This Blog is about the Transition Back to Democracy

Quien Mató a Evo Morales?

Que lastima que da el espectáculo del Presidente Morales navegando por los tempanos sumergidos de su país.  

Me acuerdo cuando fue electo - hace tan poco tiempo - teniendo la misma sensación de miles y millones de personas por todo el mundo:  por fin un hijo nativo toma el poder en el seno de las Americas.  Cuanto animo dentro y fuera de su país para que habré una era nueva de unidad y esperanza.  Que poco duro.

Imaginemos una posible ruta del mandatario indígena.  "Ciudadanos, estamos frente un momento histórico que habla de la evolución lenta pero acertada" hubiera dicho al tomar el poder.  "Estamos en un punto de inflexión y grandeza para el pueblo Boliviano - todo el pueblo.  Quiero hablarle al pueblo criollo, a los haciendados, a los profesionales, a los productores y a mis seguidores.  Somos todos Bolivianos. Tenemos una apertura perfecta para trabajar en conjunto para llevar a este país sufrido a un futuro moderno, plural, respetoso de todos y todas."

En ese camino no tomado podría haber hablado de respeto entre personas y grupos que no tenían confianza anteriormente para trabajar juntos.  Podría haber entusiasmado a los que no le votaron para que embarquen en un proyecto sin igual en la historia para unir razas y modos de vida bajo una bandera amplia de progreso.

Pero no fue haci.  Al igual que sigue sin salida al mar, ahora sigue sin salida de un proyecto esteril mandado de los Napoleanicos del odio.  Que tiene que ver la Pacha Mama con Marx y Lenin?  Que division necesario habia entre Este y Oeste?  Que necesidad de poner militares en las estaciones de servicio de Brasil?  Que estupidez mando no respetar los dos tercios mandados por la constitución para una asamblea constituyente?  Que necesidad de acusar a mitad de país de conspirar con "El Imperio."  Que falta de coraje querer comprar el ejercito en ves de mandar con legitimidad bajo la lema simple y llana que la figura del Presidente es institucional y tiene un deber a gobernar para TODO el pais.

A Evo lo mataron los empujones.  El viejito que necesita sus victorias para no morir descalificado por la historia que lo dejo sin su querida vindicación.  Y también ese venezolano expansionista egoísta que solo sabe de empujones sin reflexión.  Los dos lo mataron a Evo.  No importa el dinero que mande Chavez para comprar militares o las evocaciones de solidaridad que emite el ALBA.  Cuba no quiere problemas.  Ecuador esta paralizado por cuestiones internas.  Brasil poco le interesa el proyecto Chavista a su costado.  Argentina da lastima.  Perú y Colombia festejan.  Chile sigue su camino que se nota que le va bien por falta de malas noticias.

No le queda ni ganas al Presidente de Bolivia.  Guerra civil?  Reparto de Departamentos?  Que coño que es navegar por tempanos sumerjidos en una tierra sin salida al mar.

Former Governor of Carabobo Touts the Power of Decentralization

"Controversy makes him stronger.  It's the same as an airplane that needs a headwind to take off."  This is how Henrique Salas Römer, former candidate for the presidency of Venezuela in 1998 and ex governor of the state of Carobobo, describes Chavez in a recent interview published in La Verdad and reprinted in Noticias24.  Mr. Römer's 1998 candidacy was predicated on the concept of "decentralization" as a way of enhancing local control and increasing accountability.  He sees the recent moves in the National Assembly to give the Executive power control over airports, sea-ports, and highways, as a symptom of the president's penchant for absolute control and as a method for generating conflicts with state and municipal elected leaders in anticipation of elections scheduled for November of this year.  Römer interprets these moves as a strategy for converting the regional elections into a national campaign with Chavez - as usual - in the center of his own controversy.

Mr. Römer believes that, in the same way that their was a "tacit agreement" among forces opposed to Chavez's constitutional referendum defeated last year, there should be an alignment of interests going into the regional elections this fall.  Römer considers Chavez's revolution to be at its lowest point in terms of popular support.  He considers decentralization to be the strongest antidote to Chavez's pretensions of dictatorial authority.  Beyond the ideology of chavism and anti-chavism, he believes that the self interest of governors and mayors all over Venezuela can - along with voters' desire for accountability - move the country toward greater pluralism.

Mr. Römer's advocacy of decentralization is based on the observation that local control means greater accountability.  The end result for Römer is to give people "the tools for empowerment, in order to augment the capacity of each person to self govern, thus increasing their potential to master their own destiny."  

“La cobardía de la agresión"

Con estas palabras le replico Alvaro Uribe a Daniel Ortega durante la Cumbre del Grupo de Rio cuando este le insultaba entre discursos oficiales. Y con estas palabras se podria resumir la tempestada que solto Chavez y sus compinches en el mas reciente intento de provocar una guerra ideologica, y no tan ideologica, con Uribe. Pero lo bueno para el mundo civilizado es que Chavez se ha encontrado en Uribe un Maestro de Guerra a la SunTzu. “La excelencia suprema del general no consiste en pelear y ganar todas las batallas, consiste en romper la resistencia del enemigo sin batalla.”

Uribe no solo desarticulo el mado de las FARC con el ataque nocturno en la selva Ecuatoriana pero gano una arma imprecindible: la verdad y una luz. Quien hubiera dicho que en una caja fuerte de Reyes, hubiesan encontrado no solo un retrato furibundo de transacciones a cuentas secretas en las Caymanes, pero tambien un potfolio de propuestas politicas y un album de fotos! Creo que el dicho que utilizo Uribe en su discurso sobre el tema en la Cumbre fue: Dios manda ayuda a los buenos de formas inesperadas (o algo por el estilo)

eltiempo.com / tiempoimpreso / edicionimpresa / opinion

23 de Marzo de 2008
Alfredo Rangel

Venezuela y Ecuador deben combatir la 'acción de los grupos irregulares'.

El balance de la reciente crisis diplomática con nuestros vecinos es totalmente positivo para Colombia. Lo más importante es que Chávez y Correa han sido neutralizados, por ahora.

Ya no podrán seguir brindándole impunemente apoyo activo o pasivo a la guerrilla, como antes lo hacían. La comunidad internacional los verá en adelante como sospechosos por apoyar al terrorismo. En consecuencia, la guerrilla perdió, también por ahora, sus santuarios protegidos en suelo venezolano y ecuatoriano. Pero no hay que bajar la guardia.

Según el diario El Comercio de Quito, en su edición del pasado 16 de marzo, el campamento de 'Raúl Reyes' en territorio ecuatoriano tenía dos hectáreas de área con construcciones que incluían campos de entrenamiento, dormitorios para tropa, cocina, comedores, área de capacitación y hasta corrales para animales. Era un campamento permanente.

Las Farc estaban asentadas en territorio ecuatoriano, habían invadido ese país sin que el gobierno de Correa hiciera nada para impedirlo. Pero durante la crisis, Correa nunca condenó la violación de su territorio por parte de las Farc, lo que confirma la sospecha de que la guerrilla siempre estuvo allí con su consentimiento. Porque si no fue así debería destituir a los comandantes militares que lo permitieron.

La crisis demostró la alianza de Chávez y Correa con las Farc, corroborada por decenas de documentos encontrados en los computadores de 'Raúl Reyes'. Mientras Uribe ofreció disculpas y reconoció que la incursión colombiana en suelo ecuatoriano violó disposiciones internacionales, Correa nunca dio explicaciones sobre la presencia permanente de un campamento guerrillero en su territorio y mucho menos presentó disculpas a Colombia por ese hecho. Un acongojado Chávez calificó la muerte de 'Raúl Reyes como un crimen, algo que ni las mismas Farc han dicho, y por esa baja rompió relaciones con Colombia y casi nos declara la guerra.

Mientras Uribe quiso aprovechar la crisis para buscar soluciones a la seguridad fronteriza conteniendo a las Farc, Correa solo buscó una condena para Colombia, no para la guerrilla, aun cuando esta violaba de manera permanente la soberanía de Ecuador. Chávez, consciente de la viga en su propio ojo, miró para otro lado. Para Uribe, el problema en la frontera son las Farc; para Correa y Chávez, el problema en la frontera es Uribe.

Por todos estos hechos, Colombia debe permanecer atenta para que Venezuela y Ecuador cumplan el compromiso de "combatir las amenazas a la seguridad provenientes de la acción de los grupos irregulares", compromiso contenido en la reciente resolución de la OEA. De igual manera, debe hacer énfasis en la necesidad de que su Secretario General implemente "un mecanismo de observación del cumplimiento" de esa resolución. Para Colombia será fácil, pues le basta con no entrar a territorios vecinos. Para Ecuador y Venezuela será más difícil, pues les significará incumplirle a la guerrilla los compromisos que han sido revelados en los computadores de 'Reyes'.

Cualquier futuro apoyo de nuestros vecinos a la guerrilla debe ser denunciado amplia y abiertamente ante la comunidad internacional. Esto ya dejó de ser un asunto bilateral, nivel en que se han perdido todas las anteriores denuncias colombianas. Por ello, todos los embajadores colombianos deben realizar en el exterior amplias campañas de información sobre la situación del país y los avances logrados en la recuperación de nuestra seguridad interna, para tener un terreno abonado y lograr apoyos internacionales en la eventualidad de vernos obligados a elevar alguna demanda ante organismos internacionales frente a una no descartable reincidencia de nuestros vecinos en el apoyo a la guerrilla.

Porque Chávez y Correa están neutralizados. Pero solo por ahora.

“He is finally in the sights of the imperial power: May God catch him confessing”

From: Noticias24
04:17 PM | 13 MAR 2008
Antonio Sánchez García.

(translated:  G. Cisneros)

This is his column:

It has taken nine years for Chavez to realize one of his most cherished goals: to become a top priority for the State Department and the Pentagon. One of his greatest frustrations – being ignored and/or belittled by George W. Bush – is about to be rectified.

For the first time the North American Nation via its key institutions – the Southern Command, the Justice Department, the State Department, and the White House – turns its gaze on the “Chavez phenomenon” and decides to confront what they consider to be an issue of regional survival. The heavy North American machinery, which is reluctant to bang about in minor matters concerning a coup-plotting lieutenant colonel, in spite of how folksy and picturesque he may seam, is turning towards the Caribbean.

The lieutenant colonel’s satisfaction is now unmitigated: he is finally in the sights of the imperial power. The Harry S. Truman, one of its most fearsome aircraft carriers loaded with eighty-five combat jets, is cruising off the coastal waters underscoring the paucity of the recently acquired soviet-era air force potential at the disposal of the Bolivarian revolution. The North American justice system, meanwhile, lays bare her participation in money laundering, drug trafficking, and the support of narcoguerrillas and terrorism. Goliath shows its claws.

Hugo Chavez may not be fully aware of the terrain he’s entered, provoking not only the United States, but also his regional neighbors and the European Union. Even Cuba, concerned about improving her relations with the U.S. and initiating her transition back into the community of democratic nations and, of course, the OAS, is put off. Returning to the worn-out strategy mastered by Castro of galvanizing support via a confrontation-without-return with the U.S., and converting this into a matter of survival for his regime after the fiasco of the December 2 referendum, demonstrates a willful ignorance of the true correlation of powers arrayed on our country and, at the same time, reveals a vulnerability for misguided adventures which could cost him his head. This is not, as was the case of Cuba, a revolution standing up to the Empire, but rather a incompetent government caught between a rock and a hard place.

As for the domestic situation: the government of Hugo Chavez has more in common with the death rattle of Isabelita Perón’s which, without sorrow or glory was snuffed out in an abyss of rampant corruption and a terrifying absence of governability, than that of Fidel Castro on Playa Girón. And while Castro could count on the backing of the Soviet Union, Chavez only has Iran and Byelorussia. Even Cuba, in the hands of Raul Castro, marks her distance.

A case of lamentable political myopia could be pushing Chavez to the abyss. He has no one to blame but himself. God blinds those who want to be lost. Not even his chosen heir, Diosdado Cabello, will follow him down this road. Chavez has the mark of disaster singed upon his forehead. May God catch him confessing.

The Zero Sum Game

Chavez has returned, once again, to the theme that "wealth is a sin."  Using his habitual method of linking up all television channels by decree, Chavez last night appeared before an auditorium full of medical students dressed in white lab coats.  As the camera panned the audience, groups of students, seeing themselves on the monitors, would stand up and wave with glee.  

 

In the midst of this festive atmosphere, reinforced by the announcement that yearly grants to to students in "communal" medical programs would go up by 500 bolivars (U$ 230), Chavez could not resist taking a dig at those doctors who choose to leave the country to find work.  He said these doctors had "sold their souls to the Devil," no doubt in allusion to the capitalist benefactors of these medical personnel.  

Chavez went on to say that "wealth is a sin" and that the Vatican "supports my position."  He said that the message of Christ was vindicated in socialism because it was the system that eliminated poverty whereas capitalism was the system that created poverty.  He mentioned the whip of Isaiah which came down upon those with too much wealth as a viable moral road.

Apparently, these admonitions are meant to rally the poor to his side.  Chavez knows that there is still a huge pool of voters who are likely to vote for his cause based on their condition of poverty.  However, there is a significant number of these poor that are beginning to blame Chavez for the palpable erosion of their purchasing power due to inflation, the horrendous levels of criminal violence fed by police permissiveness, and a the obvious gap between promised goals and results.

Chavez must continue to use his trusted method of blaming the rich, the middle classes, the former political classes of the "Fourth Republic," and, of course, the imperialists to the north, for all of what ails Venezuela.  His problem is that he is going on his tenth year of Revolution and not all is roses and wine for this OPEC nation wallowing in the midst of the highest oil prices in history.

More serious still for Chavez - and for his style of socialism - is that he insists on playing a zero sum game.  For his ilk of revolutionary bathed in the fiery rhetoric of the sixties, there are only two historical players:  the bloodthirsty capitalists and the noble poor. Capitalists simply have lots of things but don't work for them, preferring instead that the underfed, overworked, illiterate masses tend to their latifundias and clean their palaces.   That is to say, it appears that they missed the Industrial Revolution and simply superimpose the Feudal State upon the last five hundred years.

In this cosmology, each extra loaf of bread eaten by the oligarchy is a loaf taken from the hands of a poor child.  And, in a country that relies more on oil revenues for survival than on the investment in productive industries, this may make sense.  But it denies the obvious:  that capitalism has revolutionized the the world by distributing wealth to those enterprises that make the best use of available resources regardless of geographical location or class.  

No Peace in Store for Venezuela's Opposition

According to Alberto Müller Rojas, recently elected vice president for the Unified Venezuelan Socialist Party, the climate of dialogue and peace which crowned the conclusion of the Group of Rio Summit last week cannot be transferred into Venezuela because "the right conditions don't exist." A general in the army and a close ally of Mr. Chavez, Mr. Rojas Muller was responding to comments made earlier at a press conference by opposition leader Rosales, governor of the state of Zulia. Governor Rosales, lamenting the terrible waste of the "golden years" of high petroleum prices, called on Chavez to learn from the Summit and take the initiative in calling for reconciliation and dialogue within Venezuela.  He applauded the resolutions accorded among the presidents of Latin America and suggested that the same atmosphere could be reproduced in Venezuela to tackle the myriad problems which face the nation. 

Rosales maintained that poverty, violence, food and medicine shortages were all on the rise.  This, despite the fact the Venezuela has recently benefited from oil prices at triple the rate projected for the federal budget.  The Governor suggested that, as a first step, Chavez should end his persecution of opposition politicians, business interests and the media, in order to find a "concerted" solution to Venezuela's problems.

General Muller Rojas was of the opinion that the correct "conditions" did not exist.  As an example, he cited the fact that Rosales had called Chavez "treasonous" for having moved 10 batallions of troops to the border for reasons other than national security.

 

SWIFTLY ROTTING - Hugo Chávez, ‘a demi God at the Edge of the Abyss’

10:16 PM | 04 MAR 2008 |

Antonio Sánchez García
Especial para noticias24.com
(Translated G. Cisneros)

Hugo Chavez made a mistake: he thought that after the prognosticated loss of his movement in the regional elections next November, the Venezuelan opposition would come after him. And that an opposition victory in Miranda, Caracas or Carabobo, not only would depose those important states and cities of leaders he had hand picked by virtue of his presidential majesty, passing them over to the opposition alliance, but that this would signal, moreover, the start of a hostile attack against his person.

There was no shortage of persons ready to ratify this scenario, believing that the Venezuelan crisis moves along the comfortable and cushioned tracks of an electoral confrontation. We have repeatedly heard political leaders, columnists, and editors from the left wing of the democratic opposition speak of 2012 as the watershed year for removing Chavez via the presidential elections without, however, noticing that the rhythm and velocity of the crisis would blow all of these expectations to the four winds. 

Confronting the upcoming electoral battle outside the context of the grave crisis of governability that agitates the country and fractures the foundations of the regime implies not only blindness, but irresponsibility and crass ignorance.

All the indicators point to what is already happening. Hugo Chavez is the victim of an incurable decease, his personality disorders have no cure. They pull him inevitably toward the abyss and his most profound impulses are self-destructive. He is verbally incontinent, violent and unreflective by nature. He lacks the most elemental mechanisms for self control and, left to his own devises, he is his own worst enemy - particularly in those moments when, being a sociopath narcissist, all of his dreams and hopes collide with the reality that his aspirations for glory and majesty are radically frustrated, such as they as is now the case.
He is approaching his end. 

Beset by his own formidable errors and the absolute incompetence of his support team, he is engulfed by an economic, social, poetical and judicial crisis without precedence. And he is encircled internationally by the most serious accusations made against any president in the history of Latin America, with the exception of Augusto Pinochet. The international justice system will pursue him like it did the Chilean dictator or the criminals of the Balkan wars. His error: believing sincerely that the scandalous impunity which he has enjoyed in a politically and morally dismembered nation, humiliated and harassed by his cruelty, could be extended to the entire world, converting it into a battleground for his Napoleonic ambitions. 

Such has been the submissiveness of the Latinamerican Left, and such the gangster like temperament of Peronists, Marxists, Lulaists, Frontists and Castroists, of all types and conditions, extending their hands and enriching or financing themselves at the side of the gigantic, criminal, and monstrous irresponsibility of this lieutenant colonel, who in the end came to believe seriously in his supernatural power and to feel beyond reproach like some demi god. Pinochet, Videla and Fujimori thought the same, just like their predecessors, Hitler and Mussolini. They have paid a steep price.

None of the accusations which he may now face before the International Criminal Court are news to the Venezuelan opposition. All of his ties with the FARC, with drug traffickers, with arms dealers, with the subversive and insurgent movements of Latin America, with the Argentine political mafias or the “piqueteros,” “cocaleros” or indigenists have been reported by our news media. 

Neither Rafael Correa, nor Evo Morales, nor Daniel Ortega, and possibly not even Lula or Kirtchner, nor Tabare Vasquez or Cristina Fernandez have clean hands with respect to the corrupting money placed in possession of their campaign managers via the checkbook of this lieutenant colonel. There is abundant police evidence in relation to the briefcases that ended up in the hands of Ollanta Humala, Evo Morales or Ms. Fernandez. All of this is being revealed in Florida precisely at this moment. 

Shortly, all of Chavez’s financial relationships with the remaining presidents of the, so-called, democratic left will come to light.  And in that light will be displayed, for all to see, the devious dealings with the narcotics trade, the corrupt enrichment of his collaborators, the looting of our nation’s funds. His regime rots before our very eyes. His power unravels at a fantastic rate. Will he last long enough to live to see his historic defeat in liberty? This is a question that many Venezuelans have begun to ask themselves.

PUDRIÉNDOSE EN CARNE VIVA

Venezula is exciting

Following events in Venezuela is exciting.  You have to wait a few days at times.  But like the Perito Moreno glacier in Patagonia, it never fails to satisfy with a satisfying crack, thump, and splash.  It is like watching putrefaction take over in dead bodies or a forest fire that threatens to take all your friends homes.  Venezuela is a political disaster zone which mixes the best of cop shows like "Bad Boys" with the quiet marvel of "The Blue Planet" episode where an entire ecosystem is described in concentric circles of hunters and prey.  Venezuela is all that is horrible in politics and a lot of what is good.  It is a story which cannot possibly resolve itself in any satisfactory way because the moral of good an evil is too important to tell.  It is a fiasco front loaded into a mass of mediocrity, basted by class resentment and toasted with hickory chips of hate.  It is spectacle and it is tragedy. It is time wasted, lives lost and an acid trip to hell.  

El Hombre Nuevo

El hombre nuevo fustiga a todos los modelos antiguos por ser inhumanos.

El hombre nuevo se viste de ropa hecha a mano por indígenas a los que no se pagan con dinero pero a trueque: una remera, una dosis de adoctrinamiento; zapatos, un voto en el comité de viviendas; una boina, una excusa oficial valida para evitar un evento político exaltando a gritos el Máximo Líder.

El hombre nuevo no maneja auto, toma colectivos subsidiados por la nación. No camina en ninguna dirección, sino la que van los demás. Siempre da paso y nunca llega a casa porque no tiene propia.

El hombre nuevo no tiene sueños personales, esta bañado en el llanto liberador del Pueblo que lo alienta a buscar el máxima beneficio a los demás con el mínimo de beneficio a si mismo. Le agrada el placer ajeno, siempre y cuando es a vísperas de un día productivo trabajando bajo condiciones sumamente ineficientes para no darle la razón al capitalismo.

El hombre nuevo no tiene amigos. Porque tener tal es elegir uno sobre el otro.

El hombre nuevo es gaseoso y sin forma lo cual lo hace un modelo penitente sin escala humana. No es hijo de Dios. Es hombre hecho Dios.

El hombre nuevo esta dispuesto a matar con tal que es al orden del Pueblo lo cual el mismo lo manifiesta a través de su olfato anti oligarquico, anti imperialista. Esta siempre a la orden de su Comandante. Busca retos en la selva y en los montes donde sus balas y los gritos sangrientos no tienen eco, ni penal.

El hombre nuevo es una excusa para la crueldad. Mataría a sus propios padres si eso le dicta la historia revolucionaria. Llevaría al mundo al abismo de la guerra nuclear si con un puro se podría quedar fumando los últimos momentos de la vida estrangulada por su majestad.

La Fantasía de Chavez en un Mundo sin el

Srs y Sras ciudadanos, les e convocado a esta cadena televisiva para comunicar mi empatía para el Pueblo Venezolano. A los mayores quien no encuentran medicinas, les escucho. A los de media clase que viven el constante miedo de la inseguridad, les escucho. A los buhoneros que viven del día a día sin saber como será el futuro tan difícil de discernir, los escucho. A los oligarcas que han pasado nueve años pensando que sus intereses y sus talentos eran solo para ser insultados por el Proceso, les escucho. A mis mas fervientes seguidores ahora desmoralizados, los escucho.

Tengo que decirles que hoy pise tierra. Fui al árbol donde El Libertador se juro al destino glorioso de nuestra patria y me senté. Solo. No había nada mas que el silencio. No sentí la presencia de Bolívar, ni advertí el destino de nuestra nación. Lo que sentí fue el pulso mió bajo mi piel. Sentí por primera ves en veinte años que era pequeño. Que no tenia destino pero si vida. Y pensé, “que simple y honrado” era ser un ser pequeño con pulso, sin destino, pero con amor. Pensé en ese amor de mi madre. Después pensé en el amor de todas las madres multiplicadas por la nación. Y mire el árbol en toda su extensión. Raíces, tronco, ramas y hojas. Y cerrando mis ojos vi la nación sobre puesta en ese árbol.

Note que las raíces que se nutrían del agua y los minerales eran nada menos que las historias de los miles de pueblos que formaban esta Venezuela. Cada pueblo traía sus frutos, sus gustos y sus costumbres. Había Indios, Italianos, Vascos, y Piratas. Habían Negros y Morenos, Ricos y Pobres. Venían a dar su energía a ese árbol. Y dentro del tronco ya no se podía distinguir las individualidades. Formaron todos una sólida forma de madera lustrada que por su fuerza alzaba al sol las ramas de mil y uno entidades. Había en esas hojas un sinfín de expresiones y personalidades. No había una cara del Pueblo si no millones.

Me quede mudo y humilde ante tan amplia visión. Y decidí en ese momento dejar de pelear.

Is Publishing Negative News an Act of Treason?

The last seven years of the Bush administration has taught us an important lesson in media manipulation. There was a time when the mere suggestion of WMDs in Iraq was faithfully reprinted from the NY Times to the San Diego Tribune.  Little was asked of the sources. We were in a war stance. The country pulled together.  We saw where that got us.

Today in Venezuela the government of Hugo Chavez is continually trying to make the case that the media which is critical of his actions is, in fact, planning a coup.  Recently a 36 hour long hostage siege at a bank in the city of Guárico was successfully defused with none of the 50 plus victims being hurt and the perpetrators captured.  This would have been a moment for the Interior Minister, Ramon Chacin, to demonstrate his crime fighting credentials through the calm recounting of the actions taken to secure these citizens from harm.  Instead he took the opportunity to rail against the "media oligarchy" of Globalvision, RCTV, CNN, accusing them and others of coup plotting. Why? Because they televised the drama live.  

This is not the exception to the rule in Venezuela. It is the rule. Another propagandist for the "beautiful" Revolution, Mario Silva, makes his living by supposedly uncovering plots being perpetrated against the regime.  He broadcasts from a cheap looking studio filled with images of the "heroes" of latinamerican revolutions from years past:  Fidel, Che, Marti, Chavez, etc. Recently he complained about news spots created by Globalvision which are maybe 30 seconds long and simply replay one of the governments latest expressions. One shows Chavez at the ALBA summit asking Bolivian president Evo Morales to please pass him some coca leaves, which he then proceeds to chew before the cameras. This is not, mind you, a sneaky scene showing a private moment between the two leaders.  It is a recording of a scene that Chavez clearly meant to broadcast to the world.  (See:  Mission Accomplished sign on aircraft carrier where Bush lands in his flight suit)  So they repeat the scene.  Why not?  

For Mr. Silva, however, this is a "subliminal" attempt to undermine the Revolution! What this clearly shows is that without the news blackout that Cuba "enjoys" it is not easy to claim all is well in the face of adverse facts. Stubborn facts. Facts that cannot be explained by any conspiracy. Facts which explain why Chavez currently has the lowest approval rating of his political career.  An approval rating that is, in fact, quite close to that of his nemesis, Mr. Danger, aka, George W. Bush. 

Chavez's Popularity Hits Rock Bottom: Only 21% Supports Government

Translated from Noticias24 (23/1/08)

Datanalisis pollster Luis Vicente Leon anticipated the trend last weekend and now a poll conducted by the firm Datos ("Facts") confirms it: Hugo Chavez's popularity is at its lowest point.  Only 21% of the population approves of the job his government is doing and confidence in the president himself has fallen to 30%.

According to a study undertaken by Suhelis Tejero and published today in El Universal, "confidence in president Hugo Chavez has fallen nine points in one year, according to polls conducted by the firm Datos, which show a decline from 39% in 2006 to a mere 30% of the population by the end of last year."

The director of Datos, Joseph Saade, highlights the fact that the "strategy of scapegoating " no longer functions for the president, explaining the decline in this indicator for 2007.

However, with respect to the job the government is doing, the results of the poll were even worse.  By the end of last year, confidence among Venezuelans in their government had fallen from the 35% registered in 2006 to a mere 21% approval rate.

Teodoro Petkoff (editor of TalCual) affirmed, in his editorial of last Monday, that "Chavez is in a free fall."

The Datos poll also made reference to the failed attempt to reform the constitution:  "26% of those polled considered that the worst of the proposed modifications to the Constitution was the proposal for unlimited terms, followed by changes to the Armed Forces, and those modifications affecting the character of private property."

El Orden y el Hombre Indispensable

Hay una teoría interesante dando vuelta por los blogs en EEUU de que a Bush nunca le intereso instalar un gobierno en Iraq que funcione. La lógica seria que un país que funciona ya no necesita la asistencia y la presencia militar de EEUU. De tal forma que el caos hace indispensable la continuidad de EEUU en Iraq y a consecuencia permita que se mantengan bases militares para proyectar fuerza en contra de Irán, Siria, et al. y también permite el control - naturalmente - del indispensable petróleo. 

Será que el hampa - al menos hasta cierto nivel - es estrategia chavista? Ya hemos visto como el contrabando de la leche se aprovecho para instalar fuerzas adicionales en la frontera con Colombia. La transferencia de la policía metropolitana de Caracas al gobierno federal también podría ser una excusa generada por el hampa para centralizar los poderes policiales en "anticipación" de futuros "disturbios" no tan criminales como manifestaciones políticas. 

Creo que a Chavez se tiene que dar por hecho que esta todos los días y todas las horas pensando en como puede mantenerse en el poder mas aya del 2012. Se hará el hombre "indispensable" por lograr el orden en el país? Parecería un chiste pensar en este momento que lo podría hacer pero no se puede negar que tiene el asesoramiento de uno de los países mas "pacificados" de Latinoamérica - Cuba. En el pensamiento izquierdista - mundialmente - se considera ilegitimo castigar los que roban para poder comer.  Pero, misteriosamente, se acepta el castigo contra enemigos políticos, como es el caso de Cuba.

Que alquimia doctrinaria se estará cocinando para convertir al pobre infeliz y al no tan pobre criminal sin escrúpulo en el nuevo enemigo de estado? Se abrió una brecha interesante con los buhoneros que se sienten "usados" por un Proceso que pidio su apoyo y ahora los traiciona. Ojo en desear un sistema de represión policial demasiado efectivo a manos de Chavez!

Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right

While Chavez broadcasts his support for the FARC to the four corners of the world, he consistently gets the same reply: they are terrorists. That is to say they engage in acts of violence against innocent civilians to advance their cause - whatever that may be at this post communist juncture in history. Chavez, interestingly enough, doesn't deny that they are committing acts of terrorism. He can't. After all he just went to the extremes of foolishness to make himself look the hero by getting the release of two hostages, Clara and Consuelo. 

What he argues instead, in a slight of hand that pays huge dividends, is that the biggest, "hyper" terrorist in the USA. This comment actually seams to generate a good deal of agreement, and this writer is not immune to its impact. The flaw, of course, in this "excuse" is that two wrongs don't make a right. The fact that tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis have been killed, maimed, displaced and abused in a stupid war promoted by a terrible president, does not excuse the FARC in a completely different part of the world from being the single greatest obstacle for peace in Colombia. 

Naturally, Chavez's attitude is familiar to all of us who can remember being kids or have kids. "Yes I broke those plates, but Jimmy broke the window." My sin is so much smaller as to be inconsequential next to his. 

But of course the real problem with this form of arguing is that it does work. And for this reason alone Bush should be impeached and made to clean cells at Guantanamo. The US has lost so much moral ground in the Iraqi adventure that it will be years if not decades before we can say: "what you did is wrong" with a clear conscience.

Why the Revolution Never Rests

El Hombre Nuevo (Che Guevara, 1965)

El revolucionario, motor ideológico de la revolución dentro de su partido, se consume en esa actividad ininterrumpida que no tiene más fin que la muerte, a menos que la construcción se logre en escala mundial. Si su afán de revolucionario se embota cuando las tareas más apremiantes se ven realizadas a escala local y se olvida el internacionalismo proletario, la revolución que dirige deja de ser una fuerza impulsora y se asume en una cómoda modorra, aprovechada por nuestros enemigos irreconciliables, el imperialismo, que gana terreno. El internacionalismo proletario es un deber pero también es una necesidad revolucionaria. Así educamos a nuestro pueblo.

The revolutionary, ideological engine of the revolution within his party, is consumed by his uninterrupted activity which has no other possible end than death, unless, that is, the project is completed on a global scale. If his revolutionary drive is satiated at the point when his most prized objectives are realized at the local level, and he forgets the international proletariate, the revolution which he has lead stops being a vital force and takes on the condition of a comfortable drowsiness which, in turn, leaves us vulnerable to our implacable enemy, the imperialists, who gain ground. For this reason the idea of a world proletariate is not only an obligation but a necessity. This is how we educate our people.

Gran Colombia? Gran Lio

Hablar como hizo recién, el presidente de Venezuela, ante la institución mas emblemática del poder político, la Asamblea Nacional, sobre su compromiso para lograr un futuro “Gran Colombia” como el antiguo que abarque el continente de mar a mar, es una gravísima señal de un proyecto expansionista. A lo mínimo, el gobierno Colombiano debería llamar a consultas a su embajador. En las implicaciones mas sencillas de este proyecto habrá que esperar que Chávez seguirá profundizando sus lazos con las FARC y tratara de movilizar un partido político en Colombia con afinidades “bolivarianas” como las entiende Chávez. Es un proyecto sumamente bélico en su seno que lo tapara con la insignia que “solo la revolución es camino de paz.”

A los millones de Venezolanos que han sufrido años de abusos institucionales por culpa de no seguir las locuras de Chávez, y los millones de chavistas que entregaron sus esperanzas de mejorar sus vidas cotidianas ahora mayoritariamente frustrados, se suman los millones de Colombianos que apoyan a Uribe por su compromiso a la integridad de su país, como nuevos victimas de un hombre que no tiene frenos sobre su carácter pugilista. Sin ir al hecho que Chávez explícitamente repudio el voto en su contra del 2 de diciembre, tenemos al frente un verdadero peligro internacional.

De nuevo se alzan las voces del que hacer? Habrá tiempo y condiciones para lograr un cambio democrático? Las elecciones de octubre cambiara el rumbo del presidente? Ya se vio lo poco que duro las tres Rs. Que tipo de contrapeso es suficiente ante semejante personaje? Que se puede esperar del Alto Mando que se vio servil ante las groserías emitida por Chávez en contra de la oposición.? Se puede esperar que ellos pongan freno al aprendiz de Fidel? Si a Fidel le queda poco tiempo de vida y a Chávez solo le motiva el expansionismo, que caldo nefasto se esta cocinando en estas dos mentes mesiánicas? En fin, estamos ante un fenómeno Cheney/Bush tropical.

En el mismo sentido que Bush fue corriendo a la guerra como un destino político para ocultar su falta de respuestas a los ataques del 11/9, Chávez corre a hacerse el campeón de la ultra izquierda para obviar el hecho que nada a mejorado en Venezuela. Pero la guerra con un vecino no es lo mismo que atropellar los intereses de la mitad de su población. Claro esta que empezara a hacer invenciones sobre planes de EE.UU. para combatirlo. La carta del victima es la mas tramposa pero efectiva de Chávez.

What the FARC is up?

"A Circus in the Colombian Jungle"
 by Carlos Alberto Montaner
 2001 – Firmaspress

This story is known only superficially. The communist narco-guerrillas known as the FARC, in concert with Hugo Chavez, manufactured a huge media circus in order to liberate three innocent captives held hostage in the Colombian jungles over the last several years. They intended to dominate the world’s headlines, but were preempted by other, more opportune, though equally sinister, terrorists who wrecked their party with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. The publicity, naturally, will be significantly less. In any case, what where the objectives being pursued by the protagonists of this obscene spectacle based on exploiting the suffering of the victims and their families in Colombia?

Lets begin with Hugo Chavez

The Venezuelan president seeks to project his image and consolidate his status as the leader in a zone of influence. It fits part and parcel with his narcissistic psychosis, but it also responds to a particular strategy. He set up the operation as a collective political triumph. It was an opportunity to present himself at the head of a group of countries, which he proposes should adhere to his delirious plans of constructing an international political block dedicated to the hostile treatment of the Western World. Thus, he quickly asked of his allies that they designate representatives of a certain status that would demonstrate his power of assembly. Chavez, like all mafia godfathers, charges interest on whatever resources are loaned. His debtors, in some cases, are the thankful recipients of those electoral briefcases full of petrodollars that fly like comets throughout the region.

Argentina sent ex president Nestor Kirchner and foreign secretary Jorge Taina; Cuba, German Sanchez, ambassador in Caracas, and known by Venezuelans as the Viceroy, an able and hardened representative of the Cuban intelligence services; Ecuador picked Gustavo Larrea, ex Interior minister; Brazil, Marco Aurelio Garcia, a man who is close to both Lula and Castro; and Bolivia sent the vice minister Sacha Llorent. Together with these, somewhat disoriented, will travel the French ambassador Hadelin de la Tour-du-Pin, who will probably enjoy this picturesque excursion through the tropics and maybe even be convinced that he is the beatific agent of a charitable act, or perhaps a minor character in a Garcia Marquez novel.

For the FARC, the release of the two women and the child, born captive, assists them in six objectives:

*It allows them to demonstrate flexibility and improve their uncomfortable image as murderers and drugs traffickers.

*It obligates the hated government of Uribe to confer on them a certain legitimacy.

*The acceptance, if only provisionally, of “neutral zones.”

*The insertion, within the conflict, of international factors favorable to them.

*Lend support and please Hugo Chavez, their most valuable ally.

*And finally, perhaps take a step toward the tactic suggested by Chavez: give support to a candidate akin to their cause in the 2010 elections, a strategy recently approved by Raul Reyes, head of the FARC’s political arm. Prepare themselves, in sum, to realize at the polls what they have not achieved with four decades of violence. After that hypothetical victory would follow the now familiar script: a new Constitution and the progressive and total dis-articulation of the democratic / republican institutions of Colombia.

What no one can understand is what a person like Nicolas Sarkozky is doing in this inhosbitable region with such distasteful company. One would hope to see a more serious attitude from the president of France. He must know that the Council of the European Union has, for very good reasons, declared the FARC a terrorists organization. They are a sizable group, made up of thousands of members, dedicated to acts of extortion, drugs trafficking, kidnappings, and assassinations. Their explicit objective, to make matters worse, is to set up a collectivist madhouse, modeled after the soviets, once they occupy the Palace of Nariño. Where is the coherence of a diplomatic policy which only a few weeks ago warned of the dangerousness of Iran and today commits itself to the Colombian jungle at the hand of Ahmadinejad’s greatest ally in the world? How is it possible that the same France, which in Europe contributes loyally and efficiently to the prosecution of ETA, in Latin America naively falls prey to a dance performed to the tune played by Colombian narco-terrorists?

Why this blog

Recent events in Venezuela have made this country a bellwether for all of Latin America. Bolivia and Ecuador have followed her lead and Argentina and Brazil are increasingly within the same political orbit. Given her exceptional petroleum resources and the messianic aspirations of her president Hugo Chavez to integrate Latin America under the banner of an anti-imperialist (USA), revolutionary socialism, it is no wonder that conditions there are throwing off sparks. As in all politics, the Devil is in the detail, and it is often difficult to get up to speed on all that has happened in the last 9 years of Chavez's rule. There are several decent news sources and blogs on the subject, but with events far outpacing understanding, it appears useful to me to offer English translations of key opinion pieces and some useful background material as well. My bias is clearly not in favor of Chavez whom I consider to be at least as terrible a leader, if not so dangerous, as Mr. Bush.