The crude reality of Venezuela's violence: El Nacional under attack

Bello Monte, 12/2009

When you have cynical idiots like Andres Izarra president of Telesur mocking the war-like suffering of the Venezuelan people you cannot be surprised that the local media counter attacks strongly, while it can still do so. The picture below occupies half of the front page of El Nacional and has generated an extraordinary reaction within chavismo.  Not to seek solution to the problem, of course, but to threaten El Nacional with multiple law suits.

I confess that the way my 'lifestyle' is set in San Felipe the first newspaper I read is Tal Cual through the web at lunch time.  At some point during the day I buy either El Universal or El Nacional, according to whichever is left at my newsstand, and I read it at 5 when I get back home to drink my daily teapot.  Needless to say that my teapot had a bitter stormy taste today, besides explaining the delay in publishing on the right that picture of the morgue in Caracas, at Bello Monte, a picture taken by an El Nacional person last December and only published today as a response to the cynicism of a regime that refuses to acknowledge that Caracas has little to envy to the body count of Kabul or Baghdad.

Weil on the reality of Chavez trip to Santa Marta

No comment needed on this cartoon from Weil in today's Tal Cual, about the visit of Chavez to Santos.

Quote of the day

If ignoring the facts about Mr. Chávez is a requirement for sending an ambassador to Caracas, then it would be better not to have one.

Concluding today's Washington Post editorial. Hear! Hear!

From Cardinal Urosa to Fidel Castro all agree: XXI century socialism is a mere rewarmed communism

Among the amount of news hard to follow there was a series of items that I could not write om.  But here is this great cartoon of Edo that gives me the summary I needed.

In short. 

Cardinal Urosa declared that many of the latest laws voted in a hurry by the Nazional Assembly were designed to install Communism in Venezuela.  If one knows what Communism is, it is the Catholic Church.  Chavez did not like it and started insulting Urosa and the Catholic Church abundantly.  Then the Nazional Assembly chimed in and demanded that he came to defend his opinions.  Initially as the Assembly was in a roar he declined stating that security conditions were not adequate.  The Assembly got even more furious but eventually cooled down some and Urosa visited.

The agreement was that the "interpelación" would be broadcast live.  But at the last minute, once Urosa had arrived, the Assembly said that no, no live cameras allowed, that a version would be broadcast later. Trapped, Urosa went ahead anyway.

CNN is again Chavez enemy, and along the way Izarra establishes the worthlessness of TeleSur

With an addendum of Ocariz versus Montiel

There has been a video made by some Spanish journalists that is circulating.  Its theme was the violence in the streets in Caracas and how in addition chavismo had organized "paramilitary" groups to support Chavez.  I have not been able to watch that video, neither the reprise that CNN "en español" did of it, a reprise that added to it a certain number of interviews, to the makers of that video,to people knowledgeable on Caracas violence and of course chavista officials.

This video has now become a major issue in Venezuela as Chavez stupidly mentioned it when he was in Santa Marta last Tuesday, sending everyone in Colombia at the very least to go and try to watch that video.

Now, before I get into the detail there are a certain numbers of FACTS that need to be addressed:

San Pedro Alejandrino, as much a place of reckoning as ever

Post meeting update

Santos and Chavez are supposed to meet tomorrow at San Pedro Alejandrino, this most hallowed ground in Latin America, where Bolivar spent the last ten days of his life, near Santa Marta, hoping to recover somehow before he could board ship to Jamaica and Europe in his semi imposed self exile.

Why would this two enemies until a few hours ago anyway, meet there?  What should they meet to begin with?

Let's start with the reasons for the meeting .

Paul Krugman writes about Venezuela investment for the future

Well, not really but I got your attention, maybe.