The Devil's Excrement

The National Guard is notifying Globovision that any attempt at a live TV transmission using microwaves will have to be approved twenty four hours in advance in a clear attempt to limit the ability of the TV stations to cover the news. I guess the stations will have to know where the news are going to ocuur a day in advance. This sounds like a “rojo, rojo…rojito” military officer taking his job too seriously, but I love it! Nothing like acting totalitarian and fascist, shwoing their true colors, three weeks before the election to convince people to get rid of the silly autocrat and his faux revolution!

Former
Spanish Foreign Minister Jaime Mayor, was certainly not very
diplomatic or political this morning in talking about the upcoming Venezuelan
elections. Mayor, who is in the country as part of an advanced team for the
electoral observation mission of the European Community was quite blunt in the
words he used in an interview for Globovision.

Mayor
began by saying that the upcoming election required a wide, full and profound
international observation because in his words “Venezuela
is at a crossroads for liberty” and that Europe
needs to pay attention to a process that “has very little of being democratic”.
He called the country’s current situation was not normal and that he coincides
with the concern by most Venezuelans. He expressed his concern more for the
excesses of the campaign than for the technical aspects and worried about
things like Chavez saying he plans to stay until 2021 or that the Armed Forces
are “roja, rojita”.

He continued by talking about how the
a language of hate is being used to annul the adversary and how he has little
faith in the expressions of love offered by some, in a clear reference to
President Chavez’ now forgotten love campaign.

He added that he met President Chavez
and he has changed and “it gives us pain to see how he conducts himself in the exercise
of democracy”. He said that in his opinion, Chavez is going beyond what a
democratic ruler can do and the solution is in the ballot box: “Venezuela can
not be overrun by authoritarism”

He closed by saying that the
process going on in Venezuela
will not survive and “democracy will return”.

Mayor met yesterday with Rosales as
part of the European Mission and will meet today with the CNE. That is, if he
is not kicked out, declared undesirable or banned from observing the upcoming
elections by the Government. While I do think he went a little far, it is a little comforting to know that he
is leading the EU observation in the upcoming Presidential elections.

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.

When something of the magnitude of Ramirez’s speech takes
place, the Chavista spin machine is usually quickly activated to clean the
mess. This time they’ve got a tough job. The speech comes out just one month
before the Presidential election and few weeks after the start of a new
“Chavez-loves-you-and-wears blue-shirts” campaign.

For a few hours after the speech hit the media, people were
wondering what would the government do with such a hot potato. Would Ramírez be
asked to resign?  Would the President and
his party support him, or would they detach themselves from it like they did
with Barreto’s speech? Would the Attorney General accuse the Minister? Would
the CNE impose sanctions?

As I said, the job was not an easy one. You all watched and
read what Ramírez said, how would you try to twist that or provide a new
interpretation?

The spin machine was, as usual, activated by the Vice
President, José Vicente Rangel who, like it or not, is the Machiavellian brain
behind the Revolution.  He
was the first to equate the transmission of RR’s speech with April 11 and
the oil strike of 2002, even if the speech had nothing to do with it (except
the part where RR says that he already fired 19500 workers and if needed, he’ll
do it again). I would really like to invite the readers to go ahead, click on
the link and read what JVR had to say on the speech. One has to marvel at his
capacity to try to twist the situation.

Once JVR had spoken, we knew of course that the Chavista
Politburo had decided that Ramírez was safe.

The next step was Chavez himself. 

This time, he
said that PDVSA was in a state of Revolution and that all workers had to
accept that, and that, otherwise, they should leave the Company.  He asked Ramírez to repeat his speech 100 times
if necessary and he made use of one of his favorite themes: a coup was being
prepared. He then recalled the events of April 2002, said that he would ask the
Attorney General to investigate and threatened the TV stations with removing
their licences for having aired the 14 minute video.

After Chávez, it was the turn of poker-face Minister of
disinformation William Lara who literally said
that “from any angle”, “there is no element” that can be qualified as an
electoral campaign. And then he added, as if that was the theme of RR’s speech
“All those that work for PDVSA have the Constitutional obligation of following
the oil policies drawn by the Government”….who said they didn’t? Is that a
diversion spin or what?

Things had to be tough for the government because spinner in
chief Rangel felt it was necessary to talk again. This time
it was a come back to the nicer sweeter face of the Revolution, guaranteeing a
dialogue with all sectors after December 3. He went on, however, with the fact
that the government had intelligence information about some type of propaganda,
similar to the one that “was used four years ago”. Again, the government was trying
to recall the events of April 2002 and associate them with RR’s speech.

If Rangel spoke twice, Chávez had to do likewise. He
talked again about a plan to sabotage the Presidential elections and
recommended to “the Devil to tie up his mad men because he will regret it”. He
reiterated  his support to RR and asked
him to study what to do if the oil industry was destabilized.

Today El Nacional reports that The Fiscalia (Attorney General
office) considers there was no offense or crime in Ramirez’s speech. And, if
you still were not convinced,  the now ever
present José Vicente Rangel reiterated
that what RR said was a theme about “The security of the State” and that no
crime was committed.

So, you did not hear what you heard. This was never about political discrimination. This was never about the use of
a Public entity in the Presidential Campaign. This was never about political
freedom for PDVSA workers. And please recall that RR was just talking about
security matters.

Ah! And if you happen to protest, then you are a potential
coupster that wants to destabilize the government. Finally, if you are a TV
station that transmitted the video, then you risk that your licence is not renewed.

Hmm, I wonder why? Wasn’t Ramírez just talking about a State Security issue?

Reporting from Cyberspace,

Jorge Arena
The Devil’s Most Distinguished Ghost.

Being away it is difficult to sit down, relax and devote the time needed to the Ramirez video and his words at a PDVSA meeting. I will try to do this upon my return, but can’t let it go by without making a comment. The speech is to me very disturbing. It reveals how undemocratic and fascist this revolution is. It is not only fascist, but also discriminatory and shows the intolerance towards others by the leaders of the revolution. Nothing new here, execept it is there and very clear. This is the way Chavez, Rangel and the people around this stupid revolution think. That is precisely why we have to get rid of it.

I don’t care if Ramirez is removed, which I doubt he will. But when one of the most powerful people in a Government says what he says, it is time for them to go. The alternative is terrorific, when they can’t keep the revolution alive with all of the tricks of the ballot box, they will resort to the weapons bought in the last few years to perpetuate it. History repeats. What will the apologists of the revolution say now? Or then?

This happened a few days ago. Just read on so that you can
judge the two sides of the same story…

On October 27,  El
Nacional (see here)
reported that there were tear gas bombs and shots the previous day at the
Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV), which is the largest and most important
University in the country. The events happened after the attack on a march
organized  by Rosales’ supporters to
promote going to vote on December 3. According to Stalin Gonzalez, the
president of the Federation of Students, men in motorcycles, wearing red
T-shirts from the Alcaldía de Caracas, started throwing artifacts to the
marchers.  One of them was shooting, then
got into the School of Social
Work where there were about 40 people armed with
guns.

Narvaez, the vice-Provost of the institution was protesting on
TV the presence of the armed individuals and saying that the DISIP (police) had
not come despite being called by the authorities. While Narvaez was on TV, a
group stopped a truck close the University, showed a gun to the driver and told
him to stay quiet because they were the government. When they arrived at the
entry of the University they asked the driver out,  got themselves out of the truck and throw a
Molotov cocktail to the empty truck.

Juan Barreto, the major of Caracas,
rejected the accusation of promoting violence. 
He said that the Metropolitan police and the DISIP always give
protection to the “supposedly unity candidate” 
and that “we ask our people not to get into violence and we do not
promote it. We have no fear because we know that Chavez will win the Presidency
and that the opposition is acting irrationally when confronted with its
failure”. And then, in his usual charming words he said that “the coupsters are
giving their last kicks”.

I wondered which coupsters was he referring to….

So this curious ghost decided to check out the “official
news”, published by the government (see here).
To my surprise it took me a while to realize that VTV was referring to the same
news.

The events have become a “warning about a plan to
destabilize the Venezuelan Universities”. The article says that according to
“University leaders”, there is a plan devised by University authorities and students to “heat up” the Universities.
The plan is rooted on the opposition desperation for the lead of Hugo Chavez in
the forthcoming elections.

Interesting, in the VTV article there is not recount of what
was going on, no Molotov cocktail, no truck in fire, just the opinion of the
“University leaders” of what the plan is and why.

Also interesting is the corollary of the whole incident
expressed by Hector Rodríguez, one of the student leaders interviewed by VTV.
He said that there is a pretension of  University
support for Rosales taking the UCV as a pattern without accounting for
educational centers like Universidad Simón Rodríguez, Bolivariana and Unefa.
The UCV, he said, is no longer the “alfa” and “omega” of the academic circles
in Venezuela.

The article then explains that there is a plot to initiate
violence at the Universities for December 3 since it is well known that Chavez
will win with 50 to 60% of the vote.

At the end, the article reminds the reader that the
President proposes a deepening of the socialist doctrine during his mandate
whereas Rosales is prone to neoliberal concepts and a rapprochement to the United
States.

Quite a peculiar way to recount a violent event.

__________________________________________

Update. On the 28^th El Nacional reported that a
preliminary inquest identified the individuals that attacked the march as
students of Sociology, armed groups from El 23 de Enero and students from the
Universidad Bolivariana.

Reporting from Cyberspace,

Jorge Arena

Distinguished ghost blogger.