Maduro: you stole my coke? I get a free Airbus from you!

Always in the shop.....

After writing my post this afternoon on chavismo divisions events precipitated a little and I am back at the key board. The question to resolve tonight is why did Maduro not attend the UN general assembly? This is not an idle question because a few days ago the man made a temper tantrum as to the US allegedly not allowing him to fly over Puerto Rico, or denying visas to his entourage, things proven wrong since.

The official version came in tonight in a cadena where Maduro surprised us with two things. First, he did not go to the UN because "they" were preparing offenses against him (that he will reveal when convenient). They being Otto Reich, Roger Noriega and Luis Posada Carriles, two passé out of jobs US operators and a near dead anti Castro warrior, none of them, if you ask me, able to do much against Maduro while in New York. The best way to establish that is that the new Iranian president had no problem going around town to make his speech today and he is a way bigger threat to the Western World than Maduro is. Then again that he is not taken as a threat may be what truly obfuscated Maduro.....


The other thing is that surprisingly he decided to explain why he was not travelling on the presidential Airbus, a plane that we see flying less and less. Capriles had asked about that, why Maduro flew in a Cuban plane instead of the presidential one, and Diosdado Cabello replied vulgarly as is his habit that it was none of his damn business. So we must be surprised that Maduro went back on that! Apparently Maduro discovered himself that there was a major flaw in the plane and he has decided to sue Airbus, basically implying that the corporation should be included in the "they" above.

You can imagine the flurry in the news and twitter.....

Let's see if I can come up with my choice of more likely speculations. Keep in mind that the Cuban G2 has taught the regime the technique of flying rumors, false truths, real lies and the like to confuse the adversary.

For the Airbus law suit I am almost tempted to see it as a tit for tat for the drug seized by Paris customs a week ago from the Caracas Air France flight. After all the street value is roughly comparable to a brand new Airbus and maybe Maduro had a stake in that shipment. Him or his associates, same difference. It is simply very unlikely that while an alleged refurbishing Airbus would have made such a crass mistake and even more unlikely that Maduro had an intuition on the technical aspects of the plane since he cannot even produce in public his birth certificate. I really cannot see any other explanation but a desire by Maduro to get back at president Hollande for wanting to bomb Assad in Syria and stealing his drug shipment.....

As for the sped up return from china, bypassing New York. Two possibilities, your pick.

First, the Cubans did not want Maduro to risk making a fool of himself in the UN. His defense of Assad and his own local crisis takes away any credibility he may have there and since he is prone to idiotic gaffes... Raul decided to send him on and mind the shop as things do not look good at all for the Cuban colony.

The other explanation is that taking advantage of Maduro's travel, some inner chavista factions started making some suspicious moves. You have everything there, from military upset that Maduro is a Colombian and wanting to make a coup to his rival Cabello trying to regain some of his lost ground. I personally do not think that a coup was planned, too crass, too cartoonish even for chavismo. But that some tried to take advantage of Maduro being away to shake a few things is not to be discarded. For example, they could have presented Maduro with a fait accompli of some economic decision that he was unwilling to take, or change some mayoral candidates, or....  Whatever it was, the sudden return of Maduro can only mean that he had a need to come back in a hurry for some major problem brewing.

Developing....