I have been so busy this week that it is Sunday night and I have not been able yet to write on the new fascist law published last week by the Chavez government. I need to read it in detail and make my report on the matter. Right now what strikes me the most is that it establishes tattling, denunciation by your neighbor as a mandatory activity. For example this blogger who has written repeatedly that the Venezuelan army was in no shape to face war with Colombia is betraying national interests and thus as of now anyone who know shim is under the obligation to going to the authorities and denounce me from divulging opinions that could be used against Venezuela by a foreign power.
Right now there is the editorial of Veneconomia of last Friday which will give you a quick overlook. I predict lot of trouble ahead.
--- --- --- --- --- ---
SINful absence of the rule of law
This week, the Chávez administration dealt a mortal blow to the rule of law in Venezuela and armor-plated its totalitarian regime with the enactment of the Decree-Law on the National Intelligence and Counterintelligence System.
The problem is that this law does not just change the names of or eliminate the Military Intelligence Directorate (DIM) and the Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP).
Nor is it as simple as creating a National Intelligence System (SIN after its initials in Spanish) that will be managed at discretion and with no restrictions by Hugo Chávez; or that this SIN will act like the Gestapo in the days of Adolph Hitler, against anyone who processes or has access to information that may be arbitrarily classified as “confidential,” “secret” or “of strategic interest” to the State.
It is not even merely that this is yet another unconstitutional law, of the many that Hugo Chávez with his special powers has cobbled together on the spur of the moment and behind the backs of the people.
What this is really all about is that this decree-law, published in Official Gazette this Wednesday (May 28), is a lethal weapon that will stifle the rule of law and the citizen’s most elementary civil, political, economic, and social rights. All of these rights, from now on, come under the absolute control of Big Brother, who today goes by the name of Hugo Chávez.
With this decree-law, the Executive (read Hugo Chávez) assumes the “sole power” to search for, process, and divulge information on issues classified as strategic, of economic and geopolitical interest for the country or that might affect “the stability of the democratic institutions and the constitutional order.”
This, in the times of Chávez, could mean anything: from the seizure of a briefcase full of dollars from a public official who is a friend of the regime, to the information on the computer of narco-terrorist Raúl Reyes, to the increasingly opaque balance sheets of PDVSA, INE indicators or the delayed figures of the Central Bank.
Below are the aspects that pose most danger for Venezuelans as regards the exercising their democratic rights and freedoms:
1) It denies all Venezuelans the right to information by forbidding and criminalizing the divulging of information arbitrarily labeled “confidential” or “secret” by some government official.
2) The powers of the new intelligence agencies (i.e. Chávez) are broad, generic, and undefined, which gives more discretionary power to the officers of this new corps.
3) Anyone can be detained without just cause, a court order or the presence of a representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
4) Evidence will be kept secret, which means that the right of the person who has been detained to due process is violated as well as the minimum guarantees that entitle him to have access to the evidence that is being used against him.
5) Nor will the person who is arrested be given the opportunity for legitimate defense in a manner that is just, fair, and timely. According to this law, the opportunity to defend himself will come later, if at all. Definitely, this is a new weapon to eliminate dissidence.
-The end-
The PSUV primary election, from ground zero
[updated]
Long time readers will remember that I live next to a polling station and that on election days I am awakened by the noise of people standing in line. To my great surprise today my slumber was cut short at 8 AM when I heard two women fighting in the street. My next door school had been chosen as a PSUV voting center! Even though Chavez always loses by almost 2 to 1 in this school.
So I decided to postpone my Sunday coffee and observe for a little bit. The first surprise is that there was a line. Yes, a line! On a first regard it is not that surprising considering that only a few voting centers are open so that chavistas are concentrated in a few schools. But then again I noticed one thing: the line comprised about 2-3 dozen people and was moving very slowly: the door opened only once in a while to let enter one person at a time. It looks like the voting act lasts almost 5 minutes! Much slower than normal election time!!!
The line failed to grow longer because simply few people were arriving. The other detail is the amount of people arriving by cab among these few. In normal election my neighbors arrive walking. True, a few arrive by car but the huge majority come walking as this is a urban area voting center, a long time established one and thus the registered voters live mostly within 500 yards.
And there was also something else. You know, when you have been living in an area for years, even if you do not know the people you get a sense of your home crowd. Well, the "crowd" I saw this morning, they do not look like my neighbors. I know it is not very PC to write this but I cannot help it. I do not live in any ritzy area of San Felipe, this is middle to lower middle class, and area which is also plagued with buhoneros and crime. So yes, it is a subjective observation but it is one nevertheless. At least when my neighbors vote I do not hear cat fights at 8 AM!!! Not to mention that there were several militia in uniform ensuring public order, rather disquieting if you ask me as it is the first time I see so many of these guys in my neighborhood. Somehow I am missing the Nazional Guard/Army that ensures the service in normal elections...
I wonder if they are having folks from the 23 de Enero voting in Chacao....
Any interpretation? Oh yeah! It is all choreographed to make folks believe that there is a huge turnout, even in areas where chavistas are in clear minority. There is a turnout alright, but it is far from huge. And looking at the fight between the two chavista supporter, it will not settle the internal PSUV issues.
There might or there might not be an update on this as I have done on previous elections. I can be bothered only so much by chavista propaganda and their farcical primary. I suspect that many chavistas have become quite insensible to it too....
Update: well, one is a consistent blogger or one is not one and thus I must update an electoral post. There are right now more cars parked in my street that during any week days or even for church services at Easter, the only time cars crawl up my street on a Sunday. Clearly, my neighbors are a minority in that voting station.
It seems that many chavistas have decided to hang out and wait (which also explains the number of cars parked). Many remained, sitting down on the shaded part of the street, waiting for who knows what. We even had a "cepillado" cart that moved in front of the voting station (the guy usually does church mass). There is also a couple of buhoneros selling coffee and "drinks" that hang around (which they do not do on election day).
But it all good natured, at least so far. When I came back from getting my papers, there was one of the PSUVistas chatting amiably with another one with a copy of El Universal tucked under his armpit. Though EL Universal banner page was close to his body... VEA? I did not see any nor any peddler selling them :) Clearly the hard core militancy that Chavez would love us to believe is not as hard core when you get further from the inner circles of power.
-The end-
Long time readers will remember that I live next to a polling station and that on election days I am awakened by the noise of people standing in line. To my great surprise today my slumber was cut short at 8 AM when I heard two women fighting in the street. My next door school had been chosen as a PSUV voting center! Even though Chavez always loses by almost 2 to 1 in this school.
So I decided to postpone my Sunday coffee and observe for a little bit. The first surprise is that there was a line. Yes, a line! On a first regard it is not that surprising considering that only a few voting centers are open so that chavistas are concentrated in a few schools. But then again I noticed one thing: the line comprised about 2-3 dozen people and was moving very slowly: the door opened only once in a while to let enter one person at a time. It looks like the voting act lasts almost 5 minutes! Much slower than normal election time!!!
The line failed to grow longer because simply few people were arriving. The other detail is the amount of people arriving by cab among these few. In normal election my neighbors arrive walking. True, a few arrive by car but the huge majority come walking as this is a urban area voting center, a long time established one and thus the registered voters live mostly within 500 yards.
And there was also something else. You know, when you have been living in an area for years, even if you do not know the people you get a sense of your home crowd. Well, the "crowd" I saw this morning, they do not look like my neighbors. I know it is not very PC to write this but I cannot help it. I do not live in any ritzy area of San Felipe, this is middle to lower middle class, and area which is also plagued with buhoneros and crime. So yes, it is a subjective observation but it is one nevertheless. At least when my neighbors vote I do not hear cat fights at 8 AM!!! Not to mention that there were several militia in uniform ensuring public order, rather disquieting if you ask me as it is the first time I see so many of these guys in my neighborhood. Somehow I am missing the Nazional Guard/Army that ensures the service in normal elections...
I wonder if they are having folks from the 23 de Enero voting in Chacao....
Any interpretation? Oh yeah! It is all choreographed to make folks believe that there is a huge turnout, even in areas where chavistas are in clear minority. There is a turnout alright, but it is far from huge. And looking at the fight between the two chavista supporter, it will not settle the internal PSUV issues.
There might or there might not be an update on this as I have done on previous elections. I can be bothered only so much by chavista propaganda and their farcical primary. I suspect that many chavistas have become quite insensible to it too....
Update: well, one is a consistent blogger or one is not one and thus I must update an electoral post. There are right now more cars parked in my street that during any week days or even for church services at Easter, the only time cars crawl up my street on a Sunday. Clearly, my neighbors are a minority in that voting station.
It seems that many chavistas have decided to hang out and wait (which also explains the number of cars parked). Many remained, sitting down on the shaded part of the street, waiting for who knows what. We even had a "cepillado" cart that moved in front of the voting station (the guy usually does church mass). There is also a couple of buhoneros selling coffee and "drinks" that hang around (which they do not do on election day).
But it all good natured, at least so far. When I came back from getting my papers, there was one of the PSUVistas chatting amiably with another one with a copy of El Universal tucked under his armpit. Though EL Universal banner page was close to his body... VEA? I did not see any nor any peddler selling them :) Clearly the hard core militancy that Chavez would love us to believe is not as hard core when you get further from the inner circles of power.
-The end-
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)