Monday, May 9, 2011
Friday, July 23, 2010
Venezuela-Colombia: the issue of independent investigators
So one of the central demands of the Colombian government seems to be allowing some manner of international observation, including journalists, to investigate the alleged FARC sites. On its face this certainly seems justifiable; rather than jumping to direct action, Colombia wants to have the issue settled impartially in an international body and through international mechanisms. This would also seemingly give Venezuela a chance to save face, to demonstrate objectively and unequivocally to the world that it has no part in the housing or training of terrorists.
However, from the perspective of the Venezuelan government, there are a few sticking points:
However, from the perspective of the Venezuelan government, there are a few sticking points:
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Venezuela and Columbia
The big news in Venezuela today has been about the meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) called by Colombia, and Venezuela's severing of diplomatic relations following the Colombian ambassador's initial outlay of the alleged evidence regarding FARC bases in Venezuela. The government media I have been following (mainly VTV and the website of the newspaper Correo del Orinoco) are claiming that the charges are completely trumped up, repeatedly referring to them as a "media circus". Eva Golinger, writing in Venezuela Analysis, claims that the Venezuelan military today actually made trips to some of the coordinates provided by the Colombian government and found no evidence of FARC bases, instead happening upon empty fields and plantain farms.
I'm actually inclined to believe this line for lack of any mentions of solid evidence for the accusations in the non-Venezuelan media, although, to be honest, the coverage has been sparse and mainly concerned with the basics of the situation rather than supporting or refuting the claims (although this hasn't stopped the right-wing National Review Online from immediately seeing this as a clear, necessary casus belli). My inner leftist cynic tells me that the general silence in the US/European media about Venezuela's counterarguments - that no specific time-stamps or evidence of specific location is given for any of the photographs or videos, and that the only source that has "verified" these is the Colombian government itself - is evidence that Colombia's evidence doesn't amount to much, although I will be careful not to make too strong a claim one way or another until more concrete facts arise (or continue not to).
That being said, the rhetoric seems to be rather heated on both sides, with Venezuela's "media circus" claims and jabs at Uribe as a "mafioso" on one side and the Colombian ambassador's rather undiplomatic manner of laying out the accusations on the other. Part of me thinks it might have been an overreaction on the Venezuelan government's part to increase the alert level along the border and to drum up the possibility of Colombia escalating this into a direct attack, but then again the 2008 Colombian attacks in Ecuadorian territory on similar allegations of harboring FARC camps do set something of a precedent for that line of thought. Thankfully, most sources seem to be saying that direct conflict is unlikely and various regional actors such as Brazil, Ecuador, and UNASUR are making attempts at diplomatic mediation (see, for instance, the Reuters UK report).
Some more links that I'll keep updating as I find them (I'll put a (S) in front of Spanish-language links):
- http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/07/22/venezuela.colombia/#fbid=TCFKcsiqDn5
- http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/07/22/colombia.venezuela.oas/#fbid=TCFKcsiqDn5
- (S) http://www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve/multipolaridad/chaderton-insto-a-su-homologo-colombiano-presencia-una-comision-internacional-para-observar-operaciones-siete-bases-militares-ee-uu-colombia/
I'm actually inclined to believe this line for lack of any mentions of solid evidence for the accusations in the non-Venezuelan media, although, to be honest, the coverage has been sparse and mainly concerned with the basics of the situation rather than supporting or refuting the claims (although this hasn't stopped the right-wing National Review Online from immediately seeing this as a clear, necessary casus belli). My inner leftist cynic tells me that the general silence in the US/European media about Venezuela's counterarguments - that no specific time-stamps or evidence of specific location is given for any of the photographs or videos, and that the only source that has "verified" these is the Colombian government itself - is evidence that Colombia's evidence doesn't amount to much, although I will be careful not to make too strong a claim one way or another until more concrete facts arise (or continue not to).
That being said, the rhetoric seems to be rather heated on both sides, with Venezuela's "media circus" claims and jabs at Uribe as a "mafioso" on one side and the Colombian ambassador's rather undiplomatic manner of laying out the accusations on the other. Part of me thinks it might have been an overreaction on the Venezuelan government's part to increase the alert level along the border and to drum up the possibility of Colombia escalating this into a direct attack, but then again the 2008 Colombian attacks in Ecuadorian territory on similar allegations of harboring FARC camps do set something of a precedent for that line of thought. Thankfully, most sources seem to be saying that direct conflict is unlikely and various regional actors such as Brazil, Ecuador, and UNASUR are making attempts at diplomatic mediation (see, for instance, the Reuters UK report).
Some more links that I'll keep updating as I find them (I'll put a (S) in front of Spanish-language links):
- http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/07/22/venezuela.colombia/#fbid=TCFKcsiqDn5
- http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/07/22/colombia.venezuela.oas/#fbid=TCFKcsiqDn5
- (S) http://www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve/multipolaridad/chaderton-insto-a-su-homologo-colombiano-presencia-una-comision-internacional-para-observar-operaciones-siete-bases-militares-ee-uu-colombia/
Chávez: Maradona es un defensor del Sur
Chávez: Maradona es un defensor del Sur: "El Presidente Chávez expresó su admiración por el Director Técnico de la Selección de Fútbol de Argentina y aseguró que Maradona mantiene una lucha en su ámbito y campo de batalla"
Wow, very strong words of praise from Diego Maradona for Chávez, ending with "I am with him to the death".
Monday, July 19, 2010
Venezuelan National Workers Union Calls for Greater Worker Control | venezuelanalysis.com
Venezuelan National Workers Union Calls for Greater Worker Control | venezuelanalysis.com
Seriously, what's the likelihood leaders from the AFL, SEIU, or any other major US trade organization would ever advocate for such worker-oriented policies? I can only hope that these proposals can come to fruition eventually. These proposals seem to run the gamut from those that shouldn't be considered controversial in any system that refers to itself as "revolutionary" (namely a commitment to workers' management, especially in idle enterprises), to genuinely interesting ideas that aren't heard often... I'm especially interested in this proposal about the maximum wage/salary. It's so unusual to hear anything along those lines that, truth be told, I have not thought about what it would might mean at all, but it certainly deserves it; minimum wage laws, unfortunately, typically have the effect of driving wages down towards the stated lower limit, so would a maximum wage invert that pattern? There's no way it could be so simple, but seems like as good a starting point for thought as any...
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Update: Writing, Cooking, Party
The previous week has been mostly quiet for me: working on the previously mentioned Infocenter article, "working" on the article, lots of reading. I've especially been devoting a lot of time to David Harvey's Limits to Capital, which is an absolutely amazing articulation of Marxist economic theory that anyone interested in such a thing, or at least in an alternative analysis of capitalist economics with the minimum possible ideological bluster, should read. I say similar things about lots of books, but this one truly is worth checking out.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Long overdue update
So so sorry for the especially long break between posts. I was planning on posting something Wednesday, but early in the morning I got a call from the Fundación Infocentro inviting me along to a two-day workshop at an Infocenter in a small town in the state of Vargas along the Caribbean coast. The experience was amazing, and my writing energies since I got back have been devoted to a magazine-style article I started planning about the trip. My hope is that if it turns out well I can submit it somewhere (probably Z-Magazine, since they devote a lot of content to Venezuela), but either way it should at least serve as a good start for writing a more academic paper for my project. In light of this, updates are likely to be infrequent and short for the next week or two, although I might post excerpts of the article to solicit some feedback.
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