Chavez criticized by the world intellectuals and artists, the great ones at that

Poor Chavez, since his august 15 2007 announcement for a referendum cum power grab, things have been going downhill for him. First, the campaign sucked. Second, milk, sugar, flour, beans, etc... started missing on the shelves. Then he lost the vote on December 2 and ended up making a ridiculous spectacle of his bitter self. Moving on late December he botched a hostage "rescue" show. When he got them finally in early January he had no better idea than to endorse the FARC and blow away any points he might have won though the hostage release. Since then he kept running into more trouble such as the Exxon scandal where the ineptitude of the "people"'s PDVSA is now the laughing stock of the world.

But things can always get worse. Now an old censorship issue came back to visit him: the Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz (one of my favorites by the way).

Mr. Sanz had the bad fortune to criticize Chavez polices when he was visiting Venezuela last, around the heydays of the Recall Election. Since then chavismo has been trying to discredit him but it seems that Sanz is winning the party after all. After having refused to rent him the Poliedro for a Caracas concert, the government sort of allowed him to reschedule his concert. But lo' and behold, Sanz canceled it because the logistics were too complicated and no hotel wanted to receive his party. Hotel owners were quick to refute this, as expected, since they know full well that were they to confirm that they discriminated against Sanz for fear of the government, they would have got a visit of the SENIAT within days. Here we know better and if we have a hard time to forgive hotel management at least we do understand that this is the way to survive in a lawless country, and they owe it to their staff stability. Some of us also remember the recent example of the Primero Justicia convention which was postponed because nobody wanted to rent them space until finally the EuroBuilding did.

So Sanz canceled but any mean victory that chavismo would have been celebrating, many are despicable enough to celebrate such things, was quickly undone by a communique where the creme de la creme of the world entertainment and recognized musicians took the side of Sanz. These include more than a hundred folks (so far?):

Top artists such as Shakira, Juan Luis Guerra, Joan Manuel Serrat, and Mark Anthony, along more fluffy but equally well known artist/celebrities such as JeLo and Ricky Martin.

David Beckham: from the sport world but entertainment side, and surprisingly politically aware, a nice change from the Hollywood tasteless crowd that has been hanging around Chavez lately

The list also include many Venezuelan singers of course, the most known ones here but also many musical groups from all around Latin America.

A few days ago I was thinking about the chavista carnival and the poverty of thought and creativity it meant. Well, when you see the roster of the people supporting Sanz agaisnt Chavez you get the best possible confirmation of how low and how discredited Chavez has gone outside of Venezuela, at least among people who have a few functioning neurones.

But that was not all for Chaevz. One of the greatest writers alive in Latin America, Carlos Fuentes, went out again agaisnt Chavez. And the worse part for Chavez is that in the very same interview he praised Castro while trashing Chavez, with some the marvelous expressions, here below:

Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes qualified this past Wednesday president Hugo Chavez of "demagogo lloricón" (crybaby demagogue) without any redeeming traits and he added that he completely dislikes him.

"He almostlost power. He protected himself with the church. He cried. He is a man without substance, a cheap tropical Mussolini. He has matters little."..."Mussolini with bananas. Banana Mussolini (...) He seems to me a demagogue crybaby".

According to Fuentes, the political system of Venezuela is not socialism but fascism.

[he] compared Chavez with Fidel Castro, who he described as "respectable man". "One is genuine the other is a fraud". "One might not agree with Fidel, but he must be respected... The other one is an amateur... that will not last much".

"[It is Chavez] function, his dictatorial pretense, that mania of Latin America dictators, of the authoritarian type, to hide his at home failures creating foreign problems".

"Chavez lives of that, personality cult".

"I think that the great failure of the Bush presidency is that he thought he entered a world he would dominate... and we saw that it was not so" " His project crashed down because today's world does not admit a single power".

Accusing Fuentes of right wing conspiracy, of serving the Empire, well, it will not fly.

For the thinking world, Chavez is a clown, a sad clown at that.


-The end-

Manipulation, blackmail and punishment for Alejandro Sanz: the shape of things to come

This past few days we have witnessed a few stellar moments that are quite telling of the government that will come into office in January 2008, once the new constitution is approved. And it ain't pretty. The reason why we are seeing such strange displays is simply due to one single fact: the polls for the "reforma" approval are not as good as what they should be. Thus quickly the government must take measures to shore up support. But along the way some of its talibanic members lose a sense of perspective and reveal the true values of what lays behind the offerings, such as trying to buy the gay vote or punishing Alejandro Sanz.



The need to go shopping for votes

First, as I wrote this morning, there is not enough cash in hand. So, in addition to screw us with a new but badly disguised sales tax the government also will add new taxes on luxury items, booze and smokes. It is funny because these luxury items will not affect much people like me but will certainly affect much more the nouveau bolibourgeois riche. What is even more funny is that a shocked government who cannot understand where it went so wrong says that these taxes will not affect inflation. But I am sure they do not care as long as additional cash comes in to pay for the required votes. In fact I am prepared to say that the government has decided to stop the pretense of its fight against inflation because simply put it is more important for them to have Chavez as a president for life. After that is gained, who cares whether there is inflation on Venezuela!!!!

Cuando nadie me ve
puedo ser o no ser cuando nadie me ve
pongo el mundo al revés

New constitutional changes

It seems that apparently the 6 hours work week is not enough to generate a wild enthusiasm in the population. It seems also that the promise of universal health coverage for all is not very convincing either. After all, this was already implied in 1999 and in 8 years Chavez has done nothing to increase benefits, preferring much to rely on cash payments through "misiones". Well managed entitlements are not the favorite way for populists to win votes.

So Silly Flowers, 'scuse me, Cilia Flores, the head of the National Assembly (N.A.) has decided (was told?) that she would include new carrots at the end of the stick. So we get now promises of including voting age at 16 (how this will induce the 18+ to vote is a logic that escapes me) and equal rights for gay people.

There are many things wrong in this. For example, it is probably not legal for her to attach new article modifications to the ones offered by Chavez. After having claimed that all 33 changes must be voted in block and that any alterations to the proposed changes could only be made by Chavez, suddenly we are hearing possible modifications in certain articles by Chavez himself, when not by the N.A.!!! Reading the constitution it seems that any new addition must be processed apart, with the same delays as the N.A. is following this time for the original proposal of August 15. This would mean that either the announced December 9 referendum would have to be postponed, or two referenda should be held, or the current constitution should be violated again. We are not talking small matters here: for example one of the proposals would require that the number of signatures required to call for recall elections or for popular initiatives would be increased by 10% to 30% of registered voters!!! That is, we are talking of restrictions of civil rights!!!! That cannot casually be dismissed as a second thought in the current "reforma"!



But let's look at the inclusion of gay rights as the supreme hypocrisy of the government. In 1999 this issue was brought forward, accompanied with at least limited decriminalization of abortion. Then, the homophobic military that chavismo is could not accept women to be in control of their bodies or for maricones y cachaperas to love who they wanted. Now, when the numbers are tight, suddenly someone got the idea to buy the gay vote by giving them equal rights.

Why was not legislation passed during these last 8 years? That was the excuse advanced then, that all rights were guaranteed and that simple laws would be enough to supply any deficiency for a given minority. I do not know about what gays in Venezuela feel about this but as far as I am concerned I do not know what good it is to be able to love whomever one wants if for that you are watched over by your local "consejo comunal", if you do not get protection against gay bashing when the judicial system will protect any chavista force that abuses its power, if your freedom of information is done with and gay life does not appear in VTV, if repressed homosexuals such as Barreto can decide over your future, and more, much more... Gay rights are irrelevant when basic human rights are compromised under a socialist authoritarian regime. Go and read Reinaldo Arenas accounts of gay life in Cuba to convince yourself.

Vale... que a lo mejor me lo merezco
bueno... pero mi voz no te la vendo
puerta... y lo que opinen de nosotros...
léeme lo labios, yo no estoy en venta

Alejandro Sanz all but forbidden in Venezuela

Alejandro Sanz is a "cantautor" from Spain who is one of the top singers and composers in Spanish these days, and one of my favorites. Not only his early success are still heard in the radio, but he has shown an extraordinary ability to keep evolving when not reinventing himself while retaining his basic artistic thread. His lyrics are quite extraordinary on occasion. And he is certainly more creative, more productive, more brilliant than any pseudo artistic garbage coming from the bolivarian mess. In fact, we should be so lucky that he still wants to visit his fans in Venezuela.

Unfortunately poor Alejandro had the bad idea in 2004 to say that if 3 million people were to sign up for him to stop singing he would oblige. The clear reference to Chavez trying to dodge the Recall Election was not missed and it infuriated chavista fanatics. Some tried to launch an on line petition to collect those 3 million signatures to shut up Sanz, but we never heard about the outcome of that drive, though since then Sanz popped out a few more CDs, including an MTV unplugged.

Well, Sanz bravely wanted to come back and his representatives in Venezuela booked the Poliedro, the only indoor arena big enough to receive Sanz. The Poliedro also receives another local star, Chavez, who holds there quite often the meetings he needs to stage to project an impression of strength. A wall of red shirted paid for assistance certainly looks impressive on TV. What we do not know is whether Chavez political meetings are paying for the rental of the Poliedro though we are sure that the state foots the bill, whichever that one is.

As luck as it, the Poliedro has recently been given as an endowment of sort to the Chavez created university, the UBV. The person in charge now of deciding who can play at the Poliedro is the University minister, currently an UCV professor, Luis Acuña. And as the good sycophant that they all become once they decide to serve Chavez, he has decided not to rent the Poliedro to Sanz, provoking apparently the end of Sanz visit until a distant future singing tours are carefully timed affairs that cannot be changed at the local potentate caprice. Note: other programed concerts have not been canceled, only the Sanz one, long booked, is gone off schedule. Thus the revolution avenged itself!



So here we have it, the new police thought that will control access to public arenas, paid at all tax payer expenses, for all people in Venezuela that are now reduced only to artists that at the very least do not express their opinion on Chavez. All duly reported by Reuters, for example, and others. Ah! Socialist freedom! Socialist inquiring minds! Socialist art! We are eagerly awaiting their further development once the "reforma" is approved!

Ya lo sé, que corazón que no ve
es corazón que no siente,
o corazón que te miente amor.
[...]
Dar solamente aquello que te sobra
nunca fue compartir, sino dar limosna, amor.

-The end-

Sunday's hypocrites: Magglio and Chavez

[Updated]

I know, I know, I should be writing about more important things such as the latest land seizures, the harbors wars, Stanford fraud, a Russian bomber base in Venezuela and what not, but I prefer to discuss the latest ridicule because it is, in my opinion, the most important event of this week: baseball Venezuelan star Magglio Ordoñez was booed at the Baseball world cup in Miami by a crowd consisting mostly of Venezuelans. Today Chavez started his Alo Presidente lambasting Miami Venezuelans inexcusably rooting for the enemy. Inasmuch as what happened in Miami is distasteful, there is only one person to blame here and it is Chavez. Not the fans, not Magglio: Chavez and Chavez alone from having created the climate of hate that is leading us inexorably to a violent exit.

True, politics should never be mixed with sports and you should always root for your home team when this one is playing. Or at least stay quiet. But what happened in Miami is much, much more than just a disgruntled anti Chavez fan base.

First, Magglio Ordoñez made an add in favor of the SI in the February 15 referendum. He did not need to do that, and he should have stayed away from it. It is not the same thing to say in an interview that you support Chavez, just between the question about your family and the one about your latest training methods. It is another thing when you actually make a specific pitch for the man.

True, athletes deserve to have a political opinion, but if they pretend to represent all of their country they should abstain to make political statements, or if they must allude to their preferences do so in a casual way at most. Pushing this line of argument, I could go as far as seeing Magglio in a large group of people featuring their support for Chavez in 2006, but not for the type of election that we held last February where the message proposed was that a group in the country was trying to find ways to impose Chavez forever to the other group. Taking position in such a highly polarized context can only bring you trouble, no matter which side wins.

This being said, we must agree that Magglio has no excuse. When he states that he is allowed to express himself and that he is not hurting anyone, he is either a fool whose dozens of millions earned in the MLB have cut him from the Venezuelan reality, or he is a liar. Perhaps another type of athlete, one from those sports that never get much financial support, could be excused from publicly supporting Chavez. After all, how much money can ever do a TaeKwonDo player compared to the millions already made by Magglio and those he still shall pocket? When you are the image of a major MLB star in the US you owe it to all Venezuelans to be discrete on politics as all the other MLB stars, even bigger than Magglio, do. Magglio is simply an interested idiot.

But he is also a victim because he has left himself get trapped into Chavez Machiavellian world. And he is a dangerous victim too because he forced the team to get out fast to his defense least they lose the tournament after a fit of demoralization or least Chavez exacts revenge on them at home from something that they could not help. Not all of them have the comfortable millions in the bank that allow Magglio to be an airhead.

When Chavez complains about the Miami exiles (and many Venezuelans who flew in for the occasion) playing politics with Magglio he should be ashamed because he is the one who introduced politics to Venezuelan sports. Or has he forgotten all the photo op he sought for the Beijing Olympics? Or has he forgotten how he used to America Soccer cup to promote himself? Anything that Chavez touches becomes corrupt and those that allow Chavez to reach them become corrupted too in a XXI century Faustian bargain. As such Magglio can almost be pitied as a a victim. But he still remains and idiot and probably an interested liar.

Chavez is the biggest hypocrite, and his followers along. After all, did they not try to give hell to Alejandro Sanz when he tried to come to Venezuela for a concert a while back. Now for all practical purposes he is not allowed in the country (as many writers, journalists and the like, by the way, including Lech Walesa). Why those crocodile tears about Magglio being booed in Miami? Because it risks to impair the chances of Venezuela to win the title and thus deprive Chavez of another ego bloated moment?

"I voted for Chavez and all I got was this divided country" is the kind of t-shirts they could start making. Of all my Venezuelan sports memories I cannot recall a situation like the Magglio one yesterday. This is the only true achievement of Chavez in ten years, to divide us into a 54 and a 46% blocks that are about ready to kill each other, or at least throw empty bottles at each other. Socialism my ass, plain fascism is what this is. Because let's not forget that if Chavez inner fascist is plainly revealing itself these days, it also feeds on the other side becoming fascist and acting on it as they did in Miami. The honorable way out of this is for Magglio to swallow his pride and make a communique where he repeats that he is pro Chavez but admits that it was a error from his part to act on it, and apologizes for it. But then again he probably knows what Chavez would do to him if he were to atone.

This Miami moment is so illustrative of our predicament that the mind reels.

To close this I must also address something rather unpleasant: why are there so many Venezuelans in Miami? Why has this group increased so much under Chavez? True, they might have been contaminated with some of the extremism of some of the Cuban exile, but still, that does not detract from the reasons they went to Miami: political prosecution, financial problems, lack of opportunities at home, soaring crime in Venezuela, and what not... All of these things might or might not be attributed to Chavez but the aggravation of everyone of them is to be laid without a doubt at the feet of Chavez. But then again, like Castro had, he also wants his radical Miami exile.

Update: in a moment of idleness I looked for more info on Magglio Ordoñez. Quickly I found clear evidence that 1) he is an ignorant idiot and 2) that he probably is doing "business" with the revolution (namely the gang in Anzoategui; maybe he wants to become governor when he retires of MLB?). This picture at voting time says it all, lamé and rhinestone mass murderer included. Yet another great moment in bad taste.

-The end-

State of censorship in Venezuela

This state paid advertisement (tax payer expense for those who do not get it) was published today in page 5 of the El Universal sports section. It reads textually:

there is so [much] freedom of expression in Venezuela
that you are reading this paper.

(In small at the bottom you can read)

VENEZUELA
[an] expression of liberty

(and then the logo of the MINCI, the communication ministry)

There is so much wrong in this add, so much threat that the mind of anyone should reel at the implications. But let's start by the beginning before any one thinks that this blogger is prejudiced: there is indeed freedom of expression in Venezuela, although increasingly threatened and occasionally limited. What is lacking everyday more and more is freedom of expression. And this has been building up for quite a while, with increasing refusal of the state to talk to anyone but "official" media, and effective freedom of information done with when RCTV was closed last June.

First, let's discuss the context of this add. This week end the IAPA/SIP organized its first of two yearly meetings, this one in Caracas. During last year referendum campaign the government tried to put all sorts of obstacles to the meeting been held anywhere in Venezuela. But the SIP said that they would come no matter what and that lodging would be found one way or the other (remember the latest round of governmental pressure over hotels when the Alejandro Sanz concert had to be canceled). So the SIP came and offered Chavez to open the meeting and expose to the SIP his point of view on the whole matter of freedom of expression in Venezuela and elsewhere. Chavez did not show up and did not even had the decency to refuse. No answer, period.

However the government sponsored a "counter meeting" a couple of blocks away from the SIP hotel. It was called "encounter against media terrorism", no irony intended. As it is becoming more and more the case, the effect of this counter meeting was rather negative to the state as it flopped badly. In fact, it more than flopped, something stressed when Marcos Hernandez of Reporteros por la Verdad, was given a right of response at the SIP and showed his low class, his partiality and his incompetence, not to mention the compulsive lies now the everyday talk in chavistadom. He threatened Mr. Natera, director of Correo del Caroni, a much attacked newspaper, with judicial action by accusing him of being a coup monger in front of all the SIP. That Natera was the spokesperson of the Venezuelan press for that meeting exposed clearly to the whole world better than anything else how threatened is now freedom of expression in Venezuela.

Of course, with his very tarnished image of Chavez was certainly not going to take a chair in a room where someone would dare to criticize him. If you look at the purges inside the all but still born PUSV, whomever might criticize Chavez, even behind closed doors, has been shut out of the chavista pseudo political party. These days Chavez has his paid agents to take the heat wherever needed. That the SIP did criticize much more than just Venezuela, the US was one of the targets, did not make a difference: Chavez wants to project an image of being above criticism even though everyday he is more deserving of it. The self righteousness of Chavez, and his thinning skin are everyday more obvious, as much as his bloated physique. however as he keeps insulting the SIP this one says that only Cuba has more limits to freedom of expression than Venezuela in the Americas.

Now to the add published above. It is very simple: it is a direct threat to El Universal as this add implies directly that El Universal of Caracas, the Venezuelan senior paper, is published at the sufferance of the regime. Its objective might have been to criticize the SIP meeting but in fact it achieves (willingly perhaps?) the opposite effect. Did the subconscious of the public official in charge of this add betrayed him/her?

So here we are, with a government that thinks highly of itself by permitting still some papers to publish. And there are some folks that still dare to defend such policies...

By the way, the SIP heard again about abusive cadenas and that about 80% of the Venezuelan air waves are now under direct or indirect control of the state. That is right, about only 20% of the airborne media is still independent. And this quote is worth posting:

"There is a President (Hugo Chávez) who is persistently attacking journalism and harassing and insulting the press. Journalism here is faced with serious restrictions, and when journalism is exercised under serious restrictions there is no press freedom,"

-The end-