First Ramos Allup, the elected chair, went today, 24 hours before he is to be seated, the N. A.
A chavista mob barred the entry and Ramos Allup had to retreat.
An ex-president of Bolivia tweeted that:
¡Dios q le has dado a Diosdado desquiciado! Esbirros agreden @hramosallup Pres-Electo Asambl VEN antes d cambio 5E pic.twitter.com/3hzKfWTfxS
— Tuto Quiroga (@tutoquiroga) January 4, 2016
Good for the international public relations of the regime!On other news the dismantling of ANTV, Venezuela's C-span wanna-be, has been confirmed. Workers showing up this morning found that they had been fired and that the equipment had been disassembled and/or taken away. Even Globovision is reporting it. This is quite remarkable because Globovision had been bought by chavista front men and that it showed yesterday live the election of Ramos Allup and today went to defend ANTV workers who have been fired BY THE REGIME. The reader should remember that the regime was accusing Ramnos Allup of wanting to fire ANTV workers but I guess they could not wait.
How can we read this?
First, the regime is clearly on panic mode. Doing these two measures a day before installing the new assembly, as many international witnesses are arriving and the whole world observes, is not good PR.
Second, there is true panic inside the regime that their stranglehold on communications is about to be broken. Never mind that NA interpellations of incompetent and corrupt ministers would be shown live on TV. So they blew up ANTV system in the hope that other broadcasters will not want to step in and repalce the NA cameras. Something that I suspect will fail: if Globovision is showing surprising hints of independence it is quite possible that the wind wanes at Venevision and Televen may do the same. Never mind that a quick reform of the communications law can do much more damage tot he image of the regime at home than poor ANTV could.
And your thoughts on the Tweets/Message of Padrino Lopez, Daniel... or is that the next story?
ReplyDeleteI guess I can chime in: Padrino L. Doesn't want to be involved on the legality of the Supreme Court actions. This means the regime feels free to have the Supreme Court continue carving Unity deputies away. My guess is they plan to carve them down to 99.
DeleteThe key issue seems to be tv access ASAP. The regime is likely to put pressure on Globovision to make them return to the fold.
And as long as Ramos can get out the message that the regime is attempting a judicial coup to leave it powerless he can point out the economic mess is Maduro's fault.
Chavismo has quite a few weak spots. For example, a National Assembly commission can investigate pdvsa and its dealings with large oil multinationals. Most Venezuelans think the oil industry was nationalized, but that isn't true. Today there are large fields operated by joint companies partially owned by Chevron, Rosneft, Repsol, and others. The typical shareholding is 60 % pdvsa, 40 % foreigner. I think the people do need to be informed that Chavez' "nationalization" was no such thing.
One more item: Maduro can probably tell Eulogio to refuse to tell the truth, but if the National Assembly calls in the Repsol president (who speaks Spanish) the guy will have to reveal the nature of contracts and the shares Repsol,owns in the joint companies. Another individual whose declaration will be really interesting is the Schlumberger president. He should disclose how much money they are owed by pdvsa.
DeleteAnother individual whose declaration will be really interesting is the Schlumberger president. He should disclose how much money they are owed by pdvsa.
DeleteOff the top of my head, I thought that PDVSA owes Schlumberger a billion dollars- palos y palos de los verdes. My SWAG [scientific wild-assed guesss] may not be that far off. Following is a debt estimate from 2009:
Based on estimates by oil industry executives, PDVSA owes as much as $1.2 billion to just to two of the large companies, Halliburton and Schlumberger, Dow Jones reported.
In fact a billion may well be an underestimate for what PDVSA currently owes Schlumberger.
Last year my sister and I saw the Rothko Chapel in Houston. It did not impress me, perhaps because in spite coming from family with over 400 years of Protestantism, I was expecting something not so stark, but something more ornate, more baroque, more Roman Catholic. Latin America affected my expectations of a chapel. Schlumberger family money funded the Rothko Chapel. I told my sister that the Rothko Chapel may have been the first time the Schlumberger family got the worst of a deal. Though it would seem that in its experience with Chavista PDVSA, Schlumberger may have gotten even worse a deal than the Rothko Chapel.
Thanks Fernado! Have begun to follow you as well, though have not had a chance to check in today.
DeleteAs previously advertised here by my alter-ego, Lee Kuan Yew, lo que viene es candela, y a coñazo limpio. That's how civilized, and educated our Kleptozuelan laughable "Parliament" will be. Led by another corrupt politician, Derwick Allup.
ReplyDeleteGetting news to the people about what has really happened behind the scenes during the last years back into the news and on TV is paramount. Changes to the communications network and CONATEL should be amongst the top priorities, unfortunately there are so many priorities. But allowing he people to know what is happening and what has happened will boost the popularity and also the legitimacy of action of the new AN. People need not only to see the changes that the AN can make but they need to be informed about them before, during, and after. Otherwise they will remain a phantomlike organization far away in Caracas doing who knows what. The Nueva AN needs to be in people's living rooms daily if they so choose to watch coverage and debates. Censure has to end. It is time to defend the right to be a journalist and report freely, and without government threats and bullying.
ReplyDeleteExactly. This is essentially a chess game in which the opponent doesn't follow the rules. They will subvert your pieces, make them disappear, invent absurd rules, and make it very clear they won't accept defeat.
DeleteThe "112" is probably never going to be effective, and the Armed Forces won't enter the judicial arena - but they MAY accept an outside message from other nations that democracy has been subverted, Unfortunately such a message is extremely unlikely to appear.
This always takes me back to the tv coverage to exhibit the skeletons in the closet, and show the remaining Chavistas that Maduro is a traitor to chavez's legacy. I believe there's a chance that Raúl Castro and his people will give up. But it's critical to make sure Obama doesn't keep showering the Castro family dictatorship with more candy.