The Devil's Excrement

The opposition met with the Consejo Nacional Electoral and asked for the electoral Board to clarify a number of inconsistencies in the data, before accepting whether to go or not to the process of having citizens confirm or not that they signed to request for the President’s recall. The following are some of the criticisms of the data. The opposition challenged the validity of the CNE database, including the following inconsistencies:

i) The regulations established a total of five (5) criteria for invalidating a signature; the CNE used thirty eight (38) different criteria.

ii) The CNE President said when announcing the results of the analysis of the data that they had accepted 3.086.013 signatures as being in the forms, the CNE database contains 3.475.200 signatures the opposition handed in.

iii) The CNE President said 1.832.493 signatures had been declared valid, the database says only 1.783.523 have been accepted.

iv) There are 224 thousand signatures that the CNE rejected due to errors in the cover sheets that the opposition has as accepted by the CNE and stamped by the CNE.

v) There are 28 thousand signatures rejected because they do not appear in the cover sheets, the opposition claims they are there.

vi) There are 23 thousand signatures “lost” by the CNE which now the CNE has “found” and is processing.

vii) There are 276 thousand signatures that have inconsistencies with the Electoral registry and most of them have no problem and are correct.

viii) Of the controversial forms with the same calligraphy, the opposition “discovered” that 54% of them do not have the same calligraphy.

Now, what this implies is the following:

Carrasquero said 1.83 million had been accepted and 876 thousand were planas. The opposition claims 54% of the latter were not planas AT ALL. Add those 473 thousand and the opposition has 2.303 million and it needs 2.432 million, a difference of only 129 thousand signatures which could easily be obtained in the confirmation process. .

Additionally, if you add to that totals 1.83 million+473 thousand (viii) + 276 thousand (vii) + 23 thousand (vi) + 28 thousand (v) + 224 thousand (iv), you get 2.854 million signatures, more than 400 thousand than required.

Now what?

The President of Petroleos de Venezuela Ali Rodriguez when asked if people who signed requesting the recall referendum against Hugo Chavez had been fired from the company:

“Each person is free to do what they want, and because they are free they assume responsibility for the acts that it implies. I have no major comment, so far we not fired anyone, but it should not be considered strange if we do it”

Such a pretty revolution!! Has this guy even read the Constitution and the parts about freedom of speech? He should particularly read Art. 19^th. and Art. 57^th. but he will not anyway, he does not care. In fact, reportedly at this time he just wants to save his skin according to Descifrado. Apparently he is going to have to sign the company’s financials which are a mess and include false information. If he signs, the financials have to be filed with the SEC and he could be convicted in the US…

The beat of the pretty revolution goes on!!

The President of Petroleos de Venezuela Ali Rodriguez when asked if people who signed requesting the recall referendum against Hugo Chavez had been fired from the company:

“Each person is free to do what they want, and because they are free they assume responsibility for the acts that it implies. I have no major comment, so far we not fired anyone, but it should not be considered strange if we do it”

Such a pretty revolution!! Has this guy even read the Constitution and the parts about freedom of speech? He should particularly read Art. 19^th. and Art. 57^th. but he will not anyway, he does not care. In fact, reportedly at this time he just wants to save his skin according to Descifrado. Apparently he is going to have to sign the company’s financials which are a mess and include false information. If he signs, the financials have to be filed with the SEC and he could be convicted in the US…

The beat of the pretty revolution goes on!!

Miguel Pacheco, one of the people that had disappeared during the protests, was found alive yesterday in Puerto Ordaz, miles away from Cumana were he was abducted. He spent a week sedated and with a blindfold. He says he was threatened with death for the whole weeks by his abductors.

Pacheco, a student leader for opposition party AD, went to the University a week ago, but never arrived. He called a friend to tell him that some “guards” were following him and he was hiding at home but will somehow make the meeting. He also called his girlfriend, but never arrived at the meeting.

With the surfacing of Pacheco, there are still seven desaparecidos in Venezuela whose names are: Omar Arturo Morales (28); Juan José Pérez (27); Juan Ernesto Sánchez (37); Andrés Bastidas Guedes (32) ; José Luis Rodríguez (33); Eduardo José Miranda (30) y Julio César Gómez (34).

Where are the desaparecidos German Mundarain? Do you even care?

The Superintendency of Banks asked today a group of banks that comprise 72% of all deposits in the local banking system, to send a list by tomorrow of all clients that have checking accounts, savings accounts or CD’s in their banks. The banks that received the requests were Banesco, Mercantil, Venezuela, provincial, Occidental de Descuento, Venezolano de Credito and Industrial.

According to the new Superintendent of Banks, this request is being made :because we are carrying out an operation against money laundering” while bank executives say that in order to look for money laundering you ask for suspicious transfers, not for balances. A more intelligent observer suggests that the real reason is to send the information to the tax office and other state offices “in order to increase control over everything” That one I believe.

First the bankers argued that this broke their confidentiality agreement with their clients. They can provide information, but there has to be a reason to do it. But then, the President of the private banker’s association said this had all been a “confusion” that the data hand over had been postponed and this was all part of a multilateral program.

You have to be stupid to ask for that just when there are strong rumors of an Argentina style “Corralito” (which I don’t believe is in the works”

Funny, the only reason that I would have thought would justify such a request, has not been mentioned: FIGHTING CORRUPTION!

The Superintendency of Banks asked today a group of banks that comprise 72% of all deposits in the local banking system, to send a list by tomorrow of all clients that have checking accounts, savings accounts or CD’s in their banks. The banks that received the requests were Banesco, Mercantil, Venezuela, provincial, Occidental de Descuento, Venezolano de Credito and Industrial.

According to the new Superintendent of Banks, this request is being made :because we are carrying out an operation against money laundering” while bank executives say that in order to look for money laundering you ask for suspicious transfers, not for balances. A more intelligent observer suggests that the real reason is to send the information to the tax office and other state offices “in order to increase control over everything” That one I believe.

First the bankers argued that this broke their confidentiality agreement with their clients. They can provide information, but there has to be a reason to do it. But then, the President of the private banker’s association said this had all been a “confusion” that the data hand over had been postponed and this was all part of a multilateral program.

You have to be stupid to ask for that just when there are strong rumors of an Argentina style “Corralito” (which I don’t believe is in the works”

Funny, the only reason that I would have thought would justify such a request, has not been mentioned: FIGHTING CORRUPTION!

A good friend of mine came to me today in absolute shock. This morning, he went with another friend to get a new passport. they filled out forms and sat to wait for the person taking care of them to return. After a long time (not unexpected in a Venezuelan Government office), the person came back and told his friend, who had not signed the petition to recall Hugo Chavez, that he was OK. Then the person turned to my friend and told him he had been rejected because he had signed the petition to ask for a recall referendum against President Hugo Chavez.

Such a pretty revolution!

Petkoff on Carlos Melo, from today’s Tal Cual:

What has been done to Carlos Melo is a major despicable act.

To detain him and send him to the sinister jail of El Rodeo is nothing but pure revenge.

What the regime does not forgive Carlos is his early dissension. How quickly he perceived the Chavista fraud. He was on of the first ones to abandon, disenchanted, the boat in which, with great expectations, he had embarked himself in. He was one of those that allowed himself to be seduced by the supposedly revolutionary rhetoric of Chávez and accompanied him not only in his electoral cruise but also before, in his conspiratorial movements. It did not take him long in realize that he had been ripped off and transformed himself in critic and opposer, but from the left, where he has always been. Carlos, everyone knows it, is a man of action. A hard worker that never tires, dedicated, daring and willing to take risks, a tough one, if you want. What the Chavismo does not forgive him for is that Carlos is one of the living proofs that among the needy disenchantment is growing. He is one of the organizers of that disenchantment, acting in a stage that the Chavismo considers its own closed space, that of the poor barrios of the capital.

That is why there is bad blood with him. This small reporter wants to add himself to the campaign for the freedom of Carlos Melo.

Petkoff on Carlos Melo, from today’s Tal Cual:

What has been done to Carlos Melo is a major despicable act.

To detain him and send him to the sinister jail of El Rodeo is nothing but pure revenge.

What the regime does not forgive Carlos is his early dissension. How quickly he perceived the Chavista fraud. He was on of the first ones to abandon, disenchanted, the boat in which, with great expectations, he had embarked himself in. He was one of those that allowed himself to be seduced by the supposedly revolutionary rhetoric of Chávez and accompanied him not only in his electoral cruise but also before, in his conspiratorial movements. It did not take him long in realize that he had been ripped off and transformed himself in critic and opposer, but from the left, where he has always been. Carlos, everyone knows it, is a man of action. A hard worker that never tires, dedicated, daring and willing to take risks, a tough one, if you want. What the Chavismo does not forgive him for is that Carlos is one of the living proofs that among the needy disenchantment is growing. He is one of the organizers of that disenchantment, acting in a stage that the Chavismo considers its own closed space, that of the poor barrios of the capital.

That is why there is bad blood with him. This small reporter wants to add himself to the campaign for the freedom of Carlos Melo.

I never cease to be amazed at the cynicism of some people in the Government. Yesterday Jorge Rodriguez, who in many statements in public has claimed to be “impartial” and an “arbiter” of the electoral process, yesterday said (Can’t find the link, but I saw it on TV and in one newspaper) that if the Electoral Hall of the Venezuelan Supreme Court ruled the “planas” to be valid, he would go to the Constitutional Hall and appeal the decision. Now, if he really believes he is the arbiter, he should be the arbiter on electoral matters and the Electoral Hall of the Venezuelan Supreme Court should be the arbiter on Electoral law and regulations. Moreover, why is he announcing it ahead of the decision by the Electoral Hall? Is it because he knows he would lose in the first and win in the second?

And today, the legal adviser of the CNE himself recused two members of the Electoral Hall. I have to ask, is this guy autonomous? Did the CNE Board vote on this?

Meanwhile, the People’s Ombudsman in Washington says there are no political prisoners in Venezuela. He also stated categorically that the National Guard had not killed any of the 12 people that died because they did not use weapons other than those that shoot plastic bullets. I imagine he means that the National Guard did not use any weapons like this or like these:

at any time during the repression of the tragic week which began on Feb. 27th. and I must have drawn them, or composed them or something like that.

In fact, all of these pictures are parts of dozens of pictures if not hundrerds taken during those violent days. Moreover, I am told the second picture from the right shows soldiers with a SIG 552 assault weapon and an M-16 rifle, both weapo which are certainly not approved for use in controlling civilain protests.

As predicted here, the desaparecidos whose names are: Omar Arturo Morales (28); Juan José Pérez (27); Juan Ernesto Sánchez (37); Andrés Bastidas Guedes (32) ; José Luis Rodríguez (33); Eduardo José Miranda (30) y Julio César Gómez (34) and Miguel Pacheco (20) were simply ignored by the dishonourable and miserable People’s Ombudsman.

These people have no shame.