Development: On 5 October President Hugo Chávez appointed Naval Admiral Armando Laguna Laguna as political chief of the newly created island territory of Miranda, which comprises Los Roques, La Orchila and the archipelago of Las Aves, among others.
Significance: The president also served notice on the residents of Los Roques, who are strongly anti-‘Chavista’, highly independent and have long prized their relative autonomy from Caracas, that the government intends to seize from the “high bourgeoisie” what it alleges are illegally built private houses and will convert them into public holiday homes. Yachts seized from “fugitive bankers” will also be put to social use in the local tourism industry, Chávez said.
Key points:
• Marking the arrival in Venezuela of the remains of the former leader Carlos Andrés Pérez (CAP, 1974-1979, 1989-1993), Chávez declared, “there are unburied corpses from the ideological-political point of view, we are continuing to bury them”. He also declared his political project, “socialist, democratic, participative and humanitarian”.
• The government is also considering the creation of a second insular territory, centred on La Tortuga, La Blanquilla and the archipelago Los Testigos. President Chávez has previously argued for the need to create “a political-territorial space, incorporating the disperse, and some of them abandoned, virgin islands, and others that have been taken over by international crime for smuggling or drug trafficking.”
