[In a provocative journal article on Chávez's strategy to project power abroad...]If a foreign government or politician accepts Venezuelan aid, what follows is more than just clinics. Recipients are free to use the money as they see fit. Rarely can politicians receive this amount of aid unconditionally. Venezuelan aid, therefore, often functions as a blank check for any type of domestic spending, not necessarily pro-poor spending.
Venezuela has thus developed a new export model. It is not so much the export of war, as Cuba did during the Cold War, or the export of weapons, as Russia still does. It is certainly not the export of technological know-how as OECD countries do or the export of inexpensive manufactures as China does. It’s the export of corruption. Venezuelan aid is billed as investment in social services, but in fact it consists mostly of unaccountable financing of campaigns, unelected social movements, business deals, and even political patronage by state officials. In this era in which elections are fiercely competitive almost everywhere in Latin America, Venezuelan-type aid is irresistible.
Quico says: Oh, I do enjoy riling you all up once in a while. But since the general level of up-rilery appears to be a bit higher than usual this time, I thought I would clarify.
Paris, France.
Quico says: So we're all supposed to be sad now that oppo radio-broadcaster Onda la Superestación has canceled Nelson Bocaranda's long-running political gossip show, "Los Runrunes de Nelson Bocaranda".
San Antonio, Texas, USA. 11:20 AM.
Quico says: If the Chávez regime retains some patina of legitimacy in international circles beyond the know-nothing lefty fringe, that sense arises almost exclusively from one source: its electoral mandate. In our era, the vote is sacred: simply noting that Chávez governs by the will of the people is a powerful legitimating discourse.
Quico says: I've been in a bit of a funk, lately. What can I say? Caracas got me down this time. There's something about life in this incredibly hostile, constantly on-the-brink city that wears away at you. I'm sure it would, even without all the political BS. But it's the layering of BS on top of BS, the kind of bovine-scatology milhojas, that really wears you down.
Maputo, Mozambique. 11 am.
Juan Cristóbal says: - The soap opera continues.
Quico says: This one is straight from the Annals of News Whose Relevance To Us is Downright Depressing. TNR, in an article about the weird confluence of interests between Chinese hippie cultists and Iranian liberals, notes that, It terrifies me to realize that, in the coming years, these kinds of technologies are likely to go from novelty to necessity for Venezuelan liberals.When dissident Iranians chatted with each other and the outside world [after Ahmadinejad's fishy re-election], they likely had no idea that many of their missives were being guided and guarded by 50 Falun Gong programmers spread out across the United States. These programmers, who almost all have day jobs, have created programs called Freegate and Ultrasurf that allow users to fake out Internet censors. Freegate disguises the browsing of its users, rerouting traffic using proxy servers. To prevent the Iranian authorities from cracking their system, the programmers must constantly switch the servers, a painstaking process.
The Falun Gong has proselytized its software with more fervor than its spiritual practices. It distributes its programs for free through an organization called the Global Internet Freedom Consortium (GIFC), sending a downloadable version of the software in millions of e-mails and instant messages. In July 2008, it introduced a Farsi version of its circumvention tool.
While it is hardly the only group to offer such devices, the Falun Gong’s program is particularly popular thanks to its simplicity and relative speed. In fact, according to Shiyu Zhou, the deputy director of GIFC, the Farsi software was initially so popular that the group shut it down soon after introducing it. Iranians had simply swamped their servers, even outnumbering Freegate’s Chinese users.
Haarlem, The Netherlands. September 18, 6.30 pm
Juan Cristóbal says: - The New York Times has an excellent review of the new book of photography, "Capitolio," by Christopher Anderson. The images are haunting, and the review itself is not to be missed.
Juan Cristóbal says: - Few things thrill Hugo Chávez more than seeing a leftist win an election. Whether it's in El Salvador, Ecuador, Bolivia or Spain, he can't help gushing over any victory for his anti-imperialist "side."
Lusaka, Zambia. 2:00PM.
Quico says: Fly into Venezuela and you come face-to-face with the single most important element reshaping Venezuelan society literally as soon as you've entered the country.
Quito, Ecuador - 4:16 p.m.
Juan Cristóbal says: - Ridiculous deadlines are preventing us from posting more regularly, but ridiculous headlines bring us back. So, we couldn't pass up the delicious irony of this little nugget: the IMF has apparently loaned $3.5 billion to the Central Bank of Venezuela. Yes, that's billions of dollars, not roubles.
Prince Edward Island, Canada - 10:00 a.m.
Quico says: The Education Ministry's byzantine conspiracy theories about the real reasons the opposition is upset at the new Framework Law on Education would be easier to swallow if it wasn't for the mountains evidence hiding in plain sight to explain why people are jittery about the government's handling of schools. Rather than carp on emails that are plain old made up, shouldn't MinPoPoEdu have a look at this press release, put out by the government's own press agency, touting president Chávez's plan to distribute El Correo del Orinoco to every school in the country?
New York, NY - 5:28 p.m.
Nairobi, Kenya - 12:24 p.m.
Klepp, Norway - 4:58 p.m.
Quico says: Today, chavismo made a great leap forward in answering that age old question - is it possible for someone who isn't dead yet to roll in his grave?
By Robert M. Morgenthau
The diplomatic ties between Iran and Venezuela go back almost fifty years and until recently amounted to little more than the routine exchange of diplomats. With the election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005 the relationship dramatically changed. Today I believe it is fair to say they have created a flourishing partnership rooted in a shared anti-American rhetoric and policy.
In April 2008, Venezuela and Iran entered into a Memorandum of Understanding pledging full military support and cooperation. It has been reported that since 2006 Iranian military advisors have been embedded with Venezuelan troops. Asymmetric warfare, taught to members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Hezbollah and Hamas, has replaced U.S. Army field manuals as the standard Venezuelan military doctrine.
And let there be no doubt that Hugo Chavez leads not only a corrupt government but one staffed by terrorist sympathizers. The government has strong ties to narco-trafficking and money laundering, and reportedly plays an active role in the transshipment of narcotics and the laundering of narcotics proceeds in exchange for payments to corrupt government officials.
But Venezuela’s link to terrorist organizations does not stop with FARC. Particularly alarming, within the ranks of Chavez’s corrupt government lie supporters of Hezbollah.
The relationship we are discussing today was underscored over the past few days during Chavez’s visit to the Middle East. This past weekend, after meeting with Ahmadinejad in Tehran, both leaders reiterated their pledge to stand up to imperialist nations. Ahmadinejad said, “expansion of Tehran-Caracas relations is necessary given their common interests, friends and foes.” Without providing details, Chavez was quoted as saying that with Iran’s help he plans to build a “nuclear village” in Venezuela. Supporting Iran’s claims that its nuclear ambitions are for peaceful purposes, Chavez stated, “there is not a single proof that Iran is building a… nuclear bomb.” The matters I am about to discuss belie that claim.
I believe the nature of Iran’s relationship with Venezuela makes for a more dangerous Iran. The Iranians, calculating and clever in their diplomatic relations, have found the perfect ally in Venezuela. Venezuela has an established financial system that, with Chavez’s help, can be exploited to avoid economic sanctions. As well, its geographic location is ideal for building and storing weapons of mass destruction far away from Middle Eastern states threatened by Iran’s ambition and from the eyes of the international community.
This scheme is known as “nesting.” Nested accounts occur when a foreign financial institution gains access to the U.S. financial system by operating through a U.S. correspondent account belonging to another foreign financial institution. For example, BID who is prohibited from establishing a relationship with a U.S. bank could instead establish a relationship with a Venezuelan or Panamanian bank that has a relationship with a U.S. bank. If the U.S. bank is unaware that its foreign correspondent financial institution customer is providing such access to a sanctioned third-party foreign financial institution, this third-party financial institution can effectively gain anonymous access to the U.S. financial system.
So why is Chavez willing to open up his country to a foreign nation with little in shared history or culture? I believe it is because his regime is corrupt, hell-bent on becoming a regional power, and fanatical in its approach to dealing with the U.S. The diplomatic overture of President Obama in shaking Chavez’s hand in April at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago is not a reason to assume a diminished threat from our neighbor to the south. In fact, with the groundwork laid years ago, we are entering a period where the fruits of the Iran-Venezuela bond will begin to ripen.
The Iranian nuclear and long-range missile threats and creeping Iranian influence in the Western Hemisphere cannot be overlooked. My office and other law enforcement agencies can play a small but important role in ensuring that money laundering, terror financing, and sanctions violations are not ignored, and that criminals and the banks that aid Iran will be discovered and prosecuted. We all know that stopping the flow of illicit funds has a direct correlation to curbing wrongful conduct. But certainly law enforcement in the U.S. alone is not enough to counter the threat effectively.
Juan Cristóbal says: - It's hard to understate the disarray in Venezuela's multi-colored, multi-generational opposition movement. The tsunami of legislation the government has barraged us with have left people with a sense of deja funk, a feeling that we should just aflojar las nalgas and resign ourselves to giving up what little civil liberties we have.
Brisbane, Australia - 3:59 p.m.
Colinas de Bello Monte, Caracas, Venezuela - 2:22 p.m.
Prior Lake, Minnesota - 1:10 p.m.
Juan Cristóbal says: - The quote of the day comes from the Venice love-fest between Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez and Oliver Stone:"I used the real man," Stone said. "I hope you realize how dynamic he is in the movie. What I like about the film is you see how sincere he is on camera. You don't see a guy who is a phony. He's not a dictator."Stone's advisors for the film? Major PSFs Tariq Ali and Mark Weisbrot. Enough said.
Quico says: Chávez henchman Diosdado Cabello's decision to shut down another 29 radio stations (but which ones?) sounds very much like a mopping up operation. Because, between the first set of closures last month and the Heavy Duty self-censorship now evident on Venezuelan radio, most of the heavy lifting has already been accomplished. Just a few insufficiently cowed private stations remain and, as we can now see, not for much longer.
Providence, Rhode Island - 12:10 p.m.
Quico says: Time was when strongmen could put a stranglehold on society's capacity to organize itself against them just by setting up a censorship board and throwing a few dozen journos in jail.
Quico says: I hadn't wanted to mention it, but I guess this post blows my cover. I'm in Caracas again, working on a couple of projects. When I'm in town, I always spend a lot of time listening to the radio, catching up with the one bit of the Venezuelan public sphere I really don't have access to abroad. The experience this time has shaken me.
Greenwich, Connecticut - 3:01 p.m.
