Before mentioning that I was victim last Friday I am going to mention briefly the last electricity horror shortage. A few years ago, on account of El Niño, Chavez started an ambitious, no expense spared, plan to generate enough thermal electric energy to save us from the vagaries of the Caroni river from which, if well managed, we could get more than three quarters of our electricity. He went on one of his many idiocies implying that too many dams would dry down the "poor" river as an excuse for all the immense delays on the magnificent planning left by previous governments.
The only result of all of this was a stupendous corruption that created the fortunes of people like Derwick and associates and left us today, believe it or not, with an even worse crisis than 5 years ago, and this starting with LESS industrial product than we had then. Read anything from Alek Boyd to convince yourself.
Last Friday it was quimo for my S.O. and the treatment place is in a specialty clinic that occupies a whole story of a building associated with a commercial center. The regime has decided that malls and the like would have mandatory rationing of electricity and would have to close down AC, elevators, escalators and even water pumps for a few hours a day, including during lunch breaks. Just like that.
Unfortunately for us the clinic is attached to a mall and is treated as such, regardless.
We should have realized it would be different when our customary time slot was advanced to 11 AM. When we arrived we were told that any food should be purchased by 12:30 as the elevators would be shut down until 3 PM. Any physiological necessity should also be taken care off by that time because within minutes the pipes would empty and there would be no more running water until sometime after 3 PM. In a medical facility.
Even though we were late due to frantic traffic, which I guess in retrospective was probably due to people trying to get things done before noon, we managed to get the S.O. hooked up before 11:30 and all the sundries and my sushi set in place by noon so I could eat it watching the drip... Note; I always get sushi because I think that for the other patients it is the least offensive food, visually and olfactory. After all, some of us need to last for several hours.
They had to open the windows but the day not being warm we could manage. Otherwise everything else went normally except for the lack of water. We were done a little bit past 2. They had an elevator called. At least one elevator is available on demand, manually operated for the clinic only. Everybody else on foot. Important as, even if valid, most patients are always somewhat shaken after quimio, which was our case. We reached ground floor but surprise, there is no elevator to go underground to the car. And there was no way the SO could walk down in the dark all that distance... After some discussion I finally left him at one fo the exits, going down only one of the escalators (more difficult than stairs I have you know for a sick person).
The parking was closed. All in the dark except for some of the emergency lights. You discover that the lack of replacement batteries have made parking lots a major hazard in Venezuela in case of fire: there is simply no way to find the exit!!!!!!! At least they disposed several attendants with flashlights but in case of fire? Of course I was in the last basement. An attendant offered to accompany me but there was enough twilight and I am used to that parking enough that I declined. Unfortunately the last ground had no light. None except for a very distant corner tiny energy light dimming fast. It was not even enough to see my hand! What to do?
With one foot I slowly found what I knew to be the last step. Then, on flat ground, since I knew my car was not too far I hoped for the alarm signal to reach the car. It did and lit up inside the car. I could go slowly to my car but the light was not enough to show any obstacle (and I nearly was done in by one). Once inside I could drive with my head lights in full and make my way to the toll booth. But the problem came next: the exit I planned to take to pick up my S.O. was closed until 3! And down there was no cell phone signal. And I was not going to have him walk all across the mall to pick him up. Followed a heated argument with an attendant.
Eventually he let me pass though the blocked way letting me know that the electric gate above may not work until 3. But that was not the worst. He explained that the whole ordeal was not a lack of planning from them, that they had no say in what to close down. It was the government itself that came on the first day and started to bring down the breakers themselves!
That is, they did not come and say "listen guys, you are consuming 100 a day. You have to bring that down to 50 a day. You have a week to manage that. Your problem".
They just came the fascist way, turned down whatever they wanted to turn down and that was that. I think that it is in small examples like that, examples that speak by themselves, that you find the real reasons why these people must be expelled from office.
I wonder how one elevator managed to escape altogether. Maybe attendants hid that particular breaker? Maybe one official has a relative on quimo there?
Showing posts with label XXI century fascism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label XXI century fascism. Show all posts
Saturday, 13 February 2016
Sunday, 7 February 2016
When ration cards are an economic best option
I guess long time readers of this blog may blanch at the title, but bear with me a tad longer.
I have stopped living regularly in Yaracuy but I am in close touch. I still hold a home there. So checking things when I came back from my recent trip overseas I learned what is simply a staggering piece of news.
Now people need to register for a list of food items, namely the most wanted list of regulated basic staples: corn flour, corn oil, chicken and a half dozen more. The system will work as follow.
Somebody will come to your home and will register you and how many live there. Then, as items become available, someone will visit you in advance and you need to pay. You will get informed at what date delivery will come and you will need to have someone at home to receive the goods. These goods cannot be purchased anymore at any store in Yaracuy. You can only get them through registration at your local town hall and receive them either through home delivery or neighborhood distribution. Apparently local branches of PDVAL and MERCAL will simply close.
I could not get all the details as it seems they sort of vary according to the type of neighborhood you live in. One contact got a distribution of corn flour and chicken at the end of the street just because the consejo comunal knew she lived there (she had registered anyway). Another one has duly registered early in January. Once she received black beans after a two weeks delay after paying for them (200 Bs, 2 dimes!). Another time she got corn flour and mayo or something.
What is wrong with this picture?
First, the apparent commodity of having home delivery is an excuse: you can control better on an individual basis who gets what and remind them of that each and every time,
Second, the state can do significant "savings" on goods availability. Indeed, being absent from Yaracuy during this registration process I cannot purchase anything and I am sure that registering after the fact is not going to be easy. Never mind that if there is nobody home when you are visited at putting the order time, well, you get no delivery. And the better if delivery is when, say, you are at work.
Third, this is a monstrously complicated and expensive system to set in place. A ration card system with an assigned store would be much simpler and cheaper, if you must ration. Hence the title of this post.
Fourth, it is extremely sectarian and anti business. Of course. Not only stores are now forbidden to sell certain type of goods but you cannot buy certain type of goods out of your living areas. Soon enough we move on to conditions like soviet areas where people in certain cities had access to more varied type of goods than folks in small towns and country side where nobody could visit and thus could figure out what was going on. A little bit more and you will need a permit to travel between San Felipe and Caracas.
Why, oh why?
Julio Leon Heredia is Yaracuy governor and he is a fascist. I do not know as of this typing if other states are having such schemes set up, but I would not be surprised at all that Yaracuy is ahead of the pack. This is quite along the lines of the autocratic mentality of Heredia, someone blocked to any dialogue and who in addition is still in shock at the loss of his own brother election in December 6 and who is probably delighted at punishing the Yaracuy people that did not vote for him at a 80% rate. It is just that simple, I know the character, I have already been a victim of his administration.
I have stopped living regularly in Yaracuy but I am in close touch. I still hold a home there. So checking things when I came back from my recent trip overseas I learned what is simply a staggering piece of news.
Now people need to register for a list of food items, namely the most wanted list of regulated basic staples: corn flour, corn oil, chicken and a half dozen more. The system will work as follow.
Somebody will come to your home and will register you and how many live there. Then, as items become available, someone will visit you in advance and you need to pay. You will get informed at what date delivery will come and you will need to have someone at home to receive the goods. These goods cannot be purchased anymore at any store in Yaracuy. You can only get them through registration at your local town hall and receive them either through home delivery or neighborhood distribution. Apparently local branches of PDVAL and MERCAL will simply close.
I could not get all the details as it seems they sort of vary according to the type of neighborhood you live in. One contact got a distribution of corn flour and chicken at the end of the street just because the consejo comunal knew she lived there (she had registered anyway). Another one has duly registered early in January. Once she received black beans after a two weeks delay after paying for them (200 Bs, 2 dimes!). Another time she got corn flour and mayo or something.
What is wrong with this picture?
First, the apparent commodity of having home delivery is an excuse: you can control better on an individual basis who gets what and remind them of that each and every time,
Second, the state can do significant "savings" on goods availability. Indeed, being absent from Yaracuy during this registration process I cannot purchase anything and I am sure that registering after the fact is not going to be easy. Never mind that if there is nobody home when you are visited at putting the order time, well, you get no delivery. And the better if delivery is when, say, you are at work.
Third, this is a monstrously complicated and expensive system to set in place. A ration card system with an assigned store would be much simpler and cheaper, if you must ration. Hence the title of this post.
Fourth, it is extremely sectarian and anti business. Of course. Not only stores are now forbidden to sell certain type of goods but you cannot buy certain type of goods out of your living areas. Soon enough we move on to conditions like soviet areas where people in certain cities had access to more varied type of goods than folks in small towns and country side where nobody could visit and thus could figure out what was going on. A little bit more and you will need a permit to travel between San Felipe and Caracas.
Why, oh why?
Julio Leon Heredia is Yaracuy governor and he is a fascist. I do not know as of this typing if other states are having such schemes set up, but I would not be surprised at all that Yaracuy is ahead of the pack. This is quite along the lines of the autocratic mentality of Heredia, someone blocked to any dialogue and who in addition is still in shock at the loss of his own brother election in December 6 and who is probably delighted at punishing the Yaracuy people that did not vote for him at a 80% rate. It is just that simple, I know the character, I have already been a victim of his administration.
Thursday, 17 December 2015
Chavismo these days illustrates very well the difference between fascism and communism
The behavior of the regime since December 6 allows us to illustrate some of the differences between fascism and communism. NOTE: they are both equally evil, just different ways to reach the final goal of a small group to control a totalitarian state.
In communist systems there is, whenever possible, great care to pretend to follow legality. There is also great care to make things appear as the expression of the majority of people. An ever growing majority, of course. The leadership maybe be filthy rich with dachas and all, but they tend to be discreet about it. The leadership also, whenever possible, brags of a certain educational level, an ideological formation according to "accredited" venues. When violence is exerted it is in the name of the people, of the state, not of the party, unless necessary. This is of course a very rough approach.
In fascistic systems legality may or may not be followed. It is optional. The word of a great leader is enough. If a majority appearance is preferable, belonging to the caste is far more important. In fact, the caste is there for the benefit of the people. The leadership maybe very rich but claims it is poor even if all appearances are to the contrary. For example, Chavez claimed that he only got his paycheck and he did not even know the amount. He did not know where his fancy tailored suites came from. In short fascist leaders have nothing, just what the people gives them for their work. Education in the leadership is irrelevant: the main and almost sole criteria for promotion is loyalty to a great leader. Between two equally sycophantic characters the educational level may or may not make a difference. And when violence is exerted, it can be exerted just for the sake of it.
This week we observed some truly fascist scenes.
The press conference of two dissenting members of chavismo, both long time ministers of Chavez, was interrupted by a violent mob because they betrayed chavismo, allegedly. The guards around did not intervene to protect them from the mob. Had it been a communist action it would have been better prepared, making sure that the accusations of betrayal included not only the party and leadership. That action was, in my book, fascist.
Since the National Assembly is lost, and by an extraordinarily wide margin, the regime simply is trying to move on by creating a parallel structure, a comunal assembly which is, well, appointed by the regime. In a communist system the National Assembly would have been voided outright BEFORE the election while the outgoing assembly reviewed the legality of the new communal assembly. In fascist system, as the Venezuelan regime has become, there is no care for legality, lip service at best, and the communal assembly is installed just because Diosdado Cabello wanted it so. It is not idle to remember that one of the most fascist acts in Cabello's history was to block access to the National Assembly during debate. Thus a group of people could go inside and break the faces of a few opposition representatives. Communism is kinder; it simply would not allow them to enter the assembly from the start. Or arrest them at home. It is much preferable in a communist system that the blood shed is as discreet as possible, no matter how copious that one may be. The people are kind, you know. In the last stages it is fascism that is kinder as it lets you die.
Even in the argumentation that the regime is clumsily advancing to void the election of the new Assembly we can detect differences.
In a communist regime great care would have been met in tying all ends to avoid a victory of the opposition. Certainly the electoral board CNE tried it so. But communism is not arrogant, just deeply self righteous. Since fascism is arrogant then there was no need for the regime to go beyond what was done in previous elections to rig them. They simply disregarded polls thinking that their pressure mechanisms would work as usual. Alas, it did not work. In its response a communist regime that would have been caught by such a mesure, like it happened in Poland, would try to remain coherent in its response, even if that response was useless in the end. See, contradicting what you said before is something that communism does not like to do, there is an ideology to follow closely at all time. But fascism has no problem to call something blue today that they called yellow yesterday. And thus we have the creator of the current CNE structure treachery apparatus, Jorge Rodriguez, sounding as if he were going to sue the CNE itself!
Amen of the outright lies. A good one was that people were misled into voting against the regime by the opposition controlled media (where? which ones?). Even in their outright lies it reeks more of fascism than communism as this one tries to make its lies viable, credible, even if it is merely through application of self righteousness.
In the past I had qualified the regime of Chavez as a cross between fascism and other stuff, due mostly to its military character. But I must confess my error. Chavismo is a fascist regime, inspired by a communist regime that has turned fascist in its day to day behavior, Cuba's Castro.
Then again this fits better. Fascism is more akin to gangster, mafia operations. And since Venezuela has become a narco state, there you go.
---------------------
PS: another thing that fascism is good at is to insult people without reason. Today's France Prime Minister's office emitted a communique praising the MUD victory, signed by Manuel Valls himself.
Maduro was in a fury even accusing Valls of being a racist (interestingly the National Front critic of Valls timeline on Tweeter sound a lot, A LOT, like chavistas). I read French. I can assure you that there is NOTHING in that communique that remotely smacks of racism.
In communist systems there is, whenever possible, great care to pretend to follow legality. There is also great care to make things appear as the expression of the majority of people. An ever growing majority, of course. The leadership maybe be filthy rich with dachas and all, but they tend to be discreet about it. The leadership also, whenever possible, brags of a certain educational level, an ideological formation according to "accredited" venues. When violence is exerted it is in the name of the people, of the state, not of the party, unless necessary. This is of course a very rough approach.
In fascistic systems legality may or may not be followed. It is optional. The word of a great leader is enough. If a majority appearance is preferable, belonging to the caste is far more important. In fact, the caste is there for the benefit of the people. The leadership maybe very rich but claims it is poor even if all appearances are to the contrary. For example, Chavez claimed that he only got his paycheck and he did not even know the amount. He did not know where his fancy tailored suites came from. In short fascist leaders have nothing, just what the people gives them for their work. Education in the leadership is irrelevant: the main and almost sole criteria for promotion is loyalty to a great leader. Between two equally sycophantic characters the educational level may or may not make a difference. And when violence is exerted, it can be exerted just for the sake of it.
This week we observed some truly fascist scenes.
The press conference of two dissenting members of chavismo, both long time ministers of Chavez, was interrupted by a violent mob because they betrayed chavismo, allegedly. The guards around did not intervene to protect them from the mob. Had it been a communist action it would have been better prepared, making sure that the accusations of betrayal included not only the party and leadership. That action was, in my book, fascist.
Since the National Assembly is lost, and by an extraordinarily wide margin, the regime simply is trying to move on by creating a parallel structure, a comunal assembly which is, well, appointed by the regime. In a communist system the National Assembly would have been voided outright BEFORE the election while the outgoing assembly reviewed the legality of the new communal assembly. In fascist system, as the Venezuelan regime has become, there is no care for legality, lip service at best, and the communal assembly is installed just because Diosdado Cabello wanted it so. It is not idle to remember that one of the most fascist acts in Cabello's history was to block access to the National Assembly during debate. Thus a group of people could go inside and break the faces of a few opposition representatives. Communism is kinder; it simply would not allow them to enter the assembly from the start. Or arrest them at home. It is much preferable in a communist system that the blood shed is as discreet as possible, no matter how copious that one may be. The people are kind, you know. In the last stages it is fascism that is kinder as it lets you die.
Even in the argumentation that the regime is clumsily advancing to void the election of the new Assembly we can detect differences.
In a communist regime great care would have been met in tying all ends to avoid a victory of the opposition. Certainly the electoral board CNE tried it so. But communism is not arrogant, just deeply self righteous. Since fascism is arrogant then there was no need for the regime to go beyond what was done in previous elections to rig them. They simply disregarded polls thinking that their pressure mechanisms would work as usual. Alas, it did not work. In its response a communist regime that would have been caught by such a mesure, like it happened in Poland, would try to remain coherent in its response, even if that response was useless in the end. See, contradicting what you said before is something that communism does not like to do, there is an ideology to follow closely at all time. But fascism has no problem to call something blue today that they called yellow yesterday. And thus we have the creator of the current CNE structure treachery apparatus, Jorge Rodriguez, sounding as if he were going to sue the CNE itself!
Amen of the outright lies. A good one was that people were misled into voting against the regime by the opposition controlled media (where? which ones?). Even in their outright lies it reeks more of fascism than communism as this one tries to make its lies viable, credible, even if it is merely through application of self righteousness.
In the past I had qualified the regime of Chavez as a cross between fascism and other stuff, due mostly to its military character. But I must confess my error. Chavismo is a fascist regime, inspired by a communist regime that has turned fascist in its day to day behavior, Cuba's Castro.
Then again this fits better. Fascism is more akin to gangster, mafia operations. And since Venezuela has become a narco state, there you go.
---------------------
PS: another thing that fascism is good at is to insult people without reason. Today's France Prime Minister's office emitted a communique praising the MUD victory, signed by Manuel Valls himself.
Maduro was in a fury even accusing Valls of being a racist (interestingly the National Front critic of Valls timeline on Tweeter sound a lot, A LOT, like chavistas). I read French. I can assure you that there is NOTHING in that communique that remotely smacks of racism.
.@NicolasMaduro trato de racista a @manuelvalls ¿No saben leer francés en @DrodriguezVen ? https://t.co/ofcgdtbkxr https://t.co/DurZI9qElb— daniel duquenal (@danielduquenal) December 18, 2015#Venezuela: Félicitations à l'opposition démocratique de @unidadvenezuela. Appel à la libération de @LeopoldoLopez. pic.twitter.com/Pmkt3OTPsH
— Manuel Valls (@manuelvalls) December 17, 2015Tuesday, 15 December 2015
The hysteria of Diosdado and Tarek
The stupendous defeat of the regime two Sundays ago is just starting to unleash all demons within chavismo. There are two little items that are worth noting.
Diosdado Cabello, the outgoing chair of the National Assembly has lot of reasons to worry about the incoming Assembly. Not only he will not be enjoying the privileges associated with the position but, lord have mercy on him, he risks to have his microphone cut when he starts insulting other representatives in what he qualifies as normal debate. If that was not enough he will have as a new colleague Rafael Guzman. This Rafael was 7 years ago the guy that studied all the improprieties that Cabello did during his lone tenure as Miranda governor from where he was ignominiously booted by Capriles (and forced to return to his native Monagas). The very substantial dossier could never receive any legal examination because no tribunal would pick up the thing to avoid offending Cabello or Chavez, but Cabello himself as of 2010 made sure that the National Assembly would not even be aware of the existence of such dossier.
Now, in prime time, Rafael Guzman will be able to broach on the matter, something that should be enough to unseat Cabello from the Assembly and to get him a seat in a jail, independently of what the US does on his likely indictment on drug trafficking.
Tarek El Aissami is the very unhappy governor of Aragua state. Not only he is in the hot list of likely DEA indictments, but his state went from overwhelmingly chavista to a clean sweep by the opposition. Three years of him as a governor were enough to transform Aragua electoral landscape even more than the crisis changed the rest of the country.
This was rendered the more humiliating as one of the chief organizer in Aragua anti Tarek movement was the mayor of a small area, the lone survivor for the opposition loss two years ago, Delson Guarate. Since major players in Aragua had been neutralized (think Richard Mardo, Maracay defenestrated representative) poor Delson had to bear the brunt of Tarek attacks, These included a now famous battle over refusing to give the district of Delson the machines that are needed to pick up the trash so that the district would be the worst of Aragua. Of course, people are not as stupid as Tarek and the PSUV think they are and two Sundays ago they let it know to Tarek that his days in Aragua were nearly over.
But Tarek will have none of it and he instead went to ask chavismo supporters to mass in front the National Assembly on January 5 to block access to the new representatives.... Certainly, after Cabello, our boy Tarek is in the top tier of people in serious need to be investigated for anything from racketeering to drug traffic. Probably even for setting soccer game results... Nothing would too low to stop the national assembly to take its seats.
Diosdado Cabello, the outgoing chair of the National Assembly has lot of reasons to worry about the incoming Assembly. Not only he will not be enjoying the privileges associated with the position but, lord have mercy on him, he risks to have his microphone cut when he starts insulting other representatives in what he qualifies as normal debate. If that was not enough he will have as a new colleague Rafael Guzman. This Rafael was 7 years ago the guy that studied all the improprieties that Cabello did during his lone tenure as Miranda governor from where he was ignominiously booted by Capriles (and forced to return to his native Monagas). The very substantial dossier could never receive any legal examination because no tribunal would pick up the thing to avoid offending Cabello or Chavez, but Cabello himself as of 2010 made sure that the National Assembly would not even be aware of the existence of such dossier.
Now, in prime time, Rafael Guzman will be able to broach on the matter, something that should be enough to unseat Cabello from the Assembly and to get him a seat in a jail, independently of what the US does on his likely indictment on drug trafficking.
Tarek El Aissami is the very unhappy governor of Aragua state. Not only he is in the hot list of likely DEA indictments, but his state went from overwhelmingly chavista to a clean sweep by the opposition. Three years of him as a governor were enough to transform Aragua electoral landscape even more than the crisis changed the rest of the country.
This was rendered the more humiliating as one of the chief organizer in Aragua anti Tarek movement was the mayor of a small area, the lone survivor for the opposition loss two years ago, Delson Guarate. Since major players in Aragua had been neutralized (think Richard Mardo, Maracay defenestrated representative) poor Delson had to bear the brunt of Tarek attacks, These included a now famous battle over refusing to give the district of Delson the machines that are needed to pick up the trash so that the district would be the worst of Aragua. Of course, people are not as stupid as Tarek and the PSUV think they are and two Sundays ago they let it know to Tarek that his days in Aragua were nearly over.
But Tarek will have none of it and he instead went to ask chavismo supporters to mass in front the National Assembly on January 5 to block access to the new representatives.... Certainly, after Cabello, our boy Tarek is in the top tier of people in serious need to be investigated for anything from racketeering to drug traffic. Probably even for setting soccer game results... Nothing would too low to stop the national assembly to take its seats.
Friday, 15 November 2013
Why I am not covering the "enabling law"
Yesterday the regime managed to boot out enough opposition representatives or blackmail/buy enough to its side that it got the magical 99 number to vote the enabling law. Such a momentous moment (redundancy intended) should be covered duly. But I'll pass for a few reasons:
First, I have covered already the essential, the truly fascist nature of that law voted yesterday in first reading and certain now to pass the second vote next week.
Second, we have been, as far as I am concerned, into a bona fide dictatorship since 2010, at the very least. This law changes nothing, it just simplifies the legal aspects of the regime, in a "retroactive way" on all the abuses committed in recent months.
Third, derived from second, Maduro and the regime are already doing all what they want about the economy. Redundantly again, the law is a mere "legal" stamp and maybe an additional excuse to settle scores inside chavismo.
Fourth, a regime that knows it has the right on his side, that feels confident and supported, that holds already a decisive majority in the parliament does not need such a show. That enabling crap is a mark of weakness that pushes us over the brink. Why bother about the details?
What is more important to cover is how a huge chunk, a majority chunk of the Venezuelan population, not all of them, by far, chavistas, are only too happy to let private enterprise sink, without defending it, without being aware of the consequences. And the opposition MUD is at least in part responsible because for meager electoral calculations they are too afraid to confront the regime as it should be confronted even if it were to cost them a few town-halls next December. Apparently they actually think that the regime will "respect" whatever victories they will get. After the video below you KNOW that the only way out is through some from of violence. We cannot escape it because those in charge today are seeking a violent confrontation.
This video is remarkable on many aspects that most commentators that are P.C. will not dare to tell you.
You do not need to understand the words at all.
The anguish of the store owner who prefers to be outright looted instead of sealing his death by the slow process of being forced to sell at a loss everything.
The anguish of the store clerks that know that the owners have worked very hard for their store and that she and other clerks are going to be jobless tomorrow.
The "public servants" there trying to calm them down and take them away from the cameras of the local TV or whomever is filming this. Their faces betray that they are not happy with what they are forced to do. Yet, they are too far gone to take a stand on ethics.
And the non P.C. part I promised. the owners are of middle eastern origins. They are still sort of fresh from the boat (10 years?). They have probably supported Chavez for his love to anything Muslim against anything US and/or Jewish. And now they are paid in kind. Though admittedly they may be from the Christian minorities. But it does not make any difference: the regime is ready to throw to the wolves whoever it takes.
A regime that has allowed dozens of such scenes this week and that has decided to let them keep recurrent for the next few weeks, until election time at least, is a regime that has lost all humanity, that has fully assumed its position of a gang of thieves that leads the servile and morally corrupt majority portion of the country. Why should I bother covering the enabling law? The only thing worth discussing is ways out of this nightmare.
To conclude I would like you to come back to a post I wrote a little bit over a year ago "When mediocrity and resentimiento will all over". And then you will understand why I suffer from a Cassandra complex.....
First, I have covered already the essential, the truly fascist nature of that law voted yesterday in first reading and certain now to pass the second vote next week.
Second, we have been, as far as I am concerned, into a bona fide dictatorship since 2010, at the very least. This law changes nothing, it just simplifies the legal aspects of the regime, in a "retroactive way" on all the abuses committed in recent months.
Third, derived from second, Maduro and the regime are already doing all what they want about the economy. Redundantly again, the law is a mere "legal" stamp and maybe an additional excuse to settle scores inside chavismo.
Fourth, a regime that knows it has the right on his side, that feels confident and supported, that holds already a decisive majority in the parliament does not need such a show. That enabling crap is a mark of weakness that pushes us over the brink. Why bother about the details?
What is more important to cover is how a huge chunk, a majority chunk of the Venezuelan population, not all of them, by far, chavistas, are only too happy to let private enterprise sink, without defending it, without being aware of the consequences. And the opposition MUD is at least in part responsible because for meager electoral calculations they are too afraid to confront the regime as it should be confronted even if it were to cost them a few town-halls next December. Apparently they actually think that the regime will "respect" whatever victories they will get. After the video below you KNOW that the only way out is through some from of violence. We cannot escape it because those in charge today are seeking a violent confrontation.
This video is remarkable on many aspects that most commentators that are P.C. will not dare to tell you.
You do not need to understand the words at all.
The anguish of the store owner who prefers to be outright looted instead of sealing his death by the slow process of being forced to sell at a loss everything.
The anguish of the store clerks that know that the owners have worked very hard for their store and that she and other clerks are going to be jobless tomorrow.
The "public servants" there trying to calm them down and take them away from the cameras of the local TV or whomever is filming this. Their faces betray that they are not happy with what they are forced to do. Yet, they are too far gone to take a stand on ethics.
And the non P.C. part I promised. the owners are of middle eastern origins. They are still sort of fresh from the boat (10 years?). They have probably supported Chavez for his love to anything Muslim against anything US and/or Jewish. And now they are paid in kind. Though admittedly they may be from the Christian minorities. But it does not make any difference: the regime is ready to throw to the wolves whoever it takes.
A regime that has allowed dozens of such scenes this week and that has decided to let them keep recurrent for the next few weeks, until election time at least, is a regime that has lost all humanity, that has fully assumed its position of a gang of thieves that leads the servile and morally corrupt majority portion of the country. Why should I bother covering the enabling law? The only thing worth discussing is ways out of this nightmare.
To conclude I would like you to come back to a post I wrote a little bit over a year ago "When mediocrity and resentimiento will all over". And then you will understand why I suffer from a Cassandra complex.....
Tuesday, 12 November 2013
Maduro promises us kangaroo courts (or is that rabipela'o courts?)
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| Bolivarian special court and jury |
Of course, these kangaroo courts are unconstitutional although for chavismo they will be made legal. Maybe we shall call them rabipelado courts since the Common Possum is the lone, I think, Marsupial of our continent. Militia is equally unconstitutional, but who's counting?
We even had a military jerk bitching in cadena that the opposition was mocking the people in line at Daka. They cannot even get that one right, we are condemning them for taking advantage of the misfortune of someone to make a gain.
Forging on with faascism....
Saturday, 9 November 2013
Electrodomestico-nacht, the banana republic version of Kristallnacht
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| She supports Maduro. The good life! Thieves of the world unite! |
And yet today may be a turning point of equal importance for the Caracas regime. Today it has crossed the line where it is now OK to loot stores to satisfy the appetites of its followers. Today it made OK to brand enemies whoever needs to be branded an enemy even if a few weeks ago it was benefiting from the association with power, a mutual benefit if I may dare say. Today it has become clear that the regime will destroy anything it needs to destroy to remain in office. Today formalities have become unnecessary. Today the regime has demonstrated that it has no friends or foes, just moving targets.
What had started yesterday with the house appliances chain of Daka and the store of Pablo Electronica has extended tonight to many others, from Caracas to Margarita. Everywhere the regime claims that it fights excessive price increase and yet it blunders in admitting that Daka did not work with CADIVI obtained currency, explaining why they were so pricey.
What these stores had been doing was to anticipate yet another organized robbery from the government that is preparing yet another "retroactive devaluation". What these stores had been doing was to anticipate that the black market US dollar value was expected to cross the 60 per USD bar anytime soon. For those late in the game, Venezuela has a tight and corrupt currency control system. What the regime did early this year and it is ready to do again within the next three months, is to fail to honor its bills at the current currency exchange and pay them AFTER the devaluation at the new currency exchange. That is, what you obtained in good faith at X BVE for one USD, you will have to pay later at Z, Z being at least 30% more expensive. I know personally of it, I suffered the consequences earlier this year.
This is not about being associated with the regime or not, this is not about working ethically or not: what Daka et al., were doing was preparing themselves to avoid yet another major income loss as we all suffered last February, at the expense of the customer which in the end is always the one who pays even if idiots like the woman above are laughing their heads off. The regime simply decided today to throw to the wolves the head of the directors of all the appliance stores of Venezuela, "electrodomesticos". Tomorrow it will the supermarket CEO; or maybe the liquor stores one as the hoi polloi cannot get in its usual December semi constant drunken stupor.....
It is true that nobody quite understood how in an era of drastic currency controls traditional stores like CompuMall or Beco did not manage to grow at the astounding rates like some did such as Daka or Mundo Samira or even recent newcomer Ivoo. We, those that manage businesses, knew that the only way to grow so was to be well connected with the regime, "enchufado" as Capriles call them. Honest businesses, like ours, simply could not do so no matter how efficiently we worked, the regime allocating you foreign currency on past results, not expected economic growth. We are thus surprised that the whole lot was dismissed so suddenly. Had it been Daka alone we could speculate that the owners felt into disfavor because they either refused to pay a bribe, or refused to "share" the profits. That tonight most of them are in the dog house has to have a deeper political meaning.
That political meaning is not too difficult to find out. The incompetence of the regime has bankrupted the country. Now, for this electoral campaign they find themselves without money to purchase all the goodies they give around to buy votes. What to do, oh what to do!? Well, force those who are more efficient, that have some goods in their store rooms to supply what is missing to make the chavista voter joyful. And if the goodies of Daka do not make it all the way to the cerro, the idea remains that it shan't be long until the goods reach the chavista voter. Because the sad reality is that the looting or taking advantage of the forced down-slide of prices today benefited more the middle class than the inhabitant of the barrio, high on the cerro.
The economical consequences are of course going to be terrible: who in his sane mind is going to invest a penny of his or her own in Venezuela as long as an asshole like Maduro remains in office? A Maduro who, by the way, demonstrated again today how clueless and mean he is, the most lethal combination in economy. At a time when the regime is desperate to reactivate the economy it has taken the measure that is most certain to push it into recession.
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| Looter's loot |
The political consequences are going to be only worse. The country will be even more divided while Maduro will be more than ever a puppet of those he needs to keep control of the populace who after today is going to expect more and more giveaways and legalized looting. But then again, just as in Kristallnacht, the regime needs a scape goat to justify its hold on power. Maduro will be swept aside whenever it is convenient for whomever truly holds the reins of power. In this electrodomesticonacht Maduro appears weak and manipulated and even pusillanimous. Hitler never lost control of his assault troops like Maduro lost control of his in Valencia. And of course when people realize that Daka et al. are not refurbishing their shelves anymore, then Maduro praised by some idiots today will be blamed by them tomorrow.
But the saddest part of all are the looters, those that were not afraid to profit from the misery of others. And this is the worst lesson of today and the darkest forebodding in my heart. Just as 75 years ago most of a nation had no qualms in letting a minority lose its livelihood and its lives. For those like the woman above published around the world from El Pais, we shall pay dearly in the future.
Bonus: video when the looting started in the Daka Valencia store this morning. those are not people from the lower classes, this is Valencia middle class. Poor people would loot as much, see the woman above, but in the initial news when only prices were supposed to go down and people forced to pay something, poor people probably felt that Daka would be still too expensive for them.
Wednesday, 30 October 2013
How to hold an electoral campaign under Venezuela neo-fascism?
For long time readers of this blog the title should not come as a surprise. It has been long that I have rejected the democratic pretense of the regime as well as the one coming from those that still pretend to comment "objectively" on Venezuela. That is those who try to find a fig leaf of democracy, be they foreign journalists, bloggers or actual Venezuelan journos. As far as I am concerned we are in a military regime since at least late 2010, a regime which is turning openly fascist since late 2012. If you do not agree at least in part with me, then you have been wasting your time reading this blog.
On the fig leaf front there is an incipient electoral campaign for local elections this December. Indeed, there will be massive abuse and cheating from the regime. And yet there is little else we can do than go and vote, unless you are willing to wield your guns against the gang of thugs that hold Miraflores Palace hostage. The resolution will come only when chavismo will break up, violently, and self destruct. Perhaps sooner than later, but whatever the time frame is our participation in the election can only speed up the process.
This being said, let's look at the campaign which yesterday has taken a clearly fascist turn. I am not using the word communist, note, because the inspiration is from Cuba and Cuba is now under an aging fascist system. True communism would have never tolerated stuff like the general prostitution of jineteras at the fake luxury sea front of Varadero. By writing this I do not intend to state that one system is better than the other, merely that their vices are not the same in their quest for totalitarian control and equal meting out of misery.
To help you understand let's start with one of the three things that happened yesterday, the minor one if you will, but one that will help you understand better what happened in Caracas. The billboard above has showed up first yesterday in San Felipe, in at least three locations that I have noticed. It is Chavez heirs electoral strategy: Chavez. That is right, in the last 10 months Chavez heirs have NOTHING to show for their tenure so once again they resort to the only thing that has worked in the past, the image of Chavez.
The billboard deserves a speedy semantical analysis.
First, they use the "martyrdom" picture of Chavez, in his last 2012 campaign appearance, when he stood under the rain to inspire pity and maximize his appeal. His Che moment of sorts though it probably cost him a few days of life which I am sure he did not mind paying in his narcissistic egotism.
Second, it is addressed to ¡CHAVISTAS! Not you or me. They are not trying to get new votes due to their track record. They know better: they need to motivate the chavista lumpen that has been battered by inflation, scarcity, crime, lack of jobs, etc... to go and vote for them yet one more time. And thus the second line: to honor Chavez memory. Period. No other argument.
Third, since there is nothing positive to run on, there is the need to make a crass appeal to war, battles, heroism and what not, Chavez style again. And thus the slogan, "Unity, fighting, battles and victory!" empty, devoid of any single new idea. Very fascist if you ask me, where what passes as ideas are artificial constructs designed to polarize society in order not to discuss what could be the true solutions to our real problems. Or rather, since this is Venezuela, a banal but vicious thugocracy that uses selected simple minded fascisto/communist methods to hold to power so as to avoid the jail they deserve.
The bottom is the Warholian take on Chavez eyes and the party colors to suggest mass and unity (GPP, Great Patriotic Pole). Fluff!
When a "poltical" group has reached such depth of intellectual emptiness you cannot be surprised by the visceral moves they took yesterday.
The first one was a very clumsy attempt by foreign minister Jaua who pretends to be the true governor of Miranda. For memory, defeated by Capriles last December in spite of all the electoral abuse and blackmail and cheating, the regime named him special agent for the Tuy valley of Miranda which meant that he became an appointed parallel governor, probably with more money than Capriles to rule effectively the state that duly voted for him. Again, a neo-totalitarian contempt for democracy.
Sure enough siphoning money from one side to buy votes on the other created financial havoc and the Miranda workers decided to march in protest to force the central government to give Miranda its full share of the budget. Everybody knows of course that the regime will pinch every single penny it can against Capriles even if hardship for innocent follows. When you play dirty it helps not to have a bit of scruples. So Jaua started an infantile blockade of Caracas access through a pretend pro chavista protest against the "fascist" "coup mongering" march of Capriles. It was so clumsy that within a couple of hours it seems that Jaua was brought back to heel and the marchers could go present their demands.
That chavista fiasco was accompanied by yet a new scale up of the rhetoric. While Caracas was blockaded for a few hours somebody started placarding the posters below.
Now, this is extremely grave because it calls for the public lynching of the three top opposition politicians today: Capriles, Lopez and Machado. Any crazed chavista can feel that if he were to kill, or at least hurt one of them, he would not be punished. And even if we assume that a lose canon took such an mistaken initiative with these posters of hate, there is a video that clearly shows that Maduro is responsible, the inspiration (at the end of this post).
What these posters do, besides trying to imitate horror show aesthetic with the faces of the three, in particular the one of Capriles, is to place the blame for the current economic crisis on them. That is, a regime that controls everything, from the armed forces to any office regulating production claims that the three guys are able on their own to turn off the power grids of Venezuela, disrupt the general food distribution system, create the high criminal insecurity.
That is exactly what the Nazis did against the Jews after 1933.
Maduro encouraging public violence against opposition leadership. He uses the words "pueblo reconocelos" (9 sec) "trilogia del mal" (4 sec) "enemigos de la patria" (6 sec)
On the fig leaf front there is an incipient electoral campaign for local elections this December. Indeed, there will be massive abuse and cheating from the regime. And yet there is little else we can do than go and vote, unless you are willing to wield your guns against the gang of thugs that hold Miraflores Palace hostage. The resolution will come only when chavismo will break up, violently, and self destruct. Perhaps sooner than later, but whatever the time frame is our participation in the election can only speed up the process.
This being said, let's look at the campaign which yesterday has taken a clearly fascist turn. I am not using the word communist, note, because the inspiration is from Cuba and Cuba is now under an aging fascist system. True communism would have never tolerated stuff like the general prostitution of jineteras at the fake luxury sea front of Varadero. By writing this I do not intend to state that one system is better than the other, merely that their vices are not the same in their quest for totalitarian control and equal meting out of misery.
To help you understand let's start with one of the three things that happened yesterday, the minor one if you will, but one that will help you understand better what happened in Caracas. The billboard above has showed up first yesterday in San Felipe, in at least three locations that I have noticed. It is Chavez heirs electoral strategy: Chavez. That is right, in the last 10 months Chavez heirs have NOTHING to show for their tenure so once again they resort to the only thing that has worked in the past, the image of Chavez.
The billboard deserves a speedy semantical analysis.
First, they use the "martyrdom" picture of Chavez, in his last 2012 campaign appearance, when he stood under the rain to inspire pity and maximize his appeal. His Che moment of sorts though it probably cost him a few days of life which I am sure he did not mind paying in his narcissistic egotism.
Second, it is addressed to ¡CHAVISTAS! Not you or me. They are not trying to get new votes due to their track record. They know better: they need to motivate the chavista lumpen that has been battered by inflation, scarcity, crime, lack of jobs, etc... to go and vote for them yet one more time. And thus the second line: to honor Chavez memory. Period. No other argument.
Third, since there is nothing positive to run on, there is the need to make a crass appeal to war, battles, heroism and what not, Chavez style again. And thus the slogan, "Unity, fighting, battles and victory!" empty, devoid of any single new idea. Very fascist if you ask me, where what passes as ideas are artificial constructs designed to polarize society in order not to discuss what could be the true solutions to our real problems. Or rather, since this is Venezuela, a banal but vicious thugocracy that uses selected simple minded fascisto/communist methods to hold to power so as to avoid the jail they deserve.
The bottom is the Warholian take on Chavez eyes and the party colors to suggest mass and unity (GPP, Great Patriotic Pole). Fluff!
When a "poltical" group has reached such depth of intellectual emptiness you cannot be surprised by the visceral moves they took yesterday.
The first one was a very clumsy attempt by foreign minister Jaua who pretends to be the true governor of Miranda. For memory, defeated by Capriles last December in spite of all the electoral abuse and blackmail and cheating, the regime named him special agent for the Tuy valley of Miranda which meant that he became an appointed parallel governor, probably with more money than Capriles to rule effectively the state that duly voted for him. Again, a neo-totalitarian contempt for democracy.
Sure enough siphoning money from one side to buy votes on the other created financial havoc and the Miranda workers decided to march in protest to force the central government to give Miranda its full share of the budget. Everybody knows of course that the regime will pinch every single penny it can against Capriles even if hardship for innocent follows. When you play dirty it helps not to have a bit of scruples. So Jaua started an infantile blockade of Caracas access through a pretend pro chavista protest against the "fascist" "coup mongering" march of Capriles. It was so clumsy that within a couple of hours it seems that Jaua was brought back to heel and the marchers could go present their demands.
That chavista fiasco was accompanied by yet a new scale up of the rhetoric. While Caracas was blockaded for a few hours somebody started placarding the posters below.
 |
| Memorize their faces The trilogy of evil They take away your light They take away your food They take away your peace Enough violence |
What these posters do, besides trying to imitate horror show aesthetic with the faces of the three, in particular the one of Capriles, is to place the blame for the current economic crisis on them. That is, a regime that controls everything, from the armed forces to any office regulating production claims that the three guys are able on their own to turn off the power grids of Venezuela, disrupt the general food distribution system, create the high criminal insecurity.
That is exactly what the Nazis did against the Jews after 1933.
Maduro encouraging public violence against opposition leadership. He uses the words "pueblo reconocelos" (9 sec) "trilogia del mal" (4 sec) "enemigos de la patria" (6 sec)
Saturday, 24 August 2013
The Venezuelan dictatorship in action
Having made the case that Venezuela is now under a novel dictatorship form of government, there is nothing left for this blog but to illustrate our hypothesis with probationary evidence. In a single day, we got three to discuss.
The homes of the fatherland
Let's not get into the detail that the regime is breaking all electoral rules by launching strong its campaign for December municipal elections. Dictatorships follow the electoral flow chart they chose and change at will. Instead let's look at the message exposed today.
#ChavezLivesTheFatherlandContinues Let's go all to register and participate en the Network for Patriotic Homes, Bolivarian and Chavista to rule together.
In short it means that if you do not go an sign up your home in this new registry, then you are a traitor.
Translation: they certainly are not going to come and knock at my door. This is a measure to strike fear in popular districts where increasingly people are daring to vote against the regime. The published electoral results may be a manipulation but the regime knows the real numbers. In addition in popular districts where there is a certain flux of inhabitants, this creates a new up to date registry of voters, listing the many ways they can be threatened if they do not vote (by belonging to any of the various Misiones, or having their relatives in one of those). The way the state TV reports it includes a video where the ghost of Chavez floats over these Patriot Homes. Interestingly Diosdado Cabello was campaigning in Anzoategui, which in theory should be a lost cause for chavismo, with a surprising inclusive message of bringing solutions for all, regardless of their party affiliation......
Not only this is dictatorship, but it is also fascism.
Amuay revisited
You may remember the Amuay disaster of one year ago. In spite of all sorts of blockades set by the regime so we do not know what caused the accident, the opposition representatives at the National Assembly did try to conduct an investigation and got some results that they tried to deliver at Amuay Plant Management. Who refused to receive them, not even accepting the bound report. While PDVSA workers were conveniently set outside to heckle the representatives.
Well, at least they got a result. The regime decided suddenly that it will "soon" reveal the evidence that Amuay was an attack from the opposition, a sabotage to ruin the reëlection campaign of Chavez. Maduro, of course, just states that he has the evidence but he is unable even to give a hint. Nor, that we know of, is anyone already under arrest or something. Just like the myriad of assassination attempts against Chavez that have yet to yield an actual picture of the would be assassin, and even less of a trial......
Now, I am not going to put it past from some oppo loonies to set Amauy on fire. After all, next door in Colombia, the FARC is tired to blow up pipelines and electric transmission towers. So the inspiration would come directly from Maduro's pals in Colombia. However it is inexcusable that if the regime had any evidence of such a sabotage we are only told now, AFTER the opposition presented a serious paper on the matter, that the regime will not as a matter of principle even try to refute. Well, they cannot, but that is another story.
This is how a dictatorship replies to criticism, by counter attack in an outrageous manner, to drown the noise from the other side. And a little fascistic in the threats implied and vocabulary used.
Movie censorship
And to finish this on a lighter note of sorts. The latest state sponsored movie is about a moment in the life of Bolivar who is played by Roque Valero, one of these artists who after 14 years decided to come out for Chavez in last year campaign. The critic has not been good, but was not bad either. At any rate, there seems to have been a snafu in the distribution of the tracks and the regime has taken it as a personal offense, as censorship of its voice. This for a regime that has just closed down Globovision and does not allow a single opposition figure to be featured on any of the state media. Note the aggressive attack of Maduro
By the way, Maduro wants his followers to jump on Facebook and Twitter to harass the opposition participants there. Maybe I should expect more harassment? Kind of a form of censorship if you ask me. Do they read English?
The homes of the fatherland
Let's not get into the detail that the regime is breaking all electoral rules by launching strong its campaign for December municipal elections. Dictatorships follow the electoral flow chart they chose and change at will. Instead let's look at the message exposed today.
#ChávezVivelaPatriaSigue Vamos tod@s a inscribirnos y participar en la Red de HogaresPatriotas,Bolivarianos yChavistas para Gobernar Junt@s.
— Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) August 24, 2013
#ChavezLivesTheFatherlandContinues Let's go all to register and participate en the Network for Patriotic Homes, Bolivarian and Chavista to rule together.
In short it means that if you do not go an sign up your home in this new registry, then you are a traitor.
Translation: they certainly are not going to come and knock at my door. This is a measure to strike fear in popular districts where increasingly people are daring to vote against the regime. The published electoral results may be a manipulation but the regime knows the real numbers. In addition in popular districts where there is a certain flux of inhabitants, this creates a new up to date registry of voters, listing the many ways they can be threatened if they do not vote (by belonging to any of the various Misiones, or having their relatives in one of those). The way the state TV reports it includes a video where the ghost of Chavez floats over these Patriot Homes. Interestingly Diosdado Cabello was campaigning in Anzoategui, which in theory should be a lost cause for chavismo, with a surprising inclusive message of bringing solutions for all, regardless of their party affiliation......
Not only this is dictatorship, but it is also fascism.
Amuay revisited
You may remember the Amuay disaster of one year ago. In spite of all sorts of blockades set by the regime so we do not know what caused the accident, the opposition representatives at the National Assembly did try to conduct an investigation and got some results that they tried to deliver at Amuay Plant Management. Who refused to receive them, not even accepting the bound report. While PDVSA workers were conveniently set outside to heckle the representatives.
Well, at least they got a result. The regime decided suddenly that it will "soon" reveal the evidence that Amuay was an attack from the opposition, a sabotage to ruin the reëlection campaign of Chavez. Maduro, of course, just states that he has the evidence but he is unable even to give a hint. Nor, that we know of, is anyone already under arrest or something. Just like the myriad of assassination attempts against Chavez that have yet to yield an actual picture of the would be assassin, and even less of a trial......
Now, I am not going to put it past from some oppo loonies to set Amauy on fire. After all, next door in Colombia, the FARC is tired to blow up pipelines and electric transmission towers. So the inspiration would come directly from Maduro's pals in Colombia. However it is inexcusable that if the regime had any evidence of such a sabotage we are only told now, AFTER the opposition presented a serious paper on the matter, that the regime will not as a matter of principle even try to refute. Well, they cannot, but that is another story.
This is how a dictatorship replies to criticism, by counter attack in an outrageous manner, to drown the noise from the other side. And a little fascistic in the threats implied and vocabulary used.
Movie censorship
And to finish this on a lighter note of sorts. The latest state sponsored movie is about a moment in the life of Bolivar who is played by Roque Valero, one of these artists who after 14 years decided to come out for Chavez in last year campaign. The critic has not been good, but was not bad either. At any rate, there seems to have been a snafu in the distribution of the tracks and the regime has taken it as a personal offense, as censorship of its voice. This for a regime that has just closed down Globovision and does not allow a single opposition figure to be featured on any of the state media. Note the aggressive attack of Maduro
"¿De quién es Cinex? Porque se niegan a pasar la película Bolívar. Hay que abrir una investigación porque la censura es delito en el país y quien comete censura lo tiene que pagar caro."Who is the owner of Cinex [theater franchise]. Why do they refuse to pass a film on Bolivar[?]. We need to open an investigation because censorship is a crime in this country and the one who commits censorship needs to pay big for it.This said of course with a total lack of self consciousness. On the fascist side, no?
By the way, Maduro wants his followers to jump on Facebook and Twitter to harass the opposition participants there. Maybe I should expect more harassment? Kind of a form of censorship if you ask me. Do they read English?
Monday, 19 August 2013
A XXIst century dictatorship primer
Even though for informed people the Venezuelan regime has become a symbol of utter corruption, immeasurable incompetence, sublime contempt for the rule of law and plasticity for human rights, you read here and there that we are a democracy. We cannot possibly be a dictatorship because people are happy and keep reëlecting the same folks letting hysterics dominate Twitter. What these people fail to notice is that the concept of dictatorship has evolved with the times. Now, in the earlier part of the XXI century, in an age of mass media and massive social media, the tools of dictatorship have had to evolve, even if old means are yet to be out of fashion as we see in Egypt these days.
To understand that "adaptation of dictatorship to new realities" let's start by remembering what are the core concepts of democracy and, as a consequence, what trumps a democracy and can thus represent the basic tools to sustain a dictatorship.
A democracy cannot be defined alone by elections, even if those are free and fair. In a complex, multiethnic, multicultural world, and dare I invent a word, multieconomical, we need to look beyond what were the democratic aspirations of the XIX century: right of vote for all, equal justice for all and for more forward looking societies like the US, equal opportunities for all. The aspirations of the XIX century and the birth of the welfare state have led to our current system where democracy also includes protection for minorities, guarantees that a political minority can become a political majority, rule of law though independent institutions implying stricter separation of powers. Not to enter into human rights which have expanded considerably from those of the XIX century which were basically limited to habeas corpus and freedoms of the press and beliefs.
This restructuring of democracy tenets have also implied the redefinition of power. All through the XXth century democracy has had to contend with that side of human nature that wishes to control everything. This made democracy to be seen for some as weak and incompetent creating a wish for a substantial chunk of the society that wants clear and direct answers. The enemy of democracy has thus been the will of small groups who invented crass appeal to the populace, or populism, to reach power. In their more extreme forms these people went easily over to fascism or communism, which are the negative picture of the democratic aspiration, totalitarianism.
Unfortunately at this vantage point it seems that the trend is for a victory of populism in its milder forms over sensible government though we should not give up quite yet. This has been made easier because mass media cannot resit to dabble in political influence, in all countries of the world. Exciting the masses is rather easy and a few good soundbites can influence an election more than electoral homework. But yet these media and international realities make an outright grab to power more difficult than it was. Absolute control is today nearly impossible unless it was established in the last century. Thus ambitious groups and individuals had to reshape their goals.
The only thing that, with some ease, can be more or less thoroughly controlled today is the income of the country. In an authoritarian regime this is a must because the state income is used by those in powers to play off one side of the country against the other one. Other forms of control then can follow. In a welfare state age and crass consumption sponsored by all types of media living off advertising, the power of the purse is more effective than the power of the weapons. True, the other tool of dictatorships, giving only to a few powers for abuse over their brethren still exists but runs into lots of problems in an age of human rights, no matter how many psychopaths a regime can draw. Disposable bribe money works better, violent repression is a last recourse. Although preparations for repression are made as diligently as they used to be made last century.
The trick for those craving absolute power is on how to reach absolute control over the state financial resources. The Venezuelan model is the first success story though one difficult to emulate unless you have a spigot of money like the one that exists underground in Venezuela. The model was implemented in stages so that not that many people objected to it at any given time, outside of the 2002 scare.
First, you sell the empty promise of a new constitution without describing what you will put in it. As such people project in a new Constitution any of their phantasms or needs to be fulfilled. In April 1999 only 10% voted NO to elect a constitutional assembly. Then, with the new constitution as an excuse you change the institutions of the state or at the very least exchange the people holding them for your cronies. This was strategically done in December 1999 when the transition commission between the two constitutions overextended its reach in removing all the members of the judicial system it did not like.
Once the judicial power has lost its independence it is just a matter of time in taking control of the rest of the state. This was done by 2004 when the opposition was left with a few town halls and two state houses. Then it becomes easy to manipulate financial arrangements to make sure only the regime can drain the bulk of resources and distribute them at will. Once this is achieved the regime is on its way to become an "electoral" dictatorship. It takes about half a decade to create a dependent population that is too afraid to vote against the regime least it risks to lose what is seen as its lone livelihood. This was achieved by 2006 when the charisma of the leader and the dependency on state giveaway programs ensured a solid electoral victory and the beginning of the other measures more in agreement with a traditional dictatorship, like restricting the freedom of expression, or using corruption to gain the willingness of supporters to start harassing opposition people, be them politicians or mere civilians that refuse to accept the new regime.
Today, certainly, we can access Internet, we can travel outside of the country at will but with significant difficulty, we can talk freely among friends to trash the regime, we can still get significant news in some newspapers. But that is pretty much it. For the rest we are in a dictatorship, a bona fide one even though the above hides it for the casual observer.
Let's list a few of the restrictions we suffer that do look like those of a more traditional dictatorship.
All of these items taken separately could make the case for a mere authoritarian regime. Taken together they surely indicate a dictatorship.
---------------------------------------------------------------
All of what I wrote above is documented in hundreds of posts that have been forming this blog since 2003. The path toward dictatorship was undertaken in 2004 with the apartheid political list by representative Tascon which created a class of sub-citizens, not to say traitors. In 2007 the regime suffered a setback, the last election where the opposition was still able to carry its message with some effectiveness. In 2010 the first massive electoral fraud was perpetrated, including an obscene gerrymandering that left an opposition with a majority of the vote with barely a little bit more than a third of legislative seats. Personally it was in 2010 when I started calling the regime a dictatorship. Final confirmation came, for those who still pretend otherwise, in the legal maneuvering required to violate the 1999 constitution and ensure that Maduro would be the heir of Chavez. Maduro is an illegitimate president that got its official mandate after a fraudulent election that the regime refused to audit, of course. The paradox is that Maduro is the front dictator of the country but he is not the one truly in charge. The real dictators are elsewhere to be found. But that is another story.
-------------------------------
Note
I would be remiss if I were not to mention the Venezuelan model elsewhere. The one that comes closest to the Venezuelan model is the Russia of Putin although they certainly were able to come up with the same considerations that drove chavismo to do the deed, under Cuban direction. Though Putin has been more careful at keeping appearances, so far. But the model is the same in that the regime bases its success on the spigot of cash it controls. Just as the US has financed Chavez, Europe has financed Putin.
Of the other countries that have tried to follow a Venezuelan model, only Ecuador has a small spigot of cash. If it has not become a dictator ship it is because Correa has been a better manager of the economy and has accepted that the US dollar remains the Ecuador currency. The other imitators, Argentina, Bolivia and Nicaragua are sui generis in their own with much lesser promising options if the Venezuelan cash were to stop sustaining their political corruption system. But there are other politicians that are dreaming of an improved Venezuelan system that are in the wings, in Chile, Peru, Honduras, etc....
To understand that "adaptation of dictatorship to new realities" let's start by remembering what are the core concepts of democracy and, as a consequence, what trumps a democracy and can thus represent the basic tools to sustain a dictatorship.
A democracy cannot be defined alone by elections, even if those are free and fair. In a complex, multiethnic, multicultural world, and dare I invent a word, multieconomical, we need to look beyond what were the democratic aspirations of the XIX century: right of vote for all, equal justice for all and for more forward looking societies like the US, equal opportunities for all. The aspirations of the XIX century and the birth of the welfare state have led to our current system where democracy also includes protection for minorities, guarantees that a political minority can become a political majority, rule of law though independent institutions implying stricter separation of powers. Not to enter into human rights which have expanded considerably from those of the XIX century which were basically limited to habeas corpus and freedoms of the press and beliefs.
This restructuring of democracy tenets have also implied the redefinition of power. All through the XXth century democracy has had to contend with that side of human nature that wishes to control everything. This made democracy to be seen for some as weak and incompetent creating a wish for a substantial chunk of the society that wants clear and direct answers. The enemy of democracy has thus been the will of small groups who invented crass appeal to the populace, or populism, to reach power. In their more extreme forms these people went easily over to fascism or communism, which are the negative picture of the democratic aspiration, totalitarianism.
Unfortunately at this vantage point it seems that the trend is for a victory of populism in its milder forms over sensible government though we should not give up quite yet. This has been made easier because mass media cannot resit to dabble in political influence, in all countries of the world. Exciting the masses is rather easy and a few good soundbites can influence an election more than electoral homework. But yet these media and international realities make an outright grab to power more difficult than it was. Absolute control is today nearly impossible unless it was established in the last century. Thus ambitious groups and individuals had to reshape their goals.
The only thing that, with some ease, can be more or less thoroughly controlled today is the income of the country. In an authoritarian regime this is a must because the state income is used by those in powers to play off one side of the country against the other one. Other forms of control then can follow. In a welfare state age and crass consumption sponsored by all types of media living off advertising, the power of the purse is more effective than the power of the weapons. True, the other tool of dictatorships, giving only to a few powers for abuse over their brethren still exists but runs into lots of problems in an age of human rights, no matter how many psychopaths a regime can draw. Disposable bribe money works better, violent repression is a last recourse. Although preparations for repression are made as diligently as they used to be made last century.
The trick for those craving absolute power is on how to reach absolute control over the state financial resources. The Venezuelan model is the first success story though one difficult to emulate unless you have a spigot of money like the one that exists underground in Venezuela. The model was implemented in stages so that not that many people objected to it at any given time, outside of the 2002 scare.
First, you sell the empty promise of a new constitution without describing what you will put in it. As such people project in a new Constitution any of their phantasms or needs to be fulfilled. In April 1999 only 10% voted NO to elect a constitutional assembly. Then, with the new constitution as an excuse you change the institutions of the state or at the very least exchange the people holding them for your cronies. This was strategically done in December 1999 when the transition commission between the two constitutions overextended its reach in removing all the members of the judicial system it did not like.
Once the judicial power has lost its independence it is just a matter of time in taking control of the rest of the state. This was done by 2004 when the opposition was left with a few town halls and two state houses. Then it becomes easy to manipulate financial arrangements to make sure only the regime can drain the bulk of resources and distribute them at will. Once this is achieved the regime is on its way to become an "electoral" dictatorship. It takes about half a decade to create a dependent population that is too afraid to vote against the regime least it risks to lose what is seen as its lone livelihood. This was achieved by 2006 when the charisma of the leader and the dependency on state giveaway programs ensured a solid electoral victory and the beginning of the other measures more in agreement with a traditional dictatorship, like restricting the freedom of expression, or using corruption to gain the willingness of supporters to start harassing opposition people, be them politicians or mere civilians that refuse to accept the new regime.
Today, certainly, we can access Internet, we can travel outside of the country at will but with significant difficulty, we can talk freely among friends to trash the regime, we can still get significant news in some newspapers. But that is pretty much it. For the rest we are in a dictatorship, a bona fide one even though the above hides it for the casual observer.
Let's list a few of the restrictions we suffer that do look like those of a more traditional dictatorship.
- As of this week there is basically nothing critical of the regime on TV. And on radio only in some cities. Newspapers and media in general practice a significant amount of self censorship and some news only appear in the Internet. Yes, you can still find criticism but now you must work for it, the masses that satisfy themselves on TV do not get much.
- Nobody remembers the last time the state lost a case in the High Court of Venezuela. Suing the state is a waste of time and money unless you need to do so before you can be allowed to reach for international help. Also, winning a case in court against a friend of the regime is an uphill and very expensive battle. Expensive because in the end the winner of the trial is the one that bribes the highest.
- Your property is not your property anymore. Once the state decides to expropriate you you have no recourse, your compensation is dictated by the state, not by an independent third party. And that compensation will be payed by the state whenever it pleases it.
- You cannot use your property at will. Some items now can be sold or rented only after the state consents, after deciding on the price. Your access to foreign currency is severely restricted, and only if you travel.
- You cannot manage your business as you see fit. Not only heavy regulations make it difficult to work but they stimulate extortion from abusive state inspectors. Worse, you cannot let the market decide your selling prices; and in increasing cases you cannot sell it where you want to whom you want even at fixed prices.
- For those who must deal regularly with the authorities, roughly half of the time the person that you need to reach, the one with real authority in charge, is military personnel. A large amount of governors and ministers come from the army.
- Personality cult is for all to see. Be it the one for Chavez still going on, but there is also an incipient propaganda for Maduro.
- Human and civil rights are trampled for some groups. There are political prisoners, a few but mistreated notoriously to set an example. The elected opposition representatives in Parliament are beaten up and insulted as a matter of fact.
- Corruption is eating up the country. You need to pay something for almost anything important you need to get done. Obtaining loans from state banks, any business with the state, has a a fixed percentile rate of the deal to be given to the one who signs it. In cash, no trail.
- Political segregation is the norm since the Tascon list was set in 2004. Many services now only reach followers of the regime, though badly. Obtaining a public job, a subsidized housing, a scholarship, is obtained only after pledging allegiance to the regime.
- And to close a list that can still go on, elections are neither free nor fair anymore. There is clear electoral fraud patterns that are now in the public domain. It starts with the extreme unfairness of an election where the opposition is not allowed to finance itself or communicate its program against a regime that uses all the resources of the state and the media to promote its cause and blackmail voters. And it ends with the dead voting and the end of secret voting.
All of these items taken separately could make the case for a mere authoritarian regime. Taken together they surely indicate a dictatorship.
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All of what I wrote above is documented in hundreds of posts that have been forming this blog since 2003. The path toward dictatorship was undertaken in 2004 with the apartheid political list by representative Tascon which created a class of sub-citizens, not to say traitors. In 2007 the regime suffered a setback, the last election where the opposition was still able to carry its message with some effectiveness. In 2010 the first massive electoral fraud was perpetrated, including an obscene gerrymandering that left an opposition with a majority of the vote with barely a little bit more than a third of legislative seats. Personally it was in 2010 when I started calling the regime a dictatorship. Final confirmation came, for those who still pretend otherwise, in the legal maneuvering required to violate the 1999 constitution and ensure that Maduro would be the heir of Chavez. Maduro is an illegitimate president that got its official mandate after a fraudulent election that the regime refused to audit, of course. The paradox is that Maduro is the front dictator of the country but he is not the one truly in charge. The real dictators are elsewhere to be found. But that is another story.
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Note
I would be remiss if I were not to mention the Venezuelan model elsewhere. The one that comes closest to the Venezuelan model is the Russia of Putin although they certainly were able to come up with the same considerations that drove chavismo to do the deed, under Cuban direction. Though Putin has been more careful at keeping appearances, so far. But the model is the same in that the regime bases its success on the spigot of cash it controls. Just as the US has financed Chavez, Europe has financed Putin.
Of the other countries that have tried to follow a Venezuelan model, only Ecuador has a small spigot of cash. If it has not become a dictator ship it is because Correa has been a better manager of the economy and has accepted that the US dollar remains the Ecuador currency. The other imitators, Argentina, Bolivia and Nicaragua are sui generis in their own with much lesser promising options if the Venezuelan cash were to stop sustaining their political corruption system. But there are other politicians that are dreaming of an improved Venezuelan system that are in the wings, in Chile, Peru, Honduras, etc....
Saturday, 17 August 2013
Maduro's confession that he is a totalitarian; and yet controls shit
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| PSUV flowchart? |
- Si hubiéramos ido a procesos de primarias, ¿cómo creen ustedes que estaríamos ahora? Tengo una opinión: hubiésemos quedado partidos en tres, cuatro y cinco pedazos. In short: had we held primaries we would be a fractured party today. [In this single sentence Maduro acknowledges that the PSUV is a weak party, prey to centrifugal forces, and implying he has barely control over them, if any. That he admits a reality we all knew is simply astounding, stupid, or Machiavellian as he appeals for the wish of the lumpen chavismo to be held under the sway of a great powerful leader that thinks for them. Your pick]
- [en las riamrias] la amenaza permanente de la pasión individualista de alguna gente que aspira a cargos públicos con una fuerza sospechosa. Primaries are an opportunity for unscrupulous people to reach for public office. [This is even more extraordinary. Not only Maduro admits that inside the PSUV many are wanting of a primary to attack his tenuous grasp on power, but that they have the strngth to do so. He also tries to come across as a saint, that the only way to have good public servants is to trust him. Jeeez...]
- Las primarias no volverán a celebrarse en el Polo Patriótico mientras "prevalezca la cultura burguesa de las democracias carnavalescas". Primaries will never be held inside chavismo as long as the bourgeois carnival democracy remains. [And it got worse. With that one Maduro admits that the aim of the PSUV is to become a monolithic communist party, that primaries are a fake democracy and that such a system should be eliminated and replaced in the future by another socialist system to be determined in its due time. In other words, primaries can only exist in a one party state, I suppose.]
If anyone needs to get evidence on why chavismo is not, never was a democratic movement, s/he needs not go further than yesterday's rambling of Maduro. These words were crystal clear, there is no ambiguity, the objective of the PSUV is the one party state, at best.
This is bad news, my friends.
This is bad news, my friends.
Tuesday, 13 August 2013
Homophobia as a chavista weapon to destroy the opposition
Besides that I am particularly sensitive on the topic, what was most disgraceful tonight was the deliberate use of insult and homophobia to taint the opposition. Chavismo must have reached real lows that it is left with the language of the lowest life thug as political argument against its political adversaries. Let me try to summarize briefly, if I can, if my mind clears up some after the homophobic onslaught to which we were subject today, live on TV.
The thing is that the regime has decided to destroy the opposition, or at least its leadership. Polls are not good and there is no hope of improvement as the economy shows no sign of better days, nor measures can be taken by the regime to that effect. The regime is now a military one since the only way it could have survived the Chavez death and the constitutional violations that followed is because the army accepted them. Just look at who has power in the public administration and most of the time you will bump into a barracks product. Thus the current situation is forcing the regime into its final conversion to frontal military dictatorship, of a fascist nature; and homophobic as well as are all those kind of regimes in history, of course.
Besides the usual attacks against the opposition inherited from Chavez (traitor, pro US, blood thirsty capitalist, etc.) the new regime feels like it needs to push the ante. A few weeks ago started a massive propaganda blitz trying to prove that the opposition is the real culprit of corruption in Venezuela. This is not catching much because public opinion has not a jaundiced view on corruption and know very well that the regime is the most corrupt in our history, accepting the situation perhaps because, after all, many get the occasional freebie.
But the regime keeps pushing, using the corruption theme to get rid of some of the opposition leaders. Whether the charges pressed are real is irrelevant because the controlled judicial system will do what is expected from submissive judges; and, come to think of it, what is really sought is the discredit of that leadership by association no matter what a judge does in the end. After all, the same judicial system does not bother to examine sustained accusations of public notice against the regime own corruption, cases that dwarfs orders of magnitude whatever is charged to the opposition these days.
When you lean so heavily on a supposed financial corruption that does not fly in public opinion the final consequence is that you must extrapolate it to moral turpitude. The objective is to state that the accused party is more corrupt than the accusing party on so many levels that the accused cannot fight back in public opinion, the more so when the media is muzzled. To put it more simply, Diosdado Cabello may have stolen 100 million dollars by himself against, say, the 100 thousand that Mardo laundered, but Mardo is a worse criminal because he is ALSO gay, he hires whores, he smokes pot, he does not stop at red lights for old ladies. In the fascist Goebbelian tradition it does not matter how believable the charges are, the one that can repeat them the most, and the louder, will win the argument. Or so it goes because that argument is rarely won, and not for long, but at least the opposition shuts up for a while.
What happened tonight was the crossing of that line, accusing Primero Justicia to be a haven of faggots that dabble in prostitution at Miranda state house. And challenging the rest of the opposition to remain around PJ, very close to them, hugging that bunch of faggots, corrupt faggots by association.
There is no need to enter into the details, the excuses that chavismo used to cross that line: the historical mechanism that I hinted at above are always the same, even in Communist regime like Cuba who in their drift toward totalitarianism reach the same methods that fascists reach a little bit earlier. Let's just talk about the agents and what they said.
The main one, the one that crossed that line was Pedro Carreño (@pedrocarreno_e). This character has no credibility and as such has been the henchman of Cabello to start the most grotesque attacks against the opposition (like the broken nose of Maria Corinna Machado). Why do I write this? Because besides been a lout, the product of drunken barracks and whore houses according to chavista themselves, he made his reputation on announcing that Montesinos, the henchman of Peru's dictator Fujimori, was dead (he was not, just blackmailed by corrupt chavista security) and that Direct TV decoders had secret cameras to see what people did inside their home (take that! NSA). Thus for PedroCarroña Carreño there is no problem to assume the posture he did today, and assume it with relish, sort of coming out from his closet of repressed homophobia.
I can give you a short summary of Carreño performance tonight in La Verdad including a video impossible to watch for me right now to pick up details (Internet is getting worse by the day). But I had the distaste to watch it live and maybe it is a good thing that You Tube is basically out of order in Venezuela. Or you can go to Noticias 24 who carries in highlight the words he used:
Beyond the current political crisis, I need to remind readers that long ago I have pointed at the inner homophobia inside chavismo, at my bemusement on how come many gays actually supported a movement that had only contempt for them starting with Chavez himself whose silence on the issue was more deafening than an actual homophobic comment (the sexist ones, he did spread around easily). This is a government that has done nothing for gay except promising that they would do a lot for them. No civil union, no domestic partnership, no access to insurance for partners, no nothing except a vague "we do not discriminate" when in practice you have yet to have an only gay person holding any position of importance inside the regime though we know that many are closet cases.
There is a reason why homophobia is one of the tags of this blog, a tag that yet I use sparsely to avoid making it look like a personal issue. But tonight, I felt personally offended by these chavistas speakers. And even more offended because not a single one of the other chavista representatives had the courage to stand up and say that "PJ is corrupt but we should refrain on discussing their private lives". Not one of them. All guilty by association. But then again I should not be surprised, this is how fascism works.....
PS: for those who have the stomach for it, the video ofCarroña Carreño
The thing is that the regime has decided to destroy the opposition, or at least its leadership. Polls are not good and there is no hope of improvement as the economy shows no sign of better days, nor measures can be taken by the regime to that effect. The regime is now a military one since the only way it could have survived the Chavez death and the constitutional violations that followed is because the army accepted them. Just look at who has power in the public administration and most of the time you will bump into a barracks product. Thus the current situation is forcing the regime into its final conversion to frontal military dictatorship, of a fascist nature; and homophobic as well as are all those kind of regimes in history, of course.
Besides the usual attacks against the opposition inherited from Chavez (traitor, pro US, blood thirsty capitalist, etc.) the new regime feels like it needs to push the ante. A few weeks ago started a massive propaganda blitz trying to prove that the opposition is the real culprit of corruption in Venezuela. This is not catching much because public opinion has not a jaundiced view on corruption and know very well that the regime is the most corrupt in our history, accepting the situation perhaps because, after all, many get the occasional freebie.
But the regime keeps pushing, using the corruption theme to get rid of some of the opposition leaders. Whether the charges pressed are real is irrelevant because the controlled judicial system will do what is expected from submissive judges; and, come to think of it, what is really sought is the discredit of that leadership by association no matter what a judge does in the end. After all, the same judicial system does not bother to examine sustained accusations of public notice against the regime own corruption, cases that dwarfs orders of magnitude whatever is charged to the opposition these days.
When you lean so heavily on a supposed financial corruption that does not fly in public opinion the final consequence is that you must extrapolate it to moral turpitude. The objective is to state that the accused party is more corrupt than the accusing party on so many levels that the accused cannot fight back in public opinion, the more so when the media is muzzled. To put it more simply, Diosdado Cabello may have stolen 100 million dollars by himself against, say, the 100 thousand that Mardo laundered, but Mardo is a worse criminal because he is ALSO gay, he hires whores, he smokes pot, he does not stop at red lights for old ladies. In the fascist Goebbelian tradition it does not matter how believable the charges are, the one that can repeat them the most, and the louder, will win the argument. Or so it goes because that argument is rarely won, and not for long, but at least the opposition shuts up for a while.
What happened tonight was the crossing of that line, accusing Primero Justicia to be a haven of faggots that dabble in prostitution at Miranda state house. And challenging the rest of the opposition to remain around PJ, very close to them, hugging that bunch of faggots, corrupt faggots by association.
There is no need to enter into the details, the excuses that chavismo used to cross that line: the historical mechanism that I hinted at above are always the same, even in Communist regime like Cuba who in their drift toward totalitarianism reach the same methods that fascists reach a little bit earlier. Let's just talk about the agents and what they said.
The main one, the one that crossed that line was Pedro Carreño (@pedrocarreno_e). This character has no credibility and as such has been the henchman of Cabello to start the most grotesque attacks against the opposition (like the broken nose of Maria Corinna Machado). Why do I write this? Because besides been a lout, the product of drunken barracks and whore houses according to chavista themselves, he made his reputation on announcing that Montesinos, the henchman of Peru's dictator Fujimori, was dead (he was not, just blackmailed by corrupt chavista security) and that Direct TV decoders had secret cameras to see what people did inside their home (take that! NSA). Thus for Pedro
I can give you a short summary of Carreño performance tonight in La Verdad including a video impossible to watch for me right now to pick up details (Internet is getting worse by the day). But I had the distaste to watch it live and maybe it is a good thing that You Tube is basically out of order in Venezuela. Or you can go to Noticias 24 who carries in highlight the words he used:
Responde, homosexual. Acepta el reto, maricón. Reply, homosexual. Accept the challenge, faggot [actually a much worse term in that context]Then it was the turn of Disodado Cabello, sounding more moderate after the attacks of Carreño but equally as obnoxious, equally as homophobic in defending himself against homophobia. Again, yet another product of low educated barracks (@dcabellor).
Es problema de ellos (los dirigentes de Primero Justicia) lo que hagan con su culo, pero tienen que ser serios It is their problem [PJ] what they do with their ass, but they have to be serious.
Beyond the current political crisis, I need to remind readers that long ago I have pointed at the inner homophobia inside chavismo, at my bemusement on how come many gays actually supported a movement that had only contempt for them starting with Chavez himself whose silence on the issue was more deafening than an actual homophobic comment (the sexist ones, he did spread around easily). This is a government that has done nothing for gay except promising that they would do a lot for them. No civil union, no domestic partnership, no access to insurance for partners, no nothing except a vague "we do not discriminate" when in practice you have yet to have an only gay person holding any position of importance inside the regime though we know that many are closet cases.
There is a reason why homophobia is one of the tags of this blog, a tag that yet I use sparsely to avoid making it look like a personal issue. But tonight, I felt personally offended by these chavistas speakers. And even more offended because not a single one of the other chavista representatives had the courage to stand up and say that "PJ is corrupt but we should refrain on discussing their private lives". Not one of them. All guilty by association. But then again I should not be surprised, this is how fascism works.....
PS: for those who have the stomach for it, the video of
Thursday, 8 August 2013
A heavy fine for El Nacional to attack freedom of expression
We have just learned that El Nacional, the most anti Chavez paper of the country, and with El Universal the most venerable, has received a breaking fine of 1% of its 2010 revenue. The reason was the front page publication of a morgue picture with the bodies piled up in an utter mess as the morgue simply could not deal with the crime rates. I have already covered these issues in 2010 and I send you back to the entries of the time: this, this one and that one with the picture. El Nacional of course carries a complete historical here. Thus there is nothing for me to say in addition, just the need to point out that the repression is going full swing in Venezuela.
Wednesday, 7 August 2013
What happened today: the post-Chavez regime digs in and scales up repression
Certainly today's headline is the Venezuelan High Court, TSJ, emitting one of its most shameful decisions ever (and the competition is stiff). But three other events today are equally telling and all put together are true reasons to worry.
Let's start with the headline. The TSJ had to make a decision on the challenge to the election of last April. The problem it faced is that any decision that would imply an actual revision of voting conditions for last April would without a doubt open a can of worms. There were already two clearly established electoral irregularities that did not require lengthy study: people accompanied forcibly to vote, on video, and the lists of people "dead" that did vote. Those two, by themselves, were enough to erase the "vote advantage" of Maduro in April and examination of the other claims would reveal that Maduro lost. The TSJ, formed by regime's place holders who simply sign decisions written by political agents, were in an impossible situation: accepting to review the challenges was opening the door for proving the illegitimacy of Maduro; refusing to review the challenges was tantamount to recognize that fraud had taken place. They chose a variation of the second, which is that the 10 electoral challenges were ill written and groundless, thus inadmissible for examination. The 10 challenges! As if all lawyers of the opposition were equally incompetent! As if the videos and death roll did not exist! As if what international observers reported on April 14 was misguided!
But that was not all with the TSJ. It decided to fine Capriles for slandering the TSJ and sent the challenge dossier to the prosecutors office to investigate further and see if other criminal charges could be advanced against Capriles. Now, this is exceedingly serious because it is not only a direct attempt at freedom of expression but it offers the regime a precedent for a new repression tool. What Capriles is accused and condemned before trial (he is already fined!) is to have criticized the TSJ decisions of January and March that gave an unfair advantage to Maduro. If Capriles is fined then this blogger also should be, and thousands of journalists, lawyers, OpEd columnists, etc, etc... who have stated the obvious, that the TSJ decision of proclaim Maduro sitting president for the electoral campaign was a violation of the constitution as only an "elected" sitting president can enjoy that benefit. This is extremely grave because now any critic of any institution of the state can be attacked by that one as defamation, terrorism and what not.
If this was not enough there are two more items to note. This morning one of the right hand of Capriles apartment was searched at 6 AM. Oscar Perez is accused on nebulous connections with Mardo, because they exchanged e-mails or something.... At this time I still cannot find a good account of the why of the case, besides him being one of the key guys of Capriles for Miranda. The timing is certainly interesting: Capriles and his people have been served notice, they are going to be hounded. And the rest of us if we support him, I presume.
But the signal of intensified repression and the reinforcing of the thugs group in power come from inside chavismo itself. Not only there will be no primary nor discussion over the mayor candidates inside chavismo but we learned that ALREADY 33 outgoing mayors will not be allowed to go for reëlection and are demanded to support their appointed wanna-be successors. Stalinist purge stand trial light version for our times.
And it is not over as all the candidates have yet to be announced. If there are flash in the pans in the new nominees to districts that are more than likely to be lost by chavismo, it also happens that mayors of safe districts are also given the boot (1). For example in Vargas mayor, the current holder, which I have reliable witness of his particularly corrupt administration, has been booted. Alexis Toledo will be replaced by General Carlos Alcala Cordones. Who is this general, for those of you new to this game? He is the brother of Cliver Alcala Cordones. This one has already been featured unfavorably in this blog, but what is the most damning is that he is in the DEA/US lists of Venezuelan involved in international drug traffic. Imagine that this just retiring general, but excessively connected with the thuggiest part of the regime, will be controlling the district with the main port and airport of Venezuela, and surely will decide what military is named to control these installations, an officer that will report in all likelihood only to Cliver, or whomever Cliver reports to in Cuba or at Cabello's office.....
I guess that by now the reader will have guessed what is the conclusion of this entry: the regime has decided to intensify its repression. Again, its inability to deal with the economic crisis and its decreasing polls are pushing it to abandon any pretense and serve notice to the opposition, external or internal, that the days of "dissent" are over and that we are moving toward a more classical form of dictatorship.
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1) It is necessary to remind the reader that in a XXI century dictatorship what really matters is the control of money and justice. Thus the regime may allow the opposition to control though elections a few districts that are going to be neutered anyway. What matters for the regime is the control of key districts like those with airport and harbors, military bases, etc...
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Added later. William Neuman of the NYT just out with his piece. I am not impressed, and I merely cite it so you know you need to read blogs to know the whole story....ut I truly think
Added later 2. I realize some will complain I did not write about "what next?". But we need to be serious and think this one carefully through. Let me sleep it over.
Errata. When writing this entry I got misled by one of the links I read into confusing Cliver with Carlos Alcala Cordones. They are brothers together in the army but Carlos is not on the DEA list, it is Cliver. Even though it is Cliver who is the unmasked thug it is hard to think that his brother is not somewhat involved in the "business", or at least with the thugs of the regime on non drug related activities. So I have not changed much the paragraph on them, just corrected for names and explained the relationship. It is up to Carlos, if he is elected mayor, to prove me wrong.
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| Gladys Gutierrez, the new chavismo head bitch, dye job and all... |
Let's start with the headline. The TSJ had to make a decision on the challenge to the election of last April. The problem it faced is that any decision that would imply an actual revision of voting conditions for last April would without a doubt open a can of worms. There were already two clearly established electoral irregularities that did not require lengthy study: people accompanied forcibly to vote, on video, and the lists of people "dead" that did vote. Those two, by themselves, were enough to erase the "vote advantage" of Maduro in April and examination of the other claims would reveal that Maduro lost. The TSJ, formed by regime's place holders who simply sign decisions written by political agents, were in an impossible situation: accepting to review the challenges was opening the door for proving the illegitimacy of Maduro; refusing to review the challenges was tantamount to recognize that fraud had taken place. They chose a variation of the second, which is that the 10 electoral challenges were ill written and groundless, thus inadmissible for examination. The 10 challenges! As if all lawyers of the opposition were equally incompetent! As if the videos and death roll did not exist! As if what international observers reported on April 14 was misguided!
But that was not all with the TSJ. It decided to fine Capriles for slandering the TSJ and sent the challenge dossier to the prosecutors office to investigate further and see if other criminal charges could be advanced against Capriles. Now, this is exceedingly serious because it is not only a direct attempt at freedom of expression but it offers the regime a precedent for a new repression tool. What Capriles is accused and condemned before trial (he is already fined!) is to have criticized the TSJ decisions of January and March that gave an unfair advantage to Maduro. If Capriles is fined then this blogger also should be, and thousands of journalists, lawyers, OpEd columnists, etc, etc... who have stated the obvious, that the TSJ decision of proclaim Maduro sitting president for the electoral campaign was a violation of the constitution as only an "elected" sitting president can enjoy that benefit. This is extremely grave because now any critic of any institution of the state can be attacked by that one as defamation, terrorism and what not.
If this was not enough there are two more items to note. This morning one of the right hand of Capriles apartment was searched at 6 AM. Oscar Perez is accused on nebulous connections with Mardo, because they exchanged e-mails or something.... At this time I still cannot find a good account of the why of the case, besides him being one of the key guys of Capriles for Miranda. The timing is certainly interesting: Capriles and his people have been served notice, they are going to be hounded. And the rest of us if we support him, I presume.
But the signal of intensified repression and the reinforcing of the thugs group in power come from inside chavismo itself. Not only there will be no primary nor discussion over the mayor candidates inside chavismo but we learned that ALREADY 33 outgoing mayors will not be allowed to go for reëlection and are demanded to support their appointed wanna-be successors. Stalinist purge stand trial light version for our times.
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| Future narco mayor's brother? |
I guess that by now the reader will have guessed what is the conclusion of this entry: the regime has decided to intensify its repression. Again, its inability to deal with the economic crisis and its decreasing polls are pushing it to abandon any pretense and serve notice to the opposition, external or internal, that the days of "dissent" are over and that we are moving toward a more classical form of dictatorship.
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1) It is necessary to remind the reader that in a XXI century dictatorship what really matters is the control of money and justice. Thus the regime may allow the opposition to control though elections a few districts that are going to be neutered anyway. What matters for the regime is the control of key districts like those with airport and harbors, military bases, etc...
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Added later. William Neuman of the NYT just out with his piece. I am not impressed, and I merely cite it so you know you need to read blogs to know the whole story....ut I truly think
Added later 2. I realize some will complain I did not write about "what next?". But we need to be serious and think this one carefully through. Let me sleep it over.
Errata. When writing this entry I got misled by one of the links I read into confusing Cliver with Carlos Alcala Cordones. They are brothers together in the army but Carlos is not on the DEA list, it is Cliver. Even though it is Cliver who is the unmasked thug it is hard to think that his brother is not somewhat involved in the "business", or at least with the thugs of the regime on non drug related activities. So I have not changed much the paragraph on them, just corrected for names and explained the relationship. It is up to Carlos, if he is elected mayor, to prove me wrong.
As expected, the Venezuelan high court, TSJ, confirms that Venezuela is officially a dictatorship
UPDATED. We just learned that the high court of Venezuela, TSJ, has decided UNANIMOUSLY that the electoral challenges that the opposition sent are not receivable.
There is no surprise there, though I would have expected that at least one justice would have dissented, you know, to save appearances. But the regime is now in full dictatorship mode and the time for such subtleties is past. Long past if you ask me. Also the reasons for the TSJ to discard the arguments are of no interest. It is proven already that people who were dead voted and that that many had to vote under supervision. This is public knowledge, does not require any court verdict besides the one annulling the vote in, at the very least, those centers where such fraud took place. What the TSJ will write are mere manipulations of the law, which they have been doing at a hectic pace since Chavez got sick to ensure that the regime retains power.
As a side comment, the timing is mildly interesting. Capriles announced yesterday that the opposition was tired of waiting for the TSJ and was going to go international courts with the case. Either he had been tipped about the soon to come expected adverse result, or the TSJ decided a preventive move to cow the opposition down, or at least downgrade the charge of denial of justice. A decision may be fair or not, but a decision at least proves that the judicial system took action......
As far as I am concerned it does not change anything. I am tired of repeating that Venezuela is a dictatorship, officially, since late 2010. Maybe now more will see my point where it matters.
PS: I will write more on this, of course. But where is the rush? We did not scream our lungs out in April, why rush now.
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UPDATE
As expected the TSJ dismissal is lame. They claim that 1) that the details were not precise (and the videos? and the lists of dead people voting?) and 2) the challenge had for objective to discredit the institutions more than challenging the results. Duh! Besides that the institutions are already quite discredited by themselves, it reinforces the natural tendency of a dictatorship: paranoia.
What to do now? Maybe I should buy a PowerBall ticket and bail out of Dodge...
There is no surprise there, though I would have expected that at least one justice would have dissented, you know, to save appearances. But the regime is now in full dictatorship mode and the time for such subtleties is past. Long past if you ask me. Also the reasons for the TSJ to discard the arguments are of no interest. It is proven already that people who were dead voted and that that many had to vote under supervision. This is public knowledge, does not require any court verdict besides the one annulling the vote in, at the very least, those centers where such fraud took place. What the TSJ will write are mere manipulations of the law, which they have been doing at a hectic pace since Chavez got sick to ensure that the regime retains power.
As a side comment, the timing is mildly interesting. Capriles announced yesterday that the opposition was tired of waiting for the TSJ and was going to go international courts with the case. Either he had been tipped about the soon to come expected adverse result, or the TSJ decided a preventive move to cow the opposition down, or at least downgrade the charge of denial of justice. A decision may be fair or not, but a decision at least proves that the judicial system took action......
As far as I am concerned it does not change anything. I am tired of repeating that Venezuela is a dictatorship, officially, since late 2010. Maybe now more will see my point where it matters.
PS: I will write more on this, of course. But where is the rush? We did not scream our lungs out in April, why rush now.
-----------------
UPDATE
As expected the TSJ dismissal is lame. They claim that 1) that the details were not precise (and the videos? and the lists of dead people voting?) and 2) the challenge had for objective to discredit the institutions more than challenging the results. Duh! Besides that the institutions are already quite discredited by themselves, it reinforces the natural tendency of a dictatorship: paranoia.
What to do now? Maybe I should buy a PowerBall ticket and bail out of Dodge...
Wednesday, 31 July 2013
The dictatorship post Mardo view in Caracas
So, what are we to do with the new aggression against parliamentary democracy yesterday in Caracas?
Nothing much, unfortunately.
I am in the obligation, to start this post, of reminding the reader that as far as this blogger is concerned we are in a de facto dictatorship since the Fall of 2010 (read the posts of December 2010). Then the regime used the votes of an outgoing assembly, elected with 80+% abstention to castrate the ALREADY elected new assembly. That this came to pass and that for all practical purposes nothing came of it, that the opposition in the end meekly took their seat, is one of the reasons of all that came later. And what came later is not pretty: fraud around Chavez disease, refusal to follow the constitutional path to renew the bodies of state, electoral fraud for the reelection of Chavez in 2012, judicial coup at the death of Chavez to ensure that Maduro reached power, naked electoral fraud in April 2013 to seat Maduro, plus an assortment of other disgraceful moments such as the beating up of representatives in the national assembly, the further silencing of free media, waves of expropriation followed by waves of corruption, etc, etc..... Again, just the collection of December 2010 is enough to document the whole disaster.
And some people still try to pretend that we are in a "special" type of authoritarian democracy, missing completely how the nature of power has shifted in the XXI century and how the parameters of democracy defining have also shifted. But let's not digress...
The opposition then decided to put all of its eggs in the 2012 election basket, betting that either Chavez will die before the election or that they could actually beat him, even though it was patently clear that the 2012 election was going to be even less democratic than the 2006 vote, if possible. We all know how that went. Certainly, the treachery of the regime was not able to hid the progress of the opposition and this pushed the regime to steal outright the election in April 2013, tolerated by Latin America for reasons that they will regret someday.
A regime that has forfeited the pseudo democratic way that Chavez maintained until his referendum defeat of 2007 and that has crossed the red line of presidential election steal, is not going to stop anymore. That means, among its other obligations to keep power, that the National Assembly has to be neutered completely, recovering by all means a solid 66% majority by expelling the opposition representatives that are not willing to bend over, take bribes, switch sides or at least shut up. The regime has too much to lose, too many of its stars will find their way to jail the day the regime falls.
That serious pollsters are unanimous in saying that the opposition is ahead in polls today, not by much but by a significant number, not only gives further credence to the fraud accusation of last April, but sends the regime into panic. Hence the current increase in repression where the Mardo thing yesterday is just one of its manifestation, though of the gravest nature since it means the regime is about to expel from the National Assembly as many representatives as it wishes to do.
It is not the time to bemoan the errors that the opposition made, of which I could put dozens of links from this blog. What is done is done and the opposition politicians are paying the price themselves finally, not only us on foot. The question is what to do.
I think that waiting for the municipal elections of December is futile: the regime will simply not recognize those results, already promoting the "comunas" which went dormant last December when the shocked country allowed an undeserved Governor election victory for the regime. With the reactivation of the comunas law it will not matter if the opposition has a landslide victory ion December 8: within months the "comunas" will have chopped off the opposition districts.
No, the time has come to a more confrontational approach, preferably one that makes UNASUR and the OAS assume their responsibilities. Next Saturday finally the opposition has called for its first large scale protest since April 14. We shall see.
Nothing much, unfortunately.
I am in the obligation, to start this post, of reminding the reader that as far as this blogger is concerned we are in a de facto dictatorship since the Fall of 2010 (read the posts of December 2010). Then the regime used the votes of an outgoing assembly, elected with 80+% abstention to castrate the ALREADY elected new assembly. That this came to pass and that for all practical purposes nothing came of it, that the opposition in the end meekly took their seat, is one of the reasons of all that came later. And what came later is not pretty: fraud around Chavez disease, refusal to follow the constitutional path to renew the bodies of state, electoral fraud for the reelection of Chavez in 2012, judicial coup at the death of Chavez to ensure that Maduro reached power, naked electoral fraud in April 2013 to seat Maduro, plus an assortment of other disgraceful moments such as the beating up of representatives in the national assembly, the further silencing of free media, waves of expropriation followed by waves of corruption, etc, etc..... Again, just the collection of December 2010 is enough to document the whole disaster.
And some people still try to pretend that we are in a "special" type of authoritarian democracy, missing completely how the nature of power has shifted in the XXI century and how the parameters of democracy defining have also shifted. But let's not digress...
The opposition then decided to put all of its eggs in the 2012 election basket, betting that either Chavez will die before the election or that they could actually beat him, even though it was patently clear that the 2012 election was going to be even less democratic than the 2006 vote, if possible. We all know how that went. Certainly, the treachery of the regime was not able to hid the progress of the opposition and this pushed the regime to steal outright the election in April 2013, tolerated by Latin America for reasons that they will regret someday.
A regime that has forfeited the pseudo democratic way that Chavez maintained until his referendum defeat of 2007 and that has crossed the red line of presidential election steal, is not going to stop anymore. That means, among its other obligations to keep power, that the National Assembly has to be neutered completely, recovering by all means a solid 66% majority by expelling the opposition representatives that are not willing to bend over, take bribes, switch sides or at least shut up. The regime has too much to lose, too many of its stars will find their way to jail the day the regime falls.
That serious pollsters are unanimous in saying that the opposition is ahead in polls today, not by much but by a significant number, not only gives further credence to the fraud accusation of last April, but sends the regime into panic. Hence the current increase in repression where the Mardo thing yesterday is just one of its manifestation, though of the gravest nature since it means the regime is about to expel from the National Assembly as many representatives as it wishes to do.
It is not the time to bemoan the errors that the opposition made, of which I could put dozens of links from this blog. What is done is done and the opposition politicians are paying the price themselves finally, not only us on foot. The question is what to do.
I think that waiting for the municipal elections of December is futile: the regime will simply not recognize those results, already promoting the "comunas" which went dormant last December when the shocked country allowed an undeserved Governor election victory for the regime. With the reactivation of the comunas law it will not matter if the opposition has a landslide victory ion December 8: within months the "comunas" will have chopped off the opposition districts.
No, the time has come to a more confrontational approach, preferably one that makes UNASUR and the OAS assume their responsibilities. Next Saturday finally the opposition has called for its first large scale protest since April 14. We shall see.
Monday, 29 July 2013
Vagabunderias y permanente subdesarrollo chavista en Venezuela
Este fin de semana vimos dos cosas que deberían dejar pensativo a muchos en Venezuela. De un lado nos decretan un tal Instituto de Altos Estudios del Pensamiento de Hugo Chávez y por el otro leemos que analistas piensan que Mexico es el mejor candidato para ser un líder en tecnología, un Silicon Valley Latinoamericano. Empecemos por el segundo que es mas prometedor de futuro.
Para crear un valle de la silicona (y no de la usada por la estética que para eso Venezuela si está posicionada) se necesita talante humano, una masa critica de creadores, estabilidad y garantías jurídicas y preferiblemente cercanía al principal inversionista en la materia, sea Europa o EE.UU. México gana según el artículo. ¿Porque pierden los otros?
Chile, a pesar de su desarrollo, pierde por su poca población y su distancia. Perú y Colombia porque arrancaron la carrera tecnológica tarde. Argentina, que se supone hubiese sido un excelente candidato, tiene una economía y sociedad en franco deterioro mientras que los otros están en franca expansión. Los otros países son demasiado pequeños, obviamente. ¿Pero porque pierde Brasil frente a México? Porque México tiene un ambiente mas favorable a la creación intelectual, porque es mas fácil crear empresas que en Brasil, porque hay protección contra piratería. Y agregaría yo porque Brasil todavía se satisface mucho con ser exportador de materias primas semi transformadas mientras México entendió que ya no le es posible.
¿Y Venezuela? El articulo no la menciona a pesar de tener población superior a Chile, a pesar de tener recursos mas accesibles que Perú, a pesar de no tener (todavía) guerrilla mortal como en Colombia. Este artículo sencillamente nos recuerda otra vez mas que Venezuela se ha vuelto irrelevante en la economía mundial, a pesar de sus ventajas petroleras y de su cercanía a los mercados desarrollados.
Lo mas triste en este asunto es que Venezuela no tiene perspectivas de mejoría, ni siquiera en el largo plazo. Mas que nunca somos una economía basada en la exportación de una única materia prima. Estamos hoy en un sistema que cierra el paso a la innovación y la tecnología porque la corrupción y la ignorancia nos carcomen. Nuestra base educativa crea graduados de un sistema de gobierno cuyos títulos no valen nada mientras que los centros donde todavía si se puede estudiar careras productivas están asfixiados porque no se quieren rendir ante una ideología ya descompuesta.
Ante este desolador panorama para nuestro país, ayer nos dieron otro golpe. El Instituto decretado por Maduro va a estudiar el pensamiento de un tipo cuya violencia dividió a nuestro país, que creó una corrupción material inaudita para sustentar una corrupción peor, la política y moral. El tipo ha pasado sus 14 años de poder en cortar la cabeza a cualquier innovador que despunte, que le cree la mas mínima sombra. Hugo Chávez a pasado su vida entera en retrotraer Venezuela al caudillismo del siglo XIX, y por si fuera poco, la convirtió al final en colonia del país más atrasado de América Latina: Cuba. Ahora se pretende que la cháchara que Chávez eructó durante 14 años se destile en un "pensamiento" preciso que, imaginamos, servirá de excusa para mantenernos en la esclavitud de la ignorancia.
¿Cual esperanza?
Para crear un valle de la silicona (y no de la usada por la estética que para eso Venezuela si está posicionada) se necesita talante humano, una masa critica de creadores, estabilidad y garantías jurídicas y preferiblemente cercanía al principal inversionista en la materia, sea Europa o EE.UU. México gana según el artículo. ¿Porque pierden los otros?
Chile, a pesar de su desarrollo, pierde por su poca población y su distancia. Perú y Colombia porque arrancaron la carrera tecnológica tarde. Argentina, que se supone hubiese sido un excelente candidato, tiene una economía y sociedad en franco deterioro mientras que los otros están en franca expansión. Los otros países son demasiado pequeños, obviamente. ¿Pero porque pierde Brasil frente a México? Porque México tiene un ambiente mas favorable a la creación intelectual, porque es mas fácil crear empresas que en Brasil, porque hay protección contra piratería. Y agregaría yo porque Brasil todavía se satisface mucho con ser exportador de materias primas semi transformadas mientras México entendió que ya no le es posible.
¿Y Venezuela? El articulo no la menciona a pesar de tener población superior a Chile, a pesar de tener recursos mas accesibles que Perú, a pesar de no tener (todavía) guerrilla mortal como en Colombia. Este artículo sencillamente nos recuerda otra vez mas que Venezuela se ha vuelto irrelevante en la economía mundial, a pesar de sus ventajas petroleras y de su cercanía a los mercados desarrollados.
Lo mas triste en este asunto es que Venezuela no tiene perspectivas de mejoría, ni siquiera en el largo plazo. Mas que nunca somos una economía basada en la exportación de una única materia prima. Estamos hoy en un sistema que cierra el paso a la innovación y la tecnología porque la corrupción y la ignorancia nos carcomen. Nuestra base educativa crea graduados de un sistema de gobierno cuyos títulos no valen nada mientras que los centros donde todavía si se puede estudiar careras productivas están asfixiados porque no se quieren rendir ante una ideología ya descompuesta.
Ante este desolador panorama para nuestro país, ayer nos dieron otro golpe. El Instituto decretado por Maduro va a estudiar el pensamiento de un tipo cuya violencia dividió a nuestro país, que creó una corrupción material inaudita para sustentar una corrupción peor, la política y moral. El tipo ha pasado sus 14 años de poder en cortar la cabeza a cualquier innovador que despunte, que le cree la mas mínima sombra. Hugo Chávez a pasado su vida entera en retrotraer Venezuela al caudillismo del siglo XIX, y por si fuera poco, la convirtió al final en colonia del país más atrasado de América Latina: Cuba. Ahora se pretende que la cháchara que Chávez eructó durante 14 años se destile en un "pensamiento" preciso que, imaginamos, servirá de excusa para mantenernos en la esclavitud de la ignorancia.
¿Cual esperanza?
Wednesday, 24 July 2013
The ghost of Chavez over the Venezuelan fleet
Today is the birthday of Bolivar, and as a happy coincidence for some parties, the victory of Maracaibo lake which was the last "battle" fought against Spain for independence. Thus it is also the navy's day. We got a never ending cadena for idiot political speech and an even more idiotic naval parade. Among other things we could verify that indeed we have more admirals, vice admirals and counter admirals than serviceable battle ships. The naval parade had to include peñeros to bulk up some...
Normally I would not watch it but I was lazy in my hammock enjoying the fee afternoon and waited to turn off TV. When suddenly I saw Chavez ghost... Thus I grabbed my camera and made this 30sec clip for you....
Yes, they use the soundtrack of Chavez singing the national anthem to lead the navy officers and the public along. For the TV audience, mostly chavista lumpen at this stage and idiot bloggers with too much time on their hands, they appropriately fade in and out a ghost of Chavez, all well calculated. Observe also that they all wear the now standard fascist arm band of the regime.
I did not record it for you but later own they had the staging on a truck float of the alleged soldiers discussion at the Maracaibo battle, totally out of military context, totally out of historical record, pathetically silly.
And of course, besides rewriting history and using historical symbols for political partiality, the occasion was used to attack the opposition.
Fascism always evolve towards ridicule. It cannot be helped. But what is very dangerous is how the navy allows itself to be so politically manipulated, permeated......
Normally I would not watch it but I was lazy in my hammock enjoying the fee afternoon and waited to turn off TV. When suddenly I saw Chavez ghost... Thus I grabbed my camera and made this 30sec clip for you....
Yes, they use the soundtrack of Chavez singing the national anthem to lead the navy officers and the public along. For the TV audience, mostly chavista lumpen at this stage and idiot bloggers with too much time on their hands, they appropriately fade in and out a ghost of Chavez, all well calculated. Observe also that they all wear the now standard fascist arm band of the regime.
I did not record it for you but later own they had the staging on a truck float of the alleged soldiers discussion at the Maracaibo battle, totally out of military context, totally out of historical record, pathetically silly.
And of course, besides rewriting history and using historical symbols for political partiality, the occasion was used to attack the opposition.
Fascism always evolve towards ridicule. It cannot be helped. But what is very dangerous is how the navy allows itself to be so politically manipulated, permeated......
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