Arcadia Foundation

Hundreds of Venezuelans have held a demonstration demanding the government halt expropriations of private companies and condemning its stance toward union protests.

Some protesters held signs saying “Free Ruben Gonzalez!” — a union leader jailed on charges stemming from a 2009 strike at the state iron-mining company.

The doctrine of Hugo Chavez has long been authoritarian, extreme in fundamental nature and mired with the prospective of prospective casualties. His nationalization in the name of Bolivar has hindered corporate foreign investment and domestic policy and today we see greater evidence of its burden domestically.

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A former Venezuelan judge, whose arrest for corruption and treatment in prison has been internationally condemned by human rights activists, should be moved to house arrest to continue cancer treatment, the attorney general stated yesterday.

A recommendation has been submitted that Maria Lourdes Afiuni be held at her home after an upcoming operation, according to an email statement by Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz.

Afiuni was sent to prison in December 2009, hours after paroling a wealthy banker charged with gaming the country’s strict currency rules to pilfer tens of millions of dollars from the central bank.

Afiuni ruled that the banker, Eligio Cedeno, should be free after being held for 34 months because Venezuelan law forbids more than two years of pretrial detention.

The decision angered President Hugo Chavez, who claimed Afiuni and Cedeno had cut some sort of illegal deal. Authorities then arrested Afiuni on charges of corruption and accessory to an escape. Chavez said she should spend 30 years in prison. She has yet to be tried.

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In a report released January 6, 2011, recent reports revealed that women and girls living in makeshift camps in Haiti are facing an increasing risk of rape and sexual violence.

One year after the devastating earthquakes which killed 230,000 and injured 300,000, over one million survivors live in appalling conditions. Make-shift tent cities provide less than adequate shelter in the capital Port-au-Prince and south Haiti. At night, predominately armed men roam these camps and women are facing serious risk of rape and violence.

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Designated Minister to the Presidency, Maria Antonieta Guillén, this week declared to Honduras that she has been called to review the case regarding Hondutel and LatiNode, a case whose defendants were brought to justice in part by the Arcadia Foundation.

La Presna reports that the civil servant made the declarations after the actions of the United States against two high executives of LatiNode Inc. (LatiNode) who paid bribes to ex- Honduran civil servants.

The Government of the United States in December jailed LatiNode Executives Jorge Granados and Manuel Cáceres, for paying over a half million dollars in bribes to the ex- managers of Hondutel.

Cáceres left on bail on the 26th of December. When asked if the actions of the United States against the executives of LatiNode represent a message for Honduras, Guillén said: “the laws of each country are enforced by their respective parameters and obviously the Government of Honduras and the authorities therein will have to review, not only this one, but any other process that is within its right to evaluate”.

The National Commissioner of Human rights, Ramon Guard, and Executive Vice-President of the Arcadia Foundation, Robert Carmona-Borjas, requested the intervention of Honduras in this matter.

In the hands of justice officials in Honduras is the question of deducing responsibility behind the case of two former officials who received bribes from Latinode and Alcatel.

The call came after from the United States arrested two executives of the company Latinode-Laurent Alcatel USA pleaded guilty for corrupt practices abroad.

As found by the U.S. Department of Justice, the two companies bribed former Honduran officials in exchange for preference in the procurement of telecommunications.

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BusinessWeek has reported that the U.S. today revoked the visa of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s ambassador to Washington as part of a five-month diplomatic feud between the two countries. This war of words has followed a brash regime in the oil-rich country of political intimidation and corporate nationalization in the form of expropriation, most notably in the name of Simon Bolivar.

Bernardo Alvarez, who has overseen Venezuela’s stormy relations with the U.S. since 2003, was expelled after Chavez on Dec. 28 said he was ready for the U.S. to break off diplomatic ties, Venezuela’s communications ministry said. Chavez has been refusing since July to welcome the Obama administration’s choice of Larry Palmer as its next envoy to Caracas and on Dec. 20 delivered an official letter of protest rejecting the nominee.

“We said there would be consequences when the Venezuelan government” refused to accept Palmer’s appointment, Mark Toner, deputy State Department spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement. “We have taken appropriate, proportional and reciprocal action.”

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Following the adamant work of the Arcadia Foundation to bring to expose corruption and promote the values of both human rights and indeed corporate human rights, U.S. authorities on Tuesday arrested two senior executives of the telecommunications firm Latin Node Inc. (LatiNode) on charges of paying more than half a million dollars in bribes to officials of the Honduran government in exchange for concessions with state Honduran Telecommunications Company (Hondutel).

El Heraldo reports that the former CEO and the Vice President of LatiNode, Colombian-American Jorge Granados and Honduran Manuel Cáceres respectively, were arrested in Miami, where the company is based, said the U.S. Justice department statement.

Granados, 54, and Caceres, 64, are accused of criminal violations of the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and international money laundering, said the Department. The indictment of 19 charges was revealed on Tuesday.

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Early in the morning of December 3, 2007, a humbled Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez admitted his defeat  in a national election. For the first time, voters had rejected him at the polls — saying no to his bold attempt to modify sixty-nine articles of Venezuela’s 1999 constitution and usher in a “socialist state.” But that contrition was short lived. Using the gradual passage of “organic laws” by his overwhelming majority in the National Assembly, Chavez has enacted almost all aspects of his proposed 2007 constitution.

In the aftermath of another electoral setback this past September, and using the severe flooding affecting the nation as cover, Chavez and his outgoing National Assembly have been busily pushing through an unconstitutional package of laws that indeed, as Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow Joel D. Hirst writes, completes his 2007 project.

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The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) has reportedly begun creating a school of defense in the eastern region of Santa Cruz, to provide military training not only to soldiers but also to civilians, said Bolivian Defense Minister Rubén Saavedra.

“The formal establishment of the School of Defense will be the responsibility of the ALBA presidents. We consider that it is a very important advance,” Saavedra said. The minister did not provide details about the opening date, AP reported.

Building a militia in addition to already-established armed forces is undoubtedly however, more guerilla than good.

“The goal is to train not only military personnel but also civilians who are interested in security and defense issues. The coordination is being established with all the ALBA countries,” he said.

Bolivia’s army, which celebrated its bicentennial over the weekend, declared itself “socialist, anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist,” as President Evo Morales had requested.