"Diego, you feared the rabbit."
Posted on 11/15/2007 10:14:07 PM PST by neverdem
A constitutional 'reform' could complete Venezuela's transformation into a dictatorship.
TENS OF thousands of Venezuelan students marched to the Supreme Court in Caracas last week to protest the new "socialist" constitutional reform that President Hugo Chavez is preparing to impose on the country. On their return, students from the Central University of Venezuela were fired on by gunmen who roared onto the campus on motorcycles. Nine were hurt; university officials later identified the shooters as members of government-sponsored paramilitary groups. That's just one example of the ugly climate of intimidation Mr. Chavez is creating in advance of a Dec. 2 referendum that he expects will formally confirm him as de facto president for life and give him powers rivaling those of his mentor, Fidel Castro.
Mr. Chavez's apologists like to dismiss the Venezuelan forces opposing his deconstruction of democracy -- which include the Catholic Church, the private business community and labor unions as well as students -- as a corrupt elite. So it's worth noting what some of Mr. Chavez's long-standing allies are saying about his constitutional changes. The political party Podemos, whose members ran for parliament on a pro-Chavez platform, call it "a constitutional fraud." Mr. Chavez's recently retired defense minister, Gen. Ra¿l Isa¿as Baduel, said it was an "undemocratic imposition" and that its approval would amount to "a coup."
In fact, Mr. Chavez's rewrite would complete his transformation into an autocrat. It would lengthen his presidential term from six to seven years and remove the current limit of two terms, allowing him to serve indefinitely. He would have broad powers to seize property, to dispose of Venezuela's foreign exchange reserves, to impose central government rule on local jurisdictions and to declare indefinite states of emergency under which due process and freedom of information would be suspended. As a...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Mr Carter, former President of the United States, said the election had been fair.
Wanna bet Mr Carter has nothing to say now?
Mr Carter, in the twilight of irrelevance, regrets nothing in his life. Except his inability to destroy Israel.
Surrogate's, surrogate's, if only I had had more surrogates"s.
The compost is lapping this up with more glee than if they were suckling on the man himself.
Wonder if Shehan will be his queen. Mrs. Dictator.
Hopefully one of Chavez’s fellow citizens will take him out and give the world a gift.
Looking back and Billy Carter, we used to think he was the worse brother peeing in public everywhere and being a pig, but over time Billy has shown he was indeed the gem compared to Jimmy.
Chavez Ping
I see Canada is training a police force that will serve Chavez’s vision of government very well. Kill anyone who steps out of line, answer to no one.
That is a perk of being a dictator, which is why it would be nice if one of his own citizens ends Chavez.
The Washpo is a grade above the Slimes in actually reporting legitimate news and occasionally being able to recognize the truth. That does not make them good...just better than the Slimes...which is a very low hurdle to jump over.
That’s what happens when only the “GOVERMENT’ has guns.
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