Should we boycott the Copa America?

Am I the only one offended by the logo on the right? This logo is now popping into many of state ads promoting the Copa America in Venezuela. That logo has become all but the official slogan of the Copa America to be held in a little over a week in Venezuela. That logo is a cheap uptake of the official governmental logo "Venezuela, ahora es de todos" Venezuela now belongs to all, a slogan with more hidden meanings than one would think of. The government who wants to believe that the country now belongs to all, wants us to believe that thanks to its actions the Copa America now also belongs to all. The crassness of this affirmation is pathetic, if not outright laughable for its ridicule.

Before I get into the insulting aspect of that Copa motto, let's revisit who does Venezuela belongs to. It belongs to Chavez. Period.

It certainly does not belong to the millions that are now in the Maisanta list, the brain-child of the Tascon list, an instrument used routinely to deny governmental services to those who had the temerity to express their political dislike to Chavez, a modern apartheid worthy of the sick mind of a contemporary McCarthy.

It certainly does not belong to the RCTV employees while the government tries hard to block its access to cable systems. It does not belong to all of those journalists who increasingly are forced to practice self censorship. And it will belong even less to those journalists that condemn the closing of RCTV.

It does not belong to the tens of thousands of students protesting in the streets these days. It does not belong to the hundred of thousand Venezuelan that had to leave the country since 1998. It does not belong to the hundred of thousand of people who have been killed, injured or maimed because of general violence in Venezuela.

It does not belong to these uncounted humble people who are increasingly complaining that the Chavez promises are not materializing.

This being said, now we can start wondering about who the Copa America will belong to. If we start looking at all the scandals already swirling around the ticket sales for the Copa, with their mysterious disappearing act and crude reapparition on the black market, we can already suspects that some were more equal than other in accessing those precious tickets. It is now quite clear that Chavez has been careful to pack at least whichever game he will be attending with public employees and supporters, probably wearing a significant amount of red clothing. Because the sad truth is that like any dictator of Latin America that had the good luck to chair some major sporting event, Chavez the wanna-be dictator will take as much mileage as he can from this South American. Think about the World Cup in its Argentina edition.

Chavez of course is a little bit more careful, times have changed. So for the time being he limits himself to the lavish inaugurations of unfinished stadiums in front of adoring crowds and sycophantic local officials who cannot find enough words to thank Chavez for bringing this Copa to Venezuela. I do not know if the Conmebol will be as tolerant of Chavez once the tournament has started, but expect a few abuses there.

But the worse offense as far as I am concerned is that the Copa America has always belonged to all. If it has not reached the high ratings of the World Cup, which might have half of the networks playing the games at the same time, it was usually easy to catch at least a game on Meridiano TV. If no more exposure was given to the Copa America is simply due to the fact that Venezuela is a Baseball country: soccer only comes second, and first only once every four year. If there is something that soccer has always been is democratic, a sport that speaks to the masses, no matter what Chavez wants us now to believe in his permanent rewriting of history. Or why doe she think that 80% of Venezuelans always supported Brazil? Because he is friends with Lula?

This soccer position in Venezuela has nothing to do with some international ploy against Chavez, but in his paranoia he thinks so. Soccer/futbol have always been a more important game in the upper social classes, in part due to their European immigration origin. For some strange reason, baseball, the game from the Empire, the hated Empire, is the game favored by Chavez and his revolution of the lower classes. Chavez has chosen to ignore this. However he cannot forgive the opposition to have a game of its own so I can only interpret this crass attempt at soccerising chavismo to some personal grudge of Chavez. It is an unnecessary and demeaning thing to do but when have such considerations stopped Chavez? Not to mention that the hope is that the country will forget about food shortages and protesting students during the games.

The pettiness of the whole thing even reaches inner segregation within chavismo. For example if you look at the list of the local committees you will find that all opposition is excluded from participation of the Copa supposedly "for all". But if you look further you will see inner chavista discrimination. In Zulia, the Maracaibo games are presided by the local very chavista mayor Di Martino. Governor Rosales does not appear. But look at Barquisimeto: there the governor Reyes Reyes is on top and the mayor of Barquisimeto, Henri Falcon is out of the picture. See, Falcon is perhaps the only chavista elected official who has worked intelligently for the betterment of the city. He is the kind of mayor that I hear opposition folks in Barquisimeto ready to vote for in the next Governor election in 2008. But Reyes Reyes, a totally lackluster governor, with so little personality that he has to resort to imitate Chavez ticks, want his son to succeed him at the Lara State Mansion. Thus expect Falcon to seat far from center stage, but get all of the blame if something goes wrong in the Barquisimeto matches.

So, should I boycott or not? Long time readers of this blog will remember my dedication to European soccer, to the point of opening a blog for the last World Cup. But that is also my weakness: I will never be able to gather the enthusiasm I could get in watching a Belgium Portugal game for a Bolivia Paraguay game. Outside of Argentina and Brazil I just cannot be bothered by soccer around here. Besides, for the Copa America many of the big country stars will not show up, too exhausted after their European season, and probably under some secret order of their clubs to rest and not risk life and limb in Venezuela where walking out at night is more, much more dangerous than a rough soccer game.

Thus boycotting will not be any heroic deed for me. I probably would ignore most of the excitement even if Chavez were not trying to manipulate the show. But when you add that even the broadcast rights have been manipulated by Chavez so as to give them to the brand new Tves, who forcibly replaced RCTV, a specialist on soccer and the network that I preferred to watch the World Cup games, I can only but boycott the games. I might try to catch a couple of games though, if they go through Latin FoxSports which is based in Argentina and has great commentators, but for that it would have to be a big game involving either Brazil, Argentina or USA, against each other.

Now, in spite of everything, I do not wish that the tourney fails (even though it has a great chance to do so). After all Chavez forgets something, the Copa does not belong to Venezuela only and it would be unfair to deprive fans of Uruguay or Rio of their team performances. Thus, rather than an active boycott, I will just simply ignore the games. Too bad, I could have tried to get seats to Barquisimeto games, but I will pass. Even if I could have afforded to get a seat, the idea of having Reyes Reyes around would spoil part of the fun.


-The end-

The UDO elections: another student defeat for chavismo

The other day the Merida university students voted and chavismo lost 3 to 1. This week it was the turn of UDO, the University with a wide spread campus going from Margarita Island to Ciudad Bolivar. In all but one district students NOT in step with the government won. The openly chavista candidates only won in Ciudad Bolivar campus. The total votes are not published yet but apparently the student council will be 10 "independent" and 2 pro Chavez.

It is not iddle to remind the reader that UDO used to have the reputation of being a left wing campus. At this point we can even wonder what would be the election result of the UBV if fair elections were held there......

Correction (added 48 hours later): apparently the results at the UDO are not as clear as people thought on Thursday. It seems that the president of the student association will be a chavista after all. Yet the anti Chavez forces got more votes on the first round, which is what was reported earlier before the detail was published, when the Anzoategui vote seemed to express that trend. Apparently, the anti Chavez vote was divided among different groups and thus the united chavista group did not get 50% of the vote but did get the single largest amount of votes and thus the presidency on the second round, when Sucre and Bolivar went the pro Chavez candidates. Certainly a great argument for the single PUS party strategy..... And the divisions in the anti Chavez group were between pro AD and pro Rosales faction. Lesson for students elsewhere in Venezuela? Stay clear of UNT, AD, PJ and the other, they will screw you while battling among themselves for scraps!!!! You will win and yet end up losing!!!!!

Apparently the faculty was also voting and there the anti Chavez, pro autonomy groups did win.
Note: no links given because I found only contradictory information and the official results are not published on the web yet. So, who knows what the very final result will be.


-The end-

Venezuela and human Trafficking

The Washington Post reports that Venezuela is again placed in a short list of countries that do not fight human trafficking, the modern day form of human slavery. That is, those countries do not fight actively cross border prostitution, children sales, etc…

I do not know how the state department makes its calculation or if Venezuela indeed deserves to be included in that list, but here, from ground zero, there is enough evidence to think that the government could not care less if women are sold into prostitution or if children are taken out for some ungodly purpose.

The crime rate has more than doubled in recent years and shows no sign of decrease. The government does not care. You will see anytime much more soldiers and policemen cordoning a peaceful student march than on the beat at night in the barrios where we are in a civil war situation worthy of Iraq except for the car bombs.

Cuba is also on that list. The in-famous jineteras tells us the story of official prostitution. Brothels in Venezuela seem to be flourishing. Drug trafficking is on the rise. Venezuela is now recognized as a major transit areas and national drug consumption seem on the rise although no good numbers can be obtained. Apparently the government does not care much about that problem either. All points to gangs organizing all sort of deals that include sex and drugs, under the indifferent, when not accomplice, gaze of authorities. Oh yes, they make more catches, but there is no telling if the increase drug bust are a reflection of more efficiency or more traffic through Venezuela.

The kidnapping industry is flourishing, in particular in the Western area of the country. Now the problem is a calamity in Tachira and Zulia, but other states such as small Yaracuy are reporting monthly kidnappings (not to mention those that are not reported since quite often the families think that they’re is collusion between police and kidnapping gangs and prefer not to say anything and negotiate on their own). When kidnapping becomes almost an open air industry you know that respect for human life and condition is reaching new lows. What else can hide behind that? The Faddul brothers crime is a constant reminder that life in Venezuela is everyday cheaper and cheaper. People willing to collaborate on such activities soon will have no problem selling children and women into prostitution.

So yes, I do not know how the state department comes out with that result, but I have absolutely no problem in believing it: the Venezuelan government does not care so gangs can move in without any problem while authorities are only concerned about political events and propaganda.

-The end-

Two chavisterias

Sometimes I am lacking a good word to describe certain attitudes or actions that have such a chavista character that makes them sui generis, of sorts. Chavisterias as in the title is good, and better than chavescism which might be a more anglo-saxon terminology. But Chavez is all the excesses of the Caribbean so let's try chavisteria for a while, sounds better.

We had recently two such examples. Chavez decided to give 18 millions to supporter Danny Glover who never in his life would have been able to raise that kind of money in L.A., and certainly not for the little work he did for Chavez. That is, for a few trips to Venezuela and a few hours sitting listening to Chavez in rapture the guy is getting 18 million bucks from Venezuela to film the life of Toussaint Louverture. I mean, not even Negro Primero.

But that would have been cool except that the local producer and movie makers of Venezuela complained to the ministry of culture saying that in a single swoop the government gave one foreigner more money than it gives in several years to the movie sector. The Kultur minister did the very chavista thing, the chavisteria of breaking relationships with the movie associations of Venezuela .

Why was the minister Sesto so incensed? Well, someone pointed out that a Venezuelan movie costs about 1 million and that with the Danny Glove gift a few Venezuelan movies could be made, in particular for the new line up of Tves so starved in fresh material of any nature. nobody of course likes to be exposed publicly for the sold out incompetent twit they are. Besides since Chavez sort of named him the official Kulturer of Venezuela, the guy cannot hear himself farting anymore. Regimes such as chavismo do create such individuals.

However this is not all. Demonstrating once again that Chavez has no qualms about spending money that is not his (the Venezuelan budget for example which disposition is strictly at Chavez will now) last Sunday Chavez decided that to be a good revolutionary you should give up unnecessary riches, whatever that means. In other words rich people who signed up for the PUS should stat giving up fancy items. Their Humvees? Their Rolls? Their Rolex? Or as TalCual points out, will Chavez give up his own luxury items (I am thinking of his gold plated airplane, his closet full of designer suits or whatever else he has been enjoying since he is president)?

But Chavez reassured us quickly: he will set the example by giving up part of his Qaddafi Human Rights Prize (yes, there is such a thing believe it or not). Now, Tal Cual although appreciating the gesture of Chavez to give up 250 000 has a few interesting questions. 1) does it count that he gives it to the PUS? Is it not like taking from one pocket to place it in the other? After all, he is the boss of the PUS; 2) and by the way, did efficient tax collector Vielma Mora checked the tax dues by Chavez upon receiving such an amount of money (which is of dubious constitutionality we are also told)? Me thinks not. Paying taxes and making their tax returns public is for leaders of non democratic countries like the US. In Venezuela the beloved leader has no accounting to do.

-- --- --- --- --- ---

Not that totally unrelated but for some reason I felt it would fit quite well here. After all Sesto proposes almost a reverse racism by promoting Danny Glover of local talent, and Chavez might be giving away money that he does not own but that does not stop him from being a racist of sorts, and anti Semite to boot. His generosity his very well targeted to those who can promote him.



-The end-

Venezuela News and Views exposure

Well, it was going to happen with the closing of RCTV and the end of freedom of information. Venezuelan blogs exposure had to increase. This blog has done rather surprisingly good. In no particular order.

It all started with a BBC podcast. The same Radio 5 live of previous podcasts.

Then there is another podcast with the Shire Network. I got a call from this conservative, anti Islamic Fundamentalist group and I wondered by curiosity how it would work out. After all, I have that Euston Manifesto badge on the right and I wondered how any conservative blog could be calling me. The interview part went fine in fact, no agenda, just seeking information. Unfortunately the sound quality was not great on occasion, and I was still somewhat asleep (they called from Australia).

To balance this visit to the right, Index on Censorship, a UK magazine, that seems to be from the Labor side has recently opened a web site to include more information and asked me for a comment there, to explain what the RCTV closing meant. I was honored to oblige here.

And we also have translations. Well, I did them for the "Week the Bolivarian Revolution died" helped by readers to improve the style (you know who you are).

There was first the French translation posted at Agoravox, a major center left to left forum in France. I submitted it and they published it. For those who can mange some French I invite you to visit the comment section: you will see comments of a harshness that make some of the local Anglo PSF seem quite tame in comparison :) It was great fun to deal with them.

And the Spanish translation could not be missing an it is up at Noticias 24. 38 comments in barely one hour. The chavista comments of course did not get the point of the post at all.

-The end-

The market report

Inflation in Venezuela is doing fine. Last month we got 1.7%. Official that is, as the real one is probably way above 2%. See, when the Central Bank goes to a store to check out on prices, if the items are missing they assume that the price was the same as last month, or even worse, that it is the government fixed price.

Last Saturday for example at my local Central Madeirense there was no cooking oil (it has been missing now for a month). Even olive oil stocks are going down now.

There was no milk, powder, fresh, low fat, UHT, whatever, nada, zero, nothing. Only by sheer luck, when I arrived they had just put a few half gallons of 1% fat fresh milk. By the time I was done with my shopping, the shelf was already empty.

There was no white sugar. This one has been missing since last year, so who cares at this point....

There was little pasta. Venezuelans eat a lot of pasta and usually there is about 8 to 12 brands available each one with several presentations. Saturday were down to two brands.

There was no beef or chicken. Only low cuts such as tongue, pork feet, gut, liver, etc...

Since my last report, no improvement. I did take a lot of toilet paper though, there were only two brands left of that item...

-The end-

Chavez takes a personal role in Venezuela censorship

It is difficult to overestimate what happened last Thursday at the National Assembly in Caracas. In a discounted revolution that never ceases to amaze us with its cynicism, new heights of power abuse were reached. Let’s review first the events and then explain them and their symbolism.

A chronology of the events

Dissenting students try to march to the National Assembly to bring a petition. In short, they want their civil rights to be guaranteed, including their right to protest, their freedom of information and expression.

The National Assembly refuses to receive them, blocks all its access with the Nazional Guard. A couple of representatives realizing that the house of the people cannot do such a thing decide to go and meet the students at a more neutral ground, sponsored by the catholic church.

The National Assembly, N.A., direction realizing that it had a public relation problem decides to invite the students to visit them for a debate with “Bolivarian” students on Thursday. The initiative is from the N.A. The dissenting students, as we will learn later, were never consulted nor offered to discuss the rules of the “debate”. These rules were that taking turns 5 dissenting students and 5 bolivarian students will present their case to the N.A. Nothing else such as a moderator or an agenda is offered. The “debate” would nothing more than a free for all but taking turns.

The day comes. The dissenting students arrive, all wearing a red shirt above their clothes. Once inside the building (only pro Chavez folks had been invited in the visitor balconies, the dissenters were alone on a bench near the tribune of the N.A.), the direction calls for a cadena. That is, for the duration of the “debate” ALL TV stations and ALL radio stations of Venezuela will have to transmit simultaneously all the proceedings.

Douglas Barrios is the first dissenting student to speak. He reads form a paper a carefully worded statement that lists precisely all the requests of the students. At the end he removes his red shirt as a symbol of independent mind from the red Bolivarian agenda, stating clearly that no Venezuelan should be obliged to wear red to be allowed to speak or to be taken into consideration. The others remove their red shirts too.

The first chavista student speaks. Then comes the turn of Yon Goicochea who simply says that the National Assembly of Venezuela is not a place of debate, that they did not come here to participate in a debate, that they have exercised their right to reply to previous N.A. verbal aggressions and that, their mission accomplished, they were leaving the building.

Under the decomposed attitude of Cilia Flores, the N.A. president, they leave the building, followed by most of the press corps sensing that the outside events were going to be more interesting than whatever would take place inside the N.A. hall. Effectively outside a throng of violent chavistas were waiting. The students had to be escorted into armored police trucks to be taken away of the Venezuelan Capitol as a lynch mob, surrounding all the area, tried to get at them, including such strident supporters of Chavez as Lina Ron. Videos of this shameful moment are abundant, including from one of the student filming from inside the truck as people insulted her and tried to grab her.

While the dissenting students managed to get away (the Guards and the Police did a good job in protecting them), the verbal attack on them inside the N.A. reached a paroxysm. All the Bolivarian students took their turn to speak, anyway, and all outdid themselves in attacks against the departed students. That is, they did not offer much except a well rehearsed Castroist rant and personal attacks on anything that does not think like the ideology in power. The cadena ended at 2:45 PM (it lasted for about two hours). Immediately Globovision restarted its broadcast with all the videos of the student “escape” from the lynch mobs.

The students safely back to the USB campus held a press conference where they explained their reasons not to stay at the N.A., in particular that they did not consider the N.A an adequate place to debate, that they did not request a debate, and that they had not been consulted on a debate nor on how this one would be held. On her side Cilia Flores held a dismal press conference where she went almost hysterical sometimes, picking up silly fights with female journalists.

At 18:03 a new cadena starts, this time led by Chavez himself. It would last until 21:26, that is a total of 3 hours and 23 minutes of simultaneous broadcast all across the country of ALL TV AND RADIO STATIONS. Only people with cable TV (less than 25% of Venezuela’s homes) can escape it by tuning to some foreign network. During all the cadenas time, almost 6 hours on Thursday, private stations lose their advertisement income without any compensation from the state, not even some tax break.

The highlights of the cadena; congratulation by Chavez himself to the Bolivarian students all lined up in the attendance to Chavez; copious insults to the dissenting students and to many opposition activities; step by step “criticism” of Barrios speech with as many allusions as possible as to the unfit nature of his speech; and more, much more in the same perspective. It is to be noted that the insulted students will never be able to exert a right of reply to Chavez in cadena, and even less in front of him. During three hours Chavez insulted a group of people that could not reply, could not protest, and could not defend themselves. Furthermore, Chavez proffered an accusation that normally could even be ground for judicial action against these students by implying that they were paid agents from foreign powers. No proof advanced of course but their integrity duly questioned without them ever benefiting form a public right to reply.

On Friday we learned that the government has launched a frontal attack to discredit the dissenting students, going as low as besmirching their families. But we also learned that most of the Bolivarian “students” are in fact ALSO public employees in positions were they work in communication of governmental propaganda.

Chavista public opinion of course claims victory but all of their actions betray that they know they received a serious Public Relation blow. Opposition is sharply divided into those, like this blogger, who think it was a stunning fit for these students and those who think that they should have remained. This last group in general wishes they had remained in order to hammer as much as possible attacks against Chavez.

Attacks continued Saturday with for example the N.A. assembly announcing that it would only consider the “concrete proposals” of the Bolivarian students (which include no entrance exam to college and the end of university autonomy). The other proposal, although have been listed very concretely in the speech of Barrios will not be examined. Newspaper carry full pages advertisement with the speeches of some of the Bolivarian students, paid by the state.

Explaining the early exit

First, let me come out quite clearly on the side of the students by saying that against incredible odds they managed a brilliant performance and transformed an announced execution into a stunning victory. Staying inside would have been a mistake for several reasons:

1- They were alone. For example no support from friends as the balconies were filled with pro Chavez folks. They would have risked public booing, public lynching by the representatives. They were in unfavorable conditions if any debate were to become acrimonious or were they to be provoked by chavista students.

2- They never asked for a debate. They came to explain in a perfect speech all what they wanted. For them to have stayed inside would have implied redundancy in further speeches. If the “debate” would have been a real debate with follow up and actual exchange it would have made sense to stay, but that was never contemplated by the N.A. organizers. Observing the chavista speeches that followed the exit of the students certainly justifies their exit: no one should be subjected to such opprobrium. It is also important to point out that the dissident students are representatives of the student bodies of their universities: they were elected or named; whereas that was not the case for most, if not all, the bolivarian students. These ones spoke on their own name and it is fair to question their credentials as student representatives, and thus their legitimacy in attending such a debate.

3- Staying inside would have brought back some legitimacy to a more than tarnished National Assembly. This one was elected with only 17% of the Venezuelan voters and gave a body 100% pro Chavez: it might be legal but it is not legitimate. As if this was not enough, early this year it surrendered most of its legislative power to Chavez so this one could emit a long list of law-decrees without parliamentary debate. The public image of the N.A. is of an irrelevant body that just consumes state monies for nothing. The N.A. needed more, infinitely more that debate than the dissenting students. The students were right to remind the country that the N.A. is just a pitiful subservient group of people of no value, no backbone, no character, no personal convictions. In other words, they told the country that the N.A. of Venezuela has ceased to be a place of debate, that true debate can only happen in the streets now.

4- In addition the set up was obviously a trap, including the chavista crowds (hordes?) posted outside. How is it possible that only chavistas can go near the National Assembly of all Venezuelans? How? Had the students stayed inside, countered the other guys arguments, they would have just given more ammunition to the exited rabble to commit aggression at their exit. They had the duty to leave early, to preserve their lives, and to expose the trap the government had tried to set for them.

Explaining Chavez reaction

The big loser Thursday was Chavez. That is why he had to put a 3 hour cadena in the evening. He needed to shut up Globovision commentary and rally his troops.

He needed to shut up Globovision because Globovision is now the only network in Venezuela that would cover extensively the chavista debacle of the day. Thus by starting his cadena at 6 PM he was stopping Globovision at the hour when its ratings go up, when people start getting home from work.

By prolonging the cadena after 8 PM he was cutting Grado 33 which is the editorial show of Globovision. And he was also cutting the 8:30 transmission of CNN through Globovision, just in case CNN would show some of the aggressions of the day.

By having a 3 hour cadena he offered some form of revenge to his bruised troops. He cheered them up and started rolling the ball that it was a victory.

Unfortunately the official excuse for the cadena was a lame inauguration of unfinished student complexes, an excuse that under NO circumstance should have lasted more than half an hour, even for Chavez cadena standards. This was shown pitifully when the vice president himself refused, during a TV hook up to Carabobo, to show some classrooms because, I presume, the lights were not yet working and still the thing was being inaugurated in great fanfare.

Some new truisms that should be mentioned and repeated constantly

There are some issues that I think should be repeated even if mentioned or alluded to them through this post.

Among the many attacks that chavismo has hurled since Thursday we notice this pearl: it is supposed to be embarrassing that Barrios had to read form a paper. That paper must prove that they were manipulated, told what to say by some obscure foreign interests (read: Bush spending his nights writing memos to the Venezuelan opposition?). Well, chavismo would think that way. Chavez has been repeating the same speech for 8 years with just an increasing and belligerent and radical tone. Of course he does not need a piece of paper in front of him. And of course his followers do not need a paper in front of them: they just need to repeat the rehashed consigns, they are not speaking for a group, they are speaking in favor of the Supremo. Their words after all do not count, or will stop counting as soon as Chavez changes his mind.

On the other hand, as it is the case for any serious group, for any serious organization, for any serious political candidate at great transcendental moments, you read form a piece of paper because you need to express your points clearly, precisely AND completely. Nothing must be forgotten, even the exact timing at which the red shirts should be taken off. More than anything else perhaps, this attack from chavismo shows how irresponsible chavismo is, how dependent on Chavez they are, how alien of free thought, freedom of choice, intellectual depth they are.

The meaning of debate is quite clear. You need the right place. It was not the right place as the N.A of Venezuela has lost all credibility and has not held any debate on any subject since the 2005 election. You need clear rules, maybe not fair but at least clear. These, as they were, came from above and the parties were not consulted. You need a moderator agreed by both parties. The N.A. took that role without deserving it, without even consulting. You should be able to chose part of the audience. Only pro Chavez folks were in the audience. You should be respected, EVEN if you chose to leave early. We all saw that respect is a word that has been purged from chavismo vocabulary.

And if there is to be a debate you need to be prepared for it. It is normal that the dissident students seek help to prepare for the debate, or even for the statement they will present if they decide to limit themselves to a statement. Thus if they asked teachers, or even advertising agencies to emit a polished document, what is the problem? Does that diminish the message? Or does anyone think for an instant that chavismo did not prepare the people it sent? Where were they prepared? In Cuba? By Cubans? At Miraflores? By chavista media people? Why would their training be more justified than any training that the dissident students are accused of having received, without any proof of it by the way?

Conclusion

Thursday June 7 will be remembered as a day where Chavez abused his authority on the media as he had never dare to do before. That is, not only he shut RCTV two weeks ago, but now he cannot even allow Globovision to speak up to report chavismo abuses. That private networks suffer the economical consequences of a 6 hour cadena in a day, at the two highest rating moments of noon and evening, does not matter for him. All private networks and radio stations lost as much, if not much more for some of them, of their revenue for the day. Meanwhile they must keep paying their personnel and the expense of their relays as they must transmit the speech of Chavez (they are not allowed to shut up their transmitters to save energy, for example).

Thursday Chavez has shown that he was disposed to take in hand personally, actively, the censorship of the country media. And in many ways:

1- He is the only one allowed to accuse whomever he wants, in the terms he wants without the aggressed parties benefiting for a brief right to reply in a cadena of their own, and even less any right to sue him in court. For 6 hours on Thursday all Venezuelan hertzian spectrum carried attacks on opposition figures, on independent minded students, on foreign countries, etc…

2- Not only he closed RCTV, because he is the one that decided to close it, without a trial, without a public review of service, without the right to RCTV to present its defense, and even less to offer ways to mend its work assuming that a real accusation were to come, but now he has made it plain his threat to shut down Globovision and to steal airtime as much as he wants. With the notable addition that now the N.A. has established the precedent to call for cadena when it wants for as long as it wants. It is to be expected the other public powers pro Chavez will start getting the idea to make their own cadena whenever they need.

The implications are easy for anyone to infer. Chavez will go after freedom of information and expression. He even will go after justice redress. The Thursday show leaves no doubt on that. For more than 6 hours the country had only access to information through Internet or Cable TV. And after these 6 hours only one network, whose reach in the country is not even 50% of homes, was the only one able to present the other side of the official version of the news preached by Chavez and his acolytes for 6 hours. No state TV, no neutered private network mentioned what I just detailed above, or if they did so they did it briefly and probably more on the Chavez side.

It is just a matter of time before Globovision is closed. Soon attacks on independent newspapers will follow. And Internet cannot be far behind.

But worse, the way the government was willing to violate the civil rights of the student delegates show clearly to the country and to the world that civil rights have ceased to mean anything in the mind of chavismo officials. The only thing that stops them is a certain respect for international opinion and the desperate desire to hold to the democratic fig leaf that they use to hide their true fascist nature. A fig leaf which is by the way quite eaten with worms.


A personal note

I have tried to report as objectively as possible what I saw this week. It has been hard. For once I need to separate my own opinions from the story, even if cannot help but let the story be colored by the disgust I experienced about this whole charade.

For me, that Thursday a new line has been crossed by chavismo. Be it out of despair because its polls are falling, be it for a deliberate strategy to finish off its opposition, but the line has been crossed.

A line was crossed when the students were summoned by the National Assembly when this one offended them in the first place.

A line was crossed when the chavista hordes were waiting outside.

A line was crossed when the National Assembly and its chavista “students” lost any composure and restraint once the dissident students left.

A line was crossed when Chavez blocked deliberately, without reason, all the info that the country wanted to see, to hear.

It is a fascinating exercise to see how this is covered by chavista media, be it from the Internet blogs, to the official news agencies, through the different spokespersons ending with Chavez himself, who might be one of the few who really understood the moment. Perhaps worse of all were the words of some of the “students” of Chavez who were regurgitating slogans, and who seemed only to willing to trade freedom for a few material advantages. Pathetic.

Pathetic and worrisome because from the chavista reaction it is clear that there is no more dialogue possible with that side, at least that side that controls the level of powers or who actively participates in handling these levers such as the “bolivarian” students. Any dialogue left is to discuss terms of transition, not for a country building consensus. It is chavismo country or it is not.

What was hair rising is the sensation we got from all of these chavistas who only wanted to insult the dissident students; none of them could hide their contempt for them, if not their direct hatred. Stunning! In fact, from the whole chavista lot, the ones that behaved the best were some of the bolivarian students who at least had the decency to shake hands with the departing dissidents.

How can dialogue ever start? How is Chavez going to build up the country with the students he brought to defend him and his pseudo revolution? When have sycophantic students built a country? When have sycophantic National Assemblies promoted civil rights? When has a ruler be good for a country when he thinks of himself first, and only?

We are in trouble, in big trouble.


-The end-