The Devil's Excrement

This one may not sound so weird:

-The Venezuelan Minister of Education, Culture and Sports said that US culture goes around eliminating and overhelming others, denoucing the perverse effects of globalization.

That’s not so bad, he is entitled to his opinion.

-Isturiz said this on his way back from his trip to Iran, where he signed two agreements, one cultural and the other one with the movie industry that will translate into coproduction of movies. “Iran is a cinematographic powerhouse and we are interested in exploiting that experience, regretting that most Venezuelans don’t know the movies that come out of Iran, where most films are from the US”. (It is tempting to make so many jokes about possible titles for Iranian movies using the word Mullah in the title, but I do have respect for Iranians and will abstain)

Now, that is a little weird. It is hard to believe that a country with censorhip, fundamental  religilious values and state control over everything can currently produce such good movies. But even if they did, what type of priority is that for a country with the educational and cultural problmes Venezuela has. Mr. Isturiz spent the beginning of the week taking Danny Glover around, then he went to Iran and had time in London to make this statement, before arriving here last night. He does not appear to be that busy.

– Arriving in Caracas today, Minister Isturiz said that Chavez’ position as a Latin American leader was consolidated at the Monterey Summit.

Now, that is really weird. The guy did not meet with a single leader from another country, refused to sign the final proclamation and said it was a waste of time. And this consolidates his Latin American leadership? I think, quoting Mr. Ituriz’ comment once referring to Mr. Chavez, that this time the Minister did smoke an eggroll.

I was going to write about two separate events in Venezuela which characterize how bizarre and difficult to explain things are, but Francisco’s excellent post on one them has made the job easier. Francisco explains quite well the bizarre attack by an urban guerilla group of a police post near dowtown Caracas in which three cops were hurt. What’sincredible is that these groups attacking the cops are pro-Chavez….

A second event of similar bizarre nature took place yesterday in the East of venezuela at PDVSA’ headquarters in the city of Maturin:

A group of people took over the Headquarters to request the removal of the General Manager and the Production Manage, both pro-Chavez, who had fired the two leaders of the pro-Chavez union. Thus, this is a Chavista versus Chavista fight. What is even more interesting is the reason for firing the leaders of the union: They had denounced to th regional media last Tuesday that due to an error in operations, PDVSA had lost US$ 30 million. The group, one of Chavez’ Bolivarian Circles, is still there and refusesto move until the union leaders are reinstated or the Managers fired. In the words of one of the leaders of the Bolivarian Circle :” We will not accept that these two unon leaders identified with the revolution are removed by these managers of PDVSA that think that tehy can do whatever they want”.  Thus, now you have three groups in the conflict: The Mangers of PDVSA, in theory a private company, the union and the Bolivarian circles. What is more remarkable is that if they were right, it is the union leaders that are correct in this case and the PDVSA managers, by now used to act with impunity are violating their basic right to free speech in order to protect themselves. Bizarre, mad, complex? I really dont knwo which word to use to describe what is going on anymore.

Yesterday General Raul Baduell was sworn in as General Commander of the Army. Baduell is best known for the fact that it was him almost single handedly that brought Chavez back in April 2002 back to the Presidential Palace. Baduell remains at this time somewhat of a mystery. Periodically he makes statements to the press that seem to come out of nowhere and that are interpreted as warnings. Yesterday was no different when Baduell said he would act against any attempt to revert Constitutional order and that the National Army of Venezuela has to honor its name “of Venezuela“. Once again, Baduell seems to be sending a message that the Constitution has to be respected even if some believe that by being promoted Baduell is now less powerful since he no longer commands any troops. While Baduell statements are positive, one should not forget that he is known to have political aspirations of his own; reportedly he has told friends that if Chávez can be President, so can he. Unfortunately, little is really known about Baduell’s politics. What little is known about him as a person shows him as a self-centered individual, who loves action and has an interest in Asian martial arts and religion.

Baduell replaces General Garcia Carneiro who on Monday will be sworn in as Minister of Defense. Garcia Carniro is definitely not liked by the opposition for a number of reasons. First of all, at least three Generals testified that Garcia Carneiro was among the Generals that refused to recognize Chavez as President in April 2002. In fact, these Generals say that Garcia Carneiro was one of the leaders against Chavez that day. He has changed a lot since, becoming a Chavez defender on all fronts. He is truly mistrusted by the opposition not only because of his style and unequivocal defense of Chavez, but because of his statements last year that there would not be a recall referendum against Chavez. After a controversial interview in which he said, before the Supreme Court had said anything, that there could not be a recall referendum because the electoral authorities were not valid. He later clarified that he meant there would not be a referendum in 2003, but added that in any case the opposition would not be able to gather sufficient signatures against President Chavez anyway. Not precisely impartial words coming from such a high ranking military.

Upon his arrival from Mexico via Cuba, President Hugo Cahvez announced a new alignement against the US foprmed by Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. It did not take very long for the Brazilian Foreign Minsitry to deny it saying that US-Brazilian relations have never been better and that a trilateral metting among the three countries will take place but its contents would be different than discussing what Chavez said. Given that Chavez did not meet with either President in Mexico, nobody had believed him anyway.

The US Governemnt has just issued a warning of possible threats agaisnt American interests in Caracas between tomorrow and next Tuesday according to the Associated Press. Reuters is a little bit more specific saying the Embassies of Spain, Britain and the US have received information that a “radical group” my attack them with firebombs. No more details are available right now.

And to leave you in a better mood tonight, here is a sepctacular picture taken by my good friend Juan Ramon of a local bird called “Reinita” inside a an Araguaney tree in flower. The Araguaney is the national tree and as you can see its flowering in the dry season is simply spectacular.

I have not been too enthusiastic about blogging this week. Things have gotten so bizarre and depressing that it just seems impossible to even write coherently about what is going on here. But somehow, I feel I am neglecting my self-imposed task of reporting this era in detail. Thus, today I will simply ramble and ramble about the events this week.

When Hugo Chávez was first elected, his presence at summits was quite interesting, he had a star quality about him, and most Latin American leaders seemed to want to meet him, get to know him, take advantage of his popular image to benefit their own popularity by being seen with him. This has changed. Even before his US$ 80 million Airbus had taken off, Chávez was already making waves, by calling Bush’ National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice “illiterate” after her call for transparent elections in Venezuela. Separately, Chavez charged that the US was simply seeking his overthrow. The truth was, that all of this appeared to be a reaction to the fact that Chavez had been encouraged to believe by his collaborators that there was a possibility that he would meet Bush at the Summit. Just to set the stage, Chavez said right before leaving that that these summits were a waste of time. This is obviously true if you don’t believe you have anything to negotiate, contribute or share with the leaders of the Hemisphere. To top it all off, his interview in local newspaper El Universal, discussed in an earlier post and found here in English, did not help matters, as Chavez disqualified Spain and the US as countries unfriendly to Venezuela, when both are part of the “Group of Friends” involved in looking for a solution to the Venezuelan political crisis, while praising Fidel Castro and attempting to argue he is not really a Dictator.

At the summit, Chavez continued his erratic behavior as he did not attend meetings, even failing to show up at the gala dinner at its conclusion and was definitely beating his own drum. It was not all his fault. In contrast to four or five years ago, none of the leaders of the major Latin American countries wanted to even be seen with him for fears of having his home constituencies associate them with the Venezuelan President. Even Brazilian President Lula, failed to even have his picture taken with Chavez, after they were apparently close right after Lula’s election. The only President willing to meet with Chavez was Mexico’s Vicente Fox, as host of the summit, but Chavez simply failed to show up, meeting instead with Mexican opposition leader Cuauhtémoc Cardenas. 

In his speech at the Summit, Chavez mentioned as one of the social achievements of his administration the example of the fact that the Venezuelan Government provides care for 80% of all AIDS patients in the country. Someone obviously did not give the President all of the information, as it turns out that this care is being provided only after the AIDS association in Venezuela sued the Government to force it to do it. Moreover, the same association is now suing the Government for barring HIV positive kids from Chavez’ Bolivarian schools.

Diplomacy was clearly not Chávez forte at the summit. He said Chilean President Lagos was not saying the whole truth about the Bolivia-Chile difference over the accessibility of the sea to Bolivia. Of course, it as Chavez himself who was ignoring old treaties between Bolivia, Chile and Peru which are being respected by all three countries. The Chileans were diplomatic, answering back that precisely because in Lagos words: the President of Chile tells the truth, this is a serous country, responsible”. All of this forced Vice-President Jose Vicente Rangel (whose wife is from Chile) to say that Venezuela would not break relations with anyone, trying to save the day after Chavez made a snide comment about Chile maybe breaking relations with Venezuela for saying what he was saying.

Chavez also made a somewhat despective remark, mostly ignored by the press abut Peruvian President Toledo, when he quoted Toledo on growth and social programs. It was subtle, but the way Chavez said something like “even Toledo, who is a Doctor in Economics has stated” as if he knew that despite not being educated.

At the end of the summit, Chavez praised Bush for his understanding of the recall against him when compared to his national Security Adviser, curiously, at the same time the Venezuelan Attorney General was doing exactly the opposite , saying that Bush’s statements were out of line and an attempt to get involved in the internal affairs of Venezuela.

But where Chavez truly failed to even come close to the regional leaders was when he was the only one of the 34 Latin American leaders in disagreement with the final declaration of the Summit. The declaration expresses the wishes of the 33 countries that signed it to integrate themselves economically sometime in the future and to work towards this goal. Venezuela was the only country to say they did not want to be part of it. Some analysts have interpreted all this as simply a way of Chávez of beginning to distance himself from the countries which are part of the “Group of Friends” in preparation to not recognizing the signatures for the recall referendum of the recall itself. I am not sure whether this interpretation is right or wrong.

What I do know is that after rebuffing his colleagues Chavez went straight to Cuba, surely to sit down with his Communist alter ego to plan their strategy going forward to preserve Chavez’ power. Curiously, while Hugo Chavez calls for the Central Bank to give him US$ 1 billion in reserves, Cuba has violated its somewhat illegal agreement with Venezuela by which Venezuela provides Cuba with 53,000 barrels of oil a day. Under the agreement, there is a grace period, but Cuba owes Venezuela by now more than US$ 800 million which should have already been paid. As Chavez arrived back in Venezuela, the bizarre got even more bizarre. Despite the efforts of some members of the Chavez administration to make the discussion of the US$ 1 billion disappear to appease international markets, in his State of the Union speech today, Chavez requested that the national assembly approve a “law for the utilization of excess international reserves” clearly reviving an issue which ahs all markets nervous. He added something like “Nobody is going to make believe that growth in macroeconomic numbers, or growth in the economy is good, the only thing that matters is that people are treated well, that is why I have so much respect for Fidel Castro”

As a well know economist I had lunch with told me yesterday: “ With his destruction, Chavez may be making two of my dreams a reality, that the dollar will circulate freely in Venezuela as people completely mistrust the local currency and that PDVSA is privatized as the only way for the country to survive”.

I fear he may be right in the end and the thought is so depressing that I will end my ramblings right here.

I have not been too enthusiastic about blogging this week. Things have gotten so bizarre and depressing that it just seems impossible to even write coherently about what is going on here. But somehow, I feel I am neglecting my self-imposed task of reporting this era in detail. Thus, today I will simply ramble and ramble about the events this week.

When Hugo Chávez was first elected, his presence at summits was quite interesting, he had a star quality about him, and most Latin American leaders seemed to want to meet him, get to know him, take advantage of his popular image to benefit their own popularity by being seen with him. This has changed. Even before his US$ 80 million Airbus had taken off, Chávez was already making waves, by calling Bush’ National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice “illiterate” after her call for transparent elections in Venezuela. Separately, Chavez charged that the US was simply seeking his overthrow. The truth was, that all of this appeared to be a reaction to the fact that Chavez had been encouraged to believe by his collaborators that there was a possibility that he would meet Bush at the Summit. Just to set the stage, Chavez said right before leaving that that these summits were a waste of time. This is obviously true if you don’t believe you have anything to negotiate, contribute or share with the leaders of the Hemisphere. To top it all off, his interview in local newspaper El Universal, discussed in an earlier post and found here in English, did not help matters, as Chavez disqualified Spain and the US as countries unfriendly to Venezuela, when both are part of the “Group of Friends” involved in looking for a solution to the Venezuelan political crisis, while praising Fidel Castro and attempting to argue he is not really a Dictator.

At the summit, Chavez continued his erratic behavior as he did not attend meetings, even failing to show up at the gala dinner at its conclusion and was definitely beating his own drum. It was not all his fault. In contrast to four or five years ago, none of the leaders of the major Latin American countries wanted to even be seen with him for fears of having his home constituencies associate them with the Venezuelan President. Even Brazilian President Lula, failed to even have his picture taken with Chavez, after they were apparently close right after Lula’s election. The only President willing to meet with Chavez was Mexico’s Vicente Fox, as host of the summit, but Chavez simply failed to show up, meeting instead with Mexican opposition leader Cuauhtémoc Cardenas. 

In his speech at the Summit, Chavez mentioned as one of the social achievements of his administration the example of the fact that the Venezuelan Government provides care for 80% of all AIDS patients in the country. Someone obviously did not give the President all of the information, as it turns out that this care is being provided only after the AIDS association in Venezuela sued the Government to force it to do it. Moreover, the same association is now suing the Government for barring HIV positive kids from Chavez’ Bolivarian schools.

Diplomacy was clearly not Chávez forte at the summit. He said Chilean President Lagos was not saying the whole truth about the Bolivia-Chile difference over the accessibility of the sea to Bolivia. Of course, it as Chavez himself who was ignoring old treaties between Bolivia, Chile and Peru which are being respected by all three countries. The Chileans were diplomatic, answering back that precisely because in Lagos words: the President of Chile tells the truth, this is a serous country, responsible”. All of this forced Vice-President Jose Vicente Rangel (whose wife is from Chile) to say that Venezuela would not break relations with anyone, trying to save the day after Chavez made a snide comment about Chile maybe breaking relations with Venezuela for saying what he was saying.

Chavez also made a somewhat despective remark, mostly ignored by the press abut Peruvian President Toledo, when he quoted Toledo on growth and social programs. It was subtle, but the way Chavez said something like “even Toledo, who is a Doctor in Economics has stated” as if he knew that despite not being educated.

At the end of the summit, Chavez praised Bush for his understanding of the recall against him when compared to his national Security Adviser, curiously, at the same time the Venezuelan Attorney General was doing exactly the opposite , saying that Bush’s statements were out of line and an attempt to get involved in the internal affairs of Venezuela.

But where Chavez truly failed to even come close to the regional leaders was when he was the only one of the 34 Latin American leaders in disagreement with the final declaration of the Summit. The declaration expresses the wishes of the 33 countries that signed it to integrate themselves economically sometime in the future and to work towards this goal. Venezuela was the only country to say they did not want to be part of it. Some analysts have interpreted all this as simply a way of Chávez of beginning to distance himself from the countries which are part of the “Group of Friends” in preparation to not recognizing the signatures for the recall referendum of the recall itself. I am not sure whether this interpretation is right or wrong.

What I do know is that after rebuffing his colleagues Chavez went straight to Cuba, surely to sit down with his Communist alter ego to plan their strategy going forward to preserve Chavez’ power. Curiously, while Hugo Chavez calls for the Central Bank to give him US$ 1 billion in reserves, Cuba has violated its somewhat illegal agreement with Venezuela by which Venezuela provides Cuba with 53,000 barrels of oil a day. Under the agreement, there is a grace period, but Cuba owes Venezuela by now more than US$ 800 million which should have already been paid. As Chavez arrived back in Venezuela, the bizarre got even more bizarre. Despite the efforts of some members of the Chavez administration to make the discussion of the US$ 1 billion disappear to appease international markets, in his State of the Union speech today, Chavez requested that the national assembly approve a “law for the utilization of excess international reserves” clearly reviving an issue which ahs all markets nervous. He added something like “Nobody is going to make believe that growth in macroeconomic numbers, or growth in the economy is good, the only thing that matters is that people are treated well, that is why I have so much respect for Fidel Castro”

As a well know economist I had lunch with told me yesterday: “ With his destruction, Chavez may be making two of my dreams a reality, that the dollar will circulate freely in Venezuela as people completely mistrust the local currency and that PDVSA is privatized as the only way for the country to survive”.

I fear he may be right in the end and the thought is so depressing that I will end my ramblings right here.