Fait divers: Lilian Tintori is parted from her cash

The talk of this end of week is not the Law against Hate, or the Stalinist tribunal that the constituent assembly has become, or that the regime celebrates has a major achievement the arrival of a wheat ship from Russia with wheat for, what?, 5 days? or more important matters.

The talk is of the millions of bolivares found in Lilian Tintori car, in cash.

So I have to write a quick word.

First, it is not that much really, a mere 20K USD at black market rate. Not even enough to run the campaign of medium size city in Venezuela. But a godsend for the regime that is trying to bring down the woman that has become a worldwide figure in defense of Human Rights.

And yet I cannot be sympathetic enough to her plight.

Her justification is three fold: it is not a crime to have any amount of cash you want to have on you; it is money destined to cover medical costs for her 100 year old grandmother; and she is not hiding from it, going to police to declare before she got indicted today for the "crime".

Yet it does not fly.

First, no medical center in Venezuela would accept payment in such large amounts of cash. That or she needs to tell what hospital was willing to accept cash like that, with the risk of being audited for tax evasion.

Second, in a country experiencing cash crisis, she is able to get a few neatly packed crates of crisp banknotes? Please....   What bank would do that? Cabello mentions BOD bank but that one is supposed to favor the regime. Go figure....

Third, there is no problem in doing money transfers in Venezuela, and cashier checks are actually cheap, very cheap, to get issued at your branch. If you have the funds of course.

Fourth, it is simply insane to drive around Caracas with crates of cash in a desirable car for gangs specialized in robbing such expensive vehicles (for Venezuela standards, we are not talking expensive Mercedes or Ferrari here).

I can keep going on but you get the idea. My point is not what she does with her money. She can light up her joints with it if she wants to, I could not care less.

My point is her unexpected foolishness, coming  from someone who after all that she has endured in the past three years can still  make such an hair headed novice crass mistake.

Does she not know that the dictatorship monitors scores of people with spies, mics and cameras up to the wazoo? She can go to any Venezuelan general to get confirmation on how the Cuban G2 tracks them. Heck, she was even filmed in the privacy of her husband jail when she was visiting Leopoldo at Ramo Verde!

And she just has a relative prancing around with neat pine boxes of cash?  And it never occurred to her that managing to obtaining that cash from BOD could have actually been a set up?  That she had dollars for it is irrelevant, getting so much cash at once is awesome when my branch will give me only up to three bucks in cash a day.

The mind reels......

Meanwhile the regime is having a field day and many in the opposition want her hanged.

I am just stunned.

And I am reminded again that if Maduro is still in office is not only due to his vileness. Incompetence from the other side has something to do with it.