Lula anoints Chavez, while corruption in Venezuela is shown worse than in Brazil

There were two piece of news today and strangely it became quickly obvious to me that I should join them in a single post.

Lula, the disingenuous

The first item is that Lula came to inaugurate the bridge across the Orinoco, at Puerto Ordaz. This bridge is perhaps the only public work for which Chavez does deserve some significant credit. After all it was barely planned when Chavez reached office and this one made it his flagship project. Thus contrary to other projects that Chavez has felt rather forced to finish (well, finish is a big word, let’s say “sort of” finished) the Orinoquia bridge for some reason suffered of less delays than the other works. Still, it should have been finished at least a year or two ago to help a long suffering region, but let’s not be too much of a nitpicker for once.


Chavez intentionally saved the Orinoquia inauguration for the end as it is indeed the most spectacular inauguration of them all, and the only one which is clearly meant for the hinterlands of Venezuela as opposed to the unfinished little trains. Unfortunately he had to wait for Lula to be reelected because in Brazil there are laws and they are sort of enforced. Lula was not allowed to inaugurate any public works during his electoral campaign, unlike Venezuela where inauguration have become THE ONLY campaign of Chavez. It pays to read the EFE article in Spanish where the journalist points out that (my translation) “The event was filled with chavistas [sic] dressed in red who arrived by the thousand in hundreds of official buses parked far away which forced them to walk under a sun laden sky, and they left late in the afternoon just before a monsoon rain started [implying, I suppose, that they got drenched on their way back]”.

That is, it has become obvious for the international press that there is no separation anymore between governmental acts and naked propaganda: all of Chavez actions are naked propaganda. It is fun to read Chirinos of the BBC in Spanish trying desperately to write on that with some objectivity (or more pathetically Greg Morsbach who writes: "But Brazil's leader was careful not to sound too complimentary of his Venezuelan counterpart" which makes one wonder if he actually paid attention, or was present at the ceremony...)

But much worse than that was the open endorsement of Lula for Chavez uproar over it. I am not. What else could Lula have done? Lula knows very well that he has the upper hand with Chavez. By 1) making sure Chavez would not join his campaign in Brazil an. A few people are ind 2) coming now to Venezuela and endorsing Chavez he demonstrates who the real boss of Latina America is. It is not Chavez.

If we go a little bit in the speculative domain we can find even more reasons for Lula to endorse Chavez. Probably quite a lot of the campaign finances of Lula were bolstered by “commissions” from the Brazilian companies operating in Venezuela. Lula also remembers that he helped Chavez greatly in 2003 to retain power, an already great interference of Brazil, flexing every day more its imperial muscle. Lula and Itamaraty know very well that a Rosales presidency will be the end of the Venezuelan privileged relationship, that Rosales will turn out again Venezuela to its natural markets: the Caribbean, Colombia, the US and Mexico. Brazil, for those who know how to read a map, is not a natural market for Venezuela. Besides, there is nothing that Venezuela can produce that can compete on the Brazilian market. We only have oil for them. Rosales will be pay back time for Mercosur who has been leeching off Venezuela for too long.

Also, Chavez is the convenient puppet of Lula, the one he can scare the US with whenever needed. He certainly loves to have someone more to the left than what he is, at least vocally.

In fact I think Lula has decided to play the Chavez card to the hilt. How else can we explain that Lula even added the totally unnecessary comment that the press was nasty with Chavez and that this one did not deserve the attacks he is supposedly subjected to. Is Itamaraty that misinformed about all the attacks coming from Chavez against the media in Venezuela? Has Lula ever said at home a tenth of what Chavez has said? No, the explanation is that Lula has gauged the man, he thinks he can control Chavez and he is not going to pass on creating a Brazilian colony by taking it away from the US sphere of influence. And silly Chavez, only interested in remaining in power, tags along happily, hapless soul in a game he has no clue about.

Corruption burst on the Venezuelan electoral scene

While all of this amiable back patting was taking place on the Orinoco edges, the headline was stolen from Chavez by Roberto Smith. This one came out publicly with perhaps the most detailed report, including personal e-mails, of how the famous SENIAT is an den of corruption in the custom section. Many companies have been getting significant tax exemptions on importation as long as they paid a very significant percentage of the exempted goods directly to the pockets of SENIAT personnel. Around 30% in general. We are talking kickbacks that started easily at 200 million Bs, that is, around 100 000 USD. Some were more modest (probably an assistant?) who require only 24 millions in Bs. BUT 5000 in USD in cash by a certain date. Perhaps for a trip to the US?

A little bit later in Alo Ciudadano Ex-representative Montoya was showing a CADAFE contract signed by Chavez himself where a Cuban company was hired in November 2005 to manage ALL the imports of CADAFE for a Monagas project, an effort that CADAFE needed no one to do for them. Still, this would have been fine if the 120 million USD had not be paid in advance, and if after one year we had been able to see the first imports from that contract. As far as Monotoya can tell, the Cubans have not brought a thing to Venezuela yet for this project. But they pocketed the money with Chavez blessing.

Thus, as the big corruption scandal will hit front pages tomorrow I was brought back to Lula and the charges of corruption that have been floating around his administration for 4 years, without reaching him directly, yet. And of course I know now why Lula supports Chavez: birds of a feather. Lula, when everything is said, might be as corrupt as Chavez. But since he is a tad more efficient and certainly much less incompetent, he managed to retain office. Then again Brazilians knew they had only 4 more years of the man, so why not keep him when the other option was not very appealing to begin with…

Tags: chavez, venezuela, lula, brazil, orinoquia