CSI Venezuela

[Caliga]

I dunno man, do you have any idea what the mark-up is on cables at Best Buy? 

[Savonarola]

Who needs electricity when you have the HUGO CHAVEZ MAUSOLEUM:

Power outage plunges most of Venezuela into darkness
Reuters By Diego Ore and Andrew Cawthorne
December 2, 2013 11:06 PM

By Diego Ore and Andrew Cawthorne

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's second massive power outage of the year plunged much of the nation into darkness on Monday night, prompting renewed talk of sabotage from President Nicolas Maduro's government and cries of incompetence from its foes.

Power went off in Caracas and other cities around the country soon after 8 p.m. local time (0030 GMT), to the intense annoyance of residents and commuters.

"I feel so frustrated, angry and impotent," said sales adviser Aneudys Acosta, 29, trudging through the rain along a street in the capital after having to leave the disrupted underground transport system.

"I live far away and here I am stuck under the rain. Something's going wrong that they're not sorting out. The government needs a Plan B. This is just not normal."

Monday's outage appeared similar to a massive September 5 blackout that was one of the worst in the South American OPEC member's history.

Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver who narrowly won a presidential election this year after the death of his mentor and former leader Hugo Chavez, accused the opposition then of deliberately sabotaging the power grid to discredit him.

View galleryPeople try to make payment at a supermarket that is …
People try to make payment at a supermarket that is running on backup generators after a blackout in ...
His powerful ally and National Assembly president, Diosdado Cabello, repeated the same accusation after Monday's blackout that affected more than half of Venezuela.

"I have no doubt that today's electricity sabotage is part of the right-wing's plan," Cabello said on Twitter.

PROTESTS

In some wealthier parts of Caracas, where opposition to the socialist government is strongest, people began banging pots and pans out of their windows in a traditional form of protest.

Some shouted, "Maduro, resign!"

Venezuela has been suffering periodic electricity cuts around the country since 2009, although the capital has been spared the worst outages.

View galleryPeople walk on a street during a blackout in Carac …
People walk on a street during a blackout in Caracas December 2, 2013. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Critics say the power problems symbolize the failure of the government and its 15 years of socialist policies in resource-rich Venezuela. The country has the world's largest crude oil reserves and big rivers that feed hydroelectric facilities generating two-thirds of its power.

The blackouts, some due to planned power rationing and at other times to utility failures, have not affected the oil refineries, which are powered by separate generator plants.

State oil company PDVSA said its installations were all working normally on Monday night, with fuel supplies guaranteed.

Electricity Minister Jesse Chacon said the same major transmission line that went down in September - and carries about 60 percent of national supply - had again been affected.

Power began returning to most parts of Caracas within an hour or two, though remoter parts of the nation of 29 million people were still in the dark late into the evening.

"We ask Venezuelans for patience," Chacon said.

Maduro was giving a live address on state TV when he was abruptly cut off. He later Tweeted that he was continuing to work in the presidential palace despite the "strange" blackout, and appeared live on state TV surrounded by school children.

"Be strong against this electrical war that yesterday's fascists have declared against our people," Maduro said in another address to the nation at about 11 p.m. local time.

Security services were on alert, while the oil industry had been "put on emergency", the president said.

Since winning office in April, Maduro has accused political opponents of conniving with wealthy businessmen and their allies in the United States to undermine his government.

As well as accusing them of sabotaging the power grid, he has alleged plots to assassinate him and to destroy the economy through price-gouging and the hoarding of products.

Venezuelans are suffering from a 54 percent annual inflation rate, as well as scarcities of basic products from flour to toilet paper. Nationwide local municipal elections on Sunday are seen as a major test of Maduro's standing.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles said government officials' bellicose statements were "pathetic" at a time of national disquiet. "For once in your lives, be responsible," he Tweeted.

Capriles and others say the reasons for the power failures are obvious and simple: lack of investment, incompetence and corruption within the state-run power company Corpoelec since Chavez's 2007 nationalization of the sector.

Venezuela has a maximum generation capacity of about 28,000 megawatts and normal demand of about 18,000.

The government constantly chides Venezuelans, however, for wasteful habits in a nation where the average household consumes an average of 5,878 kilowatt hours per year, about double the average in Latin America.

When will yesterday's fascists learn that their electrical war cannot overcome the power of Maduro?

[Admiral Yi]

The fascists will continue with their traitorous acts of economic sabotage as long as their dupes in the gringo media persist in casting the blame on the supporters of Bolivaran justice.

[derspiess]

"Yesterday's Fascists" sounds like a good name for a band.

[Savonarola]

I was looking up if Hugo Chavez's mausoleum had a special name and came across this older, but vitally important news story:

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Says He Sleeps In Hugo Chavez's Mausoleum

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is known for his devotion to late leader Hugo Chavez and now he acknowledges that he sometimes sleeps in the mausoleum where his mentor's remains are kept.

Maduro was Chavez's vice president and named by him as his successor before he died. During the campaign for the April 14 election he narrowly won, Maduro caused a furor when he said Chavez came to him in the form of a little bird that flew around his head.

Venezuela's president reopened the issue of his use of Chavez's image on Thursday when, during an act at the former military museum where Chavez's remains are kept, he said: "I sometimes come at night. At times, many times, I sleep here."

He said he sometimes comes with a retinue. "We enter at night and we stay to sleep. At night we reflect on things here."

[derspiess]

Can't blame him.  The mausoleum is probably one of the few places in town with functioning AC.

[Savonarola]

Another victory for Chavismo:

Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro cements power with victory in local elections
President's party thwarts opposition hopes of denting Maduro's power in what it called a referendum on his performance

President Nicolás Maduro's party won the most votes in Venezuela's local elections on Sunday, disappointing the opposition and helping his quest to preserve the late Hugo Chavez's socialist legacy.

With votes in from three-quarters of the nation's 337 mayoral races, the ruling party and allies had combined 49.2% support, compared with 42.7% for the the opposition coalition and its partners, the election board said.

"The Venezuelan people have said to the world that the Bolivarian revolution continues stronger than ever," Maduro said, referring to Chavez's self-styled movement named after the independence hero Simon Bolivar.

In a triumphant speech in Bolivar Square in downtown Caracas, Maduro mocked the opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, and urged him to resign.

"They underestimate us. They call me a donkey, there is social racism," he said. "They said that today was a plebiscite, that Maduro would have to leave the presidency after today."

The government took nearly 200 municipalities, with three-quarters counted, reflecting the traditional strength of "Chavismo" in rural and poorer areas.

As expected, the opposition performed well in urban centres, keeping the principal mayorship of the capital, Caracas, and that of Venezuela's second city, Maracaibo. The opposition also won the capital of Barinas, Chavez's home state.

But its failure to win the overall vote share was a blow to Capriles. Capriles had repeatedly called for the vote to be seen as a referendum on Maduro's performance.

"I did everything humanly possible," Capriles said after the results were out. "Remember that Venezuela does not have a single owner. A divided country needs dialogue."

Since taking power in April, Maduro, a 51-year-old former bus driver, has faced a plethora of economic problems including slowing growth, the highest inflation in the Americas and shortages of basic goods including milk and toilet paper.

Yet an aggressive campaign launched last month to force businesses to slash prices proved popular with consumers, especially the poor, and helped Maduro's candidates on Sunday.

Sunday's election was the biggest political test for Maduro since he narrowly won the presidential election after Chavez's death from cancer ended his 14-year rule of the OPEC nation.

Winning the overall vote share may help Maduro shake off perceptions of weakness, enabling him to exert more authority over the different factions in the ruling Socialist Party and perhaps take unpopular measures such as a currency devaluation.
Opposition activists alleged some irregularities on Sunday, including intimidation of some observers and the use of state oil company PDVSA's vehicles to ferry pro-government voters.

Capriles accused the government of intimidating local media to silence his voice and running the most unfair campaign in Venezuelan history.

"I had to go round the country practically with a megaphone in my hand ... This campaign saw a brutal waste of Venezuelans' resources (by the government)," he said in a midnight speech.

But unlike after April's vote, Capriles did not appeal against the validity of the results.

Capriles may find his authority challenged within his coalition after Sunday's results.

"They did not achieve their objective of a protest vote against Maduro," local pollster Luis Vicente Leon said.

Would you rather be a mule?

[Savonarola]

YOU'LL TAKE MY TELENOVELAS FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!   

Venezuela's president blames soap operas for crime 

BY FABIOLA SANCHEZ
ASSOCIATED PRESS

CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Nicolas Maduro has a new villain as he campaigns to bring down Venezuela's spiraling crime: TV soap operas. He accuses the telenovelas of spreading "anti-values" to young people by glamorizing violence, guns and drugs.

The criticism follows attacks last year by Maduro on violent video games and the Hollywood movie "Spider-Man."

On Monday night, his vice president, Jorge Arreaza, met with broadcast and pay TV operators to review the prime time lineup, warning that they could be in violation of a 2004 law mandating "socially responsible" programming. The two sides will meet in a week with the aim of drafting an agreement on meeting those obligations.

It's unclear whether the government will take steps to restrict programming or impose harsher rules on telenovelas, which are hugely popular across Latin America.

Analysts say arm-twisting is unlikely to reduce Venezuela's high homicide rate, which the United Nations ranks as the fifth worst globally, and they warn that Maduro's campaign could be used as an excuse to further gag media criticism of the government.

"It's a smoke screen to distract attention away from the real causes" of violence and crime, said Roberto Briceno Leon of the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence, which estimates the country's murder rate has quadrupled in 15 years of socialist rule.

Pressure on the government to crack down on crime heated up this month after former Miss Venezuela Monica Spear and her ex-husband were shot to death by robbers, with their 5-year-old daughter looking on.

The double slaying shocked even Venezuelans hardened by rampant bloodshed and put the government on the defensive on an issue that surveys say is the biggest concern among voters.

In his state of the union speech last week, Maduro took aim at a popular soap opera, "De todas maneras Rosa," produced by Venevision.

He accused the nation's biggest broadcaster of profiting from violence by celebrating the crimes of one of the melodrama's lead characters, Andreina Vallejo, a psychopathic former beauty queen who fatally poisons her own mother to hide the paternity of her son.

"Mama, everybody in the world knows that the relationship between parents and their children is completely accidental," a smiling Vallejo says as her mother gasps for breath in her daughter's arms.

Alberto Barrera Tyszka, the creator of several soap operas, said television only reflects the alarming levels of violence present in society and is already tightly regulated for content deemed unsuitable for minors. He said Maduro should turn his attention to the root causes of crime instead.

"It's ridiculous to blame the violence on what's seen for one or two hours a night on television" said Barrera Tyszka, who also wrote a biography of Maduro's predecessor and mentor, the late Hugo Chavez.

Briceno Leon, whose group tracks Venezuela's violence, blamed the country's bloodshed on the proliferation of illegal firearms, between 9 million and 15 million by the government's count, as well as the lack of punishment for those who commit crimes. He said the government has neglected security, viewing it until recently as a concern mainly for its political enemies among Venezuela's upper classes.

His group estimates more the 24,000 people were slain last year in Venezuela, pushing the homicide rate to 79 per 100,000 inhabitants.

The government disputes those findings, but has blocked access to official crime statistics in recent years. Officials say the rate last year was 39 per 100,000 people, a level that's still the highest in South America and eight times the U.S. rate.

Reflecting high levels of impunity, Venezuela's criminal justice system was ranked the lowest in the world in a recently published study on the rule of law in 97 countries by the Washington-based World Justice Project.

Maduro may see putting the blame on television as an effective political strategy by focusing attention on the breakdown in societal and family values, a broader problem that can entangle all politicians, regardless of party affiliation, Briceno Leon said.

Barrera Tyszka, the soap opera creator, said the president's campaign also reinforces government control of the airwaves, providing it with another tool to bully channels whose news coverage it frequently attacks as part of a right-wing conspiracy to destabilize the nation. Media self-censorship is already high after several years of the government imposing multimillion-dollar fines and even taking channels off the air for allegedly slanted coverage.

"There are almost no guns in Venezuelan telenovelas," he said. "There are a number of things that aren't shown for fear of being fined."

When we outlaw telenovelas only outlaws will make telenovelas.   

[Iormlund]

Finally something I can agree with Maduro. Soap operas are indeed evil.

[Savonarola]

Will the peace loving Venezuelans hang enough fascists so that an open honest dialogue can be engaged?  Yes!  Maduro is Justice!

Venezuelan opposition leader Lopez due in court after surrendering

By Mariano Castillo. Catherine E. Shoichet and Jethro Mullen, CNN
updated 2:08 PM EST, Wed February 19, 2014


(CNN) -- Facing the largest anti-government protests in his 11 months in power, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro appears ready to move forward with the prosecution of a leading opposition figure on charges of terrorism and murder.

Four anti-government protesters and one government supporter have died in clashes around the country.

The man the government blames for the deaths is opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, who turned himself in to authorities on Tuesday.

Human rights groups warn about the danger of turning the protests into a persecution of political opponents.

The charges against Lopez, who has organized protests demanding better security, an end to shortages and protected freedom of speech, "smack of a politically motivated attempt to silence dissent in the country," Amnesty International said in a statement.

Human Rights Watch weighed in too, warning that Venezuela must avoid "scapegoating" political opponents.
But the way forward seemed set, with Lopez expected to appear in court Wednesday.

Charges against him include murder, terrorism and arson in connection with the protests, according to his party, Popular Will.
Lopez denies the accusations, the party said in a statement, which talso asked witnesses of the protests to send their own accounts of what happened to be used in his defense.

"The last thing he said to me was for me to not forget what he is going through," his wife, Lilian Tintori de Lopez, said in an interview with CNN en Español. "Not forget that he is arrested for things that he has asked for: the liberation of political prisoners, liberation of students, no more oppression, no more violence."

She called on his supporters to join her at the justice building for his appearance Wednesday morning.

Death toll up

The latest victim of the violence died on Wednesday, a day after being shot during an anti-government protest in the state of Carabobo.

The death of Genesis Carmona drew attention because the student was also a beauty queen. She was winner of the 2013 Miss Tourism crown in Carabobo, and represented her state at Miss Tourism Venezuela.

Her Twitter account shows she actively retweeted messages from opposition leaders and supported Lopez. She even retweeted guidance for a workaround in case the government tried to block access to social media as the protests grew.
The last thing Carmona shared on Twitter was a retweet: "Stay with the one who tells the best stories. One day they will tell yours."

No signs of letup

The tensions in Venezuela show no signs of letting up.

Maduro and his supporters have also rallied, blaming the opposition for causing the very problems it protests.
The confrontation took a turn Tuesday, when Lopez marched with a crowd of thousands of protesters before surrendering to National Guard troops.

"The options I had were leave the country, and I will never leave Venezuela!" Lopez told the massive crowd. "The other option was to remain in hiding, but that option could have left doubt among some, including some who are here, and we don't have anything to hide."

Hours later, at a rally with throngs of supporters, Maduro said the head of Venezuela's National Assembly had helped negotiate Lopez's surrender and was taking him to a prison outside Caracas.

Maduro: Opposition leaders 'fascists'

Maduro described opposition leaders as right-wing fascists who plant seeds of fear and violence. He claimed his opponents have U.S. backing and have repeatedly tried to assassinate him and overthrow his democratically elected government.
And he compared the opposition to an illness plaguing the South American country.

"The only way to fight fascism in a society is like when you have a very bad infection ... you need to take penicillin, or rather the strongest antibiotic, and undergo treatment," he said. "Fascism is an infection in Venezuela and in the world. And the only treatment that exists is justice."

Lopez: 'The people woke up'

Footage from Tuesday's demonstration shows Lopez being led by National Guard troops to a military vehicle, waving to the crowd as he is placed inside and even continuing to speak on a megaphone until the door is closed.

A message on Lopez's Twitter account Tuesday night said he was on the way to a military prison, where party officials said he would be held at least until a court appearance scheduled for Wednesday. The post included a link to an apparently prerecorded video message, showing the opposition leader seated on a couch next to his wife, calling on Venezuelans to keep pushing for change.

"If you are watching this video, it is because the government has carried out one more abuse, full of lies, of falsehoods, of twisting facts and trying to manipulate the reality that we Venezuelans are living," he said. "I want to tell all Venezuelans that I do not regret what we have done up to this moment, in convoking the protests. ... The people came out. The people woke up."

'Yankee, go home'

Major social and economic problems in Venezuela have fueled the protests. But as the demonstrations gained steam, officials have pointed fingers at other factors, accusing the United States of plotting to destabilize the government.

On Monday, Venezuela gave three U.S. diplomats 48 hours to leave the country, accusing them of conspiring to bring down the government. At Tuesday's rally, Maduro shouted, "Yankee, go home" from the stage, drawing cheers from the crowd.
The opposition has been defeated over and over again at the polls, but it continues to call for marches and protests, Julio Rafael Chavez, a ruling party lawmaker, told CNN en Español on Tuesday.

"The peace-loving Venezuelans feel very, very worried by the irrational, fascist-leaning attitude and actions of a sector of the Venezuelan opposition," he said.

This isn't the first time that bitter protests and counterprotests by supporters and opponents of the government have threatened political stability in Venezuela over the past decade.

Many of Maduro's claims -- of U.S. intervention, of assassination plots -- were also lobbed by the late President Hugo Chavez. Chavez was briefly ousted in a coup in 2002, but otherwise outlasted the protests and repeatedly won reelection. He ruled for 14 years, until his death last year after a long battle with cancer.

The U.S. State Department has repeatedly denied Venezuela's accusations. Asked whether the United States backs Lopez, Sen. John McCain told CNN on Tuesday that his country "backs the people's right to express their will, to object to corruption, the repression of the media and the arrest of political dissidents."

'The protests will continue'

The current protests are the biggest that the Maduro government has faced in its 11 months in power.

The latest death came Monday, when a 17-year-old was hit by a truck and killed at a protest in the northeastern city of Carupano, a government official said.

Lopez's party has accused the government of being responsible for violence during the protests.

At Tuesday's rally, Maduro stressed that the socialist revolution he now leads is peaceful and democratic.

"What I want is peace, dialogue, understanding, coexistence," Maduro said. "It is what I want and what I am doing."

But another opposition leader said that the government's actions paint a different picture.

"The latest actions we've seen from the government indicate that far from fomenting a climate of peace, (it) is trying to fortify the climate of confrontation and violence that the world has seen in images," former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles told CNN en Español.

Capriles has backed away from calling for massive protests, saying they are ineffective and play into the government's narrative, but he said Lopez has his support.

"The protest will continue as long as the government gives no sign of resolving the problems of the Venezuelans," Capriles said.

CNN equipment taken

A CNN crew covering the anti-government demonstrations had its equipment taken away at gunpoint Tuesday -- but the journalists were unharmed.

The incident took place in a neighborhood in Caracas where the CNN crew was preparing to film and the National Guard was present.

About 20 men on motorbikes rode toward a crowd of anti-government protesters when they noticed the journalists and approached them, brandishing several guns.

They demanded that the crew hand over its equipment, including a camera and broadcasting gear.

I, for one, think that CNN should be more harshly punished.  Venezuela must demand that Robin Meade be handed over for a public spanking; otherwise CNN will simply continue their irrational, fascist leaning activities. 

[derspiess]

The people of Venezuela are lucky to have a bus driver president unafraid to confront the legions of fascists in his country!

[Admiral Yi]

I'm sorry if I my comments strike the rest of you as contrarian and divisive, but I'm worried Maduro might have lost track of the true meaning of Bolivarian Socialism.

[derspiess]

I'm sorry if I my comments strike the rest of you as contrarian and divisive, but I'm worried Maduro might have lost track of the true meaning of Bolivarian Socialism.

No shit.  It's been ages since I saw him wear a Venezuelan flag track suit.

True fact: I've met the coach/trainer/whatever for the Venezuelan dude skiing in the Olympics.

[Razgovory]

"Yesterday's Fascists" sounds like a good name for a band.

It was the Motto of the CIA in the 1950's.

[garbon]

True fact: I've met the coach/trainer/whatever for the Venezuelan dude skiing in the Olympics.

What did he tell you about Maduro's state of mind and thoughts on foreign policy?