The Devil's Excrement

the above citation is due to manuel Caballero
in an excellent interview by Mori Ponsowy that appeared in March in the argentinean La Nacion. I have seldom read anything that condensates so
well my own perception of Hugo Chavez.

Here’s the translated interview and here’s my post. Enjoy.

CARACAS .- Manuel Caballero is one of the most known and
respected historians of Venezuela. National Journalism Award (1979),
National History Prize (1994) and Simon Bolivar Prize Biennale (2001), his
fame, however, is not due to his academic work, but is rather due to his
continuing work as an essayist and opinion journalist . Always
controversial, his articles generate debate not only about historical
issues, but also about the most pressing contemporary issues. Since 1965,
he has been collaborator of newspapers such as El Nacional, El Diario de
Caracas and, currently, El Universal. Despite his long militancy in the
left, the lucidity of his analysis, the iconoclasm of his ideas, and his
fervent opposition to the paternalism of the state has become a required
Sunday reading for all sectors.

Author of more than 50 books, his
writings combine historical erudition and a witty pen. He is famous for his
sense of humour and his mordacity. Our appointment is at nine o’clock, but
he suggests that it may be earlier. “At eight I have already written my
article, read all the newspapers, and when my wife lived, I had given her
her first beating,” he says, laughing at his own joke.

He lives
alone in a small apartment that, like many in Caracas, overlooks the Avila
mountain. In the bright and colorful living room where he receives La
Nación there is a table full of ornaments where live together a high Simon
Bolivar in wood, with all Mafalda’s characters. He points to us other
Argentines characters on the table: three small plastic dolls,
representing Evita, Peron and Gardel.

Caballero militated for
eighteen years in the Communist Party, was arrested during the
dictatorship, and was a founder and a member of the Movimiento al
Socialism party until it decided to support Chavez. “I told them
explicitly that if they were going to devote themselves to lick the
ass of the military, they could count me out”. Since 1958, when Perez
Jimenez felt, I have criticized every single ruler”, says Caballero, that
prides himself on not having ever worked for any government.
“That’s what gives me the authority to oppose now. I even told Ramon J.
Velasquez, whom I admire, when he assumed the presidency, that I was not
only in opposition, but that I wanted him to make a bad government so that
we Venezuelans remove from our heads the idea that everything should come
from the State. “

When asked about his political militancy, he
replies that first and foremost he is antimilitarist. “If being
antimilitarist is to be left, as I was always taught, I am on the left; if
it means to be from the right, I am on the right, if it means being in the
center, I will be in the center. But, one thing is for sure, in each case I
am in the extreme: extreme left, extreme right or extreme center.”

— Is there a socialist government in Venezuela?

–
This government is not socialist nor on the facts or in its approach. Hugo
Chavez is not a communist, nor a socialist or a Muslim, as he once said.
But he is all that at the same time if it guarantees him to stay in power
forever. Chavez is a chavista and what he loves about Fidel Castro
are not things that Fidel did or failed to do in Cuba, but the fact that he
has been almost half a century in power.

— Why do you claim that
Chavez is not a socialist?

– I am tempted to respond by saying that
I refer to the proofs. But I will be more friendly. The problem with the
word “socialism” is the emotional and mythic charge that it carries.
With the same word have been designated very different doctrines and
practice policies. Socialist was Stalin, like Hitler, who was a
national-socialist, and socialist was Pol Pot, on the other hand, Willy
Brandt was also a socialist. The political practice of Chavez resembles the
fascism of Mussolini and his Latin American version which was Peron, with
the difference that Peron was supported by the organised working class,
while the fundamental support for Chavez are the marginal class.

—
Do you find other similarities between Chavez and Peron?

– As Peron,
and perhaps more than him, Chavez is the largest demagogue in the history
of Latin America. There is a confessed liking by Chavez of Peron. When he
was in full election campaign, when he was nationalizing a group of
argentineans, he ended his speech by saying “Viva el General Peron!” In the
Paseo Vargas he made erect a statue of Evita alongside the “Che” Guevara.
Another big similarity is the use of democratic mechanisms to combat
democracy.

— Do you think that is why Chavez has much sympathy in
Argentina?

– I would not say that the Argentine people support
Chavez, but the Argentine government does. Unfortunately, we live in a
world in which Christian charity has prevailed for thousands of years and
appreciation for the alms manifests itself in a lot of people who prefer to
reach out their hands to receive, instead of making it callous by hard
work. Over there there are eight hundred thousand dollars roaming that are
not little thing: the one who is willing to receive them is willing to be
grateful.

— What are the greatest achievements of the current
government?

– I owe three things to the government of Hugo
Chavez. First, having taught me that political parties, as
individuals, are capable of suicide. Second, having me shown that the
people can be wrong. And thirdly, giving me the evidence of how
unable to govern are the military. This is not the first government that
shows these things, but it is the first to combine all three
simultaneously.

— Do you think it will be possible to export the
Bolivarian revolution to the rest of Latin America?

– Lenin, who
created a special organization to export the revolution and who had the
support of a nation of two hundred million people did not suceed in that
quest, nor Mao, with more than one billion Chinese people as enthusiastic
supporters, and neither Fidel, despite how well he succeeded in exploiting
his romantic image of a guerrilla leader. Do you think that that could be
achieved by such a politically and ideologically inconsistent
character as Chavez?

– Reading about the country, I am surprised at
getting versions that are diametrically opposed on the same fact, depending
on who is consulted. How can we know the truth in today’s
Venezuela?

– One of the most pernicious things that are due to this
government is an absolute division of the society, as it had never existed
in our country. The social hatred is well known, both as the geographical
distribution of the facts and consciences. Here, now, you are absolutely
right because you are my friend, or you are not right because you are my
enemy, rather than you are my friend because you are right. All this makes
it very difficult to know where is the truth. However, sometimes the myths
can be undone by studying the same official discourse. At one point, the
president said that he was going to launch a campaign to eradicate
illiteracy, and that it was a shame that 10% of adults did not know how to
read or write. That single sentence contains a contradiction: if it is the
only government that has been involved in literacy how is it that the
remaining 90% of the population can read and write? On another occasion he
said: “I have never supported or support the FARC. If I support the
FARC, the Venezuelan people would be entitled to throw me out of
here.”

— Why Venezuela became involved in the recent
Colombian-Ecuadorian conflict?

– The intrusion by the Venezuelan
government has two and only two explanations: the first is the alliance
between the Colombian bandits of the FARC and the Venezuelan government,
and the second is the search for an external enemy to allow Chavez, on the
one hand, to redo his virginity in a matter of popularity through an
ultranationalist speech and, on the other, to compact the Venezuelan armed
forces behind him.

— Can the offensive by the Venezuelan
Goverment be interpreted as an attempt to avoid the American meddling in
Latin America?

– Contrary to what the Chavista propaganda
would like us to believe, it is the Venezuelan meddling in the conflict
which could lead to a more open and active interference of the US. There is
no Venezuelan national interest to justify interfering in the matter,
except Chavez’s personal interest of provoking an intervention that could
allow him to stay in power forever using the same alibi as Fidel
did.

— Do you think that, with regard to Venezuela, the
resolution of the border crisis is a final one?

– Neither this
crisis, nor any other similar crisis arising in the future will have a real
and definitive solution while Chavez remains in power. His policy remains
focused on the exploitation of nationalism and the militarization of the
Venezuelan society.

— Has the situation of the marginalized
classes improved with Chavez?

– Yes, it is undeniable. But those are
the social sectors most likely to accept and prefer the bestowal. Due to
their status, they do not think what may happen next week because their big
problem is what they are going to eat this evening. Chavez has used the
bestowal as a policy, especially at times of elections. But the hard alms
lasts what the alms lasts. Chavez has been governing for ten years, and
some people are starting saying that they would rather collect a
salary at the end of the month than continue receiving alms. It is a matter
of dignity.

— Do you think that the balance of the Bolivarian
revolution may have something positive in the sense that it woke up the
middle class to participate in politics?

– I believe that the only
legacy of the Bolivarian revolution is the independence of Venezuela, but I
suppose that you did not refer to our Independence Revolution. It is that
this can not be called neither “revolution” nor “Bolivarian”! That
“Bolivarian” is a sovereign stupidity. Bolivar was not even a Democrat: was
an aristocrat of the eighteenth century, a son of the Enlightenment.
Therefore the “Bolivarian socialism” is almost an oxymoron, like saying
“white blackness.”

— And “revolution”?

— But is that Chavez
has not even nationalized a grocer’s shop (a bodega) in the llano! Here the
basic industries had already been nationalized, and without
blood.

— Are there political prisoners in Venezuela?

— Of
course! One example: there are three commissioners of the Metropolitan
Police that have been prisoners for three years, they have not been able to
judge them because they have not found how to do it. And about the
impartiality of judges I will give you just one example: last year, at the
opening ceremony of the judicial year, all the judges began to shout “Uh,
ah, Chavez no se va!” That had been one of the slogans of the
campaign by itself. What independence of the judiciary is that?

—
Considering that Chavez’s opposition is ranging from the extreme left to
extreme right, what chance of success do you think it may have in the
regional elections in November?

– The opposition has committed many
errors. Perhaps the most serious was to be drifted along by radical groups
flying the promise that Chavez could be overthrown. Just now the opposition
is learning that that is not the way to get rid of Chávez. Leon Blum
said that politics is a game where not all hits are collected, but where
all mistakes are paid double. We are paying the mistake of having
elected Chavez. The worst plague that can fall to a people is to have a
military government. I would not know when we will finish paying because I
am convinced that Chavez is not going to leave power unless it is by force,
but that does not mean necessarily through a military coup. We have to
accept the idea that the fight is tough and possibly long, that we screwed
up very deep and that when he goes away he will leave us a country in ruins
and, if that were not enough, ungovernable.

What an interview with Chavez’ brother Adan! (Don’t miss the picture and the pointed finger in the article, it tells you the whole story in some sense). It sounds like something out of The Onion or Saturday Night Life. You have to love the “errors”, “lies” and “excuses” of the revolution. Some highlights:

Q: How do you justify the numbers saying that the number of enrolled students went down by 2.5 million from 2006?

A.Ch. I don’t know where you got that number that it decreased by 2.5 million.

Q: In 05-06 there are 10.2 million students and in 2007 it went down to 7.6 million.

A.Ch. That is an error, in 05-06, without missions; there were 7.4 million students. The years after that there were 7.6 million.

Q: So, there is a contradiction with the total of 10.2 million?

A.Ch. It is an error. If we have to correct it we will. (Why don’t they?)

Q: Ten years ago the registration reached in first grade 657,448 kids, in one decade that number ahs not been reached. Moreover, there are 232 thousand kids between 6 and 7 who are excluded.

A.Ch. We have increased coverage for that age. We are attacking the social causes, without looking for justifications (??). We don’t hide that half the kids in middle level education are out of the system. But before only 23 out of one hundred were in. The deterioration is such that you can’t fix it in 5 or ten years.

(My comment: if registration doubled on a relative scale, how come the total absolute number has never been topped? Moreover, since they did nothing for five years, it is no surprise it “deteriorated”, but ten years ago, Physics and Mathematics was taught at 90% of public high schools, today they have no teachers in over half n these areas and the students are passed automatically, so don’t give me that BS)

Q: The literacy target has been questioned. You said there was 4% illiteracy in the country that means there are 930,000 illiterate people in the country.

A.Ch. When a country is declared free of illiteracy it does not mean it has 0%; Unesco recognizes that a country with 4% literacy is free of illiteracy.

Q: In 2005 you said you had taught 1.5 million people to read, how come now there are 900 thousand illiterate persons in Venezuela.

A. Ch. There was an error (Another one!) When the mission was started we announced that there were two million. We taught 1.5 million to read. Let us assume (Why?) that we made an error in calculation at that time.

Q: You always said it was 1.5 million On the other hand Unesco never declared Venezuela a country free of illiteracy, the letter only recognizes the effort.

A. Ch. There is a letter published by the General Secretary of Unesco, where some achievement is recognized. Unesco recognizes a country with less than 4% illiteracy to be free of it. We have less than 4%, because we have not stopped. We don’t hide anything…I reiterate Unesco recognizes that a country with 4% illiteracy is free of it.
There you have it, he implicitly recognizes the old lie that Unesco never “certified” Venezuela as free of illiteracy, which was mentioned by Chavez and by PSUV’s candidate to Metropolitan Mayor Aristobulo Isturiz. This was “certified” in the blogging world by Alek and Sydney and in the academic world by Francisco Rodriguez.

But the striking thins is how Adan Chavez lies throughout the interview, attributes things to errors in the past, rather than the outright robolutionary exaggerations they were. He takes the numbers too lightly and really never gives a straight answer. He also fails to recognize that things at the high school level are even worse than when Chavez got to power.

It is a truly a farcical interview. The attitude seems to be: The revolution is always right, even when it is wrong. Except that Mr. Chavez knows there are few achievements in the educational front because the revolution had no educational plan ten years ago and today’s plan is simply ideological not educational.

It is just lies, errors and manipulations. What else is new?

I will be traveling on my annual vacation. I will be gone to three weeks to the other side of the planet. Bruni and Spinoza and even my distinguished blogger Jorge Arena will provide some ghost coverage as needed and once in a while I may even try to contribute. Hope the country holds together in my absence, funny things seem to happen when I travel…

While we have become accustomed to the most bizarre and
outrageous behavior and statements from Chavez Government officials, it was truly amazing to
watch former General Prosecutor Isaias Rodriguez come on TV and start blaming
the US Government, the “Empire”, for all of the country’s problems.

You have probably noticed I have not written much lately, I could say I was busy with the young baseball season or the orchid exhibit this week, but reality is that there has been so much going on making this country truly bizarre. Meanwhile,  the so called opposition was nowhere to be seen as they seem more concerned with their November campaigns than with remembering those that died on April 11th. 2002, whose killers remain at large and 19 deaths and hundreds of injured have disappeared under the veil of Chavista injustice. And Chavismo has no shame in celebrating today (Do they know how to count?) as the Day of Dignity because Hugo Chavez happened to return to power 4 years and 364 days ago.

Only NGO Vive commemorated such a dark day properly, showing up with 19 coffins in front of the Prosecutors office asking for the Justice that has not been achieved, while Chavismo in its usual immorality was at Puente El Llaguno, where former Minister of Defense Garcia Carneiro used the occasion for politics attacking retired General Raul Baduell, calling him a “traitor hero” for his role that day and his later defection from the Chavista ranks.

Meanwhile the man in charge of all the injustice and the fraud to the country’s Constitution, former Prosecutor Isaias Rodriguez, was trying to deflect the accusations against him from his former star witness in the infamous Anderson case. Given their track record, I don’t believe Rodriguez or star witness Giovanny Vazquez, as they both have shown to have a vivid and shameless memory to manipulate the truth according to obscure and amoral purposes. (The word amoral has come up a few times in the last few days with some friends in different discussions. What is going on here can no longer be labeled as immorality, amorality represents a better definition of the lack of scruples, ethics and morals that has taken over Venezuela in the last few days)

And we go from one amazing act or statement to the next. Perhaps none reflects as well the ability of the Government to be bizarre, that Chavez’ statements that the country needs to be ready to greet the “hundreds of thousands of refugees” that will come to Venezuela to flee from the misery and the poverty created by George Bush in the US. I mean, where does he think he live? Has his isolation increased so much? Has he seen the garbage, lack of sewage, poverty, misery, malnutrition and crime that permeates Venezuela from one end to the other, with little change since he became President more than nine years ago? Has he noticed the exodus in the opposite direction at all?

But rather than spend money in solving these same problems, Chavez spends his days not only spending money at random, but destroying institutions. He is nationalizing Sidor just because and on Friday, they added seamless pipe factory Tavsa to it, just because its plant is on the same land as Sidor. What’s another billion here or there for his whims?

And they even think those that will be expropriated may want to stay as their partners as if their track record at destruction and mismanagement was not there for all to see. Rumors have it that CANTV has not paid all salaries to their workers, only months after being nationalized. Billing problems, dialing problems and ADSL problems that did not exist befiore, have begun to surface as the number of workers in the company has jumped, much like those in PDVSA that has gone form 40,000 employees pre-strike to 77,000 five years later, despite lower production, huge accounts payable increases and profitability that is only due to a five fold increase in oil prices.

Meanwhile, some bureaucrat in the Land Institute decides to upgrade the land in Valled Del Turbio to class I (the most fertile) and sugar producing farms in full production are militarized and the Government wants to take them over just to guarantee further sugar shortages in the future. (Funny, one of the farms threatened was one given to some farmers by the Chavez Government, now they want to take it back. I guess they found a succesful case and wanted to get rid of it, it sets a bad example)

And to end it all, I find out that the new school program that has created so much controversy that Chavez withdrew the proposal, removes computers from the curriculum as a subject matter other than it should be used in an unspecified and diffuse manner in all courses.

And the opposition? I don’t know, I have not seen them talking about any of these topics, maybe they care about human rights or economic well being as little as the Chavez Government. Instead, rather than devote a little time to criticizing any of the actions above by the Government, they seem to be running for office all over the place. I do hope they have a plan, other than getting elected.

Thus the country drifts into this sort of bizarro vaporous oblivion of nonsense under the leadership of Hugo Chavez who has gone into this nationalization rampage which is accompanied by frequent and long nationwide TV addresses. Today he did not create much goodwill by interrupting the NY Mets game just as Venezuelan superstar Johan Santana was pitching, which is certainly not going to endear him with the Venezuelan baseball fan population.(Even if he lost)

But such is the isolation of Chavez today that he no longer cares about what used to be “his favorite team from his youth”, a lie he was caught on when someone realized he was no longer a kid when the expansion team the Mets was created.

But Chavez has lost his old touch with the common people and his popularity drifts down daily as he acts in grandiose fashion to attempt to prop it up. He forgets that his best moments have been precisely when he has set aside his grandiose economic and political projects and focused on the problems facing the people.

But the country drifts into a nutty economic model and nobody seems to care or say much, as everyone seems to go about their daily lives.

And I worry…

Today the Vice-President Ramon Carrizales said exactly the
opposite he stated yesterday and the Government announced that steel company
Sidor would be “renationalized” and taken over by the Venezuelan Government
from Argentina’s Ternium. Ternium is composed of a Mexican, Argentinean and
Venezuelan steel producers, which found the synergies or joining forces and
important factor in their success. Sidor was privatized in 1998 after decades
of losses and an investment of more than 15 billions dollars.