In the latest cynical and
dishonest move by the Chavez Government, the country awoke this morning to
dozens of billboards like the one above (This one from Carabobo state, sent by
a reader) in which President Chavez attempts to steal (rob might be a better word) the credit for the country’s
victory in the Caribbean Baseball Series a week and a half ago.
This is really stooping
quite low, because the Venezuelan representative to the Caribbean Series was a
team, the Leones del Caracas or Caracas Lions, which is part of a private professional
baseball league. What makes the whole thing more irksome is that Chavez has
actually ignored the victory for a variety of reasons, refusing so far to even
do the customary invitation of the team to go to the Presidential palace.
The reasons for this are
many. First of all, Chavez is a baseball fan who used to go to games during the
first two years in office. But as people turned against him, he began to be
booed (and worse!) which forced him to stop going to games. Second, Chavez is a
fan of Magallanes, the baseball team from Valencia which was eliminated in the
playoffs by the Leones and which has performed very poorly ever since Chavez
became President, leading some to blame it on the President.
Third, the Government
actually tried to create a parallel baseball league to compete with the private
one, robbing players from the team and spending at the time some Bs. 4 billion
to set it up. The league lasted all of three games. In the first one, the game
began something like two hours late, because they were waiting for Chavez to
arrive. There was a second one that was played and in the third game the
uniforms did not arrive on time and that was the end of that league (and the
money). The Government also hurt the professional league by prohibiting that
beer companies sponsorship be shown on the player’s uniforms, which eliminated
a very important source of funding for the league, in which the weaker teams
barely make money.
Finally, the Caracas Lions
is owned by Venezuelan billionaire Gustavo Cisneros who is supposed to be
Chavez’ arch-enemy, even if sometimes rumors float around that they have some
sort of silent pact on something or other.
Thus, if anything Chavez
and his Government have been working against the success of Venezuela’s
professional baseball teams, which make it absolutely. In fact, it is not only
absurd for Chavez to attempt to take credit any part of this victory, but it is
cynical, unethical and despicable.
It also makes you wonder,
if the man is so popular, why does he need to try to steal what is clearly
somebody else’s victory?
The Devil's Excrement 
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