Venezuela: “Only Ecuadorans Can Neutralise Coup Attempt”

By Tamara Pearson - Venezuelanalysis.com:


Mérida, September 30th 2010 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – As a coup attempt takes place in Ecuador, Venezuela and regional organisations of Latin America have come out in solidarity with Ecuador, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called on the people and military of Ecuador to defend President Rafael Correa and their country’s democracy.

Ecuador is a close ally of Venezuela, and a fellow member of the progressive Bolivarian Alliance of the People of Our America (ALBA).

Early this afternoon the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry released an official statement condemning the coup attempt and expressing its solidarity with President Rafael Correa and the Ecuadoran people.

The statement said, “A few minutes ago President Hugo Chavez Frias talked with President Rafael Correa, who is being held in the National Police hospital in Quito. President Correa confirmed that what is taking place is a coup attempt, given the insubordination by a section of the National Police towards the authorities and the law”.

“Commander Hugo Chavez expressed his support for the constitutional president of our sister, the Republic of Ecuador, and condemned, in the name of the Venezuelan people and the Bolivarian Alliance of the People of Our America (ALBA), this attack against the constitution and the people of Ecuador,” continued the statement.

“The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela expresses its confidence that President Rafael Correa and the Ecuadoran people will overturn this coup attempt and, together with the people of Latin America and the Caribbean, we will be alert and accompanying them with solidarity in this historic moment,” the statement concluded.

Later this afternoon, Chavez talked on the telephone with Telesur, commenting on the coup attempt as he prepared to travel to Argentina to meet with other presidents of UNASUR and discuss the situation in Ecuador.

“According to what our ambassador [in Ecuador] has reported, the airports have been taken. It’s an operation that has been prepared. They are the forces of... the extreme right,” he said.

“The president [of Ecuador] is alone [in the hospital] with just an assistant and a few security members. Our ambassador Navas Tortolero tried to enter the hospital but they impeded him. There is a lot of police violence and its clear they received instructions from above.”

Correa “told me, ‘I’m ready to die, I’m not going to give up’,” Chavez said.

Chavez argued that a peaceful march needs to support the president, and the military needs to guarantee the peace. “Only Ecuadorians can neutralise the coup attempt... and can save democracy in Venezuela,” he said.

“Correa is a man of great dignity, we’ve seen him confront this situation despite his physical condition, his knee [which was operated on recently]... I have faith in President Correa, who has already suffered attacks from outside Ecuador in the sad case of Colombia’s incursion... he knows how to respond and how to plant peace in Ecuador,” Chavez said.

Chavez also commented that it was “strange that the military hasn’t appeared... their president is kidnapped... they aren’t letting him out, hopefully there’ll be a reaction... I’ve talked with Venezuelan military in Ecuador who tell me that the military there are in their barracks but they aren’t active... the situation is very very bad.”

Chavez called on the Ecuadoran military to “not allow them to massacre the Ecuadorian people” and to “rescue President Correa.”

“It’s a coup attempt against ALBA... the countries who have raised the banner of democracy... the [coup] masters... we know where they are, they are in Washington,” he concluded.

Already, Venezuelans are mobilising outside the Ecuadorian embassy in Caracas.

Regional Response

The Organisation of American States (OAS) is holding an emergency meeting and ALBA and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) are making arrangements to hold emergency meetings.

However, Chavez commented on Telesur that the OAS is “impotent” in the face of such situations. “Beyond chest beating”, nothing will come out of it, he argued, sighting the case of Honduras.

To date in the OAS meeting, all government representatives who have spoken, including those from the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay, have said they reject the coup attempt.

Cuba, the European Union, the general secretary of the United Nations, Mexico, France, and Bolivia also declared their support for the democratically-elected Ecuadoran government.

The US ambassador to the OAS, Carmen Lomellin, stated, “We condemn any attempt to violate or alter the constitutional process and constitutional order in Ecuador”.

ALBA has also released a formal statement, manifesting “solidarity with the legitimate government of President Rafael Correa and with the sovereign people of Ecuador”.

Nestor Kirchner, general secretary of UNASUR, expressed his total support for and “absolute solidarity” with the Ecuadorian government.

Events in Ecuador

This morning police forces in Quito, Ecuador, took over strategic sites, including an airbase, airports and parliament. President Correa immediately went to the military base to work out a solution. Police claimed they were protesting a law passed on Wednesday that allegedly would reduce their work benefits.

Correa argued that his government had doubled police wages and that rather the law just restructured the benefits.

He also denounced that ex-President Lucio Gutierrez, who, following large protests, was removed from office by a vote of the Ecuadorian congress in 2005, was behind the protest and using it to justify a coup.

Police forces attacked Correa with tear gas and the president was hospitalised shortly after in a military hospital, which coup forces subsequently surrounded. Since then he has not been able to leave.

Supporters have gathered around the presidential palace, and the Ecuadoran government has declared a state of emergency.

In a nationally televised press conference, Ecuador’s top military officials declared their support for the constitutional order of Ecuador. The top commander, General Ernesto González, demanded the police cease their subversive activities. However, the military has yet to intervene to end the police’s occupations, and only Ecuadoran civilians have taken to the streets to confront the police.

The coup attempt is not the first against an ALBA country, countries which challenge US domination in Latin America. In June 2009, Honduras, an ALBA member at the time, was subject to a coup d’état that forced its president Manuel Zelaya from power. In 2004, a coup similar to the one in Honduras was carried out in Haiti with US backing. In 2002 Venezuela was also subject to a coup, but a huge mobilisation by Venezuelans combined with military support for Chavez, defeated the coup.

venezuelanalysis

Bahamas Blog International

Bahamas: More than 20,000 young people involved in gangs

'20,000' in street gangs
By NOELLE NICOLLS
Tribune Staff Reporter
nnicolls@tribunemedia.net:

THE gang problem in The Bahamas affects more than 20,000 young people, according to a Bahamian gang expert, and the number is on the rise.

Pastor Carlos Reid is set to release an updated gang list this week, a document produced by the community-based non-profit Youth Against Violence, which he leads. The list details the schools and communities that are "contaminated" with gangs.

Ridgeland Park and the Grove are two communities featured on the list. They are said to have gangs that are involved in "wars" and "cross rivalry", according to St Cecelia Member of Parliament Cynthia "Mother" Pratt, who recently sounded the alarm.

She claims both communities are engaged in an endless spree of retaliations that are affecting the community.

Pastor Reid said the Grove has several gangs on the list, including the Grove Boys. He said the Jungalist gang occupies Ridgeland Park.

The gang listing was first brought out in 1997. It was last updated in 2002, when more than 50 gangs were listed. It has grown since then.

"A lot of the killings we have seen this year are retaliation killings. When someone gets killed, you are not just getting rid of that person, because that person is attached to an immediate family and an extended family, the gang. The mentality is, when you kill one of us, in most cases we have to take one of your own," said Pastor Reid..

"Almost every community has a feud going on with a different community. We have not properly addressed the issue of gangs. We have allowed situations to breed, and a lot of the people in the position to make a difference don't have a clue about what is going on," he said.

Poinciana Drive is still known as "the Gaza Strip", according to Pastor Reid. It is the meeting ground of four different gang territories (Gun Dogs, Pond Boys, Rebellions and Nike Boys), and four different schools (CC Sweeting, HO Nash, TA Thompson and CR Walker).

The Balliou Hill playing fields is known as the "killing fields", according to Pastor Reid, who said, "every day there is a fight going on out there".

"Let us look at Government High School. When you have to walk through Yellow Elder, where the Hornets are, if you are a Rebellion they know and you are getting it," said Pastor Reid.

Once a student lives in a certain area, they are automatically assumed to be in a "particular click". A GHS student said there was a fight in school yesterday because of gangs. The fight was sparked because a student from the Grove "trespassed" in Rebellion territory.

"Take CI Gibson. The Hoyas from Kemp Road believe they own that school, so as far as they are concerned, no one else is supposed to be in that school," said Pastor Fox.

However, students from the Fox Hill Dogs, Nassau Village Rebellions and the Mad Ass from Wulff Road all go to the same school.

"Now think about this. If you know someone wants to chap you up and kill you, do you really think you can focus on your school work. The only thing you are thinking about is how am I going to get out of here after school," he said.

Pastor Reid is certified in gang prevention and intervention skills by the National Gang and Crime Research Centre of the United States of America.

He is also the lead pastor at the Hope Centre Ministries, which runs several youth outreach programmes, including a suspension programme.

The Hope Centre and Youth Against Violence are hosting a Conflict Resolution and Manger Management Seminar this week, where they plan to release the updated gang listing.

Minister Keith Grey, also a certified gang prevention and intervention specialist, is one of the presenters at the seminar. He was one of the founders of the Rebellion Raiders.

Pastor Keith said the Rebellion gang is still the largest gang in the Bahamas. Its members boast of having 14 segments across the island, from Elizabeth Estates to Carmichael, Road.

It was started in the early 1980s "to rebel against the Syndicates, which was one of the earliest gangs formed that had some structure", said Pastor Reid.

"The same things they formed to rebel against, they started doing, so the other gangs started coming up to rebel against the Rebellions," he said.

Bahamian gangs are not constituted in the same way as American gangs, or Jamaican gangs. Pastor Reid said American gangs are "more organised crime gangs", and Jamaican gangs are "political gangs".

Organised crime gangs are often underground organisations that run the entire community, including housing projects, businesses and politicians.

"It doesn't mean we don't have gangs. We basically have youth gangs. The problem is, America started off just as we did and we don't want to get where America is," said Pastor Reid.

"We are seeing the formation of these groups really to protect themselves. To be honest, in the Bahamas, just being by yourself is a risk.

"Most of the youth gangs they will mess with you just because they see you walking by yourself and you might have something on you that they want: watch, chain, shoes," he said.

September 29, 2010

tribune242

Turks and Caicos Islands: Self revocation

Self revocation
by David Tapfer


The Turks and Caicos Islands is in dismay. The economy is in shambles, debts have mounted and personal and government income is down to zip. Future government income from tourism is dependent on a harsh winter up north and questionable economic conditions in the USA.

Now, a promise made by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to hold elections in July 2011 has been set aside, revoked, by none other than the same bureau who made the promise, the FCO. Yes, of course, there is a new government in Britain and a new FCO minister, but it is still self revocation.

Both the new minister and chairman of the TCI All Party Group on their visits have praised the governor and his administration but criticised the Labour government that brought them here and assisted with their decisions.

Well over a year after recommendations came forth from the Inquiry we are stuck in a quagmire of long term debt, which in this slow season grows bigger daily. Inward investment has all but dried up and hope is all but gone.

Independence was the choice of other regional countries but is untenable for this debt-ridden tiny country. We are told we must embrace British pride yet the British have yet to understand the pride of being a West Indian here and elsewhere!

The mother country needed to pay attention to its own Robin Auld, the Inquiry Commissioner, who wrote months back cautioning about the inaction on his recommendations.

Let us face the facts of life. This Interim Government and the FCO have been largely a reactionary group. When they faced hard decisions, they folded. Kate Sullivan's 48 recommendations are largely a cover-up for lack of oversight.

Facing an NHIP 800-page contract signed by a central figure in the Inquiry, the FCO folded and let outsourcing health care for Canadian profit go forward. Is Roger Chessman a better choice to manage health than Dr Ewing?

The $100 million airport expansion might make it easier for the future Governor and the British to travel but the airport tax will be burden to US tourists and Islanders traveling anywhere. It may just cost more than it will make. Will it bring in tourists from the EU countries that are just about bankrupt? Doubtful!

How will we ever pay off the “consolidated” stop gap loan, which rescheduled some of the debts the Misick administration left us with? In two months we have heard about two new emergency "loans". Why not plain grant and aid? More debt to pay interest on debt. Like a household with too many credit cards and no hope of paying them off.

Two TCI professionals Ben Roberts and Alfred Gibbs, both graduates of Howard University living in Washington, who keep tabs on the TCI, have weighed in during phone interviews on PTV8. They find the country not ready for elections but hold the British responsible for this condition.

Will the new British government turn up the heat? They have started off on the wrong foot and I think they already know it!

September 29, 2010

caribbeannewsnow

Bahamas Blog International

What they want is Venezuela’s oil

Reflections of Fidel

(Taken from CubaDebate)

YESTERDAY I said what I would do if I were Venezuelan; I explained that it was the poor who were most affected by natural disasters and I gave the reasons why. Further on, I added: "…where imperialism dominates and the opportunistic oligarchy receives a lucrative slice of national goods and services, the masses have nothing to win or lose and don’t give a jot about the elections" and that, "in the United States, even for a presidential election, no more than 50% of those entitled to vote turn out."

Today I would add that, even when in those same elections the whole of the House of Representatives, part of the Senate and other significant posts are voted on, they do not manage to exceed that figure.

I asked why they employ their vast media resources to try and sink the Revolutionary Bolivarian government in a sea of lies and calumnies. What the yankis want is Venezuela’s oil.

We have all seen during this election period, a group of ignoble individuals who, in the company of mercenaries from the national written press, radio and television, have even denied the fact that there is press freedom in Venezuela.

The enemy has succeeded with some of its aims: preventing the Bolivarian government from winning the support of two thirds of the Parliament.

Perhaps the empire believes that it obtained a great victory.

I believe exactly the opposite: the results of September 26 represent a victory for the Bolivarian Revolution and its leader Hugo Chávez Frías.

In these parliamentary elections, the participation of the electors rose to the record figure of 66.45%. With its vast resources, the empire could not prevent the PSUV from obtaining 95 of the 165 seats in parliaments, with six results still to come in. The most important thing is the high number of young people, women and other combative and proven activists who have entered this institution.

The Bolivarian Revolution today holds executive power, has a majority in Parliament and a party capable of mobilizing millions of people who will fight for socialism.

In Venezuela, the United States can only rely on fragments of parties, cobbled together through their fear of the Revolution and gross material cravings.

They will not be able to resort to a coup d’état in Venezuela as they did with Allende in Chile and other countries in Our America.

The Armed Forces of that sister nation, educated in the spirit and example of the Liberator and which, in its heart, nurtured the leaders who began the process are the promoters of and part of the Revolution.

Such a group of forces is invincible. I would not be able to see that with such clarity without the experience I have accumulated over half a century.

Fidel Castro Ruz



September 27, 2010

3:24 a.m.

Translated by Granma International

granma.cu

Bahamas Blog International

The more things change in the Turks and Caicos, the more they stay the same

Caribbeannewsnow Opinion-Editorial


The well-known French saying: ‘Plus ça change’, plus c’est la même chose’ -- The more things change, the more they stay the same -- is frequently used, and for good reason. History tends to repeat itself.

The original context of the phrase was a dramatic moment in history – the French Revolution, which was intended to cure many if not all of the social injustices, outrages and problems of the day.

However, after the Revolution, the situation for the common man and woman was essentially the same… ‘plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.’

One might draw some comfort from George Santayana’s oft-misquoted remark, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” in that there might be hope for some at least to remember the past and, who knows, to learn from it.

However, some it seems are incapable of such a feat of memory.

One would have thought that in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) especially there is more than sufficient reason to remember the recent past and learn from it. Indeed, as with the French Revolution, last year’s intervention by Britain in the affairs of the TCI was sought and welcomed by many TCIslanders to counter the social injustices, outrages and problems created by the territory’s elected government, then led by the now disgraced former premier, Michael Misick.

One of the more noteworthy complaints emanating from the TCI at the time was the level of official intimidation and resulting fear in speaking out on the part of residents. In fact, members of Britain’s Foreign Affairs Committee said they were “shocked and appalled” at the situation that then existed in the TCI, equating the level of repression there to that of China.

It is, therefore, quite astonishing that some of the very people that complained bitterly about the situation two or three years ago now seek to perpetuate it themselves… plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

On Friday, Caribbean News Now published an open letter from our regular op-ed columnist Anthony Hall, which took to task in no uncertain terms the current crop of politicians in the TCI.

We were subsequently informed by Mr Hall that, following publication of his letter, he was told by concerned family and friends in the TCI that senior members of the two local political parties – in a rare and possibly unique bipartisan approach – were threatening to "shut him up once and for all."

Of course, Mr Hall’s characteristically pointed response was a dismissive, "Who do they think they are, Michael Misick?"

We find it quite extraordinary that influential people in what should be an inherently prosperous territory that has to all intents and purposes been brought to its knees by similar inappropriate behaviour and attitudes of the previous elected administration could ever fail to learn from the mistakes and missteps of the recent past.

Regrettably, however, this apparent failure to learn merely serves to prove our point: the more things change, the more they stay the same.


Caribbeannewsnow Opinion-Editorial

Bahamas: Straw Vendors say Native Straw Products are not selling in the Bahamian Straw Market

Straw isn't selling, say vendors
tribune242


STRAW just isn't selling, vendors told The Tribune as we took to downtown Nassau for Street Talk in the wake of the arrest of nine straw vendors in New York last week.

It is claimed the bags are a hit among local women, and visitors to this island, who turn down straw products for counterfeit goods they can also find at home.

Telator Strachan, president of the Straw Vendors Association was receiving calls just before midnight on Wednesday night as the situation unfolded.

"Interested Bahamians were concerned, and they wanted to know if there was something they could do to help," she said.

"I understand the government put the tariff high on the bags to discourage them. Yet they know they were bringing these bags in and collecting duty.

"The vendors try to make an honest living with those bags. They bought them and were prepared to pay duty on the items."

Mrs Strachan said everything should be done to bring the arrested vendors home.

Shop owner Lerond Colebrook said: "New York City is the cheapest place to purchase these items from. If you take away the bags, you take away the food out of our mouth, or our customs officers, and for the tourists who come here excitedly for the bags.

"I did a customer survey in my shop, asking them what is their reason for coming to the Bahamas. They say they come to the Bahamas to get a bag.

"Customers say they've been coming several times a year, and we are bringing the tourists to the country."

Musician Kevin Young, said: "I do feel that selling these counterfeit bags destroy what the Bahamas straw market is all about. It deprives major stores which are authorised from getting and selling their merchandise.

"Although they're selling them at cheaper prices, the authorised stores are not getting the sales they need. Some rules and regulations need to be put in place at the reopening of the new straw market."

Vendor Ethel King said: "It is difficult to go and get straw. The poor people have to make a living."

"On the cruise ships they tell the tourist that the straw basket is filled up with bugs, so when the people come here they ask for knock off bags."

Irene Rolle, president of a prayer band group, said: "We have been praying for 37 years in this market for our country and our vendors. We pray that the mercies of God will be extended to the vendors incarcerated in New York."

On Monday, Ms Rolle said they prayed earnestly for the women, and felt really bad about the whole situation.

Although she doesn't sell knock off bags, Ms Rolle is passionate about native straw, and has been supporting the craft all her life.

"If we don't buy from our plaitters of the neighbouring family islands, who make bags from native straw, who is going to support them?" she asks.

"When they see us making straw products by hand, there is nothing else that empowers them to buy our work."

Phillipa Nixon said: "We went to selling knock off bags because we had to go with the flow with what was selling at the time, because straw products weren't and still aren't marketable.

Tourists

"In 2007, the tourists were asking us about the knock off bags. My sister was one of the first vendors who started selling knock off bags. She brought them from the free market in Miami.

"This is what we live off of right now. Whatever we have to go back to we will."

"Right now we pay a $100 difference a year for business license," she said. "Why can't we sell what is valuable to make money?

"Tourists are coming in to buy straw products and people are moving with the times."

Joy Drakes said: "From since I came to the straw market we always had, even down to the T-Shirts, products that had the Bahamas logo on it which are made in Honduras, Nicaragua, and Haiti. We don't have factories to produce this stuff.

"Whatever government decides on this issue, I have to do my job to survive.

"When I did the straw I survived, when I buy knock off, I survived on knock off.

'I will sell it until they shut us down completely.

"Americans like designer bags, they even come with a print-out of the bags they want.

"The straw isn't selling because the cruise ships are telling tourists not to purchase the straw bags because they have the red bug which eats the straw like a termite,"

Wood carver James Rolle, had a more open view of the situation. He said: "Every part of the world, people are making fake items. As long as you could get fake goods at a cheap price, people will sell it.

"Back then the straw market was selling strictly straw work. If you depend on native straw bags, you will have to do without many a day's lunch.

"If I could find some fake wood carving then I'd sell it too. Vendors are not stealing this stuff, but if they get catch with purchasing these knock off items, they have to pay the penalty.

"If I was a vendor, as far as I'm concerned, once the government get the duty I could sell them anyway. You can't tell me they're illegal once you collect the duty.

"You go to the US to buy these fake items. Once you bring them to the Bahamas and pay government duty, they aren't illegal any more.

"If government didn't want them in our country, their job is to take them at the airport over here."

September 25, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Blog International

Latin America: Regional reflections, 200 years on

Regional reflections, 200 years on
By David Roberts




As several Latin American countries celebrate their bicentenaries, the latest being Chile and Mexico, marking 200 years since the start of the process that led to their independence from Spain, now is probably as good a time as any to reflect upon the progress the region has made over recent decades.



And not insignificant progress that is, too. Almost every country in the region now enjoys a relatively stable democracy, a situation quite unlike that of 20, 30 or more years ago, when military dictatorships and guerrilla wars were commonplace. Of course, there's no such thing as a perfect democracy - witness the 2000 US election when Al Gore lost despite receiving more votes than George W Bush - and in Latin America it comes in various shapes and sizes, some more steadfast than others, but there remains just one country that cannot seriously claim to be a democracy, and we all know which one that is.



Then there's the economic progress made in recent years. Most countries in the region now have stable, regulated and market-based economies that have seen steady growth, and generally survived the financial meltdown of 2008-09 better than their counterparts in the so-called developed world. Indeed, countries like Chile, Peru and Colombia have made remarkable headway, and even the "socialist" countries like Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador are a far cry from the old-style socialism seen in the communist/Soviet era. Brazil, meanwhile, has emerged as a genuine world economic powerhouse, with many of its corporations being global industry leaders (Vale, Petrobras and Embraer, for example). Compare all that to the constant banking, foreign debt and hyperinflation crises of yesteryear.



Of course, all that is no excuse for complacency. The region faces many severe challenges, such as the still unacceptable levels of poverty and a shameful record on wealth distribution, high rates of crime and drug-related violence, indigenous rights issues, corruption, weak institutions and inadequate infrastructure, to name a few. Large parts of Latin America are still over-dependent on exports of raw materials and consequently remain vulnerable to commodity price cycles, and economies in some parts of the continent, as in the case of Mexico in the recent global slump, are too reliant on demand for their products in the US.



The region is also particularly susceptible to natural disasters, such as earthquakes, flooding and hurricanes. The consequences of these "acts of God" can only partly be blamed on divinity, as many of the deaths and much of the damage are more often than not the result of shoddy building (Haiti in January, for example), poverty, deforestation and other human frailties.



And the region remains divided between the left-leaning Venezuela-led bloc and the more "liberal" nations, although perhaps less so than some may imagine as leaders such as Evo Morales in Bolivia and Rafael Correa in Ecuador have shown they are not always prepared to toe the Chavez line.



Finally, and this may be more of a symptom than a cause of the region's ills, Latin America remains largely ignored by the outside world. Events like earthquakes and the attempts to rescue the 33 trapped miners in northern Chile do, quite naturally, capture the attention of the world, but even Washington's policy towards Latin America (talk of a partnership of equals, etc) is fuzzy to put it kindly, and regions further afield simply don't seem to have Latin America on their radar. This too represents a major challenge that regional leaders must face up to - to make sure Latin America's voice is heard on the global stage, and it's one that cannot wait another 200 years.

bnamericas

Bahamas Blog International