Above Photo: By AVN on TeleSur.
Note: Venezuela Analysis reported in January 5th, “Venezuela’s National Assembly for the 2016-2021 term was sworn in today at 11 AM, in a ceremony that marked a new political era for the legislative body. Two-thirds of the incoming legislators belong to the country’s rightwing opposition.
“At the start of the ceremony, Henry Ramos Allup was sworn in as National Assembly president. A key figure from the country’s neoliberal era that preceded Hugo Chavez and leader of the former governing party Democratic Action, Allup reiterated his determination today to find opposition unty on a procedure for “the exit” of the Maduro government within six months.
“Led by former Assembly president Diosdado Cabello, 54 members of the United Socialist Party (PSUV) walked out in protest over a violation of the parliamentary procedures, which stipulate that the only topic of today’s first session would be the election of the National Assembly leadership.”
Telesur reports: After Right-Wing Purge, Venezuelans Honor Hugo Chavez. A large gathering in Caracas came out against Venezuela’s new right-wing majority in the National Assembly after it purged the parliament of images of the country’s beloved former president, the late Hugo Chavez. Images of both Chavez and Simon Bolivar, the independence hero who liberated much of South America from Spain, were displayed in the eponymous Plaza Bolivar in an act to reject the move spearheaded by new assembly president, Henry Ramos Allup, who announced the removal of the images as one of his first acts in post. (See photos on Telesur.)
Telesur also reported “The Venezuelan armed forces, known as the FANB, pledged staunch support for Nicolas Maduro and his government in the face of threats by the right-wing parliament to oust the president. – By Kevin Zeese
Caracas, VZ – “’The president is the highest authority of the state and we reiterate our absolute loyalty and unconditional support for him,’ said Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino.
“The military chief condemned the removal of pictures of Hugo Chavez and Simon Bolivar by new National Assembly president, Henry Ramos Allup, as a ‘vulgarity’.”
Oh look, there’s that ol’ fuddy-duddy, Henry Ramos Allup, thinking he’s finally rid the Venezuelan parliament of all things Bolivarian. He’s in for a helluva shock…
Hey! Remember how, back in 2002, there was a putsch in Venezuela? And how the poor folks came down from the hillside slums around Caracas, surrounded Miraflores Palace (then a nest of fascists and thieves), and demanded their president back? Remember how the soldiers of the Venezuelan national guard listened to the people and retook the palace in the name of the legitimately elected Bolivarian government? And remember how the Venezuelan army brought the real president, Hugo Chávez, back from La Orchila, the island where the fascists had held him kidnapped? Seems like it was just yesterday, eh?
Well, shooby-doo-lang-lang, kids…it’s yesterday once more. Because yesterday, the people of Venezuela once again rescued their president from a mob of fascist oppos, who bought themselves an election because they couldn’t legitimately win. And here’s how they did just that, courtesy Aporrea:
The indignant people rescued a portrait which used to hang from the ceiling of the National Assembly, which was removed today on direct orders from Henry Ramos Allup, who gave the orders very happily to the assembly workers.
But Ramos Allup didn’t count on the people awaiting the Comandante with open arms. That they might take him out of the parliament, but they couldn’t take him from the heart of millions of Venezuelans.
[…]
Another mistake they made was to remove from his place the Liberator of the land, Simón Bolívar, whose image was thrown in a corner with some junk and old furniture. Which makes one imagine what kind of respect they think the founding father of the nation deserves, and which reminds us of the royalists who once betrayed him, and who apparently reincarnated in the new and old politicians of the Venezuelan oligarchy.
Translation mine.
Here’s what they did to the portrait of Bolívar mentioned in the story:
Compare that to what they did to another portrait of him during the coup of ’02:
Yup, they stowed him in a bathroom along with some furniture.
The more things “change” when the oppos take power, the more they stay the boring old same, eh?
PS: Oh my. Look who stepped up to claim the picture of Chavecito!
Marisabel Rodríguez, the ex-wife of the late president, Hugo Chávez, asked that his portraits, which the new president of the National Assembly, Henry Ramos Allup, ordered removed from the parliament, be brought to her house.
Via her Twitter account, Rodríguez sent a series of messages to Ramos Allup’s wife, Diana D’Agostino, assuring that nothing would make her happier than to “keep at home what he [Ramos] calls garbage”.
“That won’t be enough to get rid of Chávez from there. The Chávez doctrine is planted and they’d have to erase the Constitution of Venezuela, which is the most important battle of the 20th century,” Rodríguez wrote.
It all began because D’Agostino wrote on her Twitter account: “Respect, tolerance and peace! We must leave behind violence, insults and denigrations. This dark side of Venezuela is on the Way Out.”
Yesterday, Ramos Allup ordered the portraits of Chávez removed, and said, “Throw that garbage out, or give it to the daughters [of Chávez]”, and of the portrait of Bolívar, father of the nation, “Take that crap out of here.”
Translation, again, mine.
Some “respect, tolerance and peace”, eh? It’s like that silly old lady doesn’t know what her silly old man is really doing there. Diana, do you watch TV?
And nice reference to “La Salida” (literally, the Way out), the failed “exit” plan for ousting Nicolás Maduro, too. I’m pretty sure that “dark side” she’s referring to is nothing more than the color of the majority of voters’ skins. Because Venezuela under Chávez was anything but a dark age, in spite of the escuálidos’ efforts to make it so. And while they’re doing their damnedest to usher a new dark age in, I doubt very much they’ll succeed. Especially since the legitimacy of their so-called majority is already under a heavy cloud of suspicion.
PPS: Oh, how embarrassing! Look at what Henry’s gringo sponsors really think of him:
In a document classified as secret by the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, Ambassador William Brownfield had strong words about the newly elected president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Henry Ramos Allup. “Accion Democratica’s main problem has a name: Henry Ramos Allup,” the document reads. Brownfield, who was ambassador to Venezuela from 2004-2007 called Ramos Allup “crude, abrasive, arrogant and thin-skinned“.
The secret embassy cable was sent on April 17, 2006, eight months before the presidential elections in Venezuela that resulted in the reelection of Hugo Chavez. During the previous year, Ramos Allup had led opposition calls for abstention in the parliamentary elections that took place in December 2005. Brownfield stressed in his text that “Ramos Allup has become perhaps the most vocal advocate of electoral abstention … Ramos Allup said those who advocated participation in the December 2006 presidential elections would be voting ‘with their pants around their ankles.’ He has disparaged those who have declared themselves as candidates.”
[…]
Accion Democratica, one of the traditional political parties in Venezuela known for corruption, clientelism and neoliberalism has been a major recipient of international financing, violating Venezuelan law that prohibits foreign financing of political parties in the country. Ambassador Brownfield criticized Ramos Allup’s reliance on international support. In a section of the secret document entitled “Solve Our Problems For Us,” Brownfield wrote, “Rather than court Venezuelan voters, Ramos Allup’s principal political strategy has been to seek help from the international community.” Brownfield also revealed that representatives of Accion Democratica (AD) “have explicitly and repeatedly sought funds and favors from the Embassy. When refused by one Embassy official, they ask another.”
[…]
Although Henry Ramos Allup has only been the new president of the National Assembly of Venezuela for two days, his authoritarian tendencies are clear. Ramos Allup already flagrantly violated a decision by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) regarding the election of three legislators from Amazonas state, swearing them into office while the election results are still under review. The opposition leader has also abruptly shut off the microphones of socialist legislators, removed the paintings of Simon Bolivar and Hugo Chavez from the National Assembly grounds and has indicated that his main objective is ousting President Maduro within the next six months.
His dictatorial propensity is well known by the US government. Ambassador Brownfield underlined that Ramos Allup “does not support alternative views … Not only is AD extremely vertically organized, it is also dictatorial.”
Finally, Brownfield referred to Ramos Allup in his secret cable, which was sent to the US Secretary of State, the US Southern Command and over a dozen US Embassies in Latin America and the United Nations, as “delusional” and “a relic of the past”.
Thanks, Wikileaks, for all that welcome comic relief!
How ironic that the same silly gringo who made all those noises about Chavecito being “dictatorial” (when he most certainly wasn’t), was quietly telling Washington the same about a man who actually was, and is. You can see just from the video at the top how arrogant and dictatorial Henry Ramos Allup is. Nobody elected HIM president, and no one ever will. He was appointed by the MUD, not the people, to preside over their miserable, crooked faction of the National Assembly. And his ride is gonna be short and very bumpy.
Finally, as thanks for sticking with me this far, please enjoy a little music:
Yup, that’s Henry. He’s also a singer, albeit a crappy one. But at least he’s not autotuned!