The Chavez equation

The Petkoff editorial of Tal Cual today was simply irresistible and I had to translate it. It was also accompanied with an image that illustrates more than anything else the administrative failure of the worst government in Venezuelan history. The only question for us, for amusement, you know, is to hear the excuses of the PSF, more and more silent these days as they shift to Honduras their attention, a more palatable cause in their book I suppose.

THE THREE PLAGUES
Teodoro Petkoff

Over the country three major crises are converging simultaneously. The public security crisis, the crisis of the electrical system and the crisis of public health system. They are not the plagues of Egypt, they are the plagues of Chavez.

Not that Venezuela was a wonderland before Chacumbele [Chavez] , but what we had in those three areas then could withstand the worst eleven years of public administration this country has ever experienced. The oil boom, of course, disguised incompetence. But now the service structure that the government manages can no longer stand. Of course, these three crises are not unique.

Public education also is severely damaged and on the horizon rears the ugly head of the water crisis. Not to mention the economy. But, is the crisis of insecurity, health and electricity which at present fall with greater weight on the back of everyone in the country, particularly on the poor.

The poor cannot close up their streets, as do the inhabitants of the residential areas of middle class or the rich, nor can they afford private security; and police patrols do not circulate along the routes in the townships. The poor then are absolutely defenseless and unprotected and the public security crisis hits them with a particular harshness. For the poor there is no police and most of the crimes that overwhelm them go unpunished . 99% of homicides occur in the townships and a similar percentage of them are not even investigated. There are no courts of justice for the poor but what they have is prisons, the worst and most violent in the continent.

The poor can not go to private clinics and for them there is no HMC. Hospitals and clinics are overwhelmed and the relief that Barrio Adentro meant was short-lived. The Social Security system already has eleven years of delay. The Great Charlatan, without the slightest sense of the ridiculous, is "inviting" the gringo president "se venga pa’l socialismo" [slang: come over socialism]but Obama, in just nine months, is about to get Congress to approve his universal Social Security, while for the "revolutionary" and "socialist" Chacumbele almost eleven years have not been enough to settle this debt with the people.

In terms of electricity we have started to plunge into the "mar de la felicidad" ["sea of happiness" in which supposedly according to Chavez Cuba and Venezuela float]. Who would believe that this country, energy rich by definition, would know long hours of electricity rationing. Who could believe that Venezuela was going to live "alumbrón" in alumbrón "- as the Cubans say, to mark the end of the blackouts - [apagón=outage and the pun is that alumbrón would be the occasional non outage]. Of course, the poor are most affected by power failure, but this calamity indeed does not make for class distinctions.

Rich and poor alike suffer the consequences of these destructive plagues that has fallen over the country. [untranslatable expression closes the text: ¿Será verdad que todavía la sarna con gusto no pica?]



-The end-

Talking head, gross speech, naked ambition

I suppose that for Chavez to have been put down in public by the King of Spain was a blessing: nobody is talking about the ongoing fascist developments in Venezuela. This probably might explain why Chavez went on a media offensive of sorts, going back through 500 years of colonial grievances and accusing Juan Carlos to have been in the know of the 2002 coup. Boy, the way things are going with chavismo propaganda it might be more productive to write down the list of people WHO DID NOT KNOW about the 2002 Venezuelan coup. The consequences of the ridicule Chavez would suffer from leading that list himself do not seem to have crossed his mind.

Even the Guardian that no one can suspect of strong monarchist positions was slightly amused, underlining that Spain rallied around the King and that Chavez does all the talking alone, comparing himself with nothing less than the prosecuted Christ.

But this cartoon of Weil with which I open the post tells us boatloads of what is really going on as much here as abroad: simply put people are starting to realize that one thing is what Chavez does and another one what Chavez talks about. Chavez speaks of been prosecuted like Christ, while he accuses unarmed students (OK, some had sling shots) of attacking his own naive supporters (who are abundantly documented as carrying all sorts of weapons) . The tales of the martyrdom of Saint Hugo is simply becoming as exasperating outside of Venezuela as it has long become here. Thus to conclude this post the translation of Petkoff editorial yesterday which should bring a smile on any reader of this blog who has known for years what a "patán" Chavez is.
--------------
Shut up!

The exasperated imprecation of King Juan Carlos to Chavez, along with the calm but forceful knock that Rodriguez Zapatero slung back, surely will enable many abroad to better understand what is happening in our country. Because Venezuelans have been suffering first hand for almost nine years this rude exercise of power, that quarrelsome style, vulgar and humiliating, with which not only he mistreats his opponents but even his own followers. Participants at the Ibero-American Summit could evaluate, live and direct, the infinite ability of Chavez to overcome the patience of even the most gentle of spirits. Many now have come to realize what it means to be governed by Chavez. Jose Vicente Rangel years ago during the campaign of 98, when he still dared to criticize him, wrote a memorable article, entitled, "By the mouth the fish dies," where he warned Chavez about the dire consequences of his vulgar and thuggish speech. Shortly thereafter, and in power, he excused Chavez: "That's his style," he said, but this time to suck up to him. However, Rangel was right. That is the "style" of the president. The "style" that has filled with hatred and resentment this country, that has severely damaged its civility; the "style" that serves as fuel to that infernal dynamic that has caused Manichean and foolish divisions among the people of the country. It is the "style" of who confuses the social and political struggle with a tavern brawl, among drunken thugs. Politics, of course, are not a floral game and often occur between its protagonists verbal encounters and even slaps, but Chavez has mired in it in a sewer, has degraded and debased it to extremes that only living through it one can believe. That's what we Venezuelans live; a sample of that is what his counterparts in Latin America and Spain were able to appreciate.

---------------------
Unfortunately for us in Venezuela and for people abroad amused by Chavez since they really do not have to suffer his invectives on a daily basis, there is also this power to bring havoc as clearly expressed in this LATimes article by Michael Rowan and Douglas Schoen. Now you have been all told.

-The end-

When it rains it pours: more on the escape of Lapi

As it were not enough with my previous post, reading Tal Cual today was a fascinating experience (all the articles referred below in here).

First, one thing that I would have never thought I would read: the editorial of Tal Cual fully endorses the escape of Lapi. That is, someone who is allegedly a criminal, who should be in a trial for corruption, and a major opinion paper endorses him running away from the law! But it gets better: the editorial squarely puts the blame on the judicial manipulation on the current governor of Yaracuy, Gimenez, and does not even bother writing his name with capital initial: now Gimenez is merely carlos giménez, alias “lalo”. lalo being a nickname of the governor.

But it was not enough for Teodoro, he also gets on El Aissami case, someone that readers of this blog did not need to wait for Tal Cual to know what individual he is. Teodoro calls that character: un tal Tarek El Aissami, viceministro de algo en Mininterior, a certain Tarek El Aissami, viceminister of something in Mininterior. I cannot think of words to make that Tarek a complete nonentity in office because, well, they needed someone to do that type of gross actions....

There is also a blurb on the famous case that brought Lapi to jail with a pertinent comment on how much money gimemez wasted on that instead of solving it.,

Plus an interview on Lapi granted a few days before his escape. Many of the gross judicial iniquities are narrated there.

Now, this is very serious because Tal Cual takes on the judicial system head on, risking severe retaliation and penalty. When you read Tal Cual today and hear the words of Luisa Morales on TV you cannot but help wonder whether the woman is lying or if she is that misinformed (or that partisan). Whichever it is, there are grounds to impeach her and fire her from her position. And I am not talking of what is going one between her and the National Assembly... My guess? She is simply so incompetent that she does not know what is going on. And since she is also so partisan, then her words cannot surprise us. And of course soon enough she will have to start lying, in case she is not doing it already.

Watching that woman tell the country on VTV (like Chavez she would not be caught dead in front of a real reporter) that Lapi and Venezuelans should trust Venezuelan justice is such an affront to our intelligence that words fail me to condemn her.

PS: Arzola and Lapi's wife were on TV a few minutes ago. According to their words they do not know that Lapi escaped. For them he has "disappeared". That is, they have no idea where he is and he has not contacted ANYONE KNOWN to say that he is safe and sound and in hiding. In an era of disposable cell phones, someone who can plan such an escape is quite able to call some newspaper to identify himself. Lapi's voice is very well known for his nasal sound by the Venezuelan press. If Lapi does not send sign pretty soon, we can start heavy speculation....

-The end-