Caracas Chronicles

For Friday, August 26, 2016. Translated by Javier Liendo.

This Thursday, Diosdado Cabello said that the opposition is inciting violence for the September 1st march. Sadly, it slipped his mind that Bassil Da Costa was murdered by SEBIN officers. Minutes later, he suggested to his meagre audience in Lara state, that they’ll create protest signs with information on the “jefes escuálidos” to force public institutions to take measures against them for political motives. To justify this, he merely asked about the political tendencies of employees at Barquisimeto’s mayor’s office and Lara’s governor’s office, asserting that none of them are chavistas, and while the opposition is hypocritical, the PSUV’s completely frank with their apartheid. This isn’t persecution but justice, because Cabello hates that a chavista is unemployed while an opposition supporter is working for the State. Appalled by the MUD’s culture of hatred, he asked the people to hunt them down, wait for them on the street and remember that Nicolás’s hold on power will outlast the National Assembly.

Other contributions

After claiming that everything’s staked on the last four months of the year -period in which he ratifies that they’ll defeat the economic war-, ornamental vice-president Aristóbulo Istúriz said that Nicolás ordered us to think about next year. He cautioned that the September 1st march is “a violent and bloody scheme for our country,” remarking that they’ll give war to those who want war and revealing PSUV’s own strategy: “They think they’ll control the people with hunger.” Additionally, Nicolás -Henry Ramos Allup’s campaign chief- spoke to proclaim him the worst among the country’s enemies, to warn that the opposition’s planning a coup d’Etat (yes, another one), and to remind his token audience that “there’s only one response to threats: a country in battle, active, united and alert,” because the PSUV’s right, they have the moral stature, the project. Don’t worry, according to Nicolás: “The love for the country will prevail in any circumstance.”

Let’s finish with lawmaker Héctor Rodríguez, who created an ideological sancocho of tasks for the PSUV’s younger members, including: guaranteeing peace, consolidating the socialist State, holding the frontline of battle to push Venezuela forward, liquidating these last four months and defending sovereignty. Always ready to deliver memorable phrases, he said: “The economic emergency won’t be solved by applying the Democratic Charter or the recall referendum, but by working and producing.” Outrageous.

And yet again

The Ombudsman, Tarek William Saab, urged the people to reject violence, because Venezuela has seen protests ending in violence and he doesn’t want to see that again. He ratified that the right to peaceful protest will be guaranteed by his office in any scenario and that his people will defend those who march peacefully. We don’t know if he means in front or behind the battalions prepared by the Executive Branch to round up the September 1st march. I lie, we do know.

The true schedule

While the government forges news out of their debate on the project “Unique window of Foreign Trade” -to break their own bureaucratic mess and speed up proceedings-, and Vargas’s customs agents report a drop of 98% in private imports, the Foreign Affairs ministers of Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil announced that they’ll adopt a resolution in the next few days regarding Mercosur’s crisis. Paraguay’s vice-minister of Economic Affairs, Rigoberto Gauto, said that they expect to reach a decision about Venezuela’s situation and define a stance, denying that Mercosur has two schedules. “There’s only one, we consider the other one, the one Venezuela’s been presenting, as an effort to obtain some sort of international recognition,” specifying that Delcy’s credentials are worthless. Rub off the pain and open the window.

Seven points

Jesús “Chúo” Torrealba, MUD’s chief, announced the rallying points for September 1st. He remarked that this is a peaceful protest: “We want no broken glasses, we want no stones in the air, we only want people in action, demanding the dates for the 20%, for the recall referendum and for gubernatorial elections,”. He added that the PSUV’s the one that lacks proposals, arguments and leadership, so their last resort is violence, be it bureaucratic or physical, through the State’s security forces. “This regime that isn’t even capable of negotiating with its high-ranking staff, celebrates Colombia’s peace process.” The MUD demands 40,000 captahuellas distributed among 14,500 collection centers for the 20% signatures, saying that: “The 20% is national, not regional.” We should make four shirts with that phrase for the CNE’s rectoras. Read Tal Cual’s interview with Eugenio Martínez about the recall, if you can.

An award

Cartoonist Roberto Weil is one of the 13 winners of the Excellence Awards granted by the Inter American Press Association. Marcela Noble-Herrera, head of the IAPA’s Award Committee, said that they feel quite satisfied with this edition’s high turnout and the reflection that participant works managed to express concerning the matters that are relevant for true journalism: corruption, drug trafficking and violence, adding that beside denouncing these issues, they tell formidable stories of hope and surrender. “Change” is the name of Weil’s award-winning cartoon and he’ll receive the prize during IAPA’s 72nd General Assembly, to be held in October in Mexico City.

Fed up

The Labor minister, Oswaldo Vera, said yesterday that in other countries, crisis hits the poorest people. He must’ve missed the news about the child who died after not eating for three days.

I declare that I’m fed up with the constant attacks against the MUD, against the effort of finding consensus between so many parties with conflicting interests. It seems that it’s better to be hostile, to foretell “the failure of September 1st,” which includes the absence of all those who announce it; to consider the establishment of the seven rallying points as an act of submission instead of preservation, even though many of those who want conflict, won’t leave their homes to stand by their word.

Nicolás only wants to be a Kardashian. He wants cameras, microphones, cadenas, lies to fill up hours of broadcast, hashtags positioned by bots and subservient testimonials thanking him for nothing, for ruining the country, for isolating it and sinking it into its worst condition ever.

Nicolás wants the fame he’ll never have, the charisma that didn’t come with the office and an oil price that won’t return. He wants the votes he never had and won’t get even with an oil barrel at $150, after three years of his intense mediocrity.

I want to vote and revoke him, and that’s why I’m marching once more. The way I see it, there are more pros than cons. Even though the regime’s arrogance makes me sick, I know the PSUV has no leaders, only villains. The electoral resolution to this crisis is their defeat. I’m going to make sure it happens.