US kicks off Latin military drill

US marines have landed at Puerto Belgrano naval base in Argentina to launch a joint amphibious drill with Brazil, Chile and Argentina. “The intention of the exercise is a common language for when the moment comes a UN mission needs this kind force services. The significance of the exercise is given by the continuity factor: Chile in 2007 and Brazil next year, with Peru subscribing as another candidate to join forces”, said Sunday an official release from the Argentine command. Three hundred men, half of them Argentine marines (36 US marines with Iraq experience) took part in the exercise code-named 'Exchange 2008'. The drills included amphibious landings from Argentine Navy light transport plus combined operations on the ground. Peruvian officers next to observers from Uruguay, Colombia and Bolivia were present at the exercise as well as Brigadier General John Croley, Commander of the US Southern Command Marine Corps.

Russia meddling in Latin America

Just when the world thought the Cold War was long gone, it's getting a bit chilly on this side of the globe. Russia, hoping to regain superpower status, is dabbling in Latin America again with a longtime thorn in the United States' side and a more recent pain the neck. Neither courtship bodes well for our country. Let's first start with the old alliance between Russia and Cuba. The Agence France-Presse reports that Russia is 'mulling' the possibility of starting regular long-range bomber flights to the Caribbean island 90 miles from Key West. AFP cited the Russian newspaper Izvestia which quoted an unnamed senior air force official that discussions 'exist' on the matter. It was uncertain whether what's being mulled is basing long-range Russian bombers in Cuba, or using it as a refueling base, although former defense ministry official Leonid Ivashov did say the island is better suited as refueling stop. Subsequently, Russian officials denied they're considering the move, calling it a 'media hoax,' although the New York Sun reported Izvestia as saying Algeria and Venezuela could be used as bases for Russian supersonic jets.

The Chavez effect: A life belt for the Caribbean

Former Caribbean diplomat Sir Ronald Sanders writes: There is no question that the two oil-related initiatives launched by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez – PetroCaribe and ALBA – are life belts to many Caribbean countries, notably Cuba and Jamaica.

However, Chavez’ continuation in government is not guaranteed and when he goes, it is very likely that the Venezuelan largesse will go with him leaving many Caribbean economies in grave difficulty.

Already, opposition groups in Venezuela have indicated that they regard PetroCaribe as “bribe diplomacy” – an attempt by Chavez to win the support of Central American and Caribbean countries against the United States which he calls “the evil empire”. They have also argued that the money Chavez is lending to the PetroCaribe countries on very concessionary terms could be spent on projects in Venezuela and invested for the country’s future.

Since 2005 when the PetroCaribe arrangement was launched, Venezuela is reported to have financed $2 billion or 43 per cent of the 59 million barrels of oil it has sent to Caribbean and Central American countries.

Cuba is the biggest beneficiary, followed by Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, but smaller Caribbean countries such as Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica have been recipients too. St. Lucia, which had joined Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago and the Bahamas, in standing aloof from PetroCaribe, is now negotiating terms in light of unprecedented oil prices.

Under the PetroCaribe Agreement, 86,000 barrels of oil per day have been shipped to the signatory states other than Cuba. Cuba gets a separate lion’s share of 90,000 barrels a day.

With oil prices at US$139 per barrel, the initiative is a lifeline to governments that would otherwise be drowning. Up to two weeks ago, they paid for half of the oil imported from Venezuela in 90 days while the payment for the other half was converted to a 25 year loan at a low interest rate – one or two per cent.

Professor Norman Girvan points out that PetroCaribe funding to the Caribbean now exceeds both EU and USAID funding by a wide margin. PetroCaribe credits to importing countries from June 2005 to December 2007 amounted to $1.17 billion and are expected to reach $4.5 billion by 2010. Only remittances from their diaspora now exceed PetroCaribe funding to the signatory states. In 2007, Latin America and the Caribbean countries received $66.5 billion in remittances from the US, Europe and Japan – more than they received from Foreign Direct Investment and Official Development Assistance combined.

Chavez announced two weeks ago that once the price for a barrel of oil exceeds $100 (which it has for some time now), only 40 per cent will require immediate payment and 60 per cent will be converted to the 25 year loan. But, while the arrangement eases the strain on the foreign exchange earnings of Caribbean countries, it also increases their debt significantly to Venezuela.

Their capacity to repay that debt in the troubling economic circumstances in which they now find themselves is very doubtful.

Their terms of trade internationally have worsened as many of them have lost preferential access to the European Union (EU) market for their traditional exports, bananas and sugar. The recent Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) which the Caribbean countries (except Cuba) have signed with the EU will also deprive them of revenues from tariffs on EU imports that they are required to forego.

So, the PetroCaribe agreement, in so far as it provides Caribbean countries with the opportunity to defer payments for at least half of the oil they are consuming, is vital to the foreign exchange position, if not survival, of governments. At the same time, it is increasing their debt. And, 14 Caribbean countries were already among the 30 most indebted nations per capita in the world, before PetroCaribe.

An indication of the difficulty these countries face in finding money to service debt and meet funding obligations, other than the provision of goods and services in their local communities is the fact that none of them has so far contributed to a PetroCaribe Fund for social development projects that Chavez initiated.

The deal was that Venezuela would start off the fund with $50 million, and all the PetroCaribe countries would contribute. Two weeks ago, the Jamaican Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, announced that his government would shortly contribute $5 million, having had 12 projects considered for financing by the Fund. There has been no indication from any other government that it will – or could – make any contribution.

In the meantime, conditions for Chavez within Venezuela are not advantageous. Constitutional reform proposals, that he tried to push through last December to give himself greater powers, failed. On 23 Nov., Venezuela will hold regional and municipal elections to elect state governors in 22 of its 23 federal states, 219 members of regional parliaments, 332 mayors, 2 city mayors, and 13 city councillors. Keen Venezuelan observers say these elections will be the most decisive since Chávez came to power in 1999.

If these elections result in a further weakening of Chavez’ presidency, Caribbean and Central American countries that are now lining up to drink at the font of his unique oil policies would be well advised to start looking for alternatives to the Venezuelan dependency that now exists. But the global community, too, particularly the United States, Canada and the EU should be worried about the capacity of Central American and Caribbean countries to cope if the Chavez life belt is cut.

They too should be devising means to help these vulnerable countries, or the consequences will arrive at their doorstep in refugees, illegal immigration, increased drug trafficking and the need for significant financial intervention to stabilise economies severely injured by the battering of high oil prices.

Sir Ronald Sanders
ronaldsanders29@hotmail.com

Sir Ronald Sanders is a former Caribbean diplomat, now a corporate
executive who publishes widely on small states in the international
community.

Gustavo Cisneros: Miss Universe 2008: Another Triumph for Venezuelan Women

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Cisneros Group of Companies, said today that the triumph of Dayana Mendoza, Miss Venezuela 2007, in the Miss Universe pageant held on July 14 is yet another of the many triumphs of Venezuelan women in all areas of public life.

In an interview broadcast by the Venezuelan national television network Venevisión, and hosted by former beauty queen, television host and entertainer Mayte Delgado, Cisneros noted that Miss Venezuela’s victory represents another great step forward for Venezuelan women on the world stage and that these talented and accomplished women are outstanding ambassadors of their country.

Dayana Mendoza, a 22 year old Elite agency model, was crowned Miss Universe in a competition held in Nha Trang, Vietnam. She is the fifth Miss Venezuela to hold the international title. As Miss Universe, Mendoza will travel worldwide for the next year and act as an advocate for public health issues. In part, she will serve as the public face of a global campaign against HIV and AIDS.

“While it is true that this is a triumph in a specific part of public life, it is representative of something much bigger: the productivity, progress and success of Venezuelan women in all fields,” Gustavo Cisneros said.

Cisneros added that after his organization acquired the Miss Venezuela Organization in 1981, the pageant was developed into one of the most successful pop culture and entertainment events in Venezuela. Winners of the Miss Venezuela pageant have gone on to compete with great success in international competitions. A number of companies in the Cisneros Group, including Venevisión and FISA beauty products, contribute to the success of the Miss Venezuela Organization. That point was emphasized by the chairman, calling the pageant an example of the synergies at work within the Cisneros Group.

“The Miss Venezuela pageant is a product of the training we offer young Venezuelan women, the talent of our producers in creating the magic of a great show, and the professional management capabilities of the Venevisión team,” said Gustavo Cisneros.

Cisneros said he is proud of all the young women who, throughout the last 27 years, have represented Venezuela internationally. He praised Mayte Delgado as one of those women, and thanked her for her dedication to a professional and artistic career. Finally, he wished Dayana Mendoza much success and happiness in carrying out her role as Miss Universe 2008.

Mayor Marlene Vargas: "We're waiting for news about what is to happen with several large mining projects!"

VHeadline Venezuela News reports: Marlene Vargas, the Mayor of the gold-mining settlement of Sifontes in southeastern Bolivar State says she expects a meeting this week with senior government officials will finally clear up a series of long-term difficulties experienced by the area's small-scale and artesanal miners.

"We're waiting for news about what is to happen with several large mining projects in the area and Basic Industries & Mines (Mibam) Minister Rodolfo Sanz has promised to tell us how far he has got with negotiations to get the projects started once and for all," she says. "We want to facilitate industrial-scale mining and to get additional areas assigned to small miners who have traditionally worked for gold to survive.

Miners union leader Paul Zambrano says he is in support of industrial-scale mining and their investments in the gold industry where small-scale mining can be organized to work in partnership or to get employment with the larger companies.

Meanwhile, writing in today's (Monday) edition of Correo del Caroni, reporter Natalie Garcia writes that the Basic Industries & Mines (Mibam) Ministry is letting the condition of factories and the environment slip. She says that factories are falling apart and the environment is being degraded ... and nobody is doing anything to stop it. Local efforts are being made to have Mibam Minister Rodolfo Sanz to understand the complexity of the situation and that Mibam must do something urgently to compel strict adherence to health & safety regulations and help prevent further environmental damage.

Garcia writes that it is no secret that Guayana's massive heavy industries are responsible for much of the prevailing air pollution, and there is very little consideration for the workers. This is a point of great concern for several organizations since $ millions have been invested to increase productivity with the result that there is little or no money left available for improving working conditions or dealing with environmental pollution.

Problems are seen in the fact that the Environment (MinAmb) Ministry has many limitations placed on it when it comes to requiring State-owned industries -- Alcasa, Carbonorca, Ferrominera, Bauxilum, Sidor and others -- to comply faithfully environmental regulations and, in Bolivar State, it is important that MinAmb should work strongly and efficiently to achieve a change that benefits all concerned. However, repeated calls for MinAmb intervention, appeals appear to have fallen on dead ears with no one prepared to give satisfactory answers. The trade unions have done very little since economic arrangements (wages) are their priority and nothing remains to improve working conditions to reduce sick statistics.

A recent inspection in Guayana by the National Assembly (AN) parliamentary environment committee made recommendations that ALL industries, including State-owned enterprises, should be required to meet standards for the benefit of both the workforce and their environment. Current environment legislation is very clear in this regard that the State has unavoidable responsibilities, and that residents should have access to full documentation to know that progress is being achieved to ensure a better environment. Article 66 of Title VI law requires "the national environmental authority establish and maintain a record of environmental information, which must contain the biophysical, economic, social and legal information related to the environment. The recorded data is subject to free consultation and, when they are of general interest, should be disseminated periodically by effective means. "

With regard to the Venezuelan Guayana Corporation (CVG), its responsibilities do not end with appropriate investment in environmental systems in its core businesses ... in paragraph 78 the law provides that "the State will implement plans, mechanisms and preventive controls to prevent environmental damage!"

Correo del Caroni's Natalie Garcia concludes that "there is no excuse ... it's time to recover the nature and the decision is in the hands of those in power."

VHeadline Venezuela News
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
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Venezuela's Chavez accuses allies of dividing coalition ahead of elections

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez angrily accused political allies of dividing his pro-government coalition ahead of regional elections, saying Sunday that some dissidents are questioning his leadership. Infighting is weakening the Patriotic Alliance — a coalition of parties that have traditionally shown near-complete allegiance to 'El Comandante' — and threatens to split the pro-Chavez vote in November's gubernatorial and municipal elections. Chavez lambasted the coalition's smaller members, including Fatherland For All and Venezuela's Communist Party, for fielding candidates that could compete against hopefuls from his own ruling party for more than half of the 23 governorships up for grabs. 'They talk about unity, but they're risking division,' Chavez said during his weekly broadcast program. 'Some of them don't recognize me as the leader. They won't say it publicly, but I know that they say it in private.' Chavez created a new ruling party — the Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela — last year to consolidate the coalition as he renewed his push toward socialism.

Chavez Frias: Venezuela not willing to take on foreign companies that are not willing to transfer industrial technology

VHeadline Venezuela news reports: President Hugo Chavez Frias says his government is not willing to take on foreign companies that are not willing to transfer industrial technology to Venezuelan jurisdiction. Speaking on his Sunday 'Alo president' TV program, Chavez referred directly to "friendly" Italian companies which are manufacturing trains in Venezuela using local labor, raw materials and imported technology in cooperation with the government.

The President adds that he has given instructions that if a "foreign company does not want to give us technology, we will bring to others who want to do it!"

"We have iron, we have steel ... we view technology transfer as an indispensable condition unless it is not appropriate for the size and complexity of a project ... European and Russian companies are willing to build plants here to manufacture parts and railroad tracks!"

"Venezuela must achieve economic independence from the world's major powers ... we must insist that the raw materials must be processed in our country to turn Venezuela into an industrialized nation."

VHeadline Venezuela News
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

It's not unusual to hear US citizens address the often inebriated lunatic in their White House as 'Commander-in-Chief'

VHeadline editor & publisher Roy S. Carson writes: Perhaps out of a misguided sense of patriotism, it is not unusual to hear citizens of the United States of America title the often inebriated lunatic in their White House as "Commander-in-Chief" and the presidential band can usually be counted on to strike up "Hail to the Chief" at the drop of any ceremonial hat ... so it came rather as a surprise to me that a VHeadline reader should object to my recent written description of President Hugo Chavez Frias as "El Comandante!"

"Calling Chavez "El Comandante" makes him sound authoritarian," the unnamed reader emailed in protest. "People don't usually call him that (unless they are in the army already) ... they call him "presidente" or Chavez!"

The fact however is that President Hugo Chavez Frias is indeed a military man with a military rank to prove it; and, indeed, he is the commander of Venezuela's democratic destiny by virtue of a series of popular elections which he won majoritarily ... no question about that!

To suppress or censor the fact of Chavez' military background or his current position as the supreme leader of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela would, of course, be an anathema to everything that Venezuela stands for ... truthfulness, honor and the democratic destiny of all of the Venezuelan people!

Our reader continues that "saying that the government agencies have become 'pig troughs' is simply slanderous..." Well is it?

Even the pro-government media, albeit reluctantly, is forced to admit that the government apparatus is littered with examples of blatant indolence, malfeasance and outright corruption ... one only has to point to ONIDEX (the Passport & Identification Office), the Housing Institute ... even the nation's various police forces ... to understand that government agencies have indeed become 'pig troughs' ... the reader may perceive the truth as slanderous/libelous but it remains the truth nonetheless.

S/he even goes to to admit that "there is no doubt there is corruption, but why don't you talk about the fight AGAINST corruption, which is alive and well!" Well ... yes, indeed, we do! But whether we like it or not (and we don't!) the fight against corruption in Venezuela appears to be waging a losing battle. Sure enough, President Chavez and some of his Ministers hold forth from time to time about the dire necessity to deal conclusively with corruption but, to take only one example, when a diplomatic "Elliot Nass" was appointed to conclusively purge corruption in Venezuela's Consular service, he was soon sidelined to the extent that he was officially denied access to the Foreign Ministry (MRE) offices in Caracas because he had only just begun to step on a series of delicately-placed corrupt administration toes.

What, indeed, is strenuously needed is the re-instatement of the MRE's ousted "Elliot Nass" with Chavez' fullest authority to REALLY get to grips with the corruption that everyone sees and recognizes as endemic throughout the administration, but nobody dares to tackle.

An anti-corruption commissioner was indeed appointed under the preceding Caldera government, but the incumbent lacked the teeth and the determination to get the job done and ended up, himself, being cited for requisitioning Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) executive jets to take him and his family on shopping trips to Florida and joyrides to Disney World et.al.

"Saying that Chavez puts his foot in his mouth is just stupid," our reader complains. "He talks like the man in the street and Venezuelans eat it up ... he knows exactly what he is doing. The only people who don't like it are the Venezuelan bourgeoisie who whisper in shocked tones about how "vulgar" he is (sounds like your article). When he said it smelled like sulphur at the UN, people applauded."

"Chavez has 'cojones' and people respond to that ... he is a force larger than life ... he has unified large portions of South America and is welcomed around the world in the epicenters of power -- Russia, China, Iran ... you can be sure people take him VERY seriously then!"

Without a doubt, Hugo Chavez has the necessary 'cojones' to unequivocally stand up to the Bush administration and the assorted Beltway Bullies in Washington D.C. And, without a shred of doubt, as witness his most recent foreign forays, Chavez is welcomed around the world ... maybe NOT in Washington or New York ... but Wall Street and the White House are basket cases of their own making and are very obviously in terminal decline with the value of the US dollar.

Without a doubt, Venezuela is "the most democratic and has the most free press of just about any country anywhere" and our reader writes "the standard of living has been raised dramatically!" While, naturally there are those in the up-scale suburbs of the Caracas Country Club, Lagunita and Los Palos Grandes who might disagree, yes, the standard of living for millions of Venezuelans has been "raised dramatically" and millions are receiving primary health care and free education for the very first time ... even if there is still a long way to go to achieve Valhalla.

Controversially our reader writes "last time I arrived in Caracas, we had to wait in the plane and a bunch upper class bitches, after gossiping about all the dreamy clothes they bought in Miami, were complaining that they were back to "mi Comandante" with all the sarcasm they could muster ... they were unable to see that their 'totalitarian, despotic, vulgar' Chavez has NOT prevented a single dyed-blonde from traveling to their beloved Miami so they can visit all the other 'gusanos' (Spanish for worms or slugs) as often as they like..."

Oh! How I wish people would just pause awhile and think! Just the same as the gringos and disenfranchised 'rich upper class bitches' throw adjectives like 'totalitarian,' 'despotic,' 'vulgar' etc., to the wind, wouldn't it be absolutely wonderful if Venezuelans could stop up and end the childish slagging matches! Why is is seemingly necessary to describe an opposition diehard as an 'escualido' (squalid) or some equally depreciative word for a pro-government supporter. All the moreso when the excoriation is mostly based on what one wears, mannerisms and assumptions of lifestyle?

What is to be achieved in the long run, other than further destructive sectarian divisions that are wrecking President Chavez' best ambitions for a truly democratic future for Venezuela.

Rather a recognition that in ANY revolution there are wrongs that must be righted, assumptions that must be revised and corrected and general acceptances that must be countered ... such as ingrained corruption at every level of Venezuela's society!

To hang oneself up on labeling President Chavez as 'El Comandante' is to turn a blinder on the essential process of what is really happening in Venezuela and, without first recognizing the things that are currently wrong, President Chavez' personal commitment to his famous three Rs -- Revision, Rectification, Reimpulse (a fresh start) -- simply goes out the window, down the tube or otherwise into oblivion.

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
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Kenneth T. Tellis: Is this another Mexican stand off?

VHeadline commentarist Kenneth T. Tellis writes: The reports of the Russians building an air base in Cuba for their long range bombers have got the United States government in a tizzy.

While the United States has spoken out against such a move by the Russians they do not mention the fact that they have air bases around the world and are building a Missile Shield around Russia itself, which in effect circles their country.

So, whether the United States likes it or not this is to all intents and purposes a Mexican Stand Off ... but somehow the US does not get the message.

If the United States has a right to build bases around the world then so do the Russians...

Of course, as usual, the United States wants to play by two different sets of rules, one for the US another for the Russians.

Of course, the first thing the US government did was to bring up the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 ... but this issue is no way similar to it, for the simple reason that the US already has bases that encircle Russia and is also building a Missile Shield around Russia, Russia’s only defense therefore is retaliation.

Of course, if Russia were to build bases in Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Uruguay and/or Brazil, that would be a threat like no other to the United States mainland.

Perhaps, the Americans thought that they were going to have it all their own way, till the present situation arose. Now the United States will see what can happen if it attempts to attack any other country, with Russian bases surrounding its very heartland.

It looks like the United States is in a jam and there is no way out of this one, because it has all the markings of a Mexican Stand off.

Kenneth T. Tellis
kenttellis@rogers.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
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Lack of consultation between MinAmb and Mibam hinders development of Venezuela's mining industry

VHeadline Venezuela News reports: Venezuela's Mining Chamber (Camiven) has unequivocally denounced the enforced paralyzation of the Las Cristinas and Las Brisas del Cuyuni gold mining projects in southeastern Bolivar State. Writing in Sunday's edition of the national broadsheet El Universal, journalist Mariel Leon reports that since the Environment Ministry (Minamb) revoked environmental permits in April this year, any progress on either project has been put on hold.

Camiven president Gilberto Sanchez says that in 2002 the Venezuelan government awarded a contract to operate Las Cristinas, and that Las Brisas del Cuyuni is subject to a mining concession awarded some thirteen years ago ... "both projects are paralyzed, not knowing what will ultimately happen ... yet they have already committed and disbursed US$350 million out of a total planned investment in excess of $1 billion."

But signal from the Environment Ministry have a completely opposite meaning to the government's aim of fostering "harmonious and sustainable development of the sector, implementing health & safety standards with the development of new deposits and, of course, the projects that were already approved, and which comply with all current legislation."

Attending last week's annual conference of the Venezuelan Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Fedecamaras) in Maracaino, Camiven's Sanchez highlights "conflicts of competence between the Ministry of Basic Industries & Mining (Mibam) and the Environment Ministry (MinAmb) over who deals with what ... inevitably causing situations which unnecessarily duplicate regulations, standards, taxation and permitting.

Fedecamaras has also highlighted a "lack of consultation" between MinAmb and Mibam which "hinders the development of the mining industry and resolution of conflicts."

Sanchez insists that differences between the mining companies and their workers must be resolved by competent bodies ... "there needs to be a revision of attitudes with different incentives to avoid the necessity of government intervention in private businesses ... there must be a continuing dialogue between government, businesses and the workers." Ownership structures such as those already established in the Venezuelan oil industry are not applicable to the mining sector, Sanchez adds, because of the simple economics of these projects, the risks and the very nature of mining ... "essentially, it does not lead to sustainable development."

The government's proposal to involve the private sector in mining and quarrying exclusively through the creation of "socialist" joint ventures does not jive with the particular dynamics of the mining sector ... "it is not necessary to create a new Law on Mines, application of the one we have is sufficient!"

VHeadline Venezuela News
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

Anti-Venezuelan media "used lies and manipulation of reality as their preferred weapons!" So what's new?

VHeadline editor & publisher Roy S. Carson writes: Just returned from a flying visit with President Hugo Chavez Frias to Russia, Belaros, Portugal and Spain, Venezuela's Foreign Minister (MRE) Nicolas Maduro is complaining bitterly in his country's pro-government media that 'El Comandante' was "the target of media lies" throughout the European tour. He opines that the anti-Venezuelan media at home and abroad "used lies and manipulation of reality as their preferred weapons."

So what's new?

Speaking to a clique of friendly reporters in Madrid, Maduro insisted that a campaign against Venezuela had "launched 13 attacks and lies during the tour of Russia, Belarus, Portugal and Spain." He added "these lies only served to hurt the true purpose of the European tour."

What WAS important, he asserts is that President Chavez and Spain's Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had reached agreements with one of the most important countries in Europe, namely Spain, especially in the field of energy. The previous day, he had had to ask the Minister of Communications & Information (MinCI) back home in Caracas to issue an official press release "to dispel a wave of false press reports on allegations of Venezuela's acquisition of about US$30 billion in Russian weapons ... THAT speculation was massively propagated by the international press, and shortly after, we had another fictional story circulated in cyberspace on a supposed offer to install Russian military bases in Venezuela!"

Personally I can't help thinking that Foreign Minister Maduro is a trifle naive if he thinks the foreign media can be forced to report only the events he chooses to authorize as fit for worldwide consumption. While President Hugo Chavez Frias rightly points out that Venezuela enjoys the widest possible freedom of expression, it must be recognized that the Chavez government's greatest failing is in the field of information ... and I'm NOT prepared to believe that Minister of Communications & Information (MinCI) Andres Izarra is wholly to blame!

It was, after all, Izarra who promptly resigned his job as a TV news director at Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) when the owner, Marcel Granier, ordered him to broadcast only trivial cartoons when the sky was falling in on Dictator-for-a-Day Pedro Carmona's efforts to dissolve Venezuela's Constitution, Congress and Judiciary in April 2002 to impose what was initially meant to be a 15-year USA-backed dictatorship.

The problem lies deeper! And its part of the revolutionary government's sometimes paranoid belief that just because they're paranoid it doesn't mean they haven't got enemies lurking in every bush. With regard to one particular Bush, they most definitely have an abject enemy, but the paranoia is taken to ridiculous extremes often with false-flagged Chavistas profiting on the paranoia to ensconce themselves even deeper into the pig trough that the Chavez administration is growing daily to become.

Izarra has already experienced the incompetences of quite a few of his senior staff both at MinCI and at the pan-South America TV network TeleSur where he achieved great things as its president. But back home in Caracas, his efforts are so often thwarted by false friends and headless chickens to an extent that quite frankly he should receive a medal of honor for walking the knife's edge.

When the international media quite naturally latched onto an Interfax despatch from Moscow alluding to a supposed deal between Russian and Venezuela on the deployment of long-range bombers, nuclear subs and inter-continental ballistic missiles to Venezuela bases, it was unfortunately too late form Andres Izarra to insist that they (Interfax and the world's Chavez-hating media) had got it all wrong! In fact the denials had all the hallmarks of yet another attempt by the Venezuelan government to damage-limit a series of off-the-cuff statements by Chavez that often throw Fox News et.al. into wet dreams of euphoria. "Yeah, of course, what else would the Vennies say when they're rumbled," one can hear a chorus of sub-editors across several continents say as they moved on to the next soundbite of delicious breaking news!

In Spain, Venezuelan Ambassador Alfredo Toro Hardy had the presence to at least anticipate any negative comments by publishing an article in a local Madrid newspaper pointing out that many colors of negative dyes have been used by the Spanish media to disparage President Chavez (who doesn't do a bad job of doing it himself in many a media faux-pas). As perhaps Venezuela most important asset in the field of diplomacy, Toro Hardy was able, in advance, to tidily demolish each controversial tidbit that sought to disqualify his President to the extent that Chavez, with Toro Hardy's professional adroitness, was able to re-establish friendly relations with Spain and its monarch, King Juan Carlos who had very publicly called on Chavez to "shut your mouth!" during a summit in Chile quite some time back.

Quite frankly, Toro Hardy's prowess -- in spite of a weekend personal attack in the political magazine Las Verdades de Miguel -- shows that it is indeed possible for Venezuela to regain control over how it is viewed around the world.

Regrettably, though, the same professionalism is now shown by a series of ambassadors in Washington and London as well as other key "confidence building" embassies in Europe, but it all boils down to the current and very much regrettable centralized policy of EXclusion ... sectarianism by truer definition ... that frightened (or thoroughly stupid) portfolio holders in the Venezuela administration seem to believe will save them from sinecure-destructive gaffes with which they irrevocably always litter their ministerial tenures.

They sadly think that by imposing gag-orders on subservient staff, they will stop their incompetency and total disconnect with reality from reaching embarrassing public knowledge, but succeed rather in breeding serious discontent further down the food chain to the extent that it is often the anti-government media that goes whoopee over administrational misdeeds while the complacent pro-government media turns a blind eye or simply goes tut-tut!

The Venezuelan government needs to learn that it needs to forget about the PRAVDA-esque policy of reluctantly issuing politically-laded press releases to be cited verbatim in the local rags, but rather to provide a true "information service" to all and sundry who want to know more about all the exciting foreign and domestic policies implicit in the true nature of the Bolivarian Revolution, to accept questioning and investigative journalism as a natural form of participating in Venezuela's true democracy and ... as Ambassador Alfredo Toro Hardy showed last week in Madrid ... to preempt misunderstandings by helping journalists and the media (pro-Venezuela or nay!) to better understand what is going on in Venezuela and the part it undoubtedly plays in world affairs.

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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Former Hecla workers say they're being kept in the dark over Agapov developments at CVG-Minerven in El Callao

VHeadline Venezuela News reports: Former Hecla Mining workers in El Callao say they're being kept in the dark over developments at the Venezuelan Guayana Corporation (CVG) subsidiary Minerven's Block B where the Russian Agapov Group's Rusoro Mining has taken a 50% share in a new "socialist" mining company in joint venture with the Venezuelan government. Worker representatives say their concerns are deeper now since there was no broader agreement and although there was another meeting with Management on Friday they came away with little or nothing to show for the effort.

It is generally recognized that local tensions have abated with many ex-employees still holding onto the belief that the new owners will ultimately come up trumps for the more than 300 families currently without jobs. The main concern is who is to pay labor liabilities abandoned by USA-Idaho-based Hecla Mining. It was believed that an agreement between Basic Industries & Mines (Mibam) Minister, Rodolfo Sanz and the Agapov/Rusoro Group had settled the issue but the list of those who should receive redundancy payments and other social welfare benefits grows longer and Agapov seems reluctant to come up with the immediate cash.

Meanwhile, the communities around El Callao must try to exist on "toasted cheese" (an expression meaning scraps and left-overs) with mouths to feed at home and no pay to live decently. Admittedly they had had to get used to "starvation wages" during the Hecla era but former Hecla employee Omar Fuenmayor says "the most serious problem is that we do not have money for anything, the prices go up and up ... there are seven of us at home ... three of us have jobs, but I have had to pull my son out of college and send him to work otherwise we simply could not make ends meet."

Agapov's operations manager Nestor Hernandez says that he is "very satisfied" with the reintegration of workers to the new socialist mining company and that the current workforce is undergoing training. "We are looking forward to making the company more productive and beneficial to the State and the private partnership ... but this transition can take us six months, which is quite a long period. We must train people on new equipment, reinforce the company structure, motivate people ... and there is always resistance to change. But we have to take it and give the employees incentives to work."

Rusoro's head of production at the Isidora mine, Miguel Contreras says work has already begun to comply with Healthy & Safety requirements in critical areas such as worker facilities and mine ventilation, both of which are almost finalized. "The reality, however, remains that even with the implementation of safety measures etc., the gold miners still want better pay, commensurate with their labors and that is why the Labor Inspectorate is involved in an attempt to mediate and prevent similar conflicts like we had with Hecla."

El Callao worker's expectations, however, must wait until next Wednesday when Mibam Minister Rodolfo Sanz is scheduled to attend a 9:00 a.m. meeting at the mine where it is hoped that he will give final approval to a 15 percent wage increase implicit with the new joint venture.

VHeadline Venezuela News
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
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Cocaine traced to Venezuelan jungles

Anti-drug specialists for Britain's MI6 intelligence service are spearheading a deadly new war in the jungles of Venezuela where President Hugo Chavez' revolutionary regime apparently has allowed a key trafficking route for 90 percent of the cocaine sold on Britain’s streets, according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. Only one other nation has such an export figure. Britain's Ministry of Defense says Afghanistan provides 85 percent of the heroin sold in the United Kingdom. The Secret Intelligence Service has discovered in the past three months there has been a dramatic development in the global pattern of narcotics smuggling out of Venezuela. It is now the key staging post in the export of cocaine into Britain.

Glover faced difficulties in raising finance for ‘Toussaint’

US actor Danny Glover, who plans an epic next year on Haitian independence hero Toussaint-Louverture, said he slaved to raise funds for the movie because financiers complained there were no white heroes. “Producers said ‘It’s a nice project, a great project... where are the white heroes?’” he told AFP during a stay in Paris this month for a seminar on film. “I couldn’t get the money here, I couldn’t get the money in Britain. I went to everybody. You wouldn’t believe the number of producers based in Europe, and in the States, that I went to,” he said. “The first question you get, is ‘Is it a black film?’ All of them agree, it’s not going to do good in Europe, it’s not going to do good in Japan. “Somebody has to prove that to be a lie!”, he said. “Maybe I’ll have the chance to prove it.” “Toussaint,” Glover’s first project as film director, is about Francois Dominique Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803), a former slave and one of the fathers of Haiti’s independence from France in 1804, making it the first black nation to thRow off imperial rule and become a republic. The uprising he led was bloodily put down in 1802 by 20,000 soldiers dispatched to the Caribbean by Napoleon Bonaparte, who then re-established slavery after its ban by the leaders of the French Revolution. Due to be shot in Venezuela early next year, the film will star Don Cheadle, Mos Def, Wesley Snipes and Angela Bassett.

Spanish king, Venezuelan president make peace in wake of 'shut up' furore

King Juan Carlos and President Hugo Chavez patched up their differences Friday in their first meeting since the Spanish monarch told the Venezuelan leader to 'shut up' at a summit last year. The king, wearing a light grey suit and pink tie, shook hands and patted Chavez's arm when the Venezuelan president arrived at the Marivent Palace, his summer residence in the Balearic island of Majorca in the Mediterranean. 'Why don't we go to the beach,' joked Chavez, saying he felt as if he was in Cuba or Jamaica because of the heat. The light-hearted exchange drew a line under the brief diplomatic spat in November last year when the king told Chavez, 'Why don't you shut up,' during the Ibero-American summit in Santiago, Chile. Chavez had repeatedly interrupted Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero during a speech and called former conservative Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar a 'fascist.' The king's outburst became a catchphrase in the Spanish speaking world which appeared on T-shirts and was even turned into a mobile phone ringtone that was downloaded by millions of people. At a joint press conference with Zapatero later on Friday in Madrid, Chavez said he had jokingly told the king that he owed him some money but Juan Carlos had not taken out a copyright on the phrase.

Patrick J. O'Donoghue's round up of news from Venezuela -- July 25, 2008

Speaking in Lisbon, Portugal, President Chavez has called on Europe not to treat Latin Americans as criminals. The President aims his batteries at Spain and Portugal urging them to accompany Latin America in the fight to modify the so-called European Union (EU) Return Directive, which he says violates basic human rights. Chavez insists on sitting down with other leaders to analyze the problem and reveals that he has already commented on the directive with other Latin American presidents. What he would like to see, Chavez announces, is a unitary formula that solves the situation of many migrants who have left their countries to seek a better life.

President Chavez says he is skeptical about any change of US policy on the part of Democrat candidate to the White House, Barack Obama. The President holds no illusions and prefers to adopt a wait and see approach. "Whether it's Obama or John McCain, the next president of the USA should understand what is happening in the world and Latin America." Chavez made the statement during a press conference in Portugal. Referring to a famous speech of John F. Kennedy in the US Congress when he asked for resources for social programs in Latin America, Chavez recalls that at the time there was a social revolution going on in South America and the cause was not Communism but poverty and hunger. A phrase used by Kennedy during his speech that those who close the way to a pacific revolution open the doors to violent revolutions is cited by the Venezuelan President ... "both Obama and McCain should remember that phrase."

Executive Vice President, Ramon Carrizalez has dismissed as completely false, allegations that Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) plane transported Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas to Nicaragua to attend the anniversary of the Sandinista revolution. Carrizalez also denies that President Chavez is spending $30 billion to purchase weapons and plans to allow Russian bases in Venezuela as international media inventions.

On the eve of President Chavez' much announced visit to Spain, Ambassador Alfredo Toro Hardy has confirmed that the energy, food and financial crisis will top the agenda. The visit will also be an occasion to turn the page on the misunderstanding that arose during the Iberian-American summit in Santiago de Chile last December in which the famous exchange between King Juan Carlos and President Chavez took place. Toro Hardy states that Spanish businessmen continue to be interested in investing in Venezuela that has the biggest oil reserves in the world and an economy that is growing. Domestic markets. he argues, have extended as the result of the government's distribution policies, social spending and investment in development and infrastructure. According to the Ambassador, there is a big divide between what the main media sources say against President Chavez and the sympathy that the Spanish population has towards Venezuela and its president.

The FARC has handed the International Red Cross 8 hostages of a group of 17. In a press release, Red Cross reveals that the handover took place North East of Antioquia. The operation was made possible because of confidential and discreet exchange between the concerned parties and under the humanitarian, neutral and independent action of the Red Cross.

There has been wide spread criticism against the Colombian government and army's use of Telesur TV and the Red Cross logos in the operation to rescue presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages several weeks ago. A group of Latin American journalists have stated that it was an act of irresponsibility and places the life of journalists in danger in the future. Cynical Colombian Defense Minister, Juan Manuel Santos admits that two army officers passed themselves off as a journalist and cameraman of Telesur to confuse rebels holding the hostages.

Patrick J. O'Donoghue
patrick.vheadline@gmail.com

The United States of America is now perhaps more dangerous to friend than foe

VHeadline's Washington DC-based commentarist Chris Herz writes: Chile walks the tightrope. She lives ever precariously suspended over the chasm of imperialist sponsored military rule. Her options, even under the "socialist" government are always limited. Now her pegging her currency to the dying US dollar, and doing everything else the Washington bureaucracy demands has caused a 9.5% rise in inflation thus far this year.

From here in Washington, so far as I can tell, we are seeing the collapse of the world economic order led by the USA since before World War II. The longer others attempt to protect US interests ahead of their own, the worse they will be damaged in the economic blizzard which is upon us.

And obedient Chile will be one of the first to go under.

Meanwhile we see a full-court press booming the visit of Barack Obama to Berlin. He is attempting to repeat the speeches of John F. Kennedy and of Ronald Reagan in the German capital. This in the manner of Hollywood movies, where we have sequel upon sequel.

In 1962 Berlin was surrounded by the Soviet Empire; her existence guaranteed only the presence of the NATO garrison. Naturally Kennedy was rapturously received. Likewise with President Reagan's visit just before the implosion of the USSR when this US president exhorted the USSR to "tear down this wall!"

Of course by then the Soviets were well along the path to losing the ability to defend that wall.

Germany and the other nations of the European Union are today almost paralyzed with fear for the loss of the US military shield which supposedly kept the Soviets from invasion. Of course we now know for certain that the USSR was never in any sort of condition to invade Western Europe -- their whole order of battle was actually plainly deficient and visible even in those days to US officers who had the right to survey East Germany at will.

What this shield was then and is now really all about is a partnership between the countries of old Europe and the USA to conquer markets and resources in Africa, Asia and especially Latin America. Soviet power was only necessary as an excuse, a maskirovka, for the operation of repeated onslaughts against the global South.

Most often these were successful.

Persuant to this traditional policy, with their cruelty tempered only by their incompetence the Bush regime have severely damaged the US economy and polity, and thus its ability to field the necessary repressive force for the operation of corporate empire. And perhaps more importantly, to bribe national elites in its subordinate nations: Those like Chile's Bachelet and others who in the past have chosen collaboration with Washington over the principled defense of their own nations are finding the expected profits gone glimmering.

In Europe, the people supporting Sarkozy in France, or Merkel in Germany, made the same costly miscalculations. And they are frantically rallying around Obama in hopes that something might yet be salvaged from the wreckage of the corporate order.

But its my educated guess the damage is terminal. Not because of anything we few US leftist dissidents are doing, but merely because the corruption within the ruling elite here is so extreme here that the financial trainwreck cannot be halted. But what do I know, I'm just another freelance writer, and as we have been reminded, empire makes up its own realities. I do know we are in for an interesting time in the coming years.

Anyhow, the farther Venezuela moves from the Empire, the better off she shall be ... the United States of America is now perhaps more dangerous to friend than foe.

From the imperial capital,

Chris Herz
cdherz44@yahoo.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
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Dr. Odeen Ishmael: Petro-Caribe alliance takes action on steep energy costs

Guyana's ambassador to Venezuela, Dr. Odeen Ishmael writes: The weekend of July 12-13 saw the holding of an “extraordinary” summit of Petro-Caribe member-states in Maracaibo, Venezuela’s second largest city. Leaders of 14 of the 18-member alliance attended this vital forum which discussed the problems surrounding the rapid increase in oil prices and the accompanying rise in food prices in the region. The summit, chaired by President Hugo Chavez, also considered the ways how Petro-Caribe could be of assistance to ease the situation.

Notably absent were representatives from Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Grenada and St. Lucia. However, Guatemala participated as a new member while Costa Rica attended as an observer.

Arising out of the deliberations in which countries indicated that soaring oil prices were seriously affect their economies, Venezuela decided to revise the Petro-Caribe treaty by offering easier terms for purchases of oil supplies.

When the agreement was signed three years ago, oil prices were less than half of what they are now. However, it anticipated a rise in oil prices to reach as high as $100 dollars a barrel and the terms specified should the price reach that level, member-states would pay 50 percent within 90 days of their purchase. The remaining 50 percent would then be financed by Venezuela for a period of 25 years at 1 percent interest.

With the revision in Maracaibo, the terms now stipulate that the payment would be 40 percent when prices are between US$100 and US$150 with Venezuela providing 60 percent financing; and should the price climb over US$150, the initial payment will be adjusted to 30 percent.

Chavez also reminded member-states that repayment to Venezuela could be done in the form of commodities such as bananas, sugar, and rice, as well as tourist packages and services.

But the discussions did not focus only on energy supplies. Lengthy deliberations took place on the effects of the high oil prices on food supplies. The Caricom island states, in particular, complained of the impact of rising prices on their tourism industry since they have traditionally depended on imported food to meet the demands of the large influx of foreign visitors.

Currently, every country in the region is attempting to increase agricultural production, but the high costs of machinery, petrol, and fertilizer have been hampering the process. Statistics presented at the summit showed that the price of urea -- a fertilizer produced as a by-product of the oil industry -- increased four times since 2005 when the price was around US$230 per metric tonne.

Commenting on this problem, President Chavez said that the region was consuming more 200,000 tons of urea annually. Therefore, he stressed that work on building Venezuelan-financed fertilizers plants in Nicaragua, Dominica and Cuba must be advanced to meet the demand in the region.

In the meantime, he proposed a Venezuelan offer of 100,000 metric tonnes of urea annually to Petro-Caribe countries with a 40 percent discount at market price. This proposal will be further discussed at an emergency meeting of the alliance’s agriculture ministers on July 30 in Tegucigalpa (Honduras). There they will assess each country’s fertilizer requirements and develop areas of cooperation to improve their agricultural production and encourage intra-regional trade in food products.

Under the newly created body known as “Petro-Food”, the ministers will also work out the mechanisms of a special fund created at the Maracaibo summit to support financing of identified incentives. Venezuela agreed to contribute US$0.50 from its earnings from each barrel of oil exported for more than $100 outside of Petro-Caribe member-states towards this purpose.

Initial estimates indicate that this fund could accumulate more than $700 million annually and it will be used to finance agro-food initiatives in member countries with the aim of achieving food security.

In assessing the achievements of Petro-Caribe, Venezuela’s Minister of Energy, Rafael Ramirez, revealed that in the last three years oil supply from Venezuela to Petro-Caribe's countries amounted to 59 million barrels, with member countries saving an average of US$14 per barrel against the backdrop of the steep oil prices on the world market.

So far, Venezuela’s financing of the oil purchases amounts to US$921 million. Further, eight joint ventures have already been set up within the framework of Petro-Caribe, while the ALBA-Caribe fund has financed social projects in various member-states amounting to US$106 million.

Lauding the success of Petro-Caribe, Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced a contribution by his country of US$5 million to this fund.

The summit also reviewed the progress of a number of Venezuela-aided projects in member-states, including refineries in Nicaragua and Cuba, storage facilities for oil and gas in Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis and Dominica, and the commencement of the construction of an international airport in St. Vincent & the Grenadines. The proposed gas pipeline through Guyana and Suriname is still under consideration and officials of the Venezuelan Energy Ministry have given a tentative date of 2014 for its completion at a cost of more than US$1.05 billion.

Meanwhile, Chavez announced that Petro-Caribe member countries would be given a block in heavy-crude oil Orinoco belt for drilling with the output refined within the region. He also offered those countries without experience in the energy field to send their students for training in Venezuelan institutions.

In analyzing the soaring oil prices globally, the leaders supported Venezuela’s proposal to OPEC for the establishment of a multilateral financing mechanism by the countries with energy surpluses which would allow such a mechanism to assume the cost of the energy bill of the world’s poorest countries.

Further, they voiced their united concern over the excessive speculation and lack of regulation in “futures” contract markets, one of the main causes of the excessive increase in oil prices. In this regard, they urged the regulatory authorities of “futures” contract markets in the New York and London Stock Exchanges to apply measures for the elimination of the speculative factor from international oil prices.

The Venezuelan President had stated earlier that the “speculative bubble” could collapse and send the price as low as US$70 per barrel but, on the other hand, geopolitical tensions, especially the threat of an invasion against Iran, could push it to US$200.

The next summit is billed for St. Kitts & Nevis at a date yet to be determined. But it is hoped that by the time that forum is convened concrete results on the decisions taken at Maracaibo will already be clearly visible.

Odeen Ishmael
embguy@cantv.net

(The writer is the Ambassador of Guyana to Venezuela. The views expressed are solely those of the writer.)

President Hugo Chavez Frias: Right on! Words well spoken -- now let us see the deeds!

VHeadline editor & publisher Roy S. Carson writes: While I am not an aviculturalist and could scarcely be described as a culinary expert, the sage words of my mother come to mind that there are more ways than one to cook a goose. Another way of looking at it is that you can always say "Booh!" to a goose but you've got to be aware that it will generally respond with a hiss and a cackle that otherwise has no productive outcome.

The issue for the moment is the farmyard of international politics and how the Bush regime insists on saying booh! to just about everyone it happens, for the moment to disagree with.

Of course the productive outcome that Washington D.C. may be seeking is similar to why the Roman legions took geese with them on their various military campaigns but one cannot help but conjecture that a flock of cackling geese conveys the impression to the farmer that paranoid danger lurks beyond every hedge whether there's a fox on the prowl or not.

For the life of me I cannot see why there should be such a hullabaloo about the Interfax story out of Moscow that Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez Frias may or may not have promised the Russian Federation that he would allow Russia's long-range bombers, military and naval bases to be sited in Venezuela...

Of course the hoary old specter of "communist Cuba" comes to mind in the Cold War paranoia of yesteryear but moving on a few decades and with US bases already sited in Germany, Britain etc., etc., etc., why the necessity of a US Defense Shield when relations between the now-NOT-communist Russian Federation and the United States are relatively hunky-dory? And by what right does the United States decide where another sovereign nation puts its own Defense Shield unless it suspects that its counterparts are equally shameless and deceptive as the war-mongers within the Washington Beltway?

Whether or NOT President Chavez has indeed offered such facilities to the Russians is NOT the real issue! Venezuela's Communications & Information (MinCI) Minister, Andres Izarra was, of course, off the starting line like an intercontinental ballistic missile as soon as word reached him in Caracas that the United States was going into hyper-drive over proposals that the Russians could use an offer of Cuban facilities, and astutely reckoned that the gringos would suck Venezuela and Chavez into the vortex of their Fox News spin. Interfax claims that Chavez did pronounce the words, Izarra denies it ... but what does it matter anyway since the USA-biased news media have taken up the cudgel with the Interfax version whether Andres likes it or not. President Chavez can now deny it until he is blue in the face, but the Interfax version has now been sand-blasted into the minds of those in the United States and elsewhere around the world who bother to give the information even a second thought. The goose has been boohed-to and the whole flock is cackling without knowing what they're really cackling about... Typical!

In this regard, Venezuela is the victim of daily misrepresentations ... "data is limited and people interpret it in quite contrary ways ... information deficit plus skewed interpretations" cause many people to doubt or even reject Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution ... especially if they even cared to inform themselves in the first place.

In an article entitled "Which Way Venezuela?" published in a recent issue of Znet.org, Michael Albert writes that Hugo Chavez became President of Venezuela "largely due to the ravages of neoliberal reforms in the 80s and 90s ... the Venezuelan poverty rate had reached 50% ... the aim and promise of Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution was to not only eliminate rampant, raging, poverty, but to attain a new economic and social system consistent with the highest standards of human fulfillment and development."

Albert is honest enough to preface his article with the information that "the diverse factual reports and other data included are culled from documents made available by the Venezuelan Embassy in the United States" and perhaps for that reason of limitation, he ignores the blatantly negative state of current affairs in Venezuela to concentrate exclusively on the standard pro-Chavez PR with a hint of approved critique to convey a transitory sense of balance.

He says that many skeptics would point out, that words are not deeds ... they matter some, but they become infinitely more important and reliable as evidence if there are deeds in their support and particularly if institutional relations breathe life into the words every day. Agreed, but in the absence of significant deeds the words strike a hollow note and while the Venezuelan Embassy in Wshington DC can spout statistics until the cows come home, it's the perception of average citizens on the highways and byways of Venezuela that matter.

The key, of course, is INFORMATION! For without credible information, the geese will ultimately begin to show signs of discontent and once the raucousness of a cackling flock has begun, it takes time to restore peace and tranquility ... such is the situation today where it is virtually impossible to get official information unless you are pre-approved by the political taskmasters and treated like obscenities if you raise even the slightest hint of investigative disbelief.

Take for example the treatment given to VHeadline's New York correspondent John Sanchez attending a meeting in the Big Apple honored with the presence of Venezuela's Washington Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez and CITGO Petroleum's vice-president Daniel Cortez. John made a legitimate approach to Cortez to ask about a controversy of the siting of the massive CITGO sign in Boston but with the exchange of only a few words was rudely dismissed as "you're an opposition reporter, I won't speak to you!" That dismissal done, John noticed how he was rather dramatically sidelined in any further attempt to speak directly with the Ambassador or to hear the points-of-view of either ... so much so for an open dialogue with the media!

Not that it matters any to us at VHeadline since over the pace of more than a decade we have forged our own contacts inside and outside of the administration, whether they like it or not. But there were better days, like during the April 2002 coup d'etat when Dictator-for-a-Day Pedro Carmona Estange seized power and hustled President Chavez off to seclusion on the Caribbean island of La Orchila. News Editor Patrick O'Donoghue and I worked the phone lines at the Miraflores Presidential Palace to bring minute-by-minute coverage of the drama to our readers while the mainstream US media was whipping itself into euphoria over Chavez' temporary demise. Our unofficial contacts survive throughout the administration despite gag-orders "enforced" by various ministers ... and that's as it should be in a freedom loving press scenario. Perhaps an anathema to Chavez ministerial and ambassadorial teams but nevertheless an essential facet of everyone's aspirations towards true democracy and accountability.

Sadly, it is the increasing use of blatant sectarianism in Venezuelan politics that is doing incredible damage to President Chavez Frias' original concept for Venezuela's future. Having spent my youth as a name-identifiable protestant in thoroughly sectarian Northern Ireland, I've seen the worst excesses of deviant inhumanities man/woman against man/woman in the supposed name of God. Thankfully dialogue, acceptance and willingness to critique has signalled my relationship with colleague News Editor Patrick J. O'Donoghue and his wife -- both practising Roman Catholics -- but had we both not individually escaped the sectarianism which was out birthright(wrong) we would unremittingly be back in the same sorry situation that Venezuela finds itself today, albeit of an un-Christian political nature.

Which is why I whish that good old Andres Izarra and his MinCI team could get over their sectarianism, get down from their high horses and walk awhile with people who also have Venezuela's best interests at heart. In Znet.org Michael Albert asks "Is it that some people have more information to go on? Is it that there is enough information for all, but some read it one way -- and others read it another way due to priori expectations or greater insight? Or is it that the information is vague, and we all tend to read into it based on whether hope or fear is momentarily most active in our consciousnesses?"

He proffers a response saying "I think all these reactions happen -- and regardless of which is dominant, I am certain more information of a probing sort, getting at the heart of aims and methods, would help." Right on! Words well spoken -- now let us see the deeds!

Albert continues: "How does one know which read makes most sense, or even have a truly informed estimate? We must know Venezuela's long term goals and methods as evidenced by structural lasting deeds. We must know how the changes taking place so far are viewed at different levels of society. We must know what steps the changes have involved and, even more so, what steps are in the pipeline to come? But we don't know these things. Do people who confidently say they know where Venezuela is going use tea leaves to read the future? More understandably, do they read into the future based on what they have seen elsewhere in times past -- whether that is, for them, hopeful or fearful?"

In his own words he says "different people see the events in Venezuela differently -- but what is missing to decide with real confidence what we think, is more information about what the goals are, about the extent to which the goals are widely shared and owned by leaders or by everyone, and what the methods are and how they connect up to the goals."

Agreed ... but the way forward is unequivocally NOT through he implementation of more EXclusion on the simple basis of questioning political (or religious) points of view, but rather a comprehensive INclusion where the differences between people are recognized as the essential ingredients of a vibrant democracy to be enjoyed by all people all of the time in their ultimate pursuit of collective happiness and well-being.

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

Patrick J. O'Donoghue's round up of news from Venezuela -- July 24, 2008

In an interview in the tabloid Las Ultimas Noticias, United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) vice president, General (ret.) Alberto Muller Rojas says he is making all efforts possible to prevent the unity of the Patriotic Alliance (AP) from going bust. The General also suggests in the interview that there are plenty of small intrigues going on inside his own party, which he doesn't like at all. The problem concerning the alliance with minority parties in the AP, Muller Rojas suggests, is that the party has changed strategy because alliances will be now based in the regions and not nationally. The General blames the constant attacks from allies on jealousy, stating that the PSUV has had the success that they have not achieved. "If they do not recognize that fact and they want to impose on an organisation that has conquered spaces previously unconquered, how is it possible to enter into negotiations?" The only way to do so is by parts, Muller Rojas reveals, because as a whole it is very difficult. Controversially, the General maintains that electoral results will be obtained with or without the allies and if the results are negative to the process, then everybody will be affected which makes the attitude of allies " irrational." The General says the biggest danger in the upcoming elections is abstention both for the government and the opposition.

At yesterday's meeting of the Patriotic Alliance (AP) without the assistance of the PSUV, there was a general consensus of a divide between what President Chavez ordered regarding alliances and the attitude of PSUV vice president, Alberto Muller Rojas. Apart from ratifying their candidates, the minority parties have called on the PSUV for a debate and humility. The Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) secretary of organisation, Carlos Aquino insists that the PSUV should attend AP meetings because he argues that it will guarantee the "historic continuity of the collective building of the revolutionary process ... "the alliance is the seed of that collective leadership."

The Attorney General's office has summonsed psychiatrist Eduardo Chirinos to answer charges concerning his alleged implication in the death of Roxana Vargas Quintero, whose body was found on July 14 in the Parque Caiza. The famous psychiatrist, who was once a left wing presidential candidate, is expected to be charged on Friday. Chirinos admits that Vargas Quintero was a patient but denies any sentimental or sexual relation between the two, as suggested by some media circles.

According to the president of the Institute for Global Economic Growth, Norman Bailey, President Chavez has spent at least $33 billion of public funds, supposedly aimed at influencing Latin American countries. In the generalized attack against the President, Bailey claims that Chavez has sent money to the FARC, ETA, Hamas and Hezbollah through an extensive network of contacts in Venezuela. This network, Bailey claims, is administered directly by the Islamic Centre on Isla de Margarita and its branches in Barquisimeto, Anaco, Puerto Ordaz and Puerto Cabello. Mr. Bailey also suggests that because of close relations between Venezuela and Iran, Venezuela is a threat to US national security and wants to see the application of sanctions against the Venezuelan banking system.

The Andean Parliament considers a letter sent by the European Union to foreign ministers of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) positive but insufficient in its explanation of the Return Directive. Andean Parliament president, Ivonne Baki insists that the European Community should issue a resolution saying the law is a mistake and inapplicable. CAN members (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru) need more details to guarantee that EU countries will not violate the fundamental rights of Andean immigrants. Members of the parliament are expected to meet the European Commissioner for Foreign Relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner shortly.

Health Minister, Jesus Mantilla says the government has invested 719 million bolivares in recovering the infrastructure of public hospitals in the Metropolitan area. The Minister states that at the moment he is paying passive liabilities to staff of the flagship Barrio Adentro program and complying with the 30% salary increase for medical personnel. The salary increase, Mantilla states, means that in eight months the government has increased doctor's salary 90%.

Patrick J. O'Donoghue
patrick.vheadline@gmail.com