A few things in no particular order

I am on the road and have just a few minutes to update.

Students. They went to the High Court. There they asked to have their right of protest be recognized. They also asked for the High Court to help the students form inside Venezuela to reach Caracas. Right now the Nazional Guard is diligently stopping any bus arriving with a boat load of young people. At least, for a change, probably sensing the wind, a chavista official received them: The High Court Chief, Morales, received the students for an hour.

To be continued.

Freedom of expression. We had a priceless exchange between Condi Rice and Maduro at the OAS meeting (video here). Condi Rice had very pointed words about the freedom of expression in Venezuela reminding the audience that in the US any of the accusations that the Venezuelan foreign minister had levied were discussed every night. Not to mention that she blew away the attempt of Venezuela to remove freedom of expression from the meting agenda.

So, how did Maduro reply? The cassette inserted in chavistas brain was working fine. He went on Guantanamo offering to send a crew from the new Tves which killed RCTV. Now, let's move beyond the anecdotal and that self inflicted injury for the US that Guantanamo is. Focus instead on the attitude, words and intonation of Maduro. And observe how he compares Guantanamo with the worst of Hitler days. Granted, Guantanamo is not a nice place but I for one would trade happily that place for any one offered at Auschwitz. The thing is that from the tone of Maduro you do detect the primitive level of education and even more backward level of understanding of the man. this is simply a parrot sent over to repeat a few clichés lines, whether or not they are relevant to the topic of the day. I think Condi Rice was right in leaving the room and ignoring such an asinine comment from Maduro. Such stupidity should not be rewarded: when Venezuela decides to discuss issues seriously, serious people will pay attention.

Besides Maduro would be well advised to allow students to protest in peace in Venezuela before worrying about Guantanamo, no? Why is it that chavista feel free to comment on any of other people's internal affairs but develop deep rashes when any one even slightly wonders about what is going on inside Venezuela?

Freedom of the press. A personal experience from a journalist that got a job at the Daily Journal, once the very respected English only paper in Venezuela with a circulation of 20 000 and now a propaganda rag for Chavez with barely 1000 issues sold (probably to embassies to help them write their reports). A paper that has no proper income anymore but has managed to renew its facilities, courtesy of propaganda money. A priceless reading from Rachel Jones.

The Wall Street journal latest by O'Grady. The video of Anastasia O'Grady posted earlier was accompanied by an article and I finally got it. For those like me who have no access tot he WSJ, you can read it here. And if you have access you can try here.

(hat tips to Pedro, Al.Ma. and Ed)

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Maria Anastasia O'Grady on video

You know that Venezuela and Chavez are getting center stage again when the Wall Street Journal does a video on Venezuela for its web site. This morning you can watch Maria Anastasia O'Grady talk for 4 minutes on the current situation in Venezuela. As usual she shows us that "she gets it" as she can explain things clearly, dispassionately. Watch this video, you will understand more about what is going in Venezuela more than after reading the pages and pages you read this past week. Unless of course you were reading this blog diligently :)



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Fiasco at the chavista march?

I was on the road today so I cannot evaluate quite well how the chavista march went on. However I saw two things:

1) before leaving home I noticed on TV that the image coming from VTV at the height of Chacao showed plenty of red shirts BUT THEY WERE NOT MARCHING. That means, they had stopped the march for a while to let laggards fill up the blanks and give the illusion that there were a lot of people. Can someone confirm? That would be crass because they are trying to deliberately compare their march with the one supporting RCTV two weeks ago. Lame, so lame....

2) I did not see many buses parked around La Bandera, nor on the road for that matter. So maybe it is an excellent sign, or rather as I speculated yesterday that the chavista march was called too fast, as an emergency, and they did not have time to hire and fill up enough buses to come from the inside the country.

The answer anyway comes from the photo montage of Globovision, comparing their take and the ones from VTV, the state propaganda voice. We will see if the government dares to counter those pictures. But does it matter? Chavez already announced that TV concessions could be revoked before time. Gee, I wonder who does he have in mind..... anyway Huguito, look at what happen when you closed RCTV. Go ahead, make our day and close Globovision, we will thank you for ever.

PS: note added Sunday. There were buses. TV showed plenty of buses but they were not parked in La Bandera as they are often parked. This time they were around the Libertador. I suppose that there were less buses than usual so they could park closer to the marchers. Or as a wit said, more buses than marchers. Thus it makes the march even more pathetic.

It seems that it might have been one of the worst chavista marches! Chavez still spoke, but there was a time that for such a small group he would not have shown up.....

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Venezuelan Pie: music and bolivarian poetry

Sometimes one inspires readers. Maybe a little bit too much inspiration?

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An Interested Observer here: When I read a certain recent post, I couldn’t help but start thinking of this. This goes to the tune of "American Pie,” which can be heard here (with apologies to Don McLean, and a nod to Weird Al Yankovic), though the original song is somewhat longer than this – six verses! I wrote this version from the imaginary perspective of a long-time Chavez supporter who just can’t abide the RCTV shut-down.

Lula, perhaps?


A long, long time ago
I can still remember
How your speeches used to make me smile
And I knew if you had a chance
You could make those people dance
And maybe they'd be happy for life
But May 28 made me shiver
With the bad news you delivered
No more RC on the TV
Just because you said it had to be
I have to wonder if you cried
Cause it seems they wounded your pride
And I realized down deep inside
That was the day the Robolution died

So bye, bye Bolivarian guy
I thought you were a democrat now I know it's a lie
And the Chavistas are drinking whisky all night
Not knowing it's the day their dreams died
It's the day their dreams died

I remember back in 98
Everybody thought you were great
Didn't we all tell you so?
Then you wrote the book in blue
And we put all our faith in you
To follow wherever you would go
Well, I know you were a coupster too
But I thought that you had paid your dues
And turned over a new leaf
Not taking power like a thief
And all those guys before you sucked
A blow for freedom I thought you’d struck
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the Robolution died

I started singing
Bye, bye Bolivarian guy
I thought you were a democrat now I know it's a lie
And those Chavistas are drinking whisky all night
Not knowing it's the day their dreams died
It's the day their dreams died

Now for eight years we've been led by you
And it hasn’t been perfect, yes that’s true
But that’s the price of being empire-free
Like the endogenous economy
Seems to mean more of you and less of me
Well, if that's how it has to be
You promised a new future for our land
And we were eating out of your hand
We leftists finally got our turn
The IVth would never return
And you quoted Lenin and Marx
Though in their time they missed the mark
Now we’re singing dirges in the dark
On the day the Robolution died

Now we’re singing
Bye, bye Bolivarian guy
I thought you were a democrat now I know it's a lie
And those Chavistas are drinking whisky all night
Not knowing it's the day their dreams died
It's the day their dreams died

Now I probably should have got a clue
By those other things you used to do
But I wanted so bad to believe
You packed the Assembly and courts too
With folks who never would argue
And it seemed you’d never want to leave
And oil prices have been sky-high
And there’s still not enough food to buy
But I thought I’d still give you a chance
Because I liked your anti-Bush stance
But now though the country appealed
You say you’ll never, ever yield
Your autocratic ways were not concealed
The day the Robolution died

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OK, maybe hard to sing on occasion as the meter blows from the original, but still, the point comes across, no? Geeez, I tell you, these readers.....



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Enjoying the moment (part 2): Forero writes his first real anti Chavez article

Readers of this blog know well the gripe I have had with Juan Forero when he was the NYT correspondent. Apparently something happen during his transition to the Washington Post but suddenly Forero started finding flaws in chavismo. Well, the circle is now complete as his piece in the Washington Post today can be qualified as an anti Chavez article. Mind you! Do not expect chants to speed up the removal of Chavez, this is the Post after all, but this is as much fair and balanced criticism as we can expect from those quarters.

And you know what, the article is good, clear and well researched. That is, Forero is now getting it. You see it at the slight turn of certain phrases such as: "Other private stations that were harshly anti-Chávez but have toned down critical coverage avoided the same fate, as communications Minister William Lara readily acknowledged in an interview broadcast Friday on CNN's Spanish-language service." Now, this might seem almost a normal sentence but think about it and observe how Forero exposes the phony in Lara, and thus the whole phoniness in the Chavez campaign to clean his image after closing RCTV. Not an "O'Gradyesque" article yet, but well on its way.

Because, see, when RCTV was closed, Chavez lost the support of all serious journalists, even those who supported him earlier. Chavez threatens their sustain, their job, and journalists do not like that. Venezuelan journalists have long known that, but now it is the turn of foreign journalists to know that if it were for Chavez they would all be fired at the first criticism.

No matter how much Chavez spends in propaganda he is now assured to have a lot of anti Chavez articles written all the time for free. He will only have for him hack jobs like the scandalous op-ed by Bart James in the LA times which reads straight as a piece of propaganda. Compare Forero and James, and for all my previous dislike of Forero one can tell easily what is the difference between a paid agent and a professional journalist with his own ideas and criterion. Even in his worse days Forero would have not written even an OpEd piece like the one from James. At least I like to think so.



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Enjoying the moment: chavismo on the defensive

If there is something that makes these tense days particularly enjoyable is to see the decomposed chavistas faces, unable to deal with a situation that they had never thought of: no violence, students ruining the revolution credits, as it was. All of their paradigms of aggression and unfair advantage are useless as for the time they must improvise, something that few of them are able to do. Today the students wanted to march from the UCAB to the National Assembly to bring some "documento", a piece of paper full of grievances, the traditional Venezuela exercise. Instead of letting them pass, well, Libertador Mayor Bernal refused any permit. Students decided to go but on the walk sides. Chavismo would have none of it and blocked the UCAB students inside the campus. The long drawn out moment only resulted in the start of some fraternization between the Metropolitan Police and the students. A classic.

Chavez and his lackeys behaving more and more like your average right wing repressive government are getting the same results. How hollow the international conspiracy, presidential assassination, destabilization talk sound!!! And how twisted the faces of those uttering them.

But it did not work at the end. The USB march did manage to join the UCAB who sneaked to the Vatican Representation where, of all people, Ismael Garcia of PODEMOS went to meet the students and receive the "documento" that none of his colleagues who be seen dead holding it. It is not enough to exculpate all of the grievous faults of Garcia, no. But it shows truly that the students are making public some of the fissures that we suspected within chavismo when the PUS creation did not take place as wished for.

So, what other novel strategy for chavismo? They decided to call of a mammoth march Saturday. From the info I got, the hurried organization might flounder: I have heard from some public employees who have not been summoned tot he march! That is, there will be no roll call, no sandwiches, no water bottles, no booze for all the marchers, assuming they show up. On the rush the government can think of nothing else to counter a spontaneous student movement with the crassest of chavista political maneuvers: crowds. We'll see. What I am sure is that tomorrow there will be lots of buses driving up to Caracas, full of red shirted folks, while today the scarce buses carrying a few multicolored students were stopped by the Nazional Guard.

At any rate, even though today was planned to be low key by the students, it was still quite active all around the country. Who knows what they will do tomorrow. Perhaps counter the Caracas march with a big Valencia rally? Or perhaps rest nicely, organize themselves, let the government waste its breath on a now pathetically old fashioned event and come back Monday in full strength. The opposition, by the way, is not faring better. Rosales could only offer a RCTV referendum and other folks are calling for a counter march on Sunday which could fizzle as much as the chavista one on Saturday. Both sides it seem have lost the agenda! I love it!

Meanwhile back the ranch Chavez is not having a good time. Now he got into a spat with Lula himself as Chavez big mouth could not help itself but to insult Brazil's Senate for worrying about freedom of expression in Venezuela and thus force the last major Democratic leader of Latin America to growl against him. I mean, could have Chavez just shut up? No, in a stupid and silly bravado he went ahead to let the senate know that Portugal was more likely to colonize again Brazil before he would relent on RCTV. I mean, this is so incredibly lame, and ignorant, that I will not offend the reader with further discussion.

And there are more, from Amnesty international to the Spanish government but the reader gets the drift, the list gets longer and longer and chavismo replies as a cornered chihuahua. After all, they all love nothing more but to be received everywhere in red carpets, and it is going to be very difficult now, no matter how fat the wallet is. Heck, even Jesse Chacon just lost his US visa. Jesse Chacon liked to travel to the US? Imagine that!

But two other great hits came from the press. First form El Carabobeño. This venerable paper, and one of the only two that I buy when I cannot find El Universal or El Nacional decided to run an empty front and back page, with only a small question at the end: How would a day without information look like? I am pretty sure that this is exactly the picture of an opposition newspaper that Chavez would like to see. But I am pretty sure that in the Valencia area the impact must have been quite considerable. People must be told what Chavez is all up to with his repression of freedom of information.

To end this nothing better than the fabulous Economist cartoon. No explanations needed, as Chavez is toast for the international community that matters. Ridicule does not kill in real life but it can kill in politics.



PS: Do not forget to visit YouTube for all sorts of videos on the different marches around the country, AND the RCTV newscast which now goes out on YouTube. view by "date added" to simplify your task. Also if you could subscribe to You Tube "el Observador en linea" you will get to show your support to RCTV, promote YouTube as an instrument fore democracy and be counted on the Internet. By the way, RCTV is already higher in ratings than Radioaporrea which is quite nice.

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The week the Bolivarian Revolution died

It does not matter whether Chavez remains at Miraflores Palace until he dies of old age in his sleep: this week his revolution died.

The students might succeed in overthrowing Chavez, or might go home when they get bored, or might end up in a blood bath. But in three days they have nailed the coffin of the pseudo revolution that has been tormenting us for too long.

When Chavez closed RCTV he made the fatal mistake that all revolutions, real or spurious, make, that mistake that sooner or later will bring them to their end. In some revolutions it is easy to see that turning point, even if they are still running.

For example there is an expiration date for the Cuban revolution: Mariel. Some, like me, place it when Castro sent Cuban soldiers to die in Angola. It is a simple matter of accurate dating. It does not matter that Castro is still holding office with one foot in the grave, the Cuban revolution then became only a system to perpetuate a caste in power. What could Castro argue after Mariel, when over 100 000 people tried to flee their country at any cost? Castro and his system only survive because Cuba is an island which holds no strategic interest for anyone anymore.

The Chinese Revolution died when it became “Cultural”. From those excesses would come Deng as the “counter” culture who would catapult China to its rank if not yet the prestige it should deserve. Nobody knows how will its mad race to Capitalism end up, though that mad race seems to become a revolution of its own.

The French Revolution died the day the scared sub-par revolutionaries decided to guillotine Robespierre before he got them. One thing lead to another until in 1799 Napoleon put a final point to the French Revolution. After Robespierre, the aim was to reestablish order in the country, so those who got to riches or to power could enjoy them. Before Robespierre demise there was a search for Utopia, even if the “comité de salut public” was already establishing the first totalitarian state. After Robespierre, bourgeois comfort would become the rule except for a brief moment in 1848 where Marx found a lot of inspiration.

The Soviet Revolution died when it built the Berlin Wall. It had gotten sick when Stalin started the show trials in the 30ies, but the war gave it an unexpected remission. When Stalin split Berlin into two, the idealism left the Soviet experiment for good: from then on we had two empires at war, no more a revolution defending its social conquests, such as those might have been. The revolution was just an old crone clinging to its baubles.

The Mexican Revolution died when its morally diminished leaders decided to form the permanent revolutionary party, the PRI, who established just a “perfect dictatorship” that lasted most of a century. A new social class of power was formed from scratch and it had very little inclination to share.

So why should it be different for the Bolivarian Revolution of Hugo Chavez? The only variation here is the pitiful whimper in which it goes out. Where other revolutions died with violent paroxysms or stupendous contradictions, here the hypocrite, weak, feeble minded pseudo revolution behind which an old fashioned caudillo hid had to end on the closing of a single TV station and the student protests it sparkled. Chavez was created by the media, the famous “por ahora” of 1992, so it is only fit that killing one of his parents would end his romantic revolutionary career. We should not be surprised that his revolution based on social revenge more than on any social justice should flounder against the true egalitarian spirit that student revolts always generate.

The students who are protesting are giving us luminous and glorious days. In a fantastic irony, today student press conference was held on open air benches, in the gorgeous Universidad Simon Bolivar campus flooded with a rare clarity and transparence that the tropical humid air is so stingy with. It has been years that we, Venezuelans, had seen such clarity in our thoughts, in our hopes. The murkiness of 8 years of oppressive and materialistic chavismo was suddenly lifted when we were recalled this week that there are values that are worthwhile fighting and dying for. Freedom of expression is such a value, and chavismo cannot understand, will not understand that no amount of free aspirin in Barrio Adentro ill staffed clinics will ever compensate for the loss of freedom of expression.

That is why no matter how many years Chavez might still be in power, his cheap revolution ended this week. It will be now a mere drawn out autopsy.