Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Protecting the friends and supporters of the revolution While I was away, an accident took place in the Las Mercedes area of Caracas. A high speed motorcycle went by a police post, hit the sidewalk at high speed and rooled over. A woman riding the motorcycle with teh driver died and the driver of the motorcycle fell and hurt himself sufficiently to spend some time in intensive care and he remains hospitalized to this day. In any country an accident like this would be investigated with diligence and the driver of the motorcycle would be charged with involuntary manslaughter. The driver would be sentenced according to whether it is determined that the driver acted irresponsibly or not, after interviewing the witnesses of the accident. But not in the Chavez revolution, which protects its own in the face of corruption, immorality and reckless behavior. The driver of the motorcycle, a police vehicle according to witnesses, was none other than former stripper, turned Head if the intelligence police, head of the training institute INCE and now President of the National Land Institute Eliecer Otaiza, the same one that has built his own modern and complete personal gym at each and everyone of the institutions he has presided, none of which he had any prior qualifications for. You see, none of the witnesses have been interviewed and by now investigators have determined that none of what they saw that fateful night is correct. According to the conclusions of the police (the same one that killed the kids in Barrio Kennedy) Otaiza and the woman were both run over by a “phantom car” and the Attorney General ahs even suggested (please hold your laughter) that the whole incident may simply have been a terrorist attempt on Otaiza’s life! You see, the accident was on June23d. none of the witnesses has been interviewed including the municipal police of Baruta, thus the case will simply be filed. What is most interesting is what witnesses say. Watchman Victor Manuel Vargas is glad that he has not been interviewed: “I am not crazy. That man knocked himself over by himself I saw that he was riding a police motorcycle from the back part of the seat and now they say that he was driving a BMW, as if it was all a mirage” The reporters that showed up at the scene of the accident also say they were victims of a mirage. The role of a second car was apparently kept secret that night, the body of the woman was removed before the coroner showed up, illegal in Venezuelan legislation and everything was taken away in a very short time. Oh yeah! I forgot, it was determined that Otaiza was no driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. What else do you expect from a revolutionary? Somehow the words scruples, ethics and morality are not part of the revolutionary language. But protecting those that show unfailing loyalty to the almighty leader is among the priorities of the revolution. Ask Otaiza or all of the corrupt people in the Government, the military and PDVSA. 9:51:38 PM    comment []

Sheer madness or new Venezuelan imperialism? (with bonus) The news coming out of the Venezuelan Government are by now either bordering in madness or we are seeing the implementation of a plan to buy Chavez and his Government friends by throwing money all over Latin America in order to get political support. Besides giving away oil to Cuba, starting Telesur, creating Petrocaribe to spread the oil even further, financing a Samba school in Rio and buying Argentina’s debt, we now hear in the span of a few hours even more harebrained schemes: -Venezuela will buy half of the Uruguayan airline from Brazilian airline Varig. -Venezuela will buy Ecuadorian bonds to help that country. -Venezuela proposes starting a bond trading center in Venezuela so that the country’s in the region can buy each other’s debt. Of course, as pointed out by a friend, the only country with money to do this is Venezuela, so guess which country will do all the buying? This is simply sheer madness. A country that has borrowed so far this year over US$ 3 billion by issuing foreign debt, a country with close to 70% poverty, a Government which can not claim it has built any serious basic infrastructure in the last few years, can not throw money away like this…unless…the whole thing is simply an effort to buy influence, popularity and political support for Hugo Chavez and his ugly revolution. What comes next? Telling the world that Ecuador and Argentina do not have to pay Venezuela back as suggested by a friend today? Is this simply a plan to have Chavez gain more international credibility and satisfy his whims? The whole thing is so ridiculous and absurd that I originally thought that the following article in today’s El Nacional was funny but so silly that it was not worth translating, but I give it to you as a bonus to go with this crazy story: Caracas to host 2021 Olympic games by Luis Chumaceiro Tokio/Chumapress Caracas will organize the 2021 Olympic Games in 2021, after obtaining the unanimous backing in the first round of votes in the election that the International Olympic Committee held today and in which Moscow, New York, Madrid and Paris were eliminated. The organizers of the event rejected that in electing the Venezuelan capital, the offer to pay the external debt of the small countries that are part of the organization or the handover of oil concessions for 500 years to developed countries carried any weight. The vote went against the predictions made in the last few days by members of the COI and its President George Rodriguez, in the sense that the result would be close and there would be a few rounds of voting. Nevertheless, the truckload of “gifts” to federations, national Olympic committees and athletes, gave ground to all sorts of mistrust and rang the alarms in the face of denunciations of the violation of the regulations about what candidacies can or not do. It should be remembered that the regulations of the COI are very strict since the organization was hit by the scandals of corruption in Salt Lake City. French President, Jean Marie Le Pen, recognized today upon his arrival to Gleneagles, Scotland, that he was “naturally distressed” in that Caracas was elected to hold the Olympic Games of 2021, which Paris also aspired to, according to AFP. The French President is participating in the G20 Summit (G20) that groups all of the countries which are out of luck in the world, and on top of that there is this new reversal facing them However, he did convey some resentment because the new automated system was used, instead of the traditional direct round of voting with paper ballots The high French dignitary showed his surprise given that not even the French representative voted for Paris as well as the cost of 200 million euros for this system. Facing the insistence of reporters, the Board pointed out that all accusations against Venezuela will be directed to the ethics commission of the COI, led by Isaias Rodríguez, the Venezuelan representative; Carlos Castro, the Cuban representative, Kim Lim Piao, representative from North Korea and Muhamed Al Salami, Libyan representative. The spokesman for the COI was forceful:” The automated system is shielded and we defended each vote with our life” It should be pointed out that Venezuela additionally, registered interesting offers in the dossier for its candidacy, which was the one basis on which the evaluation committee, which visited the five cites originally proponed. Caracas promised to pay the trip for the 10,500 athletes and their teams with first class tickets. On top of that, all of them will have free tickets to Venezuelan trains, 10,000 dollars in cash for telephone calls wherever they are and their families may stay for free in five star hotels that they promise to build with the same efficiency with which they developed the housing plan of the revolution. The Director for the candidacy, Aristobulo Isturiz, metropolitan Mayor of Caracas, confirmed that besides this, the athletes and the delegates will have at their disposal unlimited credit lines for their expenses in local outfits like restaurants, stores and theaters. The winks of Caracas also reached the national Olympic committees that will have at their disposal 1.5 million dollars to establish entertainment centers in the best places of the capital. Besides this, the strict security of the streets of the capital and the beauty of the great public works were also an unquestionable factor in making the decision. In the next Olympic Games there will be new disciplines that the Venezuelans hope to obtain medals in for the first time in 38 years. There is special interest in “knifing with rubber bands”, “wet t-shirts”, “beer marathons”, “100 meters being hit by a machete”, shoot the innocent” and “canoeing in the Guaire river”. President Jose Vicente Rangel assured everyone that he “never doubted the victory” to have the organization of the Olympic date, according to EFE. “The victory was tough to obtain, but the impartiality of the COI was a determining factor in the face of good adversaries” Rangel indicated during a visit to Havana, Cuba. 8:52:09 PM    comment []

Intolerance, threats and fear become an everyday phenomenon Yesterday, students marched towards the National Assembly demanding that the deaths of the three students by the police be investigated, that Minister of Interior and Justice be censored and asking that the death of the three students not be used as an excuse to cretae the National Police. The Head of the National Assembly Nicolas Maduro met with the students, a first since the new Constitution was pproved, as no President of the Assembly had ever met with students that do not support it. Of course, he turned around and proceeded to vote not to censor Chacón. Chacón meanhwile, dismissed the march as being promoted by leftwing party Bandera Roja, which is supposedly looking for the death of a student to make noise. What has not been mentioned as widely, is the sorry spectacle of the Bolivarian Circles which showed up to interfere with the demonstration by the students. Not only did they try to stop the students from reaching their goal, but as the students left the Capitol, they started throwing sticks and stones at them and one girl was injured. This type of intolerance was introduced by Chavez and his cronies in Venezuela's political life. But beyond this, one has to wonder exactly what the Bolivarian Circles meant with their action. Do they approve of the way the police acted in the murders of the students? Is it that they do not want an investigation? Who were they supposedly defending by violating the rights of others? Chavez? Maduro? Chacón? The Police? But I am sure they did not even know why they were there. Some fascist MVR leader organized the protest and sent them like animals to stop the students and they obeyed. Intolerance is being promoted by the Government daily. In Anzoategui State, the Governor created the first brigade that will go around cybercafes, monitoring that users do not load "forbidden" pages. Of course, they do not define, as of yet, what is forbidden, is the simple threat that counts. The same reason why the media has downplayed the violence yesterday: fear of the Government, fear of intolerance and fear of sanctions against them.   Intolerance, threats and fear are not exactly the basic ingredients of a democracy society, but here the rule the day. 2:03:41 PM    comment []