You might have thought that after the verbal orgy of last week that ended with the naked robbery of oil industry suppliers and a dismal cadena Friday night, Alo Presidente would be tamer than usual.
Think again.
Today we got, in no particular order:
- A renewed threat to leave the OAS because El Supremo did not like the latest IACHR Human Rights report on Venezuela. As usual the IACHR is discredited because allegedly it did not come to the rescue of Chavez on April 12 2002 (assuming that they had wanted to help Chavez fully, did they have the time to even gather the commission and emit a resolution on the single day of April 12? It is a tribunal-like system, remember Hugo!!! I know that Tribunals jump to order when you call them in Venezuela but that does not happen elsewhere necessarily). Real Reason for the outburst: I am just starting to violate human rights, so I do not need you to watch over me and trouble my style.
- A renewed threat, and more serious this time around, to close not only Globovision but any media, written or not, that continues its present criticism of chavismo (and Chavez, of course). Real Reason for the outburst: Things are going to get really ugly in Venezuela as people realize that I am out of cash to spread around; if you think for a minute that I am going to let you tell the people like it is you are in for a rude awakening.
- A renewed threat, and a deadly serious one, to go after private property, all private property. In his own words "No hay tierras privadas, ¡así lo digo! En Venezuela no hay tierras privadas, ¡todas son de la Nación! Aquí nadie es dueño, ¡todos son o-cu-pan-tes! Y el que la ocupe tiene el deber de trabajarla, si no pierde ese derecho. Aquí no hay tierras para vacacionar…" There are no private lands, and I say it is so! In Venezuela there is no private land, all belong to the Nation! Here nobody is th owner, all are o-ccu-pants! And whomever occupies has the duty to work it out or loses the right [to occupy]. There are no land to go on holiday here. Real Reason for the outburst: Listen folks, I have no more money to spread around, so I am going to take away from those who oppose me to give it to those who support me; and to keep what I give you, you need to support me at all times, and of course oppress those who do not support me. I know, it is going to divide the country through a mortal slash but see if I care.
Here, the references according to your favorite sources, most from left leaning media who I hope have their nape hairs duly straightened: El Nacional, El Nacional 2, El Pais, El Pais 2, BBC Mundo, and not much in English so far besides this snippet from Reuters India, though maybe the Latin American Herald might soon have something while we wait for the major papers write up.
-The end-