Carter Center and Chávez's latest tricks

I asked the Carter Centre to answer about the trick with the ballot, among other things. I haven't got an answer yet but I will keep you posted.

The murder of Venezuelan citizens and the Chávez regime

Every week, several hundred Venezuelans get murdered. Venezuela's murder rate has gone from 19 x 100 000 inhabitants in 1998 to over 65 x 100 000 today. The minister of Interior doesn't give a press conference every time two people get murdered. But yesterday the ones who were murdered were clearly killed when Chávez employees shot them during a political rally. The Chávez government  decided to minimize the incident at all costs. You can hear in the clip how minister El Aissami talks to the national Chávez TV for several minutes to say basically as little as possible and pretend the government cares: he said two people died in some incident between Barina and Barinitas and that the police was investigating.

Some people say this is one of the killers 

Why doesn't he do the same thing for the 17000 to 19000 other people who get murdered in Venezuela every year? Because he only did this as preventive measure. The government does not want to mention those who got murdered were peaceful opposition people and those who murdered them were Chávez employees.

Chávez followers murder 2 opposition politicians | Chávez-Anhänger bringen Oppositionellen um

During a political rally in Barinas state, Chávez officials blocked the road through which opposition people were going to pass. Two of the opposition leaders got out of their vehicles and asked the Chávez people - state employees - to let them through. The others shot them.

The current national government will probably say there was a provocation.

In Barinas, Gewalt gegen Demokraten

Während eines politischen Aktion im Bundesstaat Barinas sperrten Chávez-Beamte die Strasse, durch die die Oppositionellen passieren wollten. Zwei der Oppositionellen stiegen aus ihren Autos ab und forderten die Chávez-Anhänger auf, sie fahren zu lassen. Die anderen schossen sie tot.

Die gegenwärtige Nationalregierung wird wahrscheinlich sagen, dass es eine Provokation gab.

How is Chávez's military government using state resources for the elections?

How is the Chávez goverment using state money to try to get re-elected? In a thousand ways or more. But one I am hearing about now - and not for the first time - is by using PDVSA vehicles for mobilizing their voters for election time.

If you happen to be in Venezuela right now, you can go to the area I show below. There, you will see one of the main petrol distribution centres in Carabobo state. And there you will see right now several hundred vehicles waiting to be distributed across the region so that state employees can drive them around to get their (multiple?) voters to vote for the caudillo.

They did that already in 2010. Now the vehicles - paid with our money - are waiting there again.


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Chávez, Putin's puppet, and other stories

Chávez, Russia's puppet: a bad joke?

The president of the oil company Rofnet's, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and former KGB agent Igor Sechin, gave Venezuela's military strongman Hugo Chávez a present from former KGB agent and current president of Russia, Vladimir Putin. The present is a puppet. What else did you expect?

Chávez must be very excited

Sechin said he came for a new project to building houses at the Fuerte Tiuna - it seems like that little area is the source for a thousand projects for foreigners to build houses in the country - and, last but not least, to invest in the Carabobo 2 oil fields. He also mentioned Russians could invest 20 billion dollars for 40 years cooperation in Junin 6. Right.

Rotten Food for Dollars

Meanwhile, an opposition deputy from central Carabobo, Neidy Rosal, reports there are 179 thousand tons of grain in 30 ships waiting to be disembarked in the haven of Puerto Cabello. A large part of that load will become rotten...and a lot of people involved in importing will get huge amounts of subsidized dollars for that cargo...which will allow them to have huge profits for stale food Venezuelans won't eat. This is still the Pudreval affair that goes on and on in Venezuela but it has become just recurrent news at a local newspaper. I am still not sure how much of the whole thing (the port's collapse, the rotten cargo) has to do with sheer incompetence from the port's functionaries and how much utter corruption from different groups.

Fatherland or electricity

Finally, the caudillo said in one of his latest speeches that what is at stake in Venezuela now is not whether we will keep having the power failures that plague the country in the last years or not...what is at stake is "the Fatherland". You bet.

Venezuela and the military caste (II)

Venezuela, still under the rule of the military caste

You know Venezuela is far, far away from being a democracy when you have to see that the military caste plays such a role in the election process: today the guys with the boots and the guns declared in a press conference that the different political players had told them they would respect the army and accept the results that the National Electoral Council announces.

In Venezuela election day looks like this: every voting centre has armed soldiers who regulate how many people can enter at what time to cast their votes.

Does the British or the German army have to do this kind of thing? No.

Still, for interesting developments, look at what Francisco announces here and Miguel here.

Holy cachapa! This was Venezuela in 1982-83!

If you speak Spanish and you know Venezuela you will recognise a few or all of the names.
Oh, dear!