September 1st 2008, by Federico Fuentes - Green Left Weekly
On August 27, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced the end of negotiations with former owners Ternium over the nationalisation of the Sidor steel factory, stating that the government would "take over all the companies that it has here", insisting Ternium "can leave".
Speaking during a televised broadcast, he argued that the reason behind the decision was the fact that Ternium "did not recognise our sovereignty".
"The deadline for reaching an agreement has expired, we will move ahead and pay them what it really costs, more over it will not be all in one go as they wanted. No, we will pay them at a pace that we can pay them."
Until the April 9 decision to nationalise Sidor, the Ternium consortium, whose biggest shareholder is the Italian-Argentine transnational Techint, had 60% control of one of the largest steel factories in Latin America, located in the industrial state of Bolivar.
Having seemingly reached an agreement on a settled price the previous week, Chavez stated that Ternium had tried to impose unacceptable conditions - including the passing of a law giving the transnational immunity from any possible future lawsuits as a consequence of abuses committed by Ternium against the Sidor workforce.
The decision to nationalise Sidor came on the back off a 15-month-long dispute between the workers and the transnational over a collective contract.
Having intervened in order to help reach a resolution, Venezuelan Vice-President Ramon Carrizalez declared that negotiations with Sidor's management were no longer possible, due to its "coloniser attitude" and "barbarous exploitation".
"This is a government that protects workers and will never take the side of a transnational company", Carrizalez insisted as he announced the government's decision to take Sidor over.
Nationalisation push
During the August 27 live broadcast, Chavez stood alongside business owners from the cement industry, with whom the government has also been in negotiation since the April 3 announcement of its intention to nationalise the three largest cement companies that control 90% of the sector.
While the government had reached agreements to buy out the majority of shares from the French company, Lafarge, and the Swiss company, Holcim, negotiations had stalled with the largest company, the Mexican-owned Cemex.
On August 18, with the negotiation period having expired, the government announced it was going to expropriate Cemex and ordered the takeover of its installations.
By law, there is a 60 days period starting from the declaration of intent to expropriate in which the two parties can reach an agreement. While Cemex is asking for US$1.3 billion, the government has stated it will not pay more than $650 million.
However, Chavez said that unlike the case of Ternium, there were positive signs that an agreement could be reached.
Chavez also used the broadcast to explain a new law approved in the first round of discussion by the National Assembly that gives the state 60% control of the distribution of petrol from the state oil company, PDVSA, to public and private service stations.
Negotiations will now begin with the seven largest companies, among them Texaco and BP, and 650 other transport firms. The remaining 40% will remain in the hands of cooperatives and small private owners.
Energy minister Rafael Ramirez also announced that the government was looking at similar measures in regards to the distribution of LPG gas cylinders.
Last month, Chavez announced plans to nationalise Spanish-owned Banco de Venezuela, which almost doubles the state's control of the financial sector from its previous 10%.
Reversing neoliberalism
Together with the announcements made earlier this year to recuperate control of over 30% of milk production and food distribution, and last year's decision to take majority control of the oilfields in the Orinoco Belt, these moves are part of a second wave of nationalisations, focused on industries related to production.
The first wave, initiated at the start of 2007, was directed at basic services - telecommunications and electricity - to guarantee access to all Venezuelans.
According the August 25 El Universal, since the beginning of last year 11 industries have passed over into state hands.
While pro-capitalist governments privatised a number of important industries during the 1990s (including Sidor, part of the electrical sector and telecommunications company CANTV), they always had their eyes set on the big prize - PDVSA.
However, Chavez';s election in 1998 halted such privatisation plans.
Since then the government, backed by the majority of the population, has worked towards rolling back neoliberalism.
Unsurprisingly, the first major showdown was a result of government attempts to gain full control over the nominally state-owned PDVSA.
Fierce resistance by the parasitic capitalist class, accustomed to leeching off the rent produced by PDVSA, led to a military coup that briefly overthrew Chavez in April 2002 and a shutdown of the oil industry by the pro-capitalist management in December 2002.
Both attempts by the capitalist class to bring down Chavez were carried out in alliance with the corrupt trade union bureaucracy of the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV).
During more than two months of intense struggle caused by the shutdown, oil workers alongside the poor communities and the armed forces, reopened PDVSA and restarted it under workers' control.
This victory was crucial in ensuring that the government could begin to redirect PDVSA's profits away from the capitalists and towards funding the social missions that provide, among other things, free health care and education. The missions also helped organise the Chavista grassroots.
Publicly declaring in January 2005 that he had become convinced that his project for national liberation and the eradication of poverty could not be achieved within the bounds of capitalism, Chavez argued for the need to move towards a "new socialism of the 21st century".
That same month, he announced the nationalisation of the Venepal paper factory, whose workers had been fighting to reopen it after the boss shutdown operations during the December 2002 lockout.
Renamed Invepal, the factory was handed over to the workers as a joint state-worker cooperative. Since then, a number of other smaller factories that had been shut down and then taken-over by their workers have been nationalised.
However, the nationalisations initiated in 2007 marked a qualitative leap in the process of state recuperation of control over strategic sectors.
State planning
These nationalisations have been carried out in accordance with the government's overall economic plan, which seeks state control over strategic industries in order to direct production towards the needs of the Venezuelan nation.
Now under state control, the three cement companies will be merged into the new National Cement Corporation and will integrate its production plans with PDVSA and Sidor - focusing on infrastructure development, creating new industrial centres and push forwarding the government's badly needed housing construction plans.
Also being created is the Steel Corporation of Venezuela, which will manage the whole steel production chain that is now 80% under state control - from primary material to finished products. Production will be directed towards the construction of small and medium companies, the oil industry and housing sector.
And while no specific public statements have been made, it would seem likely that with the nationalisation of Banco de Venezuela, the public banking sector will be reorganised into one single national public bank.
The new Public Administration Law, decreed on July 29 as part of the package of 26 laws issued by Chavez, states that where various state companies exist they should be grouped into one. This can include companies in different industrial sectors that, due to their nature, work together.
With the recent nationalisations, the number of workers in the state sector will increase by 41,400, reaching just over 2 million according to the National Institute of Statistics. This does not include those in the fuel distribution and LPG cylinder distribution sectors, which are slated to come under state control.
This represents a 53.5% increase in the number of public sector workers in the last nine years. Importantly, Chavez has raised the need to eradicate the practice of contracting out labour in the state sector, which will further increase this number.
In the same period, employment in the (formal and informal) private sector grew from 7.3 million to 9.4 million.
Worker and community participation
Almost none of the recent nationalisations can be attributed directly to workers' struggle in favour of such measures, although in many cases labour disputes existed. This was the case with fuel distribution, where unions have been warning that the bosses were trying to manufacture shortages and provoke strikes to undermine the government.
While most of the earlier nationalisations involving small factories did, only in Sidor can it be said that the demand for nationalisation came from the workers.
Even then, the demand was raised only in the last period of the struggle after persistent campaigning by a small nucleus of Sidor workers.
Yet, the future of the nationalised companies depends on the political and organisational capacity of the working class in the running these industries - and the working class currently finds itself in a state of dispersion and fragmentation.
Unofficially, according to an April 27 Ultimas Noticias, no less than 3600 unions exist in Venezuela.
This dispersion is due to numerous factors, but two in particular stand out. Firstly, with the coming to power of Chavez, and the expansion of workers' rights and union freedom, workplaces across the country experienced an explosion of union organising.
In the aftermath of the defeat of the bosses lockout, a majority of the pro-revolution unions came behind the formation of the National Union of Workers (UNT), which rapidly overtook the CTV as the main union confederation.
However, the UNT is plagued by bitter internal disputes. This division has been deepened with the decision earlier this year by two union currents to leave the UNT and form a new union confederation.
Added to this are negative experiences in the some of the cooperative-run factories - such as exploiting contract labour and enriching themselves.
Secondly, actions by sections of the government and state bureaucracy have also worked against the self-organisation of workers and their participation in running state industries.
Under the previous labour minister, Jose Ramon Rivero (who actively worked against the Sidor workers), parallel unionism was promoted in order to favour the union current from which he came and aimed to dampen down labour disputes.
In PDVSA and the state electrical company, workers have faced attacks at the hands of the bureaucracy afraid of losing power if workers take on a greater role in management.
Importantly, the recent nationalisations have come alongside the launch of the April 13 social mission, which is aimed at increasing popular power.
Chavez has stated that part the mission's aim is to transfer control over services to organised communities, in the form of communal councils and communes, and the creation of productive units and factories that will be socially owned and run.
Without the participation of workers and the organised communities in the running of industries and in democratic planning, control of state companies end up being left in the hands of bureaucrats who are more interested in maintaining their share of power and privileges.
Moreover, they restrict the ability of workers to be able to fully develop their creative potential, instead boxing them into their role as simple providers of labour power.
This has created situations such as exists with the nationalised Inveval valve factory, run under workers' management, which has the capacity to produce valves for PDVSA.
However, Inveval has been pushed aside by PDVSA bureaucrats who prefer maintaining contracts with private companies.
Significantly, it was reported on August 28 that Inveval would now become a mixed company, jointly owned by PDVSA, and would directly supply the state oil company with valves
In the electrical sector, despite repeated warnings by the workers, a crisis threatens the industry as power generation and distribution plans have failed to take into consideration increased demand caused by the boom in industrial and housing projects.
Speaking on the eve of this year's May Day demonstrations, Chavez once again repeated his call for the working class to take the lead in the struggle for socialism. "There is no revolution without the workers, and I would add, there is no socialism without the working class", he insisted.
"That is why the working class that the revolution needs has to be very conscious, very united", he said.
"The Bolivarian revolution ... needs to be 'proletarianised' ... the ideology of the proletariat should dominate in all spheres, a transformational, truly revolutionary ideology, and overcome petty bourgeois currents that always end up being ... counter-revolutionary."
Tuesday, 2 September 2008
Venezuela Creates "Special Area" for Socialist Development in Orinoco Oil Region
President Chávez delineates the zone designated as a Special Use Area at a meeting with his team of ministers Thursday.
Mérida, August 22, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)-- The southern section of Venezuela's Orinoco Oil Belt region will become a "Special Use Area" where the planned Socialist Development Project of the Orinoco will be administered by an appointed federal authority, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez told his cabinet ministers on Wednesday.
"This grand belt is going to be one of the greatest projects of the 21st Century, I would say the greatest," Chávez told his ministers.
The purpose of the project is to assure "integral development," meaning agricultural and social investments accompany the oil exploitation in the Orinoco region, which is estimated to contain the world's largest oil reserves, Chávez explained.
"We cannot wait for the Sow Petroleum Plan to be halfway through or more than halfway before starting the Socialist Development Plan of the Orinoco, no! It is simultaneous," said the president during the nationally televised meeting with his ministers.
The state oil company PDVSA will be a prime mover of the project, "because this company has the resources, and I know they are going to do it," said Chávez.
Flipping through the pages of Venezuelan laws in front of television cameras, the president, who has been painted as dictatorial by opposition-controlled media, read aloud the National Assembly-approved laws governing the Special Use Areas.
Article 37 of the Organic Law on Territorial Ordering and Planning, passed by the National Assembly in 2005, defines a Special Use Area as having "special characteristics" which require it to be under "special management to fulfill specific objectives of general interest" such as the sustainable use of natural resources, the protection and recuperation of degraded areas, and national defense.
Article 42 of the same law stipulates that Special Use Areas must be established by the president with his or her council of ministers.
The 55,000 square kilometer area to the South of the Orinoco River Basin will be pumped with an 878 million bolivar ($408.4 million) initial investment to set up 13 working camps to organize dozens of planned projects.
Chávez envisions that 160,000 hectares (64,700 acres) of land will be planted with yucca, soy, corn, sorgum, and beans, and a soy oil processing plant will be constructed nearby. Another part of the zone is apt for producing long-fiber cotton, according to the president.
Chicken farms with a capacity of 30,000 tons per month, massive cattle and pork farms, grain processing and food packaging plants to substitute imports and satisfy Venezuela's growing demand for food amidst global shortages and price inflation.
Along with these agricultural projects, Chávez presented plans for four large oil refineries that can process the extra-heavy Venezuelan crude, one of them big enough to refine 400,000 barrels per day of oil.
To facilitate all this growth, the ministers discussed a series of infrastructure repairs and expansion, including a 660-kilometer freeway and housing projects for the local population.
The president will appoint a federal authority to administer the Special Use Area and steer these projects in line with the national development plan for the years 2008-2012.
Chávez was granted the power to appoint these authorities, which do not fall into line with traditional public offices such as mayors, governors, or elected legislatures, by the Organic Law on Public Administration when it was first passed in 2001.
Article 70 of the newest version of the law, passed by presidential decree three weeks ago, explains the power more explicitly: "The president of the Republic will designate regional authorities, who will have as a function the planning, execution, follow-up, and control of the policies, plans, and approved projects of the ordering and development of the territory in conformity with the centralized planning."
In an interview with the government television station after the meeting with his ministers, Chávez said the Orinoco plan, like the nationalization of key sectors of the Venezuelan economy, are part of a national plan that aims to develop social forms of property.
For example, the recent nationalization of the cement industry should lead to "small factories of communal property in which the organized people accelerate the solution to the housing problem," said the president, adding "it is the State and the power of the communities that will achieve it."
"The state will assume the fundamental role in the economic stimulus of Venezuela," he told the host of the political talk show Dando y Dando.
Mérida, August 22, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)-- The southern section of Venezuela's Orinoco Oil Belt region will become a "Special Use Area" where the planned Socialist Development Project of the Orinoco will be administered by an appointed federal authority, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez told his cabinet ministers on Wednesday.
"This grand belt is going to be one of the greatest projects of the 21st Century, I would say the greatest," Chávez told his ministers.
The purpose of the project is to assure "integral development," meaning agricultural and social investments accompany the oil exploitation in the Orinoco region, which is estimated to contain the world's largest oil reserves, Chávez explained.
"We cannot wait for the Sow Petroleum Plan to be halfway through or more than halfway before starting the Socialist Development Plan of the Orinoco, no! It is simultaneous," said the president during the nationally televised meeting with his ministers.
The state oil company PDVSA will be a prime mover of the project, "because this company has the resources, and I know they are going to do it," said Chávez.
Flipping through the pages of Venezuelan laws in front of television cameras, the president, who has been painted as dictatorial by opposition-controlled media, read aloud the National Assembly-approved laws governing the Special Use Areas.
Article 37 of the Organic Law on Territorial Ordering and Planning, passed by the National Assembly in 2005, defines a Special Use Area as having "special characteristics" which require it to be under "special management to fulfill specific objectives of general interest" such as the sustainable use of natural resources, the protection and recuperation of degraded areas, and national defense.
Article 42 of the same law stipulates that Special Use Areas must be established by the president with his or her council of ministers.
The 55,000 square kilometer area to the South of the Orinoco River Basin will be pumped with an 878 million bolivar ($408.4 million) initial investment to set up 13 working camps to organize dozens of planned projects.
Chávez envisions that 160,000 hectares (64,700 acres) of land will be planted with yucca, soy, corn, sorgum, and beans, and a soy oil processing plant will be constructed nearby. Another part of the zone is apt for producing long-fiber cotton, according to the president.
Chicken farms with a capacity of 30,000 tons per month, massive cattle and pork farms, grain processing and food packaging plants to substitute imports and satisfy Venezuela's growing demand for food amidst global shortages and price inflation.
Along with these agricultural projects, Chávez presented plans for four large oil refineries that can process the extra-heavy Venezuelan crude, one of them big enough to refine 400,000 barrels per day of oil.
To facilitate all this growth, the ministers discussed a series of infrastructure repairs and expansion, including a 660-kilometer freeway and housing projects for the local population.
The president will appoint a federal authority to administer the Special Use Area and steer these projects in line with the national development plan for the years 2008-2012.
Chávez was granted the power to appoint these authorities, which do not fall into line with traditional public offices such as mayors, governors, or elected legislatures, by the Organic Law on Public Administration when it was first passed in 2001.
Article 70 of the newest version of the law, passed by presidential decree three weeks ago, explains the power more explicitly: "The president of the Republic will designate regional authorities, who will have as a function the planning, execution, follow-up, and control of the policies, plans, and approved projects of the ordering and development of the territory in conformity with the centralized planning."
In an interview with the government television station after the meeting with his ministers, Chávez said the Orinoco plan, like the nationalization of key sectors of the Venezuelan economy, are part of a national plan that aims to develop social forms of property.
For example, the recent nationalization of the cement industry should lead to "small factories of communal property in which the organized people accelerate the solution to the housing problem," said the president, adding "it is the State and the power of the communities that will achieve it."
"The state will assume the fundamental role in the economic stimulus of Venezuela," he told the host of the political talk show Dando y Dando.
Venezuela Launches New Anti-Poverty Program
Venezuela Launches New Anti-Poverty Program
President Chavez drives mayoral candidate Jesse Chacon (standing, center) through the streets of Petare. (Prensa Presidencial)
August 26, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)- Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez officially launched a new anti-poverty program during his TV show Alo Presidente on Sunday. The anti-poverty program, which was first announced last April, will be known as "April 13 Mission," named after the day Venezuelans took to the streets in 2002 to demand the return of President Chavez when he was temporarily removed from power in a coup attempt.
Chavez explained that the April 13 Mission would coordinate plans between different government agencies to rehabilitate run-down neighborhoods. Speaking from the low-income Caracas neighborhood of Petare, Chavez explained that the mission will coordinate the repair of old buildings, including roofs, façades, and elevators, and the improvement of water supply, sewage systems, and electricity networks.
"This mission will be the synthesis of many things, but above all of three elements... First, residential infrastructure, where the April 13 Mission will engage in an integral urban transformation... Second, synthesize the social missions in order to achieve a superior aggregate... And, in third place is the communal economy of social property, which will bring productive forces to the barrio," said Chavez on Sunday.
As part of the creation of a communal economy, Chavez suggested that La Bombilla, the community in Petare where the TV program was being held, could open up a petrochemical processing plant, where the community could make bags, toys, or pipes, all made from plastic.
The ultimate aim of the mission is the creation of "socialist communes" - a project that Chavez once described as local participatory democracy where the community is governed entirely by associations of communal councils, rather than a mayor. Communal councils are elected from citizen assemblies of 200 to 400 families.
The initial funding for the April 13 Mission will amount to $200 million and will launch in 74 of Venezuela's most populous and poorest municipalities.
President Chavez drives mayoral candidate Jesse Chacon (standing, center) through the streets of Petare. (Prensa Presidencial)
August 26, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)- Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez officially launched a new anti-poverty program during his TV show Alo Presidente on Sunday. The anti-poverty program, which was first announced last April, will be known as "April 13 Mission," named after the day Venezuelans took to the streets in 2002 to demand the return of President Chavez when he was temporarily removed from power in a coup attempt.
Chavez explained that the April 13 Mission would coordinate plans between different government agencies to rehabilitate run-down neighborhoods. Speaking from the low-income Caracas neighborhood of Petare, Chavez explained that the mission will coordinate the repair of old buildings, including roofs, façades, and elevators, and the improvement of water supply, sewage systems, and electricity networks.
"This mission will be the synthesis of many things, but above all of three elements... First, residential infrastructure, where the April 13 Mission will engage in an integral urban transformation... Second, synthesize the social missions in order to achieve a superior aggregate... And, in third place is the communal economy of social property, which will bring productive forces to the barrio," said Chavez on Sunday.
As part of the creation of a communal economy, Chavez suggested that La Bombilla, the community in Petare where the TV program was being held, could open up a petrochemical processing plant, where the community could make bags, toys, or pipes, all made from plastic.
The ultimate aim of the mission is the creation of "socialist communes" - a project that Chavez once described as local participatory democracy where the community is governed entirely by associations of communal councils, rather than a mayor. Communal councils are elected from citizen assemblies of 200 to 400 families.
The initial funding for the April 13 Mission will amount to $200 million and will launch in 74 of Venezuela's most populous and poorest municipalities.
Venezuela to Launch Its First Satellite from China in November
August 18th 2008, by James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com
President Hugo Chávez inspected the sattelite control station in Venezuela's Guárico state Sunday. (Prensa Presidencial)
Mérida, August 18, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)-- Venezuela's first satellite will be launched from Chinese soil on November 1st, President Hugo Chávez announced on his weekly Sunday talk show Aló Presidente, which was broadcast from the satellite control station located at an air base on the vast plains of the state of Guárico, Venezuela.
The satellite is the materialization of the technology transfer agreement initiated by Venezuela and China in 2004, which Chávez said is an example of South-South cooperation.
"Venezuela's Simón Bolívar Satellite, with the incomparable help of sister China, will soon be launched. November 1st, that is the date," said Chávez, who was accompanied by Chinese Embassador to Venezuela Zhang Tuo.
The satellite, which is named after South American independence leader Simón Bolívar, will serve primarily civilian telecommunications purposes, according to Venezuelan Telecommunications Minister Socorro Hernández.
"It is a fundamental tool for technological sovereignty that will be put at the service of the population," said Hernández, who also accompanied Chávez Sunday.
According to the minister, the satellite will help improve the quality and geographical reach of government social programs through televised health and educational services.
The satellite will also serve the needs of the social organizations and communities, with social ends in mind, Chávez emphasized.
The Venezuelan Communications and Information Minister, Andrés Izarra, pointed out that entering the space community will boost Venezuela's television industry. The "Aló, Presidente" presidential talk show is currently transmitted from a Dutch satellite, but "will now be offered with our own satellite," he said.
The Venezuelan government contracted a Chinese firm to carry out the design, manufacture, and launching of the satellite, according to the Aló, Presidente website.
CANTV, Venezuela's National Telecommunications Company that was nationalized in early 2007, will manage the satellite's telecommunications spectrum. The Science and Technology Ministry will administer the control center in Guárico state and the backup control station in southeastern Bolívar state.
Uruguay has agreed to open its orbit to Venezuela's satellite in exchange for the use of 10% of the satellite's telecommunications spectrum.
As part of the technology transfer agreement with China, a team of 150 Venezuelans were trained in space technology, along with 30 Venezuelan students who were selected to complete their doctoral studies in the subject in China.
"Venezuela is expanding, growing from all points of view," Chávez boasted. He also announced his plans to travel to Beijing in the coming months to "give another boost to the strategic alliance between China and Venezuela."
Venezuela's relations with China already include contracts for the joint extraction of Venezuelan crude oil and gas, construction of Venezuela's railroad system, a credit line for Venezuela to purchase Chinese agricultural equipment, and a joint development fund constituted with $6 billion in capital, $4 billion of which came from China, among other agreements.
President Hugo Chávez inspected the sattelite control station in Venezuela's Guárico state Sunday. (Prensa Presidencial)
Mérida, August 18, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)-- Venezuela's first satellite will be launched from Chinese soil on November 1st, President Hugo Chávez announced on his weekly Sunday talk show Aló Presidente, which was broadcast from the satellite control station located at an air base on the vast plains of the state of Guárico, Venezuela.
The satellite is the materialization of the technology transfer agreement initiated by Venezuela and China in 2004, which Chávez said is an example of South-South cooperation.
"Venezuela's Simón Bolívar Satellite, with the incomparable help of sister China, will soon be launched. November 1st, that is the date," said Chávez, who was accompanied by Chinese Embassador to Venezuela Zhang Tuo.
The satellite, which is named after South American independence leader Simón Bolívar, will serve primarily civilian telecommunications purposes, according to Venezuelan Telecommunications Minister Socorro Hernández.
"It is a fundamental tool for technological sovereignty that will be put at the service of the population," said Hernández, who also accompanied Chávez Sunday.
According to the minister, the satellite will help improve the quality and geographical reach of government social programs through televised health and educational services.
The satellite will also serve the needs of the social organizations and communities, with social ends in mind, Chávez emphasized.
The Venezuelan Communications and Information Minister, Andrés Izarra, pointed out that entering the space community will boost Venezuela's television industry. The "Aló, Presidente" presidential talk show is currently transmitted from a Dutch satellite, but "will now be offered with our own satellite," he said.
The Venezuelan government contracted a Chinese firm to carry out the design, manufacture, and launching of the satellite, according to the Aló, Presidente website.
CANTV, Venezuela's National Telecommunications Company that was nationalized in early 2007, will manage the satellite's telecommunications spectrum. The Science and Technology Ministry will administer the control center in Guárico state and the backup control station in southeastern Bolívar state.
Uruguay has agreed to open its orbit to Venezuela's satellite in exchange for the use of 10% of the satellite's telecommunications spectrum.
As part of the technology transfer agreement with China, a team of 150 Venezuelans were trained in space technology, along with 30 Venezuelan students who were selected to complete their doctoral studies in the subject in China.
"Venezuela is expanding, growing from all points of view," Chávez boasted. He also announced his plans to travel to Beijing in the coming months to "give another boost to the strategic alliance between China and Venezuela."
Venezuela's relations with China already include contracts for the joint extraction of Venezuelan crude oil and gas, construction of Venezuela's railroad system, a credit line for Venezuela to purchase Chinese agricultural equipment, and a joint development fund constituted with $6 billion in capital, $4 billion of which came from China, among other agreements.
Venezuela and South Africa sign cooperation agreements
ABN 02/09/2008
Caracas,
Caracas, Sept 02. ABN.- The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Republic of South Africa signed this Tuesday five cooperation instruments in order to strengthen bilateral relations as well as South-South cooperation.
The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, signed a Framework Agreement with his South African counterpart, Thabo Mbeki, in Pretoria, South Africa. Both presidents shake their hands and declared that these agreements are strategic because their great relevance and interest for a full development and integration of both countries, as well as for establishing a new world order aiming to build a multipolar world.
The signed agreements on energy, culture, economy, and telecommunications were also signed by the Minister of People's Power for Foreign Affairs, Nicolás Maduro, the Minister or People's Power for Energy and Petroleum, Rafael Ramírez, as well as other staff members of Venezuela's and South Africa's governments.
After his arrival, Venezuela's Head of State explained that this visit is aimed to create new basis for South-South cooperation taking advantage of the renewing movement taking place in Africa seeking for the development of its people. Therefore, African countries are joining efforts economically, politically, financially, socially, and culturally.
Caracas,
Caracas, Sept 02. ABN.- The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Republic of South Africa signed this Tuesday five cooperation instruments in order to strengthen bilateral relations as well as South-South cooperation.
The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, signed a Framework Agreement with his South African counterpart, Thabo Mbeki, in Pretoria, South Africa. Both presidents shake their hands and declared that these agreements are strategic because their great relevance and interest for a full development and integration of both countries, as well as for establishing a new world order aiming to build a multipolar world.
The signed agreements on energy, culture, economy, and telecommunications were also signed by the Minister of People's Power for Foreign Affairs, Nicolás Maduro, the Minister or People's Power for Energy and Petroleum, Rafael Ramírez, as well as other staff members of Venezuela's and South Africa's governments.
After his arrival, Venezuela's Head of State explained that this visit is aimed to create new basis for South-South cooperation taking advantage of the renewing movement taking place in Africa seeking for the development of its people. Therefore, African countries are joining efforts economically, politically, financially, socially, and culturally.
President Chávez: Africa is a mother to us
ABN 02/09/2008
Caracas, Distrito Capital
Caracas, Sept 02. ABN.- The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, held this Tuesday that Venezuelans and Latin Americans cannot forget that Africa is a mother to us.
After his arrival in the International Airport of Johannesburg, South Africa, Chávez stated that during his stay in that country, due to an official visit, "we are going to feel and reunite with the deepest roots of our identity."
"This is our first official visit to South Africa. We had came before because some summits, but this is an opportunity to keep creating new basis for South-South cooperation. Right now, starting the 21st century, just when we are in the middle of a new South American independence. It is the same for Africa, there is a full renewing movement trying to find again the paths of people's sovereignty," Chávez said.
"Therefore, that is the meaning of coming here to South Africa: to meet with our deepest roots, as well as reunite politically, culturally, economically, energetically, financially. That's why we expect this day will be really interesting," he added.
"We greet South African people, a heroic people, just like ours, who had fought for centuries against the apartheid," he stated.
President Chávez pointed out that this Tuesday Venezuela will sign some agreements with South Africa.
"The idea is to create a legal and political framework to carry out cooperation mechanisms between both nations. We are going to sign, among others, an agreement on energy. A South African company is willing to work in joint with PDVSA (Venezuelan state-owned oil company) in the Orinoco Oil Belt. South Africa has oil and gas, so they have experience in this area," Chávez stated.
Caracas, Distrito Capital
Caracas, Sept 02. ABN.- The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, held this Tuesday that Venezuelans and Latin Americans cannot forget that Africa is a mother to us.
After his arrival in the International Airport of Johannesburg, South Africa, Chávez stated that during his stay in that country, due to an official visit, "we are going to feel and reunite with the deepest roots of our identity."
"This is our first official visit to South Africa. We had came before because some summits, but this is an opportunity to keep creating new basis for South-South cooperation. Right now, starting the 21st century, just when we are in the middle of a new South American independence. It is the same for Africa, there is a full renewing movement trying to find again the paths of people's sovereignty," Chávez said.
"Therefore, that is the meaning of coming here to South Africa: to meet with our deepest roots, as well as reunite politically, culturally, economically, energetically, financially. That's why we expect this day will be really interesting," he added.
"We greet South African people, a heroic people, just like ours, who had fought for centuries against the apartheid," he stated.
President Chávez pointed out that this Tuesday Venezuela will sign some agreements with South Africa.
"The idea is to create a legal and political framework to carry out cooperation mechanisms between both nations. We are going to sign, among others, an agreement on energy. A South African company is willing to work in joint with PDVSA (Venezuelan state-owned oil company) in the Orinoco Oil Belt. South Africa has oil and gas, so they have experience in this area," Chávez stated.
Simon Bolivar Satellite, Technological sovereignty with social sense
Caracas, Distrito Capital
Caracas, Aug 25 ABN.- Those who are involved in the realization of the fact, which as of today was just a project, define it as a decisive instrument for the inclusion of isolated communities and a relevant saving in matters of telecommunications for the State.
Some say that the space issue is complex, even more for those who have never ventured into the matter. Venezuela did not frighten before this assumption and, along with the Republic of China, started on the first of many projects which will fill its space program: the creation of the Simon Bolivar Satellite.
The initiative is a result of the necessity to reach a real technological independence and sovereignty, which guarantees Venezuela the possibility to count with an efficient satellite device and completely of its own.
The levels of interaction offered by this technological tool will vary depending on the level of complexity in the projects to be carried out by satellite. The platform will be available in a few months and the most sophisticated systems in matters of communications will be within the reach of all Venezuelans, without social distinction nor geographical hindrance.
Such connection will shorten the distance in the nation, such sovereignty will give more presence to the State in every corner of the country. An amount of 241 million dollars invested and the decisive Chinese cooperation will make possible this scenery.
Five years of development
Since President Hugo Chávez Frías assumed Presidency, he announced that the country would enter in the development of space activities.
The talks to find international cooperation began in 2002, but it was in 2003 when came into effect an agreement with the Republic of China, a country that not only provided technology transfer but also the actual possibility to assemble our first telecommunications satellite.
In that moment started to be created the application programs and it was necessary to create an institution to handle with it, which was firstly named Venezuelan Space Center (CEV, Spanish acronym). Further on, as the exigence increased, it was relevant to create an agency, which was denominated Bolivarian Space Activity Agency (ABAE, for its Spanish acronym).
This way, late in 2006, the Program Venesat-I started and as part of it began to be created the Simon Bolivar Satellite, currently very near of its blastoff after several tryouts and checks. If the atmospheric conditions are convenient, next November 1st the satellite will be on the space.
Nevertheless, the satellite is not the only thing in the ABAE's agenda right now. Other international agreements with India, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, France and China, this one the main ally in space matters, are part of the tasks it deals with, always with two clear goals: technology exchange and staff training.
A social satellite
The justification of the project is to make use of telecommunications in order to support the State and foster social inclusion.
'It is not focused on commercial ends, but on providing a service to the communities which have never enjoyed a modern communication system.'
The above statement was issued by ABAE's technical manager, Rodolfo Navarro, who affirms that the city people who have their connection granted in virtue of already existing infrastructure will not directly notice the impact.
'It is merely social; the beneficiaries will be those who have never had that possibility,' he stated.
Navarro explained that isolated communities which not counted with services of electric wiring or optical fiber will be benefited with the satellite connection. He also detailed that through the simple installation of a parabolic antenna, the populations deprived of communication will count with telephone lines.
Among the programs to be carried out with the Simon Bolivar Satellite highlight the programs of Teleducacion (Telecommunication Education) and Telemedicina (Telecommunication Medicine), addressed to give educative training and medical care to the communities far from populated centers.
'Aboriginal communities, for instance, would receive long-distance education or maybe they would request medicines, air or river ambulance service, medical check-ups, among other options,' he detailed.
Therefore, Information Centers and Bolivarian Centers of Informatics and Telematics (CEBIT, Spanish acronym) will also be benefited, since many of these units are already spread in different places of Venezuela but they do not have the required connection to work out.
In virtue of the versatility of the satellite and the several fields of action it embraces, Navarro stressed that the ABAE will not carry out the projects exclusively.
'We give our services, we make available the connection and we even have prototypes to show what can be done and its impact on communities. But it is necessary to work jointly to the ministries of Health, Education, Higher Education, Infrastructure, among others, as well as with the telephone company CANTV, which is in charge of providing the equipments which will receive the signal,' he explained.
For the integration of Latin America
Rodolfo Navarro explained that there has been chosen a geostationary orbit for the Simon Bolivar Satellite, it is to say, an area of the space always positioned on the same point of the earth globe, from where the device rotates at the same angular speed of the Earth.
Since such orbit belongs to Uruguay, by means of an agreement with Venezuela, the satellite will occupy it on condition that both countries can use it.
'We assumed all the expenses of the installation of the two terrene stations -one in Guarico state and the other in Bolivar state-, the staff training and the development of the satellite itself; while they provided the orbit and enjoy even 10% of the communicational capacity of the Simon Bolivar satellite,' he said.
Moreover, the satellite covers a large space of the globe, which is called footprint. Thus, not only Uruguay will enjoy the benefits, but also the whole area that embraces such footprint: the Caribbean, Central America and northern South America.
'All this territory is covered, but remember that it is necessary the receiver sets and previous agreements with Venezuela, of course,' he added.
The representative of the ABAE agency explained that for all these nations is essential the negotiation and, above all, the proof that it is really needed the satellite connection. On the other hand, the aim will always be social.
Although all the cases require a previous request, the difference between Uruguay and the remaining benefited Latin American countries resides in that the first one has already acquired its right, while the others have to achieve it and justify it.
'It is a great step towards the Latin American integration; we have granted not only the domestic communications but also among the sister nations in actual time and without paying to foreign satellite service providers,' he stated.
Next goal: Observing the Earth
Ten days are needed for the satellite, once launched, to be positioned at the correct place. Then, it will be developed a series of safety mechanisms and communication proofs, an essential process for the Simon Bolivar satellite to be completely effective by next February.
Its service life will end within 15 years approximately, but its descent to Earth is already foreseen, aiming to contribute with the rescue of technological trash to which the United Nations Organization has urged. As a matter of fact, at least a thousand satellites, out of 5,500 launched to the space, are operating. The rest are space trash.
Nevertheless, it will not be the only space achievement for Venezuela. There are many other satellites in which the State will work in the future, among them one to observe the Earth, foreseen for the year 2013. This time is expected to assemble it in Venezuela with national work force.
Here on, it is envisaged to build and launch monitoring satellites, in order to watch oil, minerals and sown fields; in order to control deforestation and burning of trees; in order to supervise the urban and population growth; among other safety aims of the State.
'The Simon Bolivar satellite addresses to telecommunications, but these technological tools can be used for many other purposes, and we will be working on it, in projects devised to other areas,' Rodolfo Navarro stressed.
In that regard, he affirmed that it constitutes only the first step towards the sovereignty of telecommunications and the Latin American integration, as well as he described as 'plentiful' this initial stage of technological growth.
'We come up to the level of the club of 62 countries that somehow work on space activity. We are quite a way from being the foremost, but we are on the way. We can affirm that we are the country with the fastest development in satellite matters,' he affirmed.
Caracas, Aug 25 ABN.- Those who are involved in the realization of the fact, which as of today was just a project, define it as a decisive instrument for the inclusion of isolated communities and a relevant saving in matters of telecommunications for the State.
Some say that the space issue is complex, even more for those who have never ventured into the matter. Venezuela did not frighten before this assumption and, along with the Republic of China, started on the first of many projects which will fill its space program: the creation of the Simon Bolivar Satellite.
The initiative is a result of the necessity to reach a real technological independence and sovereignty, which guarantees Venezuela the possibility to count with an efficient satellite device and completely of its own.
The levels of interaction offered by this technological tool will vary depending on the level of complexity in the projects to be carried out by satellite. The platform will be available in a few months and the most sophisticated systems in matters of communications will be within the reach of all Venezuelans, without social distinction nor geographical hindrance.
Such connection will shorten the distance in the nation, such sovereignty will give more presence to the State in every corner of the country. An amount of 241 million dollars invested and the decisive Chinese cooperation will make possible this scenery.
Five years of development
Since President Hugo Chávez Frías assumed Presidency, he announced that the country would enter in the development of space activities.
The talks to find international cooperation began in 2002, but it was in 2003 when came into effect an agreement with the Republic of China, a country that not only provided technology transfer but also the actual possibility to assemble our first telecommunications satellite.
In that moment started to be created the application programs and it was necessary to create an institution to handle with it, which was firstly named Venezuelan Space Center (CEV, Spanish acronym). Further on, as the exigence increased, it was relevant to create an agency, which was denominated Bolivarian Space Activity Agency (ABAE, for its Spanish acronym).
This way, late in 2006, the Program Venesat-I started and as part of it began to be created the Simon Bolivar Satellite, currently very near of its blastoff after several tryouts and checks. If the atmospheric conditions are convenient, next November 1st the satellite will be on the space.
Nevertheless, the satellite is not the only thing in the ABAE's agenda right now. Other international agreements with India, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, France and China, this one the main ally in space matters, are part of the tasks it deals with, always with two clear goals: technology exchange and staff training.
A social satellite
The justification of the project is to make use of telecommunications in order to support the State and foster social inclusion.
'It is not focused on commercial ends, but on providing a service to the communities which have never enjoyed a modern communication system.'
The above statement was issued by ABAE's technical manager, Rodolfo Navarro, who affirms that the city people who have their connection granted in virtue of already existing infrastructure will not directly notice the impact.
'It is merely social; the beneficiaries will be those who have never had that possibility,' he stated.
Navarro explained that isolated communities which not counted with services of electric wiring or optical fiber will be benefited with the satellite connection. He also detailed that through the simple installation of a parabolic antenna, the populations deprived of communication will count with telephone lines.
Among the programs to be carried out with the Simon Bolivar Satellite highlight the programs of Teleducacion (Telecommunication Education) and Telemedicina (Telecommunication Medicine), addressed to give educative training and medical care to the communities far from populated centers.
'Aboriginal communities, for instance, would receive long-distance education or maybe they would request medicines, air or river ambulance service, medical check-ups, among other options,' he detailed.
Therefore, Information Centers and Bolivarian Centers of Informatics and Telematics (CEBIT, Spanish acronym) will also be benefited, since many of these units are already spread in different places of Venezuela but they do not have the required connection to work out.
In virtue of the versatility of the satellite and the several fields of action it embraces, Navarro stressed that the ABAE will not carry out the projects exclusively.
'We give our services, we make available the connection and we even have prototypes to show what can be done and its impact on communities. But it is necessary to work jointly to the ministries of Health, Education, Higher Education, Infrastructure, among others, as well as with the telephone company CANTV, which is in charge of providing the equipments which will receive the signal,' he explained.
For the integration of Latin America
Rodolfo Navarro explained that there has been chosen a geostationary orbit for the Simon Bolivar Satellite, it is to say, an area of the space always positioned on the same point of the earth globe, from where the device rotates at the same angular speed of the Earth.
Since such orbit belongs to Uruguay, by means of an agreement with Venezuela, the satellite will occupy it on condition that both countries can use it.
'We assumed all the expenses of the installation of the two terrene stations -one in Guarico state and the other in Bolivar state-, the staff training and the development of the satellite itself; while they provided the orbit and enjoy even 10% of the communicational capacity of the Simon Bolivar satellite,' he said.
Moreover, the satellite covers a large space of the globe, which is called footprint. Thus, not only Uruguay will enjoy the benefits, but also the whole area that embraces such footprint: the Caribbean, Central America and northern South America.
'All this territory is covered, but remember that it is necessary the receiver sets and previous agreements with Venezuela, of course,' he added.
The representative of the ABAE agency explained that for all these nations is essential the negotiation and, above all, the proof that it is really needed the satellite connection. On the other hand, the aim will always be social.
Although all the cases require a previous request, the difference between Uruguay and the remaining benefited Latin American countries resides in that the first one has already acquired its right, while the others have to achieve it and justify it.
'It is a great step towards the Latin American integration; we have granted not only the domestic communications but also among the sister nations in actual time and without paying to foreign satellite service providers,' he stated.
Next goal: Observing the Earth
Ten days are needed for the satellite, once launched, to be positioned at the correct place. Then, it will be developed a series of safety mechanisms and communication proofs, an essential process for the Simon Bolivar satellite to be completely effective by next February.
Its service life will end within 15 years approximately, but its descent to Earth is already foreseen, aiming to contribute with the rescue of technological trash to which the United Nations Organization has urged. As a matter of fact, at least a thousand satellites, out of 5,500 launched to the space, are operating. The rest are space trash.
Nevertheless, it will not be the only space achievement for Venezuela. There are many other satellites in which the State will work in the future, among them one to observe the Earth, foreseen for the year 2013. This time is expected to assemble it in Venezuela with national work force.
Here on, it is envisaged to build and launch monitoring satellites, in order to watch oil, minerals and sown fields; in order to control deforestation and burning of trees; in order to supervise the urban and population growth; among other safety aims of the State.
'The Simon Bolivar satellite addresses to telecommunications, but these technological tools can be used for many other purposes, and we will be working on it, in projects devised to other areas,' Rodolfo Navarro stressed.
In that regard, he affirmed that it constitutes only the first step towards the sovereignty of telecommunications and the Latin American integration, as well as he described as 'plentiful' this initial stage of technological growth.
'We come up to the level of the club of 62 countries that somehow work on space activity. We are quite a way from being the foremost, but we are on the way. We can affirm that we are the country with the fastest development in satellite matters,' he affirmed.
Nationalization of strategic companies guarantees Venezuela's development
Caracas, Distrito Capital
Caracas, Aug 27. ABN.- This Wednesday, the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, said that nationalizing some strategic industries Venezuela is breaking with the old model imposed by a "poisoned" foreign investment, which came to the country to pillage instead of promoting development.
President Chávez explained, during a ministers' council, that under that model, companies placed in Venezuela did not pay fair wages to their workers, refused to pay them their social benefits, or any kind of social and labor security; therefore, Venezuelans working for them were like third-class workers.
"They (Companies) did not pay taxes and they did not have any kind of environmental responsibility. That was the investment they brought. We do not want that kind of investment," he added.
Regarding the comments made by opposition sectors, saying that nationalizations scare away foreign investments, Chávez stated that Government will not accept "those companies that come to Venezuela to take the country into an international arbitration court (like Shell did)."
"We do not need that kind of investment, even if we would, we do not want that poisoned investment. We are throwing them away," he stressed.
Venezuela's President warned that everything has to be done according to Venezuelan laws. "They have to pay their taxes - 33% of royalties, 50% of revenue tax."
Chávez highlighted the investment model of the Orinoco Oil Belt, where foreign companies constituted joint ventures with Venezuelan Government, which holds the majority of the shares.
By other hand, Chávez also pointed out that Venezuela is investing in other countries and said the nation counts with 40 billion dollars on international reserves, without including the resources of the National Development Fund (FONDEN, Spanish acronym).
Among the countries Venezuela has investments in are United States, China, and Vietnam.
"We are now investor in other countries. In United States, Europe, we are going to invest in China ion joint with Chinese companies. Vietnam is inviting us to invest," Chávez said.
Caracas, Aug 27. ABN.- This Wednesday, the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, said that nationalizing some strategic industries Venezuela is breaking with the old model imposed by a "poisoned" foreign investment, which came to the country to pillage instead of promoting development.
President Chávez explained, during a ministers' council, that under that model, companies placed in Venezuela did not pay fair wages to their workers, refused to pay them their social benefits, or any kind of social and labor security; therefore, Venezuelans working for them were like third-class workers.
"They (Companies) did not pay taxes and they did not have any kind of environmental responsibility. That was the investment they brought. We do not want that kind of investment," he added.
Regarding the comments made by opposition sectors, saying that nationalizations scare away foreign investments, Chávez stated that Government will not accept "those companies that come to Venezuela to take the country into an international arbitration court (like Shell did)."
"We do not need that kind of investment, even if we would, we do not want that poisoned investment. We are throwing them away," he stressed.
Venezuela's President warned that everything has to be done according to Venezuelan laws. "They have to pay their taxes - 33% of royalties, 50% of revenue tax."
Chávez highlighted the investment model of the Orinoco Oil Belt, where foreign companies constituted joint ventures with Venezuelan Government, which holds the majority of the shares.
By other hand, Chávez also pointed out that Venezuela is investing in other countries and said the nation counts with 40 billion dollars on international reserves, without including the resources of the National Development Fund (FONDEN, Spanish acronym).
Among the countries Venezuela has investments in are United States, China, and Vietnam.
"We are now investor in other countries. In United States, Europe, we are going to invest in China ion joint with Chinese companies. Vietnam is inviting us to invest," Chávez said.
Mission 13 de Abril to transform communities comprehensively
Caracas, Distrito Capital
Caracas, Aug 24. ABN.- "The (governmental) Mission 13 de Abril has to summarize the other missions and bring them to a new level to reach a higher impact on the comprehensive transformation of communities."
The statements were made by the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, in his weekly program "Aló, Presidente", carried out in the poor neighborhood La Bombilla, in Caracas, where he put into motion the Mission 13 de Abril.
"It is a mission with three main dimensions: housing infrastructure, social synthesis, and communal economy," he stated.
Regarding the infrastructure, he explained that it is necessary to carry out a comprehensive urban transformation in the local neighborhood, the sector, or in the thorp where the Mission 13 de Abril takes place; the social part is more about the people. It is the convergence of the missions in order to reach a higher social development.
"We have to achieve a much higher added value, articulate educative and health missions (...) including absolutely everyone in the selected community, in this case, La Bombilla," he explained.
Furthermore, Chávez said that the communal economy issue implies to gather the productive forces of the neighborhood creating spaces to build micro-companies: "A yard, a dead end, we need to find spaces."
President Chávez emphasized that it is a communal economy owned by its society: "A factory built in here will belong to La Bombilla because it is a collective property. This way, we are sowing the seed of the Bolivarian socialism, which was not copied from anywhere, we created it. This is a real democracy."
Caracas, Aug 24. ABN.- "The (governmental) Mission 13 de Abril has to summarize the other missions and bring them to a new level to reach a higher impact on the comprehensive transformation of communities."
The statements were made by the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, in his weekly program "Aló, Presidente", carried out in the poor neighborhood La Bombilla, in Caracas, where he put into motion the Mission 13 de Abril.
"It is a mission with three main dimensions: housing infrastructure, social synthesis, and communal economy," he stated.
Regarding the infrastructure, he explained that it is necessary to carry out a comprehensive urban transformation in the local neighborhood, the sector, or in the thorp where the Mission 13 de Abril takes place; the social part is more about the people. It is the convergence of the missions in order to reach a higher social development.
"We have to achieve a much higher added value, articulate educative and health missions (...) including absolutely everyone in the selected community, in this case, La Bombilla," he explained.
Furthermore, Chávez said that the communal economy issue implies to gather the productive forces of the neighborhood creating spaces to build micro-companies: "A yard, a dead end, we need to find spaces."
President Chávez emphasized that it is a communal economy owned by its society: "A factory built in here will belong to La Bombilla because it is a collective property. This way, we are sowing the seed of the Bolivarian socialism, which was not copied from anywhere, we created it. This is a real democracy."
The ALBA is the alternative way to the neoliberal hegemony
Caracas, Aug 25. ABN.- The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, said this Monday that the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA, Spanish acronym) represents an alternative to the neoliberal hegemony that is destroying the world.
"Southern countries join together in order to be independent and reach development to our people. The ALBA is a mechanism of Latin American peoples and governments to struggle against world crisis," he pointed out.
In statements offered to international correspondents at the Honduran Government Palace José Cecilio del Valle, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, President Chávez made emphasis that the entrance of this Central American country to the ALBA is something historic and it is happening due to the brave decision assumed by the President of this country, Manuel Zelaya.
Venezuelan Head of State highlighted integration plans and projects promoted by this integration organ gathering countries from the Caribbean, Central America and South America, as well as the creation of the Bank of the ALBA, the ALBA Food Fund, the ALBA Oil, Education and Health.
President Chávez is in Honduras in order to attend to the III Extraordinary ALBA Summit, where Honduras' entrance will be made official.
The ALBA is formed by Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Nicaragua, and Venezuela as full members and Honduras will be part in few hours.
"Southern countries join together in order to be independent and reach development to our people. The ALBA is a mechanism of Latin American peoples and governments to struggle against world crisis," he pointed out.
In statements offered to international correspondents at the Honduran Government Palace José Cecilio del Valle, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, President Chávez made emphasis that the entrance of this Central American country to the ALBA is something historic and it is happening due to the brave decision assumed by the President of this country, Manuel Zelaya.
Venezuelan Head of State highlighted integration plans and projects promoted by this integration organ gathering countries from the Caribbean, Central America and South America, as well as the creation of the Bank of the ALBA, the ALBA Food Fund, the ALBA Oil, Education and Health.
President Chávez is in Honduras in order to attend to the III Extraordinary ALBA Summit, where Honduras' entrance will be made official.
The ALBA is formed by Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Nicaragua, and Venezuela as full members and Honduras will be part in few hours.
Chavez and Correa open block Ayacucho 5 at the Orinoco Oil Belt
ABN 29/08/2008
Caracas, Aug 29 ABN.- The Presidents of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, and of the Republic of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, open the block Ayacucho 5 on the Orinoco Oil Belt, Independencia municipality, Anzoategui state.
The block Ayacucho 5 will be drilled in order to extract crude on behalf of the company Petroecuador, within the agreements that the two nations endorsed in favor of the South American integration.
President Correa arrived early morning this Friday to the city of Puerto Ordaz, and it is foreseen that he will broadcast his Saturday program from Venezuela and that he will accompany Venezuela's President on the Sunday program Alo, Presidente (Hello, President).
Caracas, Aug 29 ABN.- The Presidents of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, and of the Republic of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, open the block Ayacucho 5 on the Orinoco Oil Belt, Independencia municipality, Anzoategui state.
The block Ayacucho 5 will be drilled in order to extract crude on behalf of the company Petroecuador, within the agreements that the two nations endorsed in favor of the South American integration.
President Correa arrived early morning this Friday to the city of Puerto Ordaz, and it is foreseen that he will broadcast his Saturday program from Venezuela and that he will accompany Venezuela's President on the Sunday program Alo, Presidente (Hello, President).
National Government creates a fund to increase productive capacity
ABN 26/08/2008
Caracas, Aug 26. ABN.- The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has created a Fund for Productive Promotion in order to increase country's productive capacity, which will be focused to develop new productive units and expand the ones that have been already created.
The statements were made by the Minister of People's power for Light Industries and Commerce, William Contreras, in the event carried out to mark the start of such project.
Contreras stressed that this fund is in the framework of the productive relaunch measures announced by the President of the Republic, Hugo Chávez Frías, on June 11.
Minister Contreras said that with the creation of this new financial instrument, the government "is promoting the development of new projects to build new productive units, so that country's capacity in this sector will be increased."
Furthermore, Contreras assured that among the opportunities offered by this fund, "it is established the possibility of working capital loans for companies that want to expand their production capacity or because technological modernization."
Moreover, he pointed out that this fund will start with 500 million dollars. That number should be doubled by the end of 2009. Interest rates for this credits will be between 3-7% with 2 years of grace period.
The Ministry of People's Power for Light Industries and Commerce has a portfolio with more than 20 projects in an evaluation stage.
For instance, "there is a fuses company, the only one in the country, which we have labeled as really important due to the great amount of products from this company that are required nationwide," Contreras commented.
He made emphasis on the the fact that representatives of this company have proposed to form a joint venture with Venezuelan State.
Likewise, he talked about the company Motores de Venezuela, which requires an expansion in its capacity to produce small motors for electronic artifacts.
Some of the proposals of this Fund of Productive Promotion include the reactivation of the business rounds and the relaunching of the governmental program Fábrica Adentro III.
In addition, Contreras explained that it is expected the creation of the so-called Fábricas Gemelas (Twin Factories), which consists on creating industries with identical physical structure and functions.
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Caracas, Aug 26. ABN.- The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has created a Fund for Productive Promotion in order to increase country's productive capacity, which will be focused to develop new productive units and expand the ones that have been already created.
The statements were made by the Minister of People's power for Light Industries and Commerce, William Contreras, in the event carried out to mark the start of such project.
Contreras stressed that this fund is in the framework of the productive relaunch measures announced by the President of the Republic, Hugo Chávez Frías, on June 11.
Minister Contreras said that with the creation of this new financial instrument, the government "is promoting the development of new projects to build new productive units, so that country's capacity in this sector will be increased."
Furthermore, Contreras assured that among the opportunities offered by this fund, "it is established the possibility of working capital loans for companies that want to expand their production capacity or because technological modernization."
Moreover, he pointed out that this fund will start with 500 million dollars. That number should be doubled by the end of 2009. Interest rates for this credits will be between 3-7% with 2 years of grace period.
The Ministry of People's Power for Light Industries and Commerce has a portfolio with more than 20 projects in an evaluation stage.
For instance, "there is a fuses company, the only one in the country, which we have labeled as really important due to the great amount of products from this company that are required nationwide," Contreras commented.
He made emphasis on the the fact that representatives of this company have proposed to form a joint venture with Venezuelan State.
Likewise, he talked about the company Motores de Venezuela, which requires an expansion in its capacity to produce small motors for electronic artifacts.
Some of the proposals of this Fund of Productive Promotion include the reactivation of the business rounds and the relaunching of the governmental program Fábrica Adentro III.
In addition, Contreras explained that it is expected the creation of the so-called Fábricas Gemelas (Twin Factories), which consists on creating industries with identical physical structure and functions.
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The Bush Administration Is an Ongoing Criminal Conspiracy Under International Law and U.S. Domestic Law
Justice Robert H. Jackson Conference: Planning for the Prosecution of High Level American War CriminalsMassachusetts Law SchoolSeptember 13-14, 2008
Andover, Massachusetts
Since the impeachable installation of George W. Bush as President in January of 2001 by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Gang of Five, the peoples of the world have witnessed a government in the United States that has demonstrated little if any respect for fundamental considerations of international law, human rights, and the United States Constitution. What the world has watched instead is a comprehensive and malicious assault upon the integrity of the international and domestic legal orders by a group of men and women who are thoroughly Machiavellian and Straussian in their perception of international relations and in their conduct of both foreign policy and domestic affairs. Even more seriously, in many instances specific components of the Bush administration’s foreign policies constitute ongoing criminal activity under well-recognized principles of both international law and U.S. domestic law, and in particular the Nuremberg Charter, the Nuremberg Judgment, and the Nuremberg Principles, as well as the Pentagon’s own U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 on The Law of Land Warfare (1956), all of which apply to President Bush himself as Commander-in-Chief of United States Armed Forces under Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution.Depending upon the substantive issues involved, those international crimes typically include but are not limited to the Nuremberg offenses of crimes against peace: For example, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and perhaps their longstanding threatened wars of aggression against Iran and now Pakistan. Their criminal responsibility also concerns Nuremberg crimes against humanity and war crimes as well as grave breaches of the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and of the 1907 Hague Regulations on land warfare: For example, torture at Guantanamo, Bhagram, Abu Ghraib, and elsewhere; enforced disappearances, assassinations, murders, kidnappings, extraordinary renditions, “shock and awe,” depleted uranium, white phosphorous, cluster bombs, Fallujah, and the Gitmo kangaroo courts. Furthermore, various members of the Bush administration have committed numerous inchoate crimes incidental to these substantive offences that under the Nuremberg Charter, Judgment, and Principles as well as paragraph 500 of U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 are international crimes in their own right: planning and preparation—which they are currently doing today against Iran and Pakistan—solicitation, incitement, conspiracy, complicity, attempt, aiding and abetting.Finally, according to basic principles of international criminal law set forth in paragraph 501 of U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10, all high level civilian officials and military officers in the U.S. government who either knew or should have known that soldiers or civilians under their control (such as the C.I.A. or private contractors), committed or were about to commit international crimes and failed to take the measures necessary to stop them, or to punish them, or both, are likewise personally responsible for the commission of international crimes. At the very top of America’s criminal chain-of-command are President Bush and Vice-President Cheney; former U.S. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld; Rumsfeld’s Deputy Paul Wolfowitz; Secretary of State Rice; former Director of National Intelligence Negroponte; National Security Advisor Hadley; his Deputy Elliot Abrams; former U.S. Attorneys General Ashcroft and Gonzales, criminally responsible for the torture campaign launched by the Bush Jr. administration; and the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staffs along with the appropriate Regional Commanders-in-Chief, especially for U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).These U.S. government officials and their immediate subordinates are responsible for the commission of crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and war crimes as specified by the Nuremberg Charter, Judgment, and Principles as well as by U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10.
Today in international legal terms, the Bush Jr. administration itself should now be viewed as constituting an ongoing criminal conspiracy under international criminal law and U.S. domestic law because of its formulation and undertaking of serial wars of aggression, crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in violation of the Nuremberg Charter, Judgment, and Principles that are legally akin to those perpetrated by the former Nazi regime in Germany. Of course the terrible irony of today’s situation is that six decades ago at Nuremberg the U.S. government participated in the prosecution, punishment and execution of Nazi government officials for committing some of the same types of heinous international crimes that the members of the Bush administration currently inflict upon people all over the world. To be sure, I personally oppose the imposition of capital punishment upon any human being for any reason no matter how monstrous their crimes, whether they be Bush Jr., Tony Blair, or Saddam Hussein.As a consequence, American citizens possess the basic right under international law and United States domestic law, including the U.S. Constitution, to engage in acts of civil resistance designed to prevent, impede, thwart, or terminate ongoing criminal activities perpetrated by Bush administration officials in their conduct of foreign affairs policies and military operations purported to relate to defense and counter-terrorism. Today’s civil resisters are the sheriffs! The Bush administration officials are the outlaws! We American citizens must reaffirm our commitment to the Nuremberg Charter, Judgment, and Principles by holding our government officials fully accountable under international law and U.S. domestic law for the commission of such grievous international and domestic crimes. We must not permit any aspect of our foreign affairs and defense policies to be conducted by acknowledged “war criminals” according to the U.S. government’s own official definitions of that term as set forth in the Nuremberg Charter, Judgment, and Principles, U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10, the U.S. War Crimes Act, the Four Geneva Conventions and the Hague Regulations. The American people must insist upon the impeachment, dismissal, resignation, indictment, conviction, and long-term incarceration of all U.S. government officials guilty of such heinous international and domestic crimes. If not so restrained, the Bush administration could very well precipitate a Third World War. In this regard, during the course of an October 17, 2007 press conference, President Bush Jr. terrorized the entire world with the threat of World War III if he could not work his illegal will upon Iran. It is my opinion that the Bush administration is fully prepared to use tactical nuclear weapons against Muslim and Arab states and peoples in order to break the taboo of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the terrible tragedy of September 11, 2001 the United States of America has vilified and demonized Muslims and Arabs almost to the same extent that America inflicted upon the Japanese and Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor. As the Nazis had previously demonstrated with respect to the Jews, a government must first dehumanize and scapegoat a race of people before its citizens will tolerate if not approve their elimination: witness Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In post -9/11 America we are directly confronted with the prospect of a nuclear war of extermination conducted by our White Racist Judeo-Christian Power Elite against Peoples of Color in the Muslim and Arab worlds in order to steal their oil and gas. The Crusades all over again. But this time nuclear Armageddon stares all of humankind right in the face! We American lawyers must be inspired by the stunning example set by those heroic Pakistani lawyers who led the successful struggle against the brutal Bush-supported Musharraf military dictatorship in Pakistan. We American lawyers must now lead the fight against the Bush dictatorship and empire! This is our Nuremberg Moment!
Thank you.
Francis A. Boyle
olja, oljekrig, oilwars, USA, FED, nyliberalism, nyliberal, neoliberal, skojare, liberaler, kollapsen av nyliberalismen, militär keynesianism, Bush, Clinton, McCain, Förenta Staterna, George W Bush, liberal kris, den osynliga handen, globalisering, internationella förhållande, amerikansk ekonomi, dollar collaps, the invisible hand, neocons, militar speditures, structural crisis,trade balance, Globalisation, Globalization, globalism, Globalisering, IMF, world bank, corporate bond equities markets, disarray; the banking system, collapsing, consumer spending, tax revenues, national debt black holes, krigsförbrytare, war criminals, Democracy, liberal democracy, dictatorship, fascism, McBush,
Russia, Georgia, Bush, Putin, south Ossetia, War nuclear, Nato, Eleccion 2008, Obama, McCain, Iran,
Andover, Massachusetts
Since the impeachable installation of George W. Bush as President in January of 2001 by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Gang of Five, the peoples of the world have witnessed a government in the United States that has demonstrated little if any respect for fundamental considerations of international law, human rights, and the United States Constitution. What the world has watched instead is a comprehensive and malicious assault upon the integrity of the international and domestic legal orders by a group of men and women who are thoroughly Machiavellian and Straussian in their perception of international relations and in their conduct of both foreign policy and domestic affairs. Even more seriously, in many instances specific components of the Bush administration’s foreign policies constitute ongoing criminal activity under well-recognized principles of both international law and U.S. domestic law, and in particular the Nuremberg Charter, the Nuremberg Judgment, and the Nuremberg Principles, as well as the Pentagon’s own U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 on The Law of Land Warfare (1956), all of which apply to President Bush himself as Commander-in-Chief of United States Armed Forces under Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution.Depending upon the substantive issues involved, those international crimes typically include but are not limited to the Nuremberg offenses of crimes against peace: For example, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and perhaps their longstanding threatened wars of aggression against Iran and now Pakistan. Their criminal responsibility also concerns Nuremberg crimes against humanity and war crimes as well as grave breaches of the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and of the 1907 Hague Regulations on land warfare: For example, torture at Guantanamo, Bhagram, Abu Ghraib, and elsewhere; enforced disappearances, assassinations, murders, kidnappings, extraordinary renditions, “shock and awe,” depleted uranium, white phosphorous, cluster bombs, Fallujah, and the Gitmo kangaroo courts. Furthermore, various members of the Bush administration have committed numerous inchoate crimes incidental to these substantive offences that under the Nuremberg Charter, Judgment, and Principles as well as paragraph 500 of U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 are international crimes in their own right: planning and preparation—which they are currently doing today against Iran and Pakistan—solicitation, incitement, conspiracy, complicity, attempt, aiding and abetting.Finally, according to basic principles of international criminal law set forth in paragraph 501 of U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10, all high level civilian officials and military officers in the U.S. government who either knew or should have known that soldiers or civilians under their control (such as the C.I.A. or private contractors), committed or were about to commit international crimes and failed to take the measures necessary to stop them, or to punish them, or both, are likewise personally responsible for the commission of international crimes. At the very top of America’s criminal chain-of-command are President Bush and Vice-President Cheney; former U.S. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld; Rumsfeld’s Deputy Paul Wolfowitz; Secretary of State Rice; former Director of National Intelligence Negroponte; National Security Advisor Hadley; his Deputy Elliot Abrams; former U.S. Attorneys General Ashcroft and Gonzales, criminally responsible for the torture campaign launched by the Bush Jr. administration; and the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staffs along with the appropriate Regional Commanders-in-Chief, especially for U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).These U.S. government officials and their immediate subordinates are responsible for the commission of crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and war crimes as specified by the Nuremberg Charter, Judgment, and Principles as well as by U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10.
Today in international legal terms, the Bush Jr. administration itself should now be viewed as constituting an ongoing criminal conspiracy under international criminal law and U.S. domestic law because of its formulation and undertaking of serial wars of aggression, crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in violation of the Nuremberg Charter, Judgment, and Principles that are legally akin to those perpetrated by the former Nazi regime in Germany. Of course the terrible irony of today’s situation is that six decades ago at Nuremberg the U.S. government participated in the prosecution, punishment and execution of Nazi government officials for committing some of the same types of heinous international crimes that the members of the Bush administration currently inflict upon people all over the world. To be sure, I personally oppose the imposition of capital punishment upon any human being for any reason no matter how monstrous their crimes, whether they be Bush Jr., Tony Blair, or Saddam Hussein.As a consequence, American citizens possess the basic right under international law and United States domestic law, including the U.S. Constitution, to engage in acts of civil resistance designed to prevent, impede, thwart, or terminate ongoing criminal activities perpetrated by Bush administration officials in their conduct of foreign affairs policies and military operations purported to relate to defense and counter-terrorism. Today’s civil resisters are the sheriffs! The Bush administration officials are the outlaws! We American citizens must reaffirm our commitment to the Nuremberg Charter, Judgment, and Principles by holding our government officials fully accountable under international law and U.S. domestic law for the commission of such grievous international and domestic crimes. We must not permit any aspect of our foreign affairs and defense policies to be conducted by acknowledged “war criminals” according to the U.S. government’s own official definitions of that term as set forth in the Nuremberg Charter, Judgment, and Principles, U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10, the U.S. War Crimes Act, the Four Geneva Conventions and the Hague Regulations. The American people must insist upon the impeachment, dismissal, resignation, indictment, conviction, and long-term incarceration of all U.S. government officials guilty of such heinous international and domestic crimes. If not so restrained, the Bush administration could very well precipitate a Third World War. In this regard, during the course of an October 17, 2007 press conference, President Bush Jr. terrorized the entire world with the threat of World War III if he could not work his illegal will upon Iran. It is my opinion that the Bush administration is fully prepared to use tactical nuclear weapons against Muslim and Arab states and peoples in order to break the taboo of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the terrible tragedy of September 11, 2001 the United States of America has vilified and demonized Muslims and Arabs almost to the same extent that America inflicted upon the Japanese and Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor. As the Nazis had previously demonstrated with respect to the Jews, a government must first dehumanize and scapegoat a race of people before its citizens will tolerate if not approve their elimination: witness Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In post -9/11 America we are directly confronted with the prospect of a nuclear war of extermination conducted by our White Racist Judeo-Christian Power Elite against Peoples of Color in the Muslim and Arab worlds in order to steal their oil and gas. The Crusades all over again. But this time nuclear Armageddon stares all of humankind right in the face! We American lawyers must be inspired by the stunning example set by those heroic Pakistani lawyers who led the successful struggle against the brutal Bush-supported Musharraf military dictatorship in Pakistan. We American lawyers must now lead the fight against the Bush dictatorship and empire! This is our Nuremberg Moment!
Thank you.
Francis A. Boyle
olja, oljekrig, oilwars, USA, FED, nyliberalism, nyliberal, neoliberal, skojare, liberaler, kollapsen av nyliberalismen, militär keynesianism, Bush, Clinton, McCain, Förenta Staterna, George W Bush, liberal kris, den osynliga handen, globalisering, internationella förhållande, amerikansk ekonomi, dollar collaps, the invisible hand, neocons, militar speditures, structural crisis,trade balance, Globalisation, Globalization, globalism, Globalisering, IMF, world bank, corporate bond equities markets, disarray; the banking system, collapsing, consumer spending, tax revenues, national debt black holes, krigsförbrytare, war criminals, Democracy, liberal democracy, dictatorship, fascism, McBush,
Russia, Georgia, Bush, Putin, south Ossetia, War nuclear, Nato, Eleccion 2008, Obama, McCain, Iran,
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