ENGLISH EDITION/The artillery of ideas INTERNATIONALFriday, November 1, 2013 | Nº 181 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve

With 58,869 visits, this year’s International Tourism Fair in Venezuela (Fitven) was de-clared the most successful ever. The Fair, organized by the Ministry for Tourism, was the eighth of its kind, and recorded a 58.66% increase in attendance on last year. It brought together visitors from the four corners of Venezuela, including the general public, work-ers of the national tourism sector, as well as international representatives from France, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Japan, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, Nicaragua, Cuba, Spain, England, China, Germany and Russia. Pages 3-4

Venezuela fights economic sabotageVice President for Economic Affairs, Rafael Ramirez, blamed the United States and the Venezuelan right-wing for being behind an economic war designed to bring down the government of socialist President Nicolas Maduro. Ramirez, who is also Oil Minister and President of the state oil company PDVSA, spoke with journalists from two private Venezuelan television channels, Televen and Venevision, and outlined the strategy being utilized by the country's opposition to create panic and destabilization in the population. page 2

Economy

Subsidized fairs aid purchasesState holiday fairs will ensure affordable prices for consumer products and festivities. page 4

Social Justice

8 Years Without Illiteracy

Venezuela celebrates 8th anniversary free of illiteracy due to social programs. page 5

Security

Vigilance to fight crimeA nationwide monitoring system hopes to reduce insecurity in Venezuela. page 6

Analysis

US Snooping Makes Ita Neighborhood Pariah page 7

Opinion

Obama’s Betrayalof Honduras page 8

International tourismgrowing in Venezuela

Botanical Garden recovery

The recuperation of the Botanical Garden of Cara-cas is being carried out through a series of coope-rative works that range from replacing the fences at the entrance to the site, to remodeling the walkways and the pond, and fixing the vehicles used to move plants from one place to another.

The president of the Botanical Garden Foundation of Caracas, Mario Gabaldon, told Correo del Orinoco: “In 15 days, we may have the motorized vehicles repai-red, not just the truck, but also the two tractors.”

The first phase of the recuperation involves im-provements to the key sites of the garden, such as the cactus section and the pond.

“The main pond requires some work, and needs to be filled in, because in the past they did a bad job and made it too deep, and so aquatic plants could be planted there”, Gabaldon said, indicating that the water should be less than a meter deep.

“We have to fill that end, put in a geotextile fa-bric and then plant the species found in Venezue-lan lagoons”, he explained.

Over 5 Million Venezuelans Benefited from Simon Bolivar Satellite

T/ Correo del Orinoco

Tuesday, October 29, marked the 5th ] anniver-sary of the launch into or-bit of the satellite known as Venesat-1 Simon Bolivar, a technological tool that has allowed for greater access to the Internet and faster data transmission in Ven-ezuela so that citizens can enjoy telecommunications services, particularly in rural areas of the country.

The satellite was the result of a 2008 coopera-tion agreement between the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innova-tion and China. It was launched from China and orbits at 22,680 feet above the earth.

The satellite weighs 5.1 tons, is 3.6 meters tall, and has a 15 year lifespan. The satellite program was car-ried out with an invest-ment of $406 million by Venezuela’s Bolivarian Space Agency.

In order to launch this satellite, 200 young Ven-ezuelan scientists were trained in space technol-ogy as part of the agree-ment with China. The university students were equipped with special knowledge links to build-ing of satellites, their technical control, and in-formation management.

Currently, Venezuelan professionals and techni-cians are in charge of the maintenance and opera-tions of the Simon Bolivar satellite.

As part of Venezuela’s policy of social inclusion, which is part of the legacy of the late President Hugo Chávez Frías, the satellite benefits the poorest com-munities through projects in medicine, education and social organization such as the “info centers” that have broadened access to technologies by offering free Internet access.

The artillery of ideas

Ramirez: Venezuela has declared ‘a warto the death’ against economic sabotage

2 Impact | Friday, November 1, 2013

T/ COIP/ Agencies

In a series of television in-terviews that took place last weekend, Vice President

for Economic Affairs, Rafael Ramirez, blamed the United States and the Venezuelan right-wing for being behind an economic war designed to bring down the government of social-ist President Nicolas Maduro.

Ramirez, who is also Oil Min-ister and President of the state oil company Pdvsa, spoke with journalists from two private Venezuelan television chan-nels, Televen and Venevision, and outlined the strategy being utilized by the country’s opposi-tion to create panic and destabi-lization in the population.

“They have been working with the idea that has been planted by the United States. The sectors of Venezuela’s ex-treme right-wing have been employing a strategy of total economic collapse, of the total collapse of our country. It is an objective which is clearly politi-cal and aimed at overthrowing our government in order to de-rail all that our revolution has achieved”, he said.

The cabinet member cited the shortages of certain food prod-ucts, the theft of government-supplied foreign exchange, rising inflation, and the prolif-

to respond with extraordinary measures to an extraordinary situation which the bourgeoi-sie is attempting to inflict on our country. We’re not going to allow for this to continue”, Ramirez stated.

FIGHTING THE PARALLEL EXCHANGE RATE

A major front of the Maduro administration’s battle against speculation and destabilization will lie in the fight to abolish the parallel exchange rate that has arisen in the OPEC mem-ber state.

Since 2003, Venezuela has ex-ercised a strict control on the flow of foreign exchange in the country.

The measure, not unusual for many developing nations, was

eration of contraband on the Venezuelan-Colombian border as consequences of the econom-ic sabotage underway in the South American nation.

To combat the conspiracy, Ramirez emphasized that the Maduro administration has declared “a war to the death against the offensive that the bourgeoisie has launched against our country”.

This includes shielding Ven-ezuelans against contrived food shortages through “massive importation” of staple products and taking greater measures to stave off the loss of foreign ex-change occurring via fraudu-lent petitions for US dollars.

“We are going to develop an offensive that will be headed by President Maduro in order

originally enacted, Ramirez said, “to maintain our sovereignty over our national reserves” af-ter the Venezuelan opposition employed a coup d’etat and an oil lockout in 2002 in attempts to bring down the government of then President Hugo Chavez.

The currency control has also served to insulate the country against the possibility of capital flight - a pernicious side effect of free market currency poli-cies that can severely damage fragile economies.

A case in point is the 1997 Asian financial crisis in which a number of industrializing na-tions suffered major economic fallouts from currency specula-tion and the rapid withdraw of private investors.

In Venezuela, the national currency, the bolivar, has had a fixed exchange rate determined by the national bank that is cur-rently set at 6.3 to the dollar.

The parallel, or illegal ex-change rate of the dollar, how-ever, is many times higher than the regulated price, leading to a distortion in the currency mar-ket, which affects both indus-try and the cost of products in the country.

With the vast majority of Ven-ezuela’s foreign exchange com-ing from the state oil company, PDVSA, citizens and importers alike have the right to petition the Foreign Exchange Admin-

istration (CADIVI) to receive a limited amount of dollars at the regulated, or “preferential” rate.

The dollars are meant to provide for citizens travelling abroad as well as for the impor-tation of industrial inputs and everyday commodities that are sold in Venezuela.

But the means to solicit the exchange has been manipu-lated by private businesses and individuals who, after obtain-ing dollars from the national government at the fixed rate, sell the currency at the parallel price in Venezuela.

The result has been a diver-sion of the nation’s foreign ex-change from its intended tar-get through a network riddled with corruption and profiteers, which, in the end, affects resi-dents and impedes the develop-ment of the nation.

“There has been a process in which the functioning of CA-DIVI has been compromised and the sectors to which foreign exchange has been given have not done their job. This has been transformed into a mechanism to capture dollars in order to feed the parallel market”, Ramirez said while calling for new con-trol measures to fight the fraud.

Last week, the head of Ca-divi, Jose Khan, reported that at least 1,245 businesses had re-cently abused the system.

“These companies are no longer receiving a single dollar from [Cadivi]”, he said.

For his part, Ramirez singled out the country’s large business owners and organized mafias as those taking advantage of the sys-tem, rebuking them for “laugh-ing at the mechanisms that we have created to distribute our oil income [to the people]”.

“The ones who are able to distort the fundamental ele-ments of our economy are in ac-tion. The parallel dollar is not coming about due to a worker, a housewife, or even a profes-sional because they don’t have the quantity of dollars neces-sary to take to the market for speculation”, he said.

Ramirez revealed that rather than devaluing the bolivar in the face of a ballooning parallel rate, the national government is planning to create “an alter-native system for the disburse-ment of foreign exchange”.

“It will be a revolutionary system that will help us to transform our economy into socialism. That is where we’re headed. We’ve moving towards socialism and we will resolve the economic problem by man-aging planning elements that will advance the production objectives that we want”, the of-ficial explained.

The artillery of ideasFriday, November 1, 2013 | Economy 3

T/ Paul DobsonP/ Agencies

With 58,869 visits, this year’s International Tourism Fair in Ven-

ezuela (Fitven) was declared the most successful ever, thanks to the efforts of all in-volved in the tourist hotspot of Merida.

The Fair, organized by the Ministry for Tourism, was the eighth of its kind, and re-corded a 58.66% increase in attendance on last year.

It brought together visitors from the four corners of Ven-ezuela, including the general public, workers of the nation-al tourism sector, as well as international representatives from France, Colombia, Ec-uador, Brazil, Japan, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, Nicaragua, Cuba, Spain, England, China, Germany and Russia.

The reported increase in attendance, calculated by electronic turnstiles at the entrance, is even more sig-nificant considering that last year’s Fair was held in the capital Caracas (8 million in-habitants), whilst this year’s Fair was in Merida (250,000 inhabitants). Entrance lines of over two hours were reported at peak times.

The Fair was held in the 7000 m2 of the sports com-plex ‘Five White Eagles’, itself a construction of the Hugo Chavez administration, and was open for the first two days to firms and providers of tour-ist services, and the last two days to the general public.

Renovated to host the swarms of people that poured into Merida for the Fitven, the sports complex contained four huge centers that demonstrat-ed the delights and fascinat-ing opportunities of tourism on both a local, national, and international level.

Visitors were greeted by expert staff from the tourism training college, the Hotel Escuela, before being guided towards the first of the four nuclei, which focused on Ven-ezuela and its uncountable marvels and beauties. Visi-tors had the chance to observe photographic exhibits, receive maps, guides, and consult rep-resentatives from each of the regions of the country.

Other areas exhibited inter-national delegations, enabling them to present the attrac-tions in their respective coun-tries, with Colombian coffee on offer and Brazilian Samba dancing.

Passing through to the Prod-ucts and Services area, visi-tors were able to browse tour-ist firms, who presented their products, offers, and services to both the public and other visit-ing businesses, with thousands of flyers and pamphlets being taken away.

Finally, visitors arrived at the gastronomy and handicraft nucleus, where representatives from the Amazon to the Coast presented the fruits of their la-bors to the population.

The Fitven presented a ‘clean energy’ sector, where energy trapping gymnastic style park games were mount-ed, allowing children to play and at the same time create electricity. There was also a demonstration of the increas-ingly used solar panels, and a large skate and bike complex mounted in the shadows of the scaling stadium.

Throughout the Fitven, visi-tors were witness to the Ven-ezuelan spirit and love of life, which makes tourism so invit-ing here, with music blaring

from every corner, and cultur-al displays at almost every 20 meters along the two hour long route. From the feet stamping dancers of the flatlands, to the giant Mucuchies dogs of the Andes, flamboyantly dressed traditional performers, mod-ern sculptures, and costumed historic personalities, the at-

International Tourism Fairsees record visits

mosphere of the Fair was one of celebration, enjoyment, and joy, with a very clear recogni-tion of the founder of the Tour-ism Fairs: Hugo Chavez.

The Fitven closed with an enormous concert that defied the Andean rain and marveled spectators with presentations from the National Symphonic

Orchestra, Venezuelan Salsa legend Oscar D’Leon, singer Roque Valero, and the group-ing Malanga. Entrance both to the concert as well as the Fair was entirely free.

In the restricted areas of the Fitven, pre-organized meet-ings between the 400 firms established links, exchanging information, promoting pack-ages, and developing both local and national tourism. There were also numerous workshops held by experts, and training programs estab-lished for those working in tourism.

In exit polls, 92% of the gen-eral public categorized the Fitven as ‘good’ or ‘very good’, however numerous represen-tatives of the tourist firms present at the event reported certain organizational prob-lems, which they emphasized should be overcome in future fairs.

Venezuela’s internal tour-ism sector has been flour-ishing in recent years, with numbers of national tour-ists increasing exponentially thanks to greater investment from the government in in-frastructure, such as airlines, new bus stations, and train-ing programs for tourist pro-moters. There is an impetus on sustainable eco-tourism, based in the communities, and running in harmony with nature.

However the country has suffered stagnation in foreign visitors, due to the capital-ist recession in other parts of the world, and problems of promotion and reputation of Venezuela.

Minister for Tourism, An-dres Izarra, explained that the wave of violence instigated by the opposition in April dam-aged Venezuela’s reputation as a holiday destination.

Despite an increase in the international presence at this year’s Fitven, workers in the tourism sector had hoped for an even greater presence still, with unofficial reports suggesting that only 28 of the 60 reported foreign firms registered actually arriving at the Fair.

The following Fitven will be held in 2014 in the city of Barinas, which is con-sidered the doorway to the flatlands of Venezuela, rich as they are in fauna. The city also offers some of the best white water rafting in the country, combining flat-lands with stunning Andean landscapes.

The artillery of ideas4 Economy | Friday, November 1, 2013

T/ COIP/ Prensa Presidencial

After four days of meetings, cultural acts, and photo-graphic displays showcas-

ing breathtaking landscapes and overwhelming natural beauty, Venezuela’s Interna-tional Tourism Fair (Fitven) came to a close last Sunday in the Andean state of Merida.

The event saw the participa-tion of 395 firms and the sealing of more than 142 million boli-vars ($22.5 million) in business, 134 million bolivars ($22 mil-lion) of which was achieved by the state-owned tourist agency Venetur.

“The fair has been a total suc-cess”, said Venezuelan Tourism Minister Andres Izarra during a press conference on Monday.

“This investment speaks to the dynamic nature of tourism, the confidence and the expecta-tions that exist in the sector”, he added.

Tourist operators from Ger-many, Ecuador, Spain, Boliv-ia, China, France, Japan and Russia were on hand for the event, which began last week

Tourism fair promotes Venezuela as internationaldestination, sees spike in business opportunities

Thursday and ran through the weekend.

Over 450 meetings business exchanges took place and Izarra reported that more than 1 bil-lion bolivars ($158 million) had been solicited in government credits to carry out tourist ac-tivities as a result of the fair.

Important for small business-es, the exhibits gave a chance for operators at all levels to seek new opportunities and network

with other professionals in the industry.

Carlos Revilla, the owner of a start-up tourist agency in the beach town of Choroni in the central state of Aragua com-mented that by attending FIT-VEN, he believes his business will “increase by 100 percent”.

“Right now I’m looking for more personnel and people with whom to work to meet this new challenge”, Revilla said.

The general public also ben-efited from the event as thou-sands of Merida residents at-tended the variety of cultural and culinary expositions that took place over the weekend.

“It’s all very beautiful”, said local resident and fair goer Mariela Valbuena. “I loved it. I think that it’s definitely go-ing to help increase tourism in the country and the city”, she added

Famous for being home to the highest and longest cable car in the world, Merida was chosen as this year’s FITVEN destina-tion for its stunning mountain landscapes, quaint towns, and unique Andean culture.

On Sunday, Venezuelan Vice President Jorge Arreaza vis-ited the Cinco Aguilas sports complex where the fair was held and expressed his con-tentment at the advances being made in the tourist industry in the country.

“It gives me great pride to be here and to see that our coun-try is turning into a power due to what the revolution has achieved. We are going to be a power in tourism. All Venezue-lans can be sure that we are not going to rest until we achieve this”, the Vice President said.

Last year, Venezuela saw a 20 percent increase in tourism with more than 78,000 foreign-ers visiting the country and more than 17.3 million local residents engaging in some form of domestic tourism.

“The objective it to develop tourism in Venezuela. We are committed to diversifying the economy and one of the sec-tors that has great potential is tourism. Wherever you look in Venezuela - the mountains, the jungles, the beaches, the plains - you see that it is a coun-try blessed in every sense”, Ar-reaza said.

T/ Ewan RobertsonP/ Agencies

The Venezuelan government is implementing a range of

measures to ensure that all citi-zens are able to enjoy a plentiful Christmas season, especially those on lower incomes.

Beginning on Friday No-vember 1st and running to De-cember 15th, government-run Christmas fairs will be opened to the public in every regional state, where toys and other seasonal goods will be sold to citizens at “fair prices”. Mean-while, mobile fairs will travel around all municipalities to make sure that Venezuelans living in more far flung areas also benefit from the program.

In an interview with pub-lic channel VTV on Tuesday, Commerce Minister Alejandro Fleming said that the Christ-mas fairs would help the popu-lation avoid overpricing and speculation during the Christ-mas season. “Our prices re-

Venezuelan Government implements strategyto ensure plentiful Christmas season

spond to a cost structure…it’s possible for a speculator to sell the same toys with [overpricing of] 300 or 400%”, he said.

The minister also mentioned that this year the government hopes that the Christmas fairs will serve around 17% of the population, distributing 1.5 million toys. This is a large ex-pansion on the government’s fairs last year, which served 4% of the population, distributing toys to 200,000 children.

In addition to toys imported from other countries, around 1,700 national producers of toys, jewelry, clothing, shoes and ar-tisanal products will partici-pate in the fairs.

State run food distribution companies Mercal and Pdval will also sell affordably-priced food items used to make popu-lar Christmas dishes such as roast pork and bread stuffed with ham and olives.

The fairs are a key part of the government’s strategy to en-sure that all items associated

with the Christmas season are in plentiful supply this Decem-ber.

Authorities are in the process of importing 400,000 tons of food from neighboring countries ahead of the vacations, while over $46 million have been granted to the private sector for the importation of toys.

“There are already 35 million toys in the country, plus those which are yet to arrive. It’s pos-sible that in Venezuela we’ll have close to 50 million toys [for distribution and sale]”, said Fleming.

According to the 2011 census, there are 7.35 million people in Venezuela aged between 0 and 14 years of age, around 27% of the population.

SANCTIONSOfficials consider efforts to

ensure the adequate supply of Christmas goods as part of the struggle against the “econom-ic war” the government says is being waged against it by

wealthy allies of the conserva-tive opposition.

With the country experienc-ing shortages in certain food-stuffs and the dollar worth seven times the official rate on the black market, authori-ties have accused the opposi-tion of seeking to destabilize the economy and create dis-content through hoarding, de-viation of supply chains, and price speculation.

Throughout the Christmas season state consumer agency inspectors will increase visits to commercial establishments to ensure compliance with price controls and that retail-ers are not taking advantage of

increased demand to engage in price speculation.

“We’re not going to allow our people to be exploited, not just in the area of toys, but in all sectors which sell goods that the population traditionally consumes in the December sea-son”, said Commerce Minister Fleming.

Fines for price speculation could range between $40,000 and $200,000, the minister added.

As a result of the implemen-tation of these strategies offi-cials have stated that despite the “economic war” they are confident that Venezuelans will enjoy a “happy Christmas”.

The artillery of ideasFriday, November 1, 2013 | Social Justice 5

T/ COIP/ Agencies

As a testament to the social gains achieved by the Bolivarian Revolution

spearheaded by the late Hugo Chavez, Venezuela celebrated the 8-year anniversary of be-ing declared a Territory Free of Illiteracy by the United Na-tions last Monday.

“Only in Revolution with Comandante Chavez could Venezuela be converted into a territory free of illiteracy”, current Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro wrote via his Twitter account in commemo-ration of the date.

On October 28, 2005 Ven-ezuela was officially deemed by the United Nations Edu-cational, Scientific and Cul-tural Organization (Unesco) to have eradicated illiteracy in the country after a social program founded by Hugo Chavez, Mission Robinson, succeeded in teaching 1.5 million people to read and write.

The initiative, founded in 2003 and inspired by a similar program developed by Cuban specialists, has been a pillar of Venezuela’s educational re-forms and is part of a triad of missions created by Chavez to expand educational opportu-nities to previously excluded populations.

The other programs include Mission Ribas, which pro-vides high school classes to those who were unable to fin-ish their studies, and Mission Sucre, which has opened the door to university education for hundreds of thousands.

Last Monday, Education Min-ister Maryann Hanson spoke of the gains made under the so-cialist government founded by Chavez and affirmed that the work of Mission Robinson con-tinues to reach out those who still may not have enrolled in the initiative.

“In the country, there are nearly 23,000 volunteer fa-cilitators of this mission. We are continuing the process of training those who don’t know how to read and write”, Hansen said during a litera-cy conference in the capital Caracas.

In addition to the literacy campaign, the minister ex-plained that a second phase of the program continues to operate, called Mission Rob-inson II, which provides stu-dents, mainly seniors, with the opportunity to complete grammar school.

A third phase of the program has also been created to facili-tate study groups for commu-nity members with the aim of promoting reading and main-taining residents informed on important social issues.

Marisol Calzadilla, head of the mission, commented that the overall goal of the govern-ment’s educational policy is to promote “learning for a demo-cratic, just, and values-orient-ed citizen who has new oppor-tunities for socio-productive development”.

During an interview earlier this week, Calzadilla remind-ed viewers that an interna-tional branch of the program was started in 2006, seeking to work in solidarity with other Latin American nations in ending illiteracy.

“Venezuela, accompanied by Cuba, has been able to support and assist our sister countries Bolivia and Nicaragua so that they too were declared Terri-tories Free of Illiteracy”, she said.

For Hector Rodriguez, Vice President for Social Affairs, the kind of educational ad-vances that have taken place in Venezuela demonstrated the redistributive policies of the socialist government and should in no way be taken for granted.

“The things that are hap-pening in Venezuelan may seem quotidian but they’re not. They are beautiful, ex-traordinary things. We’re changing reality with social justice and we’re going to con-tinue changing it”, the cabinet member said on Monday.

Venezuela celebrates 8thanniversary of eliminating illiteracy

T/ Ewan Robertsonwww.venezuelanalysis.com

Venezuelan President Nico-las Maduro has created a

new government agency to co-ordinate social programs and further reduce poverty.

The new Vice Ministry of Supreme Social Happiness will coordinate the government’s social programs, known as “missions”, to improve their reach and efficiency in order to move towards social goals such as the elimination of poverty.

The vice ministry will work in particular with mis-sions addressing the needs of the disabled, the homeless, families living in extreme poverty, old-age pension-ers, and those from deprived backgrounds requiring spe-cial medical attention.

“All these missions are part of the great system of social-ist revolution that transcends the criteria of the welfare state”, declared President Ma-duro last Thursday while an-nouncing the vice ministry’s creation.

The Venezuelan head of state appointed former law-maker Rafael Rios to preside over the new body, describing him as an “expert in social se-curity”.

The name of the new vice ministry, “supreme social happiness”, is a phrase intro-duced into modern Venezue-lan political discourse by late President Hugo Chavez. It re-fers to the effort to create the greatest level of social wellbe-ing possible through reducing poverty and exclusion while meeting the population’s needs in areas such as educa-tion, health and culture.

The phrase is used to evoke the political vision of Ven-ezuela’s 19th century founder, Simon Bolivar, who argued that, “The most perfect sys-tem of government is that which produces the greatest possible sum of happiness, the greatest sum of social se-curity and the greatest sum of political stability”.

The pursuit of “social hap-piness” also forms part of the government’s plan for social and economic development from 2013 – 2019, including concrete goals such as the eradication of poverty and hunger.

Venezuela’s Maduro CreatesSocial Happiness Vice Ministry

Since the launch of the first mission programs a decade ago, these have formed an im-portant role in the improve-ment of social and health indi-cators in the country such as the reduction of poverty from 50.4% in 1998 to 25.4% in 2012.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIACRITICISMS

International media outlets have mocked the creation of the Vice Ministry of Supreme Social Happiness, focusing on the body’s name and contrast-ing this with Venezuela’s cur-rent economic problems.

While the economy has con-tinued to gradually grow this year and unemployment re-mains low, the country is cur-rently experiencing annual inflation of nearly 50%, short-ages in a few basic goods, and a dollar worth seven times more on the black market than the government’s official rate.

The government argues that these problems are due to an “economic war” being waged by wealthy allies of the conservative opposition, while the opposition blames “government mismanage-ment” for the situation.

Fox News covered the new vice ministry’s creation with the headline “No Joke: Ven-ezuela President Creates A New Cabinet Post Called Min-istry Of Supreme Happiness” and claimed that citizens met the news with “outrage, sar-casm and utter disbelief”.

International press widely re-posted an AP article with headlines such as “Venezuela Fights Shortage Blues with Happiness Ministry”, which led with the tagline, “At first, many Venezuelans thought it was a joke”.

The head of the new vice ministry, Rafael Rios, has since responded to the criti-cisms, arguing that “What they demonstrate is stupidity and bad intention”.

The vice minister argued that the ministry’s name and work “have to do with our historical roots and one of the greatest men in the world, the Liberator Simon Bolivar”.

“This [the concept of social happiness] commits us to our society more, fundamentally with the poor, the excluded, the disabled, [and] those who are in conditions of misery and neces-sity,” the official said.

The artillery of ideas6 Security | Friday, November 1, 2013

T/ Paul DobsonP/ Agencies

Venezuela’s Minister for In-terior Relations, Justice and Peace, Miguel Rodri-

guez Torres, unveiled a brand new national system of secu-rity cameras this week which, he claimed, will produce “an important result in the reduc-tion of crime”.

As crime continues to be the most pertinent topic to both the pro- and anti-government electorate, the high technol-ogy cameras, which have been brought to Venezuela thanks to the international agreements signed by Maduro in China last month, are a welcome addition to the weaponry of the security forces to protect the population against those looking to distort social peace.

The ‘Integrated System of Monitoring with Cameras and Assistance (SIMA)’ is “a robust system with the most advanced technology in the world for the monitoring of the principal cit-ies of the country”, according to Rodriguez Torres, who un-veiled the system from Bolivar State which working as part of the Government of the Streets.

The 30,000 cameras will func-tion 24 hours a day, and will be installed in the 16 cities with the highest crime levels. The first

Major investment in security camerasto help fight against crime

cameras have been installed in Petare, Miranda State, which is currently governed by both an opposition mayor and state gov-ernor, and suffers from the worst crime levels in the country.

The cameras can store up to 1,000 hours of imaging, and will be connected to a sophisticated Control System, consisting of one National Command Center, sev-en Regional Command Centers, 16 Municipal Command Centers, and 16 Parish Command Cen-ters, with the first center due to be ready within 20 days.

Apart from the 30,000 cam-eras, the system will be also be connected to intelligent ter-minals, which can be activated by ordinary citizens to request immediate police attention and even relay live video streams to the Control Centers. There will be 500 intelligent terminals built in the communities; 10,000 intelligent terminals for fami-lies; 10,000 intelligent terminals in public transport; and 2,000 alarm buttons, all of which will be further connected directly to 1,600 police vehicles, and over 200 police stations, all us-ing a high speed technological platform and communications network.

In the case of individuals or vehicles sought by the police, their details can be uploaded to the system, which will auto-ac-

tivate an alarm if such individ-uals or number plates show up on their recognition software. Minister Torres explained that he expects the system to reduce response times to a mere 3-5 minutes.

The system will also assist in the task of city planning, geo-spatial awareness and the orga-nization of cities, as well as the management of police resourc-es in accordance with peak places and times for crime.

“It’s an integrated system” explained Minister Rodriguez Torres, which, apart from the obvious benefits of identifying and capturing criminals, “can also help in the planning and ordering of the cities, because disorder implies chaos, and in chaos there is insecurity”.

Rodriguez Torres further un-derlined that SIMA forms just a part of a much greater plan

by the government to make Venezuela a secure and safe nation for its citizens, an objec-tive sought after by President Chavez before his death, which indicated the need to reach the highest possible level of happi-ness for citizens.

“The SIMA project is the con-cretion of a systematic vision which is being developed by President Maduro in the theme of security. Since the President was elected, last April, he has started a process of analysis of how to give consistency to the Great Mission ‘A Life for All’ of Venezuela, and he started to develop a series of strategic work programs alongside the program Secure Nation, with the Armed Forces, the bodies of citizen security, and hand in hand with the people, to reduce the indices of crime”, explained Rodriguez Torres.

SIMA “is the most advanced in the world in the theme of secu-rity, with an investment of $2.06 billion, which is already autho-rized by President Maduro”, he manifested. The System will be implemented in three stages, with the initial phrase already underway; the deployment stage to be achieved in 2014; and the integration of the system to be completed in 2015 and 2016.

“By the middle of 2014 we hope to have the SIMA in four cities and at the end of the year achieve its installation in 7 or 8 cities”, explained Rodriguez Torres. “In two years, Venezu-ela can be a model for the world in the material of organization and citizen’s security”, project-ed the Minister.

The technology will be in-stalled by the Chinese Security firm Ceiec. Vice-President of the firm, Xin Zhou, explained that “in the next three years, thousands of Chinese engineers and technicians will, along with their Venezuelan colleagues, participate in the construc-tion of this system”, which, he stressed, has “already shown important results in China” since its installation.

Rodriguez Torres reminded the public that such technol-ogy has arrived to Venezuelan shores thanks to international relations which focuses on a pluri-polar world, and strength-ening regional blocs and strate-gic alliances between nations.

“Today is an important day for Venezuela”, stated the Minister. “Today we are seeing the fruits of what President Chavez sewed, with his vision of international relations seen from the perspec-tive of a multi-central, multi-polar world. From this perspec-tive of relations and strategic alliances with countries which respect our sovereignty and in-dependence, and who are will-ing- as part of a relationship of equals- to help us with the nec-essary technological transfer and to construct a platform for the our development”.

Technological transfer refers to a movement away from the necessity to import know-how, and towards training locals in the construction, mainte-nance, and use of high level technology, with the objective of medium term technological self-sufficiency. Technological transfer has been included in the contracts of projects built with foreign expertise such as large scale infrastructure projects, including the world’s longest Cable Car, as well as the showcase Canaima computer program, which is now 100% constructed in Venezuela by Venezuelans.

The artillery of ideas Friday, November 1, 2013 | Analysis 7

T/ Carey L. Biron - IPS

As the first formal probe by an international rights body into allegations of

US mass surveillance began on Monday, privacy advocates from throughout the Americas accused Washington of violat-ing international covenants and endangering civil society.

Monday’s hearing took place before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an arm of the 35-mem-ber Organization of American States (OAS), which includes the United States.

The heads of Brazil and Mexico are among the 35 world leaders on whose personal calls the NSA has reportedly been eavesdropping, according to new information made public last week but leaked earlier this year by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Indeed, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has offered perhaps the most strident diplo-matic response yet, cancelling a state visit to Washington in September upon being notified of US snooping into Brazilian official affairs, including moni-toring of the state oil company. Brazil is also leading a push to institute a new international agreement on privacy.

“I was in Brazil right after these revelations came out, and my sense is that this goes back to this idea of US exceptional-ism – that it operates by one standard and everyone else op-erates by another. Other coun-tries are increasingly less will-ing to accept that this is how the US functions in the world”, Joy Olson, executive director of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a watchdog group here, told IPS.

“Further, the unofficial re-sponse from Washington – ‘Grow up, everybody does this kind of spying’ – was very un-appreciated by many in the re-gion. That just served as con-firmation that the US doesn’t understand its evolving rela-tionship with Latin America”.

The IACHR investigation could now indicate a more concerted reaction from Latin American countries, joining new opprobrium from Euro-pean and other world leaders as well as an ongoing national dis-cussion here over the scope of US spying on private citizens.

“While the United States is having a huge debate over the legality or constitutionality of domestic mass surveillance, there’s been very little discus-sion of the legality of inter-national mass surveillance”,

Danny O’Brien, international director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital privacy advocacy group, said.

“The worrying truth is that we have almost no safeguards in place regarding the surveil-lance of anyone outside of the US That’s problematic because domestic laws were written with the assumption that the people we targeted were agents of a foreign power, spies or even major political figures abroad – not, say, everyone in a particu-lar country”.

For its part, the US National Security Agency (NSA) has maintained that its surveil-lance programs, which could be gathering data on the phone or online activities of upwards of a billion people, follow US law and do not violate the privacy of US citizens or foreigners within the United States.

In fact, increasing evidence suggests that regular excep-tions have been made to these guidelines, but globally activ-ists are increasingly frustrated with the US refusal even to in-dicate that it is adhering to the spirit of international human rights norms.

The Washington-based IA-CHR, for instance, oversees the American Convention on Hu-

man Rights, adopted in 1969, which explicitly guarantees the right to privacy. (While the United States has not ratified the American Convention, it did sign it in 1977.) Critics now want the IACHR to censure the Unit-ed States for violation of this and other international norms.

“According to the US expla-nations, all measures have sup-posedly been taken to respect the privacy of American citi-zens and those in US territories, however no legal protections apply to foreign nationals”, the Brazilian office of Article 19, an anti-censorship group, wrote in a statement.

“By basing its justifications and actions solely on domestic law … the US government has shown disregard for the univer-sality of human rights and the fact that international human rights standards on privacy and freedom of expression and information apply to all, irre-spective of borders”.

The United States was repre-sented by four officials at Mon-day’s session, but none offered any formal response. Stating that the recent 16-day shutdown of the US federal government had halted preparations for the hearing, the officials only promised a written response within a month.

While President Obama him-self has suggested that politi-cally sensitive spying on allied leaders would stop, on Tuesday two bills were slated to be pro-posed on Congress to rein in broader aspects of the NSA’s surveillance activities. Neither of those, however, would offer additional safeguards for those outside of US territory.

QUESTIONING EXCEPTIONALISMIn a formal submission made

to the IACHR on Monday, EFF, Article 19 and several Latin American civil society groups warned that several countries in the region were already struggling under heavy-hand-ed government surveillance tactics, and expressed concern over the ramifications of the new US revelations.

“For many individuals throughout the Americas re-gion, especially journalists and dissidents, the Internet and mo-bile telephony have been trans-formed into a threat. The use of these mediums is difficult or almost impossible without the risk of state interference”, the submission states.

“Even if no single person is actually listening, the chilling effects of surveillance are felt, as the risk of revealing a jour-nalistic source or legal client, for example, may be too high … Freedom of expression and freedom of information allow human rights defenders to chal-lenge abuses to human rights; without the privacy to conduct investigations and communi-cations away from the prying eyes of the state, this becomes impossible”.

It is unclear whether Wash-ington’s spying could now em-bolden government surveil-lance in parts of Latin America. Yet even in the current climate, in which governments and civil society together are decrying US snooping, EFF’s O’Brien warns that the focus on the United States could divert some important focus.

“Given the United States’ previous involvement in Latin American politics”, he says, “one of the biggest consequenc-es could be that any surveil-lance discussion is going to em-phasize US surveillance, while potentially underplaying the future risk of more local sur-veillance”.

The IACHR commission-ers could now take a range of actions. Either way, the com-mission will publish a report on its findings, yet advocates are hoping that the commis-sion will also refer the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, based in Costa Rica.

Although the United States does not recognise the Inter-American Court, more than 30 other countries do. A decision against the US there would be damaging and could do much to influence the decisions of other human rights institutions as well as the roiling diplomatic atmosphere surrounding the surveillance allegations.

US snooping makes ita neighborhood pariah

dential candidate is Xiomara Castro, the wife of Mel Zelaya, would win. The economy plays a large role in most elections, and a government that has presided over a deterioration in living standards for the majority is gen-erally not returned to office. Poll-ing data shows that 80 percent of Hondurans think they are worse off than they were four years ago, and the data backs them up. The top 10 percent got over 100 percent of all income gains in the two years after Zelaya was overthrown, sharply reversing a strong trend toward more equal-ity during the Zelaya years. The number of people involuntarily working part time has increased by 176 percent. Poverty has also increased, whereas it had been reduced significantly under Ze-laya, who raised the minimum wage by nearly 100 percent in real terms during his 3.5 years in office. Even private invest-ment, despite the complaints of businesspeople who support-ed the coup, grew much faster under Zelaya than under the current regime.

But as you can imagine, this election will not be contested on

Editor-in-Chief Graphic Design Pablo Valduciel L. - Aimara Aguilera - Audra Ramones

INTERNATIONAL Friday, November 1, 2013 | Nº 181 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve

T/ Mark Weisbrot

Do the people of Hondu-ras have the right to elect their own president and

congress? That depends on whom you talk to. In 2009, the country’s left-of-center Presi-dent Mel Zelaya was overthrown in a military coup that was heav-ily supported (and according to Zelaya, organized) by the Unit-ed States government. After six months and a lot of political re-pression, the coup government was re-established with an elec-tion that almost the entire hemi-sphere – except, you guessed it, the United States – rejected as illegitimate.

Four years later – on No-vember 24 – Honduran voters will go to the polls again in a contest between the pro-democ-racy LIBRE party, formed by people who opposed the coup; and the ruling National Party, whose standard-bearer will be Juan Orlando Hernandez, the president of the National Con-gress who supported the 2009 military coup.

If it were a fair fight, it is very likely that LIBRE, whose presi-

Opinion

South American governments should support Hondurans’ rights to sovereignty and free elections

Obama’s betrayal of Honduras

a level playing field. In the past six months both the US Sen-ate and the US House of Repre-sentatives have sent letters to Secretary of State John Kerry expressing deep concerns about political repression and its im-plications for next month’s elec-tion in Honduras. The Senate let-ter called attention to a “pattern of violence and threats against journalists, human rights de-fenders, members of the clergy, union leaders, opposition fig-ures, students, small farmers, and LGBT activists …” as well as “extrajudicial killings”.

The October 15 House of Rep-resentatives letter noted that “at least sixteen activists and candidates from LIBRE have been assassinated since June of 2012” and that “the Hon-duras government has failed to effectively investigate and prosecute those responsible for these assassinations…”

“[H]uman rights abuses under the existing government con-tinue to threaten basic civil lib-erties, opposition candidates do not enjoy a level playing field, and state security forces are taking on an increasingly cen-

tral, and ominous role in context of the election.

We are particularly alarmed to learn that the ruling party, and its presidential candidate Mr. Juan Orlando Hernandez, now dominates all the key in-stitutions of the government, including the country’s elec-toral authority and the military, which distributes the ballots–leaving scarce recourse for Honduran citizens should fraud be committed in the electoral process, or human rights vio-lations continue to threaten open debate”.

The problem is that the Obama administration does not respect either the right to free elections or basic human rights in Hon-duras. They went through a lot of trouble in 2009 to get rid of a democratically elected presi-dent, and paid a significant po-litical cost in the hemisphere: at the time, all of South America’s governments were hoping that Obama would be different from his predecessor and took his word that Washington would not back the coup. They were more than disappointed; the Obama administration’s support for the

coup and its manipulation of the Organization of American States for this purpose led to the formation of a new hemi-spheric organization, the Com-munity of Latin American and Caribbean States, which ex-cludes the US and Canada.

What then can be done? The governments of South Ameri-ca need to speak out forcefully on behalf of free elections and human rights in Honduras. Because the Latin American left has a deeply-rooted con-cern for national sovereignty, progressive governments have been reluctant to take any ac-tions that look like interfer-ence in other countries’ inter-nal affairs. This puts them at a disadvantage against Washington, which has no such scruples and is interven-ing with millions of dollars in the current election.

But South America has often rallied behind govern-ments threatened or harassed by the United States: most recently Venezuela after the April presidential elections and Bolivia when Evo Mo-rales’ plane was forced down in Europe this past July. And they intervened in 2009 to stop Washington from expanding its military presence in Colom-bia, which they saw as a threat to the region.

As President Rafael Correa of Ecuador pointed out in 2009, Washington’s coup in Hondu-ras was also a threat to the re-gion, and so is its collaboration with the resulting government to prevent democratic elec-tions. And so is the militariza-tion of Honduras, with the US expanding its bases there. This is part of Washington’s re-sponse to the election of left governments throughout most of the hemisphere: to increase its military presence and solid-ify its control in the few places where, thanks to the snuffing out of democracy, it still reigns supreme.

South American leaders need to remind the world that this is a struggle for self-determina-tion – that Hondurans do not forfeit their national and civil rights just because the US has military bases in their country and thinks that this is more important than free elections.

Mark Weisbrot is an economist and co-director of the Center

for Economic and Policy Research. He is co-author, with Dean Baker,

of Social Security: the Phony Crisis.