The Devil's Excrement

I was thinking about posting a picture from Saturday’s march for which I was not here, but there are many all over the place. Thus, I decided to post this equally impressive picture not from Rosales’ Caracas walk, but from the Barquisimeto rally posted by Alek and commented by Daniel there who is basically a local . Very impressive indeed.

If the
speech by Minister of Energy and Oil and President of PDVSA Rafael Ramirez (video here,
text in
English here) was disturbing, its defense by prominent Government figures
was absolutely disgusting. When The President and the Vice-President defend
Ramirez’ discriminatory, illegal and improper words, there are many reasons to
worry.

What
Ramirez did was to ratify that the cleansing at PDVSA not only included the
fired workers and those in the Maisanta/ Chavez Tascon list, but also what is known
to us from anecdotic evidence that anyone suspect of not being with the process,,
even if they did not participate in the strike or signed the recall petition.

And then
there were the threats, not implied, but right there to beat the revolution
into people. It is not a matter of you being against the revolution, you are
not even being allowed to be neutral! That is how totalitarian and fascist the
mind of Ramirez is, to work at PDVSA (and for that matter for the Government,
the military or whatever) you have to be pro-“revolution” , you can not have an
opinion, otherwise you are suspect, echoing what happened in the Hitler, Franco
and Soviet eras.

To Hell
with such small details such as the right to free expression and freedom of
choice, that is not allowed in the faux
revolution, even if the silly Bolivarian revolution (silly because it no longer
seems to be the reference for Chavez and his comrades than it used to be when
they approved it)

Think
about it, in a country where 10% of its total population is a Government
employee, the faux revolution has no
remorse in excluding anyone that is not totally with the leader and the
process. Add to that those that survive thanks to the handouts that require
wearing a red t-shirt or participating in a march and we are facing one of the
largest discriminatory processes of the last few decades in a country which had
never had major discrimination up to the appearance of Hugo Chavez in our
political scene.

But
Ramirez’ words and its defense by the powers that be, are even more scary
because they show a level of intolerance that to me proves that were Rosales to
win on Dec. 3d., this Government has no intention of turning over power and the
weapons of the revolution will be used against us. Exaggeration? I don’t think
so, Ramitez’ frame of mind and the strong support he received prove the
totalitarian and fascist intentions of this Government. Unless the military take
a strong stand, these thugs will simply not relinquish power if they lose in
the ballot box, democracy for them is a like a four letter word, even if it has
nine.

The most
remarkable aspect is that all of this is being done in the name of the faux revolution. The “red, red…truly red”
PDVSA has become a shell of its old self. For the first time since the
nationalization of the oil industry, foreigner now own oil reserves, something
the law says can not happen via the new oil partnerships which used to be
service contracts. Investment is down significantly and it shows, as production
continues to drop due to the lack of maintenance, particularly in the West of Venezuela.
We have no clue as to the company’s numbers as no financials are available,
except for a summary which is full of inconsistencies. Forget about knowing
production numbers.

Even
worse, corruption is now rampant in the company. The same way you can not
question the revolution, you can not question your boss. You can not denounce
any shenanigans, the fear of being fired is right there. The company has gone
from placing up for bids 90% of its contracts, to barely 10%. Around the â”new
and revolutionary” PDVSA a few “revolutionary” millionaires have sprouted up. Maintenance
in the Maracaibo
area is done by shell companies owned by Chavistas who turn around and hire the “enemy” companies that know how to do the job. And they make a mint for doing nothing…except being por-Chavez.

But the
biggest symbol of the “new” and truly faux
revolutionary PDVSA is that despite the fact that the company has 30% fewer
workers than in 2003, the average salary at the company in US dollars is up sharply!

Thus, you
have to be with the process, with the faux
revolution, which is destroying the country in the middle of the biggest oil
windfall of its history and whose only objective is the perpetuation of Hugo
Chavez in power. So far, they have used the ballot box, even if rigged at times,
to do it. But Ramirez’ words and its defense by all major politicians and the
declaration that he said nothing illegal by the man in charge of justice in Venezuela,
clearly show that Venezuela is in a dangerous path towards a totalitarian regime,
where close to half the population is discriminated against.