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I'm not sure what exactly is the pun and what is not, to be honest.
By the way, I was about to ask you about that ordeal and the reputation the dude has in your part of the world.
Wow.
Fun fact: around here, there is almost mainstream belief that he was a commie collaborator. There still are diehards, but it seems to me that by and large, the main question people discuss is whether he went rogue soon enough, or was an agent all the time. This is all mixed with current politics, so there might be nuances I'm failing to point out. Recently, a widow after an important commie revealed he kept at home fifty kilograms (!) of sensitive secret police reports, and this is expected to provide much information about the time of "Solidarity". Of course, no true believer on any side will be swayed by that, but it's still interesting.
commie collaborationistcooperating compatriot, he clearly wasn't very good at it.2. Why doesn't Amazonas have representation?
Also, I read "the Pope" as "the Pepe". Too much internet, I guess. Although that would have been mightily funny.
Blackout schedules are here, 4 hours of homeland for 40 days. Except Caracas, they get away scot-free again, gee... Does that make the PSUV capitalist?
Here in Maracaibo a bunch of transformers blew up, causing a ~20 hour blackout in some areas. That along with the rationing in turn sparked a bunch of protests.
A slight controversy arised after the govt. sent a bunch of supplies to Ecuador for the relief effort over the earthquake while scarcity is raging here.
On parliamentary news...
A bunch of MUD deputies chained themselves at the Electoral Council offices. In turn a bunch of journalists were forced out, injuring some of them, and a the Nazional Guard attempted to force the deputies to cease, at which point it seemed like a fight would erupt. Anyhow, the rectors claimed they're going to seek legal actions against the deputies.
is going on with their constitutional amendment proposal, and approved
it in its first discussion. The amendment aims to shorten presidential
terms (from 6 long years to 4), a limit of one reelection (rather than
indefinite reelections bullshit) for the prez, governors and mayors (one
oft-cited reason for Chávez' 2009 amendment passing (which hopefully will soon turn into a victory of
shit) is that by throwing a bone for oppo. figures so they wouldn't be
too against it, guess they're going to have to suck it now), and making
it so that the Assembly elects who takes charge if the prez goes away
(recall referendum included) within the term's last year (rather than it
being the vice-president within the last two years).
only issue is that the last one looks rather opportunistic, but I'm
very happy to know that there's political will to undo longass terms.
Naturally, it wasn't going to last, the Tribunal ruled it unconstitutional arguing that it's retroactive (as expected, which arguably isn't that far-fetched), that it goes against popular will (despite involving a referendum), and that it goes against some precedent about the amendment of a constitution. Not the constitution, mind you, but a constitution, in this case the Empire's constitution.
(I don't think I mentioned it, but they did something similar to the Central Bank law arguing that many other constitutions don't have stuff about independence for their central banks.)
(I'm still happy to know that the MUD is willing to go for reasonable term limits.)
I also just noticed the Assembly stopped doing that thing about commemorating dead people and stuff.
edit:
Honestly speaking I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if we beat you up to it.
The above riots have extended outside Zulia, and have gotten harsher,
there's been lots of lootings since, lots of naziguard activity on the
streets, and from what I've heard people have taken to stealing power
line cables during blackouts. Shit's been crazy tense. Hopefully things
will calm down before a Maracaibazo or something.
On that point, no blackout last Thursday (28/04). I think I'll be counting exceptions.
You know how Nico declared fridays to be non-labourable for the public sector? Now he extended that to wednesdays and thursdays as well. The joke about Maduro decreeing vacations is halfway done in turning into reality.
The Electoral Council finally released the template for signing papers that the MUD was requesting, so it took weeks and the threat of marches to come up with this. Anyhow, the MUD changed the mobilization for a signing drive, and would you look at that, shitloads of people poured onto signing places to stamp their signature onto those papers, surpassing all expectations. Anyhows, the MUD got over 5x the amount they needed (1%, or just under 200k, although the real challenge will come later when they have to gather 20%). Also some of the activists were robbed by collectives, who took the signatures they had gathered away.
On that point, I've seen a bunch of random 'net chavists taunting oppositors about Tascon's List.
Diosdy is again accusing the oppo. (especially Popular Will) of plotting a coup, in this case with the help of Hebert García Plaza, the until-recently superintendent of fair prices who apparently stole a bunch of money and left the country while I wasn't paying attention.
Chuo was attacked (and fought back) by a bunch of reds during a march against blackouts. You can see it here (what the dude is yelling is "put lead on them" (i.e. shoot them), first at "whoever gets in", then as a direct order). Deputy José Trujillo was also attacked, presumed to have been by Luis Motta Domínguez' bodyguards.
On parliamentary news...
amped up the rhetoric on how their rulings are anti-constitutional and
should be disregarded.
I'll miss malta.
Johans Vizcaíno, activist close to Lester Toledo (locally notable orange and potential Zulia's governmental candidate), was kidnapped, beat up, they tried to force him to confess against Lester, and for good measure used him as a warning against Lester's daughter's life.
See the dude in blue filming the whole thing in the video of the attack against Chuo? He's Oswaldo "Mango Head" Rivero, one of the presenters of VTV's Zurda Konducta, i.e. a notorious red propagandist.
The Operation Liberation of the People (that anti-crime military operation thing of dubious human rights record) has been at it recently, killing 9 people and arresting over a thousand over the last few days in Caracas.
Maduro said he'd make up a team to revise the signatures. Not the National Electoral Council, him. Also he and Pimentón have made emphasis that they'll check the signatures "one by one". And so the team was formed, including none other than Jorge Rodríguez (current mayor of Libertador in Caracas and former president of the Nazional Electoral Council at the time of 2004's recall referendum bullshit) and Hermann Escarrá (former opposition trojan horse, currently a suckup making shit up to legally justify the PSUV's abuses).
The MUD organized a march towards the Electoral Council's offices. The govt. pulled all the tricks (obstructing counter-marches, claiming that they have no permission, warnings, etc.). All in all the Nazional Gorillarian Guard prevented the marchers from reaching their targets (at one point Caracas' marchers sneaked around some wilderness), and delivered a dose of good gas and shit to protestors, most notably Capriles was soaked with socialist pepper spray.
Lilian and a bunch of MUD deputies have started a world tour to gather medicines donations for Venezuelans.
Who will have the honor of having the new and improved Tascón List be called after him/her?
Blackout
exception: Sunday 01/05, (8:00am-12:00pm). Made up for the fact that on
Monday there were three, totalling 6 hours. Another exception on
Tuesday 03/05 (8:00am-12:00pm). More exceptions on Sunday 08/05, Monday
09/05 and Tuesday 10/05.
As for parliamentary news...
news is that this time the MUD decided to make the "slacker's" absence
into something special.
For Thursday's sessions...
But none of that matters because...
And finally, it was bound to happen. Maduro has declared a state of exemption.
The other day I learned that the thing people were saying about the Tribunal using Nazi ideology in their rulings wasn't some sort of comparison, but actually basing their rulings on quotes from an actual Nazi jurist justifying actual Nazi shit (Carl Schmitt).
Polar has announced that they lack the supplies they need to keep making PAN cornmeal, their other, most noteworthy flagship product. Precooked cornmeal is what you use to make arepas, the most Venezuelan of meals, and as such corn farmlands and processors are one of the most aggressive targets of expropriations and thus the most notorious case of scarcity. There's a good chance some of you have an easier time finding our typical food in your markets than we do. Anyhows, Polar's was the one brand you could (rarely) find anymore, so...
Blackout exception: Sunday 15/05, Tuesday 17/05 and Wednesday 18/05. That's a lot of exceptions, isn't it?
Speaking of exceptions, it seems that due to Maduro's decree we're once again at the international spotlight. With that
I'm also once again seeing foreign socialists' denial about our crisis
having to do with the 'S' in 'PSUV'.
By the way if you read something about The Man
expropriating halted factories to give them to "workers" (presumably a militaryman), they've been
threatening to do that for years and there's no particular reason
they'll actually go for it now.
It's worth noting that the decree of state of exception includes
extending the state of economic emergency again, which the constitution
forbids. The Assembly insta-rejected it, we'll see what the Tribunal
says about this.
I've been thinking. The PSUV has made it clear we aren't going to have a recall referendum this year, and the National Electoral Council has worked to that end. The economy keeps deteriorating, and even a sudden rise in oil price wouldn't make things bearable. The regime has seen to it that they , and it seems they're really going to act on their threats to finish off the National Assembly. People are growing desperate, with no visible solution to this. With all these things, there more time passes, the less likely it seems that this will keep on in a civilized way...
The blackout schedule has been changed to three hours per day, and none during the night. There's been no exception so far under that schedule.
Remember one of the new currency control schemes, the one with a flexible rate? It's been increasing nonstop since then and is currently at over 500 Bs.F/$, only half of the black market rate (which hasn't moved for a long while). So much for the economic war.
There's been lots of reports on the peeps arrested during last week's march having been tortured, and most notably one of them was kidnapped and held incommunicated by the SEBIN (but has since shown up).
Huh, Capriles released a short video that can be reasonably interpreted as a call for the Armed Forces to go for a coup. That's quite a change in rhetoric.
The Tribunal forbid protesting at the Electoral Council's offices, who
claimed among other things that marches without permission must be
violent. Capriles called for a protest at the Tribunal's offices
instead.
The Tribunal declared the state of exception to be "constitutional". Not that it's on, mind you, but we all know that this will be used as an excuse to say it is. It's worth noting that legally if the Assembly rejects it the Tribunal shouldn't even bother with a ruling, so...
The Tribunal also ruled that in case of public functionaries with double nationality in positions where they aren't allowed (e.g. the President), that the Venezuelan nationality "supercedes" the other ones and thus isn't against the constitution, making those parts of the constitution pointless. I'm starting to believe the Maduro-is-Colombian thing.
Maduro had the Nazional Gorillarian Armed Farces do some military exercises in Caracas, specially from the Militias, the unconstitutional branch (pics). Much opposition mockery was had about the terrible state of our military (less flattering pics), but on the more worrying side it was also an opportunity to showcase how politicized they are, and also went on to showcase how PSUV-identified civilians are being armed and are part of the state's military forces. That's how civil wars get started...
Once again there's been lots of talking about a serious dialogue between the opposition and The Man. It's of course more necessary than ever, but at the same time there's no reason to think anything positive will come out of it. Oh well...
As for parliamentary news...
As for Thursday...
Retired General Felix Velásquez has been murdered, apparently by two members of Chacao's police (i.e. under Ramón Muchacho's mayorship). Can't say I knew who he was, but as expected the PSUV is accusing the MUD of stuff over his murder.
The Organization of American States' secretary Luis Almagro invoked their Democratic Charter against the govt. Unfortunately all that PetroCaribe money did its thing and its members merely ended up with a toned down accord supporting dialogue and stuff.
On dialogue, there's been this secretive stuff going on. A bunch of MUD representatives, noteworthy reds and three expresidents went to Republican Dominic in secret, and the information leaked. According to the govt, they're went to dialogue (but clarifying that they will never yield anything), according to the expresidents to begin arrangements for the dialogue or something like that, and according to the MUD, the two parts met the expresidents separately and sorted out conditions for the dialogue to happen. Elsewhere, speculation abounds.
Yup, looting reports haven't subsided one bit. I guess they're here to stay. There's also been lots of protests in needy areas, and repression there seem to have been particularly nasty. Most notably there was this one in a bunch of places in Caracas right next to Miraflores, including Naziguard+pigs+collective ganging up, attacking journalists, using firearms, etc. and oddly enough a bunch of those collectives were using police batons.
You know, I've been tracking the differences between Venezuelan and foreign orthodox socialists. For a long time there weren't many, but one that has come up seems to be that Venezuelan ones no longer seem to care about socialism, they just want the government to be less incompetent, or even want it to leave and let a competent group govern even if they aren't socialist.
It's been six months since the MUD snatched Diosdy's parliament, it's a good time to rate their performance.
Right before 6-D I had low expectations for the elections, like most people I didn't even consider the MUD could get so many deputies, or that it would matter if they did. Fortunately my low expectations were fulfilled before they even swore themselves in, and since then my opinion on the new parliament has only gone up.
They've once again forced the PSUV to show how unrepentantly abusive they are, and have made it clear that, yes, every possible solution for the country necessarily involves getting rid of this government. Besides that, for ages I've mostly judged the opposition on their ability to oppose, but now that I've had a glimpse of what a MUD government would be like, well, I can now say from experience that I want the MUD to govern my country.
On other parliamentary news...
- Aproval on its first discussion of a law on public finances, focused on descentralization or something. I'll have to read more about it once I have the time.
- A proposal to interpellate the Minister of Ecosocialism and Waterworks.
- Aproval on its first discussion the law on public health sector employees.
- An accord to cheer on the attention we're getting on a bunch of international organization on our crisis.
And there was no session on Thursday due to deputy scarcity. Gee guys, I rooted for you a few paragraphs above.It hasn't been a good week.
There was this looting going on in San Cristóbal, Táchira. Jenny Ortíz went there looking for her son, and was caught and shot in the face at point-blank range by a pig, killing her.
There was also this protest for food in Cariaco, Sucre, brutally
repressed by Naziguards+pigs who went so far as to use weapons of war,
resulting in one dead and 11 injured. You can see it here. (The nasty part starts at 1:30).
There was also yet another riot, this time in La Vega, Caracas. This one turned into a gunfight, in which a National Bolivarian Guard and Police were shot and wounded.
There's also been a bunch of looting for random shit besides food, a truck ferrying
surgery material got looted, so did another one ferrying plastic chairs.
According to the Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict, there had been
254 lootings by the end of May, twice as much as the same period in
2015.
Julio Borges was attacked by collectives, breaking his nose. This was at the Electoral Council's offices, in front of a bunch of naziguards who pushed him and other deputies into the attackers.
The ridiculously delayed signature gathering audit is complete. According to witnesses' testimonies it was the most bullshit thing ever, based around making rules up such as nulling whole sheets of signatures on things like writing "Presidente" with a "C", being extremely nitpicky about handwriting, people signing outside states they vote in, etc. Anyhows 600k signatures (about a third) were nulled, meaning pretty much everyone has a story on it (my brother's got nulled, I'll ask about my friends when I get the chance), most notably Capriles' along a shitload of oppo figures' were nulled, although I don't doubt many were signed by PSUVers to call out the results. Anyhows, those who signed have to confirm their signatures at the Electoral Council's at the capitals of their respective states, which can be far away. I don't doubt that the 1% gathering will be completed, but I think it's a good time to accept that the 20% one won't (especially considering the 20% per state thing), and the only point in trying is a sense of duty.
The CLAPs (Local Committees for Supplying and Production, those new neighbor food distribution things) are being accused of discriminating against oppositors, denying them food or blackmailing them. At the very least, the PSUV really wants us to know that they're a "political measure" for the "defense of the revolution".
I think I've realized one reason my opinion on the MUD has gone up. For a long while I've had ideas on what they should or shouldn't do, so I would think less of them if they did something different and it didn't work out. Whether I was right or wrong, for the last months things have worsened to the point that I have no flipping idea what should be done anymore, and I'm not really sure anybody else knows, so I can't really blame the MUD or anybody for trying whatever they see fit.
Friday 10/06's blackout lasted only for ~5 minutes. Counting it as an exception, it's the only one since the 3-hour schedule.
Oil just broke the $40 mark, currently sitting at $40.53, or ~2 Calderas.
I think it's time to start pointing out that oil prices aren't low,
merely not sky-high. The Dutch disease should be renamed to Venezuelan
Disease.
I've been wondering... in Venezuela the notion that oil prices rise and
fall is as ingrained as the notion that the sun rises and sets, but
reading some foreign stuff sometimes I get the impression that they see the fall in oil prices as some sort of hard-to-foresee accident that you
can't really blame governments for not preparing against. Is that true?
(Also
mentioning using oil money to incentivize non-oil production as a novel thing and not the
obvious (and argueably wrong) policy proposed by most politicians for
almost a century.)
I just noticed that Ramos Allup stopped using long words.
On parliamentary news...
- The Los Andes University Hospital representatives got to speak at the hemicycle.
- A law on Protection against Individuals with Celiac Disease or Condition unanymously passed its first discussion.
- The law against phones and stuff on jails passed unanymously. I'm
- An accord to reform the Law on Added Tax Value.
- An accord to repude CLAPs for discrimination.
- Approved the creation of the commission to change the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, based on that report made ages ago.
- An accord to exhort the Executie to pay up governorships and mayorships their dues. Apparently he's been late at it again.
- An accord to thumbs-up the OAS' support for a dialogue.
As for Thursday's session...guessing they'll let that one through, but I doubt the wardens will
manage to enforce it in our most anarchic jails.
It's probably not a good time for this, but I think I'll once again stop checking news so regularly, it's kind of obstructing the other stuff I'm supposed to be doing.