The Devil's Excrement

Representatives from the Primero Justicia party went today to the Attorney General’s/Prosecutors office to denounce the kidnapping and torturing of three of its leaders. According to them, two of their leaders were kidnapped after the Mayor of Baruta, a municipality within Caracas, was ordered captured by the Prosecutors’ office. The two men were missing for two days and they were asked to reveal the whereabouts of Capriles as well as information about other leaders.

The men were kidnapped by eight men in a cab, who presumably belonged to the political police DISIP. Among the tortures used were the spraying strong insecticides inside their mouths, placing bags over their heads, hot pipes under the arms, they were hung from the ceiling; they were rolled inside a mattress and hit them with bats.

The two were released last night.

After listening to lawyers give opinions and criticisms of yesterday’s decision by the Constitutional Hall of the Supreme Court, here is a summary of the conclusions, as well as I can understand them:

–You are guilty until proven innocent: The decision says that the “good faith” principle as it is called in Spanish legalese, does not apply for this particular case. The Court actually says that this and the presumption of innocence (Art. 49) do not apply to “acts of political participation” and that will of those that sign is subject to the “inquisitive competence “of the CNE

–Violates the Constitutional attributes of the Electoral Hall: Article 297 says ““The jurisdiction over electoral matters will be exercised by the Electoral Hall”.

–Violates the principle of no retroactivity: The Constitution say nothing can be retroactive (Art. 24) the Constitutional Hall says the change in the rules never took place, that it was in the original regulations which is absolutely false.

–Violates the equilibrium of the Court: It violates the equilibrium principle that all Halls have the same hierarchy.

–Violates the Constitution on its jurisdiction: The Constitutional hall only has jurisdiction to revise a final decision (Article 336)

You have to wonder if these guys are even lawyers or have read the Constitution!

Minister of Health Roger Capella is once again trying to confuse us, but I will not let him do it, that is what the Devil is here for. So here is the complete explanation, by placing all of you in the right frame of reference to understand it:

Minister Capella may sound confusing, but he is not. It is not easy when you are a medical doctor and spend your whole life removing varicose veins from lady’s legs in an enterprise more akin to a fast food outlet than the medical profession. It is quite lucrative, but you know, one varicose vein looks exactly like the next one, so after a 145,323 legs at 50 bucks a pop, you sort of get frustrated, and you have little purpose in life. It is sooo boring.

Then you are in your fifties, you are a nobody and you meet this charismatic guy who is running for President and you think maybe he can name you Director to some regional health office where you’ll do nothing and collect the salary, while you can hire a nurse to do your job and keep collecting the $25 bucks or is it $50? I forgot. You know beans about politics or health care, but it’s like one step towards retirement and you can make more money.

Then one day you realize that somehow all those competent people that run the Ministry are resigning, you don’t understand it well, and why would they abandon the process, this beautiful revolution? Everything is so cool in the revolution, people say hello to you, they invite you to parties and sometimes they even ask for your opinion. And you love the 18 year old Scotch. Of course, I try to keep quiet, since I know little about what they are asking. The best part however, is that you don’t have to stare at ugly varicose legs and see the blood and all that.

One day you hop on your car because they called you from Caracas, you hope the meeting will be brief, maybe catch a meal at one of those good Caracas Restaurants, before going back. You get to the Ministry; you are flabbergasted; they want me to be Vice-Minister! Imagine, you will have a car, move to Caracas and you will be important. Thanks God there is a Minister, you won’t have to talk to the press about things you know little about, like hospitals or healthcare, they will never ask about varicose veins anyway, which is all you really remember from med school. You don’t care about them; it’s just a way to make a living.

Finally, one fateful and horrendous day, you are having fun, banquet at the Palace and the charismatic guy, who no longer seems like he knows what he is doing, he approaches you and tells you the Minister is leaving, you think the dream is over, you will leave with her, when the President tells you that you are “it”. Like you are the man, the new Minister! Before you can say no, the President turns around and you are “it”, the brand new Minister of Health. Thanks God you have Directors to do the job, since you know little about healthcare. You just hope reporters will not ask too many questions.

Jesus! Here they come again to confuse me, the stupid Director of that Hospital fired a bunch of people for signing against the President and everyone wants to ask questions about why. Then you tell the reporters that if these people worked for the CIA they would be fired, they are terrorists. CIA? Oh shit! I said NASA, not CIA. I don’t even remember what NASA does. I am sure the gringos would fire them anyway.

I wake up early in the morning, the VP is calling asking me why the Hell I said such a stupid thing. He tells me I have to fire them, but not admit that I did it. I actually have to deny it. If we all say that, JV tells me, then it will become the truth. Happens all the time. Just watch, the VP says.

I go out and tell reporters that they misunderstood what I said; your words were taken out of context and tell them that it is those that conspire than cant keep their jobs. Shoot! The VP calls again so you go out, wow! Look how many reporters are here now! I tell them I am a nice guy, they go away, I am not sure what all I said, and this is very confusing.

I go to Maracaibo two days later and that stupid gringo named Shapiro says on the radio that at NASA, or was it the CIA? they would not fire anybody for political reasons. They fire their baseball managers all the time, I am a Mets fan, I know. They expect me to believe this. Glad I am here now, in Maracaibo, nobody knows about what I said in Caracas. It was private anyway.

Oh boy! First thing they ask is about the stupid firings again. How did they find out? This is very confusing, I tell them I will not retract, the terrorists, the violent and the conspirators will indeed be fired. I better switch topics. I start telling them about our good Cuban friends, the Doctors that came to fill the space the stupid Venezuelan Doctors did not want to occupy. I tell them the problem is that there are no General practitioners in Venezuela, so we need to train them. I tell them we need Doctors with mystique. Maybe a Graduate program for GP’s, that sounds good, no?. God, I hope they don’t know about my varicose past. Maybe I should just resign, this is getting more confusing everyday.

Minister of Health Roger Capella is once again trying to confuse us, but I will not let him do it, that is what the Devil is here for. So here is the complete explanation, by placing all of you in the right frame of reference to understand it:

Minister Capella may sound confusing, but he is not. It is not easy when you are a medical doctor and spend your whole life removing varicose veins from lady’s legs in an enterprise more akin to a fast food outlet than the medical profession. It is quite lucrative, but you know, one varicose vein looks exactly like the next one, so after a 145,323 legs at 50 bucks a pop, you sort of get frustrated, and you have little purpose in life. It is sooo boring.

Then you are in your fifties, you are a nobody and you meet this charismatic guy who is running for President and you think maybe he can name you Director to some regional health office where you’ll do nothing and collect the salary, while you can hire a nurse to do your job and keep collecting the $25 bucks or is it $50? I forgot. You know beans about politics or health care, but it’s like one step towards retirement and you can make more money.

Then one day you realize that somehow all those competent people that run the Ministry are resigning, you don’t understand it well, and why would they abandon the process, this beautiful revolution? Everything is so cool in the revolution, people say hello to you, they invite you to parties and sometimes they even ask for your opinion. And you love the 18 year old Scotch. Of course, I try to keep quiet, since I know little about what they are asking. The best part however, is that you don’t have to stare at ugly varicose legs and see the blood and all that.

One day you hop on your car because they called you from Caracas, you hope the meeting will be brief, maybe catch a meal at one of those good Caracas Restaurants, before going back. You get to the Ministry; you are flabbergasted; they want me to be Vice-Minister! Imagine, you will have a car, move to Caracas and you will be important. Thanks God there is a Minister, you won’t have to talk to the press about things you know little about, like hospitals or healthcare, they will never ask about varicose veins anyway, which is all you really remember from med school. You don’t care about them; it’s just a way to make a living.

Finally, one fateful and horrendous day, you are having fun, banquet at the Palace and the charismatic guy, who no longer seems like he knows what he is doing, he approaches you and tells you the Minister is leaving, you think the dream is over, you will leave with her, when the President tells you that you are “it”. Like you are the man, the new Minister! Before you can say no, the President turns around and you are “it”, the brand new Minister of Health. Thanks God you have Directors to do the job, since you know little about healthcare. You just hope reporters will not ask too many questions.

Jesus! Here they come again to confuse me, the stupid Director of that Hospital fired a bunch of people for signing against the President and everyone wants to ask questions about why. Then you tell the reporters that if these people worked for the CIA they would be fired, they are terrorists. CIA? Oh shit! I said NASA, not CIA. I don’t even remember what NASA does. I am sure the gringos would fire them anyway.

I wake up early in the morning, the VP is calling asking me why the Hell I said such a stupid thing. He tells me I have to fire them, but not admit that I did it. I actually have to deny it. If we all say that, JV tells me, then it will become the truth. Happens all the time. Just watch, the VP says.

I go out and tell reporters that they misunderstood what I said; your words were taken out of context and tell them that it is those that conspire than cant keep their jobs. Shoot! The VP calls again so you go out, wow! Look how many reporters are here now! I tell them I am a nice guy, they go away, I am not sure what all I said, and this is very confusing.

I go to Maracaibo two days later and that stupid gringo named Shapiro says on the radio that at NASA, or was it the CIA? they would not fire anybody for political reasons. They fire their baseball managers all the time, I am a Mets fan, I know. They expect me to believe this. Glad I am here now, in Maracaibo, nobody knows about what I said in Caracas. It was private anyway.

Oh boy! First thing they ask is about the stupid firings again. How did they find out? This is very confusing, I tell them I will not retract, the terrorists, the violent and the conspirators will indeed be fired. I better switch topics. I start telling them about our good Cuban friends, the Doctors that came to fill the space the stupid Venezuelan Doctors did not want to occupy. I tell them the problem is that there are no General practitioners in Venezuela, so we need to train them. I tell them we need Doctors with mystique. Maybe a Graduate program for GP’s, that sounds good, no?. God, I hope they don’t know about my varicose past. Maybe I should just resign, this is getting more confusing everyday.

Hugo Chavez said in his next to last Sunday program that he wanted proof and names of the repression and torture. Since then, Tal Cual has been carrying a daily piece with the description of what someone went through. Some of them, I have seen elsewhere, but today they present the case of David Meneses, which I had not seen. What is remarkable is the similarity of the way people were terrorized and torture in the same fashion in various places around the country. Clearly, these techniques have been carefully been taught and implemented as suggested by Liliana Ortega of COFAVIC in her press conference last week. Here are some of the descriptions by Tal Cual:

When David Meneses observed the assault rifle that was pointing directly at him last March 1^st., he understood in practice that theory that talks about the division in our country. No matter how eloquent it may be, the mouth of a politician is not as explicit as an assault rifle.

The protest against Hugo Chávez had taken over the Perimeter Ave. of San Antonio de Los Altos (a city 20 Km. from Caracas). It was 5:30 PM and David was ready to go to the drugstore where he works. On the way, he met a friend and they began talking about the ills of the country. Minutes later, their talk was interrupted by the violent apparition of the National Guard.

“The military arrived shooting their rifles, while people threw themselves on the ground. I ran so they would not grab me, however they trapped me and about seven guards started hitting me, kicking, hitting me with their rifles and sticks”, he remembers

“They threw me on the floor, face down, pointed the rifle at me and threatened to assassinate me”

The soldier that did that to me went away, placed his knee on the floor and warned me” Close your eyes that I am going to kill you” With my chest on the asphalt and the arms extended, I heard how one of the guards mates that had the weapon recommended the other one that he not press the trigger to avoid problems.

“Later, he told me to put a helmet on me before shooting at me, and he did it. Another military lifted me and the one that had the rifle took out a pistol that shoots pellets and fired twice, hurting my legs”

Another military sprayed itching powder on him and hit him on the back of his neck, while lying on the street. He was moved. They put him in a National Guard truck with six others. ‘A soldier told me to get out and I told him to please not him me anymore, nevertheless, once I got out they started hitting me again”

The soldier hitting him only stops when another one approaches and tells him: Leave him alone”. That same Guard “told me to take my pants off and another Guard said: are you going to rape him right here? And he made it clear he just wanted to hit me directly. Then he grabbed a wooden stick and broke it on my back. “Damn you broke it, he told me” and he got out one made of iron. I asked him not to hit me, that he was going to kill me and the aggressor said” Turn around or I will brake your head with this’

The soldier was not true to his word. According to the doctors five millimeters to the side and David would have had his skull broken. “They insulted me, told me I was a squalid and swearing that nobody would ever overthrow Chavez”

Later they took us away.

“They threw us on the ground and hit us again. A soldier pointed the rifle and screamed” Don’t run that we are going to shoot you. They placed us against the wall and they hit us with their wooden sticks in the back of our legs”

‘The officer told us they  would let us go, but then a Guard arrived who supposedly had been hit by a marble on the chest and said ‘These damn assholes are going to pay” And they hit us again.

They stole his wallet, watch and cell phone.

Hugo Chavez said in his next to last Sunday program that he wanted proof and names of the repression and torture. Since then, Tal Cual has been carrying a daily piece with the description of what someone went through. Some of them, I have seen elsewhere, but today they present the case of David Meneses, which I had not seen. What is remarkable is the similarity of the way people were terrorized and torture in the same fashion in various places around the country. Clearly, these techniques have been carefully been taught and implemented as suggested by Liliana Ortega of COFAVIC in her press conference last week. Here are some of the descriptions by Tal Cual:

When David Meneses observed the assault rifle that was pointing directly at him last March 1^st., he understood in practice that theory that talks about the division in our country. No matter how eloquent it may be, the mouth of a politician is not as explicit as an assault rifle.

The protest against Hugo Chávez had taken over the Perimeter Ave. of San Antonio de Los Altos (a city 20 Km. from Caracas). It was 5:30 PM and David was ready to go to the drugstore where he works. On the way, he met a friend and they began talking about the ills of the country. Minutes later, their talk was interrupted by the violent apparition of the National Guard.

“The military arrived shooting their rifles, while people threw themselves on the ground. I ran so they would not grab me, however they trapped me and about seven guards started hitting me, kicking, hitting me with their rifles and sticks”, he remembers

“They threw me on the floor, face down, pointed the rifle at me and threatened to assassinate me”

The soldier that did that to me went away, placed his knee on the floor and warned me” Close your eyes that I am going to kill you” With my chest on the asphalt and the arms extended, I heard how one of the guards mates that had the weapon recommended the other one that he not press the trigger to avoid problems.

“Later, he told me to put a helmet on me before shooting at me, and he did it. Another military lifted me and the one that had the rifle took out a pistol that shoots pellets and fired twice, hurting my legs”

Another military sprayed itching powder on him and hit him on the back of his neck, while lying on the street. He was moved. They put him in a National Guard truck with six others. ‘A soldier told me to get out and I told him to please not him me anymore, nevertheless, once I got out they started hitting me again”

The soldier hitting him only stops when another one approaches and tells him: Leave him alone”. That same Guard “told me to take my pants off and another Guard said: are you going to rape him right here? And he made it clear he just wanted to hit me directly. Then he grabbed a wooden stick and broke it on my back. “Damn you broke it, he told me” and he got out one made of iron. I asked him not to hit me, that he was going to kill me and the aggressor said” Turn around or I will brake your head with this’

The soldier was not true to his word. According to the doctors five millimeters to the side and David would have had his skull broken. “They insulted me, told me I was a squalid and swearing that nobody would ever overthrow Chavez”

Later they took us away.

“They threw us on the ground and hit us again. A soldier pointed the rifle and screamed” Don’t run that we are going to shoot you. They placed us against the wall and they hit us with their wooden sticks in the back of our legs”

‘The officer told us they  would let us go, but then a Guard arrived who supposedly had been hit by a marble on the chest and said ‘These damn assholes are going to pay” And they hit us again.

They stole his wallet, watch and cell phone.

While the Ministers of Labor and Health get entangled in their own lies and contradictions, I get these lists of workers from the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research that did sign the petition to hold a recall referendum against Hugo Chávez. Now, these detailed lists are the result of organized crime, somebody with access to the Electoral database took the time to look up each and every employee to see if they had signed.  They even classified them by rank and whether they enjoy a pension or not. With what purpose? Well, it’s anybody’s guess, from intimidation, to extortion all the way to firing them. Those at IVIC that support Chavez should examine their own conscience and remember that there will be a day of reckoning and everyone will ask why they were not in these lists below.

Meanwhile, my good friend and one of Venezuela’s premier scientists, biophysicist Carlo Caputo wrote this letter to his colleagues around the world, which I have taken the trouble of translating:

There is a pro-government group that works at the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC), which no doubt has the authorization of the party leadership that supports the Chavez Government, which is circulating, in the anonymous fashion which is typical of cowards, a list of IVIC workers that signed the request to recall the mandate of Hugo Chávez Frias. Similar lists have been drawn up and are being circulated in many offices of the government, Ministries; institutes etc. and in some of them they have begun firing those that appear in the respective list. Last Saturday March 20^th. the Minister of Health, a certain Roger Capella, declared as terrorists all workers of the Ministry that signed asking for a referendum and thus can be removed from their positions. The Minister of Labor Maria Cristina Iglesias, cynically has said that in the files of those fired, it does not appear as the cause the fact that they had signed, attempting to cover up with hypocritical formalisms the abuse that has been committed.

Hugo Chavez has said that those that signed did not do it against Chávez, but they signed against the country, that is I, Chavez am the country (Mussolini, Stalin, Pol Pot etc, also said it). There are already complaints that some of those that signed are being denied citizen rights under the umbrella of the same Chavista Constitution, like the right to obtain a national identification card or passport issued.

These methods are common to all incipient dictatorships and belong to what Umberto Eco called Ur fascism or that is, fascism in its primitive state. The most incredible thing is that some pro-Chavez people or those that sympathize with him, especially abroad, still consider Chavismo to be a sort of idealized socialism. Can they be that blind?

In the opposition marches, Chavistas induce violence at the request and convenience of the boss and there are already dozens of deaths, assassinated by the Venezuelan “tonton macutes” (do your remember Papa Doc?). When there has been no violence, it has been used a deterrent, but with little success as demonstrated by the massive participation of people in these marches.

To circulate the list of those that signed is another one of the threatening and intimidating tactics of the Chavismo. Even before, there had been threats that they would excrete (sic!) those not addicted to the process.

But like everything this Government starts, these tactics are destined to fail. Those of us that have signed because we are against this corrupt and inefficient Government, authoritarian and criminally violent, consider it an honor to be on that list.

While the Ministers of Labor and Health get entangled in their own lies and contradictions, I get these lists of workers from the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research that did sign the petition to hold a recall referendum against Hugo Chávez. Now, these detailed lists are the result of organized crime, somebody with access to the Electoral database took the time to look up each and every employee to see if they had signed.  They even classified them by rank and whether they enjoy a pension or not. With what purpose? Well, it’s anybody’s guess, from intimidation, to extortion all the way to firing them. Those at IVIC that support Chavez should examine their own conscience and remember that there will be a day of reckoning and everyone will ask why they were not in these lists below.

Meanwhile, my good friend and one of Venezuela’s premier scientists, biophysicist Carlo Caputo wrote this letter to his colleagues around the world, which I have taken the trouble of translating:

There is a pro-government group that works at the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC), which no doubt has the authorization of the party leadership that supports the Chavez Government, which is circulating, in the anonymous fashion which is typical of cowards, a list of IVIC workers that signed the request to recall the mandate of Hugo Chávez Frias. Similar lists have been drawn up and are being circulated in many offices of the government, Ministries; institutes etc. and in some of them they have begun firing those that appear in the respective list. Last Saturday March 20^th. the Minister of Health, a certain Roger Capella, declared as terrorists all workers of the Ministry that signed asking for a referendum and thus can be removed from their positions. The Minister of Labor Maria Cristina Iglesias, cynically has said that in the files of those fired, it does not appear as the cause the fact that they had signed, attempting to cover up with hypocritical formalisms the abuse that has been committed.

Hugo Chavez has said that those that signed did not do it against Chávez, but they signed against the country, that is I, Chavez am the country (Mussolini, Stalin, Pol Pot etc, also said it). There are already complaints that some of those that signed are being denied citizen rights under the umbrella of the same Chavista Constitution, like the right to obtain a national identification card or passport issued.

These methods are common to all incipient dictatorships and belong to what Umberto Eco called Ur fascism or that is, fascism in its primitive state. The most incredible thing is that some pro-Chavez people or those that sympathize with him, especially abroad, still consider Chavismo to be a sort of idealized socialism. Can they be that blind?

In the opposition marches, Chavistas induce violence at the request and convenience of the boss and there are already dozens of deaths, assassinated by the Venezuelan “tonton macutes” (do your remember Papa Doc?). When there has been no violence, it has been used a deterrent, but with little success as demonstrated by the massive participation of people in these marches.

To circulate the list of those that signed is another one of the threatening and intimidating tactics of the Chavismo. Even before, there had been threats that they would excrete (sic!) those not addicted to the process.

But like everything this Government starts, these tactics are destined to fail. Those of us that have signed because we are against this corrupt and inefficient Government, authoritarian and criminally violent, consider it an honor to be on that list.

The Primero Justicia Party which holds a number of seats in the national assembly and has a number of important mayors in Caracas, announced this afternoon that their party will not change regional elections for the recall referendum and if there is no referendum, they will withdraw all of their candidacies to the regional elections.

The unanimous decision was announced when the leaders of that party registered the candidacy of fugitive Mayor Henrique Capriles. Capriles is in hiding since the Prosecutors have not allowed his lawyers to se what he is being charged with in his arrest warrant. Primero Justicia deputy Julio Borges said that the CNE and the Supreme Court were violating the rights of 3.4 million Venezuelans with technicalities and subterfuges which gave no guarantees that the law would be respected in the regional elections by either instance. First he said, people had to choose between impunity or justice, between fear and freedom and between chaos and peace.

Separately Primero Justicia deputy Gerardo Blyde said that the decision by the Constitutional hall of the Supreme Court is the first sentence in the country’s new dictatorships the Hall eliminated rights that people never thought they would lose. Blyde, a constitutional expert said that the decision by the highest Court modifies the Constitution with the only objective of avoiding the recall referendum. Blyde said that the principle of presumption of innocence was eliminated with this jurisprudence by the Constitutional hall; he said the electoral hall is there to resolve Electoral matters but the Court says it is not and acted on it. Finally Blyde said that there is also a principle that was violated, that when the law is clear, the interpreter can not go against the clarity of the law. He said the Government wants to reach August without a recall referendum.

There is a lot to blog about, but I really feel like I have no energy for it. The decision by the Constitutional Hall which is here, which voids that of the Electoral Hall on many grounds, some which I understand, some which I do not, seems to me to have been constructed for the occasion and to suit Chavez’ desires. Let me try to summarize the reasons why it was voided:

-It violated procedures.

-It did not give the CNE the right to defend itself.

-Says their decision (today’s) is not a threat to the right of citizens to express themselves (!)

-It says that changing no rules were changed, claiming that the criteria used were in place in September (!)

-Says the criteria applied by the Electoral Hall to validate the signatures does not apply in this case, because the CNE has to certify who signed. (What are signatures, witnesses and high security forms for?)

-It says the Electoral Hall could not rule the period for ratification was too short, since that period had not been established (False: CNE Director Jorge Rodríguez publicly announced it would be only two days on the same day that the decision on the signatures was announced)

-It says the Electoral power can draw up regulations on its own and the Electoral Hall violated its independence.

-Says that the Electoral hall decided on the issue not on the injunction.

Well, except for the first point and the last, for which I can not give an opinion because I am not a lawyer, the others seemed to me to be absurd: The decision does threaten my rights, the rules were changed on the way, the only valid identification is the signature and the fingerprint is there too just in case, if the Electoral Power is autonomous then what is the Electoral Hall for then?

What is clear to me is that the dice are loaded against the opposition with these guys. They will always be able to find a legal argument to stop the recall referendum or now that regional elections are in the works, to say that so many votes from here or there are invalid. That seems to be our future.

Now, the Electoral Hall will decide whether it challenges the decision by taking it to the Full Court or not. I understand that it will and that since Ivan Rincon was involved in the descion a different Justice will decided whether it goes to the full Court or not. But I also understand that they can stop it for a while, reject it temporarily and otherwise delay the whole process. Such is the law in a totalitarian state. Chavismo is the law in Venezuela, Chavez is the law, our very own Louis XIV.

God help us, we are in the hands of unethical and immoral Justices, leading the country into a tragic confrontation.