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| A fraction of the river of people in Caracas today October 27 2016 |
What has happened today is transcendent, on many aspects.
The causes are the naked abuse of the regime which has refused to recognize the duly elected majority of the National Assembly. A regime that has refused to recognize the constitutional right to call for a a recall election. A regime that has suspended all elections until they decide to hold them again, someday, when conditions are good for them. A regime that has decided to assault the national assembly. And of course, most importantly, a regime that has left its population with not enough food, not enough medicine and not enough money to buy from the little that is left to find.
In not even 48 hours the opposition managed to organize spontaneously what is probably the largest NATION WIDE protest ever in our history. If the Caracas one was not as large than the one on September, it remains quite impressive as per the picture above in front of the military base of La Carlota, without even bothering to ask for permission tot he regime. Think about that for a second. The opposition simply called it and people came. What makes the day noteworthy is that in many cities of the countries huge opposition rallies materialized at the same time, resulting in a major show of strength for the opposition, duly noted even on French TV tonight.
The only thing chavismo could manage was a handful of "supporter" public employees at the gate of Miraflores. They did not even tried to have some thing significant, they knew that they would not be able to fill up the buses with enough people to carry, no matter how much pressure and/or cash to attend they would provide.
However what they did was to repress. Not in Caracas, mind you, where all eyes are, but inside the country where they think that the world watches less and where they assume that people can be sacred easier to get back in line. We had dozens of arrests and injuries during the day, with an extremely worrying high rate of rubber bullets shot in the face of people, as close to the eyes as possible. A vicious attack, without doubt inspired by the fascist ways of repression the regime imported from Cuba.
The results of all of this are varied and not encouraging.
The first victim is the carelessly dialogue called by the Vatican next Sunday, a clumsiness that surprises everyone. Then again the US and the Vatican have always had in mind solving the Cuban situation thorough Venezuelan pockets never caring much for the fate of the Venezuelan opposition. It will remain one of the biggest failure of US or Vatican diplomacy, to underestimate the level of despair AND resolve of the Venezuelan opposition, a mistake that could cost Obama's"legacy" a big chunk. Never mind Francis himself though he still can recover better than the US.
The second result is that the regime has got in overdrive, invoking article 323 of the constitution, a preamble of sorts to suspend the constitution altogether. Except that ironically the decisions taken out of 323 have a validity only if the chair of the national assembly signs them. Not that it matters much for the regime, of course. But that seems a little paltry after all the other violations of the Constitution by the regime that justify in full all that the National Assembly has decided to undertake. These are also in agreement with the constitution, and include removing illegally appointed justices and electoral board, citing Maduro for investigation on many issues, etc...
The third result may be the most momentous. After today's true show of strength that not even the regime propaganda is taking down with its usual cynicism, the opposition has called for a general strike on Friday and a march on Miraflores Palace on November 3. That is, either the regime decides to give concrete and real responses NOW or the insurrection not only will start but probably could not be controlled by the opposition.
I wrote, and many others, that the regime sought violence as a way to sustain its power. Hence so many provocations. But violence is not necessarily the solution for the regime if it did not happen at the right time. Now, with a long suffering country, the violence that the regime is unleashing seem to scare many of them actually, as a demon that they are not sure they can control to their advantage. In 2014 it worked and gave the regime two more years but this time around conditions are different.
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What follows below does not quite belong tot he the stream of the text above. call it additional info.
First it was my own attendance to the march rally in the picture above. There is my two videos on Instagram
The second one is a flag sales guy. What is remarkable is that he was openly selling 7 star flags, those of the pre Chavez era. Quite a symbol that those are now the flags made and sold at marches....
This was one of the marches across Venezuela. This one from Barquisimeto.
Aquí en Barquisimeto,las calles no fueron suficientes para toda la cantidad de ciudadanos q salimos a marchar pic.twitter.com/HVcg0Ex0YC— lorena perata (@lorenaperata) 26 de octubre de 2016
And a couple of videos on today's repression. You can clearly see how the police was facilitating the chavista storm troopers actions. Observe when the masked aggressor points at the window of the movie takers. Fascism. The real stuff.
@trafficTACHIRA @traffiCARACAS como se unen los policías + tupamaros para reprimir pic.twitter.com/rKewRGa2Es— norelis garcia (@norelisgarcia4) 26 de octubre de 2016
La Policia del Estado no les basta con reprimir al pueblo sino además descaradamente protegen a los malandros del gobierno #Mérida pic.twitter.com/OYD3drZUk6— Carlos García (@CarlosGarc1a) 26 de octubre de 2016
And to finish all, in case you doubt how angry Venezuelans are becoming at the regime...
Mujeres tachirenses impidiendo q efectivos militares disolvieran protesta cerca del CNE San Cristòbal. #LaTomaDeVenezuela #Táchira pic.twitter.com/1yJ4molZJS— Luz Dary Depablos (@luzdarydepablos) 26 de octubre de 2016
Daniel, it's important that MUD and all Venezuelan entities use their best efforts to call for UNASUR members to meet, ask Samper to review Zapatero's progress, and order a change in the mediating team composition. Zapatero can stay, if they think it's convenient, but the group needs better balance. They also need to give this new reformulated team the guidance that the dialogue has to include the requirement that Venezuelans express their choices in the referendum, governor elections, etc.
ReplyDeleteA parallel effort has to be made to have the European Parliament vote on a resolution declaring there is a breach of constitutional rule. The OAS has to vote on the same issue even if they don't have the 75% supermajority. I don't see others being involved or caring, but a statement by individual governments stating the constitutional breach has taken place will help.
I'm focusing on this issue because I sense Padrino Lopez is walking a fine line. Ramos Allup is making a mistake by insulting him, Allup doesn't understand the way the Cuban control system menaces the Venezuelan military.
Padrino López needs an outside arbiter he can trust. He's not a lawyer, won't move unless there's overwhelming number of opinions from other nations which confirm Maduro has stepped into dictatorship territory.
It's also evident Obama and the pope can't be trusted to help out. For whatever reason they are focused on helping the Cuban dictatorship survive, and this means they'll be as low key as possible.
I sincerely hope this helps, and do understand you are in danger. If you go to protest wear leather and safety glasses, try to make sure you are difficult to recognize.
The freaking Vatican?! The USA? They couldn't care less about little Venezuela, with its cheap, heavy oil already sold out to the Chinese.
ReplyDeleteFor starters, the Vatican is among THE most corrupt countries in the planet. Per capita, they are probably almost as corrupt as Venezuela or Haiti. Google it up.
The USA? Europe? They do not care about Venezuela. There are dozens of more interesting countries to worry about, for political and economic reasons than little Venezuela. Latin America, Mexico, Africa, Europe, the Middle East are much bigger concerns, if concerns at all.
So stop dreaming about the "Vatican". They are a bunch of corrupt priests. Stop dreaming about the USA or Europe. They have not done a single thing for Vzla in decades. Not one single, concrete action. Heck, they love Cuba now. Venezuelans have to get out in the streets and overthrow the criminal narco-dictatorship. Including the narco-corrupt military and the putrid TSJ. The Vatican, the USA? the rest of the world? they don't give a flying fock..
Some of us here in the USA do care, care very deeply, what is happening in Venezuela. The (pathetic) main stream media has taken little notice over the past years, but more frequent stories are beginning to appear. Ordinary citizens of the USA have little influence on The Big Game played governments, but more have care and compassion for the plight of our Venezuelan neighbors than your comment would suggest.
Delete@ Rich
Delete"Some" is so tiny as to be invisible.
99% of Americans could not find VZ on a map if you spotted them Columbia, Guyana and Brazil.
We do what we can. There is a conundrum for the US government, as I'm sure you are aware. If the US government acts to aid the democratic parties, even in the most benign manner, it will be widely condemned as "Gringo intervention", or "Imperialism". If the government does only what it can through back channels, it is criticized for being indifferent. It's a difficult position.
DeleteHeck, even over a Million of Venezuelans like me, or most readers of these blogs, left Vzla never to return. And most of them hardly care anymore about that mess. I see them in Miami all the time, they care about their future here, or in Madrid, or Europe, and every year that passes, they forget more and more about Venezuela, the Avila or Choroni. It's just a casual one-liner at the local barbecue fest or a few laments at the Doral coffee shops. "Ese pais esta jodio". "Aqui no hay cachitos de jamon, que vaina". Pero el marroncito ta' fino!" That's what you hear.
ReplyDeleteHeck, whomever graduates from any school, or knows someone overseas gets out of Venezuela as soon as they can. Never to return. That's the fact, Jack, or who wants to get killed for a pair of shoes, or deal with Chavismo and the incompetent MUD? Just about any country in the world is safer and more attractive to live in than Venezuela. Thus the massive Brain-Drain, which is highly detrimental and mostly irreversible, for decades to come.
Clearly the only way for the people of Venezuela to fix the mess they helped create is to rise up and take back their country. As for the Vatican or the USA the people of Venezuela care less about them and it would do little for them to take more action against the regime. Too strong of action from the USA is what the regime is looking for in order to justify their propaganda war against the USA and to push the country into a Cuba where it cuts itself off from the trade block and the Western world. The regime has been pushing hard for a powerful reaction from the USA. I believe the USA is leveraging it self pushing oil production and low oil prices to cripple both Venezuela and Russia. The whole Cuban love fest is simply to show the S America/Caribbean people that see the USA is not the bad guy don't justify Venezuela's problems on any USA action. Mean while the USA is running many investigations into who has prospered including going after companies willing to conduct shady deals with the regime to help out. I think USA's undermining actions are the smart path and an outright frontal action would have ill effects for the people of Venezuela. The time for that will come in great support of the replacement fo the regime to assure it does not get back in.
ReplyDeleteIt will remain one of the biggest failure of US or Vatican diplomacy, to underestimate the level of despair AND resolve of the Venezuelan opposition, a mistake that could cost Obama's "legacy" a big chunk.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who had read up on Obama before the 2008 election should not surprised at all at the "legacy" of Obama's foreign policy. Obama has performed as I anticipated.The late Frank Marshall Davis would be rather pleased, I suspect.
Ask the Syrians about Obama's "legacy."
Recall Obama's reaction to "Mel" Zelaya's removal in Honduras. It mattered not a whit to Obama that 1) Zelaya had violated the Honduran Constitution and as such 2) his removal was justified. Obama stood with supporters of lawful democracies like Chavez and the Castro brothers. Daniel was not pleased with what Obama did then.
Yet Daniel supported the election of Obama in 2008 and 2012. What you see is what you get.
McCain wasnt electable, he was a bit old, and Palin was absolutely out of the question (I heard about her through personal contacts in Alaska, and I concluded the country couldn't risk it).
DeleteSome say the Venezuelans should "just revolt", but that's marching down the shotgun barrel. Today I've tried as much as possible to get moves to have Maduro criticized in international forums. I believe PKK thinks like I do, he seems to be ready to call for the OAS meeting. But we do need to have Mercosur move fast to suspend Venezuela, followed by a move to have UNASUR shuffle the dialogue facilitators. We need to have signals sent to Padrino López. Otherwise Maduro will cement himself in place. And forget about future elections. All MUD political parties will be outlawed by early next year.
I can't emphasize enough its important for people to get involved. I've always felt Venezuelans were bound to be Castro's slaves, they simply lack the unity and willpower to oppose communist cadres trained by Castro linked to a narco military. But hell I have to keep on trying.
Fernando I cannot follow your point. You have been clear that Venezuela is controlled by the Castros. Cuba has been banished by similar trade pacts. Why on earth would Castros care if Mercosur suspends Venezuela? I am sure Castros would be happy for it. Same as they would have loved a tough stance from USA as the USA did with Cuba. In fact they had counted on it and are now scrambling to convince the people that their ill country is a result of USA action. Castros wanted the USA to take action in order to give a logical serious reason to the people for why they are suffering. All you want is for the world to step in and give the reason. It is getting to the point that it can and the people will see through the excuse but if the USA had when you wanted or others wanted or the opposition wanted then over half the population would believe that their ills are due to USA sanctions and actions. Now all the regime can do is put out false propaganda as to how they stole everything from the people. Why do you think Venezuela has done its best to piss of USA?
DeleteWith a name like Nicolae Madurescu,I would be worried for my future.
ReplyDeleteGreat job again, like reading the comments from the informed readers. The pictures and video, EXCELLENT.
ReplyDeleteI'm not North American but really why do latinos talk about the US, Vatican etc not doing anything. If Western countries step in then they get accused of interfering. Where the hell are the latin countries? When are they going to step up to the plate?
ReplyDeleteImagine how pround South and Central Americans could feel if they sort this s$%t out without outside help. Living for the past 18 yeats in CA though I know it will or could never happen.
jak
If the US intervenes, the Chavista minority could quickly swell to a majority again simply for fear of Intervention or Occupation. The VZLAn people have to remove Maduro which is what the majority of VZLAns want anyways. For the US to stay out. The US supported outright the Carmona govt in 2002 and the backlash continues to this day. Although hard to understand, the approach the US is taking is probably best for the stability of the next govt which Venezuelans will install themselves..And hopefully soon.
ReplyDelete