::::::::
It appears that President Chavez will use our construction site for his famous weekend broadcast to the nation known as Alo Presidente on September 19. His advanced scouts are already arriving and reviewing the site. There is no guarantee that our site will be the one that finally hosts the upcoming show, but there's a good chance for it since President Chavez would love to inaugurate these plants one week before election day, September 26.
I'm told the sequence of events will be the following:
Around Thursday, there will be a major walk through by his people to make sure that everything is in place for the grand inauguration. People have been working frantically for the past several weeks with this show in mind. Thursday is essentially the final preshow presentation of the site for approval.
Friday and Saturday will be optional days. The president's people will be running the show and will decide what gets done, if anything, and who does it. It is questionable whether any of us Gringos will be around to even help at this point.
Sunday, the day of the show, the entire industrial park will be closed. No one will be allowed to work anywhere. The crowd that will be on camera will be locals bussed in for the event. I'm sure there will be some sort of screening to ensure that hecklers and trouble makers are stopped from coming. It is doubtful that us Gringos will be among the participants in the crowd.
As far as the thermoelectric power plants are concerned, they will not be ready. Not even close. I doubt that even one will be far enough along to make even a feeble attempt at a start up. Most of the activity I've seen of late consist of cosmetic touches to the exterior which will be necessary for the camera. After all, this is a live broadcast, so there's not much trickery that can be done to the show itself.
There is also a third reason why this is interesting for me. In 1981 I witnessed the inauguration of the metallurgical plant I was working at in Mexico. Then Mexican President Lopez Portillo showed up in helicopter with about 50 secret service agents taking over every single corner of the company. In 1983, it was the new president, Miguel de la Madrid's, turn to inaugurate the same place. And again, a helicopter came flying in one early afternoon and the secret service were everywhere as well.
I have also received Air Force One when President Carter flew to Geneva, Switzerland, to talk to President Assad of Syria for one afternoon. He was accompanied by two 707s full of reporters. Six military tanks lined the runway that day and I was told that there were 200 sharpshooters located around the airport. I was a mere plane loader at the time and my task was to put the chocks under the plane and the stairway up to the door, nothing more.
But I have never seen a moment when a manufacturing facility, especially the size of this place, is shut down for three days as a result of a presidential visit. I'm being told, however, that this is normal for Chavez since there are so many contracts out on his life, especially with so many in the US demanding his assassination.
I've heard at least one person say, however, that the show, Alo President, will not be shown again until October, which would annul his trip here. But it's hard for me to believe that any politician would pass up an opportunity to gloat over such a project one week before crucial national elections. I guess we'll soon see.
