Telecommunications Minister, Socorro Hernandez has rejected opposition charges that the new telecommunications law aims to limit access to the Internet. The Minister says what has been circulating is only a draft law and not the definite text and has promised that the content of the law will be put up for public consultation. Hernandez recalls that the law project was part of the enabling law packet and is now being taken for debate to the National Assembly. The National Elections Council (CNE) has announced that it has scratched 6,862 deceased persons from the voting register as part of a cleansing effort undertaken by the civil and electoral registry committee.
During a radio address from Petare (Caracas), President Chavez has come out in favor of the Yukpa Indians in their campaign to recover ancient land rights. Chavez has criticized government officials and military officers for what he calls "ambiguous" positions. In the conflict between the indigenous communities and landowners in the Perija Sierra (Zulia), the President has stated that if he had to decide between the indians and the landowners, the government will decide in favor of indigenous peoples because the State has an historical debt to fulfill. Interior & Justice (MIJ) Minister, Ramon Rodriguez Chacin and Francisco Arias Cardenas have been sent to the zone to verify the situation, review the demarcation process and report back.
Indigenous Peoples Minister, Nicia Maldonado states the demarcation process in the Perija Sierra has advanced 70%. The process includes an area where 164 Yukpa indigenous communities live. Maldonado contends that the demarcation issue is an ancestral demand and confirms that the Ministry is working with habitat & lands assemblies created two weeks ago. However, local communities say they are dissatisfied with the performance of the Ministry and representatives of the National Lands Institute (INTI), accusing them of dragging their feet in the issue and bowing to local and powerful landowners. NGOs supporting the indigenous struggle accuse the army and the National Guard of siding with the landowners and refusing access to the area in conflict, arresting several community journalists and activists covering the struggle.
According to the National Statistics Institute (INE) president, Elias Eljuri, Venezuela has passed the 28-million person mark. Speaking on VTV State television, Eljuri states that at the last count in 2006 there were 27.2 million inhabitants in Venezuela, and he argues that growth of the population is declining, following the pattern of many advanced nations. "Venezuela is a country that has entered into a transition stage ... population growth is beginning to come down in the same way as it does in a developed country." 60 years ago,, Eljuri reports, the growth rate was 3%, and currently stands at 1.67%. The birthrate 60 years ago was 7% and is currently 2.78% with a tendency to be lower than 2% by 2020.
Venezuelan Ambassador to the USA, Bernardo Alvarez has denied any confrontation between representatives of the opposition and the government attending the US Democratic Convention in Denver. Speaking by phone to VTV State television, the Ambassador maintains that government representatives, Calixto Ortega and Francisco Torrealba and himself were invited to attend to attend the convention, along with Primero Justicia (PJ) leader, Julio Borges, who did not turn up and Zulia State Governor, Manuel Rosales. Both Alvarez and Rosales were allowed to address delegates. According to Alvarez, Rosales tried to create tension by countering what Alvarez had told the delegates, but that was as far as it went.
Torrealba and Ortega attended the US Democrat Convention in Denver as members of the recently created parliamentary Group of Friends. The two parliamentarians have criticized the size of Zulia State Governor, Manuel Rosales' group attending a session stating that the invitation was for Rosales only. The two also criticized Rosales' feverish attempts to meet well-known US politicians in the corridors and they claim that he was largely ignored.
Minister of Foreign Relations (MRE), Nicolas Maduro has denied that the government has rejected a visa request to the US anti-drugs czar, John Walters. Maduro, currently in Cuba, explains that Walters requested a meeting with President Chavez on August 27 or 28 but because of President Chavez' intense national and international agenda, such a meeting is not possible. Maduro insists that once a date has been formalized, the US official will be granted a visa.
Patrick J. O'Donoghuepatrick.vheadline@gmail.com
Venezuela is facing the most difficult period of its history with honest reporters crippled by sectarianism on top of rampant corruption within the administration and beyond, aided and abetted by criminal forces in the US and Spanish governments which cannot accept the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people to decide over their own future.
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