June 27th, 2008

Chávez Campaign

Country, Socialism or death!  We will win!  This is the hymn imposed by Chávez in official, civil or military events.  This time, it was toned out to the 12,000 soldiers that on June 24 marched before the Commandant President in the memorial of the Battle of Carabobo that sealed the independence.  Chávez reiterates that he proposes to preside the celebrations in 2021, upon the 200 years of Carabobo.  Notwithstanding, the adversaries warn that his mandate finishes in 5 years, and the Constitution forbids a new re election, and the proposal of a reform to consecrate the indefinite re election was defeated in the December 2 recall.  Notwithstanding, Chávez insists on eliminating “three words of Article 230”, that limits the re election to a one time only.  Regarding the December 2 referendum, the President argues that the Revolution has entered a rectification phase. In the electoral activities, which are on a daily basis and broadcasted on television, he encourages his auditorium stating that only God has the power to signal the time wherein he must abandon the steering wheel of the Revolution.  Coincidentally, Mugabe, whom he called “brother” when he bestowed him a replica of Bolivar’s sword in Caracas, one of the highest honors conferred by Venezuela, uses the same argument in Zimbabwe.

The Carabobo event had a civic-military connotation.  The first pages of almost all newspapers were dedicated to the excommunication of the Carabobo State Governor, one of the generals that had enjoyed the most appraisal on the part of the Presidential animus.  He instructed that he abandon his position through the “back door” and he praised his candidate, the conductor of La Hojilla (The Blade), a TV program broadcasted by the State’s  television channel, a mixture of black humor and rude language against dissidence, wherein Chávez often times intervenes in order to grant it certain Official Gazette content.  They also gave importance to the old presidential affirmation that “this is an armed revolution”, and to the announcement that he would soon travel to Russia to give continuity to the policy of “strengthening the military power”.  He affirmed that the North American Empire had declared itself as an enemy of the Venezuelan people, “it is a real threat, but we are not afraid”.   “And we are grateful to Russia, he added, because it has helped to stop the blockade of the US”.  Chávez cleared one of the most serious obstacles in his project of “pulverizing” the opposition candidates in the next elections, depriving of their electoral rights to those who have obtained the highest sympathy percentages.  He gave his blessing to the controversial disqualification of those who appear in the surveys as sure winners.  This relates to an administrative resolution on the part of the Comptroller.  The ones affected allege the violation of Constitutional and legal regulations, according to which such disqualifications may only proceed, as an accessory sentence, through a ruling from a criminal court.  Chávez’ sentence was also first page news.  “A special support for the honorable compatriot at the head of the Comptroller’s Office”.  He is Clodosbaldo Russian, a former Communist militant, who deprived the regime’s adversaries with the highest sympathy percentages in the polls, of their electoral rights.  The disqualification of the opposition candidates is also a shared method with Mugabe, to close the way for those who have a chance of defeating him.

COUNTING THE VOTES IS IMPORTANT

The Supreme Court of Justice was also a creditor of his unconditional support, which has not stated anything regarding the legal resources, of an urgent character, that have been submitted against the disqualifications; the National Assembly proceeded to approve an agreement backing up the disqualifications dictated by the Comptroller, and the National Electoral Council (CNE), 4 of its 5 members have already stated that the entity will not admit the nominations objected by Russian.  Chávez, in his final speech to the military forces that marched before him, insisted that the November elections are crucial for the Socialist project and affirmed that the opposition candidates will be rejected by the people.  “They are puppies from the Empire, vassals of the oligarchy: They will not pass through!  The phrase had warm applauses from the representatives of the institutions present and from the generals and admirals that accompanied him in the presidential tribune. 

The CNE, in the Electoral Gazette dated May 28, 2008, published the list of those eligible to comprise the Electoral Bodies, in their different levels.  Ismael Garcia, Secretary General of Podemos, an organization that was one pro Chávez and who did not accept the invitation to merge with the PSUV, declared to have presented evidence to the CNE that more than 40% of the ones eligible are a part of the PSUV, which violates Article 294 of the Constitution, according to which members of electoral entities may not be a part of a political party.  Garcia denounced a similar scenario for the formation of the electoral tables and recalled that for the revocation recall of  2004, the CNE disqualified as members of the tables, those who had signed such request.  “Signing is a political expression that legally disqualifies to be a member of a table”, as decided by the CNE.  Humberto Villalobos, spokesperson for Esdata, an NGO created as a civic system of electoral control, declared “ Now we can affirm with total certainty that the lists of those eligible are biased in favor of those pro Chávez.  Before, it was an assumption, but for the first time, now we now without a doubt, how many PSUV representatives are in the lists, thanks to the data base that the CNE published in its Web page”.  This is in reference to the lists prepared by the CNE for the primaries of the PSUV.  (Venezuela Hoy, June 17, 2008).  In the days close to the event, it was notorious that even street vendors were selling the CD’s  that included such lists.  In a report by El Nacional, there are convincing elements regarding the CNE’s  operation so that the government’s  party may have control over the electoral bodies and tables.  The opposition parties that signed the unity pact have denounced that within the CNE, they are maneuvering so that the presidencies and secretariats of the electoral entities be exercised by militants of the PSUV, who voted in the primaries and who obtain income from the government.  The opposition is carrying on a joint plan to create a web of due and capable witnesses, but demand an audit regarding the information of the ones eligible, verifiable by independent technicians.  They claim that “even thought there are witnesses, those who take the final decisions regarding the votes are the table members, and international observers attested, in previous elections, of cases wherein access of the witnesses to the electoral premises was not allowed”. 

The expert, Maria Febres Cordero, wrote in El Universal: “It is not who votes what matters, but who counts the votes, a phrase attributed to Stalin.  In Venezuela, a black box counts the votes, whose components (hardware, software and telecommunications) are closed to the public access and present known vulnerabilities”. 

“Freedom and equality are essential characteristics of the political model that I am building,” explained Chávez to his guest in Miraflores, Mario Soares, former president of Portugal. TV screens show the Portuguese politician with a smiling face, following attentively the President’s words. “If any European has doubts of our democratic nature, he should come to Caracas and see a country where freedom exists like in nowhere else, and policies of justice and social progress are being applied, modestly placing us at the head of the Latin American brother countries”.  The former leader of the Portuguese socialism nodded his head in agreement with Chavez’s words. He had the good sense not to go out for a walk in the city, because he would certainly read in European newspapers that this is the most violent and dangerous city in the Continent, with its battered streets occupied by vendors and tons of garbage.

Another historic leader of the Iberian socialism, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, visited the country. He was accompanied by Trinidad Jiménez, the socialist leader who better knows Venezuela, since she served as a personal communication channel between Felipe González and Carlos Andrés Pérez, in the times of their tenure. The Spanish Chancellor was received by his Venezuelan peer with the “typical affection and friendliness of the socialist hearts”. The purpose of his visit was to normalize bilateral relations, which were affected by the famous “Shup up!” that the King Juan Carlos had to pronounce when Chávez continuously interrupted Rodríguez Zapatero’s speech at the Summit of Chile. The visit of these two socialists had more impact in Madrid than in Caracas, since Ms. Jiménez was interrogated at the Senate because Moratinos did not set a hearing with the Spanish colony which wanted to inform him respecting the outrage they are suffering in the country, and the motivation of the massive return to Spain by the immigrants arrived in the 20^th century.

Lula barely stayed a few hours and just talked about business. Journalists expected to ask him about his statement that Chávez has been the best Venezuelan president. Neither did they have the opportunity to question him about his odd devotion for a militarist regime, since he was a strong opponent to the boots and rifles regime, so similar to Chávez’s, that Brazil had to bear during his times of young labor unionist. Mario Soares did not accept to be asked about his apparent affection for someone who intends to hold power indefinitely, like an autocrat, since he suffered Salazar’s dictatorship whose Estado Novo is an improved precedent for the 5^th Republic. Moratinos evaded the difficulty of explaining the differences between Chávez and Franco respecting their intention to be eternal rulers at any price. The answer of these three visitors could have been that none of them, Salazar, Franco or the Brazilian military rulers, were socialists. Chávez, in contrast, is the leader of the 21^st century socialism, and calls frequent elections that he always wins. The Socialist International, where Lula, Rodríguez Zapatero and Mario Soares are emblematic characters, gathers in Athens. Venezuelan socialists will attend to denounce Chávez, -according to them- as the responsible for the political, social and economic tragedy that the country lives and the danger it represents for the entire region. ¿Will they have listeners? Maybe not many. A Greek weekend and the clash between Germany and Spain in the context of the EuroCup are more interesting that “the foolishness of a Caribbean folkloric lieutenant colonel who talks about the 21^st century socialism”, Mario Vargas Llosa, dixit.