ENGLISH EDITION/The artillery of ideas INTERNATIONALFriday, May 16, 2014 | Nº 201 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve

Venezuelan leftists met over the weekend as part of efforts to design the direction and strategy of the country’s Bolivarian revolution in the coming period. One of the con-ferences was aimed at discussing the political ideology of Venezuelan socialism based on the ideas of key Venezuelan and Latin American thinkers. Another event bring-ing together over 1,200 diverse collectives, the First National Constituent Congress of Venezuelan Ecologists and Environmentalists also laid the foundations for a unified and powerful national eco-socialist movement this week. Pg. 2

“Wireless for All” plan in Venezuelan schools & public areas

T/ AVN

The “Wireless for All” project, deployed by the Venezuelan government has reached 1,479 locations, including schools, univer-sities, villages, plazas and parks in the country, repre-senting a 26% improvement over the goal to connect the signal to 5,774 free internet public spaces, said the Min-ister of Science, Technolo-gy and Innovation, Manuel Fernandez on Tuesday.

Fernandez explained that to date they have connected 215 of the 547 plazas that will be a part of the project; 14 of the 25 parks; 788 of the 3,589 colleges, and 462 of the more than 1,600 villag-es and universities raised in the plan.

“This wireless project is for everyone to have free Wifi access connections in four types of spaces. Colleges and universities, these two were instructed by President Nicolas Ma-duro during Learner’s Week in November 2013 and before that he asked us to think of a solution to install free Wifi in recre-ational areas”, he said.

He noted that this project is done for educational pur-poses in places of study and public schools as well as for recreational purposes in parks and public areas around the country.

The scope of the project, Minister Fernandez said, in the last three days has managed to connect 70 spaces with free Wifi each day. He explained that the bandwidth for these spaces is 10 megabits per second and will be able to connect to 128 users simul-taneously.

By the end of June it is es-timated that they will have 3,000 new Internet spaces.

Venezuelan Govt Affirms Commitment to Dialogue

T/ AVNP/ Presidential Press

This week Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro warned that exter-nal factors are applying pressure to end the dialogue with the opposi-tion coalition MUD. He urged that the dialogue continue so it can be “a space for meeting, debate and exchange that will allow the creation of a national agenda with accords to promote peace in the country”.

On April 10, after eight weeks of repeated calls by President Maduro for the opposition to engage in dia-

logue, the first meeting with opposi-tion parties that are part of the MUD was held. This dialogue took place in Miraflores, and since then there have been two more such meetings.

“I know there is pressure from ex-tremist sectors, I know there is great pressure from Miami, which even in-cludes threats; I know there is pres-

sure from the extremist lobby that in their lunacy conspires in Washington against Venezuela”, President Ma-duro said.

“The very fact of engaging in dia-logue and debating is an important democratic step; simple dialogue is a positive result for all Venezuelans”, the President said.

Cuban hero Visits VenezuelaFollowing his recent release from US prison, the Cuban anti-terrorist Rene Gonzalez paid a 6 day visit to the homeland of Chavez and Bolivar this week, where he was received as a friend, a countryman, a revolutionary, and a hero by the Venezuelan people. Gonzalez was one of five Cubans arrested in Miami and held prisoner without fair trial for over fifteen years. Others have life sentences. Pg. 3

Politics

Prolific Venezuelan Doctors Leaves Great Legacy

The world famous Venezuelan doctor, Jacinto Convit, who developed vaccines against leprosy and the tropical skin disease leishmaniasis died on Monday, aged 100. Pg.3

Opinion

Ricardo Alarcon:Obama and theCuban Five Pag. 4

Progressive Venezuelans meet to discuss future of political model

The artillery of ideas2 Impact | Friday, May 16, 2014

T/ Paul DobsonP/ Presidential Press

Bringing together over 1,200 diverse collectives, the First

National Constituent Congress of Venezuelan Ecologists and Environmentalists laid the foundations for a unified and powerful national eco-socialist movement this week, contrib-uting to the formation of a new social and economic model for the country.

The Congress comes as a dia-lectic response to the environ-mental damages caused by oppo-sition groups protesting against the government of Nicolas Ma-duro in recent months, and the resultant national call from the Venezuelan head of state to or-ganize and unify the ecological micro groupings as a “historical necessity”.

The ecologists met for 3 days in Caracas with the slogan of “eco-socialism to fight fascism”, and created numerous work groups that will later be taken to the regions nationwide in a massive 3-month public consul-

tation to collect proposals from the population.

“I wanted to be here from the first day to make concrete pro-posals in the debate of the work-ing groups which you will main-tain over the next few weeks”, stated Maduro at the event.

He went on to differentiate between environmentalism and eco-socialism, explain-ing that that an ecological movement is necessarily both the result of, and an essential part of, the drive towards so-cialism. “Can you imagine anyone forming a powerful eco-capitalist movement?” he asked rhetorically.

Environmental Minister, Miguel Leonardo Rodriguez, emphasized the need for a new ecological social model to over-come “so much damage which capitalism has caused us”.

He further stressed the need to unify and organize the vari-ous community level micro-collectives to “work together, having a single vision, because in no other way will we achieve (the goals), only with an orga-

nized people are these projects possible”.

President Maduro highlight-ed the need for the eco-social-ist movement to participate in the development of a new economic model for the coun-try, without capitalist induced problems of contamination, eradication of species, and pol-lution of the planet. “We must create a technological and economic model for Venezu-elan socialism, we must move forward on this topic, what is called a Green Economy”.

Other important themes in-cluded greater ecological edu-cation in the schools, the for-mation of follow-up and control policies on environmental proj-ects, the problem of contamina-tion during industrialization, the development of a national seed-bank, and mankind’s role in nature. President Maduro promised to take the results of the national consultation to the September UN Climate Change Summit. Further congresses are planning following the con-sultation.

Ecologist Frank Tovar ex-plained that the historic Con-gress is “the recognition of the commitments, experiences, and struggles which these

Ecological Groups Unified into GreatEco-Socialist Movement in Venezuela

movements carry out on a daily basis throughout the country to confront ecological and social problems, defending the water, forests, earth, biological diver-sity, social biodiversity, i.e., de-fending life”.

Venezuela is considered one of the world leaders in ecologi-cal advances, with 75% of its national energy consumption created by renewable sources, its reforestation programs and controls on deforesta-tion, its drive to reduce energy consumption and ecological awareness, as well as its pro-tection programs for both the land and animal life under threat, particularly in the Am-azon region.

The current government program, the Plan of the Pa-tria, includes as one of its five historic objectives the “pres-ervation of life on the planet and the salvation of the hu-man species”.

However, recent extreme opposition violent actions have included the torching of national parks and of forests, the contamination of water supplies, the knocking down of over 5000 trees to use as road blocks, and the large-scale burning of toxic mate-rial, all aimed at putting an unmanageable stress on the public authorities and hence bringing the government to its knees.

T/ Ewan Robertsonwww.venezuelanalysis.com

Venezuelan leftists met over the weekend as part of ef-forts to design the direc-

tion and strategy of the coun-try’s Bolivarian revolution in the coming period.

One of the conferences was aimed at discussing the po-litical ideology of Venezuelan socialism based on the ideas of key Venezuelan and Latin American thinkers. Titled the I Bolivar – Chavez – Marti Ide-ological Political Conference, the meeting was held in the Andean town of Tovar in the west of the country.

Some 400 – 500 lecturers, students, United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) members, and commune ac-tivists attended the confer-ence, which was organised by a group of university profes-sors and local socialist party officials.

Francisco Gonzalez, a lec-turer in Latin American thought and integration at

the Central University of Ven-ezuela (UCV), and one of the conference’s organisers, told VA.com that one of the aims of the meeting was to develop new ideas for the Bolivarian

process ahead of the PSUV na-tional congress in July.

“Hugo Chavez was a dy-namo in terms of producing ideas. Now that he is not phys-ically present, we need to be

collectively generating ideas”, he explained.

Meanwhile Edgar Lugo, the head of the curriculum of Boli-varian thought at the Caracas faculty of the UNEFA univer-sity, said that the objective of the conference was to “put thought and ideology into prac-tice for the development that this country’s revolutionary activists need, and to increase the commitment of youth to participate in these processes of revolutionary formation”.

Some 16 presentations were given by different speakers at the conference, including in-vited figures from Cuba, Ar-gentina and the United King-dom. The lectures included “Economy in the 21st Century”, “The Social Geopolitics of Hugo Chavez” and a presentation by activists from the Ministry of Communes about their work.

Many speakers argued for the need to maintain the status quo around Hugo Chavez’s ideas into the future, tracing these back to the thought of Simon Bolivar and other Latin Ameri-

Venezuelan Leftists Meet to Discuss Future Directions in Political Ideology

can historical figures. Others focused on the changing politi-cal, social and economic condi-tions in Venezuela.

Questions from the floor were directed to different pre-senters, including younger female students who raised concerns over the effect of corruption in facilitating the contraband of Venezuelan products to Colombia, and the possibilities of employment in their chosen professions upon graduating.

Jose Mantilla, a commune activist currently working with Ministry of Communes to develop international soli-darity with Venezuela’s com-munes, said that the confer-ence had allowed for a sharing of ideas between figures with-in the political current of Chavismo.

“With the exchange of ideas between academic and grass-roots figures, criteria were unified for the revolution’s political activity both local-ly and regionally…and how the revolution can overcome problems in the community”, he said.

Organizers hope more such meetings can be held around the country before the PSUV congress in July, highlight-ing other issues such as com-munes and the economy.

The artillery of ideasFriday, May 16, 2014 | Politics 3

T/ Paul DobsonP/ Presidential Press

Following his recent release from US prison, the Cuban

anti-terrorist Rene Gonzalez paid a 6 day visit to the home-land of Chavez and Bolivar this week, where he was received as a friend, a countryman, a revo-lutionary, and a hero by the Venezuelan people.

Gonzalez is one of the five Cu-ban agents arrested in Miami, Florida in 1998 and impris-oned without fair trial or dem-onstration of guilt for between 15 years and 2 life sentences, of which over a year and a half was served in isolation.

The Cubans were working un-dercover in the US to unravel a group of Cuban exile terrorists who were perpetrating violent attacks against the Caribbean Island and its residents.

Following their capture, they were imprisoned by the US government for conspiracy and espionage against the US, a charge which they denied and which was never backed up by documentation nor evidence by US authorities. For years, inter-national solidarity movements have pressured the US govern-

Rene Gonzalez of the Cuban 5 visits Venezuela

ment to provide evidence or re-lease the Cuban Five.

Alongside his colleague Fer-nando Gonzalez, Rene Gonza-lez has served his term, which saw him released in October 2011. Gerardo Hernandez, An-tonio Guerrero and Ramon Labañino remain imprisoned illegally in the USA for their work fighting against terror-ist groups.

On his visit to the Venezu-elan Presidential Palace in Caracas, Gonzalez was hon-ored with the Order of Fran-cisco de Miranda (1st Class) by President Maduro- one of the highest honors that can be be-stowed in Venezuela.

Maduro emphasized that the honor was not just for Gonzalez, but for his four col-leagues and for the entire Cu-ban people: “In the name of all of our people, I hand you over this recognition of rebellious-ness, of the unbreakable spirit of this hero of the Great Pa-tria, our brother Rene”. Both Maduro and his predecessor Chavez have strongly defended the Cuban Five.

Gonzalez’s visit to Venezuela included an appearance in the National Assembly, a visit to

the Mountain Fortress to pay his respects to the remains of Hugo Chavez and a visit to the National Mausoleum to pay his respects to the tombs of the national heroes. He also gave a talk in the National Experimental Security Uni-versity, and met with commu-nity groupings, oil workers, the ombudsman’s offices. He further visited the monument to the Cuban Hero Jose Marti and met with Cuban doctors in Venezuela. Finally, he visited the birthplace of late President Hugo Chavez.

Speaking in the National Assembly, Gonzalez stressed the ties of solidarity between Cuba and Venezuela: “The US Government does not want the Latin America which Bolivar dreamed of, which Marti con-tinued, and which Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez continued to construct”. He also called on Venezuelan lawmakers to assist in the International Solidarity Session with the re-maining 3 imprisoned Cuban heroes, which will see parla-mentarians from the world visit Washington between June 4-11.

Speaking to oil workers in the eastern region of Venezu-ela, who awarded him the Or-der of the 27th February (1st Class), Gonzalez underlined the economic goals of the US Government to reclaim con-

trol of Latin American natural resources: “The whole world knows that the Venezuelan oil industry is being closely watched by US imperialism. But after this visit, I leave with a lightened heart, because you, the revolutionary work-ers, will not allow them to come back here, and you will forever conserve the oil sover-eignty which was recuperated by Hugo Chavez”.

Similarly, Gonzalez was given the Keys to Caracas by local Government Represen-tative Jacqueline Farias, who explained that “we want to rec-ognize his struggle, strength, and resistance, for us it is an example, we have to learn from the Cuban Revolution”.

On his visit to the birth-place of Chavez in Sabaneta, Barinas State, Gonzalez was awarded the Order of Juan An-tonio Rodriguez Dominguez

(1st Class) by State Governor and brother of the former President, Adan Chavez.

Gonzalez planted a lime tree outside the house where Chavez was born, and ex-plained that “I owed this visit to Chavez, but I never thought it would be in these condi-tions. I should have given him a hug here, but it wasn’t to be. Chavez has left us a different Latin America and this won’t change- we, all of the Latin-Americans, will defend it”.

Gonzalez is due to visit other countries in the near future with the aim of exposing the double-talk of the US Govern-ment, highlighting their injus-tice, and “divulging the con-crete deeds of the case. I think that there hasn’t been enough done to show the failings of Amnesty International and the UN Human Rights Coun-cil”, explained Gonzalez.

T/ Ewan RobertsonP/ Agencies

The world famous Venezue-lan doctor who developed vaccines against leprosy

and the tropical skin disease leishmaniasis died on Mon-day, aged 100.

Named by the BBC in 2009 as one of the top five most prestigious scientists in Latin America, Jacinto Convit was renowned in his home country for efforts to improve public health provision and tackle a variety of diseases affecting the population.

Upon hearing of Convit’s pass-ing, Venezuelan president Nico-las Maduro released a statement expressing his “deepest condo-lences to his family for the loss of this distinguished Venezuelan”.

“It [Convit’s life] was a cen-tury of dedication, of knowl-

Prolific Venezuelan doctorJacinto Convit dies at 100

edge, and of the complete pur-suit of science to the benefit of humankind, giving as a re-sult the discovery of effective treatment of many diseases”, Maduro said.

The statement continued, “They were 100 years of strug-gles, experiences, knowledge and happiness for the people, from a man who with humility

devoted his life to the sick, the afflicted and the excluded with his tool: medicine”.

Convit graduated in 1938 as a doctor in medical sciences from the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) in Cara-cas. He went on to create 23 health centers and set up 21 laboratories to research solu-tions to national health prob-

lems. It was from one of these, the Biomedical Institute of Caracas, that his leprosy and leishmaniasis vaccines were developed.

The doctor received around 45 honors from Venezuelan and foreign universities, as well as receiving Spain’s Prince of Asturias Prize in Scientific and Technical Re-search and the French Legion of Honor. In 1998 he was nomi-nated for a Nobel Prize in medical research, and in 2002 was named a “Hero of Public Medicine” by the Pan-Ameri-can Health Organization.

During his career, he pre-sented his work at 143 scientific conferences and published 262 medical articles and works.

Dr. Jacinto Convit was also considered a model for Ven-ezuelan medicine due to the fact he never went into pri-vate practice, regarding it as against his character.

“It’s necessary to study and investigate a lot, and to think fully. We must avoid medicine being turned into a field only for money, and not forget that it’s also a humanist profession. We’re doctors to fulfill a mis-

sion, not to make money out of another’s pain”, he once said.

In a special session in the Venezuelan National Assem-bly, legislators unanimously voted for an act to recognize Convit’s work and legacy, with some suggesting that he should be awarded a Nobel Prize posthumously.

Convit’s life work was also lauded by former colleagues, such as Dr. Barry Bloom, who told the BBC, “He had a pas-sion to deal with two of the most stigmatized diseases in the world - leprosy and a para-site called leishmaniasis. And he devoted his life to finding ways to improve the health of people who, for much of the world and much of the world of science, had been forgotten”.

“Dr Convit was a very spe-cial person. He was first and foremost a physician in the best sense - he knew his pa-tients by name. And after a lifetime of work I think he still knew every patient he ever met”, said Bloom.

Convit was succeeded by four children, and was buried at a ceremony in the Cemete-rio del Este in Caracas.

Editor-in-Chief Graphic Design Pablo Valduciel L. - Aimara Aguilera

INTERNATIONAL Friday, May 16, 2014 | Nº 201| Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve

Opinion

T/ Ricardo Alarcon

The arrest in Cuba of four Miami residents who came with the aim of car-

rying out terrorist acts here that were planned there — where they received training, resources and where their bosses are — brings to light once again the absolute injus-tice committed against our Five compatriots. They were conducting a difficult and risky mission precisely to try to prevent similar crimes.

The heroic task of Gerardo, Ramon, Antonio, Fernando and Rene was perfectly legiti-mate. It was based on what is known as “state of necessity” or otherwise known as “necessity defense”. In certain circum-stances, to save lives that are in danger a person can commit lesser violations (forcing entry into a home without asking permission and causing mate-rial damage in order to rescue someone from a fire, is an easy example to understand).

In this case, to save other lives, they put their own lives in danger, and not just in one heroic act — as in the example of the house on fire — but rath-er in many heroic acts in the years that they worked inside the worst terrorist groups, in order to discover their plans. They never used arms nor used force or violence. In their daily lives they obeyed the law and their social duties. They were models of civility as their neigh-bors and co-workers testified in their trial.

Our compatriots technically committed only one fault: they didn’t reveal to authorities the nature of their mission in Mi-ami. That violation of not hav-ing registered as a foreign agent is quite common in the United States and it is normally re-solved with payment of a fine.

In the case of the Cuban Five that omission is also complete-ly justified. In fact, it was es-sential. Why would someone struggle against Miami terror-ism and at the same time notify the very same authorities who have helped and supported the terrorists for 50 years?

The very trial they were subjected to proves that point to the hilt. From the initial indictments to the sessions where their excessive sentenc-es were imposed and through-out the trial, the prosecutors never hid the fact that they were on the side of the terror-

How Much Longer?

Obama and the Cuban Five

ists, that they were their pro-tectors, and to support them they placed our heroes in the docket of the accused in a bi-zarre subversion of justice.

The judge, for her part, had her own unforgettable mo-ments, which exposed the true essence of what was occurring. This was especially true when she imposed their sentences, which included, at the request of the Government, the so-called “incapacitation clause”, subjecting the defendants to a special regimen — after they were to complete their exagger-ated prison terms — that the Prosecution considered “per-haps more important” than the unjust imprisonment.

It had to do with prevent-ing that never again any of the Cuban Five could attempt any-thing against the terrorists.

Since Rene and Antonio were US citizens by birth and could not be expelled imme-diately from the country, as Fernando was recently, they added several years of “pro-

bation” with strict conditions that included this very telling one: “As a further special con-dition of supervised release the defendant is prohibited from associating with or vis-iting specific places where individuals or groups such as terrorists, members of orga-nizations advocating violence, and organized crime figures are known to be or frequent”.

This outrageous order was is-sued in December 2001. In those days W. Bush proclaimed that “any government that supports, protects or harbors terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent and equally guilty of terrorist crimes” and moti-vated by that idea he unleashed everywhere his “war against terrorism”. Wherever it may be, although for Bush obviously Miami is on another planet.

The judge’s clause to pro-tect the terrorists is the very essence of the whole saga of the Five. It is enough to read the order issued by the same judge, 10 years later, when

Rene left the prison. She wanted to force him to re-main there, alone, isolated, unarmed, without the pos-sibility of defending himself against any aggression. As if that weren’t enough the judge repeated, word for word, the prohibition given 10 years be-fore. The warning was very clear: They were not going protect Rene from the terror-ists, but rather protect them from Rene.

Today, like yesterday, the United States government clearly recognizes that they know who the terrorists are in Miami. They also know where they are and what places they frequent. But it also shows, shamefully, that the “Bush doc-trine” doesn’t apply to them, and instead of capturing and sending them to jail, it dedi-cates its efforts to protect them.

That’s why it surprised no one when in 2005 Luis Posada Car-riles — wanted for 20 years by Interpol, fugitive from Venezu-elan justice who was being tried

for the destruction of a civilian airliner in mid-flight in 1976 —decided to install himself in Miami and continue promoting terrorism against Cuba, and no longer while underground, but out in the open.

It was also no surprise that four members of Posada’s ter-rorist network have come to Cuba several times to prepare new attacks and are now in prison here. They are individ-uals with a criminal record in Miami, and have even boasted publicly about their criminal intentions.

The impunity with which these criminal groups continue to operate is a direct conse-quence of the process pursued against our Five comrades. What happened more than 15 years ago was a clear message still in effect: in Miami not only is terrorism against Cuba per-mitted, but also benefits with the complicity and protection of the authorities.

The conversion of southern Florida to a sanctuary for ter-rorism can also be a danger-ous game for the people of the United States. While the Cuban Five were imprisoned and the infamous trial was conducted against them, the majority of the terrorists who carried out the atrocity on Sept. 11, 2001 were training right there in Miami. None of them raised suspicions; none of them drew the interest of the FBI. Because in Miami, the FBI has no time for those things since they dedicate their all to protect the anti-Cuban terror-ism and to punish those who try to prevent their crimes.

Barack Obama is approach-ing the mid-term of his second and last period as President. When he entered the White House in 2009 he received an immoral and hypocritical con-duct he is not responsible for. But he will be if he does nothing to change it.

In his hands is the power to do something so he is remembered as someone different from his predecessor. The first thing would be to grant immediate and unconditional freedom to Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo, Ramon Labañino and Antonio Guerrero. He can do it and he knows it. He also knows that if he doesn’t do it, history will not forgive him.

Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada has served as Cuba’s UN ambassador,

Foreign Minister and president of the National Assembly.