Chatting with a childhood friend from
Americans deserve more credit. While racism is still a fact of American life, (and present everywhere), Americans primarily will base their votes on what the candidates say about the issues they care about like the economy, health care, the war, the effects of globalization on jobs, and education, rather than the candidates’ gender or color. By denigrating black voters and the working class, both Democratic candidates are off to a very poor start.
Enrique ter Horst
The November regional and local elections loom large, as they will determine President Chavez’ demise or provide him with hope for a political recovery. He appears, however, to have decided that keeping alive his radical project without forcing its implementation is essential to maintain a sense of direction for his fractured political movement and, naturally, to retain power, his main concern after his stunning defeat last December. However, as the organizational process of his PSUV is showing, his power base is now divided in groups that are difficult to reconcile, and new corruption scandals, skyrocketing inflation, the growing number of labor conflicts and sharply worsening public security conditions are rapidly eating away at what remains of his authority.
The regime has also been faced with the blow-up of two grave corruption cases. The first regards former Prosecutor General Isaias Rodriguez, accused by one of the prosecutors he had appointed to substantiate the case of the murder of his former colleague Danilo Anderson of forging documentation incriminating the indicted supposed intellectual authors, and which include in particular businessman Nelson Mezerhane, majority shareholder of opposition TV station Globovision. The Supreme Tribunal of Justice appeared to corroborate the charge when two days later it appointed Rodriguez as a co-judge, thus providing him with judicial immunity, a decision that most of the press believes was taken on direct instructions from Chavez. Rodriguez was Chavez’ first Vice President, and is an unconditional loyalist.
President Chavez declared that the cement industry is to be nationalized, supposedly to cut exports and ensure that the domestic market is well supplied. In fact exports have been negligible, and it can be safely assumed that the purpose is purely political. The government intends to compensate the owners for the fair value of their assets, which should be relatively easy with the local subsidiaries of Holcim and Lafarge, but might prove more cumbersome with CEMEX, the largest of the three, since a part of its shares are traded on the Caracas Stock Exchange. In a separate question PDVSA has earmarked US$ 3.5 billion for “settlement of outstanding legal issues”, i.e. compensation for the nationalization of ExxonMobil’s and Conoco’s
9 labor conflicts in fairly important enterprises have been festering, some for as long as 4 months, with little government effort to mediate in search for solutions. Labor conflicts have been used by the government to step in when investors have decided to close the company and buy the assets at bargain prices, nationalizing under the guise of a “social rescue plan”. Present conflicts include the local assembly operations of
No longer able to carry out his revolution and unwilling to govern for the common good in the framework of the Constitution, Chavez has become a prisoner of his dogmatism and his megalomania. His very demanding political clientele is deeply disappointed by its steeply deteriorating living conditions and by the failure of most of his social programs. As private investment has all but dried up, well-paid jobs are becoming rare and his dependence on the oil income more acute. Convinced that his loss of the December referendum has sealed his political fate, most Venezuelans have settled into waiting Chavez out, many firmly believing that the November elections will provide the fatal blow ensuring that the recall referendum in early 2010 will end his Presidency. At $ 100 dollar oil it could be a long agony, but most now realize that a coup would only breathe oxygen into a collapsing regime.
Enrique ter Horst is a lawyer and a former UN deputy high commissioner for human rights.
Summary on Venezuela 18
Enrique ter Horst
Caracas, 3 March 2008
The killing of Raul Reyes, the No. 2 of the FARC, on Ecuadorian soil by Colombian troops, characterized as a severe blow to the humanitarian exchange by the Foreign Minister of Venezuela (!), is being played up by Chavez in a potentially dangerous manner by ordering the deployment of 10 battalions to the border with Colombia and closing the Venezuelan embassy in Bogotá. Chavez had been informed by President Uribe at the last IberoAmerican Summit held in Santiago de Chile in late 2007 of the Colombian guerrilla camps in Venezuela tolerated by his government, and he quite conceivably has reason to fear that Colombian troops could cross the border in hot pursuit of FARC or ELN groups. This would, however, not at all be in line with the prudent attitude Uribe has consistently taken up to now with his politically weakened and volatile colleague. The attempt by Chavez to manipulate a group of governments to become a “Group of Friends” to defuse the heightened tensions he himself has so much contributed to create between Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia is but another way of trying to reestablish the political legitimacy of the FARC. Normally it would not stand a chance of success, but access to Venezuelan oil and oil reserves can produce strange bedfellows indeed.
Earlier in the week the release by the FARC of hostages Luis Eladio Perez, Gloria Polanco, Orlando Beltran and Jorge Gechem, all former Colombian parliamentarians, again shored up President Chavez image as a peacemaker, while simultaneously, here in Caracas, a government-sponsored violent group led by Lina Ron, and with the active participation of three government party deputies to the National Assembly, occupied the Archbishop’s Palace in the center of town. The same day other government sponsored groups staged a “vigil” at Globovision, the only remaining openly anti-government TV station, which is now again being subjected to government harassment and intimidation. Ms. Ron declared that the Catholic Church, Globovision and FEDECAMARAS, the private sector umbrella organization, have become “revolutionary objectives”. Chavez, supposedly, was not amused by the distraction all of this caused in the TV coverage of the hostages released the same day, publicly scolding chavista leader Ron for her lack of discipline.
The four freed hostages described the “concentration camp conditions” under which the FARC still keeps the over 700 hostages it still holds, and the critical state of Ingrid Betancourt, who is carried about in a hammock, too ill to walk with a recurrent case of Hepatitis B. President Sarkozy’s stated readiness to fetch Betancourt in the Colombian jungle can be interpreted as another small victory for Chavez in his quest to impose the FARC’s status of belligerence on President Uribe and force him to establish for the FARC a safe haven in Colombia to carry out the humanitarian exchange. The pressure on Uribe to do so is growing quickly, even if many, if not most, of the “canjeables”, the former guerrillas imprisoned by his government, are signing petitions not to be returned to their former masters.
A Metropolitan Police (PM) officer and former DISIP (political intelligence police) officer was blown to pieces by the C4 bomb he was activating in the office building of FEDECAMARAS only a few days after Interior Minister Rodriguez Chacin had stated that the PM, now under the jurisdiction of his Ministry, was to be turned into an “insurgent and subversive” force (see video at….). In an attempt to distance the regime from the attack, Rodriguez explained that while the dead officer had been close to the government at a certain stage, he had become part of a radical anarchist group not controlled by the government. However, a neighbor of the building did film some time before the explosion the arrival of six men on PM motorcycles.
President Chavez signed into law this week a new Law on the National Police, of unknown content and not yet published in the Official Gazette, it was enacted under the authority of the Enabling Law that lapses on 31 July. What is already clear is that the new police training shall be carried out in Nicaragua and Cuba, and the first 100 officers have already started their courses. Interestingly, the new ideological Law on Education is to be approved in the same manner, and private property is to be redefined in a reform of the Code of Commerce also to be promulgated via the Enabling Law. Elections for the new Board of Directors of the Caracas Lawyers Bar Association were annulled and a new Board appointed by the government-controlled Supreme Tribunal of Justice, and government-subservient Comptroller General Clodosvaldo Russian published a list of 400 public sector officials his institution has barred from participating in elections, most from the opposition, a sizable number of which with good chances of winning governorships or Mayoralties in the November election.
The National Electoral Council is obliged by law to publish the results of elections within 30 days of the vote. However, 90 days after the 2 December referendum the final results are still pending, the CNE President stating that she still is awaiting the votes cast abroad. The reader will recall that the first bulletin in the early hours of 3 December gave the NO a margin of victory of less than 1%, with an abstention of 44%. The second and up to now last bulletin recorded an abstention of 90%, with the number of annulled votes larger than the number of valid ones. Since then, based on available information, some NGO’s have calculated an abstention of only 37%, with most of the “new” votes favoring the NO, which would significantly increase the extent of Chavez’ defeat. The election of Governors and Mayors has now been fixed for 23 November. The CNE has been much less forthcoming this time on auditing the permanent electoral registry, and on allowing the participation of international observers.
The Central Bank increased interest rates on fixed term deposits from 11 to 14% and on credit cards from 28 to 32% in order to “strengthen the expansion of the national productive sector and create additional stimulus for savings”. How higher interest rates on consumption are to stimulate productive investment is a mystery, even if credit for agriculture was reduced from 15 to 14% and for industry from 26 to 19%. With inflation projected for this year at 20-25%, savings are also unlikely to increase as these are still negative interest rates.
The barrel of Venezuelan oil reached $ 92,33 last Friday, a historic record. The government-sponsored Fuerza Bolivariana de Trabajadores workers union has demanded an increase of at least 50% in salaries, and ENI, the Italian oil major, has signed with PDVSA a certification and production agreement for the Junin 5 block of the Orinoco heavy oil belt, estimated to have reserves of 33 billion barrels. ENI intends to produce 300.000 barrels per day after an investment of some 10 billion US dollars. The agreement was signed in the presence of Foreign Minister D’Alema, who offered to participate in the Group of Friends being promoted by President Chavez to further peace in Colombia.
Enrique ter Horst is a lawyer and a former UN deputy high commissioner for human rights
Socialism by Gucci
http://www.tu.tv/videos/carreno-tartamudea-con-la-pregunta
The video in the link above exposes the astounding hypocrisy of the Chavez regime. Fast forward to minute 4:25, where Venezuela's Interior Minister Pedro Carreno says:
"The only path to peace is justice. It says so in the Bible, and Commander President Chavez says it. The only path to justice is socialism. It's not capitalism, it's not the cannibalism that wants to be implemented - "
A reporter interrupts: "Isn't it contradictory for you to talk about capitalism when you're wearing a Louis Vuitton tie and Gucci shoes?"
Minister Carreno stammers. When he regains his composure, he answers: "I don't know...of course... it's not contradictory...I wish Venezuela produced all that so I could buy everything that is produced here and not have to import the 95% of the things we import..."
Venezuela may not produce most widgets, but it does produce ties and shoes. In fact, many of its Italian descendants make shoes that would rival any Gucci mass-produced item. But as the video demonstrates, the Chavez regime is comprised of individuals who yearn for the finest, while asking Venezuelans to accept the mediocre.
For kicks, I googled Louis Vuitton and Gucci in search of prices. A Louis Vuitton tie, on its website, retails for $180. Men's shoes retails for around $550.
According to Venezuela's National Statistics Institute, Venezuela's poverty index stood at 53 percent at the end of 2005, and its extreme poverty -- classified as households unable to cover the cost of the basic food basket -- at 25 percent. Crushed by inflation and food shortages, a poor household could really use the $550 which Carreno spent on his shoes.
I wonder, as always, where the money trail trails off...if they're buying designer ties, Chavistas are also buying designer homes, designer cars, designer boats - who buys for them and where? And if we were to calculate their sources of income - could they legally afford it all? How?
Pedro Carreno, when he was a lawmaker, warned Venezuelans that Direct TV was spying on them through "the little boxes on their TV sets." Suppressing a giggle, the Direct TV representative in Venezuela said that the lawmaker's accusation sounded like a Dick Tracy episode.
Only Dick Tracy could solve the mystery of how Chavistas get away with sporting Gucci while preaching Guevara.
Hat tip: William Klemme
Summary on Venezuela 12
Enrique ter Horst
11 June 2007,on travel in Europe
Charisma, money and an attempt to meticulously safeguard the formal trappings of democracy – a task that is fast becoming next to impossible – no longer seem to be enough to steer Venezuela towards a totalitarian society. By grossly underestimating the intelligence and democratic convictions of both his countrymen and the governments of Latin America, Chavez has managed in less than six months to squander the very considerable political capital he had accumulated over the last eight years. His dismal domestic record, characterized by insecurity, disinvestment, scarcity, inflation, and billions spent on buying arms and international allegiances is now, after his arbitrary decision to close RCTV, squarely blamed on him alone, not any longer on his ministers. His inability, after 8 years in power, to satisfy the huge expectations he had generated with the poor has led to the disillusionment of a very large part of his political base.
The government was surprised by the very large student demonstrations ignited by the RCTV shut-down, as was almost everybody else. Their motto is Libertad and they call for national reconciliation, announcing that their movement will remain active until RCTV renews its transmissions and the government cancels its plans to control the universities. A movement of peaceful resistance, tear gassing and pelleting the students only gave them global prominence. Chavez now treats them with silk gloves, but still accuses them of being manipulated by the CIA. They have rejected his offer to debate students from the government party. “It is with you, who decides everything in this country, that we want to discuss”, one of the student leaders replied, and another, with typically Venezuelan humor, described a large meeting planned at the university stadium in Caracas as “a get-together of some 40.000 CIA agents”. Vacations start at the end of July, but they will be back at the end of September, if not before, and they will not be alone. Chavez fears a velvet revolution, and he is right to do so.
With the exception of Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, and Nicaragua, all other governments in the region have unmistakably marked their distance from a government they now clearly perceive as irresponsible and dangerous. Increasingly discredited, probably irreversibly, and not yet in a position of sufficient strength to impose his radical political project without risking his hold on power, a number of analysts has come to the conclusion that Chavez has now engaged in a last, desperate attempt to retain power by bluffing friend and foe into believing that the implementation of his projected Socialism of the XXIst Century is not only inevitable, but will be carried out ruthlessly and at an even faster pace, before his inability to do so at all becomes evident.
In this regard, the reform of the Constitution, which had been postponed by Chavez until 2008, is now to be submitted to the National Assembly for discussion in the second half of this month of July. A 400-page blueprint leaked to the press confirms the intention to turn Venezuela into a centralized state with strong marxist overtones, in which governors and mayors would no longer be elected but appointed by the President, private property would be severely limited, mainly to personal use, and means of production - if in addition a law proposed by the deputies of the Communist Party is approved - effectively run by Management Committees made up of the workers. In parallel, the government has announced that the free exercise of liberal professions will be regulated in order to serve the revolution, and that it also intends to establish a national transportation company that will compete with the large private transportation system. Architects, engineers and doctors, as well as bus and truck owners and drivers have started to join the student and journalist marches.
Chavez’ continues to accumulate mistakes, the consequence of his impulsive nature and an often simplistic approach to the complexities of global power relations, but also of desperation in the face of failure, both domestically and internationally. Not only has he not delivered on the expectations for security and economic wellbeing he has generated among the poor, but he has underestimated the ability of his subordinates, such as the Minister of Defense, to effectively align their institutions with the content and pace of the radical changes he intends to impose on the country. L’intendence ne suit pas. Two extremely candid interviews given to the press by General Alberto Muller Rojas, until a week ago the Chief of the Presidential Office for Military Affairs and one of the main organizers of the new Unified Socialist Party, shed light on tensions within the regime.
The General, a self-described “socialist, but not a chavista”, had criticized that, following the US model, the Armed Forces were being kept as a small professional force with much fire power, when what was needed, according to him, was a popular army – el pueblo en armas - able to fight a long, drawn-out war with an invading US army. The General also confirmed that most officers were “not of the Left”, that the President was surrounded by a small coterie of subservient acolytes and had lost touch with reality, that he personally had not met with him since the beginning of the year, and topping off the interview by calling the President “immature”. Chavez often humiliates, even in public, those that are closest to him, and this might be another case of sour grapes, but the interviews clearly rocked the establishment. General Baduel, the Minister of Defense, and the commanders of the Army, Navy, Air Force and National Guard have been dismissed without explanation, to be substituted by ideologically correct officers. Baduel, a true professional, was one of Chavez closest friends and an ally of the first hour. He may be back sooner than Chavez thinks, and in a very different capacity.
Having forced PDVSA into total submission, Chavez established last month a Central Planning Commission, chaired by the Vice President and including the ministers of Planning, Energy, Labor, Finance, Agriculture and four others, giving it the mandate to “elaborate the socialist model”. The commission is an important further step in centralizing all power in the Presidency by putting the 204 formerly autonomous state institutes (legally attached to the ministries but with a large measure of autonomy in the design of policies and the execution of their budgets) firmly within the hierarchic pyramid that has Chavez at its top, all under the guise of the Socialism of the XXIst Century. Ranging from the immensely important Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana, the holding company of state enterprises in iron ore and bauxite mining, alumina and aluminum smelters, hydro-power generation and telecommunications south of the Orinoco, to the small National Film Library and the Maiquetia International Airport, exercising any measure of control over all of them will inevitably lead to a deepening of the much by Chavez decried bureaucratization. But then this is a dogmatic revolution run by political activists, not managers.
Withdrawing Venezuela from the Andean Community in a huff after the Peruvian and Colombian negotiations with the US showed promise of bilateral trade agreements was not a good idea, not even from Chavez’ own power perspective, as with the later Correa victory in Ecuador it would have given him a 3 to 2 majority. Now Chavez’ remark that the Brazilian senators were “parrots on the empire”, after they passed a resolution calling for the reversal of the closure of RCTV, has probably ensured that Brazil will not ratify the treaty incorporating Venezuela into Mercosur. Adding insult to injury, he stated in reply to a host of negative official and private sector statements in Brazil, that he was allowing three months for the admission process to be completed, after which he would withdraw Venezuela’s application. This has probably closed any possibility of further consideration of the question by the Brazilian senate, as bitter denunciations of “unacceptable deadlines” and “blackmail” arose in Brasilia and Sao Paolo, where the issue has now become one of principle. There are, naturally, also growing doubts in Brazil on the wisdom of admitting a government that has stated its intention to fundamentally change the organization it wants to join in order to transform it into a vehicle of its own radical, mainly anti US worldview.
Chavez has started to pay the political and diplomatic price for his radical project and outrageous behavior, and his capacity to learn and take corrective action appears to have suffered as absolute power has evidently impaired his judgment and almost legendary intuition. According to Hinterlaces, the only polling institute with longstanding focus groups in the poorest neighborhoods, almost two thirds of his political base sum up their view of Chavez with the statement “He is not a bad guy, but he’s crazy”. He is increasingly reacting in an arrogant and childish manner and did not, for example, attend the last Mercosur summit at the end of June in Paraguay (another senate that opposes Venezuela’s entry to Mercosur), and in which the agenda centered on energy cooperation, really providing him with an excellent opportunity to repair his self-inflicted damage.
Instead he flew off to Moscow and Minsk, now the main suppliers of the Armed Forces, to buy (officially) between five and nine submarines, including 4 of the sophisticated Amur class, but probably also more Sukhoi 30’s (the number of which is to be doubled to 56), as well as additional attack helicopters. But also in Moscow he got the could shoulder from President Putin, with whom he only had a short meeting and an invitation to the horse track. His request to address the Duma, put forward by the Communist Party, was unsurprisingly denied by the governing coalition parties after he publicly lamented the disappearance of the Soviet Union. The last leg of his trip was Teheran, where he can always count on President Ahmadinejad to receive him as “a brother” and where, as usual, he initialed some 15 cooperation agreements. However, his growing international isolation is becoming very visible, and the times when the President of France would receive him on a day’s notice are long gone.
Chavez’ haughty position on the admission into Mercosur, as well as his previous threat to withdraw from the OAS if it continued meddling in what he calls “internal and sovereign affairs”, also reflects his longstanding conviction that none of his neighbors, indeed the world, can do without Venezuela’s oil supplies and large reserves. In the long term he is certainly right, but at this time, with public finances out of control and having spent or otherwise compromised his own large pool of money, he might soon discover, if he has not already, that he cannot do without their investments in developing new oil production capacity, nor without their markets. Indeed, a study by Ramon Espinasa, formerly the head of PDVSA’s department for strategic planning and now with the World Bank, shows that as a result of falling production - a consequence of insufficient investment - and exploding internal consumption, Venezuela’s oil income is likely to be halved before the end of 2008. The International Energy Agency warned two days ago that almost all oil producing nations are facing very similar situations, and that prices are bound to increase dramatically in about five years. Lead times for new oil projects in the Orinoco heavy oil belt also run from 5 to 7 years, and not even if the massive investments to significantly increase production and income in a sustainable manner were made immediately could this downturn be reversed in time to satisfy the huge expectations he has generated with the poor.
The student movement, as Chavez himself explained at a press conference with foreign correspondents, has indeed ignited a long fuse that is catalyzing opposition sentiment into action. University authorities and the Catholic Church have unmistakably endorsed it in clear and urgent terms, and a “last chance” feeling is taking hold. Having lost his democratic credentials and with all these very black clouds on the horizon, why not use his present still very strong position and go for broke? Easier said than done, as it is very difficult to violently repress a peaceful movement demanding national reconciliation. Chavez must know that he no longer has the majority of his countrymen on his side, and that he cannot even count on the unswerving loyalty of those closest to him. Indeed, he would run a very high risk of losing power if he were to pursue a repressive course in order to force his Marxist project on the country. He also knows that returning to a truly democratic form of government is no longer in the cards, as he has become a prisoner of his own discourse. Damned if he does and probably also damned if he doesn’t, Chavez appears to have run out of options. The King is naked, and it seems that he will not be able to carry out his revolution. Not even on paper.
And on to real news... The most pressing issue with the exit of Conoco-Phillips and Exxon Mobil from Venezuela, according to IBD, is that "there's little chance the country will be able to match what those two companies could add to oil output and national development there."
Not surprising that the stocks of Conoco-Phillips and Exxon Mobil remained unfazed, while Standard and Poor's downgraded the country's outlook, and the value of Venezuela's sovereign bonds plummeted, as well as the value of its currency.
I disagree with IBD when it states in all this that "the loser will be Venezuela."
In a country where corruption and insider trading are a way of life, I'm sure that many "shorted" Venezuela, and a lot of money was made.
The losers are the poor who are waiting patiently for Chavez's promises to materialize. Food shortages and a 20% inflation rate can only batter them, as the country's wealthy survive and even benefit under the current conditions.
And the vultures didn't wait long to fly overhead... Bloomberg reports that "China Petrochemical Corp., the nation's second-largest oil producer, is in talks to drill in Venezuela, where ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil Corp. pulled out after President Hugo Chavez seized their assets."
Related news:
AP reports that "Petro-Canada has decided to pull out of Venezuela and has reached an agreement with the state oil company on compensation for its oil investments, the Venezuelan government said."
Dow Jones reports that "ConocoPhillips (COP) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) likely will sue after abandoning their Orinoco oil projects under pressure from Venezuela, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Wednesday."
Chavez's Anaconda Embrace
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Posted Wednesday, June 27, 2007 4:30 PM PT
Latin America: Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez has expropriated $4.5 billion in assets from two U.S. oil firms. It's an ugly loss, but they will live. What's in doubt is Venezuela's future.
No one knows what exactly will take over the mighty Orinoco-region investments that ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil will likely vacate as Chavez declares yet another "people's victory."
But there's little chance the country will be able to match what those two companies could add to oil output and national development there. And the loser will be Venezuela.
Opposition protesters march in Caracas on Wednesday to commemorate Venezuelan Journalist Day, in a demonstration against the removal of a leading opposition TV station, Radio Caracas Television (RCTV), from the air a month ago.
Markets Wednesday offered a hint of what's ahead, with Exxon's stock ending 2% higher, leading the market upward on a down day, and Conoco ending flat.
Bear in mind that Exxon lost nearly a billion dollars in Venezuelan investments, and Conoco lost four times that much, amounting to 10% of its proved reserves.
Yet credit agency Standard & Poor's declared Conoco's rating undented by the move, and Exxon said it would "move forward," probably signalling a bid to recover some of the value of its assets in U.S. courts.
Suddenly, Venezuela's U.S. Citgo refining and marketing network has become a juicy target.
But Venezuela is another story. Its currency, the bolivar, and its sovereign bonds both plunged as Exxon and Conoco announced they're leaving.
Most Venezuela watchers saw a link. Standard & Poor's, for instance, downgraded the country's outlook, citing "a highly negative climate for investment, which results in virtually no foreign and private investment."
Venezuela has strict capital controls on its currency, so the bolivar trades only in the local black market. Its value to the dollar fell from 4,050 to 4,180 yesterday as dollar demand for capital flight rose, Bloomberg reported.
Even the "official" rate of 2,150 bolivars to the dollar signals ruinous inflation, likely well above the most recent inflation rate of 19%. A lack of dollars has emptied store shelves of imported goods, causing food prices to shoot up.
This is a bad sign for Venezuela. Markets basically shrug when two major investors leave, while brutally punishing Venezuela's government for its treatment of its U.S. investors. Chavez's regime is like one of the country's anaconda snakes, squeezing the very life out of Venezuela itself. Sadly, it's part of a long downward slide that shows no end.
This year, Chavez turned what was once a democracy into one-man rule by legislating for himself the right to rule by decree.
By the way, that dictatorship puts to rest Chavez apologists' claims that Venezuela is a democracy because he was "elected" democratically. Protests continue to convulse the streets of the capital over his destruction of free speech with the shutdown of the RCTV TV station.
Chavez is a case study in how a determined political criminal turns a democracy into a tyranny. He used the same means of securing total power as Adolf Hitler did, even using Hitler's "enabling law" term for it.
According to a new U.S. Air Force profile of the dictator, he's a "malignant" narcissist likely to declare himself "president for life" — also like Hitler. And because he views himself as "the very embodiment of Venezuela," he'll likely tighten his grip further, the study said.
For the economy, he's beginning to do what all dictators do — slowly choking Venezuela's private sector to death.
There's nothing unique about his approach.
He's doing what dictators from Zimbabwe to North Korea to Iran have done. Waving the flag of nationalism, he's coming first for "foreigners," making a big show of his expropriations to rally support. Oil is the biggest part of Venezuela's economy, accounting for about 25% of its GDP in 2006, and about 60% of its exports.
U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman on Tuesday said Venezuela's oil capacity will shrink as a result of the expropriations. The U.S. still imports about 10% of its foreign oil from Venezuela, and that leaves Bodman worried.
Less well known, but with unusual venom, Chavez has also come for Venezuela's private sector, driving many businesses to flee to neighboring Colombia, and sending many of its entrepreneurs abroad.
Like the country's fabled anaconda, Chavez is choking this once-prosperous economy to death, leaving what's left only a ruin.
The only question remaining is what happens when he runs out of things of value to destroy. It can take decades for such a severely mismanaged economy to recover. And there's no sign he's going to stop.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=267836281343750#
Bloomberg News (Excerpt)
Venezuelan oil output is below its peak of about 3 million barrels per day reached in 2001. Output averaged 2.34 million barrels per day in May, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Faja del Orinoco accounts for about a quarter of that production, averaging production of 600,000 barrels a day, according to the government.
If you weren’t intrigued by the news that “Exxon Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips are “walking away from their multibillion-dollar investments in Venezuela,” as reported by the Wall Street Journal, then Telemundo may serve your fare.
Apparently what a man does in the privacy of his bedroom is now primetime on national American television.
A new Telemundo “news report” shows photos of General Baduel – credited with restoring Chavez to power in 2002 – masturbating.
A female voice-over describes the strawberry resting near Baduel’s blacked out penis, and the Pikachu toy near his head.
It also claims that Chavez has embarked on a “witch hunt” to discover who hacked National Assembly website and posted the photos there.
While I respect Telemundo’s right to report on whatever it wants, I question whether this is “news” and whether Venezuelans should celebrate this latest sad chapter in our national shame series.
I understand the schadenfreude that many dissidents feel. After all, for years, the Chavez government has illegally wiretapped phone calls and broadcast them in the media. Who can forget Carlos Ortega’s phone call with Cecilia Matos? There are many examples.
But how do these latest images elevate the political discourse in Venezuela?
Yes, it’s an embarrassment for the Chavez government, as the Copa America begins.
But it’s politics at the same level that Chavez has played all along, and it degrades, not only his government but ALL Venezuelans.
I hope the story comes and goes. Venezuelans deserve better, both from their elected leaders, and from the international media.
Recently, when Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested that Latinos stop watching Spanish language television, he may have been right for the wrong reasons: Latin Americans deserve better quality television than a man masturbating next to a Japanese toy.
