The Devil's Excrement

Today the opposition had planned a rally in Caricuao, in the West of Caracas to celebrate the success of “The Firmazo” in areas considered to be hardcore pro-Chavez, but where the number of signatures in favor of the recall referendum was over 70% of the population. However as seen in the picture below, violent Chavez’ supporters showed up using guns, tear gas and covering their faces, forcing the event to be cancelled under the  indifferent watch of the police from the Libertador District whose Mayor is a close Chavez supporter. The violent Chavistas lit fires and used motorcycles, guns and fireworks to scare people away and stop them from attending the rally. This is the concept of democracy that these people support.

Chavez’ MVR Deputy Luigi D’angelo had harsh words on the Chavez Government today (El Nacional, A-5, no link possible), something very rare in Chavez Stalinist-style MVR party. He said:

“The way it is going, I can’t believe in this process. The Government and the leaders of MVR are taking us to a precipice. They led us to the oil strike which destroyed the economy. Tell me a Minister of the Interior that was worth it. What does Lucas Rincon know about public order? Do you remember the Ministers of the Interior of AD, like Luis Pinerua?. Those were good.”

About the Bolivarian circles he said: “They are just beggars, they just want to get something. They don’t defend the Government (??) I was always against that. When they said they were going to have a dual function, political and social, it did not convince me. It is either one thing or the other”

D’Angelo closed by reiterating he is a Marxist and wants to fight from within, I just wonder whether they will let him…..

Hugo Chavez finally spoke on the war in Iraq, using very mild language (extremely mild for the man who said the US had it coming on Sept. 11th.), arguing for peace, respect for internatioanl law and the United Nations. Nowhere in his words did he condemn the US or any of its allies for the, showing once again what a cynic he is…….As I said before Chavez does not want to offend his OPEC partners who are all in favor of the war in Iraq. (Except Iraq, obviously, but Chavez’ friendship with Iraq has diminished significantly since his visit to that country)

An Appeals Court has just freed opposition leader Carlos Fernandez who had been detained accused by the Government for his part in the two month strike. Fernandez, the Head of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, Fedecamaras, was relaesed accorrding to the Appeals Court, “for lack of evidence”. According to the Prosecutor from the Attorney General’s office, such evidence was unnecessary because the investigation was ongoing, but that is not the way it is supposed to work in Venezuela. To detain, there had to be evidence for charges like rebellion, which require armed insurgence against the Government, which Mr. Fernandez never did.

There are two clear things from this. First the Attorney General’s office is definitely rushing cases to the Courts in order to please the President. Unfortunately, to do this, he has to use political motivated prosecutors and judges in order to issue detention orders and they have proven to be fairly incompetent so far. . On the other hand, there remains within the judicial system judges who are unwilling to bend the law, even if their politics agree with Chavez. In two cases this week, the Courts have made the Attorney General’s office look very bad, not becaused the cases were reversed, but by using arguments like “manifest incompetence” in the case of the oil leaders or “absence of evidence” in today’s case. There is some hope after all.

Brazilian magazine Veja has become a good source of articles which are critical of Chavez, here is the spanish version of one called “The name of the problem is Chavez”, the original in Portuguese is here. I love the following description (not really, it is actually quite depressing):

“The Brazilians who celebrated in the Sao Paulo Social Forum, last January, perhaps did not know that left-wing parties were the first to abandon Chavez. Amost 30 Deputies changed sides……….Chavez spoke 40 hours in these 25 nationwide programs. His Sunday program Hello President! lasts from four to five hours. There, he tells jokes, sings, insults his adversaries. The one who has really changed in these four years of populism is Chavez himself. Besides gaining weight, he loves watches and Italian suits. he also bought an airplane for US$ 70 million. His oldest daughter is studying in Paris”

The Mayor of the Baruta municipality of Caracas denounced today that a number of high Government officials have failed to pay their home real state taxes to that municipality in the last few years. The list was quite long, but I love the fact that the Head of the Tax Office is on the list as not having paid his taxes for two years and the fact that the Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton, who is always pontificating about the poor and being a good citizens, has not paid his for “only” eight years. Another prominent name is none other than the Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez who is supposed to uphold the law, but we knew he has never done that anyway.

I love the consistency of French foreign policy, after opposing the war they now say they will join the fray if Saddam uses biological or chemical weapons. I also love how they toasted with champagne with Mugabe last month in Paris. Note that I have made no judgement on the war in Iraq, it would take another blog to explain my position on it, let me just say I don’t oppose it, I just think it was incredibly stupid not to finish off the job in ’91 and somehow it seems to me Colin Powell had a lot to do with it, no? As to the U.N. and the impact of the U.S. by-passing it, any institution that has Lybia chairing its Human Rights Commission can’t have it all together. To me that’s like appointing Venezuela to Head the commission on labor movements or democracy. My only concern is that our devious President may use this as an excuse to bypass the OAS, but somehow it seems he already has done it, so it is basically irrelevant.