Friday, April 19, 2013

Senseless repression but the beginning of some common sense, maybe, in Venezuela

The day has been marked by two things: an increase in repression moving into outright fascism, and at the end of the day the beginning of some good sense with the CNE accepting to backpedal its earlier stony stance.

The day has been marked by increasing fascist attacks from the regime, culminating with Maduro accusing Globovision and Televen of been fascist. the way the word is tossed around these days is simply nauseating. At least I try to use it in proper context but the regime has forgotten context whatsoever so anything that bugs them is fascism, conspiracy, hatred, etc...

But Globovison was not going to let it pass, sensing that lost for lost, that Maduro will have to close it down if he persist in his electoral fraud, they might as well go down with the boots on. So tonight leading political show in Venezuela, Alo Ciudadano, started with Leopoldo Castillo, its anchor, explain to the country what fascism is, reading it from Wikipedia page and then offering a certain amount of factual examples on the regime operates along fascist lines. It certainly looks in a way is childish but at this stage of the game people need to speak in elemental and simple terms, not only to reach the dumb chavista hoi polloi but the radical idiot of the opposition that wants to burn it all. Watch the video of Leopoldo Castillo if your Spanish allows it.

And while we are in Globovision there is two items on their page of public officers that are using these days to fire without any contemplation anyone that they suspect may have voted for Capriles  They are simply taking the opportunity to make room to hire their friends but it is doubly illegal because it is not only discrimination but today the country is under a system of banned firing. That is, you cannot fire anyone unless you have a video of them raping a secretary at her desk or her distributing drugs in the locker, or something that sends them to jail, so in fact you do not have to fire them....

The first soundtrack is from the director of the Zulia sports authority where he admits he forced all the employees to do a 1X10 list to drag in the vote under the understanding that even if they were not chavista when Arias Cardenas became governor last December they should now have become chavista out of gratitude from not being fired. Think about the mind set of that 30'ies throwback, Leonet Cabezas. What kind of sporting activity is he going to promote in Zulia? Opposition free range shooting?

The second video is from trade union in Bolivar state. The chavista union, Jose "Acarigua" Rodriguez wants to create a "Tascon like list" so when they are finally in full control of the country they can throw out of the state industries anyone who comes from AD or COPEI.  I do not know what is his grip against AD and COPEI, but speaking of Margaret Thatcher funeral this week, certainly when trade union leaders are of such nature, we need people of her mettle to sack them.

There are more stories from everywhere with chavista officials taking the opportunity to fire whomever they feel like firing, probably also on orders from above to cut down public payroll, by the way. And as it is becoming the norm it is going to backfire for chavismo as Capriles just needed a tweet to expose the regime in this paradise worker that Venezuela supposedly has become.

Capriles not only reminds workers that the very same regime has forbidden itself from firing workers, but he also takes the opportunity to illustrate what a fascist cacophony this one has become, tying up fascism with Maduro and not Chavez.

But at the end of the day we saw the beginning of some common sense returning. The CNE accepted further audits. I do not want to offer any opinion because it is a complex matter to evaluate how good the news really is. Capriles team seems happy with it so for the time being let's roll. However I will note that the CNE is talking of 30 days of audit and who knows how many more for a final verdict. In short the regime is accepting an audit as long as it gives it time to come up with a better strategy to confront the opposition and smash it down before the result is out. At least that is my worry at this time as a one week audit should already generate enough info to see if it is worth going on.

We'll see. Next in the agenda the UNASUR result and who will attend Caracas swear in tomorrow  if this one is even held.... But I am going to bed now.

18 comments:

  1. Michel Garcia12:22 PM

    The thing with the audit is that the CNE is going to open 400 boxes per day of the remaining 46%. No mention was done of the requested audit to the actas, signing, finger-prints, etc.

    Also, no mention was done about the irregularities Capriles denounced to them. And, also, no mention was done about the boxes that were actually not audited of the 52% (there are reports of military personnel or chavistas taking the boxes before the audit was made).

    So, so far, nothing was actually gained, since, considering the CNE was the one that had the boxes from that day on, they're gonna make the boxes say exactly what the CNE website says, which, by the way, still has 98,97% of the data (inhospitable and embassies has not been added yet). If, by any chance, they actually find anything, is going to be so minuscule it's not gonna change the final result.

    I really don't expect anything from this. The regime is playing the game of normalization and desmotivation, and Capriles seems to be accepting it.

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  2. Anonymous2:13 PM

    54% in a few hours, but 46% takes 30 days?

    Not sure the cne would have agreed to this if they didn't think that they could control the process and outcome in some way. Leopards don't change their spots.

    But as Daniel mentioned, if Capriles is happy with it, then maybe we should have faith that they will monitor it completely and not let the cne control the outcome. I just don't like the cne (chavismo) calling the shots.

    I am worried though what further damage or plundering can be done in 30+ days by these criminals, especially if they think the end is near. Will Globovision be allowed to continue as a voice for the opposition? How many public employees will be fired before then?

    The country has been in limbo for 6 months. Now that they have agreed to an audit of sorts, the pressure should be on to perform a correct and accurate audit as quickly as possible so that the country can move on to the next chapter.

    Also, there should be no more endorsement of maduro from other countries who have not already declared their "loyalty" (insert "debt" if you want).

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  3. Milonga2:43 PM

    The Unasur declaration was absolutely shameful which only proves the point by Anonymous above that the CNE is certain to control the process. But in the meantime, Capriles is exposing to the world (or to whomever wants to listen - very few I might say) the fascism of the regime. Patience and time... and no violence. Ghandi-like. Capriles keeps repeating it. It´s the extreme contrast between one attitude's and the other's that will prevail in the end. Or so I hope. The world is not an easy place to be in. I am totally and wholly depressed, sorry.

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  4. Does anybody truly believe that CNE will find anything on those boxes that will do anything other that confirm their first "results"? All they are saying is "we have XX boxes that we can open and we know they'll have what we need". As it is mentioned above, it might be just to buy time to go on with the crowning today, and like I said yesterday, once king maduro is proclaimed...nobody will care what CNE does afterwards...or maduro.
    UNASUR recognized maduro and then they added "cualquier reclamo...debera ser canalizado y resuelto dentro del ordenamiento juridico vigente"...they and us know there is no "ordenamiento juridico" in Venezuela. TSJ is an agency of the regime...they've thrown Capriles and more than half of Venezuelans under the bus.
    My read in UNASUR is that Dilma, CFR, Evo, Correa, and Pepe wanted to have a straight public recognition of maduro, but they had to add that part of "reclamos" so Humala, Piñera and Santos would go with it.

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  5. Milonga2:45 PM

    As to my comment above about the CNE, I only wonder what took them 7 hours to reach the conclusion. Waiting from orders by whom? Give me a break!

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  6. Anonymous2:58 PM

    In addition to previous comment leaning now more toward conspiracy theory...because I just don't trust these snakes.

    Cne now has in their possession the list of complaints, irregularities and violations. Before they didn't know for sure what the opposition had in that list of 3200+ complaints. It is possible that the audit request reversal comes after the list was reviewed by the cne/cubans, and it was decided that they could work around it, if given enough time.

    It is possible that now with the list and knowledge of where to focus, that "adjustments" could be made, and even new paper ballots printed out (why not?). Remember they have everything to lose, nothing to gain, and complete control over all mechanisms of the vote. Just for laughs, they may even give maduro a higher margin of victory to rub the opposition's nose in it.

    In 30 days, maduro could be validated, cne vindicated, and the opposition crushed...all under the guise of democracy. Knowing who we are dealing with, tell me that they won't at least try this approach.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. kernel_panic3:34 PM

      Regarding printing new paper ballots, that's not possible in the mesas where the oppositio has the actas, any tampering within the content of the boxes will be exposed easily when it doesn't match tally.

      Delete
    2. sorry, its probably my poor spanish, what exactly is the actas? is that like a transaction list? that you can take the box paper ballots and be able to look it up within the actas?

      Delete
    3. Michel Garcia3:38 AM

      You vote with a machine that gives you a ballot, and you deposit that ballot in a box. After the voting is closed, you input a command to the machine and it gives you the "acta", which has the totals each party/candidate got, null votes, and abstention, as well as the data from the voting center, mesa (table), and the machine itself. When you do the "hot audit", the ballots (in general and totals) must coincide with the "actas".

      Delete
  7. Boludo Tejano5:48 PM

    Thanks for the incisive narratives.

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  8. Can we acertain anything when we compare the attendance rosters of chavez's funeral vs maduro's coronation?
    I must assume that the "invitation" committee must have been pretty bussy on both occasions but it seems that the results were significantly different.
    Perhaps is just that heads of state react better to funeral invitations? or that it was chavez?
    Truly the list of attendees today, besides the MERCOSUR scavengers, looks a lot like a "rent-a-crowd"...I mean Haiti, StV&G, Honduras...the coffers must be running pretty low if that is all they can get.

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  9. margareth8:43 PM

    Trust Capriles. He knows what he is doing.

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  10. Anonymous9:05 PM

    Watching part of the coronation (couldn't stomach any more), it is clear that they have no intention of entertaining a reversal regardless of any audit. The acceptance to audit the rest of the machines was only to pacify temporarily and allow a peaceful coronation without protest. The audit will be a sham, and the rest will be history. Chavismo leveraged the peaceful nature of the opposition, and their clinging to belief that this can be resolved legally and diplomatically. I have gone from skeptical this morning when hearing of the audit approval to little hope.

    Really disappointed to see Santos attend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Michel Garcia3:40 AM

      He did left mid-way, though.

      Delete
  11. kernel_panic9:20 PM

    Ladies and gentlemen, I just saw these videos, thanks to a caracas chronicles post comment by ralx.

    Prepared to be awed.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO57mXMSDxc

    http://el-nacional.com/politica/Unasur-presencio-irregularidades-maquinas-captahuellas_0_175182486.html

    "El mejor sistema electoral DEL MUNDO", que le dicen...

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous2:02 AM

      Please see my comments in Caracas Chronicles to the video and newspaper article in Spanish (the newspaper article is very damaging to the credibility of teh fingerprint process, in my opinion

      " In both cases the vote was allowed at a late hour (5:50 pm in the Youtube video, and 5:00 pm in the article in El Nacional, were it was verified by Unasur braziian representatives in Santa Rosa de Lima school, in Baruta.

      The fingerprint machines may have an algorithm that after certain hour (4:30 pm, for ex.) any person that puts his finger is allowed to vote, in his way the government can bring late voters and they can vote for other people who have not voted . . .

      Of course, this can be done only in voting stations that do not have witnesses from the Capriles side. Maybe this is the reason why witnesses form Capriles were forced out of several voting stations.

      moses

      Delete
  12. Daniel - beginning of common sense? Don't get your hopes up. The final answer will be an engineered solution to maintain the status quo.

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  13. Tibisay said very clearly they won't count paper ballots. Capriles is not stressing the point Tibisay is wrong. People will lose focus on this matter. This is not good.

    ReplyDelete

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