Thoughtcrime
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One time Zulia State governor and center-right candidate for the presidency Oswaldo Álvarez Paz will be spending his first night behind bars tonight for what can only be described as thoughtcrime.
Backed by professionally conducted investigations and publicly available data on clandestine flights from Venezuela to the Caribbean, Álvarez Paz's contention that Venezuela has become a center of clandestine operations that facilitate drug trafficking is unambiguously true.
Alas, it's a truth that afflicts the comfortable. And so expressing it has become a jailable offense.
I think it's important for all decent Venezuelans to take some positive step to register their disgust at this abuse in a public medium. Because in the internet era, everything is on the record. And in the fulness of time, we will look back on the events of these days and we will ask which side each person stood on.
Those who stand by and, by their silence, tacitly approve abuses such as this one will have an awful lot to explain. When this generation (hopefully) or future generations (more likely) ask "where were you when Venezuelans were being thrown in jail for expressing dissent in public?", you'd better hope you have a good answer.
My hope (and, if I'm honest, also my expectation) is that within my own lifetime, people who cannot show they opposed this madness will find themselves well beyond the pale of mainstream democratic life. Fail to speak up for basic human decency now, and you will one day find yourself in the situation of those who quietly conspired to maintain apartheid in South Africa, or Pincohet in Chile.
The imprisonment of Oswaldo Alvarez Paz will be remembered as perhaps the clearest signal of the establishment of a full-blown dictatorship in Venezuela under Chávez. Tonight I'm staggered, unable to find the words to register my disgust at this.
The thing that stands out most, I think, is the insane double standard. Watch any Aló, Presidente and you find many, many instances of actual defamatory speech: the kinds of untrue statements injurious to reputation that will result in a hefty fine from a proper court. The government issues defamatory statements each and every day, and a random browse of any Venezuelan newspaper shows as much. The torrent of unfounded allegations - blithely unhinged from any evidence - is overwhelming...yet it's the true statements that land people in jail.
The government's claims to impartiality in the application of the law are, today more than ever, absolutely laughable. Venezuelans are going to jail for speaking the truth. Tonight. Right now.
Silence is complicity.
Mourn for our civil liberties, people.
NicaCat56
Francisco Toro
Vinz
Turns out I retain the capacity to be shocked...
...who'd have thunk?
After this, is there anything left to chavismo's democratic façade? Anything at all?
Welcome to Chavez's version of 1984
Quite obviously the government wants to force others into self-censorship.
Just wondering
Fail to speak up for basic human decency now, and you will one day find yourself in the situation of those who quietly conspired to maintain apartheid in South Africa, or Pincohet in Chile.
Would you be talking about former President Patricio Aylwin, who in his capacity as leader of the Christian Democratic Party, played a leading role in the the crafting and the passing of the “Declaration of the Breakdown of Chile’s Democracy?” Would you be talking about the majority of the Chamber of Deputies, who in passing the Declaration by a 63% majority, gave Pinochet the green light for the coup? That would be both the right wing Nationalist party AND the Christian Democrats.
While the Christian Democrats supported the coup, they anticipated elections being called within months, not after sixteen years. Aylwin, Frei, and other Christian Democrat leaders did speak out against Pinochet in later years. But the truth remains that by their support of the Declaration, they helped put Pinochet in power.
Boludo Tejano
So Álvarez Paz is speaking the truth?
Read this document and you may revise that opinion.
http://www.embavenez-us.org/factsheet/FS-Drug-Sept2008.pdf
Self-censorship is not necessary if you do speak the truth. Example - you could accuse the government of not keeping its promise in terms of building enough houses. Give some facts, well sourced, and that's it. No one is going to accuse you of defamation for that.
And Quico - what Álvarez Paz said has nothing to do with dissidence. It's the same level as Usón when he referred to flame throwers at Fort Mara being used to kill detainnees.. Defamation laws exist to apply them and bring order to the country. Nothing to do with dictatorship.
Hi, Chris
Hugo of Sabaneta accusses the whole of the opposition to want to topple him. He accuses us to want to kill him. He accuses us to want to take Venezuela to a civil war.
He has said (see BBC interview in 2005 or 2004, but also many other times) that crime has decreased since he is the lider. In reality the murder rate has more than tripled, something only experienced perhaps in Iraq.
Hugo should be in jailed a long time ago.
I suppose he is still paying you, right? Otherwise, you would not be popping up here to comment. Oh, difamation?
Silence is complicity...
...your thing is collaboration.
Collaborators
After the fall, there will be no price to be paid by these PSF as they will simply flee to the next country to impose their utopian experiments.
Like exercising your vote
Silence or the non-exercise is complicity. Regardless of the illegitimacies inherent in setting up the voting tables.
TheBrokenRecord
Do tell!
"Example - you could accuse the government of not keeping its promise in terms of building enough houses."
I, for one, would love to hear you expound on that theme. Be sure to go into how they could have supported many times the level of construction by subsidizing mortgages above and beyond one's ability to pay, rather than simply gifting houses. Never mind the "sweat equity" that would create pride of ownership in those situations vs. a sense of entitlement. If you've already published something on that topic, please post a link. Thanks!
If you can't recognize this as cencorship...
Anon,
Firstly, please show some balls and use a name when you post. I know you are a PSF, but would like to know which one.
Secondly, are you seriously suggesting that all opinion uttered or published must be submitted with proof? By whose standards? And, do you seriously mean that failing to provide proof for your opinion should be a criminal offense? I didn't see your proof offered for your opinion above.
What you are saying is a recipe for insuring that only the "Party Line" is acceptable for public discourse. From there, it a short step to criminalizing dissent in private discourse. After all, where is the line between public and private. I could successfully argue that this blog is either one.
Do you really want to live in such a world? A world in which dissent must be whispered only in the company of your most trusted friends? Oh, wait! You won't have to, because you don't live in Venezuela.
Let me be even more direct: Who the HELL gave YOU the position of deciding what the TRUTH is? Don't you DARE presume to tell ME what I CAN and CANNOT write!
"Don't tread on me."
EXCELLENT point
If someone thinks they have been defamed, they should take it court. The defendant can then present their evidence of the truth of their statement. They absolutely - in any civilized country - do not have to present their proof until that time. Would you care to show me a counter-example?
Never mind the fact that such "crimes" are civil offenses nearly anywhere in the world. Why should someone go to prison for expressing a "wrong" opinion? (I know that certain pro-Nazi speech, for example, is an exception. But if you think this situation compares...get a grip, or get a straitjacket.)
Each of those makes the current situation an enormous breach of a fundamental liberty. Both together? I look forward to the attempt. I need a laugh.
AIO
Let's have a bet
I bet that Álvarez Paz will be sent to prison for defaming the Venezuelan state. Watch the video. What he expressed was designed to discredit the Venezuelan state but not as an opinion since he presented it as facts. This is another episode which will make people be more careful before uttering unfounded opinions for political reasons. I also suggest read the charges insteqad of just trying to put this case in the freedom of speech class.
Here are the charges since none of you had read them: delitos de conspiración (contempla una pena de 8 a 16 años), instigación pública a delinquir (de tres a seis años) y difusión de información falsa (de dos a cinco años).
The PSF just proved my case
Anon (Cris),
Firstly, you have just proved your intentions with your statement, "This is another episode which will make people be more careful before uttering unfounded opinions for political reasons."
You want people to be afraid to express themselves. You cannot tolerate freedom of expression. The truth scares you. So, you think that if you can just avoid hearing the truth, it will not be so. Do you really think any state, much less the Chavez government, can have monopoly on truth? Do you really believe that the UN, US, EU, WHRO, and the IACHR are ALL wrong and Chavez is right? If so, you are deluded or insane.
You think that if no one expresses opinions other than yours, only yours will hold sway. Worse, you rely on a megalomaniac to tell you what your opinions are. Without being told what to think, what would you be? Exactly what you are now... nothing.
The OAS Convention places limits on Freedom of Speech
“But the very Interamerican Convention establishes exceptions to freedom of speech,” Díaz remarked, such as calling for a rebellion, destabilization and encouraging crime. For this reason Álvarez Paz' declarations violated Article 13, subsection 2 of the Interamerican Convention on Human Rights."
Roy, I rest my case.
How does the following
How does the following statement,
"Venezuela has turned into a center of operations that facilitates the business of drug trafficking,"
constitute,
"calling for a rebellion, destabilization and encouraging crime."?
Furthermore, the truth of that statement is well documented abroad and a virtual "open secret" here in Venezuela.
However, even if he had claimed that Chavez was conspiring with Martians to take over the World, it would still be his right to say it.
You obviously do not understand Spanish
Watch the video and then maybe you will stop manipulating the facts. Álvarez Paz is in tribunal tomorrow and could be let out of the Helicoide. At least there are some of us who respect judicial decisions.
I also recommened that you take some Spanish classes.
Basta!
My Spanish is fine. It is your English that appears deficient, since it appears you can't read and comprehend what I am writing. In true PSF fashion, you don't address the points I make, and instead change the subject and attack in a different direction.
If you do not directly address the following question, I will consider this "debate" closed and won:
Since you consider "dissemination of false information" to be a legitimate crime against the state, who has the legal and moral right to decide what is true and what is false?
message to Roy from firepigette
Roy,
In my opinion there is not enough time in the day to waste on psfs.
Right from the start, years ago, I could see that they go 'round and round', never responding honestly, never owning up to obvious truths...so it is in the end just a big bore and a waste of precious time.
There have been others, as well as the psfs who have been stubborn , willful, shortsighted, and blind- oppos who haven't seen the light until it is too late.They bore me as well, after all, the tendency to not see what is in front of your face is a tendency that is not cured unless worked on and those same people are still boring us with their " wows" about present happenings that others of us saw coming light years ago.Some people are slow on the uptake.In the case of Venezuela, slow is fatal.
It is important for people to get on the ball and not waste time.
firepigette
You're right
Firepigette,
You're right. He got under my skin... sort of like scabies.
respecting of judicial decisions
Since you 'respect judicial decisions', I assume you respect the TSJ's decision about the April 2002 events where they stated it wasn't a coup but at 'vacío de poder', right?
Of course I respect the August 2002 judicial decision
Luis - yes, I respect that decision as I also respected the decision to overturn that decision some five years later declaring that it was a coup.
Then you don't "respect" proper justice
How can you approve of the second? The first (Aug 2002) was a decision by the entire TSJ. At that point there are only two options for countering that decision. One is to pass a new law, and wait for that to pass Constitutional muster by the courts if someone protests it. Second, absent that, is to amend the Constitution itself. So which of those happened here?
Neither. A portion of the TSJ overruled the entire body. Please explain how ignoring precedent of the highest legal authority in the land is worthy of "respect." And also explain what "respectable" basis they had for reviewing that decision. Not agreeing with it is insufficient - at least if rule of law exists.
AIO
The Emperor's New Clothes
If Cris had his way, the little boy who stated the obvious fact that the emperor was naked in the story by Hans Christian Anderson would have been jailed for sedition.
Gosh!
What Kool-aid did you drink?
hmm...
Who exactly was Alvarez Paz defaming? The "fatherland"...?
Self-censorship is not necessary if you do speak the truth.
Yeah, right.
That is certainly a proposition that Thugo and his merry band of Chavistas and PSFs do not follow. They lie all the time. For Thugo, self censorship is not necessary, whether or not he speaks the truth. As long as his flunkies defame the opposition or defend Thugo, lying is fine by them.
Example: Thugo's blaming the current electrical crisis on El Nino. Fact: droughts from El Nino come about every five years. Droughts also occurred during the Fourth Republic, yet they did not result in the electricity shortages Venezuela has today.
Example: a Chavista flunky blaming the Fourth Republic for the current electrical crisis. Fact: there was no electrical power crisis during the Fourth Republic, and when Thugo took power there were plans for expansion of the electrical power system, which for the most part Thugo did not follow. That,coupled with abysmal maintenance, is the reason for the electricity crisis.
Example: Thugo and flunkies blaming economic expansion for the electrical crisis. Fact: there was also economic expansion during the Fourth Republic, without any electrical crisis.
From Thugo's point of view, anything that augments his power is the truth. Anything that threatens his power is a lie.
Boludo Tejano
Correction, Tejano
For Thugo, self censorship is not POSSIBLE.
I think the mere attempt would kill him.
AIO
AIO: point taken
BT
AIO: point taken
BT
Defamation?
Pardon me if I am daft. Defamation laws?
But did they sue Alvarez Paz? in civil suit?
I did not know that defamation laws warranted arrest by the Venezuelan clone of the G2...
Embassy docs
If you believe those reports from the embassy I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you...
Infamy
Alvarez Paz was not speaking in a media which lends itself to a thorough demonstration of facts, and yet, he had them and gave his informed opinion upon such facts.
Did he conspire to do so? Has he said anything untrue? Was he instigating anything beyond a thorough investigation by the proper authorities? The charges -and the official harrasment- levelled against him are a sham.
That being said, I cannot forget that in 1999, OAP supported the notion of supra-constitutional Constituent Assembly, and as such collaborated with the President's appointed commission to that end. Of course, he was duped and used, but Chavez was able to do so because he, like many more, bet for antipolitics. This is a sad consequence of the slippery slope that the President has set for us. The slope that we served to him in a silver platter.
A dictatorship may be born any day, but it needs to be conceived and fostered. OAP tried to warn us of the spilled milk after he helped -unknowingly- to push the crate. This government has become the sort of entity that very few of us could envision back in 1999, while we gave up our right and turned them into privileges that can be lifted, as happened last night.
Let us defend his rights, and ours.
Difusión de información falsa
Boy, I can't wait until the jackasses from RNV and Radio YVKE Mundial claiming that HAARP was responsible for the Haiti earthquake are dragged before a judge.
Hm, that's not gonna happen, you say? But surely CONATEL will open an investigation? Maybe suspend their broadcasting licenses for a few days? At the very least they will be forced to resign? Post a correction?
Anyone?
Santiago García
When pigs fly...
Yeah. That'll happen... when pigs fly.
UN agrees fully with Alvarez Paz
What Alvarez paz said agrees fully with what that right wing, anti-Chavez organization the United Nation says about Venezuela.
http://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/WDR_2009/WDR2009_eng_web.pdf
which simply says Venezuela has become the largest transit country for cocaine in the world (page 72 of report)
The funny thing is that when this document come up saying that Venzuela's capture of Cocaine shipments were down, the Government hailed as saying that Venezuela was among the top countries in capturing such shipments:
http://www.abn.info.ve/noticia.php?articulo=188107&lee=1
So, anonymous, cut the crap and go back to PSF school.
great link Miguel
I was trying to find it but you beat me to it.
Funny how this drug trafficking issue is one PSFs from the VIO and the Venezuelan Embassy (you know who you are) have been desperately trying to counter, given all the time and effort they have put in their little press releases. So when Alvarez Paz calls them on their bull, it touches a nerve.
Scary to think how much power these foreigners have.
Old cheeseface would like to have a word with you
JC: Funny how this drug trafficking issue is one PSFs from the VIO and the Venezuelan Embassy (you know who you are) have been desperately trying to counter
This might be related to the fact that it was drug-trafficking charges that the USA used as an excuse to kick Noriega out of Panama. Not the human-rights violations. Not the political murders. Not the loss of democracy or even the obviously fake elections.
And talking about Manuelito (aka Cheeseface The Great), how come none of you bloggers ever give Chavez a hard time for continuously referring to him as "the president of Panama", eh? Even Jaime Bayly let that one slip unchallenged. Has history already forgotten that Noriega was never the president of anything? Sure, he was the de facto dictator of Panama, but his only official title was commander of the armed forces or something like that. He never ran for any office and sure as hell was never elected for anything. Calling him the president of Panama is like calling Nestor Kitchner the president of Argentina or Fidel the president of Venezuela.
PSFs, have fun with these stats:
From the UNODC report:
"According to UNODC’s individual drug seizures database the most important cocaine transit country in 2007 in volume terms was the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (40%)."
From the chart entitled "SEIZURES OF COCAINE (a) in % of world total and kg equivalents":
Venezuela (4%)
So 40% of of all global cocaine traffic transited Venezuela, but they seized only 4% of the total seized worldwide. That's less cocaine seized than in the notorious drug haven of Costa Rica. (I'm pretty sure less than a proportional 50% of cocaine traffic runs through there.)
Now you gone and dunnit! He's
Now you gone and dunnit! He's agonna go after the UN and put it in jail!
Run UN, Run!!!!!!!
THE facade
Replying to Quico's comment:
"After this, is there anything left to chavismo's democratic façade? "
Chavismo's democratic facade unfortunately lies mostly in the minds of those who are perceiving.This is the main problem because it means that we depend less( when it comes to public opinion) on what is actually true, and more on the unconscious sleepers who refuse to open their eyes.
A general facade is made up of precisely that:a powerful mass of people who refuse to see and love to sleep deeply.
Unfortunately many people love their sleep.Awakening is so painful-Sometimes it requires a shock .
Firepigette
It's a start
Dear Quico:
Here's my tin drum again!
Asking people to take a stand against evil today, so you can recall later - when Venezuela is healthy again - who was brave and who was silent, is AT LAST a forward-looking idea. It's not just another very accurate and despairing record of unfolding events and an archive of misdeeds, necessary as those are. Here, you actually mention a better day, when Venezuela is a democracy again. Bravo!
Yes, Chavez cannot survive like Castro because Venezuela is not an island. He may be out of office in just a few weeks or months.
BUT I must ask again: who, TODAY, is building that democracy? What will its basic law - its constitution - look like? Will it be a listing of partisan demand issues - for or against various specific programs - or will it be a set of enforceable rules for how people and government can come together and debate in peace? Will it guarantee a right to presumed innocence, or will it try to guarantee a right to free THINGS? Will it balance all interests, or just say "the people will rule" with no details about WHICH people will rule and why. Will the government recognize the limits of human nature, or will it depend on the good will of its officials? Will it try to create some utopian "new man" somehow nicer than mere people? Will it allow the consitution to be changed by a simple majority to favor some new big-mouth promises? If the president diapobeys the constitution, how and by whom can he be deposed?
Will you be ready with a stronger solution to democratic government than the one Chavez toppled, or will you wait for blood in the streets before you start on its architecture? Will you wait for another dictator - one who got ready while you were agonizing?
Don't let it happen again. If you write a fair constitution, your oppos will have something solid to unify behind. You can't expect politicians to be statesmen. It has to be you.
With apologies for letting mere work interfere with blogging, I remain,
With Warmest Grumpiness, Your Friend,
Deedle
We need a list!
Yes the moment of any silence is long long gone
We need a list of all Venezuelans who repudiate the overtly discriminatory actions the judicial forces are taking against those who like Oswaldo Álvarez Paz, speak out on anything disliked by he who believes himself to be our feudal Lord and who behaves like any vulgar oligarch... all just because we so stupidly allow him to manage the checkbook containing our oil revenues.
That list needs to be on the web, please put my name on it, Per Kurowski C.I. 1.799.580
Hey, I know, Per, what we could do...
...maybe we could compile a complete list of everyone who disagrees with this madness. Hold some kind of public event where people, one by one, identify themselves and sign a register. Then, to make sure the message isn't lost, maybe we could digitize the information and publish the complete list on some kind of website, or perhaps even on a software package that also cross-references to participant lists for the various government programs, so all that politically vital information is in one, easy-to-find place! Great idea! I can't see anything that might go wrong with that...
I am SPARTACUS!
I am Spartacus!
I am Spartacus!
I am Spartacus!
I am Spartacus!
/not spam. I just loved that scene in the movie and it seemed appropriate here
Quico is so right. nothing could go wrong here...
Perhaps a new Tascon List/ electronic-public-database-searchable-indexable-cd-vendido en el puente de las FFAA-XXI century David's Cross for the new pendejos que firmen esa vaina....
Qeu bolas como hasta que no se muera el ultimo venezolano que voto en el referendum revocatorio, y que aparece (o no) en la Lista tascon, seremos una nacion dividida!!! Que herencia!!!
LuisF
“La lista de la Dignidad”
In it should be all those who stridently call for respect and unity… and hopefully for the citizens having a major role in deciding on the use of their oil revenues… a sort of radical middle, a sort of extremism of the center… somewhat akin to what Thomas L. Friedman wants for the USA.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/opinion/24friedman.html
And so it begins
As a longtime observer of Chavez, I have found myself saying, on several occasions, "OK, this is where he's gone too far." However, The Alvarez case is where most decent, thinking people would (or should) finally realize something is terribly wrong in Venezuela. I watched the ex-governor's transmission on Globovision, and did not see him say anything that hasn't been repeated abroad or at home before. Yes, his comments were pointed at the regime, but defamation laws have to prove that there was damage to the afflicted party in order to justify a punishment. As far as I can see, the Chavez regime is using the former governor as a warning to others who may be encouraged to do the same. Meanwhile, Chavez's sycophants at VTV seem to be able to say whatever they want without any defamation law hampering them (Mario Silva, I'm looking at you).
OT: Discovery Chavez
A really funny Chavez Video on U-Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSLD4FjL_d0
Be sure to watch the faces of Diosdado Cabello and the others as Chavez explains that humans have the same genetic map as a fly or a worm.
After today, we can all use a good laugh.
Nice one Roy
Pretty funny, thanks!
I love the reaction of the rest of the room too. They are avoiding looking at each other for fear that they're gonna bust a gut.
Hector
Quico,
I should certainly hope that someone in the government is monitoring this blog, and someday you people are called to account for your anti-socialist propaganda. Too many of you people seem to think you have some sort of right to defame the regime, to undermine socialism and to strive for the restoration of capitalism in Venezuela.
Bourgeois liberties are simply inappropriate for a country like Venezuela, and I'm glad that the government is finally moving away from the tired old model of political liberalism, which has usually just served the interests of decadent and parasitic elites.
Actually we do
We do have the right to fight against what we think is wrong, and I do think that the bourgeois project is the correct one and fully applicable to our society. Perhaps you are unable to realise that even socialism is part of that bourgeois world of liberties you abhor.
Bring it on...