Analysis

Opinion

Jeremy Scahills Dirty Wars offers lessons for Latin America

page 7

In rush to strike Syria, US tried to derail UN probe page 8

Solidarity with Palestine

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua met with his Palestinian counterpart Riad Malki last Saturday in Caracas for discussions that yielded the signing of new medical and energy agreements between the two allied governments. Chief among the deals is Venezuelan assistance to the Palestinians in the form of technical energy support as well as the training of personnel in the management and distribution of fuel resources. page 3
Politics

Friday, August 30, 2013 | N 173 | Caracas | www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve

ENGLISH EDITION/The artillery of ideas

INTERNATIONAL
Mission Barrio Adentro III Celebrates 8th Anniversary
T/ AVN The state-funded social program in Venezuela known as Mission Barrio Adentro III celebrates its 8th anniversary this week. The program is designed to renovate hospitals throughout the country in order to provide quality healthcare to all Venezuelans. This mission was launched by President Hugo Chavez on August 28, 2005 during episode 232 of his live television program Alo Presidente. The programs Barrio Adentro I and II created thousands of free primary care facilities and special diagnostic and treatment centers. Barrio Adentro III helps respond to the need for treatment of chronic illnesses such as cancer, kidney failure, liver failure, brain injury and cardiovascular disease by providing nancing for radiation therapy, organ and tissue transplants, heart operations, and many other types of medical treatments. The project helps to modernize hospital facilities and provide them with the latest technologies. It also boosts services at these facilities by extending their hours of service and their capacity to offer areas for intensive therapy, birthing centers, operating rooms and other treatments. Hospitals recently renovated by Barrio Adentro III include the University Clinic of Caracas, the Dr. Domingo Luciani Hospital, and the Nio Jesus Pediatric Hospital in Yaracuy. Meanwhile, the University Clinic of Caracas was reopened in March of this year with four new operating rooms equipped with smart technologies that will improve the quality of services provided there.

Venezuelas President goes door-to-door to help build Peoples power

Plot to assassinate President uncovered

Venezuelan authorities detained several individuals involved in a plot to kill President Maduro. page 4
Politics

Trafc & security improving

Steps taken towards greater security and less trafc are improving lives for residents of Caracas page 5

With Venezuelas municipal elections fast approaching, President Nicolas Maduro took the message of his ruling socialist party to the streets of the capital Caracas last Saturday during a door-to-door canvass of the working class neighborhood of El Valle. The visit formed part of a national strategy spearheaded by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) to ensure an overwhelming victory in the more than 300 mayoral elections slated for December 8th. So far, polls show the PSUV with a steady lead in a large majority of cities nationwide. Page 2

Venezuela condemns US attack on Syria

Venezuela condemns plans of the United States and its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to intervene in Syria, said President Nicolas Maduro. From Venezuela, we join global voices that condemn plans of imperial military intervention against the Syrian people, wrote the President in his Twitter prole @NicolasMaduro. The Venezuelan President added that this is a war to conquer and destroy an Arab nation that is historic bastion and stronghold of stability in the region. He condemned that the US and its NATO allies continue fund-

International

NLG says elections in Venezuela legit

A lawyers delegation from the US concluded excellence in Venezuelas electoral system. page 6

ing and arming mercenaries responsible for violence in Syria since March 2011, as the Syrian government has claimed. Maduro wondered as well who would be held responsible for these actions.

Who pays the whole destruction against Arab people in Iraq, Libya, Palestine? in the face of it, he urged that awareness in the world shall be raised and this war stopped.

2 Impact | .sFriday, August 30, 2013

The artillery of ideas

Venezuelan President goes door-to-door to build popular power

T/ COI P/ Presidential Press ith Venezuelas municipal elections fast approaching, President Nicolas Maduro took the message of his ruling socialist party to the streets of the capital Caracas last Saturday during a door-to-door canvass of the working class neighborhood of El Valle. The visit formed part of a national strategy spearheaded by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) to ensure an overwhelming victory in the more than 300 mayoral elections slated for December 8th. While in El Valle, Maduro referred to his partys project as one that seeks to form values of a Venezuela that is honest, prosperous, and socialist. In addition to the electoral aims of the canvassing, the former union leader described the door-to-door effort as an initiative designed to strengthen grassroots democracy at the neighborhood level. Denominating what he called a network of Homes of the Homeland, President Maduro outlined an arrangement of popular power rooted in the numerous policies of his predecessor Hugo Chavez to promote local political participation. This includes linking individual homes with neighborhood community councils as well as the umbrella structure of the communes - small scale regional amalgamations of grassroots organizations that have a direct line of nancing and input to the executive branch of the national government. The creation of the Homes of the Homeland will be the organizational base or the community councils and the communes, Maduro explained. The point, the El Valle native continued, is to govern by obeying the Homes of the Homeland, to govern directly and to take the works and the great investments of the government directly to the people to resolve their problems. In four months time, I want to govern directly with the community councils, the communes, and the Homes of the

ber 7, 2012]. Not only did they not win, but they were crushed by the people, the Venezuelan President said. Chavez won the electoral contest with more than 55 percent of the vote before succumbing to cancer in March.

NEW MEDIA
President Maduro additionally expressed his discontent with the private media coverage of last weekends door-todoor campaign, calling the lack of television presence censorship of the socialist governments activities. Communication media have decided to censor in order to block the advance of the revolution in the streets, he imputed. To combat the media blackout, the Venezuela President vowed to fortify the states media capacity by creating new television channels to provide the viewing public with expanded programming. Were working to build a number of new, high quality television channels. The rst qualities were looking for are ethics and morals and the reason for broadcasting, he said. The founding of the new stations follows a trend of the socialist government to transform commercial television in the country. For a number of years, the Venezuelan government has invested heavily in audiovisual media, providing millions of dollars in nancing to small producers and community activists alike. Similarly, Venezuelas Law on Social Responsibility in Media, passed by the Chavez administration in 2010, obliges private stations to invest in national television and cinematic productions. Earlier this month, President Maduro praised a new domestic lm about independence hero Simon Bolivar called Bolivar: Man of Difculties which relates the revolutionarys time in exile between 1815 and 1816. On Saturday, the head of state urged lmmakers and television producers to look inward and focus on the lives of ordinary Venezuelans for material rather than mimicking foreign media industries. If we walk through these streets, we will nd a million beautiful stories in our children. We will nd grandparents and if they tell us of their lives, their stories would be extraordinary and we can make them into series, soap operas and movies that will promote positive and real things, Maduro asserted.

Homeland. I want to receive their ideas and their projects... The people have to help us...and were going to achieve this with the organization of the citizenry, he declared. The initiative ts into the Street Government scheme designed by the Maduro government to reach out to everyday residents through popular assemblies in order to address the challenges and needs of the people around the nation. When you love the homeland and you have faith in the future, you have the energy to make the moves to do the right thing. The network of Homes of the Homeland is the origin and the base of the Government of Efciency in the Street, Maduro said. Similardoor-to-dooroutreach took place around the country last weekend with more than 13,000 groups of PSUV activists meeting with residents. In these visits, were looking to stimulate the unication of the people and the PSUV, the Bolivarian Government, and local organizations, said Henry Silva, governor and election coordinator in the Andean state of Trujillo.

OIL SABOTAGE
During Saturdays activity, President Maduro revealed that an explosion which took place in Venezuelas Amuay oil renery in the state of Falcon last year was in fact an act of terrorism perpetrated by members of the countrys right-wing. Fifty-ve people lost their lives and 156 were injured in the blast that took place on August 25, 2012. The re at Amuay was the product of sabotage. The proof from an international investi-

gation will be disclosed in the coming days. The right-wing has no scruples when it comes to harming the homeland, Maduro said. According to the head of state, the act was carried out in attempt to discredit the government of then President Hugo Chavez who at the time was gearing up for a re-election bid. It was sabotage perpetrated by desperate people who believed that by burning the renery they would be able to defeat Chavez in [the elections of Octo-

The artillery of ideas

.sFriday, August 30, 2013

| Integration

Venezuela reafrms solidarity with Palestine through energy, medical pacts

T/ COI P/ Agencies enezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua met with his Palestinian counterpart Riad Malki last Saturday in Caracas for discussions that yielded the signing of new medical and energy agreements between the two allied governments. Saturdays encounter served as a follow-up to a meeting held last week Monday between the diplomats as part of Malkis visit to Venezuela, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, Granada, Haiti, and Saint Lucia. The pacts, according to Jaua, represent gestures of cooperation with which we are contributing to peace in Palestine and the rest of the planet. Chief among the deals is Venezuelan assistance to the Palestinians in the form of technical energy support as well as the training of personnel in the management and distribution of fuel resources.

The Venezuelan government will also provide diesel to the occupied territories despite the difculties that this implies, Jaua stated. The sale will occur, Venezuelas foreign minister stated, under conditions of fair prices and not the kind of speculative prices that the Palestinian Authority is being subjected to because of the blockade by the state of Israel... [The sale will be carried out] under conditions that will surely be favorable [to Palestine] just as we have done with other nations. During a press conference following the discussions, Jaua called the 6-year blockade of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli government as criminal and praised the resiliency of the Palestinians in defying the illegal occupation of their territory. The heroic resistance of the Palestinian people has allowed them to continue in existence and their voice is being heard

with greater force internationally, he said. Saturdays dialogue also touched upon the building of an ophthalmological center in the city of Ramallah that would provide much needed eye care to residents. Funding for the clinic was approved by Venezu-

elan President Nicolas Maduro on August 11th. For his part, Malki expressed his gratitude for the accords, which, he esteemed, are about curbing the inuence of countries which for a long time have wanted to control nations such as Palestine.

[T]he most important thing is that [the accords] show that our relations are very strong and that we are opening a path to continue working for the benet of both peoples, he asserted. Venezuela has seen a strengthening of its ties with Palestine as a part of the foreign policy of former President Hugo Chavez who broke relations with the state of Israel following its offensive in Gaza in 2009. The administration of President Nicolas Maduro has vowed to continue his predecessors solidarity with the Palestinian people by advocating for the regions statehood on an international stage and engaging in meaningful diplomacy with the occupied territories. There will never be an international scenario in which we do not support the right of Palestine to be recognized as an independent state... in which we do not advocate for the human rights of the Palestinian people, that the aggression ends, and that the imprisonment of hundreds of Palestinians who have had no type of trial are freed, Foreign Minister Jaua declared.

Russian Navy visits Venezuela in show of cooperation

T/ Ryan Mallett-Outtrim P/ Agencies

s Russia and Venezuela continue to reject Western calls for intervention in Syria, in a display of unity a Russian naval delegation visited Venezuela this week to promote bilateral ties between the two countries. According to the Venezuelan admiral Jesus Ortega Hernandez, the four-day visit of nearly

one thousand Russian naval personnel was an important symbol of Venezuelan-Russian cooperation. These visits reinforce the ties of friendship and cooperation between the Navy of the Russian Federation and the Navy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hernandez stated on Monday. The four vessels of the Russian navy arrived at the port of La Guaira in Vargas state

on Monday morning. The ships were greeted with a 21 gun salute from Venezuelan marines. Along with visiting military facilities in Catia and Caracas including a training academy, the Russian naval delegation was expected to visit the Mausoleum of Simon Bolivar and the National Cemetery in Caracas. Russian and Venezuelan naval personnel reportedly exchanged experiences and discussed ways to strengthen military cooperation. On Tuesday afternoon, the Russians also visited the Montaa Barracks, where they paid tribute to former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at his tomb site. The ships departed from Venezuela yesterday. According to AVN, the rst vessel to dock in Vargas was the Moskva, which arrived around 10am on Monday. At 186 meters in length, the Moskva is a 11,490 ton Slava class cruiser, which has served as the agship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The cruiser is accompanied by an anti-submarine destroyer, a tanker and a towing vessel. Earlier this month, the Russian ships visited Havana, Cuba, where according to Russian media the crews of the vessels met with Cuban naval

personnel. The Russians then continued on to Nicaragua, where they docked at the port of Corinto. The deputy head of the Russian naval group Vladimir Ruban told local media that the visit was intended to strengthen relations with the armed forces and the people [of Nicaragua]. This visit allows the creation and maintenance of points of power multi-polarity, and for us to achieve a more balanced world, Admiral Ortega stated on Monday. Over the last decade, former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez pursued closer ties with Russia, increasing trade and military cooperation. Chavez himself visited Russia most years of his presidency. Between 2005 and 2007, Venezuela agreed to purchase US$4 billion of Russian arms, including a license to manufacture Kalashnikov assault ries. Currently produced in Maracay, the Russian designed AK103 is now standard issue for the Venezuelan army. Following his death earlier this year, a Moscow street was given the former Presidents name in his honor. When they met last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Venezuelan President Nicolas

Maduro pledged to continue to deepen bilateral ties. We are working tirelessly to continue the cause of Chavez, Maduro stated. The naval visit comes as both Venezuela and Russia continue to back dialogue between Syrias Assad government and the Middle Eastern nations opposition groups, despite mounting international pressure for intervention in the two year-old Syrian conict. At the time of writing, Washington had reportedly begun moving naval assets into the eastern Mediterranean; there is speculation that US forces could be preparing for a possible missile strike on Syrian soil. Earlier this week, spokesperson for Russias foreign ministry, Alexander Lukashevich called for respect for international law. On the United Nations Security Council, the Russian position is supported by China, which also opposes any form of armed intervention in Syria. Maduro has likewise opposes armed international intervention. However, both the United Kingdom and France have oated the possibility of intervening in the conict without UN approval.

4 Politics | .sFriday, August 30, 2013

The artillery of ideas

Authorities warn of Plot to assassinate President Maduro

T/ Ewan Robertson P/ Presidential Press

enezuelan authorities have warned of a suspected plot by extreme right-wing groups to assassinate Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The alleged conspiracy was revealed in a press conference on Monday by Interior Affairs Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres, who said that gures in Venezuela, Colombia and the United States were involved. Rodriguez informed that on August 15th Venezuelan authorities captured two Colombian citizens in a hotel in Miranda state, near Caracas. They were found in possession of two ries with laser sight, ten Venezuelan army uniforms, and a photograph of President Maduro and National Assembly president Diosdado Cabello. The two men, of eighteen and twenty two years of age, were presumably contracted by a Colombian named Alejandro Caicedo Alfonso (alias David), and crossed the border into Venezuela on August 13th. The men are part of a destabilization group of about ten people, said Rodriguez.

The Venezuelan intelligence service SEBIN is also searching for a Venezuelan man named Carlos Salcedo, who authorities believe is involved in the alleged plot and is responsible for supplying the ries to the apprehended Colombians.

INTERNATIONAL LINKS
Interior affairs minister Rodriguez said that the government believes the suspected plot to assassinate Maduro is part of a conspiracy planned by the Venezuelan extreme right wing in collaboration with counterparts in Colombia and the United States. Authorities consider the brains of such an operation to be Luis Posada Carriles. Cuban-born Carriles is resident in Miami, and is wanted by Venezuela and Cuba on extradition charges for his alleged role in the bombing on a Cuban airliner in 1976 that killed 78 people and was planned from Venezuela. Further, Rodriguez accused former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe of involvement in the alleged plot. I am denouncing that this conspiracy is being woven from Miami, in connection with Bogota, and that Alvaro Uribe, without any doubt,

has knowledge of everything happening here, he stated.

RESPONSES
President Nicolas Maduro responded to Rodriguezs afrmations by demanding US President Barack Obama conrm whether he possesses information of any such conspiracy, and if so, to act accordingly. President Obama, is it that you dont know that in the United States the Posada Car-

riles group conspires, monitored and tutored by Otto Reich and Roger Noriega, to commit terrorist acts and presidential assassination in Venezuela? asked Maduro. The Venezuelan President further stated that if Obama does know of such a plot and does not act, then he is implicated. Maduro said that the alleged assassination plot would be in order to destroy the Bolivarian revolution, arguing that,

To assassinate me is to begin a civil war in Venezuela. I am a guarantee of peace Ill do everything within my ability to continue building peace in this country, the Venezuelan head of state continued. The conservative opposition in Venezuela meanwhile has taken a dismissive attitude to the information, with opposition leader Henrique Capriles referring to the governments accusations as lies and recycled stories. Alvaro Uribe and Posada Carriles have likewise denied the veracity of the allegations, calling them infamy and absurd. Nicolas Maduro responded by commenting that among the Venezuelan opposition, there is a strange nervousness; they try to make it [the alleged plot] into a joke, which he said made the opposition look bad in front of the country. The Venezuelan government has previously alerted the country to suspected plots to assassinate President Maduro, claiming that since the death of late President Hugo Chavez extremist conspiracy efforts have increased in an attempt to nish the Bolivarian revolution. The most notorious of these alerts occurred two days before the April 14th presidential election, when authorities announced the capture of armed paramilitaries in possession of explosives who were presumed to be on a mission to destabilize the election.

Amuay renery disaster was sabotage, claims Venezuelan President Maduro

T/ Ewan Robertson P/ Agencies year on from the deadly gas explosion which left 42 dead and 120 wounded, the Venezuelan government has claimed there is overwhelming proof that the disaster was caused by a deliberate act of sabotage. The industrial disaster took place on August 25, 2012 in Venezuelas largest oil renery at Amuay, Falcon state, shocking the country and hitting international headlines. Late President Hugo Chavez ordered an immediate technical investigation into the causes of the explosion, which authorities believe resulted from a gas leak. While the ofcial investigation is still in progress, the government maintains that the disaster was caused by an act of sabotage by the conservative opposition,

presumably in a bid to dampen the popularity of Hugo Chavez in the lead up to the October 2012 presidential election. Speaking on Saturday, President Maduro claimed that

the government now has proof that the Amuay explosion was sabotage. Its conrmed, I want to announce itit was a sabotage by desperate sectors,

because they believed that by setting a renery on re they would beat Chavez in the elections, he said. The proof will be shown in the coming days; it is the result of a technical investigation of international character that was undertaken. The right-wing doesnt have scruples in causing damage to the nation, declared the Venezuelan President. Oil and energy minister Rafael Ramirez echoed Maduros comments while on a visit to the Amuay renery on Sunday, where the government reports that the damage has now been largely repaired. I must say this responsibly. We have all the evidence which demonstrates that our oil industry was sabotaged again, and from this came the terrible tragedy which involved a painful loss of life for our people, the minister stated. Meanwhile the opposition argues that the government is to blame for the disaster,

alleging lack of investment and maintenance in the oil industry. Maduro invents the sabotage thesis to cover up the bad operations and lack of maintenance that exist inside the [Amuay] plant, said Eddie Ramirez, the national coordinator of the pro-opposition People of Oil organization. However in comments to press made earlier this month, Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz said that the ofcial investigation had still not been able to determine the causes of the disaster. So far 412 interviews have been conducted with experts and witnesses, and 166 inspections and technical tests have been undertaken with 40 remaining to be done along with other tests, the top lawyer reported. We trust that soon well have denitive results, she added, without giving a specic time frame of when the investigation will be completed.

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| Politics

In Caracas, small changes make big differences for reducing traffic

and current candidate for the post of Mayor of Metropolitan Caracas, was present for the inauguration and commented on the significance of what may seem like a trivial adjustment. If you see this small measure isolated from the greater picture of Caracas, it might seem insignificant. But Plaza Venezuela is one of the central points of the city. This is a benefit for all of us, the socialist candidate said. Villegas pointed out that a future project is underway for an elevated avenue in the sector Dos Caminos that will free up traffic in Eastern Caracas and improve public safety in the zone. I have lived in [Dos Caminos] and I have woken up in the early morning due to the accidents that happen there frequently... This avenue is not only going to save lives but it is also going to facilitate mobility throughout the city, he said. With a metropolitan population of over five million people, Caracas has become known for its excessive traffic jams as thou-

T/ COI P/ Agencies

s part of its plan to improve the flow of traffic and lessen congestion in the capital Caracas, the Venezuelan Ministry of Ground Transportation inaugurated a new highway access ramp in the downtown area of Plaza Venezuela last Monday.

The public project is one of seven such projects underway to prevent the bottlenecks that frequently occur in the main arteries of the capital. According to Ground Transportation Minister Haiman El Troudi, the new access will reduce traffic jams in the area by 20 percent and is one of the small solutions that will contribute

to an improvement in transit in the city of Caracas. The project, which El Troudi called inexpensive and easy, took just a week to complete and cost 500 thousand bolivars ($79,000). Some 600,000 commuters will benefit from the change daily, the minister informed. Ernesto Villegas, former Minister of Communication

sands of vehicles vie for space in the crowded thoroughfares of Venezuelas largest city. Minister El Troudi reported that the average speed of vehicular traffic in the capital is just under 10 miles per hour, which he referred to as very low. There are routes in the city which have traffic jams for seven consecutive hours, from very early in the morning until noon, he affirmed. As the city continually expands and more automobiles enter its streets, it has become a necessity to create solutions to expand the capacity of the capitals road infrastructure. Some two million vehicles fill Caracas streets everyday with 80 percent belonging to individuals and the remaining 20 percent representing public transportation. On Monday, El Troudi explained that that national government has approved a total of 45 billion bolivars ($7 billion) to improve the citys traffic flow and reduce congestion by 40 percent overall. Its about a number of solutions that transcend specific zones... The topic of mobility is very complex because its systemic and demands a holistic approach that can attack the causes of the problems and gradually improve the conditions of circulation and movement, he asserted.

Violent crime down 15%, authorities meet with gangs

T/ Paul Dobson P/ Agencies

nly months after its launch by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in May, the Plan Secure Nation has achieved significant reductions in crime levels, indicated the Vice Minister for Interior Politics and Juridical Security, Jose Vicente Rangel Avalos this week. Indexes for violent crime, theft, attacks, robbery, kidnapping, and violations in the country have gone down 15% thanks to the Plan Secure Nation, stated Rangel Avalos in an interview on public television. The Plan uses the Armed Forces, trained to defend the nation against external enemies, to also defend it against internal ones, working alongside the police to combat crime in the parts of the country which most suffer from violence. Everyday there are around 40,000 members of the Armed Forces in the streets,

24 hours a day, Sunday to Sunday, he assured viewers. As pollsters indicated this week that crime was still one of the major issues on the minds of the population, the Vice Minister explained that opposition controlled Miranda State continue to suffer from the highest crime levels, governed by opposition leader Henrique Capriles. The perception of insecurity is much bigger than actual insecurity in the nation claimed Rangel Avalos, blaming private media for stirring up paranoia and unease. The Plan, which he described as synonymous with security, tranquility, and effectiveness, is depicted by certain media as a bloody affair of great headlines. Such media dont help to see the reality because they are interested in seeing Plan Secure Nation fail. If you walk on the streets and you stop in front of a kiosk and see the papers and the

headlines, they reflect any type of crime, however small, explained the Vice Minister. He cited an example in the populous Caracas sector of Caricuao, which despite housing over 300,000 residents, if there is just one act with blood, then there are massive headlines. The Interior Ministry has also been meeting with gangs across the country this week, following an analysis of crime, which showed that 73% of violent crime is produced by intergang confrontations. The Vice Minister explained that the Ministry has met with 280 gangs, comprising over 10,000 members, in what he described as difficult and tough meetings. The government is implementing a revolutionary, inclusive, humanistic approach to crime, which shows young citizens, caught up in gang crime, that there is an alternative way to live which doesnt end up with their incarceration or death. There is a lack of confidence, he stated, not all of them are going to change, but there is a very important sector which want to change. They

tell me we dont want to live hidden away like rats, we want to walk freely, we want to have a family and live peacefully in the community, without waiting for the police forces to come and take us away to those hellholes of prisonsthey are young people who are asking for another chance. The majority of those involved in gangs have been in prison already, and dont want to return, they dont want to go through that again, this is why

they want to change, explained Rangel Avalos. He assured the country that in no moment are we pardoning bloody acts, but rather attempting to convince those caught up in gangs to leave that life behind and join a productive, inclusive society. Recently, numerous gangs have voluntarily disarmed themselves and accepted positions of work in public labor projects, under control of the State authorities.

6 International | .sFriday, August 30, 2013

The artillery of ideas

Report of the National Lawyers Guild Delegation on the Venezuela elections and subsequent audit
T/ NLG ational Lawyers Guild (NLG) election monitors from the United States issued their report Wednesday, concluding that the 2013 Venezuelan presidential election process was fair, transparent, participatory, and well-organized. A ve-member NLG delegation formed part of a larger delegation of over 130 parliamentarians, two former presidents, electoral commission members, journalists, and representatives of human rights NGOs from across the world. Election monitors traveled to polling places throughout the country on Election Day. The NLG report describes a system that strives to encourage voter registration and participation as well as the use of advanced technology including ngerprint identication and issuance of paper receipts by voting machines to ensure accuracy and preclude fraud. Active participation by party witnesses and national and international observers provide further assurances. In

addition, the observers found a reliable system in which 54 percent of all receipts were randomly audited after the polls close on Election Day to ensure that paper receipts matched the electronic vote recorded by the machines. A second NLG delegation traveled to Venezuela after the election to observe the expanded audit that had been requested by the opposition candidate, Henrique Capriles, and approved by the National Electoral Council (CNE). The expanded audit was designed and conducted under the purview of a technical team of 30 professors and other professionals from the Central University of Venezuela. The expanded audit found that of the voting slips audited, 4,596,432 showed no discrepancies whatsoever in relation to the polling booth record of total votes cast, which represents 99.98% of the total. The report also contains a review of the legal process pursued by the opposition, noting a lack of evidentiary support. Citing a failure to provide sufcient proof, Magistrate Gladys Gutierrez announced that

the court had reached a unanimous decision, rejecting the petition and ning the opposition for what was effectively abuse of process. Describing the independent nature of the CNE, the report concludes: We have found the CNEs President, Tibisay

Lucena, and the other members of the CNE and its staff to be consistently concerned with perfecting the electoral process to ensure that every Venezuelan adult has access to the polls and every single vote is counted, regardless of party afliation or candidate.

The US would do well to incorporate some of the security checks and practices that are routine in Venezuela to improve both the level of participation and the credibility of our elections, said NLG President Azadeh Shahshahani. Holding elections on Sundays would facilitate access for working people and utilizing machines that issue receipts would increase credibility and permit the verication of results. The margin of victory for Nicolas Murduro, while small, was comparable to close elections in the US, such as the margins of victory for Kennedy in 1960 and for Bush in 2000 and 2004. The National Lawyers Guild calls upon the United States to honor the Venezuelan election as nations of the world have unquestionably honored ours. As Jimmy Carter recognized, Venezuelas electronic voting system backed by paper ballots is the best in the world, and therefore deserves at least as much respect as our own. Daniel Kovalik, a member of both delegations who teaches International Human Rights law said: As this report shows, the Venezuelan elections on April 14 were free and fair, and the CNE continues to take great pains to ensure the integrity and reliability of the Venezuelan electoral system.

2013 CITGO-Venezuela Energy Efcient Lighting program to Donate 600,000 CFL bulbs to low-income families
T/ CITGO P/ Agencies n Tuesday, at the Linden House in Chicago, CITGO Petroleum Corporation President and CEO Nelson P. Martinez was joined by 4th District Illinois State Representative Cynthia Soto to launch the fourth edition of the CITGO-Venezuela Energy Efcient Lighting Program (EELP), which will provide 625,000 compact uorescent light (CFL) bulbs to families in 21 US cities this year. At CITGO, in alignment with the social development principles of the CITGO shareholder, Petrleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), we make it our business to provide meaningful social responsibility programs in the communities we serve and beyond, said CITGO President and CEO, Nelson P. Martinez. The CITGO-Venezuela EELP is

an important program that not only helps low-income households save on their energy costs during the most expensive season, but helps protect the environment we all share. The CITGO-Venezuela Energy Efficient Lighting Program is a social investment initiative that began as a pilot program in 2008.

Considering the life cycle of the more than 1.9 million CFL bulbs distributed since the programs inception, the CITGO-Venezuela EELP has helped save more than $75 million in energy costs for more than 175,000 families and reduced energy consumption by more than 800 million kilowatt hours.

The 2013 CITGO-Venezuela EELP is expected to help approximately 62,500 low-income households conserve energy. And over their lifetime, the CFLs distributed this year will save almost $29 million in energy costs, nearly 303 million kilowatt hours and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 466 million pounds; equivalent to removing close to 42,000 cars from the road. The light bulbs will be distributed through community action groups in 21 cities across the CITGO footprint: Houston and Corpus Christi, Texas; Joliet and Chicago, Ill.; Lake Charles and New Orleans, La.; Atlanta, Ga.; Birmingham and Mobile, Ala.; Greensboro, N.C.; Spartanburg, S.C.; Jackson, Miss.; Little Rock, Ark.; Jacksonville and Kissimmee, Fla.; Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wis.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Bronx, N.Y.; Richmond, Va., and Washington, D.C. Along with the CFL bulbs, program beneciaries will receive educational brochures about energy efciency and

conservation, as well as detailed information on how to properly dispose of old CFLs. The CITGO-Venezuela Energy Efcient Lighting Program is just one of the ways CITGO gives back to the communities in which it, and its network of locally owned CITGO stations, operates. On average, the percentage of revenue CITGO invests in social programs has been ve times more than many larger, vertically-integrated competing global brands. This investment helps CITGO ease the burden of many families across the country through programs such as the CITGO-Venezuela Heating Oil Program, its Fueling Education campaign, the 27year long support of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and many others. In addition, CITGO employees and those at nearly 6,000 local independently owned and operated CITGO branded stations provide thousands of volunteer hours and millions of dollars to help organizations in their own communities.

The artillery of ideas

.sFriday, August 30, 2013

| Analysis

Scahills Dirty Wars offers lessons for Latin America

T/ Dawn Paley

hough Jeremy Scahills latest book, Dirty Wars: The World is a Battleeld, is rmly rooted in the Arab world, it is a valuable volume for those wishing to better understand how current and past events in Mexico and Central and South America connect to the so-called war on terror. A must-read for anyone wanting to learn more about the US drone wars and targeted kill programs, Dirty Wars is a bit slow going off the top, but before long, Scahill introduces compelling characters and provides readers with access to entire families who have been adversely impacted by US war policies in Yemen and elsewhere. Dirty Wars also contains a number of items of specic interest to folks whose interests lie south of the US border. Using carefully gathered evidence, Dirty Wars makes it clear that US military campaigns do little more than exacerbate existing situations. Sadly, this is as true in the Western hemisphere as it is in the Middle East. Scahill carefully documents how the militaristic approach taken by the US government towards perceived terror threats in Somalia, Yemen and elsewhere has served to drive up the inuence of local armed groups. By 2004, the [CIAs] outsourced Somalia campaign was laying the groundwork for a spectacular series of events that would lead to an almost unthinkable rise in the inuence of Al Qaeda in the Horn of Africa, writes Scahill. He later describes how Ethiopian and US special forces intensied their attacks on members of Somalias Islamic Courts Union, in January 2007. This aggression created a welcoming climate for Al Qaeda: With the Somali ICU leaders on the run, Al Qaeda saw Somalia as an ideal front line for jihad and began increasing its support for al Shabab. Reading from Mexico, one cannot help but be reminded of how the US campaigns against drug trafckers in one region inevitably result in a strengthening of the same groups in another part of the same region.

A more obvious tie with Latin America is the books name. Though Scahill doesnt make clear how he chose the phrase dirty wars to describe events in Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan and elsewhere over the past decade, he does make passing reference to the origins of the term dirty war, which is sometimes applied to describe state repression against political opponents, trade unionists and civilians in the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil and Bolivia), dating from the 1970s. In Argentina and Guatemala, tribunals have found that, far from being dirty wars, what happened in the 70s and 80s was genocide. Also of particular interest to readers with an interest in US foreign policy in the western hemisphere is the portion of the book dedicated to describing the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Scahill writes, Well-placed special operations sources told me that among the countries where JSOC teams had been deployed under the Obama administration were: Iran, Georgia, Ukraine, Bolivia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Peru, Yemen, Pakistan (including in Baluchistan) and the Phil-

Using carefully gathered evidence, Dirty Wars makes it clear that US military campaigns do little more than exacerbate existing situations. Sadly, this is as true in the Western hemisphere as it is in the Middle East

ippines... JSOC was also supporting US Drug Enforcement Agency [sic] operations in Colombia and Mexico. Some of these operations have been documented elsewhere in some detail. For example, JSOCs role in the killing of Pablo Escobar in Colombia is explored in Mark Bowdens 2001 book, Killing Pablo. In the early 90s in Colombia, as Bowden points out, JSOC members were participating in raids without explicit permission, which was later sought and granted in the name of killing Escobar. He also points out

how JSOC operatives turned a blind eye to the paramilitary activity of Los Pepes, a vigilante group out to get Pablo Escobar, in keeping with the history of JSOCs then-head General William F. Garrison. General William F. Garrison, head of the Joint Special Operations Command and the direct authority over Delta Force and Centra Spike, had a long history in covert U.S. operations, writes Bowden. He had been involved with the Phoenix program in Vietnam and was known in the army as an ofcer who could navigate beneath the radar. Counterinsurgency had always irted with extralegality, whether in the Congo, El Salvador, or Nicaragua. The death squads were horrible, but nothing equaled them for striking fear into the hearts and minds of would-be Marxists. Less is known about JSOCs activities in the other Latin American countries named by Scahill. The connections dont end there. Scahill quotes an ofcial from the Yemeni Interior Ministry who points out that the use of motorbikes in terrorist operations to assassinate intelligence ofcers and security personnel has massively mounted over the past nine months in the province.

This appears to be a technique originating in Colombia, where, according to journalist Ioan Grillo, the murder business was revolutionized in the 1980s. The architect of its killing machine was Isaac Guttman Esternberg, a Colombian of German descent who worked for Medelln trafckers, writes Grillo in his 2011 book, El Narco. Guttman invented the school of motorcycle assassins, to which young men from the slums enrolled in the thousands... The assassins still used pistols, but they attacked on motorcycles, with one driver and one shooter. Scahill points out that motorcycle attacks by Al Qaeda-linked gunmen became so common that the government actually banned motorcycles in urban areas in Abyan. As in the drug war, CIA activities in the dirty wars chronicled by Scahill create a situation where facts are far stranger than ction. Take the case of Raymond Davis, a man who claimed to be a worker at the US Embassy in Pakistan. Davis was arrested after murdering two men at an intersection. In his car, he had two semi-automatic weapons, a bunch of tracking equipment, and a satellite phone, among other things. A check of the numbers on his multiple mobile phones revealed calls to twenty-seven militants from the terrorist group Lashkar-eJhangvi and Tehrik-e-Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban, according to Pakistani law enforcement sources quoted by the Express Tribune, writes Scahill. Its an eerily familiar scenario for anyone informed about the history of how the CIA helped set up drug trafcking routes and drugs-for-arms deals in Mexico and Central America that would later come back to haunt the US government. Reading Scahill from Mexico, it is possible to understand the war on drugs and the war on terror as differing variations on a theme. The efforts of the elite to eliminate any challenges to the status quo have found expression in various politicoeconomic models throughout history, writes Canadian sociologist Jasmin Hristov. The features common to all of them have been the highly unequal socio-economic structure consisting of armed force, repressive laws, and anti-subversive ideology, packaged under different names the War on Communism, the War on Drugs, the War on Terror. In Dirty Wars we are given even more tools through which to understand the US war on communities around the globe.

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Opinion
T/ Gareth Porter

Truth Beneath the Surface

fter initially insisting that Syria give United Nations investigators unimpeded access to the site of an alleged nerve gas attack, the administration of President Barack Obama reversed its position on Sunday and tried unsuccessfully to get the UN to call off its investigation. The administrations reversal, which came within hours of the deal reached between Syria and the UN, was reported by the Wall Street Journal Monday and effectively conrmed by a State Department spokesperson later that day. In his press appearance Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry, who intervened with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to call off the investigation, dismissed the UN investigation as coming too late to obtain valid evidence on the attack that Syrian opposition sources claimed killed as many 1,300 people. The sudden reversal and overt hostility toward the UN investigation, which coincides with indications that the administration is planning a major military strike against Syria in the coming days, suggests that the administration sees the UN as hindering its plans for an attack. Kerry asserted Monday that he had warned Syrian Foreign Minister Moallem last Thursday that Syria had to give the UN team immediate access to the site and stop the shelling there, which he said was systematically destroying evidence. He called the Syria-UN deal to allow investigators unrestricted access too late to be credible. After the deal was announced on Sunday, however, Kerry pushed Ban in a phone call to call off the investigation completely. The Wall Street Journal reported the pressure on Ban without mentioning Kerry by name. It said unnamed US ofcials had told the secretarygeneral that it was no longer safe for the inspectors to remain in Syria and that their mission was pointless. But Ban, who has generally been regarded as a pliable instrument of US policy, refused to withdraw the UN team and instead stood rm on principle, the Journal reported. He was said to have ordered the UN inspectors to continue their work.

In rush to strike Syria, US tried to derail UN probe

The sudden reversal and overt hostility toward the UN investigation, which coincides with indications that the administration is planning a major military strike against Syria in the coming days, suggests that the administration sees the UN as hindering its plans for an attack
The Journal said US ofcials also told the secretarygeneral that the United States didnt think the inspectors would be able to collect viable evidence due to the passage of time and damage from subsequent shelling. The State Department spokesperson, Marie Harf, conrmed to reporters that Kerry had spoken

with Ban over the weekend. She also conrmed the gist of the US position on the investigation. We believe that its been too long and theres been too much destruction of the area for the investigation to be credible, she said. That claim echoed a statement by an unnamed senior ofcial to the Washington Post Sunday that the evidence had been signicantly corrupted by the regimes shelling of the area. [W]e dont at this point have condence that the UN can conduct a credible inquiry into what happened, said Harf, We are concerned that the Syrian regime will use this as a delay tactic to continue shelling and destroying evidence in the area. Harf did not explain, however, how the Syrian agreement to a ceasere and unimpeded access to the area of the alleged chemical weapons attack could represent a continuation in shelling and destroying evidence. Despite the US effort to portray the Syrian government policy as one of delay, the formal request from the United Nations for access to the site did not go to the Syrian government until Angela Kane, UN High Representative for Disarmament Af-

fairs, arrived in Damascus on Saturday, as Bans spokesman, Farhan Haq, conceded in a briefing in New York Tuesday. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said in a press conference Tuesday that Syria had not been asked by the United Nations for access to the East Ghouta area until Kane presented it on Saturday. Syria agreed to provide access and to a ceasere the following day. Haq sharply disagreed with the argument made by Kerry and the State Department that it was too late to obtain evidence of the nature of the August 21 incident. Sarin can be detected for up to months after its use, he said. Specialists on chemical weapons also suggested in interviews with IPS that the UN investigating team, under a highly regarded Swedish specialist Ake Sellstom and including several experts borrowed from the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons, should be able to either conrm or disprove the charge of an attack with nerve or another chemical weapon within a matter of days. Ralph Trapp, a consultant on proliferation of chemical and

biological weapons, said he was reasonably condent that the UN team could clarify what had happened. They can denitely answer the question [of ] whether there was a chemical attack, and they can tell which chemical was used, he said, by collecting samples from blood, urine and hair of victims. There was even some chance of nding chemical residue from ammunition pieces or craters where they landed. Trapp said it would take several days to complete an analysis. Steve Johnson, who runs a programme in chemical, biological and radiological weapons forensics at Craneld University in the United Kingdom, said that by the end of the week the UN might be able to answer whether people died of a nerve agent. Johnson said the team, if pushed, could produce some kind of view on that issue within 24 to 48 hours. Dan Kastesza, a 20-year veteran of the US Army Chemical Corps and a former adviser to the White House on chemical and biological weapons proliferation, told IPS the team will not be looking for traces of the nerve gas sarin in blood samples but rather chemicals produced when sarin degrades. But Kastesza said that once samples arrive at laboratories, specialists could make a determination in a day or two about whether a nerve agent or other chemical weapons had been used. The real reason for the Obama administrations hostility toward the UN investigation appears to be the fear that the Syrian governments decision to allow the team access to the area indicates that it knows that UN investigators will not nd evidence of a nerve gas attack. The administrations effort to discredit the investigation recalls the George W. Bush administrations rejection of the position of UN inspectors in 2002 and 2003 after they found no evidence of any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the administrations refusal to give inspectors more time to fully rule out the existence of an active Iraqi WMD programme. In both cases, the administration had made up its mind to go to war and wanted no information that could contradict that policy to arise.