The Devil's Excrement

–This morning a local newspaper denounced that Judge Gumer Augusto Quintana had been in jail for armed robbery. This afternoon he was rmoved from his position. What’s the big deal? We already have Judge Maikel Moreno, a convicted murdered as one of the most trusted judges of the revolutiion.

—Peruvian TV reports that Chavez protected Fujimori’s trusted adviser Vladimir Montesinos. Really? Didn’t Deputy Carreno say that Montesinos was dead when the Venzuelan press said he was here? But Montesinos later showed up here alive and well and was sent off to Peru in minutes? Why did Carreno say that? Why did the Head of the intelligence police hold a press conference to deny Montesionos was in the country?

—Carter Center representative Jennifer McCoy shows up and expresses her backing for the new CNE. I guess she used the same criteria as that fateful day of the recall vote: Absolute Ignorance, Total Loyalty. That is one stupid statement by Ms. McCoy. Has she read their statements so far? Does she really back them?

The
revolution is truly amazing. They have no morals and no ethics. They name as
“Head of Government Contract , a new position supposedly to control corruption
none other than Eliecer Otaiza, the former Head of Disip, Ince, Land Institute
and whatever other positions he has had. This is the same guy who as he was
appointed to each f his positions, went out and spent Government money to
build himself a gym adjacent to his office. The same guy who signed memos
requesting food and beverages out of Ince funds to give to Chavistas marchers. The
same one
that said Venezuelans should be armed!. The same guy who killed a lady
that was riding with him in a police motorcycle at a time that he held no
Government position, the evidence was changed and eventually he was charged,
but magically the charges were dropped and he was named to a nw Government
position.

But he is
now the corruption Czar. What a big joke! But let’s hear what he had to say
during his testimony in the National Assembly. You don’t even have to remember
that Chavez has been in power seven plus years, I will make sure to remind you:

“In the last seven years many people have
become very rich and made very lucrative deals, wearing the red beret of the
Bolivarians”

No!!! For
the shame of it. Who would have thought it? After all the denials, now we learn
that many people have become rich wearing red berets, but he did not mention
one of them. He must know who they are, no? But he keeps blabbing about:

“Some are extreme right, I call them “Machete
International”, some are military and others are crooked comrades who go around
making huge deals in the name of the revolution”

In one
swipe, he confesses there is a corrupt and
rightwing MVR branch, corrupt military and crooked comrades. This guy is worth
his weight in platinum, titanium or gold. That is exactly what you have been
reading in this blog for a long time. But now I have the good housekeeping seal
of approval from corruption and corrupt himself Czar Otaiza.  Now, as you read the following remember that
Chavez has been in power all of seven plus years:

“I have been commissioned by the President to
initiate the hunt for the Chavista “nouveau
rich” and declare the war against corruption.”

About
time! Seven years and now you are initiating
the war. This from the colonel whose main gripe was supposedly the level of corruption
in Venezuela
during the IVth. Republic, but he has allowed it to reach unprecedented levels
during his mandate. But Otaiza seems to know more:

“There is a group of people who have become millionaires
in this revolutionary process, they have their little companies and now they are
also interested in controlling the anti-monopoly ill too”

Wait! Hold
it there! Read this carefully and remember it has been seven revolutionary years!
There is a group, and they are millionaires,
but if they are interested in the anti-monopoly bill, they can’t have “little
companies”, that I not precisely the realm of “anti-monopoly”. But there is
also an intriguing feature: Given that there are no opposition figures in the
Nationals Assembly, this suggests that these millionaires are ready to
influence half of the revolutionary Assembly? All 81 of them? Oh! The pretty
revolution never ceases to amaze me! Whatever happened to things like ideals,
principles and ethics? Did the revolution ever have them?

But let’s
look at the evolution of things under the revolution:

—95% of
all contracts since Chavez took over have been done by direct assignment rather
than open bidding, down from 13% in 1998. Yes, 13%! The IVth. Was not as
corrupt as they claim, no?

—According
to Otaiza, in 2005, 100% of the municipalities, half the Ministries and two thirds
of the Governorships violated the law. Nice record! 

—Same
source: Of 337 municipalities only six provided information within three months
as established by law.

—Mercal:
Two state managers have been fired for corruption, none charged. This includes one fired for stealing ten Tons of
meat. I guess the revolutionaries are also hungry.

—Caaez (Barinas
sugar plant): As you have read it here, the Assembly said there was corruption
for US$ 2 million; but little has been built despite US$ 200 million being
spent. Well, last week, the Vice-President of the Comptrolling Committee of the
National Assembly said that corruption in Caaez is likely to be above Bs. 140
billion (US$ 65 million). Finally the numbers begin to make some sense.

—The
fund for agricultural development gave Bs. 44 billion (US$ 20.4 million) to
four coops that don’t exist in the Zaraza region.

—In the
same region, that same fund has given credits to plant 51 thousand hectares. The
problem? Zaraza only has 31 thousand
hectares of arable land. The magic of the revolution, land multiplies!

But we are
not supposed to worry. Today the “moral” Council removed a Supreme Court
Justice (Chavista at that!) because of corruption. This Council includes the
Comptroller Clodosvaldo Russian, in charge of stopping corruption since 2000. I
wonder what he has to say about Otaiza’s statements, because so far he has
found very few corrupt people in the last five years. In fact, he keeps denying
they exist!

But as Chavez
said today: “It is the corrupt in Caracas
that stop everything”

Where does
he live? Where has he lived in the last seven years? You guessed it: Caracas, right in the midst of the largest corruption run in the country’s history

Yesterday President Hugo Chavez said during his Sunday reality show “Alo Presidente”, that two top world filmamkers including Oliver Stone had asked for permission to make a movie about the 2002 “coup” and said that they had authorized him to announce it on his Sunday program.

Well, today Reuters is carrying this news item in which Stone says that “these rumors are untrue and unfounded”

Oh shucks!, I guess Chavez will have to concentarte on saving the world and maybe later, the Universe!

(Note added: It turns out Chavez had already picked the cast for the movie, here i is:

Hugo Chavez: Himself or Tom Hanks
Lucas Rincon: Robin Williams
Pedro Carmona: Danny DaVito
Jose Vicente Rangel: Jack Nicholson
Diosdado Cabello: Kevin Spacey

As with the revolution, no woman would play any important role in the movie)

This article appeared in Chile’s La Tercera yesterday, it speaks for itself, another warning, this time for the country that most suffered form the effects of a Government which violated freely te rights of its citizens. It is written by Ascanio Cavallo a Dean of Journalsim at a Chilean University.

Chávez’
Horizon by Ascanio Cavallo in La Tercera

Among the dance of
ideas of what to do with the copper surplus-the rich kid’s syndrome-the most
original one is that one proposed by Senator Camilo Escalona: Let’s help Bolivia. The
socialist chief based his proposal affirming that this would contribute to
improve the security of the Nation and would create a long term horizon in the
relationship Santiago-La Paz. In Chilean diplomacy there are many conflicting
opinions about the origin of the difficulties with Bolivia, but nobody can deny that
the idea sounds subtle and reasonable.

The problem is that it
has a small defect: Hugo Chávez has his hand deep and probably for the long
term in Bolivia.
The Venezuelan President has turned Evo Morales into the main flagship of his
influence in South America and he went as far as fighting Brazil for that
hegemony. It seems difficult that he would accept competition in Bolivia.
If he perceives it, the most probable outcome is that he will unsheath that
quick trigger style that has created so much irritation in the region.

Chile’s political class (not to mention the economic
one) has tended to see the Chávez phenomenon with some levity. It has not perceived with clarity that his
project is one of continental hegemony, not an eccentrity limited to the folkloric
features of politics in Latin America. At some
point after the attempt to overthrow him in 2002, Chavez’ military instinct
activated a synaptic reflex that his own security would depend on his main
adversary, the US,
having more problems and fewer friends in the region.

For this, he had to
jump the principle of non-interference, a purity that gets along badly with
real-politik and in which his intellectual references like Fidel Castro have
never believed in. Chávez intervened in Bolivia,
is doing it in Peru and Nicaragua, will do it in Ecuador and if he finds the space will do it in Colombia, Brazil
and Argentina.
And Chile?
Of course he will. The moment he can do it.

Chavez chose Castro as
his partner in this effort. But, by surrounding him with historical praise and
cheap oil, he retired him. Anyone that visits Cuba these days may ask whether, without
any sarcasm, it is the Cuban commander that governs that island or is it the Venezuelan
colonel that does?

Chavez surpasses
Castro in at least two attributes: the first one is money. Thanks to oil, Venezuela has become the first rich adversary
that Washington
has had in the region. Not only rich, but also ready to use the money: buying
Argentina’s sovereign debt, handing out sympathies in the Bolivian campaign and
now in the one in Peru and backing under cover, or at least in stealth fashion,
diverse political groups in the Continent.

The second one is his
capacity for identifying and co-opting the most marginal groups, either via
their political system or via the economic models. Wherever Castro used to
favor adventurer intellectuals like Che, Chavez chooses Bolivians indigenous people
or the “etnocaeceristas” from Peru,
the landless movement or the homeless and so on. Chavismo expresses much better
than Castrism the hoarse unhappiness with globalization or the capitalist
order.

And because of this he
has designed a system of sub regional pacts destined to sabotage the main
symbol of that order, the free trade treaty with the US. Even worse, he demolished in a
few hours the Andean Community of Nations, only because Peru was chosing its own free trade agreement
with Washington.
Can anyone think that the most successful country, both in quantity and quality
in free trade, Chile,
is indifferent to the Chavez project?

The silence in Vienna

The Chilean Foreign
Minister has opted for a line of extreme prudence and neutrality in the face of
what is happening in the Continent. At the meeting that she had with Chavez in Vienna, President Bachelet announced that Chile would not have an opinion over the decisions
of is neighbors in Latin America, which was reiterated
later by foreign Minister Foxley. You can bet that in exchange for this, they received
assurances from the flattering colonel that he will do the same for Chile. Not on
the others, he could not; because he is already acting on them. They seem like
the assurances that Von Ribbentrop gave one day to a guy named Molotov.

This supposes that Chile
will not have an opinion about the eventual deterioration of democracy, freedom
of speech or even human rights in those nations. It is sad that a country that depended
so much on international solidarity and trials, has to renounce ahead of time
to back democratic principles if they were to be threatened in other latitudes.

It is sad, but it is
surely realistic. Everything indicates that Chile lacks for now any other
alternative. The role of the great international interlocutor that former
President Ricardo Lagos dreamed of for the country vanishes like a soap bubble,
given the intricate new outlook for foreign policy.

Nevertheless, it would
be even dangerous for local diplomacy to sit and lean on the definitions it had
to make during these days. Whether they want it or not, Chile will have
an influence over its neighbors due to its won needs.

There were two mayoral elections today in Carrizal, near Caracas, and Nirgua, in Yaracuy state. The CNE has declared the two opposition candidates the victors in the two races.

In Carrizal, Jose Luis Rodriguez, an AD candidate defeated the MVR candidate Luis Aponte 6088 to 6022, a very small margin. Abstention was high 56.7%. Rodriguez had opposed the use of fingerprint capture machines, even introducing an injunction in the Supreme Court. The Court never replied. Rodriguez was the current mayor and was supposed to be in danger of losing as people were not too happy with his performance as mayor.

In Nirgua, Luis Vasquez, the candidate of an alliance led my MEP got 10,698 votes versus 8750 of Miguel Sanchez, the candidate of MVR. In this race, the usually pro-MVR Tupamaros sided with the winner. Abstention was 43% in this race.

Interesting!

I tend to limit as much as possible my blog to what is happening in Venezuela, but reading the following article by Vaclav Havel which appeared in today’s El Nacional, reminds me of the uselessness of international opinion and pressure when such horrors go on in the world. In fact, I have made some comments about our situation that are similar to things said by the former President of the Czech Republic.Venezuelans should read it carefully and realize its meaning in the context of what is happening in our country.Only we can save ourselves and our country.

Fidel Castro’s discreet terror by Vaclav Havel

This spring marks the third anniversary of the wave of repression in
which Fidel Castro’s regime arrested and handed down long sentences to
75 leading Cuban dissidents. Soon afterwards, many friends and I formed
the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba.

The bravery of those who found their social conscience,
overcame fear, and stood up to communist dictatorship remains fresh in
my memory. It reminds me of the jingle of keys that rang out on
Prague’s Wenceslas Square – and later around the rest of what was then
Czechoslovakia – in the autumn of 1989.

This is why I rang keys during the conference calling for
democracy in Cuba that our committee held in Prague three years ago. I
wanted to draw the international community’s attention to the
human-rights situation in Cuba, to support that country’s opposition,
and to encourage all pro-democratic forces. The European Union then
introduced diplomatic sanctions, albeit mostly symbolic, against
Castro’s regime.

Soon after, however, a contrary position came to the fore. The EU
opened a dialogue with the Cuban regime, sanctions were conditionally
suspended, and it was even made clear to dissidents that they were not
welcome at the embassies of several democratic countries. Cowardly
compromise and political alibis – as so often in history – defeated a
principled position. In return, the Cuban regime made a sham gesture by
releasing a small number of the prisoners of conscience – mostly those
who were tortured and seriously ill – who the regime most feared would
die in its notorious prisons.

Those of us who live in Europe’s new post-communist democracies
experienced similar political deals when we lived behind the former
Iron Curtain. We are also extremely familiar with the argument that
European policies have not led to any mass arrests in Cuba. But
democracy has shown weakness and the Cuban regime has in turn adapted
its tactics.

Respected organizations like Reporters without Borders and
Amnesty International have collected ample evidence of violence and
intimidation against freethinking Cubans, who can expect a different
kind of ring than that from jangling keys. Their cases often do not end
in courts but in hospitals. Groups of “fighters for the revolution” –
in reality, the Cuban secret police – brutally attack their political
opponents and accuse them of absurd crimes in an effort to intimidate
them or to force them to emigrate. On the island, such planned
harassments are called “actos de repudio” – “acts of rejection.”

Political violence that creates the impression of mere street
crime is never easy to prove, unlike jail terms of several years, and
therefore it does not receive due attention from the world. However,
thousands of former political prisoners in central and eastern Europe
can attest to the fact that a kick from a secret policeman on the
street hurts just as much as a kick from a warden behind prison gates.

The powerlessness of the victim of state-organized street
fights and threats against his family is experienced in the same way as
the powerlessness of somebody harassed during a state security
investigation. Many European politicians who have sought to see the
situation on the ground have been barred in recent years.

Some Europeans apparently regard Cuba as a faraway country whose fate
they need take no interest in, because they have problems of their own.
But what Cubans are enduring today is part of our own European history.
Who better than Europeans, who brought communism to life, exported it
to the world, and then paid dearly for it over many decades, know
better about the torments inflicted upon the Cuban people?

Humanity will pay the price for communism until such a time as
we learn to stand up to it with all political responsibility and
decisiveness. We have many opportunities to do so in Europe and Cuba.
And it is no surprise that the new member countries of the EU have
brought to Europe fresh historical experience, and with it far less
understanding for and tolerance of concession and compromise.

Representatives of the EU’s member states will meet in Brussels
in mid-June to review a common policy towards Cuba. European diplomats
should weigh up the consequences of accommodating Castro’s regime. They
should show that they will neither ignore his practices nor neglect the
suffering of Cuban prisoners of conscience. We must never forget the
seemingly anonymous victims of Castro’s “acts of rejection.”

—Deputy Iris Varela will sue Colombia’s President Uribe in international human rights courts for protecting the Colombian paramilitary.

Makes sense, relations between the two countries are going too well lately.

—Nicaragua’s Liberal’s party rejects oil agreement between PDVSA and Sandinista mayors, saying that it will make the Sandinista Mayors rich and is a violation of the law.

The law? You expect revolutionaries to follow the law? (They do know they get rich and wear fancy glasses over in Nicaragua)

—Inhabitants of Paraguana participated in an exercise of asymmetric war in which the soon to be sold F-16’s participated.

There you go; this makes it very clear that the Government and the military have their priorities straight in how they spend their money and their time. My only question is: If the F-16’s are sold will the war be called super-asymmetric or hyper-asymmetric?

(Note: The soldiers really did not take part in the exrecize, the pictures is here to scare the gringoes and make the Venezuelans laugh)

—The man with the two jobs, one with the Government as its official spokesman as Minister of Information and the other as official spokesman of Chavez ‘MVR political party said that “not one cent of the Nation will be spent on Chavez’ political campaign”.

Jeez, they make it so easy, that I don’t know which of the following to use:

1) Starting when?

2) Weren’t you the one that said that the Maisanta database (Chascon database) does not exist only two days ago?

3) Isn’t your nickname Pinocchio?

4) Should I start a counter every time public funds are used on the campaign? (It would soon make my number of visitors look puny)

5) Does the budget belong to the Nation or the party?

—Below is my own schematic of Chavez looking at the construction of the second Ciudad Bolivar Bridge which has been stalled since last fall, despite all of the funds being paid and all the money spent. I heard today it is still stalled.

They told him it is the Caracas-La Guaira viaduct replacement which was almost ready

—Venezuela wins world championship of dominoes.

Well, dominoes and baseball are just about two of the few things we are very good at, even if we had the home court advantage, which we all know is very important in dominoes. The question is: Did Chavez play?

Via RogerSimon, I get to this apparently very knowlegable take by In from the Cold on the possible sale of Venzuela’s F-16’s:

“Well, if those countries want continued access to U.S. military
hardware, they can’t afford to get caught in an illegal arms transfer
involving a pariah state. True, there are some exceptions to this rule
(Israel’s transfer of F-16 technology to China in the Lavi/F-10 program
comes to mind), but it’s doubtful that any current U.S.
customer–especially those with a desire for future arms sales–would
accept the risks entailed in supporting an illegal sale of the
Venezuelan jets.”

“Additionally, the Iranians and Cubans already have access to
fourth-generation fighter technology, thanks to their acquisition of
MiG-29 FULCRUMs from Russia. The FULCRUMs y in the Iranian and Cuban
inventories are, in some ways, more sophisticated than the
early-generation F-16s that Hugo is trying to unload. Iran and Cuba have something else in common, too: both have had
difficulty in keeping their FULCRUMs in the air, despite full access to
Russian training and technical support. Without similar assistance for
the F-16s, those jets would become little more than ramp decorations at
some Iranian or Cuban base, slowly rusting in the sun.”

“Mr. Chavez may be having a fire sale down at the ol’ used fighter lot,
but he’s going to find a dearth of serious buyers, even among our
adversaries.”

“One year from now, you’re likely to find Hugo’s F-16s in the same spot
they currently occupy–on the tarmac at a Venezuelan Air Force base.”

In another
example of the fascism that is quickly overtaking our daily lives, Professor Carlos
Zerpa of de Colegio Universitario Francisco de Miranda was being “orally
tried” today for teaching in the classroom his views on the country’s
history which, horror of all horrors, differ from the “official”
Bolivarian rewriting of the country’s history.

Zerpa, a history Professor, was denounced to a Chavista-controlled student
union for his apocryphal views. The students are asking for him to be expelled
for the school.

In the words of Zerpa himself in his letter to the University before the “trial” to determine his fate began:

“A debate that obviates both the principle of the right to defend myself,
as well as allowing for methods which are foreign to academia in all societies
and takes us towards the instauration of a barbaric civilization. Accepting
without a quick reaction by the authorities of this institution such protests
undermines the principle of academic freedom, that you are obligated to respect
and protect, if not-we the Professors- are exposed to the danger of a system
told by Orwell in his famous novel “1984” where all thinking is blocked,
which would take us to say that the university is dying as a center for free
thinking…

…I make public the statements made in class during the anniversary week and
that are the object of this debate, where the official history was being put into
question: 1) The idea of Latin-American integration in a single nation called
Colombia is due originally to General Francisco de Miranda. 2) Simon Bolivar
does not appear as signing the decree of independence from the General Captain
of Venezuela 3) The title of Liberator was given to Bolivar in 1813 , that is,
before the battles of Carabobo, Pichincha, Bombona and Ayacucho and 4) The
invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte and the subsequent jailing of King Ferdinand VI
during six years would question the thesis of an international war for
independence, this has been proposed by a good fraction ofwell known historians….

…It seems as if making people think, is a counter-revolutionary act. Making
the students question things would appear to be also unacceptable. Promoting a
student with a critical attitude would be offensive. When the lights of
thinking begin to dim, we begin to enter a dark era that all educators have to
fight, being faithful to their role as propagators of knowledge.

I conclude-as any man of thinking that respects himself-both reaffirming my thesis
and bringing to the present the words of Galileo Galilei in front of the Inquisition “e pur si muove“

Yesterday,
Chavez’ MVR party and all of the parties that still support the Government got
together to defend the current electoral system and ask the Electoral Board to maintain
the conditions imposed by the previous.

The
spokesman at the meeting was the official spokesman for the “National Tactical
Command” of Chavez’ MVR, William Lara, who also happens to be the Minister of
Information and Communication in this autocracy run by the unity of Government
and party in the best Stalinist tradition. Except that here there is not even
the pretense of there being a differentiation.

In any
case, William Lara, this mediocre former high school physics teacher turned modern-day-Goebbels yesterday in
his press conference, conveniently transmitted by the Government TV
channel, unlike opposition press conferences, came out and said two things that demonstrate
how this Government has no morals or criteria when it comes to speaking in public.

The first
statement he made for which I take offense was his passionate defense of the fingerprint
capturing system used in the last three elections. According to this modern day
Orwellian Minister of Information, the presence of these machines prevents
people form voting more than once and makes voting faster.

Well, I
hope I am not prosecuted for calling the Minister unethical and a liar, but so
far, there is no evidence that the system prevents people from voting more than
twice or helping people vole faster. In fact, the opposite appears to be the
case in the case of the speed of the process. In the recall referendum, it was
the fingerprint machines that slowed down the process due to the massive turn
out, forcing polls to stay open until almost midnight.

Moreover,
there is not a single study made in Venezuela that shows that multiple voting
by a single person has ever been a statistically significant problem, In fact,
what has been shown is that those that control the voting are the only ones
that may allow this to happen as the use of indelible ink in all Venezuelan voting
processes guarantees that unless it is allowed by those supervising the
process, multiple voting can be stopped.

Additionally,
the CNE has never revealed or shown how the fingerprint system performed in the
two elections in which it was used, the recall referendum or the October 2004
regional elections. The CNE has always refused to give out technical data as to
the speed of the system, its performance and whether it was even capable of
stopping people form voting twice.

In
contrast, the problems with the fingerprint machines are well known, but were
not mentioned by William “Goebbels” Lara: The ability of the Government to intimidate
voters into believing that their vote can be identified and the ability of
those in control of the voting process to know how many people voted and where,
allowing them to keep polls open later than the law establishes, as was done in
the same two elections. Venezuelan Electoral Law is very clear on the matter: Polls
are only to remain open until 4PM is there is nobody in line or until the lines
are exhausted. None of this was done in these two electoral processes and the
suspicion has always been that the fingerprint machines were telling the
Government, the only one that had access to the real time data that it would be
to their benefit to keep them open. But Lara and his cohorts could care less about teh rights of the people they claim to cherish and love.

But if I
found the defense of the fingerprint capturing machines insulting and
amateurish, his denial of the existence of the Maisanta
database, which I now call the Chascon database, was truly offensive. There
are scenes of Hugo Chavez on TV asking Tascon how the process is going. There
are scenes of Hugo Chavez on Alo Presidente telling people that they can check
everyone on Tascon’s webpage and there is a video of Chavez telling Tascon himself,
who was present, and his Cabinet not to use the Chascon database anymore.

Moreover, the
CDs were distributed to thousand of Chavista activists and members of the Comando
Maisanta itself proudly acknowledged its existence. Even more harebrained was
his explanation on how they compiled their list. He claimed they had the
registry without addresses which they cross-referenced with the beneficiaries
of the “Misiones” and those that signed with them and that is how they obtained
the addresses to get the data. Well Mr. William “Pinocchio” Lara, my childhood address,
the first one that I used to register to vote too many years ago, is in the
Chascon database and I can assure I do not participate in Misiones, have not
vote for Chavez, against opposition Deputies and the like, and even if I did, I
would use my current address and not that one which happens to appear only in
the Electoral registry.

Thus, another
day in the revolution: lying, abuse of power and unethical behavior. These guys
have certainly learned a lot from the chief autocrat. What a bunch of BS
artists!