CNN unwillingly reveals how decayed chavismo is

I do not know whether CNNE was the hero, or anti-hero of this week, but one thing is certain, it revealed how fucked up is the chavista mindset. Sorry for the vulgarity but no other word describes it.

Two events.

Is it possible to write it straight on Venezuela? Is it worth it?

UPDATE!!!  Apparently the WaPo editorial linked below was a mistake, an editorial that was not supposed to be published.  It did not make it tot he print edition and by mistake on line.  But we have a cache and contacts so I put the editorial, or at least a version of it, at the end of this post.
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Although I find the Washington Post editorials to be on the mark on Venezuela, the latest one is somewhat off, as if the WaPo were to be taking itself into the anti Chavez self imposed trap, a skill that chavismo has long practiced with certain success.

On logic and factual merits the editorial is perfectly on target, chastising the weak Obama administration response to Human Rights violations in Venezuela coupled with obscene weapons purchased, the latest installment coming last Friday after Putin's brief visit to Caracas (1).

Freedom of thought is also gone in Venezuela?

MAJOR UPDATE Janiot does Escarra

It is not enough that freedom of information and expression are being killed this week in Venezuela, freedom of thought is also questioned.  In what must be a first for any self described democratic country, a new law voted in a rush today will punish any representative in the National Assembly to switch sides, to vote according his or her conscience.  You need to read the AVN brief note to measure the fact in full.

This so wrong on so many aspects that one must wonder if they realized what they were deciding when they planned that law.  There must dozens of constitutional violations in such a law, so obvious that we do not need to dig into it.  I mean, if that precedent were to be accepted we could conceive in the future laws that would forbid freedom of religion since you would not be able to convert to a different religion.

Patricia Janiot does Maduro in (and the bolivarian farce)

Patricia Janiot is a star reporter of CNN "en español". She has been a frequent visitor to Venezuela and was even conspued by Chavez publicly at a press conference. Her latest bout with the revolution was when she was obliged to leave in a hurry a year ago.

The day after: a press conference from hell, and the real winner of Sunday

I have serious broadband problems, just in the middle electoral data harvest. With a CNE page which must be slow this week with all the hits, I cannot start examining results. However from the little bit I can gather there is a really bad result: chavismo gained many municipal districts, all of them in a few states which is going to make it infinitely harder for the opposition to maintain a credible presence there. I need of course to see the why of this negative result and how bad it is, but I can already point one of the main reasons: opposition division. That cost us all districts in Yaracuy and most in Carabobo, including Valencia. In each case the division was due to the arrogant nature of its leaders: Lapi and Salas Feo who must be fully blamed for that loss.

However the news this morning is the press conference that Chavez held yesterday. If you had any doubt about how much chavismo was hurt last Sunday you just needed to watch the show of Chavez who lasted at least 4 hours, with foreign journalists taken as hostages, including CNN Patricia Janiot who was dressed down along her absent colleague Glenda Umaña who was called a liar. The maintain of Patricia Janiot in front of the slew of insults and innuendos was a perfect study in class and professionalism, Chavez looking more than ever like the barbarian he is. By the way, Chavez was having coffee served while all the journalists were confined to their chair for the whole time, no peepee break.

The motive of the press conference, for Chavez, was to explain in rich details why according to him the Sunday vote was a big success and why the foreign press was lying when it said it was not. Maybe, but for the life of me I cannot recall any world leader that had to spend 4 hours explaining, pen and paper in hand, why he won his election. Note: the HIS is on purpose because the explanation showed clearly that Chavez thinks of his new governors as HIS, as in an object, not a supporter.

The press conference, to give it a name, was littered with irrelevant pseudo historical references, and clogged with April 2002 interpretation. Apparently the obsession of Chavez for 2002 is much more than an electoral ploy to motivate his supporters, it is becoming a neurosis of its own for Chavez. Because of course a press conference it was not. Chavez started it, then called a cadena which lasted more than an hour so the whole country could see him lecturing the foreign journalists in a rather scandalous way and then closed the cadena when he finally acceded to reply to a few questions. VTV kept showing the show and I watched it at times. Any reply of Chavez was of course a monologue lasting around half an hour, peppered with dares to Obama, compliments to Castro, and threats to the opposition. All journalists could appreciate at length and leisure how often Chavez betrayed his totally undemocratic nature. Fascinating!

But of course the aim of Chavez was not at all to inform the foreign press, he is smart enough to know that hey all made their opinions long ago: he was addressing us, trying to convince us that the opposition did not get the strength to stop him from pursuing his attempt at eternal reelection. So when he explained in exquisite detail why he won so many small districts, it was almost touching to see him considering the Cua district as important as the Sucre district won by Carlos Ocariz. That defeat must has been particularly stinging for him. He went into exquisite detail in explaining how the most populous districts of Sucre voted for Chavez. Of course, we all know that, but in his explanation Chavez undid his whole argument, unbelievably. What anger does!!! He told us that the emblematic district of Caucaguita voted 62% for him. That is, in one of the poorest areas of Caracas 38% of the folks voted against him!!! He cannot even understand what a defeat that is for him when a socialist government should get in such a district at least 80% of the vote!!!!! He cannot replicate the lopsided margins in HIS alleged districts that Macaracuay gave against him (90%).

This is indeed what hurt him the most even though he cannot quite articulate it to himself: Sunday he lost his ability to rally massively the downtrodden masses and he cannot deal with that. That is where his pseudo revolution is being exposed and he hurts. Ocariz did a number on him and thus last night he was crowned as Sunday's hero even if his name might have never been mentioned last night.

-The end-

Cabello sinks, the army can shoot with real bullets, Patricia Janiot exposes. Maduro panics?

In defence of your nation, religion, and laws,

Today the regime decided to intervene Farmatodo, the big pharmacy store chain of Venezuela, the first one to operate US style (all, from medicines to pop sodas). And it did so nastily by putting in jail its CEO and attendants.

The first presidential debate in Venezuela

To my great surprise there was a presidential debate tonight. Well, I do not think the candidates planned it but it was held nevertheless.

On one side Chavez was having a lengthy interview in Venevision. Nothing much there, just an Alo Presidente but with suit and tie. I am not even sure Chavez lied when talking about his record: he seemed to be reciting perfectly what his underlings are feeding him and thus he might not actually be aware that he was uttering quite a few lies. Heck, in a precious moment he even admitted that after 8 years they are still doing trial an error methods to solve the problems of the country. All of the problems that is... After 8 years…

But it turned out that Rosales was presenting today his security program to the country. Thus he was invited by Alo Ciudadano. The two candidates coincided in time, if not TV station. So what did Globovision do? Since Chavez will not grant a debate, he is way too superior to do so, then Globovision listened to portions of Chavez same ever story and simply Rosales replied. It was a fascinating exercise and I am sure that when Chavez will learn about that he will be furious. And guess what? Rosales did do well, with a slight speech impediment, sounding very much like the people, very humble when compared to the arrogant presentation that been held at Venevision. I was at first slightly put off but as time advanced I liked better and better Rosales.

Of course I disliked arrogant Chavez of which I would not even believe the time of day, but readers of this blog already knew that, no? Still, Chavez was trying to look humble but the fact of the matter is that after years of world leadership, well, he just cannot come down to earth anymore once he does not totally control the set up. No wonder he hides behind the set up of Alo Presidente where he asks all the questions and sometimes does not even bother to reply to them.

My bet is that there will be no formal presidential debate.

PS: had I had my lap top as in the time of the World Cup last June this would have almost been live blogging :)

PS2, or rather part 2: Rosales is giving his first lenghty interview to CNN En Español. Patricia Janiot quizzes him hard but Rosales was undaunted. And he speaks to Venezuelans, not to the rest of the Americas. This is good, even if it probably infuriates Janiot (or did she want it this way?). Rosales is doing good, he is trashing all of the Chavez campaign abuse. He is saying that Venezuelans have to chose between holy water and sulfur! I love it!!!

Observation: From these two things I have discovered a rather dry wit in Rosales. I have been so used to the barracks vulgar humor of Chavez that it does take a few minutes to realize that Rosales has a certain subtle wit, that comes out in particualr when the question exasperates him. That is, when the question is rather stupid, he comes out with some dry comment such as chosing between sulfur and Holy Water. I did not know this from Rosales and it is the kind of humor I like. Will I turn from a supporter into a fan? If he keeps that way, there is quite a chance.

Chavez insecurities about his strength

Since November 23 Chavez is slowly doing a seven veils dance where he slowly but surely reveals to us his insecurities about his support, and his future. So far:

Monday 24. Press conference (monologue?) to foreign media (Venezuelan media has been mostly banned for years). No one had ever seen someone needing more than 4 hours to explain why he won.

Following days. Chavez goes from proclamation to swearing in of his elected appointees. No one is too low for him. Each time we get a cadena to explain to us why he won on the 23. The Guiness book should be informed for a record setting of sorts.

Reelection from the people. Suddenly Chavez announces that the PSUV should discuss whether he should be reelected in 2012 through an amendment. Forgotten are the words to Patricia Janiot as him not considering a reelection move for the time being. Apparently there has been a clamor from chavismo, that we must have missed, that reelecting Chavez in 2012 is more important than, say, solve the crime wave that threatens all of us.

The revolution needs me. Chavez announces to us that the revolution will not survive without his leadership and thus the reelection amedement is really an urgent need. He gives himself to the cause instead of going to take care of his grand kids in 2012. We, the critics, are amazed that Chavez does not recognize that these words betray not only the weakness of his pseudo revolution but that he admits he lost on the 23. O retreated enough that he cannot ensure that his successor in 2013 will be his creature. Same difference.

Reelection from the assembly. Even though the new amedement is a violation of the constitution, at least having it petitioned by the PSUV rank and file would have given it a slight hue of legitimacy. But "discovering" that it would take a while to collect and verify the signatures Chavez decides that the PSUV spoke anyway and that National Assembly should go ahead and vote for the amendment. Considering that he still controls 90% of it, the result is a foregone conclusion.

Reelection now. A CNE rector, Vicente Diaz, points out that logistically a referendum by February 2009 is unlikely. He also points out that the constitutionality of the amendment must be tested before the CNE considers any measure as to prepare for the vote. Chavez furious accuses him of being immoral and asks for his resignation. Apparently Diaz works for the Empire while the other 4 fine rectors are of course fully impartial becasue two of them already went out to support the amendment. They are not immoral, just amoral.

The seventh veil? What does Chavez know that we do not know? By now the only question left is why the extraordinary haste of Chavez in having approved something that could be voted perfectly well, say, May 2009. After all, it only needs to be voted by December 2011 before people start registering for 2012 presidential elections. There is absolutely no urgency whatsoever on a constitutional level. For example the crime wave or the high inflation would to the casual observer as more urgent matters.

Unless....?

Is the economic crisis going to hit us by the end of the first trimester next year? Are devaluation and gas price increase schedule by June 2009? Do they foresee inflation keeping above 3 % monthly? Or something even worse?


-The end-

Simon Romero was not invited at Chavez press conference

But he watched it as he wrote his latest entry for the NYT. He did not buy Chavez explanaitions. And heck, he could also get coffee (and whatever could help him with the ordeal) so he surely was in better mood at the end than Patricia Janiot.

-The end-

Day first of the dictatorship

OK, since yesterday the regime has come out of its dictatorial closet, then let's see what happened on its first  openly dictatorial day. In no particular order.

Rocio San Miguel: how heroes renew themselves

It seems that chavismo is going too far and more and more people are willing to take a stand and try to stare down the beast.  We had Oswaldo Alvarez Paz who was not afraid to go and spend 52 days in jail until finally last week the regime relented and figured out that it was better for now to have in out of jail than in from an opinion crime.  And we have more.

A new landmark date for repression in Venezuela: confirming the dictatorship

UPDATED 2
I was on my way back to San Felipe today so I could not follow events live (nor could I have attended the protests today for a variety of reasons). But in the end it did not matter much because censorship was heavy and tonight I can catch up through the net, Cable TV and Twitter, our only information these days.

The only thing I could see was at "Paramacay" my lunch stop on my way to Valencia where they had Globovision on. Maria Corina Machado was speaking at the rally and it was well attended (something confirmed by the pictures I saw tonight). Interestingly Globo was not showing anything this morning when I left home so that they decided to briefly show MCM was telling, they could not hide the success of the convocation. Also Paramacay had not on VTV, the state TV propaganda. Usually they show nothing or sports but to show Globo shows that, well, you know....

The lady does protest too much: Venezuela and Ecuador should rein their mouths some

[updated 1 and 2]

As expected, Ecuador broke relations with Colombia and nowhere were the Venezuelan army to be seen in larger numbers at the Colombian borders. No excitement by the way in the streets. At least in San Felipe there is ZERO war fervor: Chavez is alone on that one. Actually today many were reproaching Chavez to have kept a minute of silence for Reyes when he barely bothered about the 43 people who died in a plane crash in Merida a few days ago. Not to mention the hundreds who are murdered every month in Venezuela.

No, what was interesting today was the difference between those who talked, too much, and those who retained some composure and sobriety.

Ecuador rattles

Correa of Ecuador started well on Saturday but since then Ecuador has become rather incoherent. It all seems to have started when the computers of the FARC were found by the Colombian army at the wreckage scene. One of the first revelations was that the Ecuador foreign minister was "in touch" with the FARC. He promptly admitted it but we had to wait today for details. I saw his speech, and I saw that he was a rather lousy speaker, not something to be expected from a foreign minister. Then again that he was caught in fraganti did not help, for sure. But what was worse is that he had the nerve to claim he was negotiating the release of 12, TWELVE, hostages, including Ingrid Betancourt. Yeah, right... The FARC were going to give to Ecuador twice as many hostages than they gave to Chavez including their top possession. Who does he think he is kidding with such a preposterous assumption? Gee, Ecuador government is even more naive than what I thought! Or more stupid. Your pick.

Correa gave an interview to CNN's Patricia Janiot where he tried to dodge the bullet. One of his claim was that the border of Ecuador cost 100 million a year to keep up and Colombia does not do anything on its side. Maybe, but that still does not explain why the FARC found easy refuge on that side of the border. The issue will not let go: Ecuador is perfectly right to protest against Colombia the violation of its own space but Colombia has also the right to point out the shitty job that Ecuador does of guarding its border. As long as Correa does not deal with that, he can break all the relations he wants with Colombia, he will be less than convincing. I can see from this that Correa is nothing more than a cheap politician with some charisma and lost of ambition who will not balk at anything to keep his hold on power even if Ecuador will be more hurt by a disruption of commerce with Colombia than Colombia would. At least that is what I heard from experts who say that for example 15% of electricity of Ecuador comes from Colombia.

Venezuela babbles

In Caracas things were hardly better. Apparently Chavez has been silent today, probably realizing that he shot enough his foot and that others should come to the forefront to fix things up some. Unfortunately once upon a time he had an operator like Jose Vicente Rangel who could not fix much inside Venezuela but who at least could present some more credible image to the foreign observers. Now Chavez has only Maduro and Rodriguez Chacin, a failed bus driver now foreign minister and a thug now Interior and security minister.

Maduro went to the National Assembly. He made a cheap chauvinistic act, criticized the Venezuelan opposition for not rallying the way the Colombian one was doing around Uribe (I kid you not), spoke of all sorts of things that seemed like coming from Cliff notes from the Cuban staff in Venezuela (they were that dated), and climaxed announcing that Venezuela had asked all the Colombian embassy staff to leave the country. Not a complete break up but same difference.

Rodriguez Chacin presentation was even worse. Not only the man looks even more of an ignorant thug than ever, but he freely qualified the Colombia government of fascist. I mean, even if it is true you do not do that. How can he pick up the pieces later? Is Uribe calling Chavez in public a commie? Well, I suppose not since Chavez acts much more like a fascist than Uribe...

But the highlight was when Rodriguez Chacin pulled out a computer form a manila envelope (I kid you not) and said it was the one from 'Jabon', the infamous narco killed a few weeks ago in Merida. He said that in this computer he got as many convenient proofs against Colombian officials than what they were saying they found in the Reyes lap top. To a stunned audience he told that he did not reveal anything before, because of his "ethics", leaving the audience even more stunned. I mean, what ethics are we discussing here, those between two narco groups supporting each other and having rules of engagement, or the ethics that a chief security officer should have about the Venezuelan populace? Because if Rodriguez did really had such evidence for quite a while, it was his duty to warn Uribe of his staff dealing in drug trafficking. Unless Rodriguez was collabrating with the US or something in order to expose a major drug cartel. Of such a possibility he said nothing, just "ethics", even when a Colombian reporter asked him again why he did not reveal such crucial information. Yeah, right, the ethics of the mafia mob.....

Colombia remains focused

Colombians know a good thing when they hold it, they are forging ahead, revealing what they know, and not getting at all in the ridicule tit for tat that the other guys want to drag them into. No matter what tantrums Chavez and Correa throw, and what the rest of Latin America might hold in particularly fake crocodile tears, the Uribe staff is in control. Well, maybe they are getting into some tit-tatting but they are definitely much less hysterical than their neighbors.

So Colombia calmly said that they would not be mobilizing anything to any border and that instead they will go tot he OAS to protest the protection given to the FARC by Venezuela and Ecuador and the implication for the OAS raison d'être that is . In other words, Uribe is going to call the bluff of Venezuela at the OAS and might be the one wrecking the now totally useless body. I bet you that Insulza must be having cold sweats at the prospect of seeing himself ridiculed just when preparing to launch his candidature to Chile presidency. Oh well, too bad for the most insignificant and enabler chief in recent OAS memory.

Meanwhile, an instant poll revealed a Uribe floating at a stratospheric 84%. The opposition rallies and only a few voices pray that Uribe will not use this to seek a third term.

France confesses before it is caught

Perhaps the amusing detail of today was the admission by Kouchner that France was in direct contact with Reyes. Probably they preferred to mention it before the Colombians had the time to announce to the world that France was doing behind the back dealing with the enemies of the Colombian state. I suspect that foreign minister Kouchner will not be received any time soon in Bogota as the French now have also lost any credibility in the whole business, Ingrid being now reason enough for them to flout any convention, at the risk to destabilize gravely whole countries. France has been so reckless, so inconsiderate of the problem that it is simply astounding! Heck! Kouchner with total lack of diplomacy said that Ingrid should be released first.

Conclusion? Watching all of these people today, just on gut feeling, I trusted more the Colombians than anyone else. For starters Colombian officials speak in whole constructed sentences. Second they are composed. Third, the arguments of the other side are too numerous and too contrived. Maybe Colombia is a liar, but the ones that look like jerks are form the other side.

Besides let's not forget one thing, after decades in the jungles, a bitter Reyes might have started fantasizing in his own computer so everyone might be a liar. However, "el que se rasca es porque algo le pica", those who scratch themselves it is because they have an itch.... I will leave it at that....

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Update 1: This Tuesday morning I had the pleasure to read Tal Cual while I was drinking my morning tea the editorial of Teodoro (ins Spanish here). Not only he confirms a lot of my interpretations above (see, you do not need to be a rocket scientists to find it weird that Chavez and Correa are shouting so much) but it insists a lot on why the FARC was in Ecuador as "Pedro por su casa". Teodoro, an ex guerillero himself, pertinently asks where has anyone seen a guerrilla sleeping in pajamas.....

If Chavez was hoping for Venezuela to rally to the flag, well, it ain't happening.

Update 2: and of course Weil had to chime in. Legend is "Do not get into my territory". no comments needed.



-The end-

Really, it has become a no brainer: Keiko for Peru's president

[UPDATED] The Peruvian second round tomorrow has drawn so much ink (and even some blood) that one would expect a distant observer to pull his hairs in agony at how come a country has reached such lows.  But if indeed the lows have been reached, surprisingly at the end the choice of lesser evil has turned out to be simpler than expected.