Venezuela gives Christmas bonus to flood victims; lots of international aid-none from the U.S.

[Peace Patriot]

While the U.S. sneers about Chavez's "decree powers" (emergency powers to help 130,000 homeless flood victims), pushing the "dictator" psyops thing, and while Democrats and Republicans, here, fight over how little help they can give to the poor and how to steal what little the poor have left, this Christmastide, the Chavez government is acting swiftly to aid the victims of catastrophic rains and floods in Venezuela, and is sorting and distributing great volumes of emergency aid supplies from a host of other countries, with the U.S. notably absent from the list of donors. Our government has greeted this disaster with unbecoming glee. Here's my post on that...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x45974

Take a look at the vitriol and callous indifference to the flood victims with which our government, our corpo-fascist press and the rightwing opposition in Venezuela view this matter (discussed in the above thread). They jump all over Chavez for asking for decree powers to deal with this emergency. They say it is a power grab intended to thwart the incoming rightwing minority in the National Assembly, who had so hoped to obstruct any and all help to the poor.

And then please take note, in the following article, of the massive problems that the recent torrential rains and floods have presented to the Chavez government, including a massive temporary shelter operation, massive crop losses, and massive permanent housing and road construction that is now needed. This construction cannot take place without geological surveys and massive financing. Entire new communities need to be built, and all their infrastructure, including water, electricity, communications lines, roads, flood control newly created--all from scratch. 130,000 people (the latest figure) have lost their identity cards and need to be re-censused and issued ID's. Business and employment are extremely disrupted. All are in critical need of immediate financial assistance. Schooling is massively disrupted and health care. As I explained in the other post, legislators granting "decree powers" to presidents is not unusual in Latin America, and it is especially appropriate in such a large natural disaster. And this "decree powers" bill was tailored to this situation.

And can you just imagine how difficult it would have been for the government, and for the 130,000 flood victims, if the rightwing opposition, which gained enough seats in the National Assembly to disrupt aid and reconstruction, had been permitted to do so? What would have happened if the largely Chavista current National Assembly (the outgoing Assembly) had NOT acted to prevent that, had NOT given Chavez sufficient time and power to rebuild these communities and get these people back on their feet?

The rightwing made gains in the by-elections, as often happens to long-lived popular governments. No government can do everything--fulfill every dream--and the gaps in delivery of promises start to accumulate and feed disgruntlement. Yesterday's 50% reduction in poverty--an amazing achievement--fades out and impatience for the total elimination of poverty and fast upward mobility supplant it. This is the inevitable result of having done something good.) Thus, the rightwing--which has no program, just disruption--gained enough seats to make it very difficult for Chavez to successfully address this disaster. And they are a nasty lot of John Boehners, to be sure. They would have GLEEFULLY obstructed Chavez on it, no matter whom it hurt. Rotters. Bastards. Mad Hatter Tea Partyers. Their sole goal is to get Chavez out--just like our Pukes--in the case, to get their dirty hands back on the oil revenues. It grieves them to see it 'wasted' on the poor.

Anyway, here is some of what's going on with disaster relief and some details of the magnitude of the problem.


-------------------------------------------------

Venezuela Provides Christmas Bonus to Flood Victims, Receives Rush of International Aid

By James Suggett - venezuelanalysis.com 12/14/10

Mérida, December 13th 2010 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Emboldened by 267.5 tons of international humanitarian aid, the Venezuelan government intensified its effort to house, feed, provide health care to, and economically revitalize communities ravaged by recent torrential rains and floods.

Following a meeting of the presidential commission for flood relief, Vice President Elías Jaua said the government has received assistance from Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Spain, Switzerland, Belarus, Nicaragua, and Portugal, and that a shipment from Italy is expected in the coming days.

“These gestures are invaluable and they demonstrate that each day, little by little, we are reviving the spirit of the historical legacy of (South American independence hero) Simon Bolivar, coming together again as united brothers and sisters in good and bad times,” said Jaua on Sunday.

The Venezuelan government, led by President Hugo Chavez, is a strong proponent of Latin American integration in accordance with “Bolivarian” values of solidarity and share progress. It also advocates a “multi-polar world” independent from domination by the United States or any other superpower.

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa, an ally of President Chavez, plans to visit Venezuela and neighboring Colombia this week to help coordinate flood relief efforts, according to an official statement from the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Ecuador has donated nine tons of food, 400 mattresses, 400 blankets, 20 tents, and 25 water storage tanks to Venezuela so far, according to the Ecuadoran government.

“Socialist Solidarity Bonuses” for Flood Victims

On Sunday, the state-owned Bank of Venezuela gave a total of 2,992 debit cards charged with a “socialist solidarity bonus” of 1,224 bolivars (US $285) to families in 32 shelters around the capital city where flood victims are being housed. The bonus is equivalent to one month of the national minimum wage

The bank, which was nationalized in 2009, has produced 8,723 bonus debit cards so far, and bank employees intend to work overtime to produce a total of 20,000 to be handed out to flood victims on December 24th, according to Humberto Ortega Díaz, Venezuela’s top official in charge of the public banking sector.

Land Expropriations in Flood-Affected Areas

In order to provide relief for rural communities that lost their crops in the floods, the government will nationalize a total of 20,200 hectares (49,894 acres) in the states of Mérida, Trujillo, and Zulia, according to Agriculture and Land Minister Juan Carlos Loyo.

President Chavez approved an emergency investment of 350 million bolivars (US $81.4 million) to re-build rural infrastructure and revive agricultural production in the region, and the government will cancel any debts owed to state institutions by the region’s producers, Loyo said on Sunday.

The fertile areas south of Lake Maracaibo were among the most devastated by the recent rains. Loyo, who is now stationed in the area, said damage to cattle ranches could potentially cause the loss of 10% of the region’s beef and dairy production. As many as 30,000 hectares (74,100 acres) of plantain and banana plantations – responsible for 40% of the nation’s production of this food staple – were affected by the flooding, Loyo said.

Loyo also denounced the unequal distribution of land that persists in the region, with almost 40% of the land owned by four percent of the population. South of Lake Maracaibo is “one of the zones where there is the most evidence of the inequality of the obsolete and predatory capitalist system,” the minister said.

“The only way for us to help this population is for the revolution to recuperate those latifundios (large, privately-owned estates),” Loyo told reporters after visiting shelters in the area. “The solution lies in solving the problem of structural poverty,” he added.

The government has distributed 136 tons of food and set up 110 shelters for approximately 10,500 people displaced by the rains that swept through the area south of Lake Maracaibo more than a week ago. Classes in public schools were cancelled in order to provide temporary space to house flood victims.

The armed forces, local communal council members, and government functionaries have staffed the shelters, carried out a census of the affected populations, and helped to distribute aid. Minister Loyo said the government has 216 more tons of food ready to be distributed in the coming weeks.

The national office dedicated to identification and migration services, SAIME, has set up mobile offices in the refugee shelters to procure new identity cards to people who lost their cards in the flooding.

Also, Cuban doctors who perform international service in free public health clinics in Venezuela’s poorest neighborhoods have been mobilized to attend to flood victims in the shelters.

Environment Minister Alejandro Hitcher, Transportation and Communications Minister Francisco Garcés, Housing Minister Ricardo Molina, and Women’s Minister Nancy Pérez are also expected to visit the zone to help coordinate relief efforts in the coming days.

President Chávez announced on Friday that he would ask the National Assembly to grant him temporary authority to pass laws by decree in order to further attend to flood victims.

National Assembly Legislator Mario Isea of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, which holds a super majority in the National Assembly until the new National Assembly members take office on January 5, said he expected the so-called “enabling law” to pass to permit Chavez to decree laws for emergency housing, public credits to food producers, and infrastructure repair, among other measures needed to respond to the flooding.

“One of the premises of the humanist policies of the Bolivarian government is to come to the aid of the Venezuelans in emergency situations,” said Isea.

While drizzly gray skies continue to appear over much of Venezuela, it appears the worst of the torrential rains that killed 35 people, destroyed more than 5,000 homes, and displaced as many as 120,000 people in eleven states has finally passed.

http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5859

[social_critic]

1. An overview of the current crisis caused by the rains in Venezuela

The floods and landslides directly impacted about 135 thousand people, or about half of one percent of the total population. These are people whose houses are either gone or were flooded, or are in such precarious state (for example on the edge of a cliff eroded by the rain), that they can't be occupied again.

The good news is the water is going down in many areas, which means many of them are not permanently impacted.

The impacted people can therefore be classified as follows (this is my own method):

Most affected:

Homes lost due to landslides or completely destroyed by floods
Homes located in landslide areas, ready to collapse, but the family goods inside can be recovered.
Homes flooded but can be used again after some work.

Affected but not in crisis:

Families of people who lost homes, have taken in relatives, are overcrowded.
Housing areas or towns with roads cut off due to collapsed roads, landslides, and lost bridges.
People without electricity or clean water.

Affected economically by weather event:

People in tourist areas counting on Xmas visitors, who will not show up due to the collapsed roads & flooding

Affected by government action:

People whose property has been confiscated, expropriated, or invaded by roaming bands.

Overall, the impact is indeed severe. Whether a set of laws by a lame duck congress are needed is another matter. Laws to control the internet and the media, to take power away from town mayors and governors, to control the universities, and to give the executive branch the ability to legislate by decree seem to be unrelated to the crisis as such. We should recall that the communists still retain the majority in the new Congress, what they lack is the ability to pass constitutional amendments and other major revisions. Plus of course the new congress will work a little more like in other countries, they'll actually have opposition in sufficient numbers to have meaningful debates.

The economy is now predicted to drop considerably in 2010, and a devaluation is anticipated for January. The devalulation is badly needed to encourage national production, but other government moves are needed, such as an increase in the price of gasoline, and a re-activation of the oil industry, which is suffering from lack of investment.

Many of the moves being made now are likely to be counterproductive, and the result of panic. It's ridiculous.

As i mentioned before, Heinz Dieterich has pointed out in his writings that lack of criticism is what doomed the Cuban regime - which is now being forced to turn towards a form of capitalism. The reflex defense of government authorities without engaging in honest criticism is truly damaging the cause of the revolution. On the other hand, those who are willing to point out flaws and are pragmatic help the revolution a lot more than you think.

[naaman fletcher]

2. They are willing to criticize the flaws of the asldministration

There just aren't any to criticize.

[Peace Patriot]

3. We've been hearing about "Chavez the dictator" non-stop for almost a decade.

Unvarying theme of the U.S. government, the corpo-fascist press and the rightwing opposition. They were calling him a "dictator" even as they were suspending the constitution, the courts, the national assembly and all civil rights and kidnapping him and threatening his life.

Chavez just kept winning elections by big margins and doing great things--if you bothered to look for information outside this monomaniacal din of USAID/fascist "talking points" headlining EVERY corporate 'news' story. Stared down Exxon Mobil, got a much better deal for Venezuela. Way unexpected economic growth for five straight years, most of it in the private sector, despite non-stop slander in the press, US/fascist recall election, assassination plots and more. Resources poured into education, health care and other bootstrapping. Steady attack on poverty, culminating in the recent designation of Venezuela as "the most equal country in Latin America," on income distribution, by the UN Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean.

Checked out the election system. One of the best in the world, on the face of the facts alone, also internationally certified. NOTHING do we hear but "Chavez the dictator" from the U.S. government, the corpo-fascist press and the rightwing opposition. NO objectivity whatsoever. NOT ONE positive achievement and reason for popularity mentioned ANYWHERE by this mad threesome.

Then we hear about "Chavez the incompetent" non-stop last year leading up to the by-elections. Everything he HASN'T done--blackouts (problems in hydroelectric power due to drought), street crime (police are still corrupt and Venezuelans are still gun lovers), inflation (hazard of economic growth), punctuated by hysterical shrieks from the likes Bush's little mafioso, Alvaro Uribe, about Chavez being a "terrorist lover." Then we find out the USAID is paying for all of this--every talking point--and the U.S. embassy has had a plan all along to turn Venezuela against Chavez and "divide and conquer" his many allies, by infiltrating civil society, getting NGOS to spout U.S. "talking points," using rightwing Catholic networks for spying and spreading disinformation, lavishing U.S. taxpayer money on rightwing groups and and on military/police establishments, arranging photo ops to highlight corporate love of the poor, and on and on. Everything we've seen in the press has been part of a plan to denigrate Chavez and destroy the unity among Latin American leaders against U.S. interference and for social justice.

Now we're back to "Chavez the dictator." The rightwing, like our Puke Congress, wants to STOP the Chavez government from successfully addressing the flood disaster. They were lusting to obstruct it--just like our Puke Congress whose only goal is to prevent Obama from governing--and the National Assembly, all Chavistas because the stupid rightwing boycotted the last election, all duly elected, cleverly gets around this destructive intention by the usual mechanism for such things in Latin America, an "enabling law," enabling Chavez to fully and successfully implement emergency aid and reconstruction after the floods, and THIS is used to revive that old 'meme' about the "dictator." They've lost that "talking point"--incompetence--on the flood disaster. It's as plain as it can be that Chavez IS fully competent to address it. He's been working on it non-stop since the floods hit, tirelessly touring the flood-hit areas, personally involved in every element of relief distribution and long-term planning. And this is going to continue, because of the forethought of the outgoing National Assembly. So the fascist propagandists have to switch back to "Chavez the dictator." They'll at least have that, when his long term success at reconstruction becomes evident.

This U.S. planned and driven media campaign against Chavez is monotonous the way Stalin's "Big Lie" was monotonous. It is monotonous the way Hitler's monomania was monotonous. And its apologists sound like "Good Germans" to me, who rationalized nazi measures against the Jews, as "necessary," something like this; 'they're communists after all--and they have all the money.' Blind to their own diabolical contradictions--and blind, or cognizant, as the case may be--as to where it was all going.

How ironical that Alvaro Uribe--whose death squads and whose U.S.-funded military were slaughtering thousands of innocents--compared Chavez to Hitler, in one of these cables!

To call Chavez a "dictator," when he obviously is not--when he is freely elected, has harmed no one--NO ONE!--and has testimonials from objective parties like Lula da Silva in Brazil, who have no need for Venezuela's "petrodollars"--is to invite his assassination. And that's exactly what the U.S.-funded Colombian military was plotting to do! WHO are the "dictators"?

To call Chavez "incompetent" after doing everything in your power to prevent him from governing--from coup d'etats to oil bosses' lockouts to recall elections to assassination plots to non-stop villification contrived to appear to be coming from many directions, all directed out of the U.S. embassy--is the evilest kind of hypocrisy. You are working in every venue, from every contrived direction, to force your lies to become true. Strategically, it has been Allende/Chile all over again.

Then to call Chavez a "dictator" all over again, because he doesn't fall, like Allende--because he persists in governing, he doesn't throw up his hands at yet another natural misfortune--first drought, now catastrophic rains--he continues to do his job, to fulfill his mandate from the people--and because he shows great strength and cleverness in doing so--very, very like FDR and his New Deal government in the face of that era's "organized money"--is mindbogglingly perverse.

Evil and perverse forces are behind these "Big Lies"--that Chavez is a "dictator," that Chavez is incompetent--forces that want Venezuela to fail, that want to tailspin Venezuela into the social chaos, mayhem and death we see next door in Colombia, that we see in Iraq, that we see in Afghanistan. These are NOT well-intended criticisms. This is NOT "free speech." This is a psyops campaign, aimed at replacing decent government with bad, bad government--government that kills and maims and oppresses and robs. Lawless government like our own, that hypocritically claims to be "building democracy"--the biggest "Big Lie" of all.

Well, all this makes the Chavez government's achievements all the more remarkable, in my book. You want me to dump on them, trying to make me fall for this baloney that if you don't criticize Chavez, you worship Chavez. That is perverse, considering your posting of everything negative you can find about Chavez from the corporate press that prints NOTHING BUT negative stories, day after day, year after year. You are the one who is one-sided. I'm just a voice crying in the wilderness that there are TWO SIDES, and one of them is NEVER HEARD in the corporate newsstream. NEVER!

[naaman fletcher]

5. Did i call Chavez a dictator?

I don't otherwise feel like wading through your post since the whole premise seems to be you setting up the strawman that I have called him a dictator.

[social_critic]

7. Well, if you don't criticize at all, then you are not helping

Evidently if all you do is say everything is great, then you are not helping. Evidently the opposition aims to change the government. This is the way it usually works, the guys who didn't win the last election work hard to win next time. I doubt you have any idea of who's in the opposition nowadays. It does have quite a few leftists.

Also, I would not assume everybody is getting information from the "corpofascist" press. This constant hammering on the same theme really weakens what you post. Why can't we all learn to get along?

[Judi Lynn]

4. Sounds like very well organized, dynamic plan for recovery. Good for human Venezuelans.

This is exactly the way enabling powers are geared to handle big jobs.

Thank you for the material, and your comments.

Recommendation of this thread was aborted prior to my attempt to recommend.

[social_critic]

6. Do you think some Venezuelans are "not human" ?

I found the comment somewhat disturbing. Did you mean humane?

[Judi Lynn]

8. Struggle harder to hone your language skills.

Or, simply look for more worthwhile pursuits than trying to roust serious people.

[social_critic]

9. Good for human Venezuelans?

Did you mean humane? Or do you imply some Venezuelans aren't human? I am really curious about this statement.