The intellectual future is not with Chavez

Diego Sharifker, new UCV student leader

The oldest university in Venezuela, a public one, the Universidad Central de Venezuela held its students elections last Friday.  Chavismo sensing yet another historical lost sent some of its red shirted violent to perturb the election.  But it did not help.  Saturday afternoon we learned that chavismo suffered another stinging set back.

And it was not even close, it was beyond landslide: the opposition students sent two lists, the first one getting 6,170 votes and the second one 4,860 while the pro Chavez list got a paltry 1,380 votes (results not complete yet but not expected to change much).  Roughly FOR 1 STUDENT VOTING PRO CHAVEZ 8 VOTED AGAINST HIM.

This pattern is repeated in all the best public universities, maybe not with such margins but always with ample margins for the opposition of at least 2 to 1, except for the UDO where the opposition has started winning elections but no landslides yet.  For the record the "bolivarian universities" speedy concoctions to ideologize a student base so as to fill up public administration do not hold student election, probably too afraid that the opposition could get enough vote to embarrass the regime, amen of even winning in one of these universities of rather poor educational level according to all reports I get.

In other words in any campus where you need to think independently to study and graduate the regime loses.  The intellectual, technical, scientific future of Venezuela is definitely not with Chavez.  Nowhere but in these elections can we see best the failure to inspire of a regime after 12 years.  The only thing Chavez inspire these days is rejection.

State of Obilivion revisited: First Nations dying

Amazonas

Many of Venezuela's First Nations are concentrated in the state of Amazonas. They are becoming a minority there due to legal and illegal immigration, due to the ecological impact from gold mining (one of the main reasons for that immigration) and due to the government's deglect.

Scientists from the Universidad de Carabobo (Northern Venezuela) went to the area and after three days of travel arrived to the Piaroa community of El Caño, in the Autana Municipality. They found native Americans there were suffering not only from turberculosis, but also from malnutrition. They also found a tiny "health centre" that has been under construction for the last 4 years...abandoned. I am sure resources used for one Aló Presidente in, say, Guárico, would be more than enough to build -actually to its real conclusion- a health centre with plenty of basic medical equipment.

Unfortunately, there seems to be little attention from politicians in the main urban centres. The area is mostly controlled by the military in Venezuela, it is of very difficult access and it is most of the time completely out of most urbanites' thoughts.

EFE had previously reported that Yanomamö have been dying by the dozens in Alto Orinoco Municipality. Malnutrition and all those other diseases are nothing new, but it is a tragedy that Venezuela's First Nations still have to go through all this in the XXI century.