The Devil's Excrement

The return of Nelson Merentes to the Ministry of Finance demonstrates clearly the empty words of the Chavez revolution. While opposition members are indicted for minor infractions, such as removing road signs illegally, Chavez appoints again to that position one of the few Venezuelans that has been found guilty of violating the anti-corruption law called the “Law for the protection of the public assets”. Indeed Merentes was found guilty of numerous violations of that law by the pro-Chávez National Assembly when it investigated the “missing” funds (somewhere between 2 and 6 billion US$) of the macroeconomic stabilization fund (FIEM). But of course, you need a Prosecutor to accuse and the current one will never accuse one of his own, with so many easy targets in the opposition to harass.

Interestingly enough, Merentes was also part of the first accusations by the then pro-Chavez press against a Chavista figure when he was accused in 1999 of using funds from the technology and science fund of Universidad Central de Venezuela to buy jewels for his employees. The now Minister of Finance defended the actions as being parts of the “perks” of working for that fund. I love revolutionary logic!

I guess soon I will have to find out whether the Web is considered to be private or public. You see, the distinction may become very important soon in the quickie fix up that our illustrious National Assembly is doing on the Penal Code. Rather than expect for the full revision of the code, our emblematic revolutionaries decided to patch it up to make sure that political opposition can be wiped out.

Whether my blog is considered public or private is very important according to today’s Tal Cual Editorial. If private, if I were to offend Hugo Chavez, I would be punished with prison between 6 and 30 months, half of that if the offense was “light” (Which is not defined). But, and here is the key to my question, the punishment would be increased by a third if the offense was made in public.

Of course, what is an offense? If Chavez says something stupid and I say so, is that an offense? What if he lies and I point it out? Is that offensive too? What if I accuse him of doing something illegal? Guilty? Is calling the letter he wrote to Carlos the Jackal, a love letter, an offense? Is calling him a murderer an offense? Is publishing a picture of him blowing a kiss to Fidel Castro, an offense too? What if I quote someone else calling Chavez a clown? Is that an offense too?

Then we come to the question of private versus public. What is private? Since the legislators took the trouble to define the additional penalty for a public offense, it means they have something in mind about what constitutes a private offense. If I tell Jimmy Carter in private that Chavez lied to him and Carter says it at a press conference. Am I in trouble? What if Carter tells Chavez privately what I said, guilty too?

What if I say he looks fat, like he does (see Tal Cual’s cover today). Go to jail without passing go and collecting 200? Or if I laugh in my blog at these jerky pictures of Chavez in Rio, where he pretended to be exercizing, with heavy sox, headbands and wristbands? He looks like such a fat clown! Should I go to jail for saying that?

By the way, I have to wonder who will be the enforcer for this. Honorable judge Mikael Moreno? Or will it be the People’s Ombudsman, who has so little to do because the revolution has been so successful at eliminating poverty, crime or corruption? Maybe they can appoint the El LLaguno shooters, after all, they have been certified as being innocent, something few Venezuelans can claim. Maybe they can bring back to the country some of those retired Generals living in mansions in Miami and have them serve the revolution once more. No, wait, I am sure that among the 15,000 Cubans in the country they can spare a few to check on violations of this article of the law. Who better qualified and trained that someone that grew up spying on his own family and friends to enforce the law?

I guess for now, I will keep the blog public. If I ever feel the need to make it private, I will rename it the “The Secret Devil’s Excrement”, making it a secret organization or logia, inviting everyone of you (including the Chavistas), and nobody else, to be a lifetime member. This way, my defense will be that my offenses against the President could not be defined either as private or public, they were simply secret. And that my friends, is not contemplated in the Bill at all, which according to revolutionary logic will mean that I will always be innocent, even if guilty.

I guess soon I will have to find out whether the Web is considered to be private or public. You see, the distinction may become very important soon in the quickie fix up that our illustrious National Assembly is doing on the Penal Code. Rather than expect for the full revision of the code, our emblematic revolutionaries decided to patch it up to make sure that political opposition can be wiped out.

Whether my blog is considered public or private is very important according to today’s Tal Cual Editorial. If private, if I were to offend Hugo Chavez, I would be punished with prison between 6 and 30 months, half of that if the offense was “light” (Which is not defined). But, and here is the key to my question, the punishment would be increased by a third if the offense was made in public.

Of course, what is an offense? If Chavez says something stupid and I say so, is that an offense? What if he lies and I point it out? Is that offensive too? What if I accuse him of doing something illegal? Guilty? Is calling the letter he wrote to Carlos the Jackal, a love letter, an offense? Is calling him a murderer an offense? Is publishing a picture of him blowing a kiss to Fidel Castro, an offense too? What if I quote someone else calling Chavez a clown? Is that an offense too?

Then we come to the question of private versus public. What is private? Since the legislators took the trouble to define the additional penalty for a public offense, it means they have something in mind about what constitutes a private offense. If I tell Jimmy Carter in private that Chavez lied to him and Carter says it at a press conference. Am I in trouble? What if Carter tells Chavez privately what I said, guilty too?

What if I say he looks fat, like he does (see Tal Cual’s cover today). Go to jail without passing go and collecting 200? Or if I laugh in my blog at these jerky pictures of Chavez in Rio, where he pretended to be exercizing, with heavy sox, headbands and wristbands? He looks like such a fat clown! Should I go to jail for saying that?

By the way, I have to wonder who will be the enforcer for this. Honorable judge Mikael Moreno? Or will it be the People’s Ombudsman, who has so little to do because the revolution has been so successful at eliminating poverty, crime or corruption? Maybe they can appoint the El LLaguno shooters, after all, they have been certified as being innocent, something few Venezuelans can claim. Maybe they can bring back to the country some of those retired Generals living in mansions in Miami and have them serve the revolution once more. No, wait, I am sure that among the 15,000 Cubans in the country they can spare a few to check on violations of this article of the law. Who better qualified and trained that someone that grew up spying on his own family and friends to enforce the law?

I guess for now, I will keep the blog public. If I ever feel the need to make it private, I will rename it the “The Secret Devil’s Excrement”, making it a secret organization or logia, inviting everyone of you (including the Chavistas), and nobody else, to be a lifetime member. This way, my defense will be that my offenses against the President could not be defined either as private or public, they were simply secret. And that my friends, is not contemplated in the Bill at all, which according to revolutionary logic will mean that I will always be innocent, even if guilty.

Now that one has to apply self-censorship, it is good to quote an article that says essentially whta I would have said, Petkoff on Nobrega’s departurre and good riddance to Nobrega!

Did he leave, did they make him leave, or was it the other way around? by Teodoro Petkoff

Without pain and without much glory, almost as a side story, in a speech that had a different purpose, Tobias Nobrega was kicked out of the Ministry of Finance.

But, was he really kicked out or he forced his way out?

Because it is difficult to imagine how Nobrega could commit the ingenuity of announcing the date of the next devaluation. You never do that and least of all on the part of the Minister that manages the money. Did he do it on purpose? It is not harebrained to think so. He knew he was condemned and that is why his closest collaborators had already left. It is said that Giordani, who had been after him since a while back, had proof of the manipulations made from the Finance Ministry. A number of foreign banks complained of the assignation by finger pointing (nobreguiano) of the last bond issue, the assignment of which was anything but an auction. Of the previous bond issues, there were many tales floating around. In Tal Cual we occupied our rime with some of them. Nobody paid us any attention, of course. The purchase of buildings by the ministry left a long tail of treachery that was punctually noted by this evening paper. Nobody paid attention to us. On top of that, it is obvious that for the foreign exchange speculators; Nobrega’s infidelity from New York made it possible for them to milk a beautiful profit. Retirement fund? But Chávez can not complain: He had the Minister of Finance that he deserved.

Now that one has to apply self-censorship, it is good to quote an article that says essentially whta I would have said, Petkoff on Nobrega’s departurre and good riddance to Nobrega!

Did he leave, did they make him leave, or was it the other way around? by Teodoro Petkoff

Without pain and without much glory, almost as a side story, in a speech that had a different purpose, Tobias Nobrega was kicked out of the Ministry of Finance.

But, was he really kicked out or he forced his way out?

Because it is difficult to imagine how Nobrega could commit the ingenuity of announcing the date of the next devaluation. You never do that and least of all on the part of the Minister that manages the money. Did he do it on purpose? It is not harebrained to think so. He knew he was condemned and that is why his closest collaborators had already left. It is said that Giordani, who had been after him since a while back, had proof of the manipulations made from the Finance Ministry. A number of foreign banks complained of the assignation by finger pointing (nobreguiano) of the last bond issue, the assignment of which was anything but an auction. Of the previous bond issues, there were many tales floating around. In Tal Cual we occupied our rime with some of them. Nobody paid us any attention, of course. The purchase of buildings by the ministry left a long tail of treachery that was punctually noted by this evening paper. Nobody paid attention to us. On top of that, it is obvious that for the foreign exchange speculators; Nobrega’s infidelity from New York made it possible for them to milk a beautiful profit. Retirement fund? But Chávez can not complain: He had the Minister of Finance that he deserved.

This kid Weil is really a genius, how does he get this out of the box ideas?

Dear Santa: Bring me a bike next year, it is dangerous to visti Venezuela now, many people are killed and are put in jail. Bless me and I love you. pedrito.

So the Government named Nelson Merentes to be the new (old) Minister of Finance. Incredible! Merentes was already been Minister of Finance, but I digress.

Nelson Merentes is a Mathematician with a Ph.D. from Hungary. Never knew or was interested in anything related to finances. But he was very interested in politics and backed Chavez early on, going to visit Chavez in the Yare prison with the rest of the so called Garibaldi group, a bunch of mostly mediocre academics from Universidad Central de Venezuela. In fact, Merentes was the first person I knew who was educated but was radically pro-Chavez.

Merentes was a founder of Chavez MBR-2000 movement and campaigned strongly in his favor. So much, that Chavez trusted him with his advice on how to promote the pro-Chavez candidates to the Constituent Assembly which violated the principle of minority representation by electing 96% (96 out of 100) members who were pro-Chavez. The story goes that Merentes did not come up with it, but asked a friend from the University to design it.

Merentes was not a candidate for the Assembly, but was appointed by Chavez to the so called “Congresillo” a transition institution with no legal basis whatsoever that ruled Venezuela for the almost five months between the end of the Constituent Assembly and the election of the new Congress. I remember Chavez’ brother defending the “Congresillo” because all of its members had been elected to the Constituent Assembly, but the only one I knew personally, Merentes, had not been. But I digress again.

Merentes began approving expenses in the “Congresillo” beyond the budget to the point that then Minister of the Interior Miquilena had to stop some of them.

The reason Merentes had not accepted any public positions up to that point was that he only wanted one job: The Presidency of his Alma Mater Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) an elected position. He ran after the “Congresillo” was over in a three men race for a runoff. He did not even make it to the second round, getting less than 10% of the vote.

A few weeks after, Merentes was appointed Vice-Minister of Finance. We all understood that the Vice-Minister had been removed, but no. Using revolutionary logic, the Ministry of Finance now had two Vice-Ministers, the same way that US companies have dozens of Vice-Presidents. I still wondered what Merentes was doing in Finance, I am that dumb, I believe in order and knowledge and such stupid concepts.

Months later Merentes was appointed Minister of Finance, where he was involved in the scandal of the FIEM, the Macroeconomic stabilization fund, whose “funds’ simply disappeared, but we are only talking about something like 2 to 6 US billion dollars according to the Economic Office of the National Assembly. The opposition tried to charge Chávez for the dissapearnec, but Merentes, ever the loyal soldier, took responsibility and  like the April 11^th. truth commission, nothing was ever investigated anyway.

From there Merentes was demoted to Minister of Science and Technology and the Minister for Social development and then President of Bandes the Bank for social development that holds US$ 1.6 billion in fund from PDVSA. Thus, Merentes always find himself running institutions with a billion US dollars there or here.

And now, he apparently will run both. In truth, it is likely that Giordani at Planning will be running the show. Giordani, who is also not an economist, believes in a strong Bolivar, which he thinks is simply holding the currency strong, but ahs yet to understand it requires fiscal discipline.  This led to the 2002 crisis and devaluation. He also thinks the North Korean economy is healthy. But that is really digressing from the point.

Thus, a new Giordani dominated, Merentes executed era begins. Expect little devaluations, no more bond issues in dollars and inconsistent policies. Jeez, I seem to be missing Nobrega, who never attacked the structural problems, but really knew how to solve the short term ones. And I will not digress into his ethics either.

So the Government named Nelson Merentes to be the new (old) Minister of Finance. Incredible! Merentes was already been Minister of Finance, but I digress.

Nelson Merentes is a Mathematician with a Ph.D. from Hungary. Never knew or was interested in anything related to finances. But he was very interested in politics and backed Chavez early on, going to visit Chavez in the Yare prison with the rest of the so called Garibaldi group, a bunch of mostly mediocre academics from Universidad Central de Venezuela. In fact, Merentes was the first person I knew who was educated but was radically pro-Chavez.

Merentes was a founder of Chavez MBR-2000 movement and campaigned strongly in his favor. So much, that Chavez trusted him with his advice on how to promote the pro-Chavez candidates to the Constituent Assembly which violated the principle of minority representation by electing 96% (96 out of 100) members who were pro-Chavez. The story goes that Merentes did not come up with it, but asked a friend from the University to design it.

Merentes was not a candidate for the Assembly, but was appointed by Chavez to the so called “Congresillo” a transition institution with no legal basis whatsoever that ruled Venezuela for the almost five months between the end of the Constituent Assembly and the election of the new Congress. I remember Chavez’ brother defending the “Congresillo” because all of its members had been elected to the Constituent Assembly, but the only one I knew personally, Merentes, had not been. But I digress again.

Merentes began approving expenses in the “Congresillo” beyond the budget to the point that then Minister of the Interior Miquilena had to stop some of them.

The reason Merentes had not accepted any public positions up to that point was that he only wanted one job: The Presidency of his Alma Mater Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) an elected position. He ran after the “Congresillo” was over in a three men race for a runoff. He did not even make it to the second round, getting less than 10% of the vote.

A few weeks after, Merentes was appointed Vice-Minister of Finance. We all understood that the Vice-Minister had been removed, but no. Using revolutionary logic, the Ministry of Finance now had two Vice-Ministers, the same way that US companies have dozens of Vice-Presidents. I still wondered what Merentes was doing in Finance, I am that dumb, I believe in order and knowledge and such stupid concepts.

Months later Merentes was appointed Minister of Finance, where he was involved in the scandal of the FIEM, the Macroeconomic stabilization fund, whose “funds’ simply disappeared, but we are only talking about something like 2 to 6 US billion dollars according to the Economic Office of the National Assembly. The opposition tried to charge Chávez for the dissapearnec, but Merentes, ever the loyal soldier, took responsibility and  like the April 11^th. truth commission, nothing was ever investigated anyway.

From there Merentes was demoted to Minister of Science and Technology and the Minister for Social development and then President of Bandes the Bank for social development that holds US$ 1.6 billion in fund from PDVSA. Thus, Merentes always find himself running institutions with a billion US dollars there or here.

And now, he apparently will run both. In truth, it is likely that Giordani at Planning will be running the show. Giordani, who is also not an economist, believes in a strong Bolivar, which he thinks is simply holding the currency strong, but ahs yet to understand it requires fiscal discipline.  This led to the 2002 crisis and devaluation. He also thinks the North Korean economy is healthy. But that is really digressing from the point.

Thus, a new Giordani dominated, Merentes executed era begins. Expect little devaluations, no more bond issues in dollars and inconsistent policies. Jeez, I seem to be missing Nobrega, who never attacked the structural problems, but really knew how to solve the short term ones. And I will not digress into his ethics either.

       The Government is clearly on a full frontal attack against the media. Only today we heard:

-The Minister of Information said that the Cabinet “evaluated” the promotion of destabilization by the media, citing his former employer RCTV and local newspaper El Nacional as promoters of destabilization who are “minimizing” the case making it look like the Government is violating human rights.  Well, asked Antonio Lopez, or his parents what they think about this. Or the Guevara brothers. Or the last person who made a phone call to Antonio Lopez. It appears the right to silence people for political gain is above any other right.

-Chavez himself came on and said that with the “Muzzle” bill, that goes into effect today, “mediatic terrorism is over”.  According to Chavez ‘We have to start stopping the media terrorism that kidnaps our freedom; we have to start democratizing the media”. E added that the media can no longer be at the service of “mafias, elites, people without country and at the service of imperialism, remember the coup, the media war and the oil sabotage”. “We have defeated the oligarchic coalition, imperialist, mediatic, thanks to the people of Venezuela.

This from a guy who did not condemn the September 11^th. attacks until weeks later?

Or the guy who approves a raid on a school just at the time when 1,500 kids are showing up for classes?

Or who led a coup in which more than 200 people, mostly innocent civilians were killed?

Or who spent four years advocating in favor of the violent overthrow of the Government until someone convinced him he could win the election?

Or who has threatened the opposition with his “Armed Government” Sunday after Sunday for the last six year?

Or the man who wrote essentiallya love letter to a terrorist

The terrorist is definitely running the show now.

       The Government is clearly on a full frontal attack against the media. Only today we heard:

-The Minister of Information said that the Cabinet “evaluated” the promotion of destabilization by the media, citing his former employer RCTV and local newspaper El Nacional as promoters of destabilization who are “minimizing” the case making it look like the Government is violating human rights.  Well, asked Antonio Lopez, or his parents what they think about this. Or the Guevara brothers. Or the last person who made a phone call to Antonio Lopez. It appears the right to silence people for political gain is above any other right.

-Chavez himself came on and said that with the “Muzzle” bill, that goes into effect today, “mediatic terrorism is over”.  According to Chavez ‘We have to start stopping the media terrorism that kidnaps our freedom; we have to start democratizing the media”. E added that the media can no longer be at the service of “mafias, elites, people without country and at the service of imperialism, remember the coup, the media war and the oil sabotage”. “We have defeated the oligarchic coalition, imperialist, mediatic, thanks to the people of Venezuela.

This from a guy who did not condemn the September 11^th. attacks until weeks later?

Or the guy who approves a raid on a school just at the time when 1,500 kids are showing up for classes?

Or who led a coup in which more than 200 people, mostly innocent civilians were killed?

Or who spent four years advocating in favor of the violent overthrow of the Government until someone convinced him he could win the election?

Or who has threatened the opposition with his “Armed Government” Sunday after Sunday for the last six year?

Or the man who wrote essentiallya love letter to a terrorist

The terrorist is definitely running the show now.