CANTV Nationalized - The Fall of Democracy

As you might have heard, Hugo Chavez has nationalized strategic companies including foreign-operated oil fields, the EDC (electricity) and even TV channels (CMT and now RCTV).

A couple months ago, with the announcement of the nationalization of EDC, Hugo Chavez announced that he was also going to nationalize CANTV (telecommunications), in order to achieve what he calls "Socialism of the century XXI".

La Compania Nacional Telefonica de Venezuela, or CANTV, was created in 1930 by the Venezuelan goverment. In 1990, after 60 years of existence, it had become the most notoriously inefficient state-owned enterprise and had an outstanding debt of 600 million dollars.

In 1991, the goverment created and carried out a plan to privatize CANTV; by the year 2002 CANTV was already a profitable company and considered one of the most advanced and important companies in Latin America.

The truth is... Venezuela is a one man show. Hugo Chavez was granted special powers by the National Assembly to create and modify laws in order to achieve the goals of the revolution. (I would like to mention that the opposition refused to participate in the elections for the spots on the National Assembly. Only 20% of registered voters participated and elected a National Assembly where every single member is Pro-Chavez). With this new found power (since January 2007) he has basically acted like a modern era Caesar, dictating new laws and speaking about what he wants for the country on his weekly Sunday TV and Radio show "Alo Presidente".

For the last 8 years, Hugo Chavez forged alliances with leftist movements inside and outside of the American continent. Granting large sums of money, financing and oil as "foreign help" and "social plans", he bought the allegiance of presidents Nestor Kichner (Argentina), Evo Morales (Bolivia), Rafael Correa (Ecuador) and Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua). Chavez has also strengthened bi-lateral relations with Brazil and Chile by offering oil at discounted prices and calls Fidel Castro (Cuba's 40 year dictator) his "adoptive father".

This alliances have fulfilled his needs for support when the situations required them, such as during the "coup" of 2002, the Referendum in 2004, the Elections in 2006 and more recently with the closing of RCTV. When dissident voices have been heard, the block of Chavez "Petroallies" (as I like to call them) have answered the call by declaring every single electoral process "clean and flawless" and the illegal close of RCTV as "democratic".

Perhaps, Chavez' best move was to support Jose Miguel Insulza for the position of secretary of the OAS (Organization of American States) and as a future presidential candidate for Chile. This man, has betrayed the democratic charter and turned his face away every time an issue involving Venezuela has been brought up to the international organization; an organization which was supposedly created to protect "Fairness & Democracy in the Americas".

While the rest of the world opens its borders to capitalism and free market economies, Chavez is closing the borders of Venezuela and making the Venezuelan economy more dependent upon goverment entities. This same goverment entities are an array of tools that can also be used to control the life of Venezuelans and destroy anyone who dares to oppose him. If you work for any goverment related companies you will dress in red, think in red and vote for red.

Just a few days after Chavez's allies and the OAS declared the 2006 presidential elections in Venezuela as "One of the most democratic in the continent", Hugo Chavez announced that the ex-president of the National Electoral Committee or CNE (the one who the opposition accouses of orchestrating the fraud of the 2004 Referendum) was now the new Vice-President of the republic. The opposition candidates (which are now believed to have been paid off by the goverment) did not make any announcement related to the subject... the dissident voices... once again were ignored.

Now, while the country is sunk into a crisis over the illegal closure of RCTV, the goverment works day and night to guarantee that everything works as it should. Since the goverment assumed control of CANTV they have announced a reduction on prices of 20%. What the goverment did not announce was that key personnel from the CNE (National Electoral Committee) was now key personnel at CANTV. Most Venezuelans have yet to realize what the nationalization of CANTV means...

I ask.. how are we supposed to have and believe in democratic elections once again?
How are we supposed to trust our institutions when the president of the National Electoral Committee is now the Vice President of the republic.

Will Chavez really destroy Venezuela?
Will we follow the same fate as Cuba?
One look at the supermarket will provide part of the answer: There is no meat, there are no eggs, there is no butter and milk is scarce. In many places you are only allowed to buy a certain amount because the supply is just not enough.... this had never happened before.

God help us.... because our brothers and sisters from the rest of the world are too busy looking in the opposite way.

Wednesday the 6th - A March for Freedom

Professors, workers and the students of the UCV (Universidad Central de Venezuela) had called upon a march on Tuesday, the students from all the other houses of study answered. However the goverment refused to allow them to march that day, so the date was switched to Wednesday. Once again the goverment tried to not allow the march to happen, however this time the students decided that theyre were going to march.

at 7:00 am the concentration of people started inside the UCV, a couple loud explosions went off somewhere in the school but nothing happened. The leaders of the student movement blamed the government and its followers as it was obvious that they wanted to scare the students from marching.



The goverment has lost the youth....
*Pink Floyd - Another Brick on the wal















Students from universities from cities relatively close to Caracas tried to join the march; to their surprise they found contingents of Police and the National Guard holding traffic in all highways leading to Caracas. The buses of the students were stopped for 2-3 hours and either turned back or arrived to Caracas too late.

Some of the students reacted by sitting in the highways and singing and yelling demanding their rights. However, It was pretty much impossible to get to Caracas.




This guy was seen at the top of buildings. A member of the Army. What was he doing there? Why so heavily armed?
Are you scared Hugo? I bet you are.



Hugo.
The youth isn't with the Revolution.

"When one voice is silenced, we all become mute. When one thought is eliminated, we all lose some awareness. And when a space for the expression of ideas becomes closed, we all become trapped in the dungeons of dictatorship. The authoritarian populism of Venezuela strives to convert all of the people of Latin America into silent citizens, and we cannot permit this.

Latin America’s common enemies are poverty, inequality and exclusion — not dissident thought. Hunger is not fought by silencing critics. Unemployment does not disappear by exiling those who think differently. We cannot have bread without liberty. We cannot have nations without democracy."

/Alejandro Toledo, ex-president of Peru -Pulled from the New York Times.
ps: thank you John Galt.

Hurray For Condi!!..but.. What the heck is the OAS for?

The history of the OAS (Organization of American States) goes back to 1959.
In the words of Article 1 of the Charter, the goal of the member nations in creating the OAS was "to achieve an order of peace and justice, to promote their solidarity, to strengthen their collaboration, and to defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and their independence."

Article 2 then defines eight essential purposes:

• To strengthen the peace and security of the continent. (Has anything improved?)
• To promote and consolidate representative democracy, with due respect for the principle of nonintervention. (haha.. yeah right.)
• To prevent possible causes of difficulties and to ensure the pacific settlement of disputes that may arise among the member states.
• To provide for common action on the part of those states in the event of aggression.
• To seek the solution of political, judicial, and economic problems that may arise among them (or to look the other way)
• To promote, by cooperative action, their economic, social, and cultural development. (just like in Cuba and Venezuela)
• To eradicate extreme poverty, which constitutes an obstacle to the full democratic development of the peoples of the hemisphere.
• To achieve an effective limitation of conventional weapons that will make it possible to devote the largest amount of resources to the economic and social development of the member states. (What about the army Venezuela has built?, The Choppers? The 30 Russian combat planes?, the submarines?, the missile systems?)

In the year 2001 The Inter-American Democratic Charter was adopted by a special session of the OAS, held in Lima, Peru. It is an inter-American instrument with the central aim of strengthening and upholding democratic institutions in the nations of the Americas . The Charter, which is binding on all 34 of the currently active OAS member states, spells out what democracy entails and specifies how it should be defended when it is under threat.

So all this talk of history and goals is to ask the following question:

------ WHAT IS THE FUCKING POINT?!? ----------

All the OAS has proven is that just like everything else in Latin America it is an organization full of corruption, where regional power plays are made for the benefit of any particular country.

Condolezza Rice got into a heated debate with Venezuela's Canciller Mr. Maduro where she asked the OAS to consider sending an envoy to Venezuela to see what the hell is happening in my country. However, while delegates from every member of the organization expressed concern over Freedom of Speech in Venezuela, they decided against sending an envoy to Venezuela because it violates the sovereignity of the country.

(Maduro answered by critizicing the USA detainees in Guantamo Bay and the CIA and some other crap. You know what? I say heck yeah, investigate it all.. but do something. Maduro's answer was to basically change the subject... because he had no answer. )

So basically, the only way the OAS will even INVESTIGATE (nobody is asking it to take action) is by having more Venezuelans die, and more money go to waste. 110.000 (last numbers released by the official goverment media) Venezuelans have died during the last 9 years thanks to the violence. How many more need to die?.

We LOVE to critizice the USA, but they have been the only country who's delegate has clearly expressed concern about the situation in Venezuela, and the only one that has asked the organization to take action. However, Hugo's lapdogs from Argentina, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Chile beleive that the OAS investigation would violate the sovereignity of the country. Surprisingly Chavez is financing these same countries while Venezuelans starve to dead.

Jose Miguel Inzulsa: you are the worst mankind has to offer. Beign the secretary of the OAS means you have a MORAL and a SOCIAL responsability to the people of the Americas. Its not only to talk about "nice things" where every member will agree and ignore everything that could create any situation of conflict. Beign the secretary of the OAS is not only staying in 5 Star Hotels, wearing $3,000 suits and eating at the nicest restaurants. The position comes with a responsability, live up to it.

Just to give an example of how Insulza has worked: A month ago Insulza critiziced Chavez for the possible close of RCTV. Chavez answered by insulting him, making fun of him and threatening him with Venezuela leaving the OAS if the the OAS made a pronouncement against Venezuela and the closure of RCTV.

What did Insulza do? He looked the other way and basically justified it by saying it was a "Sovereign" decition of the Venezuelan authorities to either close RCTV or Not to.

Next Stop: Freedom - Caracas subway stations.

A group of students protested all over the subway stations of the city of Caracas. They walked in complete silence wearing signs with messages such as " We apologize for the inconveniences. We are currently working for your freedom", "Peace", "Justice", "Freedom of Speech"....

Hackers send a message of love...

A group of hackers has taken the protest for the ilegal closure of RCTV online.
Aleck Borak, Jaiber and some others have hacked into several government websites as a way to protest for Freedom of Expression.

This is another show of how much the population of the country resents the presidential mandate to close the oldest TV station in the country, but it also shows how weak and cheap the government is when it comes to spending and protecting.

For more information visit:
http://www.apoyando-rctv.net/ (website put up by the hackers).

Some of the websites hacked:

http://www.sadpro.ucv.ve/
http://www.ipostel.gov.ve (Goverment's Postal Service)
http://www.Mercal.gov.ve (Mercal) - Goverment supermarkets
http://www.Legared.com
http://www.acceso.net.ve (CANTV - Goverment Communications company)
http://www.defensoria.org (Peoples Attorney - Defensory of the people)
http://www.Conatel.gov.ve (Telecomunications)
http://www.MF.gov.ve (Minister of Finance) <-- Now fixed by the goverment
http://www.mes.gov.ve (Minister of Education) <-- Now fixed by the goverment

Monday, June 4th - Students Make their way to the TSJ

Students from 9 different universities marched together to the "Tribunal Supremo de Justicia, or TSJ", the supposedly house of the law in Venezuela. They marched to introduce a legal document against the discrimination, violent attacks, and lack of freedom of expression they are currently suffering.

The students had requested and had been granted all the permits from the local authorities. However, at the last minute the mayor decided that they should change their route (so they wouldn't go trough the middle of the city, so they would not be noticed). The students replied by marching trough their original route.

The students introduced their document in the TSJ, which was highly protected by hundreds of policemen and members from the National Guard.

Armed with guns and anti-riot equipment the authorities had no answer to the weapons the students brought:





I do not know what is going to happen. But I hope this blog opens some eyes...

Venezuela with all of its problems is NOT HUGO CHAVEZ.
We want peace, we want democracy and we want to be better every day. Do not let a rich madman take advantage of our oil money and silence us... just like he has silenced the voices that have raised against him, including those in the OAS (Organization of American states).

PLEASE!!
Pass a link to this blog among your friends, show the world what goes on in this beautiful country. We will thank you forever.
These are images the world needs to see.

http://www.acryforhelp.cjb.net
tank-7@hotmail.com

Sunday June 3rd - Creative Protesting

Students from different universities in Caracas met in the "Cota Mil" (highway) and spelled the word "Libertad" (Freedom) with their bodies.