Saturday, December 19, 2015
Friday, December 11, 2015
Venezuela crisis - President Maduro could dissolve the National Assembly.
Under the current Venezuelan Constitution President Maduro can dissolve the National Assembly if it infringes on the interests of the country or the people.
Looking at this chart published in the Venezuelan United Socialist Party newspaper Cuatrofdigital we can see that only a small amount of Chavistas actually switched sides in the December 6th legislative election. The Chavista voters who did this or who abstained were expressing a protest against the way the United Socialist Party and government have been functioning (or dysfunctioning). They did not consciously decide that they favor neoliberalism and United States domination of their country. President Maduro would be within his rights and acting responsibly to take any action up to and including dissolving the National Assembly and calling the people into action to defend the revolutionarmy process.
Two Venezuelan citizens were taken prisoner in Haiti on November 11th , brought in manacles to New York City and presented with charges of violating United States drug laws outside of the United States. It seems to me that the hypocritical United States government could be aiming for a "Panama - Noriega scenario " against Venezuela. I've posted several times my belief that no Latin American person should suffer for the fake, phony, hypocritical and racist US Drug War.
I imagine that the President of Venezuela might decide not to comply with any US demand for extradition of any Venezuelan even if the National Assembly were to order compliance with such a demand. It could be seen as an act against the interests and sovereignty of the country were the Assembly to do something like that.
Thursday, December 10, 2015
What happened to the three white men.of Santa Barbara?
http://countercurrentnews.com/2015/12/media-refusing-to-cover-police-witness-accounts-of-3-white-male/
The interview, which took place live and over the phone, has not been covered by any other mainstream outlet despite the vastly different details provided which completely contradict the subsequent ‘official’ narrative, while backing up several other eyewitness accounts.
The interview, which took place live and over the phone, has not been covered by any other mainstream outlet despite the vastly different details provided which completely contradict the subsequent ‘official’ narrative, while backing up several other eyewitness accounts.
Witness Sally Abdelmageed, who works at the Inland Regional Center, and witnessed the shooting, spoke to CBS correspondent Scott Pelley.
During this interview, Pelley would ask Abdelmageed to describe the shooters in detail. Abdelmageed replied that the shooters were three tall athletic white men.
ISIS oil and the Israel connection
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Israel Key Link in Exporting ISIS Oil
Vijay Prashad says that ISIS oil is smuggled through Turkey to Israel and is a major source of ISIS funding -
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Venezuela is in for more hard times.
Correction:Weds. Dec. 9, 5:55 am New York time: The opposition took 57 % of the popular vote. The Chavista coalition took 43% of the popular vote. The opposition won the popular vote by a margin of 14%, not 20% as was stated in the article.
The people have spoken, and as the expression goes, "The voice of the people is the voice of God."
Almost 75% of Venezuelans over the age of eighteen voted on Sunday night, and after some delay the electoral authority announced the complete results. With 112 out of 167 Assembly seats the former opposition coalition will have the power to re write the Constitution, which they will, launch a recall referendum against President Maduro, which they will unless he resigns first, set up an Assembly Committee to investigate the United Venezuelan Socialist Party, which also is certainly on their short "to do" list.
From what I can see President Maduro, though he conceded the results, doesn't get what happened. He and his way of doing things was repudiated by a margin of 20 percent of the popular vote and his party's power to govern is soon at an end. He now talks of a review of the lessons of the defeat. The time to review is past for him, I'm quite certain. If the members of his party do not press him to resign, with his cabinet the National Assembly will relieve him of his duties this coming May 10th under the current constitution , if not sooner under a revised constitution that they are empowered to write and enact.
The former opposition did not win. The governing (soon to be non-governing) party lost.
It allowed the "economic war" that it complains about to go unanswered. It allows up to this moment a distorted lopsided monetary exchange policy to feed the black market, inflation and shortages. It boasts of the gains that have been largely pissed away: free medical care, that was never in effect in all parts of the country, and which has crumbled where it did exist. An educational system plagued by shortages of everything from desks, to books, to underpaid teachers. A housing program that was not proprttionately bigger than the old regime's, and which in many cases is crumbling, in other cases the buildings taken over by criminal gangs. Over the past 17 years more than 200,000 Venezuelans have been murdered and it was only this year that an effort, or the appearance of an effort was made to do the most basic job that a government has - to reasonably assure the safety of law abiding people within its nation's borders.
United States dollars are sold to multi national corporations and "insiders" at 6.3 bolivars each. There is no effective audit of where these dollars actually go while a black market dollar can be sold formore than nine hundred bolivars today.
Gasoline, much of it imported (!) is sold at pennies a liter, benefiting those Venezuelans who can afford to buy automobiles and of course those whose fortunes are built on smuggling.
Hunger is now once again the lot of the majority of Venezuela's people.
The new bosses in town proved incapable of organizing mass protests against these conditions because they do not have a real dedicated mass following. They have voters fed up with President Maduro.
Five million Venezuelans voted for Chavista candidates in spite of everything. I'm hoping a new leadership steps forward. If the revolution is to stay alive it will have to fight outside the halls of the National Assembly. That's been lost. The new crew will be looking to bring in the IMF, genetically modified organisms, and privatization at pennies on the dollar.
The people have spoken, and as the expression goes, "The voice of the people is the voice of God."
Almost 75% of Venezuelans over the age of eighteen voted on Sunday night, and after some delay the electoral authority announced the complete results. With 112 out of 167 Assembly seats the former opposition coalition will have the power to re write the Constitution, which they will, launch a recall referendum against President Maduro, which they will unless he resigns first, set up an Assembly Committee to investigate the United Venezuelan Socialist Party, which also is certainly on their short "to do" list.
From what I can see President Maduro, though he conceded the results, doesn't get what happened. He and his way of doing things was repudiated by a margin of 20 percent of the popular vote and his party's power to govern is soon at an end. He now talks of a review of the lessons of the defeat. The time to review is past for him, I'm quite certain. If the members of his party do not press him to resign, with his cabinet the National Assembly will relieve him of his duties this coming May 10th under the current constitution , if not sooner under a revised constitution that they are empowered to write and enact.
The former opposition did not win. The governing (soon to be non-governing) party lost.
It allowed the "economic war" that it complains about to go unanswered. It allows up to this moment a distorted lopsided monetary exchange policy to feed the black market, inflation and shortages. It boasts of the gains that have been largely pissed away: free medical care, that was never in effect in all parts of the country, and which has crumbled where it did exist. An educational system plagued by shortages of everything from desks, to books, to underpaid teachers. A housing program that was not proprttionately bigger than the old regime's, and which in many cases is crumbling, in other cases the buildings taken over by criminal gangs. Over the past 17 years more than 200,000 Venezuelans have been murdered and it was only this year that an effort, or the appearance of an effort was made to do the most basic job that a government has - to reasonably assure the safety of law abiding people within its nation's borders.
United States dollars are sold to multi national corporations and "insiders" at 6.3 bolivars each. There is no effective audit of where these dollars actually go while a black market dollar can be sold formore than nine hundred bolivars today.
Gasoline, much of it imported (!) is sold at pennies a liter, benefiting those Venezuelans who can afford to buy automobiles and of course those whose fortunes are built on smuggling.
Hunger is now once again the lot of the majority of Venezuela's people.
The new bosses in town proved incapable of organizing mass protests against these conditions because they do not have a real dedicated mass following. They have voters fed up with President Maduro.
Five million Venezuelans voted for Chavista candidates in spite of everything. I'm hoping a new leadership steps forward. If the revolution is to stay alive it will have to fight outside the halls of the National Assembly. That's been lost. The new crew will be looking to bring in the IMF, genetically modified organisms, and privatization at pennies on the dollar.
The 23 enero district is an historic bastion of Chavismo. This Sunday it barely elected an anti Chavista to the National Assembly.
That's me standing in front of a mural of Presidents Chavez and Maduro right outside the wonderful zoo in Merida last year. The Barrio Adentro free clinic just outside the picture was locked shut on a weekday afternoon as are most.
Monday, December 7, 2015
Venezuela opposition wins big in legislative election.
It's sad news, and we don't know yet just how big this loss to Venezuela's governing coalition was. Election officialsare still picking up the pieces. The final numbers aren't in as I write. The opposition definitely carried 99 seats 12 more than they needed to take a simple majority. The United Venezuelan Socialist Party and its allied groups in the Grand Patriotic Pole definitely took 46 seats. 22 seats are still considered too close to call. More to come when the final numbers become public and the initial public negotiations take place.
It's sad news, and we don't know yet just how big this loss to Venezuela's governing coalition was. Election officialsare still picking up the pieces. The final numbers aren't in as I write. The opposition definitely carried 99 seats 12 more than they needed to take a simple majority. The United Venezuelan Socialist Party and its allied groups in the Grand Patriotic Pole definitely took 46 seats. 22 seats are still considered too close to call. More to come when the final numbers become public and the initial public negotiations take place.
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