The Devil's Excrement

How
Tal Cual saw the parody of the press conference (above) about the
conspiracy given last Thursday by Deputies of the National Assembly and
other Chavistas

Part I: Another Phantom coup by Patricia Torres

A
terrorist plan to sabotage the elections and hunt President Chavez and
his loyal troops was frustrated this last weekend. The authorities said
nothing. Four days later, a group pf Deputies begins to show the
evidence, drop by drop, to the public. The authorities have yet to say
anything

The script is well known

Military
officers who want to overthrow the Government with the help and
blessing of the eagle from the north organize a conspiracy to overthrow
Hugo Chavez. The “anonymous heroes” of intelligence and the security
forces unveil the plan and avoid the bloodbath designed to cut the
wings of the revolution. Then, some Government official, not the
President himself, tells the tale, shows the proof. A promise is made
to investigate. There is never an official version, nor a trial, nor
guilty people.

The
story, which already knows some thirty different versions was reedited
this Thursday by the Deputies of the National Assembly Nicolas Maduro,
Cilia Flores, Pedro Carreño, Darío Vivas, Francisco Solórzano (Frasso) y Angel Rodríguez.

DVD
in hand, the legislators called a press conference to show a series of
tape recordings, which they assure us, conform that on the 4^th.
of December: there was a orchestration of a destabilization plan, that
among other actions, was meant to take over the fort in San Juan de Los
Morros, La Carlota and Fuerte Tiuna, attempts on the life of political
leaders with red hair and the assassination of at least 15 thousand
Venezuelans.

Although
they were unable to explain where the material came from, the Deputies
had no doubts about their true origin. The plot, that was gestated at
the CIA, involves both active and retired military, among the, Cl.
Carlos González Caraballo, who is being sought for his involvement in
the events of 2002, Gral. Oswaldo Sujú Raffo and Gustavo Díaz Vivas,
who according to Flores was the guard of Pedro Carmona during his brief mandate.

Opposition
political parties also participated, if not consciously, indirectly:
“If they knew about it they committed treason and if they did not know
about it the serve as useful fools by withdrawing from the elections”
said Carreño. Because according to the MVR deputy, they were trying to
apply the principle of “compartmentization” (nobody knows what the
other one is doing) in order to generate a chain reaction.

Without
being able to say either why the security organizations of the
Government have not informed about these facts, the Deputies said that
they would denounce the case in the military Prosecutor’s office and
announced that on Saturday (Note: It did nit happen) they will give
another press conference with the names of all of those presumably
involved in this destabilization network.

Part II: The last cartoon by Teodoro Petkoff

Frasso, Frasso, my old friend, what were you doing in that masquerade, that act of pure rubbish that was staged by Pedro Carreño y Cilia Flores? What are they going to say in Santa Ana,
your town? Your old woman, if she saw you, I am sure she was full of
shame. Don’t you know Frasso that Pedro Carreño has in his curriculum
those things like that they spy us via DirecTV or that Montesinos was
not dead? Didn’t you get the felling that sort of bazooka that Pedro
showed off is the same one that Chavez pulled out when he told us that
they were trying to use that thing to knock down his jet? What
conspiracy is this one Frasso, where they captured weapons, explosives,
telephone conversations and even pictures of the conspirators but
nobody is jailed? You really believe that you will get the consolation
prize of an Embassy? Get off that cloud, Frasso. You sucked up to him
and sucked up to him and nevertheless your name was taken of the MVR
slate for Parliament. Chavez, you should know by now, Frasso, does not
forgive any “moment of weakness”. You, even with your Prince of
Asturias prize, you will not even now get to be a gatekeeper at a
Bolivarian school.

For
the “revolution”, you are an ex-person. On top of that, next time
please get together with an intellectual like William Lara and not with
Pedro Carreño.

(Note
added: One of those accused said that is not his voice in the supposed
cell phone conversation with his wife, he does not even have contact
with her, he is in the US where he was granted political asylum and
leaving the US would be in violation of the asylum.)

It did not
take very long, but my prediction
even before I had read the reports by the international observers, was quite
precise when I said the day before the reports came out:

“Watch for reports from the OAS and EU observers today. Will they say
what they think? Will the Chavez Government turn against them tomorrow? Will
they become puppies of imperialism after today?”

It did not take any special foresight on my part, this is why Chavez is no
Democrat, his fascist military background is just too strong and dominating, he
is as intolerant as they come, either you are 100% with him or you are his
enemy as the international observers found out today when
Chavez said basically that he is Hugo Chavez so he can do what he wants and
they are just conspirators (like all his enemies). Here is a summary:

He accused the observers of lying, accusing both the Organization of American States
of “acting against the interests of the people and democracy”.

Chávez stated that the observers “lent” themselves to a “destabilization
play against the country”, criticizing the “surprising” agreement
between the two groups of observers and the similarity to the stuff that comes
out of Washington everyday against Venezuela.

He said the observers “are all part of the world right, of the extreme
right”, thus Chavez said, “I denounce this conspiracy, one more time,
and some of them lent themselves to it”

Chavez also said that the observers should not get involved in internal matters
of the country and they only were supposed to say if the process was
transparent or not. “I have been accused that I was exposed to radio and
TV. And what do they want for me to shut up? I spend all my time talking to my
country” (Don’t we know it!)

Thus, Chavez has done to the EU and OAS observers what it did to all
Venezuelans that have opposed him, to accuse them of conspiring against his
noble cause, of being rightwing and working for the US. What makes this even more laughable
is the fact that as long as observers had gone along with the elections in the
past Chavez praised them to no end, but now they have simply become their enemies.
This has happened to most of Chavez military mates who staged the coup with
him, most of the political groups that backed him in 1998 and the personalities
that helped him get to power. Once they did not offer their absolute backing
without discussion, they became enemies in what I call the Chavez praying mantis
effect.

Curiously, these statements will make headlines all over the world, making many
wonder why they thought the headlines said that the elections were clean as
distorted by Forero
in the New York Times or the Associated
Press. They will wonder now what is going on here, something definitely
rotten in Venezuela.
Thanks Hugo for raising the issue and reacting inappropriately to the observer’s
criticism!

Just to prove how the Government went “all out” in getting out the
vote, here is this little jewel. This is a letter from Coporacion CASA
C.A., the company that buys and supplies all of the Government’s Mercal
markets, which has become the largest importer of food in the country
and an equal to the Polar group in terms of food distribution in
Venezuela.

This is what this letter, dated December 2nd, two days before the election says, skipping the uniportatnt stuff:

To all of the companies that provide services to Corporacion Casa, S.A.

We would like to ask
for your valuable collaboration in the sense of providing us with
backing for the movement on the day of the elections ((4/12/2005) of
our countrymen to the electoral centers, obeying to the fact that these
fewow countrymen lack the means to exercize the right to vote. In that
sense, we require
that on that day you hire 4 buses of 50 passengers each or its
equivalent and that you tell us today, in writing to Fax xxx the
confirmation of your support. To that effect, we have designated our
regional cooridnators in your state to do the necessary coordination
….

I woudl like to take
advantage of this opportunity to ask you to communicate to all your
personnel that it is indispensabel for the sovereignty of our people
that we all go out and vote

Signed by Major Frank Zurita, Director of commercialization and Logistics

Do I need to say any more?

How about this very realistic humor at a Caracas traffic light! The
sign says “deposeta” deposit your vote using a play on words with
deposit (depositar) and toilet (poseta).

(Thanks MM)

This post is
not meant to criticize this Government, it is meant to be critical of a
political system that for the last 47 years has mismanaged and
continues to mismanage the country, which makes you wonder whether
there is something wrong with our ability as a society to get things
done, to dream and to accomplish. All of this came to mind this morning
while I was reading the paper and I saw that the highway that joins Caracas
and the coast, where the international airport is may be closed for
three days next week, as concerns that it may fall down mount..

First, let me give you some background. Caracas
is in a valley 1,000 meters (3,000 feet) above sea level, separated
from the sea by a mountain range which is as high as 6,000 feet high.
This is what makes Caracas weather so nice, you are only 11 degrees
north of the Equator, but at 1,000 meters of altitude the temperature
drops to a very comfortable level, making Caracas one of the best
cities in the world, if not the best, in terms of comfortable level.
Temperatures range from 16 C to 32 C (60 F to 90 F) during the year and
night and day, never going colder, never warmer with humidity levels
that seldom top 70%. I know of no other large city in the world with
such comfortable weather.

The
following map shows the geographical location of the city. (Darker area
to the left of “Vargas”. The airport is right at sea level to the North
and a little West of the city. There is only one valley through the
mountains that goes straight north and even “straight” is just a way of
putting it, let’s say their is only one north pointing valley. The original highway through this path, the “Carretera
Vieja” was 23 Kms. long and had 365 turns, which made the trip slow
going and took at least one hour to drive.

Then
in 1951, Dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez began building the
“Autopista Caracas La Guaira”, which at the time was considered to be
an engineering marvel with three majestic viaducts, two tunnels, one of
which was almost a mile long and only 36 turns in 15 Km. (from toll to
toll in the original design), significantly reducing the drive to the
country’s main airport, port and creating a whole recreational beach
zone in what is now Vargas state. All of this for only US$ 231 million.

In 1987, engineers noticed that the first Viaduct
on the way down from Caracas to La Guaira, was buckling upwards in the
middle due to the pressure caused by the south side, as shown in the
following diagram, where on the left there is a schematic of the
viaduct and on the right how the drifting mountain is pressuring the
viaduct (“empuje” means push):

Eighteen
years have gone by and despite lots of investments to solve the problem
things do not appear to have improved. In fact the buckling is so
extreme that in the following picture you can see the shift upwards
which is now above 90 cms.,
an increase of 5 cms. over the last few weeks alone. There has been
much work and proposals on how to fix it over the years, but clearly it
is not working. This engineer says that what was done to fix it since
1999 is simply wrong because nobody thought of the secondary effects it
may have, but I have no clue as to whether he is right or not.

But
the point is that it that buckling gives under the pressure, the
viaduct may break or even collapse under the strain, leaving the city
isolated from its port, airport and leaving thousands of residents of
Vargas state inhabitants without access to their jobs in Caracas.

The
first graph above shows the problem. There are four possible alternate
routes, none of which can handle the volume of the current highway. The
old high way, 25 Kms. long was allowed to deteriorate in time, houses
were built right up to the edge, and cars are robbed and reportedly
have been improved in 90%, whatever that means. You can go over the Avila mountain through the town of Galipan,
but going down on the other side implies a dirt road which at times has
very steep grades. Only four wheel drive vehicles can really handle
this route. Finally there is the El Junquito Carayaca path, some 62 Km.
in length and in bad shape or the long way around the Higuerote Chuspa
road which would make it 128 Km. and which is in bad shape between
Chuspa and La Guaira.

Thus,
there is really no practical route that may accommodate the current
traffic, creating a very bad situation and hassle for hundreds of
thousands of Venezuelans. Hours to go to the airport, lost jobs to
those that live in Vargas and economic hardship for many.

But
think about this fact: It only took three years in 1951 to finish the
original highway and this society with its current form of Government
has been unable to find a solution to just one of the viaducts that are
part of it, despite the importance of the problem.

Over
the years, even before the buckling was detected, there were many
suggestions that a second access to the Coast should be built. There
were basically three suggestions: A second road parallel to the current
one, a tunnel straight down from Caracas
and a tunnel somewhere along the Caracas Guarenas highway. Many
projects were paid for, studies made and much like other public works
that have never been started, lots of talk and not much execution.

After
the buckling began in 1987, there has also been talk of many
alternatives, essentially three: Build an alternate viaduct parallel to
the current one, fill the riverbed up the viaduct level and create a
bypass that takes you down to the riverbed. Once again, there was talk,
talk talk, some studies, but to this date, nothing has been done. The
only thing that was done is the current attempt to patch the viaduct up
which appears to be failing.

To me this is symptomatic of so many of the problems that ail Venezuela:

-First
of all is the ability to dream. Imagine how many jobs would be
generated by a second path, road or whatever. Imagine the development
that it could generate if, for example, a second path on the East part
of Caracas
towards Guarenas was built, feeding Vargas state, the same one that
suffered the mudslides in 2000 at a different point. Imagine hotel
developments between Los Caracas and Chuspa financed internationally.

-Then,
there is the fact that each party that comes to power starts believing its own immortality,
its ability to remain in power forever. Thus, they get rid of the
technical people at the corresponding Ministry, in this case, the
Ministry of Infrastructure, replacing them with party hacks, most of which
are more concerned with how much commissions they will get, rather than with getting
anything done. The result is few good people who want to work for the
Government, have a career in Government, reinforcing the mediocrity of
the Government and its actions.

-Those
at the very top, today Chavez, before Caldera and so on and so forth,
are so concerned about politics that they forget they are supposed to
govern. They meet to discuss how to stop, crush and obliterate the
enemy, but not to decide, follow up and draw plans. Most decisions are
political in nature, such as the fact that Chavez decided in 2000 that
it was not worth redeveloping Vargas, because his Minister Giordani
believes in moving people away from Caracas.
People were taken away and they are mostly back to Vargas. They were
simply moved to places where there were no jobs; they had no family and
were given little help other than relocating them.

-People
want things for free. From the time I was a little kid (Most of you
were born after that), the toll in the Caracas La Guaira highway was
Bs. 3 per car, at a time that the US$
was 3.5 to 4.3 bolivars per dollar. Inflation came, the currency was
devalued and the toll was kept at Bs. 3. It became more expensive to
collect it than to eliminate it. Toll workers would steal the money
too. The tolls were eliminated. Then they were revived at the time that the
Bolivar stood at Bs. 270 per US$, increased to Bs. 100, all of 37 cents
US. People complained, there were even demonstrations. Later, a Mexican
consortium won a bidding process to maintain the road in exchange for
collecting the toll for 30 years, with the price of the toll indexed
to inflation. The price was never increased. Then the
people who drove along the road held protests (Note these are people
who own cars, not your average poor Venezuelan exactly), they blocked the
road asking for the elimination of the 37 cent toll. The Government
gave in, broke the contract with the Mexican company, which cost it
some US$ 13 million in arbitration and that was the end of that. (As if
the gasoline subsidy was not sufficient!)

And
now we appear to be ready to pay the consequence of our mismanagement,
populism and lack of planning. The amazing thing is, we dreamt,
planned, built and ran that original road for years, so, what changed?

Demolishing Report by Teodoro Petkoff in Tal Cual

The
reports of the OAS and the European Union, especially the second, with its meticulous
equilibrium and abundant presentation of concrete cases-without diminishing the
seriousness of the second one-give full backing to our diagnosis: the Venezuelan
electoral system and its ruling body, the CNE, are in intensive care. Because
the task of providing a country with a trustworthy electoral system concerns
all of society and all political actors, one of them, the Government, should pay
attention to what was observed and transmitted by both foreign missions, because the
objections are very serious and they force it to sit down with all actors, political
parties from both the opposition and officialdom, to discuss the design of the
new Electoral Law, as well as the naming of a CNE that deserves respect. Now one
can not say that it is a matter of bad faith of the opposition factions in a “campaign
against the CNE” or of “coupsters” or of “following the instructions of the
empire”, because the international observers were not and could not have been implicated
with any of the parts in the national political scene. Its impartiality can be
counted on. From the Government, the main interested party, should come out a
formal invitation that the Foreign Minister appeared to formulate last Monday.

It is also
obvious, that the necessary redesign of the electoral system forces democratic
parties in the opposition to understand that on these matters a dialogue with
the Government is indispensable. The rules of the electoral game and the new
CNE must be the result of a national agreement and such an agreement can only
come out from a civilized interchange of opinions, around a negotiation table. There
is no other way, because any other thing would suppose unilateral decisions
that would be without any doubt, counterproductive. For democratic parties
compromised with a strategy that goes through elections, the perspective of a
meeting with official representatives must be assumed with a positive spirit. Of
course, such a dialogue would require the creation of scenarios outside of the Parliament,
given that the opposition parties are absent form the National Assembly.

The
country is at a dramatic crossroads. The data point that an extremely
high percentage
of Venezuelans that were in his orbit, not only did not attend the call
that Chávez
himself made during the campaign, but the fact that they did not even
allowed
themselves to be dragged by the powerful logistical apparatus of
Chavez’ MVR
and its allies, forces a deep reflection in the high command of
officialdom. Something
is happening. But, if for the Government the electoral road continues
to be the road, the recovery of the seriousness of the vote can not be
foreign to it, if
it aspires to revive the essence of an electoral process, which is the
competition between opposing factions. For the democratic parties of
the opposition,
on the other hand, the suitability of electoral instruments will be
decisive. Without
that, it will be impossible to compete. To procure it is thus a
priority for
everyone, for both the Government as well as the democratic opposition.

The Minister of Science and Technology decided
(needs password) that personnel at all of the institutions that are part
of it should receive a bonus of 35% of six months salary for the following
(also needs password, I can’t get in) employees: administrative,
ranking and “high level”, the “high level” will receive an additional
bonuses of 100% of six months, which applies in the case of IVIC to the
Director and Vice-Director on top of the 35%
already described. Additionally, the members of the Board of IVIC will
receive Bs. 180,000 or roughly half a minimum monthly salary for each weekly
meeting they attend.(This includews the two gusy who got the 135% too)

What about the “obreros”, the laborers who drive, clean, garden, do
maintanance, carpentry, plumbing and the like at IVIC? Well, in the
caring revolution, they get nothing, zilch, zero, no bonus
as the new and encroached Bolivarian oligarchy can only think of
themselves. Whatever happened to distributing the wealth in the
revolution?

So next week’s meeting of the World Trade Organization in Hong Kong
poses a real problem for a Government that has little faith in free
trade. But no matter, the caring revolution will send at last count 106
delegates to the meeting, of which maybe three or four according to my
sources actually speak English. While at the plenary sessions there
will be translations, the technical sessions are in English and that is
where the real work and progress is made in negotiations. Contrast this
delegation with the US one, composed of no more than three dozen
diplomats, experts in the subject. I must speak well of the Minister
though, the original delegation topped 130, which he has been relentlessly trimming to the current level..

Thus, the caring “boliborgeois”, go around the world as tourists in
their role as the new oligarchs, while the poor are still where they
were seven years ago.

Wal Street Journal Editorial today:

The Dictator in Caracas

After last week’s editorial about his oil-for-influence campaign
aimed at the U.S. Congress, several readers objected to our description of
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez as a “dictator.” Let’s hope these forgiving
souls paid attention to Sunday’s congressional elections in that country.

Mr. Chávez’s party or parties sympathetic to his Bolivarian
revolution won all 167 seats in the country’s unicameral congress. Every single
seat. But that Saddam-like sweep was only possible because most Venezuelans
decided not to participate. Even the government admits to an abstention rate of
greater than 75%. While it’s true the opposition boycotted, it did so knowing
how the government had cheated to win the August 2004 recall referendum.

The Chávez transgressions in 2004 included the use of voting
machines in which software was not reviewed, refusal to allow auditing of the
voting registry, not guaranteeing the secrecy of the vote, and using the list of
Venezuelans who had signed the recall petition to threaten the livelihoods of
government employees and contractors. Overseeing it all was a
government-appointed electoral council, which did what it could to outlaw
competition. The European Union was so appalled that it refused even to monitor
the 2004 vote.The EU and Organization of American States did show up this
weekend. But suspicions were heightened before Sunday’s vote when a technician
showed foreign monitors that the fingerprint tracking machines used at the polls
could be used to identify how individuals voted. In a country where the
government owns the means of production (mostly oil), Venezuelans fear that
voting wrong could cost them their jobs.

The government agreed to pull the fingerprint scanners, but the
damage was done. Venezuelans went on electoral strike. Mr. Chávez demanded that
government workers go to the polls, but to little avail. Venezuelans seem to
think they live in a dictatorship. The only issue is whether the rest of the
world, especially the OAS, will have the nerve to admit it.

So tonight at 7 PM EST (I think) you will get to hear me and Daniel Duquenal
follow the Venezuelan Ambassador to the US and Prof. Daniel Hellinger
discuss Venezuelan politics. Not many of you will see this or be able
to tune in, but I thought I would keep you posted.

I undersatnd you can listen to it here.