That credibility gap: Jose Vicente Rangel cries "wolf"!

Tonight, in another sign of increasing chavista disarray at their PR fiasco as to the RCTV debacle, Jose Vicente Rangel, former vice president of Chavez, has declared that Colombia is preparing a destabilizing plan in Venezuela. We get some names, a strategy, a modus operandi even.

The only problem is that JVR has not enough credibility left to make us sleep uneasy tonight.

Oh, he also says in a form of weird consolation that the narco-colombian guys that will be infiltrating Venezuela will come with sharp shooters to assassinate chavista officials as well as opposition leaders. An interesting "equal opportunity" argument after having spent years to segregate the opposition to non-entity-ness.

The tale is tall, and the teller tallows.

Unfortunately this cannot fly. Colombia has been very diligent in keeping its peace with Venezuela even after a recent incident where it could have staid put in normal circumstances. Colombia has also much bigger fish to fry, such as a paramilitary scandal to process, a TLC to get, and Ingrid Betancour to free. I do not see at all how a war with Venezuela would help the Colombian internal situation (though, admittedly, the hardened Colombian army would trash easily the chicken and cabbage selling Venezuelan army).

Equally unfortunately, even though he is a recent ex-vice president, Jose Vicente has long lost any credibility, in particular for something that big. If there is any ounce of truth in that story, how come the announcement did not come first from the government? Jose Vicente has become somewhat a tragic Shakespearian figure. Trying to launch again his journalistic career he jump started his former Televen interview show. But there were no sparkles. He only get chavistas to visit him, and we all know that none of them holds real power, and are even less interesting. He did get someone form the opposition though, Borges, the weakest link these days. But the ones he should be getting, Granier or Rosales for example, are either not invited, or not accepting. And it shows on the nervousness of Rangel who is starting only now to measure the contempt that he is held by his former colleagues and ex-friends.

So we are left to conclude that Jose Vicente Rangel today was just trying to distract the attention from the RCTV fiasco, trying desperately to make folks talk of something else. While at the same time trying to create excuses for some "state of siege" mentality, becoming future measures as the fateful date nears. He might not be in office anymore but Jose Vicente keeps serving his master. For his sorrow he knows we know, and that we laugh at him.


-The end-