"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"

While laptops and fists flew through the Asamblea Nacional after opposition lawmakers unfurled a banner to protest their silencing, the C-SPAN of Venezuelan politics censored itself and turned its cameras to the ceiling. The view of the ceiling was then interrupted by an anti-HCR hit piece. The fallout in the short term is spilled blood and black eyes. Long term, the government of Nicolas Maduro further reveals itself to be without credibility and dangerously unqualified to lead, let alone engage in the dialogue they claim to seek.



Video of course has found its way online and it is important to mention that the fight occurred on the opposition side of the aisle, which indicates that diputados del oficialismo marched across the room like an angry mob.

Caracas Chronicles contemplates what the last weeks of political violence mean for the opposition.

When everyone is a fascist, is anyone a fascist?

Venezuelans on both sides of the political divide have spent the last frenetic days calling each other fascists. Nothing novel about this, other than the increased frequency. But banging on pots and pans (and now bumping salsa at full blast) in protest is one thing. Beating up opposition politicians and stripping them of their right to speak unless they recognize Maduro as president is quite another. Pictured above is William Davila, deputy of the National Assembly and former governor for Merida. His face was smashed with a microphone this week by others in the assembly. Then, President of the Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, refused to let opposition lawmakers speak and stripped them of their committee posts.

So does one side have a point? I refer to Merriam-Webster. Fascism; a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition

Capriles Goes to the Powerpoint to Prove Fraud

Capriles presented these slides at his press conference today para destacar his fraud allegations. To me, the most compelling slide is number two, which shows that Maduro somewhat incredulously chalked up more votes on Sunday than Chavez did on October 7 in a total of 1,176 different polling places out of 13,638 . As a frame of reference, Chavez received about 600,000 more votes in October than Maduro's nearly 7.6 million votes. In some of these centers Maduro racked up 943, 530, and 493% more votes than "Cristo Chavez."

Opposition & National Guard Face Off in Merida Near Election Office

Credit: Jose Antonio Rivas Leone for noticias24.com

Capriles...

"Yo no pacto con la ilegitimidad."

Capriles...

"Usted es el derrotado, usted y su gobierno."

Ni Treinta Segundos Despues...

Not even 30 seconds after CNE chief Tibisay Lucena handed the election to Maduro by 235,000 votes, out of more than 15 million cast, Maduro took the stage blabbing about "el cristo Chavez" and the capture of Colombians sneaking into the country to wreak havoc. Señores y señoras, Venezuela is run by a mad man.

Is their a lightswitch for this?

Venezuelan VP, Jore Arreaza, explains just why the internet was shut off within the country, on election day no less, for several minutes. "Foreign conspirators." Is Anonymous sticking it to the Bolivarian Republic? Nevertheless, talk about awesome power. Right up there with the superhero power to be invisible.

Compatriotas no hay problemas con internet. Calma!! Fue una maniobra breve para impedir más hackeos conspiradores del exterior.

— Jorge Arreaza (@jaarreaza) April 14, 2013

Deep thoughts...

If Chavez lost would he have gotten a cadena?

Venezuela votes, cont.

Como van las cosas hoy? From a friend in Caracas...

"Hasta ahora todo bien, alta participación y pocas irregularidades. Las mesas cierran en dos horas, esperamos comenzar a saber resultados preliminares en 4 o 5 horas.

Gracias por estar pendiente, un abrazo!"

Venezuela votes

...In New Orleans. When Venezuela shuttered its consulate in Miami, New Orleans became the closest polling place for Florida's 20,00 Venezuelans

The Underdog: Latest take on Chavez v. Capriles

From Juan Nagel of Caracas Chronicles, via Foreign Policy:

"Let's recap: We have a 14-year incumbent who is favored to win but is barely campaigning. We have a strong challenger closing the gap, but not quite there yet. We have opinion polls giving wildly differing predictions, and a public sphere where unimportant things dominate the narrative while crucial issues are left by the wayside."

Why debate if the fix is already in?

Venezuelan opposition candidate, Henrique Capriles Radonski, keeps up the pressure on Chavez to debate. Chavez keeps up his refusal. Just 17 days until election day.

There are 16 people named 'Obama' running for city hall in Brazil this year

Also, five Batmans. The NY Times reports that Brazil's 'superhero' politicians are coming out from the shadows to contest seats in the upcoming municipal elections across the country. Now if we could just get them to square off in the same race we could settle the debate on who's the greatest superhero once and for all.

Estudiantes a la calle!

La Jornada's report. Proceso's report.

Passed along from a friend on Facebook: "Hoy México eligió a un Presidente muy parecido a su pueblo: Nunca ha leído un libro en su vida, es infiel y quiere una vida de novela."

"Today Mexico elected a president that looks a lot like its people: he's never read a book in his life, he's unfaithful, and he wants a soap opera life."

Fox & Calderon's failure

Putting aside 1988 for the purposes of this post, since 1994 there have been three luchadores in Mexico's electoral ring; the PAN, the PRD, and the PRI. Since that time, no single candidate has gained over 50% of the vote and Pena-Nieto won't clear the magic number tonight either. Which is to say that more voters have voted against the winning candidate than have voted for the new mandatario.

Nevertheless, neither Fox nor Calderon pushed for a run-off presidential election system. Instead they squandered their political capital on the pointless war on drugs.

'El voto es libre y secreto'; election day news

Six years ago I was in Mexico as an accredited electoral observer with Alianza Civica and Global Exchange. After several days of activities in Mexico City my team set out for San Luis Potosi, making sure to pick up some beer before la ley seca went into effect. Despite viewing deliveries of building materials, like cinder blocks, and hearing of cash payouts intended to buy votes, election day in our little area was smooth and uneventful. The next several weeks were of course anything but uneventful.

Today we've got one eye on election day developments from Los Angeles with the other on Spain v. Italy. Here are the best reads that I've gotten through today.

The Financial Times has published this useful preview. LA native, Daniel Hernandez, gives a great summary of the #yosoy132 movement here and a rundown on AMLO's second bid here.

The ins and outs of the last couple of weeks, including the lamentable capture of some young guy who's not Chapo Guzman's son and Pena-Nieto's attempts to woo the SNTE, are detailed here.

Finally, here's the Guardian's major investigative piece on the collusion between Televisa and Pena-Nieto's campaign to distort public opinion in his favor through uncritical and favorable coverage. Televisa's response and the Guardian's rather devastating reply are here and here.

Pero Que Ondas en Paraguay?

I'm not an expert on Paraguayan constitutional law, but I've always had something of a curiosity for this land-locked country that is just about the last place on earth that the NY Times Travel section has yet to write a story about.

In the span of 48 hours, Fernando Lugo, Paraguay's ex-bishop turned president was impeached from office and replaced with his antagonistic vice-president. The political crisis reached a tipping point when a police operation to evict landless squatters off a big ranch went bad, leaving 17 people dead. The sitting president was given just 2 hours (his request for 18 days was rejected) to present his defense in the Senate before that body voted 39-4 to remove him failing to sufficiently fulfill his presidential duties. The region's governments, both ALBA/Chavez aligned and more conservative (Chile and Colombia) have recalled their ambassadors and committed other diplomatic snubs to show their displeasure. Notably, Venezuela has said that it will halt oil exports which add up to about 25% of its total supply. This regional pressure can be chalked up the fact that Lugo has been aligned with South America's leftist leaders. But I think that fact doesn't fully explain the growing strength of Mercosur/Unasur as a check on anti-democratic practices.

I watched a few minutes of Telefuturo to learn how the story was playing out locally. What I saw was a political round-table of like-minded anti-Lugo commentators who seemed to be acutely sensitive to the regional condemnation of this express-impeachment, especially criticism from Brazil which exerts a good deal of influence on the country. They went so far to show live traffic camera of Ascuncion in order to refute a Brazilian column that claimed the streets of the capital were empty. Talk about thin skin.

'Mexico no es una telenovela'

Images from June 10 mega-protest in Mexico City.

The Mexican Election is 7 Days Away...Time to Catch Up!

I'm incredibly behind in covering this election and all the 'really important stuff' that has gone down in the last few months. There will be more to come on #yosoy132, AMLO's flirtations with further civil unrest should he lose the elections, Vasquez-Mota's flop, & the awesome 'more Romney than Romney' spectacle that is Enrique Pena Nieto.

But before all that let's revisit IFE's bizarre decision to toss a 'ring girl' into the May 6 debate mix. That was weird. Score 1 for Mexico's dignity! Leave it to the students to restore a little integrity with their own debate on Tuesday night that was ignored by Televisa and TV Azteca, ostensibly because Pena Nieto chose not to participate.