The FARC handling of the Ingrid Betancourt situation becomes more horrible as days go by. It is now common knowledge that Ingrid, in her seventh year as a hostage, let's not forget that, is nearly dead, and rumored to be going on hunger strike, preferring death than the miserable tortures that her FARC captors are subjecting her to.
In a way Ingrid is the victim of Uribe successes against the war he is waging over the FARC. The successful trend is speeding up as two of the main leaders of the FARC were killed, one in action another by his defecting body guards. Thus the military weakness of the FARC and its internal decay are for all to see. As a result the only valuable item left for the FARC is Ingrid Betancourt, thanks to her becoming a cause célèbre in France.
The situation this week reached epic proportions. Ingrid has been reported visiting small health centers escorted by her captors as these ones cannot keep her alive on their own. So they just come out of the jungle in some forsaken outpost hoping, literally, for a miracle. That this establishes that releasing hostages is a much easier operation than other orchestrated ones we have seen early this year does not escape the mind of acute observers. No wonder that Uribe does not want Chavez in this whole affair anymore, media shows do not bring anything. Not to mention that publicly he keeps insulting Uribe on an almost daily basis.
Even the French had taken a more discrete approach, at least until this week when a desperate Sarkozy, sensing the imminent death of Ingrid has decided to play its full hand and dispatched an airplane fully equipped with medical supplies to rescue Ingrid. Currently that airplane is sitting on some Colombian tarmac while the FARC have declared that unless Uribe gives them some land and releases all of the FARC prisoners, they will not release Ingrid. However Uribe is not yielding though in good faith he has announced that he would clear any area that the FARC points out for a given amount of time so they can release Ingrid safely, her and the FARC.
Ingrid value has gone up to incredible heights, except in Colombia, courtesy of the grandstanding of Chavez and the mediatization of her cause in higher French political spheres. That Chavez is wavering, ruefully saying one day that there is nothing he can do for Ingrid to state the next day that he will take personal action does not help. At this point Sarkozy announces that he will go to the jungle with Chavez if needed, perhaps risking becoming a hostage himself.
The stakes now are too high, the FARC has made too many mistakes. Uribe is ready to sacrifice Ingrid if this is what it takes to finish off the FARC. That is what a true statesman does, but the FARC being thugs cannot understand that. I know, it sounds cold but you cannot sacrifice the future of a country for the well being of a single person. Giving up on Ingrid might end up saving hundred of other hostages as the FARC would probably start crumbling faster with an increasing defection rate.
Why is the FARC so blind to the consequences of letting Ingrid die in their hands? Why don't they realize that after all the failures they have had recently they are in dire need to refurbish fast their image? Releasing Ingrid without conditions would do them an incredible good, turning international opinion partially back in their favor. True, Ingrid is not enough to change the course of war as the FARC will require months if not years to recover from their recent setbacks. But giving up a dead Ingrid will certainly not help their cause.
And let's be pragmatic, even if Uribe were to surrender some land, within a few weeks he would find any excuse to take it back. That is why the latest blackmail and insults from Granda, the FARC foreign secretary of sorts, sound so hollow, even those against "capitalistic" France. Everybody knows that today it is Uribe who grants favors, not the other way around.
I suspect that even Chavez in Miraflores must be miffed at the FARC. In last night cadena he even had the gall to say that he never had business with the FARC, except very recently to free a few hostages. This after he acknowledged his liking for them last January asking the world to recognize the FARC and implicitly recognizing his ties with them (not to mention the obvious sympathies between his interior minister and the FARC caught on video for the whole world to watch) !!!!! That should say to the FARC that their current strategy is failing and that any respite they can get, any good will they can gain cannot be jettisoned that easily. Even Chavez is careful to publicly mark distance with them even if behind the scenes we can be sure that feverish negotiations are taking place.
The FARC have no choice but to release Ingrid in the very next days. Not doing so only hurts their cause. That they do not seem to realize that only shows how primitive, how corrupted by years of violence and drug trafficking they have become. Apparently they have ceased to be human.
Ps: all links to English language articles, for once.
-The end-
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Friday, April 04, 2008
Autarky in Venezuela: cement versus submarines
Regular long time readers of this blog know full well that I consider the bolivarian pseudo revolution as actually being a reactionary movement that aims at supposed virtues of the past that never existed, or at least not in the form that Chavez think they did. In Venezuela it applies to a military tradition that we thought we had grown out of it in the last half century. It also looks at other details such as an alleged native American past which is neither documented nor true. No matter what, it is a reaction of fear form uneducated people that do not understand the workings of science, of numbers and modernity. They prefer passé and archaic models or values than to try to grasp the future and control it.
Today to this drive to an imaginary past we must add autarky. I suppose that in the sick minds of those planning the future, they actually think that when Venezuela did not export anything of great value and thus could not pay for imports, we were all happy and free from merchants. That we also were dirt poor and sickly does not seem to enter the equation. After all the leaders of the regime live in royal splendor, why should they care?. As usual the only imports that are really important are guns: today we receive the announcement that indeed Chavez will be buying 9, NINE submarines in Russia, acquiring at a single stroke the largest submarine fleet in the Americas after the US. I am sure that Mexico and Brazil are going to be overjoyed by the news....
Last night in yet another lengthy cadena (more about this in next post later) Chavez complained that we, Venezuelans, are falling for consumerism, that we do not save, that we buy too many trinkets from overseas, that we should stop doing this. Which of course does not stop him from buying NINE very expensive trinkets that are of no use for Venezuela, and will bring only trouble down the road.
But it got worse, he announced that all the cement industry of Venezuela will be nationalized because, I kid you not, they export too much. Today of course the minister in charge slavishly demonizes the three cement concerns of Venezuela, from Mexico, Switzerland and France. None of them took the news very well.
Of course, all the sins that the cement companies are accused of could have been solved with adequate legislation, opening for imports from elsewhere, or even tax measures. But no, all will now belong to the state and imports will cease until all of Venezuela gets all the housing it needs (do not hold your breath!). Apparently no one told the government that the houses will hardly be cheaper if the cement belongs to the state, but I suppose that once again I will be accused of nitpicking.
No, what is going on here is, besides the usual suspects trying to make a buck out of the financial transaction that this will require, is that Chavez wants to control everything, export only oil and eventually import nothing but guns.
We are back somewhere in the primitive economic jungle of colonial mercantilism against which we had to rise to get our Independence in 1811..... a reactionary revolution indeed....
-The end-
Today to this drive to an imaginary past we must add autarky. I suppose that in the sick minds of those planning the future, they actually think that when Venezuela did not export anything of great value and thus could not pay for imports, we were all happy and free from merchants. That we also were dirt poor and sickly does not seem to enter the equation. After all the leaders of the regime live in royal splendor, why should they care?. As usual the only imports that are really important are guns: today we receive the announcement that indeed Chavez will be buying 9, NINE submarines in Russia, acquiring at a single stroke the largest submarine fleet in the Americas after the US. I am sure that Mexico and Brazil are going to be overjoyed by the news....
Last night in yet another lengthy cadena (more about this in next post later) Chavez complained that we, Venezuelans, are falling for consumerism, that we do not save, that we buy too many trinkets from overseas, that we should stop doing this. Which of course does not stop him from buying NINE very expensive trinkets that are of no use for Venezuela, and will bring only trouble down the road.
But it got worse, he announced that all the cement industry of Venezuela will be nationalized because, I kid you not, they export too much. Today of course the minister in charge slavishly demonizes the three cement concerns of Venezuela, from Mexico, Switzerland and France. None of them took the news very well.
Of course, all the sins that the cement companies are accused of could have been solved with adequate legislation, opening for imports from elsewhere, or even tax measures. But no, all will now belong to the state and imports will cease until all of Venezuela gets all the housing it needs (do not hold your breath!). Apparently no one told the government that the houses will hardly be cheaper if the cement belongs to the state, but I suppose that once again I will be accused of nitpicking.
No, what is going on here is, besides the usual suspects trying to make a buck out of the financial transaction that this will require, is that Chavez wants to control everything, export only oil and eventually import nothing but guns.
We are back somewhere in the primitive economic jungle of colonial mercantilism against which we had to rise to get our Independence in 1811..... a reactionary revolution indeed....
-The end-
Thursday, April 03, 2008
How to protect a criminal in Venezuela? Name him to the Supreme Court!
The Anderson case has been violently reopened when one of the prosecutors of the investigation basically admitted that he was forced to forge evidence to implicate given folks. The orders, or at least the implications to execute this or that misdeed came directly from the then General Prosecutor of the country, former vice president, Isaias Rodriguez. In recent days all sorts of things came to float again and the more time passed the less Isaias Rodriguez looked good. Today we even got treated to a tale on how false witness were promoted.
So, what happened today? In breaking news Isaias Rodriguez would have been named to the Highest Court of Venezuela, as an interim judge to no one else but the chief justice of Venezuela, Luisa Morales.
So, where do I start?
First, I am wondering if such move is real or if is a trial balloon to see the reaction of the country. Because if this is true then we are in deeper shit than what I thought we were.....
The High Court, TSJ, is supposedly named by the National Assembly after a lengthy consultation process. Of course, most present judges did not fulfill many of the requirements but still made it to judge, including Luis Morales who in her past was fired twice as a judge for shoddy work. But she is willing to take all the legal chances for Chavez and she is thus in the TSJ where for example she stole personally all the communication equipment of RCTV. "Stole", I meant that word.
That the chief justice of the country can be replaced by a judge named by its colleagues is simply inviable. If it is indeed constitutional then the constitution must be changed ASAP!!!! Because let's not be fooled, if this is indeed true, when Luisa is on vacation, Isaias will be the "superior" of his colleagues even though he was not named by the National Assembly. I do sincerely hope that I am wrong and that tomorrow I will stand corrected, and gratefully at that!
But even if this worse case scenario does not happen, the second explanation is not any more reassuring. See, even if Isaias is now only doing clerical jobs when Luisa is out of town, without any authority over his Assembly named colleagues, he will still benefit from prosecution immunity!!!!!! That is, it will nearly impossible to send him to trial, to question him. The procedure to remove his legal protection would be as difficult as the one to remove a "legal" judges!
That is, suddenly, as the Anderson Case is blowing up, Isaias is removed from any declaration, any responsibility, any investigation of wrong doing, of welcoming false witnessing, making up charges and what not!
To give the US reader a sense of what might have happened today, it would be the same thing as if the Supreme Court were allowed to name a temporary substitute to the Chief Justice and that this substitute would be protected from any investigation unless 6 other judges out of 9 approved such an investigation and dismissed him of his responsibilities. Imagine for example that a given US Attorney General who fudged the evidence of say, some Iraqi jail abuses or some illegal firings at the justice department, were named to the Supreme Court bypassing any Senate vote just to protect him from been further questioned and risk revealing wrongdoings involving the Vice President of the US!
Anyway, whatever it is really going on with Isaias I take this a confession from the state that Isaias has indeed manipulated evidence, sent people unjustly to jail or to exile, ruined the reputation of many others, and cannot hide it any longer. In a panicky moment they are trying to store him away. They are not realizing that at the same time they are agreeing in that he set up the whole thing himself, lying to us for all of these years.
I am reminded of a famous failed Austrian painter who eventually avenged himself from alleged ills he thought society had directed at him through immense cruelty. Isaias Rodriguez is himself a failed poet who had no problem hurting people deliberately to get something. It is exactly the same mental process.
-The end-
So, what happened today? In breaking news Isaias Rodriguez would have been named to the Highest Court of Venezuela, as an interim judge to no one else but the chief justice of Venezuela, Luisa Morales.
So, where do I start?
First, I am wondering if such move is real or if is a trial balloon to see the reaction of the country. Because if this is true then we are in deeper shit than what I thought we were.....
The High Court, TSJ, is supposedly named by the National Assembly after a lengthy consultation process. Of course, most present judges did not fulfill many of the requirements but still made it to judge, including Luis Morales who in her past was fired twice as a judge for shoddy work. But she is willing to take all the legal chances for Chavez and she is thus in the TSJ where for example she stole personally all the communication equipment of RCTV. "Stole", I meant that word.
That the chief justice of the country can be replaced by a judge named by its colleagues is simply inviable. If it is indeed constitutional then the constitution must be changed ASAP!!!! Because let's not be fooled, if this is indeed true, when Luisa is on vacation, Isaias will be the "superior" of his colleagues even though he was not named by the National Assembly. I do sincerely hope that I am wrong and that tomorrow I will stand corrected, and gratefully at that!
But even if this worse case scenario does not happen, the second explanation is not any more reassuring. See, even if Isaias is now only doing clerical jobs when Luisa is out of town, without any authority over his Assembly named colleagues, he will still benefit from prosecution immunity!!!!!! That is, it will nearly impossible to send him to trial, to question him. The procedure to remove his legal protection would be as difficult as the one to remove a "legal" judges!
That is, suddenly, as the Anderson Case is blowing up, Isaias is removed from any declaration, any responsibility, any investigation of wrong doing, of welcoming false witnessing, making up charges and what not!
To give the US reader a sense of what might have happened today, it would be the same thing as if the Supreme Court were allowed to name a temporary substitute to the Chief Justice and that this substitute would be protected from any investigation unless 6 other judges out of 9 approved such an investigation and dismissed him of his responsibilities. Imagine for example that a given US Attorney General who fudged the evidence of say, some Iraqi jail abuses or some illegal firings at the justice department, were named to the Supreme Court bypassing any Senate vote just to protect him from been further questioned and risk revealing wrongdoings involving the Vice President of the US!
Anyway, whatever it is really going on with Isaias I take this a confession from the state that Isaias has indeed manipulated evidence, sent people unjustly to jail or to exile, ruined the reputation of many others, and cannot hide it any longer. In a panicky moment they are trying to store him away. They are not realizing that at the same time they are agreeing in that he set up the whole thing himself, lying to us for all of these years.
I am reminded of a famous failed Austrian painter who eventually avenged himself from alleged ills he thought society had directed at him through immense cruelty. Isaias Rodriguez is himself a failed poet who had no problem hurting people deliberately to get something. It is exactly the same mental process.
-The end-
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
At last! Zimbabwe smells freedom!
It looks like Mugabe lost and is now dealing to make an exit where he will not be hanged. A model for Venezuela's future?
The BBC also follows blogs. But you can also click on "this is Zimbabwe", a blog to which this page has linked for years.
-The end-
The BBC also follows blogs. But you can also click on "this is Zimbabwe", a blog to which this page has linked for years.
-The end-
The rotten stench of the decaying bolivarian revolution
Truly since December 2 the glorious bolivarian revolution has been redolent of moral decomposition.
This past weeks, as people are less and less afraid of Chavez and when scandals are more and more difficult to hide and ignore, we are witnessing an acceleration of accusations and "sudden discoveries". We started this year with already such lingering scandals as the Antonini 800 000 money bag to Argentina (by the way, this incident seems to have faded early Cristina K. presidency as she is going from new problems to new set backs, just as if her administration were already an exhausted one). But what has happened in the recent weeks make all of these previous scandals children game. Of course, each one is due to a judicial system hijacked since 1999 by the executive and which has failed miserably to exert any of the controls needed in civilized society. Moral and financial corruptionS are now so extensive that after the December 2 rupture, well, it all starts coming out, like worms escaping the rotten carcass. In no particular order of importance, since we do not know where will the next stinky bomb explode.
The Anderson case is reopened
Long time readers of this blog of course are aware of the scandalous investigation of the murder of prosecutor Danilo Anderson. To this date we still do not know who paid the alleged murderers (by a bomb in Anderson car). Still, with what looked like a manipulated trial, the Guevara brothers were put in jail. But that is not all. Using basically a single witness that Isaias Rodriguez personally trusted from "looking inside his eyes", he, the General Prosecutor of the Republic, thought it was enough evidence to arrest or point out to dozen of people. Today all are free though many are still under investigation, while several of them, including journalist Patricia Poleo had to exile themselves because they decided that under the present situation they could not benefit of a fair trial. Judging by how many people were shot and what happened to the Guevara brothers, her concerns were certainly not unfounded.
That the famous witness was confounded as a fraud did not change much to the results...
Well, last week one of the prosecutors in charge of the investigation of the Anderson case declared, accused, Isaias Rodriguez of having manipulated the evidence, fabricating some, dismissing any evidence that could have spared unjust blame, and other manipulation of justice. Today, after the government removed his body guards, Hernando Contreras went to ask protection at the OAS office in Caracas (by the way what is this that anyone in government seems to have at least one body guard in Venezuela while this bloggers is been robbed at least once a year since Chavez is president?). The initial reply of Isaias has been less than convincing...
So, what will happen with the Guevara brothers if they have been condemned unjustly? Will Patricia Poleo be able to return to Venezuela? What about the other guys accused on just an impression? Will they receive a reparation for the injustice made to them? Will Isaias go on trial in turn? Will we ever know who killed Anderson? Apparently from what has been said these days it seems that the cover up order came from somewhere inside the higher ranks of the government, that is, Anderson was ordered killed because... he knew too much? He charged too much the extortion victims his gang managed? went too far with a given minister? risked to expose accidentally someone else?
Yaracuy governor indicted, of sorts
Yaracuy actual governor, Gimenez, a user, an incompetent manager and apparently also incompetent thief has finally been nailed. Not because he was a thief, mind you!!! We in Yaracuy knew already that before he made it to the State Mansion. But for the hoi poloi he was Chavez candidate and that was enough reason to vote for him 3 years ago.
One of the first things he did reaching office was to prosecute former governor Lapi over some public works in Yaritagua. I do not know whether Lapi was guilty of any wrongdoing, there was never a trial. However Lapi was duly jailed for months during "the investigation" and eventually had to escape jail because his life was in danger. Now, like Patricia Poleo he is in exile, a much better thing for chavismo than to have to judge someone with insufficient evidence against him or her.
Meanwhile, Gimenez and his family who seem to have stolen more money than whatever Lapi could dream, or need in his exile, is walking the streets without much problem except some public embarrassment. See, the reason why of all chavista officials he is one of the few that got sort of caught is because he was very clumsy about stealing and they need him out of Yaracuy sate house for many reason that have nothing to do with good governance. Because if good governance were chavismo goals, Gimenez would have never been put as governor.
Chavez family as XXI century socialist landlords
And while we are talking family business the Gimenez are not the only ones who benefited from nepotism. With about half a dozen of siblings and parents the Chavez pack seems to have enough hands now to have become the biggest landlords of Barinas state in less than a decade. Oh, sure, they did it through front men and stuff like that, but the locals apparently know that some of the front men never had a penny saved to buy the dirt off the land they now own.
Now, we all knew or suspected of it for years but suddenly a representative for Barinas, Azuaje, who apparently has personal ambitions has decided to ask for an investigation on all of these suspect properties. See, apparently even though he is in the chavista party and even though he seems to have gained some merits of his own in Barinas (remember, merits in chavismo are mostly related to you abilities to suck up), he is miffed that some of the Chavez lousy brothers will inherit the state house of Barinas while he thinks of himself to be a little bit more valuable than a Chavez brother. He is probably right but that is not the point. The point is that as soon as he accused the Chavez clan of illicit enrichment the whole apparatus system and judicial system started to move in gear to shut him down. At flash speed a local judge declared that there was nothing to investigate. The parliament said that he was talking because of his ambition but no commission of course was dispatched to at lest look into the matter, though some perfunctory investigation was promised. However they also decided to investigate Azuaje. After all it would be very simple to investigate if one wanted to: you ask one of these front men to explain where they suddenly got the money to buy a given ranch. Surely they must have retained a copy of the winning lottery ticket? No?
On a judicial point of view of course I do not expect an investigation to be started, this is Venezuela and no sitting president has been investigated on illegally appropriated money even though many left Miraflores more prosperous than they entered (Carlos Andres Perez was unseated because he misplaced funds, not because he took them for himself, -1-). No, what is interesting here is that suddenly we are talking about those things, in particular the locals in Sabaneta, Chavez hometown, who say candidly on TV that having the brother of the president as mayor has not brought them any advantage. That is how clumsy chavistas are when they steal, they do not even bother to toss a bone to their local homies, as the Adecos had the intelligence to do....
So there you see, the consequences of the absence of an independent judicial system. And it is just starting.....
--- --- --- --- --- --- ---
1- of the democratic era Betancourt and Leoni left Miraflores with only their pension as ex-president. None of their relatives has been reported having become suddenly rich. Caldera also lives in the same house he had and with the same life style although at least one of his sons seem to have benefited from his closeness to power. Luis Herrera did not even had a car when he died and we learned that some of his expensive medical bills were paid by his friends. Only Lusinchi and Carlos Andres are rumored to have acquired a significant fortune. Yet, if the Barinas tales are true, the Chavez clan will have taken from public treasures amount fo money never seen since the times of Gomez!
-The end-
This past weeks, as people are less and less afraid of Chavez and when scandals are more and more difficult to hide and ignore, we are witnessing an acceleration of accusations and "sudden discoveries". We started this year with already such lingering scandals as the Antonini 800 000 money bag to Argentina (by the way, this incident seems to have faded early Cristina K. presidency as she is going from new problems to new set backs, just as if her administration were already an exhausted one). But what has happened in the recent weeks make all of these previous scandals children game. Of course, each one is due to a judicial system hijacked since 1999 by the executive and which has failed miserably to exert any of the controls needed in civilized society. Moral and financial corruptionS are now so extensive that after the December 2 rupture, well, it all starts coming out, like worms escaping the rotten carcass. In no particular order of importance, since we do not know where will the next stinky bomb explode.
The Anderson case is reopened
Long time readers of this blog of course are aware of the scandalous investigation of the murder of prosecutor Danilo Anderson. To this date we still do not know who paid the alleged murderers (by a bomb in Anderson car). Still, with what looked like a manipulated trial, the Guevara brothers were put in jail. But that is not all. Using basically a single witness that Isaias Rodriguez personally trusted from "looking inside his eyes", he, the General Prosecutor of the Republic, thought it was enough evidence to arrest or point out to dozen of people. Today all are free though many are still under investigation, while several of them, including journalist Patricia Poleo had to exile themselves because they decided that under the present situation they could not benefit of a fair trial. Judging by how many people were shot and what happened to the Guevara brothers, her concerns were certainly not unfounded.
That the famous witness was confounded as a fraud did not change much to the results...
Well, last week one of the prosecutors in charge of the investigation of the Anderson case declared, accused, Isaias Rodriguez of having manipulated the evidence, fabricating some, dismissing any evidence that could have spared unjust blame, and other manipulation of justice. Today, after the government removed his body guards, Hernando Contreras went to ask protection at the OAS office in Caracas (by the way what is this that anyone in government seems to have at least one body guard in Venezuela while this bloggers is been robbed at least once a year since Chavez is president?). The initial reply of Isaias has been less than convincing...
So, what will happen with the Guevara brothers if they have been condemned unjustly? Will Patricia Poleo be able to return to Venezuela? What about the other guys accused on just an impression? Will they receive a reparation for the injustice made to them? Will Isaias go on trial in turn? Will we ever know who killed Anderson? Apparently from what has been said these days it seems that the cover up order came from somewhere inside the higher ranks of the government, that is, Anderson was ordered killed because... he knew too much? He charged too much the extortion victims his gang managed? went too far with a given minister? risked to expose accidentally someone else?
Yaracuy governor indicted, of sorts
Yaracuy actual governor, Gimenez, a user, an incompetent manager and apparently also incompetent thief has finally been nailed. Not because he was a thief, mind you!!! We in Yaracuy knew already that before he made it to the State Mansion. But for the hoi poloi he was Chavez candidate and that was enough reason to vote for him 3 years ago.
One of the first things he did reaching office was to prosecute former governor Lapi over some public works in Yaritagua. I do not know whether Lapi was guilty of any wrongdoing, there was never a trial. However Lapi was duly jailed for months during "the investigation" and eventually had to escape jail because his life was in danger. Now, like Patricia Poleo he is in exile, a much better thing for chavismo than to have to judge someone with insufficient evidence against him or her.
Meanwhile, Gimenez and his family who seem to have stolen more money than whatever Lapi could dream, or need in his exile, is walking the streets without much problem except some public embarrassment. See, the reason why of all chavista officials he is one of the few that got sort of caught is because he was very clumsy about stealing and they need him out of Yaracuy sate house for many reason that have nothing to do with good governance. Because if good governance were chavismo goals, Gimenez would have never been put as governor.
Chavez family as XXI century socialist landlords
And while we are talking family business the Gimenez are not the only ones who benefited from nepotism. With about half a dozen of siblings and parents the Chavez pack seems to have enough hands now to have become the biggest landlords of Barinas state in less than a decade. Oh, sure, they did it through front men and stuff like that, but the locals apparently know that some of the front men never had a penny saved to buy the dirt off the land they now own.
Now, we all knew or suspected of it for years but suddenly a representative for Barinas, Azuaje, who apparently has personal ambitions has decided to ask for an investigation on all of these suspect properties. See, apparently even though he is in the chavista party and even though he seems to have gained some merits of his own in Barinas (remember, merits in chavismo are mostly related to you abilities to suck up), he is miffed that some of the Chavez lousy brothers will inherit the state house of Barinas while he thinks of himself to be a little bit more valuable than a Chavez brother. He is probably right but that is not the point. The point is that as soon as he accused the Chavez clan of illicit enrichment the whole apparatus system and judicial system started to move in gear to shut him down. At flash speed a local judge declared that there was nothing to investigate. The parliament said that he was talking because of his ambition but no commission of course was dispatched to at lest look into the matter, though some perfunctory investigation was promised. However they also decided to investigate Azuaje. After all it would be very simple to investigate if one wanted to: you ask one of these front men to explain where they suddenly got the money to buy a given ranch. Surely they must have retained a copy of the winning lottery ticket? No?
On a judicial point of view of course I do not expect an investigation to be started, this is Venezuela and no sitting president has been investigated on illegally appropriated money even though many left Miraflores more prosperous than they entered (Carlos Andres Perez was unseated because he misplaced funds, not because he took them for himself, -1-). No, what is interesting here is that suddenly we are talking about those things, in particular the locals in Sabaneta, Chavez hometown, who say candidly on TV that having the brother of the president as mayor has not brought them any advantage. That is how clumsy chavistas are when they steal, they do not even bother to toss a bone to their local homies, as the Adecos had the intelligence to do....
So there you see, the consequences of the absence of an independent judicial system. And it is just starting.....
--- --- --- --- --- --- ---
1- of the democratic era Betancourt and Leoni left Miraflores with only their pension as ex-president. None of their relatives has been reported having become suddenly rich. Caldera also lives in the same house he had and with the same life style although at least one of his sons seem to have benefited from his closeness to power. Luis Herrera did not even had a car when he died and we learned that some of his expensive medical bills were paid by his friends. Only Lusinchi and Carlos Andres are rumored to have acquired a significant fortune. Yet, if the Barinas tales are true, the Chavez clan will have taken from public treasures amount fo money never seen since the times of Gomez!
-The end-
Monday, March 31, 2008
State of censorship in Venezuela
This state paid advertisement (tax payer expense for those who do not get it) was published today in page 5 of the El Universal sports section. It reads textually:
there is so [much] freedom of expression in Venezuela
that you are reading this paper.
(In small at the bottom you can read)
VENEZUELA
[an] expression of liberty
(and then the logo of the MINCI, the communication ministry)
that you are reading this paper.
(In small at the bottom you can read)
VENEZUELA
[an] expression of liberty
(and then the logo of the MINCI, the communication ministry)
There is so much wrong in this add, so much threat that the mind of anyone should reel at the implications. But let's start by the beginning before any one thinks that this blogger is prejudiced: there is indeed freedom of expression in Venezuela, although increasingly threatened and occasionally limited. What is lacking everyday more and more is freedom of expression. And this has been building up for quite a while, with increasing refusal of the state to talk to anyone but "official" media, and effective freedom of information done with when RCTV was closed last June.
First, let's discuss the context of this add. This week end the IAPA/SIP organized its first of two yearly meetings, this one in Caracas. During last year referendum campaign the government tried to put all sorts of obstacles to the meeting been held anywhere in Venezuela. But the SIP said that they would come no matter what and that lodging would be found one way or the other (remember the latest round of governmental pressure over hotels when the Alejandro Sanz concert had to be canceled). So the SIP came and offered Chavez to open the meeting and expose to the SIP his point of view on the whole matter of freedom of expression in Venezuela and elsewhere. Chavez did not show up and did not even had the decency to refuse. No answer, period.
However the government sponsored a "counter meeting" a couple of blocks away from the SIP hotel. It was called "encounter against media terrorism", no irony intended. As it is becoming more and more the case, the effect of this counter meeting was rather negative to the state as it flopped badly. In fact, it more than flopped, something stressed when Marcos Hernandez of Reporteros por la Verdad, was given a right of response at the SIP and showed his low class, his partiality and his incompetence, not to mention the compulsive lies now the everyday talk in chavistadom. He threatened Mr. Natera, director of Correo del Caroni, a much attacked newspaper, with judicial action by accusing him of being a coup monger in front of all the SIP. That Natera was the spokesperson of the Venezuelan press for that meeting exposed clearly to the whole world better than anything else how threatened is now freedom of expression in Venezuela.
Of course, with his very tarnished image of Chavez was certainly not going to take a chair in a room where someone would dare to criticize him. If you look at the purges inside the all but still born PUSV, whomever might criticize Chavez, even behind closed doors, has been shut out of the chavista pseudo political party. These days Chavez has his paid agents to take the heat wherever needed. That the SIP did criticize much more than just Venezuela, the US was one of the targets, did not make a difference: Chavez wants to project an image of being above criticism even though everyday he is more deserving of it. The self righteousness of Chavez, and his thinning skin are everyday more obvious, as much as his bloated physique. however as he keeps insulting the SIP this one says that only Cuba has more limits to freedom of expression than Venezuela in the Americas.
Now to the add published above. It is very simple: it is a direct threat to El Universal as this add implies directly that El Universal of Caracas, the Venezuelan senior paper, is published at the sufferance of the regime. Its objective might have been to criticize the SIP meeting but in fact it achieves (willingly perhaps?) the opposite effect. Did the subconscious of the public official in charge of this add betrayed him/her?
So here we are, with a government that thinks highly of itself by permitting still some papers to publish. And there are some folks that still dare to defend such policies...
By the way, the SIP heard again about abusive cadenas and that about 80% of the Venezuelan air waves are now under direct or indirect control of the state. That is right, about only 20% of the airborne media is still independent. And this quote is worth posting:
"There is a President (Hugo Chávez) who is persistently attacking journalism and harassing and insulting the press. Journalism here is faced with serious restrictions, and when journalism is exercised under serious restrictions there is no press freedom,"
-The end-
Saturday, March 29, 2008
From those who brought you the Tascon List: official racism in Venezuela
When I was taking my English courses to go to graduate school in the US I had to file for Social Security. We were all gathered in some auditorium and some official distributed us a form to fill
up. The usual stuff until I came to a section who asked my ethnic background or something of the sort. I did not understand the question at first, and when I saw the choices I understood even less. See, I had to pick between hispanic, african, caucasian, native american, pacific islander, asian (I think those were the exact words then, but they might have changed since). I was very confused because ethnic origin for me would have been French and French was not an option. Caucasian I had no idea what that word meant then except for this word appearing in some Russian music titles and geographical features. African I was not but I wondered if it meant black or arabic or what. Hispanic was not an option at first since for me Hispanic meant from Spain and I found it odd that Spaniards would be underscored.
I had to ask and the designated helper did not know what to do with my request and blandly told me to write what I thought would describe me best. Of course, I understood much later that even if I had been pitch black with the kinkiest hair of all that person could not have even suggested African.... Eventually one of my class mates pointed Caucasian. "Why?" "European, you know..." But the Caucasus is not really in Europe!". Eventually at a loss I put Caucasian. But a few months later when I started understanding the real meaning of these code words I was genuinely upset and form then on each time I was asked such question I put a different answer. In one census I am Hispanic, in another I am "Other". By the end of my stay I was always putting "other" whenever I was asked such indiscreet question except for the single/married ones which did made sense though I resented that "concubinage" was not an option.
See, my problem is that until my early twenties I had NEVER been asked my race and the idea that I could be asked such a question directly did not even enter my mind. In Venezuela then you never asked someone's race, you just assumed it if you must, or took for granted whichever race your interlocutor wanted to be, even if you disagreed inside. That is, in Venezuela when I was a kid and in college, race was simply not a mater of discussion even though we knew that the darker one's skin the less likely one to be rich. If there was a divide it was the money one which overlapped dangerously on the skin one, but in the end the money divide was the one that mattered the most. Though in all fairness if you stroke it rich, people even forgot you used to be poor. The reason for it all was very simple: the racial mix in Venezuela is so varied that trying to bring out the "pure" races would have left at least 3/4 of the population as unclassifiable.
Well, Chavez has done away with all that. It might have been a little bit hypocrite for us to pretend that there was no racial problem, but Chavez made sure to create new racial problems where they did not exist. The latest is the little picture above, of lousy quality I am sorry, and which was reported earlier this week by Tal Cual. In it, a school of art in Venezuela asks you to fill up one of the following choices in their application form:
African descent
Native (indigenous)
Immigrant
Handicapped
Other
I do not know where to start on such a racist instrument, and a blatantly xenophobic one to boot. Whomever designed this questionnaire has no sense of nuance, and favors only native and backs, hoping for immigrants to return home ASAP. Or are we also to suppose that immigrant means Spaniard descent even if one can trace back one's ancestry tot he XVI century? Clearly, whoever is responsible for this form has been brain washed, and is full of hate.
But what can you expect? After 9 years of chavismo saying all sorts of historical nonsense and pretending to rescue minorities, some are actually starting to think that this is the way to go and that reverse discrimination is acceptable. And in a country where almost 4 million citizens suffer of a political apartheid due to the Tascon list (look in the right side column for complete references), why not also install racial separation?
With Obama the US might be advancing further on the difficult path to integration but in Venezuela we are going back to colonial times where a frustrate and idiotic Chavez wants revenge for what happened to his ancestors. In fac we are not returning to the past, we are going to a worse place where we have never been.
-The end-
up. The usual stuff until I came to a section who asked my ethnic background or something of the sort. I did not understand the question at first, and when I saw the choices I understood even less. See, I had to pick between hispanic, african, caucasian, native american, pacific islander, asian (I think those were the exact words then, but they might have changed since). I was very confused because ethnic origin for me would have been French and French was not an option. Caucasian I had no idea what that word meant then except for this word appearing in some Russian music titles and geographical features. African I was not but I wondered if it meant black or arabic or what. Hispanic was not an option at first since for me Hispanic meant from Spain and I found it odd that Spaniards would be underscored.I had to ask and the designated helper did not know what to do with my request and blandly told me to write what I thought would describe me best. Of course, I understood much later that even if I had been pitch black with the kinkiest hair of all that person could not have even suggested African.... Eventually one of my class mates pointed Caucasian. "Why?" "European, you know..." But the Caucasus is not really in Europe!". Eventually at a loss I put Caucasian. But a few months later when I started understanding the real meaning of these code words I was genuinely upset and form then on each time I was asked such question I put a different answer. In one census I am Hispanic, in another I am "Other". By the end of my stay I was always putting "other" whenever I was asked such indiscreet question except for the single/married ones which did made sense though I resented that "concubinage" was not an option.
See, my problem is that until my early twenties I had NEVER been asked my race and the idea that I could be asked such a question directly did not even enter my mind. In Venezuela then you never asked someone's race, you just assumed it if you must, or took for granted whichever race your interlocutor wanted to be, even if you disagreed inside. That is, in Venezuela when I was a kid and in college, race was simply not a mater of discussion even though we knew that the darker one's skin the less likely one to be rich. If there was a divide it was the money one which overlapped dangerously on the skin one, but in the end the money divide was the one that mattered the most. Though in all fairness if you stroke it rich, people even forgot you used to be poor. The reason for it all was very simple: the racial mix in Venezuela is so varied that trying to bring out the "pure" races would have left at least 3/4 of the population as unclassifiable.
Well, Chavez has done away with all that. It might have been a little bit hypocrite for us to pretend that there was no racial problem, but Chavez made sure to create new racial problems where they did not exist. The latest is the little picture above, of lousy quality I am sorry, and which was reported earlier this week by Tal Cual. In it, a school of art in Venezuela asks you to fill up one of the following choices in their application form:
African descent
Native (indigenous)
Immigrant
Handicapped
Other
I do not know where to start on such a racist instrument, and a blatantly xenophobic one to boot. Whomever designed this questionnaire has no sense of nuance, and favors only native and backs, hoping for immigrants to return home ASAP. Or are we also to suppose that immigrant means Spaniard descent even if one can trace back one's ancestry tot he XVI century? Clearly, whoever is responsible for this form has been brain washed, and is full of hate.
But what can you expect? After 9 years of chavismo saying all sorts of historical nonsense and pretending to rescue minorities, some are actually starting to think that this is the way to go and that reverse discrimination is acceptable. And in a country where almost 4 million citizens suffer of a political apartheid due to the Tascon list (look in the right side column for complete references), why not also install racial separation?
With Obama the US might be advancing further on the difficult path to integration but in Venezuela we are going back to colonial times where a frustrate and idiotic Chavez wants revenge for what happened to his ancestors. In fac we are not returning to the past, we are going to a worse place where we have never been.
-The end-
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