Things appear to be hotting up in Venezuela - February 23, 2006

With the annual Carnival celebrations just around the corner from February 25th – 28th in Venezuela, several events indicate that in this crucial presidential election year, things are “hotting up” politically as Carnival approaches and the traditionally hottest period of the Venezuelan summer at Easter.

Phantom transport strike
After the unfortunate and ill-guided remarks of Condoleezza Rice last week talking about a transport strike in Venezuela and the international support needed to support the “free trade unions”, when nothing had in fact happened, this caused alarm bells to ring amongst government ministers and deputies of the National Assembly (AN).

Transport unions have had key meetings with the government in order to eek out and uncover union and transport leaders who are accepting US dollars from the CIA to cause chaos in the country by whipping up discontent and calling for a strike. At the time of writing this appears to have been nipped in the bud, but delays however caused, cannot be excluded during Carnival simply due to the mobilization of holiday makers throughout the country. Comparisons with the CIA’s activities in Chile to overthrow Salvador Allende in 1973 immediately sprang to mind after Rice’s declarations.

More “sensitive” assassinations
Last Saturday the assassination of farmers resurfaced in Barinas state when five land workers and activists for land reform were murdered all about the same time – four from one family. The National Assembly has called for an exhaustive investigation. Since the Land Law was passed in October 2001, more than 150 farmers have been assassinated by “death squads” and hired “hit men” allegedly organized by large estate owners but there have been no accusations or even convictions yet.

Last night (February 22nd), one of the Attorney General’s body guards was assassinated in the upper middle class urbanization of Santa Rosa de Lima in Caracas. The motives are not clear and the culprits are being sought by the equivalent of the UK’s Serious Crimes Squad, the CICPC. In recent weeks the Attorney General has assumed a much higher public profile in an effort to  push the snail’s pace Venezuelan justice system to go at the minimum of a  crawl, so as to mete out justice to high profile suspects due to go to trial. Some sources are speculating that the Attorney General himself could now be a selected target for “political assassination” by the dark forces at work in Venezuelan politics.

Explosives – for what use?
In Yaracuy State, two presumed state police officers were captured transporting 3 kilos of C4 high power plastic explosive, 10 electronic detonators and four fragmentation grenades by the DISIP security police. This is the second capture of C4 in two months and this was the explosive used for the political car bomb assassination of state prosecutor, Danilo Anderson, in Caracas in November 2004.

Talking a firm stand against the media onslaught
The Minister of Communication and Information has also upped the stakes against the private media by calling for the government telecommunications watchdog, Conatel, to  sanction radio and TV stations for attempting to pervert the course of justice in the Danilo Anderson assassination case which is now reaching the courts.

There has been an on-going campaign in the audiovisual media to discredit and intimidate key witnesses whose testimony is vital. The people under investigation as the intellectual authors of the Anderson assassination are upper class Venezuelan government opponents and individuals closely linked to the privately owned media, which orchestrated the 2002 coup d’état and the oil industry sabotage and bosses’ lock out in December 2002 – February 2003. The latter action cost the nation a total of US$28 billion in lost oil sales and production as well as in industrial losses.

The Minister of Communication also issued a statement after the daily newspaper, El Nacional, published an editorial on Tuesday claiming that the National Elections Council already had the 10 million votes Chavez is seeking for his re-election “programmed into the software of the electronic voting machines”. The Minister invited the owner of El Nacional, another rabid anti-chavista, to produce the evidence of these claims before the Attorney General’s office or face court proceedings for defamation of a public institution.

The totality of these events indicate that there is tension building up once again in Venezuela even though the presidential election campaign is not officially due to kick off until June.

What is cooking at home and abroad?
Combine these internal events with recent statements by US Defense Secretary, Rumsfeld’s claims that Chavez was similar to Hitler, and US Intelligence Chief, Negroponte, claiming that Chavez wanted closer trade and military links with Iran and North Korea. It does not take a genius to decipher the pattern which is emerging and one can discern that both internal and external pressures are being brought to bear on the Venezuelan government and its still adolescent Bolivarian Revolution.

Facts of media bias
The opposition control 85% of all news outlets and media in Venezuela and simply “hides” or does not report spectacular government achievements. Perhaps the best example of this strategy was on October 28th 2005, when UNESCO officially declared Venezuela “free of illiteracy”. This news made only the inside pages of the national dailies and is just one example of the biased anti-government reporting still taking place in the private media.

Another example is the national railway system under construction which is never mentioned, as if it did not exist. On the other hand, any problem, however fleeting or insignificant is blown out of all proportion. Emphasis is always placed on the weekly murder statistics, robberies, violent deaths and any other mishap. There is very little positive reporting in Venezuela in the private media, which unfortunately serves as a source for international news outlets, such as the BBC.

The Oil Question and a call for solidarity
It remains to be seen what other strategies will be dreamt up by the opposition itself, the media lackeys of the US and the US State Department itself in order to continue destabilizing Venezuela. US meddling in Venezuela’s internal affairs will not stop since Venezuela’s alternative oil supplies are only five days tanker ride away from the Gulf Coast. Considering the unstable situation in the Middle East this is a prize the hawkish, extreme right-wing, oil driven Republican Administration occupying the White House will stop at nothing to obtain.

Since this is the outlook for 2006, VSC makes a call to all trade unionists and the public at large to assume solidarity with and the defense of Venezuela’s right as a sovereign and independent nation to decide its own future under the international principle of self-determination. Join us now!

Andy Goodall
VSC Coordinator
andy.goodall@venezuelasolidarity.org.uk
www.venezuelasolidarity.org.uk