Having an arepa at my occasional hangout in San Felipe I was forced to read Ultimas Noticias as the last "national" paper still available. And I fell on this so telling regime propaganda that I could not resist to take a picture of the full page advertisement and deconstruct here for your pleasure. Click to enlarge.
Let's start by the obvious: PDVSA, the state oil company is paying for that advertisement to glorify Chavez by attaching it tot he memory of Simon Bolivar, on the week of the anniversary. Of course, if Chavez was born late July it could nto be possibly for any other reason but to his link to Bolivar. Take that you other Leo babies! At any rate, PDVSA breaks the law but who cares at this point....
Si, es verdad, una de las razones por la cual Hugo Chavez siempre sale con vainas en diciembre es que sabe que la gente de bien, la gente de tradiciones, la gente de familia, la gente seria, deja un poco de lado sus menesteres cotidianos ese mes para dedicarse a su familia, sus amigos, y hasta a materias espirituales para algunos. Por lo tanto el sinvergüenza ese aprovecha el descuido para cerrar televisoras y hasta imponer dictaduras, sabiendo que no recibirá la respuesta que se amerita e impondrá su odio.
Pero también hay otra razón y esa nos la describe Yoani Sánchez de una manera sobria y al punto: esa gente, los chavistas de poder, no creen en nada, y menos en los hombres. No se pierdan su escrito de como el pueblo poco a poco logra recuperar la navidad en Cuba.
I missed all the news today as I was travelling between San Felipe and Caracas. Only now, as I check on my blog, do I learn that Manuel Caballero died early this morning. Venezuela loses today one of its finest thinkers ever, a great historian and one of the few that opposed the Chavez regime since 1992 even though Manuel Caballero has an impeccable career as a leftist who became on time a social democrat. His Sunday column in El Universal was one of the half a dozen weekly must read for me, always bringing to me a political smile, always giving ideas, always reminding me that the anti military anti fascist fights in Venezuela are the just cause, worth any sacrifice.
Sería una excelente terapia para muchos venezolanos venir a pasar el 12 de octubre en Madrid, curando un poco ese síndrome de “resistencia indígena “que perturba el sueño y las fantasías de los chavistas, o permitiendo a los escuálidos sentir un poco mas de orgullo por nuestra cultura, pero un orgullo digamos algo más positivo.
Sometimes I delude myself into thinking that all of these attacks that chavismo does compulsively against anyone that looks at them slightly crossed are just political agitprop, that they cannot believe all the crap they say. But only too often in recent years I come to realize that the self brain washing within chavismo actually works, that these unfortunate people are starting to believe the crap they publish. Two examples today.
Starting last year and through 2011 most Latin American country will celebrate or commemorate a series of events that lead to the proclamation of independence from Spain. The coincidence is simple to account for: Napoleon had invaded Spain and under the pretext of supporting the legitimate dynasty of Spain the elite of the time used this excuse to exert first a provisional autonomy that quickly became a declaration of Independence.
Emparan summoned back to the Cabildo
Venezuela was no exception, and in fact the clearest text book case, as on April 19 1810 the Caracas Cabildo forced the Spanish Capitan General to resign and leave the colony. A year was enough to reach the official Independence proclamation on July 5th 1811. And thus we have two national holidays to mark our Independence.
One would think that the bombastic government of Chavez would take the opportunity to appropriate the two celebrations. After all, such a centennial milestone is reached, well, once every hundred years only. But no, nothing significantly out of the ordinary is planned. No major festival is under organization, and we are at barely 30 days of the April date. No literary competition has been offered that would attract the best pens or keyboards. We do not know of any major gathering of LatinAmerican head of states in Caracas next month.
As some of you might remember I also hold a French passport. Thus I was drawn to this New York Times piece: Historians Reassess Battle of Agincourt. Apparently the mythic feat so eloquently put in verse by The Bard , and splashed on a great movie by Kevin Branagh, was not so mythic. True, Henry V forces were outnumbered but by not such a wide gap. It seems that diligent post victory propaganda made sure that the feat was grander for the numbers gap than the French incoherence.
Interestingly in my French school days that huge number gap was kept, which I suppose is a consequence of being in the losing side where you have other more pressing business to attend than figuring whether the French outnumbered 1 to 2 or 1 to 5. Besides, even if Azincourt (the French spelling) is looked at badly as a humiliating day, it is always put into the context of the civil war starting then between "Armagnacs et Bourguignons". That civil war dynastic consequences would drag all the way until Louis XIV. Also in the French psyche of the 100 Years War that I was taught, the battles of Crecy won by Edward III and Poitiers won by the Black Prince 50 years earlier are considered more fateful and more humiliating than Azincourt. This because in each one of the them the king was involved while Agincourt is looked more upon as a mad dash of unruly aristocrats as king Charles VI was sinking into folly and thus absent from command. A true disaster for sure, but an additional one to Civil War and the Mad King.
The power of myth is indeed powerful and crosses cultural barriers, influencing even the defeated. Fidel Castro understands this very well, and it is certainly part of the reason why chavismo is so busy rewriting history: after a while people will think that chavista manuals are indeed historical.... Venezuelans will start beleiving crap like "dia de la resistencia indigena" and black Bolivar just as the French bought the propaganda so nicely put up by Shakespeare. Hey, I am French but the Henry V harangue is stirring no matter what!
This story shall the good man teach his son; And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remember'd; We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition: And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day
We might be two weeks away from Chavez coronation and Venezuela end of democracy but that does not stop journalists to maintain an eye on the country. Let's start by a quiz: who wrote the following lines?
But Venezuela is also a country with indisputable similarities to some of the more unsavory systems of the 20th century. Its leader holds an almost cultlike status among followers, from ordinary Venezuelans to government ministers and lawmakers. Increasingly, many view his every word as gospel, his dictums to be obediently followed. Five state television stations regularly carry his speeches, rallies and frequent trips to the hinterlands.
Over the past decade, Chávez has taken control of the Supreme Court, the lower courts, the state oil company, the armed forces, and all investigative and oversight agencies, including the attorney general's office. The National Assembly is also under Chávez's control...
Now, if you are tired of politics you can read what happens when journalists develop a real interest for the country they are posted at, contributing to its knowledge overseas more than what had happened since I can recall. This excellent report of Simon Romero over Cubagua, the first settlement in Venezuela, is a must read if you still ignore the rich, if unglamorous, colonial history of Venezuela. By the way, if you ever have a chance to visit Cubagua, do so, I highly recommend it even if there is nothing spectacular about it except for that overwhelming feeling of being at the edge of the world.
By the way, Romero gives us yet another example on how Chavez cares ONLY about the history that is convenient to him. Heck, we even got a representative at the National assembly asking publicly a few days ago to rewrite history books for schools.
We have been asked to believe that 100 "experts" on Venezuela or Latin American criticism on the report on Venezuela by Human Rights Watch is something to behold. A quick analysis shows that most of them are not expert and that some of them, working hard at promoting this report, are probably nothing but paid agents/lobbyists for the Chavez regime such as Mark Weisbrot. Not that there is anything wrong with it, mind you! But at least they should come clear about it, in particular Weisbrot who has attended Congress hearings on behalf of the Chavez cause.
But these details about whether some guys are payed to promote Chavez pales in comparison to the crap they signed at the end, including a dismissal of the Tascon List of which this blogger has been a victim and who knows of at least three other folks personally who have suffered from its state sponsored discrimination. Not to mention the widely circulated video whose ignorance by these "experts" is shameful beyond words.
I have been quite busy these days, and not on vacation. Thus I am not much more than a secondary collaborator on a joint project that only I get to post today. It is a partial analysis on on how these 100 "experts" simply showed how biased they are, but worse, how non-expert they end up being. As Miguel astutely pointed it out, they claim academic credentials and methods that they did not apply; I can assure you that if I had used such methodology when I was doing my own Ph.D. research my adviser would have kicked me out of his laboratory real fast.
Without further ado there is the post signed by Miguel, Alek and myself. Please, if you feel that you want to add your name on it send me your name and qualities and I will put them at the bottom. That is, if you have not already signed at Miguel's page where it was posted first. --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Dear Sirs:
We have read your letter criticizing the report A Decade Under Chavez: Political Intolerance and Lost Opportunities for Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela by Human Rights Watch and are flabbergasted by its superficiality and the same lack of academic rigor you unfairly attribute to HRW.
In fact, its title alone is quite deceiving as some of the names signing the letter hardly qualify as "experts" on Latin America and it is quite clear that the common bond of those signing the letter is simply a blind support towards Hugo Chavez and his fake pseudo revolution. It is not based on any factual knowledge about what is happening on Venezuela and what you criticize of the cited report.
On the issue of discrimination on political grounds, you are of course referring to the infamous Tascon/Chavez list, a perverse database of those that signed a petition to recall the mandate of Hugo Chavez, which has been widely used to discriminate in employment and providing services to Venezuelan citizens. You question the veracity of such discrimination, which Teodoro Petkoff has called an "apartheid" list, but maybe HRW should have linked this video from the documentary "The List" (for a written summary of "The List", read here) where in minute 0:49 Hugo Chavez says "Anyone that signs against Chavez his name will be registered for history". Later in minute 2:17 President Chavez in his Sunday variety show Alo Presidente (#214) jokes about the Tascon list and the fear people have of being in it. Finally in minute 3:08 at a public Cabinet meeting Hugo Chavez says: "The famous Tascon list should be filed away. That is now over. Let the Tascon list be buried, it surely played its role at a certain moment, but it is now over" :
What else could the Venezuelan President have meant when he publicly made that order to "file away" and "bury" that list? Bury it had a very clear meaning: Chavez knew and backed the list for a long time, never condemned it and just ordered that it no longer be used. He ordered it buried as local newspapers began printing dozens of cases daily of discrimination and firings using the Tascon/Chavez list. Many of these cases are well documented in "The List".
But in the name of accuracy and rigor maybe you could all have simply taken the time to download the Tascon/Chavez database and played with it. This perverse use of technology represents and abominable example about what mankind can do in the name of ideology and politics. It classifies millions of Venezuelans as pro or against Hugo Chavez. Those in favor are called "Patriots", of course, and to insure that the appropriate pressure can be brought upon those against this empty revolution, it includes everyone's address, voting center and a powerful search function.
Just think, you can spy on your family and neighbors from the comfort of your own laptop and know whether they signed against Chavez (if you are against him) or whether they have benefited or not from the Government;s direct assistant programs (if you are for him), creating a tool for division and hate for all Venezuelans.
Yes, Venezuela is indeed not a political model for anyone as clearly exposed by HRW and Jose Miguel Vivancos. The country is a signatory of these International agreements and declarations which you failed to take into account in your letter. But not knowing them is no excuse, particularly when you are asking for the rigor that an academic peer review process should have.
And yes, in most cases it can not be proven that there was discrimination. When one of us was denied a passport, he was not given a piece of paper stating it was because he had signed against Chavez, but was told only verbally that was the true reason. This happened to thousands of Venezuelans who could not obtain a passport or an ID card for months after the 2004 recall referendum.
As for employment or Government contracts, even after Chavez asked that the list be buried, it was used to get rid of the enemies of the state who worked at oil company Sincor when the Government nationalized it. The newly named President of that company left no doubt about it: "This is a matter of the State. There is a list being circulated in the press and it is real. It came out of here, we are investigating it and whoever leaked it will go to jail. It will be applied to key personnel which is within or outside the company". And yes the people were fired, so much for inaccuracy and hearsay, no?
And there is the case of Rocio San Miguel and two other lawyers (shown in "The List") who worked at the Council for Borders, who just happened to tape 55 minutes of telephone conversations with their superiors, who explained to them they were fired for signing against Hugo Chavez and that the Venezuelan Vice-President directly approved it. That case is now in the Interamerican Human Rights Court.
And while you correctly state the Government had the right to fire the oil workers for striking, you bypass the not so irrelevant fact that it not only did it illegally, ignoring Venezuela's strict labor legislation, but it confiscated severance pay (also illegal under Venezuelan law) as well as voluntary pension fund contributions and savings of all these workers without any Court order allowing it. These workers ranged from low level messengers to secretaries, to indeed, high level executives. Venezuelan Labor Courts have failed to process a single one of the appeals for these cases since 2003. If that is not overt discrimination and violation of due process and the rule of law, then what is?
As for self-censorship which you so un-rigorously dismiss, you fail to note the dozens of reporters whose programs have been cancelled in the media outlets who decided to "follow orders" from the Government, in contrast to the illegal termination of broadcasting license and seizure of the property of TV station RCTV, which refused to obey the orders from highest levels of power in Venezuela.
And it is absolutely laughable when you state that "The report even uses innuendo to imply that the government is to blame for attacks on journalists", when the Venezuelan Government has failed to provide protection to over 250 reporters as requested by the Interamerican Human Rights Court, within treaties of which Venezuela is a signatory.
Finally, you question HRW from using a report by an "opposition blogger", calling him mentally unstable, for which you also have no evidence as no professional has ever declared him so, but you fail to question a single fact of the reference cited by HRW. You will find this very difficult to do, since that reference is a factual description of the Tascon/Chavez database and proof that the Electoral Board authorized the release of copies of all of the signatures to pro-Chavez Deputy Luis Tascon.
And I do find it remarkable that you use as evidence that some people have called for the violent overthrow of the Venezuelan Government presided by Hugo Chavez who supported two coup attempts, violent ones at that, and who actually led one of them which left over 200 Venezuelans dead in the streets, including children. An interesting double standard you all have in the defense of human rights, to say the least.
In the end you letter is a defficient attempt at discrediting HRW, which curiously defended Mr. Chavez in 2002 despite the deaths induced by the Venezuelan President against a peaceful march. Your letter fails precisely where you attempted to find fault with the HRW report, it lacks rigor, it is superficial and represents a terrible error for you to sign such a partisan document.
Meanwhile back in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez seeks his indefinite reelection despite a referendum denying it in 2007 and against the express prohibition by the Venezuelan Constitution (Title IX) to consider the same question twice in a single Constitutional period. Moreover, Hugo Chavez issued 26 Bills in July 2008 which contain provisions also rejected in the same referendum.
This is the wholesale violation of the democratic rights of the majority of Venezuelans who voted against such provisions in December 2007.
Remarkably, there are still those like you "experts" that have barely probed the surface of what is going on in our beleaguered country that continue to defend the indefensible, continue to support an outlaw Government which lacks the support of Venezuelan academia and students, but you have failed to even ask yourself why this is.
Ironically, while you sit in the comforts of your offices supporting the Chavez revolution and working on your academic projects, your social science colleagues in Venezuela receive meager funding and the annual social sciences award has not been given in the last two years.
It is truly sad when in the name of academia a serious and very unique institution exclusively devoted to the defense of human rights is attacked for political purposes in such a low quality and superficial way. But it is even sadder and a shame, when the systematic and well organized violations of human rights by the Venezuelan Government presided by Hugo Chavez are ignored by those that claim to dream with and believe in the basic dignity and rights of all human beings.
Chavez mind is littered with prejudice and fantasy from which he tries desperately to construct a mythology to justify his pseudo-revolution. No wonder it has not been working well for him. One of these pseudo myths he tries to establish was that the famed "Pacto de Punto Fijo" was pure evil, from the day it was penned. Nothing further from the truth. That the famous pact eventually was gutted from any meaning to allow the establishment in Venezuela of a fake bi-partisan democracy is true, but it happened at least 15 years after the fact.
What was Punto Fijo? Below I have lifted parts of the editorial of Veneconomia in English which cannot be linked directly.
On an October 31 fifty years ago, Rómulo Betancourt, Rafael Caldera, and Jóvito Villalba, the leaders of Venezuela’s three main political parties, signed the Pact of Punto Fijo, which made it possible to consolidate democracy in the country and guide it for four decades.
The Pact arose in the days prior to the first elections held following the fall of the dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez. These three great leaders and their party organizations undertook to defend constitutionality and respect election results based on a national united-front government with shared responsibilities and a minimum common program.
The core motive of this pact was to create the conditions for establishing a plural, free democracy. Another factor that determined the signing of the Pact was that the democratic leaders fully realized that, if they did not join in a common cause, the country would fall, once again, under a military boot.
That was it. Nothing else but a pact where democratic leaders agreed not to tear each other apart until a democratic system were set in place, solid enough to withstand the normal democratic battles and bruises.
And Veneconomia also brings us an explanation of why Chavez attacks the Punto Fijo tradition. He did so, by the way, ruthlessly, amid lies and historical rewriting in his cadena last Friday.
Today, as yesterday, Venezuela is threatened by the phantom of totalitarianism from a president who, despite having been elected under the laws of democracy, has unrestrained hegemonic aspirations and seeks to implement a country project called 21st Century Socialism, which has a clearly fascist overtones.
However, today, unlike yesterday, the country’s democratic leadership seems to be in disarray and looks far from synchronized. The urgent task before this leadership is the coordination of a vision of the country shared by the majority of Venezuelans to confront the fascism that is in the making.
Also unlike 50 years ago, the country’s leadership seems not to have taken the true measure of the destructive potential of its adversary that is capable of finishing off Venezuela’s democratic system once and for all.
Of course, Chavez might be the ultimate liar when he describes Punto fijo, but he does so because he knows quite well that the day all democratic sectors of the country finally wake up and see him for what he is, he will be toast. He has a big advantage that Perez Jimenez did not have: he is in office when the price of oil allowed him to spread the utter corruption, financial and moral, that a fat checkbook allows to spread in a country which is ill educated. Perez Jimenez did try that, but those were different times where even if you were corrupt you still believed that a certain efficiency in government would help you retain power. Chavez is not bothered by efficiency in an age of media where raw emotions and hate are better tools to carry the day. Up to a point anyway.
So far the opposition is not showing signs of clearly understanding what is at stake, in days where even the old Communist Party of Venezuela is somewhat sensing deep inside that chavismo is more akin to fascism as to Cuban revolution. We can see that very well in Bolivar state, or even in Trujillo and Barinas where supporting a dissident chavista would be enough to defeat the Chavez appointee. True, they are unpalatable folks that probably would try first to make peace with Chavez, but at least that would be the end in state of a knee jerk chavista response. Is it not worth trying if you are sure that you are not going to win anyway?
I was busy yesterday so apparently I missed another one of those intellectually offensive cadenas which seem to be the only type of cadenas Chavez is able to give these days.
The first thing we can say is that whenever the intensity and frequency of cadenas increase, it is an admission by the government that its polling numbers are not good and they must use Chavez himself as the propaganda gun to recover some more favorable numbers. This has been working quite well in the past when Chavez could announce each time a new social program or some presumed revolutionary victory. But as the social programs are not running too well these days and oil production is going down and RCTV is a bitter sore in the popular classes, we may ask ourselves how effective this abuse will be this time. After all, even with chavismo, at some point bis repetita non placent.
Thus I had to rely on newspaper accounts to read what the hell Chavez did a cadena yesterday. They were enough just in the release from El Universal.
Megalomania, when you hold us in your grip!
First, we were treated to what will be one of the main teams of the constitutional changes, indefinite reelection of Chavez. Thus he is presenting himself as the only man capable of directing the country and henceforth he should be allowed to do so. We can even say he is metabolizing it in his organs when he says such silliness:
but I am convinced (...) that these six years for me, for the project that I incarnate, that I push forwards with my bones, my liver, my kidneys, my lungs, my throat, with my nails, the period is not enough.
After such a, literally, visceral statement one is left with no doubt as to the mental state of the beloved leader. Wits, by the way, might notice that there was no mention of Chavez brains...
The referendum lies
Another nice little item I found is this one: if in two years from now someone asks for a recall election and the motion wins, he will go. Yeah, right...
The first question here is why present himself as Venezuela's only hope and assume that in two years he might be gone after all? What is that? A Freudian subconscious uncertainty in his infallibility? An admission of electoral treachery? Or plain delusional B.S.? It is when you read such nonsense that you really understand the need to have journalists, good ones, in front of him and asking him on the spot why such incongruities in his speech. A self assured leader does not even speculate on such things when he is asking for a life presidency! I am pretty sure that neither Napoleon nor Castro ever said such nonsense. Though we do see once again the virtue of cadenas for Chavez, he can talk, talk talk and zero accounting, no straight minded reporter to call him on his flights of fancy. Eventually the feeble minded audience gets wrapped by these contradictions and embraces them.
But there is something better: during the electoral campaign towards the December 2006 election Chavez made one of his important campaign speeches where he promised to call himself for a recall election on his next term. Yes, that is right, as a way to soothe the Venezuelan people, to distract from the fear of six more years of autocracy, to help forget momentarily the apartheid Tascon List as a killer of referenda and democracy, Chavez offered to ask himself for a recall election on his term by December 2010. After yesterday we can be assured that there will be no such referendum in 2010, nor probably ever again if Chavez gets his unlimited reelection.
The world media campaign against Venezuela
Apparently it seems that the US orchestrated negative campaign against Venezuela is so powerful that it dominates even the European press. That is right, all the respectable European newspapers and media and governments have bought into the US argument that closing a TV station for personal vendetta is a bad thing. What is this? huh?
But it gets better: Chavez is sorry that his ambassadors in Europe do not have access to the means to counter such a campaign. What? Venezuelan ambassadors are not allowed to make cadenas in Europe? The nerve of these Europeans!!!!!!
The French case
If the ridicule of the above comment were not enough, we can add another one ridicule with the pretension that the Venezuelan system is just like the French system where presidential reelection is unlimited. True but wrong anyway.
It seems to have all started with Sarkozy writing to Chavez a "friendly letter". I suspect that the new French administration is not quite aware of chavismo and sure enough its first entreat is shamelessly used for propaganda purposes by Chavez. Serves them right. For the record I would like to cite myself when I wrote here that Segolene Royal would have probably had a more principled foreign policy than Sarkozy as the French right has tended to be quite mercenary in its foreign policy. Sarkozy seems to be headed that way, at least in LatAm. Note also that the social democrats of France have rebuked Chavez in ways that the right has never done, that I know of anyway. And then people wonder how come I tend to vote Socialist in France, but I digress...
What Chavez said reflected 1) his complete ignorance of French political history and 2) his willingness to distort anything he can distort to suit his goals.
French presidency was a 7 year term affair established in the constitution of 1871. That constitution was written at a time when France was not sure it would return to a monarchic system or move forward a republican one. Thus the head of state was designed as a weak constitutional monarchy: either a president or a king could take over the job and either one will be equally well controlled by the parliament. That is the way the French system was from 1871 until 1958: a strong parliamentarian system where the head of state, a president it turned out over time, was only good enough to inaugurate exhibits and make colorful state visits outside of the country. The president by the way was elected by the French Congress, not the people!!!
Obviously in such system a president could be president for life: there was no way he could affect much the destinies of the country. In fact this was even implied in a 7 year term which aimed at promoting a certain idea of stability through a symbolic figure/fatherly head.
But in 1958 the constitution was changed and the president got more power. In 1962 the president became elected by the people and the consequence was a slow but continuous shift towards a more presidential system. Today France is a hybrid system: when the president benefits of a parliamentarian majority France is in fact a presidential system. But f a president loses that majority, the new Prime minister from the opposition becomes the real ruler of France. Still, this has been bothersome to the political class and in effort to acknowledge that presidential drift a first reform was voted where Presidential Term and Legislative Terms were given the same time period, five years. And going further, Sarkozy has offered to change further the constitution by giving the president two consecutive terms only.
Chavez failed to mention that about France. Imagine that! But then again Chavez consistently fails to mention such elements as strong institutions, rule of law and separation of powers, institutions that allow French people to sleep tight at night even if their president can be in theory still elected ad infinitum. In fact, even the great De Gaulle was forced out of office and he was certainly of another caliber than Chavez and had achieved quite more.
Readers familiar to this blog might remember my tenet that chavismo has become more like a religious cult than a political movement. The latest battle between the Catholic Church and chavismo illustrates this again, and quite well I must add.
It all started with the logical observation by the Catholic Church synod in Venezuela that it was about time that discussion about constitutional change become more public. The church was simply underlining what anyone with half a brain could have observed: it was simply becoming obscene that the government kept discussing constitutional deep changes behind closed doors for months. That is, until a leaked document made it clear that we were not talking amendments, but a deep overhaul of the constitution, an attempt to change the basis of our government. Such profound change cannot simply done because Chavez said so, just because he wants to become president for life, our new Juan Vicente Gomez who changed constitution at will to perpetuate his power. We have overcome those days and we do not want to go back to the Barbary that Chavez wants us to go back again.
What was the reaction of Chavez? Hysterical, out of all proportion, bringing the church to start accusing the government of harassment, with plenty of justification. But this was only the start, it seems that there is in fact a concerted policy to silence the Catholic church, exactly as what all authoritarian regimes end up doing when they ground their legitimacy on crass materialism or sect like credo. Chavismo qualifies on both counts.
For example today the foreign minister, nothing else, and one wonders why, went ahead and accused the Church to establish a new "inquisition" against Chavez. I agree that Chavez should be burnt to the intellectual stake of misplaced ideas and end up in jail the rest of his days forced to understand what he keeps quoting unconfronted; but to think that in the XXI century the Catholic Church could even establish a judicial tribunal reflects only the empty head and absolute lack of formal education and culture that Maduro suffers but seems to brag about.
I suspect that the Church was seeing this coming. Ominous signs are everywhere that the hard core chavismo is on the war path to destroy whatever stands on its way. Since the students are currently a stumbling block they decided to tackle someone else and the Church, for long a target, got its hour of reckoning advanced (after all, the Cuban G2 is organizing the silencing of Venezuelan dissent, they are the experts) .
A few days ago we had an interesting event that tells much about the mental state and not so hidden objectives of Chavismo as a religion. There is an old hospital in Maracaibo that had benefited all these years of a special status. It had been given to the city by Creole, the old oil company in the 50ies. Thus it must have had some form of endowment/rental situation that sort of protected it partially from the neglect that all state hospitals suffer these days when only the Barrio X centers benefit form any governmental sympathy. Something for which details are not clear happened: PDVSA, the heir of Creole, decided to take over full management of this reasonably well functioning hospital when the rental contract expired. Rumors circulated fast, such as that all the MD that do not enter into communion with the "rojo, rojito" political credo of PDVSA can pick up their pink checks whenever they feel like it.
But PDVSA did not stop there: apparently they were planing to rename the hospital. The hospital was originally named for the Coromoto virgin, the saint patroness of Venezuela. Believe it or not the new name was going to be Ernesto "che" Guevara. That is right, the chosen name was for one of the holiest saints of the chavista cult to violence and death. The statue of the Coromoto was even removed and a new pedestal built. However in front of the outcry the new hospital management refused to comment and the new pedestal has remained empty! While the Coromoto waits on the side. It seems that the hospital will not change its name after all, "por ahora".
I ask you, if you were half dead in a hospital, who would you pray to first: the mother figure of the Virgin or to a well established assassin? My bet is that in such circumstances most of the hard core chavista would chose the Virgin Mary before the Che.
You think perhaps "poor Daniel, he is losing it, he is going from agnosticism to Catholic fervor just to piss off chavistas". Well, look at the picture below.
If you enlarge it you can read that the rubble behind the poster (pic taken this very last week end in San Felipe) is the future renovated medical eye center of San Felipe (strangely built for once in a town hall held by the opposition, go figure). That center will be named for Che Guevara. Coincidence? Me thinks not. He is everywhere these days, chavismo never bringing up all the thousands of people that died through his direct or indirect actions. Religions have this strange way to turn mass murderers into saints.
But the war will be an all out assault this time as chavismo will even poach into the church fields to gain more propaganda. Pope Benedict just approved the beatification of a second Venezuelan, Madre Candelaria de San Jose. So, what did Chavez do? His administration decreed a three days national holiday in honor of the new beatified nun (in Spanish here, sorry, the only non English link today). That is right, the church gets a saint and Chavez tries to pull her to his side without even taking a breath after grievously insulting the Venezuelan synod. By the way, does anyone recall when was the last time that Chavez attended a religious service, except for his Sunday preach at Alo Presidente?
So there we are, an increasingly erratic but strong willed chavismo is attacking the church. Evangelical churches surely cannot be far behind: after all someone someday will point out that many of them are supported from the US. The bolivarian revolution again shows the unmistakable signs of falling into your average repressive regime. How unoriginal.
Added 24 hours later: Weil has this to the point cartoon where the Devil endorses the policies of the Chavez crowd against the Catholic Church. It is that simplistic for chavistas.
Tuesday Venezuela “commemorated” February 27 1989. Well, some people in fact seemed to celebrate it and are very actively trying to make that date the starting point for the chavista era. Though a preposterous argument, it is interesting to visit the issue as it illustrates quite well how the hagiography and history retelling operate under authoritarian regimes, even if they are of the banana republic type.
February 27, El Caracazo
For the newcomer to Venezuela let’s summarize briefly. After years of relative deprivation and economic hardship, the failed policies of Carlos Andres Perez 1 (CAP 1), Herrera and Lusinchi had brought to office a new government who had decided to apply some more neo liberal tools to try to solve the problem of no growth, persistent inflation and general decrepitude of the country. Unfortunately CAP 2 was elected the in December 1988 on a platform that suggested much more the return of good times and easy money such as during the CAP 1 years than the draconian plan (by Venezuelan standards) that he had decided to apply.
This by itself would not have been so bad if some measures to protect the lowest social groups had been taken. But CAP, his authoritarian self only matched by Chavez, decided to go ahead before the whole plan was duly explained and before any social protection measure was announced in a convincing way. Thus a gas price hike was announced and bus drivers were not told yet whether suburban bus fares would be increased or whether they would receive some subsidy. They of course decided to increase bus fares anyway, people got upset, they started burning buses in Guarenas and soon enough as TV was showing live the disaster of Guarenas this riot took all over the country.
This spontaneous rioting turned out quickly into a massive sacking of stores all across Venezuela. While a minority had the time of their lives the immense majority of Venezuelans rushed back home to hide in fear expecting the slums to knock at their doors, if polite. CAP had to launch the army to restore order and the army, as ill trained as they always are to restore public order, started shooting happily. Now, looting is one thing and being shot at for looting is another thing. Debate can be endless on these matters but what aggravated the situation is that the army got carried away and more than likely some units decided to take the opportunity to eliminate some “undesirables”. Many “mistakes” also were made as a few innocents at the wrong place and the wrong time ended up in mass graves. The death toll will never been known. Officially it is in the few hundred of people, allegedly it could be way above the 1000 mark. What is certain is that after 18 years only a tiny fraction of the potential abuses has been duly investigated, and even less judged and condemned (looters and soldiers alike it must be said).
Lessons of February 27
The first thing to understand is that the movement started as a spontaneous uprising or irked suburbanites who simply could not stand a bus fare increase. That within a few hours a few organized subversives, inherited from the then distant guerilla years, joined by some gangs finding a good opportunity to do dome looting, started fishing in trouble waters is quite possible. But the Venezuelan left in 1989 was at its lowest point ever, and certainly not able at all to organize rioting on that scale. Organized crime on the other hand would have stood a much better chance to coordinate some of these events.
However, the day marks definitely a cleavage in Venezuelan history. Until that date Venezuela had lived through 4 decades of relative peace and quiet and internal order. Yes, there was the overthrow of Perez Jimenez in 1958, and the guerilla of the 60ies, but for the immense majority of Venezuelans, for the 4 decades that preceded el Caracazo if you were not into politics and if you were not into organized crime you could have a fairly decent life as far as personal security, peace and quiet were concerned. Since 1989 violence has climbed steadily and has even reached Miraflores where verbal violence is now the norm of government, a telling omen of what is ahead for us. Any gentility in Venezuela was crushed on February 27 1989 and since then we have been living in increasing fear, a fear exploited by all sorts of politicians from Caldera 2 to Chavez. To their great everlasting shame of course but unfortunately atonement will happen years from now.
There was also some collateral effect to that day. TV was abundantly accused of promoting looting by showing images of how easy it was to loot, how absent were security forces from the streets before CAP decided to send in the army. This has generated a sort of self censorship within TV from then on, which includes April 13 2002 when the looting that was taking place in some of Caracas areas was not shown, nor the few people that were claiming for Chavez return.
The army decided that it was not going to be punished for its abuses. Thus 1989 starts the return of the army as something that could not be touched by the political power, bringing us to what is now a military regime disguised behind the Chavez election. After 8 years of rule Chavez has done very little to correct for the 1989 abuses, and even less to avoid a reoccurrence of such an event. But the army is now in charge in way that it was not in charge since even Perez Jimenez time! Katy is not even afraid of talking of a military cover up as many of today’s “public servants” were obeying orders in 1989 and nobody knows exactly what they did then.
Recuperating February 27 1989
But beyond national regret or military cover up what is perhaps most indecent is trying to make El Caracazo look like what it is not. And chavismo has been hard at work since it reached office in transforming that date as the original date of the Bolivarian revolution. Certainly it is more palatable than the 1992 coup by Chavez. And it could well excuse the coup if the collective in Venezuela were to embrace El Caracazo. But this has not happened yet, no matter how hard chavismo has tried to appropriate for itself a date where it had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do, even as Chavez and his little pals were already plotting.
But the regime has been trying to build a golden legend for people who were raised in the safety of the hated 4th Republic educational system, who did not have to pay much for their military education, and who were allowed to run for president 5 years after they had tried a coup d’etat. No grand epic there. So we must invent one.
The basic problem is to erase the “illegal” side of 1992. That is where El Caracazo comes in handy. If we accept that premise that February 27 1989 was the starting point of a popular sentiment for political reform, then it can be argued that the 1992 coup was a natural consequence by some politically enlightened officers. Unfortunately this cheap revisionism does not work well outside of hard core chavista radical core. Too many people still remember that day and too many people remember personally, or know of people, hiding at home and putting mattresses against the windows to stop bullets. Too many people also remember that shopping malls were ransacked even in middle and upper class neighborhoods too far from popular districts to have a significant crowd coming form there: how could they carry back home the loot? Nobody remembers people lining up to march against Miraflores to unseat CAP who had just been reelected 2 months before by way more votes than Chavez ever got, that is until Chavez managed to manipulate the electoral rolls enough last year.
Facts are hard sometimes…
But that does not stop chavismo to try every year since it took Miraflores and everything else. After all, what is a second month of the year riot for someone who is revising the whole colonial history of Venezuela to adapt it to a concept that even Marx in a drunken stupor would not have penned. So we saw the National Assembly on Tuesday gathering for an outdoor session to proclaim that from now on February 27 would be Human Rights day in Venezuela. Huh? Is there no other more suitable date to commemorate Human Rights in Venezuela? Even December 15 1999 would be better as it would commemorate the expansion of Human Rights in the Venezuelan constitution. That they are not applied is another matter but for then on they were written on pseudo stone.
However there are also other things to mask. For example Chavez has its own repressive February 27 in 2004. Something that he is managing to get forgotten up to a point, but that day he had a few people killed, you know. You can check the posts from February 27 and 28 in of this blog to refresh your memory.
He also has to make forget that the so much vaunted 1999 constitution is now been overhauled largely without any public debate, just a group of chavista yes-people secretly preparing a revised draft to present to Chavez. Participation is now a dead letter in Venezuela even if the words still might appear in the constitution after its changes.
The fun moment
But as usual chavismo provides us with the comic relief.
There are many mediocrities in chavismo who think that they are great folks, tending to forget that if they are where they are it is strictly because of Chavez. One of them is the Miranda state governor, Diosdado Cabello. In all truth within chavismo he is one of the few that have demonstrated that they have some modest managerial skills. Now that he is in charge of the second biggest state of the country his skills are seriously challenged and he seems to have reached his level of incompetence according to Peter’s principle.
So, to create a stunt and come back to public light (chavista sent him to Miranda as he was taking too much weight inside the government and Chavez does not like any luminary around him, no matter how faint that one might be) Diosdado decided to change a district name. He decided to change the popular neighborhood name of the Guarenas district called Menca de Leoni. The new name? “27 de febrero”!
Unfortunately the folks around protested even if they probably voted overwhelmingly for Chavez, and even if the original riot started from that same district 18 years ago. See, not only many folks living in that district are still embarrassed that this great stain in Venezuelan history started among its men folk mostly, but they also remember even if vaguely Menca de Leoni. She was the wife of Raul Leoni who served between 1963 and 1968. Arguably he is the best president of the so ill called 4th republic. During his tenure he had to face violent guerilla but he managed to consolidate the nascent democracy to the point that in 1968 for the first time the opposition received power after winning an election. Something unheard of in Venezuelan history. And his wife was one of the most famous first ladies of the era, probably the one with the highest social concern of the lot, including Marisabel de Chavez, now enjoying a life of riches in Barquisimeto far from any ghetto where Menca had no fear in visiting.
But such are things in the Bolivarian revolution.
I remember as one of my first political memories the funeral of Menca de Leoni. I was impressed that young by the crowd that was following the hearse. I was even more impressed that my mother who never had a kind word for Leoni (she voted for Uslar) was actually sad watching the hearse passing by. I am sure that Diosdado does not remember Menca, nor does he care for that matter. Then again what kind of general education did Diosdado receive in the military barracks where he let Chavez bewitch him? That is why he made a total fool of himself this week, trying to go back to public notice, trying to please Chavez, trying to think that he also could rewrite history. Alas, he is only the governor of Miranda state, happily erasing anything that was done before by way more competent people than he is. I suppose that he expects that erasing the past people will not notice what a lousy governor he is turning out to be.
When everything is said and done, the more mediocre you are the more you need to rewrite history. This is exactly what we are witnessing, the normal course of any medirocre authoritarian state on its ways to some form of totalitarianism.
Once the new leaders and new speech are starting to come forward, it is also time to create the new country and educate its people as to the new thought standard. This must be done on several fronts. Rewriting the past makes the present look less of a perversion. Changing the power structure of the country makes it more disperse and more dependent of the central power. Educating the young with revolutionary precepts should ensure the long term stability of the ideological regime. It has all been tried before, it has failed everywhere, but it will be tried again by people unable to understand history and the human nature that shapes it.
The new country
This is rather easy to explain: a revolution must bring changes and what could be easier to do to convey the impression of change but to change the internal borders. This artifact has been employed from the extreme right to the extreme left with some success, at least at first.
One of the questions that were left unresolved from the 1999 constitutional assembly was the geographical repartition of Venezuela. For example there was the major administrative problem of Caracas: with a third of the population of the country the city sprawls over two states and a federal district. That was not settled, the constitution leaving an ersatz called “cabildo metropolitano” who far from solving problems in fact allowed for a further atomization of Caracas administration. There were also some significant imprecision in the borders between states that could have been settled once and for all. Unfortunately the new constitution did not bother about settling those disputes and did not even tried to create a mechanism to do so. There was also the rather chaotic municipal distribution where some states (Tachira) have a plethora of small and inefficient municipal councils when compared to monstrosities such as the Irribaren district of Barquisimeto or the Libertador of Caracas.
There were two reasons for the less than august constitutional assembly to ignore such important matters. The first set of explanations is that its objective was to ensure immediate presidential reelection, extension to a 6 years term and control on the judiciary. The second reality that made the assembly desist of territorial redrawing at the time was the existence of strong local feeling (Caracas and Zulia in particular). Considering that then the distribution of popular support for chavismo was far from established, it was advisable to postpone any intervention in redefining regions.
But now that the basic political objectives of Chavez have been reached and that Zulia was able to mount a strong offensive against Chavez last year, it is time to disrupt this network of local loyalties which is what makes the cultural wealth of a nation. Cultural wealth is of course anathema to socialism as it is understood in Cuba or the Soviet Union where all men are equal in language and culture and where remains of original local traditions are only dusted for show to the outside world when not banned outward as a form of capitalist exploitation. When all are equal and think equally, what use is it to have regional variations?
The official project has not been introduced yet but it is quite explicit in the “five motors of the socialist revolution” that supposedly started December 4 2006. There is open talk of redrawing border districts and even getting rid of governors and possibly mayors. Now the basic popular district will deal directly with Caracas. Chavismo without any sense of ridicule, without any shame, ignoring all of human history, pretends to present this as the ultimate decentralization of power when we all know that it is the ultimate form of centralization: all connected to the great leader, and thus all dependent on him!
At any rate, the final project might take years to clearly apply but in the very near future expect that the first districts to be redrawn and gerrymandered will be those where the opposition still has some strength. These mini bastions will be diluted as needed and local leadership clearly erased as its power base will be disrupted in any possible way.
The new power structure
The tool to redraw the map of Venezuela has been set: popular participation through communal councils. All is vague but what is not vague is the atomization sought through them. How will this operate? Well, let say that San Felipe is redrawn. Thus the city which has an electoral population of roughly 35 000 will be divided in “consejos comunales” that will have from 1000 to 5000 participants (I am assuming such numbers as there is notable lack of precision, the only thing we are certain is that these new councils will rule).
Roughly these councils would gather to decide such things as which school will be renovated first, or which street needs to be batched. The inter neighborhood decisions concerning such matters as local hospitals or campuses will still be left to some town hall or state system, but the objective is that eventually all decision power will be shared between the local councils and the central government who will allocate money to feasible projects. The people supposedly will decide which contractors will be hired and will supervise the correct pursuit of contracts.
All very obviously confusing since from the start it is very difficult to see who will decide when there is a conflict between a certain district and the central administration. But still, one could conceive of systems to solve such situations: maybe the leaders of individual councils could gather in special assemblies? Referendums could become a frequent occurrence?
But that is not at all the objective sought by the government: these councils will in fact be controlled tightly by chavista agents, and when that cannot be obtained, the recalcitrant councils will be easily quarantined. How will this happen?
To begin with there is the participation problem. Chavismo has been the great beneficiary of abstention, no matter what some sectors of the opposition might claim. The less the people participate the more chavismo will control the situation. In a country where life conditions are everyday more and more difficult from the high crime rate to deficient public services, folks will simply do not have time to attend the constant flow of meetings that the new system will require. If you have no town hall, then the people are the ones who must debate since you cannot even hire someone to do the job for you. Only those in the public administration will have the time, and the duty, to be regulars to these meetings and slowly but surely will impose their ways.
But let’s assume that indeed many do show up. Then there is the second secret weapon for chavismo: open air democracy. See, the debates will be carried supposedly among neighbors and supposedly for the sake of convenience voting with raised hands will be a frequent occurrence, when not the norm. When there is a chavista governmental representative attending and suggesting (implying?) that the government would like a given project to include or exclude this and that who will dare to vote against? See, after the Tascon List this type of situation is one that most Venezuelans are weary of. At these assemblies it will be incredibly easy for the government to label friends and foes. In districts were chavismo is a weak majority or even a strong minority, the exercise of this “popular” democracy will ensure that chavismo will become quickly a strong majority.
Certainly if the CNE were to do its duty and if any communal vote had to be through secret ballots maybe the debate might not affect the community since the leaders of each side should present their arguments as in any normal democracy, people deciding then according to their interests and conscience in the privacy of the poll both. But the CNE has neither the man power nor the will to control all garbage collection votes of the country. Soon the tendency will be toward raised hand voting and democracy will be gone.
As for the opposition districts? Well, a few will remain, those where the opposition represents at the very least 60% of the voters. These districts will certainly not account for the 37% who voted against Chavez, but more likely will represent at the very most 20% of the population of Venezuela. They will be limited in the resources received as a major pressure tool from the central autocracy. And they will be the last remaining fig leave to show that Venezuela is still a democracy. But the best part for chavismo is that these districts will be too weakened to be able to generate an opposition leadership that could one day successfully challenge the establishment. Or so they will hope anyway.
The new history of Venezuela: passing the message
Last but not least there is an element that could either be included into the creation of the new Venezuelan man, or in the new power and territorial distribution: it is rewriting history and rewriting the educational system. This is a much more nebulous area than the ones described above. But the evidence is already there. It is fit to include it here since it is a tool under creation for future usage. Also, there is the necessary corollary, the need to control better the freedom of expression left so that no counter message may reach the lower classes upon which the glorious revolution is based.
Rewriting history
This can be seen everyday; it is obvious to any semi informed observer. Hugo Chavez is diligent in reinterpreting what Bolivar did and meant. Now this oligarchy scion of the Venezuelan colonial elite, this son of the enlightenment is fast becoming some “mestizo” who was socialist before Marx and Engels. I will not offend the leader intelligence discussing the intellectual implications of such “desproposito” (Out of subject? Incoherence?).
But this is not enough. For eight years Chavez has been trying to inject to the Bolivarian heritage, made revolution, all sorts of anachronistic ideas. The indigestible hodgepodge he is creating is starting to affect the country psyche, and even Chavez’s one. So he has decided to push forwards and settle on his own what is true of false, a new Trofim Lysenko of the historical academy this time. Thus he determined on his own the Venezuelan flag, changed the coat or arms, revisited Zamora impact, pondered Miranda role, meditated which are the real borders of the country (meaning that he keeps dreaming of a new Gran Colombia), decided who are the heroes and villains at any historical moment, etc… And this is about to be enshrined in the new Bolivarian education.
The new school curriculum
It is obvious that to make all these untrue asseverations and opinions of the new Conducator, Chavez needs to rewrite Venezuelan education, in a way that slowly but surely the volk will agree with its Supremo. But this not as easy as it might seem: parents might be very willing to vote for Chavez to keep their governmental job or privileges, but when brain washing starts at school it might become another story. The government has realized this quite well, to the point that the only big item that was left out of the enabling law was the never ending discussion of the new education law.
But it is a priority of the government. Taking over private education and independent public universities is a must for the regime. Private education is an obvious target for any autocracy as private schools might be forced to follow the official curriculum but can interpret the ideology as they please to dampen the effect of the official garbage, and even add additional course to undo any brain damage.
The attack on higher education is more visible. Right now several measures have already been taken such as creation of deficient new higher education organizations who are nothing more than political education centers that will grant deficient degrees that will not be marketable on the private sector market and thus will doom its graduates to keep bloating the new bureaucratic caste in Venezuela. Such a caste will depend more than ever on Chavez for its relevance.
But perhaps independent universities are even more of a target for chavismo. It remains a fact that in internal elections within these few privileged campus chavismo candidates or propositions have always failed, and most of the time miserably. It is a fact of life in Venezuela that the intellectual elite of the country, as meager as this one might be, has become overwhelmingly anti Chavez, and will remain even more so as autocracy rears its ugly head. The autonomy of these universities is threatened and it is just a matter of time until the old campuses of Venezuela will be taken over. Within a year or two it is quite possible that the only independent universities remaining will be the Jesuit colleges (UCAB) or the Metropolitana in Caracas. All the other campuses will have rectors imposed by the regime with the consequences that we can all foresee clearly.
Unless of course people awaken to the threat.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
PS: Controlling the media
I am adding this as foot note because that process had already started before 2006. With the infamous Ley RESORTE the government has already obtained a very significant self censorship in the broadcast media. Major opposition journalists have been evicted from their talk show on Televen and Venevision who have become "neutral" TV stations. Provincial radio, heavily dependent on governemtal advertisement are all but neutralized or gone to the dark side. Only the press is still free and lively (though not as vigourous as it used to be as they exert some discrete self imposed restraint).
But now the government has announced that it will push up the ante. To begin with there will be massive investment in media. CMT, a local Caracas TV station was bought by a chavista business group. Purchase of local radio stations will keep apace. New TV stations are promised, all run by the governemt or local allies. Andres Izarra of Telesur was verty explicit when he declared that the message of the government must be intense and reach everywhere, overwhelming any counter message that might appear (stopping short of shutting the anti message?).
The new intensification of the media wars was the announcement that RCTV, the venerable TV station that survived all sorts of political abuses in the past will be shut. The reasons are strictly political, strictly because Chavez said so as there is no legal basis to even start a punitive action! But it is also a test to see how the international community reacts. If we only see weak complaints you can be certain that Globovision will be next in line.
And then we will have only newspapers left. However self censorhip is easy to establish there: you can fine journalists for all sorts of minor faults, you can send the SENIAT on a regular basis, you can limit acces to controlled dollars to buy printing paper, etc... Chavismo has never lacked creativity when it needs to harass whomever disagrees...
Having an arepa at my occasional hangout in San Felipe I was forced to read Ultimas Noticias as the last "national" paper still available. And I fell on this so telling regime propaganda that I could not resist to take a picture of the full page advertisement and deconstruct here for your pleasure. Click to enlarge.
