Dirceu is out, Chavez loses strong ally

I must confess that I am quite happy. Jose Dirceu has been forced to resign about a growing Brazilian scandal on payoff to representatives to secure votes for Lula.

Well, I am not going to go into the intricacies of the scandal that involves the second in command after Lula, hoping that this will not drag down Brazil into trouble. At least it is worthy to observe that such a scandal is nearly impossible in Venezuela where justice and public officers individual responsibility are something of a far distant past.

However I would like to point out that Dirceu is/was close to Castro and had very unfortunate words to support Chavez, and more than once. He is the probable artisan of keeping Brazil and Venezuela working together in spite of the growing impatience of Lula with Chavez. If he is kicked out for corruption, one can always hope that some dirty laundry about Venezuela will surface. Let's root for Brazilian investigators and may Dirceu land in jail. Or at least be dumped out of Brazilian congress.

On another matter. The Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel declared again today that "sectors of the opposition" wanted to kill Chavez. So, Jose, what about some names for a change? Until when are we going to listen to unfounded accusations that never reach any result? Why can't we accuse your side freely without having all sorts of prosecutions thrown at us at the state expense? Names, we want names! Enough of this eternal charade!!!

I was going to write that Rangel is the Dirceu of Chavez. Once upon a time Rangel was an emeritus journalist and a fighter for human rights. But few people have degraded themselves as much as Rangel has done in Venezuela. I thought better of it. It is unfair to compare Dirceu to Rangel, Dirceu at least had the dignity to resign. Rangel is much worse in his abjection than Dirceu. Much, much worse.