As expected, the TSJ’s Constitutional Chamber has thrown out Henrique Capriles’s legal challenge to the 14-A presidential election. 24 hours earlier, Capriles had announced that he would not wait any longer for the TSJ and he will go straight to international justice. UPDATE: Guess what? Rejecting the case wasn’t quite enough for the TSJ, so they…
Say you’re challenged to a boxing match. As you approach the ring, you notice your opponent is not wearing any boxing gloves. He’s just bare-knuckle. And you’re gloved. The referee can see your opponent isn’t wearing any gloves. The fight judges can see that too. They don’t bat an eyelash. At this point, you have…
In the last few days, mutiple press reports indicate that some public sector workers have been fired and others have suffered harassment because of their political stance after the presidential election. Audio clips of several heads of public bodies (like the Zulia Sports Director or the Director of Bolipuertos in Puerto Cabello) have been leaked…
Just when the smear about alleged attacks to CDI-clinics around the country has been proven false by multiple sources (including independent human rights NGO Provea), State media made public a brand new case. Health Minister Maria Eugenia Sader has accused opposition supporters yesterday of “sabotaging” the air conditioner system of the J.M. de Los Rios…
After nine hours of discussion, the Electoral Board announced in cadena nacional that it will allow an expansion of the electoral audit (originally restricted to the 54% of electoral tables, it will now cover the other 46%). The entire audit will be done over the period of a month by reviewing samples of ballot boxes…
The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) will discuss tonight the current situation in Venezuela in an extraordinary presidential summit. The meeting will be held in Lima, as Perú now holds the provisional presidency of the group. According to a report from Peruvian newspaper El Comercio, there’s no overall consensus yet between UNASUR members regarding the…
Venezuelan State Media reported yesterday that there were several violent attacks on Barrio Adentro outpatients clinics (known as CDI or Integral Diagnostic Centers) by opposition suporters on Monday night. Those reports were later repeated by Nicolás Maduro himself and Information Minister Ernesto Villegas. Somehow, the regime didn’t calculate that these allegations were extremely easy to…
It’s an emotional time. People are disoriented, hurt, and angry. Cooler heads generally don’t prevail at times like these. Still, this post is an exercise in encephalic cryogenics. Yes, Juan makes a powerful emotional case. But this much I know: the question of who got more votes on April 14th matters. At the moment, there’s…
Listen, I understand how “count every vote” is an appealing slogan: bumperstickable and easy to understand and hard to resist. It’s also a red herring: the evidence of fraud, if fraud happened, isn’t some exotic species out there that you have to go out and hunt. The evidence of fraud, if fraud did happen, is…
Protests throughout the day in different parts of the country. Some of them are still unfolding. Barinas: After the finding of two ballot boxes in the Troncal 5 road, there were clashes between protesters and the military. Barquisimeto: The National Guard dissoved a protest near the CNE office. Two students were injured. Caracas: There is…
An absolute chill ran down my spine 12 minutes ago when this came through Henrique Capriles’s twitter account: “Alertamos al país y al mundo la intención de querer cambiar la voluntad expresada por el Pueblo!Hacer RT a este mensaje…” “We alert the country and the world their intention to change the will expressed by the…
Last October, it took me four hours to cast my vote. This time, it went much quicker. At 11 a.m., my voting center wasn’t packed, but people were going in and out. What could be the reason behind it? Well, looks like the bottleneck known as SIE (Electoral Information System) is not having the same…
One final thought on the ill-humored comments thread that followed my (to be sure, wilfully provocative) last post: while it turns out it’s very easy to get a rise out of opposition supporters by suggesting that there are better uses for hundreds of dollars than driving overnight to cast a single ballot, nobody really seems all…
Be forewarned, gentle reader: I come to bury the Mayamero voter in New Orleans, not to praise him. By now, you’ve probably heard the story: in one of its upteen zillion dirty tricks, the National Electoral Council shut down voting at Venezuela’s consulate in Miami, in a move to disenfranche tens of thousands of almost-entirely anti-chavista voters.…
Caracas Chronicles 