Venezuela

NOVANEWS The Revolution is Here to Stay by EVA GOLINGER For those of you unfamiliar with Venezuelan issues, don’t let the title of this article fool you. The revolution referred to is not what most media outlets are showing taking place today in Caracas, with protestors calling for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The revolution that is here to stay is the Bolivarian Revolution, which began in 1998 when Hugo Chavez was first elected president and has subsequently transformed the mega oil producing nation into a socially-focused, progressive country with a grassroots government. Demonstrations taking place over the past few days in Venezuela are attempts to undermine and destroy that transformation in order to return power to the hands of the elite who ruled the nation ...

NOVANES The Coup Last Time   by ALEXANDER COCKBURN and JEFFREY ST. CLAIR This essay was written during the ill-fated 2004 campaign to recall Hugo Chavez. You can set your watch by it. The minute some halfway decent government in Latin America begins to reverse the order of things and give the have-nots a break from the grind of poverty and wretchedness, the usual suspects in El Norte rouse themselves from the slumber of indifference and start barking furiously about democratic norms. It happened in 1973 in Chile; we saw it again in Nicaragua in the 1980s; and here’s the same show on summer rerun in Venezuela, pending the August 15 recall referendum of President Hugo Chávez. Chávez is the best thing that has happened to Venezuela’s poor in a very long time. His government has actual...

NOVANEWS by ANDRE VLTCHEK They are already sewing your funeral gown, Venezuela. They are now ready to welcome you back to that world of the lobotomized, destroyed nations that are fully submissive to Western political and economic interests – Indonesia, Philippines, Paraguay, Uganda, Kenya, Qatar, Bahrain, and almost the entire Eastern Europe. There are so many places like that – it is impossible to list them all. They want you back in their deadly embrace; they want you to be corrupt and hopeless, as you were before the “Bolivarian Revolution”. They want you to be the top oil exporter, but with all those horrific slums hanging, like relentless nightmares, over your cities. They want your elites and your military top brass to speak English, to play golf, to drive luxury cars and to commi...

NOVANEWS Right-Wing Maria Corina Machado  By ZOË CLARA DUTKA Santa Elena de Uairén, 25th March 2014 (Venezuelanalysis.com) - On Monday Diosdado Cabello, president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, announced that right-wing opposition leader Maria Corina Machado would no longer serve as an assembly deputy. He cited articles 149 and 191 of the Venezuelan constitution, which indicate that public officials may not accept employment, special honors, or reimbursement from foreign governments without the authorization of parliament. On Friday, during a meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, Machado was offered Panama’s seat to testify on ongoing unrest in Venezuela. Cabello insists that by accepting the seat and making declarations as a representative of t...

NOVANEWS Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro By CORREO DEL ORINOCO  25th March 2014 - Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro announced today that three generals of the Venezuelan Air Force have been arrested, after they were denounced by lower-ranking officials for their involvement in alleged coup plans. “Last night we captured three Air Force generals that we had been investigating thanks to the powerful moral force of our National Bolivarian Armed Forces: three generals that aimed to rise the Air Force against the legitimately constituted government,” he said during a live broadcast on state TV. Maduro argued that those arrested “have direct links with the opposition, and said that this week was decisive”. According to the president, the alleged coup plot involves creating “psycholo...

NOVANEWS   By RYAN MALLETT-OUTTRIM - CDO Venezuelan ombudswoman Gabriela Ramírez has accused international organizations of misrepresenting human rights conditions in Venezuela. According to Ramirez, non-government organizations have been part of a campaign of “attacks” on Venezuela. “A few NGOs have forged reports against our institution with false information,” Ramirez tweeted on Monday. Since last month Venezuela has come under renewed criticism from international human rights monitors. On 21 February, the United States based Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Venezuelan security forces of using excessive force, while claiming it couldn't find evidence of “anti-government protesters carrying firearms or using lethal force against security forces or third parties”. Since Febr...

NOVANEWS   By RAÚL CAPOTE / CHAVEZ VIVE MAGAZINE In a recent interview in Havana, a former CIA collaborator, Cuban Raúl Capote, revealed the strategy of the CIA in Venezuelan universities to create the kind of destabilizing opposition student movement the country is currently facing. He also discusses media manipulation, and alleges that one of the U.S. diplomats that President Maduro expelled from Venezuela last September was in fact a CIA agent. The following translation and notes were made by Sabina C. Becker. Original interview in Spanish here. Raúl Capote is a Cuban. But not just any Cuban. In his youth, he was caught up by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). They offered him an infinite amount of money to conspire in Cuba. But then something unexpected for the US ...

NOVANEWS by Rebecca Hanson (Photo via Venezuela Blog)Images of burning tires, masked youth, and clashes between citizens and state security forces have accompanied almost all news coverage of Venezuela for the past few weeks. And these well-documented protests and the government response to them have, as blogger Francisco Toro wrote, changed the political game in Venezuela for the foreseeable future. To fully appreciate these changes, however, we need to also appreciate the geographical limits of the opposition protests. Taking into account where protests are not occurring, and why, is important in understanding what they represent for residents who do not live in the zones where protests have erupted. These protests have not engulfed the entire country or even the entire capital, des...

NOVANEWS Simplistic end-of-Chavismo narrative callously dismisses Venezuela’s progress by Lauren Carasik Anti-government students throw tear gas canisters back to riot police during a protest in Caracas, Feb. 22, 2014. (Photo: Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images)Venezuela is facing a protracted political crisis. Images depicting its streets tell the tale: Student unrest coalesced into massive demonstrations around the country, triggering a violent crackdown on opposition leaders and protesters. The ensuing violence and destructive confrontations over the last several weeks have left at least 13 people dead and scores wounded, with casualties on both sides. Tensions remain high. Headlines in the United States broadcast unchallenged narratives of widespread discontent with mounting economic wo...