July 16th., 2008

The Chávez-Uribe Encounter

“I was struck cold when I heard the news”, stated Chávez to the Information Ministers of the Non Aligned countries who met at Margarita Island “to build a new communication order that confronts the media hegemony of Imperialism”.  He said that while he was visiting a Socialist city that he decided to found between Caracas and the sea, a Colombian worker told him that 15 people kidnapped by the Farc, amongst them Ingrid Betancourt, had been rescued by a military command.  He informed that he had called Uribe to congratulate him, he announced that they had agreed to “a meeting in Caracas”, and he assured that he would greet him “ as a brother”.  The business cupola and opposition parties scheduled interviews with the visitor at the Colombian Embassy.  The Foreign Affair Office, in agreement with Bogotá, moved the seat of the meeting to the Pdvsa  premises in the Paraguaná Peninsula, some 500 kilometers to the west of the capital.  The journalists that covered the event coincided in sensing distance, forced smiles and a cold hand shake when both mandataries met face to face.  There were insistent calls from the photographers to “give each other a hug”.  There was a lunch, a meeting of two long hours, without presence of any third parties, as demanded by Uribe, and a joint press conference.  Uribe, with a subtle expression of content, in brief terms and with a certain humor, answered the questions of journalists, and Chávez, with a stern face and circumlocutory help, he finally offered the headlines for the news:  we passed the page of being distant from each other and we decided to re launch our human and political relations.  The Colombian Foreign Affairs Office, in a press note, had pointed out ten issues for the meeting.  The Presidents made reference to several, specially bilateral commerce and border security, but they said goodbye “without much emotion”, as noted by the journalists, without signing any agreements nor any joint declarations.  The Chancellors will meet within two months to discuss pending matters.  

Analysts make all kinds of speculations regarding what could have been discussed, in absolute privacy.  Chávez and Uribe.  Both agreed that Chávez did claim his suspension as mediator without any previous indication, and Uribe, the personal insults he was object of.  It is logical to suppose that in the two long hours of dialogue, arguments and commitments to normalize bilateral relations came up, without underestimating the content of the Raúl Reyes computers and the documents regarding the activity of the guerrilla men, including important members of the Farc´s  Secretariat, more on this side of the border.  The writer for a Caracas paper stated that there was a game of mutual conveniences back in Paraguaná, a good dose of hypocrisy and reciprocal blackmail.  “ I have the evidence of your support to the Farc”,  “I have the keys to bilateral commerce”.  The essential to Uribe was revealed by his Defense Minister:  “words must be translated into facts, and they must not tolerate the presence of the Farc in their territory”.  Chávez´ reaction should be construed as a reminder of commitments:  “ We are going to turn the page, but you must put Minister Santos in his place”.  The essential to Chávez was evidenced by his own self.  He would travel to Quito to convince Correa to make peace with Bogotá.  With a call to prudence to the Ministers, Uribe confirmed his blessing so that he may keep on playing the role of the great fixer of the region.

  CHÁVEZ PRODIGALITY

Chávez does not need consent from his neighbors to continue his international project.  The message to Uribe was sent having 18 rulers of the region as his audience, present in the Petrocaribe Summit.  He obtained intense applauses before the announcement of improving the payment and financing conditions of the importations of Venezuelan hydrocarbons, in order to compensate the impact of the increase in the prices of oil.  He asked Leonel Fernández to become an associate in the Dominican refinery and he offered him a space in the Orinoco Strip.  He was also very applauded when he announced a financial fund by Venezuela for a food program in the Petrocaribe countries.  The announcements that go beyond the region, those he made before the Non Aligned, when he offered them Telesur (exclusively transmitted the rescue of Clara Rojas and Consuelo González), Radio Nacional de Venezuela and offered to finance Radio del Sur, with a global reach, so that the Non Aligned receive “true and reliable information” coming from Caracas.  Accompanied by Daniel Ortega, he was the main character,  in Ecuador, of a symbolic event of the creation of the Petro Chemical and Refining Pacific Complex, in Manta, which investment, as per Correa, may reach US$ 10,000 Million and which will be operated jointly by Petroecuador and Pdvsa, who is the owner of 49% of the shares.  Pursuant to the Ecuadorian press, Chávez met with Ortega and Correa to analyze the “Colombia´s thorny issue”.

Bolivia is object of special attention given the internal problems faced by the government.  Its Minister of Hydrocarbons encouraged the Summit to approve an investment of US$ 883 Million in its Petroandina project, comprised by YPFB and Pdvsa.  Evo Morales, in a speech before miners, explained that the resources donated by Venezuela are received directly by the Embassy at La Paz.  “I told President Chávez that rather than sending the money to the Nation´s  General Treasury, to send it to the Embassy and this way we avoid paper work and loosing time”.  According to the Bolivian press, with these resources Morales is carrying on the program “Bolivia changes, Evo complies”, an assistance program for diverse sectors, specially for farmers and the military, a program that he wishes be successful to confront the August 10 recall.  Chávez munificence also has US poor people as receptors.  A communication from the Embassy at Washington informed that additional to free heating for poor families in various cities, PDVSA´s  affiliate has launched a program donating light bulbs that consume less energy to low income families. 

According to independent analysts, Chávez prodigality is backfiring on him.  The content of the Raúl Reyes computers has made an effect, even if Uribe is keeping such information as a pressure reserve.  The regional leadership does not go beyond Alba, even if no country can reject promises of energetic cooperation, many far from the productive and financial capacity of Pdvsa, which is increasingly indebted and is turning to future sales to resolve cash flow problems.  Domestically, opinion studies are not auspicious for him.  One of his critics, the writer Antonio Sánchez García, insists that he must explain the work undergone with the US$ 750,000 Million that has been available to him during these 9 years.  The argument has had an effect and the opposition make a game of the figures in order to make an inventory of all that he could have accomplished with such fabulous resources.  For a writer of El Universal, Chávez is going to the regional elections with candidates whom the population perceive as the ones responsible of the problems that he faces.  “It is of no use to hide the figures regarding lack of security, inflation or unemployment.  The government policies have ruined the poorest sectors”.

THE CHURCH SPEAKS AND THE REGIME ANSWERS

“Christ was a socialist and his teachings inspire our revolution, backed by the majority of the people.  As head of State, I have the authority to reject the interference of the leaders that pretend to speak on behalf of the Christian people”.  These are Chávez arguments every time that the Catholic Church expresses its concerns and proposals regarding the national reality.  The Venezuelan Episcopal Conference, (CEV), in its Ordinary Assembly, produced a document that, notwithstanding its sobriety and prudence, it triggered the wrath of the government.  The Bishops state that they are obliged to manifest that the insecurity “has become the major concern for Venezuelans, and upon the unleashed and uncontrolled violence, there appear to be no solutions, either short or long term, given the lack of public policies that guarantee social peace and the right to life, and to top it all, kidnapping has summed up in an alarming way”, a crime to which they call for a frontal struggle.   The Church offered itself as a space to convoke all political, social, education and religious forces to analyze the issue of insecurity and jointly search for effective solutions.  The Minister of Interior Affairs alleges that the figures published regarding insecurity and kidnapping respond to conspiracy plans and their purpose is to destabilize the revolutionary government.

The CEV pointed out as a threat to private education, preventing that due to the elevated inflation figures, the salary of the teachers be rightfully adjusted.  They warned that Catholic education institutions are in danger of disappearing, upon denying the parents to approve indispensable increases in the schools tuitions.  Upon the purpose of imposing a curricula ideologically marked, it called for an open and inclusive consultation, that respects the rights of parents to chose the type of integral education they desire for their kids, a right expressly consecrated in the Constitution.  As in past occasions, they called for the civic exercise of the vote, and it made a call to the candidates´ or political actors´ responsibility, arguing that “in this electoral process, essential values of democracy are at stake rather than merely political positions”.  For the CEV, the political panorama is characterized by an unhealthy twitching , and in such scenery, the imposition of the slogan “country, Socialism or death”, ethically reprovable an unconstitutional, is an element that lightens polarization.  The whole document is a vehement call for respect to human rights, amongst which it points out the right of the citizens to chose and be chosen, and as an element of essential reference, the right to life, jeopardized by insecurity and violence.  The voice of those Catholics was also heard in the speech of incorporation to the Academy of Political and Social Sciences, of Luis Ugalde, the Rector of the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello:  “If Democracy is not able to establish social justice, preserve liberty, plurality of opinions and the autonomy of institutions, it is no longer Democracy”.

Apart from the traditional insults against the Institution and its representative figures, the answer from the regime was to ratify the disqualification of the candidates, who, as per the surveys, appear with the most possibilities of being elected as Governors or Mayors.  Cardinal Urosa guided a liturgy at the Universidad Central as an homage to student Douglas Rojas, murdered by police officers repressing a demonstration against such disqualifications.  The Student leaders manifested that the murder of Rojas and the persecution they are object of oblige them to a major commitment  in the civic struggle for human rights and respect to the Constitution.