Blogging the democratic revolution
Can you stand a story on the Venezuelan national budget? I promise you, it’s got gamy details of swindling, pocket-lining, waste, graft and lying. And given that it’s the main vehicle for the spread of the chavista ‘revolution’ it has relevance to the mission of this blog. It’s what Venezuela’s real revolution is up against. Venezuelan writer Francisco Toro has a short, nicely written essay here or if you prefer, here.
Daniel has an important post about the growing erraticness of dictator Hugo Chavez’s relationship with the Venezuelan military. Apparently, they can’t stand him. Hugo Chavez is too into Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, for the Venezuelan military’s liking, and ignores the history that Venezuela’s military for years fought off this Monster at Our Door, and at Venezuela’s door, too. Castro has been nothing but trouble over the decades for Venezuela and Venezuela’s military professionals, who have expended blood and treasure to beat Castro off, and they have no intention of forgetting. This could be quite explosive. Could Venezuela’s revolution begin in…
Not many revolutionaries make the transition from old 1960s leftwing Castro worshippers into New Style revolutionary in the Age of Orange, Cedar, Rose, Daffodil, and Velvet Revolutions, which we live in today. Daniel Duquenal has a fascinating portrait of Teodoro Petkoff, a Bulgarian-Venezuelan leftist who did a stretch as a guerrilla in the mountains long ago, came down, and then went on to much better things. He’s now a leading news editor in Venezuela that pointedly opposes thugs and tyrants. Petkoff launched a new book called ‘Dos Izquieridas’ about the democratic and the non-democratic left. He is a formidable opponent…
Colombia’s president Alvaro Uribe faces mounting opposition from what it seems to be a united front of the liberal party and other more preoccupying factors. A coalition of former presidents -Cesar Gaviria, Ernesto Samper and Andres Pastrana- seems to have found common ground, leaving behing past rivalries, to attack the policies and performance of former party member Alvaro Uribe. Recent appointments aside, that of Cesar Gaviria as party leader, it remains to be seen whether or not they will be able to agglutinate enough votes against the current president, whose prospects of getting re-elected look promising -should the Constitutional Court…
They have started. Venezuela’s oil workers in the eastern part of the country have launched bitter protests against corruption and lost jobs. Their actions have shut down the refineries and the state oil company doesn’t sound as though it is in good shape. As oil hits $60 a barrel, there may be a revolution on. The angry oil workers did stop production. Read it here.
Hugo Chavez has threatened to cut off oil to Paraguay, just as the Austral winter begins. This is a new major incident of Paraguay abuse from the Venezuelan dictator. His gall and malice know no bounds. He made the threat as a parting shot against the small helpless South American nation at a Mercosur conference in Paraguay itself, always on his best-guest behavior, where he appeared in a bid to gain full Mercosur membership. This isn’t the first time Venezuela has kicked Paraguay around. A former Paraguayan president’s daughter was kidnapped and murdered by Paraguayan thugs who were being directed…
Article 72 of Hugo Chavez’s custom made constitution reads “All magistrates and other offices filled by popular vote are subject to revocation.” With such revolutionary prevision as background let me expand into the most notorious case of political prosecution in today’s Venezuela. Since there are no precedents of a systematic attempt at silencing and imprisoning members of a civil group in the country’s history one should start by giving a rough chronological account of events. Hugo Chavez won the presidency of Venezuela in 1.998, his little plan to take power by force, via coup d’etat in 1.992, turned out to…
An unbelievable 1150 people have been murdered in cold blood by police in just one Venezuelan state. The death squads, which have never before been seen in Venezuela until Hugo Chavez came along, are now spiraling out of control as lawlessness reigns. Activists are taking it to the National Assembly. Alek Boyd has the news here and here.
No, not in the Middle East. In Venezuela. A first. A crusading journalist who asked too many questions about aluminum mining, the same damn industry the Russian mafia hits journalists for. By terrorists. With never-before-seen-in-Venezuela methods. To terrify. Alek Boyd now has an update here. It turns out they didn’t completely chop his head off, but they came close and the guy died.
Boli-Nica has a couple of amazing posts on the growing evidence against Hugo Chavez in the bankrolling of the blockades against Bolivia’s cities this month, the purpose of which was to starve the citizens into submission until they agreed to nationalize Bolivia’s energy resources. Seriously good blogging. Read it here and here.
City government machines are usually filthy even in the most ideal of first-world political conditions, which makes them an ideal operating environment for Venezuela’s dictator, Hugo Chavez. That may be why he’s growing active there. Alek Boyd recently questioned the brazen use of London municipal resources for Chavez’s government propaganda effort and got an amazing response from London officials, disingenuously wondering what the problem was. Read Alek’s account of Chavez’s London onslaught here.
Mass resignations are following Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez’s decision to honor Cuban dictator Fidel Castro at Venezuela’s Independence – that’s right, Independence – Day, parade. Venezuelan troops seem to think Castro’s hand makes a mockery of independence. After all, he is a tyrant. It’s too much for the troops. Read it here.
Military troops threatening to seize western oil fields. Read it here. UPDATE: Miguel has a superb explanation of what’s really going on in this case. He also notes some of the implications. Read it here. UPDATE: Daniel has a first-rate analysis of further trouble in another quarter of the military, the rebellion against Chavez’s honoring Fidel Castro, whose troops are calling the shots in parts of Venezuela’s military. Read it here.
Among the Chavistas and their shills, there are always strange dynamics. Alek Boyd notes that apparently one of the worst pro-dictator shills for the Venezuelan regime in the U.K. is openly fighting with his Chavista masters in Caracas. The issue of course is money, and comically enough, the shill’s paymaster paid him in worthless, unconvertible bolivares instead of cold hard dollars, as agreed upon, and not only that, took the dollars and went on vacation. The angry shill broadcasted his getting stiffed to all the world. So much for revolutionary purity. Anyway, if you like telenovela stuff of communist-on-communist fallout…
Miguel has translated a bitter but very funny essay that appeared in the Caracas press about all the hardships Venezuelen dictator Hugo Chavez must go through to be the revolutionary leader he is. Be sure to get to the part about his nostalgia for ketchup on pasta. Gross! Read the whole thing here.
Alek Boyd has Mary Anastasia O’Grady’s superb WSJ essay on Venezuela’s courageous freedom fighter Maria Corina Machado, who she is, and what she is up against in dictator Hugo Chavez’s nightmare regime. Read it here.
In deepest Venezuela, blogger Daniel Duquenal reports that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro is about to make a conqueror’s triumphant return to Caracas. Although the Cuban dictator’s faithful houseboy, Hugo Chavez, has flown to Cuba to worship at the Beast’s feet every weekend or so, Castro’s last trip to Venezuela was three years ago. Now, Daniel reports that Castro’s return to Caracas will have a very different feel. Castro had stayed out of Caracas for years because he was so detested in Venezuela he was a liability for Chavez. It was that bad. Now, Chavez doesn’t care what Venezuelans think. In…
A chilling, disturbing account of a society splitting apart as terror muzzles the media. Miguel has the proof, it’s only available on blogs now, read it here.
London 08.06.05 ö I come from a country where people spend time discussing the relevance and implications of a photo op. Since enough water has passed under the bridge I’ll take the liberty to give my humble opinion vis-a-vis Maria Corina Machado’s encounter with George W. Bush. There is a saying back home that goes “cachicamo trabaja p’a lapa” and in this particular instance, without wanting to substract merits to Maria Corina or Sumate, I feel that such is the case. The country was in awe, outraged by the rampant corruption going on at PDVSA. For the first time the…
Where is dictator Hugo Chavez taking Venezuela? Straight to hell. Two powerful essays by Gustavo Coronel and Carlos Alberto Montaner, about the deteriorating situation, one that will cost Venezuelans three generations of progress, are out with the same conclusions about the Chavez vortex of destruction. This is the reality. Don’t miss either of them, this is the work of both writers at their finest. Read them here and here. Hat tip: Real Clear Politics, Venezuela Today.
Miguel in Caracas, Venezuela has a fantastic picture show, comparing and contrasting the people George Bush associates with, and the people dictator Hugo Chavez associates with. Take a good look and draw your own conclusions about who’s the democrat, who’s the authentic revolutionary. Go see the amazing photos here.
George Bush has a way of surprising dictators. He gets in their faces when they least expect it. He’s bold. He says what he means and means what he says. Nice to see a real man. Today he symbolically snapped a great wet towel in the face of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. Bush openly met with Venezuelan dissidents, like Babe Of Politics, Maria Corina Machado, giving the NGO leaders from Sumate the full White House tour and VIP treatment, making sure there were lots of cameras around to see the intention. Bush doesn’t do nuance. He likes people who like…
Has Hugo Chavez had a heart attack? Been done in by an ex-wife? Gotten an offer he can’t refuse from a fed-up military? He’s disappeared, the descamisados are gathering below his balcony, the streets are shut down, and his spokesmen say all is normal. His minions say he will come to the balcony to address the adoring masses soon. Something’s going on. Could this be the end? Here is my Babalu summary here.
When I lived in Oxford, I remember how tough the U.K. courts were in granting asylum to Romanians fleeing Ceaucescu’s communist hellhole, perhaps fearing a flood of people. They gave almost no one a break. This being England, things don’t change that much, and I doubt U.K. courts are any less tough. So it tells you something when a British court acknowleged the intolerable reality of Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela and granted a young Venezuelan couple asylum. Alek Boyd’s gotten hold of some court documents that show the ordeal of the dissidents, and with the court’s note that Venezuela has assumed…