VHeadline News Editor Patrick J. O'Donoghue reports:
Caracas Libertador Mayor, Jorge Rodriguez has made garbage collection a number one priority during the Christmas period and reports record collecting and disposal this Christmas at the Las Mayas holding plant. In October, the Mayor points out, there were a 71,258 tonnes of rubbish accounted for, compared to 54,781 tonnes in November. In the first 15 days of December 58.733 tonnes passed through the Las Mayas centre. Rodriguez proudly states that the Las Mayas holding plant currently receives, prepares and transports garbage in 15 minutes to the La Bonanza landfill. Work crews have been tripled to keep the streets clean and to unblock and cleanse gutters. In what can be described as a garbage propaganda war, both opposition and government mayors are fighting it out to see who has the cleanest and tidiest patch. Rodriguez has announced that citizens can call a special phone number to resolve cases of unwanted garbage.
Writing in Rebellion website, Pascual Serrano says he has three concerns about the new stage of the Bolivarian revolution. The queries deals with what the former Telesur representative in Europe sees as obsessions he has noted among Chavist leaders and activists.
The first is the glib use of the word " bureaucracy" to cover up all kinds of incompetence, corruption and irregularities instead of naming and shaming public officials. The advice is simple: bureaucratic mistakes are made by incompetent employees and measures against the guilty party must be applied and carried out.
Secondly, everything seems to be blamed on " media dictatorship," which, the writer points out, is a universal phenomenon. In 10 years, he contends, the government has surrounded itself with a State news agency, public TV stations and radios and dozens of community media and internet sites. The question could be raised, Serrano muses, whether the media dictatorship hype is just a way of hiding the government's incapacity to set in motion an adequate news model that can counteract the aggressiveness of the private media against the government? The truth is that solidarity groups abroad, foreign intellectuals and embassies themselves are the ones who are really feeling the pinch, the hostility and constant aggression from those who hate what is happening in Venezuela. Serrano takes his critique a stage further observing that for people outside Venezuela who wanted to follow the electoral processes on November 23 (and December 2007), only the opposition Globovision was able to keep its signal up and working.
The last point Serrano mentions is the phenomenon of constant personal letters addressed to Chavez seeking improvements in services and political matters. Such letters can be seen frequently in Aporrea.org. It highlights a difficulty, the writer claims, because if a citizen thinks something should be improved, surely there must be other ways of getting one's message across than a letter to Chavez in Aporrea. Why aren't letters sent to Ministers? Maybe, Serrano ventures, it's up to the President to get citizens to trust the Ministers he appoints.
Serrano closes hoping that things can be rectified, "even if Chavez doesn't read his piece."
President Chavez has attacked several prominent opposition leaders, saying that they are aiming for the presidency and that in itself is a powerful reason why he wants to remain in office. They all want to be president, Chavez quips, and are starting to draw out the knives among themselves.
The President calls on the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) to open the first workshops of its ideological school, stating that nobody is born learning and that consciousness and knowledge are required to beat Capitalism and create Socialism.
Addressing pro-government mayors, Chavez insists that they should work closely with the parishes and municipalities to know what is being built in their areas after he discovered that permission had been granted for the building of a Sambil mall smack in the busy La Candelaria district (Caracas). Chavez argues that it will cause traffic chaos causing the centre of Caracas to collapse and he wants permission revoked. The opposition claims the President wants to expropriate another private enterprise.
Opening a clinic in El Valle, President Chavez says it is important to compare statistics of such things as unemployment which before was around 20% and is currently situated in 6%. It is important to recognize the achievements of the government, Chavez insists, especially because of the media bombardment against the government. Speaking on his Sunday radio show, the President points to the government's plan stimulating employment through micro-enterprises and micro-credits. Women are now able to get help via the Women's Bank. Speaking against Capitalism, Chavez condemns it as intrinsically macho. Chavez highlights successes in the recovery of lands for peasants, maintaining that such achievements have cost money and are still far from their objectives, adding that that is why the constitutional amendment on re-election to the presidency is important so that key projects can continue and reach their completion.
During his Sunday radio address, President Chavez has announced that Venezuela will help Paraguay in a literacy program. The methods employed in Bolivia to fight illiteracy there with the help of Cuba and Venezuela will be taken to Paraguay, Chavez declares, revealing that at the moment there are what he calls "legion" of Venezuelans working in a literacy campaign in Bolivia. No date has been given for the launch of the plan in Paraguay but President Fernando Lugo is in full agreement.
Foreign Minister, Nicolas Maduro says right wing news and media agencies are engaged on a campaign to create a current of opinion to disqualify Venezuela's electoral process. The international media, Maduro complains, seek to disparage the constitutional amendment, Article 230 of the Constitution regarding the election to the presidency. Citing the main broadsheets of Italy, Spain and the USA, Maduro contends that it shows their "ignorance of Venezuela's process and their intentions of manipulating the peoples of the world against Venezuelan democracy." The Foreign Minister has singled out a recent editorial of the Washington Post, which claims Chavez cannot win the referendum without using fraud or force. The editorial, Maduro complains, is a "monument to decadence," showing an empire that is losing its capacity to threaten.
According to President Chavez, the date for the constitutional amendment should be on February 15 to coincide with Simon Bolivar's speech in Angostura (Cuidad Bolivar) opening Congress in 1819. The National Assembly (AN) is expected to pass a second reading of the amendment at the beginning of the year with at least 146 of 167 votes in favor. Once the bill has been passed, it will be sent to the electoral power which will call for and organize the referendum.
The opposition Mayor of Maracaibo, Manuel Rosales, along with State Governor Pablo Perez, has spent Sunday handing out presents to more than 300,000 children. The Mayor comments that it's a great stimulus to give a present to a child, especially at Christmas. Taking the opportunity to criticize President Chavez, the opposition leader declares that Chavez orders the public powers what to do and he points to the fact that Chavez wants the referendum to be on February 15. Chavez is not interested in Venezuela's problems, Rosales quips, or in Christmas and is only thinking about the referendum to perpetuate himself in power and to be president for life." Stopping short of mentioning his own name, Rosales boasts that Venezuela will have a new president in 2012.
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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