VHeadline editor & publisher Roy S. Carson writes: Recently, Venezuela's National Assembly (Congress) president (speaker) Cilia Flores got into a fret over reporting in the (admittedly anti-government) Venezuelan newspapers that the august body of legislators, rather than fighting corruption was actually a hotbed of nepotism. The very word "nepotism" sent her into a tizzy demanding that the media make immediate retractions of the calumny ... despite the fact that she, herself, is the wife of Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro (and ultimately third in line to the presidency of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the event that the 'gringoes' succeed in wiping out both Chavez and his Veep. Ramon Carrizales).



Besides that, in reports published widely and defiantly on July 9, Flores had managed to place relatives in as many as nine of sixty permanent positions at the National Assembly ... three brothers/sisters, two nephews, a cousin, the mother of that cousin, her mother-in-law and an aunt!



Of course, she denies that any of her relatives have special benefits from their paid employment at the Legislature and, according to her, that means there is NO nepotism.



While a Venezuela Country Profile published on the Internet also advises that "nepotism an accepted practice and is considered a good thing, since it implies that employing people one knows and trusts is of primary importance" , the new climate of dog-eats-dog in Venezuela's black versus white political madness doesn't let established custom get in the way of blatant butchery.





Questions are being asked if it is a general design to put a stranglehold on career diplomacy or if value is to be seen and accorded to diplomatic professionals who put store by representing the whole 25+ million in Venezuela's population and their desires for a very much better future.



Seen from a perspective of Washington DC's jaundiced view of all things Venezuelan, it is looking a gift horse in the mouth. While the majority of civil servants in North America and Europe et.al. know and are guarded by a line in the sand separating administrational duties from political machinations, the problem for Venezuela lies in the fact that, in the event of an alternative presidency at some time in the future, looking inevitably beyond Chavez' tenure at Miraflores, it will be not just the Ministerial line-up that'll change overnight but there'll be wholesale slaughter among the civil service rank and file ... and that'll be far from being "civil" as we might know it!



Roy S. Carson

vheadline@gmail.com

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Venezuela is facing the most difficult period of its history with honest reporters crippled by sectarianism on top of rampant corruption within the administration and beyond, aided and abetted by criminal forces in the US and Spanish governments which cannot accept the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people to decide over their own future.