The Devil's Excrement

So, the Coordinadora Democrática (CD) is dead and good riddance. They certainly failed in protecting the votes and guaranteeing that there would not be fraud. I still think the Coordinadora should have taken a tougher stance on August 14^th. and even threaten to withdraw that night if the members of the mesas were not respected. The same with the members of the Juntas Electorales at the regional level which were replaced sometimes even the same day (the 14^th. of August), by mostly pro-Chavista members.

I also think the CD dropped the ball on Sunday the 15^th. thinking that it had won handily and not making sure that the hot audit was performed that night. To me, that hot audit remains the single most important mystery of the whole process. First, there is no public data on it, which centers were scheduled to be audited, which ones were audited and which ones were audited in the presence of opposition witnesses. Just to remind everyone, 199 centers were chosen to be audited that evening, opening the ballot boxes and comparing them to the results. Of these, only 78 were actually audited, but opposition witnesses were only allowed in 27 of them. In these 27, the Si won handily 63% against 37% for the No vote. Remarkably, when all 78 are added together the No wins 57% to 43% in all of them. Strange, no?

The role of leadership for the opposition will be assumed by the Governors and Mayors who are part of the opposition. The group will initially be composed of three Governors and three Mayors and they will negotiate the conditions for the regional elections with the Electoral Board.

Meanwhile, the CNE and the pro-Chavez members of the CNE continue acting with arrogance. First, they denied the request by the opposition to invalidate the results of the recall vote by the usual three to two majority. Moreover, they did not provide an explanation for doing so, saying only that there was “no proof” of any fraud. Second the dance of millions continues with the CNE spending more on purchasing voting machines and the infamous fingerprint grabbing machines (US$ 20 million)  which were a total failure on August 15^th.

I guess the Saudi-Venezuela of the 70’s is back, let’s throw lots of money at a problem and hope things work out. While these irresponsible people do that, poverty is up, but the poor seem to be forgotten when it comes to spending money on gadgets or frivolous celebrations of anniversaries that most Venezuelans would rather forget like the one year Anniversary of the new CNE.

To top it all off, these guys are so proud of the transparency, clarity and lack of controversy of the recall vote of that they propose eliminating foreign observers from the upcoming elections “in order to give more institutional autonomy and national sovereignty to the processes”. This really worries me, Taliban CNE Director Battaglini, who is in charge of the observation process, must feel that the fraud in October will be impossible to implement if there are observers or he is simply extremely cynical and could care less about 40% (likely 60%) of Venezuelans. But that is the nature of this fascist revolution. (And I know exactly what I am saying and why I am saying it: a fascist regime imposes an authoritarian and hierarchical Government that leaves democracy on the side, this is what we have in Venezuela and all of the CNE’s decisions this week fit this behavior exactly)

President Hugo Chavez shows up today at the border region, dressed in military fatigues which is illegal, to the place where the killings took place last week saying “the Armed Forces should be concerned”, saying that “Colombia is being irresponsible” and that he will “strengthen the military component”, “creating training centers” and buying equipment. He also states he is not a friend of the Colombian guerilla group the FARC. Chavez says that his Government will not allow “irregular groups to come into and live in Venezuela, “no matter where they come from”.

The problem is that we have all seen this movie before in 2000 and 2001, when similar incidents took place and Generals who have now been ostracized and even persecuted by Chávez, were making the same charges about the lack of attention to the border region. In these set of documents, General Gonzalez Gonzalez, today a fugitive, writes a memo to the President himself telling him that there are both guerrilla and paramilitary forces in the border region, coca plantations and asking for a battalion to be able to control the area.  

Gral. Gonzalez also asks in these documents for establishing two bases for the protection of the border, as well as carrying out operations to clean up the border area. The documents include pictures of the irregular group camps and Chavez with the General himself.

These particular documents are from 2001 and since then, nothing of what was recommended in them has been done. So those charges that have been made that the accusations are false are nothing but a smokescreen to hide the truth, in a country with a very short memory. The truth is that Chavez has had a policy of “live and let live” with the FARC that is now coming back to haunt him trough the death of at least six Venezuelans. So we have seen this movie and the show before, it is all grandstanding, but we don’t forget, even if we did not have a blog then.

Strange statements from Vice-President Rangel today which to me imply that there is something more than meets the eye in the whole border incident in which five military and one PDVSA worker were killed. It also appears to confirm that the reason Chavze did not travel has something to do with the border incident.

While the Minister of Defense keeps saying that either paramilitary or drug smugglers are responsible for the killings, besides the Colombian Government saying the other day that it was the guerilla, now the Venezuelan investigative police said the same thing, even naming the front of the FARC guerrillas that they suspected (the seventh front). But now the Vice-President comes out and says that the Cabinet backs all of the actions Chavez ahs taken on the issue, as if someone expected them to do otherwise, so why clarify it?

Rangel claims that the statements by the CIPC representative were manipulated, but I heard them and it is exactly what the press has reported. Rangel says that the whole thing is being investigated, but it was his own Minister of Defense who from minute one has been saying that it was not the guerrilla, so he should have waited before making such a strong statement too. Rangel also denied that there was unhappiness within the Armed Forces about the incident, which eh did not have to deny, but is certainly confirming with his statements.

The truth is that Chávez has had a lax policy towards the FARC that may come back to haunt him in the FARC decides that he is trying to contain them at the border and restrict their movement. It is also true that the military finds this contradictory with what they have been taught for decades in their military training. Thus, many officers can’t be too happy about the deaths of young soldiers or the attempts to say, right off the bat, that the guerilla were not involved, even before any investigations are carried out.

Strange statements from Vice-President Rangel today which to me imply that there is something more than meets the eye in the whole border incident in which five military and one PDVSA worker were killed. It also appears to confirm that the reason Chavze did not travel has something to do with the border incident.

While the Minister of Defense keeps saying that either paramilitary or drug smugglers are responsible for the killings, besides the Colombian Government saying the other day that it was the guerilla, now the Venezuelan investigative police said the same thing, even naming the front of the FARC guerrillas that they suspected (the seventh front). But now the Vice-President comes out and says that the Cabinet backs all of the actions Chavez ahs taken on the issue, as if someone expected them to do otherwise, so why clarify it?

Rangel claims that the statements by the CIPC representative were manipulated, but I heard them and it is exactly what the press has reported. Rangel says that the whole thing is being investigated, but it was his own Minister of Defense who from minute one has been saying that it was not the guerrilla, so he should have waited before making such a strong statement too. Rangel also denied that there was unhappiness within the Armed Forces about the incident, which eh did not have to deny, but is certainly confirming with his statements.

The truth is that Chávez has had a lax policy towards the FARC that may come back to haunt him in the FARC decides that he is trying to contain them at the border and restrict their movement. It is also true that the military finds this contradictory with what they have been taught for decades in their military training. Thus, many officers can’t be too happy about the deaths of young soldiers or the attempts to say, right off the bat, that the guerilla were not involved, even before any investigations are carried out.

Descifrado finally picked up on the fact that Venezuelan (and second cousin) Peter Camejo was chosen by Ralph Nader as his Vice Presidential candidate in the upcoming US presidential election. In fact, it is not his first time; Camejo has run for Senator in Massachusetts (74?) for the Socialist Workers Party, as well as for President of the US for the same party (76?). He was a candidate for the Green party for the Governorship of California after Gov. Davies was recalled. While the press calls him “of Venezuelan origin”, he participated with his father in the Olympic Games representing Venezuela.

It is interesting that in his interview with Descifrado, he says that if he had stayed in Venezuela he would have been a leftist politician, mentioning Petkoff and Pablo Medina, but not Chavez. Sen. Kerry is trying to block the candidacy of Nader and Camejo in many states so that they dn’t take votes away from him.

Someone at the American Thinker knows a lot about what is happening in Venezuela and Chavez’ aborted trip and suggests very similar reasons for the cancellation:

“He cancelled all that, and all of a sudden, supposedly because of airplane trouble. Never mind that extensive preparations had been made, and correspondents had been flown out. Chavez was so hasty about it his people didn’t even bother to even tell the Council of the Americas that he wasn’t coming –  the Secret Service ended up doing it for him. Chavez’s flacks said the presidential airplane could not be repaired in time. But that’s a little ridiculous – Venezuela has plenty of aircraft – and the Venezuelan foreign minister managed to catch some sort of flight to the U.S. for the United Nations sessions this week.

There was some speculation among the media that Chavez had urgent business regarding a violent weekend military confrontation at the western border with Colombian paramilitaries, which left six Venezuelan soldiers and one civilian dead.”

And of course , the Apure massacre was a media show to make Chavez look bad according to chief Chavez pleaser and flunky Maduro:

“An international and mediatic ambush”

I guess it wasn’t the paramilitary either…Saatchi and Saactchi? BBOD? CIA?

Someone at the American Thinker knows a lot about what is happening in Venezuela and Chavez’ aborted trip and suggests very similar reasons for the cancellation:

“He cancelled all that, and all of a sudden, supposedly because of airplane trouble. Never mind that extensive preparations had been made, and correspondents had been flown out. Chavez was so hasty about it his people didn’t even bother to even tell the Council of the Americas that he wasn’t coming –  the Secret Service ended up doing it for him. Chavez’s flacks said the presidential airplane could not be repaired in time. But that’s a little ridiculous – Venezuela has plenty of aircraft – and the Venezuelan foreign minister managed to catch some sort of flight to the U.S. for the United Nations sessions this week.

There was some speculation among the media that Chavez had urgent business regarding a violent weekend military confrontation at the western border with Colombian paramilitaries, which left six Venezuelan soldiers and one civilian dead.”

And of course , the Apure massacre was a media show to make Chavez look bad according to chief Chavez pleaser and flunky Maduro:

“An international and mediatic ambush”

I guess it wasn’t the paramilitary either…Saatchi and Saactchi? BBOD? CIA?

Carlos Alberto Montaner has the right idea about what would be the proper road to follow if the Carter Center and the OAS wanted to find out the truth:

“How can this operation be carried out? Simply by naming a panel of impartial experts — mathematicians, statisticians, systems engineers, lawyers even — to listen to the accusations of the opposition and the arguments of the government. How can this operation be carried out? Simply by naming a panel of impartial experts — mathematicians, statisticians, systems engineers, lawyers even — to listen to the accusations of the opposition and the arguments of the government.”

So, Hugo Chavez cancelled his trip to New York to the summit on poverty, because “the starting motor on the left engine was not working properly”(1). Wow, a powerful President like Chavez can be stopped by a little starting motor, despite having an old plane that served him well for the first four years of his Presidency and multiple Citations and the like that jet around the new oligarchs of the robolucion.

See, the President had more than the U.N. meeting, he was going to meet with Wall Street types, was going to speak at the Council of the Americas and was going to inaugurate the new offices of Citgo in Houston. But this makes it such a source of rumors and stories that it is certainly fun to hear the many theories:

-(2)Chavez was mad because Bush did not invite him to lunch

-(3)The US Secret service would not allow him to go and speak at an Evangelical church in Harlem.

-(4)The OAS had refused to have accept his “surprise” visit to its Washington headquarters.

-(5)The border incident has him concerned as six more people have been killed since Friday, while the Colombia Army continues to point to the Colombian guerrilla as the killers.

As usual, we will never know the true reason. What else is new?