April 14th., 2011

Dissatisfaction grows

Chavez is dedicating many hours of the week to his election campaign. At Aló Presidente he promotes the activities he is carrying out, those carried out by his ministers and high officials, he flatters or menaces, he is reiterative on all he estimates might generate votes for the presidential elections. Analysts are of the opinion that the speech is becoming less and less persuasive because the country is simultaneously shaken by protestors, street demonstrations and the most varied expressions of dissatisfaction. The victory obtained by the students due to their hunger strike has set an example followed by workers. The fact that every two days, as an average, a group announces it will stop eating until authorities acknowledge their problems, reveals ‘’the people’s desperation in seeing their rights trampled’’.  The Nurses Association, as an example, claims for a salary adjustment since they are paid hunger salaries. The absence of answers on the part of the government made some of the group sew their lips and menace to take more extreme methods. The protest has been extended for more than 20 days, supported by doctors, patient’s organizations and others. A leader on the part of the nurses evidenced that their salary only covers a fourth part of their monthly expenses. The Observatorio de Conflictividad Social (an NGO working with universities) affirms that dissatisfaction is growing like foam since during the last month more than 500 demonstrations were registered in the country.

Inflation continues to be the barring stone of the reelection Project. The Banco Central figures, even made-up, reveal that prices continue to go up. In the first semester the same accumulated a leap of 26%. The registered cost increases of food made an impact on all levels of the population and the problems due to power have become a daily drama. The blackouts generally leave without power the whole territory, affecting the subway almost daily. In Caracas when these blackouts occur, offices have to close, traffic jams turn into a nightmare and most people have to walk back to their homes, for hours. Everything points out that the answer from the government on this power crisis, due to its errors and omissions, has not worked. The plan announced by Chavez to overcome the crisis would have substantial fiscal resources at the Minister of Energy, Rodriquez Araque disposal. According to some opposition spokespersons, the execution of the same was given to Cuban engineers with little experience, disallowing the experience and knowledge of Venezuelan experts. They add that without enough electrical power, trustworthy and regularly supplied, the economy cannot function.  ‘’Without growth there will be no new jobs nor the bigger production we need and prices of articles we consume cannot go down Aló Presidente affirms that ´´capitalist companies’’ are being destroyed to be substituted by ´´socialist companies´´. What the President wants to ignore, as written by a columnist of El Universal, is that capitalist and socialist companies require power in order to function. It´s untrue that ‘’socialism progresses in time of shortage’’, as said by Minister Giordani before the NA.

 THE MAKLED CASE

Chavez’s satisfaction on the decision of the Colombian president to hand over Walid Makled, the drug dealer, is debatable. President Santos informed him at the Cartagena meeting, “Makled will be extradited to Venezuela as determined by Colombian laws. We have an extradition agreement with Venezuela and not with the US”.  The Colombian Attorney General had asked not to hand him over to Venezuela ‘’because is human rights might be affected’’.  Makled, presently at a Colombian maximum security prison, is accused by the US justice of being ‘’a king among drug dealer’s bosses’’.  Those accusing him sustain that Makled knows a lot on the connection between the Venezuelan high government officials and the drug rings and that such information would be lost forever if the man is handed to Venezuela.  The expectation as to Makled’s final destination grew after the Colombian Supreme Court authorized the drug dealer’s extradition, that was required simultaneously by both the US and Venezuela.  Makled owned the air line Aeropostal and believed to have lucrative dealerships at national main ports and airports. He was granted a dealership to market urea produced by the Venezuelan petrochemical company Pequiven and the American justice wants him for sending approximately ten tons of drugs per month to this country and Europe.   Former Ambassador Diego Arria is of the opinion that Santos decision is equivalent to filing the case of the most prominent drug ring in Latin-America ‘’to which are part highly placed civilians and military of the Venezuelan regime’’.   Alejandro Ordoñez, the Colombian Attorney General, commented ‘’Makled’s statements point to the fact that he maintained a straight relationship with officials belonging to Chavez’s government, the most convenient thing would be to hand him over to the US authorities’’.

Makled’s statements appeared in the Colombian press, according to which high Chavez’s officials were on his pay roll, which information was supported by the State Department who accused him of operating and controlling runways in Venezuela to export drugs to the US. Roger Noriega, former US Ambassador to the OAS affirms that Makled operated together with agents connected to Middle East terrorist organizations.   From the La Picota prison Makled stated having worked with Chavez’s government, and gave Two million Dollars to his political party, the PSUV. He spoke of his connection to PDVSA, the NA and Pequiven. He assured having 5 members of the NA on his pay roll. ‘’In case I needed anything, I had them there’’. He asserted he worked closely with the military. ‘’I gave a weekly due of 200 million Bolivars, 100 million were for the Director of Military Intelligence, Hugo Carvajal’’. What will happen to Makled when Colombia hands him over? It might be possible that the one receiving him at the border will be the Director of Military Intelligence.   

The newspaper El Nacional summoned the government to answer, why and who decided at the government level, to grant Makled the administration of Venezuela’s main port, Puerto Cabello?. Why and who decided at the government level to grant Makled the operation of an airline?  Why and who decided at the government level to grant Makled the right to market urea produced by the Venezuelan petrochemical company? On the other hand, the regime will be obliged to take good care of Makled because if something happens to him, who would then believe that, the government´s hands were not in it?

CONTROVERSIAL ANNIVERSARY

The NA devoted the session of the 11th to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the actions that determined Chavez’s exit from the presidency. The discussion derived into a key aspect: the resignation.   This also has been the theme for commentators in the media.  Chavez is the contemporary politician most written about in this century and the facts that occurred nine years ago constitute one of the most controversial chapters. At the NA session, Representative William Ojeda presented an audio of Chavez’s voice: ‘’I have accepted abandoning the post if the conditions I’m asking for are met’’. The government’s answer was categorical: ‘’the representative falsified an audio of the president’’.  Commentators of national media affirm that some facts are indubitable. First, in the wee hours of the 12, General Lucas Rincón, in the name of the military high command appeared on national TV and announced: ‘’ The president has been asked to resign and he has accepted to do so’’.  Rincón was Inspector General of the Armed Forces at the time which made him the second in charge of the Institution. The second argument is that Lieutenant Diosdado Cabello, then Vice-president, was sworn before the NA on the 13 as interim president, to comply with the constitutional rule on the absolute absence of the President. This supposes a resignation. The third argument is a logical consequence of the previous ones: General Rincón and Diosdado Cabello, two of the most important figures of the regime and the members of the NA (chavistas), believed the resignation as a true fact. 

Chavez called for a demonstration at Miraflores on the 13. The act, transmitted by radio and TV highlighted the massive presence of regular Armed Forces and the militia, spread out with discipline along the Urdaneta Avenue that converges into Miraflores. Chavez affirmed that 300 militia batallions had been mobilized. They marched in uniform and in battle dress. The four components of the Armed Forces were alongside. The image captured by TV was more of a military parade than that of a political meeting. The officers of the presidential guard branding national flags were placed on a terrace at Miraflores, to signal the moments for applauses and cheers that were frequent and ostentatious when he raised the issue of the presidential election.   “The scrawnies (escuálidos) are acting like lunatics about some primaries that will divide them more than they are now. We do not need primaries because I have decided that I will be the candidate in 2012 and we will see in 2019’’. The public echoed ‘’ they will not come back, the people, united, will never be defeated’’. Chavez made the most by referring to the union between the Armed Forces and the people, which he considers essential in face of the destabilizing project of the oligarchy and the Yankee imperialism ‘’that do not cease in their idea of a coup against our revolution’’. He sustained that the revolution was invincible because he has ‘’ the popular power whose core is the militia and the Armed Forces components’’. He referred to the video presented by a Representative on his supposed resignation on 4-11-2002. He said the text was written by those in favor of the coup but that he never signed it. ‘’I did not sign it because you had already  surrounded Miraflores and claimed my presence. The popular power rescued me. That is the most important of all powers, this is the one we are promoting on our continent and other regions of the world so that the exploiting capitalism steps out and gives place to revolutionary socialism’’.