The likely picture on the PSUV ballot in the upcoming election
Sure sounds like it. He has designated December 8th, the day of the upcoming local election in Venezuela, as a “Day of Loyalty and Love for Chávez and the Fatherland.”
I kid you not.
The stated rationale behind this bizarre move is that December 8th, 2012, was the day of Hugo Chávez’s last speech, the one in which he anointed Maduro as his heir. To celebrate his not-quite-immaculate conception as leader, he is calling for people to renew their vows for the Revolution.
In his subtle-as-a-rhino-in-a-crystal-shop style, Maduro is basically equating failure to vote for his candidates … with desecrating a corpse.
This amounts to a Hail Mary pass. Maduro has nothing to go on. The economy is a mess, and people simply don’t like him much. Some of his candidates are a joke. So when all else fails … bring out the corpse!
It’s so crazy, so blatantly desperate, it just might work.
Caracas Chronicles 
But a Hail Mary can be very costly if it doesn’t work, it might give the opposition the turnover that they’ve been waiting for. However, in times of desperation, Maduro can always resort to his four maids in the CNE to reverse or sweetened a possible electoral defeat.
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The stated rationale behind this bizarre move is that December 8th, 2012, was the day of Hugo Chávez’s last speech, the one in which he anointed Maduro as his heir. To celebrate his not-quite-immaculate conception as leader, he is calling for people to renew their vows for the Revolution.
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Had the silly imbeciles properly embalmed the body they could have dug-him-up, powdered the remains and dragged the corpse from city-to-city for campaign stops. An itinerant ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ road show, …part II.
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They could still use Hugo’s bones, in true Medieval fashion.
There are 335 municipalities in the Land of Grace.
A human being has about 206 bones, but Venezuelans have never been so picky about numbers…or they can break some of the bones if they want one bone per municipio.
The Chavista mayor can parade the bone for his region.
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Didn’t Chavez carry around a finger bone from Simon Bolivar from when the casket was opened? Who has Bolivar’s finger now?
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Hmmm, this somehow got me thinking about “The Perfume” by Susskind … Eternity – A Bolivarian Fragrance (contents: Distilled Essence of Chavez. Warning: May contain residue of nuts and cause political delirium)
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Not a great movie by any means but i enjoyed it, couldn’t stop watching
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The planning stages for Fidel Castro’s upcoming funeral include placing his casket on a flat bed truck and visiting all the towns in a tour around Cuba. I kid you not. This will give all the people of Cuba an opportunity to give speeches and express their gratitude and respect for the decades of Fidel’s sacrifices. Moreover, the international media can be tricked again into thinking Fidel was a great leader.
In reality, Castro’s corpse may have to be sent quickly to Caracas for protection next to Chavez.
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Planning Fidel’s funeral-
http://translatingcuba.com/everything-ready-for-fidel-castros-funeral-juan-juan-almeida/
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OT: since 26 March Chávez has 57393 less followers on Twitter,
Maduro has 920782 more (his growth potential was huge as he didn’t have
a twitter account much earlier) and Capriles has got 1334917 new followers.
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I wouldn’t look at Twitter or social media as any kind of indicator… Specially since the account with the most followers is or recently was that of Ricardo Montaner. I worry about what Daniel said. I do not think that Chavez ever had to arrange any electoral results, he had the pull to get them through, but I don’t think the current iteration of the leadership has the same horsepower… but they have the tool thoughtfully prepared by daddy, porsiacaso…
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The account with the most followers in Venezuela, of course
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I don’t think Twitter is a clear mirror of reality in Venezuela, at all. I am aware most people with Internet connection at home in Venezuela – one of the slowest on Earth –
tend to be better off and a lot of oppo twitter users actually live abroad.
Still, as the Russians found out: Internet activity does can be used to gauge something, even for Venezuela, only that we don’t know exactly how. There is a factor, a “normalization” factor one needs to bear in mind.
As I wrote earlier: “The Russians – a group of social scientists from ВЦИОМ (Vtsiom), the VOX Populi Fund and the company PalitrumLab – gave as forecast around 50.7% for Maduro and 48.1% for Capriles, which was much closer than anyone had predicted in Venezuela. Their analysis was based on data collected from 23 March to 11 April.”
They were obviously not simply counting the amount of followers. I wish I knew what formulas they were using but they got it much better than we did (they also got it right with the French elections, although they didn’t with the Moscow elections, strangely enough)
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The language is sooooo Hitlerian and Stalinesque.
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It’s so crazy, so blatantly desperate, it just might work.
And that’s the saddest part… they could make a picnic over the grave and they could get away with it…
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Might work?
Aren’t they the ones who count the votes? What else do they need?
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“It’s so crazy, so blatantly desperate, it just might work”
Being on the ground here & seeing what’s going on locally I can tell you that the Maduro love just does not exist. My opinion is that it doesn’t matter who they drag out they are going to get womped on Dec. 8.
Where there is going to be a problem is is the municipalities where canditates have come out of the woods & declared themselves as independent unity candidates.
Here in Antolin there are no fewer than 3 additional people running.
In the last 2 elections the PSUV candidate won with less than 40% of the vote because the oppo vote fractured in the same way.
I firmly beleive that at least 1 or 2 are being financed by the PSUV for exactly that purpose. It’s depressing watching history repeat itself. These other people have no hope of winning but if they get 15 or 20% of the vote the absolutely terrible current mayor will win again.
Can’t the MUD visit these people & come to some kind of agreement? I can’t believe the selfishness of these idiots handing the election to the PSUV – again.
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Canuck,
Is there another municipio in Nueva Esparta with a similar problem as Antolín?
Which is sure for us on the Island?
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Not really sure. I’ve only been paying attention to our local area.
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Did the official MUD candidate won fiar and square in the primaries?
Or was it a “consensus” like Maracaibo, Nueva Esparta, Carabobo.
Or even better was that an election as transparent as the primary in Caracas (mun. Libertador).
MUD was a huge step in the right direction from what we had. But cogollismo (backroom deals) still runs rampant.
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*won fair and square…
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As far as I know there were no primaries this time.
I guess the point I’m making for 2 straight elections we have had first the husband & then the wife elected by a split oppo vote & now we have it happening again.
If you are a true oppo candidate, & not being financed under the table by the PSUV, you would have to be pretty selfish to keep running just to split the vote.
The mentality here sometines really frustrates me.
Screw the pueblo, I’m more important.
The win is in the bag with just one candidate.
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Though I agree that splitting the vote is selfish, the counterpart is the hijacking of a candidacy by especial interests. For instance, UNT’s grip on everything Zulia. They impose any bimbo they want and if you don’t like it you’re a quinta columna, or in PSUV’s payroll.
As long as a candidate/party/group feels cheated, they might feel entitled to run anyways since they other guy is illegitimate (in their view).
I think the real cure for this cases is giving more legitimacy to candidates. I also think the best method to increase legitimacy is primary elections for every candidacy.
On the other hand, Caracas is a case of the MUD electoral process being as transparent as CNE’s. Had a proper recount been done, maybe Ecarri would have been tackled then and there.
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This is about as connected to reality as the projected budget figures for FY 2014.
Hugo will come back from the dead before they hit those numbers.
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Just think what they’ll be calling the elections in 2019, assuming we even get there.
There’s no more Chavez to say who the people should vote for in that time, and what with all the unpopularity Maduro is getting within his own side, I can’t fathom how or why they will go with that ploy again. Amor con hambre no dura.
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Let’s not forget that now, shot-calling primacy has fallen to the supra-everything&everybody CESSPA whose Top Chap is — a military gent and erstwhile militia commander. How that recent configurational switch will work its way into electoral maneuvering both upfront and electronic may, in some quarters, be deemed as being akin to a loomimg threat of sorts. As it were.
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From the “Oil and Gas Journal”:
http://www.ogj.com/articles/2013/10/experts-see-changes-ahead-for-mexico-brazil-venezuela.html
“Three major Latin American oil-producing nations face different near-term policy prospects, ranging from reforms in Mexico to possible retreat in Brazil to near-total uncertainty in Venezuela, experts said during a conference on Energy in the Americas.”
What struck me was “…to near-total uncertainty in Venezuela”. That really does capture the situation. We just don’t know and our best guesses are only that… guesses.
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Well, here in Valencia, the mayor Edgardo Parra was arrested, and he was the one who will run to the mayor charge again. Draw your conclusions.
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Maduro is not leading a country. He is running a séance.
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The latest Hercon poll numbers are out.
They concentrate on the Carcas area however it really shows what I said in my comments above – Maduro is dead electoraly, at least at the moment.
http://www.lapatilla.com/site/2013/10/23/encuesta-vamos-por-mal-camino-situacion-ha-empeorado-y-villegas-mintio-maduro-raspado/
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Those Ismael Garcia/Jorge Rodriguez numbers are not that great. Preserving the same outcome from last time (AM, Sucre, Baruta, Chacao) would be good but not good enough, far from the big hit the MUD is hoping for, at least in Caracas. Libertador is the jewel of the crown and, if these polls are to be believed in, Ecarri is burying us there. Any info on what’s going on?
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I thought the same as Rafael.
I also wonder why García is doing so bad (if we are to believe these numbers).
It can’t be because García is Barquisimetano. Rodríguez is also one (well, but Rodríguez spent most of his life in Caracas)
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Why in the world would you trust (let alone discuss) a maleta-pollster that uses an @gmail.com address for its email!?
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wow, no mention in the bloomberg article about the economic war the ultra-fascistic-populist-neoliberal-right wing is waging agains his majesty maduro. Chavistas claiming bloomberg is manipulating for a new obscure interest in 3…2…1…
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“El presidente de la República, Nicolás Maduro anunció que decretará el 8 de diciembre como el día de la Lealtad y el Amor al legado del fallecido Jefe de Estado, Hugo Chávez. ” EL Nacional http://www.el-nacional.com/politica/Maduro-diciembre-Lealtad-Amor-Chavez_0_287971324.html
Communist regimes sure love giving long-winded and grandiose names to days, events, institutions and even countries (did we really need “Bolivariana” in our name or “Poder Polular” in our ministries’). I guess it is the only way to make up for the lack of actual substance and to mask their insecurities.
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In the same not-kidding vein, the Platanote just announced el Viceministerio para la Suprema Felicidad Social del Pueblo Penezolano…. let’s say it in English ‘cos it’s funnier that way: Viceministry for the Supreme Social Happiness of the Venezuelan People
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It is funnier in English. It sounds like something out of Mao’s LittlevRed Book.
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Isn’t it “of the Popular Power’?
It sounds particularly weird in German: “Vizeministerium für das Oberse Soziale Glück des venezolanischen Volkes”…
I had never heard of “Vizeministerien” and I wanted to check that in German now: all those “viceministries” are crap coming from Spanish America. What is supposed to be a “viceministry”?
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Well in these lands you create offices to appease your party/supporters/constituents not to increase your effectiveness.
And people rather be a Vice-minister than an aid or secretary.
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Viceministry doesn’t really work in English, but we do have Deputy Secretary or Assistant Sevretary for the person.
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My dear wife ( a rather pious lady) tells me that Maduro has got it all wrong, He cant make December 8th Chavez Commemoration Day , because the day is already taken by the Catholic Saints Calendar , its the day of the Inmaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary , now how could he dare be so sacrilegeous ?? absurd !!
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