Leopoldo Lopez shows us what a selfie should be all about

Leopoldo Lopez from his jail in Ramo Verde has managed to sneak out a video where he calls for a massive protest next Saturday 30th. While himself and Ceballos start a hunger strike.  Let's watch the video first:

Bloomberg goes to the core of US sanctions to Venezuelan Officials

I was planning on translating the earlier post in Spanish over Obama's sanctions and the regime's reply. But the core of that entry was the message that the US sent to the rest of LatAm and Bloomberg makes a superb article on that. I certainly could not do better and it shows you that outside of the spineless opposition and brain dead but vicious chavismo there are people that clearly can see the bigger issues. Please read : Obama's wake up call to Venezuela's neighbors.ailities

There is only one thing I need to add, for the sake of avoiding extra posts.

Habilitando las sanciones al palo de gallinero

El anuncio de Obama ayer sobre sanciones a 7 abusadores de DDHH y el anuncio de una habilitante por Nicolás Maburro Maduro me ha sorprendido más por la reacción de algunos opositores que por la noticia en si. Para ellos es un error porque le da más argumentos y fuerza a Maduro. ¡De bolas! Claro, ¡ESO ES EL OBJETIVO! ¡Que el chavismo termine de enredarse en sus patrañas de una buena vez!

Vamos a ir por parte para que entiendan bien.

1- la habilitante. La rapidez de Maduro en anunciar anoche que iban a pedir una habilitante es porque ya la tenían lista. Que Obama les haya dado la oportunidad de hacerlo es irrelevante. El gobierno que sabe que perderá las elecciones de este año tiene meses trabajando en anular los efectos de una muy posible Asamblea adversa. Ya coparon todos los poderes con arrastrados. Lo único que le faltaba era una habilitante para controlar la nueva asamblea por un par de años, por lo menos. ¿O es que ustedes se olvidaron ya que eso fue lo que hizo Chávez en el 2009 previendo que no tendría el 2/3?

En otras palabras, ¡con o sin Obama, con la habilitante me resteo!

The extraordinary failure of UNASUR

I was going to write a scathing post in Spanish about the visit of a UNASUR delegation to Caracas yesterday but reading Twitter this week end I realized that no one in Venezuela was fooled. No need to write in Spanish to add water to the mill.  My criticism of Ernesto Samper and Maria Angela Holguin would be more useful in English.

For those that can be excused not to know about UNASUR, this organization is limited to countries in South America. It was the brain child of Lula as a way for Brazil to 1) exclude the US from that region (and weaken OAS, always a potential problem for rogue regimes) 2) be an instrument for Brazil to control the rest of the subcontinent, if anything due to its sheer size now that there would be no US counterweight and 3) shoulder up the leftists regimes getting into place in the area. Of course, such an organization set up in the interest of some political groups rather than the interests of nations was doomed from the start. Chavez joined in eagerly as he thought it a mean to lead in South America. Lula allowed him to believe he was doing so when in fact Chavez was doing Brazil's dirty work, etc. That Colombia and Paraguay joined in reluctantly did not help, but I suppose that they thought it was better to monitor these creeps from inside than from outside.

Did the MUD serve an ultimatum to UNASUR?

One should never forget that the crisis in Venezuela is also about Venezuela and its place in the world. All is not played at Caracas alone and the world is wondering what it will do with the ruins of Venezuela that will still be seating over quite a nice pile of oil, hydroelectric power and even some usable agriculture as the world will run out of arable land.

As such, UNASUR, the faulty creation of Brazil's Lula as a lame attempt at excluding the US from its own hemisphere policy making, is facing doom at its first real challenge ever. The more so when idiots like Uruguay president Mujica come out on a CNNE interview implying that only the opposition in Venezuela is violating its constitution when CNNE has been proving it otherwise for months now. Mujica positioning squarely on Maduro's side is simply scandalous: he is either and idiot, either misinformed, unforgivable for a president, or either simply vicious. Not excluding the three together, obviously.

Towards "le dernier carré", or Maduro circling the wagons

SICAD at Waterloo

"Le dernier carré" is a known military term, particularly put in vogue at Waterloo when the last battalion of the Garde Impériale was called at the end of the battle, as much as a last ditch effort as to protect the retreat of the army. The Garde supposedly was standing in squares and the last holding square was, well, kind of like circling the wagons while knowing full well that your scalp was about to free itself from its hold no matter what.

This being said, before I digress further, I am not implying whatsoever that the regime theoretically held by Maduro is about to collapse and they are circling the wagons in a square (though they would be stupid enough to try that if you ask me). No, the regime may still have a while ahead but it is behaving as if the hour had come. But before we go into these nervous defenses of the regime, let's review why it is justified for them to feel cornered.