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| Beach, red, storms........... |
The latest today is that Maduro found it to be a great idea to send squads of PSUV militants to the beaches of Venezuela, crowded for the Holy Week holidays, to ask scantily clad people to sign up... I wonder whether there is any sense of ridicule left anywhere inside chavismo. Don't they realize that declaring the need to go to pester people at the beach is itself an admission that the signature drive has not been the success they hoped for?
For good measure Maduro also decided that March 9 (Obama's executive order date) should be declared from now on "anti imperialistic day" or something like that. I hope it is a paid holiday just in between Carnival and Easter week! You know, those 5 weeks of lent can be long...
And for a final flourish we had the vice president, you know, that commie nerd that made it to the top by marrying one Chavez daughters, say that those who do not sign are "cowards" and "traitors/landless" (apatrida in Venezuela means both now). I suppose I should start packing a small bag for when I am sent to the Gulags, the only thing left for Arreaza to do. He even had the intellectual laziness to state that in 1987 the current left in office supported then president Lusinchi against Colombia. That is true except that there was actually a Colombian warship in Venezuelan waters whereas today the closest Marine to Venezuela is in US territory in Guantanamo. I think that there is a difference but then again I may be wrong.
I suspect that all of this hysteria today may not even be controlled anymore from Cuba, that it has taken a life of its own. It follows naturally the invectives sent to Felipe Gonzalez that I narrated yesterday (to which he refused to answer by saying "I would not know how to lower myself in such ways", mépris suprême). But I certainly was right, Gonzalez is just the first salvo of a clear message to Maduro "pipe it down or even UNASUR is going to drop you". Ex president of Chile, socialist Ricardo Lagos, said yesterday that UNASUR needs to work harder at figuring out a solution for Venezuela. I cannot stress enough he did not say that without tacit agreement from President Bachelet who for all her closeted leftist love has better things to do than dealing with Venezuela. He evens goes one step further by naming Samper to work harder when the creep said a couple of days ago that the whole of Latin America should reevaluate its relation with the US. Yeah, right, Chile is going to commit economical suicide to please Samper and his collection of spoiled brats.... One wonders whether Samper is really that stupid. or that bitter against the US for never restoring its visa.
The fact of the matter is that there is concerted effort by non official means (ex presidents, notables) to send a message to Venezuela, Cuba and even UNASUR: "enough is enough, don't you dare to screw up the OAS Panama summit and don't you dare put at risk our trade relations with the US. If you are flat broke, no credit, and no respect, it is not our fault". And if in the next days nothing improves do not be surprised if more "official" means begin to be employed. NOTE: that does not mean at all that these countries like the US, it simply means that they like their wallet better than they like Venezuela.
Now we are left to watch how far is Maduro decided to go. But he has been warned that there will be consequences.
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Note: written while listening to Tallis's Spem in Alium. Don't ask.
There won't be consequences as long as the Venezuelan barrio dwellers take events with such lassitude. I'm listening to "la paresse de les poils pubiens" by El Chori.
ReplyDeleteFine Renaissance Era song, but if you're gonna evoke it in French, it's "la paresse des pois pubiens", Choro.
Deletepoils..
DeleteI cannot help but to believe that Maduro is using the petition to justify his upcoming election fraud. 10 million votes will win him the election and he will use these signatures as a show of political support justifying the his win in Parliament elections. He really doesn't care what the rest of the world thinks just what he can spin in his media machine to the locals. I know 1 person that has been required on 7 different situations to sign the petition and if was a strong supporter would have signed likely 20 times. All the 10 million number is is a proof of enough support to justify his fake election results.
ReplyDeleteGood observation. Chavez's "Smartmatic" will do the rest.
DeleteVery insightful. I fear you may be right.
DeleteWe have never seen the full capabilities of the Smartmatic bingo terminal electoral system in action. Even though there are safeguards, they will never allow truly transparent audits. They have a lot of capability to fudge numbers from the voting booth to the control room. They can deploy a myriad of tricks some which we have seen, others which they have not really used because after a certain margin, the cheat becomes more detectable. Usually they push it through, declare themselves victorious and then stymie the audit.
DeleteVery interesting blog post. I think Maduro is fooling himself if he thinks his signature drive protesting the US not having anything to do with 7 criminals from Venezuela will impress anyone. The length he is going to protest this though will impress everyone that maybe this tactic is working and we need to block a few more criminals and maybe get the EU to do the same.
ReplyDeleteEven Canadian observers see what's going on.. Masburro may be able to fool millions of under-educated poor souls in Corruptzuela, plus the Millions of Enchufadisimos, government employees, all in the putrid military, palanqueados, etc. And they will steal the elections again.
ReplyDeleteAnything to remain in power and thus avoid being Criminally prosecuted by International Law, while getting even richer by the day, waiting for the Oil to go back up to 100%/barrel in 2020, to get some more loans from the Chinese at that point.
Maduro, just like HCF, is his own worst enemy when it comes to foreign public relations. This recent episode garnered Maduro a lot of front page press in the U.S. Anyone bother to read the comments? The American public does not fall for this as easily. Americans know that Venezuela is along the lines of Syria, Russia and maybe even DPRK.
DeleteUNASUR= TiranoSur is a Wreck. With due apologies to defunct dinosaurs.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" where Maduro wants to convince the world of his local support so much that the opposite happens
ReplyDeleteHow will this collection of papers, signatures, be actually presented to Obama? What volume, weight, of paper will be required for 10 million of signatures?
ReplyDeleteIt will be securely handled, electronically, by Smartmatic.
DeleteMy guess is that it will be held in the air in front of mass media with Maduro spouting his bullshit. With the actual list never making it into Obama's hands. Much like all the proof from the endless coups that have taken place. Do understand that the goal of the signature campaign has nothing to do with actually presenting Obama with a list. It is all about selling the support he has.
DeleteIt's just as much for social control. Anyone, as is made clear by the comments made, not signing the list will be recorded as such, and will be part of a new Tascon list and thus be excluded from public employment, benefits, and maybe worse.
DeleteNothing will be presented to POTUS and nothing will be recieved by POTUS. Get real.
DeleteMethink Obama should trade his attendance to the Panama circus for a good game of golf. After all he has done it for more important issues.
ReplyDeleteCharly, please stop spewing. Playing golf after announcing that an American citizen was beheaded was what he needed to do. Get real.
DeleteCharly, that was directed at him. If you think he did not take it to heart then you assume he's not human.
DeleteObama simply needs to address the base issue. Bring it back from an imaginary U.S.-Vzla war to simply protecting the U.S. against criminals. State clearly that the seven Venezuelans are drug related criminals who Venezuela refuses to punish but instead praises. Venezuela is not taking action, therefore the U.S. is obligated to protect its own citizens.
ReplyDeleteThen Obama needs to change the focus to problems in Venezuela that the Vzla government refuses to address. Obama must show he cares more about the people of Venezuela than Maduro. This will make Obama and the U.S. more popular in Vzla than Maduro with his 10 million forced signatures.
Most of the remaining Chavista faithful will never see or hear anything Obama does or says that the regime don't want them to see, as they (90% of them) have no access to outside or independent media.
DeletePresident Obama does not need to do nothing and will do nothing. The list and the sanctions will continue to grow. Look at who has who by the balls.
DeleteMy theory about the signatures is that, like the housing mission, they're collecting information to be able to see who hasn't voted midday and 'round them up to go to the polls. ...to minimize abstention.
ReplyDeleteYour assuming with their electronic voting system that the absentees will not automatically be voting for the regime. Voting numbers in the president election were way higher then actual numbers who voted. Opposition in many ridings counted number of voters and results were higher then number who came out to vote.
DeleteWith Chavez's Fraudmatic Smartmatic system anything is possible: The Pajaritos in Heaven and the Chinese with vote, the Obama list will magically duplicate itself, and Masburrismo will "win" by 55%, even with the actual 80% disapproval.
DeleteJust watch.
Obama is much too powerful and well guarded to let himself get cornered into an embarrassing public scene with Maduro. I think he is more or less a Democrat puppet, but he had enough intelligence and confidence to do well in open debate with Mitt Romney and John McCain.
ReplyDeleteMaduro probably cannot spell his own name without directives from his Cuban masters.
It is easy to rant on your own private TV show to a koolade drinking audience. It is a whole different ballgame to face up to the President of the United States in front of the world and fire both barrels.
You all are probably right. All this posturing is a tactic for the elections.
Maduro and Chavez will never ever be in any type of public debate. They cannot. Their stupidity would be on display.
DeleteI wouldn't call Obama stupid. He seems to have got a deal with Iran and has been doing well dragging Raul into a corner.
DeleteObama has been a disaster, and the Iran circus is a joke and a failure. But any real president looks like Einstein compared to Masburro and the uneducated clowns we have bleeding the country.
DeleteWhat Iran circos? They negotiated to satisfy strategic requierements of the five permanent members of the UN security council, plus Germany and Iran. Iran gets to develop nuclear power technology, to which it has rights, and the five plus one have a mechanism to make sure they don't develop a nuclear weapon. I wouldn't pay too much attention to Netanyahu, he's irrational and has a severe case of superman megalomania. As far as the usa republicans, they are sold out to the israel lobby and will have to accept reality. And if they try to wreck the deal it won't matter, Iran will just arrange to work with the europeans, Russia, and China.
DeleteDunno, but I'm highly skeptical, can't trust the Iranians, can't trust Obama's politics either.
DeleteThe devil is in the details, we'll see on the long run.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/11/25/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-of-the-iran-nuclear-deal/
Netanyahu is, sadly, right. He speaks for the Saudis, for Jordan, Egypt and Turkey, all the U.S. allies who don't dare to directly confront Obama, and of course for Israel. Obama has opened the way for a total Shia vs Sunni confrontation, with Israel, as circumstance would have it, on the Sunni side. The main U.S alliance in the area has always been with the Saudis, not the Israelis, contrary to what most people think. Reason: oil, oil and oil. And that alliance is now largely over.
DeleteChavez was brilliant, stupid too. Maduro is just dull and desperate. No idea how long he can cling to power, nor who will, likely from within, be the next head honcho. Whatever legitimacy remained after Chavez will be gone after Maduro, which is hopeful re change.
I will share this. Nobody believes the deal with Cuba will work.
Delete"I suspect that all of this hysteria today may not even be controlled anymore from Cuba, that it has taken a life of its own."
ReplyDeletebeen having these thoughts recently
firepigette
For French speakers, a good explanation on one of the reasons why Venezuela is a clear and present danger to the rest of the planet.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.agoravox.fr/tribune-libre/article/coke-en-stock-lxxx-l-heritage-du-160160
Good old Agora vox! Still full of FrontDeGauchistes!
Deletemy POV of the current situation and the future outook: Bolivarian Venezuela is in enough of a mess. The United States does not need to get more involved. However, the intelligence gathering is going on. Terrorism in all its forms, narcotics and human rights are the ever present priorities. The American government is devoting resources to this. Cases are being built and sealed indictments are being prepared. Whether they see the light of day is another matter. The U.S. legal system is full of Venezuela-related cases from coast to coast. The Venezuelan government or related persons are defendants in many cases. These cases can have significant ramnifications for Bolivarian Venezuela.
ReplyDeleteAt this point, it's going to be up to the next U.S. president and the outlook is not rosy for the Bolivarians as Jeb Bush will win and his Latin American team will be comprised of hawks. Brasil and Argentina will be the top two South America priorities meaning bringing both in from the cold.