Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signed 14 economic cooperation agreements yesterday with Cuba’s acting leader Raul Castro, deepening Venezuela’s ties with the revolutionary country.

The accords will increase oil refining capacity and petrochemical output in Cuba, according to a statement today from Venezuela’s information ministry. Chavez and Castro also agreed to jointly develop mining deposits containing gold, zinc, copper, lime and chromium.

Chavez, a self-proclaimed socialist revolutionary who often refers to Cuba’s convalescing President Fidel Castro as a father figure, has increased trade and investment in Cuba over the past eight years, providing economic relief to the island nation after it lost economic support from the former Soviet Union in 1991.

Trade between the two countries has risen to $7 billion a year, up from $388 million when Chavez was elected in 1998,

 Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage Davila said, according to the Venezuelan state news wire Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias.

Chavez and Raul Castro, Fidel’s brother who took over governing duties last year when the president underwent surgery for intestinal bleeding, also signed agreements to increase food and industrial production in the two countries, according to the Venezuelan government statement.

 This intimate 23 hour dialogue with Brazilian liberation theologist  Frei Betto, Fidel Castro reveals much about his personal background and candidly discusses his views on religion. Rarely does a book (or interview) take you from Religion to politics to history of Medieval Europe to Liberation Theology and back again to Religion. I sincerely recommend this book to anyone who is studying in these fields of interest or has intellectual curiosity and wants to understand the Cuban legend better. I strongly recommend this book. Religious tolerance and understanding is imperative to a pluralist society where all people should be free to pray how they want, eat how they want and wear what they want, regardless of colour, creed, class or faith. As Castro himself puts it:              

 “There are 10,000 times more coincidences between Christianity and communism than between Christianity and capitalism”……and Frei Betto agrees:

 “Socialist societies that create better living conditions for the people are unconsciously carrying out what we men of faith consider God’s projects in History”

As Betto explains in his introduction to this new edition, this book (having already sold a million copies

worldwide) paved the way for Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to Cuba in 1998 and the Cuban

Communist Party’s

 decision to accept as members those practicing their religious faith.

WHILE most were asleep, we’ve walked to the brink of yet another war in the Balkans.

Kosovo is a part of Serbia. That’s a legal and political fact.

It wants to break away and appears to have secured British and American agreement, but not, alas, the agreement of either Serbia, whose land it is, or Russia, which will veto any breakaway in the UN.

The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) rules the roost and has said it will make a unilateral declaration of independence soon. The Serbs cannot allow Kosovo, sacred to their orthodox Christian heritage for 1000 years, to go without a fight.

Serbia, with Russian help, outguns the KLA, who can only fight with outside help. That’s where we come in.

In the Nineties, we provided the air force for the breakaway KLA, branded as late as 2000 by the US as a “terrorist organisation”. But this time we would have to be their infantry as well.

Fancy another war, anyone?

And Serbia is not the only place where there is a substantial Albanian minority.

One quarter of the former Yugoslavian republic of Macedonia is Albanian. They want independence too.

And 50 per cent of Bosnia-Herzegovina is Serb. If Kosovo declares independence, so might the Bosnian-Serbs. Then we will be back in the bloody Balkan wars.

Moreover, the principle that astate can be dismembered against its will is pregnant with problems all over the world.

The Kurdish people are 20 million strong in Turkey and would like to break away. Would we fight for them? Of course not.

Which goes to show the hypocrisy which has accompanied the break-up of Yugoslavia all along.

Lord George “Bomber” Robertson was one of the chief propagandists for the last Kosovo war. You will remember his sonorous claim that the Serbs had murdered 100,000 Albanians and we must act.

In fact, 3000 people died, less than the death toll in Northern Ireland, and picture if you will the outrage in Britain if the US Air Force had started bombing us over that. No one knows how many of the 3000 were Albanians or Serbs, or who killed them and how.

Kosovo is a garrison for foreign soldiers, and at the same time Europe’s major hub for gun-running, drugsmuggling, people-trafficking and prostitution.

If it becomes independent onthe point of our bayonets, don’t say you weren’t warned.

‘In the Nineties, we provided the air force for the KLA. This time we would have to be their infantry as well’

Matthew, thanks for taking the interest that you are in this issue. I think Dr Hall would be happy to know that the debate and learning is continuing outside of the class room. Here we are discussing Venezuela, somewhere neither of us come from, neither of us have been to, but in this globalized era we have no choice but to acknowledge, analyse and learn from the events that are unfolding at the moment there. So the last thing we should be doing is “leaving each other alone”……keep up the good work bro, keep on the ball! 

So if I was a football commentator I might say it is 11-1 to Chavez, considering the 11 electoral endorsements he has been given by his people over the last 9 years. Perhaps holding a vote on a Sunday in a Catholic country is a bad move! 

 But in all seriousness I feel that the result of Sunday’s referendum is important in light of the relentless adumbrating and demagoguery in the media that has attempted to paint Venezuela as some kind of benign dictatorship when it is clearly nothing of the sort. Hopefully this defeat will curtail the temerity of the mass media in claiming that it is a dictatorship.

Even the article you sent me contradicted its self saying:“The outcome is a stunning development in a country where Mr. Chávez and his supporters control nearly all of the levers of power” whilst also describing a interviewee as being a member of “one of thousands of local governing entities”. The fact is Chavez is attempting to devolve power into the hands of the people through local government and local work committees. If you want to evaluate world leaders in regards to the amount of “power” held, is Chavez really so autocratic? I mean he is the one who is handing out copies of the constitution to people who prior to his presidency probably couldn’t read and now quote their constitutional rights!     

I believe based on a couple of interviews I have seen that there were a couple of points that went too far in the eyes of some Venezuelan people. Much of the  electorate did vote for him, most didn’t vote at all, and then some did as we have seen tip the balance.  I think one sad fact I must concede is the fact that some Venezuelans must be aware of the threat of U.S. military intervention, and perhaps if I were a Venezuelan and looked at the previous attempts of Socialist leaders to sever themselves from U.S. domination then I might fear for my children and family. El Salvador, Nicaragua, Granada, Guatemala, Chile, Cuba, Panama all have directly been invaded by the U.S. or U.S. mercenaries in the last 50 years and thousands have been murdered in order to protect the looting of these countries by the oligarchy. But having said this, that is far more a critique of the U.S. hegemonic existence than of Chavez’s stance on Bush.  

If Chavez’s Venezuela survives, I feel he and his comrades will be viewed by history as great as Lumumba, Gandhi, Nehru, Malcolm X, Mother Theresa, Fidel Castro, Wat Tyler, Che Guevara, Steve Biko and others. But perhaps greater than all of these iconic figures will be remembered the lives that he personally saved through altruism and selfless acts. Think about 50 years of Venezuela with universal health care, education, 6 hour working day, wealth redistribution and restrictions on the greed of the vulture capitalists of this world……think of Chavez till 2050 compared to a U.S. puppet till 2050……

I am positive any true humanist would see that a hasty Chavez based on the fact that “nobody is perfect” is far better than the alternatives who almost without exception have been that bane of Latin America. 

 As for labelling Chavez a “popularist” leader? I think that is wrong…..”popularist” suggests that he says anything to be popular……but is that really the case? I think he is saying and doing what is necessary in order to defend his people and to allow them to enjoy the wealth of the nation and as we can see in this recent referendum result that sometimes risking popularity is necessary when under the threat of U.S. fascism and sitting on highly coveted oil.

Dishonest BBC

Mathew thanks for your compliments, and drawing attention to this latest article from the BBC.

The BBC is owned by the people of Britain, everyone pays a licence and this allows (in theory) no corporate influence. But under Blair many of the well established and progressive aspects of the BBC such as former director Greg Dyke who opposed the illegal invasion of Iraq lost their jobs. This is why many of us call the BBC “The Bush and Blair Corporation”.In regards to Chavez, this article clearly displays the evident bias on written into every line of the BBC reporting.  This is one in a long line of recent attacks on Chavez which shows the dog like obedience the BBC has to U.S. and British governments. Recently they produced a documentary on the “This World programme” which was a compilation of half-truths, untruths and out right lies and was littered with dishonest smears and roomers  that would be laughable if they weren’t so dangerous.(see Hands off Venezuela “Media Watch” for more on that show).

The first thing that is indeed laughable is the fact that the recent attacks on Chavez has been about the alleged censorship or lack of freedoms in Venezuela. Then they have just contradicted themselves, showing a protest against Chavez which off couses is the right of every Venezuelan under Chavez (another thing he has changed since the last administration). Secondly they are claiming based on the leader of the opposition’s estimates that there is 160,000 protesters. Firstly considering 60% voted for him out of a country of 27 million people and considering the 2 million people who came out to demand their president back after the 2002 CIA plotted,coup, 160,000 (if that is the accurate figure) is just a drop in the ocean. Equally the BBC seldom covers anything that Chavez does which is positive and promotes democracy. If it is a King telling him to “shut up” it gets coverage, if it is an exadurated protest it gets coverage, if it is visits to Iran or Cuba it gets coverage. But little do we see reported his cornucopia of achievements, nor the lives he is saving, such is the biased media coverage we have today. Of the 1.5 million students in Venezuela 40,000 protest against Chavez and about 1 million protest for Chavez. Maybe because the revolutionary social reforms have increased university enrolement by tens of thousands and the majority owe their free education to Chavez’s policies and therefore protest in support of their leader, whilst the sons and daughters of the former oligarchy resent the higher taxes required to fund these programs and protest in much smaller numbers against his democratic policies. Secondly, even disregarding his achievements in respect to poverty, health care and education, and disregarding his 11/11 elections that he has won (if you include the referendums and recall votes) and if you disregard the stark difference in the quality of life since he has rejected Washington style democracy, let us look at this latest set of suggestions:  

This of course is a referendum so any implementation will be the will of the majority of Venezuelans:

1)   Indefinite re-election of president, term increased from 6 to 7 years

Well this strikes me as rational based on the premise that “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and also the fact that he is trying to eradicate the years of corruption, neo-liberalism and theft of Venezuela’s wealth. Therefore he should be accessible as a candidate for keeping the revolutionary ship sailing should the electorate choose him.      

2)   Central Bank’s autonomy ended

Well what a better place Canada would be if their was just one Bank owned by the people for the people giving (as Chavez already is doing) interest free loans in order to help poor families escape poverty. What a great idea? 

3)   Structure of country’s administrative districts reorganized

This is his attempt to avoid the bureaucratic and corrupt aspects that have crept into many Socialist revolutions in the past, I can’t go into them all now but you can check them out yourself.       

4)   Maximum working day cut from 8 hours to 6

Again, what a better place Canada, Britain and other countries would be if everyone worked 6 hours per day and the vast oil and resource wealth was used to supplement the strain on the economy. Fathers at home with their kids, less stress, less crime, less alienation.         

 5)   Voting age lowered from 18 to 16

Again increasing the electorate as Venezuelans become more informed and educated. Currently food packets are printed with the Bolivarian Constitution that was voted for in 1999. This is a big part of Chavez’s policy no more exclusion of the poor and disenfranchised of Venezuela as has been the case previously.

 6)   Social security benefits extended to workers in informal sector

Again treating everyone with respect and allowing social security (health, housing, education) to all. 

I think that any educated person can see what the BBC is doing. They are deliberately trying to delude their viewers and readers into believing that Venezuela is corrupt and undemocratic. This is coming from the corporation that sold us lie after lie and spun the truth in regard to Bush and Blair’s wars and they equally have blood on their hands in regard to their sabotage of the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela.Keep up the good work mate!