"There will not be a coup here,''…Hugo Chavez (Venezuela Business Leaders Call Strike)

dailynews.yahoo.com ^ | November 15, 2001 | AP

[Cincinatus' Wife]

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela's largest business association decided Wednesday to organize a nationwide production strike to protest the government's alleged closed-door approval of a package of laws aimed at jump-starting the economy.

Fedecamaras President Pedro Carmona said the chamber will meet Monday to set a date for the strike. The organizations has suspended its weekly meetings with the government, Carmona told Union Radio station.

Fedecamaras' chief complaint is that farmers have not seen the contents of a land reform law that determines how the government can expropriate private, idle land.

``We deplore the Executive's persistence in imposing its criteria on the rest of the sectors of society,'' Carmon said.

The land reform law was among 49 bills that President Hugo Chavez passed under special, fast-track powers that allowed him to bypass parliamentary debate. He announced the completion of the laws Tuesday, hours before the yearlong powers expired.

Chavez insists that the government considered Fedecamaras' proposals for the land reform law and that the final draft responded to the interests of the majority of Venezuelans.

On Wednesday, Chavez said the government is on ``alert'' for subversive movements that may be trying to instigate civil and military disobedience. His remarks, in an interview with state television station Venezolana de Television, apparently referred to calls by an opposition party and labor unions for nationwide strikes.

``We are on alert because of this situation and because of almost public calls by political and often corrupt groups for rebellion.''

``There will not be a coup here,'' Chavez added.

Earlier this month, the Military High Command issued a statement denying rumors of discontent within the armed forces that sporadically crop up in this impoverished South American country of 24 million.

The opposition Democratic Action party has called for a nationwide, general strike on Nov. 22 to urge the president to soften his rhetoric against business leaders, the Roman Catholic Church, the news media and unions. Labor leaders also threatened a nationwide strike if the government does not recognize the legitimacy of its leaderships elections.

Since Chavez took office in 1999, his opponents have accused him of alienating investment with his leftist rhetoric. Beloved by the poor majority, Chavez accuses his critics of belonging to a corrupt oligarchy that he has targeted in what he describes as a revolution - rewriting the constitution and replacing an unpopular congress and supreme court through elections.

Recent polls show most Venezuelans still approve of the government but are impatient with slow progress on crime and unemployment.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The havoc Hugo Chavez has wrought in Venezuelz

Chavez Approves Economy Laws (confiscation of private land)-- A land reform law determines how the government can usurp idle, private land. On Monday in downtown Caracas, hundreds of farmers protested the government's failure to publicly discuss the content of that law.

[RippleFire]

"There will not be a coup here," Chavez added.

We're kinda busy right now, weasel.
But we haven't forgotten you.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

He thinks while the cat's away the rat can play!

[xsmommy]

a land reform law that determines how the government can expropriate private, idle land.

maybe this will wake up the venezuelan sheeple, when they start expropriating the land....

[aculeus]

He's castro-loving scum.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

When parents marched to the Congress to protest Chavez's take over
of the school curriculum,they were attacked by Chavez's goons.
It looks like many are awake. What will they do about it?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Dangerous anti-Americanism next door-->Chávez, a left-leaning nationalist, has allied himself with Cuba's Fidel Castro, Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Libya's Moammar Gadhafi. These countries may end up having played a role in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Some of Chávez's actions have been bizarre. Not long after taking office, he wrote a fawning letter of solidarity to Venezuelan-born terrorist ``Carlos the Jackal,'' now in a French prison. Chávez apparently identified with Carlos as a fellow ``revolutionary.''

Chávez also has alarmed neighboring Colombia with his sympathetic attitude for that nation's murderous Marxist narco-guerrillas, whose members admitted murdering in 1999 three U.S. citizens who had worked as activists for indigenous Colombians. Their bodies were dumped across the border in Venezuela.

[Clemenza]

My Venezuelan co-workers are happy that you are bringing this turd with legs to the attention of Americans. The general consensus however is that Chavez will continueto have support in the short-term as 1. A large portion of the Venezuelan population is young and semi-literate and 2. Venezuelans have a nasty habit of voting for populists, cheering them on for a few years and only realizing the looting of their country when it is too late.

[carpio]

bttt

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Thank you for reporting this info to me and the thread.

Chavez intends to keep them dumb, depressed, dependent and "democrat." His takeover of the school curriculum was vital to the brainwashing of future Venezuelans. His populist ravings (I understand he's giving those hours long speeches so Castro-like) do appeal to the poor who will never see freedom or improvements as he drives the country ever further toward socialism. Extremely regrettable.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Labor leaders also threatened a nationwide strike if the government does not recognize the legitimacy of its leaderships elections.

I guess Chavez's man lost. Too bad the media hasn't reported anything past this: (10-23-01)--Chávez's choice likely to lose union-post vote--[Excerpt] It's a vote long advocated by Chávez as a facet of his ``peaceful revolution'' to do away with corruption in the country's institutions and install social justice. But despite the president's triumph in last December's referendum -- which asked Venezuelans whether they wanted elections in the CTV -- the final result is not expected to go as Chávez envisioned. If the president's handpicked candidate, former Caracas Mayor Aristóbulo Istúriz, loses, as analysts predict, it will mark Chávez's first defeat at the polls in the eight elections held in Venezuela since November 1998. ``

This is a turning point for Chávez,'' says political scientist and author Anibal Romero. ``The defeat is going to be symbolic, marking a descent in the Chávez myth.''[End Excerpt]

If someone has a LINK to how the vote went, I'd appreciate it.

[hchutch]

Time for CIA to do a 187 on Hugo?

[lavaroise]

``There will not be a coup here,'' Chavez added.

People stop working and wants to force them to work talking about a coup when it is a peaceful protest. This guy is a lunatic. Venezuela, as predicted, under Chavez, is turning into North Korea. Chavez claims potemkin victimhood.

[Faraday]

Some of Chávez's actions have been bizarre. Not long after taking office, he wrote a fawning letter of solidarity to Venezuelan-born terrorist ``Carlos the Jackal,'' now in a French prison. Chávez apparently identified with Carlos as a fellow ``revolutionary.''

Sounds like another Mullah Omar in the making. The Venezuelan people, military, and business community should carefully consider where such leadership may take their nation.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

A Recipe for Economic Collapse in Venezuela: Hugo Chavez's Anti-Capitalist Philosophy--[Excerpt] Chavez gravitates towards the dictatorial left, and has explicitly struck out against America's dominant status in the world and the "savage capitalism" it promotes. He has gone out of his way to visit and praise Fidel Castro, Jiang Zemin, and Saddam Hussein, and has cited the government of Libya's Col. Muammar Qaddafi as a model of democracy. Regarding Cuba and Venezuela, Chavez stated that both countries were "swimming together towards the same sea of happiness."

There are ominous parallels between Castro and his admirer Chavez. Like Castro, Chavez was a failed baseball player, and like Castro, came to power as a "reformer." Both were originally hailed as "reformers" and "pragmatists." Now, like Castro and numerous past revolutionaries, Chavez erects massive posters of himself, and lectures the country for hours on the wickedness of capitalists, the necessity of class warfare, land redistribution, and the delights of delivering a "knockout punch to the counterrevolution."

Those productive and wealthy Venezuelans on the receiving end of Chavez' abuse aren't waiting around for his "knockout punch." They appear to be voting with their feet and checkbooks. Capital flight is substantial, estimated to be about US$1 billion per month. [End Excerpt]

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The Venezuelan people, military, and business community should carefully consider where such leadership may take their nation.

Bump!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

(February 27, 2001) Chávez's school plans ignite furor in Venezuela -[Excerpt] A new constitution written by Chávez supporters requires all schools to teach ``Bolivarian principles'' ---- a code phrase for Chávez's brand of leftist populism ---- and the pro-Chávez majority in the legislative National Assembly is preparing a bill laying out the exact curriculum. .......New history texts for fourth- and sixth-graders published in 1999 praised Chávez's coup attempt and branded as ``corrupt oligarchies'' the two parties that ruled Venezuela since the late 1950s, Democratic Action and COPEI. Chávez has also greatly expanded a system of paramilitary classes in public high schools that had long been on the books but were seldom held, portraying them as ``the founding stones of the new Venezuelan man.''

``He is promoting militarism, infecting texts with viruses that foster class hatreds ... and speak against globalization and privatization,'' Raffalli said in an interview. Chávez recently signed a deal with Cuba under which Havana will train Venezuelan teachers and provide educational materials, and Education Minister Hector Navarro last year approved a nationwide essay competition on the life of Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary Ernesto ``Ché'' Guevara. [End Excerpt]

Chavez has toppled an opposition-controlled Congress, rewritten the constitution and the education curriculum, purged the judiciary and gained power to legislate by decree. Chavez has confiscated private land, restricted landowners from purchasing guns for protection and set up block watches to report back to him.

(November 8, 2001)
A supporter of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez holds a brick and threatens the parents and teachers who marched against the government's proposed education reforms in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Nov. 8. 2001. The demonstration ended in violence when the protesters were met by hundreds of Chavez supporters when they reached Congress. (AP Photo/Jorge Santos, El Universal)

(November 14, 2001)--
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez picks up a boy during an opening ceremony of a Bolivarian school at Caucagua about 40 miles ( 64 kilometers, east of Caracas, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2001. Chavez announced Tuesday the completion of a package of laws aimed at jump-starting the economy _ laws he was granted special authority to enact without parliamentary debate. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

[Cincinatus' Wife]

FYI

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Schools, land, judiciary, congress, arts, gun ownership.......When will it stop?