Venezuelan Air Force (FAV) C-i-C, General Luis Jose Berroteran reveals that when he received office in 2007, only 25% of the fleet was operative and that today because of the government's re-impulse policy the percentage has now risen to around 50%. The General announces that the FAV is waiting for 4 more Sukhoi-30 Russian fighter planes to complete the first fleet of 24 units purchased from Russia. The government is studying the possibility of acquiring more sophisticated planes, such as the Sukhoi-35. Berroteran adds that Russia and China are training Venezuelan military personnel to manage the recent arm systems purchased as part of a technological transfer agreement. On July 7, 83 members of the air force will graduate to the rank of second Lt. Services & Commerce Confederation (Consecomercio) president, Nelson Maldonado claims that the business sector is languishing under aggressive and fierce state capitalism. The 10 years of Bolivarian rule, Maldonado states, has ruined Venezuelan's productive and marketing system. Speaking at the 38th annual assembly of the Confederation, Maldonado urges the government to rectify its economic policies, which, he proclaims, are inspired by a model of "Communist insinuation." The businessman says the government has rectified before and points to the elimination of the financial transactions tax as one example but more must be done, he maintains, such as rectifying exchange-rate control policies. In the openly hostile and unexpected attack, Maldonado argues that attempts to ignore market logic and substitute it with centralized planning has always failed and has led to "economic tyranny and social poverty."
The National Assembly (AN) will be working against the clock to complete and pass 30 laws within the framework of the Enabling Law, which ends on August 15. House president, Cilia Flores says parliament will try to pass all the laws before the deadline. According to Flores, the majority of laws need only a second debate to be passed. For his part, House defense & security committee president, Rafael Gil Barrios points out that the law against kidnapping and extortion is almost ready for discussion in plenary session.
Communication & Information (Minci) Minister Andres Izarra has announced that 31 community radio stations will shortly take to the airwaves as part of the government's push to democratize communication. In February, Izarra recalls, the governments gave credits to community media and made a commitment to install 23 stations. At the moment, there are 28 community stations that are ready for installation and should be on the airwaves today. The Minister reports that a document has been drawn up to give structure to alternative and community media so they can work organically, adding that the system should not be seen as an imposition from the government or the State because he argues that the document is a product of meetings between the government sector and the alternative media over the last couple of months.
The National Union of Workers (UNT) has been answering a challenge launched by Las Ultimas Noticias editor, Eleazar Diaz Rangel who criticized a communique from leaders of the trade union organisation rejecting President Chavez' call to the business sector to set up an alliance. What irks the trade union leaders is the editor's reference that the extreme left were responsible for the coup against Chilean President Salvador Allende in 1973. According to UNT national coordinator, Stalin Perez Borges, Diaz Rangel has distorted the reality of the Chilean historical process, letting the real coupsters off the hook and ignoring the Allende government's own vacillations. The UNT leaders have declared that President Chavez should undertake an alliance with the people and workers and not with the treacherous business sector. Chavez himself has used the same argument to attack what he considers undisciplined and extreme left sectors of the Bolivarian movement especially in the 23 de Enero district of Caracas. The UNT has announced that he will continue to function as a union central, despite desertion by many members and groups to form the Bolivarian trade union central currently in the stage of construction.
Patrick J. O'Donoghue
patrick.vheadline@gmail.com
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