Today, Foreign
Minister Nicolas Maduro, gave
a long press conference where he clearly stated that a number of options
are being considered and that Venezuela will not desist of its candidacy unless
Guatemala withdraws first and the US “cease its gross pressure and blackmail”
as opposed I guess to Chavez’ own gross
pressure and true blackmail.
But... then
comes silly Evo Morales and announces that not only is Venezuela giving up its candidacy in favor of Bolivia's, but that he talked “last night” to Venezuela’s Ambassador Julio
Montes (The guy that
that wants to bleed for the Bolivian revolution, forgetting than in the
Bolivarian revolution, the only bleeders are those hat oppose it) and to Chavez
himself, who told him that since Venezuela could not get the two thirds majority, he
is giving it up in favor of Bolivia.
Thus, it
appears as if Maduro, as he was putting up a tough revolutionary face and show in front
of the press, had already been short-circuited or ignored by his boss the
almighty autocrat. It certainly appears as if Venezuela and Bolivia don’t speak the same
language, as their leaders and Ministers contradict themselves almost daily (remember the
2, 10 or 20 border forts depending on who you talked to This is
actually a somewhat sad ending to the whole affair. Had Chavez been willing to
talk to Guatemala both countries could have withdrawn and an alternative found,
which would have given both Guatemala and Venezuela a graceful exit. Now,
Guatemala says it
is still in the race and it seems hard to believe Venezuela can endorse Bolivia
all of its votes. Thus, it looks like Guatemala will win tomorrow, taking along
the “myth” of “knee on the ground”, “defeating the empire” and Venezuela’s “independence
and “strength”. In fact, this sounds so much like that fateful night on Feb. 4th
1992, where Chavez had his “knee on the ground”, but in the end chickened out,
as he has every time things have gotten tough in his life. What will
Maduro say tomorrow? Bet on "The Empire has been defeated", "We fought with dignity" and "Evo misunderstood Chavez". Sooooo predictable! But in the end, the position was Venezuela's to lose and clearly Chavez managed to do everything in his power to lose, by showing the same lack of respect for people and institutions that he has shown Venezuelans for the last eight years.
(Peruvians
can at least keep a secret for a while longer, as a Deputy from that country’s Congress
who supported Ollanta Humala’s candidacy revealed today,
four months after the election of Alan Garcia, that the Venezuelan Embassy gave
former Presidential candidate Ollanta Humala four million dollars for his
campaign. Chavez has always denied this, but I imagine the money came from Chavez’
pocket money and family’s wealth, no?)
10:02:21 PM 
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