Short-term Memory Loss: the Malady of socialists, chavistas, anti-imperialists Defectors
Gen. Cristopher Figuera: One More Piece in the chavista Shit Puzzle.
Greetings, everyone
One of the most recent cases of defectors of the Maduro regime is that of Gen. Manuel Ricardo Cristopher Figuera. Like all chavistas, who decide that it is about time to jump over the ideological fence and save their skin, Cristopher suffers of short-term memory loss. Only that can explain the cynicism of a man who until recently (read for the better part of his military career) served the bolivarian revolution, which translates into contributing to the destruction of our Venezuela’s economy, democracy, society, culture, history, and moral values, plus (because of his high-ranked military condition) being a protagonist in the violation of human rights to so many people who had the misfortune of falling prey to the SEBIN/DGCIM, Venezuela’s intelligence and counter-intelligence agencies.
It has been said that Cristopher is already collaborating with the American government to get some deal in exchange for vital information that can help bring Maduro’s government down. The death a couple of days ago of one of Cristopher’s close men, MAJ. Jesús Alberto García Hernández, compelled him to issue a statement that I felt compelled to fully translate for my English speaking readers.
This is one more example, of the many I have been reporting, of individuals who, after so many years of corruption, complicity, and silence decide that it is time for them to guarantee a safe retirement for them and their family and impunity, disguised as justice and reconciliation, allow these bastards to get away with anything.
The only Venezuelan military I can respect is the one who drops his uniform if they cannot oppose those who give them immoral orders; the one who wants to avoid the indignity and contradiction of wearing the uniform under the pretense of remaining morally untouched inside. It is like being a prostitute and assuming that one can still be pure, innocent, and incorruptible while still working on a brothel doing everything the brothel demands you to do.
This is Cristopher’s open letter (as it has been circulating in the media, https://www.lapatilla.com/2019/05/16/3935143/): you can skip it if you want and read my 8 highlighted main points.
"To the soldiers of my Motherland and Commanders at all levels."
"Let it be known to you, who represent the moral reservoir of the institutionalism of our Motherland, the indignation caused to me by the news of the death of Maj. Jesús Alberto García Hernández, because I am sure that that event was a selective murder on demand and will be shown as an isolated incident, creating macabre stories around it. Because they knew that that boy had handled sensible information of the most abhorring cases of corruption that were investigated during my tenure at SEBIN.
Generals and Admirals, Haven’t you realized the rags they’ve turned our beloved country into? Don’t you know who are ahead and behind the looting of our country? Don’t you see the practical application of state terrorism Maduro is using to remain in power?
Tarek William Saab (Kabul), brother… to you; to the Minister of Defense, to the Commander of the CEOFANB [operational strategic command] and to the Commanders of Components, I request to you to watch over my family that is in Venezuela. And let the record show that I make Nicolás Maduro Moros responsible for whatever harm that happens to them; let him know that because so much cowardice, abuse, and terror shall not go unpunished.
My MG Jesús Rafael Suárez Chourio, MAJ. García Hernández left a wife, two children of preschool age and a mother, all of them are victims today of this abuse of power and relentless terrorism; just because he worked with me. My Commander General I ask you to take care of that family, they have nothing to do with the mess Maduro drove the country through.
To the military high command I ask: Have you lost your human sensibility?
I want you to know that I am the same one you knew, with the same position, attitude, and convictions I expressed in different meetings of promotion boards, now with a more elevated level of consciousness. The assassination of Maj. García Hernández, very well disguised by the perpetrators will not go unpunished, because there is not a perfect crime.
Please, you too, take care.
To the people who worked with me and who occupied trust positions under my command, I hope you understand now why I did not ever tell you anything, to avoid putting you at risk; therefore, take preventive measures, because the desire of power for power’s sake vanishes the love for our Fatherland and Maduro is the best example of that.
To you, Commanders, for an instant, close your eyes hear the desperate cries of the mothers who cannot feed their children, of the sick people who cannot afford their treatment, regardless of how simple it is; look deep into your bodyguards and scribes' eyes and of those who work with you, but who do not have the privilege of your inner circles, there you’ll see the reality of our people.
Break that paradigm hat has imprisoned you; our giant, Chávez, did not leave Maduro so that he could turn our country into a waste land, he left him there to fulfill and make possible the country drawn in the law of the Plan de la Patria, which most ministers and high-ranked officials in Maduro’s administration ignore.
Everybody knows that Maduro was not up to the office of the presidency and I will say this again, I make him responsible for any harm my family, friends or people close to me may suffer; Ovidio Delgado Ramírez knows very well what I mean.
Nicolas Maduro you were able to fool and keep a whole people fooled, but I uncovered you… Come out again on a radio and TV broadcast and call me a bribed and traitor and tell our people that you are the most patriotic of all.
Manuel Ricardo Cristopher Figuera
Soldado de la Patria"
[end of Cristopher’s statement]
Of this “soldier of the Motherland” it was reported when he got the direction of the SEBIN:
This military has been identified as one of President Nicolás Maduro’s trusted men and accused also by various oppositional voices as a promoter of tortures and other degradations on political prisoners, such as general Ángel Vivas, inside the Dgcim [military counter intelligence general directorate].
Source: (http://www.caraotadigital.net/carrusel/quien-es-exjefe-sebin-maduro/)
Some obvious observation to Cristopher’s public letter:
As long as anyone keeps using the word patria, especially if that someone is a military who has collaborated for years with this twisted ideology, it will raise suspicions and will seriously damage any credibility the speaker attempts to gain.
He calls the soldiers he is addressing “the moral reservoir of the institutionalism of our Fatherland.” Are you f… kidding me? Reservoir? Moral? We don’t even have a reservoir of clean water or forest left (blame the Arco Minero). If there is something the Venezuelan men in uniform lack is moral. The military is the most corrupt institution in the country, no question about it. Ask a hundred randomly chosen Venezuelans whether they trust a man/woman in uniform and they will spit and curse (I conducted such survey some time ago to prove a point). Only 17% had something relatively nice to say about the military.
Cristopher calls the death of his friend “a selective murder on demand [that]will be shown as an isolated incident, creating macabre stories around it.” Why would he think such a thing, coming from our reservoir of morality? Would it be because that’s their modus operandi? Is Christopher, a man with so much power and influence in intelligence agencies (like Rodriguez Torres before him), going to say that he has not known of the many “accidents” that happen to innocent people whose only crime was to speak up, and sometimes such accidents happen inside the military academies that far from training honorable soldiers are creating psychos? Did Cristopher know about Edith Nakary Sayago Lezama, (https://steemit.com/ulog/@hlezama/ulog-004) my niece, who was killed in the military academy of Michelena, state of Táchira on July 5th 2018? Did any person in uniform care about the tragedy such “accident” represent for our family? Oh, but who are we? Nobody. Never mind that my brother-in-law has been a national guard for 30 years (chavista, by the way). Oh, but the families of those who matter, who are somebody for this corrupt system, do matter, and must be protected. That is how the twisted mind of the Venezuelan military works. They do not think about the families of the people they arrest, torture or even kill, just because they dared to opposed a government, which now they come to tell us they did not agree with in the first place!
He appeals to a list of Maduro’s high ranking officials. Atorney General, Tarek William Saab, the Minister of Defense (Gen. Vladimir Padrino López), and Gen. Jesús Rafael Suárez Chourio (general commander of the army). He calls Saab brother. Ask the average Venezuelan what they would think of anybody who calls Saab brother, and then you figure how much you can trust such a person. Hasn’t Cristopher heard of Gen. Isaias Baduel, Chavez’s ex-minister of defense and compadre? Baduel saved chavez’s life during the 2002 coup attempt and is now rotting in a prison somewhere. That’s how the obedient chavista and bolivarian soldier ends up. That’s how the chavistas show their magnanimity.
He has the nerves of asking the question: “Have you lost your human sensibility?” They lost their humanity the moment they recited the chavista motto: “patria, socialismo o muerte”(motherland, socialism or death). Never mind Chavez changed it when he realized he was mortally ill and omitted the word death. Any military who accepts to have a bunch of psychos as bosses and swears to obey without discussion the orders of megalomaniacs and crooks has waived their human sensibility and embraced inhumanity and cruelty as their way of life. But Cristopher is not an idiot, he is just a cynic!
Now he wants his men to “hear the desperate cries of the mothers who cannot feed their children.” Do you know for how long those mothers have been crying? For as long as Maduro has been in office! You had at least 6 years to do something about it and you did nothing! Aren’t the images of men and women in uniform humiliating and abusing harmless women and elderly people marching and begging for an end to this nightmare enough to convince you that those cries fall in deaf ears? My theory is that the more people cry, the more powerful they feel, the more harm they want to inflict to their victims. They feed from our pain and suffering.
And the big pile of shit falls right here, when Cristopher reminds us of “our giant, Chávez”. You don’t need to be a fortune teller, a political analyst, a historian, or a psychologist to know that this idiot deserves no more attention than a resuscitated Hitler, trying to explain how his plan would have actually improved the world had he been given one more year. Anyone who thinks that the root of all our problems (and those of the whole continent now that you think about it) is a “giant” as a measure of achievement deserves to rot in hell. Chavez might have been a giant in as much as his gigantic fucked-up decisions ruined the potentially richest country in the continent. He made gigantic mistakes, what Venezuelans call cagadas (piles of shit), only in that measure was he a giant. He put Maduro there, making sure, after all the destruction of our independent powers and the submission of the military, that he would be elected and would not have any significant resistance. If you think that you can criticize Maduro and hail Chavez in the same sentence as if the former were independent from the latter you are either a moron (which we know Cristopher is not) or a cynic who has nothing to envy from the deranged Rodriguez’s siblings.
- Finally, Maduro did not fool anyone, except probably the die-hard chavista whose insight is as developed as any of chavez’s cagadas. Cristopher claims to have unmasked Maduro. Are we supposed to thank him for having discovered the obvious? What exactly did he discover? Will it be like all the secrets former Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz was going to reveal (just as long as her safety and that of her family was assured)?
None of the chavistas who are now claiming not to be maduristas and who pretend to be seen as the saviors of chavez’s legacy should be institutionalized. It will be a tragedy of even higher proportions to see any of them occupy any office in the near future. If that were the case, Venezuela would definitely have waived its right to be called “Land of Grace”. It would have become a land of eternal disgrace.
Aren't you afraid to put all this in writing, in a place you can't really take it off the web after 7 days, in the given situation of Venezuela? I would be afraid of every word I write against this socialist machine. On some level I have to thank you for sharing all this insight with us, on the other I am somehow afraid for you... I have only lived my first 5 years in socialism and I can't remember anything of course but from all I could learn from the people older than me, free speech was clearly not a thing to possess back then or to brag about. The prison was on the table but in uncertain times, even death was an option.
I think Venezuela finds itself yet again, in the crusher that is the fight for power in face of a dying, monolithic regime and I really hope that something even uglier will not come out from all this struggle you people take in order to gain real freedom. Socialists are very hard to take down from power and when you think you really did cut them from power access, you discover in 20 years that somehow the socialist regime didn't really die in the meantime, but rather transformed in a 1000 snake heads, all poisonous, each posing in the most open democrat. People like you will be disgusted when people like this guy will be given different seats in the Government, as the hypocrisy is huge in these dudes. I'm afraid that the wealth of Venezuela will not make this transition easy and the fight for the "liberation of the country" has just started for your country. Unfortunately, this mother fuckers are not giving up so easily and when they have the support of the army things will tend to turn bloody.
Take care of yourself and your family man! I think the hardest days for Venezuela have not even started yet...
Thank you very much. I appreciate your concern.
What can I say, most people live and die in silence and that does not spare them from the indignities of the system. I guess we'd better go with some dignity and say what we think when it may matter.
I think that when living becomes such a mess, dying does not look that intimidating.
We have lost a lot by now and, even though I agree with you that the worst may be yet to come, for many of us it does not make much of a difference.
I think that in the same way peole need reasons to live, they also need models of how to.
Living in silence and fear should not be an option.
It is humiliating enough not to have any real power to change things significantly.
We can't add self-censure to that.
Again, I really appreciate your kind words
@vonaurolacu & @hlezama,
And this ... is why Henrry has my salute ... he has the courage of his convictions. Countries are not built by cowards.
Quill
Thanks, Quill.
I have witnessed the utter destruction of all the institutions and cultural assets I grew up with. Whatever defined me as Venezuelan, from territorial notions to traditions, exist no longer in the same way they existed 20 years ago.
All because people have ben afraid to (at least) speak up.
I saw the destruction of my university (and the rest of the universities in the country, although some still manage to function) and with perplexity I saw how fellow faculty members, who allegedly possess the highest levels of intellectual/cultural/historical awareness refuse to see what was coming; they refused to support measures that might have prevented the total collapse of our higher education system.
Ironically, most of them are now out of the country,enjoying a better life, erasing their role in this mess.
When we see that level of cowardice in those circles, we can only hope that masses, with less restrains resulting from formal education (what Bertran Russell would call "good manners"), would ignite a flame that will burn the whole damn system down.
In our case, those masses have been domesticated with the oldest of tricks: bread and circus inside a barrier of ignorance and misinformation.
PS. Thanks for the token (just noticed). Most generous of you.
@hlezama,
I can't believe I missed this post before payout. Sorry mate. I'll upvote a couple of your comments instead.
You're 100% correct.
These assholes are not soldiers, they're mafioso and their very existence is a disgrace to the concept of "military honor." And all this talk about Maduro corrupting Chavez's legacy ... how stupid can people be? That is PRECISELY what the Lefties said about Stalin screwing up Lenin's legacy.
Lenin ... set up the Gulags!!!
The idea that these guys should try to claim "victim status" is laughable. Everyone over the rank of Captain is almost certainly a cockroach.
Quill
It is that simple, man, and yet they manage to get an audience that will echo their pleas and will forget about their very very recent crimes just because they will tell us what we already know.
@hlezama,
It's hard not to get "jaded," isn't it?
Quill