[progchat_action] Amnesty and impunity – a recipe for disaster? Resent-Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:43:13 -0600 (CST) Axis of Logic By Ramsn Santiago - Exclusive Feb 3, 2008, 12:53 [Email this article] [Printer friendly page] President Chavez' decision to grant amnesty to the coupsters involved in the April 2002 coup d'itat one month ago has been met with mixed reactions in the Bolivarian Republic. It is easy to understand the motivation behind Chavez' decision considering the humanitarian nature of the Bolivarian process. However, the timing of the amnesty was unfortunate since the opposition had its tail in the air after the shock defeat of the "Yes" vote by the Venezuelan opposition in the December 2nd national referendum. Sensing that cracks were appearing in chavismo with signs of demoralization evident in Chavez' supporters, the right wing opposition has interpreted the President's amnesty decree as a clear sign of weakness and now smell blood in the air. It should be mentioned at this juncture that the amnesty decree was not all encompassing. It excluded people who had violated human rights and those who had gone into hiding, were fugitives from justice mainly in Miami and those who had not presented themselves before the courts upon being arraigned. The opposition's argument that it was a "false" amnesty and should be all encompassing even for those who had ordered the massacre of innocent civilians in the 2002 coup, was based on the fact that Chavez himself received an amnesty along with his jailed followers in March 1994 after the military rebellion of February 4th 1992. What the right wing media campaign never mentioned was that Chavez himself served more than two years behind bars for his misdeeds. Hardly anyone involved in the 2002 coup has ever been behind bars. None of the people who benefited from the amnesty had been formally accused since investigations into the coup were effectively shelved after the assassination of State Prosecutor Danilo Anderson on November 17th 2004. Anderson was leading the prosecution of the crhme de la crhme of Venezuelan society who signed the Carmona decree dismantling the 1999 Constitution. Instead of bringing about any sort of reconciliation in Venezuela the amnesty has simply spurred on the opposition's constant attacks against the government and Chavez in particular using the 85% of all national media they control. This campaign has also spread to Colombia and corporate media such as CNN, Fox, BBC, AP and others which continue to distort the actual situation in Venezuela. This is all part of creeping coup as described by Les Blough in his article "Food Sovereignty: Fighting the "creeping coup" in Venezuela " Impunity is rife in Venezuela since the justice system is simple not working. The prisons are full of poor people receiving draconian sentences for stealing copper cables used for street lighting, for example, whereas hoarders and speculators have gotten off lightly with fines and temporary closures of their businesses. So far the law has not been applied to its full extent to these greed driven entrepreneurs who are endangering the integrity of the economy in order to line their own pockets and..to overthrow Chavez. Coupsters who have benefited from the amnesty are the authors of the Carmona Degree, those who kidnapped Governor of Mirida State, Florencia Porras, during the coup, judge Msncia Firandez who signed an illegal arrest warrant for Ramsn Rodrmguez Chacmn then Minister of Justice and the Interior and who also liberated the coup snipers (who killed 19 innocent Venezuelans) on April 12th 2002, when the brief Carmona government was in power. Even ex Governor of Miranda state is now free. He ordered the illegal closure of state television station VTV on April 11th 2002. US readers should ask themselves what would happen to US coupster attempting to overthrow the Bush Administration. Would they still be walking the streets of Washington D.C.? Even before the coup in 2002 many Chavez supporters were asking the President to enforce tough measures against the coup mongers which he refused to do. Respecting the Constitution, Chavez simply said that he could not interfere into other independent state institutions, such as the judiciary. The fact is the most judges and public prosecutors did not protest when the Constitution was violated in 2002. These public servants still form part of the opposition within the state apparatus and as such is a Fifth Column sabotaging justice being meted out to "respected citizens" i.e. the high bourgeoisie which organized the coup. After almost five years of non-action most of the coupsters were walking the streets of Caracas conspiring to destroy the economy by causing food shortages and runaway inflation. The Liberator, Simsn Bolmvar once said: "Betrayal is followed by a pardon, which then followed by another betrayal and another pardon, which is then.." This was Bolmvar's mistake of being too "generous" which led to him almost being assassinated in September 1828 in Bogota. The vast majority of the Venezuelan people would not like President Chavez have to face a similar situation. Unfortunately all the seeds have been sown now that the opposition and its gringo paymasters have been emboldened. Drastic action is required now not only to reconsolidate the progress of the Bolivarian Revolution, but also to ensure that key states and mayoralties are not lost in the November 2008 regional and local elections. Impunity and the Fifth Columnists are working full time to wrest the reins of power from Chavez in the regions and leave the Executive relatively isolated. It's the best chance they have had since the 2002 coup and will stop at nothing to achieve this goal of returning to power which will give them and their imperial paymaster's control of the largest oil reserves on the planet. Copyright 2008 by AxisofLogic.com This material is available for republication as long as reprints include verbatim copy of the article its entirety, respecting its integrity. Reprints must cite the author and Axis of Logic as the original source including a "live link" to the article. Thank you! Additional Articles by Ramsn Santiago Fascist Conspiracy, Fueled by U.S. Tax Dollars to Launch the 2nd coup ditat in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela "Parapolitics" scandal rocks Uribe's government in Colombia Headlong towards World War III?