Excerpts of column "Runrunes" (Rumors) of August 21

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CUBA.  Friends of mine tell me on the phone that soon there will be important announcements regarding Venezuela. Fidel Castro's failure to show up for several months, not even for his 86th birthday, hints some new ailment. Does he recognize his friends and relatives? Many in Havana wonder. The way to October 7 will be newsworthy indeed.

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THE TONGUE IS THE SCOURGE OF THE BODY. When student leader Nixon Moreno won the election at the Andes University (ULA), he was chased by the government of Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez for alleged sexual harassment on a police woman. Moreno sought refuge in the Apostolic Nunciature. The regime would tear its hair, admonished the Catholic Church and promised not to afford any safe-conduct. This was not the case for Julian Assange. The disseminator of Wikileaks, charged with sexual harassment in Sweden and staying as refugee at the Embassy of Ecuador in London, was fully supported by Venezuela. President Chávez would ask for observance of Assange's human rights and keeping of the refugee status granted by Ecuador until the very last minute. In addition, the Venezuelan government cautioned the United Kingdom against any effects of trespassing on the Ecuadorian mission. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, the main hunter of journalists in Latin America, uses freedom of speech to give the Australian safe-conduct. He did with the editor of daily newspaper El Universo same as Chávez did with Nixon Moreno. Likewise, the red government advocates Assange's human rights, pulling out at the same time of the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Organization of American States (OAS), and some other libertarian forums, to the detriment of Venezuelan citizens.

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