Venezuela is not longer a democracy

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/220426/oas-chief-almagro-%E2%80%98venezuela-is-no-longer-a-democracy%E2%80%99
WASHINGTON — The head of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, openly denounced corruption and violence in Venezuela yesterday, saying a 14-year prison term for an opposition leader there marked the “end of democracy” in the country.
In an eight-page open letter to hardline Popular Will leader Leopoldo López, Almagro criticized Venezuela’s climate of “intimidation.”
The OAS chief also denounced threats against those working to recall left-wing President Nicolás Maduro.
“No regional or subregional forum can ignore the reality that today in Venezuela there is no democracy or rule of law,” Almagro said, calling López a “friend.”
“Under no circumstances should power be used... to prevent the sovereign will of the people from being expressed.”
The former Uruguayan foreign minister said Venezuelans are a “victim of bullying.”
The Venezuelan government “seeks to maintain its power and deny the people the right to make decisions through voting, by resorting to violence against those who demonstrate or hold other opinions,” Almagro said.
“It has crossed a line, which means it is the end of democracy.”
On August 12, Venezuela’s court of appeals upheld a 14-year sentence for López that was handed down after a closed-door trial. The sentence was strongly condemned by the European Union, the United Nations and the United States.
López, one of Maduro’s most hardline opponents whose stance has excacerbated divisions among the opposition coalition, had repeatedly declared himself innocent of the crime for which he was convicted — inciting violence at anti-government protests in 2014 that left 43 dead.
Venezuela, home to the world’s largest oil reserves, is gripped by recession that has contributed to severe shortages of food, medicine and basic goods that have triggered violence and looting.
Maduro blames the recession on wealthy business magnates and “imperialist foes” he says are conspiring against his government.
The opposition is racing to force a referendum to recall Maduro from office, blaming him for the crisis and mishandling the state-led economy.
According to the Constitution, a successful recall vote this year would trigger a presidential election that the opposition would likely win. But an opposition victory in a recall referendum next year would result only in Vice-President Aristóbulo Istúriz — a Socialist Party stalwart — replacing Maduro until his term ends in early 2019.
Election officials already stretched out the first phase of the recall effort — verifying submitted signatures from one percent of voters to authorize the second petition drive — into a months-long ordeal.
The government has been accused of dragging its feet while stopping short of actually denying the recall effort.
Earlier this month, 15 members of the OAS called on Venezuela to act “without delay” to clear the way for the election.
Almagro recently branded Maduro a “petty dictator” and in an ongoing war of words said Venezuela had suffered an “alteration of constitutional order” and called for OAS members to invoke Article 20 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter to suspend the country from the bloc, the issue remains under review.

Detention of @inesitaterrible by SEBIN in Venezuela aggravates Freedom in Venezuela

Detention of  @inesitaterrible by SEBIN aggravates Freedom of expression in Venezuela. It shows clearly that Venezuela is under a dictatorship - Maduro

Protest against Maduro - UN

This Wednesday at 3PM is scheduled a protest at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza located in front of the United Nations (47th Street & 1st Avenue) to repudiate the words of Nicolas Maduro, who is scheduled to address theUN tomorrow. There will be Venezuelans denouncing Human Rights violations, illegal arrests, the existence of political prisoners, severe economic and health crisis accompanied by the greatest shortages in modern times in our country and the unbridled violence. Also reject Venezuela's bid to the Security Council of the UN.

Cuba fed a president’s fears and took over Venezuela

Cuba fed a president’s fears and took over Venezuela
Published by Moises Naim in Financial Times
By Moisés Naím
Caracas is paying the price for Chávez’s misplaced trust, writes Moisés Naím.

The enormous influence that Cuba has gained in Venezuela is one of the most underreported geopolitical developments of recent times. It is also one of the most improbable. Venezuela is nine times bigger than Cuba, three times more populous, and its economy four times larger. The country boasts the world’s largest oil reserves. Yet critical functions of the Venezuelan state are either overseen or directly controlled by Cuban officials.

Venezuela receives Cuban health workers, sports trainers, bureaucrats, security personnel, militias and paramilitary groups. “We have over 30,000 members of Cuba’s Committees for the Defence of the Revolution in Venezuela,” boasted Juan José Rabilero, then head of the CDR, in 2007. The number is likely to have increased further since then.

A growing proportion of Venezuela’s imports are channelled through Cuban companies. Recently, Maria Corina Machado, an opposition leader, revealed the existence of a large warehouse of recently expired medicines imported through a Cuban intermediary – drugs allegedly purchased on the international market at a deep discount and resold at full price to the government.

The relationship goes beyond subsidies and advantageous business opportunities for Cuban agencies. Cuban officers control Venezuela’s public notaries and civil registries. Cubans oversee the computer systems of the presidency, ministries, social programmes, police and security services as well as the national oil company, according to Cristina Marcano, a journalist who has reported extensively on Cuba’s influence in Venezuela.

Then there is military co-operation. The minister of defence of a Latin American country told me: “During a meeting with high-ranking Venezuelan officers we reached several agreements on co-operation and other matters. Then three advisers with a distinctive Cuban accent joined the meeting and proceeded to change all we had agreed. The Venezuelan generals were clearly embarrassed but didn’t say a word . . . Clearly, the Cubans run the show.”

Why did the Venezuelan government allow this lopsided foreign intervention? The answer is Hugo Chávez. During his 14-year presidency he enjoyed absolute power thanks to his complete control of every institution that could have constrained him, from the judiciary to the legislature. He could also use Venezuela’s oil revenues at will.

One of the most transformational ways in which Chávez used the complete power he wielded was to let the Cubans in. He had many reasons to throw himself into the arms of Fidel Castro. He felt a deep affection, admiration and trust for the Cuban leader, who became a personal adviser, political mentor and geopolitical guide. Mr Castro also fed Chávez’s conviction that his many enemies – especially the US and the local elites – were out to get him and that his military and security services could not be trusted to provide the protection he needed. But the Cubans could reliably offer these services. Cuba also provided a ready-to-use international network of activists, non-government organisations and propagandists who boosted Chávez’s reputation abroad.

In return, Chávez instituted a programme of financial largesse that keeps Cuba’s economy afloat to this day. Caracas ships about 130,000 barrels of oil a day to the island on preferential terms – a small part of an aid programme that remains one of the world’s largest.

The extent to which Chávez was beholden to the Cuban regime was dramatically illustrated by the way in which he dealt with the cancer that would eventually kill him last year: he trusted only the doctors whom Mr Castro recommended, and his treatment mostly took place in Havana under a veil of secrecy.

Chávez’s successor, Nicolás Maduro, has deepened Caracas’s dependency on Havana even further. As students have taken to the streets in protest against an increasingly authoritarian regime the government has responded with a brutal repression that relies on many of the tools and tactics perfected by the police state that has run Cuba for too long.

The writer, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment, is a former Venezuelan minister of industry and trade

Protests Continue in Venezuela against a Nightmarish Regime

Protests Continue in Venezuela against a Nightmarish Regime By Jerry Brewer

The broken silence in Venezuela is deafening as the once proud and strong nation is facing mass protest demonstrations, many of which have turned deadly over the past three weeks. And the violent situations are exacerbated with the threat of anti-government protesters clashing with pro-government groups and/or security forces.Thousands of citizens have taken to the streets in cities throughout Venezuela, to stand boldly as military, police, rogue security officials and violent civilian pro-government enforcers moved in with aggressive maneuvers and weaponry. Much of the nation’s message is that they will no longer be silent after 15 years of repression and corrupt iron-fisted rule.

The official death toll is inaccurate -- actually it is unknown, this due to the massive government crackdown on media coverage. Hundreds have been injured, hundreds more detained, many are missing, a number of the dead have been killed by tactical-style shots to the head by snipers. As well, pictures coming out of Venezuela taken by citizens and disseminated worldwide via the Internet show what appear to be military and police firing randomly, as well as up at apartment buildings and their balconies. Graphic pictures of beaten victims and bloody corpses have strewn the Internet.

And while President Nicolas Maduro should be urging restraint and tolerance, especially of his government enforcers, while allowing freedom of expression and calling for peaceful demonstrations, with a straight face (as the late Hugo Chavez frequently did before him) he is instead accusing the United States of organizing this movement against the nation, and he claims the goal is a coup d'état.

Referring to protesters in the region of Tachira last week, Maduro said, “If I have to declare a state of exception, I’m ready to declare it and send in the tanks, the troops, planes, all of the military force of the country.”  He also threatened to jail other opposition politicians and protest leaders – and he has done just that.

Much like his predecessor and idol, Hugo Chavez, Maduro rejects any action or words that are not consistent with tight presidential rule and mandates. Voices of the people in opposition are not welcome, they must not be tolerated, and they must be repressed from world scrutiny as if the citizens are puppets, robots, or perceived stupid by nature.

Opposition legislators have been barred from debates and stripped of committee posts in the National Assembly. And when an opposition leader called for a protest last week, “Mr. Maduro scheduled his own march to start at the same spot and dispatched the National Guard to try to block protesters from rallying elsewhere.”

Veracity was never the strong suit of the buffoonish-style of diplomacy of Hugo Chavez or his choice of successor, Nicolas Maduro. Truth had no place in Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution as he misled an entire country, a revolution nurtured by and through Fidel Castro’s original failed Cuban revolution -- both, bringing death and misery to the people of Cuba and Venezuela over long periods of dictatorial rule. This while the Castro brothers and Chavez became wealthy and managed to hold on to power.

What was the record of Hugo Chavez’s rule; what did his legacy leave; and what has Maduro done to perpetuate the Chavez/Castro ideology? It appears they are still on the same page this very day. The problem is that Maduro struggles to understand fact from fiction, while trudging on into an ever sinking pit of common personal and professional destruction which threatens to bring the nation down with him.

The disastrous record left by Chavez shows massively squandered oil wealth, depleted with practically no record of accountability. Chavez’s sudden personal wealth -- now enjoyed by his heirs, is graphically archived in page after page on the Internet as “La fortuna de Hugo Chavez.” And one of Chavez’s most ironic and memorable quotes is also pasted on Internet pages of the world's media: “Ser rico es malo" (to be rich is bad).

Although it did not start under Maduro’s continuation of Chavez doctrine, Venezuelans today are plagued by empty food market shelves. Staples such as milk, sugar, flour, eggs, and other grocery items are rare. As well, the nation is suffering from a decaying infrastructure, thousands of people are living in squalor, there are rolling blackouts of electricity, and related inconveniences.Being kept silenced, threatened, and imprisoned for speaking out was the last straw for the thousands and thousands who have taken to the streets to voice their outrage, with many willing to die for their beliefs. One of the cries heard throughout the now bloody demonstrations: “… days of protests for 15 years of silence.” To which, unfortunately, the roguish Maduro regime has replied with relentless retaliation.

Silencing the media in Venezuela, and controlling what is seen and heard, began with Chavez and rapidly accelerated under Maduro. The only television station to regularly broadcast voices critical of the government was sold last year.

Last week Maduro banned a foreign cable news channel after it showed images of a young protester shot to death. Subsequently he revoked the credentials of a CNN news team and sent them packing.

As President Maduro voices strength and adherence to the socialist revolution, he ignores the truths and realities of his failures and blames the US for interference.

So, how does he ignore the hundreds of thousands throughout Venezuela that are demanding to be heard and willing to tell him to his face where the blame lies? It appears that Maduro does not want to hear any of this, and most importantly -- he does not want the world media to report his own people echoing it.

Jerry Brewer is C.E.O. of Criminal Justice International Associates, a global threat mitigation firm headquartered in northern Virginia.

That nasty tendency to settle scores, or the truth about Sunday 8

Defending Capriles point of view .... Excellent Daniel!!

"Capriles and the MUD, even if I did not agree with their strategy, have had the merit to stick to it and see it through until the bitter end. And that is worthy of respect. Now, we move on without blaming them more than necessary, and thanking them more than necessary if we must. At least they did stick their neck out for us."

That nasty tendency to settle scores, or the truth about Sunday
Daniel Duquenal

In politics even the best friends at some point feel compelled to settle scores. Thus we should not be surprised when followers ask for blood, as it is happening now from the press, through Twitter, to my competing blogs, who are all only too happy it seems to accuse the MUD of sugar coating the truth and what not.  Me, a long time critic of Capriles, find myself in the need to add a post scriptum to defend him (sort of) to my conclusion entry of last Friday. 

What pushes me to write is that the "provocateur" magazine Zeta has put Leopoldo Lopez on its front cover as the challenger to Capriles, while this one in an interview published today shoots low at Lopez (1). This combined to the hysteria caused by the numbers from Eugenio Martinez in El Universal, now final today.
And even further hysteria about the newly elected mayor of San Sebastian accused to switch outright to the regime. I suggest that this is all coming from the different point of view between those who live in the reality outside of Caracas and those who live in Caracas or overseas, the traditional cultural divide exacerbated again because of the elections.
I will start with the new Mayor of San Sebastian, Carlos Miranda, allegedly going back to a chavismo that he may or may not have left years ago. My first question to his critics is: have you ever driven through San Sebastian, in the South of Aragua? I did, several times.
Have you ever wondered what is the tax base of that district?
Do you think that whoever is mayor of San Sebastian can survive if s/he starts a war with Tareck El-Aissami, the governor of Aragua, a corrupt, false and likely violent chavista?
And the one who supposedly sends you a mandatory stipend. Carlos had no option but to play nice and offer to collaborate with the regime. His district, that I know of, has no border with any other district or state that may have an opposition governor. And he is in a state with one of the most, I repeat, talibanic and incompetent and corrupt chavista governor.
Heck, Tareck does not even sleep in Maracay most night, he commutes more or less between Caracas and Maracay. If I take this detour it is that I need to remind readers that the success of last Sunday election cannot be measured on vote number alone. Those were after all local election that Capriles tried to turn into a referendum to compensate his pusillanimity last April, and failed.
Or does ANYONE truly believes that the 62.6% Carlos Miranda votes belong from now on to the MUD? In case you still do not get my point think about the score of Capriles last April in San Sebastian, 41.8%.
It is true that in the end chavismo got more votes than the opposition, maybe a million more, but the question here is how come the opposition went from 7.4 million last April to 4.4 a week ago. A drop bigger than chavismo which went down to 5.3 from 7.6. The opposition lost 3 million votes and chavismo 2.3.
We may put chavismo vote on the count of fraudulent elections but we cannot account for a loss of 3 million opposition voters on the CNE. 
Even the vaunted Daka effect which according to some pollsters rose Maduro numbers by around 10 points cannot explain why the opposition lost 3 million votes (maybe less if we start making excruciating speculation as to what the "other" votes meant, but the loss remains huge).
In fact, that chavismo did lose more than 2 million votes indicate that the Daka effect is more of an excuse to justify the 3 million drop in the opposition than a solid explanation as to why Maduro "won". We need to be serious when we put blame on different parties.
First, the state machine was at its worst in this election and was certainly a dissuading factor for many opposition voters to go and do their civic duty: what for, since the regime will jail of neuter the eventual winners? I know it is no excuse, I went as 4+ million, but that was certainly a chunk of those who did not go, a bigger chunk than those who may have already left for vacation.
Second, it was a mistake for Capriles to make this election a referendum on Maduro. Local elections are a referendum on local issues, at best. Though it is a mistake for Maduro to claim victory because after all, with all the scandalous advantage and pressure he did fail to convince more than 2 million of his supporters to go back to the polls. I understand why Capriles and the MUD took that gamble but many were very doubtful from the start and should have been heard before making the vote a plebiscite. Third, even if these elections were normal, historical trends in Venezuela and elsewhere make local elections a low turn out event. This demonstrates one thing: true democrats are those who vote in local elections, those who do understand their importance. Too many people it seems think that the only election worth the trouble is the one to elect our king, be this one a president or a prime minister. In Venezuela, the majority of the country is not democratic no matter what people from both sides try to make us believe.
The large majority of chavismo is not democratic and a substantial portion of the opposition neither is. Together they are more than 50%. Way more maybe. For these reasons and more one should avoid making any dramatic conclusion out of last Sunday.
There are only two things that we can say. We can say is that as a referendum the vote failed to either condemn or rescue Maduro. This one is not rescued whatsoever inside chavismo who knows very well that they lost key sectors. An authoritarian neo-.fascist movement cannot lose anything and thus the losses at Barquisimeto and Barinas are simply unacceptable and will be blamed behind closed doors on Maduro's policies. That the regime considers the election a loss is made evident by its reactions, appointing "protectors", taking away mayor functions before the new ones are sworn in, a massive propaganda onslaught, etc. You would think that chavismo lost by a million and not the other way around!
We can also say that the opposition needs to reevaluate its strategy.
Clearly the selected and limited confrontation with the regime strategy has run its course and something else is necessary.
That Capriles lowers himself to send a low shot at Lopez who was the artifice of his smashing victory in February 2012 primary betrays that he knows his leadership is now under question. Rather than attacking Lopez (or any other that will rear his or her head very soon) he should do a prompt self criticism and follow the chair of the MUD Aveledo in stating that it is normal for the MUD to reevaluate its priorities and that ALL (including by deduction his leadership) is open to discussion.
This is common in all democracies, that a losing candidate must subject to new primaries or party conventions, which in no way would distract from the historical contribution that Capriles made to the opposition cause by giving back its confidence that it was again a power option.
I am in deep disagreement with many of the criticism that I read against Capriles and the MUD. I think in large part they come from either a misunderstanding of the true situation of the country or a personal agenda (for example those promoting abstention, who have yet to offer something, anything and are thus trying to find an excuse for their cowardice).
True, I am disappointed, but it is also true that I am able to see that this alleged defeat is an excellent stepping stone if the opposition decides to reevaluate its strategy. With 4 elections in 14 months there is a wealth of electoral data and polls and experiences to be digested and put to profit, with bright success like forcing the regime to steal the election last April to truly dismal reactions last December, of much worse consequences if you ask me than the set back of last Sunday.
Capriles and the MUD, even if I did not agree with their strategy, have had the merit to stick to it and see it through until the bitter end. And that is worthy of respect. Now, we move on without blaming them more than necessary, and thanking them more than necessary if we must. At least they did stick their neck out for us.

(1) http://www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/elecciones-2013/131215/capriles-el-voto-en-venezuela-es-un-ejercicio-de-resistencia

Venezuelans go to the Polls for Change or Status Quo

We are voting for "Change"

RosalbaG.

You can read it at:

http://es.scribd.com/doc/135151249/Venezuelans-Go-to-the-Polls-for-Change-or-Status-Quo

4/11/2013

E D I T O R I A L and O P I N I O N

Venezuelans go to the Polls for Change or Status Quo

by Jerry Brewer

It would be very difficult to believe that the Venezuelan people would not seek this election date of Sunday April 14, 2013 to make a huge change in political direction to rid themselves and their nation from over a decade of misery, aggressive government control, and corruption.  Corruption and lies that have squandered billions of dollars in massive oil wealth without explanation or documentation. Those Venezuelan officials and rogue leftist leaders rewarded handsomely by the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s generosity, can’t be expected to prop a financially strapped nation up by reciprocating gifts of money. The majority of those nations such as Cuba, still cling to their own sinking ship.

The likes of Bolivia’s President Evo Morales, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, Argentina’s misguided Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the Castro brothers of Cuba, and other Chavez friends such as Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won’t be mailing in checks.

The Chavez legacy is shameful-rivaling Fidel Castro’s Cuba. It must be seen as one of the most corrupt regimes in the history of Latin America. With a once proud nation of over 30 million people, Venezuela now imports around 70 percent of its food.  Shoppers cannot count on routinely finding sugar to purchase from the shelves.

Hugo Chavez’s lies and deception for votes promised that Venezuela would be turned into a self -sufficient food-exporting power in the world. Venezuelans now find it hard to find milk and butter and now imports half of its beef. His socialist revolution expropriated farms forcing many of the poor into the cities. Massive weapons expenditures were the order of the day for the Chavez regime and continue to this day on an annual basis. Although there is no visible enemy even remotely threatening the homeland, the Russians and other wealthy nations get richer by Venezuela’s government‘s insane and reckless spending, while the people suffer. Another major concern are the assertions and accusations by many that Venezuela’s weapons acquired have little quality control or accountability. Venezuela’s murder rate alone is one of the highest in the world, with a reported 900 weapons recently taken from a Venezuelan prison.

How can the Venezuelan voters fail to turn out in masses to rid their homeland of over a decade of failures and a political system that has raped the Venezuelan homeland of much of its pride and dignity?

A clear reminder of the Chavez rule of Venezuela is Chavez having taken up the banner of Fidel Castro’s original failed revolution as his own for Venezuela; inheriting the legacy of atrocities, human rights abuses, shameful misery, and free-world ridicule. The true results of Chavez's leftist rule until death (1999-2013*) have been some of the most devastating in Venezuela's history, with the poor continuing to live below the poverty line, in squalor, unsafe homes, with little food and rolling blackouts of electricity, All of this with massive oil revenues that can’t be accounted for.  

Although the late Hugo Chavez refused to answer for or remotely explain his fiscal actions; nor openly debate rival candidates for office; the problem lives on and the rule of law is still lacking. The decision for Venezuelan citizens to force change or to accept much more of the usual is up to the min an electoral process that some believe lacks competent oversight.  A clear message to the current regime and those rogue leftist nations represented on Venezuelan soil- such as the 5,000 Cuban troops sent last year; should either welcome them or send them packing.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATES

United States of America

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 Jerry Brewer is C.E.O. of Criminal Justice International Associates, a global threat mitigation firm headquartered in northern Virginia. His websiteis located at  www, cjiausa.org

TWITTER: @cjiausa