Caracas Chronicles

It’s hard to overstate just how massive last night’s opposition win was. If you’re like me, you’ve been walking around in a daze, trying to internalize this strange, overwhelming mix of victory and hope.

But a few minor players cannot fully comprehend what happened. Through their words and actions, they are putting the focus on petty little issues and fights, hopelessly trying to make us care about the imperfect trees instead of the magnificent forest.

Take, for example, the hapless reporters of ANTV. One of the assets the National Assembly has (for now) is a TV station. As you can imagine, its coverage is wall-to-wall chavismo.

But with a new sheriff in town, there’s a lot of red, very red anxiety in their newsroom. Their fears were confirmed when MUD leader Henry Ramos Allup basically read them their Miranda rights, using language only he can get away with using.

So in comes a representative of the workers of the station, Merly Garaicoa, saying that Henry Ramos Allup is a threat to freedom of expression. That all they have done is be professional and give their lives to communicating the laws of the Republic. That they are now the targets of violence. Oh, and that they demand their right to continue manipulating information and censoring violent incidents inside the legislature at the public’s expense. (OK, she didn’t say that, but she should have – she should put it on her resume!)

Yes, the government has just been handed their asses to them, but all Merly cares about … is the impossible task of preserving her puny little job. Worse even, she thinks she can lecture the new majority about, ahem, the defense of freedom of expression!

So sad.

Then there is my friend Tomás Guanipa. Instead of taking pride in the fact that a maracucho rajao won a seat in Caracas of all places, Tomás would rather throw his darts … at Maria Corina Machado. This morning he fired off a few tweets (some of which he later deleted) blasting Machado for supporting a few candidates outside of the MUD alliance.

Tomás, loco, nobody cares. History was made last night. Your little tiff with Maria Corina is pathetic.

Try and enjoy a little. Finger pointing is only cool the day after an election in which we lose. When we win, we’re supposed to be happy and united. Okey?

Finally, the award for pettiness goes to the CNE. In a remarkable show of sheer disregard for what is going down in Venezuela, our electoral body simply cannot be bothered to publish the results everybody knows already: that the opposition has won more than 2/3 of the seats in the National Assembly.

So tell us Tibisay – what are you expecting to gain with your little psycho games, huh? Does delaying the inevitable somehow give you pleasure? Does it make your knobs turn? ‘Cause this whole ordeal definitely has an S&M component to it – and we’re not digging it. In fact, we’re over it. We know the opposition won big, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Yesterday was magnificent or, if you’re chavista, absolutely horrifying. My thoughts turn to the thousands who braved threats, guns, and bribes to vote for change and defend the votes. What they did, what we all did, was pretty damn heroic.

Let’s give the event its proper place. But most of all, let’s ignore the few people trying to make something small out of something big.