Tuesday, August 26, 2008

A robolutionary tragicomedy of lies and deceit by the Venezuelan Government in three or more acts Act One: Tal Cual reports on August 19th. that the Government will submit a new Telecommunications Law to the National Assembly.  The draft cited by Tal Cual gives Hugo Chavez the power to suspend all “telecommunications transmissions”, whenever the stability of the Nation is at risk. This is contained in Article 11, of the “Final Dispositions” of the draft. Act Two: Deputy Manuel Villalba of Chavez’ PSUV party and to top it all off, President of the Media committee of the Venezuelan National Assembly, appears in Globovision and denies not only the content, but even the existence of such a draft.  Using the Chavista language that we have grown accustomed to he says that those that promote such news items like El Universal, El Nacional and Tal Cual “are trying to destabilize the country, playing with fear and are disrespecting the intelligence of the Venezuelan people” But then there is the last and conclusive act: Act Three: Minister of Telecommunications Socorro Hernandez on the TV channel used to promote only Chavez paid by the taxpayers VTV, comes on and says that the Bill does indeed exist and it will be submitted to the National assembly, but “the versions that have circulated around (in the press) are drafts, but are not the definitive version…” Thus, Minister Hernandez is admitting that the drafts of the Bill have contained articles allowing the President to cut off all information to the Venezuelan population whenever he feels like it, i.e. allowing total censorship.  And here comes the hilarious part, the Minister says: “ the law will be submitted to public consultation and I don’t think there are reasons for people to be anxious” I guess the poor Minister must have been on vacation or at the Olympics and missed the 26 Bills approved by her almighty boss, without consultation and allowing unconstitutional actions as well as laws that contain articles rejected by the Venezuelan people in a democratic referendum in December 2007. But it is sufficient to see how the matter has been handled with the 26 Bills, the secrecy with which it has been handled, the President of the relevant committee of the National Assembly did not know about it, to be not anxious, but extremely anxious about the future of Venezuela’s telecommunications as well as its democracy democracy. Because when Governments lie, hide information and use all forms of deceit it is because they are trying something that you know is either illegal or violates international treaties. In the case of the Chavez Government we have seen this over and over again. These people should realize that one day, they will have to pay for their crimes. Or steal a lot of money to live in exile.  And that my friends, will be Act Four. 10:09:41 PM    comment []

No more nationalizations in Venezuela...unless the revolution changes its mind Wow! It was only last Friday that Minister of Finance Ali Rodriguez said, with that voice of his which is moderate and low, far from being strident or radical: “The government doesn't have any plans to nationalize more companies”. If you believed it, you probably just forgot that this is a revolution with random thoughts and no coordination. Because it only took like 24 hours before the Venezuelan National Assembly showed that one hand of the Government has no clue as to what the other is doing, when they announced the passing of a Bill in the next few days to nationalize the distribution of gasoline in the country. The Bill calls for the nationalization of the wholesale distribution and transportation of gasoline and the transfer of all gas stations under concession to communal councils. Thus, it seems as if both wholesale and retail will be nationalized. The law establishes a period of sixty days for those affected to negotiate with the Government. You know what that means, you have sixty days to accept what the Government offers you or else. Because most of those 60 day terms have been used by the Venezuelan Government to confiscate private property from its position of strength. You can fight, but in the absence of an independent legal system, you have little recourse but to accept the offer and leave. And it will be interesting to see what use these untested communal councils give to both the gas stations and the proceeds from its sale. If it is anything like the confiscation of rice last week from a private supermarket, then we know that a new and imaginative source of corruption for the robolution has just been invented. What else is new? Or maybe the right question is: Who will be next? 6:27:53 PM    comment []