The primary for foreigners
In my primary set-up piece for the IHT/NYT Latitude Blog, I take time to reflect on just how far the opposition has come from the boneheaded maximalism of 2002-2006 to get to Sunday’s primary.
From Carlos Ortega ranting about the Rrrrrrrrrégimen Totalitario every afternoon, to the Autobus del Progreso, we’ve come a really long way.
Juan also has a piece framing the primary, over on Foreign Policy’s Democracy Labs blog. He focuses on what he sees is the real struggle on Sunday: between Capriles’s message and Pérez’s political machine.
good write-ups, both of you. the only other thing that would have me lighting ‘luces de Bengala’, no, hasta tumba-gobiernos, would be if the two of you were to vote on Sunday 12F.
I’m voting. Quico is not, since he’s registered in Montreal and is currently working for you all from Caracas.
Kudos to you for voting, JC. At least, Quico is now registered abroad. (glad that my efforts in pounding him to do so, over several years, finally worked ;-) Too bad the vote isn’t more portable. In the meantime, I hope Quico is also working for himself. That’s usually how it plays out … unless someone’s trying to pull a guilt trip on his readership …
I honestly think Juan Nagel’s article about Capriles “message” and Perez “machine” is one-sided and too black/white. I disagree with the “message” being associated with Capriles and the “machine” alone with Perez. I think there’s a bit of both in each campaign. The so called machine is a bunch of people too, working hard to elect the candidate they like. I think there’s a lot of trashing around calling UNT’s hard ant-like work “machine” and forsaking the human side. Perez has a strong message too without the disconnect. I do see a bit of a disconnect between Capriles and his message, too much talk of Lula Lula and yet i do not see the “left of center angle” to his discourse.
And Juan should have talked about AD-Copei governing every single year of the Cuarta (except Caldera II, but he was a Copeyano anyway), instead of AD only, since PP is big in Táchira, and Táchira is green these days. But, hell, that’s nitpicking, the idea comes clear and it’s easy to grasp.
My honest congratulations, guys, you are a national resource!
“you are a national resource!”
You mean over-exploited? Yeah, that we are. :P
I would rather say “exported as (almost) raw material by a national economy unfit to use its potential, and transformed by advanced countries acknowledging and developing it”.
It is a great resource to have this information – and the related commentary- in English. The North American english language media – with a couple of notable exceptions- does a pathetic job of covering Latin America and as for Venezuela…forget about it. You guys – and the other Venezuelans who participate on this blog- are providing an important – and entertaining – window on the situation from the “inside”.
“You guys” -have an almost unfair advantage-being like a bipolar duo-Mr. Cristobal is generally the most likeable “guy” on the planet-ha and Mr. Toro -sometimes genius writer can stir strong
reactions -to put it mildly, (but, somehow we all “get over it” and rarely are there any casualties-ha.) Definitely some magic or lightening in a bottle sometimes…
Underneath it all, you both are striving to be original, creative, and illuminating to your
afficionados. And, fortunately most chavistas stay away..
Just a lot of fun and part of my day and night routine- I often make trips back and forth to airport in my city-and before I go and when I come back I am checking computer, so , I check in and out often to your website because there is ususally something interesting posted here.
Just a part of my daily routine..
It is good to see more international exposure for the CC duo
Yes, I agree that the Venezuelan opposition has come a long way, imagine if they had done this in the first place, instead of trying to install a dictator via military-media coup, or as Quico suavely puts it for the foreign audience, a failed coup as a “maximalist gambit”.
if i recall correctly, oppo candidates won more than 50% of the vote in the last legislative election, but gerrymandering-type rules allowed PSUV to hold more seats. my question is, is this same situation possible in October?
I would assume that no, Chavez cannot lose the popular vote and win the presidency, correct? But if he could, hopefully the oppo’s have a better strategy to deal with that than their previous “maximalist gambits”.
You know, Chávez is a lot more skillful at selling casquillo than you are, and more and more we have no trouble ignoring him, so…chamo, get with the program.