The Devil's Excrement

This is today’s Editorial by Teodoro Petkoff in Tal Cual, it extends the Bermudez case to some real state deals done by the Ministry of Finance and suggests some of the same manipulations and improper handling of the bond issues that I have often mentioned in this blog:

A very fat swindle by Teodoro Petkoff

Jesus Bermudez, called “Fat (Gordo) Bermudez”, former Vice-Minister of Finance with Tobias Nóbrega, has been detained in Miami and is going to be subject to a trial for a number of violations of the law, among them, attempting to introduce as contraband forty thousand dollars in cash into the US. But things are not as simple as Jose Vicente (the VP) attempted to make it look, when he denied that the plane in which the “Gordo” traveled belonged to CVG. Let’s see.

In order to be free on bail, one hundred thousand dollars were paid in a flash. Who paid? Someone called Leonardo LLaneza. Let’s pull that thread. Who is Leonardo Llaneza? The brother and partner of Ramon Llaneza in various companies in Miami. And who is Ramon Llaneza? The representative of Yavonca Oficina Tecnica. This company was the one that sold the Ministry of Finance the “Bilbao” building, acquired to become the headquarters of the School of Administration and Public Finance of the Ministry of Finance. Tal Cual (in its editions on July 19^th. and 28^th. of this year) commented in its editorial about this operation in which Yavonca which had acquired the building for 1,928 million Bolívars (About one million dollars at the official exchange rate), and eleven days later, sold it to the Ministry of Finance for a cool 3,878 million Bolívars (about two million dollars at the official exchange rate). A modest overprice of 1,950 million Bolívars. Previously, Nóbrega’s Ministry had acquired the Citibank building, paying more than nine million dollars to a real state company that a week before had purchased it from Citibank for 4.5 million dollars. Before the Bilbao swindle, Yavonca, that is, Llaneza, had also attempted to sell another building called “Gloria” to the Ministry. The modus operandi was the same as Bilbao, but the operation did not pan out. However, who was the owner of “Gloria”? The Aguilera family, of which another very good friend of Nóbrega is part of, Ali Aguilera. The numbers begin to tie with each other: Llaneza, Bermudez, Aguilera.

All of them belong to Nobrega’s close circle. The National Assembly began an investigation about these buildings, the results of which nobody knows anything about. It can not be coincidental that in the web page of aporrea.org, from which those that pretend to be the naïve part of the regimen operate, wrote the following suspicious paragraph: “Nobrega’s departure may be connected to the decision by “Gordo” Bermudez to travel to Miami with that amount in cash. There has been no official statement by the Government” What were the dollars for? For “little” Christmas gifts, said Bermudez. “Aporrea” suggests something else.

The management of the country’s foreign debt has raised many eyebrows. There was not a single bond issue that did not raise suspicions. The last one that coincided with Nobrega’s removal, made the alarms ring among investors because the assignments were made with a handpicked bias. The amazing statement by the Minister about the date of the devaluation had its logical effect, it made the “black” exchange rate go up, with which all those that had bonds, handpicked by the Ministry, may have received a juicy Christmas present. Did the Minister’s statements have something to do with this? Why was Nóbrega exactly fired for? Venezuela does not change. Crimes without criminals continue to exist. There are never trials, nobody pays. Everything is resolved by dark firings that leave the thief, if he is one, with the loot and if he is not, it leaves him marked forever. The “revolution” is more of the same…

Note added: More about Bermudez and his business partners here.

This is today’s Editorial by Teodoro Petkoff in Tal Cual, it extends the Bermudez case to some real state deals done by the Ministry of Finance and suggests some of the same manipulations and improper handling of the bond issues that I have often mentioned in this blog:

A very fat swindle by Teodoro Petkoff

Jesus Bermudez, called “Fat (Gordo) Bermudez”, former Vice-Minister of Finance with Tobias Nóbrega, has been detained in Miami and is going to be subject to a trial for a number of violations of the law, among them, attempting to introduce as contraband forty thousand dollars in cash into the US. But things are not as simple as Jose Vicente (the VP) attempted to make it look, when he denied that the plane in which the “Gordo” traveled belonged to CVG. Let’s see.

In order to be free on bail, one hundred thousand dollars were paid in a flash. Who paid? Someone called Leonardo LLaneza. Let’s pull that thread. Who is Leonardo Llaneza? The brother and partner of Ramon Llaneza in various companies in Miami. And who is Ramon Llaneza? The representative of Yavonca Oficina Tecnica. This company was the one that sold the Ministry of Finance the “Bilbao” building, acquired to become the headquarters of the School of Administration and Public Finance of the Ministry of Finance. Tal Cual (in its editions on July 19^th. and 28^th. of this year) commented in its editorial about this operation in which Yavonca which had acquired the building for 1,928 million Bolívars (About one million dollars at the official exchange rate), and eleven days later, sold it to the Ministry of Finance for a cool 3,878 million Bolívars (about two million dollars at the official exchange rate). A modest overprice of 1,950 million Bolívars. Previously, Nóbrega’s Ministry had acquired the Citibank building, paying more than nine million dollars to a real state company that a week before had purchased it from Citibank for 4.5 million dollars. Before the Bilbao swindle, Yavonca, that is, Llaneza, had also attempted to sell another building called “Gloria” to the Ministry. The modus operandi was the same as Bilbao, but the operation did not pan out. However, who was the owner of “Gloria”? The Aguilera family, of which another very good friend of Nóbrega is part of, Ali Aguilera. The numbers begin to tie with each other: Llaneza, Bermudez, Aguilera.

All of them belong to Nobrega’s close circle. The National Assembly began an investigation about these buildings, the results of which nobody knows anything about. It can not be coincidental that in the web page of aporrea.org, from which those that pretend to be the naïve part of the regimen operate, wrote the following suspicious paragraph: “Nobrega’s departure may be connected to the decision by “Gordo” Bermudez to travel to Miami with that amount in cash. There has been no official statement by the Government” What were the dollars for? For “little” Christmas gifts, said Bermudez. “Aporrea” suggests something else.

The management of the country’s foreign debt has raised many eyebrows. There was not a single bond issue that did not raise suspicions. The last one that coincided with Nobrega’s removal, made the alarms ring among investors because the assignments were made with a handpicked bias. The amazing statement by the Minister about the date of the devaluation had its logical effect, it made the “black” exchange rate go up, with which all those that had bonds, handpicked by the Ministry, may have received a juicy Christmas present. Did the Minister’s statements have something to do with this? Why was Nóbrega exactly fired for? Venezuela does not change. Crimes without criminals continue to exist. There are never trials, nobody pays. Everything is resolved by dark firings that leave the thief, if he is one, with the loot and if he is not, it leaves him marked forever. The “revolution” is more of the same…

Note added: More about Bermudez and his business partners here.

This is today’s Editorial by Teodoro Petkoff in Tal Cual, it extends the Bermudez case to some real state deals done by the Ministry of Finance and suggests some of the same manipulations and improper handling of the bond issues that I have often mentioned in this blog:

A very fat swindle by Teodoro Petkoff

Jesus Bermudez, called “Fat (Gordo) Bermudez”, former Vice-Minister of Finance with Tobias Nóbrega, has been detained in Miami and is going to be subject to a trial for a number of violations of the law, among them, attempting to introduce as contraband forty thousand dollars in cash into the US. But things are not as simple as Jose Vicente (the VP) attempted to make it look, when he denied that the plane in which the “Gordo” traveled belonged to CVG. Let’s see.

In order to be free on bail, one hundred thousand dollars were paid in a flash. Who paid? Someone called Leonardo LLaneza. Let’s pull that thread. Who is Leonardo Llaneza? The brother and partner of Ramon Llaneza in various companies in Miami. And who is Ramon Llaneza? The representative of Yavonca Oficina Tecnica. This company was the one that sold the Ministry of Finance the “Bilbao” building, acquired to become the headquarters of the School of Administration and Public Finance of the Ministry of Finance. Tal Cual (in its editions on July 19^th. and 28^th. of this year) commented in its editorial about this operation in which Yavonca which had acquired the building for 1,928 million Bolívars (About one million dollars at the official exchange rate), and eleven days later, sold it to the Ministry of Finance for a cool 3,878 million Bolívars (about two million dollars at the official exchange rate). A modest overprice of 1,950 million Bolívars. Previously, Nóbrega’s Ministry had acquired the Citibank building, paying more than nine million dollars to a real state company that a week before had purchased it from Citibank for 4.5 million dollars. Before the Bilbao swindle, Yavonca, that is, Llaneza, had also attempted to sell another building called “Gloria” to the Ministry. The modus operandi was the same as Bilbao, but the operation did not pan out. However, who was the owner of “Gloria”? The Aguilera family, of which another very good friend of Nóbrega is part of, Ali Aguilera. The numbers begin to tie with each other: Llaneza, Bermudez, Aguilera.

All of them belong to Nobrega’s close circle. The National Assembly began an investigation about these buildings, the results of which nobody knows anything about. It can not be coincidental that in the web page of aporrea.org, from which those that pretend to be the naïve part of the regimen operate, wrote the following suspicious paragraph: “Nobrega’s departure may be connected to the decision by “Gordo” Bermudez to travel to Miami with that amount in cash. There has been no official statement by the Government” What were the dollars for? For “little” Christmas gifts, said Bermudez. “Aporrea” suggests something else.

The management of the country’s foreign debt has raised many eyebrows. There was not a single bond issue that did not raise suspicions. The last one that coincided with Nobrega’s removal, made the alarms ring among investors because the assignments were made with a handpicked bias. The amazing statement by the Minister about the date of the devaluation had its logical effect, it made the “black” exchange rate go up, with which all those that had bonds, handpicked by the Ministry, may have received a juicy Christmas present. Did the Minister’s statements have something to do with this? Why was Nóbrega exactly fired for? Venezuela does not change. Crimes without criminals continue to exist. There are never trials, nobody pays. Everything is resolved by dark firings that leave the thief, if he is one, with the loot and if he is not, it leaves him marked forever. The “revolution” is more of the same…

Note added: More about Bermudez and his business partners here.

From today’s El Universal, hard to translate, but very funny:

The New History of Venezuela (According to the regulations established in the Bolivarian laws recently approved or on their way to being approved) by Manuel Caballero

Venezuela was not discovered, like the racist and colonialist Spaniards want to pretend in 1498, but on February 4^th. 1992 (1), that day, General Hugo Chavez Frías (Who due to the intrigue of the Puntofijismo (2), had barely been allowed to reach the level of lieutenant colonel) covered himself with glory fighting to the last drop of blood in the battle of the Military Museum (3). Despite his heroics, when he noticed that his mates in rebellion had surrendered and that only he continued to fight without fear, he accepted to surrender to an Army which he had practically annihilated.

An obscure caudillejo.- From that day, we stopped being called Venezuelans. Despite the unanimity of the people who wanted that we become “chavianos”, the ingenious modesty of the new father of the country proposed that we be called “Bolivarianos”. Giving up the glory that corresponded to him to an obscure caudillejo of our indigenous past that of course, did not even come up to the legs of the semi God from Sabaneta. 

Despite the shameless fraud of the puntofijismo, that named a National Electoral Council composed only of members of their parties so that they would completely fulfill their task of blocking the popular victory moving voters, manipulating voting machines and even nationalizing tourists and giving results between midnight and the time the cocks sing, the people won, electing the Father of the New Country. Who, to the shame of his cheating enemies, rushed to name a new independent electoral board, impartial, clean, without fears and without reproach. A Board like Venezuelan history had never known, which opposed in most emphatic fashion all of the intents of the Governments to take advantage of its power.

Added to the DRAE (Diccionario de la Real Academia Española).- That CNE was presided by an academic of the Language (4)(it is to him that we owe the incorporation, accepted by the DRAE, among others the word “tramparencia”(5)  and the verbal forms  “tabanos” (we were) and “ibanos” (we were going)) and a psychiatrist (6) without hate, nor complexes, as well as a pinch hitter brought directly from Sicily to complete the Trifecta of the CNE (acronym that designates the “Cosa Nostra” Electoral).

Since then, he has been able to develop in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela the only “pretty, pretty and pretty” revolution (That is the way erudite William Lara calls it with sweetness in his voice) that has veer been produced in the universe world since the inferior Paleolithic until our days.

Since our purpose is historic and not political, and besides because the space that our patriotic laws give us is quite limited, we will refer to only one aspect of this process: the deformation of history by the fascist and coupsters terrorists of the media. To begin with the manipulation that has made Carlos Ilich Ramirez (The Jackal), the equivalent of our own Mother Theresa of Calcutta, as a ferocious assassin and blood drinker.

Twelve Protesters.- But perhaps the most shameless terrorist conspiracy of the visual media took place on April 11^th. 2002. That day,  approximately (being generous) one dozen people marched, armed to the teeth and with the aid of the fascist and terrorist Metropolitan police directed by members of criminal organizations called the “no Tupamaros” (7) , “no-Carapiacas”(7), “no-hooded ones”, they attempted to take over the Miraflores Palace, to which, with a fluid and rich language that made him look like a preacher, General Lucas Rincon, announced urbi et orbi that given that the squalid march had started shooting against some kids that were being given classes at a nursery school located at Puente Llaguno, Generalissimo Hugo Chávez Frías had NOT been asked to resign, which he did NOT accept.

The Great Humanitarian.-Believe it or not, the fascist, coupsters and terrorist media, suppressed the two negatives from the speech of the great humanist Lucas Rincon, to make believe that Marshal Hugo Chávez Frías had surrendered, repeating the feat of February 4^th. 1992. Thanks God that approximately two hundred million Venezuelans (moderate calculation) met in front of the Palace to proclaim their fidelity to the Unique Chief, while opposition mobs devoted themselves to stealing and looting. From then on, the media have not given any break in their job of deformation. We will end with one example, small but emblematic, in Carabobo, a General with round and healthy face, tried to liberate himself from a bothersome and apoplectic abdominal inflammation, like any human being does, but the fart took a wrong turn and that is how the media transformed that healthy practice in a burp to say the General was ignoring good manners. Thanks God that the people, without fraud and manipulation, elected him Governor, and now he can take all of the lactic charcoal that the budget will allow.

And here is the lesson for today kids. Go home and may God and Marshal Chavez bless you.

(1) Date of the Chavez coup

(2) Puntofijismo: After the Perez Jimenez Dictatorship, all parties agreed to certain ground rules. The pact was signed at the city of Punto Fijo.

(3) In the 1992 coup attempt Chavez was the only leader not to achieve his military objective and stayed in the Military Museum until he surrendered/ That Museum is not even close to the Presidential Palace.

(4) This refers to the current President of the CNE, Francisco Carrasquero, who has difficulties pronouncing many words.

(5) A mixture of tricks and transparency in Spanish.

(6) This refers to CNE Director Jorge Rodriguez.

(7) Armed Urban guerrila groups that support Chavez

From today’s El Universal, hard to translate, but very funny:

The New History of Venezuela (According to the regulations established in the Bolivarian laws recently approved or on their way to being approved) by Manuel Caballero

Venezuela was not discovered, like the racist and colonialist Spaniards want to pretend in 1498, but on February 4^th. 1992 (1), that day, General Hugo Chavez Frías (Who due to the intrigue of the Puntofijismo (2), had barely been allowed to reach the level of lieutenant colonel) covered himself with glory fighting to the last drop of blood in the battle of the Military Museum (3). Despite his heroics, when he noticed that his mates in rebellion had surrendered and that only he continued to fight without fear, he accepted to surrender to an Army which he had practically annihilated.

An obscure caudillejo.- From that day, we stopped being called Venezuelans. Despite the unanimity of the people who wanted that we become “chavianos”, the ingenious modesty of the new father of the country proposed that we be called “Bolivarianos”. Giving up the glory that corresponded to him to an obscure caudillejo of our indigenous past that of course, did not even come up to the legs of the semi God from Sabaneta. 

Despite the shameless fraud of the puntofijismo, that named a National Electoral Council composed only of members of their parties so that they would completely fulfill their task of blocking the popular victory moving voters, manipulating voting machines and even nationalizing tourists and giving results between midnight and the time the cocks sing, the people won, electing the Father of the New Country. Who, to the shame of his cheating enemies, rushed to name a new independent electoral board, impartial, clean, without fears and without reproach. A Board like Venezuelan history had never known, which opposed in most emphatic fashion all of the intents of the Governments to take advantage of its power.

Added to the DRAE (Diccionario de la Real Academia Española).- That CNE was presided by an academic of the Language (4)(it is to him that we owe the incorporation, accepted by the DRAE, among others the word “tramparencia”(5)  and the verbal forms  “tabanos” (we were) and “ibanos” (we were going)) and a psychiatrist (6) without hate, nor complexes, as well as a pinch hitter brought directly from Sicily to complete the Trifecta of the CNE (acronym that designates the “Cosa Nostra” Electoral).

Since then, he has been able to develop in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela the only “pretty, pretty and pretty” revolution (That is the way erudite William Lara calls it with sweetness in his voice) that has veer been produced in the universe world since the inferior Paleolithic until our days.

Since our purpose is historic and not political, and besides because the space that our patriotic laws give us is quite limited, we will refer to only one aspect of this process: the deformation of history by the fascist and coupsters terrorists of the media. To begin with the manipulation that has made Carlos Ilich Ramirez (The Jackal), the equivalent of our own Mother Theresa of Calcutta, as a ferocious assassin and blood drinker.

Twelve Protesters.- But perhaps the most shameless terrorist conspiracy of the visual media took place on April 11^th. 2002. That day,  approximately (being generous) one dozen people marched, armed to the teeth and with the aid of the fascist and terrorist Metropolitan police directed by members of criminal organizations called the “no Tupamaros” (7) , “no-Carapiacas”(7), “no-hooded ones”, they attempted to take over the Miraflores Palace, to which, with a fluid and rich language that made him look like a preacher, General Lucas Rincon, announced urbi et orbi that given that the squalid march had started shooting against some kids that were being given classes at a nursery school located at Puente Llaguno, Generalissimo Hugo Chávez Frías had NOT been asked to resign, which he did NOT accept.

The Great Humanitarian.-Believe it or not, the fascist, coupsters and terrorist media, suppressed the two negatives from the speech of the great humanist Lucas Rincon, to make believe that Marshal Hugo Chávez Frías had surrendered, repeating the feat of February 4^th. 1992. Thanks God that approximately two hundred million Venezuelans (moderate calculation) met in front of the Palace to proclaim their fidelity to the Unique Chief, while opposition mobs devoted themselves to stealing and looting. From then on, the media have not given any break in their job of deformation. We will end with one example, small but emblematic, in Carabobo, a General with round and healthy face, tried to liberate himself from a bothersome and apoplectic abdominal inflammation, like any human being does, but the fart took a wrong turn and that is how the media transformed that healthy practice in a burp to say the General was ignoring good manners. Thanks God that the people, without fraud and manipulation, elected him Governor, and now he can take all of the lactic charcoal that the budget will allow.

And here is the lesson for today kids. Go home and may God and Marshal Chavez bless you.

(1) Date of the Chavez coup

(2) Puntofijismo: After the Perez Jimenez Dictatorship, all parties agreed to certain ground rules. The pact was signed at the city of Punto Fijo.

(3) In the 1992 coup attempt Chavez was the only leader not to achieve his military objective and stayed in the Military Museum until he surrendered/ That Museum is not even close to the Presidential Palace.

(4) This refers to the current President of the CNE, Francisco Carrasquero, who has difficulties pronouncing many words.

(5) A mixture of tricks and transparency in Spanish.

(6) This refers to CNE Director Jorge Rodriguez.

(7) Armed Urban guerrila groups that support Chavez

From today’s El Universal, hard to translate, but very funny:

The New History of Venezuela (According to the regulations established in the Bolivarian laws recently approved or on their way to being approved) by Manuel Caballero

Venezuela was not discovered, like the racist and colonialist Spaniards want to pretend in 1498, but on February 4^th. 1992 (1), that day, General Hugo Chavez Frías (Who due to the intrigue of the Puntofijismo (2), had barely been allowed to reach the level of lieutenant colonel) covered himself with glory fighting to the last drop of blood in the battle of the Military Museum (3). Despite his heroics, when he noticed that his mates in rebellion had surrendered and that only he continued to fight without fear, he accepted to surrender to an Army which he had practically annihilated.

An obscure caudillejo.- From that day, we stopped being called Venezuelans. Despite the unanimity of the people who wanted that we become “chavianos”, the ingenious modesty of the new father of the country proposed that we be called “Bolivarianos”. Giving up the glory that corresponded to him to an obscure caudillejo of our indigenous past that of course, did not even come up to the legs of the semi God from Sabaneta. 

Despite the shameless fraud of the puntofijismo, that named a National Electoral Council composed only of members of their parties so that they would completely fulfill their task of blocking the popular victory moving voters, manipulating voting machines and even nationalizing tourists and giving results between midnight and the time the cocks sing, the people won, electing the Father of the New Country. Who, to the shame of his cheating enemies, rushed to name a new independent electoral board, impartial, clean, without fears and without reproach. A Board like Venezuelan history had never known, which opposed in most emphatic fashion all of the intents of the Governments to take advantage of its power.

Added to the DRAE (Diccionario de la Real Academia Española).- That CNE was presided by an academic of the Language (4)(it is to him that we owe the incorporation, accepted by the DRAE, among others the word “tramparencia”(5)  and the verbal forms  “tabanos” (we were) and “ibanos” (we were going)) and a psychiatrist (6) without hate, nor complexes, as well as a pinch hitter brought directly from Sicily to complete the Trifecta of the CNE (acronym that designates the “Cosa Nostra” Electoral).

Since then, he has been able to develop in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela the only “pretty, pretty and pretty” revolution (That is the way erudite William Lara calls it with sweetness in his voice) that has veer been produced in the universe world since the inferior Paleolithic until our days.

Since our purpose is historic and not political, and besides because the space that our patriotic laws give us is quite limited, we will refer to only one aspect of this process: the deformation of history by the fascist and coupsters terrorists of the media. To begin with the manipulation that has made Carlos Ilich Ramirez (The Jackal), the equivalent of our own Mother Theresa of Calcutta, as a ferocious assassin and blood drinker.

Twelve Protesters.- But perhaps the most shameless terrorist conspiracy of the visual media took place on April 11^th. 2002. That day,  approximately (being generous) one dozen people marched, armed to the teeth and with the aid of the fascist and terrorist Metropolitan police directed by members of criminal organizations called the “no Tupamaros” (7) , “no-Carapiacas”(7), “no-hooded ones”, they attempted to take over the Miraflores Palace, to which, with a fluid and rich language that made him look like a preacher, General Lucas Rincon, announced urbi et orbi that given that the squalid march had started shooting against some kids that were being given classes at a nursery school located at Puente Llaguno, Generalissimo Hugo Chávez Frías had NOT been asked to resign, which he did NOT accept.

The Great Humanitarian.-Believe it or not, the fascist, coupsters and terrorist media, suppressed the two negatives from the speech of the great humanist Lucas Rincon, to make believe that Marshal Hugo Chávez Frías had surrendered, repeating the feat of February 4^th. 1992. Thanks God that approximately two hundred million Venezuelans (moderate calculation) met in front of the Palace to proclaim their fidelity to the Unique Chief, while opposition mobs devoted themselves to stealing and looting. From then on, the media have not given any break in their job of deformation. We will end with one example, small but emblematic, in Carabobo, a General with round and healthy face, tried to liberate himself from a bothersome and apoplectic abdominal inflammation, like any human being does, but the fart took a wrong turn and that is how the media transformed that healthy practice in a burp to say the General was ignoring good manners. Thanks God that the people, without fraud and manipulation, elected him Governor, and now he can take all of the lactic charcoal that the budget will allow.

And here is the lesson for today kids. Go home and may God and Marshal Chavez bless you.

(1) Date of the Chavez coup

(2) Puntofijismo: After the Perez Jimenez Dictatorship, all parties agreed to certain ground rules. The pact was signed at the city of Punto Fijo.

(3) In the 1992 coup attempt Chavez was the only leader not to achieve his military objective and stayed in the Military Museum until he surrendered/ That Museum is not even close to the Presidential Palace.

(4) This refers to the current President of the CNE, Francisco Carrasquero, who has difficulties pronouncing many words.

(5) A mixture of tricks and transparency in Spanish.

(6) This refers to CNE Director Jorge Rodriguez.

(7) Armed Urban guerrila groups that support Chavez

In today’s El Nacional there is an interview with Cesar Miguel Rondon by Milagros Socorro that shows the initial effects of the muzzle bill, which Noticiero Digital has linked to here.  Rondon says that reporters that reporters have no idea of what to protect themselves or inhibit themselves due to the new law. He describes how he calls “the rebellion of the street vendors” on Wednesday was not shown on TV because reporters were not sure whether they could show it or not. As he says “we had dramatic events…the best informed people in the country did not know what was going on…The media did not know whether it could transmit the images of what was happening or not….That night we learned via the Government’s TV channel that the media could have broadcasted the images if they had wanted to”

Rondon also says that the next day, when he showed the front page of the newspapers in his TV program, he blocked the pictures of the violence the previous day, “because in that time slot we can not show explicit violence” . He also says he did not even dare describe them.

This sounds to me like censorship. If anytime something happens, the TV stations are going to have to ask the Government TV channels whether they can show something or not, it looks like censorship, smells like censorship and tastes like censorship to me. It certainly limits freedom of speech when you can’t even know what is going on in the country. It may sound like growing pains, but if the same Government that pushed the rules and sanctions through does not define the scope of how the bill will be applied, then we a have in fact a censorship board in place.

And that was exactly the purpose of the Bill.

In today’s El Nacional there is an interview with Cesar Miguel Rondon by Milagros Socorro that shows the initial effects of the muzzle bill, which Noticiero Digital has linked to here.  Rondon says that reporters that reporters have no idea of what to protect themselves or inhibit themselves due to the new law. He describes how he calls “the rebellion of the street vendors” on Wednesday was not shown on TV because reporters were not sure whether they could show it or not. As he says “we had dramatic events…the best informed people in the country did not know what was going on…The media did not know whether it could transmit the images of what was happening or not….That night we learned via the Government’s TV channel that the media could have broadcasted the images if they had wanted to”

Rondon also says that the next day, when he showed the front page of the newspapers in his TV program, he blocked the pictures of the violence the previous day, “because in that time slot we can not show explicit violence” . He also says he did not even dare describe them.

This sounds to me like censorship. If anytime something happens, the TV stations are going to have to ask the Government TV channels whether they can show something or not, it looks like censorship, smells like censorship and tastes like censorship to me. It certainly limits freedom of speech when you can’t even know what is going on in the country. It may sound like growing pains, but if the same Government that pushed the rules and sanctions through does not define the scope of how the bill will be applied, then we a have in fact a censorship board in place.

And that was exactly the purpose of the Bill.

El Universal carries today an article which shows that the evidence used to jail the Guevara brothers is all based on anonymous tips received by the police over the phone. This information coincides with that published by Patricia Poleo in El Nuevo Pais  and another paper, which you can find here and here. The second Poleo link shows the actual documents from the police showing that they really know very little about the case. Sadly, they show a “map” found in the office of Juan Carlos Sanchez, who was killed by the police, which supposedly “proves” that he was involved in the case. In reality, the map does not include either the location of where Anderson was before the bomb, or that of the bomb, so it is incredible they want to relate it to the case.

The truth is that the Anderson case is as far from being resolved as it was a couple of weeks ago. It was only Thursday that the police mentioned they were after the people that published the obituary published here two weeks ago and there is evidence that murdered lawyer Antonio Lopez Castillo had been threatened by the same police forced that killed him. He had reportedly gone to the prosecutor’s office a few months ago to denounce some officers for extortion and following him. Thus, the “solved case” appears to be stuck in a dead end.  Unfortunately, two people are dead and others have suffered in the rush to find the guilty, which we all want identified.

By the way, that last link is to a fairly new site Noticiero Digital, which scans things from newspapers that do not have website such as El Nuevo Pais or Las Verdades de Miguel, as well as links to articles in El Nacional which require a subscription. All articles have a discussion if you register. For those that speak Spanish, I recommend it as a good new source of information.