The twists and turns in the Las Cristinas Saga could not have been better scripted by the Bard himself

VHeadline editor & publisher Roy S. Carson writes: It was one of those occasions when I feel myself about to scream enough already!

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them?"

The twists and turns in the Las Cristinas Saga could not have been better scripted by the Bard himself, for the tragi-drama that it has become is worthy of some such dramatist, although, looking more closely on it, Shakespeare himself would have had trouble working our the where-fores and the why-fores of those slings and arrows of outrageous fortune (or misfortune as the case may be!)

The basic elements are there: conspiracy, confusion, honor and betrayal!

Yes, I'm struggling to keep a Christmas spirit as I write these lines, for there's little of Christmas in the tale, which necessarily must bide the while for the final curtain to fall, to see if the audience gives applause or leaves the sanctuary cursing the very boards on which the drama was unfurled.

• The parallel universe of theater and Las Cristinas could go on and on, were it not for members of the audience lobbing smoke bombs and crackers from the gallery causing as much confusion (and moreso) than any miscreant shouting "fire, fire, fire!" in a full-packed theater.

Suffice to say that it has already taken many years -- and presumably will take more -- for the government of President Hugo Chavez Frias to instill some semblance of regulatory order in the wild "Wild East" of Venezuela where renegades have ruled the roost for more than half a century and they;re not going to loosen their vice-like grip on ill-gotten privileges without one hell of a fight! The fight isn't made any the easier by renegades themselves having infiltrated the sheriff's office and the art is to instantly decide the toss on who they are, and what they are, before you find yourself heading out of town before sundown.

Enough already with the similes in a feeble attempt to communicate the intrinsic lack of communications in a governmental system that supposedly prides itself on grassroots democracy and representation from the bottom up through the power structure ... but that's all chimera!

It's too easy to write off the bureaucratic corruption and indolence as "cultural" to Venezuela's Hispanic heritage, but it's far from easy to explain why President Hugo Chavez Frias revolutionary government isn't doing what's necessary to bring the wholesale corruption and indolence that's so patently obvious in the government's administration, to a swift end.

• Surely to God, someone, somewhere, has the capacity, the honor, the patriotism, to see that simply repeating the malpractices of previous administrations is slamming Venezuela's development into reverse with the gas pedal to the floor.

North American investor Dan Russo has lost patience -- as indeed have many others who put some degree of faith in Venezuela "to do the right thing!" only to have organic methane blasted in their faces from some of the less worthy animals who inhabit the multiple pig-sties that many of the ministries have become. But Russo's doing more damage to his cause than he can possibly imagine, and for a plethora of reasons, mostly, on his asinine insistence on instant gratification -- a peculiarly North American investor disease"

Nevertheless, was it Hans Christian Anderson who wrote the tale of the 'Emperor's New Clothes'? If so, may I dare to suggest that President Chavez takes down a copy this Christmas, and get a deeper understanding of what's going wrong in his administration, that he can, if he so chooses, put right before nothing will be left for him to be re-elected to as President way past his current exit cue in 2012?

Basic Industries & Mining (Mibam) Minister Rodolfo Sanz, while an extremely capable man in his own right, could easily go the same way as his predecessor Jose Khan, since his given task to manage the monster that the Venezuelan Guayana Corporation (CVG) already was from the beginning, is made all the more arduous by indolence, conspiracies and sabotage that lay minefields before every step he takes.

• It was too much for Khan to handle, it may also be an impossible task for before Sanz ... although I don't believe for a moment that he sees himself as a suicide-jockey this Christmas.

Certainly, the political grassroots in Venezuela's southern Bolivar State are ripe for any opposition candidate's pickings since they've already given their guts in the November 23 local and regional elections, and they're trying to use this Festive Season as an excuse to forget all their troubles ... at least for a few weeks ... before 2009 hits them like a runaway freight train and all the sordid political influence trafficking takes off again ahead of the threatened/promised referendum on Constitutional change.

Mind you, all of this counts for naught from the perspective of investor Dan Russo who's been hassling the investor boards for months already announcing "The Permit" with the regularity of a clock stuck at five minutes to midnight! Who's kidding who?

Yet, according to today reports emblazoned across America and the World, Russo has taken it upon himself to launch a claim of fraud against the company he readily invested his dollars in (with the expectancy of no-sweat profits on the backs of southern miner's much-sweat labor!) claiming that the company's executives somehow "knew" that Venezuelan government undertakings remain unfulfilled.

Scarce excuse that it's "a cultural thing" but, in fact, it is! It's inherent in Venezuelan culture to never say NO! directly, but to hedge around the answer, perhaps in the hope that under modified circumstances it can be modified to a "maybe" or a "yes, if"! On the other hand, a delayed answer could easily be seen -- God forbid! But it is an easily exhumed specter! -- as a mechanism by which key individuals can prepare themselves to be "key" individuals if sufficient oil is applied to unlock the bottleneck, perceived or otherwise.

If, indeed it is the latter, Russo and his fellow plaintiffs can console themselves with the fact that what they're doing is to exacerbated an already exacerbated confrontation in which a wealth of his camp following lunatics on assorted paranoid Internet investor forums, have created negativity and tremendous antipathy among government officials who patently dislike having non-Spanish-speaking gringos pester the hell out of them day and night by telephone, telefax, email and every other possible means of arrogant self-interested communication.

If its a question of respect that these Stateside investors so earnestly desire, they are at least beholden to observe similar formalities with the Venezuelans they hound so mercilessly given half a name and Google-translate confusion to add to it.

The attitude is typified in the historical clarion call once in Las Cristinas' history when an individual whose view of humanities should be scrutinized, wailed "Screw the natives, gimme the gold!"

Enough already! Back off! Do they REALLY, really, really think that their microscopic DD is going to save their sorry investor asses if they themselves get screwed by the natives and they don't get the gold?

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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