is already so advanced?
President of the Venezuelan foodstuffs chamber (Cavidea), Pablo Baraybar argues that price controls should have a short lifespan.
Price controls have to stay in place as long as capitalist monopolies and cartels exist which try to price-gouge, or subvert government economic policy. Case closed. Get with the program -- or get lost.
Gomez Sigala says imports has become big business in detriment to local production and slams the government's strategy of substituting production through the industrial parks in Venezuela with importation.
If this has indeed been government policy, heads must roll. This is simply unacceptable. It might even be deliberate sabotage. Venezuela simply must invest in local production and the spreading of the country's economic base beyond the oil sector. VHeadline thinks that this businessman overstates the situation -- but how is it then that imports have exploded in volume and cost; agricultural land is lying unused everywhere and production is still not anywhere near meeting national needs and food still has to be largely imported; and housing construction for the barrios is still way behind schedule? Etc., etc.
Clearly something is not right here.