12.24.15: Salida from La Salida

Speaking in an interview with the online news publication TalCual, Miranda state governor Henrique Capriles leveled harsh criticism against the protest campaign that shook the country during the early months of 2014. Capriles called the protests – which the Venezuelan opposition termed La Salida [The Exit] – “one of our great national failures”.

Capriles said:

I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but La Salida has to be included as one of our great national failures, along with the [2002] general strike. It handed the government a narrative that it used for over a year. If we had continued down that road, we would not have succeeded on December 6 (…) we now have a policy that works, and we have to keep working to strengthen it. There’s no room for “La Salida: Part Two” if you want to keep the [MUD] unified.

Speaking on the recent creation of the National Communal Council, a kind of shadow-parliament created by the PSUV to oppose the MUD at the National Assembly, Capriles said:

[Diosdado] Cabello is a specialist when it comes to taking advtange of things after elections and looting an institution before handing it over. That’s all they have left. Cabello has become a sad character. He’s out of [the top] rankings. The National Assembly’s powers are outline in the Constitution, and there’s nothing to discuss there.

Capriles also said that he hoped that the National Assembly would secure the release of the country’s political prisoners next year. Speaking on Leopoldo Lopez specifically, Capriles said that he did not view him as a political opponent:

I’ve said this before: I’m not in competition with Leopoldo Lopez. I don’t see him as a competitor. We’re after different things.

Court Approves Rincon Asset Seizure

Earlier today, a Houston court approved the seizure of all United States assets belonging to Venezuelan businessman Roberto Rincon. Rincon was arrested last week in the Houston area after an investigation found that he was involved in a bribery conspiracy involving PDVSA.

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