The Devil's Excrement

…..we choose what…….

Yes, we are not stupid. We choose to be civilized, to believe in the law, to hope for a better country, to believe that good wins over evil and to believe that a Government has respect for its citizens. Of course, sometimes it would seem as if we are indeed stupid, like yesterday. Compare these:

-A little over one year ago, peaceful demonstrators in the Chuao area were gassed because the Government had issued a decree declaring the area near Chuao a security zone. Thus, the opposition could not demonstrate within that area, even if the decree had bee issued the previous day just to stop us. The National Guard came in and without even an attempt at mediation began gassing the peaceful demonstrators, armed with flags, whistles and posters. A National Guard General, one of the dissident Generals, came to mediate with those repressing the demonstrators. He was gassed by his own mates, together with women, children and everyone still remembers the priest fighting with the guardsmen who was attempting to take away his flag.

-Switch to yesterday. Authorities from Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) which can be translated as Movement towards Socialism and thus does not represent a right wing movement as the international media sometimes makes out the opposition to be, attempt to go to Bolivar Square to present a flower arrangement to Simon Bolivar, our Liberator. Understand this is also a restricted zone, its half a block from the office of the Vice-Presidency and was included in the now infamous decree. The MAS authorities approach the square, hooded hoodlums, claiming to support the Government (I can’t prove it, this is what they say) begin blocking the path of the people carrying the floral arrangement. Some are hurt by pipes, shots are fired. Reporters are also attacked with bullets, pipes and whatever is available. The National Guard intervenes, however, rather than using tear gas, National Guard officials are seeing talking to the hooded figures, most of which are armed. It does not matter, it is impossible for the officials from MAS to present their floral arrangement. The National Guard will not use tear gas to make the attackers go away. If you don’t sympathize with the Government you can not even pretend to visit Bolivar Square. If you don’t support Chavez there are certain rights you no longer enjoy, you no longer have. If you do, you can attack opposition figures with impunity. You can attack the police with impunity. You are guaranteed there will be no investigation. You are guaranteed that you will be able to go in and out, be violent, hurt people and nobody will look into it. In fact, the next day Chavez’ MVR will even blame all of it on the opposition.

Are we stupid or what?…My answer is what! We are not stupid; we are just civilized citizens that want a better country. We will continue using flags and whistles, revive pot banging like tonight, to ask for justice, to ask for our rights. To ask that we are allowed to exercise our right to vote. To ask that we are allowed to share the country equally with everyone. The stupid Opinion piece in today’s USA today had it wrong, we are the ones defending the legacy of Martin Luther King in Venezuela, not a Government that laughs at all its citizens, denies them rights at will and allows them to get impoverished further fed only by populist propaganda. In the end we will win.

(P.S. Where are the Chavez defenders today? Show  your face! Explain to us why this is justified. Tell us with your contorted logic, why it is that this can happen. Tell us why the opposition deserves to be shot at and human beings hit by pipes under the passive observation of the country’s National Guard. I am waiting)

Last Thursday night as I was going to bed right before 1 AM, I went looking for my cell phone and found a two hour old SMS message from Susana, who was visiting from Maracaibo (West of  Caracas), telling me a bunch of bloggers were at a nearby brewery, so off I went, how could I resist it!. It was quite neat to meet this group of bloggers, all of them obviously younger than me, had a great time meeting and talking with them and finding so much spirit, curiosity and initiative in this group of young people. Above, a picture for the record from the meeting, from left to right Novato with his girlfriend, a friend, Hugo from qtpd (who hosts a bunch of people from what I can gather), Susana and Fran en Gotas. Ricardo from Cronica Aburrida, arrived even later than me after finishing work at his newspaper and is not in the picture.

This one may not sound so weird:

-The Venezuelan Minister of Education, Culture and Sports said that US culture goes around eliminating and overhelming others, denoucing the perverse effects of globalization.

That’s not so bad, he is entitled to his opinion.

-Isturiz said this on his way back from his trip to Iran, where he signed two agreements, one cultural and the other one with the movie industry that will translate into coproduction of movies. “Iran is a cinematographic powerhouse and we are interested in exploiting that experience, regretting that most Venezuelans don’t know the movies that come out of Iran, where most films are from the US”. (It is tempting to make so many jokes about possible titles for Iranian movies using the word Mullah in the title, but I do have respect for Iranians and will abstain)

Now, that is a little weird. It is hard to believe that a country with censorhip, fundamental  religilious values and state control over everything can currently produce such good movies. But even if they did, what type of priority is that for a country with the educational and cultural problmes Venezuela has. Mr. Isturiz spent the beginning of the week taking Danny Glover around, then he went to Iran and had time in London to make this statement, before arriving here last night. He does not appear to be that busy.

– Arriving in Caracas today, Minister Isturiz said that Chavez’ position as a Latin American leader was consolidated at the Monterey Summit.

Now, that is really weird. The guy did not meet with a single leader from another country, refused to sign the final proclamation and said it was a waste of time. And this consolidates his Latin American leadership? I think, quoting Mr. Ituriz’ comment once referring to Mr. Chavez, that this time the Minister did smoke an eggroll.

I was going to write about two separate events in Venezuela which characterize how bizarre and difficult to explain things are, but Francisco’s excellent post on one them has made the job easier. Francisco explains quite well the bizarre attack by an urban guerilla group of a police post near dowtown Caracas in which three cops were hurt. What’sincredible is that these groups attacking the cops are pro-Chavez….

A second event of similar bizarre nature took place yesterday in the East of venezuela at PDVSA’ headquarters in the city of Maturin:

A group of people took over the Headquarters to request the removal of the General Manager and the Production Manage, both pro-Chavez, who had fired the two leaders of the pro-Chavez union. Thus, this is a Chavista versus Chavista fight. What is even more interesting is the reason for firing the leaders of the union: They had denounced to th regional media last Tuesday that due to an error in operations, PDVSA had lost US$ 30 million. The group, one of Chavez’ Bolivarian Circles, is still there and refusesto move until the union leaders are reinstated or the Managers fired. In the words of one of the leaders of the Bolivarian Circle :” We will not accept that these two unon leaders identified with the revolution are removed by these managers of PDVSA that think that tehy can do whatever they want”.  Thus, now you have three groups in the conflict: The Mangers of PDVSA, in theory a private company, the union and the Bolivarian circles. What is more remarkable is that if they were right, it is the union leaders that are correct in this case and the PDVSA managers, by now used to act with impunity are violating their basic right to free speech in order to protect themselves. Bizarre, mad, complex? I really dont knwo which word to use to describe what is going on anymore.

Yesterday General Raul Baduell was sworn in as General Commander of the Army. Baduell is best known for the fact that it was him almost single handedly that brought Chavez back in April 2002 back to the Presidential Palace. Baduell remains at this time somewhat of a mystery. Periodically he makes statements to the press that seem to come out of nowhere and that are interpreted as warnings. Yesterday was no different when Baduell said he would act against any attempt to revert Constitutional order and that the National Army of Venezuela has to honor its name “of Venezuela“. Once again, Baduell seems to be sending a message that the Constitution has to be respected even if some believe that by being promoted Baduell is now less powerful since he no longer commands any troops. While Baduell statements are positive, one should not forget that he is known to have political aspirations of his own; reportedly he has told friends that if Chávez can be President, so can he. Unfortunately, little is really known about Baduell’s politics. What little is known about him as a person shows him as a self-centered individual, who loves action and has an interest in Asian martial arts and religion.

Baduell replaces General Garcia Carneiro who on Monday will be sworn in as Minister of Defense. Garcia Carniro is definitely not liked by the opposition for a number of reasons. First of all, at least three Generals testified that Garcia Carneiro was among the Generals that refused to recognize Chavez as President in April 2002. In fact, these Generals say that Garcia Carneiro was one of the leaders against Chavez that day. He has changed a lot since, becoming a Chavez defender on all fronts. He is truly mistrusted by the opposition not only because of his style and unequivocal defense of Chavez, but because of his statements last year that there would not be a recall referendum against Chavez. After a controversial interview in which he said, before the Supreme Court had said anything, that there could not be a recall referendum because the electoral authorities were not valid. He later clarified that he meant there would not be a referendum in 2003, but added that in any case the opposition would not be able to gather sufficient signatures against President Chavez anyway. Not precisely impartial words coming from such a high ranking military.

Upon his arrival from Mexico via Cuba, President Hugo Cahvez announced a new alignement against the US foprmed by Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. It did not take very long for the Brazilian Foreign Minsitry to deny it saying that US-Brazilian relations have never been better and that a trilateral metting among the three countries will take place but its contents would be different than discussing what Chavez said. Given that Chavez did not meet with either President in Mexico, nobody had believed him anyway.

The US Governemnt has just issued a warning of possible threats agaisnt American interests in Caracas between tomorrow and next Tuesday according to the Associated Press. Reuters is a little bit more specific saying the Embassies of Spain, Britain and the US have received information that a “radical group” my attack them with firebombs. No more details are available right now.

And to leave you in a better mood tonight, here is a sepctacular picture taken by my good friend Juan Ramon of a local bird called “Reinita” inside a an Araguaney tree in flower. The Araguaney is the national tree and as you can see its flowering in the dry season is simply spectacular.