The Devil's Excrement

Extensive article in today’s El Universal about two Venezuelan moviemakers who are making a documentary themselves showing all of the inconsistencies and manipulations of the movie: “The revolution will not be televised”. The article is divided in three parts: A description of what they have done, a summary of the main inconsistencies of the film and a reply to a writer who claimed the opposition censored the movie by pressuring Amnesty Inetrnational into withdrawing it from a film festival. (The petition did not do such a thing, it only asked that the details of what the movie purported to show be investiagted). I can not reproduce the whole thing, but here is a summary of the specific cases in which the movie distorts or manipulates the truth:

-Revolutionary populace: When it claims to be showing the presence of the populace in front of the Presidential Palace in the morning of April 11th. 2002 the movie uses images of a demonstration which took place in a different city and on a different day.

-Split Image: The moviemakers ignored the nationwide broadcast by Chavez forcing all radio and TV stations to carry his speech beteen 3:45 PM and 5:27 PM, where he spoke during more than two hours while around the Presidential Palace more than 21 Venezuelans were shot dead and more than 150 were injured, all by bullets. In the middle of this speech, private TV stations decided to divide the screen in two, to show the tragic events and then the Government shut off the broadcast by all these stations.

-Resignation: In the movie the thesis that Chavez never resigned is emphasized. However, the Cheifs of Staff, led by the Commander in Chief Lucas Rincon, issued a declaration at 3:20 AM on April 12th., saying that they had asked the President for his resignation and he had accepted. This is never shown in the movie (Retired General Lucas Rincon is currently a member of Chavez’ Cabinet as Minister of the Interior and Justice).

-Tanks: The tanks that moved towards the Presidential Palace were not going there to attack Chavez, but they were ordered to go there by Chavez himself to protect him. The film intends to show that with those tanks a traditional coup d’ etat was achieved.

-Racial war: The racial composition of Venezuela is multi-ethnic, but the film aims to show that Chavizmo is dark skinned and the opposition is white and well off. (As I have said here many times, if 70% of the people are against Chavez and Chavez says (not true) that 80% of the people are poor, something does not add up in these arguments. Moreover, racially only 20% of Venezuelans are white)

-Altered timelines: The manipulation of images, dates and wrong hours is present throughout the movie. As an example, the moviemakers took the care of using pro-Chavez images taken from Febraury 2000, when Chavez support by the people was unquestionable.

-Communicational project: The distortion of time is particularly bad in the sequences corresponding to April 11, 12 and 13th. There, the movie changes with total irresponsability the times of the events with the objective of constructing a story subordinated to its communicational project, which is to sell the idea that an “oligrachic coup backed by the US took place”.

The Consejo Nacional Electoral decided yesterday that those living abroad will not be able to particpate in the petition drive for Chavez’ recall. The excuse? That the logistics were too complex and it would be difficult to supervise. Now, since the country has dozens of Embassies and over one hundred Consulates, I still do not see what the problem is. Don’t these consulates notarized documents everyday? Are those suspect too? In fact, in all previous elections, including the union elections (They live abroad, but belong to a local union?), Venezuelans were allowed to vote at the consulates abroad, so the only real reason for this is that the Government wipes out a significant number of anti-Chavez signers with one stroke. The CNE vote was three to two, with the three pro-Chavez members voting together. What else is new? My concern is, what other tricks are awaiting for us in the future? These people have no scruples and can justify anything with legal or pseudo-legal arguments anytime they want. This implies the opposition has to gather over four million signatures to insure that they will not disqualify, lose, mutilate or misplace a sufficient number so that the recall is not succesful. So far, they have intimidated public workers, all members of the military and disqualified all Venezuelans living abroad. All of this together may be around one million signatures already……

As a trained scientist I love the power of graphs. Plinio Cabrera from El Gusano de Luz plots this one based on the figures of Venezuela’s oil production by the International Energy Agency. I think the graph is very powerful and it spekas for itself of the damage done to the country’s oil production by the Chavez administration. Remarkably, if you add the fact that more of the production comes from private companies the plot is even worse.

(When I was writing this up, I noted that I did not have El Gusano de Luz on my links to the left!! I don’t know why this happened, I was sure I had it. I know I am not perfect, but that is a big mistake, few sites such high quality contributions on our present and our future. Sorry to everyone there!!!!Hope you forgive me!!!!)

As a trained scientist I love the power of graphs. Plinio Cabrera from El Gusano de Luz plots this one based on the figures of Venezuela’s oil production by the International Energy Agency. I think the graph is very powerful and it spekas for itself of the damage done to the country’s oil production by the Chavez administration. Remarkably, if you add the fact that more of the production comes from private companies the plot is even worse.

(When I was writing this up, I noted that I did not have El Gusano de Luz on my links to the left!! I don’t know why this happened, I was sure I had it. I know I am not perfect, but that is a big mistake, few sites such high quality contributions on our present and our future. Sorry to everyone there!!!!Hope you forgive me!!!!)

Venezuela will issue a 15 year bond next week, which will be sold in local currency and be denominated in US$. The coupon will be around 7-8%. In the end, this becomes a way for those that have money to buy cheap dollars and for the Government to obtain the financing it needs. As in my comment about the banking system, simply perverse all around. But in the end Chavez gets his US$ 1 billion that he wants to throw at Venezuelan agriculture and see if anything grows (other than corruption and waste). Long live the revolution!

A Minister in Lula’s Cabinet has told the Brazilian press that he does not agree with Venezuelans recalling Hugo Chavez and we should “wait” until 2006 when Chavez’ term expires. Now, I find it amazing that a Minister from the country that presides over the “Group of Friends” would say that he disagrees with a process that is part of the Venezuelan Constitution and is thus part of Venezuelan democracy whether he likes it or not. Furthermore, allowing the recall process was part of the agreement brokered by the Group of Friends. Moreover, Minister Dirceu is basically taking sides in a process that his country is supposed to be leading to resolve the issues between two  very polarized sides. But if this is undiplomatic, unpolite and irrespectful of all Venezuelans, what I find most amazing is that nobody in Venezuela has said anything about it. Where is the opposition? Where is the Democratic Coordinator? I think this deserves a press release asking the Brazilian Government to respect the country’s Constitution and to reject and protest those statements by Minister Dirceu. The opposition needs to be more forceful, otherwise, we might get all of the signtures but never have the recall. If the world is allowed to believe that this recall is not democractic, then I fear that is what may happen…..

President Chavez demonstrated, once again, his ignorance yesterday on economic matters, when he stated that he had asked the Venezuelan Central Bank for “another little billion (of US$)” saying he had been having that discussion with the Central Bank for the last three months and that the Bank did not want to give it to him. Chavez even went further saying that if the Central Bank did not give it to him, he would go to the Supreme Court (??). Chavez said something what I have wondered about before in my writings here and in the local newspapers, what is the point of having US$ 21 billion in reserves if you can not use it?. I have questioned for months the policy of having exchange controls and accumulating international reserves at the expense of the Venezuelan economy. Reserves are meant to be managed not accumulated. I am sure that it was Chavez himself who set the country on this irresponsible policy due to his power and lack of understanding. Unfortunately, I have not heard anyone from the opposition reply to Chavez telling him the difference between international reserves and Government revenues. I think something simple like explaining what would happen if all the 21 “little billions” were given away to him, what would happen to the country, would make the point very clear. Over the years I have found that even educated people do not know that while having international reserves is good, it does not mean much in terms of solving the fiscal problems of a nation. Few people even know what international reserves are. I would bet most Venezuelan politicians don’t understand the issue, but at least they don’t say anything about it. Moreover, after five years as President you would think Chavez would have learned something from the members of his cabinet. Chavez wants the “little billion” (millardito) to promote agriculture, and that is a whole other story about the President’s ignorance…..

These are things that have happened in Venezuela in the last few days which confirm the lack of democratic institutions in the country:

-Hugo Chavez forces TV and radio stations to broadcast live any event in which he appears. On Thursday, the stations had been warned that they would have to broadcast him giving away fifty houses in the Mariches barrio of Caracas (A poor barrio). Well, the transmission never took place because of the pot-banging and protests of the people in the surrounding areas. If Globovision had had its remote microwave equipment, it would have shown the protest.

–According to today’s El Universal between September 26^th. and October 27^th. 11,530 Cubans were flown into Venezuela arriving through the Presidential gate of the International Airport. The paper shows copies of the immigration forms, has a list of all the flights and how many passengers arrived in each one and shows pictures of some of the arrivals. All the passengers gave their profession as medical doctors and all of them said their address was the Cuban Embassy in Caracas. Will anyone investigate? Will these Cubans become the “people” protesting in the streets against Chavez being revoked?  What are they doing here?

-The Corte Primera en lo Contenciosos y Adminsitrativa had a decision ready, giving back all of its equipment to TV station Globovision the day the Government “disappeared” the Court. The TV station had asked the Court to grant it an injunction because the confiscation of its equipment by the Government had violated its rights and the formal procedures required for such an act. Currently, there is no Court to consider an injunction like that one. Can a democracy function if there is no rule of law?

-Four young people were detained by the National Guard when they were protesting against President Chavez, from the top of their building where they live in Puerto La Cruz, East of Caracas. Chavez was on his way to inaugurate a water treatment plant. They young men were pot-banging from atop the building and, according to the neighbors; two of them had bloody faces when they were taken away. When does intolerance become fascism? I think we went past that point long time ago. (From page B-21 of today’s El Nacional)