CNE, where am I?

Update So I just checked the CNE web site and everything seems to be OK, I guess the CNE must have been updating or they had a server problem. Although it seems strange since using other identification numbers (random ones) their data was displayed but mine was not.

The date of Aug. 15, 2004 in Venezuela will be a date that will probably live forever in history as a date in which Chavez supporters and opponents were able to wait in long lines for up to 4 or more hours to cast there vote, to decide if Chavez should stay or be removed from office. Leading up to this date the opposition had to collect 3 rounds of signatures, were threatened and many were fired from government jobs (ie. using the infamous Tascon list) that Chavez has now admitted existed and was used against his opponents. As for those of us in outside of Venezuela we were also subject to government abuses and violation of our constitutional rights. The most obvious violation was the statement a month before Aug. 15 that those individuals that were voting at the referendum had to prove not only their Venezuelan citizenship but also a proof of legal residence in the other country. While one would hope that no one has illegal status in another country this is a violation of your basic right, what business does the Venezuelan government have in determining my legal status in the USA? that is between me and the USA not Venezuela. While I could provide a long list of irregularities, there is one that I want to bring up, since it is happening again! Now that the Consejo Nacional Electoral is now 4 Pro-Chavez members and 1 independent/opposition, the CNE can now commit even more violations with impunity. While reading NoticieroDigital, I came across a messages saying that people living outside of Venezuela have mysteriously disappeared from the electoral (CNE) database. So out of curiosity I decided to check my national ID number, and guess what? I'm not registered either! Despite the fact that I registered in May of 2003.
I would like to elaborate on the ever so transparent and non-partisan CNE (sarcasm) on this irregularity. My family in 2004 drove 10 hours round trip to the Venezuelan consulate in Chicago just to register to vote prior to Aug. 15, 2004, about a month after changing their voting location to Chicago (from Caracas) we checked the CNE database. Guess what? my father was actually changed to vote in some small town in the State of Lara, by the way no one in my family has ever been to Lara or even heard of the town. Thankfully, he was able to fax one of the independent/opposition CNE members at the time and about a week later the "error" was corrected. While, my along with other "disappeared" names from the CNE database could have been a mistake, I have trouble believing it due to how the Chavez government has behaved and has openly persecuted opponents in the past (ie. Luis Tascon list). I do plan on calling the consulate to inquire about this though.

Just to inform readers, a couple of months prior to Aug. 15, 2004 the Chavez government embarked on a massive nationalization and voter registration campaign, as it turns out many of the Colombian FARC terrorists that have been killed or caught in Colombia have Venezuelan IDs and are registered in the CNE database, including Rodrigo Granda who was caught in Venezuela in Dec. 2004.

Update I just called the consulate in Chicago, the guy was actually polite and helpfull (as much as he could be), and I was told that they don't know anything about names disappering from the CNE, I was also the first person to have called about this. He proceded to tell me that it is illegal for the CNE to remove names from the database unless I have died (which I am well awar of). I was told that I would have to contact the CNE directly since the consulate only registeres people.

BTW I would like to congratulate Alex at Vcrisis.com for his interview in the well known Venezuelan news paper El Nacional

Science and Chavez

Back in 2002/2003 Venezuela was caught up in the national strike that cost the country billions of dollars and thousands of lost jobs, all because Chavez was refusing to step down as president (now dictator). One of the reason for the strike was because of how government institutions were becoming ever more politicized under Chavez. In other words if you don't profess you loyalty to the revolution and Chavez you are of no use to the government and automatically blacklisted (loss of your job and benefits). Most of the widely reported politicization was in the state oil company PDVSA, however, another institution was experiencing the same demise. It was the IVIC a highly renowned government scientific research facility in Venezuela. Like everything else under Chavez, if you are not an active Chavez supporter then those who are, will make you life very hard to impossible.
While at a scientific meeting last year I met a Venezuelan scientists who left the IVIC because she was not allowed to do her scientific research in peace. Instead the appointed Chavez loyalists in the government administration made her and others life very difficult (ie. withholding funds and harassment) all because the only thing they wanted to do was their research and not spend their time professing their loyalty to Chavez. At the time I spoke to her she was no longer living in Venezuela, instead she was doing research in a another Latin American country where politics and science are kept seperate, as they should be. If you click here you can read a series of letters (arguments), about science in Venezuela, that were published over a three month period in the highly prestigious scientific journals Science and Nature.

"Oil Social Fund"

After my prolonged absence from posting I have finally found a little time to write something.
Many years ago I read an article about Poland and a recent investment in its weapons manufacturing. In short it discussed how foreign companies were investing in a weapons manufacturing facility, but in order to do so they were also obligated to make a social investment. For example company X from France was going to invest $1 million in a new weapons manufacturing facility. Company X was obligated to make a "social" investment of 1% ($10,000), this would include education, health care, and founding new companies. So my question is way can't Venezuela implement a similar "social" investment with its oil industry? Of course under the Chavez dictatorship this could not be done, but lets say after Chavez can this be done? So here is what I envision:
We are all aware that Venezuela has lots of oil and many foreign companies want to invest there, therefore Venezuela has a significant amount of negotiating power with oil, so why not use that power? Lets say Shell invests $5 million in Puerto Cabello (a city in the state of Carabobo) in a new refinery, so they are also obligated to invest %1 ($50,000) on top of the $5 million in the local community. While Shell makes a 1% social investment the government is also obligated to match the investment ($50,000). Now the local community where Shell is making the investment has ($100,000) in "social investments".
What do I mean by "social investments"? Well my idea would be a certain percentage (the majority) of the money staying in the local community and the surrounding towns, then maybe a small percentage going to the state and maybe some to the federal govt. The moneys for investment would go to education and funding scholarships, some could be used for local clinics, but most importantly some of the money should be used for funding local loans for small and medium businesses.
Who oversees the money? My idea would be to have a representative from the industry (ex. Shell), government, and the local community. Such that the local community can voice what they need (ie. better schools, clinics), and the money can be used to fund those improvements. Of course one would have to limit how that money is to be used, as to prevent political use and stimulating corruption.
I strongly believe that such an "oil social fund" could work in Venezuela and would quench the notion that oil money is going overseas or not being distributed to the poor, it would also address the issue that big companies pillage third world communities (this is a significant problem in some countries like Nigeria and its oil industry). Unfortunately an "oil social fund" like the one described here could never work under the current regime one can only hope and plan for the future.