Hugo (Ego) Chavez losses the plot
By Aleksander Boyd
London 21.04.05 | It is not everyday that one reads in the English press, much less in the leftist rags, about Hugo (Ego) Chavez. This morning I read something penned by Stuart Jeffries about him in G2, the Guardian magazine. Hang on the Guardian? Making a mockery of Ego Chavez? But it doesn't stop there. The Beeb also reported, quite sarcastically, that the Venezuelan Quixote ordered 1 million copies of the Cervantes' book to be printed and freely distributed. And the NYT pitched in with a rarity, an article that exposes the rampant corruption and influence peddling that characterized the appointees that Chavez placed at the top of CITGO. What's going on here?
Rafael Ramirez, the illegally appointed president of PDVSA, offered some good news to those seeking a bargain in the USA's refining business; CITGO will sale two of its eight refineries (with who's approval?) -German marxist turned PDVSA oilman Bernard Mommer gleefully salivating in the background... Needless to say that such a sale will benefit only the brokerage firm in charge of the deal and very few other friends of Ramirez and Mommer.
Ego Chavez admitted in public the existence of a list, published by deputy Adolfo Tascon, that has been put to very good use, that of discriminating and denying jobs, passports, IDs, contracts, etc, to those who signed requesting the referendum to recall Chavez. Furthermore, he said that the list had accomplished its purpose and that it was time to "bury it". So here we have the President of the country admitting candidly in front of the nation that the apartheid list did exist and that it was used against Venezuelans.
Imagine a Congressmen of the US Republican Party laying his hands on a list of citizens, publishing and distributing it to every conceivable government office to discriminate against those that happen to support the Liberal Democrats, all done with the approval of President Bush, the latter admitting that yes it existed and it fulfilled its designated purpose of trampling on people's rights. Well Ego Chavez not only does it, graver still, he does it with absolute impunity.
On a different note, Minister of Information Andres Izarra, who resigned from a TV channel 'in disgust' after witnessing a total blackout of news related to street protests in 2002, expressed in relation to a very similar black out, this one pertaining to electoral fraud accusations and demonstration against the ruling party (Chavez's MVR) carried out by chavistas in the commemoration of Independence Day, that the State-controlled news agencies were ordered to broadcast the official events not some street protests.
So what else is new? Well the admission of Jose Bono, Spain's Defence Minister, expressing that the ships and planes sold to Venezuela are not equipped with weapons of any sort, reinforcing Moratinos' theory that the weapons sold to Hugo Chavez constitute 'humanitarian aid' rather than military equipment.
Obviously the neofascist president of Venezuela has lost the plot and with it all sense of respect for the dignity of his fellow countrymen.
send this article to a friend >>