Legitimization
I didn’t read this story I’m about to tell, but rather, I heard it from my close friend Antonio Nicolás Briceño (who was born in 1856 and died in 1949). In 1892, president Raimundo Andueza Palacio, instigated by Sebastián Casañas, initiated maneuvers whose object was to extend the presidential term for an additional period. Joaquín Crespo, who was in the state of Cojedes, saw that possibility with delight since it gave him not only a motive but also an unbeatable name for a rebellion against the government: legalism [legalismo].
I think 10,000 soldiers is an exaggerated number, but in any case according to the story legalismo was a great force that kept gathering triumph after triumph until it reached the area known as La Encrucijada, where the government soldiers commanded by Luciano Mendoza were blocking any advance by the legalistas. Mendoza went up to the city of Caracas and left Manuel Felipe Mota as commander. When he felt he was defeated, Joaquín Crespo was already in the city of Villa de Cura ready to turn his army around when he received an emissary from Candelario Matos and Apolinar Herrera, the commander of the enemy’s right wing.
Mota, who seems to have been the son of Manuel Felipe Tovar, inherited from his father’s will the land where he died years later while continuously grumbling: “God damn Candelario Matos, God damn Apolinar Herrera.”
This aspiration today for the establishment of a presidency for life by means of a constitution at least shows a respect for written law. Regardless, eternal power has suddenly arrived and it is possible this judicial support could bring about certain respect for natural laws. Every society holds, as one of its fundamental principles, its own weapons for surviving and combating problems, and I have faith that one day the Chavismo now in power will do something that is not damaging, and that the multiple presidential excursions will inject him with a minimum of culture. Even a broken clock is correct twice each day.
That event was merely an attempt to open a door and today our chubby leader not only rushes through it but keeps walking. It’s incredible to see how tame this country has become! That event which was really a question began a war and this action today, which is already a consummated act and has obtained the judicial green light, slides under the table.
Maybe the collective Venezuelan subconscious is thinking another event could occur in this country. I will never forget a question (for which I have an answer) that I heard in Cuba a few years ago: “Do you want to see yourself fat next year? Take a portrait of yourself today.”
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 5 March 2007 }
Showing posts with label Francisco Vera Izquierdo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Francisco Vera Izquierdo. Show all posts
2.05.2007
Cultos / Francisco Vera Izquierdo
Cults
It is indubitable that in order to improve one must change, but change itself is not enough without having picked the correct replacement. Relatedly, I saw someone interviewed on television who pronounced himself against the Independence. More frequently, and being something that is actually debatable, that period is considered as premature. If we only look at our yellow XIX century liberals, we must recognize that it is true, but we also had Carlos Soublette, José Antonio Páez, José María Vargas, etcetera, while Spain had Ferdinand VII, Juan Prim, Ramón María Narváez, among others. Of course Chávez couldn’t be compared to Juan Carlos I. And as for considering it premature, one should note what happened in Cuba and Puerto Rico, this one an American colony and the other a succession of merciless tyrannies.
Regarding our diplomacy, I have been able to observe from abroad that it might not be inferior to that of other Latin American countries. I am completely unaware of everything pertaining to our new Minister of Foreign Affairs. The fact that he was chosen by our chubby leader allows one to suppose that he his incompetent, but this is not definite. On the other hand, given the tradition of that position, it is unlikely that we’ll see a worse performance and at the moment there are no pending problems. The one that existed with Guyana was duly lost by Rómulo Betancourt’s Foreign Ministry and I don’t believe Colombia will try to reestablish the colonial border near Timotes.
After the death of Simón Bolívar, the hatred he inspired diminished and President Páez was able to bring back his remains to Venezuela a few years later, with no major inconveniences. Antonio Guzmán Blanco, a close relative, initiated his cult, which later acquired the strength it has today.
When the name of the Plaza Mayor was changed to Plaza Bolívar, I know of the occasion when, during my childhood, a cousin of mine said he was going out to Plaza Bolívar and his mother scolded him by saying: “What are you talking about, 'Plaza Bolívar'? It’s called Plaza Mayor. Who would ever think to baptize a square with that idiot’s name!”
Guzmán was given almost religious honors in the XIX century. In the XX, Cipriano Castro was too, but that lasted a relatively short time. Afterwards, Juan Vicente Gómez was honored. A cult also began to emerge around Eleazar López Contreras, but he stopped the matter early on and in 1936 he rejected the idea that he be referred to as meritorious. And who knows where the people associated with the New National Ideal might have reached. Luck would have it that on 23 January 1958, the man preferred to take off running.
And it doesn’t seem fair of me to mention the word without remembering the Osiris Cult, which was a joke born in the XIX when Caracas was Masonic and Freemasonry had become an excuse to get together for a good time. What happened when Manuel Antonio Aguirre arrived at a meeting one afternoon became famous. He saw a few empty seats in front and he sat down in one of them. The solemn voice of the Master Mason was then heard to intone: “Terrible Brother: A profaner in the Orient…Perform your duty.”
But a German mason arrived and tried to provide seriousness to the matter. So the pseudo masons decided to start their own separate group and they established the Osiris Cult, which exaggerated to a ridiculous degree the Masonic rituals, with Master Mason, Terrible Brother, etcetera, and from the Turkish War came the word “Caimacán,” still employed today.
I know nothing about the new Minister of Foreign Affairs and experience allows me to assume from the moment our President chose him that he is incompetent, but it is possible he made a mistake. Until today, cults were created in honor of people, but our chubby leader has opened a new one and that is the cult of ignorance.
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 5 February 2007 }
It is indubitable that in order to improve one must change, but change itself is not enough without having picked the correct replacement. Relatedly, I saw someone interviewed on television who pronounced himself against the Independence. More frequently, and being something that is actually debatable, that period is considered as premature. If we only look at our yellow XIX century liberals, we must recognize that it is true, but we also had Carlos Soublette, José Antonio Páez, José María Vargas, etcetera, while Spain had Ferdinand VII, Juan Prim, Ramón María Narváez, among others. Of course Chávez couldn’t be compared to Juan Carlos I. And as for considering it premature, one should note what happened in Cuba and Puerto Rico, this one an American colony and the other a succession of merciless tyrannies.
Regarding our diplomacy, I have been able to observe from abroad that it might not be inferior to that of other Latin American countries. I am completely unaware of everything pertaining to our new Minister of Foreign Affairs. The fact that he was chosen by our chubby leader allows one to suppose that he his incompetent, but this is not definite. On the other hand, given the tradition of that position, it is unlikely that we’ll see a worse performance and at the moment there are no pending problems. The one that existed with Guyana was duly lost by Rómulo Betancourt’s Foreign Ministry and I don’t believe Colombia will try to reestablish the colonial border near Timotes.
After the death of Simón Bolívar, the hatred he inspired diminished and President Páez was able to bring back his remains to Venezuela a few years later, with no major inconveniences. Antonio Guzmán Blanco, a close relative, initiated his cult, which later acquired the strength it has today.
When the name of the Plaza Mayor was changed to Plaza Bolívar, I know of the occasion when, during my childhood, a cousin of mine said he was going out to Plaza Bolívar and his mother scolded him by saying: “What are you talking about, 'Plaza Bolívar'? It’s called Plaza Mayor. Who would ever think to baptize a square with that idiot’s name!”
Guzmán was given almost religious honors in the XIX century. In the XX, Cipriano Castro was too, but that lasted a relatively short time. Afterwards, Juan Vicente Gómez was honored. A cult also began to emerge around Eleazar López Contreras, but he stopped the matter early on and in 1936 he rejected the idea that he be referred to as meritorious. And who knows where the people associated with the New National Ideal might have reached. Luck would have it that on 23 January 1958, the man preferred to take off running.
And it doesn’t seem fair of me to mention the word without remembering the Osiris Cult, which was a joke born in the XIX when Caracas was Masonic and Freemasonry had become an excuse to get together for a good time. What happened when Manuel Antonio Aguirre arrived at a meeting one afternoon became famous. He saw a few empty seats in front and he sat down in one of them. The solemn voice of the Master Mason was then heard to intone: “Terrible Brother: A profaner in the Orient…Perform your duty.”
But a German mason arrived and tried to provide seriousness to the matter. So the pseudo masons decided to start their own separate group and they established the Osiris Cult, which exaggerated to a ridiculous degree the Masonic rituals, with Master Mason, Terrible Brother, etcetera, and from the Turkish War came the word “Caimacán,” still employed today.
I know nothing about the new Minister of Foreign Affairs and experience allows me to assume from the moment our President chose him that he is incompetent, but it is possible he made a mistake. Until today, cults were created in honor of people, but our chubby leader has opened a new one and that is the cult of ignorance.
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 5 February 2007 }
5.15.2006
Optimismo / Francisco Vera Izquierdo
Optimism
A single event will have as many versions as witnesses. Thus, an optimist will see his cup as half full and a pessimist half empty. Since the beginning of humanity, the truth is sought, and the ones most distant from it are those who believe they’ve found it, because the enemy of truth is not mistakes but conviction. I find a story I heard as a child about a dialogue between two friends to be exemplary.
“You’ve gotten so fat.”
“It’s just that now I don’t argue.”
“It’s not because of that.”
“Well then it’s not so.”
I say this because of my own experience of my optimisms. In 1948 I was extremely happy with the fall of Gallegos, believing that by eliminating the Adeco government, Venezuela would be able to find its path. I came back from abroad where I was living comfortably as a university professor and I found a breathable atmosphere, but only for the few months I spent under Delgado and the couple of years under Germán Suárez. After that, I saw the worst that has ever occurred in my years of living.
I worked in the private industry and the well-being created by the healthy economic policies of the regime allowed me to travel frequently to Europe, where I found myself when the dictator fled. I remember with disgust those years of imposed mediocrity. That was half a century ago and young people can’t remember, but occasionally certain articles in favor of Marcos Pérez Jiménez are published that allow one to get an idea of the intellectual standards.
I was also mistaken that time, believing the dictatorship would be brief and it lasted five complete years (from 1952). It’s incredible that an intelligent and cultured man like Laureanito [Laureano Vallenilla Lanz Planchart] could write those abject editorials for El Heraldo.
I was mistaken, if lightly, when I said Pérez Jiménez would flee running at the sound of a firecracker, because a few rockets were enough for him to do so. It was perhaps a unique case. Ignacio Andrade was branded a coward, but when he left, he had renounced the Presidency following protocol, designating Doctor Villegas Pulido as interim leader and he went down to La Guaira, where he embarked with full honors. Not even a thought of such a terrified precipitation that he would forget a suitcase with documents which might land him in jail.
But there are more groans than laughter. Refer to art and numerically compare the elegies with the hosannas. Happiness is frequent in real life, but not in literature. It tends to be conjoined with alcohol because of the latter’s exalting condition.
Somewhere I’ve read that one should only drink when one is happy, and truth be told, there are few things of a more dramatic sadness than weepy drunkenness.
Maybe it’s best to recommend pessimism because disillusionment is more frequent than favorable surprise. Of course the condition also provides an influence.
A beggar was glad to have a deformed child since that would make her begging easier.
Regarding Venezuela, it’s prudent to get used to the idea of Chavista longevity, because if that occurs we will be psychically resigned and how we’d dance if something else happened.
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 15 May 2006 }
A single event will have as many versions as witnesses. Thus, an optimist will see his cup as half full and a pessimist half empty. Since the beginning of humanity, the truth is sought, and the ones most distant from it are those who believe they’ve found it, because the enemy of truth is not mistakes but conviction. I find a story I heard as a child about a dialogue between two friends to be exemplary.
“You’ve gotten so fat.”
“It’s just that now I don’t argue.”
“It’s not because of that.”
“Well then it’s not so.”
I say this because of my own experience of my optimisms. In 1948 I was extremely happy with the fall of Gallegos, believing that by eliminating the Adeco government, Venezuela would be able to find its path. I came back from abroad where I was living comfortably as a university professor and I found a breathable atmosphere, but only for the few months I spent under Delgado and the couple of years under Germán Suárez. After that, I saw the worst that has ever occurred in my years of living.
I worked in the private industry and the well-being created by the healthy economic policies of the regime allowed me to travel frequently to Europe, where I found myself when the dictator fled. I remember with disgust those years of imposed mediocrity. That was half a century ago and young people can’t remember, but occasionally certain articles in favor of Marcos Pérez Jiménez are published that allow one to get an idea of the intellectual standards.
I was also mistaken that time, believing the dictatorship would be brief and it lasted five complete years (from 1952). It’s incredible that an intelligent and cultured man like Laureanito [Laureano Vallenilla Lanz Planchart] could write those abject editorials for El Heraldo.
I was mistaken, if lightly, when I said Pérez Jiménez would flee running at the sound of a firecracker, because a few rockets were enough for him to do so. It was perhaps a unique case. Ignacio Andrade was branded a coward, but when he left, he had renounced the Presidency following protocol, designating Doctor Villegas Pulido as interim leader and he went down to La Guaira, where he embarked with full honors. Not even a thought of such a terrified precipitation that he would forget a suitcase with documents which might land him in jail.
But there are more groans than laughter. Refer to art and numerically compare the elegies with the hosannas. Happiness is frequent in real life, but not in literature. It tends to be conjoined with alcohol because of the latter’s exalting condition.
Somewhere I’ve read that one should only drink when one is happy, and truth be told, there are few things of a more dramatic sadness than weepy drunkenness.
Maybe it’s best to recommend pessimism because disillusionment is more frequent than favorable surprise. Of course the condition also provides an influence.
A beggar was glad to have a deformed child since that would make her begging easier.
Regarding Venezuela, it’s prudent to get used to the idea of Chavista longevity, because if that occurs we will be psychically resigned and how we’d dance if something else happened.
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 15 May 2006 }
2.07.2006
Vaticinios / Francisco Vera Izquierdo
Predictions
I have never presumed to have prophetic vision, even to the point that, half a century ago, facing the fear of an eternity of Pérez Jiménez in power, I was outside the country for months before his escape, and I was seeking ways for us to remain living there, despite the memories of a previous exile.
Years later I believed in the deposition of Rómulo Betancourt and I never thought, when Medina, in his. I repeat then, I lack prophetic vision, but neither does one have to be an astronomer to distinguish the Sun from the Moon nor a strategist to jump on the sidewalk if a car comes. That is why I was not mistaken in predicting the attack against the media when I wrote that the Chavista objective was a Pérez Jiménez-like barbarism, seasoned with economic idiocy.
Castro's government is murderous and intelligent; our chubby leader's is not one or the other. Castro murdered the valuable adversaries he could at the "paredón" [by firing squad] and he facilitated the escape abroad of those who would discredit anti-Fidelismo with their methods.
An absurdity called the OLA arrived here from Cuba, which, according to many, was infiltrated and sustained by Castro himself. In any case, it would have been humiliating to coincide with their idiocy and I chose to silence my opinions.
Our chubby leader, on the other hand, has chosen as collaborators those who do much more damage against him than those of us who fight against him openly...A poor panegyric in favor of causes more damage than a good diatribe against.
Some time ago I wrote that Chavismo wouldn't delay in unleashing a true campaign against culture and its adepts. Today a judge, beside whom I am harmless, dictates a few rulings that would make the press an additional instrument of the government.
Moreover, they remove the name of Sofia Imber from a cultural institution that owes its existence to her.
She explains it all by attributing it to her being Jewish...and I find a laudable generosity on her part in such an explanation. One does not need to be a Heidegger to be anti-Semitic; but it is at least indispensible to understant that a certain sector exists with its own unique characteristics, one that affirms its descent from Biblical protagonists, despite the racial diffrences between Sephardics and Ashkenazis. But I believe such knowledge is too much for a Chavista mind.
There is another factor. Many years ago, when the Medina government created that odious PDV [Partido Democrático Venezolano], Marco Aurelio Rodríguez confessed to me that he was so disgusted by politics he had considered becoming a communist. Something must have bit him because he immediately said: "But I don't have the money for that and it would be a ridiculous vanity." Indeed, the communists at that time were José Marturet, Inocente Palacios, Miguel Otero Silva, etcetera. The Chavista communists of today have nothing to fear from Marco Aurelio's jokes, because their bank accounts are much more robust than those of past comrades.
It could happen that, once a situation disappears, its unlikeliness could be seen. But this unlikeliness can co-exist with reality.
When foreigners read or hear news from Venezuela, the most frequent comment is: "It can't be true."
There is a new concept in literature that is known as Fantastic Realism, but if we wanted to diagnose our country it would be better to speak of Absurd Reality.
In order to conspire, the application of leadership and material force is needed. Not only do I deny Power but I have also distanced myself from my closest friends when they have obtained it and I have never used nor will I use any other weapon besides oral or written language. But I would accept with almost joyful resignation if unlikeliness were to drown the present truth. It was a dilemma for many to decide whether they would stand against stupidity or against communism.
In Venezuela we have the strategic convenience of both factors coinciding within a single enemy: Chavismo.
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 6 February 2006 }
I have never presumed to have prophetic vision, even to the point that, half a century ago, facing the fear of an eternity of Pérez Jiménez in power, I was outside the country for months before his escape, and I was seeking ways for us to remain living there, despite the memories of a previous exile.
Years later I believed in the deposition of Rómulo Betancourt and I never thought, when Medina, in his. I repeat then, I lack prophetic vision, but neither does one have to be an astronomer to distinguish the Sun from the Moon nor a strategist to jump on the sidewalk if a car comes. That is why I was not mistaken in predicting the attack against the media when I wrote that the Chavista objective was a Pérez Jiménez-like barbarism, seasoned with economic idiocy.
Castro's government is murderous and intelligent; our chubby leader's is not one or the other. Castro murdered the valuable adversaries he could at the "paredón" [by firing squad] and he facilitated the escape abroad of those who would discredit anti-Fidelismo with their methods.
An absurdity called the OLA arrived here from Cuba, which, according to many, was infiltrated and sustained by Castro himself. In any case, it would have been humiliating to coincide with their idiocy and I chose to silence my opinions.
Our chubby leader, on the other hand, has chosen as collaborators those who do much more damage against him than those of us who fight against him openly...A poor panegyric in favor of causes more damage than a good diatribe against.
Some time ago I wrote that Chavismo wouldn't delay in unleashing a true campaign against culture and its adepts. Today a judge, beside whom I am harmless, dictates a few rulings that would make the press an additional instrument of the government.
Moreover, they remove the name of Sofia Imber from a cultural institution that owes its existence to her.
She explains it all by attributing it to her being Jewish...and I find a laudable generosity on her part in such an explanation. One does not need to be a Heidegger to be anti-Semitic; but it is at least indispensible to understant that a certain sector exists with its own unique characteristics, one that affirms its descent from Biblical protagonists, despite the racial diffrences between Sephardics and Ashkenazis. But I believe such knowledge is too much for a Chavista mind.
There is another factor. Many years ago, when the Medina government created that odious PDV [Partido Democrático Venezolano], Marco Aurelio Rodríguez confessed to me that he was so disgusted by politics he had considered becoming a communist. Something must have bit him because he immediately said: "But I don't have the money for that and it would be a ridiculous vanity." Indeed, the communists at that time were José Marturet, Inocente Palacios, Miguel Otero Silva, etcetera. The Chavista communists of today have nothing to fear from Marco Aurelio's jokes, because their bank accounts are much more robust than those of past comrades.
It could happen that, once a situation disappears, its unlikeliness could be seen. But this unlikeliness can co-exist with reality.
When foreigners read or hear news from Venezuela, the most frequent comment is: "It can't be true."
There is a new concept in literature that is known as Fantastic Realism, but if we wanted to diagnose our country it would be better to speak of Absurd Reality.
In order to conspire, the application of leadership and material force is needed. Not only do I deny Power but I have also distanced myself from my closest friends when they have obtained it and I have never used nor will I use any other weapon besides oral or written language. But I would accept with almost joyful resignation if unlikeliness were to drown the present truth. It was a dilemma for many to decide whether they would stand against stupidity or against communism.
In Venezuela we have the strategic convenience of both factors coinciding within a single enemy: Chavismo.
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 6 February 2006 }
9.20.2005
Puntos de vista / Francisco Vera Izquierdo
Points of View
In principle, no one should be interested in the privacy of others, but the most unlike people can find themselves reflected in each other. These concepts I write, like those I remember, are private though not exclusive, nor secrets. I want to refer to politics and to the idea being formed of them in this country and I want to discuss my successive points of view regarding communism.
My Jesuit formation, collaborating with that of an ultra-conservative family, made me see communists as if they were something that didn't really exist; similar to ogres and other hellish beings, created by the human mind for moral or entertainment purposes.
Due to the death of Juan Vicente Gómez, in 1936 there was political freedom and communism was fashionable for many. The syndicated families of rubber plantation workers saw in that a mantle that protected them against dangerous investigations. An uncle explained to me that frightening old aunts was traditional and that the strong spirits of his era presumed to be atheist and the ones from my own, communists. The fact is I made myself frenetically anti-communist and, in an article, I was the first Venezuelan to declare himself as belonging to the right.
I have never abandoned my conservative position; but on certain occasions I have silenced it.
It happened that way when a counterproductive movement emerged called OLA, whose North American twin is the reason I don’t read the Spanish-language American press.
It's not necessary to be intelligent in order to be a communist; but one needs to be unintelligent to commune with certain strands of anti-communism.
And not for the fear of being classified as someone who backs down but rather as a rejection of fraternities made up of stupid people, I don’t belong to anti-communist groups. A long time ago I established my general position: to govern, the right. To enjoy drinks with, the communists. My unforgettable friend Miguel Otero Silva told me once that everywhere the communists were the best students in his classes, especially in Economics courses, but that here, following the school of Gustavo Machado, this was replaced by incompetence. I imagine Marx, Engels, Loria, et cetera, turning in their graves when they see the Chavistas who think of themselves as their disciples.
From the moment our chubby leader became a historical figure, he seemed to me neither uncouth nor cowardly but rather ignorant and vain, a very dangerous combination in a head of state. He is erroneously accused of being a coward during the events of April 11, 2002. I have read something like a western Military Honor Code and it is far from being a samurai Bushido. It's a bit exaggerated to say that a western soldier, outside battle, should only defend his dignity if an unarmed child attacks him. Regarding political performance, his avowal of communist faith is barely a manifestation of ignorance and his international behavior of vanity.
During the era of Joaquín Crespo there lived in Caracas a painter by the name of Bauder, whose paintings didn't sell until a limitless patron appeared. It was that general Manuel Antonio Matos returned from Europe with a marvelous wig and Bauder thought to paint portraits of Matos bald, who in turn would buy these in order to burn them.
He was, then, an ingenious person and in the field of Economics he anticipated the Chavistas: “What is the population of Venezuela? Eight hundred thousand inhabitants? Well then, each Venezuelan should give a bolívar to someone else and every person will have eight hundred thousand bolívares.”
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 19 September 2005 }
In principle, no one should be interested in the privacy of others, but the most unlike people can find themselves reflected in each other. These concepts I write, like those I remember, are private though not exclusive, nor secrets. I want to refer to politics and to the idea being formed of them in this country and I want to discuss my successive points of view regarding communism.
My Jesuit formation, collaborating with that of an ultra-conservative family, made me see communists as if they were something that didn't really exist; similar to ogres and other hellish beings, created by the human mind for moral or entertainment purposes.
Due to the death of Juan Vicente Gómez, in 1936 there was political freedom and communism was fashionable for many. The syndicated families of rubber plantation workers saw in that a mantle that protected them against dangerous investigations. An uncle explained to me that frightening old aunts was traditional and that the strong spirits of his era presumed to be atheist and the ones from my own, communists. The fact is I made myself frenetically anti-communist and, in an article, I was the first Venezuelan to declare himself as belonging to the right.
I have never abandoned my conservative position; but on certain occasions I have silenced it.
It happened that way when a counterproductive movement emerged called OLA, whose North American twin is the reason I don’t read the Spanish-language American press.
It's not necessary to be intelligent in order to be a communist; but one needs to be unintelligent to commune with certain strands of anti-communism.
And not for the fear of being classified as someone who backs down but rather as a rejection of fraternities made up of stupid people, I don’t belong to anti-communist groups. A long time ago I established my general position: to govern, the right. To enjoy drinks with, the communists. My unforgettable friend Miguel Otero Silva told me once that everywhere the communists were the best students in his classes, especially in Economics courses, but that here, following the school of Gustavo Machado, this was replaced by incompetence. I imagine Marx, Engels, Loria, et cetera, turning in their graves when they see the Chavistas who think of themselves as their disciples.
From the moment our chubby leader became a historical figure, he seemed to me neither uncouth nor cowardly but rather ignorant and vain, a very dangerous combination in a head of state. He is erroneously accused of being a coward during the events of April 11, 2002. I have read something like a western Military Honor Code and it is far from being a samurai Bushido. It's a bit exaggerated to say that a western soldier, outside battle, should only defend his dignity if an unarmed child attacks him. Regarding political performance, his avowal of communist faith is barely a manifestation of ignorance and his international behavior of vanity.
During the era of Joaquín Crespo there lived in Caracas a painter by the name of Bauder, whose paintings didn't sell until a limitless patron appeared. It was that general Manuel Antonio Matos returned from Europe with a marvelous wig and Bauder thought to paint portraits of Matos bald, who in turn would buy these in order to burn them.
He was, then, an ingenious person and in the field of Economics he anticipated the Chavistas: “What is the population of Venezuela? Eight hundred thousand inhabitants? Well then, each Venezuelan should give a bolívar to someone else and every person will have eight hundred thousand bolívares.”
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 19 September 2005 }
6.01.2005
Evidencias y creencias / Francisco Vera Izquierdo
Evidences and Beliefs
It is evident how each person who holds a position of power needs to maintain himself there with an influential layer of people who will obey and not judge.
In fact, such contingency is neither frequent nor easy, and this is why so many political positions end up crumbling.
The opportunists always appear at the birth of each success and the prudent caudillo knows how to use this to his advantage.
It can be presumed that, outside of armies, blind obedience of this sort can be extremely difficult to find. Thus the case of the life-long dictator, in the style of Fidel Castro, Juan Vicente Gómez or Francisco Franco, is infrequent.
I personally think the proceso will begin to provoke what Machado called: "This second innocence which results in not believing anything." Here it wouldn't be "in not believing" but instead in not knowing. And once integral stupidity is accomplished, to proceed then to fill minds with a single, predetermined idea. As has been the desideratum of Marxists in Power.
Chavismo is obtaining the first stage of the process. What remains will be sought.
In his speeches, the Vice President achieves a difficult goal, whose invention was attributed to Pemán, and which consists of saying nothing and saying it seriously. The presidential allocutions deserve to awaken thanks from all Venezuelans, for their ability to discredit two unpleasant things: oratory and revolution. And the birth of a new wave—which would discredit counterrevolution—is not within the foreseeable horizon.
Fashion has much more of an impact than one might suppose. The German defeat of 1945 replaced the fashion for fascism with communism. In Venezuela, the jailed students in 1928 found as their jailmate the doctor Carlos León, a very intelligent man and a communist who educated them.
Due to the Russian revolution, the communist empire seemed as though it was going to impose itself globally, and Don Miguel de Unamuno wrote that those countries traditionally under submission would accept the new empire; but that when it reached others, with independent histories, they would create autonomous communisms. This was the case with the Peruvian APRA.
Once the anti-Fidelista organizations disappeared due to their own superfluousness, Fidelismo itself disappeared, and anyone today with a minimum of education sees in the Cuban case a traditional Latin American dictatorship, with a little flag of leftism. What happens is that Fidel Castro is intellectually and personally worth much more than his enemies. In fact, each time I read the publications of anti-Fidelismo, I feel my own tremble. That's why I never read the Spanish-language press in the United States.
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 30 May 2005 }
It is evident how each person who holds a position of power needs to maintain himself there with an influential layer of people who will obey and not judge.
In fact, such contingency is neither frequent nor easy, and this is why so many political positions end up crumbling.
The opportunists always appear at the birth of each success and the prudent caudillo knows how to use this to his advantage.
It can be presumed that, outside of armies, blind obedience of this sort can be extremely difficult to find. Thus the case of the life-long dictator, in the style of Fidel Castro, Juan Vicente Gómez or Francisco Franco, is infrequent.
I personally think the proceso will begin to provoke what Machado called: "This second innocence which results in not believing anything." Here it wouldn't be "in not believing" but instead in not knowing. And once integral stupidity is accomplished, to proceed then to fill minds with a single, predetermined idea. As has been the desideratum of Marxists in Power.
Chavismo is obtaining the first stage of the process. What remains will be sought.
In his speeches, the Vice President achieves a difficult goal, whose invention was attributed to Pemán, and which consists of saying nothing and saying it seriously. The presidential allocutions deserve to awaken thanks from all Venezuelans, for their ability to discredit two unpleasant things: oratory and revolution. And the birth of a new wave—which would discredit counterrevolution—is not within the foreseeable horizon.
Fashion has much more of an impact than one might suppose. The German defeat of 1945 replaced the fashion for fascism with communism. In Venezuela, the jailed students in 1928 found as their jailmate the doctor Carlos León, a very intelligent man and a communist who educated them.
Due to the Russian revolution, the communist empire seemed as though it was going to impose itself globally, and Don Miguel de Unamuno wrote that those countries traditionally under submission would accept the new empire; but that when it reached others, with independent histories, they would create autonomous communisms. This was the case with the Peruvian APRA.
Once the anti-Fidelista organizations disappeared due to their own superfluousness, Fidelismo itself disappeared, and anyone today with a minimum of education sees in the Cuban case a traditional Latin American dictatorship, with a little flag of leftism. What happens is that Fidel Castro is intellectually and personally worth much more than his enemies. In fact, each time I read the publications of anti-Fidelismo, I feel my own tremble. That's why I never read the Spanish-language press in the United States.
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 30 May 2005 }
3.08.2005
Cuaresma / Francisco Vera Izquierdo
Lent
I remember how once, around 1936, Jóvito Villalba uttered a concept which, unfortunately, has not been disseminated. He said: "This is a homeland. That might end up being supernatural, perhaps. But what would be useful to inculcate, at least among our leaders, is the idea that this become at least a country. There is, in actuality, a population, a territory, a few historical memories and bureaucrats who receive national funds. But an actual government, in the sense of an entity that hands out goods and sets limitations, this does not exist."
It's logical to think that not only is there a government but that it also has its supporters. But they must be very discreet people, who dare not expose their weaknesses. I have spent my entire life traveling throughout Venezuela and talking with everyone. I get the impression that something is happening similar to the period of Pérez Jiménez's regime, in the sense that there are people who publicly express their support for the government in hopes of receiving benefits, but in private remain embarrassed about their appetite.
At one point, at a gathering in Valencia, Pérez Jiménez said that the world was debating between two tendencies: the Idealist and the Materialist, but that his regime borrowed from both. He claimed this was true since from the former he had created the New National Ideal and from the latter he had used materials for his public works. At that time, the judgement emerged that were it not for his excessive cruelty, that man deserved to be mocked instead of hated. Fortunately, no such cruelty exists today and the road is open for mockery.
I repeat, Chavistas must exist but of a category similar to those "embarrassed poor" who beg as inconspicuously as possible, embarrassed about displaying their misery. The fact is, I have recently traveled throughout much of Venezuela and I have yet to find among my conversations the first person to praise the regime nor anyone who will even try to defend it.
Regarding the unprecedented electoral triumph of our chubby President, it's worth recalling the aphorism that minorities often make mistakes and majorities always do so. But it's also worth adding the concept, attributed to Churchill, that democracy is the worst system of governance, with the exception of all others. The ideal would be for our majorities to learn their lesson from this situation but I'm not so optimistic as to have such hope.
According to St. Augustine, St. Lion, St. Jerome and other doctors from the first centuries, Lent was established by the Apostles from the time a Council was first installed, when its rites of uncertain origin were established. One wishes that this year's Lent were obeyed more and that the government understood that Carnival has passed and that it would be appropriate to leave the buffoonery to someone else.
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 7 March 2005 }
I remember how once, around 1936, Jóvito Villalba uttered a concept which, unfortunately, has not been disseminated. He said: "This is a homeland. That might end up being supernatural, perhaps. But what would be useful to inculcate, at least among our leaders, is the idea that this become at least a country. There is, in actuality, a population, a territory, a few historical memories and bureaucrats who receive national funds. But an actual government, in the sense of an entity that hands out goods and sets limitations, this does not exist."
It's logical to think that not only is there a government but that it also has its supporters. But they must be very discreet people, who dare not expose their weaknesses. I have spent my entire life traveling throughout Venezuela and talking with everyone. I get the impression that something is happening similar to the period of Pérez Jiménez's regime, in the sense that there are people who publicly express their support for the government in hopes of receiving benefits, but in private remain embarrassed about their appetite.
At one point, at a gathering in Valencia, Pérez Jiménez said that the world was debating between two tendencies: the Idealist and the Materialist, but that his regime borrowed from both. He claimed this was true since from the former he had created the New National Ideal and from the latter he had used materials for his public works. At that time, the judgement emerged that were it not for his excessive cruelty, that man deserved to be mocked instead of hated. Fortunately, no such cruelty exists today and the road is open for mockery.
I repeat, Chavistas must exist but of a category similar to those "embarrassed poor" who beg as inconspicuously as possible, embarrassed about displaying their misery. The fact is, I have recently traveled throughout much of Venezuela and I have yet to find among my conversations the first person to praise the regime nor anyone who will even try to defend it.
Regarding the unprecedented electoral triumph of our chubby President, it's worth recalling the aphorism that minorities often make mistakes and majorities always do so. But it's also worth adding the concept, attributed to Churchill, that democracy is the worst system of governance, with the exception of all others. The ideal would be for our majorities to learn their lesson from this situation but I'm not so optimistic as to have such hope.
According to St. Augustine, St. Lion, St. Jerome and other doctors from the first centuries, Lent was established by the Apostles from the time a Council was first installed, when its rites of uncertain origin were established. One wishes that this year's Lent were obeyed more and that the government understood that Carnival has passed and that it would be appropriate to leave the buffoonery to someone else.
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 7 March 2005 }
9.24.2004
El Quince Negro / Francisco Vera Izquierdo
Black Fifteenth
I have no reason to complain about the members of the table I was assigned to, which was at the Luis Beltrán Prieto secondary school. I arrived around 6:00 A.M. and left two hours afterwards. I understand that those who went later in the day had to wait much longer, in some cases until midnight.
Nor were there any interferences, save for a few excited and self-proclaimed communists in favor of the government who tried, with a jumble of pro-government shouts, to frighten those who might not agree with them. But one individual among them, who had an almost human expression on his face, calmed down the rest.
I had by that time already listened to a discourse by our chubby President in which he proclaimed his own communist condition. In the rest of the world, young Marxists stand out because of their skills as students, particularly in the subject of Economics. Here, that competence is replaced by combativeness. I'm quite sure that none of those young revolutionaries have even browsed through Marx, which on the other hand I can completely understand. When we began to see communists here, which happened around 1936, I felt it was my duty to read something about what I was attacking. So I began to read Capital but I had to abandon it after a few pages, bored.
In England they say nothing looks more like a Tory than someone from Labour in power. Following that logic, nothing looks more like a plutocrat than a wealthy communist. But not in Venezuela. Once, Marco Aurelio Rodríguez confessed to me that he was so disillusioned that he had considered becoming a communist. But he said he didn't have the money for that sort of thing and that it was likely going to be rife with cronyism. The outrageous sudden wealth of the Chavista hierarchy makes me think that they may have assimilated Marco Aurelio's dilemma and are now trying to be communists without any fear of being labelled newcomers.
The government, with its harangues, had already revealed its intellectual level but, still unsatisfied, it solicited the presence of the new Secretary of State. On the other hand, I don't believe in the indispensability, nor even in the convenience, of great talents. Had Edison been given the genius of Kant he would have spent his life meditating with his fist on his cheek in some bar in Menlo Park, instead of a bar in Koenigsberg. There's no need for superior intellects, but rather that each person do the job alloted to them. In a fit of modesty the Vice President declared himself unqualified for the presidency. Of course I believe in that ineptitude, but not in the one who proclaims it.
To be honest, I don't believe that declaration is sincere, since I think that anyone who becomes a politician does so with the aspiration of having supreme command. I believe it's actually a contraption to make the chubby President think that Rangel doesn't have in mind replacing him.
As far as I can remember, my political desire has only coincided with that of the majority of Venezuelans once and that was against Marcos Pérez Jiménez. The rest of the time it has been in the opposition. That's what I thought would happen during the case of Chávez vs. Venezuela. Thus, when the government made its first triumphant announcements I believed that it was telling the truth.
Today I am convinced the Chavista triumph was not merely a simple fraud, but was instead a massive one, quite similar to the one in 1952, when an unknown, brutish Sergeant ignored the citizens' victory. I also think this is the first step toward the establishment of a dictatorship under a Lieutenant Colonel with the mentality of a Sergeant.
I have titled this article Black Fifteenth, not only in reference to the frustrated referendum but also to evoke the Roulette, when no one knows what will happen.
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 23 August 2004 }
I have no reason to complain about the members of the table I was assigned to, which was at the Luis Beltrán Prieto secondary school. I arrived around 6:00 A.M. and left two hours afterwards. I understand that those who went later in the day had to wait much longer, in some cases until midnight.
Nor were there any interferences, save for a few excited and self-proclaimed communists in favor of the government who tried, with a jumble of pro-government shouts, to frighten those who might not agree with them. But one individual among them, who had an almost human expression on his face, calmed down the rest.
I had by that time already listened to a discourse by our chubby President in which he proclaimed his own communist condition. In the rest of the world, young Marxists stand out because of their skills as students, particularly in the subject of Economics. Here, that competence is replaced by combativeness. I'm quite sure that none of those young revolutionaries have even browsed through Marx, which on the other hand I can completely understand. When we began to see communists here, which happened around 1936, I felt it was my duty to read something about what I was attacking. So I began to read Capital but I had to abandon it after a few pages, bored.
In England they say nothing looks more like a Tory than someone from Labour in power. Following that logic, nothing looks more like a plutocrat than a wealthy communist. But not in Venezuela. Once, Marco Aurelio Rodríguez confessed to me that he was so disillusioned that he had considered becoming a communist. But he said he didn't have the money for that sort of thing and that it was likely going to be rife with cronyism. The outrageous sudden wealth of the Chavista hierarchy makes me think that they may have assimilated Marco Aurelio's dilemma and are now trying to be communists without any fear of being labelled newcomers.
The government, with its harangues, had already revealed its intellectual level but, still unsatisfied, it solicited the presence of the new Secretary of State. On the other hand, I don't believe in the indispensability, nor even in the convenience, of great talents. Had Edison been given the genius of Kant he would have spent his life meditating with his fist on his cheek in some bar in Menlo Park, instead of a bar in Koenigsberg. There's no need for superior intellects, but rather that each person do the job alloted to them. In a fit of modesty the Vice President declared himself unqualified for the presidency. Of course I believe in that ineptitude, but not in the one who proclaims it.
To be honest, I don't believe that declaration is sincere, since I think that anyone who becomes a politician does so with the aspiration of having supreme command. I believe it's actually a contraption to make the chubby President think that Rangel doesn't have in mind replacing him.
As far as I can remember, my political desire has only coincided with that of the majority of Venezuelans once and that was against Marcos Pérez Jiménez. The rest of the time it has been in the opposition. That's what I thought would happen during the case of Chávez vs. Venezuela. Thus, when the government made its first triumphant announcements I believed that it was telling the truth.
Today I am convinced the Chavista triumph was not merely a simple fraud, but was instead a massive one, quite similar to the one in 1952, when an unknown, brutish Sergeant ignored the citizens' victory. I also think this is the first step toward the establishment of a dictatorship under a Lieutenant Colonel with the mentality of a Sergeant.
I have titled this article Black Fifteenth, not only in reference to the frustrated referendum but also to evoke the Roulette, when no one knows what will happen.
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 23 August 2004 }
7.13.2004
Sobre esto y aquello / Francisco Vera Izquierdo
About This and That
It is neither easy nor prudent to discuss who might be the most incompetent official in the current administration. A great number of people remain undecided between the President and the Vice President, but this could be due to the fact that they are the most visible officials.
Besides, they have added the new Secretary of State to their government. If he does not clearly beat them, at least he puts in a good effort. Quo Vadis tells the story of how the Emperor Nero sang continually, and by all appearances he dit it well. But Lucio Domicio Galba's rebellion in Gaul arrived, leading to his dethronement and death. The witty remark "He sang so much that he woke up the Gallic rooster" became popular.
Regarding Venezuela's governments, I believe that we have not had a better one than general Isaías Medina Angarita's. During my childhood, that is before the aforementioned government, I used to hear people say that the best government had been the one led by Juan Pablo Rojas Paúl. Those among Medina's supporters who defended his actions on October 18, 1945 justified them on the basis of his humanitarian desire to not spill blood. On that occasion, I wrote that a soldier's training is for the purpose of learning how to spill blood and that a politician's duty is to not let himself be overthrown. That form of humanitarianism applied to public affairs has, in my opinion, been a dire governmental error in Venezuela and it has brought, as a consequence, periods of crime alternating with others of senselessness.
Coincidentally, last week I published an article in which I remembered Medina's supporters. I said that one of Arturo Uslar Pietri's mistakes was the creation of the political party Partido Democrático Venezolano (PDV), which not only required that public sector employees join but also subtracted the application fees from their salaries.
This led to to the enthusiasm with which the newspaper's offices received my insurrection. Assuming that it was a lapse on my part, they thought to correct it by publishing that the mistake had been creating the Frente Nacional Democrático (FND). I think that the error in the latter case was not in its creation but rather in the leaders chosen and, alongside them, the disastrous entry into the government with the so-called "Wide Base."
A FND, within a reasonable opposition, would have served as a brake to hold back the abuses of puntofijismo. But doctor Uslar made the same mistake in 1963 that he had made twenty years earlier, believing that a political party could be formed from within the government. What is actually the case is that once a political party's members have been amalgamated within the adversity of belonging to an opposition party then they can take power and complete their development, as was the case with AD, Copei, the Partido Liberal, etcetera. In Germany this was the case with the Nazis, in Italy with fascism, etcetera.
As the events proved, the fall of Medina meant periods of crime alternating with periods of senselessness for Venezuela.
And I believe that in these moments we are reliving the latter. Day by day, I am more convinced about the truth of the idea that minorities are often mistaken and majorities are always mistaken.
In Venezuela there is a principle, which I'm not sure exists throughout the world, and it is that there are governments that deserve to be defeated by force and others that do not. During the October 1945 coup, I heard Totoña Sotillo say for the first time: "This government doesn't deserve to be overthrown. Why didn't they overthrow Juan Vicente Gómez?" And this is a widely admitted standard in Venezuela. I don't completely agree with it, but I understand why this belief is held. And that just as the threats to puntofijismo had been acceptable, so had other more recent ones.
If being a politician means desiring and searching for power, then I am definitely not a politician. And I believe that professionalism is indispensable, and most especially for vocational activities. Just as I think that the most effective anti-government activity would be to become its spokesperson. In other words, being a showcase for the blunders of Ministers, Ambassadors, etcetera. Recently, I watched an interview with the Secretary of State and I was left speechless.
Regarding the politics of protecting criminals in order to gain their political solidarity, it does not seem conducive to any benefits. To begin with, gangsters, just like capitalists, constitute a considerable force within society. But because of their numbers, they are not an electoral factor. Besides, the belief that benefits are not favors but are instead a simple consequence of Logic and Justice, is not exclusive to criminals but is rather typical of all Humanity. All that talk about success due to good luck applies to everyone else, not me.
Around 1930, with the possibility of Hitler already established, the general consensus was that he was a lunatic. Stalin added: "He is a lunatic but he will do everything he says."
I continually hear people in Venezuela talk about a poor farmer and, paraphrasing a bit, I think. He is a poor farmer but one that must taken seriously. This is a country and he is turning it into an impoverished farm.
Regarding the damage he inflicts, I remember the adage "Trouble comes in threes."
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 12 July 2004 }
It is neither easy nor prudent to discuss who might be the most incompetent official in the current administration. A great number of people remain undecided between the President and the Vice President, but this could be due to the fact that they are the most visible officials.
Besides, they have added the new Secretary of State to their government. If he does not clearly beat them, at least he puts in a good effort. Quo Vadis tells the story of how the Emperor Nero sang continually, and by all appearances he dit it well. But Lucio Domicio Galba's rebellion in Gaul arrived, leading to his dethronement and death. The witty remark "He sang so much that he woke up the Gallic rooster" became popular.
Regarding Venezuela's governments, I believe that we have not had a better one than general Isaías Medina Angarita's. During my childhood, that is before the aforementioned government, I used to hear people say that the best government had been the one led by Juan Pablo Rojas Paúl. Those among Medina's supporters who defended his actions on October 18, 1945 justified them on the basis of his humanitarian desire to not spill blood. On that occasion, I wrote that a soldier's training is for the purpose of learning how to spill blood and that a politician's duty is to not let himself be overthrown. That form of humanitarianism applied to public affairs has, in my opinion, been a dire governmental error in Venezuela and it has brought, as a consequence, periods of crime alternating with others of senselessness.
Coincidentally, last week I published an article in which I remembered Medina's supporters. I said that one of Arturo Uslar Pietri's mistakes was the creation of the political party Partido Democrático Venezolano (PDV), which not only required that public sector employees join but also subtracted the application fees from their salaries.
This led to to the enthusiasm with which the newspaper's offices received my insurrection. Assuming that it was a lapse on my part, they thought to correct it by publishing that the mistake had been creating the Frente Nacional Democrático (FND). I think that the error in the latter case was not in its creation but rather in the leaders chosen and, alongside them, the disastrous entry into the government with the so-called "Wide Base."
A FND, within a reasonable opposition, would have served as a brake to hold back the abuses of puntofijismo. But doctor Uslar made the same mistake in 1963 that he had made twenty years earlier, believing that a political party could be formed from within the government. What is actually the case is that once a political party's members have been amalgamated within the adversity of belonging to an opposition party then they can take power and complete their development, as was the case with AD, Copei, the Partido Liberal, etcetera. In Germany this was the case with the Nazis, in Italy with fascism, etcetera.
As the events proved, the fall of Medina meant periods of crime alternating with periods of senselessness for Venezuela.
And I believe that in these moments we are reliving the latter. Day by day, I am more convinced about the truth of the idea that minorities are often mistaken and majorities are always mistaken.
In Venezuela there is a principle, which I'm not sure exists throughout the world, and it is that there are governments that deserve to be defeated by force and others that do not. During the October 1945 coup, I heard Totoña Sotillo say for the first time: "This government doesn't deserve to be overthrown. Why didn't they overthrow Juan Vicente Gómez?" And this is a widely admitted standard in Venezuela. I don't completely agree with it, but I understand why this belief is held. And that just as the threats to puntofijismo had been acceptable, so had other more recent ones.
If being a politician means desiring and searching for power, then I am definitely not a politician. And I believe that professionalism is indispensable, and most especially for vocational activities. Just as I think that the most effective anti-government activity would be to become its spokesperson. In other words, being a showcase for the blunders of Ministers, Ambassadors, etcetera. Recently, I watched an interview with the Secretary of State and I was left speechless.
Regarding the politics of protecting criminals in order to gain their political solidarity, it does not seem conducive to any benefits. To begin with, gangsters, just like capitalists, constitute a considerable force within society. But because of their numbers, they are not an electoral factor. Besides, the belief that benefits are not favors but are instead a simple consequence of Logic and Justice, is not exclusive to criminals but is rather typical of all Humanity. All that talk about success due to good luck applies to everyone else, not me.
Around 1930, with the possibility of Hitler already established, the general consensus was that he was a lunatic. Stalin added: "He is a lunatic but he will do everything he says."
I continually hear people in Venezuela talk about a poor farmer and, paraphrasing a bit, I think. He is a poor farmer but one that must taken seriously. This is a country and he is turning it into an impoverished farm.
Regarding the damage he inflicts, I remember the adage "Trouble comes in threes."
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 12 July 2004 }
6.14.2004
Presentimiento / Francisco Vera Izquierdo
Premonition
To be honest, I lack so-called prophetic vision. But, just as one doesn’t have to be a strategist to climb onto the sidewalk when a car comes, there exist many things such as the axiom, “A self-evident truth which needs no demonstration.” I knew, then, about the irrational cowardice of Marcos Pérez Jiménez and the intellectual endowments that characterized Romulo Betancourt’s ministers since before their inconceivable actions during the events of 23 de Enero, Costa Rica and la Esquiva.
If things in Venezuela happened according to logic, we would now be under someone other than our actual President. The reaction against puntofijismo played a definitive role in the current leader’s triumph. But to continue with him is to take aspirin after the fever has passed. Besides, he didn’t knock down that system, he was merely there when it fell down. I wasn’t in Venezuela at the time, which is why I have no reason to be regretful; because, had I been here, my vote also would have been for him. Besides, it wasn’t possible to imagine, within a reasonable approaching horizon, what our chubby President and his allies would become.
There is a generally accepted principle in philosophy according to which everything that exists has a name and all that has a name, exists. I have read this concept without completely understanding it, because I find a certain contradiction in the idea that nothingness exists.
But the first element of truth is the truth itself, with its consequential likeliness.
According to this, we could believe in the non-existence of that which is unlikely. And the least one can say now is that what we're enduring has no name.
There have been very few who have deserved to be called rulers in Venezuela. In the XIX century, there was Juan Pablo Rojas Paúl. In the XX, the duo of Eleazar López Contreras and Isaías Medina Angarita, and in the XXI we still haven’t had one.
During the Centennial of Independence a certain Mr. Noaín came to the celebrations as the Argentine representative. The truth of his comment was rejected: “No one is in their place there.” Who knows what he might say now of our rulers. But, most likely, he would think that not only are they out of place but that, instead, their proper place would be, or better yet would have been, a jail.
Herodotus writes that Psammetichus, who wanted to find out which was the oldest language, started from the idea that it would have surged spontaneously and without hearing of another, that it would be the natural language of humans. He took, then, two newborn babies in order to raise them in complete isolation and without ever hearing a single word.
When they began to babble, both infants coincided in calling bread “bexos,” as it is called in Phyrgian, and that language was considered the first. I have not heard of anyone losing sleep over this ignorance in any of the subsequent 28 centuries.
No one has lost sleep over the origin of languages, but they have over words and their meanings. There is an entire science with various branches such as Philology, Etymology, Semantics, etc. A certain literary modesty prevents me from including some discoveries here, not regarding words in general, but at least in reference to the big words. And, to be honest, the most elevated concepts proffered by Chavistas seem to be big words.
For me, the word coup is one of those that could not be uttered in society.
But, after hearing the Vice President himself proffer one of them on television, I believe that the word coup could also be redeemed and that it could cease being a suffocated sinful thought among those in uniform. I don’t want an unconstitutional exit, but the air we breathe makes my position an extravagance.
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 14 June 2004 }
To be honest, I lack so-called prophetic vision. But, just as one doesn’t have to be a strategist to climb onto the sidewalk when a car comes, there exist many things such as the axiom, “A self-evident truth which needs no demonstration.” I knew, then, about the irrational cowardice of Marcos Pérez Jiménez and the intellectual endowments that characterized Romulo Betancourt’s ministers since before their inconceivable actions during the events of 23 de Enero, Costa Rica and la Esquiva.
If things in Venezuela happened according to logic, we would now be under someone other than our actual President. The reaction against puntofijismo played a definitive role in the current leader’s triumph. But to continue with him is to take aspirin after the fever has passed. Besides, he didn’t knock down that system, he was merely there when it fell down. I wasn’t in Venezuela at the time, which is why I have no reason to be regretful; because, had I been here, my vote also would have been for him. Besides, it wasn’t possible to imagine, within a reasonable approaching horizon, what our chubby President and his allies would become.
There is a generally accepted principle in philosophy according to which everything that exists has a name and all that has a name, exists. I have read this concept without completely understanding it, because I find a certain contradiction in the idea that nothingness exists.
But the first element of truth is the truth itself, with its consequential likeliness.
According to this, we could believe in the non-existence of that which is unlikely. And the least one can say now is that what we're enduring has no name.
There have been very few who have deserved to be called rulers in Venezuela. In the XIX century, there was Juan Pablo Rojas Paúl. In the XX, the duo of Eleazar López Contreras and Isaías Medina Angarita, and in the XXI we still haven’t had one.
During the Centennial of Independence a certain Mr. Noaín came to the celebrations as the Argentine representative. The truth of his comment was rejected: “No one is in their place there.” Who knows what he might say now of our rulers. But, most likely, he would think that not only are they out of place but that, instead, their proper place would be, or better yet would have been, a jail.
Herodotus writes that Psammetichus, who wanted to find out which was the oldest language, started from the idea that it would have surged spontaneously and without hearing of another, that it would be the natural language of humans. He took, then, two newborn babies in order to raise them in complete isolation and without ever hearing a single word.
When they began to babble, both infants coincided in calling bread “bexos,” as it is called in Phyrgian, and that language was considered the first. I have not heard of anyone losing sleep over this ignorance in any of the subsequent 28 centuries.
No one has lost sleep over the origin of languages, but they have over words and their meanings. There is an entire science with various branches such as Philology, Etymology, Semantics, etc. A certain literary modesty prevents me from including some discoveries here, not regarding words in general, but at least in reference to the big words. And, to be honest, the most elevated concepts proffered by Chavistas seem to be big words.
For me, the word coup is one of those that could not be uttered in society.
But, after hearing the Vice President himself proffer one of them on television, I believe that the word coup could also be redeemed and that it could cease being a suffocated sinful thought among those in uniform. I don’t want an unconstitutional exit, but the air we breathe makes my position an extravagance.
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 14 June 2004 }
4.06.2004
¿Pronósticos o conclusiones? / Francisco Vera Izquierdo
Predictions or Conclusions?
Back when our President wasn't chubby, some people already spoke of his fall from power in the present participle, as a verbal action in development.
In other words, as something that had started but not yet arrived. But four years have passed without the occurrence of this supposed fall from power. This has drawn curiosity, and abroad there are those who believe that governmental survival is an invention of journalists who are looking to draw readers by publishing extravagant stories.
It is undeniable that current conditions make a sudden change seem unlikely. But more than a century ago, the general José Ignacio Pulido, a psychologist and not quite a psychiatrist of Venezuela, declared that the unforeseeable is what always happens in this country.
If one reads the newspapers, listens to the radio, watches television, goes into the street or answers the phone, one would think that the fall of our absurd President is being planned at this moment in Fuerte Tiuna.
And this idea about the Government living, dying or agonizing does have its own perspective after all. It exists in the sense that there are people who receive official salaries, who travel for free, with an official car and driver, etcetera; but a proper government, in the sense of providing, regulating or prohibiting, does not currently exist.
I cannot even imagine the disasters committed by bolivarians as being planned by the Government.
The only thing in existence is the most absolute impunity for crimes committed by any chavista.
The thugs that have been armed by the Government form the base of its electoral sustenance.
I may be mistaken here since gangsters, the same as capitalists, do constitute a force within society; however, they are not an electoral factor. Regardless, the Government has enough power to fill Caracas with campesinos bused into the city for a rally. However, once an election arrives, those campesinos would vote in their home towns, aside from the fact that a paid road trip to the capital might not be enough to buy their votes. Of course the Government’s people are aware, as everyone else is, of their electoral degradation. And I can imagine the waves of elbow jabs in Miraflores each time the vice president or the CNE talk about numbers.
I don’t know how daring the chavista magnates will remain in the face of material obstacles, but in regards to spiritual obstacles, as with the absurd, they show signs of nonpareil boldness. Not only do they face them calmly, but they even seek them out at times through all the means at their disposal. I admire all of them but, even more than the misogynist of Valencia*, I truly admire the vice president, perhaps because he is the person who appears most frequently in the media.
I picture him at home, practicing being Little Red Riding Hood and a rattlesnake.
Aside from rare exceptions, there is one infallible prediction and that is of death. What remains difficult is ascertaining a specific date. Therefore, regarding the fall of our chubby leader, what comes to mind is the Mexican song that says “She only tells me yes, but never tells me when."
I am not prone to prophecies nor do I take those of others seriously.
The most accurate prophecy I remember, whose premonition I heard in my infancy, was spoken by the priest Frutos del Hoyo in Los Dos Caminos: “As I declared last Sunday, today is Día de Reyes.” In the same manner, despite the best wishes of the respectable majority, I will only believe in the prophecies of an imminent fall when I see something similar to that time during the Día de Reyes. But I would also remind the chavistas of the following spiritual advice: “Remain aware, because you know not the day nor the hour.” I have nothing to lose and perhaps much to win as a Venezuelan. But to those who are enjoying an exaggerated and daily increase in wealth, I would recommend you have your luggage packed and your tickets reserved.
It hasn’t rained yet but the clouds are heavy with water.
Translator's note:
* A reference to general Luis Felipe Acosta Carles, whose soldiers brutally attacked several women who were protesting against the government in the city of Valencia (January 2003).
{Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 5 April 2004}
Back when our President wasn't chubby, some people already spoke of his fall from power in the present participle, as a verbal action in development.
In other words, as something that had started but not yet arrived. But four years have passed without the occurrence of this supposed fall from power. This has drawn curiosity, and abroad there are those who believe that governmental survival is an invention of journalists who are looking to draw readers by publishing extravagant stories.
It is undeniable that current conditions make a sudden change seem unlikely. But more than a century ago, the general José Ignacio Pulido, a psychologist and not quite a psychiatrist of Venezuela, declared that the unforeseeable is what always happens in this country.
If one reads the newspapers, listens to the radio, watches television, goes into the street or answers the phone, one would think that the fall of our absurd President is being planned at this moment in Fuerte Tiuna.
And this idea about the Government living, dying or agonizing does have its own perspective after all. It exists in the sense that there are people who receive official salaries, who travel for free, with an official car and driver, etcetera; but a proper government, in the sense of providing, regulating or prohibiting, does not currently exist.
I cannot even imagine the disasters committed by bolivarians as being planned by the Government.
The only thing in existence is the most absolute impunity for crimes committed by any chavista.
The thugs that have been armed by the Government form the base of its electoral sustenance.
I may be mistaken here since gangsters, the same as capitalists, do constitute a force within society; however, they are not an electoral factor. Regardless, the Government has enough power to fill Caracas with campesinos bused into the city for a rally. However, once an election arrives, those campesinos would vote in their home towns, aside from the fact that a paid road trip to the capital might not be enough to buy their votes. Of course the Government’s people are aware, as everyone else is, of their electoral degradation. And I can imagine the waves of elbow jabs in Miraflores each time the vice president or the CNE talk about numbers.
I don’t know how daring the chavista magnates will remain in the face of material obstacles, but in regards to spiritual obstacles, as with the absurd, they show signs of nonpareil boldness. Not only do they face them calmly, but they even seek them out at times through all the means at their disposal. I admire all of them but, even more than the misogynist of Valencia*, I truly admire the vice president, perhaps because he is the person who appears most frequently in the media.
I picture him at home, practicing being Little Red Riding Hood and a rattlesnake.
Aside from rare exceptions, there is one infallible prediction and that is of death. What remains difficult is ascertaining a specific date. Therefore, regarding the fall of our chubby leader, what comes to mind is the Mexican song that says “She only tells me yes, but never tells me when."
I am not prone to prophecies nor do I take those of others seriously.
The most accurate prophecy I remember, whose premonition I heard in my infancy, was spoken by the priest Frutos del Hoyo in Los Dos Caminos: “As I declared last Sunday, today is Día de Reyes.” In the same manner, despite the best wishes of the respectable majority, I will only believe in the prophecies of an imminent fall when I see something similar to that time during the Día de Reyes. But I would also remind the chavistas of the following spiritual advice: “Remain aware, because you know not the day nor the hour.” I have nothing to lose and perhaps much to win as a Venezuelan. But to those who are enjoying an exaggerated and daily increase in wealth, I would recommend you have your luggage packed and your tickets reserved.
It hasn’t rained yet but the clouds are heavy with water.
Translator's note:
* A reference to general Luis Felipe Acosta Carles, whose soldiers brutally attacked several women who were protesting against the government in the city of Valencia (January 2003).
{Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 5 April 2004}
2.24.2004
Deseos indeseables / Francisco Vera Izquierdo
Undesirable Desires
The judgment that we might make in favor of or against certain political opinions does not depend on the actual characteristics of those ideas. Rather, our judgment depends on how much we might concur with those ideas. Personally, I have been writing for the press since 1936 and I have never found myself so congratulated as I do now. And I imagine that, at my age, if there has been a change it has probably been for the worse, because of the intellectual disintegration common to old age.
Throughout these many years I have published against the communists, the Adecos, and the Copeyanos, with whom I nevertheless vehemently sympathized, until they transferred power over to the government of Betancourt.
I imagine that I have also published against others. But now I come to the overall question of the positive feedback I have noticed regarding my work. It is clear that I listen only to people who read and, more specifically, to people that I know. But, when I used to write against the Adecos, for example, there were people I respected who disagreed with me. The same thing happened with my other targets. Today, however, I don't know anyone who can read and who doesn't coincide with my opposition to the current regime. Thus, I only encounter agreement with my articles.
I believe that spiritual well-being, as a result of the respect for the freedom to think and speak, is preferable to the material gains of an economically reasonable regime. This is why I have stated so often that I prefer this disaster to the prosperity of the Pérez Jiménez era. However, the supersticious cult of lies that characterizes this current government is notable. The task assigned to Vice President Rangel is picturesque because it is so completely removed from the political sphere, and because it could be performed by any one of the illiterates in the regime. Among other things, the truth is not in question because truth is not only relative but also personal.
We can see how an event need not actually have taken place in order for it to be real, as is the case, for example, with parabolas. But the lies that are assigned to the Vice President are not made up of only words, but of numbers as well. If the government brings 20,000 people to one of their meetings, the Vice President will speak of 200,000 people, without of course mentioning the hired buses and the per diem used as incitements. If the opposition gathers 100,000 people, the Vice President will speak of 10,000. The truth is, one does not need a university education in order to come up with such a scheme.
Returning to the theme of reality being a personal affair, we could add here that, for a person, what exists is only what he knows. For those that don't know the plains, a dust cloud does not exist. And, applying this principle, we could say that for a Chavista culture does not exist. And with this phenomenon, the association ends up drowning the individual. My education at San Ignacio taught me that not every Jesuit is intelligent; but that the Jesuit Order itself is intelligent. The same thing happens with the Chavistas, among whom there are educated individuals. However, their association with Chavismo mercilessly eradicates that education.
I repeat that I prefer this disaster to the prosperity of the Pérez Jiménez era. But everything seems to indicate that our chubby President's goal is to lead our country into another dictatorship, which would bring all of it's own problems, alongside the ignorance that is central to Chavismo. We should not forget that a militaristic civilian is a common occurrence. A civilized military official, however, is not.
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 23 February 2004 }
The judgment that we might make in favor of or against certain political opinions does not depend on the actual characteristics of those ideas. Rather, our judgment depends on how much we might concur with those ideas. Personally, I have been writing for the press since 1936 and I have never found myself so congratulated as I do now. And I imagine that, at my age, if there has been a change it has probably been for the worse, because of the intellectual disintegration common to old age.
Throughout these many years I have published against the communists, the Adecos, and the Copeyanos, with whom I nevertheless vehemently sympathized, until they transferred power over to the government of Betancourt.
I imagine that I have also published against others. But now I come to the overall question of the positive feedback I have noticed regarding my work. It is clear that I listen only to people who read and, more specifically, to people that I know. But, when I used to write against the Adecos, for example, there were people I respected who disagreed with me. The same thing happened with my other targets. Today, however, I don't know anyone who can read and who doesn't coincide with my opposition to the current regime. Thus, I only encounter agreement with my articles.
I believe that spiritual well-being, as a result of the respect for the freedom to think and speak, is preferable to the material gains of an economically reasonable regime. This is why I have stated so often that I prefer this disaster to the prosperity of the Pérez Jiménez era. However, the supersticious cult of lies that characterizes this current government is notable. The task assigned to Vice President Rangel is picturesque because it is so completely removed from the political sphere, and because it could be performed by any one of the illiterates in the regime. Among other things, the truth is not in question because truth is not only relative but also personal.
We can see how an event need not actually have taken place in order for it to be real, as is the case, for example, with parabolas. But the lies that are assigned to the Vice President are not made up of only words, but of numbers as well. If the government brings 20,000 people to one of their meetings, the Vice President will speak of 200,000 people, without of course mentioning the hired buses and the per diem used as incitements. If the opposition gathers 100,000 people, the Vice President will speak of 10,000. The truth is, one does not need a university education in order to come up with such a scheme.
Returning to the theme of reality being a personal affair, we could add here that, for a person, what exists is only what he knows. For those that don't know the plains, a dust cloud does not exist. And, applying this principle, we could say that for a Chavista culture does not exist. And with this phenomenon, the association ends up drowning the individual. My education at San Ignacio taught me that not every Jesuit is intelligent; but that the Jesuit Order itself is intelligent. The same thing happens with the Chavistas, among whom there are educated individuals. However, their association with Chavismo mercilessly eradicates that education.
I repeat that I prefer this disaster to the prosperity of the Pérez Jiménez era. But everything seems to indicate that our chubby President's goal is to lead our country into another dictatorship, which would bring all of it's own problems, alongside the ignorance that is central to Chavismo. We should not forget that a militaristic civilian is a common occurrence. A civilized military official, however, is not.
{ Francisco Vera Izquierdo, El Nacional, 23 February 2004 }
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