Crystallex International

[Commentary by Marta Colomina: "What Sovereignty in the Invaded Venezuela? What Sovereignty Is Protected if Cubans, Iranians, Chinese, and Russians Seize Our Wealth"]

Statements by two very different sources bear witness to the fact that communist Cuba is in charge in our country with its soldiers and spies from the G2, who instead of governing for Venezuela, do so for the people sowing terror and misery on the Caribbean island. Raul Castro's dominant tone was unequivocal when he said that "Venezuela and Cuba are already one and the same" as he bid farewell from his dear [Hugo] Chavez after attending the shameful military parade on 19 April. In other words, "they are already one and the same" because both governments subject their citizens to the dictatorial whims of those who have fostered the conditions of oppression and abject poverty that have allowed them to become eternalized in power; "one and the same" because they are both squandering Venezuela's resources for their communist scams and delusions.

The other testimony corresponds to General Antonio Rivero, whom all of us remember fondly as one of the few Chavista officials - perhaps the only one - who undertook his duties as Civil Defence director in a capable, obliging, and polite way. He received everybody equally and treated the media with the same deference, whether they were public or private outlets. This week Rivero reported that he had decided to put an end to his 25-year military career "due to the presence and interference on the part of Cuban military officers in the FAN [National Armed Force]." He explained that the Cubans participate in training troops, including sniper courses, and that they make decisions in strategic areas like intelligence, arms, communications, and others. Rivero critically stresses that, "beyond military exchanges, the inclusion of Cuban officers goes beyond what should be allowed. They are in areas of state security." When he discreetly tried to give his institutional opinion on the Cubans' work in the FAN he was removed from his last post as chief of the general staff. What Rivero has bravely said makes us long for the Venezuelan military today not to act the way the members of the Bolivian presidential guard did, responding with silence (and not "we will prevail") to Hugo Chavez's provocative cry of "fatherland of death" upon arriving in the Cochabamba airport to attend a conference on climate change.

While Chavez spouts off against Colombia and the United States and says that he defends our sovereignty, the Castristas are in charge in the registrar's offices, notaries, ports, barracks, and presidential security rings, while the FARC and the FBLN [Bolivarian National Liberation Front] gain a presence in various parts of the country. Declassified US documents reveal the presence of Iranian military personnel in Venezuela. At this rate, we would not be at all surprised to find out that those skilled Belarusian swordsmen from the 19 April parade and perhaps even the Libyans are all in Fort Tiuna.

Though our barrel [of oil] is averaging 70 dollars, Chavez the squanderer will receive a 20.2bn dollars loan from China, half of it in yuans, which since they are not circulated internationally will be used to buy Chinese military junk and trash, but when it expires Venezuela will have to pay in dollars from its diminished reserves. This loan, like the 40-year agreements with Russia to work in the [Orinoco Oil] Belt, is the most savage example of surrendered sovereignty, as Heliodoro Quintero has decried. This brings the debt with China to over 32bn dollars, considering that Chavez has already spent 12bn dollars from the Chinese fund for future oil sales. Our external debt is currently over 100bn dollars and internal debt has increased 6,000 per cent compared to 1998. The useless PDVSA [Venezuelan Petroleum, Inc] owes 70bn dollars; to think that Chavez has squandered over 960bn dollars and the country's infrastructure is in ruins!

The latest IMF and World Bank reports reveal that Venezuela is the only oil country with negative economic growth (GDP dropped by 2.6 per cent and inflation is 30 per cent this year), compared to Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria, which will all grow between 4.5 per cent and 6.8 per cent. The Venezuelan recession is endogenous (not the Empire's fault) and it pairs us with Haiti, though "for now" with no other earthquake other than the destroyer from Barinas. The falling GDP, skyrocketing inflation, the electricity crisis, and the ferocious levels of debt are Chavez's fault and anchored in a model that generates poverty, dependence, and repression, sucking the country's political and economic sovereignty down the drain. Because, what sovereignty protects Chavez and his soldiers dressed in red shouting "socialist fatherland or death," when the Cubans, Iranians, Chinese, and Russians are taking over our riches?

Source: El Universal website, Caracas, in Spanish 25 Apr 10

BBC Mon LA1 LatPol ta