The Devil's Excrement

More officers joined the peaceful protest agaisnt the Hugo Chavez Government asking for a referendum. Tonight the second in command of the National Guard joined the group together with a few dozen high ranking officers from all forces. The crowds continue to grow and the dissenters appear to be gaining momentum. It is clear that the Chavez administration has decided to ignore what is happening in the hope that it will wither away. While this strategy may appear to be the correct one, at this time it is just not working and the weekend should work in the dissenting officers’ favor. 

Crowds were present in Altamira Square and other cities in Venezuela even as no new military officers joined those that declared themselves in civil disobedience. Many rumors around the city. The crowd tonight was much larger than last night. The first picture is that of the obelisk in the center of the square while the second one is a side view of the square showing people as far as one could see. Hard to predict what may happen, but I was surprised at the way it gained strength today.

A total of eighty seven officers ended up declaring themselves in Civil Disobedience not recognizing Hugo Chavez as President and any of their superiors. The military officers invoked article 350 of the new Venezuelan Constitution which says:

Artículo 350. El pueblo de Venezuela, fiel a su tradición republicana, a su lucha por la independencia, la paz y la libertad, desconocerá cualquier régimen, legislación o autoridad que contraríe los valores, principios y garantías democráticas o menoscabe los derechos humanos.

Article 350. The people of Venezuela, faithful to their republican tradition, to their fight for independence, will refuse to recognize any regime, legislation or authority which contradicts their democratic values and principles or reduces human rights.

The military officers called on the rest of the Armed Forces to join them. They said they will not leave until Hugo Chavez resigns, called Chavez a Dictator who refuses to follow the will of the people as expressed by the marches of Oct. 10. and the general strike of Oct. 21st, calling for a referendum or elections.

The three pictures above, taken by yours truly, show when the officers were giving their speeches as well as a general view of the couple of thousand people that gathered at the Altamira Square, which the officers called, “liberated” territory.

The media was cautious with the news, giving it reduced coverage. The Democratic coordinating committee which groups the opposition distanced itself from the action. My initial impression was that something else was going to happen as the first couple of hours appeared to be quite carefully staged, with officers joining the announcement at carefully staged intervals.  At this time, 1:28 AM Caracas (and EST) the crowd is still going strong, but the crowd seems to want “more” and it appears as if nothing else will take place.

The highest ranking General in the venezuelan Armed Forces has just declared himself in Civil Desobedience according to Article 350 of the Constitution accompanied by 14 other active Generals. He has asked people to go to “Freedom” Square in Caracas, which he called liberated territory. Heavy stuff. Stay tuned….

The Chavez Government has denounced two assasination attempts on the President in two days, which have been met with the skepticism of the opposition. Yesterday the President said his intelligence police had a lead that his plane was going to be shot down from a beach. As the police went to the location they “found” a group of men with an anti-tank bazooka. Now, there are a few problems with the story. One, nobody was apprehended in a secluded beach in a sector that only has a single road going in. None of the neighbors heard any noises. Why didn’t the “killers” use the bazooka to defend themselves?.  Two, the site was 2 miles away from the airport and the range of an anti-tank bazooka is only three hundred yards. Two miles away from the airport an Airbus like teh one Chavez travels is is much higher than the 300 yards.

The second attempt reportedly took place today in the afternoon near a square in Caracas where pro-Government supporters gather. The intelligence police find a Car with three guys with rifles, weapons, radios. The three had ID’s from a Caracas municipality led by an opposition leader. What’s strange about this one is that no official program was available for that square and nobody new the President may appear (he didn’t) or someone else like the Vice-President (he did).

I am skeptical too, but it is a sign of the division in Venezuela when such serious charges are met with absolute incredulity on one side and total certainty in the other. The same happened with today’s strike. The Government declared it a failure, while the opposition said it was a success. In this case, though, I have no doubt about who is right. Traffic was lighter than on a Sunday, as my picture on a previous story shows and over 90% of stores were closed. 

This is a picture of a Caracas highway at mid-morning, usually this part has very heavy traffic, even on weekends. This is the highway from the airport to Caracas. It demonstrates the success of the work stoppage , which the Government is trying to project as a failure.

When Hugo Chavez was riding the crest of his popularity he used to boast that sovereignity resided in the people. In this clip he is shown saying first” The day people rise against me, let’s assume they take to the streets, I would prefer, a million times, to leave Government…” in the second he says, “The day people don’t want me, I would leave…..”. The statements are mixed in with images of the two one million-people plus rallies against him in April and October and a famous Venezuelan bolero in the background, “Recordar es Vivir”. To remember is to live.

The Internet: You can lie, but you can’t hide!

If you can’t see it, you can download the movie here. It’s in Windows Media Player, so it’s very likely you will have to download it and then open it in Windows Media Player…

[Tyromaniac]

Thanks to my brother the Tyromaniac for doing the hard work…..

The work stoppage to protest the Chavez Government is a complete success at this time. (9:20AM). Despite the threats by the Government and the boast that it would fail, the streets of the country are simply empty. Even Government offices are shutdown. Things are quiet so far, no violent incidents reported.

Since we are on the subject of Chavez’ respect for the Constitution and democracy, Chavez former Minister of Defense, retired General Raul Salazar, says in this week’s, Quinto Dia, that the President wanted to take over the Venezuelan Congress in 1999, but he stopped it. He also says some people approached him about a coup before Chavez’ inauguration and he also opposed it.

According to the Government press agency Venpres, the Minister of Energy and Mines said that Norway will invest US$ 10 billion in the Venezuelan oil industry. This is the only place where this was said while Chavez visited that country. Now according to the second quarter presentation of the Norwegian oil company Statoil, it plans to invest 23 billion Norwegian crowns in the full year. That is less than US$ 3 billion, thus it would seem surprising to me that even in let’s say 5 years, Norway’s state company would invest US$ 2 billion per year in Venezuela.