Taking the gloves off: Capriles tells explicitly that Maduro stole the election

I did not know how to title this entry but scanning for background before typing it I thought that an adaption of Spain' El Pais would do. Because this is exactly what Capriles has done tonight: he has officially claimed that the election has been stolen from him. I am putting the portion of the video at the end of the post.

Far from me at this point to tell you that he is right or not, no matter how much evidence is already available. I am too far from the centers of opposition power and too ignored by them to be able to defend them, not that they need it much these days.

HOWEVER......

There is a few signs that show quite clearly that chavismo has something to hide. They are coming back on their word given at the UNASUR meeting of last Friday. The electoral board, CNE, goes all around saying that the results are irreversible no matter what the audit will say. They refuse to answer the written request of Capriles commando. And they are not even offering a serious audit methodology.

To this you add the ruthless campaign going on against Capriles in the state media and you do not need much to start agreeing with me: the regime has something to hide and is trying desperately to avoid an audit.  When that has happened in historical situations, I would bet anything that at least 90% of the time the people on power lost the election and were trying to retain office through cheating.

We must thus recast the battle in proper terms: this is not anymore about whether Capriles got a vote more or a vote less: this is about democracy, accounting, ethics, and the rule of law. And this is exactly what Capriles did tonight, stupidly proven right by yet another governmental abuse during his press conference.

This week has brought an increased attack against Capriles:  personal, fascist in the best tradition of Goebbels and his Cuban distinguished students.  The worse was yesterday's noon cadena where edited videos of last week wanted to prove that Capriles had been the single organizer of all the violence that happened last week. This came along the equally fascist threats from Iris Varela as to her having a cell bunk ready for Capriles, without mentioning the wave of repression that has fallen over the country since April 14, from tortured student protesting to firing public employees who were at the water cooler at the wrong time, because someone hear them pronounce the word Capriles.

Capriles took his time and replied tonight, not wanting to perturb what mattered more, that the CNE fess up to its promise of last Friday. But as this one was not coming he went to a press conference tonight to speak his truth.

Of course, only Globovision was showing him, the other "independent" networks having been duly brow beaten by the regime last week with direct threats from Maduro (well, he threatened Televen, the only one that still shows on occasion real news). And yet the regime knows that when Capriles speaks people tune in to Globovision and maybe half of the country on TV is watching him. So the regime did the only thing they know to do: silence him. They suddenly played again the cadena of yesterday, cutting sharp Capriles press conference (reminder: a cadena is the forced commandeering by the state of ALL TV AND RADIO STATIONS for a simultaneous broadcast, with no right to reply for anyone, of course  not even on state TV late at night).

That way I could see that infamous cadena that I had missed for being at work. It certainly was infamous and show all the power of the state magnifying incidents that happen in any national election in Venezuela to the status of coup mongering and terrorism, all under the order of Capriles. Editing does wonders, you know.

Once the cadena was over (I am sparing you the details, in particular of the Peopl'e Ombudsman who clearly thinks that non chavistas are not people) Globovision went back to where Capriles left and this one, certainly expecting such a clumsy move, had already at hand all the material to discredit the cadena, while showing pictures of the tortured students and wondering whether the Venezuelan state prosecutor was also going to investigate these victims.

All of Capriles presentation was this forceful, tearing down one by one the mask of the CNE and Maduro, announcing that the elections had been stolen from him, that he did not care about the threats, that they should dare put him in jail, giving the CNE an ultimatum, while reminding that the new regime had still to do anything positive for the people in spite of being in office since last December 8.  He even found a way to totally humiliate Madruo while he replied to a journalist question about Maduro overreacting by putting to jail the heckler at his inauguration. "Ridiculo! No seas Bolsa" he said, which loosely translate as "you are ridiculous, do not be a nincompoop".  That heckler, by the way, having also crashed in the past a Chavez event and a Capriles one and even a Miss Venezuela. Needless to say that

#elpropiobolsa and #SeRobaronLasElecciones

became instant Twitter trends in Venezuela.

I cannot remember when a just elected president was ridiculed so fast, and given zero honey moon......

Of course this means that the ante are going up. But the regime is the one forcing the issue, overpalying its hands with lies and manipulations, unable to explain why ballots should not be audited properly even though the law allows for that.. Capriles ended up with an unassailable ploy: he called everyone to go to church next Sunday and pray for the country. But I doubt that this will slow down the inexorable march of the regime towards open violence.