Friday, November 14, 2008
Venezuela On Track to Achieve Millennium Development Goals in Education, by Noémie Cournoyer
Mérida, November 14, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)-- Venezuela's improvements in educational access and enrollment over the past ten years have put the country on track to meet the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, according to the United Nations Science, Education, and Culture Organization (UNESCO).
While visiting the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) campus in Venezuela, UNESCO's representative for Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela, Edouard Matoko, said Venezuela ranks among the best countries in Latin America in educational access.
"Venezuela's school enrollment levels are close to 100%," said Matoko. "We believe that in the struggle against inequality in education, Venezuela will reach this goal in 2015.
"Venezuela's ELAM facilities, in which students from Latin America and Africa study tuition-free with grants for living expenses from the Venezuelan government, is exemplary of successful South-South cooperation, Matoka commented.
"For the politics of cooperation that we want to advance, we can count on full support from Venezuela, which is one of the strong advocates of South-South integration," said Matoko.
While commending Venezuela's "important qualitative leap in recent years," Matoko referred to an UNESCO report titled "Overcoming Inequality: Why Governance Matters," which is scheduled to be released to the public during a conference in Geneva on November 25th.
The report is produced by ongoing working groups from the UNESCO's Education for All project, in which 164 governments participate to improve literacy, youth and adult education, and decrease the disparity in education between sexes.
During the administration of President Hugo Chávez, which began in 1999, pre-school enrollment has increased from 40.3% to 60%, according to UNESCO. The government has built 388 new pre-schools called "Simoncitos," named after Latin American independence leader Simón Bolívar, who is also the namesake of the "Bolivarian Revolution" that Chávez leads.
Also, elementary school completion increased from 78% to 93% for males, and from 85% to 98% for females. High school graduation rates have increased from 47% to 66%, and university enrollment has increased from 676,515 students to 1.8 million students.
Venezuelan Higher Education Minister Luis Acuña, who attended the event with Matoko, said, "Venezuela maintains its firm commitment to fight against exclusion, create an ethic, a culture of liberatory education that guarantees the greatest happiness and eradicates poverty."
He also mentioned Venezuela's new university admissions system, which eventually intends to admit every high school graduate who wishes to study in the university, and the government's plan to begin constructing ten new universities in the coming year.
However, Acuña said "there is still much to be done," especially to improve educational infrastructure in rural Venezuela.
Earlier this week, Venezuela hosted a University Fair of Technologies in Support of People with Disabilities in Caracas, to improve technologies, educational methods, and inclusion of people with disabilities in universities.
"We have a program to reduce all forms of exclusion so that people can access the centers of higher studies and enjoy all the benefits of the Venezuelan educational system without any type of restrictions," said Acuña during the fair.
According to the national budget proposal that the Finance Ministry submitted to the National Assembly last month, Venezuela plans to spend nearly 20% of its budget on education.
Link
Labels: Noémie Cournoyer, Venezuela
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The Next Cuban Missile Crisis?, by Marie-Êve Marineau
"Russia's naval fleet is welcome here," Chávez said on his weekly broadcast program. "If it's possible, we'll stage an exercise in our Caribbean waters." Russian naval vessels, including a nuclear cruiser, are due to call on Venezuelan ports in late November or December, Chávez said.
The Venezuelan leader is known for his rhetorical ripostes and once again he did not disappoint. "Go ahead and squeal, Yankees," he said, taunting the Bush White House.
Even before the April 2002 coup in Venezuela that sought to topple Chávez from power, diplomatic relations between the South American nation and the United States were tense. Chávez for example criticized U.S.-style free trade in the region and pursued a nationalistic oil policy. When it emerged that the United States had aided opposition forces involved in the coup, relations took a nosedive and never fully recovered.
Unfortunately the Bush White House has done everything in its power to provoke Chávez yet further. Last April, the Pentagon announced that it would revive its Fourth Fleet in the Caribbean. The fleet is based at the Mayport Naval Station in Jacksonville, Florida and answers to the U.S. Southern Command (Southcom) in Miami. Southcom has about 11 vessels currently under its command, a number that could increase in future.
An April 24 Bloomberg report claimed that the fleet would be lead by the nuclear aircraft carrier USS George Washington. But a subsequent report appearing in the Venezuelan newspaper El Universal quoted U.S. Admiral James Stavridis as saying that the force would not have an offensive capability. "We have no intention whatsoever to have an aircraft carrier as part of the Fourth Fleet," Stavridis said.
The Navy claims it resuscitated the Fourth Fleet to combat terrorism, to keep the economic sea lanes of trade free and open, to counter illicit trafficking, and to provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
Such claims notwithstanding, it's no secret that the United States would like to head off the left wing-alliance between Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia. And Chávez is probably correct in seeing the Fourth Fleet in Caribbean waters as a "shot across his bow."
In an interview with Cuban television, Bolivian President Evo Morales remarked that the U.S. naval force constituted "the Fourth Fleet of intervention." Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro asked why the Pentagon sought to revive the Fourth Fleet at the current time. Writing in the Cuban newspaper Granma, Castro suggested that the move constituted a return to U.S. gunboat diplomacy. Castro, whose island nation confronted a U.S. naval blockade during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, declared, "The aircraft carriers and nuclear bombs that threaten our countries are used to sow terror and death, but not to combat terrorism and illegal activities."
Echoes of the Cold War
Like Castro, who sought out a diplomatic alliance with Russia to protect Cuba from the United States, Chávez is now cozying up to Moscow. For years, oil-flush Venezuela has been buying up Russian arms including Kalashnikov assault rifles and Sukhoi fighter jets. Chávez has justified the arms purchases as a necessary measure to dissuade the North American "empire" from invading his country.
Just two months ago, Chávez called for a strategic alliance with Russia to protect Venezuela from the United States. Caracas and Moscow agreed to extend bilateral cooperation on energy, with three Russian energy companies to be allowed to operate in Venezuela.
The Russian naval squadron and long-range patrol planes could arrive in the Caribbean for the exercises later this year. The deployment is expected to be the largest Russian naval maneuvers in the Caribbean, and perhaps the Western Hemisphere, since the Cold War.
Worryingly, the nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser Peter the Great, a vessel with massive firepower whose missiles can deliver nuclear or conventional warheads, will participate in the Caribbean maneuvers. The ship is armed with the Granit long-range anti-ship missile system, which is known in military circles as the Shipwreck missile. It also has a sophisticated air defense missile system capable of striking both air and surface targets.
Jon Rosamund, editor of Jane's Navy International, a specialist maritime publication, said the Peter the Great is large and heavily armed with both surface-to-surface and around 500 surface-to-air missiles. "On paper it's an immensely powerful ship," he said. "We are not really sure if this is a show of force or if it poses a viable operational capability at this stage."
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said the Admiral Chabanenko, Russia's most modern anti-submarine destroyer, would also join the exercises, along with an unspecified number of anti-submarine naval aircraft. Venezuela's naval intelligence chief, Admiral Salbatore Cammarata Bastidas, said that 1,000 Russian military personnel would take part in mid-November exercises with Venezuelan frigates, patrol boats, submarines, and aircraft.
Worst Case Scenario: McCain
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko insisted that Russia's decision to send a naval squadron and planes to Venezuela was made before Russia's war with Georgia and is unrelated to the conflict. Last month, Russian forces fought a brief war with U.S.-ally Georgia over the breakaway province of South Ossetia. During the brief war and the ongoing standoff, Chávez has backed Russia's calls for Abkhazian and South Ossetian independence in opposition to Mikhail Saakashvili's government in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital.
U.S.-Russian relations hit their lowest point in years following the crisis in Georgia and even sparked fears of a new Cold War. Following the conflict, the Pentagon sent U.S. warships to the Black Sea to deliver humanitarian aid for Georgia. Hardly amused, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned that Russia would mount an unspecified response to the aid shipments. Asked what he thought about the U.S. naval presence near where the Russian Black Sea fleet was based, Putin said that Moscow would definitely respond with "calm."
When asked about the possibility of Russian naval exercises in the Caribbean, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack mockingly responded, "If it is, in fact, true, then they found a few ships that can make it that far."
Far from calming the situation, such flippant statements will only serve to further antagonize Russia, which is already angry about NATO expansion on its borders, not to mention the installation of U.S. missile defense systems in Poland. With tensions in the Caucasus and Eastern Europe already on the upswing, the last thing the world needs is a naval face-off in the Caribbean.
Judging from recent campaign statements, a John McCain administration would do little to calm the waters. During the war in the Caucasus, the Arizona Senator remarked, "Russia should immediately and unconditionally cease its military operations and withdraw all forces from sovereign Georgian territory."
A sharp critic of the Putin government, McCain said, "The consequences of Euro-Atlantic stability and security are grave." McCain also called for "a truly independent" international peacekeeping force for South Ossetia, and said the United States should work with the European Union to pressure Russia to halt its military efforts.
McCain is hardly a neutral arbiter when it comes to the conflict in the Caucasus. His top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, works for lobbying firm Orion Strategies. According to the Washington Post, the company has provided "strategic advice" to the Georgian government. Scheunemann himself helped McCain draft a strong statement in support of Saakashvili during the war in South Ossetia.
If geopolitical tensions should spread to the Caribbean, McCain is surely the last politician one might want in the White House. Speaking in Miami's Little Havana, McCain argued that "everyone should understand the connections" between Evo Morales, Castro, and Chávez. "They inspire each other. They assist each other. They get ideas from each other. It's very disturbing." McCain said Chávez breathed "new oxygen" into the Cuban government, and that Washington should do more to quell dictatorships throughout Latin America.
Time for Obama to Step Up
To his credit, Barack Obama has been somewhat less bellicose. At the height of the war in South Ossetia, the Illinois Senator called for an end to the violence but stopped short of assigning blame or making strong demands on Moscow. "I strongly condemn the outbreak of violence in Georgia, and urge an immediate end to armed conflict," he said.
On Venezuela, Obama has been somewhat vague. Speaking with his supporters, Obama said Chávez had "despotic tendencies" and was using oil money to fan anti-U.S. sentiment. The Illinois Senator did however manage to stir the waters when he declared in a CNN-YouTube debate that he would open diplomatic channels to "rogue nations" such as Venezuela. Though certainly mild, Obama's remark quickly embroiled him in a political firestorm with his chief rival, Hillary Clinton, who labeled him "naïve."
Obama is still a relative unknown on foreign policy but at least he hasn't staked out hawkish stances like John McCain, a politician who would surely continue the Bush legacy by antagonizing, bullying, and pushing around smaller, poorer countries like Venezuela. In response, Chávez might deepen his relationship with Russia if McCain pursues Big Stick diplomacy in Latin America, ratcheting up tensions.
Obama has been eager to prove that he is "strong" on national security. And this could be his chance. But rather than try outflanking McCain by staking out a position further to the right, Obama would be wise to use escalating tensions with Russia to his advantage. He might declare, for example, that McCain has been reckless in dealing with the unfolding conflict in the Caucasus. U.S. voters, Obama might argue, have no desire to go back to the paranoid Cold War or to relive the hair-raising days of the Cuban missile crisis.
Labels: Marie-Êve Marineau, McCain, Obama, United States, Venezuela
Friday, July 11, 2008
Chávez Criticizes Divisions, Urges Dialogue within Venezuela’s Bolivarian Alliance, by Anne Humphreys
After the PSUV’s unprecedented internal party elections last month, in which 2.5 million party members participated, PSUV leaders offered to negotiate candidates with other Patriotic Alliance members in regions where no candidate won a clear majority.
President Hugo Chávez and PSUV Vice President Alberto Muller Rojas converse at a PSUV event Wednesday. (Aporrea)
So far, the allied parties have agreed to support the majority of the PSUV candidates, but competing candidacies have been launched by the Homeland for All (PPT) and Communist (PCV) parties in several key states.
In central Guárico state, the president of the state legislature, Lenny Manuitt, launched an independent candidacy for governor after losing to Willian Lara in the PSUV internal elections.
Manuitt is the daughter of current Governor Eduardo Manuitt, who has been expelled from the PSUV and is identified with the right wing of the pro-Chávez alliance because of his support for big landowners against the national government’s land reform program.
In an apparent demonstration of support for Lenny Manuitt, the PPT candidate, General Secretary of the party José Albornoz, ceded his candidacy for the governorship.
“The PPT in Guárico is supporting the counter-revolution,” Chávez proclaimed Wednesday. “It is very difficult to make an alliance like this,” he added.
By PSUV party rules, if no candidate received more than 50% of the votes in the nomination elections, the party directorate would select the candidate among the top three contenders. In Trujillo state, the PSUV leadership selected Hugo Cabezas, who had received 24% of the vote compared to Octaviano Mejías`s 27.7%. In defiance, Mejías launched an independent candidacy with support from the PCV.
Chávez declared Wednesday that the PCV is “playing into the division of the People” by not observing PSUV party rules.
The president also criticized the PCV for convoking a march in opposition to the visit of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe to Venezuela this Friday, during which Chávez and Uribe are expected to renew diplomatic relations after many months of heated clashes.
In its communiqué calling for the march, the PCV emphasized its “firm conviction in the Bolivarian Revolutionary Process and the indisputable leadership of President Hugo Chávez Frías,” but called Uribe “an illegitimate president linked, moreover, to the drug trafficking mafia.”
Chávez, in response, asserted that “we are not going to make war with Colombia. I invited President of Colombia to shake his hand, to converse and seek integration, respecting particularities... I am a chief of state, and I must act like it.”
Chávez warned the PCV not to be “more pro-Pope than the Pope,” and asked the PCV to support this imperfect compromise with the U.S.’s chief ally in South America.
Despite these clashes within the Patriotic Alliance, Chávez and other PSUV leaders continue to encourage dialogue among the allied parties, lest the alliance be weakened before the elections which Chávez has deemed “the most important in Venezuelan history” because of the possibility of a destabilizing separatist movement in the resource-rich western states if the opposition takes control.
“We must be very patient,” Chávez told PSUV activists Wednesday.
Likewise, PSUV spokesperson Rodrigo Cabezas assured earlier this week that, while there are differences, “there is no rupture in the alliance.”
Jorge Rodríguez, the National PSUV Director and candidate for the largest Caracas district of Libertador, reiterated, “We prefer to discuss, face to face, with our allies, come to agreements and have disagreements face to face.”
Even so, the executive Vice President of the PSUV, Alberto Muller Rojas, suggested last week that if the PPT continues to support “undisciplined” candidates like Manuitt, then perhaps it is not in line with the “interests” of the alliance. “The PPT is not the alliance, PODEMOS [the Social Democracy party] left the alliance, and any other party can leave,” stated Rojas, who himself belong to the PPT until recently.
PPT National Secretary Rafael Uzcátegui assured Wednesday that the PPT will remain a member, although he said the alliance is “not perfect” because the PSUV “has not supported any candidate other than its own candidates, not even an independent.”
President Chávez said last week that the clashes within the Patriotic Alliance are “not personal, but ideological.” The president suggested that candidates such as Manuitt lack “revolutionary conscience,” and need ideological training.
“I need the governors to be true revolutionaries,” Chávez emphasized. “I am a true revolutionary and I am willing to die for what I have sworn to the People of Venezuela the People of Bolívar,” he said.
Labels: Anne Humphreys, Chávez, United States, Venezuela
Friday, June 06, 2008
Chavez Revamps His Intelligence Services: The Corporate Media React, by Francis Chartrand
Labels: Chávez, Colombia, Francis Chartrand, United States, Venezuela
Sunday, May 25, 2008
South American Nations Form New Regional Grouping: UNASUR
The countries that make up UNASUR are Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, Chile, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, and Uruguay, encompassing a total population of 380 million inhabitants.
Labels: Chávez, Colombia, Venezuela
Monday, May 19, 2008
U.S. Violated Venezuelan Airspace, Says Defense Minister
Labels: Bush, Chávez, Colombia, Ecuador, United States, Venezuela
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