Archive for June 9th, 2012

Explaining What It Means To Make Miami Registered Voters Go To New Orleans

June 9, 2012

Dear Friendly visitor from abroad, PSF or not:

This is Venezuela:

a somewhat dysfunctional country in South America led by a religious like leader known as Hugo Chavez, who leads a cult called Bolivarianism. His tribe is called PSUV. Now, Hugo likes to make people believe that Venezuela has a fair Government and is a democracy. Many locals, as well as some foreigners who obviously would not be caught dead living in Venezuela defend the cult and its “fairness”

Now, the picture below shows the southern part of the US, including Miami, Florida and New Orleans, Lousiana. There are a lot of Venezuelans living in the southern part of Florida. In fact, 26,000 of them are registered to vote in the Venezuelan Consulate in Miami. Some come form Georgia, but the large majority are near Miami. The right to vote for President, even if you live abroad, is supposed to be a Constitutional guarantee. Over 90% of them do not vote for President Hugo.

The Venezuelan Consul in Miami, was caught in a video conspiring on how to start a cyber attack on US Government computers. This led the US Government to kick her out. The cult leader, Hugo Chavez, decided then to shut down the Consulate in Miami:

This week, the Electoral Board decided that these 26,000 people would have to go and vote in New Orleans, Louisiana, which is an 867 mile drive from Miami (as shown in the map) or 651 miles away as the crow flies.

Let’s try to put this in proper perspective: A coach bus fits 53 people. Thus, it would require 490 buses to take them to New Orleans to vote. The line of buses would be about three miles long. The cheapest one way fare I could find costs $107 per person and takes one day, one hour and fifteen minutes to get there. Double that to return.

But there is a better perspective. Suppose that you picked a voter in Maracaibo, Zulia State, a large Western city of Venezuela and moved him to vote to a center 651 miles away. The result would be this:

The red circle shown above has an approximately 650 mile radius and is approximately centered in Maracaibo. The conclusion is that it would be unlikely that you could find an Electoral Center outside of this circle, for the simple reason that I doubt that there are any centers in the roughly 4% of Venezuela that is left outside this circle.

The whole thing is yet another dirty trick by this fake democratic Government. The whole point of shutting down this voting center was to eliminate 20,000 opposition votes with one single decision. After all, would it be so hard to rent an office somewhere in Miami to have the vote held? Would it be so expensive? In fact, you could even have it a the office of Banco Industrial de Venezuela in Miami, if you wanted to save money. Or ask any of the neighboring countries in Latin America to give you a hand and create one, two or even three separate locations at their Miami consulates, to allow people to exercise their right to vote.

But the cult leader, Hugo Chavez, did not shut down the consulate, as an “administrative measure” or to get back at the US Government for kicking the Venezuelan Consulate out. After all, it was only Venezuelans that are affected by the measure. No, this whim by the religious leader of Bolivarianism was another perverse dirty trick, which was consummated this week by the Electoral Board when it forced these 26,000 voters to go so far to vote.

Many will try to go and vote. But clearly, this is expensive and wholly unreasonable. This is just a maneuver to wipe out 20,000 votes which may or not be important in deciding the upcoming Presidential election. But with a few tricks like this, like the previous post, it all adds up and makes the objective of preserving the cult more feasible.

So, please don’t pay attention to the BS. There is no Electoral Justice in Venezuela. Democracy is not relevant to Hugo Chavez. There is an autocracy and a judicial system corrupted and dominated by the cult leader to project an image of democracy and fairness. The whole point, as his Presidential program shows, is to block the possibility of Bolivarianism ever being removed from power. That is not what democracy is about.

Making Miami voters, 95% of whom support the opposition candidate, has no logic or justification. The maps above clearly prove it.

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Chavismo Pulls Dirty Trick On Podemos And Patria Para Todos (And Ultimately On Capriles)

June 9, 2012

When the myriad of dirty tricks pulled by Chavismo during its tenure is analyzed after the demise of Hugo, none will be judged as being more cynical and undemocratic than the two this week on the legal status of the Podemos and Patria Para Todos political parties. The Supreme Court this week pulled two rabbits out of their dozens of dirty trick hats and managed to insure that neither party will be able to back back Capriles in his Octobre Presidential bid.

In one case, the Electoral Hall of the TSJ ruled that the elections for leaders of Partia Para Todos (PPT) were invalid and new ones had to take place. The Hall named a “temporary” President and mandate 90 days for new elections. By then, it will be too late for PPT to register for the election backing Capriles. (Those that back Capriles won the internal elections). In the second case, the Constitutional Hall of the TSJ ruled that Didalco Bolivar, not too long ago in exile from Chavismo accused of corruption, was the rightful leader of Podemos, despite the fact that Ismael Garcia had used the party to back the opposition in the Assembly elections.Reportedly Didalco exchanged his exile for returning and claiming the party.

Thus, in one swipe, two minor, but significant regional parties will not be able to use their symbols and colors to back Capriles. this may seem like a minor nuance, but it is not. Such symbols are quite important to the rank and file and are used extensively, particularly in the regional bastions where these parties are strong.

The fact that the two decisions were made practically simultaneously just days before these parties were due to register their support for Capriles, shows how dirty and cynical the whole thing is. Didalco Bolivar had left the country in a rush and Chavez had said that PPT was largely irrelevant. But revenge against traitors and fears that these small parties may make a difference in certain states drove the decisions and its exquisite and perverse timing.

Posted in Venezuela | 28 Comments »