The Devil's Excrement

Once again the Government tried to pull a fast one on the students today, but they did not fall for it and they ended up marching via the route they had originally proposed. Essentially, the students proposed one route and the Government said that a group from Chavez’ party PUSV had requested to march somewhere nearby before them and they were approving an alternative route, designed by the authorities, which went via the road near the mountain.

The students balked, saying that it was their right to march and propose the route and the Government had no right to change it or not, it had to approve or not and they would not yield on that point. They also argued that they were being manipulated and discriminated against as nobody knew about the other activity. While negotiations were taking place, the terrorists shown in the pictures above dealt with the cops and National Guard who were out en force.

Eventually the students managed to win their argument and their march began according to the original plan of going to the Supreme Court via the city streets, in public view and where they wanted. Once there, a delegation of leaders from the universities represented at the march met with some of the Supreme Court Justices. They handed the Justices two injunctions, one requesting that their civil rights be protected and they not be discriminated against. They handed in a second request for an injunction, asking that the Court protect their rights to protest everywhere they want, including upcoming demonstrations in public squares in Caracas that have become Chavista enclaves, where opposition people can not go and protest without Chavista groups attacking them.

The students praised the members of the Court that met with them, emphasizing the difference in the way they were treated today, with the way the members of the Cabinet and the National Assembly have so far treated their protest. Thy said both the Cabinet and the National Assembly had disregarded them, insulted them and in general treated them with the same discriminatory and patronizing style that Hugo Chavez has promoted in the last few years. In contrast, the Supreme Court Justices had not only been receptive but agreed that there is only one Venezuela and group of Venezuelans and there should be a single Government for all. The students who spoke were quite articulate and forceful and it was nice to hear them calling for a Government for all with respect for civil liberties and no discrimination.

While all of this was going on Foreign Minister Maduro and Secretary of State Rice clashed in Panama at the OAS meeting. Maduro said the closing of RCTV was an internal matter, which conflicted with Chavez on TV last night on an obligatory nationwide broadcast having Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega sign a proclamation backing the shutdown of RCTV.

Meanwhile Chavez was losing friends quickly. Today, the Spanish Government, one of the friendliest towards Chavez, asked the Venezuelan Government to reopen RCTV, saying there is no justification for the measure and this can not be done in a democracy. There has been no response as yet from the Venezuelan Government, which is still bickering with another ally, Brazil, over a declaration by that country’s Senate on the closing of RCTV. While President Ignacio Lula Da Silva of Brazil had avoided the controversy, Chavez insults to the Brazilian Senate have now led him to answer twice to Chavez’ statements. Today Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorin said that the Venezuelan Government had still tried to justify Chavez’ statements, suggesting the issue was not cleared up after the Brazilain Government called on Venezuela’s Ambassador to that country. Up to now, Lula Da Silva had been an unconditional supporter of Chavez and had tried to avoid controversy, but the recent spat now endangers Venezuela’s membership in the Mercosur trade group.

And Quico tells us how Chavez does not believe in his own Constitution, or democracy for that matter, as he stated this weekend:

“They elaborate their system of ideas, their ideology and their ideas are those of bourgeois democracy: the separation of powers, alternation in power – they use that stuff to manipulate – representation as the basis of democracy: big lies!
That’s the ideology of that hegemonic philosophy that exercised
hegemony here in Venezuela for 100 years, and has exercised it in much
of the western world as well for 100 years.”

But we knew that, his acts always spoke clearer than his words. Hugo Chavez never believed in democracy except as a way of gaining his own personal power and becoming the dictator he is. Only fools still believe otherwise.

Venezuela has truly become the upside down country. Everything is upside down. The Government justifies shutting down RCTV, arguing that it was just following the law, but it was a political decision. Then Chavez yesterday threatens Globovision indirectly, by saying that any TV station involved in “media terrorism” can also be shutdown.

But who is involved in media terrorism? Globovision for reporting the demonstrations and the repression by the police or Chavez who forces nationwide speeches on the population to threaten everyone? When Chavez is asking the “people” to come from the barrios and defend the shutdown of RCTV, isn’t he creating uncertainty and inciting violence? When he threats the shooters from Puente El Llaguno, isn’t he justifying illegal behavior? When he congratulates the Metropolitan for the job done in fighting the demonstrations, isn’t he justifying abusive use of force and the wholesale violation of human rights?

Who is creating terror and fear in the population? Globovision or Chavez? Who ahs picked a motto that ends in death? Who has challenged the students saying that he is willing to die for the revolution and whether they are willing to die for their cause? The students or Chavez?

Yesterday, when Venezuelans turned in to see their baseball hero play for the Yankees, the sports network that shows the game, had a forced broadcast of Chavez threatening Venezuelans. In which democracy can the ruler force an event of his own political party to be broadcast nationwide? What gives him the power to do that and, on top of that, use the time to threaten precisely those that would not have tuned in to watch him? Isn’t that terrorizing the population and forcing your ideas on them?

So, who is the criminal here?

The problem is that it is Chavez that threatens, abuses and divides. It is he that refuses to be the President of all Venezuelans. That refuses to have any compassion for either those that are murdered regularly when he never mentions the problem of crime after allowing it to balloon for the last eight years or for the RCTV workers when he cynically laughed and mocked their tears last Sunday, when not only RCTV was shutdown, but they lost their jobs in a country with fewer media options and limited jobs in the field?

And rather than show a modicum of respect for the students, they are accused of being manipulated, of having someone behind them, organizing them and funding them. But then who was well funded, coordinated and all dressed up in brand new red shirts to attend the Dictator’s speech on Saturday? Where did the liquor and the naked women come from? Who paid for them? Who paid for the buses? Who organized the march? Chavez’ party or the Government? Where did the money come from? Can one even ask or find out?

And the answer is: of course not. In the absence of checks and balances, there is no rule of law to provide such answers and acciuntability. Such questions cannot be asked and Chavez’ control over those that decide on such matters make it impossible to find out.

And much like on April of 2002, Chavez can terrorize the population at will, threaten and one day even deliver again on the threats with impunity, because nobody can stand up to the Autocrat/Dictator, it is simply not allowed.

And the same limitations are now being applied internationally. Nobody should mention RCTV at the OAS meeting, it is an internal matter. All human rights organizations are right wing ignorants, who are not only interfering in Venezuela’s affairs but haven’t bothered to find out the facts of the case. Brazilian Senators are parrots of Bush because of their decision to ask Chavez politely to bring RCTV back.

But the only parrots were those yesterday at Chavez’ march, all using the same words. “Destabilizing”, “Manipulated students”, “preppy students”, “political movement” and the like.

And one only had to hear the chant of the crowd to know who the parrots were, as all the participants chanted the same slogan:

“El pueblo
lo sabe
y tiene la razon
ahora le toca
a Globovision”

(The people know it and are right; it is now Globovision’s turn)

but the chant started way before the autocrat actually began to make his threats…

While low angle front images showed a high density this had to be one of the worst attended pro-Chavez marches, despite the payments, the buses (more than people?) and the entertainment.

(Thanks M.!)

Today was one of those days in which the lack of scruples of the Chavez revolution and their total control of institutions is used to limit freedom and liberties and not much happens. Being Friday, the events today simply will dissipate the student movement, which was simply trumped up by the Government and its institutions and fell for the Government’s strategy.

The students had decided yesterday, more than 24 hours before the fact, that they would march from El Paraiso to the National Assembly to demand an apology from the Assembly leaders. In good faith they asked for the permits, organized themselves and were ready to go, only to find that the permits were not approved, because the students did not know the detailed procedures and the Mayor of Libertador District, oh shucks, could not grant them the permit if all the i’s and t’s were dotted. Thus, their basic rights were denied by the same bureaucrats that allow pro-Chavez marches on the spur of the moment, such as the one on Tuesday that was allowed to march all the way to the Presdiential Palace under the escort of the metropolitan police and the National Guard.

Early one, it already looked unlikely that the marchers will get to the National Assembly. Chavista thugs in motorcycles showed at a Plaza La India in El Paraiso ready to threaten under the claim that first of all, Plaza La India was their territory and second of all they would not allow a march to destabilize their revolution. Of course, these thugs had no permit either, nor did the thousands of red-shirted Chavze supporters scattered around downtown Caracas ready to protect their revolution.

Thus, the police was sent en force to block the students from marching when they announced that given that they were not being allowed to march, they would still go to the National Assembly, simply using the sidewalks in order to behave like law abiding citizens.

But even the sidewalks were barred for the students as the police used the technique of blocking the students inside the University, with the fence meant to keep thieves away at night becoming their own jail. In the only probable victory the students had all day, this police barrier seen in the pictures above (Thanks YB!) dissolved as the students from Universidad Central marched to the rescue of their fellow students from the Catholic University.

At this point the students relinquished their rights and rather than go to the Assembly, they went to the Episcopal Conference where they would hand over their document to some representatives from the National Assembly. Thus, while the Foreign Minister insulted them, Deputy Tascon insisted the students were being manipulated Deputy Iris Varela called them yuppies and destabilizers, the students met with none other than Ismael Garcia, the Secretary General of Podemos, who clearly could only represent himself since he is now in the Government’s doghouse because his party will not join Chavez new, unique party.

Thus, the students accepted that their rights were not respected once again and clearly there are two types of citizens in this country and they do not belong to the class that has all of the rights and today they showed they will yield to that.

So, the students left with the promise that they will be invited for “a dialogue” at some point with the National Assembly, while the true leaders of Chavismo continued the same insults towards them that were the motive for today’s march. There was no apology, no retraction by the Assembly leaders. Whether we (or you) like it or not, they were treated in the same way as the opposition was treated three years ago before the RR: Yes, let’s sit and talk, we will work it out, but in the end you don’t have the full rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

And of course, the march tomorrow by the Comando Nacional de la Resistencia (CNR)can not get a permit either because a part called PUSV already had requested it, hours before the CNR did. Sorry, first come first served in this revolution which is so respectful of the law and regulations. And next week, the students will not be allowed to march because, they will be invited to the Assembly a day before the meeting and they will not be able to have the permits either.

And of course, nobody will retract their insults or apologize to them, there is nothing in their hearts and minds, to apologize for.

And Amnesty International warns the Chavez administration again, this time on the way protestors have been treated this week and says abuses should be avoided. In fact, in the area Of San Antonio de los Altos, 72 students were jailed and held without having contact with lawyers for 48 hours which is a violation of Venezuela’s laws. Meanwhile, the Prosecutor has criminalized protests, which is not part of the country’s legislation. Venezuela’s legislation punishes blocking the street only if you can cause disaster with it or if you are doing it to commit a crime.

Meanwhile that pantomine of a People’s Ombudsman German Mundarain holds a press conference to do what his always does: defend the Chavez administration and not the people. Mundarain spent half an hour doing what is not his job, saying that this is all of “destabilization plan” against Chavez and his Government and forgetting the mandate he was give by the Constitution of defending people’s rights.

So, it is left to organizations like Amnesty International to raise the alarm, when tehy say:

“there have been cases of excessive force on the part of police officers…until May 29th. 182 people ahd been detained, among the, 107 minors, while only 56 people have been released including 7 minors…AI calls on the authorities to insure that police corps under its command make use of force only when it is strictly necessary and in a proportional manner…”

Amnesty International also warned about the conditions under which some minors have been held, saying there shoudl be special attention to minors as required by international regulations.

Daily El Carabobeño ran this empty front page today with the sub-title below

Can you imagine life without information?

Pinocchio. TVes la nariz? (Do you see your nose) by Laureano Marquez

On Tuesday, on an obligatory nationwide TV (cadena), they told us the tale of Pinocchio (How curious, how strange and what a coincidence!: a TV station is now considered to be dignified when it shows cartoons while people protest in the streets). A Pinocchio of the XXIst. Century, who has nothing to do with the capitalist ideology with which Walt Disney has sold us history, almost centenary of Carlo Collodi. It happens to be, in this version, of an endogenous puppet that interprets the dialectic process of society, who does not lie, but strips off the facts of its ideological content, molding reality for each circumstance. Thus, for example, according to the latest part of the tale:

· An opposition student is not necessarily a student.
· If he is a student, he is being manipulated, has no convictions
· If they have convictions, they are the ones of the Empire that thru the CIA, buys consciences.
· If the CIA has bought them, it is to use them as meat for the slaughterhouse (A terrible statement when it is made by the owner of the slaughterhouse.) and the irresponsible parents.
· They are numerically insignificant, only the tricks of the mediatic manipulation make them appear as a crowd.

On the other hand

· The pro-Chavez student is a conscientious and critical being.
· He marches because of his convictions. Nothing is behind him.
· He can reach the Miraflores Presidential Palace because he is part of the “people”
· There are always millions of them.
· Their parents do well in letting them march, they are young and should have a conscience, not go lazing around like the other ones.

But on top of that:

· Actors do not suffer, they are trained to cry
· If violence is exercised on the part of pro-Chavez forces (including the use of weapons) it is not violence, it is part of the defense of the pretty fatherland.
· When someone in the opposition calls for a demonstration, he is a conspirator. But if, from the heights of power, you convoke your supporters to instill fear, it is the pretty fatherland that is being protected.
· The image of the attempt on John Paul II’s life is an invitation to kill Chavez.
· And last, it was not a shutdown, it was the end of the concession. How many times am I going to say it!

These and many other things came out of the mouth of Pinocchio. Nobody dared say it, but they all noticed that the nose was growing and growing. It was so public and noticeable that people were trying to get away from him to avoid being hit by it. It was very curious, by the way, that the more it grew, the less the sense of smell. Meanwhile, Jiminy Cricket, “in an infinite chant of peace”, travels around the streets of the country, shouting to the world that in this country there is still conscience and hope. It is no surprise that some have begun calling that crowd of crickets that whistles in the streets “The generation of the 28th”*

*This is the name of a group of students that in February 1928 dared to confront Dictator Juan Vicente Gomez and later became teh political leaders of Venezuela’s nascent democracy. Monday was May 28th….