President Chavez has called on Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to contain his defense minister, Juan Manuel Santos whom he calls a warmonger. Santos is a spokesman for war and imperialism, Chavez insists, after the minister justified his country's incursion into Ecuador to attack a guerrilla camp as a legitimate military object. Chavez says it would appear that Santos is acting as though nothing happened at the Organization of American States (OAS) and Rio Group meetings. After all the efforts undertaken in the region to overcome the diplomatic crisis caused by the Colombian bombardment in Ecuador, Chavez maintains, declarations like those made by Santos will only make relations even more tense. "We do not want an another round of tensions between us ... we do not want a Kosovo or a Vietnam or Palestine or the Middle East in South America." The President dismisses accusations by the Colombian government regarding supposed evidence found in the laptop of assassinated FARC commander, Raul Reyes, linking the Venezuelan government with the guerillas. Chavez quips that he wouldn't be surprised if the computer produced a picture of himself with Osama Bin Laden and FARC leader, Manuel Marulanda.
Communications & Information (Minci) Minister Andres Izarra will open a Latin American Meeting against Media Terrorism on Thursday. Important journalists from several Latin American countries will attend and the meeting will consist of five themes: press barons, the media war in Latin America, Venezuela under media fire, peoples fighting against media terrorism and imperialism vs. Latin American unity. Minister Izarra says the event will help Venezuela discuss, understand and spread the word about what is happening in Venezuela, currently en circled by a vicious media onslaught. The meeting coincides with a meeting of the Inter American Press Association, which is taking place in Venezuela. Speaking about State media, Izarra claims that its journalism is closer to the truth and providing better quality than that provided by private media in Venezuela.
President Chavez has appointed territorial vice-presidents and seven committees for the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). Current vice-president, General (ret.) Alberto Muller Rojas says the vice-presidencies will run party politics on a regional level, according to the environmental and social conditions of each region. The idea for the new party set-up comes from the framework of the new geometry of power and is a result of internal debate. The General reveals that technical adjustments have been made to the party structure regarding population and territorial density, seeking the expert advice of several geographers. Former Finance Minister, Rodrigo Cabezas has been appointed vice-president for Zulia and Falcon States, as well as party finance committee president. National Assembly deputy, Carlos Escarra is vice-president of Aragua and Carabobo, Aristobulo Isturiz of the Capital District, Miranda and Vargas, Portuguesa State Governor Antonia Munoz and Education Minister Adan Chavez for Central Plains States. In Lara, State Governor Luis Reyes Reyes has been appointed vice-president, while former Ambassador to Cuba, Ali Rodriguez Araque will be responsible for the Andes region. In the eastern region, Maria Cristina Iglesias has been appointed vice-president, while Yelitza Santaella will preside over the party in Bolivar and Amazonas States.
In a news report published by El Universal broadsheet, Cubans belonging to the Radio Cuba company have been trained and assessed Venezuelan technicians in 2007 in a program costing 1.6 billion bolivares. The newspaper sources its information from a committee report to the National Assembly. 152 million bolivares were invested in training 100 Venezuelan professionals by Cuban experts and more than 1.5 billion in purchasing machinery, equipment and accessories. The campaign is part of a Communications & Information (Minci) Ministry project to create the Network TV organization that will take care of transmissions and signals traffic of all State media. Minci invested more than 63 billion bolivares last year in propaganda to inform the population and bolster public awareness about government actions and programs. It must be noted that the bolivares accounted for are according to the old system and not the strong bolivar that came into force in January. Most of the report covers the period in which William Lara was Minister.
Former Executive Vice President and journalist, Jose Vicente Rangel has been following the latest movement of Venezuela's major opposition party, Un Nuevo Tiempo outside of Venezuela. According to the journalist, the UNT has been busy in its campaign to seek support abroad and at the same time hit out against the government. Veterans, Timoteo Zambrano, Adolfo Salgueiro and Asdrubal Aguiar have been lobbying the Southern Cone Economic Zone (Mercosur) countries from March 11-15. Fernando Gerbasi, Maria Teresa Romero and Jenny de Freitas have visited Colombia and Ecuador. Timoteo Zambrano, Nelson Valera, Milos Alcalay have been busy at the European Union from March 17-22, while Maria Teresa Romero and Jenny de Freitas have been in Washington. Luis Ochoa Teran and Nelson Varela are currently visiting countries in Central America, the Caribbean and North America.
As a new conflict looms between Colombia and Ecuador over the identity of an Ecuadorian citizen who was with Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) commander, Raul Reyes when both were killed in a US-Colombian missile attack, the FARC has issued a communique that has not been widely reported, rejecting accusations of presumed relations with Latin American governments, especially Ecuador and Venezuela. In the communique, the organization states that the military operation was undertaken by the US Southern Command and its Colombian subordinate, violating international law and Ecuador's sovereignty. What Uribe was seeking with the US smart bombs, the document states, was to divert world attention from Colombia where there have been calls for his resignation. The organization contends that it has not received dollars or arms from anybody with the exception of a Danish organization that made a symbolic donation. The FARC, the document continues, is a Bolivarian guerrilla movement and coincides in its Bolivarian ideology, not just with Chavez but with the great mass of Latin American people. The current US media machinery attack on the FARC boils down to fear about the " resurgence from the ashes of ( Simon) Bolivar's Colombia." The FARC, the communique proclaims, is grateful to President Chavez for his support, his "apostolate of peace", humanitarian persistence in the exchange of prisoners for hostages and his conviction that the road to peace in Colombia begins with recognizing the FARC and the ELN as belligerent forces. The FARC considers the Colombian government to be a pro-Yankee paramilitary narco- government and calls for great national agreement that will allow Colombia to build an alternative policy of government and programs that will benefit the common good, sovereignty, democracy and the homeland.
Patrick J. O'Donoghue
patrick.vheadline@gmail.com
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