The Devil's Excrement

Escape from Ramo Verde by Teodoro Petkoff in Tal Cual

The escape by Carlos Ortega and the Farias brothers has left the
Government with no clothes on.

The great, one act farce from Havana, with Chávez acting like one of the wise
men, carrying presents to sick Fidel, was buried by the escape from jail of the
President of the workers union federation CTV, the most emblematic of the prisoners
of the Vth Republic, which together with all of the paraphernalia after the
escape, led by the pathetic apparition of the General Prosecutor, the
unfortunate initial statements by the Minister of the Interior and the official
confirmation yesterday that military officials were accomplices of the escape.

The revolution is a parody.

The star witness deceives Isaias, who believed in what his eyes were telling him, military personnel which custodies a military prison opened the fences
and forgot routine procedures, at a time when the invasion by the “Empire” appears
imminent and the President- who equally distributes weapons, or wears cap and
gown- writes with all four hands with Fidel in frank recovery, while the Caribbean breeze sprays
the room with the promise of socialism, if not eternal.

Heroes from assaults and uprisings, Field and Chavez, snuggling in the
tenderness of their encounter on Sunday the 13^th. , forget, and with
them their underlings, that the will of the people is stubborn in some cases
and docile in others. So much “Patria o Muerte” (Homeland or Death), too many “Venceremos”
(We shall win) that are suspended, fragile, exposed to public scorn.

But there is a solution. It was provided this morning by the new
President of the National Assembly, the surprising Celia Flores, who reveals to
us that if Chavez were the Prosecutor or a Judge, the problem of personal
safety would have been solved. But Chávez was not in charge of Ramo Verde the night
of the events, other occupations were keeping him awake.

He was about to take a flight or was already flying.

Flores should
remember that in those years of 1991 and 1992, it was vox populi what was being prepared. And what was being prepared did happen. Badly, but it happened. CAP was
also getting off an airplane at the time. The peaceful revolution, which began then its
actions pointing with machine guns, lost, at least militarily, its first
round. If CAP had been Minister of Defense, Cilia, for better (or for worse)
other things may have happened.

By the way. How about Chávez as president of the National Assembly? Or
as Minister of interior Jesse? As Fidel has said “Chavez has no replacement”.
For now…

Minister of Information Wiliam Lara is not only a cynic, but he speaks for the Government or Chavez’ MVR party at will, turning him into the biggest “caradura” of the mediocre Chavista Government. Today was truly incredible as he came out and said that the CNE “guaranteed” that the regulations of the election would be followed and that no significant “abuses” had been made. He said that his office was “exhorting” Government agencies not to spend money on electoral campaigning.

What this cynic failed to mention is that his own Ministry has spent money in publishing ads that clearly violate the regulations, as part of the dozens of ads documented here (his is the one on the 15th. celebrating the two years of the recall vote) as violating the regulations, day after day, after day…I guess his exhortations don’t even work in his Ministry.

Whenever
you see a press or Government report about the fingerprint identification
system purchased by the CNE, the standard answer is that the CNE spent US$ 66
million on it. Is this number correct or is it simply the case of a number said
so many times that it has become the truth?

I have
wondered about it for a while, because I have always believed that such a
system was a luxury for Venezuela and wanted to know its true cost, but could
never figured out what the total cost was. However, I have never been able to
find a consistent source of what the number means. Nevertheless, the number
gets repeated over and over

As far as
I can tell, the original 14,000 fingerprint machines purchased
by the CNE cost US$ 53.9 million, which together with the satellite dish system
purchased from Gilat for US$ 13. 2 million, would give US$ 67.1 million. Not
exactly 66, but in any case, we know they bought 2,000 new machines after the
recall. Thus, the number has to be higher.

The other
possibility is that after paying the US$ 53.9 million, the CNE paid
US$ 11.1 million for “Intellectual property rights of
the Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems” , but this would mean
that the total was US$ 65 million, not 66 either and once again, this leaves
2,000 machines out.

Thus, it
is not easy to figure out how much the system cost. It is one thing what the
CNE has said or continues to say and what the Cogent SEC filings say. However,
even the filings sometimes have some very gray areas and inconstancies that
make it hard to figure out exactly how much the CNE has paid Cogent. Since the
CNE has always given roughly the same number for the cost of the fingerprint
system, around US$ 66 million, while Cogent has given us information in time,
we will use the SEC filings to analyze the relationship between the CNE and the
company. Simply remember that the SEC filings have legal validity, while the
CNE can say whatever it wants, after all there are no checks and balances in
this country.

The first
thing that I found peculiar is that Cogent makes no mention of the CNE, in its
filings, as a customer until September 23d. 2004. This does not mean much.
Cogent filed it first registration (S-1) filing with the SEC in May 2004,
simply stating that it was planning to go public. At the time, the type of
information that it had to reveal was less detailed than the one required once
you are public. But still, Cogent Systems filed six S-1 Registration Statements
between May 14^th. 2004 and it is not until Sep 23 2004 that Cogent
actually acknowledges that the CNE is a costumer. In fact, in the Sep. 9^th.
registration, the CNE is mentioned as having used fingerprint systems, but not
as a costumer, without explicitly saying that it was a Cogent system that was
used a month earlier during the recall vote.

Even more
amazing is the fact that in the registration filing (S-1) dated August 11^th.
2004, that is four days before the recall referendum in which Cogent machines
were used, no mention is made of the CNE either being a costumer, using
AFIS machines from Cogent or even having a contract with Cogent. Strange, no?

Obviously,
if Cogent deployed the AFIS system for the recall referendum which took place
on August 15^th. 2004, the CNE had to have a contract with Cogent and
made payments even sometime before. But the regulations before you go public,
as you are registering, are more lax than after you go public so that Cogent
may have received funding before July 1^st. 2004 from the CNE, but
may never know about it since the first quarter for which Cogent had to provide
detailed financials was the July 1^st. to September 30th.. 2004
quarter.

It would
seem logical that the CNE made a payment before July 1^st. but we
simply can’t tell. Logical, because this was a fairly complex system that had
never been installed in the world, an AFIS real time system for the
instantaneous comparison of one fingerprint to all the previous ones in the
database. It would be very surprising to sign such a contract and make payments
less than six weeks before the recall vote took place. Thus, it would seem as
if some form of payment had to be made in the 2^nd. quarter 2004, but
we don’t know.

After July
1^st. we have a little more detail, even if accounting conventions may
obscure it sometimes.

1)
In
the 2004 Annual Report (10-K), filed
by Cogent on March 22^nd. 2005, it is stated that the company
entered into a contract with the CNE during the third quarter in the amount of
US$ 54 million. It also says that it entered into a second contract with the
CNE for US$ 20.2 million in the fourth quarter 2004.

2)
In
the 2005 Annual Report (10-K), filed
by Cogent on March 15^th. 2006, it is stated that the company
entered into a contract with the CNE for US$ 31.8 million in the second quarter
of 2005.

Thus,
since Cogent went public and it reported its third quarter of 2004 which
started on July 1^st. of that year, the CNE has signed contracts
worth US$ 105.0 million with it, not counting any possible payments before the
third quarter of 2004 which may or not have taken place, but it would seem
there had to be a prior payment.

Now, from
the same filings, it seems like the CNE has paid most of the US$ 105 million,
even if Cogent has not registered it as revenue. Let me explain. According to
the Cogent filings, the first two contracts have been completed and all of the
funds have been recorded as revenue by the company. However, the last contract
has been paid by the CNE, but the company does not record all of the revenue at
once but does it over the life of the contract, this is common practice. The
simplest example I know of is Microsoft, when you buy Windows or Office from
them, they record (or at least used to record) the revenues in four parts over
the next four quarters.

This is
done for a number of reasons. One, troubles could arise over the life of the
contract and it might be delayed. Two, money may have to be returned to the
other party but the main reason it is done, is to smooth earnings as much as
possible during the year. Why? Well, recording a big contract all at once like
that would give a big jump in earnings for the company and the stock may jump
up on the news. However, if a similar contract is not signed the next quarter,
it would look as if the company is doing worse, because it recorded less
revenues and earnings. There are
rules on this and the SEC has sometimes scolded companies for doing this too
much, as it might deceive investors into thinking their company is doing great,
while revenues and earnings are going down but you don’t see it because they
have been smoothed out.

Thus, of
the US$ 38.1 million of last year’s contract, Cogent has yet to recognize US$
26.3 million, from Cogent’s latest quarterly filing: ”Deferred revenue related
to the contract totaled approximately $ 28.7 million and $26.3 as of December
31, 2005 and June 30, 2006 respectively.”

Thus, the
conclusion is that the CNE has paid Cogent a minimum of US$ 105
million so far, of which the company has recognized so far a minimum of US$
78.7 million. Add the Gilat contract of US$ 13.2 million and the CNE has spent
a minimum of US$ 118.2 million on the complete system for fingerprint
identification in Venezuelan elections, according to the legal filings as well
as the record on the Gilat contract. Any different number is just hearsay.

By the
way, US$ 118.2 million implies that each person caught voting twice has cost
between US$ 2.23 million and US$ 4.09 million depending on which number you
believe. (From 29 to 53 persons caught cheating) With the fear these systems
have instilled in people and the cost, they have certainly been a waste of
money in my opinion, more so in a poor country.

Ten million. Sure! by Teodoro Petkoff in Tal Cual

“It’s going to cost us a lot to get those ten millions votes”,
it was something like that, more or less, that Chavez said the day that he registered
his candidacy for President. When he gets off from that fantasy cloud, he is
going to discover that what is becoming uphill, is whether he wins or not.

The proofs of the dissatisfaction become each day more
plentiful and more conclusive all over the country. There is not a day in which
huge traffic jams are not produced in roads and highways, protests of all sorts,
through which the people each day, more disappointed than the one before,
express their discomfort and their protest.

And they don’t lack reasons. Victims of disasters that have
been waiting for years for the house promised by Chavez at those times when
Chavez called them the “dignified”. The word has disappeared from the official
lexicon, because those same people are really pissed today. Taxi and bus
drivers stop the traffic, incensed, given the inefficiency of the Government in
the fight against crime, which each day takes the life of one of them.

The inhabitants of the popular barrios shut down traffic in
avenues and roads, demanding decent public services. On the other hand, the dry
leather of the protesting Venezuela
is rising, because each day the failure of the Government in fulfilling its
most elementary duties, such as defending the right to life or property,
providing housing and public services to the population that lacks them, is
simply more visible.

What is happening with people’s personal security is simple terrifying.

The extremes reached by the combination of the uncontrolled underworld
and the official incompetence is such that almost 90% of Venezuelans believe that
, according to polls, the lack of personal security is the worst problem they
are facing. And the President, who almost never mentions the problem in his
verbose addresses to the nation, when he did, two weeks ago, he did it to complain
that “his people were getting killed” (that is those that support
him) and he does nothing. In a country overwhelmed by kidnappings, by homicides,
by robberies, by stolen cars, the only time he has expressed his concern was to
deepen the profound psychological divide that he himself has provoked in the
country: victims are his supporters, the rest don’t matter.

But in the popular barrios the fear and the fury increase, because
criminals don’t distinguish political colors and the words of the President end
up being a scorn and an insult to the pain and suffering of the thousands of
families that have lost dear ones in the unending shoot outs between gangs or
in the ineffable police executions, that just happen to be a variant of the homicidal
gangs

While the fight against crime fails or his housing policy,
he shows himself particularly threatening in his expansion for total control of
society. He can’t control crime, but he nationalizes sports, he can’t control
crime, but he pretends to control and nullify all organizations that defend
human rights, he can’t control crime, but he wants to educate kids and adolescents
with a square mindset.

But is just so happens that you can’t fool all people all
the time. That is why everyday, more people are ready to present their bill on
December 3d.

And speaking of lying populists….

Tonight President Hugo Chavez threatened to re-nationalize Verizon owned telephone company CANTV because in the words of the President “CANTV has not paid them (the retired workers) what it should for their pensions…they are paying them a miser amount, despite a decision by the Supreme Court…”

Well, this is simply cheap populism…as usual. The Supreme Court did rule that CANTV had to change the pensions, but it ordered a Court to calculate how much the workers were owed. The Court in turn asked the Venezuelan Central Bank to make the calculation based on the union contracts signed by the union and CANTV since 1992. The Central Bank came up with a number for each of the workers covered by the Supreme Court, but was not clear as to exactly the Court meant, so it sent eight different scenarios to the Court for each worhker.

Meanwhile, the company offered each of the affected workers to pay them what the company thinks it should pay, based on the Supreme Court’s decision. Some workers have accepted the offer, which is not binding. Meanwhile, the Court itself has been sitting on the eight options sent by the Central Bank for over two months, without making a ruling. Typical revolutionary incompetence.

So, whose fault is it? The company for not paying or the Court’s for not deciding? My answer is: Chavez for being so irresponsible!

Words are cheap, and that is all the revolution has going for it, the empty words of a man that promises, offers, but seldom delivers, except in its populist rhethoric.

But this is Chavez’ style, whenever his Government fails to do what it has to do, he blames others. Just don’t blame him!

A couple of days ago I had said that the MVR Deputy to the National Assembly Belkis Solis was simply lying when she said that the name of the toothpaste distributed in the Mercal chain of markets had the name “Ten million smiles” only coincidentally, as well as lying when she said it was made by a coop and equally telling a made up story when she said the name was the result of a study that said that ten million people don’t brush their teeth in Venezuela. I found this also insulting given the levels of personal care that Venezuelans at all levels have always exhibited.

Well, I had information at the time that said this was all lies and that this toothpaste was not made by a coop but by a private company. Well, today I had confirmation about this, as well as the news appearing in Tal Cual (page 6). Indeed the tootpaste is made by Tropical Degil Industries, an Israeli company, which markets it under the name “Tropical” in Venezuela and has been sued all over the place for making their tubes look like Colgate. Maybe she thought it was made at a kibbutz?

Ironic that such a revolutionary product, distributed via the revolutionary chain of markets, happens to be made by a company from the country that Chavez in his “revolutionary” fervor recently decided to break realtionships with, no? It just goes to prove how money flows in the best capitalistic style in the “pretty” revolution.

So the Minister of Interior and Justice says outraged that Carlos Ortega and his mates paid the guards to allow them to escape. Yes Jesse, it is called graft, corruption and it is all over the place. You can just about buy anyone in the robolution and the prices are not even high! Didn’t you know that? Look around you. The cars, the houses, the apartments, the trips. It is all part of it. Corruption like never before. Millions of dollars, not even millions of bolivars.

Some think that this is the best guarantee that the revolution will not survive, the robolutionaries will defend their newly acquired property with their lives. They may be right, but what a sad end for the robolution.

CNE Board member Vicente Diaz yesterday : “Legally there is no reason to use them (the fingerprint machines)…if a voter refuses to use the fingerprint machine, he has the right to vote”

What if everyone threatens to refuse?

So, Carlos Ortega escaped from the military jail in Ramo Verde.

My questions:

1) Did he really? So much for the oxymoronic term “military security”
2) And if they kill him tomorrow, while escaping from the authorities, are we supposed to believe it?
3) However, there is already an audio tape circulating in the Internet with one of the escapees.
4) Baduell says the ports and airports are being watched. Will he look like a fool if they leave the country and show up elsewhere talking about their escape?
4) What does Jesse Chacon say about it? Didn’t Chavez ask him to resign, will he?

Of course, as usual, Chavez is travelling…That is his way to run this country…But of course, nobody is running it, this is simply disorganized chaos after seven plus years of Chavez. But it is not his fault, it is Bush’s or something like that.

Well, what
we have known since November of last year was finally publicly accepted by the
sorry General Prosecutor Isaias Rodriguez; His super witness Giovanni Vasquez
was mostly fake, he has nothing in his hands and all this has been has been a
huge miscarriage of justice in which people’s live have been trampled with, destroyed
and in some cases forced them into exile because our stupid General Prosecutor “looked
the witness in the eyes and believed he was telling the truth.

A
remarkable admission by this man who should have resigned long ago, as case
after case simply shows his incompetence and how he has manipulated justice and
delivered injustice, only to please the autocrat.

But let’s
recap a little to see the
General Prosecutor’s interview in today El Nacional entitled “The key witness deceived me”, in the proper perspective:

Last fall,
the General Prosecutor told us that he had a “super witness” that had been
present at two key meetings, one in Panama
and on in Maracaibo,
in which the murder of Prosecutor Danilo Anderson was plotted. This super
witness was a medical doctor, specialized in psychiatry, who not only had
attended those meetings, but had actually smuggled 12 kilos of C4 for the
explosives for the assassination. When asked how he could issue orders for
capturing four people on the case, General Prosecutor Isaias Rodriguez said “I
looked into his eyes and knew he was telling the truth”

Soon after
that, we learned
that there were some problems with the story. First of all, super witness
Giovanny Vasquez turned out not to be a medical Doctor, let alone a
psychiatrist He actually had a criminal record in Colombia for “the crime of identity
theft, swindle and the use of false documents. Thus, the man seemed to be a
charlatan, but nevertheless, Isaias went forward with the case on the basis of
his testimony.

Soon
afterwards, we learned
that Vasquez had both Venezuelan and Colombian passports, had actually voted in
the Venezuelan election and briefly escaped from the military intelligence
people that were guarding him. A few days later, Globovision showed evidence
that Vasquez had been in jail in Colombia
while the infamous meeting in Panama
had taken place. This was not admitted into evidence when reporter Patricia
Poleo showed that she was in Venezuela
when purportedly this meeting had taken place. The Prosecutor ordered her
capture and she fled the country. Finally, the Prosecutor’s Office a few days
later had a Court
order the media to forbid the publication of ANY information about the Anderson trial and specifically about the “private life” of
the super witness. This was clearly an act of censorship, simply because the
media was showing what a sloppy job the General Prosecutor’s office was doing.

Not much
later, the General Prosecutor in his testimony in
the National Assembly said that he had another witness…but…somehow…they had
never talked to him or something like that. Amazing, no?

Of course,
this was all blamed on the “conspiracy” of the media and the opposition.

And then
comes today’ headline “Giovanny Vasquez deceived me; he was in jail in Panama on the date of the meeting in Panama”.

Any person
with dignity should have resigned, immediately cancelled the detention orders
and ask for forgiveness. But not Isaias, you see, he is a mediocre Prosecutor,
who is simply loyal to Hugo Chavez and would lie, spin and mutilate for him. Just
for this, the Constitution should be changed, you see, Isaias Rodriguez was the
first man in the country’s history to hold the office of Vice-President. What a
shame!

But let’s
look at his interview today and some of the things he said:

“He
(Vasquez) told us a tale, enamored us, we believed in him, we followed him …he
was in jail on that date”

Reporter: “And
why should you believe in Giovanny Vasquez”

Isaias
Rodriguez (IR): “Why should I deny everything? Why not believe whatever is true
(in is tale) because there are lots of things that are true (??)”

Reporter: “Is
there another witness”

IR: “No, I
don’t have another witness.”

Reporter: “But
a couple of times you assured us you had others”

IR: “I had
them, but they did not testify”

Reporter: “And
did the meeting in Maracaibo
take place?

IR: “Yes”

Reporter: “And
the one in Miami”

IR: “I don’t
know. We don’t have any confirmation…

Thus, the
General Prosecutor has lost his only witness, but the people accused are still
in jail, in exile or in hiding.

Such is
the state of Justice in Venezuela,
with a Prosecutor who continues to accuse the opposition for Anderson’
assassination and has never looked within his Government, where people had more
to lose from Anderson’
accusations and indictments.

But the amateur
General Prosecutor continues in his position, making a mockery of Justice in Venezuela…