Friday afternoon, in an incredible spectacle of intimidation, including a shower of tear gas bombs hurled by dictator Hugo Chavez's mobile goons, Venezuela's top opposition lawyer held a press conference to announce the release of a final report  showing how fraud was committed in Venezuela's spoiled recall referendum. The Aug. 15 vote, hailed as a model of fairness by the likes of Medea Benjamin, who now plans to monitor our U.S. election, was widely seen by less totalitarian minds as fraud on a massive scale.
 
The details are devastatingly long and summarized best by eyewitness Miguel Octavio on his blog, but one detail that interests me is that the lawyer said the cover—up extended all the way to hiding the fraudmaking electronic equipment somewhere in Pasadena.
 
Jimmy Carter's response? He pathetically announced that he didn't want to monitor new regional elections coming up on Oct. 31 while not admitting his role in endorsing the fraud with his own worthless name.  This story is just out and it's a bombshell. Forecast: The New York Times will ignore it, but the Miami Herald and Wall Street Journal will take it up. It's too big. And for you Jimmy Carter? It's called legacy time.
 
—A.M. Mora y Leon   10 17 04