English Edition N° 189

Analysis

Opinion

The US assassination program in Colombia

US think tank supports coup against Venezuela

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Friday, January 31, 2014 | Nº 189 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve

Fighting violence with peace With hundreds of cultural and sporting activities taking place around the country, Venezuelans participated last Sunday in a large-scale mobilization to call for an end to violent crime in the South American nation. Spearheaded by the government of President Nicolas Maduro, The National Mobilization for Peace and Life was carried out as a precursor to the executive’s. Page 3

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ENGLISH EDITION/The artillery of ideas

Latin American and caribbean Leaders Declare Region a Zone of Peace

New forex rules in Venezuela A series of new policy measures were announced to re-orient the exchange rate in Venezuela. Page 4 Security

A new initiative to ensure citizen security in Greater Caracas was launched this week. Page 5

The Second Presidential Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) was inaugurated last Tuesday in the Cuban capital of Havana with the presence of more than 30 heads of states from around the Americas. Chief among the summit’s agenda was the consolidation of peace in the region, the fight against poverty and inequality, and the continued integration of the diverse countries that comprise the hemispheric alliance. Page 2

UN thanks Venezuela for Haiti support

Integration

Chavez honored in Honduras Hugo Chavez was awarded a high honor in Honduras for peacemaking in Colombia. Page 6

Venezuelan LGBT community seeks to legalize gay marriage T/ AVN

Economy

Intelligent Patrolling system

INTERNATIONAL

On Tuesday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon thanked the government of Venezuela for its support for Haiti and for the solidarity it has demonstrated through the policies of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA).

During a meeting in Havana held as part of the second presidential summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), Ban Ki-moon invited Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to participate in the preparatory UN meeting on climate change that will be held in New York in September and asked for Venezuela’s cooperation in strengthening the agenda of the Conference of the Par-

ties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ahead of the major annual meeting this December in Peru.

Ki-moon also congratulated Maduro on his electoral victory last April 14, and for the leadership he has shown during his mandate.

This Friday, members of the LGBT community in Venezuela will deliver a draft law to the National Assembly on equal marriage that proposes a partial modification to the Civil Code, the only legal instrument in the country that currently prevents access to same-sex marriage.

Giovanni Piermattei, the president of the Venezuelan Civil Equality Association, explained in a press conference: “article 44 of our Civil Code establishes that marriage can only occur between a man and a women, so, on Friday, we will deliver a special draft law that would partially modify the Civil Code, so that some aspects of the article are removed and others are broadened”.

He emphasized the fact that in 2008, Venezuela’s Supreme Court dictated Sentence 190, which ratified that the Constitution prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, and hence the Venezuelan state cannot violate the rights of same-sex partners with regard to marriage.

Kathryn Castrillo of the Revolutionary Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity (ASGDRE) explained that this initiative by the LGBT community demonstrates the achievements of people’s organizations in Venezuela during the Bolivarian Revolution, which is making it possible for all citizens to be visible and active in defending their rights.

Rummy Quintero of the Divas Civil Association of Venezuela added that the cause is the struggle for love, dignity and respect among LGBT citizens in the tradition of the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, Hugo Chavez.

2 Impact | . s Friday, January 31, 2014

The artillery of ideas

Historic CELAC summit in Cuba with poverty, peace topping agenda

Latin American leaders declare region a ‘zone of peace’ T/ Peter Orsi

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T/ COI P/ Presidential Press

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he Second Presidential Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) was inaugurated last Tuesday in the Cuban capital of Havana with the presence of more than 30 heads of states from around the Americas.

Chief among the summit’s agenda was the consolidation of peace in the region, the fight against poverty and inequality, and the continued integration of the diverse countries that comprise the hemispheric alliance.

Previous to the meeting of Presidents, an encounter of Foreign Ministers was held to draft a number of documents to be considered by each attending member state.

“We have shown that this summit is in and of itself a victory for the dignity of Latin America and the Caribbean because it is a victory over the isolationist policy that has been imposed against our sister country Cuba”, said Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua following the encounter of diplomats on Monday.

“Today, the Cuban people can celebrate this summit as a victory for their dignity and their resistance over the past 50 years”, he added.

CELAC, which includes every country in the Americas except Canada and the United States, has become the region’s

most important integrationist organization, incorporating 33 nations and more than 591 million people.

Spearheaded by Venezuela, the first presidential summit was held in Caracas in December 2011, upon the request of the late Hugo Chavez who played a fundamental role in the creation of the alliance.

On Tuesday, Cuban President Raul Castro paid homage to the legacy of Chavez in promoting regional unity and called for continued efforts to be made to sustain the advances made by the fallen Venezuelan leader.

“We deeply regret the physical absence of one of the great leaders of our America - the unforgettable President Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias who was a fervent and indefatigable promoter and fighter for independence, cooperation, solidarity, integration, and the unity of Latin America and the Caribbean”, Castro stated.

While CELAC has been considered to be a counterweight to the Organization of American States (OAS) in the hemisphere, the conference saw, at the request of Havana, the attendance of the Secretary General of the latter.

Jose Miguel Insulza’s presence at the conference marks the first time that the head of the OAS has been received in Cuba following the suspension of the island from the organization in 1962.

Also in attendance was UN Secretary General Ban KiMoon who praised the region for its reduction of poverty and its willingness to resolve political differences through dialogue.

“Progress can be seen in the work of the United Nations and in the past 20 years, extreme poverty has been reduced by half in Latin America and the Caribbean. You resolve your differences peacefully through dialogue and many human rights conventions have been inspired by the experience of the region”, the UN Secretary General asserted.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro took advantage of his time in Cuba to converse with Presidents Manuel Santos of Colombia, Cristina Fernandez of Argentina, Raul Castro of Cuba, Jose “Pepe” Mujica of Uruguay and Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico, as well as several other heads of state, as part of the various side meetings that took place at the forum.

The Venezuelan delegation also used the opportunity to strengthen bilateral relations with Cuba by signing a document that commits the allied nations to carry out 56 joint projects in the areas of healthcare, education, and athletics for 2014.

“We are solidifying the path of the liberators: Bolivar lives forever!” President Maduro wrote via his Twitter account on Tuesday.

eaders from across Latin America and the Caribbean signed a resolution declaring the region a “zone of peace” Wednesday, pledging to resolve their disputes as respectful neighbors without the use of arms.

The joint declaration came on the final day of a summit of Western Hemisphere nations minus the United States and Canada. The grouping, conceived as a vehicle for regional integration independent of Washington’s influence, was born in 2011 in Venezuela.

The 33 nations gathered in Havana committed to nonintervention in each other’s internal affairs, to cultivate cooperation and friendship and to respect “the inalienable right of every state to choose its political, economic, social and cultural system”, Cuban President Raul Castro said, reading from the text of the resolution.

The language was an apparent allusion to Havana’s longtime exclusion from the Organization of American States due to its one-party Communist system, installed shortly after the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Cuba was suspended from the OAS in 1962, and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, or CELAC, was created as an alternative.

Leaders have called the summit an attempt to seek unity amid diversity — both of which were evident in their remarks Wednesday.

Heads of state gave speeches highlighting the need to solve urgent problems such as regional insecurity and economic struggles, and backing Argentine sovereignty over the British-controlled Falkland Islands, known in the Spanish-speaking world as the Malvinas.

Some presidents emphasized the fight against US domination of world lending organizations, cultural imperialism, consumerism and “savage capitalism.”

Conservative Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, however, spoke of free trade’s potential to spur economic growth. Uruguay’s famously casual Jose Mujica delivered an impassioned denunciation of the business suit, one of the light moments of an otherwise sober gathering.

“We are sure that by sharing experience between the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean, we will be able to enrich public policy in every one of our nations”, said outgoing Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, who sat next to his elected successor and political rival, Michelle Bachelet.

Pinera and President Ollanta Humala of Peru made a joint appearance to publicly put behind them their nations’ longtime maritime border dispute. On Monday, the United Nations’ highest court drew a sea boundary granting Peru a bigger slice of the Pacific Ocean while keeping rich coastal fishing grounds under Chilean control.

As the summit closed in the early evening, Cuba handed off the rotating presidency of CELAC to Costa Rica, which will host the next summit.

President Laura Chinchilla said Costa Rica’s stewardship of the bloc would be guided by “the values and objectives that unite us ... and are grounded in our rich historic heritage, particularly respect for human rights and rule of law in their national and international dimensions as a basis for harmonious coexistence”.

. s Friday, January 31, 2014

The artillery of ideas

| Politics

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Venezuelans fight violence with sports, music

T/ COI P/ P residential Press

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ith hundreds of cultural and sporting activities taking place around the country, Venezuelans participated last Sunday in a largescale mobilization to call for an end to violent crime in the South American nation.

Spearheaded by the government of President Nicolas Maduro, The National Mobilization for Peace and Life was carried out as a precursor to the executive’s Pacification Plan to be presented to the nation on February 8.

“Today we are all united with a single message: Enough of the violence!” said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during a public address in the capital of Caracas.

“Our message has to be clear.

Either we all work for peace or there will be no social peace”, the head of state said.

During the day, activities were held throughout Venezuela’s 23 states that emphasized alternatives to crime including sports, music, dance, and art.

In the Andean state of Tachira, a number of events were held including the 46th San Sebastian Half Marathon, while in the state of Miranda a 10K race was attended by over a hundred participants.

“We need to say yes to sports and no to violence. This race has been for love, for peace, and for the unity of the people”, said Mirian Gozalez, a runner in a similar event in the state of Trujillo.

In the city of Barquisimeto, capital of the state of Lara, a cultural caravan that consisted of music and dance acts took its message of art and positive values through the neighborhood of La Sabila.

President Maduro expressed his gratitude to all the activists and concerned citizens who participated in last weekend’s events and praised the Venezuelan population for its willingness to create a new culture of peace in the country.

“I want to thank all of the homeland, all of Venezuela, all of the children, youth, women, men, athletes, housewives, students... and all those who have turned out for this call for peace and for life”, he said.

“If we don’t change this cultural model of anti-values, of greed, lies, intrigue, individualism, and drug addiction, we are not going to change society”, the head of state asserted.

A CHANCE FOR PROPOSALS An important aim of Sunday’s mobilization was to give citizens an opportunity to provide input for the content

of the Maduro administration’s forthcoming Pacification Plan.

More than 150,000 proposals were submitted by Venezuelans on Sunday, outlining an number of important steps that the government should take to end the problem of violent crime in the country.

According to Education Minister Hector Rodriguez, a quick revision of the feedback submitted by the population has revealed three key areas for future policy.

“In the rapid systematization that we’ve carried out, the proposals concentrate on the strengthening of family values for the construction of peace, the expanded presence of sporting activities, and in third place, the fight against impunity”, the minister said.

With respect to the final point, President Maduro emphasized the need for greater respect of the nation’s laws in order to foment a culture that values order and social consciousness.

“We have to build a society in which the law and authority is respected. [It must be] a democratic and humanistic authority that defends the life of those citizens who want to work and who want to build peace and the homeland”, he declared.

The former union leader also admonished the irresponsible use of homicide statistics as part of the business plan of sensationalist newspapers and media outlets.

“We must unhook ourselves from the death statistics. The death statistics have been produced for the morbid enjoyment of the global, regional, and national bourgeois media. They enjoy saying that homicide and kidnapping has risen or lowered. They enjoy it because they sell more newspapers and more people watch their channels”, the Venezuelan President said.

OPPOSITION JOINS RANKS In the state of Nueva Esparta, Sunday’s anti-violence activities brought out a number of local opposition leaders who decided to work with the national government on an issue that touches all Venezuelans.

In the municipality of Marcano, Mayor Jose Diaz spoke of the need to confront the problem of criminality on multiple fronts with as many citizens as possible.

“We have joined this effort because we believe that we should leave any political or personal interest aside. The current situation requires joint work in activities such

as this which we will maintain throughout the year”, the opposition politician said.

Similar sentiments were expressed by Richard Fermin, mayor of Arismendi in the island state.

“All those who believe that Venezuela needs to be a territory of peace need to participate. We need to lead by example and the fight against violence doesn’t have different political banners”, Fermin affirmed.

For his part, the Minister of Peace and Justice, Miguel Rodriguez Torres, informed on Sunday that he has been meeting with governors and mayors in 11 Venezuelan states in order to formulate strategies to defeat the endemic violence in the country.

The encounters, Torres said, have been focused on providing recreation alternatives to the citizenry and represent an important step in the drafting of the national government’s pacification plan.

“This is the preamble of what will be seen in the future application of the pacification plan. The permanent restoration of public spaces so that the people can use them for culture, sport, and shared living. This is part of what we’re developing in the plan”, the minister affirmed.

4 Economy | . s Friday, January 31, 2014

The artillery of ideas

Venezuelan government adjusts criteria for foreign exchange distribution

Law limiting costs, prices and profits comes into f orce in Venezuela T/ Ewan Robertson www.venezuelanalysis.com P/ Agencies

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T/ COI P/ AFP

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ith aims of guaranteeing the supply of basic products as well as inputs for agricultural and industrial growth, Venezuela’s Vice President for the Economy, Rafael Ramirez, announced a series of new policy measures last Wednesday that has re-oriented the South American country’s exchange rate.

Ramirez, who is also Venezuela’s Oil Minister, informed that the government would maintain the country’s “preferential” exchange rate of 6.3 bolivars to the US dollar for the importation of essential items, while providing a separate exchange rate of 11.3 for nonessential items.

Included in the first category are foodstuffs, medicines, and imports related to oil, petrochemical, construction, manufacturing, agriculture, manufacturing, mining, tourism, and communications.

Individual travel abroad, airline tickets, family remittances, and other non-essential activities, Ramirez explained, have been transferred to the second category of allocations which will now see a fluctuating exchange rate as part of the nation’s Complementary System of Foreign Exchange Administration (SICAD).

Currently, SICAD’s exchange rate is 11.3 bolivars to the US dollar.

Ramirez noted that the measures have been taken to create balance in the nation’s distribution of foreign currency, which since 2003, has been regulated by the capital controls of the national government.

“President [Nicolas] Maduro has made clear his intention to establish a new economic order that will permit us to transition to socialism. For this transformation to take place, it’s necessary to create a balance in the administration of foreign exchange”, the minister asserted.

“Our people can be sure that they are going to have the food that they need, the supplies needed for agricultural production and for the basic necessities of life”, he commented.

Nearly half of the US dollars disbursed by the Venezuelan government in 2013, the minister pointed out, were given to individual residents in order to facilitate international travel and enable credit card purchases abroad.

This system created a number of loopholes that allowed unscrupulous travellers to receive dollars at the preferential rate of 6.3 bolivars and sell the same currency on the so-called “parallel” market for as much as 10 times the value.

In other cases, phantom businesses would solicit dollars at the preferential rate for imports that would never arrive in Venezuela.

The result has been a diversion of the country’s foreign exchange away from the purchase of essential goods and inputs necessary for the industrial and agricultural development of the nation.

Ramirez called the system “out of control” and attributed Venezuela’s spike in inflation and the shortage of certain consumer products to the “inappropriate use of the preferential exchange”.

With the new system, more resources will be dedicated to fomenting domestic production through a strengthening of key industries.

“This is the expansion of work and our productive forces - the construction of socialism.

[The idea is] to substitute what we are importing via a policy that stimulates our productive apparatus”, Ramirez said.

Currently, some 96 percent of Venezuela’s foreign exchange comes from the income generated by the state oil company PDVSA. The socialist government of Nicolas Maduro has planned to provide $42.7 billion in foreign exchange to businesses and individuals in 2014, a $5.2 billion increase from the amount made available last year.

law limiting costs, prices and profit margins across the Venezuelan economy came into effect last week.

The law is designed to prevent over-pricing, speculation and other abuses against consumer rights which have been occurring in the South American country.

It was drawn up by President Nicolas Maduro after problems with Venezuela’s currency control system and what officials argue is an “economic war” being waged by anti-government business sectors have created economic imbalances for consumers such as high inflation and shortages in some basic products.

Political opponents and economists critical of the government blame currency controls and “excessive” state regulation for the economic problems.

In a national broadcast Maduro said that the Law for the Control of Fair Costs, Prices and Profits establishes guarantees for the “harmonious and balanced” development of the national economy.

“We want to establish a necessary balance between the cost of production, of importation, of profit margins that are limited to a maximum of 30%, and the fair price of all products”, he explained.

The state agency enforcing the new regulations is the National Superintendency for the Defense of Socioeconomic Rights (Sundde), which replaces previous consumer protection bodies Sundecop and Indepabis.

Sundde is headed by Adreina Tarazon, who is also the Minister for Women and Gender Equality. The organization will monitor importers, producers, suppliers and retailers to ensure they observe the limits set for “fair prices”.

The agency will also set the limit for commercial leases that shopping centers can charge retailers.

The new law establishes that profit limits will be set by product, economic sector, geographical area, sales chain and economic activity. It also allows for heavy penalties against practices deemed as constituting economic sabotage, with speculation and product hoarding punishable by up to ten years in prison.

The law regulating profits and prices is one of a number of government efforts to stabilize existing imbalances in the Venezuelan economy, where the gap between the official exchange rate and the black market dollar is more than tenfold, encouraging numerous types of price speculation and currency fraud.

On Wednesday ministers announced major changes to the country’s system of currency exchange controls, which were implemented in 2003 to prevent capital flight, among other motives.

Under the controls businesses and citizens are given an annual limit of dollars they can purchase at the official exchange rate for imports, travel and other purposes. Almost all of the state’s dollar reserves come from oil sales.

Yesterday it was announced that the official-rate dollar allowances for foreign travel and internet purchases abroad will be reduced in some cases.

The government aims to reduce the amount of state dollars lost to travel currency fraud.

Under this scam some citizens travel abroad with official-rate dollars, now priced for travellers at 11.30 Bsf = 1 USD. They then receive the dollars in cash by swiping their card, and instead of spending the money on holiday, return to Venezuela to sell the dollars on the black market for over ten times what they originally paid for them.

The artillery of ideas

. s Friday, January 31, 2014

| Security

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Venezuelan government implements “intelligent” police patrolling system T/ Ewan Robertson P/ Agencies

istry of the Interior and Justice meeting; there is willingness, the whole country wants security”.

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n Wednesday a new system of “intelligent” police patrols was set to be implemented in Greater Caracas as part of the government’s strategy to improve citizen security.

The information was given Monday by the minister for interior affairs and justice, Miguel Rodriguez Torres, following a meeting with representatives of municipal and regional government in Greater Caracas.

Rodriguez explained that the urban region, which contains over four million inhabitants, would be divided into 158 quadrants of 1km squared. Local police force units will be specifically assigned to patrol a particular quadrant and attend emergency calls. To begin with, residents of each quadrant will be given the direct emergency number of that quadrant’s police unit.

The idea behind the plan is that municipal police forces will cover the capital more efficiently, avoiding that two police forces cover one area and leave another unattended. It is also hoped that police units will be able to respond to emergency calls and crimes in progress more rapidly.

In the longer term, the Intelligent Patrols system will be integrated with the Comprehensive Monitoring and Attention System (SIMA), which will install 30,000 security cameras across eight of Venezuela’s cities to better detect and react to crime. At that point,

IMPROVED POLICE DEPLOYMENT

the Intelligent Patrols system will use a unified 911 emergency number.

Speaking to national media, Minister Rodriguez hailed Monday’s meeting as “productive”, saying it had managed to advance the coordination of local authorities on security policy.

In addition to pro-government local authorities, the opposition mayors of four Caracas municipalities and the opposition governor of neighboring Miranda state, Henrique Capriles, also attended the meeting.

“We agreed to hold monthly meetings to review statistics, the development of plans, achievements reached, and to correct deviations that could

Venezuela continues to provide free HIV and AIDS treatment T/ Tamara Pearson www.venezuelanalysis.com

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he Venezuelan government has provided people with HIV or AIDS with free medicine and care since 2000, and this Friday, the health ministry met with national and regional coordinators of the HIV and AIDS national program to discuss strategies to improve the service.

The health ministry released a statement saying that the meeting aimed to “strengthen and guarantee the right to health of people living with HIV, as the constitution... establishes”.

According to the ministry, the meeting produced “advances” in strategies to prevent transmission of the virus, and in legal aspects of the

issue, in terms of combating stigmatisation and discrimination.

State coordinators reported that they had enough antiretroviral drugs for all patients involved in the program for 2014.

According to former health minister, Isabel Iturria, Venezuela is one of the few countries where HIV and AIDS medicine is guaranteed, due to the high cost of the medicine. One other country which provides the medicine for free is Brazil.

Iturria said that globally the medicine for HIV and AIDS is backed by patents that “generate extraordinary costs for specific products, because they are registered as luxury items”.

Experts from the health ministry also provide people with HIV and their fam-

emerge as each of these plans is executed”, said Rodriguez.

The minister added, “We welcome the [positive] spirit on the issue of citizen security that has been maintained throughout the country and we hope it continues, and that between us we can all contribute to the peace that is the desire of all Venezuelans”.

The interior affairs minister has been meeting with local state and municipal authorities around the country since January 20 in an attempt to coordinate and improve citizen security policies in all parts of Venezuela.

For his part opposition governor Capriles tweeted, “We were in the Min-

The Intelligent Patrols initiative is part of the Maduro administration’s mission to tackle violent crime in Venezuela, which citizens consider is the country’s top problem. The homicide rate is among the highest in the Americas, although official statistics suggest this has reduced in recent years.

On Monday Minister Rodriguez Torres also said that a meeting would be held between the Interior Affairs Ministry and security forces of Greater Caracas to develop a new highway security plan and avoid that two forces are deployed to cover the same stretch of highway.

“Each force will have their area of responsibility and citizens will know to whom they are calling”, said Rodriguez.

In big regional states, police deployment will also be improved to better cover larger areas.

The interior affairs minister revealed that in total Venezuela has some 103,000 police officers, giving an average of 4.5 officers per inhabitant, in line with internationally recommended standards.

Rodriguez thus spoke of the need to improve police efficiency and to remove lazy officers who shirk their responsibilities.

President Maduro is also considering an absolute ban on the civilian possession of firearms to help prevent guns falling into criminal hands, although a “national discussion” will first be launched on the issue.

ily or friends with workshops, in order, the ministry says, to “help them understand the diagnosis and treatment and to develop prevention mechanisms”. In 2011 the government spent 420 million bolivars per month on anti-retroviral medicine which was given to patients.

In order to have access to the medicine, patients provide identification and personal details to the health ministry, which then provides the information to the National AIDS Program. The program tabulates the necessary information then destroys the documents so that patient confidentiality is guaranteed. If the patient is in hospital, an authorised friend or family member can, with the medical report and a letter signed by the patient, obtain the medicine.

The program also works with the Negra Hipolita mission, in order to provide HIV information, diagnosis, and support to homeless people.

Scientists in the Venezuelan Scientific Investigations Institute (IVIC) are cur-

rently conducting research to establish the “molecular panorama” of HIV in Venezuela. A statement from the IVIC explained that the work aims to quantify the variants and genotypes that exist in the country in order to “facilitate diagnosis and treatment”.

With the information, doctors could “optimize” their monitoring of the patient “and in a certain way, control the development of both illnesses, as well as documenting the introduction of virus... in indigenous communities such as the Warao in Delta Amacuro state”.

“In Venezuela, the behaviour of the HIV virus is distinct, because other countries have more cases of Hepatitis C associated with HIV, owing to the use of intravenous drugs. However here there is higher co-infection with Hepatitis B”, said Flor Pujol, head of Molecular Virology in the IVIC. According to Unicef, over 2.1 million people are living with HIV or AIDS in Latin America and the Caribbean.

6 Integration | . s Friday, January 31, 2014

The artillery of ideas

Chavez recognized as a peacemaker in Honduras T/ Ryan Mallett-Outtrim P/ Agencies

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ormer Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has posthumously been awarded with the gold cross of the Order of Francisco Morazan – the highest honor in the Central American nation.

The award was granted to the late Chavez “for his involvement with President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, in mediation talks for return of Honduras to the Organization of American states”, according to a Honduran government press release.

Honduras was suspended from the OAS in the wake of the 2009 coup, which saw leftist then president Manuel Zelaya ousted, and sparked a wave of unrest and repression across the country.

Along with other countries such as Brazil, Ecuador and Argentina, the Venezuelan government refused to recognize the subsequent election of Porfirio Lobo, which was marred by allegations of irregularities.

Nonetheless, in 2011 Chavez and Santos mediated a negotiated agreement between Lobo’s administration and Zelaya that led to Honduras’ full membership of the OAS being restored later that year. Under the agreement, Zelaya was permitted to return to Honduras, after fleeing following the 2009 coup.

The cross of the Order of Francisco Morazan was received by Vice President

Jorge Arreaza and the late President’s daughter Rosa Virginia Chavez, upon their arrival in the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa ahead of the inauguration of the country’s new head of state.

During a ceremony in the VIP lounge of Tegucigalpa’s international airport, then outgoing Honduran president Lobo handed Arreaza the gold cross of the Order.

Since its founding in 1941 ahead of the 100th anniversary of the death of its namesake, the Order has recognized both Hondurans and foreigners for outstanding achievements in various fields.

Among its recipients is current Ecuadorian President, Rafael Correa. Correa was awarded by the Order in 2009

by Zelaya.

The Order is named after the Central American liberation figure, Francisco Morazan.

Morazan was an advocate of Central American integration, and served as president of the short-lived Federal Republic of Central America from 1830-1839.

Following Sunday’s ceremony, Arreaza and Rosa Chavez attended the swearing in of the new Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernandez on Monday.

Arreaza and Chavez were guests of honor at the inauguration, and were invited to a celebratory luncheon at the government palace in Tegucigalpa after the ceremony, according to the Honduran government.

Held at the National Stadium in Tegucigalpa, the swearing in was reportedly attended by approximately 30,000 people, including the Costa Rica’s head of state Laura Chinchilla, Colombia’s Santos, president of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga, Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli, the Dominican Republic’s Danilo Medina, and Taiwan’s Ma Ying-Jeou.

Like his predecessor Lobo, Hernandez is a conservative of Honduras’ National Party.

Hernandez claimed victory in last November’s elections, despite allegations of fraud from opposition parties and reports of intimidation and harassment of international observers. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has also accused the United States of “meddling” in the elections.

US ambassador to Honduras Lisa Kubiske backed Hernandez’s claim to victory within minutes of the results being released on election night in November.

United Nations and OAS electoral observers later recognized the election results.

During Monday’s inauguration, Zelaya led a crowd of around 5000 of his supporters to protest Hernandez’s swearing in.

all to imagine what it is like to observe an electrical storm throughout the night” The request for the inclusion of the phenomenon had been made by local expert Erik Quiroga in August 2013, and was approved by the Guinness World Record Foundation in November 2013.

Quiroga expressed his joy at putting Catatumbo on the world map: “I have an affectionate relationship with the Lightning of Catatumbo because I was raised here in the South of the Lake, in Bobures. When I was a child I could watch it every day… I am very happy, and I want to share this with all of my fellow

Venezuelans. We can achieve incredible things, this is an extraordinary country… this is unique on this planet, this doesn’t occur in any other place”, he explained.

The Catatumbo Phenomenon is also recognized as being the world’s most important regenerator of the ozone layer on the planet, and Quiroga has previously had success when he petitioned the UN to found the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, celebrated on September 16 since 1995. It is estimated that the phenomenon alone produces 10% of the entire ozone created on planet.

Venezuelan tourist wonder makes guinness Book of Records T/ Paul Dobson P/ Agencies

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ne of the most mysterious and magical tourist attractions in Venezuela was formally recognized as “the most impressive natural phenomenon on the globe” by the Guinness World Record Foundation, which made the trip to Catatumbo Municipality in the western Zulia State this week.

The area of Catatumbo is located in the National Park ‘Cienagas de Juan Manuel de Aguas Blancas y Aguas Negras’, and is home to a recurrent phenomenon of silent electrical lightning storms. It was acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records as the place with most lightning activity on the planet.

The Catatumbo phenomenon, or the ‘lighthouse of Maracaibo’ as it is also known, is produced by the mixture of cold air currents from the nearby snowy Andean peaks; hot air currents

crossing the sea-level Lake of Maracaibo- the largest lake in Latin America; and the gases produced by the mangrove and swamplands of the sector.

The phenomenon produces lightning 240 days a year on average, can produce 1,176,000 bolts a year, up to 60 bolts per minute, and produces enough energy in 15 minutes of activity to light up all of the light bulbs of Latin America, all achieved in an eerie, mysterious silence.

Following extensive investigation by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission from Nasa, Catatumbo was judged to be the spot that produces the largest number of electrical discharges per Km2 per year in the world.

Its 250 discharges per Km2 surpasses the previous record holder in Kifuka (153 p/ Km2), located in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

To celebrate the acknowledgement, local and national authorities held public concerts, including a stunning

performance from the Zulian Symphonic Orchestra, and a formal recognition activity in the State. Locally, activities were held in the village at the epicentre of the phenomenon, Congo Mirador.

Mayor of the Catatumbo Municipality, Fernando Loaiza, highlighted that the acknowledgment is very special to the people of the region, who typically live in houses built on stilts above the water, known as palafitos, and who have significant indigenous roots.

“For the population of the palafitos in the south of the Lake, this is a marvellous and beautiful day… all of the Venezuelans are shining in the world”.

“It is the first time in the history of the Guinness Record that the organization travels out to accredit a world meteorological record in the country where the phenomenon originates”, highlighted Loaiza. “It is an exceptional meteorological phenomenon, I invite you

. s Friday, January 31, 2014

The artillery of ideas

| Analysis

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Why are we only learning of this now?

The US assassination program in Colombia T/ Dan Kovalik Daniel Kovalik teaches International Human Rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

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n December 21, 2013, The Washington Post published a story entitled, “Covert action Colombia,” about the intimate and critical role of the CIA and the NSA in helping to assassinate “at least two dozen” leaders of the Colombian FARC guerillas from “the early 2000s” to and through the present time. The author of the story, Dana Priest, claims that the story is based on “interviews with more than 30 former and current US and Colombian officials”.

While The Washington Post story reads like an advertisement for the CIA and NSA, there are some truths buried in the piece which are worthy of consideration. The most illuminating statement is that while the CIA and NSA, allegedly in the interest of fighting drug trafficking and terrorism, have assisted the Colombian government in hunting down and murdering Marxist FARC guerillas with US-made smart bombs, “for the most part, they left the violent paramilitary groups alone”.

This is an important point, for as the piece itself acknowledges, the paramilitaries are indeed “violent”, and, with the help of the US-backed Colombian military, have been engaged in a decades-long campaign of terror against the civilian population. And consequently, the US officially designated the predecessor of the current paramilitaries – that is, the AUC — as a terrorist organization. Meanwhile, it is wellaccepted that both the Colombian paramilitaries and their military allies are major drug traffickers in their own right.

In short, the US is aligning with known terrorists and drug dealers in Colombia in the name of fighting terrorism and drugs. While this may seem preposterous, there is indeed a logic to it.

First of all, the U.S. is all for terrorism in Colombia. Indeed, paramilitary terror in Colombia, and in Latin Amer-

ica in general, is the brain child of the U.S. and a part and parcel of the “National Security” doctrine initiated by President Kennedy in 1962.

As Noam Chomsky has explained on numerous occasions, this doctrine, and the death squads that went with it, was initiated in response to both the Cuban Revolution of 1959 as well as the doctrine of Liberation Theology and its “preferential treatment for the poor” which arose in response to Vatican II. The result of the implementation of the “National Security” doctrine was massive repression of popular, democratic forces, and the murder, disappearance, imprisonment and torture of those struggling for social justice, such as trade unionists, peasant organizers and priests advocating for the poor. As to the latter group, at least 80 Catholic priests have been murdered in Colombia since 1984.

As Chomsky again notes, “[i] t is not seriously in question, as John Coatsworth writes in the recently published Cambridge University History of the Cold War, that from 1960 to ‘the Soviet collapse in 1990, the numbers of political prisoners, torture

victims, and executions of nonviolent political dissenters in Latin America vastly exceeded those in the Soviet Union and its East European satellites.’

Among the executed were many religious martyrs, and there were mass slaughters as well, consistently supported or initiated by Washington”.

Thus, there is a seamlessness to the decades-long policy of the US in siding with rightwing death squads which inflict terror against the Colombian population – terror which includes the mass displacement of millions of peasants, with Colombia now having the largest internally displaced population in the world at over 5 million; forced disappearances, with Colombia now far exceeding the former Latin American leader, Argentina under the military junta, with over 50,000 disappeared persons; and the “false positive” scandal in which over 3,000 innocent young men were lured to their deaths by the Colombian military which killed them and then falsely passed them off as guerillas in order to justify continued backing by the United States.

Similarly, the US is not against drug trafficking per se, but rather, is only concerned with making sure that its friends – both military and corporate — benefit from the trade.

First of all, as noted above, it is well-established that the USbacked Colombian military and its paramilitary allies are some of the chief drug traffickers in Colombia. And again, the US has left their trafficking alone because it is content for these forces to profit from the trade.

As The Guardian recently explained, the entire Western banking system is propped up by billions of dollars of Colombian drug monies. Therefore, it is not in the US interests to too effectively combat drugs.

And, sure enough, it has utterly failed to do so despite the over $9 billion it has spent on the ostensible “war on drugs” in Colombia and the greater Andean region. Rather, in what is wellknown as the “balloon effect,” all that the US has managed to do is force the drug trade out of parts of Colombia and south to places like Peru, and north to Mexico where over 60,000 innocents have now been killed in the ostensible “war on drugs”.

Of course, The Washington Post story on the CIA/NSA program to assassinate FARC leaders, and its accompanying charts which purport to show a decrease in overall drug trafficking, at least from Colombia, fails to point any of this out. As noted above, The Washington Post story reads like an advertisement for the CIA and NSA and their secret “black ops” programs which are funded by Congress, but which the U.S. public knows little to nothing about. And, the U.S. government would largely like to keep it that way.

In this case, I suspect that the CIA and NSA cooperated with The Washington Post story in order to justify future “black ops” funding as well as to impact the ongoing peace talks which are now taking place in Havana, Cuba between the Colombian government and the FARC. On this latter issue, it is my belief that at least sectors of the US government want to scuttle the ongoing peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC – as the US has done so often before. In this case, The Washington Post story seems designed to bolster the sectors in Colombia that already oppose the peace process – namely, former President Alvaro Uribe, his political allies and the right-wing paramilitaries which the US has intentionally left alone – by painting the false impression that the civil war in Colombia is militarily winnable.

As we enter the 50th year of the conflict, it is now evident to any rational person that this not a winnable war for either side, and that a negotiated settlement is the only hope for peace in Colombia and for the civilians caught in the middle of the war. It is critical that those in the US interested in peace join at this pivotal moment with those brave souls in Colombia who are risking their very lives – indeed, 29 members of the pro-peace Marcha Patriotica have been murdered in the past year and a half — to promote a political solution to the half century old conflict in that country.

Friday, January 31, 2014 | Nº 189 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve

INTERNATIONAL

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Opinion

Brookings institution calls on Obama to support a hypothetical coup against Venezuela’s Maduro T/ Dan Beeton – CEPR P/ Agencies

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n Thursday, the Brookings Institution issued a memo to President Obama titled “Venezuela Breaks Down in Violence.” As might be expected from the title, the memo (and an accompanying video) depicts an alarming situation where: “Venezuela is experiencing declining export revenues, accelerating inflation and widespread shortages of basic consumer goods. At the same time, the Maduro administration has foreclosed peaceful options for Venezuelans to bring about a change in its current policies”.

But, contrary to the alarmist title, the violence is only a possibility in the future: “Economic mismanagement in Venezuela has reached such a level that it risks inciting a violent popular reaction,” and further on the reader learns that actually “[t]he risk of a violent outcome may still be low…”

The possibility of such chaos is troubling to the author, Harold Trinkunas since “it is in the US interest that Venezuela remain a reliable source of oil”, while “[p]opular unrest in a country with multiple armed actors, including the military, the militia, organized crime and pro-government gangs, is a recipe for unwelcome chaos and risks an interruption of oil production”.

Trinkunas, who “previously served as an associate professor and chair of the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California” urges the Obama administration to take action.

At the top of his recommendations is for the US to enlist Brazil –“whose interests are also at risk”– in an attempt “to convince the Maduro administration to shift course”.

Trinkunas makes clear what course he wants the US government to take should a crisis result in Maduro being removed

from power. While one might think that such a hypothetical scenario would indeed be one when the Inter-American Democratic Charter should be invoked (Trinkunas suggests that it be used against Maduro now), that would be naïve. Instead: “…we should also begin quiet conversations with others in the hemisphere on what steps to take should Venezuela experience a violent breakdown of political order. Such an event could potentially fracture the regional consensus on democracy on a scale much greater than that of the Honduran coup in 2009. Maduro’s allies in the region would most likely push for his immediate restoration, but in the absence of functioning democratic institutions, this would only compound Venezuela’s internal crisis. The United States would need to work with key states in the region—Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru and Colombia—on a regional consensus in favor of rebuilding democracy in Venezuela”.

In other words, should a coup occur, Trinkunas wants the US to “work with” the Latin American countries it is closer to politically – and also Brazil – to help it succeed. This is in fact what the Bush administration attempted to do during the short-lived 2002 coup against Hugo Chavez, and the Obama administration worked to ensure that the 2009 coup against the democraticallyelected government of Honduras would succeed.

Of course Trinkunas seems to be unaware –despite a passing reference to “distance from the United States over NSA surveillance issues”– that in recent years Brazil’s government has not shied from challenging US foreign policy on a variety of hot-button issues, including over Iran’s nuclear program, the FTAA, and a planned US-Colombia military bases agreement.

Brazil led the South American opposition to the Honduran coup and refused to recognize the new government of Pepe Lobo following the November 2009 elections in Honduras. Former president Lula da Silva –who has hinted

at another presidential run in 2018– was always vocal about his support for the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chávez and released a video in support of Maduro ahead of the April elections last year.

Perhaps Trinkunas can be forgiven if he isn’t aware of these things; they aren’t talked about much in Washington foreign policy circles, where Brazil is still often referred to as part of the “good left” – unlike Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and other bad apples.

Why is Trinkunas so concerned that Venezuela could soon collapse into violence?

He cites a number of econom-

ic factors, some vague, some not. He frets, for example, about “declining” output by state oil company PDVSA, and that Venezuela had “the highest inf lation rate in the world in 2013.” But as CEPR Co-Director Mark Weisbrot recently pointed out in a contribution to the Inter-American Dialogue’s Latin America Advisor: “...inflation appears to have stabilized. Inflation data for November and December show a monthly rate of 4.8 percent and 2.2 percent, putting the three-month annualized rate at 60.6 percent; the annual rate for 2013 was 56.1 percent”.

Further, citing an analysis by Bank of America, Weisbrot states: “BOA sees Venezuela’s current debt as sustainable. A devaluation would not likely have much effect on the economy, as previous devaluations did not.

Nor is social unrest a likely prospect, as there are no elections for two years, and most opposition protests in Venezuela tend to focus on elections…”

Trinkunas attempts to cast doubt on Venezuela’s electoral process (the same one that former president Jimmy Carter called “the best in the world” ahead of the October 2012 elections). He writes, “A now unified national opposition continues to emphasize elections as the solution, but the playing field is hardly level, and elections are not scheduled to take place again until 2015”.

Venezuela observers know that the opposition has been relatively unified for some time now, coming together to support the presidential candidacy of Henrique Capriles in both October 2012 and April 2013. Capriles lost both times, and last month the opposition was dealt a blow by a poorer showing in municipal elections than it had hoped.

Analysts and some members and supporters of the opposition now question Capriles’ status as an opposition leader, so if anything the opposition is probably now less unified than it was prior to these recent elections.

Ironically –perhaps unaware that Brookings’ website is available to the public, as is YouTube– Trinkunas writes, “Overt US criticism of the Maduro administration or efforts to exert our limited economic leverage would be grist for the mill of the Venezuelan propaganda machine; we should avoid that”.

Certainly if one of the most prominent Venezuelan thinktanks called for supporting the overthrow of the U.S. government, that would simply be ignored by the US “propaganda machine”, right?