You are spearheading a drive to bring the question of Latin America's foreign debt before the International Court of Justice. What is that all about? We may go to the International Court of Justice or we may bring a case involving a U.S. bank before a court in the United States. We are still exploring the possibilities. We want to bring the debt back to the attention of the world because it is illegal and it is crippling our development. Forty-five percent of Vene- zuela's federal budget goes to paying the foreign debt. And this reflects what is happening all over Latin America. That is why the Latin American Parliament is involved and prepared to take action. The foreign debt in Latin America has already been paid. In 1987 Latin America had a total outstanding foreign debt of $426 billion. Over the next nine years we paid $648 billion on the debt and despite these payments the debt stood at $611 billion. It was a case of "the more you pay, the more you owe." Latin America has paid more than 100% of the loans. And it's the only region that has historically paid its foreign debt. The United States has not paid all its debts. France, Germany, England have not paid all their foreign debts. When Venezuela renegotiated its foreign debt in New York in 1986, the 536 creditor banks chose the Chase Manhattan Bank to be their negotiator, their "captain." At the same time, the Venezuelan government was being advised by the same Chase Manhattan Bank. Incredible! And on the Venezuelan side of the negotiations was a man named Pedro Tinoco who was a member of the board of the Central Bank of Venezuela and at the same time on the board of the Chase Manhattan Bank. Tinoco was at the same time a debtor and a creditor. These are the kinds of issues we would like to take to court. And what's more, after negotiating with Venezuela in 1986, Chase Manhattan has refused to hand over the debt-cer- tificate deeds so that Venezuela can collect from private and public companies. It has refused to do so. And since I'm in charge of the commission that's investigating the debt, I have asked Chase Manhattan to please send the documents so that the government can collect. They don't want to send them! So we are going to take legal measures against Chase Manhattan. Meanwhile the Venezuelan people are living through a situation that we can only call paradoxical. We have a government and a state that are immensely rich and a population that is immensely poor. In the midst of hunger and unemployment, the federal government has accumulated a sum close to $16 billion in international reserves. Last year, at the same time, there was three- digit inflation. This was unknown in Venezuela. This is the first time we've had such economic instability. Venezuela has become tremendously poor. To give an example, right down the hall, in the other office, is my sister Pastora Medina. She is the mayor of the town of Caroni. This town has a population of approximately 300,000. Last year, she handed out 300 small coffins to 300 mothers to bury 300 newborns that had died from malnutrition. And Caroni is where the country's key industries are located-aluminum and steel. Scenarios 55 55 VoL XXXI, No 1 JuLY/AuG 1997 I V E N E Z U E L AVOICES ON THE LEFT like this one are common throughout the country. People are undergoing a calamitous, terrible situation. In short, they are hungry, but hungry with a capital H. There are people here that go to bed without dinner, many elderly people awake without breakfast. In Argentina, San Bonifacio is the most popular saint, because he is the saint of miracles. In Venezuela, the equivalent is San Onofre; he is the patron saint of the unemployed, and like in Argentina, people go to San Onofre to ask him for miracles and work. That's the level we've reached. When Rafael Caldera was elected president of Venezuela in 1993, even though he was elected on a The bankers in people's platform, one of the first things he did was Venezuela are to make a pact with the bankers. The financial cri- subsidized by sis exploded in his first the state. By year in office. We warned him about that crisis. I contrast, wages went to speak to Caldera in in the country December, 1993 with an ex-treasury minister who are controlled, knew about financial and people are crises. And we told him: "Dr. Caldera, we have a earning report that says that of the starvation 27 banks in the country, 17 are in bankruptcy. They are wages. It's a bankrupt for this and this critical situation, reason." He didn't listen to us. We told him: "The strategy in this case is to nationalize the banking sector, re-organize it, and then if you want, sell the banks again. But we must nationalize to prevent a financial bailout." He didn't listen to us and the financial crisis came. What did that mean for Venezuela? When the bank bailouts began, bankers just changed the federal-bailout money into dollars from the Central Bank's reserves, and took $7 billion out of the country and into interna- tional banks. And Caldera did not arrest even one banker; he suspended constitutional guarantees, but not one banker was arrested. The dollar, which was worth 113 bolivares, surged to 200. It was controlled for a while, and now it's near 500 bolivares to the dollar. And that is what generated inflation in 1994, 1995 and 1996. And it was also the result of other erroneous policies. The bankers here are subsidized. By contrast, wages in the country are controlled. People are making starva- tion wages. There are professionals making 70,000 boli- vares, or $120 to $150 a month. The minimum wage is around $30 or $40 a month. It's a critical situation. That's why I was saying that the people bearing the brunt of the crisis are the workers and the common peo- ple. By contrast, the government is still subsidizing the nation's banks, and it is still subsidizing international banking. It's a subsidy because 45% of the budget goes to pay off the foreign debt. What alternatives do you see to the present system? We must find an alternative to this system that makes us so dependent on the international banks. The Venezuelan people have voted for fundamental change. President Caldera was elected because he promised fundamental change. The trouble is, there are two Dr. Calderas. There is the Dr. Caldera who is the founder of Venezuelan Christian Democracy, and one of the cre- ators of Venezuela's political system after the fall of the dictator Marcos PNrez Jim6nez in 1958. This Dr. Caldera is a very traditional man. But the people didn't vote for this traditional Rafael Caldera. They voted for another Dr. Caldera who stood up in the Senate on the day of the coup attempt on February 4, 1992 and ques- tioned the suspension of constitutional guarantees by President Carlos Andr6s P6rez. In front of the president, the armed forces, the political parties, the Congress, he blamed the government's neoliberal economic policies for the attempted coup. At that moment, politically speaking, he came back to life. He had been a political corpse, low in the polls, but when he spoke "he revived before the third day." So the people want change. On an international level, I think that the UN could be an important forum for discussing these issues. In the case of Third World countries, which primarily export raw materials, let them have a fair price. Let there be low and stable rates of interest. Let Latin America have access to science and technology. I think that if this hap- pens, and there is equitable trade, then we could change the world's economic prospects. We would have to democratize the UN, get rid of the Security Council. The UN should not just be the voice of governments. The UN would have to be an expression of governments, but also of a world parliament and NGOs. With those social, political and economic criteria, we could reorganize the world. Your party, La Causa R, is well-known for its local grass- roots organizing, but now you seem to be moving to another level. Yes, we began with grassroots movements-the union movement in the state of Bolivar, the neighborhood movement in parts of Caracas and the student movement. The first two were quite successful and became the basis for a national political party. Now we are building on the representation we have gained in Congress and in the Latin American Parliament. We are confronting our impoverishment at an international level, but the basis of our political power is still at the grassroots.
