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Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Is Chavez in such trouble that international pariah statute does not rattle him?

We have to wonder what are the objectives of the Venezuelan regime as it keeps piling up international errors.  We can of course start by the continually renewed support to Qaddafi even as evidences of abuse, crime, luxury and cowardice are impossible to hide anymore.  Even Russia and China, alleged friends and models of Chavez, are finally backing down on their opposition to the Libyan rebels, as Brazil is also caving in, not wanting to be left out completely from the Libyan reconstruction.  And this support comes at a time where the collusion between Chavez and Muammar are about to be revealed as Libya's finances will start be explored in earnest with whatever documents can still be found.

But if this was not bad enough, Chavez's regime and his sycophants are about to push yet another milestone as they seem ready to assume the risk of becoming pariah in their own continent.  These days Chavez minions seem ready to send packing once and for all the Inter American Court for Human Rights as a ruling about to be released this week is looking more and more to be adverse.  That is, we must suspect that the regime must have got wind of the IACHR decision and is already in frontal attack mode, not even damage control mode.


The decision in itself is one that will allow on paper Leopoldo Lopez to run for presidential office.  The details of the case already explained matter little.  Suffice to say that he was banned from running for office on the charges of corruption even though he did not get any money and no fair trial was held against him.  Simply put, he used one account to pay for another account in Chacao town hall admistration because the regime was not sending on time the money it owed Chacao.  The IACHR ruling is expected to say that yes indeed, a government can ban someone from holding public office but a real trial must take place, not a mere administrative decision.  Certainly the decision will not be absolutely clear cut since several countries are involved with different legislation, but Chavez regime will be on the losing end, creating political problems at home.

And yet this is not what matters.  What really matters is that if Venezuela does not comply with the ruling it will be the 13th time it does so leaving a very tarnished Chavez who might not finally be able to escape some sanction since this case has become quite notorious.

International courts of justices are a tricky thing.  You may be able to escape their sentencing for a while, a long while even, but you cannot escape them all the time.  At some point there will be financial sanctions, arrest warrants and the like and even your friends will want you to comply because they do not want the trouble to extend to them.  They may think that in a few cases you are right in protesting and ignoring the sentence, but when you do that too often their amused leniency fades.

But chavismo is  going undeterred, going as far as recovering its gold deposits abroad least they are siezed through some adverse judicial decision.  Chavismo recognizes this way that indeed they did wrong and that they do not give a damn, my dear.

In the case that minds us today the regime has already sent no one else but the high court of justice head, Luisa Estella Morales, to say that Venezuela will not accept a ruling that violates its Constitution even though while saying this she does violate the constitution.  See, this one was voted in 1999 and in 2001 the regime ratified the OAS Human Rights Chart which implies a recognition of the IACHR and its validity with the Venezuelan 1999 Constitution.  Luisa Estella Morales knows that very well, that the Venezuelan constitution forces the country to recognize treaties willingly signed, that Venezuelans are allowed to appeal to foreign justice once they have exhausted all their recourse at home, and that public servants have to obey the Constitution and international treaties of Venezuela, risking a potential of several years of jail if they do not do so.  She knows all of that  and yet she persists.

The only conclusions we can come up with is that either the regime denial is deeper than what we thought, or this one is getting ready to leave the tenuous legality still used as a fig leaf.  In any case the issue of freedom for Venezuelans is being posed crudely on the International Stage and this one will have to notice because, if anything, other Latin American countries are not as willing to send the IACHR packing.



18 comments:

  1. Jeffry House3:11 AM

    Among othwr things, refusal to comply with the Court ruling will mean that, even if re-elected, Chavez will no longer have legitimacy as the choice of Venezuelans for their president. Internationally, the refrain will be that he illegally disqualified those whose popularity threatened his rule.

    ReplyDelete
  2. RabbiBulla4:07 AM

    This is continued "aping" of what
    other dictators elsewhere have
    done. Nothing new here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous6:25 AM

    Unfortunately, it's going to be like when PDVSA got sanctions for selling gasoline to Iran: the judgement will come; Chavez will yell nonsense about sovereignty and self-determination of the people; the US will half-heartedly impose some half-assed token sanctions, and then Chavez will start yelling that the Empire is trying to kill him or something stupid like that.

    At the end, nothing meaningful will happen other than the hardcore chavistas will have another talking point about how the Evil Empire™ is trying to steal their oil.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Does anyone have a list of the other 12 IACHR decisions Chavez has ignored? I'm wondering what kind of company Leopoldo holds.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AIO

    tal cual did not publish the list and I am too lazy to look for it. but out of memory i remeber at least these ones:

    - the programmed killing of a family in aragua by the police becasue they did not want to give them a free tab on beer at their joint.

    -the judges summarily fired from the supervision court (apitz et al.,)

    -several protection measures against the aggression toward the press, in particular globovision.

    - i think there is also one against police abuses in vargas in 1999-2000

    see there, half a dozen already.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's ironical that in this case the Chavez government is being condemned because of something it could easily have avoided.

    The problem seems to be that Leopoldo was disqualified by an administrative decision instead of getting due process in a court of law.The government could have easily ordered one of their judges to disqualify Leopoldo "legally".

    These particular international rules only protect human rights in a country where there is a division of power between the executive government and the judiciary.

    ReplyDelete
  7. RabbiBulla4:02 PM

    The problem seems to be that Leopoldo was disqualified by an administrative decision instead of getting due process in a court of law.The government could have easily ordered one of their judges to disqualify Leopoldo "legally".

    No, this "government"/dictatorship rejects Western legal system en toto.
    The new legal system is-whatever
    makes Chavez happy.

    ReplyDelete
  8. If I were Leopoldo, I'd campaign as if I was a legal candidate, travel the country, ask for the vote and lead a counter revolution after the election if his votes won't be counted.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Obviously Rabbibulla, this is precisely the point.

    He doesn't even care about a fig leaf anymore as he used to some time ago.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ser "vivo" como Chabruto no significa necesariamente ser inteligente o educado. Al igual que la mitad de nuestro pueblo, no tiene ni idea de como son las vainas internacionalmente, con gente mas culta, mejor educada, y menos estupidos tambien, por lo general, inclusive en muchos paises tambien "sub-desarrollados"

    ReplyDelete
  11. glenn8:01 PM

    JSB- the oppo needs to fully support one candidate from the primaries. If that were Lopez, great. A coup is not the answer, even if it seems justified

    ReplyDelete
  12. glenn

    JSB is not suggesting a coup, he is suggesting resolve in forcing chavez to accept electoral results. a very different matter-

    ReplyDelete
  13. How much can we trust electoral results in Vzla now? The 'opposition' will cheat and bribe too, but not nearly as much as the " rebolucionarios bolibarianos" can.. So the results could be about 10% false, or more, who knows. Plus many of the exiled who will not vote, coz it's just such an unreliable mess over there. Who counts the Miami votes, simon bolivar?

    ReplyDelete
  14. RabbiBulla9:36 PM

    Daniel-I believe Chavez wants to be
    known as Qadaffi-like, Mubage-like.
    ("We have to wonder what are the objectives of the Venezuelan regime as it keeps piling up international errors.")Did Fidel Castro ever change, nor will Raul?
    Yet, some people are attracted to
    these tryants.
    Venezuelans should be protesting against the idiot military greedy, sheeple generals -soon the military will be running everything
    in Venezuela as is the case in Cuba.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thanks, Daniel. I remember the Aragua case - since that day, other family members keep dying under mysterious circumstances.

    I think maybe I was asking because I was looking for some kind of trend, and there doesn't seem to be one. In hindsight, though, that makes perfect sense, as chavismo seems to violate whatever rights seem annoying to them at the moment. There's no pattern. After all, a pattern would imply strategy and planning, and that doesn't exactly abound with them.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous5:40 PM

    The day of checks and balances have long gone, there are only 2 rules now.

    Rule #1 Chavez is always right.
    Rule #2 See rule #1

    See you all on the last flight out of the country!

    ReplyDelete
  17. RabbiBulla2:41 PM

    Paraphrasing Bill Whittle(-PJM-The Truth is out there.)Ask Chavez how many US citizens built boats and risked their lives to arrive in Cuba? Ask Chavez why so many people have left Venezuela (and why does Chavez welcome FARC and moslem terrorists)?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Boludo Tejano8:07 PM

    RabbiBulla said...
    Paraphrasing Bill Whittle(-PJM-The Truth is out there.)Ask Chavez how many US citizens built boats and risked their lives to arrive in Cuba? Ask Chavez why so many people have left Venezuela (and why does Chavez welcome FARC and moslem terrorists)?

    Add this to the laundry list of hundreds of uncomfortable questions that Thugo should get asked, but is never asked.

    ReplyDelete

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