The Devil's Excrement

When one starts a blog, one does not fully understand the commitment and responsibility one is assuming. At the beginning of this year I planned a trip. Naively, I actually took into account the political process going on in Venezuela. My calculation was that by June we would have had the recall referendum, thus June would be the best time to go. Cheaper flights and other considerations made me advance the trip a few days. Little did I know that I would leave in the middle of the “reparo” process, with the recall referendum still uncertain and in the future.

As the ratification of “reparo” process approaches, the people of Venezuela expect this to be something like the final battle in this long and drawn out process. I wish they were right, but think they aren’t. The truth is that this is simply another stage in a long battle.

And it shows, the almost hysterical behavior of CNE Director Rodriguez coupled with the one and only appearance in many months by Director Battaglini to announce a shameful decision based on unknown “intelligence” by the military not to allow the opposition to have information centers near the polling stations, clearly indicate a sense of desperation among the pro-Chavez forces.

Rodriguez by now has lost all credibility he may have had at some remote point in time. A simple letter by Roger Noriega, the undersecretary of State, generated a reaction out of proportion with Noriega’s remarks if one compares them to Chàvez’ statements in the last few weeks about the US and Venezuela. After all, Noriega is simply reiterating charges made not only by the opposition but also by many of the international organizations that have been part of the observation process in Venezuela.

Similarly, Chavez carefully written letter to the Washington post, could not even pass the examination of a newspaper that not long ago was writing washy washy articles about Venezuela. (For complete coverage, interpretation and detail of these, you can read Francisco Toro’s blog, where he exquisitely dissects Chavez’ letter, interpreting the true meaning of his words). While Chavez accuses “coup leaders” of telling the world in April 2002 that he had resigned, he neglects to convey the small piece of information that the particular “coup leader” he is talking about, the only man that announced Chavez’ resignation, is today his Minister of Interior and Justice Lucas Rincon. He also centers on the threats against his own life, which would only prove how incapable the opposition that held him for two days was, that they failed to kill him, despite the fact that he was unarmed and handcuffed. But like the dozens of attempts on Chàvez’ they life, they seem to mainly exist in his warped mind.

Meanwhile, Chavez puppets in the National Assembly and the so-called Comando Ayacucho, also attempted to make some noise by calling for the resignation of the Executive Secretary of the OAS and Cesar Gaviria alter ego, Fernando Jaramillo.

Both Jaramillo and Gaviria responded with diplomatic letters, saying we understand your concerns but you can shove it because we saw this same movie in Peru and we know how you feel, we talked to Montesinos and Fujimori quite a bit then, but we know where you are coming from. We looked like fools then and really would not like to repeat our sorry performance there. In fact, we would like to forget about it. This time around I will arrive tomorrow and will not leave with my tail between my legs like I did in Peru.

We expect at this time, to have the recall activated at which time a new stage will begin for both the Government and the opposition. It will be like staring the whole process again. The first trick to be activated by the Chavistas will be attempts to have the recall take place after August 19th. in this manner Chavez VP would take over for him. This will be done by delaying the recall and represents at this time one of the easiest tasks by the CNE. If this were to fail, then the strategy would shift to attempt to block the opposition from obtaining the 3.7 million votes it requires to activate the recall. The task is in fact not that simple, after all, Chavez himself only received 3.7 million votes in the heyday of his popularity.

Nothing is simple in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Everything actually moves in slow motion, very slow motion. It is perhaps one of the great ironies of the revolution that Chavez could have taken it all in the first two years of his administration. When he had the backing of 70-80% of Venezuelans, even those that did not vote for him, he could have done what he has tried to do since then. People forget how fast Fidel acted in Cuba. Even before he declared himself a communist, he was eliminating the future opposition. Chavez can no longer do that here, the opposition is strong and united, the world is watching. Unfortunately for us and Venezuela, this is a process in slow motion that will continue to drag on without a final resolution for perhaps many years. Next week Venezuelans in the opposition will likely realize that they are back to December when they thought they had won, but it was only the beginning of one long drawn out process full obscure obstacles. A new process starts next week, until the next one.

Wish I had written the following article by Juan Uslar in Tal Cual today, it reflects exactly my feelings in the last few days as the tax office, Seniat, has been raiding various companies looking for tax evasion. Until people pay their taxes and the law is followed, the country will not develop properly. Yes, this is something good the Government is doing. There, I’ve said it! Even if the tactics sometimes are sensationalistic and the money is later spent inefficiently, but in the end it is a vicious circle…

Seniat charges on by Juan Uslar

During the last few months and particularly in recent weeks, there has been a display of activity on the part of Seniat (tax office) like nothing ever seen in Venezuela.

This has manifested itself by a wave of store closings, both small and large, which presumably have incurred in faults either in the detail or form, with respect to current tax legislation. Add to that that the director of Seniat is also teaming up with the Social Security administration and INCE (The training institute), among others. This has created a wave of panic in a country where tax issues were usually settled using “alternative” means.

I think that this was going to happen sooner or later, either with this Government or the next one. Moreover, it is unfortunate that they have had to resort to terror tactics such as compulsive shutdown widely shown on the media to provide “incentives” to all tax payers to comply with the law as soon as possible. It is impossible to close the fiscal gap in a country where the revenue goals coming from the productive sectors are not met.

A different topic, and that is why I touch upon it separately, is what is done with that money afterwards. Indeed, there has never been a more widespread image of waste and lack of direction with the schemes of public expenditures like there is today. One gets the impression that all of the revenues will go to finance expenses that in no way will back the competitiveness of companies or the inhabitants of the country. An INCE (training Institute) which teaches neither arts nor trades. A Social Security system that guarantees nothing except the lack of attention. A government that guarantees neither security, nor defense, nor health, nor education. Then, what for? But leave on to Caesar what is Caesar’s. All of these obligations that they are calling for are within the law and the regulations. Texts that were approved with the participation of those that have an interest in it, that is possibly correct, but that does not mean they are not legal. Another one of the multiple manifestations of our customary laziness. After all, we could always fix it without paying so much…Now we are in the worst of all possible worlds.

The conclusion I reach is that Seniat is doing what it has to do, whether we like it or not. If we all did the same thing, I am sure we would begin, very concretely, to fix this country. We have to take care of it. 

Wish I had written the following article by Juan Uslar in Tal Cual today, it reflects exactly my feelings in the last few days as the tax office, Seniat, has been raiding various companies looking for tax evasion. Until people pay their taxes and the law is followed, the country will not develop properly. Yes, this is something good the Government is doing. There, I’ve said it! Even if the tactics sometimes are sensationalistic and the money is later spent inefficiently, but in the end it is a vicious circle…

Seniat charges on by Juan Uslar

During the last few months and particularly in recent weeks, there has been a display of activity on the part of Seniat (tax office) like nothing ever seen in Venezuela.

This has manifested itself by a wave of store closings, both small and large, which presumably have incurred in faults either in the detail or form, with respect to current tax legislation. Add to that that the director of Seniat is also teaming up with the Social Security administration and INCE (The training institute), among others. This has created a wave of panic in a country where tax issues were usually settled using “alternative” means.

I think that this was going to happen sooner or later, either with this Government or the next one. Moreover, it is unfortunate that they have had to resort to terror tactics such as compulsive shutdown widely shown on the media to provide “incentives” to all tax payers to comply with the law as soon as possible. It is impossible to close the fiscal gap in a country where the revenue goals coming from the productive sectors are not met.

A different topic, and that is why I touch upon it separately, is what is done with that money afterwards. Indeed, there has never been a more widespread image of waste and lack of direction with the schemes of public expenditures like there is today. One gets the impression that all of the revenues will go to finance expenses that in no way will back the competitiveness of companies or the inhabitants of the country. An INCE (training Institute) which teaches neither arts nor trades. A Social Security system that guarantees nothing except the lack of attention. A government that guarantees neither security, nor defense, nor health, nor education. Then, what for? But leave on to Caesar what is Caesar’s. All of these obligations that they are calling for are within the law and the regulations. Texts that were approved with the participation of those that have an interest in it, that is possibly correct, but that does not mean they are not legal. Another one of the multiple manifestations of our customary laziness. After all, we could always fix it without paying so much…Now we are in the worst of all possible worlds.

The conclusion I reach is that Seniat is doing what it has to do, whether we like it or not. If we all did the same thing, I am sure we would begin, very concretely, to fix this country. We have to take care of it. 

I took this story right out of Descifrado, its author, Juan Carlos Zapata, usually has very good information, thus I can not confirm it, but I trust the source. The story is so amazing that I thought it was worth translating. What I fail to understand is why in a country with thousands of unemployed competent engineers, the Government ahs to use a Cuban company for this. The answer may be that they don’t trust anyone. 

The great investment made by the Government in updating the technical equipment, transmission and repeaters of Radio Nacional de Venezuela (RNV), during the months of February and March, may be ready to be wasted. The Cuban technicians from the Cosmotel company, which handled the purchase of the telecom equipment, did not get it right with the choice of equipment that was acquired in Spain and the US. There are 37 repeaters of RNV’s signal that are distributed across the country and do not work properly.

“The Cuban geniuses ordered the purchase of equipment that only works 100% of its capacity in cold and temperate climate and temperatures. In Zulia and the East the equipment stop working all the time because heat affects them. The only state where they have worked is Merida for obvious reasons (it’s cooler there!). As an alternate solution, Cosmotel proposed the purchase of air conditioning equipment so that the investment is not lost. Only because of the air conditioning it is two hundred thousand dollars more than what ahs been spent, said to Descifrado a Venezuelan engineer who had warned of the inconvenience of the offer by Cosmotel.

This technical crisis generated a severe reprimand to the officials in charge of contracting Cosmotel. High Government officials ordered the Director of RN Helena Salcedo and her technical team, an urgent trip to Cuba to attempt to solve the problem and activate the warranty of the equipment which includes the replacement of those that are damaged in a period that does not exceed a year from the time of installation. Salcedo will return at the end of this week. 

I took this story right out of Descifrado, its author, Juan Carlos Zapata, usually has very good information, thus I can not confirm it, but I trust the source. The story is so amazing that I thought it was worth translating. What I fail to understand is why in a country with thousands of unemployed competent engineers, the Government ahs to use a Cuban company for this. The answer may be that they don’t trust anyone. 

The great investment made by the Government in updating the technical equipment, transmission and repeaters of Radio Nacional de Venezuela (RNV), during the months of February and March, may be ready to be wasted. The Cuban technicians from the Cosmotel company, which handled the purchase of the telecom equipment, did not get it right with the choice of equipment that was acquired in Spain and the US. There are 37 repeaters of RNV’s signal that are distributed across the country and do not work properly.

“The Cuban geniuses ordered the purchase of equipment that only works 100% of its capacity in cold and temperate climate and temperatures. In Zulia and the East the equipment stop working all the time because heat affects them. The only state where they have worked is Merida for obvious reasons (it’s cooler there!). As an alternate solution, Cosmotel proposed the purchase of air conditioning equipment so that the investment is not lost. Only because of the air conditioning it is two hundred thousand dollars more than what ahs been spent, said to Descifrado a Venezuelan engineer who had warned of the inconvenience of the offer by Cosmotel.

This technical crisis generated a severe reprimand to the officials in charge of contracting Cosmotel. High Government officials ordered the Director of RN Helena Salcedo and her technical team, an urgent trip to Cuba to attempt to solve the problem and activate the warranty of the equipment which includes the replacement of those that are damaged in a period that does not exceed a year from the time of installation. Salcedo will return at the end of this week. 

According to today’s Tal Cual, The Venezuelan body in charge of culture CONAC approved 30 million bolivars (about $7,000 at the official rate of exchange) to web page aporrea to execute a project called “Program for the stimulus of radio phonic productions”. Aporrea has no projects of this nature, which was quickly explained away by someone at CONAC saying according to Tal Cual: “The name of the project was used to encompass alternative community media, among them, web pages”.

 Such progressive people!

Curious, how in a country where nobody is ever convicted for defamation, one of the three harshest critics of the Government, reporter Ibeyise Pacheco is found guilty of defamation against a Colonel and given nine months in prison. She will appeal.

If the same criteria were applied to the President, he would also be found guilty, as every weekend he makes accusations against his enemies which are never proven.

No sooner had the CNE (yesterday) approved the possibility of having the opposition have information centers near the locations where the people would go to ratify their signatures next weekend that the almost invisible Director of the CNE Oscar Battaglini informed the press that they will not be allowed. According to him, the Armed Forces has “confidential intelligence” that these centers could be the source of conflicts and confrontations.

The Coordinadora Democrática criticized the decision saying “They have begun to change the rules of the game” but they said they will carry out the project with 260,000 volunteers that will help people know whether they have to ratify their signature or not and where they have to do it.

Clearly, the order not to allow the information centers came from above as the Government becomes increasingly nervous that the opposition will get the required signatures despite the large number of tricks that have been used. The Government is simply terrified of the logistics prepared by the opposition to maximize the number of validated signatures.

The latest tricks besides not allowing these centers are: i) People are not only being told that they will be fired if they don’t withdraw their signature, but they are being told they have to find four more people to ratify their signature. ii) The CNE continues to show advertising that asks people to go and withdraw their signature, an act which is only legal if someone else signed for you.

It also makes you wonder if the quality of the military intelligence is as good as that which has been used to investigate the paramilitary force captured two weeks ago. Despite numerous detentions and raids, the Government has not been able to find any evidence against any opposition members. We all still wonder how 100 Colombian men managed to go from the border to Caracas without being detected. To make the matter even more hilarious, this unarmed force of under twenty one rural workers is being accused of destabilizing the Government and threatening Chavez’ life. With intelligence like that, this country is simply doomed.

No sooner had the CNE (yesterday) approved the possibility of having the opposition have information centers near the locations where the people would go to ratify their signatures next weekend that the almost invisible Director of the CNE Oscar Battaglini informed the press that they will not be allowed. According to him, the Armed Forces has “confidential intelligence” that these centers could be the source of conflicts and confrontations.

The Coordinadora Democrática criticized the decision saying “They have begun to change the rules of the game” but they said they will carry out the project with 260,000 volunteers that will help people know whether they have to ratify their signature or not and where they have to do it.

Clearly, the order not to allow the information centers came from above as the Government becomes increasingly nervous that the opposition will get the required signatures despite the large number of tricks that have been used. The Government is simply terrified of the logistics prepared by the opposition to maximize the number of validated signatures.

The latest tricks besides not allowing these centers are: i) People are not only being told that they will be fired if they don’t withdraw their signature, but they are being told they have to find four more people to ratify their signature. ii) The CNE continues to show advertising that asks people to go and withdraw their signature, an act which is only legal if someone else signed for you.

It also makes you wonder if the quality of the military intelligence is as good as that which has been used to investigate the paramilitary force captured two weeks ago. Despite numerous detentions and raids, the Government has not been able to find any evidence against any opposition members. We all still wonder how 100 Colombian men managed to go from the border to Caracas without being detected. To make the matter even more hilarious, this unarmed force of under twenty one rural workers is being accused of destabilizing the Government and threatening Chavez’ life. With intelligence like that, this country is simply doomed.