Thy electoral CNE shoe droppeth

There will be a lot of brouhaha in the next days about the ignominious decision of the CNE to do its utmost to violate the constitution in order to block the Recall Election against Maduro. Let me try to make it clear for readers still hanging around here.

1) The motivation in any case is to annul the Recall Election, or in the very worst case push it to 2017 which means that the regime remains in office until January 2019 at the very least.


In fact, the regime has announced today through one of its formal provocateurs, Pedro Carroña Carreño, that voting was not a fundamental right, that there was more pressing needs like food or medicine than elections. The provocation is, of course, the public knowledge that the crisis is the regime fault and thus it will never win an election again, and it knows it. Never mind that there might not be money for elections but there was cash for the useless NOAL summit in Margarita last week that could have easily paid for an election. Nevermind on how much medicine could have been bought out of the food given, say, to Mugabe.

In short, before I go into details, as I already wrote in previous entries, the regime does not want elections. Period.

2) The constitution states clearly that any recall election must be asked by 20% of the voters in the district that elected the said person. The electoral board CNE today announced that even though Maduro was elected nation wide the opposition will need to collect 20% in each and every state. So, even if, say, 30% nationwide signed for the recall election it is enough that in a single state there is ONE VOTE missing for the 20% to annul the whole experience. The article 72 is clear and precise, there is a need for a 20% nation wide and it is irrelevant if that number is reached through 100% of voters in state X while state Y has 0% signatures.

Thus we have right there a flagrant violation of the constitution. If they do that so bluntly what can we expect for the "details" next?

3) The CNE said that it would give the opposition only 3 weekdays, 7 hour week day, with one hour for lunch for the CNE workers. That is there will be a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday allocated, from 8 AM to noon and from 1 PM to 4 PM. That is, unless your boss gives you the time to stand in line for hours you will not be able to sign up for the recall election. Never mind public workers who will be tightly controlled those days and fired on the spot if they are out of office during that timetable.

4) And to make sure that this timetable is even more difficult to fulfill the CNE has allocated only 5,392 finger printing machines. Let's do some simple arithmetic.

If all goes well, no electric outage, no sabotage, no violence, etc, etc...  we have 21 hours per machine. Let's assume that each machine can collect one signature per minute in such perfect conditions. The maximum signatures that can be thus collected in those three days are:

5,392 X 21 X 60 = 6,793,920 signatures.

We need, besides the per state quota difficulty, 3,893,129 signatures. That is not bad you may say. Think again. I have assumed that the 21 hours will be indeed perfect 21 hours. Also, there are always imponderables and we know from experience that the CNE has a proclivity to annul signatures at will, even if collected by themselves. The "safe number" is not 20% per state, it is 25% per state, which is above 5 million nationwide.

A couple of rainstorms across the country is enough to already make you lose half a million. A few well designed power outages and there you have another half a million gone. Since it is to be collected state by state all those that cannot return to their home state will not be able to sign. Etc.....

Not collecting on a week end makes it, just becasue of logistics, very difficult to get that 4 million signatures. Since elections are on Sundays, you can appreciate in full the hypocrisy and cynicism of the CNE in deciding on working days and working hours for signature collection.

5) And at this point we do not know yet other details such as where the limited numbers of collection centers will be located.  If you vote here but you need to go over there, preferably in a rough neighborhood, to sign up, will you?

6) But just for good measure the CNE has announced that it will take its sweet time to decide whether the signatures have indeed been collected. Nevermind that they collected them themselves, with their people, their machines, etc. They blithely said that the Recall Election "could take place" during the first quarter of 2017. Thus annulling its desired effect, as I mentioned above.

Voila!

This being said.

Technically there is still a possibility for the recall election to be held before January 10. After all, January 9 IS in the first quarter of 2017. All will depend of course on what the opposition MUD will do in the coming days and how willing is the army to repress as needed.

Right now, today, it would seem that the regime has accepted to remove Maduro from office. But that is all, he must be replaced by someone inside the regime, WITHOUT presidential election. That is right, if Mauro were to be recalled in the first quarter of 2017, the vice president HE NAMES one day before the vote would be the one that would complete the remaining two years of the term. AN UNELECTED PRESIDENT, AN APPOINTED PRESIDENT FOR TWO YEARS. If you think that this will solve the political crisis........... think again.

As I have written several times, the solution to the crisis is not electoral, it is political through a show of force. The easiest exit is for Maduro to resign today and we elect a new president (in office for only 2 years, so incoherent is the 1999 constitution). The opposition would win that election and for two years would have to deal with the horrendous crisis. Thus in December 2018 chavismo could make again a case to be returned to office.

But that would be if chavismo were in the hands of democrats which is not the case. Chavismo is owned by a military-narko-mafia which will be indicted in many an international court. A mafia controlled from Havana at that.

Tell me, is there a possible pacific electoral outcome? No. No way. The only outcome is through a break up inside the army to force out of office the most corrupt elements. That is, chavistas against chavistas. The best we can hope is for Maduro to be forced to resign.

The Recall Election is not an option but it is about the only pressure the opposition has right now. Unless we go into civil disobedience, a constitutional assembly election (mbwahahah!) or something of the sort.

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Two not quite related comments.

1) it seems that chavismo wants the opposition to do the dirty job of removing Maduro and only that. It is almost as if the regime wanted the opposition to give up on the Recall Election and negotiate something like a power sharing arrangement which would allow for some legal protection for the narko-personnel.

2) observe that the CNe conditions do not make it absolutely impossible for the opposition to get the 20% it needs but it makes it impossible for the opposition to get more signatures than the votes Maduro got in 2013. At least that humiliation would be spared the regime, if worse came to worse for it.

"Margarita follies": a cheap vaudeville in 5 acts

Prologue

PSUV tent city
Courtesy Elides Rojas tweet

In the fair city of Caracas, Henry Ramos gathers a few friends for a big party. Nicolas Maduro is not invited and he tries to sabotage Henry's party by complaining to the police for loud noise, and trying to hold a party of his own on a red shirt theme. His party is a bust: even people walking by Nico's party with red shirts take them off to go to Henry shindig.

Act 1 Nicolas at Pinkyville

Nicolas is furious at Henry and his friends, In particular those with orange shirts that accepted to don white ones at Henry's party. To get fresher airs he decides to go out of Caracas to visit a homestead where he is told lot's of people love him and would have gone to his party had he be willing to foot the cost. Lo and behold, when he reaches Pinkyville he finds his friends very pissed off at him because he took all of their food for his party in Caracas. Furious, they bring out a protest steel band of pots and pans to accompany their protest song. We will never now for sure but there may have been a exchange of more than just insults. Nico must make a quick exit and go back to Caracas swearing that all of these people have been sent by the folks of Henry's party.

Act 2 The revenge of the bitter

At Miraflores Palace Nico and his gang are sulking. They need to avenge themselves of so many humiliations even though the bard Vox Populi tells them that they asked for it. But she is a relative of Cassandra and everybody hates that bitch even more.

There is also the problem of that chic gathering to start soon next door to Pinkyville, where all the faded B list will gather to toast Nicolas who is paying for the drinks. Short of time, they decide to start taking on the orange shirts of Henry's party accusing them of street noise and killing kittens with farts. For good measure, to warn other people who attended Henry's party they send to the slammer Braulio who we learn apparently commutes back and forth from work with thousand of dollars in his car. It seems he did not know that such things go under mattresses,

Act 3 The neighborhood complains

All these people held against their will, with all sorts of made up excuses, manage a lot of noise. All sorts of neighbors complain, in particular Braulio's father who would like to know at the very least where is Braulio held. Nico's Friday girl Delcy vulgarly tells Chile Wine Export, the company of Braulio relatives to fuck off which not only infuriates further Braulio's Dad but brings out his uncle Almagro and the neighborhood watch HRF.

Some suggest that Delcy's therapist should not be his brother as it compromises the ethics of the trade and creates such unpleasantness and incompetency in such an insecure petty creature.

Act 4 Nico's fraternity bash

Considering all of this real and imaginary saboteurs, depending whom you ask, Nico's gang decide to lock up Margarita Island so nobody from main land could go to Pinkyville. Not even Henry who wanted to tell the guests that Nico stole his money to pay for the lavish party, money that was to be given to charity like taking care of children with cancer.

Enrique also wanted to go to Margarita to visit his God Mother on her birthday. He was trapped at the airport by a gang of red shirts who even grabbed their junk in offering to Enrique. This one filmed it all and this may have been the first case of live fascist porn on Periscope. The passengers going along with him enjoyed the show and backed Enrique refusing to leave the place so much fun they were having. Soon the good people of Pinkyville was rumored to be on their way to the airport and thus the red goons decided to retreat protected from video cameras and steel bands by the Venezuelan security apparatus.

To avoid further surprises Nico's gang decided to be able to sleep tight in their luxury hotel by having a few hundred red shirts come over. Since they were service they were put to sleep outside, in tents with rudimentary hygiene on some dirt undeveloped property. That way they could watch them form their AC suites and call on them as needed.  Any similarity to slavery or indented labour is purely coincidental.

Act 5 What if you give a party and (almost) no one shows up?

So Nicolas launched his party without witnesses to which more than 100 head of gangs were expected. Apparently not even a dozen came and none of the stars, though plenty of underlings came to enjoy all sorts of amenities at Henry's cancer struck children expense.

And yet Delcy did all what she could to entice them to come, waiting for the few of them that came on the tarmac itself, with lots of hugs and offers to carry their bags and free them from customs duty. Unfortunately the luminaries that came where those that had no choice. Rouani came because he had to pass the bills to Nico from past bashes; Raul needed to get his monthly stipend; Rafael because he has nothing better to do and Robert, who is not invited to any other party around the World, would not miss that one.

While the bash took place another formal diner party was held elsewhere. The guests decided that Nico would not be welcome anymore to their parties because he cannot stop acting like a brat and never pays his bills. Jose from Brazil made it a point to underline that Nico had not met any of the obligations he was supposed to meet in order to join that southern club.

Epilogue

Back at Miraflores Nico and the gang realize that they are more lonely than ever, that even paying for people party is not enough to have them show up. Someone suggests to jail all of Henry's friends around Miraflores so that nobody would know about such isolation.

Narko-Radikalismus

When everything fails, repeat it all. In particular the parts that clearly are rotten at the root.

This is what Maduro has done last week.

The paradox in covering Venezuela lately is that change is so continuous that it is enough to write about tendency. The rest are details quickly swept under the rug, no need to write about it unless you have time on your hands or are paid for that (lucky you!).

Roughly the story.

*Maduro cannot provide food.
*He names his minister of defense, Padrino, as food tsar, making him a de facto co president.
*Then, as an after thought he decides that it may have been a mistake to give such leeway to the military so he changes three of the non military cabinet position to set in three of the most radical elements he can find.
*Add to this that in the background the few ministers that have suggested change have been immediately shut down by radicals pols not inside of the current cabinet.

Explanations?

*In the previous entry I explained why the regime cannot get out of the currency control policy as its whole graft power based structure will fall in weeks. As such it does not matter who Maduro names as his co president, that befuddled person will not be able to bring diner to the Venezuelan table as the cupboards are empty and stores stopped deliveries until they get paid.

*Surely Padrino must have known that and he took the job for some other reason. Whatever the reasons are for him to become co-president (real president?) he needs to act fast because within two weeks of his nomination nothing has improved. Which were the reasons? One is that the regime being a military sponsored dictatorship it is just natural that the military start assuming a more public role. A novel XXI century military dictatorship if you like.  A velvet coup some have said.

*Alternatively it is possible that he military have decided to get get rid of Maduro and the ascension of Padrino is the first sign of a bona fide transition (towards democracy? open dictatorship? but maduroless for sure). Thus the reaction of Maduro to surround himself of radicals he is used to as a counterweight to Padrino. The real question would thus be how come Padrino did allow those changes.

It is important to note that one of the ministers fired was the lone "pragmatic" one who suggested that currency control had served its course. He was replaced by a communist and that is that (Carlos Faria). It is even more important to note that Ricardo Molina was brought back from the National Assembly to occupy one of the posts where money and graft opportunities abound. He was the radical firing any ministry worker that was not red enough to his taste. But do not think that he is a pure radical: nepotism is also his trade mark as it is apparently the case from Nicaragua to Maduro's wife Cilia Flores. Mouth on the left, privileges on the right, they all are.

And in case you do not get the point that Maduro has no better idea but to veer left/radical for his own protection by hiring ideologues that will be willing to take the fall for him, he also hired as interior minister Nestor Reverol, former Nazional Guard head. The problem here is that Reverol has just been indicted in the US for drug trafficking.  Clearly, Maduro knows that Reverol loyalty is assured since there is nowhere else for him to go.

Why this whole charade of pursuing policies that have failed, making them harsher if possible and have drug traffickers hired for protection?

Besides the obvious, that Miraflores Palace is a nest of scoundrels, assorted thugs and mafiosi, and thus they relate to what they already know, we need to look elsewhere.

This is a strategy to gain time, to intimidate and have people beyond the pale do whatever it takes to ensure Maduro's survival, even if it is for a previous few additional months.

The final question becomes thus who can possibly be so desperate to accept the utter ruin of Venezuela?

Blaming this on people like Diosdado Cabello is not enough, After all someone must have pointed out to him that sanguinary tyrants that die in their beds like Stalin are less frequent than those who meet less settled endings. People like Diosdado are hysterically radical as a way to force unacceptable conditions in an eventual negotiation.

So, who really pushes Maduro to such radicalization, harbinger of disaster without any historical exception? Only someone who will not be directly affected by the eventual collapse of the regime; or at least that will be far enough from ground zero when the day comes.  There is only one candidate that fits the bill and that is Cuba and the Castros. By forcing their creature Maduro to ravage the country to its last penny to support Cuba they know the regime dooms itself and any political future it may have thereafter. But they do not care, they need that extra little bit of money to bridge the gap until they finish negotiating with the US, Europe and even China.

Only a regime as vile as the Cuban one can prod Maduro into doing what he is doing these days. Then again the Castros have a long experience in starving people to death.

Diary of Venezuelan businesses demise

It is now vox populi that Venezuela is suffering a major politically induced economic crisis which has yielded bread lines and people dead from the lack of medicine. The two root causes are well known. Historically it starts with a dependency on a major resource to feed a dysfunctional patronage and welfare state; oil. Populism has been the continuing line of politics since the late 60ies, a line dramatically expanded by Hugo Chavez since 1998. To this tradition Chavez added incompetency, empty ideas, willful prejudice, corruption and even drug traffic, the lone prosperous industry in Venezuela these days.

It is not the aim of this entry to detail the catastrophe that has befallen Venezuela. I will only write some of the key events that have happened to my business, making it nearly bankrupt not through my own possible incompetency but through regulations that have strangled the life of all private business that are not associated with the corruption of the regime.


Chavez started with a new constitution that had a "free property, but..." feel. At first things kept as they were in 1998 which is to say not very well. But we could work, we could import raw materials to work, an important element since already in 1998 Venezuela was a net importer of raw materials and semi processed goods. Still, my business, agribusiness in nature, was able to do some small exports and was poised to expand these significantly to Colombia. Other plans included a project to export to Europe a choice crop from our family farm once our volume justified the export needs and costs, a farm for which we had obtained organic certification.

Then, slowly but surely the regime started to establish a series of controls that wrecked the economy. I am not going to go through them chronologically, just giving a main list.

In fairness not all chavismo intents were nefarious. For example the LOCTI law was voted to promote investments in technology by the private sector. That law created a tax that you could be exempt of if you used the tax amount in an investment project. That is, if your project was approved you could purchase, say, research equipment and then import it tax free to Venezuela. You could also include in the deal expenses to develop the system in your business. It was not a tax break per se, but autonomy in using some of the tax money for a productive project. An incentive to invest, in other words.

We did that, we purchased an analytical tool worth at the time 50,000 dollars, including miscellaneous expenses. Plenty of people did as we did, small projects like us or large laboratories set ups. But we should have known that such goodwill and constructive legislation would not last. First came the state inspections to verify whether we had actually done what our project stated. One day I saw a contingent of a dozen people arrive unannounced to inspect our purchase. We wasted two days explaining everything. We passed with flying colors, of course, but we already noticed the growing distrust of the regime as to anything private. And the increasing bureaucratic nature of the regime to send a dozen people where a single inspector would have sufficed, for one day at most.

You could be forgiven to believe that our track record would have allowed us to invest in yet a new piece of advanced technology, but this was never to pass. The regime saw LOCTI as a way to distract tax revenue for the state, not for the technological advances it brought to the country, in addition of creating new high paying jobs. The LOCTI was modified. Now only if the government approves the project would you get from the government the money for it, allegedly out of the tax pool collected. That is, first you should keep paying the LOCTI tax required without any guarantee that someday you could recover part of it in a suitable project. Of the diverse companies I do business with, not a single one has had a project approved in the last 7 years (never mind my own group). LOCTI is now just an additional tax burden. Note that one of the LOCTI goals was to finance public research. This one today is nearly zero. Nobody knows where LOCTI money goes but we all must pay.

Another shock came when currency control was installed in 2003. From then on you had to seek an import permit from the government to obtain the foreign currency you needed for such an import. This generated an extraordinary graft industry, a self explanatory consequence that I will not detail. What it meant to us was the creation of three job positions of people devoted only to tracking all the required paperwork. That is, these three people do not take any part on the purchase decision process, they only do the paperwork. Their only "productive" contribution, occasionally, is to supervise the arrival at harbors of some of our imports.

If this above is a direct cost, and if corruption is an indirect one, there is major indirect cost associated with such a control system: the impossibility to draw a coherent developing plan. All your projects are at the mercy of a bureaucratic erratic delay and when you deal with perishables you need to be conservative and slow down you growth since the failure to receive in a timely fashion corn for your feed or fertilizer for your crop can ruin you. In other words, you cannot start producing until you are certain that you will get it all at hand, a process that can add months to your production delays. Never mind the costs from holding stocks.

Speaking of erratic supplies. These were made worse by the policies of expropriation of good land and good farms. As rice farms were intervened, as supplies for cash crops was interrupted through expropriations of agricultural giants like Agroisleña, it became increasingly difficult to obtain a regular supply for your crops and animal feed, hence the continuous drop in production in these fields, to today's shortages. And never mind that the currency exchange control fostered corruption to the point of favoring for years overpriced imports that destroyed the local production which is today missing.

This already would be enough, but it is not all. Another apparent good intention of the regime was to improve workers safety. Unfortunately this one through the LOPCYMAT law did not even have a few halcyon days like LOCTI did. This new law was conceived from the start not only as an improvement on mandatory safety measures for workers, a commendable goal by any standard, but also as a way to infiltrate politically the work place. It is a requirement that elections are held among workers to set "safety delegates" personnel who benefits of union privileges, namely impossibility of being fired during their tenure.

That is still something we can work around. What is not is that these elected representatives must attend, at business expense, monthly day long seminars which are basically an exercice in indoctrination against the evils of capitalism that is intent on killing workers or something to that effect. These seances come with red Che posters and assorted insults if the safety delegates do not show enough enthusiasm for their mission and if they do not report enough irregularities from their employers. Never mind that to face the sometimes ridiculous requirements of the law we have had to hire special consultants to organize the safety books, organize the workers elections for safety delegate and what not. Needless to say that after an early sense of empowerment those safety delegates became tired of the whole charade and now business must beg for workers willing to run for these elections and in our case even offer bonuses for those willing to put up with the chores imposed on safety delegates.

Other bureaucratic workers right were reinforced. Although not properly a bureaucracy, the near impossibility to fire workers also generates many costs. Besides the need to negotiate in advance settlements with nasty workers so that they "willingly resign their job" there is a whole addendum of paperwork required that we did not use to have. For example we now have several lawyers on call to deal with those situations. This in addition of increased HR departments work as we now have to provide, for example, "entertainment" for workers and their families. This gives you an idea of the paternalistic functions which are foisted on business.

Another ruinous aspect is the price control system. Fortunately the products I work with are not subjected to price control. Yet in theory we cannot have more than 30% pricing over our production costs. So this adds increased pressure on the costs department, more work, so that we have a finely tuned cost system and we can keep our benefits at no more than 28% and avoid those ruinous inspections that can block for days all the workings of a company. Yes, when these inspections come by law the inspectors can demand any paper they want and you must provide for them no matter what you are doing. That is, for the duration of the inspection you can only attend to the very basic needs of your company as these inspectors literally suck the life out of you. Let me remind you that a 28% gain with an inflation in the three digits means that you actually lose capital over time. Never mind that you need to adjust prices at least once a month, hence more calculations. But I digress.

There are more examples I can give but to finish this let's revisit the organic crops we were planning on developing to get enough volume to justify exports. Sometime in 2002 or 2003 if memory serves me well Chavez decided that Venezuela should not export food, that it was a crime against the Venezuelan people to sell its food overseas. I am not going to insult the reader intelligence discussing the ignorance of Chavez as failing to understand that it is OK for Venezuela to export tropical fruits in exchange of apples and wine.

The fact of the matter is that not only we had to stop the small exports we were already making, and lose all the marketing made before, losing those markets, but even the organic farm project was stopped. We did not renew our organic certification. We stopped planting new land. We basically maintained what we had, at a loss, in the hope that someday exports be authorized again. To which I must add that the devastating insecurity that now hovers all of the farm land of Venezuela has made it impossible for us to visit the farm for the last 4 years. We have to rely on intermediaries and hope for the best. Owners of land simply cannot reside on their lands anymore as they will, within days, be attacked by armed gangs bent on ransom. If you persist then you must pay for armored vehicles and at least a couple of body guards. More costs that not every business can afford.

There are also two other factors straight from bureaucratic hell that counters any attempt at improving production. Some stuff can only be bought through the government now, for example grain for feed. Needless to point out how delays increased and corruption costs became prohibitive: in some cases businesses have had to pay 6 times over the official price on some of the grains needed, money paid through false factures for false services rendered. Another beauty is that nothing that is used to manufacture food for human consumption can circulate on Venezuela roads without government permit. That is, if I want to deliver a truck of, say, morning cereal, I need to declare it on line, await permission and declare it again once it has been delivered before my customer can use it. Imagine the delays in a country where Internet is more and more deficient. The information must even contain the ID card number of the driver! Any missing detail and you risk confiscation of your goods on the road at one of the Nazional Guard check points. You can figure out the added costs, including corruption of guards that check you out on the roads.

I trust that after this text you will understand better how come there is no food on the shelves in Venezuela. If I were working in the pharmacy sector, or textiles, or whatever I could probably write a similar tale of bureaucracy run amok. There is no mystery as to why Venezuela is not producing anymore. It is not due to the fall of oil prices. It is due to the incompetence, neglect, and stubborn ideology that is the core of the Chavez project. Let's not forget that in addition to bureaucracy there are many problems with production: devastated infrastructures, from roads to electrical plants; outdated production methods that make us non competitive since we have been frozen for 10 years now; difficult living conditions which make workers less productive (like when they rush out of office during working hours to stand in line for a pound of flour). Etc.

All business in Venezuela still operating and involved in the production of hard goods are nearly bankrupt, holding for dear life. There is no security, not to your property, not to your persona. You cannot plan your production in a rational way. The crisis aggravation has made it nearly impossible to get foreign currency from the regime. Our production system is falling behind the rest of the world in quality and competitiveness. In short, we work harder than ever for less production than ever, while struggling to stay alive as we see all our gains basically end up in the pocket of corrupt officials while el pueblo stands in line and starves.

There is only one question to be answered in future history books: how much of this destruction was willfully planned from the start. It is frightening to think that a regime deliberately planned for the impoverishment of its fellow citizens. But there is no other explanation that holds, in particular since Maduro replaced Chavez in 2013. Then the price of oil went down and the regime found no other palatable solution for their needs but to increase control and keep the level of corruption money, discovering that blackmailing el pueblo was easy if that one was hungry.

What we need, fast.

The evil that circles us

Today Leopoldo Lopez had an OpEd piece published in the Washington Post. The piece may seem short on specifics for us here in Venezuela but we are not the audience. The audience is the US political class in its time of trial during primary season, to let them know that on inauguration day the worst problem in the Western Hemisphere awaiting them will be the humanitarian crisis that is starting in Venezuela this past few weeks. The silence of the US has helped a lot Venezuela become a failed state as Lopez letter implies.

Whether Bernie Sanders will burnish his break from ideologies credentials by condemning the Venezuelan regime or Trump will develop an interest about Venezuela besides the beauty pageants remains to be seen. I'd rather use that editorial to muse on the evil that surrounds the people of Venezuela.

Let's start with Leopoldo Lopez in jail now for two years and condemned for a trial that we now know was based on forged evidence. He is not the lone political prisoner though now he is the best known, a cause in himself. The new National Assembly is trying to pass an amnesty law that is targeted at freeing these people and you should hear the vituperation from the regime's as to that law, announcing without a shade of self doubt, no beam in their eyes,  that it would promote crime in Venezuela.

But we could pass on that, perhaps, on politically motivated vindictive. The problem is that evil sneaks everywhere in the regime. I suppose it all started with the Tascon list of 2003 that split Venezuela in two type of citizens, those against Chavez having from now on a second class status. That list built by killing the vote secrecy is still in use today.

We can remember the multiple violent expropriations, the worse ones in the country side where often people were not even allowed to take their personal belongings. By then the totalitarian nature of the regime's soul could not be hidden anymore.

Then crime went up and up, and jail roles went down and down until the regime allied itself with the jail gangs who operate from the "safety" of the jail for all sorts of racket.

Should I even bother mentioning Venezuela becoming a narco-military regime or is that just a form of business?

But the worst evil was saved for the end, when all of us, chavista voters or staunch opposition alike must suffer lack of food and lack of medicine and the concurrent crime wave.  While the fat high ranking of the regime in all selfishness prove everyday their ignorance of the situation, it is made worse by their denial, and even worse, that they do not care about it. The question is simple and should be asked by anyone; if the regime actually cared about the plight of Venezuelans, would we be in the dire straits we are today? If you have an ounce of integrity you know what the answer is.

Today president Maduro launched in great fanfare a new plan of urban agriculture that is supposed to provide within 100 days 20% of the food intake of the 8 major cities of Venezuela. That this plan is launched at a time of major water shortages in Venezuela cities has not been detected by Maduro and his entourage, Or at least they did not care about it. Failure is certain, the more so in a country that does not like much veggies, and less to work for them. Pretending, in the XXI century, to present an agricultural construct that is a mere throwback to a primitive XIX century in Venezuela when actually privileged people who could lived off their backyard garden is an insult to our intelligence. Now becoming a failed state is an achievement.

To add insult to injury, that new wonder does give birth to a new bureaucracy: National System for Urban and Semi-urban Agriculture that will include a Venezuelan Corporation for Urban and Semi-urban Agriculture. Which gives a new meaning about selling the Tiger hide before killing it....

The ultimate stage of evil is when the torturer starts making fun of its victim. We have reached that stage.

Electricity shortage horrors

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?

Where to start?

The economic emergency decree?

As readers already know this decree is a fraud and cannot be accepted as presented. The Assembly knows it is a vulgar trap to try to put the blame of the crisis on the opposition (which will not work chavismo is misreading the whole thing badly). So the opposition will examine the decree, and will reject it based on some of its glaring lacks suggesting politely that the regime reviews it.

Then we will see what happens. The only good thing that may come from this confrontation is that it may be a fake one used while the real negotiations take place behind closed door.

Presidential commission to solve the crisis?

Yesterday Maduro summoned hundreds of people to an act at the Teresa Carreño, once upon a time the show room of Chavez. Now Maduro need to summon people to fill it up. This being said the top of the private sector still alive was requested to attend, and came. As if they had another option. And out of the proceeding Maduro named a few commissions where an occasional objective person was sit. These commissions are supposed to draft the measures around 9 motors of the economy to get us out of the crisis,.

Nobody explained where the dollars would come from.

I am not holding my breath.

Is Merentes an oriental sheikh?

The scandal defraying tabloids is that Merentes beach home has been robbed. He was alleviated for 300.000 USD, about 50.000 euros and a few expensive watches. Nothing more. The robbers need not break in, they had the keys and wore masks as they had been told about surveillance cameras,  The first question is of course: what the fuck is the president of the Central Bank of Venezuela doing with 300.000 USD in his beach appartement?  Does he not know of a safe bank where to deposit that?

But it gets better: Merentes is not pressing charges, Records are diligently erased and what we know comes from press investigations who get the police sorces to speak, Apparently Merentes is a patron of his hometown of Naiguata. Many surgeries, home fixing, pot holing come through his intercession. The medical part is more interesting as it seems that several of surgeries were not of a nature to save a life threatening condition.  Young girls under age got significant "enhancements" and became mistresses of Merentes for a short while. I suppose until the next one was fully healed.  It is possible that the silence, perhaps even accomplice, of the parents was bought.

And Merentes would have been robbed several times but this time it was a little bit too much and he could not hide it as well. One of the girl, probably a favorite lasting more than the usual even got a set of the keys for convenience so she could get ready for action as soon as Merentes arrived from Caracas.

The question here is which is the worst criminal offense: pedophilia or smuggling illegal amounts of foreign currency that he helped himself out from the Central Bank reserves. In Venezuela morality and ethics are distorted.

Torture of women?

IF all of this was not bad enough get ready for the worst. In her latest visit to Leopoldo Lopez in jail his wife, Lilian Tintori, and Lopez's mother were sent to a different room where they were forced to get naked in front of their kids. Lilian was on the rag and she had to take it off and show to a guard. The director of the center a little while later published an evangelical psalm. He is a christian, you know.

It is to be noted that such a physical abuse made with an excruciatingly lengthy care by female guards (it is my own personal experience that female military are in general way worse than the male ones) is designed to also create psychological damage and it is hence a form of torture.

And that is exactly what happened, OAS secretary Almagro condemned what was done to Lilian Tintori. Though if you read a pro chavismo canard like Panorma, they do cite the tweet of Almagro but in the title you read "reproach", not condemn. Note: Almagro is not the lone international voice criticizing. Only the regime seems to ignore the gravitas that Lilian Tintori has gained.

Conclusion?

The regime is going to keep its show and dance until the end, and at any chance it will play dirty. There are already fake videos presented by Cabello trying to exculpate the commandeer of Ramo Verde where Lopez is jailed.

There are certain red lines that the regime simply cannot accept to yield on: an amnesty law; punishing an abusive military; impunity for high officials is a must; the economic crisis is going to be solved by us and no one else, even if we created it which everyone of course knows they cannot solve anything anymore; the USD are ours to do as we please.

Now, tell me, where do we start dialogue there?
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The tweet from another president supporter to Tintori: Laura Chinchilla

Sólo los COBARDES, son valientes contra los indefensos. Estamos con @liliantintori#Venezuela #ultraje #repudio pic.twitter.com/6yvI4h3mMh

— Laura Chinchilla M (@Laura_Ch) January 19, 2016

La mendacidad de Elias Jaua

Es con usted, diputado Jaua

Leo su respuesta a lo que usted llama "infame el editorial de El Nacional".

Yo no voy a entrar en el debate de si la diputada Tamara Adrian oyó lo que ella oyó. Ella sabrá defenderse; y muy bien lo hará porque ella no tuvo nunca los apoyos que usted tuvo y que le permitieron tirar piedras toda su vida quedando impune.

Tampoco voy a especular si la diputada Adriana D'Elia es una lesbiana. Eso es irrelevante, y ni me importa como a usted no debería importarle lo que la gente hace con su vida privada mientras no afecte a otros. Le recuerdo que su vida privada si afecta a otros cuando, por ejemplo, usted hace que la República cubra los costos de viaje de su niñera bien armada.

Le escribo porque leo en su respuesta a El Nacional estas cosas:

"los dueños de El Nacional otra vez desatan su odio sistemático contra mi persona"
"desarrollan sus prejuicios raciales y de clase en mi contra"
"No he proferido insulto, y mucho menos de carácter homofóbico,contra la diputada Adriana D'Elia a quien respeto como ser humano"
"Nunca he hecho uso de la palabra 'mariposones' acuñada [...]por el diputado Henry Ramos Allup para referirse a los dirigentes del partido Primero Justicia. ¿Quien es el homofóbico?"
"mi reconocimiento, basado en el principio constitucional de la igualdad ciudadana, a sus derechos pero sobre todo en el valor humano y cristiano [...] que profeso"

El problema es que para decir tales cosas uno necesita tener credibilidad y usted no la tiene.

Lei bien el editorial de El Nacional al cual usted se refiere y no veo donde ellos hacen mención de su raza o de su clase. A menos que eso esté implicado, en su criterio, por las palabras "hombre nuevo" y "encapuchamiento".  Si es así le ruego me explique porque yo lo desconozco. En cuanto al odio sistemático no estaría de más que usted lo sustente porque a mi me parece que bastante gente ha criticado sus acciones, sistemáticamente. En eso El Nacional no tendría ningún privilegio. Como figura pública le recomiendo que en esta nueva era se vaya acostumbrando de una buena vez a la crítica sin tomarla personalmente.

Cuando usted escribe que respeta a la diputada D'Elia "como ser humano" usted me va a disculpar pero eso disminuye su credibilidad. Respetar como ser humano es lo menos que se le exige a quien sea, y más que eso a un diputado de la República. Es su deber respetar a la gente como personas, no solamente como seres humanos. Es su deber dar el respeto que usted exige para si mismo.

Acusar a Ramos Allup de homofóbico no resuelve su problema. Que él lo sea no le puede servir en ningún caso de excusa. Entiendo que la mentalidad del chavismo es echarle la culpa a quien sea de sus errores, sea la cuarta república, sea el imperio y se quien sabe que otra bobada como la fulana guerra económica. Pero los errores al final son suyos y usted tiene que asumirlos. El asunto aquí es que su credibilidad esta anulada de antemano por pertenecer a una corriente política de tendencia homofóbica muy bien documentada. ¿Se recordará usted del infame "patiquines maricones de Primero Justica" lanzado por Juan Barreto en el 2004? ¿O las constantes alusiones gay en contra de Henrique Capriles durante las campañas de 2012 y 2013? Sin hablar de la campaña de Cabello contra Mendoza en Miranda donde con sorna el argumentaba Cabello que por fin Miranda tendría primera dama. Sin referirme al historial de la prensa, solamente en mi blog la etiqueta "homofóbia" le conducirá a una serie de artículos donde explico mi posición sobre la homofóbia chavista, empezando en julio del 2004.

Pero personalmente lo que a mi más me molestó en su respuesta a el Nacional fue la ultima parte porque a mi, personalmente, me consta que eso es mentira, que usted no cree en la igualdad ciudadana. Reconozco que siendo yo "sexo diverso", parece que la palabra gay no le gusta a su gente ya que prefieren lo genérico en aras de castigar mas fácilmente lo específico, no he luchado como hubiese debido hacerlo. Pero mi lucha tuvo que ser primero para los valores de todos, desde la libertad de prensa e información hasta la libertad de disfrutar del esfuerzo de mi trabajo. ¿De que me sirven derechos gay si los derechos humanos básicos de la constitución del 99 ni se cumplen y menos se respetan?

Lo que a mi me ha dolido en lo personal leyendo su respuesta es que cuando usted era canciller de la república bolivariana se emitió un comunicado a las embajadas de los países que reconocían las uniones y matrimonios igualitarios prohibiendo tramitar dichas uniones. Aunque sean entre ciudadanos de estos países. Ni siquiera explicando a los venezolanos casándose con un ciudadano de estos países que ese matrimonio/unión no tenia validez alguna en Venezuela. Tengo doble nacionalidad pero no he podido hacer beneficiar a mi pareja de dos décadas de ventajas que podría ofrecerle a través de mi otro pais porque Venezuela no solamente lo prohibe pero no ofrece esas ventajas. Ustedes ni lavan ni prestan la batea.

Por lo tanto, para mi, su concepto de igualdad ciudadana no existe. A menos que sea que todos hagamos cola para poder comer, aunque de seguro tampoco eso se aplica a usted y su familia.

Le sugiero diputado Jaua que usted empiece por disculparse y a actuar como diputado para promover lo que usted nunca quiso hacer cuando podía hacerlo como ministro. Es justicia. ¿O será que se escudará con el "cristiano [...] que profeso"" para también justificar su homofóbia e intolerancia?

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Nota: observo que El Nacional publicó su respuesta, su derecho a replica, privilegio que nadie ofendido por VTV o cualquier medio del gobierno. Medios pagados con los impuestos de todos, le recuerdo.

From rabipelao courts to public lynching: a day of contradictions in the regime

A regime on overdrive to survive has no qualms exploring interesting ways to reach results and contradict itself as it goes, as often as needed.  If you needed evidence that Maduro is grasping for straws, you get them in the last couple of days.

Let's start with the title.  This morning I was writing that Maduro was proposing/ordering kangaroo courts to send the owners of stores he does not like faster to jail.  But tonight I have to write that he wants now "el pueblo" to take the initiative and seize looters.   There are many problems with this. First Maduro recognizes that the looting problem is big enough to deserve a stronger response when 24 hours ago it was mere isolated incidents.  Second, if rabipelao courts are good enough for Daka's owners why not send looters to the same courts? The answer to these contradictions is that Capriles went on record saying what we already all knew from pictures in twitter: the looters are directed by PSUV operatives. And I add since there is no way to prove it at this point, that this is the way chosen by the regime to pay these operatives in view of the dirty work required from them until mid December.

Todos los focos de saqueos,anarquía,caos,son dirigidos por el psuv para después decir que somos nosotros,alertas!
— Henrique Capriles R. (@hcapriles) November 12, 2013

All flash points of looting, anarchy chaos are directed by the PSUV and then they will blame it on us. Be alert!

Another fascinating contradiction is that after having started the worst wave of looting in Venezuela since 1989, and by far, Maduro today asked people to come and invest in the country.  In a day, by the way, where Venezuelans bond dropped as the international trust in the country is about junk bond status.  Can we assume that Maduro is stupid enough to contradict himself so blatantly so fast?  Well, maybe, but there must be something else too.

As he was saying that, today we also learned that car battery manufacturers were intervened, that stores such as shoe stores were threatened, that looting started to reach small store owners, of the neighborhood quality. What gives? Possibly he wants to convey overseas that the only ones to worry are the Venezuelan businesses who are unreliable and should be replaced by foreign ones.  But even this generous hypothesis from my part rings hollow because Maduro had the chutzpah to ask Venezuelan business people to bring back home the dollars they have stashed overseas, on the week where he mad private business lose millions of dollars that cannot be recovered ever. No, what Maduro was truly announcing was his economic vision, believe it or not: no more private business in Venezuela besides the big ones in association with the regime. I will note that someone commented to me today that the regime is going to have to nationalize now Daka and related because the owners are not going to refurbish the stores or the inventory; that this was a logical step because after having ruined agriculture and manufacturing the last stand of private business was commerce and banking. And banking he does not need to move against because the regime is the main driver of cash through the system and thus banks will not rise against the regime.

And yet there is another major contradiction but of a more subtle nature to understand. Today finally the Nazional Assembly managed to get rid of one of the opposition representatives which through the viciousness of Venezuelan politics will be replaced by a safe pro Maduro vote (though rumor has that he has been extorted though his properties in Monagas to make sure his future votes are the ones wished for; such as the two other opposition votes brought to chavismo though due extortion).  This beyond undemocratic maneuver is to get Maduro the wished for enabling law to deal with corruption and economics.  But does he need it? And this is where the contradiction lays because this week with the looting and the announcement of the kangaroo courts, and that he will limit what a business can make in earnings, Maduro is doing already what he would do with the enabling law. Clearly he does not need it. Or does he?

Let's read two of Leopoldo Lopez tweets today:

El conflicto interno del gobierno no solo es politico. Hay un enfrentamiento entre mafias de poder, narcos con chapa de altos funcionarios.
— Leopoldo López (@leopoldolopez) November 13, 2013

The internal conflict inside the regime is not only political. There is a confrontation between mafias fo power and drug traffickers with high public servant badges.

Quienes son los cadiveros? Publica la lista Maduro. Quienes son los directores d esas empresas? A quien responden en el gobierno?
— Leopoldo López (@leopoldolopez) November 13, 2013

Who are those that who benefited greatly from CADIVI [currency control]? Publish the list Maduro. Who are the directors of these businesses? To whom where they linked inside the regime?

Leopoldo says on twitter what no air-wave media will allow him to say because such is the extent of censorship that the regime has gone out to ask that the word "looting" is not pronounced. And with that he puts his finger on the true pressing concerns of Maduro, concerns that he can only solve with an enabling law that gives him powers to deal with his internal enemies, not the democratic opposition that he is already screwing fine without any extra law, thank you!

To get rid of any opposition muscle it is enough to apply Marxist theories of end to private property. Now the private sector has been so weakened that a reaction like 2002 is not only impossible but the victims of governmental abuse remain silent, will not even publish a bland press communique least the regime damages more than their properties: their families and their lives.  But to get rid of tribal factions inside chavismo.........

These contradictions and actions of some of the regime spokespeople (Cabello is strangely subdued in an occasion where he should be giving a declaration a minute) mean something else: Maduro has allied with the radical wing of chavismo and he is trying to make a legalistic coup against the other factions of chavimso. The coup is not against democracy and the opposition, that one was done in 2010. The coup in progress is one against a chavista group which will imply by force that Venezuela will become a Marxist country where oil revenue makes life somewhat mess miserable than in other Marxist countries like Cuba or North Korea.

Then again the coup may be coming from Maduro's own entourage who is pushing him to make such idiotic decisions so as to get rid of him sooner than later.

Desperation News and Views

Daka pictures on newspapers and Twitter

UPDATED FOR LOOTING
So what is a regime that got handed the news of 5% inflation for a single month, whose main "evil" opposition leader is received by the Pope, when a "spontaneous" multigathering protest is convoked for today, that cannot hide the increasing low key riots for food, to do? It decides to sack a major electronic store chain.

Maduro ordered yesterday to seize the 5 stores of Daka, an overpriced, but then they all are, electronic/appliance chain. Allegedly the stores will be forced to recalculate their "costs" and sell all their appliances at "just price".  We assume of course that the militia and Nazional Guard in charge of the organized semi looting will be served first.  Maybe even for free. Which does not stop a country of "lambucios", from the regime or the opposition, to rush to the store to take a turn in the line and be the first ones to shop when they open again. Maduro conoce su ganado we would say in Venezuela, Maduro knows his cattle.


Yesterday I was told by reliable insiders that polls in Petare district, all the East of Caracas with about a million inhabitants and 460,000 registered voters, mostly living in old established favellas/ranchos/barrios, indicate a 2 to 1 lead for Ocariz, the current mayor, from the opposition, that has had his administration sabotaged for the last 5 years by any possible trickery from the rules book on power abuse.  This is a district that in a normal democracy should be voting 2 to 1 for any political party of leftist connotation. This is all what you need to know to understand why the regime is acting crazy for the last few weeks.

Because crazy it is. Not only ordering a government sponsored looting of a major appliance store that will surely close down after that (though the owners of Daka may be on the wrong side of the intra chavista fighting) but Maduro even announced that he would deploy anti-aerial defenses on the top of the barrios hills.  The excuse is to defend the country against bombing from the US as if the US were to spend a dollar bombing a shanty town when it only needs to decide to stop buying suddenly any oil from Venezuela to have the regime collapse within hours.  Since the US did not feel offended by this absolutely useless defense system, for good measure yesterday a journalist from the Miami Herald was arrested.  Will the US say anything before December 8?  I suggest pipsqueaking is the way to go to let self imposed ridicule flourish.

Seriously now.  Daka and Pablo Electronica (another major supplier in Caracas) may or may not be overpriced, but if they are it is due to the scarcity of foreign currency, it is due to the retroactive devaluations, it is due to the uncertain rules of the economic game. If Daka and Pablo were overpriced yesterday they were vindicated in gouging customers and hiding their earnings under the mattress until the regime struck.  The people lining in front of these stores to get a good deal today are worse parasites than were ever Daka because once they get their "cheap" refrigerator they will have nowhere to get the next one: who is going to keep investing in that line of business when the regime will steal your merchandise whenever it feels it useful?  The end road for the hoi polloi is less goods available, and true black market gouging.  See Cuba.

But the bad faith of the regime is the worse aspect of the whole scandal. We learn that when they revised the prices at Daka and Pablo they decided that the purchase receipt in dollars of the imported goods should be counted at the official 6.3 exchange rate when in fact a lot if not a majority of the stock comes at SICAD price of 10 to 15, or street value at 30 3 months ago. What stores do is an average of sorts between their three sources of currency to establish their final prices since they have no way to know what will be their next source of currency.  I am not saying that I defend Daka who may or may not have been a major abuser. What I am saying is that Daka, like any supplier of imported goods, as a irrational price cost structure that is imposed on them by the disastrous economics of the regime, a regime that punishes Daka for the mismanagement that comes from the regime.

This goes beyond "shoot the messenger", this is putting up for public lynching any retailer, in the short term. Today Daka, tomorrow the bodega of the barrio.
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UPDATE
We have pictures of Daka Valencia who seems actually to be looted straight by regime followers, starting with the people in charge.

Nazional Guards with their loot

NOTE: I forgot to go deeper earlier in that there is the possibility that the owners of Daka and Pablo may have had "arrangements" with people inside the corruption ladder of the regime for their import deals. That would not be the first time that the regime throws to the wolves people that have stopped being useful. Remember Fernadez Barruecos? Arne Chacon?

The store of Daka in Valencia has been properly sacked and we have even pictures in twitter catching Nazional Guards on motor bikes going away with their share.

And I add this: it is quite possible that in the deep cynical nature of the regime they may have decided some slow cooking organized looting to avoid a repeat of the Caracazo of 1989, one that they could not control at all with the current state of the armed forces.

Chavez's heirs in full psychotic dissociation

The most remarkable thing about the events scheduled tomorrow is that the chavista government is calling for a public support to force the chavista government to fight corruption.  That is right, the people that are supposed to fight corruption are the ones calling for a "protest" against corruption.

There is simply no way to make sense of it unless we consider two hypothesis. The first one is that chavismo and its supporters are entering psychotic dissociation. The second one is that the chavista brain is wired outside the parameters of logic.

Though, now that I think of it, both hypothesis overlap severely...


Yet, the facts are quite simple. The opposition, justly incensed by the fraudulent accusation of corruption on one of its representatives and his punishment before trial, has called to a rally in Caracas and a few other cities to protest the real corruption in Venezuela.  The regime bereft of any new idea and dead set in retaining office at any price had no other idea but to call a counter protest on the same day, same time, same motive even though ALL in Venezuela know that the corruption is way, way more over chavismo side than the opposition.

I am not going to describe the extent of corruption in Venezuela today: this blog alone has so many entries on that matter... Not to mention that international agencies have ranked Venezuela in the bottom countries for a variety of abuse from corruption in fiances to corruption in justice. Any blogger with a will and time can find enough evidence to stir trouble.

For EVERY VENEZUELAN corruption is almost a daily occurrence. We can start with the humble homemaker who has to stand in long lines for a few items of food while her neighbor did not have to put up because she has the "contacts" to skip the line or arrive at it early; or get it for free or delivered if she has real good contacts. Or the public worker like my S.O. who has witnessed small time corruption, and has inferred from it major scale one. Or a manager like this blogger tired of having to pay off Nazional Guards on road blocks for his deliveries because there is yet a new regulation unknown for us, or because a comma was ill placed on some form even though the form and the cargo matched perfectly. Amen of giving money for drinks because the Guard merely fulfilled his duty to inspect the load and did not find anything wrong.

We are all subject on regular basis to a demonstration of corruption and we all know that it comes from the regime unwillingness to fight it, understanding that allowing massive corruption is a tool of power for the said regime. That this one tomorrow calls for a protest against corruption, trying to blame it on the opposition is simply unbelievable, even for the most hardcore chavista. Let's not forget that the hard core chavista is already a direct beneficiary of corruption by benefiting of preferential state advantages that are denied to other citizens just because s/he screams Viva Chavez.  Many of these hard core are already used to be paid to attend marches, to receive a free bus ride and a food allowance to go to Caracas to support Chavez. If they do not see the contradiction of tomorrow, if they think that indeed the opposition is more corrupt than the regime, then they surely suffer of psychotic dissociation as their leadership does.

Nicolás: ¿quieres luchar contra la corrupción y la inflación? ¡Cierra el SADA!

Nicolás Maduro, déjate de bolserías y empieza a arreglar esta vaina. Es mas fácil de lo que crees. Empieza con el SADA, ese mamotreto que esta paralizando el país aunque no estés al tanto. Como no creo que sepas déjame recordarte lo que es el SADA y su brazo armado, el SICA.

El SADA fue diseñado por un cerebrito de tu Papá que le pareció una idea genial de saber en tiempo real donde esta toda la comida de Venezuela. La cosa era joder a todos los especuladores para que no puedan esconder nada ya que cualquier camión que cargue comida tenia que recibir una guía del SADA. Esa guía se hace casi en tiempo real y hay que reportar todo, la cantidad de producción, adonde vá, el color del camión y hasta la partida de nacimiento de la abuela del chófer. Claro, la idea era fregar a la Polar mas que otra cosa ya que son los que mas movilizan comida en el país.


Pero resulta que el ardid no resultó. Es mas, la Polar que si es una empresa organizada y seria y no como ese gobierno pirata que heredaste, sabe llenar planillas y usó las mismas planillas que tus ineptos emitían en el SADA a través del SICA para probar frente al país que, bueno, ustedes son unos ineptos, que no eran ni capaz de montar una olla mediática. De paso, con SADA, SICA y todo, la escasez sigue y se agrava.

Pero como toda burocracia cobra vida por si sola ahora en el SICA hay que declarar hasta los ingredientes primarios que van en los alimentos. O sea, no es suficiente declarar la comida de la gente pero también hay que declarar la comida de los animales que se va a comer la gente. De seguir así pronto hasta el nombre del galponero se va a tener que registrar.

Si la perdida de tiempo en algo tan inútil no fuese ya poco, resulta que el Internet deficiente de Venezuela pone el asunto bastante peor. Ya que ningún camión puede arrancar sin la guía del SICA, cuando cae la pagina web, o el Internet, o los dos, se queda trancado el camión en el sitio. Solamente esta semana mi pequeña empresa perdió tres fletes!!!!  Que si hay que regresar, que si hay que pagarle la comida y el hotel al chófer, que si hay que volver otro día y se perdió ese viaje, y mas. Calculo que las tres fallas del SICA en 6 días hábiles me costaron por lo menos 13.000 Bs, esos de los ni tan fuertes. Mas que mi sueldo mensual, de paso. Pero no te preocupes, yo y los que sufrimos de la ineptitud del SICA se lo vamos a clavar en costo de comida a los bolsas que todavía votan por ti por eso de que disque combates la inflación y les regalas bolsistas de MERCAL que nos vas a pagar bien caro para que te las llenemos.  Si, así es, todos los costos que nos causa el SADA, costos innecesarios, van a pasar directo a costos de producción y venta para que lo pague el pueblo. ¿Quien mas lo puede pagar? ¿Tu?

Pero no es todo Nicolás. Ademas de los costos indirectos por retrasos en producción por encima de los 13.000, hay el costo de la corrupción. Figúrate que ahora en cada alcabala los guardias Nacionales tienen que firmar la dichosa guía esa y a cada vez piden de frente "algo para el café".  En cualquier viaje con esa "operación patria segura" que lo único que hace es entorpecer aun más el trafico con sopotocientos mil alcabalas que lo que hacen es puro martillar a la gente, un chófer se gasta fácil unos 300 bolos en cafecitos para los guardias por firmar una ficha inútil, excepto como excusa a los guardias para martillar mas allá del café si ven una coma mal ubicada. De paso, con SADA SICA y Patria Segura tengo a un cliente a quien le robaron el otro día un camión ful de comida y NINGUNA alcabala vio nada......

Si Nicolás, yo se que tu sabes que los militares en este país son podridos de corrupción y no hay remedio. Tienes el propio a tu lado, serruchando el puesto con sus barbaridades desde su sillón en la asamblea. ¿Pero que se hace?  Esto también te lo dejó tu Papá que necesitaba gente corrupta al lado de el para chantajearla y obligarlos a hacer las vainas sucias que el quería que se hagan. No hay remedio a parte de cerrar el ejercito como hizo sabiamente Costa Rica.

Perdona que te trate de tu, pero es que no hallo en mi como respetarte como presidente. Hasta Chávez lo respeté algo, y mira que le dí duro en mi blog. Pero aquí tienes la oportunidad de demostrar fácil que si, que quieres gobernar mejor al país, que si quieres luchar contra la inflación y la corrupción. ¡Dale! Empieza a ganar el respeto de la gente, cierra el SADA que eso no sirve para nada. Créeme.

Mardicidio

¿Lo que ayude?

Me van a disculpar pero hay ciertas cosas que me impiden ponerme todo emotivo por la barbaridad que le van a hacer a Richard Mardo en la Asamblea Nacional en pocas horas. Si es que se atreven; eso está por verse. El problema es que si el chavismo está a punto de poder salirse con la suya hoy, también es culpa de los errores de la oposición.

Empecemos con los cuentos de que allanar la inmunidad parlamentaria a un diputado de la república bajo condiciones ilegales y fraudulentas como lo están planificando el corrupto de Carreño y el asesino de Cabello (¿O es al revés?, me confundo a veces) significan el fin de la democracia. Desde que el CNE diseño el fraude electoral del 2010, agravado por el auto-golpe parlamentario que hizo la asamblea saliente para anular mucho de los poderes de la nueva asamblea y meter una habilitante, se murió la democracia en Venezuela. Yo lo escribí en aquel entonces y me cansé de repetirlo. Pero parece que no, que la clase política aúlla "dictadura" pero cobra su cheque parlamentario. Todo, desde la nariz rota de Maria Corina hasta la barbaridad de hoy, es posible porque no se hicieron las diligencias necesarias para denunciar en donde sea el fraude a la Asamblea en 2010.


¿Por que por ejemplo no se declaró que la oposición se reservaba el derecho de reconocer lo que decida esa nueva asamblea en caso de llegar algún día al poder? ¿Que nos iban a hacer de mas que no nos hicieron por callarnos y sentarnos en esa Asamblea mientras esperábamos yo no se que talanquera....? No pongo mas ejemplos porque me da pena ajena.

El asunto es que la oposición nunca resolvió el enredo de hacer oposición con principios y la verdad o como habladera y seducción progresiva del chavista chulo. Llegar al poder era mas importante que decir la verdad al país y decirlo en la cara de Chávez. Pues allí lo tienen, todavía en la oposición y prepárense porque por ahora me parece que van a perder en diciembre por mas que yo vote y le diga a la gente que vaya a votar. Mientras más crisis haya más asustados y más borregos estarán los chulos del chavismo. Anótenlo.

Lo que me lleva al otro asunto electoral. Dicen por ahí que el régimen está fregando a Mardo porque no quiere que se presente a la alcaldía de Maracay. Discúlpenme pero para mi eso es culpa de Mardo y de Primero Justicia. Yo no tengo nada contra Richard Mardo. Es muy posible que él sea un dirigente fabuloso, respetado por su comunidad, un hombre de bien. Pero el tipo se lanzó a la alcaldía de Maracay y la perdió. Después se lanzo a la asamblea y ganó. Pero desde la asamblea se la pasó tratando de ganar la gobernación de Aragua que perdió. ¿Y ahora se espera que yo me emocione porque Mardo quiere ganarse Maracay otra vez? ¿Que vaina es eso? ¿Que quiere Mardo en verdad? Nota: Mardo no es el único que no se toma el trabajo de diputado en serio, sino como un trampolín a otro cambur.

Si, es verdad, lo de Mardo hoy es una abominación. Pero si les escribo esto es para que entiendan porque poca gente se preocupa por el asunto. Si un blogguero con la trayectoria mía está desencantado, que esperanza en los demas....

Nelson Bocaranda confirms what this blog wrote in November 2012

In his Runrunes of today Nelson Bocaranada, regime prosecuted journalist, writes about an "incident" in Calabozo, Guarico State. Apparently the Colombian guerrilla FARC has set camp there and has started even shooting down security CICPC Venezuelan personnel that are investigating local crime. Meaning of course that the FARC in Guarico is already part of the local crime scene. Bocaranda also hints that when they discovered it was not local crime but guerrilla the agents may have been pulled back....

Last November, writing about the upcoming governor election I made a map as to how the importance of the result meshed with the interests of the FARC and chavismo to create a safe heaven for the guerrilla once the negotiations in Havana finish, if they ever. That is why the regime promoted Rodriguez Chacin, nothing short of a terrorist, to become governor of Guarico state. I have put the map again below and you can see that Calabozo, where Bocaranda describes the latest guerrilla activity is almost smack in the middle of my "refuge area".

See, it pays to read blogs, even for journalists like @NelsonBocaranda ...... :-)

PS: for details on the map and its why you need to go back to the original post.

A Snowden free item: Globovision is forgiven by the TSJ

Imagine that!  Globovision, the mush harassed news channel, finally won one! The chavismo controlled high court decided that a fine imposed on Globovision was too high and decided to halve it.

The catch?

Globovision owners since last April happen to be close to the regime.......

Be nice, play by the regime guidelines and you will get legal discounts....  then again I understand that Globovision ratings are nose diving.

In Snowden less news: murder of a fireman and nationalization of Venezuelan medicine

As if the regime hadn't enough fronts open, it has decided to control the prices of the medical services offered by private clinics. And the insurance companies promptly approved saying that they will only honor the nominal prices. And yet this only hides the deep failure of the health system that the regime started to improvise for electoral purposes since 2003. The public system being such a failure, everyone tries desperately to get a private insurance so as to go to private clinics that work much better than the public sector even though much is to be criticized with them. The regime is upset and shoots the messenger, by bankrupting this one. It is that simple.

Controlling prices of private clinics in Venezuela at this point is an absurd. They are overworked. They are underpaid. Insurances companies, in particular the ones associated with the government public employees delay their considerable payments, if they even honor them (which has pushed many clinics on the verge of bankruptcy to suspend certain insurers and their patients, until the bill is paid). The result is that now private sector clinics look more and more like public hospitals used to look a few years ago, before Chavez was elected first.

In addition a high inflation and a scarcity of imports have hampered the daily operations. For example among the restricted imports there are plenty of medical kits and medicines. We learned, to pick one, that analytic labs, upon which most diagnostics depend, are working at half speed. Even basics, such as needles and the specific test tubes to collect blood samples for the different analysis are hard to come by.

The public sector is even worse. Hospitals are full of people in line because, simply put, they are waiting for hours, days and even weeks, for a doctor to show up or for an O.R. to open, or a machine to be fixed for a diagnostic. If the private clinics are overcrowded with people that are willing to bankrupt themselves it is because these people know quite well that if they wait for a putative turn at some hospital they probably die in the wait or reach the doctor much sicker than when they arrived.

Such a situation has broken down any ethic in the medical sector, from private clinics refusing to attend emergencies of the uninsured, to public hospitals with absentee personnel, when they are not satisfying themselves by sitting down with the patients because they do not even have what is needed for attending the most basic emergencies.

The latest scandal was the death this week of Caracas Firemen chief who had an accident on his motor bike, and was then taken to a private clinic but whose insurance did not approve entry!  Yes, the Caracas public fireman was on a private insurance. When that happened his relatives and friends had no other choice but to take him to a state hospital. They had the poor guy wait for several hours until they finally an O.R. was available. But it was too little and too late and the guy died in the elevator on the way to the O.R.

Reading the full account of the story can only bring tears to your eyes. Caracas firemen who should be heroes like it happens in other country are without "ambulances, nor insurance or paychecks".

The clinic, not to excuse them at all, rejected the victim. The reason was that the insurance did not clear because the government did a bad paper work job at switching the insurance companies, when putting the firemen of Caracas under a new insurance that covered them less, a ridiculous amount I would dare to say considering how dangerous is the firemen work. Not only that, but we read that the new insurance would be allowed to use some of the workers benefit to pay extensive bills, something that is illegal in the labor law of Venezuela so proudly dictated by Chavez for his reelection. But in a fascist regime such subtleties are simply ignored.

The victim could not be taken speedily to any health center because 54 out of 60 of the fire station ambulances are out of order. 54!

Of course, the regime has started "investigating" the clinic that refused service while Caracas mayor office went to close it finding a whole bunch of irregularities that his office should have detected years ago!!!!! And suddenly a long sleeping law on firemen service has been dusted off and sent in rush to the Nazional Assembly floor. No word on whether the public hospital delay of 6 hours to attend the victim will be investigated.

Can you expect anything good from that?

The hypocrisy of the regime on the health system debacle is simply staggering. The new health minister, Isabel Iturria, is a mere hack, maybe a true criminal, spending her time attacking the private sector of medicine to hide the colossal failure of the public sector that she inherited two months ago from another criminal, Eugenia Sader. While at the same time fudging statistics to hide the real number of AH1N1 cases and deaths in the country. After all official statistics in Venezuela, reported merrily by international organizations that cannot be bothered in checking them, aim to make the world believe that this hell is paradise. Paradise lost, indeed!

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Added later: I realize that a casual reader may not know how the Venezuelan health care system works.

The public sector, the one where supposedly health care is free, includes two systems. The old one composed of public hospitals and "dispensarios" created before Chavez and never probably taken care of under Chavez, unless it is a hospital that his administration built or rebuilt, a tiny minority in spite of all the propaganda. And the parallel health system, created starting 2003 under Cuban directives. This one includes the famous to now infamous Barrio Adentro and the CDI which are mini hospitals of sorts. Corruption ridden this parallel system is simply unmanageable, contradicts too often the hospital system and is for all practical purposes working at half speed these days with maybe as much as half of the small Barrio Adentro modules closed. The public hospital system is so neglected that patients are routinely asked to bring even the bed sheets for the patients, and to have a relative spend the night so that the patient is not robbed of his medicine, food and health items (the fireman of the tale above was stolen of his belongings while he was laying on the pavement in the wait for an ambulance). Often surgeries are performed only after the patient ha provided a certain numbers of items from gauze to medication.

The private health sector in Venezuela range from small hospitals to major facilities but are all called "clinicas" or some related term, as the word hospital is reserved for the public sector.  It benefited of a steady grow and the best doctors until Chavez came to office. Since then many, too many of the brightest have emigrated. Meanwhile the developing insurance sector, propelled by by the willingness of people to fork big money to access proper heath care denied to them at public facilities has made the private sector which has stopped building major facilities, go from a resort like atmosphere in the 90ies to a crowded, noisy, even dirty public hospital feel of the same 90ies. Yet, the care dispensed there is sought, willing paid and still manages a decent quality considering all the impediments experienced. Refusal of care at emergency is still rather an exception than the rule though in smaller centers like the one the fireman was taken too it seems that such experiences are not unusual for the simple reason that they have no means, that all their emergency beds are taken all the time.