Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Venezuela: El Observador gets back on line, Hugo gives Fidel fashion advice, Evo makes new friends

While Chavez is busy suing Globovision after having closed RCTV, Globovision continues to produce and post videos for RCTV on You Tube twice a day. Here’s yesterday evening’s (in Spanish):

Tamara Slusniys explains that the RCTV webpage, El Observador, which had been shut down from a DOS attack is now back on line El Observador. The actors from one of the RCTV comedy shows is taking their show on the road showing on screen one of the shows they couldn’t broadcast when the station was closed by the government.

On Wednesday there was a huge demonstration of students who went to the National Assembly. As the WaPo correctly explains, there have been no opposition lawmakers since 2005. Daniel explains that the students are Settling into a protest routine, Venezuela style

El Universal has a slide show. This man’s wearing a sign that reads, “Sorry for the inconvenience. We’re working for your freedom!”

Of course, a cadena followed, and this is no news: Chavez calls protesting students ‘pawns of Washington’.

Via Miguel, a new blog The end of Venezuela as I know it. That blogger is certainly no “pawn of Washington”, or of anyone for that matter. But not everyone is as strong: Gustavo Coronel writes about The Dark Hour of Gustavo Cisneros.

Here’s A priceless statement on the RCTV shutdown by a Government adviser. Indeed, as Daniel states in his article for Index on censorship, The non-renewal of the licence of the main opposition station is part of a broader, worrying, trend in Chavista Venezuela

AP has an article, Venezuela seeks leftist defense bloc

President Hugo Chavez called for the creation of a common defense pact between Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia, while the leftist Latin American bloc announced the creation of a development bank to finance joint projects.

which is something I’ve been posting on for a while, but now the rethoric’s a little hotter,

Chavez said Wednesday that the four-nation Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, or ALBA, which began as a socialist-leaning trade group, should cooperate militarily to become more independent of U.S. influence. “It seems to be the moment to establish a joint defense strategy,” Chavez said. He called for joint military aid as well as intelligence and counterintelligence cooperation “to prepare our people for defense so that nobody makes any mistake with us.”

Austin Bay‘s Washington Times op-ed looks at Venezuela’s current land claims against Colombia, Guyana and Holland (because of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire) and asks, A second Falklands?

One thing is clear, Hugo’s networking involves Bolivia, and terrorist-supporting states:

Update: The Economist says Much though Evo Morales (left) might want to be another Hugo Chávez, he will not find it easy

Brazil’s Senate is not too happy over recent developments: Stratfor has an excellent article, Mercosur and Brazil: The Venezuela Question and Quitting Time

Summary: Despite recent conciliatory gestures between the presidents of Brazil and Venezuela, Brazil’s Senate has shown a new determination to block full membership for Venezuela in the trade group Mercosur as part of the fallout from the revocation of Radio Caracas TV’s license. If Mercosur denies Venezuela, it could become a more viable trade group, though that greatly depends on Argentina’s stance following elections later this year. Ultimately, Brazil will have to leave Mercosur if it does not become a more effective trade body.

Hugo’s even ordering Fidel around, Get out of your trackies, Chavez tells Castro

“I believe the time has come to return to wearing the uniform,” said Mr Chavez, a staunch supporter and protege of Castro.

“We want you in uniform … That’s an order,” he joked.

I guess Hugo doesn’t understand the dotty dictator’s fashion sense.

Update Excellent round-ups at A colombo-americana’s perspective

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Another jogging suit photo-op coming up?

Bolivia’s Morales visits Cuba

It’s unclear if Bolivian President Evo Morales will meet with Fidel Castro in Cuba

I’n sure Fidel will wear Addidas again and make a show of the newspaper, like he did here:

and here:

and here:

Heck, at this rate, Fidel might even convince the Addidas people to give Evo a jogging suit, too. The hard part’s going to be getting Evo out of that sweater.

In more serious matters,
Cuban dissident Dr. Darsi Ferrer was released from police custody, while Fidel’s exporting construction workers to Venezuela so they can work below the minimum wage.

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Venezuela on the front page, again

I must admit that I haven’t been posting much about Venezuela because of personal reasons.

I blog because I greatly enjoy blogging. I enjoy not only posting at this blog, but also receiving emails, corresponding with readers and bloggers from all over the world, talking to other bloggers over Skype, and meeting with bloggers in person. When my family is out of town I go to New York and meet with other bloggers.

Through blogging I am also able to allow my visitors to participate in my thought process, something this guy realized way before I realized it myself (which is probably why he writes with the name of three dead shrinks. But I digress). And he’s correct: a lot of times I figure out my own position on an issue as I write the post.

Obviously I’m not the most insightful of bloggers, but my research is solid and current, and I always welcome more information. As I said, I really enjoy what I’m doing. But some news do get me down.

Since I purposely try to convey a message of cautious optimism in nearly all of my posts, I have become most reluctant to post about Venezuela.

My reluctance, however, is also matched by my desire to continue to convey accurate information on a subject about which I have posted for the past 3 years. It is a subject of national interest, particularly in view of the current seditious leadership in Congress.

The feedback I get from people who are living in Venezuela, or have travelled recently to Venezuela, is uniformly glum. Things are bad with no end in sight. The prospect of another 50-year-long regime like Cuba’s is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a good prospect. Make no mistake, the road to perdition is well marked.

This morning I wasn’t planning on posting about Venezuela, but as I picked up the newspaper the headline, Farms Are Latest Target In Venezuelan Upheaval, continues to confirm that Venezuela is firmly positioning itself as Cubazuela:

Vicente Lecuna jabs a wall map of his Santa Isabel ranch so angrily that the map crashes to the floor. “I used to produce 10,000 tons of sugar cane a year,” says the 67-year-old Venezuelan cattleman. “Now it’s zero! Zero!” he shouts.

Two years ago, squatters seized about half of Mr. Lecuna’s 3,000-acre ranch, setting up a cooperative named “Re-Founding the Fatherland.” Far from being evicted, the squatters got loans and tractors from the government of President Hugo Chávez. They then uprooted the sugar cane and decided to try their hand at growing plantains.

Mind you, this is at a time where cane-sugar derived ethanol is increasingly becoming a resource for wealth creation.

By ruining the sugar industry, Chavez shot his country in the proverbial foot twice, not just because sugar-cane ethanol is now a commodity, but also because Venezuelan oil production declines as operational oil rigs are down.

But it’s all in the name of the revolucion

If the rhetoric smacks of the 1960s, it’s because Mr. Chavez dreams of transforming Venezuela just as Fidel Castro did Cuba. Mr. Chavez has already sharply cut private companies’ role in Venezuela’s lucrative oil industry, and uses the state oil company to funnel billions of dollars to his social projects. He has nationalized the leading telephone company and the main electric utility. He speaks of wanting to drive a stake through the heart of capitalism, limiting the role of money and installing a barter system.

Aside from destroying property rights, a cornerstone of democracy, one fact is ignored when dividing agricultural land into small parcels for the use of untrained people:

Agriculture is a science, and as such it needs to be managed by well-trained personnel that know what they’re doing.
I learned this at a young age: my father owned a farm; my brother is an agronomist.

Farming looks deceptively simple because so much of the work involved can be done by unskilled labor. But agriculture is a science that involves a body of knowledge and the application of tested practices that will not respond to a command economy like Chavez is trying to bring about:

The chaos in the countryside has contributed to shortages in basic items like milk and meat, a paradox in a country enjoying an economic boom traceable to high oil prices. Also spurring the shortages are price controls on certain foods that keep them priced below the cost of production. Meanwhile, 19%-plus inflation – as oil revenue foods the economy – spurs panic-buying: purchasing price-controlled and other goods the shopper might not immediately need for fear of having higher prices in the future or not finding the items at all.

The article goes on, explaining how thousands of slum-dwellers are paid a monthly stipend

to learn a hodgepodge of Marxism, “ancestral” Venezuelan farming methods, and Cuban fertilizer-making techniques

The Cuban fertilizer is known as humus de lombrices, and was highly praised in the film I watched last Friday at the PHRFF. It is nothing more than a pre-Medieval technique of growing worms in cow manure within a cement trough.

I assure you, worm humus does not sustain the large-scale farming necessary for a country such as Venezuela to feed itself.

More mismanagement had turned the Hato Paraima, a 120,000 acre cattle ranch, into fallow land.

A related article in today’s New York Times also mentions that there have been dozens of kidnappings of landowners by armed gangs in the last two years.

The bad news continues: Venezuela’s climbing GDP deemed to be unsustainable due to the lack of production and investment. Hardly surprising, considering how Nationalisation sweeps Venezuela

On 1 May, Labour Day, he took control of the last remaining private oil companies in the country.


Next are CANTV, the main telecom company; the electric company, Electricidad de Caracas; and the banks.

While nationalizing the banks, Chavez wants to branch out into international banking: apparently Chavez is going ahead with the proposed Banco del Sur, involving not only Venezuela but also Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay. The countries involved, however, might not share Hugo’s goals – particularly if Venezuela wants them to pull out from the World Bank and the IMF. As the article points out,

Pulling out of the IMF would amount to a technical default on Venezuela’s bonds and would raise the cost of future borrowing. Leaving the World Bank would tear up bilateral investment treaties that Venezuela has signed with other countries (and which use the bank’s investment-dispute machinery).

While the Minister of Finance stresses that “No trouble or inconvenience is expected with regard to Venezuela’s scheduled repayment of the external debt, amortizations and interests to bond holders for an amount near USD 22 billion” if Venezuela leaves the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, it begs the question as to whose trouble and inconvenience.

The ministers involved have decided that the Banco will be just a development bank.

Development, indeed.

Update, Friday 18 May: The Wall Street Journal does Yaracuy, and The New York Times does Yaracuy. Don’t miss Daniel’s excellent essay on Land seizure in the bolivarian revolution

Update, Sunday 20 May: Hugo Chavez approaches the Mugabe level of economic mismanagement

Update, Monday 21 May: WSJ Americas columnist Mary Anastasia O’Grady predicts a gloomy outlook for Hugo Chavez’s price controls

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The return of the perfect Latin American idiot

Time for more porch blogging:
Foreign Policy has an article by Alvaro Vargas Llosa titled The Return of the Idiot that’s today’s must-read:

Ten years ago, Colombian writer Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, Cuban writer Carlos Alberto Montaner, and I wrote Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot, a book criticizing opinion and political leaders who clung to ill-conceived political myths despite evidence to the contrary. The “Idiot” species, we suggested, bore responsibility for Latin America’s underdevelopment. Its beliefs—revolution, economic nationalism, hatred of the United States, faith in the government as an agent of social justice, a passion for strongman rule over the rule of law—derived, in our opinion, from an inferiority complex. In the late 1990s, it seemed as if the Idiot were finally retreating. But the retreat was short lived. Today, the species is back in force in the form of populist heads of state who are reenacting the failed policies of the past, opinion leaders from around the world who are lending new credence to them, and supporters who are giving new life to ideas that seemed extinct.

Alvaro knows the landscape like the palm of his hand:

…todays’ young Latin American Idiots prefer Shakira’s pop ballads to Pérez Prado’s mambos and no longer sing leftist anthems like “The Internationale” or “Until Always Comandante.” But they are still descendants of rural migrants, middle class, and deeply resentful of the frivolous lives of the wealthy displayed in the glossy magazines they discreetly leaf through on street corners. State-run universities provide them with a class-based view of society that argues that wealth is something that needs to be retaken from those who have stolen it. For these young Idiots, Latin America’s condition is the result of Spanish and Portuguese colonialism, followed by U.S. imperialism. These basic beliefs provide a safety valve for their grievances against a society that offers scant opportunity for social mobility.
…
The Idiot’s worldview, in turn, finds an echo among distinguished intellectuals in Europe and the United States. These pontificators assuage their troubled consciences by espousing exotic causes in developing nations. Their opinions attract fans among First-World youngsters for whom globalization phobia provides the perfect opportunity to find spiritual satisfaction in the populist jeremiad of the Latin American Idiot against the wicked West.

Vargas Llosa coins a great term: the vegetarian left

Even in Latin America, part of the left is making its transition away from Idiocy—similar to the kind of mental transition that the European left, from Spain to Scandinavia, went through a few decades ago when it grudgingly embraced liberal democracy and a market economy. In Latin America, one can speak of a “vegetarian left” and a “carnivorous left.” The vegetarian left is represented by leaders such as Brazilian President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva, Uruguayan President Tabare Vázquez, and Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. Despite the occasional meaty rhetoric, these leaders have avoided the mistakes of the old left, such as raucous confrontations with the developed world and monetary and fiscal profligacy. They have settled into social-democratic conformity and are proving unwilling to engage in major reform—which is why Brazil’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth is not expected to top 3.6 percent this year—but they signify a positive development in the struggle for modernizing the left.

By contrast, the “carnivorous” left is represented by Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, and Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa. They cling to a Marxist view of society and a Cold War mentality that separates North from South, and they seek to exploit ethnic tensions, particularly in the Andean region. The oil windfall obtained by Hugo Chávez is funding a great deal of this effort.

And don’t miss the list of Nobel Prize winning idiots.

(h/t Babalu
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If you can’t say something good about someone, and today’s items

If you can’t say something good about someone, go read Riding The View with Rosie
and
Howard Dean: Unplugged and Under Medicated

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Via Zeitnot, Steven Pinker on the Decline of Violence

“Our ancestors were far more violent than we are.” We’re probably living in the most peaceful time of our species’ existence, a statement that seems almost obscene in light of Darfur and Iraq.

The decline of violence, he tells us, is a fractal phenomenon – we see it over the centuries, the decades and the years. That said, we see a tipping point in the 16th century – the age of reason – particularly in England and Holland.

I wonder what that professor would make of this

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Coca-Cola should drop the ‘coca,’ Bolivia growers say, because “coca is sacred”.

Coke is it!

Coke has some 70 clean-water projects in 40 countries, a service it hopes will eventually boost local economies and broaden its consumer base. But the efforts are also part of a broader strategy under Chairman and Chief Executive E. Neville Isdell to build Coke’s image as a local benefactor and global diplomat. “You have to be an integral and functioning part both in perception and reality in every community in which you operate,” he said in an interview.

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Arab Feminist Soft Sell of Hezbollah at the International Museum of Women.

Because women need an international museum.

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In a lighter note,
Over at the BBCA broadcast, they had a report on French electoral polling of pets. Dogs were for Sarko, cats for Sego. I wondered what Marvin and Maynard would say, but then, Marvin and Maynard are not French. Marvin’s blogging – go check it out.

Maria tells me that The Sopranos are filming in Morris Plains. I wonder if the bear has a cameo? A local corporation has sent a memo with instructions on what to do if the bear finds you, among them,

Black bear attacks are extremely rare. If a black bear does attack, fight back — do not play dead.

If Bear Grylls attacks, however, expect an entirely different reaction.

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Right now I’m listening to some of the most beautiful music man has created,

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"Say ‘ello to my leetle fren’", part 2


The caption says,

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, laugh with Bolivia’s President Evo Morales holds his hand during the inauguration of Rafael Correa as new president of Ecuador in Quito, Monday, Jan. 15, 2007

Makes you want to sing,

“Feelings, wo-o-o feelings,
Wo-o-o, feelings again in my arms.
Feelings…“,

doesn’t it?

(thank you, M.)

Update, Sunday 21 January: Love, Look at the Two of Us

Prior posts ‘Jad’s junket
“Say ‘ello to my leetle fren'”
Shall we dance?

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Aftermath

As I posted yesterday, Chavez’s official announcement of what he’s been up to all these years wrecked havoc with the financial markets.
The effect was not limited to Venezuela, but at least was limited. NYT: Venezuelan Plan Shakes Investors

Investors reacted with alarm here and in markets in the United States and throughout Latin America on Tuesday as they measured the impact of the plan by Mr. Chávez to nationalize crucial areas of the economy. Memories of past nationalizations during another turbulent era, in places like Cuba and Chile, helped drive down the Caracas stock exchange’s main index by almost 19 percent.

Markets across Latin America declined Tuesday, but the drop was modest in most other countries, with the Bovespa index in Brazil and the Bolsa index of Mexico each falling 1.9 percent. The measured reaction appears to reflect the belief of investors that Mr. Chávez, in spite of his words, has limited influence on the economic policies of other governments in the region.

Prairie Pundit, in his post (h/t Larwyn) Markets quickly send negative message to Chavez correctly states:

Socialism belongs on the ash heap of history and Chavez attempt to resurrect it is simply a power grab for his megalomania

Chavez will continue to exert power and influence in Latin America – in this morning’s headlines I also found Bolivia Allows Venezuela To Send Troops. However, in Nicaragua, former Cold War Marxist rebel Daniel Ortega, will not copy the radical economic policies of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, his main foreign ally, a top aide said on Tuesday.

In today’s Daily News Michael Shifter speculates,

Rather than assuring his longevity in office, Chavez’s moves at the outset of his eighth year as Venezuela’s president may accelerate the implosion of a political system whose soft spots and vulnerabilities are increasingly exposed.

The WaPo editorial realizes that (emphasis added)

Some will see in Mr. Chávez’s actions a threat to U.S. interests. Certainly, those who caution that it is unwise to count on Venezuela to continue supplying up to 15 percent of U.S. oil imports have a point. If assets of U.S. companies are seized without fair compensation, Venezuela should be subject to penalties. But the main threat posed by Mr. Chávez is to Venezuela’s 26 million people. If he follows through on his threats, they can look forward to steadily diminishing freedom and — if the history of socialism is any guide — national impoverishment.

I fully expect Chavez to stay in power for many years to come. Rather than an aftermath, this week’s announcement is a beginning.

Update Don’t miss David Paulin‘s article on CANTV.

Update 2
Expropriations Darken Venezuela (h/t Pajamas Media)

Chavez’s choice of industries to expropriate is clearly strategic. A dual attack on phones and electricity is a sly effort to silence the electronic media, and with it all public scrutiny of the regime.

All electronic means of sending information – the Internet, in particular – will be at the consent of Chavez and his Cuban advisers. It also comes right after Chavez’s bid to put RCTV, a private station, out of business by not renewing its license.
…
Without independent media to check him, Chavez opens the gate to moves he doesn’t want the media to cover — the sorts of things Fidel Castro did to secure his permanent power, like firing-squad walls and forced labor camps. An end to a free press will also atomize society, leaving citizens less free to judge the actions of their government as anomalous or systematic. Tyrants prefer to operate in the dark.

Chavez’s ideological blueprint is not encouraging, either. He worships Castro, seeking to inherit his mantle as leader of the international left. Chavez’s other template is his devotion to Simon Bolivar, Venezuela’s first president and a Latin American icon.

It’s not well-known, but the latter’s heroic image as liberator of the Americas was tarnished by savagery — forced marches, terror and civilian murders.

Count on Chavez to be attuned to the darker side of Bolivar’s character in the socialist revolution he calls “Bolivarian.” In fact, prepare for the worst.

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Reid to Bolivia, grim milestones, and other items

Reid to Bolivia
Elephants in Academia emailed with this news, Sen. Harry Reid Traveling to Bolivia This Week

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will join a bipartisan delegation on a trip that includes stops in Bolivia and Ecuador, two members of Latin America’s recently emerging left. International trade and anti-drug efforts are among the topics on the senators’ agenda.

As Academic Elephant said,

I’m sure Amauris Sanmartino is top on their agenda.

Amauris Sanmartino’s the Cuban dissident critical of President Evo Morales’ ties to Havana. Even when he’s a permanent resident in Bolivia, he was arrested and will be deported to Cuba. Babalu has where to contact Harry Reid on behalf of Dr. Sanmartino. (Update: Dr Sanmartino’s going to Gitmo)

Harry will miss the funeral

Grim milestones
Barcepundit says, WHAT A MORONIC REPORT. Go read about it.

Moral exhibitionism
Dr. Sowell writes,

Progressives are in the business of complaining and denouncing — as a prelude to seeking sweeping powers to control other people’s lives, in the name of curing the ills of society. The last thing they want is to discover and discuss how millions of people rose out of poverty by entirely different methods, often by freeing economies from the control of people with sweeping power over other people’s lives. Poverty and economic disparities are the raw materials from which the political left manufactures a sense of moral superiority, self-importance and political power. Against that background, it is understandable how they strive to keep poverty alive as an issue, even as they claim to want to end poverty, by playing lady bountiful to the poor. Even as they define deviancy downward, many of the progressive intelligentsia define poverty upward, so that people with amenities that even the middle class could only strive for, two generations ago, are still called “the poor” or the “have-nots.” Except for people who can’t work or won’t work, there is very little real poverty in the United States today, except among people who come from poverty-stricken countries and bring their poverty with them. Talk about “the working poor” still resonates in politics, but most of the people in the bottom 20 percent of American households are not working full-time and year-round. There are more heads of household who work year-round and full-time among the top 5 percent of American heads of households than among the bottom 20 percent. The left has striven mightily to make working no longer necessary for having a claim to a share of what others have produced — whether a share of “the nation’s” wealth or “the world’s” wealth. They have also striven mightily to inflate the number of people who look poor by counting young people with entry-level jobs, who are passing through lower income brackets at the beginning of their careers, among “the poor,” even though most of these young people have incomes above the national average when they are older. The real obsession of the left is in gaining power or, at the very least, engaging in moral exhibitionism.

Peace Prize, you ask?
Via Larwyn, Arafat’s Orchestration of 1973 Murders Acknowledged by State Department

How much different would the history of the Middle East be if the world had been forced to face the reality of Arafat’s involvement in the murder of American diplomats over 30 years ago?

Update Doug Ross has The Friends of Terror Scrapbook

Two podcasts
Louisiana Conservative interviewed Wild Bill. You can listen to the podcast here

If you haven’t listened to it yet, go to Eternity Road and listen to Francis Porretto’s wonderful tale fo the Census taker

Last, but not least
a truly beautiful post.

Update
Edwards Enters Race

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