On the fig leaf front there is an incipient electoral campaign for local elections this December. Indeed, there will be massive abuse and cheating from the regime. And yet there is little else we can do than go and vote, unless you are willing to wield your guns against the gang of thugs that hold Miraflores Palace hostage. The resolution will come only when chavismo will break up, violently, and self destruct. Perhaps sooner than later, but whatever the time frame is our participation in the election can only speed up the process.
This being said, let's look at the campaign which yesterday has taken a clearly fascist turn. I am not using the word communist, note, because the inspiration is from Cuba and Cuba is now under an aging fascist system. True communism would have never tolerated stuff like the general prostitution of jineteras at the fake luxury sea front of Varadero. By writing this I do not intend to state that one system is better than the other, merely that their vices are not the same in their quest for totalitarian control and equal meting out of misery.
To help you understand let's start with one of the three things that happened yesterday, the minor one if you will, but one that will help you understand better what happened in Caracas. The billboard above has showed up first yesterday in San Felipe, in at least three locations that I have noticed. It is Chavez heirs electoral strategy: Chavez. That is right, in the last 10 months Chavez heirs have NOTHING to show for their tenure so once again they resort to the only thing that has worked in the past, the image of Chavez.
The billboard deserves a speedy semantical analysis.
First, they use the "martyrdom" picture of Chavez, in his last 2012 campaign appearance, when he stood under the rain to inspire pity and maximize his appeal. His Che moment of sorts though it probably cost him a few days of life which I am sure he did not mind paying in his narcissistic egotism.
Second, it is addressed to ¡CHAVISTAS! Not you or me. They are not trying to get new votes due to their track record. They know better: they need to motivate the chavista lumpen that has been battered by inflation, scarcity, crime, lack of jobs, etc... to go and vote for them yet one more time. And thus the second line: to honor Chavez memory. Period. No other argument.
Third, since there is nothing positive to run on, there is the need to make a crass appeal to war, battles, heroism and what not, Chavez style again. And thus the slogan, "Unity, fighting, battles and victory!" empty, devoid of any single new idea. Very fascist if you ask me, where what passes as ideas are artificial constructs designed to polarize society in order not to discuss what could be the true solutions to our real problems. Or rather, since this is Venezuela, a banal but vicious thugocracy that uses selected simple minded fascisto/communist methods to hold to power so as to avoid the jail they deserve.
The bottom is the Warholian take on Chavez eyes and the party colors to suggest mass and unity (GPP, Great Patriotic Pole). Fluff!
When a "poltical" group has reached such depth of intellectual emptiness you cannot be surprised by the visceral moves they took yesterday.
The first one was a very clumsy attempt by foreign minister Jaua who pretends to be the true governor of Miranda. For memory, defeated by Capriles last December in spite of all the electoral abuse and blackmail and cheating, the regime named him special agent for the Tuy valley of Miranda which meant that he became an appointed parallel governor, probably with more money than Capriles to rule effectively the state that duly voted for him. Again, a neo-totalitarian contempt for democracy.
Sure enough siphoning money from one side to buy votes on the other created financial havoc and the Miranda workers decided to march in protest to force the central government to give Miranda its full share of the budget. Everybody knows of course that the regime will pinch every single penny it can against Capriles even if hardship for innocent follows. When you play dirty it helps not to have a bit of scruples. So Jaua started an infantile blockade of Caracas access through a pretend pro chavista protest against the "fascist" "coup mongering" march of Capriles. It was so clumsy that within a couple of hours it seems that Jaua was brought back to heel and the marchers could go present their demands.
That chavista fiasco was accompanied by yet a new scale up of the rhetoric. While Caracas was blockaded for a few hours somebody started placarding the posters below.
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| Memorize their faces The trilogy of evil They take away your light They take away your food They take away your peace Enough violence |
What these posters do, besides trying to imitate horror show aesthetic with the faces of the three, in particular the one of Capriles, is to place the blame for the current economic crisis on them. That is, a regime that controls everything, from the armed forces to any office regulating production claims that the three guys are able on their own to turn off the power grids of Venezuela, disrupt the general food distribution system, create the high criminal insecurity.
That is exactly what the Nazis did against the Jews after 1933.
Maduro encouraging public violence against opposition leadership. He uses the words "pueblo reconocelos" (9 sec) "trilogia del mal" (4 sec) "enemigos de la patria" (6 sec)
Truly terrible. What can I say? Neo-fascism is everywhere. It's the Foro de San Pablo rule! It's oppressive to me living outside Venezuela, can't even bare to imagine how it is for you folks. Too depressed to write. Just my thoughts with you.... I can't even pray any more.
ReplyDeleteWhy is this under 21st century fascism? It's clearly the more familiar 20th century type.
ReplyDeleteAs a courtesy to XXI century socialism which a desguised name for comunism revival.
DeleteYou're much too kind, but it's your blog :)
DeleteI was reminded by the slogan on the road signs. Che Guevara, the guy on the t-shirts, actually said this in a speech to the UN General assembly in 1964:
ReplyDelete"We have to say here what everyone already knows, since we have always told the world: yes, we have been carrying out executions by firing squad [for the last 6 years], are still doing it, and will continue with the executions ... ours is a fight to the death "
"“Nosotros tenemos que decir aquí lo que es una verdad conocida, que la hemos expresado siempre ante el mundo: fusilamientos, sí, hemos fusilado [por los ultimos 6 anos]; fusilamos y seguiremos fusilando” ... nuestra lucha es una lucha a muerte"
Any similarities are not mere coincidences.
Antonio
And yet Che ended up without hands. He had no use for them, like Chavez he never did a good day's work in his life, just pure blabla. Similarly, when the time comes, Maduro should have his brain amputated since he has no use for it. At the same time, they might as well get rid of the rest..
DeleteChavismo does not need to kill any of these oppo leaders, in fact doing so would take away their fig leaf,wouldn't it?
ReplyDeleteOn the other the hand the fig leaf is nicely maintained by the opposition whenever they vote.
Massive non voting on the other hand would be more honest and chip away at the fig leaf.
Only through honesty can we ever get anywhere really.If we are not honest, how can we feel outrage at the dishonesty of Chavismo? '' firepigette
Massive non-voting is what enabled Chavizmo to become cancerous in the first place.
DeleteNo, there should be massive voting against Chavizmo, and every fraud challenged in court. This would chip away at the fig leaf far more than non-participation. "It's not the opponents' fault if you don't vote" is the best "honesty" can win you.
The suggestion that the opposition boycott the elections is sabotage from Chavismo. Think about it. If the opposition doesn't vote, then Chavismo wins. Maduro and his Cuban handlers must be posing as opposition and sending out suggestions that the opposition not vote. Pure and simple. I have to go make some posters with Maduro's face titled sabotage.
DeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteNot really.The Cancer of Chavismo was well planned way before that, and non voting was never well planned at all.It has to be massive and relentless and accompanied by resolve and international communication.
Every year this" proving" and such has been talked about and goes nowhere.
The only thing the opposition is unwilling to do is vote for an honest candidate like MCM, and or behave like they live in a dictatorship( which they do).
It is not part of a democratic strategy to pretend to have honest voting, it is part of a democratic strategy to first recognize the lack of democracy and the impossibility of winning through votes, in order to do something about it,starting with truth telling.The last 10 years have been a total farce.
I am not talking about non participation, I am talking about honest participation.firepigette
(same annonymous as above, obv.)
DeleteGoing to elections to vote against Chavizmo has nothing to do with hoping to win the election. It has to do with lack of plausible alternatives and to require Chavizmo to fake the elections. Every time they do it, they're called out. The results aren't apperent, but the fig leaf is chipped away. Without that, it stays where it is, a government where 70% of population didn't turn out to vote was democratically elected.
Your premise, that non-participation accomplishes anything else, is wrong. Sorry.
Agree, 100%. After every election, the people know the real result. Oh, not exactly to be sure, but they know it in their hearts to within a few percentage points. The more the Chavistas have to cheat, the more obvious is their illegitimacy.
Deleteand once again we're regaled by the armchair opinion of US citizen, firepigette, who does NOT vote in any Venezuelan election, but doesn't hesitate to call oppos naÏve for doing so (Ain't she special?), and who calls for non-voting. What's wrong with this woman that she doesn't get it? Waiting for whiney airy-fairy poetry as rebuttal ... three... two ... one..
DeleteThank you for your blog Daniel. Do people actually believe what is written on these posters and that the opposition is responsible for these acts of sabotage or do they laugh at them and think they are ridiculous?
ReplyDeleteAnon. obviously we do not see ojo to ojo on this issue, and so very useless to continue back and forth....I end my discussion with a call to look at past faulty thinking.Your ideas have been the ones to be followed for the past years,with obviously poor results.
ReplyDeleteps I never said not to participate ,,,you are misquoting me.I said honest participation.Honest participation in my opinion would be for the first time a real participation in the democratic process.Right now the only thing voting does is strengthen the illusion of democratic participation, just as it does in Belarus.
Honest participation in Vzlan elections under the current regime??
DeleteWhat the hell planet are you on, firepigette? Have you not understood the realities? Maybe if you wrote honestly and directly without the double-talk, airy-fairy poetry, or nonsensical comparisons to Belarus, we could all communicate a lot more efficiently -- and honestly.
Some people really need to shoot off their mouths, to pretend to know what they're saying, when it's obvious by their lack of clarity, that they haven't much of a clue.
yes, only you know the right path to take, firepigette, though you're not on it. Thank you for that umpteenth lecture. Don't call us, we'll call you when we need your voting advice.
Delete"Do people actually believe what is written on these posters and that the opposition is responsible for these acts of sabotage or do they laugh at them and think they are ridiculous?"
ReplyDeleteThere is a hard core Chavista % that believes everything that comes out against the opposition - probably about 25% of the voters although with all the problems it may be less.
They watch the state media which is a 24 hour propaganda machine. They don't listen to anything else. Reality is a fantasy for the rest of the world.
The rest of the population just laughs. We have so many things to laugh about each day that it just overwhelms you.
Read the headlines any day of the week and there are a selection of headlines, quotes from various ministers, that just bring a smile to your face. None have any basis in reality - they are aimed at the 25%.
When various posters say we live in the Wonderland of Alice they are 100% accurate.
You have to live here to experience it..
Even amongst the 25%, it is not so much "belief", as it is a willful suspension of disbelief.
DeleteGetting better at their game; I support this message, in spite of the disadvantages drummed up by the regime. Que Dios bendiga a Venezuela el 8D.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_quBE1QupQ&feature=youtu.be
Agreed...not voting accomplishes nothing...The opposition and the people have learned from that ploy already. They are past it. Even with all kinds of voter fraud, threats, violence, intimidation, and blackmail the Venezuelan people have shown not to just the country, but the world, via the fraudulent electoral process and "chocuto" of 14A, that things are not well inside Chavismo or the model it espouses. People who knew nothing of it before are now talking about it. I took a cab a month ago and we got into a convo about VNZA. Before I could barely utter a word he said Maduro is illegitimate. This coming from a guy, from a small Mexican town driving a taxi in NY. Now he may not be able to do anything about it, nor I, however the world knows and when the time comes the world will be behind the enormous changes coming to VNZA after 8D. There will be no rescue for Chavismo or Maduro as was attempted in Honduras after the Zelaya fiasco. Voting keeps exposing the fraud and intensifies the reaction to it. Imagine if there had been voter abstention since 2005? Where would we be today? Votar en 8D y Desenchufalo !
ReplyDeletenicely stated, anon. Unfortunately, your good counsel to a US-based/US citizen who repeatedly calls for abstention among the oppos in the upcoming elections, will do no good. Others have tried to reason with her, on previous lead-ups to elections. And still she persists in manipulating and attempting to sabotage our efforts. We know she is not chavista. We know she's a fantasist. And in this instance, we see nothing more than a petulant echa vaina in need of attention.
DeleteHonest participation means permanently boycotting elections until it is no longer necessary.Boycotting elections is the only thing honest in the case.In dictatorships there are no true elections, therefore they must be boycotted.Anything less is only a confusion.
ReplyDeletefirepigette
Short of leading yourself the revolt from the front line wielding some weaponry I suggest that you not sabotage those who prefer longer but safer and surer method such as voting to expose the fraud. If you boycott the election the regime does not need to prove anything.
DeleteDaniel,
DeleteSabotage? An opinion from a" nobody" as they would say in Venezuela is hardly sabotage.I should think you would find a plurality of opinion a good thing actually.Plurality is a democratic impulse.
In any case LONG is what you will bel looking at should you choose the "voting" method.Safe is hardly the case.This regime allows high amounts of crime to flourish.
And no I did not mention nor did I envision any sort of weaponry.
Firepigette
Thank you for your sanity, Daniel.
DeleteCan you imagine if we were to bombard this 'firepigette' tipa with repeated negative and manipulative messages, prior to US elections? Elections which, as we know, are not totally immune from a certain lack of transparency...
Circuitous and cloudy calls for honesty from a woman who sabotages comments in another blog by interjecting a secondary persona, under the handle of "pamona", is the ultimate in gall. I can only think -- and I'm not the first to note it: QUÉ LADILLA.
Cochonette de feu
DeleteWe are in a war. Plurality of opinión is a luxury, one we can rarely indulgencia in.
Syd
DeleteYou have broken the strictest rule. Slug it out as you wish with whomever you want here BUT on this blog published comments, not on whatever happened elsewhere. Thank you for your understanding.
Firepig,
DeletePlease: it would be better if you promote abstention in Carolina.
Don't keep annoying us with that here.
They tried it already and it was a disaster. By the way: it actually never worked anywhere else.
Participation is the key. But it's a waste of time to discuss that with you here.
Just don't mention it any longer. Do that in blogs about Carolina (North or South, I don't care, it's their business to respond you)
Methinks you have a low frustration tolerance Kepler, but in any case on this blog it is an unwritten law by Daniel for me not to mention my ideas on the matter again, so no worries there.Perhaps instead you can look up authoritarian thinking and study that one.Might be useful....just sayin' as some would say.
DeleteWhen they perish, fascist Governments tends to destroy as much of "their" country as they can, because they feel themselves as the soul of the country... and they know there will be truth commissions, of course.
ReplyDeletetriste ver lo mismo una y otra vez y otra vez. no importa cuantas lecciones se hagan, no importa cunata gente le de pataletas, gobiernos totalitarios nunca admitiran su derrota, pues sus seguidores viven de ello!. Venezuela tiene por lo menos un par de generacions con el cerebro totalmente lavado. 50% esta (increible pero cierto!!) a favor del gobierno y el otro 50% esta sin saber que hacer, pues nadie se atreve a sacrificar su vida, si, en estos casos SI es posible que corran la suerte de muchos que ya no veran mas una Venezuela libre. nadie se atreve a dar el primer paso, todos seguimos bailando al compaz de la orquesta de estos gobiernos. ELECCIONES? las elecciones que estos convocan son simple pantalla para decir que existe un clima democratico. en mas de 50 anhos, en gobierno de CUBA no ha sido reconocido como una dictadura! nosotros ya vamos por casi un tercio de ese tiempo... y yo creo que aun nos falta ver las otras 2/3 partes.
ReplyDeletedeprimente