The Devil's Excrement

This is what Chavez’ democracy offers. Tonight was simply another step:

—A single man imposing his ideas, no discussion, no dissent allowed.

—A single “unique” party, either you join or you are out.

—No separation between the Government, the military and Chavez’ party.

—Unlimited Government funding for political activities of Chavez’ party, despite the Constitution forbidding this explicitly.

—No transparency, leading to rampant corruption.

—A National Assembly with a single party, which is still bypassed, so that the single man can legislate at will for 18 months.

—A project for Constitutional reform, which is kept secret and contains reforms that require a Constituent Assembly

—A handpicked (twice!) Supreme Court, to decide according to the autocrat’s wishes.

—A fascist, discriminatory list of the 4 million plus Venezuelans, which has all of those that signed to recall Chavez’ mandate. The “Enemy”.

—Electoral authorities, all hand-picked by the autocrat, without ethics and morals, whose “impartiality” has been unveiled over and over to have never existed.

—A people’s Defender, who defends only the Government, a Prosecutor who accuses only the Government’s enemies and does not stand up for the rule of law.

—Massive violation of human rights to those that oppose the Government.

—Tripling of crime in eight years of Government; the poorest are the main victims.

—Illegal confiscation of property, with no compensation.

—And today, tolerance for only a single voice for the media, it is either owned by the Government or simply silenced…

A few minutes ago a representative of the “Board for Social Responsibility” of the Ministry of Communications threatened the media with shutting them down for up to three days if they violated the Social Responsibility law otherwise known as the “muzzle” law.

Their crime? Broadcasting the press conference by the Inter-american Press Society (SIP) in which its President of that institution read a communique expressing their concerns that press freedom in Venezuela could disappear altogether. In the words of its President the representatives of SIP are here in a dangerous and delicate mission because of the RCTV case and in defense of freedom of speech.

Of course, the woman in charge of defending our rights says that this press conference incited people to commit crimes, since all the Government’s decisions were based on the law. This “defender” of our rights even managed to threaten the members of the Board of SIP, who are visiting Venezuela due to the shutdown of RCTV. Thus, according to her circular logic, anytime your disagree with something the Government says it’s done according to its interpretation of the law, the media can be shutdown for it!

You know what? I certainly hope they do shutdown all of the media, just so that there will be no doubt whatsoever of the type of fascist, dictatorial regime we are living under in Venezuela.