Jorge Rodriguez, the chairman of Venezuela’s supposedly independent election agency, the CNE, has said he’d step down. Rodriguez is one hell of a shameless chavista, the man who brought us Venezuela’s empty elections I witnessed on Dec. 4 last year. He reduced confidence to such a low that virtually no one wanted to vote in them anymore. He added insult to injury by continuously repeating that Venezuela’s elections are all free and fair. In short, the guy is even more fraudulent than the elections he certifies. But they certainly do reflect on his leadership.

Today, the net result of his ‘stewardship’ in what is supposed to be an independent electoral system is that Venezuelans have no confidence in elections. It’s pretty sad. Venezuelans fear that their votes are recorded (they certainly were earlier!), they expect retribution if they vote the wrong way, they see that the system is gerrymandered (in a system called ‘morochas‘) in favor of chavistadom, and they have no faith in the integrity of tally.

They are unlikely ever to participate in another election unless every last chavista is out of power and can never hurt them again. That’s the Rodriguez legacy. He is one of the most hated men in Venezuela.

What does his exit mean? Daniel at Venezuela News and Views is very skeptical that it means anything, except perhaps the appearance of confidence-building measures, something that the unimpressed international observers of Dec. 4 said Venezuela had better get cracking on. Daniel’s got a good and acidly witty post up, expressing his disdain for this phony gesture. Some of his posters think he may have a bigger job among chavistadom already lined up, because guys like him don’t go gently. Check out his thinking — and a photo of the fool — by clicking this link here.

UPDATE: Alek Boyd has some additional thoughts here.