Mid March, and the march to abyss continues

Regular readers might be wondering about the sparse recent posting compared to the flurry early this year. Many reasons but it is not the point. Time to update things a little

Cruelty of the regime

My personal experience last week should make it clear that no one can escape the trained violence that the regime has sponsored, trained by Cubans, of course, as it has not been in the nature of Venezuelans whose earlier dictators would rather dispatch people and only torture for information, never for sport as it has become the case here, in particular since 2014 under Maduro (who hopefully will meet the fate that escaped Chavez, to sit in an international court of justice for crimes against humanity). If a simple particular, out of nowhere, can experience such psychological violence I wonder what people from Lopez to Afiuni have truly experienced. Even, if it were possible, more respect from me now.

But the cruelty is not only there, it reaches genocidal levels with the refusal of the regime to face down the health care crisis, one that could not be solved fast but could be attenuated fast with very simple measures, if the regime decided to try to steal a little bit less than what they are doing. When I hear Sanders at this point in time vaunting the Cuban health care system, in ruin and that ruined the Venezuelan one, I can only be aghast and and say that I feel the burn. How can a US presidential candidate with real aspirations can be so ill informed?

Corruption keeps apace

These past couple of weeks my business has been confronted with two direct extortion attempts by public officials that have become mere racketeers. One succeeded because we had no choice. We are tired to receive the visit of "brokers" which are people that miraculously have access to dollars and can import what we cannot do.  But at DollarToday rates. However they do offer a valid bill of purchase so we can put the goods into our accounting. If we were importing them on our own, without going through the currency exchange of control, the USD bill would be recognized at 10, not at 1100 as DolarToday has it. Imagine the taxes we would pay that way.

Meanwhile, of course, the barrening process of grocery store shelves keeps apace. Not even my blackmarteers can provide me with what I need, even at a ten fold increase of the official legal price.

Meanwhile the devaluation of a few weeks ago has already failed. Far from calming the country the black market rate registered a further 10% loss since the devaluation. So there.

The National Assembly under siege, literally

Videos show how chavista colectivos can post graffiti over the hallowed walls of parliament under the eyes of the Nazional Guard that remains nearly motionless.  The chavista whip takes to the barricades to ask paid for chavista "supporters" to storm the Assembly to which he was elected.

These are just a sign of the times, as judicial decision after judicial decision the regime is starting to rule through the high court, TSJ. But even that will not be enough soon. The Assembly spokesperson has said that any new debt secured without passing through the National Assembly risks not been recognized by a future government. Can the TSJ get the country into more debt as if nothing? Will someone be stupid enough to trust their money to these TSJ/Maduro racketeers? Me thinks not. Thus the regime will have to find a permanent way to neutralize once and for all the Assembly.

The Assembly tries what it can

Even though people disagree with the way the Assembly is proceeding, I beg to differ. First, I do not think it can do more than what it does now. Differently perhaps, but more I doubt. Second it has exposed clearly that if the crisis continues, and even worsens, it is because the regime is refusing to discuss ANYTHING. Compromise with these people is, well, impossible. Surprise!

So the Assembly has decided in earnest to do the last thing it can do : to take out Maduro. A multi pronged approach is necessary since the regime is already putting obstacles to any electoral test that they know they will lose. And the TSJ will, of course, annule anything they want because a comma is not exactly where it should be, even though their own sentences are usually ill written. Something that a ridiculous journalist, from Time no less, qualifies with the worst humor possible as a peaceful coup . As I was commenting, too many journalists still see Venezuela as a reality show.....

At any rate the Assembly has decided to try to oust Maduro in all possible ways: recall election, constitutional amendment, street protest and the ultimate nuke, constitutional assembly. It will fail of course because the regime CANNOT surrender power because they know what their fate will be: jail. They will sabotage, repress, annul even basic common sense. But something will get started and people will be hungry. And international narco justice and money laundering cannot be avoided for ever. All is thus possible. The question is when.

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There you have, a summary of the 4 posts I should have been writing if I had time on my hands.

The plot sickens thickens (add some OAS salt to correct taste)

In brief. The National Assembly today did not hold its scheduled session for lack of quorum: nobody showed up. This is strange because opposition MUD representatives hold a majority large enough to seat on their own, quorum assured.

Maduro's gauntlet?

The thing is that the constitutional crisis/coup is in full swing and all sides needed to take stock and prepare the next move. So, as to not add more oil on the fire, nobody showed up and there was no legal battle on whether the N.A. session was duly cancelled.

What is going on is very simple and comes from many previous posts: the regime is hell bent on annulling the new assembly. To begin with it needs to fire enough MUD representatives so that the opposition loses its 2/3 supernumerary which could jeopardize the number 1 asset of the regime: 100% control over the judiciary branch directed through the high court, TSJ.  This TSJ is composed of assorted goons with a less than stellar career when not implied in previous crimes. This detail is important as we will see later.


Thus the regime is in a battle for survival implying that justice will not looking into their criminal deeds and ministers are not subjected to hearings, and the money sent to Cuba is not audited, etc. etc.

The fight between the TSJ and the N.A. has,apparently,according to some folks, another component: a battle between Maduro and Cabello.

President Maduro would be under Cuban orders to find a provisional modus vivendi with the opposition. In Havana they know about maths and they probably realize that a new electoral option is not a good idea. While they come up with something they need Maduro to sing and dance, legally, so not only Venezuela keeps sending some cash to Cuba but long enough for the Castro to speed up any arrangement they need to complete with the West.

On the other hand former N.A. head Cabello, leader of the nouveau corrupt rich group "bolibourgeois" and the army portion doing sweet business and assorted narco traffic has on December 6 lost a lot of his "political base" (for lack of a better word to describe mafia groups active in politics). Since it is more than likely that Cabello may not be able to leave ever again Venezuela since there is too real a risk to be arrested by Interpol at some airport, he needs to feel safe at home. Thus any agreement between Cuba, and Maduro, and the army, and whatever, needs to go through his approval, an approval that can only be granted if Cabello preserves a more than significant power quota.

Unfortunately for Cabello some of his rivals have smelled blood in December and think that the time to get rid of him has come. So Cabello has to rely on the only sector where he has immediate strong support: the TSJ. Cabello certainly does not control all of the TSJ but all of its members have potential problems with real justice. That is, when real justice comes again to Venezuela it is fair to say that at the very least 80% of the current members will have to account for their actions. Already we have had two justices that preferred to leave the country in a hurry with a one way ticket. And other whose silence is growing.

It is thus easy for Cabello to use his blackmailing power on some of the judges to emit favorable rulings to HIS cause, and force the acquiescence of the other judges, even if silent. That such rulings also favor many inside chavismo that are not in the Cabello faction is a mere bonus point for Cabello.

How is that alleged battle playing out? For one thing it is not that visible even though Maduro has given signs that he may compose with the new N.A. Oh, ever so slightly, but to acknowledge that he would go to the N.A. for his State of the Union speech next Friday was already amazing! What Cabello does is the reverse, bring down to justice as many MUD representatives as possible, make the N.A. either irrelevant or illegal. And that would be that. Besides criminalizing some of the representatives let's not forget that there are still going on attempts at forming parallel communal assembly structures and just plain naked violence. For Cabello it is very simple, if he loses, he loses it all. You can understand that dialogue and mercy for him are not an option.

This is all fine but I do not subscribe in full. For one thing sinking Cabello could capsize all of the regime anyway. This is why the country has remained paralyzed for the last two years as no reform or mere initiative could be taken to solve our problems least a chavista faction got hurt in its interests. More importantly for me is the high fascist content of the regime. No matter what, in the end the temptation to kick the board may be too strong to resist regardless of public or international opinion. Fascists tend to be gamblers, you know. Or if you prefer another way to look at chavismo think about the story of the scorpion hitching a ride with the frog to cross the stream.

And that is why today's second letter of OAS Almagro to Venezuela is, well, a bomb in the pond.

If you recall OAS secretary Almagro wrote a lengthy 18 pages letter to Venezuelan electoral board decrying with perfect accurateness all the biased and unfair conditions for the electoral campaign of last year. That letter proximity to the election date had a clear role and compensated in large part the blockade of international observation enforced by the regime. It is fair to say that it helped the real result to be published.

Today Almagro published a 7 pages letter directly to Maduro, equally accurate, to show him that the world knows exactly what is going on in Venezuela. And later today Almagro noted the self sacrifice of the Amazonas state representatives accepting to remain on the side lines for a while as a major concession of the MUD, implying that it is about time the regime tames its crazies.

Camino d diálogo abierto por los legisladores d Amazonas pone el interés d #Venezuela primero y abre camino d distensión #CARTASGOEA #Vzla

— Luis Almagro (@Almagro_OEA2015) January 13, 2016

In that letter Almagro states that on his own volition he will need to call for the application of the Democratic Charter of the Americas if the regime persists in its attempt at voiding the expression of popular will. This is important because in the chavista mind such an initiative must come from a given country and all American countries are too scared to take the first step or too unsure as to who would follow. But times have changed (Macri in Buenos Aires, Dilma in the dumpster) and if Almagro takes the first step it will be much easier for the other countries to follow and a 2/3 votes for sanction to happen as Venezuela cannot pay off countries anymore.

The letter is too long to analyze in this already long enough entry. Suffice to say that it contains a careful legal analysis of the judicial power of Venezuela and its partiality towards the regime. And it writes, among other gems, that the TSJ ruling against the Assembly yesterday was a jump back to practices of the XIX century in Latin America (page 4). And Almagro goes as far as implying that the meager evidence used by the TSJ may have been a plain forgery (page 5).

Needless to insist that Almagro would have never written and sent and made public such a letter were he not to feel the clear support of a majority of OAS members. Chavistas do not understand that but that is how serious organizations function.

What will be the effect of Almagro's letter on the current crisis is not clear. After all the OAS is not going to send land troops. However one thing is certain, without the approval of a legal AND legitimate N.A. Venezuela's ability to borrow will be near null. And the severing of relations with many countries as a consequence of the application of the Democratic Chart would have further damaging effects on our tragedy. The beauty of it all is that the leaders of the fascist regime that would dare to go against the OAS would not be able anymore to leave Venezuela under threat of immediate arrestation at any airport where they land.

The question here is whether the people that have stolen less than Cabello, made minor crimes compared to those of Cabello, will accept to go down with him. After all many of the judges talking the talk these days could get away with only a couple of years in jail and then be able to enjoy a large chunk of what they have stolen. Why would they get life sentences like Cabello and a few narco generals demanding their protection?

That is where the real question in Venezuela is even though joints like the NYT would never dare publish such. But that is why you read blogs this far.

Judicial coup for dummies

So I am late into the fray, just learning about an hour ago what the High Court has done today. See, I live in reality. I had a delicate situation with my S.O. and, besides appointments, part of the day was to look all around for rather simple antibiotics, and pain killers and anti inflammatory pills. We found two of them, not the ones recommended by the physician albeit acceptably less suitable alternatives.

In a waiting room I got wind of the declarations of the new minister for urban agriculture. I found the video tonight (at end of this entry). Indeed, she wants everyone to grab a tin can, and empty bottle, put some dirt and recycle the roots of any vegetable we can, starting with green onions.

Today we also learned that Venezuela oil barrel has reached its lowest price since 2002.

Recycling the root system of green onions? Can I plant pot instead so as to escape reality?

All of this to give you a little context for what comes next.


The battle between the electoral hall of the high court (e-TSJ for short) and democracy keeps apace. The e-TSJ has decided today (even though they should be on judicial holiday) that seating the representatives for Amazonas was illegal and puts the National Assembly into contempt. And thus ANY decision of the N.A. is void and will be.

There is no point in going back into the detail of the contentious. For recall what the e-TSJ has done is illegal for many reasons: all appeals in front of the electoral board CNE have not been exhausted; there is no legal emergency; even with three seats less the N.A. can vote on 99% of laws it  needs to vote on; the e-TSJ first ruling came during judicial holiday; the e-TSJ has no right to void an election without some form of trial; etc.; etc.; and without mentioning that the allegations of fraud committed in Amazonas, even if true, pale in comparison to the accusations of fraud for every chavista candidate elsewhere.

Clearly, electoral justice is the least concern of the e-TSJ. The objective is elsewhere.

The objective is to stop the N.A. work before it has a chance to start hearings and voting laws that will limit or erase the power of the chavista elite. Complicated by whatever internal fight chavismo is having.

That is why a faction of chavismo, more than likely led by Diosdado Cabello as Maduro has more to lose in such a confrontation, uses the courts to undo the Assembly election. Going to the point of threatening the dismissal of the N.A. with the TSJ taking upo its functions until X.

The reactions of the N.A. were equally previsible. And the N.A. vice chair stated that they were not going to respect a "political" ruling of the e-TSJ.

It is also an excellent opportunity to remember a December 12, 2014 article in El Pais from Spain, English section where it is explained that

reviewed 45,474 sentences issued between 2004 and 2014 by the political, electoral and constitutional chambers at Venezuela’s Supreme Courts - in charge of government oversight. The group published the results in a new book, El TSJ al servicio de la revolución (Editorial Galipan), which it is distributing in the country in an almost clandestine manner. Analysts and journalists see this thick book as a gem. The main conclusion of this long essay is that the Supreme Court has never delivered a sentence against the government.

My emphasis. I rest my case, the e-TSJ ruling has nothing to do with electoral justice. This is a judicial coup in progress where a partisan named court will undo the popular will exerted through perfectly legal, even if biased, elections.

That is all.

So, what next?

Certain argue that the N.A. and Ramos Allup acted harshly, that after all they could start doing a few things with the 109 other seats. That they should have waited even if it left Amazonas without representation at a crucial time.

Others, like the ones rejecting the ruling, think that there is no other way but to confront.

I side with the later for various reasons.

- The e-TSJ "ruling" is not the first, it is already the second and there is already clear evidence that more is coming. The ex-chair of the TSJ has said it so, anticipating today's e-ruling (I have written a lot on her, Luisa Estela Morales Lamuño, in this blog).

- Avoiding a confrontation is useless. Postponing may make sense but when the regime attacks first you need to reply and up the ante.

- This is a thugocracy/kleptocracy/drug-lord-ocracy. Legal elegance is something that flies way above their heads. Accepting any thing from them is just the same as validating their crimes and pushing them forward.

A coup, violence, is unavoidable because the leader of the violent is Diosdado Cabello and he sees in his future an orange suit. Unfortunately there are dozens that also are looking at different ways to wear orange. If anyone disagrees with me they are welcome to explain why I am wrong.

Considering the reality that I live in I am painfully aware that what the regime seeks is to delay any action from the National Assembly and this will be leaving el pueblo, me, with neither food nor medicine. But, my friends, confronting or not the regime IS NOT going to speed up the solution to our problems. We can be only sure of one thing: as long as Maduro and Cabello are in charge, nothing, absolutely nothing will get fixed. They cannot fix it. They cannot care less.

Might as well go for it.

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There is an older video of this weirdo saying that she would pinch the balls of any gringo landing in Venezuela during the uproar of the DEA putting narco-personnel on its lists. I suppose her agricultural project include also planting pot at home?

Regime gains? Opposition gains? Lopez gains?

The guilty verdict on Leopoldo Lopez was expected though one would have thought that the maximum penalty would not have been decided. At any rate, guilty or free, the decision yesterday by the regime to tell judge Barreiros to condemn Lopez is not going to change much on the events to come. What it does convincingly is marking the moment where the regime stops gingerly crossing over the line between dictatorship and the totalitarian state. Gingerly no more.

Anything but freeing Lopez would not have improved the international regime standing now at junk bond level. Any condemnation, no matter how short the sentence, was equally unacceptable because a guilty verdict on thought crime is unacceptable in civilized world. Any guilty verdict is the clear statement of the regime that politicians will be dealt with through "crime" sentences to ban them from office. Who needs a gulag when a mere sentence disposes of your opponents for a few years in jail and for a life time once out?

So, why is the regime risking such an international condemnation, even though it does not seem to care about that a bit, as witnesses the Colombian border crisis?


Any gain perceived by the regime is strictly internal, safe the historical apologists from Red Ken to the ineffable Eva Golinger. I suppose that now they will be able to state without batting an eye that Lopez is guilty. And it will work to a point. All outside in Venezuela have a sense that justice in Venezuela is not great. But few can grasp how perverted the system is. Thus when a propagandist at Russia Today like Eva Golinger states that Lopez is guilty and has been condemned to 14 years of jail even if you have a doubt about the Venezuelan judicial system you will think that surely Lopez must have done something even if the sentence is overly harsh. A meager compensation when you consider that the Eva Golingers of the world are now quite discredited outside of the few dark caves where they seek refuge.

The "benefits" must be strictly internal, thus. Which may they be?

As an electoral ploy it can only mobilize better the hard core of chavismo. Yesterday a colectivo did attack a peaceful protest resulting with one death through cardiac failure. But the renewed radicalization of the nut wing of chavismo has the advantage at improving the options of the "bring in the vote" machine.  Plain coercion as before has not worked in 2013, now chavismo needs actual threats and ferrying of timorate electors. At best this may help chavismo limit the hemorrhage of votes but it will not help them gain new electors. Attitudes like yesterday castigating civil protests or chanting the hopes that Lopez gets 400 year sentence do not make you new friends.

As a demobilizing tool for the opposition it has a limited use. At best it will scare some opposition leaders that do not want to go to jail, but the bulk knows quite well that they must keep the fight because the slammer is their destiny sooner or later. I think personally that condemning Lopez is in fact an incentive for the opposition voter to be more active. But the Cuban inspired regime applies old recipes in a new world of Twitter.

As a tool to create violence and thus get an excuse to suspend elections is far from certain. So far there is no evidence that the opposition will resort to violence. Lopez himself is calling for peace and electoral activism as the best and fastest way to get out of jail, and annul the unjust sentence.

Clearly I see no real advantage for the regime in condemning Lopez to 14 years. The international commendation has been quite vocal today, faster than usual. Peace still reigns in Venezuela and I do not see much spontaneous chavista celebration...

The only advantage that I can see is internal to chavismo. Someone had to make a show of force to prove to one faction that he is the boss. I, for one, have a hard time imagining that Cubans demanded this from Maduro, or at least with a much shorter sentence. Doing so must be the way to announce that we have entered totalitarianism, officially. The other suspect is Diosdado Cabello who, besides his resentment against anything educated smart and fancy, may have wanted to condemn Lopez to blame this on Maduro.

Whatever it is, those who participated in that show trial have put their names first in the list of those who will need to suffer through a Venezuelan Nuremberg when the day shall come. I do not want to be seen as a poseur by using the N word, but the crimes committed by the regime this recent weeks qualify the holders to a trial at The Hague. Period.

There is only one winner yesterday: Leopoldo Lopez. Write it down.

Snowed in Caracas

I hope you will forgive me the bad pun of the title but this is a little bit the feel these days. Under the blizzard of news, most more ridiculous than the preceding one, I feel like I am trapped, unable to write about anything. Where should I start? The Evo non event? That we have no money to import grains but the regime finds money to import chicken? That the Nazional Guard made a "mistake" killing a mother, one her daughter and sending the two other daughters to the hospital? That no one seems to care about these issues, many more worried about the latest regime announcement that we may get an extra 3000 USD for our trips, albeit at a much higher value than the 6,3 current official exchange?

My level of despondency about the country seems to be reaching new marks.....

The fact of the matter is that I have been this week in Caracas and busy enough not to be able to sort thoughts before hitting the keyboard. Thus, I might as well start with Evo excellent adventure.

The only thing we know for sure is that the guy, coming back from Russia, was forced into an unscheduled stop in Vienna that lasted much too long considering the official excuses and motives. The man was in Moscow for a summit on world gas exporters because contrary to Venezuela that had Maduro attending and fussing, Bolivia DOES export gas. Then there was a rumor that Evo would smuggle spy Snowden to Bolivia and, I suppose, an international anti-something was activated, probably automatically through an idiot bureaucrat. As a result the air space of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal were closed to Evo's plane. That these countries happened to be in the flight path of Evo was after all an accident: the same thing may have happened if Evo had decided to go back to Bolivia via Turkey, through Africa. Nobody seems to be mentioning that. Nor that the Evo plane had a mechanical problem explaining better the over long stay in Vienna when in a couple of hours at most all restrictions would have been lifted and the plane refueled. After all, Evo did refuel later in the Canary islands which last I heard were still part of Spain.

Now, before I continue let me state that the European countries involved made an idiotic mistake as everyone would have been served better with Snowden going to rot in La Paz, eating chuños and cruising for pole dancing cholitas. That would have taught him a lesson right there. Which brings me to my opinion on Snowden: he is a jerk. A real whistle blower faces the consequences of his actions and do not run to the enemy. And furthermore, he does not contemplate seeking asylum in countries that have LESS privacy rights, LESS freedom of the press and LESS freedom of information than the country he running away from. His cause has a value, he has none.

This being said we were thus brought to the shameful spectacle of UNASUR rallying (not all apparently) around the slight made to Evo. Storming with harsh words was Maduro against Spain. Curiously this one said little against the other three, which coincidentally received him in his post election tour seeking outside the legitimacy refused inside Venezuela. And thus we got a double display of hypocrisy from UNASUR, selective in its condemnation of what is after all a fortuitous incident while sweeping under the rug real problems such as the electoral fraud in Venezuela. Definitely UNASUR is a crock of s**t.

This insult to the intelligence of a Venezuelan blogger would have been enough for a week, but alas, it would not be the lone one. At work I was told that all the plans of the poultry sector made with the regime came down crashing. The association had promised a steep increase in chicken and egg production provided the regime allowed for the imports of raw materials needed. As usual, political expediency and corruption took the day and the regime decided to restart imports of chicken from Brazil, more expensive, more subject to corrupt handling. We should always keep in mind that the only way el pueblo knows its food comes from the regime is by giving it directly to el pueblo, in red shirted Chavez decorated fairs, with imported chicken even if this one is of lesser quality than the locally produced one. The lessons from Chavez and the Cubans have been well learned even if this may put the chicken industry of Venezuela (44kg per capita) on the verge of bankruptcy while the regime will NEVER be able to import and distribute the 44 per capita required. In 1998 Venezuela was self sufficient and the way we go if we keep producing 50% of our needs in a couple of years we will be lucky, when not only we could produce everything needed, but export as we used to do.

There was also other stuff such as the wimpy to cowardly report of the Carter Center; or the big fuss about having an admiral female defense minister when in Chile the bridge has been crossed long ago all the way to the presidency and by a civilian woman. Amen of the lacerating question that why the f**k Venezuela has way more admirals vice-admirals and counter-admirals than actual serviceable ship in the pretend fleet.

To finish this outrageous post I will refer to the latest state crime. Apparently in Falcon state a detachment of the Nazional Guard confused two cars and by "mistake" shot 50 salvos in a small family car, killing the mother, one of her daughters, sending one critical to the hospital and leaving the last one with a life psycho trauma at the very least.  That the regime sent to preventive jail the officers in charge is of little comfort. Too many army personnel involved in such type of offenses have served perfunctory sentences. I am willing to bet that those involved in the crime will do no more than a couple of years in jail.

The source of all this mess is that the regime has been not only unable but unwilling to set a civilian security plan. When el pueblo complains too loudly and elections approach the solution is to send armed forces to the streets. Unfortunately they are woefully untrained for such tasks; though we hear that they are well trained to control harbor and commerce corruption. Having a professional police force trained to avoid such disasters require investment in personnel, a functional judicial system, jails, weapons and means, intelligence, etc, etc...  Here, the only intelligence that matters for the regime is the one used to spy on its opposition.

Now, tell me that all that I wrote above is not what you's expect to see in a dictatorship, a military dictatorship were the civilian president is a pasty/patsy.

The Maduro "election" is officially challenged (impugnada), and so is the electoral system

As promised we just read that the Henrique Capriles has officially challenged/impugnado the election of April 14. he did that by sending the Comando Simon Bolivar, his electoral organization, to the high court of Venezuela, TSJ, electoral hall, with a 180 pages document. The evidence will be introduced later, as the High court proceeds with the hearings.

But that is not all. The challenge is not only on the mere result: the opposition has challenged ALL the electoral process, from weeks before the election to the following days. what is on trial is not only the result of April 14, it is all the Venezuelan Electoral system. At long last.

What can we expect?
Little.  After all the high court is packed 100% with pro Chavez people, that have even felt secure enough to brag about their support of the bolibanana revolution, and that separation of powers was passé. Still, something will have to happen with the court that must rule on that sooner or later, as it has a constitutional deadline (which certainly can be pushed back as the TSJ has long done what it wishes to do without regard for the laws or constitutions  as we saw recently on January 9, 2913, which is when the whole current crisis officially started).

Hypothesis 1: the TSJ is divided within its chavista mind frame and the non maduristas may be tempted to repeat the election. I see it as a weak option although the sabotage of Cabello at the National Assembly cannot make us rule it out.

Hypothesis 2: the TSJ says that the election was fine, thank you.  The problem here for them is that they will need to explain why the arguments advanced by the opposition are non receivable. And  the opposition ipso facto will go to international court where the regime loses 99% of its arguments. See, the regime lawyers write with the regime interests in mind and not with the purposes of the laws in mind. Thus all the regime arguments in real courts of laws flounder because there each side is weighed against the standards of laws and human rights, and not the interests of whomever occupies Miraflores Palace. That is why the regime has been busy trying to withdraw from any international organization because it knows perfectly well that it cannot win any trial there.  And of course no internal peace whatsoever is achieved through such a blatant abuse.

Hypothesis 3: as a face saving ploy, to try to give Maduro more time to sort out his own problems inside chavismo, the TSJ may well annul a few voting places and call for partial repeat of elections in, say, 6 months. That way the opposition goes quiet for a while and Maduro is at least recognized as "interim" president.

At any rate, tonight Capriles will talk and if possible I will give you a live tweet at @danielduquenal with more details.

PS: as a side note, ESDATA says that Capriles won by 4 points. In English here.