[NYTr] More anti-Venezuela Propaganda on Bank of the South, "Drug Trafficking"
 
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 02:11:28 -0500 (CDT)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
excerpted from VIO Venezuelan News Roundup - Oct 22, 2007

[The new South American development bank, called Bank of the South, will
be inaugurated in Caracas early next month and will include its eighth
and most recent member state, Colombia.  The New York Times considers
the role that the bank may have in the region, suggesting that it may
struggle to compete with more established regional financial
institutions like the IMF and that Venezuela's leadership might make it
politicized.  The bank, though, reflects the growing interdependence of
Latin American nations and their greater distance from the US.  This
trend is partly a response to IMF lending in prior decades that led
many countries to financial ruin.  As the two biggest economies in
South America, Brazil and Venezuela are key members of the bank, which
will provide financing for development projects on the continent.
Venezuelan Finance Minister Rodrigo Cabezas is currently in Washington
for meetings and public events promoting the bank. -VIO]

The New York Times - Oct 22, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/22/world/americas/22bank.html

ChC!vez's Plan for Development Bank Moves Ahead

By Alexei Barrionuevo

RIO DE JANEIRO -- The idea by Hugo ChC!vez, Venezuela's president, to
create a Bank of the South to finance regional development projects is
moving forward, aided by the tacit approval of Brazil, which has South
America's largest economy.

Colombia's president, Clvaro Uribe, right, said his country would join
the bank being created by Hugo ChC!vez, left.

But doubts persist about the need for such a bank, which many
economists and analysts continue to see as a political move by Mr.
ChC!vez to try to spread his influence and carry out his crusade against
Washington-based multilateral institutions like the World Bank and the
Inter-American Development Bank.

Seven South American countries are expected to inaugurate the new bank
at a ceremony on Nov. 3 in Caracas, Venezuela's capital, where it will
be based. At a meeting here earlier this month the countries --
Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela --
signed off on the idea of creating an institution with up to $7 billion
in initial capital, paving the way for the bank to begin operating as
early as 2008.

An eighth country, Colombia, said earlier this month that it wanted to
be included as well. Colombia's president, Clvaro Uribe, said his
country would join the new bank as long as it was an "expression of
solidarity and brotherhood," and not a rejection of the international
lending institutions.

The Bank of the South will be organized to promote investment in
infrastructure and could help stimulate greater regional trade and
integration. Mr. ChC!vez says he sees it as an alternative financing
institution to the World Bank, the I.D.B. and the International
Monetary Fund, all of which have significant Washington involvement.

"The idea is to rely on a development agency for us, led by us,"
Rodrigo Cabezas, Venezuela's finance minister, said earlier this month.

The bank's formation comes at a time when South America is awash in
development money, both public and private, and when most of the
continent's economies have increased their credit ratings to levels
that make the cost of borrowing cheaper than during the past two
decades. That is one reason that Chile, which has the continent's best
credit rating, has not signed onto the project.

"The macroeconomic picture in Latin America is as good as it has ever
been," Luis Alberto Moreno, the president of the I.D.B., said in an
interview last week. Still, he said: "There is plenty of room for
everybody. The challenges of development in Latin America are very big."

Brazil has sent mixed messages about its support for the institution.
It declined to give its support until clarifying that the bank's role
would be limited to aiding investment in the region, and would not
create an emergency fund to bail out countries in economic crisis as
the I.M.F. does, which Mr. ChC!vez had set as an initial goal.

"Brazil has shown less interest because it has the greatest credit
capacity," said Guido Mantega, the country's finance minister. But, he
said, "we continue to support the project because it will benefit our
commercial partners and Brazilian businesses."

In an interview last month, Brazil's president, Luiz InC!cio Lula da
Silva, dismissed concerns that Venezuela would try to exert more
control over the bank. "It is small-minded to think that one bank
created with the multilateral representation of many countries would be
at the service of one person or one country," Mr. da Silva said. "It's
not that simple."

But some analysts say that despite Brazil's grudging support, the
bank's potential for politicization is a concern. "Brazil wants to
avoid showing that it is somehow part of a ChC!vez-led institution that
is making loans for projects that are being judged more for their
political ideology than for their economic viability," said Peter
Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a policy group in
Washington that focuses on Latin America.

Brazil's own development bank, the Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento
EconC4mico e Social, has become a force, lending $34 billion in the past
year for Brazilian projects. Before last week's annual meetings in
Washington of the World Bank and the I.M.F., Luciano Coutinho, the
president of the Brazilian bank, said he would propose creating a fund
through his bank whose purpose would seem to duplicate the mission of
the Bank of the South.

The fund, Mr. Coutinho said, would finance integration projects in
Brazil and South America with the World Bank and the Inter-American
Development Bank.

Several issues remain unresolved about how the Bank of the South would
function, including how much capital each country would commit, what
its lending conditions would be and whether the members would have
equal voting rights.

Mr. Mantega, Brazil's finance minister, said it was still unclear
whether Brazil and Venezuela would enter the bank with higher capital
levels. Brazil appeared to make a major concession last week, however,
when Mr. Mantega said each country would have voting rights in the
bank's administrative council.

Meanwhile, development banks already based in the region, like the
CorporaciC3n Andina de Fomento in Caracas, are waiting to see how an
institution more closely aligned with Mr. ChC!vez's political objectives
will compete in granting loans.

The new bank could struggle to be competitive with the I.D.B.,
especially, which has investment grade status in the international
markets due to the participation of the United States and other
developed nations, and therefore obtains resources at relatively low
cost. None of the future partners of the Bank of the South borrow on
terms readily available to rich, industrialized nations. If the bank is
able to obtain resources in the international capital markets, it is
likely to be at higher costs than those paid by Brazil or Colombia,
economists say.

Still, efforts by leaders in the region to remain on good terms with
Mr. ChC!vez appear to be outweighing uncertainty about the new
institution. Countries like Argentina, Brazil and Colombia, after all,
are profiting as never before from exporting food and consumer goods to
Venezuela, where domestic producers have been stymied by price controls
and uncertainty over Mr. ChC!vez's economic policies.

[Simon Romero contributed reporting from Caracas, Venezuela.]

                              ***

[The next is by the execrable Juan Forero, who has done much
Chavez-bashing, first for the New York Times, and then The Washington
Post. Now he's being given houseroom on NPR. He doesn't explicitly
BLAME Venezuela for the drug-trade exactly... He just regurgitates the
USA's propaganda line.  The Times, meanwhile, has Simon Romero these
days doing their anti-Chavez reporting. Romero contributed to the
article undermining the Bank of the South, above. -NY Transfer]

[NPR reports on drug trafficking through Venezuela today, the result of
geographic proximity to Colombia, the world's largest cocaine
producer.  Government anti-trafficking efforts in Venezuela are
downplayed, despite recent seizures that indicate increased policing,
corruption purges, and investments in training and new
counter-narcotics technologies.  Venezuelan officials are deemed
uncooperative with US anti-drug agencies, however, a US arms sales ban
in 2006 has made it more difficult to Venezuelan police to patrol the
1,300 border with Colombia.  

Also in international news, US funding to the political opposition in
Venezuela being examined in the lead-up to a national referendum.  The
Associated Press reports that NGOs in Venezuela may be obligated to
make their funding sources public, as is required by law in other
countries including the US. -VIO]

National Public Radio Morning Edition - Oct 22, 2007
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15126818&ft=1&f=1004

Cocaine Finds a New Latin American Home

By Juan Forero

South America's cocaine pipeline is always adapting, particularly when
the pressure is on.

That pressure, applied in Colombia through an American-backed anti-drug
campaign, has had an unintended effect: Colombian traffickers have set
up shop in neighboring Venezuela.

This has helped make Venezuela a major platform to ship drugs on to
Europe and the United States.

American and Colombian counter-drug officials say that cocaine is
increasingly crossing into Venezuela, doubling in the last decade to an
estimated 200 metric tons this past year.

Much of it gets into Venezuela through dozens of unpatrolled rivers
flowing between the two countries, like the long, Tachira River. Or it
travels on short flights from clandestine airfields in Colombia's vast
jungle to airstrips just 50 or 100 miles away in Venezuela.

Once in Venezuela, the merchandise is flown out in small planes to the
Dominican Republic or Haiti ? before the drugs hit American cities. Or
they go by plane and shipping container to Europe ? and increasingly
the first stop of those shipments is West Africa.

The Drug Frontier

A narrow bridge over the Tachira River joins Venezuela with Colombia.
The music played on this bridge is all about the frontier ? a jagged,
porous, violent 1,300 mile border that, for all intents and purposes,
exists in name only.

In Urena, Venezuela, people cross the bridge by the thousands, on foot
and on rickety motorcycles, past vendors selling chilled juice and
listening to radios. They pull suitcases and carry over-sized boxes.

Trucks roll in by the thousands. The inspections are usually
perfunctory.

Those lax inspections have permitted tons of cocaine to make its way
from Colombia ? where most of the world's cocaine is produced ? and
onto the first leg of an indirect, multi-nation journey.

Gen. Oscar Naranjo is chief of Colombia's National Police. He's a man
who has been chasing traffickers since the days when the merchandise of
choice were bales of marijuana.

"What we've seen in recent years is a proliferation of routes from
Latin America to Africa, Africa to Europe," Naranjo said. "That
signifies that the corridor they've tried to use to move drugs goes
through Colombia, Venezuela, some African countries and some European
countries."

Venezuela's Exacerbated Drug Problem

Anti-drug agencies say complicity by Venezuelan officials has
exacerbated the problem.

Venezuelan Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez, in a rare interview,
acknowledges that a problem exists.

Two institutions that have had members linked to drug trafficking
include the DISIP, Venezuela's intelligence service and the National
Guard, which is omnipresent on the border.

"There is complacency or participation in drug trafficking [by those
agencies]," Rodriguez says. "And not just them, but civil authorities
in airports."

Indeed, one of the key jumping off points for Colombian cocaine is the
airport in Venezuela's capital, Caracas. American and Colombian
officials say bribes are regularly paid out to airport workers.

They then look the other way. Up to a ton of cocaine is shipped out
each month in small planes traveling to the Caribbean or on the many
commercial flights to Europe.

Lack of Cooperation

Washington has pumped billions of dollars into Colombia's battle
against narcotics trafficking, but the country hasn't won such
cooperation from Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez ? a populist who is
not a fan of the Bush administration.

Chavez frequently derides President Bush on his weekly broadcast. In a
recent show, he called him a donkey.

Chavez's government says that the Americans are tarnishing Venezuela by
accusing it of being soft on traffickers.

He stopped American anti-drug flights over Venezuelan air space long
ago. He also ended cooperation with the Drug Enforcement
Administration, accusing its agents of spying.

John Walters, the White House drug czar, denies such charges. He says
the lack of cooperation has been a boon to the drug trade.

"When you don't keep the pressure on, it dwells like a cancer where
it's not effectively challenged," Walters says. "Right now, that cancer
is growing in Venezuela."

Tackling Latin America's Drug Problem

Walters says the pressure by Colombian authorities on Colombian
traffickers has been fierce. It's led to some recent raids, like the
one in Colombia that led to the arrest of Diego Montoya, who was on the
FBI's top ten most wanted list.

Such raids have forced other traffickers to seek refuge in Venezuela.
Colombian intelligence believes that Wilber Varela, considered by some
anti-drug agencies to be the top trafficker in South America, is hiding
out in Venezuela.

One of the most knowledgeable people in Venezuela about the drug trade
is Mildred Camero. Until 2005, she was the drug czar for Chavez's
government. Though well-regarded, she was abruptly removed.

She now is a consultant on drug issues to the United Nations, the
United States and private businesses.

"The problem of drugs has gotten out of the hands of Venezuela," Camero
says. "Now the big deals are not done in Bogota. They're done in
Caracas because there's an open door. Since Colombia has a defined
policy of fighting drug trafficking and the guerrillas, well, they come
to Venezuela and do business here in Caracas."

Venezuela's Anti-Drug Efforts

One of the biggest traffickers in Venezuela had been Farid Feris
Dominguez ? now jailed in Colombia.

Since his capture last year, he's become a major font of information
about other Venezuelan traffickers and the officials who help them.

At Combito Prison in Colombia, Dominguez spoke of traffickers being in
league with authorities. He recalled how he operated with a Venezuelan
diplomatic passport.

Dominguez's disclosures have been passed on to Venezuelan officials.
And it has prompted some ousters. The most significant has been of Luis
Correa, the country's drug czar until Chavez removed him earlier this
year.

Camero says she still sees little commitment in the fight against
trafficking.

"There is no political commitment. Why? Because they're not interested
because they're getting rich," Camero says. "Now the situation in
Venezuela is grave, grave, grave. At some moment, we're going to
collapse."

Venezuelan officials counter critiques by saying that they work closely
with their British and Dutch counterparts. They say Dominguez, after
all, was captured on Venezuelan soil.

Increased Violence in Venezuelan Cities

What everyone does seem to agree on is that drugs and violence have
whipsawed Venezuela's urban centers, making some neighborhoods in
Caracas among Latin America's most dangerous.

El Valle in Caracas is one of the toughest neighborhoods. By day,
vendors crowd streets. Music wafts from boom boxes. By night, 15
violent gangs take over, vying for control of the drug trade.

Mercedes Eloisa Caraballo lost a son on a recent night.

She talks and cries. She recalls with anguish how Deivi Alexander
Batista had hoped to play professional baseball. Then gunmen pumped
eight bullets into him.

"They called me and I ran out to where he was. I said, 'Don't kill him.
Don't kill him,'" Caraballo says. "He tried to get up with the first
shot, and one kid said he has to die. And so they killed him."

Colombian officials say there's a lesson in the violence.

Colombian investigators interrogated a leading trafficker, Luis
Hernando Gomez, before he was extradited to the United States. Gomez
called Venezuela a "temple" of narco-trafficking and said that the
Venezuelans had no idea how bad it was going to get.

                              ***

AP via Intl Herald Tribune - Oct 19, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/19/america/LA-GEN-Venezuela-Constitution.php

Venezuela NGOs warn against Chavez plan to 
ban foreign funding amid constitutional reforms

The Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuelan non-governmental organizations warned
Friday that President Hugo Chavez's proposal to prevent "political
associations" from accepting foreign donations may strangle
pro-democracy and human rights groups.

Several NGO leaders said they fear that government officials, who often
dismiss them as "coup-plotters" and "imperialists," could target rights
groups if the proposed ban is approved as part of a constitutional
reform package due for a referendum in December.

"We believe this could be intended to close off the possibility of
international financing for non-governmental human rights groups," said
Liliana Ortega, director of the Venezuelan human rights watchdog
Cofavic.

If labeled "political" by Chavez's government, groups like hers could
lose most or all their funding, she said, noting that Cofavic is
entirely financed by foreign organizations and governments including
the European Union, Germany and Spain.

Jose Albornoz of the pro-Chavez Fatherland For All party denied the
proposed ban targets human rights organizations, but did say it would
affect Sumate ? a U.S.-funded pro-democracy group that helped organize
a failed 2004 recall vote against Chavez.

"It depends on their activities ? if they collect signatures to revoke
the president's mandate, that's political activity," Albornoz said.
Otherwise, "NGOs should not feel they'll be affected," he added.

Cofavic and four other NGOs also expressed concern about an amendment
that would allow the government to detain people without charges during
a national emergency. They stopped short of urging citizens to vote
against the proposed constitutional changes in a Dec. 2 national poll.

Chavez ? a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro ? has accused
Washington of supporting efforts to destabilize his government by
funding local NGOs, and Venezuela's legislature has separately
considered a bill aimed at cracking down on foreign assistance to local
groups.

The U.S. government denies those accusations, saying that millions of
dollars (euros) in aid have in fact financed nonpartisan, pro-democracy
work.

"Unfortunately, the government of Venezuela has taken a number of steps
that have eroded the foundations of democracy in the country," U.S.
Embassy spokeswoman Robin Holzhauer said in a phone interview.

Venezuela's legislature is expected to approve a package of 58 separate
constitutional amendments later this month, before sending it to voters.

Concerns over the reforms have also been raised by Venezuelan media
executives and Roman Catholic leaders, the latter saying in a statement
Friday that the proposed changes "violate fundamental individual and
democratic rights."

The Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders has urged the
legislature to rethink the reform package, which it said would violate
press freedom and the right to information.

Miguel Henrique Otero, editor of one of Venezuela's largest newspapers,
El Nacional, worried the new laws would boost government control over
the press.

"If there's no access to information during a state of emergency, it's
the state that determines what is published and what is not," he said.

Chavez defends the amendments, which would also eliminate presidential
term limits, as fully democratic and meant to speed Venezuela's
transition to socialism.

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