VAMOS Rapid Rebuttal Team - call for volunteers

As you all know, media falsifications, half-truths, slanders and outright lies about the Venezuelan government, President Chávez and the whole revolutionary process are common. They will only become more common, as the media war against the Bolivarian Revolution heats up.

The recent "revelations" about the "magical laptop" found in the Ecuadorian jungle which (conveniently) backs up the Colombian narco-regime's most paranoid accusations about Venezuelan "interference" in its domestic policies are only the tip of the iceberg. The real problem is that this steady stream of disinformation is "softening up" public opinion in the West for the United States and its patsies to actively and openly intervene to destabilise or even overthrow the Venezuelan government. That's where the solidarity movement comes in.

There are already many fine websites devoted to rapid (and often hilarious) rebuttal of the media/security apparatus's propaganda barrage against Venezuela - I can particularly recommend Eric Weingeter's BoRev.Net. But VAMOS in Auckland has decided that what we need in Aotearoa is a VAMOS team dedicated to rebutting slanders in our own media.

Are you interested in being part of a team to quickly write articles, letters to the editor, leaflets etc. to combat and discredit media lies and falsifications about Venezuela? Write to doloras@randomstatic.net and we'll get a nationwide mailing list together.

New Conservative London Mayor Cancels Oil Deal with Venezuela

May 26th 2008, by 21st Century Socialism

London’s Tory mayor(shown left), Boris Johnson, today announced that he was scrapping a discounted oil agreement with Venezuela that provides half price bus fares for London ’s poorest citizens. Fares for those on Income Support are expected to double by the end of year, causing serious financial hardship for 80,000 Londoners who had taken advantage of the scheme.

The timing of the announcement, coming on the Sunday of a Bank Holiday weekend, is designed to minimise publicity for the move and avoid damaging the electoral prospects of Britain’s resurgent Conservative Party.

The agreement, which was negotiated by Johnson’s predecessor, Ken Livingstone, bartered London's strategic advice on city planning for cheap Venezuelan oil.

In a statement issued today, Ken Livingstone condemned Boris Johnson for ending the agreement. “The fact that the first significant action by Johnson's Tory regime is against the poorest people in the capital is highly significant,” Livingstone said.

“The suggestion that Johnson is motivated by any concern about the people of Venezuela is just a lie shown by the fact that he is withdrawing all technical support and advice provided by London under this agreement.”

Boris Johnson’s claim that the oil deal exploited Venezuela’s poor was also dismissed by the Venezuela Information Centre, a British-based solidarity organisation. VIC Secretary Gordon Hutchinson told 21st Century Socialism that the deal was “a shining example of city to city co-operation, which cut out the transnational corporations and middle-men and benefited the people of both cities.”

Venezuela’s socialist president, Hugo Chavez, has used the proceeds from record oil revenues to roll out free health and education services across the country. Incomes for the poorest 60% of Venezuelans have risen by 130% in real terms, according to surveys conducted for the Venezuelan American Chamber of Commerce.

The Conservative Party has a long history of opposing social and economic justice in Latin America. Former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, was a personal friend and advisor to the Chilean dictator, General Pinochet. And in May 2006, the Conservative group on the Greater London Assembly issued an invitation to a Venezuelan oppositionist who advocates the use of “barbaric practices” against supporters of Venezuelan democracy and compares himself to the 13th century Mongolian warlord Genghis Khan.
Source: 21st Century Socialism

United Socialist Party of Venezuela Presents Pre-Candidates for Regional Elections

May 21st 2008, by Kiraz Janicke - Venezuelanalysis.com

Caracas, 20 May, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), handed over a list of approximately 5,000 pre-candidates to the National Electoral Council on Sunday as the party gears up for the June 1 internal elections of candidates for the upcoming state and local elections in November.

Mass meetings of party members were organised all around the country over Monday and Tuesday during which pre-candidates were required to swear an oath to implement the democratic decisions of the party if elected.

Dario Vivas, coordinator of the PSUV’s national Events and Logistics Commission, explained that the next phase in the internal election process involves the diffusion of information about all the pre-candidates for governors and mayors among the party membership.

Marquees or “red points” would be set up in the Bolivar Plazas (town squares) in the major towns and cities across the country where pre-candidates would be able to present their program for government and have direct contact with the members Vivas said.

read more

Petras: USA is more interested in attacking Venezuela than fighting against drugs

ABN 21/05/2008 Caracas, Distrito Capital

Caracas, May 19. ABN.- The Government of United States is putting in jail Colombian paramilitary chiefs to reward Uribe (Colombia's President) for the cooperation in their aggression policy against Venezuela.

Thus, Colombian President quiets paramilitary chiefs and interrupts the process of the compromising testimonies in the so-called “para-politic”, which, up to now, involves congresspeople, military chiefs, ministers, and other people very close to him.

These statements were made by the North American sociologist, thinker, and professor of the University of Binghamton (New York State, USA) James Petras, during an exclusive interview offered to the ABN where he labeled as unbelievable the way how the extradition of 14 paramilitary chiefs to United States was carried out.

“Which is unbelievable is that these chiefs have rendered their testimonies to courts about their relation with top Colombian leaders. They named more than 60 congresspeople and members of the cabinet of Uribe's Administration, linking them as collaborators of drug dealers and paramilitary people. They have named generals and Uribe's relatives as
receivers of drug trafficking money. However, in the middle of this important process and in the face of the attorneys, Colombian Government sends them out of the country, which puts an end to the testimonies against the main benefactors of the drug trafficking in Colombia: pro Uribe's politicians”, he stated.

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US military airplane caught flying over Venezuelan air space

Following story from Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias:

Caracas, May 19. ABN.- A United States military airplane was caught last Saturday flying over Venezuelan air space without permission, specifically over La Orchila and Aves islands and adjacent areas, as it was denounced this Monday by the Minister of the People's Power for Defense, General Chief Gustavo Rangel Briceño.

Therefore, the Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs summoned to declare the Ambassador of United States to Venezuela, Patrick Duddy, whom should attend this Tuesday to the Ministry of the People's Power for Foreign Affairs headquarter, in Caracas, and hold a meeting with the Minister Nicolás Maduro in order to give explanations.

In a press conference, the Minister Rangel Briceño read a fragment of the conversation held between the pilot of the North American airplane and a staff member of Maiquetía Air Control (Venezuela, Vargas State), in which the former assures that it is an “airplane of United States Army” identified as “Sierra Three Bravo” and he assures that the point of departure and arrival is Curaçao.

In this regard, Venezuelan Minister of Defense pointed out that flying over La Orchila is forbidden to any kind of airplane, thus, it represents an aggravating circumstance to the situation.

“At the end of the conversation, the pilot says that he was not aware of his location, however, we do not believe him. We think this was a conscious action carried out by the United States Army and it is just another link in the provocations chain against our country”, he added.

read more...

VAMOS!

Vamos is a New Zealand solidarity network formed in March 2008

During a week long tour of Aotearoa by Venezuelan Charge d'affairs from Canberra and top diplomat for the Pacific Region, Nelson Davila, communities came together in Wellington, Christchurch, Ruatoki, Rotorua, Hamilton and Auckland to hear about how:

• Hugo Chavez's Venezuela is putting human beings at the centre of government policy, not th "almighty dollar".
• Mass illiteracy has been eliminated in just nine years.
• Free quality medical care now reaches everyone in the poor areas who, before Chavez became president in 1999, had never seen a doctor.
• Venezuela's indigenous peoples have seen their stolen lands returned and now get state funding for sustainable co-operatives.
• "Workers management" and "socialism of the 21st century" are central themes of government policy.
• 20,000 state-funded communal councils have been elected to take control of their localities in a major power shift from the elites to the grassroots.
• Venezuela is becoming a global pole of grassroots opposition to the US world order.
  

In short, the democratic, socialist revolution led by Hugo Chavez is not only boosting the living standards and human rights of the vast majority of Venezuelans, but also changing the unjust power relationships of the old society.

There is still serious inequality in Venezuela, though the number living below the poverty line has fallen from 60% of total population to less than 30% during the term of the Chavez government. There is still a long way to go, but the direction is positive and the pace is accelerating.

As Nelson Davila put it "Think of the Venezuelan Revolution as a climb of 20 steps, and we are now on step four."