(Venezuelanalysis 15/09712) A video has emerged of a top campaign aide of Venezuelan opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski covertly accepting 40,000 bolivars (US $9,300) and offering to set up a meeting between Capriles and an unknown businessman (video at bottom of post).

The secretly recorded video, played to journalists yesterday, shows Capriles’s campaign aide, Juan Carlos Caldera, accepting payment from an unknown figure named “the boss” The video has provoked accusations of bribery and corruption among Capriles’ Roundtable of Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition. Capriles immediately sacked the aide, Juan Carlos Caldera, who is a parliamentary deputy for Capriles’ First Justice (PJ) party and was the MUD’s representative to Venezuela’s National Electoral Council.

The incident comes just three weeks before Capriles and President Hugo Chavez contest the 7 October presidential election vote.

The opposition MUD coalition in Venezuela continues to cause controversy in the run up to the October 7 Presidential elections. On 11 September, four organisations within the coalition withdrew their support for opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski.

Demonstrating the continued input of social movements to Chavez’s presidential proposals for 2013-2019, women’s right groups presented their proposals at a televised event on 12 September at the Teresa Carreño theatre in Caracas. Chavez stressed the importance of the political participation of women in the Bolivarian Revolution, highlighting the many gains of the last 13 years, stating ‘All Venezuelan women have my deepest respect... never before has any government treated Venezuelan women with such dignity and respect,’

[Correo del Orinoco International] In another twist to Venezuela’s 2012 presidential campaign, the political opposition knowingly ran an illegal campaign ad on national television. Depicting the violent death of a graduating college student, the controversial ad included the horri?ed screams of a working class, single mother.

Shown repeatedly on media outlets the day of its release, the ad circumvented regulations set forth by the National Electoral Council (CNE). Pulled from the airways because of its violent content, the ad was later used by opposition spokesmen to claim “censorship” by CNE authorities.

Still from the illegal TV ad by Voluntad Popular

The controversial ad titled, “Safety Has a Way Forward” was sponsored by right-wing party Voluntad Popular (Popular Will), a frequent recipient of US government funding. In the TV spot, a young, Afro-Venezuelan college student wearing what appears to be a public school  uniform walks to the slum-based home of his single, working class mother. After a warm, celebratory embrace in which both are clearly pleased with his successful graduation, the young man steps outside and is gunned down by unknown assailants. His mother, watching from a kitchen window, screams a horri?c “nooooo!” before dropping her morning cup of steaming coffee to the ground.

A recent article posted on Venezuela Analysis (VA) reveals through leaked documents that the current Venezuelan opposition, MUD, plan to drastically attempt to smash the public sector in Venezuela if they come into power this year.

 

Leaked document "First Ideas of Economic Actions to Take by the National Unity Government (2013)"

The Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG) and our newspaper Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! (FRFI) have been covering and supporting the process in Venezuela for over a decade. Follow the links to previous articles to learn more about the history of the Bolivarian revolution.

In April 2002 the US backed opposition staged a failed coup against Chavez who was exiled for 48 hours. Due to the loyalty of the base of the armed forces and mass popular action on the streets, the coup was defeated.

Hugo Chavez returns after the defeat of the US-backed 2002 coup

As part of the warm-up to our video and journalistic coverage of the Venezuela 2012 elections, we thought it would be worth giving a nod to our previous documentary filmed in Cuba, 2010.

In 2010 we visited Cuba, as part of a solidarity brigade organised by Rock around the Blockade. The aim of the trip was for all involved to discover how a new society can be constructed by observing and learning from the concrete example of the Cuban revolution and socialist process.

Cuba documentary - watch now online

Aside from this, we also undertook an exciting process of filming a documentary during our stay whilst we visited the many local organisations, projects, schools, universities, farms and hospitals we were invited to see accross the country.

The film itelf was shot over two weeks, but actually recorded over 17 hours of footage! It took us nearly one year to edit the film, but the final movie really delivered and turned out to be an engaging documentary for newcomers and those already aware of Cuba's history.

We have now decided to release the documentary, in all its full length glory, for free online for the first time ever. Originally the documentary was only distributed through street work and stalls but like our upcoming documentary on the 2012 Venezuelan elections, we thought its true home should be online where anyone in the world can watch it.

Watch and enjoy, and any questions or quieries please leave in the youTube comments or alternately contact us. 

 

 

This year, for the first time, the Revolutionary Communist Group and our newspaper Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! will send a delegation to Venezuela to cover the 2012 presidential elections in October
 
We will be reporting daily from the streets of Caracas, challenging the media lies and slander about the revolutionary process in which millions of Venezuelans have participated, building true independence from US, EU and IMF hegemony in the region and the economic elites who have dominated their future so far.
 
Capitalism is crisis - across Europe governments are dishing out cuts for the poor but bailouts for the rich, squeezing out profits as they inflict austerity and poverty on ordinary people.
 

Meanwhile the underdeveloped countries face the brunt of the crisis, plunging into deeper poverty as external investments collapse, exploitation intensifies and imperialist countries invade and occupy in a scramble for resources.

Since the 1998 election of Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan people have been building a Socialist alternative. Seizing the country's oil wealth from economic elites and US multinationals and pumping it back into public services, health programs, education; changing lives across Latin America.

This October, Venezuelans will take to the polling stations to decide the fate of the continent in the presidential elections. We are sending a delegation to Caracas to report on the election period and break the British media blockade on Venezuela. 

The Bolivarian Revolution

We want to bring you the truth that the British press does not want you to hear or see. The media in Britain is controlled by a handful of privately-owned multinational corporations, in alliance with a corrupt and complicit political and economic elite – including the government.

British corporate media does not ‘objectively’ inform us about this process – how grassroots, mass mobilisations have transformed the lives of millions of Venezuelans. It's our job to publicise the alternative Venezuela is building, showing what can be done when people are put before profit.

You can help. We need your support however big or small, to help make this blog known far and wide. We need your help to fund our documentary, whether you can contribute £1 or £100 it will assist us in countering propaganda with the truth.

We have no wealthy backers or NGO money. We rely on a network of activists and supporters like you. You can help us inform the public in Britain by organising meetings and screenings  in your community or college. You can form the team which tells people about our news and analysis direct from the process in Venezuela.

[Huffington Post, 04/09/2012] Venezuelans go to the polls on 7 October to elect their president. The main choice is between the incumbent Hugo Chavez and Henrique Capriles Radonski, a right-wing state governor with strong ties to the country's elite.

Voters cue at a recent election test run (Venezuelanalysis)

Yet with more than a month to go, sections of Venezuela's right wing opposition coalition seem to have made up their mind about the outcome. With substantial poll leads for Hugo Chávez they appear to be preparing to decry the official results as a fraud.