This is how bully and Dictator Hugo Chavez runs Venezuela. Law and order be damned. When a couple told Chavez that they had not been able to move in because Banco Provincial had not approved a loan or given them the money, Chavez called the President of the bank and told him if the bank was not willing to fulfill the Constitution, decrees and the laws, then Chavez said:
“You have to begin to give me the bank, I will pay what the banks costs…do you have something to respond to me?” Chavez said.
At this point the President of the bank requested that his voice also be broadcast on nationwide TV, like that of Chavez.
Chavez said no, telling him he could go to the Government’s TV channel and ask for time.
“This is very serious” said Chavez “Tell me how much the banks is worth, I will not argue with you”
Then Chavez says that the President of the bank is saying the information is not correct. Chavez points at the guy with a document. The guy shows it. Chavez tells him that someone is not telling him the truth.
Threatening him Chavez says: “you are involved, you have to assume your responsibility… you have to meet with this people… tell me how much the bank costs, I buy it” the President off Banco Provincial says the bank is not for sale, Chavez says he can perfectly expropriate it.
Like a true despotic Dictator, Chavez threatens the President of the bank, without even knowing the details of the case, who is right or not, whether an illegality has been committed or not. There are laws and procedures for all this, but not for allmighty Hugo.
That is the way the bully runs Venezuela, like his own personal fiefdom, where he can do what he wants, if he desires something, it becomes “the public interest”, without even finding out the truth of the case.
If the same method were to be applied to his incompetent Government, he would have left long ago, as he is the one that does not follow the laws and abuses all of the time. Government owned banks have the lowest ratios for loans and are not forced to lend to the agricultural sector and the housing sector as strictly as private banks. But in any case, Chavez did his bully act without knowing anything about the case.
But he is the all powerful Dictator and ruler of Venezuela. With this he creates rumors, instability and people fear for their money. He then will say the opposition creates the instability.
So, beware!
The Devil's Excrement 
October 8, 2012 at 3:02 am
[…] 139.000 militairen moeten zorgen dat alles ordentelijk verloopt. Voor het eerst sinds 20 jaar van autoritair regime is de president uitgedaagd. Vorige week nog werden volgers van de oppositieleider Capriles […]
September 25, 2012 at 5:48 pm
Ask yourself why do people love him so much if his a devil. Latin America needs to do the same Washington talks about democracy but it behaves undemocratic in other countries they condemn immigrants when their creating them . Brazil is a perfect example it’s a growing economy since it paid its dept . Latin America needs to follow suit .
September 25, 2012 at 5:38 pm
Why is it that the Washington attacks does that don’t side with them/IMF bank ? Why does the media do the same ? Why does it side with Rich corrupt politicians in Latin America that are to friendly with the us government more thant there own country ? It made Venezuelen president Hugo Chavez government like it didn’t care about human rights supposedly the worst in Latin America when united states friendly Colombia has one of the worst history of human rights
September 25, 2012 at 11:33 am
Chavez is a terrorist.
June 2, 2012 at 10:17 pm
I am from former Soviet Union, Latvia and we had exectly the same. It was a filty and crazy regime and , finally, one good day in August 1991 it was over. Communism was crushed . It was a really very good Day!
May 10, 2011 at 6:26 am
Hey GaryMac, Chavez is a dictator in the dictionary definition of the word. Through the enabling act he has the power to decree any laws in any area of action he sees fit for 18 months. That’s three times longer than the six months that Roman Dictators were given such powers for. Dictator does not mean unelected, or unpopular, it means you have the powers of a dictator, which Chavez does. I’ll grant you, to many people, the word dictator means unelected tyrant. So I think to shut up this stupid semantic argument form people like you, it would be better to call him a Unitary Executive… or ultimate leader. Something like that.
Also, things have not improved any more in Venezuela than they have in many other south American country. Literacy has increased at a similar rate to other countries, and inequality has decreased… but that’s the case across the board in South America. What he has done is spend a huge amount of money to accomplish what other countries did with much less spending.
Also, what does Ireland have to do with it? There are plenty of countries that regulate the banking system well, without resorting to making the entire economy dysfunctional, destroying the middle class, and setting your country up for a hyperinflation like Chavez did. It’s not like you either end up with a liquidity crisis like Ireland faced (which does not effect most Irish people) or Chavez style inflation… there are other alternatives.
March 9, 2011 at 5:42 am
am i not correct in saying that Chavez has been democratically elected?
he therefore is not a dictator,the american media hate that fact. the plight of the poor in Venezuela has improved immensely since his rule. he has a long way to go and I hope he doesnt remain in power too long, but I wish we had some of his policies here in ireland, as the banks here were given free reign for too long and had all the greedy intentions you people love, ireland is now the most indebted country in the world as a result of un restrained greed and capitalism and lack of “proper” government intervention.
February 2, 2011 at 5:12 pm
Chavez or Obama ?????
Mugabe or Castro ???
February 1, 2011 at 3:21 pm
You mean the guys that wrote the longest standing Declaration of Independence in the world? Classic..Bleeding heart liberal..I have degrees in English & Engineering,I also posses a very good memory,& have been in(not just the airport) over 20 countries.My ancestors left Europe for a new life in a free country,you on the other hand returned to your socialist roots.I repeat,wise guys like you are the reason Venezuela is in a bind.You thought you could dance with the “La Izquierda” devil,and he took over.You are all the same,when you lose an argument you resort to name calling & insults..Hell you should be an American Democrat.As for what I have done for Venezuela,I put my money where my mouth is.We will leave it at that.
January 31, 2011 at 2:55 pm
[…] How a bully Dictator like Hugo Chavez runs Venezuela […]
January 31, 2011 at 6:12 am
Elroy,
What have YOU done? I do not pretend I can change Venezuela. I can change myself and support a bit others. I studied and now work in Europe, so that is my centre of activities. Other than that, I’m active in a couple of tiny hands-on-work education projects in Venezuela.
What have YOU done for Venezuela?
Meanwhile you are one of those classical Venezuelans who want to be more conservative than the most conservative US Americans, someone with a very limited knowledge of history – national or universal-. I suppose people with your attitude are the ones who are having such wonderful success in Afghanistan. “Bam-bam, mine is bigger than yours”
If those guys you call “Founding Fathers” would come back to life they would probably be amazed at what kind of people use their name and claim wisdom from them.
January 30, 2011 at 9:16 pm
I am also whistling in the wind here,Kepler,it went in one of your ears & out the other.A gun toting gringo / Maracucho(gasp!) that has probably spent more time in Venezuela than you have.You & yours have spent 13 years talking Chavez to death..Some tactics.As the Mexican said to the Italian,Arrivedercci,Cabron!!
January 30, 2011 at 4:14 am
Oh, Iisús Khristós and all the saint apostles of the true faith, Orthodoxy! Mamashka Marija, help us!
Here we have a gun-tottering gringo telling us why his country became a developed nation! I reckon quite some of his compatriots – perhaps he does not consider them so patriots – will disagree.
I won’t get into that empty talk again. Going back to Venezuela:
it is not about cannon fodder. We are talking about tactics in other forms.
January 30, 2011 at 1:54 am
Continued:moraimag,I was fortunate enough to be born a US citizen,as well as Venezuelan.I saw an email circulated that noted the number of registered hunters in each state of the US union.They(the hunters)numbered in the millions and all were out on opening day shooting at something.Had these same armed people gone to Miraflores in 2005 our boy would be painting seaside canvases in Havana or he would be dead.It is easy to pick on a bunch of unarmed easy living people.Throw in Cuban vigilance & Chavez is impossible to defeat.He will rig the numbers again in 2012 right in front of everybody as he has before,forget about Obama or Hillary doing anything,they probably wish they could do the same as Chavez in the US.The OAS is a joke.Hugo will be around a while.Neo Liberalism…What a bunch of crap!!!Also last but not least,I trust neither side right or left but will defend what is mine in the only free country left in the world with whatever weapons are available.
January 30, 2011 at 1:26 am
moraimag,I was fortunate enough to be born a US citizen,as well as Venezuelan.I saw an
January 29, 2011 at 11:46 pm
elroy, I wonder if when you feel all nolstagic about Pinochet you also think that you and your family might be the ones killed. You think in a process like that if you are with the winning side you won’t get hurt? Watch the movie “The life of others” and you will see that in a criminal dictatorship you can be killed or f””ck up even if you think you are on the side with power.
I really don’t wish we get a Pinochet after Chavez and thinking that this is a problem of “right” or “left” is simplistic and downright counter productive.
January 29, 2011 at 7:17 pm
Kepler,I respectfully acknowledge your post,BUT:No Venezolano is going to be cannon fodder so another one can enjoy the good life.There is the Venezuelan “yo no soy guevon”rule to deal with here..Some people actually think they can outsmart a guy that probably has Cubans wiping his ass & tasting his food(see the “yo no soy guevon” rule),there is no way.The military are the only ones that can get rid of this guy,particularly since they are the ones that put him in.Perhaps a secret”bolivarian right wing movement”??He coddles the military big time.Best get used to this guy or move to Doral or Weston,please don’t come to Texas as we have enough refugees here already!!!!
January 29, 2011 at 5:30 pm
Elroy,
Venezuelans in 1998 came up as the worst of the worst among Latin American pupils. I am not talking about USB or UCV engineering. I am talking about what counts for a country, in the end: the average pupils.
With that and an upper class oblivious of that situation plus our oil addiction plus the idiotic infatuation with military and a pseudo-historical Bolívar, disaster was very likely. I was sure in 1992 that a coup was going to take place. I was just a young guy. What made me think that? The signs on the wall, history of Venezuela and the rest.
It is pretty silly to try to explain the success or failure of any one country because of one or two factors only. Still, oil and the worst education and lack of historic identity (which is related to education in the broad sense) account for quite a lot.
By the way: don’t you guys realise Tunesia had a dictator for 23 years already? And Egypt has still a dictator for a longer period of time? And the game is not over there.
One way or the other, I am puzzled by the way Venezuelans tend to see every bloody event as “defeat” or as “victory” for one or the other group.
Guys, if we want to increase our chances of winning, we do have to see actions in Venezuela (and in other places) by what they are: they are steps in a very long chess game.
I am pissed off because Marx did seem to be right when he was writing about Bolívar. He wrote Venezuelans take one thing and just drop it at any moment, no tienen constancia. And that is how Venezuelans planned Altamira, but not what is next. And that is how they planned the 2005 boycot, but no real follow-up. And that is how Rosales and then once Ledezma very shyly demanded a debate against Chávez (the point is not that he will every accept, but to show he won’t) but just dropped the issue after a week. Come on, can’t we keep with a constant well-thought campaign against Chávez? Do we need to get down when our only one-action plan goes bust?
Isn’t it about time to become a little bit more sofisticated about the way we fight against a dictatorship?
January 29, 2011 at 4:05 pm
As a follow up,what if Chavez rounded up all of the right wingers & exterminated us??The left cannot / will not do it because then no one will be left that works for a living to tax or take money / property from.The left will have to surround itself with an Army,armed to the teeth,cause trouble occasionaly so some food / humanitarian aid will come in,run drugs,maybe build a Nuke…Sound Familiar??
January 29, 2011 at 3:53 pm
I am tired of answering American’s question(s): Why did we Venezuelans vote for Chavez over & over.It is hard to explain,therefore we(all Venezuelans,whether or not we voted for Chavez) all look like a bunch of morons(myself included).Venezuelas romance with “La Izquierda” led to this mess.How could there be a “secret bolivarian movement”in the Venezuelan Army in a time when the CIA ruled,not to mention the Venezuelan “chisme” factor is beyond me.This bozo Chavez was allowed to exist & flourish,end of story.No way Venezuelans will revolt like the Middle East folks,they will walk to slaughter & wait to be saved by some foreign power.Like it or not,Pinochet rounded up Communists,killed them then built the best country in South America with no oil.This post will undoubtedly piss off many people,but the truth hurts.
January 29, 2011 at 11:38 am
Firepigette, do you know what a pinch of salt means? By the way: it doesn’t have to do with how powerful a nation is…at least not in the sense Chinese and US Americans or Russians see that.
It has to do with serendipity, some issues about funding, isolation versus connectivity, etc.
In Germany (pinch of salt someone?) there are a couple of interesting points that favour a punchier media:
– the “state” media is managed by a committee that comprises different parties – and Germany does not have a one-party or two-party system, which is important- and other sectors of societies beyond business or State. This means the state media is not a government-propaganda media. A lot of discussion takes places if people in the public feel one given program becomes even once too partial with one side.
That serves as a standard and foments real competition, as you don’t have the ilusion created by pseudo-competition by big economic powers
You see more of “tell the facts” than “tell us what to think”, even if there are never exact borders to these things.
– a higher proportion of journalists take the time to learn the languages of the regions they are based in and they constantly talk to people who do not have anything to do with foreigners. This gives a completely different -additional- perspective.
A more solid knowledge of local history and economics also helps.
As I wrote at Daniel’s last month, I could only shake my head when I saw one of the big “revelations” for US Americans was the role played by the US in the massive bombing – with plenty of “collateral damaged”- in Yemen and the way the president of Yemen covered it up.
I had seen a couple of times information about that problem on the standard evening news on ZDF (about 20 minutes at 21:45 Berlin time).
Mind: ZDF is not news-all-the-time like CNN. Still, it has more meat in 20 minutes than what one could probably see in some channels across the Ocean during a whole day.
Because of the way ZDF and ARD channels are managed, you can actually get news about painful things for the German government, like the way it is still treating Uzbekistan’s dictator or before how German companies were involved in supplying Saddam Hussein – way way way before the Iraq invasion.
Of course, the news from the standard media in the not very powerful Germany should be taken, as I said before, with a pinch of salt. Still, you could benefit from getting news occassionaly from other sources than the English speaking world. Some of those news are also available in English (like Al Jazeera and some articles from Spiegel).
January 29, 2011 at 10:37 am
Megasqualidus,
I have never seen on any English News source that it is impossible to shut down the internet in Egypt, however you are correct in saying that experts can often be wrong, and that is true anywhere even in the great and powerful Germany.It is super important that we listen to the ” experts” with skepticism and always listen to our OWN gut feelings.EVEN when they come from the genius sources of Al Jazeera, or Spiegel.
Perhaps CNN might said that they cannot shut down the internet PERMANENTLY, or even for an extensive period of time.
The fewer the ISPs, the easier it is for governments to impose a blockade. Burma, for example, had only two ISPs in 2007. Shutting down the Internet in developed nations, such as the U.S., would be far more difficult, if not impossible, because of the many ISPs operating in the countries with networks linked to other networks inside and outside the borders.
January 29, 2011 at 9:00 am
Escualide,
If you want to have some decent reporting on the Middle East, you may consider Robert Fisk’s accounts. Other than that, it’s German news or Al Jazeera with a pinch of salt (but then you need a pinch of salt all the time)
Spiegel has called Mubarak for years for what he is: a despot or dictator
Both Spiegel and Deutsche Welle have a bit of news in English, although just a bit.
January 29, 2011 at 8:47 am
Here the recorded (not really 😉 ) conversation of Chávez:
http://www.elchiguirebipolar.net/27-01-2011/video-chavez-llama-a-pedir-una-dominos-pizza/
January 28, 2011 at 10:16 pm
And so in Egypt, as was the case in Venezuela in April 11, 2002, at the end the army’s sole job is to act as a buffer between a dictator and the people of the country they pledged to serve to begin with. I’d be interesting to see whether the army will open fire on Egyptians if they do decide to come out tomorrow and demonstrate.
On a different note, one or two days ago I did see a so called “expert” in CNN say how the internet couldn’t be shut down in Egypt…, and he went on and gave his reasons. It is funny to see how experts can be so off the mark some times.
January 28, 2011 at 7:09 pm
At least al-Gaddafi, al-Assad and a few others will have sleep problems the next time 😉
January 28, 2011 at 7:04 pm
I’m asking myself, if the “arab revolution” is going to impact Cuba too? I’m inclined to think that it will. Interesting times ahead…
January 28, 2011 at 4:34 pm
“Eh… has it occurred to anyone that now the president of the bank has the number of Chavez’s personal cell phone? (Rich bank owners ALWAYS have called ID, right)?
Wouldn’t it be fun if he leaked it?”
Better than that. I believe that all official conversations are recorded. Would it not be a hoot if somebody were to disclose what was said at the other end of that phone call?
January 28, 2011 at 1:57 pm
Eh… has it occurred to anyone that now the president of the bank has the number of Chavez’s personal cell phone? (Rich bank owners ALWAYS have called ID, right)?
Wouldn’t it be fun if he leaked it?
January 28, 2011 at 1:27 pm
It’s now been fully published in Aporrea & republished here:
http://www.reporteconfidencial.info/noticia/21543/aporrea-conozca-detalles-de-como-y-donde-se-genero-el-brote-que-llego-a-venezuela-/
He won’t hold back.
Apparently it was lobster that was served that caused the problem.
January 28, 2011 at 1:22 pm
It will be interesting to see if the All Mighty Hugo can hold back the name on his Sunday Reality show.
January 28, 2011 at 1:15 pm
Ok Miguel.
I thought with all the secrecy they might have been the other side.
January 28, 2011 at 12:49 pm
They are escualidos, escualidos, I give the Government credit for not mention names.
January 28, 2011 at 12:32 pm
Another interesting note.
Supposedly 447 Venezuelans flew to the Dominican Republic for a wedding & returned home with Cholera. 111 of them have been confirmed with the disease.
The question is – Who are these people? Are they escaulidos or associated with the government?
The news reports have been obvious in their avoidance of mentioning who this group is or whose wedding it was.
January 28, 2011 at 12:01 pm
When the people of Venezuela really want to be free – they will be. If not in reality, then in spirit – with reality following shortly thereafter. Ditto for Egypt, China, et al.
Right now, things are going so good for the Chinese that no one wants to rock the boat. Understanding how much they suffered under communism, that’s easy enough to comprehend.
What’s difficult to understand is why Venezuelan’s aren’t literally up in arms over the ‘wasted’ decade + 20%.
January 28, 2011 at 11:41 am
For a preview of what will surely happen in Venezuela in the sometime near future:
http://www.reporteconfidencial.info/noticia/21551/egipto-desaparece-del-mapa-de-internet/
The government of Egypt cuts all Internet & cel phone service to prevent the protesters from communicating.
It will happen here.
January 28, 2011 at 9:24 am
I am currently traveling in Colombia. In talking to people here, I have found that even they don´t realize just how bad it is in the country of their closest neighbor. And when I try to explain, I find that what I am telling them is so illogical and absurd that I won´t be fully believed.
January 28, 2011 at 7:30 am
Nobody has a “right” to be approved a credit by a bank. If Provincial turned him down, it has nothing to do with Justice, Provincial is being forced to lend a % of its portfolio for such loans, it has a right to choose who it lends to, so I am not sure what you mean by Justice or lack of institutions.
January 28, 2011 at 6:57 am
Looking at this video from a pointview other than the opposition, I see citizens who their only hope to have justice was to appear on a CADENA and having the President making justice for them. I still regret the way Chavez behaved, but the other side of this story is the traditional LACK OF INSTITUTIONS IN VENEZUELA. This is something that existed in the 4th, exists in the 5th and hopefully we will be able to eliminate in the next one.
January 28, 2011 at 5:47 am
Well I wake up today and check the Venezuela news to learn that you are all wrong and the video must be a fake. Chavez now says “rumors” of the bank takeover are not true and are being spread by the opposition to destabilize the country. See, you are worried over nothing…………. (He really said this. Your president is mentally unstable)
January 27, 2011 at 11:32 pm
Is there a way to measure if the effort to blame the housing crisis on the “evil bankers” resonated with the Venezuelan voters?
January 27, 2011 at 8:56 pm
Miguel: The people around him that get to run the bank will generate wealth
lots of wealth. For themselves of course and when the bank crashes, will move on to another bank or when they run out of banks, mango fincas!
January 27, 2011 at 6:49 pm
ViVa, sorry to hear about your problems, we have our own, which is what we discuss in this blog. And you are so clueless you dont understand that here it is the State that is rich with our money and people are poor. And what Chavez wants to do is to use that money (our money) to pay a rich Spanish bank a bundle of money, so he can own that bank and run it into the ground and destroy value which the Venezuelan poor could use. Why not use that money to generate wealth?
He has no clue how to do that.
January 27, 2011 at 5:39 pm
mediocriollo, you hit the nail on the head.
In reality, it has been described as such many times. Only that the name callers did not dream of being that accurate. The “perdonavidas” warning the President of a Bank and showing his big heart to appropriately submissive neighbors, namely the ones who did not get the loan. Of course, we have seen the “perdonavidas” threaten and carry out threats, in the case of Lourdes Afiuni and Manuel Rosales.
January 27, 2011 at 5:17 pm
Thank you host…
Last night while on Twit the following message popped up as retweets. It comes from a well know Economic writer in VE, Snr Blanca Vera Azaf twit name @bevavera time line post Jan 26th at 1:39 1:46 and 2:06 total messages are 3 that concern this situation, I have included 1 link to try and make it easier to reach the rest.
Translation:
message 1:
“ I don’t usually speak of banks but I will say it to clarify. The attacks of Chávez on the Provincial are because Polar have shares there
message 2:
“The shares of Polar at the Provincial date from when the Bank had still not been acquired by BBVA. that is why HCH attacks it. Much calm!”
message 3:
“The strategy of attacking the Provincial was designed (against) somebody that we all know. The real target are the shares of Polar in the Bank”
I have no reason to doubt the above messages. MS Azaf is well respected and fluent in English as she has spent much time in England.
Always more than what it appears
http://twitter.com/@bevavera No suelo hablar de los bancos pero lo voy a decir para aclarar. Los ataques de Chávez al Provincial son porque Polar tiene acciones alli 1:39 PM Jan 26th via ÜberTwitter Retweeted by you and 86 others
January 27, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Hugo is the man!!! Neo-liberalism has to become more transparent for the common Joe. What kind of society lets 1% of it’s people sit on 41% of the wealth, and 80% of the poorest people have combined 7% of the wealth in a country – that country is USA. 10.000 years into the future people will look back on Western society and say it was brutal and as far away from the principels of Jesus who they worshipped every sunday as Stalins Communism was from true socialism.
January 27, 2011 at 4:48 pm
Why do Venezuelans get so excited to participate in a circus like this? First point, is ignorance. They do not realize or care what acts like this do to the country in the short or long term, because of the 2nd point. Point 2 is the lottery mentality, as blogged elsewhere, surely one day el dedo de HC will touch them. And they will have a home, a job, an operation, whatever.
Clearly they were excited and satisfied to see banker being hurt by the brute. Sickening.
January 27, 2011 at 1:37 pm
i think malandro is a better word for him, and come to that all of them That is waht has happened – the malandros have come to power. He acts almost like an extortionist, i.e. if the phone was really turned on!
It is shameful and more shame to those who could do something to remove him and his ilk and stand by and do nothing
January 27, 2011 at 12:57 pm
Mafioso. Actually crasser than any mafioso or kingpin could ever allow himself to be.
I would add two more titles to our ruler, no sarcasm whatsoever:
Capo
&
Padrino
January 27, 2011 at 12:47 pm
Chavez just wants to get the private banks out of the contruction business, size their assets, and use any money left over to pay some Chinese joint to do the job. I suppose that commissions are easier to arrange with a foreign company than with a locally based commercial bank.
But take heart: Russian bananas will taste better than the ones produced by farmers in Zulia, Chinese houses won’t have leaky roofs, Iranian bicycles are really cool when new, French cables beat the Russian bananas any time, and Cuban doctors are better than… never mind.
January 27, 2011 at 10:43 am
This is a complete show, only the idiots that tune in every weekend and fall for the crap on Alo Presidente would believe that the president would call a bank over some loan that they failed to give. Why does Chavez want Banco Provincial? Is he trying to cover up someone’s misdeeds there or did someone there not want to assist him in his misdeeds? There’s a lot of financial shenanigans going on at high levels in Venezuela, and there’s way more to the Provincial story than will ever be published, at least in Venezuela.
January 27, 2011 at 10:15 am
Deanna,
Why is that most people who know nothing, and have no insight whatsoever into the essence of what goes on usually stubbornly refuse to see what is coming, often sighting” no evidence” when of course there is no evidence for what has not yet happened.
This lack of foresight and lack of intelligence to see trends is very common in the population, which is why we have this criminal in office.
January 27, 2011 at 8:11 am
When I told my husband and brother-in-law about a month ago that Banco Provincial would be threatened with expropriation, they couldn’t believe me, but I had heard rumors about it for some time now. I don’t think he’ll stop until he has the whole Venezuelan economy completely destroyed.
January 27, 2011 at 4:12 am
Paul,
Tunesians had Ben Ali for 23 years, as you mentioned.
Mubarak has been in power for 29 years.
Venezuelans have had Chávez for ‘only’ 12 years.
All in all, there is indeed a problem: most Venezuelans have no idea what democracy really is.
For most Venezuelans, as long as they are not affected, they do nothing, even if some see that the situation for the whole country (and thus for them in the long term) is worsening.
It’s also all kinds of people in Venezuela. I discovered recently two Chilean immigrants in Venezuela who used to be my friends many years ago. Their situation now is of “well, mejor no preocuparse, uno se amarga”.
January 27, 2011 at 2:12 am
ign,
Chavez has no plan B. He’s certainly not planning to loose in 2012. At the same time I keep thinking there has to be an end to this madness…
January 27, 2011 at 1:35 am
A new batch of wikileaks has been released from Venezuela embassy, check out for example:
http://wikileaks.ch/cable/2010/02/10CARACAS219.html
January 26, 2011 at 11:34 pm
Funny – but that’s exactly how the USA got into trouble. The government mandating banks to give people money to buy a house without the means of paying it back.
Wow – I’m stunned.
January 26, 2011 at 10:55 pm
This is crucial.
I can’t believe this actually happened.
And the bunch of malditos applauding and laughing.What a show.
When will this madness end?This is ridiculous!
A full on dictatorship would be even better.I’d take a guy killing students and killing everyone and have no elections than this.
This is torture.Really.
It’s like getting waterboarded.
January 26, 2011 at 10:53 pm
Do you guys think Chavez has a plan “B” in case his revolution goes up in smoke? Or will he be checking the fuel gauge on his plane hoping that somebody lets him land before he crashes?
January 26, 2011 at 10:52 pm
This stuff needs to be translated into English and sent around the world.I really don’t think too many foreigners realize just how bad this man is.You have to hear him and look at him to feel the extent of his bizarre and evil authoritarianism.
January 26, 2011 at 10:45 pm
Does anybody keep a tally the value of everything he has expropiated and how much he has actually paid? I would be shocked if he has paid more than 5% of it all.
January 26, 2011 at 10:13 pm
firepigette is 100% correct…and this is, as everyone here already knows, is evil personified.
As for me, I would like to use the word ‘mono’ to describe Dictator Chavez, except that does an injustice to monkeys everywhere. What’s more, Chavez is no fool – he only acts like one. And even then, only to those who aren’t fools. To the fools, those whom firepigette was referring to, he is their ‘king’.
January 26, 2011 at 9:45 pm
You can see the expressions on all the faces in this video, the excited look of enjoying power vicariously.
January 26, 2011 at 9:40 pm
Well when Mrs. Tovar calls and sez there are no black beans at the Mercal, he should get on the phone with the General in charge of importing black beans and do the same to him.
January 26, 2011 at 8:44 pm
It’s important to mention that banks in Venezuela are dealing with a national economic crisis, huge changes in the banking regulation (a new law, which nobody govermental agencies included- understand, was recently enacted which gives to Chaves absolute powers to chavez to takeover bank), huge burdens regarding obligatory dedication of credid to “strategic” areas, among other many challenges…… Now he wants to oblige banks to give him the money (just some billlons) for a housing plan that he failed to enforce in 12 years…….. Even with all the wealthy that Venezuela received for the oil…. This guy is really exterminating banks…… And a country.
January 26, 2011 at 8:44 pm
Nobody heard the replies of the banker. Was Chavez phone on or off? The guy is such a comedian and a coward, he probably just put on a show for his audience. Don’t trust anything he says including including stating that he chided a banker, the guy is such a compulsive liar.
January 26, 2011 at 8:28 pm
Thank you host…
I was watching the Cadena. When he picked up the phone to call the Bank, his attitude and arrogance … I felt humiliated, angry and the gambit of emotions that follow. We were privy to a one way conversation and the one giving it, in my eyes, is less than honourable or truthful.
BBVA I think of as one of the few bastions available. It follows the ever-changing imposed restrictions. I do not know how this can last until the end. If people keep leaving there will be no one to vote their way out. Yet, staying, brings good people to the brink of what they never thought would be possible. Anger can be uncontrollable and irrational. However, what do you do when you feel the corner you have been backed into is barely big enough for you to breath?
January 26, 2011 at 8:19 pm
The Tunisians finally chased their dictator out of the county after 23 years.The Egyptians are close to ridding their dictator after 30 years. As a foreigner, I’m curious about what it is in the Venezuelan culture that permits this dictatorship in Venezuela to flourish. Will it take waking up one morning and realizing it is now “Venecuba”? Will that make a difference?
January 26, 2011 at 7:28 pm
wounded a member of Congress… oops
January 26, 2011 at 7:28 pm
So, he accused the bank of “acting stupidly” before the facts were known. All politicians have knee-jerk reactions, that is why there is divided government and a set process in a republic, to calm passions and incite reason, logic and debate.
In the United States some lunatic massacred a bunch of people and a member of Congress, within days there were proposals to do all kinds of things, many of them to restrict free speech. I haven’t heard about any of them lately, because when the facts were known they all sounded stupid.
With one-man rule we might very well be forced to lie prone on our bellies and avert our gaze when a “high official” is within 1000 yards. Thank goodness for divided government, and a slow process.