A book that may be worth reading

I came across this book that may be worth reading for those people that know little about Venezuela. If anyone has read this book please let me know what your thoughts are on it. One strange thing is that one of the editors is Jennifer L. McCoy from the Carter Center, it seems strange that she would edit a book on the unraveling Democracy in Venezuela yet promote it by endorsing the questionable referendum in Aug. 2004.

"The Unraveling of Representative Democracy in Venezuela"

I also recomend:
"United States and Venezuela: Rethinking a Relationship ". I read the previous edition of the book and found it a bit dry but very informative.

For those of you readers that know little about Venezuela I highly recomend reading it history, it is the best way to put the current (ie. Chavez) in the proper perspective.

Pat Robertson and Chavez

Yesterday the Venezuelan opposition saw a setback in it's international and to some degree national campaign to remove the totalitarian government of Chavez. The remarks by Pat Robertson calling for the assassination of Chavez are irresponsible and do nothing but fuel the fire that is Chavez. Internationally it further legitimizes the leftist argument that the Venezuelan opposition is controlled by Bush and the religious fanatics, hence we are guilty by association. Within Venezuela these comments are easily interpreted as proof that the White House is wanting to assassinate Chavez, simply because of the influence religious figures have in the White House. But let us not forget that Mr. Robertson is a Christian man too. So with comments like these that makes the removal of Chavez from power all the more difficult, moreover it simply provides him more popularity and legitimizes his actions. Despite there being little doubt that Chavez is a threat to other countries in the region by funding destabilizing radical groups like the FARC, the call for Chavez's assassination by such an influential person is nothing short of irresponsible and counter productive.

In short these comments will give Chavez and his government some fodder to feed on for the next few days, to distract the people from the more significant problems of lack of housing, malnutrition, unemployment, and insecurity that are plaguing the Veneuzelan people under the rule of Chavez.

Support Venezuelan Folk Music

September 21, 2005

SIMON DIAZ (Venezuela)
Venezuelan folk icon and legend

Simón Díaz is the most revered exponent of the traditional folklore of Venezuela, singer, composer, artist and poet Simón Díaz’s career spans 56 years and 75 recordings.

Simón Díaz is known foremost for his recovery of the songs of the Venezuelan plains (llanos). Convinced that these were a unique music, he devoted himself to studying, composing and disseminating them. He succeeded in turning the songs of the Venezuelan countryside into an authentic musical genre performed by such great artists as Julio Iglesias, Plácido Domingo, Celia Cruz, Mercedes Sosa, Gipsy Kings and Gilberto Santa Rosa, to name a few.

Simón Díaz is known worldwide as the author of “Caballo Viejo”(also named “Bamboleo” and an international hit for the Gipsy Kings)

www.simondiaz.com

Performance
10:3O P.M.

Old Town School of Folk Music
4544 N. Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL 60625

$ 4.50 per person

Venezuela, protests, fraud, news, and something fun!

Some interesting developments today and something fun for you to do (I promise you will like it)

2030?
Chavez announces that he will stay as president till 2030 not 2021. Oh really? but doesn't the constitution say that he can only stay till 2012 IF he gets reelected in 2006? Oh ya, I forget the constitution isn't worth the paper it's written on.

Fraud?
Chavez supporters demonstrated today in the state of Anzoategui because of what they say was a fraudulent election last week. Of course they don't blame Chavez, but they did say they will go to Miraflores to speak with Chavez if they have too. What can you say it's revolutionary democracy.

RadioSur?
Yes, you read right Chavez announced that he is floating the idea of creating radio station to be broadcast in the Americas. Yaya I can't wait!

A new era?
National Assembly president Nicolas Maduro stated along with Chavez that he expects to see in the next 25 years "tha fall of the North American Imperialism". Oh ya they also announced that the Bolivarian Era begins this year and will last till 2030, but what happened with the last 7 years?

Unity?
Well it seems that most of the major opposition political parties, or what is left of them, have all made statements independently that they need to be united. Wow, what took you guys so long to realize this? Oh ya I forget you guys were too busy trying to screw each other.

Something fun!
So for all you "Shrub" and "Peanut " fans out there (like myself) here is something you may find pretty funny. Type in the word "failure" into Google to see what the first and second search results are. The third result is interesting too. You gotta love Google!

Waking Up to a Threat in Latin America

Stratfor Report 8/9/05 - By Peter Zeihan | Latin America has been largely ignored by the United States since Clinton's bailout of the Mexican peso in 1995. Since then, the only "proactive" U.S. policies in the region have involved military aid to Colombia, the embargo against Cuba and a weak push for a hemispheric free trade area. Under Bush, no meaningful evolutions to these core policy planks have emerged, while personalities such as John Maisto (ambassador to Venezuela), Otto Juan Reich (former assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs), and Roger Noriega (Reich's replacement) have simply represented drift. Even a personal push by Bush at the Organization of American States summit in June failed to spark any interest or results on behalf of the Latin Americans.

In the meantime, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been busy.

Tightly aligned with Havana and systematically severing relations with the U.S. government, Chavez has redefined Venezuela's relations with the United States in hostile terms -- adopting a new national security doctrine that perceives the United States as Venezuela's greatest enemy.

Since solidifying his power in the aftermath of a civil-military revolt in 2002, an oil industry strike in 2003 and a presidential recall referendum in 2004, Chavez has used his country's oil wealth to export his Bolivarian Revolution throughout the region. His plan is to exploit the region's weak governments and disaffected populations -- already hostile to Washington -- to facilitate the formation of radical social governments opposed to the United States.
Assisting indigenous groups in Bolivia and working to undermine U.S. influence in Ecuador by courting the government with offers of financial and energy assistance are his two biggest policy thrusts at the present time. Should they succeed, Venezuela will have largely limited U.S. influence in South America to the cocaine-fueled war in Colombia.

In contrast, U.S. policy has largely reflected the underwhelming personnel tasked with administering it: unimaginative, obtuse, reactive, outdated. Even when Argentina crashed and burned, Congress voted $3 billion in military aid to Colombia, and Venezuela spiraled into coups and energy industry strikes, American policy barely fidgeted.

However, as Chavez's strategy unfolds and his momentum builds, Washington is belatedly acting. The first step of the response has been -- again, no surprise -- a change of personnel at State. Otto Reich departed the scene in 2004, and Thomas Shannon, whose previous postings include serving as Rice's senior Latin American adviser at the NSC, has been appointed as the new assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs. Other diplomats -- many with experience in countering Castro's Cuba -- are now being reshuffled to counter a different revolution. Kevin Whitaker -- at the Cuba desk and now on his way to be the No. 2 at the Venezuelan embassy -- comes to mind.

Collectively, these diplomatic appointments reflect growing U.S. concerns about the regional expansion of Chavez's Bolivarian revolution, as well as an effort to build a political containment strategy to stop the Chavez/Castro alliance from winning converts among radical groups throughout South America.

Unlike Washington's growing anti-Russian efforts, however, its Latin American policies are coming from a low base with few resources. In contrast, the Venezuelan-Cuban strategy is well funded, entrenched and using subsidized oil to entice financially strapped governments into aligning themselves politically with Caracas. Add in that anti-American sentiment is both strong and rising in Latin America -- and that no Latin American government is signing on to Washington's late-to-the-party strategy -- and it becomes apparent that boxing in Caracas it will take more than a change of nameplates and some vague commitments to a new containment agenda.

Gracias Velithion :)

Elections past and present

I was going to wait to make this post but considering elections were held today in Venezuela I thought it was appropriate. The pictures you see below were taken (by me) last year on Aug 15th, the day venezuelans went in mass to vote for the presidential referendum, at the consulate in Chicago.

Wether you were a Chavez supporter or non-supporter we all endured a very long day on Aug 15th. My family for instance drove 4-5 hours to Chicago and were in line to vote by 8 am and they were already about 50th in line. However, it was not until about 1pm did we actually get to vote! But the stories are even more extreme in Venezulea where some people waited 10 hours or more to vote. In Chicago I remember speaking with a woman who drove 12 hours with here 2 week old baby just to vote. Despite the long lines and patient waiting Chavez "won" the referendum. It is still difficult to accept Chavez's win when doubt remains in the population on its transparency. Whouldn't the govt. Carter Center and OAS want to count the paper votes at least to put (we will say 40%) of the populations concerns to rest. I personally would accept the Chavez win if I knew that the votes were counted in a transparent way, but that never happened!

Now for the american readers I would like to ask you, if you voted for Kerry (as I did) how would you feel if Bush while campaigning threatened government employees with their job if they voted for say Kerry (some actually lost there jobs)? but to makes matters worse what if finger print identification machines were used right as you entered to cast your vote, while Bush said "your vote is secret but we will know who you voted for". How fair, transparent and free do you think the elections would have been if Bush used (illegally) millions of US $ to campaign while Kerry received $0. On top of this how much faith would you have in a fair Bush win if 3 of 5 electoral board members were obviously pro-Bush and did not allow the other two members including the OAS and the Carter Center from entering the final vote counting room, where all of the electronic votes cast in the US were sent and counted! So I ask you would you accept the final results of a Bush win? I wouldn't, nor should the Venezuelan people accept the Chavez win of last year.

To digress, polls are about to close in Venezuela and it looks as if abstention is very high across Venezuela. For instance this morning I called my grandparents and they said that they will not vote today, this is coming from people who have lived through the dictatorship of Perez Jimenez and since his ouster have voted every time elections have taken place and they have participated at volunteered time at voting boths and in counting ballots, but today they decided that they didn't want there vote stolen, so they stayed home, just like so many Venezuelans today.