The Ironies of the Venezuelan Opposition, part 21 - pre-planned violence in the National Assembly

[Catherina]

The ironies of the Venezuelan opposition, part 21
May 2, 2013 — Sabina Becker



Right-wing Venezuelan deputy Alfonso Marquina, wearing a motorcycle helmet in parliament. Was he planning maybe to pop a wheelie in the Hemiciclo?

Ah yes. The peaceful Venezuelan right just keeps getting more and more peaceful all the time…

The right-wing opposition presented itself with pre-planned violence in the National Assembly.

It was so thoroughly planned that Alfonso Marquina arrived wearing a helmet, while the putschist media owner Alberto Federico Ravell tweeted:

“@AlbertoRavell: We hope that ANTV (the legislature's dedicated TV channel) doesn’t censor the broadcast from today’s session.”

He knew of it.

Thus, in the midst of opposition-generated violence, several female deputies of the PSUV were assaulted, and immediately the revolutionary deputies fought back.

...

Note: The opposition deputies ran out of the chamber. Where to? To a health clinic? Noooo. To Globovisión, which was waiting for them. It was a long way, but they didn’t clean themselves up, because the idea was to put on a show. There, they began to proclaim themselves as martyrs.

...

“The problem is not the difference, but that they were hatching a putschist plan,” asserted Carreño at the end of the ordinary session of the National Assembly.

...

...

So, to recap: Oppos refuse to recognize legitimate president, based on the results of the cleanest, fairest, freest election possible. Government, realizing this as part of a putschist plan, suspends their right to speak until they do the democratic thing and concede defeat. And since they knew this was coming (it was announced ahead of time, and no one can pretend they didn’t hear), they come prepared for violence — some with vuvuzelas, others (see Marquina) with a crash helmet. Even before it starts, putschist media owner Ravell, of Globovisión, tweets that he hopes there won’t be any censorship. And of course, there isn’t, since the ANTV recording clearly shows the opposition attacking the Chavistas:

Here you can see it all exactly as it goes down. Before the trouble starts, the ruling PSUV wing of the parliament is completely calm, not expecting any trouble; the PSUV deputies keep to their seats and go about their business very normally. The other side, however, is a beehive of very strange activity. Lots of oppos are standing and moving around. You can see María Corina Machado, that lamb so lionized by the Washington Post, obviously urging some very un-kosher activity as she moves from row to row. You can also see right-wing deputy Julio Borges reaching under his desk for a small black knapsack, which he hands to a woman oppo seated in front of him. She takes something out, then passes the bag back to Borges, who also removes something from it. The something turns out to be an airhorn (these are the “vuvuzelas” from the piece I translated), which several other oppos also produce from their bags in order to generate noise and chaos. The oppos then swarm the dais where Assembly President Cabello and the two vice-presidents sit, assaulting and attacking PSUV deputies along the way. In typical cowardly fashion, they beat up the women first.

...



Here, we see that Julio Borges got a little help from Globomojón’s makeup crew before appearing on camera to whine and kvetch about how there’s no democracy in Venezuela, and how he got beaten up for not accepting the fact that there IS democracy, and his side simply lost. This after he and MariCori (more about HER later) went out of their way to pick a fight.

Classiest sore losers ever, those guys.

http://www.sabinabecker.com/2013/05/the-ironies-of-the-venezuelan-opposition-part-21.html

[Arctic Dave]

1. The fascist need to get a new shtick.

I called this worn out this soap opera episode a week before the election.

[Catherina]

2. It is worn out. They think people don't recognize their tired old scripts

What a bunch of assholes. These spoiled brats need a long time out behind bars.












http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=167566&titular=las-agresiones-en-la-asamblea-nacional-

[Judi Lynn]

5. My god, that big ugly pig with the airhorn has a wide, toothy grin on her face

in two of these photos, as other people are smirking, some laughing out loud, as you can see, with mouths wide open, giant teeth protruding.

Clearly they all believed it would be great visual theater, custom made for the Nazi "news" media to howl over. Odd seeing grins, sneers, guffaws, yuks. What an ugly bunch.

[center][/center]
Their loved ones must be so proud of them, their amazing deceitfulness, their lack of character, as they acted like hateful pampered children.

Alfonso marquina is one slimy, slick, heavy-handed red-neck looking oaf. A Venezuelan "good ol' boy." He probably thought he was funny as hell, yukking it up with his loutish, racist pals.

[StevePaulson]

10. There Are A Lot Of Pissed Off Venezuelans

They don't want their country to be Cuba, and that is exactly where Venezuela is headed. All because of a fixed election.

[idwiyo]

19. All those money spent and they lost again! Fair and square! Of course they are pissed off!

I can just imagine all the teeth gnashing and wailing and moaning in Miami and other favourite handouts of them poor marginalised folks!

Must be totally heartbreaking for them...

[Peace Patriot]

3. Thanks so much for this report and its visuals!

Like Arctic Dave, I am not surprised.

And the U.S. government gets on the wrong side, once again, in Latin America. These "oppo" assholes are getting your tax dollars and mine, and "training" and immoral support, from our corporate/war profiteer-run government. It's a pity. I had so hoped that this miserable, hypocritical, corrupt, anti-democratic and, in some cases, murderous U.S. policy in Latin America wouldn't continue. It has continued. But Latin Americans have a new sense of unity in fighting back against U.S. lies and domination. It's great to see this new unity at work--for instance, in the unanimous recognition of Maduro's election by all LatAm countries. They all know what's going down with this, and even the rightwing leaders--the leaders of U.S.client states--don't like it and resent it.

I can't believe how STUPID U.S. policy in LatAm is, let alone how wrong it is. The CIA thinks that it is so very, very clever, now that it's free of Cheney/Rumsfeld and their big boots. They think their "color revolution" crapola is how to regain control of all that LatAm oil. So full of themselves. So wrong. So stupid, really--as if Latin Americans can't see their "colors" coming from miles away.

[StevePaulson]

9. Peace Patriot

Have you ever been to Venezuela? Do you know anything about that country? I doubt it.

Just because Chavez hated Bush doesn't make him less of an idiot, or simply a corrupt dictator controlling every single job in the country.

If you are not a Chavista you can't get a decent job in Venezuela.

Welcome to Nuevo Cuba.

There is more to leading a country than ridiculing the Shrub, and Chavez was, and his protoge will be a dismal failure for the majority of Venezuelans.

Think about it. Chavez controlled ALL media in Venezuela. A L L - M E D I A. Could you imagine having an election here with only Fox News, and Rush Limbaugh on the tv and radio 24 / 7? No one else?

[idwiyo]

16. Oh, please DO tell how Chavez controlled all media in Venezuela! Oh paragon of hidden knowledge!

THANK YOU sooooo much for bringing this hidden TRUTH to DU!!! You deserve Pulitzer for revealing it!

[Judi Lynn]

20. "Nuevo Cuba?" Really? Nuevo Cuba. Do you know how STUPID that sounds?

Who has lead you to imagine you can say anything you want and other will simply believe it?

I guess you want to fix it all back so it resembles "Nuevo Miami," surrounded by desperately poor people living without hope, without a future again.

You don't realize how ugly that makes the racist Venezuelans look to the rest of the world.

[Demeter]

27. Worse yet, the Ugly Americans think they are right and justified

Beating Up on Other Nations, other Democracies--That's not why this country was founded

[idwiyo]

4. Thank you for this report. Why aren't their arses in prison is beyond me.

[StevePaulson]

8. Maduro Stole The Election

Everyone knows it. They are pissed, and they have every right to be.

[idwiyo]

13. No... Series? Like RILLY RILLY SERIES? OMG!!!1!!!eleventyone!!11 Thee TRUTH is finally revealed!

Do tell more! Please, please, please!

[Judi Lynn]

6. Two more photos from one of your links which deserve a good hard squint:

[center]

Here goes a black backpack as it is passed around,
holding airhorns and banners for the oligarchs prior
to the unexpected, spontaneous, sudden outburst
of violence they claim came from the supporters of
Maduro. Yeah, that's really the way it looks, isn't it?
You bet.



The Great Swine, Rep. Nora Bracho as she
entertains the group with a little right-wing
air-horn music for their scuffling pleasure.[/center]

[StevePaulson]

7. Catherina, Are You Insane?

My wife is from Venezuela, and she is still crying. Maduro did not win the election, he cheated. Openly, obviously, and then burned the ballots so no recount could be taken. Chavez has been a disaster for Venezuela on almost every single level. The murder rate in Caracas is so bad the government won't even let them publish the death toll.

The whole government is corruption, on corruption, on corruption. Every single level of the Chavez welfare state is decaying. And I am saying this as as a leftie.

Chavez handed out welfare checks to poor people that never got anything before, so he was popular. Brilliant politician. On every other level Chavez was an abysmal failure. They nationalized industries, and these all are rotting. Even the cooperatives are a total failure. Venezuela is dying a slow sickening death. Their oil is a curse.

You can't even go to Venezuela without being in fear for your life, or being kidnapped because of the lack of security.

Since the opposition is "right wing" they are bad? Really Catherina?

Cuba's is not exactly the best form of government, and Maduro's goal is to turn Venezuela into Cuba from what he has said, and has planned.

I feel sorry for the people of Venezuela. They just lost their last chance to not be Nuevo Cuba.

[ocpagu]

11. Nope. Totally wrong.

Yes. He won. No, he didn't cheat. Audits were made, international observers were there. No major incidents happened during the voting. International observers were there. Almost all countries accepted the result. Not a single credible evidence of anything significant was made, although Capriles, following a script written months before, speaks about fraud and about him as the winner without any, any evidence, let alone proof, of what he claims. There's no proof of ballots being burn, and again no evidence of such a thing. Claims about this were proven false.

Venezuela is a truly democratic country, therefore they will be what they want to be. I believe they want to be a free, independent, caring and just society. And they made the right decision to achieve that. The Venezuelan opposition has exposed its class hatred, it's social prejudice by attacking public centers the poorest and the working class need, by threatening the health teams that serve the locals who need help, by burning houses of people who vote for the one they preferred, by attacking public school buses. By killing. Capriles, his right-wing party and the powers behind him are not a choice.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Capriles only proved, again, after the vote why no one should have voted for him earlier! n/t

[Judi Lynn]

14. Most clearly NOT insane, and not a degenerate, either, like oligarchs.

We have heard the lies already, over and over again when right-wingers stop in to try to blow smoke up our a$$e$ here. No one other than the other visiting oligarchs can stand that array of laughable, and dishonest crap which right-wingers unload here when they get the urge.

Don't need it, don't respect it, of course. Who would?

[idwiyo]

17. This is going to be Thee Bestest Thread Of The All!!! Please do not stop with trying to enlighten

this corner of the DU with your knowledge! Do tell us more! Tell us all about how them Cubans are plotting to take over Venezuela! This is getting better and better with every post!

[Judi Lynn]

21. The Cubans are going to trick the Venezuelan Caprilistas into attacking Cuba

in Bay of Pigs II, and they'll win that one, too!

They are so damned sneaky, aren't they? Don't look now, but there's a Cuban standing right behind you, wanting to turn you into a commie!

[idwiyo]

22. They control the horizontal, they control the vertical, don't try to adjust. You'll be next,

you'll be next, you'll be next. ...

Cubans are EVERYWHERE!!! HIDE!!!

It's too late for me, I am already a commie BUT, you might be able to save yourself! Go into the LIGHT! Thee Innocent Lamb Capriles Light! Open yourself to the Saviour! Quick, before its too late!

[Catherina]

23. "and she is still crying"? Comedy gold like the rest of your post n/t

[idwiyo]

24. Don't you just Luuuurve the Extra Tear Jerking Touch of "my wife is still crying"! It adds sooo

much dimension to the rest of the Steve's posts! Think about it, Steve's wife is CRYING (still) therefore what Steve reveals here MUST BE THE TRUTH!!!

[Catherina]

25. I'm still trying to understand why his wife's tears should be my concern

The logic of throwing that in defies explanation.

Lots of rightwingers are still crying that Obama is a "Socialist" and is President. Should we care? Do we lol?

If watching Venezuela take care of the little guy gets the opposition this tearful, I hope they shed a lot more tears.

Would that our rightwingers have similar reasons to shed that many tears here one day.

Utter bollocks. Like that Venezuelan opposition girl who went crying to the US for asylum on the grounds she was being politically persecuted because she had to sell her second condo. Seriously, wtf?

[idwiyo]

26. According to Steve just because opposition is RW it doesn't mean they are bad! That's why his wife

is crying! They are GOOD because they are trying to save Venezuela!

OK, not really, its more about their Gawd Given Right to rule over those CHAVISTA worshiping scum, who's should be slaving away on plantations and in sweatshops so Capriles The Saviour of Venezuela (tm) & Co can build some Dubai stile skyscrapers. Or something like it. You know.

On the other hand, I'd be crying to if all I had to read were RW talking points. On a straight diet of bullshit like that it wouldn't take long until one's IQ drops below zero and one's brain reduces in size so much there is nothing left of it for a function higher then breathing, eating and shitting.

[gtar100]

12. It's tragic how the rich in Venezuela are so persecuted. Please shed a tear for them when you have a

minute. Imagine how hard it must be to see all those profits in the oil companies not going into their bank accounts. Tragic, simply tragic. I wonder if they had to choose a different restaurant to go to today because of it. Maybe they had to drive the economy sports car two days in a row. Life has gotten very difficult for them since Chavez. So much harder to exploit people, it must be depressing.

And now that Chavez is gone, they see their opportunity to fight for their right to make everyone else poor and miserable while they live their lives in luxury. Because in the end, that is what they are fighting for... their own selfishness and greed.

[idwiyo]

18. I tell you, my heart bleeders pink panther piss for Capriles & them poor rich cronies of his!

Hard not too! All those BILLIONS and BILLIONS and BILLIONS they never can get their hands on...
Tragic, I tell you. HEART BREAKING!!!

Here, let me play world's smallest violin for them:

[Demeter]

28. While everyone is entitled to his own opinion

Nobody is entitled to make up stuff and call it factual. That's propaganda, not knowledge.

[naaman fletcher]

29. Let's go over this recap:

Government, realizing this as part of a putschist plan, suspends their right to speak until they do the democratic thing and concede defeat

The democratic thing is to illegally suspend the right of an elected parliament member to speak?

What would you have done if Dennis Hastert had suspended the right of any democratic legislators who thought Gore was robbed to speak?

[reorg]

30. please explain

how it is illegal for the President of the National Assembly of Venezuela to not allow a member to speak?

Before he did this, Diosdado Cabello asked the member for clarification: Do you accept Nicolas Maduro as the elected President, yes or no?

When the answer was negative, he decided to not allow further disruptions by the member. I believe it is the legal task of the president of any parliament to maintain order and prevent members from engaging in illegal acts. Please demonstrate how it is not.

I find it hilarious that you would compare a margin of 537 votes (in a chaotic electoral system and against a majority of the popular vote) with a margin of more than 220,000. It was fair in 2000 to speculate that a recount would deliver a different outcome. Now, in Venezuela even the opposition knows (and demonstrates by not participating in the audit) that a manual recount will not result in a different outcome. If you publicly call Maduro "the Illegitimate", it means that you don't respect the democratic process. I don't think the president of a democratic parliament has to tolerate this.

[naaman fletcher]

35. I presume

That elected members have the right to speak.

I don't see how Cabello has the right to impose a political test on members of parliament.

I don't see how not agreeing that Maduro was elected is an illegal act as you assert. Please explain how it is.

[reorg]

36. Your "presumption" is just that

Please explain how, according to the law in Venezuela, the President of the Assembly doesn't have the right to cut off a disruptive speaker or deny them the floor.

YOU said Cabello did something illegal, YOU prove it.


Asking a member of parliament whether or not he accepts the democratic legitimacy of an elected president is not a "political test". It is a test whether he intends to insult the head of government as well as the people who voted for him and the institution that was carrying out the election.

I don't know how they do it in the US, but in Germany, the Bundestagspräsident appears to have these rights:

... the President ensures the maintenance of parliamentary order during sittings. For example, he or she may warn Members who have spoken too long, direct them to discontinue speaking and even exclude them from plenary sittings and committee meetings for up to 30 sitting days.

http://www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/bundestag/presidium/function.html

Typically, national, state, and other full-scale legislative assemblies have extensive internally written rules of order

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentary_procedure

Not recognizing the legitimate, democratically elected president in a public speech could be interpreted as agitating for the violent overthrow of the legitimate government, given the circumstances, which is an illegal act in Venezuela AFAIK. In addition, making false accusations (with fake proof) is slander. I am not familiar with the particular parliamentary rules in Venezuela, but, generally speaking, even deviating too far from the point of a certain debate, or making offensive remarks can be legitimate reasons for a President to cut a speaker off or even punish him further. If the member doesn't like it, he can always seek redress from judicial authorities ...

[Catherina]

31. More, part 2 here:

More, part 2 here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/110815656

[Dawson Leery]

32. María Corina Machado, self described girl of privilege.

[Catherina]

33. self described brats of privilege sure do stick together. Maria Corina, another *winner* lol

hailed by National Review in 2006 as "the best of womankind and the difficult times many women face around the globe"

In another telling example of opposition frustrations, rightwing US favorite Maria Corina Machado stressed that her opposition competitors “mustn’t be naïve” in thinking that this year’s presidential elections “are some sort of democratic celebration.”

Hinting at a possible US-backed intervention, Machado argued that the opposition must consider alternative options come October, including the use of undefined “mechanisms necessary to defend the people”. Machado later said in a press conference Wednesday that she would not allow the election to be “stolen” from her by President Chavez, claiming she would unquestionably be Venezuela’s next president.

http://crimsonsatellite.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/venezuelan-opposition-unity-crumbles/

“Popular (Grassroots) Capitalism is coming” reads this recent campaign poster for another opposition candidate, Maria Corina

What better slogan for someone whose degree is in corporate finance lol?

[Catherina]

34. Large clear pic of ole Borges before the Globovision makeup job

Opposition lawmaker Julio Borges after a fight inside the Venezuelan parliament. Leo Ramirez AFP/Getty Images

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/venezuela/130501/venezuela-legislators-brawl-parliament-fistfight