Caracas Chronicles

Quico says: Not much of the day-to-day political give-and-take in Caracas interests me enough to blog about anymore. That said, today’s statement by General Baduel was a no-kidding bombshell. The guy who undid the April 2002 coup says the proposed constitutional reform would amount to a coup d’état and notes the armed forces’ obligations as “guarantors of the rule of law”. Yowza.

When Baduel takes a stand against a coup, people sit up and take notice.

Update: The government’s reflexes aren’t letting it down. It took about a third of a second for the Official knee to jerk and label Baduel a traitor. A pajarito put this comment in my inbox:

Can there ever have been, in the history of world politics, a leader with such extraordinarily bad judgment when it comes to choosing his closest collaborators? It would be different, perhaps, if they simply parted company on a matter of principle, but that – we are assured – is not the case. They were born traitors, just waiting for the right moment to stab the great leader in the back…

Luis Miquilena – traitor

Jesus Urdaneta – traitor

Raul Baduel – traitor

Alfredo Peña – traitor

Francisco Usón – traitor

Luis Velásquez Alvaray – traitor

Ismael García – traitor

Francisco Arias Cárdenas – reformed (?) traitor

Jorge Olavarría – traitor

Hermann Escarrá – traitor

Herma Marksman – traitor

Nedo Paniz – traitor

Pablo Medina – traitor

Manuel Rosendo – traitor

Efraín Vásquez Velasco – traitor

etc. etc….

How extraordinary that a man so astute in so many ways should have been so comprehensively – and repeatedly – deceived as to the moral fibre of his comrades.