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Venezuelan National Assembly orders Telcoms to monitor communications 24/7

The Venezuelan National Assembly approved today an amendment to the Organic Penal Procedure Code (in spanish Código Orgánico Procesal Penal) in first discussion. The amending Organic Penal Procedure Code expressly orders all the telecommunication operators in Venezuela to have a Surveillance Unit which will be readily available to the Public Prosecuting Office (Ministerio Público) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for real time surveillance. The law was approved in first discussion and now will be subject to review concerning human rights and open for second and third discussion.

It seems Chavez´s intention is to limit personal freedom, not only economic freedoms but also human rights, all in favour of a greater social good.

Goicochea clarifies absence

Yon Goicochea, the Venezuela student leader has clarified from Mexico City, Mexico, that his absense will solely be a short 2 month stint. He will participating in a book of "Responsible Governance" by a private entity in Mexico. Goicochea will write the respective Venezuelan chapter.

Now, who is paying Goicocheas trip?

Venezuelan student leader bails from communist Venezuela

Yon Goicochea, a Venezuelan student leader recently has left Caracas, Venezuela with his young son and his wife, to Mexico. Apparently the student leader, who graduated from the Law School of my alma mater, Universidad Catolica Andres Bello, left Caracas because of the political tension against the opposition.

Yon Goicochea was the leader of the student movement which in 2006 organized against the Constitutional Reform present by the socialist President, Hugo Chavez. Goicochea was severely critizied for not taking a more proactive approach towards politics and with certain shyness was involved with the political party, Primero Justicia.

For his involvement in the student movement against the Constitutional Reform back in 2007, Goicochea was given the Milton Friedman award for Freedom with a check of US$500,000.

Now what has Yon Goicochea done with the money so far? Obviously buy a home in his now beloved Mexico...I seriously think hes got a lot of explaining to do, specially student who remain here in Venezuela!

The Existential and Pessimist Jose Saramago

Jose Saramago, a nobel literature prize winner and writer of one of my favorite novels "The Gospel according to Christ", "Baltazar and Blimunda" and "Blindness" recently gave some declarations from his home in Portugal. He stated: "Nothing is getting better, nothing changes"

Saramago was born in Portugal even though in the 1990s he sought political asylum in Spain (Canary Islands). The reason was his book on The Gospel according to Christ, a narration of the gospel from the point of view of Jesus Christ, as a completely normal human being. The book was thought to be heretic by Portuguese religious authorities. Saramago has been a member of the Portuguese Communist Party since 1969, as well as an atheist and self-described pessimist.

"I am not a pessimist; it is the world that is pessimist"

His views have aroused considerable controversy in Portugal, especially after the publication of The Gospel According to Jesus Christ. Members of the country's Catholic community were outraged by Saramago's representation of Jesus Christ as a fallible human being. Portugal's conservative government would not allow Saramago's work to compete for the European Literary Prize, arguing that it offended the Catholic community. As a result, Saramago and his wife moved to Lanzarote, an island in the Canaries (Spain).

He is publishing a new book, The Notebooks, which contain a collection of his blog entries dealing with several issues. Jose Saramago´s blog can be accessed here.

He ends this recent interview stating that "nothing is getting better, even the British democracy, which seemed untouchable, is now having Members of Parliament charging for their pets food, is a real shame." He furthers by saying that even tough humanity has seen some technical changes; morally things are getting worse than before. He even states that with the economic crisis they are trying to save some furniture, but capitalism will remain.

Saramago´s only hope is recently elected US President Barack Obama while at the end of his interview he categorically rejects the Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez by stating that it is dangerously close of being a totalitarian regime.