I am full of gloom today, so bear with me. Besides Chavez celebrating yesterday the 11 year anniversary of his attempted coup, which I consider to be absolutely grotesque, he also claimed that that day was simply a “popular” victory, while he absolutely disregarded the more than four million plus signatures of the Firmazo on Sunday. As if this were not enough, the Government appears to be rejecting any possibility of negotiation, not only rejecting the proposals by the Carter Center, but apparently also having Chavez tell the Vice-Chancellors of the group of friends that he did not know what they were doing in Caracas, since he had not invited them and he was the democratically elected president of Venezuela. According to a Brazilian newspaper even Lula Da Silva who was supposed to be Chavez’ best ally in the Group of Friends, is said to be mad at Chavez for his refusal to negotiate. Reportedly, the meeting between them at Chavez was tense, they found the President so arrogant and conflictive that reportedly the Mexican Vice-Chancellor is threatening to quit the group. The group believed that the easing of the general strike would create the required atmosphere to begin negotiations. Instead, Chavez gloated on Sunday, claiming victory over the opposition.
Meanwhile the destruction of PDVSA continues, this week most of the workers of PDVSA’s technology center were fired as the Government announced it would reduce its staff from 1,300 to only 200. This is not only depressing conceptually, but my wife worked there for almost twenty years, almost from its creation. During that time INTEVEP became not only a research and development center of the Venezuelan oil Industry, but it made the Venezuelan oil industry more sophisticated and self-sufficient. I hear that the Government thinks this is all just a victory, as they have tighter control of the country’s premier industry. Meanwhile, the country has essentially no external income as the balance of importing gasoline at $38 a barrel and selling it internally for $5 is barely compensated by the country’s oil exports. Finally, rumors are that the Government will suspend TV station Globovision by the end of the week for 72 hours, threatening the company with removal of its concession if it violates the law again. This is simply a threat to freedom of speech and who knows what may come next. Pessimistic, yes, but there are too many reasons not to be.
The Devil's Excrement 
Leave a comment