Amendment for presidential reelection "must be completed" in February

Venezuela's president does not intend to spend 2009 in a debate on whether Chávez is a tyrant, or half a tyrant, and so on. "I do not want a long discussion, no, no." Therefore, he urged his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) to prepare "right away" a constitutional amendment aimed at implementing indefinite presidential reelection in Venezuela next February, at the latest.

During the inauguration of the new governor of central Aragua state Rafael Isea, held at the Opera Theater of Maracay Monday in the afternoon, President Chávez suggested that the deadline for filing the constitutional amendment with the National Assembly should be January 2009. However, Monday night, during a rally in Valencia, the capital of central Carabobo state, he set a different deadline, namely February 2009.

Chávez repeated the message he sent to his followers earlier. He told his supporters that if they intended to raise an amendment to the Constitution to implement indefinite presidential reelection they should not waste time. Therefore, he launched "the battle for the amendment." "If we are going to do this, let us do this quickly; let us do this right away. If we are going to do this, there is no tomorrow, it is now, now," Chávez insistently said. Then he added: "December is a good month to start. Today (Monday) is December 1st, let us start the attack. The battle for the constitutional amendment starts now," said Chávez.

"I failed last year. I proposed a reform but I was not able to present it correctly. It was a little bit complicated, very comprehensive. We did not measure the appropriate time. We made several mistakes, and we lost by a nose. I am just going to ask you one thing. If we are going to do this, if we are to win the battle for the amendment, we have to get a landslide victory, to knock out our rivals," said Chávez to his followers. "We are going to sweep them in the amendment referendum," said Chávez.

Foreign company to be investigated

Chávez informed that he instructed enforcement agencies to investigate the murder of trade union leaders Richard Gallardo, José Requena and Luis Hernández, who were killed last November 27 in Aragua state. "They were gunned down by hired killers. We need to investigate a company. I am not going to say its name. I have some data of a foreign capital company, where the trade union leaders were fighting against the abuses committed by that company. I have ordered an investigation into that company, because there are some firms that have come from other parts of the world and want to impose their "habits," they want to use hired killers to kill labor leaders, or peasants. We can not allow that such a perversity be used in our country."