Chavez concept of democracy: not applicable

(with two addenda)

I think it might be better to start by what could be the conclusion of an article bearing such title: Chavez does not believe, and less understands, what democracy is all about. But this is something that wizened readers of this blog have long known. So, why come back to beat on a dead horse? Because it is always fun to describe how often Chavez reveals himself and how often people are willing to make excuses for him (though admittedly this seems to happen with increasing difficulty).

A few things did happen recently that show how much contempt Chavez has for democracy. In no particular order.

First there was that scandalous attack of his henchman, Caracas Mayor at Large Barreto. The way he treated his other Caracas mayors colleagues, duly elected officials with actually more legitimate claims than Barreto has to his own chair, showed clearly of what caliber the rabble that follows Chavez is made of. No need to revisit this issue except to remind folks of the fascism in the rank and file of chavismo. Note, not all chavistas are fascists, but it seems that this number is increasing steadily, at least in view that Barreto is still in office in spite of such unacceptable postures.

Then of course was the now infamous UN speech where Chavez freely insulted another head of state. No matter what Bush has done and how richly he might be deserving of such insults, that was not the time and place to vent such anger and put up such a display in clownish bad taste. Even some of Chavez supporters in the US, true blue liberal democrats, stated that IN THE US it was not for Chavez to insult the US president, that US citizens were the only ones at home allowed to do so, thank you very much. But the true meaning of that UN bad joke was the now uninhibited desire of Chavez to occupy front pages. In this, he richly succeeded; the world has been talking about the break of diplomatic rules which serves for only further weakening of the UN, quite debilitated by itself. In fact, if anything, Chavez has been strengthening the hand of those within the US who want the US out of the UN and the UN pout of New York. But then again as a true fascist, for all its hypocrite statements of reinforcing the UN, Chavez does not want anything more but to kill it once and for all as the UN could well some day turn its gaze over Venezuela. Anyone who thinks that Chavez is genuinely trying to improve UN effectiveness is self delusional.

At any rate, the US government has a golden opportunity to show what democracy is all about when it finally crafts a reply to Chavez insults. I am not holding my breath.

But something quite telling also happened. In state TV, VTV, there is a late night show which dedicates itself to only two things: 1) character assassination of anyone opposing Chavez, Castro and chavismo and 2) outrageous defense of the indefensible. I am talking of course of “La Hojilla” a show that I have not had the stomach to watch ever in its integrity. Let’s just say that a show that uses a bust of El Che and political posters of dubious message as its décor cannot possibly be trusted on anything it says. In fact, if any private channel TV were to broadcast a show of such nature but against chavista ideas I would bet anything that he network would have been speedily fined, if not closed. But I digress.

At any rate, Chavez who seems to have settled for a virtual TV studio campaign (Rosales is bravely going to places where Chavez does not go anymore) did grace La Hojilla with his voice. I did not watch the show, nor excerpts as I was out of the country, but the echoes reached me, in particular an article on that subject from Alfredo Barrera Tyszka that I have posted in Spanish in my document section (1). Suffice to say that Chavez used of an extremely vulgar saying to refer as to what he was about going to do to the opposition candidates. In fact, it was not only vulgar but it is profoundly immature as only hormonal teenagers might use that “game”. It is called “jugar rojo” play red. It is a silly rhyme who basically means that if you accept to play you have to bend over to get fucked. (“rojo/cojo”). That a president of the republic uses such a language as to what he will do when he plays politics with opposition is demeaning, sordid, unsuitable, vile and what not.

Should I even remind readers of the charges of homophobia that I have reported more than once from chavismo, as early as the Maisanta campaign of 2004? How appropriate to put everything together, including the profound misogyny and primal machismo of Chavez and some of his cohorts…

So, dear reader, all is there: such a person cannot be a democrat because simply he has no respect for the ideas of other people, because he is willing to do anything, say anything, to gain advantage, to eliminate his opponent.

The basic rule of democracy, for those who still harbor doubts, is the respect of minority rights to make sure that the minority always gets a chance one day to become a majority. Do I need to elaborate further?

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1) I am not sure that Chavez said these words in La Hojilla. From the context of Barrera text I assumed it but I could not find an exact reference. I will appreaciate any reader bringing the exact reference, though the participation of Chavez in VTV to utter such words is not to be questioned.

Addendum: Miguel sent me an article confirming that the scene took place at La Hojilla. It is the editorial of Tal Cual who wonders duly as to the democratic concept that is inexistant in Chavez where screwing the opposition is all that matters. It also puts squarely the blame for recent political violence to the words of Chavez which can only be an incitement to violence pepetration by his followers (see Rosales multiple campaign agression).

Addendum 2: El Universal this Sunday carries two important articles on this "rojo" thing. One is from Manuel Caballero who muses about the language of thugs and ruffians. In other words, the true Chavez coming out at the UN. And the other is a delightful, and of course untranslatable, sonnet by Oswaldo Paéz-Pumar. Maybe not great poetry but a wonderful criticism of the inherent homophobia and undercalss machismo within chavismo.

Jugar rojo

Afirmó el Presidente
degradando el gentilicio
que practicará el vicio
sodomita en el presente.

Dice su mensaje abyecto,
propio en la revolución,
que es con la oposición
que realizará el proyecto.

Pero son sus camaradas
los de fama bien ganada
en el closet escondidos.

Ante ese inconveniente
le habló su subconsciente
y habrá un solo partido.

Chavez at the UN, Ahminadejerk in Caracas

Well, finally able to connect and I am finding my mail box full of notes and even for the comment section as to Chavez prestation on the UN. Unfortunately I have little to say: I was back in German speaking areas and thus I could not follow the reactions. However I could see that the crossing of Chavez was played over, and also the rather spare attendance at the UN for chavez speech. CNN of course was more talkative, but CNN does not count much on this type of stuff.

The best is from Clinton who said something like that: "he does not hurt us, he only hurts himself and Venezuela".

Nothing else needs to be added.

Of more interest was the visit of the Iranian president in Venezuela. That did raise a few eyebrows in Europe. If to this you add Chavez crossing himself at the UN, then I can speculate that Chavez stock in Europe went down a further notch: these type of hystrionics do not go down well in Europe. Then again the target of Chavez is not Europe, it is LatAm. It has been a long time that more rational Europe has ceased to be a field of opportunity for Chavez, except for a few wackos like Ken in London. We'll see....

A postcard

Thus for one day I left my hideaway to enjoy the wonders of French civilization. Let's see if one reader can guess where I was :)

No particular agenda in this picture, except perhaps the antipodal image of Venezuela. Such culture and gentility as expressed in this street scene in the downtown of the given city is unthinkable of in Venezuela where buhoneros and dirt would make it impossible to have well preserved monuments and open air cafes. But heck, does Chavez care? He is locked up in Miraflores where an army of servants makes sure he enjoys all the creature's comfort.... While the rest of us must fend off garbage and clogged sidewalks. Not to mention that the glass of that public clock would have been long broken, time standing still in Venezuela.

Does Chavez care about Darfur?

Thus it is raining heavily in my little corner of France, and besides eating delicious food there is nothing else to do but turn on TV and watch talk shows. The one that interested me this afternoon was on how to wake up Europe as to the Darfur tragedy. Apparently some in France are embarrassed that Hollywood, led by such luminaries as George Clooney, is well advanced on waking up international opinion on the Darfur genocide (yes, it looks that this word is about to apply). Somewhere along the line I was wondering whether Chavez knows about Darfur, a good opportunity for him to properly use the word genocide. After all, lately he was in Africa, more than once, visiting sub-Saharan countries. But learning about the arrival of Iranian president Ahmadinejerk in Venezuela and how diligently Chavez is courting Islamic extremism, I suspect that Chaevz could not care less about the Islamic power in Khartum massacring the rebellious distant province. I suppose also that the bimbo left that supports Chavez does not care much about the Darfur. There goes, once again, the ethics on that side.

The talk show being over I decided, since now it was rather late to go for a walk, to check El Universal, for the first time in almost two weeks. After all, it might be a good idea to prepare my re-immersion in the Venezuelan hellhole.

The first news was that Ahmadinejerk is visiting Venezuela. Apparently at the fake non aligned summit of Havanna Chavez has tried to convince the guys to vote for him for a UN security council. I am starting to suspect that the sudden support of some morally bankrupt countries is probably due to the fact that Venezuela in the UN will certainly not be the country sponsoring intervention in Darfur type of situations. And trust me on that one, too many countries have a lot to hide on human rights. But it could even get worse at the UN if Venezuela gets a seat: today Chaevz has simply decided that he will not recognize Calderon as Mexican president, preparing Mexico for a permanent break with Venezuela. Talk about non interference at the UN! Not to mention that Chavez has much worse electoral crimes to account for than Mexico. But then again ethics have long gone from the Venezuela folks in charge at Miraflores.

However one thing has to be said for Chavez UN quest: if he gets reelected Venezuela will look everyday more like on of those one party, for life president as many of the countries about to support Chavez, countries that try very hard to erase the word "democracy" from the everyday lingo. Roberto Guisti regales us with the perfect article on the unitarian follies of Chavez: the tropical march to totalitarianism.

But all this self confidence of Chavez seems a little bit hollow if you ask me. The historian in this blogger has seen too many bombastic leaders, bloating up before their final burst. Or as the saying goes: Dios ciega a los que quiere perder (the good lord blinds those he wants to lose). Indeed, poll wars have started. I have announced for a long time that polls are useless in Venezuela since 2004. The more that can be said of them is that they might show a trend. And the trend shown is on a continuous increase of Rosales and a relative weakening of Chavez. The electoral situation is definitely tightening and that is clearly seen in chavismo tactics (1). You doubt my words? Read on the latest aggression against the Rosales campaign! Besides the fascistic element that now characterizes most of chavista actions these days, anyone with half a brain knows full well that a political party that feels the winds helping it does not need to resort to such disgraceful tactics.

Definitely, if Chavez does not care about democracy and his people, he certainly will not care about Darfur. Shame on him! Then again, readers of this blog have long known that Chavez only cares about himself.

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PS: Well, Miguel did blew it. He caught the interview I had with the Evening Standard from London. Shows you that this blogger cannot even hide in France where he might be tracked by responsible journalists trying to call upon Ken Linvingston and Chavez unholy alliance.

1) Keller, my favorite pollster, has a study on focus group that is more worrisome for Chavez than any opinion poll: the political language is fast moving away of the discourse that Chavez wants to impose on the election.

Sweet things on the road: Castro out (or is it outed?) in France

One of the advantage of taking a few days off in some remote area of France (yes, France has remote areas where you even need a boat to get to the closest railway station) is that you get to observe from close the natives. You also get to live like them, always a gustatory feast in France. And you also get to watch TV since after 8 PM, well, there is nothing to do besides getting drunk in the lone open “bar-tabac”.

Thus I did watch a little bit of TV and I was richly rewarded. On Channel 5 a couple of nights ago there was a talk show (an important one I was told) on Cuba and Castro. There were 4 guests. Two were luminaries of the anti Castro movement, and lo’ and behold they came with impeccable liberal/social democrat credentials. Well, at least one of them, Elizabeth Burgos. She is from Venezuela and settled long ago in Paris where in addition to denounce the Cuban dictatorship from a leftist perspective, she has become one of the staunchest and most articulate critics of Chavez, exposing clearly that his only aim is to install a personal dictatorship. Married to Regis Debray, the French guy that went to spend time in Bolivia with Che, she certainly cannot be accused of being a right winger! Not to mention that she is the journalist that made Rigoberta Menchu by writing her biography through interviews (a must read, by the way).

The other luminary was Serge Raffy, author of a much talked book in France, “Castro l’infidèle” which is a devastating biography on Castro, showing clearly the ruin dictator he has always been. I have seen the book in stores and it is a huge book, still selling since 2003, still on the front shelves, and all in spite of its heft.

The other two I did not know of, but one is an exiled Cuban who has made an academic career in France battling the romantic left and the last one a journalist that did not have any kind word for the Ramonet crowd.

But all of these details are not important: the major point, the deliciously significant point, is that the host had not bothered inviting someone to take the counter argument, to try to place a kind word on Castro. This is not the France I knew 30 years ago where it was difficult to have your audience understand what we already knew in LatAm, that Castro was just another dictator. Opinion has evolved so much in France that pro Castro jerks are not invited (or perhaps do not dare to show up?).

By the same token of course, I could observe that the image of Chavez is taking a nose dive in France. I even met common folks that knew little on Venezuela but were able to express clearly doubts on Chavez. You cannot befriend Iran or Cuba without suffering dire consequences. Now that Al Qaeda has put France officially in the hit list, it is interesting to speculate how long will France continue to toy the ambiguity line: obviously after Chavez seizing Total assets in Venezuela or Al Qaeda targeting French civilians, it might be time for the French wishy-washy successive governments to wake up and smell the coffee: appeasement never works. At least the intellectuals are starting to wake up.

I do not know how all of this will help Venezuela get rid of Chavez, but surely it cannot hurt our just cause.

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PS: there also magazines that one can pick up around such as the conservative “Valeurs actuelles” of September 8. There the criticism goes further, as expected. But what is new is the clear worry about a possible Chavez “succession” in Cuba. The other thing which is now obvious to Europeans (we in LatAm had known about it long ago) is the militaristic nature of the Cuban regime. I translate two sentences:

“IT is Venezuela’s petrodollars …which allow the communist nomenklatura to line up its pockets”

“Support of the regime, the army (55 000) is imbedded in the system. Generals are rich and powerful men. This privileged caste will do anything to preserve its takings.”

Obviously, from right to left, the thinking people of France are not buying the Castro-chavismo. We will leave it to Ken Livingston to keep making a fool of itself, although like Ramonet he is certainly cashing in...

On Hugo Chávez’s campaign proposals, foie gras and a planet called Iris.

Dear readers, after the harsh treatment I received in Miguel’s blog and my wife’s bugging complaints about my intensive ghost blogging I decided to retire for a while. But now that I have heard that Tom Hanks Daniel has been lost in the jungle of complicated European airports, I will help him once in a while, at least until he finds his way out of Paris Airport.

Daniel, if you read this, I hope that I will get a nice tin of foie gras in return, just go straight to the first floor, right beside the silk scarves store where they also sell the huge brie cheeses, you cannot miss it.

A tin of foie gras … 50 Euros, a devoted ghost blogger with a tomatoes section….priceless…

Yes, yes, they do accept Venezuelan Master Cards.

Back to the post…

The presidential campaign is now in full swing. Rosales has been visiting the barrios, being bashed in Quico’s blog, defended in the Suffolk vampire blog and, more importantly, being attacked twice by what looked like a bunch of Chavez’s followers.

Chávez, on the other hand, after visiting Beloroussia, Angola, Cuba, Siria, Iran, Cuba, The North Pole, Tibet and Cuba came back to La Havana…sorry, to Caracas, with some interesting ideas for his presidential campaign. I have been compiling his proposals to offer them to the readers. Here they are:

1.- He called for a Revocatory referendum to remove Manuel Rosales from the Zulia government office. This is quite an interesting and creative initiative, it is exactly the type of proposal everyone was waiting for, in particular the Zulia voters that were the only ones in Venezuela to elect over and over a non-Chavista governor.

2.- He called for a Revocatory referendum in 2010 with a question on revoking his mandate, and another question on allowing eternal reelection. Daniel had an interesting insight on the issue (see here) whereas Bruni got a link on what Chávez really said and explains the tricky details of the proposed “double jeopardy” (see here).

3.- He asked his followers to unify into a single party that will be the party of the people of Venezuela. He received the approval of his mentor Fidel who said that Chávez created an “indestructible” model. His devoted fan Mari Pili Hernández already has a name for the party: “Partido Socialista de Venezuela”.

5.- He suggested that on September 11, the WTC was bombed and that there was some kind of conspiracy behind the terrorist acts that should be looked into…I guess that the planes we were watching on TV that day were really an Oliver Stone film.

6.- He led a ferocious battle for a spot on the UN security council that thanks to the new game “Where in the world is Hugo Chávez?”, Venezuela has almost won.

7.- I cannot find anything else…yes, I know I am a lazy ghost but frankly, I have tried hard and I am running out of Chavez’s promises…

Unless…

Mr. President, did you realize that Pluto is no longer a planet? That the oligarchy of the previous solar system is gone forever? Have you heard that there is a small planet called “Iris”? Yes, Iris… Hugo? No, there are no Hugo planets…not yet…

…so now we got the next proposal for the Venezuelan Presidential Campaign!

Reporting from Cyberspace,

Jorge Arena

Your friendly ghost.

From some airport (Paris as it turns out)

Thus I left Vienna for my next mystery destination. Traveling through Europe is an increasing ordeal (or am I getting too old for this?) It seems that the high price of Europe has left Asian tourists undeterred (LatAm tourists are dwindling, at least percentage wise it seems). If to this you add the increasing numbers of Chinese, you can imagine that having to switch planes through the Paris airports has long ceased to be a fun activity. In fact, even the food looked better in Vienna or Frankfurt though the Rhubarb tart I had was out of this world.

And speaking of China. To entertain these long hours of boredom in so many airports I finally started reading a book I bought a couple of months ago: “Cuentos Chinos” (1) by Andres Oppenheimer, the noted Miami LatAm journalist. Although the schedule has allowed me to make it barely through the first quarter in a week, it is definitely a must read for those of you who can get your hands on it. It does have a cleansing approach to current world trends and clichés, merciless against Chavez among other things. Andres O. never bought Chavez Chinese Tales, and today he has even less reasons to buy the bolibanana revolution.

His chapter on China is something to behold, in particular in the light of Chavez recent much ballyhooed trip to China. I would not qualify Andres of visionary but the words he wrote a few months ago are all but completely verified a far as Venezuela is concerned. In short, there is nothing honest in the “rapprochement” between Venezuela and China (or China and LatAm for that matter). The same neo-colonial system is maintained except that instead of selling raw goods to the US they are now selling it to China without any more LatAm industrialization than with the US. In fact, the little bit that would come from the China deals is stuff that would allow China to export through LatAm to the US in case the US restricts Chinese direct imports some day.

But it gets worse: the “alliance” offered by China to LatAm is way more than a Trojan horse. In facts it reeks of unholyness. Indeed, what China wants is less Human rights criticism of its policies at the UN and of course Latin America is already obliging. China wants to promote the one party state model in a capitalist system whereas LatAm, or at least some of it, do not mind caudillos with or without capitalism. Indeed Chavez should be in hog heaven with China. And all is happening: China is building Venezuelan railroads, digging oil wells, in short becoming the next exploiter of Venezuelan natural resources. Chavez could not be more happier if he could get around to control all media and political activity the way Beijing does, and I am sure that Beijing will oblige as much as it can. The only catch here is how will Chavez convince Venezuelans to work 12 hours day and live at the factory for the paychecks of a Chinese workers…

But there is only so much reading one can do in an airport. Thus I went for a long walk and bookstore hunting. One can never fail to be impressed by the richness of European newsstands. There are magazines for EVERYTHING, and usually several offerings on the subject. In a small one I counted 3 magazines dedicated to classical music, 5 to history, 3 to biking (and some to moto motocross and all terrain stuff), etc, etc… There were even three gay magazines prominently displayed, one a very glossy production on gay traveling for the boys in France (note, I did not see a Lesbian magazine but I am pretty sure I missed it). I mean, even US magazine stands pale in comparison. Vienna stands were equally stuffed but since it was in German I could not assess.

Then off to my waiting area where as usual I found for free on a table the latest Le Monde and Le Figaro issues. Le Figaro had as a title the opening of the non aligned conference in Havana, noting that none of the Castro’s boys were at the inauguration. I fail to be impressed by that piece of news since my first reaction was: “How come Le Figaro cares about a pseudo non aligned gathering? Isn’t it everyone pro or against the US?” But let’s not dwell in this pleasant archaism: while having a San Pellegrino water I read further to find out that the expected stars of the non aligned nations summit where expected to be Iran, Syria and Venezuela, in that order in Le Figaro. I will pass on the possible wish for alphabetical ordering in Cartesian French journalists but I will insist of the lack of political acumen for Le Figaro journalist not to question the non aligned definition when it is difficult to find three more aligned presidents as this threesome from hell. But I suppose it was a slow news week end in Paris.

And thus I stop this note as finally after hours of wait they are opening the gate for my next destination. Note: wireless is rare and awfully expensive in Paris airport. Who knows when I will be able to post this note.

1) Tall tales? In Latin America “cuentos chinos” (Chinese tales) means that the tale is not even worth of gossip status, that it is just a work of true fiction.