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| Dangerous old lady |
In an interesting development the TSJ decided to fine Teresa Albanes 200 UT, which is roughly equivalent to 3.500 USD at the official exchange rate. I am sure that Teresa has that amount in her checking account, so that is not the problem. Not that she would pay it, the Unidad should foot that bill if worse comes to worse. So, what gives?
Teresa Albanes is the visible head of the committee that that organized brilliantly the electoral part of the primaries last February 12. As such she got quite a lot of notoriety. Not only she never lost her temper in spite to all the banana peels thrown in her path, but she has become quite a national hero. See, Teresa Albanes is our archetypal positive matron and most of us have had someone like that in our past.
Her success and established probity is in stark contrast of the shady characters in the CNE (Socorro Hernandez) who have managed to make people like Tibisay Lucena acceptable... Whenever the CNE gets up to renewal Teresa Albanes is now an unavoidable candidate, and chavismo knows that. Thus there is an urgent need to tarnish her just as chavismo is always in the lookout to tarnish the reputation of anyone in the opposition (look at the recent attacks on Carpiels, which were removed from the site of the National Radio when the international scandal exploded). And let not me start on how chavismo treats its own defectors.....
Thus the attack to her, punishing her for an alleged illegality and as such possibly barring her from any position in the state as long as chavismo holds the high court, TSJ. But it does not fly.
First, she has been sentenced without a trial. Even the TSJ of Venezuela is under the obligation of receiving her defense before emitting a penalty against anyone. In other words, Teresa has been submitted to a "express trial" where she never had a chance.
Second, she is not the only offender in the alleged crime. The crime, see below, was committed, if there was a crime, by several people. Hundreds of them actually. Why her alone? There are many reasons you can guess but one comes to mind right off the bat: a bitch slap from Luisa Estela, the top bitch in the judicial system of Venezuela. See, Teresa is the antidote to all the bitches that serve Chavez , "cachifas", from Luisa Estela to Luisa Ortega et al., women that are the pretense of shared power by the regime but who are there only to obey Chavez whims.
Third, Tersa Albanes acted properly considering the precedent of the Lista Tascon. She had promised the 3 million voters that their identity will remain secret and that all the voters rolls would be burned within 48 hours. For those new to this game, the "Lista de Tascon" was the list of all those who signed for a recall election and became second class citizens once that list was illegally published, at Chavez own request. From that fateful day in 2003, about 3 million of Venezuelan citizens plus their realtives were barred from many public services, were fired from their state jobs, etc, etc.... Clearly the Unidad Electoral commission was not going to let that happen again and as early as February 14 we sensed the resolve of many of them to go to jail if necessary. The clumsiness of the regime and the idiocy of Carasquero trying to grab the lists created a whole bunch of instant ethical heroes, even if outlaws from chavismo point of view.
Now, it is quite possible that actually Luisa Estela does not approve of the regime getting access to the voters list. The crime of 2003 is still haunting us and maybe Luisa Estela does not want to be sullied more than necessary. Hence the rather ridiculous fine to Teresa Albanes. If this is the case I suspect that word will come discretely from the TSJ to the Unidad for her to pay the fine and move on. But at this point I personally think it very unlikely that such a "leniency" would come from Luisa Estela Morales Lamuño.
UPDATE: certainly the regime was expecting some flack from that fine. The AVN, the "official " news agency publishes a note, hold tight, to say that the AFP had mislead the reader (tergiversar) in its reporting of the fine.
I mean, the state official news lowers itself to do things that established blogs have long ago stopped doing...... And if an established blog were to indulge on such an exercise (it happens, we are weak after all) the said blog would have the courtesy to link tot he questioned bit of news.
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PS: A suggestion for the Unidad, if word does not come from Luisa Estela. Organize a pot collection where everyone can only put a single bolivar, and a book record on the side (I, for one, would have no problem in signing as I am sure will be 16.000 of other Venezuelans who know they are already in the Tascon list and who already suffered from its evil) . Weigh it as to whenever the sum will be reached and use a truck to carry the coins to a state bank and force them to count all the coins and emit a deposit. Then organize a march to the TSJ to deliver the receipt and the signed books with the adequate protest letter. Watch hundred of foreign journo covering the event. Make sure to carry "No more Tascon Lists" all over the march.