The Devil's Excrement

Above left: No explanation necessary. Right:”I sent all those democratic regulations to el cipote (mispelled) long time ago.”

So, after six failed appeals, the Sixth Appeals Court voids all of the decisions in the case where Sumate is being accused of conspiracy. The reason? That the judge was not using a jury in the case, a decision he made himself in violation of the law. The law says in a case like this the judge has to use at least two jurors and only with the authorization of a higher Court can the trial proceed without jurors. The other six Courts knew the law was being violated but did nothing, for some reason this one did. Now, before you get excited about it, all this really means is that the whole thing is reset and the trial starts again as if the two previous procedures had never taken place..

Then, a couple of hours later the Prosecutor calls the Sumate Board on a new case against them, in which they will also be charged as they are being called to testify as an accused party.. What is it this time around? They are being accused of electoral crimes for abrogating on themslves the representation of the people when they collected the petition in 2003 before there were regulations. Thus, they are basically being investigated because they supposedly had no right to gather or submit signatures requesting a recall referendum. It will be interesting, if I recall correctly, the Supreme Court bypassed the Electoral Hall of that Court on a case related to the referendum once arguing that a referendum was not an “electoral” process. I guess gathering the signatures is even more remote than that, but they simply don’t care. The Court can reverse itslef if it suits them.

But the beats go on in the Venezuelan Justice system, as Tal Cual reports that the case files against that newspaper, in which the paper is being prosecuted twice for the same crime, have not been made available to the lawyers of the paper in violation of the law. What else is new?

Sumate under fire Editorial in El Nacional

The official persecution of the directors of the civil ONG Sumate is
reaching its end.

They are accused of conspiring “to alter the Republican order”, as if
they had tried to implant a monarchy in Venezuela, no more, no less. As
if armed with machine guns, rockets, tanks and bombers, they had placed
in danger the soundness and continuity of the supposed Bolivarian
revolution.

The Government demonstrates with this that is it is not prepared to
accept the smallest discrepancies, not the least dissidence, or the most
discreet request that the 2006 elections be presided by a National
Electoral Council (CNE) that can be trusted. That is what Sumate always
asked for, interpreting the large majority of Venezuelans, nothing
different, even, to what has been requested by international
organizations such as the OAS. Nothing different from the observations
made by the hemispheric organization in its report about the elections
of December 4th.

There are a few ways to read the trial against Sumate. One of them is
the intransigence and the intolerance of the regime. Another one, the
wish of taking advantage of the punishment against the directors so that
everybody learns the lesson and the requests for more transparent and
fair conditions for all citizens cease.

That people shut up out of fear.

The Electoral year projects itself as a year of persecutions and
threats, while the officialist train moves at high speed towards December
3d. As dangerous conspirators, the Prosecutor asked the 7th. Court that
Maria Corina Machado and Alejandro Plaz be tried separately, since
others accused, Luis Enrique Palacios and Ricardo Esteves, are being
accused of “complicity”. But, on top of that, as conspirators of great
danger, they should be tried behind bars. No wonder the defense lawyers
warn that at the next hearing both Machado as well as Plaz could be
jailed.

The defense has denounced a number of irregularities along the process.
The accused were not allowed to speak.

The representative from the Prosecutor’s office reiterated the request
that they be tried in prison, despite the decision by the Supreme Court
that forbids it. Thus, not even these formalitities are taken into
consideration.

When lawyer Juan Martin Echeverria jr. insisted on speaking, the judge
ordered the constables to remove him from the room. If one wants to have
an idea how the trial is being carried out, this detail is sufficient.
You can guess what the outcome will be.

As stated above, Machado and Plaz are being accused of the crime of
conspiracy to “destroy the form of republican politics that the nation
has been given” Among the crimes they have been charged with is
receiving money from the organization National Endowment for Democracy
of the United States. Palacios and Estevez face the same process for the
same crime, but as accomplices.

The Prosecutor Ortega Diaz requested the maximum penalty for the crime of
conspiracy, 16 years.

This rigor has no precedent in a country where military conspirators
(like our President) were judged only by military judges, never suffered
sentences of that magnitude and always ended being benefited from
measures of pardon. Even in bloody occasions (like February 4th. 1992)
in which the uprisings left hundreds of dead. Now that the coup plotters
from the Saman de Guere are in power, they see with horror the specter
of subversion. They see conspirators even in organizations like Sumate.
But the civilians never threatened anyone.

Sumate has acted openly, has accounted for its income and expenses. To
say that the meetings of Sumate did not have as their objective
electoral training of the citizens but a subversive end, that of
overthrowing the Bolivarian regime, is a valid argument only for idiots.
One would have to give the Sumate Board an award for those
“conspirators” that respect the law: they would be an exception in the
history of Venezuela.

And it is this almighty regime, where the military predominates, the
most armed, the one that has had the largest resources, the one that
feels threatened. It is like one of those tales of Antonio Arraiz where
tio Conejo (Uncle Rabbit) makes tio Tigre (Uncle Tiger) run.
Unfortunately the question can not be one for being festive, because
what is in danger is the freedom of some citizens worthy of esteem that
have believed in the perfectibility of our institutions and have
advocated for that. You can not condemn them with coarse lies.

Let’s defend now justice and let us all reject this absurd trial.

Dear British Reporters and Citizens of the Commonwealth:

You may be here trying to find the meaning of the word “cipote” where our esteemed President sent your Prime Minister today. In the heat of the moment I translated the word “cipote” as hell. This was an oversimplification on my part. The truth is that the word “cipote” means “carajo”, which is not exactly hell. The purpose of this note is to guide you into understanding where exactly Hugo Chavez wants your Prime Minsiter to go and whether this represents a threat to him or your country.

The word hell carries some religious connotations. It is the place where your soul goes to for eternal punishment when you leave this world. “Cipote” and “Carajo” carry no such connotation. First of all, it has nothing to with with religion or any organized group, it simply represents a very personal position on the part of the person sending you there. It is not eternal either, someone can be very upset and send you there, but regret it later and bring you back.

“El Cipote” and its relative “el carajo” represent something more temporary, a mysterious sort of place, which must not be very nice and is so far away that you want to send anyone you really dislike there. According to the Royal Academy of the Spanish language to send you to “el carajo” means to reject you with scorn, with disdain, with insolence. So it is not nice of the sender to wish you there.

Both words “carajo” and “cipote” are old, but in some sense they are very modern. You see, while it is done with disdain, in the end it is a “virtual” wish that is never carried out. It is nasty, it is a snub, a slight, but it is all done figuratively speaking anyway. In fact, look at us Venezuelans. Hugo Chavez has sent us, over half of the Venezuelan population to “el carajo” and “el cipote” at one time or another during the last seven years. But we are all mostly still here, wondering who will be next. In fact it is amazing how many of his own supporters he has sent our way, but we really don’t want some of them. In fact, we don’t like everyone in El Cipote, ex-Chavistas or opposition, but it is virtual anyway.

Today on the other hand, we are proud of having someone of the intelligence and eloquence of Mr. Blair joining us in el cipote. We are sure it will improve this virtual neighborhood and we are honored by his company.

Finally, maybe looking up what cipote and carajo mean, will teach you something about Venezuela and you may realize that we are not in el cipote after all, although our leader may appear to make it so.

With warm regards

The Devil from el cipote

I wonder what Tony Blair is talking about:

Blair encourages Venezuela and Cuba to abide by democratic principles

How will the Government react?:

-He should talk to Evo.
-He should not talk to Mr. Danger.
-He should not get involved in our national affairs.
-He should worry about democracy in his country.
-We don’t care what he thinks.
-He should stop financing the drawing of cartoons that are offensive.
-Tony who?
-We are going to break relations with Great Britain.
-I have proof that Blair is being paid by Mr. Danger.
-We will all stop drinking Scotch in protest.
-He is a puppy of Mr. Danger.
–If you start trouble with me, I will prickle you.
-Remember The Malvinas, we could invade them again!
-All of the above

(Wow! That did not take long, puppy, imperialist, irresponsible, go to hell…)

So, on the
same day that Teodoro Petkoff received
a second notification of a
process being opened against him and his newspaper (same case, two processes!),
the Prosecutor General asked for up to 16 years of jail for the leaders of
Sumate Maria Corina Machado and Alejandro Plaz, for the crime of receiving
$30,000 for electoral education from a foreign source, in this case the bipartisan
US Foundation, the National Endowment for Democracy.

Curiously,
Chavez and his cronies were found innocent of violating any laws in the case of
the proven donation of US$ 1.5 million by Spanish bank BBVA to Chavez’
Presidential campaign. And in another case of Bolivarian justice, the
Government plans to build a monument to honor the infamous shooters of Puente
El LLaguno, who, of course, were declared innocent.

I guess
these judges when they drink in private sing in harmony with the President of
the Supreme Court “Uh Ah Chavez no se va”. Some (In)Justice!

My poor Venezuela. And I don’t mean in the sense of wealth. Venezuela is a poor country anyway, don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. But I mean it in the sense of ethics and morals, which seem to have been lost or misplaced by all. The Government allows corruption and graft to permeate the whole system, nobody is watching what is going on and the Government takes and allows others to take in a huge dance of the blind, where everybody knows what is going on, but nobody says anything. The country is being raped and pillaged in the name of the revolution, by the revolution as well as the friends and enemies of the revolution. It is a sorry spectacle, but it goes on everyday. Day after day and nothing happens. There is nobody to complain to. Nobody is listening, watching or saying anything.

The cynical behavior by Government officials continued today. It has now become “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” in the cover-up for the huge corruption that took place last Saturday, when billions of bolivars where shamelessly used to bus, feed, dress and entertain some 300,000 people to attend Chavez’ celebration of the anniversary of his bloody 1992 coup attempt. As if yesterday’s statements by William Lara were not sufficient, he actually held a press conference yesterday to deny the undeniable, today both the Comptroller, Clodosvaldo Russian and the President of the National Assembly Nicolas Maduro joined the chorus of the three skeletons that see, hear and speak nothing of the blatant corruption that took place last Saturday and seems to be taking place daily in this revolution where missing funds and strange transactions have become the rule, rather than the exception.

Perhaps Russian was the worst. Here is the man that has as his mandate the supervision of how Government funds are spent and that they are used for whatever they were earmarked. Venezuela, believe it or not, has one of the most modern anti-corruption laws in the world, that punishes not only the corrupt, but also the inefficient and the negligent. But it appears not to exist in Russian’s mind when he stated: “the accusations are part of the political debate…and it is the Electoral Board that has to look into the accusations”. Hello! That is not correct, Mr. Russina you are simply playing dumb, the main accusations are that Government money was used massively for a political event of a political party, which obviously you blindly support. Corruption and graft are not electoral issues that are a separate matter, also violated; the point is that money was ILLEGALLY spent on a political rally under your watchful and corrupt eyes. You saw it, but you don’t dare talk about it, you might lose your job. What is clear once again is that you are as corrupt as the revolution and you allow daily corruption to go on and on, the bleeding of the country simply continues under your watch.

The President of the National Assembly, Nicolas Maduro, joined the ever silent chorus, saying that there is no need to restrain Chavez because “the law is clear in what he can and he can not do” in terms of campaigning. and “the President amply follows the law”. Once again, it must be that Mr. Maduro does not even know what the law says. The events last Thursday and last Saturday had an electoral tone, were electoral events, where the autocrat even talked about his campaign, the structure of his campaign command and how things would be organized, only someone deaf and dumb could not have noticed the repeated violations of many laws. But Maduro did not, because he has no concept of ethics and morals and what it means to be Government and follow the law and be in charge of enforcing it. Once again, illegality is the rule on the part of those that are supposed to be entrusted with the responsibility of enforcing them.

But the whole thing reached a farcical and almost comical level, when none other than the Minister of Justice basically said “Let’s share the graft”. Minsiter Chacon claimed that he had offered opposition leader Antonio Ledezma with providing him some buses for the opposition march, but “probably he could not fill two buses if he accepted”. Thus, Chacon is willing to share the wealth, this must be a new program “Mision let’s all be corrupt?”. This from the same party that rewrote the Constitution to include a ban in campaign financing of political parties. How times change. That actually happened only five years ago!

Only the Prosecutor General said he was going to investigate the charges and we all know what will happen to that anyway, as nobody sucks up to Chavez like him. Meanwhile, they were trying to hide the evidence as reported by Descifrado, in which Government institutions are said to be scrambling to change the invoices from the supplies for the march. In the words of one of those contacted :”the public institution that hired me to get them food and beverages, signs, trucks and material are trying to figure out in whose name I should issue the invoice, I think payment is going to be delayed quite a while.” As Descifrado says: “If there is no proof, there was no cost”

Thus, Venezuela has become a free for all of corruption, since nobody seems to be watching. Only two weeks ago Chavez said that he “wanted to shoot those involved” in a corruption scandal with a sugar plant, denounced by a pro-Chavez Editor of Ultimas Noticias. Well, as the details become known, the story is more twisted and convoluted that it originally appeared. The sugar concern is run by civilians, who have reached the “conclusion” that those responsible are former and active military. You see the funds were giving to the previous board of civilians of the plant, who “happened” to hire companies owned by active and former military as well as the 62^nd. Engineering unit of the armed forces to build the complex in another great example of “civilian-military unity”. But nothing was ever built, or almost nothing. And the money is gone, vanished.

Civilians supposedly denounced the shenanigans, so the military, including the Minister of Defense ordered an audit. Nothing was heard since then, until Ultimas Noticias made the accusation of the disappearance of the funds and Chavez staged another show of outrage on live TV for his captive audience.

As usual in these cases, the National Assembly ordered and investigation and appointed a Deputy who happens to be former military, just to close the circle. No, wait; there is always more in the pretty revolution: Last week the same National Assembly that is investigating the irregularities approved an additional allocation of some 216 billion Bolivars (some US$ 100 million)! I guess given the previous irregularities, they felt confident that they could throw some piece of small change after what is already bad money. But maybe, just maybe, someone in the Assembly will now benefit from this suspicious largesse. Nobody is watching anyway, so why worry?

Thus, slowly Venezuela becomes a society of accomplices, both Government and opposition, sharing the bounty in the name of the revolution. Ethics and morals seem to have reached a new low. The private sector is silent to protect their own, who are getting richer. The Government is silent to protect their own, who are becoming rich and getting richer. Opposition politicians barely mention the subject, could it be to protect their future funding sources? Only Petkoff among politicians and Garcia Mendoza, among the private sector, talk openly about graft and corruption, which everyone can see. Meanwhile, the rich and the bolibourgeois get richer, while the poor get poorer, all in the name of politics and the revolution.

Chavista
leaders are so unethical and cynical, that faced with the charges that the
financing by the Government of Saturday’s march was a felony penalized by the
anti-corruption Bill, instead of staying quiet in the knowledge that the
corrupt system of justice that they have stacked with their own will never find
them guilty, they have the audacity to actually hold
a press conference and with a straight face say:

“Everyone came and participated in spontaneous and voluntary fashion, we
did not pay anyone a penny…This did not cost the Venezuelan state a penny. Each
person assumed his own costs”

Well, Mr. Lara maybe you can explain something to us. First can you tell us:
Who paid for everyone to be wearing the red t-shirts? I imagine that you will
have us believe that people that can barely make ends meet, “voluntarily
and spontaneously” purchased each one a shirt to please Hugo Chavez? Well,
I find it that incredibly difficult to believe. But Mr. Lara, let me show you
what scientists would call a couple of “data points” that I have been
able to gather on my own.

Let’s start with the paper below, which happens to be a quote to the
“Instituto Venezolano de los Seguros Sociales”, that institution that
has gone broke in modern Venezuelan history. The quote is made by a
suspiciously sounding “Cooperativa La Mayorquina” a coop for social
tourism, whatever that may mean. The quote totals Bs. 19 million (US$ 8,800 at
the official exchange rate) to provide:”water, Gatorade, fruits, juice, a
sound truck and transport” for (see below): “1000 people. Event
related to February 4th. which will take place in the Cota Mil in the capital
city”

Ummm, I wonder what event this refers to. Coincidentally the Chavista march
took place along Cota Mil on that date and was an event “related” to
February 4th. Coincidence?

So Mr. Lara, a Government institution pays for a political rally in support of
Hugo Chavez and his coup. What do you call that? Corruption? Misuse of Funds?
Or a donation? I call it graft, but what do I know

But see, just on my own on my spare time I can also find more evidence. Remember the pictures of the 85 buses I made a collage out of ? I imagine that you want us to believe that the same people who can barely make ends meet paid their way. But see, glancing through the pictures I quickly found the two below. The one on the left happens to say “Bolivarian Government” and the one on the right says upfront “Official Use”. Well, shucks, this is illegal in Venezuela. What are we going to do about it? Chavez just said that 2006 is the year to stop corruption, but I guess like so many other lies he has said, he really did not mean it. Neither did you in your cynical show today. Shame on you and your dishonest cronies.

Nobody knows about poverty in Venezuela more than Luis Pedro España N. from Universidad Catolica de Venezuela in Caracas. He now writes regularly in El Nacional, this was last Saturday’s article on the meaning of direct aid versus improving the infrastructure of poverty.

The
infrastructure of Poverty by Luis Pedro España N.

Participating
in a meeting about socio-economic perspectives in this 2006, an executive
commented to me when we were leaving that he could not believe that poverty was
going to be reduced this year. At the beginning, ingeniously, I reiterated what
I had said a while back. That it was a matter of poverty as measured from the
point of view of income. The economic growth expected for this year, together
with the favorable impact of the educational aid of the misiones on the popular
sectors (even if badly identified, with worse educational assistance and lots
of leaks) was going to signify an improvement in the income of the families. That
evidently, we were reaching the limit in reducing poverty for those that have
the ability to generate income (or capture the oil income) and that the
decreasing return of these policies would end up losing their impact to reduce
poverty indices, even income. With this I was trying to say that evidently it
was little or nothing that was being done on the side of the own capability of
the families, that is, on the side of the generation of their own well-being,
sustained and sufficient.

Thus, I
almost repeated in two minutes what I had thought was most important of what I
had said in the previous 45.

Even when my counterpart’s face looked like he was
understanding me, he did not appear satisfied with my summary, he replied,
improving his skeptical questioning of his doubts and reminded me of the
beggars, street kids, garbage, the street vendors, the precarious housing,
crime rates, victims of tragedies, the urban chaos where poverty resides,
precarious services, thus, all of those images that we see so much that they
seem normal.

It evidently was the classical case of subjective perceptions that clash
against the “objective data” which, because of its oversimplification,
sometimes hide reality from us. I realized what he wanted to tell me, I got rid
of statistical technicalities (those that the Government likes when they favor
it) and I said goodbye to the participant to the seminar promising and article
about “the infrastructure of poverty”

The barrio, the popular areas, although heterogeneous, even when they are not
exclusive and exhaustive hosts of poverty, are certainly the residence of urban
poverty, that one which even if it is not as cruel and of subsistence as the
rural one, is the largest one in a country like Venezuela. The calamity of life
in the popular barrios makes it such that family income, even if it may be
high, can not make up for the terrible quality of life that the precarious
condition of transportation, the terrible services, the difficulty to have
access to articles of consumption, the problem with crime and the impossibility
of recreation for kids and the young.

But even with the income strengthened in the last two years
and perhaps three with the current one, the infrastructure of poverty not only
has remained unaltered, but it has worsened in a substantive manner.

Risk is a social reality in the face of nature. The latter reveals itself in
terrible fashion every time it rains. Examples abound dramatically so as to
lose space by naming them.

On the other hand, the social risk of poverty can be synthesized
in the two most sensitive problems felt by Venezuelans: employment and personal
safety.

The deterioration of employment, due to the absence of formal jobs,
the unproductiveness of the tasks performed by Venezuelans which explain their
low salaries, are the result of the lack of opportunity for the generation of
wealth together, with the shortage that member of the labor force have in terms
of dexterities, capabilities and knowledge that can be converted into assets to
access good jobs.

In recent years, these years of the oil boom, we are acting on the
income. By the effect of percolation and the simple distribution of income, the
average income of families is improving, but the causes of poverty, the
infrastructure over which it lies, remains unchanged.

Only 17 young people graduate from high school out of every
100 that enter first grade, 40% of kids of pre-school age continue to fail to
enter school, our school averages in verbal ability are not over ten
points and in numerical ability 6 (both
out of 20), 17 infants continue to die each years for each 1,000 live births,
up to 20% of the population will not reach the age of 60, the number of
homicides has stayed at the alarming number of 10,000 per year, almost one out
of every four houses lacks basic services and our cities show more and more an
urban deterioration characterized by the lack of environmental sanitation,
public transpiration and road access according to their growth.

All of the above illustrates what the the circumstantial
numbers of income hide. We are under a “certain illusion of progress”,
supported once again by a level of income which does not correspond to the level
of productivity of the Nation, which is not based on social development. Summing
up the infrastructure of poverty remains intact, it is a pity that it is only
the physical infrastructure that is falling apart.