The Devil's Excrement

Barcelona                                                              Bern

Guatemala                                                           Los Angeles

London (Speaker’s Corner)                                   Vigo, singing the anthem

Minnesota (cold!!!)                                                          Toronto

Orlando/Tampa                                                        Chicago

Boston                                                                     Washington

It will make the page heavy, but they did such a good job, they deserve to be seen by everyone (more as they arrive). You can see the complete set at this link in 11abril.com. All but the Washington picture were sent to me, that one I took from the Viva’s page through 11abril.com. Thanks to all for sending the pictures in!!!

Weird way to carry a dog                      Banner:”Chavez is shitting in his pants”

Hat or Poster?                                    A friend with a poster supporting PDVSA and its technology center

I signed, jail me!                                 Chavez is written with “ch” insults with ch                         

Chavez opium of the people         Enough of “robolucion”

People seen at the rally (more pictures inside in Pictures or Posters)

Going through things that happened in my absence I find the news that inflation was up 5.5% in the month of February, (this is not 5.5% annualized, this is only February) which Hugo Chavez immediately blamed on the opposition. Imagine, this is the first month with price controls! Now, according to the Central Bank, food and beverages went up “only” 4% thanks to price controls. Way to go! 

Take a break from the political tension and admire this spectacular orchid, Cattleya Gaskelliana “Blue Dragon”, one of the Queens of the Venezuelan so-called “blue” orchids. I got a piece from a friend a while back, it flowered once but I was not impressed. This time I am. Enjoy!

The judge who ordered the detention of opposition leaders Carlos Fernandez and Carlos Ortega said yesterday (El Nacional, page A-2), that he was not pro-Chavez or anti-Chavez, he was apolitical. Well, the picture below shows in a red circle Judge Maikel Moreno on April 11th. 2002, among the pro-Chavez crowd that was waiting for the anti-Chavez march right before 19 people were killed that day. Note the stones on the hands of the people around him. What was he doing there, research? The man on the left is Chavez’ MVR Deputy Juan Barreto

But there is more to the history of Mr. Moreno

1987- As a member of the intelligence police he is found guilty of homicide and sent to jail.

1990- Released from jail

1990- Weeks after being released, he finds a position in a Court.

2002- Is seen with Chavista Deputies during the disturbances of April 11th.

May 2002- The Head of Chavez MVR in Caracas says the party will provide defense for the gunmen filmed shooting from Puente El Llaguno at the peaceful opposition march. Among the gunmen were an MVR City Councilman and two workers of the same municipality. Then lawyer Maikel Moreno is put in charge of their defense.

September 2002- He is appointed provisional Judge by a Government panel and ratified by the Supreme Court to the position. The law says to become a judge you need to have some form of postgraduate work which Judge Moreno does not have.

February 2003- He orders the two opposition leaders detained despite of the fact that one of the charges is not even in the criminal code. The charges are brought by a prosecutor who is the niece of the Attorney General (Chavez’ first Vice-President) whose area of expertise is not even criminal law.

Is this an independent judicial decision? Ha!

The Colombian Minisiter of the Interior and Justice, went on the offensive against both Hugo Chavez and Brazilian President Lula Da Silva. Of Chavez he said he was not condemning the Colombian guerillas known as FARC, because ” Chavez is not going to be disposed to speak against people he meets frequently with or ha has seen frequently” Of Lula he said that he wants to reserve for himself the position of mediator, a position for which nobody has proposed him and I don’t believe he is even in the list’

Not diplomatic, but very straight talk. I am sure Chavez will now call him an oligarch that wants to get involved in Venezuelan affairs.

I guess the anti-war demonstrations last weekend have made marches and demonstration a hot topic in the US and the world. Here is an article about counting how many people are in a march and how the “million people” march only had 400,000 in attendance. The picture below on the left is supposedly the 15,000 people that attended the Seattle demonstration, looks tiny to me compared with Venezuelan standards. This blog has lots pictures of posters, almost like a Venezuelan march, except they seem to get a little rougher and nastier, the one on the right below, did seem just out of a Venezuelan one march though. Finally, this link from the Moscow Times has a table of how many people attended the marches worlwide. I had looked at lots of pictures and was only impressed by the demonstration in Rome when I compared them to the ones in Venezuela, the table shows I was right. All of these articles and pictures from last weekend confirm to me that the Venezuelan “rebellion” is quite unique.  We get hundreds of thousands routinely in Caracas a city of four million. This is an indication of the profound dislike of the Chavez regime an it simply indicates that Hugo Chavez is fighting an uphill battle to remain in power. (Some of the links via Instapundit)