The editors of Veneconomy, Venezuela's leading publisher of specialized political, economic and financial reports, tell us why they believe that Chavez is waging war not just against the Opposition, but against the Venezuelan people too.
The breathing space that President Hugo Chávez allowed the Venezuelan people following the announcement of the results of the elections held a week ago Sunday lasted less than snow in August. His charade as a peacemaker was limited to curt congratulations to the opposition alliance in the presence of the foreign correspondents. This “recognition” of the will of the people was simply Chávez masquerading as a democratic for the benefit of the international community. His angrily asking who dared to say there is no democracy in Venezuela or that the branches of government are not independent was simply part of the show.
The beast is wounded. Chávez cannot take no for an answer or put up with an
electoral defeat. That is why he is waging all out war against his opponents (and the Venezuelan people in general) on a number of fronts.
One involves efforts to make governance impossible in those locations where the democratic alliance was the winner. That explains the brazen vandalism and unlawful behavior of the departing officials at the offices of the Governor of Miranda, the Mayor of Greater Caracas and Sucre Municipality, who have destroyed and stolen government property with total impunity, on top of emptying out the bank accounts.
These regional and local governments have also been arbitrarily deprived of institutions that belong to them by law: Ávila TV and 22 civil registry offices taken away from the Mayor of Greater Caracas, and the Fundación de Transporte and Victorino Santaella Hospital in Los Teques from the Governorship of Miranda.
Another front is the harassment of opposition leaders, most particularly Henrique Capriles Radonski and Manuel Rosales. Chávez himself has sworn that he will not rest until he has put Rosales in jail; in other words, any trial against the latter will be due exclusively to a personal vendetta.
A third front in this war, and a demonstration of his use of brute force, is the launching of a second administrative action against Globovisión, putting the TV channel’s license at risk. Not only would the closing down of Globovisión be illegal, it would also be a violation of the freedom of speech of the Venezuelan people because it is the only broadcast TV channel that is not under the heel of Chávez’s boot.
Nevertheless, the most shameless of all these fronts is the president’s call for a petition to amend the constitution for the sole purpose of allowing Chávez to be re-elected as president and, while the country is at it, increase his powers even more. People must realize that this request is illegal and unconstitutional because the same issue was already voted down by the country on December 2, 2007.
One thing is certain, however: no institution will stand up and challenge Chávez’s wishes.The call will be to vote on the amendment during the early months of the year, before the economy begins to fall apart as a result of low oil prices.
In other words, the people will have to put up with yet another election process in 2009, one that will put the real social and economic problems on the back burner and eat up the little money that will be flowing into the coffers. It is up to those who value democracy to call for cohesion, coordination, unity to prevent this latest assault on the Constitution and the laws.
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