Friday, July 21, 2017

Paro civico 2017

I have not gone into the details of what the opposition plans to do. Then again it is not quite clear, the people are upset anyway and act like crazies and thus the MUD leadership sorts of goes with the wind instead of leading it as it should. Then gain, can anyone lead the country today? Certainly not chavismo for that matter. But I digress from today's sole objective, to let you know how was this beautiful day.

Stopping a country...........

The opposition called today for what was in fact a general strike but under another name: paro civico nacional (national civic stop).  The old term of "paro" by itself used in 2002-2003 has been discredited, and useless today at any rate. How can you call for a general strike when the bulk of the economy is controlled by the state and when the private sector is so exsangue from years of repression and economic control that for all practical purposes it is like it were on a permanent semi strike? A nice adjective to paro will make it relevant again.

But progress has been made. Since the country is so angry at the regime there is no real need to call for a general strike: you call for a civilian protest that doubled with a "trancazo" will make sure it would look like a national strike without having the name.

And it worked. IT worked so well that the regime, among other things, had Maduro drive a car and filming from the inside the side walks "prove" that the strike had failed. Unfortunately the trick may have worked for those who DO NOT know Caracas but those that know were immediately into the Maduro fraud. See, downtown Caracas is plagued with "busetas", those worn out mini buses that have no qualm disembarking people anywhere at any time, on third rank if they feel like it.  Seeing streets WITHOUT busetas and the joke was on Maduro. And there were other mistakes but that one was glaring enough to sink the propaganda stunt.  While admitting that the paro civico has worked quite well.

But what is one to do locked at home for a day? Go for a long walk on the deserted avenues!  Only when the avenues of El Cafetal are free of traffic can you measure how well they were designed, how adapted to humanity, until permanent traffic congestion, pollution and insecurity had wrecked their use.  So, today, with an air so clear after almost 24 hours of rain, I had one of the longest and most enjoyable walks in years. Quite often I was actually alone, ALONE in a street for perhaps 5 minutes until a bike passed or somebody walked out a building with a dog in leash. Heavens....

I did take some pictures for the sake of it. Like the one above with a ridiculous barrier for trancazo, barely 20 yards ahead fo a real one....  But people are going crazy. Did I say that already?

Here are two more.

Of course, tomorrow drive with a lot of care as many of these storm trenches and grids
may not have been replaced as they should. You do not want to lose a tire. 

Creativity with material is is an art to appreciate.

But while I was locked inside El Cafetal and forced to enjoy the views and the air, elsewhere things were not rosy. Back at home I could here explosion after explosion all afternoon. At one point I even caught one of the gas clouds, when the light was good enough to allow for contrast considering the distance.  Note that all the gases thrown were drifting over the inhabitants next, babies, elderly and the sick included.  Much bigger clouds and explosions were coming from El Marques or Los Ruices

It is rough and getting rougher.


PS: among the claims the regime had that the paro civico had failed, it advances that all banks were open. Well, in El Cafetal area ALL was closed, including the state bank agencies.


  1. What really gets to them is work stoppages in PDVSA oil field operations, and we get very little information about it. I know some PDVSA employees who left work, called in sick, etc. but I'm not aware of any well's being closed.

    I still believe these Paros are needed, because the only realistic hope is to have other nations fail to recognize Maduro's constituyent Assembly as a legitimate superpower.

    1. Boludo Tejano3:18 AM

      You might be interested in the latest from Luis Almagro, who has most definitely distanced himself from Pepe Mujica: OAS Secretary General: Cuba Has 'Occupation Army' in Venezuela.
      Cuba essentially has an "occupation army" in Venezuela with 15,000 Cubans who currently inhabit the South American country, Secretary General of the Organization of American States Luis Almagro said in a Senate hearing this week.
      "There are currently about 15,000 Cubans in Venezuela," Almagro said during his testimony before U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday, Panapost reported Thursday. "It's like an occupation army from Cuba in Venezuela."

      About the only thing Pepe would say about an "occupying army" in Venezuela would be that the numbers should be increased from 15,000 to 20,000 or 30,000.

  2. Daniel, thank you for the report. Yes, MUD needs to take leadership classes, for sure. I am googling every other hour for news on Venez situation. Not much appears - amazingly. So we appreciate your updates and feedback. any update on Luisa Ortega Diaz situation? We are hungry for news on Venez..

  3. Boludo Tejano7:09 PM

    I was in Lima in 1977 when there was a one-day strike announced against the military regime. The streets were empty. Empty. The next day the front page of a Lima newspaper showed a photo of a pickup truck filled with passengers in the rear: “Workers traveling to their jobs in defiance of the strike.” Judging by how empty the streets were, I wonder if that were a staged photo.

    When I returned to Lima a month later, I read in the papers of the death of Elvis.

    1. Eduardo8:21 PM


      It did not overthrom the regime there, but it initiated the changes, and the transition to a democratic government. And we must recognize that the militars in Peru has much more sense of reality that in Venezuela.

      There and in 2000, the transition to a democracy was bloodless.

      Venezuelan top military have they hands so dirty with blood or druigs that they can not lose power without losing all the have now.

    2. Boludo Tejano12:27 AM

      There are interesting comparisons between Peru and Venezuela. Courtesy of the 12 years of the Velasco-Bermudez regime, left-wing milicos have little appeal in Peru. Courtesy of the depredations of Sendero Luminoso and others, far-left-wingers have little appeal in Peru.

      Having experienced the hyperinflation that resulted from Alan Garcia's populist economic policies, Peruvians are more likely to support sober economic policies. During his second time in office, Alan Garcia did not revert to his previous disastrous economic policies- and made a point during the campaign for his second term of saying that he would NOT do so.

      Interesting comparison and ironies between CAP-I and CAP-II and Alan Garcia I and II.

      Although Humala was elected President with the support of Chavez, once in power Humala pretty much followed the policies of his predecessor. Though it appears that Humala did follow the Chavista path of enriching himself in office.

      Having seen that substantial economic growth also results in substantial reduction in poverty, Peruvians are less likely to fall for the mumbo-jumbo of Chavista populism which featured unsustainable poverty reduction- unsustainable because it was concurrent with anemic economic growth.

      Peruvians look at Chavezuela and say to themselves, "Been there, done that."

  4. I understand that there is supposed to be a statement from the Supreme Court about the situation. Is there any indication as to when that might be?

    1. Boludo Tejano1:12 AM

      VOA: Court Voids Judicial Appointments by Venezuelan Congress.
      Venezuela's opposition-controlled Congress appointed a new slate of judges to the Supreme Court on Friday, a move that the high court immediately voided.The Supreme Court ruled that the National Assembly's appointment of 13 new judges and 20 substitute judges violated the constitution and was an illegal attempt to usurp authority.

      No big surprise there.

      Courtesy of a news aggregator from the UK. News Now(UK).


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