October 31th., 2009

New problems with Colombia

 Relations with Venezuela become very tense once again, as stated by El Tiempo of Bogota. It refers to statements by both governments and a series of crimes that occurred at the border. The Minister of Defense of Colombia reported that most illegal flights serving drug trafficking and bound for Central America and the United States come from Venezuela. Chavez replied by saying that he was mentally retarded. The murder of ten young people, eight of them Colombians, in Tachira, brought back the attention of the presence of irregular groups in the country. The elected governor of that state, Perez Vivas, stated that in Venezuela more than 2,000 guerrillas are operating and military authorities are unaware of the situation. "I have been unable to personally report to the President because he only receives the Governors of his political party. I submitted a report for him at the Presidential palace, in order for him to see the urgency of a disarmament operation and expulsion of foreign irregular armed groups, which camps have already been located, and his response was to order the National Assembly (AN) to investigate me on account of high treason". Prior to the murder of 10 young people in Tachira, there was another massacre of 5 Colombians in Barinas, whose relatives were informed that they had died from "mechanical asphyxia," and that the bodies could not be repatriated because the events under the investigation were not completed.

Chavez ordered the arrest and prosecution of two Colombians, accusing them of being agents of the Department of Administrative Security (Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad, DAS), in espionage activities. "Behind these officers is the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the U.S. government". He added that the spies were seeking information on the Militia (the new component of the Armed Forces). "When a hostile government, as Colombia, discusses the search for information within the country, it is because, in association with U.S., it has plans against Venezuela”. He said that the murder of Colombians in Venezuela was "a confrontation between rival gangs of Colombia”. The DAS stated to be unaware that two of its detectives are detained in Venezuela. "We are open to cooperating with any investigation”. The Minister of Interior, El Aissam, attended the National Assembly to reiterate the statement made by Chavez and to declare that he obtained a document from DAS which reveals a large intelligence operation "against our country and against the countries of the region”. Bogota qualified it as "a very serious incident" that Venezuela holds DAS intelligence documents, which in the words of the minister, were delivered by its intelligence services. According to the statement of Bogota, a former DAS official has been prosecuted for selling false information about an alleged plot by the Colombian government against President Chavez. These are new aspects in the battered bilateral relationship. The most dangerous, says one commentator, is the consent of Chavez to install guerrilla groups in our territory, to the point that in some border areas, the FARC has become the civil and military authority. From the Colombian perspective, the biggest concern, according to the media, was Chavez´ claim: "Ay Colombia! How it hurts me! But someday we will include it in the ALBA”.

 MALNUTRITION AND HUNGER

Here in Venezuela there is hardly anyone who does not eat three times a day, Chavez said in Alo Presidente. He showed figures from a study of Fundacredesa, which is an entity ascribed to one of the Ministries, according to which there has been major improvements in nutrition indices that require his call for attention due to the population being overweight. "Now we are feeding ourselves better, we have to be careful, we have diet”. He described the TV program as "historic", which was broadcasted from a socialist productive Technical Center, in the Arauca, at the southwest of the country. He recalled that he had spent part of his military career there, and its savannas were destined to shepherding, and that his dream was that of seeing them planted with rice. He ordered the TV cameras to focus on an area cultivated by the Center. He questioned The Minister of Agriculture on the acreage, who told him there were 300 acres. "It's the beginning, said Chavez, but these plains, old estates, whose owners claimed that the soil studies only allowed grazing cattle, we will see them converted into huge rice fields, such as the ones in China, and there will be rice for consumption and exportation”. He reproached the minister and the armed forces that there are still estates without expropriation. "There should be none in Apure. Not one! I say to those who still have large estates: you better hand them to us before we get them. They will surely submit papers alleging that they are heirs, but we will not recognize this accursed inheritance. Nobody owns these lands! They belong to the nation”.

The president of the Venezuelan chapter of the Latin American Society of Nutrition replied that despite the concerns of the Head of State by the abundance of fat people, "we cannot say that malnutrition is over and there is only overweight”. She quoted data from the National Institute of Nutrition, whereby 22% of children between 2 and 14 years old present serious malnutrition problems, a figure well above the 6% referred to in Alo Presidente. "The deficit in nutrition, despite the missions, occurs especially in the less affluent social strata and in rural areas. It is affected not only by reduced access to food, but the poor sanitation”. Official figures from the National Institute of Statistics contradict claims made by Chavez, since, according to his research, nine million Venezuelans are in poverty, and three million in a condition that does not allow them to eat what is required to preserve health. The president of the College of Nutritionists stated: "The government does not see the reality of what is happening in the country”. She said nutrition specialists, during their work in hospitals and clinics, observe many sick people who explain that they don´t have resources to eat a minimum of food on a daily basis. In the tenth year of his term, a period that has had the most revenue that any leader has had throughout the history of the country, Chavez continues to use theatrics, promises and threats as nourishment of the regime, as written by one commentator. But the reality, he adds, is much more powerful than his grotesque and sometimes ridiculous style. Perhaps it impresses foreign visitors who make "revolutionary tourism," and are pushed to the windows touting the wonders of the XXI century socialism. But it is difficult for the audience of Alo Presidente to maintain their devotion to populist rhetoric, sometimes crude, when they confront their own experience with "jokes" of the leader. The disaster of Barrio Adentro and other missions recognized by the President and the vaunted free food centers reveal that the inability and corruption are the predominant signs of autocracy militarism suffered by Venezuela.

     WATER AND ELECTRICITY ARE RATIONED

 There is a crisis in the electricity sector and we face water shortages, Chavez said. He blamed previous governments for such situation and decided to ration consumption, both electricity and water. "We have to reduce consumption”, he said. As an example, he pointed to his own case: "I use only three minutes to shower”. He advised to have a bucket of water in the bathroom and use totumas (small containers of vegetable origin) to reduce consumption. He instructed to halt the decline in Guri, a huge reservoir that provides 70% of energy, "to avoid a collapse”. He complained about the lack of maintenance of transmission lines ranging from the hydroelectric system of Guyana to the rest of the country and the delay in thermal energy programs. He offered to face the crisis and a strategic plan. "We are working on the decrees”. He appointed a new minister who will be responsible for handling the situation. "This is a comrade in whom I have great confidence; he visited me when I was imprisoned in Yare”. It is the most serious crisis of electricity in the country's history, experts say, and it will not be resolved by decrees and makeshift plans, as the fundamental cause is the low investment and the politicization of the sector during the past 10 years. Hydraulic works and power plants built by previous governments have been neglected, they lack of maintenance, and specialized engineers were dismissed from the management that used to operate them, to place party members and military officers, whose virtue, as in the case of the new minister, is that they visited Chavez when he was arrested.

The crisis affects the whole country and the severe rationing of electricity and water agreed on simply recognizes it as a daily fact. In the media there is daily information on blackouts that last for hours and cities where water service stops working for several days. The fact that Chavez is tackling the crisis, providing explanations and making promises has to do with the data shown in surveys. Lack of safety, inflation and unemployment persist, but power failures and problems of water supply appear as new problems, now transformed into an unbearable way of life for all social classes. The political effects seem to bother Chavez, because every time he talks, he offers the strangest explanation, apparently diminished by the results. Numbers reveal not only the increase in the negative perception of the situation in the country, but distrust of all social strata in the Head of State. According to pollster Datanalisis, layers D and E, which he has owned for years, turn their back on him. 61% of class D and 53% of the class E have a negative perception. As for sympathy, the fall is brutal, as only 21% define themselves as a government and only 19% identify themselves as official party members. We face the most dangerous problem that has come up to Chavez, as it has effect in the military. The officialdom who keeps him in power is not a victim of unemployment or lack of safety. They use armored cars, have bodyguards and their houses are guarded by soldiers. They are neither victims of inflation as they are beneficial owners of the outrageous corruption of the regime and are in positions with budgets under no control. The crisis in water and electricity are problems that cause them and their families the same uneasiness that the entire society. The barracks and middle management changes that have occurred are attributed to that, and the resurgence in the military world of rumors of claims against the government's management.