The PSUV defines economic war

The “Ideological Document” of the Ideological and Programmatic Commission of the Third Congress of the ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV), comes preceded by an explanatory glossary published in the PSUV web page.

“With the aim of facilitating the debate it is important to offer an approach to certain terms that will be found in the document, some of which could be unfamiliar,” says the introduction.

Most of the terms defined in the short glossary are economical terms taken from Marxist literature. One, however, stands out as an original Venezuelan contribution to the revolutionary lexicon:

Economic War: a conspiracy that uses violent means (both in the physical and subjective sense), and that rides on the annihilating [aniquiladora] logic of capitalism. It uses mechanisms such as programmed scarcity, speculation, and financial manipulation, to overthrow the revolutionary government.   

Carvajal’s arrest in Aruba plotted by Uribe and the Empire

The arrest in Aruba of General Hugo Carvajal was plotted by Colombian ex-president Álvaro Uribe, according to president Maduro.

After Carvajal’s release Maduro declared that the general had been arrested using a “false file put together during the government of Alvaro Uribe, as we will prove in the next days. It was all a false positive organized by the mafia boss Uribe.”

Thursday will be the day, according to Maduro, in which evidence will be released of a plot to “ambush our compañero, with the aim of smearing the reputation of the events which are taking place in our continent, and to blackmail the military of our country.”

General Carvajal is a retired general who has been accuse by the US treasury of drug trafficking and of adding the Colombian FARC. He was appointed Venezuelan Council to Aruba and arrested there on 23 July before receiving diplomatic recognition by the island authorities. He was released on 27 July on a court order from the Netherlands stating the Carvajal enjoyed diplomatic immunity. Aruba’s attorney general denounced however that the island had suffered “economic and military” pressures from Venezuela.

During the commemorations of 60 birthday of Hugo Chávez on 28 July, Maduro reminded followers of the day 60 years ago that had witness the birth “of a prophet that came to break with time and to open a new historical era,” and also of “the battles we have had to fight; the attacks from imperialism and its lackeys around the world, that have tried to defeat the moral and political force of the Bolivarian Revolution, as they have tried to do against general Hugo Carvajal.”

Hannah Dreier on conspiracy theories in Venezuela

Read here a very good and complete article on conspiracy theories in Venezuela written by AP correspondent in Caracas, Hannah Dreier.

She starts with a story of a student leader that has been accused several times of plotting to assassinate the President. He is dismissive at first, but becomes concerned when the denunciations are made on live TV.

This blog, and author, are quoted in the final two paragraphs. 

Diosdado Cabello: opposition leaders should be put on trial for Treason to the Fatherland

During his TV show on public television, Con el Mazo Dando, the president of the National Assembly and vice-president of the PSUV, Diosdado Cabello, said that he will ask the General Attorney to investigate Ramón Muchacho, Mayor of Chacao municipality, and Julio Borges, National Assembly deputy for Primero Justicia, for the crimes of Treason to the Fatherland (Traición a la Patria).

Muchacho and Borges recently participated in the summer forum of the conservative Fundación para el Análisis de Estudios Sociales (FAES) in Spain, where they made harsh criticisms of the Maduro government.

In his TV show, Cabello showed videos of both opposition leaders claiming that the opposition is the victim of persecution and harassment by government officials.

For Cabello these claims, made in an international forum, amount to a “smear campaign against Venezuela directed from abroad.” The final aim of the campaign would be, according to Cabello, “to distort the internal situation [of Venezuela] in order to justify of a foreign intervention.”

Cabello claims that the declarations by Muchacho and Borges are tantamount to the crime of Treason to the Fatherland. He compared the declarations of the opposition leaders to those made by Maria Corina Machado at the Organization of American States in March this year. Machado failed to intervene at the OAS as temporal representative of Panamá, but her attempt was used by Cabello to justify her dismissal from the National Assembly.

(Image from Venezolana de Televisión)

Arrest warrants issued on magnicidio case

Diosdado Cabello, President of the National Assembly, Vice-President of the PSUV, and host of the Venezolana de Televisión weekly show “Con el Mazo Dando,” announced yesterday that warrants have been issued for the arrest of Henrique Salas Römer (ex-governor of Carabobo), Gustavo Tarre (constitutional lawyer), and Robert Alonso (opposition activist), for their participation in a plot to kill President Maduro.

Cabello also alerted that the “Venezuelan right is still promoting international contacts to gain support for their magnicidio and coup plans.” As an example of this he mentioned that Adriana Chacín, leader of opposition party Voluntad Popular, and David Smolansky, opposition mayor of El Hatillo, traveled recently to Panama in order to “acquire financial support for [violent] street actions.”

Cabello made several more accusations of conspiracies by the opposition, for example: the opposition is planning to barricade streets on 5 July (Venezuela’s Independence Day). The opposition is also, according to Cabello, calling on people to attend a ceremony to “soil the flag to the nation.”

(Image from El Universal)

Evidence of magnicidio plot under scrutiny

Pedro Burelli, who according to the Venezuelan government is one of the masterminds of a plot to kill Maduro, has hired the services of cybersecurity experts Kivu Consulting to study a series of e-mails presented by the government as evidence of Burelli’s participation in the plot.

According to Winston Krone of Kivu Consulting, Google has no record of the e-mails were ever been sent by Burelli, therefore Krone concludes that the e-mails were fabricated by the Venezuelan government.

Find here, in Pedro Burelli’s blog, a link the report by Kivu Consulting, here is the Wall street journal article reporting on the issue, here the report by Reuters, and here an article by Alek Boyd.