Thursday, August 28, 2008

Patrick J. O'Donoghue's round up of news from Venezuela -- August 28, 2008

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has sent prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo to investigate an alleged expansion of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to countries such as Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua as well as some European countries. The prosecutor is in Bogota at the invitation of the Colombian government. Moreno Ocampo says the ICC has asked several governments to clarify if there are FARC support networks operating in their territory. The prosecutor, who is from the Argentine, says the existence of international networks of a group responsible for committing crimes in Colombia could come under the competence of the ICC and he clarifies without providing names that some of Colombia's neighbors have asked the court to investigate possible FARC activities in Mexico, and Denmark, Holland and Switzerland.

Former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone has met President Chavez in Miraflores. Livingstone had been invited to visit Caracas when President Chavez visited to London in 2005. The return visit planned for the end of 2005 had to be aborted because of the agitated presidential electoral schedule. It has been learned that President Chavez has called on Mayor Livingstone to act as an adviser in municipal matters to the city of Caracas. The new Mayor of London, Boris Johnson terminated an agreement between the Venezuelan government and the London Mayor's Office, offering subsidies for poorer Londoners on buses in exchange for technical aid in municipal matters, such as traffic control and garbage collection.

President Chavez has denied the existence of any new telecommunications law, stating emphatically that the Enabling Law period has ended, and he warns Venezuelans not to heed opposition media campaigns. The President also says there is no law pending in the Executive or the National Assembly ... the opposition is just creating a fuss about nothing.

President Chavez has dismissed the opposition's signature collection campaign and other actions against the 26 laws decreed as part of the enabling law. Chavez says the laws were executed within the legal framework, and he will not accept interference on the part of any international organs on the matter after the opposition announced that it will take the issue to the Organisation of American States (OAS) and international courts.

United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) accuses the opposition of converting the 26 decree laws into its electoral campaign manager.

A settlement has been announced with the Mexican cement company, Cemex. President Chavez reveals that the agreement was reached thanks to the intervention of Mexico's Ambassador in Venezuela. Executive Vice President, Ramon Carrizalez says negotiations with Cemex are different from those with the other cement companies because negotiations with the Mexican company centered around the right price and took place within the framework of a decree of expropriation. The Venezuelan government, Carrizalez maintains, will respect the company's rights without abandoning its own rights.

President Chavez has been speaking about the new law draft aimed at reordering the internal market of liquid combustibles, which is due up for discussion in the National Assembly. The President says the idea is to get rid of intermediaries and set up a direct chain of distribution from Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) to gasoline stations. Chavez insists that the new legal instrument wants to eradicate vices generated by intermediaries and increase profit margins. Opposition broadsheets proclaiming so-called expropriation of gasoline stations came under presidential attack as "part of their media laboratories."

Patrick J. O'Donoghue
patrick.vheadline@gmail.com


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Venezuela is facing the most difficult period of its history with honest reporters crippled by sectarianism on top of rampant corruption within the administration and beyond, aided and abetted by criminal forces in the US and Spanish governments which cannot accept the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people to decide over their own future.

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