[UPDATED]
Mr. Zuloaga is a rich man with many business interests, besides being the main share holder of Globovision. One of his business seems to be Toyota dealer. As such he uses his own large garage as a temporary storage for cars in transit, cars with problems, cars with X. Apparently tonight he had 26 cars parked.
So the government, under the coward cover of yet another Chavez cadena, decided to search, at night what is basically a parking lot. I am not going into details or speculations as I am 99,99% sure that Mr. Zuloaga, a man targeted by chavismo for years, is very careful to avoid any personal business involvement that could be used against him. That is, long ago he has stopped doing any illegal activity that he might have ever done. To begin with he was already rich enough before Chavez came to power and he simply does not need to take additional chances for an extra buck under a regime willing to crucify him under any pretense. This is a non sequitur as already tonight all the proper documentation for the cars has been shown and he cannot be accused of hoarding 26 varied Toyota. I mean, please, give me a break.... If he were hoarding cars it would be a few hundreds in a far away parking.
No, the interesting stuff here is elsewhere.
This was done during a cadena and the cops arrived at the same time as VTV, the state propaganda TV. What a fortunate coincidence! I am sure they just happened to drive by Zuloaga house!
During the cadena Chavez announced yet a new wave of "nationalizations" which today mean basically robbery (see what happened with the oil industry contractors the last couple of weeks). Yes, that is right, for those of you that are a little bit dense Chavez was robbing folks just as he was trying to make Zuloaga look like a thief.
An extra hilarious detail for you: Marcel Granier went to court today to claim all the transmission equipment that was taken from RCTV two years ago when it was shut down. Then the government said that soon enough the equipment would be evaluated and paid to RCTV. Nothing ever happened of the sort, TVes shamelessly used the equipment free of charge and apparently did not keep it up the maintenance so there are reports of extensive damages that we can be sure will never be compensated by the thieves that run Miraflores. Mr. Granier also reminded public opinion that it had submitted ten documents to the high court and he is yet to receive a reply on any of his claim for justice 2 years after. That means in contemporary Venezuela that his claims are legit but the courts have not found a way yet to trump justice on his case, so they stall, violating the constitution by the way which requires speedy justice.
There are undoubtedly many thieves and crooks in Venezuela today, but the biggest ones are at Miraflores Palace and are protected by the harlot that presides over the High Court of Venezuela.
Update: Apparently the police took the cars away "for technical inspection". Technical inspection is unnecessary: if you have the papers it is easy to verify the serial number of the car. The police does that routinely on any Venezuelan highway on any truck or car they control in one the innumerable alcabalas (road blocks) set everywhere and which main objective is to skim the drivers' wallet. If indeed they detected something wrong, it was not necessary to get a dozen of tow trucks in the middle of the night: simply they would have taken with them the official papers, or put some seals or something. If the seals are broken Zuloaga goes to jail straight.
Now, the question is whehter Zuloaga will see the Toyoclub cars again. Judging from what happened RCTV I can bet anything that the cars he will eventually receive back will be missing something....
To its original note on the event Globovision has now added a video at the end where you can clearly see how the CICPC chief was present with VTV cameras to make a show of the event. I mean, with all the murders and other assorted crime in Caracas, the CICPC had to send its top brass to get a few cars? Gimme a break!!!!
Nationalizations: it must be bigger than what I thought at first because Miguel away on vacation found time to write an extensive post on it. Apparently it is YET another case of the government unable to fulfill is obligations that decides to take over its providers/clients. Gee, I wonder if I can take over my clients that I cannot provide with the services they require from me....
Now, what I saw last night late was the video of Chavez announcing the "nationalizations" and how the attendance danced and slapped each other hysterically as the robbery of private property was taking place in front of them, live. They might laugh today, we will see how they laugh in a few weeks from now. Ask the workers of SIDOR how they are laughing these days after having obtained the take over of Sidor..... In all fairness the room was rather small so it was easy for Chavez to pack it with hard core supporters and whip them into frenzy, even if they might be only political hacks and not actual employees of the stolen business. Still, it was extremely disturbing to see how class war was played and abetted by the regime. I will try to get that video, it is worth watching.
-The end-