This is today’s Editorial of Tal Cual
At the CNE they placed under observation 213 thousand forms for the presidential recall referendum of which 148 thousand correspond to the so called “planas”. (Forms with the same calligraphy for the person’s data). This means that through an as yet unknown procedure, for which new specific regulations will be approved, citizens with their national ID card would have to clarify if they signed or not. It is the responsibility of the citizen to demonstrate he or she is not a crook.
The presumption of innocence, which is the basis of all judicial systems, is transformed by the Carrasquero Doctrine in the presumption of culpability: All people are delinquents until they can prove the opposite. The Board of the CNE even rejected the sensible suggestion by the OAS and the Carter Center of verifying through a random sampling the legitimacy of the signatures and approved this grotesque inversion of the burden of proof.
We could see this coming when a draft of regulations (approved last night too) was announced that considered “suspicious” the same calligraphy not only on the signature but in the space where the data of the citizen is filled.
This was not contemplated in the “Regulations” for the verification of the signatures, in which the only cause for invalidating was the same calligraphy of the signatures.
And this is the only possible logic, because what makes the act of requesting the recall referendum “very personal” is the signature of the citizen and not the way in which his personal data which identifies him was entered.
The truth of the matter is that the majority of the Board of the CNE, in its attempt to avoid responsibility, has translated to the citizens the definite verification of the signatures. How would people be able to do this? It has not been established yet. Who guarantees that the process of exercising the right to amend the elimination of the signatures will not be blocked by new tricks or changes in the rules of the game? Will the Army be available to guarantee the security of the citizens? Will it be a simple process or an obstacle course so complex and difficult to fill as the cover forms for the petition signatures that will allow the CNE to approve a new path for the rules for those situations “that just happened“ as the Carrasquero Doctrine calls them? We have reached a very delicate point in the process. The feeling that the will of millions of citizens can be laughed at through the famous “tricks” mentioned by Carter, does nothing but be reaffirmed each day that goes by. And with it the perception that the country is dangerously approaching an inflection point in its immediate history.
The Devil's Excrement 
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