In December 2009, I wrote a post entitled “Disclaimer: Being a devil and a diablo is more than enough” and used the same drawing above. In it, I tried to put to rest rumors that I wrote or helped write not one, but two other blogs about Venezuela.
Today, I have to reiterate the same words, because for reasons that are irrelevant to this post, I have been accused again (twice this time) of writing the blog Venepiramides (I will not even hyperlink to it at this point). Essentially, I was not aware that once again it had become “common knowledge” that I had something to do with that.
Thus, I reiterate here publicly that I, Miguel Octavio, write about Venezuela in this blog alone and do not contribute, write, collaborate, or have anything to do with Venepiramides. I also have an abandoned blog (exdiablo) in which I attempted to translate the contents of this blog and two other halfhearted efforts at showing my orchids and interesting stock charts. All these blogs are now listed on the left as “All Blogs by Miguel Octavio” (descriptions included). Those are my only blogs, the only ones I write or dabble with.
Is that clear enough?
Now, after trying to understand the reasons why people arrive at this conclusion, I have found very little that makes sense. Yes, that other blog runs an RSS Feed of my blog (and eight others), I can’t stop that without stopping all RRS Feed subscriptions (500 or so) to the Devil. I do link to it, that blog wrote about Stanford in its beginnings, a topic that was interesting to me at the time. I will remove this link sometime soon.
But after reviewing everything and having independent people review the facts, the styles, content, I can only reach one conclusion: The person linking me to Venepiramides, is the same one behind that blog, who has created this generalized opinion in order to divert attention from him (her?). There is no other justification for it.
In closing, some random thoughts: First, why would I start a second blog, seven years after starting this fairly successful one, (winner best LA and Caribbean blog ’06, quoted in WSJ, FT, Dow Jones, Bloomberg, invited by the President of the US to talk about blogs), to start another blog, in Spanish (where I had not been successful with exdiablo) and devoted only to Ponzi schemes initially? More importantly why would I want to slow down now in this very successful blog (The Devil), to work on the other one (a post a day), which is much less successful? Second, I have seldom asked favors from my readers, but if you do see some reason to think the two blogs are related or connected (or if you have a good reason to show they are not!), please let me know in the comments. I just don’t see it and want to understand why people actually believe it and go as far as contacting me about it!
Thank You!
The Devil's Excrement 
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November 13, 2012 at 9:00 am
Miguel…verily thou dost worry about nothing of import. Yet thee dost not clarify the root of thine concerns. Your readers should know the WHY of your concerns – namely, that the scurrilous bottom-feeding barristers hired by the Boligangster combine known as Derwick Associates are seeking to silence all critical analysis of their thieving ways by threatening all who write with costly litigation in the US of A’s certifiably corrupt South Florida courts. Aso, that Derwick’s barristers have opted for threatening and harrassing thee because they don’t have an f-ing clue who Venepiramides is so they choose to pick on you to to justify their $500 per hour attorney’s fees. The loyalty of thine readers merits felicitations and praise because it reflects very well on your own great integrity, but verily their forensic skills in seeking to pin down the unknown Venepiramides blogger’s origins by using computerized translation programmes are dismally deficient. Several points can be made with reasonable accuracy: 1. The Devil is not and never has been associated in anyw ay with Venepiramides. 2. Venepiramides is a Venezuelan blog written by a Venezuelan since 2009, a year in which Stanford collapsed and other Venezuelan banks owned by Boligangster filth also were seized by the regime. 2. It ‘borrows’ econ news articles from Venezuelan news media and reproduces them with some small stylistic grammatical changes. 4. It runs one post per day, always sourcing the original article quoted (practically always a Venezuelan news media). 5. The subject matter is always economic and financial. 6. Clues hinting at the identity of the intellectual author of Venepiramides are visible on the blog to all who care to look carefully and also know who’s who in the Venezuelan financial community. Seek and ye shall find, but never believe anything thou readest and only half of what thou art witness to with thine own eyes. In closing, a PS to Derwick’s boligangsters and their bozo barristers: First, the Devil ain’t – and never has been – Venepiramides, and, second, you can threaten and menace all you wish, but here’s the rub…your systematic bullying of diferent bloggers will much sooner than later lead to widespread exposure on the web – and in far more widely read English – of Derwick’s corruption and criminal associations with current and former electricity sector officials of the Bolivarian regime.
November 13, 2012 at 11:07 am
My concern is simple, I dont want to waste, energy, time and money on spurious litigation on something which is false. Butmy worry is not the past, my main concern is that this does not stop, nor can I stop it, I have not read everything venepiramides has written, so I wonder who will be next with the next accusation. Past cases dont bother me, I think they are in the past now, it is the permanent uncertainty that Venepiramides will write somthing and I will be blamed.
November 13, 2012 at 12:18 pm
One knows the rule of law in the West is utterly corrupted when comparing the antics of certain aforementioned Boligangsters and then this:
“DC Henchman of Kazakh Dictator Threatens HRF with Lawsuit
November 13, 2012
by Thor Halvorssen
A specter haunts the president of Kazakhstan. It is what in the West we call dissent. The growing condemnation of his repressive government is turning increasingly international, revealing that Nursultan Nazarbayev is a dictator, not a democrat. And he is doing whatever he can to stop his critics. In the U.S., one of his servants, a Washington Beltway fixer of Bulgarian origin, has threatened to sue the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) if we don’t shut up.”
Reminds a person that the difference between rats and attorneys is that there are some things rats won’t do…..
November 13, 2012 at 8:39 am
O Lord, he will hang upon him like a disease: he
is sooner caught than the pestilence, and the taker
runs presently mad. God help the noble Claudio! if
he have caught the Benedick, it will cost him a
thousand pound ere a’ be cured.
Shakespeare – Much ado about nothing
November 11, 2012 at 12:28 am
Miguel, just throw it back at him. Who is he? He operates incognito in covert/stealth mode. Why? Should be easy to profile him and even ID him.
November 11, 2012 at 12:31 am
I wish it were that easy.
November 10, 2012 at 1:03 pm
First time I sued the link it took me to a general page of laht
November 10, 2012 at 12:30 pm
Where?
November 10, 2012 at 12:37 pm
I just put the link. I knew about more dosh for Defence but less for police?
November 10, 2012 at 12:09 pm
Wao…I just read what NorseDiv linked to:
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=630445&CategoryId=13303
November 9, 2012 at 10:41 am
Yesterday, one of my employees went to the Post Office in San Carlos, Cojedes and attempted to send a small package to Trinidad and was instructed that all mail outside Venezuela has been stopped for at least three months. Does anyone know about this and why? I send seeds all over the world, mainly hand pollinated hybrids of Adenium obesum (/Desert Rose) and these seeds are relatively short lived. I send a packet some three months ago,also to trinidad, I payed considerably more for EMS (EXPRESS Mail Service) and the seeds still have not arrived, the computer says they are still at the airport in Caracas. Most of the seeds sent to China have not arrived. What is going on?
November 9, 2012 at 3:23 pm
David,
I get standard mail from Venezuela from time to time. It takes between 3 and 6.5 months now.Two centuries ago Alexander von Humboldt wrote that a letter he gave in an Indian mission in Apure to be sent to a relative of his in Saxony arrived 6 months later to its destination but only because of the British blockade (Britain was at war with Spain back then).
30 years ago a standard letter via Ipostel from Venezuelan Valencia to Moscow, USSR, to Brno, Czechoslovakia, or to Toronto, Canada, would take 2 weeks at most. So now we are back to the times of the Colony…only that time is wasted in Venezuela only.
Those are the ways of the Llaneno “revolutionaries”.
November 9, 2012 at 9:57 am
I can believe that they are accusing you of writing in Venepiramides…..you can not compare…. is like reading two different books(authors)…..Venepiramides I read very fast because is very repetitive and quite honestly boring and unsubstantiated; you on the other had have an intelligent approach to your writing. To conclude: THERE IS NO WAY THAT YOU CAN WRITE VENEPIRAMIDES, you would have to be drunk, stoned or half as sleep!!!!As a writer, If I were you, I would also be insulted by such accusations. Very silly accusation!!!
November 9, 2012 at 10:17 am
Thanks Carlos, oh, I am definitely insulted, I imagine your can is can’t, no?
November 9, 2012 at 12:13 am
I agree with Bruni the Spanish there when I run it thru the translator looks too good to be the Venezuelan dialect. But, so does Gustavo’s and others who are well educated. We have to remember that few opposition bloggers are OUT with their real names for obvious reasons. Heck, we even had one posting as the opposite sex for a while! I suppose that there are some out there that think that all these opposition blogs come out of some central location, as do the government’s, and that Miguel, Daniel, Francisco, Juan and others are actually hundreds of people researching and writing these posts. So if some people get confused well, that’s part of dissident blogging. It’s about the message not the messenger! Also, most stories blogged also can be found in the Venezuelan newspapers even if treated a bit more delicate in domestic Spanish.
November 8, 2012 at 4:53 pm
OT:
Chavez Slashed Spending After Winning Election, BofA Says (1)
2012-11-08 14:49:18.181 GMT
(Updates with analyst quote in fourth paragraph.)
By Charlie Devereux
Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) — Venezuela’s government slashed spending immediately after President Hugo Chavez won re-election last month as the government began an anticipated fiscal adjustment that may include a devaluation, Bank of America Corp.
said.
Real spending declined 34.1 percent from a year earlier in the four weeks after the Oct. 7 vote, while allocations of dollars in the central bank-administered Sitme currency market fell to a daily average of $31.3 million, the lowest level since August 2011, Bank of America’s Francisco Rodriguez wrote in a note to clients today.
Chavez, who won last month’s election by more than 11 percentage points after increasing spending by 20.5 percent in real terms in the first nine months of the year, will need to devalue the currency in the first quarter of 2013 to boost oil revenue and help close a fiscal deficit, Rodriguez said.
“We see a downwards adjustment in spending accompanied by a strong devaluation, and possibly by a tax reform, leading to a strengthening of Venezuela’s fiscal position and lessening its need for external issuance in 2013,” Rodriguez wrote in the report.
You all knew this, but still interesting…
Saludos,
November 8, 2012 at 4:52 pm
The Spanish sounds like someone that is translating from English. Like Spanish is not his/her mother’s tongue. Even the terminology is extremely precise, like a journalist that is reporting in English something very specific. It is a “just correct” Spanish, but with gringo inflections.
Maybe someone that has lived many years in Venezuela but is English speaking.
November 8, 2012 at 4:56 pm
He is definitely not Hispanic. I have the proof!
November 11, 2012 at 12:14 pm
As Spanish is my second language, my analysis of Spanish is not up to yours. I am therefore unable to corroborate your conclusion. Nor would I be able to refute your conclusion. Nonetheless, I found some phrasing at Venpiramides that, even with my second-language command of Spanish, seemed a bit awkward:
En aquel momento el indicador venía en descenso luego de haber alcanzado el máximo histórico de 24,7% en enero de ese mismo año
Instead of indicador [indicator], I would have used índice
[index]. But that is because I would consider “index” to be more appropriate here.
November 8, 2012 at 2:55 pm
Also:Dido means : a mischievous trick; prank; antic.
and Bernie Maddof is the wizard of lies
who in his right mind and good intentions would think you would call yourself something of the sort ?
It is simply not your style at all.
Now style is not proof…proof can only come if you know his name.
But if people observe the difference in style and are honest, they will not be confused.They will know.
November 8, 2012 at 3:13 pm
Thanks for taking the time. I agree with the style part, they are different, quiet different I would say.
November 8, 2012 at 2:20 pm
I have never read that blog before but first I want to say that without knowing the real name of the blog owner I don’t see how you can gather proof.People who like to gossip and imagine things will think what they will, without solid proof.The endless speculations of people who are up to no good knows no end.
Being a visual person I see quite a difference just on first glance.His blog is organized with a different concept of space.If I were to compare, his looks a bit like a sterile dental office and yours has a more organic garden feel to it.Or maybe like the comparison one could make between French and English garden styles.
He links to different things than you do and the links are also more formally listed whereas yours are informal: Julia, Feathers, Quico and Juan etc.
He is a more hidden character,and appears to rely somewhat on humor.You come across as more serious, and more honest.
His blog feels flat, yours 3 dimensional.
I could go on, but all of it is just intuitive, rather than rational HOWEVER I would never confuse the two of you.
November 8, 2012 at 9:08 am
Thank you for your analysis, but, I miss a day of writing all the time. In fact, this year (I checked) I write in the Devil about half the days. Do not understand the piramide part.
Thanks, this is a useful comment.
November 8, 2012 at 9:06 am
Here are the reasons why one can think you are Venepirámides:
1.- The choice of the piramide
2.- The sense of humour in the profile
3.- The fact that the guy has not EVER missed a day of writing. No other Venezuelan that I know has such a discipline.
Here are the reasons why one can think you are not Venepirámides:
1.- What is the gain for your extra-effort of keeping a parallel blog?
2.- The writing is not as good as yours
3.- At the beginning it showed a fixation on Stanford that you have never shown.
November 8, 2012 at 8:14 am
Look, what bothers me is that somehow people believe that I write Venepiramides, thus anything that is written there is blamed on me, I have enough with what I write here, but I know what I wrote here, I dont know what was written there. This is a problem with no solution for me, now or in the future.
November 8, 2012 at 5:48 am
I think, you could have abstained to write this one, do not pay much attention to these allegations. The effect you get, could be quite the contrary.
November 7, 2012 at 10:33 pm
Perhaps your doppleganger is also into forging paintings as well? That would make sense. He needs, however, to practice more on getting a ‘Matisse’ right. Practice, practice, practice.
http://devilsexcrement.com/2012/07/18/fbi-sting-operation-recovers-matisse-owned-by-venezuelan-museum/
November 7, 2012 at 10:06 pm
I guess your have a loyal female following, never commented before. I did read that blog at the beginning, my mom had money in Stanford, But I stopped reading it and I always read your bog. You write well, analyze and seem very true to your words. Let me know if we need to have a demonstration in your favor, I will be there. Hope it clears up. Deb.
November 7, 2012 at 10:15 pm
Debbie: No need (I think), but thanks very much your support.
November 7, 2012 at 8:07 pm
Miguel, I am so sorry that you find yourself in this situation which is obviously not of your making. Your outstanding reputation will survive and overcome this spurious accusation.
November 7, 2012 at 7:56 pm
Bueno, yo no entiendo por qué piensan que eres el responsable de ese blog. El tuyo es muchísimo mejor, tus posts significativamente más interesantes.