Disturbed people in Venezuela

Last night I wrote the following:

The OAS secretary was also deeply and disturbingly insulted by Chavez.

And I feel that I should expand on that “disturbingly”. The event yesterday was very disturbing indeed, regardless of the so called economic measures announced.

First there was the general scenery. I have not been able to find a good picture but the ABN offers one which conveys the moment. The background is a huge portrait of Chavez and the legend, which I could only partially read in another picture, is an utterance of Chavez a few months ago. It is disturbing to see such a flagrant personality cult this early in the game.

But there is also the way in which Chavez insulted OAS secretary Insulza. Not that Insulza did not deserve at least in part such insults: he has been too lenient about the violations of democracy made by Chavez. No, what is disturbing there is the relish of Chavez insulting Insulza, lingering on the facile immature “insulso” (lame, tasteless) that is a terrible pun on the name of Insulza and that reflects very badly on Chavez barrack’s humor and general immaturity. It is a pun that we all in LatAm made in our mind long ago but that only the poorly educated uncouth would dare to utter in public.

Then there is the “pendejo” (-pubic hair- as an insult). Maybe using it once could be acceptable (it is not at all, but coming from Chavez one could conceive that Insulza would satisfy himself with a single “pendejo”). No, there was that relish that Chavez used to utter the word, going as far as saying that “he was pendejo from the p to the o”. It is disturbing to observe such a silly childish insistence. It is even more disturbing to think about the sexual connotation that could come from that, that cross the mind of Chavez who cannot be unaware of the implications.

It is disturbing to realize that Chavez is everyday more and more imbalanced, that everyday he resists less and less his basic primitive instincts. And even more perturbing that now it is less and less likely that someone within the government will dare to try to limit the excesses.

It was very disturbing to see the crowd raging in applause, the louder the more inane the comment. It was disturbing to hear the crowd chanting “Asi, asi es que se gobierna” (This way, this way is the way to rule).

-The end-

Tags: chavez, insulza, OAS, venezuela, personality cult