Venezuela ... 6 more years
There were a few glitches. There were some long lines. Some of the paper ballots that print after a voter uses an electronic voting machine printed blank, and some people who should have been on the election rolls were missing. But a top advisor to opposition candidate Manuel Rosales, Teodoro Petkoff, said the voting "was carried out in a satisfactory manner,¨according to an AP story on CNN.com.
The tension melted early on election night, as hints of the victory started leaking out. In the city of Barquisimeto, where I went to learn about the cooperative movement, there were explosions, but they were fireworks, and there were lots of people in the streets, but they were in trucks, taxis, motorcycles, bicycles, and even the occasional police car, driving in caravans with Chavez flags hanging out the window, honking and chanting, cheering at anyone on the sidewalk. The parties and street dances continued into the wee hours.
The emotion is strong on all sides of the issue. Rosales supporters see President Chavez as harming the country. The wealthier classes support the opposition in large numbers, and it is true that the Chavez administration has been working on behalf of the 70 percent of the population who has been living in poverty. The privileges of the well-off are not what they were.
For the poor, Chavez represents a chance at a life of dignity. The poor are learning to read, getting a chance at a higher education, getting training in starting their own cooperative businesses, getting funding to start cooperatives, getting schools for their kids and free health care centers in the poor barrios.
But it isn´t just that they are getting a lot. They are being called on to offer what they can to others. The literacy programs draw on volunteers high school graduates and college students to teach in the barrios. Once someone gets their education, they will often offer what they know to others. The government is building the capacity of the poor to create a new society, and they are reponding with pride and enthusiasm.
Chavez is coming to represent the hope and the liberation of people who had neither.
The picture is a mixed one. Linking this liberation so strongly to one individual has its hazards. Would the educational missions fall apart if Chavez lost the election? No, we would never allow it, one of the teachers told us. Well maybe, others said.
Then there is the question of the US government. Will the US continue to work for the removal of Chavez? And if they do, will they push him until he begins to clamp down on the privately owned media that collaborated with the 2002 coup that almost toppled his government?
So far, his strategy has been to support the development of community media at the local scale, and international media, like Telesur at the international scale, giving people alternative sources of news.
So far, the democracy here is as strong as anything I´ve ever seen.
4 Comments:
"The democracy here is as strong as anything I have ever seen"!! Are you kidding? All the programs to bring education and opportunity to the many poor of Venezuela will have absolutely no affect if the country is being run by an egomaniacal dictator. Open your eyes to this farce. Chavez has no other interest than his own consolidation of power. The promotion of Socialism is a classic and unfortunately effective way of pulling the wool over uneducated and underserved individuals. I wish people like you could see this. There is no future under Socialism
New Anti-Semitism in Venezuela by Jenny Rittigstein
Friday, 06 October 2006
chavez_iran Hitler wanted to show the world that nobody would want to help Jewish or save their lives. So, in 1939, he sent the steamboats Koenigstein and Caribia ith a group of Jews.
Both steamboats were rejected at all the ports. Venezuela was the exception. President Eleazar López Contreras permitted the Jews to mmigrate because he couldn't leave them behind, as they would have to go back and face the Nazi regime. He thought the consequences for these people would e unacceptable if he didn't open Venezuela's arms.
That is the best example of Venezuela's idiosyncrasies. Venezuelan people saved a lot of lives, helped them to adapt and gave them a new start in this country. A country which never had any kind of discrimination. A country in which never Anti-Semitism never existed. My country!
In fact, the Venezuelans are the product of a lot of immigration from almost everywhere in the world. The typical Venezuelan is friendly, open, and doesn't now what the meaning of "hate" is.
But the climate has changed with Chavez (not the people, but only the political climate for now). He is the president of this regime, head of a country that he changed not to have a balance of powers, where he is The State. Venezuela is not a Democracy anymore. This is an atypical mix of Communism with army power masked with the socialism face. It's only a matter of time…
Venezuela's Jewish community is not only suffering for the first time from Anti-Semitism, but more importantly in their own backyard. The population can see Swastikas at the entrance of synagogues after protests called by the Chavistas leaders. Nicolas Maduro, ex-President of the "Asamblea Nacional", made strong Anti-Semitic remarks when he was in office. Almost immediately after, he was elected new Chancellor of the country. Those are only a few events illustrating the situation in Venezuela.
If you want to learn more about the current situation in Venezuela, with the recent visit of Iranian President in the country, please read this Jerusalem Post article.
Sep. 19, 2006 0:52 | Updated Sep. 19, 2006 15:53
Venezuelan Jews fear Chavez-Iran ties
By JOSE OROZCO
CARACAS, Venezuela
On the day that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived for a 30-hour visit, it seemed appropriate that Venezuela's Jewish community should organize a conference on the Middle East conflict and its local repercussions.
Freddy Pressner , head of the Confederation of Jewish Associations of Venezuela, claimed the timing was pure coincidence, but agreed "fate" may have played a role.
Ahmadinejad's visit here reinforced an alliance that both countries have been cultivating with high level visits. Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, both leaders of oil-producing nations, have found common cause criticizing US hegemony.
Chavez has come out in support of Iran's nuclear program as well as denouncing the war in Lebanon, accusing Israel of a "new Holocaust." At the Non-Aligned Movement summit, which was held in Cuba leading up to the Iranian leader's Caracas visit, Venezuela and Iran channeled the tide of global anti-US sentiment into support for Iran's right to nuclear energy.
"We are outraged" by Ahmadinejad's visit, said Pressner, citing the Iranian leader's Holocaust denial and his statements about erasing Israel from the planet.
While Israel's security has always been a cause for concern among Venezuelan Jews, Chavez's alliance with Iran has them worried about their own security for the first time.
"No one used to say anti-Semitic things," said Claudia Prengler, who attended the conference. "We've always lived in peace here."
Sammy Eppel, a local columnist, addressed the emerging anti-Semitism in his conference presentation. He claimed to have found 195 anti-Semitic messages in official and pro-government media in a 65-day period ending August 31.
Among Eppel's slides, one allegedly showed the front page of a government publication called "Docencia," or "Teaching," which denounced the "Jewish killers" perpetrating the war in Lebanon.
A former head of the Jewish confederation, Abraham Levy, remembered that up until a couple of years ago, "there were hardly any [anti-Semitic] articles" in Venezuelan media.
Some at the conference feared that Chavez's attacks on Israel may lead to attacks on local Jews. Already, graffiti is appearing on the Mariperez synagogue with increasing frequency. As a safety precaution, Levy skipped out on an office visit to the synagogue last Monday to avoid colliding with a pro-government march.
Critics claim that Chavez owes his anti-Semitic credentials to his late mentor, Norberto Ceresole, an Argentine ideologue who was well-known for his neo-Nazi views. But Chavez has only recently aimed his vitriol at Israel as he seeks friends in the Middle East, especially in Damascus and Teheran, both of which he visited in the last two months.
The recent wave of anti-Semitism has Venezuelan Jews, used to acceptance, rather nervous. Some even accuse Chavez of bringing in Hizbullah to indoctrinate Wayuu Indians in the west of the country.
"The government has adopted an anti-Semitic policy," explained Eppel. "But it's the government, not the people, that is anti-Semitic."
In meetings between Jewish leaders and high level government officials, including Chavez himself, the government has claimed to have its hands tied. "'We'll do what we can, but we can't deny people freedom of speech,'" has been the government's response, according to Pressner.
But considering that the wave of anti-Semitism comes from official and pro-government media, Chavez's failure to repudiate these media and the anti-Semitic graffiti represents the "crux of the problem," said Levy.
Venezuela's ties to the Middle East go far back. The country was among the founding members of OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), but always maintained a neutral position on Israel - until now.
"It started with taking a stance and has been aggravated by increasingly close ties where now you have these anti-Semitic messages," said Pressner. "Whereas before, the messages were unofficial, now they're official."
Chavez and his followers have helped create a "climate of unease and lack of safety," according to Pressner. "It concerns us," he added.
Like the rest of the country, Venezuela's Jews depend on the goodwill of a president whose power reaches deeply into most of the nation's institutions. Still, Pressner promised that they won't stand by as Israel and Jews are attacked.
"You can't separate Israel from Venezuelan Jews, they're one and the same," said Pressner, suggesting that as Chavez becomes closer to Israel's arch-foe, and his rhetoric follows suit, Jews here will continue to feel on edge.
CHAVEZ HEAVEN
Meat, sugar scarce in Venezuela stores
By NATALIE OBIKO PEARSON, AP Business Writer 1 hour, 1 minute ago
CARACAS, Venezuela - Meat cuts vanished from Venezuelan supermarkets this week, leaving only unsavory bits like chicken feet, while costly artificial sweeteners have increasingly replaced sugar, and many staples sell far above government-fixed prices.
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President Hugo Chavez's administration blames the food supply problems on unscrupulous speculators, but industry officials say government price controls that strangle profits are responsible. Authorities on Wednesday raided a warehouse in Caracas and seized seven tons of sugar hoarded by vendors unwilling to market the inventory at the official price.
Major private supermarkets suspended sales of beef earlier this week after one chain was shut down for 48 hours for pricing meat above government-set levels, but an agreement reached with the government on Wednesday night promises to return meat to empty refrigerator shelves.
Shortages have sporadically appeared with items from milk to coffee since early 2003, when Chavez began regulating prices for 400 basic products as a way to counter inflation and protect the poor.
Yet inflation has soared to an accumulated 78 percent in the last four years in an economy awash in petrodollars, and food prices have increased particularly swiftly, creating a widening discrepancy between official prices and the true cost of getting goods to market in Venezuela.
"Shortages have increased significantly as well as violations of price controls," Central Bank director Domingo Maza Zavala told the Venezuelan broadcaster Union Radio on Thursday. "The difference between real market prices and controlled prices is very high."
Most items can still be found, but only by paying a hefty markup at grocery stores or on the black market. A glance at prices in several Caracas supermarkets this week showed milk, ground coffee, cheese and beans selling between 30 percent to 60 percent above regulated prices.
The state runs a nationwide network of subsidized food stores, but in recent months some items have become increasingly hard to find.
At a giant outdoor market held last weekend by the government to address the problems, a street vendor crushed raw sugar cane to sell juice to weary shoppers waiting in line to buy sugar.
"They say there are no shortages, but I'm not finding anything in the stores," grumbled Ana Diaz, a 70-year-old housewife who after eight hours, had managed to fill a bag with chicken, milk, vegetable oil and sugar bought at official prices. "There's a problem somewhere, and it needs to be fixed."
Gonzalo Asuaje, president of the meat processors association Afrigo, said that costs and demand have surged but in four years the government has barely raised the price of beef, which now stands at $1.82 per pound. Simply getting beef to retailers now costs $2.41 per pound without including any markup, he said.
"They want to sell it at the same price the cattle breeder gets for his cow," he said. "It's impossible."
After a meeting with government officials Wednesday, supermarkets association head Luis Rodriguez told the TV channel Globovision that beef and chicken will be available at regulated prices within two to three days. He did not say whether the government would be subsidizing sales or if negotiations on price controls would continue.
The government has urged Venezuelans to refrain from panic buying and is looking to imports to help.
Jorge Alvarado, trade secretary at the Bolivian Embassy in Caracas, told the state news agency that Venezuela's government plans to import 330 tons of Bolivian beef next week, eventually bringing that to 11,000 tons a year. It also plans to import 8,250 tons of beans, chicken, soybeans and cooking oil, Alvarado said.
Government officials dismiss any problems with price controls, while state TV has begun running tickers urging the public to "denounce the hoarders and speculators" through a toll-free phone number.
"The weight of the law will be felt, and we demand punishment," Information Minister Willian Lara said Wednesday.
The person who wrte his article just saw the mask that chavez is putting on the entire world. There is no democracy anymore, I know it because a live there and IM POOR. Venezuela recieves millions of dollars every year from the oil, but chavez instead of helping people progress, keeps the money and dedicates less than 1/4 of the money in missions ( that don't teach well, they GAUDUATE DOCTORS in 2 YEARS!!! and they say that the people are high school graduates by teaching them the vowels). The poor people just see the inmediate future that is money and beer, but their blind to what would happen if keep like this, we will end up like Cuba, with a comunist dictator...
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