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May
31
2013
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In Case You Missed It… Articles Roundup Week of 5/31/13

s1.reutersmedia.net In Case You Missed It… Articles Roundup Week of 5/31/13

Courtesy of: Reuters

 

This week: Venezuelan president reacts with fury to meeting between Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles, even recalling an envoy to Colombia’s peace process; two U.S. embassy officials are shot in a Venezuelan strip club, exemplifying the Venezuelan government’s inability to combat violence; the shooting prompts the State Department to describe the crime level in Venezuela as ‘critical’; and Nicolás Maduro accuses CNN of working to promote a coup. Capriles plans to ‘set off the alarms’ before international bodies due to the state of Venezuelan political institutions; Globovisión, the lone voice of dissent among Venezuelan TV stations, lowers the critical tone under new owners, firing popular talk show host and denying live coverage of opposition leaders; Maduro orders the creation of a new workers’ militia to defend the country’s ‘Bolivarian revolution’ at a time of economic problems and political turmoil; and Venezuela plans to hold local elections on December 8. The head of Venezuela’s main business group sees a dire economy in 2013 due to the decade-long weakening of domestic industry; 93.52 percent of respondents in a poll blame the government for shortages in Venezuela; Venezuelan police seize 2,500 rolls of toilet paper in overnight raid, in another sign of growing shortages; the Confederation of Industries estimates Venezuela’s domestic industries are working at only half their capacity; and Venezuela’s Catholic Church experiences the country’s scarcity of basic supplies, ‘running out of wine’ to celebrate Mass.

Venezuela furious at Colombia’s meeting with opposition leader, Reuters

Venezuela reacted with fury to Wednesday’s talks between Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles, saying it was a “bomb” in ties and recalling an envoy to Colombia’s peace process.

2 American Embassy Officials Are Shot in Venezuela Strip Club, El Universal

Two staff members of the American Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, were shot and wounded at a strip club there early Tuesday, according to officials.

State Dept. report for Caracas personnel: Crime level ‘critical’, Washington Post

Two U.S. embassy personnel were wounded by gunfire outside a Caracas night spot early Tuesday morning, according to the State Department.

Venezuela accuses CNN of seeking to foment coup, AFP

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro on Monday accused US-based news network CNN en Espanol of working to promote a coup d’etat as part of a wider media war against his socialist government.

Henrique Capriles to set off the alarms before international bodies, El Universal

Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles said Wednesday from Colombia that the situation facing Venezuelan institutions is forcing him to “set off the alarms” before international organizations and report on the state of affairs in his country.

Globovision, lone voice of dissent among Venezuela TV stations, lowers volume under new owners, Associated Press

Venezuela’s only TV channel that has been openly critical of the socialist government was in turmoil Monday after a popular talk show host was fired and the opposition’s leader said he was being denied live coverage.

Venezuela to Create New Workers Militia, Associated Press

Venezuela’s president has ordered the creation of a new workers’ militia to defend the country’s “Bolivarian revolution” at a time when the government faces economic problems and political turmoil.

Venezuela to hold local election next December 8, El Universal

In a brief press conference late on Thursday at the headquarters of the National Electoral Council (CNE), its president, Tibisay Lucena, said Venezuela will hold local elections on December 8, after they were put off for various reasons.

Venezuela business group sees dire economy in 2013, Reuters

Venezuela is slipping into high inflation and economic stagnation this year due to a shortage of hard currency and a decade-long weakening of domestic industry, the head of the country’s main business group Fedecamaras said.

Venezuelans blame Government for widespread shortage, El Universal

The Venezuelan Government is accountable for shortage in the country, said 93.52% of respondents in a poll conducted by daily newspaper El Universal.

Venezuela police seize 2,500 rolls of toilet paper in overnight raid, Associated Press

Police in Venezuela say they have seized nearly 2,500 rolls of toilet paper in an overnight raid of a clandestine warehouse storing scarce goods.

Venezuelan industries running at half capacity, El Universal

Venezuela’s domestic industries are working at half their capacity. The Venezuelan Confederation of Industries (Conindustria) reported that the manufacturing sector worked at 52.82% of its installed capacity in the first quarter of the year.

Venezuela Catholic Church ‘running out of wine’, BBC News

The Catholic Church in Venezuela has said it is running out of wine to celebrate Mass because of nationwide shortages of basic supplies.

 
Sep
24
2010
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PERDUE: The last election in Venezuela?

This article was originally posted by The Washington Times

On Dec. 28, 2006, Hugo Chavez played a joke on the radio for Dia de los Inocentes, the Latin American equivalent of April Fool’s Day. He announced that he was tired of being president and was going to resign. After a short pause, he impishly shouted, ”Ha ha! Gotcha!” Almost four years later, many in Venezuela feel as if the joke is still on them as elections become less of a civic exercise and more of a tool of the regime to cement its incremental autocracy.

When the New York Times and CNN reported recently that Venezuela is now more violent than Iraq, Hugo Chavez responded in a newspaper article by blaming the previous administration. Mr. Chavez has been in office for 11 years. With important elections looming Sunday, it would seem more prudent to announce a new anti-crime initiative or at least to feign concern for the country’s escalating crime wave.

Instead, Chavez regime officials have been threatening the opposition. “Our revolution is peaceful, but it’s also armed,” warned former mayor of Caracas and Chavez supporter Freddy Bernal. “If the bourgeois brings out its weapons again, we’ll bring out ours as well. Don’t forget it.” Aristobulo Isturiz, a Chavista campaign coordinator, was quoted as saying, “Either we liquidate them or they liquidate us.”

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Aug
31
2010
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Will Chávez steal parliamentary elections?

This article was originally posted by The Miami Herald

The situation in Venezuela is becoming dangerously tense. Ramón Guillermo Aveledo says that the Sept. 26 parliamentary elections may be the last ones in the country — ever.

Aveledo, a prestigious lawyer, writer and former president of Congress, is the executive secretary of the Mesa de la Unidad Democrática, the umbrella organization for the united opposition.

What’s happening in the country? Possibly, Hugo Chávez could lose, so he’s looking for a way to tamper with the results. One month away from the elections, the most reliable survey — by Consultores 21, as disclosed by expert Joaquín Pérez Rodríguez — gives the victory to the opposition, 52 to 42 percent.

That fact is reinforced by another question that is even more revealing. When voters are asked whether they like or reject Chávez, 37 percent say they like him, 56 percent don’t.

Obviously, Chávez’s popularity has plummeted for at least five powerful reasons:

• The unbearable violence that has turned Caracas into one of the world’s most dangerous cities and all of Venezuela into a slaughterhouse with more victims than Iraq, as The New York Times has reported. Almost 120,000 persons have been murdered since Chávez came to power. Violence has risen fourfold.

• The whole of society detests the existence of paramilitary armed gangs in the service of the government. CNN called them “Chávez’s Guardians” in an excellent documentary that rattled the country. Their task is to intimidate and mistreat the population.

• The infinite clumsiness of a government that, despite receiving a torrent of petrodollars, is incapable of supplying markets, conserving food (millions of kilos rot in warehouses or vanish), maintaining the infrastructures or equipping hospitals halfway decently. With good reason, Venezuelans perceive that no other country in South America is as poorly governed.

• Venezuela’s uncomfortable occupation by Cubans and the donation of much of Venezuela’s wealth to Havana, Managua, Bolivia and the rest of the famished family of 21st-century socialism. With those subsidies, Chávez buys his international importance and fosters the highest level of corruption Venezuela has ever known — which is saying a lot.

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