The Rev. Vizcaino explicitly regrets the occurrence and that he was writing from the Perija heartland of the anti-Chavez opposition in western Zulia State where, traditionally, the locals view anything and everything emanating from faraway Caracas as alien to their Guaijira antecedents.

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VHeadline editor & publisher Roy S. Carson writes: With undeniable perspicacity, in a Sunday editorial, our esteemed VHeadline colleague in Maracaibo, the Reverend Obed Juan Vizcaino Najera regretted the fact that (as we have pointed out editorially several times before) that President Hugo Chavez' administration is infested with political "chameleons" who have colored themselves precisely to match the revolutionary government and its intentions!

• It should be noted that the Rev. Vizcaino explicitly regrets the occurrence and that he was writing from the Perija heartland of the anti-Chavez opposition in western Zulia State where, traditionally, the locals view anything and everything emanating from faraway Caracas as alien to their Guaijira antecedents.

But the Reverend's concern for pervasive corruption and malfeasance throughout the government administration is not meant to be divisive or sectarian in any way!

In a Monday editorial -- just to make sure  -- he explains the concept of Venezuela's democracy as being truly "government of the people, by the people" and hastens to explain to US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton that she may interpret it as a "dictatorship" -- YES! -- but that with all its faults and foibles, it is nevertheless a dictatorship of the people by the people inasmuch as it is the Venezuelan people, exclusively, who decide at the ballot-box!

Of course, this does not immediately mean that everything is hunky-dory within the realm just because the Venezuelan people want President Hugo Chavez Frias' 21st Century Socialism to succeed against a vociferous cacophony of harangues and bleating over the fact that, through their own indolence in attempting to sabotage general elections in a call for widespread abstention, the erstwhile Democratic Opposition has basically disenfranchised itself.

If not they, who else is to blame for an overwhelming majority of United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) delegates in the National Assembly (AN)?

We can see that it is basically the fact that a Democratic Opposition in Venezuela cut off its own parliamentary 'cajones' in its quest to disrupt proper governance of the country, that has led to what can only be described as a "democratic malfunction" ... which is not too dissimilar from Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction in that it bares all ... to the horror of some and the fascination of others!

Whichever way, what has been exposed is the fact that governance without serious opposition is too easily described as "dictatorship" even if the initial intent of those who govern may NOT have been to be autocratic or dictatorial.

• Without valid and reasoned opposition, it is but human for those who govern to believe that their way is the one and only way towards true (political, economic, humanitarian?) fulfilment ... but of who's ambitions?

Seriously un-opposed, un-censured, un-supervised and un-controlled government administration inevitably turns inward, oblivious and tone deaf to those who (by misapplication of their own guile), have turned the volume down on their own (often valid) protests to the point where they are not recognized as any serious participants in wider political debate or, worse, have become party to internecine warfare on who is more corrupt than who!

Let's face it!  Few, if any, of Venezuela's current (or past) political leaders have unblemished pasts!  It is widely known that a leading legislator has an extremely seedy past as an urban guerrilla in the late 1990s in support of Hugo Chavez Frias' bid for the presidency after being given an unconditional Presidential Pardon by then-President Rafael Caldera for his participation in the February 1992 coup d'etat against thoroughly corrupt President Carlos Andres Perez.

It is also widely known that much of Chavez' political funding was derived from a series of bank robberies committed across Caracas and the nation in the run-up to the December 1998 presidential elections which Chavez won with a resounding majority.

• The "urban guerrilla" turned present-day legislator is clearly indicated as a gun-toting hoodlum hell-bent on procuring cash for arms, ammunition and explosives, and caring little for any innocent bystander who just happened to get in the way of an armed heist in progress in the barrio-slums or across the city.

It kind of sticks in the craw that these selfsame criminals of just over a decade ago (yes, as recent as that!) hold such extremely important positions in the current government and puts to question their individual commitment to "revolutionary" zeal as opposed to the power factor they experienced as trigger-happy bank robbers.  Now, of course, they are so mealy-mouthed about rising crime statistics and the number of violent homicides across the nation!

These selfsame criminals are now so vocal in their abject condemnations of corruption alleged within the ranks of those now in the Democratic Opposition ... but without any favoritism shown towards the latter, has the Statute of Limitations already run out on their own very criminal offenses?

Pots calling kettles black immediately comes to mind!

All is NOT lost, however!  While the task is difficult, if not super-human, President Hugo Chavez Frias still has it within his gift to deal forcibly with the cancer in his own ranks as well as the various cancers within the ranks of those who either oppose him domestically or who have already flown to snap and snarl from the international sidelines as he (Chavez) seeks to progress 21st Century Socialism within the original concept of the Liberator, Simon Bolivar.

...and, as Venezuela teeters towards fiscal bankruptcy in the wake of the global banking crisis, President Chavez must realize that the cancer of corruption within his own retinue of ministers, ambassadors and high-ranking government officials should be his most urgent priority before his deck of cards collapses completely.  It's not just a matter of brinkmanship in which Chavez excels, but a matter of facing up to reality and the realization that his own (Chavez') administration is peppered with individuals who care little for the Revolution but all the more for their own pockets and how they can silver-line an early retirement from public office with what they can grab while the going's good.

The purge must begin NOW, if not already yesterday!  Before it is too late!  For if the corruption, malfeasance and crass ineptitudes within the current administration are NOT tackled immediately, there is only one result ... the decline and fall of the Bolivarian Revolution and all it stood for and represents in terms of egalitarianism and social-welfare progress for all Venezuelans and not just the privileged and exploitative few?

• Reviewing and limiting the enormous salaries paid to hundreds of blood-suckers on the government payroll may be a start, but it is NOT enough!

This is the defining moment!  Do we want a better future for all Venezuelans or do we want a return to the past with yesterday's Country Club elitists replaced only by a motley crew of Chavez insiders who've screwed the system for everything they can grab?

They will, of course, howl and scream that it's US State Department propaganda or CIA-initiated psychological warfare but NO!

It's Venezuela's reality and the sooner something's done about it, the sooner that true Venezuelan patriots will be able to defend the original ambitions of the Bolivarian Revolution.

Roy S. Carson
editor@vheadline.com

http://www.vheadline.com/carson

Authors Bio:
Roy S. Carson is veteran foreign correspondent (45+ years in the business) currently editor & publisher of VHeadline Venezuela reporting on news & views from and about Venezuela in South America -- available for interviews -- call Houston 713.893.1433