Taking stock of chavista threats
By Aleksander Boyd
London 12.03.06 | The ending week brought an inordinate dose of attention towards this website and yours truly. The reason? A two page spread communiqué published in chavista rag Ultimas Noticias, in which all sorts of debased accusations and threats were made against me and fellow Venezuelan bloggers. Many readers and acquaintances have sent messages of support, for which I am grateful. However this affair is reason for much thought.
Should I had exposed the dodgy connections and conflict of interests of GOP's favourite pollster, I would have become instantaneously a member of blogger's A-list, my life would have changed for good. Most probably I would have been invited to talk shows, interviews, few 'reputed' columnist would have written about the matter, the New York Times and the BBC would have assigned special reporters to follow up on the issue and so on. Since the topic is the beloved anti-USA pro-Iran-FARC-Cuba 'lefty' Hugo Chavez and the henchmen of his pseudo revolution, here I stand, accused of libel, defamation, threatened with legal proceedings in a country where there's no law but that of the dictator, on Venezuelan and Cuban regimes shit list, barred from safe return to my homeland, etc. Concerned, some have asked "how may I help?" And the only answer is by spreading the truth about Hugo Chavez.
Hugo Chavez continues to enjoy a degree of acceptance and sympathy from most people outside Venezuela. Thanks to the good auspices of his multimillion dollar lobbying effort, the majority take chavista make believe stories at face value and quickly condemn those who dare to disagree. Please note that had it not been for the crass maneuver of the two imbeciles running the North American Opinion Research joint, the issue would have gone into oblivion, as many others have in the past. Venezuelan media, although sufficiently informed about this, did not run with the story, due to, what sources believe to be, sheer fear of government retaliation. Nonetheless I am at a loss when it comes to interpreting the silence about certain topics and bias of those meant to inform, outside Venezuela.
A connection between Hugo Chavez's most trusted and touted pollster and his regime has been established. This company 'predicted successfully' the results of the Recall Referendum of August 2004. Given the fact that high Venezuelan officials are/have been involved with Smartmatic -e-voting machine purveyor to Venezuela's electoral council, who can ascertain that those results were not cooked? Furthermore, taking into consideration the fact that a) no proper audits were conducted, b) international observers were left out of the loop during the tallying process immediately after the recall, c) previously agreed by the parties auditing processes were not followed, as admitted by Carter Center's Jennifer McCoy and, d) Smartmatic machines are demonstrably rigged, who can trust Venezuelan electoral processes and its authorities? Less than 10% of the country's electorate, if results from the last legislative elections are to be considered, or, according to OAS electoral observers reports, "This distrust was particularly evident between an important sector of the citizenry and governmental, electoral and party authorities" (sic). Before such conundrum Hugo Chavez commissioned his favourite pollster -NAOR- to come up with the solution, which manifested itself in February this year with figures such as "6 out of 10 Venezuelans would vote for Chavez in December 2006" so that the 10 million target that the strongman wants to achieve flies, or "78% of Venezuelans trust the National Electoral Council, which could increase to 85% by December," thus giving a new lease of life to Jorge Rodriguez's utterly fraudulent council.
Let it be sufficiently known that Hugo Chavez is an illegitimate president and the same goes for his rubber stamp assembly. Alas some folks back home are playing the president's game. Some candidates have popped up. A new revamped electoral council is to be designated by the illegitimate assembly, and the politicians are just treading along with the charade, as if new crooks will risk their master's political survival. Teodoro Petkoff is leading this idiotic pack. He's already working the international scene as "the opposition's candidate, the only man whose immaculate leftists credentials can give Chavez a run for his money." What a tragic, pathetic and sad way to give a veneer of legitimacy to the Castroite regime. It is worth noting that Petkoff edits Tal Cual, a daily in which one of the actors related to NAOR's officials -Miguel Angel Capriles Lopez- shares ownership.
My country is on its own. There are very few people, if that, willing to sacrifice anything for the greater good of the nation. A closely knitted network of criminals are, for all practical purposes, in charge. This network not only pertains to officialdom; it goes beyond into the opposition and society realms. Low level civil servants that signed against Chavez in the recall have been fired; regular citizens that have done it have been denied employment, passports, services; outsider companies owned by those marked have gone busted; however one of the regime's favourite bankers -Juan Carlos Escotet- has probably quadrupled his fortune, in spite of having signed against Chavez.
This week's threats are a serious matter, for Chavez most probably will be ousted owing to his own deranged behaviour. But those exposed will remain and morph into the new era's class of reputed and highly regarded businessmen, as they did last time. I am aware of that. I realise that I have just a handful of friends in whom I can trust. Having said that, there's a slight possibility that these thugs are taken out of business, for they seem to have a weak spot for the state of Florida, where they love to register all sorts of ventures. Hence my energy shall be now directed at getting Florida's Attorney General and other US authorities to investigate this lot, for given their connections to a rogue regime that supports narcoguerrilla, terrorists and fundamentalists of all stripes, there's more than enough probable cause that illegal activities are taking place via Venezuelan-controlled US entities closely related to Chavez.
As the saying goes "la pelea es peleando."
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