The Devil's Excrement

According to an article in today’s la Razon, Vice-President Jose Vicente Rangel has asked President Chavez not to approve the mortgage debtor’s bill that I described last week. The Bill has already been discussed twice in the full Assembly and would need only the President’s signature to become the law.

It would be very positive if the story is true, as the Bill would not be in the best interests of the country and would in the end benefit those that don’t need it. I find myself in Rangel’s side, something which does not happen very often.

The article by Luisa Elena Martinez in la Razon is actually very critical of Rangel’s position. It is full of sentences that have become clichés in the last few years like “the bill favors those that are judicially weak and gives them their right to housing”. “What is being done is establishing rules by mandate of the Constitution which reivindicates the Social State and where there is no room for financial speculation”

What the banks oppose is not that the bill does not allow for indexed mortgages as the article makes believe, but the fact that the Bill forces banks to lend a fixed percentage of their credit portfolio to these mortgages at very low interest rates, which would not be a good business proposition for banks, or anyone for that matter. In fact, there is a similar preferential rate for agricultural loans, most of which go to rich farmers and not to those that it should go to. I know a guy who has a cattle ranch that borrows at these preferential rates and turns around and places the funds in CD’s at another bank making two or three percentage points in the process.

Mind you, these loans are not new, they have existed for decades, but the National Assembly now wants to extend it to mortgages and “microcredits”. If all of these are approved, banks would have to set aside 48% of their credit portfolio for these credits for special interests which in the end don’t do what they were meant to do.

Incredible that in that bastion of leftwing thinking called Universidad Central de Venezuela the opposition group called 100% Ucevista is beating the Chavista group Bloque de cambio in the elections for student union. Candidate Stalin (!) Gonzalez had obatined last night 7400 votes to the Chavistas 1400. I guess the Chavistas made a big mistake in not having the CNE run the election, they coudld have won easily!

Makes you wonder about a revolution that is not supported by the young.

Reportedly, the mess between the police and the buhoneros (street vendors) was cause by Chavez himself. The same man that five years ago said the buhoneros should not be touched, told Libertador Mayor Bernal that Caracas was dirty and a mess and he was losing popularity because of it. He then told Metropolitan Area Mayor Juan Barreto that he should stop getting himslef involved with politics and start working at his job. That night Bernal used the police to kicke out all of the streetn vendors who did not ahve a perit, leading to the riots. The riots were ugly, my brother who works downtown since aboyt 12 years ago, says they are the worst he has ever seen. The cops were really repressive and the street vendor sused fireworks and guns to fight the National Guard. Stores were looted, buses, cars and motorscycles were burned. The media really played it low key, according to all the reports I have gathered.

Vice-President Rangel was very critical of how the whole thing was handled and today Bernal fired his Chief of police. That’s the problem when peple like Bernal don’t have a mindof their own. Pass the buck!. Below some pictures of the heavy action, showing the oligarchic streetvendors attacking the cops with fireowrks, stones and sticks, as well as the Chavez peace keeping forces shooting at the rich oligarchs.

The case of the former Vice-Minister of Finance Jesus Bermudez becomes more intriguing and confusing, like so much of what happens in this “revolution”.

Bermudez made bail and was given a wireless bracelet to make sure he sticks around. His partner’s wife made bail and he will have a hearing on the 20th. of December according to press reports.

Where things get somewhat tricky is that Bermudez told US authorities that the plane in which he was flying belongs to the Corporación Venezolana de Guayana (CVG) of which he is a member of the Board of Directors. However, the Venezuelan Government denies that he holds any position in that company and the company owns no planes.

According to press reports the plane is a 1998 Hawker Siddeley that from what I have been able to learn is a two pilot jet, worth some US$ 10 million when new. It is not a small aircraft as initial reports indicated. The jet is in the name of a US company Full Court Aviation, which refused to identify the owner of the jet craft. My sources tell me Bermudez owns the aircraft and visits the US often, always going to the same Opa-Locka airport.

Bermudez entered the US with a diplomatic passport and could be facing jail time. As one of the commenters said in this blog, under the Patriot’s Act, Bermudez is considered to be a politically exposed person, which will require him to prove the origin of the funds that he was trying to bring into the US in cash. Moreover, the US Government may ask him to prove the source of funds for any other assets he may have in the US.

The Venezuelan Government is trying to distance itself from Bermudez, however, he rose to Vice-Minister with the Giordani-Rojas-Merentes team and actually left the Ministry while Nóbrega was there. He is considered to be part of the Giordani group. The case is being investigated by the Special Committee of the National Assembly which is presided by Deputy Pedro Carreño of Chávez MVR.

My feeling is this case may explode in the Government’s face, as Bermudez was a key figure in the Finance Ministry who will not be able to justify having US$ 40,000 for Christmas gifts and will not be able to leave the US that easily. On top of that he has made too many statements that have turned out apparently not to be true, which the judge may not find to speak well for Mr. Bermudez. Stay tuned.

The case of the former Vice-Minister of Finance Jesus Bermudez becomes more intriguing and confusing, like so much of what happens in this “revolution”.

Bermudez made bail and was given a wireless bracelet to make sure he sticks around. His partner’s wife made bail and he will have a hearing on the 20th. of December according to press reports.

Where things get somewhat tricky is that Bermudez told US authorities that the plane in which he was flying belongs to the Corporación Venezolana de Guayana (CVG) of which he is a member of the Board of Directors. However, the Venezuelan Government denies that he holds any position in that company and the company owns no planes.

According to press reports the plane is a 1998 Hawker Siddeley that from what I have been able to learn is a two pilot jet, worth some US$ 10 million when new. It is not a small aircraft as initial reports indicated. The jet is in the name of a US company Full Court Aviation, which refused to identify the owner of the jet craft. My sources tell me Bermudez owns the aircraft and visits the US often, always going to the same Opa-Locka airport.

Bermudez entered the US with a diplomatic passport and could be facing jail time. As one of the commenters said in this blog, under the Patriot’s Act, Bermudez is considered to be a politically exposed person, which will require him to prove the origin of the funds that he was trying to bring into the US in cash. Moreover, the US Government may ask him to prove the source of funds for any other assets he may have in the US.

The Venezuelan Government is trying to distance itself from Bermudez, however, he rose to Vice-Minister with the Giordani-Rojas-Merentes team and actually left the Ministry while Nóbrega was there. He is considered to be part of the Giordani group. The case is being investigated by the Special Committee of the National Assembly which is presided by Deputy Pedro Carreño of Chávez MVR.

My feeling is this case may explode in the Government’s face, as Bermudez was a key figure in the Finance Ministry who will not be able to justify having US$ 40,000 for Christmas gifts and will not be able to leave the US that easily. On top of that he has made too many statements that have turned out apparently not to be true, which the judge may not find to speak well for Mr. Bermudez. Stay tuned.

First of all, let me clarify concepts: There are two instruments that threaten the freedom of the media, the first one is the “gag” or “muzzle” law, otherwise known as the Social Responsibility Bill of radio and TV and there is a quick fix the Chavistas are making to the penal code in order to prohibit or punish many forms of protest and criticism of the Government and members of the Government. The second is not ready yet, but it was approved on the first round and is being rushed to be approved before the end of the year. This is the one that I discussed last night as it penalizes offenses against the President, pot banging, demonstrations and the like.

What was approved this week and came out in the official gazette is the gag law. This law applies to broadcasting concessions in radio and TV and will not apply to newspapers or the Internet. You need to have some form of concession from the Government.

The gag bill is absurd in its extent to begin with. It attempts to regulate everything. From the language that may be used or not, to what may be broadcast or not, to what has to be broadcast.

The bill defines what is sexually explicit to such an extent that its text is confusing referring once to the “sound of nakedness”.  I tried to listen to my nakedness this morning in the shower, but failed to hear anything other than the water. It also defines violent images and sounds. The law then defines the different hours for broadcasting and when can each type of sexual, violent or whatever image be broadcast.

These parts are tricky enough, but then the real treacherous part begins at the end of Article 7:

“In the radio and TV services, when messages are broadcast live during the supervised or all users timeslot, images of real may be presented if it is indispensable to the understanding of the information…there can not be emphasis on unnecessary detail”

See this is very tricky. Who judges what is or not indispensable? What is unnecessary detail? The regulator, the Government.

The law then limits advertising to 15 minutes an hour, prohibits alcohol, tobacco, drug ads (??), gambling and lottery unless the proceeds are for charity (like all Venezuelan lotteries are), 900 numbers without having the cost explicitly, etc, etc.

Article 10 grants the Government the right o use all of the media for free.

Then it gives viewers some rights and here things get tricky again, when the law grants “independent producers” access to all media. It defines who these people are, who will approve their programs and that they have to be broadcast.

Article 14 defines that three hours a day have to be devoted to cultural and educational programs, seven hours of locally produced material of which four have to be independently produced. 50% of musical programs have to be with Venezuelan music evidencing, either geographical genera, languages, cultural values of Venezuela or Venezuelan authorship.

The real tough part of the law is in Article 29 where it specifies what the penalties will be, among them:

When the messages broadcast promote, apologize for or incite war, alterations of public order, religious intolerance, or are against the security of the Nation or made anonymously.

Of course, again the security of the nation is not well defined, making it rather easy to punish any station that promotes any criticism of the Government, the military or the people in the Government. And here my friends are the real danger. The first time as punishment, the station may be suspended for 72 hours, the second for five years. If you owned a successful TV or radio station, you would watch yourself and I think we are seeing evidence of this already.

First of all, let me clarify concepts: There are two instruments that threaten the freedom of the media, the first one is the “gag” or “muzzle” law, otherwise known as the Social Responsibility Bill of radio and TV and there is a quick fix the Chavistas are making to the penal code in order to prohibit or punish many forms of protest and criticism of the Government and members of the Government. The second is not ready yet, but it was approved on the first round and is being rushed to be approved before the end of the year. This is the one that I discussed last night as it penalizes offenses against the President, pot banging, demonstrations and the like.

What was approved this week and came out in the official gazette is the gag law. This law applies to broadcasting concessions in radio and TV and will not apply to newspapers or the Internet. You need to have some form of concession from the Government.

The gag bill is absurd in its extent to begin with. It attempts to regulate everything. From the language that may be used or not, to what may be broadcast or not, to what has to be broadcast.

The bill defines what is sexually explicit to such an extent that its text is confusing referring once to the “sound of nakedness”.  I tried to listen to my nakedness this morning in the shower, but failed to hear anything other than the water. It also defines violent images and sounds. The law then defines the different hours for broadcasting and when can each type of sexual, violent or whatever image be broadcast.

These parts are tricky enough, but then the real treacherous part begins at the end of Article 7:

“In the radio and TV services, when messages are broadcast live during the supervised or all users timeslot, images of real may be presented if it is indispensable to the understanding of the information…there can not be emphasis on unnecessary detail”

See this is very tricky. Who judges what is or not indispensable? What is unnecessary detail? The regulator, the Government.

The law then limits advertising to 15 minutes an hour, prohibits alcohol, tobacco, drug ads (??), gambling and lottery unless the proceeds are for charity (like all Venezuelan lotteries are), 900 numbers without having the cost explicitly, etc, etc.

Article 10 grants the Government the right o use all of the media for free.

Then it gives viewers some rights and here things get tricky again, when the law grants “independent producers” access to all media. It defines who these people are, who will approve their programs and that they have to be broadcast.

Article 14 defines that three hours a day have to be devoted to cultural and educational programs, seven hours of locally produced material of which four have to be independently produced. 50% of musical programs have to be with Venezuelan music evidencing, either geographical genera, languages, cultural values of Venezuela or Venezuelan authorship.

The real tough part of the law is in Article 29 where it specifies what the penalties will be, among them:

When the messages broadcast promote, apologize for or incite war, alterations of public order, religious intolerance, or are against the security of the Nation or made anonymously.

Of course, again the security of the nation is not well defined, making it rather easy to punish any station that promotes any criticism of the Government, the military or the people in the Government. And here my friends are the real danger. The first time as punishment, the station may be suspended for 72 hours, the second for five years. If you owned a successful TV or radio station, you would watch yourself and I think we are seeing evidence of this already.

First of all, let me clarify concepts: There are two instruments that threaten the freedom of the media, the first one is the “gag” or “muzzle” law, otherwise known as the Social Responsibility Bill of radio and TV and there is a quick fix the Chavistas are making to the penal code in order to prohibit or punish many forms of protest and criticism of the Government and members of the Government. The second is not ready yet, but it was approved on the first round and is being rushed to be approved before the end of the year. This is the one that I discussed last night as it penalizes offenses against the President, pot banging, demonstrations and the like.

What was approved this week and came out in the official gazette is the gag law. This law applies to broadcasting concessions in radio and TV and will not apply to newspapers or the Internet. You need to have some form of concession from the Government.

The gag bill is absurd in its extent to begin with. It attempts to regulate everything. From the language that may be used or not, to what may be broadcast or not, to what has to be broadcast.

The bill defines what is sexually explicit to such an extent that its text is confusing referring once to the “sound of nakedness”.  I tried to listen to my nakedness this morning in the shower, but failed to hear anything other than the water. It also defines violent images and sounds. The law then defines the different hours for broadcasting and when can each type of sexual, violent or whatever image be broadcast.

These parts are tricky enough, but then the real treacherous part begins at the end of Article 7:

“In the radio and TV services, when messages are broadcast live during the supervised or all users timeslot, images of real may be presented if it is indispensable to the understanding of the information…there can not be emphasis on unnecessary detail”

See this is very tricky. Who judges what is or not indispensable? What is unnecessary detail? The regulator, the Government.

The law then limits advertising to 15 minutes an hour, prohibits alcohol, tobacco, drug ads (??), gambling and lottery unless the proceeds are for charity (like all Venezuelan lotteries are), 900 numbers without having the cost explicitly, etc, etc.

Article 10 grants the Government the right o use all of the media for free.

Then it gives viewers some rights and here things get tricky again, when the law grants “independent producers” access to all media. It defines who these people are, who will approve their programs and that they have to be broadcast.

Article 14 defines that three hours a day have to be devoted to cultural and educational programs, seven hours of locally produced material of which four have to be independently produced. 50% of musical programs have to be with Venezuelan music evidencing, either geographical genera, languages, cultural values of Venezuela or Venezuelan authorship.

The real tough part of the law is in Article 29 where it specifies what the penalties will be, among them:

When the messages broadcast promote, apologize for or incite war, alterations of public order, religious intolerance, or are against the security of the Nation or made anonymously.

Of course, again the security of the nation is not well defined, making it rather easy to punish any station that promotes any criticism of the Government, the military or the people in the Government. And here my friends are the real danger. The first time as punishment, the station may be suspended for 72 hours, the second for five years. If you owned a successful TV or radio station, you would watch yourself and I think we are seeing evidence of this already.

For the last few years, when people wanted to know what was happening in Venezuela they turned to Globovision. Today, I was watching Globovision in the office when a relative who works downtown called me on the phone to talk about how he was trapped in a war zone. Huh? What are you talking about?

He then proceeded to describe how the bank where he works, was closed as police and the National Guard where gassing the people demonstrating, how there was shooting and burning of vehicles. Something along these lines:

What was going on? The opposition protesting the gag law? Chavistas celebrating the first day of the gag law? No such luck, it was a protest by street vendors who on Tuesday night the police removed those posts which had no permit to spend the night. The riots left one dead and twenty five injured according to the only post on the Globovision site, which did not show one picture. Reuters/CNN did talk about it, they have no local broadcasting.  Union Radio had better coverage on the Internet, but you do not need a permit to post on the Internet. Thus, Globovision appears to be exercising some self-restraint as it barely talked about it.

The amazing thing is that the same Mayor Bernal that appeared today on TV calling the buhoneros anarquists, is the same one that ruined the downtown area allowing them to set up shop where ever they wanted, in another populist era. Except now it is difficult to even walk around downtown with all the street vendors. And they decided to protest and got mad when they were mistreated by the police. And that is the problem when you control all of the Government, you can longer blame the other Mayors, when they don’t exist. You have to govern, take charge. So you blame extreme left groups like Bandera Roja or whatever Alianza al Bravo pueblo stands for. Bandera Roja laughs at the charges and ABP says how stupid it is to kick this people out right before Christmas, after six years of neglecting the problem and allowing them to proliferate. These people used to be Chavez’ supporters, these were his constituency. No more.

But how do you explain that to a foreigner: Extreme left Bandera Roja party being charged by the Chavistas for inciting the riots. Aren’t the Chavistas the extreme left? Well, this blog has been trying to explain things for over two years and it is not that easy. You see, when there was nobody in the Venezuelan guerillas in 1983, the same Gabriel Puerta that says today his party Bandera Roja was not inciting the riots, was the buddy of current foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez up in the mountains. Go figure!

But it really bothers me how low key Globovision was today on these riots. The street vendors were repressed, they became extremely violent, they burned buses, motorcycles, and they attacked the cops, the National Guard. This was big news. But you see, Article 29 of the newly enacted “gag”, “muzzle”,”content” or media law says:

Those that provide radio or TV service can be suspended “for up to 72 hours when they broadcast messages that….apologize for or incite alterations of public order”. If it happens again you may lose your license for five years. These were “alterarions of public order”, showing too many may have been construed as inciting more, thus Globovision’s silence.  As simple as that.

For the last few years, when people wanted to know what was happening in Venezuela they turned to Globovision. Today, I was watching Globovision in the office when a relative who works downtown called me on the phone to talk about how he was trapped in a war zone. Huh? What are you talking about?

He then proceeded to describe how the bank where he works, was closed as police and the National Guard where gassing the people demonstrating, how there was shooting and burning of vehicles. Something along these lines:

What was going on? The opposition protesting the gag law? Chavistas celebrating the first day of the gag law? No such luck, it was a protest by street vendors who on Tuesday night the police removed those posts which had no permit to spend the night. The riots left one dead and twenty five injured according to the only post on the Globovision site, which did not show one picture. Reuters/CNN did talk about it, they have no local broadcasting.  Union Radio had better coverage on the Internet, but you do not need a permit to post on the Internet. Thus, Globovision appears to be exercising some self-restraint as it barely talked about it.

The amazing thing is that the same Mayor Bernal that appeared today on TV calling the buhoneros anarquists, is the same one that ruined the downtown area allowing them to set up shop where ever they wanted, in another populist era. Except now it is difficult to even walk around downtown with all the street vendors. And they decided to protest and got mad when they were mistreated by the police. And that is the problem when you control all of the Government, you can longer blame the other Mayors, when they don’t exist. You have to govern, take charge. So you blame extreme left groups like Bandera Roja or whatever Alianza al Bravo pueblo stands for. Bandera Roja laughs at the charges and ABP says how stupid it is to kick this people out right before Christmas, after six years of neglecting the problem and allowing them to proliferate. These people used to be Chavez’ supporters, these were his constituency. No more.

But how do you explain that to a foreigner: Extreme left Bandera Roja party being charged by the Chavistas for inciting the riots. Aren’t the Chavistas the extreme left? Well, this blog has been trying to explain things for over two years and it is not that easy. You see, when there was nobody in the Venezuelan guerillas in 1983, the same Gabriel Puerta that says today his party Bandera Roja was not inciting the riots, was the buddy of current foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez up in the mountains. Go figure!

But it really bothers me how low key Globovision was today on these riots. The street vendors were repressed, they became extremely violent, they burned buses, motorcycles, and they attacked the cops, the National Guard. This was big news. But you see, Article 29 of the newly enacted “gag”, “muzzle”,”content” or media law says:

Those that provide radio or TV service can be suspended “for up to 72 hours when they broadcast messages that….apologize for or incite alterations of public order”. If it happens again you may lose your license for five years. These were “alterarions of public order”, showing too many may have been construed as inciting more, thus Globovision’s silence.  As simple as that.