Open letter to Marco Rubio

Dear Senator Rubio

I was directed to a string of tweets you posted earlier on today. They are below next.

First let me congratulate you from your constant attention to the Venezuelan situation and your efforts in helping the democratic people of Venezuela.  We all have to thank you for keeping the Venezuelan crisis in the front burner of United States priorities.  I say that knowing full well that this approval alone is enough to bring me trouble as I reside in Venezuela.

And this is why I write to you because something is doubly wrong with these tweets. Supporting these could actually get me into serious trouble, but for the wrong reasons. Let me explain.

You did not say anything that I have not said at some point in the blog. So, the trouble for me here would come from relaying your tweets, not from their content.  Even your quoting Bolivar appropriately is trouble for us as it underlines the corruption of his good name perpetrated by the chavista fraud.

The problem comes from putting your faith in the Venezuelan army.  Here, in Venezuela, we all know that there is not such a thing as a military solution. We all know, we have all suffered, we have all seen what the army has become under Chavez and Maduro: a corrupt and decrepit former institution. An institution, I should add, that was not in good shape when Chavez arrived in office.  What he did was to open progressively the doors to massive corruption inside. One by one the generals either went on to retirement or bit into the corruption cake, lavishly fattened by the decision of the Bush administration to let Chavez do as he pleased as long as he sent all the oil the US asked for during the Gulf War.  And oil price was high, so high these years!

It is hard to read, I know, but it is the to the bitter point summary. Neither Bush nor Obama paid the required attention to Venezuela and that is why we have a much worse crisis than what it could have been.

That is why I am dismayed to read that you are suggesting the military to intervene and boot Maduro out.  Are you that naive or is it part of a devilish plan you have concocted with your colleagues?  I would like to know.

Look at the Maduro administration: military everywhere. Between retired and active military you have a majority of governors and cabinet posts.

THIS IS ALREADY A MILITARY DICTATORSHIP. Maduro does not rule, he just has allied himself with the military. They let him figure while they pick up dry the bones of the country.

The beauty, for the army, of the Chavez regime has been that they reached power, absolute power, without the need to fire a single gun, without the need to make a military coup.  Their only limitations has been to pretend that this is still an imperfect democracy by allowing a whole bunch of leftist civilians allied with a civilian kleptocracy to do their bidding. In fact that kleptocratic "elite" has been the one managing the corruption business of the generals.  Cuba understood this very well: they infiltrated the army so that those who aligned with Cuba would share the loot with Cuba while becoming the real power in Venezuela.  Helped along, of course, by Cuban expertise on SS controls: Starvation and Surveillance.

This is why your tweet, the one where you address the military itself confounds me so much.  They, perhaps, even discredit you.

Unless your diabolical plan is to encourage a group of the army to break away in exchange of an amnesty for them. In short a small blood bath to avoid the major blood bath of massive repression and civil war.  Is that so?

Allow me to be skeptical of the solution.  Here, the army must be eliminated. It is beyond recovery, from the soldiers eating out of garbage to the generals that are almost all to a point incredibly fat.  The soldiers that allowed their commanders to make them eat garbage are not recoverable. And the generals so used to power, riches and free abuse at this point are unable to comprehend that they wronged the country. They are beyond the pale, beyond redemption.

I know you know. But please, let it be clear. There is too much at stake for us, and for you, the USofA, to play loose with tweets. We need to know that indeed you are well informed.

With all my thanks for your invaluable labor fighting for freedom, here and in Cuba.