Sunday, January 16, 2005

Colombian Government makes very serious accusations This afternoon the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry issued a communiqué rejecting terrorism, but also rejecting what Colombia had done in Granda’s case and saying there were mechanisms for handling these cases. Well, the Colombian Government has just responded reiterating that they pay ransom to capture terrorists, but does not blackmail as the Venezuelan Government has suggested.   Colombian also says that one can not fall into the cynical trap of presenting as a kidnapping, the capture of kidnappers.   But here is the interesting part translated verbatim:   “4. Colombia will hand over proof to the Government of Venezuela about the protection by Government officials of that country of Mr. Granda. The harboring of terrorists violates the sovereignty of Colombia, the offended country, because it increases the risk of terror on its citizens.   5. Colombia will not accept that representatives of terrorist group be admitted to a political event sponsored by official Venezuelan institutions. One thing is political opposition and a very different one terrorism.   6. With surprise we read in the communiqué of the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry that in the Granda case they want to involve four Colombian policemen. Venezuelan authorities opportunely found out that it was a different anti drug trafficking operation. They were investigated and freed.   7. Colombia has gone to the official and diplomatic channels. What we are asking for is that those channels operate and be effective. Once again, we will hand over to that Government information about the presence of Colombian terrorists in Venezuelan territory. We will include the names of seven leaders of terrorism and the locations of several terrorist camps in Venezuela. “   Note that it says that Colombia has done it already and will, once again, hand over the information.   This is getting interesting…and the accusations are very serious. 9:51:37 PM    comment []

Whatever happened to Chavez' participatory democracy in Venezuela? When Hugo Chavez was running for President, he emphasized that he did not believe in representative democracy, but in participatory democracy. So much so, that Chavez refused to sign the declaration after the Quebec Summit, because it used representative rather than participatory. I had to wonder what happened to that when the Venezuelan National assembly named this week a committee to choose a replacement for Central Bank Director Manuel Lago. Despite the fact that the National assembly is split almost 50/50 between pro-Chavez and anti-Chavez Deputies (there is a difference of only three Deputies out of 160), there is not a single representative of the opposition. It is two Ministers of the Cabinet, two pro-Chavez Deputies and a pro-Chavez member of the Academy of Sciences. Thus, the opposition will have absolutely no input into the decision. The decision was protested today by Proyecto Venezuela.   The Venezuelan Central Bank is the only important institution that is not totally controlled by the Government, but it looks like it will lose its independence soon as this Director and its President are replaced unilaterally.   Of course, Chavez left his beloved participatory democracy aside a long time ago. Committees that are supposed to have representation from non-Government organizations function without it, all Chavista candidates for Governor and Mayor were picked by Chavez himself and the opposition did not know the new Supreme Court Justices until their names came up for the vote in the Assembly. Oh shucks! Another broken promise. 7:00:31 PM    comment []