Criticism of Chavez Govt

[rebelworker]

Here is an article written by a friend who went down for the world social forum, and ended up spending alot of time at the alternative social forum.


Venezuelan “Development” Policies, Indigenous Rights and Environmental Security: Lessons from the Alternative Social Forum
Feb. 4, 2006
Erica Lagalisse


As thousands gathered in Caracas for the 6th World Social Forum, enthusiasm for the “revolutionary” Bolivarian government in Venezuela swelled to a deafening crescendo, obscuring radical critiques of the Chavez government and Venezuelan state. The sentiment among the crowds of Venezuelan Chavistas and visiting internationals was an attitude of optimism in a neo-socialist Venezuelan state committed to anti-imperialist economic policy and participatory-democracy. While the current Venezuelan government has famously rejected the proposed FTAA and has initiated certain inspiring social projects, the state continues to support unsustainable and authoritarian capitalist “development” projects as well as racist policies that continue to abuse and exploit indigenous populations. Local activists have organized an Alternative Social Forum to raise conciousness about some of these more insidious aspects of the Bolivarian state. As a visiting volunteer, I offered to disseminate information in English. This is an intro to some of the struggles of local indigenous communities as well as the hypocrisy surrounding the Caracas World Social Forum this year.

Bolivarian “Development” Programs and Resource Extraction

Indigenous peoples of the oil-rich state of Zulia have long suffered displacement and abuse at the hands of colonial governments and big business. The latest onslaught involves an expanded coal-extraction “development” agenda, celebrated and implemented by Chavez and multinational corporations such as Vale de Rio Doce of Brazil. Extraction has more than doubled during the Chavez government, hailed as integral to the new economically powerful and ‘integrated’ Latin America. The FTAA is replaced with IIRSA, a distinctly Latin American initiative, but a free-trade treaty all the same, mirroring the Plan Puebla Panama. Until recently, the coal trade was regional and relatively small compared with the oil industry in the region. Now local peoples have to resist and survive both accelerating projects. Old mines are being expanded and new ones are planned in the river basin of Maracaibo, including a rail system cross-secting and privatizing huge strips of land. This is above and beyond continuing oil extraction and a variety of devastating pipeline projects. A network of pipelines is being developed between Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama and Florida to transport heavy crude to you-know-who. Some projects, such as Accion Ecologica of Ecuador have assessed the plan as also a preliminary step in securing the transport and delivery of fresh water from the Amazon. In Venezuela, these projects are overseen by Corpozulia, the goverment’s energy company, as well as Brazilian, Irish and US multinationals including Chevron-Texaco.


But What About Indigenous Rights in the Bolivarian Constitution?

The land demarcation policy outlined in the Bolivarian Constitution protects indigenous lands but unfortunately Article 12 is no match for Article 10 of the Mining Law which says that the state owns all resources beneath the earth. No land titles have been granted for the land meant for mining, even though these are the native lands of many different communities. The “revolutionary” government projects that were promised to provide electricity, water, schools and health services to indigenous communities have only been set up in urban regions, far away from rural populations and the mining region. The government characterizes its mining “development” projects as progress and beneficial to local “impoverished” populations, as they create jobs. This is ridiculous because local people don’t need JOBS, they need water, air and a healthy eco-system to maintain the already existing local economy that has sustained them for years. Communities in the region already have their own agriculture, produce and markets. They don’t eat coal.

Venezuela’s Energy Economy and its Devastating Effects

In Venezuela, energy resources such as oil and coal define the national economy; their extraction is of utmost priority for government and state revenue. The lack of Venezuelan support for the FTAA is misleading as this proposed treaty did not cover certain aspects of energy-commerce. Venezuela would not have benefitted from the FTAA as much as it will from the IIRSA, which includes energy contracts favorable to regional elites. Given the “revolutionary” context in Venezuela, state repression must be clandestine and so has largely been subcontracted to private mercenaries. Indigenous activists, ecologists, allies and inhabitants of the region are intimidated, abused and dislocated by private security. They vow to fight the projects with their lives if necessary, however, because the ecological devastation wrought by these projects ultimately spells their certain death. It’s merely a matter of time. Many communities in Zulia already suffer from skin disease, vision problems, birth defects, cancer and premature death related to petrochemical processing in the area. The government has locked up the proof that the processing is directly responsible for such ailments as well as responsible for large percentages of women giving birth to still-born fetuses lacking any brain. Coal extraction only means more contaminated water and air, as well as erosion and deforestation. If the proposed mines of Mache, Socuy and Cachiri are created upstream in the Maracaibo river basin, the fallout will contaminate all areas downstream, inlcuding the resevoirs, furthering the destruction of Lake Maracaibo and its surrounding ecosystem. Not only do the mines destroy local peoples through ecological devastation but they directly feed off the lives and deaths of locals as they are hired to work in the mines. When farming is no longer possible due to lack of land or contamination, locals look for jobs in the industry. Coal miners in Venezuela are dying of black-lung disease in terrifying numbers, without any health care whatsoever, much like the North American miners earlier this century. The companies have moved south but worker’s unions have not. The existing national coal union is corrupt and in the service of the capitalists. Union officials charge local people a fee for finding them jobs in the sector. This is the “development” and job creation hailed by the Venezuelan government.


“Ecologists are working for the CIA” and other Government Disinformation

Supposedly, native ecologists resisting these projects are “Green Mafia”, hired by multinationals to compete with one another, backed by the CIA. No one actually believes it, except for the Venezuelan army and that’s what counts. Medical reports that condemn the industry are destroyed. PDVSA, the national oil company, has glorious full-page advertisements in the newspaper describing its revolutionary community development projects. In Caracas on Friday Jan. 27, a crowd made up of indigenous activists, ecologists, urban activists, anarchists and internationals marched against the resource-extraction agenda only to be swarmed by Chavista enthusiasts and agitators. Various marchers were aggressed, some accused of collusion with the CIA. The meaning of the march was lost as it was engulfed by a government rally. If Venezuela is such a revolutionary democracy, and if the World Social Forum is about a “movement of movements”, then why is the Venezuelan state silencing the grassroots and directing the show? For it is indeed a spectacle, a huge advertisement for the Chavez revolution. Anarchists in Caracas lament the weak state of Venezuela’s social movements, which have largely been co-opted by the “revolutionary” state. Those social movements that remain to the Left of the state program, the indigenous activists, anarchists and others, are often characterized as right-wing reactionaries. Government disinformation grows alongside increased state control and militarization in Venezuela; the “revolution” becomes entrenched.


About my Sources/ For More Information:

All information above comes from my notes as a participant in workshops and conferences with Lusbi Portillo, Angela Gonzalez and the groups listed below. For first-hand or detailed information regarding these issues and communities, please get in touch with the local activists. Some of these webpages, like Amigransa, have English articles included.

Amigos de la Gran Sabana [Amigransa]. Mostly in Spanish: http://amigransa.blogia.com/

Article [English] on Lusbi Portillo, indigenous activist under persecution from the government: http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/action69.htm

Also Search: Oilwatch, Accion Ecologica [Ecuador], Homoetnatura

[redstar2000]

People continue to be astonished and even indignant that Venezuela under Chavez is going to develop into a modern capitalist economy.

What, one wonders, did they expect?

Attempts to preserve a pre-capitalist "way of life" -- whether in the name of "indigenous rights" or "ecological sustainability" -- are wasted efforts.

On the other hand, militant trade unions focusing on "health & safety" issues would "fit" the new circumstances in Venezuela.

If those groups want to "help", then that's what they should be doing.

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[rebelworker]

Tell that to the indegenous people who organised the demo and live near the oil feilds.

What interest do the trade unions for oil workers have in defending indigenous rights?
We must support opressed groups when they organise.

I agree that it is all but inveritable that they will not be alowed to continue to live exactly as they once did, and the envyroment is in for more of a beating, but we should look to groups like the Zapatistas who have in the name of indigenous rights sparked waves of resistance throughout the country(the discontent and some of the organising was already there) and at the same time done alot to defend indigenous culture and more traditional ways of living with nature.

[redstar2000]

Originally posted by rebelworker
We must support oppressed groups when they organise.

Why?

That is, if oppressed groups organize on behalf of a perspective that makes no sense to us, then why are we "obligated" to support them anyway?

The people of German ethnic/cultural descent in Czechoslovakia really were oppressed by the Czech majority. They responded by organizing a Nazi-style party.

Should we have "supported" that?

African-Americans are still oppressed by racism in the United States. Some of them have responded to that oppression by organizing the reactionary Nation of Islam.

Should we "support" that?

Oppression exists...but it does not "automatically" confer a "certificate of political virtue"...or even plain common sense.

It's still up to us to think...figure out what this particular oppressed group wants and whether or not that makes any sense from our perspective.

Revolutionaries are not just "bleeding hearts".

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[Severian]

There are valid criticism that could be made of the capitalist Chavez government in Venezuela; but these basically point in the wrong direction.

And you gotta wonder why anyone would separate from the World Social Forum, where tens of thousands of working people from Venezuela and other countries were discussing the course of the revolutionary process, in order to separate themselves and remain pure in their own little "alternative" forum. It smacks of giving up on even trying to discuss your perspective with the majority of working people.


Originally posted by [email protected] 17 2006, 04:12 PM
The FTAA is replaced with IIRSA, a distinctly Latin American initiative, but a free-trade treaty all the same, mirroring the Plan Puebla Panama.
Because free trade is automatically bad? National self-sufficiency and all that blatantly reactionary hope for a return to the precaptialist past?

The FTAA should be opposed, not because free trade is bad, but because it intensifies imperialist domination of Latin America. A trade agreement among Latin American countries does the opposite: promotes their national economic development independent of imperialism.


The “revolutionary” government projects that were promised to provide electricity, water, schools and health services to indigenous communities have only been set up in urban regions, far away from rural populations and the mining region.

The one valid criticism here, if true.


This is ridiculous because local people don’t need JOBS, they need water, air and a healthy eco-system to maintain the already existing local economy that has sustained them for years.

Because life is so wonderful in the rural Third World, that it must not be changed in any way. People don't need jobs? Now that's ridiculous.


Communities in the region already have their own agriculture, produce and markets. They don’t eat coal.

I'll bet they do burn fuel, though. The most low-tech lifestyles in the world do....often to devastating environmental effect. Ever look at an aerial photo of the Haitian-Dominican border, to see what the lack of modern fuels can do? No trees on the Haitian side.

And if people are to have any access to education and the world outside their village, they need, for example, electricity to read after dark.


Venezuela would not have benefitted from the FTAA as much as it will from the IIRSA, which includes energy contracts favorable to regional elites.

God forbid Venezuela should sign those trade agreements that benefit it. And selling Venezuelan oil cheaply to other Latin American countries benefits working people, not just "elites" - just as high oil prices have been damaging to the development and welfare of whole populations.


Given the “revolutionary” context in Venezuela, state repression must be clandestine and so has largely been subcontracted to private mercenaries.

Specific facts and sources would have more value than the general diatribe. There are a few sources at the bottom but no indication as to what source is for which claims.


They vow to fight the projects with their lives if necessary, however, because the ecological devastation wrought by these projects ultimately spells their certain death.

We don't actually hear from these communities here, though; we hear from a Northerner with a noble savage complex.


The government has locked up the proof that the processing is directly responsible for such ailments as well as responsible for large percentages of women giving birth to still-born fetuses lacking any brain.

"Locked up the proof"? Does that mean you don't have proof, you just assume it exists? And what percentage is "large"?


Not only do the mines destroy local peoples through ecological devastation but they directly feed off the lives and deaths of locals as they are hired to work in the mines.

Oh. Apparently some "locals" think they do need jobs. Is this article demanding the mines refuse to hire them?

Or it could support workers' fight for safer conditions...but that points in a different political direction than demanding the mines be shut across the board.


When farming is no longer possible due to lack of land or contamination, locals look for jobs in the industry.

Who's working in the mines before then, Martians?


In Caracas on Friday Jan. 27, a crowd made up of indigenous activists, ecologists, urban activists, anarchists and internationals marched against the resource-extraction agenda only to be swarmed by Chavista enthusiasts and agitators. Various marchers were aggressed, some accused of collusion with the CIA. The meaning of the march was lost as it was engulfed by a government rally.

If you have to complain about your opponents "engulfing" you...that just means a lot more people support them than you. It would make more sense to complain if you were excluded from marching alongside working people who support Chavez...again, why not welcome the chance to discuss with them?

[Severian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 24 2006, 10:38 PM
Oppression exists...but it does not "automatically" confer a "certificate of political virtue"...or even plain common sense.

It's still up to us to think...figure out what this particular oppressed group wants and whether or not that makes any sense from our perspective.
Do you mean.........it matters what they're for, and not just what they're against?

[redstar2000]

Originally posted by Severian+Feb 25 2006, 12:18 AM--> (Severian @ Feb 25 2006, 12:18 AM)
Originally posted by [email protected] 24 2006, 10:38 PM
Oppression exists...but it does not "automatically" confer a "certificate of political virtue"...or even plain common sense.

It's still up to us to think...figure out what this particular oppressed group wants and whether or not that makes any sense from our perspective.
Do you mean.........it matters what they're for, and not just what they're against? [/b]
Not so much "what they're for" verbally...people can say that they're "for" anything.

Rather, we should try to actually situate their particular struggle in the overall historical context in which we live.

For example, as you yourself pointed out, a Latin American "free trade zone" would promote economic "independence" from the U.S. -- and thus real economic development and modernization...with all the implications of that.

It would also serve to weaken U.S. imperialism itself...something that from our perspective needs to happen.

The whole process is actually a rather good illustration of the progressive role of the bourgeoisie in this period of Latin America's history.

And, in the "credit where credit is due" department, may I applaud this remark by you...


Severian
...we hear from a Northerner with a noble savage complex.

There's a lot of that "noble savage" stuff going around in the "west" these days. For folks who've never experienced that life, it's just "so cool" to be a peasant in the mountains living on the very margins of survival.

Romanticism really sucks!

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[chebol]

QUOTE
The “revolutionary” government projects that were promised to provide electricity, water, schools and health services to indigenous communities have only been set up in urban regions, far away from rural populations and the mining region.


The one valid criticism here, if true.

If it were true, it would be a valid criticism. It is not. I don't have figures or details to hand, but when I travelled around Venezuela last year, I found these projects throughout the countryside, including in Indigenous communities, where they are highly appreciated, and are generally run by members of the local community. They are not, I may add, universal or perfect, but they do exist and are being improved continuously.

[McLeft]

Sometimes i just feel i'm talking to the burgeous.

[Forward Union]

Originally posted by [email protected] 29 2006, 03:38 PM
Sometimes i just feel i'm talking to the burgeous.
I sometimes feel im talking to uneducated Stalin-kiddies who wouldn't know how to spell 'bourgeoisie' if it was written on the back of their Che T-shirts.

[rebelworker]

Alot of what has been said here is a good example of where I differ from a more hard line Marxist vision of economic development.

First off, I grew up in the country and worker as a logger straight out of Highschool. I am very aware of the dynamics of economic "development" and envyromental destruction on rural areas.


QUOTE
When farming is no longer possible due to lack of land or contamination, locals look for jobs in the industry.


Who's working in the mines before then, Martians?


This is just an assanine statement...

local small scale sustainable farming is destroyed by capitalist develoment this leads to otherwise self sufficient communities emptying out into cities, they then become part of inner city undercalsses often cronically unemployed.
These people then go out to the country to work in new mines/forestry/fishing/drilling projects in other rural areas. The prcess is then repeated.

This same process is at work in the "developed" north. I can speak from frist hand experience that this is a huge issue in many prats of canada. The entire east coast has been pillaged and is now emptying out. The same can be said to a lesser degree of the west coast were i grew up. you now have huge chunks of the inner city and rural east and west coast populations moving to norther ontario and alberta to work in oil and logging that is having severe envyromental impact on local farming communities. The locals are loosing their land and their drinkin water.

Industrial "development" has huge negative impacts on working class people and communities. Where i grew up they sunsets were always purple beacuse of pollution from the pulp mill that many of my friends worked in. My brother grew up with resperatory illness that serriously hampered his well being because of pollution.

Mabey you have never lived in an industrial area but health defects and life expectancy are way worse than in less "developed" areas. These arent bleeding heart liberals who are affected by this, its working class families who are chewed up and spit put by industry.

Me and a big chunk of my friends have immune difficiencies we got in the last 5 years from living in an industrial neighborhood. We cant afford specialists and expensive medical treatment to deal with it.



QUOTE
The government has locked up the proof that the processing is directly responsible for such ailments as well as responsible for large percentages of women giving birth to still-born fetuses lacking any brain.


"Locked up the proof"? Does that mean you don't have proof, you just assume it exists? And what percentage is "large"?


Again a rediculous statement.

The powers that be are very good at covering up the facts of their crimes. I cant speak for venesuala but I can speak about Canada. Health defects and envyromental destruction, obvious to anyone living with them, caused by big companies are always denied. Where is the proof? we are living with it every day!

Your analysis reeks of elietism, working peoples lives are just part of a big economic equation for you, we are just pawns to be manipulated untill the big day when you and your ilk get to lead us to our proper destiny.

Revolution and communism is about working people taking controll of our lives. i will not be part of your mathamatical formulas, i already know what that is like and Ive had enough thank you very much.

As for "the noble savage" syndrome, yes that is out there, but so is the "backward savage" syndrome. Look at indegenous communities in North America. How wonderfull their lives are. If only the poor backward forest dwellers of the south could live in the glory of industrialisation.

Once stripped of their traditional, and much more sustainable and fairly equal social structure Native communities were devestated. Poverty, illness, suicide, all multiple times worse than that of mainstream working class communities(as bad as we have it).

Also there areas targeted for the worst polluting are almost always near native communities. Why should they expect any better from Chavez?

I dont want to live in a overly spiritual, technologically isolated "traditional" native culture. i am a communist. But i do have the brains to see that we have things to learn about how to treat the land that sustains our very existance, and Im not going to wish all this "development" on my worst enemy...

... well mabey the capitalist bastards who are responsible for all this shit, but thats for a different forum.

[Guerrilla22]

while many of his programs are very progressive one has to wonder about the overall sustainability of a mixed economy, ultimately Chavez has not booted private interest out of venezuela, although in his defense doing so is easier said than done. ultimately the remittance of such private interest ultimately means outside control.

[travisdandy2000]

Western leftist seem to be infected with utopianism, if you are waiting for the perfect revolution or the perfect socialist society you might as well not bother. To with hold support from a movement because it fails to meet everyone of your ideals, on every level is insane. Many "leftist" I meet in the states don't actualy support any movement anywhere, and are apparently awaiting the return of Christ and the establishement of a kingdom of god, before they will throw themselves behind anything.

[redstar2000]

Originally posted by [email protected] 31 2006, 01:40 AM
Western leftist seem to be infected with utopianism, if you are waiting for the perfect revolution or the perfect socialist society you might as well not bother. To with hold support from a movement because it fails to meet everyone of your ideals, on every level is insane. Many "leftist" I meet in the states don't actualy support any movement anywhere, and are apparently awaiting the return of Christ and the establishement of a kingdom of god, before they will throw themselves behind anything.
In other words, whatever you're trying to sell, lefties in the "west" ain't buying.

Gee, that's really tough! :o Maybe you should retain a marketing consultant...someone who'll help you "re-brand" whatever you're supporting and make it look more "attractive" to western "customers".

How does The Perfect Socialist Revolution sound? :lol:

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[travisdandy2000]

Ah, well maybe the problem is western leftist, who judge everything, by late capitalist values as opposed to reality, are too far distant from real strugle to critizice anything. Ever consider that?

[travisdandy2000]

As you are being driven into extinction by the Isreali forces, think of the the views of the wealthy weastern leftist. Maoist of Nepal some college kids in the states think you are too harsh, would you please conform to our ideals. Chavez I have yet to see rainbows shooting from your ass, so I reject your revolution in favor of me and my freinds drinking in my moms cellar. Obviously, western spoiled children know much more about revolution then the farmers and workers of the third world.

[redstar2000]

Originally posted by [email protected] 31 2006, 07:47 PM
Ah, well maybe the problem is western leftist, who judge everything, by late capitalist values as opposed to reality, are too far distant from real strugle to critizice anything. Ever consider that?
That's one possibility.

Another is that we've given up the old habit of flopping on our bellies every time someone waves a red flag or demonstrates their ability to spell Marx's name correctly.

You see, we've been through all that...and many of us have no desire to go through it again.

You know, setting up western fan clubs for "third world" revolutions. :o

Meanwhile, there are lefties in Venezuela who appear to be skeptical as well...

Venezuela, El Libertario, Of Chavistas and Anarquistas: Brief Sketch (http://www.ainfos.ca/05/sep/ainfos00319.html)

I don't know if you've noticed (some people haven't!), but it's getting harder to fool people these days.

Everyone here (I think) would support Venezuela against U.S. imperialism.

That's not in question.

But only a few people here have suggested that we flop on our bellies for the social democrat Chavez...and the reaction to such suggestions has been generally negative.

It's a "sign of the times". :)

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[Guest1]

That the left is basing itself mostly on petty-bourgeois intellectualists? Yes, it it is a sign of the times, for now. Material conditions determine consciousness of course, so it's not suprising that for now the majority of the "left" in the US is opposing all revolutionary activity.

Including you.

Outside the US, the cancer is not so widespread, thankfully, but it's still a minor problem in Canada and similar places.

[redstar2000]

Originally posted by Che y Marijuana
That the left is basing itself mostly on petty-bourgeois intellectualists? Yes, it it is a sign of the times, for now. Material conditions determine consciousness of course, so it's not suprising that for now the majority of the "left" in the US is opposing all revolutionary activity.

Including you.

Redstar2000 "opposes all revolutionary activity"...

http://www.revolutionaryleft.com/index.php...st&p=1292044973 (http://www.revolutionaryleft.com/index.php?showtopic=48099&view=findpost&p=1292044973)

Shame on me! :lol:

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[Guest1]

Masses with no revolutionary demands may spur on a revolutioanry movement, and come to those revolutionary conclusions by their actions, but they are not revolutionary. By defintion. This is exactly what happened in Venezuela, the demands were not revolutionary, but the situation matured the movement.

This is also how workers' unions become revolutionary, but you've never been good at being consistent. A workers' union cannot be revolutionary without revolutionary demands according to you, but a single protest can?

If you can point to the LA protests as revolutionary, but not the mass workers' movement that has captured most of the state in venezuela and is collectivizing factories, farms and housing up and down the country, then clearly you have no idea what revolution is.

[redstar2000]

Originally posted by Che y Marijuana
If you can point to the LA protests as revolutionary, but not the mass workers' movement that has captured most of the state in Venezuela and is collectivizing factories, farms and housing up and down the country, then clearly you have no idea what revolution is.

"Captured most of the state?"

You get this directly from Chairman Ted?

It is precisely over-the-top assertions of this nature that are in dispute.

Indeed, it is what broke the habit that western revolutionaries used to have of flopping on their bellies every time they saw a red flag in the "third world".

We found out that what those folks were doing had nothing in common with communism.

Except a few scraps and tatters of "Marxist" rhetoric...abandoned when no longer useful.

Like a lot of "western" lefties used to do, you've got yourself "all wrapped up" in "Venezuela's socialist revolution". Think I didn't feel the same about Cuba in the early 60s?

And then I went to Cuba and saw how it was there...very exciting but not communist. True, I didn't know enough back then to grasp what was really happening. I still thought, for example, that Cuba was "on the road" to communism.

It wasn't. :(

Neither is Venezuela!

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[redstar2000]

How the imperialist bourgeoisie see Venezuela...

The sickly stench of corruption (http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6749208)

Keep in mind, of course, that when a bourgeois source complains of "corruption", that generally means that they haven't been able to get "a piece of the action". :o

Venezuela before Chavez was certainly at least as corrupt as it is now...but the imperialists could always "get a slice of the pie".

Now, things are (sort of) different. :lol:

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[Guest1]

No one said it was communist, but the reality is Venezuela is in the grips of a proletarian revolution.

Even Cuba must be considered revolutionary, particularly if you're going to assert that one protest in LA is revolutionary.

Sorry, your measure is fucked up.

Caracas Mayor’s Office to Expropriate Buildings for Renters (http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1930)

Venezuelan workers set up Revolutionary Front of Occupied Factories (http://www.marxist.com/revolutionary-front-occupied-factories080306.htm)

[colombiano]

Red and other what is your take on the following??



Venezuela: Curbs on Free Expression Tightened (http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/03/24/venezu10368.htm)



Venezuela: Rights Lawyer Faces Judicial Persecution (http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/04/05/venezu10423.htm)




Venezuela: Court Orders Trial of Civil Society Leaders (http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/07/08/venezu11299.htm)

[redstar2000]

In all three of those stories, it's clear that the Chavez regime is taking actions against reactionaries who are "on the payroll" of U.S. imperialism.

That's fine with me! :D

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[Guerrilla22]

What's with the "alternative social forum"? That's part of the problem with the left today is that movements keep splitterning off to the point where leftist groups, in this case the world social forum become insignificant. If these people are in oppisition to Chavez they should show up at the world soicial forum and let their views be known, not follow the model of rebelforums and start there own conference for people who adhere to their ideas.

[Janus]

Venezuela Offers Mexican Indians Eye Care


Originally posted by AP Press
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is helping Luis Xool, a Mayan Indian who speaks only a few words of Spanish, recover something he lost 24 months ago: his sight.

Xool is among 90 Indians from the Yucatan who will go to Venezuela on Thursday for free eye care — an all-expense paid trip courtesy of Chavez that has raised accusations the Venezuelan leader is trying to influence Mexico's July 2 presidential race.
Xool (pronounced "SHAWL"), who has cataracts, had never even heard of Venezuela or Chavez before his daughter-in-law told him of "Mission Miracle," a project that is paying for poor Latin Americans to have eye operations in Venezuela.
The program began in 2004 as part of an agreement with Cuba, which volunteered eye surgeons. It was expanded to 11 countries, including Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia,

El Salvador and Guatemala. It has benefited a total of 135,340 people, according to the Venezuelan Embassy in Mexico City.
Presidential candidates Felipe Calderon of the ruling National Action Party and Roberto Madrazo of the Institutional Revolutionary Party contend the program is designed to boost the campaign of leftist front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is often compared to Chavez.
Venezuela offered the operations to residents of the Yucatan peninsula town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto at the request of the town's mayor, Eliseo Bahena, a member of Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolution Party.
Mexico's secretary of health, Julio Frenk, says the Venezuelan help isn't needed, because Mexico has its own program. "Mexico has enough capacity to cover the demand for cataract surgery," Frenk said last week. "In fact, a good number of ophthalmologists from Latin America are trained here."
However, town officials said the poor have not received adequate information on how to get care in Mexico.
Some fear Lopez Obrador will be the latest of a wave of leftist leaders to be elected in Latin America. There are concerns the former Mexico City mayor, known for his government handout programs, could reverse years of conservative fiscal policy that has brought relative economic stability to Mexico.
There have been rumors Venezuela is helping to finance Lopez Obrador's campaign, allegations Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute is looking into. Both Lopez Obrador and the Venezuelan government have denied that, noting Chavez and the Mexican leftist have never even met.
Thousands of Venezuelans have received free surgery through the program, and thousands of Cuban doctors are working in Venezuela. But critics point to shortages of supplies and medical equipment in Venezuela's public hospitals, and say it should do more to fix its own health care system.
The controversy over the program is news to 78-year-old Xool, who was interviewed by The Associated Press in his two-room, stone-and-stick hut 620 miles east of Mexico City.
If he regains his vision, Xool says he plans to vote, although he didn't say for whom. In 2000, he voted for the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.
As a result of the cataracts, he is blind in his right eye and can only see shafts of light in his left eye. He never went to school and the farthest he has traveled is 60 miles to the state capital. Like the other Indians in his community, he is a subsistence farmer.
"A peasant is always a peasant," he said in broken Spanish in an attempt to explain his humble surroundings.
His biggest worry is not the operation, but the plane ride to Venezuela.
"It is dangerous," he said of traveling by air.
The program director, Gilberto Chan, said 618 people applied for free eye care. Of those, 142 needed cataract or other surgery, 246 needed glasses and the rest didn't have major problems.
The Venezuelan government will send a plane to Cancun to pick up the Mexican patients and take them to Caracas for surgery.
Nestor Gonzalez, business attache for the Venezuelan Embassy, said he had no immediate estimate of the program's cost, but the most complicated cases could cost as much as $10,000.
Pastora Chable Kan, 50, a Mayan housewife, said a private clinic in Mexico said her operation would cost about $1,300. Multiplied by the 90 patients from Mexico, that would put the program at over $100,000, plus transport and housing costs.

[Cheung Mo]

Awww...How cute...The Clericals and the Entrenched Ones are *****ing about Chavez and Obrador again.

[CubaSocialista]

Originally posted by Additives Free+Mar 29 2006, 04:24 PM--> (Additives Free @ Mar 29 2006, 04:24 PM)
[email protected] 29 2006, 03:38 PM
Sometimes i just feel i'm talking to the burgeous.
I sometimes feel im talking to uneducated Stalin-kiddies who wouldn't know how to spell 'bourgeoisie' if it was written on the back of their Che T-shirts. [/b]
oh, snap!