The Devil's Excrement

From the Tyromaniac, for those that think that things can’t get any worse or that deterioration will bring a President down, on what is happening in Nauru, an island which went from having one of the world’s highest per capita income to broke in less than a decade:

There is a common believe, extracted from normal gravity, that basically says It can’t only get better or You can’t fall down from the floor. The news about Nauru, a tiny Pacific island which is totally cut from the outside world, as the country slides into seeming chaos, should send shivers down the spine of anyone doing this gravity analogies…

With a title “Vengeance in Venezuela” the New York Times covers quite well the events of the last few days. What is hard to understand is why this Editorial is well balanced, accurate and thought out, while Juan Forero continues to provide the sloppiest, shoddiest and most biased coverage of any foreign newspaper for the same publication. Weird, no?

Security today was absolutely obscene as opposition leader Fernandez was brought from the headquarters of the intelligence police to the Courthouse. There were dozens of National Guards and intelligence police officers as Mr. Fernandez, President of Venezuela’s Chambers of Commerce was brought handcuffed. Contrast this with the fact that the self-confessed assasin of Plaza Altamira was moved on Jan. 9th. with only six intelligence officers being present. Is this political or what?

Meanwhile for those abroad that have read that there was a judge order against Mr. Fernandez and his detention was “legal”, we point out the following facts about what the law says in Venezuela:

-You can not be detained without showing you the order from the Court.

-You can not be detained without a representative from the Attorney General’s Office being present.

-In a procedure to detain someone, the officers of the law have to be in uniform and use official cars.

-Once detained, a prisoner can not be held incomunicado. Both his lawyers and lawyers from the Ombusdman’s office have to have access to him.

None of these were followed in this case. Moreover, for over five hours there was no information about whether Mr. Fernandez was in jail or had been kidnapped. This is absolutely illegal, it is a violation of Mr. Fernandez’ rights and is simply called state terrorism.

From the Reuters page (BCV10) of the Venezuelan Central Bank reporting the results of the today’s Treasury Bill auction: “Down with Dictatorship, freedom for the jailed opposition leaders” obviously anonymous