A guest post from Alek Boyd.
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The New York Times Venezuela correspondent, Simon Romero, ought to be commended for shedding light upon the world’s favorite revolutionary chic destination. Hordes of foreigners, infatuated with Che Guevara, or Pendejos Sin Fronteras as they’re locally known, are commonplace nowadays in the country, eager to witness Chavez’s XXI century socialism at work. As Romero stresses, the fact is compounded by an unprecedented oil bonanza that has allowed its sole administrator, Chavez that is, to spare nothing on the goal of constructing reality. “A revolution that doesn’t invent his own writing has failed,” expressed once Severo Sarduy, and Chavez’s is desperately trying not to be an exception. Problem with this proposition is that almost the entire collectivity of Venezuelan intellectuals, if there is such a thing, are in complete opposition to Chavez. Moreover, in the breeding ground of intellectuality, universities, Chavez’s candidates have not won one single election, for voting is carried out in traditional ways and not by the ministry of elections.

Bolivarian cultural Akelarres seek to promote a revisionist version of our reality, invented much before the failed putschist reached power via democratic elections in 1998. The guests invariably share a characteristic: that of projecting its own failed utopias on the gentle savages of a country, which is leading an experiment of Marxist and Gramscian doctrines in the XXI century. Sporting “Birkenstocks and guayaberas,” the lot of leftists glosses over Chavez’s militarism, and aren’t bothered in the slightest by the source of funds that allow them to live, albeit briefly, Chavez’s fascist revolution: i.e. the de facto free trade agreement between the evil Empire and Venezuela. Instead, they happily wonder out of the hotel-conference center to spend per diems on revolutionary paraphernalia, such as T-Shirts of terrorist Carlos the Jackal, admittedly a highly esteemed compatriot of the president.

Chavez, however, can’t be faulted for hiding his intentions. For if there’s one leader that has abused its powers to commandeer all media to advance his ideals and announce with surgical precision what he would do, how and why, that is Chavez. His revolution is on radio, on TV, online 24/7. Therefore, as irony would have it, gatherings serve to witness the shrinking number of ‘thinkers’ that think that allowing the existence of only one, official, version of reality is morally justified, freedom of opinion and expression be damned. Fellow travelers accepting Chavez’s hospitality expose a breed of ‘intellectuals’ at the service of the revolution, a concept popping straight out of Havana’s ‘cultural congress.’ More tellingly, Chavez’s Gramscian construct, despite the enormous amount of resources lavished to achieve it, is an absolute failure. Hundreds of community and national TV and radio stations, Chinese satellite and continental TV networks notwithstanding, it has failed to produce or inspire a literary/artistic movement of the sort seen during the boom years of the 60ies and 70ies. On the contrary, if there are notorious elements that have characterized Chavez’s pet project these are its mediocrity, mendacity, lack of creativity and originality, owing to the very Dadaist nature of it. For it is unthinkable that stuff produced by members of the Miranda Centre, such as Eva Golinger, would become subject of respected academic study in years to come.

Although one must never underestimate the militancy of the radical Left, Chavez’s “Salon of the Left” success is rooted on his ability to pay for the services rendered by useful idiots. A cultural revolution it is not.


Alek Boyd

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Notes from the editor:

'pendejos sin fronteras' coined by Teodoro Petkoff on doctors without borders where the word doctro is replaced by 'pendejo' which is a concept word meaning useful idiot to pubic hair. Context is all.

Akelarre, word of Basque origin that can be translated as "witches sabbat".

-The end-

With the drop in oil prices, the obvious madness of Chavez and the slow reawakening of a more combative opposition perhaps it is time to consider discussing ways in which Venezuela can be recovered and rebuilt. The New York Times ever helpful brings us the first problem that will need to be resolved, via Zimbabwe.

Apparently the agreement brokered by defenestrated Thabo Mbeki is sinking fast because the military that orchestrated the massive beatings and killings during the last electoral campaign are afraid that they are going to be judicially prosecuted. Imagine that! And let's not discuss all the loot the military took in the past decade or so (the article does not even go into that aspect). So Mugabe has decided to retain all the key political ministries and let Tsvangirai take care of the boring economic stuff where people will be expecting a miracle that will not come, even less if the military are allowed to continue looting that last crumbs available in the country. Morgan ain't buying, understandably.

This is pretty much what is expecting us. For at least six years a new political class has been allowed to grow corrupt and fat and these people do feel scared that their loot might be taken away from them, or that they will be thrown to jail for allowing the loot or taking part in it. We can think of Diosdado, Jorge Rodriguez, Rafael Ramirez, Isaias Rodriguez or Jose Vicente Rangel as people that have a lot on their conscience and cannot possibly look at a Chavez departure from power with a still heart.

The military is in equally bad shape. Since February 2004 there are plenty of Human Rights violations that could be nailed on them. And the looting started since since the "Plan Bolivar 200" where some characters such as Cruz Weffer looted so much that Chavez was forced to put them in the background, when not mounting a mock prosecution, that is, they are placed under investigation and we never hear anything from it anymore while they quietly make their loot flourish away in different sorts of money laundering schemes.

And let's not even get involved into all the flourishing drug trafficking in Venezuela or does anyone think that an increase in drug busts does not mean that there is also an increase in drug trafficking through the country? Who controls the ways through which traffic goes? The opposition politicians? The Civil Government? OR the armed forces? Probably all but I am sure your guess as to who as the lion's share is the same as mine.

Chavismo has created a politically and corrupt higher class of power, a class that now works more along the lines of mafia deals than of political give and take. A class whose penetration by mafia rules also implies that violence as a way to deal with problems is acceptable. And a class that holds all of the guns and that will have no problems sending young indoctrinated recruits beat up on us as it happened in Zimbabwe. We, as the opposition must think as of today in ways to deal with that problem that we will inherit from Chavez. Outright amnesty is not possible but total revenge could end up costing us much more.

-The end-

Since it is anti-intellectual Monday I found the perfect way to ease my bewildered readers in the new week. I have been considering for a while writing a post on the latest insult that Chavez keeps throwing at anyone who does not agree with him: pitiyanki or Yankee lover. But procrastination pays as Romero or the New York Times published last Friday the complete account. Personally I could not agree more with Charito Rojas of Notitarde quoted by Romero: "If being pitiyanqui means loving liberty and progress, science and excellence, then I am a very Venezuelan pitiyanqui".

The amusing thing here is that Chavez is running out of bad words. That is, after having accused us of so many perversions he now must dig into more obscure words, and tries to make them sound like awful insults through his delivery. But it does not work well. The sycophants that surround him have long ago opted at repeating any silly or gross utterance from their leader, as is, without any effort at understanding. And us, well, we have learned long ago not to be vexed and instead take it as a badge of honor. That is how "escualido" eventually left the Chavez vocabulary. That is the curse of people who insult without property, and usually out of place: after a while people stop paying attention, or worse, find it quaint. You know, a little bit like the boy who cried "wolf!" story except that we already have the wolves running the streets of Caracas without Chavez doing a thing about it.

But while Chavez tries to be creative with words he also tries to be creative in much darker ways, such as strengthening his alliance with Russia who has been invited for military exercises in Venezuelan waters. Romero also informs us of that development. This Chavez announcement came a few days after Chavez supported Russia's action in the Caucasus establishing once and for all that some empires are more equal than others. Chavismo of course does not say anything about that, such as they say nothing about Nicaragua's Ortega rape of his step daughter. But we have already amply described here the abjection of chavismo, including its easy qualification of "genocide" for any order measure taken by a non chavista entity whereas real genocides as in Chechnya are totally ignored.

This at least gives us the latest best new word with real meaning when Pedro Llorens of El Nacional called Chavez pitiruso.

PS: "pitiyanki, y a mucha honra" honorable US lover (unless someone finds a better translation).

PS2: I might be a pitiyanki but my team is the Red Sox.

-The end-

The news today is yet again another massive blackout in Venezuela. It is not clear how much of the country was cut off as amazingly government seems to be clueless. But I can say that San Felipe was more than 3 hours without electricity, some areas of Caracas are still not back up on the grid and Valencia was wiped out, hospitals only starting to get back some service around 5 PM. Maybe Gustav was bearing down on Louisiana but hurricane Hugo keeps in its never ending quest to destroy Venezuela.

Though I felt for those trapped in Caracas overburdened subway today, this massive blackout was a good opportunity to think about a few things and get back into posting mood. There was this very nice article by Roger Santodomingo this morning in Tal Cual, which I could read before the computers went out (here, for those without a subscription). The topic was the censorship that Maripili Hernandez imposes at Canal I. Some background is needed.

Maripili Hernandez is one of those chavistas that are presentable. She can say several full sentences in a row without being improper, something that Chavez himself is unable to do. She does have some knowledge of the world and some professional dedication, though in her case it does not seem to be very productive. She was on board with Chavez from the start but somehow never quite made it up to the inner circle. Or was dropped form it. Whatever. She was briefly foreign minister for North America, about the only chavista that could be sent there. On many an occasion I had the opportunity to expose her in this blog, in particular in such a stellar moment as her patriotic histrionics. Gustavo Coronel has also told her down.

But apparently she did something improper as she is the only chavista of some weight that was also inhabilitada by Clodosvaldo, that is, barred from seeking political office without a trial. But that is not big deal for her: she obviously is not into electoral politics and besides now she has her own TV network, Canal I.

Canal I was inaugurated over a year ago by one of those chavista groups that made millions in half a decade of chavista rule (William Ruperti is the face). It is meant to be the counter weight of Globovision but, well, it is having trouble as it is just too obviously pro Chavez, not to mention far from the professional standards of Globovision or even Venevision (heck, not even a working web page!). I did try to watch it a few times, hoping that perhaps I would get a more palatable point of view of chavismo ideas. But quickly I realized that I was better off reading directly Aporrea or watching Alo Presidente on Sundays.

At any rate, Ruperti did hire Maripili to direct the new network. That was a gamble form the start as Maripili presided over the downgrading of VTV early in Chavez term. I think, in her discharge, that she did not agree with the 24/24 propaganda nature of VTV and found a way out. But her tenure was considered a failure and her jobs hereafter were in the great chavista tradition of mediocrity and incompetence. Then again, if Ruperti did not want to get into trouble with Canal I, hiring Maripli was a good move I suppose.

So Roger Santodomingo narrates in his article today how Maripili fired one of her journalists, Mairim Unamo, because she wanted to do a piece on the Antonini trial starting in Miami this week, as Miguel is following closely. That is right, Maripili Hernandez, once a defender of free speech is now your ordinary censor once her political side is threatened by an exploding scandal which revelations would undo any normal government. It will not undo this one because well, there is justice in the US but not in Venezuela.

This poses once again several questions. One, is what are chavistas thinking? How long can they pretend that what is happening in Miami is just a media conspiracy? That the 800 000 USD bag did not exist, or was just Antonini pocket money for his Argentina vacation? There is a point where you can legitimately start wondering about the mental capacity of these people such as Maripili who in a previous life had still some self respect. Now, the more the ship sinks the more willing they are to sink with it it, or so it seems.

But the answer to this first question can come from the second question: what is their concept of democracy? We have already seen that often: for chavista hard core defenders the only democratic credential chavismo, and Chavez, need is to win elections. The more often they win them, the more they are allowed to trample minority rights. That when they were a minority their rights were not that trampled, witness of it that eventually they came to power, does not seem to cross their feeble minds.

But what can you expect from true understudies like Maripli when her real boss this week attacked the opposition once again in a totally undemocratic way? Apparently Chavez was sore because the opposition is collecting signatures to protest the 26 laws from the enabling law and to send that to the OAS (I signed, by the way, did you?). Why is the opposition sending that to the OAS? Because there is no justice in Venezuela and because the High Court already approved some of these laws BEFORE they were known by the public in general, or a legitimate debate took place in the country.

So a very miffed Chavez replied to the folks gathering the petition that they were ridiculous and that what he should do is to ask for a new enabling law and stick to them 26 more decree laws. That is right, he just spoke like the neighborhood thug he is ("clavarle", with a sexual connotation), imposing his will and only interested in finding ways to screw his opponents and control his turf. HIS, is the operative word here. Not an ounce of democratic talent here. So, why should we expect democratic talent from Maripili?

But they are not making good progress. For all the efforts to ignore the Maletin, for all the self-censorship we saw for too long in the Venezuelan media (with the notable exception of Globovision and some bloggers who never forgot the issue), we are seeing again articles on the coming up trial making it to the front pages. Maripili might have fired Mairim but it might not be enough to save some of her superiors. Then again, we could ask a third question: is she able to understand what is going on in the country? I doubt it, the light in those attics was shuffled long before the country went blank today.

-The end-

The latest opus of NYT's Simon Romero could just be another run of the mill set of observations of all that is wrong in Chavez's Venezuela, as we are now getting used to see everywhere: the world knows and it is catching up, so we can be pleased, those of us who have been writing such criticism for half a decade. However what makes this article worth noting is that it writes straight that all in Venezuela is about Chavez amassing more power, not about the country long term interests. With the added bonus that even some high profile Chavez sycophants agree with it.

The title of the article says it all: "Chávez Seizes Greater Economic Power". Mas claro no canta un gallo. This complemented with a lapidary single sentence paragraph:

One significant measure is foreign investment, which has hit record levels in several other Latin American countries but has fallen in Venezuela.

Next we can read these numbers that Romero refers too, where we learn that Peru, with a comparable population and not much oil receives TEN times more foreign investment than Venezuela. Not to mention that now many studies rank Venezuela close to last, if not last, in parameters such as transparency and climate for business. Whatever Chavez is doing he is not attracting real business investors, the real ones, those that do create real jobs. The only investors Chavez attracts are folks that want to have a colonial type access to raw materials, such as China Cuba and Iran. Tanto nadar para ahogarse a la orilla.

There is thus no need to discuss further this article, the sustained point is clear. But there is another very nice moment in it. See, Simom Romero, God bless him, is still trying to find some objective way to present his articles (as I noted in my previous "press review" on the Reyes laptop.) I do not know why he bothers at this point but it does pay some dividends though, not necessarily those that chavismo will expect.

His "balance" here was presenting Mark Weisbrot point of view. Mark Weisbrot is a paid lobbyist of Chavez in the US, which is an OK job over there. Sometimes when I get tired of blogging I just wish that I could find a sponsor myself to at least treat me to a couple of days at the beach :)

Mark Weisbrot, a Washington-based economist who is broadly supportive of Mr. Chávez’s economic policies, estimates that the public sector accounts for less than a third of the economy even after the latest nationalization wave. “The present government is so far mainly just reversing some of the privatization that took place in the 1990s,” Mr. Weisbrot said.

Let's see. First, how come that Mr. Romero does not quote some minister to defend such policies? That answer I know: the government ONLY speaks to supportive media, in Venezuela and abroad, the type of media that leave their declarations up without any "balance" from somebody else included. Thus poor Simon must resort to paid Chavez lobbyist for an "official" point of view.

Second, considering that Weisbrot is talking to the NYT and not to some local rag, look at his argument, or rather lack of argument: the government is mainly reversing previous privatizations; the public sector accounts of less than a third.

Either Mr. Weisbrot is an ignoramus, or he is a liar, your choice. The "both" is also allowed in the poll.

I am not going to offend the intelligence of the reader by rebating the painfully obvious silliness and lies of Weisbrot. Pena ajena. No, it is much more interesting to observe the very lameness of the Weisbrot argument, that even a long term noted supporter of Chavez cannot come up with a better argument such as "comprehensive energy policy" "comprehensive means to allow for subsidized housing" "the comprehensive tools to ensure access to food to the lowest population sectors".

See, even Mr. Weisbrot knows very well what the truth is: Chavez need to control EVERYTHING and he needs desperately new patronage systems to shore up his popularity, such as doubling or trebling the payroll of the newly nationalized industries, and the hell with notions of competence and competitiveness. He knows that so well that he does not have the heart to come up with a better justification which he knows will be trashed soon by Chavez next actions. So Mr. Weisbrot cut his losses and went straight to the lameness that he knows will be his lot from now on. After all, he is paid the same for brilliance or for stupidity.

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PS: translation of Venezuela saying used in this article: clearer does not sing the rooster; so much swimming just to drown reaching shore; embarrassed for others missteps.

-The end-

[Updated]

Thus yesterday the Interpol confirmed that the Raul Reyes laptops carried indeed documents made, elaborated, handled by Reyes himself or his assistants and NOT by the Colombian government. Of course, well informed people did not need such a confirmation as all the evidence has been pointing out for a very long time to an affinity of Chavez for the FARC. The only real surprise yesterday was the totally, absolutely unhinged reaction of Chavez (including his tasteless attempt at ridiculing the journalist of France Press after she put the finger on the sore point of why Venezuela did not discuss the issue with he Interpol). I mean, after all, the Interpol ONLY said that the documents were not tampered with, that they were not put inside the computers by Uribe AFTER the lap tops were seized. The Interpol DID NOT say the documents were meaningful: after all they could have been made during episodes of boredom during long jungle nights when Reyes was fantasizing and writing the all Colombian FARC novel... Why would Venezuela not check on the work of Interpol?

Anyway, this morning during my cup of tea I decided to make a quick press review to see how people reacted to the Chavez Chow (that is how he has taken to pronounce the world show, as in media show).

In the US

Let's start with the Miami Herald, the paper most likely to be following closer LatAm issues. Alejandra Labanca writes a long article were she skips over the main Chavez insults, though noting that the pseudo press conference lasted 4 hours (see last post). Instead she already looks to the possible US reaction (or rather likely lack of reaction as oil is too important) and what will happen during the EU-LatAm summit to start today in Lima where she expects major leaders to say to Chavez "enough is enough" (a more diplomatic "Porque no te callas"?). It is also to be noted that the paper offers the long account by the AP of Chavez threats in case the US Ecuador Manta base is replaced by one in the Guajira. I suppose he can buy submarines to blockade Colombian harbors (submarines ARE NOT defensive weapons) but Colombia cannot post its allies where it pleases them.

The Wall Street Journal who already had two days ago a major "leak" on the implications of yesterday revelations limits itself to an editorial that ends in wondering what supporters of chavez in the US such as Delahunt will do. Interesting question indeed. Maybe likely Democrat nominee Obama will enlighten us about his positions since many of his supporters are Che/Chavez lovers?

At the Washington Post Juan Forero who has seen the light from his past as a Chavez supporter does not even pretend to be objective: he catches up with the previous WSJ revelations of Cordoba and relates the insults of Chavez towards the Interpol as his only retort to the whole scandal. Indeed, the Noble/ignoble disgusting bad pun to make for a sitting president had to be duly noted. He also mentions the very lame reply of Ecuador foreign minister. An important detail as Ecuador who is probably as compromised in the affair as Venezuela escapes the bulk of international criticism courtesy of the stupid tantrum of Chavez yesterday.

At the New York Times Simon Romero writes already from Lima, attending the serious business at hand. As usual he gallantly strains to be objective against all odds and omits the Noble/ignoble moment as a token conciliatory gesture. He also cites a Chavez supporter, Greg Grandin, for balance in guessing that the US will not sanction Venezuela for the time being. Greg Grandin by the way who has a bone with the NYT coverage of Chavez. But Romero does call it straight, "a set back for Chavez" and mentions his qualification of the Interpol release as a "show", something that even hacks like Grandin will have a hard time justifying.

In Europe

Over there they are not as sanguine and the event is even omitted from the pages of the London Times, or Paris Liberation who prefers to discuss how Sarkozy irritates Colombians with the French obsession for Ingrid Betancourt. But other papers do take up the story.

Le Monde starts with a picture of Chavez and Ivan Marquez, reminding thus that computer files or not, the links between Chavez and the FARC have been public knowledge for a long time as Uribe flushed skilfully Chavez late 2007 during his brief role as a mediator. Marie Delcas does not bother about objectivity: her article is simply a damning listing of some of the findings in the computers, something like the WSJ's Cordoba version for French public. At Le Monde Chavez is deciphered.

At the Guardian Rory Carroll writes a more neutral article that could have been equally written before or after Chavez press conference. I suppose that considering that the press conference of Chavez took place at the time where European editions were closing limited what he could say even though he knew very well what was coming. See, Rory Carroll has already been taken as a target by Chavez himself so he knows... Still, he is very clear in that Chavez has a lot of explaining to do and that at the Guardian it will be a very hard sell.

At El Pais we do get two articles like at the Herald. One deals with the Chavez press conference though El Pais, like the NYT, avoids writing down the worst insults of Chavez. I suppose that again it is the only way they can show some objectivity... El Pais has also a poll as to whether its readers think Chavez is in bed with the FARC: I recommend you vote here. But El Pais also looks ahead the Lima summit, clearly the next round as Chavez apparently has decided to put a Scarlett O'Hara moment, put his ball gown and face the gossiping crowd. But it will be tough: we learn that this summit not only will be problems plagued but that Angela Merkel has declined the conciliatory offer from Lula to smoothen a meeting with Chavez. She told that she can handle everyone on her own. Indeed, the ex victim of the Stasi is used to thugs who treat her of Nazi. Thus even Lula will arrive limping because of Chavez insults to Merkel, the fate of enablers while more straight shooters like Merkel, Uribe and Garcia apparently are hoping to enjoy the summit...

Update: I realized later that a conclusion of sorts was needed. And this one is very simple: not a single major paper tried to defend, justify, excuse, or give the benefit of the doubt to Chavez. Be they from the center right or the center left from any country mentioned. Only the NYT did cite Grandin, and not for an excuse of Chavez, clearly as a challenge to see if any pro Chavez guy would come up with anything credible. And even there, with such low expectations, it failed as the only thing cited from Grandin was that it did not matter whether Chavez was guilty or not, nothing would happen. Which, if you ask me, is a direct implication that Grandin thinks that Chavez messed up big time. In one year, since Chavez closed RCTV, he has lost any good will from the folks that count and even from inside his own camp where clearly some allies might not have not abandoned him but now seem unwilling to support him at any turn.

But even there Grandin might be wrong. If we look at another more hawkish paper, IBD, we can see that they are already focusing on the implications of yesterday events. Simply put, they regard with a cool eye the need to make do without Venezuela's oil. This will indeed cause problems for the US but infinitely worse problems for Chavez. for them, in spite of all the risks involved, it might be worth it to declare Venezuela a rogue state. I do not agree with that however there are plenty more documents coming from that computer now that the codes have been cracked. IBD might turn out to be right and at the very least, if Venezuela is not declared a rogue country its leaders should be issued international arrest warrants. I have in mind the present defense minister, the interior minister and Tachira current governor, just for starters. There is plenty of evidence from their own words. And of course Chavez who might have escaped jail in 1995 but who is doing all what he can to return there.

Let's hope that some chavista read the news and understand them otherwise if no one reins in Chavez, Venezuela is running straight into major trouble.


-The end-

Well, whatever the merits of the Friedman's award are, the chavista crowd is surly. Normally I would not paid much attention but looking at who visits this blog I noticed a strange link from "Axis of logic". So I went ahead and found out that I was termed one of "whacky internet blogs" though the plural seems to apply to me alone, rather flattering if you ask me. I decided to check out what they said about Goicochea.

First, the main chavista media says nothing. That is, no mention at V-analysis, ABN or RNV at this typing. Obviously the line has not been decided yet and thus silence. A consistent response from chavismo who waits first to know about what Chavez and his camarilla think of a given issue before starting any necessary information blitzkrieg. The closest thing to an official response I could find at this time was a quote from Eva Golonger in an AP dispatch. As expected from her it is just another way for the US to finance the opposition to Chavez. I will pass on how little 500 000 is to unseat Chavez, letting Golinger sink in her woeful low grasp of numerology, but I will focus on the real question: could not the AP find anyone better to talk to than stringer Eva Golinger? Gimme a break! But worry not, some attack will come soon enough, perhaps as early as the first half hour of Alo Presidente this week end. If you doubt it you can read for preview the minor pro Chavez sites, those who are in charge of the first defense line on the web.

With pleasure I noticed that VN&V was quickly duly noted at Axis of Logic. I suppose that I am not cited in full because well, by the time they checked on blogS, I was the only one with a comment up on Yon's award. Their article is interesting by the virulence expressed against Yon, including select pictures to highlight a mad face and the violence it supposedly inspires. I will pass on the propagandist part of the article against Cato and Friedman, limiting myself at wondering in which way the Yon award is any less respectable than the Qaddafy one to Chavez...

What is more important is the instant character assassination at Yon, who is termed "represents the most privileged class of youth in Venezuela". This is followed by an alleged story on riches which is a misinterpretation of an original of Aporrea. Now, admitting that we are not in front of base slander from Aporea relayed by Axis, assuming that the numbers are right Yon would be rich by 36 000 BsF, a whopping 18 000 US Dollars, earned in 2005. Well, if this is rich, anyone owning a home in Venezuela is filthy rich.... Because the fact of the matter is that when Yon was interviewed by the New York Times' Romero we learned that he had to change cel phones frequently for security reasons and that he also had to keep moving around to sleep safely. This is hardly the sign of any one rich enough to afford safe housing. Besides the article of Romero shows also how removed from the rich elite the student leadership in Venezuela is: they are boringly middle to lower middle class. Those who know Venezuela well know that really rich kids, including chavista kids, tend to study overseas.

But I suppose all is valid to do proper character assassination when you are a chavista in the defensive. I am not too concerned about their effectiveness: since I was quoted in Axis of Logic, I got 400 visitors and only a couple of hits from Axis that I could detect :)

Other web sites are hardly any better. Aporrea came out with an article titled "the empire awards Goicochea". Of course, at Aporrea they know that all grants and favors come from Chavez so they assume that in the US the CATO will not give anything that is not cleared by someone at the White House. It would be funny it were not so pathetic... The article is full of paranoia that is worth reading if you can manage enough Spanish. BoRev, the sophomoric page who supposedly exposes the media manipulations is not above manipulation itself using a Playboy interview of Yon. This did not stop BoRev from terming Yon as "pudgy". Ironic no? Never mind that BoRev who has a bone toward Romero could not help himself from using a picture of Yon taken from the NYT interview...

To finish we can visit Oil Wars who, by the way, would be a more credible person to talk to for the AP than Eva Golinger. But I digress. There the editor titles his post, without an once of self consciousness nor any sense of ridicule "It sure does pay to oppose Chavez". Let's assume for a few seconds that indeed Yon will keep the 500 000 for himself. At least he did hard work for it! What kind of work, for example, Antonini did to be able to carry 800 000 USD in cash in a suitcase?

When chavistas reach such low levels in their argumentation you can clearly see how bereft of ideas they are. And how upset they got with that announcement! I love it!


-The end-

Today's editorial in the Washington Post is a must read because it marks a milestone in how a newspaper regards its role when the interests of a country are at stake, when faced with outdated parochialism from its top leaders. In this almost acerbic editorial the Post takes directly upon Speaker Pelosi and Union leader Sweeney, accusing them of false motives regarding their opposition to the trade deal with Colombia and thus favoring Venezuela. It cannot be any clearer. Below I post in full the editorial with my comments in between paragraphs. It is just too delicious to miss such an opportunity even if the editorial speaks for itself.

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Colombia's Case
The intellectual poverty of a free-trade deal's opponents

The subtitle says it all from the start.

HOUSE SPEAKER Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says the Bush administration's free-trade agreement with Colombia may not be dead, even though she has postponed a vote on it indefinitely. If the White House doesn't "jam it down the throat of Congress," she said, she might negotiate. Ms. Pelosi wants an "economic agenda that gives some sense of security to American workers and businesses . . . that somebody is looking out for them" -- though she was vague as to what that entails. Nor did she specify how anyone could "jam" through a measure on which the administration has already briefed Congress many, many times.

The Post calls Pelosi's bluff, if not lies. The lack of real leadership from Pelosi has been quite apparent and she has been a disappointment as a speaker. Her sole agenda seems to have been countering Bush. It is her right but not her duty for someone in her position. She could have started by realizing that Bush was a lame duck and thus think a little bit more outside the sand box keeping partisanship at home and not let it spill on the necessary bipartisan approach for foreign policy. Iraq, for all of its mistakes and horrors cannot cloud Pelosi's mind on other issues. That is her duty.

Still, in the hope that Ms. Pelosi might in fact schedule a vote, it may be worth examining once more the arguments against this tariff-slashing deal. Perhaps we should say "argument," because there is really only one left: namely, that Colombia is "the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist" and that the government of President Álvaro Uribe is to blame. As AFL-CIO President John Sweeney put it in an April 14 Post op-ed, union workers in Colombia "face an implicit death sentence."

Because that is the only argument that is left for Sweeney and Pelosi now that all the other arguments have been made irrelevant. The Post implicitly recalls that it would actually benefit US workers as the trade deal FAVORS exports toward Colombia. The only advantage for Colombia is that its favorable status in exporting to the US will be made more permanent instead of being subjected to the vagaries of whomever is sitting in the Oval Office or Congress. In other words two Democrats are opposing the creation of more potential jobs for US workers that would be exporting to Colombia. Priceless! The third Democrat in the race must be be beaming!

Colombia is, indeed, violent -- though homicide has dramatically declined under Mr. Uribe. There were 17,198 murders in 2007. Of the dead, only 39 -- or 0.226 percent -- were even members of trade unions, let alone leaders or activists, according to the Colombian labor movement. (Union members make up just under 2 percent of the Colombian population.)

This hardly suggests a campaign of anti-union terrorism in Colombia. Moreover, the number of trade unionists killed has fallen from a rate of about 200 per year before Mr. Uribe took office in 2002, despite a reported uptick in the past few months. (Arrests have already been made in three of this year's cases, according to Bogota.) And evidence is sparse that all, or even most, of the union dead were killed because of their labor organizing. As Mr. Sweeney and other critics note, precious few cases have been solved, which is hardly surprising given that Colombia's judicial system has been under attack from left-wing guerrillas, drug traffickers and right-wing death squads -- a war, we repeat, that Mr. Uribe has greatly contained. But in cases that have been prosecuted, the victims' union activity or presumed support for guerrillas has been the motive in fewer than half of the killings.

The Post says it all briefly. Even crudely presented as that, it hardly seems enough of a reason to stop the trade deal when China children factories are allowed to export to the world, and the US. Apparently Colombia's evil are much greater than workers exploitation in China, in a scale that was not seen since the XIX century worst hours of US capitalism. where are the Union Leaders of China? How often they visit and sit down with Sweeney and Pelosi to ask them for help in protecting China's workers rights? Maybe next in line after the Tibetan monks....

An April 10 letter to the editor from Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch suggested that we would not make such arguments "if death squads with ties to the U.S. government were targeting Post reporters for assassination." We like to think that our criticism would be energetic but fair, especially if the government was responding aggressively to such a campaign and the number of killings was declining. No fair-minded person can fail to note that Colombian unionists are far safer today than they used to be.

This is kind of interesting. That the HRW Malinowski offers such an image is in fact perverse. We all know that journalists in Colombia and Mexico are routinely persecuted and killed by drug boss cartels and disgruntled politicians. The issue is completely different here and that Malinowski offers such a cruel and unnecessary comparison only proves the Post point: arguments against the FTA with Colombia have long ceased to be based on rationality.

There are two important countries at the north of South America. One, Colombia, has a democratic government that, with strong support from the Clinton and Bush administrations, has bravely sought to defeat brutal militias of the left and right and to safeguard human rights. The other, Venezuela, has a repressive government that has undermined media freedoms, forcibly nationalized industries, rallied opposition to the United States and, recent evidence suggests, supported terrorist groups inside Colombia. That U.S. unions, human rights groups and now Democrats would focus their criticism and advocacy on the former, to the benefit of the latter, shows how far they have departed from their own declared principles.

There, you have it, clear as water. The price the Democrats will pay for that is yet to be fully measured, but it will cost the US dearly. Trust me on that one. Again let me remind you that had Pelosi and her court in Congress be serious about their opposition they would have included time clauses or something to demand continued progress inside Colombia. But no, the objective was to sink a Bush proposal, one of the very few good ones he has had in 7 years. Partisanship at its worst.


-The end-

[Updated 1, 2 and 3]

I am not too sure what to make of today multiple shows we have been subjected to. Either Chavez is sabotaging Lina Ron activities in favor of the radical revolution by releasing FARC hostages and speaking of peace. Or Lina Ron is sabotaging Chavez attempt at recovering world leader status by reminding him, and some in his entourage, that the local elections and the PSUV formation will not happen without her input, even on her dead body.

Chavez gets 4 more hostages released

So eventually the FARC and Chavez reached some agreement, something was given somewhere and the Colombian army staid put. Four more hostages were released. First, let's celebrate that 4 more Colombians are freed. Let hope that the 796 that are left will be released shortly because at a rate of 4 a month we are looking forward to yet 16 more years of slow hostage release assuming that new ones are not taken.

Chavez very clumsily tried to generate some enthusiasm again. But this time the enthusiasm was less, even in France where the nightly news dedicated a bare minute to the release, no image offered except for a picture of one of the hostage and the wishes that Ingrid Betancourt release would not be far behind. In Venezuela courtesy to Lina Ron, whatever propaganda effect he tried was blasted... But before I get into this let's look at the propaganda around the hostage release (pics taken by yours truly out of his TV set during the cadena).

First, this time the TeleSur camera who had the exclusive filmed much more lovingly the whole release scene in the jungle. Rodriguez Chacin, Venezuelan FARC minister, was more careful about his words and if he encouraged the FARC to keep up, he did so away from the cameras (though a few "comrade" were uttered). The inevitable Piedad Cordoba was all around hugging and kissing and loosing her turban. Yet, the camera and the rather warm farewell between the guerrilla and the hostages (note: those who freed them are not those who kept them for all these years, which explains a lot) could not hide how broken these people are coming out of the jungle. In fact one of them had recovered enough to blast the FARC as soon as he reached the Caracas airport a few hours later.
But the worst part was the welcome at Miraflores. First, could Chavez not wait until tomorrow morning? Must he subject these people and their relatives to a Miraflores Ceremony within minutes of their arrival in Caracas? I do not know about you but even though Chavez deserves his media time for footing the whole bill, I find it tacky, selfish and crass.

But the cameras also learned from past experiences and showed a glamorous ceremony with parade military, musical band and all. We even had a shifting scene where the waving Venezuelan flag floated over the whole thing. Utmost tackiness, not even cheap “patrioterismo”.

The highlight was when the Colombian anthem was sung: Chavez sung along. I do not know, but I did not think it was appropriate. Even if he planned to show he loved Colombians dearly, he should have at least taken care that his daughter (who serves as first lady) knew the Colombian anthem. I do not know, it would have looked better, no? The picture says it all (click to enlarge, and enjoy the ridiculous yellow turban of Piedad: at least this time she was not all clad in red). At any rate, when we moved on to the Venezuelan anthem, the hostages and their relatives remained silent with their hand on their heart, as appropriate.

I cannot wait for the antics of the next hostage delivery.

Back at the ranch, Lina Ron spoils the day

Thus we would have expected that today all the media, including Globovision, would have spent the best part of their newscast on a hostage release special. But they could not. First Lina Ron, the passionara of the revolution, and one getting more bloated by the day, decided to move her red shirts and to take over the Caracas see. That is right, they invaded the seat of the Archbishop of Caracas, Cardenal Urosa. No harm was done, nothing broken, but the words she used when the press interviewed her were terrible. Among a few choice words she said that it would be OK for any one to bomb Globovision. And I will pass on all sorts of vulgarities and threats she proffered. All of this under the gaze of two National Assembly representatives. Apparently it is not enough for them that the opposition voices have been shut up in the N.A., as good stalino-fascists they want more.

This YouTube carries the whole Lina Ron declaration, from accusations to other chavista groups, to the declaration of new martyrs, to insults to Globovision and bomb threats.

You can also watch a video of Lina Ron two years ago when she was happy that Globovision was taking down her declarations that state TV did not want to broadcast. And for the fun of it, you can see the better made Globovision counter attack on Lina, another "Usted lo vio" to remember (it is also shorter than the video above for those who do not speak Spanish but want to have a feel of the Ron character).

That would have been enough, but she also called for a march to Globovision to protest in front. Unfortunately there were not that many people to do a real march thus instead a big group was bused up to Globovision where hey screamed and shouted, and attacked, and covered the walls of Globovision, holding its entrance hostage for a few hours. They even read a communiqué who was a pathetic peeve and read in an even more pathetic way. By the way, it was impressive to observe the diction, the poise, the control of language of the released hostages after 7 years in the inhumane conditions of the jungle. When you watched them and a few hours later you observe Lina Ron and her hordes speak, well, the least we can say is that the Venezuelan educational system is a major failure.

At any rate they stayed for a while in front of Globovision, food and beverage were brought to them so they could keep screaming while a small theatrical representation of “Florentino y el Diablo” took place on the side walk. Meanwhile an inordinate amount of masked guys kept drawing graffiti. Is it not something, the amount of masked guys among chavista red shirted hordes? What are they hiding? That they are public employees paid for such activities? Naaah……

Anyway, to tell you the truth I was not too concerned: it was clearly a hysterical moment of a small group of people that feel cornered by events and want to fight back. You know, like a cornered dog. No, what is important here is what it reflects about what is going on inside chavismo. Since December 2 chavismo has started to unravel. The fight inside for positions left, for money still available to steal is just hitting the streets. For Lina Ron to make a media event that might now outshine Chavez event today was quite a dare. She could not have ignored that the hostage release was the most important item in Chavez agenda now that success is so scarce for him. Robbing him at home of the limelight while all sorts of international journalists are watching INSIDE Venezuela is just either a crass political mistake or a dangerous sign of the violence that is to come inside chavismo.

And as we all know, once the big leaders start killing their faithful lieutenants (Rohm-Hitler anyone?) we know that our turn on the side line cannot be far ahead.

UPDATE 1: Tonight Chavez is already attacking Lina Ron actions today on La Hojilla on state TV. He even brings how the Chilean "ultra left" was infiltrated by the CIA and helped along the fall of Allende. Heard that Lina? Chavez is pissed! he even asked Mario Silva to "investigate". You are toast!

Oh well, too bad for Lina, soon she will rejoin Tascon in forming a pro Chavez dissident party without the blessing of their hero..... If it were not so dangerous, so dramatic, and so unfair, it would be totally enjoyable.

UPDATE 2: this Thursday morning I watched the Spanish news on TVE. Chavez does not get much credit except for the mention that the released hostages thanked him. On the other hand the news about Ingrid Betancourt ill health duly reported by them got the main focus. The FARC was duly decried as inhumane and barbarous. So much for any good will they might had expected.

That they refuse to release further hostages until they get their mini state was also pointed out and implied to be highly unreasonable. At any rate, a piece of advice to Chavez and the FARC: you want to get a big positive right now? Free Ingrid tomorrow, without delay. If she dies in your hands the bakclash against you will be terrible. Do not forget that in Colombia and Venezuela we care about the 700 + other hostages but the jet set looks at Ingrid. Time to act boys if you want to keep the slimiest of chances to become semi respectable some day.

UPDATE 3: The news today speak of Ingrid sickness, very little, if any, of Chavez.

In further tackiness at 8 PM tonight it is still not clear whether the Colombian ambassador to Caracas has been allowed to visit the released hostages. I suppose that when the FARC minister called the hostages "compatriotas" he meant it. Maybe they are been issued Venezuela passports as I type?


-The end-