What can the opposition do now?

As an appendix to the preceding blog entry this short post. Short because there is not much the opposition can do.

Options against the dictatorship

I am happy about yesterday annulment of the Recall Election. I know, it is perverse but I have my reasons.

The opposition MUD alliance great political victory

There is no way around it. Today the opposition political umbrella alliance MUD scored a brilliant victory. Here is why.

It resisted all sorts of terrible pressures to prevent the meeting in Caracas, from blockade of people going to Caracas (Sometimes even robbed by soldiers) to the jailing of half the leadership of Voluntad Popular  (And some of other parties for good measure).

Berlin Diaries for Caracas

I have been for a few days in Caracas and I have been reminded a lot of a book that I read long ago, Berlin Diaries.  Not that the situation of Caracas in 2014 is like the one of Berlin 70 years ago.  But there is a certain zeitgeist that we may want to explore as a gedanken experiment.

One of the images that I retained form that book is that war torn Berlin lacked food and amenities but some of the stuff that was not on ration cards could be found with some unexpected ease provided you could afford it. The diaries author found herself with her fiends of the foreign ministry, one of the last areas of German bureaucracy not taken totally over by the Nazis, partying with Champagne and oysters when not otherwise planning the demise of the Fuhrer. And that was all they could get for their parties, Champagne and oysters.

Brutal repression in Caracas for May first march

Today across Venezuela many marches were held to commemorate International Labor Day. Chavismo and anti-chavismo all held marches and all went well, except the one in Caracas which was unnecessarily, unjustifiably, brutally repressed. True, the march tried to reach the National Assembly, access which was refused (unconstitutionally) by chavismo. But unlike previous such events, the government did not even offer for a delegation to go through the lines to bring a petition to the alleged house of the people. Caracas downtown only belongs to chavismo and opposition cannot even visit anymore the Bolivar square.

Chavez in an infamous speech (in cadena) from the chavista rally confirmed this reality that there is a political apartheid in Venezuela when he said that the streets belonged only to the people, meaning that only the chavista people is allowed to go wherever it wants in Venezuela.

The picture here is taken by a citizen reporter where you can see the red shirted assault troops of chavifascismo . You can observe that they are wearing weapons with all the intention to use them. You may find more material here.

El Universal has its own photo gallery here (in English here). It also carries pictures of Chavez march in Caracas and the words of hate he spewed, here.

Globovision carries a full coverage with videos on its national news section. Of course Chaevz puts all the blame on the opposition as he is preparing the terrain to crack down on political opposition once and for all. Note that opposition and workers marches in the rest of the country went peacefully and outnumbered governmental rallies, chavismo preferring as usual to focus all of its energies in Caracas to crate photo op for the beloved leader.

The Reuters summary here.

Will the world notice today's repression in Venezuela? Will Lula speak again of "local democratic flavor" or some bullshit of the sort? Will Sarkozy keep trying to sell Total at the expense of Venezuelan liberty (as he is not unwilling to do in Africa when needed)? Will the State Department notice, or where all the campaign words of Obama and Clinton mere words (after all Chavez did find time to criticize Obama today)?

-The end-

There might be an opposition after all

[updated]

Well, I bet Chavez is even more surprised than me tonight. Yesterday Rosales was accused of corruption. Within twenty four hours Rosales called for a huge, and I mean HUGE, popular rally in Maracaibo, of the type of rallies that even with a gadzillion of buses Chavez today would be unable to call for in 24 hours. And, hold tight, all the who'swho of the current elected opposition leadership is taking turn on stage to defend Rosales and declare chavismo corrupt. They are all there, from Salas Feo to Carlos Ocariz, from Miryam do Nascimento to Gerardo Blyde. Well, I have not seen the one from Margarita but you know, even if you want to go you might not always be able to do so. If Chavez did want to strengthen the leadership of the opposition and its unity around Rosales he could not have done better....

It is very noteworthy that all speakers are striking the right note, defending Rosales but spending more time in attacking Chavez recent policies, and harshly.

A law revoking referendum in the near future?

update: it was really one of the most successful opposition rallies I have seen. The psychological image of all of the opposition leadership unified in its criticism of Chavez abuses, with words much stronger than what we are used to see will have an impact. Rosales spoke at the end and even accused the Zulia representatives of betrayal to their own home state. A recall election on the National Assembly in the works? Why not? Even removing a couple of dozens seats only would have a tremendous psychological impact.

Whatever honeymoon Chavez thought he would be benefiting from his February 15 result, it died this week.

Madre mía, si el gobierno
no ayuda al pueblo zuliano,
tendréis que meter la mano
y mandarlo pa'l infierno.

-The end-