VSC Magazine, Volume 5, Issue 1

■ Vol 5 ■ Issue 1 ■ Spring 2015

vivavenezuela!

!www.venezuelasolidarity.co.uk

e: [email protected]

■ Economic Changes Announced■ US destabilisation in Latin America: Chile 1973, Venezuela today

■ Rally for Venezuela

With thanks to

No to USSanctions onVenezuela!No More Pinochetsin Latin America!Also inside:

2 SPRING 2015 ■ VIVA VENEZUELA!

...EDITORIAL...EDITORIAL...EDITORIAL...EDITORIAL...EDITORIAL...EDITORIAL...

These measures (see page 4) included aUS$911 million Plan for Developmentand Infrastructure, a rise in theminimum wage to help counter the

effects of inflation, 400,000 new homes andreforms to the exchange rate system.

Days earlier, after opposition leader HenriqueCapriles called for a change in government, thePresident had warned that the right-wingopposition is trying to create conditions whichcould lead to a coup, similar to the 2002attempt to overthrow the late Hugo Chávez:“They are using the same script: economicwarfare, campaigns to promote social unrest,rumours of a coup d'etat. They have the sameobjective that they had throughout 2001, 2002and 2003.”

In recent months, a series of raids ondistributing companies revealed that they werehoarding products to generate shortages – anexample of those opposed to the democraticgovernment using their economic power to tryto weaken Maduro’s support and justify theousting of the government – as was done inChile in the run up to the 1973 coup. Thisechoes the strategy of President Nixon to"make the economy scream" to "preventAllende from coming to power or to unseathim."

Additionally, in the first half of 2014, 42Venezuelans died following the violent proteststhat followed the explicit call from elements of

the Right for the undemocratic andunconstitutional ousting (La Salida) of theelected government. The principal causes werelethal opposition violence and the use ofdeliberately dangerous street barricades.

President Maduro’s warning also comes againstthe background of new US sanctions againstVenezuela, which were signed by PresidentObama in December (see pages 6-7) .

As well as creating diplomatic barriers, thesesanctions could prompt violence, according toGovernment Minister Rafael Ramirez, who saysthe move sends a message to violent right-wing groups that they can continue with acts ofdestabilisation.

Washington’s antipathy toward Venezuela is notnew. It is well known that Washingtonsupported the coup in 2002 but US efforts didnot end there. Over 12 years US governmentagencies have provided well over $100 millionto opposition groups.

Perhaps that’s not surprising as Venezuela hasthe largest oil reserves in the world. But itshould not be tolerated.

All supporters of social progress and nationalsovereignty around the world should join LatinAmerica and many others across the world incondemning both external intervention andanti-democratic, right-wing destabilisationplans including the ‘economic war.’

Social Progress Vs.Right-Wing Reaction

Contributors to this issue were:■ Lee Brown■ Paul Dobson■ Francisco Dominguez■ Siân Errington ■ Sue Grey ■ Ewan Robertson■ Matt Willgress and■ Tim Young

This magazine is published by theVenezuela Solidarity Campaign

President Maduro usedhis annual address toannounce a number ofmeasures to fight backagainst right wing, anti-democratic destabilisationin Venezuela and stressthe extraordinarysimilarity between the‘economic war’ that hasbeen unleashed againstVenezuela and thedestabilisation plans thatled to the overthrow ofAllende in Chile in 1973.

Unite the Union GPM London Print BranchCelebrate Venezuela - Unity is Strength

John Ayling, Branch ChairTommy Murphy, Branch Secretary

President Maduro leads massive march against US sanctions

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro had a brief, spontaneousmeeting (which he described as “cordial”) with US Vice-PresidentJoe Biden, following the inauguration of Brazil’s President DilmaRousseff. Referring to the sanctions recently imposed by the US,

Maduro reiterated the need for the US to respect Venezuela.

“What do we ask of theUnited States? I told VicePresident Biden – andhave said it 1,000 timesin public and in private –we want respectfulrelations, nothing more,”Maduro explained.

3SPRING 2015 ■ VIVA VENEZUELA!

...VENEZUELA IN THE NEWS...VENEZUELA IN THE NEWS...VENEZUELA IN THE NEWS...

China Commits $20 Billion toVenezuela for Investment

China has agreed to invest $20 billion inVenezuela following the China-Community of Latin American andCaribbean States summit. Venezuelan

officials hope that increased Chineseinvestment will offset some of the shortfalls inthe economy due to decade-low oil prices.

Xi Jinping, the Chinese president pledgedUS$250 billion in new investment in LatinAmerica over the next decade.

The first billion dollar tranche of this Chineseinvestment is to build new schools inVenezuela, following the recent national

As President Maduro Embarks on World Tour To Counter Oil Price Slump

consultation on education, in which more than7 million people participated.

After his trip to China, the VenezuelanPresident continued on an "international tour"to round up more economic support in the faceof the oil price slump, visiting Algeria, Iran,Qatar, Portugal, Russia and Saudi Arabia, toadvance international economic co-operation,saying in Algeria that talks had a "focus onOPEC and the importance of guaranteeing thestability of oil prices”. He also highlightedfracking as a cause for the market woes,adding, “we should eliminate fracking becauseit is destructive.”

Massive Stockpile of HoardedGoods Uncovered in VenezuelaA company with links to the right-wing Venezuelan party Popular Will was recently discovered tohave a massive stockpile of essential goods, such as nappies, toilet paper, and cleaning supplies,Vice-President Jorge Arreaza (pictured with the goods) announced. Venezuela’s Government andsocial movements accuse groups, including some businesses, of hoarding goods in order todestabilise the government as part of an ‘economic war.’

President Maduro in Portugal

President Maduro Tells US V.PBiden to Respect Venezuela

Venezuelan Vice President Jorge Arreaza speaks to the press

regarding the discovery.

The warehouse full of essential items was discovered in the

western state of Zulia

January marked Venezuela becoming anon-permanent member of the UNSecurity Council, a first for the country.President Nicolas Maduro, said

Venezuela “will take part with the utmostresponsibility to defend world peace.”

Venezuela was elected to the position of non-permanent member in October, with 181countries out of 193 voting in favour.

“Venezuela will be representing the voice ofpeace, the voice of the pluri-polar world,representing Latin America’s voice as a unitedbloc [in] defence of a peaceful world, withoutweapons of mass destruction, free fromcolonialism, [and] that promotes human rights,”said President Maduro, adding that “thiselection is a reason for pride in allVenezuelans.”

VenezuelaElected to UN SecurityCouncil “toDefend WorldPeace”


...VENEZUELA’S ECONOMY...VENEZUELA’S ECONOMY...

Key Announcements Made on Venezuela’s Economy

President Nicolas Maduro used his January Annual Address to make a series

of announcements explaining that Venezuela will undergo a change in

economic policies to combat the “economic war” being waged against it

and address the sharp drop in the price of oil. Summing up the policies, he

argued they will maintain and improve public services despite the

economic difficulties currently being faced. Since oil exports make up 95%

of Venezuela´s GDP, falling oil prices have a strong impact on the economy.

system, maintaining the official exchange rateat 6.3 Bolivares to the dollar and subjectingother non-state transactions to a floatingmarket rate, with two other exchange rates forprivate investment through auctions andthrough public and private stock exchanges.

Also announced were a US$911 million Plan forDevelopment and Infrastructure; a 15%increase for the minimum wage to help counterthe effects of inflation; better educationprovisions, including funding for moreuniversity scholarships; granting pensions to300,000 more people; and the building of400,000 homes in 2015.

is preventing OPEC agreeing any reduction inproduction, arguing that “their goal is to destroyOPEC, destroy oil prices... which will have othercollateral effects that will be disastrous for theSouth [and] for the world.”

In response to these developments, theGovernment has outlined a two-year planaimed at “changing the economic model.” Itseconomic reforms emphasise increases inproduction, public investment, socialprogrammes, fairer prices and greater planningto protect people’s standards of living. Specificmeasures aim to further tackle hoarding andcontraband. Among the reforms announced inthe Annual Address are changes to the currency

Venezuelan TV gave live coverage of the President's Annual

Address

In Solidarity with

Venezuela – continuing to

show there is an alternative!

Jim Kelly Peter Kavanagh

Chair Regional Secretary

Unite the Union London & Eastern Region33-7 Moreland Street,London EC1V 8BB

Referring to 2014, he said that theviolent ‘La Salida’ campaign, whichcost the economy billions of dollars indamages, “was the most violent

attempt to overthrow the government since thecoup attempt of 2002.” The second half of theyear had brought an “escalation of theeconomic war” through the sabotage of theeconomy by sections of big business alignedwith the right-wing opposition seeking to usetheir economic power – as in Allende’s Chile –to undermine the elected Government.

The concurrent dramatic drop in oil prices isalso seen as part of a wider attack from the USand their allies. The President suggested that it

Greetings andsolidarity

from Britain's largestteachers’ union –

the National Union ofTeachers


...US DESTABILISATION...US DESTABILISATION...US DESTABILISATION ...

US destabilisation in Latin America:

Chile 1973, Venezuela today

Dr. Francisco Dominguez is the authorof a book examining right wingstrategies against Latin Americangovernments, and is himself a

political refugee from the Pinochetdictatorship in Chile that came to power via acoup in 1973. He was interviewed by Telesurabout comparisons between Chile then andVenezuela today.

Question: Many have drawn parallels with thesituation in Venezuela today and the build-up tothe coup in Chile in 1973. Do you see parallels?

Francisco: The first is that the main source ofthe destabilisation is the United States. Thescript is very similar. The idea is to “make theeconomy scream”, to use Nixon’s infamousphrase.

They also finance the internal opposition.Through their control of their distributionsystem, commerce, trade and so on, they canengage in hoarding so as to make thepopulation suffer. The idea is to make thesituation so difficult that people end upregretting having elected a Left government.

Q: Can you give some detail of how the economicwar in Chile was organised in the build-up to thecoup?

FD: They went first of all for stopping the publictransport system, which was run by privatecompanies, particularly the goods distributionsystem.

Secondly, they hoarded vital daily consumptionitems such as flour, vegetable oil, coffee andmilk. They hoarded anything that they couldmake the population suffer with. Basically theidea was to provoke, deliberately, queuesoutside shops, and then, once these queueswere created, they would use the discontent ofthe population to cause disturbances.

Q: How is economic warfare being organised inVenezuela today?

FD: What they have done is to use their controlover private sector distribution to enablehoarding of targeted items. These are items ofmass consumption in order to make sure partsof the population suffer the consequences, inorder to sow discontent.

The second aspect of it is to engage in massivecontraband to bordering states, speculating onthe different exchange rate. According to one ofthe ministers, about 30% of the agriculturalproduce that is in Venezuela actually ends up inColombia. Millions of litres of gasoline havebeen contrabanded too.

The third one is currency speculation.Venezuela has different exchange rates for thedollar. People obtain dollars at the official, verylow rate by claiming they are going to use themfor valid business purposes, but instead theyend up selling them on the black market for amassive profit. And now, the US, in cahootswith Saudi Arabia, has been producing a glut ofoil in the world market, in order to bring downthe price, thereby making things much morecomplicated. So there you have a very clear,well-orchestrated and well-organised economicwar which is producing severe complications inthe Venezuelan economy and for the rest of Latin America.


...OPPOSING U.S SANCTIONS...OPPOSING U.S SANCTIONS...

Venezuelan President NicolasMaduro has been joined bynumerous regional leaders

and bodies in leading theGlobal South’s angry rejection

of new sanctions against hisnation signed into law by US

President Barack Obama inDecember.

and on the other hand he has started a stage ofincreased aggressions against (Venezuela). Theseare the contradictions of an empire that tries toimpose its domination in whatever way it sees fit,underestimating the strength and awareness ofour homeland,” he added.

In the New York Times, Venezuela’s NationalAssembly president Diosdado Cabello arguedthat: “In Cuba, a decades-long trade embargocaused great hardship but failed to realise theUS objective of ending the Cuban revolution.

“The UN’s many votes to lift the embargoexposed how isolated Washington had been inits policy. It would be regrettable if sanctionsagainst Venezuela, first opposed by the WhiteHouse, now became a way for the Obamaadministration to appease those in Congresswho oppose the historic restoration of relationsbetween the United States and Cuba.”

Latin America Stands inSolidarity with VenezuelaSince Hugo Chávez’s election in 1998, the USgovernment has routinely sought to undermine

The Venezuela Defence of Human Rightsand Civil Society Act, earlier agreed bythe US Congress and Senate at thebehest of Republican right-wingers

amongst others, authorises sanctions againstVenezuelan officials and calls for a USgovernment strategy to increase funding forand availability of anti-government media inVenezuela, including utilising the Voice ofAmerica for this end. This opens the way foreven more U.S support for the right-wingopposition.

Responding to the sanctions, Nicolas Madurosaid: “President Obama has taken a false stepagainst our country by signing the sanctions,

despite the nationaland continentalrejection of them.

“On the one hand, he recognises thefailure of theaggression againstand blockade of Cuba… which with dignity,has resisted and won,

Presidents Morales of Bolivia and Correa of Ecuador have been at the forefront of

opposing US sanctions

Venezuela & Latin America Lead the

Unite South West

Stands in Solidarity withthe people of Venezuela

www.unitetheunion.org

Peter HughesSW Regional Secretary

Jayne TaylorSW EC Member

Kevin TerrySW Regional Chair

Mark ThomasSW EC Member


...OPPOSING U.S SANCTIONS...OPPOSING U.S SANCTIONS...

Venezuela, but has found itself increasinglyisolated in Latin America. Today therefore,Venezuela does not face this latest act ofhostility alone.

The member states of the Union of SouthAmerican Nations (Unasur) responded that “theapplication of the unilateral sanctions ...infringes the principle of non-intervention in theinternal affairs of other states and does notcontribute to stability, social peace anddemocracy in Venezuela.”

Additionally, the countries of the ALBA(Bolivarian Alternatives for the Americas)regional bloc expressed “their absolute supportto and solidarity with the people andgovernment of Venezuela,” arguing that the Act“is a smokescreen that paves the way todestabilisation ... opening the gates to anunconstitutional move against the legal andlegitimately elected government,” adding thatthey “will not allow the use of old practicesalready implemented in countries of the region,aimed at promoting a change of political regimejust as was the case in north Africa and in

Global South in Opposing U.S Sanctions

Dick Banks Karen Reay

Regional Chair Regional Secretary

Unite the Union North East Yorkshire & Humberside Region

North East Yorkshire & Humberside Region

send a message of solidarity

in support of our colleagues

in Venezuela

countries of the Middle East.” Highlighting UShypocrisy, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortegaannounced that in response to their role inpioneering the sanctions, US Senator MarcoRubio and Representative Ileana Ros–Lehtinenhad been banned from Nicaraguan territory.

Globally, the G77+China group expressed theirrejection, with President Evo Morales of Boliviastating that “The Group of 77+China reiteratesthe urgent need to repeal the legislativemeasure taken against Venezuela which

undermines the UN Charter and internationallaw, especially the principles of non-intervention in internal affairs and equal rightsand self-determination of peoples.”

● In Britain, over 80 prominent politicians havesigned a statement opposing the sanctions.We need to do all we can to amplify suchvoices in the months ahead – you can ask your MP to add their name atwww.venezuelasolidarity.co.uk

President Maduroleads massive rallyagainst sanctions

vivavenezuela!

!

Thursday, June 4, 2015, 6:30pm,Hamilton House (NUT Headquarters),London, WC1H With: ● Tariq Ali ● Jeremy Corbyn MP ● H.E Alicia Castro (Argentinian Ambassador) ● Professor Doreen Massey ● Neil Findlay MSP● Bethan Jenkins AM (Plaid Cymru) ● Andy De La Tour (former election observer in Venezuela)● Sandra White MSP (SNP) ● Derek Wall (Green Party) & more...Please register in advance at www.venezuelasolidarity.co.uk

Rally forVenezuela!Celebrating10 Years of VSC

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Join the VSC

UNITE STANDSIN SOLIDARTY

Len McCluskey, General SecretaryTony Woodhouse, Chair of GEC

with the social progress anddemocratic advances of theVenzuelan people

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VSC Magazine, Volume 5, Issue 1

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Transcript of VSC Magazine, Volume 5, Issue 1