The new head of Venezuela’s National Assembly opened up a color / racial /culture war by crudely and on video ordering the removal of a science based portrait of Simon Bolivar, the Venezuelan who led the anti colonialist war against Spain that resulted in the independence of six countries. The issue is of color or "race." It's been widely (but not unanimously ) agreed that Bolivar was a "mestizo," a person of more than one "racial" background, like most Venezuelans. The classic portrait of Bolivar depicts him as a European man. In 2012, President Hugo Chavez had Bolivar's remains exhumed and analyzed. This resulted in a new official portrait. The process of creating the new portrait is shown in the first video. The original reason for exhuming Bolivar's body was to determine if he had been killed by arsenic poisoning.
Ramos also ordered the removal of the portrait of Hugo Chavez, who is seen by many Venezuelans as having been a president who not only looked like them but cared about them. Ramos is on video calling the painting "vaina" which can mean "crap" or "stuff". He is heard telling the workers to put the portraits in the garbage, or bring them to the President's residence.
Today President Maduro gave his annual report on the state of the country to the National Assembly. It had been touch and go till yesterday whether he would do this, as the legal status of the Assembly itself was in question.
Four electees were barred from being sworn in by the nation's highest court that rules on electoral issues. Ramos Allup had complied with the order of the court on the first day of the Assembly session but apparently changed his mind after a statement on Venezuela's political process was put out by the United States government.
John Kirby
Spokesperson, Bureau of Public Affairs
Spokesperson, Bureau of Public Affairs
Washington, DC
January 5, 2016
The United States congratulates the people of Venezuela on the installation of their new, democratically-elected National Assembly. This is an important and necessary step towards fulfilling the will of Venezuelan voters as reflected in last month’s elections.
The National Assembly can serve an important function in advancing and promoting a national dialogue focused on addressing the social and economic challenges facing the Venezuelan people. We call on all parties to respect the independence, authority, and constitutional prerogatives of the National Assembly. We remain concerned by the controversy surrounding the seating of some elected representatives and call for a resolution of this dispute in manner that is transparent and reflects the preferences of the Venezuelan voters.
In recognition of the installation of the National Assembly, and to facilitate dialogue, we again call for the release of all those imprisoned for their political beliefs and activities.
[This is a mobile copy of Seating of the Venezuelan National Assembly]
Short URL:http://m.state.gov/md250972.htm
Short URL:http://m.state.gov/md250972.htm
This seemed to do the trick for Ramos Allup, who is known for begging the United States government for money and favors from the US Embassy in Caracas. He swore in the three opposition electees who had been suspended by the court. I have a feeling the fact that the whole world knows that the United States government has branded him a money grubbing asshole annoyed him enough to cause him to reverse course and unsweraing in .the three, thereby temporarily avoiding a constitutional clash.
By the way, President Maduro declared an economic state of emergency, which squares with what I hear from Venezuela. This is an emerging humanitarian crisis and it needs prompt attention, so says everyone.
By the way, President Maduro declared an economic state of emergency, which squares with what I hear from Venezuela. This is an emerging humanitarian crisis and it needs prompt attention, so says everyone.
| ID: | 60714 |
| Date: | 2006-04-17 12:34:00 |
| Origin: | 06CARACAS1026 |
| Source: | Embassy Caracas |
| Classification: | SECRET |
| Dunno: | 05CARACAS3713 |
| Destination: | VZCZCXRO5204 PP RUEHAG DE RUEHCV #1026/01 1071234 ZNY SSSSS ZZH P 171234Z APR 06 FM AMEMBASSY CARACAS TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4110 INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEM COLLECTIVE PRIORITY RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA PRIORITY 6300 RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 5374 RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ PRIORITY 1891 RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA PRIORITY 0114 RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO PRIORITY 1966 RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO PRIORITY 3686 RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA PRIORITY 0667 RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES PRIORITY 1139 RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO PRIORITY 3436 RUEHMU/AMEMBASSY MANAGUA PRIORITY 1136 RUEHDG/AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO PRIORITY 0120 RUEHNY/AMEMBASSY OSLO PRIORITY 0094 RUEHAO/AMCONSUL CURACAO PRIORITY 0732 RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0104 RUEHMI/USOFFICE FRC FT LAUDERDALE PRIORITY 2995 RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL PRIORITY RUEHUB/USINT HAVANA PRIORITY 0634 |
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 CARACAS 001026 SIPDIS SIPDIS HQSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD FOR FRC LAMBERT E.O. 12958: DNG: CO 04/12/2026 TAGS: PGOV, KDEM, VE SUBJECT: ACCION DEMOCRATICA: A HOPELESS CASE REF: A. 05 CARACAS 03713 B. 05 CARACAS 01011 CARACAS 00001026 001.2 OF 003 Classified By: ACTING POLITICAL COUNSELOR MARK A. WELLS FOR 1.4 (D) ------- Summary ------- 1. (C) Accion Democratica (AD), Venezuela's largest opposition party, is going nowhere fast. Its leader, secretary general Henry Ramos Allup, is unimaginative, SIPDIS overconfident, and even repellent. Rather than seeking unity among the opposition, Ramos Allup insults other party officials. Rather than formulate a platform, AD officials plead for help from the international community, whose representatives Ramos Alup also disrespects. Because AD is an extremelycentralized party even by Venezuelan standards, fficials with alternate views rarely have a voice. Challengers to Ramos Allup wind up marginalized. As a result, AD's voter base, which consists ofpeople who vote for the party out of tradition, i quickly dwindling. ------------------- Fecklss Leadership ------------------- 2. (S) Acion Democratica's main problem has a name: Henry Ramos Allup. Accion Democratica (AD) secretary gneral Ramos Allup is crude, abrasive, arrogant, ad thin-skinned. His style is not unlike that ofPresident Hugo Chavez. In a meeting with AndeanAffairs office director Phillip French February 5, Ramos Allup pounded on the table and called his opponents names. Reflecting Chavez' idealistic uderstanding of foreign policy, he ranted about hw the Spanish had forgotten the generosity of fomer AD administrations after the Spanish Pablo Ilesias foundation had withdrawn some scholarship offered AD. His pettiness extends to his intra-arty rivals--he told the press "no one supports" oe of his AD challengers--and to U.S. Ambassadors whom he critiqued during a party meeting attendd by poloff. Asked how he responded to charges hat traditional political parties were responsibl for many of Venezuela's problems, Ramos Allup eumerated improvements the so-called Fourth Repubic had made on the dictatorships that preceded it. 3. (C) Ramos Allup has become perhaps the mos vocal advocate of electoral abstention since a prceived snub by opposition party Primero Justici forced him to cave to pressure from the AD rankand-file to withdraw from the December 2005 legilative elections (REF A). He has received prais from conservative Chavez opponents who have apprciated his grandstanding--Ramos Allup's greatestskill--against the electoral process. According t March press reports, Ramos Allup said those whoadvocated participation in the December 2006 preidential elections would be voting "with their pats around their ankles." He has disparaged thos who have declared themselves as candidates. While his counterparts in Primero Justicia and Copei have adopted a wait-and-see approach and have urged quick consensus on a unity candidate, Ramos Allup has already announced that he expects the new CNE leadership to consist of Chavez lackeys masquerading as opposition representatives, according to April 4 press reports. 4. (S) Ramos Allup is as overconfident as he is unimaginative. He tends to rest on his increasingly obsolete laurels as the head of the largest opposition party, a title he claimed repeatedly during the meeting with the AND director. He boasted to reporters during a March interview, CARACAS 00001026 002.5 OF 003 "either conditions change here or there will be no elections." Ramos Allup alleged in March that AD would certainly win a primary election, but he reasoned that he was not going to help seek a unity candidate because no other party would support AD in a race against Chavez. (Embassy Note: AD does have the most support in terms of numbers of opposition voters; it polls about 8 percent. Yet, the party lacks anyone charismatic enough to confront Chavez.) Ramos Allup opponent Luis Emilio Rondon told us that surveys of possible candidates did not mention a single name from AD. ------------------------- Solve Our Problems For Us ------------------------- 5. (C) Rather than court Venezuelan voters, Ramos Allup's principal political strategy has been to seek help from the international community, a media interview of the AD leader suggests. Indeed, AD officials have explicitly and repeatedly sought funds and favors from the Embassy. When refused by one Embassy official, they ask another. AD first vice president Victor Bolivar, who solicited funding from poloff (REF B), organized a meeting in December 2005 with polcouns to make the same pitch. When polcouns changed the subject, Bolivar and his fellow AD officials made the same long, detailed request in English in case poloff did not understand. Asked whether they were planning to engage the public on important issues, the officials said they intended to go to the OAS to complain about Chavez' handling of the National Assembly election instead. Former AD National Assembly deputy Pedro Pablo Alcantara calls and visits the Embassy regularly with requests for visas, scholarships for friends, etc. He calls different sections of the Embassy if he does not receive what he requests. One of the few, albeit brief, successes of AD's strategy to depend on foreigners was a news segment it helped a Norwegian television station produce that highlighted Chavez' failures to alleviate poverty. -------------------------------- No Support For Alternative Views -------------------------------- 6. (C) In a country where hierarchical parties is the norm, both AD officials and contacts from other political parties single out AD for its centralized decisionmaking practices. Not only is AD extremely vertically organized, it also is dictatorial. The party prohibited AD official Luis Emilio Rondon, who struck poloff as having better ideas than most AD officials during an October 2005 meeting, from running for secretary general in late 2005. Discussing the lack of free SIPDIS internal elections, Rondon rhetorically asked poloff what made AD different from Chavez' movement. The party also replaced its international affairs secretary, Rondon's running mate Alfredo Coronil, with Mauricio Poler, one of AD's solicitors for Embassy funds. 7. (C) There are a few AD officials willing to challenge the party's conventional wisdom, but their views rarely surface in daily party rhetoric. For example, National Executive Council (CEN) member Alfonso Marquina opposed withdrawing from the parliamentary elections, Ramos Allup told us. Former AD president Humberto Celli still favors participating in the presidential elections, according to press reports. Movement toward Socialism party officials who support seeking a unity candidate have also told us they have met with sympathetic AD officials. 8. (C) Strategic thinkers within AD are even rarer. Alfonso Marquina, AD's haughty former parliamentary bloc CARACAS 00001026 003.2 OF 003 leader, told poloff in late 2004 the opposition needed to shift its rhetoric away from political issues and address the problems of the majority poor, but his own party has not yet taken his advice. In contrast with Ramos Allup's policy of antagonizing many opposition counterparts, the now silenced Luis Emilio Rondon told us in October 2005 that the most important task facing his party was to build an opposition alliance. In April 2006, CEN member Nelson Lara told poloff he had a plan to work within Chavez' poor | |
No comments:
Post a Comment