Venezuela Solidarity Week - August 9th-15th, London

Forum posts

• 29 July 2004, 08:50

  I wonder whether the ’hands off venezuela’ people will inform the general public in the UK about the decision announced yesterday by that country’s foreign secretary, which seeks to impede the vote of the venezuelan expats in the coming referendum.

  • 29 July 2004, 13:29

    Cut the bullshit, amigo. No one is stopping anyone from voting. There have been more elections and referenda under Chavez and the new constitution than ever before in the history of Venezuela. What the government IS doing is preventing a repeat of the fraud perpetrated by the opposition during the recall referendum campaign. The government is absolutely right to stop identity theft. Dead people and children do not have the right to vote in ANY country.

    Look at the opinion polls. All of them are now saying that Chavez will walk the referendum, as he has walked all other elections since he was first elected in 1998. People are tired of the right wing coups supported by the Americans and the rich folks in east Caracas. They don’t want to return to the corruption and social exclusion of the past. They want their democracy back.

  • 29 July 2004, 14:17

    Venezuela’s recall: CNE authorities did not invite the EU
    By Aleksander Boyd

    London 29 July 2004 – Further to my previous article on this topic, I have just received an email from my representative in the European Parliament, where a straightforward explanation as to why the EU decided to send not an electoral observation mission to Venezuela leaves no room for spin. Let it be sufficiently clear that the sole body authorised to invite international observers for the coming referendum is the National Electoral Council (CNE). Being an entity totally dominated by the three chavista directors -Francisco Carrasquero, Jorge Rodriguez and Oscar Battaglini- the absence of European observers from all sides of the political divide can only be attributed to them. Unfortunately directors Sobella Mejias and Ezequiel Zamora can not forward invitations individually, for decisions in that respect must be approved by the majority of the board.

    The point remains; the most important electoral event of our contemporary history is vitiated with nullity, its source is none other than the very directors of the CNE who seemed resolutely determined to avoid transparency at all cost. Foreign Secretary Jesus Perez declared yesterday, after meeting with Carrasquero, that Venezuelans abroad will have to present proof of residence in order to cast their votes. This is another blatant violation to our civil rights for provisions in that regard are non-existent in our legislation. Curious to see how power changes people, in previous elections Jesus Perez cast his vote without being prompted to show a proof of residence -whilst living in France- in times where the ‘corrupt and elitist oligarchy’ had control over Venezuelan institutions. Present encroachment of our rights notwithstanding, justice is going to catch up with the rabble that governs Venezuela today that is one thing they can be absolutely convinced about.

    Following the email aforementioned.

    Dear Mr Boyd,

    This is an answer we received from the EP relevant official.

    Silvia Janicinova Assistant to Dr. Charles Tannock MEP

    Dear Sir,

    At its meeting on 22 July, the Conference of Presidents of the political groups decided not to authorize a Parliament delegation to observe forthcoming elections in Venezuela. The request was introduced by Mr Brok, in the name of the Election Coordination Group, which had considered this country as a priority for the European Parliament.

    This should indicate that there was a great interest on Parliament’s side to observe the situation in this country. The reason why the request was refused by the Conference of presidents is that there was no formal invitation from the Venezuelan authorities for Parliament to observe the event. As a matter of fact, the existence of such an invitation is one of the must important criteria to be fulfilled in order to authorize such election observation missions from the European Parliament.

    As far as the Commission is concerned, despite its political will to be present in that country to observe such event, the reason not to deploy an EU-EOM was that the conditions set up by the authorities for international observers where so restrictive that a proper election observation mission could not be envisaged.

    Regards,

    Pietro Ducci
    European Parliament
    Election Observation Service
    Directorate-General for External Policies

• 29 July 2004, 08:52

  No information on Venezuela’s political prisoners? No forums covering the subject?

• 29 July 2004, 09:25

  Could you please explain why the following Venezuelan citizens continue to be arrested on trumped up charges?

  1. Elsy de Peña arrested on June, 2002
  2. William Forero arrested on June, 2002
  3. Wilfrido Tovar arrested on June, 2002
  4. Jacobo Supelano arrested on June, 2002
  5. Orlando Pantaleon arrested on June, 2002
  6. Saul Lozano arrested on June, 2002
  7. Jorge Hinojosa arrested on June, 2002
  8. Omar Guillen arrested on June, 2002
  9. Jose Neira Celis arrested on June, 2002
  10. Carlos Alfonso Martínez arrested on December 30, 2002
  11. Henrique Capriles Radonsky,
  12. Dulce Bravo,
  13. Vasco da Costa,
  14. Ovidio Poggioli,
  15. Francisco Uson

  • 29 July 2004, 13:37

    These characters are not "political prisoners". What complete rubbish!

    Unfortunetley for these criminals the law applies to rich, white folk, just as much as it applies to poor, darker skinned Venezuelans. If the right wing opposition want to engage in coups, murder and street thuggery, then they have to face the penalty.

    In fact the law is very lenient in Venezuela. In almost every other country in the world, people who tried to violently overthrow the elected government would be jailed or executed as a matter of course. In Venezuela, the leaders of the 2002 coup, were merely put under house arrest and then discreetly allowed to leave the country.

  • 29 July 2004, 14:15

    caution : we will erase messages with caratère defamatory, abusive, xenophobe, sexist, the threats, politic and commercial advertising...

    I see that you are failing your own rules... Nevertheless I’ll have the pleasure of quoting you my noble and learned friend " In almost every other country in the world, people who tried to violently overthrow the elected government would be jailed or executed as a matter of course. In Venezuela, the leaders of the 2002 coup, were merely put under house arrest and then discreetly allowed to leave the country." Hugo Chavez tried to violently overthrow an elected government twice in 1992 and instead of being in jail or having being executed, which in your view is desirable, is today the president of my country. Your revolutionary hero is on the way out my friend, perhaps you should start defending Castro or Mugabe!!

  • 29 July 2004, 14:19

    Since you seem so convinced about the crimianl behaviour of the political prisoners in Venezuela, could you please enlighten us all with the crimes committed by them and the respective violations to our legislation?

  • 29 July 2004, 18:46

    Chavez WAS jailed in 1992, you idiotic fool!!! What you don’t mention is that Chavez organised a rebellion against a totally corrupt two party double act that had stolen the wealth of the nation and gunned down 2,000 poor peple in the Caracazo of 1988.

    Get real, you Pinochet lover!

  • 29 July 2004, 18:48

    Go and check the court records yourself. What am I? Your bloody researcher?

  • 29 July 2004, 19:59

    ...Chavez WAS jailed in 1992, you idiotic fool!!! and pardoned two years later for no reason. As we speak, he should be rotting in jail instead of spearheading ’revolutions’

    What you don’t mention is that Chavez organised a rebellion against a totally corrupt two party double act... That totally corrupt two party double act was DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED.

    that had stolen the wealth of the nation... Could you shed some light upon the internal indebtment that the Chavez regime has incurred (from $2 billion to $16 billion) in a period of stratospherically high oil prices? Do you want to talk about corruption in Chavez’ times?

    ...and gunned down 2,000 poor peple in the Caracazo of 1988... Chavez is directly responsible for those who died in 1992 and those who died in 2002. Apart from that under his tenancy crime and extrajudicial killings have skyrocketed, to the point that more people die yearly in Venezuela than in the armed conflicts of the Middle East.

    I am not a Pinochet lover and don’t need to get real. Unlike you I know my country’s politics well before Chavez.

  • 29 July 2004, 20:03

    Your ignorance is so salient that you don’t even know what you’re advocating for. I would have thought people like you refrained from using globalising tools such as internet. Save your discourse for Speaker’s Corner mate.

  • 30 July 2004, 14:30

    You are obviously a lover of Pinochet style coups. That’s why you supported the coup against democracy in Venezuela in 2002. Get your tongue out of George Bush’s ass, you traitor. Go and enlist in Iraq if you love American imperialism so much.

    The whole world can see through your pathetic bullshit.

  • 4 August 2004, 23:18

    So whose ass stinks the most; Bush’s or Castro? It seems to me that you need to remove your head from Fidel’s ass!!!!

• 29 July 2004, 12:42

  "Who have seen their lives transformed with new ... housing" Transformed? Yes, the goverment have transformed the poor into squaters with the right (by presidential decree) to stay in someone elses house for up to two years without the concent of the owner or paying any rent. And these are not abandon buildings, these are the flats of people that left for a weekend or a holiday and when they came back they had been occupied. The reality is that new housing construction in Venezuela has been reduced in half. Nevermind this goverment has had the largest oil revenue in the history of the country. They cannot even manage to create neither jobs nor housing for the poor. It is all talk but no deeds.