Latin Radical - the New York Times 'fluffed it" -- Lisa McDonald

Lisa McDonald from the Venezuela Solidarity network has some rather acerbic comments on a New York Times article, following an effort by the Chavez government to clean up the Venezuelan Intelligence apparatus ... the NYT would do well to delve a little bit deeper into the history of US/Venezuelan "Intelligence" efforts.

3.71MB. 64Kbps, mono 8:06 minutes

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Shine on for Fred Hallows

Frederick Cossom (Fred) Hollows, AC (April 9, 1929–February 10, 1993) was an ophthalmologist who became known for his work in restoring eyesight for countless thousands of people in Australia and many other countries. It has been estimated that more than one million people in the world can see today because of initiatives instigated by Hollows, the most notable example being The Fred Hollows Foundation.

El Salvador - who watches the 'watchers'? Lara Pullin on electoral shenanigans

Lara Pullin with the latest update on the situation in El Salvador where the governing ARENA coalition has scrapped the agreements on electoral reform with the Organisation of American States. With even the most conservative polls giving the FMLN opposition party a commanding 20 point lead, the right wing ARENA party is resorting to increasingly desperate tactics in a bid to steal next year's elections - even threatening to expel independent observers who will be arriving there to observe the elections, including a number of Australians.

6.3 Mb 128kbps mono 6:52minutes

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Caracas on the Line - Fred Fuentes on rumbles in the Party

Fred Fuentes in Caracas reports on important struggles being played out within Venezuela's governing PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela). While President Chavez' power base is with the grass roots organisations, some of the entrenched bureaucrats and more conservative politicians are fighting off challenges from delegates representing these grass roots organisations, tooth and nail. PSUV is currently going through a kind of 'pre-selection' process, and the more conservative elements are using all kinds of dirty tricks to hang on to their influence within the party.

19.3Mb 128kbps mono 21:08 minutes

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Land Rights Challenge - Jose Texeira on Timor Leste political situation

Jose Texeira, a Fretilin Parliamentarian and the party's media spokesman was in Australia this week and granted 2NimFM an interview where he clarifies some of the issues at stake in the weakening of the AMP governing coalition. One of the older parties, the ASDT, and several smaller parties, are concerned at the lack of transparency of at least one of the appointed AMP Ministers with an apparently covert agreement with an Indonesian Biofuel company to turn a quarter of East Timor's arable land to sugar cane production for biofuels. It took over three months to force the AMP government to make the details of the deal available for public discussion. Jose says that this need not necessarily lead to an early election, this will depend very much on the government's response to questioning. The ASDT has already signed an agreement to run as a coalition party with Fretilin, should elections be called.

12.5MB mono 128Kbps 13:11 minutes.

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Caracas on the Line - Fred Fuentes on provocative tests of Venezuelan resolve.

Note: sound quality is poor, due to a bad phone line to Caracas, but the news content is of great interest.

Fred Fuentes on the most recent escalation of hostile manouevres against the Venezuelan government. A US plane invades Venezuelan air space, at the same time that Colombian troops are found inside Venezuelan territory. Then, a day later, 60 more!

And by a strange coincidence, there is a major international media campaign about the FARC (Colombian guerilla movement) computers alleged to have been found when Colombian troops invaded Ecuadorean territory last March.

Washington claims that it establishes a 'compromising' link between the Venezuelan government and the FARC guerillas, but everyone who has read further than the first paragraph of the Interpol examination of the computers recognises an eerie similarity between this finding, and the Bush administration's wolf cry of 'weapons of mass destruction' in the lead up to the war in Iraq.

5.1Mb. 64Kbps mono 11:10mins

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