However if you are a thug, today's show makes perfect sense.
In short, what happened was a tentative of chavismo to scare the opposition, diminish it and start a series of "legal" proceedings to reduce its numbers, its voice, its ability to mount any challenge, to crush any possibility for it to defend democracy. In other words, the consequences of the January 9 coup are in full swing.
The reason why chavismo is doing this is the deep knowledge it has that without Chavez their odds of winning a national election are dim at best, and getting dimmer by the day as scarcity levels of food are becoming alarming. Amen of insecurity, jobless rate, and inflation that go unabated. What chavismo did today is not a demonstration of strength: it is a demonstration of weakness, of irrationality, and it makes it all the more dangerous. If things keep going that way we are headed straight for large repression and maybe civil war. It is not time to mince words, folks.
Since I am just arriving from overseas, I do not know what has been the mood for the last week. Certainly that Chavez remains silent is taking its toll. Not only by fostering emotional instability in chavista rank and file, but by aggravating probably the succession war even though they may look as united as ever. It is my very humble opinion that whatever deal was struck for power sharing in Cuba a couple of weeks ago is already fraying as the Venezuelan reality unfolds. And thus the only thing that chavistas can agree on is to eliminate the opposition so that they have more time to deal with their internal demons. Demons, not issues anymore.
Diosdado Cabello came today to the assembly with the purpose of ruining Primero Justicia. For this it brandished a series of denunciations, some of them quite cold and old already, that lead nowhere in their time. But that of course is irrelevant in a thugocracy, also known as fascism. The objective is to make a public character assassination of a group and thus find "legitimate" reasons to pursue them. If in the future an "Ooops! Sorry! we were wrong!" moment becomes necessary it would not matter anymore because the injured party would have been destroyed, unable to rebuild for a while, if at all.
I am not going to go into the details of what Cabello brought, they really are mere excuses for a totalitarian trial style. What I am going to say is that even if all of the accusations were indeed true they would pale, and pale badly, compared to what Diosdado Cabello has been accused of in Miranda State corruption when he lost his reelection bid in 2008 to Capriles. The dossiers have been submitted to justice. The chavista owned justice has done nothing against Cabello but I can assure you that it will be swift against the Primero Justica folks.
The objective at the National Assembly is at least clear: reduce the opposition numbers so that chavismo will get a spurious 2/3 majority that will allow it to renew without problem a few "officials" that they need to sustain the dictatorship, making it legal one supposes. In particular what is of major concern for chavismo is the three out of 5 seats up for renewal in the electoral board in the next quarter, a few judges from the high court and the general comptroller who of course finds pennies of corruption in opposition states but sees nothing of the vaults of corruption in the government (example, the 800,000 dollars of public knowledge, confession, video of Antonini that have yet to be investigated inside Venezuela).
Thus representatives of Primero Justicia Borges and Mardo are targeted right now, this last one virulently. Incidentally Mardo has had the guts to announce that they tried to bribe him to join chavismo and he refused, going for today's dramatic confrontation.
But another representative did not have the courage of Mardo and today publicly, with a ridiculous show that had been well prepared, pretended to be offended by the MUD, Capriles and what not and joined chavismo. Unfortunately for Nuñez a chavista web page carries since 2011 a threat against him, an accusation of cheating on real estate stuff. Incidentally Nuñez was supported by Lopez vehicle, Voluntad Popular, and was thus sort of close to PJ. A fact that does not reflect well on Lopez as a judge of character since he made a lot of Nuñez role in Sucre state.....
We can be sure that more is following. The question here is what the opposition will do and whether this new flagrant violation will finally find an echo outside of Venezuela.
For the time being the opposition seems resigned to its fate, of becoming a martyr for freedom. The courageous speech of Guanipa today replying to Cabello puts him in the short list of those that shall be punished as soon as possible. Mean Cabello cannot forgive such a public exposure of his criminal activities. And unfortunately this is the lone option it has as the state unleashes all of its "might" to put the opposition leadership in jail. The time to take a stand has come.
I am leaving you today with two pictures from yesterday where chavismo was celebrating the murderous coup of 1992. The objective yesterday was already to steal the opposition symbol, the tricolor hat of Capriles campaign, by putting a "4F" on top of it. You know that when someone tries to steal your ideas, then those were right. In one picture Maduro has the military or the militia, same difference, posing with him, fat and ugly and how so fascist. In the other, well, Maduro and Cabello united at least to screw the opposition once and for all.
Think about it, these people, these offensive criminals, want to keep ruling over Venezuela.
The Vzln Parliament is becoming more and more like an Amphitheatre of ancient Roman times.
ReplyDeleteHave you done the math? Is it possible that they can peel enough opposition away to get to 2/3?
ReplyDeleteAfter the recent defections the Chavez lot have 100 out of 160 seats. To get 2/3 they need 110 seats. It shouldn't be very difficult to buy off another 10 parlamentarians (or remind them of their deceased relatives, which is cheaper). Time to hide?
DeleteAntonio
wonder how much Núñez was paid to jump the talanquera. Other than the promise of having his past sins forgiven.
DeleteI might be wrong but I am really not sure how much actual repression is needed in a context where people are afraid.In any case the chaotic crime situation is enough to keep many people in some kind of check.
ReplyDeleteI don't see a civil war in the future either.
Acting in the face of fear doesn't seem very popular .
At my last job in Caracas I was a teacher in a private school.The Chavistas were threatening all the time.Some of the Chavista parents would threaten us with violence if their kids did not get good grades.I had one parent who said if I didn't raise her son's grades, she would grab me by the hair,take me down to the river Guaire and drown me.I told her in no uncertain terms to piss off.Her rationale was that she paid too much money in intuition for her son not to get good grades.
Needless to say the school did not appreciate my reaction.
Maybe my reaction was just plain stupid, after all I had a family to feed( and I was the sole bread winner at the time),
at least that's what people tell me.
A lot of these Chavistas feel emboldened, have no morality , and are loose cannons.Only in Unity can they be faced on a large scale and people have to be aware of the future if it is not faced.Something I suppose none of us can know for sure.
firepigette
Loose cannons of any political stripe are bad business, especially when they don't have the moral authority to vent (in public). I suspect either immaturity (and most of us have been there at one time or another), or another financial cushion that allowed for such unthinking and intemperate behaviour.
DeleteFunny how a classroom full of kids can (further) embolden some teachers into thinking that they are some sort of demi-god(dess).
"feel emboldened,"
DeleteMaybe you mean "feel entitled"?
It's almost that they now have the right to demand irrational & ridiculous things just because they are chavista.
Island,
DeleteI was using the word 'emboldened' because a dear friend of mine used it to describe his recent impressions in Caracas but I suspect the entitlement adjective to apply also.
Just 2 days ago he came onto the chat, and said he couldn't stand one more day of it and went on to describe the aggressions he experienced on the streets by the Chavistas.
I have a few Chavista friends on FB who have gotten quite angry with my posts but I keep on anyway.For some strange reason they have not eliminated me as their friend.
I wonder how many of them would back down if more people were to stand up to them...i mean it is a question I have.
sorry haha
ReplyDeletemeant to say tuition
firpigette
Maduro and Cabello are attempting to become the next Hugo Chavez. Unfortunate for them, they are at best cheap Cuban copies of the original.
ReplyDeleteVenezuela has laws against slandering the president by inquiring about his finances or those of his family. Do these laws also cover the vice-president or the head of the AN? It would be very interesting to see how much each these two own in the way of land, cash, businesses, banks, etc. Then open their bank accounts and tax forms to public inspections. After all, these are people in power and they should not have conflicts of interest.