The Venezuela Reader

  2010: The President of Globovision fled to the United States to Avoid Arrest Guillermo Zuloaga, a millionaire businessman, was the majority stockholder and President of Globovision, a 24-hour TV news station. Zuloaga was one of the highest profile critics of Hugo Chavez’s government. [1] Zuloaga also operated two Toyota car dealerships in Caracas. Due to an immense shortage of new vehicles for sale, it is against the Law in Venezuela to hoard vehicles and then sell them for a higher price. Following a phoned-in tip, on May 21, 2009, police raided Zuloaga’s residence in eastern Caracas and confiscated 24 new vehicles. On June 5, 2009 the public prosecutor charged Zuloaga with fraud. The government accused Zuloaga’s car companies of selling cars to each other, paying each other and raising the price of the vehicles with each sale to ultimately offer it to a buyer for a price much higher than the vehicle’s original cost.[2] Zuloaga denied the charges. He faced one to five years ...

  2007: Hugo Chavez and Vladimir Putin Became Allies Due to a Shared World View In a speech at the UN on September 20,2006, Hugo Chavez said: ·        “Yesterday, the President of the United States, ‘the Devil’, spoke here talking as if he owned the world. The American empire is doing all it can to consolidate its system of domination. And we cannot allow them to do that.” In a speech in Munich on February 10, 2007, Vladimir Putin said: ·        “The world is now unipolar. One single center of power. One single center of force. One single center of decision making. This is a world of one master, one sovereign.” ·        Putin criticized the United States’ monopolistic dominance in global relations and its “almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations.” •         “In the case of Hugo Chavez, [Putin’s Munich speech] was a confirm...

  2013: US Citizen Tim Tracy was Imprisoned for 42 Days Tim Tracy was an independent American filmmaker who was in Venezuela as an accredited observer of the April 14 Presidential election.[2] Tracy was filming a documentary on political divisions in Venezuela. He interviewed government supporters and members of the opposition. On April 24, Tracy was arrested at Simon Bolivar Airport in Caracas as he was about to board a plane to Miami. He was charged with funneling funds to members of the far right to cause violent actions on the street and create a climate of chaos following the defeat of Henrique Capriles in the Presidential election.[1]Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez said that Tracy had become close to a group of students involved in protests of the election results and that he had received money from nongovernmental groups and passed it on to them.[3]   His arrest was ordered directly by President Maduro who appeared on Venezuelan TV and said that he ordered Tracy’...

  2008/2013/2018 Russian Bombers Landed in Venezuela On September 10,2008, two Russian Tu-160 bombers arrived in Venezuela to carry out training exercises over the Caribbean and Atlantic. [1] The bombers returned to Russia on October 15. US Press Secretary Sean McCormick stated that the US government would “watch very closely the activities of Russia in Venezuela.” [1] President Chavez said that there would be no Russian bases in Venezuela because the 1999 Venezuelan Constitution prohibits foreign military bases in Venezuela. On October 28, 2013, two Tu-160 Russian bombers flew from Russia and landed in Venezuela [2]. The bombers flew to Nicaragua on October 31. Two NATO F-16 jets were scrambled from Bodo Air Base in Norway to monitor their flight. The Russian Defense Ministry said the mission was carried out for “combat training.” [2] In 2015, President Obama declared Venezuela represented an “extraordinary threat” to the National Security of the US.   In 2017, Presiden...

  2005: 126,000 Barrio Families Received Land Titles for their Homes The booming oil industry in the early 1900s created a disincentive to maintaining agricultural production. Farmworkers who once worked in the countryside moved to the cities. There was a shortage of housing in the cities and shanties were built on vacant land on the hillsides. The open land on the hillsides was a mixture of privately-owned and public parcels. The new residents did not pay for the land nor did they pay rent. Structures became permanent, built with wood and concrete. The government provided some basic services (roads, electricity, bus transportation, schools). By 2002, it was estimated that up to 60% of Venezuela’s population of 26 million people lived in these barrios. Some people had occupied the same house for decades.[1] The Urban Land Committees (CTU-Comites de Tierras Urbanas) were initiated with Hugo Chavez’s presidential decree 1,666 on February 4, 2002. The decree specified that Venez...

  2025: Investment in Growing Rice Could Double Venezuela’s Harvest Rice is a highly important food in the Venezuelan diet, consumed widely and frequently, often on a daily basis. It is considered a primary source of carbohydrates and a key component of the national cuisine. Rice is an essential ingredient in Pabellon Criollo , the national dish of Venezuela. However, in recent years, a variety of factors have led to reduced rice production:[1] ·        “Historically, rice represented a key component of Venezuela’s agricultural output, with production reaching 1.15 million tons in 2014.However, this progress was undermined by the onset of economic stagnation in 2013. By 2016, as hyperinflation accelerated and institutional support weakened, rice production had fallen sharply to 500,000 tons. Furthermore, this unfavorable scenario caused a shortage of inputs for agricultural production, which, combined with the lack of government support, the lack...

  2004: Venezuelan Voters Chose to NOT Recall Hugo Chavez from the Presidency The 1999 Venezuelan Constitution includes a provision for a referendum to “recall” the President after half way into a term. 20% of registered voters need to sign a petition to activate the recall referendum. A national vote is held with one question: should the President be recalled?   The President is “recalled” if the number of recall votes is in the majority and exceed the number of votes the President received in the previous election. A new Presidential election is required within 30 days. Hugo Chavez was elected President in 2000, with 3,757,773 votes. He was sworn in on August 19, 2000 for a 6-year term. The midpoint of his term was August 19, 2003. Signatures from about 2.4 million voters would be needed to activate a recall. In 2002, Maria Machado co-founded the voting rights NGO, Sumate. On August 20,2003, Sumate submitted recall petitions with 3.2 million signatures which had been c...

  1999: Hugo Chavez Banned Public School Fees and Doubled Government Spending on Education The beginning of free public education in Venezuela came in 1870 when Antonio Guzman Blanco issued a decree in which he recognized compulsory elementary mass education as the responsibility of the government.[5] These ambitious beginnings came to an abrupt end during the long dictatorship of Juan Vincente Gomez and only 20% of school age children were enrolled in school at his death in 1935.[6] The administration of Eleizar Lopez Contreras constituted a repudiation of the policies of the government of Gomez. During its first year, 1936, the government increased the expenditures for primary education by 82 %.   The school-age population enrolled rose from 20% to 41% by 1939.Education received a serious setback with the dictatorship of Marcos Perez Jimenez and only 55% of children of school age were in school in 1955-56.[6] With the establishment of democratic governments beginning in ...

  Bio: Maria Machado: Ancestors, Education and Early Career Maria Corina Machado Parisca was born on October 7, 1967 in Caracas. Her mother was Corina Parisca Perez, who was a psychologist and national champion tennis player who represented Venezuela in the 1959 Pan American Games. Her father was Henrique Machado Zuloaga who had attended the London School of Economics and was the President of Sivensa, one of Venezuela’s largest steel companies. Maria Machado comes from one of Venezuela’s wealthiest families, the Machado Zuloagas. [1] They were a Basque family who arrived in Venezuela in the 1700s. They were large landowners and used enslaved people to grow crops.[2] One of her early ancestors was the 3 rd Marquis of Toro, Sebastian Jose Antonio Rodriguez, who was a Mayor of Caracas during Spanish colonial rule. Much of the family’s wealth came from operating Caracas’ electricity grid through a Company (La Electricidad de Caracas) founded by Ricardo Zuloaga Tovar in 1895.[3] ...

  2004: Globovision’s Racist Commentary Was Condemned by African Diplomats President Hugo Chavez hosted the 12 th G-15 Summit in Caracas on February 27-28, 2004.The Summit was attended by leaders, representatives and policymakers from eighteen non-aligned nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Eight Heads of State attended including Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe. On February 28,2004 the television station Globovision broadcast the Talk Show Alo Ciudadano, hosted by the political commentator, Leopoldo Castillo. The Show included a video clip of President Mugabe closing his eyes during one of the speeches. The clip featured humorous music and snoring noises in the background while Castillo mentioned that it reminded him of the movie “The Planet of the Apes.” [1]. One of the Show’s guests Humberto Calderon Berti, added that it reminded him “of a little dog falling off a taxicab.” The other show host, Marisabel Parraga, also laughed at Mugabe. A group of African Diploma...

  2013: The Supreme Court Confirmed Maduro’s Presidential Election On April 14, 2013, the National Electoral Council (CNE) declared that Nicolas Maduro had been elected President of Venezuela defeating Henrique Capriles by 1.5% of the vote. Capriles asked the Supreme Court to annul the election result due to fraud and bias of the CNE.[1]   Arguing that the voting was marred by “irregularities”, his lawyers said the goal was to force a new election.[2] Capriles had already stated that he didn’t expect a “fair” ruling from the Supreme Court, which he accused of being controlled by the government. The Capriles campaign said that they would go through all domestic institutions before taking their complaints before international institutions.[1] Capriles said he hoped that international pressure would impel a change in Venezuela. [2] On August 7, Supreme Court Magistrate Gladys Gutierrez announced that the Court had reached a unanimous decision and rejected Capriles’ appeal c...