The Devil's Excrement

Some good pictures from today: The first three show the students viciously attacking the cops. Raising the hands took place every time the cops on motorcycles came. Note the woman in the third picture who must obviously be stepping on a cop hiding under the pavement. The last two pictures show the cops with their characteristic peaceful stance. Particularly interesting is the technique invented by the revolution whereby, rather than using tear gas to contain demonstrators, you have two guys on a motorcycle going after them to make sure the tear gas canisters hit close to you or actually hit you. It is very effective, I have been the victim of this.

There were protests at local universities this morning. At Universidad Metropplitana the police gassed the students. At Universidad central de Venezuela the students tried to hold a rally at Plaza Venezuela but the police tried to block them from going outside the campus. This incensed the students who then simply left the University and began wondering around the city. I joined them near Chacao where I took the pictures above, where the students were waiting for those from Simon Bolivar University and Universidad Metropolitana. However, the students from Simon Bolivar were stopped in La Trinidad. Amazingly enough little of this is being shwon by TV or the press and some websites seem to be down again.

Separately the Minister of Communications William Lara, who is also the official spokesman for Chavez’ political party, made a formal penal accusation against CNN, Globovision and VenezuelaDigital. I did not understand well the charge, but he said that they were inciting for the killing of Hugo Chavez and using his image the wrong way. From what I understood is that they are accusing the three of being part of a conspiracy. CNN for showing a picture of a dead A-Qaeda leader at the same time they showed a picture of Chavez, Globovision for showing a clip of when the Pope had an attempt on his life a the website for running a poll with a question on whether Chavez should be killed. Once again, it was very difficult to understand the charges. Is this the beginning of the end for globovision?

Updates at 3:40 PM Caracas Time: Police started gassing students from Simon Bolivar University as they tried to leave for the Chacaito rally. Meanwhile in Chacaito, the police started gassing the students for unknown reasons, given that it is a closed square with no traffic circulation. But the police came from one side gassing the demonstrators. They dispersed and now have regrouped. Essentially when the cops came the students sat down and the cops retreated. The polices says that the students went to an area that they were not allowed (??) and they will not permit it. They crowd is thinner but the students say they are waiting for others from various universities.

Update at 4:47 PM: The police now attacked the students with the “whale” and tear gas. The “whale” is a water tank. It is unclear why they decided to do this, since the rally is in Plaza Brion of Chacaito, which is a pedestrian walkway. The Minister of Interior and Justice is saying that these are “coupsters” trying to use the unions and students to destabilize and the US Government is behind the whole thing. Government TV only showing when Mayor Leopoldo Lopez said the demonstration had to peaceful and saying this is another opposition rally disguised as a student demonstration.

Update at 5:50 PM: Now the students are actually occupying the streets and the cops are doing nothing about it. Go Figure. Supposedly, the cops were sent to Conatel, the telecom regulator where the protests took place yesterday. Dificult to understand why they attacked an hour ago, when the students were only in the pedestrian area and now they are allowed to go and obstruct the streets.

Update at 6:20 PM: A torrential rain poured on the demonstrators and the crowd dispersed. Then all of sudden there is a shooting going on, and I mean tear gas and bullets this time. Nobody understands what is going on, as there seems to be more police that demonstrators left due to the rain. Reporter saying that some students starting throwing stones at the police and that is why the police began using plastics bullets in Chacao. There are four injured at the University of Carabobo and three at Universidad Metropolitana.

This is what Chavez’ democracy offers. Tonight was simply another step:

—A single man imposing his ideas, no discussion, no dissent allowed.

—A single “unique” party, either you join or you are out.

—No separation between the Government, the military and Chavez’ party.

—Unlimited Government funding for political activities of Chavez’ party, despite the Constitution forbidding this explicitly.

—No transparency, leading to rampant corruption.

—A National Assembly with a single party, which is still bypassed, so that the single man can legislate at will for 18 months.

—A project for Constitutional reform, which is kept secret and contains reforms that require a Constituent Assembly

—A handpicked (twice!) Supreme Court, to decide according to the autocrat’s wishes.

—A fascist, discriminatory list of the 4 million plus Venezuelans, which has all of those that signed to recall Chavez’ mandate. The “Enemy”.

—Electoral authorities, all hand-picked by the autocrat, without ethics and morals, whose “impartiality” has been unveiled over and over to have never existed.

—A people’s Defender, who defends only the Government, a Prosecutor who accuses only the Government’s enemies and does not stand up for the rule of law.

—Massive violation of human rights to those that oppose the Government.

—Tripling of crime in eight years of Government; the poorest are the main victims.

—Illegal confiscation of property, with no compensation.

—And today, tolerance for only a single voice for the media, it is either owned by the Government or simply silenced…

A few minutes ago a representative of the “Board for Social Responsibility” of the Ministry of Communications threatened the media with shutting them down for up to three days if they violated the Social Responsibility law otherwise known as the “muzzle” law.

Their crime? Broadcasting the press conference by the Inter-american Press Society (SIP) in which its President of that institution read a communique expressing their concerns that press freedom in Venezuela could disappear altogether. In the words of its President the representatives of SIP are here in a dangerous and delicate mission because of the RCTV case and in defense of freedom of speech.

Of course, the woman in charge of defending our rights says that this press conference incited people to commit crimes, since all the Government’s decisions were based on the law. This “defender” of our rights even managed to threaten the members of the Board of SIP, who are visiting Venezuela due to the shutdown of RCTV. Thus, according to her circular logic, anytime your disagree with something the Government says it’s done according to its interpretation of the law, the media can be shutdown for it!

You know what? I certainly hope they do shutdown all of the media, just so that there will be no doubt whatsoever of the type of fascist, dictatorial regime we are living under in Venezuela.

And in the bizarro revolution we read today that:

—The “Development” Fund Fonden was created to finance development projects and is banned from spending in local currency. Well, it turns out that last year it not only spent in local currency, but bought both old and new houses which were given to people that had lost their homes which violates the law that created it, but you could argue does something good even if it has nothing to do with development. But more interestingly, Fonden created a trust for the Ministry of Defense to purchase 15 multipurpose helicopters, 38 MI-17V5 helicopters, Kalashnikov rifles, AK-103 assault rifles, 24 SU-30 MK2 airplanes, long range radars and funds to establish a gunpowder factory.

—Day before yesterday President Hugo Chavez announced the creation of 28 new higher education institutions all of which, according to the imagination of the Autocrat/Dictator will begin functioning within one year. These institution will be comprised of 11 specialized universities, 13 state universities and 4 technical institutes. A surprised Minister for Higher Education, physicist Luis Acuna, says in today’s paper that there is no money for these projects. Another empty and unfulfilled promise by the autocrat. In any case, Venezuela needs more investment in education at lower levels. Higher education receives almost half of the education budget, which makes little sense.

—And how about actor Danny Glover, he finally got his payday for supporting Hugo Chavez as the autocrat gave the actor US$ 18 million to make a movie about Haiti. I guess Glover has no scruples for taking money away from the Venezuelan poor that he sobs so much for. In fact, imagine the impact those same US$ 18 million could have on the Haitian poor.

—And while the Minister of the Interior and Justice minimized on TV the mob assault on Globovision last night, where they are still waiting for him to send the police, the Mayor of Maracaibo issues a decree essentially forbidding any demonstrations this weekend in that city. I guess he has yet to read our Constitution and the rights it gives us, which he is violating.

A group claiming to be pro-Chavez, Marxist, Leninist, Bolivarian surrounded and harassed TV network Globovision in another clear threat to freedom of speech. Meanwhile the authorities “condemned the actions from far away and no police or any of the thousands of National Guards spread around the city to protect the “people” today showed up to defend the ioaltion of the media’s rights.

RCTV is out, is Globovision next?

So this morning students at two universities (UCAB and USB) began early to protest the shutdown of the RCTV network demonstrating peacefully, blocking the entrance to the university and chanting against the Hugo Chavez regime. After a while, other universities followed (UCV and ULA). The Minister of Interior and Justice called the protests small and said the largest was about 600 people, which did not match what was being seen on TV in Globovision or RCTV, the only two networks “actively” covering the protests.

Then, National Guardsmen in motorcycles and armored cars begin parading around Caracas, some near where the protests were taking place, other just parading around like the picture below left, which was taken near Los Ruices, far from any military facility or any university in what was a clear and direct effort by the regime to intimidate. (Notice the near 100 Guardsmen in motorcycles with anti-riot gear). The picture below right was at the Headquarters of Government station VTV, in charge of promoting Hugo Chavez and his revolution and not informing and entertaining the population.

Then the Minister of Defense going into a military parade comes in and says that “minority groups can not go against the majority feeling of the Venezuelan people to create uncertainty with the closure of RCTV, as if there was a majority support to the decision, which is in any case a legal decision and not one to be decided by popularity, but in any case, all indications are the illegal and political decision is highly unpopular, contradicting the Minister’s words. Meanwhile, as people begin checking the newssites on the Internet, Noticiero Digital, Megaresistencia and RCTV websites are taken down by denial of service attacks, the effects of which are still being felt hours later. This is compounded by problems with the CANTV network which take down some other news sites in what may be unrelated to the denial of serivce attacks, since all the others are hosted abroad.

Then the autocrat/dictator himself shows up at the military parade, the main focus of which is the new Russian planes. I had little tie to listen (or interest) to the speech, but what little I heard may have been Chavez at his nuttiest . While I will wait to have the transcript, the intimidation was there, dressed in military garb (which is illegal since he is not active), the President told his supporters not to worry that “his” new planes (on the right above) are flown by experts and carry bombs which these experts can drop with pinpoint accuracy on their targets. (Us?).

And then, as if this were not enough evidence and proof of how we have lost our rights and freedom in this country, the Constitutional Hall of the Supreme Court decides to “protect” the diffuse rights of the “people”, the same rights that it refused to protect in allowing the shutdown of RCTV, and essentially allows the Government not only to shutdown the network, but to take over the equipment rightfully owned by the owners of RCTV, all in the name of the “Law”. Gimme a f… break! This is a simple and direct confiscation of the enemy’s property, which goes beyond anything ever seen so far in the Chavez Dictatorship, as usual under the guise of “legality”.

There you have it, a President who is no longer military in military garb threatening the citizens, the National Guard intimidating protesters, the Minister of Defense threatening protesters and the Supreme Court confiscating the private property of a group whose concession has been illegally canceled to protect the “people’s rights”.

And some people still have the audacity to claim this is a democracy, the “script” today certainly proved otherwise. This is as totalitarian as modern Government’s can get without killing people.

And we can still see what is happening, imagine when we can’t! Coming soon in a city near us!

Dorothy Kronick wrote an excellent article for The New Republic, which you can read in its entirety by registering free here. Entitled “The Kingdom of Darkness”, it could have as subtitle a saying Venezuelans use frequently “We have seen this movie before” as it outlines how Chavez is making the same economic mistakes made by some of his predecessors. Yes, we have seen this movie before and we know the ending and it is not very pretty. Some highlights from the article, but you should go read it all, worth your time and the perspective:

“In fact, the long economic catastrophe that led to Chavez’s
election in 1998 was created not by market reforms but rather by
policies just like those that define Chavez’s Bolivarian project. While
neoliberal adjustments in Venezuela were problematic, a Chavez-style
development model holds primary responsibility for the country’s
abysmal poverty and inequality.”

“To be sure, there are significant differences between Chavez’s
economic policy and Perez’s: Chavez devotes a larger portion of the
federal budget to social spending; tax collection has increased under
Chavez, while it suffered in the ’70s; and, perhaps most importantly,
Chavez has kept the national debt profile under control (total debt is
about 30 percent of GDP). The government still has nearly $25 billion
in international reserves, though this represents a sharp decline from
$36 billion at the close of last year.

But these differences are unlikely to save Venezuela from
1980s-style troubles when the price of oil falls–and perhaps before
then. While debt accumulation has not yet reached dangerous levels, it
has been increasing since January; analysts predict that the government
will finish 2007 with a sizable fiscal deficit. Unless the economy
generates value outside the oil sector, it is only a matter of time
before the government must borrow or cut expenditures (and it is
unlikely to do the latter).”