More Than 50 Lifetime Appointments!!

Clarification 1/20/2010

Original post:
The National Congress was feeling generous in its last session, at least towards those who led the coup. They gave more than 50 functionaries lifetime government appointments according to the newspaper Tiempo today. The decree, proposed by the unctuous José Alfredo Saavedra, rewarded not only Roberto Micheletti Bain, but also the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Jorge Rivera, the Public Prosecutor, Luis Rubi (who is guaranteed 3 percent of the government's budget), and the entire military High Command, among others. According to Tiempo, this security is for more than 45 Ministers, attorneys, directors of autonomous institutes, and the family of Micheletti. The government will, in addition, assume the bill of hiring private guards for all of these people.

Corrupt much?

Clarification:
As pointed out by a keen-eyed critic of this blog, this post over-extended the implications of the original article, which announced "Seguridad vitalicia" (lifetime security), meaning "security guards for life".

So, this is not an extension of the unprecedented appointment for life awarded Roberto Micheletti.

Instead, it is an equally unprecedented and more egregious grant to 50 people-- including Roberto Micheletti; Jorge Rivera, President of the Supreme Court; Luis Rubí; Rubí's assistant attorney, Roy Urtecho; the six members of the Armed Forces High Command; and the 17 ministers and 17 vice-ministers of the cabinet of the de facto regime.

As noted in the original post, the bill authorizes paying for private security guards if those with security for life do not want the police or armed forces to serve in that role.

Among the remarkable things about this unprecedented grant, we would underline the provision of guarantees of lifetime security to members of the government whose appointments are not ending with the installation of the new government (the head of the Supreme Court, for example). And of course, the idea of providing lifetime security guards for every member of the cabinet suggests either a degree of paranoia, or that the de facto regime knows it was not really as universally admired as claimed.

We apologize to readers who were led to imagine that fifty individuals joined Roberto Micheletti in becoming unelected members of the government for life. But we note that in fact this is an unprecedented action that exemplifies what is wrong with the de facto regime.