Once the Government realized that it had a serious resistance problem in Santa Barbara del Zulia after Chavez announced the expropriation of 47 farms in that area, it began trying to spin it all away. Chavez’ threat to use “guns against guns” were just that, a threat. He did not even trust or want Minister Loyos, gun in his holster, to talk to Melean. Instead he sent Vice-President Jaua, the great spinner. Jaua must have learned something about talking and spinning in the 22 years he spent as an undergraduate.That appears to be the only thing he is competent at.
Jaua bowed down and went to the El Peonio farm and met with its owners and later said that the Government would not back down. But that is exactly what it is doing. In some of the other farms, people left, packed up after the authorities showed up. Mr, Melean and the inhabitants of El Peonio are still there.
The farmers in the area have seen expropriation after expropriation. The Government takes over a farm, it does not compensate, invaders come in, invaders leave after the cattle and crops have been eaten. From day one. Chucho Melean was clear: “If they pay, I will leave”. Jaua may say what he wants, but it is not true that the Government has valued and compensated hundreds of properties.
Ask Franklin Brito, ask the Spanish farmers, all of whom have not been paid despite the pressure by their Government, ask the Portuguese farmers. And so on.
And the spin was, Mr. Melean lost, he was not ready to fight, this is a tough Government.
But Mr. Melean comes back today and says again: “If they pay me what it costs, I leave, if not, I stay”. There is no deadline. He stays, the Government will have to evaluate how much to pay, come back with an offer.It better be good.
In the end, it is a defeat for the Government. The timing was meant to be like that the slew of Bills passed by the National Assembly, to take care of the Sur del Lago farms near Christmas, so that people would not notice as they shot fireworks and opened Christmas presents. Now, the problem does not go away. It will either be forgotten or the whole issue will ignite in a few months at a more inconvenient time.
And Chucho Melean may be on TV again, despite all of the spinning.
The Devil's Excrement 
December 24, 2010 at 1:25 am
When I put “south of Lake Maracaibo” into the Devil’s Excrement search engine, I came up with this article from October 2005. History repeats itself.
Long article in today’s El Nacional on what has happened with the land
distributed by the Ch�vez administration three years ago in the area south of Lake Maracaibo.
Verbatim translation of a couple of parts:
“Ernesto Baptista works as a laborer of the “Zamoran” project
located in the old La Conquista farm which was expropriated in 2001 to turn it
into the first expropriation project of the Government when the Head of the
Land Institute was General Wilfredo Silva. He says that currently the farm is paralyzed
and that there is no production of any kind in the first agricultural project
of the regime. -There is no planting of anything, why should I deny it. There
is no production of anything because the Executive left us alone, without projects
and without any money. Nobody here is working, because nobody ahs helped
us-”
“Even worse luck was that of the 450 hectares of the Angus Urdaneta
producer handed over by President Chavez himself on September 8th. 2001 to 40
families of the Caiman brook and Caricaiman, in the distant population of Encontrados.
All of the families have abandoned the lands given them due to the lack of
support and resources”
“The President of Fegalago pointed out that all of the agricultural
projects implemented by the Government in Zulia have been a failure. -The facts
demonstrate that the farms intervened by the Government began to suffer from a
decreasing production in all of its categories, something that has little to do
with what was going on when they were managed and administered by their
owners-”
“Martinez called on the President to come to the town of Santa Barbara and
the whole axis south of the lake…-It is possible that he is being deceived by
those interested in taking over and divide out among themselves Venezuelan
farms with the tale of agrarian socialism-”
Of course, after this roaring failure, the Government is now
threatening to take over this week three of the thirty productive farms
of the area.
http://devilsexcrement.com/2005/10/06/a-sad-tale-from-land-expropriated-south-of-lake-maracaibo/
December 23, 2010 at 6:44 am
It’s a done deal:
When the new Assembly sits for the first time in 2011, and by April, Chavez will have opposition lawmakers arrested on false Hussein- and Stalin-like charges.
The writing is on the wall. The fat lady has spoken. Th…th…that’s all folks!
Democracy is officially dead in VZ.
December 23, 2010 at 3:31 am
Paul and others,
There are some 30-40 Venezuelans following courses at the War Academy of Belarus. Here are some of the courses:
http://mod.mil.by/vv/va11.html
That’s in Russian but you can use a translation machine. Almost all are studies on war engineering & technology (tank use and engineering, artillery, telecommunications). Hugo met them in Minsk last time and that is something you can read in the Belorussian press, matter-of-fact, not-wondering-why.
They are taking full studies, 4 to 5 years. I don’t know how many may be taking shorter courses.
The Venezuelans are supposed to be following one about artillery. BUT there are other studies there and I wonder…
One is “management of units of special operations forces”. That’s heavy work of intelligence. Remember Belarus and its institutions was a part of the Soviet Union.
Another, of “just” 4 years, is
“идеологическая работа в подразделениях”. That’s ideological work in operations. Read: brain washing for violence.
In the late seventies and in the eighties the Soviet Union authorized and paid for the petition of the Venezuelan Communist Party to train people in “intelligence” for at least short periods like three months. I translated a document that a Russian dissident could snatch during the chaos years of Yeltsin. There you see one of those trained was the cousin of the then-president of the PCV (later deceased). I am sure there were many more. In those courses you train usually for stuff like how to provoke riots, do “conspiration” (that’s the word used in the specific document) and the like.
I don’t know if you know but think Caracazo (it wasn’t a spontaneous thing). Think a lot more.
When Chavista thugs say, when there are people protestings, that those are “guarimbas de la oposición”, they are saying that because that’s what they know. They think the opposition is trying to do some of the things they were doing for decades and got to create big time in 89.
In reality most in the opposition are not into that and have little clue about that. I suppose there are people with connections to old top police guys who got some “intelligence” studies in the US or Israel. Otherwise, most Venezuelan oppos are just people who studied law at the UCAB
and some others (too few, I am afraid) in other universities and cities.
Let’s be clear: Chavez cadres and Chávez honchos have no system and to try to learn something productive or let their followers do that. They are above all wanting to “win the war”, cement power.
These individuals -including their finance minister- can be totally incapable of understanding the economy even in the very superficial way an average person like me does, not to speak of someone like Juan or Miguel who are into that.
But they do know they have to do things to keep power.
We should be aware of this and be thus cautious. Speak: if the alternative forces plan some meetings, marches or distribution of information, they should be prepared for infiltration, for people trying to provoke violence, etc.
It is not only clumsy and selfish oppos like that Salas and many others.
It is also people of their side.
December 22, 2010 at 9:36 pm
Considering that this “operation” was started a week before Christmas: My take is that back in Caracas are a bunch of people have planned parties and dinners that will feature Zullian beef especialy my favorite LOMITO and Zullian cheeses and perhaps even real Venezuelan Pollo Ala Plancha. What happens after they don’t care they will just find more places to raid. Why not? they make more money importing food than helping to producing it locally!
December 22, 2010 at 9:06 pm
A little off topic but relevant. See the potential future for Venezuela as demonstrated by Thugo’s close amigo.I’m sure they discuss control tactics with each visit to one another.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101222/ap_on_re_eu/eu_belarus_election
December 22, 2010 at 8:48 pm
So now the Chavez revolution is against “paramilitaries and slave holders”.
Figures. Dictators always need enemies. It is a requirement so that you won’t mind starving so much.
December 22, 2010 at 8:00 pm
I hope Venezuela is the last country on Earth to be afflicted by the Marxist madness.
December 22, 2010 at 6:35 pm
Todo el mundo tiene un precio, el punto es saber encontrarlo. Lo que si no hay es principios, valores y agrego BOLAS de mantener lo que se dijo. Se acuerdan del sr. de la marqueseña, mismo discurso, bolsillos llenos en NYC
December 22, 2010 at 5:39 pm
Lying like a Cretan….
Spinning like a Marxist (in power)…
New sayings for XXIth Century Socialism…
December 22, 2010 at 4:51 pm
Is it true that Chucho Melan is 94 years old? An amazing guy.
December 22, 2010 at 1:48 pm
Great – really great – BUT too late – it´s ALL too late… until the bitter end…
December 22, 2010 at 1:29 pm
This is out of the post, but I can not resist to comment:
In the news is announced the new joint venture to extract oil and gas in Orinocos’s belt.
CVG will joint with companies from Cuba and Angola, certainly a big league of joint.
December 22, 2010 at 1:15 pm
May Mr. Melean enjoy many more Christmas and New Years celebrations on his farm. The opposition needs T-shirts with Melean’s face on it to counter Che Guevara’s face on Chavista shirts. The greater hero is obvious.
Chavez is a coward. When challenged he gets confused and need Fidel’s help. All the new laws were put in place to protect Chavez because he is afraid of criticism and challenges.