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This is something I was meaning to tell since I came back from Venezuela's presidential race in January 2007. Chavez has been able to do what he has done, for one simple reason: the absolute uselessness of his opposition. Be it student leaders, charismatic mayors, regional governors, media barons, or regular politicians, it is quite hard to find another country where the combined effectiveness of an opposition front is so pathetic. Chavez lost the amendment referendum in 2007, for he messed up with his constituency, with those who get the vote out, and those who protect him.

It must be admitted, Human Rights Watch (HRW) ha puesto el dedo en la llaga.

For those who, rightly so, denounce absence of due process, brutality and inhumane way in which prisoners are kept in Guantanamo Bay, please be certain to criticize, with same vehemence reserved to US and UK authorities, dictators Raul and Fidel Castro next door, for not allowing Red Cross representatives to visit Cuban prisoners, political or otherwise.

Venezuela awoke this morning to a distinctively different political landscape: Hugo Chavez has lost in the most populated areas of the country, namely Caracas, Miranda, Carabobo and Zulia. The loss of Caracas is all the more significant, considering against whom the chavista candidate lost: an old timer, from once powerful Accion Democratica party, Antonio Ledezma.

... comes from an article in the The Times about Zimbabwe:

In the course of this year I have visited Cuba in two occasions. I have always felt certain attraction to the island, perhaps this was compounded by the fact that my grandmother was Cuban, from Caibarien. To be frank the initial feeling, upon spending the first few days, was one of utter disgust: at the civilized world’s conscious decision to ignore the plight for freedom of 11 million Cubans, who not only have had to endure a brutal dictatorship for half a century, but on top of it, the world’s ignominy.