The Devil's Excrement

While I have no problem with a Central Bank selling gold from its reserves if it deems that this is the correct investment decision, the news that Venezuela had sold about 1% of its gold reserves is another example of how this Government does not have any accountability and how the move to bring the reserves to Venezuela was simply political grandstanding by Hugo Chavez.

First of all, we would have never found out about this, if the much hated International Monetary Fund had not published its annual financial statistics, showing that Venezuela sold about 3.6 Tons of gold. Since we don’t know when this happened, we don’t know how much money it was, but it is roughly US$ 180-190 million, pocket change for a Government that has thrown away billions in Chavez’ petty cash fund, called Fonden.

But the fact that the gold was sold after it was brought back to Venezuela purportedly to “protect” the gold reserves shows how cynical Merentes, Chávez and Giordani can be. Somehow, on the way back, or before the reserves came to Venezuela, they sold “only” 3.633 Tons of gold. Interesting that it was the old Venezuelan leaders that never sold gold and this Government that fills its mouth with words such as “sovereignty” and the “people’s gold” in defense of the gold reserves that went out and sold some for the first time in 30 or 40 years.

Gold reserves have saved the day for the Chávez administration. As gold prices went up, reserves dropped, but remained at a high level. Very recently, the Central Bank even changed how it accounted for the gold in order to make reserves look better. As I said, the whole show of moving the reserves was a signal that we should be worried, this is proof that I was right and it make get worse if Chavez wins on October 7th. As Chavez says, this was all for show, but not they have begun selling the family jewels in secrecy. The Faja, the mining projects, the concessions can all be reversed, but gold sold and money spent is simply no longer there (or here).

So much for caring about the people and sovereignty from a Government without scruples!

I really take offense at Jimmy Carter coming out today, two weeks before the Venezuelan Presidential election and saying that “As a matter of fact, of the 92 elections that we’ve monitored, I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world”

First of all, he is talking about a process that took place eight years ago, for which he gave his blessing when there multiple evidences of fraud and wrong doing and for which his foundation tried to railroad the accusations and technical proof of fraud by holding a sham seminar on them.

I mean this is the same Jimmy Carter that after praising Chavez, came out and said he was disappointed with him, but then proceeded to give a stupid version of the 2002 events.

And I have to question his timing, given that he and his foundation are not observing the upcoming election, have not seen the changes that have been made to the system used in 2004 and has not been in Venezuela since that time. Why now? What is his motive? What basis does he have to say what he is saying? What prompted him to make that silly and false statement?

After all, he said nothing about the fascist Tascon/Chavez list when it was used to discriminate against thousands of Venezuelans. He has said nothing abut the fact that the “best electoral system in the world” includes fingerprint machines which are only used to intimidate the population into believing that the Government may know how they voted.

Again, why now? Why try to give his blessing on the system two weeks before the election? What is his motive? Why give an opinion about something he is so out of touch with?

I suggest the former US President stop meddling with Venezuelan affairs and perhaps find sometime to read these papers or read this whole section of my blog, which shows that what he is saying is just a bunch of crap and that electoral process that he praises so much was tainted and he was partially responsible for the fact that the irregularities were not investigated right after the election, but were the effort of scientists and mathematician who did care about Venezuela and not just showing off.

Jimmy, please find something better to do and if you or any of your collaborators read this, please explain why you all of a sudden have to give an opinion without any recent contact with our electoral system. Once again, it makes you look dumb, tainted and I find it extremely fishy after your inconsistent previous record in Venezuela.

But should you want to reply, maybe you can clarify or try to clarify again if the Chavez Government ever gave the Carter foundation a donation. that was never answered properly (The denial went something like: “The Carter Center has never received a donation in connection with its role …”). But more importantly, please stop anyone from your foundation fromsaying things which are not true about Venezuela, you have played a very sad role in Venezuela, you should be ashamed.

While President Hugo Chavez has made a valiant effort to campaign or appear to be campaigning as much as opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, his efforts to appear more in public seem to be having the opposite effect. Every time Chavez appears in public, it seems to take a toll on him, forcing him to cancel rallies that had been announced previously.

Last week, President Chavez was not that visible until his Apure appearance, which in itself was a surprise as he should have no problem winning that state. In that appearance he left some doubts about both his health and his emotional state that left many questions lingering in the air.

The next day Chavez was supposed to appear in Los Teques to inaugurate four subway stations, but he failed to show up, sending his Vice-President instead in a city that is likely to go for Capriles.

Then yesterday, Chavez went to his traditional stronghold of Catia in Western Caracas in his Chavezmobile, but once he arrived at where he was supposed to give his speech, it was cancelled and the live transmission on the Government’s TV channel was suspended.  Some said that Chavez was mad at the low attendance, with former Mayor of the Libertador District Freddy Bernal justifying the low attendance by saying that the most important mobilization will be on October 7th. But a second version also said that Chavez showed his discomfort throughout the short 2 Km. ride. In any case, Chavez could surely not escape thinking that Capriles walked through Catia a month ago, with huge crowds following among a route which was larger than Chavez yesterday.

And then today Chavez suspended his visit to Portuguesa State, which will only send more wrong signals to the electorate. Portuguesa is a very pro-Chavez State, where not showing up may actually hurt the Venezuelan President after the visit was announced.

While I continue to be very cautious about the outcome of the Presidential election on October 7th. such signals, combined with the infrastructure accidents in August, which are not yet reflected in the polls and Chavez’ best “new” friend, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos inviting Henrique Capriles to in Bogota, make me wonder if people know more than I know and I should be more positive at this time.

You have to give it to the Chavistas, they are masters at manipulating public opinion and the media. They denounce a Bs. 40,000 cash donation by a Bolivarian contractor to a Capriles supporter and sooner than you can say “Concha ‘e mango”, everyone starts slipping on it from the press, to social media to blogs.

I mean, this is the country where a Deputy asked where US$ 19 billion went and nothing happened.

-Where a suitcase with US$ 800,000 arrived in Argentina in a plane full of PDVSA people and nothing happened.

-Where US$ 100 million were spent on 10,000 housing units made in Uruguay and only 11 were built.

-Where the President of BBVA Spain was removed for giving Chavez a US$ 1 million illegal donation (in both countries) and nothing happened.

-Where PDVSA gave US$ 500 million to a flight by night hedge fund run by their buddies and nothing happened.

-Where PDVSA would sell dollars to the same fund at the official rate of exchange and nothing happened.

-Where billions of bonds were sold and we never knew how they were assigned and who got them.

-Where the robolution created hundred millionaires every two or three months and nothing happened.

-Where Government officials on US$ 5000 salaries moved into million dollar homes and drove hundred thousand dollar cars and nothing happened.

Sorry, I will move to the side and not step on it…No me j…

Most days, the Capriles campaign tries not to pre-announce where they are going, in order to avoid Chavista thugs from trying to boycott the opposition campaign. This can not be done when he is going to a large city, where preparations are more complex, particularly in terms of security. A couple of weeks ago, Chavistas closed the Ciudad Bolivar airport to stop him from holding a rally that took place anyway. Today, it was Puerto Cabello´s turn.

From the early hours of the morning Chavista bands were blocking the roads and the airport, some arriving in Government owned vehicles. This is a picture of the main road to Puerto Cabello from the airport:

Is not a great picture, but you can see the red shirts blocking the road. this was not accidental, one of the Chavista organizers had tweeted it early in the morning:

“Today at 7 AM, in front of the Bartolome Salom airport the working people of Puerto Cabello say “no” to the fascist who sucks up to the Empire” said @denniscandanga, shown on the right pane as he participated in the violent actions of the day today.

And here is the picture of the airport:

where you can see how violent they got, and there is more in the following picture, where you see some action by the pro-Chavez thugs in the highway leading to the airport:

Of course, it was the property of the Capriles campaign that was damaged. This is what was left of the sound truck:

This is the truck that suffered less damage, the other one was not so lucky:

shown burning in the above picture and then later after it had been incinerated:

But it did not matter, candidate Capriles pressed on, arriving in Puerto Cabello by boat:

And holding the planned rally, which I am sure was much larger than expected as news of the aggression spread around Puerto Cabello (Although a third day of blackouts I am sure helped):

Of course, as Daniel reports, after the events, Government media said the injured were Chavistas and the aggressors were the opposition in the upside down world of Chavismo.

But Capriles did not let himself be intimidated, he pressed on and had a very successful day.

Just a day in the life of the opposition candidate in Venezuela.

(Who is the fascist here?)

Interesting that the New York Times picked up the story of Venezuela withdrawing diplomatic immunity for Dwight Sagaray, the diplomat who is being charged in Kenya of murdering the Venezuelan Ambassador to that country.

The story is one 0f those strange stories of the Chavez revolution. Sagaray, a lawyer, was teaching English in Caracas as recent as 2008, then appears teaching maritime law a local university in 2009 and holds a position in the Labor Ministry soon after that  and just like that, via a mysterious process, is named First Secretary of the embassy in Kenya. A minor position, but as the article notes, it used to be you had to be a career diplomat to reach even that position in what is for Venezuela a minor Embassy. But somehow Sagaray managed it, sponsored by someone who has yet to be identified.

The Venezuelan Ambassador at the time, left the post earlier this year, accused of sexual harassment and Mr. Sagaray all of a sudden was the top diplomat in Kenya, even moving in into the Amabassador’s residence. Only in Chavez’ revolution do people rise so fast.

But the drop came soon after that, as a career diplomat was named Ambassador and she came and began fighting with Mr. Sagaray. There are stories about diplomatic pouches arriving directly to Sagaray, but it is only innuendo so far. Then, on July 26th., two weeks after arriving in the country, the Ambassador was killed and Kenyan police accused Sagaray. Within 24 hours, the Venezuelan Government, which has always defended its officials accused abroad, removed immunity from Sagaray. This was done so fast, that it is amazing that it was done solely because there had been little time to gather all facts.

Unless, of course, the new Ambassador had been named to intervene into something that was happening at the Embassy in Kenya, with the tragic result of the Ambassador´s death. Of course, the Venezuelan Government has said very little, but it is interesting that that angle had barely been noted by the local press.

Like so many other cases, Sagaray’s rise and fall under the revolution was just as swift as his drop. The surprise and mystery in his case is why he was left without protection so fast. The Government obviously knows, but will the full story ever be known?