Published: Wednesday, December 15, 2010 Bylined to: Patrick J. O'Donoghue VHeadline Venezuela news review for Wednesday, December 15, 2010
<http://www.vheadline.com/graf/Patrick_2010-05-23_152820.jpg>* presented by VHeadline News Editor Patrick J. O'Donoghue* *Government hands AN request for 12-month Enabling Law powers* ** Executive Vice President Elias Jaua has confirmed that President Chavez has formally asked the National Assembly (AN) to allow him to govern by decree for twelve months via an Enabling Law. Jaua said the petition is based on the "deep crisis caused by the recent emergency" after heavy rains and flooding unleashed a serious housing problem. The decrees will deal with "structural causes that continue to keep a large sector of the population in poverty" public services infrastructure, housing and habitat, territorial ordinance, integral development, use of urban and rural lands, finances and taxes and other security and defense issues will come under review. The National Assembly is expected to deal with the request speedily. *VP Jaua: media law reform bill seeks IPS server responsibility* Executive Vice President Elias Jaua has denied that the government is attempting to restrict Internet access in Venezuela. Jaua pointed to the government opening access to children through its primary school Canaima network. What the government wanted to ensure, the Vice President insisted, was "constitutional responsibility" on the part of the IPS servers that have allowed users to set up forums that foment social hatred, social fragmentation and assassination spiel. Jaua said servers must administer free and plural communication but with responsibility. The bottom line is that the government has the right to defend State and national security "we will not allow a TV channel to broadcast incitement to rebellion and war by coupster generals that's not acceptable in any democratic society in any part of the world." The National Assembly is currently debating the first reading of the media reform bill. *PJ deputy-elect leads insipid anti-enabling law protest* Primero Justicia (PJ) deputy-elect, Julio Borges has stolen the march on fellow opposition deputy-elect by calling them all to show their faces in opposing President Chavez' request for an Enabling Law. Borges wants to provoke an idealistic or opportunistic meeting between current National Assembly and (opposition) deputies elected on September 26 who will take their seats on January 5. The PJ leader organized a protest outside Parliament, along with journalists opposing the media law reform bill. Anti-Communist deputy-elect, Maria Corina Machado was one of the first to join Borges in the protest. *Chavez ready to liberate South of Lake from mafia rancher caste *President Chavez has reacted to a threat from big ranchers and farmers in the South of Lake Maracaibo area to take up arms to defend lands that the government had ordered expropriated. In the first place, Chavez retorted on national TV and radio, the ranchers do not own the land because the lands belong to the nation. "they are land-grabbers." Secondly, Chavez declared, the area must be liberated and if he has to send in the army and the National Guard, he will do so. The zone must be "liberated from mafia groups, paramilitaries and so much misery." Agriculture Minister Juan Carlos Loyo has already been targeted by rancher vigilantes launching direct death threats. Loyo is currently presidential commissioner for the South of the Lake zone. This is the first time the government has decided to take on the big farmer caste, which for decades has been a law unto itself, ruling over peasants with an iron fist. *Barinas agrarian reform office intervened to rout out corruption* * *The National Lands Institute (INTI) office in Barinas has been intervened after a case of corruption was unveiled. Three officials were discovered shaking down a land-owner for money in return for helping him hold on to landed property. Barinas State Governor Adan Chavez said the case is just one of several in process. Chavez added that an investigation will be carried out into all administrative transactions and functioning of the INTI office. *The State Governor admitted that such cases of corruption "damage the process of building Bolivarian socialism."* *AN deputy slams PROVEA HR as CIA-funded and controlled United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) National Assembly (AN) deputy, Iris Varela* has come out strongly against long-standing human rights group PROVEA. Reacting to opposition from PROVEA regarding a draft law that aims to control funding for non-government organizations (NGOs) from foreign organizations, Varela said everybody in Venezuela is well aware of the political position of PROVEA directors. It is well known, she continued, how the CIA monitors countries through NGOs and how the CIA finances them to serve US political interests and create currents of opinion. PROVEA is a typical case, Varela declared, pointing to PROVEA's annual report in which it is claimed that forced disappearances and torture have increased. Not true, the deputy said "the alleged disappeared have families and so far none has lodged any denunciation not even the right-wing media have commented on the issue." PROVEA has not responded to the charges to date. *MAT Minister: South of Lake measures obey humanitarian concerns *Agriculture & Lands (MAT) Minister, Juan Carlos Loyo has said President Chavez' measure to expropriate 43 farms in the South of Lake Maracaibo zone has a profound humanitarian objective. The farms totaling 20,200 hectares will be placed at the disposition of the real rural workers, the exploited poor and casual help. One of the causes of severe flooding forcing 9,000 rural inhabitants to leave their homes and take to the hills, Loyo accused, was the irresponsible management of water by some ranchers and farmers whose ranches were built on high ground. Loyo has called on the ranchers to sit down with the government to work out the assessment and compensation process. It appears that what President Chavez and Loyo saw during their visit to the area formed the basis for radical action, for example, they were witnesses to a family with two Downe syndrome children living in a floorless shack the whole family including the children worked for a local plantain farmer. *Caracas reconstruction work already underway *Minister of State for the Reconstruction of Caracas, Francisco Sesto has affirmed that the reconstruction process has already started with an assessment of dwellings situated in high-risk areas. Sesto made the statement from a shelter for 944 persons in (Caracas) La Vega district. The Minister has already taken steps to stop people evacuated from high-risk hillsides from returning and others from moving in. Sesto highlighted the aim of the new ministry as "converting Caracas into a great city with decent dwellings, excellent water and electricity services and garbage-free streets." A tall order but the real objective is house-building to cater for the many families moved into shelters after heavy rains and mudslides forced them to leave their houses. *Venezuela must answer questions about Cancun climate change summit* *Silence in pro-government and opposition media about the climate change summit in Cancun compared to the bombast and "bloodied palm" performance of Claudia Salerno is puzzling. * Reports and interviews of Venezuelan special representatives before the summit highlighted the fact that members of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas ((ALBA) had agreed to present a common front at the summit making acceptance of the Kyoto Protocol a principle. Now news reports from British sources allege that Bolivia has gone it alone in defending the rights of Mother Earth and that Cuba and Venezuela have supposedly grown cold on the issue. More confusing still, there have been no official statements from Salerno and her colleagues about how Venezuela responded during the summit. Environmentalists in the country have expressed a certain amount of hesitation about the Venezuelan government's approach to climate change and some go so far as to suggest that the Environment Ministry is a dead duck. The ministry has done little to promote public awareness about climate change issues and contamination. Salerno doesn't work for the Environment Ministry ... *she works for the Foreign Ministry apparently as a consultant.* Some transparency is needed to satisfy suspicious and committed grassroot and medium cadres. Did Venezuela and Cuba leave Bolivia in the lurch? Patrick J. 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