The Devil's Excrement

The Government continues on its path to turning Venezuela into a totalitarian state by barring free speech, limiting dissent and threatening those that dare speak in order to create fear so that others don’t speak out. Free speech is not simply whether people say or not certain things publicly, but whether they fear saying it or not. And in Venezuela there is a lot of fear even if I am able, for now (por ahora!) to write these words.

The Radio Caracas Television case is the latest and most blatant example of how freedom of speech is being threatened by te autocrat Hugo Cahvez. The concession will not be renewed simply because Chavez does not like dissent or criticism. RCTV has been critical of the Government repeatedly, that is what freedom of speech is all about, It is not a matter of RCTV opposing or not the Government, it is a matter that one of the roles the media plays in any democracy is to criticize what is wrong with a Government, not for the sake of being critical, but in the hope that someone with responsibility will react to the criticism and change whatever is not working or is not being done properly.

But autocrats do not like to be criticized, they think they are perfect and attempts to point out what is wrong are considered destabilizing and threatening to the Constitutional order. It is a movie that has been seen too often in Latin America and is being repeated today in Venezuela. People protest, bridges fall down and people’s rights are violated, but the press and the media remain silent about these events, because they are afraid of the reaction against them by the Government.

The RCTV case is emblematic of what is to come. The President himself decided that the concession will not be renewed, bypassing the rule of law and denying the company that owns the concession their right to due process. Hugo Chavez calls the owners of the TV station or those that run it coup mongers, but no court of judicial instance has ever accused those that work there of conspiring, participating or inciting others to overthrow the Government. It is even unclear whether the measure is aimed at the President of RCTV, Marcel Granier, the owners of the company or the just the company itself.

But day after day, Government officials other than Chavez come on TV to ether ratify or back the measure against the TV station. Each one uses his or her own reason, ignoring the laws and/or the institutions that are supposed to enforce them. The Minister of Information accused RCTV the other day of violating the Social Responsibility Law, the so called “muzzle” Bill that was approved by this Government to limit freedom of speech and contain criticism. But now that Chavez won by a large percentage the recent Presidential election, even form is being bypassed, a very worrisome sign of what is to come.

TV station RCTV has never been charged with violating the Social Responsibility Law. The institution responsible for enforcing that law is CONATEL, the telecom regulator, which has yet to ever charge, least of all find guilty the broadcast company RCTV of violations of the law. If it did, RCTV would have to the right to due process and defend itself of the accusations, which has not happened either. The rule of law has been bypassed and a capricious decision has been made. RCTV is guilty in the absence of due process and let it be a warning to other TV stations that dare criticize the incompetent revolution or its leader.

Not content with this, other Government officials, curiously former military like Chavez, hold a press conference no only to back Chavez’ decision, which may be interpreted as sucking up to the big boss, but to ask him to go further and establish “exhaustive controls for the radio and print media”, proposing that newspapers also need to have a concession under the control of the Government. Talk about fascists minds and attitudes!

Thus, freedom of speech is not just being threatened in Venezuela. Freedom of speech and the right to dissent are being squashed by totalitarian-minded men who would think nothing of repression and human rights violations if and when it was needed. Thus, quietly, Venezuela, once a beacon of true democracy and freedom of speech in Latin America has fallen under the control of a militaristic cadre that can not tolerate differences of opinion and wants to suppress dissent.

If RCTV’s concession is not renewed, it would be only the second time in Latin America’s recent history that a TV station has had its concession revoked. The previous one, by Dictator Fujimori in Peru, was eventually turned over by international courts after Fujimori was overthrown, but unless Venezuelans rise to defend their rights of “free and plural communication, to opportune, truthful and uncensored information and freedom of belief” guaranteed in Articles 58 and 59 of its Constitution, no amount of international outcry will stop a Government that seems determined to withhold those same rights from “the people” and rub out enemies and critics when it’s convenient.

Today we also got a new Minister of Finance as President Chavez replaced his trusted friend Nelson Merentes with the Head of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly Rodrigo Cabezas. This is clearly an improvement as Merentes is a mathematician with little knowledge on economic matters and Cabezas is actually an economist, a rarity in the Venezuelan Finance Ministry. The negative part is that Cabezas has strange economic ideas. He was actually the one that invented the concept of excess international reserves, but he combined that with the idea that the Government should increase spending constantly in order to have the country grow. This is the combination that has actually been implemented and the excess monetary liquidity actually drove inflation up sharply in 2006 with the CPI closing at 17% and food inflation at 26%. It will take an incredible balancing act for Cabezas to get the country out of this trap without a major devaluation.

It is an improvement because Merentes would have had no clue as to what to do. It is also my hope that Cabezas will eliminate the sale of dollar bonds to the banks which I have described as the biggest source of corruption in the country’s history. Cabezas has already named as his Vice-Minister a former military officer and Chavez’ buddy, Rafael Isea, who participated in the ’92 coup and was Chavez’ assistant from 1995 to 1997. One wonders if he is there to make sure nobody sticks their hand in the till. I hope that is the case.

By now, most Ministers are concerned that their job is not secure. Merentes has been used by Chavez as a wildcard, naming him to five different Ministries, so that it took people by surprise that he was replaced. Some people are surprised by Jose Vicente Ranges’ demise, however one of the stories going around is that he asked to be removed, while others claim that he had spoken against not renewing the RCTV concession, which irked Chavez.

Thus, expect more shuffling to take place before next Wednesday when Chavez will be inaugurated for his third period as President and he assembles his new Cabinet.

In another sign that the revolution is about to deepen and will be more radical, the cynical Jose Vicente Rangel is out as Vice President of Venezuela and the former President of the Electoral Board, the “impartial” Jorge Rodriguez is in, now recovered from his car accident. If ever there was a man from the Vth. Republic that has exhibited his newly found wealth, it is Rodriguez who moved into a million dollar apartment recently and crashed his new Audi in the late hours a few weeks ago. So much for the Government fighting corruption or the appearance of corruption.

As a bonus, Pedro Carreño, he of “the CIA is spying on us via the Direct TV set top boxes and Montesinos is dead” fame will be the new Minister of Interior and Justice as announced by Chavez tonight. I guess Carreño qualifies to be the head of the “intelligence” police in the incompetent revolution.

It is truly ironic that Hugo Chavez and his cohorts used to make such a big deal about the lack of transparency at the country’s oil industry. In the “old” day of the bad IVth. Republic, financials were handed in on time, PDVSA sold its oil with no intermediaries, nobody questioned the country’s oil production and contracts and agreements were signed with prior approval of the National Assembly, called then Congress.

Not anymore…

Now, we have no clue as to how much oil production is, PDVSA now sells oil via intermediaries who have a profit margin known only to the men at the top, Ramirez and his cronies negotiate the country’s oil in secrecy and privacy and nobody knows what is happening to the country’s gasoline production.

It is more of an involution that a revolution…

As I reported earlier, the country’s gasoline consumption has now become a mystery. Veneconomy’s analysis of the 2005 financials as published n the local press by PDVSA are simply incomprehensible. Domestic consumption was supposed to be 506,000 barrels a day in 2005, up only 4% from 2001, despite the fact that some four hundred thousand cars cars were added to teh roads from 2002-2005. Even stranger, when you subtract exported gasoline from production, which should give you consumption in Venezuela, you get 281,000 barrels, suggesting that something very strange is going on in PDVSA’s numbers. Indeed, from those numbers, the only possible conclusion is that the country is now importing gasoline to satisfy it’s own needs as its refining capacity seems to be in real trouble.

Well, last Thursday, reporter Edgar Ang of Reuters reported that Venezuela simply paralyzed its exports of gasoline to the US in October, according to the data from that country’s Energy Information Administration. Ang reports that due to the operational problems at the country’s refineries no ships have been seen leaving for the US from Venezuela carrying gasoline, after September exports to the US were 480,000 barrels. According to the report Venezuela only exports gasoline to Caribbean countries.

In 2000, Venezuela’s exports of gasoline to the US reached 2 million barrels a month, but were below one million a month until the suspension in October.

The main problem seems to be with the Amuay refinery, which had to be stopped for two and a half months and is reportedly only producing a fifth of its capacity.

Thus, the “roja, rojita” PDVSA is not only incapable of producing sufficient gasoline to supply Venezuela, but higher margin exports have now been lost. But what is worse is that the ever dwindling gasoline production of the country is being treated as a state secret, much like the financial data of the country and the negotiations and information about oil and gas joint ventures. More remarkably, the local media seems to make no reports about it.

Another lie by the fake revolution.