From Quico's blog, The bomb in my editor's car ,linking to this on the Reporters Without Borders website.

The editor of a political website, who was regularly excoriated on the publicly funded Chavista state media, quits his post over threats made against his seven year old son, and his car spontaneously combusts on the eve of a national holiday/four day weekend when the media is traditionally Gone Fishin'? And this isn't newsworthy?

But, as Casto Ocando reports, what's to be expected? "Cuban Penetration Of Venezuelan Telecom Increases" here, in Spanish

* Venezuelan state-owned CVG-Telecom, a branch of the Telecom ministry,
contracted with Cuban state owned Cubatel for the wiring of new networks

* The Chavez regime acquired equipment and set-up services for all
"community" broadcasters from Cuba's Copextel, an enterprise founded and managed by Cuban Minister Ramiro Valdés

• The new Centro de Formación para Comunicadores, a center for the "development" of "mass communication specialists", under the aegis of the Info Ministry, will be staffed exclusively by Cuban instructors.

* The President of the network that replaced independent RCTV, Lil Rodríguez, worked at Radio Rebelde, one of the major Cuban propaganda radio stations.

• Cuban-Venezuelan consortium Cubaven will be charged with manufacturing the new national identity card and "smart" passports, to include RFT/radio frequency tags for the purpose of " storing data critically important for the Venezuelan State",
accordong to Pedro Carreño, Interior and Justice minister.

* Another Cubozuelan joint venture, Telecom-Transbit, intends to lay cable between La Guaira, in Venezuela, and Siboney, en Cuba, spanning 1,552 kilometres, able to
carry 160 gigabytes/second, "able to handle 20,000,000 concurrent telephone calls or 26.000 TV signals.

At the same time, the presence of Venezuelan military personnel specializing in intelligence work is ever more evident in key telecom circles, which were previously off-limits to them."

Handwriting, wall.

Returning to the theme that David Chase hammered on in The Sopranos closing arc, Yeats' "The Second Coming".

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.