The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has issued its first statement after the allegedly successful rescue operation launched by the Colombian Army. The FARC refutes the operation, saying it was not a liberation of hostages but a flight with the connivance of rebels in charge of the hostages. The two rebel commanders in question have been dubbed "traitors." The FARC has stated in the document that they will continue to seek a humanitarian agreement to exchange hostages for 500 comrades imprisoned. The statement was published by the Bolivarian News Agency (ABN). According to a report in Aporrea.org, around two hundred (200) persons took part in a march last Friday in front of the Colombian Embassy in Caracas protesting the visit of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and his "belligerent and genocide" policies. The rally was organized by alternative and community media and supported by government Patriotic Alliance member, the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV), which insists on the importance of protesting and rejecting the terrorist and narco-paramilitary conduct of Uribe's government. In a statement on its website, the Communist Party, replying to a scolding from President Chavez, says it broke with President Rafael Caldera in 1996 after the government refused to break its commitments with the International Monetary Fund. The PCV supported Caldera in the 1993 elections when Caldera promised an amnesty for military officers involved in the 1992 coup attempt, including President Chavez Himself.
Comptroller General, Clodosbaldo Russian has handed the National Electoral Council (CNE) an updated list of public officials excluded from being candidates to regional elections on November 23. Russian says the ban includes citizens who have received administrative sentences for irregularities committed. It would appear that the list has been whittled down from 400 to 270 since many have fulfilled the three-year inhibition period required by law.
Opposition groups supporting Chacao Mayor Leopoldo Lopez, who is subject to the ban and desperately wants to run for the Metropolitan Mayor's Office, organized a march last Friday attended by three thousand people.
During his controversial visit to Venezuela on Friday, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe met in private with President Chavez for more than two hours. According to some news reports, the initial body language of both Presidents was somewhat tense, as both announced that they were satisfied with the meeting calling it the beginning of a new stage in relations between the two countries. Meeting at the Paraguana refinery in Falcon State, President Chavez argues that it was necessary to reactivate relations adding that an improvement in relations will depend on many factors. The outcome of the meeting was a decision to re-launch political, social and economic and human relations between the two countries. The conversation between the two Presidents was hailed as "frank" and "warm" and described as a "turning of the page." Uribe did admit during a press conference that he should have informed Chavez by phone when he decided to end Venezuela's mediation in the humanitarian agreement process. The foreign ministers of both countries will meet within two months to discuss economic and trade matters.
During the opening of a penitentiary community in Coro, Falcon State, President Chavez has announced the setting up of a committee to end what he calls discrimination in the penitentiary system. One of the inmates told the President that she had been in prison for 20 months and was still awaiting a sentence. Chavez has called on representatives of the judicial system to come up with definite solutions to problems in prisons especially regarding delays in sentences, reform of the criminal code and problems of corruption inside jails themselves. Interior & Justice (MIJ) Minister, Ramon Rodriquez Chacin will coordinate the tasks. The parliamentary group of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) has promised to set up another committee to push forward reforms in parliament.
Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TS J.) president, Luisa Estela Morales states that advances have been made in dealing with prisoners' complaints but are not sufficient, since any change in the penitentiary system has to be structural. Caught flat-footed by the President's remarks, Morales presented some of the so called "itinerant judges," who should visit prisons to review cases of prisoners, especially in the matter of sentences. The government had set up the scheme of itinerant judges two years ago but it would appear that the program has either not been monitored or the system has been overwhelmed by the mere weight of the problem.
Opening the meeting of the Caribbean oil organization, Petrocaribe in Maracaibo, President Chavez has called on Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to keep his Defense Minister, Juan Manuel Santos in check after the latter called Chavez Colombia's enemy number one. Chavez accuses Santos of involvement in the coup attempt against him in 2002 and says he's a frequent visitor to Washington to receive orders from the State Department. If he were one of my people, Chavez quips, the person out of line would have been dismissed ... "President Uribe will know what to do and I thank him for putting things in their place."
President Uribe has slammed Santos' calculated outburst by requesting total prudence from his ministers and officers regarding declarations involving President Chavez. In a brief statement, Uribe reaffirms his government's proposal to advance in a new era of relations with Venezuela as agreed to two days ago in Venezuela and he orders all spokespersons to observe complete prudence to avoid influencing relations with their neighbors.
During the Petrocaribe conference President Chavez has made payments from member countries more flexible because of the current economic, food and energy crises. Chavez has proposed the creation of joint ventures between Venezuelan's Petroleos de Venezuela and Petrocaribe countries in the Orinoco oil belt. The venture, Chavez promises, would mean that countries taking part will enjoy a percentage in the shares. Another suggestion launched by President Chavez during the meeting was to set up a council of agricultural ministers within Petrocaribe. The idea is to convert petroleum resources into tools for producing food as an answer to the current world food crisis. Petrocaribe, Chavez insists, must become an anti-hunger shield to protect our countries from misery and hunger.
Patrick J. O'Donoghue
patrick.vheadline@gmail.com
Venezuela is facing the most difficult period of its history with honest reporters crippled by sectarianism on top of rampant corruption within the administration and beyond, aided and abetted by criminal forces in the US and Spanish governments which cannot accept the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people to decide over their own future.
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