While England slept (and Venezuela watched the ball, part 1)

The title of this post brings us back to those days when England was blissfully ignoring the shenanigans of Hitler and Winston Churchill was the lone Cassandra. He wrote a book about it. And update to Venezuela these days would be something like: While Venezuela watched the World Cup.

Indeed, Chavez has been very busy these days trying to score as many as possible sneaky and illegal points as he could before the people come down from the spherical euphoria (to which this blogger semi succumbed to).

A short list without any order of priority or even chronology. Today a first part with two items only.

Chavez buys arms

The government received the first installment of 100 000 Kalashnikovs riffles (in English). Or some weapon but I am too allergic to weapons and armies to even bother checking what exactly was bought. Since these riffles already correspond to more than what the Venezuelan army needs, something that remains to be explained, one could wonder why so many weapons and who will get them to defend what. But it got worse: Venezuela will install a Kalashnikov factory to produce 20 000 riffles a year. I suppose it will create new jobs that Venezuela so sorely needs. But now the real question is who will get these riffles, REALLY… Because to defend Venezuela against an US aggression they are not: Iraq had all the riffles in the world and the US did take it and the resistance is more based on suicide bombers than actual civilians brandishing riffles.

My answer? The riffles will find their way to the FARC and any other South American “resistance” or “revolutionary” movement that accepts Chavez as its leader. I think that Uribe as well as Garcia and Lula should watch out.

The elections get an important nail in their coffin

The CNE, in spite of all the pleading by the opposition and all the obvious trickery exposed from its part decided to go ahead anyway and have only the chavista universities make the Electoral Registry audit. Thus dooming ANY result that might come from it and EVEN INCREASE the lack of trust in the Electoral System. There was today in El Nacional an interview of two rectors, one from each camp. I do not have time to translate them, World Cup obligation, but I have posted two large excerpts of it in Spanish here. For those who can read Spanish it is worth the read to see the Chavista speech, full of big meaningless words to hide the truth and the direct and clear speech of the non chavista rector. Fabulous! Sharifker even adds that the sampling techniques of the CNE are a throwback to the XIX century. Then again Chavez is just a throwback.

Thus I keep getting more confirmations on what I wrote the other day, Chavez having chosen the strategy to promote abstention and go alone to election. Clear cut, how can anyone even harbor a doubt? And in case some chavista still bothers reading this column, remember that if you indeed have 70% in the polls what is the arm in counting all ballots and auditing independently the Electoral Registry?

As a funny foot note, the inenarrable minister of communication today went ahead to accuse yet another US led conspiracy to discredit the CNE audit. There is no better way to confirm that the audit is all fraudulent than when Lara speaks on it, a man that has not said a single true and sustained thing in years, a man who has ZERO credit outside of some hard line chavista circles.

Tomorrow in part 2, I will continue with the announcement made that Venezuela is officially a military dictatorship. Stay tuned.