Relatives of prisoners grieve when they learn of the deaths of their relatives
When Venezuela’s fake Vice President Maduro called the deaths of 61 prisoners in a weapons search at the Uribana prison a “tragic confusion”, one does not know what he is referring to. Is the tragic confusion electing Hugo Chávez fourteen years ago? Or is the tragic confusion naming Deputy Iris Varela as Minister for Prisons, a woman with zero management experience, let alone experience with prisons? Or is the tragic confusion the fact that after all her failures, Iris Varela still is the Minister of Prisons?
Because there is no confusion about the National Guard going in to search for weapons at the Uribana prison and within a couple of hours to find that 61 prisoners are dead (Who cares if it is now only 58, as the Minister is quick to clarify?) and a similar number has been injured. But the Ministers reaction is first to blame Globovision for “announcing” that the search would take place, when it was somebody from her Ministry that said it was going to take place. None other than the Head of the prison talked to Globovision to announce it.
And the Minister looks even more ridiculous when she says, with a straight face to boot, that it is being said that “the prisoners were being abused by the National Guard” which was not the case. Funny, over two percent of the prisoners were killed in a weapons serach, but the Minister finds there was no abuse. What a strange concept of human rights and abuse Minister Valera has…
And then comes the magic solution (Another tragic confusion?): The problem is solved by shutting down the Uribana prison. In a country with prison facilities for less than 20,000 prisoners, but where close to 45,000 people are in jail, the solution is then to shut down a prison for 2,500 people and relocate them to the other already overcrowded institutions.
Tragic, yes!
Confusion, yes!
Confusion in Maduro’s and Varela’s minds that still think they have no responsibility over all this. That this was all some sort of unfortunate mistake, rather than fourteen years of negligence and mismanagement, which was only compounded by naming Varela to the Ministry to attempt to tackle one of Venezuela’s most difficult and complex problem.
Only Chávez is missing form this charade and confusion, maybe he could say something wise like “The show must go on!” and claim a philosopher said that…
The Devil's Excrement 
January 28, 2013 at 9:41 am
Is anybody aware of new jails being built?
So far all I’ve heard this woman does is to relocate and close the existing ones as the only solution (El Rodeo, Yare, La Planta, Uribana).
It doesn’t take too much to see that this “solution” is creating a bigger crowd problem somewhere else.
January 28, 2013 at 10:12 am
Given the fact Venezuelan roads are some of the most lethal on Earth, next to Nigeria’s, perhaps the government wants to reduce the number of those “privados de libertad” by transporting them to the place from where non torno vivo alcun.
Bear in mind also that Frau Varela said they were going to start releasing some more choros.
I am sure the main problem now is for those Guardias Nacionales who lost their business model. They will ask for relocation to the other centres for “privados de libertad”
January 28, 2013 at 10:53 am
Hehehe Kep. that would have been a good joke….if it wasn’t true.
But seriously, are there new jails being built? I’m really curious.
Another thing that I don’t get from these pseudo- revolutionary times, why do they call the inmates “privados de libertad”? Is “preso” a bad word?
January 28, 2013 at 12:11 pm
Oh, dear! How could you have written such a bad five-letter word? I nearly fainted…qué soponcio! The smelling salts, please! George!
Don’t say cuti-pre cuti-so again! (blushing)
It is such a bad word, just like cuti-cri cuti-men!
The red-clad boligarcs want to build 23 “centres for reclusion for those deprived of freedom”, as Minister for the Popular Power of Penitentiary Services, Iris Temple, said.
January 28, 2013 at 1:10 pm
Oh, pardon my french…!
How about “recluso”? Is that a bad word too?
January 28, 2013 at 1:27 pm
Carolina,
Preso is a neutral word, even if its meaning is bad, but it is as bad as ‘privados de libertad’. What the regime is trying to do is to pretend those who are there are just the victims of the past capitalism.
They also want to use another word just to pretend they treat people more humanly.
What really pisses me off with all this is that we could be insisting more on following through all the bits and threads of disaster Chavismo is producing but we don’t.
They talk about human right abuses in the IV Republic. And they have the gall to do that even if several of the worst scum of said IV Republic are leaders in their movement. For instance: Róger Cordero, a PSUV deputy who actually killed some of the same lefty guerrilleros in the eighties.
Or Rodríguez Chacín, who was one of those planning the Masacre del Amparo.
These guys are so incredible that they go to celebrate 23 January even if Hugo Chávez openly said he wanted to invite Pérez Jiménez for his inauguration in 1999, even if he later repeatedly praised Pérez Jiménez.
And we don’t talk about that but in some short references perhaps here or there. What we should be doing is spreading the word and letting Chavistas know we are letting people in the secondary cities know what a bunch of liars they are.
We talk to Globovisión whereas we should talk about these things to the people taking the buses to Calabozo or Maturín, to the people in Southern Valencia or Punto Fijo.
January 31, 2013 at 12:41 pm
Can you blame the regime for these idiotic renamings? They work! Stick a “Hecho en Socialismo” plus a coat of red spraypaint on things and enough of South America believes you to let you do anything you want. Make some noise about being against the US, and you’ve most of the rest of the world on board.
January 28, 2013 at 9:39 am
Abuse or not, whatever government sits on the chair, violent confrontations at prisons are and will be an unavoidable reality. You cant disarm the with flowers let alone push them to negotiate since they will want power. If they where doing things right and creating new operative prisons, some of the thugs in current prisons should be locked up in solitary confinement 23 hours a day. and you wont convice them to do so unless you use an obscene ammount of violence to regain control. Some people will die, but everything has a cost, and IMHO, some prisoners arent worth the air they are breathing.
January 28, 2013 at 9:03 am
They are probably so desperate, that they are willing to wait for the chance that Hugo will get well enough to give a few speeches in Maduro’s campaign. Plain and simple it is a Hugo cult and Hugo is who they vote for.
January 28, 2013 at 4:08 am
Bruni,
What do you mean Chávez wouldn’t have done it?
They “do investigations” all the time.
It is laughable and our opposition does not keep track of things.
We just go from one to the other item and we don’t try to change this anal lack of memory our nation has.
Chávez anuncia INVESTIGACIÓN PROFUNDA por explosión:
http://www.latercera.com/noticia/portada/2012/08/653-479957-9-chavez-ordena-investigacion-profunda-tras-explosion-de-refineria-y-decreta-duelo.shtml
Nothing has happened.
Hell, nothing has happened for the Caracazo. And that is actually the reason why Chavismo claims over and over again that it carried out the bloody coup of 1992.
Even stupid foreign journalists and historians (foreign) repeat it: official number of victims in Caracazo around 270, but unofficial up to 5000.
Up to 5000? Where is the list of missing people? Didn’t they have family? So: how come? Why only CAP and Allegro and a couple of close friends? If 2000 to 5000 people get killed, they had to find a few more killers AND the list.
In Venezuela whether it is to inflate or deflate numbers, to accuse or to excuse, nothing is completed, nothing is finalised, everything is started, announced and left to oblivion.
January 28, 2013 at 8:49 am
Unfortunately, Kep, you just encapsulated what Vzla has become, and sadly, what it always was.
#FALTADESERIEDAD
January 29, 2013 at 2:03 pm
Kepler, I am giving Maduro the benefit of the doubt in this particular issue, which I have neer given, with reason, to Chávez.
Chávez never EVER investigates anything. He just does not care.
In this case, as I said, the guy in charge has said he opens an investigation. It is a good start, it may not come to anything, as usual, but I am giving him a chance. In 6 months, we will see if anything comes out of it or not.
January 29, 2013 at 11:04 pm
Good start: In the Assembly investigation, there are no opposition Deputies
January 30, 2013 at 8:10 am
What does it mean “give him a chance”?
Is that rhetorical?
Do you believe he will do it?
I give second chances to criminals if they sit their punishment, once release, to go and work cleaning toilets or painting something.
I won’t trust them, ever.
These are murderers and thieves.
January 28, 2013 at 3:52 am
I hope sincerely that a lot of colaborators from CIA and other US Secret services where among them, this 5th collonne must be eradicated because they are against the interest of the Venezualian people !
January 28, 2013 at 5:54 am
That is who you think is in Venezuelan prisons? And you support summary execution of political prisoners?… Wow! If we let you have your way, we will have a Venezuelan “Killing Fields”
January 28, 2013 at 7:13 am
Roy,
To put things in perspective.
This Rudy character is an old, obese East German who was living with his mother until very late in his life. He apparently moved to Zaventem, a Flemish (Belgian) town next to Brussels’ Airport, to work for a call centre. He usually gives cheap presents to women in third world countries in order to find some “love”. He managed to get a Filipino girlfriend, at least according to a blog someone here posted. He supports the Belgian communist party, which must get around 1.5% of the vote (way too much, if you ask me)
This bloke wouldn’t make it to head of the communist party in his street. He could become a minister if he were a Venezuelan of the XXI Century “socialism”, though.
January 28, 2013 at 9:52 am
Kepler,I don’t think posting information about the hearsay of 3rd parties is an accurate way to assess someone.
No offense, and my intention is not to defend Rudy either, but why disclose private information about posters on this blog?
January 28, 2013 at 10:16 am
It is not private at all. I just read it in his German blog. This does not come from revealing emails or the like.
The background information about Belgium is also more than public, I just happen to live close-by.
January 28, 2013 at 12:20 am
How many guards died or were injured? (I hope none.) But if none were killed, then this sounds like a slaughter.
January 28, 2013 at 2:08 am
As far as I heard, one was killed and one evangelical priest at the very start.
January 27, 2013 at 9:02 pm
Close down the prison? Sounds like they used the flame throwers again. They make such a mess!
January 27, 2013 at 9:01 pm
If they kill 60 people for each 2,500 is a high toll and I would bet that nothing comes off the investigation.
January 27, 2013 at 9:48 pm
The situation is out of hand, Miguel. Truly out of hand. I have been thinking a lot on what can be done and what would I have done. The prison system is a war zone.
Here’s a video that shows the reality of Venezuela’s prison. What can be done?
http://cuentosintrascendentes.blogspot.ca/2012/10/duele-venezuela.html
January 27, 2013 at 9:54 pm
They have tried to do this before with the same result. Professional people know what to do, there are no professionals in the Government. This has been out of hand for years:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/04/world/americas/04venez.html?pagewanted=all
January 27, 2013 at 8:58 pm
I don’t know why he used the term “tragic confusion” and with 61 deaths, this is a huge tragedy but at least:
1) he is taking steps to disarm the prisons and 2) he is calling for an investigation into what happened.
I doubt that Chávez would have done either.
January 27, 2013 at 8:27 pm
Reblogged this on danmillerinpanama and commented:
Gun control has worked as splendidly in Venezuela as has everything else there. It has done so even while
el Thugoel Presidente Chávez continues to recover (no less splendidly) from a minor bout with cancer while enjoying his vacation at a health spa in Cuba. Viva la Revolución!