Tuesday, March 19, 2013

An absolutely undemocratic campaign in Venezuela

I wrote in previous posts that this campaign would surpass easily all the treachery of Chavez campaigns. After all he had charisma and he only needed to pat his victory with some electoral cheating.

We did not have to wait long.

Already this week end the regime decided to close the La Grita airport so Capriles could not land his plane. He landed elsewhere and lost precious hours of campaigning to reach his final goal where people waited patiently and gave him the ovation he deserved.

In an interview with the most corrupt journalist of Venezuela, Jose Vicente Rangel, Maduro got handed the opportunity to state again that the US wants to kill Capriles so as to cause trouble in Venezuela. This is a delicate way to say that chavismo is planning to "destroy" Capriles if needs be. Something that the opposition has already warned of.

But Capriles had a good week end anyway. In spite of all obstacles, of not having any means, people flocked to his meetings without requiring buses to be ferried. Maduro buses and all did not get such a boon and got even caceroelado in Catia, a popular neighborhood of Caracas. When Maduro was leaving a political meeting the residents of building around started pot banging their dislike of the man.

Even the news of what should be a good poll (14 points ahead in the latest Datanalisis) was not enough to erase the bad taste of the cacerolazo. After all, that poll reflected that in spite of the huge scenery of Chavez burial Maduro only gained 2 sympathy points from previous poll..... I think Maduro understands well, as I do, that it is not enough for him to win, he needs to retain AT LEAST the same margin of Chavez in last October  otherwise inside his "coalition" he will run into a lot of trouble. 14 points today could melt a lot in three weeks....

So to compensate for a poll that casts doubt on his ability to emulate Chavez scores the regime decided to punish today Capriles: they named Jaua, the candidate that he defeated in December for the state of Miranda as a "protector of the state of Miranda" with a lot of cash at his disposition. I think they should have made him Lord Protector outright and get over with the charade. Let's dwell on this for a few more lines.

First, of course  it is a reversal of the democratic electoral result of last December. Even though, through electoral gerrymandering  chavismo got a state legislative majority it did not deserve, they still withdraw funds from Miranda to give them directly to the losing candidate to administer.

Second they accuse Capriles of having abandoned the state to run for president. Isn't Maduro abandoning the country to run for president? and by the way, aren't a lot of Miranda problems a result of sabotage form the central government?

Third, isn't Jaua foreign minister now? How is he going to combine his frequent trips outside the country with eh need to spread around the goods in Miranda?

Of course, this is a mere ploy to lure the idiots away of Capriles in Miranda by implying he is irrelevant any way, why vote for him?

But the real meaning of these past 48 hours is elsewhere: for all their talk of wanting a "real opposition" the regime now wants none. Chavez at least wanted a rump one to beat around. Capriles is vindicated in his all out, all stops pulled, campaign because the regime will become a true dictatorship after April 14 if Maduro wins. Behaving nicely, being 45% of the country, will not protect you from anything, the regime will take everything away for those that do not wear a red shirt of a tricolor arm band. It cannot help it, it is the true nature of fascism, to get inside your home as needed, or not needed. Communism at least pretended to create institution that are worthless but that it can respect in forms, changing them "legally" as needed. Fascism does not follow any rule, not even mere formality: when a fascist like Maduro or Jaua want something, they just do it. I suppose that this is the basic difference between the current crowd and Chavez: this last one could still afford to pretend to be Communist in his way to the same totalitarian hell.

2 comments:

  1. I find the latest tactic of Maduro beyond cynical.
    He implicitly threatens Capriles to back down or be killed by the government, while the US is being blamed.
    The fact that some people might actually believe in such absurdity is mind boggling and points to a widespread paranoia.fpigette

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ronaldo3:24 PM

    One of Maduro first actions as acting president was to claim multiple assassination attempts against him. Following Chavez, no proof or details were ever given.

    Maduro actually gave more information about the alleged Capriles assassination attempt than has Chavez or Maduro about their own alleged attempts.

    If Maduro and the Cubans provided Capriles protection, Capriles would be locked tight in his house until the election ended.

    The Chavista government is like a gang. You are not ready to lead unless someone wants you dead.

    ReplyDelete

Comments policy:

1) Comments are moderated after the sixth day of publication. It may take up to a day or two for your note to appear then.

2) Your post will appear if you follow the basic polite rules of discourse. I will be ruthless in erasing, as well as those who replied to any off rule comment.


Followers