The last few weeks have been busy! I have been putting aside a few bits and pieces of the news, however, when something particularly interesting or concerning has happened.
Yesterday, I heard of a case of three Colombian women, with five children between them, picked up in what seems to be, from the vague information I was given, a case of human trafficking. It is unclear if the women are refugees. They were picked up in San Francisco, which is a separate municipality from that of Maracaibo but is part and parcel of the city because it is where the bridge connects from across the lake. From what I hear, there seem to be more cases of human trafficking in Venezuela.
About a week ago, the Venezuelan came out criticizing the U.S. for saying that Venezuela is not doing enough to combat drugs. It added that the United States is in no position to criticize another country about its human rights status seeing as though the U.S. still runs Guantanamo Bay. In addition, someone came out with the headline “Illegal U.S. Consulates in Venezuela: Propaganda and conspiracy centers.” It claims that “American Corners”—which are like mini-libraries housed in areas like universities, schools, etc. (there are a handful throughout the country) –are Washington’s instruments of propaganda. Not only that, but they subvert and violate diplomatic regulations because they do not have authorization from the host government. In fact, the corner in the university where one of the Fulbrighters is working has been shut down. While the books in these corners are often about democracy, voting, U.S. politics, etc. (I know that we have the same books donated by the embassy sitting in CEVAZ’s library), they are in no way propaganda. If anything, the centers are there to promote reading and learning. I would say most, if not all, are hardly substantial, or places that anyone visits or uses very much.
In other news, Chavez has taken over the ports and airports here, in areas under opposition governments. Last week, I saw the national military at the port. For better or worse, I have heard that this hasn’t meant any changes in the functioning of the airport. As it is, the military does a revision of everything going out on a flight before you even check in. While Chavez says that it is all an effort to “unify” the country, it really just means that the national government, rather than state or municipal government, will be able to reap the financial benefits of taxing of departures or arrivals. I can hardly imagine that this will mean that the highly chaotic airport will be more streamlined or make any more sense with a national government company running it (you have to arrive three hours early and the last time, I spent those three hours in a total of six different lines).
As you all may have heard, Obama has talked about trying to buy more oil from Brazil instead of Venezuela, if Brazil can guarantee a certain level of production. Anti-chavistas here are hopeful…they say that they think things will have to get worse, much worse (economically and perhaps otherwise), before things get better.
Just before, Chavez called the Colombian Defense Minister a threat to the region and assured that world that Venezuela is ready for war with Colombia, if it should provoke it.
Never a dull moment here in Venezuela, huh?
