Published on 10 September 2014 by TeleSUR

Ambassadors meet to evaluate ten years of ALBAAmbassadors from the nine member countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA-TCP) met in Caracas, Venezuela to evaluate the progress achieved since the bloc was created 10 years ago.  

The meeting is part of an ongoing campaign, which began earlier this month in order to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the organization.

During the event General Secretary of ALBA-TCP Bernardo Alvarez highlighted the findings from a report, which monitors the progress and policies of the integration bloc carried out over the last decade. 

"There is no doubt that since the creation of ALBA, Latin America has become increasingly more unified with respect to sovereignty, autonomy and independence," Alvarez stated.  

Published 8 September 2014 by TeleSUR

Cubas Yo Si Puedo campaign has been used worldwideVenezuela and Bolivia are celebrating their countries' progress in beating illiteracy Monday, during International Literacy Day. Illiteracy in Bolivia is at its lowest ever level ever, while Venezuela is marking seven illiteracy-free years.

Bolivia can now officially count itself as illiteracy-free, with a 96.2 percent total literate population. The United Nations Educational Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) deem countries free of illiteracy when the rate is less than four percent.

Published on 8 September by www.venezuelanalysis.com

Venezuelan farmers to benefit from increased production networkOn Sunday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced the formation of a presidential council of farmers, fishers and rural producers working alongside a state-run food distribution company, aimed at addressing nutrition, food scarcity, and rural production in Venezuela.

The new council, tasked with advancing public policy in the field, is due to begin operations on October 14th. The Venezuelan leader noted that it will “revolutionize” how decisions are made in regards to agrarian issues and food production.

Johan Hernández Lares, vice-minister of the Ministry of Popular Power of Food Production, last week was also appointed to head up the new state-run Corporation of Production, Distribution and Marketing of Foods (Corpo Pdval-Mercal). This new corporation will work alongside other government institutions to improve efficiency. In it's first phase, Corpo Pdval-Mercal will distribute between 130,000-200,000 tons of food to the private and public sector, Maduro announced. 

Published on 2 September 2014 by TeleSUR English

Maduro declares  5 big revolutionsIn declarations to the country, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro announced what he described as "five revolutions", as part of a need to "improve our service to the people."

Maduro said the revolutions would be a "a new way of functioning" for the government, and emphasized the need for a more "efficient" government. 

The following five revolutions, he said, "should be united, and should define the government policies, giving power to the people, it will be the people who push government policy."

Published on 8 September by TeleSUR English

Minister of Interior Miguel Rodriguez TorresIn an interview with the Venezuelan daily paper El Universal published yesterday, the internal affairs minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres, former head of intelligence services for 10 years, acknowledged that “modest progresses [have been made] in fighting crime,” but reaffirmed his office's efforts “not only for the people's security but also to improve the attention provided to people.”

“We are not proud of the figures of homicides, but they have reduced.”

Published on 3 September 2014 by Telesur English

TV series Legends attacks VenezuelaThe television series Legends has been criticized by the Venezuelan government for a scene in which a character accuses President Maduro and the PSUV party of planning to buy chemical weapons.

Legends is a cop show broadcast to pay TV viewers on the channel TNT. ?The British newspaper The Guardian, reports that in the third episode entitled “The Lords of War,” the star of the show, Sean Bean, tortures a terrorist to find out who is buying his biological arms. The terrorist blurts out: “Maduro! PSUV! They’re worried about the civil unrest in Venezuela!”

Venezuelan Communications Minister, Delcy Rodríguez wrote on Twitter account that the show presented lies and manipulations typical of Hollywood scripts that malign legitimate governments headed by leaders regarded as unsympathetic to imperial interests.

Fox 21, the  producer of the show, eventually apologized to Maduro for the incident, stating that Legends is “obviously fiction” and that there was no intention to suggest that the dramatic representation of President Maduro’s words or actions referred to real events.

The National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel), which regulates subscriber TV, said that an investigation of Legends would be opened, without giving any details about possible sanctions

 

Published on 21 August 2014 by www.venezuelanalysis.com

Planes taking aid from Venezuela to PalestineVenezuelan ambassador to Egypt, Juan Antonio Hernandez, said Wednesday that an Israeli aircraft attacked the Venezuelan humanitarian delegation in Rafah along the border post between Egypt and Palestine. The delegation was delivering twelve tons of aid to the Palestinian people. No one was injured during the attack.

The F-16 airplane dropped a missile very close to the humanitarian site, though it did not explode. The ambassador confirmed that the missile fell approximately 50 to 70 meters from the site.

Published on 19 August 2014 by Telesur English
ALBA countries stand in solidarity with Ferguson protests
The ALBA countries released a joint statement Tuesday expressing their "profound concern" with the violence sparked by the police killing of an unarmed black teenager, which the bloc said is a reminder of the serious racial discrimination that has yet to be resolved in the United States.

"The countries of ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance of the People of Our Americas, integrated by Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Cuba, Bolivia, and various Caribbean nations) express their solidarity with the African descent communities of the United States," the statement added.

Published on 21 August 2014 by www.venezuelanalysis.com

An estimated 40 of subsidised food is smuggled from Venezuela to neighbouring countries

"What we’ve discovered is much worse than we imagined,” said Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro yesterday while outlining the latest results of new measures taken to prevent smuggling. 

Since the National Commission to Fight Contraband was launched on August 12th, approximately 75 people have been arrested in the act of smuggling Venezuelan goods across the Colombian border to be sold for profit.  According to vice president Jorge Arreaza, 47 of those are still in custody. 

At least 20,000 liters of gasoline and 30 tons of food have been recovered by the army in the state of Zulia alone, officials say.