One does not know whether to laugh to tears or feel insulted by the mild sudaca view apparently quite prevalent in Spain higher echelons of the government. The latest issue of wikileaks by Spain's El Pais is all the gossip fun that one could have hoped for (less gossipy but way more tragic for Venezuela are the revelations on how the regime is dumping our oil industry for the cash it so badly needs). Next a few gems here and there from the cables:
Cable 1, a farewell visit to Trinidad Jimenez when she was undersecretary for Latin American affairs
Jimenez said that in this [Moratinos] visit Chavez had been unusually moderate, avoiding rhetorical excesses,
Jimenez described Chavez as "a brute, but not a stupid one."
cable 2 is a must read. Jimenez account of her 2007 visit to Venezuela. Maybe not the most important quote but certainly the most telling becasue it shows clearly what she thought of Cuba and Venezuela:
Jimenez was struck by what her Chief of Staff called the "Havana-ization" of Caracas, with the city beginning to look distinctly dingy.
Cable 3 is about the proposed covert help from Spain and the EU (?) agaisnt the 2007 referendum chavista positions. That is, Euroepans knew very well what that referendum was all about and wanted to try to help the opposition from behind the scenes.
Jimenez also said the Spanish Government was working behind the scenes, feeding information to journalists on the threat to democracy in Venezuela.
Jimenez agreed the proposed constitutional reforms would be a severe setback for democracy
As for the famous Santiago meeting when king Juan demanded Chavez to shut up:
Jimenez noted that post-Santiago Spain had received
messages of solidarity from virtually every government in
Latin America. She said Chavez (whom she described as a
"clown") was isolated. Alluding to the "Kings' Club" Jimenez
said the Saudis had given Chavez the cold shoulder at the
recent OPEC meeting because of his rudeness to Juan Carlos.
She said even Evo Morales was signaling by his body language
in Santiago that Chavez was embarrassing him.
All of these words, according to different US embassy personnel, come from the woman now foreign minister of Spain who said infamously that there are no political prisoners in Venezuela. Maybe we now know why she says that, covering her ass from past words that she suspected could come back to haunt her....
As for Evo and Ortega, I trust the word of El Pais without having to read the cables.
By the way, according to the proposed new internet censorship law in the works in Venezuela with this post I can be prosecuted and my blog censored. Just for you to know.