Tuesday, July 26, 2005

A picture of thugs, militarism and impunity When you think you have seen it all, then this picture is in the front page of today's El Nacional. The picture was taken at yesterday's anniversary of the city of Caracas, where the illustrious Mayor of the Libertador municipality, Freddy Bernal, gave a medal to the wife of the new Minister of Defense, who is the man in white on the right of the picture. His wife is shown on the left in military garb. Clearly Mayor Bernal decided he had to suck up to the new Minister who was named to the position only two weeks ago. As if this were not enough, Mayor Bernal also gave a medal to the woman in the middle, whose name is Lina Ron. Lina Ron is a pro-Chavez rebolutionary that is allowed to do whatever she pleases because of her support to the President. A while back I wrote about how she showed up with a bunch of thugs at a police station and freed her husband and four other men who had been detained for attemtping to kidnap a woman from a hospital, which caused the resignation of the Head of Police of that municipality. And only last July 8th. Ron and her supporters kidnapped and harassed two reporters for daring to take pictures in her terrirtory. (How democratic, no?) This kidnapping was protested formally by Reporters sans Frontiers to the Attorney General. This is the type of impunity and savage values that this militaristic revolution is installing in this country. Reporters are harrased (Do I hear freedom of expression in Venezuela from anyone out there?), Thugs and abusers are given medals by Government officials and are proudly hugged by the Minister of Defense. (Do I hear there is respect for the law and due process in Venezuela?). Military garb is the rule of the day among civilians and military alike. (Do I hear this is not a militaristic Government?) Oh yeah! I forgot that Mayor Bernal, without the supposed "research" that was going to be done on the date of the foundation of Caracas, did away with the Diego de Lozada medal and invented new ones. Poor Diego! It took almost five hundred years for him to realize he just wasted his time! Note added: It is unclear to me now if the women on the left is Maniglia's wife or the Mayor's wife. If it is the Mayor's wife, then it will be an even more significant show of militarism as she was never in the military. 7:46:48 PM    comment []