Excerpts of column "Runrunes" (Rumors) released on May 31

High

ENROLLMENT. In order to indulge the caudillo, after Congress Speaker Diosdado Cabello said that President Hugo Chávez may enroll as presidential candidate via internet at the National Electoral Office (CNE), the red, very red president of that agency, Tibisay Lucena, rushed into a better idea for the impatient patient. She proposed to pitch a big tent, in front of the CNE headquarters, downtown Caracas, and set up the rostrum at the street level, "where he can get in with his car or van duly prepared. In this way, he does not need to take but a couple of steps for a private sworn-in ceremony or going up not a single rung for that matter." Therefore, seeing him "personally present would demolish whatever guesswork concerning his health." The suggestion attests to the president's trouble to walk. On Wednesday (May 30), even seasoned US reporter Dan Rather talked about the disease. Competition to flatter and please the patient grows day by day...

Intermediate

GOOD ALERT? The appointment of sociologist Franklin González as ambassador to Greece would be ready. The reference given to Greek red fellows is that, as a man of the process, a leftist for years, a sociologist and responsible for the Venezuelan embassies in Uruguay and Poland, he would be willing to assist or economically reinforce protests and demonstrations in Greece against the European Union, the euro and any economic plans suggested by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Just another case of meddling into the affairs of foreign countries all these 14 years...

HOT COLOMBIA. The singer of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), who, because of his proximity to Raúl Reyes was presumed dead in the raid on the FARC camp in Ecuador, is alive and detained in Caracas. This weekend, he spoke and sang on the telephone for an event in Barquisimeto (the capital city of Lara state). This was the beginning of a campaign in support of the FARC singer for his release, non-surrender to Colombia or sending him to a neutral country. The detainee signifies a stumbling block in the relations between President Chávez and his Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel Santos. Pro-government Venezuelan Communist Party (PCV) has taken non-surrender as a matter of honor in its support to ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) for the reelection of the military caudillo. However, after the renewed terrorist attacks by the FARC, both in Colombia and on the Venezuelan border, there is insistence on the surrender to Colombian authorities of the "hot prisoner of Sebin" (the Bolivarian Intelligence Service). Venezuela has not allowed for the appearance of Colombian public prosecutors in a hearing postponed ad infinitum. People closer to Reyes' singer-songwriter have suggested "an escape" in view of the inability to compromise and settle. Did Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs María Ángela Holguín address the matter during her meeting with her Venezuelan counterpart Nicolás Maduro? Will the Colombian new best friend discuss it in his next telephone call to Chávez? With the location being tracked for the umpteenth time through satellites and spy aircrafts of the largest guerrilla camp outside Colombia in the Venezuelan Goajira, there is more and more pressure...

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@nelsonbocaranda

Translated by Conchita Delgado