The Devil's Excrement

Things are changing very fast. Repression is taking place in too many places right now. As Hugo Chavez was giving a nationwide speech that TV stations are forced to broadcast, the National Guard attacked the people in Altamira using the new, dangerous and very repressive technique of having Guards riding in motorcycles shooting tear gas canisters (see picture next post up).

Chavez’ speech had a different tone. While it is the people of Venezuela asking for respect for their rights and defending their signatures, Hugo Chavez began attacking the US and George Bush, challenging him to see who would last longer in power and threatening to cut off oil supplies to that country. He even said that if the US took over Venezuelan property, he would nationalize American property in Venezuela.

Right now, the National Guard is repressing in the East of Caracas, Maracaibo, San Antonio, right outside of Caracas and the west of Caracas. Now political police is all over the place with assault rifles in El Paraiso, in the west and in Horizonte in the east of Caracas. Meanwhile in Barquisimeto, Deputy Alfredo Ramos has been jailed, despite having immunity according to the Constitution. Other, lower level political activists of various parties have been jailed.

As I write 7:18 PM, it seems as if more people are going out despite it being more dangerous. Right now, I see political police officials with assault weapons in front of the Baruta municipality building. Their faces are covered.

Very scary…but I am going out tonight anyway.

Things are changing very fast. Repression is taking place in too many places right now. As Hugo Chavez was giving a nationwide speech that TV stations are forced to broadcast, the National Guard attacked the people in Altamira using the new, dangerous and very repressive technique of having Guards riding in motorcycles shooting tear gas canisters (see picture next post up).

Chavez’ speech had a different tone. While it is the people of Venezuela asking for respect for their rights and defending their signatures, Hugo Chavez began attacking the US and George Bush, challenging him to see who would last longer in power and threatening to cut off oil supplies to that country. He even said that if the US took over Venezuelan property, he would nationalize American property in Venezuela.

Right now, the National Guard is repressing in the East of Caracas, Maracaibo, San Antonio, right outside of Caracas and the west of Caracas. Now political police is all over the place with assault rifles in El Paraiso, in the west and in Horizonte in the east of Caracas. Meanwhile in Barquisimeto, Deputy Alfredo Ramos has been jailed, despite having immunity according to the Constitution. Other, lower level political activists of various parties have been jailed.

As I write 7:18 PM, it seems as if more people are going out despite it being more dangerous. Right now, I see political police officials with assault weapons in front of the Baruta municipality building. Their faces are covered.

Very scary…but I am going out tonight anyway.

Caracas and Maracaibo are tense as National Guardsmen and opposition groups continue to clash. No more than two miles from my house there is lots of smoke. It all started when some Guardsmen in motorcycles were booed by people and some began throwing stones at them. The Guards got off the motorcycle and started throwng cannisters at the people.

Separately, the funeral procession of the carpenter shot death on Friday was attacked as it went by the Bolivarian University. Civialinas and members of the political police thrww tear gas at the procession. Fewer details about Maracaibo, but I undertand that when the CNE announced the questioning of the 148,000 forms, things got more intense.

The Consejo Nacional Electoral has just approved the procedure for citizens whose signature is being question to ratify hat they signed. The vote was 3-0 with the two pro-opposition Directors not present. There will be 1,000 centers (one thitd of those used to gather the signatures), open during five days from 8 AM to 6 PM. The CNE will issue booklets (!!) with seven million national ID numbers. The list will say whether somebody’s signature is valid, rejected or under observation. Those rejected stand rejected. Those whose sigantures is under observation will have to go to a specific center to ratify they signed.

From other sources I understand that there will be a CNE book with a computer printout with the names and national ID numbers of thos whose signatures are under observation. The person will have to present their national ID number, sign and stamp their fingerprint. There will be no verification of the fingerprints. There is no word about the rules, how the CNE will guarantee access to the opposition and the pro-Chavez forces to the data, the centers. No mention either about international observers, I am sure they will play a role. The problem now is what if some part of this process is also questioned later? How do they guarantee that it will not be?

I think the opposition has to participate and massively ask their supporters to go and ratify. But is it workable in such a short time? How can the poor and the old that were visited ratify their signatures? Will the time lost be subtracted from the timetable towards a recall vote if one ever takes place? We will know later tonight, how many verified signatures the opposition has, I hear the number is 1.925 million good ones.

Note added: From what I understood, if a signature was rejected you have no appeal. I had undeerstood earlier that that was precisley why this period was planned originally. Jorge Rodriguez in making his announcement mentioned some numbers which to me are not that meaningful. Basically, he is saying the planas have a higher percentage, in a sample, of illegible fingerprints, but the differenc is 3% (from 33% to 36-37% or something like that). It seems irrelevant. He also says irregular ones doubles from 11% to 22%. It still says little to me. So far, there is no evidence of fraud. A CMT reporter is saying his sources tell him the opposition has 1.977 million signatures that are valid. If true, the ratification process should be quite easy.

Reportedly now, the ratification process would have live PC’s on site to register what the person signing is doing. How do you verify the correct input was entered? Rodriguez made some very unfair statemnets saying they could have been (tougher), as if it was a matter of benevolence and not the law and basic rights. Very sad.

The Consejo Nacional Electoral has just approved the procedure for citizens whose signature is being question to ratify hat they signed. The vote was 3-0 with the two pro-opposition Directors not present. There will be 1,000 centers (one thitd of those used to gather the signatures), open during five days from 8 AM to 6 PM. The CNE will issue booklets (!!) with seven million national ID numbers. The list will say whether somebody’s signature is valid, rejected or under observation. Those rejected stand rejected. Those whose sigantures is under observation will have to go to a specific center to ratify they signed.

From other sources I understand that there will be a CNE book with a computer printout with the names and national ID numbers of thos whose signatures are under observation. The person will have to present their national ID number, sign and stamp their fingerprint. There will be no verification of the fingerprints. There is no word about the rules, how the CNE will guarantee access to the opposition and the pro-Chavez forces to the data, the centers. No mention either about international observers, I am sure they will play a role. The problem now is what if some part of this process is also questioned later? How do they guarantee that it will not be?

I think the opposition has to participate and massively ask their supporters to go and ratify. But is it workable in such a short time? How can the poor and the old that were visited ratify their signatures? Will the time lost be subtracted from the timetable towards a recall vote if one ever takes place? We will know later tonight, how many verified signatures the opposition has, I hear the number is 1.925 million good ones.

Note added: From what I understood, if a signature was rejected you have no appeal. I had undeerstood earlier that that was precisley why this period was planned originally. Jorge Rodriguez in making his announcement mentioned some numbers which to me are not that meaningful. Basically, he is saying the planas have a higher percentage, in a sample, of illegible fingerprints, but the differenc is 3% (from 33% to 36-37% or something like that). It seems irrelevant. He also says irregular ones doubles from 11% to 22%. It still says little to me. So far, there is no evidence of fraud. A CMT reporter is saying his sources tell him the opposition has 1.977 million signatures that are valid. If true, the ratification process should be quite easy.

Reportedly now, the ratification process would have live PC’s on site to register what the person signing is doing. How do you verify the correct input was entered? Rodriguez made some very unfair statemnets saying they could have been (tougher), as if it was a matter of benevolence and not the law and basic rights. Very sad.

From The Economist:

Time was when Latin American rulers would lose an election but still manage to win it during the vote count. But it is a novelty for a vote to be stolen before it has even been scheduled. According to Venezuela’s opposition, that is just what the country’s increasingly authoritarian president, Hugo Chávez, is trying to do with a recall referendum which-if it ever happens-could bring his populist government to an abrupt end. Ironically, Mr Chávez was once a great enthusiast for the idea of recall referendums, an innovation in a new constitution he sponsored in 1999. No longer. The electoral council (CNE) was slow to issue rules for referendums, so two previous opposition attempts were ruled invalid. Last year, the CNE finally drew up guidelines; these have been followed by the Democratic Co-ordinator, the opposition umbrella group. On four days late last year, the Co-ordinator gathered over 3m signatures calling for the plebiscite. The CNE’s rules were so strict that, for example, petition forms were printed on bank security paper to avoid fraud. The signature-gathering went smoothly, witnessed by officials from the government, the opposition and the CNE. But on day three, when it became clear that the number of signatures would easily exceed the 2.4m (20% of the electorate) required, Mr Chávez denounced the exercise as a “mega-fraud”. If the CNE called the referendum, he would not recognise it. But the president then backtracked, saying he would respect the council’s decision and calling on the opposition to do the same. Why? Perhaps because the CNE’s board, three of whose five members appear to support the government, is itself throwing up obstacles. It is already a month late in ruling on whether a referendum should take place. And it has been making up new rules as it goes along. On February 24th, the CNE ruled that signatures will be annulled if the accompanying personal details were penned by another hand (eg, if they were taken down by the referendum organisers)-unless the signatories individually confirm during a five-day period that they really did sign. That should be enough to abort the referendum. The Organisation of American States (OAS), which has observed the process, is said to have discussed pulling out if what it has called “excessive technicalities” take precedence over the will of the electorate. It is no mere onlooker. Together with the Carter Centre, headed by Jimmy Carter, a former American president, it did much to persuade the opposition to take the referendum route (despite its fears that Mr Chávez would bend the rules). Both are guarantors of a deal struck in May 2003 in which government and opposition agreed to abide by the constitution. “No tricks!”, warned Mr Carter at the time. Absent a referendum, many would argue that Mr Chávez was no longer ruling as a democrat. Venezuela would risk expulsion from the OAS for violating its Democratic Charter. That decision might be closely fought. Mr Chávez would hope for many votes from the small states of the English-speaking Caribbean, to whom he supplies cheap oil. He recently visited neighbouring Guyana, where he downplayed Venezuela’s claim to that country’s Essequibo territory. A sudden about-turn aimed at forestalling diplomatic isolation, said opponents. But if forced to choose between isolation and power, Mr Chávez might prefer to walk alone.

It’s almost 2 AM, but the adrenaline is still flowing, so I have had time to look at all the pictures I took. Lots of interesting ones, but don’t want to load up the main page, so I will place them all as I process them in the pictures section and there are some posters too. Check back in a little bit if they are not there yet. Tomorrow I will add comments to all pictures, tonight I am too wiped out to think. Takes a while to upload them. Meanwhile enjoy these two to make the post less dry: