Thursday, February 16, 2017

Tarecking CNN

This week has been a spinning nausea and we are only Wednesday evening. As of today we have a vice president accused of drug trafficking and fake passport emission, resulting not in an investigation but in closing CNN Spanish version.

Let me start with the obvious: when the Department of the Treasury of the United States indicates that your vice president is under investigation for MANY acts of drug trafficking there are only two options left for the president (of Venezuela or any other country). For Option one you fire, or at the very least suspend, your vice-president/prime-minister while investigations are undertaken. In Option two you break relations with the US, close the embassy of the US, call back all your staff in the US because obviously the US are liars and you cannot tolerate such a slandering of your principal politician.

Neither one took place. Instead the messenger was shot and the Spanish version of CNN was forced out of its cable broadcasts in Venezuela.

I suppose that the trigger of the long simmering situation happened when CNN put forth an investigative work about fake Venezuelan passports sold to suspected terrorists and what not. I cannot vouch for that story because I am not familiar with it, and I did not even see the show. However what was well known is that Tareck El Aissami was investigated for quite a while already, on accounts of terrorist support and drug traffic.  In fact, naming him Vice President of Venezuela (a free removal job here) was considered as a provocation. Well, the US bit.

Thus the report on the fake passport was used today as the excuse to suspend CNN in Venezuela but the real reason is that Tareck El Aissmi has been sanctioned formally by the Treasury department. You should read the Treasury note: it is quite a long list of offenses, a "prontuario" as we call it in Venezuela.

What can the regime gain with the suspension of CNN Spanish news? Nothing. To begin with I do not think it is the most popular news sources among supporters of chavismo. No matter what is said or what they think about El Aissami, they are certainly not going to express it if they watch CNN. On the other hand, the public relations impact overseas is going to be tremendous. One thing is to stop access to an Argentinian news agency or a Colombian TV, another one is to ban the most international network in Latin America, associated in arguably the most watched news channel joint in the world.

Never mind that closing CNN is the most perfect admission that what they reported on our boy Tareck is, well, true.

But the dictatorship in Venezuela is unraveling fast.

To begin with it is clear that the abundant information on Tareck could not have possibly been gathered without the help of his political ennemies INSIDE chavismo. Nobody is fooled by the apparent unanimous support of Tareck as directed by Maduro. That relations with the US have not been fully terminated yet is the best evidence that the inside struggle is not resolved. After all, the promotion of Tareck a few weeks ago was seen as the final move of the radical commie civilian sector against the military corrupt narco wing of the regime. Or something like that. We´ll be fixed soon on how final that move was.

Then there is the inability of the regime to offer a coherent response. Not only neither the US or Tareck were fired, but you should read the official communique of Venezuelan foreign ministry, a masterpiece of ignorance, besides the point interjections, a list of idiocies. These people are not managing well the situation and I am not even sure that the confused (?) message they are trying to feed their supporters can be understood by these.

Meanwhile the magnificent obsession of the regime is reaching new lows. Not only there will not be anymore national or local elections for the foreseeable future, but even student organization elections are now banned. Of course, the vote at the UCV, the oldest university of Venezuela, was widely speculated as a major rout for the regime who may be reduced to nothing at the UCV student representation. Thus the need to stop that. What is more interesting actually here is that it took only 4 students questioning details of the organization to go DIRECTLY to the high court, TSJ, to stop the election. Let me put this in perspective. It is as if the vote for student body for Harvard was stopped by a direct intervention of the Supreme Court Justices through a direct petition from a disgruntled student. Bypassing any local and federal court. Just imagine that for a second. Not even Trump can manage that. But in Venezuela the TSJ has become the to go guys for anything the regime needs. Period. Revolutionary efficiency at its best.

What is next? Nobody knows.

Two things are certain. One, the regime will intensify repression at the risk of imploding from within. The other is that the Treasury actions cannot be seen as a lone initiative. This is something that has been going on for a while and stopped for political expediency by Obama. Times have changed, and it is not that Trump ordered the investigation, it is just merely that the US has decided to act on what it holds; and it acts with broad international support. I specify broad international support because Venezuela's regime has been deluded into the idea that few people truly cared about terrorism and drug trafficking. They do not. They are just waiting for the appropriate time to pounce on criminals. It has usually being the cae, be it Al Capone or Tareck El Aissami. Tareck is blocked in Venezuela.

And this is the crux of the matter. Who will seriously negotiate anything with the Venezuelan regime? Who will accept to be pictured shaking hands with Tareck? Or his provisional protector Maduro? How can you possibly rule rationally a country when you cannot even afford to travel overseas to seek the funds that you have run out from?

Perspectives are getting worse for us in Venezuela, but if the price to get rid of the vermine is more misery, let's misery come!

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And then there is that just as I was proof reading:


Oh dear!

In the last post I did write that for all of Trump faults, I thought that his knowledge and care for Latin America may be much greater than what his detractors may think. And voila, Leopoldo Lopez wife at the White House. And another nail on the coffin of Obama's failure in Latin America.

12 comments:

  1. Marvin Hagler2:53 AM

    "I thought that his knowledge and care for Latin America may be much grater than his detractors may think".
    You talk as if you weren't one of "his detractors", you piece of shit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am sorry that my appreciation of grey areas in Trump, Obama and Bush upsets the black and white crowd.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous6:17 AM

      Really Marvin....do you call anyone with whom you don't agree a "piece of ...." So eloquent!

      Delete
  2. Anonymous5:35 AM

    Daniel:I am so happy that Trump is doing something that Obama didn't. We all know that Venezuela is have been kidnapped by criminals, and Trump is doing something about it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think thats more Marco Rubis influence here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous2:06 PM

      Hans is correct. Rubio has led an effort to have the US act in defense of the Venezuelan people. Getting Mrs. Tintori meet with Trump is quite a triumph for the opposition. And the blocking of the CNN signal in Venezuela shortly after the sections to el aissami is getting more international attention where there was hardly any before.

      Delete
  4. The Putrid Pumpkin has no idea where Venezuela is and does not care about it. He was doing Mario a favor.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He owes Mario no favor

      Delete
    2. Anonymous9:25 PM

      Trump is in deep doodoo with most republicans. After trash talking "Little Marco" in the primaries, who was then going to go to the public sector but decided to run again, and won again.. Yes, he needs Marco, and anyone else who will say nice things about him.

      Lazarus

      Delete
    3. Anonymous2:56 AM

      wrong wrong and more wrong

      Delete
  5. "the regime will intensify repression at the risk of imploding from within."

    'Regime' is a somewhat accurate word for Vzla's tropical blend of Narco-Cleptocracy. You see, mon cher ami, we people tend to complicate things: Vzla's chavista crap is not just Maduro, or Chavez's hideous legacy, no.

    It's hundreds of thousands of THIEVES associated in many ways to the 'regime'. A multitude of LEECHES of which you have no idea. Not just the 'gobielno' or the filthy politicians in charge. No. THE PEOPLE, aka. "el pueblo' is vastly corrupt, itself. Daniel lives in Vzla, and works there, except no one even dares mess with 'the pueblo" the sacred, always good, hard-working victims of the 'regime'.

    Yes, the Chavistoide 'government' is vastly responsible, but only because it doesn't POLICE it's 'people', gente that is very, very corrupt, by the millions. Tigres, chanchullos, segundas, inventos, palancas, mollejas, cuanto'hay'pa'esos, 'como'quedo yo ahi', etc, if you've ever lived there in that mess.

    Tarek? He's just one of the biggest THIEVES in the Cleptozuelan Cleptocracy, that's all. There are many, many others, bigger or smaller CROOKS in that country. From the perrocalientero to the police, to the customs guy asking you for bribes, to the cashier dude pidiendo un aguinaldo. The ENTIRE country is corrupt. Some STEAL more than others, granted, but most big fish are in private sectors too, complicit, getting "contracts", under the table, every day.

    Once you understand that, you understand why Vzla is in the gutters. Almost Everyone, at all levels, everywhere is complicit, or STEAL themselves. From the lowest, to the highest levels. Public, and private offices. Heck, in the streets, you have the highest crime in the Planet, why?? Because they are all CROOKS, from the ranchito hills, down to Caracas, Maracaibo or Valencia, up to Miraflores. La misma gente. The entire country is rotten, and most of the best, honest, educated professionals got the hell outta there long ago. You know who you are..

    Tareck aissami? Heck, his entire family, friends, conocidos, they all steal. As 90% of Venezuela's population do, as soon as they can. That's how Kleptocracies operate: involve almost everyone in crime, theft, dubious deals, and 'cuanto'hay'pa'eso's". Now you understand Venezuela, besides the poor education, horrible education, almost everyone is into some "deal" for survival. Not just Tarek, Cabello, Maduro.. Millions, and Millions, at all levels of whatever's left of that messed up society. Are there a few exceptions? Sure. Very few.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I do not understand Daniel where yiu cane up with the real reason for removing CNN was the sanction on the Vice Pres. Maduro said the removal of CNN was do to false reporting of tye food situation at schools in Caracas, but the truth was it was over the passport issue.
    Trump had no choice but to put the sanctions in place as was a united bill from both sides. He would have looked very bad if he did not. Maduro understood this and his only response was to say I will do nothing as I dont want a fight with Trump as our buddies the Russians said he is part of the program and he should not take a response.

    ReplyDelete

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