Banker claims to be political prisoner of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Posted on Sunday, 03.01.09
Banker claims to be political prisoner of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez

Venezuelan banker Eligio Cedeño, jailed on fraud and tax charges for the past two years, has launched a campaign to be declared a political prisoner of President Hugo Chávez' government.

Cedeño's campaign is being directed by attorney Robert Amsterdam, known for his defense of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former president of a Russian oil-company now jailed in Siberia and a prominent critic of Vladimir Putin.

Amsterdam said authoritarian governments like Chávez's often jail political opponents on tax or business fraud charges so that human rights groups will overlook their cases.

''Cedeño is a political prisoner because he facilitated the exit of Chávez opponents from Venezuela,'' Amsterdam said.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/926952.html

---

Eligio Cedeño

http://www.wgzavocats.com.nyud.net:8090/images/amsterdam.jpg http://cache.daylife.com.nyud.net:8090/imageserve/05yI9Gw2Az1ec/610x.jpg

Robert Amsterdam, Cedeño attorney

In Vladimir Putin's Russia, the political opposition may be hunted down and murdered in the streets, sometimes even after they have fled the country. In Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, the urban crime rate has increased in recent years. In other words, the two countries are exactly the same.

Washington Post guest contributor and "international lawyer" Robert R. Amsterdam wants to know why human rights groups aren't making this important connection (hint: because it's retarded).

http://www.borev.net/2009/01/

[fascisthunter]

1. Buhwahahahahaha

[ck4829]

2. Who's willing to bet our government will act faster on this than on freeing Don Siegelman?

[acmavm]

3. And here we just want our bankers in prison for fraud. I don't see a lot

of pity for this guy happenin'.

[originalpckelly]

4. Is there a plan for a trial?

If they plan on holding him indefinitely without a trial, then I could see concern. No matter how disgusting the crime, all people accused of crimes should receive a speedy trial by a jury of their peers. If he's been held 2 years without a trial, that's more than just detaining a guy for being a flight risk.

[Lost in CT]

5. Trial we don't need no stinking trial....

You point is correct and helps strengthen this man's claims.

[paulk]

6. The connection between Russia and VZ is farfetched

OTOH, there are "human rights groups" that are concerned about events in VZ

http://www.hrw.org/en/search/apachesolr_search/venezuela

[newfie11]

7. Good Idea! Lets send our bankers to Chavez too.

and while we're at it lets send a bunch from wall street to go along too.

[IndianaGreen]

31. Our bankers and financiers should be behind bars

not living high on the hog in their million dollars Manhattan apartments while the small investors they bilked have to get back to work.

[RollWithIt]

8. Nothing like locking up people for years without trial...

And seeing so called liberals defend it.

[WriteDown]

9. There was a reported assassination attempts a few months....

ago and several arrests. No details or evidence was released and a Chavez spokesman said that details were supposed to be released on "Wednesday." I am still trying to figure out when this "Wednesday" is though.

[Judi Lynn]

11. Do you have a link we could read on this? n/t

[WriteDown]

13. Heck Judi....

you were all over that thread. It was the guys with the "cannon." Do you have it bookmarked?

[Judi Lynn]

16. I didn't, but I found it, anyway. I remember this one.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x9352

I think you can recognize by now we get very small doses of the information here which is available to Venezuelans, since we have to depend on the wire service, since as our newspapers have stopped keeping foreign correspondents, with only the New York Times and possibly the Washington Post or LA Times (although I doubt those 2 do) remaining with ANY correspondents there, and the NY Times correspondent, Simon Romero is a laughingstock, we're just not going to be getting the full blast of everything we could use to get the whole picture.

The thread you recalled was interesting.

[WriteDown]

35. Thanks for finding that.

You're search prowess is better than mine.

[RedCloud]

12. So called liberals?

If you had done any research and this is not to suggest that you did, you would realize that in Venezuela as in many countries you are guilty until proved innocent. This was true long before Chávez, so you are making a mountain out of nothing.

[Warren Stupidity]

19. Almost all nations that derive their justice system from napoleanic laws.

We are just unused to their systems. On the other hand, we use arrest as punishment in and of itself.

[IndianaGreen]

34. The State of Louisiana is based on napoleonic laws

there is no English common law there.

[originalpckelly]

24. If there's not enough evidence to prove someone guilty beyond a reasonable doubt...

you may not be able to prove someone is innocent beyond a reasonable doubt. That's the reason a system that presumes innocence first is fundamentally better than a system that presumes guilt. There should be a compulsion in the constitutional law of any system to bring someone before a judge/jury as soon as possible. Any system lacking these functions and something comparable to a writ of habeas corpus cannot be considered a just system.

[Posteritatis]

42. I'll happily use the term "so called liberals" to describe people who cheer reverse-onus systems nt

[RedCloud]

10. knock, knock!

Who's there?
Amsterdam.

Amster da dam door ...

'Cedeño is a political prisoner because he facilitated the exit of Chávez opponents from Venezuela,'' Amsterdam said.

And a businessman tried to overthrow him back in 2002 (?) but let's not let that fact that he was never executed for that treason, overshadow the ugly media campaign against Châvez. And do we still remember how the media there failed to accurately report the business overthrow? So why bother to quote discredited media hype?

[creeksneakers2]

14. Command economies cause the same cycle

They are contrary to economic realities. To preserve the command system requires ever increasing government control to halt black markets. The increased government control breeds revolt, which the government must contain with even harsher controls. As the command economy deteriorates scapegoats must be chosen and punished to maintain illusions.

Many who agree with some of what Chavez has done turn a blind eye to his faults. Anything can be explained away by calling it a Capitalist plot. How far does it have to go though before its admitted that Chavez is the problem?

[Judi Lynn]

15. He's most clearly not a problem to the 63% of the people who voted for him last time.

Why would you think you know more about it than the Venezuelan majority?

[paulk]

25. that seems a weak argument

would you argue that GW Bush was good for our country because we elected him twice? Or, for that matter, Reagan or Bush pere? Was Bush's 90 plus approval rating post 9/11 an indicator of his effectiveness as a leader in your book?

[Judi Lynn]

27. Clean elections. International observers everywhere, all the time.

We've never been inhibited that way here.

Their voting machines are open to audit at any point, as opposed to those we have here which are absolutely unavailable to ANY oversight whatsoever.

They handcount over 50% of their ballots, to make sure of the original machine tally as a matter of practice. Universes away from our pathetic plight with privatised voting machines. Jesus H. Christ on His pogo stick.

Approval rating? Rude mouth sound. The right-wing controls our media, OWNS our media, controls everything. I'm not buying that.

[paulk]

38. it's still a weak argument

that just because someone has been elected or is supported by a majority that automatically makes him or her a good leader or that their actions are good for their country.

That's the gist of your previous post - and I didn't question the validity of the VZ election process, so I don't understand why you feel that is pertinent.

as for approval ratings - are you, in effect, saying that Obama's current high approval ratings are a result of the "right wing media"? That would seem to be the natural extension of your argument...

[Judi Lynn]

40. Right wing media referring to high ratings for Bush, clearly.

Also, American pigs like Douglas Schoen, Mark Penn were involved in conspicuously misleading data in their bogus polls on Hugo Chavez prior to a 2004 election, and were caught at it:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Penn,_Schoen_and_Berland_Associates

It's a miracle anyone here ever heard about it, given the kind of coverage available to us on Latin American matters.

You're not really going to persuade progressive people to approve your dream of controlling the Latin American people for U.S. right-wing political interests. It's a complete waste of your time, and the time of anyone who's unlucky enough to read your posts for the first time, mistaking you for a serious person.

[paulk]

43. you don't get to define "progressive"

and all you've got, as usual, are insults.

[creeksneakers2]

28. He's sharing the oil wealth

Which is great and is probably at the core of his popularity. I see he just won a referendum recently too.

I don't know much about the details of Venezuela because until today every source I could find was very biased for or against Chavez. The links you provided are very helpful. Thank you for posting them. I can see you know WAY more about Venezuela than I do.

It doesn't take specific knowledge of Venezuela to believe in laws that are universal. And if 63% voted for Chavez then 37% didn't. So there are plenty of people who know all about Venezuela that don't support Chavez.

[Warren Stupidity]

17. Good thing that Venezuela is nothing of the sort.

Venezuela is a mixed economy with a democratic socialist government. This is not an example of a command economy.

[mbperrin]

18. And the "free enterprise" system here in the US is working wonders, right?

Avoid the millions whose homes have been foreclosed or the millions more without healthcare, homeless vets, warehoused elderly, hungry folks who "fall through the cracks", those whose jobs have been exported, those paying loan shark interest rates due to "universal default" rules, latchkey kids who are raising themselves, those paying higher prices because of their zip codes...well, you get the idea.

Economic reality in the US is that a very tiny elite owns most of it and could not give a shit less about the "little people" who are not them.

[originalpckelly]

21. The reason that Venezuela is suffering is the same reason we are.

It doesn't matter if it's a government leader, big investor, or executive they all plan the economy without being able to efficiently plan. Americans have believed the lie that corporations are free market institutions for too long, but we should not be deceived that government action is any better.

The only way to solve these problems is to allow people who do the work make the decisions. Any form of planned economics is not allowing that to happen.

Workers will not simply do as they should without consequences, there must be a force to regulate them. The force of poverty is the best way to do this, as no government or corporation is needed to produce a lack of wealth. It's regulation without intervention.

[varelse]

29. Are you serious?

The force of poverty is the best way to do this, as no government or corporation is needed to produce a lack of wealth. It's regulation without intervention.

Not a rhetorical question - I really am not sure and would like to know if this is one of your core beliefs about human beings.

[originalpckelly]

32. Would you work to stay out of poverty?

Or to increase the amount of money you have?

To simply set workers free and not pay them specifically for the amount of work they do will produce a situation where people won't work as hard. On the other hand, if someone is directly compensated based upon how much work they do, they will do more work or choose not to do more work if their needs have been met.

In other words, it's like being one's own boss.

Our wage per hour system is not efficient or free, we should have a wage per work system. People can do nothing for hours on end, and yet get paid. On the other hand if someone works really hard on a particular day during a particular hour, there is no real reward for doing that. That's the problem with this form of capitalism.

It's not uncommon for people to fuck off when the boss isn't around, because in this system, bosses act like the motivation.

[varelse]

33. This is your answer?

I interpret this as a "yes" answer to my original question, which, I remind you, was not rhetorical.

As I now understand it, in your mind, poverty is the answer to controlling (moderating) human behaviour.

To answer your question, I was brought up to work hard, be honest, and to have compassion and respect for others. I do bring those values into the workplace, and I have been promoted into management a couple times (I'm a supervisor now, and have been for years).

My observation is that yes, people will occasionally "fuck off" if they percieve that their compensation and status in the workplace is not tied to their productivity and contributions to it (I've noticed they'll sometimes do this even when, as in the case of commissioned sales people, there IS a direct correlation).

However, in the same workforce, I've also seen a great deal of caring, altruistic, and highly ethical behaviour. They share knowledge, help each other both in and outside of the workplace, and take pride in group and individual accomplishments. Their paychecks and pay raises don't even begin to compensate for the quality of their work, yet it takes very little supervision or direction to keep them "on track".

My opinion is that using poverty as the "whip" to drive human behaviour is obscene, uneccessary, and evil. There are better ways for us to treat each other. Compassion, respect, truly equal opportunity, and a strong social net are much better ways to promote altruistic and positive choices for both individuals and communities.

[originalpckelly]

45. If you build a system that only works if people behave well...

that system will fail when the inevitable asshole comes along to fuck it up.

[Joe Chi Minh]

37. "It's not uncommon for people to fuck off when the boss isn't around,

because in this system, bosses act like the motivation."

You mean like the bank CEOs and regulators when the shareholders/public aren't around - or are powerless to prevent their rewarding each other with "golden parachutes" for bankrupting their companies. You and your pals are going to find who the real bosses are, the ones who have been defrauded by their orgy of pillage. Fool us once....

[originalpckelly]

46. Exactly, that's actually quite what I mean. You have no idea how much I agree.

"You mean like the bank CEOs and regulators when the shareholders/public aren't around"

EXACTLY! It is the same exact thing, and I'm so glad you get it.

What I'm talking about here is sort of like a tepee, you have to have the force of the logs/sticks used to build it pushing on each other, but if one of the logs is too heavy, the whole thing falls down.

It's matching/balancing forces. The whole universe, in my humble opinion, is like this. With matched forces everywhere, and when something is unmatched, it runs wild until it meets its match.

In the case of the crooks in control of America, there's no force matching and checking the force of public apathy because there is no on going involvement, just periodic involvement in elections. Only when something goes horribly wrong does the public become involved in everything again.

In reality, there are always matched forces, but it's a matter of how frequently they are matched.

Bubbles in the economy are a drought of feedback into the system causing a longer period where one force can go unmatched. The longer a force goes unmatched, the longer the bubble continues.

My whole theory is based upon the idea that we need to have smaller units to increase the frequency of self-correction, so that bubbles are corrected sooner, both in politics and the economy.

As a side note, there is a theory called regulatory capture which is generally about what you said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture

If you don't have as much money to waste on inefficient business practices (like building way too many homes) then you have to correct your business plan sooner than a business with a ton of money to burn through before it has to correct itself.

[creeksneakers2]

26. Per capita income in Venezuela is $12,800

In the US its $46,000.

There are problems everywhere. We have fewer of them than many.

[mbperrin]

47. So our goal is to be better than Darfur? The people who are literally

dying in the streets should be comforted because it's even worse for others elsewhere?

There are problems everywhere, all right. I'd like to use some of the resources we have to solve the ones we have. The idea that oh, well, there are problems everywhere, gracious, we can't and shouldn't do anything is really one I hate.

If there's nothing we can do, why do anything?

[creeksneakers2]

49. Who said do nothing?

If there's something we can do, great. It isn't easy though, and comparisons show that there are no miracle alternatives yet.

By the way, how many people are dying in the streets?

[originalpckelly]

23. Wrong word: planned, not command.

Any economy can be planned, but the term command economy implies full control of all production by the government, and perhaps a more liberal interpretation could have it used for any body that might completely control production, even outside the government.

Your description of the cycle seems fairly accurate, however, even for non-command economies. Just economies where production/distribution of certain essential goods has been taken into the hands of government.

[slackmaster]

20. I'm a political prisoner of Hugo Chavez

And I've never even been to Venezuela.

[originalpckelly]

22. DUzy.

:P

[IndianaGreen]

30. I am sure that this banker will get lotsa sympathy from an American public

that is ready to jail all the bankers.

[dipsydoodle]

36. Funny spelling mistake in the article

Think it should say Venezuelan wanker.

[Algorem]

39. sounds like this poor rich banker needs to be bailed out

quick, send him a few bil

[starroute]

41. How does this tie in with Allen Stanford?

I've never heard of Eligio Cedeño before, but I'm pretty certain I know what business he was in.

Consider: Allen Stanford was running banking operations helping wealthy Venezuelans get their assets out of the country. This guy is also a banker who "facilitated the exit of Chávez opponents from Venezuela." Sounds like they were in exactly the same racket.

Think I'm exaggerating? The fact that attorney Robert Amsterdam is "known for his defense of Mikhail Khodorkovsky" is a sure tipoff -- because Khodorkovsky, who founded Yukos, is one of the more infamously corrupt of the Russian oligarchs. And, like Stanford's Venezualan clients, he was involved bigtime in trying to get his ill-gotten gains out of his native country.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article670742.ece

June 2, 2006

Anti-corruption detectives are examining documents detailing the client accounts of ISC Global (UK), a London-based security firm at the centre of the investigation. The financial dossier, seen by The Times, shows that ISC was paid more than £6 million from offshore companies linked to the most vocal opponents of President Putin of Russia. . . .

ISC Global was set up in October 2000 by Stephen Curtis, a lawyer. He was already acting for a group of billionaire Russians led by Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Leonid Nevzlin, who controlled Yukos, Russia’s privatised energy giant.

From his Park Lane offices, Curtis moved their money overseas through complex offshore structures registered in places such as Gibraltar and the British Virgin Islands.

Here we see a precise parallel with what Stanford was up to in Venezuela -- helping the wealthy and corrupt to move their assets offshore through money-laundering havens in the Caribbean.

Curtis was also the managing director of Khodorkovsky's Group Menatep -- and he was killed in a suspicious helicopter crash in 2004. A British jury ruled the death accidental, but many people were not convinced.

http://pundita.blogspot.com/2005/12/death-of-stephen-curtis.html

Thursday, December 1, 2005
The death of Stephen Curtis

"Our robber barons created wealth. Russia's oligarchs took over wealth from the state and shipped much of that wealth out of Russia illegally. I don't agree that Khordokovsky knew he would face imprisonment if he returned to Russia. He thought his high level contacts in the Bush administration would protect him. Khordokovsky is a thug who got religion too late."
-- Stephen F. Cohen commenting on the trial of Mikhail Khordokovsky

Stephen Curtis was a lawyer who set up a breathtakingly vast and complex web of shell companies that became Group Menatep, the parent company of Yukos Oil, Russia's most valuable oil company. The shell game allowed Mikhail Khordokovsky and his cohorts to rob the Russian people of billions of dollars.

Stephen Curtis knew enough to put Khordokovsky away for life. When Khordokovsky was arrested in Russia in 2004 on tax evasion and fraud charges he saw that Curtis was appointed managing director of Group Menatep, the parent company of Yukos. But the criminal investigation had spread outside Russia. Swiss auditors looking at possible money laundering or tax evasion attempts raided two Yukos companies and seized their assets.

In the effort to avoid prosecution Stephen Curtis offered to sing to Britain's National Criminal Intelligence Service. He only managed to meet with NCIS twice before he was killed.

Eric Jenkins, Mr Curtis's uncle, told the inquest that his nephew said he was receiving threatening phone calls and was under surveillance. Mr Jenkins said that two weeks before his death Mr Curtis had said that if anything happened to him, it would not be an accident.

Oh, yes, we've certainly heard this song before. And there are more Bush connections:

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12236

May 10th, 2005

Like Enron, Yukos was a darling of the Western financial press until it collapsed. Also like Enron, Yukos had impressive profits because it used secret offshore shell companies to avoid paying taxes. That worked fine under the rule of President Yeltsin, but changed in 2000 when Vladimir Putin was elected and the new government started to crack down on tax-evasion. . . .

Khodorkovsky also pumped money into powerful and influential investment funds such as the Carlyle Group, run by Frank Carlucci, Secretary of Defense for President Ronald Reagan and a Deputy Director of the CIA during the Carter Administration.

These strategic investments have reinforced Khodorkovsky's support among U.S. government and political figures. During her recent trip to Moscow, for example, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice framed the trial as a matter of "foreign investor's rights." Washington will be watching the Khodorkovsky closely, she said, "to see what says about the rule of law in Russia."

There have been some very strange things going on in the global financial system -- and the more-or-less legal shenanigans that we're learning about in the course of the financial crisis are only a fraction of them. The sub rosa movement of money and assets by wealthy and highly placed people is the hidden part of the iceberg, which nobody yet seems to be taking into account.

Perhaps the simplest way of putting it is, "BCCI never died -- it just went viral."

[Vidar]

44. Jailing corrupt bankers instead of bailing them out. What a concept!

[icnorth]

48. Terrible, just a terrible concept...

if you jail all the money lords at the top of the heap there wont be any left to trickle down, and, and, uhh... now where was I???