December 7, 2009 Here is Gustavo- a very nice man- about Venezuela.  He tells us that Venezuela might be a narcostate. He points out the end of freedoms and the regional bloc called ALBA. Gustavo weakly states that Chavez might [maybe/it is possible/could occur] show, “characteristics that apply both to a petrostate and a narcostate.” Such statements by Gustavo permit and enable Chavez to carry on his regime. Hugo Chavez, like Rafael Correa of Ecuador,  is indeed a drug king pin and he does indeed run a narcostate while also merging with the Russo-Iranian axis of evil.

But no Andean soul wants to state these facts. They come close but run away. Why is that?

It is impossible not to personally like the friendly Gustavo. We remain appalled that he and the rest of the Venezuelan so called opposition in Washington are so weak-minded, tepid and easily manipulated that they cannot bring themselves to state the obvious….which is that while he and his chums like Norman Bailey prefer to report that corruption is at an all time high, they refuse to connect the dots under common sense applications of what this means for totalitarian situations such as Venezuela under Chavez, as if….by some miracle the corruption could be diplomatically corrected or controlled by George Soros’s enabling hand of the US AID and the National Endowment for Democracy, which only makes matters more corrupt.

More to the point has been the Venezuelan’s own campaigns in the USA to never, ever support any rational effort to stop Chavez. Unhappy Venezuelans flee to the USA for “rights” and “security” while refusing to organize in the USA with even a fact based analysis on what Chavez and his cronies are actually doing. Instead, the USA gets complaints, whiners, tepid scam artists and arrivistes who know the value of nothing and are even less willing to work for sane governance. These actors reject any embargo, any accountability for what Chavez is doing with his off the books, foreign spot oil trades to gin up the price per barrel of global oil, and refuse to even consider the notion that Chavez’s private bankers are remarkably dirty, recently seen in Bailey’s lobbying to bar US Treasury from banning Venezuelan corrupt banks, claiming as they did do before the US Congress that this would “hurt the poor” in Venezuela. Thus, the organized racketeering state of oil capital continues to extort, threaten and harm actual democracies. What we do not understand is why George Soros so supports this cartel bloc of nations called ALBA, now known as proxy states for the Russo-Iranian nexus. We also do not understand why Gustavo does not factually detail this, as if – along with so many Soros-paid writers- to declare that this bloc and its terror aspirations matter not.

Indeed we see that the so called Venezuelan opposition to Chavez will never state the full facts about Chavez because this might limit their capacity at offshore, spot oil trading which seems to engage many so called ex pats who are not ex pats at all except in their minds’ eye.

We do not like it at all when we read things such as…` it might be that Chavez is running a narco state.’ Well- duhh! Do you think? Sounding more like Soros’s own Moises Naim or worse, the Inter American Dialogue of Soros and US AID to tell us that Chavez is really not much of a threat, what little we know is that Chavez has expanded his drug running 10 xxx in the last 2 years as he is desperate for cash margin calls due to his incompetent global off the books speculations, not to mention his babysitting the bankrupt Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador and now teaming with the Russo-Iranian axis of evil.

Refusing to grasp the importance of Chavez’s Iran/Hezbollah terror training camps inside Venezuela, like all Venezuelans, Gustavo’s points are weakened.

He begins to sound like Karen Harbert, then at the US Energy Department,  before the US Congress, under oath, who informed us all that the USA must keep its hands off Venezuela because the US needed its oil when the USA has never needed Chavez’s heavy, dirty oil- which it refines at very badly run and badly maintained refineries. This is more than a story of corruption: it is a story about Venezuelans who continue to take the Chavez bribes and are, like Ecuadoreans, so weak-minded and so easy to seduce that they fail to stand up to the Chavez way of life….based on lies and manipulations. While we are proud of the sporadic and spotty freedom fighters, unless and until Venezuelans give Chavez’s dirty money back his control over their entire lives goes on.

He notes, “Clamping down on the media: Radio Caracas TV and Globovision.
In March 2007 Hugo Chavez closed down Radio Caracas TV, the most popular television station in the country and confiscated its plant and equipment. As of this writing the equipment is still in the hands of the government, being utilized for an official TV station and no compensation has been offered to its owners. The government claimed that Radio Caracas TV license had expired and that the frequency used by the station was needed for official purposes. Both claims were wrong. The government had about 75 idle frequencies available. The real reason was that Radio Caracas TV owner, Marcel Granier had become a very prominent political dissenter and had to be silenced 36.

Hugo Chavez has placed Venezuelan freedom of expression under siege by imposing three laws: the modified Penal Law, the Law of Responsibility in Radio and Television and the Law for the Protection of Children and Adolescents. Although theoretically designed to promote a better media performance these laws are utilized, in practice, to intimidate the media, promote self-censorship and punish dissidents. The Penal Code, an imitation of Italian laws of the XIX century, considers punishable with fines and/or prison of 4-5 years any expression that might be defined as offensive against the president, his family and the government bureaucracy. Who defines the offense? The government. The government used the law on children and adolescents to fine a dissident newspaper, Tal Cual, with $120,000 for having made a totally innocent reference to Hugo Chavez’s daughter Rosines. In protest for this arbitrary measure a popular collect paid the fine in 48 hours. By the end of 2008 37 Venezuelan communications expert Antonio Pasquali estimated that Chavez had used 2544 hours of compulsive media, radio and television hook-ups, the equivalent of 318 days at an average of seven to 19 In March 2007 Hugo Chavez closed down RadioCaracas TV, the most popular television station in the country and confiscated its plant and equipment eight hours per day, in order to address the nation in often unimportant or partisan matters.”

Gustavo writes, “Creating chaos within the Organization of American States. During the last two years the Venezuelan government has systematically tried to destroy what is left of the ineffective OAS. Chavez has promoted UNASUR, a parallel organization restricted to South American countries. UNASUR is being modeled after the European Union and would promote a single currency, passport and parliament. It would also include a NATO like military organization and a bank, Bank of the South, for which Venezuela has pledged $3 billion, still unpaid. However, as Southern Affairs reports 38, there is profound distrust among the members, as illustrated by conflicts such as the FARC-inspired political crisis between Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, the Argentina- Uruguay paper mill controversy, Peru’s border suit against Chile in The Hague, Bolivian’s demands for Chilean territory, the Bolivian gas disputes with Brazil and Argentina and Venezuela’s claims to two thirds of the territory of Guyana.    In a recent move 39 the Venezuelan Supreme Tribunal of Justice refused to recognize a decision by the Inter American Commission of Human Rights of the OAS in connection with the politically motivated dismissal of three Venezuelan judges. The Venezuelan Supreme Tribunal of Justice considered that such decision could not be accepted. This position of the Venezuelan judiciary violated the sovereign act by which Venezuela became a member of the OAS and accepted to abide by its norms, regulations and decisions. Chile, faced with a 2001 decision by the OAS related to censorship of information 40 not only accepted this decision but altered its constitution in order to conform with it.”

We at ECrisis note that Gustavo does indeed shine a light on Venezuela. We commend the decent Gustavo- really we do. But Gustavo’s 15 watt, tiny light in no way is a 100 watt bulb of daylight, still desperately needed. Gustavo, like so many, gives us a half baked story supposedly so that we can digest this while ignoring the obvious conclusions.  The USA of Soros Democrats refuses any and all true facts about the ALBA empire-bloc of Iran and Russia. This creates harm and perpetuates the crimes underway. Without truths, there will be no quality of life in the Andes.

Soon a full forensic wattage will be necessary- the entire league of evil nations must be under the transparent light of truth. Half measures, half truths struggling in the dark will not suffice and help no one.

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis