–Can’t find the link but Hugo Chavez toured the repairs of
the viaduct that I wrote about last week and used his characteristic revolutionary
logic. First he said that the media had blown the problem out of proportion,
later he said that the problem with the viaduct could not be solved.
–The Supreme Court suspended
the use of the Sicri, the credit database used by the finance sector to look at
credit histories and risk. The reason? The People’s Ombudsman is seeking to
have the Court declare illegal the decrees that created the use of this
database, because its existence endangers the rights to “confidentiality, privacy
and intimacy”. This is the same “People’s Ombudsman who has never said or done
anything about the Tascon, Maisanta and Santa Ines lists, which grossly and
massively violated those same rights in addition to others like the secrecy of their
vote, the right to dissent and have been discriminated because of their
political views.
–The President of the Supreme Court said that the right to
dissent has not been eliminated but you have to assume responsibilities for the
damage you cause referring to the case of union leader Carlos Ortega who was
sentences to 15 years in prison for leading the 2002 strike. Mora said that “the
oil strike (it was a general strike) was a rebellion, it was not a labor strike”.
However, said Mora: “He can appeal” Jeez, imagine when the President of the
Supreme Court has already sentenced you publicly, is there any chance that the decision
can be changed.
–The President of the Electoral Board said
Venezuela
has the most modern voting system in the world. But the Vice-President of that
same Board says
that with such a modern system we should have known the results faster. In
fact, we still don’t know the results and the data was not presented in the
same fashion as in the August regional elections where you could see the
results online ballot box by ballot box.
–The Vice-Minister of Foreign Relations said
that the Government will revise the invitations for international observers. According
to none other than the sister of the President of the Electoral Board, the Government
told both the EU and OAS that they disagree with the reports written by both
groups of observers. Said Rodriguez: “This country is not no man’s land where
any foreigner can come and do what they please” You are right Delsy, but they
were not any foreigners, they were the ones you invited, courted, wined and
dined to show what a wonderful, clean and transparent voting system you had.
But somehow, their criteria for clean, wonderful and transparent are much
stricter than those of your brother’s.
–And how about Venezuela’s
Ambassador in Spain
who
now claims Sumate compiled and made the Tascon and Maisanta lists! Does he
know that it contains the Electoral Registry that the CNE has refused to give to
the opposition? Does he know it has cross references to whether the voter is
has participated in the “Misiones”. Does he know it classifies Venezuelans as “Patriots”
or not, where patriots are those who are not opposition? Does he know that it
is updated every time there is a new election for which Sumate has no access to
the data? To make matters even worse, he says that the list is not secret,
because anyone can buy it for about a Euro in the streets of Caracas. Does this
guy think people are stupid?