On Sunday, President Chavez handed over 213 houses in Ciudad Losada estate situated in Zulia State to their new owners. The hand over of keys was televised during the President's Sunday radio address from another house-building project in Caracas. Housing Minister, Edith Gomez presided over the ceremony in Zulia. Speaking about another project in the western Venezuelan State, Chavez reports that the government has already handed 428 houses of 1,074 in the El Marite sector (Maracaibo). The ambitious Ciudad Losada housing project covers a ring of 5 km totaling an eventual 12,550 houses. During the program, the President has hit out against people invading housing projects, forcing the government to adopt a policy allotting houses beforehand and allowing people to be vigilant against any squatter attempts. According to Petroleos de Venezuela-West (PDVSA-Occidente) production and exploration general manager, Jose Luis Parada, the government will open legal processes against squatters, if they refuse to listen to reason and squatters will also lose their right to decent housing.
During his Sunday radio address the President proudly presented a Gallup survey, showing that Venezuela is first place in South America regarding respect and dignity towards children. 70% of people interviewed in Venezuela responded favorably to the question about respect and dignity shown in treatment of children. The survey shows, Chavez announces, that Venezuela is 32% above the regional average. The President also commented on a British university "map of happiness" made up of statistics from the World Health Organisation and UNESCO whereby Venezuela is in second place in South America and 25th in the world.
The Latin American and Caribbean Movement of Working Children and Adolescents (Molacnats) has called regional governments to respect the rights of working children and end police harassment and repression. The 30-year old organisation calls on regional governments to respect working children and to put into place measures to defend working children and adolescents against exploitation by improving work conditions. The NATs organisation urges governments to allow working children take part in creating public policies on issues that concern them. The May Day statement was made by the organization's Venezuelan secretariat.
Planning Minister, Haiman El Troudi says the minimum salary increase of 30% decreed on May 1 will not cause inflation to go sky-high. Inflation will retain the same average of the last few years, the Minister states, and insists it will remain around 19%. The Minister also made it clear that the government will not sacrifice economic growth to reduce inflation. El Troudi rules out devaluation of the currency and an end to current exchange rate controls. According to the Minister, people who buy dollars on the black market lose around 60% of their investment.
Communication & Information (Minci) Minister, Andres Izarra has stated that the Ministry has no plans to buy electrical plants for alternative and community media to function in the case of any emergencies, such as fires and electricity outages. The Minister was replying to questions regarding the nationwide electricity blackout that left a greater part of the country in the dark on Tuesday last week. The outage was caused by a forest fire near a substation. The Minister says he prefers to supply community media with other instruments which they lack and not electrical plants for very exceptional situations.
The Minci Ministry has issued a communique criticizing opposition reporting on a statement made by Minister Izarra, regarding fledgling State channel TVes. Globovision 24 hours news channel and Radio Caracas Television International stand accused of misquoting the Minister with the following headlines "Izarra says it was impossible to strengthen freedom of expression while RCTV was around." Izarra replies the news-bite was both tendentious and criminal and calls on the two media stations to offer apologies to the Venezuelan people for "manipulating and taking the statements of public officials out of context."
Offering a summary of the development of the year-old TVes television channel, Minister Izarra says the new channel has democratized the airwaves, breaking through the media siege and opening the door to national independent producers. In a prepared statement, the Minister reports that 1 50 national independent producers are working with TVes, which is handling 720 projects from the same source. The exercise, the communique confirms, has opened a positive tendency in the national media, democratizing freedom of expression, communication and audiovisual production. The Minister does admit that the TVes project must mature, reminding people that it has only been in existence one year. At the beginning of the year the Minister announced that the main function of TVes will be entertainment and sports.
The government and the Sutiss trade union have settled a conflictive collective bargaining agreement governing production at the Sidor iron & steel company in southeastern Venezuela. The collective bargaining process, which took 15 months to solve, caused a stand-off between the Argentinean owners and the trade union and ended in President Chavez ordering the nationalization of the key basic company. Sutiss leader, Jose Rodriguez says workers did not get all they wanted but they feel as though they have won a victory. A major achievement, Rodriguez proclaims, is that 800 workers exploited by subcontractors have been put on the Sidor payroll and a committee has been set up to organize the entry of remaining workers. The salary increase is 53 bolivares, which will be released gradually and 35,000 bolivares back-pay bonus. The latest is that the union wants to receive back payments by Friday.
United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) vice president, General (ret.) Alberto Muller Rojas accuses opposition politicians of employing the same separatist policies used by the Santa Cruz oligarchy in Bolivia. Speaking on State VTV channel, the General accuses Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT) party, the so-called trilateral committee for democracy and freedom, El Nacional broadsheet publisher, Miguel Enrique Otero, Chacao Mayor, Leopoldo Lopez and Zulia State Governor Manuel Rosales. The plan, he predicts, will come into force, if the opposition wins several state governments in the upcoming elections, promoting autonomy as their main slogan with the support of the USA. The Vice President argues that opposition Primero Justicia (PJ) is working inside the framework of democratic rules, while the UNT holds the extremist and separatist position.
Zulia State Governor, Manuel Rosales has responded to President Chavez' accusation that sectors in Venezuela want to set up a separatist movement in Venezuela. The President referred to the opposition strategy as a plan to set up a " half moon" of opposition states as the base for launching a separatist policy. Rosales replies that the opposition does not want a half moon but a full moon, in other words, he challenges, the opposition wants to "win the whole of Venezuela and take it on the road to progress and development." Rosales claims that the opposition is recovering spaces and providing answers to Venezuela, which will lead to victories in November when, he forecasts, the opposition will win the majority of municipalities and state governments and then prepare for elections to the National Assembly.
Throughout Sunday, government media provided non-stop news updates and reports on events in Bolivia, especially the referendum organized by the separatist movement in Santa Cruz and reactions in other provinces. The Venezuelan government has rejected the outcome of the referendum and has declared it will not recognize any breakup of Bolivia. During a meeting of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) yesterday, both Venezuela and Bolivia have denounced attempt to break up Bolivia and the illegal consultation process organized by the authorities of the Santa Cruz province. Venezuela represented by its Vice Minister for Latin America, Francisco Arias Cardenas says any acceptance of the referendum results and the new State will destabilize the region. From articles written by opposition commentators, it would appear that they gleefully agree with what is happening in the Santa Cruz province, especially derogatory remarks made against President Chavez and Evo Morales.
Patrick J. O'Donoghue
patrick.vheadline@gmail.com
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