Environmental News Network 22 April 2003 By Magdalena Morales, Reuters

CARACAS, Venezuela — In a conference room at Venezuela's military academy, a group of soldiers listen attentively to a duo of Cuban instructors.

The topic being taught is not revolutionary guerrilla warfare as once practiced by Fidel Castro or "Che" Guevara, but the "organoponic farming revolution," communist Cuba's latest export to its closest South American ally, Venezuela.

Organoponic gardening, a system of concentrated, organic urban vegetable cultivation, is taking root in central Caracas amid the piles of garbage, bands of homeless beggars, and tens of thousands of vehicles belching out polluting gas fumes.

Inspired by Cuba's system of urban market gardens, which has been operating for several years, left-wing President Hugo Chavez has ordered the creation of similar intensive city plots across Venezuela in a bid to develop food self-sufficiency in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

"Let's sow our cities with organic, hydroponic mini-gardens," said the populist former paratrooper, who survived a brief coup a year ago and also toughed out a crippling opposition strike in December and January.

Inside Fuerte Tiuna military headquarters, soldiers of the crack Ayala armored battalion supervised by Cuban instructors have swapped their rifles for shovels and hoes to tend neat rows of lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, coriander, and parsley.

Since his election in late 1998, Chavez has drafted the armed forces to serve his self-styled "revolution" in a range of social projects, from providing medical services to running low-cost food markets for the poor.

Besides the military vegetable patch in Fuerte Tiuna, the government has also planted a 1.2-acre plot in Caracas' downtown Bellas Artes district, overlooked by towering office blocks and located near the city's main museums.

The market garden, denominated Bolivar 1 in honor of Venezuela's independence hero Simon Bolivar, is being run by an agricultural cooperative set up in a nearby poor neighborhood.

PUBLIC SKEPTICISM

The sight of sprouting vegetables nestling in concrete-lined earth beds behind wire fences in central Caracas causes many passers-by to stare in puzzlement.

"This might be all right to provide for a family but not to feed a country," scoffed Diego Di Coccio, a 40-year-old unemployed businessman.

"They should use the money to unblock the drains," said chemical technician Hector Gonzalez, pointing to the piles of rubbish in the streets around.

Skeptics question why resource-rich Venezuela should need urban vegetable gardens when it has hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile farming land, much not in use.

The national farmers' federation Fedeagro, which groups 52 local associations around the country, says it is not opposed in principle to the urban food program. But it demands more government support for the farming sector, which contracted around 10 percent between 1998 and 2002.

"The problem is that it looks as though the government is concentrating all its efforts on these city farming plots, and yet the national sector remains in the state it's in," said Fedeagro's technical adviser Nelson Calabria.

Private farmers and ranchers also accuse the government of threatening private property with a socialist-inspired agrarian reform law that says idle, uncultivated rural estates can be expropriated and distributed to landless peasants.

But Chavez, a tough-talking nationalist, defends the urban garden plan as a necessary strategy to ward off the threat of food shortages and wean the country away from its high dependence on imports. Traditionally, more than 60 percent of the nation's food needs are imported.

To the derision of critics, Chavez has also suggested that Caracas' slum dwellers, whose ramshackle hilltop homes ring the city, should raise crops and chickens on their balconies and rooftops. Turn your homes into "vertical henhouses," he said.

The president, who is accused by his foes of ruining the oil-reliant economy with his anticapitalist rhetoric and interventionist policies, has also vowed to break what he says is a stranglehold on domestic food production held by rich "oligarchs" opposed to him.

During the recent opposition strike, Chavez ordered troops to temporarily seize and search some privately owned food plants, which he said were deliberately hoarding food supplies.

CUBAN INFLUENCE

Critics of the president say he is using strict foreign exchange and price controls introduced this year to wage a vendetta against his business foes by denying them scarce U.S. dollars and forcing them to lower their prices.

Others ridicule the urban vegetable gardens as little more than a political gimmick and another sign of Chavez's close ideological ties with his friend and ally Cuban President Fidel Castro, whom he regularly salutes as a revolutionary soulmate.

Since Chavez came to power, Venezuela has become Cuba's single biggest trading partner, supplying the island with up to 53,000 barrels per day of oil in a bilateral energy agreement. Several hundred Cuban doctors, sports trainers, and technical advisers in areas like sugar farming are working in Venezuela.

Although the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) also backs the Venezuelan urban farming project, the main inspiration and training comes from specialists from Cuba.

The collapse from end-1989 of the Soviet bloc, Cuba's main political ally and supplier, plunged the island into economic crisis, and its government started up urban vegetable plots to counter critical food shortages caused by the loss of key farm-related imports like fertilizers and pesticides.

Cuba claims that 50 percent of the vegetables produced on the island come from urban gardens, but local residents complain that the produce is poor and there are persistent shortages.

"It was established that the main task of the revolution should be to produce food," Cuban Gen. Sio Wong, who is supervising the Venezuelan project, said in Caracas.

HEALTH BENEFIT OR HAZARD?

He hailed the benefits of the Caracas city plots. "No chemical products are used, so these are the healthiest vegetables that Venezuelans will eat," he said.

But Venezuelan experts wonder whether the polluted atmosphere of central Caracas could turn the city-center vegetables into a health hazard. They say that the smog-filled air contains concentrations of carbon monoxide and lead that could contaminate growing plants.

Despite the criticism, Chavez's government and its Cuban advisers are enthusiastic about the project, which involves an initial investment of around $2 million. The Agriculture Ministry hopes to plant 2,470 acres of such urban vegetable gardens this year and aims to supply about 20 percent of the nation's vegetables through the program.

"The Hanging Gardens of Babylon that appear in the Bible were basically urban gardens," said Adolfo Rodriguez, head of Cuba's Urban Agriculture Project.

boston.com

CARACAS, Venezuela - In a conference room at Venezuela's military academy, a group of soldiers listens attentively to a duo of Cuban instructors.

The topic being taught is not revolutionary guerrilla warfare as once practiced by Fidel Castro or ''Che'' Guevara, but the ''organoponic farming revolution,'' communist Cuba's latest export to its closest South American ally, Venezuela.

Inspired by Cuba's system of urban market gardens, which has been operating for several years, left-wing President Hugo Chavez has ordered the creation of similar intensive city plots across Venezuela in a bid to develop food self-sufficiency in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

Granma

Oil companies producing at full capacity

In spite of Venezuelan demonstrations for peace and government criticisms of the US aggression against the Iraqi people, Rafael Ramírez, minister of energy, has stated that his country will guarantee supplies of crude oil to that market.

A member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Venezuela emphasized that its position is no different to that of the other associates, while maintaining that the common line is "not to turn oil into a political weapon."

The fifth reserve of oil in the world and at eighth place in terms of exploitation, Venezuela will continue sending 13% of U.S. oil imports, according to the minister.

For his part, in his weekly broadcast to the nation, Chávez explained on March 28 that the oil companies are functioning at full capacity, meaning that the normal 3.14 million barrels produced prior to opposition sabotage through a two-month strike designed to provoke chaos and derail the country, have been recouped.

The positive operating of this sector is key to national development, as exports and essential derivatives make up 50% of the national budget.

"We are once again exporting gasoline, and are charging for delayed payments from international clients," the Venezuelan president emphasized, adding that invoicing had been brought up to date, as delays on payment were due to the alleged misplacement of bills for last November, which are being completed now.

In the context of achievements made in the area of crude oil, Chávez announced that Brazilian and Italian firms had expressed interest in an "oil for housing" exchange program, in relation to which he has asked for a feasibility study, reported PL.

Given the oil industry’s recuperation, he highlighted the feasibility of assigning a stock of 3.14 million barrels as payment to housing construction firms. "With one million barrels (which we can produce in six hours) we can construct 4,000 houses, based on a price of $25 USD per barrel," he stated.

In this way, he underlined that "the proposed exchange program with Brazil and Italy forms a part of the Oil for the People Program, through which it is planned to use the industry’s potential to solve social problems."

INTEREST IN CLARIFYING THE INCIDENT IN COLOMBIA

"We want Colombia to be a sister nation. From now on, we are going to put things in place, mutually respect each other and work and build together," affirmed the South American president, in what was considered by many analysts to be a goodwill gesture aimed at maintaining good relations with his country’s Colombian neighbors.

The statement came after recent incursions on the Venezuelan border by Colombian paramilitary groups and the decision by Caracas to bomb several of their camps. Colombia had previously accused Chávez’ government of supporting insurgent groups, an action denied by Chávez on various occasions.

He stressed that a meeting with his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe has been scheduled for the near future with the aim of "clarifying matters and talking frankly."

Nevertheless, the amicable language used by the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution reiterates the fact that his government "does not and will not allow the entry of guerrillas or paramilitaries into Venezuela, which shares an extensive border of 2,219 kilometers with Colombia."

"Venezuela only wants peace with Colombia," and to this end, he emphatically stated that the country "will not lift a finger to support a war in that country but will fight for a negotiated and diplomatic solution to the Colombian conflict."

URBAN AGRICULTURE IN CARACAS

In association with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Chávez recently opened an agricultural cooperative in the center of the capital city Caracas. It covers an area of 3,880 square meters with a capacity for producing some 75 tons of root and fresh vegetables, in order to aid the government’s efforts to guarantee adequate nutrition through the Special Program for Food Security.

According to Chávez, this and other upcoming measures are in line with concrete efforts to alter the chaotic neoliberal system introduced into the country decades ago. The Bolivar 1 farm (an urban agriculture endeavor) is just one of the many social transformations that are gradually being developed throughout the South American country; the greatest expression of which was seen in last January’s Agrarian Reform Act, when Venezuelans of humble origin were granted land ownership titles.

Pravda.RU:World:More in detail 13:11 2003-04-02

On Sunday, during his usual radio program, Hugo Chavez, made clear his idea to develop closer ties with Brazil and Argentina and, eventually, be a formal member of the Mercosur block. If Caracas' approach is taken seriously by Brazil and Buenos Aires, the geopolitical structure of Latin America could change dramatically and the world would see the birth of a new strategic power.

"I have already talked about this before: now more than never Venezuela aims to be part of the Mercosur", said Chavez during his weekly speech named "Alo Presidente". Chavez also said that he shared Brazil and Argentina's will to restructure Mercosur and went further when announced that Venezuela was ready to help to reach such objective.

"We have to give Mercosur a political dimension, not only economical, to make it the framework of South America's political union", expressed Chavez. On Venezuela President-s words, powerful South America could contribute to world's balance.

A potential union between Venezuela and Mercosur could be of geopolitical interest for the world. Venezuela is the world's fifth largest oil producer; at the same time, Brazil is the world's largest offshore oil producer and both countries hold State-owned crude monopolies. Therefore, the oil production, pumping, exportation and reserves are controlled by the State.

In Argentina the situation is different. This South American country is an important oil exporter, but the activity has been privatized in 1999. Today, the Spanish group Repsol-YPF controls the national company, but reserves still belong to the State.

If Argentina dares to review oil contracts, it could join Brazil and Venezuela to create the world's largest oil pole, by surpassing Middle East and Russia. Therefore, would play a decisive role to establish prices in the oil industry and become a key energetic factor.

This is only speculation; however it could turn into reality some day. Today, Venezuela is member of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN by its initials in Spanish), together with Bolivia (Mercosur associated member), Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. The Mercosur and the CAN are negotiating since 1995 a formal integration between both blocks. However, until now, talks did not reach positive results. It is of Washington-s interest not to allow further South American integration outside the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas.

During the Independence wars against the Spanish Kingdom at the beginning of the XIX Century, the Venezuelan Simon Bolivar and the Argentine General Jose de San Martin drove South America to liberation. Both Chavez's self-denominated "Bolivarian Revolution" and the new Brazilian process led by Lula Da Silva, have targeted South American integration, as their main goal on foreign policy. Will Lula and Chavez be the Bolivar and the San Martin of the new millenium? Perhaps they are the last chance for the region.

Hernan Etchaleco PRAVDA.Ru Argentina

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

President Hugo Chavez Frias continues to push his "grow vegetables" campaign inaugurating another organic garden based on hydroponics in Caracas downtown Parque Central. "In a short time people will be able to come here to buy a cheap  kilo of tomatoes because the middleman has been cut out and there are no transport fees to add to the price." 

The President says he hopes to have 1,000 hectares of organic, hydroponic, "intensive gardens" and family plots in the Caracas region operative and producing this year.  The first garden started is in Fuerte Tiuna barracks and the President says he wants to see gardens in every Caracas barrio. 

• The opposition came under fire for poking fun at his countryside "conuco" (garden) for every peasant program and other DIY schemes. 

Agriculture & Lands Minister Efren Andrade forecasts harvests of 50 tonnes a year under the new scheme.  Chavez Frias has thanked Cuban experts and the UN Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) representatives for the technical and financial aid.