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Tyrants can do truly horrible things, can't they?
Though I repeat, it's overall a confusing situation, perhaps there are no missing students at all (there are dozens detained of ones, though).
A couple more things. Protests have kept going on just like yesterday in the afternoon, some peacefully, some not so much.
Also, Maduro has stated that he wouldn't let any protest go on "without [his] permission" because "in this country you need permission to protest". (Considering everything else about what they've done to the country, you're all probably justified in wondering if it's true, but no, he's blatantly lying.)
AAAAAAARGH. It's an orwellian wet dream.
The last time he tried that, it backfired amusingly, he (and the respective mayor) ended up advertising the protest and served as a reminder that it's alright to protest despite his tantrums.
While we're talking about Orwell, there's also "Vice-ministry of Supreme Social Happiness", "Newscast of Truth", "Ministry of Popular Power for Home Affairs, Justice and Peace" (while were at it, all ministries are "Ministry of Popular Power for X"), "Bolivarian", "Revolution" and whatever else I'm forgetting.
Edit: words
I'm kinda surprised they haven't already got to establishing the Ministry of Plenty yet.
I forgot its exact name, but it exists, some military jargony thing about economic defense for the people. AFAIK it's only one of those institutions they make to pretend they're working.
The protests don't seem to be getting any smaller, there hasn't been any major incident either.
As usual, there's division within oppositors as to how effective these protests are, considering that some turn violent, the lack of media, the usual government spinning, the fact that they're taking place mostly in typically oppository areas, and really bad experiences with civil resistance a decade ago.
Leopoldo claims he's not going to flee from arrest, though he hasn't shown up publicly, either way they don't seem very interested in getting him jailed. Ledezma is staying firm. María Corina is promoting the whole thing. Capriles made some ambivalent statements about it all, due to the above objections. The students aren't going to care.
I don't really know what to think, but I do want to say this: Gloria al Bravo Pueblo!
Apparently at night Twitter is useless, you could throughly describe an entire apocalypse with the rumors generated by the lack of actual news.
Anyhow, I was late for today's local protest. It's very disorganized and prone to the telephone game effect, according to a buddy who was told so by someone else, I think. Anyhow, at the time I arrived (late) there was this dispute between the lawful good side that wants peaceful protests, and the chaotic something side that wants to burn tyres and throw stones and shit. I'm siding with the Gene Sharp stuff, though that probably has to do with the fact that I'm too cowardly to do these other things even if I thought they're effective, and damn, I don't know why I didn't expect this, but these guys are pretty fucking unpleasant.
Anyhow, the chaotic faction left to burn tyres nearby (and thus the area around the meeting square looked like a barren town), and I know some people left over all this indecision, buuuuut a load of us marched, it didn't seem smaller than that of 12-F, maybe even larger, and was also much longer, broader, louder, and that's not counting the also large amount of students who stood around the square doing other shit. I hope it keeps growing. Post nubila phoebus motherfuckers.
Judging from photos, the other ones aren't any smaller either. As for other updates:
The Ukrainians might be some inspiration, but I don't know if for better or worse. Try not to get shot.
Thanks for implying I'm not cowardly enough to get into really dangerous situations. I just kinda stick close to the other gazelles, plus the policemen have been fine gentlemen, both municipal (oppository) and regional (officialist). I gotta find a safe way to get back home, though.
Also. before I forget (not news): A bunch of Globovisión journalists quit in protest over the media blackout, and private universities have joined up on the protests, which is somewhat unusual.
Also, I linked to this thread from TVT's OTC thread, so be mindful when backtalking to those assholes.
Hmm, bumped into this while browsing, reminded me of this thread. Could be useful when caught inadvertedly in a cloud of tear gas or something: http://www.wikihow.com/Deal-With-Riot-Control-Agents
What a schitzophrenic situation. Huge, peaceful demonstrations throughout the country, along with loads of scattered road blockings and tyre burning (you get used to the smell), along with regions where simply nothing happens, and the cases below. Also a street can look like a wasteland with fires and rubble and shit and next block be completely fine with people working or eating or whatever, maybe that's normal in these cases, I don't know.
There are a couple things worth mentioning.
Things have been raging really, really badly at Altamira Square. Apparently the National Guard has been using disproportionate use of force, such as point-blank beanbag round shots and tear gas at peaceful protests, and apparently have started using some green tear gas, presumed to be a somewhat toxic agent not suitable for riot control.
From what I can tell, and this is particularly confusing, there was a riot wave at Chacao after a crowd was dispersed, with lots of damaged state property and shit burning. The Student's Movement claims it was done by infiltrators. I wouldn't be surprised if that's true, but neither would I if it was done by rogue students like the ones we've had. Now that I've seen photos of it and people's reaction to it, I understand more about this peaceful resistance thing.
Oh, and an anecdote about all the rumor-mongering going on. in the wee hours last night I heard gunshots in quick succession, as in from an automatic weapon. When I checked Twitter and so to find out about it it was only mentioned by a few sources I don't consider reliable, and didn't mention anything meaningful about it, only that such sounds were heard. If I hadn't heard it myself, I'd have dismissed it as a rumor, not even a strong one, but in this one case I know it's true. Makes you wonder what other "mere" rumors are true.
Also:
At 4:00 am or so the National Guard dispersed with tear gas and shit a night standing, that is, as protestors were sleeping. How brave.
Anyhow, today's been calm so far here, no activity had been planned for the morning or anything.
On infiltrators and stuff, we had our own experience here. There's this imperialist Burger King stand next to the square, they had contributed to the just cause of capitalism by helping out, allowing us to use their fridges and stuff. Two days ago a bomb exploded in their bathroom, set by some stranger who fled as people tried to catch him. The Burger King employees no longer want to have anything to do with us.
Besides that, he effects of not-so-peaceful protests have started showing. The municipal police no longer likes us, and I doubt those who have to take care of their messes are much happier either. Anyhow, talking around I think I've come to understand more the point of view of tyre burners (mostly by listening to someone who isn't a tyre burner himself, which I think says something about their attitude), and it's that by causing some mayhem you're provoking the gov't, and depending on its reaction you can get profitable results. That said, the strategy clearly hasn't worked.
Although there's quite a bit of camaraderie and stuff going on, there's no coordination and people are having doubts if more marches are going to have their effect. I don't know either, it's hard to know what to do when you don't have that motivational and inspirational leader known as peer pressure. Then again the atmosphere change abruptly between morning, afternoon and night, so who knows what'll happen next.
As for the rest of the country, it seems unchanged from yesterday.
The march I went to (out of three simultaneous ones) was larger than all the others I've gone to. It was longer than I could see from either side on a 4-lane street so from now on I'll have to mount on a high place to see if it grows larger. The atmosphere was also more peaceful, not a single burning tyre in sight, flyers with civil resistance tips, etc.
Besides that...
Leopoldo has convoked a march he'd lead this tuesday towards the Ministry of Home Affairs, Justice and Peace, to demand releasing detained students, ceasing repression, dearming collectives (hereafter referred to as paramilitaries), and to get himself arrested, if they dare.
Altamira is still a battlefield.
Apparently a student was anally penetrated with a rifle while under detention.
There's this newspaper, Últimas Noticias, that had been bought by a government sympathiser and had changed its editorial line to be less oppository. After the newspaper more or less ignored everything that happened on 12-F, their journalists gathered so as to express their concerns to the newspaper's management about complicit silence. Whatever they did seems to have worked, because today they published an investigative journalism piece on Bassil da Costa's murder, it showcases the complete involvement and premeditation of the National Bolivarian Guard and National Bolivarian Service of Intelligence (the ones with the bikes) in lethally supressing protestors.
Man, I really didn't think this through. I had a blister on my underfoot from marching. I didn't actually march that much and I thought it would be silly not to keep on for something so small, but now I'm having problems just plain walking. Hopefully it'll be better by tomorrow. it's going to be an eventful day. I guess I'll take this opportunity to post photos, see below (come to think of it, there are many other ones I should have saved but didnt).
So... you know, it's chilling thinking about the implications of that video. The National Guard being deliberately negligent about opposition protests is not news or surprising, but the tactical nature of it all... well, it's far from the only reported case of something like that happening, but it's (AFAIK) the only well-documented one and enough to make me believe it's a generalized case, and that only just now comes up due to the damage on independent journalism, (deliberate?) ghettofication of social classes, and fear. I guess that's what state terrorism is about.
Also, it was kinda expected that a weak government would become more openly dictatorial, but something I didn't expect was that from what I can tell the same thing happened to its more radical supporters. I've read them speak openly about how good it is that public powers gang up in their favour, or explicitly justifying disproportionate repression. It's as if fundamentalist Christians suddenly stopped talking about creationism and the sanctity of marriage and started talking about undermining science and persecuting gay people.
Anyhow, photos:
(A regime can't hide what the rest of the world can see.)
(I graduated in Social Communication. Mention: Twitter. #VenezuelaWithoutMedia )
Ahh, my foot is now good enough for a day's march. Things go so fast I didn't even get to keep up with news despite being at the computer the whole time, and I had my first solid food at 8:00 pm. Experience in Twitter activism would've been useful, I guess marching is my thing. Did you know that when marching for freedom, you don't feel pain or tiredness or hunger or anything? You might feel like hell afterwards, but not during.
As for news (that I can remember anyways)...
A truck ran over a bunch of protestors today, severely injuring one and might have died, currently unconfirmed.
Popular Will's headquarters were raided today by a bunch of paramilitaries, this was at the time María Corina and two other deputees were there. They seized a bunch of stuff and also did some other stuff.
Altamira was not a battlefield today.
Remember what I said about state terrorism, fear and ghettofication by social status (see for yourself)? Well, today a bunch of protests were reported on the left side of that picture, including a few sizeable ones, plus a bunch more in other "poor" places. Maybe, just maybe, Venezuela had stopped being a divided country, and such division was only being kept through terror.
Yup, 18-F is certainly going to be an eventful day. Hopefully in a good way.
Oh, also, another reason I thought about the not-divided thing was that pro-Maduro manifestations have been conspicuously absent. Also in case I gave out the wrong idea, that ghettofication has existed since I think a century ago, it's just gotten worse in recent years for a number of reasons.
Anyhow, despite the lack of TV, today's attendance to manifestations was inmense (I'm the one with the white shirt). And so Leopoldo Mandela turned himself in.
Beyond that, so far protests have been going more or less the same way they did yesterday, but, there was this other paramilitary attack, which left a critically wounded student, and this was after the state's governor ordered to prepare for a "fulminating counterattack". And the student who got trampled over is confirmed to have died.
I'm wondering how bad things have to get before they can start to get better.
The above student has died...
I just heard about that too, sad really.
You may have already answered this, but I haven't had much time to keep up with this thread: Is Venezuela that divided or was that something enforced through blaming other countries like the US as scapegoats for their own problems? Is Maduro really that popular, or something enforced by extreme followers of his?
Sorry to hear that. Back at TVT Daltar mentioned thin wires spread over streets as a protection against chavist (heh heh, "chav"-ist) bikers. Does this work better than placing something on the road to trip them over?
^^ I'm no longer sure about the division thing. Things haven't been going on the way I'd have expected if we were as divided as I had thought, and either way what has been going on most likely would've changed that, not sure if by broadening or reducing division.
Instead I'll say what I would've answered if you had asked me that question last week: Yes, Venezuela is heavily polarized, but as you say it's something that's been fomented by the goernment, by exploiting (already existing) class divisions, with rethoric about rich vs. poor, us vs. them, etc., and as you say, by scapegoating the opposition, the "oligarchy", "The Empire", etc. (and they make an effort to make it look like they're ganged up against them and their followers), not helped by the fact that during the early years of Chávez' government the opposition played right into their hands and contributed to such division (the civil resistance thing I mentioned above).
About Maduro's popularity, nobody likes him except by proxy (he's the PSUV's candidate, he's the continuity of Chávez' legacy, whatever).
^ I have no idea.
Anyhow, so far today repression has been ramped up, with a bunch of incidents reported where things had been calm (including here).
And I think I'll do a reality check. It's easy to get riled up and cheer on some of the mayhem that's going on, but the truth is that I don't know how this will end. The national Onion News equivalent posted a not-joke article about the seriousness of the situation, which I'll take as an indication that I should do the same and keep a cold head.
You know what, I have a pic here: linky. Narrowest I can say for sure is it was taken between '70 and '89. Toilet paper queue. Figured you might be interested in, dunno, showing it to someone.
There's this interview with Guaicaipuro Lameda, president of Petroleums of Venezuela, Anonymous Society (PDVSA) during Chávez' early years, made during late 2012 (after presidential elections) that tells more about the division thing, as well as the populism, clientelism and corruption matters I've mentioned before. It's long but worth a read. The relevancy of some of it to recent events have not gone unnoticed:
"The worst executioners are those with a good heart" Louis-Ferdinand Céline. (French medic and writer)
Carla Angola: I always remember that anecdote you shared me some time on Buenas Noches [opinion show] in which Jorge Giordani [Minister of Planning] confessed to you that it was convenient to make the most needy in Venezuela stay poor. Can you tell us details about that meeting and how that comment comes up? What thought or concern of yours generated that reply?
Guaicaipuro Lameda: That came up as a consequence of me insisting to president Chávez that he was being deceived on economic matters, since projections to five years showed an increasing fiscal deficit, needing indebtment or devaluation and, thus, it was necessary to attend the topic of production so that Venezuela could become independent of the oil rent, just as it was promised on the electoral campaign and how it was presented to me on the project for which we were working. It was at the time it was said to the country that we were lightly shooking off inversionists and the submarine was afloat.
However, inversionists came to the country and found no valid spokesman who would explain to them which were the business opportunities and would go away disappointed because they would spend time and money without getting anything back. NOT EVEN ONE! They left with doubts and vague promises. Chávez accepted that we'd gather to speak about the matter and for that reunion he invited four people: José Vicente Rangel [shady politician], Jorge Giordani, Héctor Navarro [Minister of Education] and Aristóbulo Istúriz [Governor of Anzoátegui] for whom I found at the ministers' council where we were supposed to do the briefing to later reunite with Chávez.
Being there, Giordani asked me what it was about and I told him what I wanted to tell the president and I replied in the following term: "The pluriannual projection tells us we won't have growth, it'll be negative, the fiscal deficit will be growing. We're going to have serious needs of indebtment, since we're losing control over government spending due to populist excuses. The government is not saving in the FIEM [Inversion Fund for Macroeconomic Stabilization], spends everything and we're deceiving when we talk about a growing economy. For that to happen, we'd have to be building warehouses, buildings and all the infrastructure production needs, and that doesn't exist. If it's true that we want to end poverty, its indispensable to generate wealth and to design adequate mechanisms so that its distribution is fair and equitative, and I don't see that either". There Giordani interrupted me and told me: "Look, General, you still haven't understood the revolution! I'll explain: This revolution intends to make a cultural change onto the country, change people's way of thinking and living, and those changes can only be done while in power. The first thing is to maintain power to make the change. Political base is given to us by poor people: they're the ones who vote for us, that's the reason for the discourse on defense of poor people. So, THE POOR HAVE TO KEEP BEING POOR, WE NEED THEM LIKE THAT, until we manage to perform the cultural transformation. Later then we can talk about generation economy and wealth distribution. Meanwhile, we have to keep them poor and with hope." I interrupted him there and I asked: "Since you say 'later', tell me how long do you think that change will take." The answer was immediate: "Look, it's about a cultural change and that takes at least three generations: the adults resist and stick to the past; the young live it and get used to it, and the children learn and make it theirs. It takes at least 30 years."
Carla Angola: What did you respond to Giordani when he confessed such cruel objectives?
Guaicaipuro Lameda: My reply did not wait: "You're telling me this revolution deliberately condemns the poor to live in poverty so that you can stay in power while you try to make people think how you believe they should think. If that's it, YOU ARE SONS OF BITCHES AND I DON'T WORK WITH SONS OF BITCHES.
Giordani angered and told me: "Don't be so rude!". He stood up and entered president Chávez' office. After ten minutes both exited and Chávez told me: "Lameda, Giordani told me you disrespected him". I answered: "No, president! What I told him was that if this revolution's strategy of condemning the poor into not getting out of that condition is deliberate... YOU ARE SONS OF BITCHES AND I DON'T WORK WITH SONS OF BITCHES. That's a conditioned expression to this supposition that I don't accept as valid".
Chávez' response was another one of his clever ways: "Look, Lameda, the thing isn't just like how Giordani tells you; what happens is that he's an idealist just like you. You're at the extremes. I think the mood is heated and it's not worth reuniting that way. We'll suspend it and I'll tell you when we'll hear Lameda". The reunion never happened and, afterwards, it was little what I spoke with Chávez or his ministers. That marked my rupture with the revolution. It's a matter of principles. The exercising of power cannot be above the life of people because in democracy the government is to serve according to the will of people and not to impose people their own will.
Carla Angola: Thanks for telling that, General! I think it's indispensable that the government is uncovered. And it's that it's insisted that one of the reasons for Capriles' defeat on 7-October was due to "disconnection" from the opposition with the poorest and they're condemned to political decisions that for 40 years ignored the least privileged [1958-1998, "The Fourth Republic"]. The brutality of Giordani's confession is that that humble and innocent people trust this revolution and believe it their savior. What if they knew that in reality, they're their executioners?
Guaicaipuro Lameda: I went to Cuba for five days. It was a visite requested by Fidel to Chávez through the Minister of Basic Industries with a double purpose. First, convince me of the need Cuba had of receiving aid from Venezuela, and second, submit me to a process of "revolutionary induction". Chávez had presented Fidel to me on the following terms: "Lameda will be president of PDVSA as long as I'm President of Venezuela".
In the conversation I had with Fidel he told me clearly and to the point: "To maintain ourselves, we need 4,000 million dollars per year. More than that 'obstructs', people start living well and the discourse about the poor is over".
What Giordani said confirms that that same concept was translated to Venezuela. I don't know what's the quantity beyond which money is an obstruction here. But what's certain is that that's why money is given away abroad reaching a double purpose:
"Money burning" and buying international political support and silence. That's why money is given to transnationals to go away. That way there's no new production but instead the money is used to make ourselves owners of a business that already exists. That's the same reason money is wasted on satellites that fund, in reality, the chinese's research and development, who win in their race against "the empire", while Venezuela serves them as support base for a possible penetration on the continent on the long term.
The political-economical strategy to stay in power is easy to explain. First, the government declares itself defender of the poor, with two purposes: Be the adalid and demigod of the poor and defeat the adversary. In that sense, the revolution divides the country in two parts: its friends, the poor; its enemies. "scrawnies, 'majunches', oligarchs, coupsters, petit-yankees" or what's convenient to call them according to the circumstances. Its strategy attends the poor from the E stratus upwards, the D stratus and part of the C. To these people who were always poor, you "give away" what they never had and what nobody would give them with a sensible education policy, who would rather give them the tools to stand for themselves and not depend on the state. That would take time, so the state gives it to them immediately. It's very easy to content people with so many grievances. You convince them that their greater risk is to lose what they now have. Resource are targeted towards them and you mark a "line" above which are the enemies: the C, B and A sector. Satisfying these sectors is more expensive, so you instead dedicate privations to them so as to provoke them and maintain them as an enemy of the government and, as a consequence, enemy of the government's only friend: the poor.
Look what message is being given right now with Nicolás Maduro: with Chávez a bus driver can be vice-president. With Capriles some said Maduro's office would be the progress bus [Capriles' slogan for 7-October's campaign] for him to drive. That's like how when the home lady tells her friend: "I'm going to the hairdresser to have my nails done because I look like a 'servant' [derogatory slang]", and the service lady is there, at her side, listening and making her lunch.
Carla Angola: On October 7 there existed over 5.2 million in a state of total economical dependency with the state (from two or more sources). Upon reading his words, one could ask: you tell me government wants me to stay poor, but in reality they give me money to live. Isn't that a contradiction, General? How to make them understand that the right thing is for the state to generate employment and more academic opportunities so as they can one day be independent and improve themselves through a dign job, not through a gift or loyalty to a man?
Guaicaipuro Lameda: The tactic is to offer a better living right now, they give away the basics you need and promise for the future, for some day. That promise is like a lottery: few win but a lot of people play. The vitalizing element of hope is the electoral process. That's what the revolution uses to give, promise and tow [get people to vote on elections day]. I remember that during the recall referendum PDVSA issued 600 million dollars in credit to farmhands. At the time I was co-owner of a farm in Guárico. To some they gave machinery at credit, to others they gave supplies at credit, to others they gave a great business opportunity (sell the farmhands the supplies they bought at credit). The government was sure that none of them would become a real producer. They gave away everything out of seedtime. And to be even more perverse... when us producers were to get supplies, simply there weren't. This created an informal market of supplies where the "poor farmhands" re-sold the supplies to "rich producers". Besides the government froze the products' price, this left the producer confounded since to profit, they had to buy at the "informal supplies" market. Meanwhile, the PSUV had the list called 1x10 [where one activist is assigned to tow 10 voters in the list] of those who received credit. The lists's heads are responsible to get them to vote in the same truck they used to have them get the supplies. There are many examples about this.
That's the same denounce being done in these 2012 elections. More than eight million Venezuelans are subscribed to Home Mission [housing program]. It's said that they went through the list, went to look for them at their residence and were brought to voting centers mounted for them only.
The general goes on: This which looks like a contradiction is a clear but perverse strategy. The thoughts of people on the D and E stratus are in the order of:
1. "The opposition speaks about the future for my grandchildren. They don't understand how we live and that we don't even have enough to give to our children. Without children, what are we going to discuss about grandchildren? Chávez gives me the day-to-day for my children".
2. "They tell me at the opposition that I must have patience, but I ran out of that, that's good for the young. For me, the future is today, because tomorrow I might be dead. My time to have patience is over. Chávez gives me the day's needs, the pension, the medicines, cheap food and a lot of love".
Those comments I took on work reunions with old pensionates who weren't included, not even in the pension system or didn't collect on time, and mothers who expected help on the government's social programs.
Carla Angola: You've revealed Chávez' plans: sentence the poor to never get away from that condition and to stay voting for him only out of fear to lose what little they've been given. What other alarming signal like that would confirm the absence of ethical politics in this government?
Guaicaipuro Lameda: I remember a couple things. One, the existence of the Garibaldi group (an association of communists at the UCV [Central University of Venezuela]. It's said that Jorge Giordani is the boss. Last year General Carlos Peñaloza linked them with a supposed scam of 500 million dollars at PDVSA's Pensions Fund. It seemed to work behind curtains. I made an investigation about that, I prepared a file and gave it to Chávez at the time his father was hospitalized on Caracas Clinics. His answer put me on alert: "Lameda, you're seeing things that seem what they aren't". Garibaldi is pure communism. The investigation and the president's attitude made me see that there was a hidden agenda, that things were said and done that were lies only to deceive and win time. For example, I remember we were making the nation's budget for year 2000 and were missing 750 billion bolivars in income. I suggested we'd make a spending revision and Giordani denied, instead proposed to include in the budget an income for that ammount as the result of the privatization of the electric sector. That's how it was done and the message that stood was that the government was up for privatization. The rest is history. There was no privatization, an income deficit was generated and later Electricity of Caracas came into the government's hands. In a military war you always prepare a plan to deceive the enemy. That concept has been very well translated to the exercise of politics in Venezuela. That's how Chávez' government operates. Deceive to distract, earn time and get a better position. Then surprise.
Another example is the result of an investigation of the era of Caldera's government, it was about some funds (if I remember well, it was 300 millions of the old ones [currency change]). They appeared deposited on the savings account of a woman who worked in home service. The investigation concluded when Chávez was already president. It was published in a national circulation newspaper with copies of checks and other supports that founded that result and linked some of Chávez' militarymen, but active in administrative positions since earlier governments.
The involved had been directors of finances at the Ministry of Defense and the Army and people of the highmost confidence from the Military Seat Chief and son-in-law of president Caldera. I imagined they'd be punished under all the law's weight, but they weren't. Only General Orlando Navas Ojeda was destituted of the charge he occupied as Vice-minister of Agriculture and Feeding. The others were "pardoned" and now were of Chávez' highmost confidence. I refer to Victor Crúz Weffer and Lucas Rincón Romero [then Minister of Defense]. I did not manage to understand until I found out that those and other resources were used to mask the financial support they gave to Chávez from the Ministry of Defense and the Army, to do political proselitizing and electoral campaigning.
From there on, it really saddened me seeing how the revolution started to operate mafia style: you get involved in matters done in an illegal way and then you have no way out, under the penalty of the law's punishment. That way, those who stay working with the revolution have no other choice but to stay operating outside the law and, at the same time, fulfilling their own interests and keeping the secrets of their comrades to protect themselves. This plotting and ganging up grew to the point where two emblematic cases burst because they have to do with the administration of justice: that of Magistrate Luís Velázquez Alvarray and that of Eladio Aponte Aponte [cases about judicial persecution, narcotrafficking ]. This couple kept lots of secrets to protect themselves in case of a forced retirement.
Carla Angola: The government condemts the rich and tells the poor that the "bourgeois" took everything away from them. Are the functionaries of this revolution loyals to that declaration that being rich is bad? You who were so many times close to the president and his people, would you say their customs are modest, austerous?
Guaicaipuro Lameda: They aren't austerous at all, quite the opposite. What the poor see is that there's a political class who resembles them (the majority of this government's functionaries didn't end their studies, have little preparation, are human beings who make many mistakes) but have a lot of power and use that power to "defend them" from the rich who is ridiculized permanently.
That's how the leader becomes the IDOL. For the poor that idol deserves everything they have or what they hold because it's who "divides and shares". For the rest of the country that is an aberration. That dichotomy becomes another source of confrontation: the poor convince themselves that the rich want to attack their protector because they don't allow them to obtain more wealth. They conclude: rather than have it on the rich's hands, it's better for our people to have it, the government. I remember an expression made by a "revolutionary" in a work reunion: "Now the molass container is in our paddock for our cattle to eat".
Carla Angola: What do you think about the so-called bolibourgeois? Having being inside the monster, did you see these practices? Was it so evident as it's thought the enrichment of this government's functionaries?
Guaicaipuro Lameda: Until 2002, I think it existed in a discrete way, the tangle was being conformed and it wasn't so evident. Chávez still talked about ending corruption and said: "The closer it is, the harder I'll strike it" (corruption). Later, the cases started to flourish: Bolívar 2000 plan was one of the first. What happened I already told you [the Ministry of Defense case]. An automatic solidarity generated because all the "moneythirsty" had entered that hole and had no way out.
Don't miss the second part of this chat I had with General Guaicaipuro Lameda.
To be continued...
Our dialogue with General Guaicaipuro Lameda continues. By the way, he did not participate in the coup attempts in 1992. He spoke for the first time with Hugo Chávez on january 1999. During a long conversation that year, the current president informed him about his political project and asked him to accompany him inside the government. Hugo Chávez assured him that jail had been an episode of reflection and maturing to understand the exercising of politics. Guaicaipuro Lameda says that he believed him and that for that reason he accepted his invitation. But later would understand that the project was another. He assures that the first mandatary pronunciates pretty words to attract people while gained time and spaces so as to advance, dissimulating his true intentions.
"Only constant repetition can finally make it so that an idea stays engraved in the memory of the masses... The great mass of the people... can more easily fall victim to a great lie than a small one"
Adolf Hitler (Leader of the Nazi party)
Second part of the interview
Carla Angola: During our previous conversation you spoke to me about the Garibaldi Group. I was curious about some details from the investigation you made about it. What did your research find out?
Guaicaipuro Lameda: That it was a communist group conformed by university professors who were surrounding Chávez in a process of power accumulation, to impose their far-left ideology, while Chávez talked about the [Great] Patriotic Pole as a mechanism for the conciliation of all political forces.
Carla Angola: Why do you say there's a hidden agenda?
Guaicaipuro Lameda: Because both Jorge Giordani and his colleagues, take communist ideas as if they were religious beliefs. You have to accept them on faith.
Carla Angola: President Chávez told you that there are things that aren't like you saw them. What things did you see?
Guaicaipuro Lameda: As I told you, I saw a group that wanted to impose themselves onto Chávez. After 2002 I realized Chávez
was right, I saw things the wrong way. That was really Chávez' own agenda, but he did not take part of it openly. He was winning time to evolve progressively. The events on April 2002 [(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Venezuelan_coup_d'état_attempt)] opened the doors for him to say so openly.
[Note: That article is run by conspiracy theorists. If I recall correctly the Spanish version is better at it.]
Carla Angola: You tell me that during 2002 you saw there were 750 billion missing from the national budget and that Giordani asked for it to appear as electrical inversion. Do you know where those resources really went to?
Guaicaipuro Lameda: What happened is that the budget for income was less than spending. We had to reduce spending or increase income. Giordani, in the economic gabinet, decided that income would be increased. They would be covered with the privatization of the electric sector. That's how the budget was a approved by the Constituent Congressy presided by Miquelena [(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Constituent_Assembly_of_Venezuela)]. When the budget was executed, there wasn't even the minimum intention of privatizing the electric sector. That income never happened and occurred what's known as: fiscal deficit. In few words, there were matters budgetted that were never paid.
Carla Angola: You say yourself that on April 11 it was absurd to be the leader of a meritocratic rebellion when, instead, you had been designed through the president's finger. At which time did it start incommodating you being part of that way of doing politics?
Guaicaipuro Lameda: My first situation was when I took charge in the negotiation of the contract with the magistrate. It was at the beginning of year 1999. I remember they asked for a pay increase of 65% and there was no moolah to honor that compromise. I asked president Chávez that as Chief of the Budget Office to allow me to make the negotiation. The majority of guild managers were of opposition to Chávez' government. At the end of the negotiation we signed a note with the compromise of a 15% and everybody was satisfied. I gave the note to Héctor Navarro who was minister of Education and a copy to Isaías Rodríguez who was the vice president. To my surprise, Chávez showed up announcing his decision to increase 65% because that was an electoral compromise of his. So, the Republic acquired a compromise that it had no way to pay. It ended being done the same thing that was done in the past.
The second was on 30 May 2000. I remember that date because next day they published it on first page of the economy body of
"El Universal". Chávez summoned me to a meeting at the Miraflores [Presidential] Palace and when I entered his office there was him with: Giordani and José Rojas, ministers of Planification and Finances respectively. Chávez told me: "You're here to listen, take note and instrument what's going to be told to you. You're not here to give an opinion". With that indication I took the due notes and, when I finished, I asked Chávez to allow me to make a comment, so he replied to me: "Be it a comment and not an opinion". Quickly I told him: "President, with this that you're going to do you've just decreed a megadevaluation". Chávez got very angry and told me: "Look, in my government a devaluation will never be decreed. For the revolution that's a swear word. Our government won't be as irresponsible as that of the Fourth Republic that financed itself by devaluating to make the rich rich and to impoverish the people. You're dismissed". I left after telling him: "President, the devaluation will not be a decision of yours but will be the undesired consequence of a conscious decision you're taking". As a curious thing, I handed PDVSA's presidency to Gastón Parra Luzardo on 13 February 2002 at around 10:00 am and hours later Chávez announced a devaluation that he resisted to decree for various months, which he tried to dampen with indebtment and spending the savings deposited by the republic in the Macroeconomic Stabilization Inversion Fund (FIEM). He accumulated a debt of 2,000 million dollars by concept of draw back from the Added Value Tax with PDVSA, among others, but at the end he had to accept the unevitability of economic and financial laws. He ended up as what he criticized: devaluating to finance the government's spending, making the rich rich and impoverishing people.
Journalist Note: Here's the resignation letter from General Lameda to PDVSA. Pay attention to the second part of the missive [9 paragraphs in, you might want to skip the rest].
PDVSA
Guaicaipuro Lameda
Brigade General
President
Caracas, 31 January 2002
Citizen:
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frias
President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
His office.
In attention to our last phone conversation, I understand that my actuation at the from of Petroleums of Venezuela, S. A. (PDVSA) has vanished the grade of confidence that somewhat over a year allowed you to design me to assume its presidency. Since the exercise of charges like this, requiere a high grade of confidence, I allow myself to present you my resignation to all possibility of participation on public charges that the government that you preside over and additionally I ask you to consider, with a favourable opinion, my solicitation that you pass the retirement situation as official of the National Armed Forces, which I will present in brief through the intermediary of the Army's General Command.
In the name of my wife, my children, my mother and my own, allow me to express our gratitude for the extraordinary opportunity that you've brought us for our growth and strengthment during the last three years.
I wish to have you know that during these three years I've collaborated with you on the loyalty and honesty that deserves the confidence you've offered me, always inspired by the firm purpose of supporting a concept of transformation that reverts in national benefit and prosperity and of course, consequent with the motto of the house of blue dreams, our alma mater. "THE MILITARY ACADEMY FORGES WORTHY MEN USEFUL FOR THE NATION"
In consistency with these principles that orient my life and actuation, you can be sure that in my new situation I will continue putting effort to contribute with the transformation that our country requires for the good and harmony of its society. In that sense, and if in the future should circumstances change that have broken the feelings of confidence that kept me as a public servant, I offer at the service of my country the contribution my experience, knowledge and vocation can offer. Just the same I am at your service.
I leave PDVSA at the closing of the fiscal period 2001, I am convinced that my management has been positive, not only in financial terms and tangible achievements but in intangible values such as its institutional prestige at a national and international level, its inner strength and coherence, the laboral tranquility that we've maintained through almost one consecutive year and the inspiration for the corporative growth and development under the vision of "BEING THE WORLD REFERENCE ENERGETIC CORPORATION BY EXCELENCY", oriented by ethical values that make it proud. Due to all that, I wish that you know my gratitude at the valuable human capital PDVSA counts with, because without their support and strength such results would not have been possible.
I wish that whoever succeeds me in the charge enjoys, at least, from the same privileges that God has given me in front of the Corporation since the times that come look difficult and complex. The same way, allow me to ask you for whoever succeeds me in charge, the instrumentation of decisions exogenous to PDVSA that nowadays are required to guarantee the future financial solidity and health of the most important industry in the country.
The same way, I leave the National Armed Forces because, being honest with you in your character as Commander in Chief, I would not feel comfortable enough to direct part of its organization under schemes and concepts that differ those for which I am prepared and ready to follow. You know how it hurts to leave behind a whole life, I will hang the uniform but not my convictions.
Mister President, I am, nor have ever been, nor will ever be a conspirator, quite the opposite I am an honest and loyal man, that has brought me to this resignation: I do and say what I feel in a frontal manner, to that end I do not hide behind shadows, I don't use interposed individuals and I assume the consequences of my acts. I do this provisionality under the convincement that the circumstances, facts and individuals who have today turned me into a functionary of low trustworthyness will try to make me look like a conspirator. Nothing further from that, I am a fighter of convictions and principles, the Liberator [Simón Bolívar] has already suggested it to us: "MORALITY AND GUIDANCE ARE OUR FIRST NEEDS", thought that personally means that each individual has to cultivate knowledge and rectitude in behaviour as a fundamental base of actuation.
Finally, I wish the best and greatest of successes in your management as President of the Republic since the success of your functions translates as a collective good. However, allow me to ask you a favour in benefit of your success.
President, RECTIFY. In that sense, and to make it brief, I believe that a good place to start would be the revision of the context that a few days ago you transmitted in one of your speeches: "THE POLITICAL, THE SOCIAL, very stupid". Reviewing this concept, you can identify the reasons for which your closest collaborators have brought the economy and finances of this country in the situation they're in, and with a tendency that will unevitably become irreversible if there's no acting up with the swiftness and courage such situation requires.
Attentively;
G Lameda M
Carla Angola: Your participation in the events of April 2001-2002 have costed you much viligance and permanent harassment. I understand that the latest bad experience you lived was at the beginning of this year. With which argument were you arrested?
Guaicaipuro Lameda: Thank God, people who accumulated at the airport's exits, social networks and a firm position on my part. They never gave me a reason, beyond that which supposedly existed a capture order against me. I asked them to show it to me to accompany them and told me that it was a phone order. I tell you: "Thank God", because at that instant I saw a functionary of the CICPC [Scientific, Penal and Criminalistic Investigative Body] and I asked him: "What's done when there's a flagrant crime?" And without hessitating he answered: "You detain whoever perpetrated the crime". That answer allowed me to tell him: "Well, you should take action in this case and have these three people detained who say they're functionaries and want me jailed without there being a judicial order. That's a crime called illegitimate privation of liberty". The CICPC functionary went to check the system they have over there at the airport and came with a registry paper to tell the three functionaries that: "Mr. Lameda has no restraint order in the system. Do you have it?"
From there on the tables turned and the functionaries left with the tail between their legs.
Carla Angola: Since those April days, Venezuelans remained with the disease of immediacy. The "Chávez, go away already!".
They learned to fight only through electoral boxes, yes, but in each electoral process there's the belief that the man will go away. That it's the "now or never!". Why has Hugo Chávez' departure turned into an epic battle? Isn't democracy supposed to be like that? That presidents come, leave, period?
Guaicaipuro Lameda: Like I told you, this is a project that aspires for a change in the way of thinking of Venezuelans. It's making it so that we Venezuelans "convert" to that which they believe is the correct ideology.
They're convinced that that will only be possible through the prolonged continuation in the exercise of the government and the control of all public powers.
To that end, the strategy is a confrontation in between two sectors: one that disappears in time as a natural reason of life and death and another that will grow since childhood due to indoctrination in the family core and school. Look that, even though, through 14 years of revolution, private enrollment has grown quicker than public enrollment, public staffs represent close to 80% of the school universe in basic education. That's where there's indoctrination and the relation is 80-20 in favour of the revolution.
In a real democracy, the president should've retired in respect to the principle of alternativity, but if we review the fundamental values of democracy, we'll find that Chávez cheats them in a systematic way. The worst thing is that there are those who congratulate him because he "won" the elections. I see that as an hypocrecy that annoys the opposition elector who feels frustrated.
Carla Angola: If it had depended on you to convince the people to vote for an option different of Chávez, if being given and giving the opportunity to another. What would you have done? What would you have said?
Guaicaipuro Lameda: Carla, I believe it's not so much about saying but doing. It's necessary to form an opposition of actions and results. It's an approach that has little echo in Venezuelan politics. I understand that in democracy the respect to diversity is required, this is a fundamental principle. But We must also understand that it's necessary to conciliate this diversity with unity of purpose.
While the Unity [MUD] stays at the level of discourse as suport to an electoral coalition, the strategy will not be very effective in front of that which the government executes. This approach I've been doing for a while at the core of meetings, organizations and forums where representants of various political parties participate. I think I haven't known how to explain it or I haven't presented it in the right place. What's true is that it has had no echo. Look that elemental things which is a municipal responsibility has been usurped by the National Executive. An urban chaos is being created that doesn't resist any environmental impact analysis and, everything happens, in municipalities where both mayors and governors and, of course, electors are majoritarily of opposition. The sad thing is that there people haven't been offered a different model that is an alternative that people can see in action. Doing it is possible. However, the immediacy that promises for today a home that is "better than the slums" has been imposed; the future we'll mend later. That's been a constant in Venezuela. Remember the slum consolidation plan? That was the response to mend a slum that was born at the margin of urbanism and with the own effort of people who did not receive proper attention to their needs. Demagogy was also done with that. That's known and people remember it. Now they give them a home and as they say, "well fit" ["My Home Well Fit", another one of those populist programs, with subsidized appliances].
Seeing the results, I think that was a determinant factor to support the movilization capacity of the 1x10 that the government structured.
We have to be clear that it's no little thing that after 14 years of "bad government" with all the mistakes and calamities that have occurred, it still maintains itself with an unquestionable popular support. [The exact number is questionable.]
We don't need numbers, let's speak about concepts. It'd be expected that a bad government like the one we have would have support less than 25% of electors. Past 7-October's voting it's been recognized 55% of support. Their strategy works for them. What does one have to do to neutralize it and defeat it? That requires analysis, preparation and coherence in time. One has to mark clear differences without trying to look like the other. If Chávez is capable of conquering the will of people with absurd rallying cries: "With me, barefoot, nude and hungering", I believe the opposition strategy should be conceived in terms of granting the poor results that they'd like to see and that the revolution is incapable of producing. It's been demonstrated that that can't be done by a single man and, much less, in three months. One has to challenge and dare the revolution from action.
Journalist note: That{s why it's imperative to earn spaces in December's regional elections and demonstrate with facts a prosperous country, different from Chávez'. [The elections resulted in 3/23 governorships for the opposition.]
The General goes on: Imagine governorships and mayorships building the alternative model of urbanism, education and health.
Carla Angola: Were you surprised by sunday's results?
Guaicaipuro Lameda: Honestly, yes. It was dramatic the change in the environment in between 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm. I think the abusive political merchandising, the managing of the Electoral Registry and the abuse in the use and application of the State's resources and being consequent with their strategy, made them winners. I recommend reviewing the so-called "36 Chinese Strategies" compiled in Gao Yuan which, by the way, are summarily reviewed in the Ministry of Defense's webpage.
Reading this summary, you'll find many answers due to the similitude with which venezuelan political confrontation occurs. There are naïve people who believe that it's only about doing an electoral campaign and count the papers inside boxes. That's only the end of a journey. I thought we were better prepared, but I was wrong and it surprised me.
Carla Angola: We have the suspicion about the state of the country's main industry (PDVSA): leaks, explosions, low production, donations to other countries. But nobody has been able to audit it for 14 years. What state do you believe it's in? What's what worries you the most?
Guaicaipuro Lameda: Each country has its realities. Iran in the 70s had an average production above 5 million daily barrels.
After the islamic revolution in 1979 its production fell to the lowest level in 1981: 1 million 300 thousand daily barrels. For the first decade of 2000, its average production reached 4 million daily barrels. That is to say, Iran in 30 years hasn't recovered the production values it had previous to its 79's revolution. I think this is not incapacity, but instead, a necessity not to do it.
Russia, on the other hand, managed to produce its lowest levels on the 80s with 6 million daily barrels, situation that maintained itself until 1999. There the political will expressed by Vladimir Putin started a race for the increasing of production that nowadays surpasses 10 million barrels. In other words, a political decission in Russia allowed that for the last decade its production would grow more than what's Venezuela's production today.
In our case, for 1998 we managed to have a production potential of 4 million daily barrels with an effective production of 3.5 million daily barrels. Nowadays it's hard to credible operational numbers. If you read the report Rafael Ramírez [president of PDVSA] presents about 2011's management results, published on PDVSA's webpage, not even from the moment he says: "Let's talk about production", does a number show up about average production during 2011. Only lamentations and complaints about the past, more compliments and glories for the revolution. All a vulgar manipulation of comments and numbers. That is, he's planning a sudden increment of production until almost 6 million barrels, to then, after two years, fall to 4 million barrels. Those are numbers any person can check.
The formally registered production number shows up in the financial report where it says: "the average total production for year 2011 was 2,991 million barrels daily at a national level".
That way, the main problem PDVSA faces, is lack of seriousness and formality about the presentation of trustworthy information. That data mess leaves space for any dubious matter. By the way, every dollar difference in the price of oil means more than a million dollars in a year.
[The following until the last paragraph is about Gral. Lameda's personal life, you might want to skip it.]
Carla Angola: What do you dedicate your life to, General?
Guaicaipuro Lameda: I've only done some counceling from a very low profile position. For the next year, I'll see.
Carla Angola: Do you regret something, General?
Guaicaipuro Lameda: I'm not a person who regrets. I try to learn from mistakes I make and assume responsibility and consequences for what I do or don't do. I also don't like transferring responsibilities or faults, just like how I don't like being endowed responsibilities or faults that aren't mine. May everybody assume their abyss.
Carla Angola: General, yesterday when I published my Instagram your photo announcing my column for today, one of my followers wrote: "That's a thief like any of them! He has a huge house in Santa Fé. What would you answer to that?
Guaicaipuro Lameda: Incurring in acts like that mentioned would be betraying my parents' memory. If it weren't for what they've taught me under that zinc ceiling, cement floor house in Barquisimeto, I'd probably still be president of PDVSA.
That was the offer Chávez gave me. Probably I'd have changed my house in Santa Fé for a mansion in La Lagunita, surely bigger than that one Leopoldo Castillo Bozo left abandoned (one of the directives for the firm intervened by the government, BanValor Insurances), maybe I'd be part of the chavist bolibourgeoisie. However, I preferred to retire from the revolution because I felt it inmoral.
Since little, my parents taught me the worth of work. I remember three phrases that I always have with me: We're poor, but honest, what we have we've earned with the sweat of our brow and all honest work is worth, no matter what it is.
Carla, you caught me on a sensible day to me. Yesterday was the first anniversary of my mother's death. She suffered much for the last 10 years due to the persecution I've had to endure. It remembered her the anguish my father lived during Pérez Jiménez' era. My dad was jailed all the time. He was owner and editor of a newspaper, he was a militaryman, worked in Creole [an oil company] and nowadays in a Bolivarian College [government managed ones, not to be confused with autonomous ones (both are state-owned)], it has his name; they've wanted to change it, but the people there won't have it.
I bought my house on October 1998. Chávez was still not elected president. The elections were in December. It was an old house with many maintenance problems. I managed to negotiate and buy it for much less than what it costed. I paid it with savings I had, with the totality of my assignation of antiquity at the FAN [National Armed Forces] (I was thinking about retiring from the FAN, since in Caldera's government I hadn't managed the rise to General and saw it unlikely that it'd happen in Chávez' government) and with a mortgage credit whose ammount was "special" for my colonel grade, which, they conceded to me as it was, as a consolation prize for not having ascended me to General. My wife cried when I bought the house because it was very precarious and flooded when it rained. It was what I could buy, with the hope that I'd improve it when I retired from the FAN.
My situation changed, Chávez called me to work with thim and even assigned me as president of PDVSA. Everything I earned, I inverted it in fixing the house. It has no luxuries. I invite you to know it. I was president of PDVSA and nowadays I receive a pension equivalent to 99% of what an General in Activity collects.
Journalist note: The General even attached to the mail, his last bill form, so that I could see what he collects for 27 years of service. It impressed me how transparent and open he was. Throughout our whole conversation he did not deny answering any of my inquiries and without asking him sent private documentation so that anybody could know details about his income. Thing that, of course, I won't review or publish in this article, but that left me pleasantly surprised.
The General goes on: I had a farm in El Sombrero, Guárico state, which I bought in society with 3 people and 70% was financed by Canarias Bank (which, by the way, was before the participation of some chavists in that business bankrupted it) and ended up selling it because it was dangerous. They wanted to link me with the Daktari farm thing. They raided it and were cooking up a montage to involve me with narcotrafficking. Afterwards I had a contract with Cantv - Movilnet [telecommunication companies] which was very good. I won it in a free and tough competition with over 20 participants (my business associated to that of Movilnet, in 15 months, grew over 300%, while Movilnet in that sector grew 80%). However, the government bought Cantv and through a letter sent by Jaqueline Farías rescinded me from the contract "in an unilateral way" and sent me a message: "If you want to, file a lawsuit!" After that, I've done freelancing jobs and that's what I've lived from.
The moralist Séneca said that if laws did not prohibit it, honesty could. This interview did not pretend to vindicate Guaicaipuro Lameda's image or anything. The intention was to reveal that atrocious strategy of the president to speak in the name of the poor, while in reality seeks to drag them deeper to maintain himself afloat. But I realized that sometimes we generalize and believe that everybody who's been close to these contaminated politics have been infected and were contagiated. What do you think?
Warning: Graphic.
Also, Táchira state has been militarized.
And our meeting square has been raided and ransacked by the National Guard.
I hope my politicians don't hurt the issue with their comments.
At the very least, reading ambassador Cochez' tweets is a rousing experience.
Also, Táchira wasn't militarized with guards and APCs, but with tanks and attack planes, and had its electricity, internet and water service shut off . Tanks have also been reported in Barquisimeto (Lara).
Protests have kept on, including in these places. I can't tell if with greater or lesser intensity than before.
Anyhow, I'm confused as to what to do now. We no longer have our precious square and as usual, Twitter is confusing.
Edit: Also, the student who got trampled over (José Ernesto Méndez) looks a lot like Everest. Makes you think about how easily victims could be someone you know.
Ruben Blades comments are far more profund though.