Growing controversy in US over corn ethanol vs food prices

The main ethanol lobby in United States, Renewable Fuels Association, RFA, said that the growing demand for renewable fuel based on corn is not responsible for the recent increase in milk and dairy products worldwide.

“Ethanol critics and many in the media charge that the rising price of corn due to growing ethanol demand is the major culprit for moderately rising consumer food prices. Conspicuously absent from the discussion is the chief reason for increasing food costs: escalating energy costs”, said Matt Harwig from RFA.

However, according to a new analysis of food, energy and corn prices conducted by John Urbanchuk of LECG, LLC, "rising energy prices had a more significant impact on food prices than did corn." In fact, rising energy prices have twice the impact on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for food than does the price of corn, according to the report.

"Energy costs have a much greater impact on consumer food costs as they impact every single food product on the shelf," said Urbanchuk. &quotEnergy is required to produce, process, package and ship each food item. Conversely, corn prices impact just a small segment of the food market as not all products rely on corn for production. While it may be more sensational to lay the blame for rising food costs on corn prices, the facts don’t support that conclusion. By a factor of two-to-one, energy prices are the chief factor determining what American families pay at the grocery store."

According to the study, "Increasing petroleum prices have about twice the impact on consumer food prices as equivalent increases in corn prices. A 33 percent increase in crude oil prices" the equivalent of $1.00 per gallon over current levels of retail gasoline prices &quotwould increase retail food prices measured by the CPI for food by 0.6 to 0.9 percent. An equivalent increase in corn prices "about $1.00 per bushel over current levels would increase consumer food prices only 0.3 percent."

The report goes on to find, "Corn and energy prices both affect consumer food prices. However, since increases in corn prices are limited to a relatively small portion of the overall CPI for food, an increase in corn prices resulting from higher ethanol demand or a supply disruption such as a major drought is expected to have about half the impact of the same percentage increase in petroleum and energy prices."

"Critics of ethanol, including those in the animal feeding and oil industries, are engaging in baseless scare tactics to convince people that ethanol production will irreversibly increase their grocery bills," said Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen. &quotWhile it is true increased ethanol production is creating a real market-driven price for corn, this report clearly presents the undeniable facts: energy prices, not ethanol, are responsible for much of the increase in the price of food. Further, our industry is rapidly developing next generation cellulosic ethanol technology that will allow us to meet the growing demand for renewable fuels from wood chips, switch grass and other materials in addition to corn. Ultimately, the market will adjust and all those in the food, fuel and fiber industry will be able to prosper."

Much of the debate has been centered on the notion that the U.S. will not be able to produce enough corn to satisfy all markets, creating shortages and intensifying competition that will continuously drive the price of corn higher. This claim misses some key facts. Advancements in seed, farming and ethanol technologies are allowing American farmers to continue feeding the world while helping to fuel our nation.

There is no conflict between food and fuel &quotwe can produce both," said Ken McCauley, president of the National Corn Growers Association. "Demand for corn is at unprecedented levels, and we fully expect unprecedented levels of supply as well. This spring U.S. corn growers planted the largest crop this country has seen since the 1940s. Given normal weather conditions this summer, we´ll produce the largest corn crop in history, and that will allow us to readily satisfy demand for livestock feed, human food processing, exports and fuel ethanol."

This Week for Education in Oaxaca

By Nancy Davies,
Posted on Thu Jun 28th, 2007 at 06:42:23 PM EST

Here’s a note for comic relief: Section 59 of the teachers union has established a plantón in front of Government House in Santa María Coyotepec to demand a dialogue with the the governor, Ulises Ruiz. They want URO to attend to several of their educational demands. These demands are a direct result of taking over schools and classrooms without the normal administrative support system.

You may recall that Section 59 was a break-away group whose coming into existence was promoted and supported by URO, as a tool to fracture the Teachers Union Section 22, which had about 70,000 members when it began its 2006 strike. Section 59 peeled off maybe 2,000-5,000 of them. It was also supported and ratified by the dragon lady president of the national Teachers Union, Elba Esther Gordillo, who apparently now sells her favors to the PAN, having recently dropped the PRI as it collapses.

It seems that the Section 59 members are not reaping their just rewards. Or maybe they are.

The zócalo is occupied by teachers and the APPO, as is the Alameda, along with the usual communist hard-liners who strung up photos of Joseph Stalin.. The APPO has sent out small groups of activists to paste posters to the walls of buildings – at least where I saw them, directly north and on the pedestrian-tourist streets around the zócalo. The two varieties of poster say: “Tourists! Boycott the commercial Guelaguetza on July 23!” and “Tourists! Come to the People’s Guelaguetza July 16!”, thus indicating that the APPO’s desire is not to further hamper tourism, nor to punish the hotel and restaurant owners, but to punish the elite who make big bucks off the Guelaguetza. In past years the Guelaguetza has been the time when political lackeys came to pay their respects to the feudal lord, URO, according the Oaxaca sociologist Victor Raul Martinez.

On that same stroll I ran into a man I first met several years ago who owns a shop adjoining the zócalo. The conversation was along the lines of, He: isn’t it terrible there are no tourists. Me: tourists don’t like murderers and assassins (my creativity at work); Oaxaca must get rid of Ulises. He: ???? Me: yes, tourists favor democracy and peace (more creativity). He: you mean tourists don’t like violence? Me: bingo!, or words to that effect.

What this illustrates to me is that few commercial people assign blame to Ulises, or at least not publicly. This includes the street vendors, who are licensed by the state and now suffer bitterly from the lack of tourists. The paid propaganda assigns all blame to the teachers and/or the APPO; the APPO is depicted as violent although all 26 or so murders were committed by government thugs or police, and none by the APPO. Nor were the tortures and disappearances committed by the APPO. I tell this to a woman vendor whom I’ve known for years. She has trouble understanding. I give her money, I buy her food, I purchase yet another place mat. But she is hearing bad info from the people who control her privilege to sell.

Several people, like the bishop emeritus of Tehuantepec, this week averred that Oaxaca and most of Mexico stands at the “last opportunity” for reform of the state. Attempts by an editorial in Imparcial to smear the 43 civil organizations pushing reforms, and naming certain of their leaders to intimidate them (along with mentioning “foreign journalists” and “foreigners donating money to human rights organizations which used that money to buy arms”) have not dampened civil society’s determination. The video’s playing in the zócalo show the other side of the struggle, and in front of each television set people stand and look. That’s the true education at work this week.

DEVELOPMENT: When It Comes to Aid, All Power to the People

by Darío Montero

GENEVA, Jun 29 (IPS) - Aid to the developing world is effective when it empowers the community and the government of the recipient country, and they have learned to design a strong development strategy. Otherwise the effort is in vain, and hunger and exclusion only become more deeply rooted, say activists at a development forum under way here.

That is the key to making the most of resources from donor countries in regions like Latin America, where aid should have a positive influence on the fulfilment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the head of food security for Intervida World Alliance (INWA), Francisco Martínez Frutos of Spain, told IPS.

Hopes for reducing hunger and extreme poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean, the region with the greatest socioeconomic inequality in the world, are partially dependent on the effective use of aid funds, which have fallen off partly because more resources are being sent to Africa.

The eight MDGs were adopted by the United Nations in 2000; the first is to halve the proportion of people living in hunger and extreme poverty by 2015, from 1990 levels.

Latin America was notable chiefly for its absence among the diagnoses, assessments and examples presented by speakers at the 2007 Development Forum at the Conference of Non-Governmental Organisations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO), meeting from Thursday to Saturday in Geneva.

This was the view taken by Latin American civil society delegates and experts consulted by IPS. The region is nevertheless a cause for concern, they said.

Knowing the effectiveness and impact of aid is important, which means measurement instruments must be maintained in place after aid projects have come to an end. This applies not only to growth, but also to the pursuit of equity, according to researcher Gonzalo de Castro.

Poverty and equity are not independent variables. The arithmetic is simple: if the rich cannot be taxed, there will be fewer financial resources available for redistribution to the poor, De Castro said, citing Chilean economist Víctor Tokman, labour adviser to the Ricardo Lagos government (2000-2006) and former regional director of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

De Castro further quoted Tokman as saying, "while some people are travelling on a high-speed train, others are being hauled along by old-style steam engines; we have a two-track society," and the current differences are passed on from one generation to the next, he said.

Based on the accumulated experience of ongoing aid projects in Central America and the South American Andean region, Martínez Frutos warned of a sort of "social action privatisation" which is getting in the way of effectiveness.

Rich donor countries are providing funds to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for each one to do with as it thinks best. "These are private associations and they behave like companies, even though they are not-for-profit," said the expert from the Spain-based INWA.

Instead, aid policies should be adopted by donor governments with concrete lines of action, and their own programmes should be well-defined, in consultation with their aid agency, and subsequently coordinated and implemented in partnership with the recipient countries, he said.

Aid funding will rise, as part of the powerful countries' fight against immigration from poor countries, particularly sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, he said. "They can't build any more fences or barriers, and one of their policies is to hand out aid in order to stop the flood of people pouring in," Martínez Frutos said.

"That's why we're trying to reach agreement with the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) and other UN agencies, so that they 'get in with' the governments, in order to get them to design a common strategy for aid programmes," he said.

"FAO, for example, works directly with the governments of the countries we donate to -- Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala and so on -- on their planning, designing and monitoring, so we could achieve a consistent line of effective aid work," Martínez Frutos said.

In this regard South America is more fertile ground than the rest of the world, because of the regional tradition of the welfare state, in spite of the ravages caused by free-market policies in the 1990s, delegates from the region said. Those were times of low-intensity democracy.

Plans like Zero Hunger in Brazil, and those proposed by the Evo Morales administration in Bolivia, are aimed at empowering the communities receiving aid to design, develop, manage and control it. This is necessary in order to avoid strengthening the traditional elites that hold economic and political power.

If NGOs do not adopt this way of working, "their only option will be to go directly to the communities and ask them 'What do you need?' and straight away we can provide the resources or set up an NGO on the spot. What we can't do is train the authorities, for example, those in charge of building the irrigation channel that a farmer needs, who must provide long-lasting infrastructure that will allow the aid to be sustainable over time, and not just temporary assistance," Martínez Frutos said.

In this way, "we as an NGO make an investment, when it would be more effective for the money to come from Spain, to give a well-known example, directly to the government of the recipient country. Then the government, aware of the needs of its population and in the context of concrete national plans, would use that aid appropriately," he said.

In accordance with these principles, INWA works in the field with communities to build a community organisation, or to train ministry officials or personnel belonging to specialised government offices who will continue the work in the area -- "when they allow us to," he said.

Bolivia has designed an ideal strategy, according to Martínez Frutos, because it hands over decision-making power to peasant and indigenous communities. "The problem is how this can be accomplished, and that's where we see the flaws, because it can't be done by force, but only by persuasion," he said.

A link with governments is needed, and it will gradually be built. Meetings of civil society organisations add to their strength, as has been proved at the CONGO forum here, the Spanish expert and Latin American activists recognised.

"Meanwhile, we are working in the field with farmers so that in a reasonable time -- five years, say -- they will have set up their own small business, which will have an impact and will be sustainable," Martínez Frutos said.

A voice is also needed in the international arena, where civil society recommendations must be heard by multilateral organisations.

"Only four UN representatives were present at the first day of this Development Forum, and then they left," without waiting to hear the discussions and conclusions of the NGOs, complained Kumi Naidoo, a South African and the secretary general of CIVICUS - World Alliance for Citizen Participation.

"NGO forums should have access to spokespeople from governments," said Martínez Frutos. A useful example was a meeting this month in Rome on organic agriculture and food security, "where it was possible to make concrete recommendations that were passed on to the Committee on World Food Security (of the FAO) which met the following week," he said.

"We had direct contact and a specific topic to discuss, and it was possible to put pressure on government decision-makers," he said.

"We were right there with the FAO director general (Jacques Diouf) the whole time, as he was moderating the session. It's the first time that the FAO has opened its doors to civil society so that it could have a voice within the Committee on World Food Security," he said.

Big Oil and Big Media V. Hugo Chavez

On June 27, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal vied for attention with feature stories on oil giants ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips "walking away from their multi-billion-dollar investments in Venezuela" as the Journal put it or standing "Defiant in Venezuela" as the Times headlined. Both papers can barely contain their displeasure over Hugo Chavez wanting Venezuela to have majority ownership of its own assets and no longer let Big (foreign) Oil investors plunder them. Those days are over. State oil company PDVSA is now majority shareholder with a 78% interest in four Orinoco joint ventures. That's up from previous stakes of from 30 to 49.9%. That's how it should be, but it can't stop the Journal and Times from whining about it.

What ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips reject, oil giants Chevron, BP PLC, Total SA and Statoil ASA agreed to. They're willing to accept less of a huge profit they'll get by staying instead of none at all by pouting and walking away as their US counterparts did. Or did they? The Wall Street Journal reports "Conoco isn't throwing in the towel in Venezuela yet. By not signing a deal, the Houston company kept open the option of pursuing compensation through arbitration." Exxon, however, is mum on that option for now. Responding to Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez saying the two oil giants will lose their stakes in the Orinoco oil fields altogether, a company spokesperson expressed "disappoint(ment) that we have been unable to reach an agreement on the terms for migration to a mixed enterprise structure (but will) continue discussions with the Venezuelan government on a way forward."

So what's likely ahead as most Big Oil giants agree to Venezuela's terms while two outliers haven't yet but may in the end do so. The country's oil reserves are too lucrative to walk away from, especially with Russia now pressuring foreign investors the same way. It also wants majority stakes in its own resources with its giant oil and gas company Gazprom in control. It has a monopoly over the country's Sakhalin gas field exports and has taken over two of the largest energy projects in eastern Russia.

If these actions by Venezuela and Russia succeed as is likely, they may influence other oil producing nations to follow a similar course and pursue plans for larger stakes in their own resources as well. Why not? They own them and even with less ownership interests, Big Oil will still earn huge profits from their foreign investments. They just won't be quite as huge as they once were with one-sided deals benefitting them most. So the end of this story may not be its end according to Michael Goldbert, head of the international dispute resolution group at Baker Botts, an influential law firm representing major international oil companies. He said he didn't think the June 26 actions were "necessarily the end of the story (adding) The prospects of a deal are never over until a sale is made or an arbitrator reaches a decision."

The investments are large ranging from $2.5 - $4.5 billion for Conoco and $800 million for Exxon if Venezuela assumes ownership of its heavy oil projects. Conoco explained "Although the company is hopeful that the negotiations will be successful, it has preserved all legal rights, including international arbitration." Exxon also expressed its hope an agreement could be reached permitting it to continue operating in an ownership role.

It looks like Conoco and Exxon want one foot in and the other outside Venezuela to keep its interests in the country alive. It also looks like they're playing games and letting the Wall Street Journal and New York Times do their moaning about what they ought to be grateful for - the right to invest and earn huge profits the way other Big Oil investors are opting to do. Despite their June 26 decisions, Exxon and Conoco may, in the end, make the same choice. If they don't, the stakes they relinquish will shift to other producers according to James Cordier, president of Liberty Trading Group in Tampa, Florida. He said production won't halt, and "Before everyone walks out, a deal will be struck and production there will continue." Caracas-based petroleum economist Mazhar al-Shereidah agrees saying "Venezuela is now free to find other partners (and) this doesn't constitute a dramatic situation." There are plenty of capable and willing takers around.

Conoco and Exxon may in the end accept less of a good investment, stop whining about it, and continue operating in Venezuela. Why not? The country is more open than many other oil-producing nations with much of their world's proved reserves controlled by state monopolies barring private investment. Venezuela barred them from 1975 - 1992 when the nation's energy sector was completely nationalized. That changed with a series of partial privatizations in the 1990s, and Chavez said he has no plans to reinstitute a complete oil industry nationalization. Private investors can thus remain in the country and continue earning huge profits doing so. Conoco and Exxon may decide after all to share in them.

Venezuelan V. Iraqi Oil Policies - A Study in Contrasts

High-level US officials from the administration, Congress and Pentagon are pressuring the puppet Iraqi parliament to pass its new "Hydrocarbon Law" drafted in Washington and by Big US and UK oil companies. Its provisions are in stark contrast to Venezuela's oil management policies under Hugo Chavez. For Chavez, his nation and peoples' interests come first. In Iraq, however, Big Oil licensed plunder will become law if the parliament agrees to accept what its occupier and corporate interests demand. At this stage, it's nearly certain it will clearing the way for stealing part of what a US state department spokesperson in 1945 called "a stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history" - the vast (mostly Saudi) Middle East oil reserves.

In Venezuela, the nation and its people will benefit most from the country's oil wealth. In Iraq, their resources are earmarked mostly for Big US and UK Oil. The new "Hydrocarbon Law" is a shameless act of theft on the grandest of scale. It's a privatization blueprint for plunder giving foreign investors a bonanza of resources, leaving Iraqis a mere sliver for themselves. As now written, its complex provisions give the Iraqi National Oil Company exclusive control of just 17 of the country's 80 known oil fields with all yet-to-be-discovered deposits set aside for foreign investors.

Even worse, Big Oil is free to expropriate all earnings with no obligation to invest anything in Iraq's economy, partner with Iraqi companies, hire local workers, respect union rights, or share new technologies. Foreign investors will be granted long-term contracts up to 30 or more years, dispossessing Iraq and its people of their own resources in a naked scheme to steal them.

The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and rest of the dominant US media shamelessly denounce Hugo Chavez for his courage and honor doing the right thing. In contrast, their silence, and effective complicity, on what will be one of the greatest ever corporate crimes when implemented shows their gross hypocrisy. It'll be up to the people of Iraq to resist and reclaim what Venezuelan people already have from its social democratic leader serving their interests above all others.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Steve Lendman News and Information Hour on TheMicroEffect.com Saturdays at noon US central time. posted by Steve Lendman

Immigrant children being shipped to `orphan camps,' source claims

by Bill Conroy
...
Over the past year, there have been numerous federal operations, carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), where thousands of immigrants have been rounded up in surprise workplace raids — a number of them likely not even reported in the national press.

In many of those cases, the children of the immigrants, a number of them U.S. citizens, were at school or in daycare when the raids came down.

Their parents were whisked off to immigration detention centers around the country and many have since been deported back to their native countries.

But what has happened to the children — again, some certainly born in the United States and legally U.S. citizens? The mainstream press doesn’t seem to have connected all those dots — nor have most of our political leaders.

Check out this March 2007 story from the Washington Post:

NEW BEDFORD, Mass -- During her two years working in a garment factory alongside hundreds of other immigrants, there were few assurances in Marta Escoto's uncertain life. One of them was the promise she made to her children -- I will always take care of you.

It was a promise she was unable to keep this month. Escoto and at least 360 other illegal immigrants were taken into custody here March 6 after a raid by federal agents on the Michael Bianco Inc. factory — a military contractor 60 miles south of Boston. Many of them, including Escoto, 38, were women whose detention [she was shipped to Texas] separated them from their children, some of whom were stranded at day-care centers, schools, or friends' or relatives' homes.

… With dozens of children like Escoto's left without parents, the raid immediately sparked a public outcry here. The Massachusetts Department of Social Services dispatched two teams of 18 social workers to ask detainees in Texas how their children were being cared for.

… Under public pressure, immigration officials began to send single parents home, or if they had arrested both parents, to release one. But as of late last week, New Bedford school officials said the children of at least six arrested immigrants remained in the care of someone other than their parents, and many more were missing one parent. …

Turning Japanese?

So what ultimately has happened to these kids – and the hundreds, if not thousands, of others like them around the country? What happens when the temporary caretakers, for financial or other reasons, can no longer watch over the children — again, a number of them U.S. citizens?

Well, one source, whom we cannot name, has told Narco News that something is afoot that the U.S. government is keeping very tight-lipped about at this point.
...

Morales' land reform targets vast holdings of Bolivian opposition leader

The Bolivian government on Thursday began legal proceedings to seize the vast landholdings of a prominent opposition leader, saying the property was fraudulently obtained and should be given to a local Indian tribe.

Soybean oil magnate Branko Marinkovic, an outspoken critic of President Evo Morales, says the 64,250 acres (26,000 hectares) targeted by the government were obtained legally and are being used productively for ranching and agriculture — and that the fraud allegations are merely a political attack.

Morales pushed through a sweeping land reform bill last November granting his government power to seize idle or ill-gotten land. He has pledged to redistribute a staggering 77,000 square miles (200,000 square kilometers) among the country's long-oppressed Indian majority over the next five years.

The bill updated a 1996 initiative that had largely failed to sort out a centuries-old tangle of land titles in Bolivia's eastern lowlands, particularly in Santa Cruz state, where the Marinkovic family is among the largest land owners.

Vice Minister of Land Alejandro Almaraz on Thursday cited "abundant evidence" that Marinkovic amassed his family's empire at the expense of Santa Cruz's Guarayo Indians.

"It would be unacceptable for the authorities to persecute certain people for their political position," Almaraz said. "But it would be equally condemnable for a political role to allow certain people to act with impunity."

Almaraz said both local officials and Guarayo leaders were complicit in illegally selling their land to the Marinkovic family over the years.

Marinkovic, the son of Yugoslav immigrants, was elected this year as president of the Santa Cruz Civic Committee, an influential opposition-aligned group that opposes Morales' land reform and backs greater autonomy for Bolivia's eastern states.

On Thursday, Marinkovic dismissed the government accusations as a political vendetta, saying he only owns "16 or 17" hectares (about 40 acres) in his own name. Most of the rest of the family land belongs to his sisters, he said.

"I consider it a totally political attack, because I am in no way the owner of these lands. They can't accuse me personally" of land fraud, Marinkovic told reporters.

Horrific act politicized Morales

Bolivia's future president saw drug suspect set on fire

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA

Bolivian soldiers arrested a suspected drug trafficker in the province of Cochabamba in 1981, doused him in fuel and burned him alive. The killing gave birth to Evo Morales' political career.

"I didn't have a particular political orientation or ideology at the time," Morales recounts in the documentary Cocalero, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and opened on Friday in New York. "But I couldn't understand why the government would do that."

Driven by the memory of that killing, Morales went on to head Bolivia's influential coca union and led street protests that helped bring down two successive governments before he was elected president in 2005.

Cocalero, the directorial debut of 26-year-old Alejandro Landes, chronicles Morales' rise to power with the backing of the coca growers, or cocaleros, who fought U.S.-supported efforts to cut Bolivian drug production. Coca leaves, chewed for religious and cultural purposes across the Andes, are the main ingredient in cocaine.

"The cocaleros are the sons and daughters of the U.S. war on drugs," said the Brazilian-born Landes. "Their defense of the coca leaf detonated a nationalist wave that drove Evo to power."

The film follows the socialist Morales over the final months of his campaign, which ended with him becoming the first indigenous leader of South America's poorest country.

Ruled since colonial days by a white or mixed-race political elite, most indigenous Bolivians — the majority are Aymara or Quechua — didn't have the right to vote until a 1952 revolution abolished Spanish-language literacy requirements. Herbert Klein, author of A Concise History of Bolivia and director of Latin American studies at Stanford University, estimates Bolivia's voting population jumped fivefold, to 1 million, following that change.

Morales' critics often underestimate his political acumen, painting him as a puppet of his allies, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro. A reporter in the film asks Morales if his Movement Toward Socialism party has an office in Caracas and whether Bolivia will be "full of Cubans" if he wins, "just like Venezuela is."

The movie portrays Morales, 47, as a shrewd politician backed by an efficient team. Cocalero shows party officials drilling illiterate voters on how to read a ballot, courting business leaders in the opposition stronghold of Santa Cruz and galvanizing tens of thousands to turn out at political rallies where bags of coca leaves with Morales' photo are handed out.

The film captures intimate and revealing moments in Morales' life, including a scene where the candidate— wearing just a soccer jersey and underwear — jumps into a muddy river and drifts downstream while an aide yells, "Don't let him drown or we'll be without our president!"

On election eve, Morales tells reporters at an outdoor banquet he's not sweating because he's drunk but because he's hot. Then he downs another beer.

Landes doesn't ignore the brutish side of Morales' party.

Sperandio Ravatto, a Catholic priest in the coca-growing Chapare region, says the party forces members to pay their dues and metes out communal justice through beatings or by tying people to spiny trees covered with ants.

"The MAS is in charge here, in every way,'' Ravatto says.

Eleven Colombian hostages killed in attack-rebels

By Hugh Bronstein BOGOTA, June 28 (Reuters) - Eleven Colombian lawmakers kidnapped by leftist rebels in a brazen 2002 raid were killed last week when an unidentified group attacked the camp where they were being held, the guerrillas said on Thursday. The eleven were among 12 provincial lawmakers captured more than five years ago by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in Valle del Cauca's capital city Cali. "Eleven deputies of the Valle assembly, who we took in April 2002, died in the cross fire when an unidentified military group attacked the camp where they were," according to a statement from the FARC. It said the raid occurred on June 18. The government said it did not know the location of the 12 hostages and did not know of any attempt to rescue them. "There was no rescue order," Interior Minister Carlos Holguin said. Fabiola Perdomo, the wife of one of those reported dead, tearfully told local radio she was awaiting confirmation of the news. Pablo Casas, an analyst with independent Bogota think tank Seguridad & Democracia, said, "It looks like these people died in a random clash with an illegal paramilitary group. "But there is no doubt that the FARC was responsible for the lives of the people they kidnapped, so the fault remains with them," he added. In the 1980s, rich Colombians organized paramilitary militias to ensure protection from FARC kidnappings and land grabs. By the late 1990s, both groups, labeled terrorists by Washington, had become involved in cocaine smuggling and took to murdering peasants suspected of cooperating with the other side. A BRAZEN RAID Colombia was shocked when the FARC kidnapped the lawmakers from the provincial capitol building by masquerading as soldiers and calmly escorting them onto a bus, saying they were being evacuated due to a bomb scare. The 12 were among about 60 high-profile hostages, including three American defense contractors and French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, whom President Alvaro Uribe wanted to swap for guerrillas held in government jails. But Uribe and the FARC have yet to agree on terms for negotiating the hostage exchange. Betancourt was taken by the guerrillas during her 2002 presidential campaign. The Americans were captured the following year while on an anti-drug mission. Colombia is the world's biggest producer of cocaine. Its four-decade-old guerrilla war kills thousands and forces tens of thousands from their homes each year. The government blames the FARC for a series of bombs that killed three people, including a 3-year-old girl, and injured dozens in the Pacific port city of Buenaventura last weekend. Uribe, whose father was killed by the guerrillas more than 20 years ago, said the attacks reinforced his refusal to grant the FARC's demand for a safe-haven area to negotiate a hostage swap. He said the option of military rescue remained open. The 17,000-member FARC was organized in the 1960s to force land reforms and other measures meant to close the gap that separates rich and poor in this Andean country. But even left-wing politicians say the group has scant popular support.

Chevron is keeping the door open

U.S. oil company to work with Venezuela after its peers Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips decide to bow out

By KRISTEN HAYS

Chevron Corp. is the last U.S. oil major standing in Venezuela's resource-rich Orinoco River basin after Exxon Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips this week refused to capitulate to new working terms imposed by Venezuela's government-controlled oil company.

While Chevron gave up operating an oil production pro- ject like its peers, the company retained its 30 percent interest in the Hamaca project.

The San Ramon, Calif., company's continued presence also maintains access to its significant natural gas plays elsewhere in Venezuela, which experts say is likely enough incentive to give in on the Orinoco.

"They are relatively minor in the Orinoco, but they are a big player in the gas sector," said Patrick Esteruelas, an analyst with political risk consultancy Eurasia Group. "Not to play ball on one side of the business is to shut down all other opportunities in the country."

Chevron spokesman Leif Sollid said Wednesday that its negotiations with Petróleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA, were acceptable, and "we look forward to continuing our long-standing partnership with Venezuela and the Hamaca project's success."

While PDVSA took over operating Orinoco projects in May, Tuesday was the deadline for foreign companies to sign agreements that outlined their lesser roles. Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips refused to sign, while Chevron, Total, BP and Statoil, Norway's state-controlled oil company, stayed.

The takeovers stemmed from a decree issued earlier this year by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a vocal critic of both the Bush administration and previous contracts that allowed foreign companies to control projects in the oil-rich nation.

Chavez's administration has used PDVSA as a cash cow for its social welfare programs and critics say the oil company has failed to invest enough money in new oil ventures, causing its output to drop in recent years.

In addition, concerns persist about the quality of expertise of its managers and laborers after 19,000 workers — about half of the company — were fired following a 2002-2003 strike aimed at bringing down the Chavez regime.

As a result, Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips "probably feel pretty uncomfortable about PDVSA being in charge," said Enrique Sira, an analyst with Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

Talks on compensation
Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips remain in negotiations with PDVSA on compensation for what they are giving up. For Exxon Mobil, that's a 41.7 percent stake in Cerro Negro. BP retained its 16 percent interest in Cerro Negro, while PDVSA swallowed Exxon Mobil's stake.

PDVSA also absorbed ConocoPhillips's stakes in its projects — 40 percent in Hamaca, 50.1 percent in Petrozuata, and 32.5 percent in Corocoro, an offshore operation slated to begin production next year.

Total's 47 percent interest in its Sincor project fell to 30.3 percent, while Statoil's stake fell to 9.7 percent from 15 percent. PDVSA now holds the rest.

Corporate bond research firm Gimme Credit called the situation a "prisoner's dilemma" in a note to investors Wednesday.

"Near term, going with the flow netted Chevron more than ConocoPhillips by hanging tough — Chevron still has access to Venezuelan oil," it said.

Who will win?
"On another level, however, it remains to be seen whether or not the result will be advantageous for Venezuela. The country still has to compensate the oil companies leaving, and is left with partners that, while credible, won't necessarily make the projects their highest priority."

Chevron has a 39 percent stake in Petroboscan, an onshore oil field near Lake Maracaibo. And the company's natural gas discoveries off Venezuela's northeast shore are under consideration to supply natural gas to Venezuela, Sollid said.

Total has interests in onshore and offshore Venezuelan natural gas fields. And John Parry, an analyst with John S. Herold, noted BP's natural gas interests in neighboring Trinidad likely played a part in its decision to stay in Venezuela as well.

"I suspect this is a move that somebody stays inside the gate and somebody works it from outside the gate," he said of Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips' decision to exit while the others — including their former partners — are staying. "Someone had to stay in the muck and someone had to get out of it."

Chavez, Russia for SouthAm Pipeline

Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez began a three day visit to the Russian Federation that promises an important contribution to global energy security.

Moscow and Caracas are the two largest producers and exporters of oil in the world and are collaborating to industrialize the giant reserves of gas in the South American nation.

These fuel resources will be piped in an eight thousand kilometer gas pipeline joining the Venezuelan Caribbean coast with the southern region of the continent that will involve Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Referring to the project, the director general of VNIIGAZ, main scientific center of the Russian Gazprom, Roman Samsonov, told Prensa Latina that it is a unique opportunity for Russian specialists.

Moscow and Caracas called for stability of the international market, supporting talks among independent producers and OPEC members aiming to safeguard international energy security, said the spokesman of the Foreign Affairs ministry, Mijail Kamynin.

Ecuador Welcomes Extension of Preferential Tariffs

The Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry expressed satisfaction on Wednesday with the US Congress' decision to extend the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act for another eight months.

The government will take advantage of that time to seek mechanisms to export domestic products to the United States permanently without paying taxes, Deputy Foreign Minister Rafael Paredes said.

Those privileges, which will expire on Saturday, must "be a permanent goal, not only with regard to the United States, but also with regard to all markets to which Ecuador have access, Paredes told a news conference.

The extension of the agreement is the result of joint work by the government and private businesspeople in the United States, he added.

For his part, Economic Police Minister-Coordinator Mauricio Davalos said that Ecuador will seek new trade deals.

Davalos pointed out that the government is drawing up the strategic guidelines for trade, especially regarding the opening of markets, but it will take into consideration the particularities of national production in the agricultural and agri-industrial sectors.

He ruled out, however, that Ecuador is moving forward to signing a Free Trade Agreement with the United States, in which case the domestic market would be completely opened.

UN FOOD AGENCY SIGNS AGREEMENT TO HELP INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES IN ECUADOR

The Untied Nations World Food Programme has signed a deal, lasting until the year 2010, to aid indigenous communities which live isolated from the modern world and were relatively unknown until recently in Ecuador's northern border region.

The Federation of Awa Indigenous Communities of Ecuador, also known as AWA, resides in the South American country's highlands and in the areas close to its border with Colombia, where some AWA came from and 14,000 of still live today.

They were granted citizenship by the Ecuadorian Government in 1985, but today, the group is being threatened off their territory by lumber companies, according to WFP.

The agency entered into an agreement, signed on Monday with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), to carry out projects in the country's north. The first three schemes involve the rehabilitation of schools, the provision of heath education materials for a clinic and the revival and construction of health centres.

WFP will lend its technical and operational expertise as well as manage the finances, while IOM will aid in the follow-up of projects and create and information database.

U.S. lawmakers approve extension of Andean trade agreement

WASHINGTON: The U.S. House of Representatives agreed to a short-term extension of a trade agreement with four Andean nations.

The 365-59 vote confirmed a bipartisan compromise worked out Tuesday to extend the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act for eight months. The act provides duty-free access to U.S. markets for some 5,600 products from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

The act, which is to expire at the end of this month, was limited to an eight-month extension because the Bush administration is pushing new bilateral free trade agreements with Peru and Colombia that would replace the current trade relationship.

The Senate is also expected to vote on the measure before the current act expires. "This is a reasonable compromise," said Sen. Charles Grassley, top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. "It gives us a window to enact the Peru and Colombia free trade agreements, which I support."

The act was signed into law in 1991 with the goal of offering economic incentives to combat drug production and trafficking in the four Andean nations.

Next on the trade agenda could be the free trade agreement with Peru. The Bush administration announced Monday that it had reached agreement with Peru on amendments concerning labor rights and environmental protections that Democrats say must be part of any future trade deal.

The Democratic Congress must also confront the issue of trade promotion, or fast track, authority, which gives the president the power to negotiate trade deals that Congress can reject or accept but cannot amend. Trade promotion authority expires at the end of this month.

___

The bill is H.R. 1830

Argentine energy crisis affects 5.000 manufacturing plants

Almost 5.000 manufacturing plants have suffered from the latest electricity and gas restrictions, warned Argentina’s Industrial Union, UIA, with blackouts equivalent to 40% of energy demand in a six to eight hours daily band.

UIA said natural gas restrictions were extensive to 900 companies with cuts on occasion lasting “several days”.

“Both situations have an impact on production, the production process and cause additional damages because of the complications to comply with significant stoppages for long periods”, adds UIA.

The manufacturers lobby has been collecting information on the energy situation from similar organizations in the rest of Argentina and is committed, “working with the government” to find solutions to the ever growing challenge.

Argentine energy authorities anticipated that the situation will commence “to normalize” Thursday given improved climate conditions with higher temperatures and full pressure on the gas pipelines.

“The gas transport and distribution system has begun to recover lost volume and beginning Wednesday supply will rapidly normalize”.

An estimated 5 to 6 million cubic meters per day will begin to be injected to supply manufacturing industries demand.

However CAMMESA, the regulator which administers wholesale gas provision warned that industry restrictions which drastically cut consumption between 16:00 and 24:00 hours, to privilege home consumption, remain effective Wednesday.

Chávez and Evo preside over inauguration of Copa América

BY FELIX LOPEZ —Granma daily staff writer—

SAN CRISTOBAL.—“Football is like a mirror in which reality is reflected,” affirmed Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Frías at last night’s inauguration of the Copa América tournament in the capital of the Andean state of Táchira, accompanied by Bolivian President Evo Morales, and Argentine star player Diego Armando Maradona, who was responsible for kicking off to start the game between Venezuela and Bolivia, which ended in a 2-2 draw.

From yesterday to July 15 approximately, the whole of Venezuela will vibrate to the rhythm of soccer. “For Bolívar,” confirmed Chávez in his speech of welcome to the 12 competing teams, “the homeland is America; today, for us, the Cup is America.”

With these words, the passion for soccer of a whole nation was unleashed. The modest but beautiful inaugural ceremony celebrated the traditional Venezuelan songs and dances of hundreds of men and women who have worked extremely hard over the last two years so that today the country has nine excellent stadiums (some newly constructed, others expanded and remodeled) in the nine host cities where they are realizing the dream of organizing the 91-year-old Copa América for the first time in this South American country.

The collective joy, the pride felt by people on the streets and in the centers where giant screens have been erected for this soccer event to be enjoyed, reflects the people’s gratitude to the Bolivarian government which committed itself to the successful organization of the most important football tournament on the continent and the oldest in the world.

On the first day, news came of the heavy defeat suffered by Uruguay – twice World champion and 14 times champion of America – who lost 3-0 against Peru.

And in the inaugural match, the Venezuelan and Bolivian players gave their all on the pitch and finished with a draw. At the end of the game, while the teams were congratulating each on the field, two friends – Presidents Evo Morales and Hugo Chávez – also embraced each other in the stands.

Mercosur: Brazilian industry after review of Venezuela’s entry

Several Brazilian industry organizations are strongly lobbying Congress and President Lula da Silva to stop the incorporation of Venezuela to Mercosur, on the terms originally agreed, according to Valor, a publication which usually reflects the interests of the industrial sector.

Brazilian industrialists fear that Venezuela’s incorporation will have a negative effect on Mercosur’s negotiations with other markets such as the European Union, because of the political positions of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. They also have doubts about the benefits of access to the Venezuelan market since the tariffs’ reduction timetable still has to be negotiated.

The incorporation of Venezuela has already been agreed by Mercosur full members but still must be ratified by the Congress of Brazil and Paraguay.

Among the dissenting organizations is Brazil’s powerful National Industry Confederation, CNI, which has sent letters to all members of the Foreign Affairs Committee from the Brazilian Senate and to Foreign Affairs and Trade, Industry and Development ministers, Celso Amorim and Miguel Jorge, respectively.

“We’re not contradicting the government’s political stance, but rather attempting to explain that to join Mercosur, countries must at least comply with certain stages”, said Soraya Rosar, head of CNI International Negotiations Office to Valor.

CNI which admits that exports to Venezuela have significantly increased is concerned with the speed with which Brazil will have to open its market to Venezuela.

“Venezuela is an important market for textiles but it should not cause difficulties for the opening to other more large markets”, said Fernando Pimentel, CEO of the Brazilian Textile Industry Association, who admitted that the incorporation of Venezuela could create difficulties to other Mercosur trade discussions.

Venezuela’s incorporation also faces stiff resistance in the Brazilian Congress following President Chavez attacks on Senators which he labeled “US parrots” and oligarchs.

Brazilian exports to Venezuela in the first five months of this year jumped 31% over a year ago and totaled 3.6 billion in 2006, up 60% over 2005.
Another organization which addressed letters to Congress members is the Brazilian Electric and Electronics Association, ABEE, which suggested that Foreign Secretary Amorim should be summoned by Congress to explain the “fast and incomplete” incorporation of Venezuela to Mercosur.

According to the letter, Brazilian Congress members “will surely defend national interests and reject Venezuela’s incorporation to Mercosur in the current negotiated terms”.
“I totally support Venezuela’s Mercosur membership but it’s absurd that we should pay the price of incorporation without a matching advantage or benefit”, said Humberto Barbat, president of ABEE.

650,000-plus Latin Americans have had sight restored

By Juan Diego Nusa Peñalver
HAVANA, June 25

More than 650,000 Latin American and Caribbean citizens have had their sight restored thanks to the Operation Miracle ophthalmological rehabilitation program developed by the governments of Cuba and Venezuela.

During the meeting of the parliamentary International Relations Commission yesterday, Marta Lomas, minister of foreign investment and economic cooperation, reviewed the progress of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), of which Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua are members and whose programs additionally benefit a number of countries in the region.

The minister summed up the five ALBA Summits that have taken place to date, the last of which was in April in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, where 32 projects were approved to promote Latin American and Caribbean unity.

She also referred to the implementation of other programs within the ALBA related to oil supplies and savings; the use of renewable sources of energy; and the implementation of literacy and public health projects in Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Venezuela; as well as endogenous development projects in Cuba.

MERCOSUR: Asymmetry Sets the Agenda

By Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Jun 26 (IPS) - While they wait for the right time to resume negotiations with the European Union, the member countries of Mercosur are focusing on mechanisms to counterbalance the comparative disadvantages experienced by its smaller economies with respect to its two largest ones.

Ways to overcome the asymmetries are a key topic on the Mercosur (Southern Common Market) agenda, the Argentine Foreign Ministry’s Under-Secretary for Economic Integration Eduardo Sigal told foreign correspondents in the run-up to the Thursday-Friday summit in Asunción.

At the meeting, the six-monthly rotating presidency of the bloc -- made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, with Venezuela in the process of becoming a full member -- will be handed over from Asunción to Montevideo. With the baton passing between the two smallest Mercosur economies, they are demanding more attention from their powerful partners.

The lack of agreement at the multilateral trade negotiations between the Group of Four (G4: Brazil, EU, India and the United States) this week in Potsdam, Germany, in an attempt to unblock the World Trade Organisation's Doha Round, suggests that Mercosur may resume discussions for a free trade agreement directly with the European bloc.

These negotiations had been postponed until the final results of the WTO round of talks were known. The Doha Round, named for the ministerial conference in the Qatari capital where it was launched in 2001, seems to have reached a dead end.

"It was no surprise to Argentina that the Potsdam meetings were a failure. The developed economies are inflexible on the subject of agricultural subsidies, and the same inflexibility was responsible for the collapse of the FTAA initiative (Free Trade Area of the Americas promoted by the United States)," Sigal said.

"Mercosur is very competitive in the agricultural and livestock sectors, but we don't want to be only that. We are not raising a barrier around the bloc, but we want trade liberalisation along with the potential for development, and without that balance, the outcome will not be any different to that of Potsdam," he said.

However, Sigal said that if the WTO trade talks are suspended, Mercosur would be willing to resume negotiations with the EU, which began more than a decade ago, and depend on reaching agreement about the subsidies European countries pay their farmers for their products.

As an example of the unsatisfactory results of negotiations so far, the under-secretary noted that Mercosur sells 300,000 tonnes of beef a year to the EU, but the EU offer is for just 10,000 tonnes to enter its markets tariff-free, with annual increases until it reaches 116,000 tonnes tariff-free.

"Argentina would be eligible for only 30 percent of the quota of 10,000 tonnes, equivalent to what one of our big supermarkets buys," he quipped.

In an interview with IPS, economist Dante Cica, former Industry secretary and director of the Abeceb consultancy firm, agreed that compensating for asymmetries within Mercosur is "one of the most pressing needs" today, but said that there are different views on how to overcome the difficulties.

Cica said that Paraguay proposed an ambitious project which would require 22 billion dollars in investments to increase its capacity on a par with its partners. Uruguay is requesting incentives, Brazil proposes the adoption of general rules, and Argentina would prefer to allocate quotas for specific sectors, he said.

"This will be a major topic at the summit. The large countries are showing more willingness to make progress, but tensions are bound to arise, and conciliation will be necessary," he predicted.

Sigal announced that Buenos Aires and Brasilia are willing to increase the Structural Convergence Fund created in 2005 to support initiatives that promote development and improve competitiveness in the Paraguayan and Uruguayan economies.

Seventy percent of the Fund is contributed by Brazil and 27 percent by Argentina. In 2006, 55 million dollars were raised for projects. In 2007 it is planned to add another 72 million dollars to the Fund, and over the next eight years 100 million dollars a year will be available. Argentina is now proposing that the contributions be increased even further.

"The problem is that the capacity to put these resources to good use is still lacking. Funds for 2006 are still being used, and we're having to make decisions about what to do with the interest accrued on contributions for 2007 which have already been deposited but not invested," Sigal said.

Sigal emphasised that Uruguay and Paraguay have made detailed reports on the development programmes they are carrying out to put themselves on the same footing with their larger partners, but difficulties have arisen over the approval of projects. The feasibility of creating a stable technical committee to evaluate projects is being studied.

Member countries have also made progress by deciding to subsidise participation by Uruguay and Paraguay on joint Mercosur trade missions, and by creating a fund specifically to support their small and medium businesses, especially those that are part of production chains within the bloc.

IPS asked Sigal whether ways of increasing access of the smaller countries to the markets of the larger partners were being considered, and here he recognised that difficulties remain. "We must improve their access; non-tariff obstacles persist which block access, this is a fact," he admitted.

Finally, the ambassador stated that in Mercosur's international negotiations, the bloc endeavours to obtain the best possible benefits for the smaller countries. For example, he said that the free trade agreement with Israel is in abeyance because of objections raised by Paraguay and Uruguay.

Sigal said that Paraguay is not satisfied with the beef quota it was offered by Israel, while Uruguay disagrees over dairy products. "Argentina and Brazil have no objections, but we will not sign the treaty until all the (Mercosur) countries are agreed on it," he said.

At the summit, the presidents will continue discussions to put an end to double payment of the common external tariff by 2008. Goods imported into one of the bloc countries to be delivered in another are subject to dual tariff payments at present. This problem mainly affects Paraguay, a land-locked country.

To get a head start on this, the countries were to draw up customs regulations and establish on-line computerisation of customs posts. There have been "significant advances" with these two measures in the last few months, but there are "delays" in agreeing how customs income is to be distributed, Sigal said.

At Brazil's request, the summit coordinators have also approved consideration of a draft proposal to increase the common external tariff for imported shoes and textiles, and decided to continue to experiment with using national currencies, instead of the dollar, in trading transactions between members of the bloc.

Sigal confirmed that Mercosur Economy ministers plan to continue discussing the creation of the Bank of the South (Banco del Sur), a Venezuelan initiative that could be set up with an initial contribution of between 200 and 500 million dollars for each member country.

Reporters Without Integrity in Venezuela

by: Lauren Carroll Harris - Green Left Weekly

Reporters Without Borders (RWB). The name, modelled on that of humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), conjures the idea of an organisation that monitors global standards of press freedom, offers insightful and hard-hitting investigative reports on world conflict and defends the safety of courageous journalists in war-torn countries. One would imagine that such an organisation would lend its support to one of the few countries in the world that is taking major leaps in democratising the media by breaking the existing monopoly of corporate domination.

And surely, an organisation that claims to laud truthful press coverage would denounce the actions of a television station — Venezuela’s Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) — that participates in a coup against a democratically elected government. In April 2002, a US-backed military coup was launched against the government of President Hugo Chavez. RCTV broadcast opposition calls to overthrow the Chavez government; encouraged viewers to participate in a demonstration that was part of the coup strategy; banned pro-Chavez coverage during the period of the coup; falsified footage of government forces firing on demonstrators (which was used as a justification for the coup); and refused to report Chavez’s April 13 return to power on the back of a mass uprising led by the poor, instead running soap operas and films.

Instead, RWB is at the forefront of the right-wing media war against Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution. Indeed, the political lines of the US government, the US-backed Venezuelan opposition and RWB coincide exactly.

RWB is purportedly non-partisan and independent. However, it receives funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the International Republican Institute, both of which are financed by the US Congress. Last year, information obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act revealed that RWB had received funds over at least three years from the IRI, linked to US President George Bush’s Republican Party.

In April 2005, RWB secretary general Robert Menard admitted: “We indeed receive money from the NED. And that hasn’t posed any problem.”

On the contrary, the funding source is increasingly becoming a problem for the organisation’s credibility. RWB’s attacks on Venezuela’s popularly elected socialist government coincide with a growing effort by Washington to destabilise and discredit the revolutionary movement. Both major patrons of RWB have been deeply involved in the efforts to overthrow Chavez.

In the years preceding the 2002 coup, millions of dollars of US government funding was directed to opposition groups that participated in the attempt to overthrow Chavez.

According to the Washington DC-based International Relations Center, the NED and the IRI have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars since 1998 (the year Chavez was first elected) to anti-government groups, including the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (a right-wing, pro-boss union federation) and the Assembly of Educators. The IRC’s profile of the NED notes that “with NED funding, IRI had been sponsoring political party-building workshops and other anti-Chavez activities in Venezuela” prior to the 2002 coup. A December 2002 report by the IRC’s Mike Ceaser notes that even before the 1998 presidential election, the IRI “worked with Venezuelan organizations critical of Chavez to run newspaper ads, TV, and radio spots that several observers characterize as anti-Chavez”.

As an instrument of quasi-governmental political aid, the IRI is extremely close to the Bush administration. It operates in more than 65 countries, according to its website. It has been linked to the overthrow of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004, who was popular with the country’s poor.

Institutions like the IRI and the NED help Washington keep its subversive activities against unfriendly regimes at arm’s length and help prevent scrutiny of its foreign policy. Of course, with US Congress providing all the funding for the IRI and NED, the assertion of neutrality is baseless.

The NED was founded in 1983 by then President Ronald Reagan with the explicit purpose of “planting the seeds of democracy in Latin America” — in other words, intervening against international efforts to undermine Washington’s political hegemony, something that Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution is undoubtedly doing. From 2002 to 2005, the NED’s federal financing tripled, from US$26 million to $75 million, the New York Times reported in January 2006.

RWB has managed to retain some degree of credibility by continuing to criticise the treatment of journalists in Iraq. However, its role in the propaganda war against the Venezuela revolution, and the fact that it has only just begun to admit the dubious sources of its funding after years of refusing to do so, are increasingly attracting criticism.

RWB has been at the forefront of the concerted push by the right wing, both in Venezuela and internationally, to distort the Venezuelan government’s decision not to renew RCTV’s broadcast licence in May as a result of the station’s participation in the April 2002 coup and numerous violations of Venezuelan broadcasting laws. RWB’s June 5 report on its May 24-28 “fact-finding” mission to Venezuela is riddled with unsupported assertions and outright falsehoods.

For example, RWB claims that Chavez has “an impressive media apparatus at this disposal for getting his message across”. Yet according to a June 2 Venezuelanalysis.com article by Gregory Wilpert, only three out of 200 television channels are state-owned (VTV, Vive, and Avila TV) and only two out of 426 radio stations are state-owned. There are no state-owned newspapers. A May 31 RWB report asserts that Chavez intends to “eliminate all the opposition press”, a statement with no grounding. RCTV can continue to broadcast over cable and satellite, it merely cannot occupy one of the limited, free-to-air frequencies.

Although the June 5 report grudgingly admits that Chavez was elected and remains supported by the vast majority of Venezuelans, it omits any mention of the government’s plans to replace RCTV. The station will be replaced on free-to-air television with a new public network, Televisora Venezolana Social (Tves), which will exclusively source programs from thousands of independent and community-based contributors.

This plan simply does not correlate with the claims by RWB and the Venezuelan opposition that Chavez’s intends to enforce “media hegemony”, nor does it represent “a major setback to democracy and pluralism”, as RWB’s Menard asserted. On the contrary, it seems that Venezuela is on a path to rupturing the monopoly that the wealthy elite have over the media, and passing this media power to the people. It is this — the creation of a genuine “mass” media — that Venezuela’s capitalist media companies are desperate to undermine, hence the renewed vigour of the right’s campaign against Chavez.

From: International News, Green Left Weekly issue #715 27 June 2007.

Marcos leaps from socialism to sex

Photograph by : F. Sanchez

Subcomandante Marcos, everyone’s favorite masked revolutionary, tries his hand at the classic “bodice ripper” with the publication of an illustrated erotic novel.

Story by : MEGAN SMITH

It is getting steamy in the Lacandon Jungle of Chiapas, and it isn’t just summer humidity. An erotic novel by Subcomandante Marcos, the masked leader of the Zapatista National Liberation Army, is heating things up.

Smoking his ever-present pipe, Marcos presented “Noches de fuego y desvelo” (Nights of Fire and Sleeplessness) to an audience of 200 at the University of Guadalajara’s Social Sciences and Humanities center last Friday. It is the latest part of a series of tales Marcos has entitled “El Amor: Sus modos y ni modos (Love: Its Ways and No Ways)” about love in the ranks of his famous indigenous autonomy movement in southern Mexico.

Marcos attributed the inspiration for the book to a visit with his friend, painter Antonio Ramirez, in Guadalajara one year ago.

“I want to thank [Ramirez], in the place where this dream commenced its journey to image and print,” Marcos began, addressing his collaborator.

Together, Macros said, they hammered out a story around the collected love letters of a fictional Zapatista fighter named Sombra. Ramirez’s oil and pastel illustrations, which Marcos called “irreverent,” illuminate Sombra’s passionate encounters.

There is clearly something of the autobiographical in Marcos’ work. Ramirez said Marcos entered his studio last year and was transfixed by a painting that reminded him of his beloved.
“He told me that he had tried to seduce her from his cave in the mountains, despite his loyalty [to the Zapatistas] and the strict rules of discipline in his role as a commander,” said Ramirez.
“Noches de fuego y desvelo” in many ways heralds back the 14th and 15th century Spanish tradition of courtly love stories, the libros de caballerias in which knights preoccupy themselves with ideal love, ignoring the qualities of the real women in favor of what they represent.
“She could be anything; the nation, freedom, the people’s struggle – or she could be woman in general,” says Ramirez, who says illustrating Sombra’s lover was his greatest challenge in the project.

In one letter, a defeated Sombra disfavorably compares love to capitalism, distracting from the warrior’s noble socialist struggle.

The 64-page, large-format edition was published by Colectivo Callejero, a Guadalajara-based artists’ collective founded by Ramirez and his wife Domitilia, which has dedicated itself to colorfully illustrating messages for the Zapatista movement.

“Their work is merchandise indigenous communities use to continue constructing a new and better world; that is to say, more just, more free, and more dignified,” said Marcos.

Hardly a populist manifesto at 900 pesos, the book’s price is inaccessible to the rank and file of Zapatista community organizing. But Marcos, ever a savvy marketer, has long had a knack for opening the wallets of well-off sympathizers in Mexico and abroad. It is for them that the book is targeted.

All proceeds from book sales will benefit healthcare solutions in the autonomous indigenous communities. “That is the reason for the cost. To some people it appears high; we don’t think it is too much – the quality of the work and the cause which it supports justify the cost,” said Efrain Herrera, who designed the book.

“Noches de fuego y desvelo” will be difficult to find, at least in its first edition. Only bookshops deemed to be “in solidarity” with the Zapatistas, willing to forfeit commissions from the sale of the book, have been chosen by the Colectivo Callejero to distribute it. Two small, downtown bookstores in Guadalajara currently carry it: El Aguaje and La Rueda.

Oil firms reject Venezuela deal

Two major oil companies – Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips – have rejected a deal to continue operations in Venezuela's oil-rich Orinoco belt with a reduced stake.

They refused to give up part of their operations to Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA as part of President Hugo Chavez's nationalisation drive.

PDVSA plans to take at least a 60 per cent share in four heavy-crude upgrading projects operated by transnational companies worth over $30bn, a big jump from its current 40 per cent stake.

Venezuela is the fourth-largest exporter of oil to the US.

According to a source close to the company, ConocoPhillips has decided to leave the country entirely and would most likely seek arbitration to resolve the dispute.

Accepting takeover

Four other companies – America's Chevron, Norway's Statoil, Britain's BP and France's Total – have reportedly agreed to the partial takeover.

They plan to sign an accord that will keep them in the massive Orinoco oil reserve projects, a government official said.

An official announcement on the final outcome is expected on Tuesday, the deadline set by Chavez for the companies to either accept his terms of continuing operations with a minority stake or to leave the country.

On May 1, the government seized control of the operations of the Orinoco projects, which were among the last privately run fields in the South American nation.

Chavez gave the six companies extra time to work out a deal over the projects' new ownership structure.

Sticking points include asset valuation, compensation for lost value, and decision-making rules in the future joint ventures, according to industry officials.

Companies that agree to stay on in the four projects have two months before a final deal is submitted to the Venezuelan congress for approval.

Those that reject the deal can leave and take Venezuela to court or accept a government offer to
negotiate compensation for several months for the nationalised Orinoco assets, several sources familiar with the talks said.

Chavez's high profile showdown with oil companies and his broader nationalisation drive covering the telecommunications and electricity sectors apparently have the support of Venezuela's poor majority who got him re-elected in December.

The president has used of billions of dollars in oil revenues to finance social programmes.

MEXICO: Uprising Rekindled in Oaxaca?

By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Jun 25

Hundreds of delegates of social movements in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca have once again occupied the central square of the state capital for the past week, threatening to take more radical actions if their demands are not addressed.

A six-month social uprising demanding that Governor Ulises Ruiz, who is accused of corruption, authoritarianism, squelching opposition by means of violence and intimidation and undue use of force against peaceful demonstrators, step down or be removed came to an end in late 2006 when the president sent in federal troops.

"Obviously we do not have the same strength as before, but we are growing, and it will be the government’s response that will define the new routes and actions to be taken," Florentino López, spokesman for the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO), told IPS.

Oaxaca, where the poverty level is similar to that of the Occupied Palestinian Territories according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is governed by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which did not lose its grip on the state after it lost its hold on the national government in 2000 for the first time in seven decades.

The 2006 uprising, which started out as a strike by teachers who were later joined by hundreds of social organisations, dragged on for over six months and left more than a dozen people dead, 370 injured and 350 under arrest, mainly in police sweeps that included excesses and abuses against demonstrators and even passersby, according to human rights groups.

The victims who were killed by irregular armed groups who APPO and other activists said were acting under Ruiz’s orders were mainly local protesters, as well as Bradley Will, an independent U.S. journalist who was working for the alternative on-line news agency Indymedia.

APPO, which is made up of over 300 Oaxaca social organisations, including the teachers’ union, is now demanding that the government of President Felipe Calderón, who took office in December, re-establish a negotiating committee on Oaxaca. They are also again calling for Governor Ruiz to be sacked.

In addition, they are calling on people to vote against the PRI and Calderón’s conservative National Action Party (PAN) in the local legislative elections scheduled for Aug. 5.

But the people of the state of Oaxaca do not appear to see eye to eye with the demonstrators. In a survey by the Covarrubias y Asociados polling firm published early this month, 55 percent of respondents in the state capital said they held a "bad" or "very bad" opinion of APPO. And in rural areas of the state, the proportion climbed to 62 percent.

"Conditions last year were different, but we are back on our feet," said López.

"Some 3,000 of us are once again in the central square of Oaxaca, although we are not interrupting activity in the city. From here brigades of demonstrators go out to explain our movement and build up support in the neighbourhoods, schools, public transport, markets and other places," said the spokesman, one of the few leaders of APPO who was not arrested in the late 2006 police crackdown.

A local resident of Oaxaca who spoke to IPS on the phone said the number of protesters in the square was actually less than 300.

Last year’s uprising in Oaxaca brought economic activity in the capital virtually to a halt for months.

Seven people with ties to APPO, arrested late last year, are still in prison. The rest were released after the Oaxaca state government declined to press charges, and even paid the bail of several of the accused.

On Jun. 21, Mexico’s Supreme Court decided to appoint a special commission to stage an inquiry into alleged human rights violations committed in Oaxaca last year.

The commission will investigate probable violations of the right to life and physical integrity, the inviolability of domicile, the right to property, free circulation, work, personal freedom and information, probable excesses on the part of municipal, state and federal police, and the likely "omission or passivity" on the part of municipal, state and federal authorities to restore and maintain public order and security in the area, said the Court ruling.

López welcomed the Court decision, but warned that the social organisations could be "unfairly" blamed in the inquiry, "in an attempt to cover up for those who were responsible" for the violence and abuses.

The Calderón administration continues to argue that the problems of social discontent in Oaxaca should be resolved by state authorities through talks -- a position that APPO says is unacceptable.

"Last week we sent a formal request to the government of Calderón for a negotiating table to be set up. We have not received any response, but we hope to, for the good of Oaxaca," said López.

Adrián Ramírez, director of the non-governmental Mexican League for the Defence of Human Rights, said "The government and the country’s institutions have shown a lack of political savvy with respect to the problems in Oaxaca, which means there is a high risk that the protests will break out again."

Ramírez told IPS that "The question of impunity as well as the causes of last year’s uprising have not been resolved."

All of the reports on Oaxaca, including those produced by the governmental National Human Rights Commission and the Mexican League for the Defence of Human Rights, have held Ruiz responsible for a number of abuses that have gone unpunished, and have found the federal police guilty of excesses and human rights violations.

Nevertheless, APPO does not have a good reputation among many Oaxacans, as indicated by opinion polls.

Marked social injustice forms the backdrop to the protests in Oaxaca. Along with Chiapas and Guerrero, Oaxaca is one of the poorest states in Mexico, with 150 of the country's 250 most impoverished municipalities.

In Oaxaca, the literacy rate is 81.2 percent against a national average of 91.8 percent, and per capita income is 3,978 dollars a year compared to the national average of 9,015 dollars.

In addition, 80.3 percent of the state’s population lacks sanitation services, public lighting, drinking water and paved streets, eight out of 10 people live in extreme poverty, and the richest 10 percent of households receive 13 times more income than the poorest 10 percent, according to the Oaxacan Human Rights Network.

House OKs $10M For U.S. Gov't Radio Broadcasts in Venezuela

The Democratic-controlled House has passed a series of funding bills dealing with Venezuela, Cuba and Saudi Arabia. The House voted to spend $10 million to bolster Voice of America broadcasts to Venezuela and Latin America. Venezuela responded by accusing the U.S. of escalating its media campaign against the Chavez government.

CIA Documents Confirm Assassination plans

Plots to Assassinate Fidel Ordered by the White House

...the website of the National Security Archive of George Washington University published a group of documents dated January 1975, in which William Colby, the CIA director at that time, refers to the assassination attempts against Fidel Castro, reported the BBC.

...

...a memorandum from the White House corroborating that former US Attorney General Robert Kennedy, brother of murdered President John F. Kennedy, personally headed a plot to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro.

The text refers to a conversation between former President Gerard Ford and his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on January 4, 1975, when Kissinger told Ford that ex CIA director Richard Helms had said "Robert Kennedy personally managed an operation on the assassination of Castro."

Another document, signed by Associate Deputy Attorney General James A. Wilderotter on January 3, 1975, shows CIA agents conducted a physical surveillance of Mike Getler, journalist of The Washington Post.