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Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Capriles Radonski announces his candidacy with attacks on family of President Chávez and his memory
By Arturo Rosales writing from Caracas. Axis of Logic
Axis of Logic.
Monday, Mar 11, 2013

With Electoral Defeat Looming Capriles loses the plot. The United States abandons any hope of defeating Chavismo on April 14th

Henrique Capriles Radonski was crushed in his bid for president of Venezuela to President Chávez on October 7, 2012. Last night he announced his futile candidacy to run again against Interim President Nicolás Maduro in the April 14 presidential elections with an attack on President Chávez, his family and the Venezuelan people.

Last night Henrique Capriles Radonski offered a press conference around 0745pm local time to accept or decline his nomination to the candidate for the right wing parties in the upcoming Venezuelan elections on April 14th. His announcement was covered on all Venezuelan television stations.

However, before announcing his decision he made a few “remarks”. These “remarks” were in fact a deliberate attempt to cause a storm of indignation in the Venezuelan population currently in deep mourning for the passing of President Chávez. They consisted of a series of hate-filled observations with no backing evidence in which he:

  • Insulted the mother, family, sons and grandchildren of President Chávez.

  • Stated that President Chávez had died much earlier in Cuba and that the government and family of Chávez had played a political game with Chávez’s body, concealing it, to give presidential candidate Maduro “more time” to embark on and prepare his election campaign.

  • Accused interim President Maduro of taking acting classes in Cuba to help his campaign.

  • Stated coldly, "Chávez is gone and he won't be back" in the face of a people whose beloved president is with them now more than ever.

    Note: In his late night television program, La Hojilla, Mario Silva responded to Radonski's statement last night with,  “¿Qué quiere decir?.....Todos somos Chávez” ¡Somos todo el Chávez! ("What does he mean? We are all Chávez!) Silva's response follows the ubiquitous slogan Chavistas have created for themselves, "Yo Soy Chavez."

  • Insulted the Supreme Court, stating their decision to transfer the presidency to the Vice President was unconstitutional since Chavismo controls all the state powers from the Executive. Once again the only evidence of this rumor is in the opposition anti-Chávez media campaign now running for 15 years.

  • Insulted the President of the National Electoral Council of playing politics in her remarks when announcing the date of the elections.

  • Insulted the Minister of Defense calling him a “national disgrace” after he had declared his support for President Chávez, his memory and the Venezuelan people in their time of pain and mourning.

  • Implied that everything had been planned by the government from the announcement of Chávez’s death to the declaration of the elections date.

  • As proof of this Capriles maintained that all the election posters for Maduro had been ready weeks ago to give him advantage without presenting any evidence whatsoever.

Political speeches are fine but when it comes to insulting the late President’s family accusing them of “playing politics” with Chávez’s corpse, this goes beyond the pale. It was not simply bad taste but it also might have caused riots, looting, killing and burning in the streets as extremely sensitive Chávez supporters could have reacted to this repugnant calumny.

But this is what Capriles and his right wing fascist / Neo Nazi cohorts want since they know that they will be wiped from the political map on April 14th when chavista voters will go in their masses to the polls to carry out the last order of Chávez on December 8th – vote for Nicolás Maduro as President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

The Reply

Interim President Maduro slammed Radonski for the incendiary remarks he made last night and called for peace, discipline and calm among all Venezuelan people.

In less than hour interim President Maduro was on state TV replying to Capriles’ shameless diatribe explaining the reasons why Capriles had little option but to act in this way. He told us that the aim is to destabilize the country, spark violence which could lead to an intervention in the country. The only thing wanted by Capriles’ was for his US imperialist backers to gain control of the largest oil reserves in the world, even surpassing those of Saudi Arabia.

Maduro appealed for calm saying this was tantamount to a “declaration of war” against the memory of Chávez and the Venezuelan people but the response would be to defeat this provocation with PEACE, firmness, cohesion with the Constitution leading the way.

He also stated that the Chávez family would be taking legal action against Capriles for his remarks which were a defamation of the character of the family of Chávez and of the late President’s memory.

“When the country is in flames, Capriles will be on his private jet on his way to the US”, stated a visibly angry Maduro. He also asked the private media not to show automatic solidarity with Capriles in this disgusting scenario; otherwise they would be regarded as direct collaborators of this plan to destabilize the country.

The interim President put the armed forces on alert in case of any forays by disgruntled citizens into the streets so as to maintain the peace in the nation.

Capriles will postulate himself this afternoon at the National Electoral Council but with no supporters present since they are “mourning”. He is sure to receive a frosty reception.

With election defeat looming it looks as if Capriles handlers in Washington are giving him his orders and have him on a short leash. To all intents and purposes the gringos abandon – yet again – any hope of election victory and just try to sow hatred and dissention in the country with the goal of destabilization.

Other matters

After dealing with Capriles’ planned fiasco of destabilization Maduro went on to announce the following:

  • Chávez’s remains will be moved to the Military Museum in the populous 23 de Enero barrio on Friday morning. This is extremely symbolic as it was from here that Chávez directed his almost quixotic military rebellion on February 4th 1992.

  • Chávez’s offices and rooms in Miraflores Palace where he lived and worked will be converted into a museum and left as they were on Chávez’s last day there on December 9th.

  • The National Assembly will start the process of a Constitutional amendment on Tuesday March 12th which will permit Chávez to be finally laid to rest next to his mentor and guide, the Liberator Simon Bolivar, in the National Pantheon. This has been demanded by the Venezuelan people all over the country and so the chavista deputies will carry it out.

Today, March 11th, I went to Los Próceres with the idea of standing in line to try and pay my respects to President Chávez in the Military Academy. At 0900am I arrived at the corner where the Procurator General’s building is located on Avenida de Los Ilustres, facing the bridge that crosses the freeway leading to the Bandera bus passenger terminal. The line to see the President lying in state stretched over the bridge and past the bus station and further into the distance down the Avenida Nueva Granada. This was about a mile, plus another mile to the start of Los Próceres, then another 2.5 – 3 miles to the Military Academy. At least an eight hour wait – and this on the sixth day of mourning.

The whole area was buzzing with activity – music, hawkers, giant TV screens, people gathering in groups to talk and many people outraged with Capriles disrespectful performance last night. This will only steel the resolve of the chavistas “to bring everyone out on April 14th to vote and crush this slimy rich boy from the high bourgeoisie like the cockroach he is for disrespecting our President and his family”, as one angry patriot told me.

We will be publishing more on Bolivar and his heritage and how Chávez revived Bolivarianism and formed it into a social movement which was then transformed into Chavismo for application in the modern day multi-polar world.

¡Chávez vive, la lucha sigue!

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AXIS OF LOGIC COLUMNIST, ARTURO ROSALES