<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 By: David Coleman

Venezuela has warned of the destructive potential of rebels who attempted to overthrow the government of President Hugo Chavez Frias in an April 11, 2002 coup d'etat and says that they are still trying to overthrow democracy.  Speaking at the 33rd Organization of American States (OAS) General Assembly in Santiago de Chile, Venezuela's OAS Ambassador Jorge Valero highlighted the interim dictatorship of Pedro Carmona Estanga, who had moved immediately to dissolve the constitution, congress and the judiciary ... "OAS member nations should not disregard the reappearance of Latin American dictatorships."

Analyzing democratic governability in the Latin American region, Ambassador Valero qualified Venezuelan Foreign Minister (MRE) Roy Chaderton Matos' Monday attack on the opposition-controlled Venezuelan print & broadcast media saying "there are anti-national sectors in Venezuela who obstinately, audaciously and irrationally defend privileges which have been seen in all kinds of anti-democratic actions to interrupt the process of democratic, peaceful  and constitutional transformation the government puts forward."

"In Venezuela we have had to counter enormous obstacles in the exercise of democratic government ... the coup d'etat of April 11-12, 2002, the calling of a series of illegal strikes, the criminal sabotage of our petroleum industry."

"We must not fail to recognize that authoritarian regimes and officious dictatorships can easily return to our continent ... we must make every effort to construct a more equitable society and in solidarity to face-off covert resistance to necessary democratic reforms."

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, May 30, 2003 By: David Coleman

President Hugo Chavez Frias' brother, National Lands Institute (INTI) president Adan Chavez is categorically denying spurious opposition claims that the National Executive and/or his department is promoting or facilitating the invasion of productive lands by peasant squatters.

Chavez points out that government efforts under "Plan Zamora" are wholly directed towards promoting proper and productive land use and to put unproductive lands into the hands of poor peasants and small- to medium-sized agricultural producers through land registration, a system of agricultural credits, farm machinery and technical assistance towards increased production on state-owned land which has hitherto not fulfilled any social function whatsoever.

• Under the new plan, more than 739,000 hectares and more than 20 billion bolivares in finance and machinery have been contributed and it is expected that Venezuelan farms will in the short term begin to produce sufficiently to guarantee national food production.

Under Presidential Decree No.2,292 issued on February 4 and an INTI Resolution No.177 of the same date, permanent land registrations and rights of occupancies (Deeds) are extended to peasant cooperatives to organize and put unused land into fruitful production ... Adan Chavez says that land deeds groups are most definitely not extended to the detriment of private property in favor of peasant squatters as the opposition media has been screaming.  "The Law on Lands & Agricultural Development (article 24) extends certificates of land registry in accordance with the Constitution and the requirements of national food production.  We are using hitherto unregistered public lands, with full respect for private properties ... yes, we are promoting and protecting agricultural use of the land as a social function in national food production but we are also promoting national sovereignty and independence with our own (Venezuelan) food production and the rational use of land, natural resources and biodiversity to reduce the necessity of importing foodstuffs.

The law also establishes a total rejection of land invasions and squatting ... "the only thing that remains excluded under the law is any right to registration and land certifications  where those who claim rights have opted for violent and illegal means to occupy agricultural land since October 1, 2001 when the law came into effect."

Title deeds to agricultural land allotments are extended only on uncultivated but otherwise productive farmlands in Venezuelan state ownership.  Further down the line the Venezuelan government will examine the use (or lack of it) of land in private ownership, to determine if the land should be subject to compensated expropriation to be put into the hands of those who will make productive use of it ... "it is all being done in the best interests of the nation's economy, but against a backdrop of violent regional warlords who are determined to oppose the government in every way to preserve their ill-gotten privileges."

Venezuela's opposition dominated print & broadcast media has recently cited cases of alleged land invasion in Barinas State ... Adan Chavez says "they have made spurious claims without the slightest shred of evidence, claiming that where squatters have taken over some land, it has been done with the direct complicity of the National Executive ... they are playing to the gallery but the facts speak for themselves, the squatters do not have any backing of the government whatsoever."

Former Barinas Mayor Rogelio Pena says that his Santa Rita farmland has been invaded recently with the support of INTI officials and the National Guard (GN) ... Chavez, however, says that the land does not belong to Mayor Pena and that some 31,000 hectares of previously uncultivated terrain was allotted 400+ peasants belonging to the Brisas del Pasparro Cooperative.  He explains that Mayor Pena is currently under investigation for alleged corruption in the appropriation of 7,000 hectares of land he claims he acquired, but cannot substantiate, whilst holding mayoral office from 1996 to 2000.  "Pena is suspected of being one in a list of the most corrupt officials from previous governments who took advantage of their positions to steal lands that rightfully belong to the State."

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, May 06, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

US Congressmen: William Delahunt (D), Cass Ballenger (R) and Gregory Meeks (D) are back in Venezuela to meet Venezuelan National Assembly (AN) deputies, who are members of the Boston Group consisting of US and Venezuelan parliamentarians. 

The visit comes at an important moment when the AN is stalled debating the composition of the new National Electoral College (CNE) and government-opposition negotiations have run out of stream and the buck passed on to the AN. 

Cass Ballenger (North Carolina) has met President Hugo Chavez Frias with whom he discussed the impasse in deciding on the new National Electoral College (CNE)  board. 

After the meeting, Ballenger admitted there were obstacles but expressed confidence that legislators would find courage to reach a solution. "I'm sure the necessary votes can be mustered to pass an ordinance bringing in the new board." The Congressman says he feels that President Chavez Frias is ready to support a call for elections.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, May 01, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Interior & Justice (MIJ) Minister General (ret.) Lucas Rincon Romero says he thinks somebody or some organization is behind the recent spate of prison riots throughout Venezuela ... "somebody is paying out a lot of money to do this to generate violence in the prisons." 

The General brushes aside criticism saying he is trying to humanize the prison system and will introduce a rotation guard system to avoid abuses and corruption. 

Calling the simultaneous stop-in of relatives in three distinct prisons (Coro, Tocuyito and Rodeo 1) on Sunday, Rincon Romero accused the media of hype and other interested sectors of organizing the riots. "We will get the bandits who are behind this ... they are not concerned about the human beings in the prisons." 

Family members of prisoners, who have been inside since Sunday, have now abandoned the prison precinct after the government agreed to set up flying tribunals to deal with the backlog of cases awaiting a sentence. 

De: ProVeO info@proveo.org Fecha: Mar, 22 de Abril de 2003, 3:47 pm Para: ProVeO Members members@proveo.org

Previous stories: adam.antville.org and adam.antville.org

Recibi esto de Nick Fraser, editor de Storyville. Me parece curioso que comente que hoy en dia no se puede hacer un documental sobre Venezuela que satisfaga a todas las partes y sin embargo la opinion de la mayor parte haya sido cruelmente obviada. Cordialmente,

Aleksander Boyd www.vcrisis.com
www.proveo.org

Please forgive me if I answer your letter with what amounts to a round robin. We have received a number of letters regarding Hugo Chavez and the film we showed about him.

The first thing I should say is that CHAVEZ: INSIDE THE COUP was not a BBC News or Current Affairs production, and as such does not represent the views of the BBC. It was made by an independent company in Ireland. We bought the film for transmission in the United Kingdom. There are at present no plans to show it on BBC international networks. However, the film will be shown (or has been) by other broadcasters in Canada, and throughout the rest of Europe.

However, we do stand by the film. In our view it is an excellent piece of journalism. But it is necessary to remember that this is a film about the coup of April 11th last year. It is in fact about the filmmakers experience of the coup - it only describes the situation in Venezuela as a prelude to recounting hour by hour what happened in the palace. It does show just how antagonistic the private Venezuelan media remain towards the Chavez government. And it does also show that Chavez uses the media propagandistically for his own purposes. But it is not the last word about Chavez.

Having read the many emails sent to us - sometimes by people responding not to the film, but to my own comments about the film - I feel that it is more or less impossible these days to make a film about Venezuela that would satisfy all parties. But this was not the intention of the filmmakers - they wanted to make a film that would explain, as dramatically as possible, what it was like during the coup.

For your interest, here is a link to a piece about Venezuela and the media, by Nick Higham, a BBC media correspondent. news.bbc.co.uk

Yours sincerely,

Nick Fraser Commissioning Editor, Storyville

Related reading: adam.antville.org