Venezuela - Land des Unglaublichen

Diosdado Cabello, ehemaliger Putschist und gegenwärtiger Vorsitzender der Nationalversammlung Venezuelas, twitterte folgendes:

"Que raro el capo político de la mafia amarilla ya salió a defender a #JJRendonMalNacido, claro esa mafia es quien contrata al vendepatria"

Meine Übersetzung:

"Seltsam: der politische Capo der gelben Mafia verteidigt schon jetzt #JJRendonFehlgeburt klar, diese Mafia heurt den Vaterlandsverräter"

 Ich erkläre das für die Deutschen.

Primero Justicia ist die wichtigste Oppositionspartei und ihre Farbe ist gelb. Cabello bezieht sich auf Henrique Capriles, den Leiter der Opposition und Gouverneur vom Bundesstaat Miranda. J. J. Rendón ist ein politischer Consultant, der zur Zeit in den USA lebt. Chavistas behaupten, er wäre für die "Stimme Chávez'' verantwortlich: vor zwei Tagen erschien im Netz ein Audio, wo jemand mit der Stimme Chávez' spricht. Ihr könnte auf Englisch die Geschichte lesen.

Diosdado zufolge hat die Partei Primero Justicia Rendón bezahlt, um Unruhe zu stiften. Rendón soll dann dieses Audio produziert haben.

So ist die Stimmung in Venezuela. Stellt Euch vor, Norbert Lammert würde so was in Twitter schreiben.

Darth Cabello in Russia

Boligarch supremo and head of the National Assembly Diosdado Cabello is flying to Russia on Monday.

According to Chávez's putative child Nicolás Maduro, Cabello is delivering Putin a letter of "congratulation from the Chavista soul" (sic). Don't ask me to interpret that, I haven't smoked today.

But apart from that, the former coup monger Cabello will meet Russian officials and try to talk about further military and intelligence cooperation.

Readers should remember Venezuela owns Russians over 4.4 billion dollars thanks to Chávez's last wish list of arms. Russians gave Chávez a loan that will allow us - or rather the Venezuelan military - to import some extra weapons in the coming years. Since 2004 Venezuela has spent some 11 billion dollars in Russian defence hardware. If you think Russians cared for Assad, consider this: Chavista Venezuela is a much  better client.

Chavistas need to tinker further with the election system. They need better SIGINT support to spy on the opposition. Will and can they get any help from Putin's boys?

The Maduro caravan across the world

"But we have Fatherland"

Notitarde tells us fascinating details about the Maduro trip from China to Venezuela and why Maduro really didn't show up in New York for the United Nations summit.

Maduro initially said he couldn't make it to the UN "due to an intensive agenda. He later his people had problems with visas. He also explained his life would have been in danger.

The US authorities asked for proof of the danger and explained they had given visas for over 200 people. 

Maduro, the president of a poor South American nation, was travelling with an entourage of over 120 persons to China, with intentions to visit New York. We can assume some of the visas were for the preparatory team that came directly from Venezuela to New York.

Maduro landed in Canada on his trip from China and had to wait over 5 hours in the airport because Canada didn't want to give them fuel as the  plane was Cuban. The costly presidential plane is not working any longer, so Maduro is using a Cuban one. PDVSA, the state oil company, sent two planes (2) to pick up Maduro and his team and take them to New York but Maduro had a tantrum and they returned to Venezuela instead.

Among the Maduro team there were

•  12 Cuban security agents and physicians
• 1 expert in explosives
• 1 expert in food security
• 1 epidemiologist
• Maduro's son and bodyguards with Maduro's grandchildren
• Maduro's wife, two of her female friends and the hairdresser
• a lot of people from the "Health Security"

The list had to be sent to United Nations and the US State Department.

United Nations had asked the Venezuelan group to limit the presidential caravan to 4 vehicles but the Venezuelans had already sent a preparatory security group with 8 vehicles and twice as many people as expected. The Maduro tour had hired two floors in the most expensive hostels in Beijing and New York for a total of over $800000. The total trip had a cost of 2.5 million dollars.

Rory Carroll talks about Venezuela

Here you have a nice presentation by journalist Rory Carroll about Venezuela under Chavismo.

Russians, weapons and Venezuela

Do you know anything about the Russian weapons Venezuela is buying now? Do you know anything about the military who were pushing for the purchase of those weapons since 2004?

I am writing something about that and any additional tips are welcome.

Less than a banana republic

You know a country has gone below banana republic status when you see the minister "for the Popular Power of Food", going to the main port to "supervise" the arrival of 6575 tonnes of food that will be distributed to be sold by the "private sector".

When are we going to import bananas from China?

That is what the minister and military honcho Felix Osorio, brother of former minister and coup monger Carlos Osorio, did yesterday on a visit to Puerto Cabello.

The regime tells us this is to guarantee food supply in the country. How come that is necessary in the year 14 of the so-called "revolution"?

Ein Venezolaner an die Deutschen

Liebe Deutsche,

Ich beneide Euch. Ich beneide Euch im positiven Sinne. Ich kenne viele der Probleme, mit denen Ihr Euch  zur Zeit befasst. Ich weiß, wie enttäuscht und besorgt Ihr zum Wahllokal geht. Ihr habt aber eine Demokratie. Die gegenwärtige Regierung ist nicht der Staat schlechthin: sie bilden kein einheitliches Wesen. Ihr habt Gewaltenteilung. Die öffentlichen Medien, Fernsehsender wie ZDF und ARD, bringen Regierung und Opposition gleichermaßen in die Bredouille.Es gibt eine echte Debatte.

Democracy Index Map

Heute geht Ihr wählen. Es gibt keine Militärs, die Eure Wahllokale bewachen. Ihr werdet mit Papier und Bleistift wählen und dennoch die Ergebnisse kurz nach 18:00 haben. Venezuela hat dem Carter Centrum zufolge "das beste Wahlsystem der Welt" und dennoch muss man bis zu den ersten Stunden des folgenden Tages warten, um die Ergebnisse zu haben. Und es werden dennoch jede Menge Unregelmäßigkeiten geben.

Heute Abend werdet Ihr einen Kompromiss finden müssen. Kein Schwein wird sehr glücklich mit den Ergebnissen sein, Schwein werdet Ihr aber sowieso haben. Ihr werdet ein demokratisches System beibehalten. Ihr werdet weiterhin ein Land haben, wo man über nachhaltige Entwicklung diskutiert. Und Ihr werdet ein Land haben, wo man eine Mordrate von 1.4 x 100 000 Menschen hat und nicht 70 x 100 000.

Ich beneide Euch.

The Revolution so many Northern "lefties" fell in love with

Venezuela has had terrible prisons since colonial times, as you will find out if you even read the comments of such people as Alexander von Humboldt. We already had several massacres in the times preceding Chávez.

Still, Venezuela has reached levels of decay unseen for probably a century.

Chávez came to power in February 1999.  The national murder rate back then was about 19 murders per 100 thousand inhabitants. By 2003, the murder rate was twice as high (now it's almost 70 murders x 100 000 inhabitants). The state security forces, more corrupt than ever, lost control of the inner part of prisons around 2003. Since then most prisons are internally under control of gangsters. The Guardia Nacional only keeps an eye on the access, if at all as in reality they can be influenced in more ways than you think from inside.

The latest massacre in Sabaneta prison a few days back led to a new transfer of prisoners to other jails. Every time a massacre happens, a new reshuffling takes place. A Venezuelan newspaper that still (still) is critical of the government, Notitarde, managed to describe a little bit the details of the new transfer and those details can give foreigners a little glimpse into what it all is really like.

It turns out that there were 300 children living with their jailed parents in Sabaneta. 200 of them were under 9 years old and they were living at least 5 months there without going to any school.

Sabaneta had a capacity for 700 persons but there were nearly 3700.

In Venezuelan prisons if you have the money or the clout you can have not just a TV and a washing machine, but you can have your mobile phones and most importantly, a gun or two or more. Your wife or girlfriend can live with you as well.

If you don't have the money or the clout you can get killed very easily. Over 500 prisoners were murdered there last year. And Iris Varela, the woman Chávez appointed as "Minister for the Popular Power of the Penitentiary System", says everything is the fault of the previous governments.

And I just think about all those "lefties" who defended this government for so long, even wrote books about it.

Nothing new in the Southern front

Here you can see the distribution of murders in August 2013 in Carabobo State. You can see the Valencia (in yellow) registered the highest amount of murders. That doesn't mean that's the municipality with the highest murder rate. Tocuyito (blueish to the West of Valencia) and Los Guayos (pink to the East) have a higher murder rate.

On the chart above you can see the total amount of murders per municipality since 2006. It seems the amount of murders has stabilized...but it has stabilized at a very high level. 

For comparison: last year the Comunidad Autónoma Valenciana in Spain registered 50 murders for its 5 million inhabitants. Carabobo, where Venezuelan Valencia is located, registered over 1500 murders for its 2.3 million citizens just from January to October of last year.

The murder rate has more than tripled since 1999.

On another topic: the government announced the Vergatario, Chávez's idea of a mobile, is going to be sold now for the equivalent of 389 dollars. The government will say that's a socialist price. As dollars are tightly controlled by the government, other mobiles will be even more expensive. A "socialist mobile" in Venezuela is much more expensive than a good mobile in the USA or Britain...and Venezuelans earn a fraction of what US Americans or Western Europeans earn.

The economy is absolutely running amok in Venezuela.

Ein neues Ermächtigungsgesetz gegen Venezuela

Nicolas Maduro, der Mann an der Macht in Venezuela, sagte jetzt, dass er nächste Woche ein neues Ermächtigungsgesetz beantragen wird. Die Nationalversammlung soll darüber entscheiden. Zur Zeit fehlt der Regierung nur eine Stimme, um die absolute Mehrheit zu bekommen und ein solches Gesetz einzuführen. Wahrscheinlich hat die Regierung aber die Stimme eines Oppositionellen gekauft oder ihn mit Bedrohungen in die Ecke geführt und wird nächste Woche die erwünschte Zahl von Stimmen erreichen. Oder auch nicht. Ich bin mal gespannt.

Die vorangegangene Nationale Versammlung, in der nur Regierungstreuen vertreten waren, hatte ganz am Ende ihrer Legislatur, Anfang 2010,  ein Gesetz verabschiedet, wonach Abgeordnete, die gegen ihre Partei stimmen, von der Nationalversammlung ausgeschlossen werden können und zwar definitiv. Damit wollte die Regierung verhindern, dass weitere Abgeordneten sie verlassen würden, wie schon mehrmals geschehen. So ein Gesetz war absolut gegen die venezolanische Verfassung - genauso wie in Deutschland -, wurde aber angenommen, weil die Vorsitzende des Obergerichts absolut regierungstreu war. Sie hatte selbst erklärt, die Gewaltenteilung schwäche den Staat und die Verfassung müsse darum revidiert werden. Die neue Vorsitzende ist nicht weniger pro-Regierung.

Der Caudillo Chávez hatte ein Ermächtigungsgesetz bekommen, um angeblich die notwendigen Massnahmen bei einer Überschwemmung zu treffen. Er benutzte das Gesetz aber für alles mögliche und zwar 18 Monate lang. Und das war nicht das erste Mal.

Maduro sagte, er bräuchte dieses neue Ermächtigungsgesetz, um gegen die Korruption zu kämpfen - das ist im Jahre 14 der angeblichen Revolution. Die Opposition ist dagegen. Maduro sagt aber, dass die Opposition korrupt ist. Dabei vergisst er, dass alle Angestellten der Nationalregierung unter seiner Kontrolle stehen und dass die Opposition nur über ein paar Lokalverwaltungen verfügen, die jedes Jahr weniger Kompetenzen haben.

Mit dem neuen Ermächtigungsgesetz wird Maduro mehr Macht und Geld sichern, u.a. um die Regionalwahlen von Dezember zu sichern.

Bei uns geht es sehr langsam aber sicher rückwärts.

Native Americans against Chinese in the Amazon

If you speak German, you have to read this article from Spiegel. If you don't, you have to at least get the gist of it by using some machine translation tool.

I'm busy, so I can't explain the whole thing right now. It's about illegal miners, the Chinese and CITIC, interests for gold and diamonds on one side and the native Americans and the environment on the other.

I will later come back and give some details. 

Happy birthday, Jacinto!

Today one of the most remarkable Venezuelan scientists, Jacinto Convit, celebrates his birthday. He is 100 years old. Convit received in 1987 a Prince of Asturias Award in the Scientific and Technical Research category. He is best known for his work on the treatment of leprosy.

Der Betrug setzt sich fort in Venezuela

Rafael Ramírez, Vorsitzender der staatlichen Erdölgesellschaft und einer der wichtigsten Bonzen der Republik, erklärt nun, dass das Unglück in der Raffinerie von Paraguana von 2012, wo 48 Menschen ums Leben kamen, die Folge von Sabotage war. Natürlich soll die Opposition - ihm zufolge - die Schuld daran tragen. Ob er endlich mal Beweise dafür liefern wird, steht immer noch in den Sternen. Viele Experten warnten schon lange, dass die Instandhaltung dieser Raffinerie miserabel war und dass die Leute, die jetzt da arbeiten, nicht sorgfältig genug sind.

Vor einigen Tagen sagte eine Abgeordnete der Regierungspartei, dass sie und andere Abgeordneten 1 Million Unterschriften sammeln werden, um eine richterliche Untersuchung zu den Todesursachen vom Caudillo Chávez einzuleiten. Sie, wie Nicolás Maduro und andere, denken immer noch, dass die Opposition zusammen mit den US-Amerikanern Chávez mit Krebs infiziert haben.

Venezolaner dürfen Dollars nur unter bestimmten Bedingungen kaufen. Jeder hat eine gewisse Quote Dollars/Euros, die er oder sie für Tourismus im Ausland jedes Jahr kaufen kann. Nicht jeder kann sie aber in Wirklichkeit benutzen: dafür braucht man eine Kreditkarte und eine gewisse Menge Geld auf dem Konto. Diejenigen, die nach Europa oder Asien fliegen wollen, können im Prinzip mehr Dollars kaufen. Alle Flüge bis zum Ende dieses Jahres zu den Orten, wofür man die höchste Quote Dollars bekommt, sind schon jetzt ausgebucht. Die meisten Flüge starten aber nur halb voll. Das heisst: viele Leute, die solche Flugtickets kaufen, wollen nicht wirklich reisen, sonder nur die vom Staat subventionierten Dollars bekommen und sie eventuell im Schwarzmarkt verkaufen. 

Solange wir eine solche Währungskontrolle haben, die  Korruption fördert, wird  kein Wandel in Venezuela stattfinden.

The State of Education in a Stateless Nation

My mother was a school teacher. My aunts as well. I attended a public school in a poor area of my region, paid by the State. I got free lunch, like all the other kids. That was 3 decades ago. Teachers didn't have much of a salary, but they could live from it. They could even raise a family. 

When Chávez came to power, his propaganda machine started to tell the world the "revolution" had made real free education possible. Sometimes they owned up public education existed before "but only on paper, there were many people who couldn't go because they didn't have scholarship". In reality, the situation has only deteriorated. Useful idiots supporting Chavismo abroad didn't think for a moment how come Chávez's parents were school teachers and his brothers went to university - for free. The only thing that happened in this Chavismo time is that the government, with over 8 times more petrodollars flowing in, started to give again more scholarships than what previous governments could give when they had the low oil price period of the nineties. Most of these "scholarships", though, are nothing but some money for people who couldn't find a job in an economy completely dependent on state-sponsored imports.

Notitarde describes a little bit the situation of teachers now. The article refers to my region, but it is the same everywhere else in Venezuela. The state of Miranda, managed at some limited levels by the opposition, is at a somewhat  better position, but that is about it.

70% of teachers at public schools now do not earn the minimum salary. That means they earn less than 2,702 Bolívares, or 302 euros a month at the official rate, less than 150 euros at the real rate. 

I went to a school like this....but teachers could raise a family with their salaries back then

Now think about this: Venezuela was in 2012  the main importer of weapons in the Americas. It imported more weapons than huge Brazil. Most of the money for those weapons came from FONDEN, the Fund for "Sustainable Development". The National Assembly does not have control over that money, it is the government's private fund, to use as the president sees fit. Most of the money went to Russia and some to China, but also some to Spain and other Western countries.

A lot of the teachers are not even permanent employees but live from one temporary contract to the next one, for years, which is against the law...but then the law is only for the "evil, capitalist private sector". The percentage of pupils in public schools has not increased since Chavismo came to power 14 years ago. This is what we have after the longest oil boom in our history.

If this is not perverse, I do not know what it is. Chavismo cannot even deliver what socialists or half-socialists or "socialists-in-the-making" provided in Cuba, in Vietnam, in the former Soviet Union. Extreme leftists always say when their favourite systems fail that these system were not the real thing. Even those systems that were not "the real thing", according to them, are miles apart from the mess Venezuela is in. Only the high oil prices keep Venezuela running.

Ps. Notitarde and El Carabobeño are some of the few remaining media outlets that can be critical of the regime. As Caracas Chronicles mentions here, they are under threat now.

The Magical World of the Venezuelan government

I tried to keep track of the president assassination conspiracies Chavismo was announcing over the years, but I knew I had got only a handful of them. Today Últimas Noticias produced a more complete overview about the whole conspiracy thing. You have to check it out here, it is pretty nice. One thing that becomes obvious: the regime announces more hypothetical assassination plots when its popularity drops. And we can see it is dropping very fast now.

You should also read Miguel's clever comments on the incredible incompetence of Venezuela's finance minister, Merentes. I think Miguel said it all.