Censorship in Venezuela, a step further down the drain

Several of Venezuela's top pop musicians - among them Yordano, Desorden Público, Rawayana and Caramelos de Cianuro, decided to make a call for peace during a special programme on the TV channel Venevisión. The reason is that they got fed up of so much crime and violent discourse (last drop was the murder of Caramelos de Cianuro's manager).

What did the channel do? It decided to censor the message, restrict what was broadcast. The musicians complained.

Countless sympathizers of Chávez abroad claim Venezuela's media is free and in fact almost anarchic. Some journalists point out Venezuela's media is "so polarised there is no middle ground". And indeed, in newspapers like El Universal or Notitarde you read highly critical articles about Chávez. And indeed, in Globovisión, Venezuela's tropical version of populist Fox News, you can listen to people stating Venezuela is in a dictatorship. A couple of years ago you could even watch a couple of nut cases wishing Chávez "gone". You don't get that in places where there is no democracy, do you? 

Do you?

Well, we need to ask: what does it mean to be free in the media? Are we free if we can say many things to 30% of the population? And what things precisely?

The problem is that Venezuela's opposition media is freely running in a sandbox, like applets in a browser: it looks nice, it can become very flashy, you can visualize it using your whole screen, but it still within a restricted environment. The difficult thing to explain to foreigners is that critical media in Venezuela has hardly any reach outside the the very urban centres and beyond those with cable or Internet access. Even foreign correspondents are not aware of the details about what it takes for a radio station outside the capital region to say anything remotely critical of Chávez. 

About 60% to 70% of the population cannot be reached by those media outlets. Globovisión, which has long become a Potemkin-village kind of channel for the government, can only be watched in Caracas and Valencia unless you have cable or Internet access.  

Most Venezuelans read very little and outside the main centres they only read tabloid papers. If we look at Russia, we see people read more and they can buy Novaja Gazeta in Moscow or Peterburg and with some luck in other main cities...they can watch Dozhd' on line and listen to criticisms coming from the opposition and there are more people with Internet access than in Venezuela...and yet Western observers do say almost unanimously things are not fine for the Russian media.

Cisneros, one of Venezuela's biggest industrialists and owner of Venevisión, one of the last major private TV channels with open air access, Venevisión, decided in 2002, after the brief coup, to play Chávez's game. Since then the channel has focused on very light entertainment and reduced any criticism of Chávez.

And now it is even censoring any lame protest about what is obvious.

As Francisco posted, the government has decided to violate yet again the constitution by declaring through a decree that it can get into more debt without the congressional approval. 

Chávez also threatened private companies and banks that may consider supporting opposition parties. He said he could nationalise them. Never mind Chávez came to power with the money of many of those he is now threatening.

Foreign journos go to Caracas' East and see in posh shopping centres how real versions of María Alejandra López declare we live in "castro-comunismo". How can they analyse that? It's hard. And this is where we stand.

How blind can Venezuelans be on sustainability and environment?

This is really tiring: having to tell this and knowing nothing is going to happen for the foreseeable future...

After our caudillo Chávez said the "intelligence" agency SEBIN and the courts should investigate the opposition for declaring our tap water was highly contaminated someone must have told him millions of people are indeed getting filthy water in their homes. Now, even if the military regime has repeatedly denied there is something wrong with the water, it is asking the Latin American Development Bank 149 million dollars for improving the water cleaning systems.

Now: that's all fine and dandy, the government had to do it, even if it could have instead used the billions it has wasted in Russian weapons. The problem is that the government will do nothing about the source of that pollution. 

The Chávez regime has let uncontrolled urbanization grow around the Valencia Lake and around the water reservoirs everywhere. The Chávez regime has also continued the tradition of allowing companies - private and non private- pour their untreated waste into our rivers and lakes.

Valencia Lake, almost ten years ago: it was incredibly polluted. Now it is just much more so.

Buying foreign machines to clean up stuff at the end of the chain is definitely easier than implementing a plan for closing sources of pollution. Still: if that is the only thing to be done, it is completely unsustainable.

Our caudillo also approved spending over 100 million dollars in the purchase of 2000 vehicles for the military. That's 50 thousand dollars per vehicle. What are those vehicles for? Will the officers be able to take their families to the beach on them? Or at least to the hunting areas Venezuelan military have been able to enjoy since time immemorial? Will they feel more inclined to say "Chávez, presente, siempre presidente"?

Was wird in Venezuela geschehen?

Krebs - wir wissen aber nicht, was für eine Art

KREBS

Präsidentschaftswahlen sind für Oktober angesetzt. Es geht um alles...für die russischen Rüstungsmagnaten, für die Chávez-Bonzen, für den Chávezclan, für die Castro-Regierung, für die Nicaragua-Regierung und so denken auch mehrere Millionen Chávez-Fans, die Gläubigen. Chávez ist krank. Er hat Krebs. Er hatte lange Zeit gesagt, der Krebs sei besiegt worden. Später musste er gestehen, dass ein Tumor wieder erschienen ist. Er musste sich - auf Kuba, selbstverständlich - operieren lassen. Nun unterzieht er sich einer Radiotherapie und das nicht zum ersten Mal. Die Chávez-Bonzen sind nervös, denn sie wissen, dass nur der Führer Chávez - el comandante-presidente, wie sie sagen - die Wahlen gewinnen kann. Ob Chávez eine ernste Krebsart hat oder nicht wissen wir nicht. Wir stellen Hypothesen. Wie Rory Carroll schrieb, sind viele Venezolaner zu Amateuronkologen mutiert.

SCHON WIEDER EIN LANDESVERRÄTER UND DER NACKTE KÖNIG

Der Gouverneur des Ost-Llanos-Bundesstaates Monagas, Briceño, hatte die Reaktion der Regierung auf die Ölpest in seiner Region kritisiert. Die Kritik galt vorwiegend den Militär und ehemaligen Putschist Diosdado Cabello, der zur Zeit Vorsitzender der Nationalversammlung und einer der mächtigsten PSUV-Männer ist, auch wenn er von der Bevölkerung nicht besonders gemocht ist. Dieser liess sich das nicht gefallen und siehe: Briceño wurde von der Sozialistische Einheitspartei Venezuelas ausgeschlossen. Der Gouverneur wollte nicht, dass mit Erdöl verseuchtes Wasser aus einem Damm an die Bevölkerung seiner Region verteilt wurde. Chávez sagte, der Gouverneur sei ein Verräter und das Wasser trinkbar. Er sagte auch, dass der Obergerichtshof - eine Marionette des Caudillos - die Opposition untersuchen musste, weil sie öffentlich sagte, das Wasser nicht nur Monagas, sondern auch anderer Regionen wie Carabobo und Aragua sei stark unrein. Ein Gericht hat prompt reagiert und gesagt, dass es verboten ist, ohne technische Studie zu behaupten, dass das Wasser verseucht ist. Die Staatsanwältin sagte auch das. Das Problem ist, dass es schon seit langem Berichte gibt - u.a. von unseren Universitäten - über die Verseuchung des Wassers in vielen Regionen (siehe zB hier). Diese Verseuchung ist entstanden, weil 1) die Staatsbehörden immer inkompetenter sind, 2) sie in bestimmten Fällen wie im Bundesstaat Carabobo Umleitungen verseuchter Gewässer in Trinkwasserreservoir vorgenommen haben, 3) sie die Entstehung zahlreicher Slums in der Nähe der Wasserspeicher zugelassen haben - sie konnten den unzähligen Obdachlosen der 1999-Katastrophe keine Wohnungen anbieten, sie haben keine Ahnung von Wohnungsbau.

Man braucht nur den Wasserhahn in Valencia oder Maracay zu drehen, um feststellen zu können, dass das Wasser verseucht ist: es hat eine gelbliche Färbung und es stinkt sehr stark. Und dennoch kann man in Twitter Kommentare unzähliger Chávez-Anhänger lesen, die behaupten, alles sei Lug und Trug der Landesverräter. Diese Chávez-Anhänger sind meistens nicht in Valencia oder Maracay, die schweigen nun.

Wie lange kann der König splitternackt herumspazieren?

Solange die Petrodollars reichen, wird keiner es gestehen wollen

In Venezuela solange es Petrodollars für die Militärs und genügend chinesische Kühlschränke und kleine Pseudojobs für Tausende Menschen zu verteilen gibt...in Venezuela solange der Wahlrat ganz klar unter der Kontrolle der Nationalregierung ist. Auch wenn Unzählige die Wahrheit sagen würden, wird die Hälfte der Bevölkerung nicht agieren. Das haben wir schon oft in der Geschichte gesehen.

Chávez ist krank...wie krank er ist: das wissen wir nicht. Er wird zumindest eine Weile nicht viel rumreisen können. Trotztdem wird er Staatsmittel in vollen Zügen benutzen, um seine Botschaften zu übermitteln. Für die deutschen Leser einige Beispiele der Chávez-Aussagen in den letzten Tagen:

Über den Gouverneur Briceño sagte Chávez schon wieder

"das Volk braucht keine Verräter, sondern Patrioten" (Argumente? Nein, danke)

Über eine von der Regierung organisierte Kundgebung:

"dies ist die beste Antwort, das Volk auf der Strasse, die Revolution auf der Strasse, die Volksmacht auf der Strasse, überall...die Verräter sollten lieben weggehen, diese fünfte Kolonne sollte lieber weggehen, wir brauchen sie nicht...sie werden am 7.10 gegen uns nicht können, 10 Millionen Stimmen werden wir den Schwächlingen (escuálidos) und Minderwertigen (majunches) durch die Kehle verschlucken lassen".

MEINE GLASKUGEL

Ich bin kein Zauberer. Dennoch wage ich swieder, einige Prognosen hier zur Verfügung zu stellen.

• April: Die Nationalregierung wird alles unternehmen, um neue Wähler in Regionen wie Yaracuy, Trujillo, Sucre und Portuguesa einschreiben zu lassen, während sie die Registrierungszeiten für junge Leute in Valencia und in anderen von der Opposition dominierten Regionen weiter beschränken will.
• Mai: Angriffe gegen Oppositionskundgebungen in den sekundären Städten werden zunehmen.
• Juni: Der Obergerichtshof wird gegen die Opposition irgendetwas unternehmen. Wieso? Was? Egal, die Chávez-Richter werden immer ein- und auffälliger werden und seltsamere Ausreden erfinden, um Oppositionspolitiker zu neutralisieren. Sie werden wohl nicht wagen, Capriles einfach so aus dem Rennen auszuschliessen. Das ginge zu weit.
• Juli: Chávez wird dann anfangen müssen, die Provinzen zu besuchen. Wenn das Ende Juli nicht geschieht, werden Menschen - auch Chávez-Anhänger- Fragen über seine Überlebenschangen stellen.
• August: Dann wird die Nationalregierung massal chinesische Wagen unter Marktpreis verkaufen - Waren, die durch Darlehen für langfristige, für Venezuela ungünstige Erdölabkommen mit China  erworben wurden. Die Regierung wird zunehmend einige dieser Waren einfach schenken.
• September: Die Chávezjournalisten werden einige Skandale über die Opposition entdeckt haben.

Emails leaked, Syria, Venezuela and violence

Taken in Venezuela. "Breaking the Block, Venezuela must be respected", with Chávez and Assad. Below: terrorist Hassan Nasrallah

The Guardian has got a bunch of Assad emails. There is quite impressive stuff there...and as I thought, Iran is advising Assad not to blame Al Qaeda because then it can't blame the US then...this is particularly funny if you follow up on Twitter US Chávez sycophant Eva Golinger. This woman has had to express different versions and conflicting opinions of a lot of things about Venezuela, Chávez's health and reasons for the mess in Syria or elsewhere in the last 12 months.

Meanwhile, Hugo Chávez's brother is talking in rallies that the PSUV members will lose their lives if necessary. Diosdado Cabello, one of the most notorious Boligarch honchos and a little bit less fanatic about his own life, even if equally violent, said during the same rally "between dying or overcoming, the PSUV members shall overcome".

Asisus asinum fricat, as usual.

Purges in Venezuela: it starts all over again

Today the Chávez party decided to expel Briceño, the governor of Monagas, a state in the Eastern Llanos with an important lot of oil fields. Briceño is one of the many PSUV honchos who belonged before to the traditional parties. When military caudillo Chávez came to power, he decided to become a "revolutionary" and talk evil about those traditional politicians who had kept Monagas in misery - never mind he was a mayor back then.

The PSUV decided to expel Briceño now because he dared to criticise how the state oil company was dealing with the environmental catastrophe in the Guarapiche River. Briceño was particularly angry at PSUV authorities giving the go-ahead to distribute water from a dam that is still highly contaminated. He rejected specially role Diosdado Cabello played in all that. Cabello, who is now the president of the National Assembly and one of the most powerful men within the military caste, also comes from Monagas and he and his people at the PSUV probably wanted to get rid of Briceño for the next state elections.

I hope the alternative parties just keep a safe distance from all this mess. Briceño is no saint.

Tod in Caracas

Die NGO Observatorio Metropolitano  de Seguridad Ciudadana de Caracas hat einen neuen Bericht über Verbrechen in Venezuela veröffentlicht. Unter den Quellen zählt man die UNODC und öffentliche Berichte. Die Zahlen sind für uns Venezolaner nicht überraschend, sie sind aber schrecklich. 

Bullen zum Schmuck

Im Jahr 2011 wurden ungefähr 19000 Menschen umgebracht, 67 Morde pro 100 000 Einwohner. Damit ist Venezuela das gefährlichste Land Südamerikas und das vierte in Lateinamerika, nach Honduras, El Salvador und Jamaica. Der Durschnittsermordete war zwischen 19 und 25 Jahre alt.

530 Menschen wurden im letzten Jahr im Gefängnis getötet.

Was wird die Militärregierung tun? Mehr Feiertage für die Arbeiter einführen. Öl sei dank.

Wikileaks and Venezuela yet again: Pudreval

Wikileaks has published some non-news about what the private "intelligence" company has found on the Pudreval case. Read here. It is nothing bloggers hadn't reported before, but then it is there for you to read in a condensed form.

Mujeres de América Latina

Laura Chinchilla, presidente de Costa Rica

El País published an interesting article about the position of women in Latin America...read it, if you speak Cervantes' language.

Mujeres warao ofreciendo su cestrería

Salaries in Venezuela of Gómez (1)

Here you have the yearly salaries of some jobs in Venezuela of 1920. Back then dictator Juan Vicente Gómez ruled, a military who promoted the Bolívar cult half as madly as military Bolívar.

Salaries in 1920. Click to enlarge

The German author back then was shocked at the huge differences in salaries between ministers and generals and judges and all the rest.

The data comes from Otto Bürger's Venezuela, ein Führer durch das Land (Führer went it hadn't the meaning it has today, the book being published in 1922)

Dog bites man, Transparency International reports on Venezuela

We have a new report from Transparency International about corruption in the world and Venezuela turns out to be once more one of the most corrupt nations on Earth. 

It really stands out. From bottom to Venezuela, you can read in the list:  Somalia, North Korea, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Sudan, Iraq, Haiti and Venezuela. 172 countries are less corrupt than Chávez's Venezuela. My country's corruption index has only gone from bad to worse year after year.

Even Congo is a model of transparency and honesty compared to Venezuela. Colombia and  Mexico? Almost Swedish if put next to the Bolivarian Republic.

Amazing Venezuela and the sausages: who sues whom?

Today a lorry loaded with sausages from the government-sponsored PDVAL programme tipped over on the motorway. As usual, people from the area started to plunder. Then they discovered the product had expired already. PDVAL has been constantly mired in scandal about expiration dates.

I first wondered if the plunderers will try to sue the government...or the government will try to sue the plunderers. I concluded neither will do much in this case: they need each other.

More Anti-Semitism from Chávez's 'revolutionaries'

Go to twitter and type in "sionismo" plus some key word related to Chávez's 

followers and you will get some anti-Semitic gibberish because of Capriles' candidacy.

For instance:

Eduardo Samán ‏ @SamanEdu

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@BANEGAS74 Saludos hermano, a trabajar para derrotar el sionismo disfrazado de oposición.

"Regards, brother, let's work to win over the Zionism dressed up as opposition"

Samán is a former minister who had some trouble with other Chávez honchos and was forced to go low profile, but who is still as loyal to the caudillo as it gets.

Samán calls himself a "radical" communist, even if he doesn't have anything against Chávez selling PDVSA shares to the Chinese...you know, China is "communist", so those are communist shares...what a banana republic we have!

Hospitals in Venezuela

While Venezuela's caudillo is being treated in Cuba by doctors flown from different countries, patients at the CHET, the only general hospital in my city of 1.2 million people, have been since Sunday without running water. Their relatives have to take water bottle to the hospital to wash them. Of course, they also have to bring most of the medicine and medical material used on their loved ones, including syringes and gloves. That public hospital was built over 40 years ago. I was born there. Chávez's foreign enablers long wrote about the great advances in public health care in Venezuela - all rubbish.

In spite of Venezuela still going through the longest oil boom ever - thanks to China, India and the Peak Oil - the government hasn't built a single new general hospital in Valencia. There are a few tiny health centres plus a new maternity hospital built by the regional (non-Chavista) government. Most of the few hospitals built in the last 13 years are half empty, Potemkin villages in the "socialist revolution". If this is with a barrel of oil well over 100 dollars, I can't imagine what it would be if the military go on ruling the country for a few years more.

The oncology department of that hospital has been closed for some time as well.

Meanwhile, Russian, Chinese and Brazilian doctors treat the caudillo who tweets all the time the hash #viviremosyvenceremos, "we will live and win". The chuzpah.

Lethal patterns

Once more, here you have the pattern of murder in the central state of Carabobo. Carabobo is a densely populated state, but crime rates are similar in many other regions.

One thing to remark: total numbers for the state seems to be stabilizing - albeit at a very high level, several times what they were in 1998-. The pattern is not the same everywhere, though. The municipality of Juan José Mora, for instance, a poor area on the coast where the huge oil refinery complex of El Palito is located, has kept shedding more blood. The lower middle-class municipality of San Diego, though, - where the opposition leader Enzo Scarano is major, is very safe.

Juan José Mora municipality murder numbers

San Diego municipality murder numbers

Ps. there is missing data at municipality level for April 2011.