The Devil's Excrement

-Scary to read the descriptions of how, hours after the opposition demonstrations were over, a group of apparently very young Chavez supporters invaded the nearby Hospital looking for the injured police official that was supposedly there. The stories, both in El Nacional (page A-7) and El Universal are absolutely surreal. The protesters used tear gas and held the medical staff hostage for hours. The next day, pro-Chavez protesters threatened the reporters from all the major TV station that had come to tape their destruction of the police module as well as COPEI’s headquarters in Petare. The other day I showed the picture of the protesters knowcking down the police module from the outside, here is the best picture I could find of how it was destroyed. This is from the inside of the module looking out. Note all walls were knocked down.

-My brother points out that by not allowing it and making all the noise, the Government guaranteed the success of the Petarazo. After all, it was not an opposition event, but a COPEI event. Now, COPEI status politically is marginally at best, but many people went just to go against the Government.

-Also hard to understand why the Government simply does not take advantage of the Court’s decision to hire back oil workers, handpick those that PDVSA needs and offer severance packages for the rest. Oil worker’s salaries have not been increased since the currency stood at Bs. 700 to the US$, most workers don’t want to go back anyway and PDVSA still has huge problems in the refineries and in the fields. Venezuela can’t export gasoline because of quality problems and the best oil fields are being killed by overproduction due to lack of personnel. The Court’s decision would have saved face politically and the Government could have proclaimed that they obey the law and the Courts. The reality is that Venezuela’s laws are overprotective of the workers and they were precisely designed (and ratified in the Chavez Constitution) to prevent massive firings like those that PDVSA did in January and February. Eventually, PDVSA will have to pay the workers back salaries with interest and hire them back anyway. Financially and politically it would have made sense to do what I suggest.

-The Podemos party (formerly MAS-pro-Chavez) split in two less than a year after it was created. The new party will be called “Vamos”, has three Deputies and held a huge event to launch it yesterday. Unfortunately, too many people from Chavez’ MVR showed up creating confusion about what it meant. I guess divide and conquer does work.

-Just to clarify a couple of e-mails I have received. The approval of the minutes of the National Assembly needs a majority. Majority in the Assembly is 83 votes. The pro-Chavez votes were 82, the opposition had 79 and three abstained. This can not be interpreted as a tie, approval was simply defeated. In order to bring it up again you have to modify the minutes, not bring it up to vote over and over until it is approved. No?

Liked <A href="http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105546155019819400-search,00.html?collection=wsjie/30day&vql_string=venezuela(article-body)”>the article by Mary Anastasia O’Grady about the State Department removing the visa of General Medina Gomez. Other articles say the South Command of the US military is very upset over this decision and the policies of the US State Department is in disarray (FT by subscription only):

“US policy towards Venezuela appeared to be in disarray yesterday after it emerged that the US envoy to Caracas revoked the visa of a former Venezuelan army general closely allied to Washington and opposed to the tumultuous rule of Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s president.

The move coincided with one of the strongest US criticisms of Mr Chávez to date, as Otto Reich, the White House’s special envoy for Latin America, compared Mr Chávez’s model of government to that of Fidel Castro, Cuba’s president.”

 Since the WSJ it is by subscription only and I still have storage problems here are the parts I liked best of the article:

“Brilliant. Mr. Chavez is well on his way to replacing Castro as the region’s most fearsome tyrant and the cerebral powerhouses at the State Department are busy thinking real hard about what a terrible threat the opposition presents. Another shining example of U.S. tax dollars at work.”

“The charge is “terrorist activity” but State says that the evidence cannot be released due to the risk of compromising sensitive intelligence sources. In the view of Venezuelans who know him, Mr. Medina’s character, belief system and résumé hardly lend credence to the charge that he would target innocent civilians.”

“There is no question that Mr. Chavez is “leveling” his country downward. One set of numbers that tell it all is the contraction in gross domestic product from $120 billion at the close of 2000 to what New York-based investment firm Bear Stearns estimates will be about $71 billion this year. A chimpanzee tossing darts to make policy could produce better results.”

“For more than a year he (General Medina) has been carrying out a most unmilitary manner of rebellion: civil disobedience. “

“An anonymous State Department source was quoted in press reports on Wednesday claiming that the real reason is “coup plotting.” That’s a charge that also comes from Mr. Chavez, who is frustrated with the general’s bonafides. Still, it’s hard to believe, unless open, unarmed defiance is a new trend in running military coups.”

But perhaps the best was General Medina’s own reaction:

“As to his visa, Mr. Medina says, “To continue confronting this illegal, terrorist and communist government, it’s not necessary to have a U.S. visa. We are not struggling for American interests but rather for the freedom of our own country.””

Today’s rally in the Petare region of Caracas generated violence, but this time it was quite different from the one we have been accostumed to. While the rally was schedule to start at 2 PM, violence began early in the morning as the police moved in to protect the areas where the rally was to take place, some cops were injured in this early stage. Later, once the opposition crowd moved in, the pro-Chavze protesters, who could not even come close to where the opposition rally was taking place, attempted to take adavantage of the arrival of a National Guard convoy to break through the police barrier two blocks away from the rally. This led once again to violence which essentially lasted all afternoon. Five people were injured as the police and the National Guard tried to not only contain the protesters from burning tires and throwing tear gas at them, but also stopping them from literally destroying the police builinding which guards the area. (see picture below). Five people were injured three cops and two of the pro-Chavez protesters. The violence did not reach, for once, the people participating in the opposition rally.

The Government reached today the level of the ludicrous with their accusations about the rally. MVR Deputy Tarek Wiiliam Saab claimed those with red berets, protesting the rally, destroying buldings and burning tires, were actually opposition people organized to create the violence and make the Government look bad. Meanwhile the Vice-President, who happens to be the father of the Mayor of the municipality is located, said he was going to sue the Governor of Miranda and the Mayor of Caracas for provoking the violence. He made no mention of the National Guard which the opposition does not control. He argued that the pro-Chavez people don’t hold rallies in Altamira, but not ony do their marches go through Altamira, but La Campina, where the PDVSA headquarters is located has been a continuos rally since December without permission in what one would consider opossition territory.

But perhaps the saddest personality today was German Mundarain, the “People’s” Ombudsman who held a press conference to announce the novel concept that it is those that hold the rally that are responsible for security.  Mundarain, this sad character of the Bolivarian revolution,. who seldom says much in public, even when people are killed, did take a lot of time to explain that yesterday’s decision by the court did not mean that PDVSA had to hire back oil workers, acting once again, more like the Government’s ombudsman, than the position he was appointed to fill. Very sad indeed.

The Minister of Energy and Mines showed his ignorance of what a democracy should be and his lack of respect for the law when, after the Court’s decision voiding the decision by the Minister of Labor which essentially says they could not be fired, he stated in his best totalitarian style: “Under no circumstance will they come back to the industry”. Can this be interpreted in any other way? What if the decision is ratified? An oulaw Government, an outlaw Minister.

For some reason major news sources had coverage of Venezuela today. The Wall Street Journal had an article on Chavez and how he manages to keep control over the country. (Need subscription to read it). Scott from burtonterrace as usual is quite diligent in making sure I don’t miss anything (He clearly wakes up earlier, I  can’t do international rounds until around noon anyway!!) by sending the Washington Post editorial on the agreement between Chavez and the opposition and Juan Forero’ article from the New York Times. As usual, I found Forero’s article too oversimplified, superficial and still shows some bias.

The MVR Deputies did not even attempt to attend the meeting of the National Assembly today and failed, once again, to approve the minutes of last week’s meeting of the National Asembly. Reportedly, they failed to convince the “Podemos” Deputies to vote with them and as many as two pro-Chavez Deputies including Luigi D’Angelo have now said they will not vote in favor of approving the minutes. The Chavista Deputies said that they did not attend because they were afraid of violence by opposition Deputies.

The First Circuit Administrative Court voided today the  Labor Ministry decision that said that oil workers were not protected by their union. This decision voids all oil firings and supposedly implies all unionized oil workers have to be hired back. This implies roughly 16,000 of the 18,000 would have to be hired back. The Court’s decision was unanimous. This Court is just below the Supreme Court and is considered to be the most reputable Court in the country even above that of the Supreme Court.

Chavista thugs interfered today with a march by medical personnel protesting the lack of budgets for medical facilities. The march had permits but Chavistas care little about that. Separately, the Mayor of Sucre District gave a permit for an open air market in the same place that the opposition asked for permission to have a rally. Meanwhile Chavista thugs still hang around the PDVSA building, a residential area mostly anti-Chavez, with no permission, installing structures like those in the pictures below. They have been there since December without permission. Such is the state of democracy in Venezuela. Note the dome on the sidewalk and the back of the stage which blocks the street.

Hugo Chavez was his usual autocratic and intolerant self today when he condemned the Venezuelan Supreme Court for “not jailing” the leaders of the oil workers saying “there is enough evidence”. Chavez added ” it is worrisome that these terrorists remain free” and that they are “allowed to go free on a technicality”. Only Hugo Chavez is capable of calling denying the right to due process “a technicality” and it shows his limited understanding of the separation of powers and legality. As if this was not enough, Chavez accused the Deputies who were elected under his platform of the Polo Patriotico of being “traitors to the people”. Obviously, substitute the people for “my whims and desires” and you get the right picture of what he really meant. Chavez added that he has not lost control of the National Assembly. While true, it is also true that the Podemos Deputies (former MAS Deputies) are now the deciding vote in the Assembly giving the President a very flimsy control over that legislative body.