[Venezuelanalysis.com's Chris Carlson reports on last week's proposal by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega that Latin American
countries form a joint military force to defend against outside intervention.] Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega
during the inauguration of a corn processing plant on Sunday. Credit: LA
PRENSA
[For Victor Figueroa-Clark, facts show the total falsity of the allegations that Chavez is engaging Venezuela
in an arms build up that threatens regional
peace and stability; and they also help to disclose the worrying level of
anti-Chavez propaganda that is finding its way into the mainstream media. For a Spanish version of this article click here.] New recruits for the reserves report to duty from the Caracas barrio 23 de enero. Credit: Alexander Holland/Venezuelanalysis.com
[General Raúl Isaias Baduel held a widely reported speech on the
occasion of his leaving the office of Defense Minister. The event was
also one in which Chavez swore in the new defense minister and a new
military high command. Baduel is a long-time friend of President
Chavez, who co-founded the MBR-200 with Chavez, the clandestine
movement that was later to organise the 1992 coup attempt
against then-president Carlos Andrés Perez. More recently, Baduel was instrumental
in bringing Chavez back into office during the April 2002 coup attempt.
Baduel’s speech ruffled some feathers in Venezuela because some
believed that he was issuing an indirect criticism of Chavez. A more
charitable interpretation, though, is that he was merely telling the
country in which direction he believes 21st socialism must go.]
[The Guardian's Latin America correspondent, Rory Carroll, reports on a speech given by President Hugo Chávez to members of Venezuela's armed forces in which he told them to prepare
for a guerrilla war against the United States, saying there must be a
strategy to defeat the superpower if it invades. --Ed]
[The Oil Wars blog argues that opponents
of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have often liked to imply that
under his rule Venezuela is engaged in a large scale military buildup,
has increased military spending, and spends more than previous
Venezuelan governments and other Latin American countries have.
However, a detailed look at the numbers shows that this is yet another
myth. --Ed].
Below is an interview with Venezuelan General Raul Baduel by Red Pepper editor Hilary Wainwright, who visited Caracas earlier this year for the 2006 World Social Forum. The article appears in the April edition of Red Pepper, out now.
Walden Bello, professor of sociology at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, and executive director of the research and advocacy institute Focus on the Global South based in Bangkok, recently visited Venezuela.
