Friday, October 21, 2005

Gustavo Coronel on PDVSA: Opening the can of worms! And don't forget to read Gustavo Coronel's comments on PDVSA's filing to the SEC either here or here. A can of worms indeed, it reveals new lies as well as proving earlier ones. Pay attention in particular to the comments about page 14 and the Cuban refinery, page 20 on drilling activities and page 21 of the report on the company's oil production. Great job Gustavo, this shows why Citgo announced they are repurchasing their debt this week, so that they don't have to file reports like this anymore! 8:19:42 PM    comment []

The Venezuelan revolution : Trying to take your rights away one step at a time A while back I reported how someone had placed paper skeletons all over Caracas calling for "Change" and saying the protest was by young people who were protesting how the Government treats them. Well, yesterday the investigative police summoned Alexandra Belandia Ruiz Pineda to testify on the case (which case?). Alexandra is the granddaughter of Leonrado Ruiz Pineda a Secretary General of the Accion Democratica party that was killed by the security police of Dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez. Alexandra is heavily involved in politics through the "Movimiento Cambio" and has yet to say whether it was that movement that placed the skeletons. Coincidentally, today is the anniversary of Ruiz Pineda's death and what better tribute to her grandfather’s death than what she said as she left the investigative police headquarters’: "the regime is bothered by dissidence, but they will not succeed . But they will not succeed. Here I am confronting them. The best homage I can pay to my grandfather is this, facing them" And indeed it is, this brave woman is confronting the fascism and intimidation of a Government that has its investigative police spend time figuring out who placed some harmless paper skeletons in public places as a form of protest. This is a clear violation of Article 57 of the Venezuelan Constitution which says:” All persons have the rights to express their thoughts, ideas and opinions in live voice, in writing or through any other form of expression..." But the true incompetence of the Government comes through when one realizes the fact that the many cases of people killed or injured in dozens of demonstrations by the opposition are not being investigated. That a year ago, one of the largest buildings in the city where most of the Government ministries functioned burned down and to this day we have not heard an explanation as to what happened and that the death of murdered prosecutor Danilo Anderson is being blamed on the CIA by the Attorney General/Prosecutor himself. Of course, they reach such silly conclusions or are unable to figure out why people died, because they are wasting their times performing hatchet jobs for the all powerful leaders of this fake revolution, who tremble when they see a paper skeleton that might have a chance of undermining their fascist and abusive power. 8:01:32 PM    comment []