Hi Spartaco,
I've posted a lot about the Venezuelan situation including the message I'm pasting below from a Venezuelan colleague who lives in Caracas:
"I have dared to participate today because I would like to give you, my
Lantramates, my humble opinion about some facts of the current crisis in my
country:
THE MEDIA
There are five (5) private TV stations in Venezuela with a variety+news
programming [RCTV, channel 2; Venevisión, channel 4; Televen, channel 10;
CMT, channel 51], and one (1) only-news station [Globovisión, channel 33].
VTV, channel 8 is the state-owned TV station; its technical and personnel
resources are very limited, its programming is variety+news; they present
the positive side of the government and normally express its point of view.
According to the opinion of the private media’s owners, stated by Marcel
Granier, speaker and shareholder of RCTV, only one per cent (1%) of the
tv-audience watches VTV.
During the so-called “paro cívico”, instead of their normal programming,
they have broadcasted exclusively news against the government and its
supporters, and instead of their commercial advertisements (which are many
indeed), they have broadcasted only political propaganda in favor of the
opposition.
El Nacional and El Universal are the two biggest newspapers in the country,
with nationwide circulation, as well as abroad. Their position has been very
similar to that of the TV stations.
According to Granier’s opinion, the adoption of this position by the media
“has been a necessary measure because the opposition had no way or
opportunity to express its opinions” (!!!!).
ONE LIE, out of many: On a Friday evening some weeks ago, several persons
out of the civilians who support and accompany the military at Plaza
Altamira were murdered. Immediately and without any proof, the military and
the Coordinadora Democrática declared that the murderer was under Chávez
orders; four (4) hours later, Globovisión broadcasted an editorial where the
confessed murderer, a Venezuelan citizen of Portuguese origin named Gouveia,
appeared in a demonstration in favor of Chávez, by the side of Freddy
Bernal, the mayor of Libertador Municipality (the western side of the city),
who is one of Chávez’ men; they also said that Gouveia was a neighbour and
close friend of Diosdado Cabello, the Minister of Justice. The demonstration
took place on Wednesday, about 44 hours BEFORE the assassination.
Globovisión demanded an immediate explanation of the government. A few days
later, police investigations proved that neither Bernal nor Cabello knew
Gouveia, who had arrived in Venezuela the Thursday before the murders, some
14 hours AFTER his alleged participation in the demonstration, according to
Globovisión. Globovisión gave no explanation of these facts.
COORDINADORA DEMOCRÁTICA
A very mixed coalition that comprises all the opposition against Chávez, and
ranges from the ultra-leftist Maoist mini-party Bandera Roja to the right
wing represented by Fedecámaras (Federation of Chambers of Commerce), CTV
(Confederation of Workers Unions) and “Gente de Petróleo” (PDVSA managers in
strike), passing through Acción Democrática and Copei (the two parties who
governed the country since 1958 until 1998), and the new parties (Proyecto
Venezuela, Primero Justicia, Bravo Pueblo) that have appeared during the
last three years as offspring of these two big parties.
PDVSA, THE VENEZUELAN CONSTITUTION
PDVSA is the state-owned oil company, one of the biggest in the world,
incorporated in 1976 by the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez (Acción
Democrática) through the nationalization of foreign concessionaires.
The aim of nationalization was to convert the nation in the owner of its
petroleum and to use the resources produced by the oil industry to improve
the health, education and living standards of the population, and in
general, for the integral development of the country.
Twenty-six years later, the results are not very good, to say the least:
According to what has been disclosed in December (PDVSA has always been a
mystery for the average citizen in Venezuela), we have the following
figures:
* Operational Costs: 1976 = 17% of incomes; 2000 = 67% of incomes;
* Contribution to the Country’s Finances: 1976 = 80% of incomes; 2000 = 20%
of
incomes;
* Percentage of Profits retained by PDVSA for itself: 1976 = 20% of incomes;
2000 = 80% of incomes;
* Employees’ Performance: profits produced by employee by year, compared to
that of foreign oil companies: PDVSA: $770,000/ employee/year; foreign oil
companies: abut $1,400,000/ employee/year, as average;
* Ownership structure: All shares of PDVSA belong to the Republic; Gente de
Petróleo says that the company should privatized, which is expressly
prohibited by the 1999 Constitution [what a coincidence: the first measure
taken by the government of Pedro Carmona “the Brief” was to derogate the
Constitution and to dissolve the Congress];
Results at December 31, 2002: According to Alí Rodríguez, PDVSA President,
the company has lost 2 Billion Dollars during the “paro”, and, which is
worst, has lost its reputation as a secure and reliable oil supplier; in
addition, Siderúrgica del Orinoco, the state-owned steel company, has
suffered comparable losses due to shortages in the gas supply caused by
sabotage. As a result, the country will begin the year 2003 with a deficit
of 870 Billion Bolivars (about 622 Million Dollars). The Coordinadora
Democrática and Gente de Petróleo say that this is a great victory for their
goals of liberty and democracy.
Salaries: The salary of Juan Fernández (the Gente de Petróleo’s leader,
speaker of the Coordinadora Democrática) is said to be Bs. 960 million
($690,000) per annum; this equals 800 times the legal minimum salary in
Venezuela, and 80 times the President of the Republic’s salary.
CHÁVEZ
According to the Coordinadora Democrática, he is a ferocious dictator;
however:
1 – Until last year, the opposition complained that Chávez could not govern
due to so many elections: seven (7) in three (3) years, all of which won by
Chávez and/or his supporters;
2 – The 1958-1998 period was ruled by Acción Democrática (Social Democrat
party) and Copei (Christian Democrat party), both members of the
Coordinadora Democrática); all and every of those administrations were
formally democratic. However, the Copei government closed the Central
University of Venezuela for years; they all censored the press, closed radio
and TV stations, newspapers and magazines, prohibited books, films, songs
and singers; had political prisoners (many of them were assassinated in
prison, e.g.: Alberto Lovera and Jorge Rodríguez), any liberal person may be
accused of communist, and as a result, may be arrested without judicial
order (many “disappeared” after being arrested); demonstrations against the
government were repressed with firearms, and they “normally” ended with some
demonstrators dead. Nothing of this kind has happened during the Chávez
administration. But Chávez is a tyrant and they are the champions of liberty
and democracy.
THE SUPREME COURT OF JUSTICE (TSJ)
The Coordinadora Democrática says that all members of the TSJ are Chávez’
puppets; however:
In April, the TSJ adjudged that there had not been any coup, that what
occurred was a “power vacuousness” (“vacío de poder”, a legal concept that
did not exist before April 2002). Therefore, no crime had been committed and
there was no cause or reason to prosecute the military who overthrew Chavez
and installed Carmona in the Presidency.
After that, the military settled at Plaza Altamira [a square at the east of
Caracas, in a (high) middle class neighborhood], and declared that they were
in “lawful and legitimate disobedience”: they do not recognize Chavez’ as
the legitimate President of Venezuela; they are still there.
The Coordinadora Democrática was very pleased with this decision of the TSJ,
praised the judges and said: “justice has been made”.
CHÁVEZ’ SUPPORTERS
According to an editorial of El Nacional published some weeks ago, and
repeated by a lot of people in the opposition, Chávez’ supporters are the
“lumpenproletariat” (these people hate communists, but like their language),
“huelepegas” (people who drug themselves smelling glue, a method used by
poorest drug addicts), who are provided with Bs. 50,000 (some $37), food and
alcohol for them to attend to demonstrations in favor of Chávez.
I can answer only for my family, my friends and myself:
We (my family and I) belong to the low-middle class; my elder son and I are
translators; my wife is a teacher and lawyer; my wife and my son are
evangelical Christians; I am a non-practising believer, baptized under the
Catholic rituals. All of us are abstemious and non-smokers; none of us
belongs to any political party.
We have been in a couple of demonstrations in favor of Chávez, including
that of April 13, when Chávez recovered the power, but only because we
believe that this government represents a real possibility to carry out the
changes needed by our country; we have received nothing in exchange and we
don’t know of anyone who has received any payment for going to
demonstrations.
THE ROLE OF THE USA
I have found an illustrative speech on the Web regarding the Bush
administration’s role in what the Coordinadora Democrática euphemistically
calls “the April events”:
An abstract:
“Among the reasons that I began with the attempted coup in Venezuela two
weeks ago is that the coup was planned with help from Oliver North’s old
friends. George Bush Jr. has not only recycled to the highest positions in
his government the hard-core hawks of his father's administration -- people
like Dick Chaney and Donald Rumsfeld -- but he has reached back to the
Reagan era and reemployed North’s fellow terrorists of the 1980s to once
again run Latin American foreign policy.
(…) two internationally respected British papers, The Guardian and The
Observer, have demonstrated the close ties of the Venezuelan coup leaders to
senior Bush officials. Elliot Abrams, who was convicted along with Oliver
North for misleading Congress about Reagan’s infamous Iran-Contra arms deal,
has been revived as a foreign policy insider. He gave the nod to the
attempted Venezuelan coup. Officials at the OAS, the Organization of
American States, told The Observer that the US administration was not only
aware the coup was about to take place, but had sanctioned it, presuming it
to be destined for success.”
The complete speech:
http://www.dailypost.com/~sdpjc/north.html
TO THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN PATIENT enough to read up to here: MANY THANKS.
FOR THOSE WHO ARE INTERESTED in information other than the opposition’s
propaganda published by the media: you may visit the following sites:
Venezuela en Positivo:
http://www.rctv.net/observador/venezuelapo...verese%F1a1.asp (http://www.rctv.net/observador/venezuelapositivo/breverese%F1a1.asp)
Clase Media en Positivo:
http://www.analitica.com/bitblioteca/reina...da/poliedro.asp (http://www.analitica.com/bitblioteca/reinaldo_quijada/poliedro.asp)
Asamblea Popular Revolucionaria: http://www.aporrea.org/english.php
PARA TODOS: FELIZ Y PRÓSPERO AÑO 2003.
Manuel Cedeño Berrueta
Legal Translator
Caracas, Venezuela
[email protected]
[email protected]"
Other postings in this Forum:
http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/top...um=25&topic=584 (http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/topic.pl?forum=25&topic=584)
http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/top...um=25&topic=573 (http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/topic.pl?forum=25&topic=573)
http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/top...m=11&topic=2625 (http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/topic.pl?forum=11&topic=2625)
http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/top...um=25&topic=564 (http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/topic.pl?forum=25&topic=564)
http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/top...um=25&topic=563 (http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/topic.pl?forum=25&topic=563)