Venezuela’s referendum to eliminate presidential term limits should coincide with the 20-year anniversary of a popular uprising known as “El Caracazo,” which President Hugo Chavez says marks the beginning of his socialist revolution.
Chavez proposed the referendum date of Feb. 27 as part of a commemoration of a 1989 uprising in which at least 3,000 Venezuelans were killed after rioting over public transport price increases and other economic initiatives implemented by Carlos Andres Perez, the country’s president at the time.
“It would be great, I think, to choose the 27th of February, an explosive date, for the referendum,” Chavez said in an address on state television. “The constitutional amendment should be part of the anniversary, the beginning of the revolution.”
Chavez, 54, who lost in his bid to eliminate term limits as part of constitutional changes last year, has renewed his attempts at staying in office beyond 2013, when his current term ends after winning 17 of 22 states in regional elections last month. The National Assembly will present the constitutional amendment to the elections regulator after discussing the issue and a referendum will be called within 30 days, he said.
Chavez, a former paratrooper who was jailed for several years after leading a failed coup in 1992, wants to stay in office until at least 2019 in order to assure the continuance of his socialist policies. He is pushing the referendum now rather than spending all of 2009 debating about whether he’s a “tyrant,” he said Dec. 1. He has been in power since 1999.
Crude oil has tumbled 72 percent from a record $147.27 a barrel reached July 11 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
No comments:
Post a Comment