The Devil's Excrement

Francisco Toro has revived his Caracas Chronicles , from his ivory tower in The Netherlands, for one (last?) more time to respond to a reader who liked the “The revolution will not be televised”. I loved the part about Andres Velasquez and his Globovision friend. That is the Venezuela I know or used to know.

Corruption charges and unethical behavior are becoming a daily event these days, like in the earlier post about corruption in PDVSA. I wonder if it is related to the fact that the regime is weakening as people see and end to the Chavez era. Today charges flew right and left confirming that Chavez’ MVR and his Government have become a cesspool of corruption and unethical behaviors:

-Last night Hugo Chavez left behind his sheepish attitude when he blasted the media for not accepting advertising from “the parties supporting his Government”. Unfortunately, and as revealed by Tal Cual today, the problem was that the advertising submitted to the TV station as part of Chavez’ Movimiento Quinta Republica party (MVR) was submitted and paid by none other than PDVSA. Imagine this, a Government company PDVSA, pays and submits and ad for a party (MVR) in what has a number of violations of Venezuelan law. First of all, this is outright corruption as a Government company is financing the campaign of a private party. Second, Venezuela‘s electoral law explicitly prohibits ANY advertising by any Government agency in political campaigns or elections. Finally, by publicly filing a complaint in a nationwide TV address on behalf of his party, Hugo Chavez is violating the ethical separation between his Government and his party. By the way, this is nothing new and has been going on throughout the five years of the Chavez administration. What may be interesting is that Chavez made the charges and was likely not informed of who was financing the campaign or why it was rejected by the TV stations. At the same time, the constant abuses by the Chávez administration and his party have simply blurred this ethical separation to the point that many of them do not even believe it exists.

-The Secretary General of the Confederation of Unions (CTV), which groups all unions, said today that they had filed charges against the Governor of Lara State Luis Reyes Reyes, for using public funds to buy out people to sign the petition against opposition Deputies. The Governor was caught in fraganti, distributing TV’s, bags of food and bicycles to anyone that would sign the petitions in his state. His actions were caught on both video and still pictures and have been broadcast all over the nation. Curiously the Attorney General said that nobody had made any formal charges against Governor Reyes Reyes. (In Venezuela there is such a thing as noticia criminis by which authorities are supposed to automatically investigate any crime that is denounced in the media.

-Under the orders of General Garcia Carneiro, General Commanders of all Venezuelan Forces, a film is been shown in all army units which enumerates the virtues of being a member of the Venezuelan Armed Forces and portrays all military officials who declared themselves a year ago in civil disobedience as coupsters. It is obligatory for everyone to see the film and write a summary of it, which is later sent to the Department of psychological operations of the Army. The first part of the movie shows the achievements of the Armed Forces under Chavez. The second part is composed of segments taken out of the movie “The revolution will be televised” leaving no doubt in my mind as to who financed that effort.

-One of the saddest characters of the Chavez administration is the People’s Ombudsman, German Mundarain. Mundarain who is supposed to defend the people from the Government appears not to understand is position and does exactly the opposite; he defends the Government from any attacks. Well, this week it was learned that Mundarain forced employees from his office to act as witnesses for Chavez’ MVR party in last weeks petition drive. The word ethics simply does not exist for this poor soul named German Mundarain.

Article in today’s Wall Street Journal about how US and Venezuelan authorities are looking into sales of oil products by PDVSA which cost the company tens of millions of dollars in potential revenues and may have violated US laws. Some highlights:

 “In the chaotic months following a crippling oil-workers strike in Venezuela early this year, U.S. and Swiss oil-trading firms were given favorable treatment by executives” “With the company in turmoil, PdVSA’s commercial department, which markets the company’s production, engaged from March to September in several deals to sell fuel oil that cost the company millions of dollars in potential revenue, according to more than 400 pages of internal documents. The documents show that certain PdVSA managers awarded contracts for oil products to certain traders even when their bids were lower than those of rival bidders. In some cases, PdVSA cargoes were inexplicably sent to less-profitable destinations, while in others, company managers changed cargoes’ destinations without authorization.”

 “PdVSA’s own security department, which conducts internal investigations of thefts and losses, estimated that $80 million in potential revenue was lost in March alone because of unfavorable deals, one internal document showed.”

“In a June 30 letter to President Chavez, the company’s internal-security management noted that the sale of two million barrels of fuel oil to China’s state-owned PetroChina Fuel Oil Co. produced a loss in revenue to Venezuela of $2.8 million compared to a better offer from BP PLC. The letter blamed Nelson Reyes, who headed the supply-and-marketing division, for allowing the deal to happen.”

As usual, nobody has been charged, is in jail or is being accused, in fact, the same article indicates that Mr. Reyes has been reassigned to Europe……

If there is something Chavez and his supporters have been good at is giving out the same message to the media. This time around, it appears as if the ban by the CNE stopped them from coordinating the announcements and a lot of contradictory information ahs been give, Yesterday, Deputy Dario Vivas said in Tal Cual (by subscription) that they would get the signatures to have the recall vote against 23 of the 38 Deputies. The Vice-President said last night (El Nacional, by subscription) that they had used up all of the 7.2 million forms and that meant that many people had voted, which in a different paper he uses to extrapolate that Chavez has 60% popularity!!!. In fact, if the Vice President’s logic is used with the numbers given by the Chavista Headquarters, which I do not believe anyway, the number is only 22.5%!!!Today an initial report said that they had obtained 2.3 million signatures and now they are saying they got 4.23 million signatures, but when you read the fine print they only had 2.7 million people signing, the 4.213 million arise from when you multiply by those that could sign against more than one opposition Deputy. To me, this sounds high given what we saw during the four days and the reports from the opposition about how many signatures they had been able to collect in different districts. In any case, the CNE will tell us the truth in one month and if they got sufficient signatures they have to still go vote in the real referendum and the opposition will be there. Given the tone of the Government in the last few days, I find these numbers inflated. They know they suffered a defeat, you can see it in the way they act.

Note added: In the best style of Joseph Goebbels, last night Chavez instaed of using the official number from MVR’s campaign headquarters, he used the 60% spurious number from his Vice-President. Will they try now to turn this lie into the truth?

Can’t help but noting the new attitude by Chavez and his cohorts. After the huge disaster this weekend they have become sheep in wolf clothing. Vice-President Rangel called the way the media behaved “exemplary”, adding that the recall is the beginning of reconciliation. How easy to ask for reconciliation when you see power slipping away! Chavez called the role of the former “jinetera”* media, wonderful. He even promised not to speak on Sunday and if he did, he would not use the time for political campaigning. Even more amazingly, Chavez suggested this was a time for building bridges. Give me a break!. What is going on here? Looking for immunity? No way Jose…We will not forget the insults, the murders and the human rights violations that easily. Wait till Friday…the lines wil speak for themselves.

*Jinetera: Cuban term for prostitute, freely applied by Chavez to Venezuela’s media after learning it in one of his frequent visits to Cuba and forgetting its true and derogatory origin and reflection of the social and economic reality of that “other” revolution.

In the “old” and much-maligned PDVSA, the Topomoro oil field west of Maracaibo was considered to be the most promising oil field in its portfolio. So promising in fact, that the old PDVSA had decided it to keep it for itself and maximize profits for the company. Under the “new” and “revolutionary” PDVSA, it was decided to auction the field for exploitation by foreign companies. (No Venezuelan companies needed apply, as they are considered anti-Chavez, even thougn last week a Venezuelan company of ex-PDVSA workers won a contract to exploit an oil field in Colombia). Well, today we learn PDVSA found no partners for Topomoro for a variety of reasons. First of all, very few companies want to partner with PDVSA under the terms of the new Hydrocarbons law. Second, many comapnies want to wait out until the political crisis is resolved before stepping in. Third, the high minimum bidding price requested by PDVSA was considerec out of line by all comapnies interested in the project. Thus PDVSA will try to develop it itself.

Meanwhile, the “new”, “improved” and “ethical” PDVSA found itself without a Head of Security when Chavez’ friend, comrade and colleague Perez Issa was “removed” from his all powerful position in the company. The reason? Simple, so much corruption that even Chavez could not look the other way. Is Perez Issa going to jail? Of course not, much like the Colonel in the Social Security administration who “took” US$12 million, Perez Issa, who has quite a few human rights violations in his CV, was given a downgrade as Head of Security at Citgo’s Headquarters in Tulsa. Interesting how in the many years of the PDVSA meritocracy, only one large corruption scandal exploded (the Petroespias scandal), forcing all involved to flee the country to this day, while now daily charges of corruptions are made, but nobody is even close to being charged. Has anyone noticed ho PDVSA makes less money on each barrel of oil? Ever wonder why? Who is making the difference? Could it be Perez Issa? Nooooooo…

In Spanish, when you say there are only “four cats” (cuatro gatos) somewhere it means very few people went or are there. Here is Weil’s take on how many people went to sign in favor of recalling opposition Deputies. Definitely “cuatro gatos’. The only report I have heard so far of “lines” has been Dan’s family’s via Barquisimeto. By the way, Barquisimeto’s newpaper El Impulso showed the Governor himself giving away bicycles to buy  people into going out and signing. These are levels of corruption and unethical behavior never seen in the country’s history.  And local english-speaking paper “The Daily Journal” sent someone to answer a “want ad” for a job in which he was offered Bs. 200,000 to go out and sign the pro-Chavez petition. Despite this the “victory” by Chavez’ forces appears to be quite flimsy, indeed, in page 5 of today’s Tal Cual, MVR Deputy Dario Vivas says “We have enough signatures to have a recall vote on 23 out of 38 cases”. (How can they even expect to win the vote in these cases if they can only barely get 23 out of 38, which only requires 20% of the signatures). Whatever happened to the “revolution” and its overwhelming popularity? Is that all they can get. Indeed , only “cuatro gatos”:

Meanwhile, local paper El Universal was threatened with a fine for printing this picture on Saturday of “cuatro gatos” playing dominos at one of the many empty petition tables. According to the Electoral Board, the picture was sending a subliminal message. Obviously, in this revolution, reality is quite “subliminal”:

Yesterday President Hugo Chavez Frias signed the petition in La Pastora, Libertador District to recall opposition Deputies from that district. Unfortunately, the President’s signature is illegal and should be invalidated. Indeed, when one checks the Electoral Registry one finds:

and discovers that he is not registered in that District and therefore can not sign to recall Deputies elected there. For disbelievers, the page also gives the places where he could have signed the petition, very far from where he did. Oh! the revolution is so well organized!

There is so much truth in this article in El Universal by Francisco Olivares, that it hurts deeply:

Primitive country by Francisco Olivares

The information was published that Navy Captain Luis Rafael Espinoza, General Director of Administration for the Social Security Institute, deposited 60 billion Bolivars (about US$ 12 million) in his own account. Perhaps nobody would have noticed the absence of this enormous sum, if it were not because they were the funds corresponding to the year-end bonuses of the Institute workers, who were demanding their payment without anyone giving them an answer, until someone noticed that the funds had been diverted this way. Agents from the investigative police dressed as civilians raided the facilities without identification, so as not to generate rumors, while the military officer was apparently removed from his position and perhaps returned to his military command.

In today’s Venezuela a story like this has no relevance. Such a bit of news may occupy a modest space in the political or crime sections. It would even be useless to search for an official source about this matter, since official information flows only when it is in the interest of the Government to make it public

There is also nothing particular about it, given that we are dealing with a country where nobody is punished for stealing public funds or using them for something different that what they were meant for. When a public official is punished or measures are taken against him, it is because what he is doing is being done behind the party’s back, without the party or those surrounding the political leaders participating in the proceeds.

This practice has now extended throughout the country, but the clash is not over the criminal or ethical problem that it carries, but from the conflict that follows when it comes time to split the bounty. The revolution has given something to everyone and getting rich overnight has been part of the reward for fidelity to the regimen.

That old phrase that “In Venezuela there is no reason not to steal” has been taken to new levels.

In the last few years the idea that the only path to social ascent is through politics has taken root. The leaders, the public officials and the military sent to work in the public administration have no shame in showing off luxurious vehicles and expensive condominiums, priced in US dollars and bought directly with cash or through third parties.

The institutional development and that of our democracy is today well below the first ten years of the country’s democracy. The political parties self-destructed precisely because they did not stop the path of ethical deterioration, for looking the other way or asking for a commission for the skimming. At the same time a whole generation was stepped on, sidestepping democratic rules.

Not only political parties are responsible for this conspiracy. Society as a whole, the media and the professional associations and unions accompanied the country in its self destruction. The events of February 27^th (The Caracazo) and the coup attempts in 1992 were an expression of that deterioration and not glorious dates like some now pretend to glorify them

To rebuild the country we have to understand that we are coming from way down. In this moment, what we have is a very primitive state.

There is so much truth in this article in El Universal by Francisco Olivares, that it hurts deeply:

Primitive country by Francisco Olivares

The information was published that Navy Captain Luis Rafael Espinoza, General Director of Administration for the Social Security Institute, deposited 60 billion Bolivars (about US$ 12 million) in his own account. Perhaps nobody would have noticed the absence of this enormous sum, if it were not because they were the funds corresponding to the year-end bonuses of the Institute workers, who were demanding their payment without anyone giving them an answer, until someone noticed that the funds had been diverted this way. Agents from the investigative police dressed as civilians raided the facilities without identification, so as not to generate rumors, while the military officer was apparently removed from his position and perhaps returned to his military command.

In today’s Venezuela a story like this has no relevance. Such a bit of news may occupy a modest space in the political or crime sections. It would even be useless to search for an official source about this matter, since official information flows only when it is in the interest of the Government to make it public

There is also nothing particular about it, given that we are dealing with a country where nobody is punished for stealing public funds or using them for something different that what they were meant for. When a public official is punished or measures are taken against him, it is because what he is doing is being done behind the party’s back, without the party or those surrounding the political leaders participating in the proceeds.

This practice has now extended throughout the country, but the clash is not over the criminal or ethical problem that it carries, but from the conflict that follows when it comes time to split the bounty. The revolution has given something to everyone and getting rich overnight has been part of the reward for fidelity to the regimen.

That old phrase that “In Venezuela there is no reason not to steal” has been taken to new levels.

In the last few years the idea that the only path to social ascent is through politics has taken root. The leaders, the public officials and the military sent to work in the public administration have no shame in showing off luxurious vehicles and expensive condominiums, priced in US dollars and bought directly with cash or through third parties.

The institutional development and that of our democracy is today well below the first ten years of the country’s democracy. The political parties self-destructed precisely because they did not stop the path of ethical deterioration, for looking the other way or asking for a commission for the skimming. At the same time a whole generation was stepped on, sidestepping democratic rules.

Not only political parties are responsible for this conspiracy. Society as a whole, the media and the professional associations and unions accompanied the country in its self destruction. The events of February 27^th (The Caracazo) and the coup attempts in 1992 were an expression of that deterioration and not glorious dates like some now pretend to glorify them

To rebuild the country we have to understand that we are coming from way down. In this moment, what we have is a very primitive state.