Soback Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday lashed out at the country's only Cardinal, who used a major religious ceremony to accuse Chavez of acting despotically and endangering one of South Americas's oldest democracies. Chaves demanded that the country's Roman Catholic hierarchy formally distance itlself from the accusations that Cardinal Rosalio Castillo Lara made Saturday before hundreds of thousands of people attending the procession honoring the "Divine Shepherdess" in the city of Barquisimeto. Castillo, 83, told worshipers that Chavez administration "has lost its democratic course and presents the semblance of a dictatorship." "Insults, hate... it was shameful for the Catholic Church," Chavez said on his weekly television and radio program. "It was undoubtedly a provocation." More than two-thirds of Venezuela's 26 million people are Catholic. ------------------- http://www.securisk.com/alerts/alertdispla...untry=VENEZUELA VENEZUELA 9/26/2005 Chavez Vows to Push Ahead with Land Reform Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on September 25 vowed to accelerate a contested land redistribution program as his government set up a state agrarian project on land seized from a private cattle rancher. Speaking from the La Marquesena farm authorities recently ruled as state property, Chavez urged ranchers to negotiate with the government as it carries out a land reform campaign that has stirred fears over private property rights. "We can't stop with the Marquesena, we have to accelerate all of this," Chavez said during his regular Sunday television broadcast. "We are not carrying out an expropriation, this belongs to the nation, to the state." Redistribution of rural land to state-backed farm cooperatives is one of the central and most disputed reforms introduced by Chavez, a former soldier elected in 1998 promising to fight poverty in the world's No. 5 oil exporter. -------------- 9/27/2005 Government Seizes Food Plant from Private Company Venezuela on September 26 expropriated a processing plant belonging to one of the country's top food producers in the latest state takeover in President Hugo Chavez's social reforms. Lawmakers in Barinas State decreed the corn silos owned by Alimentos Polar could be controlled and managed by former workers in a state-backed cooperative under a law allowing the government to seize idled factories for public use. A campaign by left-winger Chavez to take unproductive farms and abandoned factories has been applauded by supporters for helping the poor, but critics say his government is ignoring property rights in a rush to copy the communist model of his ally Cuban President Fidel Castro. Alimentos Polar, one of the country's largest private sector manufacturers, had said the plant was mostly active and challenged in the Supreme Court what it called an illegal seizure when workers took over the plant earlier this month. Attorneys for the company did not return a call seeking comment on the seizure. ------------- VENEZUELA 10/26/2005 Venezuela Sentences Chavez Plotters A military court sentenced three former Venezuelan military officers and 27 Colombians to prison terms ranging from two to nine years on October 25 for an alleged plot to kill President Hugo Chavez, the state news agency reported. The court also found 73 other Colombians innocent and ordered they be freed from prison, where they have been held for more than 17 months, the state-run Bolivarian News Agency, or ABN, reported. The freed Colombians arrived on October 25 at the Simon Bolivar border crossing on the outskirts of the Colombian town of Cucuta and were taken by authorities to have their fingerprints and photographs taken. ÔÇ£Those who don't have any criminal cases against them can go home,ÔÇØ said Mauricio Rosales, the head of Colombia's DAS secret police in Norte de Santander province. The cases stem from the May 2004 arrest of 118 Colombians at a ranch outside Caracas. Venezuelan authorities said the Colombians were wearing military uniforms and described them as suspected members of a paramilitary group that was plotting to sow ``chaos'' in the country and to assassinate Chavez. Charges were dropped against 18 of the Colombians and they were released days after their capture. Six Venezuelan military officers, both active and retired, were later arrested on charges of military rebellion linked to the case. Three of them were convicted early on October 25 and sentenced to prison terms between two and nine years, ABN reported. Three other former officers were acquitted while 27 Colombians were sentenced to six years in prison. ------------ 11/4/2005 Opposition Groups to Boycott Elections, Hold Multiple Protests On November 3, opposition groups created the National Command for Resistance, to organize protests on the political and grassroots level. The NCR opposition politicians announced that they planned to boycott the December 4 elections for all 167 seats in Congress, to highlight alleged government manipulation of the electoral process. The decision that could allow government allies to increase their slight majority, as some of Venezuela's larger parties plan to participate. The NCR also announced that it planned to organize decentralized protests around the country, under Article 350 of the Constitution. This article protects the right to reject any regime opposed to democracy. The NCR aims to denounce the government through thousands of nationwide protests, too numerous for security forces to repress simultaneously. The group also announced a march against President Hugo Chavez on November 6 in Caracas. ---------------------- 11/7/2005 4 Suspects Detained in 2004 Murder of Prosecutor Venezuelan authorities ordered the detention of four people, including an outspoken journalist, an opposition-aligned businessmen and a Cuban dissident, saying they orchestrated the 2004 assassination of a leading prosecutor. A Caracas court ordered the four detained without charges, a statement from the Information Ministry said. Danilo Anderson, a prosecutor who strongly supported President Hugo Chavez's government, was killed November 18, 2004, when a bomb exploded in his sport-utility vehicle in Caracas. He had been preparing a case against nearly 400 people who backed a short-lived coup against Chavez in 2002. Among the four accused of masterminding his killing is Patricia Poleo, the director of El Nuevo Pais newspaper, who has been a vocal critic of Chavez and was investigating allegations that Anderson had links to an extortion web along with other state authorities. Also accused was Nelson Mezerhane, a prominent local businessman and co-owner of private broadcaster Globovision closely aligned with the country's opposition. The third person accused was Salvador Romani, a leading Cuban dissident based in Venezuela, while the fourth accused, Eugenio Anez, is a retired general in the Venezuelan military. ----------------- 11/15/2005 Mexico, Venezuela Recall Ambassadors in Diplomatic Row Mexico recalled its ambassador from Venezuela on November 14 after Caracas said it would withdraw its top diplomat instead of apologizing after President Hugo Chavez warned Mexican leader Vicente Fox: "Don't mess with me, sir, because you'll get stung." Fox said in a television interview that he would meet with Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez to decide what to do next. Tensions between Fox and Chavez spilled over after this month's Summit of the Americas in Argentina, where Fox defended a U.S.-backed proposal for a Free Trade Area of the Americas while Chavez proclaimed the idea dead. In the interview with CNN en Espanol, Fox promised to keep the debate with Chavez from becoming personal but added "we can't allow people to offend our country." Mexico said earlier on November 14 that it would kick out Venezuelan ambassador Vladimir Villegas and recall its own ambassador to that country at midnight unless Chavez's government apologized for the remarks. But in a news conference in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, Foreign Secretary Ali Rodriguez said his country would not accept Mexico's demands and considered the ultimatum "unjustified." "The immediate return of ambassador Vladimir Villegas has been ordered," Rodriguez said, adding that a charge-d'affaires would be in charge of the embassy. "This situation is entirely the responsibility of President Fox." Fox responded by saying he was going to continue to fight for free trade - the topic that sparked the dispute between the two leaders. Fox spokesman Ruben Aguilar stressed that withdrawing ambassadors wouldn't mean severing ties completely with Venezuela because business and cultural relations would remain intact. -------------- 11/18/2005 US Warns Venezuela Democracy at Risk Democracy in Venezuela is in grave peril because President Hugo Chavez is trying to concentrate power in his own hands, a top State Department official said on November 17. Newly appointed Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, in charge of Latin American affairs, told a congressional committee that Chavez's government was "subverting democratic institutions by using them to restrict the rights of those who disagree with it, slowly undermining economic freedoms and rejecting the opportunities of globalization." Shannon's remarks were the latest in a verbal battle between the Bush administration and Chavez. At this month's Summit of the Americas, Chavez led a protest against U.S. policies and opposed President Bush's efforts to win support for a hemisphere-wide free trade zone. The Venezuelan government did not immediately respond to Shannon's comments. Chavez, first elected in 1998 and up for re-election next year, insists he supports democracy and accuses the U.S. government of falsely branding him authoritarian because it disagrees with his socialist policies. He has close ties with Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Shannon said Chavez was centralizing power in the executive and politicizing the judiciary. --------------------- 12/2/2005 Opposition Parties to Boycott December 4 Elections Most of Venezuela's main opposition parties are boycotting legislative elections on December 4 that could allow President Hugo Chavez to consolidate his self-proclaimed socialist revolution. Accusing election officials of favoring Chavez, opposition parties fell into disarray just days before the election after struggling to compete with the president who has spent billions in oil revenues on health and education for the poor. "We believe that a true, autonomous and independent electoral judge would not subject the people to elections in these conditions," Justice First party spokesman Gerardo Blyde said announcing his party's withdrawal. Chavez, an ally of Cuba who has become one of Washington's fiercest critics, blasted the opposition boycott as a U.S.-backed propaganda move meant to strip the vote of its legitimacy and stoke tensions against his government. "Venezuelans, like all people, have a right to free and fair elections," said U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, rejecting the charges of U.S. meddling. "We are concerned that this right is increasingly in jeopardy." Polls show Chavez is Venezuela's most popular leader and the opposition boycott could hand lawmakers supporting him the majority to pass reforms that critics fear will strengthen his hold on power before 2006 presidential elections. Confident of victory, pro-Chavez lawmakers say they want to begin working on constitutional reforms starting next year that would put an end to limits on presidential elections and take more state control over the Central Bank. "It is clear now the government will get over two-thirds of the National Assembly, perhaps more," said Luis Vicente Leon, director of local polling firm Datanalisis. "This is a disaster for the opposition." --------------------- 12/7/2005 US Voice Concern on Election Results Allies of Hugo Chavez rejected U.S. and opposition concerns about an election victory that gave the Venezuelan leader full rein to pursue his socialist economic model for the oil-rich South American nation. The December 4 congressional elections were expected to put Chavez's party and its allies in control of all 167 seats in the National Assembly. But just 25 percent of eligible voters participated after leading opposition parties boycotted the ballot, saying they could not trust the results. The low turnout was a disappointment for the government, which had denounced the boycott as a ploy to sabotage legitimate elections and implored Venezuelans to go to the polls. "The direct consequence of having carried out transparent elections ... is a calculated attack, scorn, insults and finger-pointing," said Jorge Rodriguez, president of the National Electoral Council and a Chavez ally. The election has further polarized Venezuela, already deeply divided by Chavez's "revolutionary" rhetoric, his leftist policies and his increasingly close ties with Cuba's Fidel Castro. Pedro Lander, a newly elected congressman, said Monday the new National Assembly will aim to "deepen the revolutionary process more and more." The victory would give Chavez's party the two-thirds majority it needs to amend the constitution, something Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement party hopes to do with the aim of extending term limits. That change would allow Chavez to stay on as president beyond 2012 - the current limit if he is re-elected next December. Polls suggest he remains popular and has no formidable challenger. ------------------------ 12/14/2005 Anti-Chavez Union Leader Jailed A Venezuelan labor leader who helped organize a strike against President Hugo Chavez three years ago was sentenced on December 13 to more than 15 years in prison for civil rebellion. Carlos Ortega, one of Chavez's fiercest opponents during months of political turmoil, is the first top opposition leader jailed for the two-month-long strike that failed to topple the president. Hundreds of business and political figures are under investigation for supporting the failed 2002 coup against Chavez that preceded it. The government says opposition leaders who supported the coup and the strike must face rebellion charges for wrecking the economy and sabotaging the country's oil industry in an effort to oust Chavez. Opponents of Chavez say the former soldier is cracking down on political foes as he drives Venezuela closer to the authoritarian model of his ally Cuban leader Fidel Castro through control of the courts and other key institutions. "From prison, I'll keep working, I'll keep fighting to preserve the freedom, democracy and unity of the people," Ortega told Globovision news station by telephone. "I'm no conspirator or coup plotter and I didn't betray my country." Ortega was captured in March in a Caracas nightclub after he returned to Venezuela from asylum in Costa Rica. His attorney said the trial violated due process and that Ortega planned to appeal. Ortega was sentenced to 15 years and 11 months for civil rebellion and instigation charges. ----------------------- 12/16/2005 Opposition March Planned in Caracas Opposition groups will march in Caracas on December 17, beginning at 10 a.m., to decry political persecution. The march is in response to the imprisonment of Carlos Ortega, a union head who led a strike that paralyzed the country from December 2002 to January 2003. The protest march will lead from Plaza Altamira Square in eastern Caracas to the union headquarters in the downtown area. As in past rallies, security forces may forcibly disperse demonstrations. In addition, government supporters may call a counter-march, especially as December 17 is the anniversary of the death of Simon Bolivar, a regional independence leader. --------------------------------- 1/12/2006 Expropriations Overshadow Property Rights, Rule of Law The mayor's office in Caracas expropriated seven abandoned buildings by decree on January 9, to provide housing for displaced people in the city. The legality of the expropriations is in doubt, especially following the invasions of 32 properties in Caracas since January 6. These developments highlight growing uncertainty over the protection of private property rights and the rule of law. ---------------------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v01i0 Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 Quick, call in CIA for a hasty coup in Venezuela.. Oh wait, didn't they try it already. Oh bollocks, now they'll have to pull out military intervention-card. -v Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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