The Devil's Excrement

To many, spending Christmas in the tropics with warm weather andluscious greens seems somewhat incongruous, but as you can see in the picture above, the lights of Caracas glow like a Christmas scene every night.

To all the readers and friends I do hope that you have a spectacular Christmas Eve and Day, as I get ready for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner with hallacas and pan de jamon. Fireworks are already going off, hours before activities begin.

The events of the last moth have given us all hope that things are looking up and we can have a better Venezuela. But as we think about enjoying tonight and tomorrow, don’t forget those like Francisco Uson and Henry Vivas and many others, political prisoners who should be home tonight, but will not be able to be with their families because of the vindictive nature and the lack of compassion of a single man. The fact that this is the case, reveals a lot about the hard road ahead, before we can have a Government that truly cares about all of the people of Venezuela.

But we deserve to have hope today, after December began with a huge gift for those that believe in freedom, democracy and human rights. Let that gift, like tonight, be the beginning of something wonderful.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Note Added: Tonight at around 8 PM General Francisco Uson was given conditional freedom, a right that could have been given to him two months ago. I am extremely happy for him and his family.

—Three weeks after the referendum one has to wonder if we will ever see the final CNE results for the referendum despite having the best (and most expensive!) electronic electoral system in the world.

—Did Guido Antonini talk on the phone to President Nestor Kirchner at the airport while the suitcase with the US$ 800,000 was being searched? Or was he made to believe it was the Argentinean President?

—Is the voice on some of the telephone conversations taped by the FBI that of the actual Head of Venezuela’s intelligence police DISIP?

—Is it true that Fidel Castro told Chavez to go back to the “loving” Chavez of two months before the 2006 Presidential election in order to regain his popularity? Can he stick to it?

—Will we see a complete overhaul of the Cabinet by January 1st.? Does it really matter? Will we miss the Minister of the Interior?

—Will any Venezuelan Government institution ever investigate Maletagate I?