Chavista "inhabilitaciones"

Thursday I was telling you that the latest TSJ ruling was probably a renewed attack against SUMATE. Well, it did not last long as already Iris Varela is calling for the head of Maria Corina Machado.  In a way this is quite an unremarkable incident but in other ways it is deeply telling of the pebbles that bang each other inside chavista brains.

A good chuckle for you: the NED cannot fund SUMATE but Venezuela can fund political activities wherever it wants

Sometimes in Venezuela political reality is stranger than ideological fiction.

"Overdose", One good opinion on the Colombia Venezuela spat, referring to Venezuelans

I cannot wait to get away of the silly Chavez bad show on breaking up with Colombia. But this is an international blog and thus one must follow news that supposedly interest more the overseas folks. Besides, so much nonsense has been written on the topic in so few days that it was for me quite a treat to find an article today in El Nacional that goes right to the point, at least as far as Venezuelans are concerned in this whole matter.  In all the modesty I can muster it makes quite a nice complement to what I wrote a few days ago :)

Sobredosis (overdose) by Beatriz de Majo El Nacional today.  Spanish original at the end.  Ms. de Majo is the Colombian expert for El Nacional

Pudreval and the FARC

If we did not have Weil we would need to invent him....

Chavez: Were these pictures taken in Venezuela we would have seen backgrounds like this one

In a particularly ironic and cynic turn Weil has Chavez dismiss the documents shown by Colombia at the OAS a few days ago by acknowledging that there is so many containers rotting food in Venezuela that surely it should appear in the FARC camp pictures.

................

Oliver Stone, Tariq Ali, Marc Weisbrot and Larry Rohter

Do yourself a favor and start your week with a chuckle by reading how Larry Rohter trounces Stone's movie South of the Border and its script writers, Mark Weisbrot in particular, the darling of English speaking chavista whose economic predictions about chavismo prowess have all fallen flatter than the ocean's horizon.  Once again, wasted propaganda money as the movie only preached to the choir, if that.  Funny how any serious attempt at a movie flattering Chavez epic must always resort to quite a few misinterpretations and outright lies.  Remember " The Revolution will not be on TV" or something like that about April 2002 who has disappeared from the radar now that it has been proven to be mostly a fake?  Fortunately the word, in addition of diligent bloggers, provide great journalists able to finish off such people.

Hat tip Alek.

Paranoia News and Views

Poor Chavez!  He had to cancel his trip to Cuba to commemorate who knows what act of Castro heroism (Castro doe shave acts of heroism compared to the lack of these in Chavez) because an attack from Colombia is imminent.  It is BBC mundo that tells us that, I suppose because they take Chavez words at their value.  They also tell us that Chavez will stop selling oil to the US if necessary ans that we will be eating stones if necessary, anything to save our dignity.  Well, the eating stones thing I got from a center right paper in Span, El Mundo, who loves to collects these cute sayings of Chavez.  Apparently El Mundo also understands Chavez as saying that the Colombia presented evidence is just like the one for justifying Iraq.  At least, if this is true, we can congratulate ourselves for the progress made by US intelligence services since now we have accurate map locations and plenty of videos and pictures, what was sorely lacking in Iraq.

¿Unas razones para la "intromisión" de Colombia en los asuntos de Venezuela?

Sobre la ruptura de las relaciones con Colombia despues de la sesión de la OEA este jueves me han fascinado los distintos comentarios,  sean los insensatos y violentos por parte de Cilia Flores, presidenta de la Asamblea Nazional de Venezuela, o de algún otro insensato comeflor, que se pierde en tecnicismos de que si los procedimientos de la OEA no fueron seguidos, de que si era la misma vieja historia repetida. Y se me ocurrió que casi todo el mundo no ve el bosque detrás del árbol. Lo que ocurrió ayer en Washington fue Colombia notificándole al mundo que una tragedia se está gestando en Venezuela y que no están dispuestos a asumir el costo solos.

Empecemos por tres puntos básicos.

Why Colombia did get so personal yesterday at the OAS?

I have been fascinated by the different comments coming from everywhere, be it the insensate and violent ones from Cilia Flores, chair of the Venezuelan Nazional Assembly, or be they from some insensate "come flores" who wallow on technicalities that the OAS procedures were not kosher and that it was the same old story anyway.  And it occurred to me that pretty much everyone is missing the forest for the tree.  What happened yesterday in Washington was Colombia serving notice to the world that a tragedy is brewing in Venezuela and that they are not willing to shoulder the cost alone.

Let's start by three basics here.

The mythic Tourmalet

Today's break with Colombia really leaves me ice cold.  But what happened at the Tour de France stage today did run chills through my spine and I ONLY saw the picture sequence (I am at work, no broadband to watch the tour).

Schleck and Contador

Of course since Contador is Spaniard El Pais had to carry the picture set, including a picture of Sarkozy following the Tour stage, not wanting to miss the commemoration of the 100th anniversary that the epic Tourmalet pass was added to the Tour.  Briefly, Contador and Schleck have played an epic battle alone ahead of the pack and if Schleck won (out of courtesy by Contador) it remains that Contador is by far the favorite for the Bordeaux stage and thus the favorite to win the Tour unless some major catastrophe happens.  Watch the photo gallery of El Pais and tell me if that does not do something to you!  Images 7 and 8 did me in....

Chavez breaks with Colombia for reasons of "dignity"

Now, the not surprising announcement might have carried some seriousness had it been pronounced without the presence of noted narco Maradona. I mean, please... if you are talking about "dignity" be dignified!!!!



So, receiving Argentina failed technician at the World Cup, famous football player and famous ex (?) drug addict Maradona, Chavez replied to the accusations by Colombia that there are at least 87 camps inside Venezuela that are or were safe haven fr FARC and ELN guerrilla.  The video is from Globovision, as a rebroadcast of whatever VTV signal is since they are the only ones allowed near Chavez.  Observe, for fun, even if you do not understand Spanish, the Chavez show.

"putrefactor" - rottenificator

Proposed Monument to the Putrefactor

UPDATE

An Uribe Santos spat behind the latest citation of Venezuela to the OAS?

UPDATED.  Do not count me in those who think the latest initiative of Uribe in bringing Venezuela to account for its harboring of FARC terrorists inside its borders is the sure sign of a rift between Uribe and his protege president elect Santos.  The OAS session to deal with the accusations will be held next Thursday and one would think that sparks will fly.  But thinking that this is the main show would also be a mistake.