Elio Cequea: Yes! Come in Caracas ...we have a problem ... but it's in Houston!

VHeadline Venezuela managing editor Elio Cequea writes: It was four or five years ago, that I first met the new Venezuelan Vice Consul in the City of Houston. We 'bumped into each other' because of our common interest in the Venezuelan Bolivarian Revolution ... it is also possible that our meeting was stimulated by a search for support in a land where "chavistas" are a rare breed.

Over here, sometimes, we feel like a cockroach in a party of hens...

One can only thank God that there are people around, like Antonio Padrino, who confront adverse situations with courage.

In our first conversations, Padrino suggested that I should organize a movement in favor of the Venezuelan government. I turned the offer down precisely because, other than the land that gave birth to Simon Bolivar (Venezuela), the rest can be considered "enemy territory.!

Yet, alone, and by his own initiative, Padrino organized the first commemoration of April 13 -- "The return of democracy to Venezuela" in Houston. The event took place on a Sunday afternoon in a city park. Someone had to get up at seven in the morning to reserve one of the two gazebos available.

• I consider that whoever did that, is a hero of the revolution. Was it Padrino?

I showed up, with my family, around two in the afternoon. We were a total of about ten people but Padrino was NOT very happy. At that time of the day, the rest of the people from the Consulate were still missing.

I had warned him: the majority of the people in Houston are against the Venezuelan government ... and I did not have any evidence to exclude the employees from the diplomatic mission itself.

Months later, I found out, through the media, that Padrino had been fired from the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry (MRE), but I was happy to discover that he was re-hired some time later and he was sent back to Houston as Consul General.

This time, he was aware of what he was getting into.

Nonetheless, with unbridled enthusiasm he started to work towards a reunification of the disjointed Venezuelan community around the Consulate. He did it without hiding his affections for the Bolivarian Revolution.

Thanks to Antonio Padrino, in April of this year, there was, once again, a commemoration of "The return of democracy to Venezuela" in the Space City ... it was a nice surprise to see that the Consul General's work seemed to be giving results. Several dozen people of all colors (physically and politically), attended the event which was an enormous success considering that only four months before, according to rumors. the government got less than 10 votes from Houston in the referendum for constitutional reform.

The situation is NOW that Antonio Padrino had been fired again...

This time the impression is ALSO that the firing was the consequence of particular and obscure interests.

"Those who fight all their lives are the ones that are indispensable," someone once said... But, if we keep getting rid of those who ARE indispensable ... like Antonio Padrino ... we'll all end up in very deep brown stuff!

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry had better have a good explanation for this calumny!

Elio Cequea
Feico57@att.net

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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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Las Cristinas: More BS and foreign investor confusion in the wake of another Reuters scare story!

VHeadline Venezuela News reports: Leading government officials are denying a Reuters report, Wednesday, which variously misinterprets a regional radio interview with Basic Industries & Mining (MIBAM) Minister, Rodolfo Sanz, in which he is purported to have inferred that Crystallex International was to be "disinherited" from a mine-operating contract at the giant Las Cristinas goldfield in southeastern Venezuela.

Reuters had headlined: Venezuela says to take over Crystallex gold project in a story immediately cloned by Bloomberg and even the London Guardian newspaper, in which it was alleged that the Venezuelan government had said that it would take over the Las Cristinas gold project operated by Canadian miner Crystallex in "a new step by President Hugo Chavez to put key industries into state hands."

Quoting a news release (that the Ministry itself denies all knowledge of), Reuters says Venezuela's mining ministry aims to start a mine at one of Latin America's largest deposits next year and cites "a local radio interview" quoting Mibam Minister Rodolfo Sanz as saying "this mine will be recovered and will be operated under state administration."

Las Cristinas is already under "state administration" via the (Venezuelan) state-owned heavy industry conglomerate, the Venezuelan Guayana Corporation (CVG) of which Minister Sanz is both corporate president & CEO. However, Reuters plows on stating that "(President) Chavez last year launched a nationalization drive, increasing state control over the OPEC nation's oil industry. The US critic has since taken over key sectors of the economy including electricity, telecoms, cement and steel companies."

Admitting that Las Cristinas is owned by the government but operated under contract by Crystallex, Reuters, Bloomberg, The Guardian etc., also say that Crystallex has "waited for years in vain for permission to begin mining the deposit, located in a huge forest reserve in southeastern Venezuela" adding that the company said it had not been informed of any change to its status in Venezuela.

"We are pending on issuance of the (environmental) permit ... those
discussions have been going constructively," according to Crystallex vice president Richard Marshall, also quoted by Reuters: "There's been no indication of any change whatsoever."

Meanwhile, VHeadline Venezuela News can reveal that while Reuters et.al. are pumping their version of reality, Crystallex' president & CEO Bob Fung and the company's Caracas personnel have not been advised of any changes and that Crystallex de Venezuela executives have been engaged in various meetings with government officials this week preparatory to an expected announcement that the project will go forward into production in 2009.

Stateside, Crystallex VP Marshall believes that the Reuters story is the latest in a series of spurious reports of vague and/or misinterpreted comments that tends to spread uncertainty and confusion among the company's shareholders and thereby create trading opportunities.

Marshall has just told VHeadline Venezuela News, this afternoon local time, that "through the summer we have meetings and a dialogue with the Ministry of Environment (Mibam) ... a number of Mibam officials visited the project in August and we received formal notice regarding the project which we announced in an August 22 news release. Our position and expectations have not changed since that update!"

VHeadline Venzuela News
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.

HELP US TO KEEP BRINGING YOU THE TRUTH
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Chávez reasserts interest in restoring dialogue with the US

Venezuela's President, Hugo Chávez, congratulated Barack Obama for his "historic election" on Tuesday and confirmed his desire to establish "new relations" with the United States and re-launch "a constructive bilateral agenda" for the wellbeing of the two peoples.

"In this day of hope for Americans, President Hugo Chávez, on behalf of the people of Venezuela, congratulates the people of the United States and the president-elect Barack Obama for his important victory," reads a statement of the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as reported by AFP.

Chávez, who expelled US ambassador to Venezuela Patrick Duddy in mid-September,
is a major critic of the United States and of the outgoing president George W. Bush.

The Venezuelan president trusted that "the historic election of an Afro-American is a sign that the change of an era in South America may be knocking on the doors of the United States."

"From the homeland of Simón Bolívar (the South American independence leader), we are convinced that the time has come to establish a new relation between our countries and with our region based on the principles of respect for sovereignty, equality and real cooperation," read the statement.

Obama's new regime should be regarded as strictly a caretaker, pending a conservative return to power in 2012!

VHeadline's Washington DC-based commentarist Chris Herz writes: Well, we've had our October surprise, and Barack Obama is to be 44th president of the USA. The meltdown of Wall Street, and the panic-mongering necessary to allow its denizens the latest orgy of looting the public treasury effectively removed any chance of Republican John McCain capturing the job -- which without these economic problems he most certainly would have.

Today's big news is that US President-elect Barack Hussein Obama has requested of Illinois (Chicago) Congressman Rahm Emanuel that he serve as Chief of Staff. In this office Mr Emanuel will oversee the vetting, nomination and appointment of all cabinet appointments as well as all the other lesser government officers serving at the pleasure of the President.

Mr Emanuel is the maximum leader of the conservative faction of the Democratic Party. He, with the Clintons was a primary author of its historic shift to the right, and thus of what electoral success it has enjoyed. He is an ardent Zionist, an whole-hearted supporter of the military and of the various wars now raging throughout the Muslim world.

Names being bruited about for cabinet positions include Robert Gates, who is more likely than not to retain his job as Defense Secretary. Some people are saying that Henry Paulson will also remain at Treasury, although this is less certain. Indiana Republican Senator Richard Lugar is also a possibility for Treasury, with some saying he is destined for the State Department (US Foreign Ministry).

Mr Ben Bernanke will certainly remain head of the Federal Reserve.

The picture we are now getting is that of a weak administration, modeled on that of Bill Clinton: The new regime having no real constituency it is unprepared to betray, will have to govern at the sufferance of those Republicans and other "moderates" disgusted with the incompetence and transparent corruption of the Party of God.

To contrast the forthcoming Obama government with that of out-going President George W. Bush is most revealing as to where are found the true lode stones of political power in the imperial motherland. We will all remember the Bush government started with a bang: The nomination of all hard-right figures for its cabinet and sub-cabinet officers. Not one single concession to bi-partisanship.

But, with no real philosophy of governance of their own, the Democrats of the Clinton/Obama/Emmanuel stripe must ever whore after what are more naturally Republican constituencies -- the churches, the military, big business, etc. As the first Black president, as Maggie Thatcher as first female Prime Minister of Britain, Obama will be compelled to show himself as bellicose abroad and as given to the plunder of the poor by the rich at home as any other US politician.

All the bumpf of the McCain campaign; that Obama was somehow a closet socialist boils down to exactly 3%. That being the difference between what these two men thought millionaires should have to pay in income taxes.

If anything, Obama's insistence that Jerusalem should wholly belong to Israel, that US forces should operate freely within Pakistan or Syria and with 92,000 additional ground troops is more strident that was that of his relatively more moderate Republican opponent. All this in congruence with the positions of Mr Emanuel.

• We already see as well an expansion of the meddling of the USA in the training and deployment of police and military forces in Latin America and Africa. With the predictable results in the Congo already. Look for more, much more on the part of the in-coming government.

Without the ability to effectively challenge the corporate corruption centered around our military, our healthcare industry and our telecommunications monopolies, it will be impossible for any government to take effective measures to reduce either the hemorrhage of red-ink in the economy, or the onrush of recession. We will also be in the grip of a massive price-inflation, similar to that which helped bring down the Carter government following the liquidation of the Vietnam War.

Thus this new regime should be regarded as strictly a caretaker pending a conservative return to power in 2012.

From the imperial capital

Chris Herz
cdherz44@yahoo.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.

HELP US TO KEEP BRINGING YOU THE TRUTH
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Wanted: A new global currency

It is over a month since Lehman Brothers caved in, and more than three weeks since Iceland’s Prime Minister warned that his country was close to national bankruptcy. Over the last few weeks, there have been a number of high-level meetings, as global decision-makers slowly begin to understand that this is no ordinary crisis.

The 43 nations’ Asia-Europe Meeting ended with a bland declaration that there was a consensus for a reform of the system. Only the UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, came out with the suggestion of devising a regulatory framework for international monetary institutions that work with little or no regulation at national or international level. Brown could not have meant the Bretton Woods institutions as the World Bank and the IMF have their multinational Governing Bodies and Boards of Directors as also a plethora of advisers of diverse nationalities.

The one institution that is strictly an American icon but has a vast international footprint is the US Federal Reserve, which, as the US central bank, controls not only the total quantity of dollars but also the price for its supply and is clearly the one that needs watching.

The former Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has been saying for some time that the world should abandon the US dollar as a global reserve currency since its fluctuations tend to harm everyone who uses it for trade or as store of value. OPEC calls the US dollar a worthless piece of paper. Argentina, Cuba, Iran, Iraq and Venezuela have already said “no” to the dollar.

The fact that the Keynesian system held up the US dollar as virtually the global currency put an enormous responsibility on essentially a national institution. What was the role of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) in the train of events that resulted in the current crisis? What was the responsibility of the Fed in causing the consumer boom that resulted in the sub-prime lending in the US?

At present, the US government is primarily interested in rescuing Wall Street and the banking institutions by throwing hundreds of billions of dollars in the pit without knowing its precise dimensions. The American tax payer, already deeply concerned about unprecedented deficits, huge expenses required for the restoration of infrastructure and the two wars, may not be fully sympathetic to the efforts of the government to save the banks without any attempt to save the economy. Housing prices are falling all around and will possibly fall further. There will be more foreclosures on the mortgages. Mere pep talks by policymakers, no matter how influential and reputed, are unlikely to rebuild the confidence of the people in the financial institutions unless such talk is based on a deep analysis of the causes of the crisis.

The assets in which the big players such as Citibank, Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns invested, have suddenly ceased to have any market, as the other banks are not keen on financing such insecure assets. The rest of the world is also fast losing confidence in the US-centered financial system. What started as a sub-prime crisis in the US is fast developing into a global crisis. The rest of the world faces problems that are far more serious than those faced by the US. The essential functions of the central bank of any country are to raise money within the national boundaries and fix its price i.e. the rates of interest.

It is well-known that the Federal Reserve is not only the central bank of the US but also the de facto central bank of all the national central banks in the free world whose reserves comprise predominantly dollars. Furthermore, the Fed, as the central bank of all the nations, decides at what rate it will lend dollars to national central banks.

After the first Gulf War, dollar printing became the most profitable business for the US. The dollars, as global tender, was in perpetual demand by other nations as the Bretton Woods system was based on US dollars and gold.

In the post-Cold War years, in a situation of virtual US political and economic hegemony, the Fed appears to have followed a deliberate policy of large recourse to the printing press. The Fed cut interest rates repeatedly and the US households gradually stopped saving.

Thrift, the much-prized virtue in the laissez faire system, became, in the Keynesian ethos, an object of mirth and ridicule. Its place was taken by the Federal Reserve that prints and supplies more dollars to enable the consumer to spend on imports. The malls import goods from China and elsewhere and sell them to American households, thanks to the easy money created by the Fed. The flight of the dollars to countries exporting commodities to the US is compensated by borrowing them from foreign governments to bridge the current account deficit. The foreign governments are also happy with this system.

The Fed has thus promoted and supported a global financial architecture in which it has the means of forcing central banks of other nations to hold the reserves in the US securities, very much like the SLRs. The US dollars could function as store of value only to the extent that they are strictly limited in supply and the US government does not have the possibility of uncontrolled printing that allows it to print as many dollars as it wishes, at essentially no cost. By increasing the volume of dollars in circulation, the US government can also reduce the value of a dollar in terms of goods and services. This has swollen the Fed’s reserves outside the US to approximately $3.8 trillion.

The Great Depression of the 1930s was blamed on deficiency of effective demand caused, interalia, by savings and thrift. Thrift ceased to be a virtue. The antidote to the 1930s Depression corrupted the work ethic and mores of the society at large; creating an impression that one could spend one’s way to prosperity.

It must be admitted that it was not US’ consumers alone who benefited from this. It also created an environment of easy liquidity, which helped many countries in the developing world to escape poverty. Unfortunately, all good things must end. When people start prospering by spending rather than by the sweat of the brow, it was only a matter of time before sharks appear on the scene. Bankers themselves ceased to be genuine bankers and thought nothing wrong about financing questionable investments that could make their balance sheets look good.

Finally, the reality of the supply-demand situation had to assert itself and the morality that was engendered by the Keynesian anti-thrift preaching, combined with the short-sightedness of the Bretton Woods agreements and the cupidity of those responsible for the monetary management in the US, was bound to bring about a crisis and not only in the financial systems of the US but also that of the world.

To overcome the present crisis, it would be necessary to introduce a global tender that would be managed more responsibly. The obvious solution is to make the euro the global tender. It has the advantage of representing some sort of a basket of currencies and is controlled by the entire European Economic Community.

Venezuela's Chavez hails 'strategic' relations with Russia

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has held up Russian economic cooperation as evidence of the two countries' "strategic" relations, the Mexican media reported on Wednesday.

"The establishment of a Russian-Venezuelan development bank, and an energy consortium involving [Russian energy giant] Gazprom and Venezuela's state-run oil and gas company Petroleos de Venezuela is evidence of our strategic relations," Chavez was quoted as saying at a meeting to support gubernatorial candidates in the western Venezuelan state of Tachira on Tuesday.

The Russian-Venezuelan intergovernmental commission will hold a meeting in Caracas on Thursday, with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin leading a delegation of around 60 Russian businessmen. Cooperation between Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and Russia's largest independent oil producer LUKoil, as well as a project to establish a joint development bank is expected to be on the agenda.

Chavez said earlier that Sechin's visit would pave the way for the arrival of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Venezuela. Chavez first announced Medvedev's "strategic" visit to Venezuela on October 10. Russian presidential spokeswoman Natalya Timakova has said Medvedev could call in some Latin American countries as part of his trip to Lima, Peru for the APEC summit on November 22-23.

Croatian Drugs Dealer Arrested in Venezuela

Slobodan Kasic, who was sentenced in absentia in Croatia to 13 years in prison for smuggling 557 kilograms of cocaine in 1997, was arrested late last week in Venezuela, local media reported. He is currently being held in custody and is awaiting extradition to Croatia.

The Interpol issued an international arrest warrant for the boss of an international group of drug dealers. Kasic was arrested in a police operation in which ten drug bosses were apprehended, said Reverol Toress, head of the national drug trafficking prevention agency. According to him, the suspected were arrested on suspicion of having smuggled 43 tonnes of cocaine.

The drugs Kasic and his associates smuggled in Croatia was discovered in a storage terminal in Croatia’s Rijeka. It was worth 55 million German marks at the time and was intended for the West European market. Slobodan Kasic was an active water polo player. He made contact with the underground in Belgrade and started forging connections.

BRAZIL: Crisis Delays Threat of 'Venezuelan Disease'

Mario Osava (IPS) - The global financial crisis has corrected the extreme overvaluation of Brazil's local currency, caused by the policies of its Central Bank, thus temporarily chasing away fears of "Dutch disease", which in the developing world could well be called "Venezuelan disease".

The change of name for this particular "economic ailment" in the countries of the developing South is based on the work of the late Celso Furtado (1920-2004), who in 1957 identified the phenomenon of "underdevelopment with abundant foreign exchange" in Venezuela, a unique case in Latin America at a time when the region's main complaint was the lack of capital for industrial development.

The study by the economist who was the top authority on Brazilian political economy, carried out for the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), was just now published by the International Celso Furtado Centre for Development Policies, as part of the first volume of a series based on his personal archives, that includes another essay on Venezuela, written in 1974, and commentaries from other experts.

Furtado’s analysis of the "peculiarities" of the Venezuelan economy identified problems that would only be labeled "Dutch disease" two decades later, said Carlos Aguiar de Medeiros, a professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, who commented on the two studies by the late economist.

The large amount of foreign exchange generated from exports of a non-renewable natural resource like oil, the price of which is unrelated to production costs, leads to "external overvaluation of local currency" which "tends to disorganise important productive sectors" in a country with a low level of economic activity apart from the fossil fuel sector, Furtado wrote.

Dutch disease, also known as "the curse of oil," refers to damaging effects on the economy caused by the export of natural resources, which leads to increased inflows of revenues that drive up the exchange rate. This in turn makes the manufacturing sector less competitive.

Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira, a former minister of finance and state reform, has been warning since last year that in Brazil, agricultural exports, which have given the country a large trade surplus, are playing the same role as oil in Venezuela and natural gas in the Netherlands.

Brazil posted a trade surplus of 46.5 billion dollars in 2006, which fell to 40 billion dollars in 2007. The surplus was due to agricultural and mineral exports, which compensated for trade deficits in several industrial sectors, such as electronics and petrochemicals.

The consequent overvaluation of the real, the national currency, may be "deindustrialising" Brazil, by reducing the competitiveness of the industrial sector, forcing it increasingly to import components and transforming it into a "maquiladora" -- a term for companies in duty free zones that import components on preferential terms and assemble products for export, using cheap labour, without adding value or technology.

This was the apparent trend, but a serious situation of "Dutch disease" will only come about towards the end of this decade if the exchange rate is maintained at the level it stood at three months ago, at just over 1.50 reals to the dollar, Julio Gomes de Almeida, a professor at the University of Campinas and a consultant for the Institute of Industrial Development Studies (IEDI, founded by industrialists in 1989), told IPS.

From 2006 until the first half of this year, "the expanding internal market reduced the impact of the appreciated exchange rate" on the manufacturing sector, he said. Appreciation of the national currency is "the mechanism through which the disease is transmitted," but strong growth in domestic consumption "to a large extent compensated" for the overvalued real, he said.

The real stood at around three to the dollar in 2003, but the exchange rate fell to 1.56 reals per dollar in early August this year. If this exchange rate continues, it will cause "severe damage" to industry, according to the economist. But capital flight, triggered by the international financial crisis that originated in the United States, has led to a sharp depreciation of the real since September. Two weeks ago the real stood at 2.30 to the dollar in Brazil, reaching a value of 2.52 on Oct. 23.

The Central Bank intervened, selling dollars after being authorised to use up to 50 billion dollars of the country's foreign reserves, which totalled 207 billion dollars in early October. This had the effect of strengthening the real to nearly 2.10 to the dollar, thanks also to the anti-crisis measures taken in the United States and Europe.

Brazil has had one of the most volatile exchange rates in the world in the past three months, if not the most volatile, with sharp rises and falls in the value of the real within the space of a single day. These are "devastating blows" that damage business and cause losses at a moment's notice, since "all the big companies have debts in dollars," and the benefits of the devaluation of the real for exporters "will only be felt in the long term," Almeida said.

Many Brazilian companies have speculated on future exchange rates, wagering on a continued overvaluation of the real. This could cause huge losses and aggravate the impact of the crisis in Brazil.

In any event, Almeida said the crisis brought about a "correction" in monetary policy, which seemed "to actually be wishing for Dutch disease" by allowing speculative capital to enter and exit the country freely, something that is not permitted in other emerging economies. When the present turmoil has been overcome, some restrictions, however temporary, will have to be imposed, he said.

Now "a new international and national economy has been born," and the excessive overvaluation of the real has been left behind, although it remains to be seen what the exchange rate will be when the crisis is over, the economist said. His concern now, he added, is that at some future time, which the financial crisis has possibly delayed for several more years, Brazil might become a major oil power, exporting the large reserves that were discovered this year thousands of metres below the surface of the Atlantic ocean, under a salt layer, some 250 kilometres off its southeastern coast.

The creation of a fund similar to Norway's is being discussed, to convert oil riches into benefits for the entire population, especially future generations, by investing in education and so avoiding "the curse of oil" and "Dutch disease". But "Brazil is not Norway, and it will be more difficult here" to develop the capability to "make oil a source of development," Almeida concluded, suggesting that Brazil is closer to Venezuela, and not just in geographical terms.

In the 1980s, Furtado took many by surprise when he said that it was lucky that Brazil lacked abundant fossil fuels. At that time the country was experiencing, as well as a return to democracy, the "lost decade" caused by foreign debt that was largely due to the increase in oil prices in the 1970s.

Brazil was then importing three-quarters of the oil it consumed, but people had not read Furtado's studies on Venezuela.

Obama has said he would be willing to meet, without preconditions. with leaders of Iran, Cuba and Venezuela

Barack Obama's victory in the 2008 presidential election puts a Democrat in charge of the White House for the first time since Bill Clinton left office in January 2001.

* Obama has promised an orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and a greater focus on the war in Afghanistan. Democrats will call on him to carry out his pledge, but the gains that have been made in Iraq in recent months may make it tempting for Obama to stop short of his pledge to pull out one combat brigade per month until they are all withdrawn.

* In order to stimulate the weak U.S. economy, Obama and the Democrats are likely to reach an agreement on a second stimulus package to try to get consumers spending again, unless such a package is approved before Obama takes office January 20.

* Obama is likely to take further steps to regulate the financial industry in the wake of a
credit crisis that infected Wall Street and triggered a stock meltdown that cost
Americans billions of dollars in retirement savings.

* Obama ran on a pledge to give Americans who make less than $200,000 a year a tax cut, thus reaching 95 percent of taxpayers, and raise taxes on those making above $250,000
a year. With him and Democratic congressional leaders in charge, this pledge may be scaled back to give fewer people a tax cut and to include more people among those who would face higher taxes.

* Obama has said he would be willing to meet, without preconditions. with leaders of countries hostile to the United States, such as Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. Look for increased U.S. diplomatic activity with those countries with the aim of determining whether an Obama meeting with the leaders would be worthwhile.

Venezuelan president greets U.S. people

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sent a greeting Tuesday to Americans as they cast the ballots in the U.S. presidential election. 'Greetings to the U.S. people who today are choosing their president,' Chavez said, adding that he was delighted that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama could possibly triumph in the poll. On Sunday, Chavez said it was no small thing for an African-American to attain the U.S. presidency, and expressed his willingness to talk with Obama if the Democratic candidate wins. During a plaque unveiling ceremony at a cable-train project in the district of Petare in Caracas, Chavez said, 'We want to be friends of the world.' Venezuela-U.S. relations have been tense in recent years. Chavez expelled the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela Patrick Duddy on Sept. 12. He also recalled his ambassador from Washington and suggested that relations would not be fully restored until the new U.S. president is elected.

Venezuela Government Raids Company Linked To Suitcase Scandal

Venezuelan intelligence agents raided Tuesday the offices of Industrias Venoco CA, a petrochemicals and lubricant company linked to Franklin Duran, who was convicted for plotting to cover up alleged illegal campaign contributions by President Hugo Chavez to Argentina's President Cristina Kirchner. Government and military intelligence agents searched documents in the offices of Venoco across the nation as part of an investigation into money laundering by the company, the prosecutor's office said in an emailed statement. Calls to the company were not returned. On Saturday, Chavez threatened to expropriate Venoco, saying that its owners, Duran and Carlos Kauffman, who pleaded guilty and testified in a U.S. federal court that the Venezuelan government used them to hush a political scandal arising from the alleged illegal campaign contributions, 'were lending themselves for actions in the United States against the homeland.' U.S. federal jurors on Monday found Duran guilty of acting as an unregistered foreign government agent in the U.S., where U.S. prosecutors said he tried to persuade Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson to cover up the source of the $800,000 in cash that he was caught carrying in a suitcase in a private plane arriving in Buenos Aires in 2007. U.S. prosecutors said the money was destined for Kirchner's election campaign. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said in a statement Tuesday that Duran's conviction was part of an intelligence operation by the U.S. government to attack the Chavez administration.

European representatives bet on "hopeful" future for Venezuela

Politics Representatives of the Foundation for Insight and Social Studies (Faes) bet on Tuesday in Caracas for a 'different, hopeful' future in Venezuela after the local elections next November 23rd.

Deputy for People's Party (PP) Ignacio Astarloa and ex secretary general of the Spanish Government under the administration of José María Aznar, Javier Zarzalejos, took part on Monday and Tuesday in two forums hosted by sectors opposed to the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, as representatives of Faes, a foundation headed by Aznar, Efe reported.

The polls of November 23rd will 'provide a surely complicated outlook for Venezuela but, at the same time, a different, hopeful scenario facing the country's democratic evolution,' Zarzalejos told Efe. 'Opposition parties, despite enormous troubles, legal insecurity or clear deficiency with respect to judicial assurances for their rights, are succeeding in paving the way for a free democratic expression,' he added.

Kylie's bad luck continues on tour

First some thieves in Colombia swiped computers and passports from her entourage. Then Kylie Minogue's flight crew accidentally landed her in the wrong place in Venezuela. After such a bad start to the pop princess's Latin American tour, Argentina is taking no chances, promising her security and attention befitting of royalty.

"We have always taken security very seriously for artists such as Lenny Kravitz, the world's best footballers, and even the King of Spain. For Kylie Minogue it will be no different," Argentinian event organiser Marisol Koren of Fenix Entertainment Group said. "We have elaborate plans in place to make sure Kylie's stay is safe, pleasurable and that the show is a success."

Koren said Kylie's one-off show at the GEBA Club in Buenos Aires on November 15 was selling out fast. "It doesn't get much bigger than Kylie Minogue," she said. "People love her here."

The Argentinian media has cheekily suggested Kylie is in search of a Latin lover after she revealed on Argentinian television that she was single and open to "a few drinks" with a new man. "Kylie has not ruled out the possibility of taking home a souvenir from these latitudes," ventured the popular online daily Infobae.

Kylie must be hoping the Argentinian leg goes better than the ones that went before it. A few days ago, brazen thieves swiped computers, cameras and passports from her support crew as they carried out pre-show tests in Colombia. And then her flight to the Venezuelan capital Caracas was diverted 150km away to Valencia, reportedly due to a bungle by the crew. The mixup left hundreds of fans who had gathered at Caracas International Airport in limbo. Many had come bearing gifts such as Venezuelan rum and tulips, Minogue's favourite flower.

The error also forced the petite songstress to cancel a scheduled media conference but despite the botched arrival Kylie fever continues to grip Venezuela, where she was to perform today.

The social networking site Facebook boasts 15 Venezuelan-based fan groups dedicated to the star. And last night tickets for her concert at the Caracas Poliedro were as rare as hens' teeth. Next stop will be Peru, and then on to Brazil, Chile and Argentina.

Venezuela PdVSA Notifies Oil Clients Of Output Reduction

Venezuela has notified oil industry clients of the need to cut output in line with a recent decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

State oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PdVSA, has "notified clients" of the Andean country's move to cut output by 129,000 barrels a day, PdVSA and the oil ministry said in a joint statement Tuesday. Members of OPEC met in October and decided to trim production by 1.5 million barrels a day starting Nov. 1, a decision meant to halt a dramatic slide in world oil prices.

Rafael Ramirez, Venezuela's oil minister, has already called on OPEC to cut at least an additional $1 million barrels a day this year, possibly during its coming December meeting in Algeria. Defending oil prices aims to maintain a "reasonable crude price" that can ensure the continuity of important oil industry projects, the statement added.

The price for Venezuela's basket of crude and products touched its lowest level this year at $54.55 a barrel late last week. President Hugo Chavez has vowed to soldier on with his spending plans and move the country toward socialism regardless of what oil prices might do.

However, observers said they doubt Venezuela's spending plans will manage to continue unchanged next year. The 2009 budget estimates a $60 a barrel average price, higher than standing prices for Venezuelan crude.

Former Russian minister advocates joint maneuvers with Venezuela

Former Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, said on Monday that the maneuvers that the Russian and Venezuelan Navies will hold shortly in the Caribbean "will be open for all to see" and, therefore, "they will not hide anything."

Ivanov talked with reporters after giving a lecture in Madrid. The former diplomat said that these maneuvers or "joint exercises" were already scheduled, EFE reported. "This time is Venezuela; tomorrow we can hold joint exercises with other countries. There is nothing hidden in these maneuvers. They will be open for all to see," said Ivanov, who participated in the forum "Where does Russia go?"

Russia's and Venezuela's Navies will hold, for the first time, joint naval exercises in the Caribbean Sea between November 10 and November 14. After the maneuvers, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev will arrive in Caracas invited by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

Big spender Venezuela's Chavez shrugs off cheaper oil

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez will seek to tough out the recent slump in oil prices and stick to his spending plans and socialist model despite slower world economic growth.

Risk-taker Chavez, who says his statist policies protect oil-dependent Venezuela from the worst of the global financial crisis, is gambling that prices will recover before the South American nation really feels the pinch.

For now, he has plenty of cash. A few days ago, flush Venezuela even launched its first satellite. But a sustained slump in crude oil prices could eventually drive Chavez to scale back lavish spending on arms and foreign aid or even to devalue country's the fixed-rate currency. With that in mind, Chavez and his energy minister have tried to talk up the price of oil. They want OPEC to reduce output further beyond a 1.5 million barrel-a-day cut agreed last month that did little to stop oil's decline.

Chavez, who has threatened to cut oil supplies to the United States in the past, also wants the exporters group to set a minimum price target of $70 or $80 per barrel.

Emerging markets analysts say Chavez needs more costly oil. Moody's said on Tuesday that with oil at $70 a barrel, Chavez would likely run out of savings within six months. Oil accounts for about 80 percent of Venezuela's exports and about 50 percent of the government's budget. Despite his concern, Chavez mocks Wall Street doomsayers and has no intention of slowing his socialist reforms just yet. He is using stump speeches for regional elections to proclaim that policies such as controls on capital flows and nationalizations insulate Venezuela from bank collapses and credit freezes hitting other countries.

"While in the north they are closing banks and holding up infrastructure projects, in Venezuela we are advancing at full speed," said Chavez, who teasingly called his long-time foe U.S. President George W. Bush "comrade" after the United States nationalized parts of its banking system. "While capitalism sinks, Venezuela's socialism grows and will keep on growing and developing."

Ten years from first being elected, the ex-para-trooper who was once jailed for trying to grab power by force has survived a coup, an oil industry strike and a recall referendum. He believes he can also avoid the fate of predecessors whose governments were weakened when oil prices fell, notably after the 1970s boom as Venezuela's oil income crashed. Popular for his health and welfare programs, Chavez has access to sufficient currency reserves and has saved funds to keep his spending promises for months. But he will face tougher times if oil plunges further and stays low for long.

Oil prices are now less than half their peak of $147 per barrel in July, but are still above the average for 2007, considered a boom year. Analysts say even with softening demand, oil is unlikely to drop below $50 a barrel for long. Venezuelan oil is below the $60 projected in the country's 2009 budget. Although partial, central bank data shows Chavez increased spending almost 50 percent in the first of the year.
Even though Chavez has warned the financial crisis could eventually seep into Venezuela's economy, for now he is promising to stick to all spending commitments and expects to cover shortfalls with loans promised by China and Russia.

INVESTOR FEARS
Foreign investors are less convinced of Venezuela's financial stability and have been fast shedding its bonds, along with other emerging market debt. That has sent the value of one of the world's top oil exporter's paper into junk territory.

While investors' fears may be overstated -- despite his anti-capitalist rhetoric Chavez has paid his country's debt -- such devalued paper reduces Venezuela's borrowing options.

With annual consumer prices rising by a third, Chavez has decreed a 30 percent pay hike for most government workers. "Expenditures almost always rise to meet revenues in petro-states during an oil boom. When the boom is over, they are locked into a new level of spending, and this means trouble," said Terry Karl, author of The Paradox of Plenty, a book examining boom-bust cycles in oil nations.
However, Karl sees a way out for Chavez if prices do not stay low for long, via cutting spending abroad and on unproductive and corrupt social programs, instead of following previous governments and borrowing more. "There is an opportunity for self-correction," Karl said. "Whether the government will take this opportunity remains to be seen."

Spanish shipyards and Pdvsa finalize deal on five vessels

Top executives of the Spanish shipyards Freire and Vulcano and state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) finalized on Tuesday a contract to build five vessels for Venezuela. The agreement, amounting to Euro 400 million (USD 513 million), is set to be signed in the coming months. It includes the construction of three oceanographic ships and two seismic ships, company sources told Efe. In case of concluding the contract, the ships will be built in the Spanish city of Vigo, in the next three years. The vessels would allow Pdvsa to carry out oil prospecting and mapping of seabed without resorting to foreign firms. Currently, Pdvsa has an agreement with Norwegian firm Statoil to carry out oil exploration on the seabed of Venezuela.

Jail-break candidate barred from election

A popular opposition politician accused of corruption who escaped from jail last year and fled to Peru cannot run for re-election as governor of the Venezuelan state of Yaracuy, the country's top court ruled Monday. The decision opens the way for an ally of President Hugo Chavez to win a tightly contested election for governor of the small farming state.
Venezuela's Supreme Court said former governor Eduardo Lapi, who apparently escaped from jail through an air conditioning duct, was not eligible to stand again in elections later this month. "Eduardo Lapi escaped from San Felipe prison to avoid justice, excluding himself from his political rights," the court said in its ruling. After nearly 10 years in office, Chavez's allies are expected to lose several key states and cities in nationwide elections for governors and mayors. Earlier in the year the government's anti-corruption office ruled that a handful of leading opposition candidates and several less important government allies could not take part in the elections. Lapi had not been brought to trial before his breakout and claims he was a political prisoner. He was granted asylum in Peru after his escape and supporters managed to register him as a candidate for governor earlier this year. Lapi vowed to continue his election bid despite the ruling. "I want Hugo Chavez to know -- they will have to shoot me in the head to stop me fighting for democracy," he told television station Globovision by telephone.

Kylie strikes trouble on tour in Venezuela

First thieves in Colombia swiped computers and passports from her entourage, then Kylie Minogue's flight crew landed her in the wrong place in Venezuela. After such a bad start to her Latin American tour, Argentina is taking no chances. "We have elaborate plans in place to make sure Kylie's stay is safe, pleasurable and that the show is a success," event organiser Marisol Koren said. "It doesn't get much bigger than Kylie Minogue. People love her here." A few days ago, thieves stole computers, cameras and passports from Kylie's support crew in Colombia. And then her flight to Venezuelan capital Caracas was accidentally diverted 150km away. She was due to perform in Venezuela yesterday.

The United States needs self-sacrificing acts of real statesmanship and leadership that transcend personal egos

VHeadline commentarist & money market expert Fred Cederholm writes: I've been thinking about 2012 ... about election 2008, the process, the record books, partisanship/ bi-partisanship, and a self-sacrificing act of real statesmanship and leadership that transcends ego giving the next administration a running start.

It is NOT about 2012!

You see the election 2008 cycle is finally approaching an end. Technically ... this process goes well beyond the casting/counting of ballots on November 4. It goes beyond one party's conceding the outcome to the opponents in the hours (or even days) after the balloting. It goes beyond the December 24 date which is the deadline for the receipt of the electoral votes.

One might even argue that the process is not finalized until the New President and Vice-President are sworn in on January 20, 2009.

This "go around" has been a very long haul for all the candidates and the public
at large. It is one for the record books and not all of the records set in this
particular race for the White House are good things.

I fear the race for the election 2012 begins as the ballots for election 2008 are being cast, counted, challenged, and debated in the days, weeks, months, and even years to come. In the back rooms, the power elites of both major parties have already set in motion the workings for turning asunder whatever outcome we shall see from this current ordeal. 2008 proved an ordeal for the candidates, their supporters, and the American public at large. Focus on the future by dealing within the here and now1

It has been the longest and most expensive election cycle ever. More candidates threw their hats in the ring and raised/spent more money than ever before in our history. This was the first time it was a BILLION dollar plus presidential campaign cycle. It marks the first time an African American and a woman ran for the Oval Office on the Democratic side. It was the first time the GOP fielded a woman as a running mate. The primaries contests were lengthy, costly, negative, and bitter. Regardless of the outcome… the passions (for and against) the candidates run hot and deep. There will be a significantly disgruntled populace left angered and frustrated whoever "wins" in 2008.

• The partisan perceived recourse will be to commence 2012 races before the 2008 voting booths are disassembled and put away.

When you look at the problems, crises, and hurdles facing this nation (and the planet as a whole), the victor from this contest is actually the loser!

The looming problems facing US/us financially, economically, militarily, diplomatically and environmentally are bigger than any party/administration. There should be some sort of honeymoon acceptance of the successful team, but I fear it will be short lived. Those familiar with my weekly columns know that I believe we (as a people) have been kept in the dark regarding the depth, breadth, and severity of the systemic crises and frauds lurking out there. Hundreds of BILLIONS (really multiple TRILLIONS) have been thrown out as "fixes" to buy the time to defer any honest appraisals of the breakdowns until after the election ... then … Katie bar the door!

We will experience an acceleration of defaults, bankruptcies, liquidations, failures, and mergers and dissolutions the likes of which have been unseen since the "Great Depression" of the 1930's. These are global in nature and will require not only a bi-partisan working together; they will require a multi-(supra) national coming together.

An international convocation of the world's economic/financial powers is already set for later this month to be hosted in the US. It is critical that our President-elect/Veep-elect, their advisors, and transition teams be a central (make that THE dominating) US presence at this gathering. Such an early deferral to a successor administration is unheard of in the annals of politics.

The Bush-Cheney administration and the 110th Congress had their chance.

These looming crises are part of their legacy even if the crises go beyond recent prior "elections."
We as a nation (and a planet) can not wait for a lame duck Presidency and a lame duck Congress to diddle out their remaining tenure over the coming months in a final show of struts and hollow bravado.

We need self-sacrificing acts of real statesmanship and leadership that transcend personal egos ... giving the next administration (and Congress) a running start!

Fred Cederholm
asklet@rochelle.net

____________________________________

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.

HELP US TO KEEP BRINGING YOU THE TRUTH
http://tinyurl.com/n4fg

Venezuela among the most corrupt countries

The 13th biennial International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC), organized by Transparency International (TI), ended on Sunday in Athens with a call on countries to boost cooperation between governments and civil society to eradicate corruption.

One of the conclusions of the meeting, which was attended by over 1,300 experts from 135 countries, was related to Central America and the Caribbean, whose presidents signed a protocol in the previous conference (2006), held in Guatemala, with the goal of harmonizing regional laws and policies against corruption until 2010, EFE reported.

The perception of corruption in Latin America is one of the highest in the world, only surpassed by some African countries. Alejandro Salas, director general of the Americas Department of TI, stressed the problems caused by the irregular financing of political parties in the region.

According to the Corruption Perception Index 2008, the countries with the highest perceived levels of corruption in Latin America are Haiti, Venezuela and Ecuador.

US jury convicts Venezuelan in cash suitcase case

A federal jury in Miami has convicted a wealthy Venezuelan of acting as an illegal foreign agent in the U.S. to cover up a Latin American political scandal involving a suitcase full of cash. The jury deliberated for seven days after an eight-week trial before delivering the verdict for 41-year-old Franklin Duran. Prosecutors said Duran and others came to Miami on orders of Venezuela's government to ensure the silence of the man who in 2007 carried a suitcase stuffed with $800,000 into Argentina. The U.S. said the money was a political donation to the campaign of Argentina's president. Duran's attorney contended he was entrapped by the FBI and came to Miami only to help out a friend and protect business interests.

Walesa critical of Chavez's leadership in Venezuela

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa has criticized Hugo Chavez's left-wing brand of leadership, saying the Venezuelan president should learn from Poland's experience how damaging communism can be. Ex-Polish leader Lech Walesa says bringing communism to Venezuela is "the biggest mistake of the region. The ideas of the ruling team [in Venezuela] are very bad ideas," said Walesa, a former president of Poland. I am the best proof that communism fell because it was a bad system," said Walesa. "And introducing it there [in Venezuela] is the biggest mistake of the region," he said in a television interview.

Walesa, 65, dropped plans to attend a pro-democracy forum in Venezuela this week organized by anti-Chavez university students after the country's authorities said they could not guarantee his security. Walesa took it as a sign that he was not welcome.

Venezuela's Chavez Calls for Obama to End U.S. Embargo on Cuba

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called for U.S. Senator Barack Obama, favored in opinion polls to win the presidential election on Nov. 4, to end his country's trade embargo of Cuba. ``A black man may become president of the U.S., and we can say that's no small thing,'' Chavez said in a speech on state television. ``Hopefully, the next government of the U.S. will listen to the mandate, not just of morals, ethics and the times, but also the mandate of the UN that days ago voted, once more, asking the U.S. to eliminate its savage blockade of Cuba.'' The U.S. declared a trade embargo on Cuba almost 50 years ago and has maintained it in the face of criticism from around the world. In a United Nations vote Oct. 29, 185 nations pressed the U.S. to drop the embargo, with only the U.S., Israel and Palau voting against the resolution. Venezuela is one of Cuba's closest allies. Chavez referred to Cuba's government during the broadcast as having a common government with Venezuela, and he offered his customary greeting to Fidel Castro, the former Cuban president, by saying ``How are you, Fidel?'' in English. Chavez also called on the U.S. to end ``threats'' against Venezuela and Iran, without elaborating.

Cuban political prisoners were sent to Venezuela through secret deal

Thousands of political prisoners and dissidents in Cuba were relocated to Venezuela under a secret arrangement negotiated in 1975 by the Caracas and Havana governments, several participants say.

The agreement was hatched in 1975, one year after Venezuela reestablished diplomatic relations with Cuba that had been suspended in 1960. By 1977, the first contingent of Cubans began to arrive and would be followed by an estimated 23,000, including several who had been serving prison sentences of up to 30 years, the participants added.

The arrangement was part of ''a constant policy of Venezuelan democracy to defend human rights in Cuba,'' said Simon Alberto Consalvi, the former Venezuelan foreign minister who coordinated efforts with the Cuban exile community at the time. ''We were able to remove an important group of political prisoners from Cuba, and also at times when there were many asylum-seekers at the Venezuelan Embassy in Havana, we were also able to prevent them from being turned in.'' recalled Consalvi, who in 1974, as Venezuela's U.N. ambassador, negotiated the reestablishment of diplomatic relationships with then Cuban Ambassador Ricardo Alarcón.

Venezuela today has one of the largest Cuban exile communities in Latin America.

MIAMI RESIDENT
The program was negotiated by the administration of Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez, who took office in 1974. Pérez, now 86, lives in Miami. It reached its highest level under President Luis Herrera Campins, who succeeded Pérez.

The first list of candidates for expatriation to Venezuela was drawn up by Mario Escoto, a former Cuban political prisoner, according to participants. Escoto deliverred the list to the Pérez government with the help of Aureliano Sánchez Arango, a former Venezuelan minister of education who was a close friend of Pérez.

The objective was for the Venezuelan government to ''request the expatriation of former prisoners and political prisoners, since by then it was senseless to maintain so many thousands of Cubans in prison,'' said Alfredo Sánchez, a former political prisoner who had served a 14-year sentence and was on parole at the time of his move to Venezuela.

The list snowballed until there were more than 3,000 dissidents and their relatives, recalled Vikín Meso, who became one of the project's coordinators when he arrived in Caracas in 1978.

''One day, a security agent arrived to our house to tell us that we had to leave immediately to Venezuela on a plane. In less than a day, they gave us passports and exit visas,'' recalled Gladys Chinea de Sanchez, 69, who in 1978 left Cuba with her husband, Alfredo, and their family for a new life in Venezuela.

HELP OFFERED
As about 50 Cubans began arriving each week under the agreement -- some of the former prisoners aboard a Venezuelan presidential aircraft -- Cuban exiles already in Venezuela organized to help their compatriots. ''We helped to consolidate the Cubans that began arriving to the country through several homes that we rented,'' said Meso, 84, who still lives in Venezuela.

The Venezuelan government also provided temporary shelter in a high school, and later rented spacious homes in eastern Caracas to house the newly arriving Cubans. Both the government and private businesses offered jobs to the Cubans. The relocation program was expanded under Herrera Campins, due in part to the added activism of the growing Cuban exile community in Venezuela.

`A SPECIAL PROGRAM'
''When Luis Herrera came to power, a special program was created to give sense to the visas, because until then there was no official policy about the topic,'' noted Joaquín Pérez Rodríguez, a Cuban Venezuelan who negotiated with Havana on the relocations. He added that during Herrera Campins' five years in power, Venezuela received more than 20,000 Cubans. ''We focused on former prisoners, because they had a very hard life in Cuba. They were political dissidents and for that reason could not get jobs, or could only get the lowest-level work; they couldn't study at a university,'' Pérez Rodríguez said.

Candidates for relocation were selected by a committee composed of dissidents on the island and exiles in Venezuela. But the lists were later ''purged'' by the Venezuelan intelligence service then presided over by José Vásquez Blanco, a Cuban exile. ''We were trying to prevent the Cuban government from infiltrating spies into the exile community in Venezuela,'' Pérez Rodríguez said.

Venezuelan aunt's tribute to accident victim

A VENEZUELAN man who came to live in Eastbourne and died when he was knocked off his bike by a car had come here to improve his English and make a success of himself, his aunt told the Herald as she paid tribute to the 26-year-old.

Sonia Moncada de Villamizar came to the town for the first time for the inquest of her nephew, Franco Sicurella, who worked at Gardners Books and was struck by a hit-and-run driver on July 20 last year.

A verdict of accidental death was recorded, although the collision investigator said the crash was caused by Franco either not looking properly before he crossed the road or failing to appreciate the speed and distance of an approaching car.

The coroner heard the two women who hit him, Gemma Kingdon and Saffron Homewood, drove away directly after the accident, abandoned the car and did not tell the police.
Ms Homewood was jailed for 12 weeks in December last year and banned from driving for 12 months. Ms Kingdon was charged with driving with no insurance and fined £200, plus £50 costs.

His aunt, who said she had come to the inquest into Franco's death on behalf of his mother, Alba Moncada, told the Herald he came to Eastbourne in February 2005 to work and study. She said, "His dream and project was supported by his parents and family and we are all very proud of what he accomplished until his tragic death.
"He had worked on his English language, he had a steady job which he enjoyed doing, and was saving money to continue studying something related to his studies in Venezuela to become a dental technician. He was a fighter.

"During his spare time he enjoyed spending time with friends, riding his bike, walking, surfing and skateboarding and he loved all sorts of sports.

"He always made sure he had time to practise at least one these activities every day.

"Franco was shy and quiet but with a very positive attitude to whoever needed his help. He had a big heart and the most beautiful smile you had ever seen."

Franco was the son of a Venezuelan mother and an Italian father, the oldest of three children. He is survived by his parents, a 25-year-old brother and 20-year-old sister.
Sonia said, "They were a happy family until this terrible tragedy occurred which changed them for life because Franco is no longer with us."

Yes! We're talking about the launching into orbit of a 8,000 watt communications satellite... Or is it just some more MinCI baloney?

VHeadline editor & publisher Roy S. Carson writes: While being in the shadows of the mainstream media's saturation coverage of the United States presidential election, it may generally have escaped the notice of readers around the world, that Venezuela entered the space age last week with the launching of an 8,000-watts Chinese-built "Simon Bolivar" VENESAT-1 communications satellite bearing a price-tag of some US$406 million.

• A spokesperson for the Ministry of Science & Technology in Caracas assured that the blast-off from China will "guarantee the autonomy, independence and sovereignty of Venezuelan telecommunications to put an end to United States hegemony in the field."

Apparently some 50% of the near-space technology floating around up there is under "USA domination" and are owned principally by "big corporations" which commercialize new-age technology reaping in huge profits!

President Hugo Chavez Frias, of course, was not tardy in launching his own television "cadena" (mandatory broadcasts on all free-to-air TV and radio channels) to enthuse greatly over Venezuela's "great step for mankind" ... which, of course, on a local level it may well have been although I believe it is many decades since any of Chavez' North American counterparts paid a visit to Cape Canaveral to seize airtime on NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN and FOX to bully-pulpit a communications satellite launch as a political achievement ... especially with, at the time, just over three weeks to go to important local and regional elections in which he (Chavez) is clearly losing his support base.

I guess the supposed national fervor (?) could perhaps be compared with something akin to Trinidad & Tobago's enthusiastic support for their national bob-sleigh team in the 1994 Winter Olympics ... BUT ... in the aftermath of sour-grapes from the presidency and the MinCI propaganda ministry, the real rocket should be given to the plethora of thin-skinned political party politruks who seemed to think that there was an OBLIGATION placed upon the media to give screeds and screeds of pagination and hours of audio-video broadcasting to the launching AND especially the President's politicizing of what would otherwise have been recognized as quite an achievement for a supposedly Third World country like Venezuela.

I somehow don't believe for a second that Chinese television will have gone into such wall-to-wall raptures as mandated from government-controlled Venezuelana de Television (VTV) and forced down the tubes of all the other Venezuelan public airwave broadcasters.

The "cadenas" in themselves are a subject of much debate, although they're quite obviously a hang-over from Venezuela's early broadcasting traditions. Certainly, circa the Febroary 1989 Caracazo bloodbath and both before, during and after the two coup d'etat attempts against then-President Carlos Andres Perez (CAP) in 1992, the "cadenas" on Venezuelan television were quite frankly a pain in the neck. Personally, I could never understand why the Venezuelan people could so blandly accept a presidential broadcast cutting in on their favorite TV soap opera for CAP to rant for upwards of an hour on matters that would scarcely get 30 seconds on the nightly news anywhere else in the civilized world. But they did!

Things changed though when Chavez came to power in 1999 ... NOT the "cadenas" of course ... but both the frequency and the length of the mandatory broadcasts. Some sectors of the community ... right from the birth of US cable and satellite networks, of course ... had had the clear advantage of being able to switch over to CNN en Espanol or elsewhere for relief from the political verbology and after the closure of Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) free-to-air broadcast licence a couple of years ago, even more have flocked to "free from cadenas" channels, especially with the rebirth of RCTV as a cable and satellite alternative.

But the piqued MinCI propagandists pique was further exacerbated by the response they received from the very mainstream opposition media they had so indignantly chided in the pro-government media on Thursday last week ... for, in Friday editions, the opposition media took their infantile hullabaloo to task by pointing out that the government's efforts to publicize the technological advance as a series of political brownie points for Chavez' United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) -- by erecting huge TV screens on downtown official government buildings -- had attracted legions of pickpockets and thieves to plunder victims among the crowds that stood and watched "the show."

Former communist guerrilla, economic planning & coordination minister in the pre-Chavez government and now editor-in-chief of the TalCual tabloid daily, Teodoro Petkoff, led the Friday chorus also cloned in the broadsheets "El Nacional" and "2001" ... immediately sending the thin-skinned party political politruks into further frenzy accusing the opposition media of seeking "to undermine the achievements of the Venezuelan government, continuing its media war against one of the most important events in the history of Venezuela!"

Yes! We're talking about the launching into orbit of a 8,000 watt communications satellite...

• El Nacionalhad noted that "as people standing by, the crooks were mingling with the crowd making hay while the shone" and "it was only at the end of the transmission that the victims, mostly women, realized that they'd been robbed!
  
• 2001 reporters reported that many wallets had been stolen, watches and that thieves had used knives to cut handbags, and to steal money from the people pushed together in the crowds."

Very cheekily ... as it is accustomed to be ... TalCual printed a front page headline in Chinese alluding to the fact that the satellite that bears the name of the Liberator Simon Bolivar is indeed Chinese built, with Chinese technology and was launched from Chinese territory ... being somewhat thankful that the electronics aboard the satellite are not dependent on Venezuela's dilapidated national electricity grid, which could well have done with at least part of the investment given to the Chinese to provide Chavez' latest technology toy!

MinCI propaganda Minister Andrez Izarra emerged from his father's political shadow to claim that the mainstream opposition media was being "rather mean" ... pontificating that "there is always time for the truth ... the media in Venezuela has a duty to report truthfully!"

Yes, indeed, Andres ... but the true intent of press freedom such as you claim to exist in Venezuela (at least for the pro-government media) is that it is the editorial responsibility of the publisher or broadcaster to decide of a party political PR jippo is "news" ... unless, of course, it is your ambition to impose YOUR conditions on the selfsame media that you claim is free to enjoy Venezuela's carefully guarded constitutional freedoms.

Or is it just some more MinCI baloney?

Roy S. Carson
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.

HELP US TO KEEP BRINGING YOU THE TRUTH
http://tinyurl.com/n4fg

Does anyone REALLY care a jot or tittle about what Vanessa Davies has been up to ...

VHeadline editor & publisher Roy S. Carson writes: I guess it is more than obvious that blind panic has set in among President Hugo Chavez' imaginary friends in the Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) when a series of his overly thin-skinned pseudo acolytes break out in a sweat over "a bit of personal history" about Chavez' favorite blonde activist (sometimes El Universal scribe) Vanessa Davies.

Writing this weekend in his weekly political magazine "Las Verdades de Miguel", colleague Miguel Salazar takes a closer look at Vanessa's antecedents and immediately encounters a maelstrom of accusations of "media terrorism, calumny, discrimination, sexism and lies!"

Now, if it weren't for the fact that I know Miguel to be a stalwart supporter of the TRUTH as prescribed in his editorial ethos, I'd be rather perplexed.

But ... it's all part of the geography now in Venezuela where "the truth" has indeed become a front-line casualty in the political battle, especially with Chavez' new political party PSUV struggling to avoid being included in infant mortality statistics.

Of course, it all boils down to the fact that the corrupt "establishment" of false-flagged 'chavistas' who took over from the similarly corrupt establishments of a whole series of previous Venezuelan presidencies, is beginning to feel the heat of democracy with the November 23 local and regional elections just three weeks away.

They're facing a resounding slap in the face, to match the coloring on their baseball caps, berets and obligatory red shirts, as the heartland of grassroots Venezuelans wake up to the fact that the government machinery presided over ... but very much out of his control ... by President Hugo Chavez Frias is anything but the Bolivarian Revolution he spearheaded a very long ten years ago in Venezuelan history.

The Bolivarian Revolution has become an oxymoron -- more closely defined as a bunch of bovine/assinine/mule morons who should best be isolated to an aptly named locality (Moron) in the coastal state of Carabobo ... which is already the center of Venezuela's fertilizer industry.

One can only surmise the frustration that President Hugo Chavez Frias feels, knowing that his best-laid plans for an egalitarian Venezuela ... turning away from the abuses of half a century of Accion Democratica (AD) / Christian Democrat (Copei) misrule and corruption ... are in obvious ruins. It perhaps offers an explanation as to why his political rhetoric has turned to such violence in paranoid distress over exactly when he's going to be taken put by an assassin's bullet or a few ounces of inconveniently placed Semtex.

Miguel Salazar has undoubtedly set the cat among the pigeons ... and the pigeons are flapping all over the place causing even more confusion since everyone knows they're over-reacting to the fact that Miguel's 'Verdades' are just that ... THE TRUTH!

The already enriched "activists" within the President's PSUV are, of course, enraged by Miguel's exposure of their pecuniary foibles ... it is not without reason the 'sifrinas' (nouveaux riche) in the President's proximity are generally also described as the 'sin verguenzas' (those without shame!) ... and like pigs being rounded up for slaughter in the November 23 elections, they're squealing their heads off!

Does anyone REALLY care a jot or tittle about what Vanessa Davies has been up to ... other than that it exposes the shallowness of those who claim to have been revolutionaries for the last twenty-five years but are now stuffing their back pockets with all available cash ahead of imminent emigration or incarceration if they leave it too late?

As for the greatest oxymoron of them all ... the Communications & Information (MinCI) Ministry ... well, that's simply what it is!

Under the mis-management of Minister Andres Izarra, the second-hand furniture warehouse has progressed little from four years who when he preferred to use offices at the Miraflores Palace at the beginning of his sinecure.

He had shown ethical and moral promise when in April 2002 he had resigned from a lucrative job as a TV news director at Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) rather than accept orders from multi-millionaire station owner Marcel Granier to broadcast Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse cartoons when President Chavez was returning to power after the brief USA-orchestrated coup d'etat.

Perhaps it is because of his extremely strange alliance with his current bag-man, the incompetent president of Venezolana de Television (VTV) Yuri (25-year-revolutionary) Pimentel?

Whichever way, the oxymoronic Communications & Information Ministry has been sliding down the tube a long time now under false-flagged revolutionary incompetence and understandably vindictive sabotage from REAL professionals who get sidelined by rank amateurs brought in from the party machinery to negate the Ministry's original purpose i.e. to communicate and inform.

NOWADAYS: The Communications & Information Ministry's sole purpose is to publicize ONLY the President's and the party's prowess to the exclusion of all else. The rest of Venezuela simply doesn't exist and as for the democratic opposition, well, that was already excluded a long time ago as "infidels" and "traitors" simply for having opinions on policies that did not dovetail with the administration's unilateral edict!

That's why it is so vitally important that Venezuelan citizens use their democratic voting rights this November 23 to send a clear message to President Chavez and the world that while the original concept of his Bolivarian Revolution remains an ideal for the whole of Latin America to strive after, the debasement of democratic government that his current administration has become is a blight on his own character as well as that of Venezuela's undoubtedly positive future.

The crocodile tears being shed over Miguel Salazar's expose of Vanessa Davies and the "righteous indignation" of the "sifrinos" and "sin verguenzas" hanging on to Hugo Chavez Frias' coat tails are themselves illustrative of just how bad the situation has become in Venezuelan politics today, November 1, 2008.

Roy S. Carson
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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Esther J. Cepeda: Iran's Offensive in Latin America: The Chicago Connection

How does one tiny little country spread the word about a certain not-so-little country that wants to see it wiped off the map? It shouts from the rafters and knocks on a lot of doors, in a lot of countries, making one-on-one connections with regular people.

Tuesday morning, as the world media outlets were atwitter about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's ill-health - and about 48 hours before Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni called on Turkey to isolate, rather than embrace, Ahmadinejad's overtures - the Honorable Eyal Sela, Israel's Ambassador to Ecuador, held a roundtable discussion at a prestigious downtown law firm. The topic: Iran's growing influence in Latin America.

Much like what Sela does in Ecuador, he was in Chicago - the third largest Hispanic population in the country - making the rounds, talking to exclusive groups of business leaders, community organization heads, journalists, and politicians about the growing threat that rarely gets any media play in the U.S. but is vitally important to those of us who send money and travel back to visit family in any of the Latin American countries.

And with approximately 1.8 million Latinos arrived or descended from 20 or so Latin American countries in the Chicago metro region there are plenty of us who should care what's going on back there.
Sure, most of us know that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hates the U.S. and counts Iranian President Ahmadinejad as one of his very favorite pals. I've written about China pumping money into Latin America and their refusal to enter into U.S.-backed sanctions against Iran. Then there's the whole Russia/Iran relationship (which is a whole separate column as it relates to Latin America).

Most of us knew that there's major money being swapped between the two countries for various oil-related goodies and non-oil-related infrastructure, but Sela gave us a laundry list of chilling indicators of Iran's growing Latin American influence that even I hadn't had a handle on.

Representatives from the City of Chicago, the National Strategy Forum, and several powerful Hispanic business and community organizations were treated to some rarely-heard insights.

"Venezuela is one thing, we know all that part of it. But look at Guatemala, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, what's happening there..." Sela said. "The people in these countries don't know what Iran is looking for. What they want is really a better economic situation - they want to export their goods. They don't know how that legitimization empowers Iran."

The highlights:

There are plans in the works to establish an Arabic broadcast television network to spread news and opinion across Latin-America. Islam is becoming one of the fastest growing religions in Latin America by making inroads in poor, underserved indigineous communities previously targeted by Evangelical Christians.

Iran-backed Hezbollah agents are active across Latin America, especially in the tri-border areas of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Not surprisingly they're involved in drug smuggling rings and, increasingly, in shoring up routes for direct access to the United States. "Venezuela is the direct entry point to Latin America and they are the direct entrance point to the U.S." Sela said.

There are over $20 Billion worth of trade and investment deals between Iran and various Latin American countries. There are daily direct flights between Venezuela and Iran and a keen Iranian interest in Bolivia and Ecuador's uranium deposits.

From Sela's perch, though he's anticipating a bad-news move from Ecuador's University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign-educated President Rafael Correa - the word on the street is that he's planning on taking a make-nice trip to Tehran in the coming weeks - things are still moderate outside of Venezuela. And he feels Israel's band of traveling advocates are making inroads.

"[For now, in most of Latin America] there is no hate for the United States," Sela told me, "there is a different perspective from Venezuela. But the problem is that in Ecuador [and across Latin America] people don't know what's going on. There's not an ideological connection with Iran rather, the people, they know they want better standards of living in their communities but they don't understand at what price it's coming. But they need to know."

"[One positive is that] nobody wants to know see Hezbollah in their backyard," Sela said. "Another is that we are good friends. Bilateral relations between Israel and the Latin American countries are very good and it's not like I'm not coming to criticize to tell stubborn countries what to do. The Israelis are coming as friends to tell them our perspective and for the most part they are listening."

We listened as well. And after a round of speculating how the next President would impact the United States' relationship with Venezuela, Iran, Latin America as a whole and other big players like Russia and China, we got the pitch as well.

"Talk to your communities, talk to your families, ask what they're seeing and tell them what you know," Sela told our band, knowing almost every one of us had family in Mexico, Central and South America. I'm visiting my family in Ecuador next July and I know I'll certainly be asking different questions and looking around with a new perspective.

Esther J. Cepeda is a U.S.-born daughter of Mexican and Ecuadorian immigrants.

Jury done for week in Florida cash suitcase trial

A Miami jury will return next week to continue deliberations in the case of a wealthy Venezuelan accused of acting as an illegal foreign agent in the U.S.

The 12 jurors failed again Friday to determine the guilt or innocence of 41-year-old Franklin Duran. They have been deliberating for six days after an eight-week trial. A continued impasse would result in a mistrial.

Duran and others are accused of coming to Miami to cover up the source and destination of a suitcase stuffed with $800,000 in cash. Prosecutors say it was a gift from Venezuela to the campaign of Argentina's new president. Duran claims he was set up by the FBI and was not acting as Venezuela's agent.

Miguel Salazar sets cat among pigeons attacking Vanessa Davies

VHeadline Venezuela News Editor Patrick J. O'Donoghue writes: Colleague editor/publisher Miguel Salazar has set the cat among the pigeons in his recent editorial lamenting the attitude of fellow journalist and financial director in the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Vanessa Davies.

Commenting on disparaging remarks made by Davies to Las Verdades (The Truths) de Miguel weekly marketing manager and photographer when they visited Davies to request some advert spots for the newspapers, Miguel quotes Davies as saying, "not even a glass of water Las Mentiras (Lies) de Miguel ... for (opposition broadsheet) El Universal, yes, because it gives one the right to reply."

Opening his commentary stressing that it was written with a broken heart, Salazar delves into a bit of personal history and cites fellow journalist, Carlos Batatin, whom he declares, once warned him that the radical Davies would sooner or later veer to the right.

In an immediate reply by a group of pro-government journalists, including Carlos Batatin, Salazar is accused of media terrorism, calumny, discrimination, sexism and lies against their colleague, Vanessa Davies. The offensive article, they continue, is an aggression against the "good name and credibility of revolutionary militants" and aimed at "sowing despair among the people."

Communications & Information (Minci) Minister Andres Izarra has not made any public statement but is expected to issue a declaration condemning Salazar as a loose cannon.

In setting the cat among the pigeons, the veteran left-wing editor/publisher has brought out into the open once more the question of government use of advert-financing that has favored opposition broadsheets and tabloids and effectively marginalizing more independent left-wing newspapers, such as Las Verdades de Miguel.

• Davies' remarks regarding funding is typical of the position held by many government and PSUV mandarins.

In trying to break the unintelligible and counter-productive government media encirclement and following a declaration from the Minci Minister that no more adverts would be forthcoming for opposition media, Las Verdades de Miguel finds itself accused of media terrorism.

Time to show the Real Venezuela and a review of the people's historical memory.

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.

HELP US TO KEEP BRINGING YOU THE TRUTH
http://tinyurl.com/n4fg