Tuesday, June 06, 2006

More rampant corruption charges at the highest levels of power of the revolution --It turns out that the reason why former Governor Lapi was ostensibly jailed for was not following the law and not opening for bids for a highway contract. Well, the President’s father has done this repeatedly and denounced for it, but hey! He is the father of Hugo Chavez the autocrat, thus he has not even been investigated for it! Chavez’ father is also accused of naming Chavez’ brother Argenis as “pro-tempore Governor” allowing him to essentially run the state. That position does not exist in Venezuela’s legislation. --And how about the Milan family. Oly Millan is the Minister for the Popular Economy and before that she was the President of the fund for agricultural development Fondafa. Fondafa has been formally charged with financing more hectares for planting that there are available in Yaracuy state. Well, the Minister’s brother went to the Prosecutor’s office yesterday to accuse his own brother in law, for asking for a Bs. 1 billion commission if he wants to obtain a Bs. 7 billion loan from Fondafa. Oly Millan’s husband now works at Fondafa where his brother in law says he wields and enormous amount of power, given that his wife is a Minister. He also accused his brother in law with threatening to kill him. I guess it is all in the family with the Millans. --Former Causa R leader and supposedly now Presidential Candidate Pablo Medina showed up at the Prosecutor’s General’s office to denounce the Minister of Interior and Justice and his brother for influence peddling. The case was reported here long ago, but Justice Velasquez Alvaray mentioned it when he was charged by the moral council. Chacon’s brother Arne was a lowly employee of the tax office in 2002 but now has purchased milks pants and owns an investment bank. Moreover, the Superintendence of Banks had to approve the purchase and the basic requirement for purchasing a bank is having banking experience which Chacon lacks. You also have to prove the source of funds. These are the miracles of corruption in the revolution. --There was an interesting interview with former Minister of Finance under Chavez General Francisco Uson. Uson is the only person jailed for the case of the burnt soldiers of Fort Mara because…imagine! He said that the burns were caused by a flamethrower on a TV program. Those who caused the deaths are at large, they have not even been charged, but this was a good excuse to jail Uson, a true political prisoner in Chavez’ Venezuela. Nothing has been done about the human rights violations that day or who killed the soldiers, but Uson has been jailed since last summer for his crime of sying what he thought.  It is all a huge cover-up by the military. And nothing happens. Amazingly, Uson was quite quiet after resigning on April 11th. 2002 because he blamed Chavez for the deaths that day. In the interview Uson says that Chavez acts like a gangster head of an organized crime family. He says literally with reference to the Generals in power “He (Chavez) places them where there is (money) and let’s them steal with full hands”. What impressed me about the interview, besides the fact that Uson has always been a very serious character, was the fact that in many questions he answers by saying that all he knows about a topic is what he has read in the media and says nothing more. Uson was convicted for a “crime of opinion”, a crime that does not exist in Venezuela’s legislation. These four cases show that contrary to the Vice-President’s statements Justice has progressed little in the robolution. In fact, most of these corruption cases are simply too obvious and blatant and nothing happens. Somebody should explain to him that except for the Velasquez Alvaray case, few Chavistas have been investigated or charged, despite the many cases of corruptions denounced in the media with evidence. 11:54:04 PM    comment []

The strange features of the electoral registry that Chavismo does not want anyone to learn Without giving any explanation, Chavez' MVR rejects the audit of the electoral registry proposed by three universities. What are they afraid of? 1- Could it be that it does not make sense that 65% of the Venezuelan population is now registered to vote, for which they have to be over 18? Does this correlate with the census? 2.- I had placed three ID cards here with teh same picture. I was told a magazine reported this guy was caught with thrree ID's with different ages and names. I tried to track it down today but coudln't. The point is and was that thousands of people got ID cards that allow them to register to vote without anyone checking the validity of the card. I will post again if I get the copy promised to me. In any case the point is that there are a huge number of irregularities that justify audting and making the electoral registry better. For example, I placed this in the comments: By the way, if yo go to the INE webpage (www.ine.org.ve) it extrapolates using the data from the 2001 census that in 2006 the population would be 27,030,656 persons. Of these, 11,037,506 would be 19 or below. One can estimate from this that some 360,000 turned new voters were eligble that year to vote, so the total 18 or below is 11,001,000 approximately. That would say that 16,029,500 would be eligible to vote IF YOU REGISTERED THEM ALL TO VOTE. The CNE says there will be 17 million regsitered to vote in the December presidential election. Efficient no, one million more registered than people avaialable? This is the type of inconsistencies that USB, UCV and UCAB want to look at.This is the reason why there is no justification for MVR opposing the audit.But they coudl care less about logic, technology and the like. 3.- Or, as seen in Noticiero Digital , there are eight Gonzalez in Venezuela who have no first name, no second last name, but hey, they can vote as seen below as taken straight out of the electoral registry. This is illegal by the way, your name has to be exactly as in your ID. These are the same people who invalidated half a million signatures from the recall petition for simple smudges. Can Mr. Lara explain this curioisty to us? Are they part of the amazing Gonzalez family since they are also from Maracaibo? How many other last names show this? (You can try these at the CNE website www.cne.gov.ve) 12:41:48 AM    comment []