Saturday, December 07, 2002

Final confrontation ahead..... Today, there were two marches, both with lots of people. The opposition march was silent, to pay respect to the dead yesterday. The only singing was the national anthem and some religious chants at the end where a religious service was held. The Government march was festive. While the country falls apart, the Vice-President and his partisans, instead of being at the negotaiting table, where they should be, were at their march accusing the opposition of staging the killings last night. (As predicted here) Meanwhile, the oil industry has come to a standstill, while Hugo Chavez talks about restructuring its Board. I don't see what the Board is going to do without the workers. To make matters even worse, one of the people shot dead yesterday in Plaza Altamira, was an employee of the oil industry. National Airlines, the docks and shipping have all now joined the strike. The banking system might be closed on Monday too, because armored truck companies have now stopped working. The government has retaken the tanker Pilin Leon, but it has yet to move, and what would be the point anyway given that the docks are closed? National Guard units which were ordered to occupy the headquarters of a private gasoline transportation company have refused to obey orders. Clearly, there are deep problems, the Government does not want to sit down and negotiate. which implies it wants to confront, as usual, because it has the power to win, or thinks it does. The next two or three days should be decisive. Two pictures below, one of the opposition march (obviously) and a huge balloon that says :"Elections Now". 7:16:02 PM    comment []

Off to the march Off to the march, wish me luck, hope I don't need it! 1:22:02 PM    comment []

From my brother's site: Hear! Hear! From Tyromaniac On a personal note. Confucius said may you live in interesting times, he must have been joking. Living like this is crazy. May you live a calm life, with the weather as your main preoccupation. May you have as much sex and relaxed talks with friends as you wish. May you never die a violent, useless dead by hating hands. May you never have to suffer a government whose only will is to govern. May you live in boring times and take advantage of that fact. My wife said we should leave, seek refuge somewhere else... Can we do that? Should we do that? 12:26:41 PM    comment []

Lots of Confusion, PDVSA shut down There seems to be mostly confusion. The Government after saying after the shootings that it would sit on the negotiating table at 10 PM, never showed up. There is a rumor that one of the Chiefs of Staff, General Garcia Montoya,  has been jailed for refusing to obey orders to implement "Plan Avila" the repressive plan for civilian control which has been questioned by Human Rights organizations. PDVSA appears to have shutdown by now. Tank trunks are not being filled at this time and all refineries are completly shut down. Commercial docks have also been shut down, including La Guaira and Puerto Cabello, through which most imported goods flow. Last night Hugo Chavez said things were going back to normal(??) and the ships at sea would be recovered during the night, which did not take place. There are two marches today. One, already in progress, is pro-Chavez and goes downtown, while the second one, by the opposition goes at 2 PM from "Meritocracy Square" to Petare in the extreme East of the city. Symbolically, Petare is a barrio which only two years ago fully supported Hugo Chavez. An armed person with a gun and five packs of bullets has just been captured in Altamira square. Despite the call for people not to go back to Altamira, the plaza is fairly crowded for this time of day. Early in the morning there were two shootings at the plaza, one from a car and one from a motorcycle. People are outraged with what happened last night. 10:56:21 AM    comment []