Fedecamaras: just as classy as ever
Remember Fedecamaras? The Venezuelan chamber of commerce that basically made caca all over itself during April 2002, when its then-president illegally declared himself president, not merely of Fedecamaras, but of the entire blessed country? Yeah, that Fedecamaras.
Well, Fedecamaras has changed presidents since then, but it hasn't really changed its stripes. According to the Canadian Press wires, it's still as eager as ever to present itself, not as a treasonous aggressor against the legitimate president of Venezuela, but as his hapless victim. And how better to do that than to plant in the media and the minds of the public a strangely pat conclusion about a terrible tragedy that just so happened to take place on Fedecamaras' own doorstep, so to speak?
A small bomb exploded outside the headquarters of Venezuela's leading business chamber Sunday, killing one person, police said.The blast occurred near the entrance of the Fedecamaras business chamber headquarters in Caracas's middle-class district of La Florida at approximately 1 a.m. local time, killing an unidentified man and shattering windows, federal police Chief Marcos Chavez said.
"There's a person who was close by, and presumably could have been hit by the shock wave," Chavez told The Associated Press in a brief telephone interview. "We still have not identified the person."
The explosion could have been meant to scare business leaders who have been critical of President Hugo Chavez, said Fedecamaras President Jose Manuel Gonzalez.
"These actions do not intimdate us. They commit us to continue fighting for Venezuela," Gonzalez told Union Radio.
What an interesting choice of words, Sr. Gonzalez: "fighting for Venezuela". Is that what you called it when you collaborated with the US State Dept. in an act of treason that left dozens dead and hundreds injured? An act of treason that resulted in two whole days of dictatorial repression, the dismantling of all Venezuela's democratic institutions, and if not for the patriotism of millions of the ordinary people of the barrios--those really fighting for Venezuela--would have ended in a military-business junta, similar to that of Argentina or Chile, in charge for at least a decade? Is that what you call "fighting for Venezuela"? Man, you suits sure have the strangest notions of patriotism.
And talk about strange, here's what else passes for "fighting for Venezuela" in the argot of Fedecamaras:
Last week, Gonzalez strongly criticized Chavez for accusing local businesses of stockpiling products to sell later at inflated prices as Venezuelans struggle with sporadic food shortages.Chavez warned recently that any business caught hoarding goods such as chicken, eggs and milk "should be seized and taken under government control" - threats that alarmed Fedecamaras.
Awww...isn't that touching? Fedecamaras "fights for Venezuela" by defending the "rights" of businesses to illegally stockpile food that is supposed to be sold at affordable prices to the same poor folks who really fought for Venezuela during the coup of '02. Yes, these heroic patriots of the suit set think it's the height of patriotism to starve out the barrio dwellers who can no longer find these staples at Mercal, and enrich the speculators who illegally truck the hoarded food across the border and sell it in Colombia! And they're doing all this in the hope of causing the populace to rise up on the side of big business against their elected president! Doesn't that just make your eyes well up and brim over with the wonder and patriotism of it all?
BTW, the "unidentified man" who died in this blast (and whose death is being used to shameful propagandistic ends by Fedecamaras) has been identified by pro-Chavez alternative media outlets YVKE Mundial and Aporrea as Hector Eduardo Serrano. May he rest in peace.