Hugo Chavez: President, King, God & Rockstar! - The Cult to Personality

The president of a country is an elected official. A person, elected by the masses to do a job which is to guide the nation; his responsibilities are almost as vast as the rewards.

During the 20^th century Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong used mass media as well as education, sports, photography, TV and radio to promote themselves, just like kings and emperors did in the 18^th and 19^th century. During the peak of their reigns these leaders appeared as god-like infallible rulers. Their portraits were hung in every home or public building, and many artists and poets were instructed to produce only works that glorified the leader.

Hugo Chavez is no different. Just take a look around anywhere in Venezuela and you will see his image or words painted in billboards, trucks, lights, walls and statues. The worst part is that Chavez is not the only one doing it; many of his followers are too. It is very common to see a billboard with the picture of a governor or major standing next to Chavez and praising the “Revolution”.

Government trucks are painted in Red. Take a look at PDVSA, CANTV, ETC, and every government-related company… they have all changed their logos to red. In some cases it goes even further; on Fridays some public employees are forced to wear red shirts and red caps in their workplaces and if necessary, they are asked to leave their posts of work to go to pro-government concentrations.

Refuse and you are fired.

IAFE: Venezuela's Train Transportation Institute

Apparently we should be thanking the government every time it builds a house, a road or a bridge, as if it wasn’t its job to do so. The 2 new stadiums, the few new hospitals, the few new houses (in 9 years, less than previous governments).. They all have happened “thanks to Chavez and the revolution”, as if it was not his job to do so.

Two years ago, the bridge that connects Caracas with the airport (El Viaducto) fell apart due to lack of maintenance. The government did not react and disregarded calls from known engineers and architects about the situation of the bridge. It is important to point out that this is one of the most important highways in Venezuela.

For 2 years Venezuelans and visitors have had to travel trough a dangerous and slow road to get from Caracas to the airport. Perhaps, the biggest consequence of the destruction of the bridge is the millions of bolivars lost by the population that lives close to the airport which depends on tourism from Caracas to survive. Meanwhile, when the new bridge was finally finished (built by a foreign Capitalist company), Hugo Chavez forced every single TV station to broadcast the inauguration of the new bridge, as if it was not his job to make sure we have proper roads and highways. Everyone that attended was given red shirts.

Another good example would be the Copa America. The day of the inauguration the government decided that every TV station had to broadcast the inaugural act where Chavez was going to talk and kick the first ball; meanwhile thousands of fans that were watching the game between Peru and Uruguay (which started earlier than the inauguration) were interrupted and forced to watch Chavez arrive to the stadium and hang out with his partners Evo Morales and Maradona.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the government bought out all the tickets to the event. The name “Hugo Chavez” was spelled on the tribune of the inaugural game. However, it didn’t prevent the anti-government chants from being heard.

ESPN, Yahoo news as well as several international sports and news networks repeatedly showed the “booing” Chavez received when he went to kickoff the ball; the booing however was overshadowed by the announcer who presented the Argentinean Diego Maradona.

In a country suffering of hunger, poverty, lack of education and healthcare problems… the government spends more money in self-promotion and weapons than fixing what needs to be fixed.

Sad…. Isn’t it?

<--- PDVSA (Oil Company)

PEQUIVEN (Another Oil related company) ----->

Above & Below: I don't even know what to say.


Below: National Institue of Nutrition (INN)
Below: Venezuelan Military Base
Below: Construction of the Stadium of Pto. La Cruz - Promotion of Governor Tarek:

Below: Avenida LibertadorBelow: Propaganda from in the subways of Caracas

So... anyone want to take a guess at how much money this costs?
This is what our taxes are used for!
I got soo many more pictures...

PS: Thank you Julia from "The End of Venezuela as we know it" for your help with some pictures!

Only ONE game of the Copa America in Caracas.... Want to know why?

"Ciudad Universitaria, Caracas"

The Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas, built to the design of the architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva, between 1940 and 1960, is an outstanding example of the Modern Movement in architecture. The university campus integrates the large number of buildings and functions into a clearly articulated ensemble, including masterpieces of modern architecture and visual arts, such as the Aula Magna with the "Clouds" of Alexander Calder, the Olympic Stadium, and the Covered Plaza.

The Olympic stadium in Caracas (as well as the whole "Ciudad Universitaria") was declared by the UNESCO as World Heritage and is considered a masterpiece of modern city planning, architecture and art.

Reconditioned for the Copa America, the stadium was scheduled to host only 2 games: The Semi-Final and the game for the third place. However, at the last minute the goverment decided to change the Semi-Final game to the city of Maracaibo without giving an apparent excuse:



Olympic Stadium: The goverment spend over $30M dollars to fix up this stadium for the Copa America 2007. However, why not use it?. The stadium sits over 30,000 visitors.

So... why is this beautiful stadium home to only one game of the Copa America. Caracas is the most important city in Venezuela; isn't it?

I will tell you why.
In fact, the Mayor of Caracas will tell you that (sort of).

Yesterday the Ciudad Universitaria was taken over by the military. Today several students were arrested for protesting peacefully with their hands painted in white and yelling "Freedom". Right outside of the stadium.

But the most shocking moment came when the Mayor of Caracas and his bodyguards attacked a professor from a very well known and respected school (UCAB) who was watching the game; according to the Mayor, "he had insulted him".

The funny part is... this is all on video, check out the ABUSE OF POWER by the Mayor and his bodyguards; if you can understand Spanish you can also listen to his lies as well as the declarations (to Globovision) of Mexican and Uruguayan visitors who were sitting right next to the professor that was attacked. You don't have to believe me, see it for yourself:








Uruguay beat Mexico 3 vs 1. But the highlight of the game was the "episode" of Juan Barreto. The National guard had to step in and escort him out of the stadium because the 30,000 visitors were standing up yelling "FUERA! FUERA!". The pyrotechnic show the goverment put up during the game didn't cover the chants of "RCTV!!!" , "Freedom!!" and "Y va a caaaeeer..." from resounding on the stadium during the whole encounter.

You might remember the Mayor of Caracas from an episode last year when he made sexist remarks: "You can't trust an animal that bleeds every month when it hasn't been injured, the woman". Or maybe you might have heard of him after he attacked 2 members of the opposition in a "Mayors Committee" he hosted.

This is the reason the Copa America was not played in Caracas, the goverment was scared of whatever could happen.
Ladies and gentlemen: Welcome to Caracas.

Che Guevara, Why are you wearing that shirt!?

"Until Victory, Always!!" - Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez

Ernesto Che Guevara... a political legend, a revolutionary leader, the representation of Anti-American imperialism. A brave fighter who fought for what he believed; However, he was also a bloody murderer who demanded worldwide revolution, even if it meant the death and misery of innocents.

It is amazing how thousands wear a shirt with the picture of this cold hearted killer. Today, over 40 years after his death, he is as famous as a Rock Star.

“In fact, if Christ himself stood in my way, I, like Nietzsche, would not hesitate to squish him like a worm” / Ernesto Che Guevara

After traveling through South America and experiencing some of the horrible things that still happen in everyday life in many South American countries, he decided that the only way things would change for the better was trough a Revolution.

In 1956, Guevara joined Fidel Castro's revolutionary 26th of July Movement, which seized power in Cuba in 1959. Fidel and Guevara fought a guerrilla war against Batistas government (Cuban government at the time) and defeated the US backed government. Castro marched into Havana on January 9,1959, and became Cuba's new leader.

During his first hundred days in office, Castro's government passed several new laws. Rents were cut by up to 50 per cent for low wage earners; property owned by Fulgencio Batista and his ministers was confiscated; the telephone company was nationalized and the rates were reduced by 50 per cent; land was redistributed amongst the peasants (including the land owned by the Castro family); separate facilities for blacks and whites (swimming pools, beaches, hotels, cemeteries etc.) were abolished. Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara were heroes; Cuba was now free of US Imperialism.

Che Guevara predicted that under Fidel's leadership Cuba would surpass the GDP per capita of the US by 1980.

In 1960 Guevara visited China and the Soviet Union. On his return he wrote two books Guerrilla Warfare and Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War. In these books he argued that it was possible to export Cuba's revolution to other South American countries .

Guevara, expanding Cubas revolution, fomented unrest in Argentina, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Haiti, Panama and Congo. However, every expedition led by Che was an abject failure.

Different tastes and opinions were not tolerated in Ernesto's revolution; nothing could stand in the way of the "guerrilleros". The revolution was more important than life itself.

Contrary opinions were silenced and any element considered "counter-revolutionary" had to be eliminated. Dissidents were placed on "labor camps" to be re-educated; others, were imprisoned or executed without trial. Che considered judicial review for executions was an archaic bourgeoisie detail.

Executions had to be public, to make an example of those who decided to be "anti-revolutionary". Those found guilty, were executed by a firing squad; afterwards, their families and friends were paraded in front of the bloody wall so the lesson would be learned. It is said that Guevara signed over 500 death warrants. How many others were killed without death warrants?

In 1967 he was captured and executed by the Bolivian Army with support of the CIA and the US Special Forces.

Today, Cuba's economy relies on oil shipments from Venezuela and its GDP per capita is almost non-existent.

"Crazy with fury I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any enemy that falls in my hands! My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood. With the deaths of my enemies I prepare my being for the sacred fight and join the triumphant proletariat with a bestial howl!" // Ernesto Che Guevara

Next time you see somebody wearing a Che-Guevara T-Shirt, ask that person if he would wear a T-Shirt with the face of Hitler or Stalin.

Cisneros learns to live with Chavez. - Based on a NYT Article

Media Mogul Learns to Live With Chávez

By SIMON ROMERO
Published: July 5, 2007

CARACAS, Venezuela, July 4 — Three years ago, the media mogul Gustavo A. Cisneros was a leader of Venezuela’s opposition and his television network, Venevisión, regularly lambasted President Hugo Chávez.
So antagonistic were relations that Mr. Chávez accused him of conspiring to topple him. Government agents raided Mr. Cisneros’s ranch, fishing camp and offices.
The tensions were resolved only after former President Jimmy Carter, a longtime friend of Mr. Cisneros, brokered a meeting between the men in 2004 before a referendum to determine whether President Chávez should be recalled from office.

Today, as more details of that encounter emerge, Mr. Cisneros, who sits at the helm of a family fortune estimated at $6 billion, has become a target of the same opposition he once championed. Venevisión, critics say, is now positioned to benefit from Mr. Chávez’s recent decision to push the station’s main rival, RCTV, off the public airwaves.

Mr. Cisneros, 62, in a rare interview here, bridled at such charges. “If you go off the air, then democracy loses,” he said, defending his reconciliation with Mr. Chávez and pointing to fears that Venevisión could yet suffer the same fate as RCTV, which was forced to stop broadcasting in late May.
“We decided that we needed to pull through,” said Mr. Cisneros, citing advice on the matter from Carlos Fuentes, the Mexican writer, who is an outspoken critic of Mr. Chávez. “And the way to pull through was to say, ‘Enough, we can’t be part of the story or play a role in politics but we have to report the story every day.’ ”
Gone, Mr. Cisneros said, was Venevisión’s “Fox News approach.” Executives replaced morning talk shows with astrology programs and gave priority to nightly soap operas over critical news programs.
By the time of the presidential election last December, the shift was an about-face from Venevisión’s previous coverage. Venevisión devoted 84 percent of its political coverage to Mr. Chávez’s positions and only 16 percent to the opposition, according to a European Union report on the elections.
That 2004 meeting, as well as the subsequent softening of Venevisión’s coverage of Mr. Chávez, has been interpreted by critics of both the president and the media mogul as an example of how the moneyed elite bends to Mr. Chávez’s will.

Mr. Chávez, who has built an array of state-controlled broadcasters in the last three years, crows at such changes. Referring recently to the June 2004 meeting with Mr. Cisneros, Mr. Chávez boasted of Mr. Cisneros’s acquiescence to his authority.

“He wore a tie and told me, ‘I put the tie on because I want to tell you that I recognize you as president of my country,’ ” Mr. Chávez said in comments broadcast on Teves, the new state-owned broadcaster that has taken over RCTV’s signal.

Both men deny that any deal was reached. But what else happened at the meeting, which lasted about four hours and was held at Fort Tiuna, a military garrison here, has been shrouded in mystery.
A spokeswoman at the Carter Center in Georgia said Mr. Carter was unable to comment on the meeting, which he mediated after being flown to Caracas on Mr. Cisneros’s plane.
Jennifer McCoy, director of the Americas program at the Carter Center, said the meeting was part of a broader effort by Mr. Carter to ease tension between Mr. Chávez and private media groups
Mr. Carter put Mr. Chávez at ease by discussing their shared military background, according to people briefed on the meeting. (Mr. Carter had attended the United States Naval Academy; Mr. Chávez is a former lieutenant colonel in the Venezuelan Army.) At the meeting, according to Mr. Cisneros, Mr. Chávez compared his social programs to those of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Mr. Chávez, he said, batted away the assertion that the political climate in 2004 was marked by violence and attacks against reporters and media owners. The only television channel that had been shut down, he said, was the state broadcaster, during the 2002 coup that he had previously accused Mr. Cisneros of backing, a claim Mr. Cisneros denies.

After the meeting, the referendum in August 2004 did not lead to a recall of the president, enabling him to tighten his hold on political institutions and the media. Critics see Venevisión’s subsequent shift in editorial policy as part of a wider trend to avoid confronting Mr. Chávez.
“Some companies bow to authoritarian regimes,” said Marcel Granier, the president of RCTV, which has been reduced to airing its broadcasts on YouTube in recent weeks. “This happened in Germany with the Krupps, Bayers and Thyssens.”

In recent comments about the meeting, the president said Mr. Cisneros, whose other companies range from breweries to the Leones baseball team in Caracas, understood he could coexist with the socialist-inspired transformation of society that Mr. Chavez says he wants.

“There are others who furiously launch themselves in attempts to overthrow a government,” Mr. Chávez said.
As Mr. Chávez acknowledged, Mr. Cisneros’s strategy at Venevisión, a national network developed in the 1960s in a partnership with ABC by Mr. Cisneros’s father, has uncovered rifts within a once cloistered elite that is being shaken by Mr. Chávez’s policies.

For instance, Mr. Cisneros and Mr. Granier are married to cousins, descendants of William H. Phelps, an American businessman and ornithologist who settled in Venezuela more than a century ago.
But Mr. Cisneros and Mr. Granier rarely speak to each other now, both men said in interviews. They have pursued different strategies as Mr. Cisneros pushed into markets in the United States and Latin America while Mr. Granier focused on growing RCTV in Venezuela.

Still, Mr. Cisneros, who has moved his family outside Venezuela and lives mainly at homes in New York, Spain and the Dominican Republic, rejected claims that Venevisión stood to benefit from luring advertisers lost by RCTV.

Pointing to laws that limit the advertising networks can sell, Mr. Cisneros said he expected next year’s revenue to climb no more than 5 to 6 percent, after accounting for annual inflation of more than 20 percent.
“There’s no advantage to us whatsoever in having RCTV go away,” said Mr. Cisneros. “Having President Chávez as our main television competitor is not in our interest.”
Mr. Cisneros said Venezuela’s president maintained leverage over private media groups, including Venevisión.

Mr. Cisneros’s case in point: the government renewed Venevisión’s license in May for only five years, setting it to expire before Mr. Chávez’s third term as president ends in 2012.

Comments by Tank:

For those that might not know Gustavo Cisnero's father came to Venezuela from Cuba as an inmigrant to do what he could not do at home in Cuba. The freedom in Venezuela allowed him to create his Media empire and become the "Media Mogul" he is considered today.

Now he lives in NYC and has benefited much from the revolution. Venevision actually RAN ADDS in support of closing RCTV. Venivision has not covered ANY of the opposition marches... How is this beign impartial? He is clearly pro-goverment. Cisneros sold his country out.

You are going to tell me that closing your biggest competitor down and leaving you with no competition does not benefit you?. Gustavo do you think we are stupid?. Atleast admit the obvious.

Chavez has him on a short leash, hence the reason Venevision's concesion is set to expire right BEFORE the next presidential elections just like the concesion of several Radio Stations.

Extortion anyone?

I would rename this article to:

"Gustavo Cisneros, from Media Mogul to Lap Dog".

WP Editorial: Mr. Chavez's Friends

I apologize for the lack of updates lately.. work has been driving me crazy. I have started to write a couple pieces which will be posted this week.

Meanwhile I leave you with this interestign read from the Washington Post:

Mr. Chavez's Friends
Wednesday, July 4, 2007; Page A14

THE LATEST Global Attitudes survey by the Pew Foundation contains a lot of bad news for the United States, but there was one relative bright spot in Latin America: Venezuela. According to Pew, 56 percent of Venezuelans say they have a favorable view of the United States, a higher number than in Britain or Canada. Seventy-one percent say they like U.S. television and movies and a stratospheric 84 percent feel positively about Americans. Though only 23 percent say they have confidence in George W. Bush, the U.S. president's rating is almost 50 percent higher in Venezuela than that of Russian President Vladimir Putin or Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Those numbers cast an interesting light on the foreign policy of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who describes the United States as an evil empire and Mr. Bush as "the devil," and who just completed a tour of three countries he sees as close allies in a global anti-American alliance: Russia, Iran and Belarus. He addressed each of their leaders as "brother" and called for ever-closer economic and military bonds between their governments and his. This raises an obvious question: For whom was Mr. Chávez speaking?

His hosts clearly had something to gain. Belarus, known as Europe's last dictatorship, is such a pariah that its ruler, Alexander Lukashenko, is now shunned even by his longtime patron, Mr. Putin; he was delighted to be visited by any head of state. Belarus and Venezuela share "absolutely identical" views, Mr. Lukashenko giddily proclaimed.

In Moscow, where Mr. Chávez next stopped, the interest is mostly pecuniary. Mr. Putin has sold Mr. Chávez $3.5 billion in weapons in the past several years and is eager to peddle more. While in Russia, Mr. Chávez talked of buying submarines and toured an aircraft factory, inspecting Moscow's latest attack helicopter and petulantly asking why he hadn't been shown it before he bought 53 less-advanced Russian helicopters last year. Then he gave a lengthy speech in which he rued the demise of the Soviet Union.

Mr. Ahmadinejad also had good reason to welcome Mr. Chávez at a time when his government faces a new round of sanctions by the U.N. Security Council. His Venezuelan visitor obliged, defending Iran's nuclear program and promising to "unite the Persian Gulf and the Caribbean." "I thank God that Iran and Venezuela are standing together forever," Mr. Chávez said.

According to Pew, 81 percent of Venezuelans oppose Iran's acquiring a nuclear weapon, but Mr. Chávez is looking beyond his country, hoping to become the leader of global opposition to the United States. As the Pew survey shows, there's plenty of it out there, but Mr. Chávez is not the beneficiary. In only three of the 47 countries surveyed by Pew does he inspire confidence in 50 percent or more of those questioned: Venezuela, Mali and Ivory Coast. In Russia his rating is 21 percent. In Peru, Chile and Mexico, Mr. Chávez's numbers are far below those of the despised Mr. Bush. The answer to the question of whom Venezuela's president represents emerges from the data: No one, other than himself.

I really have nothing to add.

Caracas Marches..... nobody listens?

Journalists and different media workers called for a march to protest against discrimination and the lack of freedom of expression in Venezuela.

Students, workers, journalists and different political parties took the streets of Caracas in what turned out to be one of the largest peaceful protests in the last 9 years. Students also protested in Puerto la Cruz and a few other cities in the country.

Meanwhile.. Chavez is visiting Russia, Bielorussia and Iran.

A few images are worth a thousand words:

A video of the concentration:

Copa America, if we could only enjoy it....

For the first time in history Venezuela has been appointed by the FIFA to host the oldest soccer tournament in history: Copa America (America Cup). The goverment has spent over a Billion dollars preparing for this event... sounds great... if we could only enjoy it.

Over a Billion dollars were spent and yet, we have unfinished stadiums... However, I do not want to deviate from the idea behind this article and bash the goverment efforts to host the Copa America (Just look at the stadiums and judge for yourself (http://fotos-gbastidas.blogspot.com/). The idea behind this post on my blog, is to voice out the corruption and how the goverment has made it impossible for anyone not affiliated to the goverment to get a ticket to see a game.

The truth is, the goverment cannot afford to let the international media and opinion show what goes on every night at the different local stadiums or at the latest concerts....


"its going down, its going down.. this goverment is going down!".
**This takes place in soccer matches, baseball matches, concerts, basketaball matches... etc

Copa America is more than the oldest soccer tournament in history to the Venezuelan goverment. It is the new tool to gain support and lose all the protests and negativity the illegal closure of Venezuela's oldest TV station RCTV has brought. (Hence how TVES, the new goverment channel is the official channel of the Copa America)

While corruption has made it impossible for the 9 stadiums to be finished completely, they are all in their final stages and meet the requirements for the tournament to be played.

TV Adds, Albums, Outdoors Ads, songs, videos, etc... the goverment has gone as far as to build walls around bad looking neighborhoods around the stadiums to make sure everything goes as planned.

The distribution and handling of tickets for the Copa America has been given to an unknown company: "The Lujo Productions". Nobody knows who was behind this scheme (it will eventually come to light), but trough The Lujo Productions someone (affiliated to the goverment) is getting very very rich. Over 80% of tickets have been purchased by the state and state owned companies, this tickets are given out or sold to members of the PSUV or known supporters of the Revolution. Chavez wants to be sure that there will be no anti-goverment propaganda in the stadium... everything needs to be very very RED.

For the same reason, Caracas, the most important city in the country; the city that has been home to non-stop protests by thousands of students will only host but ONE game. The match for 3rd place. Once again, the goverment cant risk having students protest with their peace signs and white hands outside the stadiums.

So now I ask.. while everyone seems very happy about the Copa America.. should we Venezuelans be happy?.

I have dreamed about the Copa happening in my country since I was an 8 year old kid playing soccer. Now that the dream has come true, there is no way I will be able to see a game because I voted against Chavez, because I am in the Maisanta list and because I REFUSE to sign up for his stupid political party..

I will not be watching the Copa America. and If I do, it will have to be trough Direct TV (or at a local bar) because the only other option is the newly created TV channel (TVES) that the goverment is forcing us to watch...

A Summary of the Revolution: Corruption, Consumption, Coertion

Bernd Debusmann, a special correspondent from Reuters, recently spent some time in Venezuela with the intention of figuring out what the revolution of Hugo Chavez was all about.

This isnt your average reporter, Bernd has spent years visiting countries in turmoil and revolutions. This is what he had to say:

Reuters
In Venezuela, obstacles to 21st Century socialism
Tue Jun 19, 2007 7:25PM EDT
By Bernd Debusmann, Special Correspondent

CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez's ambitious project to bring "21st Century socialism" to Venezuela is running into obstacles -- easy cash, corruption and an expanding class of citizens who are growing rich by exploiting economic distortions.

Chavez promised a revolution when he won his first election in 1998. Since his third election victory in December, he has pledged to accelerate Venezuela's transformation into a society where a "new man" is free of selfish urges and devoted to the common good.

But nine years into Chavez's rule, some analysts say the idea of creating a "new man" and a classless society has even less chance of success in Venezuela than past attempts in other countries, from Russia to Nicaragua and Cuba.

"Venezuelans are individualists," said Luis Pedro Espana, director of the Economic and Social Research Institute at Venezuela's Andres Bello Catholic University. "They are not inclined to work for the community. They are very consumerist, even the (Chavez) faithful."
The popular perception in Latin America of Venezuelans as happy-go-lucky, live-for-the-moment people draws few denials from either side of the deep divide between Chavez followers and opponents.

A few snapshots of life in Venezuela help explain skepticism over the emergence of the "new man."

Standing in front of a poster that says "The Informal Economy is Forbidden," a woman in a prim white blouse whispers "dollars, dollars, dollars," offering them at twice the official exchange rate. A pair of bored-looking policemen watch.

At a luxury hotel in the center of Caracas, a guest in a pinstripe suit pays his bill with wads of cash the size of bricks.

At a bustling supermarket, the shelves are stacked with imported whiskey but bare of meat and eggs.

In a small town in the Andes, police drive around in a shiny new Hummer that barely fits through the narrow streets.

"VIRUSES" IN SOCIETY
Venezuela's currency black market stems from rigid currency controls. Shortages of basic goods result from price controls. And wads of cash and luxury cars originate from an oil boom and public spending that have contributed to the fastest economic growth and highest inflation in Latin America.

All this combines to create petri dish conditions to perpetuate what Chavez describes as the viruses that have infected successive generations of citizens in his oil-rich country.
"While these viruses exist in abundance in our society, it is impossible to build a fatherland and even less socialism," he said in a recent speech. Quoting Karl Marx, he added: "Each new society is born infected by the old society."

At least one of the old infections -- corruption -- appears to have worsened since Chavez took office in 1998 with the support of the poor majority of Venezuela's 26 million people.
According to Transparency International, a Berlin-based anti-corruption group, Venezuela has steadily slipped towards the bottom of an index measuring corruption in 163 countries and now ranks 138th, the worst in Latin America.

"There is no socialism in our country," said Teodore Petkoff, a former left-wing guerrilla who became minister of economic planning in the government that preceded Chavez. "This is the same country as ever. There has been no revolution."
Chavez has used a bonanza from oil -- global oil prices have quintupled since he began his first term -- to spend billions of dollars on social welfare, infrastructure projects and direct cash subsidies for the poorest.

Government statistics show that the percentage of Venezuelans living in poverty shrank from 42.8 percent to 30.4 percent under Chavez. Poverty researchers at the Catholic University outside Caracas put the present rate at around 45 percent, below what they measured in 1999.

NEW CLASS - THE BOLIBURGESIA
But while poverty has declined, the country's class divisions have remained and a new class sprung up -- the boliburgesia. The phrase is a contraction of the words Bolivar, Latin America's liberator, and bourgeoisie -- a play on the "Bolivarian Revolution" Chavez declared in 1999.
To hear critics of the government tell it, the boliburgesia includes Venezuelans active in the black and grey markets, government bureaucrats who impose "surcharges" on routine services, middlemen in oil deals, money launderers, and drug trafficking organizations.

"This new class will stand more in the way of Chavez's 21st Century socialism than the old aristocracy ever did," said a Caracas businessman. "They have become part of the establishment."

Chavez has acknowledged that his revolution is far from complete, despite far-reaching land reforms and a campaign to nationalize strategic industries.
His present term runs through 2012, but he has begun to talk about a new target date years in the future.

"If in just 140 days so many things have happened, imagine what will happen in the 5,134 days from today to June 24, 2021," he said on June 2, marking 140 days since the start of his third term. "5,134 days of revolutionary acceleration."

June 24, 2021, has nothing to do with Venezuela's six-year presidential terms -- it is the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Carabobo, when Simon Bolivar led South American independence fighters to a victory over Spanish forces.

By 2021, Venezuelans born when Chavez began his first presidential term will be 22 years old, and Chavez will have been in power for a whole generation.


© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

This is something I forgot to post about....

After the students marched to the National Assembly and placed a request to reply to accusations made by members of this goverment entity; the goverment replied by offering a televised "debate" on the National Assembly against students that "follow" the revolution.

A committee of 10 students that represent every university (selected by the members of each school) in the country accepted the offer from the goverment. While a debate was not what they were looking for, this was a chance to use their constitutional right to reply to the accusations made by members of the Naional Assembly a couple weeks before.

As they walked in everyone in the audience was dressed in red, as expected. What the audience did not expect was that THEY TOO WERE DRESSED IN RED.

After a short introduction, the students were given a chance to speak. The whole event was televised in what the Venezuelan goverment calls a "Chain" (every TV and Radio station must broadcast whatever the goverment wants). I guess the goverment planned on shutting down the student goverment by destroying their credibility.. the plan backfired.

Douglas Barrios, a young colleague from the Universidad Metropolitana took the stand and gave a speech that will last in the memories of Venezuelans for centuries to come.

After giving his speech he took of his red shirt (and so did every other one of the students in the committee) and said "We dream about a country where we can be validated without having to wear an uniform". Then he stepped down and allowed the pro-goverment students to reply, afterwards they thanked their audience and left with their head up high.

"We did not ask for a debate in the National Assembly, we are not going to put on a show for the goverment. The debate will happen, in the Universities, in the streets, in the schools.. where it is supposed to happen."

Julia, from "The end of Venezuela as we know it" has translated the speec h in english. (its worth a read)

"We, the university students, did not come today to this public arena to debate. The student movement's agenda is only defined by the student movement. We came here today to vindicate our civil rights. Make no mistake: the debate between and of the university students for the country will, without question, be carried out. The debate between the university students must be done in the universities, in the streets, in the slums ("barrios"), and in the towns of the country."


"We say; ¡Enough of this discrimination! We demand and promote national reconciliation. Let us express and demonstrate in a free way. Consider our propositions on issues of national interest because it will be our generation that will have to face the consequences. Do not criminalize the protest from the start. Do not underestimate and insult the student initiative, and free and give respect to those who have been unfairly persecuted and publicly humiliated as in the case of the student Nixon Moreno and the more than 200 detainees since the last protests; under these auspices we demand the immediate revocation of our court presentation orders."


"That right to choose whatever we consider best for us is what makes the man truly a man, truly free. And a life without elections, a life without decisions, has little freedom, little humanity, little life. That would be an robotic, singular existence, it would be, in the end, meaningless."

Douglas Barrios
Caracas, 2007.

We will protest until we are heard... we have rights!

This week there were several protests.

Caracas 14/06/2007

Students from every university marched to Downtown Caracas to protest against discrimination and freedom of expression.
However the police and the National Guard set up a fence of officers with anti-riot equipment trough all the streets that led to downtown with orders to not allow the students to march trough.

The students protested for hours and peacefully retreated to avoid conflicts with the authorities.

We are protesting peacefully, there is no need for this. You cannot silence us by ignoring us. We are the youth of the nation.



The students of UDO and USM in Puerto La Cruz also protested against goverment repression and abuse.