[Updated]
Well, it looks like if the Obama combo prefer to remain silent about the prosecution against Rosales (and Ledezma, and Capriles, and Perez, and, and, and...) the European Parliament is not amused. Today it passed a resolution to that effect.
Coverage is sort of amusing. Left leaning Spain El Pais reports it without any questioning from their part. Then again the Spaniards were the first Europeans to see clearly through Chavez game. Deutsche Welle confirms. Telesur on the other hand focuses that only 3% of the Eurodeputies voted. As if that would change the message, as if the other 97% of the Eurodeputies were easily conned by 3%..... In fact the Telesur note could be read as implying that actually the socialist wing of the Euro Parliament was not in agreement with the wording but not in disagreement enough with the intention to present a counter resolution. Telesur interprets that as support for Chavez. Bwahahahaha.....
Anyway, if Telesur doubts of the legality or intention of an European Parliament resolution it could simply consult the web page of the parliament where the same few percent approved resolutions condemning the arrest of Roxana Saberi in Iran, the Madagascar coup and the prosecution or Rosales. The three of them in the same communique. You can read it here in French, or in English if you prefer. Whatever parliamentary procedure was chosen it still does not detract to the fact that Rosales prosecution is considered by Europe as a Human Rights violation. Or is Telesur going to support the Madagascar coup?
I do not know why Telesur takes umbrage since it is in the business of defending unconstitutional resolutions that change the fate of a country by a monochromatic parliament that was voted in by barely 10% of its people...
Update
There is another coverage that I think we should not miss: the BBC "mundo" section who explains as it is why the EU parliament motion matters. But we also find there one of the first official reactions form Venezuela and it is, well, hysterical. The vice minister for Europe, a certain Fleming, with certainly not the brain power of his namesake, and probably not much more than the one of a lemming, said "It is not a matter of Human Rights, it is a political attack by the groups of the extreme right that holds hostage the European Parliament because it is the majority".
You cannot make stuff like that up! The vice minister dares to criticize the EU chamber as he represents a country whose parliament is a mere rubber stamp... These people have truly no sense of ridicule.
And what does the BBC in English reports? A lame article on Barreto indictment written down almost as it was designed to justify the abuses against Rosales and Baduel just because Barreto ALSO is indicted. Of course poor Will Grant only shows that when he looks at Venezuela he has no sense of proportion and of meaning for the real thing. No question seems to nag him as to why Barreto has no problem in staying in Venezuela whereas Baduel is already in jail and Rosales in exile, supported by the EU parliament. Get a clue Will!
-The end-
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Financing Chavez supporters
The ways Chavez finds to finance his multiple supporters are truly wondrous. From Peru we get this week the complete scheme through which the wife of Ollanta Humala, runner up in the last Peruvian election, got her grocery money, and some more.
Apparently Nadine Humala was paid monthly 4,000 USD by the Daily Journal as an alleged correspondent. Never mind that the Daily Journal limited circulation never justified such a payment for a foreign correspondent who apparently never got one of her notes published. Never mind by the way that the Daily Journal as a Venezuelan paper should have declared how it managed to get 4,000 USD under a strict system of currency exchange control. Never mind that since the Daily Journal was bought by a pro Chavez group it quickly floundered as soon as people noticed its loss of independence, the Daily Journal being reduced to free distribution to hotel guests so that they would have to read about the wonders of the Bolivarian Revolution (or so I was told anyway).
Note: in Peru, 4,000 a month is an excellent paycheck, the more so that you only send a script on occasion. I wonder how much are Forero or Romero paid by their respective US journal... Surely if the Daily could afford such a sum for Nadine, Simon and Juan must cashing in big time!
We also learned on how other forms of financing that Nadine has been receiving, which apparently are justifying that Ollanta Humala can live without a job and dedicate himself fully to his presidential bid of 2011.
I love it, and it allows me to hope that we will learn more about the financing of other little fish supporting Chavez such as Weisbrot or la Golinger (not to mention some of the web apologists that harass us on occasion).
-The end-
Apparently Nadine Humala was paid monthly 4,000 USD by the Daily Journal as an alleged correspondent. Never mind that the Daily Journal limited circulation never justified such a payment for a foreign correspondent who apparently never got one of her notes published. Never mind by the way that the Daily Journal as a Venezuelan paper should have declared how it managed to get 4,000 USD under a strict system of currency exchange control. Never mind that since the Daily Journal was bought by a pro Chavez group it quickly floundered as soon as people noticed its loss of independence, the Daily Journal being reduced to free distribution to hotel guests so that they would have to read about the wonders of the Bolivarian Revolution (or so I was told anyway).
Note: in Peru, 4,000 a month is an excellent paycheck, the more so that you only send a script on occasion. I wonder how much are Forero or Romero paid by their respective US journal... Surely if the Daily could afford such a sum for Nadine, Simon and Juan must cashing in big time!
We also learned on how other forms of financing that Nadine has been receiving, which apparently are justifying that Ollanta Humala can live without a job and dedicate himself fully to his presidential bid of 2011.
I love it, and it allows me to hope that we will learn more about the financing of other little fish supporting Chavez such as Weisbrot or la Golinger (not to mention some of the web apologists that harass us on occasion).
-The end-
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
You do not need to be an economist to know that things are not going well in Venezuela
A few interesting facts that tell you more than any scholarly paper. Or as they say, the Devil is in the details.
Inflation climbs again
In spite of a recessive economic climate and a drop in consumption, the Venezuelan inflation which was for March already an unacceptable 1.2% went up to 1.8% for April. True, we must factor an increase in sales tax of 3%, but we can also write that this increase will reverberate through the cost system for at least 2 or 3 more months until a new "equilibrium" is reached. But then again we can also factorize in that we are into a price control system and that the government last month decreed that some prices had to go down. It does not matter how you slice it, inflation is headed for an official end of year total of 30%, leaving us second only to other successful economies like Zimbabwe.
Banco Venezolano de Credito first bank in stopping CADIVI cards
Since currency control exchange was set in Venezuela in 2003, to travel outside of the country you need to register with CADIVI. If approved you were allowed to charge up to 5,000 USD on your credit card. Well, when trouble started to brew Chavez ruthlessly cut down to 2500 USD your travel allowance (at 2.15 per dollar; if you go to street value you pay around 6 to the dollar today). In a way we naively thought that, well, Chavez is not letting us travel as we were but at least we would still get 2,500. You know, in Cuba they get zilch.
Think again.
Banks have been reporting that CADIVI is getting later and later with the payments of credit card use, payments done by APPROVED CADIVI cards. Already in April some banks had to stop paying for miscellaneous expenses announcing to their card holders that they would only honor bills for lodging and food, within that 2,500 grant. But CADIVI got further behind and now the BVC is the first one to announce a simple suspension of its credit cards for travelers. Period.
Why? Because when CADIVI is late it is the bank that must pay the due VISA/MC bill in dollars that it does not have unless it goes to the parallel market and buy then at three times the official value. Banks are not into that type of business, in addition to all the other shackles imposed by chavismo.
The question here is simple: if CADIVI is unable to pay what is a relatively a small dollar expense, how do you think it will find the dollars to pay for major ticket expenses? How come CADIVI is short of money when Chavez claims that we have all sorts of safeguards and savings? Are we being told the real truth about the oil income (the only one we have in USD, it must be noted)?
A Russian bought army helicopter crashes
This week end Chavez himself announced that a Russian bought helicopter crashed near the Colombian border killing its 18 passengers including the local general in charge.
That by itself could be seen as a miscellaneous news, notwithstanding its tragic content. Unfortunately for us it turns out that it is the 4th of such problem with Russian helicopters in the last year, the first three fortunately having not produced victims. Many questions are raised.
Did Venezuela bought garbage to the Russians? Yes of course! Rumors of hefty commissions have swirled around these purchases. And we all know that European or US helicopters are just better, more up to date than outdated Russian ones which ARE NOT designed for jungle landing.
Why the string of problems? Is it lack of maintenance? Lack of proper training for the pilots? In other words is it due to lack of "financial" prevision or simply neglect? I would go for both.
Conclusion?
See? You do not need an MBA or equivalent to sense that something is not right in Venezuelan finances, nor that they were ill managed when dollars still flooded us as late as early 2008
-The end-
Inflation climbs again
In spite of a recessive economic climate and a drop in consumption, the Venezuelan inflation which was for March already an unacceptable 1.2% went up to 1.8% for April. True, we must factor an increase in sales tax of 3%, but we can also write that this increase will reverberate through the cost system for at least 2 or 3 more months until a new "equilibrium" is reached. But then again we can also factorize in that we are into a price control system and that the government last month decreed that some prices had to go down. It does not matter how you slice it, inflation is headed for an official end of year total of 30%, leaving us second only to other successful economies like Zimbabwe.
Banco Venezolano de Credito first bank in stopping CADIVI cards
Since currency control exchange was set in Venezuela in 2003, to travel outside of the country you need to register with CADIVI. If approved you were allowed to charge up to 5,000 USD on your credit card. Well, when trouble started to brew Chavez ruthlessly cut down to 2500 USD your travel allowance (at 2.15 per dollar; if you go to street value you pay around 6 to the dollar today). In a way we naively thought that, well, Chavez is not letting us travel as we were but at least we would still get 2,500. You know, in Cuba they get zilch.
Think again.
Banks have been reporting that CADIVI is getting later and later with the payments of credit card use, payments done by APPROVED CADIVI cards. Already in April some banks had to stop paying for miscellaneous expenses announcing to their card holders that they would only honor bills for lodging and food, within that 2,500 grant. But CADIVI got further behind and now the BVC is the first one to announce a simple suspension of its credit cards for travelers. Period.
Why? Because when CADIVI is late it is the bank that must pay the due VISA/MC bill in dollars that it does not have unless it goes to the parallel market and buy then at three times the official value. Banks are not into that type of business, in addition to all the other shackles imposed by chavismo.
The question here is simple: if CADIVI is unable to pay what is a relatively a small dollar expense, how do you think it will find the dollars to pay for major ticket expenses? How come CADIVI is short of money when Chavez claims that we have all sorts of safeguards and savings? Are we being told the real truth about the oil income (the only one we have in USD, it must be noted)?
A Russian bought army helicopter crashes
This week end Chavez himself announced that a Russian bought helicopter crashed near the Colombian border killing its 18 passengers including the local general in charge.
That by itself could be seen as a miscellaneous news, notwithstanding its tragic content. Unfortunately for us it turns out that it is the 4th of such problem with Russian helicopters in the last year, the first three fortunately having not produced victims. Many questions are raised.
Did Venezuela bought garbage to the Russians? Yes of course! Rumors of hefty commissions have swirled around these purchases. And we all know that European or US helicopters are just better, more up to date than outdated Russian ones which ARE NOT designed for jungle landing.
Why the string of problems? Is it lack of maintenance? Lack of proper training for the pilots? In other words is it due to lack of "financial" prevision or simply neglect? I would go for both.
Conclusion?
See? You do not need an MBA or equivalent to sense that something is not right in Venezuelan finances, nor that they were ill managed when dollars still flooded us as late as early 2008
-The end-
Monday, May 04, 2009
Globovision shakes chavismo early this morning
There was a rather strong quake early this morning close to Caracas. Even in San Felipe I felt it enough to wake up. Fortunately it was very brief and thus no major damages reported or loss of life.
But apparently there was a lot of loss of pride among chavismo.
See, Globovision the 24 hours news channel did its work: they had staff at hand, they started inquiring, but no one was around to tell them what was happening.
VTV was RE-transmitting the Chavez Sunday show, Alo Presidente. God forbid the wisdom words of the beloved leader would be interrupted to tell the audience that there had just been an earthquake. Besides they already knew about it: did they not feel it?
Globovision then tried the next logical step, to ask the Venezuelan seismological thing, FUNVISIS. Nobody was attending.
So Globovision went to a US specific site where indeed they found the quake, its magnitude and its epicenter.
Well, that was apparently too much for chavismo who even sent the education minister, silly sycophantic and ineffectual Navarro, to blast Globovision as destabilizing the country with alarming news and showing that they suffered of "psychotic dissociation", not realizing of course that he was presenting himself as a poster boy for the disease in that speech. A summary of the attacks on Globovision can be found here, a Tal Cual note aptly titled "El sismo de Globovision".
Of course, what this all means is that chavismo was caught again with its pants down. See in today post February 15 mood, nothing matters to any chavista official but what the great leader thinks, or how to look good among the sycophantic collage that surrounds him. As such the country is woefully unprepared for any emergency. Besides on Sunday night everyone is probably going to bed as it is perhaps the only night of the week where Chavez might not be making news or ridiculous requests...
Colombia has reported its first real flu case. It is getting closer...... Good thing that apparently that flu might not be as bad as thought at first. Because judging by chavismo response to a harmless quake, I shudder to think at who they will put the blame on when the first cases of flu are recorded here.... Instead of dealing with it....
-The end-
But apparently there was a lot of loss of pride among chavismo.
See, Globovision the 24 hours news channel did its work: they had staff at hand, they started inquiring, but no one was around to tell them what was happening.
VTV was RE-transmitting the Chavez Sunday show, Alo Presidente. God forbid the wisdom words of the beloved leader would be interrupted to tell the audience that there had just been an earthquake. Besides they already knew about it: did they not feel it?
Globovision then tried the next logical step, to ask the Venezuelan seismological thing, FUNVISIS. Nobody was attending.
So Globovision went to a US specific site where indeed they found the quake, its magnitude and its epicenter.
Well, that was apparently too much for chavismo who even sent the education minister, silly sycophantic and ineffectual Navarro, to blast Globovision as destabilizing the country with alarming news and showing that they suffered of "psychotic dissociation", not realizing of course that he was presenting himself as a poster boy for the disease in that speech. A summary of the attacks on Globovision can be found here, a Tal Cual note aptly titled "El sismo de Globovision".
Of course, what this all means is that chavismo was caught again with its pants down. See in today post February 15 mood, nothing matters to any chavista official but what the great leader thinks, or how to look good among the sycophantic collage that surrounds him. As such the country is woefully unprepared for any emergency. Besides on Sunday night everyone is probably going to bed as it is perhaps the only night of the week where Chavez might not be making news or ridiculous requests...
Colombia has reported its first real flu case. It is getting closer...... Good thing that apparently that flu might not be as bad as thought at first. Because judging by chavismo response to a harmless quake, I shudder to think at who they will put the blame on when the first cases of flu are recorded here.... Instead of dealing with it....
-The end-
Saturday, May 02, 2009
Brutal repression in Caracas for May first march
Today across Venezuela many marches were held to commemorate International Labor Day. Chavismo and anti-chavismo all held marches and all went well, except the one in Caracas 
which was unnecessarily, unjustifiably, brutally repressed. True, the march tried to reach the National Assembly, access which was refused (unconstitutionally) by chavismo. But unlike previous such events, the government did not even offer for a delegation to go through the lines to bring a petition to the alleged house of the people. Caracas downtown only belongs to chavismo and opposition cannot even visit anymore the Bolivar square.
Chavez in an infamous speech (in cadena) from the chavista rally confirmed this reality that there is a political apartheid in Venezuela when he said that the streets belonged only to the people, meaning that only the chavista people is allowed to go wherever it wants in Venezuela.
The picture here is taken by a citizen reporter where you can see the red shirted assault troops of chavifascismo . You can observe that they are wearing weapons with all the intention to use them. You may find more material here.
El Universal has its own photo gallery here (in English here). It also carries pictures of Chavez march in Caracas and the words of hate he spewed, here.
Globovision carries a full coverage with videos on its national news section. Of course Chaevz puts all the blame on the opposition as he is preparing the terrain to crack down on political opposition once and for all. Note that opposition and workers marches in the rest of the country went peacefully and outnumbered governmental rallies, chavismo preferring as usual to focus all of its energies in Caracas to crate photo op for the beloved leader.
The Reuters summary here.
Will the world notice today's repression in Venezuela? Will Lula speak again of "local democratic flavor" or some bullshit of the sort? Will Sarkozy keep trying to sell Total at the expense of Venezuelan liberty (as he is not unwilling to do in Africa when needed)? Will the State Department notice, or where all the campaign words of Obama and Clinton mere words (after all Chavez did find time to criticize Obama today)?
-The end-
which was unnecessarily, unjustifiably, brutally repressed. True, the march tried to reach the National Assembly, access which was refused (unconstitutionally) by chavismo. But unlike previous such events, the government did not even offer for a delegation to go through the lines to bring a petition to the alleged house of the people. Caracas downtown only belongs to chavismo and opposition cannot even visit anymore the Bolivar square.Chavez in an infamous speech (in cadena) from the chavista rally confirmed this reality that there is a political apartheid in Venezuela when he said that the streets belonged only to the people, meaning that only the chavista people is allowed to go wherever it wants in Venezuela.
The picture here is taken by a citizen reporter where you can see the red shirted assault troops of chavifascismo . You can observe that they are wearing weapons with all the intention to use them. You may find more material here.
El Universal has its own photo gallery here (in English here). It also carries pictures of Chavez march in Caracas and the words of hate he spewed, here.
Globovision carries a full coverage with videos on its national news section. Of course Chaevz puts all the blame on the opposition as he is preparing the terrain to crack down on political opposition once and for all. Note that opposition and workers marches in the rest of the country went peacefully and outnumbered governmental rallies, chavismo preferring as usual to focus all of its energies in Caracas to crate photo op for the beloved leader.
The Reuters summary here.
Will the world notice today's repression in Venezuela? Will Lula speak again of "local democratic flavor" or some bullshit of the sort? Will Sarkozy keep trying to sell Total at the expense of Venezuelan liberty (as he is not unwilling to do in Africa when needed)? Will the State Department notice, or where all the campaign words of Obama and Clinton mere words (after all Chavez did find time to criticize Obama today)?
-The end-
Friday, May 01, 2009
May 1 march
I am out of Internet these days so no coverage. However I need to inform that the May 1 march (International Workers day, so you know) has been met in Caracas by the biggest display of police and military that we recall. At least my sources tell me. Thus we can verify once again that:
1) repression is diligently being prepared by chavismo
2) they are scared to have to resort to such displays of force. Heck, there might be more police to block the opposition than attendants of the chavista march!
PS: I cannot attend the march but I am willing to publish good pictures you might send this way.
-The end-
1) repression is diligently being prepared by chavismo
2) they are scared to have to resort to such displays of force. Heck, there might be more police to block the opposition than attendants of the chavista march!
PS: I cannot attend the march but I am willing to publish good pictures you might send this way.
-The end-
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