(That guy is CIA, Judge: Bravo!, That guy is ETA, Judge: Jailed!)
Oswaldo Alvarez Paz, the one time Governor of Zulia State and 1993 Presidential candidate for COPEI, was jailed today because…
I am not so sure.
You see, Alvarez Paz is supposed to be in jail for saying things like:
“Venezuela has turned into an operations center that facilitates the business of drug-trafficking”
live on much hated Globovision.
But, Alvarez Paz did not make this up, in fact, I wrote not long ago about a report by none other than the United Nations in which the UN said that Venezuela had become the “the largest transit country for cocaine in the world”.
He also said that “the Chavez government has links to illegal, armed groups in Latin America”
once again, this is not new, the Spanish Audiencia Nacional accused the Venezuelan Government of precisely that recently, when Judge Velazco accused the Venezuelan Government of supporting ETA and FARC and setting up some explosives training exercizes using Venezuelan military and an ETA operative to train the FARC to blow up some Colombian Presidents or something like that.
So, Alvarez Paz did not invent the wheel in what he said, much like General Uson, who was jailed for five years for suggesting some Army soldiers were burned by a flame thrower. So, what’s up?
Because Minister of (In)Justice El Aissami said that Alvarez was imprisoned “because he lied” is as stupid as it gets. If we jailed Venezuelans who lie, the whole Cabinet would be in jail, from Chavez and his constant reinterpretation of the electric problem and the possible Guri collapse, which started with it is going to collapse if you don’t stop using energy, to it is the oligarchs who invented that it could collapse, to Giordani’s claim that the “Mutuos” created an avalanche of inflation, to El Assiami’s claim that crime is down, the Government lies, distorts and mutilates the truth daily without blinking. Just El Assiami’s claim that it was not Chavez but the “independent” Judiciary that jailed Alvarez Paz, should make Pinocchio’s nose pale in comparison.
Because in the end, Alvarez Paz was fairly irrelevant in Venezuela’s politics by now. He is not running for the National Assembly, is not that visible or even controversial.
So, what’s the grudge?
My feeling is the Government, yes Hugo Chavez himslef, wanted to intimidate and choose someone that was not a key leader of the opposition so that the message would get across without affecting someone involved in the upcoming elections or the Mesa de Unidad.
It is a warning to everyone to be careful, anyone can be arrested on the spot: Be careful what you say, nobody is untouchable, we are looking at you, this Dictatorship will not tolerate much!
As simple as that. Ramiro and Hugo are watching!
Because, among other things, Alvarez Paz is being accused of promoting hate, defamation and “conspiracy”. A conspiracy of one, which at least in Spanish makes little sense, but the robolution has never been a big one about making sense anyway.
But it is a scary step. The Chavez Government has decided to jail someone just because…To set an example. It is a new direction, overt, clear and direct intimidation.
Be ready!
The Devil's Excrement 
March 25, 2010 at 7:36 am
[…] the blogs: Venezuela News and Views Oswaldo Alvarez Paz in jail The Devil’s Excrement: Chavez Government jails opposition leader, just because… Caracas Chronicles […]
March 24, 2010 at 9:29 am
Hey M octavio, what is your e-mail again? I have a question re: asylum. Is it safe to say that the authors of spanish blogs are more at risk of attention from chavez than english ones?
March 24, 2010 at 7:57 am
You really still think they care? I heard the same explanation with Lapi, Uson, so many others, Alvarez Paz is there to stay.
March 24, 2010 at 7:49 am
I disagree,
the last thing Chávez wants at this moment is to put a well-known politician in jail.
I think this is the case of “quisieron hacer una gracia y les salió una morisqueta” of the “jalamecate” of the regime that in order to gain indulgences with Chávez thought it was a great idea to jail OAP.
This looks like when the Madame Torquemada, the prosecutor, decided to jail three young engineers because of a blackout, or when she proposed the infamous law…she must be behind this. In the end, the goverment backtracked.
IMHO the goverment will backtrack again because I think this does not come from Chávez but from his entourage.
March 24, 2010 at 5:45 am
I think that not running for office, Paz was a BIGGER threat to Chavez than others, so I don’t agree his arrest was irrelevant and just a warning to the opposition.
As they say in the states, and in regards to upcoming VZ elections, Paz “doesn’t have a dog in the fight” for the presidency.
In other words, speaking not to gain political power…but just wanting to speak the truth…is a very dangerous thing to Chavez.
March 24, 2010 at 4:20 am
Agree that it’s to intimidate and will work….Unless we do something.
What about empowering the center (NINI and many pro and anti chavez folks) by Alternative Voting as soon as possible. Primarias, Sep 2010, 2012 or …..2021(just kidding)? Sound better than civil war, and could help to stop the dictatorship.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/opinion/24friedman.html?ref=opinion
A Tea Party Without Nuts
CloseLinkedinDiggFacebookMixxMySpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalink By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: March 23, 2010
March 24, 2010 at 2:30 am
over your main fears, I acknowledge that we should all receive a lot more attention of ourself.
March 23, 2010 at 11:13 pm
The side story of this is that I always thought that oil money was going to dry up due to bad management of the oil industry by the robolution. Now its very clear that the FARC and many other narcs and sending their drugs via Venezuela and you can bet the house that Chavez -the goverment- is taking a sizable cut for the service of housing the narc/rebels in the country and serving as the launching pad for the drugs.
Hence Chavez has a new source to finance his robolution.
This makes me crazy mad for many reasons, but the main ones are:
1. As long as he has mucho dinero he stays in power (I think)
2. Narcs/rebels are very violent people, he probably translated the Colombian war to Venezuela for the next 10 years or so.
3. This is a huge blow to Venezuela’s reputation, which already is dead.
So, I ask, When is this nonsense going to end???