Pablo Pérez’s Turn

/ July 19, 2015

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The outbreak of arbitrary elections disqualifications continues, as the Venezuelan government goes all in on that old democratic dictum: if you can’t beat ’em, ban ’em.

Now it’s former Zulia State governor Pablo Pérez, disqualified from office for TEN YEARS on some flimsy excuse. It’s the third high-profile disqualification this week.

It’s enough to give you déjà poo, the uncanny feeling you’ve heard this shit before:

Parliamentary elections […] will be grossly unfair because of arbitrary disqualifications and other restrictions,Human Rights Watch said today. The voting for […] parliamentary seats follows the disqualification of hundreds of candidates based on vague and ill-defined criteria, and opposition leaders are either barred from participating, serving unjust prison sentences, or refusing to participate in what they consider sham elections.

[…]

“…the authorities have stacked the deck by disqualifying candidates and arbitrarily and jailing key members of the reform movement,” said Joe Stork, deputy […] director at Human Rights Watch.“There is no transparency surrounding the vetting and selection of candidates.”

Go on…click through.

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9 thoughts on “Pablo Pérez’s Turn”

  1. Try as oficialismo may, it’s not gonna work. All the opposition needs is a warm body to win the election. All the opposition has to do is find enough people to run, be whoever they may. Now if the government starts threatening opposition candidates so they’re afraid to run, that’s another story.
    On the other hand, oficialismo’s winning elections may turn out to be their ultimate nightmare. Without some balance of power and a few cool opposition heads to make the right choices, and opposition representatives on which they can blame politically unpopular but economically necessary changes they will continue to drive this country into the ground till it can’t go on any more economically and/or socially and things WILL change. Right now through oficialismo’s policies they’re playing chicken with an immovable object. Something tells me the immovable object isn’t going to swerve first. Something’s gotta give.

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    • I agree. Any opposition warm body should win. Of course, Chavismo will try to buy any opposition member who wins and they could do it for a few million dollars each.

      Those who are banned also have extra freedoms because they do not have to follow the stupid election rules. For example, the two minute limit on broadcast media for opposition but unlimited for Chavismo. I hope MCM maintains her brave stance if she cannot get on the ballot. She can make a huge difference.

      The opposition can also make a list of candidates for each position hundreds deep. Create a list of hundreds of potential candidates for each AN office. The Chavista government will end up trying to deny 80 percent of the country to run in the December election.

      An aggressive private organization could also create a list of Chavistas that should be banned and publicize it internationally.

      Chavismo knows it will lose big and they are cornered. Check to see if airplanes are ready to take Chavista families out of Venezuela in case of trouble.

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    • “… continue to drive this country into the ground till it can’t go on any more economically and/or socially and things WILL change..”

      I sure hope you are right, Anon. I wish to think that Chavez as a true egomaniac would only tolerate yes-men and thus their personal mediocrity will do them under.

      On the other hand I am mortified with the examples of Mugabe in Zimbabwe since 1980 and 91 years old, Ayatollahs in Iran true since 1979, Castros in Cuba since 1959 at 89 years, Kims in North Korea since 1950 3rd generation and still killing. The formula is to keep the repression hot enough without bringing the populace to a boil, just enough to distill the leaders out of society.

      We shall see if we can say “Gloria al bravo pueblo” or maybe el pueblo no es tan bravo despues de todo.

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  2. It should be clear by now that the pretense of democracy in Venezuela is just that… a pretense. The question is what will the Opposition do about it. The Opposition leaders have been divided by two competing strategies. The ones that want to wrest back the government from the Chavistas via the ballot box, and those that think that that only a popular uprising can unseat the regime. When the door to the former option has been closed, all of the Opposition will be forced to close ranks behind the latter option. Either way, the public is ready to support nearly anyone who supplies the initiative and leadership.

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  3. Abominable Disqualifications, Barbaric Incarcerations, Massive Intimidation, CNE evil modifications, Exile tribulations, Putrid bribe motivations, Corruption Intoxication, Extortion complications, Death threat apprehensions, Gerrymandering renovations, Media suffocations, Massive propaganda installations, Tasco lists notifications, Chinese voters resuscitations, Colombian voters invitations, triple-cedula adjudications, Guyana Empire invasions, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.

    That’s just the tip of the iceberg, child’s play. Then they’ll bring the big guns: Chavez’s poisoned Fraudmatic Olivetti machines; el Mago Smartmatic Rodriguez proceeds with the habitual, late-evening adjustments, Castro approves. Listo el Pollo. NarcoCabello throws another big party, Danielita dances and sings.

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