Tuesday, April 04, 2017

Day 5 of dictatorship: the regime says we are a democracy again. We are laughing.

So what has happened after the high court flip-flop of the wee hours of last Friday?

Nobody believes it, except the usual suspects who pretend to believe it. And how could people be expected to believe it? In no serious country the high court flip-flops within hours, "tending" to the plea of the executive power, and just strikes down the offensive article just as if it did not change the whole sentence roots whatsoever.

The regime stupidly proved to the world that there is indeed no separation of powers in Venezuela even though they claim here in Venezuela all public powers are separated. Not that people did not know about it, of course, but it made their work easier today to take the first solid steps towards applying the Inter-American Democratic Charter to Venezuela. The OAS gathered this afternoon in spite of sabotage from Bolivia, whose ambassador wears at all time some kind of pseudo ethnic requirement broad brim hat which is, well, ridiculous and, well, rude to be worn indoors. But then again, it is Bolivia and its rudeness should not surprise us since it defended Venezuela whose ambassador Moncada outdid himself today in shrill insults until mercifully he stood up and left the room.  After that show even Salvador could not vote for Venezuela and abstained.

As far as I can see it the hysteria of Venezuela is in fact calculated. Cuba has told them that they have been living outside of the OAS since 1962 and they managed. So can Venezuela. What is at play here is the best way to leave the OAS: be kicked out or resigning is just a matter of political convenience at home. I would like just to underline that Moncada had a great line of the ridicule today when he said it was a scandal for these countries to talk about Venezuela without Venezuela's permission. I would have loved to see the individual detail of the ambassadors face when they heard that. Never mind that in recent years Venezuela was the main proponent/talker of applying the democratic charter to Honduras and Paraguay......  Chavismo has always excelled in double and triple standards.

At any rate the OAS did vote. The document is perfectly reasonable but the mere use of reason is enough to send into a tail spin of negativeness the regime who is more afraid of reason than vampires from garlic and crosses. I would like to point out a couple of paragraphs of the rather short resolution:

The decisions of the Supreme Court of Venezuela to suspend the powers of the National Assembly and to arrogate them to itself are inconsistent with democratic practice and constitute an alteration of the constitutional order of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Notwithstanding the recent revision of some elements of these decisions, it is essential that the Government of Venezuela ensures the full restoration of democratic order.

My highlights. Clearly nobody believes that last Friday flip-flop was done with the intention of the regime to amend its ways

To urge action by the Venezuelan government to safeguard the separation and independence of powers and to restore full constitutional authority to the National Assembly.

And in case it was not clear enough, it is necessary for the regime to restore the normal functions of the National Assembly (or else?). In short, there are dozens of sentences against the NA since January 2016 and they need all to be revised. After all the TSJ has demonstrated last week how easy it is to reverse a "final" sentence in Venezuela. Where would the hold ups be?

Meanwhile as the OAS moved at its usual glacial pace, things went faster elsewhere.  We had this in Caracas:



Nice to have these images sent to the OAS on the very day where your democratic credentials are questioned.

And we had that in Montevideo.

Here on the right is a letter from Uruguay president Tabaré Vasquez demanding that either Maduro proves his accusation of Uruguay Foreign Minister conspiring against Venezuela or offer a public retraction.  Way to make friends Nicolas! Apparently we also learned from Maduro himself that Vasquez is not picking up the phone....

I was forgetting!  Before the OAS meeting Mercosur decided to apply its own Democratic Charter to Venezuela.

What is next? Anyone's guess. The narco-thuggo-corrupto-regime is not going to yield so it will break one way or the other from Mercosur and OAS. Remember, they cannot yield because their fate would be jail. Only if Cuba were to receive a couple of hundred chavista exiles (with their millions) could we get a "peaceful" transition.

The only means of pressure actually comes from the National Assembly whose vote is indispensable to approve loans and the sale of state assets so that the regime can keep surviving. That is the whole, unique purpose of the regime recently, illustrated so well in the fateful decision whose main objective was to allow the regime to sell oil concession to Russia without NA approval. That they sneaked inside the ruling the catastrophic paragraph that is bringing the regime so much grief lately is the best illustration.
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PS: there were also, in addition, but I was forgetting it since it seems to be becoming a routine, more political arrests. Now they are sent directly to military tribunals who apparently the regime thinks they are the only ones allowed to judge on such "crimes". Of course, military justice in Venezuela is neither military nor justice.  I am sure the OAS has been informed of this new democratic correction of the regime.


6 comments:

  1. Need to go beyond the OAS and start requesting that European Union, USA, as many Latinamerican nations as possible, and others which may wish to join impose sanctions on individual Chavistas. The sanctions can't be limited to the USA, there's an urgent need to have other nations participate. Such sanctions can be limited to refusing them entry, as well as freezing their bank accounts and other properties. The Europeans are quite mercenary and have practically no spine, but it's possible a nation like say Poland or the Czech Republic may wish to help.

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  2. IslandCanuck1:57 PM

    The president of the political party Copei was arrested and charged with some sort of terrorism charge but no details were provided.
    Does anyone know what is behind that?

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  3. "military justice in Venezuela", an oxymoron. "Cuba has told them that they have been living outside of the OAS since 1962 and they managed". Indeed and as a result money started pouring in the country for reconstruction from all corners. The same will happen to the Maduro regime when they leave.

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  4. Most countries and most people continue to just laugh at Venezuela. They have become the clowns of Latin America. The USA and Europe simply do not care at all anymore, for such hopeless fools. Couldn't care less.

    Such incredible levels of corruption, ineptitude and stupidity are indeed laughable. Except for the tragedy of the average people. But hey, if you're gonna cry about human suffering, start with the entire continent of Africa or Haiti. So cry me a river. Most Venezuelans are getting precisely what they deserve. Wanna help? Start here:

    Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most-populous continent. At about 30.3 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20.4 % of its total land area. Wikipedia
    Area: 11.73 million mi²
    Population: 1.216 billion (2016)
    Languages: 1250-3000 native languages

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  5. People like me warned the people of Venezuela what would happen.

    And we were laughed at, mocked, made fun of and called "racists".

    Worse still - they actually said that our criticisms were violations of human and civil rights.

    So I'm happy to see the people of Venezuela being ground up under the repressive boot of a tyrannical dictator.

    Sure they're starving and suffering and dying. But a vote for the other guy would have given the rich a tax cut they didn't need.

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  6. Anonymous9:17 PM

    The OAS lead by the USA will put on pressure and cause more uncertainty for Venezuela but not for democracy. It will as it will send the returns on the bonds primarily held by rich Americans up. It is the greater theft then the internal theft going on inside Venezuela and is considered legal. Mean while they will sell off Venezuela's future to the Russian oil giant such that the bond payments can be made for the foreseeable future. The USA government(s) all just answer to the rich regardless which one the people vote in. Venezuela will get no serious help from the USA and hence the world as long as these bonds are paid. This is also where the original Chavista masterminds are making their billions. Good luck people of Venezuela but the USA is only lip service and your only hope is to over through the gov't but don't be the least bit surprised if the USA steps in again and props them up.

    ReplyDelete

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