The Devil's Excrement

At 3 AM the Chavistas starting shooting rockets up in the air, blasting music and playing revelries. The music continues an hour later. I wonder what Jorge Rodriguez thinks of campaign music at this point? I am not sure what the purpose is. They certainly succeeded in waking me up to so that instead of going to vote at 7 AM, I will go at 6 AM. Not sure you mobilize people by waking them up, least of all by waking them up too early. Do long lines early promote or reduce abstention? I am not sure.

The barrio next to my house houses about 3,000 people, there are maybe 40 moving around,not that many lights on. Regular firecrackers are quite obnoxious given the time of day.

I will go bright and early to vote Si. I hope I can get out sufficiently early to go back home, get my camera and take pictures around the city and post them here.

At 2:30 PM I have to show up for volunteer work at a data center that will monitor how the vote is going in terms of the number of people that have voted. I will have to be there until all polls close and all centers have reported which may be quite late. The Electoral Board (CNE) has said it will make an announcement three hours after all polls have closed, I do not expect any announcement until 11 PM at the earliest.

I will report via e-mail to this page after that time, I have tested the system the last few days and it works well. If I have some color or anything else to report I will do it.

I wish everyone a beautiful, quiet and peaceful day and, obviously, I hope the Si wins, because I deeply believe that it is the best and only option for Venezuela.

The Venezuelan military is very confused about their role in the election. What else is new? What can you expect from mediocrity? What can you expect from bully Generals used to acting outside the law and with no checks and balances.

Let’s see, General Becerra announces “new functions” for the Venezuelan military, creating a scandal as he says that the military will ask people for the national ID card. The, he denies he said it. But then, his boss says, Becerra was following his orders and “the military will ask national ID cards from all citizens, to make sure that they can check that the picture coincides with the person…”

Then opposition spokesman Timoteo Zambrano says that the role of the military is outside of the polling centers, but this is being violated by some military leaders.

Then the Head of CUFAN comes back and reiterates that they will go beyond guarding the polling centers.

Then the Head of the Plan Republica which supports the logistics of the voting says “It is not abnormal for the military to request to see the national ID cards.” And that they will help with the lines, will check voters in the lists and will watch over the fingerprint machines, but will remain a “prudent” distance away from the voting machines.

Finally, the Minister of Defense as he left a meeting with international observers said: The people at the polling tables are responsible for the identification of the people”…and would only help if the members request help….they will not ask people for their National ID cards.

Now it is clear, but their goal has been achieved: the intimidation of voters.

The Venezuelan military is very confused about their role in the election. What else is new? What can you expect from mediocrity? What can you expect from bully Generals used to acting outside the law and with no checks and balances.

Let’s see, General Becerra announces “new functions” for the Venezuelan military, creating a scandal as he says that the military will ask people for the national ID card. The, he denies he said it. But then, his boss says, Becerra was following his orders and “the military will ask national ID cards from all citizens, to make sure that they can check that the picture coincides with the person…”

Then opposition spokesman Timoteo Zambrano says that the role of the military is outside of the polling centers, but this is being violated by some military leaders.

Then the Head of CUFAN comes back and reiterates that they will go beyond guarding the polling centers.

Then the Head of the Plan Republica which supports the logistics of the voting says “It is not abnormal for the military to request to see the national ID cards.” And that they will help with the lines, will check voters in the lists and will watch over the fingerprint machines, but will remain a “prudent” distance away from the voting machines.

Finally, the Minister of Defense as he left a meeting with international observers said: The people at the polling tables are responsible for the identification of the people”…and would only help if the members request help….they will not ask people for their National ID cards.

Now it is clear, but their goal has been achieved: the intimidation of voters.