Quick summary of the completed coup d'etat in Venezuela

It has been a long week, a lot of posts, a lot of stress. So forgive my brevity and no proof reading.


The coup that started on January 9 has been completed today. Details later. Suffice to say now that the illegal High Court decisions of January became the basis of today's decision that allows Maduro to become president and run AS president, with all the abuse that this implies.

The opposition simply cannot accept that because it means that if you accept such a constitutional violation, then you will have to accept electoral cheating in a scale never seen before. It is that simple and it explains why tonight Capriles spoke forcefully, implying that the opposition will not accept the presidential elections. I am not talking silly abstention here as in 2005, I am talking active protest, active non recognition before any election is held. Times have changed, it is not Chavez who held things together somehow  it is now a band of thugs that have been lying to the country for months, and these crooks need electoral justification much more than Chavez did. As a hint of things to come, about 30 heads of state or government attended the funeral, only a couple stayed behind a few extra hours for the swearing in. They now what is going on, who they are dealing with. They may never protest but at least they do not want to be in the picture.

But chavismo moral corruption is at work and preys on idiots. Today COPEI folks alone decided to attend the swearing in, and did not even protest during which would have been at least an excuse. That is, Copei DELIBERATELY sabotaged Capriles speaking in the name of the opposition a few minutes. This open a major crisis inside the MUD, though as a silver lining it may finally mark the end of Copei (unless it is a division inside Copei?). As to whether these Representatives committed an act of supreme idiocy or they went over to the dark side, we will know really soon. Note: I am not even discussing the arguments, I am only pointing out the fatal timing of these Copei lead by a representative who now resides in infamy Pedro Pablo Fernandez.

Conclusion: an "election" of Maduro is now inevitable and it actually may be a good strategy for Capriles not to participate. Calling for abstention is unfortunately not going to work out as to the precedent of the Tascon list: whomever does not vote is going to be fired or expelled from Mision X. The time to fight back is now, to fight against an election now, to at least force the CNE to offer real electoral conditions.  The opposition needs to steel itself NOT to recognize the new government in creative ways that are not violent. Otherwise......

PS: I forgot to add that Maduro appointed new vice president Arreaza, the minister of science and technology who made a meteoric rise once he married a daughter of Chavez.

It is important to know that neither Maduro or Arreaza have any notion on how to run a business,  on how a business works, on how to ensure that you have enough supplies and man power to produce, on what you do when you cannot meet a payroll and you need to face your employees. They are both cubasn ideologues, Cubans favorites, put there to rule over Venezuela in the name of Cuba as Capriles already announced today. Considering the situation of Venezuela today, this is the possible worst tandem to rule over. Even Jaua would have been better because he at least knows enough about business to expropriate them when convenient. Maduro and Arreaza are put there to ensure by any means that the weekly check makes it to Cuba.

PS2: I lived twitted in English Capriles excellent speech.