The last Sunday results of PSUV internal elections were not too bad for Chavez. On the positive side, no "current" got enough votes to be of any threat for Chavez. If to this you add the 200+ delegates that he will appoint himself, his worries never were about the result. The problem was in the participation. And even there he had a silver lining in the defeat. Defeat because apparently less than a million folks voted out of the supposedly 7 million registered members (1). But silver lining because these almost 1 million (?) might represent a true hard core which, with gun power, is all what Chavez needs to control the country 'til kingdom comes.
I was a little bit amused when some folks tried to present the internal elections of the PSUV as an example to follow for the opposition, or a "coup" for Chavez. At least in the case of this well known blog there is the excuse of not living day to day inside Venezuela. The fact of the matter is that as I expected the narcissism of Chavez was going to void part of the potential success he could have got. It did not take long: we are Wednesday, the results are not officially known except for those who got elected and we will not know the final numbers because only Chavez will know them. That is XXI century socialist democracy for you.
So overall we can say that the PSUV missed its opportunity at scoring big against the opposition, which is not surprising considering that there is really only one elector inside, El beloved Supremo, and there is no way to spin this convincingly, even by contrasting it to the opposition. To counter this bad image Chavez wasted no time in calling for a gathering of the elected delegates where among other things a sing along of the PSUV anthem was organized, live on state TV. I'd rather not comment on the musical quality of that anthem but something tells me that it will not have the reach of the AD one which still turns heads the rare occasions we get to hear it...
But that meeting was quite funny. Of course the only one who spoke was Chavez (besides a few flattery remarks to introduce the beloved leader by Silly Flowers, the head of the Nazional Assembly). And he certainly he did not disappointed us, either by what was left unsaid like the imminent arrest of Globovision president, Zuloaga, or by what he said, and he said quite a few gems!
He said, in no particular order that:
The PSUV Congress scheduled for a couple of weeks until mid December will now last as long as needed, until the middle of next year if necessary. Chavez noted that they would have the Christmas recess (so do not dare to bitch about it?)So, as usual, when bad news harass Chavez (Colombia, GDP heading South with his poll numbers, low turnout even among his followers, etc, etc, ) Chavez does what he does best, he puts up a TV show, a real variety TV show with, drama, harsh words, with song and dance included (the newly elected delegates had to stand up to sing and sort of swayed in rhythm).
That the decrease by 4.5% GDP for the third quarter, which puts Venezuela in open recession, is really due to an old system of capitalist GDP evaluation and that Venezuela should change to a socialist way to calculate it. He went as far as claiming that France does the same. Which is of course B.S. since France calculates its numbers according to European Union guide lines so as to be able to belong the the Euro Zone... (2)
He insulted Uribe and his foreing minsiter grievously by calliugn them both "desgraciados", while adding that he was more Colombian than they were. Apparently he also sang the Colombian anthem but I have not been able to confirm it.
And more "payasadas".
1) El Universal, this nasty opposition rag, writes that barely 500,000 bothered to vote!
2) other things Chavez conveniently forgets to mention when he blames the way GDP is calculated (funny how he did not mind that way when the numbers were positive!) are that Venezuela is considered one of the least innovative economies (I disagree, with the return of barter as state policy we are soooo retro-innovative!) , that non-oil export are at they lowest level since 1997, and is one of the most corrupt country in the world....
-The end-