The Devil's Excrement

The Constitutional Hall of the Venezuelan Supreme Court named tonight by a unanimous vote the five principal members of the Comision Nacional Electoral (CNE). The members are: Oscar Bataglini González, Jorge Rodríguez, Francisco Carrasquero, Sobeida Mejía y Ezequiel Zamora. Bataglini was proposed by Chavez’ MVR, Francisco Carrasquero (President) is a former member of the Court and President of a private University in Zulia State and Dean of Law at University of Zulia. Carrasquero was a member of Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) and is considered to be a serious lawyer. Ezequiel Zamora was a member of the CNE, he is consiered to be a technical person and was proposed by the CNE’s workers.  Zamora was a member of the CNE for a number of years way before Chavez was President. Sobeida Mejia was proposed by Accion Democractica and Jorge Rodriguez was proposed by Chavez’ MVR. Thus, the CNE appears to be a balanced Board with Francisco Carrasquero being the “neutral” card. (thisis no way to improve a democracy). The Court also named a “Council of Political Participation” composed of Teodoro Petkoff (former Minsiter of Planning) Carlos Delgado Chapellin (former President of the CNE), Hernando Grisanti (Penal lawyer, author of many texts, I am not sure about his politics) and Guillermo Garcia Ponce who presides MVR’s Tactical Command of the Revolution.

All I can say is that for six months Venezuelans have not had the right to vote. The Supreme Court took away that right in February and it was restored tonight by the same Court. Let’s see if the new CNE allows us to vote or whether this is nothing but more manipulation of this battered democracy.

This picture is an exaggeration, but very cute….

How insecure is Caracas? Judge for yourself…

Definitely a large march by Chavez’ supporters, but not larger than the opposition’s. Interesting how the “oligarchs” in the opposition have to walk to their rallies, while Government paid buses pick up Chavistas where they live. I saw it in the barrio next to my house. Reportedly they were also paid to go Bs. 100,000, but I have not been able to find anyone that can confirm this. Chavez announced a number of names of “pure” Chavistas that will run for Governors next year. Among them, he said that Diosdado Cabello will run for Governor of Miranda State. I would like to see Diosdado run agaisnt Enrique Mendoza in an election, but hope by that time Mendoza will be President of the country….

The Minister of Health demonstrated her ignorance today when she said, in reference to the Court’s decision on the Cuban medical doctors: ” No decision by a Court can be above the right to health and life”.This is simply ignorance.  First of all, it is precisely the Courts that decide in issues of conflicts between rights, not Minsiters. Second, the right to work of unemployed Venezuelan workers is being violated and that is also a right established by the Constitution. Third, there is a law regulating who can practice medicine, precisely to protect the rights to health and life of those being treated, otherwise anyone can claim they have some training that they do not. Venezuelan medical doctors are, in general, better trained than the Cuban ones. For decades anyone wanting to practice medicine in Venezuela had to pass an equivalency program in order to treat patients directly. Finally, it is incredible to me how the Venezuelan Government discriminates against its own citizens in the interest of ideology.

The Minister of Health demonstrated her ignorance today when she said, in reference to the Court’s decision on the Cuban medical doctors: ” No decision by a Court can be above the right to health and life”.This is simply ignorance.  First of all, it is precisely the Courts that decide in issues of conflicts between rights, not Minsiters. Second, the right to work of unemployed Venezuelan workers is being violated and that is also a right established by the Constitution. Third, there is a law regulating who can practice medicine, precisely to protect the rights to health and life of those being treated, otherwise anyone can claim they have some training that they do not. Venezuelan medical doctors are, in general, better trained than the Cuban ones. For decades anyone wanting to practice medicine in Venezuela had to pass an equivalency program in order to treat patients directly. Finally, it is incredible to me how the Venezuelan Government discriminates against its own citizens in the interest of ideology.

Omar “Cura” Calderon the former Governor of Tachira State was rescued yesterday in a joint effort by Venezuelan and Colombian police. Calderon said that he was kidnapped by Colombian common criminals in Venezuela, who thought that he was a rich man. The Government immediately said that the opposition had said this was political and that finding him shows it was not. What the Vice-President seems to have forgotten was that the puzzle when Mr. Calderon was kidnapped was the almost total silence by Government officials who essentially ignored the fact that an important opposition figure had been kidnapped. In fact, the only public statement the first two days was that of Tachira Governor Rnald Blanco who accued Mr. Calderon of kidnapping himself in order to gain publicity. This fact was never mentioned by the Vice-President in his customary selective memory. Events like this should be handled as non-political issues but that seems to be impossible in Venezuela today.

It was a day for articles about Venezuela in the international press. RMG sends this article from the BBC on the Cuban Doctors in Venezuela. meanwhile Scott from Burtonterrace, always concerned about our country, sends this link from a fairly good article by The Economist on the recall referendum. I particularly like the sentence in which the author says “Mr Chávez has suddenly gone cold towards this aspect of participatory democracy“, a point that only those that live here can truly appreciate since we had to put up with Mr. Chavez’ almost daily boasts that he was such great democrat that he wanted every issue decided by the people. Not anymore. Finally, there is the article in The Wall Street Journal (by subscription) entitled “Low maintenance, investment, hamper oil output in Venezuela“. The article coincides with oil experts and even Chavez’ slip yesterday that the ccountry’s oil production is coming up short, but it does send shivers up my spine to wonder what is going to happen to our country going forward. (Daniel also has anecdotal evidence of the problems within the oil industry) Here is the lead paragraph of the article, followed by the last one:

“Venezuela’s oil production, after a surprising rebound from a midwinter, antigovernment strike, now appears to be declining because of insufficient investment, poor maintenance and a shortage of skilled workers, industry analysts contend.

A variety of estimates peg the reduction at about 500,000 barrels a day below prestrike output of three million barrels a day. The delayed, poststrike shortfall, though only one piece in a world-wide oil-supply puzzle, is contributing to currently tight global supplies, experts say.”

“The loss is mainly occurring in the older oil fields in western Venezuela near Lake Maracaibo. Many of those wells, some of which have been in production for decades, need constant maintenance and redrilling to keep operating. Others must be injected with water or natural gas to coax heavy crude to the surface. The western fields naturally lose 15% to 25% of their annual production capacity if they don’t receive costly technical attention, analysts and industry experts say. “The real production issues are poorly done maintenance and too much pumping early on,” said Roger Diwan, an analyst with Petroleum Finance Co. in Washington. “Basically, the wells are buckling, and sand is moving in the fields.”

A scary picture for a country with an extremely bleak fiscal picture.