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Must admit, I have been a bit slow on some developments lately, however upon reading this morning the news about whether or not Chavez said that Haiti's earthquake had been caused by some "earthquake weapon" operated by the US Navy, I decided to dig a little to establish who said what.

After the coup that briefly ousted Hugo Chavez from his domain in 2002, a couple of Irish film makers, who, chance would have it, purportedly found themselves witnessing the whole shebang, produced a 'documentary' that captured those fateful days.

To the short and brutal list of life's certainties, let us add that socialism invariably leads nations to economic ruin. Latest case in point: Hugo Chávez's "Bolivarian" Republic of Venezuela.

(*) Granier has done what few had dared. In these times of group think and collectivism, individuals also embody archetypes. As such, in a great part of the collective imagination of Venezuelans, Marcel Granier and Gustavo Cisneros have ceased being persons turning into symbols of the country's integrity or decay. Like Dorian Gray in Oscar Wilde's novel, or Hendrik Hoefgen in István Szabó's film MEFISTO, Cisneros has transformed, in our political imagination, into the embodiment of a typical literary, mythology and folklor character: the one that sells his soul to the devil.

Hugo Chavez has presumably ordered his minion Andres Izarra to keep him up to speed with Twitter (http://twitter.com/HugoChavez_Vzla). At least that's what the first tweet (11:00 PM Jan 8th from web) says:

Buenas tardes, soy Andrés Izarra sepan que el presidente esta recibiendo por medio de un resumen diario todos sus comentarios. Saludoss

Translation:

The WSJ reports today that the Venezuelan madman said recently that "investment and experience from foreign oil firms is necessary in Venezuela, "We need it".

Yesterday was another day of violence