EconomyChina aids Venezuela’s agricultural industryA joint Chinese-Venezuelan venture will increase food security in the country.

PoliticsSean Pennthanks ChavezOscar-winning actor Sean Penn expressed gratitude for Venezuela’said to Haiti.

Venezuela strengthens community health system

The government of Venezuela is fostering a humanitarian

medical system devoted to com-munities and particularly to dis-ease prevention though the train-ing of 24,000 students in the field of integral medicine, 8,500 of whom will graduate by the end of this year.

Director of the Jose Maria Var-gas Hospital in downtown Cara-cas, Francisco Hernandez, said the model of integral medicine pro-moted by the Chavez administra-tion aims at providing physicians with a communitarian perspec-

tive to prevent disease and illness among poor people. “This is really a new system in which physicians are urged to have a community-based vision, which has long been a deficit in our country”.

Community Integral Medicine re-places the previous model of medi-cine practiced in the country, which excluded people who were not able to pay for treatments or medicines due to their high cost. Now, health care is free in Venezuela.

“The progress achieved during the last few years in health care is very important. There is not sector

related to the field which has not achieved significant advances”.

Karina Castro one of the 8,500 students of integral medicine who are expected to graduate this year, highlighted the training they have received for 6 years with the best doctors. This has allowed new physi-cians to treat their patients integrally from a humanitarian perspective.

“We are working in every hospi-tal, giving the best of us. We are be-ing trained by the best doctors and will show our people that there are doctors here to take care of them”, Castro said.

Social JusticeLabor leaderreleased from jailRuben Gonzalez was freed from confinment this week, a move seen as progress for workers’ rights.

Venezuela has been laud-ed by the United Na-

tions as a model nation in the implementation of anti-smoking policies.

Earlier this month, the Ven-ezuelan Ministry of Health decreed smoke-free areas throughout the country. The resolution bans smoking in public places and job sites, including on public transit.

The public areas where smoking is now prohibited include clubs, restaurants and job sites, including cor-ridors, elevators, cafeterias, lobbies, bathrooms, halls, and cafeterias.

Nations such as Panama, Russia, Chile, Australia, Canada, among others, have sought to emulate Venezu-elan anti-smoking initiatives. Those countries have been interested in reproducing the design on packs of cigarettes sold in Venezuela, on which words that promote smoking are restricted while warning signs are displayed to alert the population of the conse-quences of smoking.

Anti-smoking policies in Venezuela have been previ-ously implemented. Malls and some public areas were declared smoke-free zones last year.

Venezuela celebrates women’s advancesIn commemoration of 100 years since International Women’s Day was first declared, Venezuela hosted the World Conference of Grassroots Women Revolutionaries and held several marches and events throughout Caracas this week. Under the Chavez administration, important gains have been made for gender equality, but violence against women and an exploitative beauty culture still present challenges for the South American nation.

Latin American nations issued a statement this week urging a peaceful solutionto the crisis in Libya and rejecting foreign intervention

During a meeting of foreign ministers from member nations of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), express support was given to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s proposal last week for a commission of friendly nations to aid Libya to dialogue and peace. The countries rejected initiatives to increase aggression against Libya, primarily pushed by the US, NATO and European nations, and called on the world

community to help the North African country end the violence and bloodshed.

ALBA nations callfor peace in Libya

The artillery of ideasENGLISH EDITION

Put out that cigarrette!

FRIDAY | March 11, 2011 | No. 55 | Bs 1 | CARACAS

Pg. 7 | Analysis Pg. 8 | Opiniongg yyMichel Collon on how the world is changing and our role in it all

gg pppImperial anxieties: The crisis US policy faces in North Africa

l h b l d

The artillery of ideas| 2 | Integration No Friday, March 11, 2011

The policies of social inclusion implemented by the Venezuelan

government over the last 12 years have allowed the country to achieve one the most positive gender equal-ity indexes in the entire region: 0.5 –considering “0” as full equality and “1” as total inequality – said the Min-ister of Women’s Affairs and Gender Equality, Nancy Perez.

During a television interview, Perez highlighted that interna-

With banners, signs and traditional attire from around the world, a colorful march moved through the streets of Caracas last Tuesday in celebration of International Women’s Day

The enthusiastic event formed part of a series of activities tak-

ing place in Venezuela since March 4th to commemorate the date which was first celebrated in Copenhagen, Denmark 100 years ago.

Joining the march in Caracas were delegates from the 46 na-tions represented in a week long World Conference of Grassroots Women Revolutionaries.

“We have to struggle together”, said Monique Diermissen, del-egate from Germany during the march. “We have to find a way to fight in our everyday lives against the capitalist system which pro-motes the struggle of man against man while relegating women to a secondary role in the redefinition of the world”.

ADVANCEMENTS UNDER CHAVEZThe women’s movement in

Venezuela, although still not particularly strong, has achieved some notable gains since the as-cendancy of Hugo Chavez to the presidency in 1999.

The creation of the Women’s and Gender Equality Ministry in 2009 has been held up by many as one of those principal achievements.

tional gender equality indexes show how Venezuelan women have reached high levels of par-ticipation in all the spheres of the country.

“Women have been playing roles in political, economic and social participation in the coun-try. Now we have participation in all public levels. We can say that Venezuela stands out re-garding women’s political par-

Venezuela has highest gender equality in Latin Americaticipation and incorporation”, she highlighted.

Some of the policies created that have restored women’s role in Venezuelan society include the creation of the Ministry of Women Affairs, the Bank of Development for Women (Banmujer), the Or-ganic Law for Women’s Right to a Violence-Free Life, the National Institution of Women, and pro-grams like Mission Madres del

Barrio, which has offered Venezu-elan women a more decent life.

In Venezuela, 3 of the 5 branch-es are led by women. Tibisay Lu-cena leads the National Electoral Council, Luisa Estela Morales heads the Supreme Court of Jus-tice, while Luisa Ortega Díaz is the Attorney General. Another woman, Cilia Flores, led the Na-tional Assembly until the end of 2010. Today, the parliament has

a woman, Blanca Eekhout, as its first vice-president.

The Venezuelan achievements have been recognized by inter-national organizations, including the Women’s International Demo-cratic Federation (WIDF), which is currently discussing Venezuela’s dynamic participation, and the United Nations.

T/ AVN

Venezuela celebrates women’s advances,but more efforts needed

The country has also enshrined the protection of the women’s rights in the republic’s constitution and has strengthened this protection un-der its Law on the Rights of Women to a Life Free from Violence.

“Venezuela has become on of the most advanced countries with this legislation. Women were invisible as social beings and weren’t even considered for pu-bic offices”, said Women’s Min-ister Nancy Perez Sierra during a report to congress last month.

Other major advancements in-clude the requirement of political parties to ensure that 50 percent of their candidates for office be women and the creation of Ban-mujer, a development bank that provides micro credits to econom-ically disadvantaged women.

Celebrating its 10-year anni-versary along with International

Women’s Day on Tuesday, mem-bers of Banmujer laid a wreath at the foot of the Simon Bolivar in downtown Caracas where the celebratory march began.

Nora Castaneda, Founder and President of the bank, related the importance of the financial insti-tution in helping to provide eco-nomic independence for impov-erished women.

“It is precisely for the women who can’t obtain loans from other banks due to their condition of poverty. Banmujer works with them so that they can be incorpo-rated into the benefits of develop-ment…In 10 years, we’ve given more than 127 thousand micro-credits and we’ve provided ben-efits for more than 300 thousand women”, Castañeda said.

“There are still those who think that women are people of short

ideas and long hair, even though we’re demonstrating everyday that this isn’t true. But there’s still much work to be done. I don’t know how many years it will take but, there’s still much to do”, she remarked.

FURTHER ADVANCEMENT NEEDEDIndeed, although positive steps

have been taken to advance wom-en’s rights in Venezuela, the soci-ety, like much of Latin America, is still gripped by a machista sta-tus quo which many times stifles gender equality.

Amnesty International has re-ported that a woman dies of gender violence every ten days in Caracas and that in 2008, over 100 thousand complaints of domestic violence were reported to authorities.

Local organizations inform that only 1 out of 9 women who are

victimized by violence actually report it.

This type of sexism is also highlighted by the country’s multi-billion dollar beauty in-dustry that promotes the role of women as consumer merchan-dise for national and interna-tional business interests.

The famous Miss Venezuela beauty contest, owned by one of the wealthiest corporations in Latin America, the Cisneros or-ganization, has prided itself on selling a Euorpeanized image of the Venezuelan women to inter-national audiences through pag-eants like Miss Universe.

Such an emphasis on the superficial has created an ex-tremely lucrative industry ripe with advertising kickbacks and promotional incentives for the Cisneros organization.

In fact, Venezuela’s beauty ob-session has become so widespread that it has made the nation the larg-est per capita consumer of cosmet-ics in the world as an entire one-fifth of the average citizen’s income is spent on beauty products.

Plastic surgery is also as com-mon as dentist appointments and it is not unusual for wealthy par-ents to proudly buy their 15-year old daughters breast implants for “coming of age” birthday presents.

“Now some people think, ‘My daughter’s turning 15, let’s give her breast enlargements.’ That’s horri-ble. It’s the ultimate degeneration”, President Chavez said in condem-nation of the practice in 2007.

T/ Edward EllisP/ Agencies

The artillery of ideas No Friday, March 11, 2011 Integration | 3 |

Latin American nations pledge for peace in LibyaMember states of the Latin

American and Caribbean al-liance, ALBA, pledged their sup-port last Friday for a peace delega-tion to intercede in the insurrection currently playing out in the North African country of Libya.

The announcement was made during a meeting of the regional trade alliance’s political council held in Caracas.

In an official statement released last Friday, the integrationist block expressed its commitment to a peaceful solution in Libya and its support for a multilateral delegation to mediate between the warring factions.

“The Political Council of the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America – People’s Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP), shares the global concern for the situa-tion of conflict in Libya with its resulting loss of life and expresses its interest in the achievement of a peaceful and sovereign solu-tion…without foreign interfer-ence, guaranteeing the territorial integrity of the country”, the dec-laration states.

PEACE COMMISSIONEarlier last week, Venezuelan

President Hugo Chavez, who visited Libya last October and

signed various agreements with the government of Colonel Mua-mar Gaddafi, offered Venezuela to head up an international del-egation in efforts to avoid further bloodshed in the country.

“A big effort needs to be made and we can’t lose a day in forming a commission that goes as soon as possible to Libya”, Chavez said suggesting that former US Presi-

dent, Jimmy Carter, head up the peace delegation.

“Carter could help. I believe he’s a man of goodwill”, the Ven-ezuelan head of state said.

In a letter to Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, the Libyan gov-ernment has stated its acceptance of Chavez’s proposal, giving Ven-ezuela the green light “to take the necessary measures to select the

members [of the delegation] and coordinate their participation in the dialogue”.

Maduro explained on Friday that the South American nation’s inten-tions are strictly meant to avoid the loss of life and foster a dialogue be-tween belligerent factions.

“This peace initiative has as its central objective the support of the Libyan people, their search

for peace, and the overcoming of the armed conflict that the world is unfortunately observing”, he informed.

AGAINST FOREIGN INTERFERENCE

For its part, ALBA member states also articulated their unan-imous opposition to intervention on the part of the United States in the Libyan conflict.

According to its published state-ment, the regional alliance, “cat-egorically rejects any intervention from NATO or any foreign power in Libya as well as any attempt to take advantage…of the tragic situ-ation in order to justify a war of conquest of the energy and water resources which are the patrimony of the Libyan people”.

ALBA was formed as a Venezu-elan initiative in 2004 as a coun-terbalance to US economic and social hegemony in the Americas.

Its member states include Ven-ezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The organization’s 11th Presidential Summit is slated to take place in Caracas on April 3.

T/ Edward EllisP/ Presidential Press

Venezuela and Colombia continue mending ties

Last Thursday, Venezuela and Colombia signed a total of thirteen new agreements focusing on economic cooperation, production and trade

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez presided over the

ceremony at the Miraflores Presi-dential Palace in the presence of the foreign ministers of both Ven-ezuela and Colombia, Nicolas Maduro and Maria Angela Hol-guin, respectively.

The meeting was also attended by trade ministers from Venezu-ela and Colombia, Edmee Betan-court and Sergio Diaz Granados, Venezuela’s Minister for Science, Technology and Middle Indus-

try, Ricardo Menendez, as well as the ambassador of Venezuela in Bogota, Ivan Rincon, and the Co-lombian ambassador in Caracas, Jose Fernando Bautista.

At the meeting, Foreign Min-ister Holguin said Colombia’s border regions are dependent on economic agreements with Ven-ezuela and as such, she expressed her optimism regarding the rapid progress made since the presi-dential meeting.

“Only unity among us will save us from such crises”, Presi-dent Chavez declared, refering to the diplomatic spat between both nations caused last year by for-mer Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s accusations that Venezue-la was harboring terrorist groups. After the allegations, which were formally made before the Or-ganization of American States

(OAS), Venezuela and Colombia broke ties. Relations were quickly mended once now President Juan Manuel Santos came to power.

ADVANCES IN COMMERCEThe Venezuelan President an-

nounced that the agreements signed on this occasion were based in four vital areas: produc-tion and development, trade, Co-lombian companies and business in Venezuela, and technical assis-tance and training.

He urged the foreign ministers of Venezuela and Colombia, to expedite procedures for complet-ing projects planned between the two nations.

Amongst the thirteen agree-ments of cooperation are: inno-vation and training in the tex-tile sector; implementation of joint actions in the acquisition

of materials for housing; stra-tegic feasibility studies for new installations in Venezuela’s ba-sic industries; creation of a joint venture to produce generic medi-

cines; commercial exchange, and trade, among others.

T/ AgenciesP/ Presidential Press

The artillery of ideas| 4 | Economy No Friday, March 11, 2011

China aids Venezuela to food sovereigntyStrengthening Venezuela’s agricultural production and the nation’s capacity to supply both its domestic and international food markets has been the impetus behind the creation of a new mixed Venezuelan-Chinese company

Heilongjiang Beidahuang, an agricultural company that

manages various state farms in China and specializes in techno-logical and seed supply, will com-prise the Asian component of the new business that will operate in Venezuelan territory.

Venezuela’s Agriculture and Land Ministry will head up the Latin American side of the enter-prise, which was solidified last Saturday when President Hugo Chavez met with company rep-resentatives and Chinese agricul-tural experts.

“We cannot continue to depend only on oil”, Chavez said during the meeting.

“That was the [economic] model that was imposed upon us by imperialism, the oil-dependent model. We have to produce our own food. First for self-sustenance and then to ex-port even as far as China. That’s what were planning with this al-liance”, he affirmed.

The new joint venture has planned the supply of rice, corn and bean seeds from the Chi-nese firm as well as technologi-cal transfer that will be used to develop millions of acres of currently underutilized Ven-ezuelan farmland.

FERTILE FARMLANDS“We have very good, fertile

land that isn’t being cultivated which could facilitate the produc-tion of food for around 500 mil-lion people”, Chavez explained.

As part of the preparations for the agricultural initiative, Qian Baim, President of the Heilongji-ang Beidahuang company sub-mitted a report during Saturday’s meeting outlining the results of a Chinese delegation’s evaluation of Venezuelan farmlands in the states of Apure, Bolivar, Barinas, Anzoategui and Guarico.

“Venezuela has very fertile land, well suited for cultivation and the Venezuelan government has made agricultural production a priority. Our company has a lot of experience in the production of different crops. We have the technology and know-how that can be applied here and with our collaboration, Venezuela will be at the front of world agricultural development. [It] will be a pro-ducer and exporter of cereals to supply the people of the world”, President Baim said.

The study carried out by the Chinese delegation focused on soil and water quality and was handed over to the Agriculture an Land Minister Juan Carlos Loyo who signed an Act of Com-mitment with the foreign firm to create the new joint venture.

According to President Chavez, the new company will begin to plant rice in the Venezuelan state of Apure as early as June of this year.

“This demonstrates the willing-ness that both parties have. We have to prepare the irrigation systems, canals, ponds and wells in order to reap two or three rice harvests in one year”, the Ven-ezuelan head of state said.

The formation of the joint com-pany marks the second agreement signed between the Venezuelan

government and Heilongjiang Beidahuang this year.

In January, the Chavez admin-istration gave the go ahead to import soybeans and soybean oil from the Chinese company to en-sure a three month supply of the commodities in its food reserves.

“[Heilongjiang Beidahuang] is a company dedicated to food produc-tion. That’s why I’ve asked for their help in order to increase our coun-try’s food reserves”, Chavez said.

STRENGHTENING TIESThis latest agreement with

a Chinese forms part of the strengthening of ties between Venezuela and the Asian econom-ic powerhouse.

Indeed, Chinese–Venezuelan relations have been growing ex-ponentially over recent years with trade between the two nations now reaching over $5 billion a year.

In 2008, the Asian nation built and launched Venezuela’s first telecommunications satellite and last year, China approved a $20 billion loan to Venezuela, the largest in the country’s history.

As part of its push to ensure food security in the face of rap-idly rising prices, Venezuela has, in addition to China, reached out to its neighbor Colombia, signing a series of accords designed to ac-

celerate agricultural production.“We’re becoming integrated.

Soon we’ll be importing twenty thousand cows from Colombia to strengthen our milk production”, announced President Chavez.

DOMESTIC PRODUCTIONIn October of last year, the Ven-

ezuelan government also nation-alized the Spain-based agricultur-al supply chain, Agroisleña, in a bid to make farming equipment, seeds and fertilizers more acces-sible to small farmers.

Referred to as the Monsanto of Venezuela, Agroisleña exercised control over seventy percent of the distribution of staple crops such as corn and rice, as well as exerting a monopoly over the dis-tribution of seeds.

“Agroisleña was an apparatus that exploited the campesinos who ended up being dependent on the business for basic sup-plies such as pesticides… It bank-rupted many small farmers”, said Elisa Osorio, leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, at the time of the nationalization.

HELPING LOCAL FARMERSIn February, the Chavez gov-

ernment launched a new social program, or mission, called Agro Venezuela, with the intent of re-in-

vigorating agricultural production in the country and breaking with a past dominated by fallow estates and transnational agro-businesses.

The mission, currently collect-ing registry information on all producers who wish to participate in the program, has already begun to provide low interest loans, ma-chinery, and technical assistance to farmers enrolled in the initiative.

Yulitma Arroyo, a small pro-ducer from state of Lara is one such beneficiary.

“We’ve received financing for twenty-three hectares of pota-toes, coffee and vegetables”, she reported.

Many producers who were adversely affected by torrential rains at the end of 2010, have also received government support.

“[The Mission] has financed cacao and plantain production, which was lost as a consequence of the rains we had last year”, said Damasco Villamizar from the community of Barlovento in the state of Miranda.

According to the government, more than 500 thousand produc-ers who have registered for the program will benefit from gov-ernment aid.

T/ Edward EllisP/ Presidential Press

The artillery of ideas No Friday, March 11, 2011 Economy | 5 |

Sean Penn thanked Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sat-

urday for supporting the actor’s relief organization in Haiti, saying the aid has helped its humanitarian work in distributing medicines.

“I could see with my own eyes the active participation of Venezu-ela in Haiti, and that of President Chavez, helping those people dur-ing a time in which they suffered unbelievable pain”, declared Penn during an interview on Telesur.

Chavez met with Penn at the presidential palace and praised the actor’s efforts with his J/P Haitian Relief Organization, which was founded in response to the cata-strophic 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

As part of the aid, Venezuela donated medicines that Penn’s organization distributed to hospi-tals and clinics throughout Haiti. “Just at the moment when none

One of the most well-known female faces of “chavismo”

in Venezuela, Lina Ron, a promi-nent leader in the Bolivarian Revolution perceived as contro-versial for her radicalism and grassroots activism, died on Sat-urday morning of a heart attack, at the young age of 51.

Ron, who described herself as the “most radical part of the revolution”, was the founder of Venezuelan Popular Unity (UPV), an anti-imperialist leftist revolutionary party. Ron grew up in extreme poverty and was one of fifteen children raised by her mother as a single parent. She was unable to complete her university studies in medicine due to economic reasons. Early in her life, Ron was a student leader and helped organize pro-tests for informal workers.

Throughout her adult life, Ron ran a cultural center, hosted alternative television programs, and was “one of the strongest ac-tivists in the electoral campaign for the re-election of President Hugo Chavez” in 2006. When the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) was formed in 2007, she was part of the original leadership. Many saw her election to the director-

of those medicines were available in Haiti, Venezuela sent them”.

The Oscar-winning actor noted that in addition to Venezuela’s financial help, his organization also receives funding from the US Army. Penn called that ironic, add-ing, “We hope that this kind of col-laboration can be an example for future approaches to many other issues” in spite of the differences and limited diplomatic contacts between Venezuela and the US.

Both nations have chilled rela-tions and have been without am-bassadors since December, after Venezuela formally rejected the White House’s nominee for envoy in a diplomatic dispute. Obama’s candidate, Larry Palmer, had made “meddling” statements about Venezuela’s internal affairs during his Senate confirmation hearing in August, rendering him, according

to President Chavez, “ineligible” for the job as ambassador in the South American nation.

The US government revoked the visa of Venezuelan Ambassa-dor Bernardo Alvarez in response while he was on Christmas holi-day, leaving Venezuela without high-level diplomatic representa-tion in Washington.

Sean Penn has met four times with Chavez in recent years. Chavez has praised the actor for his critical stance toward US for-eign policy and his activism.

The Venezuelan president said their meeting Saturday was pro-ductive in discussing “new plans and ideas”, including a potential movie plan in Venezuela.

“Sean is an activist of the strug-gles for the world’s oppressed peoples, and he’s leaving for Hai-ti right now”, Chavez said out-side the presidential palace when they emerged from their meeting. “I won’t give away his plans and what we discussed, but you’ll find out soon”.

“We talked about several new projects relating to housing, green technologies and other collabo-rations with Haiti”, commented Penn, expressing his admiration for President Chavez who “works so we can all have a better world”.

“Little by little, the system that is best for our world will become clear”, he added. “Socialism can work from a humanitarian point of view”.

T/ AgenciesP/ Presidential Press

Sean Penn thanks Venezuela’s Chavez for Haiti aid

Radical pro-Chavez leader,“Commander Lina Ron” dies at 51

ate as a break from bureaucra-cy, as she was well known as a street activist who refused insti-tutional positions.

At that time, Ron had declared: “In this revolution, being Chavis-ta is a way of life”.

CONTROVERSIAL ACTIONSIn 2008, Lina Ron and some

of her hard-core followers, who called her the “Comandanta” occupied the Archbishop’s pal-ace in Caracas in protest against their public postures against President Chavez and the Catho-lic Church’s open aggressiveness towards the government. In 2009, Ron was arrested and jailed for a short period after she and mem-bers of UPV tear gas bombed opposition news channel Globo-vision. Ron was one of Globovi-sion’s staunchest critics, persis-tently calling on the government to shut the station down.

At the time, President Hugo Chavez called on Ron to not en-gage in such violent acts. “These types of actions do damage to the socialist revolution, because they are counter-revolutionary”.

As one of President Chavez’s biggest supporters, (as she her-self declared “With Chavez ev-erything, without Chavez, noth-

ing”), the Venezuelan head of state praised her at times, but also called her “uncontrollable” for her “violence”.

But Ron was loved by those she devoted her life to, working in the streets with the homeless, drug addicts and the extremely poor to provide them with basic necessities, such as food and clothing. “Wherever I see injustice, I will fight to make it right”, said Ron once dur-ing a television interview.

During the funeral services on Sunday, Chavez offered his condo-lences to Ron’s family and friends, declaring her “eternally alive...the highest tribute a revolutionary can receive... because women like Lina never die, Lina... you will always be alive in our battles and the vic-tories of the people”.

President Chavez coined Ron as a “Soldier of the People” and called on others to follow her example.

The PSUV also released a statement saying, “Lina Ron was a woman...with extraor-dinary strength to face attacks and enemies of the revolution, but also deeply sensitive to the problems of people who are ex-cluded, people with whom she identified and worked for”.

“In the PSUV we are convinced that... the loyalty of Lina Ron will be an important refer-ence for those who con-tinue struggling”, the statement concluded.

T/ Tamara Pearsonwww.venezuelanalysis.com

The artillery of ideas| 6 | Social Justice No Friday, March 11, 2011

Training in a community hall in Caracas under a roof of

corrugated iron, nine-year-old Erick Villanueva pounds punch-bags and fights even younger opponents than himself in prep-aration for the ring.

At his debut fight, the boy stares out his rival in sporting rage, impressing an audience of hundreds at a makeshift outdoor boxing arena in a backstreet of the Venezuelan capital.

Despite being larger, the other child timidly dodges Erick’s powerful punches.

Erick had no interest in box-ing until his home in a Caracas shanty town was destroyed in storms that swept across Venezuela’s coastal areas and made nearly 140,000 people refugees across the nation late last year.

He was evacuated to a shelter in a local stadium.

There he found a boxing gym and fell in love with the sport, which is being promoted by a government initiative - “Olym-pic Street Boxing” - designed to pull in boys and girls from

the streets of one of the world’s most crime-ridden cities.

Exuding pride as a local radio station interviews her son after he wins his first fight, Erick’s mother said she was apprehen-sive that her son might be hurt, but happy that his behaviour and academic performance had improved along with his boxing.

“He was always a good kid...and he has improved a lot”, Lisett Marcani said, stroking her son’s hair.

Young people from the slums are easily caught up in the

Venezuelan youngsters find safety in the ringdrugs and gangs that make the South American nation’s capi-tal one of the world’s crime hotspots. President Hugo Chavez’s socialist government has poured money into sports projects, and the boxing initia-tive is intended to promote dis-cipline and respect in a region that has produced boxers such as Panama’s Roberto “Hands of Stone” Duran, and Cuba’s Teofilo Stevenson.

Though not a traditional boxing nation, Venezuela has produced some champion box-

ers, notably Edwin Valero who held the WBC lightweight title and was known for the image of Chavez on a Venezuelan flag tattooed on his chest.

“The support of street box-ing is in the national drug plan”, said Duarte Galvani, director of the National Anti-Drug Office which is one of the initiative’s sponsors. “We hold events on the street so that kids see it and become motivated to join in the initiative”.

T/ Reuters

On Thursday, the Venezuelan Supreme Court overruled a decision by a lower court to jail union leader Ruben Gonzalez for seven years and six months for his role in a 2009 iron miner’s strike

After waiting 16 months for his trial, Gonzalez was con-

victed last week for incitement to commit a crime, violating a government safety zone, and ob-structing the freedom to work. His actions during the strike al-legedly led to hundreds of thou-sands of dollars in damages to equipment at the CVG Ferromin-era Orinoco CA, a state-managed iron ore mining company.

Supreme Court Judge Ninoska Beatriz Queipo Briceño ordered Gonzalez to be released on pro-bation on the condition that he reports to a local courtroom ev-ery 15 days.

Gonzalez spoke to the press following the ruling. “I am being given freedom with an appear-ance every 15 days. It is very good because I will be at home with my children and family, doing my job as a union leader; but I also disagree because they are not telling me what decision has been made with respect to the seven years and six months in jail”, he said.

Local and national labor unions unanimously condemned Gon-zalez’s conviction, calling it a violation of workers’ rights. Such agreement among unions is un-characteristic of the Guayana region, which is a trove of alumi-num, iron, coal, and other natural

Venezuelan supreme courtfrees jailed union leader

resources and is known to be rife with heated and sometimes dead-ly union conflicts.

However, unions diverged in their interpretations of Gonzalez’s case. Affiliates of the National Union of Workers (UNETE), which strongly supports the government led by President Hugo Chavez, said the prosecution of Gonzalez was the work of corrupt bureau-crats within the state mining com-pany, CVG, who disagree with and wish to sabotage the Chavez government’s pro-labor policies.

Jose Melendez is a union leader

at the state-owned steel company, SIDOR. He led the 17-month fight against the multi-national private management before the company was nationalized in 2008. While he supports the Chavez govern-ment, he says the workers them-selves must be the key players in their struggles.

“Thanks to the workers’ strug-gle, the class solidarity, and the determination of union organiza-tions, worker councils, and pre-vention workers who announced a campaign for the freedom of our fellow union member Ruben

and against the ‘judicialization’ of conflicts, today the comrade is free”, said Melendez following Thursday’s ruling.

Melendez said in a previous interview with the union cur-rent Marea Socialista that if Gonzalez had not been freed, he would have been a “political prisoner”. He also said a histori-cally corrupt judicial system is at the core of the problem. “It has been left clear for all to see that we have a Judicial Branch that is strictly on the side of the exploit-ers, that makes decisions behind

workers’ backs, and violates our rights”, Melendez asserted.

“Of course, we know that the Judicial Branch is a distinct thing from the Executive Branch; we are very clear about this”, Me-lendez added.

OPPOSITION STANCEIn contrast, opposition unions

from both the right and left wing blamed the whole national government, alleging Chavez and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) are against workers’ rights.

“The Chavez government has the clear purpose of intimidat-ing the working class, unleash-ing police and judicial persecu-tion against those union leaders who do not yield, who do not kneel down”, said Orlando Chirino of the ultra-left C-CU-RA union current.

President Chavez says his ad-ministration has favored work-ers by raising the minimum wage more than previous governments, signing generous collective con-tracts in nationalized companies, and promoting worker control of workplaces.

According to some critics, the Chavez administration favors pro-government labor unions by frequently ceding to their de-mands and including them at the negotiation table, but often iso-lates opposition unions by refus-ing to negotiate with them.

Anti-Chavez unions sup-ported the military coup that ousted Chavez for two days in 2002, and they played a major role in a general strike that had the stated intention of toppling Chávez in 2003.

T/ Tamara Pearsonwww.venezuelanalysis.com

The artillery of ideas No Friday, March 11, 2011 Analysis | 7 |

After the Latin Americans, came the Arabs. And tomor-

row, the Africans? Why did Wash-ington and Paris have to draw back in Tunisia and Egypt. How are they going to save the founda-tions of the neo-colonial system. And what is our role in seeing that the world truly transforms itself?

For a long time the Empire seemed to be invincible. The Unit-ed States could at will, using the most absurd pretexts, violate the United Nations Charter, impose cruel embargoes, bomb or occupy countries, assassinate heads of state, provoke civil wars, finance terrorists, organize coups d’état, arm Israel for its aggressions.

It seemed the US could do any-thing it wanted and pessimism prevailed. How many times have I heard people say: “They are too strong, how can we get rid of these corrupt Arab regimes that are ac-complices of Israel?” The response has come from below: the people are stronger than the tyrants.

But we all feel that the struggle has not ended by only eliminat-ing Ben Ali and Mubarak. It has just begun. To wrest real changes, those who are pulling the strings from behind must be neutral-ized. Hence it is vitally important to figure out the mechanisms of this system that produces ty-rants, protects them and, when necessary, replaces them. And to understand why this Empire is weakening and how it will try to maintain its power at all costs.

No Empire is eternal. Sooner or later, the arrogance of their crimes provokes general resis-tance. Sooner or later, the cost of ‘maintaining order’ is greater than the profits that these wars bring to the multinationals. Soon-er or later, the investments in the military will be at the expense of other sectors of the economy, so that they will lose their interna-tional competitiveness.

And the US is no exception to the rule. The rate of profit of their multinationals has decreased since 1965 and the indebtedness and speculation bubbles have only delayed and worsened the situation. Their share in the world economy dropped from 50% in 1945 to 30% in the 1960s. Today it

The world is changing and we havean important role to play

is around 20% and it will be about 10% in 20 years. No army can be stronger than its economy and the US is therefore increasingly less able to be the world’s police-man. Now the planet is becom-ing multipolar: there is a different balance between the US, Europe, Russia and, above all, the large countries of the South. China in particular has proved that to be in-dependent is the best way to make progress. The US and Europe can-not impose their will as they used to do. Their neo-colonialism seems to be heading for an early demise.

In fact, this US decline has been increasingly visible over the last decade. In 2000 the Internet bub-ble burst. In 2002, the Venezuelan population foiled the ‘made in the USA’ coup d’état and Hugo Chavez embarked on his great social reforms that led to peoples’ resistance all over Latin Amer-ica. In 2003 Bush’s war machine bogged down in Iraq, as in Af-ghanistan. In 2006 Israel failed in Lebanon and in 2009 in Gaza. The defeats are mounting up.

The wonderful revolt of the Tunisians and Egyptians has wrought miracles. We now hear the US extolling the ‘democratic transition’ while for decades they have been supplying tyrants with tanks, machine guns and training seminars in torture!

But we must go into the roots of the situation. Rejoicing over the first steps must not mean over-looking the path that remains to be pursued. It is not only Ben Ali who plundered Tunisia, it was a whole class of profiteers. It was not only Mubarak who oppressed the Egyptians, it was the whole regime around him. And behind this re-gime, the US. What was important was not the marionette, but who was pulling the strings. Washing-ton, like Paris, is only trying to re-place the worn-out marionettes by other, more presentable ones.

What the Tunisians, Egyptians and others want to resolve is not which ‘new’ leader will make new promises. Their question is rather “Will I have a real job with a real wage and a decent life for my family?

Only recently Latin America was experiencing the same pov-

erty and the same despair. The enormous profits from oil, gas and other raw materials went to swell the coffers of Exxon and Shell while one Latino out of two lived below the poverty thresh-old, without being able to pay a doctor or a good school for the children. Everything started to change when Hugo Chavez na-tionalized oil, changed all the contracts with the multinationals, demanding that they pay taxes and that profits be shared. The following year $11.4 billion were paid into the State Treasury (for 20 years the figure was zero !) and this started the implementation of social programs: health care and school for everyone, doubling of the minimum wage, support for cooperatives and small busi-nesses that create jobs. In Bolivia Evo Morales is doing the same thing. And the example is spread-ing. Will it reach the Mediterra-nean and the Middle East? When will there be an Arab Chavez or an Arab Evo? The courage of these masses of people who are rebelling deserves an organiza-tion and a leader who is honest and determined to see it through.

Real political democracy is

impossible without social jus-tice. In fact the two problems are intricately linked. No one sets up a dictatorship for pleasure or simple perversion. It is always to maintain the privileges of a small clique who grab all the wealth. The dictators are the em-ployees of the multinationals.

Five years ago, Védrine, for-mer French minister of foreign affairs, had the gall to claim that Arab people were not ready for democracy. This theory remains dominant among a French elite who, more or less openly practice anti-Arab Islamophobia.

In fact, it is France that is not ready for democracy. It is France who massacred the Tunisians in 1937 and 1952 and the Moroccans in 1945. It is France that has led a long and bloody war to stop the Algerians from exercising their le-gitimate right to sovereignty. It is France who, through a statement by their revisionist president, re-fused to recognize its crimes and pay its debts to the Arabs and the Africans. It is France who protected Ben Ali right up until he got on to the plane that took him away. It is France who has imposed and main-tained the worst tyrants in Africa.

The current anti-Muslim rac-ism kills two birds with one stone. First, in Europe, it divides the workers according to their origin, and while there is all this fantasizing about the burqa, the employers happily attack wages, the conditions of work and the pensions of all the workers, with veils or without. Instead of won-dering “But who imposed these dictators on them?” By reversing the victim and the guilty one, the former is demonized.

This is the fundamental debate and it depends on all of us to see that it is highlighted. Why the US, France & Co. – who have the word ‘democracy’ always on their lips –do not want real democra-cy? Because if the people can de-cide how to use their wealth and their work, then the privileges of the corrupt and the profiteers will be in great danger!

To hide their refusal of democ-racy, the US and their allies agitate in the media about the ‘Islamist peril’. Do we see them alerting us and leading huge media cam-paigns about the Islamists who are submissive to them like the odious regime of Saudi Arabia? Do we hear them excusing themselves for having financed the Islamists of Bin Laden in order to overturn a leftwing Afghan government that had emancipated the women?

Our world is changing very quickly. The decline of the US opens new prospects for the lib-eration of peoples. Great upheav-als are likely.

But what direction will they take? If they are to be positive, it depends on each of us circu-lating genuine information so the shameful stories of the past become known, so the secret strategies are unmasked. All this will help to establish a great debate, popular and in-ternational. What kind of econ-omy, and model of social justice do people really need?

The official information on this issue is catastrophic. So if the de-bate is to be started and spread about, each of us has an important role to play. Information is the key.

T/ Michel CollonP/ Agencies

The artillery of ideasENGLISH EDITIONFRIDAY | March 11, 2011 | No. 55| Bs 1 | CARACAS

A publication of the Fundacion Correo del Orinoco • Editor-in-Chief | Eva Golinger • Graphic Design | Alexander Uzcátegui, Jameson Jiménez • Press | Fundación Imprenta de la Cultura

OPINION

An act of self-immolation in central Tunisia would normally matter very

little to the intelligence and diploma-tic corps in Washington. But Mohamed Bouazizi’s suicide before the Town Hall in Sidi Bouzid had an electric effect. It galva-nised the people of Tunisia against their suave and ruthless leader, Zine El Abidi-ne Ben Ali, who had been praised by the governments of France and the US, by the International Monetary Fund and by the bond markets. Only last year, the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitive-ness Report picked Tunisia as the leading country for investment in Africa. Neolibe-ral policies pleased everyone but the Tuni-sian working people, who took Bouazizi’s sacrifice as the spark to rise up and send Ben Ali into his Saudi exile.

The immediate reaction in Washington was that this was a containable problem and that the small protests that broke out in support of Tunisians across the Arab world would not have any impact in their home countries. This was a premature judgment. Long-standing grievances among Egyp-tians pushed them on to the streets, most famously into Cairo’s Tahrir Square. It took them 2 weeks to pressure Hosni Mubarak to release the reins of government and go to his seaside villa in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Mubarak did not leave easily. He was gi-ven a lease of life from the Saudi promises of financial support and from the arrival of the US envoy, Frank Wisner Jr. Mubarak and Wisner are old friends. When the lat-ter was US Ambassador to Egypt between 1986 and 1991, Wisner coaxed his friend to provide diplomatic support for the US-led Gulf War against Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. During Wisner’s tenure, Mubarak cemen-ted Egypt’s allegiance to the US and to the neoliberal path of economic development. A few days after his visit to a beleaguered Mubarak in January 2011, Wisner told a Munich conference that his friend needed to remain in power for the sake of stabili-ty and his own legacy. It was an obscene affront to the people in Tahrir Square.

US policy in the Arab world is built on 3 pillars. The first is its reliance upon the re-gion for oil, which must be allowed to flow freely into the car culture of Europe and the US. The second pillar is that its allies in the Arab world must stand firm with the US in its war on terror. The third, of course, is that the Arab allies had to tether their own

populations’ more radical ambitions vis-a-vis Israel. Egypt accepted a US annual bri-be of $1.3 billion in order to honor its peace agreement with Israel, and this has allowed Israel to conduct its asymmetrical warfare against the Palestinians and the Lebanese.

Wisner’s visit was not idiosyncratic. It was to put some stick about in the Arab world’s most important capital, Cairo. If Mubarak had to go, then Mubarak’s regi-me had to remain in place and the public outcry had to be silenced slowly. The Egyp-tian military, well funded by the US since 1979, came in to do the work.

However, the military might not be as pliable as it seems. Which is why the State Department’s Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs Bill Burns and the Natio-nal Security Council’s Senior Director Da-vid Lipton hastily travelled to Cairo. They needed to shore up people such as Moham-med Hussein Tantawi, the head of Egypt’s Higher Military Council. When the Tahrir Square protests began, Mubarak sent Tan-tawi to Washington to seek support for his regime and for anti-riot equipment.

BAHRAIN PROTESTSProtests in Bahrain sent a shiver through

the Washington establishment for two rea-sons. First, the archipelago on the eastern flank of the Arabian peninsula is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. It is just a few mi-les off the coast of Iran and is able to fully support the US adventures in Iraq. If the monarchy in Bahrain falls, there is every in-dication that a civilian government led by al-Wifaq National Islamic Society will ask the fleet to de-part. Secondly, if the ruling family in Bahrain is toppled it might em-bolden protests in the other emirates and, then, certainly, in the lead emi-rate, Saudi Arabia.

With Libya, the tenor is different. Gaddafi has been a loyal soldier in the US-led war on terror. He has also, over the past 20 years, brought his country in line with the neoli-beral policies that wrought havoc a decade earlier in South America and the rest of

Africa. Egypt, Tunisia and Libya began to take their orders from IMF manuals in the late 1990s, and the current rebellions are as much anti-IMF riots as they are pro-demo-cracy demonstrations. In early February 2011, the IMF said of Libya that it had fo-llowed its “ambitious reform agenda”, and the Fund encouraged Libya’s “strong macroeconomic performance and the pro-gress on enhancing the role of the private sector”. The pain of these policies pushed the needle of distress beyond the bearable.

ERRATIC GADDAFIWhat distinguishes Gaddafi from the

emirs is that he is erratic and has a diffi-cult history. An anti-imperialist Colonel in 1969, Qaddafi often returns to the rhe-toric of his youth, but rarely the policies. It confuses people around the world. They think of him as the revolutionary Gaddafi, when in fact that is a postu-re that has long worn thin. Since 9/11, Gaddafi has been a loyal servant in the Global War on Terror and has been mus-cular in his propagation of the paranoia about the growth of Al Qaeda in the Sahel region of Africa. Any dissenter is tagged with the label of Salafi. Gaddafi’s radical past and erratic present have earned him few friends in Washington, even though he himself has been an unswerving ally of its policies over the past decade.

When the Bahraini emirs authorized their security forces to open fire in Manama, the US said that force must not be used. It was the polite language of diplomacy. With Li-bya, the tone is harsher.

The slow US support for the uprising in Egypt, the cautious tone with Bahrain and Yemen, and the strident language against Libya are of a piece: the US is not driven by the popular upsurge but by its desire to control the events in north Africa and the Gulf to accord with its three pillars.

Over the past decade, the countries of South America walked through the exit from the theatre of US hegemony. Galvanised by events in Venezuela and Bolivia as well as Argentina and Brazil, these countries are no longer in the reliable orbit of US policy. The Arab people seem now in search of just this exit. The struggle is on to see if they will be able to find it. The US and the remainder of its allies want to define these revolts in their image, with Donald Rumsfeld giving Geor-ge W. Bush the credit and Obama’s cronies saying that all this is a result of his speech in Cairo. But these are feints. In Cairo, Oba-ma said, “We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist”. During the Tahrir Square standoff, protesters chanted, “We have extended our hand, why have you clenched your fist?”

- Vijay Prashad

The crisis for US policy in North Africa

Imperial anxieties