Building another world-Venezuela-Latest on Democratic Vote

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Venezuela Today

Another World is Being Built!

Speakers-

Bart Jones, US author of the acclaimed Hugo Chavez Story

Nestor Lopez, Press Attaché of the Venezuelan embassy in London

Cllr Salma Yaqoob, Venezuela Information Centre

Chair: Doug Nicholls, National Secretary CYWU National Section/Unite
the Union

7.30 pm on Wednesday 3rd December
Carrs Lane Church Centre, Carrs Lane, Birmingham B4 7SX

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1 of 1 ==
Date: Wed 26 Nov 2008 09:25
From: Venezuela Solidarity Campaign


VENEZUELA'S 2008 REGIONAL ELECTIONS

Regional elections held in Venezuela on November 23rd, 2008 have been
portrayed in the U.S. media as a defeat for the government of
President Hugo Chávez, when in fact the results strongly favor his
party, the PSUV. The vast majority of state governorships and
mayoralties, including those in many strategic parts of the country
such as the Orinoco Oil Belt, remain under pro-government leadership.

The majority of Venezuelan citizens voted for candidates aligned with
the Chávez government. Due to this broad popular support, the PSUV and
its allies won 77 percent of governorships and 80 percent of
mayoralties. Even in Caracas, where the overarching metropolitan
mayoralty went to the opposition, residents of the city's most
populous district of Libertador elected a PSUV candidate as their
local representative.

Voter turnout in the regional elections was a record-setting 65
percent. The electoral process was the 11th to occur in Venezuela in
about a decade, and was deemed "peaceful and exemplary" by OAS
Secretary General José Miguel Insulza. He commented that the process
was a powerful expression of the maturity of the country's democratic
institutions as well as the trust that Venezuelans have in them. The
National Electoral Council again proved its reputation for efficient
and accurate electoral oversight by posting official results online
less than 24 hours after the polls closed.

U.S. media coverage - including editorials in the Washington Post and
New York Times - has ignored the facts enumerated below, points which
are essential to understanding contemporary political realities in
Venezuela.

Most Governors and Mayors Support the Chávez Government
The electoral map of Venezuela shows that pro-government PSUV
candidates gained the majority of offices throughout the country. They
won 17 out of 22 governorships, or 77 percent of the total. This is
more than was claimed by PSUV governors and allies before the 2008
regional elections, at which point they held 15 states out of 22. PSUV
candidates and allies also won mayoral posts in 80 percent of
municipalities throughout the nation. Meanwhile, in at least four out
of the five states where opposition governors were elected, the
majority of mayoralties went to the PSUV (Zulia is still to be
decided). This is true in Carabobo, where an opposition governor won,
but at least 11 out of 14 of the new municipal mayors are members of
the PSUV, including the mayor of Puerto Cabello, a major port city
that is important to the oil industry. (Source: National Electoral
Council, Embassy of Venezuela)
Most Venezuelans Live Under Pro-Chávez Local Leaders
As has been true for nearly a decade, the majority of Venezuela's
population will continue to live in states with pro-Chávez governors.
This is currently true for 57 percent of the country's population,
while a smaller amount - 43 percent - have opposition governors. Some
municipalities shifted to PSUV leadership by choosing a progressive
leader for the first time during the tenure of the Chávez
administration, including Valencia, an important industrial and
manufacturing city in the coastal state of Carabobo. (Source:
Instituto Nacional de Estadistica, Diario El Carabobeño)

The PSUV Achieved Victory in Strategic Areas of the Country
All states in Venezuela with strategic natural resources and
industries elected PSUV candidates for governor, with the exception of
Zulia in the West. This means that pro-government leadership prevailed
in the oil-rich states of Anzoategui, Barinas, Bolívar, Monagas, and
Delta Amacuro, some of which encompass the lucrative Orinoco Oil Belt.
The state of Bolívar, in particular, also hosts the country's other
important basic industries: hydroelectricity, aluminum, steel, iron,
and petrochemicals. A majority of the mayoral races in these states
also went to PSUV candidates. The PSUV won mayoral races in 15 out of
21 municipalities in Anzoategui, at least seven out of 11 in Bolívar,
at least eight of 12 in Barinas, at least 12 of 13 in Monagas, and
three out of four in Delta Amacuro. (Source: National Electoral
Council)

Pro-Government Candidates Won by Wide Margins
In races for state governors, the opposition's five victories were
claimed by far smaller margins than those earned by the PSUV, which
clearly dominated in the remaining 17 states. This is a key
difference. Opposition candidates won by margins of just 10 percentage
points or less in four of those states (as low as 1.3% in Tachira and
3% in Carabobo), and won by 15 percentage points in the fifth state
(Nueva Esparta). In contrast, the 17 pro-government victories were
more decisive overall. Candidates supporting the government won by
roughly 50 percentage points in two states, 30 percentage points in
five states, 20 percentage points in four states, and 5 to 10 percent
in six more states. (Source: National Electoral Council)

Residents of the Largest Caracas Municipality Voted for the PSUV
Although the mayor for metropolitan Caracas went to the opposition,
Libertador, the city's most heavily populated district - home to 1.7
million residents - elected the PSUV's municipal mayoral candidate
Jorge Rodríguez. Libertador is by far the largest of the five urban
districts in Caracas. The PSUV won this election by a wide margin of
12 percent, earning 106,487 more votes than the opposition's
candidate. (Source: National Electoral Council)

Even in Opposition-Controlled States, Key Municipalities Went to the
PSUV
The assertion that nearly half the country will be under the
leadership of the opposition is incorrect. In states where the
governorships went to the opposition, a large number of the mayoral
seats went to PSUV candidates or their allies. The opposition won the
governorship in Carabobo, Tachira, Nueva Esparta, Zulia, and Miranda.
In the state of Carabobo, the opposition only managed to win two of
the mayoral races, while the PSUV won 11 mayoral races. In the state
of Nueva Esparta, 6 of the 11 mayoral races went to the PSUV. In
Tachira, the PSUV won at least 15 of 29 mayoral races. In Miranda,
they won at least 14 of 21 races. (Source: National Electoral Council)

Venezuela's Electoral Authority Handled Record Voter Turnout
The regional elections saw a record-setting 65.5 percent voter
turnout. Of the 16.8 million registered voters in Venezuela, roughly
11 million went to the polls. This is a record for the country, and
likely among the highest rates of voter turnout in local elections
anywhere in the hemisphere. Despite this, the National Electoral
Council (CNE) managed the influx at the polls and made results of the
voting available online through its website just hours after all of
the 11,297 polling stations closed. This was made possible by the
electronic voting machines used in Venezuela, which have been praised
as among the most advanced and accurate in the world. The CNE presents
results broken down by candidate for each state and municipality in an
easily accessible format. (Source: Embassy of Venezuela, National
Electoral Council)

Unfortunately, despite the extensive records available on the CNE
website, many media outlets in the U.S. have failed to report
accurately on the results of the regional elections. One example is
the claim made in a Wall Street Journal article and a New York Times
editorial on November 25th that more than half of Venezuela is under
opposition control, which, according to the official statistics
presented here, is inaccurate and misleading.


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Link

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Bart Jones speaking tour

Please find below initial details of writer, and biographer of Hugo
Chavez, Bart Jones' tour of Britain at the start of December. For
more information, please contact VIC on info@vicuk.org or 0207 250
0132.

* Monday 1st December, 7.30pm, Oxford Town Hall, Town Hall, St
Aldate's, Oxford, OX1 1BX. Also speaking: Felix Placencia, Embassy of
the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

* Tuesday 2nd, 5pm, School for Policy Studies, Bristol University, 8
Priory Road, Bristol BS8 1TZ. Also speaking: Alvaro Sanchez, Embassy
of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

* Wednesday 3rd, 7.30pm, Carrs Lane Church Centre, Carrs Lane,
Birmingham B4 7SX. Also Speaking: Nestor Lopez from the Embassy of the
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

* Thursday 4th 6.30 Bookmarks Bookshop 1 Bloomsbury St, London, WC1B
3QE. Also speaking: H.E. Ambassador Samuel Moncada and Felix
Placencia, Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

* Saturday 6th Latin America 2008 Conference at Congress House, Gt
Russell St, London 9.30am-5pm (see www.latinamerica2008.org.uk) for
more details.

Venezuelan Trade Union Leaders Shot, Workers Call for Armed Self-
Defence

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3995

November 29th 2008, by Kiraz Janicke - Venezuelanalysis.com

Three trade unionists Richard Gallardo, Luis Hernández and Carlos
Requena, leaders of the pro-revolution National Union of Workers (UNT)
and also members of the United Socialist Left party were shot dead
late Thursday night in Aragua state, Venezuela.

The union leaders were gunned down by an armed assassin on a motorbike
as they made their way home after participating that day in a labor
dispute with the Colombian-owned Alpina food processing company.

There is speculation that the attack was carried out by paramilitaries
hired by the Colombian company, which is reported to have utilized
paramilitaries in similar disputes in its home country. Patricia Rivas
writing for YKVE Mundial on November 28 pointed out that the attacks
resembled a method of assassination commonly used against unionists
and social movement activists in Colombia, known as sicariato, whereby
hired gunmen on motorbikes carry out drive-by shootings.

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