The Devil's Excrement

On the positive side, the opposition held rallies in Vargas state and in the city of Valera. In both cases there was no violence. This is the first time this has happened in a long time. Change of strategy?

For the second time this week, there was an attack on the car of a personality associated with the anti-Chavez opposition. On Wednesday, it was an explosive device which blew the car of the Governor of Miranda state, who happens to be one of the two leading opposition candidates. Today, which happens to be “Reporter’s Day” in Venezuela, there was an attempt against reporter and TV personality Marta Colomina. Mrs. Colomina has been a strong critic of the Chavez administration from the beginning and it is one of the reporters that the OAS Commission on Human Rights issued precautionary measures, which the Government never followed. Essentially, eight armed men attacked her car with a “huge” Molotov bomb made up of a three feet high water bottle which was broken against her car and an attempt was made to light it as her bodyguard put the car in reverse to get away.

What I find absolutely incredible about the attack is that 14 hours after it occurred, the Government has said nothing about, including condemning it ( I don’t want to get into who organized the attack). In fact, only the Minister of Infrastructure has said something in his infinite cynicism: “people are losing their rating, people don’t believe them”, suggesting apparently that Mrs. Colomina set the attack up herself. Minister Cabello immediately said that neither the Government nor its supporters were behind the attack. Usually an investigation by the authorities would be needed to reach such a conclusion, but obviously, there is no authority or organized Government in this country.

 One of the biggest criticisms that Chávez made of the post 1958 era in Venezuela, was that political parties were closed, with little democracy. Despite this, Chávez’ own political party, Movimiento Quinta República (MVR), simply copied the Stalinist model of other Venezuelan parties. It is only today, five years after it was founded that some democracy will reach MVR, until you look at the details. It turns out that the 321 delegates of the party to be elected on Sunday are only 34.2% of the total number of delegates, the remainder coming from the natural leadership of the party as defined by the leadership itself. Thus, Stalinist policies live in MVR and democracy will come one day, but not now, later….

 According to the Head of Petroleos de Venezuela, Ali Rodriguez, having participated in the petition drive in February, known as “El Firmazo” , in which the opposition gathered signatures for recall referenda, may be in violation of company regulations. Thus, in one stroke, Rodriguez is saying that Constitutional rights may be below corporate rights, in a clear indication that fascists have no clue about democracy and its rights are all about.

 According to the Head of Petroleos de Venezuela, Ali Rodriguez, having participated in the petition drive in February, known as “El Firmazo” , in which the opposition gathered signatures for recall referenda, may be in violation of company regulations. Thus, in one stroke, Rodriguez is saying that Constitutional rights may be below corporate rights, in a clear indication that fascists have no clue about democracy and its rights are all about.

While I was annoyed at not being able to post for two days, nothing earth shattering really happened in these last forty eight hours, except for some more acts by the Government showing its lack of democratic spirit, but what else is new? In brief, this is what I would have posted about at length, had I been able to:

-General Alfonso Martinez, the highest ranking General of the National Guard was retired on direct orders from President Chavez. Martinez refused in April 2002 to send troops to the streets, joined the dissident military in October and was detained illegally on Dec. 27th. To me, this General was as dignified as anyone can be. His background was even more modest than Chavez, but he rose to General, was articulate, well educated and certainly knew about being a soldier and serving the people. I still remember how impressed I was with him the day he testified in Congress in July 2002. At that time, for once, I respected our military and found some value in that organization. Perhaps nothing proves the General’s dignity better than his words on hearing about his retirement: “I regret nothing. By refusing to obey orders, I avoided a massacre, it was worth it”. By the way, for those that love to accuse the opposition of a “coup” in April 2002, General Alfonso Martinez went to tell then President Carmona, that he could not obey his government because it was not legitimate.

-Yesterday was the Anniversary of the Carabobo battle, the last one of Venezuela‘s independence. As usual, there was a military parade in the same place where the battle took place in the state with the same name. The Governor of Carabobo was not allowed into the parade “under superior orders”. Maybe he should not allow Chavez into his state. Would not be right? Right?

-As Chavez was delivering one of his usual aggressive and lengthy speeches the sound of his mandatory nationwide address began to have problems. The nationwide transmission (all radio and TV channels have to carry it) was suspended. As usual, the perfect Chavez Government tried to find someone to blame, jailing the workers of private TV stations who were at a nearby transmission tower. Note that only the audio failed, while these towers carry the full signal and you could not interfere with only the audio. They were later released, but the damage was done. Chavez was outraged and proceeded to fire his dear Minister of Information, blaming her. I am sorry to see her go; she was so incompetent that I would have liked her to continue in her position hurting the Government. 

-Ali Rodriguez Araque, President of PDVSA said that PDVSA is not politicized. We all laughed.

-As Chavez has called the Andean pact “obsolete” and “not that useful”, Minister of Foreign Relations Chaderton tried to save the day today saying that Venezuela entering Mercosur in now way diminishes the role of the Andean pact. Another laugh.

-It was unclear whether the National Assembly could find a consensus candidate to preside the Electoral Board. There was a lot of internal bickering within the opposition. Some feel they have not been taken into account. Others do not like that people outside those nominated originally are being considered. Meanwhile, one of the leading candidates said there had been a plot to overthrow the Government, adding nobody has approached him about the CNE job. The Government denied this had happened or it was possible.

-Opposition political party Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), scheduled a rally on Friday. For a change, Chavez’ MVR decided this week to hold a rally of their own two blocks away. What else is new? There will be violence, the oppsoition will be accused. We’ve seen that same movie before.

As I mentioned in my earlier article on Saturday, it is encouraging that the Head of the Supreme Court has strong views about the recall referendum, because it is clear that Chavez’ MVR will use all possible legal tricks to block it form taking place. There was another clear indication of this from today’s statements in El Nacional page A-5 by Deputy Pedro Carreno. Carreno-famous for saying the US Government spies on us through Direct TV set tops, as well as saying Peruvian spymaster Montesinos was dead six months before he was caught in Venezuela-pointed out how absurd they might get in their arguments to block the referendum. What Carreno said needed answered, was who was eligible to vote in this referendum. In the brilliant interpretation of this not so beautiful mind, it is not clear (to him) whether it has to be only those that were eligible to vote when Chavez was elected or whether it would include the new voters. He wants to raise this issue because the Constitution says that for the recall referendum to take effect the number of votes approving the recall has to be at least one vote more vote than the number with which the candidate was elected. Now, Deputy Carreno says in the same article that the official MVR position will be encourage absenteeism, because this, together with traditional absenteeism will play in their favor. Well, I am not sure I understand this argument. If only pro-Chavez voters will not go to the polls, the number of Yes votes will actually remain the same. By encouraging absenteeism, they may be encouraging a landslide vote against the President, not the best foundation for a possible future comeback of the only visible leader of MVR. In fact, even if the opposition did not manage to get the magic number of votes, which seems highly unlikely, if Chavez lost resoundly, it would simple remove any mandate that he may claim he had before the referendum.

I sure hope the Supreme Court, who has become skilful at ruling outside the realm of the suits presented to them, uses a single one of any possible suits to clarify all these questions unambiguously.

Through the website Venezuelatoday.net, not to be confused with the Government’s site Venezuelatoday.com (Thanks to the Editor of the .net one) I found the tape of the speech by Chavez where he says that he “surrendered without a shot in April 2002 but he will shoot next time around”. He then proceeds to give an anti-american sppech. The same site also carries the link to the video from Duke University’s seminar “Chavez: The end of the rule of law“

Through the website Venezuelatoday.net, not to be confused with the Government’s site Venezuelatoday.com (Thanks to the Editor of the .net one) I found the tape of the speech by Chavez where he says that he “surrendered without a shot in April 2002 but he will shoot next time around”. He then proceeds to give an anti-american sppech. The same site also carries the link to the video from Duke University’s seminar “Chavez: The end of the rule of law“

Op-Ed piece in the NYT by William Safire entitled Caracas, California describing the parallels between voter disenchantment with their elected officials in both Venezuela and California. There is an important error in Safire’s article, the recall referendum was not agreed upon by Chavez and the opposition, but was a right granted in the Chavista-designed Constitution of 1999. Moreover, the Constitution does not allow Chavez to run, it clearly states that were Chavez to lose, an election would take place within thirty days to replace him. To be more precise it says that if the recall referendum is approved (Art. 72): “the mandate will be considered revoked and we will proceed to fill the absolute absence according to the Constitution and the law”. The Constitution states that the absolute absence of the President will be filled with an election thirty days after the absence takes place (Art. 233) if it occurs within the first four years of the mandate. Thus, it seems implausible to argue that the President’s absolute absence as defined by the Constitution will be filled within an election in which he is a candidate. Moreover, the new President is not being elected to a new term, but to complete the term of the President whose mandate was recalled (also part of Art. 233).