Category: 07 Venezuela

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Journal: Cuba Makes Its Move–Hasta La Vista OAS?

07 Venezuela, 08 Wild Cards, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Strategy
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There is no reason why Latin America and the Caribbean should not have their own body of political consensus

Boys on the Beach

Speech by General of the Army Raúl Castro Ruz, president of the Councils of State and Ministers, at the plenary session of the Summit of Latin America and Caribbean Unity, February 23, 2010

The decision that we have just adopted to create the Community pf Latin American and Caribbean States is of great historical significance.

Cuba considers that the conditions are present to rapidly advance toward the constitution of a purely Latin American and Caribbean regional organization, comprising and representing the 33 independent nations of Latin America and the Caribbean.

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Journal: Chavez versus CIA–No Contest

07 Venezuela, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government

Chavez Calls Sentence in CIA's Online Almanac “A Declaration of War” Against Venezuela

If you've ever been curious to know any country's GDP, literacy rate, languages, etc., at a glance, the CIA's online World Factbook is the place to start.

And evidently Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been Googling his own country lately, because he's taken serious issue with the sort of government-issue Wikipedia's summary description of the South American nation.

From the CIA World Factbook:

“…For most of the first half of the 20th century, Venezuela was ruled by generally benevolent military strongmen, who promoted the oil industry and allowed for some social reforms. Democratically elected governments have held sway since 1959. Hugo CHAVEZ, president since 1999, seeks to implement his “21st Century Socialism,” which purports to alleviate social ills while at the same time attacking globalization and undermining regional stability. Current concerns include: a weakening of democratic institutions, political polarization, a politicized military, drug-related violence along the Colombian border, increasing internal drug consumption, overdependence on the petroleum industry with its price fluctuations, and irresponsible mining operations that are endangering the rain forest and indigenous peoples.”

The text above constitutes, according to Chavez this past week, “a declaration of war.”

Phi Beta Iota: Chavez is right, CIA is wrong.  A World Factbook is not the place for subjective politicized “judgments,” and if one wishes to speak about the Open Veins of Latin America–Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, the CIA should cut its own throat first or to use another metaphor, not throw stones when it lives in a glass house.    CIA is no longer the destructive monster it used to be, but perhaps worse, Clowns in Action or Contractors in Action, take your pick.  CIA should remove the offending words and surprise Venezuela with a printed corrected copy of the book, and a letter of apology–and it can apologize for its last bungled coup attempt while its at it.  Newsflash for CIA:  imperial globalization bad, indigenous self-determination good.  Duh.

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Journal: Venezuela oil ‘may double Saudis’

03 Economy, 05 Energy, 07 Venezuela

BBC Full Story Online

A new US assessment of Venezuela's oil reserves could give the country double the supplies of Saudi Arabia.

Scientists working for the US Geological Survey say Venezuela's Orinoco belt region holds twice as much petroleum as previously thought.

The geologists estimate the area could yield more than 500bn barrels of crude oil.

Phi Beta Iota: This is consistent with both the Brazilian discoveries and the rare nature of the Amazon region.  All signs point to a re-emergence of the United Nations of South America (UNASUR) as a major political, socio-eceonomic, ideo-cultural, and techno-demographic “bloc” in the next quarter century.  If they create their own Multinational Engagement network for regional information-sharing and sense-making, with a model that can be ported to South Africa for extension into that continent, and to the Indonesia-Malaysia axis with Singapore as a central hub for Chinese diaspora influence, the balance of power in the world will change dramatically.  The “closed model” of top down command and control has faded, the “open model” of networks is emergent.  Latin American populism is a force that cannot be repressed, it can only be respected.

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Journal: MILNET US Muscles South, Islamic Genocide

01 Brazil, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 06 Genocide, 07 Venezuela, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Government, Military

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Muscling Latin America: The Pentagon has a new Monroe Doctrine (The Nation)

In September Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, delivered on an electoral promise and refused to renew Washington's decade-old, rent-free lease on an air base outside the Pacific coast town of Manta, which for the past ten years has served as the Pentagon's main South American outpost. The eviction was a serious effort to fulfill the call of Ecuador's new Constitution to promote “universal disarmament” and oppose the “imposition” of military bases of “some states in the territory of others.” It was also one of the most important victories for the global demilitarization movement, loosely organized around the International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases, since protests forced the US Navy to withdraw from Vieques, Puerto Rico, in 2003. Correa, though, couldn't resist an easy joke. “We'll renew the lease,” he quipped, “if the US lets us set up a base in Miami.”

Funny. Then Washington answered with a show of force: take away one, we'll grab seven. In late October the United States and Colombia signed an agreement granting the Pentagon use of seven military bases, along with an unlimited number of as yet unspecified “facilities and locations.”

MAY: Islam's war against others: Ethnic cleansing spreading in Muslim world (Scripps News)

Connect these dots: In Nigeria this week, Muslim youths set fire to a church, killing more than two dozen Christian worshippers. In Egypt, Coptic Christians have been suffering increased persecution including, this month, a drive-by shooting outside a church in which seven people were murdered. In Pakistan, Christian churches were bombed over Christmas. In Turkey, authorities have been closing Christian churches, monasteries and schools. Recently, churches in Malaysia have been attacked, too, provoked by this grievance: Christians inside the churches were referring to God as “Allah.” How dare infidels use the same name for the Almighty as do Muslims!

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Journal: Haiti–Ready for a Rapid-Response Open-Source-Intelligence-Driven Inter-Agency Multinational Multifunctional Stabilization & Reconstruction Mission…

01 Brazil, 01 Poverty, 02 Infectious Disease, 03 Environmental Degradation, 07 Other Atrocities, 07 Venezuela, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, 12 Water, Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Methods & Process, Mobile, Real Time
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AP: Injured Haitians plead for help after quake

Haitians piled bodies along the devastated streets of their capital Wednesday after the strongest earthquake hit the poor Caribbean nation in more than 200 years crushed thousands of structures, from humble shacks to the National Palace and the U.N. peacekeeping headquarters. Untold numbers were still trapped.

Destroyed communications made it impossible to tell the extent of destruction from Tuesday afternoon's 7.0-magnitude tremor, or to estimate how many were dead among the collapsed buildings in Haiti's capital of about 2 million people.

France's foreign minister said the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission was apparently among the dead.

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Phi Beta Iota: This is precisely what was briefed recently to the DIA Multinational Intelligence Fellows and earlier in Tampa to the Coalition Coordination Center (CCC) and unnoticed by DIA as well as declined by CENTCOM as a transition model toward a Multinational Decision Support Center.  The US Government does well enough with little things that can be handled by one agency, or one thing that must be handled by multiple agencies, but it does not do well as all with many things that must be handled by many players on a no-notice basis.  The reason: a C4I system that is high-side unilateral expensive and largely useless past one big contingency.  The solution: a global grid that is unclassified (commercial-level security) and open to everyone.  DIA has enormous potential as a hub for Multinational Engagement and defense-rooted open source exploitation that also impacts on the QDR and acquisition while providing Combatant Commanders with relevant unclassified intelligence for COIN and other challenges.

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