The artillery of ideasENGLISH EDITIONFriday | June 15, 2012 | Nº 113 | Caracas

Despite rumors regarding his health, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offi-cially registered his candidacy for reelection this week in a mass rally event accompanied by tens of thousands of supporters. Showing his high energy and stamina, Chavez gave a 3-hour speech in an open plaza in Caracas, detailing his government program if re-elected. The day before, opposition candidate Hen-rique Capriles Radonski also registered his candidacy for president. | pages 2-3

page 7 | Analysis:

Analysis: Chavez responds to World Bank accusations

page 8 | Opinion The Cuban Five: A case of injustice

Canaima celebratedCanaima, spread over 3 mil-

lion hectares in south-eastern Venezuela along the border between Guyana and Brazil, celebrates its 50th anniversary since it was declared a National Park by the Venezuelan govern-ment on June 12, 1962.

Roughly 65% of the park is cov-ered by table mountain (tepui) for-mations and there are numerous waterfalls, including Angel Falls, the largest waterfall in the world with a free drop of 1,002 meters (approx. 3,000 feet). The tepuis constitute a unique biogeological entity and are of great geological interest. The sheer cliffs and wa-terfalls, including Angel Falls, form a spectacular landscape.

In recognition of its extraor-dinary scenery and geological and biological values, the park was conceded World Heritage Status in 1994, forming one of a select list of 126 natural and natural-cultural World Heri-tage Sites worldwide. Canaima fulfilled all four of Unesco's cri-teria for qualification as a World Heritage property.

Chavez formalizes candidacy for re-election “We are just warming up our motors”

Unasur to fight poverty

Venezuelan Ali Rodriguez, a long-term high level official from the Chavez government and former guerrilla fighter from the 1960s, assumed the position of Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) this week. Rodriguez, who received the new role from prior Secretary General Maria Emma Mejia from Colombia, pledged to dedicate Unasur’s resources towards poverty reduction in South America. | page 5

Integration

Venezuela & Russia strengthen tiesDefense and flowers were part of recent accords. | page 4

Integration

OPEC revived by VenezuelaPresident Chavez says oil should remain at $100 per barrel. | page 5

Culture

Street boxing takes off in CaracasA new boxing program in poor communities is helping reduce crime and danger. | page 6

Correo del Orinoco International distributed in BostonT/ COI

Our newspaper Correo del Ori-noco International was recently

distributed in the city of Boston for the first time as an insert in the weekly Hispanic newspaper, La Se-mana, according to the Consulate General of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in that city.

La Semana, a Spanish-lan-guage newspaper founded in 1978, covers the region of New England and is distributed free in schools, community cen-ters, businesses, libraries, and subway stations.

Regarding the new initiative to bring Venezuela’s news to the Boston community, Editor of

La Semana, Pedro Cuenca, re-marked, “Our media has always been interested in offering a balanced view of the processes of change that are happening in Latin America”.

La Semana also owns an open signal television station that broadcasts content from the La-tin American channel TeleSUR for several hours a day.

“We’re broadening our signal to make available three digital channels, one of which will be dedicated to TeleSUR”, Cuenca announced.

The project to distribute Correo del Orinoco International in Bos-ton is part of the communications initiatives of the Venezuelan Con-sulate in that city to help offer al-ternative perspectives and offset the unbalanced information about Venezuela.

Correo del Orinoco Internatio-nal began publishing in English in January 2010 as a special weekly edition to the Spanish-language daily Correo del Orinoco, in an effort to better inform a wider au-dience of events and developments in Venezuela and Latin America.

The artillery of ideas| 2 | Impact No Friday, June 15, 2012

T/ COIP/ Presidential Press

Venezuela’s largest political party showed its force last Monday when hundreds of

thousands of backers took to the streets of Caracas to sup-port the official registration of Hugo Chavez with the nation’s electoral authorities, thereby formalizing his candidacy for the October 7 presidential con-test.

From early hours in the morning, members of the Unit-ed Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) from all over the na-tion began to fill the area sur-rounding the major squares of the capital to demonstrate the enormous popularity that cur-rent president continues to hold from the country’s population.

“We left yesterday at 6pm in the afternoon and we arrived today at 7am. We traveled more than 12 hours to give our support to President Chavez because I believe he’s doing a great job and I want to see him continue”, said Luz Quintero, resident from the western state of Merida.

At around 4pm, Chavez left the presidential palace of Mira-flores en route to the offices of

Venezuela’s National Electoral Commission (CNE) in a caravan that was quickly surrounded by a sea of red clad PSUVistas gathered to accompany their leader during his inscription.

“We can’t describe the emo-tion that we feel to be able to ac-company Chavez to the CNE”, said Rosmary Padilla from the Caracas neighborhood of Catia, during the celebration.

In compliance with the norms of the CNE, Chavez, upon en-rollment, delivered his govern-ment’s proposed plan for what would be his third consecutive 6-year presidential term span-ning 2013 to 2019.

The program, as he has ex-plained on earlier occasions, seeks to deepen his adminis-tration’s socialist policies and fight for “the supreme happi-ness of the people”.

“Our model is working. The economy is growing under our [socialist] model”, said the Ven-ezuelan President on the eve of the rally last weekend.

Upon completing his regis-tration with the electoral com-mission, a robust and energetic Chavez promptly joined a tra-ditional “llanero” music group outside the CNE headquarters, singing a medley of Venezuelan

folk songs and engaging with the crowd gathered in the Ca-racas and Diego Ibarra Plazas outside the agency’s offices.

The 57-year old then led an enthusiastic rally where he spoke for nearly three hours, enumerating the accomplish-ments made over his 13 years as President and elaborating new objectives for a future ad-ministration.

The head of the PSUV drew special attention to the topic of national independence and the threat that the opposition rep-resents to the sovereign man-agement of the nation’s vast oil wealth.

“Control over oil is one of the greatest battles of this cam-paign”, Chavez said citing the more than $350 billion that his government has invested in so-cial programs as a result of its heightened restraints on for-eign oil companies.

“But what is the other side of the independence coin?” The President asked the crowd. “The other side is what the opposition represents. It’s a project to return Venezuela to a colony...That’s to say, the privatization that capitalism brings...Those who want to be colonized vote for the opposi-

and several changes of clothes for the candidate. When he spoke to the crowd, he spun off catch phrases with long pauses in between, lasting no more than 15 minutes total.

“Yesterday, what we saw was a product of marketing. To-day we will see a leader with a proposal to continue fighting for national independence and the construction of a country where we all can live with jus-tice and dignity”, Jaua said.

SOCIAL PROGRAMS KEY TO SUCCESS

At a time when politicians in the United States and Europe have been slashing public ben-efits, Chavez has built a legacy around his redistributive eco-nomic policies and his admin-istration’s commitment to im-prove residents’ quality of life.

This has taken concrete form in the dozens of social programs that the socialist leader has created in the areas of health care, food security, education, employment, and housing.

The current president re-mains the candidate of working class communities not only be-cause he speaks the language of the common Venezuelan, but also as a result of these policy initiatives which have provided everyday citizens with greater access to essential services.

Some of these gains include the wiping out of illiteracy in the country, the cutting in half of poverty, the creation of sub-sidized food markets, and the democratization of the banking sector through the disburse-ment of low-interest micro credits to residents with pro-ductive projects.

The government’s missions have been fortified by a growth in political participation at the grassroots level through the creation of more than 30,000 community councils in neigh-borhoods around the nation.

For this reason, the nation’s right-wing opposition has, ac-cording to Vice President Jaua, been unable to articulate a convincing platform that can compete with the opportunities presented to the Venezuelan people by the Chavez camp.

“The re-election of President Chavez guarantees that the poor will cease to be poor, that human rights will be respected and that the fundamental needs of the people will be met”, Jaua said on Monday.

tion! Those who want an in-dependent homeland, vote for Chavez!” he exclaimed.

OPPOSITION “MARKETING” Monday’s demonstration

came a day after opposition candidate and former governor of Miranda state, Capriles Ra-donski, had formalized his in-tention to stand in Venezuela’s presidential elections.

Although numbers were smaller for the conservative candidate, the ex-governor was also accompanied by a group of supporters who joined the 39 year old for an 11 kilome-ter walk from East Park to the headquarters of the CNE.

According to all major polls, Capriles continues to trail the incumbent Chavez by a sub-stantial margin despite the latter’s lack of recent public ap-pearances due to cancer treat-ment.

Speaking to Venezuelan Na-tional Radio before the rally on Monday, Vice President Elias Jaua described the opposition candidate’s plan to be void of new proposals, referring to the former governor’s campaign as a product of “marketing”. Capriles’ campaign event in-cluded a choreographed song

Tin tthacrecarem

Tmacla

Massive turnout accompanies Chavez in electoral registration

No Friday, June 15, 2012 Politics | 3 |The artillery of ideas

T/ COIP/ Agencies

On Sunday, opposition can-didate Henrique Capriles Radonski formally sub-

mitted his presidential bid to Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE). Backed by doz-ens of right-wing parties and their supporters from within the country’s traditional elite, Capriles Radonski used a Sun-day rally at CNE headquarters in Caracas to declare himself “the enemy of a country whose government prevents us from going forward”.

Frustrated by his inabil-ity to alter polls that predict a sweeping October 7 victory for Venezuela’s widely-popular so-cialist President, Hugo Chavez, Capriles warned voters that in this year’s presidential election “we are not going to choose be-tween two men, we are going to choose between two ways of life”.

IT´S OFFICIALSpeaking at a Sunday rally

in front of the CNE s National Office, Capriles spent no more than fifteen minutes issuing a series of prefabricated slogans designed to win over much needed support. Referring to himself in the third person, the candidate told those gathered, “All Capriles wants is a united Venezuela”.

“I want to build a Venezuela for all Venezuelans”, he said, “and I aspire to become the president of all Venezuelans”.

The opposition candidate added that the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), the right-wing coalition that backs Capriles in this year s election with substantial support from the US government, “will unite Venezuela, whatever the cost!”

Vaguely promising not to govern “on behalf of any one group, nor just one sector”, Capriles added that he hopes to be “the president of the reds (Chavistas) as well”.

As part of his “Hollywood-esque” campaign, Capriles changed his clothes three times during his brief event Sunday, wearing a different outfit for each stage. His campaign had also distributed a video with in-

structions for a choreographed dance to accompany him dur-ing his electoral registration.

Capriles is reportedly receiv-ing campaign strategy advice from renowned US strategist Stanley Greenberg and his firm, Greenberg Quinlan Ros-ner, which also ran the opposi-tion’s campaign against Presi-dent Chavez in 2006. Greenberg is a close friend of the Clintons and his firm frequently runs campaigns for the US democrat party.

Recent polls report 60% of voters would elect Chavez if elections were held this month, with only 30% planning to vote for Capriles. This troubling gap, for opposition strategists, has them looking desperately to pull from Chavez’s base as well as to mobilize apathetic or neutral voters.

According to Capriles, Vene-zuelans this year must “choose between a present that is stag-nant, violent and has no oppor-tunities, and those of us who believe the country holds a fu-ture of progress for all of us”.

“VAGUE AND MEDIOCRE”Questioning Capriles Radon-

ski’s speech and obscure cam-

paign discourse, Venezuelan political analyst Nicmer Evans told opposition daily El Tiempo that the candidate’s speech was both “vague and mediocre”. According to Evans, Capriles’ failure to “elaborate on any specific idea for more than five minutes” makes the US-backed candidate “an unfit representa-tive of the Venezuelan opposi-tion”.

Capriles, who took 62% of the opposition’s internal primaries this past February 12th “was not the best candidate for the opposition, just the candidate with the most money”, Evans explained.

Convinced by his success in the opposition primaries, Capriles maintained his unde-fined campaign slogan “There is a Way” and often tells his supporters “we came to build a distinct future; we came to build a future for all Venezue-lans. Now is not the hour of left nor right; it is the hour of Ven-ezuela, of all Venezuelans”.

While the Capriles campaign insists on repeating claims that his platform is suitable for “all Venezuelans”, Evans recently explained that “voters need to see the proposals, the

projects that are to be carried out, because if these don’t exist, than we are in the presence of a pamphlet and nothing else”.

The analyst added that when Capriles “speaks of opportuni-ties for everyone, but not the conditions needed by everyone, he is defining a plan from the neo-liberal perspective”.

In contrast to Capriles Ra-donski’s strategic ambiguity, President Chavez on Monday submitted an overall govern-ment program for the entire

six-year period (2013-2019). Chavez, speaking to hundreds of thousands of his supporters as he too formally registered for the election, called on the Ven-ezuelan people to discuss and improve the general plan in an-other exercise of participatory democracy. Chavez’s proposed government program was also distributed nationwide the fol-lowing day and made available online, so it could be reviewed and commented on by his sup-porters.

Capriles, on the other hand, recently retracted on a com-mitment to give up the gover-norship of Miranda, choosing instead to “delegate responsi-bilities” until after October 7. He has presented no concrete government plan to date.

According to Evans, “what is clear to everyone is that the Venezuelan people prefer a can-didate who is sick with cancer but filled with love for his coun-try over a candidate who is sick with hate and firmly commit-ted to making richer those of his social class at the expense of more poverty for those who have always been poor”.

ENEMY NUMBER ONEWhile polls continue to pre-

dict a landslide victory for President Chavez, the Mayor of Caracas’ Libertador Munici-pality and National Coordina-tor of the President’s re-elec-tion campaign Jorge Rodriguez called on supporters to “avoid all forms of triumphalism”.

Speaking on Sunday, Rodri-guez insisted, “Abstention is the principal enemy of the Rev-olution” and, as such, warned, “the opposition is going to do everything possible so that ab-stention rises”.

With a recent study by the Venezuelan Institute of Data Analysis (IVAD) finding vot-ers favor Chavez over Capriles in every one of the country’s 23 states, Mayor Rodriguez ex-plained that “polls which had once been used by the opposi-tion, the very same polls they said they trusted, are now the first to report that Chavez has a solid lead”.

As such, he said, “this pro-cess (election) is going to be arduous on two levels: first, within the campaign itself; and second, within the need to dis-mantle (strategies) of psycho-logical warfare which the en-emy is trying to impose”.

Opposition makes candidacy official

Recent polls report 60% of voters would elect Chavez if elections were held this month, with only 30% planning to vote for Capriles. This troubling gap, for opposition strategists, has them looking desperately to pull from Chavez’s base as well as to mobilize apathetic or neutral voters

The artillery of ideas| 4 | Integration No Friday, June 15, 2012

T/ COIP/ Presidential Press

Top Russian officials met with their Venezuelan counterparts last week

during a 3-day diplomatic visit that saw the two allied nations review a series of bilateral ac-cords dealing with energy, fi-nance, defense, housing and commerce.

Venezuela and Russia deepen “strategic alliance”

DEFENSE & FLOWERSAt Saturday’s press confer-

ence, President Chavez divulged the topics touched upon by the two nations including height-ened collaboration in oil exploi-tation and defense spending.

“The Russian ministerial delegation has been in Ven-ezuela to continue strengthen-ing bilateral relations. There has been a military-technical agreement signed with the approval of a $4 billion loan granted by Moscow so that Venezuela can defend its sov-ereignty”, Chavez said.

The loan will maintain the tight defense relationship that Caracas has fostered with Mos-cow over the past eight years - a relationship that Washington has criticized and attempted to obstruct.

On Saturday, the Venezuelan head of state pre-empted any op-position to the defense spending by exerting his nation’s sover-eign right and obligation to arm itself.

“Let them say what they want to say. Venezuela has a right to defend herself. We also have the constitutional obligation to maintain our Armed Forces organized and well-supplied. This isn’t to attack anyone. It’s to defend ourselves”, President Chavez declared.

Chavez also reported that agricultural agreements in-cluding the export of plantains, coffee, cacao and flowers from the Caribbean nation to Russia were evaluated and reaffirmed during the ministers’ visit to Caracas.

During a press conference held at the end of the visit, Venezu-elan President Chavez referred to the meeting as an important indication of the growing Cara-cas-Moscow relationship and the need to maintain such ties of mutual cooperation.

“It’s a powerful sign to con-tinue strengthening bilateral relations and contribute in the creation of balance and world

peace - one of the greatest goals and objectives that we have”, the Venezuelan head of state said.

As part of the ministerial delegation, the Russian team visited a housing project in the military zone of Fort Tiuna in western Caracas where six thousand new apartments are being built as a result of an agreement signed between the two countries.

With respect to the financial sector, the two teams reviewed a joint Russian-Venezuelan bank venture, founded in 2009, that seeks to fund a diversity of bilateral projects with a special emphasis on energy collabora-tion.

The bank, a joint enterprise between Venezuela’s state oil company Pdvsa and Russia’s Gazprom bank, has its head-quarters in Moscow and has recently opened its first office in Caracas.

According to Venezuelan For-eign Minister Nicolas Maduro, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a special message to his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez on Friday, ratify-ing his contentment with the “deep strategic alliance” that has grown up between Caracas and Moscow.

Venezuela’s chief diplomat re-ferred to the message of Putin as reaffirming “the brotherhood that has been cultivated over more than 10 years between Venezuelan and Russian au-thorities”.

“Today, we are strategic al-lies in the construction of new relationships of cooperation and above all, strategic allies in the construction of a peaceful, stable world as the Liberator Si-mon Bolivar spoke of”, Maduro said in reference to Venezuela’s independence hero at the end of the talks on Friday.

The Russian delegation was the first of its kind to travel to a foreign country since the for-mation of President Putin’s new cabinet on May 21.

Venezuela’s proposed Social Charter approved by OAST/ Tamara Pearsonwww.venezuelanalysis.com

Last week the General As-sembly of the Organization

of American States (OAS) ap-proved by consensus the Social Charter of the Americas, a proj-ect Venezuela has been pushing since 2001.

The 42nd General Assembly, which met in Cochabamba, Bolivia, approved the char-ter after it was first proposed by Venezuela at the 2001 31st

General Assembly, in Costa Rica.

The charter, which promotes cultural development, diver-sity, plurality, and encourages solidarity and joint work in the Americas, should be the start of “making all basic services a hu-man right”, said Bolivian Presi-dent Evo Morales.

The approved text states, “The peoples of America have a legiti-mate aspiration for social jus-tice and their governments have the responsibility to promote

it”. It also says it is necessary that governments adopt “polices to promote inclusion, prevent, combat, and eliminate all types of intolerance and discrimina-tion, especially discrimination according to gender, ethnicity, and race”.

The initial Social Charter that Venezuela proposed was a 129 article document that ad-dressed social rights in relation to health, work, education, basic services, citizen participation, environment, and the rights of

indigenous people. It was meant to complement the existing OAS Democratic Charter, which aims to guarantee political rights.

Venezuelan legislator Aristo-bulo Isturiz, who at the time of the original proposal was the Venezuelan education minister, said that until then, the OAS had only taken political and civil rights into account, and not social, cultural, and economic rights. The Social Charter was necessary to rectify this.

A DIPLOMATIC BATTLEPresident Hugo Chavez recog-

nized the importance of the ap-proval of the Social Charter, and commented, “This proposal was born here, they tried to block it, to hold it up, to distort it, but it was approved”.

Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations and for-mer ambassador to the OAS, Jorge Valero said that, “It has been a diplomatic battle... it was seriously opposed by the representatives of the US gov-ernment... I remember at one point, they were very aggres-sive”.

The new charter “could be said to be...the new political map”, Valero remarked.

President Chavez also com-mented that the US and Canada “represent an obstacle for na-tions in the region who are seek-ing development and progress... the majority of our countries are demanding changes in the [OAS] mechanisms...if there aren’t any changes, it will be-come obsolete”.

No Friday, June 15, 2012 Integration | 5 |The artillery of ideas

T/ COIP/ AFP

The foreign ministers of the 12 countries that comprise the Union of South Ameri-

can Nations (Unasur) regional alliance met in Bogota last Mon-day to discuss the formation of two new council bodies and transfer the position of Secre-tary General of the bloc to the Venezuelan Ali Rodriguez.

The meeting saw the partici-pation of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and the current Unasur president pro tempore, Paraguayan head of state Fernando Lugo, both of whom presided over the trans-fer of the Secretary General-ship from the Colombian Maria Emma Mejia to ex-Venezuelan Minister Rodriguez.

Speaking at the meeting on Monday, Paraguayan Foreign Minister, Jorge Lara, praised Mejia for an outstanding perfor-mance during her 1-year term at the helm of the organization.

“She was able to strengthen the structure of Unasur in har-mony with the organization’s principles - that of an alterna-tive project for Latin American integration based on the unity of its people and the sovereignty of the region’s countries”, Lara said.

Unasur was created in 2008 to advance regional coopera-tion and promote healthy and productive relations between all of South America’s sovereign states.

In 2010, under Secretary General Nestor Kirchner from Argentina, the bloc was instru-mental in helping to repair re-lations between Venezuela and Colombia after a break in ties led to a political crisis in the re-gion.

As part of the deal that led to the normalization of relations between the neighboring coun-tries, Unasur member states resolved to split the Secretary General’s position into two one-year terms to be shared by Co-lombia and Venezuela.

Ali Rodriguez’s swearing in on Monday represents the end of Co-lombia’s term and the beginning

of Venezuela’s occupancy of the Secretary General position per the agreement signed in 2010.

During his inaugural speech, the former Venezuelan Minister made a call for Unasur members to develop the region’s natural re-sources in a way that can end the

poverty that more than 180 mil-lion people in South America are still forced to endure.

“We must take advantage of our strengths to combat pov-erty, to combat unemployment, and expand our internal mar-kets. This is the way to provide

positive results for the entire region,” Rodriguez said.

The ex-guerrilla also pro-posed making greater use of the Bank of the South, created in 2009, to finance industri-alization projects throughout South America.

“A project such as this can only be positive”, Rodriguez said of the financial entity.

ELECTORAL COUNCILPrevious to the swearing

in ceremony on Monday, the meeting of Foreign Ministers also saw discussions on a va-riety of topics including the bloc’s budget, the rules under-pinning the Secretary General position, and the creation of two new councils to deal spe-cifically with elections and crime fighting initiatives.

The newly created electoral council will be on display to monitor Venezuela’s presiden-tial elections, set for October 7.

“The first mission of the Elec-toral Council will be to accom-pany Venezuela in its process”, said the out-going Mejia of the new commission.

For many in the alliance, the meeting held earlier this week in the Colombian capital has demonstrated the maturation of Unasur as an important instru-ment for regional cooperation only 4 years after its founding.

The goal now, as articulated by Foreign Minister Lara, is to continue on that path and forge new institutional mechanisms of collaboration and unity.

“The governments of Latin America are not those of be-fore. Now we are conscious of the necessities of our people and we are acting accordingly”, the Paraguayan said.

Venezuela assumes Unasur secretary general, pledges to fight regional poverty

OPEC was revived in Venezuela in 2002T/ AVNP/ Agencies

The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, said Monday

that the Organization of Pe-troleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) came back to life in Caracas after the Venezuelan executive reasserted control over the state oil company Pe-troleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa). While the company had been nationalized in 1976, it oper-ated as a private corporation to the benefit of an elite mi-nority.

After the sabotage of Ven-ezuela’s oil industry orches-trated by the opposition in December 2002 in an attempt to overthrow the government,

the Chavez administration took stronger control of the oil industry and began to distribute oil revenues more equally by investing in social programs aimed at helping the needy.

The Venezuelan President said that his government ex-pects to present a claim to OPEC countries to ensure the agreements and decisions reached by the organization are respected.

“OPEC really was revived in Caracas. This also set off alarm bells in the control centers of the bourgeoisie, who like lackeys used the oil industry to serve impe-rialist interests”, Chavez recalled.

GREATER SOVEREIGNTY OVER OIL

President Chavez highlight-ed the importance of control over the oil industry in con-solidating Venezuela as an in-dependent, free and sovereign nation. In 2001, a new Hydro-carbons Law was approved despite many obstacles.

“You have no idea the pres-sures there were to try and impede the approval of that law”, he revealed.

He recalled that he received diplomats and corporate exec-utives from the US and Europe at the Miraflores Presidential Palace “asking me not to pass that law”.

“Until one day I said: ‘Don’t come back here, the law was

approved and only needs to be published in the [Official] Ga-zette’”, Chavez said.

When right-wing leaders were in power in Venezu-ela and subordinated govern-ment institutions to foreign interests, the royalties paid by transnational oil companies stood at just 1 percent. Now, under the Bolivarian Revo-lution, Venezuela receives 30 percent royalties, as pro-scribed by law.

Close to 60% of those rev-enues are invested in social and development programs in Venezuela each year. Pov-ery has been reduced by more than 50% in the South American nation during the past decade.

The artillery of ideas| 6 | Culture No Friday, June 15, 2012

T/ Jorge RuedaP/ Agencies

Migadalia Flores was wor-ried about raising her 13-year-old son in a poor Cara-

cas neighborhood where teenage boys often drift into crime.

So she sent him to fight.Her son, Miguel Uzcategui,

is now a standout among the youths who line up with their gloves every weekend to slug it out in a boxing ring that is moved around Caracas from parks to plazas to streets in the slums.

They’re participating in a pro-gram supported by the Venezue-lan government that aims not only to develop stellar fighters and ex-pand the sport’s reach but also to give poor adolescents an alterna-tive to crime, alcohol and drugs.

Boys start as young as 8 com-pete in the outdoor matches, joining older boys as well as some teenage girls in the week-end competitions, where re-nowned Venezuelan coaches give them pointers.

Miguel said the sport has given him goals and improved self-con-fidence. Dozens of boxing medals hang on the wall of the family

home. “Boxing has helped me a lot. I’m stronger”, he said.

Flores, a hairdresser, said she thinks boxing is giving is teach-ing Miguel discipline and will help keep him in school. She said she hopes the sport will lead to scholarships for her son’s high school and university studies.

Similar boxing programs exist in other countries, but organiz-

ers say the Venezuela matches have been held more consistent-ly than in many places. Since 2009, young boxers have partici-pated in more than 3,000 fights in outdoor rings, sometimes even fighting in the rain.

“Our mission is to pull the kids out of the clutches of crime, teach them values along with discipline”, said Williams Gon-

zalez, who helped start the pro-gram in 2009 and is president of the Caracas Boxing Associa-tion.

The government’s Sports Min-istry provides financial support, and organizers say one of the long-term goals is to bring the country another Olympic medal. Boxing has long been popular in Venezuela, accounting for five of the country’s 11 Olympic med-als to date. But the last came in 1984, when Omar Catari won a featherweight bronze.

The country’s fighters are ex-pected to face long odds at the London Games this year. The three who qualified include Ga-briel Maestre and Jose Alexan-der Espinoza, as well as Karlha Magliocco, the first Venezuelan woman boxer to reach the Olym-pics.

Some of the young boxers who compete in the weekend match-es say they hope one day to join them.

“In about 120 fights, I’ve had 14 losses. All the rest I’ve won”, said Ronnis Hidalgo, a 14-year-old who is a national champ in his age group and who receives a monthly scholarship of about $460 through the program.

Hidalgo said boxing helps him stay away from the gangs and frequent shootings that terror-ize many in his neighborhood.

Cristian Lopez, 11, said there are no soccer fields or baseball diamonds near his home in the crowded slum of La Vega, mak-ing boxing a convenient option. “It has kept me away from prob-lems and it doesn’t cost much. I can practice it in any alleyway, in the living room of my house”, Lopez said.

One coach who encourages the young athletes is Jesus “Kiki” Rojas, a former flyweight and super flyweight World Boxing Association champion. He said it’s rewarding to help young-sters who otherwise could slide into trouble.

“Every time a kid ends up in our hands who has behavior problems, who’s doing poorly in school, and later you see that he becomes disciplined, that he manages to get ahead, it’s one of the most beautiful experiences”, Rojas said.

Cuban boxing coach Jorge Garcia also helps train the box-ers under an agreement between the Venezuelan and Cuban gov-ernments. He said the weekend matches are helping fighters im-prove and that the country can still do more to develop its teach-ing programs.

“I see a big future for Venezue-lan boxing”, Garcia said. “These matches promote boxing in Ven-ezuela a lot, which is what’s needed. The talent is there”.

Venezuela street boxing program helps keep youth off the streets

Haiti launches classical music project modeled on Venezuela’s El SistemaT/ Caribbean JournalP/ Agencies

Can classical music help Hai-ti’s development?

Haiti’s government thinks so, and has launched a new project to use classical music to help mentor the country’s youth, to-gether with the National Insti-tute for Music.

The plan will involve the cre-ation of several youth orches-tras, beginning with children who are not yet in kindergarten.

At first a pilot project in the area of Dopalais, the plan could eventually extend to all depart-ments of Haiti.

The idea came in part from Haiti President Michel Martel-ly, after he watched the world-renowned Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra on a visit to Venezu-ela last year.

It was officially launched Mon-day in a ceremony at the Karibe Convention Center in Petionville.

Raoul Denis and his sister, Pascale Denis de Moquete, the project’s leaders, said they were confident that it could have a positive impact on Haiti’s youth.

Culture Minister Mario Du-puy said that with Haiti’s rich culture of music, encouraging children, particularly those who are underprivileged and vulner-

able, to thrive by practicing mu-sic is one of the “surest ways to give them confidence”.

Martelly, in a statement from the National Palace, empha-sized the importance of music education for young people.

The ceremony was attended by Andres Gonzalez, a delegate of Venezuela’s El Sistema pro-gram, which was founded in 1975 by Maestro Jose Antonio Abreu.

El Sistema (short for the Na-tional System of Youth Orches-tras) is a state foundation in Ven-ezuela that oversees 125 youth orchestras in the country.

Gonzalez said the initiative could help children learn to ex-

press themselves and become “true creators,” pledging that Venezuela’s government would help provide support to the project.

The success of Ven-ezuela’s project led the Organization of American States to launch the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, which debuted in 2000.

A number of countries in the region, in-cluding Trinidad and Tobago and the Dominican Republic, have set up similar programs.

No Friday, June 15, 2012 Analysis | 7 |The artillery of ideas

T/ Rachael BoothroydP/ Agencies

Earlier this week, Venezuelan Presi-dent Hugo Chavez responded to out-going President of the World Bank,

Robert Zoellick, who last week claimed that the South American President’s “days are numbered” at a conference held in Washington.

Speaking from the Inter-American Dialogue 30th Anniversary Dinner, Zoellick used the ominous phrase to insinuate that Chavez’s “clout” with-in the region, as Reuters reported it, would soon be on the wane - although he didn’t elaborate as to whether he was referring to the President’s health or the upcoming presidential elections.

“Chavez’s days are numbered. If his subsidies to Cuba and Nicaragua are cut, those regimes will be in trouble. The democrats of Latin America – left, center, and right – should be preparing. The calls for democracy – for an end to intimidating thugs, human rights, fair elections, and rule of law – should come from all its capitals”, he said.

Amongst some of the other more charming comments in his speech, Zoellick congratulated the Brazilian left on “turning a page in history and sticking with democracy”, and shame-lessly described Latin America as a con-tinent run amok with drugs barons and crazed political strongmen.

“Here will soon be an opportunity to make the Western Hemisphere the first Democratic Hemisphere. Not a place of coups, caudillos, and cocaine -- but of democracy, development, and dignity”, he added.

Although by his own admission Zoellick is not a Latin American ex-pert, on this particular point he seems to have been inflicted with a case of historic amnesia. Presumably the coups to which he refers are not those attempted in Venezuela and Ecuador in 2002 and 2010, nor the successful coups carried out in Haiti in 2004 and Honduras in 2009, all with economic and/or logistical support from US gov-ernments. Likewise, the caudillos to which Zoellick refers are presumably not US favorites such as former Colom-bian President, Alvaro Uribe, who has recently come under fire due to rev-elations that his re-election campaign was funded by Colombian paramilitar-ies and that his family has more con-nections to drugs kingpins than Pablo Escobar.

Once Zoellick was done lambasting the region with quasi-racist, clichéd and baseless criticisms in the name of “dia-logue”, he then moved on to handing out some interesting, if not somewhat contradictory, pieces of economic policy

advice to the Latin American continent in general.

Whilst citing the need for “new ap-proaches” in Latin America, the outgo-ing bank president prescribed the “re-vival of free trade policy” as the next step for the region. In order to combat the continent’s historic legacy of eco-nomic dependency, Zoellick recom-mended that Latin American nations “increase production” for export to US markets, “taking advantage” of the fact that the US would be removing subsi-dies on agricultural products.

Finally, although he cited Europe as a “danger zone”, and praised the Latin American region for having decreased poverty and increased growth in the past decade, Zoellick also went on to recom-mend economic liberalization as the sine qua non for development in the region. If the continent’s governments would just forget about unhelpful and outdated con-cepts like “the North-South framework”, maintains Zoellick, then Latin America could be the next laboratory for the cre-ation of the nifty sounding, “Globaliza-tion: Made in the Americas”.

Although such comments have become run of the mill for Democrats and Repub-licans alike, from the President of a global financial institution which is supposedly politically neutral, such comments are particularly astounding, reflecting just how openly political the role of the World Bank has become.

ZOELLICK’S “URIBE” MOMENTZoellick’s comments, however, are less

surprising considering his colorful his-tory. Prior to being nominated for his position at the World Bank by former US Republican President, George W. Bush, Zoellick served as US Trade Representa-tive from 2001-2005, when he was respon-sible for quintupling the number of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) that the US had with other countries.

In his anniversary speech, Zoellick cred-ited himself with having hammered out the social suicide packages with Chile, Colom-bia, Peru, Panama, five countries in Central America and the Dominican Republic. He also credits himself with having turned the World Bank around through the creation of six strategic lines aimed at promoting free trade and “sustainable globalization”.

If that weren’t proof enough of Zoellick’s ideological allegiances, he was also previ-ously a Vice Chairman and then Manag-ing Director of Goldman Sachs, as well as serving as a Chairman of the company’s Board of International Advisors from 2006-07. The very same banking corpora-tion which not only played a significant role in bringing about the current eco-nomic crisis, but which also managed to aid and abet the ticking time bomb in Greece by helping the government mask the amount of debt that it was accruing, all at a healthy profit for the corporation.

On the eve of his departure, Zoellick represents a Bushite, neo-conservative

era, now associated with bloody un-successful interventions abroad and a free-market fundamentalism that has brought the world to its knees. Like for-mer Colombian President Uribe, who also last month engaged in an embar-rassing tirade against the Venezuelan President, Zoellick’s main mistake was to believe that his outdated opinions still hold sway in 21st century Latin Amer-ica, at a time when they can barely be stomached on their home turf in Europe and North America.

FOOLISH WORDSUnsurprisingly, Zoellick’s comments

provoked a barrage of criticisms from voices within Venezuela, who pointed out, not just the hypocrisy of the com-ments, but also how irrelevant they are to a continent where countries such as Venezuela cast off the conditionality laden loans of the World Bank years ago. A region, which in the past ten years has pursued economic policies aimed at promoting development, na-tional economic and political autonomy, and regional integration through insti-tutions such as Unasur, the ALBA and the Bank of the South.

While journalist Jose Manzaneda ac-cused Zoellick of having entered into the “media war” against the Bolivarian process in order to discredit “alternative processes to the system of power and domination of global capitalism”, Vene-zuelan Minister of Communication and Information, Andres Izarra, dismissed the World Bank as the “instrument of a system which is destroying humanity”.

However, the most concise rebuff came from Venezuelan President Chavez himself.

“Foolish words fall on deaf ears”, said the President, “in my opinion, it is the days of global capitalism which are numbered”.

“Fortunately we do not depend on the disastrous World Bank, unfortunate are those countries which do depend on the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund”, he added.

While Latin America has achieved growth, development and a signifi-cant reduction in poverty in the World Bank’s absence, its continued presence in other latitudes, particularly amongst low-income nations, has caused in-creased poverty, misery and the sus-pension of real democracy and national sovereignty.

Rather than Chavez’s days being “numbered”, the Bolivarian process is now more relevant than ever, and with emerging leftist politicians such as Syriza’s Alexis Tsipras citing Venezuela as a source of inspiration, it is evident that ideas about “reclaiming the state” are beginning to reach beyond the Latin American continent.

Free market autocracy: Made at the World Bank

A publication of the Fundacion Correo del Orinoco Eva Golinger Arisabel Yaya Silva Fundación Imprenta de la Cultura

The artillery of ideasENGLISH EDITION Friday | June 15, 2012 | Nº 113 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve

The view from Victorville prisonW

e visited Gerardo Hernandez for the fifth time and, as usual, his spirits seemed higher than ours

despite the fact that he resides in a maxi-mum-security federal prison.

Gerardo and three other Cuban intelli-gence agents approach their 14th year of incarceration – each in different federal penitentiaries. Rene Gonzalez, the fifth Member of the Cuban Five, got paroled after serving thirteen years, but not al-lowed to leave south Florida without per-mission for another 2½ years.

The uniform, given to Gerardo earlier in the day, looks three sizes too large. But the ill-fitting tan jumpsuit doesn’t affect Gerardo’s smile or the warm embrace of his hug when he greets us.

He had watched some of the recent CNN “Situation Room” shows in which Wolf Blitzer interviewed a variety of ac-tors – Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Victoria Nuland (Press agent at State), Alan Gross (convicted of anti-regime ac-tivities in Cuba) and Josefina Vidal (US desk chief in Cuban Foreign Ministry). They presented views on the justice or injustice surrounding the cases of Gross and the 5.

Cuba sent the 5 to south Florida in the 1990s to stop terrorism in Cuba because that’s where the planning for bombings of hotels, bars and clubs took place, he explained. In 2009, “Gross came to Cuba as part of a US plan to push for “regime change”, Gerardo asserted.

Gross sounded desperate when he talked to Wolf Blitzer on CNN’s Situation Room. He described his confinement in a military hospital: “It’s just like a prison, with bars on the windows”. Did he forget he received a fifteen-year sentence?

For Gerardo, bars, barbed wire, elec-tronically operated, heavy metal doors, and guards watching and periodically screaming commands describe rou-tine daily life in the Victorville Federal Prison.

Gerardo eats a pink slime sandwich, which we bought at the visiting room’s vending machines and popped into the microwave. We munch on junk food – all bought from the same sadistic apparatus offering various choices of poisons.

Other prisoners, mostly sentenced for drug dealing, sit with wives or women companions and kids under the watch-ful eyes of three guards seated above on a platform. The uniformed men chuckle

and exchange prison gossip; we talk about Gerardo’s case.

The Miami federal judge condemned him to two consecutive life sentences plus fifteen years for conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit espionage must get to him. Ge-rardo became a victim of the strange notion of US justice in Miami where the US prosecutor presented not a shred of evidence to suggest Gerardo Hernandez knew about Havana’s plan to shoot down two planes f lying over Cuban air space (“murder”); nor that he had any control over, or role in what happened on February 24, 1996 when two Cuban MIG fighters rocket-

ed two Brothers to the Rescue planes and killed both pilots and co-pilots – just as Cuban had warned the US government it would do if the illegal over-f lights continued.

Indeed the evidence paints a very dif-ferent picture of what Gerardo Hernan-dez really knew. Cuban State Security would hardly inform a mid level agent of a decision made by Cuban leaders to shoot down intruding aircraft after he had delivered a series of warnings to Washington.

In fact, as a new Stephen Kimber book shows, “the back-and-forth memos be-tween Havana and its field officers in the lead-up to the MIG jets firing rockets at

the Brothers’ planes make it clear every-thing was on a need-to-know basis—and Gerardo Hernandez didn’t need to know what the Cuban military was consider-ing”. (“Shootdown: The Real Story of Brothers to the Rescue and the Cuban Five”).

Gerardo, like the Cuban government, insists the Brothers’ planes got shot down over Cuban airspace, not in inter-national waters as Washington claims. But the National Security Agency, which had satellite images of the fatal event, has refused to release them.

The Brothers’ planes had over flown Cuban airspace for more than half a year (1995-6) before they got blown out of the sky. Cuba had alerted the White House several times, and a National Security Counsel official had writ-ten the Federal Aviation Authority to strip the Brothers’ pilot licenses – to no avail.

The Cuban intelligence agents that had infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue had informed Havana that Jose Basulto, the Brothers’ chief, had successfully test fired air-to-ground weapons he might use against Cuba. For Cuba, the Broth-ers had become a security threat.

The NSA documents, however, never arrived at the trial, nor did Gerardo’s lawyers get them for the appeals.

Gerardo’s case for exoneration for con-spiracy to murder rests on establishing one simple fact: if the shoot downs oc-curred over Cuban airspace no crime was committed.

On conspiracy to commit espionage, the government relied on Gerardo’s ad-mission that he was a Cuban intelligence agent rather than seek evidence to show he tried to get secret government docu-ments or any classified material. Gerar-do’s job was to prevent terrorist strikes against Cuba by exiled Cubans in Miami, not penetration of secret US government agencies.

Justice in the autonomous Republic of Miami led five anti-terrorists to prison. Gerardo smiles, perhaps his way of tell-ing us he remains convinced he did the right thing, meaning he has stayed true to his convictions. We wonder if we could endure fourteen years of maximum-se-curity confinement.

Will the real terrorist please stand up