Geography Archives: Venezuela

  • Palestinian Government’s Open Letter to President Hugo Chavez

    Palestinian National Authority Ministry of Foreign Affairs Deputy Office, Gaza January 12, 2009 In the Name of God; the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful President Hugo Chavez, Your Excellency, President Hugo Chavez, We, the people of Palestine, commend your courage to speak and act upon your conscience regardless of your detractors’ criticism or cowardice. Mr. […]

  • Firing the Boss: An Interview with Mark Meinster, Organizer of the Chicago Factory Occupation

    On December 5, 2008, over 200 recently-fired workers at the Republic Window and Doors factory in Chicago occupied their plant, demanding that they be paid their vacation and severance checks.  The occupation ended victoriously six days later when the Bank of America and other lenders to Republic agreed to pay the workers the approximately $2 […]

  • Gaza Protests, as Seen on Al Jazeera

    . . . and unseen on American TV More Than 100,000 Protest in Paris, France, 11.01.09 USA, 11.01.09 Algeria, 11.01.09 Kenitra, Morocco, 11.01.09 Los Angeles, USA, 11.01.09 Journalists Protest the Israeli Army’s Targeting of Journalists, 10.01.09 Chicago and D.C., USA, 10.01.09 Tokyo, Japan, 10.01.09 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 10.01.09 Rabat, Morocco, 10.01.09 Manama, Bahrain, 10.01.09 Algiers, […]

  • Israeli Communists Thank Hugo Chávez, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

    Israeli Communists Sent a Message to Hugo Chávez, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela The Israeli Communists sent a message to the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, today (Thursday, 8 January 2009).  In the name of the members of Israel’s Communist Party, they thanked Chávez for his courageous […]

  • Nasrallah: Arabs Have Much to Learn from Chavez

    Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the most popular leader in the Arab world, addressed a crowd of Lebanese supporters in a videoconference on 7 January 7. Yesterday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that he would expel the Israeli ambassador in Venezuela.  He, of course, did this in order to show his support for the […]

  • Reclaiming the Land: Land Reform and Agricultural Development in Zimbabwe: An Interview with Sam Moyo

    Amid the economic crisis in Zimbabwe, the agricultural sector continues to struggle.  Although the plunge in agricultural output over the last few years has often been commented on in the Western media, little or no attention is paid to the complex factors contributing to that decline.  Instead, matters are reduced to a simple generalization.  It […]

  • End of Neoliberalism?  Sorry, Not Yet.

    “Our community is expanding: MRZine viewers have increased in number, as have the readers of our editions published outside the United States and in languages other than English.  We sense a sharp increase in interest in our perspective and its history.   Many in our community have made use of the MR archive we put […]

  • Chávez: Capitalists Have Manipulated the Message of Christ to Exploit the Poor

    “Our community is expanding: MRZine viewers have increased in number, as have the readers of our editions published outside the United States and in languages other than English.  We sense a sharp increase in interest in our perspective and its history.   Many in our community have made use of the MR archive we put […]

  • Finding Common Ground in Crisis: Social Movements in South America and the US

    “Our community is expanding: MRZine viewers have increased in number, as have the readers of our editions published outside the United States and in languages other than English.  We sense a sharp increase in interest in our perspective and its history.   Many in our community have made use of the MR archive we put […]

  • Indigenous Peoples Rising in Bolivia and Ecuador

    Introduction Indigenous peoples in Indo-Afro-Latin America, especially Bolivia and Ecuador, are rising up to take control of their own lives and act in solidarity with others to save the planet.  They are calling for new, yet ancient, practices of plurinational, participatory, and intercultural democracy.  They champion ecologically sustainable development; community-based autonomies; and solidarity with other […]

  • The Achilles’ Heel of the Bolivarian Revolution

    The media were predicting a disaster for Venezuela’s Chavistas.  Desperate for news that was fit to print, the opposition-controlled Venezuelan press and its foreign counterparts convinced many that the time had come for Hugo Chávez and his Bolivarian Revolution, after stumbling in a slim referendum defeat last year, to finally come crashing down under its […]

  • US Citizen Diplomats Arrive in Iran, Invited by Ahmadinejad

      In an effort to establish peaceful diplomacy with the government and people of Iran, and to model for the new Obama administration the power of cooperative good will, three highly regarded American peace makers have ventured to Iran.  CodePink cofounders, Jodie Evans and Medea Benjamin, along with former Army Colonel and decorated Foreign Service […]

  • Opposition Also Wins Tachira and Carabobo States in Regional Elections

    November 24, 2008 — This morning Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) announced that the opposition won in two more states, in Tachira and Carabobo, which had been too close to call last night when the first results had been announced.  Members of Chávez’s PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) thus won governorships in 17 states, […]

  • Chávez Supporters Win 17 out of 23 Venezuelan States, But Lose 3 Most Populous

    November 23, 2008 — President Hugo Chavez’s governing party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), got mixed results in the regional and local elections today, winning strongly in 17 out of 23 states, but losing the country’s two most populous states and the Capital District of Caracas, with two more states still to be […]

  • The Meeting with Hu Jintao

    I did not want to talk a lot, but he obliged me to expand on things; I asked some questions and, basically, listened to him. His words recounted the feats of the Chinese people in the last 10 months.  Heavy and unseasonal snowfall, an earthquake that devastated surface areas equivalent to three times the size […]

  • Oil Prices and Venezuela’s Economy

    Introduction The Venezuelan economy has grown more than 94 percent since the current expansion began in the second quarter of 2003.1  The overwhelming bulk of this growth has been in the non-oil sector.2  Throughout most of these five and a half years of unprecedented growth, the economy has often been characterized as an “oil boom […]

  • South America: Recession Can Be Avoided

    Can South America escape the wrath of the economic and financial storms that have their epicenter in the United States?  Since the financial meltdown began in mid-September, the bond markets of most of the region (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela) have been hit, as well as most of their stock markets and a number of currencies.  […]

  • Venezuela’s Transition to Socialism

      In October 2008, I was invited by the World Forum for the Alternatives to a conference in Caracas, Venezuela.  This provided me with an opportunity to learn more about a country that has embarked on a path of redistribution under a programme that Venezuela’s President Hugo Cavez Frias now calls “Socialism of the 21st […]

  • Venezuela: Crucial Test for Bolivarian Revolution

    While on the surface it may appear to be a simple electoral battle, something much different is at stake on November 23. On that day, Venezuelans will go to the polls to elect 22 governors, 328 mayors, 233 legislators to the state legislative councils, and 13 councilors to district committees — including indigenous representation — […]

  • Developing Countries: Dangerous Times for the Internal Public Debt

    Since the second half of the 1990s, the internal public debt of the world’s developing countries has increased significantly.  This increase is now reaching alarming proportions in a number of middle-income countries.  While some very poor countries have not yet been affected, the historical trend indicates a continuing rise in the debt level for developing […]