Thursday, March 07, 2013

Not playing nice with the dead: Chavez main crimes

The last three days of rounds from blogging world to the official media has revealed one thing at least: supporters of Hugo Chavez still exist  that are only too willing to ignore all of his misdeeds, only too willing to start the processes of beatification to secular left sainthood. It has already been done successfully for Che (remember his crimes?) or Fidel (remember he ordered Che's crimes?). Thus I am not playing nice and even though Chavez is still not buried I want to be on record that no matter what the grieving crowds number, I cannot forget some of his personal crimes. A short list follows.


1992: He participated in a bloody coup which resulted in scores of innocent people killed and who had as one of its objectives to kill the presidential family even though the president was not with them.

1999: In the middle of the Vargas natural disaster, when thousands of people were buried in mud or washed to the sea, Chavez personally blocked the help from the US with equipment to reopen the blocked roads of the sea shore. The rescue efforts were thus delayed and it is anyone's guess what was the human cost of that decision.

2002: He admitted later that he actually provoked the political crisis that resulted in the events of April 2002 where scores of people were killed. As an aggravation of that crime his regime made sure that no truth commission was ever set up.

2004: To put pressure on the voters he created the "Tascon List", a list that comprised the names of all the people that signed for a recall election on his tenure. That he won the recall election did not stop him from applying it for years, to this day still, as an active discrimination tool against his opponents.  We can go as far as implying that the usage of that list had a human cost since we do not know how many people may have died in the long run from the discrimination they suffered for jobs, harassment, medical help, etc...

2004: The police became repressive and unnecessarily cruel at times. Massive amounts of tear gas for any excuse became the norm, sometimes tear gas canisters being handled directly by pro Chavez militants and not security forces.

Since 2005: We can assume that date as the historical dramatic rise in crime and violence in Venezuela because of the refusal by the regime that Chavez presided to build enough jails, to create enough rehabilitation programs, to put enough police in the streets, transforming Venezuela in the "democratic" country with the highest murder rates today.

Since 2005: a selective type of prosecution was initiated through a compliant to subservient judicial system where given people were pointed out directly by Chavez as to be the subject of penal punishment before any guilt could be proved in court.  Known cases that can be attached directly to Chavez words: Afiuni, Lopez, Rosales, etc...  and there is already one official death from judicial misdeeds: Franklin Brito.

2011: the irrational support of Chavez to two tyrants against whom started the Arab Spring, Libia and Syria, probably led to more casualties than were necessary.  Even today Assad is seen grieving over Chavez. What percentage of the killed in Syria can be attributed to the gas that Venezuela sent to Assad?

All of these crimes can be sourced to Chavez temper and ambition. Other crimes were not necessarily originated by him (maintaining the Cuban Gulag, for example) or where the result of political battles. They are not lesser crimes for that. The crimes selected for this list were unnecessary, and are chosen because they would not have taken place if Chavez had not wanted it to happen.

Let's keep remind that when people demand us to be objective and accept that, say, Mercal, compensates and even justifies these crimes.

11 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:29 PM

    Chavez tolerated crimes because he was a criminal.

    How about some financial crimes-
    *Chavez hid the finances of the government and PDVSA and used the funds any way he wanted.

    *Chavez took $1000 from the pocket of each and every Venezuelan and put it in his and his family's bank accounts.

    *Chavez took $10,000 from each Venezuelan and gave it to Fidel Castro.

    Chavez will have a nice funeral but where he is going money won't help.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You left off the estimated $2Billion US that he amassed for himself and his family, by stealing from the Venezuelan people.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. NorskeDiv7:52 PM

      http://blogvdebate.blogspot.com/2008/05/venezuelan-president-chavez-family.html

      And the gigantic ranches that his family now sits on in Barinas. Hugo Chavez is NO CHE GUEVARA! Che might have been a bloodthirsty madman, but at least he lived a true guerrilla lifestyle. Chavez was a faux revolutionary whose family has a greater net worth than that of Obama, George W. Bush or even Mitt Romney!

      The opposition needs to start looking into the Chavez's families vast wealth RIGHT NOW, to destroy his legacy and make his nepotism and corruption clear.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous8:20 PM

      Chavez would quickly imprison anyone who made public statements about his family or their finances.

      Will Maduro enforce this for an ex-presidente?

      Delete
    3. NorskeDiv8:39 PM

      Good question! That's why it could only happen once Chavez was out, either way the info should be gathered if at all possible and given to someone who can safely make it public (i.e. someone not in Venezuela).

      Delete
    4. djm19928:52 PM

      "Will Maduro enforce this for an ex-presidente?"

      Of course he will. I have no idea how dumb or smart the guy is, but he has to be at least smart enough to realize that the overwhelming bulk of any public goodwill toward him has been conferred by Chavez, and will be maintained by the memory of Chavez. Anything that makes Chavez and his family look bad will only chip away at this conferred goodwill, and accelerate its eventual expiration.

      You should expect over the coming months that anyone who tries to make Chavez and his family look anything less than saintly will be treated harshly....

      Delete
  3. All those are true, but for me the worst of his crimes is the split of the venezuelan society, instigating hate between the people, stoking the fire with racism and antisemitic remarks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree here with Carolina.The hatred created will make it so difficult to someday clean up the mess.

    firepigette

    ReplyDelete
  5. margareth8:17 PM

    Lets not forget the profanity of Simon Bolivar's grave by Chavez. For me it was a big crime when it took place.

    Will anyone refreshen Maduro's memory about the curse? If Maduro believes that Chavez got cancer from people willing to do Chavez harm....then he Maduro should know about the curse too which is all over the internet and youtube.

    Didn't read anything about that in the newspapers as yet.....

    ReplyDelete
  6. Boludo Tejano9:04 PM

    Well put, Daniel. The gross mismanagement of the economy is another aspect of Chavismo, though not in precisely the same category as the political crimes you have so concisely elucidated.

    For those PSF who go on and on about how Thugo helped the poor, was concerned about the poor: how does ~10 cents US/gallon gasoline-compared to ~$4-$9 US/gallon in the developed world-help the poor, who lack the economic resources to own an auto?

    ReplyDelete
  7. DemocracyRules1:29 AM

    Chavez controlled the vote-counting process.

    "Smartmatic was a little-known firm with no experience in voting technology before it was chosen by the Venezuelan authorities to replace the country's elections machinery ahead of a contentious referendum that confirmed Mr. Chavez as president in August 2004..." Chavez controlled Smartmatic and Biztec, an associated company.
    http://votingmachines.procon.org/view.additional-resource.php?resourceID=000279

    None of the Chavez-related elections can be proved accurate.

    ReplyDelete

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