Thursday, November 18, 2010

Venezuela's justice: when you thought it could not go any lower, it does

Today we commemorate (?, what other word could one use) the murder of prosecutor Danilo Anderson.  We do not know yet who ordered that crime, and for that matter we cannot be certain of who killed him.  But there is finally a novelty: Tal Cual mini editorial of "Simon Boccanegra" has no second thoughts at accusing former general prosecutor Isaias Rodriguez of muddling the waters and making sure that innocent parties paid for the crime so as to protect the real culprits.  The more so that hyper morally corrupt Rodriguez wants to become the president of the High Court, TSJ.  So certain he is of his nomination that he even resigned his ambassador post in Spain, another job for which he demonstrated his total unfitness, by the way.

The editorial is translated below but before you go further be aware that the relatives of Danilo Anderson have asked for the investigation of former Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel as the likely head of the plot to kill Anderson to protect his corrupt banker friends, some of them are on the run today or in jail.  Eventually, shall we know the truth? The Tal Cual article includes a summary of the Anderson Case to date.


ISAÍAS, PRESIDENT OF THE TSJ

News emerged that a certain Alexis Peña has declared his intention to make known in court that he was paid by Isaias Rodriguez to be a false witness, so as to inculpate one of the Guevara brothers as the perpetrator of the murder of Danilo Anderson.

Whether this is true there would be nothing unusual. Isaias is known as a cheat, a bragging trickster. The "star witness" episode, Geovanny Vasquez, deserves the Oscar for cynicism.  From Isaias we can expect anything.

It's a case of moral degradation rarely seen in this country. This guy was a prosecutor of the Republic and apart from being a lapdog of the President, whose whims he is willing to comply bypassing any consideration of ethics and morality, he was a manufacturer of what is called in Colombia "false positives", i.e., to attribute to innocent citizens crimes prefabricated in the laboratories of the authorities, in this case, the dirty war offices of the Attorney General dispatch.

But the vileness, the gall and audacity of Isaias have no boundaries. Not only now he is aiming at joining the TSJ, but he promotes his candidacy to preside over the highest office. That it succeeds should not surprise us since the decision makers are alligators from the same cesspool [caimanes del mismo pozo].

In a country where a seditious statement, publicly uttered, like the one of Rangel Silva, is worth his promotion to commander in chief, a corrupt, with serious mental deficiency, like Isaias Rodriguez, might well be elected to the Supreme Court and, moreover, his colleagues would abide by the order, which obviously could only come but from Chacumbele [Chavez], to place him at the head the court. Time of rats, this one.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:44 PM

    Alligators from the same cesspool?

    ReplyDelete
  2. anon

    good. i changed it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4:50 PM

    Daniel,

    An even better translation of the overall flavor of the expression would be "alligators from the same swamp". "Swamp" providing the requisite imagery of stagnant water, rotting vegetation, and vile and dangerous creatures.

    ReplyDelete
  4. anon

    You do have a point but I may not agree this time. Swamp has a double connotation, from nature preserve to godforsaken place. I think the intent of Teodoro was closer to cesspool (as in NY sewer legend?) than to swamp which after all can be a nice, open habitat if unpleasant for us.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The "swamp" comment was mine.

    So you are saying that one man's rank and rotting, malarial swamp, home to mosquitoes, snakes, and various creepy crawly things is another man's natural wetlands wildlife preserve, home to ancient cypress trees, beautiful birds and butterflies.

    The rhetoric is all well and good, but spend a night camped out in a swamp and then see if you still want to wax poetic about it.

    ReplyDelete

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