Saturday, October 22, 2011

Venezuelan Presidential Campain - Leopoldo Lopez

Very good information about Leopoldo Lopez, from The Economist. Arriba Leopoldo, vas por buen camino


vdebate reporter


Venezuela’s presidential campaign
As clear as MUD
Oct 21st 2011, 12:15 by P.G. CARACAS
LEOPOLDO LÓPEZ is free to seek election in 2012 as Venezuela’s next president. But if elected, he will be barred from taking office. Or maybe not. The government had asked the country’s supreme court for a pronouncement on the “applicability” of a ruling last month by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), which overturned an administrative ban on Mr López holding public office. On October 18th the tribunal responded by muddying the waters.
The matter is of more than academic interest. Mr López, the leader of the centre-left People’s Will party, is among the front-runners for the presidential candidacy of the opposition Democratic Unity alliance—known by its initials, somewhat ironically, as the MUD. One recent poll even showed him in the lead. In 2008, when he was on course to become mayor of greater Caracas, he was barred from standing on account of unproven corruption allegations. According to the IACHR that ban, due to last until 2014, was a breach of Venezuela’s international human-rights obligations because it did not arise from a sentence handed down by a court.
That decision produced a strong reaction from Hugo Chávez, the president, who is standing for re-election. He called the IACHR “worthless”. The government condemned what it deemed interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs, saying the ruling would only be applied if the supreme court found it compatible with the Venezuelan constitution—even though IACHR rulings are binding on member states, and the constitution itself, rewritten during Mr Chávez’s presidency, grants precedence to international human-rights treaties.
It was therefore not surprising that the court, which has a record of dancing to the government’s tune, failed to uphold the ruling. The decision, written by justice Arcadio Delgado, accuses the IACHR of acting “as if it were a colonial power” by usurping the role of Venezuela’s own institutions. What did raise eyebrows was the apparent contradiction between Mr Delgado’s reaffirmation that Mr López was “temporarily barred from holding public office” and the opinion expressed by Luisa Estella Morales, the court’s president, at a subsequent press conference. According to Ms Morales, the court will issue a ruling on whether Mr López can take office as president if and only if he wins the election.
In effect, the supreme court is hedging its bets. By leaving open the possibility that the ban might later be overturned, its president may be signaling a willingness to facilitate a transition to a post-Chávez government if necessary. At a time when Mr Chávez was having tests in Cuba to determine whether the cancer operation he underwent in June was successful—he recently declared he is now cancer-free, but one of his former doctors said on October 16th that he probably has no more than two years to live—that speaks volumes about the uncertainty in government ranks over his political future. Suspicious commentators have suggested that the court’s ruling on Mr López might even have been brought forward to distract attention from a news item that seemed certain to weaken the president.
Meanwhile, by leaving the situation unclarified, the court may also have damaged Mr López’s chances of winning the MUD primaries, which are set for February 12th. Many potential voters could be put off by the fear that, if chosen, he would be less likely to win, and that if he won, he might be barred from taking office. Although Mr López himself has insisted he will stay in the race, and rival candidates have publicly supported that position, in private, some opposition members feel he should withdraw in order to minimise the damage to their cause. For the moment, however, he is at least receiving a great deal of free publicity.

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Friday, October 21, 2011

Globovision fined millions for its riot reporting

As Venezuelans we have to defend Globovisión, because we will be defending our rights of Press Freedom, that keep us informed. We don't want the Venezuelan government to close Globovisión, abusing the Venezuelan Justice system, again.

The CPJ Committee to protect journalist (Defending Journalist Worldwide) wrote the following article.....

Globovisión fined millions for its riot reporting




Inmates are subdued after a prison riot in Cabimas, Venezuela. Globovisión was fined more than US$2 million for its coverage of the uprising. (AP)


New York, October 19, 2011 - Venezuela's telecommunications regulator has fined Globovision, the country's last remaining critical network, more than US$2 million for its coverage of deadly prison riots in June and July, news repors said.
The fine stems from Globovisión's coverage of a tense 27-day standoff between government troops and prisoners at the country's El Rodeo II Prison in the city of Guatire, outside the capital, Caracas. The conflict began after troops raided a nearby prison looking for weapons, which set off gunfights that killed at least 22 people, according to news reports.
Pedro Maldonado, director of the National Telecommunications Commission, known as Conatel, told reporters that in Globovisión's televised interviews with relatives of prisoners, which were rebroadcast 269 times, the station violated the law on social responsibility in radio and television that, among other things, sanctions stirring public anxiety. He said the station falsely claimed that members of the National Guard had "massacred" prisoners and that the reporting could have provoked riots in other prisons. He also claimed that Globovisión failed to transmit the government's point of view in a timely manner.
The fine of 9,300,000 bolívares (approximately US$2,164,000) is equal to 7.5 percent of Globovisión's gross income for 2010, according to Maldonado. The director said in a news conference on Tuesday that the fine was the unanimous decision of the 11 members of the body's social responsibility directorate, press reports said.
"Yet again, Venezuela is attempting to silence the television station Globovisión, this time saying the television station's reporting stirred public anxiety," said Carlos Lauría, CPJ's senior coordinator for the Americas. "Venezuelan authorities must end their systematic campaign of harassment against one of the country's only remaining critical media groups and withdraw the fine."
Globovisión president Guillermo Zuloaga, who is living in exile, said the station would go before the Venezuelan courts to appeal the decision, which he called "grotesque and absurd," the network said. But under Venezuelan law, the fine cannot be deferred until a final court decision is handed down, and Maldonado said the fine must be paid by December 31.
Ricardo Antela, a Globovisión legal adviser, told CPJ that the station did its best to report an important story under extremely difficult circumstances. He said the station's reporters were forced to cover the story from outside a security cordon more than half a mile away from the prison. He also said the government made no official declaration until six days after the riots began and that government officials refused to speak to Globovisión about the crisis.
Globovisión Vice President María Fernanda Flores told reporters that the fine could bankrupt the station, which receives no government advertising. But she also vowed to continue transmitting the news. "There is no way to pay that much money," she said in an interview broadcast by the station. "We will continue to inform the public. We have never censored ourselves and we are not going to. We are not scared," she said.
However, Antela said, if Globovisión does not pay the fine, the state could seize Globovisión's bank accounts, making it impossible to pay employees and suppliers, and effectively shut down the station. He also said that eight of the 11 members of Conatel's social responsibility directorate were government appointees and added that the fine was an attempt to silence a critical voice. He said there was little hope of winning an appeal before the pro-government Venezuelan courts but said the station would take the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Globovisión, a 24-hour news station, has frequently sparred with President Hugo Chávez and his administration, of whom it has been highly critical. In August 2009, a group of more than 30 armed pro-government militants riding motorcycles stormed the network's premises and set off tear gas. Earlier that year, Venezuelan regulators opened five administrative proceedings against the broadcaster on similar charges.
Globovisión is the only network critical of Chávez that is still on the air. Another opposition station, RCTV, was forced off cable and satellite TV in 2010 after its broadcast license was revoked in 2007.

http://www.cpj.org/2011/10/globovision-fined-millions-for-reporting-on-prison.php

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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Disrespect for the life of the less equal

God is big........ Please help us to live in the Venezuela that helps the Venezuelans, no the one that abuse them.Vdebate Reporter

VenEconomia Oct.18, 2011
Disrespect for the life of the less equal
Last week, the United Nations Human Rights Council issued a series of recommendations for reversing the deviations revealed by the Universal Periodic Review to which the Venezuelan Government was subjected.
The Venezuelan delegation rejected some 38 recommendations made by the Council outright, mainly those referring to the freedom of speech, the Independence of the judicial system, and a reform of the prison system in order to ensure compliance with the minimum standard established by the United Nations when it comes to the treatment of inmates.
This failure to accept certain recommendations is totally in line with the violations of the human rights of more than two dozen Venezuelans who, today, are in prison for different political reasons.
The cynicism and the cruel treatment meted out to these prisoners of the government are beyond belief.
One of these cases is that of the judge María de Lourdes Afiuni, who suffered delays in receiving medical treatment for a breast cyst and hemorrhaging, which could have had unpredictable consequences for her health.
Venezuelan “justice” has proved to be equally inhumane in the cases of former Police Chiefs Iván Simonovis, Henry Vivas, and Lázaro Forero. The health of all three has been severely undermined as a result in delays in providing them with medical treatment.

Even more inhumane is the treatment being meted out to the Metropolitan Police officers who are also serving unjust prison sentences for the events of April 2002. Today, one of those officers, Sergeant Julio Rodríguez, has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, but too late in the day as it had already spread to his lymphatic system; and the government still refuses to authorize his release on humanitarian grounds so that he can be treated at home.
Could it be that these Venezuelans less equal than the President, who has at his disposal the very latest medical advances for treating the cancer from which is suffering?

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Sunday, October 16, 2011

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is a Sick Man

Agree 100% with this article of Jerry Brewer vdebate reporter


Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is a Sick Man
By: Jerry Brewer
President Hugo Chavez’s physical and mental health transcends a myriad of opinions and judgment.Chavez’s ever-growing and strong political opposition stands firm in awaiting what many believe is the end of his socialist version of the Bolivarian Revolution, either by election defeat or he succumbing to his critical physical illness.
Chavez pompously says he will be president through the year 2030.To a man who adores his own “one-way freedom” with the media, he closely guards his medical condition; waffling from just needing one treatment of chemotherapy; and sequentially now reaching his fourth recently conducted again in Cuba.
Bolivia’s leftist President Evo Morales went there to be at the side of his socialist mentor. Morales left Cuba to speak at the United Nations last week- assuming Chavez’s usual anti-US and Israel diatribe. Trying to defend world accusations of his regime’s complicity in drug trafficking and terrorism, he chose to blame the US for rumor-mongering. A pretty heady position by a rogue leftist leader who“kicked”the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) out of Bolivia; following the lead of Chavez who did the same. The region’s drug activity for both nations is very well known to a free world’s acute focus on the truth. How can any savvy, sane and inquisitive, person believe Chavez and Morale’s pathological nonsense? Adjoining Latin American neighbors are not fooled.
Morales is now having his own problems at home with the indigenous Bolivian people violently oppressed while trying to assemble peacefully in disagreement with the government.
Let’s face the fact that Hugo Chavez is Venezuela’s master of lies and thus must keep his regime constantly censoring the media. His one-way media output constantly reflects his physical and mentalfitness, as well as his frequent sound-byte attacks on the US (capitalism and imperialism). This, muchlike the father of lies- Fidel Castro’s lengthy absence from the public eye for around four years. Fidel Castro later would emerge and truthfully state that he was near death.Chavez frequently goes to extreme measures to censor Venezuela media- especially after the Christian Science Monitor exposed and published the steady stream of wealthy Venezuelans abandoning theirformer beloved homeland for Panama. Too, it was reported that Chavez’s top military leaders were involved in contingency plans on a move to Panama- this via one of “Panama’s top real estate developers.” The pathological nature of Chavez’s words and tenure in office as Venezuela’s rogue leftist leader, isgraphically and factually demonstrated by the embarrassment of slim victory for majority rule in the 2010 parliamentary election in Venezuela on September 26, 2010.This sparked a tirade of Chavez anger that led to his usual non-stately and crude political demeanor of confrontation. He quickly embarked on travel to meet with his mentor and revolutionary partner Fidel Castro in Cuba, as well as to the embracing arms of Iran’s Ahmadinejad. Too, his stops did not forget his pals in Russia, Syria, and others.
Chavez recently continued to exhibit his flawed and ill propensities to embarrass a once proud and prosperous democratic populace in Venezuela, by “solidarity wishes to Libya’s“on the run”PresidentMuammar Gaddafi and Syria’s embattled President Bashar-al-Assad whose regime is hunting down and killing street protesters. Chavez, as usual, blames this on“Yankee aggression- allowing his flawed mental capacities to ignore a majority world support of those people of those actions wishing to be free of oppression and lies by their rogue leftist dictators.Chavez’s mental illness, whether temporary or not, also does not allow him to see that the people on thestreets in protest against the murdering regimes of Libya and Syria are their own people in masses.
What part of that does Chavez or his own supporters miss? All they have to do is use the free world media for the facts, and not his own personal blog (Twitter) that spews his tired rhetoric of falsehood and subterfuge. He goes by the name of “Chavez Candanga (literally-“the devil”).”
Now there is acurious mentor for him also.The squandering (and the simple disappearance) of billions of dollars in hard earned oil revenue forVenezuela’s citizens, is Chavez’s rationale to deceive a very savvy (but violently oppressed) Venezuelan people into believing Venezuela is to be invaded by the “Yankees.”
This allows him to buy and hoard massive weapons and issue blank checks to leftist regimes throughout the world that care not one iota for the true welfare of the Venezuelan people. Only Chavez garners the accolades for“his”generosity and personal support of murdering world dictator-like regimes.
The truth is that the world has previously seen leftist leaders and regimes telegraph their true intention sthrough their anger and arrogance while consolidating power. Those acts routinely weaken democratic institutions, and trample on the guarantees of human rights. In the absence of a credible judicial control in Venezuela, the Chavez government has implemented “systematically discriminatory policies that have limited the exercise of freedom of expression of journalists, the right to freedom of association for workers and the civil society capacity to promote human rights in Venezuela. The Chavez government has implemented discriminatory practices against its political opponents and critics.
At times, the president himself has openly endorsed acts of discrimination.”Chavez has further defined his sinister agenda through a manifest disregard of the principle of separation of powers and, especially, the idea of an independent judiciary that is “indispensable for protecting fundamental rights in a democratic society.”
What more proof is necessary? It came with the political take over of the Supreme Court by Chávez and his regime.The people of Venezuela, both supporters and non-supporters of Hugo Chavez, urgently need to implement surgical-like fact finding- the search for the truth and facts from a “world”media. In this manner, they can be sure that they did their own homework; used their own God-given minds; and made the right decisions for their future and families. With a factual search for the truth- a free world believes they will say“Nunca mas,”to Hugo Chavez, or any similar leader of destruction and misery.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATES United States of America—Jerry Brewer is C.E.O. of Criminal Justice International Associates (northern Virginia), a global risk mitigation firm.
Website is located at http://www.cjiausa.org/.
mailto:jbrewer@cjiausa.org
TWITTER:cjiausa
Media archives:www.scribd.com/jbrewer31 and http://mexidata.info/

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