One does not know whether to laugh to tears or feel insulted by the mild sudaca view apparently quite prevalent in Spain higher echelons of the government. The latest issue of wikileaks by Spain's El Pais is all the gossip fun that one could have hoped for (less gossipy but way more tragic for Venezuela are the revelations on how the regime is dumping our oil industry for the cash it so badly needs). Next a few gems here and there from the cables:
Cable 1, a farewell visit to Trinidad Jimenez when she was undersecretary for Latin American affairs
Jimenez said that in this [Moratinos] visit Chavez had been unusually moderate, avoiding rhetorical excesses,
Jimenez described Chavez as "a brute, but not a stupid one."
cable 2 is a must read. Jimenez account of her 2007 visit to Venezuela. Maybe not the most important quote but certainly the most telling becasue it shows clearly what she thought of Cuba and Venezuela:
Jimenez was struck by what her Chief of Staff called the "Havana-ization" of Caracas, with the city beginning to look distinctly dingy.
Cable 3 is about the proposed covert help from Spain and the EU (?) agaisnt the 2007 referendum chavista positions. That is, Euroepans knew very well what that referendum was all about and wanted to try to help the opposition from behind the scenes.
Jimenez also said the Spanish Government was working behind the scenes, feeding information to journalists on the threat to democracy in Venezuela.
Jimenez agreed the proposed constitutional reforms would be a severe setback for democracy
As for the famous Santiago meeting when king Juan demanded Chavez to shut up:
Jimenez noted that post-Santiago Spain had received
messages of solidarity from virtually every government in
Latin America. She said Chavez (whom she described as a
"clown") was isolated. Alluding to the "Kings' Club" Jimenez
said the Saudis had given Chavez the cold shoulder at the
recent OPEC meeting because of his rudeness to Juan Carlos.
She said even Evo Morales was signaling by his body language
in Santiago that Chavez was embarrassing him.
All of these words, according to different US embassy personnel, come from the woman now foreign minister of Spain who said infamously that there are no political prisoners in Venezuela. Maybe we now know why she says that, covering her ass from past words that she suspected could come back to haunt her....
As for Evo and Ortega, I trust the word of El Pais without having to read the cables.
By the way, according to the proposed new internet censorship law in the works in Venezuela with this post I can be prosecuted and my blog censored. Just for you to know.
"the GOV message was that Spain was worrying about "peanuts"
ReplyDeleteby focusing on issues such as press freedoms and human
rights. Spain should instead be focused on strategic issues
such as energy cooperation. The Venezuelans said they were
delivering the same message to Washington. They welcomed
Spanish energy firms to Venezuela."
nice to know their priorities
It looks like Chavez has successfully put foreign governments that might criticize him on the defensive.The Spanish say it's counterproductive to confront him anyway because he would actually use that to score propaganda points and increase his support.Chavez would also immediately counter by claiming that he is being attacked by the European lackeys of the Empire.
ReplyDeleteSpain was trying to secretly work against him( Chavez) by feeding information to the European press of his misdeeds.They were also working with the US to promote real democracy in LA. Of course it is only to Chavez's benefit that all this has become public.
There is a current of XXI century socialism that thinks that the cable leaks are the works of the US foreign office, including Mr Heinz Dieterich, the intellectual of that current. So far, all I see from those leaks tends to confirm that conspiracy theory. However, I am a firm believer in " Occam razor" otherwise known as principle of parsimony and see no malevolence where straight stupidity and carelessness on the pat of Hillary Clinton's office can explain it all. Nevertheless, the whole thing is very amusing.
ReplyDeleteThe wikileaks people are to be commended in providing us with this inside baseball on what the various governments really think of Chavez, as well as what the real practices of his government amount to when selling "the peoples' oil" at firesale prices.
ReplyDelete