The Washington Post criticizes Obama silence on Rosales forced exile and brave Peru

It is interesting to read the Washington Post criticizing a president they endorsed in November, at his hundred days mark, as he rolls high in polls. The editorial is clear, extremely clear for whomever wants to read it, in this blog or at the White House and State. I am posting just the end to make sure you do not miss it. My emphasis.

That's certainly a worthy goal -- and we have no objection to Mr. Obama's handshake with Mr. Chávez. The administration's strategy -- to open up a constructive dialogue with Venezuela and avoid being cast as Mr. Chávez's Yanqui foil -- is reasonable; it is also the same strategy as was tried, unsuccessfully, by the previous two administrations. What doesn't make sense is to deliberately ignore steps by Mr. Chávez to consolidate an autocracy. In so doing, the administration encourages Latin American governments that have shrunk from confronting the Venezuelan strongman to continue in their own silence. It sends pro-Chávez governments in countries such as Bolivia and Nicaragua the message that they can persecute their own domestic opponents with impunity. And it makes it more rather than less likely that Venezuela, with the help of Iran and Russia, will become a threat to the United States.

Peru's democratic government is to be congratulated for its decision to offer Mr. Rosales asylum. It is shameful that the Obama administration won't say so.

As the Post writes, I had no problem with Obama's hand shake. But that should not mean acquiescence on something as patently autocratic and anti democratic as what Chavez is doing these days. I am going to allow myself to repeat once again a warning to President Obama and Secretary Clinton: Chavez is out to get you and he does not play by the rules. Ever. You are dealing with a thug. Deal with it!

-The end-

There is a world pandemic. Meanwhile, back at Chavez ranch...

There is an outbreak of what seems to be a new Flu Virus (rather than the poor pigs bearing all the blame again).

What does chavismo says? Two things:

1) all is fine, marches can be going on, rallies held. A responsible government would forbid any marches, opposition or chavista alike, for a week or two. But that would mean that the beloved leader could not hold hostage hundred of his followers in a single room for hours on end during any of his frequent cadena perorata. Not to mention that in authoritarian regimes, all should be the best in the better of the world, Candide style. That is, until someone is found to blame.

2) instead of seeking cooperation of local authorities and making sure that flu vaccines and medication are plentiful (working or not is not the question here, a lousy vaccine is still better than no vaccine for the populations more at risk) chavismo is instead taking by assault local health centers so that none of them would be under the care of local opposition authorities. Of course, taking by assault with the Nazional Guard these centers, as if they were dangerous military objectives, result in the closing of these centers for a few days if not weeks until certified red personnel can be found to manage them. But by experience we know well that ridicule is not something that affects chavismo.

Now, we are all left to shudder about what will happen to Venezuela if the New Flu reaches our shores. There are already suspect cases in Colombia so it is just a matter of time. With Caracas overcrowding, with the decrepit system of Barrio Adentro, with a generally crumbling hospital infrastructure where minimum hygiene conditions are hard to maintain, not to mention that running water for more than half the population is something that happens an average of a few precious hours a day, I leave it to your imagination to guess the consequences of an epidemic in Venezuela.

In a perverse and sadistic way I am looking forward such an outbreak because it will expose bluntly all the wonders of the Chavez health care system. I mean, if it is going to happen I prefer it to be now because another couple of years of Chavez inefficient administration without money and increased corruption will make things worse. Then again, considering the government reluctance at acknowledging an increase in other diseases such as Dengue, Chagas, Paludism, Yellow Fever and Tuberculosis, you can already assume that whatever numbers are published will be highly unreliable.

PS: yesterday's assault against the Baruta and La Carlota neighborhood heath center is particularly galling. The reasons behind such a ridiculous assault bu the Nazional Guard are simple to understand: nothing should be left to the care of opposition elected officials, the more so if they stand a chance to do a better job than the previous chavista authorities. Thus, defeated governor Diosdado Cabello is organizing a deliberate sabotage of all the initiatives of his successor, Capriles Radonski, including a likely reopeneing of an extinct groundless judicial case. Not only Cabello demonstrates, along his boss, his absolute deficit of democratic values, amen of his established corruption abilities (moral and otherwise), but he also explicitly shows us that he is afraid of Capriles. Pathetic...

But Capriles like Ledezma is showing to be himself way more creative than the Chavez low life goons. With himself unable to coordinate the heath response to the coming crisis he decided to decree that his state of Miranda is now in an health emergency.

This is clever because it forces the government to demonstrate RIGHT NOW that its illegal take over of the local health facilities are not going to affect their function whatsoever. This, the government cannot do as it is already hard pressed to run what it controls. There is not enough Cuban doctors Chavez can bring along fast, or vaccines he can buy around. Not to mention that this will motivate the neighborhood associations that were protesting loudly to organize better their monitoring of the situation and inevitable protests in a country which is reaching fast ebullition conditions

-The end-

The Venezuela-Europe drug connection

AP reports 17 people have been arrested in Curacao "for involvement in Hezbollah-linked drug ring". There were Venezuelan, Colombian, Curacao and Cuban citizens involved. The ring would be involved in sending cocaine produced in Colombia (and now Venezuela?) via Venezuela and from there through Western Africa to Europe. The proceeds would in part help to finance Hezbollah and also provide arms from Venezuela to the militias in Lebanon.

I have been reading news source on how drug dealers use now the Orinoco, specially the Delta, as a base for drug transports to Western Africa. I want to post on that in an upcoming post on the Orinoco.

How far are Venezuelan officials involved in this problem?

I had written a couple of things on this already here and here:

Chavez supporters and the swine flu-Rumsfeld connection

It is such a nice distraction for the semi-literate in Venezuela. While the Chavez government is illegally taking over hospitals, schools and other installations that were under the control of municipalities and states where the opposition won in the 11.2008 elections, while the Chavez government is trying to prosecute every single known opposition politician under charges of corruption, Chavez's supporters try to call attention to a new conspiracy theory.

According to the government's Radio Mundial (also to be seen in Chavez's fan site Aporrea), and "based on news from Colectivo Periodístico in California", the cause of the current swine flu pandemic is nothing else than the Pentagon.

They say former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld could earn a fortune now as he is co-owner of Gilead Sciences, Inc. a company that has the rights to produce "Tamiflu", a medicine that would cure the influenza. Well, according to Wikipedia (which refers to CNN), "Federal disclosure forms indicate that Rumsfeld owns between USD$5 million and USD$25 million in Gilead stock. The rise in Gilead's share prices from USD$35 to USD$57 per share will have added between USD$2.5 million to USD$15.5 million to Rumsfeld's net worth". From there to developing this new strand for earning some extra cash is a big shot.

What these conspiracy theorists have is a series of weak links, but they would never like to have a real discussion about their incredible statements. They just need a better smoke screen as now "Chavez quiere ser amigo de Obama". Chavez supporters are trying to divert from the fact that:

• the Chavez regime reduced the percentage of money that goes to all states and municipalities (situado constitucional) and is now diverting extra money to the local regions and state institutions not controlled by the opposition (some pseudo-legal trick to financially suffocate the opposition)
  
• the Chavez regime took over havens, airports, motorways and much more from the opposition states and with all that a huge chunk of taxes
  
• Chávez took almost all power from elected mayor Ledezma (who got over 700000 votes) and named one of his most fundamentalist pawns, Jacqueline Faría, as "head of the Capital District"
• Chávez officials are taking over more and more farmlands "in the name of reform" but only farmlands of people who do not support Chavez (the Chavez clan and several of the high "socialist revolutionaries" being big landowners themselves)
• Chávez's government has taken over hospitals and schools that were managed by opposition governments (in several cases it prefers to let hospitals and other public services collapse than to let the opposition show it can manage them)
  
• more and more students are being violently repressed by police forces
  

Expect in the coming months more land to be taken over by the Chavez regime. They firstly went for the bigger landowners (as long as they were not pro-Chavez), but they will go for the smaller ones now.

Expect more buildings and companies in the hand of Chavistas. Expect professional squatters to thrive more than they have done so far.

Expect more repression as the oil price drops make the crisis be felt in Venezuela.

And still European politicians like this person support Chávez.

Nelson Merentes, noted crook, to become president of Venezuela's Central Bank

This one is for the annals of the "you got nerves" chapter of Venezuela contemporary history. Former finance minister, Nelson Merentes, has been named president of what is left of the Venezuela's Central Bank. It is like putting the Fox in charge of the Chickens.

Merentes is by trade a Mathematician, if memory serves me well. Where memory serves me is that before Chavez his career was not particularly noteworthy but since Chavez he has risen to the top of the mafia mob that rules in the shade.

His first "genius" stroke was when he designed the famous "kino" that used an electoral trick to make sure that with 60% of the cast votes chavismo got 97% of the seats of the constituent assembly. It is easy to say in hindsight that today's dangerous situation is the result of a constituent assembly where debate was limited resulting in writing a constitution that made no difference between rights and wishes.

Based on this success, and at a time where chavismo still hoped to garner the good will of the thinking class of Venezuela, Merentes was sent to run for the UCV presidency. But his colleagues knew better, having worked with the man in the past, and Merentes was roundly defeated, a margin to chavismo surprise it must be noted.

But within chavismo where sycophancy and mean guile are the only qualities appreciated, the defeat was not going to stop Merentes ascension as he soon became Finance Minister. During his tenure (twice), as well as the one of Nobrega, the Finance Ministry became a den of sweet deals where money was placed in dubious accounts instead of being duly spent for the betterment of the country. That is, public officials were more interested in dividend returns from government placed bonds of which they were receiving juicy commissions from the bankers they worked with. And these were only the "acceptable" practices as when exchange controls came to be in 2003 way more creative ways to skim public funds were implemented. You just need to consult Miguel's Blog for an endless series of posts on that matter since he opened it.

Let's just say that it is common suspicion (knowledge?) that Merentes was in charge to finance the constant campaigns that Chavez has been submitting us to; because you may be assured of one thing: the lavishness of Chavez campaigns that include refrigerator distribution, cannot be paid only with the donations of the supporters.

But the scandalous ways of Merentes were on occasion a tad too much and believe it or not there is even a dossier about him at the silent comptroller office where he is investigated from transferring money form an account to another government account, a practice that is forbidden in Venezuelan law unless there is a parliamentary vote on the subject. It is necessary to say that for the same "crime" Carlos Andres Perez was removed from office in 1993. But it is needless to say that for moving amounts of money several folds bigger than what Perez moved, Merentes and Chavez have not been perturbed in their sleep, even though Merentes received a slap on his fingers at the National Assembly. Times have changed, it seems.

Still, the dossier on Merentes exists, investigations have not proceeded further and Merentes will become without a doubt the next Central Bank president.

You may wonder why Chavez will have the nerve to name such a tainted character as Merentes to the Piggy Bank of Venezuela. After all he could place there some more palatable characters such as Rodrigo Cabezas (even though he is a nullity on his own right).

You may find a preliminary answer to this intriguing question by reading a detailed article in El Universal on how Venezuela is bucking the trend in Latin America in its dealing to the world crisis that we all suffer. The article is in English, by the way, so you really might want to read it to understand better what is coming Venezuela's way. Venezuela is the only country of the area which is dealing with the crisis with budget cuts and more taxes. Then again it makes some sense if you consider that the private sector is agonizing and so Chavez cannot expect much help from there, even if he were to change his attitude towards private enterprise.

Merentes is coming to the Central Bank to liquidate it. Oh, no! He will not close it, that would not look good on paper though a name change is always a possibility with the glorious revolution. Merentes task at the Central Bank is to scour for any possible dime that can be found to finance Chavez pipe dreams. When there is no more money left at all then probably Venezuela will start operating like Cuba where the Peso is worthless and only allowed for its populace. The government will control any hard currency and thus pay its bills whenever, if ever. After all it worked for the Castros for 5 decades and they did not have the assured revenue that oil will bring to Chavez. No matter in what bad shape PDVSA is, something will always trickle to the thugs in charge to split among themselves as payment of the dirty job they will do to keep Chavez in office forever.

There is also another thing that Merentes will duly perform: the discarding of any serious statistics still left inside the Central Bank. These have become increasingly questionable, though not necessarily untrue: it is a matter on how you can present them to make them look better than what they do. Economists are still able to see through the numbers and make decent economic analysis. But this is not going to be enough as Venezuela is running out of money: Merentes has the credentials to start fudging outright the Central Banks statistics. Remember, you read it here first.

-The end-

Weil on how Venezuelan passivity allows us to get used to the regime

This cartoon of a woman and her child over recent years needs no comments, just a translation of the words, repeated in the 4 frames.

"Worried about the situation, but all is fine, thanks to God"

-The end-

Peruvian exile for Rosales

That Peru was going to grant political asylum to Manuel Rosales is no surprise. For simple practical reasons Colombia is not a good choice as it is too close for comfort: a Venezuelan death squad in conjunction with FARC help can take care of you fast. Brazil does not speak English or Spanish. Argentina is only too willing to sell off anyone. Chile is too far, and too boring?, even if the wine is good. Ecuador too small and too chavista these days. Bolivia is, well, a godforsaken but beautiful country that you need to be Bolivian to love, besides the fact that Evo Morales would ship you back to Venezuela post haste. Thus Peru is really the only choice today, with Mexico perhaps. Besides it is a booming country which has been so far moderately affected by the word crisis and which is taking much better steps to avoid further damage than what Venezuela is doing.

But there is more to Peru. First it has become really a land of asylum since democracy returned. After all, after the long dark years of Odria and Velasco, followed by the dynamic but equally condemnable Fujimorazo, it seems that they have learned best their lesson and can smell a tyrant before anyone else. For them it was not difficult to perceive fast that whatever charges were levied against Rosales, the real reason for his prosecution was political.

Of course chavismo is upset and recalled its ambassador and again accuse Peru of all sorts of crimes against International Law. Chavismo goes even to the ridicule of calling upon the Interpol after Chavez attacked it mercilessly after Colombia had it examine incriminating FARC computers. Chavismo also forgets conveniently that under Fujimori dozens of murderous conspiring coup mongers military of 1992 where granted asylum in Peru. Way more dangerous criminals than Rosales.

There was a time where our local dictators were just happy to see their opposition flee the coop and remain outside of the country. But under Chavez things are different: he wants revenge as he cannot accept that anyone can beat him electorally, or even disagrees with him. All must be punished; exile is simply too light a sentence on them. One wonders if death penalty is not something that Chavez is secretly caressing in his future projects. Legal death penalty I mean, as the surreptitious death penalty is already in place in Venezuela.

But such type of actions are counterproductive and betray a real weakness within chavismo where the elimination of opponents is the only way they can sleep soundly at night. Thus it is heartening to read such pieces as Duncan Currie for NRO where he describes how resistance is growing in Venezuela against the budding "legal" dictatorship that is being installed. Diego Arria tells it like it is, as I have already reported, even though I do not agree with his conclusion on the now legendary Obama-Chavez encounter.

Certainly the coverage of NRO is refreshing when one compares it to the BBC coverage of the Rosales asylum grant, an article that could come straight out of pro-Chavez Venezuelanalysis or Aporrea in its partiality, where the BBC does not blink from writing such inanities as "He is facing multi-million-dollar corruption charges relating to a previous term as governor of Zulia state. [...] Government supporters accuse him of taking part in a short-lived coup against Mr Chavez in April 2002."

I mean it might be fair to write such things if you were writing on Venezuela's corruption in general, including the Cabello and Chacon brothers, but the not so veiled intent of that BBC piece is simply to make look Rosales bad and Chavez ambassador recall adequate. Fortunately, and curiously, the BBC Mundo piece on this subject is completely different, and a world away in objectivity, which raises the interesting question as to whether the two BBC correspondents even know each other, or have visited the same country. For one thing the BBC Mundo does not burden itself with the chavista ritornello of April 2002, the universal excuse to everything that only weak minded folks use today. Why is it that the BBC coverage on Venezuela in English is consistently so inconsistent, so poorly researched, even so out of tune with real chavista arguments and propaganda? I mean, even the Guardian arguably to the left of BBC is more crtical of Chavez!

-The end-

Monday morning amusing reading

Maria Anastasia O'Grady went through the pain of duly trashing "the open veins of Latin America". This way none of you will feel under any obligation to read that considerably outdated pamphlet. But this blog ever helpful will post below the two last paragraphs, just in case your patience with Chavez idiotic antics do not go as far as reading what you already know, or suspect, even under O'Grady slicing prose (my emphasis).

The Galeano book was not a present to Mr. Obama, though it was hyped as such. After all it was in Spanish, a language Mr. Obama does not read -- and Cuban and Venezuelan military intelligence surely would have advised Mr. Chávez of that fact. Its purpose was instead a way for the resentful Venezuelan to shove his anticapitalist, anti-American prejudices in Mr. Obama's face before rows of television cameras.

Yet, unwittingly, Mr. Chávez's gag gift served another purpose. If there has been any doubt about how he has run his oil-rich country into the ground during a decade of booming petroleum prices, the mystery is now solved. Mr. Galeano's book is Mr. Chávez's bible.

-The end-

In the "I told you so" section: Clinton says it as it is

Yesterday I wrote about an upcoming congressional hearing where GOP representative Pence was going to question Obama's handshake by grilling Hillary Clinton. There is the video of Hillary putting to rest the issue, for your enjoyment.



Not only this is a great reply from Clinton, but it is also a history lesson, a politics one and a democratic example on how political differences can be resolved and all start to work together, at least up to a point.

It is also an illustration on why particular political obsessions cannot decide foreign policies where state interests should be first, something totally lost in today's Venezuela. From the video you can see clearly that Hillary knows more about Chavez than Pence, and how she genuinely dislikes Chavez, probably much more than what Pence actually does. But Hillary puts US interests first. You might agree or disagree with what she considers US interests, but it is clear that her position on Chavez is well thought whereas the one from Pence is, well, cliche if not necessarily untrue. Maybe for us in Venezuela under Chavez boot this might not be good news but Obama and Clinton are not there to solve our problems, the more so that there are really self inflicted. Pence words might sound like a nice balm to our battered hearts, but Clinton words are more realistic for a long term solution in getting rid of Chavez, a solution, remember, that must start at home first.

I liked Hillary, remember? :)

PS: to supplement this post, an article at FrontPage by our own Alek Boyd-

-The end-

In praise of Rosales

[Updated]

Tuesday we learned that Maracaibo mayor Manuel Rosales has asked Peru for political asylum. I am not going to discuss whether Rosales was corrupt enough to seek asylum: as far as I can tell it does not matter what Rosales has stolen, he is small pickings compared to the Diosdado Cabello clan or the famiglia as Petkoff calls the Chavez clan. If we are going to get serious about corruption, we should start from the top where the pickings (and potential recoveries) are way bigger.

No, what I want is to praise Rosales choice of preserving his functional human and political condition by leaving Venezuela. Why? The judicial system today is not the one we had even as late as last year. Since February 15 the order is to dispose of any opposition political figure that has any weight. After the police officers life sentence without firm evidence (1), the surreptitious arrest of Baduel, the months and months of confinement by Nixon Moreno at the Vatican's embassy, just to name three preeminent recent cases, Rosales would be a fool to trust the judicial system in Venezuela.

Thus it is the more necessary to praise Rosales courage in separating himself from his family, from the people who voted him massively, from his friends and collaborators, from his possessions, including the ones he acquired fair and square, etc, etc... Whatever he is accused of stealing, he is paying for it already. And it is necessary to praise Rosales the more as we hear unbelievable pettiness from both sides.

Let's dispose of the chavista side first. That they are accusing Rosales of admitting his guilt by fleeing the coop carries no weight: as long as the Cabellos, Chavez, Flores, Chacon, and many more big chavista names are not called on the corruption they presided over, any chavista claim of opposition corruption will simply be a ridiculous hollow claim. Effective perhaps among their fanatic supporters, but hollow with the rest of the country. The only worthy thing to mention is the indecent intra chavista fighting to run for the now vacated seat of Maracaibo Mayor. The indecency here is that it is all public, without even waiting for the official announcement of the vacancy. It is all a show anyway because the decision will be of Chavez. And we probably will hear of that next Sunday with an Alo Presidente that promises ot be one of the most vulgar ever.

From the opposition side the criticism is graver.

We have those that think that Rosales should have accepted to go to jail. Some even claim that Capriles Radonski did went to jail for a while, unfairly, and became as such a big star. This shows one or two things. First, they do not realize the change in Venezuela. And second they are probable hypocrites as one would love to see whether they would go to jail today when placed in a Rosales like predicament.

We have those that do not think much of it. It might be those who actually do not think it worthwhile. It might be those who do not care. It might be those who do not seem to realize what is really happening. There is an example close to us of this last category, Francisco Toro who wrote two unbelievable posts lately. One about the Venezuelan opposition not caring about what happened in Port of Spain and another one with the late discovery of the virtues of Ledezma. With that he only shows that he urgently needs to come back to Venezuela and live here for a few months to see first hand como se bate el cobre.

Inasmuch as we can be offended by those who do not give this thing the right weight, there are those who actually are not really upset with Rosales exile. They never liked him much. They never accepted that he recognized his defeat in 2006. They want other leaders for the opposition. And other such infamous attitudes, totally counter productive any way as Chavez thrives on that. Which brings me to the real problem behind that Rosales exile: if the opposition divides over that Chavez will have won one of his major victories, at the cost of some international frowning at most.

I think it is time to force the opposition to unify and to confront those who only like TV appearances and who work for themselves. But that will be for another future post.

It is enough to say here that if the opposition does not create now, in the very next few weeks at the latest, a front to confront Chavez, it will have no future and we will have to wait for the violent denouement that will come from within chavismo itself, but for which we all suffer. The opposition should unify well because the elections of November 2008 and the ill tempered reaction of Chavez has given the opposition the leaders that it did not really expect. I wrote a few days ago of Ledezma, but I could also write about how Perez in Zulia has been gaining exposure and strength, how Cesar Perez Vivas resistance is being noted, how Capriles and Caracas districts mayors are slowly but surely emerging, and more. What Chavez is doing is speeding up their growth, as he tries to stop them. And we saw some preliminary results last week end at one of the first unity acts around Ledezma.

If Rosales exile serves to speed up this urgent unity, then it will be worth it, even if it is at the cost of his very own political career. Though that is not so certain: Betancourt was in a log exile and yet he came back to become president.

Update. The international press is starting to write on this.

Juan Forero at the WaPo writes a fairly good price on the current situation in Venezuela

.............

1) In Venezuela the 30 year prison term might be the maximum sentence but considering the jail system of Venezuela it is akin a death sentence and thus my deliberate choice of life sentence.

-The end-

People with too much time on their hands

We read from The Hill:

GOP Conference Chairman Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.) on Tuesday afternoon called the photographs taken of President Obama and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez shaking hands at the Summit of the Americas "an enormous propaganda victory for the socialist dictator."

Pence indicated that House Republicans intended to confront Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about Obama and Chavez meeting and mugging for the cameras when she appears before the Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday morning.

I will very respectfully suggest Rep. Pence to go back to other Republican activities (tea parties?) instead of risking to make a fool of himself. After all, even Mel Martinez, GOP Senator of Florida, was OK with the Port of Spain events, as seen on CNN. Not to mention conservative IBD. Or FOX wondering aloud whether Obama did not scold Chavez in their last encounter. Nothing good for the US will come from grilling Secretary Clinton on such a silly matter at this time. There will be better opportunities in the future. However Chavez and the Castros could well benefit a lot in front of their public opinions, showing how capable they are to perturb US politics.

-The end-

Does Teodoro Petkoff read Venezuela News and Views?

In today's editorial of Tal Cual, written by Teodoro Petkoff:

El hedor hitleriano que despide el nombramiento de la gauleiter para Caracas trasciende las fronteras.

The hitlerian stench coming from naming a gauleiter for Caracas goes across the borders.

And then some say that I exaggerate....
Anyway, for the record, as far as I know I am the first one that is on record using the term gauleiter with Faria(s) nomination. Though I am absolutely certain that Teodoro could come up with that association on his own. You know, great minds....

-The end-

Música

Here I added a couple more titles to the music I like (two Venezuelan songs, one Greek)

Obama and the Stalker

Fundamentalists from right and left are both desperate because of the meeting where Barak Obama shook hands with Venezuela's Hugo Chávez.

I am happy. It is pathetic the way Chávez craves for attention and it is not a nice sight to see Obama going to shake hands with him, but most Venezuelan opposition people, people in the middle and non-extreme supporters of Chávez welcomed the move. Obama has done so far the right thing towards Chávez. The Venezuelan former military and coup monger would have wanted to steal the show anyway. Obama neutralized him and then focused on other matters. Chávez at the beginning seemed ravished, excited. Still, I am sure after that he felt fool and now he is wondering what to do. Even if Chávez craves for attention, he has not gained the respect he wanted. Most importantly: it has become much more difficult for him to attack a US president who is - so far - much more respected abroad than any of the other US presidents of the last 15 years or so. And I don't thinkObama will do the Carter or the Kissinger thing (and shaking hands is not THE thing).

Obama should maintain a cool attitude. We, as Venezuelans, though, should not expect much from the United States than respect. It is up to us to get rid of Hugo Chávez - by democratic means and not using the ways of Hugo Chávez in 1992 or Carmona in 2002.

It is going to be difficult and it will take probably a couple of years but we will do it. More importantly, though, we will have to have a good plan for after Chávez.

For once, Maria Anastasia O'Grady did not get it

Readers of this blog are used to me saying that Maria Anastasia O'Grady from the Wall Street Journal is right on the dot about Venezuela. Well, today I think she is missing the boat in her criticism of Obama trip at Port of Spain.

Not that Obama is exempt of some criticism, he could have handled things a little bit better. But as I have explained in previous posts on the subject he was in a lose-lose situation and considering that, he did pretty well, as far as I am concerned.

Expecting that in a single summit Obama would corner the Castros, tell Chavez down, browbeat Ortega, muffle Evo and more or less silence a few others is simply unreasonable: such meetings are not the appropriate scenario and besides, it is never nice nor polite to gang on the absent ones even if they do that to you when you are not around. That is why a president as a Secretary of State and ambassadors, to tell Cuba what to do, in the hallways, at other meetings, at newspapers. The less a US president speaks on Cuba the better. There will be plenty of future opportunities for Obama to speak on Raul, Hugo, and Evo (Danielito and Rafael can be just ignored as the first one is irrelevant and the other as the US dollar as his currency).

At any rate, as the dust starts settling, the piece by Antonio Caño that I translated yesterday is the one closest to what really happened at Port of Spain. All the rest is media show that we should not fall into.

-The end-

The end of the Anti American alibi

This El Pais piece by Antonio Caño is a must read in Spanish to understand what Obama 'might' have achieved in Port of Spain this week end. The translation below and my brief notes at the end. Hat tip reader Milonga.

--- --- --- --- ---

The end of the Anti [USA] American alibi

"United States has changed," said Barack Obama to the presidents of Latin America. "It has not always been easy, but it has changed. And so I think it's important to remind my fellow leaders that it's not just the United States that has to change. All of us have responsibilities to look towards the future."

The answer to these words was the book that Hugo Chavez gave the U.S. president: The Open Veins of Latin America, by Uruguayan Eduardo Galeano, a symbol for a generation marked by an America populated by dictators and guerrillas, a continent that was the scenario real or imagined, of cruel multinationals and CIA agents, young dreamers and promises of socialism and revolution, a time when friends were away and the enemy, the only enemy very was close, the United States.

This book, written in 1971, and questionable as to its impartiality and scientific value, represents an era, probably the same as the one who used it yesterday as stone throwing against Obama; the new American president represents another era altogether.

Both have been exposed in this summit. It is now for citizens to choose. That choice is possible in all countries of the region except for one. The result may yet take a little to be known. The peoples of the region, rightly, are wary of everything. But, at least, something really important comes immediately out of Port of Spain: the leaders of this continent can ill take refuge in the excuse of anti-Americanism.

That alibi, still alive in many environments, has, of course, justifications. Obama acknowledged it on Friday: "At times we sought to dictate our terms." But it will be hard to use it against the new leader of the powerful northern neighbor.

His passage through the streets of Port of Spain was by far the most welcomed by the population. His speech, the most celebrated in the chamber. His popularity overcomes barriers never broken in Latin America and converts other languages, such as that of Daniel Ortega into soporific remembrances of a distant night.

The proposal of President Obama, by contrast, is illuminating: "these debates that would have us make a false choice [...] between blame for right-wing paramilitaries or left-wing insurgents;"

The resistance from some in this American lands is understandable in accepting that hope travels in Air Force One where before traveled the heads of evil imperialist web, but that is simply what we are seeing in Port of Spain. "We must learn from history, but we can't be trapped by it." Obama suggested.

--- --- --- --- --- ---

El Pais is a center left newspaper of Spain, close tot he PSOE, at least at times. El Pais, like Liberation and later Le Monde in France, were among the first newspapers to see the truth behind the Chavez rhetoric and thus started opposing him well before more right wing papers did. In fact in France, Le Figaro is still a paper that does not seem to have made its mind about Chavez, unforgivably not only because of the evidence but because it helps Sarkozy ambiguity and opportunism on that matter. Such OpEd are now routine in El Pais, and all Spanish press who do not suffer of the language barrier to see the Venezuelan reality and who in addition have enough contacts within Venezuela to observe from ground zero.

The implication of what we saw in Port of Spain is very simple: the time of reckoning for folks like Chavez, Ortega and Castro is coming. Obama's words will make it much easier for Latin Americans to start speaking against the bullies, the way their Spanish friends have already done. Once the process starts, nobody knows how fast and far it will go.

-The end-

Anything for a laugh! Gift giving Chavez!

[Update1] [Update2: why Obama had an impossible mission]

Chavez gave a book to Obama in Port of Spain. The chavista propaganda already edited the entry for the book in wikipedia, pointing out that it went up in a few hours at Amazon, from 54,295 to 14 sales rank. Good for the Galeano estate. The wikipedia entry in Spanish is not as sanguine: as I just checked there was no editing yet, which goes to tell you that chavismo propaganda in English seems to be speedier.

The book "the open veins of Latin America" is a cult book of sorts, narrating all the pillaging and abuses along the history of the Americas. A similar book could be written about Africa, Asia and even Europe. A sad but permanent historical feature, and certainly not solved at all by regimes such as the Castros or Chavez. I have not read it, and I probably will not do so. Besides, written in 1971, it is more of a grudge book than anything of particular value to understand Latin America today after all the historical research that has come to light in the last 40 years, where even the pre Columbian cultures have been extensively revised. Though it is certainly interesting to understand the mood of the 70ies, at the eve of the violent dictatorships that punished the continent.

So how can we interpret Chavez gesture?

Is it just yet another mark of Chavez inner world fed with readings that he does not understand and even less can place into historical context? On this respect the incident reminds me of the actions of some PSF who swear on given books as the key to everything in life... A state of mind, you know, a need for certainties for people unable to be critical of the world and even less of themselves.

An unwilling but subconscious insult to Obama assuming that he knows nothing about the complex US-Latin America history? Was the book given in its English translation? That would be interesting because if Chavez really meant business the Venezuelan embassy in Washington should have shipped the translation before it got exhausted at Amazon. If it was the Spanish version then it is a cheap insult, IMO. Does anyone know?

Or just a show? This the one I favor. Kind of Occam razor, you know.

At the Alba "summit" the creeps plotted on ways to ridicule Obama, a big threat for their objectives since a lot of the generic accusations lobbed at the US for internal propaganda will not fly anymore with a black man at the White House. As luck had it, protocol wise Nicaragua's Ortega was the only one of the lot that would have the right to speak at Trinidad at premium moment. So they prepared together a speech to attack Obama and the US. The speech lasted 45 minutes, a length of time already an insult by itself to ALL attendees who had better things to do that to listen to Ortega for more than a dozen minutes. Let's just say that a minute of Lula decision making is worth a full day of Ortega.

But the drama came when the Ortega rant was an asinine resentful affair revealing only the mediocrity of the individual who after having raped his step daughter should avoid such exposure. Obama brilliance dispatched the 45 minutes horror in two sentences. And moved on.

So, Chavez, having failed in his first attempt at limelight went ahead today with this book giving, probably flown from Caracas during the night. My bet is that the only thing he gained was that form now on, just as the Queen of Spain and other such people scared by the body language of Chavez, Obama will make sure not to be put into such situations in the future. Poor Hillary, she will be sent to the front when there is such a risk......

I wonder how much this will cost Venezuela... And I am not talking about the special flight just for a book.

Update 1

Contrary to my first impression, it was Obama that sought the first handshake with Chavez. I suppose he knew that in cramped Port Of Spain setting an encounter with Chavez would be inevitable and he wisely decided to strike first that way he could deal with other more important business than Venezuela. Which he did in his speech.

That explains why Chavez became the stalker and went ahead to give him a copy of Galeano's book in SPANISH!

Overall it is a big score for Obama, with a very small gesture, that he could not avoid anyway unless he were to hide behind drapes or something, he forced from Chavez a major concession as this one has announced that he will seek to renew ambassadors with the US. Just as I anticipated should be a serious gesture from Chavez in my for fun memo of a few days ago. Not to mention that it exempted Obama from dealing with Venezuela altogether for the rest of the meeting.

I suppose that Obama is used to deal with narcissistic personalities, otherwise he would not have risen to the top of the democratic party.

Update 2

I am reading lots of complain about Obama actions in Port Of Spain. I suppose in conservative sites which want Obama to avenge Bush it is understandable, though misplaced as being outside the US political tradition where an incoming administration is expected to mend errors of past ones, not to avenge them. But also criticism comes from friends of mine, one going so far as suggesting that Obama should have had the OAS charter on democracy under his sleeve to give it back to Chavez.

All are unfair.

US administrations, de par its presidential system and "to the winner go the spoils", have a learning curve that can last a year or two. Rare is the president elect that has actually a real foreign policy experience. Since world War 2 there is only Eisenhower, Nixon and Bush senior who qualified (and who all had occasional real foreign policy successes). The other had only the successes that brought them their ability to select a good foreign team and listen to them. On occasion they have the good sense of retaining some of the older experienced staff but that is rather rare.

The Obama administration is not exempt of this rule. US presidents are elected on a domestic agenda where foreign policy occupies a secondary role, more or less important according to the time. And this last time was no exception as even Iraq seemed at times to be treated more as an internal matter than a foreign one.

Port of Spain was a rattle snake nest for Obama. There were at least half a dozen presidents willing to score cheap points at the US expense and at least a dozen of them too scared of them to murmur a favorable word to protect the US from abuse. It was a potential lose-lose for Obama whose only reliable friend would have been Canada. From the start, embattled Cristina Kirchner, facing a tough legislative election in a few weeks, went anti US, though at least politely and briefly. Ortega went all out, and vulgarly. But with a hand shake to Chavez and a couple of sentences Obama defused the first trap set and thought, perhaps naively but at least not without reason at first, that he could then do some real work. But Chavez pathological need to be in the forefront came up with the book giving scheme to recover the media front pages.

Indeed the media are the real guilty part there. They all prefer to cover the antics of Chavez and Obama than any substance that might come from the summit. And Chavez plays them like a fiddle, having it very clearly in his mind that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Even if Chavez might look as the lout he is in this coverage, he is covered extensively while no one speaks of Lula, or Calderon, or Uribe... That he shares front page with Obama is no problem: ¡si no la gana, la empata! If he cannot win, he cores even!

I stand by my first assessment: Obama did pretty good so far considering that all was staked against him. True, he could have done better, but as a novice president, and particularly novice about Latin matters he could have done much, much worse. In fact he probably learned a very valuable lesson: stay away from clowns! You know, the lesson that some of us learned very young in life.

Besides his real problem right now is not Venezuela or even Latin America, it is North Korea, Israel, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. The Cuban thing was the only pressing matter down South and now this has been dealt with, the ball is in the court of the Castros. If they want to get into the OAS and have the embargo lifted they know what they need to do: liberalize further. Let's take bets on that.

-The end-

Obama Derangement Syndrome

I just want to recommend this excellent article by The Economist on Obama Derangement Syndrome. It is not about Venezuela, but it does show a lot of what is going on in the heads of a minority in the United States (a country that is so present in Latin America). It is very interesting to read the comments as well.

In praise of Antonio Ledezma

I know, I know, praising Ledezma, some guy that seems like the embodiment of old politics, might not be popular among some readers. But Ledezma is a different political animal. And curiously like Chavez, a very underrated one.

Ledezma is a politician not endowed with much charisma, nor gifted for speechifying, nor even particularly intellectually deep. But he is a fighter, a gritty one, very conscious on where he stands and what needs to be done (though his dumb support to Alfaro Ucero in 1998 shows also that he can make major mistakes). He also comes across as awkward when he reaches out to people, though there is weird sincerity that comes with him, a little bit like saying "you know, I really do not like much to press your flesh but if it means so much for you, let's do it". Some people do respond to that, appreciating the earnestness of the guy.

In short, it is not easy for Ledezma to make politics although it is clear that it has always been his vocation. His grit was enough once to defeat Isturiz for Caracas downtown mayor. If he failed to be reelected in 2000 it was because the tide wave of Chavez was irresistible in Caracas, still smitten by Chavez (which has changed now as he decides to name the big boss there rather than risk yet another electoral defeat). But his defeat then was quite honorable and he showed a good democratic talent by presiding over an impeccable transition, something not seen ever since, and certainly not from the occasional chavista loser.

Burdened by his Alfaro Ucero support and losing Caracas in 2000, Ledezma had a hard time to make a come back, even though soon it was clear that he had been a much better mayor than the sitting infamous Bernal, a mayor way more interested in organizing red shirts in assault brigades than picking up the trash. Ledezma slow recovery started in 2002-2004. Contrary to other opposition politicians keen on showing up in front of the Globovison/RCTV cameras than in front of the marches they were calling from, Ledezma did march as much as he could, did get quite a dose of tear gas, and was even once beaten up enough to be sent to a hospital. His tiny party, ABP, a dissidence of AD once he was booted from it, never grew much but was always present, and included some colorful characters which kept it in the limelight through Venevision when it was still not sold out to Chavez.

Still he made a few more mistakes that did not endear him to other opposition politicians and slowed down his political recovery. But he kept forging ahead and his break came once Leopoldo Lopez was barred from running for Caracas Mayor office. Ledezma would have never won against juvenile and charismatic Lopez but he had built enough of a hard core following that he became the inevitable candidate for Caracas even though no one gave him a chance at first (although this blogger is on record at one of the first people to predict a possible victory of Ledezma, and certainly the first blogger to do so) (1).

Some times some people rise to the historic occasion they are given and Ledezma will be one of those poster politicians. Against all odds, including a reluctance from many within the opposition to support him, Ledezma run hard and won, convincingly if not by a wide margin (6%). Within hours of his victory announcement chavismo was hard at sabotaging his rule, something that they had already started when polls became looking up for Ledezma that past fall. The final straw against poor Ledezma came when the Nazional Assembly wrote fast a new and unconstitutional law that stripped him of almost any attribution to give them to an appointed apparatchik, which quickly was named as Jacqueline Farias, who fits amazingly well the portrait of what a XXI century gauleiter would be.

But Ledezma never lost his cool and today he gave a hard blow to chavismo, even taking a page from its earlier book. In a surprise move Ledezma went downtown Caracas to the CNE lair with a large group of his followers chanting. In spite of a strong display of Nazional Guards, they could not stop the entry of Ledezma and his reception by the only democratic CNE director. Ledezma did submit a referendum proposal and walked out acclaimed by his followers. If there were red shirts to be seen they were either far away or scared; or never received their marching orders.

A stunned chavismo could not find any other reply than a particularly fascist move: they had Ledezma followed by a group of Metro Police who harassed him along the way until Ledezma stopped to confront them (before they stopped him, I suppose?). For what? Roughing up Ledezma? Arresting him for doing a peaceful civic activity? To their great surprise, passersby, walking or on cars, stopped to defend Ledezma and soon the fascist detachment was in full retreat. Globovision even carries a video amateur of the moment.

Ledezma showed today how it is played, how to stand up to violence without resorting to violence yourself. And as such I am afraid he might have signed his death sentence. But right now chavismo has made him an opposition hero, and a hero that could cause them lots of trouble now that he is without much to do and can dedicate himself fully to fight chavismo.

1) Leopoldo Lopez is the only opposition politician who can dispute the contest at which opposition politician has breathed more tear gas since 2002. If anything else, Lopez and Ledezma share that willingness to lead their followers.

-The end-

A Revolutionary logic exposed in 4 principles

(About the image: the principles described in this entry can't explain why I found this sign at the supermarket a few weeks ago: "Only four packages of toilet paper per person" and why when I took the picture, there was only a few packages left).

How can I explain all the latest state abuses in Venezuela under one single entry? Where do I start? There are so many that I’ve already lost count. The abuse is just everywhere and it seems sometimes way too obvious to even take the time to report it to the world. But since the common sense is the least common of all senses, I have made the determination to try approach to this very grave issue from the unique perspective this blog provides: a personal one.

The only way I can explain it, the only way I can show to people how this does affect me as a regular Venezuelan citizen, is by making the exercise of putting my self in their shoes. I don’t know if this will prove anything to you, I just have the duty to present you the facts just as the way they look to me.

So from this line forward, turn on the sarcasm. Thank you very much.

If you are a true revolutionary, then, prior to following the logic (fallacy?) that it will be presented in the next lines, you must get rid of all previous existent structures that rule your mind. All those concepts of what it should be and what it shouldn’t. This includes things like Constitution, laws, Institutions, what to do with the election results, democracy in general and a long list of etceteras. After all, those structures are nothing but the agonizing parts of an agonizing system: capitalism; aren’t they?

Once you have done that, you are ready to understand the logic behind the new system: socialism (our socialism, the Bolivarian one, that’s how we call it but we don’t really know what it is) as I will expose it to you in a few principles. Please keep in mind that those principles (as in any revolution) can change without notice or warning on special occasions (meaning, anytime). Without any further introduction, here we go.

1. Always, always remember this: Chavez = people. Chavez = Revolution. Chavez =Politics. Chavez =election results. Chavez = Institutions. Now in Revolutionary math, the symbol = what it really means if we put it next to “Chavez” is this ≥ (meaning, for us, equal, and above). If Chavez says “ah”, we say “ah”. If Chavez jumps, we jump. This is the first and foremost of all principles.

2. Election results, if and only if they truly respect the power of the people (meaning, if we, the revolutionaries win) should only be considered by their symbolic meaning.
I know this might sound complicated for you, with a capitalist logic still f… your brain, to understand but let me give you an example that it will make it all clear and might even sound slightly familiar to you.
Let’s say we propose an amendment to the Constitution, ok? The focus of the Amendment is to allow to any president, governor or mayor in Venezuela to present his candidacy on re-election for as many times as they wish. Now, let’s say that we did this because our leader, face, reason, meaning, Alpha, Omega and Beta and Gamma of our Revolution: Chavez wants to rule for a few more years. So it’s easy: if people vote “yes” they are not voting for the possibility of re-election of any candidate but symbolically, for Chavez to rule forever and ever. If people vote “no”, they (are f… crazy, capitalist, imperialist, blind, oligarchs…) don’t like Chavez.
Lets suppose the “yes” wins on this election, meaning we won but we not only won a Constitutional Amendment only but a blank check which allows Chavez to do what he pleases (is that legal?). Why do we do that? Because we consider that the real election results are the symbolic one. If this is a symbolic victory for Chavez we take it as being real. And if Chavez wons, that means that a Chavez victory is equal and above at the same time of everything else.

3. A recent Chavez victory will erase all previous – if any – (oligarch, traitors, lackeys of the empire) opposition victories; even if they are not related at all with the issues which have been voted on each election.
Again, I should explain this with an example. Let’s keep with the story presented in principle number 2 (because it was like fun). Let’s pretend that just a couple of months before Chavez won on the Constitutional Amendment referendum we just talked about; a regional elections were held in the country where we choose governors and mayors (yep, it has nothing to do with referendums and Constitutional Amendment). Let's pretend we did not win there, or not totally because the (cheaters, corrupt people, imperialist) opposition won in a few key states and municipalities.
So after that, a referendum comes, Chavez comes out with a victory and then he can make a few moves: such as asking to his assembly to approve a new de-centralization (meaning, centralization) law that will reduce the powers and incomes the opposition mayors and governors have. He can take away a few airports and ports and highways. He can also, for example, open investigations based on corruption charges (or any, it doesn’t matter) to get rid of a certain mayor from office. He can also ask for yet one more law to put a new authority, a new mayor(let's call it “chief” for keeping the appearances ok?) to rule in Caracas over the one who actually won in the regional elections just a few months ago.
(What about the people who voted for those governors and mayors?). Never mind, every time Chavez wins, the (manipulated, antipatriotic, blind) opposition's previous victories can be easily erased. No regrets. No looking back. (note aside, you don't necessarily need a new Chavez victory to erase a previous opposition one, but that is material for another entry)

4. Last but not least, I will explain a principle that should be obvious by now but you can’t trust yourself since you have been raised with the use of a capitalist way of thinking… so who knows? It takes time to become the new man our system wants. But it will take me just one simple formula to explain this to you, if you don’t know it already.
I always knew that math could be very helpful to understand the intricate revolutionary logic. So, in the first principle we propose a formula for understanding what Chavez is. For the (put a long list of senseless insults here) so- called opposition we can also propose a formula. If Chavez is equal (means, equal and above) to all, then the opposition will be equal to the result of the number one divided by zero (yes, I’m not kidding). Always. I hope there is no further explanation needed. No justifications. No dialogue (Dialogue? Really? Does that exist?). Nothing.

PS: Any similarities with the reality are mere coincidences...

Susan Boyle

This has nothing to do with this blog but I just had to put it. She made my day.
Click here and watch it all and she will make yours.
This is it. There is no rest.

A Gauleiter first day on the job: Farias takes over Caracas

Thus Jacqueline Farias was sworn in (1). From her first declarations we have an intense feeling as for her commitment to democracy, free speech, listening and amenable public servant. Just as this old fabulously reassuring picture of her as a failed environment minister shows us, red earrings included. A sample choice for you of yesterday's words.

From El Universal:

Replying to a journalist that she got her job from Chavez magic finger pointing at her:"los dedos de Chávez son los dedos del pueblo, sus dedos quieren lo mejor para Caracas". The fingers of Chavez are the fingers of the people, his fingers want what is best of Caracas. This one is for the annals of sycophancy! Of course the handful of supporters outside started chanting "Aquí el que manda es Chávez y la revolución", here the one that decides is Chavez and the revolution. Nothing else needs to be said.

To another question she said that it was normal that her job came from Chavez because Caracas is the capital of the country and thus poor Chavez would feel "incómodo" uncomfortable being surrounded by opposition local officials. Never mind that those were elected by the people.....

Jorge Rodriguez, Caracas downtown district mayor, wanting to make sure that he would not be too far behind in the sycophancy contest with Farias who just scored really big, said that now Caracas had a mayor and a governor like every state in the country, though he did not explain why it was normal that Caracas Governor was not elected, but adding that he "felicitaba al pueblo por la designación de Chávez" congratulated the people by the Chavez appointment. In sycophancy Rodriguez plays hard ball indeed!

From El Nacional:

Jacqueline describing her job: "tendrá que velar y supervisar todos los servicios para que los capitalinos tengan una mejor calidad de vida, la nueva vida socialista" will have to care and supervise all services so that the capital inhabitants have a better quality of life, the new socialist life. Besides wondering what Rodriguez job will be (rhetorical question, we all know that his job will be now only politics while Jacqueline will be cleaning up after him, very XXI century macho socialism if you ask me) we cannot fail to be impressed by the fact that Jacquy has decided for us, be we living in the 23 de Enero or La Florida that we will all have the socialist life that SHE will decide.

Globovision helpfully reminds us that she has been a relative failure at whatever Chavez has put her. But of course the only requirement for any job with Chavez is to be a faithful, and to allow shady deals to proceed apace. So we can be certain right now that the objective of Chavez is not to improve services for Caracas.

And I could keep with more fascinating tidbits but I prefer to close this post with a much more optimist note, an interview of Ledezma for pro PSOE (socialists in office) Spanish paper El Pais. See, in Spain Socialists are all for local governments and decentralization, going as far as trying to make coalition government of sorts in the Basque country with the PP that almost bitterly opposes them in Madrid. But see, the PP and the PSOE are democratic parites and both of them know very well that there is no democracy inside chavismo. Which explains why El Pais titles its interview of Ledezma "Chávez ya actúa como un dictador" Chavez acts like a dictator.

Indeed, the chief and his Gauleiter. You cannot make up things like that! Though I am going to say something for Chavez: in Nazi Germany I do not think there was any female Gauleiter. Does anyone know?

1) in a very amusing detail the press does not seem to be able to make up its mind whether it is Farias or Faria sans S. And this even through chavista media. I suppose that for these last ones the only words that need to be spelled correctly are Hugo and Chávez.

-The end-

The People's Fingers

Look at the picture above. Do you see the red circle on the left upper side? Those are the People's Fingers. Yes, that is right, the People's. I'll explain.

Hugo Chávez Frías did not like the opposition had won several states and municipalities during last November's elections (accounting for 45% of the population). Consequently, he and his regime proceeded to decree in a rush all kinds of "laws" to take away the control of most revenues, schools, hospitals and much more from those regions. They diverted millions of dollars from the exiting governments to the national one so that the incoming opposition governors and mayors would have less to work with.

Still, Caracas was a problem: its people, including those of one of Latin America's largest slum, Petare, had elected Antonio Ledezma, an opposition leader. What does Chávez and his Chávez Assembly do? They decide to create a figure that completely circumvent the post of Ledezma and takes away almost all of the budget that he had to manage. Chávez selected Jacqueline Faría. Do you know what she said now?

Well, here the article in Spanish. When non-Chavista journalists managed to approach her (that is getting more and more difficult to do) and asked her what she thought about her being elected by one person and not by more than 700000 as Antonio Ledezma, she said "Chavez's fingers are the People's fingers, his fingers want the best for Caracas". Her followers chanted "the one who rules here is Chávez and the revolution". Further, she said her direct election by the president (and replacement of Ledezma, basically) was valid because the national government is in Caracas. She added "it would be uncomfortable for the president to have opposition leaders around". She also said she was going to work side by side with the pro-Chavez mayor of Libertador (another part of Greater Caracas) to build a socialist Caracas (the other mayors can bugger off, I assume).

What are the European socialists saying about this? Hello? Shame on you if you do not speak up.
Well, if you speak German or French I can give you two examples, here (admittedly, extreme left) and here (so-called social-democrats or PS from French-speaking Belgium).

You would not be better than the right parties that tolerated and even flirted with equally fascistoid governments of the right in Latin America.

Meet Jacqueline Farias, Caracas new Gauleiter

Today Chavez named his first Gauleiter for the city of Caracas. In spite of an opposition victory last November, Chavez decided to change the law, to violate the constitution and named someone to preside over Caracas, in spite of the people clear will in choosing who should rule their city for the next 4 years. So he chose one of his most faithful, one that was already very willing to exert the Tascon list to its full effect when she was presiding the Caracas water works, and who applied speedy politicization tot he nationalized companies she was asked to direct after, as well in the cabinet positions she held. She is the perfect political bitch, bitter and vengeful, unyielding, uncompromising, devoted to Chavez, the perfect first appointment for the new age of gauleiter coming upon us in this increasingly fascist regime. I have chosen the following picture composition to illustrate clearly that she is not an amenable person, willing to discuss fairly Caracas future with its elected officials. She is the hard core militant. She will be in good historical company as Goebbels was Berlin's Gauleiter.



PS: I have been following her career more or less loosely, but enough to have her appear several times in my blog, such as these two instances. I always considered her dangerous, even when she was at the water works before the Tascon list, the perfect cold professional apparatchik. I am not surprised by this choice, even a good move for Chavez as a woman is expected to be less frontally attacked. But the opposition will do well to attack her frontally from the first day, boycott her and call immediately for a referendum to boot her out, along the Caracas representatives that voted for that violation. Otherwise they are doomed as more gauleiters will follow once the main one is set in place.

-The end-

Update note to those who still think that Venezuela is not under a dictatorship

Two days ago I published a post explaining why Venezuela is today a dictatorship. Apparently some still do not see it, or make excuses for not seeing it.

Well, I would love very much to hear their opinion after yesterday's words from Chavez. And expressions such as "you know, some times he exaggerates" "you know, it is his style" "you know, he gets carried away but he will not do half of what he said" are not going to cut it.

In his return from a long trip, and on the anniversary of April 13 he said the following, again on a cadena without anyone having the right to reply directly to him, not even through state TV at the nightly news (keep that in mind, will you?)

From El Universal:

"¡Debemos seguir a la ofensiva, arrollando a la contrarrevolución, no tenemos más alternativa!"
We must keep the offensive, crushing the counterrevolution, we have no other option [note, counterrevolution is the name for the politcal opposition, least you be fooled]

"Pero es imposible, ellos no respetan nada, no respetan a nadie (...) con la burguesía contrarrevolucionaria no hay entendimiento alguno, ¡no lo hay ni lo habrá!"
But [agreement] is impossible, they do not respect anything, they do not respect anyone (...) with the counterrevolutionary bourgeoisie there is no possible agreement, there is none and never will be! [apparently he is not happy that people like yours truly do not approve the 30 years sentence to people we consider innocent of the charged crimes, head that US PSF alwasy complaingi about death penalty and the like?]

"invito a los poderes del Estado a seguir en la ofensiva por la justicia (...) ahí están impune los medios de comunicación que participaron activamente en el golpe"
I ask the powers of the state to pursue the offensive for justice (...) there are unpunished the media who participated actively in the coup [that would include not only Globovision but also Venevision and Televen. Are we going to see once again Venevision gloat while Chavez closes the last critical media, Globovision? How low is Cisneros going to fall? Also, after 7 years, how come that Chavez demands media to be punished? Why the delay? Why the orders to what are supposedly independent powers? In Spanish and in this context the word "invito" does not mean suggest, it is an assertive request]

"Oligarcas, más nunca volverán, esta revolución llegó para quedarse, esta revolución es eterna!", Oligarcas [opposition], you will never come back, this revolution is here to stay, this revolution is eternal

And more from Globovision:

“Los medios que están tratando de de subvertir y desestabilizar al país. Han comenzado una agresión abierta y descarada contra la juez que tomó una decisión, absolutamente ajustada a derecho. La burguesía con sus medios arremete, espero que hagan lo que tengan que hacer las autoridades”.
The media that are trying to subvert and destabilize the country. They have started an open and shameless aggression against the judge that took a decision, absolutely according to procedure. The bourgeoisie with its media attacks, I hope that the authorities do what they have to do. [notice how Chavez decides what is a good judicial sentence and that a public servant cannot be criticized for its decisions].

“Ahí están para que continué la investigación a fondo y se establezcan las responsabilidades que haya que establecer y las sanciones que haya que imponer”
There they [the media] are for the investigation to go to the end and that the responsibilities that need to be established and the sanctions that need to be taken

“Caracas va a tener además del alcalde Jorge Rodríguez, un jefe de gobierno, como lo tenía antes”
Caracas will have in addition of mayor Jorge Rodriguez, a chief of government as it had before [what is important here is the fact that Chavez only recognizes chavista elected mayors and that the other Caracas inhabitants who voted for opposition mayors, for about half the population, will now be ruled by a political appointee, discarding the November 2008 results.]

And from Tal Cual we have confirmation of these words with some of their interpretation.

So, the question is really not whether we are in a dictatorship, the question is becoming "how far along the fascist road will we go?". You will convene with me that the fascist language is there already; this is not communism anymore, there is no economical rational left, only the sick sectarian emotional political cut.

Note: to make things clear, by me publishing the Weil Cartoon on Marjorie Calderon, the ruthless bitch that condemned the likely innocent police officers to the maximum sentence of 30 years, I risk as of today to be indicted of treason, whenever convenient for the regime. The evidence if in this blog, they only need to track me down once the necessary legislation, or even precedent, is in the books. Should we take a poll as to when the first Venezuelan English language blogger is beaten up, jailed, indicted, whatever? I will remind folks that already Oil Wars blog allowed publication of comments where readers wanted to come to Yaracuy to beat me up; that Ultimas Noticias already published advertisement to accuse folks participating in the Internet opposition.


-The end-

Orinoco II

Continuation of Orinoco I

If you travel upstream, the first part you have to go through is the Orinoco Delta. The Delta is as large as Belgium. The Orinoco splits here in thousands of tributaries. Navigating through the Delta is like going through the largest labyrith...a labyrinth made out of jungle islands. There are permanent wetlands and freshwater swamp forests. The margins are full of mangroves. The fauna is incredibly varied, with animals coming from the Atlantic Ocean and others from the Orinoco.

Daniel Duquenal wrote several fascinating posts about the Delta here, here, here and here.

I will examine the Delta and then the rest of the Orinoco in a rather less poetic way.

The geographic Delta is located in the Delta Amacuro State. With a population of little more than 152000 inhabitants, it has a density of 4.39 people per km2. That does not seem like much but you have to take into account most of it is of very difficult access. Urbanization is hardly possible without massively destroying a very fragile agriculture.

The Delta Amacuro state is extremely poor. It has one of the few major groups of native Americans who still remain more or less as a distinct ethnic group, with their original customs, their language. They are the Waraos. Demographic reports vary a lot, they go from 20000 to 50000 people. I would probably go for something in between. You will find Waraos also in places as far as Caracas and my city, Valencia. I remember when I was living in Valencia how a couple dozen Waraos would go there, sit down in some place in the city centre and start to beg. Unlike criollo beggars, they did not know their way around and had a hard time, they were victims of thiefs and the like. They were mostly women and children andthey would not speak Spanish well (which shows how isolated they used to live). The local government would give them some food, clothes and take them back to the Delta, from where they would come back time after time. I will go back to the Warao Indians in another post.

In the following weeks I will be going into these topics:

Politics of the Delta
The Ecological Issues
The Drug Problem

Memo before the Americas Summit in Port of Spain

Dear President Obama
Dear Secretary Clinton

As a Venezuelan citizen I am allowing to write you this short memo before you set foot in Trinidad for the upcoming summit of the Americas. I am not trying to warn you of a trap or anything of the sort: I think that both of you are quite clear on what is going on in Venezuela. I just wish to express as an individual citizen, and a dear friend of the United States, that I would be tickled pink if you made sure you do not fall into the trap that Lula, the Castros and Chavez are trying to set up.

See, one of their aim in effecting a "rapprochement" between the US of A and Cuba is to make it a package deal of sorts which includes Chavez, these days in dire need of some form of international recognition and legitimacy. I think that the reasons of Lula are purely emotional, but the ones of the Castros and Chavez are downright cynical. As such it is very easy for you to avoid falling into the trap they are setting for you. Accept to discuss chosen Cuban issues but ignore Venezuela all the time, that is all that you need to do. Be careful, Chavez will probably try to hug you or at least to be next to you in some picture so he can use it in Venezuela to pretend all is fine, until again he insults you and the US whenever he feels a need for it.

Trust me on that one, the less you talk to Chavez the better you will control him in the end. Let him make the first concession if he wants to prove that he is serious, for example asking for a new U.S. ambassador. The other guys such as Lula and the Castros are only opportunist that use Chavez to make themselves look better than what they really are. Worry not, today you are in the driving seat with Chavez as long as oil does not go above 60 dollars. Time is on your side, soon Chavez will come hat in hand. You have so much more important work to do than to bother with our local comedy act.

With this I wish you the best possible stay in Trinidad.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

PS to regular readers of this column: this is an issue important enough to distract me briefly from the other writing tasks at hand. Besides this memo almost wrote by itself.

-The end-

Venezuela News &Views, what for?

First I must issue a warning: the following posts can be seen as a self indulgent exercise. If you are interested in hard news and comment you might want to skip some of the next posts, if not all of them.

In the following posts I will try to assess what the situation in Venezuela is today and what are the consequences for me if I want to keep blogging. As I have written a couple of weeks ago, I need to do that review before I decide what to do with this blog. The question is not whether to stop writing; it is how to be purposeful with that writing. Tentatively these issues will be covered in the following posts (links added as posts are written):

• Is Venezuela a dictatorship?
• The consequences of the February 15 vote
• 6 years of blogging in perspective
• Where now?

These titles might change as I keep writing and as such this very same post might be edited until its final version comes up. This post will remain on top as the links to the new posts will be placed in the above section.

And I will not cover current news as long as this series is not over, which might take maybe a couple of weeks.


-The end-