Caracas Chronicles

Chuo

I admire Chuo Torrealba. I think Chuo Torrealba has been a voice for sanity in an insane period of our history. So it pains me to write that I think Chuo Torrealba has gone off the deep end.

Chuo’s harsh attack on CNE this morning on Primera Pagina was baffling. Using highly aggressive language, Chuo ranted for 20 minutes over a procedural detail that CNE is actively trying to remedy. These kinds of attacks only undermine CNE’s credibility and its ability to get the country out of the mess it’s in.

It’s hard for me to understand why the opposition continues to shoot itself in the foot again and again on this. We have so much at stake, so much riding on CNE’s success, I just can’t fathom why leaders like Chuo go public with statements that undermine CNE’s chances of success. It is simply not true that Chavez owns CNE – many, many in the Council are working extraordinarily hard to get a real count of the actual signatures. Stories of 18-hour days are not uncommon. The internal wreckers do not own the council. The opposition has everything to gain from helping the silent, decent majority inside CNE to win. Whatever happened to “todo por el referendo”?

Much of it is a matter of tone – Chuo (like most of us) has a lot to learn from Teodoro Petkoff’s measured, constructive approach to nudging CNE into doing the right thing. This morning, Chuo crossed over that line from critical supporter to wrecker. Chuo is smarter than this – he has to understand our interest in keeping CNE viable.

I mean, when even the legendarily level-headed Chuo Torrealba loses his cool this way, I worry. I really worry.

Sigh…only Francisco Diez can save us now.

(I’m trusting, erm, certain sisterly readers to forward this post to el que te conté…)