Monday blues on a blackmailed Venezuela

In the wee hours Saturday morning the Nazional Guard and Nazional Police decided to attack the barricades in Caurimare. As a consequence there has been a locking up of streets all around the area from Chuao to Macaracuay, throwing quite a lot of distress in my plans to take care of the sick.  Since I am trapped and forced to think a little I though that it may be a good time to consider at where is the country standing at.


The first thing that we may want to observe is that the assault of the Caurimare barricades was absolutely unnecessary. The area votes 80% against chavismo, at least. As such it is the opposition voter that is mostly inconvenienced. But then again, some of the corrupt boligarchs that reside in the area may start getting tired of the hours of traffic it takes to go around Caurimare.  If a case can be made against the repeated attacks on Altamira, no solid case can be made by the regime to invest political capital in an area where the only thing that will happen is to radicalize it even further.

There is only one explanation and that is that the regime needs to keep up the provocations, that the regime does not want any dialogue, that the regime is working hard at creating excuses to crack down.  And the pattern is there for those who want to see it. Let' look at a telling example last week: the mockery the regime did of the UNASUR suggestion to take a harder look at human rights abuses as a way to try to prime up the pump of dialogue.  I have put on the right a table describing the composition of the commission and the description of some of the newly created commission members. Truly such a commission will only work at excusing the regime's action and put blame as much much as possible on the opposition.  this one should not even bother answering an invitation for an eventual seat.

This is a plain mockery of international advice and it speaks volumes of the mindset behind army barracks and the walls of Miraflores Palace.

It is crystal clear that the regime has no intention to establish a serious dialogue with the half or more of the country that opposes it. The only way to reach a durable peace in Venezuela is to start acknowledging the existence and rights of all, to create an institutional frame work that does not depend of the power in place and that is there to serve ALL citizens equally. You know, banalities like an independent judicial system or an electoral system that does not actively promote the regime.

Besides creating that absolutely useless commission, the regime demands that the opposition seats to dialogue without preconditions when the regime holds ALL in the country; the regime calls for dialogue while it strips mayors illegally of their mandate; and worse, removes a Representative just because the Orwellian Pig of Cabello said so.  These are provocations deliberately scheduled all along every week for the past two months.

And yet the regime still balks at making this an absolute dictatorship by arresting, say, Capriles, or calling a state of exception to allow the army to break down the protests.  This is of course a dangerous strategy because an incident could happen that could push forward these events without giving time to the regime to have damage control ready.

So why is the regime walking such a tight rope when all recent polls show that the regime is not benefiting from this strategy (while it is not clear the opposition is).

There are several reasons, I think, that push to constant provocations..

One is that some are trying to gain time while they prepare their withdrawal. Cuba exploitation of Venezuela could be in such a group.  Some corrupts are also in that group while they straighten their affairs and launder enough cash to live comfortably in exile. Provocations hide these maneuvers while offering a possible excuse to run away from the country when they decide to kick out Maduro.

Another is that people dealing and wasting away discussing provocations are not discussing food scarcity, lack of jobs and what not.

There may be other reasons but the one that explains better everything is that too many in the country are not dealing with Maduro, Cabello and the associated combo as they should be leading with: they should be dealing with them for what they are, a delinquent organization.  Rules of engagement are not the same when you need to deal with these people. Chavismo in office, like any gangster group, lacks understanding of the notions of democracy, rights, ethics, change, etc... Chavista like Cabello think that there is nothing wrong in the way they made their obscene amount of wealth.  Money looted away from the state is no crime because it belonged to all, and thus belonged to no one.

Sunday Milagros Socorro wrote her last article for El Nacional and in it she has choice terms for those in the regime. One I liked in particular:

Ya hemos dicho también que, para tener preeminencia en el chavismo, es preciso brindarse al sacrificio ético: si quieres hincarle el colmillo a la entraña palpitante de Venezuela, debes ponerte en cuatro patas y ofrecer el espinazo moral para que te lo partan. Solo así podrás participar del banquete que desmedra a la patria.
We have also said that to reach the top echelons of chavismo it is necessary to toast to the sacrifice of ethics:  if you want to bite deeply into the palpitating core of Venezuela, you need to get first on your four and offer your moral backbone so that they may break it. Only thus you will be able to participate into the feast that is destroying the country.

It sounds much better in Spanish but you get the idea.

This is our true problem, we are into the hands of a gangster group that is looting the country while at the same time making it a narco state. Hence the constant provocation to try to create some form of blackmail that will allow the regime to hold us all in place, or safely exit, whichever comes first.