I guess I
was saved by very little. I regularly translate articles from Tal Cual and
like to do so with Petkoff’s Editorials and with the humorous writings of Laureano Marquez. Last November I
posted the Coat of Arms that Tal Cual published along with an article by Marquez entitled
“Letter to Rosines”. You see, Chavez in his Sunday program said he
was going to change both the flag and the country’s Coat of Arms because of comments
and suggestions made by his eight year old daughter Rosines. Among them, his daughter had “noticed” that
the horse was looking dull and was turning to the right (get it?).
Well, The
National Institute for Minors initiated
this week a legal action against Tal Cual and Marquez for going against “the rights of a
minor”. Moreover they will extend the actions against any media that reproduces
the article. According to the institute, the article violates the “honor,
reputation and intimacy of the president’s daughter”.
This is
typical of this Government, going after people only indirectly. Tal Cual has been
served and the article had to be removed from the internet version of Tal Cual
by Court order. (It already has been done). This is the first time anything in this
country has been censored by a Court order in the Internet. Curiously, Tal Cual
is partially owned and Edited by likely Presidential candidate Teodoro Petkoff and it affects the President’s daughter. To me, it seems like abuse of power and conflict of interest. But, hey! This is a revolution!
In Venezuela,
Presidential families have always been essentially invisible. Chavez changed that. It was Chavez
that brought his daughter up. It was him that wanted to show off his smart daughter by
saying that she is making policy in their Government He opened her up to the exposure and criticism.
If Chavez can say his daughter makes policy suggestions, he is opening her up
for criticism and why not humor? Or can he say she suggested something and it
can not be criticized because she is a minor?
This is
abuse of power. As simple as that. Chavez was probably irked by the letter, the
same way he was irked by the cartoon about the viaduct by Zapata on Sunday, that he criticized on his latest
Sunday program. His skin is smply getting very thin, he must read the same polls I do. It simply took so long to go after Tal Cual because of the
Christmas vacation.
Meanwhile thousands of minors are homeless or go hungry in the streets, but they are not kids of the new oligarchy, now known as the “boli-bourgeois”. Thus, they have no protection. Frrom anything.
The Devil's Excrement 