I was watching Arduino in his Saturday night news on CNN in Spanish, since there is no solid info we can get from Venezuelan TV. And the only thing I saw was close takes of the chavista and opposition marches. And thus they looked pretty much the same, similar turnout and what not. Well they were not. I cannot fathom why media persists in treating popular support as if it were the same, as if the country were indeed split into two roughly equal halves. It is not.
There is the video below taken by a drone (hence the noise) of the meeting point of the 4 marches today in Caracas. It speaks VOLUMES by itself. I dare any pro Chavez, pro Maduro, or CNN, or BBC or anything to show me a similar turnout recently for a Maduro support rally where NO buses to ferry people were used, where NO booze was given out, where NO breakfast or lunch or cookies were offered, where NO military were asked to attend. Then we can talk again about who has the most enthusiastic support in the country.
And note, I am not even asking media to show that chavismo can do simultaneous support across the country like the opposition did. I will settle for a view like the one below but in the conditions stated. Heck, I will settle for HALF the attendance provided the conditions stated are respected.
What media is doing trying to secure access to "official" sources by not "offending" them is distorting the real news. Maduro certainly has support but he has NO ACTIVE support like the opposition does and the images are there for whomever wants to see them.
Showing posts with label lies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lies. Show all posts
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Friday, November 18, 2011
And yet another idiocy at EFE
I am going to have to really, really consider that EFE news agency is financed by Chavez because there is no other way to explain its idiocies. Today they just take at face value the words of Chavez in yet another cadena as to the opposition not recognizing its victories and planning a coup. As their usual willful refusal to learn about Venezuela they seem to ignore that the opposition did recognize the victory of Chavez in 2006 but that Chavez did not recognize the opposition victory in Caracas in 2008 and in parliament in 2010.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
When "revolutions" die
All revolutions die, eventually, and the more so if they are fake revolutions.
The "bolivarian" one started its demise the day it lost the students of Venezuela, the very group that should have sustained its, intellectually. Since then it has been a long drawn agony, marked by increasing violence, corruption, drug trafficking and what not, to become what is today a mere narco-state in the making.
It is thus only fitting that the other "revolution", the one that was propped by Chavez, the one that actually had at least some genuine revolutionary pretense, the "indigenous" revolution of Bolivia would find its demise in the repression of indigenous people. What they did to the Amazon natives in Bolivia who protested on ecological and native rights, has no name. It is not that so far it has caused the resignation of several high ranking officers (at least in Bolivia they still have enough shame that they resign), it is that an indigenous president is at the helm when indigenous folks, not of his tribe, are repressed.
It does not matter what Evo Morales does from now on, he might close all media in Bolivia if necessary, his revolution is near dead.
The "bolivarian" one started its demise the day it lost the students of Venezuela, the very group that should have sustained its, intellectually. Since then it has been a long drawn agony, marked by increasing violence, corruption, drug trafficking and what not, to become what is today a mere narco-state in the making.
It is thus only fitting that the other "revolution", the one that was propped by Chavez, the one that actually had at least some genuine revolutionary pretense, the "indigenous" revolution of Bolivia would find its demise in the repression of indigenous people. What they did to the Amazon natives in Bolivia who protested on ecological and native rights, has no name. It is not that so far it has caused the resignation of several high ranking officers (at least in Bolivia they still have enough shame that they resign), it is that an indigenous president is at the helm when indigenous folks, not of his tribe, are repressed.
It does not matter what Evo Morales does from now on, he might close all media in Bolivia if necessary, his revolution is near dead.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Chavez Olympic failure
The Olympics are over and awarded one cardboard medal to Chavez. He has started trying to pass the buck around, but from an editorial today in Tal Cual to the justified claims of some returning athletes who dared to speak against the ways sports are dealt with in Venezuela we know he has once again messed up big time. Should we be surprised? Did we not know that the chavista administration is improvisation everywhere, as we saw it clearly in the organization of the soccer event of last year with stadiums that are yet to be completed as I type.
In all fairness the Venezuela medal industry has always been deficient. See, organizing sporting venues and offering a decade long commitment to promising athletes is just beyond the grasp of the multiple populist governments that have ruled us since the 70ies. Sports where considered as something that you throw a lot of money at one year to expect results the next. Unfortunately it does not work like that: behind successful athletes all around the world there is much more than the athletes, there is the family, the facilities, the coaches, the public support, the government help as far as possible. There is a country behind any successful athlete, as Milagros Socorro reminded us in El Nacional ten days ago. In Venezuela athletes have been most of the times left on their own, the most successful ones usually finding ways to train overseas. Morochito Rodriguez winning our lone gold medal ever, in Mexico games, is also the rare example of an athlete home grown, in boxing, where there is some money.
Organizing any type of sustained activity in Venezuela is quite difficult and I experienced it myself. When I moved back form the States I tried to join the local Masters swim team. I was coming from 3 to 4 times a week training where all in all I was doing up to 10 Km a week. Well, for three years I battled all, dirty pools, lack of coaching, unfair schedules, general apathy, endless meetings that lead nowhere. But the most vexing part was that the pool had always priority for all sort of "events" of dubious value except for its social and or political component. Still, I could have dealt with it had I been properly warned. But no: how often did I make it to the pool, all ready to jump, to be told that no, no more training for so many days. And this happens, I'll bet anything, to much larger scale, for Olympic athletes, with worse consequences. Does anyone remember when Acosta Carles was sworn in governor of Carabobo 4 years ago and took away the about to the inaugurated special center for sports training and health to turn it over to the "people needs"? Just like that, as if youth and athletes were not also people with needs?
We would have expected that Chavez, after ten years in office, with the help of so many Cuban trainers that are sent to us as a meager payment of all the oil we give them nearly for free, would have managed, even if just for propaganda purposes, to create some sport program that would deliver half a dozen medals. No? No!
And yet Chavez had high hopes. We had been submitted to incessant propaganda abotu "oro a la revolucion deportiva" (gold to the sports revolution). Sports authorities boldly predicted our largest harvest ever in Beijing. And we had to settle for a Tae Kwon Do girl, getting almost by luck the bronze medal. I say by luck, not to diminish her abilities at all, but to underline that she was not one of the favorites. As far as I know, this Olympics delegation, at least as far as officials were concerned, was tourism at tax payer expenses. We even saw the governor of Guarico accompanying the Guarico delegation, I kid you not, as if Guarico was a delegation distinct from the Venezuelan one. Was the governor of, say, Nebraska at Beijing, at tax payer expenses?
Under Chavez, even if the need of propaganda is taken into account, we have had yet another huge failure, where Olympics is just an excuse for the multi layered bureaucracy to get a junket trip around the globe. Revolution? Where? Corruption and lies? Everywhere!
--- --- --- --- --- --- ---
I was curious to see if I could calculate in any way the failure of chavismo. I came up with the following table. In this table I took into account the winnings of the countries in this area of the world, that is South of the Rio Grande, including the Caribbean.
The first column is the number of medals won (gold, silver and bronze together), the second the population of the country (all data next is form the CIA world book, friends and foes alike), the third column the GDP per capita, and jumping two columns, the number of athletes included int eh delegation (that is, those who had enough merits to qualify to an Olympics game). With these numbers I tried to create some "parameters" in order to evaluate how efficient a country is in training athletes and getting medals, according to its relative size in the world.
The fifth column is the easy one, medals per million people. Of course the winner is Jamaica and Mexico the last one, but Venezuela next to last (the order of the countries, from most efficient to least efficient comes from the last column).
The sixth column calculates the number of medals per billion GDP. That is, an attempt to see whether the GDP of a third world country (all are third world) affect the repartition of medals. surprisingly the order is not really altered though the spread is much more restrained. Clearly, the wealth of a third world country is not a definite indicator as to the potential of that country to win medals. Yet, Venezuela is dead last!
Then I calculated the number of medals per athlete that was sent to see if the size of the group had any bearing on the final medal count. Clearly the spread that we observe in the column before last indicates that that the number of medals won has nothing to do with the size of the delegation. Venezuela, by the way, is dead last again, clearly establishing that the 101 athletes did not deserve all their tickets (I look at the general score and they are far from impressive in general).
And then I came up with a general efficacy index. For this I added up columns 6 and 8 (medals per billion and medals per athlete) and multiplied this by the number in column 5 (medals per million people). For example for Jamaica it would be 3.92*(0,51 + 0,44) = 3,725 (note: my Venezuelan excel gives coma for point, sorry). Now, of course, I have no idea of the validity of such a measure, but as a first approximation of efficacy we do get a coefficient that will ponder the value of medals per athlete.
The result is quite clear, Venezuela is dead last, with the Caribbean Basin countries, Anglo or Hispanic, the only countries worth mentioning. At least, for Chavez discharge, our neighbors south of us did barely better as we see that the 15 medals of Brazil really are not that impressive, at least according to thsi index. Does any one care to calculate the Chinese and the US sports efficacy index?
-The end-
In all fairness the Venezuela medal industry has always been deficient. See, organizing sporting venues and offering a decade long commitment to promising athletes is just beyond the grasp of the multiple populist governments that have ruled us since the 70ies. Sports where considered as something that you throw a lot of money at one year to expect results the next. Unfortunately it does not work like that: behind successful athletes all around the world there is much more than the athletes, there is the family, the facilities, the coaches, the public support, the government help as far as possible. There is a country behind any successful athlete, as Milagros Socorro reminded us in El Nacional ten days ago. In Venezuela athletes have been most of the times left on their own, the most successful ones usually finding ways to train overseas. Morochito Rodriguez winning our lone gold medal ever, in Mexico games, is also the rare example of an athlete home grown, in boxing, where there is some money.
Organizing any type of sustained activity in Venezuela is quite difficult and I experienced it myself. When I moved back form the States I tried to join the local Masters swim team. I was coming from 3 to 4 times a week training where all in all I was doing up to 10 Km a week. Well, for three years I battled all, dirty pools, lack of coaching, unfair schedules, general apathy, endless meetings that lead nowhere. But the most vexing part was that the pool had always priority for all sort of "events" of dubious value except for its social and or political component. Still, I could have dealt with it had I been properly warned. But no: how often did I make it to the pool, all ready to jump, to be told that no, no more training for so many days. And this happens, I'll bet anything, to much larger scale, for Olympic athletes, with worse consequences. Does anyone remember when Acosta Carles was sworn in governor of Carabobo 4 years ago and took away the about to the inaugurated special center for sports training and health to turn it over to the "people needs"? Just like that, as if youth and athletes were not also people with needs?
We would have expected that Chavez, after ten years in office, with the help of so many Cuban trainers that are sent to us as a meager payment of all the oil we give them nearly for free, would have managed, even if just for propaganda purposes, to create some sport program that would deliver half a dozen medals. No? No!
And yet Chavez had high hopes. We had been submitted to incessant propaganda abotu "oro a la revolucion deportiva" (gold to the sports revolution). Sports authorities boldly predicted our largest harvest ever in Beijing. And we had to settle for a Tae Kwon Do girl, getting almost by luck the bronze medal. I say by luck, not to diminish her abilities at all, but to underline that she was not one of the favorites. As far as I know, this Olympics delegation, at least as far as officials were concerned, was tourism at tax payer expenses. We even saw the governor of Guarico accompanying the Guarico delegation, I kid you not, as if Guarico was a delegation distinct from the Venezuelan one. Was the governor of, say, Nebraska at Beijing, at tax payer expenses?
Under Chavez, even if the need of propaganda is taken into account, we have had yet another huge failure, where Olympics is just an excuse for the multi layered bureaucracy to get a junket trip around the globe. Revolution? Where? Corruption and lies? Everywhere!
--- --- --- --- --- --- ---
I was curious to see if I could calculate in any way the failure of chavismo. I came up with the following table. In this table I took into account the winnings of the countries in this area of the world, that is South of the Rio Grande, including the Caribbean.
The first column is the number of medals won (gold, silver and bronze together), the second the population of the country (all data next is form the CIA world book, friends and foes alike), the third column the GDP per capita, and jumping two columns, the number of athletes included int eh delegation (that is, those who had enough merits to qualify to an Olympics game). With these numbers I tried to create some "parameters" in order to evaluate how efficient a country is in training athletes and getting medals, according to its relative size in the world.
The fifth column is the easy one, medals per million people. Of course the winner is Jamaica and Mexico the last one, but Venezuela next to last (the order of the countries, from most efficient to least efficient comes from the last column).
The sixth column calculates the number of medals per billion GDP. That is, an attempt to see whether the GDP of a third world country (all are third world) affect the repartition of medals. surprisingly the order is not really altered though the spread is much more restrained. Clearly, the wealth of a third world country is not a definite indicator as to the potential of that country to win medals. Yet, Venezuela is dead last!
Then I calculated the number of medals per athlete that was sent to see if the size of the group had any bearing on the final medal count. Clearly the spread that we observe in the column before last indicates that that the number of medals won has nothing to do with the size of the delegation. Venezuela, by the way, is dead last again, clearly establishing that the 101 athletes did not deserve all their tickets (I look at the general score and they are far from impressive in general).
And then I came up with a general efficacy index. For this I added up columns 6 and 8 (medals per billion and medals per athlete) and multiplied this by the number in column 5 (medals per million people). For example for Jamaica it would be 3.92*(0,51 + 0,44) = 3,725 (note: my Venezuelan excel gives coma for point, sorry). Now, of course, I have no idea of the validity of such a measure, but as a first approximation of efficacy we do get a coefficient that will ponder the value of medals per athlete.
The result is quite clear, Venezuela is dead last, with the Caribbean Basin countries, Anglo or Hispanic, the only countries worth mentioning. At least, for Chavez discharge, our neighbors south of us did barely better as we see that the 15 medals of Brazil really are not that impressive, at least according to thsi index. Does any one care to calculate the Chinese and the US sports efficacy index?
-The end-
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Venezuela Increasingly A Conduit For Cocaine
Oh dear! What has been reported now for years, that under the Chavez administration Venezuela has become a favored conduit for Colombian drug, is reported in a large, complete and documented article in the Washington Post, by no one less than Juan Forero, former Chavez supporter. It does not get any better than that.
Who is to blame? Chavez himself for his laxity with the FARC who gets refuge in Venezuela under the blind eyes of the Venezuelan army. Even paramilitaries managed to find refuge once the corruption pump was seeded. Along the FARC came the drug traffic from which the FARC gets its revenue. Then came the ransom industry and all sort of other organized crime, in front of a government that not only has refused to act energetically and consistency but which probably promotes a high level of insecurity to start developing its own policies of terror over the population. Under current horrifying crime figures, if you are an opposition figure and you get attacked in the streets you never know if it were real thugs or a squad sent to you by the government. How can you figure it out? Where can you go in Venezuela for redress when the state ignores so much the reality of crime, when the judicial system will only investigate what is convenient?
It will be at least a generation to repair the damage that Chavez tolerance for crime has inflicted upon Venezuela.
By the way, without trying to be facetious, will the new constitution help in any way solve this drug trafficking problems? Will drug smuggler have a 6 hour a day, 36 hour work week so they can have more "free" (see post below)? To educate themselves or to snort? It is when you read such article about the reality of Venezuelan life that you realize how divorced form Venezuelan reality the Chavez administration is becoming. Look at how much time the government is spending in trying to change the constitution to make a Hugo the first while here, in Yaracuy, the per capita crime of this rural state is now comparable to city crime, where we get kidnapping and ransom at almost the frequency of the Colombian border, in per capita..... Meanwhile hot air keeps coming from Caracas, and drugs from Colombia as I have been told that it is quite easy to find coke in San Felipe (heck, the governor is murmured in the streets to be a major user).
-The end-
Who is to blame? Chavez himself for his laxity with the FARC who gets refuge in Venezuela under the blind eyes of the Venezuelan army. Even paramilitaries managed to find refuge once the corruption pump was seeded. Along the FARC came the drug traffic from which the FARC gets its revenue. Then came the ransom industry and all sort of other organized crime, in front of a government that not only has refused to act energetically and consistency but which probably promotes a high level of insecurity to start developing its own policies of terror over the population. Under current horrifying crime figures, if you are an opposition figure and you get attacked in the streets you never know if it were real thugs or a squad sent to you by the government. How can you figure it out? Where can you go in Venezuela for redress when the state ignores so much the reality of crime, when the judicial system will only investigate what is convenient?
It will be at least a generation to repair the damage that Chavez tolerance for crime has inflicted upon Venezuela.
By the way, without trying to be facetious, will the new constitution help in any way solve this drug trafficking problems? Will drug smuggler have a 6 hour a day, 36 hour work week so they can have more "free" (see post below)? To educate themselves or to snort? It is when you read such article about the reality of Venezuelan life that you realize how divorced form Venezuelan reality the Chavez administration is becoming. Look at how much time the government is spending in trying to change the constitution to make a Hugo the first while here, in Yaracuy, the per capita crime of this rural state is now comparable to city crime, where we get kidnapping and ransom at almost the frequency of the Colombian border, in per capita..... Meanwhile hot air keeps coming from Caracas, and drugs from Colombia as I have been told that it is quite easy to find coke in San Felipe (heck, the governor is murmured in the streets to be a major user).
-The end-
Friday, August 17, 2007
How a constitution becomes a mere guideline: Chavez turns the 1999 constitution into scrap paper
The most offensive thing about the ill called constitutional reform of Chavez is not its actual text, it is the way it is done, the style, the timing. As such it should be considered as a mere provocation with the objective of stunning any opponent to the reform. If the support of such people cannot be gained, at least they will be annulled in an induced denial
First, the changes were discussed in secret by a small group of Chavez unconditional appointees. Second, it was sent to Chavez who probably leaked the content out to gauge the public reaction. Then it was put on hold while they were deciding how far they could go, but more importantly what baubles they could add to the draft to convince enough people to approve it. It is interesting to note that the 6 hours maximum working day was not in the leaked documents and was probably added later as they sensed that they needed stronger stuff to sugarcoat the life presidency, the sole real goal of any reform. Finally, as the financial system is starting to suffer, as the government finds itself unable to supply milk to the people and as someone lost a strange piece of luggage in a Buenos Aires airport, it was time to push ahead. At no point was there a serious discussion to address the obvious flaws of the 1999 hastily written document, or to even decide what was best for the country. The only thing that mattered, and crassly exposed at that, was what is good for Chavez.
But let’s take the view from above. The reform is of course an obscene, intelligence insulting farce. It is a disservice to the reader to discuss it in detail. Instead let’s wonder whether what results from this reform can still be called a constitution. Let’s not forget that a constitution is the frame with which laws are enacted. It cannot be the other way around. For example a constitution cannot have economic rights as it is not in the power of any government to have at all times the capacity to fulfill such rights. Even property rights in serious constitutions are not guaranteed, though the same serious constitutions put all sorts of obstacles for state expropriations. But expropriation they do, even in the capitalist Hell of the Novel Evil Empire.
El Universal, for those who have time on their hands, has in PDF the Chavez proposal of last night ( a 4+ hour cadena that I doubt was very clear to the people that were brave enough to wade through). I will like to visit just a few items to show that the proposed changes are completing the transformation of the 1999 constitution into a mere constitutional law that can be changed at will like any new law. And I use “constitutional” in the least restrictive sense possible.
Let’s start with article 87, as a simple example. The “old” text was about guarantying the right to work in safe conditions to all workers. Nothing unusual here. But the “new” article is twice as long. It now includes the duty to the state to intervene in enforcing job measures, instead of supervising them. Also, the state will have to guarantee the same benefits to “independent” workers. Considering that in 8 years it has failed on all of its duties toward the contractual workers, one is dubious that it will be successful once it reinforces its duties and adds to its obligations the service to buhoneros, the street workers that form up to 40% of the working population in Venezuela. How will the state include and control the buhoneros revenues and other free agents to provide them with social benefits to which they have already access anyway if they wanted and could pay for them? Translation: a present to the informal worker population. They might end up voting yes and the constitution will be changed but what happens when the state cannot fulfill its obligations?
Article 90 is an even more direct appeal. That article fixed the working week. In normal constitutions, if such a measure is contemplated, it would read something like: “the sate will fix working conditions and weekly hours to work”. But in the “old” article it stipulated that the week work was 44 hours and the daily work could not be more than 8 hours. Yet, it also added that there state should try to decrease this with time. It was already strange to find such precisions in a constitution, but the “new” article goes much further: now the work week will drop to 36 hours, no more than 6 a day. In concrete, for example my business which does not open on Saturdays and works 40 hours a week, will drop suddenly to 30 hours a week. Or does anyone think that workers will gladly go back to work on Saturdays? That similar examples in much more developed countries such as France have failed and are put into sever questioning does not seem to have been considered. Here Chavez is getting ready to impose the 30 hours week (because it will be 30 for most people) without even considering a transition, a financial help form the state or anything of the sorts. But that is not all: the article explicitly forces the employer to have a role in the free time of the employee!!!!
These things have no place in any constitution: the state by law can already fix any of these parameters as needed and as the economical situation allow. But Chavez mandates it because he needs candy to make people vote for his for life presidency. Even if we all know that the state owned companies will be the main violators of such “constitutional obligations”.
There are many articles where the chimera of the communal power is elaborated. What strikes me more is that most of these modified articles could have easily been created through laws. There is no need to include them in the constitution. Again, here the idea is to create the illusion of more direct popular participation by supposedly shifting power to the neighborhoods instead of the city halls. Maybe, but communal councils are not going to design dams, highways or hospitals. The end result will be more power to the central state who of course will be the only one with the means to undertake such projects. Engraving this in the constitution is just for effect.
The Misiones are also given constitutional rank. Yet, amusingly in the modified corresponding article 141 the fluctuating nature of the Misiones are acknowledged. That is, the executive power will decide how long would a given Mision last. The question that begs to be asked is: why put that in the constitution when the current regulations allow already the state to do any Mision it wants for whatever objective for as long as it pleases? Again, the illusion of permanence of Misiones to bribe the naïve electorate to support the life presidency. Except that at least in this case the state is wise enough to keep an exit door in case the financial going gets rough. Unless it is an admission that Chavez already knows the Misiones have no future in the socialist state he will lord over?
Even in the new organization of power Chavez throw bones to his supporters, raising hopes. For example now there will be several vice-presidents. Their number and rank to be decided at will, though there will be one main vice president. But is there a need to change this article 225? No. Chavez has been creating as many ministers as he has wanted to. Why create many vice-presidents to put in between him and his ministers? Again, we see a constitutional change that could have well been a simple law creating special ministers. The objective here is to soothe the ambitious within chavismo that do not like the idea of having to wait for Chavez death to run for office. Now, thinks Chavez, they will be happy to be one of the many vice-presidents he will create.
Article 236 modification betrays this attitude. In that article Chavez adds a new duty to the president, to direct the “constitutional and constitutive” [sic] initiative. I am not too sure what this legalese gibberish truly means but I can detect the implication: Chavez will be freer to change the constitution as he had been until now. That is, an easily modifiable constitution will just be a simple law that is modified as needed.
No, what we are getting is not a modified constitution. It is just the gutting of the already feeble 1999 document, its conversion into some basic guideline that Chavez will disrespect as much as he disrespected the 1999 blue book, except that now he will have on occasion the time to change the constitution so it does not look that he is violating it. That is when basic civil rights will start to be “constitutionally” diminished.
-------------
PS: I am not going to discuss further this except for one post on the key points that show how Chavez wants to grab even more over than what he has. My predictions of have not only been confirmed but made worse. For the non Venezuelan reader, fear not, we are not that stupid. 90% of us know exactly what is going on. The problem is that too many of us pretend it is OK.
-The end-
First, the changes were discussed in secret by a small group of Chavez unconditional appointees. Second, it was sent to Chavez who probably leaked the content out to gauge the public reaction. Then it was put on hold while they were deciding how far they could go, but more importantly what baubles they could add to the draft to convince enough people to approve it. It is interesting to note that the 6 hours maximum working day was not in the leaked documents and was probably added later as they sensed that they needed stronger stuff to sugarcoat the life presidency, the sole real goal of any reform. Finally, as the financial system is starting to suffer, as the government finds itself unable to supply milk to the people and as someone lost a strange piece of luggage in a Buenos Aires airport, it was time to push ahead. At no point was there a serious discussion to address the obvious flaws of the 1999 hastily written document, or to even decide what was best for the country. The only thing that mattered, and crassly exposed at that, was what is good for Chavez.
But let’s take the view from above. The reform is of course an obscene, intelligence insulting farce. It is a disservice to the reader to discuss it in detail. Instead let’s wonder whether what results from this reform can still be called a constitution. Let’s not forget that a constitution is the frame with which laws are enacted. It cannot be the other way around. For example a constitution cannot have economic rights as it is not in the power of any government to have at all times the capacity to fulfill such rights. Even property rights in serious constitutions are not guaranteed, though the same serious constitutions put all sorts of obstacles for state expropriations. But expropriation they do, even in the capitalist Hell of the Novel Evil Empire.
El Universal, for those who have time on their hands, has in PDF the Chavez proposal of last night ( a 4+ hour cadena that I doubt was very clear to the people that were brave enough to wade through). I will like to visit just a few items to show that the proposed changes are completing the transformation of the 1999 constitution into a mere constitutional law that can be changed at will like any new law. And I use “constitutional” in the least restrictive sense possible.
Let’s start with article 87, as a simple example. The “old” text was about guarantying the right to work in safe conditions to all workers. Nothing unusual here. But the “new” article is twice as long. It now includes the duty to the state to intervene in enforcing job measures, instead of supervising them. Also, the state will have to guarantee the same benefits to “independent” workers. Considering that in 8 years it has failed on all of its duties toward the contractual workers, one is dubious that it will be successful once it reinforces its duties and adds to its obligations the service to buhoneros, the street workers that form up to 40% of the working population in Venezuela. How will the state include and control the buhoneros revenues and other free agents to provide them with social benefits to which they have already access anyway if they wanted and could pay for them? Translation: a present to the informal worker population. They might end up voting yes and the constitution will be changed but what happens when the state cannot fulfill its obligations?
Article 90 is an even more direct appeal. That article fixed the working week. In normal constitutions, if such a measure is contemplated, it would read something like: “the sate will fix working conditions and weekly hours to work”. But in the “old” article it stipulated that the week work was 44 hours and the daily work could not be more than 8 hours. Yet, it also added that there state should try to decrease this with time. It was already strange to find such precisions in a constitution, but the “new” article goes much further: now the work week will drop to 36 hours, no more than 6 a day. In concrete, for example my business which does not open on Saturdays and works 40 hours a week, will drop suddenly to 30 hours a week. Or does anyone think that workers will gladly go back to work on Saturdays? That similar examples in much more developed countries such as France have failed and are put into sever questioning does not seem to have been considered. Here Chavez is getting ready to impose the 30 hours week (because it will be 30 for most people) without even considering a transition, a financial help form the state or anything of the sorts. But that is not all: the article explicitly forces the employer to have a role in the free time of the employee!!!!
These things have no place in any constitution: the state by law can already fix any of these parameters as needed and as the economical situation allow. But Chavez mandates it because he needs candy to make people vote for his for life presidency. Even if we all know that the state owned companies will be the main violators of such “constitutional obligations”.
There are many articles where the chimera of the communal power is elaborated. What strikes me more is that most of these modified articles could have easily been created through laws. There is no need to include them in the constitution. Again, here the idea is to create the illusion of more direct popular participation by supposedly shifting power to the neighborhoods instead of the city halls. Maybe, but communal councils are not going to design dams, highways or hospitals. The end result will be more power to the central state who of course will be the only one with the means to undertake such projects. Engraving this in the constitution is just for effect.
The Misiones are also given constitutional rank. Yet, amusingly in the modified corresponding article 141 the fluctuating nature of the Misiones are acknowledged. That is, the executive power will decide how long would a given Mision last. The question that begs to be asked is: why put that in the constitution when the current regulations allow already the state to do any Mision it wants for whatever objective for as long as it pleases? Again, the illusion of permanence of Misiones to bribe the naïve electorate to support the life presidency. Except that at least in this case the state is wise enough to keep an exit door in case the financial going gets rough. Unless it is an admission that Chavez already knows the Misiones have no future in the socialist state he will lord over?
Even in the new organization of power Chavez throw bones to his supporters, raising hopes. For example now there will be several vice-presidents. Their number and rank to be decided at will, though there will be one main vice president. But is there a need to change this article 225? No. Chavez has been creating as many ministers as he has wanted to. Why create many vice-presidents to put in between him and his ministers? Again, we see a constitutional change that could have well been a simple law creating special ministers. The objective here is to soothe the ambitious within chavismo that do not like the idea of having to wait for Chavez death to run for office. Now, thinks Chavez, they will be happy to be one of the many vice-presidents he will create.
Article 236 modification betrays this attitude. In that article Chavez adds a new duty to the president, to direct the “constitutional and constitutive” [sic] initiative. I am not too sure what this legalese gibberish truly means but I can detect the implication: Chavez will be freer to change the constitution as he had been until now. That is, an easily modifiable constitution will just be a simple law that is modified as needed.
No, what we are getting is not a modified constitution. It is just the gutting of the already feeble 1999 document, its conversion into some basic guideline that Chavez will disrespect as much as he disrespected the 1999 blue book, except that now he will have on occasion the time to change the constitution so it does not look that he is violating it. That is when basic civil rights will start to be “constitutionally” diminished.
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PS: I am not going to discuss further this except for one post on the key points that show how Chavez wants to grab even more over than what he has. My predictions of have not only been confirmed but made worse. For the non Venezuelan reader, fear not, we are not that stupid. 90% of us know exactly what is going on. The problem is that too many of us pretend it is OK.
-The end-
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Chavez, the autocrat, at a press conference
In Venezuela we have a saying “cada ladrón juzga por su condición”, which translates freely as “each thief judges according to his values”. In other words, a thief will think that all think as a thief does.
This saying is interesting because in the next two videos we can see and hear how Chavez minds operate, how he thinks that everyone thinks as the thug he is thinks (apologies for the word repetition).
The scene is a press conference. There the O’Globo journalist asks a very simple question as to how come the fine levied on Tal Cual seems rather excessive.
Instead of replying to the simple question you can observe many things in the speech of Chavez (the reply, to give it a name, lasts 12 minutes!) that betrays what an autocrat he has become, and even betrays that he knows he is not doing the right thing. We have another saying in French “Qui se sent morveux, se mouche” (he who feels his nose dripping blows it). What Chavez does is a pseudo preventive measure because, well, his subconscious betrays him in that Chavez knows he has a lot to answer for. And of course his “sobredimensionada” reply betrays his general nervousness and resentment and weakness of character. You may remind the famous scene of a few weeks ago when Chavez attacked Uribe of Colombia with the same “sobredimensionada”. But Uribe is not some defenseless journalist that can be forcibly escorted to the next fly for Sao Paulo. Chavez backed down quickly in front of Uribe, showing the coward that Chavez really is, only looking strong when the people in front of him cannot defend themselves. The classical bully
There are two videos and in an unusual step I will try to point to some of the important moments. Sorry, they are in Spanish and I really cannot translate them but if anything the face of Chavez lying outrageously is just great to watch!
Video 1
Chavez starts with what he thinks is an ironic repetition of “O’Globo”. It falls flat but it announces what will come next. Then he asks for coffee. The journalist, not speaking very good Spanish, narrates how he was invited to the protest rally in support of Tal Cual and Laureano Marquez. Then he goes on RCTV (read previous post). Chavez interrupts the journalists saying that he is welcome but not O’Globo. And Chavez adds, unbelievably, “finish your question, we are not going to dialogue” (1:13) Truer words were never spoken!!!
Then Chavez makes time to think about a reply by talking soccer. But then he goes on for the kill by saying that the owners of O’Globo are from the most antique extreme right. Classic shoot the messenger, except that he has had to recur to such strategy so often that he has to increase the level of insulting to make it more “acceptable” (2:20). Insults to O’Globo continue and he takes on the journalist expressing his hope that he is not anti Latin American. How crass can you fall? But he does go further. He starts accusing O’Globo of attacks on Lula (3:20) which are of course totally irrelevant on Chavez attacks on freedom of expression in Venezuela. At 4:40 we are discussing Joao Goulart where even Chavez admits that the journalist was not born then…. At 5:45 he tells the journalist that this one surely knows the mentality of his O’Globo boss, daring him to write something that will displease his boss. The video 1 ends, at 6:29 and Chavez has not started addressing the question of the journalist. Amazing!
Video 2
Finally! Chavez says that he has nothing to do with the Tal Cual fine (0:23). Well, true, if we look at the direct logic. Untrue since it is about Chavez daughter name on a front page and since it is the only of such cases that has been brought to court even though chavismo has been using children abundantly for political purposes. But of course Chavez can try to get away with it because he is not “dialoguing” and neither the O’Globo journalist, nor another will be allowed to ask a follow up question (the press conference ends after this second video with Chavez all but escaping). I could also get into the detail of Chavez having named all the judges but that would be tedious for the readers of this blog well aware of the situation.
At 1:12 Chavez decides that the journalist question is in fact an opinion, that he journalist does not know about Venezuela and that he has decided to be judge of what goes on in Venezuela. Oh dear! Where should I start? That Chavez spent most of the previous 7 minutes giving his opinions on Brazil internal matters, being a most severe JUDGE on what goes on in Brazil? On the fact that in addition to the condescending familiar “Tu” he uses against the journalist he is now moving close to character assassination?
At 1:28 Chavez finishes that part saying that it is an internal Venezuelan matter about the powers and that he has nothing to say on that! Priceless!!!!
But Chavez goes on! And it turns this into a personal thing! At 3:04 he is rambling on all the insults he has received (note, not criticisms, insults, a priceless lapsus from his part as nothing is a criticism on him, all is an insult). At 3:24 the Tal Cual fine is nothing more than a driving ticket… The facials of Chavez become more and more interesting as he is making all personal now! And then back to attacking O’Globo (total rambling, betraying the rambler!) 3:46 O’Globo enemies of LatAm Integration; 3:52 Puppy dogs of US imperialism; 4:20 “the truth is known by the large majority” after daring O’Globo to publish that Chavez himself fined Tal Cual (Uhh?)
4:37. Now we go onto RCTV, as a right for a government to give a concession to whomever it wishes. Note that in the words of Chavez it is the government who has the right of that, not the public opinion or civil society (in that if truth be told Chavez is not alone among world governments, even from democratic countries…). 4:39 “no hay que explicarlo”, Chavez says that he does not need to give an explanation!!!! He is above accountability!!! He confesses it!!!.
But the best was for the end. At 5:00 Chavez says that the right to give broadcast concession for a country is the same as the right to name whatever ambassador it wishes, and to refuse any ambassador named by the other countries. I mean, how twisted and how far from reality and proportion is the mind of Chavez? I have rarely seen such a preposterous counter example. Is Chavez on crack? Or is he challenging us about even more outrageous actions in the future? Is he going to close El Universal because he has the right to name the minister of communication he wants? Has the usage of absolute power already corrupted him so absolutely? And at 5:38 Chavez says that it is all like the little signs that pop out in some establishments as to who is welcome or not… The implication of course is that Chavez announces that he will admit whomever he pleases in the future.
But Chavez manages to outdo himself at the end. He accuses the journalist of total lack of objectivity, of being sent to fulfill a mission and he dare shim to go and ask about Puente Llaguno as to the reality of Venezuela. And then he runs away before anyone can ask a follow up question such as “Have the 2002 events of Puente Llaguno ever being investigated by an impartial and objective commission?”. I wonder what Chavez would have replied to that… No matter he chose to run away as he seems to be doing more and more often…
Meanwhile I am sure that O’Globo could not dream of better material to criticize even more Lula…
This saying is interesting because in the next two videos we can see and hear how Chavez minds operate, how he thinks that everyone thinks as the thug he is thinks (apologies for the word repetition).
The scene is a press conference. There the O’Globo journalist asks a very simple question as to how come the fine levied on Tal Cual seems rather excessive.
Instead of replying to the simple question you can observe many things in the speech of Chavez (the reply, to give it a name, lasts 12 minutes!) that betrays what an autocrat he has become, and even betrays that he knows he is not doing the right thing. We have another saying in French “Qui se sent morveux, se mouche” (he who feels his nose dripping blows it). What Chavez does is a pseudo preventive measure because, well, his subconscious betrays him in that Chavez knows he has a lot to answer for. And of course his “sobredimensionada” reply betrays his general nervousness and resentment and weakness of character. You may remind the famous scene of a few weeks ago when Chavez attacked Uribe of Colombia with the same “sobredimensionada”. But Uribe is not some defenseless journalist that can be forcibly escorted to the next fly for Sao Paulo. Chavez backed down quickly in front of Uribe, showing the coward that Chavez really is, only looking strong when the people in front of him cannot defend themselves. The classical bully
There are two videos and in an unusual step I will try to point to some of the important moments. Sorry, they are in Spanish and I really cannot translate them but if anything the face of Chavez lying outrageously is just great to watch!
Video 1
Chavez starts with what he thinks is an ironic repetition of “O’Globo”. It falls flat but it announces what will come next. Then he asks for coffee. The journalist, not speaking very good Spanish, narrates how he was invited to the protest rally in support of Tal Cual and Laureano Marquez. Then he goes on RCTV (read previous post). Chavez interrupts the journalists saying that he is welcome but not O’Globo. And Chavez adds, unbelievably, “finish your question, we are not going to dialogue” (1:13) Truer words were never spoken!!!
Then Chavez makes time to think about a reply by talking soccer. But then he goes on for the kill by saying that the owners of O’Globo are from the most antique extreme right. Classic shoot the messenger, except that he has had to recur to such strategy so often that he has to increase the level of insulting to make it more “acceptable” (2:20). Insults to O’Globo continue and he takes on the journalist expressing his hope that he is not anti Latin American. How crass can you fall? But he does go further. He starts accusing O’Globo of attacks on Lula (3:20) which are of course totally irrelevant on Chavez attacks on freedom of expression in Venezuela. At 4:40 we are discussing Joao Goulart where even Chavez admits that the journalist was not born then…. At 5:45 he tells the journalist that this one surely knows the mentality of his O’Globo boss, daring him to write something that will displease his boss. The video 1 ends, at 6:29 and Chavez has not started addressing the question of the journalist. Amazing!
Video 2
Finally! Chavez says that he has nothing to do with the Tal Cual fine (0:23). Well, true, if we look at the direct logic. Untrue since it is about Chavez daughter name on a front page and since it is the only of such cases that has been brought to court even though chavismo has been using children abundantly for political purposes. But of course Chavez can try to get away with it because he is not “dialoguing” and neither the O’Globo journalist, nor another will be allowed to ask a follow up question (the press conference ends after this second video with Chavez all but escaping). I could also get into the detail of Chavez having named all the judges but that would be tedious for the readers of this blog well aware of the situation.
At 1:12 Chavez decides that the journalist question is in fact an opinion, that he journalist does not know about Venezuela and that he has decided to be judge of what goes on in Venezuela. Oh dear! Where should I start? That Chavez spent most of the previous 7 minutes giving his opinions on Brazil internal matters, being a most severe JUDGE on what goes on in Brazil? On the fact that in addition to the condescending familiar “Tu” he uses against the journalist he is now moving close to character assassination?
At 1:28 Chavez finishes that part saying that it is an internal Venezuelan matter about the powers and that he has nothing to say on that! Priceless!!!!
But Chavez goes on! And it turns this into a personal thing! At 3:04 he is rambling on all the insults he has received (note, not criticisms, insults, a priceless lapsus from his part as nothing is a criticism on him, all is an insult). At 3:24 the Tal Cual fine is nothing more than a driving ticket… The facials of Chavez become more and more interesting as he is making all personal now! And then back to attacking O’Globo (total rambling, betraying the rambler!) 3:46 O’Globo enemies of LatAm Integration; 3:52 Puppy dogs of US imperialism; 4:20 “the truth is known by the large majority” after daring O’Globo to publish that Chavez himself fined Tal Cual (Uhh?)
4:37. Now we go onto RCTV, as a right for a government to give a concession to whomever it wishes. Note that in the words of Chavez it is the government who has the right of that, not the public opinion or civil society (in that if truth be told Chavez is not alone among world governments, even from democratic countries…). 4:39 “no hay que explicarlo”, Chavez says that he does not need to give an explanation!!!! He is above accountability!!! He confesses it!!!.
But the best was for the end. At 5:00 Chavez says that the right to give broadcast concession for a country is the same as the right to name whatever ambassador it wishes, and to refuse any ambassador named by the other countries. I mean, how twisted and how far from reality and proportion is the mind of Chavez? I have rarely seen such a preposterous counter example. Is Chavez on crack? Or is he challenging us about even more outrageous actions in the future? Is he going to close El Universal because he has the right to name the minister of communication he wants? Has the usage of absolute power already corrupted him so absolutely? And at 5:38 Chavez says that it is all like the little signs that pop out in some establishments as to who is welcome or not… The implication of course is that Chavez announces that he will admit whomever he pleases in the future.
But Chavez manages to outdo himself at the end. He accuses the journalist of total lack of objectivity, of being sent to fulfill a mission and he dare shim to go and ask about Puente Llaguno as to the reality of Venezuela. And then he runs away before anyone can ask a follow up question such as “Have the 2002 events of Puente Llaguno ever being investigated by an impartial and objective commission?”. I wonder what Chavez would have replied to that… No matter he chose to run away as he seems to be doing more and more often…
Meanwhile I am sure that O’Globo could not dream of better material to criticize even more Lula…
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