Since the start of the month, State-owned aluminium producer Venalum has been on strike.
Three weeks later, the conflict has heated up between company workers and management, which has brought outside reinforcements such as the Oversight Ministry and Bolivarian Militia soldiers.
Reasons behind the strike include electrical failures that have affected production, questionable hiring decisions, and other labor disputes. Others consider it has political overtones, given the ongoing struggle between Bolívar State Governor Francisco Rangel Gómez and Guayana’s main unions. The finding of weapons in Venalum’s premises and an attempt against the life of the workers’ union president have heightened tensions.
While other CVG workers are protesting on the streets as well, the governor has dedicated more of his time promoting Ciudad Bolívar’s bid to host the 2019 Panamerican Games. Too bad for him that the competition comes from wealthier, more organized cities.
Caracas Chronicles 
A few years ago, I was a member of a delegation which tries to win the votes of Latin American governments in support of a Toronto, Canada-hosted Pan American Games. So, I know what goes into a bid, and what governments are looking for when they cast their votes. I can assure you all that Ciudad Bolivar will not host the 2019 games. The first question that is asked is about the personal security of the athletes, coaches, and supporters of the team who may travel to the proposed host city. The second question is about the availability of 20 thousand or so first-class hotel rooms. “We will build them if we get the Games” is not considered an acceptable answer. I think the Governor is trying to divert attention from real problems by pursuing this.
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Exactly. This bid is nothing more than a waste of time and resources.
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Hey, with the blackouts, dengue, malaria, food shortages, kidnappings, miserable airline infrastructure and ridiculous exchange rates, they could call it the Lonely Planet Games! What a bold bid…
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Better don’t give them any ideas. They could call it “the ALBAkiad”.
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new sport: marathon line-standing.
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Sorry for going OT, but I think this puts the faked or not Chávez “Proof of Life” pictures discussion to a rest:
Dr. Neal Krawetz, specialist in computer forensics analyzed the pictures on his blog:
http://www.hackerfactor.com/blog/index.php?/archives/535-Livin-la-Vida-Loca.html
“As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, FotoForensics has been inundated with literally hundreds of unique pictures that show Hugo Chavez. Each are variations of the same four pictures. Each variant is different — different scaling, cropping, color adjustments, compression levels, etc. Hundreds of variants of these same four pictures.”
Worth reading it.
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“Sorry for going OT”
Sorry for not accepting the apology.
We need to find new ways, or at least an acronym, to say “por eso estamos como estamos”. Here we have the govt. sending paramilitary to intimidate (to put it mildly) a union protest and it is barely a story outside of the regional press. And even when it gets picked up by this illustrious blog, the best we can do is to bring up yet another piece about whether the Chavez hospital pictures are fake or not (spoiler alert: “These are staged photos”. No! En serio?)
PEEQECE
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yep, you are right, but I was trying really to put this to end. People thinking Chávez is already dead, a “new picture” going around, etc..
El Chigüire has it better: http://www.elchiguirebipolar.net/19-02-2013/pais-cayendose-a-pedazos-orienta-todas-sus-energias-a-pelearse-por-presidente-que-nadie-ha-visto/
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It’s a crazy country where the unions make sense!
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Nothing like a Bolivarian Militia to go in there and beat the shit out of some striking workers. Next best thing since the Pinkertons stopped working as strike breakers!
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“Next best thing since the Pinkertons stopped working as strike breakers!”
Exactly. And yet the PSF silence on this is deafening. At least when the same thing happened at Perez Carreño there was a bit more coverage. (porque Caracas es Caracas y lo demás es monte?)
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