Hard blues to shake off

Explanation in text

I have to admit that I have a hard time to recover from the news of the last two weeks. And my deep blues comes in part from that Cassandra syndrome that affects me on occasion. People minimize what I say or feel and I am, unfortunately, proven right later, but too late for any good or any comfort. There is always a Clytemnestra to put our kind out of our misery.

The two news that bear heavily on me are the 1.3 tons of coke through a regular Air France flight, and the looting of a truck over the dead body of the driver. I think that these news were covered barely adequately but I fail to sense a feel of outrage, even among readers of this blog. I read here and there stuff that can be summarized as follows: "there has always been looting in Venezuela" or "Air France, Water Spain, Truck Mexico, same difference". It is not. I see those two events as seminal examples on how bad, and doomed?, Venezuela may be.


Yes, indeed, bigger loads of coke have been caught. But they came from stolen private planes, kidnapped fishing boats, unregistered lorries crossing borders, etc... The mean of transport was by itself product of a crime. Never mind that the cargo was even bigger of a crime. But the ease in which the traffickers sneaked in 1.3 tons in a regular air flight is one order of magnitude bigger. This prowess implies too many things that are dangerous. First, since airport security depends on the armed forces, then it follows that these are deeply involved in drug traffic at very high level, much higher than the silly sergeants arrested at first. We are talking generals here. Can we entrust the future of our country, a possible coming "transition" to an army that is so corrupt that even those not in the money loop prefer to shut up rather than protest, or at least leak the names involved?  We have grave concerns for the Venezuelan army, be they those that traffic or steal state money, or those that enable them by their silence.

But this is not all. It was a ruthless act to put such an amount of drug in an airplane, even if we assume airline complicity, voluntary or not. It can be a major security risk for passenger as an airplane may be easily overloaded. It could have been bombs, or explosives that could have exploded during the flight. The reckless contempt for the security of innocent passenger speaks volumes about the amorality and cruelty of those involved with that shipment. Now we can only feel safe away from Venezuela only once we are outside of the receiving airport....

We would be mistaken in thinking that 14 years of Chavez degraded deeply only the military sector. A week after the drug haul we were reminded, for some, or told, for most, that there is a civilian component to that cruelty against the victims. Certainly, we already knew what happens in the horror of Venezuelan jails, or how easy it was for gangs to settle accounts in the barrios, or how unnecessarily victims of robbery were killed for a mere few bucks worth of loot. We also knew that on roads inside the country the stopping of trucks for looting is not an isolated incident. Last Friday it all converged on a truck, in Caracas, in a business district, not a residential one, and within minutes a horde of motorbikers were looting the truck, for this climbing over the agonizing and soon dead driver, without offering any assistance.

There is a video that gives only a partial impression of what the looting mood at Los Ruices was last Friday (in the second half) with authorities barely exerting control. But what that video illustrates quite well is the plague that motorbikers have become in Venezuela, the huge numbers they are and their ruthless contempt at blocking traffic and reckless driving. Chavez is the man that has allowed the rise of that cast of violent folks. True, they may be, for all that I know, a minority inside the motorbiker "community". Chavez made motorbikes easily available for his supporters, and with the ridiculous price of gas they had no problem in learning to use their bikes all the time. Chavez wanted that because he wanted a form of storm troopers ready to mobilize on short notice across Caracas, to launch counter protests wherever needed, the threaten whomever was necessary with a "spontaneous" protest of chavismo own. Soon, they were even allowed without helmets in the highways, a place they were banned from until Chavez.

The result was to be expected. After a decade of driving recklessly, of scratching and banging the cars stuck in traffic as they sneak through it, these storm troopers are realizing that they can mobilize themselves by the hundreds, attack whatever they want to attack, and push back the authorities. They are on the loose on Caracas, a violent mob like gang.

It is clear that the regime permissiveness has created these unruly monsters of which I only describe two today.  And what is the reply to this by the regime. None, because they have none credible to offer, being the Dr. Frankenstein of the story. Or rather, they regurgitate the Cuban invented leitmotiv reply: it is someone else fault, preferably the US and its right wing fascist allies at home, never mind that a Liberal holds the chair in Washington. But the increasing uselessness of the standard reply is forcing the regime into direct threats against the press, threatening sanctions if this one speaks of stuff such as the food scarcity. If the enabling law that Maduro is requesting passes, will it ban coverage of gruesome looting like the one in Los Ruices?  The response of the regime is, as usual, of the same moral caliber as the ones that smuggled the drug in Air France plane, or those who looted over a dead body.

Thus to finish our opening cartoon, another multi layered geniality of Weil at Tal Cual. Chavez is dead, driving an egotistical oversize image of Venezuela that could not pass under the bridge (note: Weil painted Chavez as an army boot). And his wreckage, which is also ours, attracts all sorts of rats stealing our oil, our riches. He created our current society and he escaped having to face the consequences of his misrule.

The Venezuelan narco-state caught pants down in Paris: a price to pay

I need to come back to this 1.3 tons of cocaine seized in Paris airport because I think it is as clear an example for all to see on how deep into narco-statism we have descended, and how the rest of the world knows it and deals accordingly.


Once one gets through the massive amount of hot air emissions from journalists in search of front lines we can find a few pieces that start explaining how things may have worked out. True, the French police is not going to give all the necessary precision because they need to hold a few trump cards for future shipments. The magazine Le Point in France offers one of the few serious analysis on how the shipment may have made it to the Air France flight: the drug may have been in overweight bags but it most likely was not shipped through the luggage section of the plane but as freight. Thus the complicity inside the airport is not with the passenger attending personnel but through the "contractor" that distributes freight among the different airlines. This of course does not exonerate Air France since it should have checked better the contents of its freight holds. But it opens the field of wise speculation.

30+ overweight luggage had to enter into Maiquetia/Simon Bolivar (MIQ) through a small truck. We are talking a 2-3T plus vehicle here. One supposes that such a truck is inspected entering any, ANY international airport of the world. Clearly that step was voided here.

The truck had to circulate through the airport and there are restrictions as to who can drive where inside. Clearly we have there not only security violations but also administrative fault from the airport itself. Amen of where the hell 30+ overweight bags were stored for 1? 2? 5? days before the flight.

If we take a number of 35 suit cases for 1.3 tons we have 38 kilos per piece. Anyone taking a plane these days know that you are simply not allowed a 35 kilo luggage even if you pay excess: a special procedure is set in place when you carry overweight stuff. No baggage handler at MIQ complained, that we know of, on September 11 when supposedly the drug was loaded. Interesting detail, no?

Since the luggage went likely through fret then passenger personnel at check in did not see it. But what about Air France personnel? are they not supposed to check the fret embarked?

Last and not least MIQ is reputed internationally as a true pain in the a.. for "security check". As I wrote, bags are opened BEFORE check in and they go all through it without any consideration, take away what they want form it, and as Miguel wrote, you can even be sent for a body X-ray to make sure you have drug in your intestines. The Nazional Guard has no qualms in pushing you through all of these abuses and delaying flights for as long as they please. You are even subjected often to a last body and cabin bag search before stepping inside your plane. How come that cargo freight container went through without trouble?  Aren't there supposed to be scanners for these containers as they are for bags since we regularly hear passengers called to custom to open their bags?

I probably can come up with yet more questions, but this above should suffice to make it clear that there must have been MANY security breaches, from the airport administration, from the security personnel and from at least one Air France personnel. I am not going to speculate about what happened in Paris since clearly the traffickers expected clear sailing. After all, Paris did catch the shipment. But one thing is certain, adding the people directly involved in the shipment and those that pretended to see nothing we are talking of around a dozen folks involved (without counting those involved in bringing the drug from Colombia to MIQ in spite of all the constant road checks that cost my business hours in delays and bribes).

And yet the regime was speedy in finding three fall guys, three low ranking military from the Nazional Guard, people without any real authority: a lieutenant and two sergeants who probably would not be caught dead doing physical work loading the fret container..... And quickly advertised a drug capture inside Venezuela of half a ton, taking the opportunity to insist stupidly that Maduro in China is informed of that and gives orders himself as to proceed with the investigation. Geeezzz........

Sorry, but no deal.  To ship a ton of drug from Colombia to MIQ, to have it board a regular flight to Paris, you need to coordinate security personnel at a level that cannot be possibly achieved by a mere Lieutenant no matter how skilled he may be at computing or something. To begin with, road blocks are not computerized ....  Here, there is at least one General and a couple of helpers strategically placed, probably at Colonel level, to make sure the shipment made it through and through.  The three fall guys, for all that I know, may not even have known what was in the container (though they certainly should have suspected it). They simply were the security personnel on duty on September 11 and given orders not to look closely at the stuff. Or, charitably, blackmailed into it as probably was the case of the involved Air France personnel of Venezuelan origin.

An operation like the one of Air France flight can only be mounted in a country that is deeply rotten, deeply corrupted, where drug traffickers have no problem to find all the help they require for their business.  Let's not forget something: this is not the first time it happens, from planes landing in emergency in Mali coming from Venezuela with tons of the stuff, to a plane in the Canary Islands,  to boats, to whatever..... What happened this time is only a stepping up of the chutzpah of these people.

But at least inside of Venezuela I am not the only one to think that we are a rotten to the core country. Capriles for once was prompt in calling a corrupt spade, a corrupt spade. At least the international scandal is forcing the interior minister to go on record to admit that at least 20 people are being interrogated on the subject. But no one is holding breath: if a General were to be indicted in that event it could be the occasion of a dangerous unraveling of the power base of the regime which relies on massive laundering of public monies stolen to and deep permissiveness on drug traffic in spite of the widely publicized drug hauls.

To all of this we must add one thing. The French government has claimed that the shipment left Caracas on September 11 and yet the haul was made public on the 20th, on for all that we know that was the day Venezuela was told. I do not want to speculate much on that but if indeed the regime was so late in being warned it can only be coming from the experience of the international security community as to how unreliable their Venezuelan colleagues are today. On a public relation point of view, one thing is to catch a stolen fisherman ship with tons of coke on board, another one is to use a normal passenger flight for a ton. This is a degree of magnitude that should not be crossed and I suspect that Venezuela will, for once, pay a price for such a mistake. Not only overseas but also in Venezuela where the spectacular nature of the haul is already used by Capriles. We shall see but for once I am optimistic: it was too much and surely someone inside the regime is going to use that for political advantage.

Airplanes ferrying drugs and pseudo presidents out of Venezuela

Valls, French Interior Minister, receiving
Venezuelan exports to Paris

This week the post Chavez regime has made it into aeronautical news big time. On one hand it tried to make up an international scandal upon a presumed US denial of air space overflight, and on the other an Air France flight coming from Caracas was carrying over 1 ton of high grade cocaine estimated at 200 million euros street value. In both cases the heirs of Chavez look their worst.

Let's start with the aerial flyby that was not.

Apparently Maduro would have us believe that the nasty US did not want him to fly over Puerto Rico. But now that some of the dust settled it looks that the maneuver was a clumsy one to try to paint the US as evil, a maneuver that has all the looks of conspiracy judging how fast the friends of Maduro supported him: Evo and Correa. Neuman at the New York Times gives the full details, including the unnecessary detour over Puerto Rico when seasoned travelers to Paris from Caracas know they fly over either Guadeloupe or Martinique, according to the winds. The AP also echoes the doubt about how much of the "incident" was messy Venezuelan organization or deliberate entrapment to score an easy point. Interestingly the scene also revealed once again that Venezuelan presidents travel though Cuban planes, perpetuating the mystery as to whatever happened to the two presidential airplanes of the country, the inherited one from pre Chavez and the custom made airbus that costed gazillions and yet flew only a very few years with Chavez on board.

Whatever the political points Maduro and co. were trying to score (in preparation of a UN performance in a few days?), it was erased by the announcement that in Paris an Air France flight was found with enough unregistered luggage inside to carry 200 + millions worth of cocaine. We are talking over a ton here, carried in 30 bags not linked to any of the passengers in the flight. Paris claims 6 arrests already. No word of any arrest in Venezuela yet....... By the way, the French Interior minister says it was the biggest drug catch in the Parisian area ever.

So many questions....  First, let me start reminding the reader that there are a few high officials of the Venezuelan regime on the DEA shit list for drug trafficking, an update kindly provided in relation to this news by the LAHT.  Thus it is no surprise that Caracas airport at Maiquetia would be sooner or later the origin of a major drug scandal. After all, when you are a high ranking military in a narco-state eventually you do not see why you should not start using regular airports instead of country side landing strips for your airborne cargo.

Second, this level of gumption, 30 suitcases, through a major international airline, implies levels of narco corruption inside Maiquetia that are simply unexpected. 30 suitcases are not the same thing than trying to pass a single suit case with someone waiting for it in some European airport. We are talking major cooperation here, that has to include not only someone inside Air France but also the security system of the airport and its management. Amen of the reception committee in Paris. But that the French caught it and have already 6 arrests speaks volumes. The catch was dated on September 11 and published only today. Surely by today the French government must have warned the Venezuelan one and asked for a local investigation of which not a whiff was heard yet. Again: Venezuela is now a narco-state and arresting a single military (at least at the level of colonel for such an operation) would imply a major unraveling. So we can expect nothing, besides a pro forma declaration that an investigation will be done (note: they even got the date wrong, September 20 when it was the 11).

Third, for those who have had the misfortune to go through Maiquetia security this year. The Nazional Guard and the bolivarian militia make a big show to register luggage before check in, supposedly to find drugs and assorted stuff. They go as far as throwing to the garbage your snacks and presents (or keeping it for themselves) and even manhandle your underwear and sniff women's garments. Sniffed by the guard, not a dog. I know that from more than one person. I barely escaped the search last May because of a glitch in their system. Check-in lines at Maiquetia are horrendous because of that unjust search when in the past you had special scanners that have now disappeared, gone who knows where. Curiously on returns flights the search is light if any.......

If anyone has still a doubt, Venezuela is a Narco State now and I wonder if the huff and puff of Maduro against the US was not in prevision of they knowing what was coming from France......
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PS: added later. I wonder if the "defection" of Rafael Isea, former Chavez red boy, minister of wherever there was big money to manage, former Aragua state governor, may have any link to these stories. Isea after a week of rumors confirmed himself that he was in the US, resigning a juicy job at a revolutionary joint to finish a Masters he started 9 years ago.....

Isea was pointed out in major money laundering activities and was about to be formally investigated by the regime, now that he does not benefit anymore of Chavez protection.  He is reported having made a deal with the DEA in the US, though he denies it. Then again he does that only through twitter, unable to account for himself in person in front of journalists.

You draw your own conclusions. But I can assure you that Isea is just one among the many chavista crooks and that it is all a matter of internal account settings. Mafia style.

Suriname's Bouterse to preside over UNASUR, yet another fail for Brazil

I had just finished a post on Syria and checked twitter quickly. Alas, I need to write a second post....

It turns out that the son of former dictator, always strong man, currently alleged elected president of Suriname has been arrested in Panama for drug traffic and quickly expedited to the US. This during the UNASUR summit held in Suriname where Desi Bouterse is supposed to take the helm for the next few months. Such things cannot be made up.

Dino Bouterse is apparently quite a piece of work, just like his daddy is. El Pais goes further in his report, elaborating on the relationship between Daddy and Hugo when he was still alive. Indeed, both presided over authoritarian narco states so economic agreements had to be made. In particular for Suriname that probably makes more in a couple of shipments of coke than its annual budget....

So, why Brazil in the title, you may ask? Well, UNASUR is Brazil's Lula brain child to herd under the same roof all of the countries that have a border with Brazil so as to monitor and influence them better. Other uses of UNASUR have already proven to be meaningless such as its inability to force Maduro into a real electoral audit last April.

Now, since it is Brazil that truly holds the rein inside UNASUR (Colombia and Chile are there because they have really no other choice) it is simply out of all possible understanding that they have allowed Desi Bouterse to preside over UNASUR, even for a few months. That by itself, shows how little regard Brazil has for its own creation, presided by a convicted felon that could be arrested as soon as it gets in the Schengen space......

The foreign policy of Brazil has become a true continental embarrassment for people that know better.

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.