Vice President defends new laws, but another 16 legislative proposals would be sent to the National Assembly

Caracas Daily Journal (Jeremy Morgan): Vice President Ramon Carrizalez said the government's package of 26 new laws were based on a "humanist spirit" and he claimed the people weren't listening to the opposition any more. Speaking at a press conference to which only the state media were reportedly invited, he said: "Venezuelans have learnt not to allow themselves to be manipulated or influenced by the coup-mongering attitudes of opposition groups. Now, the people recognize the spirit of these laws, the great humanist sense, and understand that if they're attacked it's only because we're on the right road."

Carrizalez took issue with criticism by "counter-revolutionary sectors" of President Hugo Chavez' having made use of his special powers to promulgate these laws by decree before the Enabling Act expired on July 31. The President had been fully within his powers in doing so, the laws had been declared to be constitutional by the Supreme Justice Tribunal (TSJ), and they had been duly published in the Official Gazette, he added.

Carrizales said proposals for a further 16 laws would be submitted to the National Assembly (AN) because they contained "many elements of discussion" but he did not go into detail about what these envisaged.

Julio Borges of the opposition party Primero Justicia dismissed the presidential package as a bad joke on the referendum late last year which rejected Chavez' plan to reform the Constitution, not least by removing a ban on more than one successive presidential election. Borges claimed many of the new laws consisted of changes that had been submitted to and rejected by the voters at the referendum last December 2.

The laws signed by Chavez were "exactly what the Venezuelan people had voted against in a clear manner on that day, he added. Rafael Simon Jimenez made much the same point, accusing the government of "inconceivable piracy" in its method of using the enabling powers to introduce "contraband" laws.