First paragraph (Teaser):

In my life-time as an independent Dutch foreign correspondent - also in Latin America - I've seen some 'Foreign Offices' been undressed, tarred and feathered: but this beats everything! Red alert, Hugo Chavez!

Rest of the text:

I know where it's published, why, and who is publishing. So that's OK - HR

Venezuela's Foreign Relations Ministry (MRE) ... disaster from the inside!

C.C.: The Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the Netherlands
Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the Netherlands.
Nassaulaan 2 - The Hague 2514 JS
Url.: http://www.embven.nl/
Email: embv...@xs4all.nl

To the attention of Ambassador Agustin Perez Celis:

Sir!

In my life-time as an independent foreign correspondent - also in Latin America - I've seen some 'Foreign Offices' been undressed, tarred and feathered: but this beats everything!

(President Salvador Allende's ambassador Pablo Neruda - by the way - was one of many who was killed by Pinochet's US mercenaries.) - [http://tinyurl.com/gbzat]

But, this beats a lot of what I've seen, and I better understand why you never answered any of the FPF's letters.

It was indeed this here below, and - I'm sorry to say - the overt lack of good manners...

Feeling sorry for your kind, I meanwhile remain,

Henk Ruyssenaars

Editor FPF

For your information:

TOP STORY AT THIS HOUR! - Url.: http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=53891

Venezuela's Foreign Relations Ministry (MRE) ... disaster from the inside!

CARACAS - Friday, April 14, 2006 - A concerned Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE) insider writes: Venezuela's Foreign Relations Ministry (MRE) ... or an important segment inside the institution has yielded to its persistence, ability ... and its power.

Over last seven years it resists change at all costs. "Sinecures are not done away with, they are fought for, no matter what means are used" seems to be their primary lesson to be learned.

It's a collegiate and a ghostly mixture of Consalvi, Escovar Salom, Calderon Berti, Burelli Rivas, Miquilena-Davila and Opus Dei getting up to their old tricks directly under the noses of the top "Bolivarian" leaders inside the MRE itself.

The MRE is not with the process, my friends ... the Fourth Republic is alive, and now more than ever.

Neither Jose Vicente Rangel or the ineffable Col. Davila ... or Roy Chaderton Matos, or Jesus Perez ... not even the enigmatic former guerrilla Ali Rodriguez Araque have been able to nail down the beast. Any such priority and such a complex matter as rebuilding the MRE is still a myth. The previously mentioned ministers did try ... but they couldn't ... or they didn't want to undertake the task, despite instructions from the Commander in Chief to take to the task like a "Message to Garcia."

Nobody does a damn thing because, if you were a guerrilla fighter it automatically confirms you as a revolutionary. Ask what happened with the so-called reconstruction and anyone with laugh in your face. Yet a country's foreign service is so important ... it's just that they don't pay attention to the top dog in the MRE ... not even his deputies.

But let's talk straight ... if creating five vice ministers means rebuilding the MRE, I think the original order has instead been interpreted as to bureaucratize instead. What confusion resulted from the experiment ... it's as though although, in 2001, some soldier-director on the 8th floor understood rebuilding as filling the whole floor with partition walls. No comments.

Before there was only one vice minister ... one believed that he was the Chancellor. They say he had a parallel chancellor's office on the second floor and didn't listen to the Chancellor then in office. It had Jesus Perez isolated in the Yellow House and didn't pay attention to Roy Chaderton Matos either.

WHY ALL THIS?

BECAUSE IT DIDN'T WANT TO DO ANYTHING WITH CIVILIANS. HOW DO YOU LIKE IT?

A little 'opus-dei-an' soldier in place of the Chancellor; running to the opposite when the going gets tough. Instead of conducting high-level politics in their respective regions, the five vice ministers went the same way as the Fourth Republic ... appointing relatives and friends in well-paid positions abroad ... or traveling to inaugurate consulates without offices ... as just happened in Miami. The party must continue ... let the squandering go on because there's enough petrodollars and good 18-year-old whisky. The MRE doesn't even get its act in order with five never mind one vice minister while the embedded right-wing celebrates such clumsiness by so-called revolutionaries.

WILL BOTH FACTIONS BECOME STRATEGIC ALLIES FOR THE RUMORED "CHAVISM WITHOUT CHAVEZ"?

IT'S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT.

Vocal concern from within within the MRE centers on the massive damage first caused by Luis Davila and his far-right soldiers and then Ali Rodriguez Araque with his old-fashioned leftist cabal. Laissez faire, laissez passer seems to have been the slogan in both cases. The former imposed a terror regime and that's because the majority voted YES in the recall referendum in protest over the many abuses. And the latter kept going with abuses of all kinds ... so it's not strange that over the seven years of Revolution, the savings bank and the diplomats association fell into the hands of the escualidos in 2005. Nobody goes to demonstration marches because the people does not believe the double talk of the pseudo chavistas within the MRE.

The fact is that the MRE can not rid itself of Fourth Republic groups embedded for decades, clinging to standards approved by the naive and not-so-naive Bolivarian lawmakers who were responsible for the new Foreign Service Law. The issue becomes more complicated when we see become concerned by the behavior of some chavistas when they have just arrived at the MRE and they themselves automatically mimic and becoming old-fashioned Fourth Republican bureaucrats with all their old vices ... luxury cars, full air conditioning, credit cards, suit & tie, cocktails, big lunches.

YES SURE, THE OLD SAUDI VENEZUELA STYLE. WHAT A SHAME.

Some officials who were very active favoring the April 11-12 coup in 2002 are still around, like nothing happened, One asks how come the many chancellors and their respective teams ... allegedly revolutionaries ... didn't take corresponding corrective measures? It has been four years and these people not only remain in their posts but continue to conspiring strongly (against Chavez) backed by top officials within the MRE.

What do you say about the Coordinadora Democratica's contact official, a former ministerial dispatch director and niece of Carlos Andres Perez (CAP) who was awarded with a post in Russia? A worrying situation.

THE DANGEROUS BLONDE BUDDY OF LAWYER CHAFARDET

Or what about the other (gocha) 'Mata Hari' ... currently in Argentina ... after having touched down briefly in the same office despite having being a key player with former governor "Mamaota" D'Lima?

And what about the recent haste to send the dangerous blonde buddy of lawyer Chafardet (Posada Carriles' defense lawyer) to Bolivia? Very suspicious: three women to three key destinations ... it's not the blind man's fault but rather those who please them.

I won't say names, you find out ... there's a colorful ambassador (on permanent vacations) who that April 11 gathered officials and pledged cooperation to Dictator Pedro Carmona Estanga and Rodriguez Iturbe. The case of the blonde official who (at the consulate in Bucaramanga) conducted her own a mini coup d'etat on the Consul General because (according to her) Chavez was not the President anymore. The lady's husband ripped the president's photograph off the wall that same day. Well, surprise, surprise ... she has been named recently by a former MASista as coordinator of CONEG, a cadre of Pompeyo Marquez and pupil of the (acting) chancellor. "We are going bad ... but we are OK" as the furious neo-liberal, former guerilla fighter Teodoro Petkoff used to say.

Since we are remembering April 11-12, 2002, we can't forget to mention the anti-Chavist attitude before Puerto Rican TV cameras of a voluptuous official celebrating the new dictator. Another sad case was the taking down of the President's picture from the Venezuelan consulate in Miami that April 12. The picture again. And similarly regrettable, not to say shameful, was that day's "towel tossing" by the mission chief (another pupil of Colonel Davila) when he inexplicably delivered the consulate to another official because everything was already lost.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THAT... YOU DON'T NEED CHAMELEONIC LITTLE ESCUALIDOS.

But back to current affairs, and how top officials at MRE explain the fact that a vice minister with long dark hair has been in charge of two posts, not to say double schedules. That is, she works at a commercial radio station and is at the same time a vice minister. That's what is being commented on in the lobbies and elevators at MRE. Oh, not only that, but that the abovementioned has had the audacity to show her face on conspiratorial TV stations (RCTV and Televen) the same way as Colomina and Salazar ... pure Miquilenism.

What has Comptroller Russian to say about this?

In any other serious country this official would have been suspended from office while the case is investigated. But the IV Republic keeps its unscrupulous rule.

Another scandalous case is the assessment and confirmation of embassy third secretaries ... many have been confirmed but others weren't. The criterium used to disqualify them was to have signed against the President ... that is what they comment on, I can't verify it. However, what I do verify is that one of the important members of the qualifying jury (as was the former chief of staff) is not a university graduate ... despite having spent five long years at the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV). How many people has he evaluated without having any academic credentials? That's why they say the Revolution can't be transferred by genetics.

The case of the third secretaries who tried to bribe a hotel security agent in Cuba and were reported to the Cuban authorities? The thirds were awarded instead of being sanctioned ... Viva the IV Republic ... Viva the country of cunning.

Of course, if they see that a vice minister who was sanctioned by the Republic's General Comptroller and the Supreme Tribunal Justice laughs at everybody and fully conceals as if she didn't have to do anything with the matter, the third secretaries follow the example their superior gives to them.

And what do you say about the former personnel director who said no when asked to deliver a check to the relatives of an official who died abroad ... simply because she didn't want to do it ... and then she returned the check to the insurance company.

INSULT STAFF EVERY TIME SHE WANTED TO

Or the other former director who became a Chavista ... oh, what a surprise! ... on April 15, 2002 ... and then disappeared one weekend because he was involved in other things and, in the meetings, insult staff every time she wanted to. Both cases are still waiting for corresponding sanctions. The first one wants to go on service leave to Metropolitan Mayor's Office, the other to the National Assembly ... but it's that their former chief, the high-school graduate comrade who has applied the garrote to the not-so-blind and mediocre officials.

Just the same as they did shamelessly with a retired Interior & Justice Ministry director ... a recalcitrant Adeco and a teamster to Miquilena ... to undertake a fifth column assignment.

Davila and Miquilena still keep their tentacle grip on the MRE. The motto: "Take the street" quickly becomes "Take the Yellow House" (MRE-Foreign Ministry HQ) ... and they move very fast before 'Ali and the fantastic 5' can resort to their the ostrich act.

In November 2005, under the guise of Mision Milagro (Miracle Mission) they made a great display of recalling all the ambassadors from American continent. The idea wasn't bad at all, although there were many improvisations made by the organizers to defray the costs.

DO YOU KNOW THE COST OF MOBILIZING ALL MISSIONS CHIEFS TO CARACAS WITH PAID EXPENSES FOR ONE WEEK?

And not being happy with that, the following month they arranged another activity with the same ambassadors at Miraflores ... a pretext which served (they say) to put the screws on a MASista vice minister and leave him in charge of the MRE. It seems that just one activity could have been organized to avoid the unnecessary squander although it is much-liked by some pseudo-Chavist officials within the MRE.

HOORAY FOR $65 A BARREL .. WE HAVE TO SPREAD OIL REVENUES, AGREED ... BUT NOT IN THIS WAY.

You can arrive at you own conclusions: more than 20 mision chiefs @US$200 daily expenses each one, plus hotel, flights, etc., for a week in November and the other week in December. A week has seven days, two weeks has fourteen days... just do the math.

Use a magnifying glass to open your eyes because "when the river makes noises ... it's carrying debris" ... and dirty business too:

-- A contract with an insurance company was very much questioned from the start (March 2005). SRI is an insurance company for passengers and diplomats on international airlines. Ask the taliban high school graduate director to see what he responds ... he worked in an airline for a long time.

-- The unjustified and inexplicable purchase of five imported Grand Marquis luxury cars (minimum $30,000 each) for the five vice ministers, despite the fact the limos they were already using were OK. $150.000 for five luxury cars and the employees under contract are at risk of losing their benefits because of the fanciful indolence of pseudo-Bolivarians.

-- A contract with the garage responsible for the mechanical maintenance of the MRE transport fleet.

-- Many rumors about the sale of visas @ US$6,000 each to bring Asians to Venezuela ... it's apparent that there's a connection between ONIDEX and the MRE.

-- The MRE is ablaze on the inside ... many people want to express themselves and file charges but they're afraid of retaliation. Those who have been appointed by senior government do not fulfill their proper instructions from the President, although they make much pretense of doing so.

PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ ... WE URGENTLY NEED AN INVESTIGATION COMMITTEE THAT CAN CREATE THE BASIS FOR A NEW FOREIGN MINISTRY ONCE AND FOR ALL. LEFT AS IT IS THE MRE SIMPLY DOESN'T FUNCTION PROPERLY.

ALL THIS IS VERY REGRETTABLE. WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING TO SAVE THE MRE.

OBVIOUSLY, SINCE IT WON'T DO ANYTHING IF IT'S LEFT TO FESTER JUST AS IT IS.

LET'S SAVE THE VENEZUELAN FOREIGN MINISTRY BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!

-0-

VHeadline.com remains 100% independent of all political factions in Venezuela
-- our aim is to report what's happening without submitting to lawlessness

Our editorial statement reads:

VHeadline.com Venezuela is a wholly independent e-publication promoting democracy in its fullest expression and the inalienable right of all Venezuelans to self-determination and the pursuit of sovereign independence without interference. We seek to shed light on nefarious practices and the corruption which for decades has strangled this South American nation's development and progress. Our declared editorial bias is most definitely pro-Constitutional, pro-Democracy and pro-VENEZUELA.

-- Roy S. Carson, Editor/Publisher Edi...@VHeadline.com

telephones USA: Washington: 240-764-4818
Miami: 305-831-4843 - New York: 347-983-0249
Dallas TX: 214-329-9040 - Los Angeles CA: 626-921-4519
- Chicago IL: 708-459-8410 - Houston TX: 713-893-1433
Stamford CT: 203- 987-5370

telephones Europe:
London UK +44 / 20-7871-9846
and/or 20-7871-5293

Please give your support to our continuing efforts
http://www.vheadline.com/support

if you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe Click here

SUBSCRIBERS ARE ADVISED THAT THEY, AND THEY ALONE, HAVE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF MAINTAINING THEIR FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO VHEADLINE.COM VENEZUELA AND THAT OUR EDITORIAL STAFF DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE ANY READER.

PLEASE NOTE:
NO correspondence will be entered into by any member of our production team.

Fwd. by:

* IT'S VERY UNLIKELY, but if you indeed would prefer to unsubscribe from the FPF-list: just send an email in return with the word 'unsubscribe'.

* FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
http://forpressfound.blogspot.com/
Editor: Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/amn3q
The Netherlands
f...@chello.nl

-0-