ENGLISH EDITION/ The artillery of ideasINTERNATIONAL Friday, June 21, 2013| Nº163| Caracas|www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve Analysis Violence continues to haunt the Mexico-US border page 7 Opinion Nicolas Maduro: Collective Leadershippage 8 Venezuela’s President, Nicolas Maduro, embarked on his first European tour this week, stopping in Italy , Portugal and F rance, where he held meetings with the respect ive heads of state of e ach of these n ations and advanced several bilateral agreements. While in Italy , Maduro was also received in a private audience by Pope Frances I in the Va tican. In Por- tugal, Maduro met with Pri me Minister Pedro Passos Coelho and sig ned 14 new bilateral accords to strengthen a cross-Atlantic partnership that has been growing steadily over the past four years. P.3 New gun control law in effect Continuing with his commitment to fight violent crime in the South American nation, Ven ezuelan President Nicolas Maduro signed into law a far- reaching disarmament bill that will see the immediate destruction of decommissioned firearms and a number of new regulations aimed at lowering the number of guns on the streets. The idea for the bill was first introduced by the late President Hugo Chavez, who in 2011 formed an executive commission to draft the bill that Saturday was signed into law. Pg. 2 Economy Ve nez uel a re cog niz ed by FAO The UN Food & Agricultural Organization honored Venezuela’s achieveme nts agai nst hunger. P.4 Economy Game over on shortages Venezuela’s consumer protection agency gets tough on violators . P.5 Security Crime reduction continues A new community police force & faster response to citizens are winning the war on crime. P.6 T/ AVN The law on breastfeed- ing promotion and protec- tion seeks to make private and public health centers foster “exclusively and in an excellent way” breast- feeding and prevent them from encouraging the use of infant formulas unless a special medical indication is advised. Since the law was enact- ed in 2007, “the industry of baby formulas and health care have violated it over and over again”, affirmed cooperative Lactarte, a Caracas-based group run by mothers devoted to re- searching, fostering and protecting breastfeeding. Lactarte says the law did not establish sanctions. In this connection, the Nation- al Assembly’s Committee on Family started to discuss the law and draft a reform, with a view to stipulate sanctions on health centers which promote baby formu- las over breast milk. “One of the most impor- tant aspects in the reform bill is the adding of sanc- tions, especially to the health staff that insists on advis- ing infant formula without medical justification and the industry that manufactures infant formula when it fails to meet parameters to mar- ket the product”. Last weekend, a series of front pages and headlines in newspapers and websites re- ferred to an alleged banning of bottle-feeding, hinting that the government would force Venezuelan women to breastfeed their children. On the contrary, Lac- tarte explains that the reformed law deals only with sanctions to public and private health centers which promote or recom- mend milk formulas with- out medical advice. Breastfeeding promoted at health centers Maduro meets Hollande Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrived in Paris Tuesday night on the last stop of his Europe- an tour that began in Rome on Sun- day when he received recognition from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for his government’s achievements in reducing hunger and malnutrition. “We are in Paris, the headquar- ters of UNESCO, an organization that five years ago recognized Venezuela is a country free from illiteracy”, Maduro recalled. On Wednesday, the Venezuelan President held meetings with the company Airbus to discuss agree- ments to strengthen Venezuela’s state airline Conviasa. He also met with representatives from the car company Renault regarding tech- nology transfer and training for Venezuelan workers. Later in the day, Maduro was received by his French counterpart, President Fran- cois Hollande, in Elysee Palace. The two leaders talked about existing alliances and advances in current agreements regarding oil and gas, as well as financial relations “to continue strength- ening our financial capacity for national development”, in- formed Maduro. President Maduro tours europe to strength en Venezuela ’s economy
