Rio+20 revelation: US and Venezuela agree on polluting
鈥� A version of this post ran on the author's blog, . The views expressed are the author's own.
Last week in Rio, the (a follow-up to) went through without attracting the same attention of its predecessor. Few top world leaders attended and .
Hugo Ch谩vez was resigned to stay home this time, so he couldn鈥檛 . But what about the Venezuelan delegation? Were they just passive observers or did they achieve something concrete? Not a bit of it鈥�
Claudia Salerno, Deputy Foreign Minister for North America and head of the delegation, :
鈥淲hat is necessary right now is to review the deep causes of what causes the crisis of the planet鈥� Capitalism is a model that is exhausting the capacity of Earth鈥檚 regeneration鈥� and we [Venezuela] are part of the struggle against the predator of the planet that is capitalism.鈥�
QUIZ: Hugo Chavez 101 鈥� How well do you know Venezuela's president?
How her actions backed those ambitious words? Prepare to be surprised鈥�
According to , International Executive Director for the enviromental NGO , to block the, a proposal made to fight pollution in the high seas and protect biodiversity. Canada and Russia joined to block that proposal as well.
That wasn鈥檛 the only thing that the Venezuelan delegation blocked. by 2020 was suppressed from the draft text by the objection of Venezuela and other oil producing countries. What else can be expected from the country that spends more on?
The Bolivarian delegation also tried to hijack the meeting and Salerno made headlines of her own by . The NGO denied Salerno鈥檚 claims.
Chavismo鈥檚 grandiose green rhetoric might not be so hard to swallow, if it wasn鈥檛 for its terrible, terrible environmental record at home.
Remember that ? In less than a year it has Nearby, the number of oil spills in the Bay in the first half of the year has already surpassed the total number of spills registered on 2011. PDVSA even when they threaten to pollute thousands of people鈥檚 water supplies. Its聽 is one long trail of tears.
Somehow, we have to take lectures on the unsustainability of capitalism from these guys!
Parece que para el medio ambiente no hay coraz贸n venezolano鈥�
鈥� Gustavo Hernandez Acevedo is a writer for , the place for opposition-leaning-but-not-insane analysis of the Venezuelan political scene since 2002
