The Devil's Excrement

This simply goes to show how Chavez is simply full of gas:

“Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez says the pipeline is a central part of his
efforts to reduce dependence on the United States and its pressure for
free market policies known as the Washington Consensus.

It’s “the beginning of the South American consensus,” Chavez has said. “This pipeline is vital for us.”

Roberto Smeraldi of the Friends of the Earth-Brazil said the short timetable seemed unworkable.

“A
government like Brazil’s can’t do similar studies for projects covering
(310 miles) after 10 years of discussion, and now they are going to
manage in-depth studies for a (5,000-mile) project in six months?” he
said.

The
Venezuelan leader estimated the pipeline would cost $20 billion to $25
billion, but Smeraldi said strict adherence to Brazil’s tough
environmental laws would double the cost.

Analysts
also questioned the economic wisdom of the plan, especially after
Brazil’s government-run oil company announced it would invest $18
billion to develop the country’s natural gas fields.

“Both
Brazil and Argentina have gas fields large enough to cover their own
domestic demands. I don’t see why they would like to undertake this
hugely costly project, with money they don’t have, not to mention
environment costs,” said Norman Gall, executive director of the Fernand
Braudel Institute of World Economy.”

I had to
translate and post this great quote from the Editorial in today’s Tal Cual from none other than now Vice-President
Jose Vicente Rangel, the Chief cynic of the Chavez administration. The same man
who spent his life as a reporter criticizing corruption and any attempt,
however small, to violate the right of free speech and now is completely silent
on both and has cozied up with the same military he used to blast and call the
most corrupt sector of Venezuelan society.

This was
what he said about censorship in another era, seemingly long ago, when he was
far from the power he never achieved via the ballot box, but that he is so
close to now. This is the same cynic who in April 12th. 2002 said he would go
back quietly to being a reporter. Definitely a very pitiful figure of this fake
revolution. The same man that was twice the Presidential candidate of the
Venezuelan left, the defender of the democracy, of human rights, of freedom of
speech. Today on the side of the same censorship he once blasted:

Veracity of
information

The topic is
on the table.

It is broached
systematically by the Government in a way that has to be qualified as suspicious.
Why? Because Governments whenever they treat the question of information and
when it has to do with freedom of speech, do it in an interested way. With
purposes that are not quite clear. They proclaim, constantly, that freedom of
speech is being respected, but in practice there are omissions, suspicious
pressures and manipulations of various sorts. When is it the Executive branch
that affects freedom of information? When is it the Judicial branch? When are
there connections between one and the other and when are the hostile tendencies
towards freedom of speech intertwined?

José Vicente
Rangel on July 27 th. 1997 in El Universal.

–One of
the police officials accused of the forced disappearances in Guarico state is
now a Deputy of the National Assembly and will join the Human Rights Committee
of that legislative body.

–It is
unfair to say Hugo Chavez spends money only abroad; he just approved US$ 46
million in funds to overhaul and arm the country’s submarines, which will
clearly benefit the ___________ population. (Fill in your choice)

–Funding
for maintenance of the viaduct disappeared from the national budget in 1999, Chavez’
first year in office, according to Sunday’s El Nacional.

–Unemployment
went down 2.1% to 8.9% last year, thanks to two miracles: First, not a single
Venezuelan started looking for a job for the first time in his/her life in
2005, down from some 400,000 new job seekers per year in the previous years.
Second, 228 thousand Venezuelans gave up looking for a job. Do I foresee zero
unemployment in Venezuela
in a few years?

–In the
upcoming Caribbean Baseball Series, Venezuelan teams will be discriminated
against as foreign teams will be able to advertise alcoholic drinks but the
local team will not, according to the decree published in January 6^th.
2006 in the Official Gazette. Whatever happened to Art. 21 of the Chavez-promoted
Constitution?

–While
Venezuelan banks continue to make money hand over fist, the largest state-owned
bank, Banco Industrial de Venezuela, lost BS. 12.6 billion in the second half
of 2005. Don’t worry, its Board is taking appropriate measures to reverse this,
it will open a branch in Bolivia
in the next quarter.

     XXI st. CENTURY

        CENSORSHIP

XXIst. Century CENSORSHIP by
Teodoro Petkoff in Tal Cual

Today we woke up with a concrete
measure of censorship for the written press, radio and television.

A judge, at the request of the
Prosecutor, has forbidden the publication of any information about the Anderson trial and, on
top of that, any information about the “private life” of the ineffable “star
witness”, Geovanny Vasquez De Armas. At the same time it appointed CONATEL as
the executing arm of the censorship measure when it ordered the opening of
“administrative procedures” not only against the “radio electric” media (which
are the ones in its scope) but also against the written press (with which
Conatel has nothing to do with)

About the “star witness” the
judge prohibits the “publication, diffusion or exposing” of information that
“make reference to the named witness” in particular with information relating
to his “private life”. This really is the last straw. The information published
about Mr. Vasquez De Armas does not referee
to his “private life” but precisely they refer to his public life. According to
the information provided by official Colombian organizations this man is a
hoodlum. Although this part of his private life does not disqualify him as a
witness, because, in principle, crook and all he could be telling the truth,
however, the information published refers to the peculiar nature of his criminal
specialty: identity theft and the forgery of documents, which, could obviously
make his testimony questionable. When the media inform about this aspect of the
“public life” of the “star” they are doing nothing but fill in the omissions of
the Prosecutor’s Office, that was obligated to give the data about the
mentioned subject and, in particular, to let us know that not only he is not a
psychiatrist but that he has been detained a few time in Colombia for the
crimes mentioned. On top of that, as if this were not enough, last week
information was published, verifiable at that, which would demonstrate that the
“star witness” could not have participated in the meeting in Panama where supposedly the “intellectual
authors” would have planned the assassination of Anderson,
because on that same date he was in jail in Riohacha, Colombia.
Should a media source that has that information, of the highest interest for the
public, which ahs the right to be informed, abstain from publishing it because
it would be in the singular interpretation of the Prosecutor0s Office
“obstruction of justice”?

It seems to us that obstruction
of justice is precisely to use, what according to the data originating in Colombia, would
be nothing but lies of the “star” to obtain the judicial sentences that the
Prosecutor wants.

Isaias Rodriguez has, so far
gotten away with it. He has managed to “protect” with censorship the infinite
number of stupid missteps committed by the Prosecutor’s office, including his
won, in the investigation of Anderson’s
assassination. He has managed that the trial proceeds from now, in secret and
that the testimony of a compulsive liar may not be questioned.

But this goes beyond the Anderson case.

This must be confronted with full
decision because this vicissitude seems too much like a general trial for the
censorship on freedom of speech.

I guess civility is no longer in place in the relations between the US and Venezuela. Republican Senator John McCain said today that the US can not be held hostage to “whackos” in Venezuela. This certainly can not help future relations between the two countries, but Chavez did go first, calling Bush an a……, Condoleeza Rice illiterate, and making some comments with sexual innuendo about her, as well as calling her “blackie” which may be an endearing term in Venezuela, but not appreciated in the US.

Unfortunately, we seem to have reached a point in relations between the two countries, which will be very hard to turn back, at least as long as Chavez and Bush are Presidents, and now McCain may be extending it.

Not exactly the way civilized people and countries should treat each other, more so, when the US is Venezuela’s most important trading partner.

The opposition march was quite succesfull, I was suprised at the size of the crowd today as you can see on the left from the podium where the speakers were addressing the crowd. In the picture on the left you can not see the end of the corw as far as it goes. The pictures on the rights shows a lady holding up a poster saying that 2006 will be the year of change. I did not expect the march to be so large, publicity was scant, people were afraid and I thought apathy was the rule of the day. But they showed up in droves. When the speakers began talking, there were still people leaving the starting point a few kilometers away. If there was something different this time around is that the crowd showed a lot of anger, which I had not seen before in any of the opposition marches. The presence of cops, intelligence police helicopters and the simple mention of Chavez’ name simply released a lot of anger from the people there. You could also see it on the posters, lost of swear words in them, something you did not see as much before. People are p….., you better believe it and they are very vocal about it. The best part was: no buses like those Chavez needs to bring to his marches and everyone was there out of their own will, this is a powerful base for December 2006.

There were a few speakers, young and old, old and new, some good like Alexandra Belandia , others representing the old school of speeches that seem to scream at you, I could have done without Eduardo Fernandez and Ramos Allup, but nobody asked me anyway. This is a fisrt good step at mobilizing people in 2006, the crowd, the voters and the people are there, all they need is leadership. It felt good to march and end the day very tired again, with a feeling of accomplishment. Took lots of pictures, the best of the rest are here.

On Sunday,
the opposition will hold a march to commemorate the anniversary of January 23d.
1958 when Dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez was overthrown. This will be the first
march in quite a while and should be the beginning of trying to mobilize the
opposition for the December election.

After the
high abstention levels of December, the Government is concerned that the march
will be a success, I suspect attendance will be low, but just to make sure it
is, both the Head
of the National Assembly and the
Mayor of the Libertador District of Caracas, in their characteristic
unethical and fascist way, attempt to scare people away by suggesting the
opposition itself is planning to ambush the march or plans to reedit the events
of April 11^th. 2002.

As usual
with this mockery of a Government, there is no evidence other than that the
security detail of the organizers of the march “have been going over the route,
looking at buildings in a suspicious way”. It is the usual cheap Chavista shot
at trying to make something into what it isn’t. Moreover, it is done without
following the appropriate channels of Government, because these people after
seven years in power, seem to believe and act as if they were still the opposition, not assuming their responsibility for their jobs as Government officials.

If they were
part of a true and responsible Government, they would go the appropriate
authorities and show proof of their accusations and the authorities in charge
of security would be the ones in charge. But of course, there is no substance
to what Maduro and Bernal are saying; the same way there is really no organized
Government in Venezuela
but just a bunch of unethical thugs and crooks, like Maduro and Bernal, who
only care about political survival.

For myself,
I will certainly be there tomorrow, no matter what threats, whether real or
imaginary they make, fighting for my beliefs and against this fascist,
irresponsible and autocratic Government. I invite all readers of the
blog who are in Caracas
to go and participate in the march.