The Devil's Excrement

Tyromaniac on the brilliance of our Minsiter of Interior and Justice, also known as “the big Liar”:

Today on radio I heard General Lucas Rincon, he was the highest ranking general in the army and the guy who announced Chávez resignation last April, which was either a lie or something more sinister. Currently he is the Minister of Security and National Affairs. While talking about Colombian guerillas moving freely in venezuelan territory, he said: “Venezuela has more than 2000 kilometers of borders, it is impossible to watch every inch, and that is what the venezuelan military has been doing for years”. Doing the impossible year after year, How is that for a motto? Eat that marines!… What an asshole!

Very good article by Francisco Toro about a seminar he went to where everyone grasped the basics of the country’s wealth and corruption…..except the anti-corruption Head of the National Assembly. For some reason I can’t link to the story itself, I get the previous one. I love its main point, that excellence has no power in Venezuela. In fact, from day one I mistrusted Chavez precisely because of the fact that he was surrounded by anything but excellence in every field.

Venezuelan sovereign debt markets were rattled today by a speech by Hugo Chavez in which he suggested that the country’s debt needed to be restructured. Arguing that Venezuela has made all debt payments in the last four years and will continue to do so, Chavez indicated that the debt load is too heavy and needs to be restructured. Blaming the strike for all of the Government’s woes, Chavez said that the Government had to scrape bottom in order to be able to pay salaries and that some institutions are still owed funds for salaries.

            While the statements were typical Chavez, financial markets initially took them as a sign that Venezuela was ready to suspend payment, causing sharp losses in the prices of Venezuela’s debt prices. The Ministry of Finance had to “interpret” the President’s statements saying that the country had no plans at this time to stop external debt payments and the President’s remarks were simply a statement of fact that the country has steep payments to make in 2003 and 2004. The truth of this whole matter is that Venezuela has been trying in the last two years to either restructure its debt or issue new debt in foreign currency, but has been unable to do it, is because of the steep premium it would have to pay for issuing any new instrument. Thus, Chavez’ words probably simply reflect a recurrent discussion at the Cabinet level which simply reflects the “Chavez premium” present in international markets at this time. The truth is that Venezuela can not afford at this time to stop debt payments due to the fact that it ahs significant property in the US, through PDVSA America, which owns Citgo and a number of refineries in the US. Moreover, confidence in Venezuela as a stable supplier of oil has been severely impacted by the events of the last few months, thus declaring any form of moratorium on the country’s debt would simply hurt the country’s image further. Thus, the Government is essentially trapped by any announcement of the possibility of delaying debt payments in its own contradictions.

The Electoral Hall; of the Venezuelan Supreme Court decided today on the composition of the Electoral Commission (CNE), deciding that one of the members of the Commission, Leonardo Pizani, may not participate anymore on any decisions. The decision is a result of the now infamous decision that stopped the consultative referendum that some Chavez supporters had requested days before that referendum was to take place. According to the two to one decision, the presence of Mr. Pizani on the Electoral commission violated three articles of the Venezuelan Constitution, since his presence on the Board of the CNE did not give the trust and transparency required by the Constitution violating the Constitutional right of participation. Pizani had been elected to the CNE by the National Assembly but had presented his resignation about one year ago. His resignation was never formally accepted by the Assembly which prompted him to join the Board of the CNE in October which approved the timetable of the consultative referendum. The decision implies that any decision by the Electoral Board requires unanimity since most of his members have resigned from it and only four of them are left at this time. One of them is a Chavez supporter who objected to the celebration of the referendum despite the fact that the Supreme Court never said the referendum itself was not legal.

The dissenting Justice, said the decision does not protect the legitimate interest of voters and has neutralized the capabilities of one of the branches of power, violating due to a formality, the exercise of fundamental rights of citizen participation expressed through the request by popular initiative of the consultative referendum. 

With the earlier injunction, the Electoral Hall simply blocked the possibility of the referendum and at the time prohibited the CNE from holding any election. While that restriction appears to be lifted by this decision, if one member of the Board of the CNE opposes an election he can simply stop it. The Chavez controlled National Assembly is currently selecting the new members of the Board of the CNE, which require for its approval a two-thirds majority of the Deputies.  This will require some form of negotiation for a Board to be approved. However, regulations establish that if by a certain date the Assembly ahs been unable to choose a Board, the Supreme Court will undertake that function.

The press secretary of the US Embassy in Caracas rejected today the statements made by Hugo Chavez and Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel, saying: “We reject such a representation of the coalition in Iraq. We believe in fact, that the countries in the coalition are acting to defend the interests of the United Nations. We are asking Iraq to fulfil its commitment to eliminate weapons of mass destruction, in November of last year the members of the security council recognized the grave danger which Iraq represents for the security of the whole world, we believe firmly that the current actions in Iraq are authorized by international law. There is no doubt that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons, inspections have demonstrated this clearly., fifteen years ago in the war with Iran it used mustard gas in at least ten opportunities, 15 years ago it used neurotoxic gases against its Kurdish population killing thousands and thousands” He also rejected the reference (made by the Vice-President) that the US will act another countries. “Some weeks ago a representative of the Iraqi Government insinuated that after the Iraqi attack there would be one on Venezuela, that is ridiculous”

Reading the following account by one of the so-called “human shields” in Iraq:

was shocked when I first met a pro-war Iraqi in Baghdad – a taxi driver taking me back to my hotel late at night. I explained that I was American and said, as we shields always did, “Bush bad, war bad, Iraq good”. He looked at me with an expression of incredulity. As he realised I was serious, he slowed down and started to speak in broken English about the evils of Saddam’s regime. Until then I had only heard the President spoken of with respect, but now this guy was telling me how all of Iraq‘s oil money went into Saddam’s pocket and that if you opposed him politically he would kill your whole family. It scared the hell out of me. First I was thinking that maybe it was the secret police trying to trick me but later I got the impression that he wanted me to help him escape. I felt so bad. I told him: “Listen, I am just a schmuck from the United States, I am not with the UN, I’m not with the CIA – I just can’t help you.”. Of course I had read reports that Iraqis hated Saddam Hussein, but this was the real thing.

I can only wonder what prompts supposedly intelligent human beings to just leave and join others in reckless action based on preconceived naïve ideas. What do they expect? For all Iraqi’s to love their President just because he is Iraqi? Saddam Hussein has been in power for over two decades, during which he fought a war with Iran, he invaded Kuwait and now the country is once again engaged in a war due to his refusal to get rid of a number of weapons, some of which like the Scuds, have already surfaced and others, such as chemical weapons, may yet be found or have been found already. But in the middle, Saddam Hussein has also used chemical weapons on his own people, starved them and even had his own family members shot for treason. But a Jewish photographer from the US, who lives in London, is surprised to learn that some Iraqi’s don’t like Saddam? How naive can you be?

I guess three years ago I would have even thought the story was simply fake, another propaganda publication by either the British or US Government. But now, after what we have been through in Venezuela, I know this guy is for real, much like those that still believe and repeat that Chavez won with 80% of the votes, the number coinciding with what they think is the percentage of poor in Venezuela, number that they parrot away making it the “truth”. And these same people somehow find it hard to believe that the poor are now mostly against Chavez, after their purchasing power has been decimated in the last four years, despite the fact that Chavez still gloats that he himself was responsible for high oil prices. These same poor people have seen crime shoot up in the last four years, all social programs for the poor disappear (yes, all, not a single one remains in place). These people with barely enoughmoney to eat daily, now have to provide “special” payments to the free Government schools their kids attend; otherwise classes simply can’t take place. The poor can also see that not a single accusation of corruption has resulted in any conviction or jailing and that even assassinations are simply forgotten after a few months. Despite this, Chavez continues to say that he is governing for the poor, while the truth is that he is governing to preserve himself and those that surround him, only the “process” is important, let the economy be destroyed, if it helps defend the process. But somehow, naïve activists, reporters and even US Congressmen defend Chavez, because of what they think he represents, without paying much attention to what he really has done or has stood  for.  Thus, it is not surprising to me to see these “human shields” visiting Iraq and saying it is surprising that some Iraqis are anti-Saddam. If we ever have an election, which I still have serious doubts about, they will likely be very surprised that Chavez lost it. They may even think that the opposition cheated or that the powerful oligarchs financed an anti-Chavez campaign that was impossible to stop. On the other hand, maybe I am the one being naive and simply too optimistic as usual, and ten years from now some of these people may be coming to Venezuela as human shields. Who knows?

Go figure, the Frente Institucional Militar, an anti-Chavez Group composed of retired military came out today criticizing the Chavez administration for not coming out openly agaisnt the Iraqi war……Weird and inconsistent…..

Today the opposition had planned a rally in Caricuao, in the West of Caracas to celebrate the success of “The Firmazo” in areas considered to be hardcore pro-Chavez, but where the number of signatures in favor of the recall referendum was over 70% of the population. However as seen in the picture below, violent Chavez’ supporters showed up using guns, tear gas and covering their faces, forcing the event to be cancelled under the  indifferent watch of the police from the Libertador District whose Mayor is a close Chavez supporter. The violent Chavistas lit fires and used motorcycles, guns and fireworks to scare people away and stop them from attending the rally. This is the concept of democracy that these people support.

Chavez’ MVR Deputy Luigi D’angelo had harsh words on the Chavez Government today (El Nacional, A-5, no link possible), something very rare in Chavez Stalinist-style MVR party. He said:

“The way it is going, I can’t believe in this process. The Government and the leaders of MVR are taking us to a precipice. They led us to the oil strike which destroyed the economy. Tell me a Minister of the Interior that was worth it. What does Lucas Rincon know about public order? Do you remember the Ministers of the Interior of AD, like Luis Pinerua?. Those were good.”

About the Bolivarian circles he said: “They are just beggars, they just want to get something. They don’t defend the Government (??) I was always against that. When they said they were going to have a dual function, political and social, it did not convince me. It is either one thing or the other”

D’Angelo closed by reiterating he is a Marxist and wants to fight from within, I just wonder whether they will let him…..

Hugo Chavez finally spoke on the war in Iraq, using very mild language (extremely mild for the man who said the US had it coming on Sept. 11th.), arguing for peace, respect for internatioanl law and the United Nations. Nowhere in his words did he condemn the US or any of its allies for the, showing once again what a cynic he is…….As I said before Chavez does not want to offend his OPEC partners who are all in favor of the war in Iraq. (Except Iraq, obviously, but Chavez’ friendship with Iraq has diminished significantly since his visit to that country)