Venezuela updates

Some excerpts from the September 9, 2005 weekly news roundup compiled by the Venezuelen government funded Venezuela Information Office:

Wednesday’s Miami Herald featured a story on US policy toward Venezuela...
According to the article, the State Department form(sic) a Venezuela task force earlier this year, and completed a policy review shortly thereafter. The policy direction is centered on helping the Venezuelan opposition and other "civil society"
groups with money and other resources supplied by the National Endowment for
Democracy -- a quasi-private institution that obtains most of its money from
the U.S. Congress -- and the U.S. Agency for International Development,
according to the article.
***

Troops in Monagas state took control of a reportedly idle tomato processing
plant owned by a Venezuelan affiliate of H.J. Heinz Co earlier this week. The
Heinz seizure comes on the heels of a government takeover of a corn-processing
plant owned by Alimentos Polar, one of Venezuela’s largest food and beverage
firms. According to a statement by Heinz, one of the mitigating circumstances of
the plant’s suspension of processing was that the farmers in the region did not
honor their tomato supply contracts, choosing instead to sell them at market
prices. According to Reuters, Heinz said the seizure violated its right to
property and free trade guaranteed by Venezuela's constitution, as well as
due legal process. Heinz is currently soliciting meetings with government
officials in an effort to gain clarity on the situation. According to an
article in El Nuevo Herald, at least 700 agro industrial firms are being
reviewed by the government to establish their production levels, and whether
their management should be shared with workers.
***

In part one of a Financial Times series on risk management in international
business, Venezuelan Rum producer Ron Santa Teresa is singled out as a best
practise example in fostering ownership among local stakeholders, which will
lead to better and more proactive security management and vigilance. In 2003,
an armed gang attacked a guard at Ron Santa Teresa. The attackers were caught,
and given a choice by Santa Teresa's managers: complete a specially designed
training program and join the company's workforce, or go to jail. This ad-hoc
program was successful, and the company now offers intensive training sessions
that include work, attitude management classes, psychological evaluation and
team sports. Upon completion of the program, graduates can join the company, or
sign up for another six- to 18-month program of paid work andskills training for
preparation to enter the general labor market. According to the article, the
program has lowered crime by 40 per cent and dismantled three gangs entirely.
***

Late last month, at a the Meeting of Democracy-Promoting Foundations in
Stockholm, it was reported that Carl Gershman, head of the National Endowment
of Democracy (NED), had Eva Gollinger, a Venezuelan-American attorney who has
investigated that organization’s role in recent the destabilization of
Venezuela, kicked off of a panel discussion called “Supporting Regime Change -
Democratic Assistance or Intervention?” Gollinger was reportedly dropped from
the panel after Gershman exerted “strong pressure” on the event's organizing
committee. During the panel, Gershman is reported to have acknowledged doing
so, stating that Golinger’s presence on the panel was “obscene.”