Let them eat Chavismo

Food and Venezuela
Let them eat Chavismo
The UN honours Venezuela for curbing hunger—which is actually getting worse

Jun 20th 2015

NEWS that the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) had given Venezuela a diploma for its “notable and exceptional” efforts to curb hunger did not reach Joseína Rodríguez. Recently unemployed, and living with her family in a farm outhouse in the south-west of the country, she was too busy working out where her next meal was coming from.

“Joseína” (not her real name) helps run one of the community councils that are the building blocks of the “socialist revolution” set up by the late President Hugo Chávez. “Chávez used to say that with the revolution everything would keep getting better,” she sighs. “I don’t know why this president (his successor, Nicolás Maduro) hasn’t kept the promise.” Sitting on an upturned bucket in the dusty yard of a farm that was taken over (before Chávez) by its workers, she says she used to work making meals for her neighbours, but stopped “because they can’t pay the prices I have to charge.” Staples reaching her community via the main state-subsidised food network cover only 200 of the 1,000 families who are supposed to benefit.

The word “hunger” has been heard a lot in Caracas lately, mostly thanks to a hunger strike by Leopoldo López, the jailed opposition leader, and dozens of his supporters. Their demands—that political prisoners be freed, and a date set for parliamentary elections with foreign observers watching—have so far been ignored. This week some Brazilian senators were the latest senior foreign visitors to back the detainees.

So the UN plaudit was a relief for the government. According to the FAO, which presented the diploma on June 8th, Venezuela is one of 72 countries that have reached the UN Millennium Development Goal of halving the percentage of their populations suffering from hunger. But the prize, based on government data up to 2012, comes amid growing evidence that the trend has reversed.

In his speech to the FAO, Vice-president Jorge Arreaza cited the government’s claim that 95% of Venezuelans eat three meals a day. But in a survey carried out last year by three leading universities, more than 11% said they ate just twice a day or less.   

The FAO said it saw no reason to doubt the statistics it used. But many of the numbers needed for a full evaluation have not been published for years. The central bank has issued no monthly inflation or food scarcity figures for 2015. In November, even by official accounts a minimum wage only bought 76% of the food required for the average family. Independent estimates suggest three-and-a-half minimum wages are now required. About 40% of those in work get the minimum wage or less.

Marianella Herrera, a nutritionist at the Fundación Bengoa, a private foundation, calls official data partial and inconsistent. “Other studies show an increase in malnutrition,” she says. “Children are showing up in hospital emergency wards with severe malnutrition, and some are dying because of a lack of basic supplies.” The government’s own figures, which show it reached the UN target for reducing malnutrition in children by 2008, indicate that by 2013 Venezuela was close to crossing the line again, in the opposite direction.

Joseína finds it a mercy that local authorities help where central agencies fail. “Last week they brought chicken, the week before it was milk.” Another lifeline comes from plantain from local farms and occasionally fish. Getting to a supermarket takes an hour and a half by motorcycle-taxi and bus; queues are long. “Sometimes when we get to the door, nothing is left.”

Protest against Maduro - Protesta a Maduro - New York - San Francisco

Venezuelans in New York and San Francisco will be raising their voices to the world  to denounce the repression, torture, human rights violations, and deaths for violence in Venezuela.

Venezolanos en New York y San Francisco estaran alzando sus voces para denunciar ante el mundo la represión, las torturas, la violación de los derechos humanos, y las muertes por violencia en Venezuela.
Hastag:    #LaCAUSAesVzlaONU26S

New York:

Venezuelans in New York are inviting to a protest against Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro, tomorrow Friday 26th:
Date:          September 26th, 2014
Time:         12:00pm - 4:00pm
Location:   In front of the United Nations (47th Street & 1st Avenue).

Venezolanos en New York están invitando a una protesta en contra del presidente de Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, mañana viernes 26:
Día:            26 de Septiembre
Hora:        12:00pm - 4:00pm
Lugar:      Sede de la ONU, Calle 47 con Primera Avenida - New York.

San Francisco, California:

Venezuelans in San Francisco will be protesting against Venezuelan President, Nicolás Maduro, marching:
Date:          September 26th, 2014
Time:         12:00pm - 2:00pm
Location:   March from the Simón Bolívar Statue in the UN Plaza to San Francisco Civil Center.

Venezolanos en San Francisco protestarán al presidente de Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, marchando:.
Dia:           26 de Septiembre
Hora:       12:00pm - 2:00pm
Lugar:      Marcha desde la estatua de Simón Bolívar en la UN Plaza hasta el Civic Center, San Francisco, CA

Protest against Maduro - UN

This Wednesday at 3PM is scheduled a protest at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza located in front of the United Nations (47th Street & 1st Avenue) to repudiate the words of Nicolas Maduro, who is scheduled to address theUN tomorrow. There will be Venezuelans denouncing Human Rights violations, illegal arrests, the existence of political prisoners, severe economic and health crisis accompanied by the greatest shortages in modern times in our country and the unbridled violence. Also reject Venezuela's bid to the Security Council of the UN.

How the Cuban government assassinated an inocent, that was fighting for his rights?

Carromero says Cuban officer forced him to change crash story
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
JTAMAYO@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM

Angel Carromero says a Cuban officer slapped him “a couple of times” to dissuade him from insisting that the death of leading dissident Oswaldo Payá was caused by State Security agents and was not an accident.

The evidence also led him to conclude that Payá and another dissident, Harold Cepero, survived a car crash and were murdered later by State Security, Carromero told El Nuevo Herald Tuesday during his most detailed recounting yet of the crash.

The Spaniard’s comments by phone from Madrid shed new light on a fatal incident that has led the Payá family, the U.S. and other governments and many human rights activists around the world to demand an independent investigation of the deaths.

Carromero said he is now speaking at length about the crash and its aftermath to help Payá’s relatives — he is eager to testify at any lawsuit they file against Cuba, he noted — and to mark the anniversary of the deaths on July 22.

Cuba’s version is that he was driving a rented Hyundai too fast and hit a tree near the eastern city of Bayamo. Payá died on the spot and Cepero later at a hospital. Another passenger, Jens Aron Modig of Sweden, was not injured. Carromero was convicted of vehicular homicide and was freed to serve his four-year prison sentence in Spain.

Carromero says that a Cuban man in military uniform “slapped me around a couple of times” to persuade him that he was wrong when he insisted on saying that a car with government license plates had rammed his vehicle from behind and caused the crash.

“That did not happen. Slap. Slap,” he recalled the officer saying. “It wasn’t a beating. A couple of slaps because they wanted me to change my version of events.”

Carromero said his car had been tailed by three different government vehicles, including one marked police cruiser, from the time the foursome left Havana the morning of July 22 to visit dissidents in eastern Cuba. The two Europeans were members of conservative political parties that often support the island’s opposition.

Evidencing the intensity of the government’s interest on Payá and the Europeans, “Yohandry Fontana,” widely believed to be a front for State Security operations, tweeted six hours before the crash that Payá was on his way to the beach resort of Varadero.

Carromero said they never drove to Varadero. But on the previous day, he added, he had exchanged 4,000 Euros into Cuban currency in Havana. When the teller asked him why he was changing so much, he replied that he was going to Varadero.

The police cruiser that initially tailed them gave way to an old red Lada as they made their way east, he said, and shortly before the crash was replaced by a newer blue car, also with clearly visible blue license plates and with two men aboard.

That car kept getting closer and Payá told him to maintain his normal speed of about 50-60 kph, the Spaniard said. But he grew scared, “It’s terrifying to look at the rear view mirror and see the eyes of the person that is looking at you.

“I felt the impact and lost control,” he said. He fainted and does not recall hitting a tree, certainly not with the kind of impact that would have killed two people. He never saw the blue car or its passengers again.

Carromero said he recovered consciousness as a group of men were putting him into a white mini-van that apparently drove him to the hospital in Bayamo. It was the same kind of van that police later used to drive him from prison to his trial, he added. At his trial, Cuban officials said they did not know who drove him to the hospital.

He fainted again and came to in the hospital, where he got two stitches for a cut on the right side of the head. The Spaniard said he was initially told that four people had arrived, then three, then just two — he and Modig.

Carromero said he never saw Payá or Cepero in the hospital, but that considering all the evidence in the case, including the fact that Payá’s relatives never received a copy of his autopsy, “it is logical that they were assassinated.”

At the hospital, he told the first Cuban official that questioned him — a woman in military uniform — that another car had rammed him and run him off the road. She took down his testimony and had him sign that declaration, he added.

But then a group of male officers in uniform, including the man who slapped him, turned up and threatened that if he did not agree to say that it was a one-car crash he might go to jail and not get out for a long time, Carromero added.

Eventually he agreed to film a video voicing the Cuban version of the crash and hoping to get a light sentence. While Gross remains in prison, Carromero was allowed to return to Spain to serve the remainder of his sentence. He now wears a GGBPS ankle bracelet.

“At 26 years of age, surrounded by military people, without knowing what the hell to do … I signed anything,” he said.

A Spanish consular official visited him two or three days after the crash but was turned back for several weeks afterwards, Carromero said. He did not meet his Cuban lawyer until about 20 days after the crash and with his Spanish lawyer until one day before his trial. The Cuban lawyer had a suspicious motorcycle accident before the trial and broke a foot.

Carromero said he is now extremely thankful that the Spanish government, controlled by his Popular Party, had persuaded Cuba to allow him to serve the remainder of his sentence at home. He is on home release.

But he ruefully admits that he considered suicide when he was jailed in Cuba.

“I don’t feel very proud of that,” he said. “But I was desperate. I thought they were never going to let me go. In that country, they accuse you and you’re already condemned. Resign yourself, because it’s over.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/13/3560796/carromero-says-cuban-officer.html#storylink=cpy

UN to hear testimony of foul play in Cuban dissident’s death « View from Geneva

How the Cuban government assassinated a dissident...

UN to hear testimony of foul play in Cuban dissident’s death « View from Geneva

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?

Socialism vs Labour

Sad that my pretty country is destroying by one man: "Hugo Chavez", and the venezuelan citizens against Chavez don't know what else to do......

vdebate reporter

SOCIALISM V LABOUR
May 7th 2009
Curbing opposition to chavismo
HIS government espouses "21st-century socialism" and claims to stand for the working class. Yet Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president, has never been a fan of his country's trade unions. He portrays them as corrupt vestiges of a capitalist past and of the previous political order. Ever since he was first elected, in 1998, he has sought ways to bring them to heel.

Having first tried and failed to take over the main trade-union confederation, he encouraged a pro-government rival. Now he wants to bypass the unions altogether, by establishing in their place "workers' councils" that amount to branches of the ruling Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

A bill in the government-controlled National Assembly would eliminate collective bargaining and give powers in labour matters to the new councils. "The government's policy is the total elimination of the union movement," says Orlando Chirino, a former CHAVISTA who is one of the architects of the Labour Solidarity Movement, a new group which embraces unions from both sides of the country's political divide and which defends union autonomy.

The bill comes hand-in-hand with the slowdown in the economy and a government crackdown on opposition politicians. Its onslaught on the unions, and its refusal to negotiate collective contracts--or to respect them once signed--is meeting resistance. Labour disputes are increasing, from 46 in January, to 59 in February and 113 in March, according to figures compiled by Victorino Marquez, a labour specialist at the Catholic University in Caracas.

With budgets slashed following the fall in the oil price, the government can no longer buy industrial peace. It is starting to resort to force. A strike in the Caracas metro was averted by the threat of military intervention. Mr Chavez called the metro workers "corrupt" for insisting on the implementation of an agreement that had already been signed. According to press reports, dozens of trade unionists are being prosecuted. Their alleged crimes include "subversion" and holding demonstrations in "security zones" such as those around big factories.
Scores have been murdered, in disputes over contracts that mainly involve pro-government unions.

Only about 11% of the workforce belongs to a union. The bedrock of Mr Chavez's support has long lain with non-unionised workers in the vast informal economy. But unionised workers are concentrated in important parts of the economy, including the oil industry and the heavy-industrial centre of Ciudad Guayana in the south-east. Both are in ferment over wage demands. Disputes are also brewing among teachers, health workers and in the electricity industry.

The oil industry could be the biggest flashpoint. The government is refusing to negotiate wages and conditions until the oil workers' federation elects a new leadership in a ballot due later this month.

There are signs that the government wants to delay the vote. The budget of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the state-owned oil company, has been slashed by more than half this year. Rafael Ramirez, the energy minister and head of PDVSA, said there would be no pay rise, even though inflation is close to 30%. He later backtracked.

Mr Chavez insists that only the rich will pay the price of the impending recession. But workers are already feeling its effects. The government seems to welcome the looming confrontation with the unions, as an opportunity to crush dissent and take Mr Chavez's "revolution" to the next level. Jorge Giordani, the planning minister, said recently that the inflation rate should not be the main factor in setting the minimum wage. He added that he knew of no example in the world where socialism had been established on the basis of abundance. "Socialism has emerged from scarcity," he declared.

On May Day the politically divided unions staged two separate marches, as they have for the past few years. The non-government march was broken up by police and national-guard troops using tear gas and water-cannon. "There is no socialism without the working class," Mr Chavez told a rival march of his supporters. By fomenting division and repressing dissent, Mr Chavez may succeed in crushing the labour movement. With it would go one of the few remaining institutions of democracy and pluralism in Venezuela. And Mr Giordani may get the chance to implement the socialism of scarcity in what was once the richest country in Latin America.
See this article with graphics and related items at

http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13611592

Mugabe victory in Zimbabwe elections a Joke

Where are the UN working against violation of the human rights? Where are the African countries, doing the right thing?. Mugabe is a cruel dictator. These elections were not fair.

vdebate reporter

Mugabe Victory in Zimbabwe Elections a 'Joke'
By LOUIS WESTON and PETA THORNYCROFT, The Daily TelegraphJune 30, 2008
HARARE, Zimbabwe — President Mugabe was last night sworn in to a sixth term as president of Zimbabwe, extending his 28 years in power after officials proclaimed he had been re-elected by a landslide

CONTESTED VICTORY President Mugabe of Zimbabwe at his inauguration ceremony yesterday at State house in Harare. Mugabe was sworn in following a run-off election in which he was the sole candidate following the withdrawal of the main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
Maintaining the fiction that the vote was a contested poll, the Zimbabwe Election Commission said that Mr. Mugabe received 2,150,269 votes — or more than 85% — against 233,000 for Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change who won the first round in March.
Between the two polls Mr. Mugabe's Zanu-PF movement launched a campaign of violence against the opposition in which at least 86 people were killed, and Mr. Tsvangirai pulled out of the election.
"This is an unbelievable joke and act of desperation on the part of the regime," the MDC's spokesman, Nelson Chamisa, said. "It qualifies for the Guinness Book of Records as joke of the year. Mugabe will never win an election except when he's contesting against himself."
Prayers at the inauguration were led by an Anglican ally who broke away from the church, Nolbert Kunonga. "We thank you Lord for this unique and miraculous day," he said. "You have not failed our leader." Mr. Mugabe waved a Bible as he recited "so help me God," to cheers from his supporters.
Mr. Tsvangirai was invited to the event but declined. "The inauguration is meaningless," he said. "The world has said so, Zimbabwe has said so. So it's an exercise in self-delusion."
Ambassadors in Harare were conspicuous by their absence from the event.
Although Mr. Mugabe offered to hold talks with the opposition the absence of the word "negotiations" was noticeable and analysts said he intends to remain in office as long as possible.
"It is my hope that sooner rather than later, we shall as diverse political parties hold consultations towards such serious dialogue as will minimize our difference and enhance the area of unity and co-operation," Mr. Mugabe said.
Election observers from the Southern African Development Community said that the poll failed to reflect the will of the people.
Almost 400,000 Zimbabweans defied the threat of violent retribution by Mr. Mugabe's thugs to vote against him or spoil their ballot papers, official results released on yesterday show.
According to the Zimbabwe Election Commission's figures, the turnout of 42% was almost exactly the same as the first round.
But many polling stations were virtually deserted throughout election day. Papers were spoiled.
With 21,127 votes in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city and an opposition stronghold, Mr. Mugabe lost to the combined total of 13,291 votes for Mr. Tsvangirai and 9,166 spoiled papers.
Only a few independent observers were accredited for the election.
And the Zimbabwe Election Support Network — which mounted the most comprehensive monitoring exercise in the first round — pulled out in protest.
Consequently, no unbiased verification of the figures is possible and the true tallies may never be known.
For weeks, Zanu-PF militias have terrorized Zimbabweans, warning them they will launch Operation Red Finger, which will target anyone whose digit is not marked with ink to show that they cast a vote.
They will also target anyone who checks show to have backed Mr Tsvangirai.