Tidbits: Evo Morales, Wikipedia and Zapatero punched again
By Daniel Duquenal | Venezuela News and Views
13.01.06 | Three little items that deserve a small post each, but that I put together in no particular order of importance.
Evo Morales travels courtesy of PDVSA
Fascinating stuff. El Universal high class backed up “gossip” column of Nelson Bocaranda reveals to us that Evo Morales “grand tour” these recent days was made at Venezuelan government expense, apparently without the knowledge or preparation of the Bolivian foreign ministry. It seems that even the Bolivian ambassadors were not warned that their president elect was arriving and were not included in any of the activities anyway. The tab seems to have been picked up by Venezuela (even the credit card info reached Bocaranda), and organized by Cuba and Venezuela, mostly Cuba as Venezuelan foreign service staff has become sub par. Body guards provided by Venezuela (and Cuba?) it seems, even so much armed that they were politely requested to leave their weapons on board when they reached Spain.
Of course they forgot to check out that the plane of PDVSA was US registry and thus the planned stop in Teheran (Chavez wants Evo to have his same friends) had to be canceled at the last minute. So goes international planning, perfectly suited to Chavez loud mouth.
Bocaranda also reminds us that when Chavez gave Evo his pocket money (30 million USD and some fuel, perfect for a long trip) he told him “… and do not think on paying me back”. This money belongs of course to the Venezuelan state but Chavez subconscious betrayed him and once again he has admitted that he sees Venezuelan state money as his own now, just as a thug looks at his booty. Just as the mayor of Caracas could use those 30 millions to house the people evicted of their slums because of the viaduct emergency. For less that such arrogance Carlos Andres Perez was ejected form his seat. But those were other times when some democracy existed, not like this proto-fascist state we are saddled with.
Wikipedia as an infiltrated agency
A few days ago a certain regular visitor of these pages code named Flanker defended Wikipedia coverage of Chavez whereas I questioned the objectivity of Wikipedia in that it was subjected to incessant chavista writing manipulation. Well, Alek Boyd, our favorite investigative journalist who notoriously on his own and a computer uncovered from Eva Golinger to Dan Burnett has found out how the Wiki pages are written, with written confessions from one of the perpetrators. Hilarious!
So, next time you read on Wiki on a political issue wonder about who “edited” the article.
The US puts a veto on Spain arms sale
In spite of plenty of inducement to the Spanish government, it is of all people the Bush administration that had to force “decency” into the pseudo human rights socialist administration of Spain. The planes final sale by Bono in his latest, and scandalous, visit to Venezuela will be under par as the US forbade the use of US military technology. It is not just a matter of a contract that cannot be fulfilled anymore. It is a matter of continuous deterioration of relations between Spain and the US. Guess who is going to lose the most economically? Not the US. It is sad to see how Rodriguez Zapatero is losing the significant foreign influence that Gonzalez and Aznar left him. Gonzalez made Spain a respectable country and Aznar built wisely on that to even give Spain, a mid size country leaving the XIX century, more influence than it should have (though his Iraq stance was, deservedly, his undoing). Now Zapatero and Moratinos generate ironic smiles wherever they go, and are reduced to flatter third rate autocrats and petty tyrants like Castro.
And this blogger gets another radio interview
This one was from the Radio Five of the BBC, interested again in Venezuela after hearing from the bridge collapse.
Unfortunately we were late in starting, the host running out of time from previous interviews, we did not have time to check the sound OK and thus it was difficult to hear myself on occasion. Also, a theme that has kept Venezuela stressed reflected into the stressed voice of yours truly. Oh well. You need to use the fast forward buttons until you reach around minute 23-24 to hear my section.
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