Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Youth Day march Today was "Youth day in Venezuela". there was a large march in Caracas with a rock concert. Most universities sent huge delegations to protest their treatment. Meanwhile a small crowd saw Hugo Chavez celebrate youth day saying "Blood that does not overflow is not blood". Whatever he meant with it...(Picture from UR) 11:21:13 PM    comment []

The Futile Revolution by Orlando Urdaneta Orlando Urdaneta is a TV announcer who nightly tells us about "tomorrow's headlines" where he takes shots at Chavez' revolutions and shows clips of things that Chavez has said and then finds another where he has contradicted himself. I posted one of these where he says that if a million people take to the streets he would resign. Well, Mr. Urdaneta has now taped this clip in Spanish, English and French calling it : The Futile Revolution. The images may be better than the text, they include the infamous and disgusting belch by General Acosta Carles.....enjoy. (Thanks to Guadalupe for sending it in) 10:43:25 PM    comment []

Another accident at the El Palito refinery While the Government tries to dismiss accidents at the El Palito refinery as "normal" when starting up a refinery, there is nothing normal about this pictures of a fire on February 8th. taken by a fired PDVSA worker from the outside of the refinery. The truth is the refinery, which was working when PDVSA workers were forced to hand it over, has been shutdown for six weeks now. During this time there have been two major fires. (Picture from Gente del Petroleo) 8:36:15 PM    comment []

Friends pressuring Chavez?   Two days ago the Venezuelan Foreign Minsiter left suddenly for Brazil using as an excuse that it was going to have talks with its counterpart in Brazil about the possibility of expanding the Group of Friends. I did not buy this explanation, if Hugo Chavez himself failed to convince the President of Brazil directly to increase the number of members of the group, what could the Foreign Minister possibly obtain? Moreover, the trip was made more suspicious by the fact that Brazil is the country considered to be the closest to Chavez and is also the Coordinator of the Group of Friends.   Well, today my suspicions have proven to be correct as a number of reports indicate that the trip was actually prompted by the Brazilian Foreign Minsiter, Celso Amorin. The reason, to express its deep concern over the absence of any gesture on the part of the Chavez Government towards promoting the negotiations led by OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria. Reportedly Amorin told the Venezuelan foreign Minsiter that he was dismayed at the lack of cooperation on the part of the Venezuelan Government. Amorin told Chaderton that the opposition ending the General Strike had not been matched by any concrete measures by Chavez and his Government and the attitude had been exactly the opposite, boasting that this was a victory. What Amorin is doing is simply discovering the true Hugo Chavez that Venezuelans have come to know in the last four years. Hopefully, the scolding will pressure the Chavez administration into negotiating a way out of the crisis. 8:25:24 PM    comment []