Excerpts of column "Runrunes" released on February 7

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DOWN WITH PROMOTIONS? As in the army the proposal to promote all the participants in the uprising and military takeover of February 4 was not warmly welcomed, the leader, who now calls the armed forces "Chavist," has another plan to gratify his inflated ego after the show where the failed coup was deemed a triumph. In addition to the widespread flattery on obligatory simultaneous broadcast where his name was mentioned almost one thousand times, it was said that he took office by means of voting, instead of bullets. In order not to trouble military waters, he will recommend promoting all of those in the Bolivarian militia, where the highest-ranking officer would be "Colonel Diosdado Cabello." Subsequently, he would be promoted to the rank of Major General of that parallel military component. The militia displayed 1,500 motorcycles and armed men in order to scare ordinary people instead of criminals. The token for the current speaker of the National Assembly, according to my sources, would be based on the fact that Cabello "binds the party; he is the political chief; he works; hence his growing power." However, such a proposal is still being discussed and there is no date yet for such announcement. The suggestion came from Cuba and was discussed in Caracas with the Cuban president. A group of civilian officials is worried about it, because all the recent steps make the government more military than civilian.

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REBARS! A good friend of mine, a builder, sent to me the following message: "The story in your column of the rebars brought in from Turkey and China is correct. A total of 15 containers is dispatched every month; 10 containers of which go to Mission Housing and five are directly negotiated by military officers. In the case of the rebars sold by the military officers -who claim not to be Chávez's followers but do have friends among the red, very red ones- such rebars have three prices. The cost varies according to their location: whether they are in the ship, in the port of Puerto Cabello, or in a warehouse. As for cement, military officers are the main hoarders with the regime consent. You cannot imagine how much cement do they have stockpiled and they tell us that 'scarcity is for the private sector only.'" In addition, he emphasizes in his notice: "thirty five percent of the government business remains in the hands of the men who promised to defend the homeland."

ALBA. The sale of discounted oil to be repaid in the long term, or sometimes as a gift, attracts the poorest Caribbean countries. This is the reason for the incorporation of Suriname -incidentally, President Dési Bouterse continues being questioned because of his ties to drug traffic- and Saint Lucia, in addition to the confirmation of Haiti as an observer. By the way, the ineffable $ean Penn acted as the middleman for Haitian President Michel Martelli.

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Translated by Conchita Delgado