This book title form Cuban writer Reynaldo Arenas is from one book that has perturbed me since I read it first. The autobiography of sorts of a gay Cuban writer who welcomed naively the arrival of Castro and the sexual liberation of those earlier days, until the regime became the repressive puritanical bastion still expiring today. If it is definitely one of the best books on the Cuban revolutionary reality, it is also one of the best books, for its flaws since it was written in a rush before arenas died, on how a regime, any regime, becomes an oppression.
Tonight I will wait patiently until midnight, to watch the RCTV signal go out. Not because I particularly liked RCTV: I am a cable person, Animal Planet, History channel and the mindless entertainment of Sony or Warner Channels are my cup of tea. No, I will wait because tonight, at midnight we, Venezuelans, as a a people will lose freedom of information, and most of our freedom of expression. It is historical and the historian in me cannot help but live it.
I do not care about what comes next on the #2 Hertzian wavelengths: as soon as darkness falls on RCTV I will turn off the TV and go to bed. TeVes will be a fiasco because the government will never grant it the freedom of becoming a Latin American BBC. It id not do it with VTV, it did not do it with ViVe, it did not do it with ANTV, it did not do it with TeleSur. It certainly will not do it with the new monstrosity coming to pollute our broadcast ranges. If there is anything that chavismo has amply demonstrated is that it does not have the personnel to make great TV. It will never have it because the chavismo system cannot sponsor creativity, which is based on criticism. Great art is always based on criticism, on art criticism, and political criticism. Besides, if truth be told, Chavez does not care whether TeVes is good or not, he only cares about shutting up the dissent of RCTV.
But I am not pessimistic tonight. Chavez will pay a heavy price for this closing. Even the shootings of CONATEL this afternoon can be blamed on him even if the bullets come from the opposition side. Who shot within the opposition? Could it even be a chavista obeying orders and hiding in the crowd? And if it were an opposition radical, why has s/he been radicalized to that extreme? Can the government plead innocence after the extraordinary verbal aggression it has subjected the country for weeks of cadena after cadena to insult whomever does not agree with Chavez? Violence is inevitable and it comes as much from the insulted and dispossessed oppo guy as from the chavista guy whipped irresponsibly into frenzy by Chavez and his lackeys. What can you expect when the vice president says that whomever defends RCTV is a mercenary? Is it not a license for chavista to shoot such people? Is it not a license for those aggressed to shoot before they are shot at? The ones that must go on trial here no matter who gets a bullet are Rodriguez, Chavez, Lara and their helpers.
But more importantly, and a consolation of sorts for me, is the intensity of the international response to the closing of RCTV. Anyone who is anybody in the world has either condemned Chavez or at least remained silent, and definitely refused to support Chavez. Only a few, a surprisingly very few, have come out to support Chavez and they have no credit anyway. You can see it everywhere, from the desperate and ridiculous accusations of Minister Lara today to comment sections at Publius Pundit from pro Chavez Anglos losing their grip on things. Indeed, one from that side should be pissed off: 6 months of intense propaganda and you get editorials such as the one from Le Monde. Millions of dollars in paid services gone to waste, thousands of hours of "grass root" working for naught. The world is unto Chavez, and them, and they know it.
Yes, it is a small consolation but it is an important one. Chavez has lost any respectability he might still have had, and there is nothing he can do to recover it. When, say, Mugabe or Fujimori did this sort of things, they stopped been received where it mattered. Their regime started to unravel as they started losing the respect of their people even if those for a variety of reasons kept voting for them at first. And we know all that Chavez pins for international stages. Many will be denied him now.
A new fight starts tomorrow and I am full of energy for it because now the people who matter in the world, those who think, those who create, those who feel, are on my side. To those readers that are still bearing up with me tonight, who are probably quite depressed, do not be depressed. Our fight is going to become easier intellectually and emotionally though not materially: we will finally start being heard all around, Chavez mask is begin lifted. Oh, he is far from gone, but for the first time his image is seriously dented and there is no telling how such chipping evolves.
So maybe we are at the hour where darkness falls on us, but light can only come after darkness. Reynaldo Arena escaped Cuba. Cuba will escape Castro and Venezuela will escape Chavez. Someday, you can count on it. And we might have reached that road tonight!
-The end-
Monday, May 28, 2007
The countdown to RCTV closing
[regularly updated]
The hours are tense and spirits frayed. The Metropolitan police is becoming aggressive, protesters also.
The government keeps up its increasing inanities. Foreign and national condemnations keep arriving and chavismo can only speak of an international conspiracy. If there is such a conspiracy then it is truly impressive as can be seen from this link who only reports the main ones.
Threats are emitted by the government. The stupidity and nervousness of certain of Chavez lackeys such as Maria Alejandra Diaz is amazing as they openly threaten to close for 72 hours Globovision while the whole world is watching the closing of RCTV.
Tension rises as the country is turning at midnight yet another page in its descent to hell. Those who actively support the closing of RCTV and the end of freedom of information should remember that such crimes can be prosecuted as long as they will be alive.
This blogger will be sued by William Lara, the unqualifiable minister of the popular power for information, a.k.a. propaganda ministry. The man had the temerity to say today that any media that says that RCTV is closed by the government will be sued because we are lying. The interesting thing in that accusation is that even reading the words of Lara is enough to realize that the man is losing his wits, that the knows he lost the propaganda war and thus, in true fascist form, he is getting ready to shoot the messengers by punishing them. I love it, IN FRONT of the eyes of the world!
At 7PM, Marcel Granier is on TV with a statement and followed by a press conference.
It is 9 PM and the press conference was great. Granier told all what is wrong with the Chavez administration. He is now threading into direct politics. Chavez is creating him. Astounding.
Even in San Felipe we are hearing sirens and pot banging. But very little, we are always weeks behind Caracas. It is actually surprising that I hear some!
-The end-
The hours are tense and spirits frayed. The Metropolitan police is becoming aggressive, protesters also.
The government keeps up its increasing inanities. Foreign and national condemnations keep arriving and chavismo can only speak of an international conspiracy. If there is such a conspiracy then it is truly impressive as can be seen from this link who only reports the main ones.
Threats are emitted by the government. The stupidity and nervousness of certain of Chavez lackeys such as Maria Alejandra Diaz is amazing as they openly threaten to close for 72 hours Globovision while the whole world is watching the closing of RCTV.
Tension rises as the country is turning at midnight yet another page in its descent to hell. Those who actively support the closing of RCTV and the end of freedom of information should remember that such crimes can be prosecuted as long as they will be alive.
This blogger will be sued by William Lara, the unqualifiable minister of the popular power for information, a.k.a. propaganda ministry. The man had the temerity to say today that any media that says that RCTV is closed by the government will be sued because we are lying. The interesting thing in that accusation is that even reading the words of Lara is enough to realize that the man is losing his wits, that the knows he lost the propaganda war and thus, in true fascist form, he is getting ready to shoot the messengers by punishing them. I love it, IN FRONT of the eyes of the world!
At 7PM, Marcel Granier is on TV with a statement and followed by a press conference.
It is 9 PM and the press conference was great. Granier told all what is wrong with the Chavez administration. He is now threading into direct politics. Chavez is creating him. Astounding.
Even in San Felipe we are hearing sirens and pot banging. But very little, we are always weeks behind Caracas. It is actually surprising that I hear some!
-The end-
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Le Monde against Chavez
Taking my coffee this morning I was treated to the Le Monde editorial of Saturday, with very extraordinary words against Chavez. An editorial nothing less. A Le Monde editorial has more influence in the world at large, with foreign offices, with intellectuals, than any editorial of any US or UK newspaper. For all its problems and failings, Le Monde is still one of the greatest papers, and always one of the special treats for those lucky enough to visit France and hold in their hands the light paper, read its tight font, enjoy the literary style of Le Monde. This is not a paper written for the masses, it is a paper deliberately written for the intelligentsia of the world. I could venture to say that this Editorial of Le Monde, which I translate below, is perhaps more damaging to Chavez in the long run than the EU or the US Senate resolution. Because more than any other paper, even London's Guardian, Le Monde is the reference of the democratic and sensible left. And it has a nifty way to link to its articles :)
Below my translation, followed by very briefs comments:
President Hugo Chavez ordered the disappearance of Radio Caracas Television (RCTV), the principal television operator of Venezuela. Friday May 25, the army received the order of the Supreme Court [TSJ] to take the control of the buildings and installations of RCTV, in order to “ensure a serene transition” with the official chain which will replace it.
The non-renewal of the concession of RCTV, created fifty-three years, deprives a popular public of its favorite programs. Serials, spectacles and humor constitute the essence of its programming. The identification with these programs encouraged part of the abandoned elements of Venezuelan society to express their complaints with the authorities via the microphones and cameras of RCTV. This role an echo chamber for their dissatisfactions undoubtedly annoyed the Chavez government as much than the programs of information and opinion devoted to the opposition.
None the charges carried by the president against RCTV, in connection with his role in the missed coup of 2002 or the oil strike of 2003, was the subject of a debate in front of a court. The Supreme Court was solicited by RCTV whereas Mr. Chavez had already announced his decision, irrevocable. This political decision reduced pluralism and increases the concentration of audio-visual tools within the hands of the government. Whatever the administrative or legal arguments called upon by the president, it is a hard blow carried against the freedom of expression in Venezuela.
The replacement of a private chain which was open to the opposition by a public chain circumstantially created piece meal is presented by the state power like “a democratization of the media”. The government controlled already several chains and had gained by various means the favors of the majority of the others. Following the disappearance of RCTV of the hertzian waves, Monday May 28, there will not remain but one opposition chain, whose [open] signal does not go beyond Caracas and whose audience is negligible.
In December 2006, neither RCTV nor the opposition prevented the re-election of president Chavez with nearly 63% of the voices. The National Assembly, where the totality of the elected officials are acquired to him, became a simple registration room. The Head of the State moreover made a point of benefiting from special capacities allowing him to legislate. Justice does not dare to contradict the executive and does not escape the generalized corruption.
The independence of powers does not exist any more in Venezuela. The opposition fears that, after the media, the president will proceed in a similar way towards the trade unions, the nongovernmental organizations or the political parties. With Mr. Chavez, the Venezuelan democracy is threatened.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Just to make things clear: this is not Le Monde Diplomatique which is another paper that has nothing to do with Le Monde anymore but which managed to retain the title wording for the obvious publicity advantage. Le Monde Diplomatique is a mercenary paper through its director Ignacio Ramonet who has no problem flying to Caracas to support his master, widely murmured to have paid for the Paris new headquarters of that yellow racket.
Le Monde is a very serious paper who people critical of its editorial line read anyway. I remember even a picture of Chirac reading Le Monde in the railway during one of his campaigns. It is also a paper that endorsed Segolene Royal in the recent elections, so there is no way to corner it as a right wing paper, paid for by Bush or any other inanity that the chavista crowd might want to use to disqualify it. You would be hard pressed to find kind words for Bush in Le Monde.
At any rate, such an editorial assures that the next French government that comes from the June legislative elections will not be a friend of Chavez. And as yet another public relations disaster for Chavez, it ranks way up.
-The end-
Below my translation, followed by very briefs comments:
President Hugo Chavez ordered the disappearance of Radio Caracas Television (RCTV), the principal television operator of Venezuela. Friday May 25, the army received the order of the Supreme Court [TSJ] to take the control of the buildings and installations of RCTV, in order to “ensure a serene transition” with the official chain which will replace it.
The non-renewal of the concession of RCTV, created fifty-three years, deprives a popular public of its favorite programs. Serials, spectacles and humor constitute the essence of its programming. The identification with these programs encouraged part of the abandoned elements of Venezuelan society to express their complaints with the authorities via the microphones and cameras of RCTV. This role an echo chamber for their dissatisfactions undoubtedly annoyed the Chavez government as much than the programs of information and opinion devoted to the opposition.
None the charges carried by the president against RCTV, in connection with his role in the missed coup of 2002 or the oil strike of 2003, was the subject of a debate in front of a court. The Supreme Court was solicited by RCTV whereas Mr. Chavez had already announced his decision, irrevocable. This political decision reduced pluralism and increases the concentration of audio-visual tools within the hands of the government. Whatever the administrative or legal arguments called upon by the president, it is a hard blow carried against the freedom of expression in Venezuela.
The replacement of a private chain which was open to the opposition by a public chain circumstantially created piece meal is presented by the state power like “a democratization of the media”. The government controlled already several chains and had gained by various means the favors of the majority of the others. Following the disappearance of RCTV of the hertzian waves, Monday May 28, there will not remain but one opposition chain, whose [open] signal does not go beyond Caracas and whose audience is negligible.
In December 2006, neither RCTV nor the opposition prevented the re-election of president Chavez with nearly 63% of the voices. The National Assembly, where the totality of the elected officials are acquired to him, became a simple registration room. The Head of the State moreover made a point of benefiting from special capacities allowing him to legislate. Justice does not dare to contradict the executive and does not escape the generalized corruption.
The independence of powers does not exist any more in Venezuela. The opposition fears that, after the media, the president will proceed in a similar way towards the trade unions, the nongovernmental organizations or the political parties. With Mr. Chavez, the Venezuelan democracy is threatened.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Just to make things clear: this is not Le Monde Diplomatique which is another paper that has nothing to do with Le Monde anymore but which managed to retain the title wording for the obvious publicity advantage. Le Monde Diplomatique is a mercenary paper through its director Ignacio Ramonet who has no problem flying to Caracas to support his master, widely murmured to have paid for the Paris new headquarters of that yellow racket.
Le Monde is a very serious paper who people critical of its editorial line read anyway. I remember even a picture of Chirac reading Le Monde in the railway during one of his campaigns. It is also a paper that endorsed Segolene Royal in the recent elections, so there is no way to corner it as a right wing paper, paid for by Bush or any other inanity that the chavista crowd might want to use to disqualify it. You would be hard pressed to find kind words for Bush in Le Monde.
At any rate, such an editorial assures that the next French government that comes from the June legislative elections will not be a friend of Chavez. And as yet another public relations disaster for Chavez, it ranks way up.
-The end-
The RCTV closing: the teachings on Venezuelan society
Perhaps some might raise an eyebrow for the title. After all there are still a few hours to go before the closing time of RCTV. But as far as I am concerned, not only there is now 99.9999% chances of RCTV being closed, but even if by some last minute miracle an extension were granted, the lessons that we can learn about this experience would be exactly the same.
The Venezuelan government manipulates. No surprise there of course, coming form a government who refuses to discuss publicly the constitutional change it wants. However what is becoming increasing revealed is the intense manipulation and preparation that the government has put into closing RCTV. This was quite a requirement as the closing is illegal. Not to mention that Chavez could not do it before the presidential elections of December 2006 and thus that closing HAD TO be done this year so that by 2012 people would have long forgotten about RCTV.
But the extension of the manipulation is only becoming apparent. For example I was watching Saturday a certain Mr. Bisbal been interviewed in "Que Fuente" and he was showing us an ad that appeared two days after the December 28 Chavez announcement. That advertisement appeared in most Venezuelan papers and in that time of year probably required it to be done BEFORE the Chavez speech so that it could make it by December 31. However, that ad was wrong since it accused RCTV to violate article 58 and 28 of the RESORTE law. Unfortunately article 58 does not exist and article 28 is an organizational matter that does not contemplate any sanction (if I remember well the numbers I heard then) . The ad was not published anymore, but it showed at the same time the preparation and the incompetence of those behind this crass maneuvering.
It is impossible now to pretend that the government of Venezuela is open to scrutiny, is open to discussion, is transparent, is considerate of the rights of minority. Minority rights have been violated more in Venezuela in the past 6 months than during all of the preceding Chavez tenure in office. The Venezuelan government has been acting more in the dark shadows since December 3 than at any previous period.
The judicial system has no independence and is servile to Chavez. We have also known that all along, since 2000 in fact. It has just become worse and worse, and now without any pretense to the contrary. But what has happened in the campaign to RCTV defies any accurate explanation or moral examination. Ethics is a word that must be definitively removed from the Venezuelan language.
But what astounds us is the direct complicity between the judicial system and the government manipulations to bag the RCTV case. In other words the TSJ knew quite well that it could not close RCTV and diligently it has paved the way through indirect means for the government seizure not only of the Hertzian range of RCTV, but also of its properties in transmission equipment and the land where it is placed (and perhaps even the studios?). This included all the judicial arsenal that one could think of: delays in some decisions, expediency in others before RCTV even could know that it was a party of a given decision, distortion of the law at will, avoidance of any solid decision pretending that some day RCTV could aspire to redress but AFTER TVes would have been solidly on the air for months or years, etc, etc...
It is impossible now for the observer to pretend to even discuss possible objectivity of the judicial system in Venezuela. Oh, sure, it is all perfectly legal, and so were the Nazi concentration camps.
The Venezuelan people are afraid, or even worse, indifferent. How else can one explain that with polls at 70 to 80% against the closing of RCTV you do not see spontaneous marches of protest everywhere? It is not a matter of been indifferent, or even of wanting to keep a job in the public administration. No, now the Venezuelan people are becoming afraid. There is less open criticism from the masses, more discretion. And the state through its selective criteria as to who gets what, and with his weapons shown whenever needed to intimidate the hoi polloi, is not afraid to scare people as much as needed. It comes from the president himself who cannot help but insult whomever disagrees with him in his now overwhelming TV presence.
What we have learned through this past few months is that the Venezuelan people has no democratic backbone in it, that it is is disposed to sell its freedom for peanuts, and that more dangerous for our future than the scared people, are the indifferent ones who sigh and look away no matter how much they dislike what Chavez does. And thus Venezuela will get what it deserves, the only way it can learn that happiness cannot depend on what our new Deimos decides to do.
Freedom of information is lost. The distinction is important, a mangled freedom of expression still exists in Venezuela, but freedom of information is already lost. Yes, I know, there is still newspapers, Internet and Globovision. But who can access them? Globovision reaches by cable only many areas of the country. Internet must be payed for by the people and they will rather spend their money in e-mail, porn and game pages, even more so now that they cannot enjoy games and soap operas anymore with RCTV who at least had the grace to be free. As for newspapers, outside of Caracas their information tends to be more limited to local matters and sometimes to local gossip. Besides how long until some of them are closed or neutered or bought out by chavista capitalists?
This had been announced for years by people such as your favorite blogger and no one paid much attention. My words are no impossible to deny. There is no more liberty of information and thus there will be necessary a decrease in the liberty of expression which is the natural outcome desire of an informed people.
A new leadership for the opposition. The strong and dignified defense of RCTV by Granier and his team is an essential event. When we put it together with the late coming defense of the opposition political leadership inherited from December vote (with the honorable exception of Petkoff who has defended RCTV from the start) and the accomplice silence of some sectors such as the Cisneros of the world (who know is seen as traitor by the opposition, sinking even further the Carter center if it were possible), we can see that all of these people are doomed to irrelevance as voices of the opposition. After the Granier presentation last Friday in Globovision, who do you want to speak for you? Borges? Rosales? Venevision? In the mêlée they all lost some credibility, if they had any left, and the one coming out with the oval ball is Granier.
Big time ahead for Granier. Now the government will brand him and seek to destroy him. He has managed to reveal to the world as no one else could before the vulgarly crass abusive low life cheap military that Chavez is. And Chavez cannot forgive that, nor his followers from having been exposed to be servants of such a low creature. It is Granier's choice, to become the leader of the opposition, risk ending up in jail as a martyr, and in the end prevail, or leave for exile.
The violence ahead. Of course, with a trumped CNE, a servile TSJ and no freedom of information, how can fair elections ever take place in Venezuela? How can political participation not cowed by the government abuse of power can take place? Not that democracy died today, for me it died in February 2004 when Chavez sent the army to shoot protesters. Today is only an additional step. But today marks possibly, unfortunately, the day in which violence becomes now the only option for more than just a tiny minority of the opposition. Violence is now the option for the chavista supporters who cannot express their complaints on a TV camera, a TV camera ONLY offered by RCTV or Globovision. Will these people stay home quiet when they cannot express their angst? I doubt it. The opposition is fast been redesigned, from the forced dissolution of PODEMOS and PPT, to the extreme military right plotting uselessly somewhere. That new opposition will soon find out that through normal channels it cannot express it self and thus it will take alternative paths, with all of their implications. What scares me is that this is exactly what Chavez want, excuses to tighten his grip and "eliminate" those who oppose him. He already killed them with words this week, it is just a matter of time for him to act on his words.
Conclusion. There were even more revelations through this last few months. But I am tired and I do not feel it in me to qualify what has happened in Venezuela. After all, when everything that is done is "so legal", adjectives become unnecessary.
The Venezuelan government manipulates. No surprise there of course, coming form a government who refuses to discuss publicly the constitutional change it wants. However what is becoming increasing revealed is the intense manipulation and preparation that the government has put into closing RCTV. This was quite a requirement as the closing is illegal. Not to mention that Chavez could not do it before the presidential elections of December 2006 and thus that closing HAD TO be done this year so that by 2012 people would have long forgotten about RCTV.
But the extension of the manipulation is only becoming apparent. For example I was watching Saturday a certain Mr. Bisbal been interviewed in "Que Fuente" and he was showing us an ad that appeared two days after the December 28 Chavez announcement. That advertisement appeared in most Venezuelan papers and in that time of year probably required it to be done BEFORE the Chavez speech so that it could make it by December 31. However, that ad was wrong since it accused RCTV to violate article 58 and 28 of the RESORTE law. Unfortunately article 58 does not exist and article 28 is an organizational matter that does not contemplate any sanction (if I remember well the numbers I heard then) . The ad was not published anymore, but it showed at the same time the preparation and the incompetence of those behind this crass maneuvering.
It is impossible now to pretend that the government of Venezuela is open to scrutiny, is open to discussion, is transparent, is considerate of the rights of minority. Minority rights have been violated more in Venezuela in the past 6 months than during all of the preceding Chavez tenure in office. The Venezuelan government has been acting more in the dark shadows since December 3 than at any previous period.
The judicial system has no independence and is servile to Chavez. We have also known that all along, since 2000 in fact. It has just become worse and worse, and now without any pretense to the contrary. But what has happened in the campaign to RCTV defies any accurate explanation or moral examination. Ethics is a word that must be definitively removed from the Venezuelan language.
But what astounds us is the direct complicity between the judicial system and the government manipulations to bag the RCTV case. In other words the TSJ knew quite well that it could not close RCTV and diligently it has paved the way through indirect means for the government seizure not only of the Hertzian range of RCTV, but also of its properties in transmission equipment and the land where it is placed (and perhaps even the studios?). This included all the judicial arsenal that one could think of: delays in some decisions, expediency in others before RCTV even could know that it was a party of a given decision, distortion of the law at will, avoidance of any solid decision pretending that some day RCTV could aspire to redress but AFTER TVes would have been solidly on the air for months or years, etc, etc...
It is impossible now for the observer to pretend to even discuss possible objectivity of the judicial system in Venezuela. Oh, sure, it is all perfectly legal, and so were the Nazi concentration camps.
The Venezuelan people are afraid, or even worse, indifferent. How else can one explain that with polls at 70 to 80% against the closing of RCTV you do not see spontaneous marches of protest everywhere? It is not a matter of been indifferent, or even of wanting to keep a job in the public administration. No, now the Venezuelan people are becoming afraid. There is less open criticism from the masses, more discretion. And the state through its selective criteria as to who gets what, and with his weapons shown whenever needed to intimidate the hoi polloi, is not afraid to scare people as much as needed. It comes from the president himself who cannot help but insult whomever disagrees with him in his now overwhelming TV presence.
What we have learned through this past few months is that the Venezuelan people has no democratic backbone in it, that it is is disposed to sell its freedom for peanuts, and that more dangerous for our future than the scared people, are the indifferent ones who sigh and look away no matter how much they dislike what Chavez does. And thus Venezuela will get what it deserves, the only way it can learn that happiness cannot depend on what our new Deimos decides to do.
Freedom of information is lost. The distinction is important, a mangled freedom of expression still exists in Venezuela, but freedom of information is already lost. Yes, I know, there is still newspapers, Internet and Globovision. But who can access them? Globovision reaches by cable only many areas of the country. Internet must be payed for by the people and they will rather spend their money in e-mail, porn and game pages, even more so now that they cannot enjoy games and soap operas anymore with RCTV who at least had the grace to be free. As for newspapers, outside of Caracas their information tends to be more limited to local matters and sometimes to local gossip. Besides how long until some of them are closed or neutered or bought out by chavista capitalists?
This had been announced for years by people such as your favorite blogger and no one paid much attention. My words are no impossible to deny. There is no more liberty of information and thus there will be necessary a decrease in the liberty of expression which is the natural outcome desire of an informed people.
A new leadership for the opposition. The strong and dignified defense of RCTV by Granier and his team is an essential event. When we put it together with the late coming defense of the opposition political leadership inherited from December vote (with the honorable exception of Petkoff who has defended RCTV from the start) and the accomplice silence of some sectors such as the Cisneros of the world (who know is seen as traitor by the opposition, sinking even further the Carter center if it were possible), we can see that all of these people are doomed to irrelevance as voices of the opposition. After the Granier presentation last Friday in Globovision, who do you want to speak for you? Borges? Rosales? Venevision? In the mêlée they all lost some credibility, if they had any left, and the one coming out with the oval ball is Granier.
Big time ahead for Granier. Now the government will brand him and seek to destroy him. He has managed to reveal to the world as no one else could before the vulgarly crass abusive low life cheap military that Chavez is. And Chavez cannot forgive that, nor his followers from having been exposed to be servants of such a low creature. It is Granier's choice, to become the leader of the opposition, risk ending up in jail as a martyr, and in the end prevail, or leave for exile.
The violence ahead. Of course, with a trumped CNE, a servile TSJ and no freedom of information, how can fair elections ever take place in Venezuela? How can political participation not cowed by the government abuse of power can take place? Not that democracy died today, for me it died in February 2004 when Chavez sent the army to shoot protesters. Today is only an additional step. But today marks possibly, unfortunately, the day in which violence becomes now the only option for more than just a tiny minority of the opposition. Violence is now the option for the chavista supporters who cannot express their complaints on a TV camera, a TV camera ONLY offered by RCTV or Globovision. Will these people stay home quiet when they cannot express their angst? I doubt it. The opposition is fast been redesigned, from the forced dissolution of PODEMOS and PPT, to the extreme military right plotting uselessly somewhere. That new opposition will soon find out that through normal channels it cannot express it self and thus it will take alternative paths, with all of their implications. What scares me is that this is exactly what Chavez want, excuses to tighten his grip and "eliminate" those who oppose him. He already killed them with words this week, it is just a matter of time for him to act on his words.
Conclusion. There were even more revelations through this last few months. But I am tired and I do not feel it in me to qualify what has happened in Venezuela. After all, when everything that is done is "so legal", adjectives become unnecessary.
A PodCast on Venezuela
Today we had a strange activity. Using modern technology Fausta (for Pajamas Media) organized a broadcast that included two Venezuelan bloggers and two activists in the US. It was a rather quickly organized podcast considering the current situation in Venezuela but I think that between all of us we did say the most important things. If you are curious and have one hour to spend you can visit it here.
-The end-
-The end-
Saturday, May 26, 2007
The shame of Venevision and Televen
The other two private networks for entertainment, Venevision and Televen have not been supportive of RCTV. Maybe they are hoping to share in the spoils? Maybe they are grateful that the government will give for them what their program grid was never able to do?
But personally what I find worse than not supporting RCTV, is that they did not even have the courage to come out and support Chavez on that closing. For them nothing is happening, no network is closing. Venezuela is a peaceful and quiet country. Shame on them and their owners. After firing their top journalists, they settled for amiable mediocrity and now for abject complicity.
But that is OK. They might not know it but hey have it coming. Weil is not fooled (note the military boots of the "verdugo").
-The end-
But personally what I find worse than not supporting RCTV, is that they did not even have the courage to come out and support Chavez on that closing. For them nothing is happening, no network is closing. Venezuela is a peaceful and quiet country. Shame on them and their owners. After firing their top journalists, they settled for amiable mediocrity and now for abject complicity.
But that is OK. They might not know it but hey have it coming. Weil is not fooled (note the military boots of the "verdugo").
-The end-
Those exquisite revolutionary moments: chavista cowards
And when you thought that it was enough for a single day, well, you could not be any more wrong. We have just been treated live, on Globovision, to the aggression of a chavista group on motorbikes from the Caracas Town hall. These misguided souls, half of them masked (to protect themselves from whom?) started insulting Globovision staff, and painting graffiti on all the walls, including the walls of the neighbors.
But low and behold, the Globovision staff, including its director, in a show of stunning courage in front of these people obviously deranged and probably armed, went out and confronted the assailants. Globovision offered them its cameras to state whatever they wanted to say. One of them eventually said a few words, with the usual endless repetitive and boring one liners. But he quickly faded away, preferring to join his brethren in shouting insults from their motorbikes, behind the anonymity of a bandanna.
The camera of Globovision caught a motorbike a little bit behind, with a couple (the woman with a bandanna on her face) who was observing and obviously reporting on cel phone. The leaders? The link to Mayor Barreto? Who knows, but it was the usual operating procedures for these kind of organized aggressions, a bunch of wild guys while from the back someone decides through a cel phone what should be done. I have seen it myself happen in San Felipe two years ago when they were to unseat Lapi as governor of Yaracuy: from an expensive car someone, nattily dressed, on a cell phone was directing a group of people looking very "lumpen proletariat" for the occasion.
You know something? Tonight I was reminded of a chimpanzee documentary on animal Planet. Ravell used better words than mine: he asked Chacon and Rodriguez to tie up their weirdos, "amarren sus locos". Because obviously the country is going down the drain and something must be done. Ravell also used the occasion to castigate the other networks who are keeping a guilty ans accomplice silence as RCTV is shut down and Globovison is increasingly under attack.
But when we saw the quick withdrawal of the assailants, you know where the real courage was, with the Globovision staff who came out to face their doom. The chavistas on expensive bikes, and also with expensive cars by the way, were just a bunch of cowards, just as their inspiration who has been reported to have shit his pants a certain February night of 1992.
PS: as i was typing this X post of the day, I was listening to Globovision nightly news anchor interviewing Juan Barreto, the mayor at large of Caracas. I am not too sure what to think. The most charitable thing I can say is that he did not know of this and in fact he might be losing control of his storm troopers. He seemed a little upset. Because he got caught? Because he is losing control? who knows, but at least in spite of some of the usual empty rhetoric he seemed to have a genuine concern in his voice, although what the concern is for is anyone's guess. For myself, I woudl not trust Barreto even with my "batea".
-The end-
But low and behold, the Globovision staff, including its director, in a show of stunning courage in front of these people obviously deranged and probably armed, went out and confronted the assailants. Globovision offered them its cameras to state whatever they wanted to say. One of them eventually said a few words, with the usual endless repetitive and boring one liners. But he quickly faded away, preferring to join his brethren in shouting insults from their motorbikes, behind the anonymity of a bandanna.
The camera of Globovision caught a motorbike a little bit behind, with a couple (the woman with a bandanna on her face) who was observing and obviously reporting on cel phone. The leaders? The link to Mayor Barreto? Who knows, but it was the usual operating procedures for these kind of organized aggressions, a bunch of wild guys while from the back someone decides through a cel phone what should be done. I have seen it myself happen in San Felipe two years ago when they were to unseat Lapi as governor of Yaracuy: from an expensive car someone, nattily dressed, on a cell phone was directing a group of people looking very "lumpen proletariat" for the occasion.
You know something? Tonight I was reminded of a chimpanzee documentary on animal Planet. Ravell used better words than mine: he asked Chacon and Rodriguez to tie up their weirdos, "amarren sus locos". Because obviously the country is going down the drain and something must be done. Ravell also used the occasion to castigate the other networks who are keeping a guilty ans accomplice silence as RCTV is shut down and Globovison is increasingly under attack.
But when we saw the quick withdrawal of the assailants, you know where the real courage was, with the Globovision staff who came out to face their doom. The chavistas on expensive bikes, and also with expensive cars by the way, were just a bunch of cowards, just as their inspiration who has been reported to have shit his pants a certain February night of 1992.
PS: as i was typing this X post of the day, I was listening to Globovision nightly news anchor interviewing Juan Barreto, the mayor at large of Caracas. I am not too sure what to think. The most charitable thing I can say is that he did not know of this and in fact he might be losing control of his storm troopers. He seemed a little upset. Because he got caught? Because he is losing control? who knows, but at least in spite of some of the usual empty rhetoric he seemed to have a genuine concern in his voice, although what the concern is for is anyone's guess. For myself, I woudl not trust Barreto even with my "batea".
-The end-
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)