Jonah Gindin

Canadian journalist.

95 articles

English 79 Español 9 Português 2 français 5

Venezuela’s Chávez Laments Turmoil, Violence in Ecuador

by Jonah Gindin

Caracas (Venezuela) | 22 April 2005
At a press conference on Wednesday afternoon during the visit of Chilean president Ricardo Lagos, Venezuela’s president Hugo Chávez responded to recent turmoil in Ecuador, describing the events as “unfortunate.”
Ecuadoran President Lucio Gutiérrez was stripped of his post by congress, yesterday, in a stunning turn of events after a week of sometimes violent protests that had paralyzed the Andean nation. Though he noted that it was too early for an official declaration while the situation in (...)

Venezuela’s Energy Minister Calls Nuevo Herald Charges of Corruption “Irresponsible”

by Jonah Gindin

Caracas (Venezuela) | 15 April 2005
Rafael Ramirez
Venezuela’s Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Rafael Ramirez, responded to allegations of corruption in the state oil company PDVSA, today, during a press conference at the company’s Caracas offices.
The allegations, made by the Miami-based El Nuevo Herald in a two-part series published on Monday and Tuesday of this week, claim to provide proof of the payment of excessive commissions by PDVSA to third-parties facilitating large sales for the company. Ramirez, who is also (...)

Bush Lobbies Argentina, Mexico, and Canada to Contain Venezuela’s Chávez

by Jonah Gindin

Caracas (Venezuela) | 31 March 2005
The Bush administration has continued to pursue a strategy of containment with respect to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez Frías, most recently in private conversations between US President George W. Bush and other world leaders. In previous criticisms of Venezuela, the US has not provoked the desired reaction among Latin American leaders, many of whom are vocally supportive of Chávez.
In a phone conversation with Argentinean President Nestor Kirchner, and in meetings with Mexican President (...)

US - Venezuela Relations Thaw over Easter

by Jonah Gindin

Caracas (Venezuela) | 30 March 2005
Venezuelan relations may be thawing after the first positive rhetorical exchange between the two countries in 2005 took place over the holiday weekend. Recent comments by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and the response of Venezuela’s foreign ministry reveal at least a momentary détente, with a significant calming of both nations’ rhetoric.
Secretary Rice toned down her usually harsh words for Chávez in an interview with the Washington Post last Friday. “When it comes to Venezuela we (...)

Interview with Philip Agee

The Nature of CIA Intervention in Venezuela

by Jonah Gindin

Caracas (Venezuela) | 23 March 2005
Philip Agee
Philip Agee is a former CIA operative who left the agency in 1967 after becoming disillusioned by the CIA’s support for the status quo in the region. Says Agee, “I began to realize that what I and my colleagues had been doing in Latin America in the CIA was no more than a continuation of nearly five-hundred years of this, exploitation and genocide and so forth. And I began to think about what, until then would have been unthinkable, which was to write a book on how it all (...)

Venezuela’s Pro-Chavez Parties Dispute Candidacies

by Jonah Gindin

Caracas (Venezuela) | 18 March 2005
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez will have the last word in a conflict among parties of his governing coalition over the selection of candidates for this August’s election of city councilors and district councils. Earlier this month Willian Lara, of the governing party Fifth Republic Movement (MVR), announced a proposal for the selection of pro-government candidates based on the d’Hondt method, which allots positions based on the popularity of each party, rather than on the popularity of (...)

Left Behind? Venezuela Charts Course for Latin America’s New Left

by Jonah Gindin

Caracas (Venezuela) | 16 March 2005
Tabaré Vasquez
Early last week Latin America inaugurated its most recent in a long line of left-wing Presidents. Uruguay’s new leader Tabaré Vasquez heads a coalition of socialists, labour leaders, and former guerrillas, and has sparked considerable speculation among Latin America watchers up North.
At the turn of the 21st century, it appeared as though South American politics were steering hard port-side, with the elections of Ricardo Lagos (Chile), Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Brazil), (...)

Venezuela’s Land Institute Recovers Public Land for Redistribution

by Jonah Gindin

Caracas (Venezuela) | 15 March 2005
Venezuela’s National Land Institute announced the impending redistribution of five ranches on Saturday, in a controversial settlement dealing with both private and public land. The five ranches are, El Carcote, Piñero, Coco, Borges, and Hacienda Sanz. This could mean the redistribution of private land titles for the first time since the land reform law was passed in November, 2001.
The El Charcote ranch is owned by the British meat-producer Lord Vestey, through its local subsidiary (...)

An Interview with Richard Gott

Reflections on Cuba and Venezuela

by Jonah Gindin

Caracas (Venezuela) | 9 March 2005
Cuba: A New History Richard Gott
Long-time Latin America correspondent for the British newspaper the Guardian, Richard Gott, first visited Cuba in 1963, where Cuba: A New History first began to take shape. By 1999 he was in Venezuela to write what is still the best introduction to Hugo Chávez’s “Bolívarian revolution,” In the Shadow of the Liberator [Verso, 2001]. In the intervening years he traveled ceaselessly throughout the Americas, studying the region’s guerilla movements and (...)

Venezuela

Chavistas in the Halls of Power, Chavistas on the Street

by Jonah Gindin

Caracas (Venezuela) | 7 March 2005
Early on the morning of February 27th, 1989 the Venezuelan capital awoke to chaos, anger, violence, looting, empowerment-to a spontaneous expression of rage and pent up anger, but also to the first mass mobilization on the continent in opposition to an economic orthodoxy dreamt up-and resisted-in the North, but anathema in the south.
Then-President Carlos Andres Pérez’s IMF blueprint for showing international finance how far he could squeeze Venezuelans backfired when the urban poor-formal (...)

Venezuela and Uruguay Sign Strategic Cooperation Agreements

by Jonah Gindin

Caracas (Venezuela) | 3 March 2005
Venezuela and Uruguay signed a series of strategic bilateral agreements in energy and telecommunications today, following the inauguration of Uruguay’s new president Tabaré Vasquez, which Venezuela’s President Chavez attended.
The energy agreements that were signed would have Venezuela provide Uruguay with oil at discounted prices. The two countries also signed the “Declaration of Montevideo,” which seeks Uruguayan participation in Venezuela’s regional oil initiative known as “Petrosur.” At (...)

At OAS Venezuela Says US Interventionism is Prelude to Aggression

by Jonah Gindin, Gregory Wilpert

Caracas (Venezuela) | 1 March 2005
Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Alí Rodriguez took the issue of US intervention in Venezuela’s affairs to the Organization of American States (OAS) today, where he made a presentation calling for an investigation into a possible attempt to “liquidate” the Venezuelan President.
Rodriguez cited statements from US officials, who referred to Chávez as a “negative” and “destabilizing” force in the region and said this could serve as a prelude to “an attack.” “The accusations pouring out against the (...)

Death Toll from Rain and Mudslides in Venezuela Reaches 40

by Jonah Gindin

Caracas (Venezuela) | 15 February 2005
Unseasonably heavy rains and flooding over the past week have killed at least 40 people in Venezuela. As many as 15,000 more are estimated to have been left homeless by flooding and massive landslides. Last week the Venezuelan government declared a state of emergency in seven states, and President Chávez approved a US$52 million emergency fund to be spent on rescue operations. Venezuela received over 140 millimeters of rain in the first week and a half of February, compared to the 11mm (...)

Venezuela’s Chavez Threatens to Freeze Relations with Neighbor Colombia

by Jonah Gindin

Caracas (Venezuela) | 25 January 2005
Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans marched through the capital Caracas, today, calling for the respect of Venezuela’s sovereignty. Both Chavistas and opposition-supporters held marches to celebrate the anniversary of Venezuelan democracy, January 23, 1958, the day dictator Peréz Jiménez was defeated. The opposition march was only briefly covered by the opposition television channels, and was reported to be very small, with few opposition leaders present.
In an interesting development, (...)

Company went bankrupt after supporting the two-month managerial strike against the Chávez government

Venezuela’s Venepal Under Workers Control After Bankruptcy and Expropriation

by Jonah Gindin

Caracas (Venezuela) | 21 January 2005
Venezuela’s government seized the assets of the country’s largest paper product plant Venepal yesterday, after bankruptcy was finally declared last December. The troubled company stopped production in September, 2004 threatening to sell off the plant’s machinery to pay off creditors. Workers at the plant who had not been paid for three months, organized a national campaign to encourage the expropriation of the factory, which culminated in yesterday’s official announcement.
The nationalization (...)

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6