The French legislative elections

If you do not care about French politics or if good electoral maps leave you cold, you may skip this post altogether.

Then and now: those Orwellian moments....

Readers will surely remember the picture from the La Planta jail in Caracas, smoke billowing out, sent by a reader (dodging the occasional "lost" bullet)..

La Planta aflame in tear gas, from a reader's window

Well, the same reader sent me a current picture where you can appreciate that the walls have been covered with giant posters of the beloved leaders. Mote the exquisite details on how the support columns have also been painted in red.

Renovating La Planta

In such ways is history rewritten. What was a jail riot where inmates had enough weaponry to hold off the army, where the incompetence of the jail minister was exposed crudely (she had not been able to even manage to put a director in a couple of months or feed them for that matter), where the "solution" was to allow inmates to go, un-cuffed, to the jail of their liking (with drugs and cash), where surprisingly no weaponry of significance was recovered is now set as a bright example on the prowess of El Supremo who recognized he negotiated personally with the inmates he could not control.  Then again, it was a meeting of the minds, a negotiation of pairs, of course.

Orwell would have had it this easy.

The Barclays report for what is in store for Venezuela

I received in my mail box the "ENERGING MARKETS RESEARCH" from Barclays and even though the typo in the title is already unsettling, it is worth reading. Highlights after the jump.

Antisemitism and elections in Venezuela

Great article from Tablet in which yours truly is among those asked to try to make sense on why Chavez is antisemitic, among many other to the point observations.  One of the best recent article on Venezuela.  Renews one's faith in the intelligence and understanding of some for the current situation, the more so when you compare it the following exchange in El Pais which could have well been written in 1998.  Oh well....  Good thing the writers of El Pais know better than some of the stuff written in their forums.

Capriles smashing launch: le ladró en la cueva

The official propaganda on state media (and even its eunuchs like Venevision) will try to minimize what happened today in Caracas.  Don't believe a word: it was a smashing success!  Even AFP says so, using the term "hundreds of thousands".

This blogger, even living in Yaracuy, has gone to all the main opposition rallies and marches in Caracas.  Pics are scattered all through the blog since 2003.  I did miss the main one, the one of April 11 2002. Thus I cannot compare it with today.  Some say that April 11 was the biggest one ever.  Maybe, but I can assure you that this one was the biggest, brightest, of the ones I ever went.

In the far distance Libertador avenue, both decks full

I did try the live tweet thing, but wireless signal was generally bad.  I suppose that too many in the crowds were tweeting, calling, trying to find lost parties (I lost my group early and did most of it on my own until returning to our agreed meeting point, first time ever I lost my group).  There were plenty of fun pictures to do, for a change, and you can check out my recent tweets for them @danielduquenal, as I do not like redundancy though the two pictures of this post were tweeted earlier (the one above came from a reader, look at how far the flow of people go!).

At any rate, it was a spectacular event.  Never had I so much trouble walking, never was such enthusiasm shown, and for at long last I sensed that yes, we may be able to finally get rid of Chavez, without necessarily spilling bloodshed.  After all, if 4 moths before the vote Capriles is able to gather with him that many people.....

If the march was rich in sights, it was also rich in symbolism.  For once the regime did not try to sabotage it.  Also Capriles went to make his speech in Plaza Caracas, one of the favorite pulpits of Chavez, a place which even 6 months ago no one in the opposition would have dared to organize a rally.  As we say in Venezuela, "Capriles le ladró en la cueva", Capriles went to bark inside his cave.  Capriles also went inside the CNE for his formal registration freshened up, Venezuelan flag shirt (he did walk 10K under a blazing sun and by chance I saw him run by me, barely a foot away!  He was already red and sweaty and still 3/4 of the way to go...).  He was received by all the witches of the CNE that simply could not help it, sensing that maybe, just maybe for once they should looks a tad less chavista.

All in all an excellent day for our cause and a terrible one for chavismo which is not even trying to reply tomorrow.  The lone stuff we know is that Chavez will come in a closed caravan from Miraflores Palace and that the CNE witches will go outside to receive him, as far from cameras as possible....  The comparison will be terrible, no matter how the state TV tries to hide that Chavez is sick and that his own people are getting sick of him....  Capriles has conquered the street and Chavez is left with cadenas where he sits down all the time and money for vote buying.  By October it might not be enough.

Capriles First real life test

Tomorrow the opposition unity candidate makes his first mass meeting. The occasion is his official signing up as a presidential candidate. Chavez will try to do one best on Monday but that is another story.

The fact of the matter is that the Unidad has planned a massive march/rally starting from different points of the city.  We will see how successful has been Capriles campaign at motivating people.  I will attend part of the event only because of family matters, but that part I will tweet it live with pictures as needed.  See you tomorrow at @danielduquenal

The 2012 French Vote: the Venezuelan representative

After voting for president a few weeks ago, last Saturday for the first time ever I was allowed to vote for a Representative to the French National Assembly.  And it was quite a tale of woe, worthy of a Venezuelan "telenovela".