Today's brief summary of Venezuela mess

I have lots of issues at work (imagine that in Venezuela!) so I could not follow things that well. Fortunately it was a more controlled day: so far the violence wishes so clearly expressed by chavismo are not happening. Let's start with Yaracuy.

This morning stopping for "un cafecito" in my errands, I learned that there had been trouble at the CUAM. Students protested, some where injured when the police crashed the protest. So I went to check it out, in great surprise that violence had ALREADY reached this little corner of the world.

When I arrived they were all gone, the CUAM was locked up with chains. But in the street, well, in addition to the slowly burning remains of a barricade there were still about a half dozen police trucks and perhaps up to 50 police people armed to the hilt, bullet proof vest and everything. Needless to say that being alone driving around I decided that it might not be a good idea to stop and take a picture. I learned later through El Impulso that two students had been hurt but that the rest moved on to the IUTY where apparently some from inside joined in the protest. To be continued here.

Elsewhere a large march of students made it way to Plaza Morelos. It is becoming more and more difficult for chavismo to sustain that it is only a couple of thousand of "desadaptados" who protest. Other parts of the country showed continuous protests, but at least less violence than the previous days. However that might have meant more worries for the government.

It seems that in the age of cell phone students are organizing themselves fast and that they might have understood that time plays in their favor if they manage to hold to a solid front for a while. They are also encouraged by some of the students from chavista universities joining them. This is difficult to evaluate as too many of these chavista universities get benefits not obtained by other students and thus might be moor reluctant to join in, if they want to of course. We will have to wait, but meanwhile it is quite clear that the student body of the old universities, students who left high school when Chavez was already president, not a small observation, are largely agasitn Chavez. And if not, well, there is no spontaneous pro Chavez march to be observed anywhere.

But there were other activities observed. For example the government started legal procedures against Globovision. What I expressed yesterday is thus starting to take shape.

But more bad news keep coming to Chavez. For example the Venezuelan Soccer team captain stated that he did not agree with the closing of RCTV. Could that means trouble for the political show that chavismo was trying to mount for the America cup opening in barely three weeks? but that was not all: the ambassador in the US, Alvarez, showed one again how little effect he has in affecting politics in the US as the US House might be about to vote in turn a condemnation of the RCTV closing. Imagine that, Alvarez was stupid enough to challenge Pelosi who has much bigger fish to fry. And Lula seems to be edging closer to eventually speak up on RCTV. He was still rather ambiguous today but his Senate seems to have less qualm about been more direct. At least the Brazilian media is starting to put more heat on the government. Heck, even Mexico's PRD is uttering some concern!

Anyway, today was a day of some reflux as all players seem to have taken stock of the situation. But a few things are certain: the price that Chavez is paying is growing everyday and his supporters everyday look in bigger disarray. But more about that in another post. Meanwhile I leave you to enjoy this great Weil cartoon about the reality of the country. From what little bit I have seen of TVes, I have no doubt that this is the goal of Chavez, that the media do not show the murders, the food scarcity, the corruption, etc... only the good words from his golden mouth.



-The end-