The revolution never ceases to surprise and amaze. This week's tidbits:
---Last
Christmas Hugo Chavez voiced his concern as a historian that Simon
Bolivar may have been killed and the bones in his tomb in Caracas may
not be his. He said he would name a commission to study this and this
week we saw the decree creating it.
You would expect forensic scientists, historians or medical doctors.
Instead, almost the whole Cabinet is in it, including the
Vice-President, the Minsiter of Interior and Justice, Foreign
Relations, Finance (Yes, Finance!), Defense, Education, Higher
Education, Health, Culture and Science and Technology. Just in case
there is a crime involved (nothing is said about the statue of
limitations) they also include the General Prosecutor.
Which
only goes to show why things don't work in Chavez' revolution. First of
all, most of these people are busy enough as it is, with tremendous
challenges and problems to solve to be distracted by this whim of the
amateur historian Sherlock Holmes Chavez. Even worse, it goes right to
Chavez' apparent belief that anyone can do anything no matter the
background, including him.
---And Minister of Finance Rafael
Isea, who has been in the job for only three weeks and has yet to
announce any major decisions or plans is being promoted by the
revolutionaries of Aragua State as their next Governor for Chavez' PSUV
party.
Just imagine, this most popular man has the task of
trying to fix the economy with limited economic experience and he is
being proposed as a candidate for Governor in elections that will take
place in less than ten months, which means he would have to resign in
about seven or eigth if he is to have a chance. Well, given the
problems in the economy, from inflation, to high interest rates to
shortages, I do hope Isea is thinking about these problems and not
politics. My feeling is that if he stays two or three months as
Minister, he has no chance to be Governor, just watch inflation and his
popularity will be inversely proportional to it.
---And how
about funny man Francisco Carrasquero, the former Head of the Electoral
Board who is now a member of the Venezuelan Supreme Court gave the
formal speech at the initiation of the judicial year. Given that
sometimes he can barely speak well, I was surprised they picked him,
but to top it all off, he said that justice can not be "apolitical" and
the Constitution can not be "rigid" or like a "stone" and that it
should not be that amendments and reforms of the Constitution serve to
protect eternal regulations. Proving once again, that Mr. Carrasquero
does ot even understand the role of the Constitution and is willing to
twist the law, like he did as President of the Electoral Board in order
to promote Chavez' political goals. With people like him at the Supreme
Court, there can not be justice for all in Venezuela.
---Then
there is this tidbit in Tal Cual, explaining how in a country where the
"unreformed" Constitution prohibits Government financing of political
parties (Introduced in the Constitution by Chavez in 2000), the
Electoral Board (CNE) spent US$ 17.1 million in providing Chavez' newly
created political party PSUV with 1,050 fingerprint machines, antennas
and the like in order to aid in the process of registering the members
of the new party. On top of that the CNE provided personnel, rented
tents and purchased t-shirts and caps for the new members. To finish it
off the Armed Forces provided some helicopters to support the logistics
of the process. All at taxpayers expense and illegal at that!
---But the juiciest tidbit of the week has to be that at last the National Assembly will open an investigation into Maletagate.
But the investigation will not be into looking how the money left
Venezuela with exchange controls or in a PDVSA airplane filled with
Government officials. No, the investigation will be to "prove" that
Antonini was a CIA agent, the money left the US and it is all a
conspiracy against the people of Venezuela. All is based in Jaime
Baily's article saying he met Antonini in 2002 and at the time Antonini
claimed to be anti-Chavez. Of course, Antonini made millions since
2002, so maybe the robolution changed his mind, but I am sure the
Assembly will not look into this part of the story.
9:20:36 PM 
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