Venezuela to charge Ukrainian captain of ship

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Venezuela to charge Ukrainian captain of ship

AP foreign, Monday October 14 2013

JORGE RUEDA

Associated Press= CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - The Ukrainian captain of an oil research ship detained by the Venezuelan navy is being charged with illegally sailing in Venezuela's maritime economic zone - waters that are disputed with neighboring Guyana.

The federal prosecutor's office said Igor Bekirov would appear in a court Monday evening.

The other 35 crew members, including five U.S. citizens, remain in custody. The ship arrived under navy escort Sunday at Margarita Island off Venezuela's Caribbean coast.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/feedarticle/11018833

[Socialistlemur]

1. I guess they want a diplomatic row with Ukraine and Guayana?

The Venezuelan regime is facing a crisis, and this seems to be an atempt to show strength and create an external conflict or attention point as the people are starting to seethe over the government's clear incompetence.

I've noticed things are so bad aporrea.org just published an article by Dieterich in which he predicts Maduro will lose power by the spring of 2014. He thinks either a general rebellion or a coup by his own people will do him in. In the article he points out the economic measures they take are impossible to sustain and the end point is arriving. Bond defaults and lack of credit would make borrowing money an impossible task. As it is Venezuelan bonds are now paying close to 12 % interest, one of the highest risk spreads in the world...and I wonder if those bond holders realize that soon there won't be any Venezuela left to pay off that debt.

[Judi Lynn]

2. What on earth does Dieterich have to do with this event?

Looking for info. on Dieterich, who's not related to this thread, I found the following:

How can we prevent the Venezuelan Revolution from going down the path of Chile? The Marxists say: only by carrying the Revolution forward, by striking blows against the counterrevolutionary bourgeoisie, by expropriating the bankers, landlords and capitalists and making the Revolution irreversible. In order to do this it will be necessary to arm the workers and peasants to fight against the counterrevolutionary forces both inside and outside the country.

That is what we say. But there are other voices saying quite different things. One of the most persistent of these voices is that of Heinz Dieterich, a German professor living in Mexico, who in recent years has been waging a noisy campaign in favour of what he calls "Socialism of the XXI Century" - a kind of socialism that differs very little from capitalism. Heinz Dieterich has been consistently opposed to expropriations and workers' control. He is against touching the property of the bankers, landowners and capitalists. And naturally he is opposed to touching the bourgeois state and the army.

http://www.marxist.com/counterrevolution-raises-head-dieterich-and-baduel.htm

[Socialistlemur]

3. Dieterich shows serious breach within Marxist ranks

Heinz Dieterich is a sophisticated intellectual, economics professor at UNAM, and coined the term "21st Century Socialism". Dieterich was very close to Chavez, but he was pushed back and dismissed from the inner circle together with Saman, Baduel, and other individuals who weren't boot lickers.

You can quote from that site, and I can quote from my sites, and we won't ever agree, that's very clear. But consider where he was published: aporrea.org - a communist website which unlike Venezuelanalysis is truly independent, run by communists and willing to open debates. This is something many aren't willing to do.

Why is Doeterich linked to the story? I think Maduro is feeling a lot of pressure. That regime is crumbling, and they are reacting by causing external conflict. The measure taken against the seismic research vessel was completely uncalled for, and if indeed they arrested the Ukrainian captain this is starting to get incredibly bizarre. Today Ukraine is closely allied with Russia. And Russia has a lot invested in Venezuela (plus Venezuela owes Russian corporations a lot of money). So Maduro's ove to jail an Ukrainian, allied with Russia, is nearly irrational.

In that article you quote, they say the only way forward is to "strike blows and making the revolution irreversible". I calls for violence. But the fact is that today the majority of the workers in Venezuela are opposed to Maduro. He barely won the election in April (if he did win it), and since then he has shown that he's both incompetent and a weak leader. So what are these so called communist cadres going to fight with? First of all, they are mostly thugs or fascists. And second, they just lack the numbers. They may have the weapons, but I don't think they can force the people to accept being enslaved by a regime made up of imbeciles and thugs.

I suppose Maduro's handlers realize things are getting out of hand, and because they are Cubans they'll try to use the violent route (violence being the only method they understand to do politics because they were born and bred in a Stalinist regime). So my guess is the regime will turn to both raising external tensions to distract attention and violence will escalate.

Yesterday there was an intense firefight in Libertador municipality in Caracas, near the end of the Cota Mil. Chavista against Chavista armed with military rifles. Things got so bad one of the two sides took over Vargas Hospital. The doctors fled, the national guard was nowhere to be seen, and some doctors were sought in their homes and forced to work on the wounded - but only the wounded for the side which had taken over the hospital. Soon the sun will rise and there's going to be a body count, and I bet the official statistics won't show the number of dead. Chavismo is becoming utterly chaotic, there are internal divisions and soon there's going to be a shooting war. And jailing an Ukrainian captain won't save Maduro. I think Dieterich is right.