| The third anniversary of the untimely death of Venezuelan President and leader of the Bolivarian Revolution Hugo Chávez on March 5, 2013 was marked with ceremonies and gatherings in Venezuela and around the world. In Venezuela, events will take place from March 5 to 15 and began at 10:00 am with the lighting of a torch in honour of President Chávez. Brigadier General Carlos Rodriguez Vencomo said the torch will remain lit for the 365 days and tour "neighborhoods, streets and towns." The torch began its journey in the 23 de Enero neighbourhood in the Libertador Bolivarian municipality west of Caracas, the capital. Regional leaders also travelled to Venezuela March 5 to pay tribute alongside Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. These included Bolivian President Evo Morales, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, Salvadoran President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbadu Gaston Brown, Prime Minister of the Dominican Republic Roosevelt Skerrit and Cuban Vice-President Miguel Diaz-Canel. They joined prominent Venezuelan personalities and political leaders, as well as representatives of the military and other sectors of the Venezuelan people to visit the Cuartel de la Montańa (Mountain Barracks), a military museum which is now a mausoleum for Chávez's remains. President Maduro and his counterparts then participated in an international forum at the Teresa Carreno Theatre in Caracas entitled "Chávez: A Leader of the 21st Century and Latin American and Caribbean Unity." In Ecuador, a ceremony was held on March 4 before the statue of Simon Bolivar in the capital Quito, followed by a religious ceremony at the Basílica del Voto Nacional. A concert was held in Chávez's honour on March 5 at the Chapel of Man in Quito. Argentinians gathered on March 4 in Rivadavia Park in the capital, Buenos Aires, in front of the statue of Simon Bolivar. In Bolivia, the Venezuelan embassy began activities on February 29 including a photo exhibition, concert and exhibition of commemorative coins marking Hugo Chávez's 59 years of life. Cuba marked the anniversary on March 4 with floral tributes organized by the embassy of Venezuela and the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) at the Avenue of the Presidents in Havana. President Maduro Initiates New Socialist Enterprise System and Calls on Workers to Resist Privatization At a meeting with workers at the Ana Maria Campo Petrochemical Complex in Zulia state on February 22, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced the creation of a National Productive Corporation as part of a new socialist enterprise system aimed at coordinating efforts among state, communal and mixed enterprises. The Corporation will be headed by National Telephone Company (CANTV) President Manuel Fernandez and will coordinate between key public firms. President Maduro also said the new body will fight against "the corruption that has entered all levels of the distributive process like a cancer." Maduro also announced the establishment of a new socialist management school for public employees to provide technical education and a workplace culture guided by "a vision towards production." At the same time that the government is taking measures against the economic war of the oligarchy and to strengthen the national economy, the oligarchic parties in the National Assembly are attempting to privatize public assets and attack the rights of workers. Legislation was introduced in the National Assembly on March 2 which has the stated purpose of "strengthening national production." United Socialist Party of Venezuela legislator Hector Rodriguez pointed out, "when you start to read the law, what the law sets out is the privatization of land, basic industries, recovered (expropriated) state corporations and the flexibilization of labour laws." President Maduro said the law is "attempting to take away land from the campesinos, from the Indigenous. It's absolutely illegal, immoral and unconstitutional." Maduro denounced the new legislation and urged workers to mobilize in defence of the public sector. "It's a law to privatize and plunder the country like they did when they used to govern, when they privatized SIDOR, CANT, VIASA and put an end to the economic structure of the country, [National Assembly President] Ramos Allup and company." "The working class must take to the streets to confront and defeat [the law], you can count on my support to defeat it," he affirmed. U.S. President Renews Executive Order Labeling Venezuela Threat to National Security An executive order imposing sanctions against Venezuela first issued by U.S. President Barack Obama in March 2015 has been renewed for another year. The decree states that Venezuela is "an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States." In an April 2015 interview Obama admitted that Venezuela did not pose a threat to U.S. security but stated that labelling it as such was necessary to impose sanctions. The executive order was condemned by all 33 members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and by the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). A unanimous statement issued by CELAC called on the U.S. government to reverse the decree and, with the government of Venezuela, "launch a dialogue, under the principles of respect for sovereignty, non-interference in the internal affairs of the states, the self-determination of the peoples and the democratic and institutional order in line with international law." In statements posted online on March 4, UNASUR stated, "The renewal of U.S. unilateral measures against Venezuela is a disappointment for the 12 UNASUR member states because it violates the principle of non-intervention, as agreed upon at the Ministerial Meeting held on March 9, 2015." Venezuela's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Delcy Rodriguez pointed out that the U.S. order "incites anti-democratic and violent factors of Venezuelan opposition, to undermine the country's institutions and its legitimate and constitutional authorities." Rodriguez added that the decree seeks to create the conditions for the restoration of neo-liberalism throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Rodriguez announced that as a result of the extension of the executive order, Venezuela will undertake a review of its relations with the U.S. "When we review what has happened in the last year we know that a disproportionate offensive has been deployed against the progressive and revolutionary governments of the region," she said. Rodriguez pointed out that this now involves so-called soft coups such as the economic war against Venezuela. |