My first reaction

Readers might be surprised at reading the following but I am surprisingly at peace tonight. See, the game is all over, the masks have all fallen.

Venezuela has voted for an unacceptable type of politics. As such it has proven that a large majority of its people does not believe in democracy true values. In fact, as Gustavo Coronel points out a little but too bluntly, the productive side of Venezuela has been consistently opposing the non productive part of Venezuela. This blog many electoral analysis have been chock full of examples on how the better educated, more productive areas of the country tend to vote against Chavez while the more backwards and dependent areas vote for Chavez.
There is no novelty on this. The novelty tonight is that as of now this is a permanent chasm, a profound division of the country that cannot be solved through democracy alone. Whoever is refusing to acknowledge this reality is only fooling himself or herself. Chavez is bent on destroying this half of the country that refuses to submit to his ego and as of now that half he so hates will have to fight back if it wants to survive. Or give up and join in which is intellectually and morally repulsive. Better leave for Miami.

The soft language of the opposition that "we agree with Chavez social programs but we can run them better" is never going to work. Today it has reached its limit. Ledezma and Capriles and other are doomed. La Piedrita is going to be thrown at them, or its new incarnation if necessary. It is time a new opposition takes a principled stand and tells the country the truth. True, as things stand telling the truth all but guarantee you a few electoral defeats, even if oil prices are low: people are simply too used to hope that the state will provide for them.

Thus it is a completely new game that starts today. Everybody knows that Chavez is a fascist and now everybody knows that half of Venezuela thinks it is OK. Criticizing these people, engaging them is simply useless. As we have learned over the years in this blog or in our street experience, we just think differently at such a basic level that mutual understanding is almost impossible. Toleration is our best hope and Chavez cannot live off that. We need to move in a void and forget about what they say or think. We need to construct your own language, find our own voice and wait for the inevitable end of the regime with a plan that people will finally accept to try as there is no other option left. For the long wilderness that awaits us we can take comfort in one thing: the crisis will come because Chavez CANNOT construct his socialist bullshit with 46% of the country opposing him, the 46% of the country that includes at least 80% of intellectuals, scientists, managers, writers, thinkers, doers, creators and what not. Our time will come but we cannot pretend anymore that we will weather Chavez if we are patient enough, just as too many thought they could weather Hitler, or Mussolini, or Peron or Castro until one day they found themselves on a raft in the Florida straits.

Now, this should not be considered as a call to arms although I am afraid that Chavez will force us down this path as the fastest way to destroy us. After all, what weapons do we have access to? Does anyone think that the military will betray Chavez any time soon as once again the people voted him in? Who is going to come to rescue us now that we have shown to the world that we are not a democratic country, that we like our leader to steal, insult, humiliate, threaten whomever he dislikes? Woe is us as we richly deserve what is about to hit us. No, what is ahead of us is an egotistical moment, focusing on ourselves and forgetting the rest, until we create a message that we can rally to and we can lead by example. Or why else do you think that Chavez does not want Walesa to visit Venezuela anymore? He certainly does not want us to learn about resolve.

-The end-