An "Insider's View" of the Venezuelan Elections

I read a post at Blanton's and Ashton's about the lack of news coverage on events in Venezuela.

This reminded me of some emails from a friend of a friend of a friend who is a Venezuelan-American who has been living in Venezuela for the past 15 years or so.

I am pasting in the emails here, in their entirely, complete with spelling mistakes... I have censored some personal information about the writer for obvious reasons.

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On the political issue, I got up at 4 am today to go vote. Unfortunately, I was unable to change my voting station so I had to go to downtown Caracas. Namely a barrio right behind the XXXXXXXXXX, an area ripe with pro-government retards. Got there at 5:30am. Voting station was supposed to open at 6:00am but didn't until 7:15 or so. Dont know why. Then they kept letting all the elderly go first, so they wouldn't have to stand in line, which is al real nice until you realize how many fucking old people actually LIVE in this city. Damn yo! I didn't get out of there til 10:30am.

Big expectations as to what will happen. Hopefully we can get rid of this miserable fuckface. Then maybe I can start my [SMALL BUSINESS] I want to set up. Wont do it if this guy wins. Impossible to work like this. Anyway, every one is very tense afraid of what will happen if the president is voted out of office because his supporters are made up mostly of very passionate, uneducated and violent fuckheads. Hopefully if he loses there won't be any violence. Either way the election goes the other side will cry out "fraud!" but hopefully it will all be political and not violent. For now the situation remains extremely calm. There are still long lines of voters waiting to answer the Yes or No question that will decide the outcome.

I was surprised at how superficial the coverage was on Yahoo, CNN en español, and BBC News. They all seem to be very objective but as a Venezuelan who has seen some of the outrageous decisions this President has taken, I find their information to be so bland, as to be only a partial truth. I was particularly disappointed in the BBC whom I've usually respected as being objective and insightful. They did think it wast very great that Chavez called Bush "an asshole." Actually, that was kind of funny. But hey, this dude had his snipers open fire on an unarmed crowd outside his Palace in 2002. He has used all sorts of schemes, like shutting down TV signals when it isn't convenient for him to have people see what's really going on. And he's brought back the political prisoner. Several opposition figures, including a mayor have been jail on chicken-shit charges, just to get them out of the way, and to try to scare the opposition into inaction. How come I don't see any of that on the news? If you want a bit more real account, check out "the economist" site for uk. they're are a bit less afraid to tell it like it is.

Most of Chavez' supporters believe in him because:

a) He has put them in favorable positions so they can make money. Like all the new PDVSA idiots. PDVSA is the national oil company. It used to be one of the largest corporations in the Latin American til moron no.1 took office and started fucking shit up. Anyway, after the former PDVSA workers (whom I used to see when I worked at XXXXXXXXXXX, and recognized as people who were obviously prepared for their positions) acted against the president in the general strike of 2003, he had them all fired and put all his buddies in their positions. This new PDVSA I see at XXXXXXXXX. Bunch of ignorant fucks - no wonder the company is only a fraction of what it used to be. Anyway, it's sad that you lose your government job just because you vote for an opposing party. Imagine if XXXXXX lost his [US FEDERAL CIVIL SERVICE JOB] every time he voted for a Democrat while a Republican was in office. That's what happened down here.

b) The poor, and there are a lot of poor people in Venezuela, are very happpy that Chavez is giving them money. Not like a proper welfare system or anything. Not like creating jobs. Just stuff for free. Like, uh free school for poor kids. Of course Venezuela has always had free public schools. They're all run down and shit. Now he created a well publisized program of "Missions" modeled after Castro's project sin Cuba. Thery aren't particularly effective social programs. They're like little bandages that serve as wonderful promotional material for the president. Meanwhile the poor keep getting poorer. That has always been the way in Venezuela, to appease the poor with some minor bullshit while stealing the REAL money. These poor morons believe this shit. Check it: Education is lacking in Venezuela dude. Right now, the state has crazy money, thanks to the very high oil prices. The state makes over $7million dollars A DAY on oil sales to the US alone!!! This is a lot of money and gives the govt great leverage. So they go out and campaign about helping the poor with their new free "Mission Rivas" educationalt program (which incidentally is the Exact same program that existed pre-Chavez - with a new name). People get the same old crappy free school EXCEPT Chavez pays the students $30 a month to study!!!! Now if you're poor and this guy offers you $30 a month to study, well you go for it. BUt you're still getting the same old crappy education, same old crappy school, same old crappy evreything, but you're happy cause you got $30 bucks and you can go out and buy a couple cases of beer with it on Friday nites. You see what's wrong with this country? Instead of fostering some real programs, pushing to develop technically advanced students in specific areas, they just throw a few bucks around here or there, people are stupid enough to believe it, and the real money goes into the gov't pockets. It's shameful.

Last Thursday there was an opposition march to show support for the recall referendum. Dude crazy people, I'll try to send you pics. Chavez on Friday offered his usual "Happy Meal". What's that? He goes to Venezuela's rural areas, offers people a free red t-shirt (red is the gov't party's color), a red cap, a bologne and cheese sandwich and Bs.30000 (about 15 bucks) if they take one of his buses into Caracas and stand at a "support the gov't rally." And of course people go. Last time they brought in 1900 buses. I had taken [MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY SOMEWHERE NEARBY IN CARACAS]. The rally mached past on the highway. A bunch of loud music, mostly obscene. All the red-wearing chavistas walking past drinking free beer and such. But it wasn't very crowded. So where was every body else? Dude, they were [WHERE HE WAS]!! Sure, people took their money and came to Caracas to visit family, site see, etc.

I just hope all hell doesn't break loose. I suppose there's a chance it will, in particular if Chavez loses because his supporters are, in my opinion, more prone to violence. Most Venezuelans are decent enough folk, we just want to be able to make some money and live in peace. In the past, the venezuelan midde class has always acted in the utmost civilized manner. I'm sure this will be no exception. Let's all hope and pray for the best.

Take care bro,
Wish us Venezuelans luck.

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Bad News dude,

Chavez won the referendum, thus he will finish off his term until Dec 2006. Jimmy Carter and the Organization of American States says they see no signs of fraud. Me? I'm not so sure.

I saw a hell of a lot of people voting against Chavez. A hell of a lot. Plus the gov't has been awful sneaky in scrutinizing the results.

It's pretty terrible. Morale is down in the dumps. [HIS WIFE] has been depressed all day, on the verge of tears.

Today there was a small anti-Chavez protest in Altamira Square. Some ladies chanting "fraud" and such. A bunch of Chavez supporters rode by in motorcycles and opoend fire into the crowd, wounding four.

And the international press says Chavez is diverting oil funds towards the poor? Makes him sound like a hero? Make no mistake about it, Chavez does nothing to limit the kind of violence that happened today. Quite the contrary his rethoric promotes confrontation. How long can this go on?

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Dude, there seems to be some hope still.

Carter and his staff had a sit down with a civil association called SUMATE that did some work for the opposition coalition. During this sit down they forwarded some alleged proof that the election might have been rigged. Carter has stated that in order to maintain the transparecy of the election (and therefor its legitimacy) it would be best to randomly audit some of the results. I agree with you, I don't think Jimmy would sell out, he has no need to. However he can only go by what he is told by the gov't and the National Electoral coundil (controlled by the gov't) and the brand spanking new, automated voting process machines (rigged by the gov't). Chances are, nothing will come of this, but at leat some doubt has been cast over the legitimacy of this illegitimatte result. Believe me, kid, this was a set-up all the way.

The old lady that got shot yesterday at Altamira square died today. Too bad.

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