Venezuelan Opposition Case Thrown Out of International Criminal Court

Caracas, Venezuela, February 17, 2006—The International Criminal Court (ICC) rejected an appeal by Venezuelan opposition groups to prosecute the Venezuelan government for human rights violations. Chief Prosecutor for the ICC, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said the charges had a, “lack of precision as well as internal and external inconsistencies in the information.”

The ICC was set up by international treaty in 1998. Its purpose is to deal with the most serious human rights violations such as war crimes or crimes against humanity. Venezuela signed up to the ICC in June 2000.

Charges were first brought to the court in 2003 by Venezuelan lawyers representing Venezuelans associated with the opposition. The lawyers argued that they had suffered crimes against humanity at the hands of the Venezuelan government.

Most of the crimes they say they suffered were during the April 2002 coup, when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his government were briefly removed from power before being restored days later by the military and popular protests.

On February 9, the ICC issued a statement saying the court was unable to move forward with a formal investigation. This was because the information provided did not match the allegations.

First, the ICC said no evidence had been given to the court, “to believe that war crimes have been committed.” For the information provided relating to crimes against humanity, the ICC said the, “numerous” factual problems meant it was not, “reliable.”

Problems included naming the same person repeatedly on lists of alleged murder victims. Many claims were made without names or dates. There were also, “frequent inconsistencies in victims’ names, ages, and location of alleged incidents.”

All of this made it impossible to begin an investigation in Venezuela relating to the charges, the ICC said. Despite this, Moreno-Ocampo said, “These conclusions may be reviewed in the light of new facts or evidence.”

Alfredo Romero, Gonzalo Himiob Santome, Antonio Rosich, and Eduardo Meier, are lawyers representing VIVE one of the many opposition groups making the claims to the ICC.

They said they will be searching for more evidence to give to the ICC, although they felt what they had before was good enough, according to the Venezuelan news channel Globovision.

The Venezuelan Ambassador to the Netherlands, Agustín Pérez Celis, said the ICC had analysed the information given to them, “in a clear and convincing manner.” The claims were made as part of a strategy to destabilise the Venezuelan government, Pérez Celis said.

The Venezuelan ambassador said during the 2002 coup, “the same opposition groups spread a series of reckless denunciations in diverse international forums against the Venezuelan government, searching for international intervention.”

US Secretary of State Reverses Brief Thaw in Relations with Venezuela

Caracas, Venezuela, February 17, 2006—Almost immediately after what appeared to be a thawing of relations between Venezuela and the United States, the relationship suffered a severe setback. Only a day after Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela’s Ambassador to the U.S., met with Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, in which relations were said to take a new turn for the better, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Bush administration is working on creating a “united front” of countries against Venezuela.

Yesterday, Venezuela’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Relations, Pavel Rondon, said that a meeting between Ambassador Alvarez and Assistant Secretary Shannon was successful and could signify a shift in relations between the U.S. and Venezuela. “Venezuela values highly that after three years the State Department meets with our Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez,” said Rondon.

According to the Venezuelan embassy in the U.S., Venezuela had been requesting an official meeting with the State Department ever since November 2005. The Alvarez-Shannon meeting covered a wide variety of issues, such as energy, commerce, and the extradition of the Venezuelan-Cuban Luis Posada Carriles, who is wanted for terrorism in Venezuela.

Rice Details Measures Against Venezuela

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking at a U.S. Senate budget hearing yesterday, seemed to reverse the progress that was made a mere day earlier. Asked about U.S. policy towards Venezuela, Rice said, “I think it's fair to say that one of the biggest problems that we face in that regard are the policies of Venezuela, which … are attempting to influence neighbors away from democratic processes.” Also, Venezuela’s relationship to Cuba, said Rice, “is a particular danger to the region.”

Explaining what the Bush administration was doing to counter this “problem,” Rice said, “we're working with others to try and make certain that there is a kind of united front against some of the kinds of things that Venezuela gets involved in.” The State Department is, “working with responsible governments, even responsible governments of the left, like the Brazilian government or the Chilean government, to try and counter these [Venezuelan] influences.”

[According to AFP, a spokesperson for Brazil’s Foreign Ministry was asked today about Rice’s comments, and said, “Brazil had excellent relations with Venezuela in the past few years.” This relationship is exemplified by the frequent meetings between the two presidents and Venezuela’s entry into Mercosur, said the spokesperson.]

Rice detailed that the administration’s plan also involves “inoculating” problematic political figures with financial freezes or visa denials, as it has done in the case of Nicaragua.

Another element in the administration’s plans is to “have an alternative … for these places that are vulnerable to this kind of particular brand of Latin American populism that has taken democratic states down the drain before.” By an alternative, Rice referred to the promotion of free trade while also “caring about the poor.”

Rice highlighted two recent events in particular, saying that the Bush administration would have to “raise the profile” of what is happening, such as with the charges that have been brought against the U.S.-funded opposition NGO Sumate, which she described as a “kangaroo trial.”

Last week, a Venezuelan judge ordered that the on-going treason trial against Sumate leaders be nullified and the Attorney General said his office would re-initiate the case over again.

The second issue Rice raised was a truckers’ strike in Venezuela, “where, I think, international labor could play a role in exposing the pressures on free trade union movements … the way that international labor did with Solidarity in Poland.”

Venezuelan Officials Deny Existence of Transport Strike

Venezuela’s Vice-Minister for Foreign Relations with North America, Mary Pili Hernandez, responded to Rice’s comments today, denying that there currently is a truckers’ strike in Venezuela. According to Hernandez, Rice’s mentioning of such a strike is a cause of concern because it suggests that there might be a plan to initiate a transportation strike as part of a destabilization plan, where truckers would be used as “cannon fodder.” “We will ask for an explanation [from the State Department],” added Hernandez.

Similarly, National Assembly President Nicolas Maduro, who is a former metro worker union leader, said that the international community should indeed pay attention to what is happening in Venezuela, as Rice is either misinformed or intentionally misinforming what is happening in Venezuela. There is no transport workers’ strike in Venezuela said Maduro.

Maduro did say that there were suspicious activities on the part of some anti-government transportation unions, but that the government recently convoked a large meeting of transportation workers, where the National Assembly agreed to install a national transportation roundtable, “Where we will propose a package of reforms and laws that have to do with the strengthening and reorientation of the entire transportation system in the country.”

U.S. Government Is Sending Mixed Signals

Maduro added that the U.S. government is sending mixed signals to Venezuela. “On the one hand there are positive signs for wanting a dialogue, with which we agree because we want to overcome differences, but on the other hand there are signs that the government of the United States continues with a different line … to try with bribes and the investment of dollars to put itself into natural conflicts of Venezuelan society,” said Maduro.

Similarly, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, last night, suggested that the Bush administration is contradicting itself. “Just as someone sends a signal of conciliation with Venezuela, the hawks let lose and enter and destroy whatever initiative of coming together. That isn’t a government, it’s craziness,” said Chavez.

Relations between the U.S. and Venezuela entered a new phase of tensions two weeks ago when the Chavez government accused the naval attaché to the U.S. embassy in Venezuela of spying and summarily expelled him. The Bush administration responded by expelling the chief of staff of the Ambassador of Venezuela to the U.S.

Venezuela’s Telecommunications Commission Sanctions 22 Media Outlets

Caracas, Venezuela, February 16, 2006—Yesterday, the Venezuelan National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel) mandated that 21 radio stations and one television station broadcast government public service spots and pay fines for alleged violations of the 2004 Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television.

A spokesperson for Conatel told a press conference that most of the violations involved radio stations’ failure to submit broadcast tapes to the agency, which is mandated by the Law of Social Responsibility, to allow the government to verify that the stations are playing the required amount of national music. According to the spokesperson, further violations included broadcasting content encouraging gambling during hours when children may be watching, and in one case violations of rules for the airing of sexual content.

As of yet, Conatel has not released specific information about all the penalties, which, according to the agency, will be based on the infractions committed at each station and be between 14 and 30 minutes for up to fourteen days. Caracas radio station 88.1 FM will be fined 0.5 percent of its annual gross revenues in 2004.

According to the Venezuelan government’s ABN newswire, the Conatel spokesperson said the sanctions are being applied strictly according to the law.

Conatel director, Alvín Lezama, said media outlets could appeal the decision in court, but would be required to comply with the order while waiting for a ruling, reports the Daily Journal.

The Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television, was introduced to the National Assembly in 2003. Among its stated purposes were upholding freedom of expression and information, support parents by limiting daytime media content deemed inappropriate for children and adolescents, encourage the broadcast of more educational programming on TV and radio, guarantee citizen participation in the communications sector, and promote growth within the country’s communications industry, according to the Venezuela Information Office, an agency funded and directed by the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington.

But, Venezuela’s enactment of the law resulted in a flurry of criticism from local opposition and national and international media that the law could be misused to censor the press. Among its most controversial provisions is one which prohibits broadcasting “graphic descriptions of real violence” during daytime hours, unless it is indispensable for understanding information or resulting from unforeseen events. Another allows the government to punish stations that “promote, defend or incite breaches of public order” or “are contrary to the security of the nation.”

Critics argued that these provisions could allow the government to block some forms of political content. Thus far, this has not happened, but the government announced last month that it will investigate news outlets under the law for their coverage of the case of murdered Venezuelan State Prosecutor Danilo Anderson.

Proponents of the law say that it has set up Federal Communications Commission style regulations, which, under the Law of Decency in Telecommunications and the Law of Child TV prohibit broadcasting of obscene material, limit broadcasting of indecent material and mandate educational and information programs in the United States.

At issue with most of the stations, is the section of the law which requires at least 50 percent Venezuelan music content, of which half must be traditional. The law has resulted in an increase in the popularity of Venezuelan music. "We've always had traditional Venezuelan records in stock, but before a few months ago we never sold any -- not one," Miguel Angel Guada, manager of the Disco Center Superstore in one of the capital's largest malls told the Washington Post last July. "It was all Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys and that sort of thing. But now I'd say one-third of our business comes from Venezuelan artists, which is absolutely incredible."  

However, some radio stations had objected to the new law. Caracas’ 92.9 FM, one of the stations being charged, responded to the new law by playing “vulgar folkloric music” according to the New York Times.

However, the reaction of the public and traditional musicians has been largely favorable.

"It's kind of the fashion now to listen to traditional music," 19-year-old Rafael Quintero, 19 told the Post. "It has just taken off in the last three months."

Huáscar Barradas, who plays a mix of traditional and pop music, now has bookings across the country, according to the Times. "All of a sudden, I get calls from people at radio stations who never played my music before," he told the New York newspaper. "They now put four or five of my songs on a rotation. I'm on all the radio programs, the most important ones."

Venezuelan Military Officers Charged with Corruption

Caracas, Venezuela, 16 February 2006—A group of 17 Venezuelan military officers are being sent to court accused of corruptly managing a sugar-processing plant. Venezuelan Defence Minister Orlando Maniglia said on Tuesday they were being charged with, “administrative irregularities.”

The group is being accused of taking $1.3 million from the accounts of the Ezequiel Zamora sugar-processing plant in Sabaneta de Barinas in the state of Barinas. The plant is owned by the Ministry of Land and Agriculture but was being run by military officers.

This was as part of the government’s civil-military alliance strategy to develop the country. The officers involved in the Ezequiel Zamora plant were from the 62nd Regiment of Engineers and were supposed to assist with food technology.

The problems were uncovered by a special anti-corruption committee of the Venezuelan National Assembly. They reported that from 2003 to 2004 projects paid for did not happen and others were contracted to family members of the officers.

When the allegations first became public in January, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez reacted strongly. Speaking on Alo Presidente, his regular weekly talk show, Chavez said the betrayal of these offers was unforgivable. If it was in his power he would punish the guilty by putting them up against a wall and having them shot, Chavez said.

Minister of Land and Agriculture Antonio Albarrán has been criticised for comments he has made about the situation. Last Tuesday, Albarrán was reported as saying he received a report about the corruption at the Ezequiel Zamora plant in 2004. Albarran was reported as saying he did not make the report public then because, “we were in an election campaign and it would have blown things up.” It was assumed this referred to the regional elections of October 2004. 

Albarran said today his comments were, “taken out of context, because I didn’t hold any report.” The first official report came to him on 23 September 2005, Albarran said.

A spokesperson for the Ministry said information about corruption at the Ezequiel Zamora plant had arrived in 2004. The spokesperson said it was policy to conduct an investigation first before giving the public any information.

Both Albarran and Chavez condemned corruption in Venezuela. Albarran said that corruption is, “a cultural problem” in Venezuela that must be changed. Chavez said Venezuela must fight a long battle, “against irregularities and inefficiency, and this is one case.”

Venezuela Buys More Argentine Debt

Caracas, Venezuela, February 14, 2006—Last week, in a move that appears to reinforce Venezuela’s commitment to economic regional integration, the Ministry of Economy Argentina authorized the sale of over $308 million in bonds coming due in 2012 to Venezuela, reported Argentine daily El Clarin.

This is Venezuela’s third purchase of Argentine bonds since Argentine President Nestor Kirchner told the paper that Venezuela was to buy $2.4 billion of Argentine debt in the coming months to help the country pay back debt early to the International Monetary Fund. Since the announcement, Venezuela has bought almost $1.1 billion in Argentine debt. Later, according to Dow Jones, an unnamed high-ranking Argentine Economy Ministry official said that his government intended to sell $2 to $3 billion in new debt to Venezuela in 2006 if necessary.

Before Kirchner’s statement, in several other purchases, Venezuela had bought almost $1 billion in Argentine debt, bringing total purchases in the past year to almost $2.1 billion, of which Venezuela has sold $600,000 according to Bloomberg.

Venezuela has not announced the amount of Argentine debt it intends to buy, but the government has announced its commitment to buy significant debt. In late November, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, along with Kirchner signed the Orinoco Declaration, which stated, “Venezuela declares its firm decision to increase its financial investments in Argentine public debt.” Last month, the Minister of Finances of Venezuela, Nelson Merentes reiterated the commitment telling El Clarin in January, “We don’t have fixed limits [on Argentine debt purchases]. We will constantly assess the market, but we are disposed to buy every time the Argentine government asks us to.”

Argentina’s issuances of debt are tied to its decision for early debt payments to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez Frías praised the decision, and pledged to “help Argentina end its dependence on the IMF.” According to a World Bank news service, paying back $9.8 billion in debt early will save the South American country about $1 billion. According to the January 9 IMF Survey, Argentina had paid its entire outstanding IMF obligation, though it stated the total debt at $9.6 rather than $9.8 billion.

Argentina’s decision to pay off its IMF debt is the latest in a series of Latin American moves rejecting Washington’s neoliberal economic policies. Brazil also recently announced its decision to pay off its almost $15.5 billion in outstanding obligations early, which the January 9 IMF Survey reported it had done. Also, presidents throughout the region, most notably Argentina’s Kirchner and Bolivia’s Evo Morales, are increasingly winning elections based on platforms rejecting the economic policies of the past 20 years.

Between 1980 and 2000, under the guidance of the IMF, the region saw an almost 8 fold decrease in economic growth over the previous 20 years, according to a study of the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research. In late 2001 Argentina, once the poster-child of IMF success from good economic governance, suffered one of the region’s worst economic collapses. 

The decision to buy more Argentinean bonds is the latest in a series of moves the Chávez administration has made to increase economic ties between Venezuela and the rest of the region. In December, the government also bought $25 million, or about 4 percent, of the first Ecuadorian bonds issued since the country’s 1999 default. Also last month, Venezuela was put on track to become a full voting member of MERCOSUR, a regional trade and economic integration agreement.

Final Deadline Passes for US Missionaries to Leave Venezuela

14 February 2006, Caracas, Venezuela – The majority of the US evangelical missionary group New Tribes, have left Venezuela. The few remaining in the country are being urged to get out straight away by the government. They have been accused of spying and exploiting the indigenous people they claim to help.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered the New Tribes out of Venezuela in November, 2005, calling them, "agents of imperialist penetration." Chavez said they had 90 days to leave. The New Tribes were using their activities as a cover to prospect for precious minerals and provide military intelligence for the US, Chavez said.

The New Tribes are an evangelical group whose headquarters are in Florida. They work to find native groups that have not encountered Christianity and convert them to it. The missionaries have been working in remote areas of Venezuela for 60 years. Before they left they were involved with 12 indigenous groups in Venezuela.

All of the 160 New Tribes operatives have left the tribal areas of Venezuela. In the Venezuelan city of Puerto Ordaz 30 remain in the group's headquarters. Marco Brito, speaking for the New Tribes, said the missionaries are, "all shattered, some of them depressed."

The evangelical missionaries are appealing to the Venezuelan Supreme Court to overturn Chavez's decision. When the appeal will begin has not yet been announced. So far the New Tribes has held back from criticising Chavez and has said, "We have the highest regard and respect for the people, laws and country of Venezuela.".

The Venezuelan President has said there are videotapes to support the claims against the New Tribes. These have not been shared with the public. The areas where the New Tribes were most active were also very rich in precious minerals such as uranium, used for the nuclear industry.

The New Tribes built 29 airfields in these remote locations and used flights that circumvented Venezuelan customs, Chavez said. Other evidence included them using high-technology equipment that was unrelated to their missionary work.

Chavez said last October the New Tribes, "gather sensitive and strategic information and are exploiting the Indians." The Venezuelan president also added, "we don't need new tribes, we are an old tribe."

For several decades the activities of the New Tribes have been criticised for their actions in Venezuela by leftist and environmental groups. The Environmentalist and Sociologist Alexander Luzardo published a report in the 1980s criticising New Tribes' activities.

Luzardo has supported the Venezuelan decision to expel the group. The New Tribes have been accused of forcing North American culture on the indigenous peoples they work with.

Although the New Tribes is independent of the US government and sponsored by "individuals", past sponsors have included General Dynamics, a defense industry contractor, and the Ford motor company.

The Colombian government previously banned The New Tribes. In the 1970s the missionaries were charged with giving multinational corporations direct access to mineral resources in Colombia.

See also: Venezuela’s War of Religion and Evangelicals in Venezuela: Robertson Only the Latest Controversy

Venezuelan Government and CITGO Launch Low-Cost Heating Oil Program in Delaware

CITGO is the only oil corporation answering the call made by U.S. senators to use part of their record profits to help U.S. lower classes.
Credit: Venezuelanalysis.com Wilmington, DE. Feb 14, 2006.– Venezuelan Ambassador to the U.S. Bernardo Alvarez, CITGO Petroleum Corporation C.E.O Felix Rodriguez and Citizens Energy Corporation Chairman Joseph P. Kennedy, rolled out today the Venezuelan heating oil program for low and modest-income residents in Delaware.

The program, brokered between Venezuelan-owned CITGO, the non-profit Citizens Energy Corporation of Boston and Delaware’s Catholic Charities, will be available to 20,000 low income residents in Delaware. The government of Venezuela, which owns CITGO through its national oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), will make 1 million gallons of heating oil available at a 40 percent discount off of wholesale market price. Homeless shelters in the state will receive an additional 150,000 gallons of fuel free as part of the program.

“What we are doing here in Delaware, reaching out to help low-income people, is consistent with what our Venezuelan government is trying to do at home with social programs that have taught 1.5 million adults to read and given access to health care to more than 10 million Venezuelans. The poor of Venezuela has the same face of the poor in the rest of the world; our goal at home and abroad is to improve the lives of people who have historically been left behind,” said Alvarez.

CITGO’s CEO Felix Rodriguez cited the program as in part a humanitarian response to recent weather events in the United States.

CITGO Petroleum, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Venezuela's oil company PDVSA, is the only oil corporation in the United States to respond to calls by U.S. Lawmakers for energy corporations making record profits to help poor communities in the face of rising energy costs.

“After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita left this country paying record fuel prices, oil companies were asked to help Americans in need. We are happy to respond, by offering people here in Delaware help this winter,” said Rodriguez.

“We have heard horror stories of families forced to heat their homes with their stoves because they have no money for heating oil. No one should be forced to sacrifice food, shelter or medicine to stay warm,” he added.

The Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, working through Catholic Charities, will oversee distribution of the Venezuelan heating oil in Delaware under contract with nonprofit Citizens Energy.

Today’s ceremony was held at the Martha House II, a Wilmington homeless shelter that provides transitional housing for families and children. The contract for Delaware oil deliveries was signed by Citizens Energy Chairman Kennedy and CITGO CEO Rodriguez.

"We're proud to work with CITGO and our Delaware partners to help needy families make it through the tough winter months. At a time that federal fuel assistance benefits are shrinking, CITGO has stepped forward to strengthen the heating safety net for our most vulnerable families," said former Congressman Kennedy.

Citizens Energy and Kennedy have arranged for discounted Venezuelan oil to be distributed through CITGO throughout the northeastern United States this winter after the initial program was arranged by Congressman Bill Delahunt of Boston, Mass. Delaware is the seventh state to participate in the program. Other states include Maine, Southeast Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and the Bronx neighborhood in New York City.

Local community leaders present at the ceremony applauded the initiative. “The Venezuela-CITGO Oil Heat Program will help extend a lifeline to families in need" said the Rev. Dr. Christopher Allen Bullock, pastor of Wilmington’s Canaan Baptist Church.