—The Minister
of Justice called one day for the disarming of the population in order to
reduce the rampant wave of homicides which have almost tripled in the almost
eight years of the revolution. The next day, at a meeting with civilian groups,
where only the Heil Chavez! Were missing, Chavez called for giving the youth
group 15,000 Kalastchnikov rifles. Thus, it seems that they will get an
upgrade. BTW, these pseudo fascist meetings led by the tropical fuehrer himself
received little coverage by the press, but the spirit of Hitler, Franco, Peron
and Fidel was very much alive.
—The
Venezuelan Supreme Court rejected the consideration of the human rights case of
those assassinated on April 11 2002. against Government officials. The
argument? Individuals have no legal rights to defend themselves in front of the
Court system when it comes to “the sphere of collective or diffuse rights of a
society” such as human rights. Only the people’s ombudsman can assume that role
for them. Case closed. The Government controls the Ombudsman, thus, there are
no human rights directly but only “diffusively”. What a racket!
—The
Prosecutors office will investigate the origin of the wealth and properties of
former Justice Velasquez Alvaray. Amazing, for two years people had accused him
of accumulating wealth but nothing was done, now that he is in disgrace, the
investigation is opened without anyone even asking for it. Watch out those that
have accumulated similar wealth in the last seven plus years! You may be next
if you fall from grace.
—I will
talk about the “binational” bond later, but you have to hand it to Minister of
Finance Merentes who once again defended the purchase of Argentinean bonds by Venezuela
claiming the country has made a profit by selling them of US$ 200 million. This
profit only exists in the fertile mind of the Minister. Venezuela buys the
bonds let’s say at 77%, sells them to local banks in bolivars at 81%, but at the official rate of exchange,
these banks turn around sell them in New York for 77% in US dollars and bring
the money back at the parallel rate. These are the guys making the money; the
rest is just smoke and mirrors.
—And how
about the candidates from the opposition! One, Teodoro Petkoff blames Sumate
for assuming what nobody wants to assume and giving a deadline because they
just have not agreed on anything since they started talking about primaries in
mid-April. Another, Manuel Rosales, registers for a primary, but he has yet to
announce he is a candidate. Weird politicians we have been blessed with in Venezuela. Somehow
I get the feeling that I have many decades left in the opposition, even if we
can get rid of Chavez.
—And how
about Alek
Boyd getting word straight out of UNESCO that it ahs never certified or declared
officially Venezuela
as an illiteracy-free territory! So, we have a couple of Education Ministers
and Vice-Ministers who are simply liars, a President who was either told a lie
or collaborated with it, but the interesting question is whether they will
remove the banner with the claim that is outside the Education Ministry. (Or
was last time I looked!)
—And how
about the Electoral Board proposing that all Government workers can openly campaign
for Chavez and Chavez can openly use all of the resources of the state to
campaign! I love how they can just ignore the law olympically!
—O yeah,
I almost forgot a Government audit recognized the irregularities in the handling
of the cooperative Invepal, something I have covered regularly here. The money
is missing, as simple as that.
—Has
anyone told Chavez that Mercosur is more neoliberal than the Andean Community?
What will he do when the flood of Brazilian products come in?
—And how
about the Central Bank reporting it is the Government that generates the
largest amount of capital flight?
—And we
have a new Minister of Housing; the last one did as badly as the previous ones
in the last eight years and worse than all the Housing Ministers between 1990
and 1998.
—IB tells me that if you look at PDVSA’s website under business plan in English it says the company now is inyto “refinement”. I guess thye will turn out some fine people with that program. About time. Sloppy is, sloppy does…
—Italy won the World futbol Cup by
penalties, somehow a very unfitting ending to the whole thing. Time to change the rules!
The Devil's Excrement 