Representative of Sidor Company class B shareholders, Pedro Rondon accuses Basic & Light Industries (Mibam) Minister, Rodolfo Sanz of lying to the National Assembly (AN). Rondon claims that financial statements up to September 30 show a loss of around $160 million. Furthermore, Rondon accuses, production fell to 800,000 tonnes and despite the fact that it was a good year for steel prices, shareholders lost (Bs.F) 760 million bolivares. In his State of the Nation address, President Chavez announced that the company showed a profit of $400 million. Rondon complains that among the factors responsible for production fall were: the signing of the collective bargaining contract which led to the nationalization of the company, bureaucracy and five accidents, of which four were fatal.
Interior & Justice (MIJ) Minister, Tarek El Aissami says the government will not allow acts of vandalism on the part of opposition students. El Aissami contends that it has become across customary that every time a "fascist student movement" takes to the streets, it is to destroy public works and public spaces. Security organs and the judicial power, the Minister declares, will respond according to the law.
Communication & Justice (Minci) Minister, Jesse Chacon has also criticized a disruptive student's demonstration against the constitutional amendment on Caracas' Cota Mil highway. Showing the front pages of opposition El Universal and El Nacional broadsheets with titles maintaining that the pacific march had been brutally repressed by the Metropolitan Police (PM), the Minister replies, stating that the students tried to set fire to the Guaraira Repanor national park project, forcing the National Guard (GN) had to intervene. The Minister also showed a video, which, he says, is evidence that the students were not on a pacific march but carried stones, tear gas cannisters and anti-tear gas masks.
European Union (EU) commission director for Latin America, Stefano Sannino has signed an agreement of understanding with the Venezuelan government as part of the EU's cooperation program 2007-2013. The visitor has reaffirmed the EU's intention of strengthening and cooperating in the integration of Caribbean and Latin American countries. Vice Minister for Europe, Alejandro Fleming has confirmed EU interest in Venezuela and its reality, by efforts to get to know the advances of the Bolivarian revolution and alternative mechanisms of integration, such as the Bolivarian Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (Alba), Union of South American Nations (Unasur) and Petrocaribe.
President Chavez has added his voice of concern regarding acts of violence on the part of opposition students. Speaking at a meeting of allied parties working for the approval of the constitutional amendment, the President aired a video showing opposition students setting fire to Caracas Avila national park. Members of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) youth division will plant trees in areas torched by the opposition.
The President blasted opposition parties as "unburied cadavers of the Fourth Republic" and says the majority of the students demonstrating against the constitutional amendment belong to private universities, which are using the students as cannon fodder. Chavez warns the owners of private universities that they will receive full force of the law and should not wash their hands like Pontius Pilate.
President Chavez has launched a phrase that we will be hearing for some time to describe the latest opposition unitary initiative, namely the "Puerto Rico Pact," referring to an agreement allegedly reached on that island last weekend by the main representatives of Venezuela's opposition political parties, the owner of the 24-hour TV news channel, Globovision and representatives from the US Embassy. The agreement is said to be a continuation of the infamous Punto Fijo Pact that was signed in 1959 by Accion Democratica (AD), the Christian Socialists (COPEI), UDR, the Catholic Church and business sectors to exclude Communists and left wing parties from government, a pact that lasted around 40 years.
National Elections Council (CNE) director, German Yepez has announced that the official launching of the constitutional amendment campaign will kick-start on Saturday, January 17 thru to Friday, February 13. The CNE will also review the question presented it by the National Assembly (CNE) to see if it fits in with the terms of a consultative referendum. As regards financing the campaign, Yepez states, it is a decision of the National Assembly.
CNE president, Tibisay Lucena says the first thing the council will do when it receives the referendum question is to count the characters of the text approved by the National Assembly. Lucena ventures that this time there will be no need to use electronic voting cards because the question could be placed directly on the screen following the pattern of previous referendums. The CNE president announces that any modification of the text is unlikely, since the National Assembly (AN) is a public power and has the legitimate right to present a text, adding that audits and reviews have already begun, as well as meetings with political organizations interested in taking part in the referendum.
President Chavez has rebuffed statements made by the US President-Elect, Barack Obama proclaiming that the Venezuelan President is a "force that has prevented progress in the region." Obama, Chavez argues, is re-editing the discourse of George W Bush and has been badly informed ... "it is a pity." Obama's declarations, Chavez points out, coincide with the Bush Administration's support for the "Puerto Rico Pact" that wants to set flame to the city of Caracas with demonstrations aimed at destabilizing the country. Chavez proclaims that there is a tremendous economic, moral, industrial and social crisis in the USA and that he is ready to inform Barack Obama about Venezuela's reality. Chavez quips that he could send the President-Elect a summary of his State of the Nation message to the National Assembly on January 13. Venezuela will continue its struggle against imperialism, the President stresses, and if Obama respects Venezuela, then he will receive a respectful answer and if he wants to "talk to Venezuelans, then we are ready without conditions and with respect." Obama also suggested that Venezuela is allegedly exporting terrorist activities, to which Chavez responds, that those exporting terrorist activity are not just Bush, but also also the CIA and Israel.
Brazilian President, Lula da Silva is in Venezuela to sign several agreements of cooperation. Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro was at Maracaibo Air Force Base to receive da Silva, who will be visiting infrastructure works in Zulia State today Friday. Brazilian technology is being used to building the Tres Rios reservoir and the El Diluvio-Palmar irrigation scheme, which is the biggest in the country. The Brazilian company, Odebrecht and 27 Venezuelan companies are involved in the project, which will irrigate more than 20,000 hectares of land in Maracaibo and end traditional flooding. Da Silva will meet President Chavez today, Friday to discuss international and regional matters, as well as bilateral agreements.
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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