Chavez: “Obama Is Confusing Me with Bush”

[Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his country is open to unconditional talks with the new U.S. president, but rejected comments Barack Obama made in a television interview this week.]

Chavez: “Obama Is Confusing Me with Bush”

January 16th 2009, by Erik Sperling - Venezuelanalysis.com

Carora, January 16, 2009 (venezuelanalysis.com)-- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his country is open to unconditional talks with the new U.S. president, but rejected comments Barack Obama made in a television interview this week.

Chavez read the comments from the president-elect, in which Obama repeated Bush administration claims that Venezuela had “exported terrorism” and interrupted progress in the region.

“How can you say that?” Chavez asked, incredulous. “He is misinformed, repeating what they are telling him. It’s very regrettable.”

“Could it be he’s confusing me with Bush?” Chavez joked, before taking a more serious tone. “Bush has been the one who has interrupted world progress, has sunk it into an abyss.”

Chavez expressed hopes that Obama would stop listening to “far right advisors,” and instead follow the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Chavez noted that Thursday would be the 80th anniversary of King’s birth, eliciting applause from the hundreds of supporters in attendance.

(click here to view entire article)

Did Venezuela's Opposition Meet with US Officials in Puerto Rico?

[Even by Venezuelan standards, the story seemed implausible. On January 9, a young reporter Pedro Carvajalino, from community television station Ávila TV, filmed four leading figures of Venezuela's right-wing opposition returning from Puerto Rico. They had just arrived by private jet from the U.S. territory, where they had purportedly met with representatives of the U.S. Department of State.]

Did Venezuela's Opposition Meet with US Officials in Puerto Rico?

January 14th 2009, by Miguel Tinker Salas - NACLA

Even by Venezuelan standards, the story seemed implausible. On January 9, a young reporter Pedro Carvajalino, from community television station Ávila TV, filmed four leading figures of Venezuela's right-wing opposition returning from Puerto Rico. They had just arrived by private jet from the U.S. territory, where they had purportedly met with representatives of the U.S. Department of State.

According to emails obtained by the reporter, officials held the meeting to plan strategy and secure funding aimed at defeating a proposed amendment to the Venezuelan constitution that would allow elected officials, including President Hugo Chávez, to seek reelection.

The story first broke on Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), a government television channel. The brewing scandal has quickly become a centerpiece of a debate over U.S. interference in the internal affairs of the country as it prepares to vote on the re-election referendum in February.

(click here to view entire article; click here to view the BoRev blog's take on this.)

Chavez Turns Into Palestinian Hero

[Venezuelan flags and portraits of President Hugo Chavez have been flying high during protests in the West Bank against Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip.]

Chavez Turns Into Palestinian Hero

January 12th 2009, by Anna Pelegri - Middle East Online

Venezuelan flags and portraits of President Hugo Chavez have been flying high during protests in the West Bank against Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip.

The Venezuelan president's decision on January 6 to expel Israel's ambassador from Caracas -- the only country apart from Mauritania to take such a step -- has made the left-wing South American leader a hero to Palestinians.

Hamas, the Islamist movement which controls Gaza, has welcomed Chavez's "courageous decision," while Hassan Nasrallah, head of Lebanon's Hezbollah group, urged Arab states to follow the Venezuelan president's example.

Chavez on Saturday accused Israel of being the "murder arm" of the United States and said the solution to the Gaza crisis was in the hands of Barack Obama when he becomes US president later this month.

(click here to view entire article)

Venezuela: Socialism, Democracy and the Re-election of Hugo Chavez

[On February 15, 2009, Venezuelan voters will go to the polls in order to vote on a constitutional referendum, which would allow for the indefinite re-election of the President. The vote on the constitutional amendment has raised fundamental questions about the relation between electoral politics and democracy. ]

Venezuela: Socialism, Democracy and the Re-election of Hugo Chavez

January 12th 2009, by James Petras - Venezuelanalysis

Introduction

On February 15, 2009, Venezuelan voters will go to the polls in order to vote on a constitutional referendum, which would allow for the indefinite re-election of the President. The vote on the constitutional amendment has raised fundamental questions about the relation between electoral politics and democracy. The proposed constitutional change, and specifically the constitutional amendment allowing for the indefinite re-election of the President requires an examination of two basic concepts: electoral systems and democracy. The distinction between these two concepts dominates the political conflict between the supporters (pro-Chavez) and opponents (anti-Chavez) of the amendment.

Electoral Systems and Democracy: Substance and Structure

A democratic political system involves at a minimum: (1) Free and equal competition for political office and (2) access to the means of communication and (3) competing ideas and freedom to act without physical or psychological coercion. Procedures and conditions leading up to elections, which violate these norms, are incompatible with the notion of democracy. The most obvious case is Colombia whose state terror against opposition groups is practiced in every recent election. Electoral processes are necessary but not sufficient conditions to define a democratic system.

In other words there are numerous examples where electoral processes are embedded in institutional structures (oligarchy-controlled mass media) and preceded by political conditions (threats, patronage and corruption), which violate the basic norms of democracy. In other words, we can have non-democratic (authoritarian) as well as democratic electoral systems.

(click here to view entire article)

Book launch for "The Real Venezuela", London (Wednesday, 14 January)

Wednesday, 14 January 2009, 7:30pm - 10:00pm

Hands Off Venezuela and Pluto Books invite you to the book launch of "The Real Venezuela" by Iain Bruce, a British journalist and film-maker who has worked extensively in Latin America, at Bolivar Hall, 54 Grafton Way, London W1T 5DL on Wednesday January 14th at 7.30pm, free entry. The author will be presenting his book, with additional speakers to be confirmed.

Iain Bruce has made documentaries for Channel Four and the BBC and has worked as a BBC correspondent in Brazil and in Venezuela. He is currently an adviser at Telesur, the Latin American news channel based in Caracas. His previous book for Pluto, The Porto Alegre Alternative, looked at experiences of direct democracy in Brazil.

The Real Venezuela aims to grasp the significance of the political changes underway in Venezuela, by listening to the stories of the ordinary Venezuelans most directly affected. The book focuses on developments since the August 2004 referendum – the period described by President Hugo Chavez as “the revolution within the revolution”, intended to prepare the way for “a socialism of the 21st century”.

(click here for more information)

New Battle for Indefinite Reelection

[Venezuela is heading for another electoral battle, after President Hugo Chávez kicked off 2009 by putting forward a new proposal to reform the constitution so that all elected officials may be indefinitely reelected.]

VENEZUELA: New Battle for Indefinite Reelection

January 9th 2009, by Humberto Márquez - IPS

Venezuela is heading for another electoral battle, after President Hugo Chávez kicked off 2009 by putting forward a new proposal to reform the constitution so that all elected officials may be indefinitely reelected.

In December, Chávez proposed a draft amendment to the 1999 constitution that he promoted, but the aim then was to allow only the Venezuelan president to stand for indefinite reelection.

After the Christmas and New Year break, the president and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) changed tack and proposed that at least five articles be amended, so that "the right to run for office without restrictions is extended to governors, mayors, and (national and regional) legislators," Chávez said.

"I think this strengthens the (amendment proposal). It is an extension of the right of the people to elect without restrictions and to nominate whomever they want. It's the theory of good governance: if a governor is doing a good job, the people have the right to reelect him as many times as they like," Chávez said at a televised PSUV meeting.

After becoming president in 1999, Chávez renewed his mandate under the new constitution in 2000, and was reelected in 2006 for another six-year term, which expires in January 2013 according to present law.

But in late 2008 the president posed "the need to continue at the helm at least until 2019. After that, God and the people will decide," he said.

"There will be a battle between the government and the opposition to see which side appeals most strongly to the democratic values of the people," analyst Oscar Schémel, the head of the Hinterlaces polling firm, told IPS.

(click here to view entire article)

Venezuela's ALBA in the face of the Global Economic Crisis

[As neoliberalism reveals its fissures and weaknesses, ALBA may be gaining ideological legitimacy as an alternative for poorer Latin American states facing these failures of neoliberalism (past and present). The question remains, however, of how ALBA will gain institutional legitimacy in this economic storm.]

Venezuela's ALBA in the face of the Global Economic Crisis

December 29th 2009, by Jodie Neary - UpsideDownWorld

In response to the G20 Summit in Washington D.C. last month, Chavez established an equivalent, the ALBA (Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas) Summit in Caracas, Venezuela on November 26th. This 6-member group consisting of Venezuela (2004), Cuba (2004), Bolivia (2006), Nicaragua (2007), Dominica (2008), and its most recent member Honduras (2008), represents an alternative vision to neoliberal economics, one with a socialist agenda in trade relations attempting to re-embed 'the social' back into economic and political relations in the region. This ad hoc meeting was a response to the discontent expressed by many Latin American nations to the lack of representation from poorer nations in the G20 summit. It was also an attempt to confirm the notion that neoliberalism is at its end, a remark expressed by Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega during the Summit, who called the crisis as the 'funeral of Capitalism', naming ALBA as 'an alternative model of development'.[1] As neoliberalism reveals its fissures and weaknesses, ALBA may be gaining ideological legitimacy as an alternative for poorer Latin American states facing these failures of neoliberalism (past and present). The question remains, however, of how ALBA will gain institutional legitimacy in this economic storm. In the context of a global financial crisis, ALBA's institutional consolidation will be even more vital.

(click here to view entire article)