[Marxism] Summary of Venezuela developments from Chris Kerr, Green Left list

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The withdrawal of Venezuela's diplomatic envoy to Panama in response to
the Panamanian President's pardoning of four Cuban exiles linked to
violent plots against Cuban President Fidel Castro was the headlining
news of the weekend. The dispute escalated when Mireya Moscoso, the
US-backed president of Panama, pardoned Luis Posada Carriles, a seasoned
anti-Castro plotter, and three Cuban-born US citizens for planning to
assassinate Castro in 2000 just before she is due to hand over power to
President-elect Martin Torrijos.

Moscoso claimed humanitarian grounds for her action, stating that the
exiles would "surely be killed" if extradited to either Cuba or
Venezuela. Venezuela's Vice President Jose Rangel, in turn, explained
his nation's response (compounded by President Chavez's abrupt
cancellation of plans to attend Torrijos' presidential inauguration) by
emphasizing that the withdrawal did not signify a breaking down of
diplomatic relations with Panama but rather a diplomatic stand against
"polic[ies] indulging terrorism" and Moscoso's "offensive statements".

One of the four Cubans, Mr Posada Carriles, is a prime suspect behind
the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976, in which 73 people were killed,
after it departed from the city of Caracas. In light of Mr Posada's
history and the fact that the US subsequently granted asylum to the
three Cuban-born US citizens leaving Panama for Miami, Rangel was
especially quick to tell reporters that he "didn't see any difference
between Posada Carriles and Al-Qaida". Moscoso's successor, Torrijos,
criticized the pardons and said he will work toward normalizing
relations with Venezuela after he takes office on September 1st.

Venezuela's withdrawal of its ambassador to Panama followed the dramatic
actions taken by Cuba to officially sever its political ties with the
small Central American nation, which, in turn, reciprocrated by calling
back its own ambassador to Cuba.

Following the National Electoral Council's (CNE) offical ratification of
the results of the August 15th referendum that will keep President Hugo
Chavez in office, President Chavez and his supporters celebrated by
jamming the downtown avenues of Caracas on Friday with a musical
festival that later culminated in an official visit to the elections
council, which formally ceritified his victory. The Opposition groups,
in turn, have not relented in insisting that widespread voter fraud had
occurred during the referendum. They continue to demand changes in the
elections council, which they perceive as being pro-Chavez, and a voting
system they say is susceptible to vote rigging. Andres Velasquez, a
leader of the Democratic Coordinator, said that opponents "must be firm
in demanding" that the regulations established for the recall "cannot be
the same that are put forth for the regional elections".

President Chavez proceeded with his ambitious and controversial plan to
redistribute land as part of his reforms for the country by ordering his
military commanders to investigate "latifundios", or large rural
estates, and report idle land not in productive use. The agrarian law
defines a ``latifundio'' as a rural property larger than 12,355 acres of
good, but idle land.

The law calls for punitive taxes on farmers not using the territory,
after which the state may intervene. Critics say the law is vulnerable
to political interpretation. After demanding "the strict application of
the constitution and the land law," Chavez tried to assuage fears of
expropriation by urging owners to enter into talks with the government
in the hope that they may consider voluntarily selling their lands to
the government. Squatters say the Land Law gives them the right to seize
empty lands, but landholders argue that the properties are seized
illegally and that authorities rarely stop the invasions.

President Chavez has announced the creation of two new ministries that
will oversee housing and nutrition: the new and upcoming Ministry of
Housing is to focus on providing affordable homes to Venezuelans, while
the Ministry of Nutrition is to work on guaranteeing low-cost food for
those who need it.

While the details behind the staffing and financing of these new
ministries remain unclear, it is clear the creation of these new
institutions signals a continuation of government spending for social
projects in Venezuela. This announcement follows news stated by Finance
Minister Tobias Nobrega on state television that inflation in Venezuela
is expected to slow to around 15 percent to 18 percent in 2005 (from 20
percent in the year 2004). Venezuela's government has forecast economic
growth of around 10 percent this year and between 3 to 5 percent next
year. This year's budget foresaw 2004 inflation at around 26 percent,
despite having had 12-month inflation in July slow to
21.8 percent from 31.9 percent a year earlier.

During a ceremony in which US foreign service officer William Brownfield
was sworn in as ambassador to Venezuela, Deputy Secretary of State
Richard Armitage declared that the future of U.S. relations with
Venezuela could hinge on whether that country tones down its
anti-American rhetoric. Armitage expressed hope that the Venezuelan
government will take a constructive approach to bilateral relations: "to
that end," he said, "we also urge the Venezuelan government to carefully
consider how its actions - and its rhetoric - might affect the future of
our bilateral relations."
He singled out countering narcotics trafficking and terrorism through
military cooperation and other means as points of interest the two
nations could bilaterally work on together in the future. But as of yet,
there are no plans for Secretary Powell and President Chavez to meet;
there have been no high-level discussions between the two countries in
years.

President Chavez denounced the head of the Organization of American
States Friday for saying electoral officials were biased in organizing
the vote. OAS Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria had said the pro-Chavez
majority on the National Electoral Council had taken decisions along
"party lines" in organizing the poll. "I say to Dr. Gaviria, don't be a
liar," Chavez said, "[Gaviria] was not able to come up with a single
reason to attack the [process of the] referendum and so he has begun to
tell stories about the Permanent Council in an irresponsible way. It is
irresponsible of Dr. Gaviria to make affirmations so unrelated to
reality".

The Miami Herald has found that one of the men arrested last week in
Miami of shipping armaments to guerrilla and paramilitary groups in
Colombia had been arrested in Venezuela in February for supposedly
supplying illegal arms to opponents of the Chavez government. Raul Gomez
DeMolina had been released under an unclear mandate granted by a
Venezuelan judge, who claimed that (an undisclosed) discovery of an
"essential error in procedure that violated the guarantee of due
process" made it impossible for her to keep DeMolina under arrest.

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(The following ad followed the Green Left mailing reprinted above. I
couldn't bring myself to delete it, what with so many of us getting on
in years. Fred)
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