It is April 13 and chavismo is celebrating. Well, the hardcore anyway because a whole bunch of the people you will see in the streets have been told to march or else. My S.O. is among them and hopefully he will send me pictures of the deal....
As a revenge of sorts I decided to read the infamous Carmona decree and compare it with what is the Venezuelan situation today. you know, to see which one of Carmona and Chavez is the worst dictator.
Article one: naming Carmona president. Well, that is exactly what Chavez would have done in 1992 if he had not shat his pants at the Museo Militar. Deuce.
Article 2: changing back the name of the country. But Chavez keeps changing everything at will, name, flag, etc... Deuce.
Article 3: dissolution of the National Assembly. Well, that is exactly, for all practical purposes, what Chavez did in 2010 gerrymandering the districts to get more seats with less votes and then having an enabling law voted by the lame-duck assembly. That is, the current National Assembly is as good as dissolved. Deuce.
Article 4: a legislative interim council to be appointed. That is exactly what Chavez did with the new Federal comission, and what he is doing with the "consejos comunales" naming their representatives to higher echelons, IF the consejo is chavista controlled. Carmona was just more direct. Deuce.
Article 5: the "president" will coordinate with the other "powers" public policy. That is exactly what happens today, and worse, when Chavez asks someone to be put to jail and that happens the very next day. Afiuni anyone? Deuce.
Article 6: elections within 365 days and Carmona cannot run in those elections. Chavez in February 2009 pushed an eternal reelection amendment and as such his dictatorship scores the point. Chavez dictatorship, 15-love.
Article 7: Carmona can remove at will whomever he does not like. Chavez does the same, either removing all the powers from the selected official, or sending them into exile, or simply dismissing them from office by "accepting their resignation". Chavez dictatorship, 15-love.
Article 8: ditto article 7, Chavez dictatorship, 15-love.
Article 9: Enabling law suspended. Well, Chavez keeps modifying his own laws at will, Chavez dictatorship, 15-love.
Article 10: the current system will remain as long as it does not clash with this decree. Chavez does the same thing, as long as it does not stand in his way, all remains the same, so to speak. Also the decree states that Venezuelan international obligations remain. Chavez is not fulfilling that as witness the amount of organizations he is bailing out of, and those he cannot bail out off but refuses to follow their decisions, such as the Human rights organizations. Chavez dictatorship, 30-love.
Article 11: when a new elected government is installed the Carmona government will have to offer an accounting of all of its actions. Who is Chavez accounting to, or going to account to? Chavez dictatorship Game!
Note: slightly capricious tennis scoring, but heck, I am the umpire.
So there you have it, we will never know what Carmona would have really done and if his decree would have been applied as offered (I doubt it, personally). But we know for sure that Chavez has done much worse than what Carmona offered to do and as such if chavismo calls Carmona not even 48 hours stint a bloody dictatorship then they can call chavismo a murderous one, or some other stronger term of choice.
Wow - I never would have thought of comparing these, but I'm glad you did. I certainly can't argue with any of the scores, either. Imagine that - Chavez is not only an undemocratic coupster, he's less democratic than the coupster who tried to depose him, yet still tries to claim the democratic mantle. Surreal.
ReplyDeleteAIO
ReplyDeleteyou know, that is one of the criticism that we bloggers do to venezuelan media, in addition of self censorship in favor of selling papers. there is no follow up, no memory. that is why i like to watch "el ciudadano" in globovision because for all his faults he remembers stuff as the one i wrote in this post.
the thing is that had i not become a scientist i would have become an historian which was my original career choice. and my booksehlves crumble under history books and assays.... so remembering for me is sort of natural....
i am so often aghast at the lack of education and memory of journalists, for even some of the most fundamental things on venezuela. never mind chavista creeps like golinger who knew nothing about venezuela until she landed here. she still does not know much if you ask me.
Daniel, it's a very widespread problem, unfortunately, with plenty of non-Venezuelan names which could be added to that list.
ReplyDeleteI'm also certainly aware that you are good at this, and I appreciate it. My comment here was not about surprise that you did so, but simply about how stunning a comparison it was. Would be interesting to hear some of the blowhards who continue to justify things based on what Carmona did to try to explain how Chavez is different. I don't think anyone could really do so without problems, and it would be much more difficult still if they were put on the spot. Articles 3, 4, 6 and 11 in particular demonstrate Chavez' hypocrisy, and it would be the most fun to hear people defend him against those statements.