Arena Space

Originally published here
Just two days ago, I was writing about the absence of President Chavez in moments of national commotion. I was amazed at the absence of news about the killings in any of the official channels. I was surprised that none of the Chavista heavy weights were out except the Justice Minister and the Attorney General. The MINCI pages were for the first time in probably a year, unadorned by ANY photo of Chavez (usually he is in ALL the pictures) and the ABN, VTV and RNV were all very languid in their choice of topics.

The best that the Chavistas on call could come up with during the few days that people went to the street in signs of protest, was to shame the media for politicizing a sad event and mention here and there that Colombians may be in the plot.

Then, all of the sudden, the wind changed. The new Minister of information appears giving declarations about a new conspiracy theory. We are saved! If there is a new conspiracy theory in town, we are in good hands, we know that is business as usual. All of a sudden, President Chavez decides to finally call the mother of the victims, after two days of absolute silence, and tell her that the killers will soon be caught. The pained mother that the day before had called a TV station declaring that she despised the government because of the little attention they had put into the case, calls the program again and asks the media not to politicize her suffering.

It follows that the MINCI publishes in its first page the mother’s declaration so that EVERYBODY can conveniently read it in the most politicized site that there is on the Venezuelan Internet . The article appears on the first page just below a huge face of a very calm and serious President Chavez occupying half page and announcing, like a true statesman that they will not rest until all the guilty are found. On the right, another article with the Italian flag, that has not yet been changed by Berlusconi, where the Italian government thanks effusively the Venezuelan government for having been so efficient in the resolution of the Sindoni crime. Such a nice, very nice piece of foreign gratitude was published alongside other news that recall that Venezuela just signed an agreement with Italy to build a network of trains.

Meanwhile, three suspects, all Venezuelans (didn’t they tell us they had a Colombian accent?) are found. So quickly, in such an efficient and dynamic manner that we all are I in awe at how quickly the Venezuelan government is able to solve the case.

Then, I check VTV, Maduro is there again, in charge, just finishing a technical workshop on, how convenient, Crime and Violence. He was pretty busy because a few days ago he was still in Cuba with a parliamentarian Venezuelan delegation discussing parliamentary discussions with the parliamentarians of the Cuban parliament. At that time, I was amazed to learn that there was indeed a Cuban parliament, let alone that a delegation had to go to Cuba to learn anything from the parliament we did not know it existed.

I decide to see RNV. Here he is. A triumphant Isaias Rodríguez saying the names of the five suspects in the Faddoul case and announcing that they are also about to solve the case of the killed photographer.

This ghost blogger keeps reading and is amazed at how efficient this government really is. How fortunate we Venezuelan are of having elected this group of dynamic and competent people that can deal with the most difficult situations.

After finishing my official carrousel, I go to El Universal and find a tiny note among tthose that are not considered important news. It says that on March 12, the Faddoul family had received a CD showing that their sons were alive. The video shows an airport that looks like the one in the Tuy Valley, that is the area where the bodies were found. What is more amazing is that one day before the kidnapping, three girls had been kidnapped in the same region and were found alive six days afterwards. Moreover, it seems that the Faddoul kids were never moved from the area and yet the area was never searched. I figured the following dates:

The girls were kidnapped on February 22.

The kids were kidnapped on February 23.

The girl s were found on February 28

The video was sent on March 12

The kids were found dead on April 4.

The case is almost solved on April 7.

And this ghost blogger asks. Is it really possible that they were so efficient at the end and so incompetent when it was really needed?

If the kidnapping had lasted a few days, I would understand such an outcome: lack of time to find the people involved. But 40 days? In 40 days they either had the clue or they did not.

Reporting from Cyberspace,

Jorge Arena
Disgusted Ghost Blogger.

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Note.- I based the dates of the girls' kidnapping using the information reported by El Universal article. Further investigation shows that the girls were kidnapped on March 3. Please refer to the following post for the details. Jorge Arena.