I do not feel like putting a post today. I have a strange melancholy looking back to September 11, 2001, a day that has changed our world, if you forgive me this cliché.
I just feel like stating that the ripples of September 11 are only now being felt in Venezuela in its true negative consequences. By distracting the US in its South America vision, democracy has been shaken deeply in more than one country. By increasing the price of oil as a consequence of all what came after September 11, Chavez has now a comfortable security mattress to spread mischief wherever he likes. The incredible amounts of money that Venezuela is squandering at home and abroad are only increasing the breach between Venezuelans, polarizing everything, ruining our productive capacity and making us more dependent than ever from the central state, thus consolidating the power for life of our XX1 century autocrat, dispenser of all favors and all blessings, using socialism as the perfect excuse to justify all of his abuses.
Few seem still to care. At home, despondency is the word of the day as the only serious contest is between branches of the government supporters fighting for the spoils. Abroad, a few thoughtful people are left who know very well that a tragedy is brewing in Venezuela. But right now, anywhere, nobody knows what to do, and has even less the will to do something about it. It seems that we are just waiting for something to happen, for this bad comedy to play out and reach its last act. There is no Oscar winning screen play artist that can write a happy ending for our "comédie de mœurs".
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Friday, September 09, 2005
A new evaluation of the Venezuelan situation?
On the morning of August 7, as the few of us who decided to vote got ready to do so, it seemed that the sequence of events for the year ahead was pretty much foreordained. That is, we knew that chavismo was going to win that day, win again in December to take the legislature, and more than likely get Chavez reelected in 12/2006. The only question was whether the opposition to Chavez would manage to recover enough to have a presence sufficiently strong to avoid some of the excesses of power that were foreseen.
But since August 7, things seem to be moving in a not quite expected way. Has anything changed in the chavista strategy to conquer all absolute power?
Conventional wisdom?
That interpretation of the situation stated that if the opposition did not manage 1/3 of the National assembly seats in 12/2005 then there would be no way to stop Chavez from establishing an autocracy, basically impossible to remove through the vote or peaceful means. The blue print is for all who care to see it. One could agree and cash in at the register at the price of one's individual liberty and rights, or one could chose considering ways to start resistance or leave the country. This is what has happened thorough such regimes, dramatically in Cuba, much less dramatically in other countries but still as damaging for the national society.
This appreciation was based on the following facts:
• Total demoralization of the opposition parties, with their almost inextricable divisions forbidding even a simple electoral alliance and even less a true untied front.
• Total demoralization of the electorate from the opposition, in spite of its recognized minimum of 40% as of August 2004, with fraud and all. More than half of them have come to believe, erroneously it seems, that abstention, alone, is the way to fight back.
• Absolute control of the electoral system where almost no opposition request is considered and where the pro Chavez parties do freely alter deadlines, electoral registers, voting times, when not the real vote total themselves. This of course aggravating the opposition party problems as they are unable to take an effective stand against such abuses, some only too willing to settle for the crumbs that Chavez is willing to give them.
• And a substantial purse in the hands of Chavez courtesy of oil price at 60 USD. Thus all sorts of social programs could keep going, even if some of them looked more vote buying than anything else.
Conventional wisdom was supported by these harsh facts.
But it is not playing like that. In fact since August 9 it seems that the glorious Bolivarian revolution has decided to pick up speed. More than ever Chavez is spreading money around LatAm to buy even more sympathies in front of the passive Venezuelan response. The socialism of the XX1 century is pushed forth and the Cuba Venezuela links are strengthened. Bush, the US and a nebulous imperialism are the whipping boy more than ever. At home the embers of the National Assembly are revived to pass yet more controversial major laws in a hurry, such as a new armed force law, new penetrations in the private media, centralization of health care, and a renewed frontal attack on private property. Why this sudden rush?
A new deal?
I had to think about this for a while. I am not too sure what is really going on (not that most chavistas are sure themselves…). But one clue can come by reviewing neglected facts pre 8/2005, and new ones post 8/2005.
• The shocker of the August vote was the high abstention ALSO in the chavista camp. Thus what should had been an ample victory and a major celebration turned out as a trumped event where not only the opposition failed to show up to legitimize the regime.
• To aggravate things, some at the left of Chavez (if that has any meaning) groups did go to protest loudly in the streets that their candidates had their votes stolen by the "official" Chavez candidates. The Tupamaros protest were a highly embarrassing moment for chavismo, even more embarrassing when suddenly their leaders called off the spontaneous street protests conveying a certain redolent air of "bought off".
• And the Cuban inheritance might be close at hand. Not to mention that Lula's troubles are an unexpected opening for folks like Chavez who love to fish in troubled waters.
How does this play? Well, one way to see that is to imagine an uncomfortable Chavez whose hoped for coronation as president for life wanna-be on 12/2006 with 10 million votes is suddenly far from assured. No, his victory is still all but assured, but there is another problem: he must reach a stunning victory in December, for two reasons. One is to erase the bad taste of the Recall Election once and for all, a bitter after-taste from having been subjected to such a humiliating experience. And the other the needed triumph to ensure his coronation as the heir of Fidel Castro. The health of Castro is clearly declining and his succession is now a matter of very few years, more than likely during Chavez second six year term. Thus Chavez needs to be in a position of maximum strength at home to be able to become the beacon of the Latin America left.
At home the consequence is that Chavez cannot wait for 12/2006 to consecrate the "socialism of the XX1 century". I suspect that the government program of socialist unmistakable hues will be running strong until December 2005 elections to make that December vote, whose victory is not in doubt, the validation of the new regime by the people, for the love of socialism more than for the love of Chavez. Chavez simply cannot wait for the plebiscite he is preparing for December 2006. He must at least secure the legal frame work now, the socialist label by a vote where he is not directly running himself, to show that result to the world who will not bother too much at figuring out how come such an outdated and unpalatable hash could be voted by a country.
With this business taken care, Chavez will be running on it fully for one year while the new parliament, once it clears some of the illegal actions taken between 2002 and 2005, and doted with a large contingent of military, establishes the new repressive laws as the will of the people, not the will of Chavez. This way in January 2007 Chavez will have no more business to do at home and will have all his energies to devote himself to the fusion of Cuba and Venezuela, with the hardened Cuban revolutionaries running the show in Caracas, in the face of Chavez obviously incompetent followers who amazingly will let it happen as long as they preserve their financial gains.
Crazy? In 1998 anyone would have thought it crazy to conceive a Venezuela as it is today, run down to the gutter by a group of people that barely reached on occasion 30% of the total electorate. But countries have ways to commit suicide.
But since August 7, things seem to be moving in a not quite expected way. Has anything changed in the chavista strategy to conquer all absolute power?
Conventional wisdom?
That interpretation of the situation stated that if the opposition did not manage 1/3 of the National assembly seats in 12/2005 then there would be no way to stop Chavez from establishing an autocracy, basically impossible to remove through the vote or peaceful means. The blue print is for all who care to see it. One could agree and cash in at the register at the price of one's individual liberty and rights, or one could chose considering ways to start resistance or leave the country. This is what has happened thorough such regimes, dramatically in Cuba, much less dramatically in other countries but still as damaging for the national society.
This appreciation was based on the following facts:
• Total demoralization of the opposition parties, with their almost inextricable divisions forbidding even a simple electoral alliance and even less a true untied front.
• Total demoralization of the electorate from the opposition, in spite of its recognized minimum of 40% as of August 2004, with fraud and all. More than half of them have come to believe, erroneously it seems, that abstention, alone, is the way to fight back.
• Absolute control of the electoral system where almost no opposition request is considered and where the pro Chavez parties do freely alter deadlines, electoral registers, voting times, when not the real vote total themselves. This of course aggravating the opposition party problems as they are unable to take an effective stand against such abuses, some only too willing to settle for the crumbs that Chavez is willing to give them.
• And a substantial purse in the hands of Chavez courtesy of oil price at 60 USD. Thus all sorts of social programs could keep going, even if some of them looked more vote buying than anything else.
Conventional wisdom was supported by these harsh facts.
But it is not playing like that. In fact since August 9 it seems that the glorious Bolivarian revolution has decided to pick up speed. More than ever Chavez is spreading money around LatAm to buy even more sympathies in front of the passive Venezuelan response. The socialism of the XX1 century is pushed forth and the Cuba Venezuela links are strengthened. Bush, the US and a nebulous imperialism are the whipping boy more than ever. At home the embers of the National Assembly are revived to pass yet more controversial major laws in a hurry, such as a new armed force law, new penetrations in the private media, centralization of health care, and a renewed frontal attack on private property. Why this sudden rush?
A new deal?
I had to think about this for a while. I am not too sure what is really going on (not that most chavistas are sure themselves…). But one clue can come by reviewing neglected facts pre 8/2005, and new ones post 8/2005.
• The shocker of the August vote was the high abstention ALSO in the chavista camp. Thus what should had been an ample victory and a major celebration turned out as a trumped event where not only the opposition failed to show up to legitimize the regime.
• To aggravate things, some at the left of Chavez (if that has any meaning) groups did go to protest loudly in the streets that their candidates had their votes stolen by the "official" Chavez candidates. The Tupamaros protest were a highly embarrassing moment for chavismo, even more embarrassing when suddenly their leaders called off the spontaneous street protests conveying a certain redolent air of "bought off".
• And the Cuban inheritance might be close at hand. Not to mention that Lula's troubles are an unexpected opening for folks like Chavez who love to fish in troubled waters.
How does this play? Well, one way to see that is to imagine an uncomfortable Chavez whose hoped for coronation as president for life wanna-be on 12/2006 with 10 million votes is suddenly far from assured. No, his victory is still all but assured, but there is another problem: he must reach a stunning victory in December, for two reasons. One is to erase the bad taste of the Recall Election once and for all, a bitter after-taste from having been subjected to such a humiliating experience. And the other the needed triumph to ensure his coronation as the heir of Fidel Castro. The health of Castro is clearly declining and his succession is now a matter of very few years, more than likely during Chavez second six year term. Thus Chavez needs to be in a position of maximum strength at home to be able to become the beacon of the Latin America left.
At home the consequence is that Chavez cannot wait for 12/2006 to consecrate the "socialism of the XX1 century". I suspect that the government program of socialist unmistakable hues will be running strong until December 2005 elections to make that December vote, whose victory is not in doubt, the validation of the new regime by the people, for the love of socialism more than for the love of Chavez. Chavez simply cannot wait for the plebiscite he is preparing for December 2006. He must at least secure the legal frame work now, the socialist label by a vote where he is not directly running himself, to show that result to the world who will not bother too much at figuring out how come such an outdated and unpalatable hash could be voted by a country.
With this business taken care, Chavez will be running on it fully for one year while the new parliament, once it clears some of the illegal actions taken between 2002 and 2005, and doted with a large contingent of military, establishes the new repressive laws as the will of the people, not the will of Chavez. This way in January 2007 Chavez will have no more business to do at home and will have all his energies to devote himself to the fusion of Cuba and Venezuela, with the hardened Cuban revolutionaries running the show in Caracas, in the face of Chavez obviously incompetent followers who amazingly will let it happen as long as they preserve their financial gains.
Crazy? In 1998 anyone would have thought it crazy to conceive a Venezuela as it is today, run down to the gutter by a group of people that barely reached on occasion 30% of the total electorate. But countries have ways to commit suicide.
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Modern XXI century highway robbery in Venezuela
Thou shalt not steal
Ex.20:15
Se garantiza el derecho a la propiedad. [...] Solo por causa de utilidad pública o interes social, mediante sentencia firme y pago oportuno de justa indemnización, podrá ser declarada la expropriación de cualquier clase de bienes.Article 115 of the 1999 Venezuelan constitution!
{The right of property is guaranteed. [...] Only for causes of public need or social interest, through a final [court] ruling and prompt payment of a fair indemnity, will it be possible to declare the expropriation of any type of property.}
Well, stealing is exactly what the bolivarian revolution has been doing, since its very beginning. However, after having spent years stealing the public coffers it seems that it is not enough and we are witnessing pure and simple expropriations of private citizens holdings.
Now, before I get into this it is important to point that most modern societies, even the empire of Capitalism, the good ole US of A, do preview expropriations for public interests with at least reasonable compensations. not even real market value but at least a value that does represent something. There is nothing wrong with that as collective interests on occasion goes above private interest, if duly compensated of course.
The constitution of 1999 does state this normal public policy, in a series of articles (113 through 116) which define the property rights and what to do when those are abused through monopolies for example. The article 115, cited above, is totally explicit on this subject. And it has been repeatedly violated since the constitution has been approved. It seems that lately these systematic violations are reaching a new level. A list follows, not necessarily in order of importance, though the first case is presented in detail for the reader to be able to understand the modus operandi of the regime.
A Polar/Remavenca plant in Barinas has been taken over
Polar is the largest private business in Venezuela and its family as a shareholder group (a la Walmart) are the wealthiest group of people in Venezuela (outside of the illegal fortunes that are being currently built on the public dole by the present administration). Polar is the number one brewery, the number one corn/maize flour provider and of many of other popular staple foods. And it is not a monopole even if it frequently occupies the principal share. It is oriented for mass production, and most of its items are price controlled anyway. It is also probably the company most closely followed tax wise.
However Polar has been suffering. It has been suffering because being a colossus it has a hard time to adapt to the fast changing conditions of Venezuela. It is suffering because of the missteps of the Venezuelan economic team which would have run the economy into the ground if it were not for oil at soon 60 USD the Venezuelan barrel. For those who do not agree with this blogger, I would like to remind them that when Chavez reached office the Venezuelan currency was around 550 for the USD. Now it is at 2150 officially and 2700 to the dollar on the parallel market. A 5 fold decrease in 6 years does not speak of economical mastery.
Thus Polar has been shifting its production centers in a more rational way, not only to face the normal economic cycles, but also to face the unfair competition offered by the government when it imports subsidized food at the expense of the Venezuelan worker who loses his/her job. One of these installations, a Remavenca subsidiary, is in Barinas state, where it was a collecting center for cereals and a processing center for oil and flour.
Polar in 2002 decided to stop production but still kept the center for storage and distribution, thus maintaining the agricultural importance of the area if not its productive capacity for processed product. Those did not have too far to come as the Chivacoa Remavenca center is located barely 5 hours drive and thus Barinas is fully provided with Polar products while its farmers can sell their crop, even though Barinas state is at the end of the road. I know all of this well as Polar is one of my clients and I have visited their installations more than once.
But that has not stopped the government, led by the minister of agriculture and lands, to seize last Monday the Barinas facilities. Antonio Albarran, a minister of limited capacity but whose loyalty to the regime cannot be questioned, lamely today stated that he was only following what the cues provided by the leader of the revolution on his Sunday comic hour. So we are expected to believe that a minister hears a talk show and acts, without even waiting for the cabinet meeting? We would be so luckily if Chavez ministers were so efficient on matters such as personal security or Vargas disaster rebuilding... Meanwhile Polar is trying to demonstrate the illegality of the move, if the High court pays attention.
The workers of Remavenca Barinas, on the left side, barred access to work by the Nazional Guard, are not amused since basically they are kicked out, as are their clients, to be replaced by pro Chavez workers and supposedly pro Chavez farmer providers who nobody knows quite well where they come from or what they can possibly provide. It would seem that this Remavenca facility was actually rented to some local producers that were discriminating against some other local producers. We could thus conceive the same picture but with pro Chavez folks protesting. That of course is not enough to justify the manu militari grabbing of the plant, as for the time being there has been no judicial papers showed by the governmental side.No compensation has been offered as the government seems to be figuring ways to put up trumped charges to get it cheap or free if possible (Polar did slow down work in the 2002 strike but never shut down completely, the few shutting due basically to the lack of gasoline for transport, so even such charges would not stand in a normal court of law, something that has ceased to exist in Venezuela; and Polar is still seen as an enemy of the regime, even if its president travelled with Chavez to Spain a few months ago). Thus the mystery remains as to the real motives of the minister. Is it to favor one group of producers above another? Is it to allow acces to all producers? Is it to force Polar to sell cheap? Is it to incur favor with Chavez whose home state is Barinas? Is this really a Chavez expressed wish (it would be really hard to think that such an important move which would affect the economical climate would not be attempted without Chavez approval)? Is it the coming moves of the revolution which is announcing clearly its march towards communism to a people that do not understand it and will ratify communism through the vote thanks to a gigantic abstention? All speculations are open, but one sure is certain, at the very least Chavez has decided to replace the present business class with one of its making (whose skill outside of government credits is far from been proven).
Expropriation or confiscation?
A Heinz tomato processing plant has been taken. This plant located in Monagas state operated briefly and was closed as the area proved itself unable to provide for the amount of tomato required to make the plant break even. Heinz reports that it tried to sell it but could not find any taker. One is left to suppose that since tomatoes are red they will probably grow spontaneously to support the regime.
A slaughter house in Barinas state was also taken.
Early this year a paper mill and an auto part and bearings plant were seized. As far as we know nothing was paid to the ex owners. And let's not start with Hato Piñero and other cattle ranches just invaded at will. And we will pass on sudden change of fiscal code, applied retroactively to foreign oil companies to milk them further. They did accept since oil is so high, but a precedent of tax code modification in a retroactive ways has been set and it could apply whenever politics justify it.
And the future is not very promising. The government as announced a survey of closed plants and partially closed ones to decide which ones it will just give to the ex employees (or more likely chavista ex employees, let's not kid ourselves). 700 facilities would be targeted. Whether they closed for economical reason or for speculative reasons is not the question. Actually the official line is that the owners closed the plants to piss off Chavez. How cutting one's nose to spite one's face has become a capitalist law market is of course not explained by these amateurs who take their lessons from outdated economic books and outdated Cuba. Reason has nothing to do with this whole affair.
Invest in Venezuela?
Obviously it is highly risky as your business can just be hijacked anytime by disgruntled opponents, envious workers, politicos seeking a cheap point, etc, etc... Venezuelans know that very well as all the money taken overseas for decades is not coming back, at all. Oscar Garcia Mendoza, a neo liberal but lucid opponent is certainly not encouraging investment by pronouncing these maneuvers as a direct attack on private property. He also stresses that there are other ways the government is limiting property by forcing for example banks to dedicate 10% of their total loans to popular housing projects even if the targeted people are simply unable to satisfy the conditions imposed by the government itself. But the government is only trying to pass the buck on its incompetence in building public housing.
That the government uses its oil resources for all sorts of political projects overseas that do not benefit Venezuela present and hard needs is not helping bring investor confidence (the UNPD has dropped Venezuela a few positions once again in its annual index of human development, thus restating that the bolibanana revolution is not improving Venezuelans' lot). The latest is yet another oil agreement with central America and the Caribbean where discounted oil, is basically given it away for some sugar and plantain that Venezuela could well produce. But Chavez is more preoccupied with OAS vote buying in his favor than the well being of his people. why invest in Venezuela when you can do Venezuelan deals outside of Venezuela? Still there are some investments that the regime brags about but which are very hollow investments when one looks at them. These investments are only in two areas.
One group, such as communications, are too complex for such an incompetent administration. Thus they will have time to get enough return to recover their investment before the government eventually decides to take them over. One of these particularly hollow investments is the purchase of Telcel, the largest cel-phone comapny in Venezuela, from Bell South by the Spanish communication giant Movistar. Well, where is all the cash received by Bell South? Still in Venezuela? You can bet that Venezuela overall has not acquired much from this transaction.
But even that media/communication sector is targeted and might see its profits dwindle fast. Just today the National Assembly lead by the ineffable Maduro, a servilest servant of Chavez, has pushed through a law that will force cable companies to give the government free of charge 8 channels. Voila! Too bad for the expenses of these companies for carrying channels that probably few people will want to see. This is just another form of expropriation (not to mention censorship and force feeding of the government propaganda drivel) .
The other group of business where investment is observed is in those ones that have a high risk perhaps but also a high return, in the 20 to 30% order or more. That is, oil industry. The price of oil is big enough that enough US companies are willing to take the risk, no matter how nasty to the US Chavez is. But in general there is very little local investment, just enough to keep established business running and any expansion is made on borrowed money, not on repatriation of capitals. We know better: even chavistas are careful to stash their gains outside, as reported for example by the Miami Herald.
But all private investment in long term business with moderate returns and employment creation is very limited. Unless, of course, you like to be despoiled by a rapacious administration who first sends after you the Seniat, Indecu, Work Ministry, and then, when there is nothing left in your account simply invades the premises and takes your property away.
PS: I have modified a little bit the Remavenca story as new information was sent to me. If it nuances it some it still does not change the basic point of illegal property grab. It is thus possible that I might add an additional PS as more info flows my way.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Chavez manipulation of Katrina tragedy
I have reported already that Venezuelan president Chavez has been manipulating the Katrina tragedy, the destruction of New Orleans, to gain political advantage in his war of words with the US. Although many people have already winced a lot at this mark of bad taste (predictable bad taste if you ask this blogger who is getting tired to point out the low cultural level of the people in office in Venezuela), Chavez again used the best part of his Sunday show (a whopping 7 hours this last Sunday) to keep harping on the US ineptitude in front of the Katrina tragedy.
Well, maybe, and there is a lot to criticize in the US government response, but before attacking the US the decent thing would be at least to let them pick up the bodies floating in the streets of New Orleans. There is always time to attack, to blame, but the time of grief should always be respected. However, when Chavez egoism does not even respect the grief of Venezuelan people, what can we expect from him on the grief of other countries people?
This combined with Castro own criticisms (at least more restrained but Castro has learned a few things in his long tenure), forces me to revisit this issue again. And I decided to make it a thorough job.
A) I am helped by today's editorial of El Nacional which I have translated. All the accusations of the Vargas tragedy mismanagement are well documented through the pages of any Venezuelan newspaper that is half serious. I will point out to the reader that it is an editorial and that if El Nacional did not feel it could defend such words in court, it certainly would not put them in an editorial. Original Spanish version here. There is also a strong Tal Cual editorial who gets much harder on Bush case but still accuses Chavez of the same unecessary meddling, perhaps in even stronger words.
B) After the editorial I have designed a little comparative table as to Bush and Chavez in front of the rain tragedy that has befallen their country. Or rather how Venezuela and the US lead in disaster management, through Chavez and Bushn or their administration.
C) To finish, an excellent cartoon of Weil from Tal Cual whose meaning should be clear to anyone after reading the texts below. The cartoon is based on the pervasive logo on everything which carries chavista propaganda, logo that I also reproduce. Whenever you see it, then you know that the words accompanying it are official propaganda. Nifty, if you ask me, as you know right there not to waste your time with whatever is offered to you.
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EDITORIAL OF EL NACIONAL OF MONDAY 09/05
The rope in the house of the hanged *
"The rich could get out by their own means, the poor stayed there, holding on… and it is now, four, five days later, that they are evacuating them"…
There was time "to evacuate, if not all, at least the poorest ones, those who could not get out by their own means"… "How many children died there, that could have been evacuated!"… "How come such a powerful government, knowing that it has dozens of thousands of refugees, people dying, does not activate a rescue plan?" These words from President Chavez, pronounced in his show yesterday, do not reflect to an appraisal of the errors committed during the Vargas tragedy, but they could well be.
If in one thing presidents Bush and Chavez look alike, it is in their capacity to gain from tragedies of war or of natural catastrophes in function of their immediate political objectives. To excuse themselves, they go and hook up in a contest on who did what wrong, who would have done it better, or how many died because someone did not do this at a given time.
Without taking into account the great responsibilities that their people have laid on them through the ballot, without being aware that their electors expect a more rational and even exercise of their high functions, this pair of leaders go about the world shoving as if they were kids at the school bell. With the forgiveness, of course, of the kids of the world.
Refusing to recognize his role as a leader, who must take advantage of opportunities to put in practice our traditional spirit of unconditional help to other countries when these suffer catastrophes, the President concentrated, in a reckless manner, on criticizing the US administration, with this paranoid obsession that has been ingrained in him by Castro as to the "American Imperialism". He was this close to say that Katrina was fabricated to distract public opinion on how bad the war in Iraq was going, as if this setback was easy to hide. **
That which attracts the attention of us non-fanaticized Venezuelans is that a tragedy of this caliber (where at least 10 000 deaths are estimated, above the 3500 of 11 S) is used to attack publicly, and through the state owned media, a government with which we have normal diplomatic relations. If the US is preparing an invasion or an assassination of the president, why not accuse it formally in front of international institutions? Or is it a vulgar and cruel propaganda operation where they want to involve everyone, as if we were mere fools? When president Romulo Betancourt accused dictator Trujillo, of the Dominican Republic, he presented evidence that could not be refuted in front of the appropriate international instances.
He also did the same thing at the OAS with Cuba, when members of the Cuban army invaded Venezuela and left abandoned part of their weaponry and the body, floating on the sea, of one of their men. No propaganda: proof and real facts. ***
In his show, the head of state said that the majority of the victims were poor people that were not evacuated on time, and were neither helped by rescue teams. It was "an announced tragedy", said our president, as if the Vargas tragedy (that we still cry upon) was not a super-announced one, as if here we had rescued on time all the refugees and recovered all the victims bodies, as if the levees and protection barriers had already been constructed and were not on their way, as if the bridges were not keeping falling whenever bad weather arrives to push people to sea.
And as if he had not disappeared almost 2 days during Vargas, just as Bush now with the New Orleans tragedy. But at least the US leader has the advantage to count on the support of two ex-presidents (Clinton and Bush senior) who came to the White House to account to the nation.
The Venezuelan president accused the US authorities that they did not know that "New Orleans was under sea level". He said that the hurricane was able to lift 30 feet waves and that this was already advertisement enough.
"I saw that in CNN" he admitted. Well, wrong deed because he should have seen it through Telesur ****
notes:
* Venezuelan saying whose translation escapes me. Basically, you should not speak in a home of the skeletons hiding in the closets.
** the "unconditional" that the editorial alludes to is to the gas that Venezuela is sending as help. Which is good, but which alos seems to give Chaevz the idea that he can criticize as he pleases, just becasue of HIS gift, because we can be sure that he sees at HIS gift....
*** Indeed Chavez has made it a major issue of people wanting to kill him without EVER presenting a significant piece of evidence, without ever managing to bring someone to justice. Except, of course, if you consider Pat Roberston inane declarations evidence.
**** Ironic comment of the editor as Telesur is vaunted to replace CNN any time soon in Latin America. If Chavez keeps watching CNN, it says a lot on how little genuine information Telesur is expected to produce…
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Comparison table between two presidential, and administrative, leadership in time of crisis
A comparison of two disasters, but not with the objective to minimize any of them, just to show what each country and its leadership were facing when disaster struck. In other words the objective of this table is to show the reader that Chavez and his administration do not have a leg to stand on when criticizing Bush and his administration actions last week. His remarks are, simply put, ignoble propaganda where Chavez uses the misery of Katrina victims to serve Chavez and Castro's cause. The table represents what is known at the present time and in a few weeks certain elements will not be valid anymore. In both cases the writer does not spare the respective leadership, sort of to even up the playing field. Note: a painstaking chronological order of the events of December 1999 in Venezuela can be found here.
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And now the perfect cartoon to summarize it all, the delyrium of the bolibanana revolution.
With KATRINA, the revolution goes forward!
Well, maybe, and there is a lot to criticize in the US government response, but before attacking the US the decent thing would be at least to let them pick up the bodies floating in the streets of New Orleans. There is always time to attack, to blame, but the time of grief should always be respected. However, when Chavez egoism does not even respect the grief of Venezuelan people, what can we expect from him on the grief of other countries people?
This combined with Castro own criticisms (at least more restrained but Castro has learned a few things in his long tenure), forces me to revisit this issue again. And I decided to make it a thorough job.
A) I am helped by today's editorial of El Nacional which I have translated. All the accusations of the Vargas tragedy mismanagement are well documented through the pages of any Venezuelan newspaper that is half serious. I will point out to the reader that it is an editorial and that if El Nacional did not feel it could defend such words in court, it certainly would not put them in an editorial. Original Spanish version here. There is also a strong Tal Cual editorial who gets much harder on Bush case but still accuses Chavez of the same unecessary meddling, perhaps in even stronger words.
B) After the editorial I have designed a little comparative table as to Bush and Chavez in front of the rain tragedy that has befallen their country. Or rather how Venezuela and the US lead in disaster management, through Chavez and Bushn or their administration.
C) To finish, an excellent cartoon of Weil from Tal Cual whose meaning should be clear to anyone after reading the texts below. The cartoon is based on the pervasive logo on everything which carries chavista propaganda, logo that I also reproduce. Whenever you see it, then you know that the words accompanying it are official propaganda. Nifty, if you ask me, as you know right there not to waste your time with whatever is offered to you.
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EDITORIAL OF EL NACIONAL OF MONDAY 09/05
The rope in the house of the hanged *
"The rich could get out by their own means, the poor stayed there, holding on… and it is now, four, five days later, that they are evacuating them"…
There was time "to evacuate, if not all, at least the poorest ones, those who could not get out by their own means"… "How many children died there, that could have been evacuated!"… "How come such a powerful government, knowing that it has dozens of thousands of refugees, people dying, does not activate a rescue plan?" These words from President Chavez, pronounced in his show yesterday, do not reflect to an appraisal of the errors committed during the Vargas tragedy, but they could well be.
If in one thing presidents Bush and Chavez look alike, it is in their capacity to gain from tragedies of war or of natural catastrophes in function of their immediate political objectives. To excuse themselves, they go and hook up in a contest on who did what wrong, who would have done it better, or how many died because someone did not do this at a given time.
Without taking into account the great responsibilities that their people have laid on them through the ballot, without being aware that their electors expect a more rational and even exercise of their high functions, this pair of leaders go about the world shoving as if they were kids at the school bell. With the forgiveness, of course, of the kids of the world.
Refusing to recognize his role as a leader, who must take advantage of opportunities to put in practice our traditional spirit of unconditional help to other countries when these suffer catastrophes, the President concentrated, in a reckless manner, on criticizing the US administration, with this paranoid obsession that has been ingrained in him by Castro as to the "American Imperialism". He was this close to say that Katrina was fabricated to distract public opinion on how bad the war in Iraq was going, as if this setback was easy to hide. **
That which attracts the attention of us non-fanaticized Venezuelans is that a tragedy of this caliber (where at least 10 000 deaths are estimated, above the 3500 of 11 S) is used to attack publicly, and through the state owned media, a government with which we have normal diplomatic relations. If the US is preparing an invasion or an assassination of the president, why not accuse it formally in front of international institutions? Or is it a vulgar and cruel propaganda operation where they want to involve everyone, as if we were mere fools? When president Romulo Betancourt accused dictator Trujillo, of the Dominican Republic, he presented evidence that could not be refuted in front of the appropriate international instances.
He also did the same thing at the OAS with Cuba, when members of the Cuban army invaded Venezuela and left abandoned part of their weaponry and the body, floating on the sea, of one of their men. No propaganda: proof and real facts. ***
In his show, the head of state said that the majority of the victims were poor people that were not evacuated on time, and were neither helped by rescue teams. It was "an announced tragedy", said our president, as if the Vargas tragedy (that we still cry upon) was not a super-announced one, as if here we had rescued on time all the refugees and recovered all the victims bodies, as if the levees and protection barriers had already been constructed and were not on their way, as if the bridges were not keeping falling whenever bad weather arrives to push people to sea.
And as if he had not disappeared almost 2 days during Vargas, just as Bush now with the New Orleans tragedy. But at least the US leader has the advantage to count on the support of two ex-presidents (Clinton and Bush senior) who came to the White House to account to the nation.
The Venezuelan president accused the US authorities that they did not know that "New Orleans was under sea level". He said that the hurricane was able to lift 30 feet waves and that this was already advertisement enough.
"I saw that in CNN" he admitted. Well, wrong deed because he should have seen it through Telesur ****
notes:
* Venezuelan saying whose translation escapes me. Basically, you should not speak in a home of the skeletons hiding in the closets.
** the "unconditional" that the editorial alludes to is to the gas that Venezuela is sending as help. Which is good, but which alos seems to give Chaevz the idea that he can criticize as he pleases, just becasue of HIS gift, because we can be sure that he sees at HIS gift....
*** Indeed Chavez has made it a major issue of people wanting to kill him without EVER presenting a significant piece of evidence, without ever managing to bring someone to justice. Except, of course, if you consider Pat Roberston inane declarations evidence.
**** Ironic comment of the editor as Telesur is vaunted to replace CNN any time soon in Latin America. If Chavez keeps watching CNN, it says a lot on how little genuine information Telesur is expected to produce…
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Comparison table between two presidential, and administrative, leadership in time of crisis
A comparison of two disasters, but not with the objective to minimize any of them, just to show what each country and its leadership were facing when disaster struck. In other words the objective of this table is to show the reader that Chavez and his administration do not have a leg to stand on when criticizing Bush and his administration actions last week. His remarks are, simply put, ignoble propaganda where Chavez uses the misery of Katrina victims to serve Chavez and Castro's cause. The table represents what is known at the present time and in a few weeks certain elements will not be valid anymore. In both cases the writer does not spare the respective leadership, sort of to even up the playing field. Note: a painstaking chronological order of the events of December 1999 in Venezuela can be found here.
| Event or parameter | Chavez, Venezuela and the 1999 Vargas disaster | Bush, the US and the Katrina 2005 disaster |
| Area affected | Vargas state is a mere 1497 Km2. To this we could add about half of Miranda and Yaracuy for a total of 9 000 Km2 | The delta of the Mississippi and the coastal area of Mississippi state, perhaps as much as 50 000 Km2 |
| The event | Incredible amount of rain | Incredible amount of rain plus a hurricane force 5 when it came on land |
| The people affected | Vargas was the only densely settled area with around 300 000 total people directly affected in all of Venezuela in December 1999 was perhaps 1 million. Mostly poor, mostly African American. | New Orleans alone has around 1.5 million in its metro area. The Mississippi shore line 200 000 . And surrounding cities as far as baton Rouge or Mobile are a few hundred thousand more. Mostly poor, mostly African American. |
| Death toll | Between 10 and 30 thousand. Never quite established as many were washed directly to sea and bodies were recovered as far as Paraguana. No evidence of serious evidence of a thorough government investigation. | N/A. Speculations go as high as 10 000. |
| Destruction | Nearly complete in Vargas. Extensive elsewhere. | New Orleans and Biloxi wiped out. The rest is still coming. |
| Role of the president during the disaster | Chavez disappeared for almost two days and his absence was never quite explained. Numerous speculations abound but no eyewitness has spoken. | Bush was vacationing in Crawford and unaccountably delayed by 48 hours after the end of the hurricane for his first appearance. |
| Evacuation pre disaster | None in spite of dire warnings from in particular the governor of Miranda state, Mendoza. The reason was that a national referendum was scheduled for December 15 and Chavez would not hear of postponing it by a single day. The reasons for such a egomaniacal determination to hold the referendum even in Vargas state remain to be accounted for. | Ample evacuations before the storm struck. People were warned and those who could and wanted did evacuate. But no precautions were taken for those who could not leave. The Superdome was made available but no previsions were made in case people had to stay there for more than the storm. Some simple solutions such as making trains and buses available for free to at least Baton Rouge were not made. |
| The role of the Army | By order of Chavez the Army was dedicated fully to monitor the referendum process. Very few soldiers were immediately available to help in the disaster areas, even those which already were collapsing before Vargas such as in Miranda. It took days for the Venezuelan army to enter in full action, which it did quite well once it could get in gear. | The Iraq War use of resources certainly has played a role in the rescue delay. Still, help has come, and effectively as it arrived. It remains to be examined what part played the Army and National Guard absence. |
| The leader actions | Once they came back, they dirtied themselves. | |
| Prevention | None, though this cannot be blamed on Chavez as none of the previous government had taken notice of the Vargas weather anomaly as a 2-3 times a century occurrence. | Total failure. The vulnerability of New Orleans was well established. Even for a force 3 hurricane. If the federal government is responsible for not allocating the funds to reinforce the levees, the local authorities must be blamed for not establishing adequate evacuation plans. |
| Usage of help offered | Coordination of the received help was poor, at the very least. Venezuela refused US help. This action has been intensely reproached to Chavez and is pointed out in part as the failure of his administration to reopen a viable road network. A significant amount of foreign help never made it to the victims due to customs inefficiency and corruption. Years after containers were found with help that had never been inventoried or distributed. Significant donations from several countries seem to have been misspent, though it seems that the countries have decided to hush the affair as if reflect badly on them too. Still, one wonders where these funds went... | The US has asked for international help and it is flowing. There is at least a central agency, the FEMA that should coordinate all the help and guarantee proper usage of most of it. Still no word as to whether the US will accept Cuban help though it seems that it will accept the gasoline offer from Venezuela. |
| Present status of refugees | In 2005, 6 years after the disaster of Vargas, many of the refugees of Vargas still live in camps, without a job, without hope to return to Vargas as the government actively tries to block their return. Still, many have decided to come back and rebuild shacks in dangerous areas. To this we can add a few thousand from the February 2005 rains! Still, today Vargas refugees are a mostly unsolved problem!!! | Finally they are taken care of. However it should be kept in mind that we are talking of 500 000 from New Orleans without resources and more than a million that just cannot come back home even if they were able to leave with their car and clothes. However the US has an effective system that will take care in a year or two of most of these people, if not as adequately as wished. |
| Recurrence and reconstruction | Already problems there as the bad weather of February 2005 showed that not only Vargas was far from being reconstructed, but the few things done were not adequate, not accounted for, not justifying the huge expenditures already laid upon Vargas. Large scale corruption with the help for Vargas has been repeatedly mentioned without the government taking action or even replacing the suspected culprits, if anything for their sheer inefficiency. | Too early to tell, of course. But we know that force 5 hurricanes will be more frequent. So within a decade we will be fixed on that point. |
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And now the perfect cartoon to summarize it all, the delyrium of the bolibanana revolution.
With KATRINA, the revolution goes forward!
And the ubiquitous propaganda warning logo :-)
"Venezuela, now it belongs to all"
"Venezuela, now it belongs to all"
Sunday, September 04, 2005
Death Penalty in Venezuela
The 1999 constitution, retaking something that already existed in previous constitutions (and I stress the plural here, as some people think that before Chavez Venezuela was in the deepest of the dark ages) declared that the death penalty cannot exist (article 43), that the maximum penalty is actually 30 years in jail (article 44). Well, the facts after 6 years of constitution demonstrate that this one, as in so many of its chapters, is just a lie.Today El Universal publishes a damning article on one ofthe most infamous jails of Venezuela, the one from Yare. Yare also used to have a section where political prisoners were held in relatively more lenient conditions. Chavez among other benefited from such conditions after his failed 1992 coup. There he waited for a trial that never came until then president Caldera decided not to prosecute him, in a case that is mistakenly interpreted as a pardon, but which in reality never established the guilt of Chavez for the dozen of deaths in 1992. That juridical limbo is interpreted by many Chavez apologists as a pardon, or even worse, as a fulfillment of a penalty, a rather obscenely low fulfillment, a couple of years in jail for dozens of people killed or murdered.
One would think that once in office Chavez would have done something about Yare. Either destroy it, or humanize it and make it a monument to his past as a pseudo-political victim. But no, like almost everything else in Venezuela, and dramatically in the case of the judicial and penitentiary system, the Chavez administration has been absolutely negligent, establishing along the way an astounding record of human rights violations.
Describing the horrors of what goes inside jails defies words that can be understood outside of Venezuela. El Universal limits itself at describing how gangs of prisoners, benefiting of the presence of only 7 wardens, have established control on all what takes place in Yare, from food supplies to drug traffic, from who sleeps where and when to who dies when and where. A look at the picture below show clearly the run down aspect of the penitentiary, a place not even fit for rats. A place where you might die of typhoid fever while you wait for your trial, if you are not raped and killed first.
The numbers speak by themselves. How many monthly executions in the US, a country over 10 times the population of Venezuela? How many killed by gang internecine warfare? In the US there have been for 2005 a total of 36 executions as of August 31, barely the Venezuelan monthly average!
To the apologists of the Chavez regime I will remind them that these are the deaths of the poor that Chavez was supposed to help. After almost 7 years of a pro-people regime one would have expected some improvement, no? Please, explain.
As for the uselessly repressive nature of police in Venezuela, the recent editorial of Teodoro Petkoff translated by Miguel says that since Chavez came to office more than 6000 Venezuelans have died in a variety of "confrontations" with the authorities. These "death sentences" do not contemplate the putative innocence of the people shot during those confrontations (look at the recent "Kennedy" case with 3 students just killed as roaches), it does not even consider the right of people to die executed in jail by their cell mates.
I suppose that one way to solve the poverty problem is to kill the poor, and let the poor kill each other.
One would think that once in office Chavez would have done something about Yare. Either destroy it, or humanize it and make it a monument to his past as a pseudo-political victim. But no, like almost everything else in Venezuela, and dramatically in the case of the judicial and penitentiary system, the Chavez administration has been absolutely negligent, establishing along the way an astounding record of human rights violations.
Describing the horrors of what goes inside jails defies words that can be understood outside of Venezuela. El Universal limits itself at describing how gangs of prisoners, benefiting of the presence of only 7 wardens, have established control on all what takes place in Yare, from food supplies to drug traffic, from who sleeps where and when to who dies when and where. A look at the picture below show clearly the run down aspect of the penitentiary, a place not even fit for rats. A place where you might die of typhoid fever while you wait for your trial, if you are not raped and killed first.
Yare, a run down jail, weeds everywhere, dirty and crumbling walls.
But the rate of violent death in Venezuelan jails defies any interpretation. El Universal lists the documented ones since January 2005. Before I give the numbers in the table below, it is essential to point out that the Chavez administration has been administering the jails of Venezuela since February 1999, that is for a full 6 years and a half, a period under which NO SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT CAN BE DETECTED. The table next lists how many people have been murdered in the Venezuelan penitentiary system so far this year. And how many have been injured during fights, attempted murders and the like (not injuries at the workshops or other normal activities, real injuries related to violence). Yare by itself accounts, in spite of all its own horror, for only 12.5% of the total deaths.| Month | Body count | Injuries |
| January | 23 | 43 |
| February | 50 | 53 |
| March | 37 | 54 |
| April | 36 | 23 |
| May | 33 | 53 |
| June | 26 | 50 |
| July | 26 | 81 |
| August | 41 | 76 |
| TOTAL | 272 | 433 |
| Average | 34/month | 54/month |
The numbers speak by themselves. How many monthly executions in the US, a country over 10 times the population of Venezuela? How many killed by gang internecine warfare? In the US there have been for 2005 a total of 36 executions as of August 31, barely the Venezuelan monthly average!
To the apologists of the Chavez regime I will remind them that these are the deaths of the poor that Chavez was supposed to help. After almost 7 years of a pro-people regime one would have expected some improvement, no? Please, explain.
As for the uselessly repressive nature of police in Venezuela, the recent editorial of Teodoro Petkoff translated by Miguel says that since Chavez came to office more than 6000 Venezuelans have died in a variety of "confrontations" with the authorities. These "death sentences" do not contemplate the putative innocence of the people shot during those confrontations (look at the recent "Kennedy" case with 3 students just killed as roaches), it does not even consider the right of people to die executed in jail by their cell mates.
I suppose that one way to solve the poverty problem is to kill the poor, and let the poor kill each other.
The New Orleans post
What else can one add to all what has been said about the Katrina disaster, a natural and human disaster if any? Nothing really besides one's own impressions, of little interest to the world. But a blog is also a personal diary and I will indulge.
Watching the news I could not help but be awed at how precarious civilization is. How one of the most significant cities in the United States, ranking up there in historical and cultural importance only after NY, Philadelphia and Boston, has been basically wiped out by a storm whose disastrous predictions were already well known half a dozen years ago and for which nothing was done. According to an article sent to me, reinforcing the levees 4 years ago would have cost 14 billions. How much will it cost to rebuild New Orleans? Because it must be rebuilt, even at a smaller scale, as a harbor is needed at the end of the Mississippi.
But how come the city of the easy going, where drinks can be had in the streets, which introduced the world to America's greatest cultural offering, Jazz, has returned so fast to the stone age, where survivors are reduced to the status of gatherers while a few hunted for expensive electronics that they had no electricity to plug to. I am not buying the racial excuse. From Venezuela I know quite well that black and white loot with equal efficiency. The poor were left behind when evacuation order were irresponsibly given without previewing that 100 000 people had neither cars nor means to afford transportation. What, not even a few cattle cars? No, the responsibilities lay everywhere. It lays with the Mayor and Governor for not thinking about how to evacuate the more vulnerable Gulf city, from not pushing harder for better levees. It lays with Bush and Clinton and Congress who did not take seriously hurricane danger in spite of Andrew a few years ago. It rests with the people of New Orleans for not electing the folks that would force the issues. It ultimately ends on the black caucus in Congress whose crocodile tears should dry while they wonder how come they had "forgotten" about these Southern relatives now that they haunt the hallways of power in DC. Was there anything wrong with New Orleans African American folks? Where they not Baptist? Did they like to drink a little bit too much? Truly, time to question the American way of life on some issues.
But this is a blog about Venezuela and unfortunately I get even more saddened about the attitude of our public officials. Oh yes, help was offered! But Chavez, conveniently forgetting his Vargas shortcomings and death toll, almost gloated offering that help to the US. His mentor Castro also offered Cuban doctors from an apparently inextinguishable supplies of Cuban doctors, making one wonder if Cuba only produces doctors since there is nothing else to do in that island. And Chavez line to ridicule the US was followed ignobly by a few underlings such as Jaua, the minister of popular economy, a cheap academic that never achieved anything on its own and would be relegated to some dusty classroom if it were not for his devotion to Chavez. His comments mocking US lack of prevision were shown on Globovision a few days ago. Not only they were ignoble and revealing of his lack of humanity, but they also showed a total ignorance on physical and geographical realities that do explain why a hurricane will always be a disaster unless the coasts are empty, at least 20 miles inland. I can forgive that ignorance in Chavez, but not on someone who pretends to a certain intellectual status when in fact he is an empty shell, just good enough to parrot, uncreatively, his master's voice.
But I guess I should not be surprised, hurricane Chavez is passing over Venezuela and our civilization is breaking down.
Watching the news I could not help but be awed at how precarious civilization is. How one of the most significant cities in the United States, ranking up there in historical and cultural importance only after NY, Philadelphia and Boston, has been basically wiped out by a storm whose disastrous predictions were already well known half a dozen years ago and for which nothing was done. According to an article sent to me, reinforcing the levees 4 years ago would have cost 14 billions. How much will it cost to rebuild New Orleans? Because it must be rebuilt, even at a smaller scale, as a harbor is needed at the end of the Mississippi.
But how come the city of the easy going, where drinks can be had in the streets, which introduced the world to America's greatest cultural offering, Jazz, has returned so fast to the stone age, where survivors are reduced to the status of gatherers while a few hunted for expensive electronics that they had no electricity to plug to. I am not buying the racial excuse. From Venezuela I know quite well that black and white loot with equal efficiency. The poor were left behind when evacuation order were irresponsibly given without previewing that 100 000 people had neither cars nor means to afford transportation. What, not even a few cattle cars? No, the responsibilities lay everywhere. It lays with the Mayor and Governor for not thinking about how to evacuate the more vulnerable Gulf city, from not pushing harder for better levees. It lays with Bush and Clinton and Congress who did not take seriously hurricane danger in spite of Andrew a few years ago. It rests with the people of New Orleans for not electing the folks that would force the issues. It ultimately ends on the black caucus in Congress whose crocodile tears should dry while they wonder how come they had "forgotten" about these Southern relatives now that they haunt the hallways of power in DC. Was there anything wrong with New Orleans African American folks? Where they not Baptist? Did they like to drink a little bit too much? Truly, time to question the American way of life on some issues.
But this is a blog about Venezuela and unfortunately I get even more saddened about the attitude of our public officials. Oh yes, help was offered! But Chavez, conveniently forgetting his Vargas shortcomings and death toll, almost gloated offering that help to the US. His mentor Castro also offered Cuban doctors from an apparently inextinguishable supplies of Cuban doctors, making one wonder if Cuba only produces doctors since there is nothing else to do in that island. And Chavez line to ridicule the US was followed ignobly by a few underlings such as Jaua, the minister of popular economy, a cheap academic that never achieved anything on its own and would be relegated to some dusty classroom if it were not for his devotion to Chavez. His comments mocking US lack of prevision were shown on Globovision a few days ago. Not only they were ignoble and revealing of his lack of humanity, but they also showed a total ignorance on physical and geographical realities that do explain why a hurricane will always be a disaster unless the coasts are empty, at least 20 miles inland. I can forgive that ignorance in Chavez, but not on someone who pretends to a certain intellectual status when in fact he is an empty shell, just good enough to parrot, uncreatively, his master's voice.
But I guess I should not be surprised, hurricane Chavez is passing over Venezuela and our civilization is breaking down.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Chavez threatens the US
Well, maybe not with weapons but certainly with oil and ridicule, I should add.
It seems that the Pat Robertson call for murder has been not only a publicity boon for Chavez, but probably the moral booster he needed after weeks of rather lackluster results. This week we got several examples of Chavez at his vulgar best: el vivo que cree que se la comió (1).
First he started offering fuel relief for US poor through Jesse Jackson. Today it was help for Katrina damage (he refused US help in 1999 Vargas disaster which if lesser in scope than Katrina probaly will have caused more deaths, and was certainly not a model in disaster management). And then he moved on to expose Bush incompetence in not managing to evacuate the US coastal area (showing his ignorance on not only the extensive territory that a hurricane covers, but of US habits in such times and what federalism is all about), while pointing out that less developed Cuba had no problem in moving 2 million people a few weeks ago during the last hurricane (which is a very unlikely number that of course cannot be independently verified). And more. Basically Chavez made fun of the US tragedy even as he was offering help. One could not help but sense that Chavez was probably very amused by the suffering experienced in the Gulf states this week.
It also happens that CNN got interested after the Pat spat and sent Lucia Newman do a report on Venezuela. We saw her on CNN at a Venezuelan gas station holding a bottle of water costing incredibly more than the same volume of gas at the pump (2 bucks can fill up your tank these days while 2 bucks barely buy you a gallon of premium bottled water). CNN also did an interview of Chavez that came out today on CNN Latin America. Chavez among many inanities stated that "Venezuelan intelligence" had discovered plans for an US invasion to Venezuela, with even the schedule of bombers raid or something of the sort. The US will take the oil regions and do this and that. But of course the Venezuelan army is getting ready for that; Vietnam and Iraq will be chicken feed in comparison to the hell that awaits the Marines in Venezuela.
But hold on for a minute! Venezuelan Intelligence got that plan from the Pentagon? Is this the same intelligence that has yet to break the Danilo Anderson case? OR that ignored the whereabouts of Montesinos for months while he was hiding in Venezuela? OR the military intelligence that has failed to tell us what happened to the burnt soldiers of Fort Mara? OR the Granda guerilla chief having set up house in Venezuela and even voting? OR the longer and longer delays on the executed students case investigations where we will never know who gave the order to shoot them? OR so many other cases where military and chavista interests risked been touched and thus the investigations dossiers ended up in some dusty back room drawers to rot until kingdom comes. The nerve! Gimme a break!
But the glee of Chavez could not be held during that interview. It was despicable for his opportunism, and grievous for us to see that he thinks that we are stupid enough to believe his tall tales. Or are his followers that stupid?
But I think that the only one stupid here is Chavez. I bet anything that some military and Cuban "intelligence" concocted some crappy invasion plans and made it pass for real intelligence discoveries. As Milagros Socorro wrote so eloquently a couple of months ago, the one that is in prison these days is Chavez, losing contact with reality, entrusting himself more and more to a small camarilla that manipulates all the info he gets while they pursue some dark agenda. And that, my friends, is the real danger.
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(1) Slang term difficult to translate properly. Describes malicious characters that get away with murder through their trickery and chutzpah.
It seems that the Pat Robertson call for murder has been not only a publicity boon for Chavez, but probably the moral booster he needed after weeks of rather lackluster results. This week we got several examples of Chavez at his vulgar best: el vivo que cree que se la comió (1).
First he started offering fuel relief for US poor through Jesse Jackson. Today it was help for Katrina damage (he refused US help in 1999 Vargas disaster which if lesser in scope than Katrina probaly will have caused more deaths, and was certainly not a model in disaster management). And then he moved on to expose Bush incompetence in not managing to evacuate the US coastal area (showing his ignorance on not only the extensive territory that a hurricane covers, but of US habits in such times and what federalism is all about), while pointing out that less developed Cuba had no problem in moving 2 million people a few weeks ago during the last hurricane (which is a very unlikely number that of course cannot be independently verified). And more. Basically Chavez made fun of the US tragedy even as he was offering help. One could not help but sense that Chavez was probably very amused by the suffering experienced in the Gulf states this week.
It also happens that CNN got interested after the Pat spat and sent Lucia Newman do a report on Venezuela. We saw her on CNN at a Venezuelan gas station holding a bottle of water costing incredibly more than the same volume of gas at the pump (2 bucks can fill up your tank these days while 2 bucks barely buy you a gallon of premium bottled water). CNN also did an interview of Chavez that came out today on CNN Latin America. Chavez among many inanities stated that "Venezuelan intelligence" had discovered plans for an US invasion to Venezuela, with even the schedule of bombers raid or something of the sort. The US will take the oil regions and do this and that. But of course the Venezuelan army is getting ready for that; Vietnam and Iraq will be chicken feed in comparison to the hell that awaits the Marines in Venezuela.
But hold on for a minute! Venezuelan Intelligence got that plan from the Pentagon? Is this the same intelligence that has yet to break the Danilo Anderson case? OR that ignored the whereabouts of Montesinos for months while he was hiding in Venezuela? OR the military intelligence that has failed to tell us what happened to the burnt soldiers of Fort Mara? OR the Granda guerilla chief having set up house in Venezuela and even voting? OR the longer and longer delays on the executed students case investigations where we will never know who gave the order to shoot them? OR so many other cases where military and chavista interests risked been touched and thus the investigations dossiers ended up in some dusty back room drawers to rot until kingdom comes. The nerve! Gimme a break!
But the glee of Chavez could not be held during that interview. It was despicable for his opportunism, and grievous for us to see that he thinks that we are stupid enough to believe his tall tales. Or are his followers that stupid?
But I think that the only one stupid here is Chavez. I bet anything that some military and Cuban "intelligence" concocted some crappy invasion plans and made it pass for real intelligence discoveries. As Milagros Socorro wrote so eloquently a couple of months ago, the one that is in prison these days is Chavez, losing contact with reality, entrusting himself more and more to a small camarilla that manipulates all the info he gets while they pursue some dark agenda. And that, my friends, is the real danger.
--- --- --- --- --- ---
(1) Slang term difficult to translate properly. Describes malicious characters that get away with murder through their trickery and chutzpah.
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