Newspaper El Nacional Admits Products Shortage in Táchira a Consequence of Bachaqueo and Extraction Smuggling

 By: Laiguanatv/ Aporrea.org

Feb. 26th, 2018 - The Right-wing and ultra right-wing media outlets have never publicly assumed that the shortage of food and medicines on the Colombian-Venezuelan border is mainly a consequence of the extraction smuggling orquestrated by well organized cartels.The owners of the main information Web Sites and portals, aimed at damaging the image of regional governments (mostly revolutionary), refuse to accept the economic sabotage and the bachaqueo (smuggling, overpricing, traffick and illegal sale of diverse food and medicine items) repeatedly denounced by the national Venezuelan Executive.However, in one of the most recent headlines on the Web site of the newspaper the El Nacional, this practice seems to have been forgotten. In an article published on Saturday, February 24th, those who run this site accept for the first time that it is smuggling that leaves the Táchira state without any basic product."Contraband on the border with Colombia leaves Táchira without products", the headline states. The irony is that this reality is assumed only because the aforementioned entity is now led by a representative of the opposition (in this case by Laidy Gómez, from the Democratic Action party).This curious fact was shared by the journalist of the international channel Telesur, Madelein García. On her Twitter account, the journalist writes the following: "How come? Now El Nacional makes a headline 'Contraband on the border with Colombia leaves Táchira without food." Finally, they assume it. The regional opposition recognizes that the shortage of food and medicines mentioning contraband "

Read the full article in Spanish, here: https://www.aporrea.org/medios/n321484.html

English Version: María Eugenia Acero Colomine @andesenfrungen
acerocolomine@gmail.com 

Eight Detainees for Sexual Exploitation of Venezuelan Women in Spain

 By: EFE

26-02-18.-The Spanish Police arrested eight people and freed three victims of a criminal organization dedicated to the sexual exploitation of Venezuelan women, who were recruited in the country to take them to practice prostitution in the city of Barcelona in Spain.According to the research, the organization was perfectly structured, consisting of four men and four women of Spanish and Venezuelan origin.In a statement, the police reported on Monday, February 26th, that the victims were of humble origins. The band had offered to prostitute themselves in good working and economic conditions in exchange for a debt of 3,000 euros (around US$ 3,700),Nevertheless, they were sexually exploited after having arrived in Spain under duress and threats.One of the detainees was looking for young women in Venezuela, whom she proposed to borrow the transportation and travel arrangements, with the promise that they would pay the amount in a short time, taking into account the demand.Once they had arrived in Barcelona, ​​the victims were transferred to the home where they would provide sexual services. On occasion, the head of the criminal organization demanded "a practical demonstration" to prove their suitability.When they were already installed, they were informed about the real conditions of work, and were coerced and threatened to comply with demands such as much longer hours and the payment of a weekly amount for lodging and maintenance.In the police operation, four brothels were registered, 9,400 euros were intervened in cash, computer equipment and mobile phones, as well as documentation related to criminal activities.The eight detainees are suspected of trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation, against the right of foreign citizens and belonging to a criminal organization.

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Workers of Hospital El Algodonal Protest for Poor Conditions of Infrastructure, Lack of Medicine Supplies and Low Salaries

26-02-18.- Workers of the Hospital José Ignacio Baldó, better known as "El Algodonal", protested this Monday on the streets to denounce poor infrastructure conditions as well as lack of medicine supplies and low salaries, the journalist Vanessa García published on her Twitter account.

The hospital located in Antímano, in Caracas, declared a technical breakdown before the emergency situation due to the lack of supplies for the treatment of patients.
One of the nurses denounced bad conditions of the hospital. She warned the staff and crew would summon a national protest in case of not having any response by the government.
"The invite is: Let's summon one day of a national protest. Let it be heard even in Tucupita (Capital of the State Delta Amacuro, in the far east coast of Venezuela). The health personnel is demanding the government to be responsible. We are the ones who face the patients. We are the ones who suffer from the aggressions, and we are the ones who are not even allowed the needs to be satisfied!",t she said for the Web Site Caraota Digital. 

Another worker declared the treatments are half fulfilled, due to the lack of medicines supply.


"There are patients who need a gastric protector, and the treatment is incomplete", a female doctor declared to Globovisión.

The doctors declared to be working half. They don't count with any ambulance service, and their salaries are very low.
"The doctors are the ones who have struggled to keep the equipments. There is nothing to keep the medical machinery. We currently ask the relatives to nuy blood for not having any blood reagend. I only had Bs 800,000 (Approx $4) for my vacations. That only pays for two pounds of cheese and eggs", she said.
"We are starving", she concluded.


Read the complete article in Spanish, here: https://www.aporrea.org/contraloria/n321495.html

English Version: María Eugenia Acero Colomine @andesenfrungen
acerocolomine@gmail.com 

Oppositionist Coalition MUD Will not Participate in Presidential Elections Summoned by the Constituent National Assembly

Feb 21st, 2018.- The Table of the Democratic Unity (MUD, in its Spanish accronym), announced it will not participate in the presidential elections summoned by the Constituent National Assembly, next April 22nd.



Ángel Oropeza, member of the MUD, made the announcement in a press conference. He challenged the Venezuelan government to compete in other conditions: "On behalf of the huge majority of Venezuelans, we challenge Maduro's government to participate in real elections", he said.
 
"With the conditions foreseen in the agreement in the Dominican Republic, we are willing and ready to participate. Otherwise, do not count with the Unity nor the Venezuelan people to foster a fraud (...) If the government follows the law, the Unity is willing to take in", he said.

Oropeza exhorted to constitute a national wide front to acomplish clean elections. 




Read the article in Spanish, here: https://www.aporrea.org/oposicion/n321285.html

Saint Cynicism

 By: Luisana Colomine

An impertinent cough cuts for endless minutes the speech of the Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos, on February 8th in the García Herreros slum of Cúcuta. "It went off the old road," he says, in the midst of the choke and sipping a sip of water. It would have been better having said, "I went down the path" to adapt the idiom to the jargon imposed by his fellow countrymen in matters of the extraction smuggling...

Santos and his gang presented themselves on that stage as the living stamp of efficiency and brotherhood. It made me laugh to see them because that place where they made their performance is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Cúcuta. It would have been advisable having made that show in "La Parada", on the Simón Bolívar Bridge, and a forced passage for thousands of Colombians and Venezuelans: There, misery gains ground to life; there, where they sell without shame the Venezuelan products, the Venezuelan banknotes, the Venezuelan oil.

All that theater was to talk about the Venezuelan migrants: "It's a problem we're not used to, we do not have any experience and we must learn."

But Colombia takes advantage of everything, and the Finance Minister of that country, Mauricio Cárdenas, sure that the government of President Maduro is close to falling, puts a price on what he calls a rescue plan of about 60 billion dollars for which he has already made contact with international credit agents. That is to say that the bachaqueo (food and medicines smuggling) is no longer just with petrol and other Venezuelan items: Now it is also with the migrants. That is what they call a "Humanitarian work".

Had Venezuela requested international credits to keep the millions of Colombians who came fleeing from internal conflicts, perhaps it would have solved part of its economic problem. But Bolívar's Motherland only met the international conventions giving shelter to refugees, displaced and illegal and now have housing, health and education.

With this migratory excuse, Santos joins the threats against Venezuela. He joins the chorus with Mexico, Brazil, Argentine and Peru to feed what I'd prefer to call a "Population void" to a "Diaspora". They seduce the foreigner, they recognize their university degrees (Chávez reduced the academic gap that in those countries is growing), they incorporate them into the professional offer and fill the gaps in diverse social and productive sectors.

Perhaps we should "Charm" and make our people fall in love again; and take the word Motherland from those advertising jingles to make them feel again loved, warm and alive: head over feet ... As José Vicente Abreu wrote (from his novel "Toma Mi Lanza Bañada de Plata" - Take my Sword Filled in Silver- , 1973) "... And you say Motherland only in place of your name to identify yourself. "

However, Santos didn't have just a coughing attack. Santos had an attack of a"Saint" cynicism.

 

Read the Full Article in Spanish, here: https://www.aporrea.org/actualidad/a259378.html

English Version: María Eugenia Acero Colomine

Email: acerocolomine@gmail.com

Twitter: @Andesenfrungen

Blog: http://fantasiasneurastenicas.blogspot.com 

Lorenzo Mendoza Discarded to Postulate as a Presidential Candidate for the elections in Venezuela

The President of Empresas Polar, Lorenzo Mendoza

15-02-18.- The Venezuelan entrepreneur Lorenzo Mendoza discarded to postulate as a presidential candidate for the forecoming elections in Venezuela, Reuters reported.

Last February 08th, the oppositionist leader Henri Falcón had affirmed that in case of Lorenzo Mendoza be postulated for the presidential elections in Venezuela, he "would have all our support".

"Lorenzo Mendoza is a businessman; yet, he is a businessman who has proved success to a country that now only shows failure. That's a reality. We cannot ignore the political and electoral phenomena of Lorenzo Mendoza. That would be like ignoring the Chavism. If Lorenzo Mendoza decided today or tomorrow to become the bearer of this national salvation plan, he would count with our support. That's where we must prove greatness, detachment and humbleness. He's the one to decide, he's the great expectation of the Venezuelan people", Falcón said during the TV show Primera Página on Globovisisión.

Likewise, a group of people from the National Independent Movement of Social Alliances (Minas), approached to the headquartes of Empresas Polar in Los Cortijos, Caracas, last February 07th requesting Mendoza to launch as a presidential candidate.

María Corina Machado, coordinator of the party Vente Venezuela, recently confessed her desire that "Men like Lorenzo and many others with a conviction and vision of union for Venezuela be able to serve from the highest responsibilites to the country".

Read the full article in Spanish, here: https://www.aporrea.org/ideologia/n321037.html

English Version: María Eugenia Acero Colomine acerocolomine@gmail.com
Twitter: @andesenfrungen

Venezuelan Communist Party Denounces Detention by SEBIN of Fetraelec Union leader Elio Palacios

For having denounced the crisis in the electric sector

 On Wednesday morning, February 14th, 2018, at dawn hours, Elio Palacios was raided by the SEBIN, in Guacara, the headquarters of the party.
February 15, 2018.-The officials proceeded to take Comrade Elio Palacios and they confiscated his cell phone.In the morning they went to the headquarters of SEBIN in Naguanagua, the president of FETRAELEC Ángel Navas, along with other leaders, who were informed that they were there for "Inquiries" and according to the interrogation they will see whether they present it to the courts or not. .In any case, already Fetraelec in coordination with the wife of the companion Palacios, assigned a lawyer to him.Supposedly, the detention that, in our opinion is arbitrary, occurs by the investigation of some complaints made by Elio Palacios through audios broadcast by whatsapp, in which he denounces Motta Dominguez for the situation in CORPOELEC, warns about the imminent collapse of the national electricity system in the absence of indispensable preventive maintenance and demands the dismissal of senior management, while announcing the holding of a general assembly of workers of the Trade Union of Workers of Corpoelec in Caracas, Miranda and Vargas (of which he is his general secretary), in which a plan of fight in defense of the industry and the rights of the working mass of the electrical sector will be agreed.

 The Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV), together with the Workers 'and Workers' Class Current "Crúz Villegas" (CCT-CV) and the National Front of the Working Class Fight (FNLCT), express our solidarity with the just struggles of the and the electrical workers, as well as with the Cda. Elio Palacios, at the same time we demand his immediate and unconditional release. We urgently call on all organizations of the labor and class movement of the country and the world to speak out demanding the release of comrade Elio Palacios and the cessation of the criminalization practices of the struggles and denunciations that workers and their workers legitimately assume and raise. class leaders. Those of us who subscribe to this communiqué are turning to the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) and the International Union of Trade Unions (UIS) of Energy to demand from such international organizations their militant solidarity in this case.

On behalf the PCV: Oscar Figuera (Secretary General). For the CCT-CV and the FNLCT: Pedro Eusse (General Coordinator))

Read the full article in Spanish, here: https://www.aporrea.org/ddhh/n321008.html

English Version: María Eugenia Acero Colomine acerocolomine@gmail.com
Twitter: @andesenfrungen 

Picture of Protests in Venezuela Nominated to the World Press Photo

 

The Venezuelan Photographer Rolando Schemidt

 

Credit: Rolando Schemidt

By: Agencies | Wednesday Feb 14th, 2018 01:31 PM

Feb 14th, 18.- an image by the Venezuelan photographer Rolando Schemidt portraying the accidental burning of an oppositionist protester during the riots in Caracas is one of the six main nominated pictures for the World Press Photo 2018, EFE Agency announced.

The picture captures the moment when 28-yr old José Víctor Salazar, runs wrapped in flames after having been reached by a squirt of gasoline from a bike of a Bolivarian National Guard. The bike had been captured and burned by the protesters with a molotov cocktail.
 

The young man turned into a human torch and wearing a mask runs looking for help to turn off the fire from his body. At the bottom of the picture a grafitti with the word "Peace" appears written with black spray.
 
"It's not easy taking a picture like this",  Lars Boerig, Director of World Press Photo said to Efe. The merit of this nomination comes 
since "The photographer was right there in the right time, and captured the moment in a very powerful way".
 

"It has a lot of energy, movement and dramatism. Yet, it's also very well composed. It says a lot about what is happening right now in Venezuela, were violence is total with protests every time, everywhere", the President of the jury, Magdalena Herrera, said. 
 

Shemidt's image is one of the six nominees for the category Picture of the Year of a contest organized by the Foundation World Press Photo. It's jury received this year more than 73,000 pictures. The other nominees collect moments on the attack to Westminster in March 2017 and the picture of a little girl victim of the terrorist group Boko Haram in Nigeria. Also, the drama of the Rohingya refugees in Myanmar and the libreation of Mosul of the Islamic State by the Iraqi Forces.
 
These two last issues were the most covered by the media. However, the jury also received many images of other protests in Venezuela and the United States. 

 
On the other hand, the Spanish photographer Javier Arcenillas received a nomination in the category Long Term for several pictures taken between years 2010 and 2017 giving testimony of the fight against drugtrafficking in Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia. 
 
In the category Sports Stories, the Colombian-American Juan Arredondo was nominated for a series of black and white that portrays La Paz Soccer Club, a Colombian team formed by former members of the FARC and victims f the armed conflict in the Colombian jungle. 
 
 "The sports can get together the people, and make them compete one another but from the respect", Boring said. Arredondo's work was "one of the few that covered the moments after the Colombian conflict", Boring said. 
 
Another series nominated in the same category was "The Kids and the Bulls", by Nikolai Linares. It portrays the daily routine of a Spanish bullfighting school in Almería.

 

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Read the Article in Spanish here: https://www.aporrea.org/medios/n320985.html

English Version: María Eugenia Acero Colomine

Twitter: @andesenfrungen

Email: acerocolomine@gmail.com

Four Venezuelan Journalists Go Into Exile After Having Been Denounced for Injury

By: AFP

Feb 06th, 18.- Four Venezuelan journalists fled from the country after having been sued by a Colombian entrepreneur linked to charges by corruption, reported this Monday the media they work for.

The journalists are the editors Alfredo Meza, Ewald Scharfenberg y Joseph Poliszuk, and the writer Roberto Deniz, from the Website armando.info, specialized in journalistic research.


In preservation of their freedoms, they left the country in search for protection, a press release states, not specifying the destination of the journalists.


The four journalists were denounced by the entrepreneur Alex Saab, who accuses them for aggravated difamation and injury, punished with a sentence between one and six years of imprisonment.


Two reports of the Website published in year 2017 relate Saab with the company Group Grand Limited and the sale of subsidized food items to the Venezuelan Government for the Local Committees of Supply and Production (CLAP, in its Spanish accronym), to the poorest communities.

According to the research, the company received from the Venezuelan Government subsidized dollars for the import of food from Mexico, but overpriced.



The Ecuador General Comptrollership "investigated and opened trials against the entrepreneur for the activities of the company Fondo Global de Construcción. He obtained millionary contracts from the Venezuelan government for the construction and handing out of prefabricated houses", the journalists affirmed.


"There were threats and the display of the personal information of the four journalists of the Website armando.info from an anonimous account on the social network. This incident was denounced and condemned in its time", the Website recalled.

Read the article in Spanish, here: https://www.aporrea.org/contraloria/n320691.html

English Version: María Eugenia Acero Colomine @andesenfrungen
acerocolomine@gmail.com

Visas to Venezuelans in Panama Rejected Out of "Arranged Marriages"

 By: Agencies

Feb 05th, 18.- The Panama migration authorities rejected 40.7% of the residence requests of foreigners married to locals after having detected that these unions had been forged aimed at easing the permanence of the foreigner.

In year 2017, 3,493 individuals requested a residence permit under the modality of Married to a Panamanian. From this amount, 1,425 (40.7%) were rejected the Panama National Service of Migration reported.


The nationals from Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and the United States were the ones who applied the most to the permit of Married to a National, according to the official reports.


"The Law that rules the National Migration Service is clear in stressing that the marriage of any foreigner with a national does not grant per se the right for the residence in the Republic of Panama", the Panama migration authority stated in a press release.



1,425 migration requests were rejected for having been discovered that these unions were intented to ease the permanence of the foreigner in Panama after interviews and visits to the homes of the people involved, the Chief for the Analysis of Migration Permits, Cornelio Cáceres said to the local press.


According to Panamanian local figures, last year the amount of residence permits denied under the figure of married to a Panamanian was higher, the journal La Prensa reported.


In year 2017the residence permit requests of a foreigner married to a Panamanian increased 13.4% regarding the 3,078 requests in year 2016, the Panama migration authorities appointed.


Read the full article in Spanish here:

English Version: María Eugenia Acero Colomine acerocolomine@gmail.com
Twitter: @Andesenfrungen

Lady Asked Priest not to Talk About Politics, and she was Kicked Out From the Church of la Candelaria in Caracas

Feb 05th, 2018 - With pullings and punches a middle-age lady was kicked out  from the Church of La Candelaria, in Caracas, after having claimed the parrisher Miguel Acevedo, not to talk about antigovernmental politics during the service.

The event occurred last Friday February02nd, during the celebration of the Day of the Virgin of La Candelaria. The sad event can be appreciated in pictures and videos on the social networks.
In this regard, the journalist Madelein García expressed via Twitter that it was not the first time this happens. When the priest Miguel Acevedo was the parrisher of the Church San Pedro in Caracas, he expelled one of the altar boys when finding out he was a nephew of President Nicolás Maduro.

“The social networks told a different version: A Chavista woman attacks Priest in La Candelaria. Should the Law against Hate procede in this case"? Journalist Madelein García stressed.

Read the Article in Spanish here: https://www.aporrea.org/actualidad/n320624.html

English Version: María Eugenia Acero Colomine
acerocolomine@gmail.com 

Padrino López: Tillerson Accusations Are Very Serious

 By: El Informador/ La Iguana
Feb 02nd, 2018 -  The Venezuelan Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino, considered as "Outrageous" the accusations of the US State Department Secretary on Venezuela.

"We listened to the declarations of this man, Rex Tillerson, making a series of accusations from the University he graduated, in Austin, Texas. They are very grave and outrageous accusations against the people of Venezuela, specially outrageous against the Bolivarian National Armed Force", Padrino said while reading an official statement on the Venezuelan State-run TV Channel Venezolana de Televisión.
 

“The political career of this man is practically over. His internship at the White House, comes after having harvested failures and critics by his very own government, as well as the US establishment environment, due to his poor performance as a State Secretary", the Venezuelan Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, said.

“You don't know what you're doing. I invite you to rectify", López said.

The Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB, in its Spanish accronym) obbeys "The Venezuelan people, the constitution and our humanistic principles. The difficulties we suffer obbey an unprecedented onset by the US government, together to its alliesagainst Venezuela aimed at asphyxiating its economy and generating chaos". 

 

“We hope the whole world and Latin America united might understand that the evil actions undertaken by the Organization of American States (OAS) and the so-called Lima-Group might repeat in the future against any country and government that opposes to United States", he declared.

Only the Venezuelan people has the right and the duty to correct its difficulties framed within the Venezuelan Constitution.

“¿How can he talk about dictatorship when we are speaking of Presidential elections in the country?", The Venezuelan Minister of Defense, Vladirmir Padrino López concluded.

English Version: María Eugenia Acero Colomine

(AUDIO) The Proposal of a Chavista Candidate, but: How to Know if he/she Be a Chavista for Real?

There is no doubt: The Bolivarian Revolution lost its way after the assassination of Commander Chávez. Then, it abandoned the Plan of the Motherland. It became false, aimed at allowing the thesis of the alliance with the bourgeoisie for rising the productive forces. Therefore, it's mandatory to remember the three mainstrays of the self-criticism, as well as the proposal of a possible Chavista candidate. Also, to deepen on the research on the Commander's assassination, as well as claiming and assuming the Plan of the Motherland written by Chávez himself, and dismissing the thesis of an alliance with the bourgeoisie. 




Read the note and Listen to the Full Podcast in Spanish, here: https://www.aporrea.org/actualidad/n320070.html