Catherina
Catherina's Journalthe UK Government looks forward to working with the Government and people of Venezuela ....
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"On the occasion of the inauguration of Nicolas Maduro as President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the UK Government looks forward to working with the Government and people of Venezuela to strengthen our relationship and deepen cooperation in areas of mutual interest.
"We are concerned by reports of violence following the elections and call on all sides to work together to reduce tensions and to prevent further incidents".
But US Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington was not yet ready to validate Maduro's narrow victory in Sunday's vote, in which he defeated opposition candidate Henrique Capriles by a margin of 1.7 percentage points.
http://ruvr.co.uk/2013_04_19/Venezuela-Maduro-inauguration/
The US is looking absolutely ridiculous.
Venezuela at the crossroads
As post-election tensions continue to escalate in Venezuela, we ask where is this political crisis heading.
- Inside Story Americas Last Modified: 18 Apr 2013 10:44
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The impasse has led to violence - at least seven people have died and dozens more have been injured since voting day as rival supporters closed ranks behind their leaders.
Clinics set up by Hugo Chavez to provide free healthcare to the poor have been torched.
The opposition has been further emboldened by the Obama administration which refuses to recognise the election result - a position which leaves the US virtually alone in the hemisphere.
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So where is the political crisis heading and what is coming next for the country?
Inside Story Americas, with presenter Shihab Rattansi, discusses with guests: George Ciccariello-Maher, a writer and political theorist; Daniel Hellinger, a professor of political science from Webster University; and Diego Arria, former Venezuelan representative to the United Nations and ran as a candidate in the opposition primaries last year.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestoryamericas/2013/04/201341873528724566.html
There's a VIDEO AT LINK with a couple comments (pasted below) prominently highlighted.
Ugh, the video starts with ax-grinding coup supporter Diego Arria I can't listen/watch it right now and miss the inauguration.
" ... what's really been attempted is to create a situation of uncertainty and thereby instability so for example with these Cuban clinics that were being burned down just because an opposition leader was tweeting that the Cubans were burning the ballot boxes which doesn't make any sense ... it's about a broader effort to destabilise this country, if not to overthrow the government now then certainly to discredit it and defeat it at the polls later."
- George Ciccariello-Maher, political theorist
"The opposition has been burning down health clinics, there've been serious incidents of violence .... Diego Arria has been very disingenuous in sort of suggesting that this is all a plot just to make the opposition look bad, and that the international community is leaving the opposition isolated."
- Daniel Hellinger, professor of political science, Webster University
U.S. Must Recognize Venezuela's Elections
Dan Kovalik
Human and labor rights lawyer
U.S. Must Recognize Venezuela's Elections
... the U.S.'s position in regard to Venezuela has nothing to do with the U.S.'s alleged concerns for democracy, but rather, its complete disdain for it.
I just returned from Venezuela where I was one of over 170 international election observers from around the world, including India, Guyana, Suriname, Colombia, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Scotland, England, the United States, Guatemala, Argentina, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Jamaica, Brazil, Chile, Greece, France, Panama and Mexico. These observers included two former presidents (of Guatemala and the Dominican Republic), judges, lawyers and numerous high ranking officials of national electoral councils. What we found was an election system which was transparent, inherently reliable, well-run and thoroughly audited.
Indeed, as to the auditing, what has been barely mentioned by the mainstream press is the fact that around 54 percent of all votes are, and indeed have already been, audited to ensure that the electronic votes match up with the paper receipts which serve as back-up for these electronic votes. And, this auditing is done in the presence of witnesses from both the governing and opposition parties right in the local polling places themselves. I witnessed just such an audit at the end of election day on Sunday. And, as is the usual case, the paper results matched up perfectly with the electronic ones. As the former Guatemalan President, Alvaro Colom, who served as an observer, opined, the vote in Venezuela is "secure" and easily verifiable.
The U.S.'s position is all the more ridiculous given its quick recognition of the coup government in Paraguay after the former bishop-turned president, Fernando Lugo, was ousted in 2012, and its recognition of the 2009 elections in Honduras despite the fact that the U.S.'s stated precondition for recognizing this election -- the return of President Manuel Zelaya to power after his forcible ouster by the military -- never occurred. Of course, this even pales in comparison to the U.S.'s active involvement in coups against democratically-elected leaders in Latin America (e.g., against President Árbenz in Guatemala in 1954, against President Allende in Chile in 1973, and against President Aristide in Haiti in 2004).
There is no doubt that the U.S. could halt this violence right now by recognizing the results of the Venezuelan elections, just as the nations of the world recognized, without question, the results of the elections which put John F. Kennedy in power in 1960 and George W. Bush in power in 2000. The reason the U.S. is not doing so is obvious: It does not like the Venezuelans' chosen form of government, and welcomes that government's demise, even through violence. The U.S., therefore, is not supporting democracy and stability in Venezuela; it is intentionally undermining it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/us-must-recognize-venezuela_b_3103540.html
Live Link to Nicolas Maduro's Inauguration
http://www.telesurtv.net/el-canal/senal-en-vivoCurrently showing a huge happy cheering crowd, quite red lol, waving flags in front of the National Assembly. I'm not sure how soon the official ceremony will start.
Also shoots of dignitaries and foreign political representatives arriving. Peru now.
Noam Chomsky on Hugo Chavez's Death and Legacy (April 10, 2013)
Hugo Chavez's Death and Legacy (April 10, 2013)
From Arbenz to Maduro, Killer Plots of the CIA
From Arbenz to Maduro, Killer Plots of the CIA
By Randy Saborit Mora
Guatemala, Apr 11 (Prensa Latina) Much more about plans inside the CIA will be disclosed in the future, however History already collects plenty evidence relating that spying agency with carrying out distabilizing actions in Latin America.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in the Coup d'Etat against Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz in 1954, refers to new disclosures the US daily El Nuevo Herald.
The secret CIA base was located 60 years ago in the Northeastern sector of the Opa-locka airport, where preparations were underway in 1953 for a covert operation which resulted in the overthrowing of Arbenz, indicates the Miami newspaper.
An article published in that paper asserts that "several CIA agents who later participated in the failed invasion of Bahia de Cochinos (Cuba) in April, 1961m, worked there for months organizing the intricate logistic details of Pbsuccess, codename of the operation against Arbenz."
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Salvadoran president, Mauricio Funes, ordered this week an investigation into the participation of rightist sectors of his country in plans to destabilize Venezuela before next Sunday's presidential elections.
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http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1301551&Itemid=1
Paraguay's Left Wing Denounces Television Ban before Elections
Imagen activaAsuncion, Apr 18 (Prensa Latina) Guasu Front, Paraguay's coalition of parties and social organizations, denounced today that television channels are banned from spreading its messages before general elections.
The censure applied to paid propaganda by the political organization was carried out by SNT and Television Publica de Paraguay channels, a situation considered to be very serious for jeopardizing freedom of speech, information and fair elections for the people of Paraguay.
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http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1325341&Itemid=1
And how is that portrayed when done against the left? Why it's portrayed as "democratic consolidation, of transparency, freedom of expression and of the press".
“We’re optimistic about Sunday’s election and the future of Paraguay if we can agree on long term state policies, but something is for certain: democracy in Paraguay is here to stay” said Ricardo Caballero Aquino, Chargé d’affaires of the Paraguayan embassy in Montevideo who was also positive about future relations with Unasur and Mercosur.
In an interview with MercoPress interim ambassador with a long journalist and writer’s experience said Paraguay is going through an exceptional period of democratic consolidation, of transparency, freedom of expression and of the press which augur a good future for the country’s institutions and strongly supported by an extraordinary performance of the economy which is forecasted to expand between 12% and 15% this year.
On Sunday 3.5 million Paraguayans will be voting for a new president, vice-president, 45 senators, 80 Lower house members, 17 governors and 18 representatives to the Mercosur parliament.
The main candidates are Horacio Cartes from the hegemonic Colorado party that for decades dominated the country and Efrain Alegre from the Liberals who with their former ally ex-bishop Fernando Lugo (*) defeated for the first time in 2008, the divided Colorado block.
“The presidential election is going to be closer than what the polls have been suggesting, but this is positive because be it with the return of the (conservative) Colorados or the continuity of the Liberals, it is a return to traditional Paraguayan politics with a great difference: the communications explosion, the social networks which establish limits and even controls to whoever is in office; our vices and sins from our traditional way of making politics won’t be easy, they will change, are changing and the new generations are growing in a scenario of freedoms”, said Caballero Aquino.
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Caballero Aquino also anticipated that in Sunday’s election, and in the future, the country will not use the Brazilian electronic vote system and will return to the old ballot registry, with all the additional paper work and guarantees because “it is notorious that tracking and errors have been detected in Venezuela and even the US with the electronic experience”.
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http://en.mercopress.com/2013/04/18/democracy-in-paraguay-is-here-to-stay-mercosur-and-unasur-have-become-irrelevant
Oh and they're pissed off at Unasur because of “all the ill they said about Paraguayan democracy" and "the scornful attitude of Mercosur and Unasur towards Paraguay”.
The final paragraph is this insult
(*) Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez (Spanish pronunciation: [ferˈnando arˈmindo ˈluɣo ˈmendes]; born 30 May 1951) is a Paraguayan politician who was President of Paraguay from 2008 to 2012. Previously he was a Roman Catholic priest and bishop, serving as Bishop of the Diocese of San Pedro from 1994 to 2005. He was elected as President in 2008. In 2012, he was removed from office through an impeachment process that neighboring countries deemed a coup d'état.[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Lugo
Land distribution, social inequality, housing for the poor, introducing free treatment in public hospitals, financial aid for the poor. Well of COURSE he had to go.
Lugo himself accepted his ouster, saying that any legal and realistic chance of reinstating him ended when the Supreme Court of Paraguay declared his impeachment and confirmed his removal, and the electoral court recognized Franco as the new president. However, he denounced it as "a congressional coup."[31]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Lugo
And how does Washington-based Human Rights Watch document? With barely a peep. 3 short articles in the last 13 years, dating in the years 2002, 2003, 2012. The one from 2012 dealing with the coup is an extremely weak and watered down 5 short paragraphs.
You'd need an excel spreadsheet to try to count all their articles on Venezuela.
UNASUR Calls Venezuelan Opposition to Recognize Election's Results
UNASUR Calls Venezuelan Opposition to Recognize Election's Results
Lima, Apr 19 (Prensa Latina) The UNASUR special summit congratulated in this capital today Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro for his election, and called tacitly the Venezuelan opposition to recognize the April 14 election's result.
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The statement congratulates the Venezuelan people for their massive participation in the elections, and congratulates President Maduro for the results and his election as a president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
It calls those who participated in the elections to respect the official results emanating from the National Electoral Council of Venezuela, which is a tacit call to opposition Henrique Capriles to cease his contempt charges against the results.
President Ollanta Humala stated that "any claim, question or special action" of any of the participants in the electoral process, "should be referred and resolved within the existing legal order" in Venezuela "and the democratic will of the parties."
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http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1328531&Itemid=1
Understanding the Venezuelan election: Two vital perspectives
Understanding the Venezuelan election: Two vital perspectives
April 19, 2013 — Sabina Becker
“Don’t worry, Nicolás, don’t worry, Venezuela — we already know where the coups come from.”
The commentariat at Aporrea is full of theories and denunciations about how the hell Henrique “Majunche” Capriles Radonski could have picked up, or picked off, so many votes in such a short time, despite the commanding lead Nicolás Maduro had going in. I’ve found a couple of articles that resonated especially with me. Here’s the first, from Antonio Aponte’s regular column, Un Grano de Maíz (A Kernel of Corn):
The reality, already difficult in itself to decipher, is becoming all the more so through the work of the media who, far from being a means of communication, have transformed themselves into veritable cannons in this war that our country is now suffering.
The first key: The oligarchy has a weak leadership. Capriles, we all know, as it has been proven, does not defend the votes; he is afraid of getting deeply involved. They received the orders of the gringo embassy to “not recognize” the result and they have not been able to justify the pretension. It is evident that the ballot-box thing is an excuse, and now they dare to ask for a new election. If the CNE audits all the ballots, they will look for another alibi to continue with their destabilization plans.
Second key: The counterrevolution is not homogeneous. Several different tendencies are united by foreign orders and allowances, by hatred of Chavismo, and a deep disdain for the lowly. They show descrepancies over how to truncate the Revolution, never in the necessity for doing so. They diverge over the timing of aggression, not over aggression itself.
Third key: The Caprilistas have a great contradiction. They want to sail the seas of sensitivity and at the same time they are splashing around in the miasmas of fascist aggression. If Nicolás (Maduro) stands up to them, they’ll run in terror seeking shelter in the Constitution; if they see a sign of weakness in us, they’ll advance.
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The TV screen functions as intermediary between the directors and the people. The organization presents itself as an instrument of true communication, so that the masses hypnotized by the screen substitute for organized society, the basis of true human communication: looking each other in the eyes, speaking face to face, receiving a message directly from the leaders. Technology seeks to substitute itself for the genuine communication of the soul.
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So now we have a clearer picture of what’s going on. It’s much the same as what happened 11 years ago, almost to the day, with the exception that the president the oligarchy and its imperial overlords tried to topple then, is now physically gone (due to “natural” causes, or something plausibly deniable as such), and the circumstance to be shrouded in chaos and confusion is an election, rather than an anti-government protest come to a bloody and sudden head. But the players, with a few exceptions are the same: We have the putschist Capriles, then mayor of Baruta, now governor of Miranda, who stormed the Cuban embassy then, and is storming the electoral authority now. In both instances, he’s claiming that the Cubans are hiding some illegitimacy or other on the part of the Bolivarian government; then, it was Chavista officials, now, allegedly, it’s ballot boxes full of evidence of supposed fraud. The fact that there is no illegitimacy and no fraud is being obscured by hacking, by violence, and by murder.
The excuse, then as now, is that the opposition members who are committing the crimes, have been “driven” to it by an illegitimate defeat. Of course, that’s a lie. And while the opposition keeps shifting the goalposts, the ball has a funny way of still finding its own way in. The people know what happened; they know who they voted for, and it’s not the Majunche. They know full well what his real plan is, and all his tap-dancing and pretending to be more Chavista than Chávez, more Bolivarian than Bolívar, can’t hide the fact that he is an arch-conservative privatizer, an imperial puppet, and a corporatist stooge. He will not do what the people want; he will do what foreign capital wants.
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The empire thought that with Chávez out of the way, it would be easy sailing, but Maduro proved that to be bullshit. Loyalty is rock-solid among Chavistas, and it is highly unlikely that any of them would have voluntarily turncoated to the same man their beloved president called a coward, a majunche and a pig just a few months ago. I call bullshit on any analysis that claims he ran a strong campaign. His campaign was weak sauce. He could not win their votes by pretending to suddenly be a better Chavista than Chávez himself, or a better Bolivarian than Bolívar. So he relied, predictably, on the tools of empire, and they came through, partway.
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And in the meantime, among the people, the cordura counselled by Aponte and Coa will prevail. The provocations, as severe and murderous as they are, will not budge the Bolivarians. They’ve been through it all before, many times, and they know the pattern as well as any schoolchild knows a fire drill. Even the growing pile of martyrs from this latest assault — eight, so far — will only serve to strengthen their resolve. They may seem poor, but they are many…and they are seasoned fighters, intelligent and loyal. If anyone in the oligarchy, the international corporatocracy, or the imperial State Dept. thinks that they can steamroll the will of these people, they are in for one hell of a shock.
http://www.sabinabecker.com/2013/04/understanding-the-venezuelan-election-two-vital-perspectives.html
Not really lol, They wanted a national spectacle of uselessly opening all the ballot boxes
and handcounting each ballot and they're not going to get that.
The CNE threw them a bone since the Capriles camp finally got around to doing what they should have done in the first place which was to make a formal request for the courts to consider as opposed to throwing a public temper tantrum and sending people out on the streets to destabilize the country.
Pots and pans, attacking buildings, getting people killed by your supporters, the ridiculous twitter campaign that they needed international intervention because they're being repressed, running to the OAS in lieu of submitting a formal request was total bullshit and everyone knows it. They finally decided to make a formal request, as they had several times been told to do, late Wednesday afternoon when their other tactics were just discrediting them.
AP had a shorter article but at least they included the difference
CARACAS, Venezuela April 19, 2013 (AP)
Venezuela's electoral body says it will audit remaining vote, not do full vote-by-vote recount.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/venezuelas-electoral-body-audit-remaining-vote-full-vote-18994423#.UXFD0Ji6VI4
I think this is all to allow him a little space to save a little bit of what remains of his face.
Venezuela uses electronic voting machines which register an elector's decision and then emit a printed receipt for the voter to deposit into a sealed ballot box. For the audit, the receipts will be compared with the electronic tallies, to check for any irregularities.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22215387
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/19/us-venezuela-election-audit-idUSBRE93I05B20130419
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Name: CatherinaGender: Female
Member since: Mon Mar 3, 2008, 03:08 PM
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