Sometimes Hugo Chavez’ mind betrays him. This has been happening a lot this week as he has spent the while week trying to deal with the three million voters in lat Sunday’s primary and Capriles not reacting to his insults.
But if you want to really glimpse into Chavez’s mind, just look at one episode two days ago. Chavez said literally that the CNE accepting the conditions for the opposition primary with the Mesa de Unidad “Violates some law”, referring in particular to the fact that no fingerprint machines would be used and the notebooks would be destroyed.
This is Chavez defining his autocratic mind. In just such a simple sentence, he is first of all interfering with the Electoral Board, which is an independent institution. He is also meddling onto matters of the opposition that should not be of his concern. But finally, is that thought: It has to violate some law, which reflects the spirit of so much he has done in the last thirteen years, if the law is not the way he wants it, lets’ change it. Give me an enabling law, a decree, a ill in The Assembly or a decision by the Supreme Court that says what I want.
And to make sure he is interfering, the next day he confirms it, he talked the the President of the Electoral Board, calling her to point out the weaknesses in the “our political system”
Weaknesses?
How come this was not a weakness when PSUV held its own primary and the same agreement was reahed with the Electoral and Board and Cilia Flores personally told the world that the Voting notebooks would be destroyed. And they were…
And somewhere else, I can’t find the link, Chavez actually said this happened because he was sick with cancer and was not around to notice the detail. Thus, in one single swoop, he is indispensable, he would have interfered with an independent power and he would have forced the CNE to follow his rules.
That is truly how the mind of the sorry autocrat that rules Venezuela works. Hopefully, this will no longer be the case soon.
The Devil's Excrement 
February 20, 2012 at 7:57 am
“which is an independent institution…”
That’s the assumption we all are supposed to profess and believe in. Which of course goes boom when lawmaking and government are no more on speaking terms with common sense, fairness or respect for others. We are also supposed to believe that last thing too at all time.
“He is also meddling onto matters of the opposition that should not be of his concern. But finally, is that thought: It has to violate some law…”
Autocrat and autocracy is too big a word for this. Autocrats usually know the rules they use to hammer opponents or don’t bother with rules.This is in essence what every corrupt or malicious policeman or similar has done since there’s government among humans (in Venezuela, usually to extort bribes). In the case of corrupt Hugo and the corrupt police, it does also really help if they both have a big fat rule-book of completely insane and/or ill-defined rules for free interpretation/paraphrase. That is, without counting the rules they might pull out of their… imagination.
Yeah, separation of powers, no one told the bad gendarme that he could be appeals court to be allowed to interpret laws. Separation of powers, because those supposedly independent institutions will not tell him to “shut up, that is our job”.
The problem in Venezuela goes deeper, as we left out the part of making sure the assumption was actually true and certifiably so; and because we have let such “authorities” free run for most of our history. Of course Hugo Chavez has enlarged the hole, but I don’t think he was the first to start digging.
February 20, 2012 at 6:12 am
The rumours continue unabated.
He was operated or not on Friday or Saturday and flown to Cuba for urgent treatment. The rumour persists that he has a new tumor on his colon & is in a grave medical situation. His daughters & other family members have also been flown to Cuba.
Whether these stories are true or not it’s an indication of the news outlets here in Venezuela that not one has a story related to this even if just to demand confirmation. El Universal & La Patilla this morning have nothing.
There have been a number of threads in ND however no news items.
Here is just one of them.
http://www.noticierodigital.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=843606
February 20, 2012 at 6:57 am
Finally a story in LaPatilla from Nelson Bocaranda
http://www.lapatilla.com/site/2012/02/20/nelson-bocaranda-presidente-chavez-se-hace-evaluacion-con-9-medicos-de-cuba/
“El periodista Nelson Bocaranda reveló a través de su cuenta en Twitter que el presidente Hugo Chávez se encuentra en cuba para hacerse una evaluación médica.
“Hijos del Presidente Chávez se trasladan a Cuba.Una de las hijas desde Buenos Aires y el hijo desde Barinas.Por eso aviones Barinas”,afirma Bocaranda.”
February 19, 2012 at 9:06 pm
Someone should have told him rule #1 of drug dealing…..Dont get high on your own supply!!!!!
February 19, 2012 at 6:01 pm
I find the cocaine allegations far fetched. Cocaine completely annihilates the immune system…that would be like signing your own death warrant. He may be using some other forms of drugs to keep his energy up. But what do i know….in Chavezlandia anything is possible. Who knows…maybe he is being forced into taking the drug by others.
February 19, 2012 at 8:25 pm
Unless they have found something better, a thing called a cocaine cocktail is what they give to last stage cancer victims for pain.
February 19, 2012 at 10:14 pm
Bromton’s Cocktail…my dad was a pharmacist and I watched him make them for a terminal cancer patient. (This was in the 70s…Usually pharmacy work [to me] was my dad just reading a prescription and counting pills, but this was him really making something like an old fashion chemist and I found it interesting). I remember the some of the ingredients; cocaine, morphine, some other stuff, mixed in Ever Clear (100% pure grain alcohol) and cherry flavoring. The patient went through a quart bottle every other day until he died about two weeks later.
February 20, 2012 at 12:13 pm
interesting. cocaine has long had medicinal value, but I didn’t know to what extent.
February 19, 2012 at 8:52 pm
You presume he’s now taking it and not for meany years, if I recall in quite a few TV shows he sniffed a lot and anyway Chavez is bipolar and doing cocaine is not far fetched maybe the FARK is his pusher
February 19, 2012 at 9:53 pm
Well, do I have a rumor for you..Not new either. The “ALBA GODS ALL ARE ON COCAINE! Cocaine is their religious bond..
Heard that back when ALBA first startedand also heard the
Castro used cocaine for pain relief….
February 21, 2012 at 5:50 pm
they have all done coke and then some. It gets ugly very ugly when it comes to minors.
February 21, 2012 at 9:23 pm
Yes, another common “trait” they should be punished
severely for.
February 21, 2012 at 5:54 pm
there are many modern stimulant drugs that can be used to keep you alert or awake. Methylphenidate for example.
February 19, 2012 at 4:37 pm
Someone is reading this blog I think:
http://www.aei.org/article/foreign-and-defense-policy/regional/latin-america/venezuelas-democrats-may-face-chvezs-narco-coup/
February 19, 2012 at 4:50 pm
Roger Noriega comes off as an alarmist and an extremist. He is also promoting his own regional agenda. But he is well-connected and well-informed. I can’t completely dismiss his scenario.
February 19, 2012 at 7:16 pm
Yes, R. Noriega may indeed be catagorized as an ‘alarmist.’ He has an agenda as well. But, here’s what’s interesting. That article, referred to above, is dated February 14th. Here is the important paragraph:
“The timing and tactics will depend on the pace of Chávez’s physical deterioration. The latest details conveyed to me by persons knowledgeable of his condition indicate that Chávez’s cancerous cell count has yet to be reduced after months of treatment, and he has developed another cancerous tumor in his colon that requires urgent surgery. His condition has worsened because he refuses routine care and examinations in order to maintain a public profile. Indeed, the hard-driving leader has turned to the use of cocaine to maintain his energy. As a result, there is a good chance that Chávez will not live long enough to appear on the October ballot.”
Now if the ‘rumor’ states that Chavez had his operation the night before, on the 18th, Noriega wrote on the 14th that, “…another cancerous tumor in his colon that requires urgent surgery.” Obviously he knew that on the 14th that a surgery was imminent. So far it sounds logical.
February 21, 2012 at 5:52 pm
Roger is so full of shit he has been suspected of being a double-agent or plant. But he’s learning and getting better at it. He keeps a questionable Venezuelan close.
February 19, 2012 at 11:44 am
Off with their heads!
February 19, 2012 at 11:04 am
“But finally, is that thought: It has to violate some law, which reflects the spirit of so much he has done in the last thirteen years, if the law is not the way he wants it, lets’ change it”
Your conclusion isn’t quite right. Chavez thinking is “if there’s something I don’t like, there should be a law against it.” For someone like Chavez, laws exist only to prevent others from making him unhappy (not to prevent him from doing anything). That’s why he can violate laws left and right without flinching, but when someone he dislikes comes within 3 light-years of violating a law that he created with the purpose of screwing them, he starts screaming like a banshee about the evil of those who break the law.
February 19, 2012 at 10:58 am
question: how long did it take the PSUV to destroy the voting notebooks, after its own primary? I’d like to know exactly.
How come this was not a weakness when PSUV held its own primary and the same agreement was reahed with the Electoral and Board and Cilia Flores personally told the world that the Voting notebooks would be destroyed. And they were…
February 19, 2012 at 9:57 am
The sham Democracy in Venezuela is for one purpose only, give the foreign left cover to support the Chavez dictatorship and carpetbagger countries like Brazil, Russia, an excuse to plunder Venezuela in return for support.
Chavez will drop the pretense of a democratic society when his regime is threatened. Elections are only for the result he wants, he didn’t get what he wanted in the opposition election and now wants to kick the table over, if he doesn’t accept an opposition result, does anyone believe he would accept a presidential election, when his own neck is at stake?
February 19, 2012 at 12:09 pm
Albionboy
Good points here,and yet they are not obvious to too many.If the opposition is satisfied with the results of there own primaries, it is really none of Chavez’s business to get involved with that, however as always he is ready to reject any result of anything that is not to his advantage.
February 19, 2012 at 8:09 am
A dictatorship is as strong as the people who support it.It would not exist without the active support of the population.
February 19, 2012 at 5:47 pm
As Franklin D. Roosevelt said about Somoza
“Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anastasio_Somoza_Garc%C3%ADa
For a lot of Venezuelans Chavez may be a son of a bitch, but
he’s their son of a bitch. The bond is in the way he speaks
and looks and acts like a lot of Venezuelans.
February 19, 2012 at 6:49 am
There is a strong rumour floating around Twitter that Chavez was operated on last night for a tumor in his colon.
I’ve checked the major news sources this morning & not one has any info.
This doesn’t surprise me at all. All the lies about his health over the last months can hardly be admitted now. If & when we hear anything it won’t be the truth anyway.
Hopefully this is the beginning of the end & that Miguel’s prior prediction holds true. My fingers are crossed.
To those who say that this is not the best solution remember that if he loses the election it’s likely that he won’t leave anyway.
Let’s just get it over with once & for all.
February 19, 2012 at 10:10 am
Very intereseting.
June 10, 2012 at 11:04 pm
Do we need an epiphany when it comes to comomn sense? I mean, do we have to figure it out all by ourself? Or are we smart enough to look for it? Should it be called rare sense since it’s not always so comomn?
February 19, 2012 at 12:11 pm
Rumors abound that he was operated on in a field hospital set up in Miraflores palace, etc.
So far that is all it is, rumor and innuendo.
February 19, 2012 at 12:56 pm
Yes, lets pray for his permanent “recovery”.
February 19, 2012 at 3:05 pm
Roger Noriega is saying on Twitter he can’t confirm the surgery but his sources claim that it did happen, another cancerous tumor that needed extraction.
February 19, 2012 at 5:20 pm
So far, Jaua is still V.P. Right?
February 19, 2012 at 6:08 pm
Cancer supposedly extracted from the duodenum, where along with rectum originally found (not prostate) before peritoneum. Was going to Cuba, couldn’t wait. Fits with “El Globo” recently saying headed for liver. Shouldn’t make October. As for massive strike/sit-in, Allende was overthrown by one, two weeks(?) before trusted Pinochet (personally chosen by Allende/wife to show Castro around Chile a year or so before) decided enough was enough (and, just in time as a boatload of Castro arms was sitting in Valparaiso harbor waiting to be unloaded). Pinochet, and the Chicago Boys later, saved Chile, and thanks to him enabled it to be what it is today. Leftism, as exercised by unethical/ immoral/unscrupulous intellectuals/practitioners today, is the worst form of cancer a country can suffer!
February 19, 2012 at 7:05 pm
Maybe you forgot a one or two details about Pinochet… and his ethical, moral and scrupulous friends…
February 19, 2012 at 7:33 pm
Chile was saved. Pinochet and some friends eventually paid the price. The alternative would have been much worse. I didn’t say anything about Pinochet’s ethics/morals/scruples. The statement was about Leftism today, particularly as exercised in Venezuela, Cuba, et. al., and as supported by unethical/immoral/unscrupulous intellectual apologists.
February 19, 2012 at 7:47 pm
You better not applaud right wing dictators if you are for democracy.
February 20, 2012 at 11:23 am
Three weeks before the coup, the also democratically elected Chamber of Deputies passed by 81-47, a strong 63-37% majority, a Resolution which some have called the “Declaration of the Breakdown of Chile’s Democracy.” Allende correctly labeled the Resolution as an invitation to a coup.
How many people are aware of this Resolution?
February 20, 2012 at 12:22 pm
Virtually a mirror-image description of the abuses in Chavista communist Venezuela. Venezuela’s Asamblea could (but probably wouldn’t) have made a similar statement were they not denied their simple majority in the last Parliamentary elections.The difference between Chile and Venezuela was the lack of vast oil income to squander on an unworkable project. Still, what felled Allende was a huge general strike encompassing virtually all sectors of organized society, and responding not only to the abuses mentioned in this document, but also to incredibly high consumer price inflation, continuously needing adjustment by the minute, not by the month.
February 19, 2012 at 6:55 pm
This is interesting and plausible, but to avoid pure speculation, posters should provide sources.
February 19, 2012 at 7:08 pm
yesterday he said he will be speaking with PSUV-direction this WE, so I would wait, it would be not the first time misinformation got around… then he comes and say, look what the oppo said, they want me dead…
February 19, 2012 at 5:47 am
So what about this report that Chavez has stooped to using cocaine to keep his energy and appearances up? Is that just a fantastical assumption?
February 18, 2012 at 11:10 pm
I think this is the link:
http://www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/120218/chavez-hablo-con-lucena-por-debilidades-en-primarias
According to the reporter, he said:
“…donde aseguró que se enteró “hace poquito”, por el cáncer que lo aquejó, “que la burguesía había logrado que el CNE le autorizara hacer esas elecciones sin captahuellas, sin la tinta indeleble y peor aun que quemaran los cuadernos”.
February 18, 2012 at 10:46 pm
The only way he’s leaving power is the same way that Castro and most other dictators leave power. Not because I say it, but because it’s true.
I sure hope the opposition has a plan B. Of course, it actually is pretty easy to get rid of tyrants, IF you’re willing to pay the price. Just stage a sit in, 1 million people, surrounding the presidential compound. Heck, 1/2 million would do it.
It might take up to two weeks, but the paralysis would work. But first, it would reveal the monster, which means deaths, hundreds, maybe thousands. If the oppo stuck it out, he would fall, like every dictator does when the population decides that they have had enough.
February 19, 2012 at 2:36 am
I quite agree. Any change of government in Venezuela will be preceded by a call for violence in the streets. No question. That is the mind of Hugo Chavez as well. Be prepared for it.
I am also convinced that his health issue will become more and more apparent as time marches forward. He will look more palid/ashen in his face and will blubber in a microphone on more frequent occasions. Untreated cancer will do that. I believe he knows his true health status and has thus made this a ‘kamikaze run.’ It’s kinda like Venezuela’s version of Hitler in the bunker. “If I’m going down, you’re (Venezuela) going with me.” Yes, there will be violence. A Goetterdaemmerung is in store for Venezuela.
February 19, 2012 at 8:07 am
Deananash,
People always have to have a plan B.If no perspective is kept in all of this, people will be in a for a big surprise in October.
The opposition has to have the guts to stick it out when the time comes.There have been people who have been sticking it out for years; the problem is not enough people accompany them.
February 19, 2012 at 11:00 am
Deananash,
Of course there is a plan B. However, the first step is plan A, and for this to work correctly, the masses need to be convinced of the inevitability of its success. The Oppos know what they are doing.
The best thing we can do to support it, is to promote the aura of inevitability of the election outcome and the certainty that the time of change has arrived. This is what correctly sets the stage for further actions, should they become necessary.
“Have a little faith…”
February 19, 2012 at 3:01 pm
My only hope of a non-violent outcome is some kind of behind the scenes negotiation with key regime figures if the polls indicate a victory of Capriles reaching the date of elections. Some concessions will have to be made, some people will have to be allowed to leave if we really want to get to Miraflores. I know it sounds shameful, but I think that’s going to be needed to guarantee a transfer of power. Otherwise it’s going to be the violent way for them, they have so much to loose they will try to remain in power by whatever means just to not be prosecuted. That’s the situation we are in.
February 18, 2012 at 10:05 pm
Hold your horses there: I thought he’s been cancer-free for weeks, if not months. What gives?
February 18, 2012 at 10:21 pm
No, he said when he “had” cancer
February 18, 2012 at 9:32 pm
In English this is called the “belle of the ball” syndrome, referring to a woman who surrounds herself with other women less attractive than she is, and refuses to be seen with those more attractive who might draw attention away from her.
Apply that to the realm of intelligence, initiative, and competence and see what “Esteban” has gathered as his court. Compound it by allowing unlimited theft and corruption as long as the sycophants remain loyal. Don’t be surprised by how things unravel when the “belle” is not there to give direction.
February 19, 2012 at 12:45 pm
“In English this is called the “belle of the ball” syndrome”
Or otherwise known as Malignant Narcissism, which in his case has evidently progressed to Sociopathy.
February 18, 2012 at 9:09 pm
And CAP was impeached for [according to wikipedia] embezzling 250 million Bs (“debiles”, es decir, los de antes, no los BsF de ahora)? Does anybody has an idea of how much the Chavez family (including, of course, HC himself) have embezzled thus far in 12+ years? But, since the institutions, the constitution (“la bicha”) and the rule of law in general can at any point be run over by HC those memories of la Corte Suprema de Justicia (as the TSJ was called then) impeaching a president (yes, in “la cuarta”) seem really really far in the past.
If this is not a dictatorship, then, what is it?
February 18, 2012 at 8:56 pm
El estado soy Yo
Hugo 14
February 18, 2012 at 8:43 pm
Miguel, ¿de quién son esas caricaturas que a veces pones en el blog? No las conozco.
En cuanto al post … no sabía lo que había dicho acerca del cáncer. Imagínate lo que sugiere – que como él estaba enfermo, no pudo poner las condiciones bajo las cuales LA OPOSICIÓN iba a hacer su elección. A eso es a lo que dedica el tiempo, a jo … a los demás en vez de solucionar problemas.
February 18, 2012 at 10:21 pm
Tal Cual