Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Political Discrimination in the revolution. Two weeks ago, the opposition held a civilized and peaceful march, mostly women, going to the Electoral Board (CNE) headquarters to present a document with their demands for transparent and fair elections. The CNE was surrounded by National Guardsmen and police, tear gas and water cannons were used against the crowd and nobody form the CNE received the document. Today, an outlaw group called the "Tupamaros" well known for going around armed and with hoods over theri faces, holds protests in Petare and at the CNE Headquarters without the armed forces or police showing much interest. They are led by none other than Richard Peñalver, the man the whole world saw shooting opposition marchers from Puente el LLaguno in April 2002, but was declared innocent by the "impartial" Chavista Justice. It was all a mirage apparently. To add insult to injury or to help prove my point, the CNE meets with them and promises to do an audit of all of the voting centers that they are complaining about. The Tupamaros say they were cheated electronically, cheated by the "morochas" which they say limits the role of minorities and saying phantom party UVE does not represent the revolution. Tell us about it Richard, at least they go and talk to you! This is simply discrimination, if you are opposition, which despite calling for abstention got almost 50% of the vote, you have no rights, can't march and your complaints are not heard. But if you are a pro-Chavez, violent, aremed, hooded, outlaw group, you will be given the royal treatment. Some democracy! 9:48:55 PM    comment []

Corruption, autocracy and impunity in the revolution Here is clear evidence of corruption in the revolution. The full page ad on the left was published today in at least all of Caracas' major newspapers. It is a self-congratulatory ad by the Metropolitan Mayor of Caracas, who is a member of Chavez' MVR. Congratulating Venezuela, because the "people" have won. On the right I have blown up the symbol of the city, which was stolen from Harris as reported earlier, in another act of unethical behavior. It also says among other things "With Chavez only one Government" and in the top part the voting "ballots" for Chavez' MVR and the phantom party UVE, then "The votes of the social groups increased" which is certainly a sentence without content and then "Now to work for more unity, with Chavez and the people, with only one Government for the revolution of the XXIst. century". Somewhere else it also self-congratulates his party for the use of the illegal "twins" or "morochas". Now, to begin with Mayor Juan Barreto is using public funds to finance promotion of a party, its activities and self-congratulate themselves This is illegal according to two Venezuelan laws, the one that regulates political parties and the anti-courruption law. But of course, nothing will happen, this is the same way they finance their marches, their voting drives and even their personal activities. And nothing ever happens. It is not clear what the 96% refers to, maybe the percentage of councilmen they received in the races, but in any case it is deceiving, because they did not get that percentage of votes. But it goes in line with that autocartic and dicatorial and anti-democratic frame of mind that likes to win with 99% of the votes, a la Saddam or Mugabe. But the messages that bothers me the most are its autocratic tone, things like saying "only one Government" and the like, as well as the partisan message in what may have been at most an institutional ad. The references to Chavez and Chavismo are certainly completely out of line and illegal. Additionally, I still find it amazing at the lack of shame for using what is nothing but illegal cheating to win more positions, wehn they congratulate themselves for using the "morochas' trick. This clearly shows the unethical nature, the innate corruption and the lack of scruples of this sad robolution. In any case, another demonstration of the corruption and autocratic nature of the Chavistas and the impunity surrounding the robolution. 7:43:45 PM    comment []