Schizophrenia at Miraflores: doing what it takes to keep that seat

This week brought an almost radical change in Chavez actions. Polls numbers must be percolating in the situation room of Miraflores and new strategies must be designed fast.

First the visit of Raul Castro. No cadenas this week end! (that I know of anyway) No Alo Presidente with Raul!!! Clearly, Raul does not bring votes the way Fidel could. Or could it be that Raul was told that he needed to cut down his expenses and in reprisal did not want to be in the Chavez show?

Then Jose Vicente Rangel, ex vice president and specialist in Chavez image improvement, discarded in 2006 when he warned about closing RCTV (as the rumors goes anyway) was called back to duty. Chavez gave him a TV interview with easy questions to reply. Nothing spontaneous there.

We learned that better relationships with the US are sought. Yeah, right....

We learned that Chavez wants a rapprochement of sorts with the opposition. Well, the victim section of it, the one that has allowed itself to be brain washed for ten years, you know, people like me that never got a chance to see the revolution for the good it does to the middle class. According to Chavez if it were not for RCTV, Globovision, El Universal and El Nacional the revolution would be supported by 90% of the country. It seems that we never learned to use our remote control and that we always reach the newsstand when only the unsold issues of Tal Cual et al were the only items left. Apparently we are retards....

Of course, today we were quickly reminded that all of these sweet words were hogwash. We never believed him anyway as we have seen him and his lies for ten years now. For example the newly elected governor of Tachira had to go today to the high court so that the chavistas in San Cristobal finally accept to give him his job. Even though the CNE has long decided he won, the defeated PSUV candidate and his accomplices are refusing to accept the vote and ask for a new election. I mean, they recognize they lost but surely a new election with people less brain washed will give them their due. Some democrats... And not to be left behind, Carabobo's Salas Feo swearing in was annulled and he will have to be sworn again....

But as usual the inner beast of Chavez cannot be tamed. As I am typing this Chavez is doing a new cadena tonight where he is busy insulting the newly opposition governors accusing them from being coup mongers and wishing they were there to solve people's problems. Can I venture to predict that Tachira vote will be duly annulled? Today Miguel Angel Rodriguez denounced that he was a government target. Huh? The star anchor of the morning RCTV news show is a threat that needs to be neutralized? Was RCTV supposed to be dead? Or are people stupid enough to buy cable TV to keep watching it? It makes sense, if people go out of their way to watch "La Entrevista" then the anchor must be neutralized for their own good.

But comic relief is always at hand. We need that to withstand these ten years of pseudo bolibana revolution. Chavez again today said that Venezuela is the victim of an international conspiracy. It is now qualified as a psychological war. I kid you not.

And I saved you the best for the end: Chavez said that the journalist that threw his shoe at Bush had a lot of courage. This is really hilarious. Whether you like or hate Bush you must admit that he was relatively unruffled and kept his spirits and the press conference. Think for a minute about what would have happened if Miguel Angel were to throw a really nasty question at a press conference (note that he could not, he is barred of them like RCTV and Globovision and most Venezuelan media). He would have been promptly arrested by dozens of body guards, many Cubans. Conspiracy would have been decreed. The National Assembly would have spun in over drive with words such as golpista! magnicidio! and what not. Chavez would have done a couple of cadenas where he would have narrated his heroism in withstanding the brutal assault. Suspects would have been named. Troops would have been sent somewhere. Etc, etc.....

No Hugo, the one in trouble here is not Bush, it is you. He is done and will go into a nice retirement (if undeserved). We are trying to find ways to send you to jail and that is what keeps you awake at night. No amendment is going to save you from having squandered the wealth of a country in unsustainable programs.

-The end-