Observations focused on the problems of an underdeveloped country, Venezuela, with some serendipity about the world (orchids, techs, science, investments, politics) at large. A famous Venezuelan, Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo, referred to oil as the devil's excrement. For countries, easy wealth appears indeed to be the sure path to failure. Venezuela might be a clear example of that.
The Miranda Orchid Society show was held two weeks ago. I don´t like using flash when I take orchid pictures and I only took my monopod and it was very dark. Most pictures did not come out very well, I salvaged these three:
Top left a Vanda Sanderiana, a species. On the right another Vanda.
A very nice Cattleya Lueddemanianna coerulea from Venezuela
Eduardo and Santos send their regular contributions. If my memory is right the top two, the two Waleriana´s belong to Eduardo and the remaidner to Santos.
Two spectacular Walkerianas, the one on the left lloks like a coerulea and an alba on the right.
Cattleya Bicolor from Brazil on the left, on the right Encyclia Atrorubens from Mexico
On the left the famous Cattleya Walkeriana White Heritage. On the right Cirropetalum Medusae and a nice specimen at that.
On the left, Cattleya Trianae alba from Colombia. On the right, Dendrobium Infudibilum from Asia.
On the left a primary hybrid of the statrange combination of Cattleya Schilelraiana x Pescatorea Lemmanii, likely to ahve been made by Carlos Garcia Esquivel, sounds like the type of combinations he likes.On the right Lc. China Queen.
A hybrid after my own heart, Cattleya Schilleriana x Cattleya Aclandiae
Teodoro Petkoff nails it on the head on the inaction by Venezuela’s Prosecutor on the accusations against high Government officials in the Miami trial
“Socialist Impunity” by Teodoro Petkoff in Tal Cual
For the gringos the trial in Miami has one purpose: to demonstrate that those on trial violated US laws by acting as agents of a foreign Government, without registering to that effect in front of the authorities of that country. If they can demonstrate that and they condemn them it will not be for being corrupt (in Venezuela) or for money laundering (in Argentina) but for violating US laws. That they are corrupt is not their problem, but to demonstrate that they are agents of a Foreign Government-in this case, that of Chacumbele-the Prosecutor has to demonstrate the existence of strong links between those on trial and the high officials of Chacumbele’s Government. And those links, as we all know and we are seeing very clearly, are not very saintly. Thus, if to the gringos this aspect is not of their interest it is of overwhelming interest to us Venezuelans what the trial is evidencing on matters of highflying corruption. Here the Prosecutor’s office has ordered the capture of Antonini and also of Kauffmann and Maionica and they have ordered the freeze of the assets of Kauffmann and Maionica. All a bluff. The Prosecutor knows that these gentlemen will not come back to Venezuela for a while. On the other hand, this small reporter has to inquire, the Prosecutor’s office has nothing to ask General Rangel Silva, or to Rafael Ramirez, or to Jorge Rodriguez, or to Tarek Al Aissami and the other personalities that have floated in the interrogations of the singing boys of Miami? Isn’t there enough evidence that they were no only “mailmen” of people very high up in the Government, who they provided services like that of bringing some change to the friends in Argentina, in exchange for influence and access to the dirty deals in PDVSA? Isn’t it clear by now that the high capos of the officialist Cosa Nostra, surely on orders from the Godfather, tried to have Antonini’s partners convince him not to talk in exchange for protection? We don’t care if the singing boys violated US laws, but we are supremely worried that they have violated ours and that to their accomplices, who are here and not in Miami, Venezuelan Justice guarantees them total “socialist” impunity.
It was the time for Carlos Kauffman to testify day before yesterday
and yesterday and Kauffman, the former partner of Duran in all his business
dealings, did not disappoint with his disclosers.
First he said that the whole thing was quite simple, he
and Duran we sought to “fix” the problem of Antonini and the suitcase because
of their ties.
According
to Kauffmann he talked directly to then Vice-President Jorge Rodriguez who
told him that he knew everything and that PDVSA was involved in the case. He
ratified the money was for the campaign of Cristina Kirchner.
Kauffmann said that he and Duran offered
to help on the cover-up and their reward would be “new contacts, more money
and more power..It was going to be beneficial to us”. Jeez, the robolution
can be so generous, no?
Kauffmann revealed that the whole cover up began on August
30 2007, when he met with the Head of Venezuela’s Intelligence Police, General
Henry Rangel. Rangel has been accused by the US Government of cooperating with
the FARC’s drug trafficking
According to Kauffman, they met in Rangel’s office in the presence
of Moises Maionica and they
told Rangel they would help solve the scandal and he could count on them. He
said they were concerned because the name of Antonini was associated with them
and they were afraid their business dealings would be affected by the maletagate
case.
The Prosecution also introduced the Venezuelan Naval
Intelligence credential that was found on Duran when he was detained. According
to local paper El Nacional the credential is not honorific and it is quite real
and in the end it may be the strongest evidence of the prosecution, after all,
the main accusation against Duran and buddies is that they were Government
agents.
While much
was made of the “differences” between Antonini’s version and that of the
customs agent that found the suitcase, the discrepancy is as to why Antonini
was carrying the suitcase. Antonini has claimed that he was helping someone in
carrying the suitcase, while the customs agent said that she asked whose
suitcase it was and Antonini said it was his.
But what was key, was that the custom agent did not say
that she had checked all of the luggage, just that all of it went through the
x-ray machine and she noticed something in the now infamous $800,000 suitcase.
By the time she had that one open, the rest of the luggage and the people had
moved on. Thus, all of it went
through the machine but only this suitcase was opened.
At some point the judge in the trial seem to suggest there
was sufficient evidence to find Duran guilty of being a foreign Government
agent and asked the defense if he would bring new evidence to the contrary.
The defense brought Duran’s nephew to testify that it was
Antonini who asked for help, not the other way around. This angle seems
surprising, given evidence that the men were acting on behalf of the Venezuelan
Government, independently of who initiated the request for help.
The trial seems to be winding down and it will resume on
Tuesday.
Normal
0
false
false
false
MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:””;
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
In 2003
Hugo Chavez was grandstanding around the world claiming he did not believe in
“representative” democracy, because he only believed in
“participatory” democracy. Supposedly he only believed in the
“people” and not in those elected by them to make decisions.
Of course, at the time he had a plural National Assembly that wanted to discuss
things and the like, which went against his vary autocratic and dictatorial
nature, so the word participatory would come out of his mouth every ten words.
Not any
more!
Because the “people” decided in December in a referendum that they
did not want many changes to the Constitution, but instead of accepting the
decision of the “participatory” democracy associated with a
referendum Chavez simply went back to the only form of participatory democracy
he likes: He participates the people what it is he wants, independent of the
illegality.
Because yesterday after midnight the Venezuelan National Assembly approved
the Organic Bill for the Organization and Management of the Territory,
which contains the same concepts rejected by the “people” in last
December’s referendum.
The Bill gives Hugo the autocrat (dictator) the right to be the “supreme authority
on the organization and management of the territory” conducting public
policy in the building of a socialist geographical space”, all concepts
rejected in the referendum and thus in violation of what people voted.
The Bill also gives Chavez the authority to name the same “Regional
Authorities” that voters said last December they did not want, a new
position which represents Chavez in the regions and have a hierarchy above the
elected Governors of the country.
There are other morsels, like the whole territory of the country is defined as
“public utility” and all subject to expropriation, also a concept
rejected in the December referendum.
So, when people come and tell me Venezuela is a democracy because Chavez was
elected, they better be prepared t tell me how it is that Chavez can ignore the
vote of a referendum and legislate at will what the people rejected explicitly.
Of course, they will just go on a tangent that simply demonstrates that they
are Dictator lovers with no democratic principles or beliefs in human rights.
But we knew that even before this or the 26 Bills approved by Chavez the
autocrat (dictator) under his enabling Bill were passed without consultation.
Because in the end, Venezuela
ceased being a democracy long ago, when Chavez began walking the gray areas he
is not afraid to step of these days. And as rights and laws are violated the
fascists of the left continue to raise their ugly heads to defend the
indefensible.
For some reason, probably not innocent, all public files with the Maisanta program online end up corrupt or useless. So, here is another try. I have placed the file over here, it is called santaines and it is about 300 MB. It is an .exe file. You download it and run it and it will install the Maisanta database in all its infamous glory on your PC. No Mac version available. I tried it, it takes about an hour with Cantv ADSL (ABA) and it works!
Normal
0
false
false
false
MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
—Hugo Chavez orders one million computers from Portugal. Of
course, these are nothing more than modified Classmate PCs manufactured in Portugal under
license from Intel. The price was not revealed, but I do hope Chavez drove a
hard bargain, those PCs are
sold in Portugal
(without subsidy) for 285 Euros (US$ 391.6 at todays exchange rate). But you
can find it in Amazon for US$ 359.1. Of course, I am
assuming there were no robolutionary intermediaries in the transaction.
—And Chavez called the US economic policies a sinking ship, criticizing
the printing of money and the easy mortgages. This from a man that has
increased the money supply in five years from US$ 14 billion to US$ 78 billion
and recently passed a Bill allowing people to get mortgages with no down
payment!
—And then Chavez praises
the Caracas Stock Exchange because it is now disconnected from the New York
Stock Exchange. That is like saying the dinosaurs are disconnected from the
Earth. Hugo Chavez and his policies destroyed the Caracas Stock Exchange. When
he got to power in 1998, daily volume in stocks was US$ 10-20 million, it is
down to half a million these days, as the market ahs become simply irrelevant.
Not one company has come public in recent years (5?) as the stock market
becomes an irrelevant business for local brokers.
—And in another
robolutionary tidbit, Podemos Deputy Juan Molina denounced
that Chavista Deputy Hiroshima Bravo collects two salaries every month, one
from the National Assembly ad the other form the tax office. I guess that is
the reason why they named her Head of the Finance Committee last year, she
certainly knows how to count her money.
—And investigations on
the suitcase case Maletagate are very advanced according
to the Prosecutor. Well, in the US they are already holding a trial
of crimes that took place after the suitcase and here things are very advanced
That is Venezuelan Justice, if it exists.
—Yesterday, I wrote
about the opposition President of the Universidad de Los Andes
Student Council, who asked for asylum at the Vaticans Embassy and his rights
and the laws are not being respected. Today the opposition President of the
student council of Universidad del Zulia was killed by twenty shots from a car that intercepted the
path of the vehicle transporting him. It may be coincidental, but it is
certainly very convenient for the Government!
Normal
0
false
false
false
MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:””;
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
Nixon
Moreno was an opposition student leader who was ready to win the elections for
student council at the Universidad de Los Andes when the Government canceled the
elections saying they should be supervised by the Electoral Board.
Demonstrations followed the cancelation and then the Government charged Moreno
with raping a police women. Moreno
asked for asylum from the Vatican which he got after
the Vatican
investigated the case. So far, the Venezuelan Government has refused to grant
him asylum, the Electoral Board did not allow him to run for office in his own
State of Merida arguing he does not reside in that State (Neither do dozens of
Chavista candidates all over the country) and the busy Comptroller is trying to
invalidate his Bachelors degree by doing an exhaustive investigation on how
Moreno passed his last few courses remotely from the Vatican’s Embassy. This is
simply further harassment and violation of Moreno’s
rights. Today, Teodoro Petkoff addresses the issue of how the Chavez Government
ignores treaties and international law and acts like Dictators of the past and
present.
A Time of Rats by Teodoro Petkoff in Tal Cual
Normal
0
false
false
false
MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
What officialdom is doing with Nixon Moreno goes beyond the
limits of being a mean thing. But it gives you a good measure of the moral
fiber of the people of the Venezuelan Government. There are those that slander
Nixon and there are those who are silent, even if they now what a despicable
thing the whole thing is. But the worst one is the maximum leader. The one that
has no qualms in pointing out publicly that Nixon is a “rapist”. It
is the problem of not being named Daniel Ortega. They not only invented an
absurd accusation, about the supposed attempt of rape of a policewoman in the
middle of a student demonstration and with hundreds of witnesses that deny such
a fabrication, but now the Government is denying him safe passage to leave the
Vatican’s Embassy, where he has been under asylum and travel abroad. In other
words, the Government pretends to leave Nixon in jail at the Vatican’s Embassy,
This is the same thing the Dictator Odria did wit Haya de la Torre during five
and a bit years in the Colombian Embassy in Peru and the same as the brutal
military dictatorship of Burma maintains in prison in her house the daring
fighter for human rights that she denounces and fights. It is the same
attitude. It is the same disdain for legality and international agreements. The
same disdain for public opinion. Exactly the same contempt for human beings. We
are living in times of rats.
And another brilliant accomplishment of the robolution: Top spot in the list of murder capitals of the world. I am sure some PSF can find some silver lining or positive spin in this…Maybe they will say this is good, after all the opposition is now a majority in Caracas, in time they may kill enough of us to recover their former leadership….
Thanks AM
In another bizarre twist to the Maletagate trial in Miami, local newspaper Ultimas Noticias says today (by subscription) that the 18th. Circuit Court of Caracas has ordered the assets of Moises Maionica and Carlos Kauffmann frozen. In the case of Kauffmann, this includes his majority ownership in petrochemical company Venoco.
The order is quite weird as no reason has been given for it and no similar order has been given for the assets of either Guido Antonini or Franklin Duran, the two other main characters in the Miami trial.
Recall in particular, that the trio Duran, Kauffmann, Antonini worked together, but Maionica was part of the Government’s emissaries to get Antonini off the hook. They had no prior close relationship. Moreover, the Duran/Kaufmann duo was at the center of all dealings and Antonini was more their partner in deals involving the US, due to his US citizenship. Thus, pairing only Maionica and Kauffmann is quite strange, to say the least.
Recall that at some point Duran tells Antonini, in one taped conversation, that the Venezuelan Government may take everything away from them, including Venoco. Maybe Duran’s prize for not singing, is that he will be able to keep his assets.
Stay tuned, the show goes on!
Unknown Feed
The Devil's Excrement 