Fiascoes

Following Venezuela from afar is a painful exercise. All that I see are missed opportunities and grand thuggery in action. Not surprising of course when you know the actors. What is most offensive though is the reaction of these actors; as if they expected the outcome to be different than what was predictable.

I am speaking for all, not only the opposition post April 30 debacle, but also the regime failure to come up with a solution to its power holding problems, only insuring that everything will happen again. And let's not forget the international community either desperately clueless or desperately weak (or both).

And so we reached January 13, to everybody's great surprise

What has been remarkable in the last three days is what DID NOT happen. What happened was not necessarily meaningful, nor did it solve any problem but it contributed to set the base line for the next weeks, until January 23 unless the regime cracks down before. (1)

What happened was that Maduro did swear in at the high court (TSJ). As if his word had more value than Venezuelan currency.

And in the next two days the opposition at the National Assembly started the process to declare itself as the new government since Maduro election is not recognized and he did not swear in as the constitution demands. So he does not exist and any paper with his signature as of January 10 is worthless.

Communication disaster

I have been victim of two power outages that lasted for a total of 14 hours over the two days of strike. As such not only internet was out, but it never came back. The one from my smartphone is weak and barely allows me to read twitter, if it is in a good mood. So I cannot use it as an internet source for my laptop and thus cannot post or do more than very basic e-mail.  I am briefly at the office getting ready to leave before noon if I want to have a chance to get back home for the terrible coming weekend.

I will try to cover what I can in the next crucial days from twitter and instagram and try to post whatever I can post.  But to keep you abreast of the situation, here in brief:

• general strike has worked in opposition areas. It did not work so well in regime areas becasue, at least in Caracas, colectivos acted to force stores to remain open. But they could not hide that most bus transport system was out. Thus the strike was a regime defeat.

The maelstrom is forming

For readers of this blog it should not be a surprise that the regime has chosen naked repression. The nomination of Tareck El Aissami as vice president was a clear indication of that. The man is a born killer, in search of a vengeance as early as his days in college.

It is not that Tareck IS the man, he is just the willing agent, the front of the "civilian" radical wing of chavismo, the one closely tied to Cuban interests to which Maduro, Jaua and some other belong. They may or may not be die hard communists, some do not have the intellectual baggage to know what Marxism is truly about. But they all have a mean anti system streak and if they have joined totalitarian regimes from the left side it is strictly a matter of historical moment.

Tales of a military temper tantrum

What has inflamed the 2.0 tonight is the late afternoon address of Padrino Lopez, in cadena nonetheless. A quick video analysis follows.

Nowhere to go for chavismo

It is always sobering when you read that even a firebrand like Marianella Salazar writes in a major paper about the possibility of a coup, naturally,  as if she were talking about what to do next Sunday after the family BBQ.  I do not know about her sources to take this eventuality such matter-of-factly, but one thing is certain: major governmental paralysis is only too often the surest sign of a regime/government change. Hit your history books.

The fact of the matter is that since Chavez left for Cuba the country has been basically on standby. For all the electoral pandering the lone economic decision of importance taken was the devaluation in February which has turned out to be a mere robbery as most private debt of 2012 at 4.3 to the dollar has been paid, if paid, at 6.3 to the dollar. A 40%+ robbery. True, there has been an attempt at reducing expenses though with misguided targets, and probably all efforts voided by the latest loan from China which is for electoral purposes, and once again, leaving us into yet more national debt (I have read 60% of PIB which is terrible for a country that produces nothing of value for export).

Duty calls, a migraine will not stop me from reporting on the fascist coup going on in Venezuela

Barquisimeto today

I suffer from occasional crippling migraines and today I got one. On and off I tried to read my tablet, or watch at very low volume TV but soon enough I had to stop and slumber again. Yet, all hands on deck and even if incomplete I need write up some stuff.

On the live-news I can tell you that today there was a significant rally in front of San Felipe CNE. I had to go to work for half an hour at least so I saw the end of it when I came back home, seeing walking next to my car San Felipe's ex mayor and our representative who in normal times are political adversaries. Times have changed.

The Fascist National Assembly of Venezuela

The mind reels.  What happened at the National Assembly today defies all reason, all rationale, or logic.  That is, if you think like a normal person who has a minimum of understanding about what is right and what is wrong.

However if you are a thug, today's show makes perfect sense.

Honduras: what CNN will probably not tell you

Before I start on this post, it is CNN "en español" that I am thinking off, CNN in English is still on its 23/24 on Michael Jackson. Since I am not fully back in business I am just going to make this post a semi random collection of notes.

OAS: It is going to prove once again to be useless on the matter. After having allowed Chavez to do so much, what moral authority does the OAS has to stand on any side of the Honduras mess? And I am not getting started on the latest about opening the door back to Cuba. I understand that the anti Zelaya camp did not even want the OAS to show up. After the mess the OAS left Venezuela in, no wonder...

OAS secretary Insulza: another one with crocodile tears big time. After having said to El Pais a few weeks ago that he did not find anything wrong with democracy in Venezuela he is now screaming bloody murder. Yeah, right, perfect representative of what the OAS has become, preparing his reeelction campaign by courting the only man whose vote he must have (the US vote is pretty much irrelevant today in the OAS).

Latin America presidents: of course they are all going to condemn the coup in Honduras even though I am sure secretly many are smiling. But the fact of the matter is that South of the Rio Grande ALL presidents sleep bad at night when rumors come from the barracks. Well, I might remove Costa Rica from that list but that would be the lone exception. So, since prevention is the best cure, well, they all condemn any coup, even if they like it. Who knows when they will need the elevator sent back.

The Honduras coupsters: who is the coupster really, Zelaya for forcing the issue on a vote apparently unconstitutional or the other side for not trying harder to reach some agreement? One thing is certain, whoever is in charge of the coup remembers the way it is done: send the ex president promptly into exile, the first mistake that the Venezuelan coupsters made in 2002 by not shipping post haste Chavez and family to Cuba. In other words, you do the coup or you do not do it. NOTE: this whole post cannot be read in any way or form as my endorsement or criticism of any coup anywhere, it is just a statement of fact. In some cases a coup or even an invasion can be perfectly justified, just as when Vietnam invaded Cambodia to put an end to the Khmer Rouge. It is all a matter of circumstances, at least in third world countries. Or are you going to tell me that you would condemn a coup against say, Mugabe or Bashir?

The coup in Honduras: let's hold our breath for a minute until we know exactly what was going on before the coup. In particular the possible Venezuelan intervention in support of an electoral act that was declared unconstitutional by the other independent powers of Honduras. It seems that the inspiration of Caracas for that illegal "consultation" went as far as Caracas printing the ballots! Let's not forget this crucial fact: in Honduras there is a separation of powers, which does not excuse any wrong doing but should be considered.

Was the coup unavoidable? It seems it was. Zelaya did the cardinal mistake that Chavez did in 2002: give an order that could not be legally executed by the chiefs of the army he nominally commanded. In 2002 Chavez asked for the army to get ready to shoot on a civilian march and the army refused. In Honduras Zelaya asked the army to monitor an election declared unconstitutional by the other powers and the army had to chose. When an army must go against its commander in chief, one of the two has to be removed. That is the way things go. Be it Truman removing McArthur the war hero, be it Lucas Rincon announcing Chavez resignation. In each case a big mess was created by the constitutional irresponsibility of a given individual (the president, his/her army chief of staff or both).

Chavez screams: it is indeed amusing to watch the official state TV in Venezuela (including Telesur) tied up in knots, way more upset probably about the Honduras coup than the people of Honduras. OK, I am guessing that but I would love to be proven wrong. But why is Chavez so worried about Honduras, to the point of threatening with military intervention and, all in all, trying to make things worse than what they already are? It is very simple: Chavez is much more interested in building a personal empire than worrying about what happens to the Venezuelan people. He paid enough money to create the ALBA that says yes to anything he wants and he is not going to relinquish that easily. Mine! Mine!

What is the Chavez strategy? Well, to circle Colombia so as to make Uribe like governments a thing on the past and recreate La Gran Colombia of Bolivar. He already got Ecuador and Nicaragua. He already tried Costa Rica and Peru and failed but new opportunities will come. But there is also a much longer term objective for Venezuela and Cuba: Mexico. To get to Mexico you need to get Guatemala and once you got Honduras (and Salvador?) Guatemala cannot be far behind. From Guatemala touching the Zapatista movement of Chiapas, all crazy dreams are allowed for Chavez. You think I am kidding? Think again: look at your maps and what better way to get back at the US but by installing an hostile regime on its borders? Maybe there is still 10 years needed but Castro-Chavismo is busy on that (though once Fidel croaks I am not so sure Cuba will be dreaming on that anymore).

By the way, was not Fidel bent on sabotaging the rule of Vicente Fox? Was not Chavez an issue in the latest Mexican Presidential election?

What did Chavez pay Zelaya? A simple arithmetic is enough. According to the CIA world fact books, Honduras has roughly 7.8 million people with an average GDP of 4,400 USD. Venezuela has a GDP of 13,500 for almost 4 times the population. Well, if you add Miranda, Aragua, Caracas and Carabobo you have roughly Honduras at yet a higher GDP than the Venezuela average. And imagine what Chavez spent in these 4 districts for his campaign of 2008 and 2009 (you know, the distribution of refrigerators, food, etc., for free). With that amount of money and an ambitious Zelaya it was easy to buy the executive of Honduras, and a secure sycophantic vote at the OAS for when Chavez represses further in Venezuela. In fact, I am willing to bet that Chavez spent less on Honduras than he spent in these states electoral campaign: the advantage of dealing with poor countries where a dollar goes further.

And what do CNN en español and the Carter Center say? I am amazed at hearing the words of the Associate Director for Latin America of the Carter Center being interviewed by CNN as I type this. He is Marcelo Varela Erasheva and he is simply supporting Zelaya, there is no other way to say it charitably. Because the other interpretations are that he is clueless, one of those idealists that has actually little understanding of the real world, or worse, he is bought by Chavez. I am not going into what he said but I am going to write this: if he represents the Carter Center, the organization who singlehandedly did the most to screw Venezuela then the new Honduras government (legal or not, legitimate or not) must make sure to exclude the Carter Center from any future action over Honduras. It is amazing to hear Marcelo Varela bemoan about Honduras of all the abuses to democracy, abuses hardly worse than those the Carter Center is keeping silent over Chavez and Venezuela.

The nerve!

Conclusions so far: Again our Latin tempers are creating messes that could have been avoided with a little bit more of honesty and patience. As far as I am concerned Zelaya and the people who ousted him should all be sent packing into exile; one for his new found ambition to be reelected in the country that has, I heard, the harshest term limit system; and the Honduras congress who in spite of its unanimity to select a successor did not manage things quite well. The new "government" needs to account clearly and fast of their actions and bring forward the complete evidence as to the need to oust Zelaya in such an expedite way. Knowing Chavez it is probably not too difficult to build a dossier on the matter.

But my real conclusion is that, again, presidential systems are more and more the curse of our continent where with caudillo mentality, its easy acceptation by most, mass media and cheap populist promises support is easy garnered regardless of the consequences. If Zelaya had been the prime minister, he would have been ousted without any problem, nobody would have really cared. The Carter Center would be well advised to think about such matters instead of sending its guy to defend Zelaya without any real questioning of the reasons that came to that crisis: after all it should give Marcelo Varela pause that in Honduras the courts AND the Congress agreed. 2 out of 3 ain't bad, no? It is not because the presidential system has worked in the US (only, I can argue) that it is the panacea everywhere. It is amazing where we keep finding this US messianic bent over its values, in spite of all the slaps received through history.


-The end-

The week Hugo Chavez died

Before anyone reads what is not in the title of this post, what I am referring to is the death of the image of Hugo Chavez. I am using this title because I am repeating the title of what might be one of the few real good posts I ever wrote, The week the Bolivarian Revolution died, on May 2007. But do not expect any lyricism today, this is not going to be an inspired attempt at writing a memorable article: there is no lyricism in describing human misery, unless your last name is something like Homer or Hugo.

However it is important to note that this week events do mark a turning point in the projected image of Hugo Chavez. As of now, even those who did not care much about him, at home or abroad, will be faced with enough information that they will need to ask themselves questions. That is, of course, if these people know where Venezuela is. Never mind those who support him as they are faced with so much negative evidence: their hour of reckoning has come.

It has indeed been a bad week for Chavez, and a very bad if we look at the consequences of his projected image. After all he has only himself to blame as he uttered scatological words that no sane president of any country should ever utter in public anywhere. When he equated the US with shit he was not equating only the US, he was including anyone anywhere who did not do as he willed. Even if you live in Malawi you must wonder if such obscenity will ever reach the shores of Lake Nyasa. And I cite Malawi because I have had 9 hits form that country since I have been writing this blog.

Truly, Chavez has enough problems to perturb his delicate mental balance, or activate his Tourette syndrome as Gustavo Coronel claims he suffers from. But definitely it seems that the Miami trial of the 800,000 USD Argentina bound bag is acting as the final fuse in Chavez self revelation. Even though no verdict has been reached, the consequences are for all to see.

The latest revelations are complicating seriously Chavez panorama. In Argentina where the press is more efficient than in Venezuela, where there is a more articulated opposition and where a semblance of justice still exists, this week end brought to us a set of articles in La Nacion. We learn that in that fateful August 2007 flight, besides the 800,000 USD that were caught they might have been 4,200,000 USD more that did made it through the custom check. La Nacion also takes the opportunity to associate this Chavez funding of the Cristina Kirchner campaign with other somber funding attributed to some drug money laundering. Even her own vice president is increasing his distance with Cristina Kirchner. No wonder Cristina suddenly canceled her scheduled trip to Venezuela: she knew what was coming. Or maybe she also realized that the days to be photographed close to Chavez might be over.

On the US front we see a quick retaliation. Simon Romero at the NYT gives a complete update that even includes an MP3 podcast worth listening to. Besides the expected expulsion of the Venezuelan ambassador (who returned crazed to Caracas) it put on the security watch list of the Treasury department three high ranking Venezuelans officials: the head of Venezuela’s military intelligence agency, Gen. Hugo Carvajal, Gen. Henry Rangel Silva, the director of Venezuela’s DISIP intelligence agency, and Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, who resigned as interior minister this week. By doing that the US sends a clear message to Chavez that the drug trafficking he tolerates, that the FARC connivance are duly noted, duly documented and that at any time Venezuela can be put on the pariah nation list. By not doing so at this time it allows other Chavez supporters that were dreaming about enjoying their loot that they might not be able to do so if they keep supporting Chavez antics, to give them a mild name.

In short, the clear message of the US is that Chavez is guilty by association. And this has profound implications all across our Western Hemisphere. After all from now on when Lula or Correa of anyone else cozies up to Chavez, all chancelleries in the world will be allowed to wonder about that link. Buy out? Extortion? Blackmail? Complicity? How much did he give to your election-reelection campaign? All the enablers of Latin America are now exposed as what they have been all long: enablers of the most corrupt regime in Venezuela history, a regime that has squandered the money and the future of the Venezuelan people for the sake of a crazed individual dream that hid behind an empty social redemption message. That also allows us to question about the sincerity of the social message of those enablers, by the way.

But in Venezuela things are not going too well either as the Chavez Teflon shows finally signs of deteriorating. And we know that once the first scratch holds, the other scratches come easier. The political opposition is the first to be congratulated: it leaves the follow up of Chavez obscenities and corruption to the media while it focuses on the real problems of the country. Chavez image is deteriorated enough that they do not feel obliged to reply to his provocations anymore. I could see that myself with the meager response of the chavista crowds in San Felipe to the alleged recent coup/assassination claim. A few dozens red shirted protesters in front of the State House of San Felipe, writing on cars "No al golpe" and not been offended, even smiling, when I did not let them write that on my car. I was not afraid, they did not care. A year ago I would have allowed them to write anything they wanted (washable liquid white chalk, by the way, very standard practice in the provinces, kind of our temporary bumper stickers). A year ago they would have insulted me had I refused, and be more numerous too.

As it was the case in May 2007, chavismo and Chavez cannot find the right chord, the creative reply. Then they tried to put up fast a pseudo Bolivarian student movement. It never took off, was shown early to be a sham as many of the promoted "leaders" were state employees. In fact, one of them is already a minister of Chavez, in what must be one of the fastest ascensions in Venezuelan politics. This time after having stone walled for over a year the "maletin" case, the only thing they could come up with was to demand that the prosecutors in Miami come to Caracas to explain themselves. The absurdity of this speaks by itself. The ridicule of their position must be making any serious tribunal following the case roll with laughter. I mean, the Venezuelan prosecutor office has yet to interrogate seriously the folks involved in that fateful flight, amen of questioning their bosses, and instead they are blatantly trying to shot the messenger, Thomas Mulvihill of the Florida prosecution office. We truly have seen it all....

It does not really matter that Chavez is starting some backpedaling by admitting that the coup and assassination attempt were really not that serious: the damage to his image he did this week is just too great, definitive. There is no repair. Now the road ahead of him is solitary, maybe long or maybe short, but solitary. All the people that matter will abandon him before they get dragged further into the Bolivarian muck (even the Bolivian military rejected in no uncertain terms the offer of Venezuelan intervention). Only rapists like Ortega, and vampires like the Castro brothers will keep clinging to him, depending on how many zeros are still on his checkbook. If you doubt it you need to watch the extraordinary satire against Chavez that Jaime Bayly gave last Friday in his show. When people can say such things on TV, even in Miami, set of anti chavismo/castrism, you know how ridiculous Chavez has become to the world (four 10 minute clips, worth watching if you undestnad Spanish, and if you support Obama).

But Chavez is not really sorry, nor is he able to be. Any sweetener he throws this late is a lie. As this week event proceeded, he went on to divide Venezuela into military zones were generals named by him will rank higher than governors elected by the people, ensuring future conflict and violence against the people. A nice way to admit that he is about to lose the November 23 election by a wider margin than he expected, and he will not recognize the resutl, just as the 26 decree laws enacted a few weeks ago were a slap at last December popular will.

To close this post I want to quote the last paragraph of today's entry of Milagros Socorro in El Nacional (subscription only). She has a meditation of sorts on the Stanislavski method which amounts in brief to use "emotional memory" that recreates in a way a situation form the past to give credibility to the present. That is, Chaevz appeals to the "legend" of the coup through the positive 1992 experience (according to his moral criteria) to revive his sagging fortunes today by refreshing his image. Unfortunately as Milagros points out, you need to care for your language if you want thsi to work.

El jefe de estos tristes extras, por su parte, no necesitó apelar a la memoria emotiva que aconsejaba Stanislavski. A ése le basta sentir el aliento de la justicia internacional en la nuca –que no otro parece ser el resultado del juicio de Miami– para que emerja su verdadera naturaleza primitiva. Y salga de su boca lo único que tiene para dar.

[Chavez] The boss of these sad extras, on his part, does not need to appeal to the emotional memory that Stanislavski advised. He just needs to feel the breath of international justice on his neck -which is nothing less than the Miami trial - for his true primitive nature to emerge. And from his mouth leaves the only thing he has to offer.

Truly a great way to view Chavez words last Thursday night.


-The end-

The Venezuelan autocracy: a sick celebration of murder

Last week I came back from a 10 days trip to the US of and Colombia. Two imperfect democracies perhaps (mostly Colombia of course) but two countries where the air has a different taste than the country to which I returned. I had been doing some thinking through this trip but whatever I considered I could not put words quite together to express it. The sorry spectacle of Sunday’s festivities did bring it all down anyway.

There is no mental construct that can account for what the picture below says. No words are needed for those of us who know these people, what they have done, where they are taking our country to. And worst of all, there is no good word to describe those who allowed this to happen, those who voted for all of this recklessly, with reasons perhaps, but recklessly as they are the ones who will pay the most for it.


Maybe the foreign reader might think that, well, poor Daniel, he is losing his marbles. Allow me to give you the legend for the picture below. It is a richly meaningful picture and thus I will need several parts. Because, if I have a hard time to make sense of this charade, I can describe it.

The scenery and the main character

The excuse for the parade was for the *celebration* of the February 4th coup attempt by Chavez and his pals against a duly democratically elected government. I stress celebration because in the early Chavez years it was a commemoration, and now it is a celebration soon, I am sure, to become a national holiday. Already it was described in official calls as the 15th anniversary of the Bolivarian Revolution, the electoral and institutional dates of 1998 and 1999 now been replaced by the 1992 one, very fitting for a regime who has only contempt for electoral procedures and institutionalism that could refrain the whims of the great leader.

Let’s start with the obvious: the presence of the armed forces officers at the commemoration of a military coup against democracy. I trust the intelligence of the reader and I will not need to add further comment besides pointing out to the shame of that moment, just as Tal Cual made it the title of today’s edition “Verguenza”, shame.

More than ever the enlightened reader can see in front of his or her eyes that Venezuela has become a military regime, without any decency or discretion, without any care for the forms, smack in your face. Just a plain elected dictatorship. Such as Hitler or Peron regimes were, elected dictatorships where the army ruled without having needed to make a coup, or having the coup supported by the hoi polloi.

But the picture also carries the extent of the personality cult which has come to surround any activity in which Chavez participates these days. Look at the posters. On the left a poster of Chavez at his recent swearing in, after he passed the presidential sash to his left shoulder. He is carrying the sash on the left shoulder over a military uniform, in one of his most ridiculous outfits ever.

There is also the poster on the left site, the one of a skinny younger Chavez of 1992, not the bloated one of today. Now Chavez, the failed coupster of 1992, the one who blew it that February 4 1992, is actually the one in charge today just because he managed to appear on TV that night after having failed his objectives. His famous “Por ahora” catapulted him to popular imagery. His partners such as Arias Cardenas did manage to secure their objectives, but historian Manuel Caballero likes to remind folks that actually Chavez that night did shit in his pants, “el heroe del museo military”, the hero of the Military Museum where Chavez tried to hide as the coward he really is. It is not idle to translate part of Tal Cual editorial today who takes us back to that fateful day in February. In the words of Teodoro Petkoff, a real guerilla of the 60ies, who did expose willingly his life ahead of the lives of others:

When on February 3rd 1992 the comandante Hugo Chavez ordered his airborne soldiers to climb in the trucks that would carry them to Caracas, he did not tell them which was the mission. He says so himself in an interview to Marta Harnecker [One man, one people, Caracas, 2002] “Of them, only a very small number of officers knew what we were going to do that night, the troops knew nothing”. “The troops”, that is the cannon fodder, the conscript soldiers, these 18 year old boys, ignoring of what had been disposed of their lives, he brought them unknowingly. A couple of dozen of them died neither knowing why, nor in the name of what did they gave up their lives. Some did tell later that they thought they had been fighting a military coup against the government. They did not even know that the coupmongers (obliged to be one under false pretense) where themselves. The first step of the “revolution” was deceitfulness. In Venezuela in the 60ies of the last century there were guerillas in the cities and in the country side. All who participated in that thing did so in full knowledge. No one was mislead into taking up to the mountains or to the armed underground. A matter of honor. And of ethics.

That is right, what Chavez was more than commemorating, this Sunday was only a sad deceitful, violent, bloody, anti democratic episode of our history.

The other main characters

Let me give you a brief bio of some of the luminaries under which you will find a number in that picture (they are all singing the National Anthem at the time, adding insult to injury I suppose).

1- Clodosvaldo Russian. The Republic general comptroller. The guy in charge of detecting all corruption. The guy who in fact only detects minor chavista fall guys but leaves uninvestigated all the serious scandals where million of dollars vanish in thin air. The only notorious case on which he has speedily and decisively acted on was against Leopoldo Lopez, the opposition mayor of Chacao, who, with a vote of his municipal council, transferred money form one budget item to another. Not to his pocket, but to the payroll of his town hall employees as Chavez was delaying funds that were owed to his city. Meanwhile figures like Cruz Weffer, just to name a notorious one out of newspaper pages, who are pointed at as being major thieves of the regime, go around accumulating public positions without any of the charges against them receiving any investigation. The living standard of Cruz Weffer is way above those of a general of the Venezuelan Army, whereas Leopoldo Lopez still wears chino pants.

2- Isaias Rodriguez. The general prosecutor of the Republic. This sad, pathetic in fact, character who after having been Chavez vice–president claimed that he was impartial enough to become the new 7 year term General Prosecutor, is also the one who failed to prosecute anyone within the regime. If in this he already largely surpassed Clodosvaldo in inefficiency and moral corruption, his career was made worse by the spectacular bungling of the Anderson case where as days pass it seems more that innocents are made to pay for the real guilty parties of the murder, more than likely situated inside the government. What other possible speculation are we left with if not a cover up of those who did benefit the Anderson assassination? Who else but the government could benefit from Anderson’s murder? But that is not all: event though he was also the vice president of the Constitutional Assembly of 1999, he is now happily presiding to its revision if not outright demise, as per orders of his boss. He cannot even respect his own work, himself. How can we expect him to respect the country and us?

3- Omar Mora. The Chief Justice of the Venezuelan Supreme Court (TSJ). Under his tenure we have witnessed further purging of judges deemed undesirable to the regime and where the requirements to become a judge in Venezuela are that you can demonstrate that you have never been an opponent to Chavez. It does speed up your promotion if you can prove that you are actually a Chavez supporter. This is the Chief Justice who did not blink when the High Court started chanting in unison “Uh, Ah, Chavez no se va” during an official function. In addition if he is not an alcoholic he deserves to be as his voice most of the time sounds as if he had one too many drink. But I suppose that slowness of mind is a quality required in a supreme court these days. At any rate, he is on record as saying that the judicial system must be Bolivarian, whatever ill omens this carries.

4- Cilia Flores. The National Assembly Chair. To say that this woman is one of the poorest possible choices for a parliament presidency is not saying enough. A mediocre lawyer she raised through the top through what we call in Venezuela “operation colchon” (with the help of the mattress). From being a Chavez lawyer, to becoming the lover of Nicolas Maduro, the henchman of Chavez, she eventually made it to the chair of the National Assembly when her cheating partner, caught with another woman at JFK paying first class tickets cash for an intercity flight, was made foreign secretary. Since then she has done her outmost to downgrade the parliament to below the category of rubber stamp. As of now, for the next 18 months, she applauded like crazy the wish of Chavez to rule by decree without the bother to even mail his law projects to the Parliament for an automatic approval. Then again as the lousy lawyer she is, one can understand that Chavez prefers not to have her even write the introduction of the laws he is ordering.

5- General Baduel. The defense minister, head of the army, three Sun general. Thus general well versed in cheap mysticism, who claims to have had several previous lives, is the one who helped the most Chavez to retain power in April 2002. But from defending the constitutional order of the country he has become the general who has helped the most in making the army subservient to Chavez, closing his eyes these days to a very likely incorporation of a cheap militia to the armed forces, which translates into turning the Venezuelan armed forces into a vulgar militia set up to defend the regime. His weak character has been well tested in the past from his refusal to actively participate in the 1992 coup, due to fear as we have been told, to crying in public when Chavez gave him his third sun, as apparently it was unexpected to him to be receiving it, which goes a long way in establishing in what disregard Chavez manages the normal rules of military promotion.

How can we build a country with such a set of henchmen? But they are perfect for Chavez, people who will do anything for him, without ethics, moral and even less honor. Hired guns, possible killers someday even if they never hold a gun themselves.

The rewriting of history

The disgraceful Sunday show, which started as an unusual grey day for the season in Caracas more used to blue skies in February, also brought us several examples on how the regime does not back down at rewriting history, as new lies are not a problem anymore.

Now Chavez is the only hero of February 4. Even Arias Cardenas, the only one of that day that could claim a certain degree of heroism, if a coup d’etat against a democratically elected regime can ever claim such heroes, was flown back from his UN ambassadorship to wear again the uniform. Not a only a violation of military rules, but a fashion crime and a ridicule moment if any. This is the UN ambassador of Venezuela, “un arrastrado” who has decided to sell his soul to the Devil, knowing full well he was doing so since he was one of the first ones to go against Chavez. But money, it seems, talks louder than honor or ethics. No he crawls back to submit himself to Chavez in the most abject form that one can think of. Giving us this priceless portrait of abjection and ridicule, in outmost bad taste.

We also see that diligently the National Assembly has passed yesterday a resolution that dictates for the future the activities that now will be mandatory for yearly February 4 happenings. Not a National Holiday yet, they did not dared to do so yet (unless they want to leave to Chavez the honor of making it a National Holiday?). Still, that did not stop them from creating the “order of the 4th of February”, an order/medal/honor who will commemorate and celebrate the murders and the democracy attack of that infamous day. And let’s not discuss the varied apologists who are trying to justify the murders of February 4th 1992 because eventually the people sided with that today, which remains to be proven by the way, as an election of Chavez does not mean that people do indeed approve of coup making. A little bit as if in France we were to find a way to justify the murders of the French Revolution Terror period because, well, we are now under a Republic. Or if Hitler had created an “order of the concentration camp” in, say, 1941, for deserving prison guards. The mind reels of reading such things coming from people that should know much better. But deliberate ignorance and eye blinders flourish in a regime that only looks favorably on abject adulation.

And before that military parade we also had a dual march which was surprisingly well attended for a chavista event (though as usual hundred of buses lined the highways at Los Proceres). Even though public servants were once again summoned to attend, it remains that such a support was indecent. But it is also counterproductive, a true show of the hubris and stupidity and personality cult of the regime. See, by doing such a celebration Chavez is in fact bringing back the glory of military coup and sooner or later he will get his own coup to unseat him. He will have created himself that idea inside the army and the population. Today they are cheering him. Tomorrow who will they cheer?