December 28th., 2009

Brief summary of year 2009

This last year's report is an attempt to summarize the actions of Chavez in the period. Given the symbiosis Chavez-oil, we are obliged to start with the price at the beginning of the year: $ 34 a barrel. The average price in 2008 was $ 90. "I'm not leaving, nor do I want to leave. I need about 30 more years to realize the socialist project”, were his statements in the annual message of accountability to the National Assembly (AN). He insisted on a constitutional amendment that allows him to run for another term, although the proposal had been defeated on December 2, 2007, through a referendum that was adverse and the Constitution prohibits submitting the proposal in the same period. The National Electoral Council (CNE) proceeded without delay to set February 15, 2009 for the requested event. Chavez refreshed his traditional anti-Semitism: he broke relations with Israel for considering it a genocidal State. Given the insurgency of the student body, which conducts demonstrations of opposition to the indefinite re-election, he was adamant: "I order the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Interior and the head of the Metropolitan Police: to throw them the good gas and put them in prison. If failure to do so, I´ll take the heads of the responsible”. The qualification of "the good one" is for mustard gas. "I got tired of rice processing companies. I gave the order to intervene them and if they get funny, we will expropriate them and pay them with papers”. Getting funny is the phrase used by Chavez when he orders or threats to expropriate and according to law, it should be paid in cash. To the president of Polar, the most important industrial company in the country, he said "If you get funny, I´ll take away your business and pay you with papers”. To the president of the National Cattlemen's Association, "If you get funny I take away the farm". Luis Ugalde, president of the Universidad Catolica, said that Chavez knows how to face  difficulties, work tirelessly, to cling to power, but he cannot govern.

In the elections on Nov. 23, he lost some governors and mayors, including the Mayor of Caracas. Middle-class vote in large urban centers where there were witnesses at polling stations. Chavez's response was to settle by one stroke the powers they are entitled to, among others, the exclusive jurisdiction in the administration of ports and airports. He ordered the NA to pass a law so that any instance of regional or local government, can ignore the socialist plan. He ordered the Navy to take the ports and airports that are under the jurisdiction of Governors opposed to Chavez.  "If the governor opposes himself, he will go to jail”. To Manuel Rosales, the candidate that faced Chavez in the presidential election, he said: "I will send you to jail because a wimp like you has no right to walk freely on the streets criticizing my government”. A Judge issued an immediate custodial sentence. Rosales went in vain to procedural laws and is currently one of the hundreds of politicians who could leave the country and seek asylum. He deprived the Mayor of Caracas of the budget he deserves, besides being a frequent object of gang-government. He ordered the opening of a criminal trial. He appointed a minister as a Metropolitan Mayor. His strategy is to deprive of authority to the governors and mayors of the opposition, by ignoring the results of November 23.

 "The third cycle of the revolution begins with travels to Qatar, Iran, Japan and China. Together with my friend Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, we will inaugurate the Iranian-Venezuelan bank, in the future the international oil bank”. He travels aboard his Airbus, accompanied by family and guests. The plane, whose cost is estimated at $ 100 million, holds 150 passengers, presidential suite and conference table for 40 people. In Qatar, he expressed to be offended for not being invited by Chile to the Summit of progressive leaders, among others, the presidents of Brazil, Spain, and Uruguay, British Prime Minister, Mrs. Clinton and other characters of the democratic socialism. "I do not understand how the Chile's President met with U.S. Vice President and British Prime Minister, two representatives of empires. I think it endangers the South American Union”.  The visit to Qatar was disappointing. There was no consensus on his proposal about the petromoneda. “Just as in other times they used gold, now it will be the oil. It is an initiative against the U.S. that has flooded the world with dollar worthless”. He met with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al Bashir, who was condemned by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. "The Court should order the arrest of president and prime minister of Israel as responsible for the genocide in Gaza".

 In the meeting with Bashar al-Bassa and Gaddafi, (Syria and Libya) he said: "We want to strengthen ties of friendship based on the great empathy and the necessity of jointly confronting the U.S. imperialism”. About President Obama, he said he is "a poor ignorant". Mrs. Clinton said: "We have many problems with Chavez and the way he mistreated the Venezuelan people. Democracy is much more than holding elections” referring to Chavez´s argument when his democratic credentials are questioned.  In Tehran he opened the binational bank "to create an independent alternative of the international financial system”. In China and Japan, he confirmed the future sale of oil, which apart from being illegal, it means mortgaging the country's main asset. At the Summit of the Americas, his proposal on the entrance of Cuba failed. In his first meeting with Obama, he was polite because he wants to normalize relations with U.S. But returning from the summit he ordered hundreds of young people that in Cuba receive half-year ideological training courses: "We need to battle against oligarchy, an instrument of U.S. imperialism”. "There is no possible agreement with the Pitiyanqui opposition, stateless, imperialist".

Prestigious intellectuals led by Vargas Llosa, who were invited to a forum on Latin American Challenge, were detained at the airport, forced to surrender their passports, so the politic police would make photocopies, were subject to a thorough inspection of baggage and warned that they would be expelled from the country if they gave political views. Globovision is subject to all kinds of abuses. The managers are prosecuted, and sometimes imprisoned. Its president, Guillermo Zuloaga, designed in Chavez's words, "a mafia organization. This is one of those oligarchic thieves, corrupt, deceitful, who considers his last name and his wealth as a badge of impunity”.  On the occasion of an unsuccessful trip to El Salvador, he said: "The enemies of the revolution should thank God that the plot to murder me was detected. Otherwise the people would avenge my death to thousands and thousands of oligarchs”. The Cardinal Archbishop of Tegucigalpa blamed Chavez for the crisis in Honduras. "That man has been trying to get his hands here”.

Every day, it is more dangerous the development of the crisis with Colombia. "The first step in a war is the installation of U.S. military bases. The Armed Forces "are ready to fight”. In Unasur he warned that "winds of war begin to blow”. There Uribe submitted evidence of the Chavez´s protection of the FARC and of interfering in Colombian politics. From Venezuela there has been confirmed that in the border areas, guerrilla groups have formed a civil and military authority. "Let's not waste a day on our main mission: to prepare for war". According to El Tiempo, Chavez's phrase means "warning bells have sounded”. The Congress appointed several ministers "to report on measures taken following the warmongers announcement of Chavez”. Bogotá asked the Security Council of the UN to study the situation, which seems to undermine peace in the region, so that all members know in detail the facts that support the request. In his sights, there are now the surviving media, the freedom of education and the electoral system. The objective is the "new man" by imposing the teaching of thinking only. 34 radio stations are closed and 240 others are threatened. It was announced the approval of media crimes law and the control of the entire education system, according to the Cuban model. There is in preparation, a fraud domain for any election. With honors and awards the ambassador of Cuba leaves, "one of our major partners, the protagonist of our revolution”. There are shortages and stagflation. There was another trip to Russia to buy arms and visits to Algeria, Syria, Iran, (ninth) Belarus and Russia. "Israel has become genocidal, a murderer state, the executive arm of the American empire, Colombia is the Israel of U.S. in Latin America”, he said in Damascus.

Chavez approved a 2010 budget of 80,000 million dollars. The total public debt exceeds $ 100,000,000,000. PDVSA, without money, issue bonds to pay salaries and contractors. "A true revolutionary is not doing business”, he said upon the announcement of a corruption scandal, starred by his relatives and collaborators. Illicit enrichment may reach $ 70,000,000,000. Chavez won worldwide attention to their statements. The Jackal, Idi Amin, the butcher of Kampala and Mugabe, the despot of Zimbabwe, were, according to him, "patriots, revolutionaries, nationalists". He received for the third time the Iranian president, "to strengthen our ideological alliance”. He had lunch with Fidel and Raul, and received the president of the Palestinian Authority, to whom he confirmed: "Israel is the U.S. arm murderer in the Middle East”.

Istvan Meszaros, after receiving a prize of $ 250,000 introduced Chavez (who applauded wildly) as the leader who can bring his thesis that the communism did not die with the collapse of the Soviet Union. A few days later in Alo Presidente he said: "The twenty-first century socialism is inspired by the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ”. At five-yearly visit of the Venezuelan Bishops, these complained to the Pope that the project of Chavez has caused "a growing political polarization has increased violence, insecurity and hate, seriously compromising the democratic coexistence”.  The Pope expressed his solidarity with the bishops and assured them that they can always count on his support.

Rafael Caldera died, the last democratic president who governed Venezuela. The year dies as well. Chavez continued to decline in the polls. The oil markedly improved the price: $ 71 a barrel.