Venezuelan Opposition Candidates Agree to Presidential Primaries

Súmate directors Alejandro Plaz and Maria Corina Machado
Credit: El Universal

Caracas, Venezuela, July 8, 2006—After much back and forth, nine of Venezuela’s 12 potential opposition candidates for the presidency have agreed to hold a primary election on August 13, to find a single “unity” candidate. The opposition NGO Súmate (Join up) will organize the primary vote. Teodoro Petkoff and Roberto Smith, two of the better known opposition candidates, though, refused to sign on to the primary process.

The decision to hold the primary is a reversal of what Súmate had announced last week, when they said that due to a lack of agreement among opposition candidates no primary could be organized in time for it to be held before the deadline for registering presidential candidates. Various opposition candidates, though, especially Julio Borges of Primero Justicia (Justice First) and Manuel Rosales, the governor of Venezuela’s largest state, Zulia, pleaded with Súmate to reconsider.

Súmate responded to the pleas by setting a deadline for Thursday, by which opposition candidates would have to formally agree to participate in the primary, for the group to organize the vote. Nine candidates signed up to participate “unequivocally”: Vicente Brito, Julio Borges, Sergio Omar Calderón, Pablo Medina, William Ojeda, Manuel Rosales, Cecilia Sosa, Froilán Barrios, and Enrique Tejera París.

Súmate’s directors, Alejandro Plaz and Maria Corina Machado made the announcement about the primary during a press conference yesterday. Súmate had previously said they would need at least six weeks to mobilize 50,000 volunteers and to print materials to carry out the primary vote.

Teodoro Petkoff, who was a Minister during the presidency of Rafael Caldera and who ran as a left-of-center candidate for President on several other occasions in the 1980’s, rejected Súmate’s deadline, saying that Súmate is “claiming for itself the right to dictate to political sectors and the presidential candidates how they should behave.” For Petkoff, Súmate acted “unadvisedly, severely, arrogantly, and authoritarian.”

Despite these strong words, Petkoff said that he is still interested in finding agreement with the other candidates in order to have a single “unity” candidate of the opposition for the December 3rd presidential election.

Roberto Smith, who also used to be a Minister under a previous president, Carlos Andrés Perez, and who has been actively campaigning for the presidency for nearly a year, said he would stay in the race for president until the very end.

Recent opinion polls show that the two strongest candidates to oppose President Hugo Chavez are Julio Borges and Manuel Rosales, who each gather around 30% of the vote against Chavez, while Chavez enjoys around 60% support.

Venezuela Gets Nod for UN Seat from Caribbean Nations

The Caribbean Community (Caricom) will be backing Venezuela in its bid for a non-permanent United Nations Security Council seat in October, when it becomes vacant with the expiry of Argentina's two-year term.

This decision, which has been linked to outstanding issues for coming discussion with Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, was to be reflected in the communique to be released at the conclusion of the four-day 27th Caricom Summit yesterday.

This would not be good news for Guatemala, which has been intensely competing with Venezuela for the seat with the open support from the United States of America, which remains firmly opposed to the Chavez administration.

While Caricom leaders were still in the final stages of their summit deliberations, Arthur and his Vincentian counterpart, Ralph Gonsalves, separately went public with their opposition to Guatemala's candidature, based, they said, on firm principles consistent with national and regional interest.

Arthur was blunt in declaring on Thursday that Guatemala had been consistent in pursuit of polices inimical to the best interests of Caricom states.

He cited, as examples, Guatemala's lead role in opposing the battle, by Caricom, for a favourable regime in World Trade Organisation negotiations for this region's banana exports to Europe.

Gonsalves had declared as early as Wednesday that "there is no way the government of St Vincent and the Grenadines will support Guatemala against Venezuela in securing the UN Security Council seat".

"Not after the bitter experience we of the OECS (Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States) have had in seeking the cooperation of Guatemala in securing viable options in our banana exports," he said.

Both Arthur and Gonsalves-like at least two other Prime Ministers who preferred not to go public just yet-also spoke against Guatemala resorting to using the influence of the USA to campaign on its behalf, rather than engaging in direct negotiations as a sovereign state, deemed an offensive occurrence.

Critical to the consensus that evolved in favour of support for Venezuela, according to conference sources, was the positions of both Guyana and Belize, which have colonial-inherited border disputes with Venezuela and Guatemala respectively.

(http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=160979336)

From the Miami Herald:

Guatemala's Foreign Minister Jorge Briz Abularach, in a phone interview with The Miami Herald, said Guatemala has never sat on the council even though it is a U.N. founding member and has frequently contributed troops to peace operation.

According to Briz, Guatemala has secured 90 votes so far. The winner needs two-thirds of the General Assembly votes, or 127, although a smaller number would suffice if fewer votes are cast. The elections are to take place in October.

U.S. State Department officials, who requested anonymity to speak freely on a delicate subject, say Guatemala should be backed by a vast majority of European and Asian democracies.

Guatemala also has the backing of Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, Briz said.

Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil already have said they would vote for Venezuela. Venezuela has focused its lobbying for the Security Council seat on less-developed countries in places like Africa.

(http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/14983022.htm)

Venezuela Officially Joins Mercosur Trade Block

Venezuela officially joined the South American trading block, Mercosur (Common Market of the South) on Tuesday at an enthusiastic event at the Teresa Careño Theater in Caracas. Venezuela is the first country to become a full member of Mercosur since its founding in 1991. Representatives of the Venezuelan National Assembly announced yesterday that steps are now being taken towards the creation of a Mercosur Parliament, which they hope to form by this December. 

The event was attended by the presidents from the now five member countries Argentina (Néstor Kirchner), Brazil (Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva), Paraguay (Nicanor Duarte), Uruguay (Tabaré Vázquez), and Venezuela (Hugo Chávez Frías), where they signed the official “Protocol for the Adhesion of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to Mercosur.”

In perhaps a sign of things to come, although his country is not currently a member of Mercosur, Bolivian President Evo Morales also attended the inauguration and sat beside the other Presidents on the main stage. During his speech, Chavez stated that Mercosur is now entering into a new phase and that “sooner than later we will be in La Paz signing the incorporation of Bolivia as an official member of Mercosur.”

The Protocol establishes that except for in the case of already specified and “sensitive products,” Venezuela and the other Mercosur nations should achieve free trade by 2013. The exchange of “sensitive products” will have until 2014 to be completed. Upon signing Tuesday’s protocol, Venezuela has until 2010 to gradually adopt to Mercosur norms, for which it will have to bring its own laws in to compliance.

All of the Mercosur presidents spoke at the event, to a tone which was overwhelmingly optimistic, and in the words of Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, rooted in the past and “projecting towards the future.” Most of the presidents spoke to the event’s “historic” place in time, and Brazilian President Lula da Silva declared Mercosur to be more than a mere trading block, but the “realization of a dream for millions of Latin Americans who have, over many centuries, died believing that it is possible to achieve integration.”

During a relatively short speech, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced, “I believe that we are laying, here, today in Caracas, a fundamental corner-stone for the new freedom for the people of South America.”

The Venezuelan President also thanked the other Presidents for supporting Venezuela’s entry in to the trading block. “If you did not represent who you represent,” he said, “Venezuela never would have joined Mercosur.” Chavez remembered first suggesting Venezuela’s wishes to enter in to the trading block 7 years ago to the then Mercosur President from Paraguay. “How many things have happened in 7 years”, he continued. “You have to be profoundly optimistic.”

Chavez supported the call from current Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte for a ‘common project’ and Lula’s idea for a ‘mega-state’ or a union of South American republics. Chavez also suggested a plan (like the Great Southern Gas Pipeline) for a railroad to connect Buenos Aires and Caracas. 

Chavez highlighted the importance of Venezuela’s entrance in to Mercosur, on the night before the 195th celebration of Venezuela’s Independence. A timely event, considering the dream of South American unity held by Venezuela’s forefather, Simon Bolivar.

History

Mercosur was formed on March 26, 1991 through the treaty of Asuncion signed between the four founding nations. According to the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Relations, the principal objective of the trading block was to “expand the dimensions of their national markets, through integration, as a fundamental condition in order to accelerate the processes of economic development with social justice.” 

But as President Chavez verified on Wednesday night, the original goals were strictly neo-liberal. Economists and social activists alike have questioned the ability of the current members to be able to truly shift the trading block towards a more sustainable, socially just and equitable focus.

Nevertheless, the opening section of Tuesday night’s Protocol signed between the five presidents, declares, “The process of integration should be an instrument in order to promote integral development, confront poverty and social exclusion and based on complementarity and solidarity and cooperation.”

Plans for Mercosur Parliament

Just one day after Venezuela’s official entry in to Mercosur, representatives of the Venezuelan National Assembly announced plans yesterday for the creation of a Mercosur Parliament, which should be installed by December of this year.

According to the President for the Commission for External Politics of the National Assembly, Saúl Ortega, further discussions will continue in Cordoba, Argentina on July 19-20.

“We are taking accelerated steps for the creation of this political instance, which will be the legislative branch of Mercosur.” Announced Ortega yesterday morning. “It will be the organism of control to continue the success of this new Mercosur, as we have denominated, with the incorporation of Venezuela, and this new concept, and a resurrection of this pact, which before was evidently commercial, and now it is redimensioned in the social, in the economical, in the political and cultural.”

Venezuela-Argentina Bi-lateral Agreements

While in Caracas for Venezuela’s entrance into Mercosur, and building off of the historic ties between their two “liberators”, Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín, President Chavez and Argentina’s Kirchner took advantage of the moment to strengthen their relations and sign in to affect various bi-lateral agreements. 

According to the Venezuelan Foreign Relations Ministry, under the strategic Venezuelan-Argentinean alliance, they established a commission to present a Strategic Alliance Plan within the next 60 days, in order to “guarantee the integration between the two countries” and Latin America and the Caribbean.

“We have decided to add to the agreements that we have been signing one of greater strategic range: design a Strategic High Commission in order to continue supporting what occurred to me to call the Caracas-Buenos Aires Axis, which is part of this great region, of this great South American block,” announced Chavez

Accords were also signed between the Venezuelan Housing Ministry, the Venezuelan Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, and the Argentine Ministry of Federal Planning and Public Investment, regarding the elaboration of a plan to improve the conditions of habitat for the citizens of both countries; the fulfillment of proposed objectives in the process of “exploration and exploitation of the reserves of Argentine hydrocarbons”; the quantification and certification of Venezuelan hydrocarbon reserves located in the Orinoco belt; and the exploration of “alternative ways to finance the exploration, production and industrialization of natural gas.”

Chavez and Kirchner also discussed the issuing of a joint “Bond of the South” or “Bi-national Bonds,” which could serve to support investment and economic growth in both countries.

Barrios Unidos takes its message to Venezuela

An agreement between a Santa Cruz nonprofit and a bank affiliated with the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is a chance to build solidarity between the two countries, Barrios Unidos Executive Director Nane Alejandrez said Monday.

"What we're trying to do is people to people," Alejandrez said. "They're in the process of developing these programs. ... They want to know from us if they're on the right track."

Barrios Unidos, the group Alejandrez founded 30 years ago to combat youth violence and gang activity, will receive $100,000 from the Industrial Bank of Venezuela to promote a yearlong cultural exchange between the two countries.

The grant is about one-tenth of the organization's annual budget.

Delegates from each nation will visit the other to learn what each is doing to keep poverty-stricken young people out of gangs and push them toward higher education.

Barrios Unidos has done similar work in Central America and Africa, but the exchange program is a first for Venezuela.

Venezuela's Ambassador to the U.S., Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, called the agreement "a bridge between the people with common problems" and a "seed of a much larger project."

Alejandrez credited the arrangement to Harry Belafonte, the singer and civil rights advocate who is a friend of Chavez. Belafonte recommended Barrios Unidos as a group that could help the country deal with gang and violence problems.

"When you look at Venezuela, it's very poor. Neighborhoods are made out of brick and cardboard," Alejandrez said. "When you talk about a poor neighborhood here, people talk about Beach Flats. But Beach Flats in Venezuela would be more than a middle-class neighborhood."

Contact Matt King at mking@santacruzsentinel.com.

Originally published at: Santa Cruz Sentinel

6th Annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Celebrated in Venezuela

Gay Pride 2006
Credit: Silvia Leindecker


Members of Fundein, an HIV-AIDS support organization
Credit: Silvia Leindecker


Participants show their colors
Credit: Silvia Leindecker

Caracas, Venezuela, July 3, 2006 —Thousands of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender (GLBT) marched in this year’s GLBT Pride parade in Caracas yesterday. This marks the sixth year in a row that Venezuela has held a gay pride parade.

The colorful and lively parade, which marked the closing event of a month of GLBT activities, ran from Parque del Este in the eastern side of the city through the affluent municipality of Chacao and ended at Plaza Venezuela with jubilant music, dance and speakers. Marchers expressed their gratification for the extended route, which is at least twice as long as past years, and for which the marchers had to struggle to obtain.

This year’s parade was additionally marked by the official name change from the “gay pride” parade to the “GLBT pride” parade, in order to include those individuals that identify themselves as bisexual and transgender

“The proposal hasn’t changed,” said Jorge Gonzalez Duraud, a member of Contranatura, a sexual diversity study group at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV). “This is a day to celebrate that we are different, and that we are having a good time.”

The GLBT Pride parade was organized by the Lambda Alliance and for the first time, in coordination with a number of other organizations including the ASES group, Divas de Venezuela, and the National Youth Institute.

Georgi Martinez Torres, 21, is a Lambda organizer and a nationally recognized champion gymnast who marched bare-chested and flipped his way down the street to great applause.

“[We are here] to show the community that we don’t just go out at night, as many believe,” he said “And we are going to demonstrate how many of us there are. And that’s what we want to show to the community, that we are growing and that people are becoming aware of this.”

The march was unusually apolitical for the Venezuela’s polarized climate, where it is common for two marches to be held on the same day for the same issue: one against and one in support of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.*

Most participants laughed when asked whether the organizers ever considered holding two separate marches. UCV student Gonzalez verified that there are many groups in the Venezuelan gay community: some in support, some against and some entirely neutral to Chavez. But traditionally since the first AIDS cases in the 1980s, the gay movement in Venezuela was fairly apolitical.

Although there is no exclusive protection for GLBT rights in the Venezuelan constitution, most participants in the march didn’t express any doubt as to the fact that the situation of tolerance and respect for the GLBT community in Venezuela is improving.

“We now have the support from the Mayor [Juan] Barreto and the Mayor from the municipality of Chacao,” said Daniel Romero, gay health promoter with the ASES Group, which offers HIV & Aids Education and Health Consultation. “There is still a lot of discrimination, but things are a bit freer. Here in Caracas things are pretty well liberated. There’s not as much discrimination as before… and each year the level of participation in the march has increased.”

The first gay pride march was held in 2000, one year after President Chavez took office, and attended by 100. Participants insisted that their numbers have increased every year since.

Regardless, it appears that there is still a long way to go. Kelly Komenda is a queer activist from the United States who has been studying social movement organizing with her partner in Venezuela for the past six months. Although she recognizes that Venezuela has come a long way, she admits that she expected more from those who consider themselves to be “revolutionaries.”

“Neither of us could imagine being publicly out in the same way as in the States… it was a safety factor that we chose to closet ourselves and we’ve had a lot of hard times being around self-proclaimed revolutionaries who are really discriminatory and vocally discriminatory to us and even how they pick people out in the street,” she said just before the start of the march. “Everyone plays it off as the culture, but I think it’s too easy for us to do that…. it’s a much more deep routed problem of heterosexism that we share, and patriarchy and gender pressure.”

Lambda member, Martinez, agrees that the largest challenges are social. “Right now, I would say that the largest challenge that we have is that everyone tells their mother and father that they are gay… Our goal is that not one homosexual stays in the closet in Venezuela. We want everyone to come out, until we are accepted.”

Various HIV and AIDS organizations also participated in the march. Although Venezuela is one of only three countries in Latin America that provides HIV and AIDS sufferers with free treatment and medicine, HIV is still a huge problem in Venezuela, where there is a lack of sexual and health education. According to Romero, from the ASES group, 40,000 Venezuelans are infected in the country and about 70% of those who are infected don’t even know it.

According to Gonzalez, from Contranatura, the Venezuelan “gay movement” began in 1980 with the magazine Entendido (understood), catering to the homosexual community. There are now over a dozen GLBT organizations in Venezuela catering to a population that Christina Speed, a transvestite from Caracas estimated at 700,000 GLBT in Venezuela.

Although Gonzalez said that the gay community is organizing, coming to agreement is not always easy. Their major problems boil down to “personal differences.” Venezuela’s “gay movement” is currently pushing for the passage of same-sex marriage legislation in the National Assembly, and in the planning stages for the 2nd Congress of Sexual Diversity, which is set to take place next year.

Official Site for the March: www.orgulloglbt2006.com.ve

* Opposition and Chavez Supporters March Separately for Mayday in Venezuela

See also:

Struggling for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Venezuela

Venezuela’s Sexual Revolution Within the Revolution

Chavez Proposes South-South Cooperation at African Union Summit

Banjul, The Gambia, 07/02 - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Saturday proposed four areas of cooperation among the peoples of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean in the spirit of South- South cooperation.

In an extemporaneous speech to African leaders attending the 7th AU summit in Banjul, the Gambia, Chavez suggested the establishment of a joint commission to set up four projects, which he listed as "Petrosouth, Telesouth, Bank of the South and University for the South".

He said through Petrosouth, the leaders would harness the power of oil, which he called a powerful instrument for social development, to develop their peoples.

"It was used by the colonialists (to oppress us). We are now going to use it to liberate our peoples," the President said, adding that 15 percent of the world`s oil reserves is in Africa.

He said Telesouth would involve the establishment of a TV station for the peoples, while the Bank of the South will be a development bank to assist the poor from the three areas.

Chavez said the University of the South would help train the youths of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean in key areas.

Saying he has come to strengthen the relationship between Africa and Latin America, the Venezuelan leader explained that the people of Latin America were a mixture of Africans and American Indians.

He said Africa, with vast human and material resources, was not poor but rather suffering from years of exploitation by the colonialists.

He accused oil companies in Africa of exploiting their host countries by evading taxes, recommending the example of his country, which collects 30 per cent tax from oil companies.

Chavez also expressed solidarity with Iran, in its ongoing face- off with the West over its nuclear programme, and with the Palestinian people "who are today being attacked".

"Long live Africa, Long live Arabia and long live Iran in freedom and equality," Chavez said, stealing a glance at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who is also attending the summit.

Ahmadinejad`s speech to the summit was interrupted by a technical hitch after a few minutes, forcing the meeting to adjourn for two hours.

Before the interruption, the Iranian leader condemned the migration of European Jews to "displace the Palestinian people".

Chavez and Ahmadinejad were invited to the summit as Observers.

Source: Angola Press

Venezuela Announces Gun Control Plan to Lower Crime

Minister of the Interior and of Justice Jesse Chacon
Credit: MIJ Press Office

Caracas, Venezuela, July 2, 2006--The Venezuelan Ministry of Justice announced the creation of a new firearms control plan on Wednesday, in an attempt to decrease excessive violence in Venezuela. The plan will be presented to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in two weeks, and could begin to be implemented by the end of July.

The National Weapons Control Plan was announced by the Minister of Justice and Interior, Jesse Chacon, who proclaimed it to be an important piece of the larger security policies that the Ministry of Interior and Justice has been developing.

“We are going to get the ball rolling on this disarmament plan in order to take all of those [weapons] that are found to be illegal out of circulation and this will be presented in two weeks to the President of the Republic, Hugo Chavez, for consideration for its implementation.” Announced Chacon. “By the end of July, we expect to be able to count on a complete registry of the whole range of weapons that are out there, as much in the security organizations as well as in the hands of the civilian population.”

According to Minister Chacon, the plan has two strategic goals: disarmament and weapons control. Under disarmament, the plan is to destroy all of the excess, legal or illegal, weapons in the country, whether captured or turned in voluntarily. The weapons control plan attempts to bring about the registration of all of Venezuela’s weapons.

“The disarmament is in order to take out of circulation that quantity of illegal guns that are now found in Venezuela and to implement mechanisms in order to bring about not just the registration of the weaponry that is found in Venezuela, but also the use of it,” announced Chacon.

In order to achieve these goals, Venezuela is proposing 5 projects and 29 programs, which will be further hashed out over the next two weeks.

“The five projects that we are going to present in order to begin the execution [of the plan] consist in establishing a permanent monitoring mechanism regarding the entrance of weaponry to Venezuela and find the way to carry out the following: a consciousness-raising campaign for the population, so that they turn in their weapons voluntarily; the promotion of updated legislation that establishes dispositions on the control of firearms; promote the participation of the community in the disarmament programs; and coordinate different actions with key players focused on this issue,” announced Chacon.

According to the Ministry of Justice, the weapon’s plan attempts to combat three major problems: The massive entrance of weaponry into Venezuela during 2000-2002, due to the situation of the country; the high level of violence in Venezuela (even though the level of homicides in Venezuela dropped in 2005); the high level of violence in Latin America produced as a result of the circulation of illegal and legal firearms.

The basis for the plan originated during a serious of meetings on June 6-8, in Caracas, attended by Amnesty International, the Ministry of Justice, local officials and various international experts. According to the Ministry of Justice, the group discussed an “education campaign, control mechanisms, focuses of operations, accelerated processes for the destruction of confiscated weapons, and operations for voluntary exchange with incentives for their control.”

Minister Chacon announced on Wednesday that according to official statistics there are 6 million weapons circulating in Venezuela and that as a consequence of the political situation in Venezuela and the conflict from 2000- 2002, a huge amount of weapons entered the country without control.

According to official statistics, in the past three years there have been 11,643 (2003), 9,719 (2004), and 9,412 (2005) homicides, which is high, considering that Venezuela has a population of 27 Million people. The murder rate in Venezuela in 2005 was six times higher than in the United States.

As reported by the daily El Universal, and according to Commissioner Fermín Mármol León, criminologist and ex-director of Venezuela’s Technical Judicial Police (PTJ), 98% of the homicides in Venezuela are as a result of the use of firearms. Mármol believes that the proposed plan is completely viable, “just as long as it is well organized, planned, and fulfills each one of the points that the proposed in the press conference.”

But Mármol also raised some important critiques. “It is important to add that there is no doubt that delinquents are not going to be included in the plan, nor are they going to voluntarily turn in their weapon,” Mármol said, a situation which some fear could facilitate the work of delinquents, because it will be easier to assault their victims because they will not be armed.

Meanwhile, according to the Ultimas Noticias, due to violence in Venezuela’s jails, which some claim to be the highest in the continent, a number of Venezuelan NGOs are pushing for a specific disarmament and anti-violence plan for Venezuela’s jail system.

Chacon announced that they would install metal detectors in the penitentiaries and that they are planning the construction of four more centers over the next 4 or 5 years. Six inmates in a Carabobo-state jail were killed during violence last Monday.

Venezuela’s Electoral Council Agrees to Opposition Petition

Venezuela's five principal directors of the National Electoral Council.
Credit: El Universal


University students marched to the headquarters of the CNE to show their support.
Credit: Aporrea/Leonardo Cantillo

Caracas, Venezuela, June 30, 2006—Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) unanimously approved a petition by three presidential candidates to observe the audit of the voter registry. The three candidates that submitted the petition were Teodoro Petkoff, Julio Borges, and Manuel Rosales, who are considered to be the three strongest candidates to challenge President Chavez in the presidential election of December 3, 2006.

Technical experts affiliated with the campaigns of the three candidates will now be allowed to observe the audit currently in progress, which is being conducted by experts from seven of the country’s universities. “They will be integrated with sufficient time, so that they can learn what has been done and how it has been done,” said CNE President Tibisay Lucena.

The participation of the presidential candidates “will not constitute a complementary or parallel audit,” said Lucena. The only new aspect to the audit is that additional observers have been invited.

The CNE also announced that it would definitely be conducting a post-vote audit of ballots by manually counting 53 to 55% of the votes, with the exact number depending on the number of voting centers that will be set up. Some opposition groups, such as Súmate, have demanded that 100% of the ballots be counted manually. Venezuelan law, however, specifies that the vote count be automated, for which Venezuela uses voting machines that print auditable paper ballots.

Opposition groups have strongly questioned the validity of the voter registry over the past year, saying that they suspect that many names in the registry are not legitimate voters. In response, the CNE hired an agency of the Inter-American human Rights Institute, CAPEL, last year, to audit the registry. CAPEL released its results earlier this year, concluding that the accuracy of the voter registry fell within acceptable international standards, with a less than 5% error margin.

Despite that audit, opposition groups such as Súmate and opposition presidential candidates argued that the CAPEL audit was methodologically flawed and insisted that it be allowed to audit the registry. The CNE refused, arguing that the registry’s information, such as addresses, is protected by citizens’ right to privacy. Instead, the CNE offered to allow experts from ten of the country’s main universities to come forward with audit proposals and to conduct the new audit. The audit proposals of seven of the universities were accepted, while the proposal of three of the larger universities, was rejected.

CNE President Lucena also said that the three universities currently not participating in the audit would be welcome to join the process at any time.

Students March in Support of CNE

Yesterday, shortly before the CNE’s announcement about the audit, university students gathered in Caracas to demonstrate support for the CNE. Students from 32 different universities gathered at Plaza Venezuela, in the geographic center of Caracas, and marched to the CNE headquarters, which is located several miles to the west, in the capital’s historical center.

The president of the student federation of the University Romulo Gallegos, Omar Ojeda, told the state news agency ABN, “In this electoral year students take up the historical commitment of confronting internal factors that follow international mandates to destabilize the country.”

Venezuela is Second Most Proud Country

When it comes to national pride, Americans are No. 1 in the world, according to a survey of 34 countries released Tuesday.

Venezuela came in a close second for having the most patriotism, according to the report from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. People rated how proud they were of their countries in areas such as political influence, economic success, sports and history.

"The two things we (Americans) rank high on are what we think of as the political or power dimension," said Tom W. Smith, who wrote the report and directs the General Social Survey at the university's research center. "Given that we're the one world superpower, it's not that surprising."

Patriotism is mostly a "New World" concept, the survey said. Ex-colonies and newer nations were more likely to rank high on the list, while Western European, East Asian and former Socialist countries usually ranked near the middle or bottom.

The report was based on a survey in 34 countries conducted by the International Social Survey Program. People rated how proud they were of their countries in 10 areas: political influence, social security, the way their democracy works, economic success, science and technology, sports, arts and literature, military, history, and fair treatment of all groups in society.

The U.S. ranked highest overall and in five categories: pride in its democracy, political influence, economy, science and military. Venezuela came in second by ranking highest in sports, arts and literature, history, and fair treatment of all groups in society.

Eric Wingerter, a Washington D.C.-based spokesman for the Venezuelan government, said the country previously imported much of its television programming, movies and pop music from the U.S., but that has changed under President Hugo Chavez's leadership.

Many Venezuelans say Chavez has helped create a new sense of national pride, he said.

"There's been a real emphasis on rediscovering what it means to be Venezuelan," he said.

The debate in Venezuela over Chavez, who makes headlines for nationalistic, anti-U.S. rhetoric, might account for the country's No. 2 ranking, Smith said.

"We looked at, 'Well, is it just the Chavez support, or is it the image of the country?' and they're actually both high," Smith said.

Ireland came in at No. 3, followed by South Africa and Australia.

Cultural differences might explain lower rankings for the three Asian countries on the list--Japan (18th), Taiwan (29th), and Korea (31), Smith said.

"It is both bad luck and poor manners to be boastful about things there," Smith said.

Countries that were part of the former Soviet Union or in the former Eastern Bloc ranked lower because they're still struggling to find new national identities, Smith said. Hungary was the highest Eastern European country on the list at 21.

Gas Pipeline Meeting in Venezuela Invites Bolivia to Join Mega Project

Caracas, Venezuela, June 29, 2006—Bolivia officially joined the Great Southern Gas Pipeline project during meetings which took place this week in Caracas between the four participating countries: Argentina, Brazil,Venezuela and Bolivia.

“This pipeline is going to be the backbone of the all of the Southamerican community and the dream is now of four countries, because Bolivia is joining, that are going to generate strong support for the project,” announced Argentine Planning Minister Julio De Vido in a comunique distributed by Argentina. According to De Vido, there are also plans to invite Uruguay, Paraguay and others to join the project.

In Preparation for Tuesday’s Ministerial Committee meeting, working groups met on Sunday and Monday to discuss the various issues, ideas and proposals including the “market, resources, comercialization, tarif design, engeneering planning, environmental regulatory aspects, management of strategic communications, among other themes,” during the Fourth meeting of the Multilateral Work Committee.

The Ministerial Committee approved the working plan on Tuesday and also approved $150,000 to Bolivia to carry out an environmental study before the implimentation of the project.

According to an official comuniqué, the Ministerial Committee, which will meet next in September, also decided to designate a Permanent Commission, based in Venezuela, to be “exclusively dedicated to presenting, in 60 days, the terms and conditions for the contracting of the engineering conceptual design of the Great Southern Gas Pipeline.” The comuniqué announced that “each Ministry will pass on the relative information to the Commission regarding supply and demand of gas.”

The Gas Pipeline is a 8-10,000 km long, $20-25 billion project, which would run from Caracas to Buenos Aires, and would be the longest gas pipeline in the world. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says that the pipeline could take eight years to construct and could provide a million jobs.  Some analysts say that Brazil, which currently receives most of its gas from Bolivia, could save $11 billion annually in gas costs when the pipeline finally becomes operational.

De Vido expressed the importance of the pipeline “for the development of the people.” “We are entering in to a more committed operational phase,” he said, adding, “This project isn´t about economics, but rather it has an important social sense.”

But there are many critics who fear that the mere size of the project could make the Venezuelan gas too expensive, and that the pipeline could wreak environmental havoc all along the pipeline route.

In March, Brazzil magazine, reported that environmentalists from the countries in the planning stages of the Project, “have described the pipeline project as ‘a plan arising from the most antiquated, primitive neo-liberal economic development policy,’ which offers fuel that is cleaner than oil, ‘but poses greater operational risks, contributes to global warming just as oil does, will lead to deforestation all along the pipeline route, and is vulnerable to natural disasters or acts of sabotage.’”

Ironically, In a BBC interview in April, the Bolivian Vice-minister of Hydrocarbons, Julio Gómez called the proposed pipeline “ridiculous,” and announced his fears regarding the environmental impact of the proposed pipeline, which mostly likely will run through large tracks of the Amazon. Gómez also agreed that the idea did not originate with Chavez or Venezuela, but with the private oil industry.

Nevertheless, according to the Venezuelan Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, the Presidents from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela plan to meet in August to begin construction on the Great Southern Gas Pipeline.

See also: Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina Move Ahead on Integration

Venezuelan Opposition Group Súmate Won’t Organize Primary Vote

Súmate directors Alejandro Plaz and Maria Corina Machado
Credit: El Universal

Caracas, Venezuela, June 28, 2006—The Venezuelan opposition NGO Súmate announced yesterday that due to a lack of agreement among opposition presidential candidates, the group will not have sufficient time to organize a primary as it had intended for early August. Several opposition candidates lamented the decision, while government spokespersons argued it was a good move for the opposition and for Venezuela.

Súmate’s spokespersons, Alejandro Plaz and Maria Corina Machado explained that the group was forced to cancel plans for the primary because opposition candidates did not agree in time to participate in a vote to select a single candidate to confront President Chavez in the December 3, 2006 presidential elections. “Súmate announces to all citizens that it can no longer be held responsible for holding primary elections,” said Plaz.

According to Plaz, Súmate would need at least six weeks to prepare such a primary and if the vote was to take place in August, when presidential candidates must be registered, then, as of last Sunday, there was insufficient time to hold the primary. At least 50,000 volunteers would have to be mobilized, material produced and distributed, and technology developed, said the Súmate representatives.

Despite this decision, Plaz and Machado assured that Súmate would continue its work to make sure that the opposition is united and that the presidential elections will be clean. Súmate “will continue to do everything in its power to promote a platform of national unity, for the undeniable democratic struggle for clean elections,” said Plaz.

Practically all opposition candidates for president agree that the opposition should nominate a single candidate to confront Chavez in the December vote, but they disagree on the method for choosing such a candidate. Venezuela’s constitution does not require a run-off vote for the presidency, should no candidate achieve an absolute majority, which means that if the opposition splits its vote among several candidates, Chavez could still win, even if he does not have over 50% of the vote. However, recent opposition polls show that Chavez currently enjoys the support of at least 60% of the population.

Venezuelan Vice-President José Vicente Rangel practically congratulated Súmate, saying that Súmate is, “burying a corpse, which has been dead for quite some time.” According to Rangel, “this decision favors those sectors that want to democratically participate in the electoral process.”

Similarly, the Minister of Communication and Information, William Lara, said, “One of the best pieces of news today is that the non-violent opposition in the country is liberating itself from Súmate, which is a Trojan horse of the Bush administration.” “We are contented because a factor of intervention of the United States in Venezuela’s internal politics has recognized its rejection,” he added.

Súmate, which was the main organization behind the mobilization for the August 2004 recall referendum against President Chavez, has received several hundred thousand dollars from the US Agency for International Development and from the National Endowment for Democracy, both of which are financed by the U.S. Congress.

Several opposition presidential candidates lamented the decision, but blamed their fellow candidates for not supporting the primary process. Former Supreme Court judge Cecilia Sosa, who is one of the candidates, released a statement saying that her party, the Republican Federal Party, “strongly condemns the attitude of those pre-candidates who do not unequivocally support the holding of primaries.” Sosa’s party’s statement went on to say that it would “not support any mechanism for choosing a single candidate that does not correspond to the principles of transparency, democracy, and participation…”

Julio Borges, who is a candidate of the conservative Justice First party, issued a statement saying, “I issue a call to all pre-candidates that have stated objections to the method of primaries that they understand the historical importance of these elections. …I commit myself before the country that we register a single name for the presidential elections of December.”

Other opposition candidates, such Teodoro Petkoff, who once was a presidential candidate of the party Movement towards Socialism, have proposed to organize an opinion poll instead of a primary. “The other mechanisms [for selecting a candidate’] continue their validity and the conversations [with other presidential candidates] are advancing well,” said Petkoff. “Súmate threw in the towel; its decision is respectable, but if it is necessary to have primaries, if the men that want and have the capacity to take the reins of the country … cannot reach an agreement [on a single candidate], then we will have primaries,” he added.

The difference between the two procedures boils down to which procedure would favor what kind of candidate. A primary vote tends to favor more conservative candidate because only opposition supporters would vote. An opinion poll, on the other hand, tends to favor more moderate candidates because a broader spectrum of citizens would probably be consulted.

According to Súmate, the primary needs to take place in the first week of August, two weeks before the deadline for registering presidential candidates. If organizing the primary takes six weeks, the deadline for starting the process passed last Sunday.

Oppositon candidates Friolan Barrios and Sergio Omar Calderon, suggested that the primary could be held later, if all candidates officially register, but then all except the primary winner withdraws.