Back in San Felipe and events are speeding up

I am just back, trying to arrive before the rain of Hurricane Ivan caught up with me. As I type there is a thunder storm that should not be related to Ivan but then again it might be as the Eastern area of Venezuela is hit by significant rain.

I was rather tired after driving for a couple of hours under the rain, and when I arrived I was too busy unpacking and fixing some diner to listen to all of the announcement of Enrique Mendoza. He was pointing several ways the electoral fraud was committed and promised the country that over the next few days more announcements would be coming. The few I did catch were rather telling and Battaglini might have to swallow his words sooner than expected. This most blunt chavista of the CNE directors must have tried to pre-empt Mendoza announcement by declaring yesterday that the fraud was not the CNE business anymore. Yeah, right... Zamora today promptly contradicted him, showing again that the CNE has become an empty shell now that the referendum has been undertaken.

Again, considering the late hour and how tired I am I will refer the readers of this blog to the excellent article by Alexandra Beech as some recent developments on the fraud claims. I am rather glad to observe that I am not the only one that is starting to find the acts of Jennifer McCoy quite strange. Is she defending her boss? Is she digging her political grave? Is she telling the truth? Is she well informed? What has she learned in one year of Venezuelan politics? Is she naive? Is she up to no good? Yet again one of the Carter Center "experts" flip-flopped his position and this time some people are claiming loudly that McCoy is exerting undue pressure. I cannot tell of course, but as I have pointed out earlier the Carter Center is acting very strangely and by now probably has lost any respect from all the political players the Venezuelan arena.

As of tomorrow I will be able to get again into the thick of the news as they promise to become quite interesting. I will leave you with a side comment, funny if it were not so sad. The judge that was caught red handed accepting a bribe a couple of days ago declared today that he was a victim. Well, maybe, but listening to his declaration on TV the real question I have is: how did Leon Villanueva ever made it as a judge? No wonder justice in Venezuela is so bankrupt!