The Devil's Excrement

For days I have been pondering on how to answer Ken Hagler on the comment he made on his site on my story “Woke up in a dictatorship today”. Ken’s comment was direct and simple, and coincides with my gut feeling when I see what is happening around me:

“I think at some point, perhaps now, the people of Venezuela should stop relying entirely on protests and exercise their right to “vote ‘no’ with the weapon of their choice.”

You see, I have always seen myself as a pacifist. Never shot a gun. Never considered reacting or acting violently in my life. During the last year, I have gone to marches, demonstrations, and protests believing that the sheer numbers of people involved would convince the Government that the only way out of our crisis was some form of an electoral solution. It is in the Constitution, which Chavez himself created. That is what Constitutions are for, they are there, you have to respect them, and you look for the protections that it provides for you, even if you don’t like the Constitution. But it has not worked. The control that Hugo Chavez has on what are supposed to be the independent powers: the electoral commission, the Supreme Court and the National Assembly are such that we are further away from any election at this point when we were on Nov. 4^th., when we submitted the petition to have the consultative referendum.

I also believed that the OAS mediated negotiating table, while useless in the end, would keep Chavez in check. It would stop him from going beyond what civilized rules call for. At that time it appeared as if Chavez and his Government were at least afraid of international opinion, which they had masterfully managed to their advantage. But Chavez is simply a user. Whether it is “the people”, his collaborators, international opinion or even his wife, Chavez uses people, gets the most out of them to his advantage and then disposes them at will. And he moves on.

And I marched, I blogged, I e-mailed, I chanted, I screamed and I did all of the things that I thought would inevitably force Chavez to come to terms with the fact that his mandate has been cancelled. He is no longer popular. His supporters are a minority across all social strata. The revolution is dead, it was simply not viable under his primitive and incompetent leadership.

But what has not been viable was my belief in decency, fairness and rationality. That is not how Hugo Chavez’ minds works. So, instead of the rosy electoral solution we have slipped further and further into this violent dictatorship. And if last week it was the shock to see the deaths of dissident military officers, followed by the order to capture the two most important opposition leaders, this week it is the shock of huge C4 bombs exploding at diplomatic missions four blocks from my home.

And thus we come to Ken’s suggestion to stop the protest and start relying on our weapon of choice. And I do want to march to the presidential palace. And I hate it everytime our marches are cancelled or stopped because Chavez’ violent supporters are there waiting for us. And I think it is time to prove to the country and the world that there is no space that can be banned to us. But at the same time, I believe that the only reason we are right, the only reason we are truly superior, the only reason why we are the honorable and decent opposition to an outlaw Government, is simply that we refuse to go and fight under their own terms. I prefer to blog tonight and then go to tomorrow’s march with my flag and whistle and get shot at by Chavez’ supporters, than to go armed and shoot somebody. Maybe that is why we are losing, if indeed we are. But I still feel we will win in the end, because we are indeed morally right, we are morally better. We have proven it!

Will this change if we start getting shot at daily? I don’t know, and I hope I never find out……

Everybody had something to say about the terrorist attacks on the Colombian and Spanish Embassies last night, but I truly never expected that this morning the Government would irresponsibly blame the opposition for the attacks.

The first irresponsible declaration was that of the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs saying that “Given the appearance  of pamphlets one has to get suspicious. There are logic that work backwards and one may think that they are trying to discredit the investigations as part of the same plot”

Then, it was the Vice-President who accused the opposition of making irresponsible statements, which he considered deplorable. Then, it was the “Big Liar,” the Minister of the Interior and Justice Lucas Rincon (the one who announced Chavez resignation on April 11th., 2002) said that there was no connection between the attacks and the President’s words.

Finally, it was the former President of the National Assembly, who directly accused the “coupsters” in the opposition for the attacks, “who are trying to manipulate the news”

Now, I am not saying that the opposition did or did not do it and I am not saying the Government and the President’s sympathizers did or did not do it. However, note the following facts:

-The attacks required, according to some reports which I can’t find, between eight and ten pounds of C4 explosives, but I can’t imagine that is so easy to find, but I know it is readily available at least to the military. Furthermore, it is traceable.

-The two countries bombed were, coincidentally, two of the three countries attacked sharply by President Hugo Chavez on his Sunday radio program (The other was the USA). Thus, there is obviously a link, which is the only charge (1,2 and 3) that I have heard the opposition make. Simply stated, Hugo Chavez makes inflammatory statements every single Sunday that have generated an incredible level of confrontation and violence.

-Throughout the violence of the last year, those in jail are there, either because they were caught live on camera doing their deeds, as in the case of the shooters of Puente El Llaguno, or  detained in the act, as was the self-confessed assassin of Altamira, who was caught by the local police.  Note that in both cases, those charged had relations to the Libertador Mayor, a pro-Chavez supporter. Moreover, the men of El Llaguno were actually freed by a Judge, then again ordered arrested by the Supreme Court, who removed the Judge from her position. A week later, the judge was hired by the same Mayor of Libertador District as its legal counsel. The Altamira assassin was defended by President Chávez on TV, who even called him a Gentleman.

-The Government is quick to accuse the opposition leaders and the opposition for everything that happens, but when events like the disappearance of the three military officers that later were found dead and tortured or the dead and injured cops of last Saturday, it is quick to exonerate its own people, either defending them or saying is not a political assassination.

In the end, violence escalates, it is definitely one-sided and Chavez and his band of cynics appear daily on TV accusing the opposition for all the violence. But if you go by PDVSA’s headquarters, you see a band of Chavez supporters, agrressive, and I am sure they are armed, which the Government wants me to belive are just protesting, but they don’t even have a permit. And when we march, we have to cancel or delay our march because these same “Bolivarian Circles” arrive at some point of the march to boycott and incite violence. But nevertheless, we get gassed regularly, but they only get gassed when they start using guns.

Note added: As I finished writing this, the US Government said the same thing as the opposition (God forbid!): We note that the attacks follow the strong verbal attacks by President Chavez”

Last night two C4 bombs exploded in the Spanish and Colombian Embassies. Reportedly, they are the strongest explosions by bombs in Venezuela in the last twenty years. One was near my home, I woke up and thought it was a strong earthquake.