VHeadline editor & publisher Roy S. Carson writes: I must admit to a certain bewilderment over the last several days since last Tuesday's brouhaha at the site of the Battle of Carabobo's 187th aniversary. I've sought explanations as to the circumstances surrounding President Hugo Chavez Frias 'letting off steam' about the encumbent Governor of that State, Luis Felipe Acosta Carlez, whose first claim to fame came when (shortly after the April 2002 coup d'etat), he unceremoniously burped on national television after sampling some of the product during the intervention of a privately-owned soft drinks factory.To try to navigate among the various levels of political chicanery and media manipulation that have beleagured the Governor's current status (in the Venezuelan equivalent of Siberia), is probably the subject of some political-psychological treatise in the upper echelons of academia, but the baseness of insults and counter-insults slung through the celebratory air, defies rational explanation other than its getting down and dirty in the inevitable aftermath of the June 1 launch of the President's attempt at unifying left-leaning Venezuelan politics under a single banner of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
The anglo-vocalised English acronymn PSUV has the unfortunate ability to sound like a deflating tire ... which could easily describe deflated or deflating spirits on the Venezuelan left who've found their individual party allegiances forcibly subdjugated to an ethos of 'either with us or against us' rather reminiscent of arch-enemy George W. Bush's remonstrations to the Republican faithful Stateside.
The brouhaha appears to have originated in the PSUV party leadership's decision to 'parachute' its own candidate to challenge Acosta Carlez' continued governorship, making it plain that he should move over ... or as President Chavez somewhat indelicately put it: 'to leave by the back door,' presumably with his revolutionary tail between his legs.
It seems like the many supporters that Chavez though he had had in the Bolivarian Revolution are failing him in droves and news reports claim that he's had to send hundreds of military personnel home on enforced non-operational leave because they're refusing to accept a politicization of the Venezuelan military in the swearing of political allegiances rather than the traditional pledge of allegiance to the President and the Flag. Considering that it is only a few short years since the military won the right to vote, it is something the men and woman in uniform are finding it hard to stomach, especially if they come from the political 'right' side of the tracks, as many senior officers do!
The situation is getting darker by the minute as PSUV officials insist on blind allegiance, or immediate exile to the political wilderness with all the follow-on effects that that implies in Venezuela's very much codified heirarchy of social inclusion/exclusion.
Readers will be reminded that VHeadline has always pledged itself to support Venezuela's democracy, constitutionality and the rule of law ... BUT ... it is increasingly difficult to tally the current adminsitration's brand of political representation with democracy per se; especially considering that the President has always preached the enfranchisement of the masses ... those who believed (and perhaps continue to believe) that power was being turned over to them to decide the nation's political and economic future from the grassroots up and not imposed on them fromt he top down.
Chavez has been insistent about his personal pledge to the Venezuelan people but reality is showing the pledge to be no further from reality than enforcement by caudillos of cliques within the party or administrative structure who seem to impose their will rather than to accept leadership from the people they are supposed to represent.
How this will resolve itself -- if indeed it will resolve itself -- ahead of November 23 local and regional elections is anybody's guess, but already there are angry murmurs from the provinces that point to huge dissatisfaction and a presumptive electorate that's could be rallied to reject the President's best laid plans.
Disturbing effluent from the pre-election battle maneuvers also comes in the form of a decision to approve Attorney General Clodosbal Russian's plan to ban some 400 candidate (mainly opposition) from the November hustings based on the spurious claim that they have pending charges against them on allegations of corruption, malfeasance and other violations.The electoral blacklist, however, points to a culture where the allegation of some crime appears to be sufficient in the public mind to construe immediate guilt withbout the benefit of a court of law or a judge's sentence. It is one of the more unfortunate aspects of Venezuelan journalism that reporters don't seem to have brought themselves up-to-date on the new Criminal Code after the dissolution of the Napoleonic Criminal Code many years ago. Quite simply put, justice is intended to deem the alleged criminal innocent of all charges until such times as a court of law pronounces legal sentence ... and, while this is a concept that is easily understood elsewhere around the world, the Napoleonic concept of 'guilty until proven innocent' pervades despite the best efforts to modernize the law.
That said, the luckless 400 have been branded guilty, although it must be admitted that many of them are 'as guilty as hell' though not yet decided upon by a judge... Why not? you may ask ... and that's the point of the whole.
If indeed Attorney Russian were to question the fact that those who are 'guilty as hell' have so far evaded criminal penalty, it would be much better -- from an internationally legal perspective -- for him to attack the Why rather than to seek to by-pass legal restraints that are purposely included in the country's Constitution to avoid abuse by officialdom, present or future.
What will be the outcome ... God alone knows ... since the opposition is seething at its teeth to use the 400 injustices as a clarion call to further decry the Chavez administration as an Evil Dictatorship at the behest of the Washington Beltway Bullies who are eager to see President Chavez go down the proverbial tube come November.
Small wonder then that this weekend's issue of 'Las Verdades de Miguel' splashes its front page with "At the gateway to a coup d'etat, Chavez hostage to insecurity!" and colleague Miguel Salazar is not tardy to editorially detail cause and effect!
Roy S. Carson
vheadline@gmail.com
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Venezuela is facing the most difficult period of its history with honest reporters crippled by sectarianism on top of rampant corruption within the administration and beyond, aided and abetted by criminal forces in the US and Spanish governments which cannot accept the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people to decide over their own future.
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