Newsletter18

Bolivarian Government of Venezuela

Ministry of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs,Office of the Deputy Minister for Africa

Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Kenya Concurrent to Rwanda,Uganda, Tanzania and Somalia

Permanent Mission of Venezuela to the United Nations Environment programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat).

Vol. 3: Issue 18, 2nd May, 2017

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER President Maduro: I call upon the Constituent Power to achieve Peace in Venezuela

Inside This Issue 1. I call upon the Constituent Power to achieve Peace in Venezuela

On Monday the 1st of May 2017, the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, NicolĂĄs Maduro Moros called upon the Power of the Nation in order to activate a National Constituent Assembly in defense of peace.

CONSTITUENT PROCESS IN THE CURRENT VENEZUELAN POLITICAL CONTEXT.

Constituent power lies in the people.

1) It is the concrete and direct exercise that we Venezuelans carry out in sovereignty and self-determination in order to build the State and the political system that fits the historical aspirations of the nation at a particular time in history.

2) This powerful idea appealed to Chavez in 1998, precisely to channel popular clamor and radically transform the

rules of the game in terms of a national project different from that imposed by the elites in 1961.

3) Our Constitution of 1999 contemplated for the first time in history the possibility of people transforming the State, through the exercise of constituent power.

4) The Constitution left a wide margin for the future, in this case, the one of 2017, to decide the forms, mechanisms and procedures of transformation of the State through a Constituent Assembly.

5) When the political game is closed, when the political forces that control one of the powers of the state, decide to lock the game, kick the table and cling to violent methods to seize power,

3. Biasness at the Human Rights High Commission against Venezuela -Venezuela makes its official withdrawal from the (OAS)

4. Venezuela rejects IACHR report for lack of rigor

5. Promoting the unknown about Africa

discarding the way of dialogue, the Constitution does not leave another way other than that of a Constituent Assembly to revise, transform and expand the rules of the political system, allowing us to unlock the state, deepen democracy, adapt it to these times of the explosion of People's Power, and lay the legal foundations for a new economy that transcends the renter model.

14) The Constituent of this political context is called to recognize, preserve and expand the social guarantees that have been developed in Revolution, whose base is in the Constitution of 1999 and that have been reflected in several laws since then.

15) The Constituent of this political context must recognize and reflect the new forms of popular power that have emerged from the implementation of the 1999 Constitution. Social sectors that were made invisible by the State 30 years ago are now central subjects of the democratic process and Which have been the main promoters, protectors and executors of the democratic Social State, law and justice enshrined in the Bolivarian Constitution.

6) The constituent initiative is the only way established by our Bolivarian Constitution, to guarantee peace and lay the foundations of political, social and economic stability of the country.

7) The Constituent initiative is based on the spirit, purpose and reason of the Bolivarian Constitution. There is nothing more Bolivarian and Chavista than to go to the people, to their original power, to care for, preserve and expand the most sacred good that we have conquered at the expense of others: independence and national sovereignty.

16) This Constituent will be the most democratic of all our history to the extent that it reflects the new subjects and expressions of popular power that have been established in our nation in the last 18 years and today are those who make the letter alive and Spirit of the protagonist democracy that consecrated itself constitutionally in 1999.

8) Because what is at stake in Venezuela is not only who rules. No. What is at stake is peace. What is at stake that the people really decide the fate of this country, because there is an internal force that is betting dangerously to make Venezuela a country protected by a foreign force. That is, sovereignty and selfdetermination are at stake.

17) Today President Nicolรกs Maduro is giving us lights in a way that the light his plagued with shadows. Light is the exercise of the original power of the people. The light is the possibility of channeling democratic, Constitutional and peaceful contradictions very deep that have not been able to resolve with the current rules of the game, not because Chavism has wanted, but because the right has decided to block the country and subject it to the most Serious hazards.

9) When the fundamental pillars of the state are at stake, the only way established by the Bolivarian Constitution itself to preserve and protect these pillars is that of the original Constituent Power.

10) In this case, it is the people in charge of the transformation of the State and ensuring that the State exists and develops for the benefit of the country.

18) The constituent is the historical claim of what Chรกvez always wanted to do and did not give him time to do: summon the original and deeply democratic power of the people to maintain the best of the constitution of the context of 1999 and to advance and deepen democracy, That is, the power of the people.

11) The Constituent way is a radical option, because it goes to the roots of the people's power. It goes to the starting point, where everything begins, where everything is founded, it goes to the source from which emanates the power of the State: the people directly exercising their sovereignty.

19) This is the precise historical moment to return to the source of power. Let the people, through the mechanism established by the Constitution itself, generate the way to overcome the current game and create a new board, with new rules that deepen democracy, preserve peace and national independence.

12) In this sense, the Constituent way is a radically democratic way. It is essentially democratic because it is the people who determine how the state will be organized in order to achieve national ends.

13) In the Venezuelan historical process, this marvelous possibility was consecrated by Chรกvez and now President Nicolรกs Maduro, claims it as a radical way of preserving sovereignty and maintaining peace, given the grave threats of war that the right has imposed on the Venezuelan people.

Source:Parliamentary bloc of the homeland

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Ambassador Valero: Alarms of the biasness of the Human Rights High Commissioner against the Government of Venezuela Valero stressed that this is not the first time that Mr. Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein is biased in favour of the Venezuelan opposition, thus distancing himself from the equanimity and objectivity that must be observed by an official of such high responsibility in the universal human rights system.

The Permanent Representative of Venezuela to the United Nations Organization in Geneva, Ambassador Jorge Valero, said that there is biasness shown against the Venezuelan Government by the high Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra 'ad Al Hussein.

Respect for the sovereignty of Venezuela

In rejecting Al Hussein's statements, Ambassador Valero said that "the path chosen by the Bolivarian Government to face fascism that promotes violence and terrorism is to guarantee democratic stability and peace for the Venezuelan people."

He added that the government has responded with determination, guaranteeing respect for human rights and democratic freedoms in the face of the escalating coup d'état that has been activated in Venezuela, which has the complicity of lackluster governments of the imperialists and powerful international media.

"Venezuela is a champion in the field of human rights and in the exercise of democratic freedoms, and no one will take us away from that path, regardless of the unconceivable purposes that encourage the enemies of our participatory and protagonist democracy. Fascists are being confronted and defeated by the rule of law," he said.

Valero emphasized that Venezuela has decided to withdraw from the Organization of American States (OAS) sovereignly, since this organization has exercised its biased role as the Ministry of Colonies. "The High Commissioner must respect the sovereignty of Venezuela," he said.

Peace and dialogue will prevail

Ambassador Jorge Valero expressed that a majority of the Venezuelan people reject violence and terrorism, and support the repeated calls for peace and dialogue that President Nicolás Maduro Moros has made.

"The strategy that the Bolivarian Government has chosen is to maintain peace and democratic stability.” We call once again on the High Commissioner to maintain his high functions outside the political debate that exists in Venezuela, and rather encourage dialogue, peace and understanding among all the actors in the country and not become a biased political actor, concluded the diplomatic representative ( Venezuela Mission to the UN Geneva)

www.mre.gob.ve

Venezuela makes its official withdrawal from the Organization of American States (OAS) The diplomatic representation of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the Organization of American States (OAS) delivered on Friday the letter that was signed by President Nicolás Maduro formalizing the withdrawal of the country from the organization.

In the official letter, the Head of State maintains that the decision" conforms in a sovereign way to the historical and doctrinal postulates of the Bolivarian independence process."

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He also pointed out that the history of the Organization pitifully demonstrates a corporation that was kidnapped from birth by forces that were opposed to the spirit of integration, union and luminous teaching of our Liberator Simon Bolivar, the greatest man who gave birth to this Continent and who always dreamed of the Great, free and independent Motherland.

Last Wednesday, the President announced the withdrawal of Venezuela from the OAS, as a step to break away from imperial interventionism. www.mre.gob.ve

Venezuela rejects IACHR report for lack of rigour

LARRY DEVOE

Executive Secretary National Human Rights Council

50% 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0%

The executive secretary of the National Human Rights Council, Larry Devoe, rejected the decision of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to include Venezuela in Chapter IV of the Annual Report 2016, and also of not recognizing the progress of Venezuela in the field of human rights.

From his Twitter account @LarryDevoe, the representative of the Venezuelan State before the Inter-American System of Human Rights rejected the content of the IACHR report that places Venezuela as a country with problems that affect human rights.

47%

17% 10%

10%

10% 5%

Mass media

Reports Reports of Official Information of Human Organizations documents of about the Rights for of Civil Societies the State of Latinamerica Governments Venezuela system or regional organizations

Public audiences CIDH

1% International organisations for Human Rights

Annual report of the CIDH is mainly based on needy sources by all objectivity and credibility like the means of communication

The report ignores Venezuela's achievements and advances in the promotion, defense and guarantee of human rights already recognized by international organizations such as the United Nations.

He noted that the "incorporation of Venezuela in Chapter IV of the Report of the IACHR shows the selectiveness and biasness with regards to human rights."

Devoe severely criticized the annual report of this Commission because according to him, it is based mostly on sources lacking objectivity and credibility, such as the media.

The Commission stated that, in Venezuela, "public protests have been confronted by security agents through the use of force", denying the facts of violence, crime and human rights violations - including vandalism and the use of explosives and deadly traps by supporters and political leaders of opposition groups.

The lawyer published a chart with the sources used by the IACHR for Chapter IV.B, where it is observed that 47% of the information on which the report is based came from the media. Only 10% of the information used for the analysis corresponds to official documents of the Venezuelan State.

www.mre.gob.ve

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KENYA:

RWANDA:

PROMOTING THE UNKNOWN ABOUT AFRICA

UGANDA: TANZANIA: SOMALIA:

The billions buried under Kenyan soil Now, Kenya is firmly on the path to earn the trillions from its 77 different minerals, petroleum and gas reserves buried under the surface to offer reprieve for citizens who are already heavily taxed. A quick math puts Kenya's mineral wealth at Sh333,333 for everyone in the population of 45 million, in wealth that the political class would die to manage. Mining Cabinet Secretary Dan Kazungu told the Standard the exact value of the mineral deposits was significant but could only be determined after a pending aerial geological mapping.

report titled 'Resource Bliss, Dilemma or Curse' published by the IEA earlier this month. "This is a sector with great potential to enhance an economy," Dr Miriam Omolo, the lead researcher said, following conclusion of the 8-month long analysis of the country's extractive sector.

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich told Parliament when he unveiled the national budget that the mining sector could "immensely contribute to the development of industries, wealth and job creation". Official records released in the Economic Survey indicated gemstones as steadily rising on the list of important minerals, with production in 2016 reported at Sh936 million – nearly six-fold growth since 2012.

The findings for the first time provide a collective and independent valuation of Kenya's mineral wealth. While the minerals are largely untapped, exploiting them would have major benefits for the economy and the citizens.

Commercial exploitation of the mineral wealth is anticipated to ease the pain on the ordinary citizens, through revenues from royalties and taxation of profits made by the mining firms.

President Uhuru Kenyatta's government has taken note of the mineral potential and has taken baby steps in ensuring the State earns the maximum gain from the resources. "We will endeavor to keep a close watch on exploitation of mineral resources on behalf of Kenyans, in the hope that if they are well protected, then our people can benefit from them," Kenyatta told members of the Chamber of Mines in a past event at State House Nairobi. "We are aware some miners have had licenses for over 20 years with minimum returns."

IEA projects that the State will earn Sh300 billion ($3 billion) from the mining sector, exclusive of oil and gas a year, which is almost a fifth of national budget. Another research by the Strathmore University's Extractive Industries Centre puts the expected contribution of the mining sector at 10 – 15 per cent of the GDP, including the new jobs and value addition down the supply chain.

Among the radical steps already in effect is levying of royalties on all minerals mined from country. The Mines and Geological Department along Nairobi's Machakos Road is a hive of activity - dozens of royalty payment cheques are received every day, an official there told the Standard.

Reserves for Titanium and Niobium, both found in the Coast region, are projected to be worth Sh9 trillion, and Sh3.8 trillion for the estimated of 750 million barrels, according to Tullow Oil's latest projections.

Dr Luis Franceschi, Dean of the Strathmore Law School, says the 'mineral wealth will play a catalytic role in the development of the country'. The government is also eying at least 60 per cent of oil reserves, according to Energy Principal Secretary Joseph Njoroge.

Kenya first discovered oil in 2012, in the Lokichar Basin but subsequent exploration activities have revealed even more resources. Tullow, the UK firm leading in the exploration of six blocks, has announced the discovery of more than 600 million barrels – above the threshold for commercial viability. More recent updates from the firm and its partner Africa Oil show that Turkana basin alone has over 1.3 billion barrels of oil resource. Several other prospecting firms have announced the major finds in different blocks, including offshore.

Kenya's think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs has projected that the State will earn no less than Sh12 trillion directly from the mineral reserves, double the country's gross domestic product, GDP. The figures however do not capture the valuation of the mineral deposits, which is obviously much higher considering the mining expenses and the contractors' margins. Rare earth minerals, coal and oil are carry Kenya's hopes of wealth resource, according to the

www.standardmedia.co.ke

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