The Devil's Excrement

There are protesters still out in the streets, but the numbers are much smaller than yesterday. Curiously, there are fewer people in the streets at the same time. My guess is that after the traffic mess yesterday people are waiting to see what is hppaening before they go out at all. Carlos Melo, a leader of the Coordinadora Democratica has been detained and people are trying to find out where he is.

Today will be a very important day. The Electoral Board has to find a legal and simple solution to the 1.3 million signatures for the recall referendum petition that are under observation. I still believe that it is obvious: Approve them and give people five days to say they did not sign and should not be on the list. It is so simple. It is fair. It does not place the burden of proof on those that already signed. If there was the massive fraud that the Electoral Board says, we should see huge lines of people coming to ask to have their named removed. If not, we will have the recall referendum before June.

Going to work now, will update through the comments on this post until the afternoon.

The alternative is not very pretty…

Between the shots in Altamira and the somewhat positive tone of the CNE announcement, things seemed to have quieted down quite a bit at this time. I haven’t been able to find information about the man supposedly shot dead by the military police in San Antonio de Los Altos, right outside Caracas. I did see a viedo from Yaritagua outside Barquisimeto. The repression was truly unbelievable. To those that still think this is an upper class affair, I wish you couls have seen this video. This was “pueblo” as Chavez would say, being repressed violently by the national Guard, later joined by the Army. The clouds of tear gas were so thick, you could not see the people within it. You would see them crawling out of it almost horizontal on the ground. What bothered me the most was the fascist tone of the National Guard Commander afterwards saying “Thi is the only way to stop alterations of public order and we will continue doing it whenever necessary”. Oh! I forgot more than 50% of the people were women. Good night, let’s hope tomorrow is indeed another day.

The recent proposal by the CNE to have people go and confirm that they signed the first time, if the first time they signed a form of those so-called “planas”, where all of the lines with the data had the same calligraphy, is simply absurd.

Think about it, your signature is being questioned because you did not fill out the data yourself, i.e. your name, national ID number and birthdate, but it was filled in by the person at the booth or the itinerant signature collector. This was not even considered in the regulations as a violation, it clearly said only the signature had to be in your handwriting.

The aberrant and absurd solution being proposed: People whose signature is under observation will have to go back and sign and also stamp their fingerprint, BUT THEY WILL NOT HAVE TO FILL OUT THEIR DATA THIS TIME EITHER. The data will be there already in a booklet printed and filled out by a computer. So, what is the legal point? Isn’t this even more susceptible to fraud than before? Why are these signatures legal and the others are not? What is the issue?

Doesn’t this prove that the whole thing is simply an absurd trick contrived to the stop the recall referendum?

The recent proposal by the CNE to have people go and confirm that they signed the first time, if the first time they signed a form of those so-called “planas”, where all of the lines with the data had the same calligraphy, is simply absurd.

Think about it, your signature is being questioned because you did not fill out the data yourself, i.e. your name, national ID number and birthdate, but it was filled in by the person at the booth or the itinerant signature collector. This was not even considered in the regulations as a violation, it clearly said only the signature had to be in your handwriting.

The aberrant and absurd solution being proposed: People whose signature is under observation will have to go back and sign and also stamp their fingerprint, BUT THEY WILL NOT HAVE TO FILL OUT THEIR DATA THIS TIME EITHER. The data will be there already in a booklet printed and filled out by a computer. So, what is the legal point? Isn’t this even more susceptible to fraud than before? Why are these signatures legal and the others are not? What is the issue?

Doesn’t this prove that the whole thing is simply an absurd trick contrived to the stop the recall referendum?

With the intensity of the last few days I have not had the time to write about the party I went to Saturday night with a whole bunch of Venezuelan bloggers. This was the third meet up of local bloggers, but I was not able to be present at the other two. It was incredibly nice to meet so many people I have read, but not met. At the risk of forgetting someone, I will use my memory to recall all of the people I met in no order in particular. First, I will mention Gaby, there has to be something cool about going to a party where we all have something in common and Gaby is the youngest (17?) and I am the oldest at almost triple her age (xx). There was of course Fran the host and birthday boy, whom I had met in early January together with others present once again like Novato, Saturno and the host in virtual space of most of these blogs Hugo. (Saturno’s sister Ximena was there, she reads blogs and I now know exactly who she is!). New people there were Dreamer in Pain, Inita e Infelix, Catherina, Magoo, Aspivina, Fran’s girlfriend Amigaluna was there and later Chirimeno arrived, he can spin a story as well live as in his blog. Finally El Especialista showed up and got the karaoke going, I had to leave soon afterwards. It was also very cool to have Sikanda participate in the party remotely from Germany. I am sure I am forgetting someone, hope I am not mixing people up; at least my age justifies the oversight. I am sorry if I did, meeting you all proves why one should have all the faith in the world in this country and its people. People like these need to have all their dreams and all their potential fully developed.

What a laugh! All TV stations showing and ad in “cadena” which means it is obligatory to show about the success of last week’s G-15 meeting, saying it was just not another meeting but real progress was achieved about how countries can develope. Of course, there was a little clip from Chavez telling us about the evils of neoliberalism and pictures of him with the Presidents that came, including Lula, who left in disgust and Mugabe, who felt right at home with the repression outside.  What clowns!

CNE just announced an additional day for the other side to propose a solution for the confrontation of those that did sign. CNE Director Jorge Rodriguez says Carter Center has played a role facilitating during the afternoon the dialogue between the various sides in the dispute. He avoided touching on what is being discussed but the said the confirmation process for the signatures can be improved or be perfected.

Everyone is on the ground in Plaza Altamira as the National Guard, according to TV stations is shooting real bullets from all directions.

Luis Manuel Esculpi of the Coordinadora Democratica is saying there are 70 political prisoners taken in Caracas and 30 more in Anzoategui state. The count comes from that of the lawyers assisting the Coordinadora. He said that the Coordinadora will not make any announcement until after the CNE makes the expected announcemnet tonight. Add to this eighteen from Barquisimeto and twelve in Maracaibo.

Right now images of Altamira Square appear to be something like what you see on TV from the Gaza strip. Before, the tanks would advance a little to push people back. Now, tanks from the military police advance all the way up to the square going by residential areas that are now full of smoke and tear gas. The people don’t budge, the crowd is growing, so is the violence and the threat of violence.

In Caricuao, extreme West of Caracas, people protest and the National Guard uses tear gas on them. This is part of the well-behaved citizens explicitly mentioned by the Minister of Defense in his speech today were not koining the protest.  Will add pictures when possible taken from TV.