IntegrationPeru and Venezuela advance relationsNewly elected President Ollanta Humala visited Venezuela this week to strengthen ties. | page 3

EconomyCombating inflationA new price controls law sets out to control inflation and speculation. | page 5

The Chavez Administration has tripled social spending

According to Venezuela’s Minister of Finance and

Planning, Jorge Giordani, social investment in Venezuela has to-taled $350 billion over the last 10 years, more than three times the estimated $100 billion spent over the previous 40 years. In a televised interview this week, Giordani explained that “revenue is beneficial if it is distributed as it is obtained. How has that money been distributed in Ven-ezuela? Since [President Chavez took office in 1999], this money has been distributed in areas such as healthcare, education, hous-

ing, and infrastructure”, he ex-plained.

The cabinet member also high-lighted a report from the United Nation’s Economic Commission on Latin America and the Carib-bean (ECLAC) stating that Ven-ezuela would grow 4.5 percent in 2011, above the estimated two percent.

“There is no doubt that Venezu-ela was hit by the global financial crisis, but we are in a recovery phase”, he affirmed.

Giordani also referred to oil revenues and social spending, taking into consideration the re-

sponsibilities delegated to him by President Chavez, who is in Havana, Cuba, to continue the process of treatment and recovery from two surgeries to remove a cancerous tumor. The Venezuelan head of state is now undergoing chemotherapy to prevent further cancer development.

On July 16, Chavez signed a decree delegating some functions to the Executive Vice President, Elias Jaua, and Giordani, who has the ability to declare state budget shortfalls and exemptions of the Value Added Tax (IVA) and In-come Tax, when necessary.

CultureCaracas becomes a kinder, more attractive cityMajor government efforts to improve quality of life in Caracas are underway. page 7

Venezuela celebrates historic soccer victoryFor the first time ever, the national Venezuelan soccer team, the Vinotinto, made it to semi-finals in the Americas Cup. Sports and athletics have been major priorities of the Chavez government and the Bolivarian Revolution throughout the past decade and the fruits of those investments have become apparent in Venezuela’s continued, and often surprising, success in different fields. From baseball to martial arts, gymnastics and now, soccer, Venezuelan athletes are becoming known for their excellent performance and dedication.page 4

Chavez receives chemotherapy, delegates some power

The artillery of ideasENGLISH EDITIONFRIDAY | July 22, 2011 | No. 73 | Bs 1 | CARACAS

New book on Chavez & the Revolution

The celebrated historian and British journalist Richard

Gott launched the second edi-tion of his book Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolu-tion at Marx House in Lon-don last Thursday the 14th of July. The second edition of the book contains a new prologue which focuses on the achieve-ments of the Bolivarian Revo-lution in terms of the new regional institutions that have been created to fight against neo-liberal hegemony and to further the progress of 21st Century Socialism.

The historian emphasized the importance of continuing to communicate the achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution in books, articles and documen-taries. “The most important institutions that have been cre-ated as part of the Bolivarian Revolution are TELESUR and UNASUR. They counteract the hegemony displayed by tradi-tional neoliberal governments in the media and diplomatic community”, said Gott.

He also called on journal-ists, academics, writers and diplomats to “understand the Bolivarian Revolution not as an event in history but also as an inspiration to Euro-pean countries to take on the values of justice liberty and progress that have propelled change in Venezuela”.

& the Revolution

hecelebratedhistorianand

Pg. 6 | Social Justice Pg. 8 | Opiniongggg J g

More and more doctors in Venezuela are choosing to practice Community Medicine

From collapse to action: A review of a documentary about the economic and social crises in the US

President Chavez is recovering well from recent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor and no more malignant cells have been found

The Venezuelan President is undergoing chemotherapy in Cuba this week, beginning the 2nd stage of his medical treatment for a cancerous tumor in his pelvic region that was extracted during surgery last month.

Before leaving Venezuela for Cuba, Chavez delegated some of his administrative functions to Executive Vice President Elias Jaua and the Minister for Finance and Planning, Jorge Giordani. Nonetheless, the Venezuelan head of state is still running government affairs during his treatment process and continues to be involved

directly in government affairs via videoconference, telephone and electronic means. | page 2

The artillery of ideas| 2 | Impact No Friday, July 22, 2011

Chavez undergoes chemotherapy, delegates some power

Before embarking to Cuba to begin his second stage of cancer treatment, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez temporarily transferred limited administrative and financial powers to his Vice President Elias Jaua and current Finance and Planning Minister Jorge Giordani last Saturday

The move was announced dur-ing a meeting held in the pres-

idential palace of Miraflores after authorization of the President’s absence was granted by the coun-try’s congress, the National As-sembly, during an extraordinary session.

“I’m going to delegate. But I’m not going to hand over the gov-ernment like some of the sectors of the opposition want. Believe me, I would be the first to comply with the constitution in the case that I was unable to govern. But it hasn’t been that way even in the worst moments of my post-sur-gery recovery”, the Venezuelan head of state said of the transfer on Saturday.

Chavez’s return to Cuba fol-lows an emergency operation performed on the leader in mid-June to remove a cancerous tu-mor discovered during an official visit to the island.

The surgery, which lasted over 6 hours, was successful in extract-ing all detected malignant cells and allowed for the President’s return to his native Venezuela on

July 4, one day before the nation’s bicentennial independence day celebrations.

Upon return, the four-time popularly elected leader told the nation that he had successfully completed the first round of med-ical treatment, but still faces two further stages.

The second phase includes the application of chemotherapy to ensure the eradication of any pos-sible cancerous cells left undis-covered after the surgery.

DELAGATING POWERThe powers granted last Satur-

day mark the first time since the onset of his illness that the Presi-dent has ceded administrative responsibilities to other govern-ment officials.

As such, Vice President Jaua will now be charged with the au-thorization of ministerial budgets, the capacity to enact the forced ac-quisition of private businesses and the prerogative to change leader-ship personnel in public offices

and presidential commissions. Current Development Minister,

Giordani, will have the authority to exonerate entities from certain tax burdens to further national development and declare minis-terial budgets insufficient when necessary.

CHAVEZ IN FULL CAPACITYDespite his delegation of duties

to key members of his adminis-tration, Chavez informed on Sat-urday that he expects his absence from Venezuela to only last “a few days” and that his capacity to perform the responsibilities of his office will not be hampered by the illness.

“I will be on top of internal affairs every minute and I’ll be in permanent contact with Ex-ecutive Vice President Elias Jaua through different means as well as the other vice presidents of the cabinet whom I’m sending a warm embrace”, Chavez said from the presidential palace on Saturday afternoon.

Before his departure to Cuba, the Venezuelan President held a strategy meeting with cabi-net members and leaders of the United Socialist Party of Venezu-ela (PSUV) where he spoke of the need to root out opportunism and sectarianism at the local level.

UNITY AND MORE UNITY“We have to eliminate internal

fractionalism” in the regions, he exclaimed, exhorting members of Venezuela’s largest political orga-nization to “overcome the vices of the past”.

Lashing out against corrup-tion and individualism, the PSUV President compared the work of the party in the coming months to his current medical treatment.

“We have to fight with great moral strength against these temptations…We have to make our best effort and not limit our-selves in anything. We’re going to check ourselves and if we find any cell that is doing damage, we have to eliminate it”, he af-firmed.

Apart from organizing for vic-tories in the upcoming regional and presidential elections of 2012, Chavez encouraged party activ-ists to organize the grassroots “towards a culture and the values of socialism”.

In this way, the head of state called for the consolidation of a Patriotic Pole to coordinate the integration of allied parties and organizations in order to put poli-tics “at the service of the people”.

THE FIFTH INTERNATIONALChavez also called for the need

to strengthen global solidar-ity, resurrecting an earlier idea of founding a new socialist interna-

tional to reassert alternatives to the crises of capitalism spread-ing across Spain, Portugal and Greece.

“We’ve put an idea out there to the world, the idea of a new socialist international, and we have to explain it well. This de-rives from a debate that has been opened in Europe and which is gaining ground”, he said.

The meeting closed to the sounds of Venezuelan traditional joropo music from the country’s plains in an emotional send-off to the president which included folkloric renditions performed by Youth Minister Maria Pilar Her-nandez and congressman Cristo-bal Jimenez.

Later in the evening, before heading to Simon Bolivar Interna-tional Airport in the coastal city of Maiquetia, workers and military officers of the presidential guard gathered to wish the president the best of luck in Cuba.

Just before boarding his plane, Chavez assured the nation that he will successfully complete his treatment and return to the coun-try to further the advances his administration has made over the past 12 years.

“I’ll come back and will con-tinue moving forward in this new stage of my life with the greatest will to live together with all of you, to continue living together with the Venezuelan people in these times of resurrection. It’s not time to die, it’s time to live”, he said, repeating the immortal words of the revolutionary leader Che Guevara, “Until victory, al-ways!”

T/ COIP/ Presidential Press

Venezuelan Government implements electronic signatureIn recent years, the impact and

use of electronic signatures and data messages, promoting a new way to work, learn and communicate by shortening time and distances, has been studied, discussed and even revolutionized, domestically and abroad.

This technology is again in the

spotlight in Venezuela and for the first time, President Hugo Chavez has activated an Electronic Signa-ture Certificate to validate his de-cisions and sign documents while he is undergoing medical treat-ment in Cuba.

According to the Law on Data Messages and Electronic Signa-tures passed in 2001, Electronic

Certificates consist of a data mes-sage provided by a Certification Service Provider, which grants the certainty and validity of the Electronic Signature.

The head of the Superinten-dence of Electronic Certification Services, Niurka Hernandez, ex-plained that “President Chavez will be able to electronically

sign his documents via data messages: e-mails, memoran-dums, cooperation agreements, letters, digital contracts, among others”.

The National System for the Management of Telematic Inci-dents generated the necessary cryptographic passwords, so the head of state could obtain his

Electronic Certificate, which was then stored in a smart card with top security measures.

The electronic signature repre-sents a great advantage to pro-cess documents, because it has the same legal validity as a writ-ten signature.

T/ AVN

The artillery of ideas No Friday, July 22, 2011 Integration | 3 |

Venezuela and Peru strengthen tiesAs part of his initiative to

reach out to different Latin American governments before taking office, Peruvian Presi-dent Elect, Ollanta Humala, met with Hugo Chavez last week in the capital of Caracas in a visit marked by common interest and a strong will for improved bilat-eral relations.

“It gives us great joy and hap-piness to welcome you, brother President-elect of Peru”, Presi-dent Chavez said upon his guest’s arrival in Venezuela last Friday morning.

Humala, accompanied by his wife Nadine Heredia, had originally planned to visit the Venezuelan President in June but was forced to postpone the engagement due to Chavez’s re-cent illness.

As such, the newly elected Pe-ruvian head of state informed the press that his visit to Venezu-ela was as much about visiting a friend “going through a difficult time in terms of health” as it was about talking about formal, na-tion-to-nation relations.

“We wanted to come to see him as a friend and if possible, talk casually about an open agenda between two fraternal popula-tions that not only have the same history, but the same future”, Hu-mala told Telesur.

The brief meeting between the two leaders took place in the presidential palace where offi-cials report that Chavez gifted a replica sword of South American Independence hero Simon Boli-var to the President-elect.

The Caracas born Bolivar, also

known as The Liberator, led the fight against the Spainish Empire in the early 1800s, achieving in-dependence for a vast part of the continent including modern day Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru.

SHIFT IN RELATIONSHumala’s visit to Venezuela

represents a prospective shift in relations between the two South American nations following a cool-ing of ties during the conservative government of Alan Garcia.

This distancing was increased by Venezuela’s withdrawal from

the Andean Community of Na-tions trade block owing to the neoliberal policies of member states Peru and Colombia whose signing of free trade agreements with the United States subvert-ed the intentions of the regional alliance.

Yet in his electoral victory against the daughter of former Peruvian dictator Alberto Fuji-mori, currently serving a 25 year sentence for crimes against hu-manity and corruption, Humala has taken a more integrationist position with respect to his south-ern neighbors.

Calling a meeting of the Union of South American States (UNA-SUR) immediately following his inauguration on July 28th, the former lieutenant colonel who once led a rebellion against the Fujimori dictatorship, has taken the first step towards defining a new path in international rela-tions for his country.

The Venezuelan government, a strong advocate of UNASUR, has called Humala’s initiative an “important gesture” and has confirmed its participation in the summit.

“President Hugo Chavez has

insisted that UNASUR should have a dynamic policy as it has had. It needs to preserve its per-manent agenda of discussion re-lated to the most important top-ics of the region,” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said in a press statement.

Although Humala has as-sumed a moderate stance with re-spect to the United States, he has made clear his intention to work with Venezuela in overcoming the shared problems that face the continent.

“Today we have a common enemy – poverty, inequal-ity, the struggle against drug-trafficking, and so many other threats that surround our fami-lies. That’s why I believe and have the hope that this friend-ship that we are building will carry us to a common future”, the President-elect said during a joint press conference with his Venezuelan counterpart.

During a recent visit to Wash-ington at the invite of US Presi-dent Barack Obama, Humala defended his willingness to strengthen Peru’s ties with Ven-ezuela, a country that the White House has attempted to isolate as a “destabilizing” force in the region.

“I don’t see any contradictions in the fact that Peru establishes better relations with the Unit-ed States and at the same time strengthens relations with our sister nation, Venezuela”, Huma-la asserted.

T/ COIP/ Presidential Press

OPEC: Venezuela has world’s largest oil reservesOPEC’s proven crude oil re-

serves rose 12.1 percent in 2010 to 1.19 trillion barrels led by Venezuela, which has surpassed Saudi Arabia as the group’s largest reserves holder, OPEC said in its Annual Statisti-cal Bulletin.

OPEC’s growth in oil reserves was mainly due to Venezuela, whose holdings climbed to 296.5 billion barrels from 211.2 bil-lion in 2009, the report said. Top OPEC exporter Saudi Arabia’s re-serves were steady at 264.5 billion barrels.

Iran and Iraq also boosted their

reserves last year. In October, Iran increased its reserves to 150 bil-lion barrels within a week of an upward revision by Iraq, ensur-ing that Tehran continued to rank above Baghdad.

“OPEC has a fantastic history of competitive reserves upgrades”, said Bill Farren-Price, analyst at Petroleum Policy Intelligence.

Reserves are one of the criteria OPEC has used in setting output targets. Iran and Iraq were rivals in the past over OPEC quotas and OPEC in the next few years is expected to tackle the issue of bringing Iraq back into the quota

system. Iraq is exempt at present.Iraq boosted its reserves to 143

billion barrels last year, up 24 per-cent, the report said. Iraq has said its reserves increased as work by international oil companies start-ed to yield results.

Venezuela’s move to the No. 1 reserves spot bumps Iran and Iraq to third and fourth place re-spectively.

RISING GLOBAL SHAREOPEC said a year ago its re-

serves increased in 2009 because of Venezuela. President Hugo Chavez’s government said in Jan-

uary it had had overtaken Saudi Arabia as the world leader.

Venezuela’s new deposits were booked in the South American country’s Orinoco extra heavy crude belt.

The boost in Venezuela’s fig-ures helped OPEC attain a larger share of the global total. OPEC holds 81.3 percent of the world’s proven crude reserves, up from 79.6 percent in 2009, the report said.

Saudi Arabia, by far OPEC’s largest exporter, holds an advan-tage in that its oil is mostly light, conventional, easily-pumped

crude. The Orinoco oil needs to be upgraded or mixed with a lighter grade to create an export-able blend.

Some countries such as Alge-ria, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates had no change in their reserves in 2010 or in any year since 2006, the report said.

OPEC’s 12 members pump more than a third of the world’s oil. Several producers, including Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, have denied suggestions their reserves have been exaggerated.

T/ Agencies

The artillery of ideas| 4 | Sports No Friday, July 22, 2011

Venezuela excels at sports, has historic soccer victoryFor the first time in history, the Venezuelan national soccer team classified for the semi-finals of the Americas Cup. An emphasis and investment in athletics has been a priority of the Chavez government and the Bolivarian Revolution

Two major athletic events that took place during the past

week have combined to create a mix of excitement and pride in the Venezuelan population as a new buzz over sports is felt all over the country.

First, the national soccer team, known as the Vinotinto, defeat-ed Chile to advance for the first time in the country’s history to the semifinals of the world’s old-est soccer tournament, the Copa America, in Argentina. The Vi-notinto played an excellent game against Paraguay in the semifi-nals this past Wednesday eve-ning, in the bitter below-zero Ar-gentine cold. The game went into overtime and later was settled by penalty kicks, during which Para-guay gained a one goal advantage and won. But Venezuela’s victory of classifying for the semifinals was widely celebrated by most of the nation’s 28 million citizens.

Second, the 4th annual edition of the ALBA games was inaugu-rated in the city of Barquisimeto in the state of Lara, using athletic competition to encourage healthy living as well as advancing re-gional integration.

REGIONAL GAMES AND SPORTS IN VENEZUELA

The ALBA games, a product of the regional trade and political block, the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA), has convened nearly two thousand athletes from 23 countries around Latin America and the Caribbean to compete in 35 events.

The competition will take place in ten different regions in Venezu-ela until July 30.

Venezuelan Vice President, Elias Jaua, addressing the ath-letes during the opening ceremo-nies, reminded participants that although ALBA grew out of the need to promote economic in-

tegration in Latin America, the regional alliance stands for more than just commerce.

“ALBA isn’t just a space for trade or for the economy. It’s also for healthy competition, for sports and for the meeting of Latin American youth”, Jaua pro-claimed.

Sports Minister Hector Rodri-guez, also addressing the crowd, spoke of the preparations that have been made by the Venezue-lan government to ensure the suc-cessful execution of the games.

“This year’s games have the highest amount of athletes par-ticipating. It’s an edition that will help unite athletes and the peo-ple. We’re very pleased that Ven-ezuela is the host of these games”, Rodriguez declared.

The promotion of the ALBA games in Venezuela is part of the Chavez administration’s prioritiz-ing of sports as socially beneficial activity and its raising awareness on issues of healthy living.

In 2006, the government cre-ated the Sports Ministry and this year, the nation’s legislative body, the National Assembly, has been debating a new law which would allow professional athletes to elect members of their ruling federations as well as guarantee social security benefits.

According to Minister Rodri-

guez, the new law is focused on de-mocratizing athletics in Venezuela.

“The central point and priority is the athlete, his or her social se-curity, studies, and professional-ization”, he said earlier in July.

COOPERATION AND SOLIDARITYThrough international agree-

ments and mutual cooperation, Cuba has also played an impor-tant role in developing the cul-ture of athletics in Venezuela as a multitude of trainers and health professionals from the island have provided their services to the residents of the South Ameri-can country.

The Chavez government has also introduced a great number of infrastructure projects around the nation, building sports com-plexes to facilitate greater oppor-tunities for previously excluded populations to practice and train in different areas.

THE VINOTINTO-VENEZUELA’S PRIDE

Representative of this new em-phasis on athletics in the Caribbean country has been the recent success of Venezuela’s national soccer team in international competition.

Traditionally known as a coun-try that has only produced nu-merous world-caliber baseball players, the Vinotinto has been

South America’s perpetual un-derdog of soccer, overshadowed by powerhouses such as Argen-tina, Brazil, and Uruguay.

That reputation may be chang-ing, however, as Venezuela sur-prised the world yet again last weekend by defeating the heavily favored Chileans 2-1 and moving on in what has turned out to be a tournament full of surprises.

Both Argentina and Brazil failed to qualify for the semifi-nals this year, being knocked out of competition by Uruguay and Paraguay respectively.

For Luis Mendoza, ex-soccer player who served the Vinotinto for 19 years, the change in perfor-mance on the field has been pro-voked by a change in training and attitude.

“The players have taken on a technical-tactical philosophy that is concentrated on their own abil-ities and not centered on the rival team. They are thinking about what they can do, not about what they are going to confront in a Brazilian team with Ronaldo or Bebeto”, he said.

Mendoza rejected the asser-tions of analysts and critics out-side the country who continue to underestimate and even belittled the Venezuelan team.

“We’re a selection that has a lot of power and tactical order on all

of our lines and we can leave any rival behind, just as we did in the first round of the Copa America with Brazil, Paraguay and Ecua-dor, and later with Chile in the quarterfinals”, he affirmed.

The Vinotinto’s superior playing skills were further evidenced dur-ing the semi-finals against Para-guay, during which the Venezuelan team appeared to have scored sev-eral goals that were later declared by one of the referees to be invalid. The game on late Wednesday night went into overtime in Argentina, and tense penalty kicks left victory in the hands of Paraguay.

But Venezuelans still celebrat-ed their success of arriving to the near end of the tournament. Plazas throughout the capital city Caracas were set up with large screen televisions where the games were broadcast and Ven-ezuelans watched collectively, wishing their team well.

President Hugo Chavez watched from Cuba, where he’s undergoing chemotherapy treat-ment after the successful removal of a cancerous turmor last month. “Lets go boys! You are the Gold-en Generation of Venezuela”, he tweeted on his Twitter account @chavezcandanga.

T/ COIP/ Agencies

The artillery of ideas No Friday, July 22, 2011 Economy | 5 |

Venezuela combats inflation, enacts new Price Control Law

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez used his standing legislative authority to sign into law a new price control mechanism aimed at putting an end to speculation and hoarding

The newly enacted Law for the Protection and Defense

of Economic Rights for People to Access Goods and Services, or “Law for Just Prices and Costs”, allows the government to limit the prices charged for goods and services across broad sectors of the economy.

Elaborated by representatives of the ministries of food, com-merce, basic industries and min-ing, planning and financing, and the Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV), the law creates a National Integrated System for the Admin-istration of Prices (SINACOPRE) which will regulate, administer, supervise, inspect, and control prices charged to consumers. The agency, under the auspices of the Office of the Vice Presidency, will also be responsible for sanction-ing those in violation of the law when necessary.

According to Vice-President Elias Jaua, within three months the new agency will begin to mon-itor costs of both production and importation so as to determine a fair price that can be charged to the public.

“The objective of the law is to stabilize prices”, said Jaua. “It is a law of labor against capital, a law of the rights of workers to obtain products at fair prices”.

Venezuelan officials often blame the country’s private sector for artificially inflating the price of goods and services in pursuit of economic and political objectives and hope this new law will help control the country’s inflation, currently at around 30%.

After signing the legislation into law, Chavez said it will ben-efit the majority of Venezuelans, except those who “monopolize production, hoard and hide prod-ucts, inflate prices, and take the big slice (of earnings) with them as a result of their pillage”.

AFFORDABLE CONSUMPTIONThe President made special

mention of the exorbitant price charged to Venezuelan workers who purchase ready-to-eat foods outside of the home. Referring specifically to the price of arepas, Venezuela’s popular corn-based

tortilla filled with any combina-tion of ingredients (meats, beans, eggs, cheese, etc.), Chavez high-lighted the difference in prices charged at private areperas and the chain of government-operat-ed areperas socialistas.

Venezuela’s areperas socialis-tas, which maintain operations with no direct government sub-sidy, currently sell arepas at 7.50 BsF ($1.75 USD) per unit and earn a total 0.75 BsF ($0.17 USD) in profits per arepa sold. According to Chavez, the average arepa pur-chased from a private arepera can reach up to 35 to 40 BsF ($8.14-9.30 USD), when the total cost of production of this food item is between 7 and 8 BsF maximum ($1.63-1.86 USD).

According to Chavez, the areas of the Venezuelan economy most affected by the “tricksters” of cap-italism are food, housing, cloth-

ing, and automobiles. Chavez said that the new “socialist” law is intended to bring an end to capitalism’s “trickery, immoral-ity, and thievery”.

“This is another enabling law to advance the struggle against the injustices of capitalism and to protect the people, the entire nation, all sectors except the ex-ploiters and speculators”, said Chavez.

Chavez enacted the law by way of legislative authority granted to him by the outgoing national as-sembly in December 2010.

Venezuela’s inflation rate in 2010 was 27.4%, while figures re-leased at the end of the first quar-ter of 2011 put inflation so far this year at 22.9%. At the end of June figures from the Venezuelan Cen-tral Bank (BCV) placed inflation at 23.6%.

GREATER GOVERNMENT ROLE IN ECONOMY

Venezuelan Minister of Com-merce Edmee Betancourt recently affirmed that the national gov-ernment “now plays a role in 44% of the economy, and plans to strengthen the public distribution and marketing networks so as to reach 50% by the end of the year”.

Earlier this week the Venezu-elan President nationalized Llano Arroz S.A., a private rice thresh-ing and packaging firm that pro-cesses an estimated 20,000 tones of rice per year. The company is said to have sustained major

debts with the government’s MERCAL network of subsidized supermarkets before being sanc-tioned over a year ago.

The expropriation of Llano Ar-roz, S.A. places the firm in the hands of the state-owned and operated Arroz del ALBA, S.A. and calls for the firm to be trans-formed into a “socialist unit of production” in which workers play a greater role in decision-making.

Last week, Chavez also enacted legislation that creates the Ven-ezuelan Agricultural Bank (BAV), a publicly-financed bank worth some 340 million BSF ($79 million USD) intended to finance Venezu-ela’s strategic agricultural sector.

The BAV, under the auspices of the Venezuelan Ministry of Land and Agriculture, will be-gin by providing 20-year loans to rural producers, allow small-scale farmers to open checking accounts, and provide rural Ven-ezuelans with credit cards to im-prove their quality of life.

Shares of the BAV worth one (1) Bolivar ($0.23 USD) are to be sold to the public and an assembly of shareholders will assume the role of defining the bank’s rules, regu-lations, and financing policies.

According to the Venezuelan News Agency (AVN), as part of the Venezuelan government’s AgroVenezuela Mission the state has recently issued some 242 mil-lion BsF ($56.28 million USD) in low interest-rate loans (4%) to 1,854 Venezuelan producers of rice. This financing is expected to facilitate rice production on over 50,000 hectares of arable lands.

T/ Juan Reardonwww.venezuelanalysis.com

New Venezuelan laptop factory increases productionBetween 500 and 100 Canaima

laptops have been produced daily since June 1st, by thirty Venezuelans who work at the Technology Complex Simon Ro-driguez, in Miranda state, adding up to a total 2,100 units so far.

Last Saturday the first line of computers manufactured at the Technology Complex were re-leased. The Complex aims to produce 48,000 laptops more this year, to reach a total of 50,000 Venezuelan made Canaimas.

“It is not only about distribut-ing computers among students in public schools...but also about manufacturing such comput-

ers”, said Manuel Fernandez, Vice-Minister of Science and Technology, while speaking to a local television station during the broadcast of a cabinet meet-ing chaired by President Hugo Chavez.

The Science and Technology Ministry expects that work on the second phase of the project will conclude between November and December this year.

The second phase includes the construction of a warehouse adja-cent to the Technology Complex Simon Rodriguez, enabling Ven-ezuela to manufacture and store up to 500,000 computers which

will later be handed out to pri-mary school children throughout the year.

Vice-Minister of Scientific and Technological Development, Jorge Arreaza, explained that this manufacturing line has been made possible by taking advan-tage of the facilities and know-how of the Institute of Technol-ogy Innovation.

The content in the Canaima computers, recalled the Vice-Min-ister, is produced by Venezuelan teachers using freeware, ensur-ing full industrial and technology sovereignty.

A group of workers from the

Technology Complex sent one of the Canaima laptops to President Chavez to take with him to Ha-vana, Cuba.

Receiving the laptop before leaving to Havana to continue his medical treatment, Presi-dent Chavez exclaimed, “When I touch this laptop and I see it, I say to myself that we have to continue living to continue see-ing these things, to continue en-joying the progress towards this new life we are building in our homeland”.

T/ AgenciesP/ Presidential Press

The artillery of ideas| 6 | Social Justice No Friday, July 22, 2011

The result of an ongoing col-laboration between Cuban

and Venezuelan medical profes-sionals, the program is to gradu-ate its first generation of “ethical and humanist” doctors in Decem-ber of this year.

This influx of new doctors, trained alongside thousands of Cuban doctors who currently at-tend to the most excluded sectors of Venezuelan society, is expected to greatly improve Venezuela’s growing National Public Health System. These doctors are also expected to gradually replace the estimated 15,500 Cuban doctors that currently staff the Bolivarian Revolution’s Inside the Barrio so-cial mission.

According to Antonio Torres, National Coordinator of Venezu-ela’s National Program in Com-prehensive Community Medi-cine (CCM), these newly trained doctors “have the capacity to diagnose, treat, and adequately rehabilitate patients with the aim of providing the most specialized attention to the public in hospi-tals and clinics”.

“From the very beginning these medical students learn in both theory and practice,” affirmed Torres. “They work alongside Cuban doctors throughout the entire process of medical training and by doing so they perfect their primary care capacities. They also spend all of the fifth and sixth years of the program as interns of internal medicine”, he explained.

Similar to many medical school programs across Latin America and in Europe, medical school in Venezuela starts immediately after high school and lasts for a total of six years. Postgraduate studies are also available for doc-tors who wish to specialize.

According to Ali Barrios, Chief of Staff at the Doctor Jose Ignacio Baldo Hospital in Anitmano, Ca-racas, a group of 90 CCM medi-cal students are currently rotating

In Venezuela, doctors prefer Community MedicineVenezuela will soon welcome some 8,000 newly trained doctors into its public health system thanks to the country’s revolutionary medical training program in Comprehensive Community Medicine

through the hospital’s numerous medical wards. The student in-terns will spend between eight and ten weeks in each of the hos-pital’s surgery, gynecology and obstetrics, and maternity wards, preparing themselves to provide a “quality and humanizing medi-cine”, Barrios explained.

PAY RAISEReferring to the 30% increase

in doctors’ salaries decreed by Chavez last week, Barrios af-firmed that the Venezuelan Presi-dent, “dignifies the medical pro-fession on a daily basis. During the 4th Republic (pre-Chavez), doctors in this country never earned a decent salary. With the arrival of the President (Chavez), all professional guilds have seen improvements”, she affirmed.

In May of last year, Barrios and her colleagues were joined by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to inaugurate the in-stallment of 33 state-of-the-art maternity ward beds at the Ca-racas-based medical center. “In the battle to strengthen quality medical services, we will win”, affirmed Barrios at that time.

FOCUS ON PREVENTIONResponding to criticisms from

the conservative Venezuelan Medical Federation (FMV) – the same medical association that outright rejects the presence of Cuban medical professionals in Venezuela – CCM National Coor-dinator Antonio Torres explained,

“physicians who prepared them-selves in private universities have nothing to fear.”

Torres, who studied at the pres-tigious Razzeti Medical School of Central University of Venezuela (UCV), a public university, stated that he vouched “for the CCM students who use the same classic medical texts as we did. The only difference is that the educational system of the CCM program ded-icates its vision to health educa-tion and prevention”.

Ana Majano, a CCM medical student in the State of Mirando, affirmed proudly that she or any one of her fellow students “could be the Minister of Health, since our clinics and communities are like a small country”.

Ana knows every one of her community’s pregnant or breast-feeding residents, as well as all

those who have hypertension, diabetes, and physical or mental disabilities. Seeing these patients, and observing her Cuban medical professors when they engage in surgeries and other medical inter-ventions, is a permanent “doses of education and training”.

Ana’s father, Victor Hugo Maja-no, asserts that there is “no doubt whatsoever that the graduation of the first comprehensive com-munity doctors is going to result in a radical change in primary care services nationwide, as well as the availability of specialists in the near future”.

Henry Hernandez, Coordinator of the CCM Program for the State of Falcon, told press that Falcon state is to contribute 221 of the 8,000 doctors that graduate in De-cember. These newly trained doc-tors, affirmed Hernandez, “will

be at the service of our country, with a humanist vision of social service, a distinct vision of a med-icine that we want to practice as part of the Revolution”.

Of the 1,017 medical students currently enrolled in the CCM Program in the rural state of Portuguesa, 313 are expected to graduate this year. All of them currently receive medical train-ing alongside Cuban doctors in 21 hospitals and clinics across the state.

Almost 25,000 medical students are currently enrolled in Venezue-la’s National Program in Compre-hensive Community Medicine, part of the ‘Sandino Commit-ment’ signed in 2005 by Ven-ezuelan President Hugo Chavez and then Cuban President Fidel Castro. The agreement, aimed at developing 200,000 health profes-sionals to serve the peoples of the Latin America and the Caribbean, also includes the flagship Miracle Mission, which has provided free site recovery surgery to some 1.3 million people to date.

HUMANIST MEDICINE“To guarantee the fundamen-

tal rights of human beings...is socialism”, declared Chavez at the signing of the Sandino Com-mitment.

“Capitalism privatizes health and education. So when we speak of building 21st Century Social-ism, this is exactly what we are doing – guaranteeing basic hu-man rights, starting with health and education”, he affirmed.

According to Venezuela’s Office of the National System of Univer-sity Enrollment Planning (OPSU), a total 128,949 students will begin university-level studies this fall, 48% of which plan to focus their studies on science and technolo-gies, 28% on social sciences, 16% in education or sports, and 8% in the fields of health.

This figure does not include the students who have been invited to enroll in this year’s CCM en-rollment process, free of charge and open to anyone with a high school diploma and “an interest in developing themselves as a doctor with a scientific and hu-manist outlook and a focus on actions that serve the individual, family, and community”.

T/ COIP/ Agencies

The artillery of ideas No Friday, July 22, 2011 Culture | 7 |

Caracas becomes a greener, nicer cityAfter decades of abandon and decay, the municipal and national governments have joined together in an intense effort to humanize Caracas and make it a more liveable city

Throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, Ven-

ezuela’s capital city, Caracas, be-came an overcrowded, chaotic, violent city with little attraction for visitors and even less space for residents’ enjoyment. Parks were abandoned and inhabited by homeless and drug addicts, street lamps were left broken, sidewalks destroyed by bulging tree roots and a lack of urban planning led to an overly-congested, polluted and people-unfriendly urban cen-ter. But during the past few years, under the local leadership of Caracas mayor Jorge Rodriguez and the national government’s Governor of the Capital District, Jaqueline Farias, major projects and plans have been underway to turn Caracas into a proud, beauti-ful, liveable and attractive city.

Authorities and local residents have decided to multiply initia-tives to humanize the Venezuelan capital [Caracas] and show its

kinder side”, reported the French news agency AFP on Wednesday.

“More green areas, wider side-walks, asphalted streets, a his-toric and restored downtown, higher police surveillance and outdoor cultural events are some of the new developments appear-ing over the last few months that show something is happening in Caracas, which was a city previ-

ously known at the turn of last century for a quality of life that attracted dozens of thousands of immigrants,” reported AFP.

“I think people are fighting more for their spaces. There has to be pressure from the grass-roots, from citizens who are de-manding their rights; and from high levels of government with concrete policies to recover areas

for the people”, Cheo Carvajal, columnist in a Venezuelan daily told AFP.

“You don’t recover the vital-ity of a city by insisting that it is dangerous. Caracas has possi-bilities and there has to be a little bit of risk to conquer them. The more people are in the streets, the more safe they become”, affirmed Carvajal, who also promotes ini-

tiatives to favor pedestrians and cyclists through his newspaper column.

Patricia Medina, a Caracas resident and mother, said, “We need more public outdoor areas, people have to overcome fear and go to those public spaces and take care of them, instead of staying shut away at home”.

There is confidence that author-ities will consolidate these im-provements for the big metropo-lis. “We are going to transform Caracas and turn it into a kinder city”, Jorge Rodriguez, Mayor of Libertador Municipality –the city’s most populous- told AFP. The Mayor also explained that the plan to restore public areas and pedestrian areas will continue in the nation’s capital. “Caracas will become a tourist destination”, Rodríguez declared.

Caracas’ perfect spring-like climate year round makes it an ideal place for living and visiting. Once the city infrastructure is im-proved and renovation projects completed, including new parks, a unified public transportation service and the downtown his-toric Caracas center with major tourist attractions and hotels in restoration, the lives of locals will change dramatically.

T/ AgenciesP/ Agencies

Angel Falls among finalists for “Seven Natural Wonders of the World”

One of Venezuela’s greatest and most beautiful attractions,

the higest waterfall in the world, Angel Falls, may soon be consid-ered a top worldwide wonder.

Angel Falls, the Amazon Rain-forest, El Yunque Rainforest, Galapagos Islands and Iguazu Falls are the five Latin American sites chosen among the 28 finalists in the “Seven Natural Wonders of the World” competition.

The selection process began in 2007, and over 100 million people have voted to choose the finalist site. This year over one billion people are expected to participate. The winner will be announced on November 11, 2011.

The group of experts chose the 28 finalists, considering the beauty of the place, its diversity,

ecological importance, historical legacy and geographic location, in order to have an equitable dis-tribution by continent.

ANGEL FALLS AND THE AMAZONAngel Falls, also know in Ven-

ezuela for its indigenous name Kerepakupai Meru, is located in Canaima National Park, Bolivar state, in the deep southwest of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The park is a protected area that has waterfalls, gale-force winds and large rivers combined with immense savannas and tepuyes (table-topped mountains found only in Venezuela), which set the stage for the highest waterfall in the world: Angel Falls.

The Amazon Basin represents 50 percent of the tropical forest in the

world and has a 7.8 million kilome-ter surface area. The Amazon cov-ers territories in Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Suriname, and the Guyanas.

OTHER FINALISTSBay of Fundy in Canada; the

Black Forest of Germany; Bu Ti-nah Shoals in the United Arab Emirates; the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland; and the Dead Sea in Palestine, Jordan, and Israel are among the remaining finalists.

Additionally, other finalist sites in the competition include Mount Vesuvius (Italy), Ha Long Bay (Vietnam), Mount Kilamanjaro (Tanzania), the Great Barrier Reef (Australia and Papua New Guin-ea), the Grand Canyon (United States), Jeita Grotto (Lebanon)

and Jeju Island (South Korea).The list of finalists finishes

with Komodo in Indonesia, the Maldives Islands, the Masuria Lakes in Poland, Mount Cervino in Switzerland and Italy, Milford Sound in New Zealand, the Mud Volcanoes of Azerbaijan, the Puer-to Princesa Underground River in the Philippines, Table Moun-tain in South Africa, the Uluru /

Ayer’s Rock in Australia, and the Yushan Mountain in Taiwan.

The “Seven Natural Wonders of the World” organization will visit each of the 28 sites and will attempt to organize a promotion-al events in each place along with the local governments.

T/ AgenciesP/ Agencies

The artillery of ideasENGLISH EDITIONFRIDAY | July 22, 2011 | No. 73 Bs 1 | CA R A C A S

A publication of the Fundacion Correo del Orinoco • Editor-in-Chief | Eva Golinger • Graphic Design | Alexander Uzcátegui, Jameson Jiménez • Press | Fundación Imprenta de la Cultura

OPINION

From collapse to action

Grassroots solutions to US crisesWhen the worst financial crisis since the

Great Depression hit the US on Sept-ember 15, 2008, filmmakers Sílvia Leindecker and Michael Fox began a journey across the country to see how the economy was impac-ting people’s lives. Their interviews, which span two years and nearly 40 states, draw from farmers, truck drivers, homeless people, workers, immigrants and more. The result is the documentary Crossing the American Cri-ses: From Collapse to Action, a film full of des-peration, hope and grassroots solutions.

Leindecker and Fox are the makers of the earlier documentary Beyond Elections: Rede-fining Democracy in the Americas, and Fox was an editor of the book Venezuela Speaks!: Voices from the Grassroots. Like these ear-lier works, Crossing the American Crises highlights the voices of people participating in grassroots activism and everyday struggles for a better world.

The first stop of their trip is Detroit, where the camera cuts to empty store fronts and fac-tories. “Detroit is what it is because of industry and the industrial revolution, and capitalism, and so-called democracy and how all those failed. And this is what we have left with it”, Jon Blount of the activist collective Detroit Summer tells Leindecker and Fox. Such bits of hard-won insight from streets, factory floors and living rooms across America are inters-persed throughout the film.

The next visit is to the Rosebud Lakota In-dian Reservation in South Dakota, where they speak with Alfred Bone Shirt. “We’re seeing that there’s a segment of our society that feel we’re left out, neglected, abused; rights are violated. We’re in a depression down here so bad that people just wanna give up”. His words are underscored by footage of the re-servation itself, a place crushed by economic depression.

After stops in Utah, Oakland and Los An-geles, they head out onto Route 66, where, Fox tells the camera they want to “see the direct effects on the local community”. And indeed, that is what they find at nearly every stop in their tour; very real life stories of how the US economy is making life difficult for people from coast to coast and everywhere in between.

In New Orleans, they speak with people in the Lower 9th Ward, a neighborhood that was destroyed by Katrina in 2005. Robert Green and his family lived in this community for 38 years before Katrina hit, and at the time of the

shooting of the film they were still living in a FEMA trailer.

Fox asks Green what he thinks about the government bailout, the major issue of the day. Green tells him, “It’s ironic that it only took [the government] 2 weeks to issue a $700 billion check. It took them 3 years after Katrina and this is what you see”. He poin-ted to the empty lots, saying the names of the families that used to live there. “So basically every house, every family that’s gone actually was a family that should be here now. And if

they would have been given the money in 2 weeks like the way they did in Congress, the way they did in Wall Street, then every last one of these families would have rebuilt their houses, and this whole Gulf Coast area would have been rebuilt”.

This story conveys a sentiment shared by many of the interviewees in this film: outra-ge at the disparity between the government’s concern for Wall Street over the people bea-ring the everyday grind of the crisis.

Crossing the American Crises then turns to the hope people felt in the election of Barack

Obama in 2008. Yet after the election, the camera cuts to a stream of grim eco-

nomic news, and stories of people struggling to make ends meet. One college graduate appearing in the film went through 109 job interviews before finally finding a very low-pa-ying position at Staples.

On a cold, snowy street corner in New York City, they interview John Lambertus, a homeless man who lost

his job in May of 2008 and couldn’t find new work. Lambertus po-

ints to a plastic bag he’s ca-rrying, saying, “You see

this? This is my blanket, another jacket in case this

one gets messed up, and another pair of pants – and that’s my situation”. He wor-

ked in a printing press for thirty years before losing his job. “I’ll be 51 in April and I’m in the street”.

So what is to be done with all of this bleak news from the US crises? That leads to the second part of the film: Action. Crossing the American Crises goes on to include many so-lutions to these economic and social problems, focusing on inspiring stories of grassroots al-ternatives and responses.

There is the Vermont Workers’ Center fighting for affordable healthcare for all, the Green Worker Cooperative in the Bronx that sells recycled building materials, the Santa Fe Alliance in New Mexico advocating for local producers and businesses over tax-dodging multinational chains, and the Iraq Veterans Against the War struggling for veterans’ be-nefits. There are stories of people working for affordable housing, jobs, better working con-ditions, improved public transportation and prison justice.

These groups are largely led by the people who are impacted the most by these various crises. Organizers are meeting these challen-ges in states across the country. “Organizing is the key!” JoAnn Watson from the Detroit Council tells a boisterous crowd at the US So-cial Forum in her city.

Alongside these stories of hopeful organi-zing is a vision for a better world. “The people have to act through their own organizations to implement their vision of what life should be like”, explains Kathleeen Cleaver, a law pro-fessor at Yale University.

That’s a central message of this film – that when the politicians, banks, bosses and eco-nomy fail to work for the people, it’s the people that have to form the backbone of mo-vements for economic justice, peace and equa-lity and rights.

Such insight from people across the country makes Crossing the American Crises an im-pressive film that captures the spirit of the US today. Its stories of human hardship, solidarity and hope paint a portrait of the US that is both heart-breaking and inspiring. This documen-tary is a powerful reminder of the countless social movements working each day to trans-form the US, from the fields of Oklahoma to the streets of New Orleans.

Benjamin DanglBenjamin Dangl is author of Dancing with Dynamite: Social Movements and States in Latin America (AK Press).