And now toward the end of free Internet in Venezuela

Today Chavez officially launched his crusade against freedom of Internet.  In another heated speech at the PSUV congress where he goes to make sure they toe the line he said:

"Eso no puede ser así, que transmitan lo que les da le gana, envenenando la mente de mucha gente"
This cannot be, that they transmit whatever they feel like it, poisoning the minds of many people.

Note: "transmitan" in Spanish has many translations, from broadcast to send electricity through cables. In a way it is revealing that Chavez uses "transmitan" for the Web instead of "escriban", write, which would have been the correct word to use. It shows that he really does not quite understand Internet and that it sees it just as another broadcasting system that he should be able to control as he controls the rest, directly or through self censorship.  Or perhaps he is getting very concerned that with Youtube and live podcasts the situation will soon be unmanageable?


Reuters picks it up and also picks it up that Chavez said that German chancellor Merkel also wants more Internet control.  This is misleading, and idiotic, for Reuters to report because for those who know German history well they know that Germany by law must control any Nazi speech wherever this one happens, something that either the advisers of Chavez do not know or do not understand, or both.

But Chavez will use any excuse, any justification to advance any new control policy he needs.  The target here are pages such as Noticiero Digital which was expressly mentioned.  I hate to admit it but quite a few pages of Noticiero Digital are yellow journalism at best and it serves more as a cathartic joint for the opposition than actual news.  I, for one, consult Noticiero Digital rarely, only when a reader asks me an opinion about a given article or when a colleague publishes something in there.  You will notice that I link to it adding in parenthesis "extreme forum".  Not to diminish it, every web page serves a purpose and people have the right to visit Noticiero or this page as they wish and as their taste directs them.

But this latest outburst of Chavez is also reflective of many things.  First, the anti democratic nature of the regime, their really thin, and thinning skin.  Their frustration at not being able to control what people write, already expressed when he ordered his PSUV minions to invade Twitter to little success so far, as far as I can tell.  It reflects their own failure at influencing or at least penetrating Internet as no chavista has been able to write a blog as enduring and as successful as this one, which is not by any means the best blog around nor the most read (though respected enough to scare away trolls).  Even Venezuelanalysis, the most sophisticated effort of chavismo in English could not hide its propaganda nature and was trashed by the Washington Post a few days ago where in the web version of an editorial a link to Venezuelanalysis is included.  In other words, it reflects the frustration of chavismo who cannot pass its message in spite of the huge means it disposes and thus is left with no other option than silencing the competition.

Chavez words were not accidental, they are a new policy announcement.  Soon you can expect legislation, lawsuits or a sabotage or hacking war against Noticiero Digital and Noticias 24, but also against blogs like this one.  Having read Chavez words today I am sure that either this page or Miguel, or Quico or Marta Colmenares and more will soon be excoriated (all listed on the right side).  I am certain that there is already detailed reports at Miraflores about opposition web sites and that priorities are being established.  After all we have already been routinely threatened by professional PSF, in comments, by mail or, e.g., at Oil Wars, another blog unable to police its comment into decency and which was thus used to threaten people through folks that we know are into some governmental payroll.  Fortunately that blog is near death but there are other blogs in Spanish or even Aporrea like page which have already mentioned this blog.

But of course I will continue, even if I must do a Yoani Sanchez solution and go into international hotels to avoid Internet Censorship.  And to make sure that the government has real good reasons to get mad at me, here:

• Chavez is a tyrant that has not yet reached his full potential. (heard that Sean Penn?)
• Diosdado Cabello is a major thief of the regime probably having stolen directly or though fronts half a billion dollars.
• Danilo Anderson has been killed by the regime, probably under the orders of Jose Vicente Rangel or at least somebody of that level.
• The corruption of the armed force is epochal.
• The regime has given the country to Cuba and we will never get back a penny of the billions of dollars that were sent over there to prop up an agonizing regime.
• Lula da Silva has been in business with the regime, not necessarily for his own aim but to deliberately screw up the Venezuelan people and use Venezuela to support his hero Fidel and do all the dirty jobs he did not want to do.  He has abetted the corruption that has come with the Brazilian contracts and thus has contributed to the moral decay of Venezuela.
• There is probably in my count at least a hundred murders/kidnappings that can be directly traced to political causes favoring the regime.  As such Chavez is also a murderer in addition to the people he had killed in 1992.
• Chavez has been financing the FARC.

And more, whenever it pleases the regime to want more accusations that can be supported from my side, or form any citizen in Venezuela if we had a judicial system that worked.

I wonder if chavismo is aware of the virulence of right and left wing web sites in the US and how Bush and Obama keep cruising and putting up with the inanities that have been thrown at them.....  but then again for all their faults and alleged "extremism" Bush and Obama were/are democrats all along....  they knew their truth and did not feel like having to impose it the way Chavez is trying to impose his truth.  But people that cannot tolerate criticism to their truth are those that doubt their very own truth.