Hugo Chavez is down: Sila Calderon, Marulanda and Fidel are next...

[El_Jibaro]

[b][i]And raised in Río Piedras, Miami Beach and Caguas, graduated from Mayagüez, before jumping here to work in New Jersey .

Exiled Cubans may be a sorry bunch, but more sorry than them are we Puerto Ricans, we are not a State and we are certainly not independent...

An even sorrier group are the idiots who serve Fidel Castro, particularly if they call themselves Puerto Ricans .

But the people of Venezuela have indeed a bad goon leading them, and if you call that "democracy", I can certainly sell you the Brooklyn Bridge .

[Ecuajey]

Originally posted by El_Jibaro
But the people of Venezuela have indeed a bad goon leading them, and if you call that "democracy", I can certainly sell you the Brooklyn Bridge .

So how much will you sell it to me for?

[El_Jibaro]

[i]How about $240,000 in unmarked, biologically clean, and non-counterfeited Cash ?

Just deliver it to my folks home in Caguas...

PS: Money from Fidel Castro, the Middle East, and/or Colombian FARC-EP doesn't count .[b]

[El_Jibaro]

[i]CHAVEZ'S 'PLANE OF SHAME'
Tuesday, 16 April, 2002, 09:25 GMT 10:25 UK


The Airbus A-319 caused an outcry (Picture: Jairo Araque, El Siglo newspaper)

By Mike Ceaser

When hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans filled the streets of Caracas demanding the resignation of President Hugo Chavez, one of many factors which fed their anger was the president's new aeroplane (what a surprise ...).

Mr Chavez was forced from office after military leaders turned against him - only to be returned to office two days later.


Mr Chavez was restored to power after two days...
And why does the little boy look so scared on Chavez's lap ?


The officers said they became disgusted with Mr Chavez's leadership after 13 people were shot dead and dozens wounded during a demonstration.

The shooting may be seen as Mr Chavez's crucial error - but his decision to buy a new presidential Airbus A-319 was also seen as a blunder.

Mr Chavez had ordered the plane after seeing one belonging to a sheik of the United Arab Emirates.

'The plane of shame'

While most Venezuelans agreed that the president's 30-year-old Boeing needed replacement, the new Airbus's $65m price tag struck many as outrageous in a nation with two-thirds of its people living in poverty.

The plane became the subject of public ridicule.

"I am totally convinced that the Airbus will not be much used by Chavez," wrote Martina de Jesus to the El Universal newspaper, "because Chavez will not have anywhere to go. Nobody invites him, nobody wants him as a visitor."


The plane became the subject of public ridicule

But Mr Chavez's core supporters, primarily Venezuela's poor who feel disenfranchised and cheated by other governments, called the aeroplane controversy yet another attempt by the media to muddy the ex-president's image.

Justifiable luxury

And even political analyst Manuel Malaver, a critic of Mr Chavez, called the plane justifiable.

"It is a luxury," he said. "But I wouldn't criticise it so much. It's true that the nation needed it."

Mr Chavez became sensitive to the issue, and the new plane was delivered to the country during the Easter Holiday and parked in the hangar of a provincial airport.

The media caught only glimpses of the new plane, which newspapers nicknamed 'the plane of shame'.

But the secrecy may have backfired, as exaggerated accounts proliferated about the plane's luxuries - including an account that said it had a whirlpool bath on board.

The president's defence

The president, anxious to protect his image, declared that the plane was part of his "Bolivarian revolution for the poor".

"You know what," he said in a radio address. "The [old Boeing] is going to be the first plane of a mass tourism company so that the poor people can go see [the national park] Canaima, so that they can go to the Caribbean islands."

Mr Chavez also embarked on a detailed economic analysis, pointing out that the plane cost only $3.75 per air mile in fuel, whereas the old Boeing cost $4.54.


The press named it 'the plane of shame' (Picture: Jairo Araque, El Siglo newspaper) [b]

Mr Chavez emphasised that the new plane had lower maintenance costs, longer flight time, and that despite all of this it could still carry more passengers.

"See for yourselves the level of savings, in the middle and long terms," he said. "The savings are significant."

During the last week of anti-Chavez demonstrations many protesters, who termed him a communist, carried signs calling for him to fly in his new plane to Cuba.

In fact, Mr Chavez is yet to use the new plane, which would have belonged to his successors had he not been reinstated.

[Ecuajey]

Ok, just give me their address and I'll be happy to mail it to them.

Also, great article on Hugo Chávez's plane. Very educational, but I think it had an opposite affect then what you intended it to be....

[yautiawoman2]

Jibaro entregao, pitiyankee de hueso gringo $$$$ ensuciao!
Con que tines madre? Que sorpresa!

No me lo imaginaba. Pobre Vieja!

En cuanto a Chavez, no se vistan que no van, Chavez
sobrevivio el golpe. Mas petroleo pa Cuba menos pal
retardado mental en la Casa Blanca! Pitiyankee, escoje un estado y largate, pero ya!!!!!

Yautia.

[lacoctel]

The people and the army, decisive in the counter-coup



THE April 11 coup d’état led by Pedro Carmona, an attempt to take power in Venezuela with backing from a faction of the army, was an ephemeral affair. Barely 47 hours after President Hugo Chávez was taken prisoner, the Venezuelan people restored him to his position with demonstrable loyalty to the democratic precepts and legality established by the Bolivarian Republic – the same republic that right-wing sectors and foreign interference tried to trample underfoot.


Chavez greets private
Juan Rodríguez, who sent
out the fax in which the
president denied that
he had resigned.

"While it is true that they were deceived for many years, while it is true that they were manipulated for many years, while it is true that for many years they were led around like sheep, it has been demonstrated that the people have definitely awoken; they have discovered their own strength and have become historical actors constructing a new way forward," Chávez emphasized on April 13 when he returned to Miraflores Palace, sending a message to the entire Venezuelan nation, including his political opponents.

In the early hours of April 12, Caracas Mayor Alfredo Peña ordered repressive measures against the growing crowds of thousands of people peacefully demanding the immediate release of Hugo Chávez, detained in Tiuna Fortress, from where he was transferred to the interior, beginning a brief prison "pilgrimage."

Those heading the coup attempted to increase its strength by circulating the rumor that Chávez had resigned, when actually he had refused to sign any document of that nature, which is why we was transferred from one garrison to another, in a bid to secure his resignation.

Chávez stated on his return to Caracas that he was treated with respect by the soldiers in all the garrisons, as well as sensing the support of many officers, thereby convincing him that he would reassume his governmental responsibilities.

"The armed forces, their officers and the central structure have once again demonstrated that, despite the manipulation and betrayal in certain sectors of the armed forces, nevertheless the youthful bunch of soldiers that I know is still there," Chávez affirmed upon his historic return.

He likewise expressed his and the nation’s recognition of Attorney General Isías Rodríguez, who was among the first to reject the coup, due to the lack of a written resignation by the president. He also expressed recognition for "those two elements to which I have always referred, and which constitute the most powerful force, after God, in this Venezuela of today, in this process of unstoppable change, those two elements that, deep down, are one and the same: the people and the military, the people and the armed forces."

Thanks to the soldier guarding him – also named Rodríguez – who asked if he had really resigned, the president – constitutionally elected in 1998 by a majority vote – personally wrote out a note attesting to the fact that he indeed had not resigned, and therefore remained the sole legitimate representative of the people.

Despite the fact that the large private television networks, in an overt move to confuse and manipulate the public, did not broadcast what was happening when resistance to the coup began, Venezuelans refused to believe the rumors about the end of institutional government and proceeded to organize throughout the country, particularly in Caracas.

The capital and the city of Maracay played a leading role in reinstating the National Assembly and the retaking of Miraflores Palace by the Presidential Honor Guard, and their courage – expressed in the national anthem –contributed to Chávez’s return.

PROSPECTS AND REFLECTIONS

The outcome of Carmona’s fascist-style repression of the people was a large number of wounded and 13 deaths. Carmona is currently under arrest with 120 of his civilian followers, as well as some officers who joined the ignominious coup d’état. All of them will be tried in accordance with existing legal standards and the Constitution, according to Defense Minister José Vicente Rangel.

"There are many things to review, there are many reports to receive, there are decisions — some of them urgent – so that the country is not brought to a halt, so that the things that have gone off-course to a greater or lesser extent can be set straight, the places where looting of stores has occurred, where there has been repression on the part of certain police officers, and the anguish or great anguish felt by millions of Venezuelans, so that everything can calm down," Chávez affirmed.

The essence of the president’s speech on his return was a call for good sense and unity while respecting differences, calling them the indispensable basis for "the rebirth of the rebirth" of Venezuelan society which, according to Chávez, needs a period of rectification and analysis.

"I do not come with a spirit of revenge. There will be no persecutions here or abuses or violation of freedom of expression and thought, of human rights in a general sense, but things have to return to the institutional framework," he affirmed.

Recent events in Venezuela were "cooked up" by right-wing groups some months back, in reaction to 48 laws promulgated in various national spheres.

On April 6, the Venezuelan Workers Federation (CTV) and Fedecámaras backed a national lockdown demanding that the decision to replace the new executive of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVESA) be revoked.

After his reinstatement, Chávez announced that on the day of the coup he had received and accepted the resignations of the PDVESA executives, and he called on the business sector, all the political parties and the media to reflect on this matter.

"I also have to reflect on many things, as I have been doing over these hours, and this has led me to lessons that I will not forget, after so much thought and so much anguish," he confided. Later in his speech he affirmed that he had come back prepared to "rectify what I have to rectify, but I should not be the only one."

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Para nosotros, la patria es las Ameicas
-Simon Bolivar