Arena Space

Originally published here

In February 2005, during the second state of emergency due to floods in the State of Vargas, I was amazed at the absence of President Chavez. I wrote a post at the time which title is “A New Venezuelan Game: Where is Chavez?”. In that post, I recalled the absence of President Chavez during the tragedy of the first Vargas emergency.

This seems to be a pattern: every time the country needs the figure of a strong figure to show that they are in control, to help the collective moral of the Venezuelan people, Chavez disappears.

In this moments in which the whole Venezuela, Chavistas and non-Chavistas are in a state of shock because of the brutal murders and kidnappings of the Faddoul brothers, Miguel Rivas and now Jorge Aguirre, the commander in chief is nowhere to be seen.

This is the guy that uses 6 hours every Sunday of TV time to say anything that comes to his mind. This is the guy that every other day asks for a “cadena” to make silly announcements or to use the attention of the world to insult his political foes. This is the guy that wants to be president for life.

At first, I thought that I had probably overlooked a Chavez declaration about the case. I searched my usual governmental sources and could not find anything about Chavez.

Finally, I found this note in El Universal this morning. It says that the executive repudiated the assassination of the Faddoul brothers and of Miguel Rivas…it was the Minister of labor, Ricardo Dorado, that declared to the press! Did you guys know that Venezuela’s minister of labor was named Ricardo Dorado? I did not.

Where are the heavy weights of the government in this moments of profound sadness and collective crisis?

Where are the Rangels and the Maduros that are always so quick in declaring when it is time to insult political dissidents?

But first and foremost, where is the President ?

Where is Chavez?
Jorge Arena

Puzzled Ghost Blogger.

Update.-10h30 a.m. The mother of the three kids gave an interview this morning denying that she had attempted suicide. She is a devoted catholic. She had very harsh words for the goverment and in particular for President Chavez. She literally said "when he is overlooking and not giving importance to the torture and killing of four people, of which one was a handicapped kid, I, Gladys Diab declare, I despise him. I do not hate him. For me this and other cases of apathy of the law of God will be the begining of the end, that will route Venezuela towards the Divine light of peace and Justice"