Crimes against humanity

Since Maduro "reelection" nothing new happened. Or rather all that happened was previsible, except that it got worse for the regime. It was all a matter of timing. There were several international judicial decisions that were published last week. One may wonder why these were not announced before Maduro went to the ballot. What for? First, the result was known well in advance. Second, with most in the country having only access to the regime's media, the news would not have reached "el pueblo", who at any rate does not give a bit about anything anymore so busy it is scavenging for food.

No, what is going on is a continuous effort designed to topple a neo-totalitarian regime with as little blood shed as possible. I find this hypocritical. Not in the per se sense, but since blood shed is to be "avoided", or in my opinion postponed, meanwhile we have thousands of Venezuelans dead every week from violence, crime, poor nutrition, desperate lack of medicine, and what not. But that is of course much easier to hide from the world than a few dozen hysterical Palestinians with clear suicidal tendencies. I am just saying, since apparently "crimes against humanity" has become a relative concept at the UN.

Actually, is a split in Venezuelan opposition unavoidable?

I was musing about the opposition divisions becoming more intractable. And they are.

What makes me think the opposition alliance, MUD, will divide is paradoxically, in a way, an editorial of Rafael Poleo in his magazine Zeta where he attacks Diego Arria (not available on line). Whether Poleo is right in his assessment is irrelevant to our discussion. What is relevant is his vehemence against Diego Arria and what he supposedly represents.

You call this a fine? Another facistoid moment...

Dangerous old lady

[Already updated]
In an interesting development the TSJ decided to fine Teresa Albanes 200 UT, which is roughly equivalent to 3.500 USD at the official exchange rate.  I am sure that Teresa has that amount in her checking account, so that is not the problem.  Not that she would pay it, the Unidad should foot that bill if worse comes to worse.  So, what gives?

Teresa Albanes is the visible head of the committee that that organized brilliantly the electoral part of the primaries last February 12.  As such she got quite a lot of notoriety.  Not only she never lost her temper in spite to all the banana peels thrown in her path, but she has become quite a national hero.  See, Teresa Albanes is our archetypal positive matron and most of us have had someone like that in our past.

Sunday press review: the sweet rewards of sucking up to Chavez

In a felicitous coincidence El Nacional this Sunday published several OpEd and articles that illustrate the advantages of being a Chavez supporter in Venezuela, as well as the moral decrepitude that one surrenders when accepting such favors.

Before I get started with as brief as possible a review, I would like to point out that there is nothing new under the Venezuelan sun, that those associated with power have always benefited from the tendency of the petrostate governments to reward its followers with the easy money that gushes from under our feet. It is just that under Chavez we are struck at the proportion of the consciences bought out and the "desparpajo" (chutzpah?) at which it is undertaken. Let's start by remembering the Tascon List, amply documented on the right side of this blog, in the link section. This Tascon list became a CD, the Maisanta program which was amply used by Chavez supporters to secure the benefits from the state. With this any state employer (business or public administration, same difference) has since 2004 decided who to hire and who to fire, adding to the political apartheid of the Tascon list an economical apartheid.

Now there is a study to show the effects of such discrimination, at tax payer expenses, a burden that is disproportionately shared by those who oppose Chavez, who foot most of the tax bill that is spread to Chavez supporters just because they are supporters, not because they are any more productive or deserving. This study deserved a wide coverage in El Nacional Sunday (by subscription but I lifted the article in Spanish here), adequately titled "there is a price to be paid for belonging to the opposition". Before I get into the subject, let's not be naive: proximity to power has always meant some benefit, even in the fairest European social democracies. It is just that under Chavez a normal granting of a few favors has become a state policy.

The study was done by the a team led by Francisco Rodriguez, a Venezuelan who became a researcher in the US after having tried to work seriously with the "revolution" halcyon days. Now he is busy exposing the truth about what happens in Venezuela, debunking the shoddy work of propagandists such as Weisbrot. You can find a list of his work in his site. It is serious work, and is causing quite some grief among the sycophantic crowd that surrounds Chavez. It is most welcome as a serious work that goes beyond propaganda, the type of work that has been sorely needed as we cannot stay all our lives in the bitching mode only.

In this study, using the Maisanta database to check public records such as register and tax offices, it is not too difficult to follow the economic fortunes of some who have money or stable jobs and see how their career evolved during the past few years. I am not going to go into details because as it turns out Quico beat me shortly in discussing it as yesterday I was too busy to post on this El Nacional articles. However I will below just put up the results as in the graphs from El Nacional because those are what Venezuelans will see and because the Rodriguez paper is in PDF and I have no time to "take" the pictures. Click on pics below to enlarge. The pictures do not need much more comment besides the legends I attached to them. For details refer to the Francisco Rodriguez paper which is in English and from where these graphs come from.

The first one is how public sector and business associated with chavismo (banks? Wilmer Ruperti? the Antonini gang?) wages did better than the traditional private sector business.


The second one confirms that the easiest way to access riches in Venezuela is to be a chavista and apply for a public sector job.

And this last picture is the expected consequence of patronage policies: productivity in the public sector reaches new lows. It is not idle to note that this un-productivity is in large part paid by the taxes exacted from the private sector which is audited much more often than pro Chavez business, who in addition get much better access to loans and CADIVI currency. In other word, the lack of competitiveness of the chavista private sector is subsidized by the state! I stress taxes because they are the bulk of the national budget: a lot of the oil income is discretionary spending of Chavez, including his gifts to foreign countries.

To conclude this post El Nacional carried three other illustrative item which I add below.

There is a great interview of Alexis Alzuru from the UCV. He investigates how corruption affects public policies. He is not afraid to state that the Venezuelan state is deliberately transformed into a mob system to be able to control better the citizens. Of course, nothing that regular readers of this blog did not already know, but it is nice to see it so clearly stated as in this interview. A must read! (check back later for a partial translation, if time allows, meanwhile use Google translating tool which works reasonably well).

The moral consequences for the country are painted by Milagros Socorro who examines the educational objectives of the country and the example set by naming Isaias Rodriguez to the TSJ so that he can escape judicial inquiry for his misdeeds.

And finally there is a lovely piece by Pedro Llorens from which I retain the description of Chavez charlatanism. He looks at the lies of Chavez as to the freedom of the press as Chavez has built a communications empire as none can be seen in the rest of the Americas. The quote I liked:

El gastado y aburrido predicador de las cuatro raíces: fascismo, bolivarianismo, populismo y fidelismo, decidido a no creer nada de lo que se dice o denuncia, alcahuetea la terrofagia de los Chávez en Barinas, hace investigar al diputado regional que los acusa, repone en los puestos de mando a los derrotados del PSUV y libra a Isaías Rodríguez, acusado de manipular el caso Anderson.

I put it in Spanish first because it is so sabroso!

The spent and tiresome preacher of the four roots: fascism, bolivarianism, populism and fidelism, set on not believing anythign that is said or denounced, enabler of the excessive land appetite of the Chavez in Barinas, has the regional representative that accuse them investigated, puts back in charge those who were beaten in the PSUV [internal elections] and saves Isaias Rodriguez, accused of manipulation of the Anderson Case.

There you have in a single paragraph all the moral damage done to the country by Chavez, where his favoritism and his primitivism have led us.


-The end-

The unanimity against Tascon: Stalinism in Venezuela

Tachira representative Luis Tascon has been expelled from the PSUV (1). The vote was unanimous, according to Jorge Rodriguez, ex-director of the CNE, who knows very well how elections are rigged to get the vote result you need. What is important here is not that Tascon was booted out, but the adjective attached to the action: unanimous.

I will start my comment on this with my own feelings. I do not care. See, Tascon is such an abject character that any serious court of law would have condemned him long ago to at least life term in jail. If you forgot the personage, he is the one who in 2003-2004 invented his famous list of people who signed that Recall Election petition, transforming more than 3 million people in second class citizens. The signatories of the "Lista Tascon" are denied any help from or any work with the government, and for a time even passports and official documents. They will retain that status as long as Chavez rules, and the list will be a convenient directory when future Gulags need guests. All details are amply documented on the right side of this page where you will find all the links needed to understand the evil associated with that scoundrel. Tascon has been spreading such evil for such a long time that I am now unable to experience any joy at his misfortune (?), just relief that one less flea will be sucking my blood.

Why is Tascon booted from the PSUV? He had the lack of sense of accusing the brother of the currently main Chavez supporter Diosdado Cabello of some suspicious expenses during his tenure at the equipment ministry. I do not care, they are all (very likely) stealing all what they can from public coffers, probably thinking that it is a small price to pay to have to sit through the never ending Chavez homilies and insults thrown at them. If Jose David Cabello is innocent of any wrongdoing in the case presented by Tascon, I will put my hand on fire that he has stolen money elsewhere.

Not even the accusation by Cabello that Microsoft put a chip in Tascon blood stream to make him a US agent deserved a mention in this blog. After all, since Carreño said that Direct TV was spying on us through an invisible camera placed in the decoder, nothing else will impress me: these people live constantly in the middle of conspiracy theories and their mutterings on these only reflect their paranoia, and their guilt about the mess they are presiding over.

But today news deserve mention in this blog and everywhere. First, the interesting detail. Why is Diosdado Cabello defending his brother and why are we not seeing this one defending himself? After all, he is a minister and we would hope him to sue Tascon for calumny. But he is not doing so, he is silent and his brother is the one coming forward. Interesting, no?

But more meaningful is that "unanimous" vote. I bet you it was also taken with raised hands as all tried to reach as high as possible, least they would be suspected of any collusion with Tascon daring to inquire on where the money goes (even though he seems to have become quite prosperous himself under the revolution).

With that vote we know that the not quite born PSUV is already another old Stalinist party.

1) The PSUV is the Unique Socialist Party that Chavez has been trying to establish since December 2006. The attempt at forcibly have all of his supporters join has had very counter productive effects such as the break with PODEMOS.

-The end-

Chavismo caught in its contradictions and lies

This week has been really hard on poor chavistas.

It all started last Sunday when their beloved leader blew up a few of his fuses and ranted furiously in front of less than half filled Avenida Bolivar. His speech that day will deserve a footnote in "Historia Universal de la Infamia".

But good soldiers they are (though many of them are just mercenaries) and they got ready to obey the orders of Chavez, just in case he actually meant his words, but hoping that they would not have to do so. As bad luck had it, they had to...

Tuesday "mi general" Baduel came out against the constitutional reform in the most stinging of criticism to the fraudulent project. Chavez himself that night had to go on line to the Vanessa Davies "show" to call Baduel a traitor and to say that Bolivar was murdered and that he personally would set this matter clear. Chavez as a star of "Cold Case: CSI Caracas" the new hit show. Obviously for the rest of the week we saw boatloads of chavistas who spent recent years ass kissing Baduel bending backward past breaking point to call him a traitor. Clearly chavismo is ready for Stalin show trials. The new constitution will allow finally for their official set up.

Still, that week would strain chavismo ability to recant the obvious. Wednesday the world press, not Globovision nor any Venezuelan junket, showed how a returning group from the huge and pacific student march was met at the UCV by chavista gunmen. Now, in normal circumstances chavismo would have been able to muddle things well enough to confuse its followers, easily duped. But this time all the documentary evidence comes from international news agency pictures who had a field day in shots that went around the world. A few of these camera men added quite a few points towards their year end bonus. Heck, even the French news had Venezuela in the nightly news two days in a row! And not with a pro Chavez coverage.

This very sad event will leave us with what seems to have become the symbol of the Constitutional Reform, a picture so telling about the conviction power of chavismo these days. Vote SI or be dead.



Since Wednesday the government has been trying to sell the version that a few nice chavista students were savagely entrapped in the Social Sciences building of campus by hordes of anti Chavez students trying to smoke them out. Yet, I think that even the attorney general said that "one of the pro Chavez student might have had a gun". I do not know whether Isaias Rodriguez said that, with those words or not, because the web of tales has become so dense, and interchangeable among chavismo, that one gets dizzy. Unfortunately in all videos available the guns, and the escape motorbikes, and the people shooting from motorbikes have all been tied with pro Chavez sectors. Including the cops at the entry of campus that let the bikers go in and out without any trouble, even on bikes belonging to the police.

Thus this week is ending with all chavistadom out in force using the last reply tool they have left once arguments are voided: insult and smearing. We saw that a lot in the National Assembly where chavismo was calling for the closing of Globovision for promoting terror and accusing CNN of supporting every single item uttered by Globovision. I suppose that soon chavismo will provide us a video of CNN's Viotto giving guns to chavistas.....

But chavismo tales certainly cannot explain while Simon Romero of the New York Times had to track down Yon Goicoechea , one of the student leaders who has been so threatened that even though we supposedly live in a land of liberty and absolute freedom of expression has started sleeping in different places. And he has to change cell phones every few days. From the Romero article we can see that chavismo explanations are not flying overseas. Well, they seem to be crash landing at home too. The student protest are slowly but surely becoming the good guys side, the heroes. After all, who can believe that a revolution is made AGAINST the bulk of the student body of a country? Who can take seriously the pro chavez students, all but one unelected from any campus group, most on some form of governmental payroll.

In a curious turn of events we also got the news yesterday that Tascon of the infamous list was expelled from the PSUV, the socialist party which is the cryptic organization that will act soon as the traditional commie parties of the Soviet era. Apparently Tascon had the misfortune to say that how come Baduel was treated as a traitor if Arias Cardenas who said much worse things about Chavez in 2000 was now his ambassador to the UN. A closed door short meeting was enough to expel Tascon. This one, we must stress once again, had a role akin to an evil Baduel of the Recall Election process in that his actions helped greatly Chavez secure a fraudulent victory. The homonym list he set up then from the names of those who signed is still used today extensively as an active political discrimination tool, pure McCarthyism of the XXI century. At least we know that in the purge department the chavismo that will emerge after December 2 will be highly efficient. Bringing us milk to our tables will be another story.

Yes, milk. There are reports also of people fighting for a pound of powder milk; or of the armed forces battling the "buhoneros" to force them to sell milk at the regulated prices. these ones preferred to spill milk on the side walk. As the shelves of Venezuela are slowly lacking more and more items we learned that through the dismal inefficiency of the Venezuelan public administration 1660 cows died in a ship at Puerto Cabello. In a tale worthy of Garcia Marquez tug boats had to push the boat at sea to throw overboard the putrescent meat. No word form the sharks yet though we are sure that the land sharks will keep whatever commission they pocketed to bring missing meat to Venezuela even if that one will never reach the shelves.

And then, perhaps to make sure that people for a few hours stopped talking about missing milk, sugar and what not, Chavez decided to fight with the King of Spain. This one told Chavez to shut up while a puffed Chavez did not seem to realize on the spot the gravity of what had happened. The room at the Ibero-American summit applauded loudly in support of Zapatero at the end of his angry but amazingly still polite reply to Chavez (the King had left in disgust).

I must say that we are in awe this week as to how chavismo committed so many errors and displayed so consistently its true totalitarian inner child. I was looking for some symbol to convey that idea to the readers of this blog and I found it this morning while reading Friday's Tal Cual. Wednesday night there was an interesting TV moment. Vanessa Davies, one of the anchors of the state TV, VTV, was in full spin action for the UCV shooting. She was interviewing some of the "victims" who escaped at great risk the "encircled building" where the "lynch mob" was going at work.

Unfortunately at the very same moment Globovision was able to split the screen image and show side by side that the spokesperson of the "victim group" interviewed by Vanessa was in fact one of the leaders of the chavista group at the UCV where he was carrying a heavy weapon with all the intentions of using it. I have these pictures below from Tal Cual. I think chavismo will be well advised to take a deep breath before hitting the stages of VTV because now almost anyone has a video camera on hand to film all the abuses that these mercenaries are committing.

Then again I suppose that the intention of Vanessa Davies was to shore up the faith of the truly faithful who seem to be deserting fast the "SI" voting ranks of the coming referendum if we are to believe the polls. It looks that chavismo is now more concerned about stopping the hemorrhage than gaining new supporters.

The legend for the pictures: Thus the cynicism of the XXI century. Not only do the chavista shooters act without any restraint or any consequences for them, kidnap students, go through police barriers and rescue themselves but they have at their service the communication apparatus of the state. Last Wednesday night the social studies student José Félix Valera appeared on VTV the network which allegedly belongs to all, all Venezuelans, presenting himself as an innocent victim of the "violent oppositionists" [inexistent term in either Spanish of English but coined as a pejorative by chavismo] when in fact he was one of the main characters of the armed aggression of the fascist chavismo at the UCV [sic]. This in VTV is what they call "Contacto con la realidad" [contact with reality], the distortion of news to satisfy an alleged political and revolutionary engagement and a permissive journalism.



Note: this post is heavy on links to my previous posts. Not a question of narcissism but these posts contain many links with their explanations to the original info.

-The end-

Chavez and George Bush strange similarities

Chavez is trying to make a career out of accusing George Bush of everything that is evil in the world, including everything in Venezuela where all the failures of chavismo are blamed on one or another CIA conspiracy.

However Chavez looks much more like Bush than some of his followers would care to admit. For example the unconditional support to underlings that messed it up big time. The way that George Bush goes to bat for some of his White House employees is becoming quite spectacular and borders the ridicule. Recently, look for example how Gonzalez, the Attorney General, is defended even at increasing political costs, when removing him and getting a new attorney would simplify Bush's life greatly as he is needed for more pressing matters that are harassing his administration.

This past Sunday Chavez came to bat to defend Ramirez, his oil minister, his PDVSA president. PDVSA is sinking. Oil production has ceased to increase and has started going down. Bad decisions since 2003 indicate that oil production is very, very far from being able to increase again, and probably will lose an extra 20% production capacity within a year or two. But if these crucial economic decisions were not enough to remove from office any minister who took such decisions, amen of a president, the political decisions of Ramirez are even worse. From his outright political campaign involvement in 2006 in violation of all elemental electoral rules, for which he got barely a slap on the wrist, to his open, deliberate, constant support for the discriminatory apartheid society making Tascon list, Ramirez has gutted PDVSA from any responsible personnel that could help the company regain some credibility. Instead Ramirez is presiding over the creation of a huge unproductive bureaucracy where people are more interested in watching what is on the screen saver of their coworker (Chavez pictures are apparently mandatory) than balance sheets and accounting of management decisions. That is, one of the most sophisticated industries of the world will be run by folks chosen strictly on their political credentials. Nobody cares anymore whether they can manage an oil rig.

And I am not even touching the direct financial corruption that is linked with such style of management.

In any normal country, any democratic country, not only Ramirez would have been fired but he would be probably under judicial investigation, indicted and contemplating jail anytime soon. But In Venezuela, Chavez yesterday defies common sense, political or human, by sticking his neck for Ramirez and taunting us with a threat of keeping him for years to come. Of course he will, Ramirez forks over Chavez any dollar that he still manages to collect from oil sales, even if he is gutting the response ability and maintenance habits of PDVSA. And as any good accomplice, Ramirez is willing to shield his boss from any blame.

However there is a difference between Bush and Chavez: by January 2009 Bush and his accomplices will be out of office whereas Ramirez and Chavez might be there for years, stealing the country's future, if anything by their sheer incompetence. And that is quite a difference, whether you like Bush or not.


-The end-

Persecution in PDVSA: more political apartheid in Venezuela

This is Wednesday editorial of Tal Cual where Teodoro Petkoff denounces once again that the government of Chavez is purging any public employee that does support 100% Chavez and his "socialism", now revealed as plain all Easter European Cuban Communism. Of course, derivative of the infamous Tascon list are in use (see references on the right side of this page for links to the Tascon list).

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

One of the most repugnant characteristics of the totalitarianisms of the last century, from left to right, the Stalino-Communists and the Nazi-Fascists, was the one of the social and political control through employment control.

Equally Stalinists and Nazi-fascists excluded any worker from who the minimum dissident was suspected.

That worker was condemned to eternal unemployment and he only could survive with the aid of those relatives or sufficiently courageous friends that would not leave him in absolute neglect.

In Venezuela, in the State companies, in particular Pdvsa, apply persecution procedures and political repression of a clear Stalinian and Nazi-fascist nature, whose well known instrument is the sinister Tascon List, the “tascometre”, that is alive and well and “not buried”, as hypocritically asked for Chavez. This constitutes a particularly perverse and brutal form of subjection of the popular will to the aims of the regime. It is a cruel mechanism of extortion, of very particular cruel nature because it hides other forms of repression more directly physical. The victim is not a prisoner, is not tortured nor beaten up.

This method, subtler, denies the victim work to live from. It strikes the victim at the heart of its existence: dignity.

In Pdvsa, after the savage dismissal of 20 thousand workers as a result of oil stoppage, an internal regime of terror was created that remains until today.

A regime that reached even the transnational companies that operate in the country, to which was prohibited to hire ex-employees of Pdvsa. The viciousness and the cruelty with which these were treated constitute one of those episodes that Borges would have included in his Universal History of the Infamy.

The recent protest episodes from the workers of the oil drills, in the Eastern Coast of the Zulia state, indeed have their origin in the outbreak of a new repressive big wave, supported, as always, by the Tascon filter. It has sent to the street to 1,500 workers highly specialized because or they are registered in the damn list or the internal espionage has detected some “ideological weaknesses”. The unionists denounce - united in this those from all the labor unions - that hundreds of those workers have been put under “interviews” in which not only they check their opinions on the “socialism of century XXI” but which investigate even the political conduct of their parents and relatives.

The worst in this affair is that these experienced and specialized workers, once outside Pdvsa, are out of all of the oil industry field. In the oil industry they will not work again, that is they will not work anymore because that is the only thing they know how to do. There is no other employer than Pdvsa and, of coruse, to appear in the black list closes the doors of all the oil companies, today nationalized.

These workers are not victims of the decrease of the oil production in the West but of a vile policy. The right to the work, that is like saying the right to the life, is denied to them because “socialist” inquisitors consider them suspects.


-The end-

The Tascon list: proof of involvement of Chavez

The Story

The Tascon list is the infamous list that was published by assemblyman Luis Tascon, a list that was used to start a McCarthy like system to purge public administration and deny public services to all of those Venezuelan citizens who according to article 72 of the constitution exerted their constitutional right to request a recall election on Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, once his midterm was reached.

The Tascon list became a CD and even a program that was ubiquitous in many a ministry and public service such as passport or ID card issuers. People who had the misfortune to have signed the petition faced simple things such as refusal to have a passport issued to graver things such as loss of job if they were public employees, even if they were holding menial jobs certainly not threatening the republic.

The Tascon list was used during the electoral process of 2004 to exert undue pressure over the electors, from blackmailing them in order to have them withdraw their signature and try to invalidate the Recall Election process, to all sorts of civil right attacks, denigrating basic Human Rights. No legal resource would hear the few who dared complain (1).

But times have changed. The charges have been piling up, and the political persecution could not be hidden anymore to the foreign governments who still show some interest for Human Rights in Venezuela.

Deciding that something had to be done, Hugo Chavez, in a show of pretense, decided that the Tascon list should be "buried", knowing fully well that its spread made this declaration only a symbolic one at best. No word from Chavez as of punishing abuses committed, or redress to the victims of the McCarthy prosecution of Venezuelan citizens, the worse moral and ethical violence that Venezuela had experienced since the last dictatorship of Perez Jimenez.

The government has been trying to protect the image of Chavez. The vice president, modern day Goebbels, has been reaching new lows of abjection trying to distract from the issue. This has become so difficult because no apology, no offer of redress have been advanced. No matter how much the attention was diverted to other players such as blaming SUMATE of the list, the attention did not drop. Even the High Court going against Tascon will not stop it.

Today we see now irrefutable evidence that Chavez was linked to the Tascon list elaboration. A letter addressed to Carrasquero, the president at the time of the electoral board, CNE, asks this one to allow Tascon to obtain all the information he wants from the people who signed for the Recall Election. The letter is dated January 31, 2004. (2)



Grado 33 in Globovision has just shown a video from a Chavez Alo Presidente where he says that he asked for such a list to be made. The video is from the February 1, 2004 broadcast (3).

There is no argument possible. Chavez knew of the list. Chavez approved its elaboration.

Even if Chavez did not approve of the political persecution that resulted and keeps claiming that he knew nothing of it, the only way he can demonstrate his good faith is by asking a full inquiry, asking a full punishment to the perpetrators, offer a redress program for the victims. Not doing so will simply establish his complicity, his guilt, and give the Venezuelan people the right to impeach him for violating our Constitutional Civil Rights.

The international opinion

What is international opinion going to do about it? When I see for example that the Spanish socialist party refused to vote a motion to protest the Venezuelan "gag law" I wonder if Franco is casting a dangerous shadow over them. When I see the French embassy in Caracas kowtowing to all sorts of business as if nothing with Venezuela, the Monde Diplomatique rumored to be funded by Chavez, I can only wonder about what kind of Europe Zapatero and Chirac are building. And they want us to vote YES for that Europe?

What will the US do? Isn't that a perfect opportunity to expose Chavez? Will the US Liberals tolerate such actions in Venezuela? Where is the ACLU when we need it?

What will Lula and Kirchner and Lagos do? Do they want to appear innocent bystanders? Will they risk seeming to look for an excuse to do as such in their country someday, setting back Latin American democracy for ever?

There are times when we run out of excuses. This is one of them and people will be judged as to their response to the Tascon list.

--------

1) Miguel Octavio's blog carries many documents on the witch hunt of chavismo against the opposition.

2) the letter shown here is taken from today El Nacional edition. I assume that it is a legitimate document. However the existence of such a letter, be it the one shown here or anther one is acknowledged by Chavez himself in the video. The text reads a request by Chavez that the CNE allows Tascon to obtain certified copies of the signature forms for the Recall Election.

3) look around minute 4 for Chavez recognizing that he signed such letter. There is footage of Tascon shown, and support from Chavez to Tascon then. Obviously Chavez is wise enough not to take full credit and let his underlings with it. But the video is quite clear as to Chavez full support and thus an accomplice. Added next day as video became available on the net.

The adventures of Luis Tascon: disposing of allies in Venezuela

Milagros Socorro muses this week on the tribulations of Luis Tascon, the assemblyman that became notorious for publishing in his web site the list of all of those who signed asking for a recall election on Chavez. This created a legal apartheid where the non supporters of Chavez would be denied basic rights such as obtaining an ID card, not to mention being fired freely from public administration posts. This finally has been noticed enough overseas that Chavez is using Tascon as scapegoat, when he is the one that should be severely punished for this grossest of Human rights violations. However the way in which this disposal is made is so telling that it became the inspiration for Ms. Socorro in yet another great OpEd piece. Translation of the good parts below. Original in Spanish here.

= == === ==== ===== ====== =======


The generalized tasconeria (1)

The tribulation of Luis Tascon can only move to pity whomever sees him running around to attract some commiseration that would relieve him of a certainty: he has become nothing. By being thrown out of the organization that gave him the illusion of believing himself to be somebody and to belong to something he will be left alone, with his abilities, with his talents, with the skills that he developed through his life, that is, he will remain with nothing. Completely helpless, supplicating his former allies for some attention, a little bit of condescendence, some small sweet deal that will leave him at ease. It is unlikely that this will happen. Tascon is a nobody.

He never was anything. He now returned to the nothingness from where he came. And he will not be the only one with this fate. As many analysts have observed, all seems to indicate that the first stone has been laid down for the highway of the cursed and it is be predicted that pretty soon that highway will see a gridlock of "revolutionaries" fallen into disgrace. We will see the muting of the loud and the return of the silly converted into ambassadors by the carnival of the most uninspired revolution that we have been told of.

We will see rolling bureaucratic heads inflated by a power that they have only used for failure and for their enrichment, of course. And we will see how they are replaced by others, equally improvised, equally hungry, equally blinded by ignorance, rapacity and cruelty (the most visible marks of the performance of the "revolutionaries" in power). [snip]

But the defenestration of Tascon did not surprise anyone. Many warned of it in the press: Chavez did not order to bury the Tascon list but Tascon himself. [snip]

But we should not be distracted from the essential. Of course, the spectacle of the author of the perverse list that destroyed the life of so many people, finished and sniveling, clinging to the pants of William Lara, who appeals to a justice that he denied to millions, can be gratifying for a country submitted to daily capitulation. [snip]

However, I insist, the show of Tascon being bared to his essence of the little kid from the high Andes must not distract us from the horrifying concurrent story. What is truly terrible is that what Chavez has done to his minion now dismissed is exactly what he is doing to the nation.

Venezuela is useful to Chavez in his project of international leadership, just as the Tascon list served some objectives at their time.

All of Venezuela is Tascon, all of Venezuela's resources are Tascon, the Venezuelan oil is the quintessence of the tascon. The democratic tradition of Venezuela, now so threatened, is Tascon for Chavez: a useful instrument to legitimate his actions, who, paradoxically, must culminate with the destruction of democracy.

It is enough to look outside Venezuela's border to figure out that this one is for Chavez what the large farm is for the second generation of owners, the one that did not had to toil for it prosperity, that perceives the hacienda as a foul place, with conflict and stinking of cow dung, but from which flows, of course, the millions necessary to buy apartments in the beautiful avenues of the world or to spend afternoons by the fireplace of the ski lodges.

With the monies of the national hacienda, Chavez has advanced like the spoiled heiress who comes back everyday with shopping bags where one can read the names of the most chic designers and who gives sumptuous tips to her manicurists. In a context of crisis in French editorial houses, to give an example, Le Monde Diplomatique has just acquired a building to make it its headquarters. Meanwhile, a good deal of French press business makes miracles by not to shutting down, sell actions or pact fusions and, obviously, fire dozens of workers. Ah, but Le Monde Diplomatique has called for a competition to design the architect that will redo the just bought building. But, how come? A monthly that has never produced dividends, now will have a new seat! Who pays for that building and all of its luxuries? All Paris gives it as a fact: Venezuela paid it. (2)

Does this show in the very least respect or, even, solidarity for a country submerged in a painful situation of economic trouble for the majority? Absolutely not. It shows that Venezuela is criminally ransacked to pay for favors, to finance propaganda campaigns abroad, to pave the way for the international preponderance of Chavez.

The income of the republic is at the will of a single person, who spends it liberally for the aim of financing his personal delirium. And for this he can rely on many Tascon. All of those who assist in this monumental fraud are the mirror image of the embarrassing Tascon, now of the switched off phone so as not be reached by the deafening screech of silence because he will not be reached by the call of forgiveness and restitution.

The enormous sums of the bribe have not been distributed only overseas, of course. Many are the millions deposited on the accounts of the Venezuelans that have offered their conscience on the market place waiting for a good bidder.

The tascons that enable the demented run of Chavez, who serve as operators, who do the job and every morning empty the pot from under the bed are not there for ideology nor are they attracted until loving surrender to the charisma of their leader.

That tasconnery is there because its services have been paid in gold. (3)

All is so low, so twisted, so perverse, so tascon, that it cannot end in a different way.

We are just left to hope that a country transformed in useful tool of the wasteful autocrat, does not end up punished by this sad role just as it has happened to the horrible metaphor of our decadence, the poor Tascon.

This will not happen if there is still some justice left in the world. Venezuela does not deserve anything but a turn from the present mist because even though tasconess has got loose in its core, it is also true that there are millions – in fact Tascon made the count with the help of Jorge Rodriguez, and forgive the redundancy – of the Venezuelans that are nailed to the defense of democracy and decency. And they do it so because they want. Nobody has paid them.

We must persevere in this determination.

All end up harvesting what they have planted.

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(1) tasconeria: "tasconess", from Tascon, the pro Chavez Andean boy who became famous for listing all those signed against Chavez in 2003/2004, into a useful format widely used to ban them from any public service, creating an apartheid in fact. A CNN link among the international ones starting to pile up, but also a whole series of articles in Miguel's blog tranalting many editorials to explain the abuses comitted (most recent), but also in this blog (most recent). The outrage cannot be silenced.

(2) Le Monde Diplomatique has indeed become a main supporter of Chavez. Its editor, Ramonet, who aspires to be the guru of the anti globalization movement, has detected very early the potential in Chavez, organizing his welcome to the Porto Alegre forum, the anti Davos. The people at the Diplo have indeed got out of their way to promote Chavez. For a recent example, if one read the latest article of one of its pseudo-journalists, Lemoine, one would wonder if it would have been written any differently had it been a commissioned pamphlet. It is quite impressive that a supposedly self respecting publication is willing to lower it standards of reporting so much for Chavez defense, compared to the rest of their articles. Not to mention that when Ramonet visits Venezuela he gets the 5 star reception on state TV, claims that he would not be caught dead in a restaurant in East Caracas, nor would he give an interview to an anti Chavez paper. No wonder Paris gossips...

(3) I have tried to "translate" the invented variations of Ms. Socorro on Tascon. The flavor is difficult to convey but I hope the reader will sense the effort of making tascon a synonym of all that is vile while lacking in character.