The Face of Chavismo Today

Quico says: More than anything or anyone else in Venezuela today, it's Luisa Ortega Díaz that scares me. There's something spontaneous, heartfelt, deeply honest about the Prosecutor General's commitment to authoritarianism that creeps me out to the core.

In this startling communiqué issued today, Ortega Diaz puts in a strong audition for the role of Postergirl for late-stage chavismo. Unembarrassed by her sneering contempt for dissent, uninterested in maintaining a minimal façade of democratic tolerance, suffused with aggression against anyone who questions her ideological certainties and ideologically committed to using state power to crush them, to listen to Luisa Ortega Diaz is to verify the far outer reaches to which the boundaries of acceptable discourse have been pushed in Venezuelan officialdom.

It's funny to think back now on how we used to loathe the old Fiscal General, Isaías Rodríguez. Time was when we figured we couldn't do any worse than him for a Fiscal. With the benefit of hindsight, though, we can see that however much of a tool Isaías might have been - and, make no mistake about it, he was a monumental tool - the guy's lethargy ended up shielding us. The sheer bureaucratic torpor Isaías exhuded from every pore in his greasy little body ended up blunting the danger he presented to our freedom. Too stupid to inflict much damage, too unimaginative to grasp the power of his office and the possibilities it afforded him, installing Isaías in the Fiscalía ended up being more about guaranteeing impunity to corrupt chavistas than about dismantling the remaining spaces for dissent in Venezuelan society.

Luisa Ortega Diaz is something else altogether. She doesn't just have the extremist ideology, she also has the energy, the clarity of vision and the sense of her own power to become a leading player in the drive to entrench a chavista dictatorship.

Because, lets be clear, her office is powerful: much more powerful than analogous offices in most other countries. It has a complete monopoly on deciding which criminal cases get tried and which don't. With no regional-level prosecutions, no private prosecutions allowed and no escape valves in things like Special Council or Independent Council statutes, the Fiscal General is the ultimate judicial bottle-neck, with total discretion to decide who gets a criminal trial and who doesn't.

That's the power Luisa Ortega Diaz has. And there really isn't any ambivalence to her views: protesting against the government is attempting to undermine the stability of the state, and will be prosecuted. When you considered the parallel stranglehold chavismo has over the courts, there's no ambiguity left at all. Venezuela is quickly becoming a place where disagreeing with the government in public is an offense punishable with jail time. And Luisa Ortega Diaz has taken on her task of ensuring that goal is reached with simply terrifying glee.

The View from Your Window: Berlin

Berlin, Germany - 4:20 p.m.

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Ding Dong, Seniat Calling

Quico says: Seniat has just announced they are shutting down Avon Cosmetics de Venezuela for 72 hours for not filling out their VAT forms properly. Headquarters, one factory, and 11 commercial offices are affected.

Which, I think, gives you a sense for just how unhinged from real Venezuelans' values the government's gotten. I mean, can they really survive the backlash once the better half of the country goes all lipstickless and hyper-cuaimatized? Don't these people have daughters? And what's next...shutting down the Blackberry network for backtaxes?! Or - gulp - going after the brewers?

That, right there, is the final frontier. When you see the government shutting down the beer-makers you know it's the final straw.

The View from Your Window: Washington

Washington, DC - 5:35 p.m.

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You Can't Quit, You're Fired!

Quico says: Leopoldo López just got kicked out of UNT. Kicked out. Of UNT. Swirl that around in your brain for a bit. It's really crazy.

I don't know the exact circumstances that led up to this. I would guess this was a pre-emptive expulsion, meant to take the sting out of his imminent storming out. One way or another, one thing's clear: the guy's earning himself a bit of a reputation as, erm, not a team player. Prima donnaish and caudillesque in a deep way only superficially papered over by the technocratic shtick, LL is quickly earning, on the right, the moniker Guillermo García Ponce kept for so long on the left: General de División.

Note: Latest reports are that this story is not true. I'm as confused as you.

The View from Your Window: San Fernando

San Fernando de Apure, Venezuela - 12:38 p.m.

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Amsterdam on Nelson on A11 on Huffo

Thanks to everyone for wedding wishes. I declare this break over.

Quico says: The April 11th crucible will not be forgotten. Check out Robert Amsterdam's bit on Brian Nelson's book on April 11th over on the Huffington Post. It, and the accompanying interview, should be read widely.

Seven years on, the controversy surrounding the coup simply will not be put to sleep, because how you interpret the coup is how you interpret Chávez:

"If you believe that the opposition initiated the violence; that they placed gunmen at the head of the march and wanted to cause deaths to spark a coup, then Hugo Chávez is a victim," wrote Nelson in his email to me. "But if you believe that the Chávez government initiated the violence; that the National Guard troops and loyalists opened fire on the march to keep it from surrounding the palace, then Hugo Chávez is not the victim, he is the aggressor. (...) If this is what you believe, then Hugo Chávez has lost his legitimacy and he should, at the very least, be placed on trial."

No wonder chavismo is so keen to debunk his research.

The View from Your Window: Caracas

Los Palos Grandes, Caracas, Venezuela - 9:37 a.m.

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Which I guess makes it official...

Quico says: ...cuz, as the good book says, what Facebook has united, may no man tear asunder.