The Devil's Excrement

Busy tonight will not be able to post much, just some tidbits from the news, that I would like to talk about given the time:

—Eight of the nine accused in Tachira state for rebellion were found guilty and given different sentences of up to six years in jail. The eight were found guilty of rebellion and sedition when the day after Chavez resigned they went to the Governor’s house demanding his resignation. They had no weapons, which is a requirement for sedition and the Supreme Court ruled in the case against six Generals that there was no rebellion that day but a “power vacuum”.

This is obviously a political case against these eight leaders of the social Christian party COPEI. They become now eight more political prisoners of the Chavez administration.

The biggest mystery in all this is how the man that came on TV General Lucas Rincon who said Chavez had resigned and was a prisoner is never called to declare in any of these trials. Lucas Rincon was then the minister of Defense, went home after the announcement and resurfaced as Chávez’ Minister of the Interior a few months later.

–Governors and Mayors from the opposition proved the lies of CNE Directors when they said the reason for the missing addressees of voters was the difficulty in given them in poor areas and claiming this was an old problem. The mayor of Chacao showed that 98% of those with problems are newly registered voters. The Mayors and Governors handed in 28 boxes with the evidence showing that 1.8 million voters lack an address. They managed to do this, despite the effort by the National Guard to block their access to the CNE headquarters. The Guardsman Captain told a reporter that if she reported what he tried to do in blocking them “they will promote me”. Check Daniel’s blog for more on this issue.

–Media owner Marcel Granier said upon exiting from testifying about his visit to the Presidential palace on April 13^th. 2002 that “there is a massacre taking place against freedom of speech in Venezuela”. In today’s Tal Cual , Editor Petkoff outlines how the vagueness of the content law make any act as simple as an opinion or showing a movie a violation subject to shutdown of the TV station or newspaper.

–The Government condemned the destruction of the Columbus statue on Tuesday, but said nothing about withholding funding from aporrea.org which not only promoted the action, but its is proudly taking credit for it. Ironically, new Minister of Information Izarra was the one that coordinated the funding of aporrea.org from his prior position at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington. He did not say whether additional protection would be given to the replica of Columbus’ ship which floats at the lake in Parque del Este. There have been suggestions in pro-Chavez pages that they will now go after it.

–Tomorrow, lawyer Tulio Alvarez will present his final report on the fraud during the recall vote in August. The evidence is overwhelming and will surprise. In any other country what will be presented tomorrow would lead to the resignation of the President and the Electoral Board. Pay attention in particular to all of the data about communications. Truly incredible accusations! Should be at the center of the news for the next few weeks. I will report on it as the data becomes available and will summarize the report tomorrow.

Busy tonight will not be able to post much, just some tidbits from the news, that I would like to talk about given the time:

—Eight of the nine accused in Tachira state for rebellion were found guilty and given different sentences of up to six years in jail. The eight were found guilty of rebellion and sedition when the day after Chavez resigned they went to the Governor’s house demanding his resignation. They had no weapons, which is a requirement for sedition and the Supreme Court ruled in the case against six Generals that there was no rebellion that day but a “power vacuum”.

This is obviously a political case against these eight leaders of the social Christian party COPEI. They become now eight more political prisoners of the Chavez administration.

The biggest mystery in all this is how the man that came on TV General Lucas Rincon who said Chavez had resigned and was a prisoner is never called to declare in any of these trials. Lucas Rincon was then the minister of Defense, went home after the announcement and resurfaced as Chávez’ Minister of the Interior a few months later.

–Governors and Mayors from the opposition proved the lies of CNE Directors when they said the reason for the missing addressees of voters was the difficulty in given them in poor areas and claiming this was an old problem. The mayor of Chacao showed that 98% of those with problems are newly registered voters. The Mayors and Governors handed in 28 boxes with the evidence showing that 1.8 million voters lack an address. They managed to do this, despite the effort by the National Guard to block their access to the CNE headquarters. The Guardsman Captain told a reporter that if she reported what he tried to do in blocking them “they will promote me”. Check Daniel’s blog for more on this issue.

–Media owner Marcel Granier said upon exiting from testifying about his visit to the Presidential palace on April 13^th. 2002 that “there is a massacre taking place against freedom of speech in Venezuela”. In today’s Tal Cual , Editor Petkoff outlines how the vagueness of the content law make any act as simple as an opinion or showing a movie a violation subject to shutdown of the TV station or newspaper.

–The Government condemned the destruction of the Columbus statue on Tuesday, but said nothing about withholding funding from aporrea.org which not only promoted the action, but its is proudly taking credit for it. Ironically, new Minister of Information Izarra was the one that coordinated the funding of aporrea.org from his prior position at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington. He did not say whether additional protection would be given to the replica of Columbus’ ship which floats at the lake in Parque del Este. There have been suggestions in pro-Chavez pages that they will now go after it.

–Tomorrow, lawyer Tulio Alvarez will present his final report on the fraud during the recall vote in August. The evidence is overwhelming and will surprise. In any other country what will be presented tomorrow would lead to the resignation of the President and the Electoral Board. Pay attention in particular to all of the data about communications. Truly incredible accusations! Should be at the center of the news for the next few weeks. I will report on it as the data becomes available and will summarize the report tomorrow.

Busy tonight will not be able to post much, just some tidbits from the news, that I would like to talk about given the time:

—Eight of the nine accused in Tachira state for rebellion were found guilty and given different sentences of up to six years in jail. The eight were found guilty of rebellion and sedition when the day after Chavez resigned they went to the Governor’s house demanding his resignation. They had no weapons, which is a requirement for sedition and the Supreme Court ruled in the case against six Generals that there was no rebellion that day but a “power vacuum”.

This is obviously a political case against these eight leaders of the social Christian party COPEI. They become now eight more political prisoners of the Chavez administration.

The biggest mystery in all this is how the man that came on TV General Lucas Rincon who said Chavez had resigned and was a prisoner is never called to declare in any of these trials. Lucas Rincon was then the minister of Defense, went home after the announcement and resurfaced as Chávez’ Minister of the Interior a few months later.

–Governors and Mayors from the opposition proved the lies of CNE Directors when they said the reason for the missing addressees of voters was the difficulty in given them in poor areas and claiming this was an old problem. The mayor of Chacao showed that 98% of those with problems are newly registered voters. The Mayors and Governors handed in 28 boxes with the evidence showing that 1.8 million voters lack an address. They managed to do this, despite the effort by the National Guard to block their access to the CNE headquarters. The Guardsman Captain told a reporter that if she reported what he tried to do in blocking them “they will promote me”. Check Daniel’s blog for more on this issue.

–Media owner Marcel Granier said upon exiting from testifying about his visit to the Presidential palace on April 13^th. 2002 that “there is a massacre taking place against freedom of speech in Venezuela”. In today’s Tal Cual , Editor Petkoff outlines how the vagueness of the content law make any act as simple as an opinion or showing a movie a violation subject to shutdown of the TV station or newspaper.

–The Government condemned the destruction of the Columbus statue on Tuesday, but said nothing about withholding funding from aporrea.org which not only promoted the action, but its is proudly taking credit for it. Ironically, new Minister of Information Izarra was the one that coordinated the funding of aporrea.org from his prior position at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington. He did not say whether additional protection would be given to the replica of Columbus’ ship which floats at the lake in Parque del Este. There have been suggestions in pro-Chavez pages that they will now go after it.

–Tomorrow, lawyer Tulio Alvarez will present his final report on the fraud during the recall vote in August. The evidence is overwhelming and will surprise. In any other country what will be presented tomorrow would lead to the resignation of the President and the Electoral Board. Pay attention in particular to all of the data about communications. Truly incredible accusations! Should be at the center of the news for the next few weeks. I will report on it as the data becomes available and will summarize the report tomorrow.

A group of people that lives in the Salias municipality right outside of Caracas went today to the Electoral Board (CNE) to inform them that they had held a Citizens Assembly according to Article 70 of the Venezuelan Constitution and that the 4,000 people at that assembly had voted to open all of the electoral boxes on Oct. 31^st. They presented a document outlining how this ill be done and said they did not need the approval of the CNE, because of said article, combined with Art. 5 of the Constitution, which says that sovereignty is exercised directly and is not transferable from the people. The group encouraged other municipalities to follow suit.

This is article 70 of Venezuela’s Constitution, which was the cornerstone of Chavez’ much ballyhooed “participative” democracy which has now been set aside:

Artículo 70. Son medios de participación y protagonismo del pueblo en ejercicio de su soberanía, en lo político: la elección de cargos públicos, el referendo, la consulta popular, la revocatoria del mandato, la iniciativa legislativa. Constitucional y constituyente, el cabildo abierto y la asamblea de ciudadanos y ciudadanas cuyas decisiones serán de carácter vinculante, …

Article 70. The means of participation and protagonism of the people in the exercise of its sovereignty on politics are: the direct election to public office, the referendum, popular consultation, revoking mandates, legislative initiatives, Constitutional and Constituent, town halls and citizens assemblies the decisions of which will be binding….

If more municipalities imitate Los Salias, it will be interesting to see how the CNE and the Government approach the issue. I really don’t believe they want to open all of the boxes, much like they did not want to open them for the August. 15^th.  recall vote. It could be dangerous to go to the Supreme Court since the Electoral Law is so clear in saying that all of the boxes have to be opened. Thus, I suspect the CNE will simply block people from doing it on Oct. 31^st. or postpone the vote.

This weekend President Chávez once again attacked the Central Bank over the amount of “foreign exchange profits” it should turn over to the Government. This continues to be an issue that is not resolved and highly controversial.

Essentially, Central Banks around the world began a few years ago publishing financial statements very much like those of a commercial banks, even if their purpose is not to make a profit but monetary stability. Every time there is devaluation, the foreign currency “purchased” by the Central Bank at the old price is “worth” more in terms of local currency. Thus, the bank “makes” a lot of money every time there is devaluation and it sells this foreign currency purchased at lower prices.

About four years ago, the Venezuelan Government asked the Central Bank to hand over those profits, which it did. This is not a common practice, in fact, it is forbidden by law in many countries. The practice itself is not considered negative by economists as long as handing over the foreign exchange profits fits the purpose of currency and monetary stability which the central bank has. The usual recommendation is that the practice does not become recurrent and that it not be done if it threatens the balance sheet of the Central Bank..

In Venezuela handing over these profits has become recurrent via the annual devaluation that has taken place in the last few years. In the first half of the year alone, the Venezuelan Central Bank transferred Bs. 1.5 trillion in foreign exchange profits, some US$ 781 million at the official exchange rate. A similar payment will be made in the second half. The problem here is that this already represents almost 5% of the funding for the Government’s 2005 budget. Thus, it becomes a vicious circle, as the Government needs to devalue again, even if oil prices are very high, because it has no other source for funding such a large piece of the budget.

The origin of the discussion is that now the Government wants to receive more of these profits and it is arguing that the Central Bank is using for the accounting of these profits LIFO (Last In First Out), rather than using FIFO (First In First Out). The Government wants to use FIFO, because then dollars obtained by the Central Bank last year or the year before at much lower exchange rates would be sold at the current one, thus the profits would be higher. In the Government’s proposal, the Central Bank would have to hand over Bs. 3.1 trillion for the first half of 2004, US$ 1.6 billion or 6% of next year’s budget. The Superintedent of Banks said today that these foreign exchange earnings may reach Bs. 8 to 9 trillion or 15% of next year’s budget which is a huge proprtion. I am not sure where this higher figure comes from, but it sounds too high to me.

Clearly, this would insure that next year there would have to be devaluation, as these profits may reach 10-15% of the national budget, unless oil prices skyrocketed even further. If the Government did not devalue, these profits would evaporate as the Central Bank rotates its inventory this year and fewer profits would be left over for next year. The Government would not have an alternate source of funds for such a large piece of the budget.

Chávez is threatening to go to the Supreme Court on the issue, while Central Bank Directors are calling for arbitration. In either case, the final result will be further devaluations and more inflation because of its recurrent nature. The only unknown is by how much.

This weekend President Chávez once again attacked the Central Bank over the amount of “foreign exchange profits” it should turn over to the Government. This continues to be an issue that is not resolved and highly controversial.

Essentially, Central Banks around the world began a few years ago publishing financial statements very much like those of a commercial banks, even if their purpose is not to make a profit but monetary stability. Every time there is devaluation, the foreign currency “purchased” by the Central Bank at the old price is “worth” more in terms of local currency. Thus, the bank “makes” a lot of money every time there is devaluation and it sells this foreign currency purchased at lower prices.

About four years ago, the Venezuelan Government asked the Central Bank to hand over those profits, which it did. This is not a common practice, in fact, it is forbidden by law in many countries. The practice itself is not considered negative by economists as long as handing over the foreign exchange profits fits the purpose of currency and monetary stability which the central bank has. The usual recommendation is that the practice does not become recurrent and that it not be done if it threatens the balance sheet of the Central Bank..

In Venezuela handing over these profits has become recurrent via the annual devaluation that has taken place in the last few years. In the first half of the year alone, the Venezuelan Central Bank transferred Bs. 1.5 trillion in foreign exchange profits, some US$ 781 million at the official exchange rate. A similar payment will be made in the second half. The problem here is that this already represents almost 5% of the funding for the Government’s 2005 budget. Thus, it becomes a vicious circle, as the Government needs to devalue again, even if oil prices are very high, because it has no other source for funding such a large piece of the budget.

The origin of the discussion is that now the Government wants to receive more of these profits and it is arguing that the Central Bank is using for the accounting of these profits LIFO (Last In First Out), rather than using FIFO (First In First Out). The Government wants to use FIFO, because then dollars obtained by the Central Bank last year or the year before at much lower exchange rates would be sold at the current one, thus the profits would be higher. In the Government’s proposal, the Central Bank would have to hand over Bs. 3.1 trillion for the first half of 2004, US$ 1.6 billion or 6% of next year’s budget. The Superintedent of Banks said today that these foreign exchange earnings may reach Bs. 8 to 9 trillion or 15% of next year’s budget which is a huge proprtion. I am not sure where this higher figure comes from, but it sounds too high to me.

Clearly, this would insure that next year there would have to be devaluation, as these profits may reach 10-15% of the national budget, unless oil prices skyrocketed even further. If the Government did not devalue, these profits would evaporate as the Central Bank rotates its inventory this year and fewer profits would be left over for next year. The Government would not have an alternate source of funds for such a large piece of the budget.

Chávez is threatening to go to the Supreme Court on the issue, while Central Bank Directors are calling for arbitration. In either case, the final result will be further devaluations and more inflation because of its recurrent nature. The only unknown is by how much.

This weekend President Chávez once again attacked the Central Bank over the amount of “foreign exchange profits” it should turn over to the Government. This continues to be an issue that is not resolved and highly controversial.

Essentially, Central Banks around the world began a few years ago publishing financial statements very much like those of a commercial banks, even if their purpose is not to make a profit but monetary stability. Every time there is devaluation, the foreign currency “purchased” by the Central Bank at the old price is “worth” more in terms of local currency. Thus, the bank “makes” a lot of money every time there is devaluation and it sells this foreign currency purchased at lower prices.

About four years ago, the Venezuelan Government asked the Central Bank to hand over those profits, which it did. This is not a common practice, in fact, it is forbidden by law in many countries. The practice itself is not considered negative by economists as long as handing over the foreign exchange profits fits the purpose of currency and monetary stability which the central bank has. The usual recommendation is that the practice does not become recurrent and that it not be done if it threatens the balance sheet of the Central Bank..

In Venezuela handing over these profits has become recurrent via the annual devaluation that has taken place in the last few years. In the first half of the year alone, the Venezuelan Central Bank transferred Bs. 1.5 trillion in foreign exchange profits, some US$ 781 million at the official exchange rate. A similar payment will be made in the second half. The problem here is that this already represents almost 5% of the funding for the Government’s 2005 budget. Thus, it becomes a vicious circle, as the Government needs to devalue again, even if oil prices are very high, because it has no other source for funding such a large piece of the budget.

The origin of the discussion is that now the Government wants to receive more of these profits and it is arguing that the Central Bank is using for the accounting of these profits LIFO (Last In First Out), rather than using FIFO (First In First Out). The Government wants to use FIFO, because then dollars obtained by the Central Bank last year or the year before at much lower exchange rates would be sold at the current one, thus the profits would be higher. In the Government’s proposal, the Central Bank would have to hand over Bs. 3.1 trillion for the first half of 2004, US$ 1.6 billion or 6% of next year’s budget. The Superintedent of Banks said today that these foreign exchange earnings may reach Bs. 8 to 9 trillion or 15% of next year’s budget which is a huge proprtion. I am not sure where this higher figure comes from, but it sounds too high to me.

Clearly, this would insure that next year there would have to be devaluation, as these profits may reach 10-15% of the national budget, unless oil prices skyrocketed even further. If the Government did not devalue, these profits would evaporate as the Central Bank rotates its inventory this year and fewer profits would be left over for next year. The Government would not have an alternate source of funds for such a large piece of the budget.

Chávez is threatening to go to the Supreme Court on the issue, while Central Bank Directors are calling for arbitration. In either case, the final result will be further devaluations and more inflation because of its recurrent nature. The only unknown is by how much.

To his credit Alcalde Bernal criticized what happened today with the Columbus statue and reported five people were detained. Hope something happen to them in the end, but I doubt it. I bet they do nothing about aporrea.org which the Government funds and was clearly behind the action. This was not anarchy, this was premeditated. .

Today a bunch of Chavista thugs ended up in Plaza Venezuela their celebration (or protest) of Columbus Day for some, or the day of indigenous resistance for others and they ended tearing down the old statue of Columbus in Plaza Venezuela, as shown in the following pictures:

Now, I don’t want you to think that this was a spontaneous act of celebration in which some people got carried away. Chavista website aporrea.org has been calling for this for a few days, they even had the truck ready to take the pieces away and probably sell them. There is always profit somewhere down the line around this sorry revolution:

The bottom part says: continue the fight against the devil, Bush and Columbus are the same, old and new imperialism! Talk about uncivilized and hateful behavior and that is new! This is promoted by websites well financed by the so called revolution: Hate, destruction, stupidity and savage behavior.

Meanwhile in another part of the city, Diosdado Cabello, MVR candidate to Governor of Miranda was promoting other values as seen in this picture. Certainly the equality and emancipation of women were not among them. Machismo promotion may have been one though. That’s one group the revolution has done little for, in fact, it is remarkable in a country accustomed to women in positions of leadership what a set back women have suffered in the last five years under this “revolution”

Absolutely disgusting use of women in political campaining!

(Thanks Ed for the heads up!)

Today a bunch of Chavista thugs ended up in Plaza Venezuela their celebration (or protest) of Columbus Day for some, or the day of indigenous resistance for others and they ended tearing down the old statue of Columbus in Plaza Venezuela, as shown in the following pictures:

Now, I don’t want you to think that this was a spontaneous act of celebration in which some people got carried away. Chavista website aporrea.org has been calling for this for a few days, they even had the truck ready to take the pieces away and probably sell them. There is always profit somewhere down the line around this sorry revolution:

The bottom part says: continue the fight against the devil, Bush and Columbus are the same, old and new imperialism! Talk about uncivilized and hateful behavior and that is new! This is promoted by websites well financed by the so called revolution: Hate, destruction, stupidity and savage behavior.

Meanwhile in another part of the city, Diosdado Cabello, MVR candidate to Governor of Miranda was promoting other values as seen in this picture. Certainly the equality and emancipation of women were not among them. Machismo promotion may have been one though. That’s one group the revolution has done little for, in fact, it is remarkable in a country accustomed to women in positions of leadership what a set back women have suffered in the last five years under this “revolution”

Absolutely disgusting use of women in political campaining!

(Thanks Ed for the heads up!)