Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Federal Reserve imposes agreement on Banco Industrial in the US From Javier's blog I learn that while authorities where happily opening an office of Banco Industrial de Venezuela in Cuba, the US Federal Reserve was forcing the bank to sign an agreement that will obligate the bank to essentially impose the type of controls, compliance and credit risk analysis as required by the FDIC laws. Banco Industrial de Venezuela is the Government's largest bank which has been capitalized twice during the Chavez administration to stop it form going under. Maybe they should place it under co-management! 11:42:41 PM    comment []

Another example of discrimination in the pretty revolution In today's Tal Cual, page 3, there is a copy of a memo (shown above) of the Head of the Nueva Esparta Fondo Unico Social (FUS) to the Head of cooperatives in that state, saying that they have had problems with one of the cooperatives chosen by that fund to sew some 49,000 pants for school children. The main problem? That the cooperative was rejected from a program to make uniforms because they were not "really committed to the revolutionary process" which led the head of that cooperative to complain and get mad. Imagine! But it gets even more interesting: "This attitude made us curious, leading us to verify the status of the signatures of the main representatatives of COPROTENE proving to our extreme surprise, that both her as well as her husband (who is not part of the cooperative) and Mr. Julio Villegas (treasurer of the cooperative) had signed against the President of the Republic" Not happy with this, amazingly including even checking the relatives of the people who run the coopertaive, the letter closes: "In conclusion, you will understand the shamelessness, the nerve, the insolence, that Mr Villegas showed, as well as Mrs. Martinez, which will allow you to understand why COPROTENE was not included in this new program, since the uniform program depends strictly from the Presidency and if they signed against the President, they can't now to obtain a benefit from a program that they want to help eliminate via their signatures" "Thus, with a resounding "NO" I expressly manifest our denial that COPOTENE participate in the uniform program and any cooperative or company that manifested its desire to get rid of the Maximum Leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, our President Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias" The pretty revolution indeed! 2:21:41 PM    comment []

PDVSA reportedly firing 12,000 workers In a very strange development that had been rumored for quite a while, El Nacional and Unionradio are reporting that PDVSA is firing 12,000 workers. According to El Nacional PDVSA is paying severance to 12,000 workers under contract of which it may rehire 4,000. According to Unionradio, these are the pro-Chavez workers hired after the strike in 2002-2003. One report claims that they are being fired for carrying out a silent slowdown, while others claim there is simply no work for them due to the drop in production. A union leader says most of these workers were simply hired so that they would vote for Chavez in 2004 and their role has been fuillfilled. All of the workers fired are from the Western region (PDVSA Occidente) of the country. 10:39:52 AM    comment []

Report from reporters without borders on Venezuela Reporters without borders has just issued its report for Venezuela in 2005. As they say here "para muestra un boton", here is a sample: In 2004… 5 journalists were arrested 57 physically attacked 6 threatened 6 summoned and 13 media premises attacked or ransacked 8:48:48 AM    comment []