-Remember the “Arepera Socialista”? That outfit that was going to make the Venezuelan staple cheaply and accessible to everyone and compete with the private sector? Well, they have been turned into “franchises” and thus privatized and the heroic workers that joined the experiment, one of dozens of Chavez’ costly ocurrences, were simply fired. Of course, in Chavista doublespeak, they were not fired, they were “let go”, a euphemism for a massive firing which is prohibited to the private sector under the current eight year hiring freeze.
-And weekly “Sexto Poder” was shut down and its owner/reporter Leocenis Garcia is being sought, its Chief reporter jailed, because they wrote an article about the powerful women of Chavismo. The crime? The article was accompanied by a composition of these powerful women faces, dressed as Cabaret dancers. The article itself said little. In bad taste? yes, but hardly noticeable given the obscurity of the magazine. But certainly incredible how fast the action took place to shut down a magazine in a country where there is freedom of expression. Meanwhile Mario Silva, Chavez’ official voice in VTV, continues ridiculing, insulting and disparaging anyone he wants night after night. Mr. Garcia was already jailed once under Chavez in this country where there is no”censorship”, but lots of persecution of the Government’s enemies.
–Chavez goes on national TV, nationalizes the gold industry for the second time in a week and third in twenty years, says the gold is not being moved to pay debts, because “Venezuela has no debts” and ratifies that every single bar of the country’s gold will be returned to the country very soon. Oh yeah! And Venezuela is the only country left that will recognize Qaddafi as the legitimate ruler of Lybia.
-An Iranian website writes this report up, video included, Bloomberg news aggregator picks it up and investors in New York thought there was an ongoing coup in Caracas, sending Venezuelan bond prices plunging as much as 3%, before people realized there were no shots in Caracas.
Simply no room for astonishment and the rate seems to be increasing…
The Devil's Excrement 
August 24, 2011 at 9:11 am
Sorry meant to say dishonest
August 24, 2011 at 8:35 am
I agree with Miguel.
Bad taste,
and I don’t give a flying pink tutu what the Germans do or do not do- Thank God I don’t have to either.
I also hate the vulgar and retrograde way many in the US depict some women of power.I can’t stand Palin but I abhor the demeaning way they talk about her, and how they depict her in caricatures.Actually I find it childish and retrograde to be depicting anyone in that way, but especially women, because it is so undignified to do so to those who give birth to the human race and who continue to this day having to fight a million times harder than a man to achieve some semblance of power( not that I agree with this goal because I don’t) , but it is a choice each is allowed to make for herself.
Part of why politics hurts more than helps.It is totally undignified and honest.
Bruni since when is it thin- skinned to support dignity and condone vulgarity?
August 24, 2011 at 7:45 am
I think powdered milk would just be one more product I would wean myself off of
August 24, 2011 at 6:39 am
Any one with an interest in what’s actually happening in Venezuela needs to watch this video of people trying to get a can a powdered milk from a supermarket.
August 24, 2011 at 7:28 am
its Bush’s fault
August 24, 2011 at 7:31 am
Woa! woa! Qué bestias!
But that’s in Zulia, sorry, we wouldn’t do that in Carabobo.
In Carabobo we say “tira pa’ cá”, not tirá pa’cá”
August 24, 2011 at 4:18 am
I agree with Bruni. Germans are very sensitive about “women’s rights” and stuff like that in the media, but you should see the cartoons of Merkel and others. And it’s not a demeaning thing. Like they put Stoiber in Lederhose, they put Merkel in Dirndl. If any government tried to put a journalist on jail for that they would start: what do we have now? Goebbels again?
Those Venezuelan milicos and pseudojudges haven’t got a clue.
August 24, 2011 at 12:30 am
ok now seriously…when are you people just gonna shoot this guy? I mean really?
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.3e0b0bf5d6ffc0bbe6aa04cf441762df.6d1&show_article=1
August 23, 2011 at 8:57 pm
Well, Miguel, on this one we do not agree…why should that picture be on bad taste? I found it quite funny and the ladies look really great, much much better than how they look in reality.
This is no worse than a political caricature…I am amazed that the goverment is so open about their thin-skinness. BTW, I did not get all the faces. Can you let us know who they are from left to right?
August 24, 2011 at 4:57 am
I can’t tell you left to right but in it you have Luisa Estela Morales (TSJ), Blanca Eekhout, Luisa Ortega (fiscal general), Tibisay Lucena (CNE), Adelina Gonzalez (the replacement for Russian), Gabriela Ramirez (y que defender of Human rights)
August 23, 2011 at 4:48 pm
This article appeared in El Universal on 12/27/2010. I bring it because it reinforces my above comment
Será que somos tontos / Jose Maria Nunez Gorrin
“Nos creíamos muy listos. Viajábamos al exterior y todo nos parecía atrasado, comparado con lo que teníamos en Venezuela. Nos comíamos el mundo. Teníamos el récord de la moneda más estable y nos dieron algún premio por ello. Éramos líderes en el consumo de las más caras bebidas alcohólicas.
Celebrábamos la entrada de ingentes ingresos petroleros y el país se deshilachaba. No se crearon colegios que formarán una amplia base de ciudadanos responsables. No se construyó un sistema sanitario y de seguridad social que mejorara la calidad de vida de los venezolanos. No se establecieron medidas serias que permitieran generar ahorro interno para financiar a las empresas y a las personas y por el contrario, la improvisación y la incertidumbre no hacía otra cosa que espantar capitales. No se crearon empresas competitivas, era mucho más rentable acercarse al poder y hacerse rico con una obra mal construida y sobre facturada, comisión mediante. No se edificó un verdadero Estado para dar servicios a los ciudadanos que administrara justicia eficiente y transparentemente, hiciera fácil y ágil todos los trámites, atendiera a los más necesitados, promoviera las inversiones, ofreciera seguridad a las personas y a sus bienes, facilitara la construcción de viviendas, incentivara la investigación, edificara infraestructuras y promoviera la cultura.
Tenemos el país que hemos construido, pudiéramos tener otro, pero ese no lo hemos labrado. Somos un país donde la ignorancia campa a sus anchas, lo notamos cuando hablamos con personas humildes de latitudes más al norte. Haciendo uso de dos conocidos tópicos hemos comprobado que la ignorancia se convierte ciertamente en instrumento de la propia destrucción y que finalmente podemos habernos labrado, con los años y mucho esfuerzo, el gobierno que colectivamente hemos merecido.
En otras latitudes preguntan con curiosidad y algo de sorna, cómo hemos hecho para elegir a un gobierno como este. Cómo el pueblo es capaz de escuchar por horas a alguien hablando tal cantidad de sandeces, contándonos las más irrelevantes de las anécdotas, insultando a diestra y siniestra y dando órdenes en vivo que violan los más elementales principios del Estado de Derecho y del sentido común. Con disimulo se burlan, saben que ellos nunca cometerían el despropósito de elegir a alguien así y nosotros sí, no una sino varias veces.
La ignorancia lleva a sucumbir a un sentimiento religioso, que conduce a apoyar a alguien que viene fungiendo como verdugo de nuestras propias libertades. No importa que la corrupción cabalgue groseramente, que Venezuela sea el país más peligroso del mundo, que tengamos la inflación más alta, que no haya electricidad, tampoco agua, que los hospitales y los colegios se estén cayendo, que se cierre medios de comunicación, que se restrinjan libertades, que nos engañen permanentemente, que se regale nuestro dinero, que los inversionistas extranjeros huyan, que se cierren miles de empresas, que no le envíen recursos a los gobernantes locales, que el gobierno no construya viviendas y luego expropie cuatro edificios para tapar su fracaso, que se le hurten sus tierras a personas que llevan décadas labrándolas, que no produzcamos casi nada, que todo tengamos que importarlo y que boten a los ministros por incompetentes y a los dos años vuelvan a contratarlos.
Un gobierno con tal cantidad de despropósitos en ningún lugar podría tener el más mínimo apoyo. Así que últimamente me he venido preguntando si será que somos tontos.”
August 23, 2011 at 7:35 pm
This is so very sad. Venezuelans must face up to this reality and begin
to work hard to make all of these bad things right again.
It will take generations-I believe an awakening is here, now.
August 23, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Has Qaddafi arrived at Maquitia yet or do you think he will go straight to Carlota?
August 23, 2011 at 4:47 pm
To Orchila with his Female Body Guards…
The island is to renamed Orgyla…
August 24, 2011 at 7:51 am
He might be already at the Hato Pin/ero. Remember Chavez signed an “agreement” with the Libians to develop the land.
August 23, 2011 at 4:41 pm
Chavez is just a pathetic malignant narcissist-psychopath that could have never had a thread of an opportunity to rule a moderately decent country. The fact that he is the president says a lot about Venezuela, not Chavez. Clowns like him abound in the word, but in normal societies they are just set aside. One imagines, for instance, that Chavez could have done not better than being a toilet cleaner in countries, such as those of Europe and also in the U.S.A. That would have been as far as he could go, according to his qualifications. In a decent country, he would have been kicked out of the army fairly rapid. Hell, I am not even sure he would have been allowed to rule in most countries. Venezuela has a brutal amount of ignorant people. That is how unfortunately we have to categorize those living in the slums. And, that is over 60% of the population! However, those not living in the slums, in so called marginal zones, are not much better off. So much for the myth that in Venezuela there are lots of educated people! I do not believe that, not for one damn bit of a second.
August 23, 2011 at 7:32 pm
Obviously, Venezuelans are not “evolving”..
“Clowns like him abound in the word, but in normal societies they are just set aside” – Time for Venezuelans to “convert ” to being normal
and take Chavez off the set- he’s just a clown actor, sick freak.
August 23, 2011 at 4:22 pm
“Venezuela has no debts”-Chavez said that!
Sure Chavez lives a life of luxury, Chavez imagines
himself- infinitely rich, I suppose. Look at the
lavish gifts-gold replica of Bolivar’s Sword
given to Quadaffy for example-wonder what
kind of gifts Chavez has “given to Castro-
just the whole country-you say…
If this isnot proof that Chavez does not live
in reality-I don’t know what is.
August 23, 2011 at 3:17 pm
My capacity for astonishment got overwhelmed at least a year ago. Even if Chavez were to appear at the head of a parade wearing a pink tutu, his supporters would still continue to back him, and the Chavista press would figure out some way to put a positive spin on it.
August 23, 2011 at 3:32 pm
Even if? If he were to appear wearing a pink tutu, a legion of Chavistas would run to buy pink tutus to show their solidarity. Don’t you see how some of them are now acting as Mini-Mes? Sick.
August 23, 2011 at 3:07 pm
Even if one agree that the picture is of bad taste…how about a very severe monetary “multa” and ask for right to reply. BUt sorry i forgot that Venezuela is not a democratic country anymore 8(
August 23, 2011 at 2:54 pm
This is incredible. The Onion does a lot more on any given day…not to mention magazines like Titanic in Germany…http://www.titanic-magazin.de/suche.html?&L=0
or even Chigüire Bipolar. Perhaps that’s a signal to Chigüire?
August 23, 2011 at 2:35 pm
I was trying to come up with any other historic figure that would be similar to Chavez. It was impossible, what cake up were only celebrities, those dealing with rapid wealth, drugs, rehab, family issue, fashion, obsessive fans, US law and of course the offending media. Just to mention two Lindsay Lohan and Britney.
Chavez, tragically is a whim, an indulgence, a bad one.
August 23, 2011 at 3:38 pm
I have been saying -put a blonde wig with ponytail,
sunglasses, leather pants -and Chavez can
be imitator of Karl Laagerfeld.
August 23, 2011 at 1:32 pm
Sexto Poder should stop insulting Cabaret Dancers. That’s an honest profession.
>>>And Venezuela is the only country left that will recognize Qaddafi as the legitimate ruler of Lybia.
There never was a despot Chavez didn’t love. But they are toppling one by one: Hussein, Zelaya, Kadafi…
August 23, 2011 at 3:36 pm
I bet Chavez feels like he’s on an island right now. Sniff sniff
“Fidel-tell me again. I am not next…”