Pepe Escobar: "Why Hugo rules''

From Aljazeera

''The facts are stark. Venezuela holds what is now recognised as the largest oil reserves on the planet - even larger than Saudi Arabia's. But until recently this was an energy Holy Grail run by the usual tiny, arrogant, rapacious elite, and where the masses had no possibility of decent education, decent housing or a decent salary.

The record of Chavismo is a story of how to progressively horizontalise a vertical society. Chavismo channels no less than 43 per cent of the state budget to an array of social policies.

Unemployment went down from over 20 per cent to less than 7 per cent. No less than 22 public universities were built in the past 10 years. The number of teachers went from 65,000 to 350,000. Illiteracy has been eradicated. There is an ongoing agrarian reform - still a dream in most South American latitudes.''

''The ruling class obviously was not amused''

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Pepe Escobar on Venezuela

From RT.com

Venezuela: ''A Pre-election Report''

From Upside Down World
By Larry Fisk

''On Sunday Venezuelans will choose a president. Having experience in Nicaragua during elections, including last year’s presidential and legislative elections, I arrived in Venezuela a week ago to be present during the process leading up to the Oct.7 presidential election and its aftermath. During the past week I have spent time in Caracas and the states of Carabobo and Aragua learning about the electoral system, meeting people, getting input on the voting process, political sympathies, level of respect for the electoral authority and expectations for the immediate post-election period. A vibrant electoral process is taking place and the public is well aware of the two major candidates and their electoral propaganda. Electoral information and materials, sample ballots, media coverage, billboards, posters, graffiti, T-shirts, caps, caravans of vehicles supporting one candidate or the other are omnipresent.''

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''Nervous Venezuelans stock up on supplies before election''

From Reuters

''Venezuelans packed supermarkets on Friday to stock up on food and other essentials in case of trouble around Sunday's presidential vote, which was shaping up as the biggest electoral challenge of Hugo Chavez's 14-year rule.

Energetic young state governor Henrique Capriles has gained momentum in the closing days of the campaign and he seemed to have the opposition's best chance of unseating Chavez since the socialist president came to power in 1999.''

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''Venezuela’s electoral campaign closes with massive rallies''

From Strategic Culture

''James Petras, professor emeritus of Sociology at Brighampton University told RT that given Chavez’s anti-US policies Washington would prefer Capriles as the “more malleable client.”

“Along the line, both domestically and foreign policy-wise, President Chavez has been defining an alternative route for Latin America and has played a major role in lessening the US influence in the region,” said Petras. He added that this effectively meant the “exclusion of the United States.”

Citing Chavez’s promotion of the “redistribution of politics and the nationalizing of several important oil, petroleum and gas companies,” Petras said that the US and EU would like to “get rid of Chavez” because on many issues he is “on the other side of the political map.''

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''Eight New Accords Tighten Venezuelan, Russian Relationship''

From Venezuelan Analysis

''A total eight accords signed Thursday further strengthened the relationship between Venezuela and Russia in energy cooperation.

At Miraflores presidential palace, in Caracas, the Russian delegation met with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, together with a committee coordinated by Petroleum and Mining Minister Rafael Ramirez, also president of state oil company PDVSA.''

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''Chavez gets Russian oil investment—and a puppy''

From MercuryNews.com

''Russia agreed to deepen its investments in Venezuela to tap new oilfields, while President Hugo Chavez thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for a personal gift—a puppy.
Venezuelan and Russian officials signed eight agreements to boost cooperation in energy projects Thursday. Igor Sechin, the CEO of Russia's state-controlled Rosneft oil company, was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying he also gave Chavez a 3-month-old black terrier puppy as a present from Putin.''

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''Venezuelan electoral process, “one of the most advanced and reliable”

From Merco Press

''I know the electoral systems of South America and I can say with full authority that Venezuela has one of the most advanced and reliable electoral systems from the region and the continent”, said Carlos ‘Chacho’ Alvarez head of the Unasur mission on arrival to Caracas to begin the agenda of activities in anticipation of the October 7 event.''

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''Former US Ambassador Outlines Post-Election Interventions against Venezuela''

another petrodollar war on the horizon..........From Upside Down World

''In an extraordinary paper released last week, former US Ambassador to Venezuela, Patrick Duddy, outlined a range of military, financial and diplomatic measures that the US should be prepared to take against the Chavez government after the coming elections on October 7th.

In the paper, published by the Council on Foreign Relations, Duddy’s recommendations include that in the event of “an outbreak of violence and/or interruption of democracy” the US should use various means to “to communicate to the Venezuelan military leadership that they are obliged to uphold their constitution, respect human rights, and protect their country's democratic tradition” and “organize a coalition of partners to limit an illegitimate Venezuelan administration's access to government assets held abroad as well as to the international financial system.

With less than one month to go until the Venezuelan people go to the polls, and with it looking likely that they will re-elect Hugo Chavez, solidarity in defence of the right of the people to choose their own government free from outside intervention clearly remains vital.''


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''Snipers, Blasts, and Disinformation Campaigns in Venezuela as Elections Draw Closer''

From Strategic Culture

''The presidential elections in Venezuela are scheduled for October 7, and by now even the team of Henrique Capriles Radonski, the main rival of the current Venezuelan leader and upcoming poll's frontrunner Hugo Chavez, seems to have given up hope that their candidate will, over the remaining time, make gains that would propel him to presidency. As of today, surveys steadily give the incumbent a 20-22% lead, meaning that the US and Israeli consultants hired to reshape Radonski's image failed to sell the apparent rightist as a left-centrist capable to pursue and deepen the populist reforms implemented by his opponent. Unless unanticipated developments derail the elections in Venezuela, the reinstatement of Chavez sounds like a foregone conclusion.''

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''Venezuela’s Oil Refinery Blaze: Seven Good Reasons to Suspect Sabotage''

From VoltaireNet.org
By James Petras

''One of the deadliest industrial accidents in the history of Venezuela’s oil industry took place as the country is gearing up for the 7 October 2012 presidential elections, with President Hugo Chávez leading his rival by a 20 percent margin. While Chávez has ordered an investigation into the causes of the incident, various commentators have alleged that the explosion could be the result of deliberate sabotage to undermine Hugo Chavez’s chances of victory. Pointing the finger at Washington, James Petras presents sound arguments in support of this view.''

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''Chavez Warns London Against Assaulting Ecuadorian Embassy''

From Ria Novosti................read more

''Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened London with radical measures in case British authorities attempt to break into the Embassy of Ecuador to arrest WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Assange has been holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London for two months as he fights extradition to Sweden on sex crime charges, which he denies. Last Thursday Assange was granted asylum in Ecuador but he still faces arrest the minute he steps out of the embassy building.

“If Britain decides to violate the sovereignty of Ecuador, our response will be radical. We advise the British government to think well over this since the epoch, when empires did whatever they wanted to, is long over,” Chavez told a national television.

The Venezuelan leader did not specify the nature of the measures that would be taken in response, but said they were already being prepared.''

''Did Iran really get one or more F-16 fighter jets from Venezuela?''

From Aviationist

''During the late ’70s Iran ordered 160 F-16As. However, with the fall of the Shah in 1979, the order was cancelled and those aircraft were never delivered, although some tooling and maintenance equipment reportedly arrived in country in readiness for deliveries.

Still, there are some (mainly Iranians who reportedly saw them) who argue two airframes did make their way to Iran. According to what it has been written on some aviation forums across the world, the two F-16s that were delivered before the procurement was cancelled, were based at Mehrabad Air Base near Tehran.

According to such accounts, one “Fighting Falcon” is still operational whereas the other was disassembled for reverse engineering and then sent to Pakistan. The jet sent to Pakistan was itself looked at by the Pakistani military with the idea of reverse engineering it, although Pakistan had bought the F-16 itself.''

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''Venezuela plans a ‘guerrilla army’ against US invasion''

From Stratrisks

''CARACAS — Venezuela is training a “guerrilla army” aiming to be a million strong by 2013 to fight off a possible US invasion, an opposition lawmaker said Sunday.

“Plan Sucre” — apparently crafted with input from close ally and fellow US foe Cuba — covers the legal, logistical and other angles necessary to “transform a professional army into a guerrilla army,” Representative Maria Corina Machado told El Universal newspaper.

The former presidential candidate said she had obtained a copy of the plan, printed by an institution affiliated with the national army.

“The strategic objective is to build a new Bolivarian military doctrine” that would prepare Venezuela to be successful in a prolonged popular war against “the empire,” or the United States, Machado said, citing the document.''

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''Targeting Chavez''

From Steve Lendman Blog

''Since taking office in February 1999, Chavez has been Washington's number one Latin American enemy.

He worries US officials for good reason. He's a powerful threat. He represents a good example. Venezuela's social democracy shames America's. Bolivarianism works. 

So does its political system. Elections are open, free and fair. US electoral politics lack legitimacy. Democracy is moribund. Candidates are pre-selected. Big money owns them. Key outcomes are predetermined. Duopoly power runs everything.''

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''Sao Paulo Forum Throws Support Behind Chavez as Venezuela Drifts into Zone of Heightened Risk''

From Strategic Culture

''The Sao Paulo forum was invented by the Workers' Party of Brazil in 1990. The epoch was marked with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the crumbling of the USSR, and took a heavy toll on the left parties and their leaderships worldwide. As  the pressure on them from the neoliberal camp mounted, Lula da Silva, an energetic Brazilian campaigner, floated an idea of a Latin American center for political debate where the continent's left would convene to mint their agendas and strategies.''

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''Spanish Intelligence Backed by the CIA and the Pentagon Plays Games in Venezuela''

From Strategic Culture

''The arrival of Lt. Gen. Vicente Díaz de Villegas who claimed to have retired and to be traveling as an ordinary tourist to Venezuela naturally put Sebin, the country's intelligence service, on alert. Villegas cited tourism as the purpose of the visit and journalism as his occupation in the entry form, and stopped at the Alba hotel, formerly a Hilton joint now used by the Venazuelan government to host important guests and leftist conventions. ''


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''In Venezuela the Revolution Continues''

From CounterPunch

''The number of communal councils has continued to grow. They continue to be sites for popular control, self-government and substantive discussion and decision making by large numbers of its members in a considerable number of neighborhoods and communities. In most communities, they are mainly vehicles to distribute some of the government budget. In a few places, members of communal councils told us there needed to be more popular education and discussion of participatory democracy and vision in them rather than just being institutions to get money from, for local projects.''

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Venezuela: ''US Imperialism in Practice''

From New Left Project

''11 of April 2012 marked 10 years since a US government-backed coup briefly removed Hugo Chavez from power. Chavez was kidnapped from the presidential palace and flown to an island off the mainland where he was kept hostage by forces loyal to the new dictatorship. Less than two days later, through a combination of mass street demonstrations calling for his return and army officers loyal to the constitution the coup was overturned and Chavez was reinstated as president.

These dramatic events were captured in the incredible documentary ‘The Revolution Will Not be Televised’ made by Irish filmmakers who were in the presidential palace when Chavez was kidnapped. ''

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''Venezuela leaving World Bank's arbitration body''

read more from ap....

"Venezuela has formally begun its withdrawal from a World Bank-affiliated arbitration body, the government announced Wednesday, in a decision made by President Hugo Chavez as cases have accumulated against the country's seizures of companies and their assets."