The Devil's Excrement

Socialism or McCarthysm by Teodoro Petkoff in Tal Cual

The Fogade
list that reached TalCual deserves a detailed investigation on the part of the
Prosecutor. In this case, we are not in front of a circumstance in which public
workers denounce discrimination or firings on an individual fashion, but facing
a systematic and complete job of classification and calification of ALL the
workers of a public institution according to their political preferences, to be
later accompanied by the use of the Tascon list to complete the previous
information with the data from the recall signatures.

It would
seem as if when Caldera Infante arrived at Fogade he “requested” that espionage
job of the new internal security unity. It is obvious that the work was done
using a payroll list that still included the previous President of Fogade,
Romulo Henriquez, as well as his trusted personnel, which can be freely hire
and removed, as is the custom, and, despite their classification as hard
Chavistas, they accompanied Henriquez in his departure. But the massive firings
of dozens of others workers of the regular payroll probably took place once the
Tascon list was consulted.

If the authenticity
of the document were to be determined-a job that belongs to the Prosecutor- a
number of disturbing questions arise. This repressive mechanism, simultaneously
McCarthyst and fascist, was an isolated case, localized at Fogade or it happened
also in other public institutions? It will be the job of the Prosecutor to elucidate
this point.

In any
case, this sort of backwards “Schindler’s list” evidences a methodical
repressive spirit, we could say sort of “industrial” scale, that coldly could decide
the destiny of people, totally depersonalized. You did not need to consult the
trajectory, curriculum, years of work. The workers had no face, they became
numbers and letter. They depended on those numbers and those letters.

The
Prosecutor’s Office either runs or races with this issue. This is not a
forgotten issue, facing a true Leviathan: but facing physical evidence of possible
abuses of power and political discrimination and segregation. Verifying it is
easy to do.

Adolfo Tascon’s
list and its consequences have transformed themselves in a public scandal. Chavez,
conscious of the magnitude of the McCarthiyst perversion, in a sleek move
forward, speared his sword on Tascon and shook off any responsibility. But he
produced a confession on his part, which requires no proof. However, there are
plenty of proofs. The one from Fogade shines on its own.

The
Prosecutor’s office, which grudgingly opened the inquiry, has material to work
with. Beginning with establishing things as obvious as Tascon’s responsibility,
which implies requesting the removal of his parliamentary immunity.

Or things
as obvious as the responsibility of Caldera Infante in the case of Fogade,
which should suppose his immediate separation from his job. It now depends squarely
on the Prosecutor’s Office whether McCarthyism establishes itself in this
country with impunity, as an official and definitive policy, or that it may b
defeated forever and excluded from our already stormy political life.

In today’s Tal Cual, page 3, there is a copy of a memo (shown above)
of the Head of the Nueva Esparta Fondo Unico Social (FUS) to the Head
of cooperatives in that state, saying that they have had problems with
one of the cooperatives chosen by that fund to sew some 49,000 pants
for school children. The main problem? That the cooperative was
rejected from a program to make uniforms because they were not “really
committed to the revolutionary process” which led the head of that
cooperative to complain and get mad. Imagine! But it gets even more
interesting:

“This attitude made us curious, leading us to
verify the status of the signatures of the main representatatives of
COPROTENE proving to our extreme surprise, that both her as well as her
husband (who is not part of the cooperative) and Mr. Julio Villegas
(treasurer of the cooperative) had signed against the President of the
Republic”

Not happy with this, amazingly including even checking the relatives of the people who run the coopertaive, the letter closes:

“In
conclusion, you will understand the shamelessness, the nerve, the
insolence, that Mr Villegas showed, as well as Mrs. Martinez, which
will allow you to understand why COPROTENE was not included in this new
program, since the uniform program depends strictly from the Presidency
and if they signed against the President, they can’t now to obtain a
benefit from a program that they want to help eliminate via their
signatures”

“Thus,
with a resounding “NO” I expressly manifest our denial that COPOTENE
participate in the uniform program and any cooperative or company that
manifested its desire to get rid of the Maximum Leader of the
Bolivarian Revolution, our President Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias”

The pretty revolution indeed!

Here are the proofs,
Isaias by Teodoro Petkoff in today’s Tal
Cual

We have received a
document that could shed new light in the fight against discrimination and
political segregation. It could be an x-ray of the criollo McCarthyism, of
tropical Stalinism.

More than an X-ray, it is
a description of its physiology.

It is the payroll file for
Fogade, whose aseptic and bureaucratic title “Situation of employees and
workers of Fogade as of 4-30-2004”, presides a political classification of
each and everyone of the hundreds of workers of that public institution,
according to the degree of adhesion or rejection of Chavismo.

In the first page,
numbered from 1 to 6, the following gradation is established:”hard
chavista”,”light chavista”, “neither nor”
“radical political opposition” and “light opposition”. Next
to each of the names of the 566 employees and the 46 workers a “little
number” was placed which places him or her in one of the categories
already described. But there is more, Tascón’s list was used for a second
“classification “, 220 of the 566 workers have next to their names
the letter “R” or “C” or both and 8 of the 46 workers are
also marked with the same “little letters”

“R” means recall
referendum and “C” is the initial for “Consultative
Referendum”. That is, those that made up the classification did not only
inquire about the political inclination of each worker but making use of the
infamous list, they also established who had signed or not the petitions
against Chávez. From this payroll, with the exception of the personnel that can
be freely appointed or removed, how many were fired, using the application of
McCarthist criteria?. We don’t know, but the Prosecutor should find out who
among those classified 4, 5 and 6 and marked with that sort of Star of David
which are the letters R and C, are no longer working for FOGADE.

The Prosecutor announced
the opening of an investigation about McCarthyism, segregation and political discrimination.
If he means business, we can only hope that the Attorney General/Prosecutor
will consider this document with all seriousness.

We understand, according
to our source, that three copies were originally made from this document. We
believe that the atmosphere of political persecution that has reigned in our
country in the last few months, that Chavez himself had to recognize when he
ordered that Tascón’s list be buried, give this document an important value
from the point of view of evidence for the investigation that the Prosecutor
opened about political discrimination and McCarthyism.

The Prosecutor’s office announced today
that it will investigate the misuse of the lists of those that signed
the recall petition agaisnt President Chavez. The press release is
actually quite peculiar as it goes into the details of the case, using
all sorts of qualifiers. The press release even says that the use of
the word “apartheid” can not be applied to this case and makes all
sortos of considerations which are rare for an announcemnet that an
investigations is being opened. We welcome the investigation and hope
it is a serious one and not like so many opened in the last five years
by the Prosecutor/Attroney General Isaias Rodriguez.

This picture was taken by a photographer from El Nacional in February
of 2004. It shows Deputy Luis (alias Adolfo) Tascon leaving the
Electoral Board (CNE) carrying a box. What do you think he is doing?:

a) He was selling empanadas de cazon to the CNE Board.

b) He was carrying the dollar bills to buy the infamous list from a Sumate Executive.

c) He was carrying the copies of the opposition petition so that he
could create his list. The copies were made with the twenty
photocopiers he brought into the CNE on January 13th. as authorized by
the CNE President.

d) He was stealing some of the signatures from the opposition petition.

e) He was teaching english spelling to the reporters outside the CNE.

Do they bury it or not? by Teodoro Petkoff in Tal Cual

According to newspaper VEA, to attribute to the list
of Adolfo Tascon a McCarthyist character is an attempt by Tal Cual to “disqualify”
it. It would be a waste of time, the list disqualifies itself. If that were not
the case, Chávez would not have ordered its “burial”. That monster could be
considered like a dead dog, with everyone trying to shake it off, even their authors,
the intellectual ones and the hired guns. But VEA still sees merits in it.
Because the witch hunt of the sinister gringo Senator was directed against north
American communists, that would establish, according to VEA, a fundamental
difference with Tascon’s list, which was elaborated to persecute those “that
voluntarily (sic) signed the petition asking for a recall referendum”

That has as much logic as arguing that the
qualification of “inquisitorial” for the scoundrel list would also be an
attempt to confuse. Garcia Ponce (Editor of VEA) would illustrate us about how the
inquisition only concerned itself with persecuting those that the Catholic Church
considered “heretics”. Inquisitional and McCarthyism will always remain as
generic terms to designate intolerance, fundamentalism, the persecution and punishment
of those that deviate themselves from the political or religious line which
predominates at a given moment of
history. McCarthyism is the same as Stalinism and the great shame of Guillermo
Garcia Ponce and those like him, who were comrades of those that were attacked
and humiliated in the US because of their communist convictions, is that today they
eagerly try to justify and validate the same type of cowardly persecution convictions,
half a century after the gringos buried their Tascon, to those that in Venezuela
dissent from the regimen. Much like McCarthy created the term “anti American”,
for any idea or political posture different from his, Garcia Ponce and all of
those shipwrecked from Communism, who
are trying to hold on to the saviors’ raft of Chavismo, qualify as “traitors to
the Nation” and “stateless” those that do not accompany the “process”. The same
way, in which thousands of North Americans were persecuted on the basis of mere
suspicion that they could be Communists, thus Tasconism transforms a signature,
enabled by the Constitution, into a suspicion of “coupsters”. It is the same thing
and the cheap sophism of VEA can not change that.

The cynicism of Garcia Ponce surpasses that of Jose
Vicente (which makes him ipso facto a candidate for Guinness) when it states that
“No person that signed has been cited to any inquisitorial committee to harass
or threaten him(…) Nobody has been persecuted (…) Nobody has needed to go into
exile like Charles Chaplin did (…) Nobody has had to retract himself via a humiliating
declaration”. In Tal Cual we have compiled hundreds of cases of ALL of those
things mentioned by VEA and we thought that publishing one a day, to compile a
file of these times of rats that we have to endure. And if the “burial” of the MCarthyist
list turns out to be a fib, we will return to our campaign. Nobody has been
fired for signing? Nobody has been denied a job for signing? Nobody has been asked
to retract from his signature in order to be admitted to the civil service? Nobody
has left Venezuela because doors were closed to them? It is as dirty to do it,
as it is to deny it. Even the Prosecutor’s office is starting to look like Joe McCarthy’s
committee!

Many of you, Garcia Ponce, have become a case of appropriation of ideological
postures that you had fought against in the past. In the past, you used to
denounce the “carnetocracy” (Referring to the fact that only an id from a
political party got you a job) of AD and COPEI. Today’s carnetocarcy, which is much
worse, is being used by you Who changed?

The Tascon list continues to be in the news, don’t want to bore you to
death with it but it is getting very interesting from a legal point of
view and Tascon is contradicting the facts quite a bit:

-El Nacional has started with its own stories on people who were
affected by being on the list. Yesterday they ahd an article of a guy
who was named alternate judge, until they found out that he had signed
agaisnt Chavez and his nomination was revoked. What makes this case
interesting is that it all happened after Chavez said the list should be buried.

Today El Nacional continues with nine cases of people who were either
fired or not hired because they were on Tascon’s list. The most
intersting case is that of three lawyers who were fired, reportedly on
orders from Vice-President Rangel himself, from teh National Borders
Institute. They sued and lost but are appealing. What makes the case
most intersting is that teh judge that ruled against them said that
there was no crime involved in firing them because the had sigend
agaisnt Chavez! The lawyers also say that they were told that if they
withdrew their siganture they could continue working at their
positions. All four people at that institution who signed were fired
and one of them, a 72 year old man, did withdraw his signature.

-But perhaps the most interesting article in El Nacional today, is that
Enrique Naime, a former negoiator of the conditions for the recall vote
for teh opposition, said that Tascon obatined his list by moving into
the CNE twenty photocopy machines on January 13th. 2004, which were
placed in the public relations office, the secretary general’s office
and the auditorium, in order to copy the forms submitted by the
oppsoition with the names and id numbers of those that signed the
petition for a recall referendum agaisnt Hugo Chavez.

Accoridng to Naime, he talked to two CNE Directors and was told to talk
to the President of the CNE, now Judge of teh Supreme Court, who told
him that the Government ahd the right to do it. Naime says it took ten
days to copy all of the signatures and it was none other than Deputy
Luis (alias Adolph) Tascon, who supervised the whole process. Naime
says he has copies of the memo in which the CNE authorizes the copying
of the signatures. Somuch for accusing Sumate!

Tascon also says in today’s paper that he is proud of what he did.

It was a day for the cynics to come out of the woods today:

(picture of Adolfo Tascon courtesy of Noticiero Digital, thanks Ed!)

1) Deputy Luis (alias Adolph) Tascon came out
and said that his infamous list was actually purchased for “thousands
of dollars” from an executive of ONG Sumate. This is actually quite
good, as it gives more material for the Prosecutor to investigate. For
example Tascon could explain to us why:

-He didn’t say anything about this before, as was his duty.

-Why he participated in acquiring what was clearly illegal property, as was his duty.

-Why
didn’t he denounce a “thousand dollar transaction” in a country where
it is illegal today to carry out such a transaction as well as being
illegal to hold “thousands of dollars”, as was his duty.

-Why he went ahead and posted it anyway and used it in the way he did, despite knowing its obscure and illegal origin.

Tascon’s
immunity as a Deputy of the National Assembly should be removed, so
that all of these crimes committed by him and others can be
fully investigated.

2) The other cynic that showed his face was the People’s Ombudsman who said
that it was a defaming to accuse an “institution of human rights” like
the one he presides. It turns out that someone that worked in his
office accused him today of firing her for signing against Chavez. I
loved his “human righties” answer: “No, I fired her because, I could
and no law protected her!”. You have to love this guy. He would not
recognize a human right he ever saw one, he always argues law (if he is
not traveling), but he comes out to defend the indefensible.

Where was German Mundarain, the People’s Ombudsman on April 11^th, 12^th.
2002? Where was he when the human rights were violated in dozens of
marches, people getting killed and injured? Where was he when the
Tascon list was openly used to fire and abuse people? Where was he when
kids were violently kicked out of their homes by the National Guard?
When Jose Vilas was shot in the back by the National Guard? When
soldiers were burned and burned and burned alive in their cells?

Human Rights? Defamation? Give me a break, German!

Don’t play
dumb Isaias! by Teodoro Petkoff in Tal Cual

Don’t you
think you have to ask that the parliamentary immunity of Adolfo Tascòn be
removed?

Prosecutor
Isaias Rodriguez has sent us a short setter congratulating Tal Cual on its
fifth anniversary. In a few lines he tells us: “Let this opportunity be an
occasion to wish for the recovery of the vocation for social service that has
always distinguished Venezuelan journalism, forgotten, at times, for the mere
interest of selling a product to obtain gains, or confused by the political stardom
assumed by part of the media in the last few years.”

Taking advantage of the suggestion,
we also wish for the recovery of the social vocation that should distinguish
the General Prosecutor of the Nation, forgotten, in these years, for the mere
desire of placing the institution that is supposed to guarantee legality in the
acts of the Government and the State, at the service of the circumstantial political
interest of President Chavez, to guarantee the impunity of the crimes by the
Government and the State. What Isaias says about the media and his criteria about
that will be left for another opportunity, because after the public recognition
made by the President of the Republic of the continued and systematic perpetration
of a crime by his Government, which was the elaboration and public broadcasting
of the roguishly famous list of Adolfo Tascon and of the use that official
institutions have made of it to violate the law and the Constitution, trampling
the human rights guaranteed by the latter, the “bicha”.

Chavez has already completed the
most important part of the investigation.

What he said is condensed in a
judicial aphorism which nobody can object: “When people confess, you need no
proof”. Chavez confessed that the McCarthyst list of Adolfo Tascon exists and
recognized that it had been used to deny work or fire Venezuelan citizens, as
well as to deny or make it difficult, to the point of humiliation, any
transaction with any official institution which any citizen attempted to make, in
legitimate use of his constitutional rights.

Will you reach, Isaias, the
Rangelian cynicism of saying that they were “exaggerations” of the opposition and
that there was no crime? This is now beyond doubt, because Chavez even
described the modus operandi. There was a crime. Its intellectual author
confessed. By the way Isaias that if he had not done it, you, not even if drunk,
would have thought of ordering an investigation about a crime that was public
and well known. That’s not the way you are. You don’t even dare to not laugh at
a single joke by him. You are scared of Chavez. But you have been liberated
Isaias, I the Supreme, admitted the crime. You have nothing to fear now.

It is now your turn to accuse the material
authors of the crime. I am not going to ask, because I know you will not go
there, even in the most daring of your deliriums, to investigate the intellectual
authorship. To charge the material authors you don’t even need the courage of Fermín
Toro. You have to start by asking Chavez to give you the letters that he claims
to have received in which the tasconian abuses were exposed to yhim. Using those,
you will have the name of the institutions and officials that committed the
crimes. You have to find out, Iasias, something which is not difficult, how was
it that Tascon obtained the lists for the consultative and recall referenda. At
the CNE, they can probably tell you. We are not going to demand, Isaias, that it
was your duty as Prosecutor, by just way of “notitia criminis”, that you were
obligated to investigate how during months, a Deputy of the Republic maintained
a webpage open so that all the little kings of the regimen could consult it. What
would be the point? But now, you can’t play dumb, Isaias. Don’t you think you have
to request the removal of the parliamentary immunity of Adolfo Tascon, to request
that he be tried? The matter is not just simply to “bury” the McCarthyst list.
Of course, that is not a bad thing, but the crimes committed in its name, can
not be buried. That is why you were named: to prevent that the Government bury
its own crimes.

You really have to admire the ability of the People’s Ombudsman
to
keep a straight face when referring to Tascon´s fascist list. He says
first:

“I am convinced that those lists were used and pointed
to publicly, people from the opposition pointed out that the Government used
them to intimidate those that those that did not share ideas and from the
Government it was also pointed out that the opposition, in the private sector
and in the municipalities and Governorships …to threaten and persecute the
people that identified themselves with the Government”

First of all, the list only contained those that
signed against Chavez, so what is he saying that the opposition fired people
that did not sign? Now, that would really be hard to prove. And then comes the
cynical part:

“Investigations advanced by his office have not been
able to find proof of the use of this instrument to fire people…from a legal
point of view there is no evidence”

Well, maybe he can’t read and understand what Tal Cual has been carrying, with ID numbers
and names. Or the fact that in institutions like FOGADE close to 200 people who
had signed against Chávez were fired and replaced by an equivalent number of
people none of which had signed. But
the real problem is that people have gone to his office to complain about being
fired or denied a passport or a national ID card and they were turned away by officials from the Peoples’ Ombudsman
office. The reason? They were too busy with more important cases! In fact, at
the time, these cases were in the newspapers, where some of those that felt
affected went to denounce what was going on.

But this is the same cynical People’s Ombudsman who
comes out and accuses the US of intervening in Venezuelan affairs (does he have
proof?) or of participating in the April 2002 coup (does he have proof?) or
never showed his face when citizens were repressed by Government troops (and
some were killed or injured, but he just does not care). Mr Mundarain is simply
a cynic who enjoys the trappings of his diminished office, an office that is
new in Venezuelan legislation, but under Mundarain it has done little to
protect Venezuelans, becoming a farce of the much ballyhooed Moral Council
introduced by the new Bolivarian Constitution. In fact, Mr. Mundarain has spent
one third of his time traveling to “learn” about similar offices in the world,
or promote himself to preside the international organizations that group them.

But when it comes time to defend the Government, this
sad figure of the Vth.
Republic
is quick to show up, defend the Government and condemn the opposition or
whatever Chavez wants.

In one or two weeks when
proof will be provided in detail to hhis office by groups that are gathering
such evidence right now, he will either say nothing or find a legal argument
why the evidence can not be used. He simply does not understand that his office
is supposed to defend the people, both legally and morally. But to defend
morality, you have to have morals and ethics. To defend democratic principles,
you have to be a democrat. To defend human rights, you have to believe in them.
Once more, Mr. Mundarain shows he understands none of these principles. He has
none.