Sunday, April 17, 2005

Chavez admits abuses, nothing will happen Perhaps nothing can represent more the state of illegality in our poor country that Chavez' request last Friday for the Tascon list to disappear. Here is the President of a country asking his followers to "bury" a list that has been used to violate the civil and human rights of Venezuelans who disagree with their political point of view. For those that may not know what I am talking about, a Deputy from Chavez' MVR party, Luis Tascon (Petkoff calls him Adolfo Tascon in Hitler's memory!) placed the database of all the 4 million people that signed for Chavez' recall on his website (since removed). The list became a standard to harass opposition people, from denying them a passport, a job, all the way to firing them from a civil service position. Chavez can now say that the list "played an important role at a certain point in time" but that is over. To me it means they used it to intimidate people, violate their rights and screw them, but hey! We can forget about it now, we don't need it, we are going to build bridges to the opposition. But what about those that were fired? Those whose rights were violated? Those who were denied the most essential services which they are entitled to by right? What about that silly Article 21 of the Constitution that simply says: "All people are the same in front of the law" Very simple, no? "All people are the same" leaves no room for interpretation, but it actually goes even further, just in case: "1. Discriminations based on race, sex, beliefs, social conditions or those that in general have as their objective to nullify or reduce the recognition, enjoyment or exercise of condition of equality, of the rights and freedom of a person, will not be allowed" Also very clear: WILL NOT BE ALLOWED. But it goes even further than this: "2.The law will guarantee the judicial and administrative conditions so that equality under the law becomes real and effective, will adopt positive measures in favor of groups that may be discriminated, segregated or vulnerable, will specially protect those persons that for one of the reasons specified before, will find itself in manifest weakness and WILL SANCTION the abuses and mistreatment that is committed against them" Can it be clearer than that? The LAW means the Attorney General or the People's Ombudsman, neither of which ahs opened their mouth to complain about these abuses. Despite their constitutional mandate "to adopt positive measures". Moreover, there should be SANCTIONS for these abuses and these should reach Deputy Tascon, the fascist that placed the list on his page so that everyone could use it and gloated then that he was distributing it in CD's, so that everyone could identify (i.e. discriminate) those that were in it. It should sanction those like the President of FOGADE that fired people base on this list. In fact the list became quite pervasive, even in Academic institutions the list was made publicly hierarchically so that people would know who was against Chavez and who was not, at all levels at that Institution. And as Petkoff's has been documenting so vividly with names and ID cards, the list has been used for firings (More than 200 people in Fogade alone), hiring and contracting. And Deputy Adolfo Tascon puts on his best "pendejo" face and gloats that he removed the list long ago from his site, saying that he told Chavez people were abusing it and even has the audacity to say that the list should have been secret, something the opposition, always complained about, when the signatures were being gathered, but changed nothing. In any country with any resemblance of legality and decency, both the Attorney General and the People's Ombudsman, should have long ago introduced recourses in front of the Court’s to stop the abuses. (People went to the People's Ombudsman office to denounce abuses and were told that they had more important things to do) Neither did anything. Today, they have the open testimony of the President, calling it the Tascon list, they should open procedures against Chavez who allowed it to happen and against Tascon who did it. And they should call on all of those that were affected to come forward. Of course, none of this will happen. They will both shut up in the best servile style that has characterized them in the last four years. There will be no Justice, nor decency. There is neither in this Government. 9:55:33 PM    comment []

Intensive course to hate gringos by Oscar Lucien This article appeared in El Nacional on Friday and I thought it was cute and we need humor once in a while to survive, so I translate it. I am sure Alek will enjoy it. Intensive course to hate gringos by Oscar Lucien Yesterday I really got blasted celebrating my graduation as a hate lancer. I graduated from the “Gringo go home” cooperative of the “Mision knee on the ground”. We received an intensive course to hate gringos within the strategy of asymmetric war mandated by the commander in chief, maximum leader of the process, to confront and liquidate the marines that “dobleve” Bush is planning to send to destroy the pretty revolution. . Classes are simple, but one leaves hoarse from shouting so much. Shouting, says the captain-instructor, is the best way to express hate, our first weapon against the invading gringos. Even though this squalid newspaper does not give me much space, I will summarize some of the training sessions to stimulate other fellow countrymen that want to become hate lancers or become part of the asymmetric Bolivarian militias and can continue training, endogenously, on their own. 1. The course begins with readings on the Liberators’ wisdom. The captain says that the Liberator was so lucid that he even imagined Bush’s invasion. We fill a notebook with the phrase “The US seems destined by providence to fill Latin America with hunger and misery in the name of freedom” and then we stand up in front of a microphone for a few minutes, babbling the largest amount of hate possible 2. Endogenous use of bubble gum. With some coupons that they give to us, we buy bags in the cooperative filled with plenty of "Bazuka" gum at Mercal and we start chewing to make huge balls of gum. We go out in a tour of lancers and we take strategic positions, for example, in Valle Arriba, in the square in front of the US Embassy, or at the exit of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Saints. We ride the bus with the previously identified gringos and when they are going to sit down we place the ball on the seat. In this action, which is apparently contradictory because it expresses hate, we truly have a ball. 3. Practicing giving Condoleezza what she deserves. Some countrymen that are regenerating themselves in jail, make real size dolls of that negrita that Chavez sent to Mision Robinson. In groups of two, we put lancers in a dark room and we give the doll what she deserves until it is destroyed. Female lancers get a picture of Condoleezza. They stare at the picture and shout a number of times: “Alert! Alert! Bolivar’s sword is walking around Latin America” and they spit at the picture. Later they clean up the picture and save it because they have to use it in more than one session. 4. Firing practice with Bush. Since the Kalasnikov’s that the maximum leader bought from his soul brother Putin have not arrived, we train with shotguns borrowed by our fellow countrymen at the Yare jail. They place a picture of the invading leader smiling, to get rid of the hate we have been accumulating. The lancers shoot the picture, but Bush’s smile is made out of a special shielded material and we get even more pissed. When we empty out the ammo, although we also end up quite empty of energy, we have to shout twenty times: “Bush! you shall not pass” 5. Exam with the academic committee. The academic committee of our cooperative is a civic-military one. That is, it is composed of the captain-instructor, two lieutenants, four sergeants and the civilian that drives the Toyota for the captain and gets the coffees. Every day they do a multiple choice test, but both male and female lancers are obligated to pick answer C. I don’t recall all the questions, but some of them were like this: 1) You are swimming at a beach and a gringo next to you starts drowning and calling for help. You have to: a) Call the lifesaver b) Help him out with a rope c) Shout at him “Dumb gringo why do you swim so deep if you can’t swim. Then you walk along the shore and drink a beer. 2) You are piloting a plane (imagine Chavez’ plane) and are carrying a Frenchman from Total, a Spaniard from Repsol and a gringo from Chevron. There is a malfunction and there are only two parachutes to be distributed among the passengers. Following the instructions of the endogenous Bolivarian aeronautics a) give a parachute to the Frenchman and another to the Spaniard b) You give one to the Spaniard and the other to the Frenchman c) You give the gringo an icon of a saint. Another thing we are taught is that gringos are stupid. That is easy to cheat on them and that we should not allow them to cheat us, because lancer that allows himself to be cheated by a gringo, will never be a good cheater himself. Mixing endogenous tactics and strategy what is important is to surprise them. That is why, when one lancer crosses a gringo on the street you have to say with a smile “Ay guan tu bi yor frien” and when he replies “Mitu” the lancer hits his right fist against his left palm and shouts at him: “Uh, ah Chavez no se va” (Uh, ah , Chavez is not leaving) The only little problem with the course was when they invited gringa Eva Golinger to promote her book Chavez’ code. Many lancers were confused about why she was there and like a bunch of crazy wolves, wanted to give her what she deserved in the middle of the class. Obviously the anti-gringo course had had an effect. Despite hitting them repeatedly with the butt of the rifles they could not stop that sparkling mass of hate until the captain showed up, raised his briefcase and said they were going to make the payment of the one hundred dollars that was due to all. The calm was heavenly. While they distributed the dole, he clarified that there are gringos that on top of that, are good people. Hate lancer of the Ezequiel Zamora class Number Ak-47 9:13:37 AM    comment []