Venezuelan newspaper Correo del Orinoco for English speakers.
source: Correo del Orinoco
Monday, 27 May 2013
What is going on in Venezuela this week ending 27th May 2013?
This week toilet paper disappears and reappear again, as a matter of laughter, we discover a new political weapon that could be call “dirty bottom”. You can not imagine the distress a nation went through in a shortage of such an essential paper. Well, not the whole nation, only certain sections of some cities, but the gossips, jokes, and intellectual analyses never run out of paper. Some embarrassed faces of 5 start hotel manager when they have to explain why on earth is missing the roll in the loo.
Soon we discover that the shortage is artificial and prepare to battle the Venezuelan government with endless streams of ridicule. Details will come soon in our assistance.
An important step forwards is the agreement with Schlumberger in more oil exploration.
Have a look yourselves.
Venezuela's Turmoil No Laughing Matter
Wall Street Journal (blog)
The repercussions from Venezuela's economic policies are providing journalists with excellent fodder for humorous headlines, replete with puns. “Venezuela's Government Moves to Relieve Toilet Paper Shortages,” reads the title of an Agence France Presse ...
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Venezuela TV host goes off air after opposition links him to supposed Cuban ...
Washington Post
CARACAS, Venezuela — A prominent Venezuelan talk show host has gone off the air after allegedly being caught on tape discussing politics inside Venezuela's ruling party with a Cuban intelligence official. Mario Silva, whose show on state TV features ...
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Miami Workers Bribed, and Shortchanged, Venezuelan Banker, US Says
New York Times
... it was grossly overcharged for brokerage fees. By WILLIAM NEUMAN. Published: May 21, 2013. CARACAS, Venezuela — There may be no honor among thieves, but there certainly is no shortage of chutzpah. World Twitter Logo. Connect With Us on Twitter ...
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Venezuela's PdVSA Gets $1 Billion Credit Line From Schlumberger
Wall Street Journal
MORICHAL, Venezuela—State energy monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PdVSA, will receive a $1 billion revolving credit line from oil-service provider Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB), the South American country's oil minister said Friday. Oil Minister ...
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Venezuela to Curtail Dollars
Wall Street Journal
CARACAS—Venezuela's economy, which is grappling with rapid currency depreciation and shortages of basic consumer goods due to a lack of dollars distributed by the government, won't be granted access to the same number of U.S. dollars this year as it ...
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Perez returns to Venezuela after grandmother's passing
MLB.com
KANSAS CITY -- The Royals will be without catcher Salvador Perez for the next few days. Perez returned to his home in Valencia, Venezuela, on Saturday after learning of the death of his maternal grandmother. He'll be placed on the bereavement list on ...
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Venezuela?s Toiletpaper Shortage
Daily Beast
VENEZUELANS KNOW about adversity. Throughout Hugo Chávez's erratic 14-year rule, blackouts were as common—and seemingly as endless—as El Comandante's harangues. And sugar, coffee, and meat regularly went missing from the markets.
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Venezuelan dissent unveils tape charging Congress Speaker with conspiracy
El Universal
Venezuelan opposition congressman Ismael García reported on Monday during a press conference along with other members of the Unified Democratic Panel on a taped conversation between Mario Silva, a hardcore government supporter and anchorman of ...
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Venezuela prosecutor to open probe over leaked recording
Reuters
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's prosecutor's office said on Thursday it would open an investigation into in a recording the opposition says features a top government ally accusing the deputy head of the ruling Socialist Party of corruption and ...
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Venezuela business group sees dire economy in 2013
Reuters
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela is slipping into high inflation and economic stagnation this year due to a shortage of hard currency and a decade-long weakening of domestic industry, the head of the country's main business group Fedecamaras said.
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The crisis of Venezuela's “Bolivarian” revolution and the political ...
World Socialist Web Site
One month after its razor-close presidential election, Venezuela remains in a state of political crisis. The aftermath of the victory by Nicolas Maduro, the hand-picked successor of the late Hugo Chavez, who had led the country through 14 years of his ...
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Globovision's new owners say news channel will contribute to peace, not ...
Washington Post
CARACAS, Venezuela — The new owners of Venezuela's only television channel to take critical stands against the government say they will, in their words, “contribute to a climate of peace and not of conflict.” That comment came after a meeting with ...
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Venezuela to create new workers militia
Boston.com
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro arrives to attend President Rafael Correa's swearing-in ceremony in Quito, Ecuador, Friday, May 24, 2013. Correa is starting a third term as president. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa) ...
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Venezuela's PdVSA to Receive $1.5 Billion Loan From Rosneft for Oil Joint ...
Wall Street Journal
CARACAS--State-energy monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela, or PdVSA, and Russian oil company Rosneft (ROSN.RS) signed deals Thursday to boost production at a new joint venture in the South American country's vast Orinoco heavy oil belt. Russia will ...
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Venezuela Wants To Improve Diplomatic Ties With The U.S, Foreign Minister ...
Latinos Post
Recent developments in the Venezuelan political scenario signify increasing diplomatic relations with the United States. The OPEC nation is trying hard to encourage diplomatic initiatives in an effort to maintain good bilateral ties with America--one ...
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Venezuela: Keep current OPEC production quotas
MarketWatch
MORICHAL, Venezuela--Venezuela will push to maintain current oil-production quotas at next week's meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna in order to hold the price of the commodity near $100 a barrel, Oil Minister Rafael ...
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Judge weighs time limits on Venezuela notes suit
San Francisco Chronicle
At issue are three-decade old promissory notes issued by a now-defunct government-sponsored Venezuelan bank. Lawyers representing Venezuela argue the statute of limitations had passed by the time the 2004 complaint was filed, while attorneys for ...
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Venezuela aims to end toilet paper shortage
BBC News
Venezuela's National Assembly has backed plans to import 39 million rolls of toilet paper, in an effort to relieve a chronic shortage. Lawmakers voted to approve a $79m credit for the country's ministry of commerce, which will also be used to buy ...
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Venezuela to Investigate Controversial Recording
Wall Street Journal
CARACAS—Venezuelan authorities will open an investigation into an audio recording that opposition lawmakers said portrays an influential member of the ruling party accusing the head of the national parliament of corruption and of attempting to derail ...
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New York Times accused of treating Latin political leaders differently
The Guardian
They argue that there are disparities between its largely negative reporting on Venezuela during the presidency of Hugo Chávez (who died in March) and its less critical reporting on Honduras under its successive leaders, Roberto Micheletti and Porfirio ...
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UPDATE 1-Venezuela's Petrovictoria to pump 120000 bpd in 2016
Reuters
JOSE, Venezuela May 23 (Reuters) - Venezuela's Petrovictoria, a joint venture between state oil company PDVSA and Russia's Rosneft, will start production in 2016 and reach 120,000 barrels per day, PDVSA said on Thursday. The joint venture will produce ...
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UPDATE 1-Schlumberger extends Venezuela's PDVSA $1 bln credit line
Reuters
MORICHAL, Venezuela May 24 (Reuters) - Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA will receive a revolving credit line of at least $1 billion from oil services giant Schlumberger, the OPEC nation's oil minister said on Friday. The deal will provide some ...
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Venezuela moves to relieve toilet paper shortage
AFP
CARACAS — Venezuela's National Assembly approved a $79 million credit to import toilet paper and other personal hygiene products to relieve shortages in the petroleum-rich state. The South American OPEC member has the world's largest proven oil ...
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Venezuela tries to end toilet paper shortage
CBC.ca
Oil-rich Venezuela is moving to end shortages of toilet paper and other hygiene products. The country's National Assembly has approved a $79-million credit for the country's Ministry of Commerce. AFP reports that the funds will be used to purchase 39 ...
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In Venezuela, a halfhearted crisis response
Foreign Policy (blog)
As you may have heard, Venezuela's economy is in trouble. State price controls, intended to protect the poor from soaring inflation, have helped create shortages of basic consumer goods like butter, coffee, and milk -- and the problem is exacerbated by ...
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Venezuela top court rejects challenge to Maduro win
AFP
CARACAS — In a ruling out Saturday, Venezuela's Supreme Court rejected one of six challenges to the April 14 presidential election, which saw Hugo Chavez's successor Nicolas Maduro win by a razor-thin margin. Officially, Maduro -- the late president ...
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Internet Cable From Cuba to Jamaica Comes Online
ABC News
A new branch of the Venezuela-to-Cuba undersea fiber-optic cable has reportedly come online, linking the island to nearby Jamaica, increasing Cuba's potential international communications bandwidth and providing a backup for the main line. Doug Madory ...
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Blogs
8 new results for Venezuela
Venezuela's National Nightmare is Over - Outside The Beltway
By Steven L. Taylor
Via the BBC: Venezuela aims to end toilet paper shortage Venezuela's National Assembly has backed plans to import 39 million rolls of toilet paper, in.
Outside the Beltway
The Cubanization of Venezuela: Propagandists, Bribery, and ...
By Alberto de la Cruz
The Cubanization of Venezuela continues, which means the corruption is reaching new levels in that country. Propagandists: Venezuelan propagandist Mario.
Babalú Blog
H5N1: Venezuela strengthens measures against H1N1
By Crof
For many of us, H1N1 is barely a memory, but some parts of the world have been fighting it ever since 2009. Venezuela has lately been dealing with a serious outbreak. Via El Universal, a May 25 report: Refuerzan medidas...
H5N1
Capitol Hill Cubans: Venezuela Launches Cuban-Restored Missile
By Capitol Hill Cubans
Today, the Venezuelan government conducted the test launch of an Otomat missile, model MK2. Eighteen of these missiles have been restored, thanks to Cuban specialists, for use by Venezuela's Bolivarian Armed Forces. Venezuela's ...
Capitol Hill Cubans
Venezuela News And Views: An example of economic failure
By Daniel
Written from the Venezuelan provinces, this blog started as private letters to my friends overseas, letters narrating the difficult days of the 2002/2003 strike in Venezuela. Unknowingly, I have written the diary of Venezuela slow descent into ...
Venezuela News And Views
The International Crisis Group Report on Venezuela - Las armas de ...
By Gustavo Coronel
Gustavo. This call for national dialogue would be logical in a country where both sides are democratic and only at odds regarding policy. But the Venezuelan situation is different. The two sides represent not only opposite political but also ...
LAS ARMAS DE CORONEL
Venezuela: The Silva tape | Fausta's Blog
By Fausta
And finally, a negative 857 points to the Venezuelan people, for if Diosdado gets his way and it's true that he has, to quote Mario Silva, “all the power without being President,” we are about to enter a world of pain that no Cuban doctor can cure ...
Fausta's Blog
Sandinistas deny entry to Venezuelan opposition group
By Tim Rogers
Sandinistas deny entry to Venezuelan opposition group | Nicaragua's English Language Online Newspaper | Nicaragua News.
Nicaragua Dispatch
Web
10 new results for Venezuela
Maligned dollar flourishes in Venezuela - Washington Post
CARACAS, Venezuela — The once almighty U.S. dollar has lost its luster in some corners of the world.But there's one outpost where greenbacks have never ...
articles.washingtonpost.com/.../39323582_1_president-nicolas...
Duddy | Venezuela after Chavez
I was in Sao Paulo, Brazil with a group of Duke University business students when the local media carried the news that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ...
www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/.../duddy_venezuela.html
Venezuela approves funds to relieve the toilet-paper shortage - Hot Air
Venezuela's parliament roared back to life Tuesday with fractious debates between government and opposition lawmakers after a three-week paralysis following ...
hotair.com/.../its-come-to-this-venezuela-approves-funds-to-re...
Venezuela top court rejects challenge to Maduro win - World - nation ...
In a ruling out Saturday, Venezuela's Supreme Court rejected one of six challenges to the April 14 presidential election, which saw Hugo Chavez's successor ...
www.nation.co.ke/News/world/...top.../-/index.html
Venezuela Hit By Toilet Paper Shortage Crisis - Sky News
Shop shelves are empty and people are down to their last sheets but the President says it is all an "anti-government conspiracy".
news.sky.com/story/1092140
Venezuela Runs Out Of Toilet Paper | Zero Hedge
To vaguely paraphrase Mike Tyson, "everyone has a plan for a socialist utopia, until they run out of toilet paper." This is just what happened to Venezuela, where ...
www.zerohedge.com/news/.../venezuela-runs-out-toilet-paper
'Excessive demand' wipes out Venezuela's toilet paper ... - France 24
Venezuela's latest shortage of staple goods is a novel one: toilet paper. People are panic buying rolls, with consumers loading up their shopping carts in droves.
www.france24.com/.../20130517-excessive-demand-wipes-out...
Sun News : Venezuela running out of toilet paper
Venezuela has a potential poopstorm on its hands if it can't wipe out a toilet paper shortage. Officials said they will have to import 50 million rolls to meet the ...
www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/.../20130516-095120.html
Venezuela running out of toilet paper | Stuff.co.nz
There are many things civilised societies can do without - smartphones, Maccas, reality shows etc.
www.stuff.co.nz/world/.../Venezuela-running-out-of-toilet-pap...
Toilet paper shortage in Venezuela sends citizens scrambling for ...
Venezuelans scrambled to stock up on toilet paper Thursday as fears of a bathroom emergency spread despite the socialist government's promise to import 50 ...
www.nydailynews.com/.../toilet-paper-shortage-venezuela-sen...
International Crisis Group Against Venezuela
By Mark Weisbrot , May 21st 2013
The International Crisis Group (ICG) sells itself as “working to prevent conflict worldwide” but there is one country where their mission looks more like promoting rather than preventing conflict. Exhibit A is their report on Venezuela, released today.
There is a lot wrong with this report – most of it reads like a statement from the Venezuelan political opposition, rather than a neutral third-party observer. But the most ugly and pernicious thing is the report’s insistence that “the validity of the election result [in Venezuela] needs to be clarified” and that a “full and transparent audit result” is necessary, or else the government’s “rule will increasingly come to be seen by many as an imposition, with unpredictable, possibly violent consequences.”
These statements strongly imply that the Venezuelan government is to blame if the opposition returns to violence, as it has in the past, in its ongoing refusal to accept the results of a democratic election.
For the governments of Latin America, and almost all of the world, there is no doubt about the “validity of the election result.” It is really only the Venezuelan opposition and the U.S. government that has questioned it.
The International Crisis Group has a $20 million dollar annual budget, about half of which comes from the United States and allied governments who share the State Department’s political agenda, with additional contributions from big oil companies including BP and Shell. So in some ways it is not surprising that it would take the position of the U.S. government, even when the U.S. government is, as in this case, completely isolated in the world. However, the ICG does not always do this in other countries, so this report stands out as a particularly disgraceful blot on their record.
The report is so heinously one-sided that it does not even mention the results of the audit that took place on April 14, the day of the election. In Venezuela, voters express their preference by pressing a computer touch-screen, which then prints out a paper receipt of their vote. The voter then checks to make sure that the receipt was the same as her choice, and deposits the paper receipt in a sealed box.
When the polls closed, a random sample of 53 percent[1] of all the machines (20,825 out of 39,303) was chosen, and a manual tally was made of the paper receipts. This “hot audit” was done on site, in the presence of the observers from both campaigns, as well as witnesses from the community. There were no reports from witnesses or election officials on site of any discrepancies between the machine totals and the hand count. Nor has the Capriles campaign alleged that any such discrepancies occurred.
What does this fact that ICG left out of its report mean? It means that the probability of getting this audit result, on April 14, if in fact Capriles had won the vote, is less than one in 25 thousand trillion (see here and here). Which means that a “full and transparent audit result” has already occurred, but the ICG – without saying why, in its 16-page report with 77 footnotes, doesn’t seem to think it means very much.
Nonetheless, the National Electoral Council, at the request of the Capriles campaign, is auditing another 12,000 of the remaining 16,000 ballot boxes in the same way. But the opposition decided to boycott this audit, after it first agreed to it. The ICG adopts the opposition spin on these post-electoral events, implying that it is the government that is reneging on its commitment by not doing the “100 percent audit” that the opposition wanted.
This part of the report is particularly laughable:
Multilateral organisations, such as the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the Organisation of American States (OAS), and regional powers, such as Brazil, need to make clear that they will not tolerate further destruction of the rule of law and democratic values.
Perhaps ICG doesn’t know it, but UNASUR and Brazil have already made it very clear that “they will not tolerate further destruction of the rule of law and democratic values.” It’s just that their idea of the rule of law and democratic values is different from that of the ICG and its government sponsors: it includes respect for the results of democratic elections. That is why all of the presidents of UNASUR countries met in Lima on April 18 after the election and why most of them flew to Venezuela the next day to attend President Maduro’s inauguration.
Lula da Silva said, in rejecting the U.S. government’s attempt to de-legitimize the Venezuelan election, "Americans should take care of their own business a little and let us decide our own destiny."
And on May 9, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff made a similar statement, while standing next to President Maduro of Venezuela:
President Dilma Rousseff stated on May 9th that South America must reaffirm its ‘capacity to resolve its own problems’. And, without naming other countries, she condemned ‘hegemonic pretensions’ and ‘foreign interference.’
For UNASUR and its biggest member country, Brazil, the threat in this case to the rule of law and democratic values is coming from the U.S. government and its allies, not from the Venezuelan government. It’s really shameful to see the ICG promote political conflict by trying to de-legitimize election results that everyone else can see are valid.
Source CEPR
see also: ICG short on facts, high in bias.
Saturday, 11 May 2013
Dark forces of neo-fascism are growing in Venezuela
A long lasting line-out plan was set up in motion on Sunday 14th April in Venezuela. Once the results of the presidential election was made public after the computational margin made it clear enough to announce them to the nation, then a combination of factors inside and outside Venezuela kick off what was previously agreed: declare the election “fraudulent”, and give not recognition what so ever to the legitimacy to all powers in Venezuela, all institutions most be overturned. It is basically a cut through the fabric of Venezuela. Once Chavez is gone, and the electoral margin is narrower, the power must be theirs, by force if necessary.
Bolivarian candidate Nicolas Maduro won the Venezuelan presidential election by a narrow margin. With 99.12% of the votes counted, there was a 78.71% turn out, with Maduro receiving 7,505,378 votes (50.66%), and Capriles 7,270,403 votes (49.07%).
The first attack was against the newly elected president Nicolas Maduro, calling him “illegitimate”, and then asking all opposition radicals “to vent their anger” against president supporters. The tragedy that very day was bloody and deadly: 8 people killed, and more than 70 injured. More casualties has been added once the critical condition of the injuries deteriorate into fatal results. Henrique Capriles toll of anger is reaching 11 deaths, all of them related to the 15th April dark Monday.
The list of victims killed by the opposition factions dragged into this neo-fascism and shaped by ill leadership are:
- Jose Ponce , 45, timber worker, from Limonera Baruta, Miranda State. He was shot dead.
- Luis Garcia, from Zulia State.
- Endar Bastardo, from Zulia State. He was shot dead.
- Rosiris Reyes, 41, from Limonera Baruta, Miranda State. She was shot injured but it didn’t survived the wounds.
- Jose Ospino, from Junín, Táchira State.
- Leonardo Vera, from San Cristobal, Táchira.
- Henry Rangel, 32, from Santa Ana, Cordoba, Táchira. He was shot dead.
- Gerardo Rico, from San Cristobal, Táchira. He died after 23 days in a comma condition due to a severe beating by Capriles supporters.
- Keller Guevara, police officer from San Cristobal, Táchira.
- Rey Sanchez, from San Cristobal, Táchira. He died after being chase and heat by a car.
- Jose Hernandez, from San Cristobal, Táchira. He died after being chase and heat by a car, together with Rey Sanchez.
The second move was to attack the Electoral National Council (CNE), by challenging a 100% audit on all boxes. That audit was granted, even unusual for unnecessary once the system has been thoroughly audited 17 times in all its stages by all political parties before, during, and after the election. Capriles own deputies signed as good the results of every of these audits. Capriles then decided to ignore the 100% audit, because he does not recognised the CNE as transparent institution. The audit was scheduled to be complete in 30 days with the presence of all political parties, but Capriles refuse to take part in it; however, all other presidential candidates will be in this audit that Capriles initially demanded. The CNE has filled the vaccum left by Capriles by inviting several civic organizations to witness the audit and verify what Capriles did not bother to see.
The third step was against the National Assembly. By ignoring the legitimacy of the president, the opposition factions try to put the house against the president. The fight inside the house spurted into incendiary speeches, and the next week an organize physical fight was set in motion by opposition, for a camera man to pick up the best angles. Lots of noisy vuvuzelas, pepper sprays against the females MP that support president Maduro, throwing chairs at the government supporters, personal attacks on the speaker, and physical harassment on any that offer resistance. One MP arrived that day wearing a helmet to the parliamentary session. What for could it be may I wonder? The news of the fight spark all over this tiny planet Earth. The move was a total success, the image of the Venezuelan parliament was on the floor badly damage. No media outlet spread the word of the 10 killing of the government supporters few days earlier, but the face brushes that some opposition manufactured by teasing to the limit on their counterparts was widely distribute to all of us to react upon.
The fourth move was to file a sue against the CNE challenging the results into the Justice Supreme Court (TSJ). The evidence presented will be addressed in the Electoral Justice branch and the Constitutional Court in due term once the evidences of all their allegations were discharged, contested and cross examined. However, Capriles decided not to wait the audience but to denounce the court itself in the international level as a “bias” institution. His claims changed from a recount of the results, to ask a full new election, without legal frame to do so. At this point the attack on the TSJ was completed by calling its overrun by foreign courts, without allowing the national power to examine his demands.
All nations, except one, have recognised Nicolas Maduro as the constitutional president of Venezuela. The exception is United States that keep pulling the streams behind Capriles.
Venezuela has 5 national powers, four out of five have been subject to severe attacks by the opposition in the last weeks. The president declared “illegitimate”, CNE declared “not transparent neither reliable”, National Assembly as a place were “not debate is possible”, but violence and beatings; and the Supreme Court has been labelled as “bias and self-servicing” The last national power is the Moral Power, where the citizens seen their human rights defended, where corruption is watched and denounced, where the National Attorney accused the offenders. I think the next move will open severe human right violations forcing this institution to step in robustly to contain and control the violence. But if a mercenary violence is general, confuse and monstrous, as we see it in Libya for example, then the table for a US foreign intervention is served, and Capriles puppeteers will succeed in this master minded plan.
Example of a Venezuelan opposition supporter protesting in UK on 20th April 2013 in front of the Embassy, and asking for intervention against Venezuela.
How to stop this escalating fascism under the umbrella of western powers? I think is our duty to denounce it and made all in our hands to disenfranchise the young people that buy it face value without learning the lessons history has given us already.
Stop the killings, respect the democratic will the people have constructed together, collectively. Recognise the opposition, but recognise the legitimate mandate the people had gave to the government. President Maduro is calling for mutual respect and peaceful construction of a homeland that satisfy all, he is not agreeing into a “pact” with the top elite, but with the society as a whole. However, the level of nurtured distrust on the institutions, bitterness in the hearts of many, rage of the few and then blood has reached the shores, once again. Like in 2002 coup d'état against Chavez, US and allies are more than ever interested to pull the events into their self serving fold.
Nothing good will come out if we watch this growing fascist threat against democracy. Let’s not be repentant, let’s get active responsible defenders of Venezuela.
CNE: Consejo National Electoral
TSJ: Tribunal Supremo de Justicia
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