lookbackinanger.blogspot.com

One of the things that gets lost in the international press' coverage of the crisis in Venezuela is just how compromised the judiciary has become under Chavez. Take, for example the Fernandez/Ortega arrest warrants. Here's how Reuters reported the story:

A judge ordered Fernandez and union boss Carlos Ortega, who led a crippling two-month shutdown to oust Chavez, detained for rebellion against the state, sabotage and other charges.

Seems pretty straightforward - especially to readers here in the US who presume an impartial judiciary, at least on procedural issues like arrest warrants. We expect that if a warrant is issued, certain legal requirements must have been met. We also presume that if a judge does swear out an improper warrant, there are checks and oversights that will catch the mistake.

Now let's take a more detailed look at the circumstances surrounding the Fernandez/Ortega warrants - specifically, the judge who issued them. Miguel Octavio has posted an illuminating resume for Judge Maikel Moreno at his site. The run-down:

1987- As a member of the intelligence police he is found guilty of homicide and sent to jail.

1990- Released from jail

1990- Weeks after being released, he finds a position in a Court.

2002- Is seen with Chavista Deputies during the disturbances of April 11th.

May 2002- The Head of Chavez MVR in Caracas says the party will provide defense for the gunmen filmed shooting from Puente El Llaguno at the peaceful opposition march. Among the gunmen were an MVR City Councilman and two workers of the same municipality. Then lawyer Maikel Moreno is put in charge of their defense.

September 2002- He is appointed provisional Judge by a Government panel and ratified by the Supreme Court to the position. The law says to become a judge you need to have some form of postgraduate work which Judge Moreno does not have.

February 2003- He orders the two opposition leaders detained despite of the fact that one of the charges is not even in the criminal code. The charges are brought by a prosecutor who is the niece of the Attorney General (Chavez' first Vice-President) whose area of expertise is not even criminal law.

This information certainly puts the warrant process into question, though the Reuters story doesn't even hint at this. I've heard the international media criticized as being biased against Chavez and I've also heard it being accused of being pro-Chavez. It seems to me, neither characterization is true. The problem with the international media, especially the newswires, is two-fold: first, they lack the time and resources to research their stories in depth; and second, far from being biased one way or the other, they strive to be as apolitical as possible, whenever possible, in order to project the appearance of impartial reporting. Doesn't work - they still get criticized by both sides - but they have to try.

I've received some email criticizing me for using Francisco Toro and Miguel Ocatavio - two supporters of the anti-Chavez opposition - as sources for my posts on Venezuela. There's not much I can say in response to this: I do read the pro-Chavez stuff at Narco News and ZNET, too, but I don't find it compelling. Francisco Toro, in particular, is often critical of opposition leadership and strategy; I haven't read anything on Narco News or ZNET that is critical of Chavez - even in regards to his proposed "content" laws for media coverage, something you'd expect the Chomsky-ites at ZNET and free speech defenders at Narco News to jump on and throttle. But their silence on this and other issues is conspicuous. And I have to conclude that, unlike the newswires, lack of information, and the code of journalistic ethics, isn't to blame. posted by Robert Griffin at 1:57 PM

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, February 23, 2003 By: Paul Volgyesi

Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 23:38:55 +0100 From: Paul Volgyesi sanbasan@interware.hu To: editor@vheadline.com Subject: I very badly miss the country we had

Dear Editor: "I very badly miss the country we had before Chavez ... a country in which we could all smile to each other."  (One of the many on the same tune)

Any zoo expert will confirm that all animals living behind steel bars are highly neurotic. My personal idea of mental sanity, freedom and democracy doesn't include living either behind steel bars or in guarded compounds as all middle-class and up has to in all of Latin America (non-exhaustive).

So against all my cells crying for Latin sun, and despite my hate of the cold, I moved to Canada thirty some years ago and bought a house with no fence toward the curb, like zillions in Canada.

My neighbors, owning the same front-fenceless houses, were workers or engineers, cops and white collars, doctors, whatever. The poor were in worse houses, but in houses, had a bad life, but didn't go hungry ... and a huge part of crime was relevant to criminology and not sociology.

Now, calling "the country we had before Chavez ... a country in which we could all smile to each other" is either a case of selective blindness, or it really vindicates those claims that Upper Venezuela considers Lower Venezuela as populated by non-humans ... a mentality which is by no means specific to Venezuela or even Latin America.

And I'm not theorizing this.

This is like a soccer team where only the coaches and referees get three meals a day. Of course, the players all smile at the owners so they can keep at least their ONE meal a day. Oh! So sorry! I forgot the TV guys who get 2 for telling us how great a game these starving guys are showing us!

Saying that freedom and democracy require the shrinking of the income span and not the current opposite trend isn't some kind of whacko ideology ... it only requires looking at how people live here and there in the world.

• Now since we've all been taught at school that we must participate in democracy, comes a guy who says: "participate" and they all start shooting at him?

If the so(or self?)-called 'meritocrats' had decided to participate, Venezuela would be on its way to look like Switzerland ... the rich would still be rich, albeit maybe less shamefully, and everybody would be smiling at each other.

Paul Volgyesi sanbasan@interware.hu

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, February 23, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Former Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) leader and current Union Party president, Hugo D’Paola says the message that the opposition must spread abroad is that Venezuela is "living a dictatorship."

Reacting to the arrest of Federation of Chambers of Industry & Commerce (Fedecamaras) president, Carlos Fernandez, D’Paola has hit out against Union Party founder, Lt. Colonel (ret.) Francisco Arias Cardenas and suggests that he may not be allowed back into the party.

“His attitudes have damaged the opposition because he has constantly criticized opposition groups for the current situation in the country.”

D’Paola says President Chavez Frias' former comrade-in-arms has not been attending party duties because of medical permission and may not be allowed back … “he must assume a more active and aggressive position against the administration if he wants in.”

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, February 23, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Venezuelan Episcopal Conference (CEV) president Monsignor Baltazar Porras says Venezuela’s legal organs have been taken hostage to serve very concrete instances. Obviously referring to the arrest of leading opposition figure, Carlos Fernandez, Porras maintains that Venezuela’s institutionality is deteriorating rapidly and the government is becoming more arbitrary in legal procedures.

• Porras accuses the Attorney General and Ombudsman's Offices of covering up for the government.

The prelate attacks the government for rushing on this case, despite the accumulation of piles of pending cases that have been gathjering dust.

"The current climate in Venezuela will deepen the conflict and the separation of political actors … democracy cannot be built excluding others … what it’s doing is speeding up the process of institutional deterioration.”

The Archbishop questions the President’s language, which, he insists, seeks confrontation and warns that the arrest has turned the government-opposition negotiating non-aggression pact into a cartoon.

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, February 23, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Socialist Causa R chief, Andres Velasquez has come out in defense of Federation of Chambers of Industry & Commerce (Fedecamaras) president Carlos Fernandez issuing his now famous phrase … “something must done!”  Former Sutiss union leader, Velasquez calls the arrest a sign of “impunity that reigns in Venezuela, an outrage, abuse of authority and arbitrary.”

“Workers, housewives and the unemployed must take to the streets to fight for liberty, democracy and the rule of law … print & broadcast media must maintain the same editorial line.”

Although the Control judge for Fernandez' trial has been changed, the angry Assemblyman accuses the government of trying to hoodwink the system by placing a ”complacent” judge as prosecutor, the same judge who acted as the defense council for Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR) gunmen accused of shooting civilians on April 11.