President Chavez has ordered what he calls an "enclosure operation" from now until Sunday, November 23. Speaking at a meeting with candidates to the state governorships and mayor's offices of Greater Caracas and Miranda State, Chavez has declared the above operation open, urging followers and sympathizers to canvass for candidates in a final push. Chavez orders that party battalions and patrols to reach every voter in the municipalities to convince and help them vote. The President recalls that defeat at last December 2's referendum was due to the fact that 3 million of his followers did not vote and because of fifth column intrigues inside the ranks. The President promises another "revolution inside the revolution" and big shakeup after November 23 but he adds that he needs help because he has had enough of some companions slacking and not pulling their weight. There are some people, he grumbles, who have struck an agreement with the oligarchy to kill him politically.Archbishop of Coro and deputy president of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference (CEV), Roberto Luckert complains that the electoral campaign gives the impression that it is President Chavez who is running for office rather than candidates to mayor's offices and state governorships. The Bishop has called on the National Elections Council (CNE) to correct irregularities that have cropped up and accuses Chavez of speeches that have created a bellicose and belligerent environment ... "something that the Venezuelan people do not want ... if we want to live in Democracy and Freedom, we must defend the Democracy we have and the only way to do so is for every Christian to fulfill their duty to Venezuela and vote in peace and tranquility."
Venezuela has presented to the United Nations UN general assembly a proposal that the international organ convoke a summit to discuss the effects of the international financial and economic crisis and necessary measures to avoid any repetition of it happening again. The proposal was presented officially by Venezuelan Ambassador to the UN, Jorge Valero, who states that the crisis does not respect borders. States represented in the United Nations, Valero continues, must tackle the matter responsibly and propose alternatives to set up an international economic and financial system that is just and human. The solution to the crisis, Valero insists, must be the "fruit of contributions from all 192 countries that make up the UN."
Minister for Europe, Alejandro Fleming has announced that Swiss businessmen are interested in investing in Venezuela. The reasons given by the Foreign Minister are based on solidity of the Venezuelan economy over the last 19 quarters showing a stable and sustained growth. According to Fleming, the growth has generated a climate of favorable confidence for Swiss investment in Venezuela, at least t hat is what he declares Swiss businessmen told him during a forum on October 17 organized by the Latin American Chamber of Commerce in Zurich. Fleming goes on to say somewhat glibly that Venezuelan legal framework offers foreign investors all the necessary guarantees to develop investment projects with success. Legal stability as well as economic stability, Fleming states, represents one of Venezuela's main strengths. Fleming heads a delegation that signed an agreement of cooperation to deepen political relations between the two countries.
United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) deputy president, General (Gen.) Alberto Muller Rojas has warned that activists who do not vote on Sunday will automatically exclude themselves from the party. The party's objective, the leader insists, is to get people out to vote on Sunday whatever their political preference. As far as the PSUV is concerned, he stresses, the hope is that 5,722,000 enrolled militants turn out to vote. According to Muller Rojas, there are 7.2 million people eligible to vote and if 6 million don't vote, a win for the government cannot be considered a resounding and decisive victory. The General argues that results on November 23 will decide the political future of allied parties and he warns that political participation is the only way forward in the country because the other alternative would be war. "Political participation will allow a political dialogue to the country, which is necessary."
PSUV leader, Vanessa Davies stresses that PSUV battalions and patrols are ready to defend election results but agrees that any irregularities should be investigated by the authorities. She forecasts a 30% abstention rate.
The PSUV leadership has announced that President Chavez will not attend the closing act of the government's electoral campaign, stating that there will be no mass mobilization to Caracas because the important task is for the patrols to ensure last-minute canvassing in their local areas.
Rebellion.org has published a scathing attack on Telesur by co-founder and until December director, Aram Aharonian, who complains that there is too much Statism and a lack of democracy in the channel. Calling Telesur a revolutionary gamble, the Uruguayan communicator insists that if it wants to be an international alternative, its hegemonic message must be massive and not reduced to paradigm of the marginal. A new TV channel, he says, is no good if it doesn't have new content and formats and if it doesn't become a factory of Latin American content, documentaries, films, culture and entertainment in the best sense of the word, with soap operas and sport from a Latin American perspective. Telesur should not try to imitate CNN in an effort to be competitive, donning CNN's white shirt and tie approach. Continuing his attack, the veteran Uruguayan slams Telesur for its " Gringo" concept of communication. "Some people think that broadcasting speeches of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro is an alternative ... a collective model is needed."
Another Aharonian accusation is that those entering into channel are the friends of some other directors, in other words, there is evidence of a bit of cronyism and old-boy networking. " Telesur should be plural, supplying different points of view of the same event so that people can draw their own conclusions and have the capacity to decide for themselves."
The Channel must also stop being an international television of the Venezuelan government, Aharonian concludes, and it's immoral that the Venezuelan Information & Communication (Minci) Minister is Telesur president, administering it at his discretion. "At the moment there are around 100,000 hundred people watching the channel and yet Chavez talks about 50 million." Something must be wrong somewhere.
Patrick J. O'Donoghue
patrick.vheadline@gmail.com
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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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