Remember the Daniel Ortega? The man Ronald Reagan dubbed "the little dictator" of Nicaragua got his 15 minutes of fame in New York some years ago by spending tens of thousands of dollars there on a shopping spree for mirrored sunglasses. This Marxist Sandinista who claimed to be to be a man of the people had his "needs" too. Never underestimate the taste communists have for luxury. Ortega screamed a lot about yanqui imperialismo, but he liked shopping the Great American Hog Wallow as much as Paris Hilton ever did.
 
In a welcome development, the bland bureaucrats of U.S. Embassy's fraud prevention unit in Caracas have revoked a travel visa for Venezuela's top Supreme Court Justice, Omar Mora. The thug who sealed Venezuela's fraudulent recall referendum has been stopped at the frontier from his own Daniel—Ortega—style shopping spree.
 
As you may imagine, he is yelling about it, braying like a deadbeat who's just had his credit card cut off. And that's probably what it is. He doesn't have any important business here. He just wanted to go shopping in some place like Miami. As Javier Caceres  put it: For him, a U.S. entry visa is a perk, a VISA card.
 
Miguel Octavio has the original matter—of—fact document from the fraud—prevention unit posted to his blog,  and Daniel Duquenal has some good commentary on the pathetic fool and his claims that the U.S. is insulting the majesty of Venezuelan courts, as well as details on how much he's done to destroy the judicial system in Venezuela, effectively ending any prospect for impartial justice for anyone.  
 
Sometimes the U.S. government works, and this is one good instance. One wonders what that U.S. fraud prevention unit had in mind by denying this guy his sunglasses trip. It could have been the electoral fraud in the Jimmy Carter—endorsed recall referendum, but given that people who commit fraud rarely do it just once, it could be a whole host of crimes going on in south Florida — other South American politicians have been rounded up for this in the past. Alek Boyd notes that his son's been in trouble with the law for white collar crimes before and has since fled to Europe.  What, again, does that say about the Venezuelan recall referendum?
 
U.S. government bureaucrats got these thugs where it hurt this time. Let's hope there's more of this pressure, because given the venality of the Venezuelan regime, it might just work. If it doesn't, Alek Boyd notes that they should cheer up: They can always go shopping in Cuba.
 
A.M. Mora y Leon 05 28 05