See instructions and format at the beginning of the first week's thread.
A film we will watch in class on Tuesday. If Guatamala (with three major invasions/destabalizations by the U.S. are known), Cuba with several hundred presumed attempts on Castro's life by the U.S.--along with the failed "Bay of Pigs" invasion of 1961--represents a failure at least from the standpoint that many operations were a failure. However from Stockwell and Blum's point of view, if you merely symbolically delegitimate an attempt at independence you have succeeded.
However, the strange context is that Castro was quite U.S.-friendly originally. Howard Blum even mentions that Castro was accepting U.S. CIA funds in 1957-8 immediately before he was in power. In other words, it's the same story as other destabalizations that Blum mentioned. However, it represents a case that they were unable to "re-topple" once they disliked many of his policies within Cuba. This set up the embargo by the U.S. attempting to starve the island into submission. And thus contributed to the huge sponsorship of the USSR afterwards. Castro had been unable to get armaments from the USSR before, though after the Bay of Pigs incident he was increasingly successful.
We will treat Guatamala and others like El Salvador as completely U.S. dominated on many infrastructural levels, and we can treat Cuba as only partial U.S. dominance (through the trade and travel blockade (intermittently the latter) that still goes on by the U.S. against Cuba). I have a lot more to say about comparisons than this, particularly what it means for sociological analysis of state/cultures when much of Latin American experiences economically, financially, and culturally are covertly manipulated and the governments seated and unseated with such regularity.
Even this documentary leaves out some issues that are worth mentioning. I will integrate what is known from Blum's collated research as well as others into this documentary as we watch it.
Fidel.the.Untold Story - Part 1 CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Company
44 min - 21-Sep-07 - (5 ratings)
"Fidel" tells a previously untold story and presents a new view of this powerful and compelling figure. On July 26, 1953, Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-6718909413798152672
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Another Strategy of Destabalization in Venezuela: Food Producers Strike to Cause Unrest with Chavez Government
3. To go with this weeks theme of external mass psychological manipulations to create internal destabalization, a food producers strike is underway in Venezuela. It is occurring in the months before the main Chavez referendum on Dec. 2--well timed it is to engender mass disapproval and upset with the Chavez government. The food producers 'strike' is attempting to starve its own population to make a political point. This is the kind of reality Latin American states face. What would you do?
As if Venezuela didn't have enough problems, this seems a repeat of the 'oil producers strike/lockout' of workers from the oil industry (where the owners locked the doors and didn't let the laborers in) several years ago with the aim to destabalize the Chavez regime's major framework of finance and export earnings.
This version is a food producers 'strike' by withholding foodstuffs from market, and then blaming the Chavez government (and with lots of media on malnutrition problems).
It's open what will happen next or become of this tactic of 'food strike.' The William Blum piece shows that in the past that the CIA in some Latin American countries would even pay laborers to strike for long periods in some countries, to assure destabalization of major infrastructural and/or transportation sectors of regimes that the U.S. disliked.
This article is very pro-Chavez though it is really quite good about the dynamics of two different views of policy and ideology coming face to face.
------------------
newswire article reposts global 27.Nov.2007 12:18
imperialism & war
Venezuela: The economic tug of war between revolution and counter-revolution
author: By Erik Demeester
A recent report from Datanalisis (1) [the Venezuelan statistical service] revealed what already many people knew and suffered from.
Scarcity of basic foodstuff is becoming intolerable. This study established that milk, beef and sugar have become very difficult to find. Other products like chicken, cooking oil, cheese, sardines and black beans are also very scarce.
The analysts who compiled the report interviewed 800 people in some 60 different shops, supermarkets and markets, both in the private sector and the public distribution network, Mercal. 73,3% of the places visited had no milk powder for sale.
51,7% no longer had refined sugar, 40% had no cooking oil, and 26,7% no black beans, a basic staple in Venezuela.
Two thirds of the shoppers declared that they experienced food scarcity to one degree or another in the shops where they usually buy.
Queues of a few hours, sometimes up to four hours, to buy some milk are no longer the exception.
This is reminiscent of the situation in Chile when wholesale economic sabotage was used against the left-wing Popular Unity government of the 1970s. [described by William Blum's summary]
Without giving in to the panic stories and exaggerated reports of the right-wing media, we must understand that this is a serious situation.
The bosses have even threatened to extend this situation into the first quarter of 2008, especially because of the uncertainties related to the questions of private property included in the new constitutional reform.
They are grabbing the revolution by its throat. The hysterical campaigns of the bourgeois media are aimed at inducing panic and, more importantly, they want to create dissatisfaction amongst the social base itself of the revolution itself.
[At the same moment, the spin:] Bosses blame government
The bosses complain of what they call a 'cerco gubernemental', a governmental siege of private industry and commerce through all kinds of new laws, norms, controls and taxes.
The spokesperson of Conindustria (the industrial bosses' federation) Gomez Sigala, denies the accusations of the government, which blames the private sector for the food scarcity. The current situation, he says, is caused by the "wrong policies of the government."
"The fundamental task of industry is to produce quality goods and services...Unfortunately over recent years we have been hampered by a series of obstacles and barriers which have made it impossible for the national productive system to function normally.
"Those obstacles are the price controls, control of exchange rates, import licences, the new taxes and the general insecurity."
Gomez Sigala also insists on the fact that "since 1998 industry has fallen by 40%. To win back this lost ground much investment will be needed. The governmental policies have the opposite effects. It not only fails to attract new investors, it also chases away existing investment."
Nelson Maldonado, the president of the network of traders in Venezuela, Consecomercio, has the same line of defence. He claims the government is responsible for the scarcity of basic foodstuffs.
"Price controls and control of exchange rates generate scarcity. The more those controls on the economy persists the more scarcity there will be. The traders are not the cause of the situation. This is what you see in all socialist countries."
Then he goes to the core of the bosses' argument: "Scarcity is now the worst in many years. This is a fundamental question. The government claims that there is a crisis in the world market of milk but if you go to Cucuta or Puerto Rico or Miami you will find everything you need. Wherever you go you can find milk. Of course not at 1000 bolivares per litre. That doesn't exist. There is milk available at the price milk really costs."
Profit versus food
The core question is indeed that the bosses cannot make the profits they used to make in the past, now that the government has imposed low prices. So the industry basically says: "If you get between me and my profits, I'll starve the population."
The agricultural industry claims to be working at full capacity.
Peasant organisations like the Frente Nacional Campesino Ezequiel Zamora, challenge this statement.
From their own experience they know that in many places the bosses are refusing to buy parts of their crops of sugar cane, for instance. Workers in the newly established public milk processing plants complain that they cannot work at full capacity because the big owners of milk cow herds refuse to sell them the necessary milk.
The deliberate refusal to invest and to expand capacity is also a fact. Actually industrial capacity has been drastically reduced.
Government sources indicate that the number of industrial production units has decreased by 35% since 1998. 6000 companies have closed since the beginning of the revolution. The economy is basically fuelled with public money. This lack of private investment amounts to effective economic sabotage.
Suddenly the private [right wing ] media is championing the case of the poor and their health [when they were providing services in organizing the 2003 coup against Chavez]. Recently El Universal - the bourgeois paper par excellence - dedicated a whole article to the consequences of an unbalanced diet on the health of the population. Food scarcity as a result of the government policies will cause anaemia, growth disorders amongst the children and youth and weakening the elderly!
It is true that price controls and all kinds of other controls have disorganised the normal workings of what is still a capitalist economy in Venezuela. Those measures have been taken with the best of intentions: to guarantee and expand access to basic foodstuff for the broadest layers of the population.
Thanks to controlled and low prices the most downtrodden layers of the population now have access to these products.
In general the purchasing power of the poor has also increased.
A recent report of the Venezuelan American Chamber of Commerce and Industry revealed significant increases in income between 2004 and 2006. 58%, the poorest section of the population, had their real income increased by 130% after allowing for inflation. These gains do not include the benefits associated with the different social programs or 'Misiones' which provide free education, healthcare, etc.
A common explanation for the shortages by the government is that the increase in demand -- thanks to increased purchasing power -- has not been matched by what the market has to offer.
That is why the Minister of Food, Division General Rafael Oropeza, "invites the industry and agribusiness to increase its production with the aim of covering the local demand in foodstuffs."
He fears that the current situation of scarcity is creating a situation of despair amongst the population.
Rafael Oropeza also declared recently that he did not know if this situation has been caused for political reasons or for administrative problems. He also pretends not to know if it is done "on purpose or not"!!!
In reality the public network of food distribution, via Mercal, is trying to cover the demand which is not met by the private sector, that is refusing to increase production.
Bold measures and mass action needed
Rafael Oropeza's appeal to business to "satisfy demand" is to say the least a bit naive. It also reveals a lack of knowledge of the workings of a capitalist economy.
Capitalists do not invest and produce to "satisfy demand" even if they claim to do so. They do it for one reason only: to make profit. If they can no longer make profits they will withdraw investment or reduce it to its minimal expression.
This is what is happening today in Venezuela.
All the progressive reforms such as price controls, etc., tend to disorganise the normal workings of the capitalist economy. They distort the functioning of a market economy. Reformists in the Bolivarian movement believe those reforms are compatible with capitalism. The reaction of the capitalists should be a lesson, however. They are not compatible with the functioning of a capitalist economy. That is what they are saying every hour of the day.
The main demands of the different bosses' organisations are to remove all the control measures of the government. Then they will be ready to respond to the demands for more goods, they claim. This situation pleads for the opposite course. The revolution cannot retreat on this or any other question. Bold measures are needed. Nationalisation of food production and distribution under the democratic control of workers, peasants and communal councils is the best answer to those who are starving the people. The peasant organisation, the FNCEZ, is right when it says to the bosses: "If you refuse to feed us we will take over your factories". It is time to put those words into practice.
Economic sabotage threatens revolution
The situation of scarcity of foodstuff is not a recent phenomenon, but in the last months it has taken a sharp turn. The timing is of course not accidental. In the run-up to the referendum on the new constitutional reform they hope to reduce the 'yes' vote or even to win the referendum on a "no" campaign. It is part of a generalised campaign to undermine the revolution on the economic front. Especially the poorest are hit by this scandalous campaign.
The aim is evident. By organising artificial scarcity they hope to demoralise exactly those layers of the population who constitute the social base of the revolution.
Scarcity, and its inevitable side effect of a black parallel market of high priced goods, can neutralise the effect of increased purchasing power and controlled prices. "What is the point of a revolution if you cannot buy milk anymore?" is a feeling the counterrevolution wants to induce among the population.
The politically most backward layers of the revolution can be tempted by this reaction.
Especially when bombarded daily by panic reports in the media.
The reaction of the government is a combination of appeals to business to increase production, massive imports of the missing goods and distribution through the network of Mercal and efforts to develop a parallel public food industry.
To this must be added limited and very partial expropriations of abandoned companies in the food production chain and mild measures against blatant examples of hoarding, corruption and speculation.
Because Mercal is not working under democratic control it is riddled with corruption. This is also one of the reasons why Mercal is suffering from food scarcity. Huge amounts of Mercal products have "found their way" on to the informal black market.
They are being smuggled out of the public network by venal bureaucrats eager to make a fast buck in this situation. Those products are sold by some buhoneros or street sellers at uncontrolled - therefore very high - prices.
The revolution in Venezuela is again at a crossroads. It is being attacked on all fronts. On the economic front it needs urgently to go on to the offensive. Halfway measures applied half-heartedly will not be able to combat the threat of economic sabotage. The economy is the Achilles' heel of the revolution. Until now the reformists in the government have been able to answer those weaknesses with massive public investment and imports financed by the oil revenues. All this is done within the confines of a capitalist economy. They hope to postpone and avoid a confrontation with the oligarchy. All to no avail, as the recent situation shows. The socialist battalions, as the local branches of the newly formed mass United Socialist Party are called, should take the lead with a programme of mass action of workers' control of prices, of the food production chain and nationalisation.
---
reposted from http://www.marxist.com
at
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/11/369133.shtml
1. Mark Whitaker
2. More Venezuelan News - Venezuelan Secret Intelligence Service Claims to Have obtained a major CIA destabalization plan for Venezuela, named "Operation Pliers"
3. I don't know if many of the particulars are real, because they have not released the original document for perusal yet. However, given the history of CIA interventions in Latin America, I think it is safe to say that the U.S. under Bush is concentrating on putting Venezuela within some 'pliers' right now. This is particularly the case when Bush/U.S. recognized the illegal overthrow of Chavez back in 2003 by the head of the state oil company, Camora, immediately. However, we have seen how Chavez's movement was able surprisingly to recapture power due to mass civil unrest combined with a loyal military dedicated to Chavez's changes.
Given the potential of Chavez relegitimating himself in the Dec. 2 vote in Venezuela, poetentially for decades longer, and the reality of his movement sealing many 'populist/basic needs' policies into the Constitution of Venezuela, I would imagine that the U.S. is very interested in continued destabalization of Venezuela presently more than ever.
Interesting reading:
------------------------
newswire article announcements global 28.Nov.2007 14:09
imperialism & war
CIA Operation "Pliers" Uncovered in Venezuela
author: Eva Gollinger
Last night CNN en Español aired the above image, which captions at the bottom "Who Killed him?" by "accident". The image of President Chavez with the caption about killing him below, which some could say subliminally incites to assassination, was a "production error" mistakenly made in the CNN en Español newsroom. The news anchor had been narrarating a story about the situation between Colombia and Venezuela and then switched to a story about an unsolved homicide but - oops - someone forgot to change the screen image and President Chavez was left with the killing statement below.
Today they apologized and admitted it was a rather "unfortunate" and "regrettable" mistake. Yes, it was.
On a scarier note, an internal CIA memorandum has been obtained by Venezuelan counterintelligence from the US Embassy in Caracas that reveals a very sinister - almost fantastical, were it not true - plan to destabilize Venezuela during the coming days.
The plan, titled "OPERATION PLIERS" was authored by CIA Officer Michael Middleton Steere and was addressed to CIA Director General Michael Hayden in Washington.
Steere is stationed at the US Embassy in Caracas under the guise of a Regional Affairs Officer.
The internal memorandum, dated November 20, 2007, references the "Advances of the Final Stage of Operation Pliers", and confirms that the operation is coordinated by the team of Human Intelligence (HUMINT) in Venezuela. The memo summarizes the different scenarios that the CIA has been working on in Venezuela for the upcoming referendum vote on December 2nd.
The Electoral Scenario, as it's phrased, confirms that the voting tendencies will not change substantially before Sunday, December 2nd, and that the SI (YES) vote in favor of the constitutional reform has an advantage of about 10-13 points over the NO vote. The CIA estimates abstention around 60% and states in the memo that this voting tendency is irreversible before the elections.
Officer Steere emphasizes the importance and success of the public relations and propaganda campaign that the CIA has been funding with more than $8 million during the past month - funds that the CIA confirms are transfered through the USAID contracted company, Development Alternatives, Inc., which set up operations in June 2002 to run the USAID Office for Transition Initiatives that funds and advises opposition NGOs and political parties in Venezuela. [Sounds like William Blums book, eh?]
The CIA memo specifically refers to these propaganda initiatives as "psychological operations" (PSYOPS), that include contracting polling companies to create fraudulent polls that show the NO vote with an advantage over the SI vote, which is false.
The CIA also confirms in the memo that it is working with international press agencies to distort the data and information about the referendum, and that it coordinates in Venezuela with a team of journalists and media organized and directed by the President of Globovision, Alberto Federico Ravell.
CIA Officer Michael Steere recommends to General Michael Hayden two different strategies to work simultaneously: Impede the referendum and refuse to recognize the results once the SI vote wins.
Though these strategies appear contradictory, Steere claims that they must be implemented together precisely to encourage activities that aim toward impeding the referendum and at the same time prepare the conditions for a rejection of the results.
How is this to be done?
In the memo, the CIA proposes the following tactics and actions:
* Take the streets and protest with violent, disruptive actions across the nation
* Generate a climate of ungovernability
* Provoke a general uprising in a substantial part of the population
* Engage in a "plan to implode" the voting centers on election day by encouraging opposition voters to "VOTE and REMAIN" in their centers to agitate others
* Start to release [false] data during the early hours of the afternoon on Sunday that favor the NO vote (in clear violation of election regulations)
* Coordinate these activities with Ravell & Globovision and international press agencies
* Coordinate with ex-military officers and coupsters Pena Esclusa and Guyon Cellis - this will be done by the Military Attache for Defense and Army at the US Embassy in Caracas, Office of Defense, Attack and Operations (DAO)
To encourage rejection of the results, the CIA proposes:
* Creating an acceptance in the public opinion that the NO vote will win for sure
* Using polling companies contracted by the CIA
* Criticize and discredit the National Elections Council
* Generate a sensation of fraud
* Use a team of [paid] experts from the universities that will talk about how the data from the Electoral Registry has been manipulated and will build distrust in the voting system
The CIA memo also talks about:
* Isolating Chavez in the international community
* Trying to achieve unity amongst the opposition
* Seek an alliance between those abstentionists and those who will vote "NO"
* Sustain firmly the propaganda against Chavez
* Execute military actions to support the opposition mobilizations and propagandistic occupations
* Finalize the operative preparations on the US military bases in Curacao and Colombia to provide support to actions in Venezuela [The U.S. has two very close and recently expanded military bases on each side of Venezuela]
* Control a part of the country during the next 72-120 hours
* Encourage a military rebellion inside the National Guard forces and other components
Those involved in these actions as detailed in the CIA memo are:
* The CIA Office in Venezuela - Office of Regional Affairs, and Officer Michael Steere
* US Embassy in Venezuela, Ambassador Patrick Duddy
* Office of Defense, Attack and Operations (DAO) at the US Embassy in Caracas and Military Attache Richard Nazario
Venezuelan Political Parties:
* Comando Nacional de la Resistencia
* Accion Democratica
* Primero Justicia
* Bandera Roja
Media:
* Alberto Federico Ravell & Globovision
* Interamerican Press Society (IAPA) or SIP in Spanish
* International Press Agencies
Venezuelans:
* Pena Esclusa
* Guyon Cellis
* Dean of the Simon Bolivar University, Rudolph Benjamin Podolski
* Dean of the Andres Bello Catholic University, Ugalde
* Students: Yon Goicochea, Juan Mejias, Ronel Gaglio, Gabriel Gallo, Ricardo Sanchez
Operation Tenaza has the objective of encouraging an armed insurrection in Venezuela against the government of President Chavez that will justify an intervention of US forces, stationed on the military bases nearby in Curacao and Colombia.
The Operation mentions two countries in code: as Blue and Green. These refer to Curacao and Colombia, where the US has operative, active and equipped bases that have been reinforced over the past year and a half in anticipation of a conflict with Venezuela.
The document confirms that psychological operations are the CIA's best and most effective weapon to date against Venezuela, and it will continue its efforts to influence international public opinion regarding President Chavez and the situation in the country.
Operation Tenaza is a very alarming plan that aims to destabilize Venezuela and overthrow (again) its legitimate and democratic (and very popularly support) president.
The plan will fail, primarily because it has been discovered, but it must be denounced around the world as an unacceptable violation of Venezuela's sovereignty.
The original document in English will be available in the public sphere soon for viewing and authenticating purposes.
And it also contains more information than has been revealed here.
contribute to this article
SOLIDARITY WORK NEEDED!!!!!!!!! 28.Nov.2007 14:39
pete link
Please post this article far and wide !!!
the more people know about this, the less able our government is to destroy the ongoing revolution in Venezuela.
If the attempted coup succeeds, a political nightmare far worse than what happened in Chile under Pinochet will be the result.
You can help prevent this!!!! spread the word!
Sources? 28.Nov.2007 18:54
you gonna tell us link
where to find the confirmation of this story?
...
If it's fake, great...but what if it's real? 29.Nov.2007 00:20
troublemaker link
I'm so glad there are experts on Indymedia to analyze this information for us. Meanwhile, two respected authors are confirming the story, and half the **** in this plan has already ******* happened. Have folks not seen the steady stream of anti-Chavez propaganda in the US media??? Did you not hear that violence has already broken out on the streets of Venezuela?
Anyway, for folks who think there is a remote chance of US meddling in the affairs of Venezuela (duh!), we should mobilize. Yes, spread the information around, but we should organize a protest before it's too late. And if nothing happens, fine. We can declare victory, and go back to bickering at each other on Indymedia.
Lots of confirmation here... 29.Nov.2007 00:30
troublemaker link
Check out:
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/
for lots of news about the situation in Venezuela.
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/
---
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/11/369195.shtml
1. Mark Whitaker
2. Destabalization Violence Starting in Venezuela?
3. Particularly before Dec. 2, Venezuela is a 'live test case' of this week's analysis of U.S. destablizations historically in Latin America. Below are three stories discussing antics that seem to indicate intentional destabalization with escalation of overblown violence. It seems to me to be aimed to convert the referendum into an open armed attack from each sides and making the country ungovernable--"allowing" the military an excuse to unseat Chavez, like "Operation Pliers" above indicated?
-------------------------
example 1:
Anti-Chavez Protests In Carabobo Leave One Dead And Three Injured
November 26th 2007, by ABN
Valencia, 26 Nov. ABN.- José Aníbal Oliveros Yépez, 19, was killed Monday morning in Guacara, Carabobo, after being shot three times by anti-Chavez demonstrators who were protesting in the street against the constitutional reform.
The information comes from General Cliver Alcalá Cordones commander of the 41st Armored Brigade and the Military Garrison of Valencia. He stated that from "about 2:00 in the morning, these groups set up in different places around town with the intention of creating chaos."
In these acts, 3 others were injured by firearms and by blasts from explosives in the Ciudad Alianza community of Guacara.
The General indicated that 'four individuals suspected of being involved in the death of Olivero Yépez were detained.'
He explained that the victim was in a truck of the socialist company Petrocasa, where he worked. When he tried to convince demonstrators to let his truck through so he could continue with work, he was shot twice in the back and once in the forearm.
The case has been assigned to Darnis Zolorzano, Public Ministry prosecuting attorney of homicides.
In addition, Alcalá Cordones reported the detention of 15 others involved in the disruption of public order by blocking traffic in the cities of Valencia, Libertador, Naguanagua and Guacara.
In those jurisdictions the protesters burned tires and uncovered manholes to block transit.
The General said that Army, National Guard and Carabobo Police personnel are neutralizing these actions, "which are hardly democratic and violate the rights of others."
Translated by Dawn Gable
---
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/newsbrief/2898
example 2
Venezuelan Opposition Protesters Shoot Chavez Supporter
November 28th 2007, by Kiraz Janicke - Venezuelanalysis.com
Gladys Yépez, mother of José Anibal Oliveros Yépez shot by opposition supporters. (VTV)
Caracas, November 28, 2007 (venezuelanalysis.com) - Neighbors, friends and family members of young worker and supporter of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, José Anibal Oliveros Yépez, who was murdered by a radical opposition group in the regional city of Valencia on Monday, have express profound rage and indignation at what occurred explaining that his body was spat on and kicked by his killers, "as if he were and animal."
Oliveres, 19 years old, was on his way to work driving a truck of state owned "socialist" housing company Petrocasa when he encountered opposition groups blocking the road in protest against proposed constitutional reforms. When he tried to convince them to let him pass he was shot several times and died before he could be rescued.
Radio YVKE Mundial reported that the opposition protesters came from Cuidad Alianza, a middle class suburb in Valencia and blocked a highway to impede workers from Petrocasa from passing to the poorer neighborhood of Araguita, where they were working to construct housing for the poor. However, the report noted many of the neighbors from Cuidad Alianza also rejected the violent behavior of some of the opposition groups.
A resident from Cuidad Alianza who did not want to be named told Radio YVKE Mundial that the opposition groups had blocked the road to Araguita from three o'clock in the morning and were patrolling the neighborhood "with guns in hand."
Alexander Borges, friend and workmate of Oliveros explained to VTV that they tried to rescue Oliveros, but were prevented by the protestors who threatened to kill them.
"There were four of us, trying to carry our friend to the community, but they surrounded us throwing bottles. I took the opportunity to move him [Oliveros] because they were going to hit him with a bottle in the face and I moved him so it did not hit him in the face. He had one bullet in the leg, a man from the local community was going to carry him, but in this moment they shot him twice in the back and this is when he fell to the ground."
"We pleaded with them for the life of our friend that was lying bloody on the ground, to please allow us the opportunity to pick him up and they responded that now they were coming for us, that they were coming for me," Borges added.
Borges explained that two other people came to help rescue Oliveros, but that the opposition supporters threw rocks and bottles at them screaming, "Come and pick up your dead, now we are coming for you."
Dixon Viloria, also a friend of Oliveros and a witness said that after they killed him, "they mal-treated him, kicked him, stripped off his clothes, hit him and screamed ‘pick up your dead chicken!' as if he was an animal."
Beltran Chavez, from Araguita said that neighbors from Cuidad Alianza had shot at workers from Petrocasa earlier when they tried to pass through to construction sites in Araguita. He said the same group of protesters had previously set alight to a truck from Petrocasa and physically and verbally attacked a group of women from Araguita.
"How can a group of people be better armed than the state and municipal police," he asked. He added that thanks to the municipal and state police the four people that participated in the act were captured."
National Assembly Deputy Francisco Ameliach and the Mayor of Guacara, José Manuel Flores, who visited the neighborhood to pay their respects to the Oliveros' family, reported that opposition groups in Ciudad Alianza that claim to represent "civil society" have marked the houses of Chavez supporters, or those they believe to be Chavez supporters, with red paint and "have said they are going to kill them."
Vice president Jorge Rodriguez confirmed that the Oliveros' killer had been identified and arrested and has confessed to the crime, reportedly saying that all "Chavistas" should be killed, as well as three other people also linked to his death. Rodrgiuez said that simultaneously coordinated opposition protests of small groups had blocked other highways with burning objects in Valencia and Maracay. In total 80 people were arrested.
Rodriguez has also asked the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference to explain what they know about a meeting held by the opposition in the Diocesan Insitute in Maracay where the violent protests are alleged to have been planned.
Rodriguez said he has witness testimony of people who were invited to the meeting in the Diocesan Institute to "pray for peace" however; when they arrived they found the meeting was planning the protest in Ciudad Alianza that resulted in the death of Oliveros.
Rodriguez said the Catholic hierarchy should remember the commandments not to lie and not to kill and said the Church should explain to the Venezuelan people why their buildings are being used to plan these types of protests.
Friends and family of Oliveros also condemned Venezuelan and international media reporting of his death, particularly opposition private TV channel Globovision, which they say tried to portray Oliveros as insane, and some international media that have tried to obscure the events leading to Oliveros death, some even claiming that Oliveros was an opposition supporter attacked by a "pro-Chavez mob."
Gladys Yépez, mother of Oliveros demanded justice for her only son and President Hugo Chavez has responded saying the murderer of Oliveros should face the "full weight of the law."
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/2913
example 3
Venezuelan Opposition Closes Anti-Reform Campaign with Major Demonstration
November 29th 2007, by Kiraz Janicke - Venezuelanalysis.com
Opposition supporters gathered on Caracas' largest boulvard to demonstrate against the constitutional reform proposal of President Chavez. (El Universal)
Caracas, November 29, 2007, (venezuelanalysis.com) - Several hundred thousand opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's proposed constitutional reform marched in Caracas today in their final protest before the referendum on Sunday.
Opposition political parties and student groups gathered in five points before marching to the capital's largest boulevard, Avenida Bolivar, in central Caracas.
Waving US and Spanish flags, in support of Spain's King Juan Carlos who told Chavez to "shut up" at the Ibero-American summit recently and chanting "No to the reform!", protesters handed out glossy leaflets claiming the reform will lead to a dictatorship.
With their designer sunglasses and jewellery, opposition protesters were noticeably better off than their Chavista counterparts, who come predominantly from the poorer areas.
However, Chavez supporters had painted pro-Chavez and pro-reform graffiti all over Avenida Bolivar before the opposition march arrived, and waved pro-reform posters out of windows as opposition supporters marched past.
Several speakers at the march affirmed their conviction that the "No" vote against the reform will win on Sunday.
Henrique Capriles Radonski, the opposition mayor of the upper middle class neighbourhood Baruta in Caracas, said to the gathered crowd, "To the CNE [electoral council] we say, we know that this time we are the majority and there will be people who will go out to defend their vote, one-by-one. We are not armed [sic], but we are no fools and will defend our political right to be equal Venezuelans."
The reform, if adopted, would, among other things, reduce the work week to 36hrs, remove presidential term limits, recognize new forms of property such as communal and social property, and give more power to grassroots communal councils.
While Chavez's personal popularity is high, opinion polls show mixed results, with polling firms linked to the opposition showing the reforms being overwhelmingly defeated and others closer to the government showing strong victory for the reforms.
Chavez says that it is up to the Venezuelan people to decide; if the reforms are defeated he said in a televised interview yesterday, "I will start to pack my bags because I will have to leave the government." However, Chavez assured he is confident that the reforms will be approved by a "crushing majority." [That supposedly is what the CIA thinks as well--that Chavez will continue to win legally.]
Chavez has also accused the opposition of planning to refuse to recognize the results if they lose and claim fraud.
However, he says the Venezuelan electoral system is free and fair and the National Electoral Council has confirmed that 1,600 international observers will monitor the referendum.
The final pro-reform rally is set to take place tomorrow. Rather than take their usual fourteen kilometre march route, which passes through the wealthy opposition suburbs in the east of Caracas, [which would be an invitation for huge destabalization violence by internal or external forces to Venezuela] Chavez supporters have instead called only for a rally in Avenida Bolivar, in an attempt to avoid violence.
Opposition protests have turned violent at times, and tensions have heightened in recent days after opposition protesters shot and killed a Chavez supporter in Valencia on November 26. [and others on November 28.]
---
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/2923
"sunday is 12/02. isn't it?"
1. SuJung, Kim
2. Students stage anti-Chavez rally
3. I think, almost everyday there is at least one article about Hugo Chavez. Today's article make me think that Chavez try to go too far..
Even though he has contributed some good things to Venezuela, I do not agree to his plan. Hugo Chavez's walk remind me of past korean presidents who tried to extend their term.
------------------------
Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have protested against changes to the constitution proposed by the president.
Venezuelans are due to vote on the proposals - which include the removal of presidential term limits - in a referendum on Sunday.
Critics accuse President Hugo Chavez of a power grab, but supporters say the changes will deepen democracy.
It is the latest in a series of student-led rallies, ahead of the "yes" campaign's final march on Friday.
However, correspondents say the "no" campaign is gaining force.
No official crowd estimates were available but an opposition politician put the figure at about 160,000.
'Divided society'
Waving flags and banners and singing, the huge crowds of protesters staged a peaceful march through the capital's streets.
One female demonstrator told the BBC: "Although I don't think that all the things that President Chavez has done are bad... I don't like when the government imposes things."
The students say they want the referendum postponed to give voters more time to study the plans.
However, the government has described the demonstrations as an opposition effort to destabilise the country ahead of the referendum on 2 December.
Earlier this month troops used tear gas and water cannon to disperse a rally, and last week gunmen opened fire on a peaceful protest march.
Students preparing to march from the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas were undeterred, and said they would do all they could to defeat the referendum.
A student leader, Stalin Gonzalez, told local media the show of opposition was to avoid "a continued polarisation of the country and a divided society".
Destabilising
If Hugo Chavez wins the referendum he will have the right to stand for re-election an unlimited number of times.
He has said he is prepared to serve for life as long as the people want it.
The BBC's James Ingham in Caracas says that is just one concern of opponents, who fear that in the future anyone disagreeing with the government will be penalised.
Other changes up for approval include giving the president control over the central bank, and the creation of new provinces governed by centrally appointed officials.
Mr Chavez is also proposing to bypass legal controls on the executive during a state of emergency, bring in a maximum six-hour working day and cut the voting age from 18 to 16.
A number of key defections from the president's camp have encouraged opponents - but Mr Chavez has dismissed these one-time allies as traitors.
Our correspondent says the president has made it personal, telling the populace that choosing "yes" is a vote for him and a "no" is a vote against him.
------
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7120133.stm
1. Hyunji Ju
2. Brazil leader starts rehab of Rio slum
3. This article reminded me of the movie "City of the gods" which showed the deperate real life of the slum area in Rio. It was so shocking when I first saw the movie, and when I went to Argentina, I could such seens for real, and was shocked again. I guess it is also related to the long Latin American history of colonization....
-----------
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visited a teeming hillside shantytown Friday to launch a multimillion-dollar program to build an outdoor elevator, sewage systems, improve roads and upgrade housing for slum residents.
ADVERTISEMENT
Silva is the first Brazilian president to visit the Cantagalo shantytown or "favela," perched above the upscale beach districts of Copacabana and Ipanema.
The president arrived at the hillside community under heavy police guard. Access to the area was shut down as police occupied strategic points in the often violent shantytown, controlled by heavily armed drug gangs.
"We can't say that we will build mansions. We don't have money for that," Silva told a cheering crowd, packed with children waving Brazilian flags. "But we want to transform where you live into a decent and dignified place that you can be proud to live in."
More than $20 million in investment from the federal and Rio de Janeiro state governments was pledged for Cantagalo and the neighboring Pavao-Pavaozinho shantytowns, home to about 50,000 people.
The Ministry of Cities said total investments in metropolitan Rio de Janeiro, which has more than 600 favelas, will total $1.5 billion.
One of the planned public works is an elevator linking Cantagalo Hill to Ipanema below, improving access to bus and subway points, as well as 206 houses, child-care centers and sports arenas. The state government estimated that 4,219 families will be aided.
"Many people will say: 'Elevator? Why do poor people need an elevator? Elevators are for the rich.' No, elevators are for the poor to climb this hill," Silva said.
Work is to start in January and last two years, the government news agency Agencia Brasil said.
Silva said Rio de Janeiro state Gov. Sergio Cabral would grant land titles to residents of Cantagalo and Pavao-Pavaozinho, land that was occupied but ever legally acquired.
Residents applauded the project but expressed a note of skepticism. Other favela cleanup projects were begun with great fanfare but never concluded.
"We'll wait and see," said Luiz Bezerra do Nascimento, president of the Cantagalo Hill Residents' Association. "But you have to believe, you can't get negative."
Silva left Cantagalo and went downtown to visit famed architect Oscar Niemeyer, who turns 100 in December.
The president's visit came just a week after police traded fire with drug-gang members while attempting to arrest a man sought in a robbery that resulted in the death of an Italian tourist. No one was hurt in the gun battle but two streets in Ipanema were briefly shut down causing panic among residents.
Rio's shantytowns sprung up at the end of the 19th century as freed slaves made their homes on unclaimed land, mostly along the city's steep hillsides. Later migrants from the country's poor northeast swelled the favelas.
Today, about a fifth of Rio de Janeiro's 6 million residents live in the favelas. Many have been there for generations.
In recent years, the government has taken steps to incorporate the ramshackle favelas into the urban infrastructure, giving names to streets and putting them on city maps.
------------
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071130/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/brazil_shantytowns;_ylt=AsiR_qz2uNCvZxGaBqgCdY.3IxIF
1. Euna Lee
2. Colombian hostage letter released
3. This article talks about the French-Colombian former president candidate's captivity held by rebels. The contempt she had to endure is almost unimaginable. Yet she also represents the power of the human soul--how she has had no mental or phyical support, she is still alive and waiting for the day someone comes to rescue her. She wishes to be remembered in the hearts and minds of her children and also of the people.
--------------------------
Ms Betancourt says she is physically weakened by her captivity.
A letter from Ingrid Betancourt, the French-Colombian politician held by Colombian rebels, has been released, detailing her life in captivity.
In the letter, addressed to her mother, Ms Betancourt says her strength has diminished, her appetite has gone, and her hair is falling out.
"Here, we are living like the dead," she writes.
Ms Betancourt, a former presidential candidate, was captured in 2002 by Marxist Farc rebels.
'Bad shape'
The letter was seized during the arrest of three suspected Farc members in Bogota.
Its publication follows the release of video footage of the hostages, also found during the capture of the Farc rebels.
"Physically I am in bad shape," Ms Betancourt writes in the letter.
"I don't eat anymore, my appetite is blocked, my hair falls out in clumps... I don't have enthusiasm for anything because the only answer for everything here in the jungle is 'No'."
She reveals that she has been able to hear messages from her family and other supporters on a Colombian radio station and asks her son and daughter to send her three messages every week, even though she is not able to respond.
"I don't need anything else, but I need to be in contact with them," she says.
And she describes how her captors have confiscated most of her belongings, leaving her without any mental stimulation.
"For three years, I have been asking for an encyclopaedia to read something, to learn something, to keep alive my intellectual curiosity," she writes.
Sarkozy's concern
Farc, which has been fighting a civil war with the Colombian government for many years, is demanding the creation of a demilitarised zone in the country in return for the release of Ms Betancourt and over 40 other hostages.
A recent attempt by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to negotiate with the rebels for the hostages' release ended in controversy, when Colombian President Alvaro Uribe ended Mr Chavez's role, accusing him of breaking protocol by being in direct contact with Colombia's army chief.
Because Ms Betancourt holds French citizenship, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has also been directly involved in attempts to free her and her fellow hostages.
In response to Ms Betancourt's letter, President Sarkozy expressed concern about "the obvious precariousness" of her health and "about her despair".
In her letter, Ms Betancourt referred to her French background, saying: "My heart belongs also to France... When the night is at its darkest, France is a lighthouse."
-----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7123142.stm
1. Heaeum Cho
2. Macho Argentina warms to gay dollars and euros
3. The mood in South America is changing, with Argentina at the heart of its reform. A more liberal-minded government and active citizen groups are pushing for a society that accepts homosexuals into the mainstream heterosexually dominated parts of its culture. It's important to note that homophobia antagonism must not become a part of this changing paradigm and must be one of keen perception as to the long-term effects on society.
--------
BUENOS AIRES: Home to the sexy tango dance and swarthy meat-eaters, this South American capital has long been thought of as a bastion of macho attitudes. But a new hotel here is adding to the city's growing image as a bastion of gay-friendliness.
The Axel Hotel, a Spanish import, has come to symbolize an increasingly aggressive effort by Buenos Aires to court gay dollars and euros. Earlier this month the city swung its doors open to the Axel, Latin America's first luxury hotel built exclusively with gays in mind.
That Buenos Aires would be chosen for such a marketing experiment is a result of a marked change in the acceptance of gays in Argentine society over the past several years. The city of three million people has come a long way from the years of military dictatorship, when being openly gay could lead to jail time. Five years ago, Argentina's capital was the first major Latin American city to approve legalized same-sex unions, and this summer it was host to a gay football World Cup, a first in the region.
"There is so much more freedom these days," said Mauricio Urbides, a 28-year-old fashion designer, who sipped red wine with two male friends at the hotel recently. "You see gays on television here, in government. Just 15 years ago it was a completely different situation." The three friends were among a mixed crowd of gays and heterosexuals who laughed as Kyra and Sharon, two drag queens from Barcelona poked fun at the Argentine president-elect, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and sang a Marilyn Monroe-inspired "Happy Birthday" to a male guest near the hotel's outdoor pool.
In other parts of the world, such as San Francisco's Castro district, gays have struggled recently to maintain cultural relevance in the face of gentrification. In the Castro, America's largest gay neighborhood, San Francisco's most popular Halloween party was canceled last month, striking a blow to the neighborhood's identity. But Buenos Aires has become more accepting of gays despite having no traditional neighborhood of its own. The first gay bar here opened in 1983, just as the military dictatorship was being toppled. Then in 1992, President Carlos Menem signed a decree promising legal protection for homosexuals.
Argentine social mores began loosening in the 1990s, when the pegging of the peso to the dollar gave Argentines more spending power, allowing many to travel abroad, including Urbides, who said he journeyed to Florida and Sint Maarten. "People traveled and found there were other ways of living that were completely different than what they were used to," Urbides said.
After Argentina plunged into economic chaos in late 2001, discrimination based on sexual orientation seemed like a petty concern. "When people are eating out of garbage cans it really doesn't matter if you are gay or not," said Osvaldo Bazán, a journalist and author of the book "History of Homosexuality in Argentina from the Conquest of America to the 21st Century."
The devalued currency made Buenos Aires a relative bargain for Western tourists, including many gays who liked the city's European sophistication. In recent years, marketers have more aggressively sought to promote the city as a gay tourist destination. Gay tango bars and wine shops have sprouted up, and a new "friendly card" helps travelers and locals alike to get discounts at gay-friendly shops and restaurants. A "Gay Map" lists gay-friendly nightspots and more.
Travel industry experts estimate that about 20 percent of tourists that visit Buenos Aires are gay, or about 300,000 visitors a year that spend $600 million annually in the city.
Even as tourism has been flourishing, so, too, has activism by locals to gain rights for gays and encourage more tolerance. In 2002, activists, including many in their early 20s with scant memories of the dictatorship, pushed successfully to legalize same-sex unions, despite some resistance from the Roman Catholic Church, of which some 90 percent of Argentines are members. Argentina's House of Representatives is expected to vote in the next few days on a new national law to extend health benefits to gay couples, with some members of the governing Peronist Party pledging their support.
Argentina's more liberal treatment of sexual orientation on television has also stoked acceptance. Florencia De La Vega, a transsexual actress, made a splash when she played a transvestite in the 2004 soap opera "Los Roldán." A year later, the television dating show "12 Corazones - Especial," became the first in the county to exclusively feature gay men - who kissed on camera.
Yet even as popular culture and the same-sex law have raised acceptance, visitors still complain of homophobic treatment, said Marcelo Suntheim, secretary of the Community of Homosexuals in Argentina, an activist group. He said the group received three complaints this year from gay couples who said that hotel concierges in Buenos Aires "asked them not to kiss in the lobby because children were present."
In this way, some locals are hopeful that the new Axel Hotel will offer another place where same-sex couples can feel more comfortable. The hotel, which has billed itself as "hetero-friendly," is the second gay-themed hotel to be built by Juan Juliá, a 37-year-old entrepreneur from Barcelona, where the first Axel opened three years ago. He chose Buenos Aires after considering Rio de Janeiro; Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; and a host of European capitals.
The Axel emphasizes both openness and a fun spirit. From the lobby area, guests look up and can see swimmers slithering about in a rooftop pool with a glass bottom. The 48 rooms feature amenities like a glass shower right next to the bed. Instead of the traditional "Do Not Disturb" sign is one that reads "Please Disturb."
Condoms - with packages reading "Enjoy!" in both English and Spanish, are also supplied. "We provide everything for you to have fun," said Juliá. "Be safe, but have fun."
He said he hopes the hotel becomes popular not only with tourists, but with local Argentines who will see it as a place to socialize.
"The majority of the gay community is looking more and more for hetero-friendly places," said Luciano Fus, a 29 year-old translator who watched the drag show. "But this will be another after-work spot."
Urbides said he would "definitely come back." He smiled. "Especially if the hotel brings Madonna back to Buenos Aires, or better yet, if it brings Cher here."
----
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/29/america/journal.php
Yong Mie Jo
Evo Morales versus the Oligarchy
- The Battle in Bolivia
By ROGER BURBACH
Morales and his government is clearly suffering in pushing through their new constitution, which will play an integral part in enabling their reformation plans.
As the writer points out, Bolivia has a different situation from Venezuela’s in that the main conflict and controversy is around something far more important to many of the Bolivian people, the land and coca plantation. The issue not only includes the majority of the people in the country, but also provides the highest source of interest –and the only source of earnings for many- in the nation.
However, as Morales himself put it, there is no plan B to be considered but to go for the new constitution for Morales’ political strategy to succeed in his revolutionary plan, which warns an inevitable clash and split of the national people for a while.
--------------------
While international attention is focusing on President Hugo Chavez and the Sunday referendum on the Venezuelan constitution, a conflict that is just as profound is shaking Bolivia. Evo Morales, the first Indian president of the country, is forcing a showdown with the oligarchy and the right wing political parties that have stymied efforts to draft a new constitution to transform the nation. He declares, "Dead or alive I will have a new constitution for the country by December 14," the mandated date for the specially elected Constituent Assembly to present a constitution for the country to vote on by popular referendum.
A violent conflict that left three dead and hundreds injured erupted over the past weekend in the city of Sucre where the Constituent Assembly has been meeting.
After more than a year of obstructionism by the right wing parties, Morales' Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) and its allied parties that control 60 percent of the Assembly's vote, approved the broad outlines of a new constitution designed to alleviate economic inequalities, codify a new agrarian reform program and end the apartheid system that the indigenous population has lived under for centuries.
The "New Left" presidents that have emerged in Latin America in recent years reflect a social insurgence that is challenging the old political leadership and demanding an economic alternative to the neo-liberal policies of Washington that favor foreign interests and the multinational corporations. Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador and even Chilean leaders are carrying out social and economic reforms, although with the possible exception of Ecuador under President Rafael Correa, these reforms are taking place with little or no defiance of their country's dominant business and financial interests. Upheavals verging on a revolution are taking place in Venezuela and Bolivia.
In Bolivia the upheaval is very different from Venezuela's in that it is lead by the Indian majority against the historically dominant "k'aras," meaning whites and mestizos. The opposition to Morales is lead by the eastern city of Santa Cruz where the business elites and the right wing parties exercise political and economic control. In Sucre and some of the other major departmental (state) capitals where the whites and lighter-skinned peoples tend to concentrate, Santa Cruz has recruited allies, particularly among young university students who are acting as shock troops to confront indigenous organizations and members of the Constituent Assembly.
In Sucre, the opposition demanded that the new constitution move the executive and congressional branches of government from La Paz to Sucre, which used to be the center of government until the late 19th century. This was clearly a spoiler strategy that plays heavily to racist sentiments as La Paz and its nearby sister city of El Alto are at the heart of the country's majority Indian population that supports Morales and mobilized in 2003 to topple a "k'aras" president in La Paz who murdered Indian demonstrators in the streets.
When the Assembly passed a draft of the new constitution last weekend, the opposition violently took over the streets and all the major public buildings in Sucre using dynamite and Molotov cocktails, demanding the resignation of "the shitty Indian Morales." Parts of the city were in flames as the Assembly members fled, followed by the police a day later, who had been ordered not to use live ammunition against the mobs.
The right wing and the business organizations in Santa Cruz and allied cities are threatening to declare autonomy and even talking of secession. A special assembly convoked by the Santa Cruz Civic Committee declared that it would only recognize Sucre as the "location of all the powers of the state." Branko Marinkovic, a major business magnate and the head of the Santa Cruz committee, declares, "The fight has begun for our autonomy and liberty. " Along with Santa Cruz, civic committees in five other major departmental capitals are calling for an economic boycott to withhold basic consumer commodities from the market and sow economic chaos. A move is afoot by the Civic Committees to "declare de facto autonomy" on December 14.
A massive mobilization of the Indian population in La Paz and the western highlands is taking place in support of Morales and the new constitution. Even in the eastern departments where the opposition controls the major cities, rural indigenous organizations are on the move, including in the department of Santa Cruz. The leader of Bolivia's largest peasant workers confederation, Isaác Ávalos, is calling for a blockade of the cities, declaring, "we will seize their lands if they impose de facto autonomy."
"We are at a national impasse," says Miguel Urisote, a political analyst and director of the Land Foundation, an independent research center in La Paz. "The right wing led by the Santa Cruz oligarchy is in open rebellion, but Morales, the Movement Towards Socialism and the popular movements will not back down. The military is supporting the president.
The radical upsurges in Venezuela and Bolivia have very different roots. In Venezuela, where over 80 percent of the population lives in the cities, it is primarily an urban upheaval that predates the rise of Hugo Chavez. In 1989, the "Caracazo" threw the existing political order into crisis when tens of thousands of people from the outlying slums of Caracas descended on the center of the city where the rich lived. The social and economic transformations of the past eight years under the presidency of Chavez have been carried out in tandem with the popular classes. The main battle has centered over the control and distribution of oil revenues, while in Bolivia the struggle over land and the right of the Indians to grow coca plants are major areas of conflict.
While a close rapport exists between Chavez and Morales, the transformations in each country will assume distinct trajectories. They are part of the broader process of social change occurring at different paces and intensities throughout Latin America as the old models of the 20th century.
Roger Burbach is director of the Center for the Study of the Americas (CENSA) and a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley. He is co-author with Jim Tarbell of "Imperial Overstretch: George W. Bush and the Hubris of Empire," His latest book is: "The Pinochet Affair: State Terrorism and Global Justice."
---
http://www.counterpunch.org/burbach12012007.html
1.Kyunghee Kang
2. Ecuador Congress Is Dissolved in Vote
3. Ecuador, whose president Rafael Correa is one of the allies of Chaves, also is under the process of reform. Ecuador's political situation seems pretty mess current president is 10th in past 10years.
Coustitutional Assembly approved in Feb, this year, had their first session this week. Rewriting the constitution, its purpose is to strengthen the president by dissembling the congress dominated by the opposite political factions and to revolutionize the country. The process seems to be on the track. The president is offering reformative proposals over tax, oil industry and etc vigorously.
And finally, the congress is officially dissolved a couple of days ago. The vice president, congress sided, once submit his resignation about a month ago to protest and I don't know how things went. Of course some poeple are concerned about the democratic justice issues due to the principle and social security, or their power.
ps1.I've wanted to find a article with more rich explanation for hours, but failed. All the articles that I found had fragmented stories...
ps2. It seems that in 1998 Ecuador had rewritten Countitution then. wonder what happened.
------------------
Members of an elected assembly convened to rewrite Ecuador's Constitution voted last night to dissolve Congress, a move expected to strengthen President Rafael Correa. The decision gives the assembly the legislative powers of Congress while it debates a new Constitution over the next six months. Mr. Correa has been seeking to strengthen the office of the president after a long bout of political instability; he is the eighth president in 10 years. The assembly is controlled by Mr. Correa's movement.
---
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/world/americas/30ecuador.html
Post a Comment