LA PIEDRITA - Pro-Chavez Lynch Mobs

La Piedrita Militants in front of a Pro-FARC banner (Click on picture for closer look)

Never can an authoritarian regime subsist without a lynch mob. In Panama it was the "Batallones de la Dignidad" directed by nowadays Panamanian Public Works Minister Benjamin Colamarco. (This link is a documentary by Al Jazeera, not CNN, not MSNBC, its Al Jazeera). In Zimbabwe for example, its just necessary to take a look at their last fake election to see how important they were for Robert Mugabe.

But Venezuela, yeah Venezuela's benevolent social revolution also has theirs. They are called La Piedrita, this is of course besides the regular bolivarian lynch mobs . By the way, take a look a the latest mob lynching by Pro Chavez supporters. The pictures shown is how was the city Hall of Caracas left after a grave defacing of the building's facade and interior of the offices. This happened the night before Antonio Ledezma, Caracas mayor-elect (opposed to Chavez) was to take posession. But this is just a visual lynching that is far more subtle to the real sabotage that happened institutionally by executive edict of Hugo Chavez, relieving the majorship of Caracas of its authority over the police force starting the day of Ledezma assumption of office. I will post more information on this regarding the far more serious situation at a gubernatorial level (Miranda's goverment property sabotage by loser Diosdallo Cabello was just unbelievable).

Lots of spray paint huh? well that's fine because it could be worse. La Piedrita, is up in arms against Mayor Ledezma, here is their latest death threat to him made public in the "23 de enero" municipality. This flier(see below) was also found outside the city hall. If you can't read spanish I can sum it up for you. They announce that they are assuming a military offensive against him and making the headquarters of globovision a military objective. "We assume a state of absolute war.." Globovision was recently attacked with Tear Gas by unknown militants, and the government did not condemn the attack until it became undeniable; When it happened it rather accused the opposition of making it up. On the other hand, the Committee to Protect Journalists - a group that is cited by New York City Chavista Radio Station Democracy Now - wrote a letter to Chavez condemning the incident - Check out the letter.

La Piedrita of course, doesn't only function at the level of the public space but also at an institutional level. Recently La Piedrita took over clerical positions at the national library under the auspice Library Director Fernando Baez. Articles in aporrea.org confirm the institutional presence of La Piedrita in the Library's activity. aporrea.org is a chavista website that among many authors they feature include Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez translated to spanish. The government of Venezuela website also confirms their institutional role in the National Library. Among the actitivities cited by aporrea.org are a children's day called "checkmate to imperialism" where children are illustrated on US invervention in Latin America and Venezuela. At the end of the day La Piedrita holds an "ideological talk about Chavez" and express their intent to be "an idelogical support in the revolutionary, guevarista, bolivarian message with the objective of them to become the trasmitters of this line of thought and ideological framers starting in the National Library."

To the left is another leaflet outside the National library by La Piedrita. Most of it is Chavista garbage, until the end where it reads: "... we would like to salute with rebellion the director Fernando Baez, our solidarity.." But this solidarity is of course necessary when you are being sanctioned by the government. In the picture published by opposition journalist Patricia Poleo shows a military truck outside the National Library with the inscription "Committee for the Revolutionary Defense, La Piedrita." Check the picture to the left underneath the militancy leaflet. La Piedrita members have been accussed for allegedly conducting a campaign of intimidation against other Librarians who do not share their beliefs. Below is also a picture of a series of boards outside the entrance of the National Library. Among the messages written are: "Guerrilla Zone: La Piedrita, 'Country or Death" '.. " "Here La Piedrita commands and the government follows" What would be the reaction by serious academics in the US if the New York Public Library was run by a bunch of radical christians holding Jesus day at the Library grounds and intimidating anybody who didn't like it? Can academic development make progress under ideological intimidation? We know the answers to these questions.. But hey we might get Chavez until 2021.

Military Truck painted with La Piedrita slogan and La Piedrita banners outside the Library (Click on picture for closer look)

Democracy Now is not reporting on Hugo Chavez bid for perpetuity

As of December 3 2008, Democracy Now's Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales have not reported on Chavez bid for perpetuity despite a rejected referendum on the same question in december 2007. "There is no Chavismo without Chavez, there is no Chavista dissidence" "If god gives me health I'll stay in power until 2019, 2021."

Similarly Democracy Now did not reported when Chavez enacted the Patriot Act of Venezuela, which encouraged citizens to spy on each other, only until Chavez backed down on it. Never in the week it was enacted Democracy Now even acknowledged it.

Chavez latest defeat is the equivalent of a US election opponent win on the mayorship of New York City and the governorship of New York, California and Florida. These victories by the opposition ignited the worst fears in Chavez unleashing his inner-most absolutist demons. The victories where: the mayorship of Caracas, and the governorships of Zulia,Miranda, Carabobo, Tachira and Nueva Esparta. A big blow, was also the loss of the municipality of Petare, the worst Favela in Venezuela(Caracas is made out of 5 municipalities, 4 were won by the opposition).

On a parallel note in Colombia, Uribe's reelection in 2010 has been almost vanquished and the option to opt for a third term in 2014 is still alive. I can only hope, even if I wanted, that Uribe never gets reelected. Its time for a change in leadership, so the progress of Uribe's government is not dependent on his leadership only. In fact, if Chavez wants to help his archenemy Alvaro Uribe to get his reelection, then he's playing the right cards, because Hugo Chavez until 2021 would only embolden the Colombian electorate to remain with a proper counterweight such as Uribe. This is of course in context to Rafael Correa's recent landslide on a constitutional reform that would allow him to get reelected indefinitely, and the prospects of Ollanta Humala winning in Peru.

Good news is the prospect of Ricardo Lagos going back to the helm in Chile.. nobody can't forget Lagos avoiding Chavez attempt to hug him. check it...

Democracy now? or yesterday?

Venezuela expels Colombian consul from Zulia

Beware of the conspiracy.

Hugo Chavez has given proper orders for Carlos Galvis Fajardo to leave Venezuela as he was recorded on a telephone call with a senior advisor to the president of Colombia praising the victory of Chavez opposition in Zulia, Carabobo, Miranda, Maracaibo, Caracas etc.

Unfortunately this is a major blunder by Colombia in relationship to the Venezuelan opposition. If there is anything that can help Chavez curtail of civil liberties in Venezuela is stuff like this... if you speak spanish listen to it, here's the link. I am going to quote in english the worse parts that are being used by the pro Chavez press right now, and these quotes leaves a lot undefined useful insinuations. They go as follow:

Carlos Galvis - Colombian Consul in Zulia /// Jose Obdulio: One of Colombia's President senior advisor

Carlos Galvis: "The two people are really good friends and I think for our job over there(in Colombia) this is wonderful"

Carlos Galvis: "There is some people, a few characters, very strategic for the other side which lost. Look for example, we in Zulia and Tachira were won by the opposition"

Jose Obdulio: "Oh, that's great! who won in Tachira?"

Carlos Galvis: "I already spoke with them and we are going to meet and talk about a few 'actions' at a governmental level because I am thinking about what we are doing THERE (Colombia). I only need lights (perhaps understood as green light) from you so I can begin to start"

Carlos Galvis: "These are really great news if things over there(seems to be Colombia) crystallize."

Tomorrow and in the next few months Chavez and all the bolivarian press should feast on these.. they are going to accuse people, they are going to seclude civil liberties, lynch mob time.
Is it a secret that the these guys hate Chavez? no its not, we all know about it.. what plans are there to happen? I can speculate anything, a Chavez follower can speculate its all about the next coup, I could speculate its about another commercial agreements, investment etc. (Zulia, Tachira are all frontier states where commerce with Colombia keeps them bustling).

It doesn't matter, its all speculation. As Galvis himself is doing, he's claiming a violation of international law for the taping of his phone, US patriot act style, which is illegal. Lets just say none of that matters because this is all irrelevant when we put context to this.....

Who remembers Pavel Rondon? Venezuelan Ambassador in Bogota, February 2007.

Here's a video of at the time the Venezuelan Ambassador in Bogota at a public meeting inside Colombia.

I will as I did on the previous recording quote the worse parts of Mr. Rondon's public appearance at a political meeting inside Colombia:

Pavel Rondon, Venezuelan AMBASSADOR in Bogota, standing up shouting to a big crowd:

"Hail to Comandante Hugo Chavez!!" Crowd chants back: Viva!

"Hail to the Polo Democratico Alternativo!!" Viva! Polo Democratico Alternativo is an opposition party to Uribe's government.

"DOWN WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF ALVARO URIBE VELEZ." Abajo!!

"Hail to the Bolivarian Circles!" Viva!

"Hail to socialism!" Viva!

"And we said, look, I want you to tell me what's going to happen in a year with the Liberal Party that could dissappear." Why(somebody asks) "Why? because we've been analyzing this, and that wasn't told to us by Fidel. The liberal party in Colombia, we said at the time, of course we did so INTERNALLY in the embassy, and we are going to FOLLOW UP with that."


As the news note related, that day Ambassador Rondon went about Colombia's township areas to see and analyze potential Venezuelan investment.

Down with the government of Alvaro Uribe Velez?? pretty bad isn't it? definitely better than some green light speculation about ANYTING which involved the Colombian Zulia consul, specially coming from theVenzuelan ambassador who resides in Bogota

Is that not enough?

Lets take a look at what the Justice minister of Venezuela at the time, January 2008, Ramon Rodriguez Chacin told the FARC guerrillas during the liberation process of Clara Rojas, Consuelo Gonzales, Gloria Polanco and other hostages. Check the video. Of course, very important to mention, is Piedad Cordoba in the foreground, happy as sin.. but lets get to it, what did Rodriguez Chacin said:

Rodriguez Chacin

"Congratulations, We are very aware of your struggle, keep that SPIRIT, keep the EFFORT and keep aware"

A little background on this man, he was sent by Chavez in 2000 to the Caguan when negotiations with the FARC took place, and his visits were so frequent and so suspicious that the government of Colombia, at the time lead by Andres Pastrana, prohibited him to visit again without explicit governmental authorization.

Keep that spirit, keep the effort? that's pretty revealing, specially by giving advise to the same armed group that extort and kidnap venezuelan nationals(Panamanian, Ecuadorian, Spanish etc.). The same armed group that is the number one perpetrator of land mine injuries in the WORLD surpassing Afghanistan and Cambodia. The same armed group that is explicitly dedicated to the demise of the Colombian government, although I don't believe that's their real goal, but that's another conversation.

But that's ok, reach your own conclusions, the information is here, check it, in the record.

RF

Chavez, Fidel and their miserable intellectuals

Alan Dershowitz once pleaded in an israeli/palestinian conflict debate at Harvard against Noam Chomsky for pro-israeli government scholars to "stop being more israeli than the israeli themselves" and for anti-israeli scholars to "stop being more palestinian than the palestinian themselves." Being a constant reader of Bolivarian circles literature, sometimes one can catch one-self laughing at the things these guys need to put up with because of their leader's foolishness and incoherency.

A recent good example was Alvaro Uribe's visit to Venezuela. After one year(2007-2008) of the hardest vitriol, lead by university scholars such as James Petras, Narciso Isa Conde, Nestor Kohan among others. In Venezuela, the lynch mob was lead by recently defeated Carabobo candidate Mario Silva who lobed the worst kind of junk on Alvaro Uribe. Should one debate all of Alvaro Uribe's accusations perhaps is one topic, but for now let us consider these fools actually believe the things they are saying.

To their pleasure Hugo Chavez parroted all of the garbage, of Alvaro Uribe being a Paramilitary leader, orchestrating massacres from his hacienda, of being George W. Bush puppet, of being a top drug smuggler. "Dictadura narco-paramilitar" as they like to go on their never ending mind numbing sentences. To their pleasure Chavez traveled the world spreading the word, sending troops to the colombian frontier, threatening to send his Zukhois over Bogota, to deliver the FARC from their "terrorist" pro-noun in every international organization's list, namely the UN and the European Union. To their erotic orgasm they saw Chavez almost declare war on Colombia allied by Ecuador, Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua.. and as all of this took place their pens kept erecting the worst kinds of lies as they smiled at the sublime image of the FARC and the venezuelan army pulverizing Colombia and turning it into the newest Cuba. Nothing was better as they would turn on nationally televised program "alo presidente" and get their fix on Uribe bashing from Chavez...

Yet after the dust settled suddenly Ingrid Betancourt was freed in the epic hollywodesque Ocean 12's "operacion Jaque" and both Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez suddenly declared that the FARC needed to lay down their weapons and free unilaterally all hostages.

but... its really tough ...when your entire thesis lies on the values of a few idiots, its quite easy to see it crumble in front of your eyes.

It reminded me of Saddam Hussein and Yasser Arafat condemning the september 11 attacks. I was in my office and I almost started freaking crying.. I couldn't possibly believe it.. Ingrid Betancourt was freed... but now what? to put it in the most blatant, superficial way: who's the fool now? who's looking back at the scenes of Hugo Chavez lionizing the FARC in international forums? is the king naked or what? maybe everybody???

So as Petras, Kohan, Ivan Marquez etc. started to triangulate the ideas, putting together a few calculus moves, leibniz, mathematical logic, beating the dead horse etc. I mean they had to come up with something, but what? Petras started trashing Fidel Castro, Ivan Marquez stated in one of the many interviews he broadcasts somewhere in the mountains of Venezuela that "I am not going to exteriorize our feelings(on Castro's statements)." Argentinian Nestor Kohan euphemized the polemic of Petras vs Castro, saying that it is all a minor dissagreement between good revolutionaries. As if we all love each other deep inside. The question is, does Castro or Chavez care?

So now what, pappa revolution is trashing the FARC.. I mean things can't get any worse.. that is until Colombia's air force one landed in Caracas... best thing is to look at the video, but the pictures say a lot:

I mean, WHAT IS THIS MURDERER, DRUG SMUGGLER, MAFIA KING, OLIGARCH Alvaro Uribe doing shaking hands with Comandante Hugo Chavez??? but not anywhere, straight up inside Venezuela. Just look at Chavez Chronies in the right hand picture, all dressed up in uniform and everything.. what's nice is their look of suspiciousness. Its like children in that prime moment when they can finally separate fact from fiction. Lets call the interpol!, oh wait, we already trashed them.. Lets call the hague!! oh shit, we already have a file there.. Lets put him in jail here!! oh no, he's shaking hands with our president!

So something's gotta happen... the FARC apologist PCV, the communist party of Venezuela, condemned Uribe's presence in Venezuela, as one of a war criminal to be tried by the hague. But it is interesting, because of all the parties that barely exist anymore in Venezuela, Chavez doesn't only trashes the parties of the oligarchy, but also the communist party of Venezuela, as of whom he recently called in the november 23rd election: TRAITORS!!. Again, FARC apologist Narciso Isa Conde berated this... as he's the selfproclaimed father of the dominican left, criticized this attitude of Chavez but always did so, like a good servant, by praising his master: "mi comandante."

Sometimes the pipe dreams of these fools actually do become reality, such as the 2002 coup d'etat in Venezuela.. thank god things like operacion jaque happened in order to reverse venezuelan expansion. Like september 11 and Bush, the 2002 coup served Chavez to be a moralist of the revolution, there were no compromises in values, the revolution was under attack from the rich oligarchy, it was a new rennaissance and the FARC was going to benefit from it. Between 2002 and 2008 Chavez and his children were allowed to lie down comfortable at the expense of the coup, world opinion was in their favor, the french were silent, they just wanted to be part of the Ingrid blockbuster, and flirted with Chavez terrorism exemption for the FARC. The US rambled on through Bush's wars, and the intellectuals wrote and burned the ships for Chavez,Castro and the FARC.

But after the genesis of this world of bolivarian piety reality struck in july 2008 and it was such a calamitous earthquake that truth became so evident that Chavez and Castro were forced past the realm of the apology down to the outright REJECTION of the FARC. Hussein and Arafat on 9/11? anyone? But now what for James Petras, Narciso Isa Conde, Nestor Kohen, and Ivan Marquez (please don't kidnap me)? perhaps they should stop being more cuban than pappa cuban himself, perhaps they should stop being more venezuelan than pappa venezuela himself, because they don't give a damn, all they care is that they remain in power for the rest of eternity, and all of their putrid vitriol is only useful whenever its useful for them. Now they should focus their work on Ollanta Humala from Peru, because Evo from Bolivia also called on FARC to lay down weapons.

Please, check it, its in the record, as Noam Chomsky would say.

Hugo Chavez, Sean Penn.. Christopher Hitchens ??

Nothing surprising about Sean Penn and Hugo Chavez fraternizing.. but in this picture, its Christopher Hitchens as part of the Chavez/Penn entourage(October 19,2008) !. What?! how? fact gathering trip? Here is a recent Hitchens article where Chavez comes up. Very much looking forward to Mr. Hitchens next column..

Thursday September 04 2008

nice music to start off

Today, El Universal of Venezuela has changed its web format, for now its really slow but good enough for us to get their reporting.

Nicaragua has recognized the states of South Ossetia and Abkhazia - Daniel Ortega's insistence in getting world attention takes a new turn with this calculated but mostly irrelevant announcement . The Herald tribune(NYT) reported but besides this it gathered almost no attention. President Hugo Chavez has also recognized the Ossetian statehood with of course much more prominence than Ortega. The Ossetians should be pessimistic about Chavez sympathy since he also crucified his FARC allies at the time when it most counted.

The young student movement in Venezuela keeping up with the resistance - The authoritarian government of Hugo Chavez is once again at it after passing 26 new laws by decree, some of them containing legislation rejected by the december 2007 referendum. This time its not only the conpiratory pro-yankee students expressing their discontent but it is also the communist party of Venezuela (PCV, whose official views include unconditional support for the FARC). I haven't found any international reporting for this one.

Piedad Cordoba has called for spontaneous student led resistance to Colombia's current regime. She touched upon the governments blaming the FARC for any trouble in Colombia similar to the one in the early 90's where "every Colombian problem had to do with Pablo Escobar." I believe that Colombia's problematic is incredibly complex and Cordoba is right in the sense that not every problem has to do with the FARC. Neither all "state terrorism" as she refers to it has everything to do with Colombia's culture of violence. In fact Cordoba undermines her statements by employing the same language that the government does, specially by the use of the super T word and concept, "terrorism." Its basically the same kind of demagogic speech, mirror image. I am happy though, that she's calling for student resistance, because this is the same resistance that in Venezuela is going to take down Mr. Chavez. Lets see how Cordoba does on this one... Uribe on the other hand is against the ropes once again and if his constant blunders continue I'll doubt he'll even pursue an unethical third term. These are of course great news, but it will be tough to find such a game changing leader for Colombia such as Alvaro Uribe.

Keeping the student resistance topic alive its important to note that Chavez chess bishop Rafael Correa of Ecuador is quite concerned for his own brewing student resistance movement, apparently supported by Venezuelan'07 veterans. As reported by rebelion.org Correa is quoted saying "The same tactic was employed against Chavez, pushing young university leaders to create confrontation and then blame the government." Among authoritarians, spontaneous student confrontation is perhaps the most despised, because there is nothing more difficult for them than to try to discredit the nobility and energy of young men and women.

An Introduction to Critique House

I have started this blog out of pure concern for latin american news dissemination in the United States: its reporting, non reporting and outright misleading analysis from many journalists, pundits and scholars. I will try to post as many times as I can from my surveillance of latin american newspapers and magazines. I will also try to dedicate a few posts to architecture and its permanent identity crisis. Touching on both topics serve two of my most primitive passions- its a bit of an experiment.

Being my first post for this blog I will make things clear to my reader and define the main problematic topics that I will try to perhaps expose in this blog. I want to clarify in advance and for your evaluation that I see my position regarding latin america as a libertarian reformist mainly antagonistic to Bolivarian piety and authoritarianism in general.

Regarding latin american news dissemination in the US I have tried to sketch out three main outlets of public access and their relevance: one, independent American journalism , second , the intellectual discourse in American universities, and third, mainstream American news media.

First, is the independent American journalism, which in my opinion is the most relevant. I believe that the NPR circuit is specially important to develop proper operative criticism of the latin american problematic and their missreporting is one that should be carefully analyzed and scrutinized.

Second, is the intellectual discourse in American universities, heavily influential on the independent media and remarkably game changing in the interpretation of Latin American political developments. This one is formed by famous scholars and speculant latin american studies professors and grads.

Third and the least relevant, is the mainstream corporate American journalism . I believe that at its most important level you will find newspapers and magazines such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs and Vanity Fair. At its base you will find cnn/fox news and msnbc. Those who pay any attention to them should only take their news as some disconnected verse from a very long piece of poetry. Their reporting is mostly protocolar and sterile which can make it rather irrelevant.

This blog deals with latin american developments and their projection through these outlets.

RF